Fat Loss For Dummies

Fat Loss...everyone's favorite topic...I'll get right to it:

Let's start off with metabolism. According to the MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, metabolism "refers to all of the physical and chemical processes in the body that create and use energy". In other words, your metabolism is the total energy expenditure of the body. Digesting food, breathing, heart rate, strength training - all requires energy.

Resting metabolic rate - the amount of calories you burn at rest - accounts for 60-75% of total energy expenditure in sedentary people.¹ This leaves anywhere from 25-40% of total caloric expenditure to come from activity level and the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF).

A fat loss program must address these three important protocols: resting metabolic rate, physical activity, and diet to maximize results. More on this later.

Now, how does one "burn fat"? This is "fat burning for dummies" so I'll explain relatively quickly here (note that this an extreme oversimplification of the complex process). Subcutaneous fat (commonly referred to as body fat) exists in fat cells. We need to "mobilize" this fat out of the cell, and into the muscle where it can be burned off. Muscle is the only tissue in the body that burns fat - the only reason that "cardio", "aerobic exercise", or "endurance training" burns calories is because of the demand from the muscular system. What happens when you run, bike, swim, etc? Your muscles are essentially performing hundreds of repetitions, which means that cardiovascular exercise cannot occur without the muscular system initiating the movement first.


So how do we mobilize the fat? Breakdown of triglycerides in the fat cell into free fatty acids (FFA) must occur so that they can enter the bloodstream. Hormone Sensitive Lipase (HSL) is called upon by glucagon when blood sugar stores are low to convert the triglycerides into FFA and shuttle them to the muscle and liver where they can be burned.² So, we need more HSL for more fat mobilization to take place. How do we get more HSL? According to The Journal of Biological Chemistry, catecholamine levels stimulate HSL activity. How do we increase catecholamine levels? We increase physical activity. However, HSL is limited by insulin, which the body releases to remove glucose from the bloodstream. To keep insulin levels low, we need to limit blood sugar levels through proper diet.

All that science mumbo-jumbo basically means we need to eat healthier, and increase physical activity. Rocket Science.

Now that we know how to mobilize the fat from the fat cells into FFA in the bloodstream. We need to figure out how to transport the FFA into muscle where it can be burned off in the mitochondria. This transportation process is controlled by carnitine levels. The higher the levels of carnitine - the higher the rate of transportation. ³ In order for carnitine levels to be high; however, muscle glycogen levels need to be low. In order to lower muscle glycogen levels we need to undergo physical activity and eat appropriately (a lower-carb diet will reduce glycogen levels).

So again with the science mumbo jumbo. All this really means is that in order to have high levels of fat oxidation - we need to exercise more and eat properly. Again, rocket science.

Now with all of that out of the way - the three key pillars to fat loss are:
1) Nutrition
2) Resistance Training
3) Energy systems work, cardiovascular training, GPP, whatever you want to call it.

I'll go over each one in more detail:

1) You can't out-train a bad diet. No matter how hard you work out, if your diet is poor- your results, or lack thereof, will suffer.
With that being said - according to the research above, it seems as though a reduced-carb diet will optimize fat burning capacity. I'm not a registered dietician or a nutritionist, but I think I can safely say that a diet low in sugar; high in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins; and high in fiber are good guidelines to follow for anybody pursuing body fat reduction. Drinking lots of water, making breakfast be your biggest meal, making sure you eat something healthy after your workout, and snacking on nutritious foods throughout the day to maintain a high metabolism are all other general guidelines and recommendations that would be advantageous to follow.

2) Resistance training comes before cardiovascular work. Most people who come to the gym have it the other way around. Like I mentioned before, muscle is the only tissue in the body that burns fat. The more muscle you have means that you have a higher resting metabolic rate because muscles demands higher energy expenditure from the body to maintain it.⁴ Since resting metabolic rate accounts for 60-75% of your total energy expenditure - the more muscle you have, the higher the caloric burn you induce without even moving. Also, like I mentioned before - the only reason the cardiovascular system burns calories is through the demand of the muscular system. If the muscular system can't handle the demands of performing hundreds of repetitions, we need to address that issue by focusing on resistance training. By enhancing the muscular system, we automatically enhance the cardiovascular system. I recommend three total-body workouts per week in order to expend the most amount of energy possible in each workout, while also making sure you allow your muscles to rest and recover.

