Dr. Stuart McGill is smart (or is it smaht?). In any case, he’s essentially the world’s expert when it comes to lower back health and performance. Below is part II of a series of “tidbits” that my good friend Eric Cressey jotted down the last time we listened to Dr. McGill speak. Pay attention gym rats. It’s been said that upwards of 80% of the population will experience some form of low back pain in his or her lifetime; you can thank me for the info later.

6. Shear forces are far more of a concern than compressive forces; our spines actually handle compressive forces really well (think pushing DOWN on a fishing rod). You can’t buttress shear effectively in spinal flexion (rounded back), so it’s important to avoid it – especially at the most commonly injured lumbar spine segments – at all costs. The spine doesn’t buckle until 12,000-15,000N of pressure are applied in compression, but as little as 1,800-2,8000N in shear will get the job done. Take home message: stop training with a rounded back; ALWAYS keep a neutral spine when training.

7. The rectus abdominus (abs) is not about trunk flexion (think crunches); it’s an anti-rotator that is responsible for transferring hoop stresses. If it was about trunk flexion, it wouldn’t have the lateral tendinous inscriptions; we’d have hamstrings there instead!

Side Note: read this blog entry from a few weeks ago and you will see why crunches are pretty much worthless.

8. Don’t just train the glutes in hip extension; really pay attention to their role as external rotators. Once you’ve mastered linear movements (e.g. supine bridges), you need to get into single-leg and emphasis movements like bowler squats and lunges with reaches to various positions. These are great inclusions in the warm-up.

9. Contrary to popular belief, the vertebral bodies – and not the discs – are the shock absorbers of the spine. Amazingly, the elasticity we see is actually in the bone; blood is responsible for pressurizing the bone.

10. End-plate fractures are the most common injury with compression; they almost always are accompanied by a “pop” sound.

P.S. As an interesting aside to all of this, Dr. McGill and I actually spoke at length about the importance of hip mobility – something that obviously is closely related to all twenty of these points. If you lack mobility at the hips, you’re forced to go to the lumbar spine to get it, and that is a serious limitation to building stability. On several occasions, Dr. McGill alluded to Mike Robertson and my Magnificent Mobility DVD, so if you’re looking to protect your back, improve performance, and feel better than you ever thought possible, check it out..

Everyone always talks about how stretching/lengthening our tissue (muscles) is the best thing you can do to increase your range of motion and improve flexibility. I don’t agree. A good example would be someone who is in anterior pelvic tilt; about 95% of the population:

In this example, we see a predictive pattern of tight/overactive muscles and weak/inhibited muscles (also called Lower Cross Syndrome).

Tight/Overactive: quadriceps, TFL, psoas (hip flexors)

Weak/Inhibited: hamstrings, glutes, abdominals

Most people like to stretch their hamstrings, cause they always feel “tight,” when in all actuality they’re anything but. Why would you want to stretch an already weak and inhibited muscle? The hamstrings are already lengthened in this scenario (hence why they “feel” tight). By static stretching them, you’re just making them MORE weak and inhibited.

What if I told you that you don’t necessarily need to stretch in order to improve your flexibility? Would you believe me? What if I told you I was voted sexiest personal trainer this side of the Mississippi River by panel of my peers? Would you believe me then? (wink).

I like to get people in the mindset that working on tissue QUALITY is paramount in how they feel overall. We can stretch till the cows come home (I’m from upstate NY, we actually have cows there), but if we don’t take care of all the knots, adhesions, trigger points, and scar tissue that build up in our muscles from all the weight training, running, and daily grind we put them through (even sitting at your computer all day); we’ll never get full range of motion. A great analogy I like to use, is a rubber band.

Suppose I took a band and put a knot in it:

Now I pull the band to emulate stretching, what happens to the knot?

It just gets tighter/smaller. Eventually, the band will break either above or below the knot; kind of like what your muscle does when you strain it. Again, you will NEVER see full range of motion/lengthening in your muscles until you work on tissue quality and getting those knots and trigger points out of there.

Using a foam roller or something as simple as a tennis ball can go a long ways in helping you achieve improved tissue quality. By breaking up all those adhesions, you will automatically improve your flexibility, without even stretching. How you like dem apples?

