You're doing those Lunges wrong.....

Lunges are one of the greatest exercises going.  They strengthen the hips, glutes, quads, and core.  They can be performed as a a cardio based exercise or with added weight as a strength training exercise.  There are many variation to keep you interested.  Here are a few tips for what mistakes I see when people perform lunges.

Common Lunge Mistakes:

1.  The toe is the first body part to hit the ground.
-this places far too much stress on the knee

2.  You lean forward with your spine
-typically this occurs because of either tight hip flexors or weakness of the quads

3.  Your knees go beyond your toe
-knee killer for sure

4.  Your knee collapses inward
-although this is a bit exaggerated, I'd say 9/10 lunges involve the knees collapsing too far in like this

Advanced Lunge Variations:

1.  Walking lunges
2.  In place lunges

3.  Reverse lunges

4.  Star Lunges
-a fantastic exercise for hip stability (yes that means you runners with IT Band syndrome)

5.  Unipolar weight lunges
-a great way to incorporate core into the lunge

6.  Overhead lunges
-making this a whole body exercise

If you have any pain during lunges or have questions and are in need of a movement assessment, contact my office at 561.997.8898 or email me at drscotthoar@gmail.com.  To check out more visit www.Mobility-4Life.com

Rules for Returning to Activity after an Injury

My last two posts have been regarding my experimentation with the Carb Back loading diet.  I intended to continue the updates but last week I sprained a ligament in my back, leaving me unable to workout in the manner that is appropriate for Carb Back loading.  So I thought I'd take a week off from Carb back loading and instead write today about what I'm currently dealing with: returning to activity.  So many of us get injured and have questions and concerns about how we should approach ramping up our activity levels to pre-injury levels.  So I thought I'd make some general rules to follow.  Trainers, i'd suggesting posting this on your gym wall so your client have some future reference.

Rules to Return to Activity After Injury

Rule #1 - Get yourself checked out by a sports medicine professional.  This is their expertise, you don't want to end up hurting yourself further or again.  This will significantly speed up the process.

Rule #2 - If you feel pain, don't do it.  Don't even do a movement in which you even 'feel' the affected area, without  pain.  I think you know what I'm talking about.  When you exercise in pain, you will automatically compensate.  Why is that a bad thing?  I'll explain later.

Rule #3 - Start with non-weight bearing, non-painful exercises.  This might include rowing, or swimming, or cycling, or elliptical.  Getting some serious blood flow to a recently injured area can do great things as far as speeding up this whole process.

Rule #4 - Next step, body weight exercises.  This could include push ups, or air squats, lunges, pull ups, etc.  Make sure you're doing full range of motion.  Don't move on to the next step until you have full range of motion.

Rule #5 - Don't add weight until you perform the most provocative movement (if it hurts to squat, squatting would be the provocative movement) with just bodyweight, pain-free without any asymmetries of any kind.  Ask your local trainer or a gym friend that you know has a great deal of knowledge of exercise and technique.  Have them evaluate your movement from all angles.

Rule #6 - Work the opposite extremity - If the injury is to your right foot, workout the left foot while you're recovering.  This works for the upper extremity as well.  Studies show that the more this is done, the less atrophy and muscle wasting occur of the injury extremity.

Rule #7 - DON'T COMPENSATE!!!!! - This is the biggest one.  It should be number one.  "I can run if I just step towards the outside of my foot" or "I have to extend one arm before the other".  This is huge.  When you compensate you rapidly start wearing down other parts of your body.  Don't do it.  That's why you want a trainer to make sure that your exercise movement is completely symmetrical.

Rule #8 - Perform other exercise/activity.  This is a great time to do some kind of cross training.  Performing exercises you wouldn't normally perform (as long as they are completely pain and compensation free) is a great way to workout and diversify your program.  I.e. if it hurts to swim, then jog...or if it hurts to do cleans, do snatches.

Rule #9 - Don't wear braces.  Sometimes they are necessary in the short term.  However, braces create stability for joints which is good for acute injuries, however it creates 2 things that we don't want.  #1- dependence on the brace.  Since it's creating stability in that joint, your muscles don't have to stabilize and the stronger you get, the more dependent you will become leaving the door open to future injury.  #2 - Braces limit your flexibility in that joint which, in the long term, will create more compensation in surrounding body parts.

