Join us for this replay from the archives to learn more about effective exercise for your lower back and what can surprisingly make lower back pain worse...

In part two of the interview with Dr. James Fisher, we explore what it takes to actually strengthen the lower back and why exercises like the deadlift are not effective in targeting your lower back muscles. Find out how some people can experience significant lower back strength gain in as little as ten weeks with only 15 total minutes of muscle tension (60 to 90 seconds per week!) and why stretching without strength training can actually make your lower back pain worse.

• The lower back is a notoriously difficult to train muscle group, which is why so many people are walking around with weak lower backs that are easy to injure and irritate.
• Fisher did some research with professional athletes to measure the effectiveness of certain exercises in strengthening the lower back and found that exercises that didn’t isolate the lower back didn’t make a major impact. However, lower back isolating exercises had a greater impact over more general exercises like the deadlift.
• The lower back needs an isolation exercise and preferably one that doesn’t also load the gluteal muscles. These exercises are best done with lower back specific pieces of equipment.
• In terms of overall strength, people who do lumbar exercises see significant increases in strength. Dr. Fisher has seen lumbar strength increases as high as 200% over the course of ten weeks, as well as improved lifestyle function, with a training frequency of once per week.
• Lower back exercises are typically just one set and roughly 90 seconds of muscle tension.
• The lumbar muscles are an example of how you can use your muscles and still lose them due to the deleterious effects of aging. You need to use specific muscle fibers in a specific manner in order to build the strength in your lower back.
• Stretching can be taken too far if you are not also strengthening the muscles involved. Making your spine and back more mobile without making it stronger can make things worse for you in the long run. Things like yoga should be supplemental to a proper strength training regime.
• Lower back pain often restricts range of motion, but there are still opportunities to train the muscle group without a full extension. You can start small and expand the range as you get stronger.
• People with lower back pain also tend to be cautious about moving their lower back, especially during exercise. This is why lower back machines that control the range of motion are effective. They maintain safety and stability while loading the muscles properly.
• In terms of age, lower back exercises are suited to pretty much everyone in society except for certain individuals; ex. If you’re pregnant, a small child, or have an injured spine. Once you’ve ruled out those conditions, you can safely and confidently strengthen the lower back.
• The more we know about our body, the more we know how to fix it. Helping identify the source of lower back pain, as well as what isn’t the issue, is all part of the journey of alleviating pain and improving quality of life.

Link:

exercisecoach.com

This podcast and blog are provided to you for entertainment and informational purposes only. By accessing either, you agree that neither constitute medical advice nor should they be substituted for professional medical advice or care. Use of this podcast or blog to treat any medical condition is strictly prohibited. Consult your physician for any medical condition you may be having. In no event will any podcast or blog hosts, guests, or contributors, Exercise Coach USA, LLC, Gymbot LLC, any subsidiaries or affiliates of same, or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, or agents, be responsible for any injury, loss, or damage to you or others due to any podcast or blog content.

Join us for this replay from the archives to learn more about solving the problems causing lower back pain...

Brian Cygan and Dr. James Fisher discuss the origins of lower back pain and why the vast majority of Americans will experience some form of lower back pain in their lives. Learn about the root cause of lower back pain and why most treatments only deal with the symptoms and the pain instead of solving the problem, which often leads to even worse issues down the road.

• Fisher is an academic and researcher in the UK. He’s published research on muscular strengthening as well as lower back pain.
• Lower back pain is a constant issue for a large swath of society. According to his study, somewhere between 70% and 90% of people will experience lower back pain in their lives.
• Lower back pain can be extremely debilitating to a person’s lifestyle and sleep patterns, and can have a major impact on their mental health as well. There is also an enormous cost to society in terms of productivity.
• At the Strength Coach, we’ve found that strengthening is an important strategy to improving the quality of life of someone experiencing lower back pain.
• Chronic lower back is when it occurs for longer than three months. At that point it’s important to seek medical guidance from a physiotherapist or general practitioner.
• About 10% to 15% of people experiencing chronic lower back pain have a specific reason for it like nerve issues or a slipped disc. The remaining 85% to 90% have what’s referred to as non-specific back pain which reduces the ability to mitigate the pain.
• For many of those people, the solution is often some form of painkiller or passive treatment like stretching and massage.
• The theories about the existence of non-specific lower back pain have to do with our evolution from quadrupeds in the past. The muscles around the lower back don’t tend to get much direct exercise and there seems to be a correlation between non-specific lower back pain and weak or atrophied lumbar muscles.
• The muscles that are more intrinsic to the spine over time, as we live a normal life, can atrophy as a result of not using them in a specific and demanding enough way.
• For most people, their gluteal muscles and hamstrings are very developed and do a lot of the work that the muscles in the lower back should do, and this can result in those lower back muscles becoming weaker, misfiring, and causing pain.
• With non-specific back pain, strengthening the muscles in the lower back should be the foundational approach to prevent future episodes of lower back pain.
• Specific lower back exercises are important for everyone in society to maintain their strength and muscle mass in that region and avoid the onset of lower back pain. Once something negative has happened, the road to recovery gets longer.
• Your lower back is central to everything you do. Without good control of your central muscles, you cannot throw or catch or jump or move well. From there it’s a downward spiral into the realm of disability.
• An imbalance between ab strength and lower back muscle strength can be part of the problem. We want all of the muscles surrounding the core of the body to be trained effectively, and it’s the lower back muscles that tend to be forgotten.
• The weak link is usually the lumbar muscles, and this can lead to a negative feedback process, where someone avoids exercising those muscles even more to avoid the pain resulting in greater muscle atrophy.
• We have other societal factors that are also contributing to the lower back pain that so many people experience as part of their lives.

