Random Tuesday

This whole blog thing is kind of addicting. Here's a couple random Tuesday thoughts:

1. So I was told the term "eat like a horse" doesn't make much sence. Horse's don't eat meat. I geuss I'm to use the term "eat like a lion". Hope your happy Adam.

2. Adam wrote a good series of articles on ACL injuries among other things. He's a former wrestler so I geuss it's only right for him to write about basketball players like he did.

3. I am excited/nervous about a new endefor I'm going to start. I am going to start writing a bi-weekly article for my newspaper back home. The newspaper is the West Liberty Index and the website can be found HERE. I've never thought of myself as a writer and after getting a Fitness and Human Performance Degree that last thing I thought I'd be doing is writing articles. But I geuss it's easy to write about something you're passionate about.

4. I never realized how much work goes into writing an article!!

Stationary Machines

A stationary machine is a machine that is one where your range of motion is set. Whether that be a Smith machine, Hammer strength machine, or your famous leg extension machine and all its evil friends such as hamstring curls or seated row. People like easy I guess. We will look at why they are a waste of time for the general population and just about everyone for that matter.

1. Range of Motion - How often do you perform a move where the range of motion is predetermined? Take picking up a bag of grocery's from the ground. You have to worry about keeping your balance in numerous planes of motion. In a Frontal, Sagittal, and Transverse plane. If you don't you'll likely end up falling over and loosing your balance. Now take a look at a squat using a Smith machine. You don't have to worry about keeping your balance in a Frontal or Transverse plane. Machines don't mimic everyday movements.

Along with this since your range of motion is predetermined, a lot more wear and tear can seen at a joint. It's like trying to fit the wrong key into a key hole. It just doesn't work all that well.

2. Stability - Machines are safer than free weights. I hear this all the time. But are they really? This goes along with number 1 but since your knee joint doesn't have to worry about adduction and abduction at that joint. This causes much less activity at that joint itself and almost lets that joint relax. Back to that example of picking up your grocery's. Without stabilization at that knee joint you are much more likely to become injured. There goes that saying about machines being safer than free weights.

3. Leg Extensions - Maybe the worse machine of them all. The starting point of a leg extension is at 90 degrees. When your knee is at this 90 degrees your four main protective knee ligaments (ACL, MCL, PCL, LCL) that keep your femur from displacing on your tibia are almost completely lax. Plain and simple these four ligaments can't do their job of stabilizing the knee joint. Not to good for that knee.

Ouch

4. Unilateral Movements - There are none. Well I guess you could use a leg extension with one leg but you're telling me you get more benefit from a one leg extension compared to a one leg squat or a good old lunge? Doubt it.

I've touched on this before but many people have tight hip flexors. We sit at desks all day and our hip flexors are in a shortened state. When one hip flexor ends up being less flexible than the other (which I see a lot of) this can lead to imbalances in legs. Whats the best way to address this? With unilateral movements.

5. Glute Activation - Ever wonder why a powerlifter has a huge backside? Because they perform movements such as deadlifts and squats. Your most powerful muscle should be your glutes and that's what is the main mover in a movement such as a deadlift or squat. The general population doesn't know how to activate their glutes. Without glute activiation problems such as knee and low back pain are more than likely going to happen in the future. You find a machine that will strengthen your backside as well as a good looking squat or deadlift and I'm all ears.

Wake Them Up People!!

There's a couple of a big things that need to be taken to mind before sitting down and performing a set of seated leg extensions. Or a leg press. If you like your health and the idea of performing movements that may benefit you while walking up a flight of stairs stick with anything but stationary machines. People like easy and easy isn't always better or safer.

Getting In Shape First?!

I hear this on the weekly basis:

"I want to get in shape before I work with a trainer."

