Without a doubt the Deadlift is one of the best exercises you can ever use in the gym. Whether you are a keen sporting athlete, someone recovering from injury, or even an 80 year old looking to maintain quality of life this exercise provides amazing benefits and is something we use everyday in life. Outside of the gym it is simply known as “bending”. For this reason we tend to refer to this as a foundational movement pattern first and an exercise second. As much as the benefits from learning and developing your skills with deadlift are amazing it also comes with high risk if performed poorly. Injuries such as herniated discs are so common with this movement with many of these occurring outside of a gym and from daily activities like picking up a pen off the floor. There are so many versions of this exercise it is important to know which one is best for your body right now. This article we will explain everything you need to know about deadlifts and which version works best for you.
Are Your Hamstrings Tight Or Are They Compensating For Other Muscles?
Of all the muscles to get a bad rap and always to blame for creating trouble, the hamstring muscles would be right up there alongside the upper traps as the public enemy number one. Watch anyone who plays sports do their stretching routine and you are guaranteed to see the hamstrings get a real workout, or participate in a Yoga class to see how many hamstring stretches you will have to complete and it seems like everyone must be short and tight in this muscle group. Now while this may seem like a good idea, what you will find in this article is that many people who are cranking excessive mobility into this area are in fact creating a huge potential problem at joints like the knee, and even the lower back. It is ironic for many people are doing the stretch in the belief it is going to prevent these injuries. We will also discuss the strategies that are used to strengthen the hamstrings, in particular with sports where hamstring tears are common, and show you that it is not the hamstring that is the problem. The hamstring muscles really are very misunderstood, and when you appreciate how they actually function you will become much smarter with how you approach your training.
5 Reasons Why You Should Use The Barbell Hip Thrust To Strengthen The Glutes
There has been many times that I have been proven wrong or I have completely changed my mind about a health and fitness concept over the past 17 years as a trainer. The value of the barbell hip thrust is one of those instances where I originally thought little of this as an exercise and saw it more as a gimmick or an exercise for those who were not skilled enough to do deadlifts, squats, and single leg exercises. However, in recent times and I have suffered several health setbacks that forced me to change my training program and exercise selection that led me to experiment with this exercise. Much to my pleasant surprise I uncovered some hidden gems with the hip thrust that I never fully appreciated previously. In this article, I will share with you what these secrets are and how you can use this to great benefit in your own training.
How Good Is The Clamshell Exercise For Strengthening Gluteus Medius?
The side lying clamshell exercise is one of the most prescribed exercises for people with weak glutes. Clamshells are a favourite exercise of most physical therapists and featured in nearly every group class as the best way to strengthen your gluteus medius muscle. While the clamshell is intended to have good activation of the gluteal muscles there are several problems this exercise can create in the hip and pelvic region, and in some cases can even make the glutes weaker! In this article, I will explain how to use this exercise correctly and ensure you avoid the common mistakes many people make.
Stop Blaming Psoas Major For Hip & Back Pain & This Is Why?
This is part two of my detailed articles about two confusing muscles of the hip that many people blame for chronic pain with either back or hip problems, when in reality these muscles are merely reacting to dysfunction created elsewhere and trying to improve stability. The two muscles I am referring to are the quadratus lumborum which I discussed in part one, and Psoas Major which I am analyzing in this article. Without a doubt this is one of the most misunderstood muscles in terms of its function and as a result its influence on dysfunction around the hip and pelvis. For a long time it Psoas has been referred to as a “hip flexor muscle” and blamed for creating excessive anterior tilt of the pelvis which is a common postural fault with back pain and hip related problems. However when you observe its attachments and how it functions you find out it is more of a stabilizing muscle that posterior rotates the pelvis! The bigger problem is more to do with a lesser known muscle called Illiacus that works very closely with the psoas major. This changes everything in how you would try to restore function and stability to hip and pelvic problems and in this article I will attempt to explain how this works and the best ways to restore hip function.
To Fully Strengthen The Glutes You Need A Wide Variety Of Exercises
If there is one an area of the body that I receive a stack of questions about it is the hip and the glutes. Even people I work personally with each week in the gym this can be a challenging set of muscles to improve their strength and function. For such a massive group of muscles it can be amazingly lazy and frustrating to work with when it comes to strengthening exercises. Some of the exercises that work tremendously well with one person, either do nothing or create harm in the next person. A classic example of this is with piriformis syndrome or SIJ dysfunction where the weakness in the glutes is the main source of the pain. If you choose the wrong exercise, or do too much too soon, you will risk creating more pain as the glutes switch off and compensatory muscles take over. In this article, I am going to share with you a detailed analysis of 15 exercises explaining exactly the purpose of the exercise and who it is best to. I will also provide a video explanation of exercise so you can implement this in your training straight away.