Stayfitanywhere’s Blog

The supine what?  Yes read it again.  You may have never heard of this exercise, but as you can see, this is actually a combination of 2 exercises.  I love this exercise and I do this exercise regularly because it addresses 5 things:  upper body flexibility, upper body strength, shoulder joint stability, core strength, and an increased metabolic effect.  I’ll begin by describing the exercise start postitions and break it down, bit by bit.

To start, I lie in a supine (face up on my back) ‘table-top position’ on a workout bench with a dumbbell in each hand.  I begin the action by very slowly lowering the dumbbells in a controlled manner into a chest fly position.  From there, I will hold this position for 10 seconds.  Holding this position, is in my experience, the most effective and aggressive way to stretch out your chest muscles.  Most individuals have tight pecs and rounded shoulders from sitting at a desk all day and this section of the exercise alone is an amazing way to stretch the chest (and feels great too!).  As I hold the dumbbells and let my chest stretch out in this deep fly position with my legs up in the table top position, I am simultaneously performing 10 alternating ‘leg drops’.  This action forces the deep core muscles to stabilize the spine.

Once I have performed the 10 alternating leg drops, I return my legs to the table top position and then I begin to perform 5 very slow controlled chest flies, which builds strength and a fantastic isolation awareness of the pectoralis major muscles (the chest-see my previous blog post on Corrective Exercise).  Once I have completed my 5 chest fly reps, I will return the beginning and repeat this sequence it all over again until I have done it for at least 1 minute.  My favourite benefit of this whole exercise is that each time I lower the dumbbells into the deep fly position, I can feel my chest muscles stretch out deeper and deeper.  By the time the exercise is over, my chest has gone through a very deep, profound stretch and I experience a feeling of being ‘opened up’.

WARNING TO THOSE WHO WANT TO TRY THIS EXERCISE:  As with any exercise, this sequence has its elements of risk!  Remember to begin by performing just the chest fly with a light weight first.  The deeper and heavier you go into the fly, the higher the risk of injury in the shoulder joint.  If you feel any part of your shoulder joint ‘kicking in’ then you are performing this exercise ineffectively- make sure your chest muscles are taking 100% of the load during this sequence.  This exercise is complex.  So just as with learning any new skill, it is important to begin by performing simple movements (correctly) first.  Once you have a handle on the simple dumbbell movement (in isolation) then practice the leg drops (in isolation).  Once you have correctly mastered the 2 movements, you can then combine the 2 exercises.  Crawl before you walk kids

Happy Training! 

Andrew Burchell

Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

As per usual I started off the week by teaching our 6am WinterFit class at our studio and then I met up with a client for a workout at her home gym.  During the two workouts I instructed and my commute around the city I got to thinking about a few things and I would like to share them with you.

·         My group class this morning did a warmup of standing on one foot and throwing a ball back and forth.  As they woke up and got warm I began to introduce some new challenges, catching with one hand, catching and passing left handed, and finally adding more balls.  The group of 4 was able to progress to left handed throwing on one foot with 2 balls with few drops so I decided to introduce a 3^rd ball and see how they did… and the balls began to bounce all over the place.  At first there was laughter but as the balls started to drop more frequently frustration set into place and it was at that time that I had to regress the drill.  So we finished with standing on two feet one handed passing and catching with 3 balls, and SUCCESS!!  There are times when it is great to introduce a new challenge to the body and mind, however as an instructor you have to be prepared to modify the exercise/drill in order to give your participants a developmentally appropriate challenge.  We have all been asked to do something that was either physically or mentally beyond our abilities and those tasks can cause even those with the strongest will to be discouraged but if we break down a task to simple pieces we can eventually achieve what seemed to be impossible.  Oh yeah the laughter came back when the 3 balls started whipping around the circle!

·         A second thought arose when throwing balls around this morning, and it came from the statement “why am I not better at this?”  I replied to this with “when was the last time you threw a ball around like this, I bet it was the last time we did this exercise,” I saw 4 heads nod “yes.”  Quite simply put the only way to get better at something is by doing it!  Want to throw and catch a ball better?  Spend more time throwing and catching a ball.  Want to be a better lacrosse player?  Practice playing lacrosse more.  Want to be a better runner?  Run more.  Want to be better at Deadlifting?  Perform more Deadlifts.  Those are the simple answers, however to be better at something you need to do more than just doing it, you need to do it PERFECT!  Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfection.  If you were to practice Deadlifting with improper technique you are going to get really good at doing Deadlifts with improper technique, same thing with running, throwing, catching and playing sports.  That is the amazing thing about your nervous system it is incredible at remembering patterns (good and bad ones).  This is precisely why it is so important when exercising that you focus on proper technique and nothing else, once technique is in place you can begin to play with other variables!

·         Breathing during exercise is a very important skill, and I call it a skill because it needs to be practiced along with technique in order to exercise perfect.  As I have seen many times with my clients is that they forget to breathe when performing exercises, especially when they are focusing on engaging their “core.”  I like to teach my clients who do this that it is very much possible to contract a muscle and breathe at the same time; I do this by having them put their hand out and resist the pressure I put on it while they tell me a story.  At the end of the story I ask if their arm is tired and if they felt like they had to work hard during story time and the answer is always “yes.”  We then work on learning how to consciously engage the “core” while breathing (usually counting aloud from 5 to 1).  This is a great way to prepare the body for other “core” bracing techniques that are necessary for lifting.

