When it comes to yoga, one of the most popular and recommended YouTube channels is that of Yoga With Adriene, who currently has 8.42 million followers on the site. They also have a LOT of videos, so many
Wednesday 7 October 2020
Friday 11 September 2020
Triceps Dips
The full triceps dip is an advanced exercise that when performed correctly is one of the best exercises for the triceps muscle especially in calisthenics. It also hits the front of the shoulders and chest muscles making a great compound movement.
Unlike triceps bench dips, which require your feet to be supported, unaided dips utilise the full effect of gravity on your body to create the resistance, which can be increased with weight added such as with a dipping belt or weighted vest.
Wednesday 3 June 2020
When opposites contract - muscle partners
For every movement your body makes, a combination of muscle contractions occur. For each of these contractions there is a relaxation in the opposite muscle. Welcome to the world of muscle pairs.
Virtually all muscles have an opposite. When a muscle is contracting it is known as the agonist. When it contracts, it causes its opposite muscle, the antagonist, to relax. For example if you flex your biceps, its opposite the triceps relaxes. If you flex your triceps the biceps relaxes. This is something called reciprocal inhibition
The basics of agonist/antagonist muscle action. Picture from DifferenceBetween.com
So why should you care about this? Read on...
Table of contents
Supersets and alt-sets
Knowing your prime antagonist helps in the creation of effective supersetting or alt-setting if you goals are not hypertrophy or endurance. Supersetting is were you perform two exercises back to back. If you are seeking hypertrophy or looking to exhaust a particular muscle, then agonist supersets such as bench press followed by chest flyes, is the way to go. Alt-setting is where you are doing two exercises alternatingly, not necessarly as a supeset, but as a way to save time.
If you are not going for bodybuilding or the like, then agonist-antagonist supersetting or alt-setting provides the benefit of the second exercise (focusing on the antagonist muscle to the first exercise) causing reciprocal inhibition, meaning your prime agonist muscle from the first exercise relaxes and stretches, helping improve its recovery between sets.
Stretching
Antagonist-stretching is an effective form of muscle stretching whether it is done actively or passively.
An example of actively stretching your hamstrings is by raising your knee up and extending your leg at the knee. This contracts your quadriceps causing your hamstrings to relax and stretch. This kind of active movement is believed to be better for increasing range of motion and flexibility in the stretched muscle.
You could also do this passively, by flexing the antagonist muscle if possible whilst stretching.
Clenching your quadriceps whilst stretching your hamstrings, can allow you to go deeper into the stretch. Picture from Sports Injury Clinic
Interestingly you can mix it up with a form of strectching that seems contrary to the point of reciprocal inhibition. It is antagonist static stretching. An example is if you are doing biceps curls, then you would stretch your triceps between sets. Research shows that this form of stretch can cause an increase of repetitions and agonist activiation during the exercise.
Split routines
Knowing your muscle pairs helps in the devising of more effective split routines. If you train chest and triceps primarily on what you might call a "push" day, then the next session you train upper back and biceps on a "pull" day. This allows you to avoid overloading the previously worked out muscles whilst given them a stretch through reciprocal inhibition.
Devise more effective and efficient split routines. Picture from The Fitness Bible
Muscle pairs
It can be quite confusing matching up each specific muscle to its opposite especially when certain actions call different muscles or parts of a muscle into action or relaxation. Thus I'll try to keep this as simple as possible by basing it on the primary motions, common exercises for those motions and the primary muscles. Keeping it simple also helps for devising agonist-antagonist muscle pairings for supersets or split sessions amongst other things.
Action
Exercises
Agonist
Antagonist
Spinal flexion
Sit-ups, hollow holds
Rectus abdominus
Erector spinae
Spinal extension
Back extensions, good mornings
Erector spinae
Rectus abdominus
Horizontal flexion
Press-ups, bench-press
Pectoralis major
Rhomboids, trapezius (mid)
Horizontal extension
Cable rows, seated rows
Rhomboids, trapezius (mid)
Pectoralis major
Elbow flexion
Bicep curls, chin-ups
Biceps
Triceps
Elbow extension
Dips, triceps extensions
Triceps
Biceps
Shoulder flexion
Pull-ups, pull-downs
Latissimus dorsi
Deltoids
Shoulder extension
Shoulder press
Deltoids
Latissimus dorsi
Knee flexion
Hamstring curls
Hamstrings
Quadriceps
Knee extension
Leg extensions
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Hip flexion
Bent-knee leg raise, hanging-knee raise
Iliopsoas
Gluteus maximus
Hip extension
Hip thrusters
Gluteus maximus
Iliopsoas
Ankle flexion
(Dorsiflexion)
Banded foot pulls
Tibialis-anterior
Gastrocnemius, soleus
Ankle extension
(Plantar flexion)
Calf-raises
Gastrocnemius, soleus
Tibialis-anterior
Lombard's paradox
Now whilst we know how muscles are meant to work and the effect they have on their opposite muscle, there is a interesting circumstance known as Lombard's paradox where this goes out the window. Lombard's paradox is where both the agonist and antagonist activate at the same time, this is commonly seen when standing up from a seated or squatting position.
