Supplement Choices for People With No Money

Five seconds of flipping through any muscle magazine will let you in on the industry's worst kept secret: supplements are a gazillion dollar industry with one hand around the author's throat and the other hand also around that author's throat.

YOU CAN'T BUILD MUSCLE WITHOUT 200 GRAMS OF ZYGOTAPHLATHINE XTREME A DAY. SAY IT.

It's a hard pill to swallow (HAHA DO YOU SEE HOW CLEVER I AM) but a lot of supplements are garbage. The supplement industry isn't regulated by the FDA, which means not only can they make unsupported claims, but they don't even have to prove their product is safe before it comes on the market.

This clip from the documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" provides a good look into what goes into the various muscle milks that take up half the paper in your magazine. Also there's a guy with, like huge arms. Like redonkulously huge arms. 

That's not to say there aren't some products out there that can legitimately help you towards your fitness goals, but you have to know what you're looking for. Instead of just looking at product names, know the ingredients that work and make sure they're in ample supply. 

Here's my list of the only supplements that you should consider unless you have money to burn.

1. Whey Protein

Whey protein is the quicker-digesting of the two proteins you'll find in milk, the other one being Casein. I don't even consider this a supplement anymore. It's the absolute easiest way to get protein in your diet: scoop, shake, drink, there's 25 grams of protein in less than 60 seconds. It's also extremely versatile. Aside from shakes and smoothies, you can also throw a scoop in oatmeal or baked goods. Combined with the fact that, gram for gram of protein, it's actually one of the cheapest sources of protein out there, this is the safest jug of powder you'll find at GNC. 

2. Creatine

Creatine is involved in the body's most immediate way of producing energy, which makes it valuable for weightlifters and anyone else who needs quick bursts of strength and energy. Creatine might be the supplement with the most extensive research behind it, and finding good research on a supplement is like finding a unicorn, at least until very recently. Studies like this one provide pretty supportive evidence that creatine supplementation increases muscular size and strength compared to a placebo. It's relatively inexpensive, but you will still save money by buying the ingredient, rather than a big tub with a hundred other things that may or may not work.

3. Caffeine 

Yeah, you read that right. In just about every pre-workout supplement mix you can buy, you'll find this as a primary ingredient. There are studies to support that caffeine increases both muscular strength and endurance, and caffeine is like...everywhere. Instead of buying and expensive pre-workout supplement, try using Crystal Light Energy packets, provided you ignore the extensive use of "girl power" in that advertisement. It's got plenty of caffeine, and you can take it with you to pour in your water bottle....actually, just go with the Kroger brand. They don't emasculate me like Crystal Light does. What, Kraft, you think guys can't benefit from a flavored energy-boosting water enhancement powder? 

I AM A MAN, DAMN IT.

4. Fish Oil

Fish Oil does everything. You don't eat enough fish, I'm guessing, and the capsules are cheap. Take it. 

These are what I take, and I have an amount of money that many people would consider to be no money. The number one thing that will make or break your progress is the actual, real food that you eat, so don't even consider supplements until you have your diet under control. If you have more money than no money and are considering braving the counters and salespeople of your local supplement store, here are some things to consider:

-Beware of the term "proprietary blend". This is a way for supplement makers to spout off a list of impressive ingredients without telling you how much of each one is actually contained in the product. Without an amount listed next to each ingredient, there's a good chance you're buying a pill full of rice flour.

-Testosterone boosters don't work. Don't waste your money. These products want you to think they're legal versions of anabolic steroids, and they're not. They also tend to cost more than a week's worth of groceries. 

-Don't buy anything that costs more than a week's worth of groceries, on that note. You're ALWAYS better off buying better food than you would be buying any supplement. Take that money and buy some bison, if you want something expensive that will get you bigger.

-Fat burners don't work. This is from personal experience: taking a "fat burner" doesn't work if you don't change your diet and exercise. You might be saying, "Well, duh, it's meant to enhance a sound exercise and nutrition program, you can't expect it to do all the work". Bull. If it doesn't work by itself, without changing anything else, then it doesn't work. Your diet and exercise program dropped the pounds, not the pill. Spend the money on a padlock for your pantry and you'll lose more weight. 

