Why You Need To Work Your Hamstrings

• Balance Training: Most guys and gals will head into the gym and start squatting and leg pressing. This is great, and is probably a whole lot more than most people do, but at the end of the day we need balance in our training. Do unto your hammies that you do unto your quads.
• Prevent Knee Injuries: Having huge quads in itself can sometimes cause problems. But without some big hamstrings behind them, you are looking at even more danger. Balance is the key, and none of us want to get injured.
• Improve Performance: You hamstrings are without a doubt the key to performance. Without strong hammies, you can’t run fast, you can’t jump high and you will not be explosive. You want to improve all these thins, which any athlete does, then you need to do some serious work on your hamstrings.

7 Great Hamstring Exercises

Here are 7 of my favourite hamstring exercises, and some vids and pics on how to perform them.

Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls

This is a great exercise for general hamstring conditioning, it is tougher than it looks. Try it with one leg if two legs is too easy.

Leg Curl

The standard exercise, I like to do them with two legs up and one leg down, to get an extra eccentric element. Works them harder and gets faster results.

Stiff Leg Deadlift

Tough exercise but great for building your hamstrings.

Single Leg Stiff Leg Deadlift

Same thing as above but single leg, has a balance element to it. You can do it holding a medicine ball like the vid, or dumbbells at your side.

Good Mornings

Quite tough, I would recommend getting a handle on the other exercises before moving to this one. But it does work your hamstrings well.

Nordic Lowers

Super tough, try it once and you will be sore for days!

Catches

For those sprinters out there, this is a great eccentric way to work your hamstrings, not for bulk.

Related Posts

• Hamstring Exercises From A Guru
• Eccentric: Hammer Your Hamstrings
• Hamstring Rehabilitation Manual

• Fascia Pain
• Tennis Ball Therapy
• Foam Rolling

This video will take you step by step through some protocols with the foam roller, and show you exactly how to work each area. Then you need to back it up with the tennis ball. For more understanding about why you need to do this, and a few more exercises, check out the posts I mentioned above. With all this info, you have no excuse not to start looking after your body better.

Check out our recommended foam roller, the Aeromat Foam Roller.

Related Posts

• Foam Rolling: Get On It
• Tennis Ball Part 3: Upper Body
• Tennis Ball Part 2: Lower Body
• Tennis Ball Part 1: A Tool You Never Knew You Had

What Are Shin Splints?

Shin splints is more of a symptom of certain conditions. The common type of shin splints affect two areas. The correct names for shin splints are medial tibial stress syndrome, or posterior tibialis syndrome and is really common amongst people that do a lot of running and place a lot of load though the shins. The pain that you will feel is like a dull ache in the lower leg area. Some people will feel it whilst exercising, other after they have finished. The fact is that it is pretty hard to avoid getting shin splints if you run a lot, your shin absorbs two to three times your body weight every time you put your foot down when you run. This is a lot of repetitive stress on one area, and it is not surprising that problems arise. It is considered an overuse injury, but with the correct preparation, you can avoid it.

What Are The Causes Of Shin Splints?

Shin splints mostly occur through repetitive stress in some way or another. They tend to be located in either of these two areas depending on the problem that you have.

• If you have pain at the front of the shin, on the big muscle running down the outside of the shin bone, you have a problem with your dorsiflexors.
• If you have pain on the inside of your shin bone, in the muscles running just below it, you have a problem with your posterior tibialis muscle.

The dorsi flexors, which are the muscles that pull the top of the foot upwards towards the shin aren’t functioning correctly. Located at the front of the If you are running, and do not have good control on foot strike, then the dorsi flexors have to work very hard to counter that. When there is a really big eccentric load on these muscles (negative muscle movement) and they are not prepared for this kind of stress, they get tight and inflamed.

A lot of us tend to over pronate when we walk or run, mostly due to flat arches, which means the foot drops flatter than it should, and points out ways on foot strike. The posterior tibial muscle works the most for this, and shin splints can also be known as posterior tibialis syndrome. It run down the back of your tibia, and stops the foot pronating on foot strike. This muscle can get extremely over worked easily and is typically not very strong in most people. Once again a lot of repetitive stress causes over use in the area, and the muscles get tight and inflamed. Not only does it affect the muscle, but the connective tissue surrounding it.

