First off THANK YOU To everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday On FaceBook Friday! It made my day!

So Friday past I turned 36 years old (young) or whatever you care to call it!  But I turned 36.

It’s a weird number because I can no longer look back and say “well I am not that far from 30″ because, well, now I am lol.

This means that I have been exercising and working out for almost 20 years now.  Which is a long time!  But in that time I have learned & experienced a lot in the gym!

So I wanted to share 36 “Insights” that I have learned over the years

1. Have Fun!  If the gym isn’t fun find something that is fun!
2. Help Others. Most people who workout are focused on their own goals, or their own body.  Help others, it will come back to you 10 fold
3. Stay Healthy!  It’s one thing to be big and strong, but its NO good if your not healthy.
4. Don’t stop learning!  Its easy to get complacent, always keep learning and improving!
5. Ask for help!  I can assure you that many people have done or are doing what you want to accomplish.  Ask for some help
6. Try different sports!  When I was hardcore into weights I wouldn’t dare try another sport as it would ruin my workout.  What a mistake that was! Stay Active!
7. If you want to get bigger it isn’t hard.  Eat More, Train Harder, Rest, Repeat!  The hard part is the eating!
8. We are creatures of habit.  Identify your habits and fix them.  It will make it easier to build muscle, lose fat, or whatever you goal is.
9. If you aren’t building muscle the way you want ask yourself 2 questions 1. Are You Squatting?  2. Are You Deadlifting?  If you answered YES to both questions then you need t0 eat more food!
10. Cardio isn’t the enemy for building muscle! Far from it!  No one lost muscle doing 15-20 min cardio 5 days a week.  If your not doing cardio you are missing out!
11. Pay attention to your Pre & Post Workout Nutrition!  It doesn’t matter how hard you push yourself, if you dont pay attention to what goes in your body you won’t get nearly the results you should!
12. Do a bodybuilding or figure show!  Not for the ego, but do it as a challenge and to see what your body CAN look like.  It will surprise you!
13. Get a GOOD COACH or TRAINER!!  It amazes me the people that buy 1-2 magazines and think they know it all!
14. Protein, Creatine etc ISN”T bad for you! (God I hate hearing this) It doesn’t hurt your kidneys or any other crap like that!
    
15. Your Doctor doesn’t know everything!  Always ask for help, research, learn, and ask questions.  I see anti depressent and thyroid meds way too often with customers these days…
16. CHANGE YOUR WORKOUT!  Is it Monday?  That mean’s Bench & Bicep for 80% of the people at the gym.  if this is you PLEASE CHANGE YOUR WORKOUT LOL.
17. You Get ONE body!  Take care of it!  It amazes me to see people spend all day cleaning and fixing their car, only to neglect their OWN BODY.  Think about this for a second.  It’s pretty scary!
18. STRETCH!  Let me say that again, STRETCH.  It is by far the most neglected part of fitness & exercises today!
19. “You can’t out train a bad diet” Remember that, it is beyond important!!!  Nutrition is everything for getting in shape & feeling good!
20. Train heavy, then back off.  you can’t always get stronger and stronger.  Sooner or later something will remind you that.  Better to back off by your own choice than a bad injury!
21. Train with your friends!  Go try a different workout, try a new program!
22. The biggest obstacle of people getting in better shape is POOR NUTRITION!  I see packed gym’s but hardly anyone in shape!  What does that tell you?
23. BCAA’s, Fish Oil, Multi Vitamins & Greens should be staples in everyone’s diet!
24. To build more muscle train heavier, eat more quality food, reduce cardio (not cut out), and hit the big muscle groups.
25. To get leaner train at a faster pace.  Blend circuits with basics in the gym, reduce carbohydrates and bad fats.  Dont reduce FOOD, reduce CRAP.
26. Your biggest roadblock to getting in better shape is your surroundings! (work, home, school etc). YOU Can’t control that but you can control YOUR RESPONSE.  If everyone is having a tims donut & they want you to eat one it is because THEY want you to fail!  They feel better when you are weak like them.
27. Stop using machines.  I know, every gym is full of them!  Which is why you should NOT be using them.  More on this soon!
28. Do more exercises standing.  Why would you sit down to shoulder press?  I will tell you why, because your gym is making you lazy!
29. Don’t Do Bar Curls In The Power Rack!  Please….only unless there is NO one at the gym…  Please….
30. Don’t growl, scream, grunt, or make weird noises in the gym.  Unless you want to be known as an idiot, then by all means scream away!
31. Take 8-10 minutes and do a proper WARM UP.  It will make your workouts better, improve recovery, and reduce injuries.
32. Train your GLUTES!!  Yep train that butt of yours!  It’s important!  More info on this shortly also!
33. IF your squats aren’t at least parallel then please don’t brag about your squat #’s.  A 225 squat done RIGHT is far more impressive than a 405 knee bend!!
    
