What is your "core"?

This is a question I get a lot. One of the top responses when a trainer asks what someone wants to focus on is, “my core”. Most the time, the trainee does not know what all constitutes “my core”. Some people just want a 6 pack and get confused when their trainer starts to do back and shoulder exercises with them. Well let me be the first to tell you, just because you have a hot looking 6 pack that everyone likes to see at the beach, does not mean you have a strong core.

Think of it this way. Imagine that you have this great pen. I’m not talking about a simple Bic. I’m talking about a great grip, shiny pen. The kind of pen baseball players use to sign million dollar contacts. However, when you pick up the pen to write, it doesn’t work or it falls apart. This is what it’s like to have a great 6 pack but not have a functional core.

Your “core” is made up of several different muscles. Besides the abdominal muscles you can see (the 6 pack), the core consists of several deep muscles:   the transverse abdominals, multifidus, pelvic floor, diaphragm and others. These muscles help to make your core the stabilizing machine it was meant to be.

So what’s the point? Why have a strong core? Your core is meant to stabilize the rest of the body. Some people want train it the same way we train our quads or biceps, but that is not its function. Its function is to stabilize, not act as a prime mover. By training it incorrectly and as a group, you lose its motor control and function. Without those, your core strength, endurance, and flexibility will suffer. Research has shown that athletes with stronger core stability are at a lower risk of injury.

So how do you have core stability and properly train your core? You must focus on your core as a whole, while remembering its proper function; stabilizing and protecting your spine and surrounding musculature. The Functional Movement Screen that we use identifies weakness in core stability and provides a road map of how to erase the deficits. At the MVP Annex, we specialize in identifying core stability issues and in correcting them. Whether you are training for a competition or having back pain, we can help! Come see me!

For more information on this topic, here is an article that I really liked. It talks more about some of the things we do at MVP and how you can gain core stability. Good luck!

What is your core?

Recovery and Stretching with Purpose

So today I want to talk about recovery. In the fitness world, there is a lot of different views on recovery. For the person who is trying to lose weight and wants to see quick results, a recovery days seems like a waste of time. For someone who is constantly training at a high level, recovery day is looked at as heavenly day. But why do we need recovery?

Think of it this way. If we turned a light on and left it on, eventually it would burn out.  It is the same with our bodies. If we train every single day at a high level and never take a recovery day, our bodies will start to breakdown. Because our body is the most adaptable machine we own, it will start to develop compensations to achieve what we want it to. These compensations can lead to injury. Therefore, we need recovery. Plus, in order to see gains and achievements in our training, our body needs rest!

Now that we know why we need it, let’s define recovery. Recovery can mean a variety of different things. Sometimes we need a day off from lifting weights or from running. Sometimes we need a day to stretch and get our legs back underneath us. Sometimes we need to focus on lifting light to get the soreness out of our body. There are many ways to recover. Find what works best for you! My recovery wouldn’t necessarily be the same as a professional athlete who is constantly pushing their body to the limit.  Find the recover that works best for you.

On my recovery days, I like to go to the gym and get my blood flowing by riding the bike for 10 minutes at a slow-to-moderate pace. Then I stretch. Not just “going through the motion” stretching but stretching with purpose. I want to stretch so that I can do more on the days that I work out. I stretch everything but I focus on my deficits. If my squats were a little shallow that week, I focus on opening up my hips more. If my chest still feels tight after a hard chest workout, I focus on stretching my pectoral muscles. If I'm having pain in a certain area, I'm going to focus on stretching that area. I stretch with a purpose.

Recovery is all about finding what works best for you. If you need any suggestions, feel free to contact me. You can email me at mvpannex@gmail.com or find me on Facebook, “Ross Little” or “MVP Annex at Peak Performance in Motion”. Hope that helps! Good luck on recovering! You deserve it…

It’s the most wonderful (and painful) time of the year!

 So while driving the 12 hours back from Mississippi last weekend, my brother-in-law, his dad and I got bored of what we were listening to on the radio and my brother-in-law decided to spice things up a little bit and put on Christmas music. I had no idea the holiday season was so close! It feels like just yesterday we were in September. Where did Halloween go?

Growing up, the holiday season meant good food, good times with friends and family and, my least favorite, decorating. Being the only boy in my house, it was always my job to get the decorations out of the attic. My dad would pass me the box and I had to carry it downstairs. Up and down. Up and down. At the end of it all my parents would always tell me how lucky they were to have me to do all the heavy lifting. But not everyone can be so lucky.

With all the lifting we do during the holiday season, we need to remember the proper techniques. It is extremely important to understand how to lift before lifting. Most attics are cramped and small and a lot of the time we think we don't have enough space to lift properly. But we always do!

3 techniques to remember while lifting:

1) Never lift with your back: You are setting yourself up for a long, painful holiday break if you lift all of your decorations with your back. Make sure to use your lower body to lift. Squat and lift. Do not bend through your spine to pick up a heavy box.

2) Maintain a solid base: A building is only as strong as its foundation. Same goes for our body. We have to have a strong foundation before we lift. Make sure that your feet are shoulder width apart and that you have solid footing. Don't be like this guy.

3) Use your Glutes: I know that it is funny concept and it’s a little weird to do but your glutes can save your back. While squatting to pick up a box, use your glutes to lift you out of your squat. Yes, I am asking you to squeeze your butt to stand up. Your glute muscles are a powerful tool that rarely gets used properly, if at all. Try it now while sitting in your chair. You'll notice that you start to bounce up and down. That’s what we want when you are lifting!

