IB Functional Fitness

Fix Your Squat – Pain If Not Doing Squats Correctly and Fixes

Fix Your Squat Pain-Free

The squat is the uncrowned queen of exercises. But the output is rigorous, and there is an incredible number of ways you can screw up your squat. The squat is a rudimentary exercise but also a very complex action that is difficult to master. It takes years to perfect your technique. Above all, it is an exercise that has no equal and for which there is no alternative.

How to get flexible enough for proper squat form?

Do you want to squat deeply, but you can’t because you are not flexible enough? You’re not the only one. Many strength athletes squat incorrectly or do not maintain proper form the deeper they squat.

Performing a good squat is not easy. Even if someone wanted to produce the perfect squat, chances are they won’t be able to do so due to a lack of flexibility in the hips and/or ankles. Especially people who have squatted incorrectly for a longer duration of time suffer from reduced flexibility, notably if you have always done the half squat for a lengthier period.

Most of your squats should be parallel squats or full squats. Your hips drop (just past) the parallel point. Quite so, this requires a fair amount of hip and ankle flexibility. With the full squat, you sink so deep that your glutes hit your hamstrings (or almost). For this variant, you need great flexibility in the hips and ankles.

How do you increase your hip flexibility?

Lack of hip flexibility is the leading cause of the inability to squat deeply for most people. Fortunately, this is something that could be attained easily with the following exercises. Do these exercises for 2 to 3 minutes on each leg before moving to the next flexibility exercise.

Back Squat Muscles Essential Guide – Proper Squat Form and Different Variations:

The back squat without a doubt is one of the very best exercises you can do. Usually, this exercise is simply referred to as the squat because this is the most common squat variant. There are quite a few different ways to perform a squat. To perform the back squat properly, not only strong leg muscles are required, but also good tension in your core, your back, and even your arms. That is why a back squat is indispensable in your fitness program. This compound exercise ensures that you not only become stronger, but also that your stability improves, and of course, your muscle mass increases. Let see it from the basic:

What is a back squat?

The back squat is the most famous form of squatting. In this variation of the squat, you place the barbell on top of the back of the shoulders and the trapezius muscles, just below the neck. When the bar is in position, grab it with your hands and point your elbows back or down. Then keep your back straight and contract your abs and bend your knees.

What muscles do back squats work?

First of all, you naturally use your leg muscles for this exercise. Your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes are put to work during the performance of a back squat. Even your calf muscles are utilized while squatting. Furthermore, stability from your core is extremely important. After all, you want to be able to stand neatly with a barbell in your neck. Your core muscles will, therefore, undeniably become stronger when you start squatting. During squatting, your abs are engaged to remain stable and to keep your upper body straight.

Your lower back also plays a crucial role in this, as it also has to work hard to keep your body upright. Your upper back muscles are also tightened and serve a role in stabilizing. During the exercise, you have to squeeze the bar firmly that even your forearms and biceps will be incorporated to a limited extent! All in all, this variation is a nifty exercise for the general development of your body that should therefore be an absolute part of a versatile training schedule.

What is the proper back squat form?

Front squat muscles with essential Guide: Proper Form and Different variations

If you want to train for strong legs and firm buttocks, front squats are your new best friend. With this complex essential exercise, you use all the muscles of your lower body. The focus is on your thighs, buttocks, back extensors, and calves.

What exactly are front squats?

The front squat is a variation of the squat where you hold the barbell, or bar, on the upper part of your shoulders and chest. You can have the bar by crossing and bending your arms and holding the bar in place with your fists. You can also turn your arms straight and keep the bar straight with your fingers. If you are experienced enough, you can do the front squat even without using your hands.

During front squat exercise, which front squat muscles worked?

The front squat is an upper leg exercise in which the most dominant muscle group is the quadriceps. Due to the center of gravity of the bar being in front rather than behind, like during a back squat, the load is shifted from the hamstrings to the quadriceps. The front of the legs will, therefore, have to work hardest to perform the exercise correctly. However, there are many more muscles that are employed to complete the movement. For example, the hamstrings and glutes also play a crucial role in the performance of the front squat. Furthermore, you even use your calves, but to a lesser extent than your hamstrings and your quadriceps.

Because you have to keep your upper body straight with the weight in the front, your abs and lower back muscles are also utilized for stabilization. Similarly, you also use your shoulder and arm muscles to ensure that the barbell does not roll off your shoulders. However, there are several ways to hold the bar during a front squat. We briefly explain these techniques below so that you can choose the posture that is most comfortable for you.

What is the proper front squat form?

How To Properly Do Squats - Front Vs Back Squat

How To Properly Do Squats

Knowing how to properly do squats may not be as intuitive as it may seem, even though it is something you have done since birth and with good form. You’ll see this move ingrained into many workout routines to improve posture, running form, speed, as well as fire off your core and keeps you durable as you age.

There are many benefits for your joints and muscles when you perform squats, yet when you sacrifice form, this can lead to an ineffective exercise as well as injuries.

