Month: September 2015
By taro

Six Revelations About Neck Pain

A great scourge has descended upon the athletic and sedentary people of the land. Many people are being seen roaming the fields and streets with cockeyed posture. Closer inspection reveals the issue – the people cannot hold their heads high! At first, a widespread lack of self-esteem was blamed for this affliction. Now, after much fruitless introspection, it has become apparent the cause is physical. Men and women of all types are suffering from neck pain! The short-term solution economy is thriving on neck pain. Pain-killing pills, lotions and potions are selling at an all-time high. None address the root cause. Read the following revelations and take a (upright) step toward a neck pain solution.

1. Neck pain has a mechanical basis

The structure of the neck is formed by hard bone and elastic muscle. The alignment of bone and the state of muscle depends upon imposed physical demands. The neck will not change without mechanical stimuli! Drugs and other force-less therapies are not long-term solutions for neck pain. Stretching and other soft tissue mangement techniques combined with exercise are the best weapons available for battling neck pain.

2. Blame your balance!

The body alters bone alignment to keep its mass evenly distributed. If the head moves forward of the body’s centre of mass the thoracic spine moves back to compensate (causing characteristic rounding of the shoulders). Fat on the stomach also shifts weight ahead of the centre of mass. To balance itself, the body pushes the sacrum out towards the rear (causing the glutes to stick out or “duck butt”).

3. The curves tell the tale

Spinal curvature often dictates the health of bone and surrounding tissue. For example, the inside part of a curve (where the edges of the vertebrae are compressed together) can feature arthritis, pinched nerves and shortened (tight) muscles. The outside part of the curve (where the edges are spread apart) can feature inter-vertebral hernias, strained ligaments and lengthened muscles.

4. In general, you should be trying to reduce excessive spinal curvature

Keep in mind that the spine can bend front to back as well as sideways. When addressing pain, sideways curvature often takes priority! Curve management can be accomplished by strengthening lengthened muscle tissue and stretching shortened tissue. Also, balance your spine’s exposure to off-centre loads.

5. You can’t do the same thing on both sides of the body!

To straighten a bend the status quo must change! In simple terms, the inside of a bent spine must be stretched and the outside must be strengthened. Symmetical exercise won’t change anything! The most effective therapies treat the left and right side of the body differently.

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6. Maintenance is required!

The body always gravitates toward the same tendencies. Lifetime pain management requires a lifetime committment to appropriate strength training and stretching. Luckily, this approach to pain management is painless, straightforward and devoid of the side effects of invasive therapies!

Neck pain can cause a lot of frustration and anxiety. Logical, anatomy-based solutions absolutely exist. If you want to learn more you must attend a tarodo seminar! The empowering effects of knowledge will have you holding your head high!

How to Correctly Perform Deep Squats

Deep squatting should form the foundation of all physiques. A body with well developed thighs and glutes can stand alone without derision. Buttless, even the greatest torso risks ridicule.

The full aesthetic and functional impact of squats cannot be achieved by performing partial repetitions only – all must learn to go deep!

In the attempt to learn how to go deep, nearly all enthusiasts find they cannot simultaniously drop their hips to the floor while maintaining correct (upright) posture. They enivitably round their lower backs and hunch over. Most believe their limitations lie in their lack of flexibility. In reality, the biggest key to performing proper deep squats is balance – specifically, the ability to move the centre of gravity forward in relation to the feet.

 

 

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1. Good posture with the center of gravity moved forward (by holding a ten pound weight in front)

 

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2. Poor posture when the center of gravity is moved to the rear (by holding the ten pound weight behind the head)

Seven tips to move your body’s mass forward over your feet (without holding a ten pound weight!)

  1. Take a fairly wide stance (as your technique improves your stance can become more narrow)
  2. Turn your feet out sharply (this should externally rotate the femurs causing, via the femoral necks, the hips to move forward. Also, most ankles will have greater range-of-motion with the feet rotated out)
  3. Target getting your hips over your feet
  4. Let your knees push forward past your toes*
  5. Do not force your knees out, let them track over your big toe.
  6. Push your spine forward by trying to press your lower abdomen into your thighs (this both moves your centre of gravity forward and stretches your sacrum away from your femurs)**
  7. If, despite your best efforts, you still can’t maintain good posture as you squat down deeply – raise your heels three inches and try again with the above tips. Practice and then progress to lower heel postions until they are flat on the floor.

*perform calf stretches with the knees bent if your heels rise off the floor

**to keep a flat spine in the bottom of a squat the sacrum has to move away from the femurs. If, despite the tips above, your butt still won’t stick out – stretch the muscle fibres which squeeze the sacrum and femurs together – glute max!

