Understanding Postural Fatigue

OK, here goes a difficult and mostly misunderstood concept, POSTURAL FATIGUE. When exercising, assuming that you have achieved the ability to maintain 'normal' posture, there is a point you may/should reach that your body simply says 'no more'. This 'no more' threshold is much easier to reach when rehabilitating an injury or beginning a fitness regimen, the more fit you become the longer it takes to reach. The fatigue point is reached when you loose control, and I don't mean emotionally. When you can no longer maintain proper technique, hold your breath, shake, twist or lean...you are done. Let's take a common spine/AB exercise an an example, the plank. When your head falls, you shrug your shoulders, back drops, glutes relax you have reached fatigue and need to stop. This premise holds true for all exercises, there is a threshold that you body will reach and anything past that point merely transfers strain to the joints and supporting soft tissue structures. Try performing just about any exercise in a mirror, can you maintain neutral, do you sway or round/arch your back?
A basic rule I teach is that when you can no longer maintain your postural check points (chin tucked-ab's braced-neutral posture) try to re-find it, if you are unable to re-establish Neutral than stop. The is no benefit in training past the point of postural fatigue.
As you can tell this can go on and on, I will elaborate further later...stay tuned.

Stabilize before you Strengthen

I got my hands on another post rehabilitation client today and after a thorough assessment I taught them some simple stabilization exercises. After going through the stabs. it became immediately apparent that this concept was never re-enforced to them. We basically went through the beginning program in the book (Back to Feeling Great) and thoroughly learned to Brace, Bridge, Segmentally Stabilize and Side leg raise (hip abduction). It never ceases to amaze me that when taught with total control these 4 exercises will safely make you stronger, but they unachieved it from the inside out...stability before strength.

Simple fix to Back Pain

No matter how many times I see it, nor how many times I teach it, I continue to be amazed by how powerful 4 simple exercises can be at helping to correct spinal issues and back pain. In my book Back to Feeling Great is a protocol I developed over the years that just keeps on proving to me and my clients that it works. I had 2 new clients recently, on is 48 yrs. old, has a bulging disk with pain down the leg, he also smokes but is an avid cyclist and rides a desk for a living. The other is a 30 something with disk/vertebral degeneration, she has had numerous injections, and surgery with the next step being fusion. Both have similar but different issues and both have had a significant reduction in pain and consequent increase in activity levels. No matter what we did the same 4 simple exercises to re-educate the ab's, gluteals, lateral hip and spine segmental stabilizers. This protocol works and if done correctly will help you get better. By the way both of the examples above were referred in by spine surgeons who will send to us a last resort before surgery. Go team.

Summer's Comming

Ok folks it's that time of year again, time to drag out that bikini and spedo. All kidding aside, Summer is almost here that signals the time of year that all those old injuries re-surface. Going from 0 (sedentary) to 100 (running) with out first preparing your body for the rigors of exercise will ultimately lead you to injury. We all carry around those old injuries, couple that with faulty mechanics from muscle imbalances and improper exercises and you have set your self up for disaster. Now is the time to stretch, Self Massage and ease into exercise. Jumping into the water without knowing the depth is risky, so is jumping into exercise without knowing the depth of your bodies imbalances.

Exercise induced whiplash

I understand that the majority of folks reading this are not "the gym guy" you know the one, weight belt, gloves, elbow wraps. They must lift HEAVY ALL THE TIME. They have poor posture (rounding of the shoulders, foreward head position, sway back and little tiny legs. Bad form and bad body, no pain no gain!. The other day in the gym I watched a guy, in horror, do what I believe was a dumbell row. He leaned on the bench (with all the above mentioned gear, including wrist straps because the weight was too heavy to hold) and pulled so fast and hard that the weight, which moved only a few inches, forced him into a self induced whiplash. His neck moved so violently that when he was finished he was dizzy. The strain was so severe that a limp developed tht got progressively worse as he completed all 3 sets, with a 130lb dumbell.

