Foam Rolling
What is it? Foam rolling is a process of recovery, stretching and self-myofascial release. It is done with an object called a foam roller which is a cylinder shape of foam. What is myofascia? Myofacia- ‘Myo’ means muscle and ‘fascia’ means band. Facia is a connective tissue that is like a second skin underneath your regular skin or really like a thin layer of muscle as the tissues have the ability to contract, it surround, connects and protects all of the tissues of the body (tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones and organs). It is made up of elastin and collagen fibres, which makes this substance very strong yet flexible at the same time. When the myofacia is in a healthy state is relaxed and easy to manipulate beneath the skin. This allows it to provide cushioning and a type of support that allows us to move around without restrictions or pain. Facia is also very dynamic in nature, meaning that it can respond to forces in order to help protect the body from injury. Any type of trauma whether physical or emotional can leave scar like substances within the facia, this may cause the facia to lose its sponginess and become taut, which can mean that internal structures become pulled out of alignment, creating abnormal pressure within the body that has the potential to crush nerves, blood and lymph vessels and create pain on sensitive structures. What is self-myofascial release? This is basically like having a sports massage and is said to offer the same benefits of having a massage. Except a sports massage can be quite relaxing and make you feel good. In my experience with foam rolling it has been 100% pain! The idea behind this is to have the same effect but without hiring professional help. Although this is more cost effective, in my personal opinion there is no substitute for a well-qualified professional. During foam rolling, the foam rollee is supposed to use their own body weight in order to exert pressure on the specific areas of soft tissue that need attention. This is supposed to place both direct and sweeping pressure on the tissues, generating friction between the tissues and the foam roller in turn causing a stretch of said tissues. Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) had been around for quite a while, but there has been an influx of research in recent years as it has been found more popular among athletes and non-athletes. Specifically foam rolling, this is a fairly new concept that has really gotten quite a lot of research done on it in last few years. Numerous studies are undertaken with them each year to determine their worth in the fitness world. Foam rolling is referred to as Self Myofascial Release (SMR) and there are plenty of studies that suggest there are a large degree of benefits that come from this type of SMR. Now I, would like to say that different scientific papers are tested differently with different study groups, so for every paper that says proves it there will also be a paper disproving that it works. This blog is not a review on papers that has disproved that foam rolling doesn’t work. This is a review on the evidence that foam rolling has a positive effect on the body and athletic performance. I urge you to go out and do your own research on the matter and come to your own conclusion, but for now here is literature that proves that foam rolling should be implemented into a training programme. Foam rolling is thought to help increase circulation and in turn aid recovery during Dealyed- onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in a study done by Byrne C et al, 2004 “After intense exercise, this discomfort and pain commonly are associated with disruption of the intracellular muscle structure, sarcolemma, and extracellular matrix, which leads to prolonged impairment of muscle function and delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).” This is relatively old research as it is now 12 years old and as a rule usually research that is more than 10 years old is taken with a pinch of salt, due to advances in testing protocols, in the last ten years. Although, more recent study done by Crane JD et al 2012 showing that ‘foam rolling decreases muscle soreness, cellular stress and inflammation, which are three main components of DOMS.’ This being much more recent research is more reliable in terms of testing procedures, this coupled with earlier evidence suggests that SMR through foam rolling does in fact aid in reducing DOMS. Although a more recent study from Castilglione 2010 has stated that “SMR before a workout will enhance performance because of myofascial release, leading to increased mobility and neuromuscular efficiency”. When you recruit more neuromuscular fibres in the body you can become more explosive and reaction timing can improve due to the increased amount of motor unit recruited allowing for a faster stronger muscular contraction. This derives from the trigger point method and It’s said that it has the same effect as Neuromuscular Techniques (NMT’s) used by therapists. NMT’s are said to do exactly what it says above and increase the mobility and neuromuscular efficiency. NMT’s are usually applied to areas I tough tissue found in the body commonly known as “knots” these nots have pressure applied to them in such a way that they melt away and allow better neuromuscular reaction. With better neuromuscular recruitment it is thought that the practice of SMR via foam rolling can improve your physical performance in the way of maximum speed, maximum strength and power output. However there isn’t enough evidence on this matter to support these claims. The foam roller can be used various different ways. The two main ways that they are used as discussed are:
Overview In theory warming up with SMR via foam rolling will cause improved physical performance, due to the effects it has on the neuromuscular efficiency. However as stated above the findings of the improvement in vertical jump performance, sprints and strength output are varied ones. So it can be considered that some of SMR via foam rolling can be purely psychological. The good news is that it can help greatly with DOM’s, according to the research and if the foam rolling is being done correctly. There are usually two types of foam rollers, smooth and bobbly. I would recommend getting the bobbly one as it will have allow you to use it in a more efficient way and has more potential to be used as trigger point exercises rather than a smooth one that will just allow for myofascial release. Thanks for reading. Referencing Castiglione, A, ed. Self-Myofascial Release Therapy and Athletes. AIoSMR Therapy, 2010. Crane JD, Ogborn DI, Cupido C, et al. Massage therapy attenuates inflammatory signaling after exercise-induced muscle damage. Sci Transl Med. 2012;4(119):119ra13. Byrne C, Twist C, Eston R. Neuromuscular function after exercise-induced muscle damage: theoretical and applied implications. Sports Med. 2004;34(1):49–69.
