Previous installments of Feel the Burn can be found here.
Gentle (yet mighty and powerful) readers, I have been begged by one of you to explain how best to get your back into fighting shape. “I do stuff for my legs, and I lift things with my arms and chest, but what about my back? It seems important!” This is such a worthy goal, my stony heart was quite moved by it. Let us begin. BEFORE we begin, please to consult our post on posture, because the two concepts are so beautifully linked, and doing the things I recommend there will set you well on your way to back strength. This is almost just a part II to that post.
We are all so terrified of our backs, are we not? If you have ever done something to your back, even thinking about it may cause you to freeze like a Weeping Angel, knowing that the slightest twitch in either direction might send you into paroxysms of agony. This, too, is why so many people are in thrall to their chiropractor. He knows about my back, they say, and the idea that someone is a bulwark between themselves and having no one know about their back causes them to also believe the nonsense their chiropractor then tells them about vaccinations and ley lines.
Backs, in other words, are no joke. I have spent a lot of time working on mine, and am quite happy with it. One thing I’ll tell you right off the bat, because it’s been of great use to me? You probably over-arch yours when you’re trying to do a better job by it. There’s the slump (you can slump for a minute now), and then you realize you’re slumping, and you UN-slump, and suddenly you’ve created this massive hollow in your back that does you no better! Ideally, you want your back to be nice and flat, with a natural curve, of course, the one provided by your spine, but without being able to store a bale of hay back there.
DISCLAIMER: IF THERE IS ANYTHING ACTUALLY AMISS WITH YOUR BACK, AS OPPOSED TO GENERALIZED MALAISE AND WEAKNESS, CLOSE THIS TAB AND CONSULT A PROFESSIONAL. ALSO, I HOPE JUDY BLUME’S DEENIE IS COMFORTING TO YOU AND YOU LEARNED A LOT ABOUT THINGS YOU CAN DO IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR BED BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP.
Now, let’s just run through some stuff you can goof around that will get you some results. Again, we’ve got bent-over rows and reverse flys and lat pulldowns and stuff in our posture post, those are all good for you. Let me also say, at this time, that MOST exercises we will ever talk about–squats, lunges, etc.–are good for your back, and will help strengthen it, if done with correct form and while attempting to hold your body with physical integrity. If you start feeling your back gravitate inwards or outwards or your shoulders start doing wonky things, let it simmer for a moment and try it again.
1. BIRD DOGS
God, these are the easiest fucking things to do. They’re great for you, and they work your abs and your glutes and your lower back, but a CHILD could do them, coma patients can do them, and what you’ll do to get better over time is really make sure you’re extending nice and high at the end point of the movement and so you truly feel that glute engage, and work on keeping the portions of your body that AREN’T moving beautifully still. The video I picked to demonstrate this is from a real back-medicine type, but is also weirdly sexual, like all good workout clips.
2. FAKE DEADLIFT STRETCH
What I am about to describe for you is not even a deadlift, because deadlifts are something you IDEALLY want to work through while a physical human being looks at you and offers a spot. Look, you’re grown-ass women and weird men, you can totally do deadlifts, but we’re going low-key today. This is more of a stretch with resistance, and I do them a bunch because I feel really good after, and it’s something I like to do if I need to let my heart-rate simmer back down between things like box jumps, and it’s DYNAMITE for the back.
Get a broomstick, if you’re at home, or, if you’re at the gym, one of those long skinny sticks that are usually in a pile somewhere.
Now, you should look like the above cheerleader, but the stick would be behind your back, part of it invisible behind your outstretched arms, while you hold it in a light underhand grip. Spread your legs to shoulder width apart, keep them straight, and hingggggeeee forward at the waist, slowly, slowly, slowly, ALWAYS keep your shoulders back and your chest up. Your butt will push back some, that’s cool. You may be able to go an INCH and no more at first, and that is fine! That is just fine. Come on back up slowly, after hanging out for a lil bit. The stick helps keep your shoulders open, you’re stretching your hamstrings, you’re training your posture, you’re strengthening your back. Goooood.