This video explains over pronation perfectly!

This is a great simple explanation of shin splints, talks about other causes and risk factors.

How To Treat Shin Splints

We are often tight and weak in the calf area, the posterior tibialis, and the dorsi flexors, so all this needs to be addressed.

Stretching

Check out these simple stretches to help you stretch away the pain. If the problem is in your tibilias posterior, these will help directly, if it is in your anterior shin muscles, then they are probabaly way too loose, causing an imbalance and as a consequence you will suffer from tight calves.

Massage

Massage is an extremely effective treatment for shin splints. Depending on where you feel the pain, just rub the area, press down and along the muscle. You will feel a lot of pain but also a lot of relief. If you anterior shin muscle are tight, run your thumb up and down there. If you are tight in your posterior tibialis, get your thumb stuck on the inside of your shin bone, try to push under it. This will cause serious pain, but you need it. General calf massage will help shin splints in general. Ice massages are also great, get a plastic cup and fill it with water, freeze it and use it to run down your shins, really helps with the inflammation regardless of your problem. This is really great for sports recovery in general. You may want to understand fascia pain, and you will be able to help this out with some tennis ball therapy. Fascia can cause problems to your shins from as high up as your hip flexor, check out those two posts for some more great self massage tips.

Exercises

Exercises are important, there is no rehabilitation without getting strong. Doing the right leg workout to help the pain is essential. Check out these exercises.

Anterior Shin Pain (Dorsiflexors)

Tibialis Posterior Exercises

General calf raises are great too, you are probably weak in this area as well.

Footwear

Ensure that you footwear is not causing you to over pronate. Get orthotics if you need.

Whilst you are working to treat your shin splints, ensure that you keep your fitness up with some low load exercise. Swimming and bike riding are great, and won’t cause much stress on the area. You want to avoid pain as much as possible.

Random Posts

It is much easier to understand the concept from these two diagrams. The first one will show that if you keep training at a high level, without the appropriate recovery your performance will eventually diminish. Find out more about sports recovery. The second shows hat with appropriate recovery you will be able to super compensate, which mans get the gains and adaptations that you have been working for. Below is a basic summary of over training, taken from scientific resources.

negative training

progressive training

Overtraining Overview

• It’s a general assumption that athletes must have a high volume of intensive training in order to reach performance capacity.
• Therefore they are often balancing a fine edge between the optimal amount of training and overtraining.

What is it?

• Many studies investigating the effects of overreaching and the numerous variables it effects.
• However, as it is not ethical to induce a state of over training (considered a severe syndrome) little studies have examined it.
• Caused by total stress…stress can occur from training, illness or psychological stress.
• Many proposed theories about cause.

Overreaching & Overtraining

• Overreaching is used by athletes to enhance performance.
• Super compensation effect with adequate recovery.
• If signs recognised recovery takes 2 weeks
• Normal and harmless state.
• Over training is the process of excessive training, which when combined with inadequate rest can lead to pathological under performance. AKA Under performance Syndrome (doesn’t imply causation)
• Thought that symptoms of over training are similar yet more advanced then overreaching
• Little Scientific Evidence!!!

Factors Contributing to Overtraining

• Frequent competition
• Prolonged intense training- lack of periodisation
• Monotonous training
• Psychosocial stressors
• Illness
• Heavy traveling/jet lag
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Infectious disease
• Allergic reactions

Diagnosis of Overtraining

• “Exclusion of other sources of underperforming and persistence of performance impairment after more than 2 weeks of relative or complete rest.” Hawley et al. (2003)
• In order to diagnose overtraining athlete history, and laboratory testing may be required.
• Diagnostic tools can be inexpensive, allow early diagnosis, avoid disruptions to training and be practical.
• Prevention and Diagnosis similar

Diagnosis

• If you suspect the athlete may be over trained, having these to look at will assist in diagnosis
• Monitor training volume and intensity- RPE, training and wellness logs
• Sleep quality
• Stress levels
• Fatigue
• Muscle soreness
• Resting HR
• Psychological factors
• POMS

