Stick Ups

Name:  Stick Ups.

Also known as:  Wall Slides.

Main muscles used:  Upper back.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Stand with your back against a wall or any flat surface.
• Have your feet a few inches away from the wall.
• Keep your belly tight throughout.
• Have your bum, shoulder blades and back of head touching the wall.
• Keeping these 3 points of contact at all times, put your arms up, as if someone were pointing a gun at you.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades back together until your elbows touch the wall.
• If you can, try to get your wrists to touch the wall also.
• Keeping these 5 points of contact with the wall at all times, slowly slide your arms up and down to the count of 4 seconds.
• When pulling your arms down, think about squeezing your elbows in tight to your sides.

Common mistakes:

• Letting your bum/shoulder blades/head peel away from the wall.
• Failing to get your elbows back touching the wall.
• Failing to get your wrists back touching the wall.
• Relaxing your belly and letting it arch out in front in an attempt to get your elbows touching the wall.

Comments:

This is a very good variation of the Scapular Retraction exercise and is particularly good for anyone who suffers from a slumped forward posture.

Not only does it help mobilise the upper back and shoulders, but develops the muscles needed to pull the body back into an upright posture, and it teaches us how it actually feels to be upright.  If this move feels very alien to you, it is an indication of how much your posture is off.

And don’t worry if you can’t do it at first.  Many people these days find it difficult/odd at first.  The trick is do it “little and often”.  Do this exercise as part of every warm up, and for a few seconds several times each day.

Hip mobility is important for all of us.  It helps us do everyday moves.  It helps us do athletic/sporting moves.  It can help protect against dodgy knees and backs and general aches and pains.  In short, it lets us move better, move more and move safer.

So here is a quick and easy routine for almost anyone to improve their hip mobility.  There are only 4 stretches involved and it only takes 3 minutes, so you don’t have any excuses (you can even do it in the advert breaks of X Factor!)

So here goes…

Squat Stretch (click here for details).

Squat Stretch

Cossack Stretch (click here for details).

Cossack mobility stretch

Left side Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch (click here for details).

Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch

Right side Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch (click here for details).

Hip Flexor Lunge Stretch

Do the above four stretches for 10 seconds each, then repeat again for 15 seconds each, then a third and final round of 20 seconds each.  That makes a grand total of 180 seconds, or only 3 minutes!  And trust me, your hips will feel a lot looser and mobile afterwards.

You will get significant short term benefits from doing just this, so it would be a good drill to put into your warm ups.  But to get longer term benefits, follow the “little and often” principle.  Do this mini drill several times a day and you will get longer lasting and more permanent results.

Arm Step Out – Good

Name:  Arm Step Out.

Also known as:   (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Belly.

Other muscles used:  Shoulders, lats.

Top tips:

• Set yourself up in a Pressup position.
• Keep your belly very tight and your bottom down from the start.
• Keeping your body rigid and straight, take a step forwards with one arm, then the other, before returning to the start position.

Arm Step Out – Bad

Common mistakes:

• Letting your hips hang down low and arching your back down.
• Letting your body roll side to side.
• Letting your body bend or sway as you step your arms forwards/backwards.
• Only doing little, tiny steps with your arms.

Comments:

This is a dynamic progression to the Front Plank.  When your arms are stepped forwards, the move is simply a harder version of the Front Plank.  But when your hand is in motion, there is a strong twisting force acting on your body that your midsection has to work hard to control.  This is what makes it a good move.

Start by making sure you can do the move slowly and under control.  As with many of these exercises, quality is most important.

Reverse Crunch – Good

Name:  Reverse crunch.

Also known as:   (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  belly, sides.

Other muscles used:  Hip flexors.

Top tips:

• Lay on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor.
• Make sure your lower back is not arched off the floor.
• Use your hands to hold onto an anchor point above your head if it helps.
• Keep your heels tucked tight into your bum throughout the move.
• Pull your knees tight up into your chest, keeping your heels tucked tight.
• Try to lift your bum up off the floor and get yourself into a nice, tight, cannonball.
• Return your feet to the floor under control.
• Make sure your lower back is flat on the floor before your feet touch the floor.

Reverse Crunch – Bad

Common mistakes:

• Arching your lower back off the floor at the start/end of the move.
• “Flinging” your knees and feet up in the air to gain momentum.
• Not being in a tight cannonball shape half way through the move.
• “Dumping” your feet back onto the floor at the end of the move.