So, what is my point. If you used to be that person, or played sports in school or you were just a normal kid, you have pain and stiffness for a reason. Please understand that proper exercise needs control, you can not have control without stability, and if you have no stability you will have pain from lack of the above. As I explained to a physician the other day about the books we have published, there is a sequence that needs to be followed to re-program the body, you did not get this way overnite and fixing it will take some time as well. Muscles have memory and are quite stubborn, if you reinforce the bad patterns/memory through poor posture or continually exercising wrong you will never acheive a permanent resolution to your pain or lack of performance.

Are you responsible for your pain

Laying in bed last night I was reading a Biomechanics journal (light reading) and there was an article than talked about pain. The basic premise was that many people that suffer from pain either have caused their pain or continue to reinforce the pain that they have from a previous injury. I was glad to have read that, the author was a Physical Therapist, and many PT's still treat just the symptoms with a lack of time to explore where the biomechanical cause has come from. For those of you that have had PT / Corrective Exercise / Chiropractic and you feel worse after the first few sessions or your pain has changed this is what should happen. Yes, you should get worse before you get better. If someone tells you that you will be pain free after just a few sessions they are probably lying. Once a pain cycle has begun it takes TIME to ease, that means Fascial tissue, Muscle, Nerve and joint tissue must have time to return to normal, the question is are you still reinforcing the pain?
Poor posture, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and stress all contribute to pain, when you add in repetitive strain, and yes a computer causes repetitive strain, it is very difficult to reduce your pain.

Simple is Better

Simple is better, really? i thought complex technology was the answer to all. But seriously, while down here is Florida avoiding the snow back home I had a lady who lives in the building perform one of my favorite (safe & effective) stabilization exercises. I asked her to do it daily until fatigue and no further. Now, this woman has had balance issues, back pain and ankle problems ( she does not know the name of her condition). After just 5 days of performing this exercise she reported a significant decrease in back pain and feels more stable walking. Happily this is just one exercise, imagine if she went through the entire protocol! And by the way this exercise is a contralateral-extension aka. bird dog. I would include a picture but I do not have one on my hard drive so go buy the book, it's in there.

Joining The inmates in the Asylum?