Here are the common markers of overtraining

common markers of over-training

RPE – Ratings of Perceived Exertion

• Self- monitor athlete awareness
• Good measure of intensity, studies correlate
• to HR and Blood Lactate
• Most sensitive instrument
• available and Easy to administer
• Load= Time(min)*RPE(1-10)
• Monotony= Average Load/SD of load, Monotony above 1, consider rest day or decrease intensity
• Strain= Load*Monotony
• Been shown to be linked to overtraining and illness in athletes when monotonous training is combined with high training loads

Diagnosis: Laboratory Testing

• Blood test
• Creatine Kinase
• Urea
• Ammonia
• Uric acid
• Decreased nocturnal urinary catecholamine
• Decreased T:C
• HR variability
• VO2 max
• Stress test- 10% above anaerobic threshold
• 1RM
• max blood lactate
• submax blood lactate
• max HR
• RER
• Hormonal changes during exercise
• Problems:

-Require standardized conditions- expensive
-Require 2 days no training and dietary control for validity
-Need baseline data

Misdiagnosis?

• Overtraining or simply fatigue?
• I.e jetlagged…not over trained!
• Poor diet etc.
• Illness?

Treatment

• Must continue monitoring with diagnosis strategies!
• ‘Prevention is the best treatment for overtraining’ (Uusitalo, 2001)
• REST…Relative Rest
• Sleep, Nutrition & Hydration
• Relaxation
• Stretching & Active Rest
• Time frame
• Overreaching- 2 weeks with super compensation
• Overtraining- months-years depending upon individual.

Prevention

• Identify susceptible athletes
• Type 1 personalities
• Periodisation of training is the key
• Avoid sudden increases in training load
• Ensure adequate recovery
• Same principles as Diagnosing
• MONITOR!

Random Posts

I have been thinking about this subject a lot myself, as my personal motivation fluctuates from day to day, week to week, and month to month. This is what I came up with and hope it helps motivate you too!

M – Mind: You must first make up your MIND to just “do it already.” Sitting on the couch thinking about it or watching shows like the Biggest Loser are not going to get you up and moving. It’s up to you and no one else. You must have a mind set in which “you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to.”

O – Objective: What’s your OBJECTIVE? (Websters: Something worked toward or striven for; a goal.) Don’t go to a gym or purchase a few DVD’s without first making your plan of attack. What do you want in the end, why do you want this change, what’s your time line, and how can you make it happen?

T – Time: Prioritize your TIME. If you don’t make the time to workout within your busy life schedule, you will never fit it in. It must be moved to the top of the list. Other things may have to be set aside for a while. When you reach your goal and are maintaining, then you can pick those thing up again.

I – Invite: INVITE friends/family to workout with you. Having someone with the same excitement for change, helps push you to a new level. Start a support group or fun competition at your work. If your friends/family do not want to workout with you, explain to them how important it is you have their support.

V – Vary: Exercise can get boring fast or become just a routine. So VARY it up and keep things fresh and new. Try different classes at your local gym, take a day to ride your bike, run or walk outside. Purchase different DVD’s with different trainers and styles of workouts and fitness levels.

A – Attitude: Nothing can make or break you as fast as your ATTITUDE. You must walk into the gym with positive attitude. Continue to tell yourself you can do it and you are proud of yourself. It’s OK to pat yourself on the back. As soon as you tell yourself you can’t, your workouts will come to a fast end.

T – Train: The word TRAIN means teaching your body to do something it may not have done before. Don’t get upset if you can’t do something the first few times. With training, your body will adapt and start to change. The average change starts to show in 6-8 weeks. Hang in there and keep pressing forward.

I – Information: If you have never worked out before you must gather INFORMATION. Use resources such as Your Happy Hearts.com and other sites to gather the information you need. Learn about proper food and diet, different exercise routines and proper form and how much rest in between workouts you need. Teach yourself everything you can. The more informed you are the better your results.

O – Obstacles: Remember OBSTACLES will get in your way no matter who you are. Whether it be the family, work, injury/soreness, your time, etc. It’s up to you to push through and come out the other side still fighting. No one said it would be easy. Or there wouldn’t be overweight people in the world today. Easy isn’t something to be proud of. Overcoming obstacles and getting incredible results is.

