In a previous article, I noted how the range of motion of crunches is not conducive to building a strong core. Crunches will only effectively engage the rectus abdominal muscles, while some of the surrounding important core musculature is not addressed. Ultimately, it is a basic exercises that serves little purpose for individuals with more than a few of strength training experiences.
The biggest problem in many "ab" routines that I see people do is that there's no progressive overload. People will do the same handful of exercises for the same number of sets and repetitions every session, week after week. Now, imagine you did that with a back squat, or with any other movement: what if you just squatted 135 pounds for 5 sets of 5 repetitions on every leg day? You might make a little bit of progress for a week or two, but eventually you're not going to continue to make gains. Your legs won't get any bigger or stronger. The same is true for the abdominal muscles. If you're just doing 3 sets of 15 crunches, 3 sets of 20 Russian twists, etc., then guess what? Your core isn't going to get any stronger either. I watch many people do the same core exercises day in and day out, and they aren't continuing to adapt.
There are four ways to create progressive overload for strength training:
Increase the number of repetitions. If you've been sticking with 3x10 leg lifts, for example, try to do 3x15 next week. This is one way to add volume.
Increase the number of sets. Additionally, you can add in more sets to increase total training volume.
Increase the amount of time. This is specific to isometric movements like the plank, hollow hold, side plank, etc. Try to increase the length of the hold by 10-15 seconds per week.
Add load. I like to add weighted ab exercises into my programs, once the client has demonstrated competency in the non-weighted variation. Examples of exercises include weighted hanging knee raises, weighted planks, weighted sit-ups, cable chops, and weighted leg lifts.
Change the exercises. Get creative. There are so many exercises out there that allow you to continue to progress. Constantly challenge yourself. I constantly post new exercise ideas on my Instagram page, such as those in the above links, so always be on the lookout for new ideas. Just when you think you have abs of steel, you find a new exercise variation to humble yourself once again.
If you're going through the same routine multiple times per week, you may still "feel a burn," but you're not necessarily going to achieve the desired result of a rock solid core. Instead, here are my suggestions for improving your core training. Core training has to be progressed in the same way that you would continue to periodize the big strength movements. Think outside of the box and don't get complacent with your ab routine!
When I was a kid, I would dread fitness testing in gym class testing every year. One test in particular test made me most nervous: the pull-up test. Each time around, I'd think, "this is gonna be the year I do my first pull-up!" I would hang from the pull-up bar and try with every ounce of might I had, but I could barely get my elbows to bend.
It wasn't until college, after working out out consistently, that I was able to do my first pull-up or two. The task that had eluded me for over 20 years suddenly became easier, and now I would consider pull-ups to be one of my strongest movements.
If you're one of those people who's frustrated with your pull-up progress, you've clicked on the right article!
As with any movement, we always have to think about what's happening in the core first. I often see a lot of people who are tight in the upper body during the movement, but the core and lower body are flimsy like Gumby. Maintaining a "hollow body position," as seen in the photo of Carl Paoli on the right, is crucial to getting a stronger pull. Why? It is ideal to keep as much tension in the body as possible for big lifts and calisthenic movements. This rigidity ultimately gives us more control and allows us to generate more force. In a back squat, for instance, if your torso is loose, the bar will likely roll up onto your neck resulting in a potentially dangerous scenario. Keeping the upper back tight is equally as important as getting a good leg drive out of the hole. Note Carl's neck position and lumbar position in particular. On the left, his ribs are drawn in towards his hips with a neutral gaze, activating the rectus abdominis, while on the left, he's hyperextended in both the cervical and lumbar spine. In short, more tension = more muscles recruited.
The hardest part of the pull-up, for many people I've worked with, is the initiation of the lats. What I mean by this is that the first 2-3 inches of movement are generally the biggest struggle. "In the upper-back the pull-up movement is focused around downward rotation and depression of the scapulae, as well as the upward rotation and elevation of the scapulae," notes Tom Bumgardner, CSCS in his Pull-up Manifesto. To dissect the anatomical jargon here, take a look at the diagram below. This image briefly explains scapular movement. Now, applying this to the pull-up, the scapulae start in an upwardly rotated and elevated position. As you pull your chin towards the bar, they have to downwardly rotate and depress. If you don't understand how to properly move your shoulder blades, scapular pull-ups are a great exercise to help you better grasp this concept. I usually have my clients do 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions.
