laurensfitness.com

Away

Lauren — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:41:04 +0000

I am struggling for time at the moment and will be away from the blog longer than I thought. We are in pre season now and it’s tough. When things settle I’ll get a post or two up for you. In the meantime I will answer emails and comments when I can. Sorry for the break but I just need all my energy and brainpower for my training right now! See you all soon.

ShareThis

Best Warm Up Ever

Lauren — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:38:07 +0000

Warmups are so important for your session, and this one is a beauty. It gets you going, gets you mobile, explosive and feeling ready for anything. As I mentioned the whole thing is great, there are lots of things you can add and take away to suit you best, however this kind of warm up is good for keeping you mobile. It can even work as a seperate session. remember to do everything twice, and to jog back in between.

Best Warmup Ever from Lauren B on Vimeo.

Here are the components of the warm up in order and some teaching points. Mum was calling out each component and can’t read my writing!

Jog- Simple, jog up and down twice.

Knee to Chest- Walk, pull your knee to your chest and come up on your toes

Butt Sits- Ankle to knee, and sit down, hold it for one second. Concentrate on actually sitting.

Hamstring Walk- Simple dynamic stretch for your hamstring

Quad Walk- Simple dynamic stretch for your quads, try and jerk slightly at the end like I do to get that stretch

Side Step- Just to keep things moving, although the jog back should do that just fine.

Lunge to instep- Take your elbow to your instep, great stretch for almost everything

ITB Walk- Dynamic stretch that targets your ITB and the side of your butt, the foot that is in front is the side that you go. I did one the wrong way!

High kicks- Simple high kicks for your hammies.

Skip with Arm Swings- Just something for your arms.

Hip Overs- Taking your foot over something imaginary, skip in between.

Skips- Pretend there is a bar coming out of your ankle and skip over it, fast.

Lunges- Put your arms in the air to get that fascia stretch.

High Skips- Same as skips but very high, use more power, you’ll be warm by now.

REMEMBER

Do everything twice, even though I did it once. Jog back every time, you have to keep moving.

Would love to hear some feedback after everyone has had a go, it’s my favourite and I use it a lot.

As I mentioned in the video I will be away from the blog for a bit, I wanted to leave you with something you could use. I will try to answer comments but I am not sure if I can get on the internet for the next week. Enjoy the warmup, and I will speak to you soon.

ShareThis

Mobility Vs Flexibility: Do You Understand Them?

Hamstring Rehabilitation Manual: MORE

Lauren — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:25:24 +0000

I forgot to post a few more things bout the Rehab manual. You can also check out a bit more about the manual here at the Bertolacci site. Head to the Products page for more info about the Hamstring Rehabilitation manual, or check out the resources page for more Hamstring Injury Information. You can also check out Dads blog and find a lot of strength and conditioning information and thoughts. He knows his stuff and if you are interested in athletics and strength and conditioning then you should check it out.

ShareThis

Hamstring Rehabilitation Manual

Lauren — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:32:20 +0000

My father has recently written an e-book on hamstring rehabilitation. Although this won’t interest a lot of my readers I wanted to get it out there, both for you and for him. There isn’t really a better place to launch it, and if there are some athletes or sports coaches out there, or people with recurring hamstring injuries, then this should be of interest for you.

He (Loris) is a an extremely experienced fitness and conditioning coach, and has worked in AFL (Australian Football League) and with many sports and athletes at the highest level for over 20 years. He really knows his stuff, especially in regard to athletes, and this manual takes you step by step through rehabilitating a hamstring with a very low risk of recurrence. Hamstrings are pretty tricky to rehab, and people often get it wrong, this provides pics, programs, and step by step instructions the whole way through. Check out more about the Hamstring Rehabilitation Manual here, for a 120 page extensive manual it is very cheap at $29.99.

ShareThis

Pelvic Tilts: Part 2

Lauren — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:44:00 +0000

Pic by escape helicopter

We talked about pelvic tilts and the different ways your hip can sit in part 1. It has been a very long time coming but here is Part 2 and it is going to show you how you can go about fixing those tilts and get back into realignment. However, keep in mind that just because generally when your hamstrings are loose and your hip flexors tight, you will have an anterior tilt, each person is different. The primary reason for the tilt may be coming from the hip flexors. I will tell you what to remedy for each condition, but just keep in mind everyone is an individual. In saying that, if you do have a severe tilt either way, then it is likely all the exercises will help get rid of it. Most people stand in an anterior tilt, but sit in a posterior tilt. More about that later too!