***Side note: I am in no way saying that static stretching doesn’t have a time and place. In fact, we need MORE stretching (but moreso doing it correctly and in the right areas). But I just wanted to bring light to the fact that people are doing themselves a disservice by not focusing on tissue quality as well and including more soft tissue work into their daily routines.

This is from my good friend (Eric Cressey’s) blog. 80% of people in the US will experience some form of lower back pain at some point in time. Most (read not all) physicians and/or physical therapists are totally clueless when it comes to treating low back pain. Luckily we have Dr. Stuart McGill, who is smarter than all of us.

I’ve seen Dr. McGill in seminar before, and by my own admission, I’ve always been more of a “listen and watch” guy than a note-taker. However, that’s not to say that I didn’t hear a lot of great points that went right to my notepad. Here were some highlights along with (in some cases) my commentaries on their applicability to what we do:

1. As counterintuitive as it may seem, flexion-intolerant individuals (e.g. disc herniations) will sit in positions of flexion, and extension-intolerant patients (e.g. spondylolisthesis) will sit in positions of extension. It might give them temporary relief, but it’s really just making the problem worse in the long run. We become intolerant to certain lumbar spine postures not only because we’re in them so much (e.g., cyclist or secretary in long-term lumbar flexion), but also because we’re forced into this posture due to a lack of hip mobility or lumbar spine stability.

2. It’s absolutely comical that the American Medical Association still uses loss of spinal range of motion as the classification scheme of lower back dysfunction. There isn’t a single study out there that shows the lumbar spine range of motion is correlated with having a healthy back; in fact, the opposite is true! Those with better stability (super-stiffness, as Dr. McGill calls it) and optimal hip mobility are much better off.

3. Lower back health is highly correlated with endurance, while those with stronger and more powerful lower backs are more commonly injured. The secret is to have power at the hips – something you’ll see in world-class lifters.

4. There is really no support for bilateral stretching of the hamstrings to prevent and treat lower back pain. In most cases, the tightness people feel in their hamstrings is a neural tightness – not a purely soft-tissue phenomenon. Dr. McGill believes that the only time the hamstrings should be stretched is with an asymmetry. This is something I’ve been practicing for close to a year now with outstanding results; the tighter my hamstrings have gotten, the stronger and faster I’ve become. The secret is to build dynamic flexibility that allows us to make use of the powerful spring effect the hamstrings offer; static stretching – especially prior to movement – impairs this spring.

5. Next time you see an advanced powerlifter or Olympic lifter, check out the development of his erectors. You’ll notice that the meat is in the upper lumbar and thoracic regions – not the “true” lower back. Why? They subconsciously know to avoid motion in those segments most predisposed to injury, and the extra meat a bit higher up works to buttress the shearing stress that may come from any flexion that might occur higher up. Novice lifters, on the other hand, tend to get flexion at those segments – L5-S1, L4-L5, L3-L4, L2-L3 – at which you want to avoid flexion at all costs. Our body is great at adapting to protect itself – especially as we become better athletes and can impose that much more loading on our bodies.

Eric Cressey

P.S. As an interesting aside to all of this, Dr. McGill and I actually spoke at length about the importance of hip mobility – something that obviously is closely related to all twenty of these points. If you lack mobility at the hips, you’re forced to go to the lumbar spine to get it, and that is a serious limitation to building stability. On several occasions, Dr. McGill alluded to Mike Robertson and my Magnificent Mobility DVD, so if you’re looking to protect your back, improve performance, and feel better than you ever thought possible, check it out.

It stands to reason that I have seen a lot of dumb things throughout my years working as a personal trainer (BOSU balls anyone?). I would go so far to say that a see something on a daily basis that makes me scratch my head and think to myself, “why?” I’d also go so far to say that my hands should be licensed as lethal weapons by the government, but I digress.

One of my biggest “pet peeves” is when I see a trainer and client talking to one another DURING a set. I am not referring to a trainer offering coaching cues or correcting form during a set; I am referring to the two actually having a conversation about what they watched on tv last night or how delectable “x” restaurant was to eat at last weekend. (FYI: The Sunset Grill: Cajun Paco Taco Salad….is the bomb).

I’ll keep this brief. If you’re able to hold an entire conversation while you’re performing an exercise (either with a trainer or while training with a friend), then you’re not even close to working hard enough or with any intensity what-so-ever. On a side note, I’ll take a wild guess and assume that you probably haven’t made much progress in the gym in the past few months either (maybe even years).

