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What is Tempo Training ?

Designdistrict — Sun, 28 May 2023 17:58:54 +0000

What Is Tempo Training?

A guide on how to apply tempo in training to progress your workouts.

Defining Tempo in Exercising

Tempo refers to the speed at which you should perform your repetitions in an exercise. This communicated either verbally by the coach/trainer in the session or represented by a three-digit formula in case you are following a program online.

Tempo's Three-Digit Formula

The three-digit formula is often written as the following (numbers shown are just an example):

3-2-1

The first number (3) refers to the lowering portion of the lift which is called eccentric.
The second number (2) refers to the portion of the lift between the eccentric and concentric action which is usually described as the hold or the pause when communicating verbally. This portion represents the isometric action of the exercise hence why it is described by a pause or a hold.
The third number (1) refers to the lifting portion of the movement which is called concentric.

Taking squat as an example for the given tempo:

3 seconds dropping down (eccentric).
2 seconds hold at the bottom (isometric hold)
1 second going up (concentric).

What about exercises that begin with a concentric action?

For exercises that begin with a concentric action like bicep curl, lat pulldown, lateral raises etc.. we will write the three-digit formula the exact same way with one main difference. Let’s take the same tempo example (3-2-1) for a preacher curl exercise:

The first number (3) will always represent the eccentric (lowering portion) action.
The second number (2) in this case will represent the pause or hold at the top position where the biceps are contracted.
The third number (1) will always represent the concentric (lifting portion) action.

Which Tempo Should I Apply?

Choosing tempo should go hand in hand with the objective of the exercise, the objective of the workout and most importantly the objective of the phase that you’re in. Let’s clarify by giving three different examples.

Example 1: Person “A” struggles with stability during lifts and needs to improve his/her strength. What tempo should I apply while exercising? Research and several studies show that isometric and eccentric training show dominant results when it comes to building strength. In this case focusing on applying tempo that allows “A” to benefit from these actions. Slow and controlled movement on the lowering portion, holding on the transition portion. Examples: 3-2-1, 5-2-1, 2-5-1 etc…
Example 2: Person “B” is trying to add muscle mass and is currently in a hypertrophy phase. What tempo would be suitable for this phase? Exercise duration is one of the many practical applications that effects hypetrophy. several studies show significant hypertrophy results for durations between 2 to 6 seconds. Fitting tempo for that range will allow “B” to work in repetition range between 8-12 reps and lift sub-maximal loads with good TUT (time under tension). Examples: 2-2-2, 2-1-2, 1-1-1 etc..
Example 3: Person “C” is an athlete that is working on increasing his/her power output. What tempo should I apply in this case? While working on increasing power or speed, the focus should be on the concentric action (lifting portion) where “B” perform the lifting portion as fast as possible. This action is indicated by “X” which means explosive and usually is placed on the third digit of the formula. Slow eccentric (lowering portion) can still be applied in this case. Examples: 3-1-X, 1-1-X etc..

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How To Activate Your Glutes (5 Exercises To Cover All)

Designdistrict — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 20:16:25 +0000

How To Activate Your Glutes (5 Exercises To Cover All)

Gluteal Muscle Anatomy

As we know there are three gluteal muscles in every buttock – the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. Collectively all three are referred to as the glutes.

Gluteus Maximus: The largest of all three gluteal muscles and gives our hips and butt shape. It is typically broken into two subdivisions (upper and lower glute max).
Gluteus Medius: Located near or slightly above the hip joint, forms the middle layer of the glutes and completely covers the gluteus minimus muscle. there are three subdivisions for the gluteus medius: anterior, middle and posterior regions. Each have different roles during functional movement.
Gluteus Minimus: The smallest of the gluteal muscles and is located under the gluteus medius. it is often lumped into the same category of the gluteus medius because it shares the same origin and insertion points and performs similar movement.

