About a month before Christmas, I decide to see how much body fat I could drop in that short time period. With a few modifications to my strength training and an increase in energy systems training to add some metabolic stress, the exercise programming was a snap. To address the nutritional side of the program, I […]
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Lumbar Lifting Posture
Strive to maintain the normal lordosis of the lumbar spine during lifting. Doing so assures that the angle of pull of the erector spinae create a posterior shear force on the lumbar vertebrae, thus reducing the high anterior shear forces that are associated with back injuries. You also avoid the repetitive strain on the posterior aspect […]
Movement Pattern Balance for Injury Prevention
Research and empirical evidence suggests that addressing issues of movement pattern balance, i.e., balancing pushes with pulls, is a great way to prevent muscle imbalances that lead to joint injury. In the upper extremity, more specifically the shoulder, it may be a little too simplistic to say that a horizontal pull like a barbell row will balance […]
Stiffness vs. Shortness
I think it’s important to distinguish between whether a muscle is short or if it is stiff when determining a corrective plan. Treat each case the same and only half of your clients will improve. A short muscle lacks length. It may be that the muscle is positioned in a shortened position frequently and the […]
Why are push-ups a good exercise?
Closing the kinetic chain by putting your hand on the floor promotes co-contraction of the rotator cuff. This can improve glenohumeral stabilization. Because the scapula is free to move, you must rely on active stabilization of the scapula. The greater your scapular stability, the greater your potential glenhumeral stability. The push-up requires active stabilization of the […]