For the next month I see them working on on of these:





Here are some reasons to work with a trainer before "getting in shape for a trainer":

1. Imbalances - Try a one leg squat to a bench. I haven't seen a case where one leg is equally as strong as the other leg. I've covered this a bit in an earlier blog but these imbalances not only in your legs can lead to not so nice compensation patterns down the road. This is a big reason your lower back or knees hurt, not your lower back or knees.

2. Muscle Mass - Resistance training is the key to fat loss. Plain and simple the more muscle mass you build, the more fat you are going to burn off while not training. Guess what, you burn off most of your calories while not training. Wouldn't it make sense to build incorporate resistance training to your training, instead of losing muscle mass while going for a jog on that treadmill.

3. Program Design - People like to do things that are easy in most cases. Plain and simple. You can also pick up some new movements instead of using the same ones you've used for the "past 20 years".

4. Diet Tips - I see people who start on their quest in "becoming healthy" start off very well. Or so it seems. Short-term diets are just that short-term. Carb tolerance and carb intake in general is something that is overlooked I think in most cases. Look for a lifestyle change not that quick fix.

5. Each Situation is Different - You shouldn't be following a program that you picked up from someone else that seemed to work for them. Each individual is different and has different things to be addressed. This can lead to quicker results.

6. Exercise Technique - I have clients who come to me with the notion that squats hurt their knees. After about 2 minutes of correcting their form they can squat pain free. This example goes to any other exercise that you perform. If it causes pain by all means stop doing it but in most cases I see form is the problem. Faulty movements lead to pain.

7. Education - Ever heard of self myofascial release? Or used a dynamic warm up? Or know what the main cause of knee/low back pain is? If not that's even more reason to find someone who can educate you on not only these areas but YOUR needs as well.

My Breakfast

I get asked quite a bit what my breakfast looks like. Well here you go:

1/4 cup brochli

1/4 cup green pepper

4 whole eggs (sometimes 2 egg whites 2 whole eggs)

4 oz chicken or some other type of meat

3/4-1 1/4 cup oatmeal (depending on the day and week)

1 cup plain yogurt

1 teaspoon cinnimon

2 cups milk

1 daily vitamin

2 fish oil

Start by putting the brochli, green peppers, and chicken on the stove. Let them cook for 3-4 minutes. Add eggs and oatmeal to the pan and mix together. After 2-3 minutes mix up/flip over. Cook another 2-3 minutes. Put in bowl and add cinnimon and yogurt.

Yes I cook all this stuff together. I tried it one day because I was tired of cooking the oatmeal seperate and it worked out well. Eating this along with reading emails early in the morning doesn't get any better.

End Result

A Great Email

I received an email this morning from a client I train back home in a group setting:

Hi Dusty!

How's your day so far? Hope is going just fine. I wanted to let you know what a great time I had last night, it was an awesome workout!!! My back and triceps are sore, but it's a great feeling! Yaaaay!!!
I felt I could move better this time than the very first class I went to try it out. I enjoy taking these lessons with you. You really are helping me and the other ladies in West Liberty to feel better about ourselves.

Thank you for your time and the great workout sessions you put us through!

This is one of the many reasons I love this job. There is so much more to just the training. You really develop a relationship with your clients.

I had a 5:30 am - 5:00 pm day today but when you get emails like this or just see clients progress, that 12 hour day seems to fly by.

Tennis Training

Are you a tennis player? If so you may want to come give these sessions a try for FREE. Here's a bit of information about the sessions:

The goal of this program is to improve the skills of ones tennis game at any skill level. Focus will be on explosive strength, speed, quickness, agility, injury prevention and mobility. A tennis match is repeated bouts of high intensity activity typically lasting 5-10 seconds with a rest period of 15-25 seconds. Training will act to mimic these facts.

Chronic pain/injuries along with imbalances that are commonly seen with tennis athletes will be taken into account in program design. With the ultimate goal of alleiving these short and long term injuries that many athletes have come to believe are just part of the game.