Function Of The Glutes

Hip Extension: Hip extension is when we extend or open the hip joint. We do so during hip thrust, standing from a squat position and rasing the torso from a deadlift. we can also extend the hip by moving the leg behind the body as we do in kick backs.
Hip Abduction: Hip abduction happens when we move the leg laterally away from the body as we do in banded lateral walks.
Hip External Rotation: Hip external rotation occurs when we turn our knee outward or rotate our thigh away from the midline.

Why Should We Activate The Glutes?

Workout Preperation: Activating the glutes prior to a game or a workout prepares the body for heavy lifts and complex tasks such in high sports competition by stabilizing the hip.
Develop Body Awareness: I hear this feedback often during glutes activation where clients say “I’m feeling muscles that I’ve never felt before in my hip. Doing glute activations helps clients develop better movement mechanics, body awareness and pelvis control.
Strengthening The Glutes: Glute activation exercises can feel like a workout on their own for many because they lack strength and proper development in the hip area. This can serve as a great starting point to strengthen the glutes prior to loaded compound movements.
Posture Improvement: Perhaps the most important reason for many. Can you believe that something as simple as sitting for long periods of time can actually effect how you train/play and even cause an injury? In our modern lifestyle, long sitting hours is something the majority of our society experience from long working hours on an office desk to long hours of driving to siting down on the couch to rest for the rest of the day. This is leading the hip flexor muscles to be tightened which causes the opposing muscles (glutes) to be weakened. Same thing on the lower leg end happens with your calves and shin muscles. Because the body acts as a chain in movements, having imbalance in one part effects the rest of the body leading to injury possibilities in your back, ankle and knees. Working on strengthening the posterior chain that is weakened because of the sitting lifestyle can improve posture, restore movement and reduce the likeliness of injuries.

5 Exercises For Glute Activation

1. Banded Clamshells

Lay down on your side with your hip positioned at 90 degrees from your body and knees at 90 degree flexion.
Brace your core, tense your glutes and wrap your hands together to avoid upper body compensations.
Lift the upper knee away from the bottom one while keeping your feet in contact with each other.
Hold for 1 second and return to starting position to repeat the movement for the intended repetitions.

2. Banded Lateral Walks

Stand with feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent and feet straight ahead.
Place a band on the widest part of your feet or at your ankles level.
Take small steps sideways while maintaining feet and knees straight ahead.
Repeat in the opposite direction.

NOTE: The knees and feet must stay straight ahead during movement to stay in the Abduction pattern to avoid external rotation.

3. Banded Hip Thrust

Start by sitting on the floor with the legs extended and leaning back against the long edge of a flat bench.
place a band around your thighs above knee level.
Flex the hips and knees to place the feet on the floor, the knees will be at approximately 90-degree angle in this position.
Adjust the body to line up the upper back with the top edge of the bench pad.
Push both feet into the floor with the weight shifted towards the heels. This action will extend the hip and cause the body to rise vertically (if you’re unable to do this and you feel that you’re pushing through your toes; Then lift your toes off the floor and stay on your heels).
As you’re reaching the top position push your knees away from each other to apply tension on the band.
At that position the gluteals contract maximally at full extension position of the hip in addition to the external rotation tension applied on the band.
Lower the hip down to the floor and repeat from step 5.

4. Banded Feet Pull Apart

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Sit on a box or a bench where your feet are off the ground with 90 degree flexion on both the hip and the knee.
Place a light band on the widest part of your feet.
Place a light surface object (band/towel etc.) between your knees.
Keep the knees together (the object between your knees shouldn’t drop on the floor) and pull your feet apart.
hold for 1 sec and come back to starting position then repeat for the intended amount of reps.

5. Elbow Plank Alternating Hip Extension

Lie face down on the floor in a prone position with feet together.
Place the upper-body weight on the forearms and flex your feet with the toes pointing towards the shins.
Lock the knees, tighten the glutes and brace the core.
Lift the body so the only contact points are the balls of your feet, toes, elbows and forearms.
From this position engage the glutes and extend one hip to raise the leg off the floor.
Avoid the extension of the lumbar spine (lower back) and hold for 1 sec at the top position.
Lower the leg back to the floor and repeat from step 5 on the opposite leg.

