3 Reasons Why You Should Not Stretch Your Hamstrings With A Straight Knee

1. In function the Hamstrings never function with a locked out straight knee.

2. The Hamstrings meet their tendons a few inches above your knees. If you feel a pull in the back of your knee during a hamstring stretch, you are loading the ligaments and joint capsules rather than stretching your hammies.

3. Ligaments hold your joints together. They do not stretch well, except in kids. Stretch a ligament by only 6% and it will tear. A ligament that has been subjected to excessive stretching undergoes microtears, gets scarred up, elongated, and weakened. A stretched ligament means a loose and unstable joint just waiting for a severe injury.

The solution is to bend the knee slightly to unload the ligaments and make sure you stretch the hamstrings in all 3 planes of motion.

10 Reasons Why Crunches And Sit Ups Are No Good For You!

The true authentic function of the abdominal muscles (front butt or front line of the body) during human movement/function, is to control the motions of the pelvis and rib cage (thoracic spine) in all 3 planes of human motion.

It is important you understand that the abdominal muscles get turned on (activated/stimulated) the same way every other muscle in the body gets turned on, by lengthening (stretching or loading) first.

Therefore when you select abdominal exercises, you’ll want to select and perform exercises that teach your abdominals to do what they really do when we move and function in the real world.

This type of training logic will ensure that what you are doing will carry over to what you ultimately want to be able to do better, giving you the most bang for your buck in your overall investment in your physical health and well being.

1. Crunches and sit ups shorten the stomach muscles (rectus abdminus) which will depress the rib cage and pull those who perfom them into a more rounded shoulder, hump back, slouching looking posture (kyphotic posture) along with tightening the hip flexors even more. (If that’s what you’re looking for keep doing those crunches and sit ups baby!)

2. Crunches and sit ups are performed lying on your back, while most of  human function occurs in an upright position.

3. In real world everyday functional activities we never use our abdominals in an isolated manner, like a crunch or sit up teaches us to do.

4. Traditional crunches and sit ups do not load the hips and thoracic spine into extension.

5. Crunches and sit ups do not link the motions of the pelvis, rib cage and shoulders together. (The Peltrunkula Phenomenon)

6. Crunches and sit ups isolate and train the abs in 1 plan of motion. (The abs like every other muscle and joint in the body work in all 3 planes of motion)

7. Crunches and sit ups do not train the abdominals t0 lengthen and load through the full spectrum of movements that are incurred in daily living and sports: bending, twisting, reaching, walking, running, lunging, etc..

8. Crunches and sit ups do not involve the butt. (“if the butt ain’t movin the abdominals ain’t groovin”)

9. Crunches place high compression loads on the lumbar discs (lower back) and cervical spine (neck) due to forced flexion.

10. Crunches and sit ups do not involve a transfer of energy from the foot/ankle. (“If the ankle and foot are tight theres a good chance the core ain’t right”)

So if crunches and sit ups teach the abdominals to do what they don’t really do in the real world (true authentic function) then why would you ever do another crunch or sit up ever again?

Would you ever invest time or money into something you’ll never use, feel good about, or benefit from?

If you perform crunches and sit ups, take a minute and think about Why? If the why has nothing to do with looking, feeling, and performing at your very best and doing so for a long time, you may need to revise your training strategy.

Click Here To See A Functional Abdominal Workout

What Ruins Running

This week I have a special guest post for you about an interesting article I read on http://www.strengthcoach.com/members/login.cfm?hpage=main.cfm by, Christopher McDougall.

I enjoyed the article because it talks about some of the major problems I see and deal with first hand everyday, poor foot wear and foot/ankle dysfunction.

The foot and ankle is something we give a lot of attention to in our program and after reading this article I hope you gain a better appreciation and understanding as to why?

For more information and other great articles like this just hop on over to strengthcoach.com by clicking on the link below.

http://www.strengthcoach.com/members/login.cfm?hpage=main.cfm

I’d been plagued by running injuries my entire adult life. I’d seen the best sports-medicine physicians and podiatrists in the country, and they’d all prescribed the same fruitless formula of orthotics, ice, and injections. Nothing and no one could cure me. So a few years ago, I looked elsewhere: to a tiny tribe of super-athletes in Mexico, who taught me that it’s not running that’s dangerous — it’s running shoes.

That’s right. Running shoes are a failed experiment. After nearly four decades of technological gimmicks and outrageous prices, they simply do not perform the function that’s their only reason for existence — protecting your feet. You can now buy running shoes with steel bedsprings embedded in the soles or with microchips that adjust the cushioning, but the injury rate hasn’t decreased in almost 40 years. It’s actually inched up; Achilles’ tendon problems have risen by 10 percent since the ’70s.

