Justin G. Walls, Certified Personal Athletic Trainer

Back pain can present in a few different ways, which we had discussed in a previous post . Today we are dealing with the iliopsoas and how dysfunction in this muscle can present as back pain The iliopsoas is involved in hip flexion, but due to its insertion at the 12th vertebrae of the thoracic spine and first through fifth lumbar vertebrae, it is better classified as a postural stabilizer. The psoas hooks up to the lowest part of the back and then extends down to the lesser trochanter on the medial side of the femur. This means that an irritated psoas can be felt from your lower back and buttock all the way down to the middle of your inner thigh. That's a big pain and you know where you will feel it! Psoas tendonitis can be caused by shortening the muscle due to anterior pelvic tilt (does your booty look like J.Lo?), overuse (too may hills during a run or just too much running/walking), or poor posture (are you really supposed to bend over that way?). The simplest way...

Are you tired of hearing about portion sizes to control or lose weight? You can actually eat MORE and still lose pounds or maintain your weight more easily. We have been entertained by the prospects of a  Twinkie diet  to convince us that calorie control may be the only necessary component to proper health. Unfortunately, these tests usually are post hoc  or "correlation not causation" arguments and are not valid. His short term gains may have been significant, but perhaps he should have been compared to someone who was malnourished, etc. in order to better prove causation. There is an important causation, but it depends on the type of calories you consume. Calories come from carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Carbs burn first, then fat, and finally protein. If the body needs energy quickly and you do not have enough carbs for energy, and the fat is taking too long to break down, then your body can turn to protein, and this can lead to inhibition of lean body mass gain...

The NY Times  has an article from this week about training with kettlebells, and how successfully training with them can reduce back pain by training the posterior core muscles that are often weakened by long hours of leaning of desks and computers at work. The best exercise for relieving back pain is the Kettlebell Swing: When the Swing is executed correctly, it incorporates every posterior chain muscle, loosens tight hip muscles, and improves abdominal strength. The back is kept straight through the movement and the head is always 'looking down field'. Knowing the correct weight and proper form are important to correct execution of the Kettlebell Swing requires some flexibility and patience with getting the form. 

In today's NY Times, a Pennsylvania University study  concluded that: "they could find no correlation at all between obesity and attending a school where sweets and salty snacks were available ." There must be a problem with food preferences and not just availability, price, or just blaming school lunches. If this is your regular lunch, with high fat, high carbohydrate, and very low nutritional content, and combined with little physical activity, then you will have childhood obesity problems. Instead, lunches should look more like this: Higher fiber, higher vitamin, higher protein, and lower fat and carb content. Now about that physical activity thing...

If you are pressed for time and need to move out some of that energy from being stuck at the desk or in meetings all day, then I have a quick solution for you involving no equipment. You should do all five exercises for 60 seconds and have three rounds (5 exercises x 60 seconds/exercise x three rounds = 15 minutes). Here's the basic workout: Burpees - Push-Ups - Squats - Mountain Climbers - Deadlift Perform each exercise for 60 seconds. Take a one to two minute break between each round of exercises if necessary. Here are some of the exercises mentioned above: This is a video about the progressions of Burpees The next video is about Mountain Climbers and its progressions: Deadlifts can be performed with any 'dead weight' lying around the home, such as a full backpack, a box of books, bag of kitty litter, whatever. It's imperative that one should learn proper deadlift, push-up, and squat techniques from an expert before attempting them on your own. Fee...

Today's post is from the IYCA Newsletter about the mental component of athletic training: Why Performance Training Alone Isn't Enough By Melissa Lambert As a former collegiate athlete, I remember spending my off seasons training every opportunity I had including weight lifting, running and playing with the men's team to increase my speed of play. I took pride in having the top times in running and physically being able to outplay others. However, I remember playing our rival team and making a huge mistake that could have resulted in the other team scoring. What could have possibly gone wrong when I was in the best shape of my life? I neglected the most significant component of an athlete, my mind. The mental aspect of any sport can make or break a talented athlete regardless of their training regiment. I didn't spend nearly the amount of time training my mind as I did training my body. It wasn't until becoming a girls' premier soccer coach and a licensed the...

No, the question is not absurd! Some of issues related to waist size cannot be solved by dieting or even regular "exercise" such as running, hiking, or biking. Let's discuss the "belly" problem, frankly: 1. Large and flabby - if the abdomen protrudes beyond the bottom if the ribs AND it jiggles quite a bit as you move, then you may have a water and mineral retention issue. Usually this is the result of too much salt and plain flour in the diet. Sodium is stored in the abdomen until it passes through the kidneys and excreted. Until that time, it surrounds itself with water near the suprailiac (a.k.a. "love handles"). Solut ion: Drink more water, sweat more, and limit salt intake from 500-1000 mg per day. 2. Large and firm- If the abdomen is protruding but doesn't jiggle, then most of the fat is sticking to organs and not skin. Jiggly fat is subcutaneous fat, which is just below the skin and burns up faster. Hard fat is viscer al fat , which s...