So I fell for it. For me, it started with Mark Rippetoe's book but had spread across the internet by the time I looked into it. Do not let the knees move past the toes when squatting.
Except it is bullshit. Turns out the study only noted less "knee strain" but at the expense of vastly increased back strain. A completely impractical level of back strain and knee position contradicted by every picture and footage of a real lifter in the Olympics moving hundreds of kilograms with their knees past their toes.
Turns out I went from the right technique to placing blocks of wood in front of my toes and knees for the Rippetoe squats. Everything felt shit for years. I had to stop squatting at all it felt so bad. Weight through the heels ruined my running I am having to train my calves to resent with the rest of my leg during runs.
Now I think of it, I never had knee problems until I changed my bicycle to stop knees pas the toes. Before then I rode and squatted completely pain free.
Another 10 years I cannot get back.
Sunday, 23 December 2018
Sunday, 6 August 2017
Biking riding to turn off the back muscles
I find riding a pre 90s style racer bicycle helps my back, core and neck.
Bending forward to use the low bars of a drop handle bar rounds my back which forces only the legs to flex. My lower back cannot add to the movement and even when it flexes it can only flex in a stretched position. My core turns on involuntarily to hold the compacted, hunched position, so no twisting of the hips. Yet I need to look forward so my thoracic extends while my chest pulls and shoulder blades pull into each other so I can reach the handle bars. It is essentially a yoga cat stretch for the thoracic. And lastly, as my legs are the only drivers, the bad coordination between back, hips and leg is successfully interfered with and I walk a bit less spasticated afterwards.
Pre 90s, the frame was European. European frames were simple in measurement and increased in height but not in length as they grew in size. All you had to do was to choose a bike was find one where you could stand on the ground, over the frame bar, and the bar gave clearance for your testicles. The post 80s Japanese frames turned up with mountain bikes, are over complicated, and do increase in length, which leaves me stretching to lean forward to hold the handles bars. A lean instead of a hunch forward activates the back and my lower back becomes part of the driver and so my hips start twisting with each push. I found the Tokyo Bike line is an older style design, very close to my old 1984 Standish Adami racer, that lets me ride and retrain my strange movement patterns as well.
Bending forward to use the low bars of a drop handle bar rounds my back which forces only the legs to flex. My lower back cannot add to the movement and even when it flexes it can only flex in a stretched position. My core turns on involuntarily to hold the compacted, hunched position, so no twisting of the hips. Yet I need to look forward so my thoracic extends while my chest pulls and shoulder blades pull into each other so I can reach the handle bars. It is essentially a yoga cat stretch for the thoracic. And lastly, as my legs are the only drivers, the bad coordination between back, hips and leg is successfully interfered with and I walk a bit less spasticated afterwards.
Pre 90s, the frame was European. European frames were simple in measurement and increased in height but not in length as they grew in size. All you had to do was to choose a bike was find one where you could stand on the ground, over the frame bar, and the bar gave clearance for your testicles. The post 80s Japanese frames turned up with mountain bikes, are over complicated, and do increase in length, which leaves me stretching to lean forward to hold the handles bars. A lean instead of a hunch forward activates the back and my lower back becomes part of the driver and so my hips start twisting with each push. I found the Tokyo Bike line is an older style design, very close to my old 1984 Standish Adami racer, that lets me ride and retrain my strange movement patterns as well.
Saturday, 5 August 2017
Problems with so called functional exercises and the glutes.
I once felt good. Good enough to feel like a real person. By that I mean for 18 months from 20 to 22 my body was not in a hidden struggle where my torso was at war. I dropped out of university and just let my body do what it wanted, and it worked. I even felt so good about myself I tried to get a girlfriend. 20 years before the word stabilisation exercise, I chanced on exercises that aligned my body and fixed my injuries. Until a bad deadlift then made everything worse than before.
Since that lift, 22 years ago, my torso wants to twist down to the right while my hips want to twist left. Deep back and hip muscle knots have given me 20 years of neck aches, spasms on my solar plexus and a back that can deadlift 150kg but collapses when I sneeze. Throughout that time I have been fumbling backwards through the symptoms and injuries to find what worked. One I just realised is my hips have been rotated and how to maybe fix that with a simple posture trick I never knew I unconciously did at 21. I did almost every leg exercise on the balls of my feet and that always activates the glutes. 25 km a day cycling on my "toes" turned on the primary hip stabilisers. I felt like I was walking on the moon.
The glutes (bum muscles) are the core of our lower body. They dictate if our hips sway, twist, rotate or whatever the latest name for not being balanced is. I have been doing all the bridge variations, squats, deadlifts, single leg, running, walking, and it has gone on and on. And yet, when I wake up the next day my bum is so disconnected I have to consciously flex it to work. I jog like a goose-step prance to deliberately activate them but hours later they are sloppy and almost refuse to operate when I move.