3) Cardio. Once the resistance training is implemented into a program, the last part of the equation is supplemental energy systems work. Running, swimming, biking, etc. at a steady pace is not an efficient, or effective means of training for those interested in fat loss. Now, think about running a mile. Let's say you run a mile in 8 minutes and you burn 100 calories. Your body will adapt to this within a couple of workouts and will require maybe 90 calories of total energy expenditure to the run the mile. Now with weight training, to counteract this adaptation, we can increase the load (the amount of weight you're lifting). With cardio, you would have to run longer. So, what I'm trying to tell you is that your body becomes more efficient at running and it becomes harder to burn calories at the same rate before you started the running program.

How do we resolve this? We incorporate high-intensity interval training (HIIT). We make sure we switch speeds and resistances in order to halt the adaptation process. The higher intensity ensures we burn the most amount of calories during the session, and also elevate metabolism for at least the next 24 hours.⁵ Interval Training was also found to be 9 times more effective in reducing body fat than regular steady state endurance training.⁶ Because of the stress placed on the body through HIIT, I recommend no more than 3 sessions a week.

In conclusion, this is not a program, but more of a lesson in how the fat loss process works. It is up to you to incorporate these elements into your training. With all this being said, everyone is different (age, gender, thyroid activity, etc.) and there is not one secret program that will yield the exact same results for every single person. My recommendations in this blog are extremely generalised - I would need to perform multiple assessments before moving on into more specific programming.
The concepts are easy, but actually putting forth the effort and intensity and discipline is extremely difficult. Do you have what it takes?

Train Hard,

Jason

¹J. Connolly, T. Romano, and M. Patruno. Effects of dieting and exercise on resting metabolic rate and implications for weight management. Family Practice, April 1, 1999; 16(2): 196 - 201.

²Contreras JA, et al. Hormone-sensitive lipase is structurally related to acetylcholinesterase, bile salt-stimulated lipase, and several fungal lipases. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 271 (1996): 31426 - 31430.

³Brass, Eric P. Supplemental carnitine and exercise. American Society for Clinical Nutrition, 72 (2000): 618-623.

⁴Pratley, R., et al. Strength training increases resting metabolic rate and norepinephrine levels in healthy 50- to 65-year-old men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 76 (1994): 133-137.

^{5Treuth, et al. Effects of exercise intensity on 24-h energy expenditure and substrate oxidation. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 9 (1996): 1138-1143.}

^{6Tremblay A, et al. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism, 43 (1994): 814-818.}

Anterior Pelvic Tilt

Anterior Pelvic Tilt - sometimes called Lower Crossed Syndrome is a condition where the pelvis is tilted forward. Here's what it looks like:


Like I've mentioned before, our society spends too much time sitting and not enough time engaging ourselves in any sort of physical activity. Let's say you're at a desk job stuck in front of a computer for 8 hours a day. Your hip flexors are going to be in a state of constant flexion and over time they become either short or stiff. Now, through a phenomenon called reciprocal inhibition - you're glutes become lengthened and weak.
To better understand reciprocal inhibition, think about when you flex your biceps - your triceps on the other side of your arm needs to lengthen and relax for the contraction to occur. So, in anterior pelvic tilt, the hip flexors are in a state of constant flexion and the muscles on the other side of your body - the gluteals, are forced to be lengthened.
Now what happens when the glutes cannot fire properly? The glutes are the most powerful hip extensors in the body, and when they can't fire at the right time - hip extension is substituted with lumbar extension (you use your lower back instead of your glutes). You see it all the time - someone will drop a quarter or a paper clip and instead of bending at the knees to pick it up, they'll simply bend forward at the waist with their legs fully extended. This might be okay when picking up something light, but what happens when that same person needs to pick up something like a couch or a dumbbell? They'll attempt to muscle up the weight with their lower back rather then using their lower body muscles and end up "blowing out their back". Now, as a result of the lumbar extensors being overused - they also become tight and exacerbate the situation.
Now, what happens when the lumbar extensors are tight? The abdominals become lengthened and weak.
So heres the formula for Lower Crossed Syndrome:
Lengthened and weak gluteals and abdominals + tight and overactive hip flexors and lumbar extensors = anterior pelvic tilt

If you were wondering why it was called Lower Crossed Syndrome, take a look at this diagram:


So what are the implications for someone with anterior pelvic tilt?

