Strickland Fitness

Back Pain and Tight Muscles

This is definitely not a diagnosis; however, lower back pain can be caused by tight muscle in the legs, hips or abdominals. I have many new clients that come to me with one of their goals being to eliminate lower back pain. If this pain is not caused by soft tissue, nerve or spinal damage (which is out of my range to treat), the first thing I look for is tightness. Many times this is the problem. After a specific and persistent stretching routine, their back pain is slowly eliminated. Besides the upper leg muscles, abdominals, and muscles in the hips attaching to the pelvis, so do all the lower back muscles. If the any of the upper leg, abdominal or hip muscles are tight, that causes constant tugging on the pelvis. If the pelvis is being tugged on, then so are all the lower back muscles which are attached to it. This tugging on the pelvis is called a pelvic tilt. If the pelvis is tilted either way of the neutral position, this can cause extreme stress on your lower back. The purpose of stretching your legs, hips, and abdominals is to release the tight muscles and get your pelvis into a neutral position at all times. What are some things that can cause tight muscles? The first and most common thing is sitting down for long periods of time. Sitting causes the abs and hip flexors to be in a shortened position. The shortening causes an anterior pelvic tilt (the pelvis tilts forward). This puts your lower back muscles into a compressed state when standing. If you have a sit-down job, stretching the hip flexors and working on strengthening the abdominals will help to release your pelvis. Running is also a common reason for back pain. Now, I am not saying you shouldn’t run (it is a great cardio workout and stress reliever), however, what you do before and after your run can help to relieve back pain. Besides impact on the spine, running will cause a lot of your leg and hip muscles to tighten up. If you are a runner, be sure to do a good warm up of active stretching (see warming up post) and an immediate post run stretch and another one before bed. It is a good idea to stretch the morning after a run as well. I will post another article about specific stretches to do to release your pelvis and help eliminate back pain. If you have any specific questions, you can email me.

I had many requests to post more about working the butt. The key is to make mind-muscle connection. If you are trying to work your butt, you have to be focused on working it. For example, when you do a bicep curl, your focus should be on contracting the bicep to raise the weight. It makes a huge difference to the muscle when you consciously think about what’s happening rather than letting the body go into auto-pilot. Do the same for your gluts.

Let’s put this concept to work. When doing a squat, try concentrating more on your behind rather than your quads. Imagine you are being pushed up from the squatting position to the standing position while squeezing your gluts. Activating the muscle with the mind will activate the muscle in exercise.

Here is a great butt exercise. Stand on a 12 inch high box with one leg. One foot should be on the box and the other should be hanging off the side right next to the box. If the right leg is on the box, lower your left foot (bending your right knee) until it touches the ground and then push through the right foot to raise to the staring position. Try not to let your left hip drop below your right. Keep your pelvis square the whole time. Really focus on lowering with the muscle and rising with the muscle. Don’t bounce the left foot off the ground. The most important aspect of the exercise is making sure your knee that is bending stays in line with your foot. Look down or in a mirror to be sure the knee is not collapsing inward. Go up and down 20 times focusing on the right glut. Do 20 on the other side with your left foot on the box and the right hanging off. Do 3 sets of 20 on each side. This a great exercise to activate the butt before moving on to other exercises.

I will post some more specific exercises for getting the perfect pair of buns.

Check out an exclusive clip from one of my training sessions. This is what training with me is like…I hope you like it!! http://www.lamuscle.tv/player/hollywoodextra/81

The importance of warming up is undeniable. It’s a wonder why so few of us actually warm up before any type of exercise; Maybe it’s not knowing what to do or what to do it for. I will answer both of these maybes.

You should warm up before any exercise session. It does not matter if it is cardio or resistance training.  The two basic parts of a warm up are low intensity movement and active stretching.

Why warm up: To ready the body for maximum performance and prevent injury during and after exercise. The difference between working out cold and working out with a warm body is substantial. Muscles perform better when they are rich with oxygen. This oxygen gets to your muscles via blood. Warming up moves blood throughout your body saturating your muscles with oxygenated blood. Your muscles and body will then be ready for intense activity. Some examples of the first part of your warm up (low intensity movement) are: Biking, jogging, rowing, walking, and stepping. 5-10 minutes of any of these examples is plenty to get the blood flowing to your muscles. This should not be intense as to not tire yourself before your actual workout.

The second part of your warm up should be active stretching. Have you ever seen track athletes hopping down the track raising their knees up and down to and from their chest before a race? This is an example of active stretching. You are putting your body through the motions of the actual exercise you plan to do. This prepares the ligaments and muscles for the force that will be placed on them. Going through full range of motion before resisting the motion (with speed, weight, or force) is crucial in injury prevention. Some examples of active stretching are: walking lunges, side-to-side lunges, arms swings, and trunk rotations.

Your muscles and ligaments are like a rubber band. When warm, they are elastic and flexible. Put the rubber band in the freezer and then try to pull it apart…it snaps. That is what can happen when you exercise without warming up.

Before any workout, do 5-10 minutes of low intensity movement followed by 10 minutes of active stretching. Your workout will be that much better and your chance of injury goes down greatly. You also burn a few extra calories doing it!!