I think everyone who catches the fitness bug dives into supplements at some point. I spent way too much money I didn't have on them when I was in college, and I didn't make any more progress than I am now when I'm just lifting heavy and eating right. Well, right-ish. 

A lot of lifters swear by supplements, and a lot of them are probably right. A 400-lb bench presser might never get up to 440 without ten tubs of powder, and good for him. But that's what supplements are for: getting you that extra 10% when you've done all the lifting and eating right up to that point. Do right by yourself in the gym and the kitchen, and don't feel like you're missing something by avoiding the drug store. 

Now go forth and pick up heavy things. 

Want to Get Started? Try Showing Up

"80 percent of success is showing up" - Woody Allen

I don't know about you, but when I need motivation to throw some iron around in the gym, I always turn to the wise words of Woody Allen. Sometimes. Once. Anyway, I like that quote.

Nowhere is this sentiment more applicable than the gym. If you come to the gym on a regular basis -I'm talking, 3 days a week for 3 months or more- and do something, you are on the right side of in-shape. You might still be overweight, you might still be using the lightest dumbbells on the rack, you might still be scorekeeper for every pick-up basketball game you are a part of, but I would bet my favorite Adidas ClimaTee that you are not "need-a-doctor, never-take-the-stairs, cholesterol-higher-than-your-credit-score" out-of-shape.

But it starts with walking through the door. You will lose weight or gain weight or get stronger or get faster one way and only one way: bit by bit. You're building a tower on top of quicksand, and if you take too long adding to the top it's just going to sink underground.

Show up. Here is how you do it:

1. Set a goal, and let the world  know. If you want to bench 225, that's a Facebook post you should be making every bench day. Write your current weight on the top of a sheet of paper on your fridge, your goal weight at the bottom, and a weekly weigh-in that hopefully bridges the gap between the two.

 2. Find a gym or buy some equipment. In all honesty, unless you have friends or a favorite trainer to influence your opinion, the most important aspect to look for in a gym is convenience. Your facility should be close by, or on the way home from work. A thirty minute drive to a gym across town is a great reason not to go. Failing that, spend $50 on a pair of adjustable dumbbells; they're really all you need to get started.

3. Have a game plan. I meant it when I said that doing something was good, but having a plan is the way to go. A plan could be:

-Tagging along with a friend who knows what they're doing. Anyone worth their gym socks is happy to show a newbie the ropes. This is how I got started as a fat kid in high school, and I've shown up ever since.

-Google "beginner program" and stick to it. Stick to reputable sources (Men's Health, Shape, Bodybuilding.com, etc.), but pick one.

-Get a trainer. <shameless self-promotion>This is by far the best option, especially if they've earned their stuff from, say, the University of Kentucky and the National Strength and Conditioning Association and have a fondness for teal. The traditional in-person trainer can provide instant feedback and correct your form, all the while yelling at you to do, like, two more reps. Or, you could try out that new-fangled online personal training, where a trainer sends you a personalized program via the internet and provides an online training log and email feedback so that both of your can keep track of your progress. </shameless self-promotion>

Fitness really is one of those life goals that rewards you for diving right in. But you have to show up and give it something as often as you can, else the fickle bastard will leave you to decay at the bottom of a flight of stairs when the elevator is out.

Go forth and lift heavy things. We're saving you a spot.

A Sensible Approach to Nutrition

We live in an obesogenic environment. Blogger doesn't recognize that as a real word, but it basically means that conditions are ideal for those of us who wish to become obese. Calorie-dense food has never been cheaper nor more widely available, most modern tasks are designed to use as little physical energy as possible, and since being overweight would put you in the majority you would no longer be viewed as a social pariah!

Your dreams can become a reality.

If you need advice on how to gain weight and become obese, I can tell you it has never been easier. However, some of you would like to know how to lose weight, and that's a bit trickier.

The physical activity side of the equation, believe it or not, is pretty easy to deal with. You can hire a particularly handsome personal trainer, and he'll explain, in a sultry but reassuring tone what exactly you should be doing and how to do it.  But if you want to be successful in your pursuit of losing weight, nutrition is what will make or break you. And, unfortunately, it is much harder to deal with.

