Posts Tagged "core strength"

Why Does My Neck Hurt When I Do Sit-Ups?

Posted by mark in Neck Pain Essentials |

In the clinic yesterday I was asked this question “why does my neck hurt when I do sit-ups?” My answer to my client astounded him.

I didn’t want to take the wind out of his sails, I felt it necessary to let him down gently, you know, to put him on the right track without disillusioning him so I said to him as delicately as I possibly could “you are screwing up your back, your neck and you haven’t got a hope in hell of getting a six pack eating the crap that you eat”.

In hindsight I may have been able to sugar coat my words a little more.

Before I could continue however, he told me that he ‘didn’t keep his hands behind his head because he knew that when his stomach muscles get tired he will then start using his hands on his head to pull rather than using his stomach muscles to initiate the movement which could hurt his neck,  so that’s not it’.

He then told me before I could get a breath in that he ‘doesn’t push his head forward when doing the sit-ups thus keeping good alignment between his shoulders and neck,  so that can’t be it’.

He then went on to tell me that he keeps his legs bent to protect his spine and lower back (which is absolutely false by the way) and that he was doing sit-ups to get a ‘ripped stomach’  and ‘six pack’ he said.( which also won’t work unless..)

Firstly, I said, the studies show that it doesn’t matter whether your legs are straight, bent or tucked neatly behind your ears you are doing damage to your back with each and every sit-up that you do.  Also, there is an old saying that says that ‘a six pack is made in the kitchen not in the gym’. What this means is that you could do 300 sit-ups(but of course you  are not going to because you now know that it damages your back and there are much better ways to strengthen your stomach and core) but unless you have a good diet to keep your fat to a minimum, you will perhaps have the best hidden six pack.

Now, whilst you got me talking about doing sit-ups and fat loss lets remove another myth when it comes to these. I see people doing sit-ups or crunches to get fat off their stomachs. This is a myth! You know all of those infomercials where you see those super fit models using ‘ab crunchers’ and other stomach fat removing exercise machines? Well, let me tell you, they aren’t getting those super fit, super cut bodies doing ‘just 5 minutes a day on their wonder machines’ and spending the other 23 hours 55 minutes tucking into the fridge watching cable TV all day and night. The commercials will want you to believe that of course.

Doing sit-ups does not take fat off your stomach! Just like doing bicep curls does not take fat off your biceps. Exercising like this builds muscle AND takes fat off your whole body-it is not area specific. In other words, doing a heap of sit-ups will remove fat off your waist, butt, legs arms ears and stomach. It is the burning of calories that removes the fat. The good news is that the more you increase your muscle, the higher your resting metabolic rate is and that means that faster you will burn fat just resting. Now that’s good news indeed.

So, those of you who want to strengthen your stomachs and get a six pack or would just like to have a stronger core-do crunches and things like the plank exercise but not sit-ups.

Keep a check on your diet, in other words don’t eat highly processed highly refined foods, cut out (or if you absolutely can’t help yourself – cut down) on junk foods, sodas and alcohol consumption. If you eat white rice-change to brown, cut out potatoes and pasta and stop drinking beer, do some regular cardio and just you watch the weight fall off.

For those die hards who still feel that they must do some sit-ups against all of the documented research against doing them and have neck pain when they do them, here is what you need to do.

Put your hand on your forehead and press your head against your hand without letting any movement take place. Hold for a few seconds and do 5 reps of these. The place your hand on the back of your head and do the same. Then put your hand on the sides of your head doing the same exercise. This isometric exercise will strengthen your intrinsic neck muscles and help strengthen your neck.

Another thing to do whether you are doing crunches (recommended) or sit-ups (not recommended for all of the above reasons) place your tongue to the roof of your mouth when you do them which also engage your intrinsic neck muscles.

If sit-ups damage my back, what should i do instead?

The 4 best exercises for your lower back

Why is it harder to put your shoes on in the morning than at night?

How to test your core strength-do you have any?

HOW TO TEST YOUR CORE STRENGTH

Posted by mark in Lower Back pain and your core | 0 comments

Core strength-do you have it?

Here is a test for you to see

There is a lot of talk these days about core strength and for very good reasons. You need core strength to help your body in everything you do. If not, you are in a lot higher risk bracket of injury. But how do you know if you have good core strength or not? I will show you a test so that you can evaluate your own core strength.

