Tight hamstrings? I bet I can beat you!

For a long time my lifestyle, health and work have meant that I do a lot of sitting. This has had the effect of shortening my hamstrings to stupid proportions. I think I may actually need a sumo wrestler to be able to massage them loose again.

Think I am kidding? think again...If you raise your leg to waist height how tight does it feel? not too bad I bet, run your hand along the back of your thigh...how do those tendons feel? tight?

Here's mine!

You can almost hear those tendons go twangggggggg! That's as straight as I can make my leg whilst standing and raising my right leg to 90 degrees to the floor....and even then I had to prop it up on a radiator to get it that straight.

It does have its benefits, I can contract my leg a lot quicker than you would think; quicker than dumbo can say "jimny cricket!"

Its got its downsides, a lot of energy is wasted just straightening the leg - and when you are cycling thats a no-no.

So to resolve it, I'm going to use two things, Dynamic Stretching and good old fashioned stubbornness.

What is Dynamic stretching?

Basically tricking the leg into stretching further than normal. This involves gentle swings of the leg forwards and backwards gradually getting higher and higher each time. Around 10 to 15 swings on each leg should be enough. After that you start to look silly. The stretches can be done early in the morning (be careful not to force it) as this will set the length of muscle spindle for the rest of the day.

Why does it work?

This works by using the properties of muscle spindles. A muscle spindle is a sensor in a muscle that senses amount of stretch and speed of stretch. By gradually taking the leg higher and higher the muscle spindle allows it to go safely and lengthen the muscle. If the muscle is forced then a stretch reflex is initiated which causes a reflex contraction (shortening) of the muscle. This is called ballistic stretching and can damage muscles and lets face it, I don't need any help damaging my already stretched to their limits hamstrings!

Although, when you tear a tendon they tend to heal a lot looser...maybe thats an idea...

Feel free to leave a comment!

how to spot a cyclist

Ok...so its not that difficult normally, they are the ones that just shot across a red light with little regard for your, their or anyone elses personal safety. But there are ways and means of spotting them whilst they are not on the deadliest (and therefore one of the coolest) modes of transport.

Take a look here at our regular cyclist. You will note that his proportions are all wrong.

Years of sitting in the saddle have made his body adapt and do strange things. You can clearly see a lack of head hair, helmet rub and constant abuse by wind, rain, and mud - as well as the occasional trip through a hedge - have left little need for hair. The arms have grown a little longer, to be able to stave off lower back pain whilst constantly leaning forwards and to help absorb more bumps... and the legs have grown slightly shorter. The straighter the leg, the easier it is to push down on the pedal.

In case you were wondering...thats me!

Feel free to leave a comment!

Reach for the stars, you dirty animal!

Most training works on your endurance and strength. That's what you are aiming for most of the time, apart from when you want to get up short steep hills - or when you want to explode out of starting blocks.

The best way to build fast twitch muscles is by using plyometric exercises. A plyometric contraction involves first a rapid muscle lengthening movement, followed by a short resting phase, then an explosive muscle shortening movement, which enables the muscles that work together in doing the particular motion.

Things like Karate, Thai Kickboxing, Capoiera all rely on the ability to expel energy quickly. The movements, forms and training used within them all help develop tast twitch fibres. Kung Fu's tend not to rely on explosive power and instead rely on smooth movement, reading body language and technique over the strength required in the external martial arts.

So how do you know if you need to develop fast twitch muscle fibres?

Try this. Stand next to a wall, feet flat, now raise your arm so that you reach up the wall as far as you go. Mark it (mentally if you dont want to put a mark on your wall), now standing in the same position and without crouching, jump as high as you can and touch the wall with your arm upstretched again. You should be able to get at least 30cm (1ft) higher, if you can manage more then you have plenty of fast twitch fibres. If you can only manage about 10-20cm more then you need to develop the fast twitch fibres.

Fast twitch fibres get tired really quickly, exercising them wont help their stamina, however it will help the efficiency and the number of fibres, thereby making you able to explode out longer when you need to.

Feel free to leave a comment!

