“Bodybuilding Sins” That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts: Part 3Written by Jesse Cannone CFT, CPRS, CSPN and Steve Hefferon, CMT, CPRS
“Bodybuilding Sins” That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts: Part 3 by Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS and Steve Hefferon, CMT Welcome to article number 2 in our series “Bodybuilding Sins That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts”. In this article we are going to talk about how bodybuilders tend to create massive muscle imbalances and what you can do to not be one of them. If you missed first article, you can read it by clicking on link below. Here’s a breakdown of articles to look for: 1. Article #1 - Choosing The WRONG Exercises 2. Article #2 - Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results 3. Article #3 - Targeted Stretching 4. Article #4 - Targeted Exercises 5. Article #5 - Rest, Recovery, and Injury Prevention Article #3 - Targeted Stretching Stretching can be great, but it can also make existing injuries worse or even bring about new ones! The key to making stretching work for you is knowing which stretches you need to be working on… and just because a muscle feels tight, that doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to be stretched. For example, many people stretch hamstrings because they feel tight and they think hamstrings are limiting their flexibility… fact is, most of time hamstrings are “tight” because they are constantly being pulled / lengthened due to muscle imbalances that tip pelvis forward. As you can, when pelvis tips forward hamstrings get pulled upward and are constantly held in a stretched position… And this is why millions of people can stretch their hamstrings every freakin day and never make any improvement in their flexibility…. Are you one of those people? If you are, you need to stop stretching your hamstrings and find out exactly which muscles you need to be targeting by reading rest of this article… Not only does this forward tipping of pelvis (which is caused by muscle imbalances) keep hamstrings tight and make it very difficult to make improvements in muscles flexibility, but it also leads to following: • increased stress / wear and tear from ankles all way up spine For example, forward tipping of pelvis places uneven pressure on ankle, knee and hip joints and also many of vertebrae in spine. • weakens hamstrings, inhibits normal functioning and increases likelihood of hamstring pulls When hamstrings are constantly being strained because of muscle imbalances, muscle is weak, not able to function as it normally would, prone to injury and without correcting muscle imbalance recover can take up to 9 months to a year, or longer! • creates excess curvature in lower and middle spine This tipping of pelvis places excessive amounts of abnormal stress on muscles, vertebrae and discs in lower and mid spine and this sets you up for potential injuries to muscles of lower and middle back… Plus, it also causes discs between your vertebrae to wear down and deteriorate much faster than they normally would and this sets you up for degenerative, bulging, protruding and herniated discs along with numerous other spinal conditions like arthritis, spinal stenosis, and oh so popular sciatica!
| | “Bodybuilding Sins” That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts: Part 4Written by Jesse Cannone CFT, CPRS, CSPN and Steve Hefferon, CMT, CPRS
“Bodybuilding Sins” That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts: Part 4 by Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS and Steve Hefferon, CMT Welcome to article number 4 in our series “Bodybuilding Sins That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts”. In this article we are going to talk about how bodybuilders tend to create massive muscle imbalances and what you can do to not be one of them. If you missed first article, you can read it by clicking on link below. Here’s a breakdown of articles to look for: 1. Article #1 - Choosing The WRONG Exercises 2. Article #2 - Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results 3. Article #3 - Targeted Stretching 4. Article #4 - Targeted Exercises 5. Article #5 - Rest, Recovery, and Injury Prevention Article #4 - Targeted Exercises What is a Targeted Exercise and Why You Need To Be Doing Them? While performing three different exercises for each area of chest may sound “targeted” and it may work great for targeting chest itself… this is NOT what we mean by targeted… What we are talking about is choosing exercises with more than just size increases in mind… remember, there is far more to muscle than just how it looks… You can be really big, but also weak, slow and inflexible. To drive this point home some more, remember “Turtle Back Syndrome” we covered in article #1? So many body builders are plagued with this gruesome condition and they don’t even know it! Are you? The Turtle Back condition is a direct result of too much focus on building up pecs and lats and not enough focus on upper back. Also, lack of focus on flexibility in chest and shoulders makes it even worse… Not only does this look stupid, but it sets you up for back, neck and shoulder problems like rotator cuff tears and like… and I know you don’t want any of those!
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