N – Never: “NEVER say NEVER”. If you think “I will never be able to do this or I will never look like that” You won’t! You have to be confident you can do anything you set your mind to. Think back on something you did in which you weren’t sure about and it turned out to be one of the best experiences of your life. You won’t know until you try!

Subscribe free to Your Happy Hearts for motivation to come directly to your email. YHH posts on an average of every 4-5 days. For daily motivation and support be a fan of Your Happy Hearts.com on Facebook today! We would love to chat with you.

Random Posts

There are two ways you can and need to recover.

• Immediate Recovery
• Ongoing Recovery

The methods that I will talk about today will be a variety of both, and we’ll discuss when to use each one effectively.

Why Do We Need To Recover?

A good recovery routine will get us back to our optimal working state. The faster you get back to where you should be, the harder and more effectively you can train, and the more gains you will likely achieve. Recovery will not only get you back to your original state, but it will also help the body to super-compensate, adapt to the training you are doing, and get the gains you were working for. No recovering properly also puts you at a greater risk of injury. There is no doubt that neuromuscular fatigue has a large affect on our movement patterns. When you have deficiencies you will be placing an increased demand on certain muscles and tissues within the body. Recruitment patterns get messed up, and you increase your risk of further fatigue and injury. Recovery can be immediate and ongoing, and it is important to take a good look at your specific needs, the regeneration process, much like the conditioning process, is definitely an individual one.

Fatigue Explained

You can put fatigue into four basic categories, all of which need addressing during the recovery process, and all of which will affect performance in certain individuals.

• Metabolic Factors: Insufficient energy.
• Neural Factors: Nervous system fatigue.
• Environmental Factors: Travel, weather.
• Psychological Factors: Emotional/ stress

Effective Recovery Methods

Here are some of the most effective methods of recovery. They are not all scientifically well backed, but all show positive results in a lot of athletes, and simply need further research. I certainly have used them all to some degree of success.

Cool Down

First and foremost, don’t neglect the cool down phase. Any exercise where there are hard intervals involved you really do need to include a full cool down. Weights sessions don’t need the whole gig, much less or no active recovery and a lot more mobility work to ensure you relax the muscles and decrease adrenaline, but the cool down certainly is an important part of any session.

This can involve two parts for intense exercise:

• Walking around, lightly jogging, and keeping on moving directly after a game or tough session will ensure that you prevent blood pooling (blood pooling in the legs), helps to slowly reduce adrenaline levels, and reduce muscle stiffness (not yet scientifically proven, but positive results). Keep moving for at least 5 minutes, longer if your session or game was very hard, and be sure to perform some active stretches and light mobility exercises along the way.
• Static stretching is massively opposed in a lot of circles, and there is not much evidence backing it as a recovery method, however what we do know is it feels good and it certainly releases a relaxing effect, which can only help to stimulate growth hormones, necessary for recovery and adaptation. Although scientifically it is not proven for performance enhancement, and should actually be avoided pre exercise, it has been shown to decrease the injury rate and aid recovery somewhat. However, the more active recovery that you participate in directly after exercise, the longer you take, and the more range of motion work you do, the less static stretching you will need. In fact, it should then be individualized, and concentrated in areas of decreased mobility or extra tight spots in certain people. I am all for static stretching POST tough session and weights session, combined with active stretching and some massage modalities and always do it. Especially for problem areas such as hip flexor and pectoral muscles.

static stretch?

photo credit: hisashi_0822

Contrast Methods

Alternating between hot and cold is becoming a very popular way to recover. Physiological methods are still being discussed, whether it is the constriction of the veins helping remove ‘crap’ from the muscles, simply a decrease in sensation allowing you to perform a more active recovery without pain, relaxes the muscle and decreases neural activity, or whether it is all three combined… what is sure is that contrast baths or showers to enhance and speed up recovery, at least as much as an active cool-down. The best evidence, try it yourself. You feel better, then its a goer.

