Replace your squats with these...

You've probably heard me say before that squats ARE NOT the king of exercises.

Most people can't even sit into a full, deep squat so they certainly shouldn't be loading up the weight and doing it for reps.

I've seen too many awful squats over the years to count, and every time, I just wait for the "POP" and the scream, waiting for their back or knees to give out.

Luckily, I've only witnessed this once or twice, but for most, it's just a matter of time before it starts to take its toll in their bodies.

People don't tend to relate aches and pains to a particular exercise unless it happens whilst they're doing that exercise.

But that back and knee pain you have may well be from the squats you've been doing for years.

That's also a common argument: "It can't be that, I've been doing it for years without a problem"

It's a bit like someone claiming that smoking can't have caused any issues because they've been doing it for years without a problem... Or eating junk can't have caused any issues because they've been doing it for years...

You see where I'm going with this!

Just because something seems to be ok now, doesn't mean it's not adding a little more damage each time that'll build up over time.

Your body is quite resilient, but it can only take so much.

So what should you do instead of squats?

Something more natural.

An unloaded, bodyweight squat should be accessible to everyone with a little work and is definitely something to practice, but if you want to build strength or size in your legs, yes, you'll need to use some resistance.

My personal favourites for building stronger, ore functional legs, with far less risk of injury are:

• Sled Pushes (just load up a sled, and push!)

• Walking Lunges

• Step-Ups

• Multi-Directional Lunges

Essentially, pick a movement that you encounter in every day life, and add some resistance to it.

DON'T sit yourself on a machine designed to 'target' muscle groups because they almost certainly won't make you move in a natural way.

Try swapping these out in your training and replace the squats, leg extensions, hamstring curls etc.

See how you get on and let me know.

Mark

Walking is NOT enough

A lot of people think they do enough, despite not being happy with the results they're getting.

They wear a watch that tells them "well done, you've completed 10,000 steps today" and are then baffled why the weight isn't shifting.

WALKING IS NOT ENOUGH!

Unfortunately, constant 'activity' throughout the day is our baseline.

If you've done NOTHING for years, then walking may be a good place to start, but that's still just to get you back to baseline.

If you want to progress your health and fitness, you have to train for that.

 

Fitness-wise (i.e. cardiovascular health), walking just doesn't push you hard enough.

Up hill might be hard work, but just walking around hitting your step goal each day doesn't stress your body enough to need to adapt and get fitter.

If you want to IMPROVE your fitness, you have to push yourself harder.

It's the same as building muscle, your body won't build muscle in response to lifting a cup of tea a few times a day - you have to lift something heavy that challenges and stresses the muscle so that it will, in response, grow stronger, ready for the next time it faces that stress.

If you don't use your muscles enough, your body will offload any excess because it's not needed.

If you never stress your cardiovascular system, you'll LOSE fitness.

Studies have shown most people have lost about 40% of their lung capacity by age 50, and about 60% by age 80.

Why? It's not because of their age (or it'd be everyone, not just "most" people), it's because they haven't used it.

When was the last time you used your lungs to their maximum capacity? (We're talking all-out sprint for 200m+, run for your life type effort).

As soon as you're able to walk for more than half hour with minimal effort, you need to start adding intensity, not more "steps".

You need to create the stress for your body to adapt to.

What's the other thing we lose rapidly as we "age"? 

Strength.

So if you want to remain able-bodied as you age, this is the other thing you HAVE to be training.

Again, stress your body so it keeps hold of the muscle and strength it has, and also builds new muscle tissue and gains strength, instead of losing it as you get older.

YOU DO NOT LOSE STRENGTH OR FITNESS BECAUSE OF YOUR AGE - YOU LOSE IT BECAUSE YOU DON'T USE IT!

So to get the results you want, you just have to find or make the time and get it done.

Make sure you're doing the right things.

Look at the things people tend to lose as they get older (strength, speed, fitness, mobility) and work those! It's that simple!

And if you're already lagging in any of those, then get to work asap!

MoveBetter.Club can help 

Is your training confused? Part 2…

Last month I wrote about people who confuse cardiovascular training with training for fat loss. This month, as promised, I’m going to briefly cover why lifting the heaviest weights in the gym isn’t necessarily the right thing to do if your goal is to gain muscle mass.

I see it time and time again, people (normally young men) training, let’s face it, for vanity (who doesn’t want to look better?!), lifting the biggest weights in the gym… badly.