The key to performing proper deep-squats is, without doubt, balance. Try moving your centre of gravity forward before resorting to stretching or elevating the heels. Deep squats are the cure for many physiques. Like all strong medicines, use squats wisely!

 
By taro

Countdown To The Best Back Exercise

Upper-back development is the key to victory whether in bodybuilding, athletics or first impressions. No other group of muscles pack the same degree of aesthetic and functional significance. We use our lats and scapular muscles to chop logs, throw serious heat, squeeze the life out of opponenents and cast awe-inspiring shadows. Given the importance of upper-back development, there is no time to waste on inferior exercises. Below are the top five back upper back exercises – counting down to the very best back exercise of them all!

5. The Bent Over-Barbell Row

The bent over row is an awesome exercise that engages the lats, scapular muscles, lower back and hamstrings. However, it fails to meet the criteria for very-best back exercise for the following reasons:

  • It features a short range-of-motion (90 degrees) which only gets smaller with bigger bellies!
  • Barbell Rows engage the lower back rather than the abdominals. This reduces the emphasis on latissimus dorsi.
  • Peak tension occurs when the upper-arms are parallel to the ground. Paradoxically, this position is where the working muscles are fully shortened and less able to produce force.

4. Isometric Inverted Row

I can’t stand regular inverted rows – the quality of tension on the back muscles feels very low. However, if you hold the top position (chest pressing into the bar) the quality of tension feels phenomenal! Try twenty to forty second isometrics. This is a top exercise for activating the rhomboids, and levator scapula. This row variation also smashes the little “detail” muscles (rear deltoid, infraspinatus, teres major and minor) which look awesome with low bodyfat levels. However, as much as I love the feel and utility of the isometric inverted row – it cannot be the very best back exercise for the following reasons.

  • Activates muscles in their shortest position only
  • Does not hit the lats very hard

3. Single-arm Cable Pulldowns

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Bi-lateral (two handed) pulldowns suck! Uni-lateral (one-handed) pulldowns rock! Bi-lateral pulldowns require moving your head out of the way to get the two-handed bar to your chest. This causes people to lean back and arch their lower backs – greatly diminishing demand on the lats. With uni-lateral pulldowns the single-hand handle is free to travel straight to the chest and you can “crunch” the weight down – engaging the internal oblique and abdominals. This results in a marked increase in tension on the lats. Uni-lateral pulldowns can “bridge the gap” for beginners – strengthening their muscles in a manner conducive to performing bodyweight chinups and pullups. Bi-lateral pulldowns, conversely, have little useful influence on chinup and pullup performance. As good as single-arm pulldowns can be they are not quite the best:

  • Cable exercise machines vary and may not fit the exerciser or accomodate single-arm pulldowns.
  • Cable machines, like all resistance-training machines, influence the mechanics of an exercise. Always note the directon of pull and other inconsistencies (isometric tension can be low and even nil on some pulley apparatuses)

2. Single-arm Dumbbell Rows and Derivatives

Dumbbell rows are a truly awesome upper-back exercise. They strongly affect all of the upper-back muscles including the rhomboids and levator scapula. You can vary the specific effect of this exercise by pronating or supinating your wrist as well as varying the shape of your spine (rounded vs arched). Unfortunately, the dumbbell row falls short of very-best back exercise for the following reasons:

  • Range-of -motion is not as extensive as our number-one back exercise
  • Lower levels of abdoiminal activation and little demand for scapular depression limits the activation of latissimus dorsi

1. Chin-ups and Pullups

Without a doubt, the very best back exercises are chinups and pullups. This is why:

  • Easy to learn. Limited fooling around trying to acquire the skill to manage a significant load.
  • Easy to load and track progress. Use a chin/dip belt.
  • Both varaitions feature a HUGE one-hundred and eighty degree range of motion at the shoulder
  • These exercises provide the highest torque when the back muscles are within their optimal length to produce force
  • They have a tremendous scapular depression component. A whole lot of muscle mass (lats, pec major, pec minor etc.) is responsible for keeping your shoulder girdle attached to your torso.
  • They strongly engage the abdominals!***

***The abdominals facilitate lat recruitment. The adominals pull the lat’s origin (the spine) away from its insertions (the humeri). This increase in length causes preferential recruitment of the lats over other muscles and helps to maintain optimal, force-producing length during an exercise.

Don’t be fooled, for every goal there definitely exists an exercise hieracrchy. If you want upper-back development, especially of latissimus dorsi, you cannot beat pullups and chinups. Never forget, however, it is not just the exercise but how you perform it!

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