Play around with the time, however here are some good guidelines to start with:

• Shower Contrast Therapy- 30 seconds cold as you can stand, 30 seconds hot. Repeat at least 3 times. Extra soreness in special area, localize the shower head there is possible.
• Spa/ Ice bath Contrast Therapy- 4 minutes in the spa, 1 minute in the ice bath or plunge pool.

If you need greater relaxation in the shower, just up the warm water time.

The exception here is with an inflammation injury you might want to stay away from the heat, just do an ice bath. Heat isn’t great for an injury in the early stages and may only inflame it some more.

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy covers a really big blanket of recovery therapies, all of which really do help to reduce soreness, or simply leave you feeling much better. Again, as I seem to keep repeating myself, the scientific back up here is a bit sketchy. It is a little unsure as to why the benefits occur, may it be from water temperature, hydrostatic pressure (like a compression force on the body that causes fluid movement in your body), simply the ability to do low impact mobility work or who knows why…the fact is that it works, heaps of people get great results, myself included, so I am going to simply tell you what to do. Try it out yourself and see the benefits.

it's fun too!!

photo credit: drewzuckerman

In The Pool: You can do a pool session as a recovery session when you are feeling a bit down and in need of some energy. It is also a great active recovery method, that we will talk about later. Get in the pool, for 30-45 minutes you are basically moving around. Try to do a routine something like this, you only need half the length of a lane for most of it, repeat everything 3 times

• Walking
• Side steps
• Lunges
• Side lunges
• High kicks (obviously slow in the water!)
• High knees & Butt Flick
• Do a few laps of an easy stroke
• Some static stretching in the water

You can always make it tougher by adding in some water running, or some more actually swimming, but either way, this will leave you feeling refreshed.

In The Ocean: The sea is a great place to do some recovery. It’s cold and it’s salty. Perfect! Same deal, get in, walk around, swim out, come back in the shallows and do some active mobility work and you are done. An instant pick me up for anyone who has not tried it.

Salt Baths: Epsom salt baths are a very popular way to recover. The proposed mechanism is the uptake of magnesium by your skin. This is a rally important mineral that helps with muscle relaxation.

Nutrition

One of the most important aspect of recovery, if not the most. You gotta get your nutrition right after exercise or a game to ensure that you replenish what you lost, and get the gain that you need. When we are looking at nutritional recovery, we are looking at a few factors.

• Refueling the muscle and liver glycogen stores
• Replacing fluid loss and electrolyte loss
• Building new muscles proteins

Refuel

During high intensity exercise, muscle glycogen is what we use first, and it is what we need to replenish first. Immediately after exercise some carbohydrates should be taken in. Ensure that you get some protein in, as amino acids are essential to building muscle (protein powders are good, but there are a lot of natural sources of protein out there) Try to get at least 50 grams of carbohydrates in if the exercise was high intensity. After a high intensity day, or game, ensure that you keep replenishing your carbohydrate stores… for the majority of you, you won’t need to concentrate so much on this, immediate post workout nutrition is the key).

For just weights sessions, it is recommended that you take in protein plus carbohydrate (with a high GI) within 30 minutes of finishing your session. There is a window where your body will use it more effectively. If you aren’t a fan of protein powder, a milk plus a banana is a great option, can of tuna on some crackers… you get the picture. Eat something high in protein and with some carbohydrates (helps the uptake of the protein to the muscle) directly after the session.

Rehydrate

You pretty much always end up in a fluid deficit after any type of training, and it is regularly ignored. Bad idea. Fluid deficits can affect performance in later training’s and hinder recovery. try to get in well over 100% of your fluid loss in the hours after your training. Ensure, especially in the case of heavy aerobic exercise r intense exercise that you get some electrolyte replacement as well. Gatorade is good for this. Totally not necessary for the average gym goer doing 30 minutes on the treadmill, in fact will probably interfere with weight loss goals… too much energy.

drink up...

photo credit: Steve Snodgrass

Real Food or Supplements for Recovery?

You don’t necessarily need to have supplements to reach your goals, especially if you are not a highly trained athlete. Start by getting real food into your body, and ensure that you don’t double up. That will only lead to weight gain, and you probably don’t need it. Ideally if you can get real food in, do that… but protein powder provides an easy option to ensure that you get what you need directly after you training or game. It is simply too convenient to ignore.

