Archive for the ‘Corrective Exercise’ Category
Low back pain is nasty!
It’ll hit you where it hurts…
…It can bring you to tears
It’ll get you down
But, I’ve got a secret 1-2 Punch–er, exercise–to KNOCK-OUT lower back pain fast!
Give it a go and let me know how it goes by leaving a comment below (hey, I could’ve been a poet…:)
Now you see it…
…Now you don’t
See what you ask?
The difference between the 2 photos on the left depicting the plank exercise.
Ok, so either I’m one apple short of a fruit salad or there’s not a difference right?
While it’s true that there is no visual difference (it’s the same photo) there can be a difference in what 2 clients FEEL even though they appear to perform the exercise the same way.
And, the muscles they feel can improve core strength, muscle balance and function or they can reinforce existing compensation strategies that contribute to shoulder, lower back and knee problems…
So, how can you tell if your clients are getting it right or if they’re just reinforcing pain patterns?
Watch the video below where I share an often over-looked problem that 9 out of 10 people are doing leading to pain and how to correct it.
Oh, and don’t forget to leave me a comment below after you watch:
When I first started training clients I had a horrible time with corrective exercise programming.
I remember sitting in front of my computer…staring…racking my brain for ideas about which corrective exercises to use for my clients.
I would often sit there for hours…no kidding–HOURS!
On more than a few occasions I would sit at the studio I worked for on a sunny Saturday afternoon practically pulling my hair out by the roots trying to come up with something to help my clients with injuries.
And, the only reason I would leave was usually because of a phone call from my wife telling me to get my A** back home so we could go have some fun together.
One of my BIGGEST frustrations back then was the lack of information on exercise assessment, post-rehabilitation exercise and program design.
Sure, there was all the run-of-the-mill info on basic gym exercises but there just wasn’t anything for Personal Trainers who trained clients with nagging injuries.
The cool thing is that after a number of years I finally have a model for designing effective corrective exercise programs and I’d like to share it with you in hopes that it helps you put together awesome, results producing programs for your clients.
It’s called my ’3-A Corrective Exercise Model’.
Check it out and let me know how it works for you:
Last night I was playing with my 3-year-old daughter Briana and she just loves when I bench press her. 
So, there I was lying on the floor on my back pressing away with my wife just laughing at us…
Actually, she was laughing at me because after about 30 ‘Briana presses’ I was getting a bit red-faced and out of breath; HEY she’s a big girl now!
The thing is that about 6 years ago I would never have been able to this because my shoulders were a mess back then.
They always hurt after I worked out.
Sure, I did various PULLING movements like rows but I never made any real progress until I discovered the exercises were only a part of the solution.
The answer wasn’t just doing the exercises but HOW I was doing them.
“Pull your shoulder blades down and back as if pinching your spine” wasn’t enough to actually make those muscles work when they were never taught how.
So, I developed my own special cues to literally FORCE the right muscles to engage and that’s when I got serious results.
I have ZERO shoulder pain these days and one of the exercises that not only helped me but have helped some athletes I trained over the years was…
Get ready to cringe…
Behind The Neck Presses
UH OH!
Yeah, I know you’re probably screaming at me “Don’t you know that exercise will DESTROY your shoulders!”
But, that’s the thing…behind the neck shoulder presses aren’t the shoulder wreckers that 99% of fitness pros think they are.
Check out the video below where I share my ‘odd-ball’ thinking like:
If you like the video do me a favor and click the share link below and tell your facebook friends about it.
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
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:
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.
Here’s a new podcast on “5 Simple Steps To Correcting Your Clients’ Posture”
Some of the topics covered on the podcast are:
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
Or Click The Icon Below To Listen On My Official Podcast Page
Want to know which exercises really work for muscle imbalances? Click HERE
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:
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
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:
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:
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)
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
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
