Month: September 2018

Exercise-related transient abdominal pain” Opps, I’ve got a running stitch”

andrewstemler Leave a comment

For those of you who enjoy a bit of science while suffering should read  MORTON, D. P., and R. CALLISTER. Characteristics and Etiology of exercise-related transient abdominal pain. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 432-438. Is as good a place as any to begin to get up to date with what causes the stitch. Obviously you need to clarify what you are talking about . Its that sharp abdominal pain that some people get while being active. Not an aspect of needle work. (BTW ETP=  exercise-related transient abdominal pain)

This study issued a questionnaire to different types of sports people and asked them about the stitch.  ETAP appears to be most prevalent in activities that involve repetitive torso movement, whether ” vertical translation or longitudinal rotation”. Its normally  a local pain  mostly experienced in lumbar regions of the abdomen. Some  unlikely people also also experience “shoulder tip pain” (STP) too, famously known as the  diaphragmatic-referral  site, suggesting a miffed diaphragm

Note. No one has actually done anything in this report. They havent got runers, held them down and cut them open, or ultra sounded them, or poked them with sharp sticks. All they did was to ask some people if they have had it.  Thats not being a scientist, that being a pollster and a gossip

Conclusions:   This gives “perspective” to suggested etiologies of ETAP, which include diaphragmatic ischemia and stress on the visceral ligaments, and suggest we should be looking at other causes  such as cramp of the “musculature and irritation of the parietal peritoneum” ( who knew)

Interesting to note that the condition that is mostly associated with runners, is suffered through all sports. Its merely that runners whine more.

And the cure, after all this science?…. “factors that provoke and techniques that relieve ETAP, are not well understood” ( All that money, all those surveys, for this. Fu@%ers)

Several causes “theories”  make the rounds in gyms ;ischemia of the diaphragm and   stress on the visceral ligaments  have gained the most credibility. Im surprised my theory about irritated pixies hasn’t got more coverage. “Further examination of the characteristics of ETAP and the stimuli that provoke it may be beneficial for evaluating the integrity of these and other theories”. Oh, and guess what, more studies, funded by the tax payer is some secret roundabout sort of way, is needed. Oh yeh!

With my Therapist and Crossfit hat on, it was interesting to note that rotational movement through the torso played a part.  A lot of what we try and achieve  at Crossfit is to maintain a solid “core” which acts as an anchor for the limb to swirl about. We train you to use your legs to Deadlift, while keeping your  torso “locked down” Clinically we have noticed a tendency among aerobic athletes, when they come to us, to be unable to initiate a leg movement without a body movement. ( If they swing a leg it begins from the lower back, not the hip. load is lifted from the back, not the hip) in short, if every time you move you have to wiggle your core.

Thats a lot of additional movement for a biological box with lots of other stuff to do

Immoral Shoulders: too forward for their own good?

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There seems to be a  developing debate between ‘shoulders shrugged’ and ‘shoulders down with external arm rotation’ when overhead squatting, or hanging from a bar. As happens, too often. a therapist decides that their simplistic view of the world is “king” and attempts to foist it on others. The explanations they give often seem credible as they have quite good anatomical knowledge .

Here are some ideas and observations: I dont claim to be right. I do claim to be inspired by Greg Glassman and all those who teach the level 1 certification. The  Crossfit gift is  it’s encouragement  to think.

At first glance the debate seems to be about the elevation of the shoulder; and that,  by implication is wrong and bad (sorry, I have  a very childlike view of the world; wrong and bad, nice and good!
)So when I heard the advice ‘shoulders down’, I panicked (I do this  a lot; I’m 50 and already practising to be a bewildered OAP)In a real world, a pull up from the ground begins with shoulders elevated (especially if you are small and the bar/branch is high). We train the pull up because it is functional. It lifts us up from unfriendly places towards, hopefully, friendlier places; out of rivers onto the bank, from the ground into trees. The hang is a totally natural move and part of our physiology. An elevated shoulder girdle is, surely, part of the reaching-up process.

