Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Intelligent Strength Training: No more crunches pt. 2
Intelligent Strength Training: No more crunches pt. 2: " I will preface this post by stating that no, crunches will not kill you, nor will they give you cancer, diabetes, or stood up on a dat..."
No more crunches pt. 2
I will preface this post by stating that no, crunches will not kill you, nor will they give you cancer, diabetes, or stood up on a date. Again, there are better options that I will go over later. Training for spinal flexion is probably not the best idea in today's Western society for a couple of reasons.
First, many career jobs are spent at a computer or at a desk all day. Sitting loads of the lumbar erectors. The "core" muscle fibers contain more slow twitch fibers, which indicates that they are geared for endurance. Sitting for 3 hours is like a marathon for these muscles. In Stuart McGill's book Ultimate Back and Fitness, He states that we often form a hinge on the back where it can bend. One area of the back tissue is stiff, and the other is mobile (2010). Often times there is back pain where this hinge is. Crunch movements seem to promote some sort of hinge in the back. This is obviously not the function of the back musculature.
Another study by Beach et al., showed that sitting in flexion for as little as an hour can cause passive tissue stiffness (2005). They then say that performing spinal flexion movements after sitting for long periods of time can add danger to an already dangerous sitting posture. That sounds a lot like 7 hours of sitting at work followed by some crunches and treadmill running to stay in shape. If you think that one's posture is bad during sitting, imagine what stress it is going through in an activity like jogging or running. Trust me, they will take the path of least resistance and head to the comfort zone in which they have been in all day. More on running in my next post.
More importantly crunches (and similar movements) do not train the true function of the core. This goes ESPECIALLY for athletes, and if you run or are training to run long distance go ahead and count yourself in as at least a wannabe athlete. While a crunch is not anywhere near the first exercises I teach someone, I have no problem with someone doing a CORRECT crunch. A good crunch does not allow abnormal neck flexion, flexing the spine from anywhere near the lumbar (low back) region, or rotating anywhere near the lumbar region. More on this later.
The most important reason why I believe we should edit crunches out of our training is because of our scientific knowledge of hypertrophy. I have discussed before that hypertrophy, or muscle growth either by increasing the size of the muscle fibers or by increasing the amount of muscle fibers (<--still highly debated) is what everybody is striving for in the gym. Even women, females, chicks, and girls strive for this without knowing it. EVERYBODY wants muscle, not fat. That does not mean you will be bulging out of your shirt, but hypertrophy stands for increased tone in the muscle. I know we all just want to tone up right?
In Supertraining, Dr. Mel Siff states that, "under conditions of rest or recovery, most of the energy is directed to protein synthesis, whereas most of it is devoted to muscle contraction during intense exercise. The lack of energy for protein growth and maintenance during heavy exercise apparently produces protein catabolism (breakdown), which stimulates protein supercompensation during later rest periods (2003). Basically, we break down muscle (protein) as we strength train, and we rebuild muscle proteins that were broken down during lifting as we rest. Supercompensation means that when we perceive a stress to a tissue, we will rebuild it to be stronger, bigger, or both. We must accommodate the past stress to the impending stress that the body thinks we will have in the future. Siff goes on to explain that, "hypertrophied muscle contains fewer sarcoplasmic organelles, myofibrils, and mitochondria, so that the increased diameter of muscle fibers is due largely to an increase in the volume of sarcoplasm (2003)". Increased diameter sounds a lot like that six pack, flat stomach, or big chest that we have striving for. That paragraph was so boring that I think I will insert a picture:
So know that we know how a muscle grows, lets go ahead and apply it to the abdominal musculature. Normally at my gym I see people doing multiple sets of some variation of crunches without weights. I can make an educated guess that they don't have a six pack. People assume that because they feel a burn in the muscle, that a six pack or flat stomach will emerge. People assume that a burning muscle will "burn" away that fat that is over it. Nice concept, but it could not be any farther from science.
To increase muscle size, we must increase resistance to the given muscle. This means that we must add weight. Lets say that doing 3 sets of 30 crunches has now become easy to you. Whats next? Add more crunches or crunch like movements? Sounds like more repetition. Ah yes, lets add some weight. Why not, we add weight to just about every other exercise. We also know that increasing resistance will increase muscle size right? Increasing muscle size will allow us to tone right? Yes. Should we add weight while FLEXING the spine forward? No. Our core muscles are not like the extremity muscles. They serve a different purpose of transferring load from legs to arms (done in almost every sport and compound movement), holding the spine erect, protecting our vital organs etc...
You might be able to do a correct crunch and not feel any neck or back pain. Driving a car can be dangerous, eating meat can be dangerous, and drinking alcohol can be dangerous but we still do these things. They will not kill you, but I would highly suggest that for the normal gym goer, that there are better options out there for you. Before a crunch, one must exhibit a prerequisite movement before one can safely say that that crunch will benefit more than anything else. Just because you read them in a magazine routine or that Jillian Michaels advocates them does not mean they are good for you ( See my connotation and denotation post).
Before I list some recommended exercises, I will say that every person has individual needs. Yes, you are special. Depending on your body type, appendage lengths, muscle fiber type, job, height, hobbies, sports, previous injuries, and pain, one can begin to program some exercises that will be most beneficial to you. Please ask any questions if you have any. These are not progressions and some might be easier than others. I have my own way of teaching these which I will try to outline under the picture. Nothing substitutes a trainer with keen eyes for form, goal of exercise, and progression.
Longer video, but watch, listen, learn, and practice. Gray Cook is the man.
Emphasize scapula motion and spine stiffness. Keep shoulders back and the lat muscle engaged.
Funny mustache but I can tell he has read Stuart Mcgill. I don't know about that cat camel stretch but try the birddog.
The Mcgill curl up. Yes this is a safe alternative to a crunch.
Siff, Mel. (2003). Supertraining. Denver, CO.
McGill, Stuart. (2010). Ultimate back and fitness. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wabuno Publishers.
Beach, T, Parkinson, R, Stothart, P, & Callaghan, J. (2005). Effects of prolonged sitting on the passive flexion stiffness of the in vivo lumbar spine. The Spine Journal, (5), 145-154.
First, many career jobs are spent at a computer or at a desk all day. Sitting loads of the lumbar erectors. The "core" muscle fibers contain more slow twitch fibers, which indicates that they are geared for endurance. Sitting for 3 hours is like a marathon for these muscles. In Stuart McGill's book Ultimate Back and Fitness, He states that we often form a hinge on the back where it can bend. One area of the back tissue is stiff, and the other is mobile (2010). Often times there is back pain where this hinge is. Crunch movements seem to promote some sort of hinge in the back. This is obviously not the function of the back musculature.
 |
| Bad sitting posture |
Another study by Beach et al., showed that sitting in flexion for as little as an hour can cause passive tissue stiffness (2005). They then say that performing spinal flexion movements after sitting for long periods of time can add danger to an already dangerous sitting posture. That sounds a lot like 7 hours of sitting at work followed by some crunches and treadmill running to stay in shape. If you think that one's posture is bad during sitting, imagine what stress it is going through in an activity like jogging or running. Trust me, they will take the path of least resistance and head to the comfort zone in which they have been in all day. More on running in my next post.
More importantly crunches (and similar movements) do not train the true function of the core. This goes ESPECIALLY for athletes, and if you run or are training to run long distance go ahead and count yourself in as at least a wannabe athlete. While a crunch is not anywhere near the first exercises I teach someone, I have no problem with someone doing a CORRECT crunch. A good crunch does not allow abnormal neck flexion, flexing the spine from anywhere near the lumbar (low back) region, or rotating anywhere near the lumbar region. More on this later.
The most important reason why I believe we should edit crunches out of our training is because of our scientific knowledge of hypertrophy. I have discussed before that hypertrophy, or muscle growth either by increasing the size of the muscle fibers or by increasing the amount of muscle fibers (<--still highly debated) is what everybody is striving for in the gym. Even women, females, chicks, and girls strive for this without knowing it. EVERYBODY wants muscle, not fat. That does not mean you will be bulging out of your shirt, but hypertrophy stands for increased tone in the muscle. I know we all just want to tone up right?