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De-load weeks within training cycles What is a de-load week? Why do it? This is a 7 day planned period of recovery time, which you take out of training, in order for your central nervous system(CNS), and musculoskeletal structures to have a rest from an intensive training programme. How do I do this? During a de-load week you need to decrease your intensity by about 40-60%. Your options of doing this include:
Overtraining A lot of people don’t believe in over training. Lots of people believe that it is a myth, I respectfully disagree. Here are a few factors that can lead to over training:
Sleep Not having adequate sleep (8hours) can severely reduce your bodies ability to recover and grow, sleep is essential for your bodies physical and psychological performance. This is important as you find that during over training you either: over train the body and become injured or fatigued, or you over train the mind, which leads to mental fatigue and boredom. Boredom for some people is the main reason for disengagement in any activities. Sleep is essential to growth and repair of the body, without sleep you will be fatigued and unable to work as hard through certain workouts, or sporting activities. Diet If you have a poor diet you will over train. Your nutrition is incredibly important, which is where “you are what you eat” comes from. If you aren’t eating enough to sustain cell growth and recovery, you will find yourself fatigued and feeling irritable. You may even come to some reversibility in your athletic performance. Diet is incredibly important. To illustrate why diet is very important, here are some examples of athletes and their diets:
Recovery If you are training the same muscle group day after day after day it isn’t good for that muscle as it doesn’t have enough time to recover. It is thought that you should wait 48-72 hours after working a particular body part again through weight training before it has properly recovered. Over working muscles can lead to injury and cause reversibility, which means you may in fact get weaker through that movement. Stress Stress can cause a number of problems in the body. It can impair your motor coordination meaning that you won’t be able to work as hard in the gym due to not being able to recruit as many motor units. It has been found stress lowers your recovery rate and that it can also increase your risk of injury! Signs of overtraining There are a lot of signs, which mean you could be over training:
A deload week really helps to stop a lot of this happening. A deload week can include something completely different, for example, instead of doing weights on a deload week you could do light cardio and stretching. Yoga is brilliant for reducing stress and you may find through stretching and light cardio you feel a lot healthier. Not a lot of people believe in over training and believe that fighting through is the answer. Only you know your body and you should do as it says because you only have one. Being adept to your bodies needs is very important in overall health. One of the things that can come from overtraining and over activity in general is adrenal fatigue and other stress inducing problems like high blood pressure. Do yourself a favour have some time off and come back better than ever. Remember it isn’t an excuse to do absolutely nothing and sit around all day. It should be active rest such as stretching, walking, or a reduced load on your current training in general, just make sure that the load is significantly reduced in order to recover and grow. Does Fasting Cardio Work? A Scientific Review By Sam Love Introduction This article will tackle the question- does fasting cardio work? Fasting cardio is a method traditionally used by bodybuilders in preparation for a show to help them lose as much body fat as possible. The idea of fasting cardio is to take part in cardio first thing in the morning before you break your fast with breakfast. The sciency thought behind this is, first thing in the morning glycogen stores in the muscles are depleted through the energy burned during sleep, meaning the body will be in a lypolytic state. It is also due to cortisol (lypolytic hormone) levels being higher first thing in the morning, meaning the chance of lipolysis is greater. Several studies have found after consuming carbohydrates before low intensity aerobic exercise (up to 60% V02max) can blunt fat oxidation (Ahlborg G and Felig P 1976, Horowitz JF Et al 1997). Although, not only is this research outdated, it can be attributed to an insulin-mediated attenuation of lipolysis, an increased glycolytic flux and a decreased expression of genes involved in fatty acid transport and oxidation(Civitarese AE Et al 2005, Horowitz JF Et al 1999). These are all things which, you may find in somebody who has type 2 diabetes. There is also a substantial amount of research disproving fasting cardio as a practice actually works Key Lipolysis – is the breakdown of lipids and involves hydrolysis of triglycerides into glycerol and free fatty acids Proteolysis – this is the breakdown of proteins or polypeptides into amino acids by the action Thermic effects of exercise- Exercise, in any form, contributes to approximately 20% of total energy expenditure (TEE). Glycotic flux- Glycolysis is a fundamental metabolic pathway, is critical for the production of energy. Glycolytic flux, or the rate at which molecules proceed through the glycolytic pathway, is tightly regulated in response to the cellular environment EPOC- Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC, informally called afterburn) is a measurably increased rate of oxygen intake following strenuous activity intended to erase the body's "oxygen deficit". HIIT- high-intensity interval training, is a training technique in which you give all-out, one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods. This type of training gets and keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time Hypoglycaemic- low amount of blood sugar or blood glucose, this can result in lack of energy, clumsiness and foggy brain. Research One study was done on moderately trained individuals who consumed a high glycaemic food during different intervals of training (30,60 and 90 mins) along with individuals who had fasted for 12-14 hours prior to exercise. The results of this test showed there were no differences between the fasted and fed group’s oxidation levels until 80-90 minutes of training at which point the fasted subjects had a greater oxidation level than their fed counter parts, also showing the lipolysis of the fed group was decreased by 22% compared to the fasted group (Horowitz JF Et al 1997). In the fasted group it showed there was an effect on lypoisis and fat oxidation after 80-90 minutes, showing fasting cardio to be beneficial in terms of oxidising fat it has to be down for longer than a regular person performs this method. Furthermore it showed, lipolysis was greater, but it is worth mentioning, if free fatty acids (FFA) are not oxidised once they have been broken down into the blood stream, they are re-esterfied into adipose tissue, defeating the purpose of any lipolysis occurs during fasting. Lee YS et al (1999) carried out a study on 10 male college students, showing the effects of glucose milk (GM) on exercise. This was done for the group of students during: long duration, low intensity exercise, with and without the consumption of GM and in high intensity, short duration bouts of exercise, with and without the consumption of GM. The conclusion of this study found, use of GM resulted in a greater post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) compared to when in a fasted state. EPOC is also the state, which is achieved from high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT has been found to be the best method of burning fat and is much better than its low to moderate steady state counterparts (Gibala MJ Et al 2006, Schoenfeld and Dawes J 2009) although it has been found, during a HIIT session blood flow to the adipose tissue decreases(Romijn JA Et al 1993) which is thought to have a negative effect on the usage of FFA as energy, but it is the reaction of EPOC allowing HIIT participants to continue to burn more calories throughout the day. This adds to the thought, burning fat is a 24hr process and it cannot just be achieved in a 30 minute fasting cardio session. It is thought the location of adipose tissue mobilised during training needs to be taken into account. During low to moderate steady state cardio it is presumed fat is equal to 40-60% total energy expenditure (TEE). However, only 50-70% of this fat is taken from the plasma FFA (Van Loon LJ 2004). The other 30-50% comes from intramuscular triglycerides (IMTG). IMTG are a lot like muscle glycogen stores because they can only be oxidised locally within the muscles. Lipolysis of the IMTG stores are usually stimulated when exercising at an intensity of 65% V02 max (Romijn JA Et al 1993) although, IMTG have no bearing on personal health or aesthetics it is merely intramuscular fat. This fat allows for more energy should it be needed. IMTG is typically higher in trained endurance athletes. It is the subcutaneous fat sometimes known as cellulite, which has an impact on aesthetics and wellbeing. Bad news for bodybuilding as research has shown exercise in a fasted state has an impact on proteolysis. During a fast there is evidence of a loss of nitrogen in the body while exercising. Nitrogen being a key component of protein synthesis, which is essential to building lean muscle. The research showed nitrogen loss was more than doubled when compared to somebody who had sufficient glycogen stores during exercise (Lemon PW and Mullin JP 1980). In a paper researched by (Antonio Paoli Et al 2011) concerning exercise in fed and fasted individuals, it was discovered fat oxidisation after exercise was greater in fed