The shrug has also been part of physical training for many years. Paul Kelso produces an excellent book (Kelso’s Shrug book) which details (too) many types of shrugs.

But Jeff Martone  said in his Kettlebell Certification, “Pull your shoulder down when Turkish get-upping”, er, people” (he does that a lot). This didn’t make sense to me. If something is bearing down on me, I naturally push back (this is probably a psychological thing that  few years in therapy could sort out.  Its also the basis of an anti- welsh sheep joke)

I though about Olympic lifting, and as a result of an hour watching You Tube (and bearing in mind different camera angles and musculature) I’d subjectively say 80% had ‘active shoulders’ while attempting to shove their shoulders up.

However, on the cover of Kono’s book,” Weightlifting, Olympic style (a world champion)”, Kono’s shoulders appear to be down and packed. However the text states he ‘uses traps violently in his pulls’ and suggests you ‘should be fighting against the compressive force that the arms and body are subjected to by exerting a counter force to stretch as tall as possible and at the same time, pushing the bar as high as possible’.

Greg Everett was in his book  olympic weightlifting, is anti packing ( see page 61, 62), so well and truely on the side of the shruggers.

Then I saw an article by Craig Liebenson “ Y exercise for correcting the most common faulty movement pattern of the shoulder/neck region” (J body work 2011 15, 391-394)

“in the upper back . shoulder girdle  or neck area  the key faulty movement is an abnormal  scapulohumeral rhythm. this causes the shoulder girdle to shrug up towards the ears and results in increased neck/shoulder muscle tension, rounded shoulders and forward head posture. these are the hall marks of dysfunction which predispose to either pain or loss of athletic performance”

His  key solution is to learn how to “pack the shoulder”:

Then I started thinking. Up to now my thinking (above) had been  that of a  tearful 4 year old, “he said, then  she said  then he said…sob”

If you have been taught   how to squat properly its the same shoulder position as for the deadlift and the front squat: Shoulders back and  down ( not pinched!) There’s a natural place for them which make  you look as if you have  a noble posture and are worth procreating with ( probably what the therapists mean by packed)

Noble, shoulders down..good breeding stock…

If  from this position you shrug, or overhead squat, when you shrug your shoulders, they elevate nicely, they dont roll over. and here  I think is the main cause of the confusion.

unless the set up is correct, and especially if the trainee has rounded shoulders( and a forward head posture)

dont stoop.. and dont carry this into your physical training

The upward driving shrug becomes  a functionally misconceived  and misdirected forward roll of the scaplua,  no doubt lured by a tight and cheeky  pec minor( along with its tight chest cronies, the pec major, the subclavicular, and tight intercostals  under some  locked down fascia) thus changing the direction of the glenoid fossa into  in a sub optimal position could probably result in injury.

the immoral shoulder.. shoulder too forward

In short, there is nothing wrong with the core crossfit cue  of “try to get your shoulders into your ears”  Firstly Remember cues are quick  “fun” summaries. After all “hips, hips hips”  or the often heard “iipsipsipsips” doesn’t really summarized hip extension, so shoulders in ears isnt  the whole story.

i wonder if the better advise is to set the shoulders back and down, and then, as long as the movement is in that plan, its ok to shrug?

At Crossfit London we have always been lucky, We have always had the coaching point “kittens” to guide our training and shrugging: You want to bounce the (2)  sleeping kittems (the ones on your shoulder) straight up and off, not off to the front. For the overhead squat, raise those kittens as high as possible gets properly set shoulders to  engage and brace against the weight to come in the overhead squat and snatch: Up is, by the way, up there, not towards me… good job!

Feedback much appreciated.

Some Extra Research Observations

While researching this, I came across some interesting articles and observations

1) Median nerve and Overactive traps

There is much concern about the constant elevated positioning of the shoulder girdle., this can be due to the  preconditioning  of the median  nerve . the upper trap becomes over active to reduce tension in the median nerve, by elevating the shoulder girdle.