34. The best way to bigger arms is squatting.
35. If your in the gym longer than 60 min your making friends (or staring at the girls on the treadmill way too long lol)
36. Your own as OLD as you FEEL!  And after my birthday celebrations I feel OLD!!  :)

I hope this gives some brief insights into my thoughts!  I thought I’d post some party pics but i will save those for another day lol.

Stay Thirsty My Friends!

I love to bench!!  Well I “used” to love to bench.  I don’t bench much anymore.  I have nothing against the bench press (Except it is a ego lift more so than a productive lift), nevertheless I love benching.

However benching can get boring!!  It also can reek havoc on your pec tendons, rotator cuff muscles and isn’s a great lift for developing the pecs, its actually more of a shoulder & tricep exercise.  Hard to believe but true!

I have a lot of my clients (espicially those doing MMA & Jiu Jitsu) do other exercises besides just standard bar or dumbell press, and here’s why!

Answer this question for me.  When EVER have you laid on your back, on a bench, with your body elevated and done a bench press motion in real life?  Just think about it for a second?

My guess would be NEVER.

Now IF you are lying on your back and pressing up (IE underneath something pressing up) more than likely your back is ON the floor, not 2 feet above it on a bench!

Which is why I recommend a few “Alternatives” to just the normal bar or dumbell press!

Give these a try your next workout!  You won’t be disappointed!

As well while on the topic of benching be sure to check out my past blog post

5 Tips For A Better Bench Press Here

http://robkingfitness.com/2009/12/03/5-tips-to-a-better-bench-press/

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.

Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me “garbage can” and telling me I’d be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn’t run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy.

I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn’t going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you’ll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn’t think much of them either.

Then came Mr. Pepperman, my advisor. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn’t even drag them to my mom’s car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.

Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.’s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn’t looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing. In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn’t want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.

Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn’t know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.

Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn’t say shit to me.

It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything. That’s the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

It wasn’t until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can’t be as bad as that workout.

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn’t have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone’s shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.

Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn’t see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.

I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you’re made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it’s some kind of miracle if you’re not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.

I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.

Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.

The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.

By Robert King

1, Bodypart training is the only way to build muscle.

Our body is composed of many bodyparts.  However our body functions as a full unit not as an individual body part.  Train your body with overall full body movements for maximizing growth.

2. Girls Shouldn’t Lift Heavy Weights & Should Always Do High Reps.

This is a myth i get asked at least once a day!  Most girls believe that by training heavy they will get big or look like a guy.  This couldn’t be more far from the truth!  Girls have 1/20th the Testosterone of men.  Without testosterone it is really hard to build muscle.  Unless you are genetically gifted female you won’t build muscle training with moderate-heavy lifting.  Keep changing your program, keep your diet clean and you will benefit from the demands of heavy training.  Just be sure to change things up!

3.Eating late at night will make you fat.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.  The old adage “You are what you eat” is very true.  I always advocate eating every 3-4 hours.  For late night food choices opt for high protein, moderate essential fat and low carb choices.  I love protein pudding at night.