3. BACK EXTENSIONS ON THAT WEIRD THING THAT GOES UNDER YOUR JUNK
That THING is called a ROMAN CHAIR. (In our posture post, I showed you how to do back extensions on a stability ball, but this is a little more idiot-proof for noobies, and a good way to feel like you know what you’re doing at the gym.) Please enjoy this GIF, and then we’ll change it a bit!
Yeah, let’s not go so high with ours. End the upward motion when your body is STRAIGHT, you get just as much as if you hyperextend, and then you can’t mess it up. I also like to keep my hands on the back of my head with my elbows sticking straight out, not pulling on my neck or anything, just, again, a trick to keep your shoulders back. And do it slowly! OOOOOOZE UP, OOOOOZE DOWN. After this becomes old hat, take your hands down and use them to lovingly cushion a weight to your chest. You can also adjust where the pad sits, and as your back becomes stronger, you’ll be happier supporting more of your own weight and can keep the pad on your crotch. At first, you may have it a little higher. YMMV.
A pleasant variation!
Toss in a little twist! I like doing ten where I twist up to look at the left, ten where I twist to look up at the right, and then ten normal ones. Works you alllll over.
4. STANDING DUMBBELL UPRIGHT ROWS
(You do not need dumbbells. You can hold anything you want, but ideally something which you can hold without becoming distracted by dropping it on yourself.)
As this charmingly bored-looking woman so aptly demonstrates, this is an easy move to figure out. Now, it’s definitely going to work your arms, but it’s ALSO going to work your traps, which are very sexy-looking and important. Men get super-obsessed with their traps, and that’s why sometimes their necks look all fucked-up, but you will almost certainly not manage to get there, but IF YOU DO I bet you look gorgeous and you should email me pics.
5. ACTUAL DEADLIFTS, BECAUSE OKAY
I love meatheads so much. Sure, they grunt a lot, but they’re usually super happy to help you out, and they also LOVE DEADLIFTING. Mark Rippetoe is a God to their people, so let’s let him walk you through this. I’m not going to tell Mark Rippetoe shit.
So, I hope you have enjoyed these two posts on back strength! The one exercise that you can’t do without here is pull-ups, but we’ll save that for another day. Pull-ups are Gatsby’s green light, you know.
Tags: feel the burn, fitness, how else to tote your heavy suit of armor around like BRIENNE OF FUCKIN’ TARTH, your back
Thanks for this! I have a weak back and will be looking to add some of these into my workout.
I’ve missed Feel the Burn so much!!!!!!
“The Toast: Grown-Ass Women and Weird Men”
This is particularly enjoy-ful because I did a light back workout last night and now it feels all deliciously stretched.
ALSO if you are interested in decorating your gym room to be all meathead-y, I can wholeheartedly recommend these guys http://www.gymposters.com/posters because the Deadlift poster is KICK ASS all framed. It goes with our Gym Room theme, which also includes a barbell wall clock and a framed “I Drink Haterade All Day” sign.
Oh my god thank you for that link to the poster website. So buying (at least) one of those. Possibly one for my trainer, too.
AHHH I AM SO HAPPY FOR A NEW FEEL THE BURN
…
Okay, now that’s over, this is EXACTLY what I needed to see today! I’m working on building upper-body strength (I want a pull-up!) and it turns out my back is something of a weak point, especially my traps and rhomboids. So thank you, Nicole!
Also, I’ve found that when I have minor lower back pain, stretching out & mobilizing my hips and glutes helps a lot.
Do you have a foam roller? Sometimes when I am a bit achy in my lower back, a nice thorough foam rolling of my lumbar area and glutes (and, weirdly, thighs) helps along with the stretching.