These shoes are made for walking..

I bet when you were buying your trainers for the gym and for exercising you went for two things over anything else. Look and Comfort. Thats great for ensuring that people might be attracted to you but not so useful if you are there to work out properly.

When you decide which shoes to wear to the gym, you should consider what exercises you will be doing. Take treadmill running for example, you need a cushioned sole with high enough grip to ensure you dont slip on the rubberised running surface. Cross country running you need shoes with a little more stability in the sole. Tennis you need ankle support for the fast turns and changes of direction.

Similarly when lifting weights or cycling, you need a solid sole. Having an air cushion in your shoes when cycling means a lot of your effort is going into compressing air instead of pushing down on the pedal. Lifting weights is even worse, each time you push a weight with the base of your foot or are doing a standing rep, your body changes its stance, balance and motion ever so slightly. You wont notice the minor instabilities but they will build up and cause you to swing the weights instead of lift/curl or press them.

Try cycling or lifting weights with a solid soled shoe, with minimal lift and padding, sure it might not be the best walking shoe in the world but then again, you aren't walking are you? I always use Lonsdale trainers - the stuff boxers wear. No, I don't think I am a boxer and don't pretend to be, but the training they go through and the rigorous years of studying to be a boxing trainer must mean something, and if they suggest those shoes then there must be some thought behind it. And they dont look too bad either...

Feel free to leave a comment!

R'n'R

No, it's not some new fangled type of House/Dance/Blues fusion music. Simple old Rest and Relaxation/Recouperation. I've written a few times about it, but I think this post will be a little different.

Rather than the old tried and tested "get away from it all" methods - which are just impractical if you have any sort of life at all. I'm trying a few things to help me rest and relax a little better.

Caffeine is never going to help you - even if you are immune to the effects of several ristretto's (ristretti is actually more correct but hey this is the InformationSuperOfficeNet after all) a day your body will still have some physical effects from all that caffeine in it. The same goes for all the other foods, drinks and chocolate you shove in there (yes chocolate is so important it deserves it's own category).

I am by no means advocating a move towards being a vegetablist - I like steaks, burgers, chicken, pork and the like too much to ever give that up. Instead there are a few techniques that might help me (and you) relax a little more without the need for inducing a deep weekend sleep with 8 pints of Stella Artois/Peroni (only if I am rich that week).

The simplest is breathing. Listen, I know we all breathe, if we didn't there would be a daily epidemic of people turning blue and falling over in offices, creches, shops and the like...but when you sit and think about it, you don't breathe deeply, you breathe the least amount that you can get away with. Social conditioning might have something to do with it (how many times did your parents say suck in that belly - was it just mine?), magazines all make us think having six packs is normal, and if you are lucky to be skinny like me then you arent helping either because you are probably making everyone else feel self conscious about their stomachs.

WARNING: First things first, switch off the iron/pots and pans/oven - there's a danger you might fall asleep when you try this.

So, to overcome the postural problem -yeah you, get yourself sat back and stop leaning over your keyboard - lie down, on a nice comfortable bed, couch, floor. Hands anywhere they feel comfortable and wont get you dirty looks from your partner. Now breathe, not like you do every day, but deep as you can start by breathing with the top of your lungs, and when you feel your rib cage wont go any further, breathe with the diaphragm so it expands out too.

There, doesnt it feel better to get loads of air into your lungs? Try it twenty or thirty times, bet you it works. I bet you it also makes you feel a lot more tired than you thought it would - who would've thought breathing was so tiring.

Oh, cripes....I forgot to say...Breathe out slowly...

Feel free to leave a comment!

I love it when a plan comes together...

Normally I spread myself out across 9 different machines in the gym after my warm up. I don't do much of a warm up as I don't want my metabolism getting into that fat burning zone. But lately I've noticed that my body isnt really getting pushed as hard as it used to. So...instead of working on all muscle groups, I've decided to break down my exercises over 2 nights instead. That way I can hit them harder than before and hopefully see better gains.