I am not opposed to building a repoire with my clients and chatting it up with them. On the contrary, many of my clients would say I am the most charming and hilarious person they have ever met….true story. But lets not forget that training time is training time (not social hour). I am all for chatting about how stupid Lindsay Lohan is, but during an actual set is NOT that time.

General rule of thumb. If you’re able to talk during a set….add some weight to the bar or increase the intensity on the treadmill. It will be good for you.

This is probably the most important component that people forget about or are just too lazy to incorporate into their programs. Single leg work (think lunges) serves several purposes. It helps to fix any weaknesses or imbalances that may exist between one limb or the other (in this case, one leg being stronger or weaker than the other). They also do a superb job at improving overall strength by forcing the hip adductors/abductors to fire and stabilize the body (namely the femur) while the body is breaking the frontal plane, which is especially beneficial for many athletes. This is also the reasoning as to why single leg work helps to improve coordination and balance, which many people (athletes aside) drastically lack.

I see it almost everyday with the clients that I work with. Kids who sit in front of the television all day playing video games or older adults who have sedentary jobs in front of the computer, can’t perform a simple reverse lunge without falling over every other repetition.

In the end, single leg work has a HUGE carryover to sports. How many sports can you think of that take place entirely on two feet? And no, competitive eating is not a sport. Additionally if there is anything that will help prevent the majority of knee problems that occur, single leg work may be it. So do yourself a favor and start incorporating them into your programming. Your knees will thank you.

On an aside, I like to categorize single leg work in the same fashion as Mike Boyle: check out this article which shows a few videos of the movement I am referring to.

Knee Dominant Single Leg Training: basically entails any squat variation on one leg (lunges, step-ups, split squats, Bulgarians, one-legged squats (pistols)

Static, Un-supported: consist of single leg movements done on one leg with no movement forward or backward (these would be your true one-legged squats). The non working extremity is not allowed to touch the ground.

Static, Supported: still no movement forward or backward, but now the non working extremity is supported (by the ground or a bench). These would entail your split squats or Bulgarian split squats.

Dynamic: Walking Lunges, step-ups

Hip Dominant Single Leg Training: involves more of the hamstrings and glutes. One-legged Romanian Deadlifts, Reverse Lunges. etc.

Unfortunately, I can’t include videos of all movements listed above. If you have any more questions, feel free to e-mail me and I can send you some links/videos.

How were all those hotdogs, hamburgers, and pasta salads on the 4th? I’m not going to lie, I had a few too many chocolate chip cookies myself so I have no room to talk. The chocolate cake was tasty too. Alright, I have a little bit of a chocolate obsession, sue me!

Just a little FYI to all those people who feel guilty about eating all that bad food over the 4th of July: 1-2 days of OVER-eating will NOT cause your body to store fat. Sure you will feel bloated and probably tacked on a few lbs, but that’s just water weight (for every gram of carbohydrate you ingest, the body will store 3-4 grams of water). Research has shown that in order for ‘in vivo’ lipogenesis to occur (the making of NEW body fat), one has to consistently OVER-eat for more than 1-2 days. The body does a pretty good job at up regulating and down regulating metabolism based on one’s caloric intake. So trust me when I say that your two day food binge is not that big of a deal.

However, now that the holiday is over and we all had a day to recuperate, it’s time to get back to “bidness” and hit the gym with a mission again. One massive mistake that people make is that they often take a ONE day holiday and make it into a week long personal excuse to eat crappy foods and slack on their training.

It’s time to revert back to normal eating habits (ie: no more chocolate cake dammit) and it’s also time to kick your own butt in the gym.

One tactic that I like to use with clients is what I call a complex (these are especially good for those trying to shed a little body fat in general). If you’re like me, I HATE steady state cardio and I think I have an allergy to the treadmill. After you’re done with your normal training session, instead of your 10 minutes of “ab” work (waste of time) or your 20 minute “cool down” on the elliptical (more waste of time), do this instead:

Complex: a series of movements that you complete without putting the bar down.

