By Julien Emery, BHK, CSCS julien@humanmotion.com

It is estimated that 60-80% of the North American population will suffer from back pain at some point.  1 - 5% of that group will suffer from chronic back pain lasting longer than 6 months (Medical News Today).  "Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on low back pain, the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work" (Low Back Pain Fact Sheet: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)). 

Back pain can have a number of causes, such as arthritis, osteoporosis, viral infections, irritation of joints or discs etc.   However, most low back pain follows an injury or trauma to the back. Most of these injuries can be attributed to a sedentary lifestyle and not enough ("sometimes punctuated by too much") exercise (NINDS). Basically the lack of, or imbalance of, supportive musculature around the spine is often an underlying cause of low back pain.

As trainers, it is important to take these statistics in to consideration.  It is important to criticize ourselves and question what exercises we select within each group or one-one-one session and ask why.  It seems that too often in the industry, exercises are selected for the purpose of variety and/or caloric expenditure rather than their efficacy in meeting needs of the client.

Let's have a look at the exercise above (promoted in an on-line training site and seen at many gyms) and see how it may prevent or contribute to the low back pain problem mentioned above.
 
Postural Considerations:
Given people's lifestyles today, there is a common muscular imbalance throughout the majority of the population. People are generally stronger and/or shorter through the muscles in the front of their bodies (anterior chain) than the back of their bodies (posterior chain).  It is common for people to experience various sorts of pain (i.e. low back pain) that is correlated with the dysfunction of posterior muscle groups and the associated postural imbalances.  So in general it is important to strengthen the posterior chain to counteract these lifestyle induced imbalances.
 
Exercise in the picture: Dumbbell overhead press while seated on a Bosu

Is it part of the solution...or not?
 
This is an isometric hold in a position that we work hard to get many clients away from, a posterior pelvic tilt with lumbar and thoracic flexion. Now I'm all for training weird and crazy movements (within reason) in a highly conditioned athlete who needs to be strong in unusual positions.  That's what sport specific training is about, but it is only useful after a solid foundation is built.  Now even if the solid foundation is there, where is the value in doing isometric holds with a posterior pelvic tilt and lumbar/thoracic flexion?  Where is the value in selecting this exercise from all other possible exercise when most sessions are often just one hour in duration? It doesn't "train the core", it arguably weakens it.  Sure the rectus abdominals are firing away, but the body is being patterned to stay in a weak spinal position (too much flexion).  This position is unfavorable for the generation of rotational power through the limbs (which is what the core needs to do). 

One of the biggest patterning corrections we need to make with most clients is to teach how to "hinge" (or bend) from the hips to generate force, rather than from the lumbar spine (hinging from the lumbar spine is where much back pain comes from). This exercise is teaching to do the opposite.  The exercise is "telling" the body "when your arms are overhead, break down at the spine and hips and let gravity do what it wants with your back". Yes, exercises DO talk to the body.  More beneficial to core strength would be a single arm standing overhead press on the floor, with proper tension (power/strength platform) throughout the body.  This exercise patterns ("tells") the body to distribute the load properly through the appropriate musculoskeletal pathways.  In addition to improved load distribution, the standing overhead press will help increase the rotational power through the shoulder joint.  This is achieved by pushing off a more stable/strong "platform", which, as stated above, is the job of the core.

References
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/42385.php

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/backpain/detail_backpain.htm

My goal is to help you reach your fitness dreams. In order to achieve this goal I must know what is going on in the real world trenches. Therefore I do not spend my time in a lab coat although I do have tremendous respect for some researchers. The mad scientist writing this article uses the gyms of Indiana University as his laboratory. My recommendations stem from my own research, which I conduct through several mediums including reading, consultations with fitness experts and real world experiments. Many of the concepts I will present to you diverge from conventional wisdom, but understand that there is method to my madness. Give these techniques a chance by applying them with sincere execution and you will succeed.
 
What are you trying to do in the gym? Gain muscle, lose fat, become stronger? Determine what you want to accomplish, and with the right information you can determine appropriate repetition schemes. When deciding what you want to accomplish remember to do one thing at a time. It is fine to have many different goals, but in the iron game you should focus on one dream at a time. One can achieve several goals over a time period by rotating the emphasis of training. In the following paragraphs I will explain how one can gain lean muscle mass.
 
I see many peculiar training methods while conducting "business" in the gym. My senses are tuned to observe what my peers are doing. One day I watched a gym regular blast off 25 reps of a standard barbell bicep curl. His form was very poor, and it was painful to watch as he bounced the bar off his groin region while violently swaying his back to gain extra momentum. The set took him less than 30 seconds to complete. He shouted at his friend and exclaimed "the more reps the better man, I will be ripped if I can keep doing more reps." I disagree for several reasons with his claims. Gravity did most of the work during his set in which he used a weight that would bring my grandmother to uncontrollable laughter. Furthermore he will not improve physically using this method unless he is a needle in a haystack genetic marvel.
 