From there, I will normally progress someone to the inverted row. This exercise mirrors the pull-up, but isn't nearly as demanding in that you're supporting less of your bodyweight. You should try these for 3 sets of as many repetitions as possible, and hold for one second at the top of the movement. Focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together as your chest touches the bar or rings. I'm not a huge fan of banded or machine-assisted pull-ups, as they forbid you from activating the gluteal and core musculature that is incredibly important in building pulling strength. The inverted row allows you to modify the movement while still learning to maintain tension in the trunk.
In any movement, there are three phases: the concentric (contracting) phase, the isometric (holding) phase, and the eccentric (lengthening) phase. Your body can support about 1.75x more weight eccentrically than concentrically. In this case, this means that strengthening the lowering phase of the pull-up will have an immense impact on the concentric phase! Try doing 3-4 sets of 4-6 repetitions. Jump to the top of the pull-up bar with the help of a box, then lower yourself down as slowly as possible.
The chin-up (supinated grip) is easier to master, as it is more biceps dominant, whereas the pull-up (pronated grip) is more lat dominant. Strengthening the chin-up, however, will undoubtedly help you progress to a more proficient pull-up. Once you've mastered the aforementioned progressions, try doing some chin-ups. As with the inverted rows, go to failure for a few sets.
Now, the last thing missing in the pull-up equation, sometimes, is frequency! If you really want to be a pull-up guru, you're gonna have to work on them more than once per week. Buy a cheap pull-up bar for your bedroom, and work on them every other day. The more often you do them, the better you'll get!
My friend Michael was nice enough to write a guest post for me this week! Michael is a competitive weightlifter who has been performing the olympic lifts for a little over 2.5 years. He recently obtained his Honors Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology and plans to go on to complete a degree in Physiotherapy. He has gathered a lot of hands on experience working in a physiotherapy clinic for the last five years and is passionate about human strength and performance. In his spare time, he enjoys long walks on the beach and romantic comedies.
Several months ago, I wrote an article called "Perfecting Your Push-up," in which I gave you some insight on how to correct some common flaws in a seemingly simple (yet incredibly intricate) movement.
This post will be a sequel to that post, as a solid plank is the foundation of a push-up.
The plank is a staple exercise in many bodybuilding, strength and conditioning, and even powerlifting programs. It's an isometric movement that teaches (ideally) total body rigidity and stability. The forearm or straight-arm planks can be excellent exercises to develop the core if executed properly. Here are some cues to help you get your planks straight:
If you're doing the plank on your hands, make sure your fingers are spread so that you can "grip" the ground." If you are doing the plank on your elbows, keep the arms parallel to one another, still spreading your fingers
Stack the elbows directly underneath the shoulders in both variations
Place the feet close to one another
Squeeze your butt*
Actively pull your shoulder blades downward to engage the lats*
I put asterisks next to numbers 4 and 5, because I think they are the most common mistakes in a plank. We like to think of the plank as an "ab" exercise, but yet, we forget about the muscles that should assist the abdominals in this movement like the latissimus dorsi and the gluteus maximus. If you're not squeezing your butt, you're likely drifting into hyper extension, and if your lats aren't engaged, your shoulders are in an unstable position. All of these synergist muscles work complement each other beautifully to stabilize the core.
One other crucial mistake I have seen people make is to try to go until absolute muscular failure. They hold the plank as long as they can even if their bodies are shaking and their hips start to drop towards the floor. This completely defeats the purpose of the exercise and reinforces a bad position. As soon as you lose the integrity of the movement, stop! If you start to shake, give yourself a minute or two to recover before doing another set. Remember, more is not always better.
When the standard plank becomes too easy for you, you can try other variations: single arm planks, single leg planks, weighted planks, shoulder taps (in which you touch one shoulder and then the other shoulder without moving the hips), plank press-ups (in which you go from a forearm plank into straight arm plank, and back into a forearm plank) and so on and so forth! There are many different possibilities.
The next time you want to do planks, make sure you're doing them properly! You will get more out of the movement, and that strength will translate into other activities.
