What Do Muscle Imbalances Have To Do With Roller Coasters?

This last weekend my wife, my daughter and I set out for some fun in the sun at the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk.

If you’ve never been to or even heard of the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk it’s, well, a beach and a boardwalk (duh, right?)

But, the place has some really COOL rides including the Giant Dipper which is a legendary roller coaster ride that was built around 1924 or something. It’s said to be one of the top coasters in the world to this day.

Besides, there’s something about the atmosphere at Santa Cruz that makes me feel (and act) like a kid again–ok, maybe it’s not just Santa Cruz that does this to me :)

So, we met up with my dad and step mom who took our soon to be 3-year-old daughter Briana out on the beach where she would soon be making sand castles into what she called her ‘garden’

My step mom is really cool. She always has some surprises for us when we visit.

And, true to it she gave my wife and I a free all day pass where we could go on all the rides we wanted!

How awesome is that?

She didn’t have to ask me twice when she offered the passes either.

I grabbed them and practically dragged my wife toward the boardwalk and we had the best time enjoying the rides.

The CRAZIEST ride was called the “Double Shot”…

..You basically sit suspended on a seat outside and your legs are dangling in the air. You’re just sitting out there in the open with only a harness over your shoulders–no cart to sit in, no cage around you–nothing

So, I’m on this thing with my wife in the seat next to me and we’re sitting there, feet dangling and everything for me at least, went dead silent.

I’m waiting and waiting and still waiting for it…

And then BOOM!

We were launched faster than I could scream “OH SH*T!” straight up in the air about 900 feet or so and then we just dropped all the way back down

I thought I’d left my stomach somewhere above me at this point.

But, it wasn’t over.

Again, we shot back up and dropped down.

What a RUSH this ride was! And, for a split second while you’re up there you get the most incredible view of the whole beach (and practically the city)

But, part of it was a bit of a downer because my cooler than cool stepmom loves these kinds of rides–well, all of em besides the Double Shot

And, she can’t go on them because she broke a few vertebrae in her back about 3 years ago.

I’ve helped her with some exercises that have no doubt made her back much stronger than before but her doctor hasn’t given her ‘official’ clearance for any activities that involve high impact.

That got me thinking about how so many people like many of our clients who aren’t achieving their fitness goals. But, with less severe issues than my step mom.

Everything from weight loss to building muscle to improving sport performance are goals many of our clients fall short of not because they can’t achieve them but because they fail to address the #1 reason they’re not achieving these goals…

MUSCLE IMBALANCES

Speaking of correcting muscle imbalances my buddy Rick Kaselj just put up 5 awesome free corrective exercise bonuses for you.

These bonuses valued at over $115.00 are only available until midnight this Thursday when you purchase Muscle Imbalances Revealed. Also, if you order before Thursday at midnight you’ll also get the complete MIR system for a special price of just $77 (a $20 savings)

We’ve got lots of testimonials pouring in about MIR. If you’re at all thinking about investing in MIR this is the time.

–>Click HERE To Get It<–

The CRAZIEST Muscle Imbalance Ever Seen-Caught On Video

WARNING: What you’re about to witness is quite possibly the craziest case of muscle imbalance ever caught on video.

This is RAW & UN-CUT footage…There were no re-takes, no stunt doubles just ‘fly-on-the-wall’ footage…

…You are advised to view at your OWN RISK.

Leave me a comment below and let me know if you want more information about muscular imbalances

’2-For-1′ Lower Body Swiss Ball Core Exercise

I love using the swiss ball (a.k.a “stability ball”, “gym ball”, “exercise ball”) for upper & lower body core exercises because the unstable environment doesn’t allow much leeway to cheat on exercises.

This way compensatory strategies that lead to muscle imbalances and injuries are minimized and the effectiveness of the exercise is maximized.

In the short video below I show my ’2-for-1′ lower body swiss ball core exercise from my Muscle Imbalance Solution program that’s great for developing core & hip strength. I got the idea for this exercise by noticing a number of my clients who were overusing their hamstrings during lower body exercises like squat, lunges and bridges.

I wanted a way to get their glutes fired-up in these movements so they didn’t get hamstring cramps or injuries.

And, that’s when the idea hit me.

After a bit of experimenting with all kinds of ways I finally came up with this one and it’s a real challenge but suitable for just about anybody.

It’s a cool variation of a hip extension & hamstring curl wrapped up into one movement with one unique trick I use to make this exercise completely different and unmatched by ANY machine…(hint: watch my feet :)

Check it out, try it and leave a comment below.

By the way, don’t forget to get a copy of the webinar “Muscle Imbalances Revealed” at 50% off the regular price + another $30 off. There are only 11 copies left and at midnight tonight the price will go up (or when the final 11 copies are sold).