2) Perhaps Depression Not so Good

According to “Influence of scapular position on the pressure pain threshold of the upper trapezius muscle region “ 2008 (European journal of pain)  a position of scapula depression ( could that be scapula packing) will maintain the upper trapezius muscle region in a lengthened position, causing excessive strain. Hmm, Put that in your theraputic pipe, but don’t smoke , it as it will ruin your karma..

3) Single arms

interestingly, many commentators on  shoulder function, were  based on open chain activity, tennis, swimming, dumbbell where the movement has instability,,, unlike a pull up, bar, which is locked…..Im not sure if this means anything, but thought i mention it.

.
4) The Upper tarpezius Does not elevate the shoulder !!!
check out  “Anatomy and Actions of the Trapezius Muscle,” by Johnson and Bogduk, et al., nicely reviewed by Warren hammer. The Upper Traps, dont elevate.

Who Knew

 

Crossfit injury rates

andrewstemler Leave a comment

At any time, somewhere in the world, an inadequate sport scientist or deluded therapist is about to initiate another defective study on injury and injury rates in CrossFit.

Let’s face it; if they didn’t tag their post as “CrossFit Injuries ” no one would care, no one would look at it. It would go as un-noticed as it actually deserved.

As CrossFitters, we are fascinated by injury rates but appalled by poor and shoddy sports science and therapy babble. The major problem is this: in CrossFit, as in life, unless there is a fall or an accident, most injuries are simply  “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

Normally, clients tweak their back because they misuse their back all the time.  To push this proposition into the light, and to be a  bit silly,  if a client leaves a sports session, goes to hospital and is diagnosed with cancer, no one seriously suggests that the sport session gave them cancer.

Often, injury reviews make no attempt to correctly trace the aetiology of injury. Often, bad form is a result of constant poor posture, not of failure under fatigue. According to McGill, injury is often the result of a long term misuse and reduction in capacity. The actual activity that brings on a bad back is something as innocuous as brushing your teeth.

But there are lots of issues in studying CrossFit and injuries: what does CrossFit mean?  Often, in what passes as the literature, the implication is that injury is a result of high rep induced fatigue.  However at CrossFit London, for example, we have gymnastics, periodised strength sessions and Olympic weightlifting sessions, many of which are carried out at ” normal ” speeds.

If I tweak a knee in a back flick landing, at CrossFit London, is that a CrossFit injury?

Let’s explore an injury. One of my recent ones!

I’ve tweaked my right wrist and it hurts. It started the day after I missed a snatch. Is CrossFit to blame?  I was training on my own, at a very lazy pace. Was that injury caused by the poor snatch or the fact that my right upper limb always tries to compensate for my left side?  Why? Because I’m deaf in my right ear, meaning that I sleep with my left ear on the pillow, which means that for 55 years I’ve slept on my left arm, every night, which has weakened it.

So, was it those factors or the fact that I decided to solidly practice handstand walking for 9 days in a row?  Can any of this be laid at CrossFit’s door, apart from the fact that it was CrossFit which inspired me to improve myself?

Hak et al (2013) found that 73.5% of  CrossFitters had sustained an injury that prevented them from training (based on an injury rate of 3.1 per 1000 hours trained, just like gymnastics and weightlifting). Weisenthal et al (2014) reported that shoulder, low back and knee injuries were most common. Low backs were commonly injured during power- lifting movements.

Frankly, I’d ask if these people sat at desks or hunched. I see more seating injuriesthan I do deadlift ones.

But, lets follow the line of thought. CrossFitters, allegedly,  injure themselves during fatiguing workouts. Doing a lot of work with an eye on the clock is, therefore, wrong.

CrossFitters, at their core, view their workout movements as work. The aim of all work is to relate the work done, with time. How long did it take?

This  holds true in academic exams, running, rugby and life. Winning performances consist of doing good work, in a faster time

I’m not so sure about sex.