Recap
Knowing the antagonist muscle to that which you are working out allows you to fine tune your training in various ways. Whether it be more effective alternating sets, stretches, or split routines. Whilst the musculoskeletal system is highly complex and there are a multitude of different muscles and muscle heads activating in any given movement, each with their own antagonist, exercises can be broken down into their prime agonist and the primary antagonist.
If you have any questions then feel free to ask away in the comments or send me some feedback!
Saturday 16 May 2020
Should you RICE RICE baby?
A staple of injury healing, the RICE methodology has been around since Sportsmedicine Book was released in 1978. It is an acronym for Rest Ice Compress and Elevate and is the go to response when someone suffers an injury.
We've all either used it ourselves or been told by a doctor or physio to. Yet over the years it has come under ever more scrutiny with even the doctor who first came up with the RICE method, Dr. Gabe Mirkin, decades later changing his view on the Rest and Ice parts of it as they can actually delay your recovery.
Table of contents
Movement over rest
Resting your injury makes a lot of sense. With more rest then it will heal better, right? Well, depending on the type of injury and your stage of recovery no it turns out.
If the injury is not a fracture, spinal or a catastrophic injury, then movement is necessary in the recovery process. In fact too much rest can be detrimental.
In 1996, doctors Jim and Phil Wharton released The Wharton's Stretch Book, which argued that movement rather than rest should be performed on an injury. The key reasons being that:
- Rest causes the muscle to be inactive, thus shutting down and restricting blood flow.
- Immobilisation of a muscle caused it and everything around it such as tendons and ligaments to atrophy (get smaller).
- Muscular-imbalances due to compensations the body needs to make to get around an injured atrophied area.
- That movement at a muscle or joint encouraged "blood flow to oxygenate the area and flush out metabolic waste from the injury".
- Any careful and gentle movement no matter how small was good for helping improve range of motion after an injury.
Restricting movement could lead to delayed recovery. Picture from Industrial Health & Hygiene News
On the reverse side however too much movement, such as continuing on as normal or trying too much too soon, can exacerbate the injury and increase inflammation. This itself can lead to the injury being stuck in a chronic inflammation phase preventing recovery resulting in tissue atrophy etc. If it hurts or feels strenuous then you're doing too much too soon.
Warmth over ice
The Wharton's despite their recommendation to substitute movement for rest, still agreed with icing the injured area. Other's however have come out against this part of the RICE protocol including its inventor.
On Dr. Mirkin's website is his article Why Ice Delays Recovery, first published in 2015. A highlight of the key points include:
- Ice treatment causes blood vessels to constrict and close. These took many hours to reopen deceasing blood flow.
- This could cause nerve damage and even tissue death.
- Ice and cold packs reduced inflammation, which also delays healing.
- Icing for more than 5 minutes reduces a person's strength, speed, endurance and coordination.
Picture from Pressure Washer's Bible
According to Muscle Injuries: Biology and Treatment, published in American Journal of Sports Medicine (vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 745-764, 2005), no randomised clinical trials have proven the effectiveness of icing an injury to aid recovery. This was backed up by a meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine of 22 separate studies on the effects of ice on acute muscle strains.
Alternative to RICE?
There is one alternative to RICE that seems to be gaining traction - MEAT. This acronym stands for:
- Movement - Gentle movement to help encourage blood flow, improve range of motion, as well to ensure scar tissue forms in proper alignment. Helps prevent atrophy.
- Exercise - Controlled and specifically prescribed to progressively improve range of motion and strength.
- Analgesics - For pain relief, however not NSAIDs. Natural pain relief has been suggested as more beneficial.
- Treatment - A long term solution, such as physiotherapy, to aid in successfully recovering from the injury.
Would you like a side of meat or rice with your injury, sir?
Of course this applies to non-acute injuries. The RICE protocol still has merit when it comes to helping reduce swelling and pain in serious injuries such as fractures, torn ligaments etc. though once the injury has settled MEAT comes into play.
Recap
If the injury is not a serious one then resting it can be detrimental to the injured area and prolong your recovery. It can lead to atrophy of the affected area and a loss of strength as well as imbalances.
In regards to icing, it is good for pain relief and reducing inflammation, especially in the immediate aftermath of an injury, however it also delays the recovery process and can actually cause tissue death and nerve damage.
MEAT on the other hand helps encourage the healing process whilst maintaining tissue health, yet RICE does have its place for helping with acute injuries. Thus after four decades RICE would seem to have had its day in certain aspects with MEAT appearing to be the way to go... unless of course you're a vegetarian or vegan.
Saturday 2 May 2020
Site Update
As some of you may have noticed, over the past two weeks this site has gone through quite a few changes, the result of my overhaul of its design and functionality.
Amongst other things the
