Archive for the ‘Exercises’ Category

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The importance of core strength

March 9th, 2010 by David

A good friend of mine is currently experiencing ‘significant’ back pain. You know… the sort of pain that stops you doing what you enjoy and makes simple things like getting dressed and tying your shoe-laces almost impossible.

While there are numerous factors why someone might experience back pain, having weak core muscles increases your risk of getting a sore back.

Typically, when the word “core” is used, it is in reference to the six-pack abdominals and lower back. However, it actually includes a large number of muscles between the abdomen and the ribs. There are many muscles that work together so you need to keep all of them strong enough to do their particular job.

The role of the abdominal and back muscles

When most people think about training their ‘abs’ they focus on a muscle called the rectus abdominis. It’s the one that creates the six-pack look, so women love it and men crave it. Its role is to pull the shoulders towards the hips, but this is only a small proportion of what the core muscles do.

The best way to describe what the muscles of your core do is ‘posture’ and ‘support’. They are responsible for holding the upper body in the proper posture for whatever it is you’re doing, be that standing, lifting something, riding a bike or sitting at your desk. Posture, as in pulling your shoulders back and sitting or standing up tall is the easiest to see.

Support is another major role of these muscles. Think of picking up a bag of shopping, doing squats, or putting something on the top shelf in the kitchen. Your core muscles contract to hold the body rigid and support the spine. If you don’t or can’t contract the core muscles to support your upper body, you will either falter under the weight of whatever you are lifting or put additional pressure on the spine.

The core muscles are also responsible for efficient movement. Without effective core muscles, the upper body would flop about unnecessarily creating a lot more work for other muscles and joints in the body.

Why You Need A Strong Core

The key role of the core is to support the upper body, primarily to prevent injury to the spinal column. The spine is an amazing design with each joint allowing about four degrees of movement. If the muscles are not strong enough, the body may well push the boundaries of this limited range. If the limits are exceeded too much and/or too often, it can cause damage to the ligaments, facet joints or disc between the vertebra.

How most people train their core muscles

Sit-ups, sit-ups and more sit-ups or crunches, crunches and more crunches. Because the rectus abdominis is the most visible muscle it gets all the attention. However, strengthening just this muscle and forgetting the rest is dangerous. It only strengthens the front of the abdomen so there is little support on the sides and at the back. This doesn’t mean you should never do these exercises, but activities that include all the core muscles working together are important.

Examples of how to exercise the core muscles

Just tighten everything up

Get into the habit of tightening up all the muscles around your abdomen and stomach 10 times a day. Create cues, like the phone ringing or every time you have a drink of water to contract the muscles.

Plank or Bridge

This involves holding the body rigid and parallel to the floor, keeping everything from shoulders to ankles in a straight line. Start lying on your stomach then push up onto your toes and elbows, keeping your body straight. I do this when watching TV. Instead of sitting on the couch, I’ll lie on the floor and each time an ad comes on I’ll do a plank for as long as I can. You’ll realise how long the ad breaks are when you do this!

Side plank

This is similar to the plank except you are on one elbow and the outside of one foot. Hold your body in a straight line for as long as you can and make sure you do both sides.

Working on these three is a good start to strengthening your core muscles. Just a few minutes each day can make the difference and could potentially prevent you from experiencing the sort of pain my friend is going through. It is a lot easier to do these before you get a sore back, so don’t wait until something starts to hurt.

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Posted by David Posted in Exercises, Fitness, Strength, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »


Equipment won’t do it for you

September 8th, 2009 by David

I admit it; I had the morning show on in the background while I was doing some work this morning.

I can guess what you’re thinking… but I was actually waiting for a segment on health and fitness that was coming up soon.

Before that, an infomercial came on making grand claims about some new exercise equipment that would change your life without you having to do anything strenuous.

There were two attractive young women using this machine with big smiles on their faces, hardly breaking a sweat while the promoter claimed you only had to exercise for a few minutes a day and didn’t have to even get out of breath. Doing just a few minutes of gentle exercise you were guaranteed to lose kilos of weight, tone your abs and have long shapely legs and butt.