I should really get a foam roller for home use! At the gym I use a length of PVC pipe and a pair of lacrosse balls duct-taped together (they create a nice spot for my spine to rest), but at home I just have my mop handle, which, ow.
Also the thigh bit isn’t so weird! Especially if it’s your hamstrings. When my hamstrings are tight, nothing feels right.
I WANT A PULL-UP TOO YAAAAAAAASSSSSSSS.
I also want to be able to climb a rope. It’ll happen, bb. It’s happen FOR US BOTH. Yes. Yes it will.
I have been trying to be able to do pullups for like two years, and doing back and arm strengthening exercises regularly and last week I tried a completely unassisted pullup and I could do one! I could not do another, but one!
I want to try doing that Roman chair thing because I see very athletic looking people doing it at the gym and they look so badass.
GO YOU ON THAT PULL-UP! *!confetti parade!*
My posterior chain is a fucking WORKHORSE and when I power through multiple weighted sets on a Roman chair I feel like the biggest BAMF in the gym.
It is sooooooooooooo satisfying to be able to do a pull-up. It is the greatest!
I’m working on this too, and then I stopped doing reverse pull-ups for a couple weeks and went so far backwards in my ability to do anything. Maybe this will get me started again.
who is this lady and how do i steal her life
I was thinking about climbing ropes last night and I was wondering if they still try to make kids do that, because hanging like 20 feet up with only the strength of your floppy exhausted kid arms to hold you seems like a recipe for disaster (I wouldn’t know, having never made it more than about 5 feet up)
Yeah, I hope they don’t have kids do that anymore. Not that I ever could do more than just grab the rope and maybe lift my feet. Maybe.
I am focusing so hard on pull-ups too! My negatives are getting pretty good, I think, although the guys still give me weird looks like I’m doing it wrong, and it makes me feel like a dork. Screw them, though, I’mma do a pull-up!
Yeah, screw those guys for real. Anyone who looks at you askance for trying to get stronger can get stuffed. GO, YOU!
Rope climbing trick: It’s your abs and your legs that are doing most of the work–your arms work *with* them to move yourself up the rope, unless you are a serious BAMF, and do a dead hang (no legs) climb, which *is* ALL arm work.
1) Hold the rope at chest level–your arms should be bent
2) Wrap the rope once around your lead foot (usually right if you’re right handed)
3) Step on that wrap with your follow foot
4) Reach up one hand at a time as far as you can go, contract your abs to lift AND simultaneously PUSH up with your legs
5) Re-wrap and do it again
If I can get a video of me doing this, I’ll post it. Rope climbing is a lot of coordination, but once you get it, you never lose it.
OH! I’m getting messed up on just the step one! I knew about the work mostly being abs and legs, but I was reaching WAY too high to start and I couldn’t hold myself up long enough to get the rope wrapped around my foot.
Thank you for that clarification! Gonna try this next time I have some extra time at the box before my training session starts. Wooohooo!
Edit: But please please please don’t let my sudden understanding stop you from posting a vid because YES PLEASE.
OH THANK GOD THIS IS BACK! Every time I do my weak-armed sorry excuse for push ups I wonder whatever happened to Feel the Burn and mourn its absence.
Whatever you are doing for a push-up is not weak-armed or sorry! If you’re giving it everything you’ve got, it is THE PERFECT PUSH-UP FOR YOU RIGHT NOW. Never criticize your current physical ability because bb YOU ARE FABULOUS.
Co-sign. Heck, I don’t even do traditional push-ups lately; I’m just doing a coupla dozen countertop push-ups every day, whenever I have a few minutes while the kettle boils or the sink fills or whatever, and I can still see and feel a difference. Whatever you’re doing is better than doing nothing, and doing what you can do is nothing to slight yourself for.
Superman and its variations are the way to go!
I love Supermans! I had to do them in middle school as physical therapy for my mild scoliosis, and they’ve been part of my back-pain-fighting arsenal ever since.