The confusion here is in the difference between hypertrophy (muscle-building) and strength training.

Although there is a connection between muscle size and muscle strength, it’s not absolute – if you’ve ever heard the expression “punching above his weight class” you’ll know that size isn’t directly proportional to strength and vice versa.

A lot of strength comes from neural adaptation and your muscles becoming more efficient at lifting heavy weights, NOT from increased muscle size. So if you’re lifting ever increasing weights and sacrificing good technique just to tell people how much you lift (or because your mate’s lifting that weight so you can’t lose face and pick a lighter dumbbell to work with), then you’re actually hindering your ability to gain muscle size (and setting yourself up for a nasty injury).

Decide whether you want to brag about how much you lift (trust me, no-one really cares), or whether you want to gain some mass and get a great physique.

Once you’ve decided to drop the ego, and reduce the weight, you can start training properly.

Use proper technique, full range movements, and manipulate tempo and rest periods to increase the intensity of your workouts, NOT weight. Although it does come into the equation, weight is far less important than you might think.

Slow, controlled movements that stress all muscle fibres and increase the time under tension (of the muscle) will result in maximum stress to the muscle, which will bring about growth.

You also need to remember that EVERY DAY ISN’T CHEST DAY!

Muscles don’t grow in the gym; they grow when you’re recovering from your workouts. Give the muscles time to repair and grow before you hit them again. If you’re using a split routine - with the exception of legs, which you may be able to get away with training twice per week if you have a good program - train each body part only ONCE per week (this WILL mean having days off of training!).

There are far too many variables to cover here, but the take home message from this short article is this:
If you’re training to increase muscle mass/size, reduce the weight you lift, use good form, manipulate tempo and rest periods for intensity, and take time off to recover and let your muscles grow.

Combined with a good diet (and that doesn’t mean as many supplements as you can stuff down your throat), this will put you on the right track for gaining mass. Supplements “supplement” your diet, they don’t replace it - the clue’s in the name, it’s not rocket science. Ten protein shakes and half a tub of creatine won’t make up for a lousy nutrition plan.

If you want help with either training or diet you can contact me through my website www.DartfordBootcamps.com

Tried Yoga yet?

I truly believe in a well-rounded approach to fitness, trying to incorporate as many different forms of training into my routine as possible.

Until recently I'd only "dabbled" in yoga. Taking a class here and there, when I get the chance.

But earlier this year I started to take more of an interest and recorded a couple of those follow-along-at-home yoga programmes on Sky. And I liked!

Now these aren't my favourite programmes to follow, but they piqued my interest and got me looking into the different styles a bit more.

Having always done Martial Arts, and being a big fan of Scott Sonnon's work, I quickly found a couple of styles that I preferred (though I'm still not sure of what their particular names are).

Being an active person, I'm more into the "flowing" yoga, moving swiftly and smoothly from one posture to the next in sequence. Rather than holding a position for 10 minutes until you get bored or fall asleep (whichever comes first!).

And of all of these, there are a couple I've found that I highly recommend.

These are:
Simon Low's Yin Yang Yoga (The Yang sequence)

Trudie Styler's Warrior Yoga

And most notably, Prasara Yoga, from CST coach Ryan Hurst.

This is delivered electronically (download) and has 5 "Flows" - Wind, SeeSaw, Cricket, Ocean and Vine.

I can't recommend this enough, it has instructional videos for every section as well as follow-along sequences, with 3 difficulty levels so you'll be able to follow along whatever your current ability.

You also get a course manual explaining all of the moves and sequences too.

I bought this a couple of weeks ago and love it. If you're looking to get into yoga, then you should start here! (Ok, maybe this one's a bit more challenging than the previous two suggestions, but you've got to challenge yourself hey?!)

Take a look at their website here: Prasara Yoga
and I highly recommend you give it a go!

If you're not as convinced as I am that this will benefit you in numerous ways, just ask for a refund within 60 days! NO RISK at all!

And you can even download the video's to your iPod or iPhone to take to the gym with you!


I've definitely noticed an improvement in my flexibility since doing yoga, and, although some are still very challenging, am getting to grips with the postures and movements and feeling more and more benefit as I do.

It's not just for old people and hippies, Yoga really IS for everyone. If you can keep your joints and spine healthy, the benefits will be priceless! Less aches and pains, more freedom of movement, and you'll feel great after each session.

I really, REALLY recommend giving it a go. And the options I've listed above are, I believe, a great place to start.


Let me know how you get on.


Mark