In Supertraining, Dr. Mel Siff states that, "under conditions of rest or recovery, most of the energy is directed to protein synthesis, whereas most of it is devoted to muscle contraction during intense exercise. The lack of energy for protein growth and maintenance during heavy exercise apparently produces protein catabolism (breakdown), which stimulates protein supercompensation during later rest periods (2003). Basically, we break down muscle (protein) as we strength train, and we rebuild muscle proteins that were broken down during lifting as we rest. Supercompensation means that when we perceive a stress to a tissue, we will rebuild it to be stronger, bigger, or both. We must accommodate the past stress to the impending stress that the body thinks we will have in the future. Siff goes on to explain that, "hypertrophied muscle contains fewer sarcoplasmic organelles, myofibrils, and mitochondria, so that the increased diameter of muscle fibers is due largely to an increase in the volume of sarcoplasm (2003)". Increased diameter sounds a lot like that six pack, flat stomach, or big chest that we have striving for. That paragraph was so boring that I think I will insert a picture:
 |
| Even Leonardo Da Vinci knew what hypertrophy and muscles were |
To increase muscle size, we must increase resistance to the given muscle. This means that we must add weight. Lets say that doing 3 sets of 30 crunches has now become easy to you. Whats next? Add more crunches or crunch like movements? Sounds like more repetition. Ah yes, lets add some weight. Why not, we add weight to just about every other exercise. We also know that increasing resistance will increase muscle size right? Increasing muscle size will allow us to tone right? Yes. Should we add weight while FLEXING the spine forward? No. Our core muscles are not like the extremity muscles. They serve a different purpose of transferring load from legs to arms (done in almost every sport and compound movement), holding the spine erect, protecting our vital organs etc...
You might be able to do a correct crunch and not feel any neck or back pain. Driving a car can be dangerous, eating meat can be dangerous, and drinking alcohol can be dangerous but we still do these things. They will not kill you, but I would highly suggest that for the normal gym goer, that there are better options out there for you. Before a crunch, one must exhibit a prerequisite movement before one can safely say that that crunch will benefit more than anything else. Just because you read them in a magazine routine or that Jillian Michaels advocates them does not mean they are good for you ( See my connotation and denotation post).
Before I list some recommended exercises, I will say that every person has individual needs. Yes, you are special. Depending on your body type, appendage lengths, muscle fiber type, job, height, hobbies, sports, previous injuries, and pain, one can begin to program some exercises that will be most beneficial to you. Please ask any questions if you have any. These are not progressions and some might be easier than others. I have my own way of teaching these which I will try to outline under the picture. Nothing substitutes a trainer with keen eyes for form, goal of exercise, and progression.
Longer video, but watch, listen, learn, and practice. Gray Cook is the man.
Emphasize scapula motion and spine stiffness. Keep shoulders back and the lat muscle engaged.
Funny mustache but I can tell he has read Stuart Mcgill. I don't know about that cat camel stretch but try the birddog.
The Mcgill curl up. Yes this is a safe alternative to a crunch.
Siff, Mel. (2003). Supertraining. Denver, CO.
McGill, Stuart. (2010). Ultimate back and fitness. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wabuno Publishers.
Beach, T, Parkinson, R, Stothart, P, & Callaghan, J. (2005). Effects of prolonged sitting on the passive flexion stiffness of the in vivo lumbar spine. The Spine Journal, (5), 145-154.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Intelligent Strength Training: Intelligent Strength Training: No more crunches
Intelligent Strength Training: Intelligent Strength Training: No more crunches: "Intelligent Strength Training: No more crunches: 'Are you serious Matt? You have been ranting about this junk and now you are telling me I c..."
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Intelligent Strength Training: No more crunches
Intelligent Strength Training: No more crunches: "Are you serious Matt? You have been ranting about this junk and now you are telling me I can't even do CRUNCHES?! But how do I get my flat s..."
Friday, December 10, 2010
No more crunches
Are you serious Matt? You have been ranting about this junk and now you are telling me I can't even do CRUNCHES?! But how do I get my flat stomach or six pack?
Hold on a minute there...
A couple of months ago I started to do research on strength training knowing that I knew almost nothing about the profession. Yes, I do have a job as a trainer, but I wanted to get deeper into why and how we execute. I started this blog almost as a medium between research and practical use. I admit I have not referenced research articles much, but I will try to in this post.
As I have touched on many times, I lean towards a movement based approach. I think that looking at anything in isolation, especially the body, is a mistake and short sighted. There has to be more. I have used the analogy of the way we maintain our body to the way we maintain a car. They both have many components to them. Just because you put new tires on a vehicle, does not mean you will fix your bumpy ride. What about your suspension with the shocks, struts, boots etc. (I know nothing about cars).
There is always upstream and downstream effects to any part. If one's posterior neck musculature (back of neck) feels tight, then what is the cause? Will getting a massage on the area help with the uncomfortable feeling or pain in the area? Yes. Will a massage change the actual way we move our head, shoulders, back, arms, hips, knees, and ankles? No. Any one of these joints and all of the tissues that surround these joints have upstream and downstream effects that might be causing the tight feeling in your neck. Your body will always look for stability. Maybe your scapulas are rounded up so high towards your neck to stabilize your head (kind of important), that your neck protrudes forward just to keep normal function. Unfortunately for somebody who has this upper crossed syndrome, that is a bad and inefficient position for the neck. This is just a simple example.
So before you condemn me for not liking crunches, keep a whole body approach to theory.Let me first describe what I mean by crunch. A crunch is any movement in which the spine is flexed in relation to the hips. This includes bicycles, v-ups, oblique crunches, sit ups, reverse crunch, straight leg crunches, exercise ball crunches, etc. It also includes some hip movements like a leg raise, hip lifts, and basically anything in Pilates. Yeah that's right, I just used the word crunch to get your attention (David Putty voice).
The first reason why I don't prescribe or perform crunches is because they do not train the true function of the core muscles. I have stated here before that the trunk muscles are different than extremity muscles. We have these little things called our heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, digestive system, and our spine in the trunk. You better believe that we need some stability and protection in this area.
The only way to properly do any compound exercises like bench press, pull up, squat, or deadlift is to keep a strong, neutral and erect spine. But Matt, in a deadlift aren't you bending forward and in essence collapsing the trunk? Yeah, in a really bad deadlift that will cause you disc herniation. Contrary to popular thought, the core muscles should not be used as prime movers. When I am training somebody, I need them to keep a strong core and upright position in any exercise. Sometimes people can keep a strong core posture during a pull up, but not in a squat. Every movement is different. Unfortunately we have been thinking in isolation terms so long that we isolate the core for strength or stability and believe that it will maintain its function during anything. This theory could not be farther from the truth.
Just think, if one cannot keep there trunk erect during a large movement such as the squat (which works the quadriceps and glutes as prime movers), then you will look for some compensation. What could that compensation be? Some people tend to round their shoulders and upper back forward or arch their lower back for stability. These compensations are not normal. If you add weight and reps to these movements or keep squats as a training tool for a decent period of time, and your body will present pain. If it doesn't present pain right away, some other dysfunction might develop. Your knees might start caving in or you neck might start protruding forward. Not good.
This is where a simple sounding solution plagues our industry. The solution is to strengthen the anterior core (stomach and side area). Do crunches strengthen the anterior core? Yes, but there are better options. It is a risk to reward ratio. I would rather spend my time training the true function of the core and be able to maintain core stability through big exercises that raise metabolism, work the prime movers (the ones we like to show off), make us stronger, faster, bigger, and perform better in athletic activities. The reason "core" became so big in the industry recently is because we realized that few have it anymore. The word "core" also connotes a flat stomach and six pack. Gaining a flat stomach is achieved by taking fat off the top rather than adding muscle under.
The following exercise is not the end all be all of core exercises, but it is a great place to start in finding out your level of trunk control. I did not title this video either...
The second reason why I don't prescribe or perform crunches is because spinal flexion is unhealthy. I know what you are saying: But Matt, I do not lift my low back off the ground and only bring my shoulders up with my abs. In my experience, people do not perform a crunch how I just stated it. They lift off leading with their neck.
The principle of overload in fitness means that to increase muscular strength, power, size, and endurance, we must increase the volume and resistance to give the muscle new reasons to grow. We must stress the muscle. When I used to do crunches, my abs would hurt for the first couple of weeks having them in my training, but after a while I needed more. I would use weight and more range of motion to try and achieve more burn in the abs. My futile attempt at getting a six pack failed and I ended up with a sore back. In this study by Wang et al., the first sentence cites other studies by saying, "the results of epidemiologic studies have identified
frequent dynamic loading, sudden forceful exertions, exposures to vibration, lifting frequency, and extreme
trunk angular position and velocity as factors related to low back pain (LBP) disorders and symptoms (2000)". Sudden forceful exertions in relation to spinal flexion sound a lot like crunches.
In this study by Marras et al., figure 3 (page 8) shows that increased velocity and flexion range of motion put the workers they studies at a higher risk of injury. Increasing the weight, range of motion, reps, per week frequency can put you at risk for low back pain. Remember pain is a symptom that something is wrong. Increased pressure on disks can definitely cause pain. Again, there are better options out there to crunches.
