Emma Mobility Program

Emma Mobility

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Training for Fat Loss

It has been said in the fitness industry that the best training program available is the one you are not doing! This is because your body adapts very quickly to what ever stimulus you subject it to. it has also been said that the key to continual success is to do the same, but different. This training technology that I will introduce to you today, will show you how to constantly keep your training the same, but different!

A great deal of research has gone into what is the most effective way to burn body fat. The three protocols that I have found to be the most effective have been circuit training, interval sprint training and complexes. The other day I had a crazy idea – how about combining all three systems?

Another idea I had is one I stole from Dan John, a legend in the world of athletic performance. Dan uses a dice to decide what power lift he is going to focus on that day. This does not have to be used just for power workouts, it can be used for any exercise!

The method is simple, yet it is blisteringly effective. You will literally feel the fat melt as you are training. You will also have the side effect of improving your work capacity and fitness to a level you have never dreamed of.

Complexes are seemingly simple, but are also extremely deceiving. They pack a hell of a punch and will challenge you in a very unique way. The idea is to choose one implement (barbell, dumbbell etc) and perform 5 reps of 5 different exercises. I wrote about this in a previous article called GPP, which has lots of information about how to improve your general level of conditioning. It can be found in the exercise articles part of this website.

Interval sprint training is a great tool but it has some limitations. Firstly, if it is raining your ability to sprint will be limited. Also not everyone has a park in which they can sprint. Another option that works great is to perform body weight training exercises in the same fashion as interval training. This saves space and will also improve your strength.

Circuit training has been around for decades and we will use it to structure our workout. Using the dice will offer an element of surprise and randomness to our workout, so we will always be following an effective fat burning structure, just with different exercises. the same, but different!

Complex options: Which ever number on the dice you roll is the complex you will perform.

Kettle bell Complex – 5x KB Snatch, 5, KB clean and Press, 5x Single Arm KB Swing, 5, x KB Squat Push Press, 5 x KB Dead Lift

Dumbbell Complex – 5 x DB Lunge and Press, 5 x Lateral Lunge and Curl, 5, DB Dead Lift to Bent Over Row, 5x DB Push Up and Row, 5x DB Squat Push Press

Barbell Complex – 5 x Overhead Squat, 5 x Power Clean and Jerk, 5 x Front Squat, 5 x Bent Over Row, 5 x Romanian Dead Lift

Medicine Ball Complex – 5 x Staggered Squat Push Press, 5x Staggered Squat Push Press, 5 x Lunge with twist, 5x lateral lunge with wood chop, 5x low lateral lunge with push out

Body weight complex – 5x burpees, 5x jump lunges, 5x jump squats, 5x push ups, 5 x mountain climbers

Swiss Ball Complex – 5 x SB Push jack, 5x lateral ball roll, 5 x SB Lunge, 5, Sb side flexion, 5x SB reverse hyper

Simply roll the dice once to pick your first complex. Your seconds roll will decide what you do for your interval training. I recommend 20 seconds on, 20 seconds off and repeat for 4 minutes. Your 6 options could be:

Rope jumping
Burpees
Mountain Climbers
High Knee Running
Sit to Stand
Shadow boxing with bands

Using this formula a sample workout could be as follows:

Medicine Ball Complex
Burpees

Simply perform the complex then go to the interval training. Rest 60 seconds and repeat 3-5 times.

This form of training is fairly advanced so approach with caution but it is extremely effective for melting fat. Enjoy the sweat!

Core Strength vs. Core Stability

The core is one of the biggest buzz words in the health and fitness realm. There is a multitude of modalities which proclaim that they will improve function and strength of the core. Unfortunately, a lot of these approaches are based on outdated research and without a thorough understanding of functional anatomy and biomechanics. The purpose of this article is to inform you of our approach to core training and the why to our approach.

When we look at core strength and stability, we need to carefully define what these terms actually mean. In 2003, Hall defined stability as ‘resistance to both angular and linear acceleration, or resistance to disruption of equilibrium’. This basically can be broken down as the ability to withstand unwanted movement. Strength is defined by Kraemer and Knuttgen and Kraemer as the maximal amount of force a muscle or muscle group can generate in a specified movement pattern at a specified velocity of movement.

By looking at these two definitions we can see a big difference between core stability and core strength. Core stability can be understood as the ability of the core to resist an unwanted movement. Core strength can be identified as the amount of force the core can produce to perform a desired movement. These can clearly be seen as two totally different functions, yet they are both totally interdependent on the other. If an exercise class or modality promises to improve core strength and the majority of the exercises involve static postures while activating the core, are they training core strength or stability? In reality, they are improving stability and not strength.