Comments:

Many people find this move difficult at the start, but it is a very good “core” exercise.  I use this to help people who are having trouble with their Planks, Wheelbarrows, Pressups and people with poor posture.

This can help towards correcting an over arched lower back, or anterior pelvic tilt.

Squat Stretch – Good

Name:  Squat Stretch.

Also known as:   (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Inner thighs.

Other muscles used:  Bum.

Top tips:

• Have your feet a good shoulder width apart.
• Feet turned out slightly.
• Squat down low so your bum gets close to the floor.
• Jam your elbows on the inside of your knees and push them outwards so you feel a stretch on your inner thighs.
• Keep your feet flat and heels firm on the floor at all times.
• Keep your chest out and shoulders back at all times.

Squat Stretch – Bad

Common mistakes:

• Having your feet too close together.
• Having your knees too close together.
• Pulling the heels off the floor and going onto the toes.
• Slumping the shoulders and back forwards.
• Confusing “getting the bum low” with “getting the head low”.

Comments:

This is a very good hip mobility and adductor stretch exercise.  A person with good hip mobility is less likely to display movement compensations that can lead to injuries, including back problems.

Too much sitting in our lives can lead to tight hips, including adductors (inner thighs).  If you are not careful, this can lead to dodgy backs and knees.  So if you have dodgy backs/knees, or if you want to avoid them, make sure you do this stretch regularly.

The squat stretch helps with both athletic moves (running, jumping, landing etc) and everyday moves (sitting, standing, climbing stairs etc).

Hurdle Step Over – Good

Name:  Hurdle Step Over.

Also known as:   (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Hip stabilisers, bums, legs.

Other muscles used:  Ankle stabilisers.

Top tips:

• Stand in front of a hurdle/barrier whose height is approximately knee height.
• Stand tall and keep your body straight and vertical.
• Lift your knee and foot over the barrier without touching it.
• Keep your lifting knee directly over your lifting foot.
• Step over the barrier and “hurdle” your trailing leg over by cocking your knee and foot over to the side.
• Land secure and stable, then repeat with other foot.
• Keep your whole body square and facing the front at all times.
• Make sure the movements come from the hips, not any other joints.

Hurdle Step Over – Bad

Common mistakes:

• Turning the leading foot out to one side or other.
• Not lifting the leading knee high and keeping it directly over the leading foot.
• “Hitching” the leading hip up to help the foot over the barrier.
• Bending or twisting the spine.
• Not lifting either knee high over the barrier.
• Doing everything possible to avoid lifting either knee.
• Losing your balance and falling over or hopping around.

Comments:

This is a good warming up mobility exercise.  It looks easy and simple, and is very easy to do badly.  But of course, the trick is to do it properly, and then it gets harder.

It gets the hips moving in lots of directions and is a very practical move.  Done properly, it can help teach people to move more efficiently by using the hips more and the spine less.  And finally, by getting people to stand and maneuver on one leg, it is a very good balance exercise and developes the often over-looked hips stabiliser muscles.

Happy New Year!

The new year is here, and statistics show that most of us plan to get fitter, stronger or lose weight in 2012.  But statistics also show that only a fraction of us will actually succeed.  If you are working out your new year resolutions,  make sure you don’t fall into any of these exercise and diet pitfalls…

Doing waaay too much.

Often people overestimate themselves and go:

• Gym 5-7 days a week!
• At least 2 hours while in the gym!
• An exercise class every weekday!
• Eat nothing but 1 apple a day!

This is unsustainable and will lead to either injury or frustration, but defiantly failure.  Be realistic and practical.

Doing waaay too little.

People often underestimate themselves too.  They have spent their whole lives being told this, that and the other is dangerous, or they can get something for nothing, and have no actual experience of hard, physical work. 

So as soon as someone does something that slightly nudges their comfort zone, they back away and decide that is more than enough for this week.  After all, if they have been in the gym for half an hour, they have sat on the bike for a bit and waved the little pink dumbells around…surely they deserve to sit down, have a rest and “recover” with that cake!

Not having a goal or target to aim for.

Many people have a vague idea that they should do something and they want to change their bodies in some vague way.  But unless you have a clear idea what you are aiming for, how do you know if you are getting it or not?  How do yo know if you are improving, staying the same or getting worse?  And if you don’t know if you are improving, it is all too easy to simply assume you are doing fine and slip back into bad, old ways.

Setting an outcome as a goal or target.