Proper Form For Squats – Bodyweight Squats

Everyone will have a varying stance when learning how to properly do squats. Nonetheless, the general guideline for proper form for squats, is to place your feet about hip or shoulder-width apart with your toes at a slight 5-15 degree angle pointing away from the midline of your body. Before initiating the squat motion, you must check that your posture is good, referring to a neutral spine, shoulders back and down, and your chest up. Keep your heels planted onto the floor throughout the squat motion, and if needed, you could clasp your hands in front of you to help with your balance.

Once you are ready to initiate the movement, you start by sending your hips back first, followed by a bend at the knees. While maintaining a neutral spine, shoulder back, and chest up, go as far down as possible in a controlled manner. Keep your lower back in a neutral position along with the spine and press through the heels to come back to the starting position. Again, making sure that the shoulders stay back and down, plus keeping the chest up and proud. Quite so, this is a key ingredient on how to properly do squats allowing you to have proper form for squats.

A couple of keynotes would be to aim to have the thighs parallel to the ground making the knees bend at an almost 90-degree angle. At the same time, not allowing the knees to cave inward or driving your hips too far back that you fall forward or backward.

3 Common Squat Mistakes

Front vs Back Squat

How To Find Your Max Heart Rate & Target Heart Rate Zones

How To Find Your Max Heart Rate

A great way of verifying how intense your physical activity is, it is dependent on your pulse which gives you your heart rate, which you would then match it to your target heart rate zone. However, before you find this out, you must first know how to find your estimated max heart rate and how to check for your pulse. Assuming you aren’t using a fitness tracker, or have the resources to get hooked up to an oxygen machine and treadmill to find your true max heart rate and max oxygen uptake. Just so, anyone after reading this should be able to do all this on their own.

Estimated Maximum Age-Related Heart Rate (EMHr) Equation

220 – AGE = EMHr in beats per minute (bpm)

e.g. 220 – 20 (years) = 220 bpm

Checking For A Pulse

There are a few ways of checking for your pulse to get your heart rate beats per minute, such as your neck, wrist, or chest. However, the most recommended is the wrist on the artery in line with the thumb. Once you locate this area, you then place the tips of your index and middle fingers and press lightly over the artery. The most common method is to take your full count of heartbeats for 60 seconds, or for 30 seconds then multiply it by 2. Having said that, depending on your workout, you can modify it by taking it for 10 seconds and multiplying it by 6. One thing you may not know is that the first number you start your count on is not 1 but 0, and it is checked on the left arm.

Target Heart Rate Zone

You can use the table below as a general guide to see what your target heart rate zone is during physical activities. Find the age category closest to yours and skim across to find your target heart rate. A few keynotes to know about your target heart rate zone:

​Which Type Of Exercise Is Most Likely To Increase Range Of Motion Around A Joint?

Flexibility is defined by Google as the ability and quality of bending easily without breaking. It is also defined not as something general, but specific to a joint or set of joints. Being flexible in one distinct area or joint doesn't necessarily indicate being flexible in other areas. Being "loose" within the upper body doesn't mean you'll have a "loose" lower body. Furthermore, in keeping with SynerStretch, flexibility during a joint is additionally performed at the joint for the specific action. An example would be implying that one could do side splits when they have the flexibility for front splits, even though they both occur at the hip joints.

Inadequate flexibility will harm the body in 3 significant ways:

To take care of the health of cartilage and other structures within a joint, a full range of motion movement is required to increase blood supply and nutrients to joint structures with an increased quantity of articulatio synovialis fluid. This effect may be particularly noticeable in weight-bearing joints like the hips and knees.

Muscles that are inflexible tire more quickly, causing opposing muscle groups to function much harder. Once a muscle becomes fatigued, it can result in muscular injuries which is a result of muscles being incapable of protecting the joints from more severe injuries. As an example, the hamstrings play a function in stabilizing the knee and preventing ACL tears.

Decreased flexibility may additionally result in abnormal stress on structures and tissues distant from the initial site of inflexibility. One example of this point at issue is often that tendonitis within the knee can be associated with calf tightness.

Additional benefits of a daily stretching routine:

Increased neuromuscular coordination

Return of muscle to the natural resting state

Modifying blood pooling, recirculation

​What Are The Range Of Motion Exercises?

For correcting and restoring your range of motion, there are three basic varieties of exercises you can do. They’re designed to deal with the type of problem you’re having and to assist you to rebuild strength and range of motion without doing further damage. Looking at an injury or inflexible area, you’ll do one or a combination of the following different types of exercises: passive, active-passive, and active. Here’s a breakdown of how they work.

Does Yoga Increase Flexibility?

When people first start on their journey to practicing yoga, they are surprised by how many benefits they receive beyond their physical abilities. Yoga is a life philosophy and not just an exercise.

Throughout this guide, you will learn everything you need to know to get started on a fantastic journey to liberation with yoga. Yoga can help you achieve many things, from improved mental health to increased flexibility.