1. Grab a barbell or dumbbells (anywhere from 35-65 total lbs will work great for most people)

2. Walk over to a spot in your gym that gives you a good 4 feet around.

3. From here you’re going to perform a series of 6 movements without stopping or putting the bar down.

The Movements:

Romanian Deadlift

Bent Over Row

Front Squat

Push Press

Back Squat

Dymanic Lunge

4. You will perform 6 reps for each movement. Example: Romanian Deadlift x 6, bent over row x 6, etc…..

5. Rest for half the amount of time it took you to complete the complex

6. Repeat for the allotted time (10 minutes). Most people will get 4-6 rounds in

7. Keep the puke bucket close

Complexes are great for those people who have limited space available (and hate the stairmaster) and they are superior as far as total conditioning and overall ass kicking is concerned. I don’t necessarily want people to vomit, but I will forewarn you and say that complexes are not for the weak of heart. They’re hard. But getting the body you want isn’t supposed to be easy. If it were easy, then all those people who do nothing but watch Oprah while doing their “cardio” and lift the same weights they used three years ago would look fantastic. You’re not that person.

A few months ago I had the opportunity to take part in what could quite possibly be the most meaningful “project” I will ever contribute to. Alwyn Cosgrove and Mike Roussell asked some of the leading fitness professionals in the industry to write an article or excerpt for a book that Alwyn wanted to put together to say thank you to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. To say that I was honored to be included in such a list is an understatement.

Alwyn Cosgrove has beaten cancer……..twice. He’s officially tougher than He-Man and Optimus Prime combined, and is quite honestly the most generous human being I have ever met. On a side note he is also the fastest person ever to recover from a full stem cell transplant.

As I alluded to above, to say thank you, Alwyn asked the strength and conditioning community to take part in a book that ended up being over 800 pages long. It ended up being put onto cd to save production costs. A total of 57 fitness professionals contributed and the content is nothing short of outstanding. Whether you’re a fitness professional yourself or just your average weekend warrior, I can guarantee that you will find something useful that will make you a better trainer/coach or help you lose some fat or get stronger.

ALL proceeds will be given to The National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. With the goal set at over 1 million, we want to make sure that this happens. So please click on the link below. With over 800 pages of top notch training information, you can’t go wrong.

Liftstrong

I am not going to lie, I think steady state cardio is a total waste of time. I’d rather watch “Titanic” for a week straight than perform any steady state cardio (I’ll never let go Jack!”) Yet walk into any gym in North America and you will undoubtedly see everyone and their mother on the treadmill or elliptical trainer chugging along while watching their favorite shows on the television in the hopes of shedding that extra body fat. These are the same people who look the same now as they did three years ago. These are the same people who rarely ever get results and will try every fad diet out there. In the end, they will conclude that they’re just genetically predisposed to being fat. On the contrary, they’re just predisposed to being lazy and the REAL reason they never see results is because they don’t want to work hard. Sorry but people need some tough love from time to time.

Have you ever noticed that the leanest people in the gym lift weights, and perform intervals? On the flip side, ever notice where all the “out of shape” people tend to hang out in the gym? You guessed it: treadmills, elliptical trainers, and bikes.

Shedding body fat is NOT about how many calories you burn in a 45 minute session on the treadmill. It’s true, your body burns a greater percentage of fat while doing low intensity exercise (matter of fact your body is burning body fat while you read this blog). But even if you burned 90% fat during these marathon sessions of cardio, the amount of TOTAL calories being burned is insignificant. 90% of nothing, is still nothing.

The REAL secret to shedding body is providing enough of a metabolic disturbance so that the body will be burning calories OUTSIDE of the gym. Like I alluded to above, it’s not about how many calories you burn in an hour at the gym; it’s about how many calories your body is burning while you’re NOT in the gym.

Interval training is simply alternating periods of “work” with periods of “rest.” Yes, it’s that simple. The basic tenets of interval training can be satisfied on the treadmill, stationary bike, stairmaster, or elliptical, but performing outside on a track is probably the most effective. The work component represents the high intensity/sprint component, and the rest component represents the low intensity/active recovery component. For example, alternating 20 second sprints/fast runs with 60 second brisk walks (or jogs) until the desired time as elapsed.

Benefits of Intervals:

1. Greater Energy Expenditure and Resultant Fat Loss

With increasing exercise intensities, the proportion of energy substrate derived from fat decreases, while the proportion of carbohydrate usage increases. However, the predominant fuel substrate used during exercise does not play a significant role in fat loss. Total daily energy expenditure is more important for fat loss than the major fuel used during exercise. Many studies have compared interval training to endurance cardio and concluded that interval training is the most optimal method for fat loss.