individuals rather than in fasted individuals by showing, there was a decrease in RER and an increase in V02 in the fed group. A combination of decreased RER and increased V02 can be credited to a maintained increase in protein synthesis after training, which is beneficial to building lean muscle. Conclusion The literature points towards fasting cardio being negative to lean muscle gain or muscle maintenance and HIIT being superior. This is due to fasting during training actually has a negative effect on nitrogen balance, which in turn has a negative effect on protein synthesis. This can hinder muscle growth, however fasting cardio does in fact aid in fat burning although only after a period of 80-90 minutes does become more beneficial than eating before training. This leads us to believe, if you’re trying to gain or maintain lean muscle, fasting cardio isn’t the way to go in terms of fat loss. This is all evidence towards fasting cardio at a steady state, however while performing HIIT this is a different matter. It is generally found in the literature, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a better method of fat loss than steady state cardio. HIIT causes a state of EPOC, which allows the body to burn calories throughout the day, rather than in steady state cardio where calories only burn up to an hour after exercise. In a study carried out by (Antonio Paoli Et al 2011), where they discover there was fat oxidation in a fasted subject while performing high intensity exercise through testing RER and V02 max, the RER was less after 12-14 hrs in the fed group compared to the fasted group, showing evidence of lipid utilisation occurs by consuming food before exercise. This is backed up by (Lee YS Et al 1999) who also found EPOC was greater after consuming food before high intensity bouts of exercise. Although, fasting does work in conjunction with HIIT, performing this in a hypoglycaemic state, will cause a decrease in performance, therefore leading to a decrease in the amount of calorie burnt long term. From the research we find, if you are looking to burn fat by fasting cardio it isn’t necessarily the best way to do so. Due to the research it should be recommended for people to choose High Intensity Interval Training over steady state cardio and while performing HIIT training it shouldn’t be carried out under fasted protocol. Although, these test where primarily done using carbohydrate beverages and carbohydrate feeding. This could be a poor choice to bodybuilders who are leading a no carb approach when getting ready to compete, as the bodybuilders taking this approach may not have the energy to perform HIIT, having little energy from the lack of carbohydrates they are eating. Although, it is said HIIT has found beneficial to people in a hypoglycaemic state, in spite of this energy levels for training are imperative to high performance and in turn calories burnt. Furthermore, the use of carbohydrate allows for greater EPOC meaning more calories are burnt when you aren’t in a hypoglycaemic state more carbs on your way to a competition as it is allows for greater EPOC and in turn greater calories burnt and lipids oxidised throughout the day. Referencing Ahlborg G and Felig P. Influence of glucose ingestion on fuel-hormone response during prolonged exercise. J Appi Physiol 41 : 683-688, 1976. Horowitz JF, Mora-Rodnguez R, Byerley LO, and Coyle EF. Lipolytic suppression following carbohydrate ingestion limits fat oxidation during exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 273: E768-E775, 1997. Horowitz JF, Mora-Rodriguez R, Byerley LO, and Coyle EF. Substrate metabolism when subjects are fed carbohydrate during exercise. Am J Physiol 276(5 Pt 1): E828-E835, 1999. Civitarese AE, Hesselink MK, Russell AP, Ravussin E1 and Schrauwen P. Glucose ingestion during exercise blunts exerciseinduced gene expression of skeletal muscle fat oxidative genes. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 289: E1023-E1029, 2005. Lee YS, Ha MS, and Lee YJ. The effects of various intensities and durations of exercise with and without glucose in milk ingestion on post exercise oxygen consumption. J Sports Med Physical Fitness 39:341-347, 1999. Schoenfeld B and Dawes J. High-intensity interval training: Applications for general fitness training. Strength Cond J 31 : 44-46. 2009. Gibala MJ, Little JP, van Essen M, Wilkin GP, Burgomaster KA, Safdar A, Raha S, and Tarnopolsky MA. Short-term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: Similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance. J Physiol 15(pt 3): 901-911, 2006. Romijn JA, Coyle EF, Sidossis LS, Gastaldelli A, Horowitz JF, Endert E and Wolfe RR. Regulation of endogenous fat and carbohydrate metabolism in relation to exercise intensity. Am J Physiol 265(3 Pt 1): E380-E391, 1993. van Loon LJ. Use of intramuscular triacylglycerol as a substrate source during exercise in humans. J Appl Physiol 97: 1170-1187, 2004. Lemon PW and Mullin JP. Effect of initial muscle glycogen levels on protein catabolism during exercise. J Appi Physiol 48: 624-629, 1980 Antonio Paoli, Giuseppe Marcolin, Fabio Zonin, Marco Neri, Andrea, and Quirico F. Pacelli. Exercise fasting or fed to enhance fat loss? Influence of food intake on respiratory ratio and exercise postexercise oxygen consumption after a bout of endurance training. Int J Spo Nuti and Exer Metabolism. 21, 2011, 48-54, 2011 Conventional Deadlifts VS. Sumo Deadlifts Deadlifts are, in my opinion, the ultimate strength exercise! It is incredibly hard to get that weight from the deadlift position off of the floor:
Both of the deadlifts in question are compound movements that work across multiple joints. They have some slightly different characteristics, and although they both work a majority of the muscles in the body, the activation of each muscle may differ slightly due to the different stance adopted through the deadlift. Conventional Deadlift During a conventional deadlift the muscles that will be worked are: hamstrings, lower back, calves glutes. Those are the main muscles that will be worked but the stabilising muscles in the core will be at work and also a majority of the posterior kinetic chain. This means that the back musculature such as: trapezius, rhomboids, latissimus dosi will all be active during this movement. Although the main place that this exercise will be felt it the lower back and the hamstrings. How to do a Conventional Deadlift: Equipment: Olympic barbell Starting position:
Exercise:
If you’re new to the movement, I recommend that you watch a lot of videos on the deadlift in order to reinforce good technique or hire a trainer to teach you the technique. There a lot of people in the gym deadlifting that aren’t doing it correctly due to poor technique and it can cause rather bad back injuries. This exercise is definitely worth doing, as was said before, it is the ultimate strength exercise but doing it with poor technique is the ultimate way to have a bad lower back for years to come! Sumo Deadlift During a Sumo Deadlift, the muscles worked are pretty similar in terms of the posterior kinetic chain. Although, with this form of deadlift, there is a lot more pressure put onto the abductors, onto the semimembrinosis and semitendonosis rather than the biceps femoris of the hamstring complex. How to do a Sumo Deadlift: Equipment: Olympic barbell Starting position:
Exercise:
As you can see, this is slightly different from the Conventional Deadlift and it works the muscles slightly differently. Again, my recommendations are the same as with the Conventional Deadlift: hire a trainer and watch videos to perfect your technique. In competition, they allow for both Conventional Deadlifts and Sumo Deadlifts. But which one should you use? The one that is most comfortable for you of course! You can work this out through trial and error, although typically you may be able to go by these rules:
Recommendation
I would recommend trying both, nailing both of them technically and even when you have one that you prefer, training both types of deadlift. This allows for some different workout programmes, helps keep the workout fresh and if you want to improve your abductors Sumo Deadlifts tend to put more load through those than conventional methods. Conclusion Deadlift as a whole are a brilliant exercise for athleticism and strength. Make sure you practice technique before you go heavy because with this movement, doing it wrong can cause some serious issues. Experiment to decide which you prefer and be prepared to smash out some deadlifts. Thanks for reading Different methods to improve your muscular strength