WORST/BEST
Nothing is as terrible as a burpee, although my Kru thinks that 70 pushups followed by 300 kickouts (left, right, and front) is a reasonable amount of warm-up exercise.
BURPEES. :cries:
Or a set of TWENTY burpees, squats, and pushups, and then FIFTEEN burpees, squats, and pushups… all the way down to five. My gym knows how to have fun. 🙁
Does Steve Rogers lead this workout? Because that’s the only way I could be convinced to participate.
It’s led by Muay Thai Krus. Check it out! http://www.blogto.com/fitness/siam-1-old-school-m…
The latest dojo “cool down” involves 45 seconds of burpees. Mixed in with a delightful melange of 6 other exercises (including 45 seconds of throwing people because this is judo we’re doing, after all).
I’m trying to get more burpees in at home in order to be able to walk after this “cool down”
PLANK JACKS
I love dead lifts! Really! And also overhead presses. I do them in a class. My back is a happy back now.
But pull-ups? Nope. Can’t do them.
Can I come over and sit by you? I can’t do pull-ups either. Like, I’ve never been able to.
I can’t do them, either! But I’m working on it with resistance bands and dead hangs and such. If a pull-up is a thing you want, there are oodles of progressions you can do toward getting one! If not, well, it’s not necessary for modern life, unless your commute involves scaling cliffs or something.
the biggest reason that I wanted to be able to do a pullup was for a hypothetical life-and-death situation where I would need to pull myself up. You know, Dread Pirate Roberts on the Cliffs of Insanity type deal. YOU NEVER KNOW.
And now I can! 5, even! And every time I do them, I remind myself that I am that much closer to being the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Ha! I’m so doomed if I ever have to climb the Cliffs of Insanity. 😀
There’s something about the leverage of them, I guess? Because even when I lifted my brains out as a swimmer, I still couldn’t do them. Maybe I should have a new goal.
This was really good information. I wish I wasn’t stuck at work right now, because I want to try all these things and get a weird-looking neck from building up my traps.
oh, weirdly sexual back exercises. My physical therapist told me to do the bird-dog thing, which is a pretty unsexy name for a sexy exercise – a sexercise if you will — but that is nothing to the cat-cow, which is the one where you get down on your hands and knees and tilt your pelvis back and forth, back and forth until you get bored or are satisfied, whichever comes first.
also I hear you should never let chiropractors touch you because they will give you a stroke. like don’t even let one try to shake your hand if you meet them socially, you think it is all fine and suddenly they go for your neck and then you have a stroke.
You sound like my doc friends. I had a rib out and only a chiro could help me and my doctor friend was like DON’T LET HIM TOUCH YOUR NECK EVER YOU WILL DIE.
She also told me to never climb a ladder or step on a chair. Working in the ICU does weird things to a person.
Cat-cows feel super good after you have tormented yourself with core exercised.
My old horseback riding instructor had a stroke from bad chiro! TRUE STORY! She was relatively young and recovered pretty well, but … yeah, it happens.
Your workout write-ups are the only ones that actually inspire me to, you know, work out.
“you will almost certainly not manage to get there, but IF YOU DO I bet you look gorgeous and you should email me pics”
Okay, so now I need to get *two* pics of myself for the Toast–1. a picture of my fist or a billiard ball in my mouth per the request in last week’s Open Thread, and 2. a photo of my fucking amazing traps. ‘Cos mine are super seriously monstrous. AW YEAH.
pls share, thanx
Seriously, one of the things that I think happened when I switched to powerlifting is that my traps got smaller. My traps would be so sore from snatches when I was doing them regularly and now, while I use them for my back squat, it hasn’t been the same.
You bet! Alas, I’m going to be out of town for this week’s Open Thread, but next week for sure.
TBH, I wouldn’t complain about my traps getting smaller. I’m one of the miniscule percentage of women who are genetically able to bulk up and…well. Let’s just say it’s getting harder and harder to find non-knit blouses that fit my arms and shoulders. *sigh*
That said, OMG I love snatches. Heh.