4. You have to constantly lift heavier to make gains.

Wrong.  You need to cause your body to adapt to stress.  This is true, however at some point the amount of weight lifted vs. the damage done to your body does not pan out.  If you are squatting really heavy and need a change hit single leg exercises.  If your arms aren’t growing curling more weight isn’t always the answer.

5. Creatine will make me bloated or cause me to lose definition.

Creatine will not cause you to lose definition.  You need to be about 8-10% bodyfat before you can see any real changes in muscle definition.  Most people take creatine while bulking and end up getting fat from too much junk, not creatine.

6. Protein will convert to fat.

It is literally almost impossible for your body to store protein.  The human body just isn’t very efficient at it.  Your body will burn far more calories trying to store protein or using it for energy.  Protein is a poor source of energy for fat storage, however the body is very efficient at storing simple carbohydrates and saturated fats.

7. You Can Change Fat To Muscle.

.

I don’t even want to go into detail on this but i sometimes still hear it when dealing with customers.  Simply put you CAN’T change fat to muscle.  You can burn fat, you can build muscle, but you cant change fat to muscle!

8. To get ripped you need high reps with less weight.

Not true at all.  The most important thing when trying to lose body fat (aka getting ripped) is FOOD.  Good old boring nutrition matters far more than your workouts.  However you can get leaner with many types of workouts.  Heavy lifting is more taxing on the body causing it to use more calories to recover etc.  Simple approach to getting lean and training.  Change your program often, and make your workouts challenging!

9. Training abs daily is good for getting a six pack.

If you check any anatomy book you will see that the abdominal muscles are no different from any other muscle group.  If you want abs eat better and get your metabolism up.  Training abs daily may make the area feel tighter (because your muscles are sore and stiff).  Train your abs like every other body part.  Train them frequently with low volume, or infrequently with high volume

10. Cario on an empty stomach is best for fat loss.

Cardio on an empty stomach does work.  But not so much because of the empty stomach, its more because you are getting the cardio in and elevating your metabolism.  If you find it worked for you great, but it isn’t essential.  The best time to do cardiovascular is anytime!

Shoulder Pain

However with this battle comes injuries.  And there is nothing as bad as being able to bench press 300lbs, yet something as simple as picking up a glass, or closing a car door can cripple you in pain.  How can something so small set you back so much?  The answer usually lies in a small group of muscles called “The Rotator Cuff”

As the old saying goes you are only as strong as your weakest link, and in most cases improving your bench (and overall upperbody strength) can be dramatically improved by training your rotator cuff and by reducing future rotator injuries.  Ask anyone with a rotator injury it is not fun!  I can speak from experience as I have hurt mine twice, but never had surgery and learned how to get mine stronger.  At my heaviest I benched 405lb for 4 reps.  A big factor in this was always training my rotator cuff muscles.

The next the paragraphs are the anatomy behind theses mucles, don’t get too caught with the ins and outs of it.  As long as you get an understanding and add these exercises in the gym that is more important.

The rotator cuff is a group of four relatively small muscles (the Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor and Subscapularis, or “SITS” for an easy way to remember them all) that help keep the ball-and-socket joint intact. Rotator cuff muscles get strained from 1) sudden impact (a fall or high-velocity movement such as throwing when a person is not used to that particular activity), 2) overuse, particularly in sports such as swimming, baseball or tennis, 3) training with too much weight in the primary movements such as bench pressing or overhead pressing without proper recovery time, and 4) doing too much of certain types of movements without balancing them out with opposing movements (i.e. not enough pulling and too much pushing.)

Rotator Cuff Muscles

Because the rotator cuff muscles are so small, when strengthening them, it is important not to train with too heavy a weight. Initially a 3 or 5-pound dumbbell may suffice for most women, and an 8 to 12 pound dumbbell for men. When performing rotator cuff exercises, keep the movement slow and controlled, and be sure to train in the pain-free range of motion. Keep your wrists neutral rather than flicking the wrist to add range. Another option is using therabands or exercise tubing, although remember that in doing so, the end range of motion will be overloaded far more than the start, and in this case handheld weights (be it soupcans, 2-liter bottles or dumbbells) or cables are preferable to bands.

