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.

This is why I get pissed...

This is why I get pissed:

I use a 30kg kettlebell when training. That’s almost exactly half my bodyweight. I’ve been exercising for two decades and training countless others for over a decade. I’ve been using kettlebells for about 5 years. And still, using the 70lb kettlebell is A LOT of difficult work for me.

Now hypothetically, if I had three women come into my studio, ages mid forties through mid sixties who were either new or needed reintroduction to exercise, giving them a 70lb kettlebell to do swings and get ups with would be a GOOD idea, right? If it’s good for me it must be good for them right?

No - of course not. No rational adult, exercise professional or otherwise would agree that’s a good idea.

Now what if I did that, and all of the women were injured as a result? What if two complained of knee pain and one injured her foot to the point of having to be on crutches?

I agree with what you’re probably thinking: If that happened I should find a different line of work, and anybody who continued to train with me should seek psychiatric help, not physical.

OK, what if I did that with kids? Yep, what if I had an eleven year old try to swing the 70lb kettlebell? I think we’d all agree that I would be guilty of negligence and carelessness at best.

This is not rocket science: Just because I do it, doesn’t mean my clients should do it.

Sad thing is, this training rationale (“I do it, it’s good for me, so it must be good for you”) happens every single day in a group fitness studio, and nobody says a word about it.

An “instructor” (use the term loosely, please) typically memorizes a pre-determined routine to follow. This pre-set routine is set right down to which exercises to do, how many sets, reps, for how long and for how fast or slow. This information typically comes from a DVD and is forced to memory by the “instructor”. No – I’m not making this up – I used to work at a chain gym and witnessed these meetings among the “instructors”, where they would all memorize and practice the routine. An international think tank of bio-mechanics it wasn’t…

The “instructor” then typically performs the routine on display in front of a group of people and asks the exercisers to follow along with the routine he/she just memorized.

Whether or not the movements and its variables are appropriate for everybody in the room is irrelevant in their minds. Fact is it’s more likely that it’s INAPPROPRIATE FOR THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE DOING IT. But this discussion will never come up. The rationale given by the DVD producer, then by the “instructor” then accepted by most exercisers is “THIS IS WHAT I MEMORIZED AND I CAN DO IT SO YOU HAVE TO DO IT TOO, DAMMIT! I DON’T CARE IF IT’S APPROPRIATE FOR YOU!”

This goes on every day and…is…just…simply…accepted…

Why? I’m not sure. I know if I had a room full of people doing the same workout I did, while I was doing it instead of watching them, they would get injured and I’d get sued.

Which is another interesting point: Uh, I’m sorry, exactly why are you working out with them Mr./Mrs. Instructor? Maybe I’m silly, but aren’t you supposed to be WATCHING YOUR CLIENTS INSTEAD OF WORKING OUT?!?! Can’t they watch you workout for free in the gym if they wanted? Why are they being charged and why are you getting paid?

And the situations I referenced above? All true. All (3 women and 2 kids that I know personally) were told to follow along with the “instructor” because the “instructor” is peppy and looks good in spandex so she MUST know what she’s doing right? And all 5 were injured.

This is why I get pissed.

"Uh..WOW..."

I LOVE this video. It is exhibit 1A about why I love and am completely fascinated by bio-mechanics. Questions such as, “Why does person A move that way but person B move this way?” And, “Why is this person strong, but that person isn’t?” have always intrigued me, which is why I do what I do, I guess.

This is why I’m fascinated by the woman in this video: her name is Miki Barber, and she’s a competitive sprinter. Not since I saw Kris Jenkins on “Sport Science” or LaDanian Tomlinson on “60 minutes” have I said to myself “Jesus, now THAT is bio-mechanical perfection!”

While thinking about Miki’s impressive performance, I realized there are many take home messages to be learned here: Lessons for me, for other trainers, for my clients, and frankly for anyone who exercises.