Higher likelihood of lower back pain, decreased recruitment of the glutes, increased kyphosis of the thoracic spine, and from a purely asethetic standpoint APT can lead to a "big gut, no butt" scenario.

So, enough with the science mumbo-jumbo - how can you combat APT?

Phase 1:

Warrior Lunge: Hold the bottom position of a lunge for 30 seconds. Squeeze (contract) the glute of the trailing leg (the right leg in the picture) and make sure the knee is behind the hip to ensure a good stretch. Raise your arms overhead, don't over arch your lower back like the guy in the picture, and keep your abs tight and contracted.


Glute Bridge: Lay flat on your back with your arms by your sides. Bring your feet in so that your knees form a 90 degree angle and raise your toes up. Drive through your heels and lift your hips up and squeeze your glutes and brace your abdominals. Hold for 30 seconds.


Plank: The plank position should look like you do when you are standing. You should maintain the natural curve in your lower back, elbows should be right below the shoulders, glutes tight, abs braced, and chin tucked. Hold this position for 30-45 seconds.

Repeat three times before you work out, or use it as your work out. Make sure you do perform this tri-set of exercises at least 3 times a week.

Phase II:

Rectus Femoris Stretch: This stretch should look similar to the warrior lunge stretch except this time you are going to reach back and grab your back leg to intensify the stretch. Same rules apply except you can keep your arms down. Hold for 30 seconds.


Cook Hip Lift: This is similar to the glute bridge but this time you are going to tuck one knee in towards your chest. Instead of holding at the top, do sets of 12 repetitions on each side. Take 2 seconds on the way up, hold at the top for 2 seconds, and then take 2 seconds to lower your hips back down. You might find that you can only go up a couple of inches. Even if this occurs, do not loosen your grasp of your knee - your range of motion will improve as you keep doing the exercise.


Stability Ball Rollout: Place a ball in front of you with your arms extended, roll yourself out keeping your abs braced and your glutes right, and at the bottom push yourself back up to the starting position. Be sure to maintain the natural curve in your lower back - it shouldn't increase or decrease. The greater the diameter of the ball, the easier the exercise will be. The further away you start with the ball the harder the exercise will be. Think of the stability ball rollout as an easier alternative to the ab wheel:


Perform 6-10 repetitions. If you haven't done this exercise before start off slowly -perform less repetitions otherwise you'll find yourself extremely sore in the next day or two.

Again, perform this tri-set of exercises three times either before your workout or as your workout three times a week.

How long should one stay in each phase? It really depends on the person's level of fitness, age, degree of APT, and how flexible they are. Move on to the next phase only when you are comfortable with Phase I.

When you fix APT, your able to recruit your core and glutes properly - which means you'll have a higher capacity to lift more challenging weights which in turn leads to strength gains, increased caloric expenditure, and most importantly better results!

Train Hard,

Jason

Machines Suck!

Way back when, researchers used electrical stimulation on muscles to determine their function. What happens when they stimulated the quadriceps? Knee extension. The hamstrings? Knee flexion. The adductors? Hip adduction. I don't know about you, but I think this is an extremely simple depiction of the human body. What happens every time you take a step? Your glutes, hamstrings, quads, adductors, calves, and the other stabilizers in the lead leg are used in conjunction to decelerate knee flexion. Now what happens in that same leg as it begins to propel itself off the floor? The glutes, hamstrings, quads, adductors, calves, and the remaining stabilizers are used to accelerate knee extension. This is precisely why we shouldn't train muscles in isolation - our bodies simply don't function that way - hence, the term functional training. Now, soon after this research - companies began making machines to simulate the "function" of the different muscle groups. The age of Nautilus machines began.

