A common question we get in clinic is what to do before warming up and more importantly what not to do. Sometimes people can be doing a warm up that will last as long as their actual workout because it contains a number of different elements to it. These might be an aerobic phase, self-myofascial release, mobility drills, activation drills and movement patterning. Then by the time they workout you are tired and fatigued.
But something that is always important and to always be thought of before warming up on your workout days is some days you will need certain exercises and some days others, depending if you wake up stiff or if you are feeling good.
Any exercise that does not directly contribute to making your workout better is not worth doing. An overly extensive warm up can actually decrease your effectiveness to workout causing some central fatigue.
Central fatigue is not to do with how you are feeling on a certain day, but rather the weakening of your central nervous system to send signals to your muscles.
For example a 20 minute cycle before you start deadlifting is not the most effective way to prepare your body for this but rather will cause you to be tired and also not have prepared the right areas in order to perform.
A good start in general is some mobility work for certain areas that are weak. A common area is the Thoracic spine and below are 2 links for exercises to prepare your Thoracic spine for working out.
Cat Camel: Aim for 15-20 slow and controlled reps making sure you are getting the movement through your upper back.
Reachbacks: Aim for 1-2 sets of 10 reps on each side depending on how you are feeling on the day of your workout.
Then as well as this you can do some assistance exercises before you workout for example a patient pull down or dumbbell row prior to deadlifting will help set the correct muscles for when you start the exercise.
Overall, having an intense stretching and mobility work can actually increase the risk of injuries when done before lifting. This is because you can create changes that can reduce the force you can create in your lift and therefore making it less able to resist force from an external load such as a barbell. So the risk of injury increases.
So if you have a pain or find out more contact the clinic today on 0578678904, direct message us on Facebook or book now.
Yours in Health
The Lawlor Clinic: Spine & Sport, Portlaoise, Laois
When weight training, choosing the right shoe may help you break any personal records and improve performance.
When you go into the gym you will see a wide variety of shoes. From bright coloured Nike and Adidas shoes to old school Converses or Metcons and Nanos. This brings us to the point of this blog post, you would not pick a pair of rugby boots to go and play tennis. Shoes are built for set purposes and you should understand what your shoe can do for you and your training goals before you go to the gym to make sure you have the right one on.
Having A Stable Foot
Your foot is your foundation when performing any weightlifting movement. If your foot is not stable then you will not have a solid base to generate force and power for your movements. Even though your foot is very mobile it has the ability to be in a stable position by being in a neutral arched position. So your choice of footwear must integrate this foot position.
Barefoot Shoes
Firstly the barefoot shoe. These shoes provide the feeling of training barefoot but still offer some degree of support for your foot. The theory behind barefoot shoes is you are increasing the feedback your body is getting from the ground and also strengthening up the smaller muscles in your feet by making them work harder. Barefoot shoes also have a wide toe box and therefore allow your foot to have more space inside your shoe rather than being constricted. These are a good option for someone who wants to squat barefoot but has to wear shoes at their gym.
Flat Soled Shoes
If you compete in powerlifting, you will have seen some people rocking a pair of Chuck Taylors. They are terrible for running, but for squatting they are not too bad. The shoe has a 0mm drop from heel to forefoot. This is a big difference from a weightlifting shoe which can have a 20mm drop. If you have poor ankle mobility then these shoes will not offer you any help and if you have not fixed your ankle mobility before squatting or performing Olympic lifts then you may experience discomfort wearing these shoes and will not perform at your best. People who low bar squat may find these a good choice of shoe because you sit back into your hips more with this variation of squatting and therefore your knees will not have to move as far forward. A negative with these shoes is they have a narrow toe box meaning you will struggle to grip the floor as well.
Cross-Trainer Shoes
With CrossFit being a popular form of training, there is always going to be a shoe designed for that style of training. These shoes have good support at the heel and then a flexible forefoot design as well. The most common and popular kinds of cross-trainer shoes are Nike Metcons and Rebook Nanos.
They are both a good alternative to your normal running shoes and lifting shoes. Especially when you have a workout that combines all kinds of movements from box jumps, running, rowing machine and Olympic weightlifting. But if your goal is to just go for a run or just to squat and deadlift then these shoes are not the best option, they are built to be a good all-rounder.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to picking your shoe it should be chosen based on your personal goals. If you do have questions on what shoes might be best for you or issues with mobility when lifting and want to improve on this, then contact the clinic today on 0578678904, direct message us on Facebook or book now.
Yours in Health
The Lawlor Clinic: Spine & Sport, Portlaoise, Laois
This blog will cover a common myth of the squat. It is commonly thought by many that the knees should never go over the toes when squatting.
No one is certain where this originated from but it has become a common theme in the fitness industry and medical world.
But, is it really a dangerous thing to do? For Olympic weightlifters to be able to lift the most amount of weight during their clean, they must catch the barbell in a deep squat position. Then in order to remain upright with the bar secured on the chest, the knees of many lifters will move past their toes. So does this mean all weightlifters are placing their knees in harms-way when they get under the barbell?
When you squat poorly, the origin of the movement will commonly be from the ankles first. This means as the ankles move the knees are forced to hinge forwards. This creates a chain reaction of moving your weight onto the balls of the feet. This is called a knees first approach to squatting. Doing this in this way leads to greater shear forces on the knee joint and contributes to increased risk of injury and eventually to pain.
So because of this, it appears the issue is at the knee because that is where the site of pain is. So if you limit the amount of movement the knees have then this solves the problem. However, limiting the knees from moving only addresses the symptoms of the issue rather than the overall problem.
What to do?
Where the issue lies is your balance. This is because the knee is only a hinge joint. It will move due to what it is being dictated by at the hip and ankle. So we should be focusing on the hip and ankle joint when we squat.