McGill and Karpowicz (2009) compared electromyographic (EMG muscle activation) readings in 4 different core exercises. In the EMG studies, he notes that corrective teaching of these exercises improves muscle activation. In doing these, try not to focus on feeling a lactic acid burn, but rather a stiff and stopping motion type of feel. Remember, the core muscles are not like the muscles in our arms and legs. In defense of a crunch type exercise, McGill actually recommends doing a curl up. A curl up is supporting the lower back by sticking ones hands under it.
Still, I believe somebody must graduate to this exercise. I am biased in that I deal with a lot of clients with previous back pain, but to be able to lift the trunk without putting the neck in a bad position is tough. Again, there are better options. To reiterate my philosophy, my main goal is for a client to keep core stability through many movements. Being able to keep core control not only reinforces good movement by other muscles, but it allows me to speed up a workout and add weight and reps to promote muscle growth.
Part 2 next time!
Hold on a minute there...
A couple of months ago I started to do research on strength training knowing that I knew almost nothing about the profession. Yes, I do have a job as a trainer, but I wanted to get deeper into why and how we execute. I started this blog almost as a medium between research and practical use. I admit I have not referenced research articles much, but I will try to in this post.
As I have touched on many times, I lean towards a movement based approach. I think that looking at anything in isolation, especially the body, is a mistake and short sighted. There has to be more. I have used the analogy of the way we maintain our body to the way we maintain a car. They both have many components to them. Just because you put new tires on a vehicle, does not mean you will fix your bumpy ride. What about your suspension with the shocks, struts, boots etc. (I know nothing about cars).
There is always upstream and downstream effects to any part. If one's posterior neck musculature (back of neck) feels tight, then what is the cause? Will getting a massage on the area help with the uncomfortable feeling or pain in the area? Yes. Will a massage change the actual way we move our head, shoulders, back, arms, hips, knees, and ankles? No. Any one of these joints and all of the tissues that surround these joints have upstream and downstream effects that might be causing the tight feeling in your neck. Your body will always look for stability. Maybe your scapulas are rounded up so high towards your neck to stabilize your head (kind of important), that your neck protrudes forward just to keep normal function. Unfortunately for somebody who has this upper crossed syndrome, that is a bad and inefficient position for the neck. This is just a simple example.
So before you condemn me for not liking crunches, keep a whole body approach to theory.Let me first describe what I mean by crunch. A crunch is any movement in which the spine is flexed in relation to the hips. This includes bicycles, v-ups, oblique crunches, sit ups, reverse crunch, straight leg crunches, exercise ball crunches, etc. It also includes some hip movements like a leg raise, hip lifts, and basically anything in Pilates. Yeah that's right, I just used the word crunch to get your attention (David Putty voice).
The first reason why I don't prescribe or perform crunches is because they do not train the true function of the core muscles. I have stated here before that the trunk muscles are different than extremity muscles. We have these little things called our heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, digestive system, and our spine in the trunk. You better believe that we need some stability and protection in this area.
The only way to properly do any compound exercises like bench press, pull up, squat, or deadlift is to keep a strong, neutral and erect spine. But Matt, in a deadlift aren't you bending forward and in essence collapsing the trunk? Yeah, in a really bad deadlift that will cause you disc herniation. Contrary to popular thought, the core muscles should not be used as prime movers. When I am training somebody, I need them to keep a strong core and upright position in any exercise. Sometimes people can keep a strong core posture during a pull up, but not in a squat. Every movement is different. Unfortunately we have been thinking in isolation terms so long that we isolate the core for strength or stability and believe that it will maintain its function during anything. This theory could not be farther from the truth.
Just think, if one cannot keep there trunk erect during a large movement such as the squat (which works the quadriceps and glutes as prime movers), then you will look for some compensation. What could that compensation be? Some people tend to round their shoulders and upper back forward or arch their lower back for stability. These compensations are not normal. If you add weight and reps to these movements or keep squats as a training tool for a decent period of time, and your body will present pain. If it doesn't present pain right away, some other dysfunction might develop. Your knees might start caving in or you neck might start protruding forward. Not good.
This is where a simple sounding solution plagues our industry. The solution is to strengthen the anterior core (stomach and side area). Do crunches strengthen the anterior core? Yes, but there are better options. It is a risk to reward ratio. I would rather spend my time training the true function of the core and be able to maintain core stability through big exercises that raise metabolism, work the prime movers (the ones we like to show off), make us stronger, faster, bigger, and perform better in athletic activities. The reason "core" became so big in the industry recently is because we realized that few have it anymore. The word "core" also connotes a flat stomach and six pack. Gaining a flat stomach is achieved by taking fat off the top rather than adding muscle under.
The following exercise is not the end all be all of core exercises, but it is a great place to start in finding out your level of trunk control. I did not title this video either...
The second reason why I don't prescribe or perform crunches is because spinal flexion is unhealthy. I know what you are saying: But Matt, I do not lift my low back off the ground and only bring my shoulders up with my abs. In my experience, people do not perform a crunch how I just stated it. They lift off leading with their neck.
 |
| Nasty |
frequent dynamic loading, sudden forceful exertions, exposures to vibration, lifting frequency, and extreme
trunk angular position and velocity as factors related to low back pain (LBP) disorders and symptoms (2000)". Sudden forceful exertions in relation to spinal flexion sound a lot like crunches.
In this study by Marras et al., figure 3 (page 8) shows that increased velocity and flexion range of motion put the workers they studies at a higher risk of injury. Increasing the weight, range of motion, reps, per week frequency can put you at risk for low back pain. Remember pain is a symptom that something is wrong. Increased pressure on disks can definitely cause pain. Again, there are better options out there to crunches.
McGill and Karpowicz (2009) compared electromyographic (EMG muscle activation) readings in 4 different core exercises. In the EMG studies, he notes that corrective teaching of these exercises improves muscle activation. In doing these, try not to focus on feeling a lactic acid burn, but rather a stiff and stopping motion type of feel. Remember, the core muscles are not like the muscles in our arms and legs. In defense of a crunch type exercise, McGill actually recommends doing a curl up. A curl up is supporting the lower back by sticking ones hands under it.
Part 2 next time!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Connotation and Denotation in Fitness/Nutrition pt 2
I have been away for a couple of weeks... but as George Costanza would say, "I'm back baby!" Keep giving me ideas to write about for the blog and invite your friends to follow! Thanks! Back to the goods...
It is obvious that we are a society that is persuaded by images and advertising. We might deny that we are influenced, but we certainly are. Anytime we see a guy with a six pack, we automatically want to know his "routine". Look deeper and examine the true cause of his six pack. Is it the millions of crunches he does every day? Certainly not. Or is it the sodas, bread, chips, sweets, and oversized meal portions that he avoids to keep the lean muscle on and fat off? Yes. Or is it the steroids and Photoshop they use to give just that much more definition to the picture!? Yes that too.
Back to the previous examples of connotations and denotations in fitness:
When you hear the words "bench press", what do you think of?
When you hear the word "squat", what do you think of?
When you hear the word "diet", what do you think of?
When you hear the words "low fat", what do you think of?
To reiterate:
–noun 1. the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it.
–noun\
2. the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”
Does the phrase "bench press" connote to you powerlifting or something that guys do every Monday to get a larger chest because they think it is their only sign of masculinity? Can women do a bench press? Absolutely. Do 95% of people at the gym bench press incorrectly and usually end up with rotator cuff injury? Yes. A press movement is simply the act of applying force to push weight horizontally (bench press or push up) or vertically (overhead press).
It is a compound movement involving several muscles and correct use of stabilizers (rotator cuff). If those stabilizers aren't set correctly before we begin the press movement, then injury occurs either immediately or over time. Unfortunately, guys tend to keep going up in weight even though they can't even do 20 correct push ups with their own body weight. We are more worried about the number of reps, weight, volume, and rest time than quality bench pressing. The truth is that once one can externally rotate, use the butt instead of the back to drive through the feet, and engage the scapular retractors, one can increase performance much quicker. Compound movement like a press, squat, or deadlift are hard to teach and require more than a sentence to explain and cue. While I like to flatter myself that I know more than most, I only learn from the best. Eric Cressey is one of those authors and here are a couple of articles to improve your shoulder health and bench press:
Seven Habits of Highly Defective Benchers
Shoulder Savers
and basically anything else by him...