Some researchers suggest that running shoes actually cause the very injuries they’re supposed to prevent. That idea has been out there for more than a decade, but it’s gaining force, thanks to the work of Daniel Lieberman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard University who’s been studying the biomechanics of the foot and the evolution of human running. Before the invention of the modern running shoe, runners couldn’t land on their heels — it was simply too painful. Doing so in today’s shoes leads to excessive foot rolling, known as overpronation.

“A lot of foot and knee injuries that are currently plaguing us are actually caused by people running with shoes that actually make our feet weak, cause us to overpronate, give us knee problems,” Lieberman said on Australian radio last year. “Until 1972, when the modern athletic shoe was invented by Nike, people ran in very thin-soled shoes, had strong feet, and probably had much lower incidents of knee injuries.”

So what are runners to do? The answer seems clearer than ever: Go barefoot, or as close to it as possible. This revelation dawned on me shortly after I came across an odd photo in a Mexican magazine. It showed a man in a skirt tearing down a rocky trail, sandals on his feet and a grin on his face. He was a Tarahumara Indian, a member of a tribe that runs 150-mile races for fun.

So how do the Tarahumara, running in shoes that barely qualify as shoes, do it? Three years ago, I trekked into the Copper Canyons of Mexico in search of the secret. And once I learned how to run barefoot-style — landing on the balls of the feet, while keeping my feet directly under my hips — like the Tarahumara, my ailments suddenly disappeared. Plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis, sore knees — all gone. Today, I wear something similar to a rubber glove for the foot (it has the thinnest of soles to guard against abrasions), and I haven’t looked back.

It wasn’t a miracle, as Lieberman would explain; it was simple mechanics. He’s convinced our problems began the day we tried to outthink nature and encased our feet in motion-controlling sneakers. Others agree. Gerard Hartmann, a physical therapist in Ireland who works with world record holder Paula Radcliffe and who is himself a Nike consultant, conceded years ago that deconditioned foot muscles were the biggest factor in injuries. He likened running shoes to a plaster cast that causes our feet to atrophy. Shoe companies and podiatrists will explain the need for specially designed shoes by going on and on about the constant pounding on the foot and the benefits of support and cushion.

“We’re not all built the same way, so for certain feet, a guidance system can be very beneficial,” says Washington, D.C.-based Dr. Stephen Pribut, a former president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine and a member of the board of advisers for Runner’s World magazine. “Basic structural biomechanics will not be altered by shoes.”

But the unmistakable fact is that there’s a trend across the shoe industry toward creating more “minimal” shoes — those intended to duplicate the experience of, you guessed it, running barefoot. Still, those models just aren’t simple enough.

Maybe it’s time all of the shoe manufacturers run with the Tarahumara, too.

Christopher McDougall, a writer for Men’s Health magazine, is the author of the new book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

To find out more about how Colby Conditioning (personal trainers in boston) can help you simply click on the link below and receive 2 free private coaching sessions, a 30 minute massage, a consult and assessment with no pressure or obligation.

http://www.bestpersonaltrainersinboston.com/personal-trainers-in-boston-consult.html

Lastly, are some photos from our weekend away up in the NH. Lakes Region, our trip to the Flume Gorge, and hike up Mt.

4 Common Causes of Injury

When I first started out as a personal trainer/strength and conditioning coach, I used to view and divide the body up into separate compartments or muscle groups. This approach at the time seemed to make a lot of sense to me and of course was the way I was taught in school and through various certification organizations.

However, the more I  started  to dig deeper and continue to learn more about the human body through a wide variety of sources, the more I’ve become to realize how integrated the human body really is.

One of  the most important things I’ve learned over the years and continue to learn is that almost always the pain site of an injury is usually never the pain source. The pain source or cause from my experiences and training can usually be found 1 or 2 joints above or below the problem area.

In my mind this is a major reason why traditional models and protocols are sometimes not very effective in the long term.

Why?

Because most traditional models don’t fix or uncover the root causes of the problem and instead usually just treat the symptoms. This approach may work well in the short term but usually the dysfunction still exists, and the individual will usually find his or herself back in a similar or even worse situation sometime in the near future.

With that being said, here are 4 examples of common pains and injuries and the possible causes of those pains (Remember most traditional models will most likely only look at the symptom area and not the entire body as a whole).

1. Anterior Knee Pain:

lack of the subtalor joint to evert (pronate)

lack of tibial internal rotation

lack of hip internal rotation

lack of hip flexion

lack of ankle dorsiflexion

2. Plantar Fasciitis:

Inability of the subtalar joint to re-supinate and lock up the midtarsal joint. Which basically means trying to accelerate or propel off an unstable mobile foot.

