I’m going to walk you through two scenarios:

1. Where you may feel like your hamstrings are tight, but they really aren’t.
2. When your hamstrings are actually tight.

Neurological Tightness Versus Mechanical Tightness

Before we break down these two scenarios, let me first explain the difference between mechanical and neurological tightness:

• Mechanical tightness occurs when a muscle is actually shortened, which is most often caused by poor posture or movement.
• Neurological tightness, on the other hand, occurs when the muscle is consistently lengthened.

What happens in the case of neurological tightness is that because the muscles are lengthened they receive additional neural input, thought to be a protective response. Essentially, the body is trying to prevent the muscle from being stretched too far, so you experience the sense that the muscle is tight.

“What happens in the case of neurological tightness is that because the muscles are lengthened they receive additional neural input, thought to be a protective response.“

The best way I can explain this is by thinking of a rubber band. Stretch it as far as you can and the band itself becomes taut. This is exactly what happens to the muscles in our body.

Scenario One: Neurological Tightness

In this situation, trying to stretch your hamstrings isn’t going to help the problem. Instead, it will simply further lengthen the tissue. You may experience some relief from stretching (similar to when you stretch your lumbar spine), but you aren’t reaching the actual problem and why you feel tight. The relief will only be temporary. Once it passes, you will feel like you need to stretch the hamstrings again, and again.

RELATED: Hamstring Mechanics During Sprinting: Insight Into Injury

To get to the root of the problem, you need to be assessed by a movement specialist. The problem could be due to a number of different factors, but the most common is a mechanical tightness of the hip flexors. If your hip flexors are tight, the pelvis can become tilted forward. Because our hamstrings are attached to the back of the pelvis, this tilting will cause the hamstrings to be maintained in a lengthened position.

This means that instead of stretching the hamstrings, you should actually be working on strengthening them so they can counteract the anterior pelvic tilt position, while also working to mobilize the anterior hip.

“If your hip flexors are tight, the pelvis can become tilted forward….This tilting will cause the hamstrings to be maintained in a lengthened position.”

Another common problem with “tight hamstrings” is that you are simply not moving properly or using proper motor sequencing. In this situation, muscles aren’t activating and firing at the appropriate time, causing your hamstring to do much of the work other muscles are supposed to do.

For example, when extending the hip, your glutes should fire first, followed by the secondary hamstrings. For many people, the glutes don’t fire properly (in some cases barely at all) and the hamstrings take over the main job of extending the hip. But the hamstrings weren’t designed to be the primary mover here, and they will therefore have to be contracted for longer – giving you the feeling of tightness.

How to Fix Neurological Tightness

One of my favorite exercises in this situation is what’s called the active isolated hamstring stretch. And yes, it does stretch the hamstrings to some degree, but more than anything this exercise is fantastic at training proper sequencing and muscle patterns. In fact, I don’t love the name of the exercise because I find it to be anything but isolated.

Active isolated hamstring stretch

To do this exercise, you lie on the ground with a rope over one foot. Then, you should squeeze your glutes, followed by your quads, and then actively lift up your leg as high as it can go.

When the leg won’t go any further, you can give a gentle pull with the rope, and hold for only about one second. Repeat this for about 8-10 reps.

“[Y]our brain learns what muscles should fire and when, allowing proper and efficient movement.”

You usually gain some significant range of motion – not necessarily because you are stretching the muscle (remember, you’re only holding about one second), but because you are training proper muscle programming. In other words, your brain learns what muscles should fire and when, allowing proper and efficient movement.

Scenario Two: Mechanical Tightness

Let’s move on to the second potential situation, where your hamstrings are actually shortened, and they are tight. If this is the case – go ahead and stretch your hamstrings. But remember, until you rectify the root cause for them being tight, you are going to be chasing a never-ending problem.

Find out why your hamstrings are short. Is it because you’re weak in the front of your hips and your pelvis is posteriorly rotated? Is it because of the position you sit in all day? Until you figure out the why, you’re not going to resolve the issue.

Left: Good sitting position; Right: Bad sitting position

The Take Home

Before you spend hours per week stretching your hamstrings, get a quick assessment and find out if in fact you should be stretching – or if you need to be working on something entirely different, like strengthening or motor programming. A movement specialist can easily assess and let you know if your muscle is physically shortened or lengthened or if you simply need to move differently. It will save you a lot of time, and prevent you from injuring yourself in the future.

The post Stretching Your Hamstrings Isn’t Always Best appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In an effort to improve the quality of my own sleep, I have done a lot of research on the subject and have even tried out a number of sleep apps. Though my app would tell me the percent of deep, REM, and light sleep I got each night, I still had some questions. I’ve uncovered the answers, and will be sharing them with you today.

• What percentage of each type of sleep should I be aiming to obtain?
• How does sleep specifically influence recovery?
• How can I improve my sleep cycle, not simply the quantity of sleep I’m getting?

The Benefits of Sleep

Precision Nutrition has a fantastic article all about sleep, and I highly recommend checking it out. Here’s a quick synopsis of the important points:

• Effects on Weight Management: The average adult gets around seven hours of sleep each night. Studies have suggested that less than six hours, or more than nine hours a night, leads to weight gain compared to those who sleep 7-8 hours a night. People who sleep less than six hours a night are significantly more likely to be overweight or obese.^1,2 It’s not clear why people who sleep more than nine hours a night have similar weight concerns.
• Effects on Skill: During sleep, the body repairs damaged tissues, produces crucial hormones, and strengthens memories. This strengthening of memories helps you perform skills better after sleeping than if you had spent that time instead just practicing while awake.
• Effects on Immunity: Have you ever noticed you tend to get more colds when you are run down? That’s because sleep also aids in immune response, allowing your body to create more white blood cells to fight harmful viruses and bacteria.

See her? She’s getting slimmer, stronger, and healthier. Are you giving yourself the time to do the same?

