Recruiting the Pectoralis Minor

Most people know how to recruit the pectoralis major.  In fact, Monday is what most people at the gym call international "chest day."  Some of the best exercises for pectoralis major are chest press, pushups, and cable crossovers.  But do you know how to properly recruit the pectoralis minor?

The pectoralis minor is a smaller muscle beneath the pec major.  While the pec major inserts into the humerus, the pec minor inserts into the scapula or shoulder blade.  Therefore, the two muscles have two different functions.  In order to properly recruit the pec minor, there must be a separation of the shoulder blades or rounding of the back.  Next time you do cable crossovers, try rounding your back at the end of the movement.  This will ensure that you are recruiting your pec major and your pec minor during the same exercise.

Happy lifting :)

Improve Speed and Agility

If you or your client is looking to improve speed, quickness, and agility, you may need to add hip flexion exercises to your leg routine.  Most athletes know to train their glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves.  But many athletes forget to train the hip flexion muscle group which includes the psoas major and iliacus. 

Dean et al (2005) showed that subjects improved both 40 yard time and shuttle times after an 8 week hip flexion resistance training program.  There were no improvements in the control group.  Results were published by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning.

A simple hip flexion exercise is lying leg raises.  Make sure your lumbar spine stays flat against the floor when performing this exercises.  A more advance exercise is hanging leg raises.  These exercises will challenge your core along with the hip flexor group.

In summary, everyone should follow a total body, all joint action, exercise routine.  If you are missing a few joint actions in your weekly routine, you may be shorting yourself athletic improvement or even worse, creating muscular problems that may lead to injury down the road.

Halloween Candy

Do you still have Halloween candy?  No doubt eating that candy will not only add a few extra calories into your diet but it will also give you somewhat of a guilty conscience.  Well don’t worry, there’s a way for your guilty pleasure to make its way into your muscles.

After workouts, your muscles have used up muscle glycogen and are starving for sugar to replenish your glycogen stores.  An influx of sugar and protein will stimulate an extra uptake of glucose and amino acids into your muscles.  A good ratio is 3 to 1 or about 45 grams of candy (sugar) to 15 grams of whey protein depending on your workout.

So remember, fast acting sugar plus a fact acting protein makes for a wonderful post workout snack.  But also remember that you need to resume your normal diet shortly thereafter.  Candy should only be used as a treat AFTER your workout! Enjoy J

Personal Training Jobs on the Rise

According to the Department of Labor, the number of personal trainers grew by 44 percent in 2010 and 2011. That's why so many unemployed Americans are trying to transform their passion for fitness into a new career.

Surprisingly, the fitness industry is one of the few growing businesses since the recession began adding nearly 10 million jobs and gym members since 2007.

With the obesity problem in the United States continuing to rise, the demand for personal trainers also continues to rise.  Health and fitness isn’t a fad, it’s here to stay.  Almost every gym in America along with many other medical facilities is looking for certified personal trainers.

Along with a good base salary, many personal trainers enjoy the flexible schedule.  The flexibility allows for many trainers to spend more time with their families as either full time or part time trainers.

Source: Human Kinetics and ABC News

Kettlebell Training

The Kettlebell is an old Russian training tool that has been recently rediscovered for full body conditioning.  Kettlebell workouts are said to improve strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination, and balance.

But does a kettlebell workout provide enough resistance to improve strength over traditional weight lifting?  Does a kettlebell workout improve cardiovascular endurance better than traditional cardiovascular exercise?

The American Council on Exercise did a study on the workout intensity on kettlebells versus treadmill running.  As expected, the kettlebell workout was intense.  Heart rate and oxygen consumption increased rapidly.  The average caloric expenditure was 20 calories per minute with the kettlebells.  The intensity was high but VO2 max was higher during the treadmill run.

Furthermore, kettlebell training does improve strength and power for your beginner clients.  But experts agree in order to improve strength and power for your experienced athletes, traditional weight training may be more beneficial.  Moreover, you will have to incorporate other traditional exercises to really target some of those muscles that kettlebells don’t fully incorporate.

In summary, if you are looking to change up your routine, give kettlebells a shot.  Similar to circuit training or cross training, you will receive some strength benefits along with very good cardiovascular benefits.

Dehydration and Sport Performance

Staying hydrated in the Texas summer heat is very important for sport performance. There have been numerous studies on the effects of dehydration and exercise.  Most experts agree that 2% dehydration will lead to a drop in sport performance of up to 21%.  Furthermore, a decline in cognitive function occurs at 2% dehydration including skill sports such as soccer.

There are several reasons for the drop in production.  As you start to dehydrate, there is a decrease in plasma volume.  This causes a decrease in stroke volume and a decrease in skin blood flow.  With less blood going to the skin, it becomes harder to sweat and cool your body.  Ultimately, your core temperature rises which begins to take a toll on your body which may cause cramping and heat exhaustion.

I've seen several people wearing extra clothes or "sweat" suits to try and lose more weight.  The truth is, those people will lose more weight BUT it is mostly water weight which returns as soon as they are properly hydrated.  Instead of focusing on weight loss for the afternoon, focus on performance and intensity.  Proper exercise will benefit you more in the long run than "sweating" out a few extra water pounds.

Therefore, expert recommend properly hydrating yourself before your activity.  Drink at least 4 liters of water 24 hours before your activity if not every day.  Drink another ½ liter 1 to 2 hours before your event.  Then drink plenty of fluid during your activity and include a sport drink if you are exercising for more than 1 hour to replace any electrolytes lost in the sweat during your activity.

Lat Pulldowns: In Front or Behind the Head?

There is an ongoing debate whether we should perform lat pulldowns in front of our heads or behind our heads. Personal trainers should always consider the safety and effectiveness of an exercise before they include it in a resistance training program. A study by Signorile et al (2002) compared muscle activity in the latissimus dorsi using different hand positions. EMGs were connected to 10 subjects using 4 different hand positions: wide grip anterior, wide grip posterior, close grip, and supinated grip.



The study concluded that the wide grip anterior (front of the head) grip produced significantly greater muscle activity in the latissimus dorsi than any of the three other grips. Furthermore, there was more activity in tricep, teres major, pec major, and posterior deltoid during pulldowns in front of your head as opposed to behind your head. Also, most experts believe that anterior pulldowns are safer than posterior pulldowns concerning neck and shoulder joints. Therefore, it is concluded that anterior pulldowns are not only safer, but this study has proven that anterior pulldowns are also more effective in recruiting latissimus dorsi muscles than lat pulldowns behind the head.