Soft Tissue Methods

• Myofascial release: We have spoken a lot about this in tennis ball therapy and fascia pain. Check out those two articles for more information. I won’t go into more information right now, you have thorough guides there. It is essential to recovery and you will instantly get better mobility, so just do it. Foam rollers are super cheap, and massage balls even cheaper. Read the articles and find out more for yourself, you will feel a difference and this is one that any type of athlete or regular exerciser should do.

Best Foam Roller From Amazon

• Massage: Getting a massage can have two effects on the body. Mechanical or reflexive. Mechanical is the result of stretching the muscle tissues, stroked, kneading, pressing.. which leads to better circulation, stretching of soft tissue, breaking down scar tissue, and improving tissue permeability. Reflex occurs when the actions of the massage can result in a change in function. Massage is a really great way to speed up recovery, and simply does help. Whether you can get it done professional, do some self massage on your own, or get a partner to help, you will feel both psychological and physiological benefits that will enhance your recovery.

Muscle Stimulation

only $99!

The use of electromyostimulation, or EMS, which is the little machine that send electric pulses into the muscle is a form of recovery used widely. Not  as necessary as some, it does give you that extra bit of recovery. It can act like a massage in that it stimulates the blood flow and creates a pumping effect. Electronic muscle stimulators can help to induce a relaxation state and also breakdown adhesion’s that may exist between muscle fibers. You have to own a machine for it, and they are pretty expensive, but if you are interested, you can see a wide range of cheaper EMS machines here at amazon. The one in the pic is just $99.

Active Rest

Rest doesn’t always have to be total rest. Although there are going to be occasions where that is essential, you also need to keep in mind that sometimes moving is better than not. Active recovery can comprise of two different things. You can either do the same activity you were doing, at a much lower intensity. Take the body through the motions, either lower the weight, the speed or the duration. It ensures that you keep the body moving, your muscles active, the correct movement patterns activated, but you also get a bit of active rest. If you were going to do a leg workout, you still can, just do it lighter. Do some light bum exercises to ensure that you activate your glutes, and some push ups instead of a heavy exercise like bench press.

On the other hand, active rest can be something completely different, and this has the psychological benefit added in as well. As we mentioned above a pool session is a great form of active recovery. Walking is very underrated, and a long walk can enhance your recovery immensely. If you are in a team sport, maybe try playing another sport if your players are down, it helps to give the body a break from the usual movements, but also keeps the blood flowing at a lower intensity.

Sleep

whatever you can get?

photo credit: Gregorios Kythreotis

Extremely important that most of us mess up. This is the time when your growth hormones are released, and you get the best chance at recovering. You need to get into a good sleeping routine in order to recover properly, and if you don’t have one, make it a priority. Here are some tips to a better nights sleep.

• Avoid caffeine after 2pm, caffeine is thought to have a 9 hour life span, so just don’t drink it after 2pm, even if you are adapted to it and you don’t think if affects you much, try to abstain and see how you sleep.
• Try some relaxation techniques once you get into bed, clenching your major muscle groups and relaxing them is a great way to start to relax all your muscles.
• Sleep in total darkness, you will be amazed how much light can affect your sleep.
• Get rid of anything electronic prior to sleeping.
• Take a good book to bed, it helps you relax.
• Avoid alcohol prior to bedtime.
• Create a pattern and try to get up at the same time everyday.

Do You Need All These Sports Recovery Methods?

Nope, definitely not. Especially if you aren’t training everyday. However, the fact is that we will all get sore and tired from time to time. Having a regular recovery routine will ensure that we get back to our normal state and increase the gains we can achieve. This is really important for any type of athlete. Try out a few of the methods, do some consistently, and add a few more in when you feel especially in need of a pick me up.

Enjoy!