The Five Stages of Sleep

• Stages one and two are both stages of light sleep. Stage one should account for approximately 4% of your entire cycle and stage two 45-55%. During these two stages, muscle activity slows, as well as your breathing and heart rate. Your body temperature also decreases.
• Stages three and four are stages of deep sleep. Stage three should account for 4-6% of your sleep cycle, and stage four, 12-15%. During these stages your brain begins to generate delta waves (the slowest brain waves and the point when our brain waves are least like waking), your breathing becomes rhythmic, and your muscle activity is limited. This is also the stage where growth hormone secretion occurs.
• Stage five is REM (Rapid eye movement) sleep. It should account for 20-25% of your sleep cycle, and during this stage your brainwaves speed up and dreaming occurs. Muscles relax (extremities are usually paralyzed) and your heart rate increases. Your breathing is rapid and shallow.

A full cycle of these five stages typically takes about ninety minutes.¹ Now that you know what ratios are ideal, you can work to improve the quality of sleep you get. This will ensure you cycle through these stages without interruption. Keep reading for some tips on how to improve the quality of your sleep. But first, a bit about the relationship between sleep and injury.

Sleep and Injury

There isn’t a ton of specific research on sleep and injury, but the relation between the two is starting to come to light. Most notable are a couple of studies conducted with youth athletes. One concluded that injury rates increased during games following a night of sleeping less than six hours.³ The other found that sleep was the strongest predictor of injuries, even more than hours of practice⁴ (read this piece for a full breakdown). Inadequate sleep was correlated to decreased reaction time under fatigue, as well as a diminished immune system, as discussed above. Decreased sleep also doesn’t give the body the time it needs to repair tissues. Over time this damage can lead to injury.

British researchers have been looking into the relationship between sleep and arthritis.⁵ In Britain, it was estimated that nearly two in three people with pain secondary to arthritis experience trouble sleeping. Researchers was always thought these sleep problems were caused by the pain, but recently they have discovered that it’s actually a two-way street. Sure, joint pain causes sleep disturbances, but sleep disturbances will actually make joint pain worse and accelerate joint damage. According to medical director of Arthritis Research UK, Alan Silman, “Pain induces lack of sleep and lack of sleep induces pain.”⁵

This could also involve the disruption of the immune system. When you are overtired, the immune system is saturated by the distress the body is experiencing. This is why it’s so much easier to get sick while sleep deprived, and also why it’s hard to recover from injuries without adequate sleep.

4 Simple Ways to Improve Sleep Quality and Quantity

There are a number of different ways to improve your sleep quality, feel more rested, and be less prone to injury. Here are some of the most agreed-upon techniques, as well as strategies I have personally implemented that have made a huge difference.

1. Make a Bedtime and Wakeup Routine

This one is simple. Creating a routine around sleep is so effective because it prepares you mentally and physically. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Your brain and body develop a natural circadian rhythm, and learn that sleep is the next thing that needs to happen.

My routine includes having a small snack about an hour before bed (usually celery and almond butter), followed by reading a fiction book (I get too involved in planning if I read a business or non-fiction book) for 30-60 minutes. When I wake up, I drink a full glass of water before getting in the shower, followed by breakfast at the dining room table to sit and relax before heading to work. This is what works for me, but you need to find what works for you. I know some people who swear by taking a hot shower before bed, and others who love to color. Try a few things out and see what works best for you.

2. Turn Off Electronic Devices One Hour Before Bedtime

The light emitted from our devices – computers, iPads, smartphones – messes with our natural circadian rhythm. Our bodies use light as a cue to know when we should be awake and when we should be asleep, and the light from these devices hinders our ability to produce important hormones that facilitate sleep.

For those of you who might not be able to do this, I have heard fantastic things about an app called F.Lux. It will change the light emitted from the device gradually to help prepare you better for sleep.

The light from electronic devices tells your body that it’s time to be awake. Not ideal when you’re about to try and sleep.

3. Avoid Excessive Caffeine – Even in the Afternoon

The stimulant effects of caffeine last much longer than you might think. I recently started using a new app that tracks your caffeine intake and shows when you will be ready for sleep. The most interesting thing wasn’t when I was considered “ready” for sleep, but that I still had some caffeine in my system from the day before when I woke up in the morning. Consider this when you reach for your afternoon or evening coffee. Some research suggests that you should never drink caffeine past 2pm, but I opt for nothing after noon.²

4. Try a Sleep App

Sleep apps increase awareness of your quantity and quality of sleep. They provide a visual log of how long you’ve slept, and the ratio of each stage of sleep. By comparing these logs as you adjust things in your day, you can become more aware of the factors affecting the quality of your sleep. Tracking sleep quality made me realize that for me, cutting electronics an hour before bed made the biggest difference.

Prioritize Quality Sleep

I wanted to bring all of this information in one place so you can realize how important sleep is for everything, including injury prevention and recovery. Getting adequate sleep could even aid in pain management. Remember there are different stages of sleep, and aim to hit the right ratios for each:

• Stage One: 4%
• Stage Two: 44-55%
• Stage Three: 4-6%
• Stage Four: 12-15%
• Stage Five: 20-25%

I hope you have learned a few strategies to help improve your own sleep. Take a few minutes and think about how you could improve your sleep habits. Ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have a regular routine for bedtime and waking up in the morning?
• Do I turn off my electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime?
• Do I avoid caffeine after 2pm in the afternoon?
• Do I use any sleep apps to increase awareness of my sleep quality and quantity?

If you answered “No” to any or all of these questions, you’re missing out on better sleep. Take a step today to improve. Your body and your mind will thank you.

More on the Power of Sleep

• How Sleep Deprivation Affects Athletic Performance
• The Importance of Sleep for Weightlifters and Other Athletes
• How Sleep Deprivation Fries Your Hormones, Your Immune System, and Your Brain
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References

1. Andrews, R. “All About Sleep.” Precision Nutrition, Accessed February 27, 2016. 

2. St. Pierre, Brian. “Hacking sleep: Engineering a high quality, restful night.” Precision Nutrition, Accessed February 27, 2016.

3. Luke et al. “Sports-related injuries in youth athletes: is overscheduling a risk factor?” Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine 21 no. 4 (2011): 307-14.

4. Milewski et al. “Chronic lack of sleep is associated with increased sports injuries in adolescent athletes.” Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics 34, no 2 (2014):129-33.

5. Yapp, R. “Why lack of sleep may trigger arthritis—but treating insomnia may improve the condition.” Mail Online. 2012. Accessed February 25, 2016. 