There is a myth that only the healthiest and most flexible can practice yoga. In fact, people who need it the most are the least flexible and shouldn’t let it stop them. Continue reading to see how easily you can get started today.

What Is Yoga?

Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word “Yuji,” which means to bind. Yoga is considered a form of exercise as well as a discipline. Men and women have separate pronouns when practicing yoga. A male is called a yogi, and a female is called a yogini. Yoga has been seen in history since the 5th or 6th century BCE, and over time it has adapted.

About 2,000 years ago, a sage called Patanjali developed the eight limbs to yoga called Yoga Sutra. Each limb represents different things or stages of yoga practice.

Yamas – Restraints  

Niyamas – Observances

Asana – Postures

Pranayama – Breathing

Pratyahara – Withdrawal of sense

Adharana – Concentration

Dhyani – Meditation

Samadhi – Absorption

As you practice each limb and grow in yoga, the goal is to reach liberation and enlightenment. Liberation is known as Savasana, and to get there, you must be at peace. Each session ends with the final pose of Savasana where you will lay down with your arms and legs out comfortably and breathe. Savasana represents calmness, relaxation, and letting go, surrendering yourself to peace and acceptance.

Yogis and yoginis today mostly focus on the limb asana. Asana focuses on different postures or poses that purify and provide strength and stamina to the body during meditation. Yoga is also a spiritual discipline, as it tries to connect the physical and mental body. However, you do not need to surrender any religious beliefs to practice; it is not a religion but rather a philosophy to live by.  

As you can see, Yoga goes beyond the physical practice that most forms of exercise do. Yoga uses the mind, body, and breath to center and connect as one functioning unit to reach peace and liberation. Not only will your body become more flexible and healthier, but so will your mind.

What Are The Benefits Of Yoga

One of the reasons yoga is popular is due to the many different benefits it offers. The fantastic thing is that the benefits you receive are going to be unique to you and your experience. Yoga requires more from you than just executing a pose correctly. It is being in the moment and focusing on the pose that you are performing as well. It is an overall state of mind.

Read on to learn all the benefits you may experience after adopting a yoga routine:

WHAT IS AEROBIC EXERCISE?

Aerobics is a system of physical conditioning that increases the efficiency of the body’s intake of oxygen, thereby stimulating the circulatory system, developing endurance, and reducing body fat. You will notice an increase in energy, lower vital signs, lower cholesterol, greater suppleness, stronger bones, better posture, and decreased stress levels. These are some of the other benefits that will accrue from aerobic activity. For this exercise to be effective, aerobic training must include a minimum of three sessions per week. During each session, usually lasting an hour, your heart rate pulse must be raised and maintained to a training level for a minimum of 20 minutes.

The concept of aerobics was pioneered within the U.S.A. by physician Kenneth H. Cooper and popularized in his books Aerobics (1968) and The Aerobics Way (1977). Cooper’s system uses point charts to rate the aerobic value of varied exercises for various age-groups. As individuals progressively upgrade the number and quality of their exercise, they will gauge the development in their fitness through the purpose system. Within the 1980s, aerobics was popularized by Fonda and Richard Simmons through workout videotapes and instructional programs. These programs called group fitness, aerobics became frequently practiced in health and fitness clubs where groups of 1 to 2 dozen exercisers follow the lead of a teacher whose movements are synchronized to an up-tempo popular music genre.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF AEROBIC EXERCISE

Aerobic exercise differs from bodybuilding type workouts. Anaerobic exercises like weightlifting or sprinting, involve quick bursts of energy. These are performed at a maximum effort for a brief time, unlike aerobic exercises. You perform aerobic exercises for a sustained period of your time.

Aerobic exercise reduces the danger of the many health conditions, starting from heart condition to dementia. Although all sorts of physical activity provide some benefits, aerobics is especially effective because it causes the guts and lungs to operate harder than usual.

National physical activity guidelines recommend a minimum of 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week. Some samples of aerobics include:

running

cycling

walking

swimming

AEROBIC EXERCISE BENEFITS ON THE BODY

Heart Disease Prevention

Keep A Healthy Weight

Control Your Blood Sugar Levels

Lower Blood Pressure

Improve Daily Physical Functions

Aerobic exercise is important for keeping the guts, lungs, and blood vessels healthy. Regular aerobics can help prevent heart conditions and reduce the danger of death from this condition.

People wishing to reduce weight will have to make sure that they burn more calories than they consume, leading to a caloric deficit. Aerobic exercise burns more calories from the body for energy due to sustaining physical activity for a longer duration. It is an excellent format, thanks to pushing the body into a caloric deficit, resulting in weight loss. However, to succeed in a caloric deficit, most people also will have to reduce the number of calories that they consume.