I'm going to take you through four different machines that suck, for lack of a better word. The leg extension, the leg curl, the hip abduction machine, and the hip adduction machine.

Lets start with what seems like every woman's favorite machine...the inner thigh machine:

The hip adduction machine is used to target the adductors. Take a look at the adductors:


Truth is, the adductors are a complex of five different muscles: the Adductor Brevis, Adductor Magnus, Adductor Longus, the Gracilis, and the Pectineus. Now in the frontal (side to side) plane, all of these muscles are used in hip adduction. However when you start to break things down into real-life functional movements - these muscles all take on a secondary role. The Pectineus and Adductor Brevis are used as hip flexors, while the Adductor Magnus and Longus, and Gracilis are used as hip extensors. When the hip is in a position of flexion (think about hugging your knee to your chest), the adductors are in a greater position to contribute to hip extension. On the other hand, when the hip is in a position of extension (thinking about standing tall and bringing one leg behind you), the adductors are in a greater position to contribute to hip flexion.
Think about a soccer player kicking a ball:

Now take a look at her right leg - its in almost full hip extension. Based on what I just told you, the adductors are now in a position to contribute to hip flexion as well as adduction. The exact motion of the follow through of the corner kick. Now think about a hockey player as they skate:

This hockey players right leg is in a state of flexion. The adductors are now in position to contribute to hip extension in order to push the skate down and propel themselves further down the ice.
The adductors are used in so many different ways, and treating this whole group of muscles as if it only has one single function is both near-sighted and also dangerous. Imbalances could develop within the complex itself and could lead to all sorts of groin injuries.


The hip abduction machine follows the same theme. The main muscle used in hip abduction is the Gluteus Medius. Even though it is a single muscle, it has both anterior and posterior fibers. The anterior fibers are used for internal rotation of the femur, while the posterior fibers are used for external rotation. Again, this machine only focuses on the hip abduction component. Also, when the hips are flexed in this position, it is hard to fire and activate the glutes effectively (think about flexing your arm so that your biceps contract, your triceps on the other side is forced to relax - this is known as reciprocal inhibition).

The leg curl. When you walk, run, sprint, go up stairs - your glutes and hamstrings are used synergistically to produce hip extension. In any real-life setting, the hamstrings NEVER work in isolation of the glutes. Now take a look at the leg curl machine:

Knee flexion and therefore hamstring recruitment, BUT no activation of the glutes. Now lets say leg curls are the only exercise you use to work your posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, lower back). Instead of training your body to use your glutes and hamstrings synergistically to produce hip extension like in a deadlift - you are training your body to preferentially recruit the hamstrings. Now what happens, when you start running or sprinting? Your glutes are so underdeveloped that the hamstrings now have to work overtime to compensate for the lack of function at the glutes. The end result? A pulled hamstring.

The leg extension machine.

Another machine that makes absolutely no sense. When in life would you ever bring your knee up towards your body and then try to kick your leg out in that position. Unless you're the karate kid, I'm assuming never.

The quadriceps consist of four muscles: the Vastus Medialis, Vastus Lateralis, Vastus Intermedius, and the Rectus Femoris. The Rectus Femoris is also a hip flexor and is commonly tight in most of the American population, because of how much time we spend sitting in a hips flexed position. According to EMG studies of the leg extension exercise, the Rectus Femoris showed improved activity, while in EMG studies of a squat - the Vasti muscles showed more improved activity. Now, the Vasti muscles are much more powerful as knee extensors than the Rectus Femoris and also serve as stabilizers to the knee. So why would we use an exercise that improved activity in an area that is already tight, and also delay activity in a muscle group whose recruitment is imperative for optimal knee health. Also, add in the fact that the ACL is in constant tension, the hip adductors/abductors are not working at all throughout the movement, there is more knee movement, and more joint stress - you're really looking at a pretty dangerous peice of equipment.

With all this being said - no machine is ever going to be able to replace free weights or body weights as a more effective form of exercise. There are a few machines I do use occasionally, but that's for another blog post...