3. Low back pain while bending, reaching, squating, and lunging:

Lack of subtalar joint eversion (pronation) to allow the tibia and femur to internally rotate to load the posterior hip musculature (gluteals) in all 3 planes of motion to absorb the forces.

Couple that with limited dorsiflexion which will set up a chain reaction that will make the knee unable to bend (flex), hip flexion will be used up quickly which will cause the lower back (lumbar spine) to flex excessively to compensate for the lack of motion in the joints below. 

4. Shoulder pain with overhead lifting:

Lack of thoracic extension to allow the scapula to depress, posteriorly tilt, and retract to allow available range of motion at the shoulder joint, thus protecting against all that impingement stuff.

In order to keep finding the causes of some of these common problems it’s important to keep asking the question why? I’ve always found that it helps me dig deeper and helps uncover some of the real reasons why some of these breakdowns happened in the first place. It’s usually not the knee, low back, or shoulders fault. It’s the whole bodies fault – meaning some of the team members are not performing up to their capabilities. 

I also strongly believe that to truly be able help someone get better you have to have an appreciation and understanding in the principles and concepts of human movement, functional biomechanics, and functional muscle function – what are all the moving parts doing , what’s their role, how do they move, what do they really do when we move, how do they integrate, etc..

In other words – ” If your going to be an expert on a certain part of the body you better be an expert of the entire body in order to truly be able to help someone get better”

To find out more about how personal trainers in Boston can help you click on the link below and receive 2 free private coaching sessions, a 30 minute massage, a consult and assessment with no strings attached,  all on us!

http://www.bestpersonaltrainersinboston.com/personal-trainers-in-boston-consult.html

The Difference Between Non-Functional And Functional Exercises

Non-Functional   Vs.  Functional                                           

Lab like                                Life Like

Rigid                                     Flexible

Isolated                                Integrated

Artificial                              Physiological

Gravity Confused               Gravity User

Fake                                      Real

Deceptive                             Proprioceptive

Mechanical                        Bio-mechanical

Limited                                Unlimited

Link Action                        Chain Reaction

To find out more about how personal trainers in Boston can help you click on the link below and receive 2 free private coaching sessions, a 30 minute massage, a consult and assessment with no strings attached,  all on us!

http://www.bestpersonaltrainersinboston.com/personal-trainers-in-boston-consult.html

What Tight Hip Flexors Can Do To You

Tight hip flexors are a result of having poor posture, performing repetitive movement patterns like sitting, running, biking, elliptical, and many other activities that are done for an extended period of time. Having tight hip flexors can also result from poor training practices that don’t make flexibility and mobility training (in all 3 planes of motion) a top priority, and instead isolate and train muscles in only 1 plane of motion.

Here’s a small list of what can happen if you have tight hip flexors.

1. Your Gluteus maximus (aka your J-LO), the primary muscle group involve in hip extension, becomes weak or inactive.

2. Your erector spinae (lower back muscles) and hamstring muscles are forced to compensate and take on the workload of the glutes (your J-LO).

3. Your hamstrings and lower back muscles become overloaded which can lead to lower back pain, pulled hamstrings, sore muscles, sacroiliac joint pain, knee pain, and a host of other associated joint pains and dysfunctions.

4. Your abdominals will not be able to load (lengthen) and function properly, especially in the sagittal plane.

5. You will have limited hip extension and same side shoulder flexion in the sagittal plane, which will eventually lead to lower back and shoulder problems.

Finding and treating the causes, not symptoms, is the key to restoring overall function, health, fitness, and performance. Improving the flexibility of the hip flexors, activating and strengthening the glutes (J-LO) in an integrated approach is a logical solution towards improving movement patterns. This is important because improper training (artificially isolating muscles in 1 plane of motion) will usually only make things worse. 

As opposed to treating symptoms our goal (personal trainers in Boston) is to discover the possible causes of the problem and restore it to improve overall function.

Our (personal trainers in Boston) training system is designed to reduce future injuries by training the body as an integrated unit. All of our programs are developed and based off the biomechanics and principles of human function, (how the muscles and joints of the body really move and function) training movements not isolating muscles. All of our movements are selected based on the roles are joints and muscles are suppose to perform when we function and move.

Need some help with your hips?

Click on the link below to sign up for your free trial today!

http://www.bestpersonaltrainersinboston.com/personal-trainers-in-boston-consult.html

This special offer includes a consult, assessment, two free private coaching sessions and a half hour massage all on us!

Health, Happiness, and Gratitude,

Coach Colby (The Movement Monkey:)