Face it, we all want buns of steel…well, at least buns like an unripe avocado — right?
The problem is, when it comes to exercise selection to sculpt the perfect derriere, most of us often miss the mark. Here is everything you need to know when it comes to targeting the glutes through exercise in an easy to understand infographic (the larger the box, the greater the activation of the glutes from the exercise).
Here’s another phenomenal guest post by Halevy Life Director of Programming and Education, Nick Johnson:
Why would/should anyone ever front squat? It’s so much harder, you definitely don’t look as tough because you can’t load the bar up and muscle through it, and it isn’t super comfortable at the bottom of the lift. So why utilize the front squat?
Look: Very tough. But the Front Squat may be a tad more confortable at the bottom portion of the lift…
My goal is to make and support the argument for using front squats before you ever load up the barbell and put it on your back. Here are the 3 biggest reasons I choose the front squat over back squatting for beginners and/or those lacking core stability.
1. Performing a front squat is much easier on the posterior chain (especially lower back) than the back squat. Many of the clients I begin working with, regardless of their goals, almost always have problems with:
a. The ability to stabilize their core when in motion, and
b. Lower back pain.
The front squat addresses both issues. Because the load is placed in front of the body, the barbell is kept over the center of gravity without your back having to bend as much to keep it there. In other words, front squatting allows for much more knee flexion without decreasing the hip angle to the point where you are performing a lower back exercise. If you look at the angles outlined below, the front squat allows us to get much more knee flexion (6 degrees difference with this individual) without placing as much stress on the lower back (11 degrees difference in the hip angle). This is extremely important when working with anyone with low-back pain or issues activating their core.
Front Squat
Back Squat
2. The second reason: quadriceps activity. The front squat is a truly quad dominant exercise. When you back squat, the more acute hip angle created, due to the bar position relative to the center of gravity, causes you to use much more hamstring and glute activity at the bottom of the range of motion. We can in fact even get more work done with far less weight using a front squat. To solidify this notion just check out this study performed by a team at the University of Florida. The decreased resistance needed means there is much less compressive forces on the knees, minimizing the risk of cartilage, ligament and tendon injuries.
To further convince you that front squatting will build your quadriceps at a much higher rate, check out this article. You can see bye the EMG (Electromyography: a cool way to see electrical activity produced by skeletal muscle) data that the front squat produces higher muscle activation in the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris compared to the back squat, and there is little to no difference in muscle activation in the vastus medialis. These 3 muscles are the big 3 out of the 4 (this is what femoris stands for) that make up the quadriceps group of muscles.
3. The absolute best reason to use front squats over back squats, especially if you are just starting to squat in a new workout regimen: they are much safer! You cannot cheat; if you do so you drop the bar. The front squat essentially has a built in safety mechanism. This is why I love the front squat as an indicator of lower body strength over the back squat. You are forced to complete the exercise correctly, using your legs to keep the torso erect, not your lower back. Just to further drive the point home, this is a client I have worked with for 2 weeks. He didn’t do anything for a while prior to coming in to work with us, and this picture was taken the second time he front squatted in his program.
The form is absolutely incredible for someone who is beginning a resistance training program for the first time. I can guarantee if I were to place the bar on his back he would come in the next day and we would be doing things to help loosen his lower back because it hurts so damn much.
So why doesn’t everyone use the front squat? You can’t lift as much weight, and it can be uncomfortable at first. Really? Uncomfortable? If you’re not willing to get out of your comfort zone to do things the right way go enroll in the golden oldies yoga class and water aerobics at your local YMCA. If you want to do things the correct way and push yourself to receive the best results, add the front squat to your workout and see your legs and midsection strengthen immediately. For any instructions on how to perform a front squat properly or for loading parameters hit me up on www.twitter.com/HL_Nick.
Here’s another great guest post by Halevy Life’s Director of Programming and Education, Nick Johnson:
I recently had something very foreign happen to me; my mother told me I was right.