Anterior Tilt

We know that in an anterior tilt

Rectus Abdominus
External Obliques
Glutes
Hamstrings

are in a lengthened position, which more than likely indicates they are loose and/or weak and need to be strengthened. The ab side of it can be done with these exercises

Crunches/ Sit-up variations
Dead Bugs
Prone Holds

Do the dead bug variations until you get good at them. Check out this article on Posterior Chain strengthening to get those buns strong. This is often a big problem mainly because your hip flexors are tight in an anterior tilt, and as we well know, due to reciprocol inhibition, when your hip flexors are tight, your glutes tend to switch off.

We also know that in an anterior tilt

Psoas
Iliacus
Rec Fem
TFL

are generally in a shortened position which indicates they are tight. They may or may not be weak. We need to do some stretching and mobility work around here.

Hip flexor stretch
Hip flexor/ Rec Fem stretch
Foam roll and do tennis ball work through your ITBs
Foam Roll your quads
Tennis ball work through your TFL
Tennis ball work on Psoas (the end of this video shows the psoas release)

Dynamically overhead lunges are great for loosening the hip flexors, hold a plate overhead and perform lunges. Check out this post on the Psoas to understand it a lot better and how to release it, and this post on tight hips to get an indication on how to get rid of them. You will find all the pics and explanations for these exercises in these two articles. Check out my lower body tennis ball series for the tennis ball examples. Tight hip flexors will account for majority of anterior pelvic tilts, so get them loose, switch on your bum and you are laughing.

Another thing to remember regarding an anterior tilt is that the hamstrings are constantly on stretch, and in a lengthened position. This puts a fair amount of strain on them and considering they have to try to pick up the slack of the weak glutes they are generally much more injury prone.

Posterior Tilt

This is a little less common but we will run through it anyway.Posterior tilts still cause their fair share of problems. Lifting in a posterior tilt makes you way more likely to cause a disc herniation, you are simply forcing the discs backwards. It also tends to promote kyphosis, which is rounding of the shoulders, which just looks bad and causes a lot of shoulder problems.

We know that in a posterior tilt the

Psoas
Iliacus
Rectus Femoris
TFL
Spinal Erectors

Are in a lengthened position and therefore indicates they are loose and possibly weak.

You need to do work through the front of your body, strengthening work such as squats, lunges and deadlifts are perfect for this. This is slightly trickier to isolate, so generally you should just try to shift your training to include more quad work until the tilt is fixed. It is most likely that your Psoas is weak, however it is a good idea to test that out before hand. Stand with you back against a wall, bring you knee up as high as you can and hold it there, if it drops below 90 degrees before 20 seconds then your psoas is probably weak (test from t-nation.com). Remember it can be weak and tight. The Psoas test also acts as a good starting point to strengthen it. Add some back extensions in as your lower back may be weak and you want to make sure it is stable.

We also know that the

Rectus Abdominus
External Obliques
Gluteals
Hamstrings

are often in a shortened position therefore indicating they are tight.

Foam roll and tennis ball the glutes
Foam roll and tennis ball the hamstrings
Stretch glutes and hamstrings
Perform a back extension from the floor, push up fom your arms to strech your abs, but be careful that this does not aggravate your back. Generally it will be fine.

The thing is, if you have a balanced program, don’t sit down all down and stretch and do your mobility work, you are going a very long way to preventing tilts ever happening. Remember most people tend to be in an anterior tilt, and most of the time it actually isn’t that disastrous, but it often tends to come from tight hip flexors, from sitting down all day n a posterior tilt position! Stand up, walk around and stretch occasionally and avoid any problems all together.

ShareThis

Who Is Jamie Atlas?

Lauren — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:48:45 +0000

One of the things you guys answered when I asked what you wanted more on this blog, was for me to alert you to other good fitness blogs. Well, funnily enough one popped up that I like. I’ve exchanged a few emails with Jamie and I like his style, he gives great information, has a gret writing style, and gives you an interesting read. He also seems to update his blog a lot more than mine…so combine us both and you are going to get a lot of good info coming your way! Check him out at Fitness Insights by Jamie Atlas. He covers most areas of fitness, knows his stuff, and is a fellow Aussie! Check him out, I am sure you will become a regular reader.
Here is a snippet from his page, who is jamie atlas?

