10 Exercises that you Can Stop Doing

Nice little article (for the most part) by AOL confirming what a lot of the experts are saying against. I don't necessarily agree with what they have to say about the squat completely.

Here is my opinion on the article and the 10 exercises.

• Leg Extensions: They spell disaster for your knees since it is an isolation exercise and puts a ton of torque on your knees. If you have knee pain-you should NOT do knee extensions and hamstring curls, this is just not the way our muscles were supposed to work. Only if you are a body builder and do nothing else but lift and pose. Just not very functional as well.


• Lat pulldowns and overhead lifts: I totally agree that you should not pull the bar behind your head due to the fact that it is just (once again stated) not natural. When you lift your spine should always be in a straight or "neutral" position. As for the overhead pressing I approach it like squats. Overhead pressing (military presses, kettlebell presses) and overhead pulls (pull ups, lat pulldowns) are only bad on the shoulders because you are doing them wrong. When pressing and pulling above your head you MUST make sure that your shoulder blades and packed back and down, also your ears must be in line with your shoulders.


• Cardio: I totally agree with this one. Vary your workout speeds burns way more calories in half the time. Try going with 2 minutes at a pace that you would consider a 5 out of 10 on your exertion scale (10 being all out gasping for air), then do 1 minute at 7/10, then 2 min back at 5/10 and repeat. Here is a good one for ya. 2min 5/10-1min 7/10, 2min 5/10-1min 8/10, 2min 5/10-1min 9/10 and repeat that cycle for 2-3 rounds.


• Sit ups: you definitely do not want to use those hip flexors to work instead of your abdominals. There are also ways to use tubing or weights to help you master the sit up. For those of you who have back problems there are much better exercises in which you stay away from spinal flexion all together (Like front, side and reverse planks for instance).


• Abduction/Adduction Machines: I do use the ab and adduction machines for some of my therapy patients to try and get those muscles tuned in a bit, I do make them brace their abdominals and tighten their glutes while they perform the exercise. Once they master the machine (2 weeks tops) then I get them moving onto band walks, lunges, and more standing band exercises instead of machines.


• I totally agree with side bends and twists. If you need to see some good abdominal exercises Nikki and I have some on youtube. One of them includes the thoracic rotation exercise.


• Squats: I love doing squats. The only reason you should not do them is if your knees are absolutely shredded. But again, its not the squat that causes pain, its how you do the squat (I quote Dan John out of the book "Enter the Kettlebell" by Pavel). The picture in the article is a true reason that people have pain. When people squat now a days they are what I call "quad dominant" and have glute amnesia. The first thing people do wrong is they bend their ankles and knees to lower and this puts a crapload of pressure on your knees. Think about reaching your butt back as if you were trying to sit in a chair, your shins should not move much if at all when squatting. Another issue is squatting below parallel, if you squat below parallel then you use your glutes to come back up instead of your quads, THIS IS WHAT WE WANT! Again, concentrate on pushing your knees out and pulling back and down with your hips into your squat. Hip hinges, bench squats, and face the wall squats are great in improving your squat technique. I will work on some instruction video to help with this.


• Toe touches: There are much better ways to improve your hamstring flexibility, hip hinges once again are a great way to improve your technique on these and not have to put yourself through all that spinal flexion business.


• Light weights: This is an absolute truth. If you use too light of a weight then you give your body the ultimate opportunity to use whatever muscles it wants to get the weight up. If you chose a weight that you can only perform 5-10 repetitions then you HAVE to use the right posture and technique (incorporating your stabilizers) to perform the lift correctly.

Have you found your "AHA" moment when working out?

All of you have had trouble with something, be it work, homework, maybe a problem you just can't seem to solve.  Then ,magically, all of a sudden the stars align and you get your AHA! moment where you find the answer.   Have you ever had one when working out?

I have been working with a nice woman who has knee pain every time she runs and hikes.  She is in very good shape and even participates in aerobics classes at the YMCA.  The funny thing is she has NO knee pain when she participates in her "pump" classes.

On her functional movement screen (FMS-www.functionalmovement.com) it showed that she has weakness in anterior and rotational stability.  We have been working on that in therapy but over time when she begins to get tired and low and behold her knee pain returns.  

Then the AHA moment appeared out of the blue when I gave just the right cue to get her to "brace" her abdominals.  I told her to pull her sternum towards her pubic bone (thanks for the cue David Whitley!), and hold her abdominals tight like if someone was going to punch her in the stomach.  Then she said a big "Ohhhhhh, I know what you mean!" and then proceeded to perform 30 non stop lunges on one side and another 30 non stop lunges on her other side, PAIN FRICKIN FREE I TELL YA!  

I just love those moments.   Especially when I can help make them happen.

Bojobeetmonbaba

Bojobeetmonbaba
by Shawn E.

For years I’ve had difficulty with getting consistent exercise. I don’t have a gym membership, I don’t care for running, and taking a brisk walk doesn’t always get my heart rate up. One night, after dancing with some friends, I thought “wow, this is great exercise.”
Several weeks ago I started an experiment that i called Bojobeetmonbaba.
Bojobeetmonbaba is an exercise that involves free form dancing, push ups, sit ups, light weight lifting, and running in place. You can add whatever activities you want to it, but the basic idea is that you’re frantically moving for 30-45 minutes. Or an hour. However long you want. While you do it, you can work on toning whatever body part you want by focusing on that part. But mostly, it’s just dancing to your favorite music and getting your heart rate up.
The beauty of Bojobeetmonbaba is that it’s fun to say and fun to do. You can do Bojobeetmonbaba with your significant other or even your kids. One warning, though, you may look completely ridiculous doing it. It’s very silly.
In part of my workout, i like to hold two 5lb weights as i Bojobeetmonbaba. The extra weight makes you work a little harder, plus you can tone your arms as you do it. I also do crunches and push ups. You can throw some kick boxing in there if you like. It’s completely customizable. AND, you can do it in the comfort of your own home without having a gym membership.
Part of the fun of Bojobeetmonbaba is creating music lists. Here are some songs i’m currently using:

• Put Your Hands Up - Apes and Androids


• Hey Ya! - Andre 3000


• Never There - Cake


• I Feel For You - Chaka Khan


• Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix) - Feist


• Canned Heat - Jamiroquai


• SexyBack - JT


• Touch the Sky - Kanye West


• The Prayer - Bloc Party


• Without Me - Eminem

Then I like to do a little cool down time/stretching with some Sigur Ros or Mogwai

Quick Hint #1: Activate your core without doing core work

Quick hint #1 - If you are doing machine or dumbbell lifts, here is a terrific tip to work on your stabilizers in your body. When you grip the handle of the machine or the dumbbell, don't just hold it, CRUSH IT! By squeezing on the grip with all your might you end up waking up all the stabilizing muscles throughout your body. This allows those smaller muscles to stabilize the joints and then helps to let the bigger muscles do what they are supposed to which is move the weight. You will be surprised about how much more weight you can lift or by how many more perfect repetitions you can perform.

We should be doing exercises that make us use our core instead of doing core exercises at the end. This is a great way to get a core workout at the same time as doing regular lifts. More on this later.

Any questions you all have out there for us, remember you can send us an email at sghumanperformance@gmail.com.