She sent this via text message from an examination room at a hospital, immediately after receiving an MRI for her knee that had been bothering her for around a year and a half by this point. Coincidentally it was about a year and a half (+ 3 weeks) ago she decided to join a step class. At that point it was a great idea right? You can just step up and down, squat and lunge for an hour straight and melt the fat away. What could possibly go wrong with this scenario?
I had expressed my concerns with only doing step classes and not adding any variation to her routine. About 2 weeks in to the 3-day/week step class experience, my mother started devloping knee pain. She had never had knee problems before this, so naturally my first inclination was to blame the step classes. She stopped taking the classes a week later and the pain and discomfort somewhat subsided, but any time she would really exert herself, the pain would come back. Fast-forward a year and a half, and the text message reads “Dr. says it’s a meniscus tear, looks like it has been the problem all along.” It’s hard not to say “I told you so”, so naturally that is exactly what I did. Because she didn’t listen to my advice, she was in pain; it’s the wooden spoon story in reverse. So why isn’t it a good idea to do the same thing over and over again?
Before we further address this question I want to make it clear that this isn’t just a knock on step classes; any exercise routine where you do the same thing over and over again is not a good idea. Even running all the time without switching things up will cause problems.
According to Paul Chek, and many other individuals of much greater intelligence than the most of us, there are 7 different ways in which the human body can move. Every movement is a derivation of those 7 “primal movement patterns.”
These movement patterns are:
1. Gait: as humans we can walk, jog or sprint. Every time you take a step, pushing off of the ground in a forward motion, you are demonstrating what the nerds like to call “gait.”
2. Lunge: this is my roommate’s least favorite of the 7 (he doesn’t like gait much either, at least at a faster pace). Every time you take a step up or down a stair you are exhibiting the lunge pattern (we live in a 5th floor walk-up apartment).
3. Squat: think of how much you get up and down out of your chair every day, you are squatting each and every time.
4. Bend: Picking anything up from the ground usually involves some type of bending, and so does doing the dishes.
5. Push: pushing has a vertical and horizontal component to it, so pushing away from your desk at work to grab another coffee (horizontal), or lifting that serving tray you use once a year at thanksgiving back up to the super inconvenient cabinet space above the refrigerator are both pushing movements.
6. Pull: much like the push pattern, pulling also has a vertical and horizontal component to it. Whether it’s pulling yourself up to grab that tray above the fridge you put away last year or opening the car door, it’s a pull.
7. Twist: rotation across the transverse plane (divides the body into a top and a bottom at the hips) occurs so frequently in daily life, but seems to be a big problem when it comes to strength and stability. Placing the dishes in the drying rack after you washed them, reaching up high for something with one hand, pulling open anything heavy with one hand all involve a twisting motion.
The secret (not really a secret, the information has been out there for a long time) to a good exercise program is incorporating a good balance of each movement pattern. Overtraining any one of these could lead to structural problems such as a meniscus tear, or injuries due to an overdevelopment of a specific area and weakness in another. Once again, this isn’t specific to step classes. Running, spinning, or even strength training the same patterns over and over again will not only increase the chance of injury, but decrease the effectiveness of the program as well; a discussion better saved for another time.
If you want to know more about creating a balanced program hit me up on Twitter @HL_Nick.
There are four easy steps to Breaking Bad Habits…check out my latest piece for U.S. News and World Report!
Watch this guest spot on my network’s show “Over The Hump” where I give up the details on my past and getting over addiction, depression, illness, and financial ruin:
With the ING New York City Marathon just weeks away (…after some of us fought hard for last year’s marathon cancellation due to Hurricane Sandy), I figured now is as good a time as any to revisit a misunderstood and often controversial topic about marathons: lifting weights as part of your training.
I figured there’s no one better to turn to for insight on this one other than Halevy Life’s own Director of Programming and Education…AND marathoner, Nick Johnson.
Lifting for the Long-Haul: Should Runners and Marathoners Lift Weights?
