Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I'm OVER weight

Just started writing an article and in the process of doing a little research came across some things that made me switch gears and post this right away (rest of the article coming ASAP):

According to ideal weight charts from more than one source*, the following people are OVER weight:










I know this because picture 1 is me. Picture 2 is my smokin’ hot significant other, so I know what she weighs, and the last 2 are Gina Carano. Because Gina is a professional fighter, her weight is public knowledge.

Still wanna’ use a scale to measure your success?
*I saw several, the only one I saved is healthychecksystems.com.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

My Most Important Lesson:



I’ve learned MANY lessons over my years of training, from different stand points: personal, professional, bio-mechanical, physiological, etc. Today, I’m going to let you in on the most important bio-mechanical lesson I ever learned. And I promise, for brevity’s sake, I’ll keep it real simple and to the point.


(*Before I begin, this lesson was learned in large part, from reading an article by Mike Boyle.)


This is the most important bio-mechanical lesson I ever learned:


If your lumbar spine moves and your hips don’t, you are a weak person.


If your lumbar spine does NOT move and your hips do, you are a strong person.


That’s it.


Want a little more in the way of specifics and detail? OK…


Your lumbar spine goes approximately from your tailbone to your lower/mid back. It is supposed to be rock solid and stable. It is similar to a supporting beam on your house: if that beam were weak and unstable, it wouldn’t be able to support the rest of the house which would place you in danger. Similarly, if your lumbar spine is weak and/or unstable, it will not be able to support movement from your arms and legs. It will “give” when your arms and legs push or pull, and will not only make you weaker, but make you more susceptible to injury. Reason #768 your lower back doesn’t need to be “stretched” or “lengthened”.


The best analogy of this is your lumbar spine is like a car door. Your car door has hinges on it to stop the door and prevent it from coming off when you push it open. If you push hard, it will give a little, but just enough so it doesn’t break. But if you continually keep pushing it open, and pushing it open, over and over again, eventually the hinges will break and your door will come off.


Your lumbar spine is designed to move in a similar manner. It will “give” just a little to prevent injury, but it’s not designed to do that. Eventually, if you keep pushing it, pulling it, twisting it, etc. the hinges will give and you will have a problem.


Conversely, your hips are supposed to be very mobile. By definition, it’s a ball and socket joint that should be able to move in just about any direction. Your hips are surrounded by some of the largest and most powerful muscles in your body, such as the glutes, quads and hamstrings. They are designed to produce force, produce locomotion, and stop and start many important activities.


However, if your hips are not mobile, or if your glutes are not strong enough to move them, your lower back will move in an attempt to help out (the term is called “synergistic dominance”). This leads to weakness (because your back is moving you instead of your big muscles) and potential for injury (because those hinges are being pushed over and over again).


To give you a visual, look at the two pictures below:


Figure 1:





The gray line representing Tania’s lumbar spine that goes from tail bone to lower/mid back is perfectly straight, i.e. has NOT MOVED. Conversely, as you can tell from the line drawn on her hips, her hip joints have moved A LOT. Actually, more than 90 degrees in spite of my horrible artwork that looks like a 90 degree angle. This picture was taken in mid kettlebell swing, and as has been discussed here previously, Tania is a strong person. The ability to keep the spine stiff and generate force with the hips is what gives her this type of strength.


Figure 2:




The line representing Tania’s lumbar spine is bent i.e. has moved in order for her to move the weight. The line representing her hips has barely moved meaning most of the effort will come from the lower back here. This is not good for power or for back health.


The only thing that’s confusing to me about this topic is that it’s so obviously correct, yet people choose to ignore its lessons every day. No rationale adult would say figure 1 is bad and figure 2 is good, but somewhere right now, some fitness professional is telling someone to stretch and loosen the lower back, and will pay little attention to glute strength.


This confuses the hell out of me – please don’t be one of those people. Have strong glutes and a healthy back. Your jeans will thank me for it.


*Mike, along with Gray Cook, wrote about a “joint by joint” approach to training. This particular lesson and blog is a microcosm of the larger picture they discussed.