my buddy mikes rehab

The best thing for you to do is gather some of your mates together and start doing some small group sessions with me, however....

most lower back injuries are due to chronic inappropriate overuse patterns. In other words, your posture and the way you go about doing menial tasks. Most acute injuries result from long term, unnoticed improper movement.

Some injuries can and will occur due to sudden overload and movement under improper biomechanical positioning and, lets face it, overtaxing a system not capable of the work load. ( don't feel bad, I do this all of the time)

A couple of things about posture:

Very few people have correct neutral posture; most people gravitate toward either a Donald Duck posture or a Pink Panther

Notice with the donald duck posture the arch of the lower back and with the pink panther the rounding of the upper back. The last picture on the right is a fairly neutral back though the neck could stand to be in better alignment

Most professionals treat lower back injuries either by strengthening the abdominal muscles or increasing the flexibility in the lower back muscles. Doctors seem to like prescribing drugs and sloth.


I think that both of these methods are wrong! How about that!

Most lower back problems are a result of a weak lower back (spinal erectors) and tight hip flexors.

So Mike, after all that blah, blah, blah, what you want to know is ‘how do I treat this man.’

POSTURE:
Good posture generally has the head, shoulders, hips and ankles in alignment.

When you’re standing or walking around you should hold your head up high, shoulder blades back and down and stomach ( tummy) slightly sucked in. Don’t hold your breath. This isn't the army.

Think of yourself as a marionette on a string. Keep the string pulled tight. Pulled upright through the center of your body.

The HIPS:
Lack of hip mobility puts a lot of stress on the lower back. So here are a series of stretches to work on.

Remember we are stretching the hips, not the lower back. So anything that is turning/twisting , hyperflexing or hyper-extending the lower back is not what we are after. We want a steady back and mobile hips.


The first flexibility drill we want to incorporate is simply sitting on a softball. Sit down one cheek on the ball and roll around on it trying to hit every sore spot. When you find a sore spot hold for a few seconds then roll some more and find the next one. Then swap cheeks.

Hip flexor stretch; the key to the hip flexor stretch is to maintain that neutral spine. I’ve never met anyone who does this stretch correctly. Everyone uses hyper-extension of the lower back to accommodate a great degree of stretch usually pinching the back and stretching the quads at best. They key to this movement is to keep the back straight and tilt the lower pelvis upwards. Point your groin towards the ceiling.

Seated glute stretch; simply sitting down. Back upright, sitting tall, one ankle across the opposite knee, the key to this one is to slowly push the knee not only down , but away from the hip.

Lying hip stretch; laying on your back, feet shoulder width apart knees bent touch the knees together. The key to this one is not to have the knees too close to your butt.

So there's some easy exercises for hip flexibility.


Next lets look at strengthening the back.

The first thing to start is the stretch and reach. Easy. Just start cleaning the walls in your house. Seriously. Reach as high as you can overhead and press against the wall and scrub away the dirt, cobwebs, matrix lines, whatever. The movements should be small and remain small. Think karate kid (the original) wax on wax off but high overhead.

Next and keeping it easy are kick backs. On your hands and knees simply kick one leg back and hold for a second or two and do 20-30 repetitions and then switch legs.

Notice the ass sitting back

And a third exercise is stiffleg deadlifts: for this you want to stand with your legs wide apart. Bend over as far as you can, from the hips, while keeping your back straight. The key here is not thinking you have to reach the floor. Also, when you bend over, let your butt sit back.

take it easy, nice and light. just use a backpack and add milk bottles as you need to.

The secret exercise for back rehabilitation:


Running; now, don’t go starting ultra-marathons, but jog a block or two, make a couple of laps around the track. The key here, maintain your posture. Your not in a hurry, but getting a half mile to a mile jogging in will help loosen your back muscles and strengthen them. It will also strengthen your stomach muscles and respiratory system.

And here’s one I like to do.

Pick up heavy stuff!. To simplify; go to a rocky beach and wander around and pick up the rocks. No hurry, no program, no sets, no reps, no pushing yourself to your limits, just pick up what you think looks like ‘fun’ to pick up.

And

Since you’re at the beach, go for a wade. Get at least chest deep and spend 20 min in the water wading around. The buoyancy of the water will take pressure off your back and the tidal activity will massage it.

One last thing; I don’t know what kind of furniture you have but I have a couch that is just a tiny bit too short, so if I lie on it, I have to draw my knees up a bit, this takes some of the extension out of my back and helps it recover. A couple of nights sleeping on the couch does wonders for my back. Not so much for my marriage, but its only a couple of nights and this helps the heart grow fonder right?