Keeping blood glucose levels in check is vital for reducing the danger of type 2 diabetes. People with diabetes need to maintain their blood glucose levels within a healthy range. High blood glucose can damage blood vessels and cause heart conditions. Insulin is important for regulating blood glucose. Aerobics can increase insulin sensitivity so that the body requires less insulin to regulate blood glucose levels. During exercise, the muscles also use glucose from the blood. Just so, this way, exercise helps prevent blood glucose levels from rising too high.

High vital sign puts stress on the blood vessels and heart. Over time, this will have serious consequences, like increasing the danger of an attack or stroke. Aerobic exercise can help keep vital signs within a healthy range. A review of 391 trials within the British Journal of Medicine found that exercise is as effective as vital type medications in reducing high vital signs.

The ability to perform tasks for daily living is vital in maintaining independence and well-being. Aerobics improves the physical capabilities that are necessary for an individual to function on a day-to-day basis. Fitness also helps prevent falls and, therefore, the resulting injuries.

BENEFITS OF AEROBIC EXERCISE ON BRAIN

How To Meal Prep For A Week

Meal prep is quite a food trend: It’s a handy approach you'll use to form delicious, homemade food you’ll want to eat every day—without the wait. And while the top results look impressive, knowing how to meal prep for a week doesn’t require complicated planning or tools as many think they do. All you need is time and effort.

Just so, this beginner’s guide will prepare you for meal prepping so you can easily understand the process of make-ahead, healthy meals. As a bonus, you'll comprehend bulletproof-friendly approaches you'll fancy ensuring your food stays fresh and nutritious.

Meal Prepping

Simply put, meal prep means prepping for meals. Sometimes meaning creating a hotel plan, and other times meaning preparing a spread of ingredients that will be combined into various dishes quickly and simply.

While single-serve meals are the foremost common approach to meal prep, there are other types to settle on from counting on your schedule, tastes, and dietary needs.

Weekly meal prep ideas include:

Full make-ahead meals: You cook an entire meal and then store it in your fridge or freezer.

Cooking or freezing batches: This is a process of making multiple meals, then portion and store them. This approach is beneficial for recipes you'll easily cook in large amounts (like big pots of soup, quinoa, or mashed sweet potatoes).

Meals for one: Use single-serving containers to portion food after preparing. Prepare food and portion it in single-serving containers. (Usually enough to last a couple of days.)

Ingredient prep: For people that wish to cook and serve food all directly, just prep parts of recipes. Chop veggies, mix spices, or marinade meat beforehand to save lots of time when you’re able to cook.

Why Meal Prep?

Learning the way to meal prep will limit time, but it also saves money and reduces waste. However, in contrast to processed meals, this method gives you total control over what goes in your food—perfect for anyone who wants to remain on target with their health goals. It also can make a busy schedule easier, taking the guesswork out of what’s for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

It’s also easier to portion control and specialize in healthy recipes, avoiding those mid-week slumps when ordering a pizza sounds much better than cooking something fresh.

To reap all the advantages of meal prep, you only need a hotel plan, some meal prep containers to store your food in, and a few dedicated time to cook and portion your meals. Even an hour can set you up for fulfillment for the week ahead.

How To Meal Prep Without Food Going Bad

Calisthenics Vs Weights

When you are looking to build that perfect body during our current times you may have been introduced to a few varying training methods. If you’re a regular gym-goer, you might be wondering how you can make some gains, with or without the weights during times of crisis like the quarantine. Not only will you need an effective workout routine to boost your strength and mass, but which method of training is better, calisthenics vs weights?

After all, both training methods are forms of gaining strength, developing stronger muscles, boosting your stamina, as well as strengthening your bones and joints. However, can you do calisthenics to build muscle as if you were lifting weights? In this post, you will get a definitive answer and see how you can incorporate these methods of training into your routine at home or at the gym.

What Is Calisthenics

The word calisthenics sounds more complicated than what it really is. The term derives from the Greek word ‘kallos’ which means beauty, and the greek word ‘stenos’ meaning strength, and then just adding the -ics at the end of the word. Thus the term calisthenics is simply a specialty encompassing the focus on using your own body weight as resistance. This includes movements such as lunging, pulling, lifting, pushing, and squatting with little to no equipment.

This is great because this means you’ll be able to get a workout out home during quarantine, at your office, or even at the gym if you’re waiting for a machine to open up. Basically you can do a calisthenics workout no equipment. The most common forms of calisthenics involve exercises like crunches, push-ups, squats, and jumping jacks which you can all do basically anywhere. Many popular gyms that are praised for their effectiveness, i.e. CrossFit, are filled with good old calisthenics in their workouts.

Weight Training

Weight training as defined by trainers is a conditional form of training involving lifting weights for building strength and endurance. It’s a general term when your workout includes any sort of free-weight movements like using dumbbells, barbells, as well as using weight machines. Some enthusiastic trainers live and die by the claim that weight training is the only method to get you a well-sculpted physique. One that could even have possibly inspired DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man.

If this is truly the case, then why is it that fans of calisthenics are ready to rip the head off of whoever claims weight training is better? Let us compare the two methods of training.

