It's That Time of Year

I'm driving through Wellesley last Saturday morning and I realize what my next blog post is going to be. Every Saturday and Sunday morning from January to April, there will be packs of runners crossing through Wellesley into Newton along Route 16. And every time I see these packs of runners, I cringe. They way some of these people are running looks so painful to me. And if you can get a look at the expression on their face, you know they really are hurting. And I bet a good percentage of these runners (if that's what you want to call them) is dealing with some sort of injury: a calf strain, shin splints, plantar fasciaitis or some other -itis. And I'd also bet a good percentage of these people have no business training for the marathon, unless they are willingly committed to destroying their joints.

I'm one to talk. I've run three Boston marathons, so I'm putting myself in this group. But not once did I very feel good during training. My feet always ached. My back was always sore. I developed shin splints. I ran through a stress reaction in my hip. I strained my calf numerous times. And the last time I strained it was at mile 5 of last years' marathon. Feeling I had to finish the race, I ran through the strain making it worse and worse. I limped to the finish and limped for about 4 weeks after that on a swollen and purple lower leg. All of this to run a 4 hour marathon. No prize money. Just a mylar blanket to keep me warm.

Needless to say, most of us are not made for this type of training. We are not made to jog. We were made to walk or to run, not jog. Jogging is just an incomplete biomechanical pattern that is repeated over and over again. It's not good for you. But that is not going to sway any of these marathon "joggers". They're going to to train for that marathon no matter how bad any one tells them it is for them. So a couple words of advice for these lunatics , "Take care of yourself". Foam roll. Stretch. Strength train. Cross train. Training for that marathon is not just about running, it's about staying injury free.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: DB Floor Press

I feel the dumbbell floor press is effective in three situations :

1. When coming off a shoulder injury, I'll use it early on in the progression back to full range of motion pressing exercises. And to make it even less stressful on the shoulders, use a neutral grip.
   
2. For triceps work. It's less stressful on the elbows than extensions and the triceps responds better to heavier loads. No pink dumbbells will be used here.
   
3. If someone is having a tough time locking out the top half of a bench press.

The exercise is pretty straight forward. Just perform a dumbbell bench press from the floor, lowering the dumbbells until your elbows come in contact with the floor. In order to make this exercise really effective, take a 1-2 second pause when your elbows touch the floor. But do not relax the triceps in this position. Try to keep tension in that bottom position and then return to the starting position by extending your elbows.

What Not To Do

A good amount of injuries are related to posture. And a good amount of injuries can be prevented if your static and dynamic posture is taken into consideration. If you've been sitting at a desk, behind the wheel of a car or sitting in front of your computer looking for Patriots tickets on Ebay all day, here are five things you shouldn't be doing while you're at the gym:

1. Get on the bike. Find a better option to warm up or do your cardio work. You've been seated most of the day, probably hunched over. So stand up, straighten out and get tall!!!!
2. Bench Press. Rather than tightening up your internal rotators even more, work on some rowing exercises or any type of rhomboid and mid-trap work.
3. Seated Military Press, Seated Triceps Extensions, Seated Hip Abduction....anything seated. This goes back to my first point. We're not made to sit on our butts all day, so stand up get get tall!!
4. Bicep Curls. Your arms may look great, but all that biceps work combined with terrible posture is a recipe for shoulder injuries.
5. Crunches. Same thing as the first four points. You're reinforcing that awful, shortened posture. There are plenty of other ways to work your abdominal area: reverse crunches, planks, woodchops, Russian twists, etc..

I told you so

I've been preaching the benefits of strength training to people for years. Well, if you still don't believe me or ma be you just do not want to lift weights, take a look at the article that was in today's Boston Globe, The Unsung Benefits of Lifting Weights.

It's not earth shattering stuff, but it gets to the point. The research and studies do not lie so why are people still afraid of lifting weights?