They might all be gone already but you can check for yourself –>CLICK HERE For Muscle Imbalances Revealed Special Offer

Exclusive Muscle Imbalances Revealed Webinar Video Footage

Here’s a ‘sneak-peak’ into the Muscle Imbalances Revealed webinar.

In the video clips below I share some important concepts about addressing flexibility and common causes of lower body muscle imbalances and injuries.

Leave me a comment below and let me know your thoughts on the videos

Muscle Imbalances Flexibility Assessment:

Common Causes Of Muscle Imbalances:

You only have until this Friday, July 2 at Midnight to get your copy of “Muscle Imbalances Revealed” at half-off the regular price plus an additional $30 off on the premium lower body system–including continuing education credits + both the digital & physical DVD set.

Or an additional $20 off on the complete lower body digital DVD system.

Actually, we had originally put 50 copies of the DVD set for this promotion just 2 days ago, but my friend Rick Kaselj who put this project together just told me there are only 27 copies left.

So, you need to hurry to get your copy before the final 27 copies are gone.  I’m certain they’ll be gone before midnight on Friday.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

My ‘SECRET’ Jedi Lunge Exercise Tips To STOP Knee Pain

Most of the clients I’ve worked with who initially suffered from knee pain while doing exercises like squats and lunges thought looked at me like I was completely off my rocker when I first told them that not only were squats and lunges (nor ‘old-age’) NOT the reason they had ‘bad knees’ but that those so-called “knee destroyers” were needed to get rid of knee pain.

“I don’t know if you heard me the first time but I already told you I can’t do lunges because________”(I have weak knees, of my arthritis, I have bursitis, I’m old–insert just about any other excuse you’ve heard here)

It’s not that I’m some mean masochistic personal trainer who loves to put his clients through pain..

…Well, maybe just a teeny bit–

Just kidding…Ok, all jokes aside

It’s just that the REAL problem has more to do with improper muscle recruitment patterns than it does with doing lunges and various lunge exercise variations

In the video below I reveal my ‘secret’ lunge exercise tips and tricks to help put an end to your clients’ knee pain:

The REAL Reason Lunges = Knee Pain

I hear it all the time…”I can’t do lunges because they hurt my knees”or “I’ve been told to avoid lunges until my knee pain goes away.

But, think of so many movements we do outside of ‘the gym’ like walking up and down stairs, getting in and out of our car, bending down to pick up a set of keys off the floor, running–well–you get the picture.

What do these movements have to do with lunges and knee pain?

Everything!

These movements and many others we do all the time are single-leg dominant and a necessary part of our everyday lives…therefore, avoiding these movements rarely fixes a problem such as knee pain.

Eliminating chronic pain and injuries requires an ability to perform functional movements efficiently. This is best achieved through training. But, it takes more than just doing “functional” exercises on a balance pad or stability ball.

In most cases, knee pain from lunges doesn’t happen because someone has “weak knees”, “bum knees”, “arthritis” and it’s not because of “old-age” either.

The REAL reason lunges (and squats) often cause knee pain is due to muscular imbalances related to the quadriceps and hip flexors.

But, aren’t we supposed to feel the quads during leg exercises?

Well, it’s a little more complex than an either-or answer can provide…Allow me to explain a bit more about what I mean.

I’ve discovered that most people are what I call ‘quad-dominant’ meaning that they have developed most of their lower extremity strength in the quadriceps.

Now, these individuals often also have tight or dominant hip flexors as well.

And, this quad-dominance creates an imbalance of the lower extremities during functional movements like squatting and lunging because exclusively using the quadriceps results in a ‘forward’ pulling at the hip.

Now, you can’t actually see it happening but what you’ll notice when you watch someone do a squat or lunge is their hips and knees will move a bit forward.

And, if you ask them where they feel it 9 times out of 10 they’ll say in the quadriceps.

This quad-dominance and forward motion shifts the center of gravity and INCREASES stress to the knees.

This is the #1 reason why lunges and squats cause problems to the knees, hips, ankles and lower back too. But, it’s easy to fix once you’ve performed a proper lower body exercise assessment and identified the weak links.

Speaking of identifying weak links in the lower extremities, in just a few short weeks you’ll be able to get access to an exclusive webinar I was fortunate to be a part of along with 6 other presenters.

I can’t go into all the details just yet, but I can tell you it’s all about how to identify & correct the muscular imbalances that are keeping your clients (or possibly you) from achieving their fitness goals.

This webinar is packed full of ‘how-to’ info on everything you need to know to correct muscle imbalances that are the leading cause of pain and injuries.