In the meantime,

Train Hard!

Jason

A Joint - By - Joint Approach To Training

The joint-by-joint approach to training the body was first introduced to me by an article written by Michael Boyle (Strength and conditioning coach for the Boston University hockey team). It completely revolutionized the way I viewed training. The beauty of it is that it is such a simple concept to comprehend, despite the complex subject matter.

The human body consists of a stack of joints. They each need a degree of mobility (the ability to produce a desired movement) and a degree of stability (the ability to resist a desired movement). These two properties work inversely. If you gain more mobility in a joint, you sacrifice some stability. With that being said, it seems like the body alternates from joints that need more mobility to joints that need more stability:

Note that this is not a black and white view - the human body is much more complex than this rudimentary diagram. With that being said, each joint I labeled prefer either more stability or more mobility. You want mobility in the ankles, stability in the knees, mobility in the hips, stability in the lumbar spine, and so on and so forth.

Now, what happens when a joint that craves mobility becomes stiff or immobile; therefore, making it more stable? The joints above and below that joint have to compensate and become more mobile. Lets take a look at the hips - a multi-axial ball-and-socket joint that is made to be more mobile. As a society, we sit around too much because of our jobs, computers, tv, etc. As a result, our hips become very stiff and immobile. Now look above and below the hip - the knee and the lumbar spine (lower back). Both of these joints crave stability, but because of the stiffness of our hips they are forced to move to become more mobile in order to compensate.

This is where I believe so many Americans experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. Mobility is something we lose if we neglect it. Check out this picture of a baby squatting

Picture perfect mobility. Now when I type in "mobility" into Google Images this is what came up:

Now if we are not mobile enough in our hips to squat down, bend forward to pick something up, etc. - our lower backs are forced to move. So instead of a clean squatting pattern like the baby pictured above, we get something that looks like this:

Back pain is a result of overuse. Victims of lower back pain tend to do exercises to "strengthen" the lower back. Stuart Mcgill, in his book Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, actually mentions that this is the wrong approach to take because people with back pain tend to have strong lower backs. The problem is that they are extremely stiff in their hips and thoracic spine, which is why we need mobility in those areas, while emphasizing core stability in the lumbar spine.

Another example is someone with a rounder shoulder, forward head posture:

Try to put yourself in this position (push your shoulders forward and make your chin protrude forward). Now try to raise your arms overhead. You can't. This shows how your upper back (Thoracic Spine) can become immobile, force your scapulo-thoracic joint (point where your shoulder blades attach to your spine) to become more mobile, and make your shoulder joint more immobile. This can lead to shoulder injuries, and the only way to correct this is to get to the root of the problem, which is the immobile Thoracic Spine.

In the next coming weeks, I'll be posting videos on how to improve mobility or stability in these certain areas to keep you healthy in the long term. Until then, keep checking back, become a follower of my blog, and leave me feedback!

Train Hard,

Jason

5 Exercises You Should Be Doing

Continuing on from my last post - I decided to do write one on exercises that people often neglect in their training. I think these 5 exercises are hugely important for a well rounded program and should be taken very seriously. With that being said, incorporate these in to your program!

1) Deadlifts. Squats are widely considered the "king of lower body exercises". Don't get me wrong, squats are awesome in terms of lower body development, but they are what is called a "quad-dominant" exercise. This means that most of the movement revolves around the knee joint and emphasizes the quadriceps muscles.
Our society spends way too much time sitting on our butts, and never end up using them. That's why we need to incorporate "hip dominant" movements that emphasize your glutes and hamstrings. We need balance in our workouts - if your quads are a lot stronger than your glutes and hamstrings you can end up with various types of knee injuries.


Its simple. Bend down, keep your back in its natural arch, chest high, and lift. No other exercise works as many muscles as the deadlift. Use it and its variations (Romanian deadlifts, single leg deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, snatch grip deadlifts, etc.)

2) Pushups. Theres something about pushups that guys hate: they're not as "cool" as the bench press, they're deemed a "sissy" exercise, they're "too easy".