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Sleep Better: A Proven Way to Train Hard and Feel Your Best appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I explained previously that just because an X-ray, CT scan, or MRI shows an “abnormality” does not necessarily mean someone needs fixing. Often, that abnormality is simply that person’s normal.

An awareness is starting to trickle down to clients and the general public that an abnormal diagnostic image is not necessarily relevant to treatment. But for some reason, this logic seems to be isolated to the spine. An abnormal result in any other body part still seems to lead everyone to believe that it is also the reason for pain, injury, or dysfunction.

If people can have abnormal results in the spine but are otherwise completely asymptomatic, why can’t the same be true for other parts of the body, like the hip or the shoulder?

Diagnostic imaging can show abnormalities (like this rotator cuff tear), but those don’t always translate to dysfunction.

Who Has “Normal” Shoulders?

This question was the subject of a study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology. Researchers analyzed findings of shoulder ultrasounds to determine the prevalence of any “abnormality” in otherwise healthy, asymptomatic men. The study looked at 51 men ages 40–70 who had no symptoms in either shoulder.

An ultrasound of one shoulder per patient was performed by a sonographer according to a defined protocol, which included imaging of five areas:

1. Rotator cuff
2. Tendon of the long head of the biceps brachii muscle
3. Subacromial-subdeltoid bursa
4. Acromioclavicular joint
5. Posterior labrum

The scans were then analyzed by three radiologists in consensus, with subtle or questionable findings (mid tendinosis, bursal prominence, and mild osteoarthritis) being omitted.

When Problems Aren’t a Problem

Researchers discovered subacromial-subdeltoid bursal thickening in 78 percent of the subjects. Bursa are thin, fluid-filled sacs that reduce friction in joints and help facilitate gliding of muscles and tendons over and through them. Typically, thickening of the bursa indicates inflammation and has been thought to cause pain.

But the men in the study were completely asymptomatic. 

Further analysis showed the following:

• Acromioclavicular joint osteoarthritis in 65 percent of the men.
• Supraspinatus tendinosis (damage/degeneration of a tendon of one of the rotator cuff muscles) in 39 percent of the men.
• Subscapularis tendinosis (another rotator cuff muscle) in 25 percent of the men.
• Partial-thickness tear of the supraspinatus tendon (a third rotator cuff muscle) in 22 percent of the men.
• Posterior glenoid labral abnormality (an abnormality in the fibrocartilage ring that runs around where the upper arm bone fits) in 14 percent of the men.

All of these men had abnormal anatomy revealed in their ultrasound, but were asymptomatic. So are they really abnormal?

In Plain English, Please

To translate all the anatomy-nerd-speak, the study found that abnormalities were found in 96 percent of men who have absolutely no pain or issues with their shoulders. They are simply living their lives as usual, but an ultrasound shows an “abnormality.”

Just like we learned with MRI for the spine, results of ultrasounds for shoulders should be interpreted closely and combined only with clinical findings to determine the cause of symptoms. Seeing a skilled physical therapist who can assess the reason for shoulder pain is still required, regardless of what an ultrasound finds. Maybe you are one of the individuals who has a tear in your shoulder, but it is causing you no pain. If this is the case, imagine how upset you would be if you repaired the tear, only to find out that your pain came back because the root cause of your injury was never discovered or rehabilitated?

If It Ain’t Broke…

Always read results of imaging with an understanding that they do not mean you are broken. Imaging is a fantastic tool, and at times is incredibly important for injuries. As a physical therapist, there have been times when I have had to push for images to confirm clinical diagnosis. But the imaging results cannot be viewed in isolation from the bigger picture.

Just because the results of an X-ray, MRI, or ultrasound show something abnormal, please don’t take that as a reason to stop working on your strength, mobility, or range of motion. You are not “broken” or “abnormal.” Stay the course, keep working hard to rehabilitate your injury, and recognize the results for what they are: a single piece of the overall you.

More Training and Rehabilitation Science:

• You Are Not Normal – Here’s Why
• Myths About Disc Bulges: They Are Not Forever – But Training Is
• Get the Diagnosis Right: It’s Not Tendonitis, It’s Tendinosis
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The post You Are Not Your Shoulder Ultrasound appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But I also see a large number of people who think they can manage their injuries by themselves and get back to their normal functioning without help. Unfortunately, this often does not work out in their favor. More often, it leads to longer-than-necessary pain and discomfort.

These are the three common do-it-yourself approaches I see that prolong the healing process. 

“I’ll Just Rest It”

Many people believe rest is the best medicine. This manifests in a few different ways. Some people avoid exertion altogether, while others keep moving and training, but avoid anything that might aggravate the injury.

Now, this is good, to some extent. You do want to protect the injury and avoid making it worse. For example, if you have a shoulder injury, weighted overhead pressing is not the smartest idea. But simply avoiding the exercises that hurt does little to actually rehabilitate the injury.

“Rest is best” is a false and outdated belief.

What you actually need when you’re injured is movement, exercise, and training. Of course, what your training and exercises look like will change, depending on your injury. You will have to avoid certain exercises to prevent further injury and will likely need to modify others. That’s okay.

“I Can Push Through the Pain”

This type of person doesn’t want to slow down or change anything in their day-to-day life, nor do they want to change their training program. These people essentially ignore their injury and figure “no pain, no gain.” 

People who take this approach to rehab usually hurt themselves in such a way that their daily activities will have to drastically change. Instead of just a sore shoulder, they end up with a muscle tear that requires surgery. Instead of just a discomfort in the foot or shin, they now have multiple stress fractures. What started as slight knee pain has been joined by pain in the foot/ankle/hip/back.

Pushing through pain is never a good idea.

This is an old mentality that I wish would die. You know what happens when you push through the pain? As you can imagine, you put a lot of stress on already injured tissues. But more importantly, you change the way your body moves, even if you have no idea it is happening. You alter your motor programming and reinforce poor, dysfunctional movement patterns. Even if the injury/pain heals, you will continue to move dysfunctionally. Do you know what that means? That means you are going to injure something else. Maybe several somethings.

Do you see where I am going with this? Drop the no pain, no gain mentality. Pain is telling you something. Listen to it.

The discomfort of a hard effort is one thing. Pain is another, and shouldn’t be ignored.