I’m a Personal Trainer with 15 years of experience. In that time I have learned many different approaches to achieving total fitness in people of all levels of fitness. I believe that as a fitness professional it is my duty to be constantly adding quality tools to my ‘health and wellness’ toolbox.

I also like to use all the tools in my toolbox any chance I get.

Thankfully I have had the opportunity to stand close to a number of brilliant people that are willing to share their thoughts and philosophies, which has led me to one conclusion.

None of us have all the answers

It is when we fail to ask the questions that we hold ourselves back from truly learning - regardless of whether an answer follows or not.

ShareThis

How to Workout at your local park

Lauren — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:03:19 +0000

This is a guest post by Christian (yes the first guest post on LaurensFitness), aka Young Athlete, you’ll see him often commenting around LaurensFitness and Stronglifts. Christian competes in hockey, football and track. He trains three times per week for strength, and twice a week for speed and conditioning. He asked to write this guest post to share his experiences and give you guys a simple workout you can do at your local park, and follow on from my last article, on how to workout without a gym. I like it and I am sure you will love it. Enjoy!

Strength, endurance, and flexibility are things a majority of us are after. There are complex and simple ways to build up all three. Personally I prefer the simple ways to build up my strength, endurance, and flexibility. I also, prefer to enjoy my time doing it. My favorite work out is running up to the local park I do it as described below.

The warm up

Lower body warm up: Quick Feet, High Knees, Butt Kickers, Leg Swings, Side Leg Swings, Lunges, and 10 Jump Squats to finish it. This is to ready your lower body for the run, change it to your needs don’t wear yourself out on the warm up though.

Upper body warm up: 10 push ups, 10 shoulder dislocations, and 5 pull ups, 10 Arm circles forward and backwards

The run

The run should be hard (but not so long) and by the end your breath should be heavy no matter what distance. Take about 5 minutes to catch your breath. If the distance is over a mile I would recommend riding your bike hard. (Depending on your goals, strength or stamina a bike may be your better choice, if you aren’t looking for any aerobic, skip this all together).

The work out

Pull ups/chin ups 3X(times) (1-2 below your max reps) Super set them and do 2-3 minutes between sets
Dips 3X MAX 3-4 minutes between sets
Farmers walk (Find something heavy I prefer a big rock) go as far as possible then flip the rock over and over until you are where you started. Do 3X over 1 minutes between each set
Military press 5X5 ( a rock, a picnic table, or anything you can do it with)
Front squat 5X5 heavy object

After your done and have finished your workout run home hard! Act as if a bulldog is chasing you and run.

The Cool Down

Static stretches, then a quick cold shower.

Bring some water, customize your workout to your enjoyment, this is not the average workout but you will see great results with it. Most of all have some fun while you do it!

More outdoors ideas to add (if you are game!)

Find a tree to climb and climb it, be careful though. I once heard from a Croatian man “You go home and you swing like monkey from trees”. All the kids who did got stronger very quickly and we had a good time doing it.
If the park has a place to do muscle ups then feel free to replace the pull ups with them.
Find something high up and jump onto it, just make sure not to land on your shins and if you don’t make it fall backwards on to your butt. I have fallen onto my shins if you do it will be painful walk around splash some water on your face and put some neospornin on it when you get home. (I iced them I messed up pretty bad on a high jump and received large bruises on my legs…know your limits!!).
Bring your kids let them play, remember how awesome the play ground used to be back in 3rd grade.

Thanks for reading my article

Laurens Comment: This is a great all round workout that basically gets a bit of everything. This is the perfect kind of workout to do when you feel like a bit of fresh air. It gets you moving, gets you fit, gets you some fresh air, and covers all bases. Just make sure you go to a park with some large rocks! It isn’t going to target anything specifically, but for an all round workout, it will more than do the job. Feel free to comment and give Christian some feedback, I’m sure he’ll be around to answer comments for you all!

ShareThis

No Equipment? No Excuses: 20 Exercises You Can Do At Home

Lauren — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:43:39 +0000

No gym,
No weights,
No equipment.

Can a decent workout be done? Yes

Is it ideal? No

There is always a time when you can’t get to the gym, or don’t have the hour or two to get there do the workout and get home. If you haven’t set your own home gym up, there is still a lot you can do. You won’t get you the gains that you will get from going to the gym, lifting weights and completing your full program, but they certainly aren’t easy, and will at least help you maintain your work, and take no time at all…which means no excuses.