Pushups offer tremendous value in terms of core stability, scapular stability, and upper body strength. Why not just bench press? In correct bench pressing technique you shoulder blades should be pinched together to give you a good stable platform to push the weight away from you. The bench press is a great exercise, but it doesn't let your scapulae (shoulder blades) move freely the way it does in a pushup. This means you completely neglect the rotator cuff and the serratus anterior. What the heck is a serratus anterior? It's a relatively small, but important muscle located under and to the side of your chest that help protract (push forward) the scapula. It also helps you rotate your scapula in order to raise your arms overhead. Neglect this muscle, and you set yourself up for shoulder injuries down the road.


Check out this guy's shoulder blades. The medial border of the scapula is "winging out" because his serratus anterior isn't strong enough to keep them in alignment.
If you can do regular pushups well, try out decline pushups, weight pushups, pushups on a stability, ring pushups, band resisted pushups, spiderman pushups, and even 1-arm pushups.

3) Face Pulls. Here's an amusing look at our evolutionary process. Desk jockeys, students, college fraternity kids who bench press every time they set foot in a gym screaming "it's all you!!!" in your ear when you ask them to hand a bar off to you - all share that common hunched over, rounded shoulder posture.



How do we counteract this? Pull more, stretch more, and push less. That means more rowing variations in your workouts, stretch your pecs and lats, and bench press less. One type of pulling movement that I particularly like is the face pull with external rotation.

Take a rope handle, grab it with a neutral grip (palms facing towards each other and pull the rope towards your face). Conventional face pulls are pulled towards the upper chest, but by bringing it higher up you get some rotator cuff work as well. Couple that with the strengthening of the scapular retractors and the rear delts and you get a great exercise for shoulder health and improving postural alignment.

4) Single Leg Training. I decided to group this category together because I couldn't pick just one. By focusing on only bilateral movements, you neglect key stabilizing muscles in the hip, knee, and ankle. This means not only are they are key in preventing injuries, but they're also great supplements to add strength to your bilateral movements.
Progressions are key in single leg training. Throwing lunges into a beginner's workout will literally cripple them from the massive eccentric loading placed on the muscles. Start with split squats and move on to reverse lunges, forward lunges, rear foot elevated split squats, walking lunges, and single leg squats. Progressions are different depending on the population, but nothing irritates me more than trainers making their new clients do a million walking lunges with weights when they can't even do a single stationary lunge.

5) Pallof Press. And any other core stabilization exercise. You see gym goers all the time hammering on their lower backs with rotational exercises - twisting and turning violently with cables. The core is used mainly as "anti-rotators". Here's a quote from Shirley Sahrmann in her book Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes:

"The most important aspect of abdominal muscle performance is obtaining the control that is necessary to:

(1) appropriately stabilize the spine,

(2) maintain optimal alignment and movement relationships between the pelvis and spine, and

(3) prevent excessive stress and compensatory motions of the pelvis during movements of the extremities."

Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes, p. 69.

When training the core, your mid-section should not move! I'm not saying that cable chops are bad, but most people do not know how to perform the movement correctly. Rotation should occur at the hips and shoulders - not the lower back. Also, how do you expect to create rotation when you can't even prevent it? The key to core training is to perturb the core by manipulating the upper or lower extremities. Here's an awesome exercise developed by physical therapist John Pallof.

Set up a handle a little lower than the bottom portion of your chest. Keep a nice athletic stance (feet shoulder width, butt back, chest high) and press the handle away from you. Your obliques have to work especially hard to maintain alignment.

Feel free to ask questions! What blog topics do you want me to cover in the future? I appreciate any and all feedback!

Train Hard,

Jason

5 Exercises You Should Not Be Doing

I'm guilty of using every single one of these exercises in the past...but I want to make sure no one makes the same mistakes I did! Here are 5 exercises that you see often in most gyms but really are not worth it from a risk/benefit outlook.

1) Bench Dips
Check out the amount of extension you have in your shoulders in a normal range of motion
Depending on the person, you could have anywhere from 45-60 degrees of extension.