After you watch the video, and say “uh…WOW!” like I did, come back and learn the take home messages:

Check Miki out: (and as an FYI: 70kg is 165lbs – that’s what she hang cleans at the end of the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAAP8ux5x8g

Having seen the video, here are things you may or may not already know, but we all could use a reminder. In no particular order:

1. She doesn’t do cardio – she sprints.

As I said, she’s a sprinter. She doesn’t go for long runs, she doesn’t get on the elliptical at the gym, she isn’t on the treadmill for 45 minutes at a clip. She exerts maximum effort every time she runs, then stops, rests, and does it again. And in case you didn’t notice, she has about as much body fat as a snack tray.

2. She lifts HEAVY weights.

Pay attention ladies: For the umpteenth time, heavy weights do not mean big muscles. Miki isn’t playing around with the tricep pushdown machine, or the inner thigh machine to “tone” nor is she lying on the floor in the same spot for an hour and calling it “lengthening” her muscles. She picks up very heavy things and moves them – the result is strong, feminine and ripped.

3. This is how important triple extension is.

I tell my clients all the time, if you can’t triple extend (ankle, knee and hip), you will NEVER be strong. The fact that she can triple extend fast and effectivelyis the main reason that barbell gets up in the air.

4. This is how important scapular retraction is.

I’m sure my clients are sick of me saying “Shoulders back, chest out!” all the time. In addition to avoiding that RIDICULOUS rolled shoulder posture, pulling the shoulder blades back is crucial to strength. Another reason 70kg can be thrown by a small woman.

5. This is how important lumbar stabilization is.

My clients (and one of my colleagues) are tired of hearing me say it, part 2: If your spine moves during movement, you are weak – period. Watch the video again: Does her back round at the bottom? Nope. Does it arch on the way up? Nope. It doesn’t mother-frigging FLINCH. It stays stable so the hips and shoulders can move the weight – AS IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. Remember this the next time tells you to “stretch your back”…uugghhh…

6. Movement efficiency – she the smallest one!

I wrote a blog awhile back about the relatively small people in my facility that can move A LOT of weight mostly due to their movement efficiency. This reaffirms what I said – this is the smallest girl there, but moves the most weight. Why? Because her spine doesn’t move, her hips do. Because her knees don’t crash, they stabilize. Because her feet don’t point outwards and evert (reason #783 “plie” squats are beyond stupid). The other women had some of those issues and as a result are not as strong pound for pound.

There’s actually more, but I could be here all day. Just remember if you’re a client of mine, this is why I repeat these things over and over. If you’re an athlete, remember that this is why it’s not HOW MUCH you lift, it’s HOW IT’S LIFTED. And if you’re not a client of mine or not an athlete, remember this is why you need to come train at our facility.

Survivor and the TR

I’m always asked “What should I be eating?” Almost without exception my answer is “just eat less of whatever you’re already eating”. I’ve found this solves 99% of the issues for 99% of the people who ask.

But from the department of “People don’t really want my advice, they just want their own opinion validated”, they look at me like there’s no way I can be right, and don’t take my advice. Then they go try their own way, or follow something they read in some stupid magazine – and they fail.

Enter “Survivor”.

If you need more evidence that I know of where I speak, just watch “Survivor”. (Yes, I watch Survivor – it’s great TV and definitely is a guilty pleasure of mine.) As Leslie and I were watching it the other night, we both commented how they contestants always seem to look better at the end of the season than they do at the beginning of the season. It seems the ones who were a little overweight at the start of the season, now have muscle tone and definition. The ones who were already in decent shape now have ripped six-packs.

And the only reason this is so, is because of their caloric restriction. They…simply…eat…less.

These people are not “doing cardio”, nor are they “doing abs”. They didn’t “cut back on carbs” or go “low fat” or "high protein". They simply reduced their total caloric intake.

Of course I’m not suggesting you should limit your calories to such an extreme level. But do take home the overall point:

Don’t make it more complicated than it is: If you want to lose body fat, just eat less.