Does the word "squat" connote to you aching lower back, something that guys grunt during, I would rather do leg press, putting 780 pounds on a bar and not even dropping the femurs to parallel, or an exercise for quadriceps? Yes, squatting can make your low back hurt and build your quads, but why exactly should you squat instead of doing idiot proof leg machines such as the leg press, leg curl, and leg extension? I have said this before on the blog, squatting was a movement before it was an exercise. Everybody used to be able to squat, for that is how we learned to move as children. Squatting is not easy. Doing it correctly requires a huge amount of core control while having the hip mobility to actually get your legs and hip into position. If you can drop into anything resembling this squat, feel your abs. They will be firing up more than any crunch.
It is easy for trainers to prescribe squats. It is much harder to teach them. Squatting incorrectly is only going to lead to knee and back pain. Period. While a few of us can come off the street and do a perfect squat in jeans (I bet they have no back or knee pain), most people have lost the mobility and stability to get into that position. Simply lowering your body down does not count as a squat. Yes your legs might be burning, but you will be seriously limited as you try to progress to weights and reps. If you do not progress you're exercises, prepare to waste a lot of time. Also, some people are not meant to squat. Generally, taller people with long femurs have trouble maintaining their trunk and knee position while squatting. It all depends... and maybe you should just come see your friend Matt!
Does the word "diet" connote to you cutting calories, lean cuisine, organic food, losing 30 pounds in 30 days, low energy, or being hungry? The word diet simply means "what one eats to meet his/her energy requirement". So how do we get fatter and not maintain the same energy requirements for the rest of our life? If only it were that easy. Our body loves homeostasis.
Homeostasis (from Greek: ὅμοιος, hómoios, "similar"; and στάσις, stásis, "standing still"; defined by Claude Bernard and later by Walter Bradford Cannon in 1926[1], 1929[2] and 1932[3][4]) is the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition.
It doesn't like change and will usually revert back to normal conditions. Just think, don't you think we would have starved ourselves skinny if we could? We don't gain weight by indulging in that cheesecake after your birthday dinner. We gain weight by indulging in smaller calorie surplus over time. That is certainly a simple calorie in vs calorie out argument but it has shown truth in research studies across the board. Counting calories is not everything, but it does have some merit in body recomposition. We have also changed the quality of our food. In the past 50 years or so, we have consumed more grains and corn than ever. Why not? They are cheap and can be made into many foods. America has become a nation of snackers. It only takes a couple of extra calories every day that add up into a couple of pounds over months and years.
I wish I had a solid answer to everyone's question to which diet is best, but don't let that discourage you. This would go against me telling you exactly what a diet is. Strive to eat cleaner foods like poultry, meats and fish, fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, and any related food. Be aware that they are all different in calories and nutrient content. A 6 oz. chicken breast is much different that 6 oz of beef sirloin. Each of these foods has a different chemical make up and your body will have a different reaction to each one. Being on a diet does not mean we have to be hungry al the time. In fact, eating well should increase satiety. In my experience, the biggest blunders in eating come when we are hungry and grab the fastest and easiest thing to eat. And these days, those include frozen dinners and snacks. It really can be that simple. Stop blaming others and take responsibility for your poor body composition or poor athletic performance.
Does the phrase "low fat" connote to you skinny, lean, non-greasy food, or good health? I recently watched a great documentary on the fallacy of low fat diets. In case you have been in a bubble, in the recent past, everything is marketed as low fat. The phrase "low fat" denotes the calorie content in the food. We connote the phrase "low fat" as people getting skinnier. Big mistake. Low fat foods are highly processed and sometimes contain the same if not more calories than their regular counterpart. It's all about marketing. People are always looking for an easy way out. People are very easy targets for the advertising department at a food company. Here is a great documentary about how the "holy food pyramid" probably was not accurate for maintaining optimal health of our nation... among other things.
Fat Head
Next time:
Why I don't perform or prescribe crunches
Gimmicks in the fitness industry
Feel free to leave comments, questions, and suggestions!
It is obvious that we are a society that is persuaded by images and advertising. We might deny that we are influenced, but we certainly are. Anytime we see a guy with a six pack, we automatically want to know his "routine". Look deeper and examine the true cause of his six pack. Is it the millions of crunches he does every day? Certainly not. Or is it the sodas, bread, chips, sweets, and oversized meal portions that he avoids to keep the lean muscle on and fat off? Yes. Or is it the steroids and Photoshop they use to give just that much more definition to the picture!? Yes that too.
Back to the previous examples of connotations and denotations in fitness:
When you hear the words "bench press", what do you think of?
When you hear the word "squat", what do you think of?
When you hear the word "diet", what do you think of?
When you hear the words "low fat", what do you think of?
To reiterate:
de·no·ta·tion
[dee-noh-tey-shuhn]
noʊˈteɪ
con·no·ta·tion
[kon-uh-tey-shuhn]2. the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”
Does the phrase "bench press" connote to you powerlifting or something that guys do every Monday to get a larger chest because they think it is their only sign of masculinity? Can women do a bench press? Absolutely. Do 95% of people at the gym bench press incorrectly and usually end up with rotator cuff injury? Yes. A press movement is simply the act of applying force to push weight horizontally (bench press or push up) or vertically (overhead press).
 |
| Better form than your bench press... and she has three plates. |
It is a compound movement involving several muscles and correct use of stabilizers (rotator cuff). If those stabilizers aren't set correctly before we begin the press movement, then injury occurs either immediately or over time. Unfortunately, guys tend to keep going up in weight even though they can't even do 20 correct push ups with their own body weight. We are more worried about the number of reps, weight, volume, and rest time than quality bench pressing. The truth is that once one can externally rotate, use the butt instead of the back to drive through the feet, and engage the scapular retractors, one can increase performance much quicker. Compound movement like a press, squat, or deadlift are hard to teach and require more than a sentence to explain and cue. While I like to flatter myself that I know more than most, I only learn from the best. Eric Cressey is one of those authors and here are a couple of articles to improve your shoulder health and bench press:
Seven Habits of Highly Defective Benchers
Shoulder Savers
and basically anything else by him...
Does the word "squat" connote to you aching lower back, something that guys grunt during, I would rather do leg press, putting 780 pounds on a bar and not even dropping the femurs to parallel, or an exercise for quadriceps? Yes, squatting can make your low back hurt and build your quads, but why exactly should you squat instead of doing idiot proof leg machines such as the leg press, leg curl, and leg extension? I have said this before on the blog, squatting was a movement before it was an exercise. Everybody used to be able to squat, for that is how we learned to move as children. Squatting is not easy. Doing it correctly requires a huge amount of core control while having the hip mobility to actually get your legs and hip into position. If you can drop into anything resembling this squat, feel your abs. They will be firing up more than any crunch.
Does the word "diet" connote to you cutting calories, lean cuisine, organic food, losing 30 pounds in 30 days, low energy, or being hungry? The word diet simply means "what one eats to meet his/her energy requirement". So how do we get fatter and not maintain the same energy requirements for the rest of our life? If only it were that easy. Our body loves homeostasis.
Homeostasis (from Greek: ὅμοιος, hómoios, "similar"; and στάσις, stásis, "standing still"; defined by Claude Bernard and later by Walter Bradford Cannon in 1926[1], 1929[2] and 1932[3][4]) is the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition.
It doesn't like change and will usually revert back to normal conditions. Just think, don't you think we would have starved ourselves skinny if we could? We don't gain weight by indulging in that cheesecake after your birthday dinner. We gain weight by indulging in smaller calorie surplus over time. That is certainly a simple calorie in vs calorie out argument but it has shown truth in research studies across the board. Counting calories is not everything, but it does have some merit in body recomposition. We have also changed the quality of our food. In the past 50 years or so, we have consumed more grains and corn than ever. Why not? They are cheap and can be made into many foods. America has become a nation of snackers. It only takes a couple of extra calories every day that add up into a couple of pounds over months and years.
I wish I had a solid answer to everyone's question to which diet is best, but don't let that discourage you. This would go against me telling you exactly what a diet is. Strive to eat cleaner foods like poultry, meats and fish, fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, and any related food. Be aware that they are all different in calories and nutrient content. A 6 oz. chicken breast is much different that 6 oz of beef sirloin. Each of these foods has a different chemical make up and your body will have a different reaction to each one. Being on a diet does not mean we have to be hungry al the time. In fact, eating well should increase satiety. In my experience, the biggest blunders in eating come when we are hungry and grab the fastest and easiest thing to eat. And these days, those include frozen dinners and snacks. It really can be that simple. Stop blaming others and take responsibility for your poor body composition or poor athletic performance.
 |
| Just because these have no fat does not mean that your body can't put on some winter fat by converting it. |
Does the phrase "low fat" connote to you skinny, lean, non-greasy food, or good health? I recently watched a great documentary on the fallacy of low fat diets. In case you have been in a bubble, in the recent past, everything is marketed as low fat. The phrase "low fat" denotes the calorie content in the food. We connote the phrase "low fat" as people getting skinnier. Big mistake. Low fat foods are highly processed and sometimes contain the same if not more calories than their regular counterpart. It's all about marketing. People are always looking for an easy way out. People are very easy targets for the advertising department at a food company. Here is a great documentary about how the "holy food pyramid" probably was not accurate for maintaining optimal health of our nation... among other things.