But why should we even bother about having a strong core? Firstly, it is not just your abdominals as many people believe. Your back, stomach, hips are all a part of what is known as your core muscle groups. The reason that these muscles need to be strong is that they support you when you do your daily activities. If they are not strong enough, when you have to do a certain activity your other muscles are then recruited to become stabilisers and you have just set up imbalances leading to injuries.

A classic example of this is the painful lower back when standing. Many people can not stand for very long because their back starts to ache. This is because they do not use their abdominals when standing and allow their lower backs to overarch. This creates a forward tilt in the pelvis. Two perfect examples of this are men with large stomachs (the classic beer belly) and pregnant women. Both suffer from lower back pain due to not using their abdominals to tilt their pelvis which will decrease their arch in their lower backs and remove the back pain. When there is an arch in the lower back that is bigger than it should be it then aggravates the facet joints which causes pain. It is a situation that is totally avoidable! Have you ever wondered why they have that rail in bars for you to put a foot on? It’s because by putting one foot up on the rail takes away some of the arch (from the forward tilted pelvis) and helps the lower back. A man with less lower back pain whilst standing will happily drink more beer! Very clever indeed.

Once you start using your core muscles for things as simple as standing correctly you will have less back pain. An easy way to check this is to look at a person’s belt from side on. The belt should be horizontal not tipped down at the front. So often you will see the person’s belt higher at the back and lower at the front. This is because they are not using their abdominals.

I will be doing a workshop soon on the facts and fallacies of lower back pain and teaching why your back ‘goes out’, how to fix your own back pain, the safest back strengthening exercises, best core exercise combinations and much more.

But for the moment

Rest assured I will be watching your back…

Oh yes, here’s the test for your core

The core strength test

• Lay down in a plank position on your forearms. (This is the position as if you were doing a push-up but instead of your hands touching the ground you are resting on your forearms.) Do not arch your back! Your back should be straight which works your abdominals. Hold for one minute.if you can do this for one minute you have good core strength. if you can do it for 30-60 seconds you average core strength and if you can do it for less than 30 seconds you dont have core strength!

if you could do it for 60 seconds you may like to try the advanced core test below

• Now in the same position lift the right arm of the ground and hold for 15 seconds
• Return the right arm and now do the same with the left arm. Hold for 15 seconds.
• Return the left arm and now lift the left leg out straight behind you. Do not arch your lower back. The torso should remain perfectly still, this means that your core is stabilising you. Hold for 15 seconds.
• Return the left leg and do the same with the right leg for 15 seconds. Don’t arch your back.
• Now return the right leg and lift both your left leg and right arm at the same time. Don’t arch your back and try to remain steady at all times. Hold for 15 seconds
• Finally, return the arm and leg and do the opposite arm and leg for 15 seconds.

If you can do this you have good core strength.

If you could not complete this you do not have sufficient core strength and you should do this test as an exercise 3-4 times per week to build up your stamina. You will soon be stronger and have better core strength stamina which means you will have fewer problems with your lower back, your neck and your shoulders.

no more back pain and beer bellies

Posted by mark in Lower Back pain and your core | 0 comments

No more Back pain and beer bellies

I was unsure exactly what I should use as the title for this. I could have easily called it ‘lose pounds and your back pain whilst doing the shopping’ or ‘get a free workout and be pain free whilst waiting in line at the bank’ or even, ‘no more lower back pain, a six pack stomach and bulging biceps whilst carrying your box of beer!’ but I thought that may have been overdoing it a touch.

I am used to carrying my baby around a lot these days, he is not quite walking properly and quite frankly, when you are in a busy supermarket with lots of people around and you want to get in and out as soon as possible its much easier to carry him. However, if not done correctly this will very quickly lead to back pain just like pregnant women can suffer from for the same reasons and it’s completely avoidable!