One more last thing: change what you do. Mike, I know you carry all that heavy equipment around on your back, try carrying it around on your front, or get risky and try getting your sweetheart to carry it around .(wink, nudge). You’ll either get a few more nights on the couch or she’ll really be feeling included in your life.

loosing weight

How to lose weight

Eat less!
So simple its stupid right.
The question that most people seem to ask is, what can I eat as a substitute. Nothing!
For years now, the diet industry has been telling us eat more of this, more often to replace this or to make up for that.
The thing is, most of us already eat way too much, way too often. Me included.
Want to lose weight.
Eat less! If you’re not hungry, don’t eat.
Why are you eating if you’re not hungry.
These days there is no reason to preload food. You’re not going to starve if you don’t eat at set times of the day and lets face it, the world we live in has us eating breakfast, break, lunch, break, dinner, snack. And that last snack of the day you definitely don’t need. The last thing you need is going to bed on a full stomach.

Man, we are eating all of the time.

I know there’s a million excuses to eat most of them dealing with comfort issues. Hell, pissed off. Eat garbage, that’ll show ‘em (teach me a lesson). Sad, eat a zillion calories and drown in my misery. Bored, oh hell yes, now that’s a way to kill some time, I’m headed for my coffee coma right now.

If you’re not hungry, you don’t need to eat.

Look at what you’re eating. Is it healthy? Does it give anything too you, the body machine? If you take in more energy than required to support (x) mass then x will increase. Every time you eat you should look at what you’re about to eat and determine if it contains things essential to the machine. Vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals? Guess what, sugar and white flour don’t have any of those things. None.

How much are you eating. These days almost everyone is eating way more than they should per portion, per meal. I say this a lot and I mean it, if you can’t wrestle, sprint or swim after you eat, you ate too much. Food is fuel and building material. Like wood on the job site, if it sits around in your guts for ages it just rots. ( hate to say it and I don’t want to know but are you gassy all day?? That food is just rotting away in your guts giving you nothing but bad bacteria and IBS).


Have a good look at your portion sizes and then figure out what a portion should be and then start cutting back.

And guess what, despite what the industry says, you don’t need a thousand meals a day. You need to eat, but you’re not a cow, you don’t have to constantly chew on something.

Courage, it takes a lot to embark on change. Diet’s a four letter word but changing your eating habits is a worth while goal. Who cares about what the media says is acceptable, how long do you want to live and what do you want to be able to do while you’re busy living? Have courage and better your health, have courage and change your eating habits. And it does take courage.

Discipline, so much harder than courage. There’s always a reason to start tomorrow, there’s always a reason to not do it right now. But sometimes you have to just say, crap, its got to be done.

Hungry and nothing good to eat, do with out for a little while longer
Bad day and want to caress your loathing with sugar, go out and throw a log around instead.
Discipline, decide right now to do what you know you should.
Eat less, eat right, move more

Its hard, its not fair and everything is stacked against us, but start towards feeling better, and you will feel better by eating less. Less volume. More quality. Eat less food, look at what that food is going to give your body to work with.

Diet is a four letter word, and if you look at eating less as a new diet, well, it will work until you go back to your old way of eating. Don’t diet, eat less for ever. Don’t diet, Change your life habits. Live healthier, live longer, live more actively.

the difference between champions and didn't quite make its'

 
You know, sometimes I just can't help but roll my eyes,  someone today said ' I don't do anymore than I have too!
wow,
what a difference in results from the client that pushes on and gets 3,4,5 more than they have to.
That's all the difference between Olympic gold and high school bench warmers. The Olympian pushes through, goes the extra mile. does what he needs to do then squeezes in more. Champions have to be held down and told not to do more. (then they're likely to sneak around and do more any way). that high school hero became an used cars salesman and never made the box of Wheaties because he only did what he had to.


I guarantee these guys do more than they have too

 If you only do what you have too, then you're never going to achieve that look you're after. lets face it, 90% of people in any kind of fitness program just want to look good naked. How you look naked is reflected by your work ethic in the gym. sorry, but doing the minimal amount of work is going to leave you with the minimal amount of sexy. Work your ass off in the gym and watch what you eat and you'll be looking good in your private chambers.

If you can't give 100% in the gym, how will you ever give 95% to your diet regime. And
when i say diet, I simply mean cleaning it up, not becoming a health nut. cut the alcohol and sugar. eat healthy.

you can't run a marathon if you stop at the wall.

Every one whose ever done that extra set, that extra rep, that extra mile has always gotten that extra feeling of greatness. that champion attitude, that champions feeling of elation. champions have a tendency to look good naked and don't suffer too many inadequacy issues. because they did more than they had too and doing more builds a person mentally as well as physically.

I see people who've been going to the gym for 20 years looking as soft as the first day they came in. because they do what they have too and never more. I see people go out and buy new wardrobes because they have too, because they did more than they had too.