·         Finally as I was driving around the city this morning I saw two signs that read: Thank You for Supporting the Games, Please Keep Walking.  Sadly I saw these signs while I was driving in my car.  I had spoken with many people in the past week about how the Olympics games proved how easy it is to walk around the city and that I hoped people would continue to do it.  I walked around the city before the Olympics came, I walked around the city a ton during the games, and I have increased my amount of walking  in the past week (walked to and from the movie theatres, and for a few errands I would normally drive, etc.) and plan to keep walking more.  It is great to see that the city of Vancouver is taking the initiative to promote active green forms of transportation (Dunsmuir viaduct is now a bike lane like Burrard St bridge), and it is now up the citizens of the city to participate.

Throw balls, breathe when you exercise, walk/bike around the city, and make sure you do it perfect!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

Following is an article from today’s Vancouver Province.

Better to work core muscles standing up; Sit-up puts the spine at risk, doing more harm than good The Province Mon Nov 9 2009

Page: B9

Section: Live It!

Byline: Jill Barker

If you haven’t already, it’s time to remove sit-ups from your exercise routine. A stalwart of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, sit-ups were originally touted as the exercise of choice for whittling excess inches off the waistline. Yet even after spot-reducing was revealed as a myth, sit-ups maintained their popularity as a core strengthener.  Now even that claim has come under scrutiny. The sit-up targets one muscle (the rectus abdominus), which is responsible for bending the spine forward. Yet the body’s midsection, often referred to as the core, is made up of several muscles that not only generate movement in numerous directions but also stabilize the spinal column.  The final myth — the one that claims sit-ups improve back health — has now also been exposed. In fact, some spine experts suggest that sit-ups actually put the spine at risk, making it not only an exercise that has little benefit, but one that may actually do more harm than good.  Leading the pack of experts who think sit-ups don’t live up to their billing is Stuart McGill, a professor of spine mechanics at the University of Waterloo. According to McGill, all that bending of the spine isn’t good for back health.  “Given that the sit-up imposes such a large compression load on the spine, the issue is not which type of sit-up should be recommended,” McGill says in his book Low Back Disorders (Human Kinetics, $59). “Rather, sit-ups should not be performed at all by most people.”  McGill says the goal of a core exercise is to challenge the muscles in a way that spares the spine. He also maintains that when it comes to the back, the idea is to improve muscular endurance before trying to improve strength. 

David Campbell is an athletic therapist and osteopath. The co-owner of Concordia Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy and osteopath for the Montreal Canadiens, Campbell has seen his share of back problems. And while he admits that the old school approach to better back health included prescribing sit-ups, that’s no longer the case.  “Sit-ups won’t make your back any better,” he said.  Campbell agrees with McGill that when it comes to the back, endurance is more important, at least initially, than strength. He also suggests that most back-pain sufferers lack good back mobility, which isn’t helped by a steady diet of sit-ups.

David Snively is one of Montreal’s top personal trainers. He prefers working the abs in a standing position, because it is more reflective of how we use our core muscles in everyday life.  Mimicking such movement patterns is referred to as functional training, which gets a big thumbs up from McGill, Snively and Campbell.  What about those who want to target the rectus abdominus? Is there an exercise that can take the place of a sit-up?  McGill suggests modifying the traditional sit-up so that it reduces the stress on the spine. His version of the sit-up starts by lying on your back, one leg straight and the other bent (the straight leg helps maintain the curve in the lower back and the bent leg reduces stress on the sciatica or piriformis). Place both hands under the small of the back. Lift the shoulder blades off the floor, hold for a couple of seconds and return to the starting position.  “Pretend the head and shoulders are propped on a scale,” said McGill describing the action when the shoulders are lifted off the floor.  “Just make sure that the weight on the scale weighs zero.”

Quality core workouts consist of a variety of exercises, including those that build muscular endurance (stability exercises), teach proper movement patterns and, for the active individual, build strength.

Another goal to keep in mind is the importance of equalizing the muscular endurance and strength of all your supporting muscles so that no one muscle group overpowers another. Imbalance in the core muscles tends to pull the spine out of alignment, thereby increasing the risk of back pain and injury.  McGill also suggests that whatever exercise you are doing, the natural curve of the lower back should be maintained.  That means avoid flattening the back or performing a pelvic tilt (tucking the hips under the belly button), which increases the stress on the spine.

Try SFA’s Favourite Standing Core Partner Exercise:  If you have ever attended one of SFA’s group training classes (Evolution Bootcamp or WinterFit) you have likely had the opportunity to work your core using one of our favourite exercises: the battle!  If you haven’t been to one of our classes and are wondering what the battle is all about find a friend and try it out.  Partner 1 sets up in half squat position (back flat and bum out) and brings their hands together at chest height (shoulders down).  Partner 2 set up in the same ready position but has their hands up in ready position.  Partner 2’s job is to push the hands of Partner 1.  Partner 2 can push the hands from the left, right, bottom or top but must only push as hard as Partner 1 is pushing back.  It is the goal of Partner 1 to keep their hands in the dead centre of their body.  In order to do this Partner 1 has to really focus on bracing their core as if they are accepting a punch as well as trying their best to keep their weight equally balanced between their left and right foot.  Do 3 sets of 30seconds with your partner and I bet it will feel like a better abs workout than sit-ups and you will probably have more fun while you are doing it!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTips at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere