Tag: athleanx

Knee Pain with Lunges (HERE’S YOUR SOLUTION!)

Train without pain and see faster results with ATHLEAN-X
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Knee pain is one of the most common side effects when doing lunges. In fact, leg workouts are compromised most often by discomfort in the knees when doing the very leg exercises that are supposed to be helping in the first place. In this video, I show you how to correct one of the most common sources of knee joint pain in your leg workout, the forward lunge.

The forward lunge is particularly harsh on the knee for a variety of reasons. First, with the foot beginning the exercise in an open chain position, there is less stability provided at the knee joint itself. An open chain leg exercise is one in which the working foot is not in contact with the ground or a similar stabile surface. As you can see in the initial phase of the lunge, your foot is in the air. Combine this with the fact that the knee is in a partially flexed position and you realize that there are increased eccentric loads being placed on both the quads and the tendons of the knee.

When your foot finally makes contact with the ground, the ground reaction forces are directed up through the leg and borne by the already eccentrically stretched knee. For someone that is suffering from patellofemoral knee pain, this can feel like a sharp knife being driven into the knee joint.

The next thing you want to consider is that the direction of the lunge, being forward, is placing a natural vector of the force anteriorly. This acts to drive more load into the anterior structures of the kneecap and puts additional strain on the patellar tendon and patella underneath.

In a reverse lunge however, the knee on the working leg is supported from the very beginning of the exercise. With the foot placed in a closed chain position, you don’t have to worry about the shock factor that occurs when the foot strikes the ground as in the anterior lunge. The force is actually directed more vertical and back which helps to load the hip and the quad better, making this an even better exercise for helping to build bigger quads.

Finally, with the hip slightly more flexed than in an anterior lunge, you help to put the rectus femoris on slack which eases some of the strain being borne across the patellar tendon in the knee. This helps to alleviate some of the knee pain commonly found when doing the regular lunge.

As you can see, you don’t have to stop lunging all together if you get knee pain when doing lunges. You just have to alter the direction in which you’re lunging. It’s these kinds of modifications that make the difference between training and just working out. If you want to start training, and training like an athlete then head to http://athleanx.com and get the physical therapist created ATHLEAN-X Training System.

For more videos on how to fix knee pain with squatting and also what causes patellar tendonitis, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

How to Fix Wrist Pain | Working Out (6 WAYS!)

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Wrist pain during workouts is one of the most common joint ailments you can experience. In this video, I’m going to show you how to fix workout related wrist pain by going over the best ways to address joint and muscle causes as well as things you can do on specific exercises.

To start, I think it is beneficial to try and pinpoint where in your wrist you are feeling pain. For example if you feel wrist soreness on the back side of your wrist in the area of the carpal bones, then you are likely dealing with an impingement or joint immobility issue rather than a muscular one. Here you would want to incorporate the joint mobilization for your wrist to help restore normal extension.

This simple wrist mobilization is one that you can do yourself with no equipment at all. Simply squeeze your wrist with your thumb and forefinger and distract that carpal bones just enough to clear the end of the radius. From here, glide the wrist radially and move your wrist into extension by pushing the hand palm down into a bench. You should not experience pain when you do this. Do it for a few reps and then retest your range of motion and you should notice that it has improved significantly.

If on the other hand your discomfort is more on the underside of your forearm and tends to run up and down the forearm when your wrist is bent backwards, then this is more indicative of a muscle tightness. Here you don’t only want to just stretch the muscles of the forearm by bending your wrist back and keeping your fingers straight but you want to manipulate the tissues themselves with some myofascial release.

You can do this by pressing your forearm into a solid surface (like a squat rack upright) and then flossing the muscles through the compressed area by moving the wrist around in circles as well as back and forth into flexion and extension. Do this until you feel the pain subside in your forearms.

The next step once you have addressed the type of pain that you feel in your wrists when working out is to identify the specific exercises that you get soreness in when you lift. The most common ones that I covered in this video are the bench press, pushups, bicep curls and the front and back squats. Each one of them demands a little something different than the others and therefore must be addressed individually.

Through some fine tuned careful changes in the position of the grip or the placement of the bar in your hands, you will see that you are able to correct the pain that you are feeling without diminishing the effectiveness of the exercises.

This is the same approach that we use that has led to ATHLEAN-X becoming the go to choice for professional athletes in their training and workouts. We not only show you how to make gains in muscle size and how to lose fat but we put the science into everything we do and keep a priority on doing it safely so you can keep lifting at a high level for a long period of time. You can get the program by visiting http://athleanx.com and selecting from our various workouts based on your individual training goals.

For more exercises for your wrists and ways to strengthen your wrists, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

How to Fix a Stiff Neck in Seconds (THIS WORKS!)

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If you ever tried to lift with a stiff neck you quickly find out how difficult it really is. Not only will your lifts suffer but you may wind up hurting yourself even more by attempting to do this. That said, imagine if you had a quick weapon in your arsenal that allowed you to quickly make the pain go away and restore the range of motion that you were lacking because of the stiffness. I’m going to show you exactly that in this video.

If you have a tough time rotating or turning your head to the left or right, you likely have one of two scenarios that are contributing to this problem. The first is a tissue restriction (most often muscle) that is preventing your vertebrae from moving as they would like. The second is a stuck joint that is preventing the vertebrae from moving as they would like. As you can see, in either case, the cervical vertebrae are not moving as they should and this is causing you pain and discomfort while limiting your ability to lift.

Time to fix that. We start by realizing that rotation of the head in one direction or the other has an opposite reaction when looking at the spine from the standpoint of the spinous processes that sit behind each vertebrae body. In other words, when you turn your head to the left, your spinous process on your vertebra are turning to the right. This is important to know since this forms the basis of your treatment.