Parvati knows I'm right!

Got Glutes?

There’s always running commentary and joking going on at The Training Rim regarding glute development or lack thereof, in the case of those outside the facility who don’t train with us. For those of you who are new to this game, the glutes are what is supposed to be a hard round mass of muscle on the back of your hips. Sadly, it deteriorates into something less firm, down on the back of the legs somewhere for most people.

Of course, it’s difficult to have a legitimate discussion on the bio-mechanics of the glutes without the residual sophomoric humor and butt jokes that I mentioned before. (“You show me a flat foot, and I’ll show you a flat ass…” has been a mantra for Training Rim clients for years as an example.) But the reality is, the strength of your glutes is CRUCIAL to your successes from a health and exercise stand point. Yes, I am aware that strong glutes make jeans and swimsuits look much better. But strong glutes are also keep your back and knees healthy. As we say all the time at The Training Rim: It’s not just there for show – it actually has a purpose.

Enter Dancing With the Stars...

I don’t watch Dancing With the Stars. Never have – it’s just not my thing. Not even Chuck Liddell and/or Kim Kardashian got me to tune in once. But I know a lot of people do, so I pick up tidbits here and there from others’ conversations. And recently, I overheard something that caught my attention:

Erin Andrews, of ESPN fame recently had trouble competing due to back spasms. Back spasms, severe enough in their presence that medical attention was sought.

Now, in addition to all the sophomoric jokes to which I made references before, another saying that has been oft repeated at The Training Rim is this one: “You show me a flat ass and I’ll show you a bad back.”

Erin, no disrespect: you’re a good looking woman and I’m sure you’re very nice. But your back hurts because your ass is flat – period. You need to upgrade your training.

I don’t want to bore everybody with a bio-mehanics dissertation as to all the reasons behind this (heh, heh…get it? “behind”…heh…heh…), but basically when glutes are weak the lower back and/or hamstrings compensate on their behalf leading to lower back and/or knee issues.

It’s not just about the jeans and swimsuits folks – learn to lunge correctly and keep your back and knees healthy. You’ll thank me for it.

Erin, we need to discuss rear foot elevated split stance squats...

Why Body Building Sucks

Many people think I despise body building training, and its vast number of proponents, because its methodologies don’t coincide with what I preach. This is partially true, but only to a certain extent: I do have some issues with isolating body parts from a bio-mechanical sense, but the reality is I have a huge amount of respect for body builders. The level of dedication, commitment, and effort they have to exhibit every single day to both their training and their nutritional habits is very admirable. But to a certain degree, this is also where my problem lies:

People who attain physical improvements by training like a body builder fall into at least 3 of the 4 following categories:

· They have tons of time
· They have tons of money
· They are young
· They are taking something illegal

Go ahead: Name me someone who gets results training like a body builder who doesn’t fall into at least three of those four categories.

The reason bodybuilding sucks, and the real reason I mock it, is because 99% of people who train like bodybuilders WILL NOT get results. They will complain of back, shoulder and knee pain, or they are still overweight and/or look like they walk on their knuckles from their posture being so ridiculously bad.

The alarmingly low percentage of people who do train like bodybuilders and get good results, fall into at least three of the four categories I mentioned above.

Think about it: How much time does it take to train every single muscle group in your body individually (you know, “doing abs” then “doing back” then “doing bi’s” etc.)? Hours upon hours per week, and then some…there are hundreds of muscles in the body for crying out loud.

Generally, people who have hours upon hours per week either have someone who pays the bills for them, or have enough discretionary income that they can make their training a priority over their work rather than the other way around without financial harm being done.

Young people (18-25) by definition can do more than older people and have an infinitely lower chance of being injured while exercising. Combine that with someone else paying your rent for you, and a job (maybe) that you aren’t going to have in 6 months anyway so who cares about it, and you have a perfect recipe for training like a moron and still getting results. (On a side note, this is why I smirk at 40 somethings who still train like this but can’t figure out why they’re fat and their backs hurt – “seriously, I played high school football 25 years ago, I know how to lift.” Bawhawhawhaw!!!)