If they do not work properly you will twist, swagger and sway your hips. That is not good.
So I did this. Stand facing away from the mirror but so you can look at your own bum in the mirror. Stand on your toes and your bum muscles naturally tense into what they would of been as a teenager. Now lower your heels without losing that tension. Thats the goal of everyone from weight losing women to those who want to increase their cycling strength and running stride length. But if I am doing all the functional, rehab scientific and full chain bullshit, how does maybe the single most important movement connection still not work?
Sit down, push your heels out and feel what turns off.
I think the villains are functional exercises obsessed with using the heel to push and the answer lives back in the eighties. What's that old man? Everyone knows those gym rats did it wrong then. I disagree. Drugs and lifting suits "improved" weight training into the 21st century, not unilateral core cross fit nonsense. In practice drug free just means not standard or classic molecule steroids. I am saying this because sillier and sillier exercises are being vaguely attributed with miraculous changes in athletic records.
Weighted bridges have to use the back. Heavy weighted exercises work by turning off the little muscles that connect body parts that you really want to tone.
So today I did some on a 45 degree back raise today with a high heel position.There was almost no back (good!) and the glue hamstring connection/underbum did all the work. I walked the rest of the day straight and balanced. That should eventually make my stride longer without hip twist.
Which begs the question, why are the people who tell me heel running is bad are also telling me to squat for running, by over emphasising weight through my heels? Destroying the neural connection between effort and using the balls of my feet?
And I got fat. If you search hard enough there is an internet interview where Mr Rippetoe admits Starting Strength is a weight gain routine for teens, not a strength gaining routine. Heel dominant squats is a technique for people in powerlifting suits, wide stances and very odd posture habits. Think about it. On paper, at my school the powerlifter boy had more than enough raw strength/power/easily the highest strength to bodyweight ratio of all the boys, and should of at least been in the sports day sprints, but he never featured in any foot races. And no, he was not short in any way.
That book is ground zero for push through the heels. After publication, every expert preached through the heels. But, in the 1980s the various American Joe Weider magazines showed bodybuilders squatting with a piece of wood under their heels. High bar. But, people say it's bad and you cannot lift much with it. But I just tried it and my bum switched on and took the strain, it must of pulled some muscles into place as nothing seemed to try and twist. This is big progress to me.
Heel dominant squats are for powerlifting and make rhino butts, as old fellow pizza maker and bouncer Brayden was nicknamed. Is that useful to anyone outside powerlifting? The lift demands the buttocks and quads turn off to lower the bar, and leaves the hamstrings (sort of) and back to perform a different exercise called the good morning to stand up. Powerlifters can have very weak quads. Change to a high heel and my knee stops twisting, bum works to stabilise and quads get exercised which helps my knee. I can live without wanting to squash my spine with 500 pounds squats.
One of the functional staples, hinge forward and back. Works my hamstrings, but not my flute/bum. I do lots of exercises that tighten my hamstrings but fail to work the glute, the bit that holds me stable. So I put something under my heel and turned it into a bum exercise and felt better. Again, it seems to rely on turning off the glutes to lower into a posture that demands a different muscle do most of the work to return to standing.
Enough ranting for now.
Since that lift, 22 years ago, my torso wants to twist down to the right while my hips want to twist left. Deep back and hip muscle knots have given me 20 years of neck aches, spasms on my solar plexus and a back that can deadlift 150kg but collapses when I sneeze. Throughout that time I have been fumbling backwards through the symptoms and injuries to find what worked. One I just realised is my hips have been rotated and how to maybe fix that with a simple posture trick I never knew I unconciously did at 21. I did almost every leg exercise on the balls of my feet and that always activates the glutes. 25 km a day cycling on my "toes" turned on the primary hip stabilisers. I felt like I was walking on the moon.
The glutes (bum muscles) are the core of our lower body. They dictate if our hips sway, twist, rotate or whatever the latest name for not being balanced is. I have been doing all the bridge variations, squats, deadlifts, single leg, running, walking, and it has gone on and on. And yet, when I wake up the next day my bum is so disconnected I have to consciously flex it to work. I jog like a goose-step prance to deliberately activate them but hours later they are sloppy and almost refuse to operate when I move.
If they do not work properly you will twist, swagger and sway your hips. That is not good.
So I did this. Stand facing away from the mirror but so you can look at your own bum in the mirror. Stand on your toes and your bum muscles naturally tense into what they would of been as a teenager. Now lower your heels without losing that tension. Thats the goal of everyone from weight losing women to those who want to increase their cycling strength and running stride length. But if I am doing all the functional, rehab scientific and full chain bullshit, how does maybe the single most important movement connection still not work?