What do I mean? Well instead of doing pushing and pulling exercises in one night (and you really do have to do both types or your joints will suffer) I'm now doing only one type each night. But so as I dont leave myself totally crippled, I am working my legs on pushing on the nights my arms are pulling; and the nights my arms are pushing my legs will pull.

Why?

Think about it, when you are pulling a Lateral pull down bar, the rest of your body needs to keep you stable to work your arms properly, your abdomen, back, shoulders, chest all have to work to keep you straight and true, and if you are like me then your legs are also working to keep you from being pulled off the seat by the stack of weights.

Now thats fine normally, but say your back shoulders and triceps have already been hammered by benching that 220lbs you can do for 3 reps (read that as the 220lbs I do), when you pull down on the lateral bar, your back is going to be quivering worse than a jellyfish thats had a dodgy curry. So by splitting the pushing and pulling exercises I hope to a: keep better form, and b: lift (push/pull) heavier...

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm going to try this for a week then bump myself on to creatine - to see if that makes any difference.

Feel free to leave a comment!

Recipe for an energy packed day

Ok, so a lot of people wonder, how am I going to get through today, I normally feel sooo tired and have to hit snooze three or four times before I can wake up. There's your problem right there, the snooze button. Kill it. It should be illegal to hit snooze, but I know the temptation is there.

So in order to combat the snooze button and the sleep inertia it causes do this:

1. Make sure the alarm is out of arms reach.
2. Make sure that your room will be warm when you wake.
3. Make sure that you have slept around 6-7 hours.

Now when the alarm does ring, your will power needs to kick in right away. So, as soon as you hear it, sit up straight. Dont just lie there. That boost of energy needed to get you up will kick your body awake quicker than if someone told you Beth Ditto (no, I aint gonna link to the pictures as it will make you wish I hadn't) was gonna jump on you.

Now that you're awake...go put the shower on, while the water warms up you have two choices...get in to the cold shower (not recommended for those with a weak heart or bald head) or get some pressups done. You might be thinking that doing pressups only exercises your arms. It only does that if you are doing them wrong; a proper pressup will exercise both your arms, your core and your glutes. To keep your body straight as a plank you will have to use ALL your muscles. Can't get much better than that at 6.30am. Why? Well first of all, if you get sweaty it wont matter because you are going to have a shower, but in reality, your body will think "WTF?!?!!!" and your heart will start pumping oxygen round your body that bit quicker.

Oxygen is required to make you feel energetic. The hours you spent sleeping your body was taking on minimal oxygen, thats whats helped keep you asleep. The sudden rush of oxygen will wake you up.

You've done your 20 press ups...get in the shower and then have a good day.

Step away from the weight bench...

Ok, so you can bench 200lbs...you can leg press over 250lbs...great, you're a machine. Bet you aren't. Most people that spend all their time training on pushing exercises like that forget to remember to pull.

Pull ups. Chin ups. whatever you want to call them, you MUST balance your exercise or you will cause yourself injury through your own depth of focus and determination. Pushing exercises work specific muscles, triceps and pectorals. Over work those and underwork the deltoids and you risk unbalancing your entire shoulders... and thats when you end up with back pain.

So where do you start with chinups. Well, with a bar. Just hang from it until your fingers give out (aren't you glad you are doing this at home instead of on a cliff 100ft up)...shake out your arms...and hang out for a while more until your fingers give out...shake out your arms again and then hang out more until at last your arms give out.

Whats this doing?

You might think its not exercising your arms at all, but it is, just not the show off muscles you are used to exercising. Its strengthening your forearms and grip.

Why is that important?

Simply because everyone will laugh at you if you can bench 200lbs and can only curl 40 before your wrists and fingers give in and you drop the bar on your foot. When you have a stronger grip, you will be able to exercise the muscles in your upper arm a lot more successfully as you wont feel the temptation to throw the weight up by swinging your body to compensate for the feeling that your fingers are slipping.

Another way to strengthen the wrists and forearms is to use a triangle press up, do 3 sets of 5 to start with - trust me its a lot harder than you think and build up to 3 sets of 10-15. You should notice a big change in your strength.