Comparing Calisthenics Vs Weights

Sure certain calisthenics exercises don’t require equipment for working out but for certain workouts you may want to think about things such as a TRX Strap or even a pullup bar. Besides the benefit of easily stuffing the strap in your bag, you can also save money when compared to buying weight equipment like a squat rack or weight plates. Also, just imagine trying to stuff the rack in your bag along with a barbell and weight plates.  

Can Running Help A Cold? — Running While Sick

Developing a case of the sniffles may seem like the most frustrating thing in the middle of your training. You may feel unsure on how running with a cold might impact your goals in the long-term or even your health in the short-term. Especially if you desire to stay on track with your training schedule, these types of concerns may arise from this.

Researchers have done scientific studies investigating the role of exercise on illnesses, specifically having to do with colds and respiratory infections. There are a few simple rules based on the evidence, that can help you decide whether to go out for a run or to just stay home and recover.

The Do’s & Do Not’s Of Running With A Cold

There is a basic rule that you can use to determine whether you should or shouldn’t run with a cold according to this advice given from medical experts. Depending where the location of your symptoms are found, you should follow the following rule. You would need to assess how you feel after determining if you feel symptoms above or below the neck.

The Neck Rule — Above or Below?

This rule, above-the-neck/below-the-neck, is a tried and true test that will allow you to decide whether if training is appropriate or not.

If your symptoms seem to be manageable, which includes having a headache, runny nose, watery eyes, sore throat or sneezing, and is above-the-neck, according to the rules it suggests that you have the regular run of the mill cold. However, any symptoms below-the-neck such as chest congestion, body aches, nausea or diarrhea most likely requires rest and is a sign of a more serious sickness. According the rules, training under these conditions may actually do you more harm than good.

Think of these as more of guidelines to deciding whether to run when you have a cold. Just because your symptoms may be above-the-neck, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should hit the pavement. Take it easy if you do decide to go for a run and stop if symptoms become worse or become unmanageable.

Exceptions

There are important exceptions to this neck rule, just how most rules also have exceptions. For any “Full-Body” symptoms such as a fever... 

Running For Weight Loss –Will Running Make You Thin?

Whether you are an experienced runner or non-runner, running for weight loss can be tricky. The main reason for this dilemma is the fact that running expends energy and food must be consumed to stay energized. Depending on what we eat makes a difference between weight loss, weight gain or maintenance and performance. It’s a thin line between weight loss and losing performance.

Think of losing weight like an ultra-marathon and not a sprint. You should expect to see slow and steady results, just don’t expect them to happen drastically and quickly. If you are experiencing a weight-loss plateau and you’re putting in the miles but still not losing any weight, there are a few ways to bust through this barrier.

Exercise & Weight Loss Synergy

For the vast majority of people who lose a significant amount weight, they are successful at keeping it off through regular exercising. A research done by the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) had individual members who lost a minimum of 30 pounds and were able to keep it off for at least one year. About 90% of these individuals reported to exercise regularly, while on average burning more than 2,600 calories a week in workouts.

Running for weight loss tends to be the most effective out of the many kinds of exercises out there. Paul Williams of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, found in a study done in 2012, that runners would tend to be leaner and lighter than those doing equivalent amounts of work through other types of exercise. The conclusion for this reason was that running will typically burn more calories per minute than when swimming, riding a bike or anything else.

So, will running make you thin? Running for weight loss is a great way to shave off excess pounds and keep them off. Of course with an aid of regularly doing this simple exercise, weight loss can be achieved but success is not guaranteed. Playing an essential role is what you eat and consume, which as stated earlier may either complement your running to lose weight or will deter your performance.

Other studies involving members of NWCR, as well as others, have shown that regular exercisers tend to less likely fluctuate in weight. Having your weight fluctuate is called a yo-yo effect, when your weight goes down then goes up and back down again. Unless your goal is for temporary weight loss, you should consider taking a look and changing your diet and exercise. When attempting to lose weight, there are other benefits when you combine diet changes with exercise. When restricting calories without exercise, you will tend to lose muscle along with body fat. However, when you change both your diet exercise, muscle is preserved will losing more fat. Read this post to further understand why diet is just as important as exercise.

To get the results you want, you must understand the most effective ways of running for weight loss before starting. This way you can avoid the most common mistakes and achieve your goal much sooner.

Pick A Desired S.M.A.R.T. Weight Goal

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-related. With this, you chose a SMART goal for your ideal weight, then make a plan on how to get there and execute. Of course this is easier said than done. To understand how weight loss works read a previous post of ours.

Once done, you will see that there is more to lose than weight. Your goal may include lowering your body fat percentage or getting a different body measurement. These are also formats to track your progress and keep you honest and motivated throughout your journey. All you would need is an accurate scale, preferably one that measures body fat, and a cheap tape measure. These will be a big help in tracking your progress through your journey.