Or illegal performance enhancing drugs are used, which as someone who worked in commercial gyms for about 8 years, I can tell you are far more common than you may realize.

I’m not even going to get into the unbelievably high tolerance for boredom you need to train in this manner. My GOD there are only so many ways to flex and extend your elbow and knee – how can you possibly stand doing the same three exercises every…single…day…uuugghhh…

Now you can see more clearly perhaps why I think bodybuilding is a ridiculous choice of training methodology for 99.9% of us. The overwhelming majority of people I know don’t have 10 or more hours per week to exercise, do not have excessive discretionary income, are not 20 years old and don’t use drugs.

For those of us who aren’t young, rich and bored with all our free time, we need to come up with alternatives. We need to get results in a few hours per week, without risking our health, without bankrupting ourselves, and have fun doing it. I know, that’s not an easy task – luckily, you know me.

Send your hate mail to thetrainingrim@gmail.com.

GET FAT FOR SUMMER!

This is an article that's going to appear in The Monitor magazine next month: It may be old news to my loyal readers, but worth a review anyway...

No, that’s not a misprint. Of course nobody WANTS to get excess body fat before donning the swimsuits and heading to the beach, but unfortunately that is precisely what people do when taking up an exercise program more often than you may realize.

The reasons for this are multi-factorial and far too expansive to get into here. Typically due to misinformation, half truths and outright prevarications seen in the media and heard from friends at “the gym” many people perform activities that not only are ineffectual for fat loss, but may actually contribute to adding body fat.

However, if indeed you are one of those few who are looking to have some extra cellulite on which to rub tanning lotion this year, here’s what you need to be doing if you want to GET FAT:

1. PERFORM LONG “CARDIO” SESSIONS

Performing long cardio sessions ensures that you will keep your metabolism very low. There is an inverse relationship between the intensity of exercise and the duration of exercise. Therefore, going at a slow to moderate pace only guarantees the intensity of your workout will stay down, decreasing caloric expenditure not only in your workout but through the rest of the day, week, month, etc. And if you think those long cardio sessions are tough, you may want to reconsider: By definition if you can do something for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, etc, it can’t be too intense or you wouldn’t be able to do it for that long.

2. AVOID STRENGTH TRAINING

People mistakenly associate strength training with hypertrophy, or “getting big”. Strength training and hypertrophy are not synonyms. By avoiding strength training, you are only avoiding becoming stronger. Possessing more total body functional strength in itself forces you to burn more calories. Additionally, in the event you do crash diet and lose weight temporarily, without muscle tone you’ll look like a skeleton covered in loose gray skin. Very hot…

3. USE BENCHES AND MACHINES AT THE GYM

If you’re exercising on a bench or machine – you are SITTING! Seriously, have you seen the padded seats on some of the machines at the gym? I have recliners in my TV room that aren’t that cushiony. This is not an issue that requires a degree in physiology to understand: You are burning exponentially fewer calories sitting than when you are standing. And there isn’t one exercise in existence that utilizes external support like a bench or machine that can’t be modified so it can be performed standing.

Conversely, if you find the thought of adding body fat unpleasant and are looking for alternatives that will get you looking better for beach season, come check out some of the one on one sessions and small group sessions at The Training Rim. You’ll get results and you’ll have fun doing it – we guarantee it.

About the author: Jon Rimmer is the owner of The Training Rim personal training studio in Belford and has been training clients of all ages and ability levels for over a decade. He holds a Masters Degree in Exercise Science and is a contributing writer for strengthcoach.com and ptonthenet.com, two of the world’s leading resources for trainers and conditioning specialists. He is also the author of “Iron: Kettlebell and Body Weight Training 101” to be released in the spring of 2010.