The problem will always come down to our finite source of willpower. Many of us just have too much on our plate to make good decisions about what's literally on our plate; most commercial diets require such a radical change in the way we eat that we just don't have enough willpower left over after dealing with work, family, and other life problems to follow them with any degree of success. And if you do manage to claw your way through a tough diet and lose a significant amount of weight, you're at a great risk of gaining it all back.

According to this study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the subsequent article by the New York Times, a significant reduction in calories that results in weight loss (a diet, in other words)  can lead to a physiological and psychological response that promotes weight gain. In the study, the obese participants were fed a very low calorie diet that consisted of low-starch vegetables and a drink best described as "liquid sadness". After ten weeks, the participants lost an average of 30 pounds.

The (fairly predictable) bad news? After a year, almost all of the participants had gained some of the weight back, and reported feeling hungrier and more preoccupied with food than they were before the study.

At Skape Fitness, we're big advocates of a sensible approach to nutrition. Most people wanting to lose weight want to do it quickly, and while that's understandable, it's not exactly practical. Look at it this way: if you are 40 years old, and you want to get back down to the weight you were at 20, you've spent half of your life gaining this weight! You can't expect to lose it in six weeks without some serious consequences.

So what can you do to approach nutrition in a sustainable way that doesn't sap your entire supply of willpower?

Our answer: one step at a time.

Every month, make a small change to your diet. Just one. Something bigger than "pick the pepperonis off my pizza", but maybe smaller than "only eat organic kelp and distilled water." Focusing on one thing at a time is not only more manageable than a complete diet overhaul, but may help you identify the real problem foods that have been slowly moving in over your belt. Here are some suggestions:

-Start taking fish oil. I'm not even going to take the time to tout the benefits of fish oil. Take five seconds to Google it. It's cheap, it helps with heart health and brain function and weight loss, and come on all you have to do is remember to swallow two pills a day. Do it.

-No soda, diet or otherwise, for a month. Soda is the pinnacle of empty calories. Fitness people throw that phrase around a lot, but basically it means that pop will provide calories, but without any other nutrients and without making you ever feel full. Diet soda may -or, hopefully for my sake, may not- be harmful to your health, but I can tell you that I very rarely pair healthy food with my diet cola.

-No alcohol for a month.  Booze is not only empty calories, but it is basically anti-muscle juice when consumed in large quantities. Give it up for a month to see if your lifts go up. Also, if after two days you start shaking, you'll know you have bigger problems to worry about.

-Eat at least 30 grams of fiber per day for a month. If you've never paid attention to fiber in the past.... well, never be more than twenty steps away from the john. I promise it's worth it, and any friends you lose in the process probably weren't all that great anyhow.

-No cold cereal for a month. This once is geared specifically towards me. I love me some Honey Nut Cheerios. Thing is, a human-sized bowl of any cold cereal is about three or four servings; that 120 calories written on the side of the box refers to an amount of cereal that I would consider to be no cereal left. It's also a poor macronutrient profile for either gaining muscle or losing weight, and it never tends to fill me up. If you have a similar weakness, consider giving it up for a while.

By implementing this strategy, you can start to zero in on what your biggest source of weight gain has been. If you look more defined after a month of abstaining only from alcohol, it might be worth avoiding. If soda has been your Achilles heel, you might find that out this month. The point is to make simple, targeted changes that you can implement without completely turning your daily routine on its head.

So there you go. Try focusing on just one thing every thirty days, and keep track of your progress. You might not see the 30 lb transformation you've always dreamed of just by switching to whole-wheat bread, but you might drop a pound or two and make progress toward a healthy lifestyle without devoting all of your extra energy towards it. I hate to say this, but there are more important things in life than being skinny.

Like lifting heavy things, for example.

The New Generation (Also Ninja Unicorns)

The #1 cause of gymtimidation backed by no study whatsoever is the perceived adherence to gym culture required to be successful.

In order to feel like you belong at the gym, you must do the following things if you're a guy:

1. Call people "bro".
2. Wear either a skintight Under Armour compression shirt (regardless of belly size) or cut the sleeves off a regular shirt (regardless of arm size).
3. Grunt like it's your second language when picking up anything heavier than the gallon jug of water you are currently drinking from.
4. Do two sets of bicep curls for every set of any exercise that's not the bench press.

If you're a girl, you must:

1. Wear shorts a size too short or those skintight yoga leggings. Over-sized tank tops are your go-to top.
2. Avoid any weight not coated in neoprene.
3. Do every ab and butt machine in the gym at least twice.
4. Perform no less than twenty variations of crunches.

There is a new generation currently invading the clique that used to be the gym.

We're among this new generation.

 We grew up watching Digimon and playing Yu-Gi-Oh! and marching in the marching band. 

We geek out over Game of Thrones and laugh at Grumpy Cat memes on the internet. 

We were the ones who got picked on by people who are supposed to go to the gym. 

And we're more awesome than you. Just check out these guys: 

If "To be a Rainbow Ninja riding a Unicorn" isn't enough of a reason to get you working out, then I just don't think I am able to help you. 

We also have iron guru Ben Bruno rocking a Batman shirt while finding ways to make deadlifts harder:

And here is a girl half your size lifting heavier weights with better form than you:

These guys and girls didn't exist a few years ago. In order to be a fan of the weight room, you had to have a certain personality, you had to like the right things outside the gym, and you definitely could not be a Rainbow Ninja riding a Unicorn.

They were dark times. 

We're not done though. Let's get some more geeks and nerds and tiny girls and shy guys picking up heavy things like the jocks of old think only they can. The gym has done well thus far in accepting us, but until we're embraced like we should be there is still work to do.

Now join me, no matter who you are, and find something heavy to lift. 

Functional Training for the Core

"Functional" training is a relatively new concept in the fitness world, and one that is gaining more and more recognition in the general public. Unfortunately, it's meaning is about as clear as the meaning of the word "ironic", which is to say that everyone thinks they know the real definition despite agreeing with absolutely no one else. Seriously, people will throw punches over this concept at strength and conditioning conventions.

I want to have the most spectacular injury anyone has ever seen.
This is my dream. This is my destiny. 

The short answer, in the best way I can think of to describe it, is this: functional training refers to training in the gym the qualities you want to have outside of the gym. Yes, that is very, very vague, because we all want different outcomes from working out; some of us want to lose weight, others want to jump higher, and still others want to keep their shoulders healthy this baseball season. A "functional" workout is one that best helps you achieve your specific goals.

I'm going to keep things simple, and give my thoughts on training one of the most misunderstood muscle groups: the core. In my opinion, the best core exercises are the ones that prevent motion of the trunk, as opposed to flexing the trunk like you do in sit-ups and crunches.

Why is that? Well, let's look at the trunk musculature, compared to a muscle designed solely to flex and bring two points together: the bicep.

The muscles of the abdominal wall in particular run every which way. The muscles are segmented to allow different sections to contract at different rates, the deep muscles are running at different angles laterally, and it looks like there is a muscle designed to pull in every direction imaginable.

Now lets see the bicep:

One muscle, going one direction.

If the core's main job was to flex the trunk, it would look like the bicep.

Going back to the idea of functional training, we usually don't think of the core muscles as prime movers; that is to say, we generally want the trunk to stay stable while the appendages pick up stuff, run, and carry things. The core -and believe me, I'm sick of hearing that word too, but it's the best I got right now- consists not only of the "six-pack" abdominal wall, but also the muscles running up the sides and back of your midsection. The main job of these muscles is to keep everything in place, and to do so they must resist forces that want to move your trunk all over the place.

Here are three basic exercises to train your core in a way that will keep you safe and stable outside the gym:

1. The front plank 

Couldn't be simpler: put your elbows directly under your shoulders, make a straight line from your head to your ankles and hold. Start at 20 seconds, and eventually progress up to a minute. Keep your belly button pulled in, don't let your back sag down, and don't stick your butt up in the air.

2. Stability ball rollouts

No one rolls balls like me.

Start in a front plank with your elbows and forearms on a stability ball. Push your elbows as far forward as they'll go without letting your back sag, and bring them back for one rep. Pushing your elbows away from your body increases the weight your core has to counter-balance to stay still, because physics and stuff. These are, by the way, much harder than they look, Keep your sets at around 8-15 reps, and take your time; every rep should take about a second to get to full extension and a second to bring it back. All you have do to make it tougher is hold for a beat at full extension.

3. Pallof Press

I'm using this demonstration as my glamour shot. 