As we have discovered from life, activity can fatigue. The more emails you write, the more chance of a poor phrase slipping in. Morgan et al, 2009 (not really a report, more an article) Nachemson (1965) and Dreischarf et al. (2016) all observe the possible consequences of lifting with a flexed lumbar spine. I’m surprised sitting hunched at work hadn’t given them a clue. However, GOOD NEWS . There IS money in stating the bleeding obvious.

Overhead arm movements are problematic. Impingement of the rotator cuff muscles can occur if the space between the coracoacromial arch and the humeral head is reduced (Morgan et al 2010). Defective scapular positioning could be to blame (Kibler 1998). The scapulae should retract and tilt posteriorly in order to maintain the subacromial space during an overhead arm movement.

That scapula retraction is affected by the mobility of the thoracic spine and rib cage is once again stating the bleeding obvious, but well done Strunce et al (2009) for writing it up. Years of hunching, texting, peering at computer screens mean that our overhead positions need work.

Therefore, it can be suggested that without good mobility of the thoracic spine no one should risk putting their hands over their head.

No one should stock the upper shelves of your kitchen, no curtain hanging, no singing along to rock groups or holding up your lighter at a Prog Rock gig.

There is a line of thought that demands perfection in movement, without for one second conceding that the pathway to learning good movement is poor movement.

I get to watch, weekly, people swim, play football, walk and sit. 98% do so appallingly. The better athlete starts with poor movement and develops. The poor athlete is happy with more poor movement.

I don’t mind sport science hysteria, but the dangerous sports are contact ones; Rugby, boxing, jumping of cliffs with bits of cloth tied around some sticks. See this BBC Article.  I should say that I boxed and loved it: I personally don’t like sports that make me focus on a ball then encourage someone to pull my legs away or high tackle me.

Maybe I’m a coward.

I suspect if we really analysed injury, it would correlate with long term poor form. What identifies it is the health drive of the sub group. Casual pub footballers, probably won’t spend the money to see a  therapist. The average CrossFitter, passionate about their sport, will see a therapist to get back to fitness asap.

So what is the applicable morality here? If someone moves badly, should we ban them? If you walk poorly, taking 10,000 steps surely has a higher risk factor than lifting a bar 45 times. Sitting for 8 to 12 hours is, surely, more dangerous that a kipping pull up. Running to get a ball and crashing into a team member, or falling off skis, has a real risk of death. Maybe you can tweak a shoulder if you miss a muscle up.

According to my good friend Dale Saran: “You have to accept a risk of injury as a reality of playing a sport, or just living a life. A 100-percent safe exercise has a zero percent chance of getting you fit. It’s you sitting on the couch with a helmet and kneepads on.” I sort of agree, but I’d say “sitting on the couch with a helmet and kneepads on” is the most dangerous thing you can do. Sitting is  basically suicide for those who like to do things slowly (and watch TV in the process).

I suspect that  mental attitude has a role in all this. Frequently, aggressive people injure themselves. This is from a blog post: “Determined to perform well, he doubled down on his training, working out twice a day, upping his max dead lift to 375 pounds and doing 53 pull-ups at a time. The tough regimen took its toll – tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, shoulder woes, knee pain, a persistent trick in his neck”

I think aggressive people have always injured themselves.

~So what are we to do? As Crossfit London, the UK’s 1st ever Crossfit affiliate we have a duty to lead the way in this research as,f rankly, those sport scientists that have  looked at injury rate in crossfit  are not up to the task. Im sure there are great  sports scientists out there btw. We intend to carefully record all of our injuries over the next year and  review the back ground and nail the aetiology. We will, where possible interview the  injured client, the coach and any witnesses.

So if you injure yourself, don’t be surprised if you get a very inquisitive email from me or one  the Crossfit London sports injury team.

Just sayin

 

References

“Consortium for Health and Military Performance and American College of Sports Medicine Consensus Paper on Extreme Conditioning Programs in Military Personnel”   Bergeron et al.