I hope this is helpful.  For anyone wanting to know if they are ready to return to exercise, please call my office at 561.997.8898 or email me at drscotthoar@gmail.com.

To check out more visit www.Mobility-4Life.com

Carb Back Loading, Part II

Ok so one week into the Carb Back Loading Diet.  So far the results look like this:

Lost two pounds, same body fat Percentage (212lbs, 13.9%)

That's really not what I want.  My goals are to gain muscle and decrease body fat percentage.  However, it's far too soon to pull the plug.  Let's recap what's going on here:

Carb-Back Loading Principles
1.  Skip Breakfast
2.  Consume little to no carbs all day
3.  Resistance Training in the Afternoon (preferably 4 or 5pm)
4.  Consume extremely high carb meals immediately after and throughout the evening

Now here's the science behind it....hold on...this may hurt a little bit.  I would not consider this a metabolism based diet, I would consider it a hormone based diet.  Here are the specific hormones at play:

INSULIN - is released upon increased blood sugar levels, it's purpose is to open up the muscle and fat cells so the contents of the blood get stored in the cells.  It's a 'building up' hormone.
CORTISOL - circulates without the presence of blood sugar, it's a 'breaking down' hormone.
GROWTH HORMONE - circulates, among other times, during sleep and while there is no sugar in the blood stream, it's a 'building muscle, burning fat' hormone.

W/o breakfast we prolong the high cortisol levels(hopefully)

Ok, so let's explain the principles/theories:
1. Skip Breakfast - consuming breakfast (with sugar) would kill off the cortisol levels in the blood, thereby inhibiting the breaking down of the fat tissues.  It would break down muscle as well but it's recommended to put about 5 grams of protein powder in your morning coffee to decrease muscle burning.
2. Consume little to no carbs all day - without the presence of sugar in the blood, no insulin is released.  Without insulin, nothing is added to our cells (to make us fat).  Growth hormone is free to circulate all day which leads to burning fat and building muscle.
3.  Resistance Training - Resistance training increases the ability of muscle cells to absorb sugar/fat/protein.  It leaves the muscle cells in state in which they will grow more than the fat cells.
4.  Consume extremely high carb meals in the evening - The higher the sugar in your meals, the more of a insulin release you will have, leading to increased absorption of the nutrients from your food.  Since the muscle cells have been 'pre-treated' to absorb more than the fat cells, the muscle cells grow more.  As well the high carb based meals replenish the 'glycogen' levels which are the muscle secondary energy source which is to be used during exercise.

-That's the diet in a overly simplified quick explanation.

So given that I haven't gained any muscle, and feel a little bit softer than last week I wouldn't say I'm all that happy yet.  Having said that, like I mentioned earlier, it's far too early to judge.  A body can easily gain or lose two pounds for no reason at all and the method in which I'm gauging my body fat % (bioelectrical impedance) isn't exactly 100% accurate all the time.

One thing I've learned is though, that this diet isn't that simple.  You can't just go be a fat kid and consume anything and everything you want in the evenings.  The first few days I was eating Wendy's Frosties, bowls of cereal, chili with crackers, chocolate milk, candy, etc at random times throughout the night.  No rhyme or reason.  This was a mistake.  I'm finding the key is to consume meals with lean protein sources and high sugar contents immediately after workout, than about an hour and a half after another similar sort of meal.  Maybe another smaller carb/protein combination just before bed but that's about it.  This is not random glutenous gorging......I might be guilty of doing the second option the first few days.

I've felt fine though.  No breakfast hasn't been that much of an issue, and I'm a lifelong breakfast eater.  The coffee helps keep the edge off and surprisingly I've been doing very well in my workouts.  I've had two personal records in the last week.

I'll give you another update next Wednesday.  Hopefully by that time my body fat percentage will be lower than it is right now.  To check out this diet you can go to Carb Back Loading.  Like always, feel free to contact me at 561.997.8898 or email me at drscotthoar@gmail.com. To check out more visit www.Mobility-4Life.com