Guidelines

Glute activation routine is suitable for every single person from the average 9-5 employee with no training background to a professional athlete. The only part that varies from one person to another is the volume and exercise’s parameters.

Beginners: The intention here is to develop body awareness and strengthen the glutes. In this case, we can treat the routine as a proper workout performing 3 sets of every movement anywhere between 8-12 repetition with light bands and focusing on technique.
Intermediate: Cases like this are usually when the individual has good mechanics and a training background but lacks strength in the area (or muscles are dormant due to poor training program). In this case we want to increase the intensity of the routine by applying different loading methods (heavier bands, tempo, isometrics etc…). I follow a volume of 2 sets with reps between 12-15 with high time under tension duration.
Advanced: The intention in this case is workout preperation and stabilizing the hips before performing heavy lifts or complex movements. 1-2 sets is more than enough for a warm up to get the glutes fired up performing high repetition between 15-20 reps on these exercises.

The post How To Activate Your Glutes (5 Exercises To Cover All) appeared first on TarekZ7.

Is The Ab Wheel Effective? What’s The Right Way To Do it?

Designdistrict — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 06:56:58 +0000

Is The Ab Wheel Effective? What's The Right Way To Do It?

Will This Give Me a 6-Pack?

Perhaps the most common question. The answer is, NO.

What are the specific benefits of the ab rollout exercise?

Unstable surface (ab wheel) creates a task complexity situation that places an additional proprioceptive and dynamic stabilization demand on the physiological and musculoskeletal system.
The lever arm in this exercise is presented by the two contact points (knees, hands on the ab wheel). pushing the wheel forward will increase the lever arm creating a greater challenge on the region between the two contact points creating a higher stabilization demand on that area.
The ab wheel is an antiextension core exercise which can have great results as a corrective exercise for posture correction and improving core strength and stability.

Technique & Consideration

I tend to notice common mistakes when performing this exercise which can really defeat the purpose of this exercise. After all, specific details no matter how small they are make huge difference in exercising.

Exercise Directions

Kneel on the floor with the ab wheel in front of your body.
Place the hands on the ab wheel and lift the body so the only contact points are the knees.
Brace the core for spinal stability and engage the glutes maintaining a neutral pelvic alignment.
Smoothly extend forward where the ab wheel moves forward.
Keep the head aligned with the spine throughout the movement, and keep the core braced (the aim is to apply tension on the braced core in an extended position).
Push out as far as possible while maintaining a stable, relatively stable spine with a neutral pelvic angle.
Reverse the action and roll the wheel backward to starting position.

Common Mistakes

Extreme anterior pelvic tilt (arched or hyperextended lower back) during the exercise.
Elevating the head during the exercise which extends the back area placing tension on the lower back.
Rolling back to starting position by pushing the hips back rather than driving the wheel backward maintaining tension on the core.

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4 Essential Core Exercises For Beginners

Designdistrict — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 09:23:14 +0000

4 Essential Core Exercises For Beginners

Why is training the core important ? What kind of exercises should I include in my routine ?

The "Core"

This word may be the most overused and misunderstood term in all of the fitness industry. For many trainers and individuals, the core is just represented by the abdominal muscles (abs), although it is incorrect, we see that this idea is widely accepted and shared between individuals in the gym.

What is core exactly?

We consider the core to be comprised of the muscles that act on the pelvis, the lumbar spine and the rib cage. These muscles are not limited to, but include the following:

Diaphragm
Rectus Abdominus
Erector Spinae
External and Internal Obliques
Transverse Abdominus
Pelvic Floor
Quadratus Lumborum (QL)
Glutes, Hamstrings and Hip Rotators
Latissimus Dorsi (Lats)

Why Is Training The Core Important ?

One truth that has never changed, is that the core of the body is the anchor to almost all success. This success could be developing stable and power movements for athletes, posture correction for employees, full recovery following back surgery etc….