Sit down, push your heels out and feel what turns off.
I think the villains are functional exercises obsessed with using the heel to push and the answer lives back in the eighties. What's that old man? Everyone knows those gym rats did it wrong then. I disagree. Drugs and lifting suits "improved" weight training into the 21st century, not unilateral core cross fit nonsense. In practice drug free just means not standard or classic molecule steroids. I am saying this because sillier and sillier exercises are being vaguely attributed with miraculous changes in athletic records.
Bridges
Get on the balls of your feet like you're wearing high heels and bridge.My back down not even try to do the movement and the lower glue/underbum is too weak to get very high. If I use the heels my back does all the work, so normal bridges barely exercised the hips at all. High heels may be a good thing after all.Weighted bridges have to use the back. Heavy weighted exercises work by turning off the little muscles that connect body parts that you really want to tone.
Back Raise
In that 18 month feel good period my university's old gym had the best back raise machine. It was just a custom-made stand toped with wide hessian bands along the lengthways. You used it by climbing in between the end band , leant forward and the other bands held the entire back of your legs as you hung and back raised off the end. Your weight was distributed over the largest possible surface area, your entire lower torso, so you could not develop any other points of tension except your glue ham hinge. Your legs would not try to kink or bend to take a strain focussed on your ankles or calves. The hamstrings could not tense up. As a result, I could focus on just rebuilding my lower back and hip muscles as the only point of tension. And now I remember, my feet were in the pointed or high heel position, meaning the reflex contraction between my glutes, hamstrings and feet occurred without thought.So today I did some on a 45 degree back raise today with a high heel position.There was almost no back (good!) and the glue hamstring connection/underbum did all the work. I walked the rest of the day straight and balanced. That should eventually make my stride longer without hip twist.
Squats
Today people go to Starting Strength for squat knowledge. A short, fat man teaching the ultra heel focussed version called the low bar squat. Which works great for sagging backs even more, shifting weight, odd posture habits, adding numbers on sheets of paper, short men, and that's about it. The more I tried to low bar squat the quicker my running technique devolved and hips twisted.Which begs the question, why are the people who tell me heel running is bad are also telling me to squat for running, by over emphasising weight through my heels? Destroying the neural connection between effort and using the balls of my feet?
And I got fat. If you search hard enough there is an internet interview where Mr Rippetoe admits Starting Strength is a weight gain routine for teens, not a strength gaining routine. Heel dominant squats is a technique for people in powerlifting suits, wide stances and very odd posture habits. Think about it. On paper, at my school the powerlifter boy had more than enough raw strength/power/easily the highest strength to bodyweight ratio of all the boys, and should of at least been in the sports day sprints, but he never featured in any foot races. And no, he was not short in any way.
That book is ground zero for push through the heels. After publication, every expert preached through the heels. But, in the 1980s the various American Joe Weider magazines showed bodybuilders squatting with a piece of wood under their heels. High bar. But, people say it's bad and you cannot lift much with it. But I just tried it and my bum switched on and took the strain, it must of pulled some muscles into place as nothing seemed to try and twist. This is big progress to me.
Heel dominant squats are for powerlifting and make rhino butts, as old fellow pizza maker and bouncer Brayden was nicknamed. Is that useful to anyone outside powerlifting? The lift demands the buttocks and quads turn off to lower the bar, and leaves the hamstrings (sort of) and back to perform a different exercise called the good morning to stand up. Powerlifters can have very weak quads. Change to a high heel and my knee stops twisting, bum works to stabilise and quads get exercised which helps my knee. I can live without wanting to squash my spine with 500 pounds squats.
Single leg deadlifts
One of the functional staples, hinge forward and back. Works my hamstrings, but not my flute/bum. I do lots of exercises that tighten my hamstrings but fail to work the glute, the bit that holds me stable. So I put something under my heel and turned it into a bum exercise and felt better. Again, it seems to rely on turning off the glutes to lower into a posture that demands a different muscle do most of the work to return to standing.
Enough ranting for now.
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
one upper back exercise to bind them all
After a deadlift accident many years ago I have fought a battle with my posture dominated by neck aches that have lasted for up to 3 days. Fixing my back and neck is all too serious for me past the point of obsession. And to regain control of my shoulder girdle the experts say to row. But I have never felt good after rows regardless of the variation. My shoulders and upper thoracic always felt pulled out of place. Which is why I row in the first place. A vicious circle. I have also tried Alexander technique, yoga, pilates, swimming, Starting Strength, HIT and super slow to no avail.
But I am enjoying the suspended/inverted row variation from Mike Boyle. When I start with the palms facing up towards the head and pull my shoulder blades naturally pull in and the collar bone is rotated up and back just like physio's advise. Then, when my arms are at 90 degrees, I turn the palms 180 degrees to face my feet and attempt to row the handles to my chest in the classic rowing movement.
