Archives for Muscles category
I keep running across articles that deal with strengthening the stabilizer muscles. The authors correctly bring out that stabilizer muscles need to be strong to allow for safe, effective and well coordinated movement.
But, can you isolate stabilizer muscles? If you look in any anatomy book you will not even find a category for stabilizer muscles. However, muscles can act as stabilizers when a movement is performed.
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There was still another exercise article in the San Diego Union Tribune that left much to be desired. They describe an exercise in which you begin standing with your hands flat on the ground, legs straight, and then inch your hands away from the body until you are in a full plank position. You then do three push-ups and return by inching your way back home to the original position.
According to the article, this exercise involves the shoulders, triceps, pecs and hamstrings. It definitely involves the first three but it does not involve the hamstrings. It does however, strongly involve the abdominal muscles, which were omitted. Read more… »
Many articles extol the need for balancing the muscles. Much of this is warranted. The problem lies in how to do this and when it should be done. In some cases it is necessary to look at what actually constitutes an imbalance.
For example, many people recommend balancing the quads and hamstrings with a one-to-one ratio. This however, is not substantiated by kinesiologists who maintain that is necessary to look at the size of the muscle as well as its function, i.e., what actions does it perform? Read more… »
Many runners believe that by running more and/or running faster, their legs become stronger. To a limited extent this is true, but if you do not run at a faster speed all the time, or at least at the same speed, the strength that you gained will soon be lost.
Also important to keep in mind that every time you increase your speed of running, if you do not have the strength to withstand the forces that are involved in each touchdown, then you are opening yourself up for injury. Understand that you do not increase strength during the run. Increases in strength occur afterward during recovery but only if there was sufficient overload to bring about super compensation. Read more… »
Many strength coaches typically recommend multi-joint exercises such as the squat, bench press, overhead press, power clean and others for development of the major muscles. By major muscles I mean the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, pectoralis major, quadriceps, and latissimus dorsi.
Thus it stands to reason that the development of these major muscles can enhance the athlete’s performance. However, it’s important to understand that as the level of development increases, the closer the athletes become in their quality of performance. At this time the victors will often be those who pay the most attention to the nuances or details of their development. Read more… »
When doing the lateral arm raise, coaches and trainers recommend raising the arms only to the level position. However, stopping when the arms are horizontal can create tightness in the shoulder and may lead to shoulder impingement.
Typically the arms are raised only to shoulder level (90 degrees) because of the relatively heavy weights that are usually used in this exercise. But, for full range development of the targeted deltoid muscle, you must raise the arms completely overhead. Read more… »
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