If necessary consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

The 3 Exercises

-Cuban Press with bar or Dumbell

-The Hitch Hiker

-Thumb Down Front Shoulder Raise

Add these 3 exercises in on your chest or press days.  It will help reduce chance of injury, improve pressing strength and also aid in improving shoulder strength and health.

There seems to be a huge myth when it comes to cardio and building muscle.  Too many magazines with articles ghost written by pro bodybuilders have sent the wrong message with regards to cardio vascular training and building muscle.  I was also a victim to these myths many years ago and lucky enough I learnt the truth about building muscle and doing cardio.

Local Boy Frank McGrath

Let me be very clear on something everyone has different opinions on everything.  Ask 5 personal trainers the same question, you will get 5 somewhat different answers.  However there should be some underlying truth to them all (Unless your trainer has no clue, and there is a lot of that around so be careful”!

Moderate Cardio Vascular Training Will NOT reduce your chances of building muscle!

First off cardio is not the enemy.  Too many people avoid cardio when ‘bulking” (did I mention I hate that term), anyways do not avoid cardio.  Cardio has far too many benefits with regards to overall health, well being, muscle recovery & muscle building.  Yes cardio can help you build muscle.

Let me define cardio training that I recommend vs. cardio that I do not recommend.  Keeping in mind if your sport or goal is cardio that is a whole different ball game.  For now I am going to talk about cardio and building muscle.

Cardio I like while building muscle includes such things as most cardio machines in your gym, hiking, biking, martial arts, yoga (I consider this cardio), swimming etc.  What I recommend to avoid is LONG duration running.  If you are a runner that is fine, but if your goal is building muscle and you run 3-4 times a week at an hour each run you are going to have a very hard time building muscle.

Cardio Training

If your #1 goal is building muscle how much cardio should you do?   Well there are a lot of factors that play a role in putting cardio into your muscle building program.  However here is my very basic recommendation.

On weight training days add in 10-20 minutes Interval cardio AFTER WEIGHT TRAINING.

On Days off from weights do 30-40 low impact cardio.

Add in 6-8 cardio BEFORE WEIGHTS to get core temp up and get the joints warmed up for training.

That’s it!  Pretty Simple hey?   Yes it is, but it will do the job and add up.  This is only the start of adding cardio training to your muscle building program.  Once you have 4-6 weeks of steady cardio in your program you can add or remove more depending on your progress towards your goal.  But this is a great start!

Why do cardio training after weights?

Well there are a few reasons.  Weight training is more demanding on your CNS (Central Nervous System), so it is always good to do your most demanding tasks when your body is fresh and ready.  Try doing a heavy power clean, or squat AFTER 45 minutes or hard cardio.  I can assure you that your lifts will suffer in terms of weight lifted and co-ordination in doing the lift.

Another reason I recommend cardio after weight training is the improvement of blood flow after weights, which in turn leads to IMPROVED RECOVERY.  Improved recovery is a huge factor in building muscle.  The faster you can recover, the better you can build muscle and repeat the cycle.  By doing cardio training after weights you flush out a lot of waste that is created in your muscles during weights, and also you bring fresh blood to the muscle which aids in recovery.

Why do cardio on off days?

I always recommend some sort of cardio on off days for the same reason as above, Recovery.  However this is more considered “Active Rest”.  Meaning that you will recover better from a workout doing a low intensity cardio session than by sitting on the couch watching Oprah (and if you are sitting on the couch watching Oprah we need to talk”!

So in summary a good starting program for cardio training would look like this for a 7 day split.