Whether your training consists of a bodybuilding split-type schedule, you're training for a sport (basketball, weightlifting, powerlifting, etc.), or you're just doing total body workouts to get stronger, you might be forgetting some of the most important muscles in your body.
When you do any type of exercise, whether you're running, jumping, performing a deadlift, or throwing, it all starts with your point of contact to the ground. Your feet are your foundation, and, therefore, training your feet, or training barefoot, will build a rock solid base of support equipped to handle any task.
Let your feet breathe!
Barefoot training has slowly started to make its way back into the mainstream media. Five-finger toe shoes or other types of minimal shoes have been touted as the "optimal" footwear for runners everywhere. I'll be the first one to admit that those toe shoes look absolutely ridiculous. Despite their horribly unfashionable nature, I do believe that barefoot training is an excellent addition to any training protocol.
There are plenty of naysayers in the minimal footwear movement: many people say that barefoot training can actually cause more harm than good. First of all, humans have been performing great feats of athleticism long before Nike was telling us to "Just Do It." In fact, we were "just doing it" with no shoes or maybe thin sandals that would protect our feet from sharp objects or hot sand. We were climbing trees, running away from wild boars, walking back to camp with livestock slumped over our shoulders, and climbing mountains without buying specialized footwear for those tasks. There are numerous civilizations today who are still doing all of those aforementioned tasks without the help of sneakers. Instead, those people have learned to harness the power of their own feet.
Now, I'll step away from the more anthropological talk and shift more into physiology. First, let's discuss the term "proprioception." I've mentioned this term in my blog before, but for those of you who don't remember, proprioception refers to "the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement," as per Wikipedia. Proprioception helps you adjust to uneven surfaces, understand how much pressure you're applying to said surface, among other things.
Shoes can limit the proprioceptors in our feet. Although your feet are proportionally small in comparison to other parts of the body, each foot has about 20 muscles, 26 bones (about 1/4 of the bones in the body), 33 joints, and over 7,500 nerve endings! Think about that: such a small part of your body includes a quarter of the bones in your body! Now, if you're cutting off the proprioceptors in your feet, you're cutting off a very sensitive and responsive area of your body.
One study done at the German Sport University of Cologne measured the activity of several muscles in and around the feet using Electomyography (EMG) while participants walked on grass barefoot, using minimal footwear and in traditional running shoes. They found that
"The use of minimal footwear was related to changes in muscle
strength and morphology. It was demonstrated that the
footwear increased mechanical stimuli on the tendon muscle
units. The muscle strength capacity of those muscles which
were more intensively used by the minimal shoe increased
significantly. Muscles which were similar activated in both
conditions did not respond. One can conclude that footwear
technology impacts the mechanical loading as well as the
biological response of the loaded tissues. "
I have cited several other studies in the Works Cited below, if you're interested in reading more into these studies.
While many of these studies involve running/walking, I believe that barefoot training carries over into lifting as well. I will have my clients roll out their feet with a golf ball or lacrosse ball before exercise. This will improve the sensory input and also improve their range of motion. Try this: Stand with your feet together and try to touch your toes. Now roll your feet out for about 5 minutes and then retest. You will notice that you are more flexible afterwards.
I know, these look pretty freaking silly...
I will also have them do their activation/warm-ups barefoot; single leg RDLs, high skips, Bulgarian split squats, kettlebell swings, etc. can be done without shoes. Deadlifts are also an excellent exercise to try barefooted as well. You can see what you're doing with your toes: are you flexing your toes or "gripping the ground?" These actions are not ideal and should be corrected.
Now, if you want a great brand of minimal shoes that don't look absolutely obnoxious, I'd recommend the brand Inov8. Their shoes are comfortable and pretty sexy (in my opinion), and I'm absolutely obsessed with mine! There are several other minimal brands out on the market, so find a pair that you like!
If you're looking to get the most out of your training and avoid injury in the process, try taking your shoes off whenever you can. It feels pretty nice to let your feet spread out and breathe a little bit!
"The human body is a machine which winds its own springs."
-Julien Offray
You've taken the first step and bought yourself a gym membership. Now you think to yourself, "okay, what the heck do I do with all of this equipment??" Some of the machines in there look like Medieval torture devices. It's easy to lose yourself in the rows of fancy gadgets in there, but in reality, all you need to achieve your fitness goals is your own bodyweight and some free weights.