At a pulley station, set up a handle at chest level. Turn 90 degrees from the station so that the cable runs parallel with your shoulders, bring the handle to the middle of your chest, and stand up straight. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart. Press the handle away from you until your arms are fully extended, and don't let the force from the cable turn your body; resist that motion! Your stomach should feel tight when the handle is out away from you. Hold for a beat, then slowly return the handle to the middle of your chest. This "anti-rotation" a great way to build a strong core. 

Training your core musculature like this definitely takes some getting used to, especially if you're used to crunches to work your abs. You might not "feel" like you're "working" your "six-pack" as much, but you'll have a more solid trunk to hold everything together. And that's not to say you won't build a sexy set of abs from these exercises! 

I'm not saying there isn't value to be had in crunches and sit-ups, but there just isn't enough carryover to other aspects of lifting and living for me to recommend them as your sole source of ab training. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that my overhead press and squat not only went up, but just felt safer after I switched from crunches to rollouts, because my core was getting better at keeping still. 

This is just a toe in the water if you're interested in "functional" training, and if you're not afraid of entering perhaps the biggest quagmire to be had in the field of strength and conditioning, I highly suggest you go check out some of Mike Boyle's stuff. He's written two books on the subject, and it's where I've gotten the bulk of my information on functional training.

Now go forth and show those weights that you won't be pushed around.

Justin is a trainer at Lift Fitness and Wellness in Lexington, Kentucky. He also runs their blog over at liftfitnessandwellness.blogspot.com

Giving Up

My boss at LIFT Fitness decided, for no particular reason, that February should be prohibition month for us and our clients. Until March 1st, we are not to consume a single alcoholic beverage. He's done this so that people can see just how much one chink in the armor of a sound diet and exercise program can hamstring your progress. Since many of our clients are very busy adults who deal with large amounts of stress on a daily basis, he suspected (and knew from personal observation) that alcohol could be a prime culprit for the lack of results some people are seeing.

I decided to participate, just as a show of good faith. Most weeks I only have one beer in the evening and maybe a few drinks Saturday night, and I don't think it's nearly enough to affect my own progress. However, I wanted to wait until after the Superbowl, because drinking beer during the Superbowl is as American as turkey at Thanksgiving.

You know who didn't drink beer during the Superbowl? Hitler. 

After giving that decision some more thought, I think I have a better understanding of why some people feel the need to put off their diet for a few more weeks.

I hesitated to do the challenge because I knew that, being a 22-year-old male in Kentucky, I am expected to drink at social occasions held by people my age, which makes me sound like an alien sent to study you Earthlings and your habits. If I didn't drink during our Superbowl party, or really any get-together on the weekends, my friends would make fun of me and give me that look. You know that look. They act like they're joking, but they aren't. That look betrays their real feelings. It says: What, you think you're better than me? You think I'm weak because I want to have a good time? Screw you, this is America, and if you're not a Nazi sympathizer you will pass me that funnel and shut up about it. 

If you can't give something up for a month, you're addicted to it. It might be alcohol, or video games, or sugary snacks, or cat memes, but if you can't drop it cold turkey for a month then you have some sort of dependency. It's a cliche at this point, but just about every addict will give some variation of "I can quit any time I want, I just don't want to." Well why not?

Alcoholism runs in my family. I know for a fact I have an addictive personality, and I do better when I cut out something completely rather than limit my consumption via sheer willpower. I used to buy cereal for when I was in a hurry and didn't have time for oatmeal in the mornings, but I found myself staying in bed longer knowing that I had that fallback option. So I cut it out, and now I always have time to fix a bowl of oatmeal. I also know that alcohol is empty calories, decreases protein synthesis in the muscle, and reduces testosterone in the body, all of which are detrimental to building muscle, which is what I'm trying to do now. And yet, I still felt the need to drink quite a few beers yesterday, simply because that was the thing to do.

I'm starting my Prohibition February a few days late, but hopefully the effect will be the same. The timing also coincides well with finishing my "2 Tickets to the Gun Show" program/contest, so I believe I will have willpower in ample supply to finish out the month. I might even make a habit out of it; every month, I'll cut out something that may be bad for me and see if I feel different.

...Or maybe we'll just stick with this for now. Daddy needs his cat memes.

