Tips of the week Perform Peterson step-ups for your quadriceps
Even though this exercise is usually only performed with your own body weight, you should not underestimate this exercise - especially as preparation for quadriceps exercises. It can also be used as a finishing exercise with a high number of repetitions on leg day. The muscle burn will be intense.
Peterson Step-Ups involve a forward movement of the knee beyond the toes along with a contact point of the ball of the working leg, both of which promote quadriceps activation with an emphasis on loading the area of the quadriceps closer to the knee.
Peterson Step-Ups
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FZ9B0v1hz8)
- Avoid pushing off the floor with the non-working knee. Let the working leg bear the entire load.
- In the end position you should stand upright.
- Remember that the quadriceps are knee extensors. To get the VMO (vastus medialis oblique, the teardrop-shaped muscle on the inside of the knee) to do most of the work, you should squeeze your thigh hard at the top of the movement.
- If the repetitions become too easy, increase the range of motion with a higher level instead of a heavier weight.
Pay close attention to the movement of the knee. In a good repetition, there should be no visible compensatory action such as a lateral buckling of the knee towards the center of the body. The knee should point in the same direction as your toes the whole time.
Tip: Avoid cheat meals
Cheat meals are justified, but not if you are already too fat. It's time for a reality check. Read this tip...or take flight and stay fat.
By Chris Shugart
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-drop-the-cheat-meals
You don't need anyone to tell you that sweets, cookies, soft drinks, junk food, fast food and excessive alcohol consumption are ruining your body, or at least hindering your progress.
But maybe what you really need is someone to do this for you. That's because there are a lot of ad execs and spineless crowd pleasers out there telling you that this crap is okay in moderate amounts. This is the sad new state of the diet and fitness industry today: really fit people telling fat people that it's okay to eat junk...because of "body love" or because of "science" or because they've run out of marketing ideas.
They also like to say that there is no such thing as "bad food" because they obviously define food as anything you can swallow that won't kill you instantly.
Well, they're wrong. Every time an overweight person consumes something that we'll classify here as "obvious junk", that person takes a step back or temporarily halts their progress. And since many of these foods have addictive properties or upset the gut flora in such a way as to cause extreme cravings, moderation can go down the drain faster than you'd like.
Avoid cheat meals
If your goal is to lose fat, keep fat off permanently and boost your performance, then you need to put cheat foods to the side. Yes, there are a lot of plans out there that encourage cheat meals, but these compliant plans will be just as successful in the long run as Weight Watchers was for your fat aunt.
Maybe it's time to grow up and stop being so eager for a food reward every time you finish your exercise session. Sure, a few scrawny young men and users of large amounts of steroids can get away with eating junk food for a while, but try to stay lean at the age of 30 to 40 or above when you're eating like a spoiled fat kid every weekend.
Like a good strength or conditioning coach, a nutrition coach must first patch the cracks in the foundation and then build a solid and strong structure. This is easy because the athlete usually knows damn well what they're eating that they shouldn't be eating. And you know that too.
Oddly enough, it's human nature to make these obvious mistakes until someone tells you to stop. Here's that wake-up call: stop it.
Tip: Get your diet in order. Stop ignoring the obvious
Ignore the quick-fix advice promoted by most women's magazines.
By Dani Shugart
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-fix-your-diet-stop-ignoring-the-obvious
Women often look for obscure missing components of their diet instead of focusing on the obvious behaviors that are causing the real problems. Many would rather find out what Dr. Oz's secret fat loss formula is instead of stopping their obvious bad food choices.
No, it can't be the margarita nights, the sugary soft drinks or the ice cream. It has to be a lack of Amazon Koo-Koo berry juice! It's easier for some to sugarcoat what they eat, preferring to believe that there is another way that will help them achieve their goals.
Alcohol-fueled weekends that lead them to eat unrestrained unhealthy foods, continuous snacking between meals, liquid coffee calorie bombs and even too many semi-healthy snacks of dried fruit and nut butters - these are all examples of gross blunders that women overlook while looking for the secret to instant fat loss.
Most of the time, women have an idea of what their vices are, but without someone to tell them to "stop it," they will habitually leave the junk in their diet and just reduce portion sizes. For some unfathomable reason, women believe that eating small portions of unhealthy food will help them achieve a lean body.
The solution
Women need to take an honest look at what they eat. A food diary or app can help them develop an awareness of this. They need to pay attention to what they eat, when they eat, why they eat and how they feel after eating certain foods.
They need to find out if they are subconsciously snacking throughout the day, opting for the worst possible drinks or automatically eating the leftovers on their children's plates without considering that they have already eaten.
Monitoring their food intake can even help them identify which seemingly harmless snacks are actually so-called trigger foods that lead to overeating. It will also show them that healthy foods can be more satisfying in the long run than the junk they used to eat. No koo-koo berry juice needed for this one.
Tip: Use the Anti-Press for true core strength
Increase core stability and improve shoulder strength and mobility with this advanced exercise.