It sounded fantastic and they guaranteed that if you weren’t happy you could return the machine and get your money back. Then they had ‘happy customers’ making outrageous claims about how much weight they had lost, how many dress sizes they and dropped and how their whole life had turned around.

I get so frustrated when television channels run these advertisements. While the equipment might in itself be okay, anyone that claims you don’t have to put in some effort or breathe hard is kidding themselves and conning you.

As good as any exercise equipment is, the key to getting fitter is to push yourself out of your comfort zone and to do a variety of different exercise not just one action on a machine.

And while I have been telling you to exercise with more intensity for less time, you won’t get fit dong a few minutes a day if you aren’t prepared to push yourself.

So next time you are tempted to pick up the phone and order that wiz-bang exercise machine that is going to change your life, remember you still have to do the work and do a variety of different exercises.

And next time someone claims that this one piece of equipment is all you need, get off the couch and do some exercises. You’ll soon realize you don’t need buy anything to get fitter.

You just need to put in the effort.

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Posted by David Posted in Exercises, Fitness, Outcomes | 1 Comment »


Have a Plan B

May 6th, 2009 by David

How many times have you intended to go for that run or get to the gym and it just hasn’t happened? Or you’ve woken up thinking you would go for a walk or ride and ‘accidentally’ turned off the alarm and fallen back to sleep.

I’m not just talking about when you don’t get there or get up because you just don’t feel like it; although I know that happens. I’m also talking about when, through no fault of your own, something gets in the way of you doing the exercise you planned to do. It can be frustrating, and in some cases be enough to get you out of your routine for a few days. It doesn’t take much to disrupt an exercise routine and change your mental focus; you miss one day and next thing you know it a week has gone by and you haven’t exercised.

I certainly recommend people stick to their routine as much as possible because we are creatures of habit. If you can’t however, having a Plan B is a good way to keep you mentally focused on getting some exercise in. What do I mean by Plan B? A plan B is an alternative exercise session that you can do when your normal activity isn’t possible. It might not be as strenuous or take as long as your normal exercise but that’s not so important. What is important is to do something so you stay in the habit of exercise.

I have a few Plan B’s, that I call on when my normal routine doesn’t happen. Here are some examples to give you some ideas for your Plan B:

  • 15 minutes in the home gym (shed) doing as many different exercises as I can in that time.
  • A twenty minute ride around a local park (in my case Kings Park) or any area close to home.
  • Walking to the local shops and back (even if I don’t need to buy anything (I don’t recommend this one to my sister who loves to shop!))
  • Push-ups, squats, shoulder presses and planks during the ads while I’m watching TV.
  • Skipping for 10 minutes in the backyard.

It doesn’t matter what your Plan B is, as long as it gets you doing something and keeps you in the ‘exercise habit’. The law of inertia says that is takes a lot more effort to get something moving than it does to keep it moving. I think it is the same with regular exercise. It’s a lot easier to keep your exercise program going than it is to let it stop and try to get started again. Just doing something, even if it is only for a few minutes, can keep in the habit.
Staying fit is about being consistent; developing an exercise routine that works for you and making it a habit for life. Having a Plan B helps you stay in,or get back into, your routine quicker when other things get in the way.

Your TO DO – come up with four or five Plan B’s that you can use. Write them down and keep them ready for when you miss a session. If you have any great ideas for Plan Bs let me know and I’ll share them with others.

Note: I don’t think there is anything wrong with missing an exercise session. Certainly your fitness won’t fall apart if you miss the occasional workout. Plan B’s are designed to prevent you falling out of routine completely. They are more for your head than they are for your body!

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Boost your Growth Hormone

November 4th, 2008 by David

Supplements and drugs to prevent ageing and boost fitness are being marketed with increasing frequency. Hardly a day goes by when someone isn’t peddling a quick fix way to get fit or stay young.

While these may enhance performance, they don’t replace the need to do the work required to get and stay fit. Even the Tour de France cyclists, who used drugs to improve their performance, had to work extremely hard to get the results they did. (It’s not easy getting thrown out of the race or off your own team).