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_111200_Bergeron_Champ.pdf

Injury Rates and Profiles of Elite Competitive Weightlifters
Gregg Calhoon J Athl Train. 1999 Jul-Sep; 34(3): 232–238

Dreischarf M, Aboulfazl SA, Arjmand N, Rohlmann A, Schmidt H. Estimation of loads on human lumbar spine: a review of in vivo and computational model studies. J Biomech. 2016;49(6):833-45.

Gross ML, Brenner SL, Esformes I, Sonzogni JJ. Anterior shoulder instability in weight lifters. Am J Sports Med.1993;21(4):599-603.

Hak P, Hodzovic E, Hickey B. The nature and prevalence of injury during crossfit training. J Strength Cond Res. 2013; DOI:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000318. [Published ahead of print]

Kibler BW. The role of the scapula in athletic shoulder function. Am J Sports Med.1998;26(2):325-337.

Morgan WE, Feil C. Cross-Fitness injury prevention: Protecting the lumbar disc in squatting motions [online]. California; Dynamic Chiropractic; 2009 [last updated Oct 2009; cited 2016 March 23]. URL: http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54148

Morgan WE, Feil C. The Importance of the Thoracic Spine in Shoulder Mechanics [online]. California; Dynamic Chiropractic; 2010 [last updated May 2010; cited 2016 March 23]. URL: http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=54622

Nachemson AL. In vivo discometry in lumbar discs with irregular nucleograms. Acta Orthop Scand. 1965;36(4):426

Neviaser TJ. Weight lifting: risks and injuries to the shoulder. Clinical Sports Medicine.1991;10:615-621.

Strunce JB, Walker MJ, Boyles RE, Young BA. The immediate effects of thoracic spine and rib manipulation on subjects with primary complaints of shoulder pain. J Man Manip Ther. 2009;17(4):230- 236.

Weisenthal BM, Beck CA, Maloney MD, DeHaven KE, Giordano BD. Injury rate and patterns among crossfit athletes. Orthop J Sports Med. 2014;2(4): 2325967114531177

http://ojs.sagepub.com/content/2/4/2325967114531177.full

 

The Buteyko control Pause breathing test

andrewstemler 3 Comments

Dr. Buteyko developed a test to measure depth of breathing and consequent retention of carbon dioxide, resultant oxygenation and health. He named it the ‘Control Pause‘ breathing test. Get yourself a clock or stop-watch & try for yourself:

  1. Sitting down, close your mouth and breathe normally through the nose for  30 seconds
  2. Take a normal breath in through your nose
  3. Allow a normal breath out through your nose
  4. Gently close your nose with thumb & forefinger and start to count the seconds on the clock
  5. When you first feel the need to breathe, release the nose and take a breath through the nose
  6. Remember to keep your mouth closed throughout

The number of seconds that elapsed is your Control Pause. Less than 10 seconds, and you have health problems. Less than 25, your health needs attention. 30-40 seconds is satisfactory, while 60+ seconds is excellent.

Here are some more  tests based on breathing out, then timing (thanks to conscious breathing.com for the summary)

Exercise 2 – hold your breath while walking

 

    • Step 1 Sit down in an upright position, with your back straight, and relax for a few minutes.
    • Step 2 Stand up and take a small breath in and a small breath out in a calm way through your nose (approx. 2-3 seconds on inhalation and approx. 2-3 seconds on exhalation).
    • Step 3 Pinch your nose after the exhalation is finished and hold your breath and start walking while counting the number of steps you take.
    • Step 4 When you are not able to hold your breath any longer, let go of your nose, inhale and exhale calmly through your nose and note how many steps you took. Try to wind down by breathing calmly as soon as possible.

