exercise – BodyGrades Blog https://blog.bodygrades.com I Can Tell You Why It Hurts... Wed, 30 May 2018 17:18:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.21 BG-15: Getting Faster Results and Breaking Through A Plateau https://blog.bodygrades.com/2017/11/07/bg-15-getting-faster-results-and-breaking-through-a-plateau/ Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:30:30 +0000 http://blog.bodygrades.com/?p=3871 It was about a month ago that I sent out MY LAST POST. And in that post I talked about what I found to be 7 key factors to consider when planning your workouts.  Now that you have an idea on how to plan them I’m going to tell you about 5 hacks that you can include in your workouts that will not only take you to the next level, but will help you break thru ANY plateau. But before I go into that, let me first mention that nobody, EVER! has started a fitness training or rehabilitation program and said that they did NOT want to get better, they didn’t want more energy and that they didn’t want to feel stronger, faster or healthier.  None of my physical therapy patients have EVER said that they did NOT want less pain, didn’t want to move better or didn’t want to lower their risks of falling either.  It just doesn’t happen.  Every client or patient that I now or have worked with in the past comes to me with one goal in mind….and that is to leave better off – health-wise – than how I found them. I’m sure you’ve heard that if you simply do more, consistently, on most days than what you have been doing on any of the previous days that you can get results – especially if your eating habits stay the same or get better.  And its true.  But at some point, unless you are okay with plateauing, and in some cases regressing, then you’ll want to consider this concept, because it is this concept that allows my clients and my patients to get results. That concept is called the OVERLOAD principle.  And just as it sounds and as I tried to describe, it is simply doing more in todays workout than what you did during the previous workouts.   There are 4, well 5, elements that I use in every one of my workouts to get the people that I work with results.  The nice thing about them too is that they are not independent of each other. Although not every one can handle this, but two or more of these elements can be changed simultaneously.  But, let me advise you, changing two or more of these elements during the same session IS NOT FOR EVERYONE Doing any of these 4 things can enhance (or destroy) your next workout, so proceed with caution.  You can – Add weight weight – Do more repetitions – Increase the number of sets – Decrease the amount of rest time between sets, or, one of my personal favorites, – Increase the speed at which you move the weights (while maintaining control of the weights and still with good form) Feel free in getting creative.  It doesn’t have to be the same modifications every time. Mix it up.  And not just on varying days but also during the same workout you can switch it up at different points within the workout.  For example, with your first set of upright rows, do your normal number of reps, wait your normal 2 minutes between sets, but then on the second set, increase the number of reps but wait only 1 minute before starting your 3rd set. Do you need help getting started or do you need alternate exercises because of some limitation?  Well, now you can get workouts that are customized to your needs and your limitations.  CONTACT ME for details…. CLICK HERE to view all of my previous posts and CLICK HERE to contact me.    

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]]> BG-13: Taking Things Too Far https://blog.bodygrades.com/2017/08/24/bg-13-taking-things-far/ Thu, 24 Aug 2017 17:15:01 +0000 http://blog.bodygrades.com/?p=3855 I am all for challenging myself and my clients to see and to show them what we are capable of, because, after-all, challenges are the very reason you, I, or any of them are able to get better at anything that we do. If we want to know what we can handle, or if we want to grow or get better, at doing anything, its simply what we have to do. Often times, however, too many people take things just a little too far in the weight room and cause a lot of structural damage in the process. Its ok to accept challenges, but its best, before-hand, to know what you are doing. Most people who aren’t in the health, fitness, wellness and rehab industries tend to forget, or, I guess, not realize that when you exercise you are affecting more than just the intended muscle. Even some of those that are actually in the fitness and wellness industry either forget or simply don’t know. But when you are well aware of the body’s anatomy, you are well aware that the body contains other soft tissues that also support the body, such as tendons, ligaments and cartilage, which are all found around the areas of a joint. And because of that, not all exercises and all movements are good for you, regardless of who has been doing them or for how long they have been done. Take the deep squat for instance. In this exercise, the goal of the exerciser is to squat down, keep the feet flat and take the hips down as close to the floor as possible – beyond the point where the quads and glutes are even working – and then pushing yourself back up from that position by contracting the glutes, quads and hamstrings. I have 2 problems with that exercise. First, I STILL cant figure out, exactly what muscle(s) you actually are using to get yourself up from that deep squat position.  Because the muscles you are supposed to be using become so overstretched that they virtually become inactive at the bottom range of that movement. Second, the amount of stretch that gets put on the patellar tendon once you are beyond 90 degrees (plus or minus) at the knee joint is way beyond the amount of stretch that is supposed to be put on it. This exercise also puts the meniscus (knee cartilage) and the Anterior Cruciate Ligament – aka the ACL – into bad positions as well. Ligaments are designed to have some give but no true stretch. ACLs are designed to have even less stretch than what the ligaments are supposed to have. By doing this exercise, and adding a hundred pounds or more of weight, on top of the body’s weight, it puts the joint at significant risk for injury.   Joint laxity and instability of the knees start to develop because the tendons and ligaments DO NOT have that same recoiling effect that muscles have. Another fan favorite exercise that should be banned is the tricep dip. The stress that gets added to the ligaments and tendons of the shoulder, with this exercise, puts you in the same position as with the hips and the deep squat. It creates a lot of instability which can lead to a lot of aches, pains, dislocations, tears and even surgeries. Just because its an exercise that has always been done, doesn’t mean you should keep doing them. The risk of taking your exercises too far is not worth the investment, so choose your exercises wisely.   CLICK HERE to view our previous posts, or CLICK HERE to contact us.

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