Related Posts

• Tennis Ball Part 2: Lower Body
• Injury Prevention: The Ultimate Checklist
• Foam Rolling: Get On It
• Glycemic Index: Do You Really Understand It?
• Recover Properly & Get More Gains

We will first take a look at the nutrition value of pasta. To keep it simple, I am going to look at simple white spaghetti, and simple whole grain spaghetti. There are simply too many variations to go through them all.

image: caloriecount.about.com

As you can see, per serving (1 cup, very small serving!!!), pasta is high in calories. Whole grain does have a much better profile in regards to dietary fiber, and is slightly lower in calories. It is also usually higher in magnesium than white pasta, another important vitamin.

Do You Really Need It?

You have to weigh up what you get out of it, opposed to the energy you are consuming. Pasta, as you can see above, is a food high in calories, especially for the nutrients you get out of it. This is good and bad, depending who you are. If you are part of a very small percentage of the population, who is a professional endurance athlete, trains twice a day or participates in a hugely ridiculous amount of exercise, then this is a great thing. Energy above and beyond is a must. You need energy to train, and not having enough can cause a wide variety of problems. In saying that, you can still get your calories from sources with more nutrients. For example, I train twice a day, but am involved in a power sport. I need more energy than the average person, but I still have to be careful. I don’t eat pasta, and get most of my carbs and energy from proteins, legumes and veggies… and a lot of them at that. On the other hand, a male long distance runner will burn an enormous amount of calories, and will simply need to top them up however he can get them, this is very important for sports recovery and will help to avoid overtraining in sport.

Now, back to a very large percentage of the population, who don’t exercise like a mad man and need to somewhat control out energy intake, then pasta is probably not the best choice. High in calorie, and low in nutrients, there are definitely other choices you can make. Be aware that you want to get bang for your buck, eat foods that will contribute to your body in a good way, most of the time. Veggies, legumes and fruits are all carbohydrate sources that provide a lot of vitamins and nutrients. I don’t necessarily advocate a low carbohydrate diet, if you read on I will explain more, however, to avoid weight gain, give your body what it needs, and help weight loss if necessary, then pasta is simply not a good choice 90% of the time. If you do eat it, ensure that it is directly after exercise, where your body will use it better. I will always argue it is better to stay away from processed grains most of the time, if not completely for the majority of the population, however, whole grain is so much better than white. If you are going to choose pasta, make sure it is whole grain.

Moderation Is The Key

Like anything else, moderation is a key. Pasta is OK at times for anyone. One cup is a standard serving of pasta, and if you think about it, when we eat pasta for dinner we are much more likely to have a huge bowl full. Anything in moderation is fine. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to learn to eat a balanced diet. Ensure that the majority of your energy is providing you with nutrients and vitamins, and understand that most processed carbohydrates will not achieve that. As I mentioned before, I will always argue that you don’t really need processed grains at all. However, there are a lot of healthy people and athletes that eat a lot of them, and need them, without a doubt. I won’t ever go to one extreme, and there are always a few points of view. A healthy balanced diet is the key, and less processed grains is always going to contribute to you eating more vegetables… and you don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that is good. You don’t need to avoid pasta like the plague, but be smart about how much, the type of pasta and when you eat it.

Low Carb Diet The Way To Go?

After this you may think I am advocating a low carb diet. No. Traditionally when you look at a low carb diet, you are talking about zero carbs, all meat… basically a heap of protein and fat. I am telling you to have a safely balanced diet. There is no doubt that excess energy causes weight gain, and high GI and sugary foods speed that up. If you choose the right time to eat your carbohydrates (after exercise) and choose the right type (legumes, vegetables, fruits…basically no WHITE carbohydrates and preferably nothing processed) then you are making the right decisions. Carbohydrates provide energy, we need energy to live. A very low carb diet is not a good idea, and not one of the diets that work longterm but you need to get them from better sources. A dangerously low carb diet is only going to result in low energy and fatigue, definitely not what we want. For further information check out healthy fat loss.

Better Alternatives

If you need to eat pasta for whatever reason, go for the whole grain type. There is about 10 times more dietary fiber involved, and that is very important. It will also lower the GI (which is already quite low, a positive for pasta). For those that are trying to lose weight, avoid any type of processed carbohydrate, especially of the white variety, unless it is directly after exercise. Eat a whole lot of vegetables, fruits and legumes, and you will still get a LOT of carbs in, just ones that are also nutrient and vitamin dense, and give you something else for your energy.