My muscles don’t seem to bulk up in any significant fashion or.. really do anything, so it’s not a huge problem. I know what you mean though–other lady lifter friends complain about it!
I don’t really like blouses either, so that helps. ^^;
LOL @ “women don’t bulk up”.
Things that go over muscly bits are all hard to buy. Boots, blouses, jeans. Mph.
When I was cross-fitting I got MAJOR FUCKING TRAPS. I looked prettttttty out of place in belly dancing class. Now I’m doing basically nothing and look like I belong in a renaissance painting, which is pretty good too.
FUCK YEAH FELLOW BELLYDANCER YO! *giant sisterly hug*
I’m so glad Feel The Burn is back! (Oops. Pun. Sorry.)
I haven’t lifted for awhile and seldom deadlifted, but she was apparently lifting 100 pounds, which I’m sure is more than I ever tried. RESPECT.
I’m so excited to see Feel the Burn again! And for back muscles! I love Captain Superquad’s routines for getting my body out of winter hibernation mode, but honestly, I’m a little tired of chair dips and burpees (oh god, the burpees).
“He knows about my back, they say”
I fully admit that my chiropractor is the only doctor I trust after years of chronic back pain and being told by doctor after doctor that I was either too fat or too tall, he’s the only one that has actually helped. Mostly by showing me how to do most stretches/exercises in both the posture post and this. Oh, and actually bothering with x-rays to check it out and saying “wait, no one has ever told you that you’ve got scoliosis?”
ETA: Also he doesn’t spout vaccination bullshit.
“Too tall”??????
Isn’t it super-fun when doctors decide they know what’s wrong just by looking at you & then don’t actually listen when you tell them that’s not the problem? (& “you’re too tall” what is that bullshit. What do they want you to do about that, exactly?)
I asked if they could fix it? Apparently there’s no medical recourse for having, and I quote, “your torso is two inches too long for a female. It’s going to give you more trouble than usual.”
Yeah, I switched doctors. Of course the next one just told me I was overweight, and had a bunch of ideas about what I could do about that.
That is just so weird. I’m an ex-swimmer, and I have a lot of swimmer friends. Trust me, there is a whole lotta torso in my friend group. Inseams? Not so much. None of us have any legs. There is no such thing as TOO LONG. OMIGOD, why would a doctor person tell you this?! A dressmaker, maybe. But a doctor person? Burn it down.
Also I’ve gotten drunk with my chiropractor so now I *really* trust him more than other doctors who try to make me feel badly when I they ask how many drinks I have a week.
(I know I should probably feel badly about how many drinks I have a week)
My doctor got super-judgy when I marked on their little intake sheet that I had 1-2 drinks every day last week. And I definitely want to keep from overindulging too often, but I feel like 1-2 beers/glasses of wine with dinner every night is not actually that big a deal. (Also she was HORRIFIED to learn that sometimes we have drinks at work, which, I work for lawyers, they’re basically fueled by booze, Bender-style)
Back when I ran a bar I estimated I drank around 35 drinks a week, and the doctor was like WHOA WHAT?!?!?!? Which confused me because I drank less than everybody I knew. Which makes sense because I was spending 50 hours a week surrounded by alcoholics.
I adore my chiropractor. She is even more of a crazy cat lady than I am, writes children’s books and most importantly, makes me pain-free.
Follow up FTB question: any benefit to using an exercise ball as my office chair a la Dwight Schrute? Because there’s an exercise ball at work that is unclaimed and I kind of want it…
I sat on an exercise ball instead of a chair for years and all it did for me was shorten and weaken my adductors even more than sitting in a chair because I was constantly stabilizing myself with my quads and abductors. Not helpful. At least not for me. Now I sit in a chair, but I stand up and walk around my building (~1/3 mile) every hour.
