Do you suffer from tight hamstrings?

Did you know that if you stretch “tight” hamstrings you might actually be doing more harm than help?

One of the main causes of tight hamstrings is an excessive anterior pelvic tilt. This is a common symptom of people who sit a lot during the day. When I say sit a lot I mean more than 2 hours a day.

How can you tell if you have an excessive anterior pelvic tilt? Heres the first test, look in the mirror. Does your lower back seem to arch a little more than most peoples. Also if you’re wearing a belt does the buckle point towards the floor. And finally, take your middle fingers, place them on your front hip bones that stick out. Keeping your fingers there take your thumbs to your rear pelvic bones and hold them there. Your hands should look like they are holding a bucket. Are your thumbs higher than your middle fingers? If so than you have excessive anterior pelvic tilt.

When in this posture your hamstrings are already lengthened and stretched out more than they should be. This is why you probably feel you have tight hamstrings. Stretching them will only reinforce this negative posture.

If this is the case what you should be more focused on is stretching the opposite musculature. The hip flexors and the quadriceps.

Thats it for this week. Please send any questions in to ask@thebuffgeek.com

Are you a regular at your gym?

Are you known as the bicycle guy or the Stairmaster girl?

Have you been doing the same mens health weight routine for what seems like forever?

Now the real question is, have you had any positive results with this type of behavior? Have you seen any changes at all?

If you answered yes to the first three questions and no to the last then what the heck are you dong? How long do you think it should take for something to start happening in your body?

You have one of the hardest parts out of the way. You’ve made the commitment to get in the gym on a regular basis. Now its time to do something productive with it. Try something different, try something new. If that doesn’t work change it again. My point is, your body is constantly trying to reach homeostasis and if you don’t make some changes to your routine on occasion you’ll get stale and your results (if you’re having any) will plateau.

So next time you step into that gym do something different. Try something wild and crazy.

Until next week, if you have any questions please email me at ask@thebuffgeek.com

Before we can run we must learn to walk, before we walk we must learn to crawl.

In my past experiences with clients I have heard of such things as core classes or abdominal boot camps. Entire classes based around doing abdominal work. I have never heard of anything more ridiculous in my life.

Most people ,even athletes, I have come across can barely support their own motionless body weight in a planked position for over a minute. So what makes people think it would be a good idea to spend an entire 30 minutes doing something they are probably doing wrong?

I’d be willing to bet that about 2 minutes into said routine abdominal activation has gone out the door. Hello tight hip flexors and back pain.

Why do we need to plank?

Well regardless of whether your goal is athletics, aesthetics, or general fitness I think we can all agree that we would rather our results come in the fastest most efficient manner. Thats exactly what we’re doing here. We are starting from the ground up. You’ll be programing/re-programing your abdominals to work the way were meant to work.

Not to mention we can train longer and more often if we are not suffering from back or hip pain.

So lets first teach ourselves to crawl before we walk. Our first step in abdominal training should be to program our abdominals to support our body weight and prevent unwanted motion. I even urge those who think they are fit to give these next few exercises a try for a few weeks and see where it takes you. I would even encourage you to take out all other forms of abdominal training. This type of routine will have great positive carryover to the rest of your workout.

The Front Plank

In my opinion, if you cant hold this position for at least :30 seconds you have no business doing any other type of abdominal training. Your goal should be to work up to this.

The side plank

Same idea as the front plank, only we’re training our core in the frontal plane. Again, you should be able to hold this for at least :30 seconds.

The modified front plank

For individuals who need to work up to the front plank.

Again, for individuals who need to work up to the side plank.

So heres the routine. Each workout attempt 3 front planks and 3 side planks each side for 1:00 minute each. Cut out all other abdominal work and give it a try for a month. If you’ve never trained like this before you will be pleasantly surprised at how much your new found abdominal strength carries over into your other exercises.

Thats it for now. I’m not sure what next weeks post will be about. Phase 2 perhaps. It all depends if I have time to take more pictures