Tag: Most

Tip: The Most Misused Machine in the Gym

Of all the equipment in the gym, the GHD is one of the most misused. GHD stands for “glute-ham developer” (and sometimes “good hair day,” but that’s another topic). It doesn’t have the word “sit-up” or “abs” in the name, yet that’s what many people use it for. The most flagrant violation happens when people do really ugly looking sit-ups on it. They let their backs arch violently into extension and work their hip flexors, quads, and anything except their core to get each painful rep. This is a lower back disaster waiting to happen and should pretty much be avoided unless you have to do it in a CrossFit competition. Public service announcement: The primary purpose of this machine is to develop the glutes and hamstrings. Here are some legitimate ways to use the GHD, plus a common mistake to avoid. GHD: Traditional Begin with your thighs on the GHD pad, torso perpendicular to the floor and feet securely on the back platform. Your knees should be placed more on the back of the pad to prevent excessive stress to the back of the knee. Brace your core and contract your glutes and hamstrings while slowly extending your knees, lowering your body so that it becomes parallel with the floor. Do NOT hyperextend your knees by going to full lockout. Use your glutes and hamstrings to pull yourself back to the starting position. Maintain a straight line through the knees, hips, lower back, and neck for the duration of the lift. GHD: Dive The main difference between this and the classic GHD exercise is that you dive towards the floor instead of letting the body come parallel to the floor. This variation will act more like a leg curl and changes the angle of pull on the hamstrings. Your back should still remain neutral at all times. GHD: Hip Hinge This variation involves no joint movement through the knee. I like to use this with beginners so they understand how to hinge through their hips. You can do this version with the legs straight, but most lifters will rely too much on their low backs to make it to the top. Instead, opt for a slight knee bend and keep a straight upper body as you hinge through your hips. Most Common Mistake: Arching the Lower Back If you’re doing it like this, you’re going to have low-back issues. Your lower back should remain neutral at all times. You’re much better off cutting a few reps, moving the pin back on the GHD to make the lift easier, or doing the hip hinge-only
Origin: Tip: The Most Misused Machine in the Gym

Tip: The Most Neglected Body Part in the Gym

Strengthening your neck will benefit your posture and the overall look of your physique. But not many people do any sort of direct neck training. Sometimes it’s just a time issue. Here’s an exercise that gets the job done quickly: banded bent-over neck extensions. You’ll need a light to moderate band, an unweighted barbell set up in a rack just below knee height, and a bar bad. Stay strict with the slow negatives and let the bar pad stretch your neck at the bottom of the movement. Be careful not to overextend when you’re in full extension. Get a 1 second squeeze at the top and use the barbell to support your body enough to keep your spine relatively neutral. Do 4 sets of 8-10 reps at a 5101 tempo. However, if this is your first time directly targeting your neck, I’d be modest with the volume and stick to only 3 sets. You’re going to be
Origin: Tip: The Most Neglected Body Part in the Gym

The 4 Most Common Injuries for Lifters

Here’s what you need to know… The rate of shoulder injuries rises with excessive reps, excessive machine use, and often bodybuilding-style programming. Lower back injuries increase when flexing or extending the lower back under heavy loads. Keep the spine neutral. Knee injuries are high when the knees don’t track properly throughout the lifts. Keep the knees from collapsing inward if you want them to be healthy. Upper back and neck injuries occur with poor posture. Fix a hunched over back to prevent cervical spine injuries. Lifting Isn’t Dangerous Not inherently at least. And not compared to a number of other types of athletic endeavors. Resistance training is actually pretty safe. What makes lifting unsafe are the missteps, and sometimes just plain idiocy, many individuals bring to the practice. From bastardizing technique and butchering form to pumping ego instead of muscles, some people have given weight training a black eye. If lifting is dangerous in the eyes of the ignorant, we better figure out what exactly “lifting” entails so we can be sure to keep these lifting-phobes a safe distance from the squat rack, bench press, and other physically catastrophic environments. What’s Considered Lifting? We can break lifting down into four major categories: Traditional weight training – bodybuilding The sport of lifting weights – powerlifting, Olympic lifting Sport performance training – athletics Crosstraining – classes and boot camps There’s more, but these are the major players. The Four Most Common Lifting Injuries 4 – Cervical Spine Injury The cervical spine – upper back and neck – is most notably vulnerable to injuries in both the soft tissue and joint structures such as the discs and ligaments due to heavy bracing techniques, poor spinal posture and loads of ugly repeated flexion and extension movements. Soreness and joint stiffness due to bracing in a neutral cervical position under heavy loading is part of the iron game, but flailing your head around and putting undue stresses on intricate body structures is just plain stupid. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, just think of turning the dumbbell shrug movement into a mosh pit at a Slip Knot concert. Don’t be that guy. The most innocent of all just may be transferring poor spinal posture from your daily sedentary life into the gym and not realizing you’re putting yourself at risk. The average American has a forward head posture which causes hyperextension of the upper segments of the cervical spine, and lower segmental flexion. That’s a recipe for a nasty neck tweak on your next squat or deadlift if not corrected. Prevent It Fix your posture. Get a neutral spine. For the cervical spine, I can’t think of a single position that is of more importance than the braced and neutral neck position. Drive your chin directly backwards towards your spine and create a slight downward gaze with your eyes. This position holds true for every single movement, no matter if it’s upper body or lower body specific. 3 – Knee Injury Most assume the knee is highly injurious. There is some truth to this joint being more vulnerable than others due to its anatomical properties and orientation relative to the ankle and hip complexes. But there’s more to the story. First, the structure of the knee joint is very immobile by nature, as it is a hinge joint with only two true degrees of freedom, meaning it only moves into flexion and extension. Less relative motion from the knee in combination with poor gross movement through joints that are supposed to be highly mobile – like the many synergistic joints of the ankle complex in addition to the ball and socket type hip joint – put undue stress over non-contractile tissues like ligaments and cartilage. This kink in the kinetic chain is most notable for lifters in quad-dominant movements like squat and lunge variations. While global instability of the knee joint may be a chicken-or-the-egg argument with the co-morbid factors like stiff and immobile joints above and below the level of the knee, many chronic natured injuries also become symptomatic over the front side of the knee at the patella. Increased tone and tightness through the quads can increase compressional and shear forces through the kneecap, causing increased rates of patella-femoral friction and irritation. Functionally shortened and stiff quads in combination with poor patellar movement is exacerbated with poor squat mechanics such as anteriorly drifting knees and valgus drop, and also in lunge-type movements when the knee joint is forced into terminal flexion. If this sounds like a pretty big problem that most lifters need to address, it is. Pay attention, this simple cue below can clean up your movement and give those pissed-off knees just enough of a break to recover for good. Prevent It Pay attention to knee tracking. There are loads of different lower body movements that involve both the squat and lunge variations. Though each
Origin: The 4 Most Common Injuries for Lifters