Starting Off On The Right Foot

As stated on a previous post explaining shin splints, it’s important and wise to ease into your running program instead of amping up the intensity and mileage. This is more for new runners or if you are coming off an injury. Gradually increase the level of intensity with the mileage you run to help lower your chance of injury. After all, running is a high-impact activity which causes more overuse injuries compared to other forms of cardio.

That being said, for heavier men and women whose aim is running for weight loss, the chances of injury are greater. For those that are overweight, experts do recommend to use the following three rules to start your running program:

When Running My Shins Hurt — Understanding Shin Splints

If you have ever ran or know someone who runs, you might come across them complaining about their shins hurting after or during a run. One of the most common injuries in running just so happens to be shin splints. Often times this can be a direct result from bad running form, fatigue or inflexibility in the calf muscles. This tightness can lead to additional stress on tendons which become strained or torn.

This can be heartbreaking as it may interfere with your running schedule, especially if you have just started. The correct term for ‘shin splints’ is medial tibial stress syndrome. Ignoring this as you continue to run may often lead to a more sharp pain and burning sensation during or after running. Continuing to ignore the issue will cause the tibial to go from stressed to fractured.

So what are the causes of this, and how do you prevent them from happening or getting worse without stopping you from running? If you’re past this point, then how can you get back into running form without aggravating shin splints?

What Is Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS) a.k.a. Shin Splints?

The most common case of shin splints are caused by small tears in the lower leg muscles when they are being overused. Usually contributing to the problem are wearing worn-out shoes, lack of cushioning, as well as over-pronation of the foot and running on hard surfaces.

Since beginners are not used to stressing out and using the leg muscles, you will find beginners more susceptible to shin splints. On the other hand, long time runners returning from injury are also susceptible to shin splints. Often times this is due to increasing their distance or pace too quickly.

Causes of Shin Splints

The nagging pain will often be concentrated on the front of the leg along the tibia. Pressing on the area will lead to experiencing pain or discomfort. This can be very frustrating and make a basic act, like walking or running, seem impossible.

Tightness or weakness of the lower leg muscles including the calves and others above the ankle tug at their insertion point. This causes a thin skin-like structure called periosteum that envelopes the tibia itself to get irritated. This helps distinguish between medial tibial stress syndrome and a true bone injury like a tibial stress fracture. Or at least this is what is proposed.

More recent and precise anatomical studies with advanced medical imaging studies, have shown that overuse injuries to the tibia exist on a spectrum of bone injuries. Low bone density has been found to appear at the location of pain, and after recovery, the pockets of low bone density tend to disappear. Whereas stress fractures will tend to have larger areas of low bone density surrounding the fracture.

Shin Splints, A New Hypothesis

Thanks to this new information, there is a new hypothesis on the root cause of shin splints. It is now hypothesized that repeated stress to the bone during running is not caused by straight-on impact, but rather when the bone is loaded and there seems to be slight bending of the bone. When supporting a lot of weight, your tibia will bend backwards slightly as it impacts with the ground, thus putting a compressive force to the medial side of the bone.

The body’s response to the bone stress is to remodel the tibia to be stronger and thicker. However, this can take several weeks to a few months to complete. Which makes sense as to why healthy runner don’t have a problem with bone stress after a long and hard run, and it is most common with less experienced runners.

Unfortunately, there is also a period when the bone is actually more vulnerable to damage when undergoing the remodeling process. Just how you would tear down some walls on a house you will remodel, your body does the same with old bone tissue. Already having weak bones or a small tibia can increase your risk for shin splints or injury.

In Depth, One Size Does Not Fit Most

As you can see, shin splints may actually be from more than one causation. This would explain why sports medicine specialists dislike using the term shin splints. This also has to do with the fact that the term denotes any other lower-leg ailment such as muscle strains, stress fractures, MTSS, and exertional compartment syndrome (ECS).

Muscle Strain

Often caused by weak or tight muscles that are unable to do their job. The targeted muscle groups of this causation are the tibialis anterior and the tibialis posterior.

Stress Fractures

Caused by overused injuries that the muscle becomes to fatigued and unable to absorb the shock of running. When this happens, a tiny crack is made as the workload is transferred to the bones. This is often misdiagnosed as shin splints. However, the difference is that shin splints is a muscle injure that fades away after warming up. Whereas, a fracture is a bone injury which then pain worsens as you run. Depending on its severity, an x-ray would be needed followed by four to six weeks of no running.

Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome

Caused by stress to the bone and injury to the bone tissue. Yet, this condition is still somewhat misunderstood by medical health professionals.

Exertional Compartment Syndrome (ECS)

A much more less common injury than the ones above, but also tends to happen on any part of the lower leg. Described as a tightening feeling in the sin that worsens as you exercise. Some describe the tightness in their legs like feeling they are about to explode. Although it can happen on any part of the lower leg, 80% of ECS cases are on the front part of the shin and pain free up until exercising.