The one time I sat on one for longer than ten minutes, my water broke and then I spent the next 26 hours contracting and then pushing a human out of my body, so TREAD CAREFULLY.
I have never pushed a human out of my body, but I have sat on an exercise ball instead of an office chair at work for nearly 10 years (not continuously–) and I love it! I had a lower back issue, and my physical therapist recommended it as part of the rehab. I have almost no back issues now (only occasionally when I overdo something), and I do various exercises while I’m waiting for things to load on the computer.
The unclaimed exercise ball may not be for you though–you need a ball that is the right size. You should be able to sit with your feet fully on the floor (not tippy toe) at some point on the exercise ball, so you can be fully stable if you need to be. I also have a footstool that I can brace against if I’m leaning over my desk, but I did that with my office chair.
I have to run up and down 3 flights of stairs on occasion, and otherwise move through the office for various reasons, so I don’t sit for 8 hours on anything. I also run and do various exercises daily, so I don’t know if the exercise ball helps or hurts overall. I like sitting on it, though, more than on a chair. So I guess I would say, give it a shot. If it doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to the chair. (Several people in my office have tried the exercise ball after watching me, and some are back in their office chairs, others, not.)
I never found much in the way of health benefits when I was using one, but it was sometimes entertaining. I have learned that when you drop one 4 stories, it will bounch up 2 stories, and I feel like that knowledge might come in handy some day.
Thank you all! It appears the better take-away is to run around periodically during the day and so that is what I will do, maybe taunting a coworker into an absurdist basketball game using the exercise ball.
In honor of this week’s lifting-focused post, I have only this picture to share from r/weightlifting:
Omg wut.
The company that makes these also makes a kitten singlet which I covet but I feel that I need to get my numbers up before I can compete in it.
I always thought kitten > pug, but the fact that the pug could potentially blend in “nicely” with my skin is leading me to rethink this.
made my day.
Wait, so that thing is the roman chair? Because my whole dumb life I’ve thought it was the high chair thing – you know, you put your elbows in, dangle off the ground and raise your legs? Works your abs like a mofo. I can maybe do like three sets of 15 before I diiieeeee.
Um, anyway. do all these things. They’re great! And, the more you work your abs, the bettter it is for your back. Stretched out, strong hamstrings help too.
Yay for the burn 🙂
Yeah, what the hell is the high chair properly called? Apart from Dread Throne of Pain, that is. (I try to track most of my workouts on Fitocracy, and it’s crazy-making not to be able to find the right exercise.)
Captain’s chair, I think! Which is a bit of a cooler name than high chair, but not as cool as Dread Throne of Pain.
You are a gentleperson and a scholar (and Fitocracy doesn’t list it, dammit, I WANT MY POINTS).
It shall be Dread Thone of Pain from now on. Because omigod that is so what it is. So.
Does anyone else find themselves … um … exercising to *completion* when they use that high chair thing? I cannot use it anymore because my gym is pretty bro-tastic and I am afraid someone will catch me, or I will fall off and have to explain how that happened.
This is amazing and I like you very much.
Thank you so much for saying that, because although it is my only superpower, I am little bit embarrassed by it.
That’s a pretty great superpower. I do not experience this regularly. But um, right. The muscles, they are close together! Connected, even!
😀 😀
The Burn is teaching me that I’m not having nearly as much fun in the gym as some lucky individuals are.
Seriously.
This is the greatest thing ever, and you should never feel pressured to stop. The standard excuse for (ahem) completing in public and falling over is “Whoa, I got dizzy there for a second.” No one will think twice about it, unless of course you are …completing… several times a week and with a big giddy grin.
You guys are all awesome! I feel less like a gym creeper now.
Not gonna lie – I still live in fear that my trainer will want me to use it during our sessions though. I’d never be able to look him in the eye again.
This is great! My doctor just told me the reason my back & spine make clicky noises all the time is because they’re unstable and I have to figure out how to strengthen my back. :/
So I will be trying out a lot of this!
