Those of us who exercise usually need some sort of guidance somewhere along the way. Whether we are training for a particular sport, strength, power, agility, endurance, or any combination of such, many of us have not had the proper training/instruction to take our bodies through the rigors of ‘tough’ training.
This is where a trained professional comes in. My other business, Pro Form Instruction, LLC, offers continuing education credits to fitness professionals for most of the major fitness certifying bodies in the country. It also has a branch that works with elite fitness instructors and high level athletes. I have seen my share of great trainers and those who can do more harm than good.
On this end, I see injuries due to ‘working out’ and also due to poor instruction from ‘fitness instructors’. It’s important to note that the more specialized the athlete, the more vital it is to have someone qualified to work with him/her, otherwise injury is sure to occur. Would you want a fitness instructor to advise long-distance running for an athlete whose sport doesn’t have any long-term aerobic needs? How about a young athlete being advised to do hundreds of crunches at a time…for what? Does any of this make any sense? Read More »
If you’re interested in a shoe to help you with toning up and you’re considering purchasing an expensive pair of one of those new and cool rounded shoes on the market, please read on.
Sketchers and MBT lead the way in this category with their ‘shaping’ shoes, or shoes that are supposed to help you tone up while you walk. In theory, this sounds great…work on an activity that should tone you up just by doing it, and tone up because of the footwear you choose versus the activity you are performing…and, of course, there is no downside?? Read More »
I’ve had the great fortune of working many pro beach volleyball competitions over the years. As a whole, beach volleyball players are great guys/gals, and they really appreciate the care they receive. They are wonderful athletes to work with.
When one considers volleyball injuries, usually the shoulder is the region that gets blamed most. This makes sense as we usually envision volleyball players ‘spiking’ the ball. The rotator cuff and other structures of the shoulder take a beating from the high force and movement that is required of the shoulder…in many cases, the players have dysfunctional scapular movement to begin with and this predisposes them to injury…add that to frequent forceful acceleration and deceleration movements, and you have a nice recipe for injury.
What is sometimes surprising when working with volleyball players is seeing all the other injuries that they sustain as a result of the game. I have seen more neck, knee, hip, low back, toe, foot, ankle, and elbow injuries than I would’ve ever imagined! Shoulder injuries are actually about half of the way down on the list of injuries. Why is this? Read More »
The first Body at Work blog topic is one that will hopefully pique your interest. Many of us go to the gym to exercise, and this is a good thing. However, all too many of us perform exercises that are dangerous. The reasons for this are plentiful, but what can we do to ensure that we know what we are doing? Also, if we use a fitness professional, are we sure that the individual’s training is at a high level? For this blog, I’ll go over one common gym movement that creates significant damage to your body, over time. Read More »
All too often, when I’m in the gym, I see people doing sit-ups, leg lifts, and back extensions. The reason people do these exercises is to train their abdominal muscles and their low back muscles. People figure that if they sit all day long, they have to go to the gym to strengthen their low backs and train their stomach muscles. Although half of this is true (the stomach muscles should be worked on), the truth is that these exercises actually create low back problems and are doing nothing to help you! Allow me to explain.
First things first. The stomach muscles do not attach to the thighs. They primarily attach from the bottom of your rib cage to the bottom of your pelvis and pubic bone. This means that when you bend your body forward past 30 degrees (sit-up) or raise your knees to your chest (leg lift), there is no abdominal muscle contraction that is actively occurring. You are, however, working your hip flexor muscles. If you recall from one of our previous discussions (see archive for lower cross fix pattern), the hip flexor musculature tends to be facilitated, or too tight. In addition, the psoas muscle, which is the most powerful of the hip flexors, originates on the anterior discs in your lower thoracic and part of your lumbar spine. This means that too much shortening of this muscle can directly influence spinal biomechanics in a very bad way. The more we train these muscles, the greater the likelihood of low back injury. This is certainly something that we want to avoid! People think that they’re training the stomach muscles because they feel the ‘burn’ in the stomach region. This is because the psoas muscle, which is about the diameter of your forearm, pushes out against the abdominal wall, thus making you feel like you’re training your abdominal region. Read More »