 

Health status Hold breath sitting Hold breath walking
No symptoms, optimum health 60 seconds 120+ steps
Very good health, most symptoms are completely gone 40 seconds 80-100 steps
Good health, symptoms present when exposed to a trigger 30 seconds 60-80 steps
Symptoms are often present 20 seconds 40-60 steps
Many different symptoms always present 10 seconds 20-40 steps
Medications, diseases, very heavy breathing 3-5 seconds 10-20 steps
Dead 0 seconds 0 steps

I chat  more about breathing and CO2 here

New military fitness test

andrewstemler Leave a comment

I should be cock a hoop today.

The functional fitness movement I brought to the UK in 2005 has finally made the military  change its basic fitness tests to some pretty  awesome functional fitness tests,

Read all about  the fantastic crawling, lifting, hauling here. The BBC do a lovely job

They have, of course abandoned the old tests. Gone is  the Cooper test, gone are push ups and pull ups. There are lots of example of basically an aerobic test plus some muscular endurance . Look here 

This in my opinion, as a trainer of 20 ish years is wrong.

The better trainer , takes a regime and adds to it. The poorer trainer throws the baby out with the bath water every time a change is made, they ignore everything they learned before and launches forward with the new stuff.

Why not do the functional fitness test Plus the aerobic tests, plus the muscular endurance tests.

Well, Ive said it.

 

Workplace related violence

andrewstemler Leave a comment

Whilst lots of people claim to understand workplace violence, its as well to get your head around the basic statistical picture.

Here is is, from the horses mouth

The HSE report on workplace violence

Violence is rarely out of the blue. It often has a clear pathway of development.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

For help with your London  security and self defence needs, drop me an email

Andrew@crossfitlondonuk.com

Breath holding C02 and stuff

andrewstemler 2 Comments

The problem , or joy, of fitness is that it often can, or should, take you back to those basic physics, chemistry and biology lessons you had at school.

When discussing aerobic and anaerobic fitness, these days, you’ll quickly come across the bohr effect, whether or not  you actually remember it. And you should.

The Bohr effect, according to wikipedia

” increases the efficiency of oxygen transportation through the blood. After hemoglobin binds to oxygen in the lungs due to the high oxygen concentrations, the Bohr effect facilitates its release in the tissues, particularly those tissues in most need of oxygen. When a tissue’s metabolic rate increases, so does its carbon dioxide waste production. When released into the bloodstream, carbon dioxide forms bicarbonate and protons through the following reaction:

{\displaystyle {\ce {CO2 + H2O <=> H2CO3 <=> H+ + HCO3^-}}}{\displaystyle {\ce {CO2 + H2O <=> H2CO3 <=> H+ + HCO3^-}}}

Although this reaction usually proceeds very slowly, the enzyme carbonic anhydrase (which is present in red blood cells) drastically speeds up the conversion to bicarbonate and protons.[2] This causes the pH of the blood to decrease, which promotes the dissociation of oxygen from haemoglobin, and allows the surrounding tissues to obtain enough oxygen to meet their demands. In areas where oxygen concentration is high, such as the lungs, binding of oxygen causes haemoglobin to release protons, which recombine with bicarbonate to eliminate carbon dioxide during exhalation. These opposing protonation and deprotonation reactions occur at an equal rate, resulting in little overall change in blood pH.

The Bohr effect enables the body to adapt to changing conditions and makes it possible to supply extra oxygen to tissues that need it the most. For example, when muscles are undergoing strenuous activity, they require large amounts of oxygen to conduct cellular respiration, which generates CO2 (and therefore HCO3− and H+) as byproducts. These waste products lower the pH of the blood, which increases oxygen delivery to the active muscles. Carbon dioxide is not the only molecule that can trigger the Bohr effect. If muscle cells aren’t receiving enough oxygen for cellular respiration, they resort to lactic acid fermentation, which releases lactic acid as a byproduct. This increases the acidity of the blood far more than CO2 alone, which reflects the cells’ even greater need for oxygen. In fact, under anaerobic conditions, muscles generate lactic acid so quickly that pH of the blood passing through the muscles will drop to around 7.2, which causes haemoglobin to begin releasing roughly 10% more oxygen.[2]