“I Know What To Do”

I can appreciate these people. They’ve been injured in the past and sought professional advice. They research their injury and find articles and YouTube clips. These people may ice, heat, tape, or wrap their injury. They may foam roll and stretch. They may even do some specific exercises. And some of this will likely make a difference, which is great.

The problem comes when they reach a plateau and the injury doesn’t seem to be getting any better. So they double their efforts and they roll longer and stretch more every day. But that doesn’t seem to be making a difference, and if it does it seems to only last a short time.

If you’re going it alone and haven’t been able to return to pre-injury status, you’ve probably missed something.

Maybe you’ve been working on mobility when you really should have been working on stability, or vice versa. At this point, you need to work with a professional who can determine the underlying cause of your pain or injury. 

Get Help to Get Better, Faster

If you recognized yourself in any of these examples, I hope you realize that though you can do a lot yourself, you might need help. A coach can help push you when you need a push and can slow you down when you need to be told to.

Before your try to rehabilitate your injury, you need to understand what caused it. Then you can work to correct not only the injury, but the underlying cause. And that means you can stay injury-free in the future.

More Ways to Speed Up Your Comeback:

• The Mental Side of Injury: How to Adapt and Overcome
• 3 Steps to Assessing Pain: Are You Hurt or Are You Injured?
• A More Effective Way to Rehab Your Ankle Pain
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post Why Your Self-Guided Therapy Isn’t Working appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Given the pain, it was no surprise I had a bad infection in my tooth and it had to come out. Before that could happen, however, I had to go on a fifteen-day course of antibiotics and painkillers to keep me sane and somewhat functional until the extraction could happen.

The Excuses and the Truth

I rarely, if ever, go to the dentist, for two reasons:

1. I mentioned I hate the dentist, and I really do. I’m not sure why my anxiety started, but I know that ever since I was a kid I was scared of the dentist. I’m told it’s relatively common.
2. On top of that I, like many, don’t have a health plan that covers the cost of dental care. I brush my teeth and I floss (admittedly not every day) because I know just how important oral health is. But shelling out big bucks to go get a cleaning when I can do it on my own? Forget about it.

Of course, as I write this, I know that is a total cop out. I don’t not go to the dentist because of the cost. I mean, I get my hair done every two months, drink Starbucks every day, and enjoy dinners out with friends. If I wanted to go pay for the dentist, I could. And let’s be honest – what’s more important?

The truth is, I don’t go to the dentist because I don’t like it. It is uncomfortable. But had I regularly gone to the dentist, I would bet this terrible tooth pain I’ve experienced for the last two weeks and the extraction I’m heading to in about three hours could have been entirely avoided.

Avoiding a little cost and discomfort now results in a lot of both, later.

Totaling the Cost

So, let’s take a quick look at what this tooth infection cost me:

• Three full days away from my physical therapy clinic and my clients there
• Income lost due to inability to work
• Another 30-40 hours of productive hours lost (where I wasn’t able to read blogs or articles, write, send emails, research, brainstorm with my team)
• Significantly decreased frequency and quality of sleep
• Poor nutrition (my days consisted mostly of soup and a protein shake)
• Inability to train
• Significantly increased stress
• Inability to take my dog for her regular length walks
• Having to decline a number of social invites and activities
• Numerous trips to the pharmacy and dentist office
• The financial cost of the antibiotics, painkillers, and dental work

Looking at that list of what this tooth has cost me makes me so mad and upset. Not at the dentist, but at myself. I probably could have prevented all of this if I stopped letting my discomfort dictate what I did for my health.

How My Tooth Relates to Your Health

Where am I going with all this? My experience got me thinking about your health. It made me think about the health of my clients and all of the people I want to help.

Those of us in the fitness and health field can become so ingrained in our work that it seems absolutely ludicrous that anyone wouldn’t work out. We can’t understand why people neglect their health, or why they sit all day and night and don’t care what it is doing to their body. I often find myself exasperated with clients who could have prevented a major injury had they trained and visited me only a few times. Or with clients who are in pain but who aren’t willing to spend the money on physical therapy, even though it would make them feel so much better and prevent the situation from getting worse.

What I realized is that most people feel about fitness and health how I feel about the dentist. Having to train regularly is not comfortable for many people. They don’t know what to do, and seeking help can be scary. They have to step outside of their comfort zone and be vulnerable. This is also true of eating well. It is not always comfortable, and you have to take time out of your day to do it. It isn’t time or money. It’s trying to avoid discomfort.

What Are Your Mental Blocks Costing You?

I want you to make a list of what it would cost you if you were down and out for two weeks, for one month, or for longer. Then ask yourself, are you doing everything you can to prevent this list from becoming reality? Do you go to the physiotherapist to check in on your movement health, as you would go to the dentist to check on your oral health? Do you train regularly and maintain an active lifestyle? Some of these things might make you uncomfortable, but the discomfort is far preferable to what will happen if you don’t take care of yourself.

I’m confident I could have avoided this tooth extraction had I not let my fear of the dentist dictate how often I went for check-ups. Don’t let your fear of discomfort, of having to work, or of having to be vulnerable dictate your health. Don’t let yourself wind up regretting not doing something about your health. Take the steps now to avoid seeing your list realized in the future.

More Ways Around Your Mental Blocks:

• 3 Mind Hacks to Streamline Your Training
• The Mental Side of Injury: How to Adapt and Overcome
• Why You Fail Under Pressure (And How to Succeed Next Time)
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post What a Toothache Can Teach Us About Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Take a look at this picture. I’m sure many of you recognize it as a stance you adopt frequently – on a water break at the gym, while holding your kids, or simply after standing a long period of time. Physical therapists look out for this posture when we are assessing someone for back, hip, knee, and pretty much all other types of pain.

You might just be standing around, but your hips and spine are in peril.

All Bone, No Muscle

Let me put it in perspective for you. You know how when your friend is standing tall, you can sometimes hit the back of their knee and it buckles? And then it takes them a moment before they catch themselves from falling?

If you manage a successful takedown, it is because your friend has locked out the knee joint and is resting simply on ligaments and bone. In other words, he or she is not using any active muscular control at the knee joint. This is why the knee buckles and why it takes a second before the muscular control kicks in to prevent a fall. The same thing happens when you hang on your hip. Instead of using your muscles, you rely on the ligaments, hip capsule, and bones to support your body weight.