By Nick Johnson
I want to start off by saying I am by no means a “runner” nor do I particularly enjoy running, at least in the beginning. I have however “competed” (relative term) in a few races and have spent much of the last year training for them. Like many people attempting to tackle their first marathon, I assumed reading was the place to start as far as developing a training regimen and get in shape. I read every article and “free” program I could get my hands on, and with all reading said and done I came to the simple conclusion that I needed to run, and run, and run some more. So that is what I did. I completely ceased my training routine in the weight room and hit the road.
I started training on a regular basis for marathon one 6 months prior to the race date, slowly building up my miles with 1 long run a week. From everything I had read, this was the way to do it. As race day drew nearer (1 month away) I started to develop pain in my knee. Went to the doctors office and was told it was simply “runners knee.” I have had a history of leg injuries and figured if I took it down a notch I would be fine; From an endurance perspective I was in the best condition of my life. Finally race day came and I started off at a good pace. Then came the fun at 10 miles in, first with hamstring cramps, then eventually cramping all throughout my legs. I had a 3:30 pace going before this happened and was pumped, like I said, best shape of my life. I ended up finishing in just less than 4 hours, which wasn’t horrible by most standards, but definitely not up to my expectations.
After that terrible experience I swore I would never run another marathon. I didn’t run for a month or so, until I was approached by a co-worker and asked if I would run one with her. Naturally my response was “of course” (female, couldn’t say no). So 4 months from the race day I came up with a new plan. I would continue my strength training routine, just scale down the frequency and intensity, and do 2 shorter runs accompanied by 1 long run a week (down from 5 runs/week). My second marathon time was 3 hours 20 minutes, and I felt great afterwards, with some still left in the tank. I directly contribute this success to continuing with my strength-training program through the marathon training.
Here are the 3 reasons why you should lift when training for endurance races:
1. Prevent Overuse Injuries
Too much of one thing is almost always a bad thing (i.e. food, as in diet and nutrition; a well balanced diet is necessary to meet the body’s nutritional demands). The key to success is variation. Yes, you need to be running if you are planning on competing in a running event, but those training for running events have a very high susceptibility to injury. A 2007 study done by Fredricson and Misra in the Journal of Sports Medicine showed that two thirds of runners will sustain an injury every year and 90% of those training for a marathon will suffer from an injury. This can be attributed to overuse and weakness. Most lower body injuries from running are caused from weakness in the hip muscles, especially the hip abductors. What could possibly be one way to counteract overuse and weakness? LIFT!
2. Improve Your Time
One of the best ways to improve your time is to produce a powerful stride both quickly and efficiently. It makes sense right? The more power you can produce with each stride while using minimal amounts of energy, the faster you can run. You will not see increases in power from running long distance, therefore a supplementation of resistance exercises is essential. Let me take a second here to talk about what type of lifting you should do. Running a marathon is an endurance event right? That means we should train for muscular endurance, correct? Yes! But you do this when you run. Research has shown that rep ranges of 12-20 do not increase muscular endurance any more than a 6-8 rep range (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18787090). The best way to work on running economy is lift to compliment your running, so get in the weight room and perform large muscle recruitment, heavy exercises (deadlifts, squats, pull-ups, etc.)
3. Make Running Easy
Lifting will create neurological adaptations that you won’t get from simply running. Your body will be able to recruit more muscle fibers with each contraction, translating directly into better running economy. The August edition of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research has a study in which participants were divided into 3 groups; no lifting, light lifting (2x/week, 3 sets of 10 at 70% max), and heavy lifting (2x/week, 4 sets of 3-4 reps at 85-90% max). After 6 weeks only the heavy lifting group showed improvements (6% running economy).
Whether you are looking to improve your running time and cut down on your chances of getting an injury I would highly suggest adding a balanced resistance training program of 2-3 days a week to your running routine. If you have any questions as to what I did or what I would suggest doing to improve your marathon time hit me up on twitter @HL_Nick.
I’m currently in LA so I’ve been hitting workouts in my hotel gym.
