Need to build your way up to bodyweight squats? Here's a progression of exercises that you can follow with the Lying Hip Extension.
Start with 3 sets of 30 seconds of the Lying Hip Extension 3 days a week. Once that gets to easy, move up to the Lying Hip Extension with Legs on a Chair, then to the 1-Legged Lying Hip Extension, then to the Elevated 1-Legged Lying Hip Extension.
Check out the video and then there are written descriptions of each of the exercises below:
Lying Hip Extension
1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
2. Brace your abs, and contract your butt muscles as if you were squeezing something between your cheeks
.
3. Lift your hips up by contracting your butt muscles. Don't use your lower back. You should form a straight line from your shoulders to your knees (meaning, the only thing that should be supporting you are your feet and your shoulders).
4. Pause when you reach the top position and keep your abs braced and squeeze the butt muscles.
5. Slowly lower yourself down to the starting position and repeat for the recommended number of repetitions or time.
Lying Hip Extension on Chair
1. Lie on your back with your heels on a chair and your knees bent 90 degrees.
2. Brace your abs, and contract your butt muscles as if you were squeezing something between your cheeks.
3. Bridge your hips up by contracting your butt muscles. Don't use your lower back.
4. Hold your hips elevated for 1 second. Keep your abs braced and squeeze the butt muscles.
5. Slowly lower your hips down to the starting position.
6. Slowly lower yourself down to the starting position and repeat for the recommended number of repetitions or time.
One Legged Lying Hip Extension
1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
2. Extend your non-dominant leg out straight so that it's just hovering above the ground.
3. Brace your abs, and contract your butt muscles as if you were squeezing something between your cheeks.
4. Bring yourself up by contracting your butt muscles and pushing down on the foot of your dominant leg. Don't use your lower back or the momentum of your leg.
5. Pause when you reach the top position and keep your abs braced and squeeze the butt muscles. Your body should be in line from your shoulders to your knee. The only parts that should be supporting you are your shoulders and your foot on your dominant leg.
6. Slowly lower yourself down to the starting position and repeat for the recommended number of repetitions or time.
7. Once you've completed all the repetitions or time with one leg elevated, complete all the repetitions or time using the other leg.
One Legged Lying Hip Extension on Chair
1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your non-dominant foot on on the edge of a chair and your dominant leg slightly elevated and straight out from you.
2. Brace your abs, and contract your butt muscles as if you were squeezing something between your cheeks.
3. Bring yourself up by contracting your butt muscles and pushing down on the foot of your dominant leg. Don't use your lower back or the momentum of your leg.
4. Pause when you reach the top position and keep your abs braced and squeeze the butt muscles. Your body should be in line from your shoulders to your knee. The only parts that should be supporting you are your shoulders and your foot on your dominant leg.
5. Slowly lower yourself down to the starting position and repeat for the recommended number of repetitions or time.
6. Once you've completed all the repetitions or time with one leg elevated, complete all the repetitions or time using the other leg.
Check out other great movements for fat loss with the 30 Minute Workout.
www.30-minuteworkout.com
www.leanbodytraining.com
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Starting a Fat Loss Program
If you were to decide to build a new house, how would you start building it once you had all the materials, permits, workers, etc.? Would you start building the roof first? That wouldn’t make sense. What about having the window company deliver all the windows in your house first? That’s probably not a good idea either.
Chance are, you’re going to start with the foundation first. But even before that, you’re going to have to have a plan.
The same goes when starting a fat loss program.
You’ve sat down and decided what diet or what kind of eating you’re going to do. You’ve got meals planned for each day of the week.
Now it comes time to put together an exercise plan, and this is where people tend to get lost on what kind of exercise routine is best for fat loss.
People think that they need to buy that fancy (and expensive) exercise equipment from that man or woman that was in great shape on that infomercial you saw on television last night.
But really, you don’t need to do that.
One of the best workouts for fat loss, is using nothing more than the weight of your body by using the biggest, and strongest muscles that you have.
When you use the largest muscles in your body during the workout, this means that those muscles are going to need quite a bit more calories in order to recover than if you had done a workout where you just focused on the smaller muscles.