Regardless on your fitness goals (increase in strength, increase in size, fat loss, etc.), I recommend you avoid the weight machines at all costs. (Okay, if you REALLY want to use the cardio machines, fine. That's a little bit different.)
Here's why:
Stability- Try something for me: stand on one leg and try to balance yourself for as long as you can. Now try to balance yourself while you're laying on a leg press machine. It is quite obvious that you do not need to create any stability for yourself when you're in a fixed or seated position predetermined by a machine. Your smaller stabilizing muscles, which I continually talk about, turn off when you use a machine, simply because they don't need to fire. There's a reason why you can leg press 2-3 times what you can back squat. Our bodies only like to use muscles that are absolutely necessary in an effort to conserve energy, so it will stop firing any muscles that don't need to fire. Those ever-important glutes that I wrote about will most likely not fire on a leg press they way they will on a squat or a lunge, just as those shoulder stabilizers won't fire on a chest press or a lateral shoulder raise machine.
Range of motion- No matter what the exercise, it is important to use a full range of motion for each repetition. When we are strapped into a machine, the machine chooses our range of motion for us, and rarely does it take you through the full range of those muscles in any given movement.
Joint stress- Certain machines can place tremendous stress on your joints and connective tissues. For example, the leg extension machine stresses the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the other ligaments and tendons that hold your kneecap in place. Open chain exercises (isolations) can irritate those tissues more than closed chain (compound) exercises.
Functionality- The word "functional" is thrown around a lot. Here, I use "functional" to relate to the transfer to our day-to-day movement patterns. How will machines or open chain exercises carry over to your ability to play sports, pick up your kids, or go run a 5k? It won't. However, a deadlift has a direct transfer to picking up heavy furniture, and a squat has a direct transfer to standing up from your desk chair correctly. Using machines will train your body to adapt to isolating one muscle at a time, and of course we never want that! We want to train movement, not muscles!
This machine makes me cringe every time I see someone use it!
Although fancy new machines can be enticing, I urge you to step away from the Smith machine and try a back squat (or better yet, a front squat or an overhead squat). Back off of that silly crunch machine and try some hollow rocks or weighted planks. You will save yourself from injury and ultimately build a stronger, more stable body, ready for any task you ask of it! Channel your own inner Terminator and turn your body into a machine.
On paper, the push-up seems like a very simple exercise. Surely we've perfected it after all of those years of high school gym class, right? Truth be told, I see a lot of people who execute this exercise incorrectly and inefficiently.
While it may seem self-explanatory, there are actually a lot of little nuances to executing a correct push-
up that many people do not realize. This movement is truly underrated, in that it requires a lot more shoulder strength and core stability than we may think at first glance. While watching someone perform a push-up, I can pinpoint just where their weaknesses are. If someone has a limited range of motion, unstable or weak shoulders, or poor core control, it will be apparent after just a few repetitions.
What does the perfect push-up look like? Here are a few cues:
Start with your palms a little wider than shoulder width and fingers spread
Rotate your elbows so that your biceps are facing forward
Squeeze your butt and tighten your core
Lower your body until your chest touches the ground
Keep your elbows at a 45 degree angle (do not let your elbows cave inward)
Make sure your shoulders do not collapse
Fully extend your elbows at the top
As always, we want a full range of motion. If you do not have the strength to do a push-up, use your knees. It is better to use a full range of motion on your knees than try to attempt a partial range of motion without them. There is no need to move quickly here--in fact, push-ups are harder if you do them at a slow and controlled pace.
Once you have mastered the standard push-up, you can move on to more advanced variations: pike push-ups (in which your legs are elevated), handstand push-ups (against a wall or freestanding if you feel so daring), one-handed push-ups, clapping push-ups, one-legged push-ups, diamond push-ups, etc. I could go on and on. There are a seemingly infinite number of push-up progressions, so you will never get bored with them!
The push-up is truly unparralled in developing strong shoulders and solid core control. This fundamental gymnastics movement is a great exercise and provides no equipment but yields superior results. Personally, I like to do 20 push-ups every morning when I wake up, and maybe another 20 before I go to bed! Give that a try. You may choose to start with fewer or more repetitions depending on your level of strength. Enjoy!