One study had subjects engage in either an endurance program (4-5 times per week for 30-45 minutes) for 20 weeks or a high-low intensity program (interval) for 15 weeks.

Neither group was placed on a diet.

The endurance group expended more overall calories during their session compared to the high-low (interval) group. Actually, the endurance group expended almost DOUBLE the calories.

However, the decrease in six subcutaneous skin folds was greater in the high-low intensity group than it was in the endurance group. This is despite the lower energy cost during exercise.

After statistical analysis it was shown that the high-low intensity group experienced nine times the fat loss of the endurance group; even with 5 LESS weeks of total exercise.

This same study found the high-low intensity protocol to significantly increase the activity of an enzyme which is a marker of the activity of ‘fat burning’ over endurance protocol.

2. Improved Cardiovascular Conditioning and Fitness

Interval training has been shown to increase both aerobic and anaerobic capacity whereas endurance cardio only increases aerobic capacity.

It is well established that interval training increases aerobic capacity/VO2 max more than endurance cardio. And in all actuality, the fastest way to improve one’s VO2 max (the standard measure of AEROBIC fitness) is through interval training. How you like dem apples?

As Mike Boyle has stated on several occasions, conventional aerobic training is popular because it’s easy. Interval training is hard and uncomfortable. Ask anyone if they had a choice between going for a 30 minute jog or performing five, 400m tempo runs under 70 seconds, which would they choose? More often than not they will choose the former.

If you want to shed body fat, you need to WORK and work hard. Stop with the drawn out steady state cardio and begin to implement more intervals/sprints into your repertoire. You can thank me later.

I hate fad diets. Matter of fact, I hate all of those fad diet books more than I hate the Yankees (that should score me some brownie points; I’m from Upstate NY). Why do I dislike them so much? They do absolutely NOTHING as far as setting you up for LONG-TERM success. They’re a crutch more than anything; a quick fix. Lets take The Atkins Diet for example. The Atkins Diet essentially has you remove all carbohydrates from your diet, which for most Americans equates to roughly 60% of total calories. It’s obvious that when “we” reduce our total caloric intake by 60% that we’re going to lose weight. However, what many people fail to realize is that most of the weight that is lost is just water and stored glycogen (stored glucose/sugar); and muscle. It’s not unheard of for people to lose upwards of 8-10 lbs in one week on The Atkins Diet (again a vast majority of that weight is water and glycogen). On a side note: in the long run, many of these fad diets sacrifce lean body mass (muscle) which is the last thing you want to do. Muscle is metabolically active tissue (the more you have, the higher your metabolism). Essentially you make yourself a smaller and weaker version of your original self on most of these diets. Not good. But I digress.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and before long, progress stalls. People will lose their 20-30 lbs and then revert back to old eating habits and put the weight back on, and then some. The viscious cycle continues.

Honestly, I could go on and on about why I disagree with pretty much every fad diet out there (even you Dr. Phil), but that is beyond the scope of this blog. In the end people need to realize that all of these diets tend to have commonalities (eat more smaller meals throughout the day, focus on lean protein, eat more fruits and vegetables, etc). And speaking of fruits and vegetables (which are carbohydrates), why ANY diet (specifically Atkins) would advocate that people remove them from their diets because they are in fact carbohydrates, is absurd. Trust me it’s not the apples and carrots that are making you fat people; it’s the daily trips to the local pizza joint and bagels every morning.

Anyways, we need to focus on the commonalities. We need to develop SOUND DAILY HABITS in order to succeed in the long run. It’s not about following this diet or that diet. It’s about developing habits and strategies that you are CONSISTENT with. Then and only then will you succeed and lose that stubborn body fat and keep it off forever.

My good friend (and renowned Nutritionist) Mike Roussell developed one such system that I think will blow any fad diet out of the water. Your Naked Nutrition Guide is a system that I advocate for the bulk of my own clients. What I like about it is that it’s simple and practical and it works! No other book out there will help you set up your own individualized nutritional program. You want permanent results now? Quit following the sheep. You don’t need some looney fad diet which promises 15 lbs lost in two weeks. What you need is to learn the basics. It’s as simple as that.