I’ll use the pushup as example. During a pushup, the main muscles that you are using are your chest, triceps, shoulders, and forearms, as well as activating your core in order to stabilize your entire body.
Compare that to a bicep curl. A bicep curl is basically isolating your bicep and forearm muscles to lift the weight and using your shoulders and core to stabilize your body.
Aren’t you using quite a bit more muscle in the pushup than you are in the bicep curl?
Meaning, doesn’t it make sense that with all the muscle that you’re using in the pushup, that it’s going to mean that your body needs to burn more calories after the workout to repair those muscles from the pushups then it would take to repair the smaller amount of muscle you used in the bicep curl?
Which is why more and more studies are showing and confirming that when workouts revolve around full body movements such as pushups, squats, pullups, lunges, and the hundreds of variations of those, the body continues to burn calories in order to recover from that workout for up to 24-36 hours. Burning more calories equals, more fat loss.
But if you’re just staring off, are overweight, and never worked out in your life and think there’s no way you can do pushups, what can you do?
Let’s take the pushup again. You can first start off by doing the pushup against the wall.
Over time, these are going to get easier, so you have the change it so that it’s more challenging on your muscles to make sure that you continue to increase strength and to cause your body to continue to burn more calories after the workout which will lead to more fat loss. So you can modify the wall pushups by doing pushups against an incline like a chair or a table.
When that gets easier, pick a lower object to the do incline pushups on, such as a step.
Then you can modify it to doing them on your knees.
Then modify them to do them on your toes.
Then when you really get good at them, prop your legs up on something and do them on a decline.
With just a simple movement like a pushup, you can see that you can start off with a simple modification to it to make it challenging for you, and then you progress over time.
Don’t forget that point about progression: In order to continue to see results, you have to challenge your muscles when a movement becomes to easy because if you don’t, your body will adapt, and you’ll see a plateau in strength gains, as well as in the amount of calories that you are burning after the workout.
Note though, that these are exercises that you can do to ENHANCE the fat loss you’re going to see. If you don’t get your diet in line, quite frankly, you’re not going to see much fat loss. As the saying going in the personal training industry “You can’t out exercise a bad diet.”
Variations of pushups, squats, lunges, and if you’re up to it, pullups, are just some simple examples of exercises that you can start off with in a fat loss program that you can do without spending thousands of dollars on exercise equipment that you’ll use a few times and then turn into a clothes hanger.
Simple (yet challenging) workouts that you can do right in your own home in thirty minutes a few times a week that can get you closer and closer to not only your goal weight, but also make you a more healthy looking and healthy feeling person with each passing day.
www.30-minuteworkout.com
www.leanbodytraining.com
Facebook
Chance are, you’re going to start with the foundation first. But even before that, you’re going to have to have a plan.
The same goes when starting a fat loss program.
You’ve sat down and decided what diet or what kind of eating you’re going to do. You’ve got meals planned for each day of the week.
Now it comes time to put together an exercise plan, and this is where people tend to get lost on what kind of exercise routine is best for fat loss.
People think that they need to buy that fancy (and expensive) exercise equipment from that man or woman that was in great shape on that infomercial you saw on television last night.
But really, you don’t need to do that.
One of the best workouts for fat loss, is using nothing more than the weight of your body by using the biggest, and strongest muscles that you have.
When you use the largest muscles in your body during the workout, this means that those muscles are going to need quite a bit more calories in order to recover than if you had done a workout where you just focused on the smaller muscles.
I’ll use the pushup as example. During a pushup, the main muscles that you are using are your chest, triceps, shoulders, and forearms, as well as activating your core in order to stabilize your entire body.
Compare that to a bicep curl. A bicep curl is basically isolating your bicep and forearm muscles to lift the weight and using your shoulders and core to stabilize your body.
Aren’t you using quite a bit more muscle in the pushup than you are in the bicep curl?
Meaning, doesn’t it make sense that with all the muscle that you’re using in the pushup, that it’s going to mean that your body needs to burn more calories after the workout to repair those muscles from the pushups then it would take to repair the smaller amount of muscle you used in the bicep curl?
Which is why more and more studies are showing and confirming that when workouts revolve around full body movements such as pushups, squats, pullups, lunges, and the hundreds of variations of those, the body continues to burn calories in order to recover from that workout for up to 24-36 hours. Burning more calories equals, more fat loss.
But if you’re just staring off, are overweight, and never worked out in your life and think there’s no way you can do pushups, what can you do?
Let’s take the pushup again. You can first start off by doing the pushup against the wall.
Over time, these are going to get easier, so you have the change it so that it’s more challenging on your muscles to make sure that you continue to increase strength and to cause your body to continue to burn more calories after the workout which will lead to more fat loss. So you can modify the wall pushups by doing pushups against an incline like a chair or a table.
When that gets easier, pick a lower object to the do incline pushups on, such as a step.
Then you can modify it to doing them on your knees.
Then modify them to do them on your toes.
Then when you really get good at them, prop your legs up on something and do them on a decline.
With just a simple movement like a pushup, you can see that you can start off with a simple modification to it to make it challenging for you, and then you progress over time.
Don’t forget that point about progression: In order to continue to see results, you have to challenge your muscles when a movement becomes to easy because if you don’t, your body will adapt, and you’ll see a plateau in strength gains, as well as in the amount of calories that you are burning after the workout.
Note though, that these are exercises that you can do to ENHANCE the fat loss you’re going to see. If you don’t get your diet in line, quite frankly, you’re not going to see much fat loss. As the saying going in the personal training industry “You can’t out exercise a bad diet.”
Variations of pushups, squats, lunges, and if you’re up to it, pullups, are just some simple examples of exercises that you can start off with in a fat loss program that you can do without spending thousands of dollars on exercise equipment that you’ll use a few times and then turn into a clothes hanger.
Simple (yet challenging) workouts that you can do right in your own home in thirty minutes a few times a week that can get you closer and closer to not only your goal weight, but also make you a more healthy looking and healthy feeling person with each passing day.
www.30-minuteworkout.com
www.leanbodytraining.com
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Bodybuilder Burpees (Video) 07-13-10
Today I've gotta quick video for you on a 4-minute power workout you do with Bodybuilder Burpees that is in my current July 2010 30 Minute Workout.
Check out the video below:
o You’re going to do 20 seconds of Bodybuilder Burpees, and then you’re going to rest for 10 seconds.
o After that 10 seconds is up, you go right back to doing Bodybuilder Burpees for another 20 seconds.
o Continue doing 20 seconds of Bodybuilder Burpees and 10 seconds of rest until you have done the Bodybuilder Burpees sets 8 times (which would equal 4 minutes).
o Make sure you’re putting a lot of intensity and speed into the Bodybuilder Burpees (but at the same time, making sure you keep perfect form).
Bodybuilder Burpees description:
1. Get into the top of the pushup position resting only on your hands and tops of your toes.
2. Push your legs out apart from each other while keeping your legs straight.
3. Bring your legs back together so that you are at the top of the pushup once more, thrust your legs into your body, and then jump straight up.
4. When you come back down, squat down, and thrust your legs back so that you are back to the top of the pushup position.
Check out other great movements for fat loss with the 30 Minute Workout.
www.30-minuteworkout.com
www.leanbodytraining.com
Facebook
Check out the video below:
o You’re going to do 20 seconds of Bodybuilder Burpees, and then you’re going to rest for 10 seconds.
o After that 10 seconds is up, you go right back to doing Bodybuilder Burpees for another 20 seconds.
o Continue doing 20 seconds of Bodybuilder Burpees and 10 seconds of rest until you have done the Bodybuilder Burpees sets 8 times (which would equal 4 minutes).
o Make sure you’re putting a lot of intensity and speed into the Bodybuilder Burpees (but at the same time, making sure you keep perfect form).
Bodybuilder Burpees description:
1. Get into the top of the pushup position resting only on your hands and tops of your toes.
2. Push your legs out apart from each other while keeping your legs straight.
3. Bring your legs back together so that you are at the top of the pushup once more, thrust your legs into your body, and then jump straight up.
4. When you come back down, squat down, and thrust your legs back so that you are back to the top of the pushup position.
Check out other great movements for fat loss with the 30 Minute Workout.
www.30-minuteworkout.com
www.leanbodytraining.com
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Changing Your Image of Your Image
This is a great article that I think gets to the heart of why millions of people go on a diet and exercise program, lose some weight, and then fall off just after a couple of weeks.
What author Tom Venuto comes up with is pretty similar to something I had come up with a numbers of years ago.
Basically, we put ourselves into a “box.” We tell ourselves “I am _______” and then we keep ourselves in that “box.” Why do we do that? Is it because our “box” is comfortable and we’re afraid to veer outside of it? More times than not, ya, that’s probably the answer.
And unfortunately, that’s why people continue to go on diets and exercise plans, only to fall back into their own ways after a short period of time. People think that all they have to do is change their eating, get on an exercise plan, and turning fat to lean will show up in no time.
But, unfortunately, THOSE are the easy parts. The mental part is the hard part. You have to WANT to change your self-image. You have to WANT to step outside that “box.” Don’t create a new “box,” just get outside your current “box” and do what you want to do and look the way you want to look. Once you change your self-image, then the eating and exercise plan you put yourself on will do the rest.
The article goes into steps you can take to change your self-image. Follow it. It may seem rather strange to be doing what he states but, trust me, if you follow his easy steps, you’ll reach your fitness goals (as well as any other self-image changing goal that you’ve set for yourself).
www.leanbodytraining.com
Facebook
What author Tom Venuto comes up with is pretty similar to something I had come up with a numbers of years ago.
Basically, we put ourselves into a “box.” We tell ourselves “I am _______” and then we keep ourselves in that “box.” Why do we do that? Is it because our “box” is comfortable and we’re afraid to veer outside of it? More times than not, ya, that’s probably the answer.
And unfortunately, that’s why people continue to go on diets and exercise plans, only to fall back into their own ways after a short period of time. People think that all they have to do is change their eating, get on an exercise plan, and turning fat to lean will show up in no time.
But, unfortunately, THOSE are the easy parts. The mental part is the hard part. You have to WANT to change your self-image. You have to WANT to step outside that “box.” Don’t create a new “box,” just get outside your current “box” and do what you want to do and look the way you want to look. Once you change your self-image, then the eating and exercise plan you put yourself on will do the rest.
The article goes into steps you can take to change your self-image. Follow it. It may seem rather strange to be doing what he states but, trust me, if you follow his easy steps, you’ll reach your fitness goals (as well as any other self-image changing goal that you’ve set for yourself).
www.leanbodytraining.com
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Whole Body Scans
I came across a comparison of whole body scans of two women: One woman weighs 250 pounds and the other woman weighs 120 pounds.
WARNING: If you get queasy easily, you may want to click on the back button before scrolling down further.
One of the first things that I noticed was the amount of muscle on the 250-pound woman. If you think about it though, it makes sense. Weighing that much means that you need more strength to be able to lift your legs (move your body), lift your arms, etc.
But along with that, you can see that parts of the larger woman are clearly asymmetrical. Look at her shoulders. Granted, it could be the way that she was being scanned but, take that along with her upper legs, lower legs, and arms, and all of those parts are shaped differently on the left side compared to the right side.
Compare that to the 120-pound woman who is pretty symmetrical all around.
I know it sounds strange that I noticed the symmetrical differences first when comparing these two women since the most obvious difference is the incredible amount of body fat on the 250-pound woman compared to the 120-pound woman.
What I think this really shows is how fat doesn’t have a set way that it is added to the body. It doesn’t even out on the left side and right side. It just basically adds itself to wherever it wants to go. That then has an effect on the muscle growing around the bones asymmetrically since you could have more body fat to carry around on one side or area than the other.
Look at the bones in the 250-pound woman. Much larger than the 120-pound woman which again makes sense because the more mass you have the stronger the bones have to be in order to support the weight. But because of the asymmetrical shape of the body, some of the bones are contoured differently on one side and the other (and notice how the ankles bow inward on the 250-pound woman, which is a product of that extra weight and is more than likely going to cause some major walking problems for this person at some point).
When taking all of that into account and then looking at the 120-pound woman, everything looks very symmetrical and even on pretty much all parts of the body. What little body fat there is, is not too disproportionate on the left and right sides, the muscles are symmetrical, and the bones look very stable and symmetrical as well (I know I’m using the word symmetrical a lot today but I think that’s the best word to use to describe these pictures).
Overall, when you look at the 120-pound woman and the 250-pound woman, you just see a much healthier person. The heart, liver, internal organs, and even the brain just look much healthy and hate to say “pleasing to the eye” then the overall body scan of the 250-pound woman.
Does this mean that every woman should strive to be 120 pounds? No and I don’t think that’s realistic. But, I think it’s safe to say that if you got your weight into a “normal” range for your sex and height, you’d be pretty well off with the insides of your body looking healthy rather than unhealthy.
www.leanbodytraining.com
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WARNING: If you get queasy easily, you may want to click on the back button before scrolling down further.
One of the first things that I noticed was the amount of muscle on the 250-pound woman. If you think about it though, it makes sense. Weighing that much means that you need more strength to be able to lift your legs (move your body), lift your arms, etc.
But along with that, you can see that parts of the larger woman are clearly asymmetrical. Look at her shoulders. Granted, it could be the way that she was being scanned but, take that along with her upper legs, lower legs, and arms, and all of those parts are shaped differently on the left side compared to the right side.
Compare that to the 120-pound woman who is pretty symmetrical all around.
I know it sounds strange that I noticed the symmetrical differences first when comparing these two women since the most obvious difference is the incredible amount of body fat on the 250-pound woman compared to the 120-pound woman.
What I think this really shows is how fat doesn’t have a set way that it is added to the body. It doesn’t even out on the left side and right side. It just basically adds itself to wherever it wants to go. That then has an effect on the muscle growing around the bones asymmetrically since you could have more body fat to carry around on one side or area than the other.
Look at the bones in the 250-pound woman. Much larger than the 120-pound woman which again makes sense because the more mass you have the stronger the bones have to be in order to support the weight. But because of the asymmetrical shape of the body, some of the bones are contoured differently on one side and the other (and notice how the ankles bow inward on the 250-pound woman, which is a product of that extra weight and is more than likely going to cause some major walking problems for this person at some point).
When taking all of that into account and then looking at the 120-pound woman, everything looks very symmetrical and even on pretty much all parts of the body. What little body fat there is, is not too disproportionate on the left and right sides, the muscles are symmetrical, and the bones look very stable and symmetrical as well (I know I’m using the word symmetrical a lot today but I think that’s the best word to use to describe these pictures).
Overall, when you look at the 120-pound woman and the 250-pound woman, you just see a much healthier person. The heart, liver, internal organs, and even the brain just look much healthy and hate to say “pleasing to the eye” then the overall body scan of the 250-pound woman.
Does this mean that every woman should strive to be 120 pounds? No and I don’t think that’s realistic. But, I think it’s safe to say that if you got your weight into a “normal” range for your sex and height, you’d be pretty well off with the insides of your body looking healthy rather than unhealthy.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Healthy Diet for a Child
We all seem to notice day after day when walking down the street that the waistlines of kids are getting bigger and bigger. Kids today get into the habit of having well, bad habits…. particularly bad eating habits.
What can we do: 1) for kids that are not overweight or obese yet, stop them from becoming so and 2) get kids that are overweight and obese from changing course?
I think there are some very simple things that you can do to start changing and molding good eating habits in your kids, and as a bonus, in yourself as well.
First, parents, your kids are going to follow your lead. If you are eating junk, they are going to eat junk. If you eat healthy, they are going to eat healthy. So you HAVE to lead by example.
You can take things in small steps though.
1. Go through all the cupboards in you house and throw out all the junk food.
2. Throw out all your regular soda.
3. If you and your family are eating fast food on a weekly basis, stop.
Those are the first steps. If you can eliminate those three items, you're going to see some vast improvements in your waistline as well as your children's.
If you take all of those out, then at this point I don't even care about portion sizes of the other food you are eating.
I don't care if your kids have an extra helping of pasta, or mashed potatoes, or another piece of chicken or another homemade hamburger, etc. We'll worry about portion size later. All I'm concerned about at this point is getting rid of the junk from your diet.
Will the kids complain? Sure.
I noticed something about my dog awhile back. I've had her on some special medication for a little bit of time and the vet told me that her appetite would increase while being on the medication.
Prior to putting her on the meds, she ate her food, but was always picky. I would have to spice it up with some cheese or something and then she'd eat it.
But when I had her on these meds, it doesn't matter. I put that food in her bowl with nothing added and she ate it like she hadn’t eaten in a week.
Moral of the story is, your kids might complain about eating food without all that "junk food flavor" in it and may even pout and say they aren't going to eat at all if it's not going to be "junk food." But at some point, they're going to get hungry, and they'll eat what you give them.
Now this doesn't mean you can't give your kids junk food ever again. You just need to make sure when you do, that it truly is a treat. Maybe after a week of not consuming any of the junk, you take a family for a walk or bike ride (stressing walk or bike ride, not drive) to a local ice cream place for that treat. But that's it. It's only a treat to be used very sparingly.
Start out with those three changes and don't worry about the rest for now. If you start with those three, then you've created a nice solid foundation for other improvements later on.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Facebook
What can we do: 1) for kids that are not overweight or obese yet, stop them from becoming so and 2) get kids that are overweight and obese from changing course?
I think there are some very simple things that you can do to start changing and molding good eating habits in your kids, and as a bonus, in yourself as well.
First, parents, your kids are going to follow your lead. If you are eating junk, they are going to eat junk. If you eat healthy, they are going to eat healthy. So you HAVE to lead by example.
You can take things in small steps though.
1. Go through all the cupboards in you house and throw out all the junk food.
2. Throw out all your regular soda.
3. If you and your family are eating fast food on a weekly basis, stop.
Those are the first steps. If you can eliminate those three items, you're going to see some vast improvements in your waistline as well as your children's.
If you take all of those out, then at this point I don't even care about portion sizes of the other food you are eating.
I don't care if your kids have an extra helping of pasta, or mashed potatoes, or another piece of chicken or another homemade hamburger, etc. We'll worry about portion size later. All I'm concerned about at this point is getting rid of the junk from your diet.
Will the kids complain? Sure.
I noticed something about my dog awhile back. I've had her on some special medication for a little bit of time and the vet told me that her appetite would increase while being on the medication.
Prior to putting her on the meds, she ate her food, but was always picky. I would have to spice it up with some cheese or something and then she'd eat it.
But when I had her on these meds, it doesn't matter. I put that food in her bowl with nothing added and she ate it like she hadn’t eaten in a week.
Moral of the story is, your kids might complain about eating food without all that "junk food flavor" in it and may even pout and say they aren't going to eat at all if it's not going to be "junk food." But at some point, they're going to get hungry, and they'll eat what you give them.
Now this doesn't mean you can't give your kids junk food ever again. You just need to make sure when you do, that it truly is a treat. Maybe after a week of not consuming any of the junk, you take a family for a walk or bike ride (stressing walk or bike ride, not drive) to a local ice cream place for that treat. But that's it. It's only a treat to be used very sparingly.
Start out with those three changes and don't worry about the rest for now. If you start with those three, then you've created a nice solid foundation for other improvements later on.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Squats and Knees
There's always been a few myths out there about squats and lunges and how they affect the knees that I think would be a good idea to go over.
Myth Number 1: Squats and Lunges are bad for the knees
Assuming you have healthy knees (meaning, the doctor hasn't told you not to do squats or lunges), they aren't bad for your knees. In fact, they could actually help build up the bone mineral density of the bone in the knee and surrounding leg bones to make them stronger and thus, decrease your chances of osteoporosis as you age. They’ll also build up the muscle in both your upper and lower legs with the same benefit of building up the strength of the knee joint.
Myth Number 2: In a squat, you shouldn't let your upper leg go below the point of being parallel to the ground.