Without going into too much details the following will give a brief idea on the importance of the core

Stability of Movement
Transfer of Power
Efficiency of Action
Body Alignment

Categorizing Core Training

As mentioned earlier in the post, there is a misunderstanding for the word “core” when it comes to training. Notice that many trainers overload their clients with sit-ups, crunches, leg raises etc…. failing to realize that this could a negative effect on the long run. This core pattern is called “Hip Flexion” which represents any movement that brings your knee close to your chest. I want to point out that in the modern lifestyle we tend to spend long hours in a sitting position (hips are flexed) whether at work or while driving resulting in tight hip flexors in majority of the cases. I believe that overloading clients with more hip flexion exercises without balancing out that volume, is just adding to the problem.

There are 4 categories when it comes to core training:

Antiextension: Resisting excessive extension of the lumbar spine.
Antirotation: Resisting rotation of the lumbar spine. It also involves some antiextension characteristics by nature.
Antilateral Flexion: Resisting lateral flexion of the lumbar spine.
Hip Flexion: Flexion of the hip joint with a stable lumbar spine.

My Top 4 Core Exercises For Beginners

For the reasons mentioned above, I haven’t included any hip flexion exercises in this list. Additionally, these exercises have much higher benefits to building core strength than doing sit-ups, crunches and other abs exercises.

1. Elbow Plank (Antiextension)

Lie face down on the floor in a prone position with feet together.
Place upper-body weight on the forearms and flex the feet with toes towards the shins.
Lock the knees, tighten the glutes and brace the core.
Lift the body so the only contact points are the balls of the feet, toes, elbows and forearms on the floor.
Maintain a completely straight line in the body with the ears, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles in alignment.
Hold the position for the determined time.

Exercise Parameters:

Time: 30-45 seconds
Sets and Rest: 3 sets with 1 min rest between the sets

2. Deadbug (Antiextension)

Lie on the back and bring the legs up into a triple flexion position (Hip-Knee-Ankle) flexed at 90 degree.
Position the arms at chest level with the wrist straight and arms fully extended.
Brace your core by bringing the ribs down and slightly press the lower back into the floor.
Maintain the tension, extend one leg that it hovers slightly off the ground.
Simultaneously extend the opposite (contralateral) arm that it hovers slightly off the floor.
Fully exhale at this extended position while maintaining a braced core.
Return to starting position and repeat on the other side.

Exercise Parameters:

Reps: 8 repetitions on each side
Tempo: Controlled movement throughout the exercise
Sets and Rest: 3 sets with 45-60 sec rest

3. Plank Bird-Dog (Antirotation)

Position the hands on the floor directly under the shoulders with the arms straight and perpendicular to the floor.
Position the knees about shoulder width apart and directly under the hip touching the floor.
Brace the core, maintain a straight spine, engage the glutes and extend one leg bringing that hip into extension while maintaining a braced core.
Simultaneously, lift the opposite (contralateral) hand off the floor and extend that arm (shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers) overhead.
In the full extension position both the extended leg and the raised arm should be in alignment and parallel to the floor.
Return to starting position. Either repeat on the same side or alternate sides

Exercise Parameters:

Reps: 8 repetitions on each side
Tempo: Controlled movement throughout the exercise
Sets and Rest: 3 sets with 45-60 sec rest between the sets

4. Side Plank (Antilateral Flexion)

Lie on one side with the legs straight and one leg and foot on top of the other.
Place the bottom elbow and forearm on a soft surface if needed (mat, towel etc.) The upper arm is perpendicular to the floor and the bottom arm is perpendicular to the body.
The bulk of the upper-body weight is supported by the bottom arm.
Lock the knees, flex the feet and ankles, tighten the glutes and brace the core.
While maintaining a lateral alignment, lift the body into a straight line, neutral position (ear, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle in a straight line).
maintain a completely straight-line position for the determined time and then repeat on the other side.

Exercise Parameters:

Time: 20-30 seconds each side
Sets and Rest: 3 sets with 1 min rest between sets

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