Fat Head
Next time:
Why I don't perform or prescribe crunches
Gimmicks in the fitness industry
Feel free to leave comments, questions, and suggestions!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Connotation and Denotation in Fitness/Nutrition
de·no·ta·tion
[dee-noh-tey-shuhn]con·no·ta·tion
[kon-uh-tey-shuhn]2. the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”
I have zero knowledge of advertising, but I think they are striving to connote their products to what consumers want. For example, body wash's main function is to clean our skin and make us smell good. They are denoting that body wash works improves cleanliness and positive odor. It certainly does. In a commercial, body wash connotes a "fresh sexy feeling". Who doesn't want to be sexy? Man, I sure do. The advertisement is playing on our emotions and try to elicit a positive response. The secondary nature of body wash becomes an aphrodisiac. It is connoting sex, and hopefully attracting (or duping) the opposite sex into making babies with us. OK, I took it a little too far with the Freud reference, but you get the point.
In today's fitness world, connotation is all around us. A couple examples:
When you hear the word "core", what do you think of?
When you hear the words "whole grain", what do you think of?
When you hear the word "cardio", what do you think of?
When you hear the words "bench press", what do you think of?
When you hear the word "squat", what do you think of?
When you hear the word "diet", what do you think of?
When you hear the words "low fat", what do you think of?
What was the initial image you visualized for each of those words?
Does "core" connote to you a flat stomach, hours of crunches, burning and soreness in the abs, or stability ball? The word core CAN denote each of the previous examples, but they are certainly made popular by the media, and not science. The core musculature has a much deeper function than having a six pack. As Mike Boyle once said, "to achieve a six pack, you are better off putting down a six-pack rather than doing crunches." The function of the core is to stabilize the spine and stop motion. The way we currently train the core does not help us with that function. Try planks making sure your abs are keeping your spine erect, and not letting your low back muscles take over and cave in.
Do "whole grains" connote to you fiber, natural or organic grains, cardboard like substance that we have to ENDURE to eat well, or a healthier option to white bread? Whole grains CAN denote these attributes, but not necessarily. I suggest you start reading labels of bread. Most bread is highly processed. When you shop, look for NO high fructose corn syrup, 2-5 g of fiber content, 3-5 g of protein content, and as little ingredients as possible. Remember, just because whole grains sound better than sugary carbs doesn't necessarily mean they are. Read labels.
Does the word "cardio" connote to you rows of elliptical machines and treadmills humming at a slow pace with the murmur of fat loss in the air, something that your trainer or magazine MAKES you do, or some group class with a theme?
It is great to start moving again with the intentions of improving your cardiovascular fitness level and shed a few pounds. Nothing wrong with that. Cardiovascular work should not take you more than 30 minutes. People tend to think more is better. More time on the treadmill means more calories burned and nicer legs! Not really. Your body adapts very quickly to slow paced work. Also, long distance cardio promotes dysfunctions if they already exist for you (sore back, knees, ankles etc.). Putting in headphones and zoning out while you "move" for an hour is boring and I don't know how we came to doing that. The days of monotonously lugging through an hour of putting one foot in front of the other should be over. Mentally engage yourself in the workout. Try these intervals on an exercise bike, or even in your neighborhood:
3 min light warm up
30 sec sprint followed by 45 sec cruise (walk) x4
30 sec sprint followed by 1 min cruise x3
30 second sprint followed by 1:30 min cruise x 2
3 minute cool down
If these are too easy, just simply alter incline, rest time, or sprint time. That is less than 20 minutes and your metabolism will be going for hours after that. Slow paced work does not stoke the metabolism for nearly as long. Now you have no excuse about time!
I will cover the rest next!
To be continued...
I encourage you to share ideas, comments, and suggestions! Thank you!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Muscle Tightness
After re-reading my last post about tight hamstrings, I realized that I did not clarify the different states that a muscle can be in. I think I even confused myself.
I know that many of you ran the Rock&Roll Marathon yesterday so I will use the hamstring muscle because that area might be causing you some pain. I was reading through a forum post on the Anatomy Trains website and received a little clarification on the idea of muscle "tightness". Thomas Myers differentiates between a "locked long" muscle and a "locked short" muscle. It should be known that both of these distinctions are abnormal lengths for a muscle tissue and put it at greater risk for injury.
When I say injury, I mean the sore knee and shin that you might feel a couple days out of a MAJOR stress to the human body. It is very rare, unless you were in the Lord of The Rings, that humans are permitted to move at a constant pace for long periods of time. Just realize that running for that long will bring out some dysfunction you have whether it originate at the ankle, knee, hip, back, or neck.
I am not saying that running is the devil, but most of us are not built to run long distance. Furthermore, most of of run to supplement our sedentary lifestyles. Running a long distance to stay active AFTER we have sat on our butts all day long is not normal. Sitting for long periods of time is not normal. I say normal in that the body was not built to handle the sedentary stress we put on it. I believe that we try to treat an extreme sedentary lifestyle with an extreme active lifestyle. It sounds like a lot of pain to me.
Back to the muscle stuff. The hamstring issue I posted last time is not as simple as improving glute function. If fact, during one's journey to find their ass function again, they will feel discomfort in their hamstring. The hamstring is the guy that wants to take over for everything. The hamstring would be called "locked long". It is in a constant stretched and toned state.
muscle tonus ,n the steady reflex contraction that resides in the muscles concerned in maintaining erect posture. Tonus has its basis in the positional interactions of the muscle and its accompanying nerve structure
Think of a muscle that rests in an over toned (hypertonic) state as being "tense". This is why your hamstring might feel tight to stretch. It does not mean that it is short and tight, but rather it exists in a hypertonic state. Stretching a "locked long" muslce is not the best idea. This is where foam rolling and massage comes in. In simple terms, (I have very little knowledge of massage techniques) releasing a "locked" muscle will make more sense. Instead of stretching, most of us need some form of mobilizing tissues and joints. I am sure that anybody who has ever received a massage on their neck region feels 100% better after that session. Those muscles where probably locked in position because our shoulders and back were rounded all day.
Hypertonic muscles can also be weak. Think of muscle fibers as boards on a wood floor. They also have little ratchets that come off the boards to catch the board around it. These boards pull together to create a muscle contraction. If these muscles are either in a "locked long" or "locked short" state, they are not at an optimal length to create a healthy muscle contraction. Not having a healthy muscle contraction will decrease the muscle's strength and chance to gain hypertrophy. Ah yes, hypertrophy. You may not know it, but hypertrophy (growth of muscle) is what EVERYBODY is striving for when they go to the gym. Whether you lift weights to "tone" a muscle, or do "cardio" to shed fat that lies on top of the muscle, increased hypertrophy of a muscle is the scientific term of "looking good".
Lets take a real world example. A common "locked long" muscle is the hamstring. If anybody was watching the New York Yankees playoff games this year, think of Mark Teixeira's hamstring strain. Professional sports teams have access to the best facilities and medical professionals. I am positive that any sort of pain and he would go see the athletic trainer or team doctor. So how did his hamstring strain after all of this pre-game stretching and medical treatment? Well it might have happened because his muscle returned to that locked state after sitting in the dugout. We also know that some positions in baseball do not move very far to field the ball. It was only when he suddenly burst into hip extension (sprint) that his locked hamstring tore apart. Our tissues are extremely durable. Mark Teixeira did not just suddenly develop Usain Bolt type acceleration. That one hip extension movement was certainly preceded by many other hip extension movements just that day. He probably simply placed too much stress on a hypertonic muscle.
Start to think about these topics when you are training. Does something feel overly stretched or tight? Is your performance hindered from a "locked" muscle tissue? There is only one way to fix faulty patterns of movement, and that is by testing those patterns for dysfunctions. Remember, we are trying to find the origin of the problem, not just where the pain is!
Keep applying your knowledge and lets add some intelligence to our monotonous gym time!
Many thanks to Patrick Ward for helping me understand this stuff. Go check out his blog!
I know that many of you ran the Rock&Roll Marathon yesterday so I will use the hamstring muscle because that area might be causing you some pain. I was reading through a forum post on the Anatomy Trains website and received a little clarification on the idea of muscle "tightness". Thomas Myers differentiates between a "locked long" muscle and a "locked short" muscle. It should be known that both of these distinctions are abnormal lengths for a muscle tissue and put it at greater risk for injury.