If you’re a subscriber to my newsletter then keep an eye on your email inbox for how you can gain access to this powerful webinar and watch it from your own computer.

5 Simple Steps To Correcting Your Clients’ Posture

Here’s a new podcast on “5 Simple Steps To Correcting Your Clients’ Posture”

Some of the topics covered on the podcast are:

  • What most personal training manuals and courses aren’t telling you about assessing posture
  • Why you should never perform a traditional posture assessment on your clients
  • How to quickly and easily identify your clients posture profile without a formal posture analysis
  • The #1 component that has the biggest impact on correcting posture in the fastest time
  • 3 functional considerations for posture correction exercises
  • The most often overlooked way to correct posture

NOTE: If you want to download the podcast I suggest using Internet Explorer. Other web browsers like Firefox may not allow downloading so if you run into problems just try using Internet Explorer and that should solve it

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Or Click The Icon Below To Listen On My Official Podcast Page

Want to know which exercises really work for muscle imbalances? Click HERE

Is A Tight Muscle The SAME As A Weak Muscle?

The fitness training industry is constantly changing and because of this we’re always learning new things

Take for example, most of what we know about assessing muscle imbalances

We know that a tight agonist usually is accompanied by a weak antagonist

This is obvious in the classic “bench press posture” that commonly exists in many of our own clients where tightness of the muscles involved with internal rotation and protraction of the shoulders results in weakness of the muscles involved with external rotation and retraction of the shoulders

But, have you ever wondered if a muscle can be both weak AND tight at the same time?

Is it even possible?

I’ve chased this thought around and around in my head a number of times over the years after assessing clients who present what appears to be BOTH muscle tightness and muscle weakness in the same muscle(s)

Huh?

You’re probably thinking right now…”Here he goes again with one of his off-the-wall philosophies”

But, as odd as it sounds I have to admit that a lot of times I notice muscle weakness and tightness in the same muscle(s)

Before you think you’re lost in a bad twilight zone episode here (music cue here) I’ll try to explain what I mean…

…Tight muscles are usually thought of as dominant muscles

However, with extreme muscle tightness there are much fewer actin-myosin cross bridge attachments available (and less space for the joint segment to move) which results in decreased force production capability

The result is often decreased mobility and muscle weakness

And, it’s the same for severe muscle weakness with a slightly different twist…

…Weak muscles are less capable of generating proper force production and, therefore, lack the ability to produce sufficient force to create movement.

Over time the decreased ability to move the limb or segment the weak muscle(s) controls results in muscle stiffness as the muscle adapts to the same length

As you can see, it’s not always an either or situation when assessing a client as we have thought for so long

Now, this isn’t to say that EVERY tight muscle is weak and vice-versa, but it does lend some insight into how both muscle tightness and muscle weakness can occur together

Here’s where I would like to hear YOUR feedback

Do you have a client who presents both muscle tightness and weakness of the same muscle(s)? If so, I’d like you to briefly describe it below and let me know what special training techniques or exercises you’ve used to address it

The fitness industry and personal training is always evolving…

always progressing…

…what we know today, we gain a better understanding of tomorrow and by sharing what we learn as fitness professionals with each other makes us stronger

It helps us expand our knowledge and lifts us beyond the common perception that we just “take people through workouts”

By improving the art of client assessment and program design we have the power to help change lives

I hope you’ll share your feedback below

The #1 Squat Exercise MISTAKE That We’re Being Taught To Do

Most of the textbook guidelines we’re taught for performing the squat exercise are pretty similar

Keep the upper back straight, keep the feet about shoulder width apart, bend at the hips and knees, etc..

But, there’s another guideline that’s taught by most textbooks and even health & fitness professionals but it can be the #1 squat exercise mistake in those who suffer from nagging lower body injuries

It’s something that isn’t particularly obvious either…

It has nothing to do with the upper back, bar placement nor the hips…

…It is assuming squat position with the toes pointed out

While this may not be problematic for apparently healthy individuals, it can have a few drawbacks for those dealing with lower back, hip, knee or ankle pain:

  • increases stability through leverage but decreases activation of the hip extensors
  • increases activation of the quadriceps, gluteus medius and lumbar extensors
  • results in increased stress to the knees, hips & lumbar spine
  • in more extreme cases, the toes pointed out position can contribute to increased stress to the sacroiliac joints of the pelvis
  • Most functional & athletic movements do not occur from this position

For example: running or jumping with the toes pointed out decreases force production during acceleration, negatively affects deceleration mechanics and develops poor alignment and joint stability of the lower extremities

Most individuals prefer squatting with the toes pointed out because it feels stable and as if the feet are straight

