So Your Lower Back Hurts???Written by Jesse Cannone
Low back pain is one of most common ailments people suffer from and approximately 8 out of 10 people will deal with back pain at some point in their life. That’s a lot of people… are you one of them? Out of all of various forms of back pain, lower back pain is by far most common and there’s a good explanation for this. Any idea why? It’s not car accidents, it’s not work-related injuries, and it’s not a lack of prescription medications either. Lack of movement and use is number one cause of back pain! I bet your orthopedic specialist or chiropractor didn’t tell you that, did they? It’s lack of movement in various muscles over years that leads to muscle imbalances and uneven wear and tear on your body, especially spine. For example, how many times a day are you bending, leaning, or twisting. Here’s what typical person’s day is like: - Wake up - Eat breakfast (hopefully) - Drive or ride to work - Sit at desk - Eat lunch - Sit at desk some more - Drive or ride home - Eat dinner - Sit on couch and watch tv - Go to bed Notice trend here? That’s an awful lot of sitting and not moving. Well, this is what leads to serious muscle imbalances and so what do we do, we go to gym and perform exercises that only make imbalances worse! The key to eliminating back pain (nearly any ache, pain, or injury for that matter) is to identify muscle imbalances that are pulling spine, bones, and joints out of place and then stretch tight muscles while strengthening weak muscles. How do I know this? Well, as certified personal fitness trainer and post-rehabilitation specialist, I have worked with hundreds of individuals with back pain and conditions that ranged from sciatic pain, to bulging discs, to spinal fusion, and others. In working with these individuals I discovered some startling facts. 1. Many people who seek professional help are often mis-diagnosed and end up following a treatment plan that fails to eliminate cause of their back pain. 2. Nearly all of individuals I worked with were able to eliminate their back pain, or significantly improve their condition even though all of traditional treatments failed them (physically therapy, chiropractic care, cortisone injections, anti-inflammatory medications, surgery, etc). Even more amazing is fact that most of these individuals were able to eliminate their back pain in a matter or days or weeks simply by performing a handful of exercises and stretches! These weren’t your basic exercises or standard back stretches and stomach exercises most “experts” recommend – these were specific exercises and stretches prescribed based on individual.
| | Walking for Fat Loss???Written by Jesse Cannone
With obesity and disease increasing dramatically, many fitness experts are recommending walking for weight loss and fitness. Some are even going so far as saying that walking is best way to burn fat and lose weight. I strongly disagree with this and am going to show you why walking is NOT effective at burning off body fat. Yes, you read that correctly... Walking is NOT effective at burning body fat and if your goal is fat loss you might be wasting your time. I am not saying that walking is not beneficial, I am saying that if fat loss is primary goal, there are far better choices that will deliver far better results. The primary benefits of walking are increased blood flow and circulation, improved recovery, and a strengthened immune system. There are several reasons why walking in not best choice when it comes to fat loss. Here are just a few: 1. Walking does NOT burn a lot of calories The lower intensity of activity or exercise smaller number of calories burned per unit of time. For example, you can burn more calories in 15 minutes of bicycling at a high intensity level than you can in 45 minutes of easy walking. 2. Walking does NOT result in a large increase in metabolism Another downside to walking is that because it’s generally low intensity it results in only a small increase in metabolism that will only last approximately 1-2 hours after walk. On other hand, metabolism increases are larger and last longer (4-24 hrs or more) when you perform high intensity cardio workouts. 3. Walking does NOT deplete muscle glycogen Low intensity exercise like walking does not deplete muscle glycogen levels and therefore, later that day if you have excess calories they will likely be stored as body fat whereas if you deplete glycogen excess calories will primarily be stored in muscles. So why then do so many fitness and health experts recommend walking for weight loss? One reason is that people don’t want to hear that they have to work hard so they figure some activity is better than none. Another reason is that body burns more fat for fuel when exercising at an easy pace, however, total amount of energy used is so small that you end up burning off little body fat. That’s also why when you choose “fat burning” program on your treadmill or bike it has you exercise at any easy level. Yes, you’re burning fat, but so little that you’d have to exercise at that easy pace for hours and hours each day. High intensity cardiovascular/aerobic exercise is much more effective in burning off excess body fat. In fact, several studies have been done to prove this. In one study they compared one group who did moderate level aerobics for 45 minutes with another group who performed high intensity workouts for 15 minutes. They did before and after fitness testing including body fat analysis and found that group who performed high intensity aerobics lost nine times as much body fat!
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