08' is here, and like everyone else it's new years resolution time. Time to make the same old promises to yourself year after year of eating better making better choices exercising. Unfortunately, these so-called resolutions fail year after year.
Insanity is defined as doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result. Waking up January 1 and making the same resolutions year after year and going about achieving them the same way year after year is plain insanity.
Over the past 15 plus years of clinical practice and personal training I've seen people make the same mistakes over and over again. Mistakes that, with a little bit of education, should never have been made! Now, I don't blame these people that set out with lofty goals to make positive and proactive changes in the new year. I blame the misinformation and the lack of scientific data that the public is exposed to when it comes to exercise, fitness, nutrition and wellness.
So, it only seems appropriate that education, debunking myths and exposure to safe and effective exercise is the only way to avoid insanity. What if I told you that the only good thing about the bench press exercise is that without any doubt it will destroy your shoulders. Last time I checked in playing sports and the game of life if you are laying flat on your back staring at the sky you lost. What if I also told you that leg raises, an exercise that most people think strengthens you're ab's, actually only serves to create a muscle imbalance so severe that it will not only inhibit your ability to move but, it will permanently damage your spine never mind doing nothing for your ab's. When was the last time that you sat on a bench and pushed or pulled something behind your head? When you think of it in that context it really doesn't seem like a good exercise does it? So my point is simple, what we know we may very well no wrong. Hopefully we are all smart enough to realize at some point that what we are doing and what we have done has not or is not working. Change, especially for the body, is essential to attaining consistent fitness and wellness-based goals.
Now, for the big question, where does one go to get this information? There are a host of websites and magazines that will provide you with some of this information. There are also countless books, manuals, and programs that you can buy that can help you on your quest. But, and there is always a but, many of these books websites and magazines are also trying to sell you something. So, be careful in your choices.Over the years it has become very frustrating as a fitness and wellness professional that there are very few websites or books that I can recommend in good conscience to my clients. So, on a challenge from a client and friend who just happens to be a physician I went ahead, stepped up, and wrote a book. Now, I know what you're thinking, here comes another plug to buy something. But, in my humble and hopefully professional opinion this book is different from what is on the market. It is truly research-based, safe, effective clinically based exercises designed to bridge the gap between knowledge and application of good exercise science. The exercises and programs that "Back to Feeling Great a proactive approach to combating back pain and stiffness" contains will help you create proper flexibility, balance, effective posture and most importantly spine and pelvic stability.
Now, you may be wondering why those are important. It is usually the lack of stabilization in the spine, pelvis and core that prevents you from ever achieving your exercise goals. So what I did was create a program based on over 16 years of clinical rehabilitative experience that will help you to move better, be more stable, and have better posture which will in turn allow you to move more efficiently. If you are able to move more efficiently while maintaining good effective posture your muscles fire better. And very simply, if they fire better than you will get more out of your exercise. Sounds pretty good do less and get more!, and that is really the secret to a good and effective exercise, and wellness-based fitness routine.
Most people work way too hard when they're in the gym, the "Back to Feeling Great" book will teach you how to work smarter not harder on your road to achieving your fitness and wellness goals. Since the book came out numerous Physicians and Chiropractors have begun to recommend the book to their patients as a safe, effective and easy program that will actually do what it says it will do. I sincerely hope that with some education and exposure to proper exercise and not 'gym' exercises you will find your New Year goals to be effective and lasting without the risk of making the same mistakes over and over again, no sense joining the inmates in the asylum.
The book is available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com
www.backtofeelinggreat.com
www.backtofeelinggreat.blogspot.com

Core Fitness

Core training, core fitness, core strength, core, core, core. Do you know what the 'core' of your body really is or where it is. Does your trainer or therapist know. 'Core' fitness is the current catch phrase in the fitness industry. Hundreds of gimmicks, machines and programs have been marketed to an uneducated population all with the belief of building strong ab's.
The sad fact is that most people do not realize that the core is your entire torso, so if you have no arms or legs all that is left is your core. With that being said does it make sense to just train a single 'core' muscle? NO. To effectively and efficiently train the core (ab's, back, spine) one must engage ALL of the muscles at the same time. This is not that hard to do, simply buy My book (shameless plug) and learn all about it.

www.backtofeelinggreat.com

Big Belly, Big Bench, Bad Shoulders

Sorry for the lack of posting this week, new employee to train and start of the holiday rush. While I was in the gym this past week I noticed a lot of new faces getting a start on the new years resolutions, good for them. There was a 'guy', you know the one, big belly and obviously out of shape. He walked in and went strait to the bench, which he lay on to exercise. One of my favorite questions to ask anyone who is dead set on bench pressing is....... "IF YOU LAYING ON YOUR BACK ON THE PLAYING FIELD OF LIFE, YOU LOST!". There is no reason to bench press-ever. The damage it does to your shoulders alone is just sick. Try to do a chest press standing, it is much better for you and much more functional.

Are you making it worse?

Anyone I meet who exercises and is striving to live a healthy lifestyle is OK in my book. But, and there is always a but, there is a chance that some of the exercises that you are doing may be hurting you. Case in point, yesterday a very nice person came in for a biomechanmical evaluation, he has a severe forward head posture accompanied with pronounced rounding of the shoulders. This gentleman travels a lot and has been doing a lot of push ups and crunches. The unfortunate fact is that both of those exercises actually make his postural distortions worse and actually encourages the faulty patterns in his body. So, the catch 22 is that he is exercising but in doing so he is placing a sick amount of strain on his neck and taking years off his shoulders, specifically his Rotator Cuff. As I always say, please know what you don't know, and when in doubt let a QUALIFIED fitness professional get you started.