Muscular Strength is known as the maximum amount of force your muscles can exert in a muscle contraction. Strength is key to athleticism, especially nowadays where most sports are power based and power = strength x speed. As you can see, one of the main components of power is strength. Increasing strength has many, many benefits including: maintenance of flexibility and balance as you get older, and lifting with the correct technique can improve joint quality and increase strength at the musculotendinous junctions. 4 Big Compound Movements The four movements that I am referring to are: the back squat, deadlift, bench press and shoulder press. These are the four big exercises that you should master technically before you decided to use them to perform maximum weight, due to the potential for injury being high, especially in squats and deadlifts. These movements are known as compound movements due to them working across more than one joint, meaning that more muscles are recruited in order to perform these exercises. Some honourable mentions of strength exercises are – pull ups, bent over rows and dips. Pull ups and dips are usually body weight exercises but you can add weight via ankle weights or through a weight belt. Use Barbells This is linked in with the four compound movements as they all usually are done with barbells. Barbells are great because not only is it the main piece of equipment that you will be using it will allow you to form an engram for the exercise. An engram is muscle memory, doing the same thing over and over allows you to perform the exercise in the most effective way, if you’re training the technique correctly that is. Correct training makes perfect, if you’re training and the technique has always been poor you leave yourself open to injury and it will affect the amount you can lift. Dumbbells are acceptable too during training as you could have greater strength on one side while performing a dumbbell bench press, having equal strength throughout is the key to having great overall lifts. Technique Moving on into technique- this is probably the most important aspect of strength training, not only does a good technique help you to lift a greater load but it also helps to prevent injury. To practice technique, I would recommend watching videos on technique then practicing. Taking ques i.e. for a deadlift you should keep your chest up, back straight, feet hip width apart, hands on the outside of the legs, etc. Then practice on about 60% of what your 1RM is i.e. 1RM = 100kg 60% = 60kg. Do this for 5-8 reps, once you’re happy with your form then you can move the weight up while maintaining good form. If you do not know your 1RM then you can just start with the barbell and slowly increase weight from there. Be Critical Always be critical of your own performance, i.e. the first 3 reps were perfect but that last one my form really broke down and I started to arch my back. Think about this for the next set and make sure that you are doing your best to maintain technique while you lift. Take notes while at the gym on your lifts how you felt and what you think you could improve. Keep track of your weight and reps and always try to progress if you can. While maintaining good form. Don’t Do Too Much While training for strength you should be sticking to 3 exercises per workout, this is due to you working at almost 100% at every lift. Even if this isn’t taxing on your muscles and they don’t feel sore, it will be taxing on your nervous system. If you burn your nervous system out you will find that your strength may actually decrease. During the workouts always make sure to do one of the big compound movements for example if you’re doing a squat for your main movement, the other two movements should either be on fixator muscles of this movement, like core training or antagonist muscles. The squat is very quadriceps dominant it works all of the muscles in the legs but quadriceps are the primary mover in this exercise, try following squats with some hamstring exercises like Romanian Deadlifts, or target the gluts with hip extensions. Rep Range While training for strength you should be working within a rep range of 6-1 reps for 3-5 sets. Due to this you see a lot of people doing 5x5. This is a tried and tested strength method and it does work, this method will allow you to gain some mass as well as build your strength. Although, if it is pure strength you are going for it is a good idea to lessen the reps and increase the load of resistance. Working within the rep range of 3-2 and keeping the sets the same 3-5. Again, this is only recommended when you have a good fix on technique. Progress Steadily When you start training strength, don’t just jump in the gym and let the ego take over. You will more than likely hurt yourself, if that happens then your strength gains will go nowhere. While training for strength, it is important that you slowly add weight, adding high weights too fast may lead to a plateau because of the strain on your central nervous system or injury due to break down of technique. This will allow you to keep good form as you add weight, remember that when lifting a lot of weight the smallest amount can make a difference, adding 1.25 plate to each side may look ridiculous but that 2.5kgs more than you could lift the week before. At the end of the day gains are gains so don’t be whether you add 0.5kg or 50kg. Cardio Cardio is very important in strength training as it will help you keep your weight down. I would recommend sprints, hill runs and HIIT circuits due to the fast pace of them they train the same energy system (ATP system) as lifting weights does. With that energy system in better condition it will function better and be able to transfer energy, leading to faster recovery. The importance of cardio shouldn’t be underestimated. Cardio is great for keeping weight down, and improving energy systems that are specific to your training, not only this, but it will improve overall health or the heart and lungs. Doing these high intensity cardio sessions for short durations will not cause you to lose your strength gains. Bits and Bobs It is important to stay on top of core stability, grip strength and flexibility while strengthening your body.
Deload Take a week off every 4 weeks i.e. 3 weeks working normally and 1 week in a reduced intensity. The importance of this is that it will give your body time to properly recover from all of the heavy lifts it has been doing. If you decide to keep going, it can fry your nervous system and that can lead to a decrease in strength and overall regression of training. Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you thought xx Cardio
What about it? Nowadays cardio gets a bad rap, because it “burns muscle” and everybody wants to be as muscular as possible. Why would you want to have a healthy heart and lungs? I don’t know but a little longevity would be nice don’t you think? Many, many studies on cardiovascular exercise have been done and a lot of them show the same thing, that up to 30 minutes of cardio vascular exercise a day is one of the healthiest things you can do for your body in order to keep it in a state of good health and that is can help to prevent ailments such as heart disease and atherosclerosis. So why do people not like it? Well a lot of people don’t know how many different versions of cardio there are. People associate cardio with running on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike, because of this is it perceived as boring, and to be honest I don’t blame them! I couldn’t think of anything worse than running on a treadmill for 30 minutes or more. People think that it burns muscle tissue. Why does this happen? This usually happens if you don’t have a sufficient amount of energy in the body to feed the body for exercise, which causes the potential for proteins to be broken down and used as energy in the body. This can be the case if your diet isn’t up to scratch. If you have a state of positive nitrogen balance in the body then your body will less likely break down muscle tissue. To gain a positive nitrogen balance what you need to do is make sure that you get a small amount of protein in every meal. This will help you to keep muscle growth. If you eat good quality carbohydrates (rice, pasta etc) then you will always have glycogen stores in the muscles that will be used for energy and the body won’t have to break down muscle. How to fix boredom? There are many ways to do cardio that isn’t just running on a treadmill i.e. walking on a treadmill No but seriously here is a list of a few different cardio ideas:
High Intensity Interval Training is a state in which you work to your maximum workload for a short period of time and then have a short rest afterwards. Usually the timing is done 1:2 ratios so in time that’s 10 seconds of maximum effort and then 20 seconds rest. This is good for things such as sprinting. This can be done using kettlebells, body weight exercises and other weight. There are plenty of ways that this can be implemented into a normal workout routine, so if you happen to hate anything but weights then you can do it with weights. It focuses more on high reps low weight in order to get the cardiovascular effect, you will know when you are doing it correctly because you will be dripping with sweat and your lungs will feel like they are on fire! These types of workouts are done in short powerful bursts and are much more interesting than simply running because they aren’t the same mundane thing for hours at a time. The intensity of this training is as high as it is often. It’s thought that as little as 10 minutes of HIIT is enough for the entire day. There is no need to ever spend three hours on a treadmill looking at the wall ever again! Some parting words here: Most if not all bodybuilders and people that are muscular and look ripped do cardio training! some will do different training to others i.e. 260lb body builder doesn’t need to run they can just walk because of the weight they are carrying it puts a lot of strain of their cardiovascular system and in their case they are so big they have to watch how much they do or they will burn muscle due to the body adapting to exercise and the truth is that 260lbs is hard for the body to carry and isn’t good for it when you are trying to run for half an hour a day. Conclusion Cardio doesn’t reduce muscle size if your diet is on point. If it’s boring, more than likely you are doing it in a boring way, there is no need to sit on a stationary bike for hours on end in order to achieve your goal. You can enjoy doing cardio in a number of different ways, as mentioned above. 30 minutes of cardio a day next to good diet is the greatest thing you can to improve your health, the only reason for not doing it is laziness. Don’t be lazy, do cardio. Thanks for reading xx The picture above was taken from - http://www.bodybuilding.com/
