Over the time I spent in the fitness industry I
couldn’t count how many times I saw that guy in the gym, at the beach,
or elsewhere come up with all sorts of creative resistance work. Some
times there would be interesting qualities to those, but mostly he would be a reason for mockery among the viewers.
Truth is that as obvious as this case is, it is hard not to justify the
reputation that training has achieved, as far as the health benefit
verses the risk of injury or creation of weakness and various
wrong/overuse syndromes.
As a rule of thumb exercising should
throw the body out of balance, where the body can eventually super
compensate and find a new balance within a stronger structure. when the
structure is weakened without getting stronger the work load isn’t a
proper one.
With that said there are specific alignments for loading
the body with resistance, and there is a lot of structural knowledge
needed in order to do so safely.
Here is part of a conversation I had with one of my online trainees:
Me :
“Well performance on the squats, I would slowly lower you to a full
squat as these are called half squat, that way you get to work the
pelvic floor muscle and it has many other benefits over the half squats.
that is as long as we don't lose form, form is the main thing.
As
far as the Dead-lifts, I would avoid it for now, you are putting lots of
pressure on your lower back (L3, L4, L5, S1) for the fact that your
back is rounded at the bottom and your hip a bit protracted, it should
be retracted.
I will give you a warm up mobilization routine that will help you articulate those hip angles.
When the Hip is retracted and the back extended, the erector spinae
muscle takes the load. the way you do it most of the load falls on the
disc, vertebrates and rest of the structure in a way that can cause disc
issues.”
Tom:
“Hi Amir,
That's fair
enough....I knew I wasn't quite going full range on the squats. I didn't
honestly realize I was rounding my back on the deadlifts...but yeah, if
we have to avoid those exercises for now so be it. I won't say I'm
happy about it - I quite like doing them - but I am happy to take a step
backwards in order to take 2 forwards, and obviously being able to do
them with great form and most importantly safely is definitely two (or
many more!) steps forward. “
Me:
“I wanted to see those
lifts cause there are different approaches about the execution on them,
some actually promote rounding the back at the bottom, especially with
SLDL, saying if you don't have a problem in the back then it's not an
issue.
I am sided with those who call this practice “hanging by your
back ligaments.”, I believe that this movement is a natural one when
it's unloaded, but loading your body this heavy I believe should only be
directed to strong structure that is supported by the flexed muscles.
With that said I like dead lifts a lot myself, but I would just want to
see proper back technique, one that I wouldn't have to worry could lead
to issues.
Again, this is just commenting on the video of what you
been doing, regardless of the program that i am putting together for
you.
There are lots of ways to work these muscles, and I will choose
the ones that would bring you to your goals the fastest, and it is good
to change exercises in any how once you might got adapted to them.”
The lower back has an interesting structure, the disc between the
vertebrates often compared to donuts where once flexed under some
pressure could squeeze its content toward the spinal cord in various
ways resulting in different issues that many people have unknowingly.
Sitting in a chair with the natural curvature of the spine will add %40
pressures on the lower back as the lower joints are not involved in
bearing this pressure, where leaning forward will make it % 90 pressures
and that even before loading your upper body with weights as you guys
like to do at the gym.
And this regards only a few of the problematic joints.
Tom (fake name) was a competitive athlete with lots of knowledge about
training and very nice ability. As you can see there is a lot of
knowledge to be learned, mistakes could cost not only in health, but
also in bad patterns that would inhibit development and take longer time
to change then it takes a beginner to learn.
The lesson to
learn is when coming to developing skills, fitness or health, if you are
not a hundred percent sure about the safety of your practice (and even
if you are sure about it as you can see), make sure to find a good
practitioner to help you out. Certificates are nice, but I find
personally more important the ability to demonstrate personal results as
well as results with other people.
If there ever was an investment that gives back the most for your money, it’s your health.
Amir Solsky
www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com
