Spinal Erectors for a Healthy Back (And a great deadlift!)

• Uncategorized
• No Comments

In Part 3 of our “lesser-known muscle groups” series, we’ll talk about the spinal erectors.

What are the Spinal Erectors?

These muscles run all the way from the bottom of your spine at the sacrum to the base of your skull.  As with most muscles, they come in pairs, one for each side of your spine.  When you flex the right side, you’ll bend to the right and/or tilt your head to the right.  When you flex the left, the opposite occurs.  When you flex both of them together, you look up and bend backwards.

Extending the spine (Toes to head not required!):

Spinal Erector Muscles:

There are 3 main bundles of muscle that comprise the spinal erectors:

• Spinalis – closest to the vertebrae
• Longissimus
• Iliocostalis – furthest from the vertebrae

So while the job of the erectors is to extend the spine, if you have a force pulling you down and trying to move your spine into flexion, such as in a hyperextension or a deadlift, the spinal erectors will work simply to keep your spine neutral.

Example of NOT using your spinal erectors:

Using your spinal erectors:

Why are your spinal erectors important?

Your spinal erectors are a big part of your “core” muscles.  (Read more about the core HERE)  Increasing core strength is a common goal among many clients and for good reason!  Having a strong and stable core is very important for prevention of back pain, especially lower-back pain which afflicts up to 80% of all adults at some point in their life!

As you can imagine, spinal erectors are also integral in maintaining good posture, since they are responsible for keeping your spine in a straight and neutral position.  If you ever make an effort to sit up straight at your desk for an extended period, you may feel these muscles start to ache – give them the attention they need and maintaining proper posture will become almost effortless!  Stay tuned later this week for some exercises that will help strengthen these important muscles (as well as a belated hip flexor exercise post!).

Kat Whitfield

B.S. , NASM-CPT

What are your Hip Flexors?

• Uncategorized
• No Comments

Hip Flexors is a word you’ll hear tossed around quite a bit, especially by your trainer.  Have you ever heard that you have tight hip flexors and that sitting all day is the culprit?  Has your trainer ever talked to you about your immobile or tilted hips?  If so, you’re probably familiar with the term ‘hip flexors,’ and in this week’s “lesser-known muscle groups” blog post we’ll talk about what they really are.

What are your hip flexors and what do they do?

Your hip flexors are composed of quite a few different muscles, but the biggest players are the psoas and the iliacus.

The function of these hip flexor muscles is exactly what they sound like – they flex the hip.  What does this look like exactly?

Or in its more common form:

This is why sitting at a desk all day makes your hip flexors tight – because they are constantly in flexion in a seated position.  As you can see in the first picture, the psoas is also connected to your lower back, one cause of low back pain.  Tightness in this muscle will compress your lumbar vertebrae together, giving that exaggerated lower back arch and all of the back pain that comes along with it.  This tightness can also lead to a loss of glute activation, making exercises such as lunges, step-ups and squats difficult and possibly even painful on the knee joint.

However this should not lead us to vilify these muscles!  Often, thinking that a muscle is tight leads us to believe that it should not be strengthened or specifically targeted.  Tight muscles DO NOT mean strong muscles!  Having strong hip flexors is very important for all athletes (especially sprinters) and general exercise.

Hip flexors drive the leg up in a sprint, and also act as a brake when slowing down.  This will help not only performance, but preventing injury as well.

So take a look at your exercise program with new eyes: what movements do you perform that involve flexing the hip?  Running, sprinting, jumping, sit-ups, leg lifts, hanging leg raises?  If yes to any of these, you may benefit from strengthening your hip flexors.

Later this week we will take a look at ways to stretch as well as strengthen the psoas and iliacus.

Kat Whitfield

B.S. , NASM-CPT

Exercise(s) of the Week: Rhomboids

• Uncategorized
• No Comments

Here’s part 2 of our series on a lesser-known muscle, your rhomboids!  Earlier this week we discussed what they do and why they are important to train, and in this post we’ll show a few exercises you can do to make them stronger.

The Face Pull

My personal favorite exercise to get those rhomboids working is the face pull.  Here’s a few keys to get the most out of this movement:

1. Grip the end of the rope like you’re about to give a thumbs up.
2. Keep your elbows high.
3. Imagine you’re trying to bring the middle of the rope right between your eyes.
4. Pull back with your shoulder blades – think about pinching them together.

Rows (any variation)

Any kind of row will stimulate your rhomboids – along with many other back muscles!  Any variation will do, such as the bent-over row from a previous post (http://www.becomepowerful.com/2012/01/exercise-of-the-week-rows/), TRX rows, dumbbell rows, etc.  We’ll use cable rows as the example for this:

1. Keep your shoulder blades pressed flat against your ribcage and tucked down like you’re pulling them into a back pocket.  You want to maintain this shoulder position throughout the duration of the exercise.
2. Initiate the movement by pulling your shoulder blades back and together.  Concentrate on using your back musculature to pull the weight rather than your arms.

