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Learning how to breathe in your torso not only makes you stronger under heavy load, it also lets you relax under chaotic situations. Breathing in your torso paves the way for a stronger "brace" and thereby a stiff core and body to support heavier loads. Breathing deep into your belly helps you "ground" yourself - relax, reassess and respond rather than react.
The bigger and stronger your posterior chain muscles(Upper back, lats, glutes, hamstrings) are, the stronger, faster and more athletic you tend to get. Your anterior or front part of the body is how you "express" yourself. Eg. you display power from the front of your body. This is only possible if you have a stronger base off which you can express yourself. In this case the stronger base is your back portion or posterior chain of the body.
An amazing looking body is a byproduct of a well designed goal based functional training program and nutrition program. When you train with 100% effort and dedication using a workout program which is simple to follow, has a progression model built into it and takes into account flexibility and recovery, overtime you will start to notice your body changing as per your training and the effort you've put in.
You can only train as hard as you can recover. So if think longer workout sessions and shorter sleeping hours will make you successful, think again! You training program must take into account your life's stressors and should always have regular rest days built in. It should also be flexible enough to tone down the intensity when you're not feeling it.
There is almost always a safer exercise variation that gets you the same benefits. There are no mandatory exercises. You don't need to use the straight bar for squat, bench press and deadlift. They could be effective for overall strength and health but there are safer variations you can do using other equipment and body positions.
Bodyweight exercises could be the safest and independent way of building strength and muscle by manipulating levers of the body. No need to worry if you're stuck with little to no equipment when travelling or home locked in a pandemic scenario. You body doesn't understand equipment, it knows "tension". It overcomes tension to get stronger. There are 1000s of ways you can manipulate your body levers to increase tension and build strength and muscle in the safest manner.
If you run a lot, you need a solid foundation of strength and stability to maintain proper mechanics esp. for longer distances. Early on, you can run a lot, run and only run. Overtime, your body tends to get into a pattern and starts to compensate. Eg. In longer distance running, it is seen in studies that your hip starts to rotate internally due to weakness and lack of free movement(read lot of sitting and poor posture). This places a lot of pressure on the patella tendon of the knee which slowly starts to pain as you run more. A good supplement to running should be a progressive strength training program which includes multi-directional movements, posterior chain strengthening, core strength and mobility
Train your abs using core exercises that resist spine movements. Not only will you get stronger, more athletic and injury free, you can see your sexy abs if your nutrition is under your control. Abs not only have the function of "curling" or "crunching" or "leg raising", the prime function of the core is to protect the spine under heavy load, speedy movements and impact. Train your core using "Anti" type movements to resist spine flexion, extension, side flexion and rotation to bulletproof your body. Obviously, to see your chiseled mid-section you need to eat below your maintenance calories and increase protein.
Your lower back, knee and shoulder pain is most often due to tighter muscles surrounding the joint. Due to a lot of sitting and overloading our bodies under certain patterns, we tend to lock certain movements which lead to tighter muscles. For example, due to a lot of sitting and then working with your hands in front of you and then driving your car again in front of you and then eating food kept in front of you, you develop a pattern overload. This causes poor posture (a rounded upper back), weaker shoulder rotators (rotator cuffs) and gradually shoulder pain. This can be reduced with freeing the joint using self-myofacial release or self-massage, healthier basic movement patterns and strengthening the posterior chain muscles.
Walking is one of the best exercises to lose fat and stay healthy. No matter what the HIIT gurus would argue, walking not only is the least taxing on the nervous system, it complements the heavy strength sessions and helps you recover. Plus walking a lot (base number of 8-10k steps per day) helps you reduce fat and stay leaner.
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I am Vidhu Mahana, a dual certified strength and nutrition coach and also a seasoned traveller.
For coaching inquiries, please email me at liftnwander@gmail.com or DM me on my Instagram handle @outlaw_lift
More Strength!!