And while we are on the subject of setting goals or targets, make sure you choose the right ones.  Don’t set your goal as an outcome, or end result.  Make your target an actual, consistent action to perform.  For example, instead of saying:

• “I aim to lose weight”, say “I will eat no more than 1 piece of junk food per week”. 
• “I am going to get fitter”, say “I am going to do something that gets me out of breath for 1 hour, 3 times a week”.

Each of the above “outcome” based goals have many different and sometimes conflicting ways of achieving it.  This breeds confusion in most people.  Instead, choosing the “method” based goal is far simpler, better for long term adherence (consistency) and is a direct route to your desired body change.

Over complicating things.

Keep It Simple should be one of your mantras.  Don’t be one of the people who starts the year with a training programme of 2 dozen exercises per body part, or a diet that reads like a mobile phone instruction manual. 

The more complicated something is, more things can go wrong, more loopholes can be found in it and the harder it is to follow consistently.  Start with the basics and don’t complicate things unless you absolutely, positively have to, or your life is at stake!  A good starting point is my “Holy Trinity”.  Click here for more details.

Relying on your memory.

It has been proven time and again that we are rubbish at remembering things when it comes to exercise and food.  We forget what we did in the last training session, we forget what junk food we have had, we forget that we havent done any exercise for a month, we forget that we should not be having that chocolate “treat” 4 times a day.

Write it down!  Write down targets, write down deadlines, write down what days we can/cannot treat ourselves.  If it is written down in black and white and stuck up somewhere prominent (eg on our kitchen fridge), then it is harder for us to cheat.

If you want to control your weight, then writing a food diary is almost a must!  Click here for more details.

Doing it alone.

Humans are social animals, even me, and I’m an antisocial bugger!  When we are alone, it is easy to fall off the wagon, to wimp out or even quietly convince ourselves that we never really meant it in the first place.  If we are in a group of people with similar aims, we can make it so much easier on ourselves and make use of the peer pressure that comes in such a group.  If everyone around us is doing something, it is much easier to do it ourselves.

In fact, a good training partner, social group or coach is worth their weight in gold.  And of course, if you are looking for a coach to help you, contact me today!

Doing it at home.

Every year, people buy home gym equipment (workout DVDs, exercise bikes, ab crunch frames etc), use them once, then never use them again (except maybe as a clothes rack).  For most people, our homes are a place to relax, unwind and have fun with family/friends.  And most of us have developed an almost Pavlovian conditioning to not doing strenuous work or exercise there.

There are so many distractions in our homes that most people find it almost impossible to exercise effectively in their own homes.  So get out side, go to a gym, go to a village hall or even go to your training partners house.  Your presence will help them train properly in their home, and they can return the favour at a later date.  In fact, you will almost certainly find it easier to train properly virtually anywhere other than by yourself in your own home!

If any of this has made sense to you, please feel free to share it with your friends, or even find me on Facebook.

Movement compensation on crutches

Since I started to learn Karate when I was 7 years old, I have consciously or subconsciously been trying to improve the way I move.  I have learned that if I want to put my body in a certain position, there are loads of different ways I can do it.  But I have also learned that some ways are better than others.

Movement Compensations are when one part of your body doesn’t (for whatever reason) play it’s part fully when you try to do a movement.  In order to put your body in the desired position, a different part of your body has to do more than its fair share, or maybe change its role entirely, or “compensate”, in order for you to complete the move.

A classic example is if you get your leg in plaster and have to use crutches.  In this case, your leg is not working properly, so your arms, shoulders and other leg take over, compensate and support your bodyweight on the crutches so you can walk. 

Another common situation is that many people these days have stiff or immobile hips (hence my mini series on hip mobility recently).  With the hips not moving fully, the spine has to compensate by bending too much and this can lead to injury (click here for more on this).

In my series of “How To:” articles, most of the “bad” examples show classic Movement Compensations, where movement at the hips/shoulders is reduced, while movement at the spine is increased.

I’m sure all of you recognise the general situation from your working life.  If you are working in a group or team, and one of you is a bit rubbish and not pulling their weight, then to achieve deadlines or targets, the rest of the group/team has to do extra to make up for the slacker.  It is obvious this working situation is far from ideal, and the same goes for the body.

But our bodies are so good at compensating for weaknesses, it is often the case that we don’t even know that we have a weakness that is being compensated for!  And without this knowledge, we don’t do anything about it and this can lead to:

• The weakness is never corrected.
• The weakness gets worse.
• The compensating bodypart is chronically overloaded.
• The compensating bodypart is injured.
• Another bodypart has to compensate for both the original and new weaknesses.
• …and so on…

So now we know what Movement Compensations are, how do we avoid them?