So, in conclusion… of course pasta is not unhealthy, but I will argue that you have other, and better choices to make. Processed carbohydrates don’t give you a lot of nutrient value (in comparison with other foods), but are certainly necessary at time and for certain people. Just be smart, eat in moderation, concentrate on stocking up your plate with veggies and legumes, eat more lean proteins, and you really can’t go wrong…

Random Posts

The problem is that everyone slumps when they sit down. A large percentage of us have bad posture in daily life. It’s not something that a lot of us even notice, however there is no doubt that having a mobile upper back will make a lot of difference to your posture and pain levels. We spoke about how bad thoracic mobility affects the lumbar spine, similarly it also affects above it, the shoulder. A lot of shoulder pain and upper back muscle pain is caused by immobility of the upper back. Your scapula will not be able to move properly, and the sub-acromial space will be reduced (where a lot of the tendons and muscles run through) and rotator cuff injuries are a common side effects. Shoulder impingement and pinched nerve in shoulder is often a result. With better thoracic mobility, you will get better shoulder mobility.

How Do You Get Better Thoracic Spine Mobility?

Check out this video to see how to test and get some more thoracic mobility using soft tissue modalities.

If you want a more thorough routine check out strong lifts where mehdi shows you a range of stretches and exercises as well. For more stuff with the tennis ball check out tennis ball therapy.

You really will feel a benefit from an increased thoracic mobility. Try the test and the exercises and get more mobile.

Random Posts

Things To Consider

There are two major things that I want you to consider when you are doing step ups. The height of the bench, and the speed of the exercise. Bench height is one thing that people often ask about. Basically, the higher the bench, the more hamstring and posterior chain involvement you will get, the lower you go, the more quad dominant the exercise becomes. A neutral bench is a great way to start, where your hamstrings are parallel to the ground. I generally use a neutral or higher than bench because I struggle through the hamstring area.

The other important thing to consider is the speed of the step up. Totally dependent on your goals. I like having the weight on my back, purely because I can lift more. If I am doing a strength phase I will do reps on about 80kgs, you go slow because it’s heavy, explosive I will do fast step ups with about 60kgs (see video below), and step ups with nothing. If you are starting, and wanting to build strength, do them slowly.

Benefits Of Step Ups

I rave about step ups, because I think they are fantastic.

• Low stress on the body (especially the knees)
• Simple exercise without a high technical difficulty (progress faster)
• Adaptable speed for any goal
• Great quad exercise
• Posterior chain exercise (Butt and Hamstrings..check out glute activation and hamstring exercises)
• Build strength quickly
• Extra stabilization necessary
• Unilateral exercise for strength

How To Perform Step Ups

Here are two videos that I made showing two variations of the step up. Just taken during my normal weights session. I am in a bit more of an explosive phase, so this video shows me doing explosive step ups. I’m using 60 kgs, and my aim is to jump. The aim is the key here, how fast I can move the weight. 60kgs is still a bit for one leg, so as you can see, I don’t jump so high, but you will notice the speed of the movements. For those starting out, take it through the same motion but slowly.

Explosive Step Ups from LaurensFitness on Vimeo.

This second video shows step up jumps. I use them right after my step ups for some contrast training. This is a really good leg workout and cardio hit too. I do low reps for plyo purposes.

If you want some more stuff check out leg workouts to jump higher and depth jumps.

Step Up Jumps from LaurensFitness on Vimeo.

As you can see the step up is a great all round exercise that will really get you firing and strong. You don’t have to worry about getting injuries, and you will rarely feel pain. You can increase your strength and get to great heights quickly, as it is a very simple movement without much skill to learn the technique. You will notice all your other lifts start to improve after adding this to your program. Enjoy!

Related Posts

• Bum Exercises: 8 of the best

How To Stretch Your Hip Flexors from LaurensFitness on Vimeo.

Related Posts

• Hip Mobility: Exercises To Get You Mobile
• Tight Hips? Tips To Loosen Your Hip Flexors
• Overhead Squat: The Ultimate Exercise?