Developing incredible leg strength and power is very important for those who play sports for the muscles in your legs are the engine room that provide the ability to run, spring and jump. Spending time in the gym to build leg strength is one of the most important goals during the off-season training for many sportsmen and sportswomen. You only have to look at the thigh development of sprinters, rugby and football players to see how important leg strength and power is. However, it is an area of the body that is often neglected by many of the general population who just wants to get fit and lose a bit of weight. This is a real concern, for apart from the obvious benefits for sporting performance, strong legs can prevent many of the injuries we see today with the knee and the back. Strong quadriceps enhance knee health and strong glutes and hamstring muscles can be real back savers when lifting heavy objects from the floor. And in terms of losing weight and obtaining that toned and athletic appearance, the strength of your legs can play a massive role in this department too. The message is clear, leg strength is critical to your overall health and daily function so it is never a good idea to skip legs day.

While we have all heard about someone who hurt their back due to lifting something too heavy, like a deadlift in the gym, or moving furniture in the home and like to blame that last movement as the reason for the injury. This is very rarely the underlying cause. For how do you explain the person who blows the discs in their lower back out from lifting a pencil off the floor, or tying their shoelaces? Most back pain episodes are the result of everyday activities, postures, sports movements, anything involving repetition and small to moderate forces. The little habits we think nothing of that create muscle imbalance, postural deviations, weakness, and ultimately compensatory movement are the root cause of pain. In this article, I will explain in great detail what some of these daily habits we think nothing of are, and how they contribute to ruin our movement and spinal health.

Whenever you talk about exercises for the rotator cuff or for preventing shoulder injuries the very first exercise people think of is the external rotation exercise using rubber tubing. How come nearly every shoulder problem needs external rotation work? Do they all have weak external rotators? Many physical therapists and trainers will say yes, and this will often be their “go-to” exercise for almost every shoulder injury they see. Their belief is that the external rotators are weak and over-powered by the larger internal rotator muscles of the pecs and lats and therefor they need to be strengthened. However, this type of logic ignores the true role of the rotator cuff and assumes so many critical factors that are often the reason behind the imbalance being created in the first place. In this article, I will discuss how these exercises often cause more problems than they solve and if you want to improve stability and function of the rotator cuff, you will find there are much better choices that will get you out of pain and back to full function.