Justin is a trainer at LIFT Fitness and Wellness in Lexington, Ky. He also writes the blog for liftfitnessandwellness.blogspot.com

Friendly Competition

Being an American male, nothing motivates me to be at my best quite like a good competition. As I've mentioned in my last post, I recently began Dan Trink's "2 Tickets to the Gun Show" program to give me an extra push to improve my arms, which have always been a weak point for me. Almost at the same time I started, my good friend and sometimes-client Darren has made the commitment to start working out 4 days a week at his home gym.

We really don't have choice in the matter. A contest must ensue from such a situation. 'Tis law.

For the next four weeks (starting last Monday, to be honest), we're both going to see who can improve their physique the most in four weeks. Darren has the advantage, as he is just starting out and has a fantastic trainer writing his program for him. However, I really, really want bigger arms and this is my first foray into a program dedicated to improving my area with the most room for improvement. And I do mean my arms, thank you.

So here is our proposal: we're going to keep track of our before pictures, and on Sunday, Feburary 24th, we'll take after pictures. The winner will be determined by you guys! And by you guys, I mean the couple of people who I've routed from Facebook with the sole intent of reading this post. The prize? Well...we haven't actually agreed on a prize for the winner yet (*cough* a copy of Doom 3 BFG edition *cough*), so if anyone has some good ideas let us know.

Go forth and Lift heavy things. I know I will.

Here are his before pics:

And here, once again, are mine:

See you in four weeks!






...I want a copy of Doom 3. I know it's like 8 years old but I never played it.

Stuffed Before Dinner

"I need to get in shape before I work out."

This statement, when scrutinized with any sort of objectivity, is profoundly stupid. It's dumb. It's like saying, "I'd love to join you for dinner, but I'm not full yet." Every time someone says they can't train with me or come to one of our classes because they're not "in good enough shape" I curse our society for allowing such a person to roam freely and for punishing me were I to strike them down.

Okay, I get it. No one wants to be embarrassed, and puking twenty minutes into a boot camp in front of your friends would make anyone think twice about putting themselves out there like that. But I wish people would see the big picture: the more embarrassed you are of the shape you're in, the more you really need to get in shape.

 As a personal trainer, even one relatively early in his career, I've already dealt with people who in all likelihood were in worse shape than you. That's why people seek out people who have made a career out of getting people in shape. You take your car to a car wash when it's dirty. If it's really dirty, it may take a little longer and require a little more effort to get it clean, but that shouldn't deter you from taking your car to the one place you know will get it clean.

Even in a group setting, even if you're really out of shape, even if you're the worst in the class, we've all been there before. We all start at the bottom, and the harder we climb the faster we get to the top. So either start eating full meals before dinner for consistency's sake, or get out there and let us help you!

Why Your Back Hurts

Statistically speaking, if you are a human between the ages of ten and dead, you are currently experiencing or are soon to experience back pain. Even in our modern society, where we work less with our hands than we do with our phones, many of us can’t bend over to tie our shoes without two ibuprofen and a heat wrap. It’s one thing to throw your back out moving furniture, but many of the clients we see here at LIFT Fitness seem to go to sleep after a quiet day of reading by the fireplace and wake up with back pain. Sometimes, the cause is something medical like degenerative disk disease, in which case the solution is beyond our realm of capabilities (vast though it may be), and surgery may be required. Most of the time, though, the problem is biomechanical, which means some pulley or lever in the organic machine that is your body isn't doing what it’s supposed to do.

Know this: as with many injuries, the cause of your low back pain is probably not the low back itself, but rather some weakness in the supporting structures above and/or below it.Stretching your lower back to relieve the pain isn’t addressing the problem, and may in fact make it worse by adding more mobility to an area that needs more stability. We’ve outlined some of the most common causes of lower back pain in modern society, and some of the things you can do on your own or with us at LIFT Fitness to help fix it. 