Day 1 Weights & Cardio (12 Min Interval training after weights)

Day 2 Weights & Cardio (14 Min Interval training after weights)

Day 3 No Weights (30 min steady state cardio low/moderate intensity)

Day 4 Weights (16 Min interval Cardio)

Day 5 Weights (12 Min interval cardio after weights)

Day 6 No Weights 30 min steady state cardio

Day 7 No Weights (Do any cardio you want, as long as its something).

Yes I have NO Rest days in this program.  Reason being is I don’t consider 14-20 min interval training or 30 min light cardio to be very demanding.  If anything it will only help with your weight training and muscle building.

However, listen to your body.  If you don’t recover well, or find you need a day to relax by all means take a day off.   I usually recommend for every 6 weeks training you take a WEEK OFF from weight training. This is a minimum to let your body recharge.

So remember that cardio is not your enemy when building muscle.  You will recover better, you will FEEL BETTER and you may even lose a few pounds of fat!  Not a bad sacrifice for 20 minutes a day.

By Robert King rob@robkingfitness.com

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Back Pain, If you haven’t already had it you can pretty much rest assured that at some point you will have to deal with it.  Some people may get lucky and only have minor injuries that go away with very little work, others (like myself) will have to deal and work around back pain for a very long long time.

I hurt my back about ten years ago doing a personal best on deadlift of 585.  I didn’t get the lift, and on top of that I injured my back enough that it would hinder my training up until today.  Does that mean I don’t train anymore?  Not even close, you just need to find ways to work around it!

Just because you have back pain or an injury does not mean you can not train, It just means you have to modify your training.  If anything the change of training could benefit you in terms of motivation, exercise selection and the challenge of doing something different in the gym.

Before I jump into the exercises and training information I recommend these exercises based on personal experience keep in mind i am not a doctor, and with any injury you should always consult your doctor.

Step 1 : Injury Check – Determine what is wrong.

One of the biggest problems with back injuries is actually knowing what your injury is!  I have been conducting some research on back pain and saw a crazy statistic that about 60% of lower back pain injuries are undetermined.  Basically someone has pain, and the doctor or chiropractor can not actually find anything mechanically wrong with the back.

Sometimes back pain can be a lot more than just something wrong with your back!  But that is another article all together.  The first step should be trying to find out what is causing the problem.  It could be simple, it could be complex.  Find a good Doctor, Chiropractor, Physiotherapist and learn from them.

Step 2 :Assessment – Determine what you can & can’t do.

First thing I want you to do is take a pen and paper and write down ALL the lower body exercises that cause you pain.  The list can be small, or long, but i want you to WRITE IT DOWN.  Here is my list quickly.

- Bar Back Squats

- Bar Deadlifts

- Heavy normal stance stiff leg deadlifts

- Heavy rotational core work

- Heavy squats of any kind.

That is my list briefly. These are exercises that when I do them I know I am going to pay for it later.

Now do the following.  Take your list, read it top to bottom, and then STOP DOING THESE EXERCISES!  When you get a lot of pain from an exercise it is your body telling you to stop doing what you are doing, something is wrong.  It is like driving a car, when a red light comes on your dash saying “Check Engine” that does not mean drive the RPM’s up and drive as hard as you can.  It means stop, evaluate, try to fix the problem!

Step 3 – PreHab & Mobility

Prehab & mobility work is another article I will write down the road, but I wanted to touch on it briefly.  Everyone wants to get to the gym, hit it hard and go home.  Keeping in mind when you train you are breaking down your muscle tissue, nervous system and more.  It is a good idea to get your body READY for the workout ahead.

Prehab basically means prehabilitation, which is the opposite of rehabilitation.  Rehab is what you do AFTER you are injured.  Prehab is what you do to MINIMIZE getting injured.  Why get injured if you can prevent it!  More on this down the road.

Mobility work is around the same lines as prehab.  It is good to get your body moving and firing properly so that it can do the job that you want it to do.  Let say your goal is a sprint workout.  If you do not do any warm up, or dynamic stretching, just go dive right into your sprints. This is great IF you want a hamstring tear!  So prehab & mobility should always come before any workout. It will take 8-20 minutes depending on age, training experience, type of training.  But it is ALWAYS worth it.  Consider this the seat belt of your car.  Always buckle up!

