Often it can be a case that lower back pain is compounded by certain structures getting tight which makes it difficult to allow the lower back to be in the correct anatomical position. Your Quadratus Lumborum (QL) and Latissimus Dorsi muscles are two such muscles that can be inhibiting your lower back to be neutral! You QL attachment points are the Iliac crest of your hip and the twelfth rib and the tranverse processes of your lumbar vertebrae L1-L4. This stretch is great for stretching these structures!
Body weight exercises are the best way for PTs to illustrate that you can indeed to exercise nearly ANYWHERE at ANYTIME. I say nearly because a funeral or during a fire drill are 2 such examples of times and places that they are not appropriate. Where was I? Oh yes – Bicycles. Great core exercise that really allows you get those pesky obliques!
This recipe came about because I *was* diligently organising myself to do meal prep and I then realised my diligence was rubbish as the turkey mince I had bought smelled weird and I wasn’t going going to chance it. No big deal. No meat – I figured it was a good opportunity to vegetarian it up! I had a look at what I had in the fridge and pantry and decided to combine a new flavours that I don’t instinctively think of and BAM – This meal was born. So glad as it tastes amazingly good. Ideal of vegetarians or anyone who wants to add turkey mince in there or have the protein component of the meal as an addition!
Dumbbell Press is a great exercise to progress to from doing your standard barbell bench press. It forces your muscles to work harder to stabilise the movement and means you get more engagement in your shoulder joints.
Lateral raises are easy in that you don’t need much weight but challenging because they are hard work! A lot of people go too heavy with these and sacrifice form for feeding their ego. Let’s not be one of those people eh? đŸ˜€
When starting your weight session, you will need to warm up! Part of the warm up process is ensuring your muscles are ready to engage in the task at hand. This means you need the blood pumping and the nerves innervating your muscles firing and ready to kick arse. The Warm up Calculator allows a…
This one is just for you Lilian!
Your big swinging, pronounced movements!
A simple calf stretch that can be done on any step – provided the step is deep enough to allow you to drop your heels low enough! You can do this stretch both feet at a time or you can do one foot at a time to really get that targeted stretch for each calf.
This is an easy calf stretch that can be done anywhere there is a step. This stretch helps target the Gastrocnemius part of the calves.
This variation on the leaning calf stretch targets the second muscle that makes up your calves – the Soleus muscle. It sits behind the Gastrocnemius muscle and is more of a longer sheath of muscle compared to the somewhat bulked up look of the Gastrocnemius.
An easy stretch that can be done practically anywhere there is something you can lean into. By straightening out the back leg and keeping that heel on the ground, we can get a great stretch through the calf muscles of that leg. In particular the Gastrocnemius muscle which is that mango shaped muscle we generally see as the calf muscle.
In this progression, we throw in some extra challenge by having the swiss ball under us. By holding the body in correct alignment, you will also want to squeeze your glutes to help you stay on the ball.
If you are unable to get your head against the wall, try propping a towel that is rolled up enough to enable you have your head against it.
In this progression, the wall angel is done without any support under the hips. By holding the body in correct alignment, you will want to try and get your elbows against the wall and if possible your wrists too.
If you are unable to get your head against the wall, try propping a towel that is rolled up enough to enable you have your head against it.
This exercise isolates your quadriceps. This is also an exercise where you need to keep your ego in check as you don’t need to kick out a lot of reps with ALL THE WEIGHTS. A lighter weight with controlled movements should do the trick nicely.
This meal was created one night when there was a mexican stand off in the kitchen. Actually not really. Neither Al or I wanted to cook – and clearly I was more hungry so I caved. Am ever so glad I did because this took next to no time to make and it was so fresh and delicious!
Dead Lifts are often considered to be the biggest and most beneficial lift in the gym. It makes sense as to why too. The number of muscles recruited and the amount of weight the body can lift are both impressive and very effective in changing your body.
The Dead Lift is also one of the more technical lifts in the gym but if you learn correctly first time around, they can be seen as a simple lift! Afterall – it is simply lifting a dead weight from the floor đŸ™‚
This is a great exercise to get some control and activation happening in your glute and hamstrings. The aim of this exercise is control your descent down to the floor. If you kinda free fall and then “plonk” to hit the floor it means you didn’t control the movement with your glutes. Old ladies with lots of cats plonk – we don’t đŸ™‚
The key to get the most out of this exercise is to ensure that the working legs knee never goes in front of the ankle. Directly above or slightly behind is the way to go. Also make sure when you get to the top of the movement you are leaning back and that there is tension in your arms at all times!
This exercise is an evolution of your standard Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls. It’s a great exercise to really get a serious contraction happening in the hamstrings as well as engaging your glutes as well.
To make this exercise more challenging, you can have only your elbows pressed into the ground which reduces your stability. To make it more difficult again, have your arms straight up in the air.