Cause #1: Too Much Sitting

You’ve probably heard this one before: sitting is the Chris Brown to your lower back’s Rihanna.  Good for you for working out, bonus points if you work out at LIFT, but most of us are still sitting down for the vast majority of our day, and unfortunately an hour of activity won’t undo twenty-three hours of inactivity. Sitting, especially with bad posture, puts a tremendous strain on your lower back (even perfect posture is harmful for long periods of time) by undoing the  S-shaped curve that we as a species have spent millions of years developing for the sole purpose of standing upright. Not only that, but continually keeping your knee in a flexed position for hours at a time will physically shorten the muscles attached to the back of your pelvis -that would be your hamstrings- and tilt it out of line. Your spine is on top of your pelvis, so where the pelvis tilts, the spine must follow. Hamstrings are typically the worst offenders, but the same thing can happen to the muscles on the inside, outside, and front of your pelvis, which would be like balancing a bowl of candy over your head as four angry children pull at you from different directions. 

The Fix: Stand up a lot and stretch your hamstrings. This could be the easiest solution to anything, ever, at least where your body is concerned. Stand up every commercial break, every time you get a text, every time you switch windows on your computer, any little frequent reminder you can think of to get you off your butt every so often so that your spine can get a break and the muscles attached to your pelvis don’t freeze up. If you can make it a habit to stand up as much as you sit down, your back will feel better, your weight will be more manageable, and we’ll finally see peace in the Middle East. 

 And while you’re up, it wouldn’t be a bad time to stretch those tight hamstrings. Here’s what you do: plop your heel on a chair or step, keep your back flat, your chest up, and tilt your upper body forward until you feel a stretch in only your hamstring. Don’t touch your toes. It might look like you’re stretching, but you may be ignoring your hamstrings by rounding your low back, which actually makes things worse.  A good stretch should be uncomfortable, maybe even just short of painful, and last at least 20 seconds. Come on, you’re trying to physically change the length of your tissues by pulling them apart, it can’t be easy. 



Cause #2: Weak Glutes and Bad Lifting Mechanics

Your butt (known as your glutes when they want to be take seriously) has two important jobs: filling out your jeans, and extending your hips, and if it’s bad at one it’s probably bad at the other. Proper form for picking something up involves primarily using your glutes, and to a lesser extent your quads and hamstrings, while the muscles in your low back keep things in line. If you’re bending over and rounding your back to pick up a heavy object (what we professionals call “stupid”), you turn off your potentially powerful glutes and put the stress on your substantially weaker lower back. But even with decent form, weak glutes just aren’t able to do a good job of extending your hips when things start to get heavy, and you’re left with a Tebow-Sanchez situation: you have one job that needs doing, and both of your options (lower back and glutes) aren’t very good at it, so bad things tend to happen. Jets suck.

The Fix: Learn to use and subsequently strengthen your glutes. One of my favorite exercises, the kettlebell swing, is a staple in all of my group classes and personal training programs because it gets people to use their glutes in a way that is intuitive and effective. Unfortunately, many people with back pain instinctively avoid this exercise because it looks like it puts a lot of strain on the low back. This may seem reasonable at first glance, but if kettlebell swings (or their slower cousin romanian deadlifts, also known as  RDLs) are done properly, the low back stays flat and stable, with the glutes and hamstrings exclusively working to extend the hip. Teaching proper swing and RDL mechanics -what we call a “hinge” movement- is awkward and no one wants to be seen practicing their form in public, but it does wonders for back pain (and gives you a nice backside to boot). Trust me, awkward stares while learning the hinge now are well worth the slack-jawed, lustful stares you’ll get later. 

 To hinge properly, stand up straight, keep your chest up, and push your butt back like you’re playing post defense against someone particularly attractive. If you’re holding a barbell or kettlebell, it should be against your shins. To come back up, thrust your hips forward by squeezing your butt. I could have said “extend your hips by engaging your glutes”, but I didn’t and I’m not sorry. At no point should you round any part of your back, and your shoulders should move up at the same rate as your hips. 

Cause #3: Tight Middle and Upper Back

A good 90% of my instruction on any given exercise boils down to two simple cues, “Back flat, head and chest up”. As a trainer, I say it probably twenty times a day. But out in the real world, the back twists and bends and rounds and arches and no one wants to show off perfect deadlifting mechanics when picking up a fork they dropped on the floor. 