With a towel, you place it around your neck and grasp each end with a hand. The towel should be at the level of the discomfort that you feel in your neck when you currently turn your head. This can be felt with either the towel on the back of your neck with by palpating the neck for soreness as you move down one vertebrae at a time. With the towel in the right location you begin by pulling harder on the hand that is opposite the direction you want to turn your head.

For example, if you wanted to turn your head to the left you would pull forward and with more force on the right hand. The left hand would be there to simply stabilize the towel. As you pull forward you then want to rotate your head to the left. You should find that both your range of motion will have been greatly improved and your pain should have subsided.

Do this for about 10 reps and then rest. You can do it again a few more times if needed later in the day to reestablish the proper mechanics and allow your spasmed muscles to subside. Once your neck is back and moving free of discomfort you can resume your hard training and start making those gains again.

Speaking of gains, if you are looking for a complete workout program that puts the science back in strength so you can make your best gains ever be sure to visit http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start taking your entire training approach seriously and start seeing the best results you ever thought possible in just the next 90 days.

For more videos on how to fix a popping shoulder and how to fix anterior pelvic tilt, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

Mid Back Stretch and Rhomboid Release (HOW TO TARGET THIS!)

Stretch like a pro athlete (and follow their exact workout program) here… http://athleanx.com/x/workout-like-a-pro

By far, one of the most difficult areas to stretch is the middle back and upper back. Not so much because the back muscles are too thick to effectively target, but because most people are not targeting them the right way with the right back stretches. In this video, I show you the best way to stretch out the rhomboids, upper traps and lower traps using either a cable machine or a simple doorway if you do this at home.

The key to figuring out how to stretch the back and the best exercise for getting the middle back muscles is to reverse engineer the function of the muscles you're looking to release. The rhomboids retract the scapulae or pinch them together while the middle and lower traps assist with this and also depress the shoulder blades.

To stretch these muscles in the mid back you have to try and take the shoulder blades in the opposite directions. I show you how to abduct and protract the scapulae while elevating them against their desire to remain depressed. This combination is a very effective way to stretch out the lower and middle trapezius muscles while also targeting the rhomboids.

Rhomboid stretches are generally performed incorrectly. Often times they wind up stressing more of the posterior capsule in the shoulder or the lat muscles. Not that this is a bad thing but it's not what you are after if you're trying to stretch out your back.

Any home stretching routine or specific back stretching routine should include this stretch. If you just stretch out your lats and ignore the muscles in the middle and upper back, you are going to create an even bigger imbalance that can lead to you feeling even more stiff than if you had ignored stretching all together.

If you want a complete workout program that teaches you how to train like an athlete and supplements that training with back stretches like these, then head to http://athleanx.com and get the complete ATHLEAN-X Training System.

For more back stretch videos and how to stretch out all areas of your back be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

How to Fix “Low Back” Pain (INSTANTLY!)

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Low back pain is by far the most common source of discomfort we deal with. The irony is, a lot of times what we feel is rooted in the lower back is actually caused by muscles not in the back at all. In this video, I’m going to show you how the glute medius could be the real cause of your back pain and a quick exercise you can do to relieve your discomfort instantly. Once gone, I’m also going to show you a few additional exercises you can do to make sure your low back pain never returns.

The gluteus medius is sandwiched between the glute maximus and minimus and lies in and around the hip area. The role of the muscle is to abduct your hip or lift your leg out to the side in either standing or side lying and to keep your pelvis level whenever you take a step. Prolonged sitting during the day as well as an unequal weight distribution when standing are two of the most common reasons for this muscle to get weak and imbalanced.

You can quickly test to see if you have the makings of a weak glute medius by standing with your feet shoulder width apart and lifting one foot off the ground. First take note whether or not your opposite hip drops significantly. If it does, this would indicate a glute weakness on that side. You would repeat with the opposite foot as well. When you do this you would also want to see if you had to dramatically shift your weight to one side just to lift that foot off the ground. If you do, this would indicate that you have an unequal weight distribution when standing and it would be especially troublesome when squatting.

To fix this quickly, you will want to lay down on the ground with your affected side on top. If your right lower back was bothering you then you would want to lie on your left hip. From here, take your thumb and place it on the area most sore. You should feel that this is going to happen just to the outside of the bony prominence of your pelvis. From here, push to hold back the trigger point and start flossing your leg down and in front of you and then back and up. Your hip should be extended and then lifted into abduction towards the ceiling (being sure to point the toes down to keep the glute medius in focus). Do this about 10 times until you feel the tension in the muscle release.

Now, you can burn out the spasm in the trigger point by getting into the fully contracted position of the glute medius muscle and holding as long as you can. Generally, because this muscle is often very weak, this may not be any longer than 30 seconds to a minute. Once you cannot hold it any more you will stand up and you should notice an immediate relief of the pain on that side.

This is the quick but not permanent fix for this problem. Since the underlying cause is weakness in the gluteus medius muscle you will want to back this up with some exercises for your low back that you can do a few times a week. I show you three options for this. The first is the hip bump against the wall. The second is called the sack swinger, and can be done with a dog leash if you don’t have a formal dip belt. The last is actually doing the same movement that you did for the treatment, but this time as a strengthening exercise for your low back.

Whatever you do, just be sure you are consistent. You will also see that as you relieve the tension in this muscle that your squat performance improves as well. Your depth should be increased and any low back pain that you felt by doing the exercise should be gone since you will now be able to do them with equal force through each leg.

If you are looking for a program that puts the science back in strength in every workout, head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start not only looking like an athlete but feeling like one as you take your training serious and take your results to the next level.

If you are looking for more exercises and stretches for low back pain as well as workouts you can do with lower back pain, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24