Lower Back Pain Relief
July 26, 2010
Lower Back Pain Relief
Without a doubt one of the most common problems that can cause problems with our training and hold us back from real results is lower back pain. Most of us will look to medication for a resolution or simply ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
A smarter strategy would be for us to find the right away which will not only provide relief but will also prevent pain in the future. This is especially important for those of you who have had lower back pain at least more than once in the past.
Remember, we want to create a long term strategy which is part of our routine allowing us to get stronger and get more efficient in the way we use power so that we can train as hard as possible and see the best results when it comes to muscle tone and fat loss.
Lower Back Pain Relief: Strategy 1
The main cause of lower back pain is usually from a weak core in which your core is defined by your pelvic muscles, most notably the abs, obliques and erector spinae (muscles around your spinal cord). Secondary to the lats (side back), glutues maximus (butt) and trapezius (upper back) also come into play as supporting muscles.
To strengthen the muscles of the core, you will be using a lot of body weight exercises and your focus will be to do the contractions with a slow and controlled pace. Pressure and strain should be kept off your neck and anytime you feel uncomfortable tension in your lower back you must make certain to tighten your abs during the exercise. This one tip will help you become more aware of your core muscles especially when you exercise.
For some great workouts to strengthen your core check out these following articles:
Core Workout Made Easy
Oblique Exercises
Tone Lower Abs Workout
Lower Back Pain Relief: Strategy 2
So what about pain relief right now? This is where flexibility training becomes your most effective and powerful weapon. There is some pain medication in the market which can help alleviate the pain a little but if you can do it without drugs then wouldn’t want to try that method first?
Now I’ve already written an article on stretches for lower back pain, so if you haven’t bookmarked it yet check them out here – Lower Back Pain stretches.
Flexibility training has so many benefits including enhanced results from your training because it allows your joints to work more efficiently throughout the range of motion. Put this in place and you have a serious advantage over most people who are just training and exercising all the time. You should be dedicating at the minimum 10-15 minutes at the end of your workout for flexibility, take this time to really enjoy the feeling and think about what you enjoyed most in that days workout session and how you would improve it next time.
Tied into the flexibility training, one of the best ways of really seeing some muscle tone improvement is by incorporating yoga into your weekly routine. The smartest thing to do in this case is to place a yoga session on your rest day away from the gym. Yoga will not only make your joints stronger but it will naturally relax the muscles in almost all parts of your body. With more relaxed muscles you get better muscle recovery and the continued ability to increase your game with the fat loss war.
Lower Back Pain Relief: Strategy 3
Now another way to combat nagging lower back pain is to put two other methods together: massage therapy and icing. When it comes to any muscle pain relief I personally have found the best results with massage therapy, but this may sound easier than it sounds. Finding the right massage therapist (hopefully one that is registered and certified) can be difficult. You may need to try a handful before you find one that really matches your style and continually asks your feedback and is open to changing the pressure and method.
Following up massage therapy with icing is brilliant because the massage therapy gets proper blood flow going throughout all your muscles, and then the icing calms down any inflammation and jump starts your body’s repair functionality.
Lower Back Pain Relief: Conclusion
I know without a doubt these three strategies together: strengthening your core, increasing your flexibility, plus massage therapy and icing will be extremely powerful in helping you relieve even the most chronic back pain problems. The key is to stay consistent and patient in order for these to work and at times it may seem pretty challenging but you should always focus on the positive it is giving you.
Have any questions or feedback about lower back pain relief strategies in this article? Please leave a comment below…
Warming Up and Stretching
July 21, 2010
Warming Up and Stretching
How often do you find that you are running into the gym or rushing to do your workout at home and not giving any time to warming up. The other day I was asked if warming up and stretching were a waste of time since they don’t really help with muscle building and fat loss anyway right?
You got to admit, I think even as a trainer sometimes I just want to jump right into my workout. It’s a real challenge to force yourself to do an adequate warm up and even some stretching before getting into it.
So is there any real value to warming up and stretching before weight training?
Let’s look at it with fresh eyes…
Weight Loss Tips: Lose Weight Without Starving
July 21, 2010
Weight Loss Tips: Lose Weight Without Starving
Sometimes you just want to lose some weight and yet you know that the only way you can do it is by expending more calories than you consume consistently. The problem is that when you exercise you also notice that your appetite goes up quite a bit too.
So what do you do? Do you just give in to the whole starving issue and have your stomach grumble for a lot of the day? Or do you think smarter, and use these weight loss tips to give yourself a major advantage to win this battle?