This is only semi-related, but Nicole, do you know how to do Russian twists without doing something weird/bad to your spine? I used to do them all the time in college, but the last few times I tried, something was not right. (Maybe because I don’t have enough muscle left to start with?)
Also, a proper plank will help your back! Planks 4 lyfe.
Start with bodyweight only to get the feel for it. Russian Twists require a TON of core strength.
HOW DID YOU KNOW I NEEDED THIS?? I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday unwisely trying to not bail when I lost balance doing a heavy squat. It’s much better today, but has convinced me I HAVE to do something about my super unstable squats. I often feel like I’m close to falling over backwards when I do squats, is that a sign that my back is weak? I already do heavy deadlifts and bent over rows, but that’s about it for back work for me. Should I be doing stuff on stability balls or twisty things or something? Or is there something entirely different I should be doing to fix my squat?
I am no online coach, just being unbearably nosy: at what part of the lift do you feel like you’re going to fall backwards?
ETA: Is it like you feel like the barbell is going to roll off or…??
Right at the bottom, once I go below parallel. I feel like my center of gravity is too far back and I’m just going to gently tip over. When I first started, I had a friendly gym-bro tell me I lean pretty far forward when I do a squat and had me try and stay more upright with just the bar. Those times I really did go over backwards on my ass. He suggested raising my heels, or I suppose I could just not go below parallel, but from what I’ve read that’s not great form either.
So, I just asked a coach/friend of mine that I trust about this (he’s USAW cert, at least), and his response in a nutshell was: video.
I honestly don’t think your back strength is an issue, esp if you’ve been doing deadlifts and rows.. but he said it could be anything from weakness, poor body awareness, or hip/ankle mobility. So.. o_O
ETA: ankle mobility is such a bitch.
ahhhh I bet it’s totally mobility, thanks! When I did yoga my hips were embarassingly inflexible. That would also explain why squats are the only lift that never feel quite natural to me and requires a mental monologue of “push your hip back, watch your knees, are your lower legs perpendicular to the ground, shift your weight to your heels…”, while with deadlifts etc. the form comes with minimal thought after the first few months.
If you’re tipping over backward at the bottom (as well as leaning forward), you might have tightness somewhere in your posterior chain that’s keeping you from keeping good form at the bottom of your squat. I only know this because that is my problem with squats and I’m continuously working on it. Here is an article on some basic posterior chain mobilization techniques that you can use in addition to self-myofascial release.Kelly Starrett has a video on pinpointing your tight spots in a squat.
I think that’s totally it! I will have to work on that and see if it helps. Thanks for those links!
I would *guess* that it has to do with hip and ankle flexibility.
When I worked with a trainer to get cozy with the weight room, she taught us to use the hex bar for deadlifts. I’ve since learned that it may be better on your back and help you build power, and it INARGUABLY saves you from a few shin scrapes. Forgive the bro-y website: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most….
o_O
THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE MY LIFE
PLANK JACKS
Ha! I'm so doomed if I ever have to climb the Cliffs of Insanity. 😀
There's something about the leverage of them, I guess? Because even when I lifted my brains out as a swimmer, I still couldn't do them. Maybe I should have a new goal.
That is just so weird. I'm an ex-swimmer, and I have a lot of swimmer friends. Trust me, there is a whole lotta torso in my friend group. Inseams? Not so much. None of us have any legs. There is no such thing as TOO LONG. OMIGOD, why would a doctor person tell you this?! A dressmaker, maybe. But a doctor person? Burn it down.
Slightly off topic, but I threw my back out a year ago, and have had problems with low back pain ever since. Now at least once a week I do this constructive rest thing and it has helped me enormously. For a long time I couldn’t run because it just killed my back. I tried the chiropractor, acupuncture, yoga, and I still had low back pain, like, all the time. My back isn’t perfect now, but it doesn’t hurt every second of the day and I can run again. Anyway, here’s how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEcFi2IgXyI