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Workout Finisher

Much as been made of "finishers" lately. What is a "finisher? A finisher is an exercise or series of exercises placed at the end of your workout designed to finish your workout and you off. It takes the place of the 10-15 minutes of lazy, ineffective, pointless, low intensity cardio that most people are doing at the end of their workout. Finishers can be made up of a number of exercises and consist of different modes of training equipment. I've used a number of different ones, but one that needs no equipment and one I have been using for awhile is the following:

• A1 - Jumping Jacks
• A2 - Mountain Climbers
• A3 - Side-Side Hops
• A4 - Burpees

Perfom each exercise for 30 seconds and then move to the next exercise until all four exercises are completed. Rest for two minutes and repeat the circuit anywhere from 2-5 times. Every couple of weeks cut down the rest interval 15 seconds until you get down to 60 seconds. Youre legs will be burning, your heart rate will be up and that stubborn body fat is going to melt right off!!


**RichRuff AFC Championship prediction**
Patriots 35
Chargers 7

Good luck to.....

...Igor Olshansky. Nice going pal. Just when my Patriots didn't need any more motivation to wipe the field of the San Diego Chargers, you had to open your big mouth. I'm sure a lot of you have seen this clip, but here it is again:



You just got your quarterback killed.

In all seriousness, good luck to the Bedford (New Hampshire), Barnstable and Norton fire and police departments. They are all competing in the 10th 911 Fitness Challenge.
All members of each team had their weights taken and their bodyfat levels measured. Now they have twelve weeks to make some serious changes before I test them again. A trip to Las Vegas and some nice cash prizes are on the line. I'll provide the results in April and let you know if any of these fine service people are going to be partying it up in Vegas.

Getting Fatter Younger

Funny Videos

It's the truth. Children in America are getting fatter. Depending upon which study you read, 25-30% of America's children are overweight. Just drive by any bus stop and take a look at the kids standing on the corner. At least one out of three or four kids is overweight. And that number is going to continue to rise, if we as adults and as their parents do not do something about it. If we do not do something about it, we're setting these kids up for life long health related issues. So what can we do?

1. Educate. Talk to them about the importance of eating health foods and physical activity. If you can sit your kid down to talk about the birds and the bees, surely you can sit him or her down to talk about their health.
2. Play. Go run around with your kids. Play a game of soccer or basketball or dodge ball. Do something with them rather than trying to beat your poor kid up in Madden '08. The bonus to this is you're also getting to get some exercise that you're probably not getting.
   
3. Be a role model. Where do kids pick up their behaviors? Some of it comes from their friends, but some of it comes from their parents. If your child sees you as overweight and lazy, this may become acceptable to your child. I do not have any numbers to back this up, but from my own observations I see a lot of overweight parents with overweight children.

The trend of American children becoming increasingly overweight is going to continue if we as adults do not step in and do something now. And it's not just about our kids being skinny. It's about our kids being healthy.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: DB Romanian Deadlift

This week's exercise of the week targets the posterior chain (the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back). Training the posterior chain is important to any individual, whether they are an athlete or an out of shape office worker.



The execution of this exercise is vital, so a couple of key points.

1. Maintain a neutral spine throughout the movement.
2. Keep a slight flex in the knees throughout the movement . The days of the old stiff-legged deadlift are over.
3. Keep the weight close to your legs on the way down.
4. As you lower to the floor all the weight should go back on your heels. You should almost feel like you're going to fall backwards.
5. The weight does not have to touch the floor. I'd suggest going to the point where your spine is about parallel to the floor.
   
6. On the way up, think about pushing your hips forward. In the top position, squeeze those glutes.
   
7. Do not hyperextend in the finish position. This creates too much pressure on your lumbar spine.

Go Patriots!!

Sale on Val Slides!!

A couple of posts back I mentioned the Val Slides. Well, right now Perform Better is offering a sale on this great piece of equipment. What ever the price of these slides are, they're worth it!!