Let’s look at 5 simple ways to lose weight without starving…
Buying Organic Food
July 20, 2010
Buying Organic Food
Ideally all our food would be organic and free of chemical pesticides as well already know there are certain biological implications of these which are quite detrimental to our health.
The first and most obvious are the scientific studies which link chemical pesticides with causing hormonal imbalances possibly leading to problems with our cardiovascular & respiratory system as well as sexual problems and possibly even cancer.
The latest studies have taken this further and shown that synthetic chemical pesticides used in farms for both livestock and fruits & vegetables can also be directly linked with weight gain and poor muscle development. Organic foods are on the whole found to be richer in vitamins, antioxidants and overall nutrients meaning that our bodies are more able to burn fat and develop more muscle. (If you want some info check out my article Benefits of Organic Foods)
Burn the Fat
July 13, 2010
Burn the Fat
When you know it’s time to Burn the Fat there are so many different angles to consider that it can be a bit overwhelming and even frustrating when things aren’t quite going your way.
In this article we look at 3 powerful techniques that are proven to help you burn the fat both efficiently and in a way that will not zap away all your energy like a lot of the latest fitness and diet fads.
All you have to do is stack these 3 techniques on top of each to really build your confidence up and turn all the negative into positive energy which is absolutely essential for a successful fat burning strategy. The question is are you up for it?
Food Myths
July 8, 2010
Food Myths
This is probably one of the most controversial topics that I will have written for this site and many of you will have some pretty strong opinions on what I’m about to discuss, but even so I hope that it will enlighten and bring to light some common food myths.
Generally when I sit down with a client who wants to shed some excess fat and put on some lean toned muscle the first thing I look at is their diet. It’s interesting, sometimes I think most of us have our brain turn off and we become unaware of all the different things we consume not in just the course of a day but through the entire week.
To really shed light on this I’ve found that keeping a food journal for at least 3 days is a great way to change your subconcious when it comes to eating. In case you missed it I wrote an article including a free printable food log just a little while ago, so give it a look.
Eliminate Junk Food Cravings
July 6, 2010
Eliminate Junk Food Cravings
Probably one of the biggest obstacles getting in our way to carving our abs and toning up our muscles is our inability to eliminate junk food cravings. But what if we took a look at it in a different angle and set ourselves up for success? Would this help us eliminate the junk food cravings?
The psychology behind it is actually pretty fascinating if we consider how we were brought up by being rewarded with ice cream and other sugary or deep fried treats when were a kid. See where I’m going here?
You see our brain has an incredible ability to make associations. With reward comes pleasure and our brain’s release of endorphins when we were given these foods and that cycle is extremely hard to break. Anytime we feel down our brain wants to react and fix it and subconsciously we may not even realize that food has become a sort of drug which helps ease the pain.
Free Printable Food Log
June 24, 2010
Free Printable Food Log
I couldn’t give you a weight training log and diet blueprint without also giving you one more golden token to help you achieve your success.
I’m with you on this one, just the idea of keeping a food log is a major turn off, but what if were to tell you that this one technique could be the thing that breaks all barriers you’ve always faced in this effort?
What if keeping a food log gets you to have not just a pretty decent body but one that you really feel proud of this beach season? Perhaps the focus could be more about removing the fear and hesitation of it because we want to get the goods, and after-all what do we really have to lose?
Weight Loss Tips: Diet Blueprint
June 23, 2010
Weight Loss Tips: Diet Blueprint
Without a doubt you’ve come to the right place if you want to find the right information about losing excess weight, toning up plus all levels of workouts that you can play around with. But the real question that I still get asked most often is: “how do I go about leaning out?”
You may have tried a number of different diets and workouts, some of you may even be exercising 6 times a week but you’re finding that it’s not making enough of a difference. Here is where it gets interesting for me as a trainer and health coach!
I could devise the most sophisticated and advanced workouts, but if you’re going to go home and eat processed and packaged unhealthy foods no exercise plan in the world could out-compete that. So where do we go from here?
Weight Loss Tips – Secrets to Greater Results
June 16, 2010
Weight Loss Tips – Secrets to Greater Results
When it comes to losing a little excess fat around the waist we all want to know the secrets to getting better and greater results from our workout and diet plans!
Well the answers may be right in front of you and if you can use this knowledge to put it all together in a manner which will work for you then success in your goals will be close to reach!
Before we get into this grab a cup of tea (preferably green) and get in the positive mood to take this in. As soon as you notice yourself cringe or have negative feelings about a certain topic you will know this is an area you will need to work on most. Think of why those negative feelings arise and always, always look for the positive in your response to it.
Ready? Here we go…