Step 4 : Getting Ready For The Exercises

A few factors that i always take into consideration with back pain/injuries and training are the following.

• Load
• Tempo
• Stability
• ROM (Range of motion)

Lets start with load.  For load lets just keep this simple.  Load is the amount of weight you use for an exercise.

For example lets say you are squatting.  If you are squatting the bar (45lb) without problem, then squatting should be ok right?  Well lets say you put 315 on that bar (assuming you are strong enough to do it) and that weight causes you pain/discomfort.  then the load is too high.  If you can do an exercise with LIGHTER weight and complete the exercise this is a good thing.  It just means you have to LOWER YOUR WEIGHT.  I know, everything you read tells you to “Lift More”.  Well when you are injured this is the wrong thing to do!

However, if you can do an exercise without pain with lighter weight we can introduce the next thing, Tempo.

If you are familiar with tempo then skip to the next paragrah.  if not let me summarize quickly.

Tempo is the speed at which you execute an exercise.  Tempo has 3 ranges I will explain using a bench press as an example.

Eccentric : Lowering (Once you take the bar off the rack and lower it to your chest)

Pause : When the range is at its fullest (IE on the bench press it is when the bar touches your chest)

Concentric : The positive side of the lift.  IE Pushing the bar off your chest on bench press)

A tempo principle would be written like this

Tempo 6 – 1 – X

6 =  6 seconds down

1 = 1 second pause

X = Move the weight as fast as you can back to the start of the rep

Simply put if you have an injury SLOW DOWN.  Using less weight with a longer TUT (Time Under Tension) you will benefit greatly from it.  Your muscles will get work and your joints will thank you!

Next up is stability training.  Stability training has really gone strange over the last few years.  You see bosu balls everywhere, and everywhere I see stability training i see people doing things they should not be doing!

When defining stability at the moment we want to look core stability.  Keeping the TVA

(Transversus abdominis muscle)

stable during lower body exercises is very important.  If your core is unstable and you have a lower back injury or weakness you will only make matters worse.

What I mean for this is keep your stomach tight, your core strong and stable, this will help reduce back injury and also injury prevention.

Lastly is ROM (Range Of Motion).  For the most part you always want a full range of motion.  However, if this isn’t possible (usually due to lack of mobility), I recommend modifying the exercise and making the best of it.  For example I cant do full squats (But I think they are a fantastic exercise if you can do them).  But I can do squats to a bench without much pain.  So why not use them.  It is better to do something than nothing.

Step 5 : The Exercises

First thing I recommend is to ditch most exercises that involve using 2 legs at once.  Single leg training is the way to go!  You wont see much of this type training in bodybuilding magazines, but if you want legs like Ronnie Coleman this isn’t the article for you.  However if you want muscular, strong, functional legs, uni-lateral leg training is an excellent choice.

Some Benefits Of Uni-Lateral Leg Training Are :

- The loads on the spine will be dramatically reduced

- The leg(s) are isolated causing a much higher recruitment of muscle fiber activation

• Improvement of sports as most sports do not have 2 legs in a set position exerting effort (IE. Squat or Deadlift)
  
• Improved Co-ordination with single leg training.

Due to my own injury I have fallen in love with the following exercises.

1. Single Leg Box Squats – Start using your own body weight then progress to using a weighted vest & or dumbells
2. Lunges - Reduced load on spine when using dumbells.  You can adjust stride length and depth to hit different areas of legs & hips.
3. Single Leg Stiff Leg Deadlifts.  Done with a dumbell or kettlebell.  Great for hamstrings, lower back & improving balance.
4. Ski Squats – Vary heights every 30 seconds.
5. Step Ups – Varying heights using dumbells.
6. Leg Extensions -  (For bodybuilding, not for sports improvement)
7. Sissy Squats -(Old School exercise that has great benefits for leg growth)
8. Single Leg Squats against a wall with a ball. Same as ski squat but using a ball
9. Swiss Ball bridge to knee ups.  Hamstring & Glute focus

6. Post Workout Recovery

I am not going to go into the details of post workout nutrition here.  I will just cover what I think is important from a training point of view.

