Welcome to our brand new weekend roundup, Three of the Best! Every Sunday, we’ll post up Breaking Muscle’s top three articles of the week. These pieces have caught your attention throughout the last seven days. So here they are in one place for you to consume, digest, and enjoy.
#1 – 2 Overlooked Reasons Your Hamstrings Are Tight
“Stretching” and “mobility” have become the universal prescription for anything that feels “tight.” So we default into this mode of feeling guilty for not stretching enough and blame the persistent tightness on our negligence. I watch people subject themselves to this torture all the time, trying to attain the elusive flexibility in their hamstrings as they grimace in agony.
So what are the real causes of your “tight” hamstrings?
#2 – Life Ain’t Easy: Train Anyway
Most of us spent a huge portion of our childhood being told to do things we didn’t want to do. We had to be told every day to get out of bed, get ready for school, eat our vegetables, do our homework, brush our teeth. And on it went on for years, until we finally struck out on our own in the world, fully capable of doing it all for ourselves.
So how is it that, when it comes to taking care of ourselves physically, people just can’t seem to muster up the gumption to do what’s necessary, even if it isn’t always enjoyable?
#3 – Don’t Let the Fitness Industry Tell You What to Do
There’s always a humorous glut of people trying to tell us the one type of exercise we should do. But as far as the research is concerned, if your goal is to be healthy and live a long life, your exercise of choice would probably look like a combination of several things: a moderate amount of long, low-intensity cardio, some higher intensity stuff (but not too much), and some basic, whole-body strength training utilizing compound exercises through full ranges of motion.
This article is not for those who want to wail about how the industry is “broken,” or for the vets who already know shenanigans when they see them. This article is for the new professionals. Even more, it’s for the people out there who are just looking to get into fitness and don’t know where to start.
Did You See These?
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- Do You Need Extra Grip Work?
- Your Brain on Movement: Challenge Your Nervous System
- New on Breaking Muscle Today
Photo courtesy of CrossFit Impulse.