Who Is at Risk?

It’s all too easy for anyone to get in the habit of standing like this, especially people who stand for long periods of time. It does tend to be more common with females, and it is almost always to the same side.

One of the biggest populations I see fall into this trap is parents, especially new parents. They often lock out at the hip joint in order to hold their child for longer of periods of time without having to use active muscle control. Law enforcement or correctional workers also seem to assume this position frequently. This is because they typically wear a heavy belt that is also asymmetrical, with one side weighing quite a bit more than the other.

Consequences of Hanging on One Hip

The problem with hanging on one hip in this adducted stance (also known as the Trendelenburg gait) are numerous and significant. They include knee pain and arthritis, hip joint dysfunction, gluteus medius tendinopathy, low back pain and nerve impingement, muscle strains, and of course all of the compensations that occur with each of these injuries. Let’s look at some of these issues in more detail.

• Lumbar Spine: Active hip control is lost in this position, and the glutes and pelvic floor muscles become inhibited. This leads to increased loading of the medial knee (a huge contributor to arthritis) and compensation by the lumbar spine. This compensation can cause over-activity of the lateral stabilizers of the spine, as well as decreased space between the nerve roots in the vertebrae. Ultimately, these effects can lead to impingement.

• Gluteus Medius: This position increases loading on the IT band over the greater trochanter (the outside of your lateral hip). This is important because one of your glute muscles, the gluteus medius, inserts on the greater trochanter. The increased load causes compression on this tendon, which has been found to lead to gluteus medius tendinopathy. The pain caused by this condition can interfere with sleep and day-to-day weight-bearing tasks, not to mention training.

What Can You Do About It?

One of the most important ways to prevent these problems is to simply be aware of your posture throughout the day. Most people have no idea they hang on one hip. In fact, I was talking about this article to a team I was coaching earlier this week as they were resting. About a third of the group realized they were standing in this stance while drinking their water, and they had no clue they were doing it. Once you realize you have a tendency to adopt this stance, you can make a more conscious effort to stop it. And yes, it will require conscious effort.

After this important step, the best thing you can do is reinforce proper movement through training. Click the links below for videos of glute and core exercises to re-establish proper posture and movement.

• Glute Band Walk
• Bear Walk
• Glute Bridge with March
• Loaded Carries

Just to reiterate – the most important way to counteract those awful negative effects is to stop the one leg booty pop. If you continue to adopt this stance, you will be fighting a battle you can’t win. Make the change today.

More Ways to Enhance Your Hip Health:

• Simple Tips to Improve Essential Natural Hip Function
• Release Your Hip Flexors: Groin Stretch 101
• An Easy, Effective Hip Flexor Stretch You Can Do Anywhere
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Cassie Dionne.

Photo 2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Way You Stand Is Damaging Your Body appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Evaluate Your Current Push Up

Get into the starting position of a push up.

• Where are your hands?
• Where are your hands in relation to your shoulders?
• What contact do you have with the ground underneath you?
• Where are your elbows and shoulders?
• What about your trunk, hips, and upper back?

As you can see, there is a lot to think about when evaluating your push up. Let’s get to the answers.

Hand Position

Beginners tend to keep their hands wide and far in front of the chest. They also relax their hands and fingers. Sometimes I even see people rotate their hands in one direction or another. All these positions place unnecessary strain on the wrist, leading to pain.

To avoid wrist pain, your hands should be about shoulder width apart and close to your chest. At the top of the push up, your hands should be directly under your shoulders. Placing your hands in front of or behind the shoulder will increase pressure on your wrists.

Your hands should be facing forward, not angled, and all parts of your hand should make contact with the ground. Avoid cupping the palm or lifting up your fingers. If you do this, the heel of your hand will take on all of the pressure and force, which inevitably leads to some wrist discomfort. Ensure all parts of your hand and fingers are in contact with the ground to better disperse the force and avoid pain.

(Note: If you use Perfect Pushup handles, your palms should face each other at the top of your push up and face backwards at the bottom.)

How NOT to do a push up: 

Rotating the hands places unnecessary strain on the wrist, leading to pain.

Elbow Position

Watch a beginner do a push up and you will often see the elbows flared straight out to the side. People who haven’t done push ups are usually stronger in this position, as it helps compensate for weaknesses. The problem is, flared elbows can lead to regular pain in the wrist, as well as more serious wrist, elbow, and shoulder injuries.

Remember, your hands should be under your shoulders and close to your chest. Your elbows should be back at about 45 degree angle, not flared out beside you.

How NOT to do a push up: 

Flared elbows can lead to regular wrist pain, as well as more serious injuries.

Trunk Position

Lack of trunk engagement leads to a sagging torso. Believe it or not, this position can also lead wrist pain, since it puts extra pressure on them.

Your body should lift and lower as a unit. If you feel any sway in the spine or sag in the hips, it indicates a lack of core stability. Be mindful of not letting your back sway or hips sag. If you can’t stop this from happening, talk to your coach. You might need to work on a variation to build strength, such as an eccentric push up or an incline push up.

How NOT to do a push up: 

If your hips sag, you need to work on core stability.

What a Proper Push Up Should Look Like

• The hands are firmly on the ground, with no cupping of the palms.
• The hands are below the line of the shoulder.
• The elbows are at an angle – approximately 45 degrees.
• The core is engaged and the body moves as a unit.
• The head is in a neutral position, not looking down.

By perfecting your form, you should be able to eliminate wrist pain.

If You Still Feel Wrist Pain

If the above form fixes don’t help your wrist pain, you may have weak wrists or lack range of motion. In this case, I recommend going to see a physiotherapist who can assess your wrists and give you specific instructions.

Until then, incorporate some knuckle push ups in your program. These will ensure your wrists are aligned. Do them on a mat until you get used to the pressure on your knuckles, since they can be a bit painful at first. If you continue to have wrist pain even while doing push ups on your knuckles, stop until you’ve consulted with your physiotherapist to prevent further injury.

More Tips to Perfect Your Push Ups:

• Why Knee Push Ups Won’t Make You Any Stronger
• How to Progress Your Way to a Perfect Push Up
• For the Push Up Pros: Can You Do All These?
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of CrossFit Dedication.