How To Tell If It’s Shin Splints or Lower Leg Pain?

Nutrition 101: Nutrition Facts Label — Where Do Nutrition Facts Come From?

Any time a food has more than one ingredient you can expect to see an ingredient list on the label near the Nutrition Facts label. The ingredients listed first are the ones with the largest amount. The Nutrition Facts label is required for most packaged foods and beverages by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

For many who have embarked on a fitness journey, you may have heard how diet is a key factor to your fitness goals. If you have no background of healthy eating habits, you may ask yourself, “How do you use the Nutrition Facts to make better dietary choices?” Better yet, you may also be wondering how and where these nutrition facts come from. You will find the answers to those question on this post, but first you must understand a bit of how and why a Nutrition Facts label came about.

Nutrition Facts Label Origins

Developed in 1990 through the passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, nutrition labeling became mandatory to all foods administered by the FDA. It’s design was created for flexibility in changing as new nutritional knowledge is discovered. However, its roots go back to the Progressive Era (1890-1920) when the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 came about. This law was enacted by Congress which led to the creation of the FDA.

During this time, the focus was more on preventing consumer fraud preventing misbranding a product, or even substituting sand for sugar among other things. This would protect consumers from dangerous and fraudulent ingredients. As food packaging became popular towards the late 20th century, the U.S. was the first to enact mandatory food labeling in 1913. Passing the Gould Net Weight Amendment to the 1906 Act, this amendment required for packaged goods to be marked on the outside what it’s contents, weight, measure, or count is.

Nutrition Facts Labeling Timeline

The following changes took place as health concerns and knowledge came about in the next two decades:

1938 – The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act

1940 – Appropriate levels for enriched flour with vitamins and minerals became standardized.

1969 – The White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health made the FDA change their focus from controlling the food supply to enhancing their nutritional value. This gave the consumer more information allowing to make a much more informed decision.

1973 – Nutrition labeling of some foods were required and were regulations were published by the FDA

1990 – Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990

Food standards came about also requiring to list an artificial flavoring, coloring, or chemical preservatives.

Foods with added nutrients or nutrition claims would be required to provide nutritional information which represented the first actual nutritional labeling.

Due to many complaints and petitions of deceptive claims, and an increase interest of adding sodium, sugar, and fat led to the mandatory nutrition labeling we know today.

How The Calorie Content Of Food Is Determined

First understanding what a calorie is will help understand . After that, there are two methods in which the calorie values of food are determined. The original way is to burn the food through a bomb calorimeter, and in today’s age and preferred method is through using the Atwater System.

What Is A Calorie?

A calorie is simply a measurement unit for energy. Scientifically, a calorie is energy or heat that can come from different sources. In a nutritional aspect, this is the case with all types of foods. In 1925, the term joules was used to scientifically define calories. The heat needed to make a calorie differentiates at different temperatures, thus leading scientists to create different types of calories accordingly to its temperatures.

A calorie (kcal) is the required energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. One kcal equals 4.184 kilojoules (kj)

Why Diet Is Important As Fitness

How we look and feel just isn’t from style alone, the food we eat also plays a vital role. Having a regular exercise routine is important but according to research, your diet and nutrition is just as important as fitness and plays the largest impact on your fitness as well. Improving your health by using food as medicine has become a popular theme.

Currently focusing on consuming healthy food as a primary fitness goal has become the trend. Making a lifestyle out of healthy eating habits results in becoming healthier and happier. Not only do these healthy eating habits of eating right allow for body fat reduction, but weight loss, boost your confidence, and reduces your risk of illness.

Frequent studies have been pointing out just how important healthy food intake is to your fitness program. Even to the point where some physicians, as a way to reduce obesity and related disease, and improve overall health, have begun teaching healthy eating habits.

You can check out one of our previous post on how weight loss works in order to fully understand how diet and the nutrition you consume are just as important as fitness.

Diet Health

Your diet health relies on nutrient-dense foods which come in lean proteins, healthy carbs, and fats which are all essential to your health. Superfoods are other nutrient-dense foods that are usually rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Not only are antioxidants great for reducing inflammation in your body, but they help fight diseases and illnesses. Many diseases have been said to be caused by inflammation. Your diet health should include antioxidants in vegetables and leafy greens for detoxing the body and removing harmful chemicals.

For more efficient fat burning, include superfoods in your diet health that contain compounds that help increase your metabolism for a fat burning effect. An example of this would be capsaicin, a molecule contained by red peppers which have shown to help enhance the rate of fat burning going on in your body.

Diet Health – Quercetin

Occurring in a variety of plant foods quercetin is a very powerful antioxidant. Quercetin research in fact indicates that it is one of the most potent antioxidants with various health benefits.

Quercetin supplementation is used by many athletes to assist in reducing muscle inflammation caused by the intense workouts they do. In the International Journal of Preventative Medicine, according to a study they published, supplementation of quercetin significantly helped improve athletic performance. Not only did it improve performance, but it also helped increase their metabolic rate and lean mass among the athletes.

