The Correct Lunge

So, I hop into gyms around the city in between my clients, since I travel to their homes and need to squeeze in my workouts where I can.

I normally keep to myself, throw my favourite DJ Jayceeoh mix on my iPod and don't really pay attention to what's going on around me. I'm constantly monitoring and tweaking while at work, so when I am at the gym, my focus is predominantly on my own efforts, and the physiological happenings in my own body.

This being said, something caught my eye the other day and I could barely help but scoul. A trainer was teaching their client a walking lunge. The front knee was so far beyond the toe, the back leg was STRAIGHT, not bent, and of course... the girl giving the demonstration had zero glute definition and will probably have bad knees in a couple years. I sound vile, awful and critical. But it's really time that people get this basic exercise right. It makes my insides hurt to see it executed so sloppily.

In any kind of lunge, whether it be a drop lunge (stepping back into a lunge), a static lunge (keeping the feet in the same position and dropping down then pressing back up - also called a split squat), a forward lunge (obvious) or a walking lunge - the principles are always the same. Please remember these tips:

Your front heel must be dug tightly into the floor. This recruits the front glute with full force (lifting, tightening, strengthening the butt - who doesn't want that??), and also protects the knee. By digging your heel in, you prevent your front knee from moving forward. It hovers, rather, over the front ankle, therefore placing the load perfectly on the quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Your back knee must bend into a 90 degree angle (the same angle your front knee will be in, over the ankle), and the back knee must line up with the neighbouring hip and shoulder. This knee will sit a couple inches above the floor at the bottom of the exercise (basically the load must always remain deposited in the front heel and not be compromised - very important!!!).

Your torso needs to be solid, straight and held tall. Since your back knee aligns with your shoulders, your shoulders must be slightly held back, and the chest lifted forward. Your core is tightly engaged, ready to tackle any instability or lack of balance. This lack of balance will challenge the core directly and recruit all stabilizer muscles, thus speeding results and increasing your caloric burn.

IF you have lower back pain, you may hinge forward oh-so-slightly at the hips, but be sure to squeeze your ribcage toward your hipbone to keep your abdominals held tightly against the spine.

This is how you build from the inside out. Learn to do it right in the beginning, and don't waste any of your time or effort doing it wrong. Most people feel their lunges predominantly in the back quad which reaches in an excrutiating manner toward the floor. As your glutes become better conditioned, you will be able to squeeze the front glute, and tightly use it to push the floor away, feeling this one greatly in the glutes as well.

If you want an extra challenge, use ONLY the heel of the front foot. It becomes more of a balance challenge - requires more core recruitment, and also really bites the glutes!

In a walking lunge, step your foot first, think about where the weight is deposited (heel) and then drop straight down into your two 90 degree angles in the legs. Don't keep the energy always slanted forward - make sure your muscles will get the most bang for their buck by being patient and getting it right.

Normally my clients who tell me they hate lunges have been doing them improperly. It leads to injury, muscle imbalance and joint pain (to name a few).

There are hundreds of variations of this exercises (on a BOSU, Bulgarian Split Squats, jumping split squats, drop lunge with kick, forward/backward lunge....) so it really is a beautiful one to master!

Feedback always welcomed........

Weight Machines vs. Functional Training

With proper training techniques and coaching, you can achieve your best possible body using very little equipment at all. There is an enormous difference in effectiveness between being led through an exercise passively by a machine, and asserting the isolation and stabilization of your muscles using just your anatomy and your brain.
Your personal trainer, whether in a gym or at home, should always be coaching you on how to make each repetition better than the last, teaching you visualization techniques on how to be in complete control of the constructiveness of the exercises, and... staying away from weight machines! Weight machines are okay if one needs the stabilization done for them - mostly in rehabilitative situations. For the healthy, balanced individual, your trainer must teach you to use your muscles to stabilize. This fine-tunes the mind-body connection (integral to top-notch results), burns significantly more calories by recruiting more muscles into use, and boosts the metabolism by doing so. You can strengthen and lean out your core, just by teaching it to stabilize you while you properly isolate whatever other muscle you are conditioning. By teaching your muscles to grip tightly while you execute an exercise, you are also coaching them to protect your joints for life - warding off the uncomfortable effects of aging such as arthritis.

If your trainer is following you around with a clipboard, and counting repetitions, more interested in what is written on their piece of paper than the physiological happenings in your body right before their eyes.... they don't love this stuff enough to hold an expert opinion on your training.
You can use the grass, the floor, a chair, a table, stairs and your BODY to train every single muscle group. You simply need the right directive, and to know how to assign certain muscles as assertive and certain joints or muscles as passive in an exercise.
Throw in a medicine ball, stability ball, pair of dumbbells or BOSU and you will have endless possibilities for your body's achievements!