It’s a new age! More and more women are starting to try their hand at lifting weights, which I personally believe is brilliant! There are many benefits that you get from lifting weights that you don’t get from just doing cardio and vice versa. As a personal trainer myself, I know how difficult it is to get a lady that has never done weights or exercised much before to try and attempt light weights. Their main reasoning is “I don’t want to be butch”. This is a pretty fair concern, people go to the gym have their own goals and for some women who just want to attend the gym, maybe tone up here and there, doing weights can be quite intimidating. Especially walking into the weights room with big men and potentially big women lifting weights. First thing I will put across is that some men lift weights all the time and they aren’t huge! Not even all of them are muscular, but I do understand that you don’t particularly want to be very muscular either, which is fine. There are a lot of different variables that can change how a lady looks by doing weights. Performance enhancing drugs- most of the massive women that you see in bodybuilding shows are on performance enhancing drugs: steroids. Steroids are taken from the male hormone- testosterone, which can cause some other nasty side effects to women if it is taken, including: baldness, enlarged clitoris, facial hair and more. This is mainly taken by people who are competing in a bodybuilding show, so unless that is you aim you have no need of these. Hormones- females typically are full of oestrogen: the female sex hormone. This as a whole is a catabolic hormone, meaning- it prevents muscle growth and unfortunately isn’t ideal for people trying to shed a little bit of body fat too. There is a small percent of the population of women that actually have a high amount of testosterone- this is an anabolic hormone that encourages fat loss and muscle growth. If for any reason you are worried about having this, then go to the doctor and get your levels checked. It’s a fairly standard procedure: taking blood. Diet- Scientifically speaking, women are genetically built to bare children, resulting in a different genetic makeup. This is seen in the difference of body fat percentage and hormone production between genders, whereby women typically have a higher body fat percentage. The more muscle you have, the more calories you naturally burn- in order to grow a certain amount of muscle not only do you need to have a great diet: male or female, but you need to eat a lot in order to feed the muscles and make sure that they don’t diminish. This is a very hard thing to do, diet is the hardest part of getting in shape, but it is also the most important thing. The saying “you are what you eat” has never been truer. If you eat a lot of rubbish your workouts will suffer and you may not get the results that you want. Amount of training- there are a lot of women that are very toned out there, not necessarily big and muscular, this too takes A LOT of training and a perfect diet for that particular goal. So don’t worry if you don’t want that either you, don’t have to be like that. That sort of physic, not just for a female but for a male is impressive, it requires very low body fat percentage which is hard for women as we discussed above. This takes a massive amount of training and takes a long time to achieve. Especially because of the muscle maturity that a lot of these fitness models show, which means they either have great genetics or they have been at it for years working on themselves. The good stuff As you increase lean muscle mass, your body uses calories more efficiently. Daily muscle contractions from a simple blink to a heavy squat contribute to how many calories you burn in a given day. The more muscle contractions you experience during a day, the more calories you'll burn. If you have more lean muscle mass, you'll have more muscle contractions and thus burn more calories. Exercise in general is a great way to manage stress. Those who regularly strength train happen to manage stress better and get less stressed in usually stressful situations. So next time you need to blow off some steam, hit the weights. As you age, you are at risk of losing both bone and muscle mass. Postmenopausal women are at a greater risk for osteoporosis because the body no longer secretes estrogen. Resistance training is an excellent way to combat loss of bone mass, and it decreases the risk of osteoporosis. As noted above, resistance training causes an increase in energy expenditure hours after you train. A study published by the National Institute of Health suggests that the chronic increase in energy expenditure, even after a minimal resistance training session, may favourably affect energy balance and fat oxidation. So to all you ladies out there that are afraid to pick up the weights and have a go through fear of getting big. Don’t be! It could be the answer you’re looking for, in terms of burning a bit more of the excess fat off. You may also find it fun rather than those endless runs on the running machine to burn the equivalent of a mars bar. It’s a good way to mix things up a little bit. Although if you’re doing weights for the first time I would definitely suggest that you watch videos and get somebody to teach you as it is important to have correct form and be safe. Hopefully this helped a few of you ladies that are on the edge of whether to start doing weights or not. It will be really beneficial. One last thing if you’re intimidated by some of the men that are doing weights in the weight room. Two things: they are happy to see you there being the beautiful majestic creatures that you are. Secondly as a personal trainer myself, you see a lot of big muscly gentlemen with poor form and do things wrong all the time. So if you think they are judging you for being there, they probably aren’t, and on the off chance that they are they’re probably doing the exercises wrong anyway. Hope to see more of you ladies in the weights room achieving your goals! Have Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s) ruined Sports?
Allow me to first mention: I am not pro drugs sport, I am not against drugs in sport; I as a person am very pro to people doing what they want with it. If you want to do drugs good for you, if you don’t, good for you also. These are the opinions and arguments of one person. Let’s do a break down starting with, bodybuilding. Body building Bodybuilding- this sport was made on the use of anabolic steroids! Everybody that is in the pro circuit of bodybuilding takes some sort of performance enhancing drugs- it’s a fact, the only bodybuilders who don’t are the “natural” bodybuilders. A lot of “natural bodybuilders” come under scrutiny from many people due to their impressive physical stature! I suppose this answers the question ‘have PED’s ruined sport’ for this particular sport! Doesn’t it? It’s a yes and a no. It made the sport what it is today, but on the non-performance enhancement competition, the competitors often face scrutiny, that they cannot be that impressive without certain help from outside sources. Bodybuilders do everything right when it comes to being big. Those guys and girls, whether they take performance enhancement drugs or not, are unbelievably disciplined in what they do: their workouts, their conditioning and their diet- it not a feat that can be obtained by just the use of steroids. A lot of people think that you can just take steroids and be huge and that’s it, which is not the case. Made in Chelsea star, Spencer Matthews, came out in the news and said that he has a drug problem with anabolic steroids. Looking at a picture of Spencer Matthews, you will see that he is in good shape, no doubt about it, but he isn’t huge and he isn’t as physically brilliant as natural bodybuilders. After viewing a few Made in Chelsea episodes, it’s mainly down to the fact he isn’t committed to the cause of getting big for stage, as his lifestyle (purely judging on the show) is a party one. Bodybuilder’s diets and lifestyles are incredibly organised and they are committed to winning shows. Hopefully this adds a little perspective to that matter. What I am getting at with bodybuilding is that the sport is mainly drug based. Would the sport be as big without it? In my opinion- no, not at all and for that reason in this case, I would say that performance enhancing drugs did not ruin sport… in bodybuilding’s case anyway. That said there are a number of health concerns that go along with taking PHD’s and this is widely known in the body building world and steroids have a lot to answer for when it comes to heart problems as well as HGH (human growth hormone) because they can cause horrible side effects later in life. Despite this lots of people still take them and believe that there is a way to safely take steroids, but the sport continues to grow so the sport isn’t ruined. The number of people addicted to steroids and deaths from steroids have gone up over the years, which is obviously a horrific thing, but my argument is if people were taught how to use them maybe there wouldn’t be such a problem and if these people using them were getting them from proper sources it would make it safer, as they would know exactly where the product has come. Lance Armstrong This gentleman is very well known for winning the Tour de France 7 times- 7! Also well known for his charitable work in cancer as he himself was diagnosed with it, but came back to win a Tour de France, which on Performance Enhancing drugs or not is amazing in my book. Lance Armstrong on drugs or not won 7 Tour de France competitions, which is no easy feat as anybody that has watched the Tour de France will tell you. Was it wrong for the competition? Of course it was. It was identified that he had a banned substance but was what he achieved any less impressive? In my opinion no. 7 Tour de France competitions is an insane achievement, even if you’re taking fairy dust. Cyclists in the competition have admitted since that they were also on the same substance. Does that make it okay? Of course not, it’s a banned substance! But it’s the same as mentioned above, you can take these substances but without training and diet they still won’t work as well. Mr Armstrong, I