The only time to do static stretching (where you place the muscle in a stretched ranged and hold), is post workout.  After doing leg training I recommend a good 10-15 minutes of cool down stretching.  I always find it best to start with the hips and work your way down.

IE. Stretching in order, Glutes, Hips, Quads, Hamstrings, Calves.

I also highly recommend ice post workout.  Not the ice cold type skin creams, I mean a bag of cold ice or a ice pad.  Applied to any area that hurts after you train.  This is key in reducing inflammation (which contributes largely to pain).  Reduce inflammation, improve recovery.

Another great post workout way to recover is alternating hot and cold shower.  To do this you run 30 seconds hot, then 30 seconds cold.  It really sucks but it really works wonders for muscle recovery.

Summary

Training with any injury is never fun. A back injury gets in the way of everything you do, but instead of looking at it negatively look at it as a challenge and make the best of your situation.

Look for another article down the road implementing these exercises into a kick ass lower body routine that will get your legs firing while minimizing back pain and improving mobility!

Robert King

www.robkingfitness.com

rob@robkingfitness.com

If you want to learn how your gym membership may benefit you tax wise this article should help you.

Rob

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Is My Gym Membership Tax-deductible?

Each year, I get clients who want to claim their gym or fitness club membership as a medical expense. In their view, the gym is preventive medicine improving their overall health. While this may be true, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) does not accept this argument. Typically, allowable medical expense under our current regulations will be reactive in nature rather than proactive or preventative. There are exceptions, but CRA usually only permits deductions for treatment of an existing ailment, injury, or disease. The list of treatments and items that are allowed is far too long to go into here. If you have questions about a specific item or treatment, you should contact an accountant or your local CRA office (they can be reached at 1 800 959-8281).

There is a Way

There are some individuals for whom we can reduce the cash outlay. If you are lucky enough to have an employer who is willing to pay for your gym membership as a ‘bonus’ to you, they can certainly do so, and this will be tax-deductible to your employer. For the employee, the gym membership will show up as a taxable benefit on the T4 at the end of the year. The employee will then pay income tax on this amount. The actual amount will vary depending upon each person’s tax rate. For people in Newfoundland, the tax hit can be as large as 44.50% of the cost of the membership.

For a lucky few, though, there is no taxable benefit. The condition upon this is fairly strict and slightly fuzzy (as are many areas of the Income Tax Act). In a Technical Interpretation (IT-211R) issued October 17, 2003, the Canada Revenue Agency permitted employers to pay the membership on the employee’s behalf without issuing a taxable benefit to the employee provided that it is clearly to the employer’s advantage for the employee to be a member of the club. Note that this is not restricted to gym memberships, but may also be applied to other clubs and associations.

Paragraph 2 of the IT states that “membership fees…will be allowable deductions from income if they can reasonably be shown to relate to the earning of income from the business or property.” It would appear from this wording that there is no taxable benefit to the employee if the employer is the primary beneficiary of the advantage of the employee’s attendance at the gym or health club.

While much of the discussion so far has centered around gym memberships, the general principles can be applied to other memberships in clubs and societies, as well. If your employer is footing the bill, the question to ask is: “Does my membership in this society benefit my employer (through networking) more than it benefits me?” If the answer is yes, then it would appear that the employer can foot the bill without passing along a taxable benefit to the employee. Of course, if you are self-employed, it means that you can claim the membership as a business expense rather than paying for it using after tax dollars.

Note: Canada Revenue Agency specifically excludes golf club memberships from this category.

Disclaimer: The information above is general in nature, and may not be applicable to every situation. If you think you may qualify, consult an accountant to discuss the details specific to your situation.

Rodney Payne, CGA