Now check out the amount of extension you get in a bench dip:

Most people will go down to a point where the upper arm runs parallel to the floor - about 90 degrees of hyperextension. Now couple that with the fact that your arms are in a position of internal rotation (more on this later) and your scapulae (shoulder blades) are tilted forward in a a very unstable position - you set yourself up for a myriad of shoulder injuries to the rotator cuff or the AC joint.






2) More on the shoulder...Upright Rows.
Impingement of the rotator cuff basically means that the tendons of the rotator cuff are being "pinched" by the head of the humerus and the acromion process when the arm is moved upwards. There are many different reasons as to why this occurs but I don't want this post to be any longer than it needs to be. Here is a simple test to determine impingement syndrome:

Basically the arm is placed in maximum internal rotation (deliberately shortening the space between the head of the humerus and the acromion process) and the elbow is then elevated. If you experience pain in this position - you're likely suffering from impingement syndrome and could lead to rotator cuff tendinopathy if left untreated.








Now take a look at an upright row:
Do you see the similarities? Horizontal adduction and internal rotation of the humerus coupled with elevation right into the impingement zone. Now explain to me why in the world would anyone want to load this movement pattern with an external load? Your shoulders get more than enough direct work by doing various type of pressing work - the risk is not worth the reward in my opinion.







3) Crunches/Situps

Head to any commercial gym and you'll see at least a third of the members performing a billion different types of crunches and sit ups to get that elusive six pack. Everyone has abs - whether or not theyre visible is determined by how much body fat your carrying. But rather than cleaning up their diet and training to be in a state of caloric deficit - these members are convinced that crunching and performing sit ups until they cramp up in their midsection is the key to washboard abs.
Whats the number one way to herniate a disc in your lower back? Repeated compression along with flexion of the lumbar spine. This is exactly what happens when you perform a sit up/crunch. Whats even worse for you low back? Compression with flexion with rotation. Stop doing bicycle crunches and russian twists - your lower back will thank you.
4) Prone Supermans

You also see this one a lot in gyms - members flopping around on their stomachs while wailing on their lower backs. The prone superman places a great deal of shear forces on the lumbar spine. And you wonder why 80% of Americans experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. Furthermore, Mel Siff, in his book Facts and Fallacies of Fitness, states that "Current research has shown that the superman exercise and several of its variations have little or no benefit on back strength and posture." (Siff, p.36) .

The alternating superman is even worse:
Siff states: "Since the lower extremities are heavier than the upper extremities, this can impose a torque or twisting action around the lumbar spine if the action of the extremities isn't well synchronized and instead of reducing any potential risk of hyperextension, it can add an element of rotation to the extension, thereby making this exercise less safe than controlled gradual simultaneous raising of the legs and arms. In fact, it's not uncommon for this exercise to cause acute back pain and spasm." (Siff, p.36)
Basically you get the worst of both worlds - not only is it useless, but also extremely unsafe.

5) Last, but not least: Any sort of balancing act on a stability ball, bosu ball, dyna disc, etc for the lower extremity. This one drives me completely insane. It seems like the only prerequisite to be a personal trainer is that some sort of ridiculous balance exercise needs to be included in every single clients workout routine.
"It's functional and helps balance". How in the world is this functional? Most people cannot perform even a body weight squat properly and when you put an unstable surface underneath them you promote compensation and faulty movement patterns. Add that to the fact that rate of force production decreases because as soon as force is pushed into the surface, it dissipates immediately due to the instability. This means you use less weight, which means less strength, less muscle, less caloric burn, and most importantly diminished results.




A more functional exercise that challenges balance, stability, and strength: the single leg squat

In this exercise, all your hip stabilizers have to work extremely hard to keep your pelvis in alignment as you squat down. This develops true balance and a great deal of single leg strength. What happens every time you take a step, walk up stairs, sprint, etc.? You're on one leg. How's that for functionality and balance?



Train Hard,

Jason

Hello Everyone!

I prefer this layout on blogspot over the one on my website so I decided to set up account. I'll be posting workouts, some cool exercises and their variations, the latest in everything fitness related, as well any other rants and raves and tangents I might go on! Check back often!

Jason