One word: babies. Meaning, take a look at babies after they start to walk. They stand there, stick an object in their mouth, throw it on the ground, and squat down to pick it up. Look at how they squat. Their butt in that diaper is nearly grazing the ground. They then pick the object up, stick it back in their mouth, throw it back on the ground, squat down again, and the cycle continues for 3-4 hours.
Babies are natural squatters and if squatting below parallel was harmful, we'd have millions of kids growing up in knee braces.
Another point to make on this myth is that if you go below parallel, you're actually going to be recruiting more from your glutes (butt muscles). So if you're hoping to shape that butt, keep doing squats.
Once last thought on this is that studies have shown that there is more force being applied to your knees when your legs are at parallel than at any other position. The amount of force on the knee significantly DECREASES when you go below parallel.
Myth Number 3: You shouldn't let your knees go past the front of your toes while squatting or when doing a lunge.
First, again, go back to the babies. Watch their knees and you'll see that they naturally go forward and past the front of their toes when the squat down.
The biggest problem I see with this myth is that if you are watching where your knees are going, you could be causing bigger problems in other areas: your lower back.
In a squat, your lower back should be in a neutral and flat position. You should keep your eyes looking slightly downward at a 45-degree angle. You don't want your lower back to round. If you're paying attention to your knees, meaning, you're looking down at your knees, your lower back immediately goes into a rounding position. Not good.
In a lunge, you want your upper body to be straight up and down. Don't lean forward. And I'll give you one guess as to what happens when you look down to see where your knees are in comparison to your toes. Yup, the upper body leans forward.
Bottom line, don't worry where your knees are compared to your toes when doing squats and lunges, just keep your eyes looking slightly downward at a 45-degree angle and your back flat on a squat, and upper body straight in a lunge.
www.leanbodytraining.com
Facebook
Myth Number 1: Squats and Lunges are bad for the knees
Assuming you have healthy knees (meaning, the doctor hasn't told you not to do squats or lunges), they aren't bad for your knees. In fact, they could actually help build up the bone mineral density of the bone in the knee and surrounding leg bones to make them stronger and thus, decrease your chances of osteoporosis as you age. They’ll also build up the muscle in both your upper and lower legs with the same benefit of building up the strength of the knee joint.
Myth Number 2: In a squat, you shouldn't let your upper leg go below the point of being parallel to the ground.
One word: babies. Meaning, take a look at babies after they start to walk. They stand there, stick an object in their mouth, throw it on the ground, and squat down to pick it up. Look at how they squat. Their butt in that diaper is nearly grazing the ground. They then pick the object up, stick it back in their mouth, throw it back on the ground, squat down again, and the cycle continues for 3-4 hours.
Babies are natural squatters and if squatting below parallel was harmful, we'd have millions of kids growing up in knee braces.
Another point to make on this myth is that if you go below parallel, you're actually going to be recruiting more from your glutes (butt muscles). So if you're hoping to shape that butt, keep doing squats.
Once last thought on this is that studies have shown that there is more force being applied to your knees when your legs are at parallel than at any other position. The amount of force on the knee significantly DECREASES when you go below parallel.
Myth Number 3: You shouldn't let your knees go past the front of your toes while squatting or when doing a lunge.
First, again, go back to the babies. Watch their knees and you'll see that they naturally go forward and past the front of their toes when the squat down.
The biggest problem I see with this myth is that if you are watching where your knees are going, you could be causing bigger problems in other areas: your lower back.
In a squat, your lower back should be in a neutral and flat position. You should keep your eyes looking slightly downward at a 45-degree angle. You don't want your lower back to round. If you're paying attention to your knees, meaning, you're looking down at your knees, your lower back immediately goes into a rounding position. Not good.
In a lunge, you want your upper body to be straight up and down. Don't lean forward. And I'll give you one guess as to what happens when you look down to see where your knees are in comparison to your toes. Yup, the upper body leans forward.
Bottom line, don't worry where your knees are compared to your toes when doing squats and lunges, just keep your eyes looking slightly downward at a 45-degree angle and your back flat on a squat, and upper body straight in a lunge.
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