Supplements to boost growth hormone are commonly marketed to stave off the effects of ageing. However, without doubt the best way to boost your own production of human growth hormone is exercise, specifically strength training.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina found that compared to a 30 minute aerobic training session, a strength training workout resulted in significantly more growth hormone release.

And the good news is that you don’t need to do a lot of strength training to give your Growth Hormone a boost.

The best types of exercises to boost growth hormone are compound or multi-muscle exercises such as squats. These can be done with just your own body weight or using extra weights such as dumbbells in your hands. A good upper body exercise to do with the squats is push-ups, or bench press if you have weights. These both use a number of upper body muscles.

Doing just 3 sets of 8 repetitions two to three times per week gives you a fast, whole body workout that builds muscle, burns fat, and boosts growth hormone. Add this to some regular aerobic exercise and you have a great fitness program that doesn’t take up too much time.

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The Secret

October 9th, 2008 by David

Over the past few years ‘The Secret’ has received enormous amounts of publicity. Not that long ago there was a public presentation near here with hundreds of people attending.

So what is The Secret?

It’s a self help DVD based on the concept of attraction. It proposes that your thoughts and feelings will attract what you want into your life.

Now I agree that the law of attraction is real and can help you to get what you want in life, but just thinking about something doesn’t get it for you.

As a fitness expert, I see and hear this with people who want to be fit. Comments like “If I was that fit, I’d exercise that much” or “If I had a body like her, I’d go to the gym too.”

When it comes to fitness, too many people think or dream about being fit(ter) but that’s all they do.

Here’s the real secret about fitness. If you want to be fit, you have to do the work. Yes, that means exercise. And yes, that means you have to commit some time to exercise regularly and the fitter you want to be the more effort you have to put in.

Those people you see out walking, running or cycling didn’t wake up one day fit and able to do what they do. They had to work to get that fit and they have to keep doing what they do to stay fit.

Fortunately, once you are fit, it is easier to stay fit than it was to get fit, so it doesn’t seem like work, but you still have to keep at it or you’ll lose your fitness.

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How To Get A Flat Stomach

June 27th, 2008 by David

One of the most common questions I get is “how do I get a flat stomach?”

There are two parts to the answer.

Everyone has a six-pack, but for most of us, it’s well hidden under a layer of fat. To be able to see your stomach muscles means losing some of the fat covering it.

Unfortunately the body decides where fat will come off when we use it, so exercising a certain part of the body doesn’t mean the fat will come off that area. If it worked like that, tennis players would have one arm with no fat and the other would have fat on it. Clearly this isn’t the case.

The good news, especially for men, is that the fat around the middle is a preferred source of energy. So some men can reduce their “gut” quite quickly.

As I’ve stated in previous newsletters, the key to losing body fat is to eat less (if you are eating too much) and to burn more calories by exercising more and, more importantly, increasing your metabolism. The best way to increase your metabolism being strength training two or three times per week.

Reducing your body fat gives you a greater chance of seeing the muscles under there, but it is still important to strengthen them so here’s what I suggest.

Contrary to popular belief, sit-ups and crunches aren’t the best way to strengthen your abdominal muscles. In fact, doing too many might be counter-productive and could lead to injury.

I recommend doing exercises in which you use your abdominal muscles to stabilse your body, rather than move it. In effect you are holding your stomach tight.

Here’s a simple exercise to try. It’s called the Plank.

Lie on the floor on your stomach with your chest propped up on your elbows (like a sphynx).

Lift your legs and stomach up so the only parts touching the ground are you forearms and toes.

Hold it for 30-60 seconds. Repeat 3-5 times.

 

 

There are a lot of variations to this that can make it harder and use the stomach muscles slightly differently but do this to start with.

Try doing it while you watch TV at night or while reading a book (that you can lie flat on the floor). You could even do this in an airport while you are waiting for your flight!

This exercise builds core stability which helps to protect the back as well as flatten your stomach.

Do this every second day for a couple of weeks and see if you can feel the difference. I’m sure you will.

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