When we talk about back pain, we’re almost always talking about the lower back...but why? There is a foot and a half of back up top that rarely seems to give anyone any trouble. Why is the lower back such a problem child when it seems to be made of the same stuff that behaves on top? Don’t fall for it. The mid and upper back are the two stronger but less flexible older brothers that break everything and blame it on the poor red-headed step-child that is the lower back. When you round your back to pick something up -and you will, so will I, it happens- your back will bend at the point of its greatest laxity. Almost always, this is the lower back. The same goes for when you twist. If we could increase mobility in the middle and upper back, the range of motion required for daily living and lifting could be distributed more evenly between each section of your spine. 

The Fix: Soft Tissue Work 

What we in the industry call “soft tissue work” refers to any attempt at physically altering either the length or density of a muscle. We can change the length of a muscle by stretching it, as mentioned earlier. But try as I might, I can’t stretch the middle of my back. I just don’t think I bend that way. So the other option is to change the density, and we do this by applying pressure to points where the muscle is so dense that it affects mobility. Your best option would be a massage, either by a professional or competent significant other. But if you’re poor and/or alone, the next best option is a foam roller, which looks like a big pool noodle. We have plenty of foam rollers here at LIFT that you can use before and after class if your back is giving you trouble, but if you want your own they’re only about ten bucks on Amazon.com. The cool thing about foam rolling is that there isn’t a whole lot of technique involved, just put the roller on the ground and roll the muscle group you want to target back and forth. For your mid and upper back, make sure to pull your shoulder blades apart to get to the muscle underneath. 8-12 rolls, nice and slow with special attention paid to any “trigger points”, should do the trick. 

An even cheaper, possibly even more effective option is to tape two tennis balls together and make a specialized back roller that would make MacGyver proud. Place the peanut a few inches above your waistband lined up with the two parallel muscles running up along your spine, and lay down on top of it. Try to completely relax for a second and let the peanut seep in, trying not to conjure too much imagery from that statement. Do three small sit-ups, just enough to put pressure on the tennis balls and feel it pressing against a segment of your spine, then roll the peanut towards your head a quarter roll and repeat. Keep going until you get between your shoulder blades. 

Just remember, go easy on rolling and stretching your lower back. I know that’s where you feel the pain, but remember, we stretch and roll areas where we want more mobility, and too much stretching and rolling of your lower back is just adding more laxity to an area that was too lax to begin with. A few rolls to loosen up is fine, but any more than that and you end up scorching the shirt you meant to iron. 

Summary

Back pain is a disease of disuse. I will be the first to admit that I love a good twelve hour session in front of my xbox, moving only when I need to eat or go to the bathroom and sometimes not even then, but too much of a good thing comes at a price. To get the most out of the body you’ve been given here in the 21st century, you have to make a real targeted effort into undoing some of the damage done by an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. That means stand, stretch, swing, and roll in the face of a hostile, uncaring world that seeks to do you harm. Either that, or develop a tolerance for ibuprofen and a familiarity with bell towers.

General Tips for Back Health

-A strong core will go a long way in keeping the spine in line. Don’t sleepwalk through your ab routines, they’re good for more than just keeping you looking good at the pool.

-Stay loose. If you come to our classes, put genuine effort into our hip mobility drills during the warm up, and go through a full range of motion on all of our exercises. For legal reasons I’m no longer allowed to use a taser to “encourage” people to reach the bottom of a squat, so for now it’s all up to you (until my lawyer pulls through).

-Stand up often. Are you reading this hunched over in your chair? Do you dive into a bag of chips when you read dieting tips? Don’t let yourself sit for more than twenty minutes at a time. You’ll be surprised at just how much better you feel all over. Seriously, stand up after you get done reading this.

-Get to class early and foam roll. It only takes a few minutes, and we’ll be there to help you if you’re not quite sure what to do. A few foam rolls combined with our dynamic warm-up will keep your back and hips mobile and healthy.

-If it hurts, fix your form and try again. Like I said earlier, hinge movements like the kettlebell swing are Doctor Jekyll when done properly and Mister Hyde when done incorrectly. But as much as it pains me to say, if you can’t do the motion without pain, don’t do it at all. 


Justin Gibson is a certified personal trainer at LIFT Fitness and Wellness in Lexington, Kentucky and a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky’s Kinesiology program. He has dealt with his own back pain more than anyone his age has a right to, and wants to give you the help he wishes he’d gotten years earlier.