Time Under Tension (TUT) is more than likely a term you have never heard, but it is time to take notice of this concept. TUT is simply the amount of time muscles are working during a set. Manipulation of this factor is a crucial part of the muscle-gaining quest. Sets must last between 40-70 seconds to elicit size gains. Firing off high numbers of reps at a rapid pace is not the way to break into desired TUT length. 10-12 reps is an ideal rep range for hypertrophy (muscle gain). The exact number of reps you perform depends on the load used. If you can do 10 reps then the weight you are using is adequate, but you must increase the load if you can perform 12 reps. The trainee must adjust the speed of each repetition in order to enter the desired TUT range.
 
Every repetition has four components, which can be easily measured or timed. The concentric phase of a lift is the way up, or the completion. Eccentric motion is the way down, which is when you lower a bar to your chest during a bench press rep. Isometric contractions take place at the point between the eccentric and concentric phases. For example pausing at the chest while maintaining tension is an isometric element. Finally the resetting point or top of the movement must be taken in consideration, which is merely the amount of time it takes you to reset after each rep.
 
Our bad form buddy mentioned previously takes advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle. This complex mechanism creates elastic energy, which will enable a trainee to lift more weight. This reflexive action should be taken advantage of by strength athletes who are most interested in performance. On the other hand those interested in growing must make the muscles do the work by deliberately controlling the time length of every rep.
 
Manipulating the tempo or length of each of these four phases is the next step. The eccentric motion should last 3 seconds, but the concentric phase must be fast. Move the load concentrically as fast you can safely with good form on every rep. Accelerating the load will recruit more muscle fibers, which is important for mass and strength gains. The isometric and resetting points should be one second each, and must be kept in exact time proportion. A bench press rep will take you three seconds to lower the bar, one second to pause, one second to lift and one second should be taken at the top of each rep to reset. It is easy to count off in your head after a couple of workouts. 3+1+1+1=6 seconds for each rep, and a ten rep set would take 60 seconds (10x6) putting you in the desired TUT range. Adjusting the TUT every three weeks will keep your muscles growing. Try lowering the number of reps and increasing the load per set while adjusting the tempo to stay within the proper ranges.
 
So what do you want to read about next? More on gaining muscle? Methods for putting exam stress in its place? Weight training for fat loss? You tell me what you want to read by emailing me at scott@infinityfitness.com and check out my site: www.infinityfitness.com/about.htm
 
Your results may vary and depend on many factors.  No Endorsements of any product or training system is intended, expressed or implied, by any athlete who may be pictured in illustration of this Article.  Copyright © Infinity Fitness & Training Inc, OHIO USA 1999-2009, All Rights Reserved. 

Controversy stirred within the fitness industry after Time Magazine published a story this summer titled, 'Why exercise won't make you thin.' Everyone seemed to have his opinion about how much truth the article held. 

Human Motion Vice-President Cliff Harvey - Mr. Jack of all Trades - is not without his own perspective. But Harvey doesn't offer your cookie-cutter argument; he provides a fresh idea that separates him from the redundant dialogue about nutrition and exercise.
Harvey, a martial artist and weightlifter from New Zealand, is now a strength and conditioning coach with Human Motion. The 30-year-old is also a nutritionist, an accredited naturopath, and the author of the book Choosing You. He doesn't see exercise and nutrition as being separate from each other, or from the rest of a person's life, for that matter.

"We need to be approaching things in a very holistic way," said Harvey.

So what does this mean about the Time story that claims that exercise doesn't make you lose weight? Harvey thinks this simply isn't true, but more than anything, he explained that Time Magazine - and more importantly - most people are missing the even greater point. Time Magazine assumes that what people want most is to lose weight. But Harvey wants to move beyond that: we should be less fixated on size and weight, he said, and more focussed on general health and happiness.

The problem for Harvey is the way people look at exercise and the food they eat - they see them as sacrifices that get in the way of their lives. "There must be a paradigm shift in the way we view our relationship with food and exercise...and in a way, how we view our relationship with ourselves," he said. "So often we think we have to sacrifice in order to get our goals, but what about reviving ourselves to create the building blocks we need to restore ourselves?" he asked.

 These building blocks will do so much more for a person than the number on a scale. "They end up feeling better and having more energy. There are physiological changes, but also emotional ones too. There's a real spillover to the baseline person that we are," said Harvey.

Getting his clients to understand this principle is part of what Harvey does. Yes he's a strength coach, and yes he's a nutritionist, but more than anything, he's a life coach. "It was a big realization for me when I realized what I do," said Harvey. What Harvey does is help people find happiness.

On a tangible level, what he does is meet with a client for a two-hour consultation session, where they discuss all aspects of life, from a complete medical history, to the client's training and fitness, to his diet history. They also discuss the person's goals and dreams, as well as other lifestyle elements. In the end, Harvey helps put together an all-inclusive life plan with his client, a plan that's based on positive action as opposed to sacrifice.

His job isn't without a challenge. "The most challenging thing is the changing of behaviours themselves. We've actually programmed ourselves - it's ingrained neurologically. We have patterns that are responsible for all that we do." said Harvey. So to help clients make those changes, they need tricks, exercises and activities. And they need support. "Emotional support," he said.

And in the end, it's not a chore; it's actually a positive thing. "I don't want people to see the plan as a product. It's ongoing. And the journey needs to be looked at positively," he said.