It is the only time I can remember a row that has pulled my shoulders back instead of pulling them out of alignment. I even felt a slight neck ache starting that disappeared during the exercise. My neck feels stable.
11 out of 10 to Mike Boyle for a gym exercise that finally strengthened my upper thoracic and made my posture better. I hope it completely replaces the convoluted 13 exercise, 1 arm at a time dumbell raises I have been trying.
Sorry, can't find the page. It is buried somewhere on his strengthcoach site. Look for his suspension pull up /row videos but remember this is not the old palms pointing in style. It must start palms up and not change until the shoulders blades are locked in. Thank you Mike Boyle for a functional posture exercise. Will I finally get to throw away the nurofen?
PS: even if he is an "internet coach", I find Mike genuinely thinks about what an exercise is really doing and is not afraid to admit when he is wrong.
But I am enjoying the suspended/inverted row variation from Mike Boyle. When I start with the palms facing up towards the head and pull my shoulder blades naturally pull in and the collar bone is rotated up and back just like physio's advise. Then, when my arms are at 90 degrees, I turn the palms 180 degrees to face my feet and attempt to row the handles to my chest in the classic rowing movement.
It is the only time I can remember a row that has pulled my shoulders back instead of pulling them out of alignment. I even felt a slight neck ache starting that disappeared during the exercise. My neck feels stable.
11 out of 10 to Mike Boyle for a gym exercise that finally strengthened my upper thoracic and made my posture better. I hope it completely replaces the convoluted 13 exercise, 1 arm at a time dumbell raises I have been trying.
Sorry, can't find the page. It is buried somewhere on his strengthcoach site. Look for his suspension pull up /row videos but remember this is not the old palms pointing in style. It must start palms up and not change until the shoulders blades are locked in. Thank you Mike Boyle for a functional posture exercise. Will I finally get to throw away the nurofen?
PS: even if he is an "internet coach", I find Mike genuinely thinks about what an exercise is really doing and is not afraid to admit when he is wrong.
Monday, 30 December 2013
always looking for shoulder exercises that work
Never had much luck with my shoulders. Always felt worse from pressing, alt raises, reverse raising, shrugs, etc. Found the y t w l exercise, but disappointed that it uses the same pointless posture of a cobra. Any exercise that contracts the torso backwards does not improve posture. If you are unlucky you end up looking weird when your torso is upright and abnormally bowing backwards. Then your neck aches as it tries to balance out bad posture with the opposing effects of a silly exercise. Luckily this guy pointed out, just do it 1 arm at a time.
http://www.mikereinold.com/2011/05/why-i-do-not-like-ytwl-shoulder-exercises.htmlq
Amazing how useless all gym bodybuilding and gymnastics exercises have been.
See my next post for on rows for a variation that might make this redundant.
EDIT: this guy might know what he's talking about for that elusive shoulder exercises that makes you feel better.
http://www.fitnesseducationseminars.com/free-videos/shoulder-exercises
http://www.mikereinold.com/2011/05/why-i-do-not-like-ytwl-shoulder-exercises.htmlq
Amazing how useless all gym bodybuilding and gymnastics exercises have been.
See my next post for on rows for a variation that might make this redundant.
EDIT: this guy might know what he's talking about for that elusive shoulder exercises that makes you feel better.
http://www.fitnesseducationseminars.com/free-videos/shoulder-exercises
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Do your exercises really make you a better player?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OIxATkCWQ4
Near the end a gymnast is not just jumping but back flipping for reps over distance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q33pqu-zRas
Lindford Christie jumping and hopping typical of modern athletics. Internet rumored to have squatted 700lbs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHc2z5cfxn0
A 170lb man lifts over double bodyweight over his head.
If jumping and power style lifting really makes faster runners, why don't gymnasts do better at athletics? If fast twitch power muscle is the holy grail wouldn't an Olympic lifter win everything? Ben Johnson did no jumping. And Carl Lewis showed little sign of weightlifting. But both took drugs. My point is, do exercises really do what we believe? Or do we copy the exercises of people who would succeed regardless.
Near the end a gymnast is not just jumping but back flipping for reps over distance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q33pqu-zRas
Lindford Christie jumping and hopping typical of modern athletics. Internet rumored to have squatted 700lbs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHc2z5cfxn0
A 170lb man lifts over double bodyweight over his head.
If jumping and power style lifting really makes faster runners, why don't gymnasts do better at athletics? If fast twitch power muscle is the holy grail wouldn't an Olympic lifter win everything? Ben Johnson did no jumping. And Carl Lewis showed little sign of weightlifting. But both took drugs. My point is, do exercises really do what we believe? Or do we copy the exercises of people who would succeed regardless.
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