imagine, was on a gruelling training regime and perfect diet plan to be able to obtain his 7 Tour de France titles Did his cheating make the sport any worse? I’d have to say no. I imagine for the athletes the rigorous drug tests are horrendous because of it, but as an American winner Lance Armstrong will have made the sport massive in America. Americans are very patriotic and they would be happy to celebrate what he had done (before he was found out) but what else could he have done for the sport? Well, people who went on PED’s probably should have won so he stripped them of their winnings, which is never nice as everybody trained as hard as they could for the competition. From a moral stand point, it is definitely wrong. Those athletes where robbed of what should have been theirs because they did not have access to a drug programme. In my opinion that’s what it is. There is so much money to be made from doing well in sports, if somebody came up to you and said take this, it will make you the best in the world at what you do and you will be a millionaire- there is a chance people will find out you have taken a substance though and they may not like it, for a lot of athletes the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Athletes have the mind set of anything to win! Not all of them, but a lot of them. Some of the have different mind sets like “I’ll prove you can do it without drugs,” and that determination is admirable and brilliant. Athletes manage to get through on their determination which again, is why we applaud them. That said has anybody won 7 Tour de France competitions since? A lot of people believe that Tour de France puts such a strain on athletes body that It cannot be done without drugs, that PED’s are the only way to do it, this is a way that drugs have ruined the sport! It takes away from peoples genuine achievements, that they had worked so hard to achieve! A few people have cheated so it is believed, and there is no way you can’t be on PED’s. People also believe that the reason not everybody is caught is that PED’s are being made faster than ways to test them are being made, which is a valid point, you can see that by the shear amount of different types of drugs. To summarise Did it ruin the sport- the morals are wrong, people come under scrutiny as to whether they can achieve those feats of brilliance naturally and there are a lot of adverse health effects that prolonged use of drugs can do to the body, but lance Armstrong’s wins led to a large amount of people following the sport, he developed his on charity for people with cancer, made the sport more rigorously tested for the future, so there are definitely pros and cons to it, I’ll let you decide yourself but for me as long as a sport continues to grow it’s getting better! So for that reason alone I don’t think it ruined the sport and actually made it better. Cyclists This is a sub category as I have spoken about one person in the sport but that is mainly because he is probably the biggest person that was in the sport and one of the biggest people in sport ever due to his accomplishments, he is not the only person who has used PED’s. It has been reported that cyclists are frequently caught out by doping to improve performance. One set of Olympic cyclists (I won’t name the country) won the competition, they were later found dead, in an autopsy it was found that their blood had the consistency of ketchup. What had happened was they had taken a hormone in drug form that is usually found in pregnant women in order to improve their aerobic abilities. What this did was made their blood so thick that it couldn’t move through the body properly and eventually caused them to all have heart attacks and die. Now again this is morally wrong and at the time I don’t imagine it did a lot for the sport of cycling so in this instance I would have to say that drugs have definitely ruined the sport. Gymnastics There have been a lot of cases in gymnastics not necessarily of drugs but of the effects of pregnancy in gymnastics. Obviously in this case I am referring to the lady gymnasts. There are particular physical benefits from pregnancy that can be used to a gymnasts advantage. When pregnant, in the first three months of pregnancy a woman’s body produces a natural surplus of red blood cells, obviously this is a type of legal blood doping and can have very positive anaerobic effects as the more blood cells you have, the more oxygen can be carried. This is normally down to the body producing a better environment for fetal growth. Other things that it can do is regulate the hormones such as progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone, which can increase muscular strength. Another hormone that is released is elastin, this hormone allows for more flexibility at the hips for when the baby eventually comes out and this improve elasticity of all soft tissues (muscles and ligaments), all of which is of large benefit to gymnasts as they have to have strength and power while being supple. This is considered natural benefits from natural causes, as there are no bans on getting pregnant, which I agree with- you can get pregnant if you want, the problems come from a moral stand point here and they can be quite controversial. Women are getting pregnant in order to improve their performance and win gold medals, then when competition is over they’re going and having those pregnancies aborted. I’ll let you decide what you think about that, as there are a lot of different views on abortion to begin with, I am very pro to people doing what they want with their bodies but something about this doesn’t quite sit right with me. Of course the argument can be made that people take drugs and that is also morally wrong but then I guess my argument would be nobody died in order to obtain those victories. Getting pregnant for the purpose of abortion to me seems a little disgusting. Although none of these allegations have been proved, the idea of it isn’t a brilliant one in my eyes, but then like I said earlier athletes are willing to do anything to win and that is part of anything. To summarise This is technically legal and there is no way to stop it, although in my opinion morally wrong to do so, does it make the sport worse? It allows females to be better at their sport and grow the female sport industry as a whole, so for the sport it can be considered that it is beneficial, although the controversy that it causes around the subject could in fact cause the sport to diminish depending on how strongly opinionated people are on the subject. Conclusion There are a lot of other drugs that are used in sports and a lot of different drug scandals out there. The question – do PED’s ruin sports? In terms of performance no, not one bit! They make it a million times better, they allow athletes in their short careers to earn a lot of money by being the best they can possibly be. Sport is all about spectators and in this instance when people achieve records, such as winning Tour de France 7 times, people believe it is brilliant, and they’re right. The problems that come are the moral dilemmas and the health risks associated with taking drugs in sports. There are a lot of people that have contracted disease from blood doping and health issues from taking PED’s. Nowadays everybody knows the risks and what the risks might be and they take it anyway because it is worth it to them. It is an extremely personal choice to athletes and, they make that choice, full well knowing that it can hurt their career if found out and it can destroy their body because the rewards that they’re given are worth it! So in this instance, is it the drugs that are ruining the sport or is it the amount of rewards given? Are the rewards so much that people don’t mind being called a cheat, or a fake? Performance enhancing drugs cause sports to grow until people are found out, people have idols with in sport and it isn’t necessarily that they themselves compete in sport but they admire what people achieve within it and see how hard they have worked, this gives rise to fandom and then people end up trying the sport that the person the admire do = growing the sport! When that person gets found out that they have taken PED’s the people that supported them feel betrayed, a lot of the time. All of the pros and cons are relayed here on this website next to all the different drugs that are also banned from competition http://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002037 you will find that a lot of them have horrible side effects and that can in fact lead to death, which is why some of these substances are banned substances. If one good thing is to come out of people being on a “drug programme” it is that they are constantly monitored through what they take and have the best care possible. If steroids were less of a black market thing, people would get proper steroids and know what they are and they would know how much to use in order to get desired effects and potentially not have as many young deaths from the substance. Regardless of whether you think it is wrong or right to do drugs in sport, there is no denying the amount of effort athletes put into being the best at what they do! CrossFit