• Maintain or increase mobility of your hips and shoulders.  If we can move these major joints easily, then we are more likely to move them instead of others.
• Strengthen all muscles that move the hips and shoulders.  It takes strength to move these joints through their full range.  If we find it physically hard to do this, we are less likely to keep it up.  And notice I said strengthen all the muscles, not just “tone up the sexy ones”.
• Apply it to every aspect of your life.  If you only do it for a couple of minutes a week during training sessions, you are less likely to do it in real life where it really matters.  Make proper movement a habit and it will become second nature.  Make it part of your background activity.

Follow these points and your joints will thank you!

It’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it.

Slipping on ice

When (not “if”) you slip on the ice, your feet are going to shift away from you.  If your hips are mobile, you have a greater chance of shifting your support into a position where you might be able to avoid falling. 

If your hips aren’t mobile, then you have a greater chance of either ripping some important soft tissue in your groin (ouch!), or planting your face into the floor.

This is why everyone should keep their body moving and strong.

Do you want to get fitter? 

Do you want to get stronger? 

Follow these 3 golden rules and improve your chances of success…

• Get in the right frame of mind.
• Get in the right environment.
• Get in the right social group.

Get in the right frame of mind.

Do things with purpose and don’t kid yourself.  In other words:

Wearing your Game Face – focusing on the task in hand while others around are distracted.

• Put your “Game Face” on, or focus on what you want to achieve and don’t get distracted.
• Learn and accept that apart from injuries, our fitness and strength are mostly the result of our behaviours and habits.
• We control our behaviours and habits, so to a very large extent, we control the health, fitness, strength and size of our bodies.
• We are not slaves to external forces outside our control.  We are not the result of big bones, hormones, water retention or the wrong kind of shoe/clothes/equipment.  We are the result of what we eat, drink and do.  These things are in our control.
• Decide we want to change our behaviours and habits.  It’s not a chore, or something we are forced into, or something we try to wrangle our way out of.
• Realise we don’t have to do everything all at once.  But we have to do something.
• Realise it won’t be perfect and there will be bumps on the way.  But we won’t let these bumps derail us.
• Have a sense of perspective – realise what the big problems that we need to concentrate on are…and what the little details that can be left until later are.

Get in the right environment.

Healthy environment

The bulk of our lives are spent in only a few places.  The most common of these are the home, the workplace or the journey between the two.  Like the rest of the animal kingdom, we adapt to our surroundings. 

• If our surroundings are full of sweets, chocolate, pizza and beer/coke, it is little wonder if we succumb to the temptation.
• We have the most control over our home surroundings, so make sure that there are no foods/drinks you want to avoid in the house.
• Empty the cupboards and fridges of all things that can throw you off your healthy eating routine.
• Surround yourself with the foods that you want to embrace in your life.
• Move to the front of the fridge/cupboard the foods you should eat more of.
• Try to do the same thing in your workplace if practical.
• Remove distractions and temptations from where you exercise/train.
• Don’t exercise/train in the rooms you eat, relax and generally “chill out” in.

Get in the right social group.

Greek god Heracles – http://aworldofmyths.com/

• We are very heavily influenced by the people around us.  Peer pressure is a powerful thing.
• If we are surrounded by overweight/unfit people who sneer and jeer at our attempts to improve ourselves, we are much more likely to fail.
• If we are surrounded by people who are trying to be healthy, fit and strong, then we can help eachother through tough patches and help keep eachother on the wagon.
• Have dinner with people who share your goals of controlling your weight.  It is much easier to say no to a chocolate bar if everyone else is also saying no.
• Exercise with people who are passionate about maintaining or improving their fitness and strength.  It is very difficult to work hard if everyone around you is bitching, complaining and whimping out after 2 minutes.
• Ask the people around you to help you say no to second helpings of pudding, while saying yes to the next training session.  If those people like and respect you, they will want to help.  If they don’t like or respect you, they will enjoy pointing out any time you fail.

But remember, you don’t have to be surrounded by people who are built like Greek gods wearing nothing but a silver posing pouch.  You just need to be around people who share the same goals as you.  I often train with people who are injured/disabled who can’t keep up with me physically…but their passion for progress puts mine to shame!

By following these 3 golden rules, you will make it much easier to achieve your weight/fitness/strength goals.  Importantly, these things will help boost your willpower, which is notoriously rubbish in most of us.

And if you need more help, you can hire me by contacting me here.