If you're interested to find out how, contact me for a comp workout. You'd be surprised.

Cables and dumbbells of course have their place, but it's really the knowledge and coaching that makes the biggest difference in training.

THE RED CARPET OF MEALS - Lean, Dressed Up and Beautiful Salads!

Salads are never all that tempting to me in the winter. I always want hot, steamed vegetables, or vegetables soups... but in the summer there are so many in-season, colourful fruits and vegetables. All it takes is tossing a plethora of fresh, wholesome foods into a bowl, and you can have a healthy and creative meal every time you eat.

Salads don't have to be just vegetables, in fact I prefer when they aren't. You want to throw in some healthy fats and some protein. I think it's a really wise idea to keep fresh foods in glass containers in the fridge, so that you can toss a few handfuls of things into a bowl for your meal.
Keep some legumes (like chickpeas, edamame, black beans), different kinds of cheeses (feta, goat cheese, cheddar), fruit (pears, apples, mandarin oranges, strawberries, blackberries), vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, roasted peppers, artichoke hearts), nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, chestnuts) and proteins (bbq chicken, shrimp, hard boiled eggs, tuna, steak, tofu, bacon).
There are ENDLESS options. If you keep many of these ingredients on-hand, each salad can be a completely different meal. The other day I made one with chicken (tossed in balsamic and oregano), goat cheese, roasted peppers, pears and walnuts, with a mixture of romaine and mixed greens.

When you have all these amazing flavours and variations, you don't need very much dressing. BUT, should you like to add some dressing, I recommend using a homemade one.
My mother makes the best salad dressing: 1 part vinegar (balsamic works well) to two parts olive oil (you can use a bit less if there is a lot of cheese / nuts in your salad already to keep fat lower), salt and pepper to taste, a pinch of basil, 1/2 - 1 tsp of dijon mustard to act as an emulsifier, and 1 tsp of pure maple syrup. Wisk it up and you're all set! It makes a huge difference to have a homemade dressing vs. some of the crazy stuff they put in the packaged versions.

Salads make healthy eating very easy. You want as much nutritional bang for your buck. This is a great way to get in many different vitamins and minerals, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and protein in one bowl. You will feel full, satisfied, and be baring your abs in no time!

An important sidenote: They're OH-SO-PRETTY to look at! Serve them for your friends.

An Easy, Time Efficient Home Strength Workout

If you're wavering between skipping a workout and doing a ten minute routine, choose the ten minute routine! You need to be strength training 2-3 times / week to maintain/build muscle, keep your metabolism supported and keep your joints protected. You really don't want to risk losing muscle and depleting your system (leading to more fat storage, more load hitting and damaging the joints and general strength loss).
I'm going to provide a short program of six exercises that are sure to hit all your muscle groups when done properly. It's important to do something more thorough at least once / twice a week in my opinion, that includes more core exercises (because the core needs to be trained isometrically, rotationally, and in a stable manner that recruits the difficult-to-train transverse abdominis). But, this program will bridge the gap well between your more intensive training sessions.

Once again, I apologize for not yet having photos to post, but I should have more of these components in the coming months of my blog.

SPLIT SQUATS: Begin in a static lunge position (split stance), with your weight deposited into the front heel and your back foot resting on the ball of the foot, with the heel elevated. The goal of any kind of lunge is to reach two 90 degree angles in the legs at the bottom, where your back knee hovers over the floor (weight still in the front heel). Keep the shoulders back, chest lifted, and core tight. Inhale as you lower to the position with both legs at 90 degree angles, exhale and dig through the front heel to straighten back up to start. Knees will always be a little bit bent at the top. Repeat all repetitions on one leg (12-15 for most people) before switching sides. The feet never change their position. Split Squats work the glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves and core.

WALL SQUAT: A wall squat is an isometric contraction, meaning that you hold the position still to build a really rooted and enduring strength. You will be seated against the wall, with heels of the feet directly under the knees (make sure that your feet are parallel to one another - particularly the outsides of the shoes following two parallel lines, perpendicular with the wall). Also be sure that your knees are not splayed outward, you want a slight closure in through the adductors as you hold. You can lift your toes entirely in this exercises, to keep the emphasis through the heel (and therefore through the glute). Make sure you are just slightly above a 90 degree angle in the knees (if you are too low, you will overload the knees instead of the quads and glutes). Press your lower back tightly into the wall so that the abdominals are recruited and building as well. Now, hang out! Hold the position for as long as you can. You will feel a sharp burn within a few seconds usually - work up to one minute.