Now I don’t know about you, but I need my space when I work out. No, I don’t need the whole gym to myself, but I just need to not feel like someone else is on top of me (besides, I spent enough years wrestling, grappling, and living with roommates).
So I’m busy running sprints on the treadmill this morning and a woman of a certain age — ok let’s just face it, an old lady — bypasses all of the open treadmills not next to me and settles on the treadmill right next to me. I can’t tell you why this bothers me, but it does.
But then something AWESOME happens.
This little old lady locks onto my intervals and starts doing them with me!
If that’s not a $hit ton of awesome right there, I don’t know what is. Inspired, I end up going extra rounds and really pushing myself thinking, I’m bringing some inspiration & motivation into her fitness routine. I went from pissed to honored in minutes.
After I finished and cooled down, she introduced herself — of course her name was Ruthie! — asked about my Halevy Life t-shirt (always shamelessly promoting!), and said she loved seeing someone work hard in the gym.
So…what’s the moral of the story? I think there are probably a solid 20, but my immediate takeaways:
1) You never know how you will affect other people, so always think like a leader.
2) Whether you want to be or not, you ARE a leader to someone at some point. Take this responsibility seriously.
3) Always choose the treadmill next to the little old lady. :)
Olympic Lifting for the Non-Athlete
By Nick Johnson, Director of Programming and Education at Halevy Life
As a former collegiate athlete and collegiate strength coach, I can personally attest to the effectiveness and positive influence Olympic lifting can have on athletic performance. While most research on power movements and Olympic lifting focuses on it’s ability to alter or enhance sports performance, the benefits are certainly not limited to collegiate and professional athletes.
So, what are Olympic lifts? The two lifts performed in Olympic competition are the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk. Both exercises are technically complicated ways of performing the same task: moving a mass from the ground to overhead. Olympic lifting is a staple in strength programming for athletic competition because it develops power and strength in an athlete. But why can’t it be beneficial for the general exerciser looking to shed a few pounds and pack on a little size for beach season? There certainly many ways a person can benefit from Olympic lifts, but the four big ones in my opinion are as follows:
1. Activation of the body as a whole.
Performing Olympic style movements requires activation of the whole body in a powerful and synchronized fashion. When you take a weight from the floor and quickly move it overhead, you engage a whole chain of muscle groups, from the gluteus and spinal erectors up to the latissimus dorsi and trapezius. Not only are these large groups recruited to complete the task, multiple stabilizing muscles are also actively engaged to successfully complete the movement, from the feet through the core and out to the extremities.
2. Cardio with a barbell?
Olympic lifts provide surprisingly large cardiovascular benefits. If you have ever performed 3-5 reps of a snatch at a heavy weight you know what I’m talking about here. Studies have shown we can reap the same cardiovascular benefits with Olympic lifting as long duration “cardio” exercise in much less time (Stone, Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Science, 1983). Another study compared calories burned during training of Olympic lifters and marathoners and found the two different training styles resulted in similar caloric expenditure, even with the Olympic lifters group spending far less time training (Folger, Men’s Health Magazine, 2006).
3. Tons of variation.
One of my favorite parts of Olympic lifting is the variation or combination of movements that can be used. You can start from the floor, from a hanging position, or mid-rack (shoulder level). Furthermore, you can catch the weight regularly or in a split position (one foot back), or even break the movements down and train specific parts individually. One of my favorite things to do for power development is the snatch pull. When the goal is to develop power you want to focus on acceleration, and by taking the catch out of the equation we minimize difficulty, risk and injury without losing the focus of the lift in the first place, bringing me to my final point.
4. Low risk.
Ask anyone who has ever used Olympic lifts in their training and they will tell you that you really can’t go too heavy. When you try for that last rep and you simply can’t complete it, the weight goes back to the ground and there is very little room for forced reps and cheating to complete the rep. There are no spotters, no benches, no supports, taking many of the risks associated with resistance training out of the equation.