The net result of this is an increasing interest in the management and training of Co2 tolerance.  as according to Conscious breathing.com CO2  has many important functions

  • Antibacterial. A study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden showed that the growth of staphylococci was 1,000 times higher when the bacteria were exposed to normal air for 24 hours, compared with exposure to air saturated with 100 percent CO2.
  • Increased oxygenation. Carbon dioxide forces the oxygen to leave the blood so it can enter into our muscles and organs and be of use. This is called the Bohr effect, ( you see, it was worth reading that paragraph)
  • Widens smooth muscles. CO2 has a widening and relaxing effect on our smooth muscles. These muscles are found in our blood vessels, stomach, intestines, bladder, and womb can’t be controlled by our will.

Naturally the alternative health market claims loads of extra things: increased CO2 tolerance cleans the skin, cures cancer, boosts digestion, cures/prevents dementia, builds your bones, blah, blah, so  this  accounts for the focus on breathing in witchcraft , various religions and yoga,

However, wild claims aside, Who knew. the hippies were right.

So to start you off, here is an interesting totally safe way to start, its called  4 count breathing. Simply inhale to a count of four, hold for a count of four, exhale for a count of four, and hold with empty lungs for a count of four. and build up the time you do this. Free diving had introduced many more periodisation types of  breathing exercises but you need to be cautious when doing them especially if you are competitive and inclined to try and hold you breath for 3 minutes out of the blue,  ” cause i heard that was a good figure”

Obviously, I’ll guide you through  effective  breathing and  help you build up your C02 tolerance

 

contact Andrew@crossfitlondonuk.com

Small cafes should publish calorie content of their food

andrewstemler Leave a comment

According to todays telly, there are moves a foot to make small cafes and  food bars publish  (or display) the  calorie value of the food they serve.

To my surprise , the story wasn’t “about time” it was”poor small traders who will go bankrupt because they  have to workout the calorie value of the food they serve”

The poor dears.

I’d suggest that if you have a decent menu range , think old fashioned greasy spoon cafe, it could take,  maybe 2 hours to knock up this info. The reality is, if you don’t know the calorie value of the food you serve, maybe, you shouldn’t be dishing it up.

There are hundreds of easy to use calorie calculating resources.

We know we have an obesity crisis. We need to start dealing with it.

 

But what if your back pain is extension based

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Too many of us are obsessed with  flexion driven back disorders. Which  is fair because most cases of back pain  are flexion based.  However, not all of them are. Some are because you are over extended, and frankly, you need some  careful flexion in your life, and back.
Until I produce a good guide, here are some useful thoughts  from
https://tonygentilcore.com/2014/01/extension-based-back-pain-b/
why not join the backaholic mailing list
 

Get to 12, drop down to 8, and build up!

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This is a handy ” how to increase the weight you should use” tip.

It’s the biggest draw back of exercise regimes that they forget to increase the stress of the exercise. Once you are used to it, the exercise is no longer an exercise, its just an activity.

The body needs to be challenged so you often need to vary exercise type, angles, type of kit used, but also, often, the weight used.

One of the easiest ways to increase the effectiveness is to increase the weight used. That’s ok, but when do you “up the weight”?

If I’m building some muscle mass  for my clients, I suggest this:

Find the weight you can do 12 reps with. Once you hit 12 reps, up the weight. Aim to find a weight you can get to 8 reps with. Over the next few sessions, build up to 12 reps again (using the same weight) then,  once you hit 12 reps,   up the weight. Expect to get to 8 reps again., build to 12 reps, and so on.

To be clear I have clients starting out with a bicep curl: we find what they can do 12 with say 6kg. So we now increase to 7kg, If they can do 12 reps, we up it again, but maybe, for example, going to 8kg becomes hard. Maybe they can only do 8kg for 8 reps. Great. The task is now to increase the reps from 8 to 12. Once they hit 12 reps, up the weight again?

Hope that helps

My name is Andrew Stemler and Im a City and East London Personal trainer. Email me at andrew@andrewstemler.com