When I say injury, I mean the sore knee and shin that you might feel a couple days out of a MAJOR stress to the human body. It is very rare, unless you were in the Lord of The Rings, that humans are permitted to move at a constant pace for long periods of time. Just realize that running for that long will bring out some dysfunction you have whether it originate at the ankle, knee, hip, back, or neck.
I am not saying that running is the devil, but most of us are not built to run long distance. Furthermore, most of of run to supplement our sedentary lifestyles. Running a long distance to stay active AFTER we have sat on our butts all day long is not normal. Sitting for long periods of time is not normal. I say normal in that the body was not built to handle the sedentary stress we put on it. I believe that we try to treat an extreme sedentary lifestyle with an extreme active lifestyle. It sounds like a lot of pain to me.
Back to the muscle stuff. The hamstring issue I posted last time is not as simple as improving glute function. If fact, during one's journey to find their ass function again, they will feel discomfort in their hamstring. The hamstring is the guy that wants to take over for everything. The hamstring would be called "locked long". It is in a constant stretched and toned state.
muscle tonus ,n the steady reflex contraction that resides in the muscles concerned in maintaining erect posture. Tonus has its basis in the positional interactions of the muscle and its accompanying nerve structure
Think of a muscle that rests in an over toned (hypertonic) state as being "tense". This is why your hamstring might feel tight to stretch. It does not mean that it is short and tight, but rather it exists in a hypertonic state. Stretching a "locked long" muslce is not the best idea. This is where foam rolling and massage comes in. In simple terms, (I have very little knowledge of massage techniques) releasing a "locked" muscle will make more sense. Instead of stretching, most of us need some form of mobilizing tissues and joints. I am sure that anybody who has ever received a massage on their neck region feels 100% better after that session. Those muscles where probably locked in position because our shoulders and back were rounded all day.
Hypertonic muscles can also be weak. Think of muscle fibers as boards on a wood floor. They also have little ratchets that come off the boards to catch the board around it. These boards pull together to create a muscle contraction. If these muscles are either in a "locked long" or "locked short" state, they are not at an optimal length to create a healthy muscle contraction. Not having a healthy muscle contraction will decrease the muscle's strength and chance to gain hypertrophy. Ah yes, hypertrophy. You may not know it, but hypertrophy (growth of muscle) is what EVERYBODY is striving for when they go to the gym. Whether you lift weights to "tone" a muscle, or do "cardio" to shed fat that lies on top of the muscle, increased hypertrophy of a muscle is the scientific term of "looking good".
Lets take a real world example. A common "locked long" muscle is the hamstring. If anybody was watching the New York Yankees playoff games this year, think of Mark Teixeira's hamstring strain. Professional sports teams have access to the best facilities and medical professionals. I am positive that any sort of pain and he would go see the athletic trainer or team doctor. So how did his hamstring strain after all of this pre-game stretching and medical treatment? Well it might have happened because his muscle returned to that locked state after sitting in the dugout. We also know that some positions in baseball do not move very far to field the ball. It was only when he suddenly burst into hip extension (sprint) that his locked hamstring tore apart. Our tissues are extremely durable. Mark Teixeira did not just suddenly develop Usain Bolt type acceleration. That one hip extension movement was certainly preceded by many other hip extension movements just that day. He probably simply placed too much stress on a hypertonic muscle.
Start to think about these topics when you are training. Does something feel overly stretched or tight? Is your performance hindered from a "locked" muscle tissue? There is only one way to fix faulty patterns of movement, and that is by testing those patterns for dysfunctions. Remember, we are trying to find the origin of the problem, not just where the pain is!
Keep applying your knowledge and lets add some intelligence to our monotonous gym time!
Many thanks to Patrick Ward for helping me understand this stuff. Go check out his blog!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
My hamstrings are tight!
So what does your current leg workout look like? Start off with a 5 minute warm up walk on the treadmill? Check. Go to the squat rack and do some "back squats" (I say back in that you are lifting the weight with your back, not your legs). Check. Head over to the leg press for 5 sets of increasing weight exponentially with an overly wide stance? Check. Head over to the hack squat machine (usually right next to the leg press) and do 5 more sets but with more reps and lighter weight? Check. Strut over to the leg curl machine to get the "back side of the leg" and knock out 4 sets? Check.
Okay, so I exaggerated that a little bit. In our already quadriceps and hip-flexor dominant world, you would think we would want to balance out the legs a little bit.
Stretching is one of the most controversial topics in exercise science today. There was a great discussion on the strengthcoach.com forums about how we achieve new "length" of a muscle. For example, when we simply hold a stretch on the hamstring muscle group, is the actual muscle achieving new length or is it other connective tissue, like fascia. Even if we actually achieve new length of a muscle, how long does it hold? A muscle is just like any other tissue which is made up of millions of cells put together. These muscle cells are lined up to make a muscle fiber.
A muscle might be short, stiff, or toned. Hip flexors might be very short after 10 years of sitting 60 hours a week. This shortness may lead to stiffness. A cyclist might need short hip flexors to generate power. That does not mean that they should be stiff, which would hinder their performance and cause injury. Going back to the "short" hamstrings and the weak glute muscle, we definitely need strengthen the weak butt muscles while making sure we do not substitute the hamstring because they share a similar action (hip extension). A highly toned muscle might mean that it will take over as a stabilizer in movements that it should not. That would mean that it is overactive. After all of that, we still have much discussion and research to do before we reach some solid answers. After those solid answers, there are going to be many circumstances to consider on how to treat a "short" or "toned" muscle.
So how does this pertain to my posture, training, and pain?
We can make general assumptions on how somebody's posture can be affected by sitting at a desk for long periods of time. I have seen them in a lot of clients. Is this assumption correct for other groups like football players? Absolutely not. People wonder why we have only recently begin to restore posture and resort to pain killers and surgery. Technology advances and new research have made giant leaps in these areas. We will fix what is the problem, right?
There are definitely circumstances where we need to perform surgery or somebody needs to take prescription medication, but we should not substitute those in just because we can't move well. Moving well should become a first resort. Once we move well, we can run and train in a progressive way and not hinder our bodies with pain.
If I have a client that shows no movement dysfunctions either naturally or because we have continuously worked on them, I push their limits. People think that corrective exercise is a fad because because people spend to much time on it. Once they can pass certain tasks, they need progressive resistance to continually show effects from training. Doing a heavy single-leg dead lift is not easy, but it is certainly one of the most beneficial exercises one can do to reinforce proper muscle alignment and growth. The single-leg dead lift stimulates both the hamstring and glute muscles to a very high degree. Muscle growth leads to what most people like to call "tone". Increased muscle growth stimulates the metabolism at rest and burn more calories. I think that sounds a lot like what everybody strives to achieve at the gym.
Okay, so I exaggerated that a little bit. In our already quadriceps and hip-flexor dominant world, you would think we would want to balance out the legs a little bit.
Hip Flexors Quadriceps
In fact, I cannot think of any occasion in an average person's day where they get posterior leg work. As we stay in our sedentary lifestyles and practice poor training methods, we are just shifting all of our weight to the low back and hamstrings. I am positive that you have spotted someone today that had anterior pelvic tilt.
 | |||||||
| Anterior Pelvic Tilt on the left |
Just because a muscle is tight, does not mean it is strong. The 2 main muscle groups in leg extension are the hamstring group and the glute group. People with anterior pelvic tilt tend to have tight hamstrings. Just stretching the hamstrings group only takes care of half the problem. Since the hamstring and glute group work together (synergistic), something is not firing right. Yep, you guessed it, your butt muscle. But Matt, I thought the butt was only there to sit on and cushion my sitting position? Well you are correct, that IS what you use it for, and not what it is supposed to be used for. Ask any good coach, trainer, physical therapist how important proper glute function is. Better yet, watch ESPN and see how many players of all sports are on the injured list due to hamstrings. Hamstring this and hamstring that. Bottom line is that if you improve glute muscle function, a lot of those injuries will go away. What exactly do the 3 glute muscles do?
- Extends the femur and brings the bent thigh in line with the body (kicking your leg back)
- In a one legged stance, it supports the pelvis by tilting is posterior (or you would collapse forward)
- Keep body in an erect position by drawing the pelvis backward and assisted by you guessed it, the hamstring muscle group.
- The glute medius and minimus abduct the leg (taking a side step)
- They are also lateral stabilizers of the pelvis (lunging and not twisting your legs)
- There are many more but these are important to the discussion
Stretching is one of the most controversial topics in exercise science today. There was a great discussion on the strengthcoach.com forums about how we achieve new "length" of a muscle. For example, when we simply hold a stretch on the hamstring muscle group, is the actual muscle achieving new length or is it other connective tissue, like fascia. Even if we actually achieve new length of a muscle, how long does it hold? A muscle is just like any other tissue which is made up of millions of cells put together. These muscle cells are lined up to make a muscle fiber.
