by Cori Lefkowith | Aug 12, 2015 | Blog, Exercises, Pain Relief
I’m constantly asking clients during sessions, “Where do you feel this?” “What do you feel working?”
I ask these questions for a couple of different reasons.
One, I want them to focus on the correct muscles activating and working to make sure they are getting the most out of the move.
And two, I want them to build their mind-body connection so they can actually get stronger and more efficient with the movements.
Because, amazingly, just because someone has good form doesn’t mean they are actually activating the correct muscles and forcing them to work.
You would be amazed and surprised by how many people lack a real mind-body connection – a real awareness of what muscles should be working and activating.
Heck, many people can’t even get the correct muscles working and isolated during movements.
Yet they are all out there working out, adding a little more weight or doing a few more reps.
And then they wonder why they aren’t getting stronger. Why their pull ups aren’t getting better. Why they constantly have aches and pains in areas that shouldn’t really be getting as worked as they are.
It’s all because they haven’t established a proper mind-body connection – it’s because they’ve skipped the Activation Step.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 15, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Pain Relief
Isometric Exercises are a great way to build mobility, stability and strength in your lower body.
While most people include dynamic and static stretches in their workout routine, they often forget about the importance of Isometric Moves to developing mobility and even flexibility.
And Isometric Exercises are key.
Dynamic and static stretches do improve your flexibility and mobility; however, they don’t at the same time strengthen and build stability through that new range of motion.
Then when we go lift, even after doing the stretching, we often don’t work through the increased range of motion, which simply means we tighten everything back up only to have to stretch out and loosen up again.
By including Isometrics, you not only improve your flexibility and mobility, but you also work and strengthen through the new range of motion to help you keep the increased range of motion.
And, by doing Isometrics, you can learn to activate and feel the correct muscles working during the movements so that, when you go to lift weights, the correct muscles are being recruited through a full range of motion!
Below are 15 Leg Isometric Exercises you should include in your workout routine to not only improve your hip mobility and the flexibility of your legs, but also strengthen and build stability.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 27, 2015 | Blog, Pain Relief, Runner's
Running – It’s an exercise almost everyone thinks they can do, but very few actually do well.
It is also a repetitive exercise that can put lots of strain on our body and lead to injury, especially if we are already tight and suffering from imbalances and poor movement patterns because we sit at a desk hunched over a computer all day.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should just stop running, especially sprinting, if you love it.
It does mean though that you need to make sure to have a proper rehab/prehab program in place to include before and after your runs or even on days when you hit the gym.
By including certain foam rolling, stretching, activation and strength training moves in your workout routine, you can keep your body injury free and prevent and alleviate those annoying running injuries!
Follow our 4 Step Injury Prevention Program below to learn how to prevent and alleviate common running injuries.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 14, 2015 | Blog, Pain Relief
Do you sit at a computer for 9 hours a day and your wrists and elbows can get achy and sore? Or maybe you’ve noticed that doing moves such as push ups or handstands cause wrist or elbow pain?
That is because most of us spend lots of time with our wrists and elbows in flexion (actually basically our entire upper body is in flexion hunched over a computer screen), which can cause the muscles of our forearms and even our upper arms and upper back to get sore and tight.
This tightness in our forearms and our upper back can cause wrist and elbow pain and lead to injuries when we workout. When we go to the gym and do moves like push ups and handstands, we ask our wrists to be in extension, which they may be too tight to comfortably do.
Plus the tightness caused by sitting in flexion can also cause the extensors in our forearms and the muscles of our upper backs to be weak, which can also lead to injury when we lift because we may not be engaging the correct muscles and may be instead overusing weak muscles that can’t handle the load.
Below are 10 Tips to help you prevent and alleviate wrist and elbow pain at your desk and loosen up your upper body after sitting in flexion hunched over a computer. Any time you need a little break from typing, try one of these moves!
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by Cori Lefkowith | Mar 2, 2015 | Blog, Exercises, Mini Band, Pain Relief, Travel Workouts
While working out is an important part of being healthy, getting stronger and preventing injury, that doesn’t always mean you have to go spend an hour or two at the gym.
Sometimes simply moving more and doing the opposite of what you do seated at your desk hunched over a computer screen for 9 hours a day is enough to start alleviating aches and pains. Sometimes all you need to do is a 15-minute workout at your desk.
And a Resistance Band or Thera-Band Tubing is really all you need to get in a great workout at your desk.
With Resistance Bands, you can work your entire body to improve your strength, posture, and help prevent and alleviate neck, shoulder, upper back, low back, hip and even knee pain.
When we sit all day at a desk hunched over a computer screen, our body is in flexion. This can create bad posture, tight overactive muscles and imbalances. All of which can lead to compensations and poor movement patterns which will eventually lead to injury.
Therefore we need to move more. But not simply move more while perpetuating the imbalances. We need to move more and do exercises that can help restore our body to proper alignment and improve our movement patterns.
We need to move not only more, but better.
To prevent and alleviate injuries and improve your health while staying right at your desk, try these 15 Resistance Band Moves To Do At Your Desk.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Feb 19, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Pain Relief, Stretches
To keep your body healthy and strong, you need to correct the imbalances caused by sitting all day at a desk and performing repetitive movements.
To correct these imbalances and truly help prevent and alleviate injuries, you can’t just simply go and workout. You can’t just simply lift weight and expect to get stronger.
Because even if you have seemingly perfect form, you may not be activating and using the correct muscles to lift the weight – and this could lead to injury instead of you getting stronger and fitter.
In order to make sure you are using the correct muscles when you lift, you must implement all four training elements – foam rolling, stretching, activation and strength training – in your workout routine.
You can’t simply skip to strength training and expect your body to work correctly and remain injury-free.
Before you start your workout and your strength training routine, you must first start to work on restoring your flexibility and joint mobility by foam rolling tight areas. When you foam roll, you help release knots so that muscles can become loose and ready to work.
By starting your workout program with foam rolling, you can start restoring muscles to their proper length-tension relationships. When muscles are at their proper length tension relationship, they can contract properly allowing us to lift more weight and engage the correct muscles to do the work.
Also, by loosening up knots, you can help improve your joint mobility. When a muscle is tight and shortened, it can change how your joint operates. It can limit your range of motion around a joint, leading to improper movement patterns and compensations
But foam rolling alone won’t restore your flexibility and joint mobility.
Once you’ve foam rolled to start getting the tight, overactive muscles loose, you then need to stretch to help elongate shortened muscles.
Below are 35 Stretches that stretch everything from your feet to your neck and wrists. These moves will help you improve your flexibility and mobility so that you can move better and feel better.
And then once you’ve stretched out using a few of these moves, make sure to get those underactive muscles working with some activation exercises before you move onto your strength training!
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