RichRuff Training Product Review: X-Vest

Eventually you're bodyweight exercises are going to become easier. Or I should say, if you're training right and training hard eventually your bodyweight exercises are going to become easier. Bodyweight exercises consist of push ups, chin ups, squats, lunges, burpees and a host of other exercises that people do not like to do. When these exercises do become easier, people think they only have one option to make them increasingly harder. They keep upping the number of reps. That's fine, but eventually progress is going to stall there. So what else can you? How about adding more weight? How about purchasing an X-Vest? I did a couple of months back and it has become one of my most used training devices in my bag. Bodyweight exercises just got a whole lot harder for my clients. Plus they feel bulletproof and indestructible when they put this thing on. That and they realize what an extra 10lbs on their frame feels like. All the more reason to keep that weight off and all the more reason to keep training.

For more information on the X-Vest or to purchase clink on the image below.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Hanging Leg Raise

If you've been reading this blog, you may have noticed that I'm not a huge fan of any type of crunching exercise or spinal flexion exercise. Now, for aesthetic purposes or developing that "six pack" they are fine. For the the individual who already has the head forward, rounded shoulders, sway back Neanderthal man posture they are not fine. All you're doing is reinforcing that caveman like posture. Plus, aren't you tired of doing all those crunches? You've probably come up with just every variation of a crunch: Swiss ball crunch, floor crunch, twisting crunch, Nestle crunch. Some people think the only abdominal work you're supposed to do is crunches. Not so. There's spinal and abdominal stabilization exercises, torso rotation exercises and low ab exercises just to name a few. This weeks exercise, the hanging leg raise, can be classified as as a low ab exercise...if done right.
Whether it's a knee raise or a leg raise, I see the same problem the way most people execute this exercise. They bring their knees or legs up to about waist level (some not even that high) and that's it. Then they complain about how fatigued their hip flexors are and they feel as though they're not getting any low ab work. "Isn't this supposed to be a low ab exercise?", Susie Spandex will say. If you rotate your pelvis back and get it out of that anterior tilt, it 's a low ab exercise. If not, it's just going to be a hip flexion movement and you'll be able to do sets of 20-30. If done right, you can cut that number in half. And if you stop eating that late night Ben & Jerry's, you actually may see the results of some good low ab training.

What is Functional Training? Part II

Last week I asked what you thought functional training is? And after checking my email every day over the last week, waiting for someone's response.....I didn't get an answer. Come on people!! Help me out here. Well, if I was to get some answers, I'm sure some of them would look like the the following:

• "Functional training involves working on the Bosu ball or standing on one leg."
• "Any time you work the core, you're training functionally."
• "Functional training helps with everyday activities and movements."
• "Exercises done in multiple planes of motion are functional."
  

In my opinion, all of these answers are right in one way or another. To me, functional training is a a term that is used to make a trainer or workout sound good. The word functional is defined as "the ability to carry out a purposeful activity". So any exercise that carries out the purpose you are looking for should be regarded as functional. So in most cases, any exercise should be looked as functional. Functional exercises are not just a particular group of exercises that use particular equipment as some people suggest. The type of equipment being used should have no bearing on whether an exercise is functional or not. If my purpose is to work on strengthening my grip through heavy bar isometric holds, isn't this exercise functional? Most people would say no, just because I'm standing there with a bar in my hand. But the purpose is to strengthen my grip. This exercise is carrying out that purpose so it is functional. It may not look functional to you and it may not be functional to you, but it is for me.
I'd be happy if I never heard the term "functional training" ever again. We've taken a pretty simple concept and have used it to sell training packages or get new clients. But it's no different than any other type of training most people have been doing through the years. You've been training functionally, you just haven't realized it.

Question to RichRuff Training

Hello Rich. In terms of using only body weight, which is better in building the legs, squat or lunges? And how should I do it? I understand that they are both bad for the knees. James Hi James. First, why are squats and lunges bad for the knees? Is this something you heard? Do you have any evidence or research of this? Any exercise can be bad for you if it is not done right or not appropriate for that individual. Second, squats may be better for some people while lunges may be more beneficial for others. I can not make a broad statement that one is better than the other. I would look at the individuals current condition and previous history and decide which one may be better at that time. Down the road, the other exercise may be better.