By Ben Bruno
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-anti-press-for-real-core-strength
In response to Dr. Stuart McGill's research on spinal health, much of the current training for the core focuses on "anti" movement stability training: anti-rotation, anti-extension (anti-extension) and anti lateral flexion. I call the exercise described here an "anti-press" because it addresses all of these categories simultaneously.
How do you perform the anti-press?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN_NZ7Vu2fk
- Grab the handle of a suspension strap (TRX, blast strap, etc.) and turn to the side. Lean to the side so that your body forms a 60 degree angle with the floor.
- Now tense your core to avoid twisting and push the handle straight forward until your arms are fully extended. This part of the movement is reminiscent of pallof presses, which you can perform with bands or on the cable pulley to train anti-rotation.
- From this position, move your arms straight overhead and pause for a second. At this point, focus on anti-extension and anti-lateral flexion.
- Repeat until you have achieved the desired number of repetitions.
In addition to building tremendous core stability, this exercise also supports strength and mobility in the shoulders.
Progression and regression
It is easy to achieve progression or regression with this exercise by simply adjusting the position of your feet and/or the length of the suspension strap. The further away your feet are from the anchor point of the suspension strap, the easier the exercise will be. As you get stronger, move your feet below the anchor point and increase the length of the suspension strap.
This is a very advanced exercise, so it may make sense to start with the overhead position only.
Tip: Prevent knee injuries through correct tracking
You should pay attention to the position of your little toe during squats and lunges. Read on to find out why.
By Dr. John Rusin
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-prevent-knee-injuries-with-proper-tracking
Most exercisers assume that the knee is highly susceptible to injury. There may be some truth in saying that the knee is more prone to injury than other joints due to its anatomical characteristics and orientation relative to the ankle and hip complex, but that's not the whole story.
First of all, the structure of the knee joint is inherently very immobile. It is a hinge joint with only two directions of movement, which means that it can only move in the direction of extension or flexion of the leg. Less relative movement of the knee combined with poor movement of joints that are very mobile can put excessive stress on non-contractile tissue types such as tendons and articular cartilage.
This type of kinetic chain is most noticeable in exercisers with quadriceps dominant movements such as squats and variations of lunges. While global knee instability can be a "chicken and egg" problem with other negative co-factors such as stiff limbs and immobile joints above and below the knee level, many injuries of a chronic nature also become symptomatic through the front of the knee and around the patellar tendon.
Increased tone and stiffness of the quadriceps can increase compression and shear forces around the patella, which can lead to an increased rate of friction and irritation between the patellar tendon and the femur.
The situation with functionally shortened and stiff quadriceps combined with poor movement of the patellar tendon is exacerbated by poor squat mechanics such as knees drifting outwards, which also applies to variations of lunges when the knee is forced into full extension.
This sounds like a pretty big problem for most exercisers to address, and it is. The simple tip described below can improve your movement patterns and give your offending knees enough time to recover.
Prevent it
Pay attention to tracking your knees. There are numerous different lower body exercises that include squat and lunge variations. While each exercise is unique and their proper execution involves many important factors, understanding how your knee should be positioned relative to your foot can improve even the worst form of exercise execution quite quickly.
When you reach the lowest position in both squats and lunges, the patellar tendon should be over the lateral aspect of the foot. Some coaches try to explain this exercise to their students with the knee directly over the midline of the foot, but I have also observed that this advice has not led to success in terms of the mechanics of the movement.
On the other hand, if you aim for the midline of your kneecaps to be directly over the little toe, you can target the gluteus and hamstrings with just enough torque and spiral load to almost automatically minimize inward and outward buckling of the knees.
Tip: Strengthen your grip strength in four different ways
There is more than one type of grip strength and you need to train all of them to develop a powerful grip.
By John Sullivan
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-strengthen-your-grip-4-different-ways
Different types of grip strength are quite distinct and different. Grip strength can be divided into four categories.
1. squeezing grip
Squeezing a gripper (or even a tennis ball) exemplifies this type of grip strength, but you need more for a strong, well-rounded grip.
2. pinching grip
The best example of this is holding 2 weight plates together with your fingers and thumbs with your arms hanging down at your sides. You need to squeeze the two plates tightly together as you lift them off the floor and this requires superior thumb strength. Work your way up until you can squeeze two 20 kilo disks together.
3. supportive grip
This form of grip strength is best demonstrated by holding a heavy barbell, dumbbell or farmers walk equipment with your arms hanging down for an extended period of time.
4. wrist strength
Exercises such as forearm curls, where the wrist is maneuvered through different ranges of motion, characterize what can be called wrist strength.
Train all four types
You may excel at squeezing a heavy gripper, but could still perform modestly in exercises such as the farmer's walk, which requires large amounts of supporting grip strength. In addition to this, I have observed that the correlation between holding a thick bar and a normal bar is quite low. The larger the diameter of the bar, the more you have to open your hand, which shifts the emphasis towards the thumb.
The bottom line for all grip strength training sessions is that you need to train specifically what you want to improve.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-peterson-step-up-for-quads
By Lee Boyce | 03/06/16