In most cases, if you ask a client who squats this way to point their toes straight ahead they will feel as if they are ‘pigeon-toed’ and will have difficulty keeping the knees and ankles from collapsing inward

Because of this, it’s often assumed that squatting with the toes straight is ‘bad for the knees’…

…But, if we look at it from more of a lower body assessment perspective what we’re REALLY seeing is inefficient hip mechanics…it’s the lack of hip stability that causes the real problems

When the hip extensors and/or abductors are weak the integrity of the lower extremities becomes compromised often resulting in pain or injuries to the hips, knees, ankles or even the lower back

And, although the squat gets a bad rap for causing injuries to the knees and lower back, the reality is that the movement itself is something our bodies are designed to perform…

…it’s one of the first movements we performed as babies learning to stand

Unfortunately, as we get older (and technology advances) we drive, sit at computers, perform desk jobs, watch television and without proper conditioning of the hip musculature function is lost which leads to a growing list of nagging pain and injuries

The squat isn’t a bad movement but a lack of physical conditioning to squat efficiently is

3 Core Fitness Training MYTHS EXPOSED

As fitness professionals we’re well schooled in proper exercise form and the importance of core fitness training . When it comes to performing exercises involving rotation of the spine we’ve heard all the typical theories like:

  • “Don’t EVER perform rotation of the spine while sitting”
  • “ALWAYS perform exercises involving rotation of the spine in a slow, controlled manner”
  • “NEVER do any twisting or turning movements with a flexed spine”

And, I used to preach these principles to my clients over and over giving myself the proverbial ‘pat on the back’ for–what I thought at the time–might save my clients from possible injuries

Little did I know back then that I was actually INCREASING the likelihood that my my clients would injure themselves by following  my ‘rules of core exercise’ as if they were the 10 commandments

Many of the movements we perform on a daily basis are much like an illusion in that we don’t actually see what’s really happening…

…many movements we think occur in the sagittal plane are actually dominated by the transverse plane

A great example is walking

When viewing a person walking we see movement occuring only in the sagittal plane (assuming the person hasn’t a few too many cocktails…then that might be a different story entirely)

However, other muscle actions and movements occur that we cannot see

If we could actually see what’s going on ‘behind-the-scenes’ we would notice that walking involves movement and muscle actions in the sagittal, frontal & transverse planes

In fact, 87.5%  of the major core muscles are oriented diagonally or horizontally and include rotation as one of their actions yet much of today’s popular core exercises like stability ball crunches, the plank and back extensions do not train trunk rotation

World-renowned fitness expert and educator Juan Carlos Santana brought to light the ‘Serape Effect’ (originally published by Logan & McKinney) that describes the human body’s natural mechanism of using integrated muscle actions to produce rotational movement

So, with all this being said we can now expose 3 popular core exercise training myths:

  • Myth #1: Performing movements involving spinal rotation while sitting can injure the low back

Fact: The vertebrae of the thoracic spine is actually designed to allow rotation to occur. Trunk rotation is a natural and much needed movement that comes almost entirely from the thoracic spine not the lumbar spine and is safe to perform utilizing light and even moderate loads in an unsupported environment (not in a machine)

  • Myth #2: Always perform rotational movements in a slow, controlled manner

Fact: Most injuries occur at high speeds and during the eccentric phase of muscle contraction yet most training protocols only focus on performing movements including trunk rotation exercises in a slow, controlled manner focused mostly on the concentric phase

Movements aren’t the cause of most injuries but lack of preparation and physical conditioning to perform those movements effectively is

  • Myth #3: Avoid twisting with a flexed spine

Fact: If you look closely at the movements involved in golfing, tennis, wrestling, bowling, throwing and many other movements and activities you’ll notice how they all involve rotation of the trunk with a natural kyphotic posture of the spine at the upper back.

A healthy thoracic spine has a natural kyphotic curve that it is meant to perform a number of movements within which poses no real threat of injury to the spine

I’ve also mentioned some very valid reasons why you should lift with a rounded back in a previous post

By now, we can understand the importance of core training exercises involving rotation and why they are needed to improve functional movement and performance

And, more importantly why these movements need to be trained in a capacity beyond just the traditional ‘slow & controlled’ environment

Our bodies are designed to twist and turn in different angles and at high speeds we encounter in a number of movements outside of the gym and the best way to minimize the potential for injury is to physically prepare for those movements rather than trying to avoid them

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think

Do you agree? Do you think I’m a total nut case who’s cuckoo for coca puffs? Would you like me to demonstrate some unique rotation exercises in a future post? What are some rotation movements you’ve used with positive results?

I’d love to hear all your feedback

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