A muscle might be short, stiff, or toned. Hip flexors might be very short after 10 years of sitting 60 hours a week. This shortness may lead to stiffness. A cyclist might need short hip flexors to generate power. That does not mean that they should be stiff, which would hinder their performance and cause injury. Going back to the "short" hamstrings and the weak glute muscle, we definitely need strengthen the weak butt muscles while making sure we do not substitute the hamstring because they share a similar action (hip extension). A highly toned muscle might mean that it will take over as a stabilizer in movements that it should not. That would mean that it is overactive. After all of that, we still have much discussion and research to do before we reach some solid answers. After those solid answers, there are going to be many circumstances to consider on how to treat a "short" or "toned" muscle.
So how does this pertain to my posture, training, and pain?
We can make general assumptions on how somebody's posture can be affected by sitting at a desk for long periods of time. I have seen them in a lot of clients. Is this assumption correct for other groups like football players? Absolutely not. People wonder why we have only recently begin to restore posture and resort to pain killers and surgery. Technology advances and new research have made giant leaps in these areas. We will fix what is the problem, right?
There are definitely circumstances where we need to perform surgery or somebody needs to take prescription medication, but we should not substitute those in just because we can't move well. Moving well should become a first resort. Once we move well, we can run and train in a progressive way and not hinder our bodies with pain.
If I have a client that shows no movement dysfunctions either naturally or because we have continuously worked on them, I push their limits. People think that corrective exercise is a fad because because people spend to much time on it. Once they can pass certain tasks, they need progressive resistance to continually show effects from training. Doing a heavy single-leg dead lift is not easy, but it is certainly one of the most beneficial exercises one can do to reinforce proper muscle alignment and growth. The single-leg dead lift stimulates both the hamstring and glute muscles to a very high degree. Muscle growth leads to what most people like to call "tone". Increased muscle growth stimulates the metabolism at rest and burn more calories. I think that sounds a lot like what everybody strives to achieve at the gym.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Dealing with pain part 2
Money is and always will be a big motivator. Take care of your pain or else you will be literally and figuratively paying for it in the long run. Like I said in the last post, randomly increasing exercise through any modality will not help your nagging aches and pains. On the contrary, increasing exercise will only make it worse. That does not mean exercise is harmful, but we are going about this increased activity thing all wrong. My goal is to get people educated about their dysfunctions and to do something about them. It will save TONS of money in the long run. I have some friends that already have back and knee pain. Are their lifting techniques wrong? Probably. Do they keep running on sore knees and backs? Probably. We do not think about how we are setting ourselves up for pain and failure in the future. As I have said before, we have become too focused on hitting the muscle from every angle, or increasing the incline of our runs instead of moving correctly.
How do I move correctly?
Unfortunately, I can't screen you online. You might be able to give me a back round of yourself, but I will never see your body in action unless you come see me. I guess this could be a sales pitch but that is not my goal. My goal is for you to realize that everybody is different. We all have our unique habits like driving with one arm, holding the phone to your chin 3 hours a day, or squatting with your low back rounding or curving in.
Lets go ahead and take a squat for example. To me it is all about the risk and reward. The risks of squatting incorrectly is increasing your risk of injury. I have always heard that squatting is the best exercise to work out legs. It only works well if you can get in that correct position. That does not mean go under a bar, start squatting, and expect to reap the benefits. You MUST be able to do a correct body weight squat before anything. This is where I come in. Sometimes giving verbal cues is not enough, and I must progress you to it. That is the art of training. There are many different ways to teach somebody to squat, but I will simply look for the correct path and allow your body to feel what is right. This is how we learned as babies, and we can gain a lot just by looking at how a child learns to move. This has nothing to do with leg strength. More often it is a lack of hip mobility, core stability, or both.
Core stability has become a buzzword in fitness today so I will dedicate a paragraph to explaining it's myth. Core stability will not be increased by doing a crunch. Do you see anything that resembles a crunch (rounding of the shoulders, flexion of back and neck) in a squat? Absolutely not.
stability sta·bil·i·ty (stə-bĭl'ĭ-tē)
n.
The condition of being stable or resistant to change.
Crunching does not create any resistance to change. It is actually a change in the position of the spine. Core stability is the ability to stabilize the trunk in the presence of external movement. As the hips drop back, we must keep the trunk stable and upright. Imagine putting 200 pounds on your back and dropping into a squat, the back cannot stabilize, so it just falls forward. You do not have to imagine much because you see this at the gym everyday. We cannot train core stability by isolating the abdominal wall and expecting it to turn on it's "strength" during a movement. We have dumbed down the body into parts, train it that way, and wonder why we have back and knee pain.
So back to the risk and reward stuff. The reward of squatting correctly is practicing core stability, hip drive, working quads and glute muscles, and maintaining joint alignment and mobility. These are all great if done correctly. But Matt, I like to run a lot of miles everyday because it makes me feel happy. Fine. I would hope that before you start your 1.5 hours of non stop movement, that your joints have near perfect alignment. If they don't, your body will present pain. Resistance training should be a part of every runner's routine. You will not get big, bulky, and slow. On the contrary, you will reinforce good posture, strengthen the muscles, strengthen the joints, and look better. If your goal is to increase both the size (or tone, depending on if you are a male or female) and strength of your legs, squatting can do just that. If you decide to start adding weight to a dysfunctional squat, you will not:
1. Correctly timing the leg, hip and trunk stabilizers into effect.
2. After setting the stabilizers, then moving the prime movers (quads, glutes) to do their job and gain size and strength.
If we make the quads and low back become stabilizers, it does not allow them to do their job. The more we do this incorrectly, the more we reinforce poor movement. This will undoubtedly lead to a plateau and most likely an injury.
I wish that everybody could come get a movement screen. Unfortunately some people don't have the time or money to come see a trainer. I just want people to realize the great benefits of moving well, and then strength training to reinforce it. We can save a lot of money on medical bills if we do. If you have nagging pains, go see a good physical therapist. If you need a recommendation, then ask me. A couple of visits through manual therapy and then setting a good strength training program can get you on the right path. If you don't have pains, then come get screened. This goes to young and old, athletes and non athletes. Just because you are 16-20 years old does not mean you lift correctly. You might have been progressed to weights too early before getting form down. Trust me, a lot of coaches out there are more impressed by improperly squatting 400 pounds, than properly doing a body weight squat. It needs to change. We can only do this by increasing awareness of proper movement and get rid of our dysfunctional habits inside and outside the gym.
Some homework...
The Joint by Joint Approach by: Michael Boyle
This article is a great introduction to the way I think. Coach Boyle advocates thinking of the body as a whole and not in isolation.
How do I move correctly?
Unfortunately, I can't screen you online. You might be able to give me a back round of yourself, but I will never see your body in action unless you come see me. I guess this could be a sales pitch but that is not my goal. My goal is for you to realize that everybody is different. We all have our unique habits like driving with one arm, holding the phone to your chin 3 hours a day, or squatting with your low back rounding or curving in.
 | ||||
| Sorry lady but your poor attempt at a squat will only lead you to pain killers |
Lets go ahead and take a squat for example. To me it is all about the risk and reward. The risks of squatting incorrectly is increasing your risk of injury. I have always heard that squatting is the best exercise to work out legs. It only works well if you can get in that correct position. That does not mean go under a bar, start squatting, and expect to reap the benefits. You MUST be able to do a correct body weight squat before anything. This is where I come in. Sometimes giving verbal cues is not enough, and I must progress you to it. That is the art of training. There are many different ways to teach somebody to squat, but I will simply look for the correct path and allow your body to feel what is right. This is how we learned as babies, and we can gain a lot just by looking at how a child learns to move. This has nothing to do with leg strength. More often it is a lack of hip mobility, core stability, or both.
Core stability has become a buzzword in fitness today so I will dedicate a paragraph to explaining it's myth. Core stability will not be increased by doing a crunch. Do you see anything that resembles a crunch (rounding of the shoulders, flexion of back and neck) in a squat? Absolutely not.
stability sta·bil·i·ty (stə-bĭl'ĭ-tē)
n.
The condition of being stable or resistant to change.