The post Avoid These Push Up Mistakes to Protect Your Wrists appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You cannot simply train mobility or stability alone. You need to train movement. Mobility and stability (or more appropriately, motor control) are important concepts to understand and work with, but they have been reduced to buzzwords. As a result, people only focus on small aspects of the greater picture: movement.

You cannot simply train mobility or stability alone. You need to train movement. Mobility and stability (or more appropriately, motor control) are important concepts to understand and work with, but they have been reduced to buzzwords. As a result, people only focus on small aspects of the greater picture: movement.

In the fitness industry, there is one camp of people who live and breathe mobility exercises: rolling, smashing, and stretching. Then there is the stability camp, whose proponents feel everything can be fixed with stability work.These two groups like to fight it out to prove who’s right, in what I can only imagine will end in some sort of epic Braveheart-style battle. Let’s examine each one in turn.

Mobility Is Not the Answer

Mobility alone is not the answer. You can stretch and roll and smash until the cows come home, but that won’t fix the problem. There is a reason you hold tension in your traps, glutes, or quadratus lumborum. It’s probably because these muscles are picking up the slack for a lazy friend. Until you address that root cause, you are just putting a Band-Aid over the problem.

I encourage this type of work with my clients, because it’s an easy and effective way for them to feel better. They can also do it easily on their own. But mobility work has to be done in conjunction with some sort of motor control training. Otherwise you’re simply chasing pain and symptoms.

Stability Is Not the Answer

Stability or motor control alone isn’t the answer, either. Sure, there are times when range of motion can be drastically improved simply by training motor control. But remember, we are looking at the bigger picture here, and that includes both overall movement and specific movements.

Let’s take your shoulder complex as an example. If someone has a winged scapula, some motor control work needs to be done in order to stabilise the scapula throughout motion. But when the person also has a hypomobile or stiff thoracic spine, you won’t see much progress with your motor control work. The scapula should be firmly attached to the thorax, and the thoracic spine should be mobile in flexion, extension, and rotation. If the thoracic spine is lacking mobility, it will actually disengage from the thorax (a.k.a., wing) in order to maintain mobility in the glenohumeral joint and prevent loss of range of motion in the shoulders.

Combining Both Is Powerful

What I’m telling you applies equally to someone in acute pain who isn’t moving well and someone training for performance in sport. For example, today I worked with a client who was struggling to touch his toes due to low back pain and pinching. Upon assessment, I found significant soft tissue tightness and restriction, as well as flawed motor programming. I knew the tightness was acting as a parking brake, because this client lacked the control to protect his spine if he bent over any further. I was also aware that the tightness was a source of pain.

“When you move well, your body will inherently take care of what needs to be mobile and stable.”

Here’s the key: I did hands-on manual and soft tissue work with him, immediately followed by exercises that forced him to stabilise his spine and train proper motor control.By following soft-tissue work with motor control exercises his body learned how to protect itself during his new found range of motion.The result? The client left feeling great after touching his toes with no pain or hesitation.

Widen Your Scope

There will be times when you have to hone in on movement patterns and other specific issues. But even when you do this, you have to widen your scope, beyond mobility and stability. Train proper, conscious movement. When you move well, your body will inherently take care of what needs to be mobile and stable.

More Like This:

• Is Mobility Just a Fad?
• Reset Your Mobility With These 3 Essential Movement Patterns
• The Real Way to Train Your Stabilizers (NOT 3 Sets of 10)
• New on Breaking Muscle AU Today

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Stability Versus Mobility: The Bigger Picture Is Movement appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In the fitness industry, there is one camp of people who live and breathe mobility exercises: rolling, smashing, and stretching. Then there is the stability camp, whose proponents feel everything can be fixed with stability work. These two groups like to fight it out to prove who’s right, in what I can only imagine will end in some sort of epic Braveheart-style battle. Let’s examine each one in turn.

Mobility Is Not the Answer

Mobility alone is not the answer. You can stretch and roll and smash until the cows come home, but that won’t fix the problem. There is a reason you hold tension in your traps, glutes, or quadratus lumborum. It’s probably because these muscles are picking up the slack for a lazy friend. Until you address that root cause, you are just putting a Band-Aid over the problem.

I encourage this type of work with my clients, because it’s an easy and effective way for them to feel better. They can also do it easily on their own. But mobility work has to be done in conjunction with some sort of motor control training. Otherwise you’re simply chasing pain and symptoms.

Stability Is Not the Answer

Stability or motor control alone isn’t the answer, either. Sure, there are times when range of motion can be drastically improved simply by training motor control. But remember, we are looking at the bigger picture here, and that includes both overall movement and specific movements.

Let’s take your shoulder complex as an example. If someone has a winged scapula, some motor control work needs to be done in order to stabilize the scapula throughout motion. But when the person also has a hypomobile or stiff thoracic spine, you won’t see much progress with your motor control work. The scapula should be firmly attached to the thorax, and the thoracic spine should be mobile in flexion, extension, and rotation. If the thoracic spine is lacking mobility, it will actually disengage from the thorax (a.k.a., wing) in order to maintain mobility in the glenohumeral joint and prevent loss of range of motion in the shoulders.

Combining Both Is Powerful

What I’m telling you applies equally to someone in acute pain who isn’t moving well and someone training for performance in sport. For example, today I worked with a client who was struggling to touch his toes due to low back pain and pinching. Upon assessment, I found significant soft tissue tightness and restriction, as well as flawed motor programming. I knew the tightness was acting as a parking brake, because this client lacked the control to protect his spine if he bent over any further. I was also aware that the tightness was a source of pain.

“When you move well, your body will inherently take care of what needs to be mobile and stable.”

Here’s the key: I did hands-on manual and soft tissue work with him, immediately followed by exercises that forced him to stabilize his spine and train proper motor control. By following soft-tissue work with motor control exercises his body learned how to protect itself during his new found range of motion. The result? The client left feeling great after touching his toes with no pain or hesitation.

Widen Your Scope

There will be times when you have to hone in on movement patterns and other specific issues. But even when you do this, you have to widen your scope, beyond mobility and stability. Train proper, conscious movement. When you move well, your body will inherently take care of what needs to be mobile and stable.