To all of you CrossFit lovers out there don’t worry I’m not here telling you that I don’t like your sport or that it’s rubbish, and to all you CrossFit haters out there, I’m not here to tell you CrossFit is the best, and how nothing compares. This will be an overview of CrossFit positives. To people who dislike CrossFit, stop your jabbering-there are definitely positives to this sport, and the negatives. To the CrossFit junkies out there, you too should quit your jabbering, because there are definitely negatives to CrossFit. CrossFit is said to be (by CrossFit) the ultimate all rounded sport, as far as fitness is concerned. The claim that they make is that weightlifters are strong and have good technique, sprinters are powerful, and team sports such as soccer (football) have athletes that are agile, with high endurance etc. They go as far as to give the winners of their tournament (The CrossFit Games) the title of ‘The fittest man or woman on earth.’ Judging by what all round fitness is said to be, that CrossFit themselves have their own definition for, they have a couple different ones, so if you want to take a look I’ll link it here- http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ-trial.pdf CrossFit combines lots of different sports together and anybody who has not watched some of the CrossFit games, I recommend that you do, because it is highly entertaining. The first question- is it fair to declare, the winner of the cross fit games is ‘The fittest on earth’? Like I said above, if you haven’t yet, I would highly recommend that you watch the CrossFit games, because the challenges are pretty incredible, the circuit based themes that they give to their sport are the definition of ‘high intensity’, it truly is. The weights that they lift for their strength competitions are impressive, with Olympic lifts to incorporate skill into their sport. A mix of gymnastics that incorporates flexibility, coordination and agility, long runs and swims incorporate cardiovascular endurance and they do everything to massive repetition, which incorporates muscular endurance. CrossFit always throws something new into their competitions too, which is brilliant as it makes the athlete think about what they should do next, instead of the same thing day in day out year after year. This also gets the crowed excited, which it always a positive. Although cross fitters love CrossFit so much they would enjoy whatever happened, but speaking from a neutral stand point, the new challenges set are usually very entertaining. Most sports favour some of these fitness principles: Olympic lifters favour: technique, coordination, power, speed and strength, they still use all of the other fitness principles but not to the same degree as the fitness principles listed. Soccer (football) favours: endurance (cardio vascular and muscular), skill, coordination, speed, tactical knowledge. The same as Olympic lifters they use all of the principles there are but they use some more than others. Football (American football): this game is massively tactical, it takes advantage of strength, speed power and agility as the plays they make are filled with short powerful bursts, whether that be jumping to receive the ball, throwing the ball, running for the touchdown or tackling . Again, they take advantage of all systems but American football is mainly about tactics. If you have ever seen any American football training sessions you know how impressive they are as athletes. Search it on YouTube, it’s incredible! Back to CrossFit Does CrossFit favour certain principles of fitness more than others? For me, yes they do. They favour a lot physically and although they have some skill based events i.e. new events that make the athletes think about what they have to do in that situation having not done it before, that is a brilliant way to keep things fresh and really take them out of their comfort zone; Olympic lifts require a great amount of skill, coordination, balance and flexibility. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that it doesn’t take any skill, because it definitely does and I am not saying these athletes aren’t skilled, a lot of them will have played other sports before finding CrossFit. What I am simply saying is sports like Soccer, American football, baseball, rugby, tennis- although maybe not as physically demanding as CrossFit, they definitely require more skill, either through their tactical knowledge, coordination, reaction time etc. So back to the question- is it fair to declare, the winner of the cross fit games is ‘The fittest on earth’? Judging by how physically demanding the sport is, how little rest the athletes have to recover from their events and personally believing that fitness is also a measurement of recovery I am going to say yes. In terms of physically, this sport I believe has to have a person extremely fit to accomplish the tasks. Although in terms of skill, other sports have taken far greater skill, in my opinion. Positives and Negatives of CrossFit Positives WOD CrossFit have a system called WOD (Workout Of the Day), this is brilliant! The workout of the day, is incredibly difficult and is usually some sort of high intensity circuit that are done by a time trial, reps or a measurement, which is a great idea- it allows people to see where they are and where they are going. It’s a brilliant way to get the most out of people because it gives them a target to work towards. This works brilliantly with athletes, as athletes are very competitive. Non- athletes are usually in the gym to better themselves in some way, doing WOD will probably just make them happy that they have managed to complete it as some of them are insane, but from there they have a great base to improve for next time. Conditioning CrossFit is brilliant for conditioning, most of their workouts are burst conditioning. There is some steady state conditioning but mostly CrossFit is done to high intensity for a shorter duration. This allows things to remain exciting rather than just endlessly running or doing the same thing over and over. There is so much choice to go with when it comes to workouts and it’s easy to see why people enjoy this sport so much. Furthermore, just look at a professional Cross fitter man or woman- they have some of the most aesthetically pleasing bodies in sports, from this you can see how incredible their conditioning is. Nutrition Cross fitters usually go by a Paleo diet plan, this is basically you don’t eat anything that isn’t grown in the ground or can’t be found and slaughtered. This is a very healthy option as this is more primal and it is what our bodies would have been used to back when we were hunters- there is a lot of science behind it that believe this is the best way to eat and judging by the results in performance and the ripped physiques it works. Community The community within CrossFit is one of a kind! The sportsmanship within CrossFit is second to none. Everybody there goes there to win, of course they do- winning is the point! Seeing the pros clap one another across the line is very refreshing in a sport nowadays- it’s not even just a clap, they cheer for them until they finish and then all walk up and congratulate one another and it is a very sincere thing. Unlike a lot of sports where it seems as though they shake hands for the sake of it. The fans of the sport are also like nothing I have ever seen, they scream and shout till their heads blow up and they defend the sport to the death! TO THE DEATH! Negatives Trainers CrossFit trainers can become CrossFit certified after a weekend course. This isn’t ideal as there are some massive Olympic lifts in CrossFit, a lot of which take years of practice to perform competently. Furthermore, anybody can go and open up a gym and call it a CrossFit gym. Scenario John is a construction worker that has recently got into CrossFit, has savings and sees how big the sport is, wants to open his own CrossFit gym. He gets a certificate after a weekend of work and moves on to open his own gym. Now this scenario may sound a little unrealistic or probably a bit stupid to some people but, this could happen, somebody who doesn’t completely know what they’re talking about could open a gym and teach. Poor technique in exercise leads to muscular imbalances and injuries, which is why this is bad. I’m not saying it is like this in every gym because CrossFit certification do run longer courses and there are strength and conditioning coaches that train people to CrossFit too. What I am trying to get at is the potential to open your own CrossFit centre and train people with very little knowledge. Injuries There are A LOT of injuries in CrossFit. Yes, there are a lot of injuries in every sport, it’s an occupational hazard, there is no getting away from it, in fact if you go through a professional or amateur career without an injury as an athlete you are very lucky indeed. The main difference being that if an athlete from a professional football club injured themselves they wouldn’t be able to continue through the rules of the game. During the CrossFit games 2013 zigzag sprint- in the quarterfinals a competitor called Michael Mogard pulled his left hamstring, he is an individual athlete so naturally he wants to continue and go all the way, admirable but, not safe in the slightest! He decided to continue and opted to add some compression to the pulled muscle by strapping it up. This is dangerous because he could have torn the hamstring further meaning after competition he would be out for an extended amount of time or he could have completely ruptured the hamstring, which again isn’t ideal to a professional athlete’s situation. At this time, there was nobody from a medical profession to advise against the matter, of course if somebody had advised against him continuing, he could have continued. In other sports if an injury occurs the participant is unable to continue. I.e. boxing, if a boxer if knocked out there is a period of time that they cannot compete or train for because it is deemed unsafe. CrossFit should regulate the heath of their athletes better, as a lot of athletes perform a lot of activity each year at the CrossFit games suffer from heat exhaustion and the side effects of heat exhaustion can be dire, yet they are allowed to procced. Olympic lifts These are incredibly technically demanding (overhead snatch, clean and jerk etc.) and they should remain technical at all times, this is where a lot of the skill that CrossFit has to offer comes from because of the high technique it has to perform these lifts. CrossFit like to include these lifts and do them for incredibly high reps, it