Crunching does not create any resistance to change. It is actually a change in the position of the spine. Core stability is the ability to stabilize the trunk in the presence of external movement. As the hips drop back, we must keep the trunk stable and upright. Imagine putting 200 pounds on your back and dropping into a squat, the back cannot stabilize, so it just falls forward. You do not have to imagine much because you see this at the gym everyday. We cannot train core stability by isolating the abdominal wall and expecting it to turn on it's "strength" during a movement. We have dumbed down the body into parts, train it that way, and wonder why we have back and knee pain.
 |
| Those rounded shoulders and forward neck look a lot like the people that experience neck and back pain. Oh well... we will just keep doing crunches but buy a $6,000 mattress to save our back. Very rational. |
1. Correctly timing the leg, hip and trunk stabilizers into effect.
2. After setting the stabilizers, then moving the prime movers (quads, glutes) to do their job and gain size and strength.
If we make the quads and low back become stabilizers, it does not allow them to do their job. The more we do this incorrectly, the more we reinforce poor movement. This will undoubtedly lead to a plateau and most likely an injury.
I wish that everybody could come get a movement screen. Unfortunately some people don't have the time or money to come see a trainer. I just want people to realize the great benefits of moving well, and then strength training to reinforce it. We can save a lot of money on medical bills if we do. If you have nagging pains, go see a good physical therapist. If you need a recommendation, then ask me. A couple of visits through manual therapy and then setting a good strength training program can get you on the right path. If you don't have pains, then come get screened. This goes to young and old, athletes and non athletes. Just because you are 16-20 years old does not mean you lift correctly. You might have been progressed to weights too early before getting form down. Trust me, a lot of coaches out there are more impressed by improperly squatting 400 pounds, than properly doing a body weight squat. It needs to change. We can only do this by increasing awareness of proper movement and get rid of our dysfunctional habits inside and outside the gym.
Some homework...
The Joint by Joint Approach by: Michael Boyle
This article is a great introduction to the way I think. Coach Boyle advocates thinking of the body as a whole and not in isolation.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Dealing with pain
You should never feel pain during a workout. In regards to our everyday living, we have forgotten what pain is. Pain is a symptom given by the body that there is something dysfunctional. During a run, push up, sitting at your desk, or washing dishes, pain can be presented in many ways. Yes that nagging shoulder during your bench press is an injury. Yes those aching knees and shins after you run are an injury. Don't be so haste to keep up with your "routine" because they pain will manifest itself in a way that you will not be able to move. That does not mean that it will happen tomorrow, but if you do not change what you are doing, it will happen eventually. That pain will then make your life miserable and walk all over any goals you might have set.
When I first screen a client for movement, I always ask them if they feel pain during anything. A lot of times I will ask them and then they hesitate. I then go to the other side of the body and ask them. Usually it is a definite no. I then go back to the "kinda no" side. Usually it is a definite yes. I know these pains because I have felt them in my knee, back, and shoulder. I used to work through them in my workouts. I used to think that having some mild pain in my shoulder after my bench press was normal. It meant that I was working hard and making gains. I could not have been any farther from the truth .Like me, most people in our culture have some sort of pain.
The old cliche, "no pain, no gain" does not apply here. Pain is an outcry from our body that something has gone wrong and we have steered from the movement patterns we worked so hard to achieve developing as a human. Walking, squatting, running, standing, throwing, and pushing are just a few patterns of movement that we naturally developed. In today's world, people sit during more hours of the day than ever. Do you think 80 million Americans had back pain 100 years ago? If they did it was because they were working 12 hour days of manual labor. At least they would not go home after that long day and watch TV till they fell asleep. Today, we sit at a desk, go to the gym and sit on a machine, go home and sit on the couch until we are ready for bed and we lay down and do it all over again. With the increased use of computers, we are forced to sit down and work. Machines have became very popular because they allow us to isolate certain muscle groups so we can look lean and cut all while sitting down!
When I first screen a client for movement, I always ask them if they feel pain during anything. A lot of times I will ask them and then they hesitate. I then go to the other side of the body and ask them. Usually it is a definite no. I then go back to the "kinda no" side. Usually it is a definite yes. I know these pains because I have felt them in my knee, back, and shoulder. I used to work through them in my workouts. I used to think that having some mild pain in my shoulder after my bench press was normal. It meant that I was working hard and making gains. I could not have been any farther from the truth .Like me, most people in our culture have some sort of pain.
The old cliche, "no pain, no gain" does not apply here. Pain is an outcry from our body that something has gone wrong and we have steered from the movement patterns we worked so hard to achieve developing as a human. Walking, squatting, running, standing, throwing, and pushing are just a few patterns of movement that we naturally developed. In today's world, people sit during more hours of the day than ever. Do you think 80 million Americans had back pain 100 years ago? If they did it was because they were working 12 hour days of manual labor. At least they would not go home after that long day and watch TV till they fell asleep. Today, we sit at a desk, go to the gym and sit on a machine, go home and sit on the couch until we are ready for bed and we lay down and do it all over again. With the increased use of computers, we are forced to sit down and work. Machines have became very popular because they allow us to isolate certain muscle groups so we can look lean and cut all while sitting down!
Idiot proof
What these machines have done is make our pain even worse. You cannot just exercise your way out of pain. It does not work that way. Increasing your time at the gym will not get rid of pain based on good intentions. I like to use a vehicle as an example. When we buy a new car, every part should be working properly. This is similar to how we developed from an infant to a teenager. We move great as young adults. As we live our lives, usually we become more sedentary. The car keeps running OK but we have neglected basic tune ups. We all know that every car needs scheduled maintenance. It is a pain in the ass. It costs money, time, and headaches. If we neglect the tune ups, we are putting our car at greater risk of dysfunction. This is similar to the problem we have today (and with my car). We have neglected to keep our body moving properly through the years and now we are paying for it. We see chiropractors, physical therapists, and massage therapists in order to cure our pains away. We feel great after a massage but when we wake up the next day, the pain is back. Why would the pain recede if we have not permanently changed anything? These treatments are similar to putting new tires on a car even though the suspension is out of alignment. New tires are great in the short term but they do not fix the underlying problem. Now your tires will wear out faster and the dysfunctional suspension will probably lead to more problems.
Technology is not always an advancement for the better. Many people in our culture "relieve" the pain instead of going to the source. It is not their fault. We have been raised by our environment to mask problems with new shoes, orthotics, sleep number mattresses, Tylenol, Vicodin, and ankle braces. These options seem OK to us because they make us feel better or more secure. We tend to go for the "lose 20 pounds in 20 days" diet, or "six minute abs". People expect to look and feel great while spending minimal time at it. People want things now. Advertising has set an all time low for the American public. They are betting that we are really this stupid and we are definitely living up to it. When was the last time you saw or heard an advertisement for moving well? We have forgotten about what truly matters; the human body and the movement we create.
It is going to take a change from medical practitioners all the way down to trainers and coaches. We need to be educated to teach authentic human movement. Moving well should precede any exercise program. Unfortunately, people like to throw the hardest workout on themselves or to their clients just to show that they can make them sore or throw up.
All I want to do is shed a few pounds and look good on the outside.... so why is moving well important for me?
To be continued....
Friday, October 29, 2010
A little more about quality
In Gray Cook's book Movement, he illustrates a great example about movement quality and movement quantity. This simple analogy is something we should all think about when we exercise and teach. Quality is not just practiced, it must be learned and then earned. Here it is:
"People often consider high-intensity exercise the most extreme or radical form of self-imposed physical punishment for performance gains. To illustrate the error in the point, consider an example of the test drive and the tune up."
"A test drive is the equivalent of pushing to the extreme and noting the limits of physical capacity. It is a necessary step to mark times and set goals as one strives for improved performance. In contrast, a tune-up is the exercise equivalent of deliberate attention to any part of the physical system not functioning optimally or normally. Movement screening and assessment offer an additional piece of information to the tune-up. We optimize and normalize movement patterns in this tune-up process. In most cases, the application of the fresh, frequent, and flawless mentality is the recipe of choice as we tune movement performance"
We have focused too much on our quantity already. Let us start focusing on quality and mastering the prerequisite skills before we start to worry about times, reps, and weight.
"People often consider high-intensity exercise the most extreme or radical form of self-imposed physical punishment for performance gains. To illustrate the error in the point, consider an example of the test drive and the tune up."
"A test drive is the equivalent of pushing to the extreme and noting the limits of physical capacity. It is a necessary step to mark times and set goals as one strives for improved performance. In contrast, a tune-up is the exercise equivalent of deliberate attention to any part of the physical system not functioning optimally or normally. Movement screening and assessment offer an additional piece of information to the tune-up. We optimize and normalize movement patterns in this tune-up process. In most cases, the application of the fresh, frequent, and flawless mentality is the recipe of choice as we tune movement performance"
We have focused too much on our quantity already. Let us start focusing on quality and mastering the prerequisite skills before we start to worry about times, reps, and weight.
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