During squatting we must have our centre of gravity over the middle of our foot. This is because our body can remain balanced and work effectively in producing speed and power. During a bodyweight squat, our centre of gravity is located around our belly button. When weight training, the barbell now becomes our centre of gravity.
So how do we correct for moving from the ankles first? It is important to sit back or push the hips back so we hinge from the hips in order the get the hips moving first and therefore allow us to descend into a deep squat. Doing so will limit the amount of pre-mature forward movement of the knees. So the centre of gravity will stay over the middle of their foot.
But this only works up until a point. In order to reach full depth in the squat there comes a time when the knees must eventually move forward. To stay balanced while we go deeper into a squat, our knees have to progress forwards of our toes, this will help us stay balanced. This is because to get to the full depth in the squat, the hips must be under the torso. This allows us to remain balanced and keep our chest upright.
The main point is that we should not be concerned when our knees move past our toes, not if.
If you suffer from knee pain and would like an examination and treatment to help relieve your symptoms and improve your movement patterns then contact the clinic today on 0578678904, direct message us on Facebook or book now.
Yours in Health
The Lawlor Clinic: Spine & Sport, Portlaoise, Laois
A lot of people get back pain but continue to either train through it or rest until the pain lessens only to get it again when they continue with the activity they were resting from. So this blog will cover the basics of back pain, the main ways that your training might be affecting it and how to prevent pain.
Your spine is not just a stack of bones piled on top of each other. It is more of a curved tower of small bones called vertebra, where each of these is separated by the bodies equivalent of a pillow, called a disc. The discs in between the vertebra provide support and create a cushioning effect when you are loading your back. Then your vertebra is connected by little joints called Facet joints. The purpose of these is to allow you to bend and twist through movements. All of these structures are held together and supported by different tissues. These are ligaments, muscles, fascia and joint capsules.
So what actually causes back pain when people are training or doing general movements at work or at home?
The simplest answer is that pain is the result of excessive stress or strain on the structures of your back. Pain is more commonly due to an accumulation of microtrauma rather than one actual event. Three main areas that can cause a build-up of microtrauma are:
Poor movement or technique
Excessive loading of the spine during training causing an increase in compression to the spine
Poor training programming or periodisation (not enough rest)
Your body is built to resist a certain amount of force before it fails and gets injured. Athletes who can safely push themselves to the point just before the limit will find a big increase in improving strength and performance. But pushing past this limit is where pain occurs and injuries occur.
In the day when we are moving, bending, twisting and also when we go to workout the spine is most efficient when stacked in a neutral position. Microtrauma occurs when the spine moves out of this neutral spine position.
For example when deadlifting with an excessively rounded back, or having a butt wink when squatting. Also, microtrauma can occur when you load your back excessively. This microtrauma builds up and then gets to the point we mentioned previously where pain occurs.
Often the point of pain at one part during a movement for example coming out of the hole of a squat and feeling a pop in the back or if you were just brushing your teeth in the morning and you felt your back give way. It is likely down to the movements you have done previously that then mean doing a simple thing causes pain in your back. So having proper form and managing your training loads are vital to keeping your back healthy and pain-free.
So if you are suffering from pain and would like treatment for it, or would like an assessment to see where your imbalances and potential injuries may originate from contact the clinic today on 0578678904, direct message us on Facebook or book now.
Yours in Health
The Lawlor Clinic: Spine & Sport, Portlaoise, Laois
People use a weightlifting belt in the gym when performing exercises such as squatting or deadlifting. You may have brought one or be thinking of buying one, but it is important to know how to use the belt correctly to help get the best out of your lift.
The most common fault is to just put it on as tight as physically possible as if you are wearing an 18th century corset. Some people wear the belt for their whole workout and some just for their maximum lifts in training. While some do not ever use one because they say their back and core is strong enough to not need one. But who is in the right?
The use of the belt comes when you actively pressurise into it to create extra stability for your back. If we are squatting and get under the bar it is crucial to take a big breath and brace our core to stop the bar from bending us over. Doing this will increase the pressure inside your abdominal cavity against the structures surrounding it so creating an increase in intra abdominal pressure. The weightlifting belt is an extra layer to help pressurise against to increase intra-abdominal pressure.
The way to think of this is to think of your abdominal cavity like a balloon. When you blow it up the pressure inside the balloon increases. If you put a bit of tape around the balloon to act as your core muscles and blow up the balloon, the balloon can only get to a certain diameter and then the pressure inside the balloon will increase against the tape. The weightlifting belt is similar to if you put a piece of gaffer tape around the balloon as well as the normal tape. Then if you blow the balloon up there is even more tension around the balloon and therefore the pressure inside can rise even more. Research shows that you can increase intra-abdominal pressure by 20-40% when wearing a belt in a heavy squat. But it is not enough to just wear the belt tight. The key is to breathe into the entire circumference of the belt and then pressurise against it.
So a belt combined with a correctly braced core is better than no belt foo increasing intraabdomincal pressure but it does not replace our core muscles.
In conclusion
So we know wearing a belt and pressuring against it correctly can help our lifts but one of the important things to not rely on the belt all the time.
It is crucial to lift without the belt for lighter weights so your body does not become reliant on the belt. It is merely a training aid but not a training necessity. Some lifters do not use a belt even for their max attempts but if you are going to wear a belt it is important to use it in the right way and not become reliant on it.
If you are training for a max lift or are a regular gym-goer and want some advice and treatment contact the clinic today on 0578678904, direct message us on Facebook or book now.
Yours in Health
The Lawlor Clinic: Spine & Sport, Portlaoise, Laois