doesn’t matter that CrossFit take the weight down of those lifts and increase the amount of reps. During these lifts the kinetic chain has to work in unison, you can see watching ANY! Video where high reps are done with these lifts, how form suffers overtime, and of course it is going to suffer. These are difficult lifts, but when your stabilising muscles give out through fatigue you open yourself to injury, through continued poor form. These types of workouts have the highest potential to cause injuries in sport due to the physical and technical demand they have on the body. We have all seen horror videos about people lifting in heals or not squatting properly and the amount of problems it can cause. Summary CrossFit is definitely a great sport and in my opinion the winners are rightly called “fittest on earth”, although they may not be the most skilful. They are definitely benefits that CrossFit bring to sport and there are also definite negatives that they bring. The thing is a lot of the negatives can be easily fixed through some different rules and regulations they could put it in place. For example, they could put in rules about coaching in order to make the coaching standard better. They could have doctors and Physical Therapists at events to help athletes and deem them fit or unfit to continue quite easily. They could make rules that if somebody becomes injured and fails an assessment they may not continue. They could change the shear amount of Olympic lifts that they do, this one isn’t going to happen because this is such a large part of what CrossFit is. The other changes mentioned are easy to implement and they don’t take away from the sport- they make it much safer for athletes in the long run. ‘There are several different types of squat that are used with a barbell. The barbell squat is performed with the barbell across the back (back squat) slightly above the shoulder blades (high bar squat) or across the mid back and scapular (low bar squat) the level of the acromion (bone part or the anterior shoulder), or with the barbell held in front of the chest approximately at the level of the clavicles- the bony structure above your chest known as the collar bones (front squat). The back squat is usually preferred and performed by most athletes in sport, although the front squat is commonly performed by bodybuilders and Olympic weightlifters. The front squat is simulated during the clean and jerk exercise by Olympic weightlifters’ (1). For the purpose of this post we will be doing front squats vs high back squat, which I personally prefer, and explaining some of the science behind it. Lets begin with the squat in general. If you’re going to a gym and you aren’t working legs- you should be! Working such a large muscle group helps to increase metabolism and as it’s a big compound movement (a movement that includes more than one joint in its motion) it can help to increase testosterone. Increasing metabolism is good for burning calories and increasing testosterone is good for building some muscle, which has a knock on effect of burning more calories. I know what you’re thinking ladies, ‘I don’t want to get muscly with testosterone’. That’s not gunna happen! I’ll write a blog about it so just hold your horses! Back squat The squat is one of my personal favourite exercises, I really just like everything about it.’ The skill it takes to do it properly and the amount of positives it has to performance in any capacity, means I believe everybody should be doing it. These are guidelines that have been taken from the American College of Sports Medicine
Muscles worked by the back squat: The back squat is a compound movement which means that it works across two different joints! In this case it works across the knees and the hips. The muscles activated by the squat are: the quadriceps, the hamstrings and the glutes. There are a lot of stabilising muscles used while doing a barbell squat too, such as your erectus spinae in order to keep your back straight while performing the exercise. Front Squat I couldn’t find the American College of Sports Medicines protocols for the front squat so I’ll tell you in my words
Given the position of the bar with the front squat, it can be harder to balance for somebody that is lifting a lot of weight or somebody who is fairly new to the exercise.
This is also a compound exercise working across the same joints as the back squat (knee and hip joints) but this is slightly different in terms of muscle activation (muscles worked). To keep good posture in this exercise you really need to have a strong lower back. Other than that, the main muscles that it works are the quadriceps, the glutes and the hamstrings. Sounds the same right? Yeah it is, but this works a majority the quadriceps and the glutes and not so much the hamstrings. Something you want to make sure that you’re doing at the top of the squat is squeezing your glutes together, this will cause you to keep your hips straight. A lot of people don’t do this and it can cause their hips to be all over the place and this is one fast way to get injured. Which is better? They’re both squats and they’re both compound exercises so overall they’re both brilliant movements when done correctly. And are both better for different purposes Dangers and Benefits of Back Squats When doing back squats if you lift a heavy amount it has potential to distort the spine due to the load that goes through it. Your spine, as you probably know is very important because it protects the nerves that come down from the brain so it’s importance is crucial in keeping you central nervous system safe. Back squats can put a lot of pressure on the cartilage between the vertebras in the back which can cause them to prolapse (otherwise known as a slipped disk). If you think about the amount of force going through your spine with a squat and that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, that means if you’re squatting 300lbs that’s going through the spine and on a solid base you’re getting that reaction coming back up through, meaning that your spine has a lot of pressure going through it. This can distort the spine That said if you decide to take a lower bar position with the bar while you lift, less compression comes through the spine but the stabilising muscles need to be stronger (lower back and requires you to hold the bar in place more than just resting it on your shoulders). The good thing about the back squat is that it works a very large muscle group and that it can be done with a lot of weight if able. Being able to complete the squat with good form and a heavy load is not only very impressive but is also has a lot of positive effects mentioned earlier, such as increased testosterone and increase of growth hormones. Dangers and Benefits of Front squats Bad things- with front squats you typically cannot lift as much due to the position of the lift. As you remain in an upright position, it puts a lot of stress on the lower back and from the grip it can be found to dig into the clavicle, which a lot of people find uncomfortable. Good things- the front squat is good because it doesn’t put too much load through the spine. There is more load on the lower back because the need for the lower back as a stabiliser. Something else that is a positive for sprinters, due to the angle of the front squat there is more of a correlation with sprinters contact when they run. Of course, it can be argued that front squats are better for the quadriceps than the hamstrings, they activate the quadriceps better than the hamstrings and that a hamstring - quadriceps imbalance can have a greater cause of hamstring injury. But that’s for another time. For all squats – Knees- knees are a big problem in squats if done incorrectly. When the knee comes past the toes the shearing force that is put through the cartilage in the knees (menisci) is far greater than normal. When there is a greater shearing force this can wear away the cartilage in the knees, causing bone to rub on bone. When bone rubs on bone it can chip and you will have bone fragments floating around in your knee capsule and this can be dangerous as it has potential to tear other structures such as the Anterior and Posterior Cruciate Ligaments. When bone rubs on bone it can inflame the area and be very very painful. That’s why it’s important that we look after the cartilage in our knees. Rubbing can also lead to osteoarthritis in later life. To conclude They’re both brilliant exercises, the back squat puts a lot of pressure through the spine and can cause big problems but you can lift more weight and it is will a very athletic movement and worth doing. The front squat is beter for sprinters and as it is part of a power techniques (clean and jerk), it can be good to use for power training. You cannot lift as much and puts a lot of load through the lower back, so if you have a weak lower back I wouldn’t recommend it. All squats have their positives and negatives but I believe that they should be done with weight as the benefits outweigh the negatives. The squat is such a brilliant and athletic movement and will really help you to grow. No matter what your goal is, the squat is a great exercise (unless obviously your goal is to never do squats). JUST MAKE SURE YOU DO IT RIGHT!!! If you don’t know quite how to do a squat I’d recommend that you start light, or with no weight at all. Because done wrong it can leave you with a lot of problems (back and knee) to learn to do it watch as many videos as possible. It is definitely worth getting somebody to assist you and show you how to do this exercise even if you have to pay for it. If you aren’t doing it with the proper form you can seriously injure yourself, which is bad because firstly you’re injured and secondly you won’t want to do squats again. Bibliography Pictures taken from http://www.bodybuilding.com/ 16/12/2015
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