Lower Body

BW Squats

Do them with or without the box. The box just makes it a bit easier to get your glutes involved. This is a great warmup exercise.

OH Squats

I don’t need to speak more about the benefits of this exercise. Use a broom stick at home. Read more about Overhead Squats here.

SL Squats

These are tough. You can have your foot supported or not. Supported you can probably get mroe out, unsupported is a great balance exercise. To support your leg put it behind you on a chair.

SL Stiff Leg Deadlifts

These will really get your hamstrings going, you don’t even need to hold anything as it is tough eccentric work and you will feel it anyway, but a ball or something that size is fine.

OH Lunges

Holding something overhead really stretched out your fascia and gives you an extra hip flexor stretch. Doesn’t matter what it is. Sorry about the lighting on this one.

Side Lunges

These are pretty tough, a great alternative to lunges.

Calf Raises

If you have a step to do this on it is better. Try using one leg.

Step Ups

Any chair will do. If it is too easy find something heavy to hold to your chest or overhead.

Bridges

These are hard, and will really get stuck into your butt.

Reverse Hypers

Bit of a different one thrown in here, this is great for your butt. Might be harder for people to find an appropriate surface.

I haven’t included any explosive/ jumping movements in this list, there are too many and that can be for another post. This is just purely strength work. Upper Body

Pushups and Alternatives

There are so many alternatives to pushups that you can do at home. Check out this post on Pushups.

Normal Pushups
Pushups with weight/ backpack on
Single arm Pushups
Single arm wall pushups
Clap Pushups (explosive)
Incline Pushups (easier)
Decline Pushups (Harder, with feet up on something)

Lying Pullups

Admittedly these look a little strange, but they work, and if you are going to do pushups, you should do a set of these. If you have something you can lie under, like a fence and pull up, it is easier than using someone else.

Dips

The old classic.

Needless to say if you are imaginative, you can get heavy things and do shoulder press and pull exercises. I haven’t included them because I don’t know what everyone has in their house.

Abdominals, Activation, Core and Random Exercises

There is a massive amount of different ab exercises out there, all of which pretty much do the same thing. So I haven’t put many in, you all know what a sit up is, just some different ones you might like, I tend to stick with prone holds, they don’t aggravate my back at all.

Prone Hold and Variations

I have talked about these before, check out this post on Prone Holds.

Supermans

These are great for stability.

Glute Lifts

Great for activating and strengthening your bum.

Arabesque

This one is great for activating your bum and is a really good balance exercise. Try to hold for 30 seconds. You’ll feel your quad too.

Dead Bugs

A great abdominal and core stability workout.

Inchworm

I like this one. It’s almost a flexibility one but I can throw it in there because it is working stabilizers and upper body a little. Hence it comes under the random tag. Gets the hamstrings loose!

Inchworm from Lauren B on Vimeo.

Bird Dog

Another one for activating your bum. Alternate sides and hold for a second.

There is obviously a massive range of exercises that can be done at home, especially core and ab ones, many of which I have deliberately left out. I hope this list opens your eyes to how easily you can get a full body workout without even a theraband or a swiss ball. If you have any more leave them in the comments section.

ShareThis

Away

Lauren — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:59:01 +0000

I’m out of here for the next 5 days, I have a tournament in Adelaide. I’ll answer all emails and comments when I’m back early next week…Keep them coming!

ShareThis

Muscle Imbalances

Lauren — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:28:53 +0000

Muscle imbalances affect and cause a lot of postural problems and injuries. I just wanted to talk generally about them today as a lot of people left this in my comment section and trying to go through individual muscle imbalances in one post is madness. Remember nearly every injury I talk about results from some sort of muscle imbalance problem, so we will talk more in detail about them as I get more posts up!

Muscle Imbalances from Lauren B on Vimeo.
Ignore the demo thing at the top I’m too cheap to buy the full product…sorry.

ShareThis

laurensfitness.com

Away

Most Popular Posts

Best Warm Up Ever

Related Posts

Hamstring Rehabilitation Manual: MORE

Related Posts

Hamstring Rehabilitation Manual

Related Posts

Pelvic Tilts: Part 2

Most Popular Posts

Who Is Jamie Atlas?

Most Popular Posts

How to Workout at your local park

Most Popular Posts

No Equipment? No Excuses: 20 Exercises You Can Do At Home

Related Posts

Away

Most Popular Posts

Muscle Imbalances

Most Popular Posts