Question everything.

I am writing this post, not for the people that we train, but for the not so lucky people that are being trained by these "trainers" in commercial facilities. Now, let me preface by saying not all of them are terrible. I've seen more than a few trainers who know what they are talking about and can actually defend what they are doing.

 That has not been the case this week. For those of you who know me, I study a lot. I also put that study into practice and come up with (what I believe to be) the best programs that I can come up with for that particular situation. Everything is specialized, and I never write the same workout up twice. I use similar exercises, but your exercise selections are greatly dependent on your specific goals.

 Now, saying that - I have recently decided to get a membership at a commercial gym. I will not tell you which one as I don't want to step on any feet, but I did it for 2 reasons.

 1. I was getting distracted lifting here on my own. I have paperwork to do, filing, reports... a lot is on my mind here and it makes concentrating on breaking my personal bests kind of hard.

 2. I need to work out around people that are as strong or stronger than me. It's motivation. I am pretty happy with my lifts, but seeing the guy beside me toss up some heavier numbers is good motivation.

So, earlier this week I was in the gym, getting ready to do some deadlifts when I overhear a trainer tell a client who is roughly 225lbs, female and very nervous looking, that she should be doing these ridiculous step ups that required her knee to go into this weird rotation and he was MANUALLY FORCING rotation from her knee while her torso/hips were bouncing up and down in every direction.

 Anyone who has any basic anatomy knowledge KNOWS that the knee is a hinge joint and requires stability. It flexes and extends and has a *tiny* bit of eversion and inversion. His defense to her was that the reason people get these ACL and meniscus tears is that they don't have enough rotation in their knee. WOW. A real reason that people get these injuries is excessive rotation forced from the knee.. .the same thing he is doing to her on this bench. Your hips and ankles are the mobile joints and if they are lacking mobility, the joint in between does all of the extra work - and in this case, that is the knee, and I could tell just by looking at her that she had no movement in her hips and was really compensating by moving from the knee..  but that's what he wants her to do. This is almost guaranteed to cause an injury sometime in the near future. Repetitive strain movements like that take time, but I can assure you that bad things will happen to this woman's knee.

   I don't understand where these trainers get their cookie cutter programs.. It appalls me that they are allowed to work with the general public. The worst part is that I was at the gym for about an hour and a half that day, and I saw him doing the exact same exercise with 2 other people!

  So, my advice to you is that if you have any sort of reservations doing ANY exercise, get another opinion. Even if you are training with me, let me know if you have any questions about ANYTHING we are doing and I will be sure to have a smart answer. I get very frustrated with my profession as it is people like this that make me afraid to say, "Yeah, I'm a personal trainer." I watch people roll their eyes all the time.

  I believe that everyone here at All Canadian Fitness is different. We are smart. We are changing the way people get trained and I love my job.

  Just please be careful you moronic trainers, it's not a piece of clay you can just throw away if you mess up, it's a person's body. They have to live with these problems that you are creating. It's the only body they have. Turn them into a machine - don't destroy their gears.

                                      "Ok, ready? It's all you bro! The chicks are gonna love this!"

-Friday rant over-

More than just a warm up

Ok, I've been slacking with this whole "blog" thing. Time to get back on track.

The first issue I want to talk about is dynamic warm ups. I've been asked by a couple of people how to "correctly" warm up. Anyone can walk out on the gym floor and hit the treadmill up for 5 minutes. Sure, that will increase your body temp and get some blood flowing, but will it get you ready for your lifts?

No. It's pretty useless in my opinion.

I always start my clients out with some foam rolling. If you don't know what this is, don't worry - you aren't the only one. It has been around for a while, but only over the course of the last couple of years is it finally getting the recognition it deserves. If you don't have one, buy one. If you have one, use it.. . because I know you aren't using it as much as you should.

It hurts. But - it's a good hurt. Basically, what a foam roller does is decrease tissue density. It allows for the breakdown of scar tissue and adhesions that can occur in the fascia over time.

What does this mean to you? Well, depending on the quality of your tissues, it can mean a lot. I have seen knee pain disappear with the addition of foam rolling into a warm up, and the risk is injury is lessened as foam rolling tricks your muscles into allowing a more full range of motion while you are exercising. Now, it doesn't happen overnight, but there hasn't been a program I've written up in the last 3 years that hasn't started with foam rolling.

My advice is to begin with rolling your;

Quads (front of legs)
IT Band (side of legs - you know you hit it when it feels like hot needles. Don't worry, it get's better with practice)
TFL (small muscle right in front of your hip bone)
Mid Back
Adductors (inside of your legs)
Glutes (butt)
Lats (long muscles under your arms, that run laterally down to your ribs)

Next - mobilize the joints in your body. Another thing I hate about treadmills is that they are so linear. You walk in a straight line. Now, if you are warming up for an intense power walking session, then sure, walking is great. Our hips are a very complex joint providing a center where our upper bodies meet our lower. They are responsible for a multitude of movements. So, warm them up that way. I tend to always warm up in accordance to the workout I will be doing that day. So, if I am squatting or deadlifting, I start at my ankles and move my way up, spending a bit more time on the areas I am concentrating on that day. This is typically my general warm up.

I start out with my static stretching. I know, you have been led to believe that static stretching before exercise is bad.. but recent studies have actually shown it to be beneficial. I like to do it before my dynamic warm up.

Chest Stretch - Find a doorway. Bring your elbows up to a 90 degree angle against the frame (think getting arrested) now press your chest forward through the frame. Hold that for 30 seconds.
Hip flexor stretch - Get into a kneeling position. Bring one leg forward so that you are in a half kneel position. Keeping your upper body tall, lean forward with your hips, elongating that back leg. Squeeze your glute on that side and feel that stretch on the inside of your back leg.

Now, for mobility. I have stolen these over the years from multiple sources - I just took the ones that I felt were the best.

#1 - Ankle mobility drill - Notice how he is going in multiple directions here. Don't force the range of motion, the more you do this, the better you will get at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H-wU5b5bWA

#1 - Split stance adductor mobilizations - now these start to work your hips through a natural range. .. even though it wont feel natural at the beginning as you have probably lost this movement over time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL64ceQfi_4&feature=player_embedded

#2 - Half kneel adductor dips - I also like these to promote a greater range of motion through the groin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaxG6hOj2pk&feature=player_embedded

#3 - Scapular wall slide - This is one of my favorite upper body mobility drills. It looks very basic, but does the trick, especially if your job requires you to lean forward over a computer, or drive constantly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k2kqyzz3Ug

These are very basic, as I didn't really want to write a novel, but I hope you begin to understand that hoping on the treadmill for a warm up isn't going to do anything for your performance, and may even hinder you or cause an injury.

If you have any questions, you know where to find me.