A typical session will consist of self myofascial release with a foam roller, a dynamic warm-up, activation work, resistance training, and static stretching to end the session.

Modes that will be used in training will be but not limited to bodyweight, foam rollers, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, resistance bands, slide boards, gymnastic rings, and medicine balls. Modifications will be made whenever needed to tailor to the individual in a group setting.

Times for the class are as follows (classes are 45-50 minutes):
Tuesday – 8:45 am
Thursday – 8:45 am
Saturday – 1:00 pm

Try the sessions for free on the dates of February 24th, 26th, and 28th at the above times.

Get in touch if interested:

Dusty_Feldman@hotmail.com

319-331-9914

North Dodge Athletic Club

2400 North Dodge Street

Iowa City, Iowa 52245

Ten Ways To Help Alleive Low Back Pain

1. Improve Hip Mobility - If your hips are stiffer than your lower back, movement will occur at the lower back. Improve hip mobility and you'll be able to bend over without to much forward flexing at the lower back.

2. Improve Thoracic Mobility - Forward flexing and rotation shouldn't be made at the lower back. The more movement and mobility at the mid or thoracic vertebrae the less movement that will occur at the lower or lumbar vertebrae.

3. Strengthen Your Core - A strong core (glutes, abdominals, low back) will help stabilize the lower back and keep movement at the low back to a minimum. There are much better ways to strengthen your core than a crunch. Crunches can end up putting more stress on the lower back. Use planks, dead bugs, and roll outs to name a few.

4. Use Hips To Bend Over - In most cases bending over at the lower is not advised. Learn to use your hips to bend over. Stay in a neutral position at the lower back and the chance of lower back injury will greatly decrease. Some bending will occur from time to time but learn to use your legs as much as possible.

5. Stop Using Machines - Machines don't have much carryover into the real world and aren't "functional". When you use free weights you force your body to stabilize not only at the core but you also receive more activation from every other joint and area of the body. How often is your range of motion set, like when using a machine?

6. Stop Stretching Your Lower Back - And hamstrings for that matter. They may feel tight but look on the other side of your body. In most cases tight hip flexors pull the pelvis into anterior tilt forcing the low back and hamstrings to be under constant stretch or tension. It may feel good at the time to stretch these areas but when hip flexor flexibility improves you'll have lengthened musculature on the backside.

7. Improve Resting Posture - Or stop resting so much. The move movement the better. Make it a goal to never sit down longer then 20 minutes.

8. Lose Body Fat - Ever wonder why a pregnant ladies back always hurts? That weight they are carrying on the front side is making the low back work overtime to keep your body upright.

9. Change The Way You Sleep - Stop sleeping on your stomach. Sleep on your side or back.

10. Improve Glute Activation - Guess whats right below the low back? The glutes. I see terrible glute activation when people start training. The glutes are a very powerful thing and when they are learned to be used much less stress will be put on the low back and hamstrings. This will also help pull the pelvis out of anterior tilt along with many other problems that can occur down and up the chain.

A Random Tuesday

1. Before you stretch your lower back or hamstrings you may want to read this:

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/A+Stretching+Fallacy/

I try to explain this a client weekly if not daily but Robertson does a little better job from a anatomy standpoint!

2. I received a text last night from a friend. "What would be the best supplement for me to gain weight and muscle mass?"

Of course I asked him for his email address because I didn't want to just tell him the answer simply. I know I've told him this before but plain and simple if you are going to put on weight you need to EAT. If you think you are eating and not putting weight you need to eat MORE. Yeah I've been through the same situation you think you are eating but you really aren't. Or you tell yourself my metabolism is to fast, I couldn't put on weight if I tried. Well guess what either you eat enough to put on weight or you don't.

Eat Like A Horse!

Sure supplementation is going to be much easier around workouts and at times in the day when you may not have a whole lot of time to eat a solid meal. It's not going to replace "solid" food though!