More Like This:

• Is Mobility Just a Fad?
• Reset Your Mobility With These 3 Essential Movement Patterns
• The Real Way to Train Your Stabilizers (NOT 3 Sets of 10)
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Let’s End the Mobility Versus Stability Debate appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

So take a look, and make an effort to implement these guidelines into your daily practices.

1. Laugh Often

I love to laugh, and anyone who knows me can attest to this. You need to laugh every single day. And I mean really laugh. Laughter relaxes the whole body, triggers the release of endorphins, relieves stress, improves mood, and just makes you feel good. And I don’t think I need to discuss how bad stress is for your body, both physically and mentally.

2. Train With Friends

Working out has countless positive effects on our lives. And as you already know, so does laughing. So meld the two together and work out daily with friends. Go to a gym that is a community, somewhere you love going and being. Make this a priority in your life and you will feel amazing on a daily basis.

3. Break Your Electronic OCD Loop

Have you found yourself checking the same websites over and over, even though you were just on them? Have you noticed that the second your phone makes a noise you have to grab it and see what’s going on?

Thanks to powerful mobile devices and social media, we live in a super connected world. I am the first to admit that I couldn’t live without my phone. But when you get in this loop, it can be difficult to have good, productive, consistent thought patterns.

This electronic OCD loop can also lead to fatigue, stress, and anxiety. You’ll find you feel “busy” all day, even though you have nothing to show for it. Once you are distracted by something like an email popping up on your phone, it can take up to 4-5 minutes to re-focus on your first task. That’s a lot of time lost if you add up all of the emails you check in a day.

So how can you decrease this stress and become more productive? The answer is simple, but perhaps not easy if you are in the habit of constant checking. Turn off the alerts on your smartphone. All of your emails, Facebook posts, and messages will be there waiting for you when you are ready to take a break and read them. Preset email and social media breaks into your workday so these distractions don’t interfere with your productive thoughts while you are working.

4. Stop Sitting so Much

We’ve all heard the headlines, and heck, I’ve even written on the topic before – sitting is the new smoking. Studies show a huge number of negative physical and mental health effects of extended periods of sitting. Something as simple as sitting less can make you feel better both physically and mentally.

I realise this is easier said than done, especially for those of you who are chained to a desk for long hours each day. Consider these simple, positive steps you can take:

• Use a desk that converts from sitting to standing.
• Get up for frequent breaks.
• Stand during meetings.
• Walk around the office when you talk on the phone.

5. Do Daily Mobility Work

This one is simple. Grab a foam roller, lacrosse ball, or a piece of PVC pipe you have laying around and spend five minutes a day doing some soft tissue work. If you have problem areas, focus on them. It may feel uncomfortable as you do it, but you usually finish feeling much better than when you started.

6. Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is critical recovery time and also protects you from illness. While you sleep, your body secretes hormones essential for muscle mass, bone strength, energy, and a strong immune system. This obviously does not happen if you don’t sleep. Think about that.

“While you sleep, your body secretes hormones essential for muscle mass, bone strength, energy, and a strong immune system.”

So, how much sleep is enough? There is no straight answer or consensus to this question as everyone is different, but it is generally recommended that adults sleep 7-9 hours every night.

7. Walk Tall

Not only does good posture have many positive physical effects, but it is also good for your confidence. In fact, research shows that walking tall improves your confidence, energy, and mood, and can also decrease your sensitivity to pain. Poor posture, on the other hand, can lead to feelings of stress and helplessness. So walk with your head up high.

Take Time Every Day

If you read through these ideas and feel like there’s nothing revolutionary there, you are right. But how many of them do you genuinely put into practice on a day-to-day basis? Every one of these points will improve your athletic performance, movement, productivity, and most importantly, your happiness.

More Like This:

• 5 Mental Health Secrets for Better Workouts
• The 5 Key Mindset Qualities of Successful Athletes
• Mental Strategies from Professional Strength and Conditioning Coaches
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle AU Today

References:

1. Biswas, et al. “Sedentary Time and Its Association With Risk for Disease Incidence, Mortality, and Hospitalization in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.” Annals of Internal Medicine 162 (2015): 123-132.

2. Brinol, Petty and Wagner. “Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach.” European Journal of Social Psychology, 39 (2009): 1053-1064.

3. Carney, Cuddy, and Ya. “Power posing: brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance.” Psychological Science, 21 (2010): 1363-1368.

4. Seguin, R. et al. “Sedentary Behavior and Mortality in Older Women.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 42 (2014): 122-135.

Photo courtesy of Michael Brian.

The post Feel Amazing Every Day: 7 Simple Strategies appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

So take a look, and make an effort to implement these guidelines into your daily practices.

Today I want to bring you my best tips for feeling great, both physically and mentally. You might think these simple ideas can’t make a big difference for your health, movement, injury rate, or experience of pain. But let me tell you, they really and truly can. Most people need to read and re-read these, and more importantly, apply them in daily life.

So take a look, and make an effort to implement these guidelines into your daily practices.

1. Laugh Often

I love to laugh, and anyone who knows me can attest to this. You need to laugh every single day. And I mean really laugh.

Laughter relaxes the whole body, triggers the release of endorphins, relieves stress, improves mood, and just makes you feel good. And I don’t think I need to discuss how bad stress is for your body, both physically and mentally.

2. Train With Friends

Working out has countless positive effects on our lives. And as you already know, so does laughing. So meld the two together and work out daily with friends.

Go to a gym that is a community, somewhere you love going and being. Make this a priority in your life and you will feel amazing on a daily basis.

3. Break Your Electronic OCD Loop

Have you found yourself checking the same websites over and over, even though you were just on them? Have you noticed that the second your phone makes a noise you have to grab it and see what’s going on?

Thanks to powerful mobile devices and social media, we live in a super connected world. I am the first to admit that I couldn’t live without my phone. But when you get in this loop, it can be difficult to have good, productive, consistent thought patterns.

This electronic OCD loop can also lead to fatigue, stress, and anxiety. You’ll find you feel “busy” all day, even though you have nothing to show for it. Once you are distracted by something like an email popping up on your phone, it can take up to 4-5 minutes to re-focus on your first task. That’s a lot of time lost if you add up all of the emails you check in a day.

