GRIP

The press up is a staple in any body weight/calisthenics routine, providing a (basic) pushing movement for the upper body. Just about everyone knows what a press up is, and while it may be a simple/basic exercise, it is by no means an easy one. When performed properly the press up works more muscles than you think. Primarily it targets your chest, front of your shoulders and triceps. However, in order to keep your body controlled and balanced, press ups also activate your lats, core and glutes. There are countless variations of press ups and because of this, form will vary between them and the points below will not apply in all situations. However, for the standard press up the following points on form and positioning should be applied: Hands, fingers facing forward, should be just below and slightly wider than your shoulders, in line with the middle of your chest.   The muscles in your upper back and neck should be relaxed and shoulders down away from your ears.  ...

We should all strive to be and do our best throughout all walks of life, after all you put in what you get out. But doing your best does not mean being perfect, and in fact striving for perfection can sometimes do more harm than good. It's something that we see in the fitness industry a lot, especially with the prevalence of social media (instagram being the biggest culprit!). Every man and his dog seems to be posting pictures & videos of themselves either performing some superhuman workout or in their gym gear showing off bulging biceps, chiselled abs and buns of steel. Couple this with TV, film and magazine ad images shoved down your throat every minute of the day. You can tell yourself stop looking, STOP IT but that thumb just keeps scrolling. Eventually it can start to get to you and you start to think " Why don't I look like that, why can't I do that? Do I not train enough? Is my diet wrong? Am I just not as good as those people?". What people forget ...

This week we're talking about the infamous lower back!! Most of the adult population have suffered some sort of lower back pain at one point...(shock horror it's probably those chairs' fault again!!)People are constantly on the hunt for this magical exercise/stretch that will fix everyone's lower back pain, but it doesn't exist!! Firstly everyone is slightly different, what works for one person won't work for another. You'll most likely have to go through a few different exercises to see which is best for you. Secondly, we're constantly told our lower back is this fragile thing and we shouldn't move it in a way that would seem to aggravate it - your back is a muscle just like your quads, it needs to be worked, it should be strong (not weak like most of ours because we don't use it). We have to learn to move without the fear of doing damage to it. Say you've gone to the gym and tried a new workout which included a few Deadlift variations. Th...

Everyone bangs on about posture, guilty! But thinking about it, the lifestyle we all lead now with comfy sofas, computers & mobile phones means 'good' posture is pretty hard to obtain when we are sedentary. But you know what it's ok - and i'll tell you why... Our tissues adapt in nature to the stresses we place upon them including adapting to postures we assume during our working day/chilling with Netflix at home! Still try and get up/move regularly but we shouldn't be so harsh on the postures we adopt whilst sitting.The loads that we are placing on the tissues whilst sitting at a desk or reading something on your phone really aren't that demanding and load is really important when we are thinking of tissue damage. You don't need to panic that when we slip into 'bad' postures we are doing lasting damage. If you can get up from your desk and move around at intervals then great but if you can't don't stress about it, simple movements can b...

Flexibility: enables you to reach the end ranges of motion of some movements, it doesn't necessarily mean you have core strength, balance or co-ordination at these ranges to control the movement i.e. some external force is required e .g. gravity or leaning against an object. Mobility: the ability to perform and control movement patterns through their full range of motion. While flexibility is important and being 'flexible' is something many people aspire to be, issues can arise from over training. As discussed previously, flexibility differs from mobility in that external assistance can be provided to reach the end position. This in turn means that at the end position the ability for the involved muscles to produce force and safely control movement can be greatly reduced. Training flexibility through prolonged stretching (and ignoring mobility) only provides a temporary increase in muscle length that will quickly revert to its previous state. Forcing a stretch u...

Why do a lot of people go to the gym? To look good, to be slimmer, or get bigger or be ‘toned’ (say it again, I dare you). There’s nothing wrong with taking pride in how we look. But it’s not the be all and end all of working out. Thinking about this reminded me of a tweet I saw when the Olympics were on. It was from a fitness company (naming no names) who are solely concerned with promoting exercise for aesthetics. It was something along the lines of “The shape on the gymnasts is insane”. Nothing wrong with the tweet, those gymnasts work hard and as a result look good. They have to be lean because any fat is just dead weight. However, what did make me chuckle was one of their equally aesthetically motivated followers comment of “What do they do to look like that?”. Ummm…. Are you serious?! They do gymnastics! That’s how they train. Not everyone just goes to the gym to do bicep curls and leg extensions. They go and do something they enjoy or to achieve goals other than losing X amou...