Rockstar Muscles: Multifidus
Glute max, glute med, VMO.
For most athletes and regular gym goers these names are common place. Multifidus, on the other hand... Multifi-wha??
And yet, this deep core muscle is one of the most important muscles you own that nobody really knows they have.
Multifidus is a deep intrinsic stabiliser of your lumbar spine. It's very much a background muscle, quietly going about its business without any fuss, stabilising the spine as we move.
EP.73 - Shoulders: Health and Performance
Podcast 25 Minutes - The shoulder is an interesting joint that because of its extreme range of motion can create some headaches if things go wrong.
We talked today about:
- The importance of activation for the rotator cuff
- Why you even need to activate at all
- Pull vs Push ratio
- Length tension relationship differences between pulling and pushing exercises
- The sliding filament theory
- The upper trap and why it’s your friend
- The role of thoracic posture in shoulder performance
- How hard to go on your pull ups
Mini Desk Workout: Fix a Slouched Posture
Who else had parents that told them to stand or sit up straight at least three times a day? Not any teenager's favourite thing to hear, but sadly like parents often are, they were right. Given how much we sit these days, sitting with a better posture, or doing some work to loosen up the tightness we accumulate is vital.
Anti-Desk: Hips and Pot Belly Edition
When we sit, our glutes and hamstrings are compressed against the chair under our body weight. Over time, this causes blood flow restriction and compresses the nerves deactivating the muscles. That compression on the glutes is particularly uncomfortable for the sciatic nerve.
This routine addresses some of those issues.
48,360 hours of muscular creep
48,360 hours. That's how many hours you'll sit at a desk over a 30 year office career. That's the equivalent of five years of your life.
One of the most common pieces of advice you'll have when it comes to sitting is to take regular breaks from the desk and from the screen. There's a whole heap of reasons for this, but one of the most common and overarching is to avoid the phenomenon of muscular creep.
Are Sit Ups Bad for You?
Neutral Spine? How to Deadlift and Squat Without Hurting Your Back
The human spine is a robust and durable structure. It has the ability to flex, extend, and rotate through incredible ranges of motion while also able to lock down allowing the transfer of force between the lower and upper limbs so we can jump, run, throw, swing or lift heavy things.
While both motion and force transfer are normal healthy things a spine should and can do, combining motion with loading can be a problem.
The solution? Move weights, land, or create power with a spine that is in a neutral alignment.
Biomechanics of the Spine - How Posture Influences our Structures
At Core Advantage we are huge proponents of a neutral spine when lifting, but the spine can be a confusing area of biomechanics at times, so let's delve into the terminology and types of forces and how they influence our spine (positively and negatively) and how you can control them best to minimise injury and pain while maximising performance.
How to do a Chin Up & Pull Up Properly: The Problem and Solution
When it comes to training the upper body, we really have one goal in mind. It's not to build pecs that dance or biceps that stretch shirts, the goal with your upper body training for athletes of any sport is to improve the stability and control of your scapula and the shoulder joint, to avoid dislocations and avoid joint wear and tear due to misalignment.
There are not many exercises better than a wide grip overhead chin up. They engage the scapula muscles, and because they're working when your overhead, chins are improving control and stability when the shoulders in an inherently vulnerable position.
But chin ups can easily be done wrong.