What also needs to be identified is how to train the core to be stable. According to physical therapist Shirley Sahrman in her book Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement impairment Syndromes the abdominal muscles need to 1. appropriately stabilize the spine, 2. maintain optimal alignment and movement relationships between the pelvis and spine, and 3. prevent excessive stress and compensatory motions of the pelvis during movements of the extremities. To stabilize the spine we need to ensure activation of all the abdominal musculature and in what way we want the spine to be stable. At DC Health we consider spine stabilization to be the maintenance of a neutral spine under load and the resistance of rotation.

Training the core to resist rotation may seem like a strange idea. In fact, many core strengthening programs try to increase rotation, particularly at the lumbar spine. This is not a good idea, as the lumbar spine only rotates between 3-18 degrees. We generally find in our assessment protocol that our clients who suffer from low back pain actually are overly mobile at the lumbar spine and suffer from immobility at the hip joints and the thoracic spine. The mobility of these two vital areas will be addressed in another post. Mobility has become a huge topic in the fitness industry with people creating mobility exercise for every joint in every plane of motion. In reality though, some joints are inherently designed for stability, not mobility, and increasing mobility at these joints is asking for problems.

We need to teach the core stability in the frontal plane, transverse plane, the anterior sagittal plane and control of the pelvis and lumbar spine. At DC Health we have designed an integrated protocol for assessing a client and taking then through these progressions to ensure optimal stability development. Some of the exercise we use are:

Side Bridge: This exercise is excellent for developing frontal plane stability and poor performance in this exercise is a good indicator of an increased risk of lower back pain.

Forward Ball Roll: This exercise integrates the core with the hips and the arms and is a great exercise to train the anterior core.

Lower abdominal co-ordination – This exercise trains synergistic action between the external obliques and the hip flexor musculature.

Pallof Press: We use this exercise to train the abdominal muscles to resist rotation.

After we have developed optimal stability we will then look at developing core strength. The strength we will develop will take into accounts what activities a person performs and their particular goals. Some of our favourite exercises are:

Cable Wood Chop: This is a great exercise to integrate the hips, core and upper extremity to express force.

Medicine Ball Toss: Another fantastic exercise to develop strength and power. Also teaches you how to absorb force, which is very important in athletic situations.

When looking at exercise programs and what they promise we need to look at all programs with a healthy degree of skepticism. If we can critically analyze what is being done and the methods used we can easily see what approaches are effective and which ones are ineffective. Remember there is no such thing as a bad exercise, there is only a poor prescription of an exercise which is due to poor understanding of the biomechanics involved.

Varying your rep ranges

When training in the gym do you stick to a general rep range? Do you follow the 3 sets of 10 rule because it is the best range for muscle gain? Or do you perform sets of 25 reps or more for toning? Well, hopefully after reading this article that will change and so will your results in the gym!

 The general accepted rule in exercise science is that reps of 1-4 result in primarily neural adaptions and reps of 10-15 or more result in primarily cellular or metabolic adaptions. This is true, to a point. What we need to realize is that all repetition ranges target both neural adaptions. If we can understand this and identify what adaptions are happening in what muscle fibers are what times we can improve the quality of our training and actually achieve our results!

When we lift weights there is a principle in neurology that we need to understand. It is called the size principle. What this principle tells us is that there is a certain ways that the nervous system recruits muscle fibers to perform any given task. For a task such as picking up a glass of milk your nervous system will only recruit a small portion of your muscle fibers, particularly your smaller, slow twitch fibers. This makes sense because using all your muscle fibers would cause you to throw the glass in the air! When you lift a heavy object, such as a heavy pot your nervous system will recruit all your muscle fibers for the task. This makes sense so as to make sure you do not injure yourself.

When we look at the size principle it states that the recruitment of muscle fibers will be dictated by both the load of the object and the speed of movement. If the load is light or the speed is slow the body will primarily recruit your type 1 muscle fibers which are smaller and more aerobic in nature, e.g. they can contract for a long time. If the load is heavy and the speed is fast the body will recruit the more explosive type 2B muscle fibers.

Now when we look at training this is interesting. We are told that the last few reps of any set are the most important as they are the ones that recruit all our muscle fibers. The size principle illustrates to us that it is clearly not the case. What actually happens at the end of the set we actually recruit less muscle fibers as the speed decreases and fatigue sets in. If we recruited more muscle fibers the weight would actually feel easier, not harder! 

So how do we work with this principle? It is really quite simple and when you start using it your strength, power and movement ability will skyrocket! What we do is we focus on lifting heavy loads as fast as possible and we stop the set when either the speed or range of motion reduce. If this happens it indicates to us that our type 2B explosive muscle fibers have fatigued. These particular fibers are the ones that will develop more strength, are more metabolically active and grow bigger! These are the three most common reasons people train – to lose weight, get bigger and get stronger! When we use this principle it also ensures good form as we stop each set before form breaks down. Also, in response to theories that fast lifting is dangerous when you run you absorb impact forces of 4-7 times body-weight! In sports we move explosively so our training should prepare you for the same!