So how can you decrease this stress and become more productive? The answer is simple, but perhaps not easy if you are in the habit of constant checking. Turn off the alerts on your smartphone.

All of your emails, Facebook posts, and messages will be there waiting for you when you are ready to take a break and read them. Preset email and social media breaks into your workday so these distractions don’t interfere with your productive thoughts while you are working.

4. Stop Sitting So Much

We’ve all heard the headlines, and heck, I’ve even written on the topic before – sitting is the new smoking.

Studies show a huge number of negative physical and mental health effects of extended periods of sitting. Something as simple as sitting less can make you feel better both physically and mentally.

I realize this is easier said than done, especially for those of you who are chained to a desk for long hours each day. Consider these simple, positive steps you can take:

• Use a desk that converts from sitting to standing.
• Get up for frequent breaks.
• Stand during meetings.
• Walk around the office when you talk on the phone.

5. Do Daily Mobility Work

This one is simple. Grab a foam roller, lacrosse ball, or a piece of PVC pipe you have laying around and spend five minutes a day doing some soft tissue work.

If you have problem areas, focus on them. It may feel uncomfortable as you do it, but you usually finish feeling much better than when you started.

6. Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is critical recovery time and also protects you from illness. While you sleep, your body secretes hormones essential for muscle mass, bone strength, energy, and a strong immune system. This obviously does not happen if you don’t sleep. Think about that.

“While you sleep, your body secretes hormones essential for muscle mass, bone strength, energy, and a strong immune system.”

So, how much sleep is enough? There is no straight answer or consensus to this question as everyone is different, but it is generally recommended that adults sleep 7-9 hours every night.

7. Walk Tall

Not only does good posture have many positive physical effects, but it is also good for your confidence. In fact, research shows that walking tall improves your confidence, energy, and mood, and can also decrease your sensitivity to pain.

Poor posture, on the other hand, can lead to feelings of stress and helplessness. So walk with your head up high.

Take Time Every Day

If you read through these ideas and feel like there’s nothing revolutionary there, you are right.

But how many of them do you genuinely put into practice on a day-to-day basis? Every one of these points will improve your athletic performance, movement, productivity, and most importantly, your happiness.

References:

1. Biswas, et al. “Sedentary Time and Its Association With Risk for Disease Incidence, Mortality, and Hospitalization in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.” Annals of Internal Medicine 162 (2015): 123-132.

2. Brinol, Petty and Wagner. “Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach.” European Journal of Social Psychology, 39 (2009): 1053-1064.

3. Carney, Cuddy, and Ya. “Power posing: brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance.” Psychological Science, 21 (2010): 1363-1368.

4. Seguin, R. et al. “Sedentary Behavior and Mortality in Older Women.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 42 (2014): 122-135.

Photo courtesy of Michael Brian.

The post 7 Simple Daily Rules for Health and Happiness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The next step is to apply what I’ve taught you and start to train your body to be able to absorb and damp down impact forces effectively. To do this, you need to train barefoot. As I mentioned before, this doesn’t mean you have to do everything barefoot, it simply means incorporating some strategic and deliberate barefoot exercises in your training session before you throw on your shoes, if you choose to train in shoes.

Introducing Short Foot

The following exercises were taught to me by Dr. Emily Splichal, one of the smartest presenters I have seen. She teaches all of these exercises in short foot, so first let’s talk about what short foot is.

The purpose of short foot is to strengthen and activate the intrinsic muscles of the foot and leg, especially one called the abductor hallucis (a muscle of your big toe). You can do this exercise with two feet on the ground or both. Obviously it will be more of a challenge if you’re only in a single leg stance.

To perform the short foot exercise:

1. Spread your toes and firmly place them on the ground.
2. Draw the ball of your big toe toward your heel without letting it or your heel come off the ground. Make sure you’re not curling your toes, flexing them in to the floor, or trying to grip the floor with your toes though. Toes should all be flat, while you perform this drawing motion.
3. Hold isometrically for ten seconds. This will start to activate those intrinsic muscles.

Dr. Splichal encourages this exercise to be done 5-8 times per foot. This short foot exercise is not only the first activation exercise you should do while training barefoot, but it is also what you should do while completing the following exercises.

Short Foot Exercises

Single Leg Short Foot

This exercise is straightforward. Stand on one leg. Make sure you have a slight bend in your knee and hip and that you are actively squeezing your glutes. Do the short foot exercise, holding for ten seconds each leg.

Single Leg Deadlift in Short Foot

Progressing from the single leg short foot, in this exercise you will simply hinge forward at the hips (remember your knee and hips should be bent) to perform a bodyweight single leg deadlift while maintaining short foot. Aim for 5-10 reps per side, stopping if you get any foot cramping.

Single Leg Squat

Same as above, but this time you will simply perform a body weight single leg squat while maintaining short foot. Again, aiming for 5-10 reps per leg and stop for any cramping.

Simple, But Challenging

These exercises may seem simple. You may say, “I do single leg deadlifts and squats all of the time and have no problem!” But by incorporating short foot and actively engaging your glutes, you will really feel those small muscles in your foot working. This is why I warn of potential cramping. These muscles aren’t used to working so hard, so they may fatigue quickly. If this happens, grab a golf ball and do some myofascial release (roll out the bottom of your feet) for 2-3 minutes per side.

The Towel Exercise

This is sometimes called the towel scrunch. It looks easy, but can be surprisingly difficult, especially for those who have never trained barefoot. To do this exercise, simply place a towel on the ground and use your toes to curl it in to you. Check out this video for a full description:

In Closing

I hope this series on impact forces and lower leg injuries has shown you just how important barefoot training is. And do realise that it is a process. You cannot go straight from wearing shoes or orthotics to barefoot training.

If you realise the benefits of training barefoot and you want to walk that path, then these exercises are exactly what you need to do to build up strength and endurance in your muscles. Enjoy the process!

More Like This:

• Impact Forces, Lazy Feet, and How Shoes Can Lead to Injury
• Avoiding Achilles Injury and the Benefits of Bare Feet
• What High Heels are Doing to Athletic Performance
• New On Breaking Muscle UK Today

The post Simple Barefoot Exercises for Stronger Feet appeared first on Breaking Muscle.