HAMSTRING BRIDGE: Begin lying on your back, with your feet elevated on a chair or table. Your heels will be pressed into the chair, but the achilles and calves must not be resting / touching. We want to emphasize the glutes as much as possible - always! Your legs will be just slightly more open than a 90 degree angle. Your arms will be rested by your sides for balance support (though try not to depend on them). Inhale before you begin, and as you exhale, contract the hamstring and glutes to lift the hips up to where they are nearly in a straight line between your feet and your shoulders. Remember not to lock the knees at the top, and don't overextend your lower back. Keep the focus on the muscles you're working. Inahle to bend the knees back to your starting position, except you will simply hover over the floor, rather than deposit your weight on the floor. Exhale and repeat 15-20 times.

PUSH-UPS: Push-ups are a chest exercise, yes. But they also serve as a core exercise, and if you lower slowly and protract your shoulder blades on the way down, you can train the muscles in the back on your eccentric contraction. Hand position is key in push-ups: Begin with hands directly under the shoulders. Belly button is pinned up at the spine (you must NEVER lose this core foundation - and your core must be at its MOST contracted when you are at the bottom, about to push yourself back up). Look slightly forward to make sure you don't dive down headfirst. You want to get a nice expansion through the chest while keeping the core isometrically contracted. Inhale as you lower, and make sure that your elbows fold slightly back toward the wall behind you, instead of straight out to the walls on either side of you. This ensures that the load doesn't hit the shoulders too heavily, rather stays on the core, chest and triceps (anterior delts are at the stitch of the contraction inevitably). If your hips swoop at the bottom, meaning you've lost your core contraction, then you need to begin on your knees. You must be in a straight line from your knees to your shoulders, with your abs pinned up toward the spine. As you get stronger with this method, you can move onto push-ups on the toes.

PLANK: Here we have another isometric contraction to strengthen the core. Again, (I'm a bit core-obsessed) ideally you will have a more thorough core program that you will follow regularly that recruits the obliques a bit more deeply. But the plank contributes to a great amount of balance between the strength in the lower back, keeps the transverse abdominis contracted when done properly and really aids the enduring strength of the core as a unit. You are going to be in the same position as the top of a push-up, however on your elbows instead of your hands. Elbows still sit directly under the shoulders (if they are too far back, your shoulders will be overloaded). Your forearms will be tracked in parallel lines toward the wall ahead of you. I like to have clients keep their palms faced up, so that all tension / exertion is focused right on the core and doesn't get lost or distracted in the grip of the hands. Keep your hips in line with shoulders and heels, and then hold that structure. Within that solid, unmoving structure of your skeletal system, close your muscles (abs) by pinning the belly button up toward the spine. If you know how to tilt your pelvis in (shortening the abs and lengthening the spine, or "cat tilt" in yoga), do this. You will get an extra 10-15 seconds out of your plank. Hold for as long as you can. If your abs begin to quit despite your best efforts, and you feel the load re-distribute to the lower back, it is time to quit. But keep pressing your abs inward (and upward) without moving the hips and fight for more time!

LOWER BACK EXTENSIONS: The lower back needs to be trained in isolation. I would say about 90% of my hundreds of clients over the years have complained of some lower back discomfort or tightness. We don't strengthen the erector spinae reguarly in everyday life, yet it bear the load of what we carry (without a strong core) and remains stretched out as we sit at a desk or hover over a laptop! By staying on top of your BALANCE in your core, with lower back extensions, most back problems should go away within 3-4 weeks. Begin lying facedown, legs extended, feet slightly apart with the top of the foot resting or sinking into the floor. From the hips down will be dead weight, heavily pressed into the floor throughout the exercise. This is used for our stability, so that the range of motion in the lower spine can really be exercised in isolation (as much as possible). Your hamstrings and glutes will shorten by default inevitably, because they are attached to the erector spinae. Have your hands directly under your shoulders, with elbows tucked in at your sides and lifted off the floor. Your arms will be used only to SUPPORT the range of motion that your lower back comes up with itself. Keep your head neutral, so that the closure of the spine stays concentrated on the lower end near the tailbone. Your chin will be slightly tucked in throughout. Exhale, contract the lower back to lift the chest off the floor to your own degree. Make sure you are not pushing through the arms and shoulders. Inhale to lower back down. Pay attention to your muscle and how cranky it's becoming... You want it to be a building tightness (most people reach between 12-20 repetitions). It can become sharp, but when it does it is time to quit. The lower back is sensitive, and you need to stretch it out after each set. Do this by contracting your abs (for immediate support to the now-vulnerable lower back), and use upper body to push your hips back onto the heels. This is a shell stretch. Hold for twenty seconds.

So - a very thorough account of my recommended 6 exercises to do to replace a bigger strength workout, that doesn't require any equipment. They will strengthen and tone your whole body.
Do 2-3 sets of each exercise (I would do the whole thing through, then repeat 2-3 times).

I hope it isn't too difficult to follow without photos! Soon, friends... soon.