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When we know this our ideas of reps change. When we look at the size principle we can ascertain that sets of 1-5 reps can actually be very conductive to hypertrophy training. In fact it may be the best way! So when designing your program, one method I have found very useful is to flip around your sets and reps. 

Some examples: 3 sets of 10 becomes 10 sets of 3

3 sets of 8 becomes 8 sets of 3

2 sets of 12 becomes 12 sets of 2

The combinations here are many. When we add up the weights that we will be using in this approach it is clear that this will lead to more muscle and strength gain due to the increased volume.

Example: 3 sets of 10 at 60 kg = 1800 total kg lifted

10 sets of 3 at 100 kg = 3000 total kg lifted – a difference of 1200 kg!!

So hopefully this article has inspired you with the knowledge and confidence to change around your program. Remember, if we do the opposite of what the majority is doing, we will probably be doing things better!!

Post Pregnancy Training

After childbirth, the abdominal muscles are stretched to well past their normal length. In this short video, learn two very valuable exercises in rehabbing the abdominal muscles after pregnancy. 

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Exercise of the Month – Dead Lift

The Dead Lift is an excellent exercise for weight loss, power, strength, muscle gain and core stability. Learn how to dead lift correctly in this informative video!

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Cable Push and Pull

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This an excellent exercise to train the core musculature in a functional standing pattern. It integrates the upper extremity to the core and the opposite lower limb. It is excellent for pushing and punching power, and maintaining the mobility of the thoracic spine.

What is Sports Kinesiology?

What is Sports Kinesiology? This is a question that we get asked almost daily. We at DC Health have decided to write this article in an attempt to get the answer to this question available to as many people as possible. 

Sports Kinesiology is a summation of the best of Western and Eastern medicine and health technologies. It combines methods and philosophies from osteopathy, traditional chinese medicine, functional anatomy, energetic medicine, strength and conditioning, chiropractic, nutritional medicine and bodywork therapies. It is a holistic approach to healing, health and well-being that considers all aspects of the person, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. This comprehensive approach allows us to revolutionize performance in a way not yet seen before and is the key difference here at DC Health.

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Here is an example of Sports Kinesiology at work. This is taken from a real case study and is an example of how sports kinesiology can fully work with the interconnectedness of the human organism. A client came in with torn ligaments in his shoulder. Surgery was scheduled. Using orthopedic assessment and a comprehensive knowledge of functional anatomy, the practitioner was able to ascertain that the injury actually originated in the opposite ankle. A look at this blog,

http://miketnelson.blogspot.com/2009/05/opposite-joints-my-elbow-hurts-you-want.html goes into detail about how the site that hurts is not often the cause of the problem. 

After treating the ankle the shoulder regained full pain free range of motion in one session. The next session was dedicated to clearing up imbalances in the shoulder musculature. Kinesiology uses neurological testing of muscles to see how the central nervous system is controlling them. A muscle has 3 possible responses. Either it has neuromuscular integrity, it has a lack of neuromuscular integrity and thus is ‘underfaciliatated’ or it is overworking and is thus ‘overfacilitated’. Kinesiology then uses different techniques to ascertain what is the actual cause of the neuromuscular dysfunction. This is what sets sports kinesiology apart. We can identify whether the problem comes from a physical problem, an emotional issue, a digestive disorder or a host of other possibilities. This gives sports kinesiology a huge advantage over other therapies. 

This clients particular problem related to some emotional issues. Each muscle in the body is related to a different meridian in Chinese medicine and each meridian has a set of different emotional issues or ‘life lessons’ that relate to it. This interconnectedness shows that each little issue we have affects our whole system and can cause a number of seemingly unrelated problems. By dealing with this clients emotional issues using gentle acupressure techniques we were able to resolve the issues and eliminate all the blocks to healing. 

The next step in this clients healing was to introduce a corrective exercise program. This included stretches, mobility drills, soft tissues techniques and corrective exercises tailored exclusively to this clients needs and particular imbalances. This combination of therapy and exercise is an invaluable step in recovery from any injury. The kinesiology in effect reset the neuromuscular system and the corrective exercise basically reinforced good patterns of movement and taught the client to move correctly again. 

In the end this client did not receive surgery and both his orthopedic surgeon and osteopath he was referred to by the physician were blown away by his healing. This is something that is not a miracle but can be a very common occurrence when the whole human body is addressed and treated. DC Health bases its training and treatment philosophy around this interconnected model. This allows us to effectively address nearly any issue our clients have and help them achieve their dreams.

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Foam Roller Warm Up

Perform this before your resistance training sessions for increased mobility, tissue quality and performance!!!

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