Incorrect form – shoulders are being pulled forward by the weight and are unstable instead of pulled into place back by the scapula.

Correct form

Band Pull-Aparts

Just as the name implies, band pull-aparts are simply taking an elastic band and pulling it apart!

1. Grip the band near the edges.  The further apart your hands are on the band, the easier the exercise will be, but move them closer together to get a bigger challenge.
2. Begin with your hands together.  Pull them apart by thinking about pinching your shoulder blades together.  Imagine that someone has a pencil or their finger between the shoulder blades and you need to crush it!  Keep your arms straight without bending the elbows.
3. Take care not to shrug your shoulders during the exercise.  Just like in the row, think about keeping your shoulder blades flat against your back and tucked down.

Cobras

1. Lay face-down on the floor with your palms facing down.  Go ahead and tuck your shoulder blades down.
2. Pinch the shoulder blades together and raise your chest, keeping your thumbs facing upwards.  Hold for a few seconds and lower yourself back down.

Scapular Retractions (Bat Wings)

This is an exercise I learned from an article written by Dan John, a coach I read from frequently.  I’m using his description and his pictures from the article. (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/reawaken_your_rhomboids)

1. Grab a heavy pair of kettlebells or dumbbells and lie facedown on a bench, resting the weights on the floor.
2. Pull the weights up toward your rib cage, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top for a second. From a bird’s-eye view, your torso should resemble bat wings. When in doubt, stick your thumbs in your armpits on this drill.
3. The higher you pull, the harder you should squeeze your shoulder blades together. This movement is slight, the weights should move up and down only about 6 inches.

Check out the video of some of these exercises HERE, and get to appreciating those rhomboids!

Kat Whitfield

B.S. , NASM-CPT

Empower Receives Acupuncture

• Acupuncture
• No Comments

Hello Empower Community~

My name is Shea D Broussard,M.A., L.Ac., and I am excited to be a new addition to the Empower Team! I am happy to be offering Alternative Healthcare Services to supplement your commitment to a healthy life.
My services include Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Therapy, and Medical Qi Gong.

Acupuncture is a painless, highly effective treatment for a variety of health conditions including:
• Pain Management: Chronic and Acute
• Weight Management
• Reproductive Health
• Adrenal Support for Power Training
• Emotional Balance: Stress, Anxiety, Depression

Please feel free to visit my website: www.acushea.com
I am also offering FREE 20 minutes phone consultations that will include a short introduction, a brief overview of what to expect during a first acupuncture treatment, and time to discuss anything you would like to work on. I am also happy to answer any of your questions via email. info@acushea.com

I look forward to meeting you and helping you achieve your healthcare goals and improve your quality of life!

- Shea

Meet Your Rhomboids

• Uncategorized
• No Comments

Some muscles take all the spotlight.  You’re probably familiar with your pectorals, your abdominals, calves, quadriceps, hopefully even your hamstrings and glutes!  Unfortunately, this leaves some very important muscles by the wayside.  They may not be what you can easily see in the mirror, but they serve us well and deserve some of the attention our larger muscle groups tend to get instead.  Over the next few weeks we’ll take some time to highlight these lesser-known muscles and why they need some love.

This week we’ll go over our rhomboids.

Take a look at your natural posture, sitting or standing.  Does it look something like this?

Do your shoulder blades look like this?

To an untrained eye, this might look normal.  But here’s what we would ideally be looking at:

If you’ve noticed you look more similar to the first 2 pictures, chances are you need to be formally introduced to your rhomboids.  Rhomboids serve to move and stabilize the scapula.  They hold it onto the ribcage, retract it, and rotate it downwards.  If you’ve ever worked with me you know one of the lines I say constantly is “pull your shoulder blades flat against your back and pull them down like you’re tucking them into your pocket.”  The purpose of this is to get those rhomboids active to help stabilize your scapula and in turn your shoulders.

Improved posture is a goal I’ve heard from many people!  Having strong, active rhomboids is integral for maintaining good posture by pulling your scapula and shoulders back, reducing the ‘hunch’ in the thoracic vertebrae.  In addition to generally good spine health, having strong, straight posture helps you look much better in the body you already have!  Building up the rhomboids also serves an important purpose in shoulder stability by being able to help ‘pack’ the shoulder when performing pulling motions such as a row or a pull-up or a pushing movement such as an overhead press.  Having a stable shoulder when executing these exercises prevents injuries such as strains or even dislocations.

So what are some ways that the rhomboids can be activated and made stronger?  We’ll go over that in our Exercise of the Week post this week, so stay tuned!

Kat Whitfield

B.S., NASM-CPT