I know most of you aren't on your way to the Olympics, but that's no excuse to be a slouch either. the secret to a long (healthy life), hard training. Training with a champion attitude.

never give up

never say die

invest in yourself with effort.

i'm a rule breaker

A look at what I did and how I break the rules:
i love picking up heavy stuff. that's well known, but this current cycle revolves around me getting ready to go for a 6k run through muck, mud, trees, wet grass and hills ( I've also been promised some walls and ropes to climb and nets to crawl under).


today's a lower body day so it went something like this.

rope pushdowns
yes, i know i said this was a lower body day buts here's the crux, I'm abusing the crap out of this exercise at the moment. I'll do it as many days in a row as i can keep adding reps or weight to it. then when i plateau I'll give it a rest. often I'll do them while i get everything else set up.


leg curls

just did 1 warm up set then jumped right into the heavy stuff ( i know where my limits are by now so sometimes i have extended warm ups and some time they are brief). I do these lying on the floor with a dumbbell currently ( i will post more on leg curls later)


squats; taking it easy at the moment working with these. the emphasis here is trying to get rock bottom, which for me, barefoot is just below parallel. I thought i was going wayyy down but nope, only about 2" below parallel. after watching myself on video, Olympic squaters impress the hell out of me. mentally my ass is on the my heals but the evidence says otherwise. today i kept my time down to no more than 15 minutes on these. so lighter weight, higher reps.

walk outs. okay, i can't help myself. k like picking up heavy shit, heavy being a relative term. some guys would laugh at these weights (westside) I like these for the challenge, but also for the core and structural work

now here's where it gets funny (ozzy pops into my head singing 'breaking all the rules")

i went for a 20 min jog. this is about achieving what i need for the fitness of running through muck. getting my respiratory system in shape. It also adds volume to the leg work. because of the previous leg work, I'm already warmed up at the get go instead of the normal 4:30 it usually takes when i run.

when i got back to the gym i finished off with some step ups. just couldn't help myself. i wanted to really finish the legs off and i did. i like to step up high as opposed to low (like a pump class or something)

so:
pushdowns 4 heavy sets and a back of set of 12 reps
leg curls 3 heavy working sets
squats 3 sets 20,15,12.
walk outs 2 heavy sets
jog 20 min.
step ups 3 sets

the entire session lasted just over an hour.

this set up makes the rope pushdowns we use/do a bit more user friendly. now you know i like to take the hard road, however, with the rope over the top bar, the friction generated at heavier weights makes the rope increasingly difficult to move, hence why it makes a good anchor wrapped around a tree when you're trying to lower something. this is simply a thick pvc pipe slid around the safety pin of the power rack . still hard to do the exercise but your rope will last longer and you'll get more even increases in your strength curve/ weight ratio.

'I hate everything we do, but I like the result'
Well I'm glad you like the result but if you hate the work, go find something you like. You shouldn't be miserable chasing your goals. There is no easy way out, but there should be some physical activity you like.?. Don't like the gym, take up surfing.
'I hate everything we do, but I like the result'
This statement always gets under my skin, but gives me some good practice at self control. I get to hear it a lot. Be clear in your goals, be clear about the results you want, for goodness sake, start being a bit realistic.

life and training is all about the journey; the destination is one brief moment in time that will come and go and become a faded memory with only picture of rememberance or maybe a trophy that soon looses its emotional appeal. the journey can take years, decades.


not only should you stop and smell the roses, you should watch the bees and feel the texture of the petal and the prick of the thorn.
 
Primordial Athletics is all about the effort required to bring about change, to rise above the status quo. 
despite the latest crap on late night tv and whatever fad happens to be passing through the era, there is no quick fix, (not a healthy one at any rate), there is no easy way. Gyms are full of people enslaved to the local market machine mentality that never go anywhere. 20 years down the track they are exactly the same as when they began. don't spin in circles. find something you enjoy.

find something you like
find something you love.
 
you should be saying 'i love what we do and i love the results'
 
don't like busting your ass in my training sessions?
take up surfing,
become an amature runner
take up athletics
join a softball league
take up martial arts
hell, become an yoga yogi.
 
yes we get great results, but you should look foward to your sessions, not dread them. Life is full enough of hard slogs.
love what you do
and
invest in yourself with effort.

lookin for the cold

granny didn't have much money, they were about a poor as you can ever be. but she did have a great bid air conditioner stuck in the window of a little ante room. when we were kids we'd run in from the blistering Arkansas summer and sit in front of that big damn noisy machine and freeze our nipples hard. if water had ever been spilt on the floor we'd have been able to ice skate on it. it was cold enough that you couldn't wait to go back outside and warm up again.

i went for a run today. it was hot and muggy and granny and her air conditioned ante room is what i remembered.