With these 3 techniques, you will be able to lay on the couch peacefully after a meal and not in pain because you threw your back out. I hope everyone enjoys this holiday season! And as always, come see me at the MVP Annex!

Moving Better Before Moving More

Sorry for the late post! I was in Mississippi at a cabin on Friday and had no wifi or cell phone service. Needless to say, it was nice to disconnect.

So I had this conversation with a friend at the gym this week. We were talking about his new workout plan and how it was going. He told me that he has been having lower back pain while lifting but he knew it would go away eventually. I asked him what he was doing about it and he told me, "I'm working out more. It will eventually go away". I was a little confused by this. To help you see what I see, here is an analogy.

Imagine that you were just given your dream car. It has all the bells and whistles. Everything you've ever dreamed of. When you sit down in your car and you begin to drive you notice that the check engine light is on and the car is riding a little rough. What do you do? Do you continue to drive it or do you stop driving it and take it in to get it checked out? If you're smart and you care about your car, you get it checked out. It is the same with our body. If we start to have pain do we continue to move or do we get it checked out? Unfortunately, we typically ignore the pain and continue to move. But why? Do we seriously think that moving more will fix our pain? Unfortunately, yes we do. The main point that I want to illustrate in today's post is this: MOVING MORE IS NOT THE ANSWER, MOVING BETTER IS. Just like a young child should not run before they walk; we should not move more before moving better.

This is a concept that we as adults do not get. When animals are hurt or injured, they stop moving. When babies are hurt, the cry and stop moving. When adults have pain, we move more. It just does not make sense! If we want to get rid of pain or avoid injury, it is imperative that we learn to move correctly before we move more. Now, can we survive moving more without moving better? Yes, we can. Will we avoid injury and not develop compensations? Nope!

That is why I love doing what I do. I take people with "check engine lights" or "flat tires" and I help them perform better. So if your body is not moving properly or you have pain, do not assume that more movement is the fix. Come by and see me and let’s figure out what is going on. We'll get you moving better so that you can move often! 

First Blog! The Search For Movement Quality

In the fitness world today, there are many different systems and techniques. Go into any gym and you will see a guy at the squat rack that swears by a powerlifting method he read about online, a guy that thinks he knows everything about Crossfit, and yet another person that swears by yoga. There is literally A TON of ways to get fit. I am the first to tell you that there is no perfect way or answer to getting fit. It’s not simple. If it were easy, everyone would do it! As I got into fitness and training, I wanted to find away or system that encompassed everything I saw at the gym--a system that the power-lifters would drool over and a way that Crossfit and yoga enthusiasts would stand on their head (literally) for. It was about this same time when the PT clinic I work at, Peak Performance In Motion, started using Functional Movement Systems (FMS).

Developed by physical therapists, athletic trainers and doctors, The Functional Movement System is a performance system designed to help people move better. Essentially, it was created to provide therapists and trainers with a way to identify movement asymmetries and limitations. Finding these limitations or deficits can help people of all ages and fitness levels move more and move better. The Selective Functional Movement Assessment, a 10 point movement analysis, identifies movement patterns that are painful. It is a great tool to predict and prevent injury. The Functional Movement System Assessment is designed for athletes and individuals who do not have pain but still have movement limitations.

Now, that was a lot of big words and different principles. To bring it down a level, the FMS, essentially, is a tool to help you move correctly. Let’s go all the way back to when you were an infant. I have a 3 year old nephew that is a little ball of energy. I have loved watching how he develops and learns about the world. But let’s think about his movements. The very first movements you learn as an infant are on your back and stomach. This is where you start to develop movement patterns (rolling, the first signs of hip hinging, etc).  After that, you come up on to your hands and knees and you crawl. If you were anything like my little nephew, you crawled everywhere! That’s where we learn to use our core muscles (abs and back) and our shoulders and hips learn how to stabilize. Then we start to pull ourselves up and we begin to walk (or run in my nephew's case!). It’s an entire process. So what is the difference between how my nephew moves and how we, as adults, move? The answer is simple:  he hasn't developed the same compensations that adults have. He hasn't sat at a desk for 8 hours a day typing on computer or hunched over a desk crunching numbers. He hasn't had the same injuries that we put off getting repaired. He doesn't have that same wear and tear. So, my next question is this: How can we move like my nephew? You might be saying to yourself, "I'm not going to get on the ground and crawl again. I'm way too old for that". My answer to you…Yes, you are going to crawl and no, you are not too old.

I'm not saying you are going to crawl around your office or the grocery store. What I am saying is that in order to reteach ourselves correct movement patterns and muscle activation we have to go back to where our movement life started. We have to go back down to the ground, literally, and build ourselves back up.

The FMS has opened my eyes to correct movements. If you want help with your squat depth or you have pain when squatting, I can fix that. If you have pain in your hip while running, I can fix that. If you sit at your desk and your back gets tight and is painful, I can fix that. With the FMS, we have the tools to correct movement as well as predict and prevent injury.

Now, I will be the first to say that the FMS in not the end-all be-all. It takes a lot of focus and work on your part to reteach your body and maintain correct movement patterns after learning them. But that is the great thing about the human body. It is one of the most adaptable machines we have.

That's all I have for today! Come see me at the MVP Annex and let’s take your movement to a new level!! Now...go get on the ground and crawl around!