Link:

exercisecoach.com

This podcast and blog are provided to you for entertainment and informational purposes only. By accessing either, you agree that neither constitute medical advice nor should they be substituted for professional medical advice or care. Use of this podcast or blog to treat any medical condition is strictly prohibited. Consult your physician for any medical condition you may be having. In no event will any podcast or blog hosts, guests, or contributors, Exercise Coach USA, LLC, Gymbot LLC, any subsidiaries or affiliates of same, or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, or agents, be responsible for any injury, loss, or damage to you or others due to any podcast or blog content.

Join us for this replay from the archives to learn more about the importance of muscle burn...

Amy Hudson and Brian Cygan explain why that feeling of your muscles burning is exactly what you want to feel every time you go to the gym. Learn why muscle burn is one of the best indications that you’re exercising at the right intensity and without it, you won’t get the fitness results you’re looking for.

• The intensity of an exercise is crucial to achieving the fitness results you want, and the feeling of muscle burn is a positive indication of that intensity.
• Effective exercise is simply a stimulus, where you stress the body in order for it to change for the better. Effective strength training needs to be intense enough to serve as that stimulus. Labored breathing, muscle burning, and a little discomfort are necessary elements of that kind of exercise.
• If you’re not experiencing some level of discomfort when exercising you are just going through the motions and aren’t putting in enough effort to see any real results.
• The fast-twitch muscle fibers are the ones that burn during exercise and they are the main focus of high-intensity exercise. The reason they burn is because they utilize the anaerobic subsystem of metabolism.
• Fast-twitch muscle fibers store sugar in the form of glycogen, and that’s what is consumed when exercising at an adequate intensity level. Muscle burn is a sign that you’re really tapping into the stored energy of your muscles, which is a good thing and you need to do to get stronger.
• Some people have more fast-twitch muscles than others and some muscle groups have more fast-twitch muscle fibers than others.
• Our natural response to the sensation of muscle burn is to be worried, but it’s okay to keep pushing through. The burn sensation is different from pain.
• As muscles fatigue near the end of a set, that’s when coaching and encouragement are vital.
• The brain is a prediction machine, and we have to intentionally override the survival mechanisms that tell us to stop exercising and preserve some energy in order to achieve the greatest results.
• People often look to muscle soreness as an indication that the workout was effective, but it doesn’t actually correlate to results later on. Muscle burn doesn’t necessarily lead to muscle soreness afterward.
• Eccentric training doesn’t burn as much as basic strength training, but it does produce more soreness later on. Delayed onset muscle soreness occurs more at the beginning of a new program and tends to reduce over time.
• The Exerbotics equipment gives Strength Coach clients an important advantage but showing progress over time instead of relying on sensations like muscle soreness.
• If your exercise isn’t delivering any changes to your body, then it’s not intense enough.

Link:

exercisecoach.com

This podcast and blog are provided to you for entertainment and informational purposes only. By accessing either, you agree that neither constitute medical advice nor should they be substituted for professional medical advice or care. Use of this podcast or blog to treat any medical condition is strictly prohibited. Consult your physician for any medical condition you may be having. In no event will any podcast or blog hosts, guests, or contributors, Exercise Coach USA, LLC, Gymbot LLC, any subsidiaries or affiliates of same, or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, or agents, be responsible for any injury, loss, or damage to you or others due to any podcast or blog content.