Many women suffer from back pain when they are pregnant, so do men with large beer guts and so do I when I carry my baby or other things in front of me if I am not careful. This type of lower back pain is very easy to fix once we remove the causes. I am sure many of you reading this do exactly the same because it requires less muscular effort, in short-it’s easier! Just like slouching in a chair may be easier for some but both will result in back pain. Slouching as you know is from putting the spine in an overly flexed (or rounded) position which takes your muscles completely out of the picture and leaves you resting on your ligaments and straining the discs. If you have read my other articles about lower back pain and sciatica you will also know that this as well as picking up things and bending forwards with a rounded lower back instead of bending at the hips (retaining your lower back inward curve at all times) will put you right on track to herniating your lower back disc or discs. However, if you retain your inward arch on forward bending when you have to pick something up( using the lunge, squat or golfers pick-up technique) and a certain amount of abdominal bracing to secure your spine(more of this in a later article) it is virtually impossible to hurt your discs or ligaments!

But, when you carry something in front of you like a baby you do the opposite-you lean backwards to take the strain off your arm muscles. This then puts strain on your lower back by compressing the facet joints and soft tissues. So you there are two very easy ways to remedy this. Firstly, stand up straight which will immediately take the strain off your lower back. In doing this, you will then have to use your abdominal muscles to keep you upright and standing tall which is exactly what you should be doing. Now you are finally using those core muscles for what they are intended to do functionally. And herein lies one of the big secrets to why people go to Pilates, yoga and do abdominal strengthening exercises but still have lower back pain. It’s no good to spend an hour each day strengthening your core muscles if you don’t then use them functionally during your day to day activities. When you carry things in front of you, use your stomach muscles instead of leaning back and resting on your joints to keep you from falling forward. Likewise, if you carry something on your side like a baby on your hip for example, don’t tilt your body to the opposite side to counteract the weight-use your core muscles to keep you upright. For all of those mothers(and fathers) out there who are carrying babies around and want to go to the gym but can’t, just remember that every time you use your core muscles like this you are burning extra calories and getting a free workout! And men, the next time you carry that box of beer, or tools, or groceries remember to stand upright, engage your abdominals and you will not only be saving your back but you will also be working on that six pack and toning those biceps!

Ah yes, I can hear the excuses now …

‘Honey, I am going down to the liquor store to buy a case of beer because I need to burn off some calories and work on my abs and my biceps’.

…no need to thank me guys, happy to help.

If sit ups damage my back, what should I do instead?

Posted by mark in Lower Back pain and your core | 0 comments

If sit ups damage my back, what should I do instead?

I have written in previous articles why you should not do sit-ups and how damaging it is for your back. So what should you do to get those abs strong?

If you are still doing sit-ups-stop! You are hurting your back. Firstly, sit-ups are pretty ineffective because they use a lot more of your hip flexors to bring you off the floor rather than your stomach muscles. Secondly, and more importantly if you do enough of them you will damage your lower back. The posterior loads that you put on your back and discs are enormous when doing these crunches. How much force? You actually exceed the compressive loads that are recommended as safe by the national institute for occupational safety and health. You know not to be bent over with a rounded back or slouched at the computer because it hurts your back. Sit-ups encourage that rounded posture that we know is so damaging in daily activities. The last thing you need to have is more forward rounded posture. So how do you strengthen your abs without wrecking your back?

Before we start you should know that in order to protect your lower back from injury doing abdominal strengthening exercises are only one part of the program. If you think of a tent pole as your spine and tie three ropes from the tent pole to the ground in each direction, those three ropes represent your stabilising muscles for your spine. If you strengthen one muscle group too much the other will get pulled and lengthened too far thus causing instability once again. It’s just like if you were to pull one of your guy-ropes on your tent pole too tight, the pole would lean to one side. The abdominals represent only one rope. The other two ropes or muscle group need to be strengthened as well. I will write more on this in a later post.

Here’s one way to strengthen your abs safely:

Lay on your back with the hands under your lower back palms facing down. This is essential to protect your back. You do not want to flatten your back to the ground. Have one le straight and the other leg bent with the knee flexed at 90 degrees. By having the leg bent helps prevent the spine flattening to the floor as well. You then lift your upper back and neck off the ground as one unit. It is imperative that you do this correctly. Make sure that you are not curling your neck or pushing your chin forwards. Imagine that you have a steel rod through your neck and upper spine. Also, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth. This will engage your neck stabilisers.

The beginning stage of these curls is to do them without lifting your elbows off the ground. The next level is to do them in the same way but lift your elbows off the ground an inch or so.

If your neck hurts doing these you may need to do some isometric neck stabilisers. These are very easy to do.

If you would like more information please feel free to email me at

http://boquetespa.com

Mark Perren-Jones