To recap, here are the benefits of adding Olympic lifting to your training regimen: pack on size and power in an efficient manner; improve your cardiovascular system and burn more calories with less workout time; and add variability and complexity to your training regimen while minimizing risk and injury. If you need any more convincing feel free to hit me up on Twitter @HL_Nick.
I recently found myself in a Twitter-debate-gone-bad with a garden variety personal trainer, referred to herein as GVPT, who labels herself a “fitness expert” for a few major-brand health magazines (though she is not listed as such on said publications’ websites). That being said, GVPT does have a “name” in the business, whatever that’s worth, but therein lies the problem, as I’ll discuss later.
The catalyst of our debate: the health and fat loss merits of fasting.
What set off the debate was, by my standards, an innocuous response to one of GVPT’s tweets, in which I clarified that one can fast up to 72 hours without any slowdown of metabolism. Now, for purposes of clarification, this is not my opinion, but in fact lab-tested truth. There was no agenda here, other than to clarify this one small piece of information. However, GVPT disagreed with clinical research because it ran contrary to her opinion.
GVPT then made “J.V. Debate Club Mistake #1,” by attempting an Appeal to Authority, one of the most rudimentary forms of a fallacious argument, by photographing and posting a small blurb in a magazine quoting Dr. Andrew Weil, in which Weil says that fasting may not be the best solution for weight loss.
But wait, weren’t we talking about metabolic slowdown? But GVPT wouldn’t have it. After all, the existing clinical research doesn’t support her opinion. When I then offered to supply over twenty studies that strongly indicate the benefits of fasting — I should clarify; “fasting” can last from hours to days — she didn’t respond by agreeing to read research, but instead sent a link to an exercise “guru” who actually peddles pills claiming to spot reduce fat, which by any informed medical opinion is a complete impossibility. In fact, the only method of spot reduction is liposuction. But alas, an Appeal to Authority corroborated by…a second Appeal to Authority.
Never mind the fantastic research that is emerging not only for using periodic fasting for fat loss and for health — autophagy, or the body’s internal cleaning and maintenance system, only occurs to full-effect in a fasted state — but back to GVPT’s original source, Dr. Weil. Interestingly enough, Dr. Weil in fact supports fasting as espoused in an incredibly popular 2012 piece for The Huffington Post.
GVPT continued our debate by…you guessed it, more fallacious arguments, this time in the form of ad hominem attacks — always the last resort of the misinformed and defeated. GVPT then blocked me. I guess it’s easier to block out research and truth than change your opinion.
This anecdote is important not only to those of you who are curious about the truth behind fasting, or why you must distrust information from “experts,” but to all of those out there who are influenced by anyone with a “name”…names like good old Jenny McCarthy, the Queen of the Misinformed.
Jenny McCarthy has been making headlines lately not so much because she is joining talk show “The View,” but because she is an outspoken critic of commonly accepted, science-backed childhood immunizations. You see, Ms. McCarthy’s opinion is that immunizations lead to autism — a completely unsubstantiated claim. Research in no way supports her opinions.
However we can’t ignore her opinions, because her opinion as a celebrity inherently carries weight and has an impact. We trust celebrities. After all, that’s why celebrities are used in commercials and advertising. But LeBron James endorsement of Nike product poses no risk to the lives of our children. Ms. McCarthy, however, soap-boxing about her single (questionable) anecdotal experience of “curing” her child’s autism carries with it immeasurable harm.
There’s lots of scary stuff out there negatively affecting our health: carcinogens in the air and water, fast food, the list goes on and on. However these threats are perceived as such. And as great a public health threat as they may be, the threat is at least clear (whether we choose to acknowledge it or not is a whole other story).
Which leads me to the greatest public health threat we face: seemingly credible, benevolent “expert opinion” rendered by those with a public persona — be it a garden variety personal trainer with a Twitter account, or a mother with a talk show hell-bent on using pseudoscience to dissuade parents from providing critical immunizations to their children.
I’ll choose science over celebrity, and research over regurgitation any day. I hope you do the same; the health of Public Health depends on it.
Do. Not. Trust.