3. On the other end of the spectrum it amazes me how when people are looking for fat loss they aren't willing to change their eating habits. I give them a couple habit changes that I like to consider simple such as increasing water intake and eating every 2-3 hours. They come back two days later and admit they haven't done either. I know change may be hard but what you've been doing for the past 10 years hasn't worked what makes you think it's going to start working for the next 10 years?

4. Having a day every week or week and half where I cook all my food was the best thing I've started doing. It allows you to first not waste a lot of time cooking during the week but also helps you make good food choices throughout the week. Leftovers taste better anyway.

5. The more I read and learn the more I feel I haven't touched the surface on training. I also look back to a year ago and think if I've learned this much in a year I can't wait for the next couple years.

6. I think people get fat loss and weight loss mixed up or they don't know the difference. Fat loss is just that a decrease in fat mass. Weight loss on the other hand is fat loss that could be accommodated with muscle loss.

Muscle mass is very metabolically active which in the end means you are going to burn off many more calories throughout a day with more muscle mass then with less. Plain and simple. This is why resistance training is very important to long term fat loss. On the other end slow steady cardio can actually end up burning up that muscle mass that is so metabolically active. Guess what that means. You are going to be burn off less calories throughout the day. Think about that the next time you say "resistance training isn't for me" or the next time you hop on that treadmill for a 30 minute run.

Weight Loss or Fat Loss?

About Myself

I figured I'd give a little background information about myself. I grew up and still live in the little town of West Liberty, Iowa population around 3,500. I am the oldest of 4 children. Three younger sisters. I remember we had to get a "girly" movie on weekend nights to keep them happy. I graduated with 82 people in my class, so yeah pretty small. I grew up a farm kid and wouldn't trade it for the world. There's no doubt a lot of the qualities both good and bad I have now are from growing up on a farm. We raised pigs, sheep, and every once in a while chickens. My grandpa, my dad, and two of my uncles also grew corn, beans, and a little hay here and there. They still do so whenever I'm missing the whole farming thing I can go about a mile down the road.

Fun On The Farm

As you can imagine my family is pretty close. I am the oldest of 26 grandchildren on my dad's side I believe it is now. Many summers were spent going to my grandma and grandpa's to play with my cousins. I don't know how my grandma kept herself from going crazy with so many kids running around, but she did. I would say this is were my passion for athletics and just being active in general came about. Many of many touch football games that turned into tackle football games or kickball games that ended in wrestling matches. There may have been a time or two I got my butt kicked by a girl along the way too.

In high school I played four sports, which is one of the many benefits of going to a small school. Baseball, basketball, football, and track and field. My parents were part of all many of my athletic events which really is a huge help. I had a great love for baseball and basketball but baseball was my sport. I was a converted to catcher my sophomore year in high school and seemed to pick up on it quickly. I went on to play baseball in college at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is where I started to learn quite a bit about training. Looking back there was some things we didn't do smartly in our training but it's hard to beat hard work. During this time I had a lot to learn mentally about the game that was kind of hard for me to pick up of the bat. My second year of college I got quite a bit more playing time and had a pop time of 1.77 seconds (not to brag). It always seemed things didn't come together for me at times.

I did go onto play at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. Another small school and I think I fit in a bit better. I got to start my junior year and did alright. I ended up hurting my arm the summer between my junior and senior year, which I now know was because of terrible program design and not addressing mobility/flexibility problems that arise in many baseball players. After this injury is where I decided I wanted to get into helping others with their training. Hard work can only get you so far, there is more that should go into a training program then one may think.

I now still reside in West Liberty with my cousin who is the same age of me along with two classmates in a older farm house. I drive 30 minutes to work 6 days a week but that 30 minutes is worth it. The thought of living in the residential area and doing so in college, I think may drive me crazy. That and the fact that I have a puppy named Rusty (yeah Rusty and Dusty) who is a Australian Shepard makes the drive so worth it.

Rusty