The best supplementation is food itself. A rich source of quercetin can be found in the following foods:

Apples

Onions

Broccoli

Berries

How To Increase Your Metabolism Naturally

Honestly, the best fat burner you can buy won’t come in any bottle but will come in foods consumed that contain certain compounds. According to nutrition research increasing the rate your body burns fat naturally is a doable thing.

In order to help reduce fat more effectively try eating foods that stimulate and help enhance your fat burning process. Adding foods that help boost your metabolism is a great way to supplement your workout routine as well as your diet and nutrition program.

Look to add some of these foods to your diet health in order to help increase your metabolism:...

What Metabolic Type Are You?

If you’ve read some of our posts, by now you may know that everyone will respond differently to diets as well as exercises. Genetics do play a role, but how does your metabolism play a role in your weight loss body transformation journey? If you don’t know, how can you find out where your metabolism is currently at?

Metabolic Meaning & Metabolic Basal Rate

Before understanding what metabolic type you are, first you must understand the meaning of metabolic and what your metabolic basal rate is. Metabolic is in relation with metabolism, which according to the Cambridge dictionary, it’s a chemical process that happens within the body that is required for life. This is identical to what your metabolic basal rate is.

In other terms, your metabolic basal rate is the amount of calories that your body requires in order to keep it functioning throughout your daily activities. Increasing or decreasing your body weight, or even the amount of physical activity you do will change your metabolic basal rate number.

Now if you were to just rest and maintain your current weight without exercise or changing anything in your physical activity, this will be known as your resting metabolic rate. Your resting metabolic rate will include functions by your organs such as digesting food as well as neurological functions. Not only that, but your resting metabolic rate will also support your breathing as well as circulating your blood through your body.

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Which Metabolic Type Are You?

In a book by researcher William Wolcott called “The Metabolic Typing Diet,” he offers a test to identify which metabolic type you are. However, a thorough assessment may be done for an accurate diagnosis which may include urine and blood tests. You may also take a 31 question quiz by clicking here. There are three types:

Protein Types- These types tend to be fast oxidizers or parasympathetic dominant. May be followed by frequent hunger; fatty, salty food cravings; failure with low calorie diets; and tend to be feeling fatigued, anxious, and/or nervous. Often these types tend to be lethargic or usually feel on edge, with a sensation of being tired underneath but showing a wired superficial energy on the outside. It’s like having a cup of coffee to make you feel energetic on the outside, but inside you are ready to take a nap after you drink your coffee.

Carbohydrate Types- These types are slow oxidizers or sympathetic dominant. This type is generally followed by a weak appetites, with a high tolerance for sweets, and usually carry problems when in it comes to weight management, and have a ‘Type A’ personality. These are the types that rely and are often dependent on caffeine. Think of that one friend or person who has three to five cups of coffee, or even that person who every time you see, is always drinking an energy drink.

Mixed Types- These are neither slow or fast, nor are parasympathetic or sympathetic dominant. These may also be referred to as a balanced oxidizer. This type will have the average appetite, craving sweets and starchy foods, have little trouble with weight, and tend to be feeling fatigued, anxious, and/or nervous.

Metabolic Diet

Depending on your metabolic type, you will have different recommendations of foods for your metabolic diet.

Which Weight Loss Plan Is Best For You?

There's no shortage of advice when it comes to weight loss. You can search on Google 'what the best diets are' and you would find tons of advice from magazines, books, and websites. In the end, all these sources would promise you weight loss if you use their diet which consists of eliminating fat, carbs, or has special supplements.

In order to reap the rewards of a health and fitness lifestyle, you may want to strategize on how you approach your nutrition. But with all these different fad diets and conflicting options, which weight loss plan and approach is best for you?

Ask For Help In Your Weight Loss Efforts From Your Doctor

As you've probably heard in many prescribed medication commercials, talk to you doctor before starting your weight loss program. Medical issues and even medications may affect your weight and your doctor could review these with you. They can also provide guidance as to which program may be best for you and could discuss exercise safety, especially if you may have any physical or medical limitations, or pain with daily tasks.

Be upfront and honest with your doctor on any previous efforts to lose weight, as well as being open on any fad diets you may find interesting or intriguing. By doing this your doctor could point you in the right direction towards a dietitian or even refer weight loss support groups.

The Most Effective Diet To Lose Weight

Instead of thinking about a get slim quick scheme diet for 6 or 8 weeks, think of a diet as the foods you will eat the majority of the time. This diet is what you do daily and should not be for the short term. This makes the difference in getting results for the long term.

Instead of just clearing out your fridge of all sugary, dairy, and animal products for one month, take a moment to ponder about which healthy foods you already enjoy and look into adding other healthy foods onto that list.

After this, once you have a list collected in mind, which diets are relatively close to the foods you already like. This will help you make a good first step towards a healthier food plan that you will actually like and enjoy.

Contemplate About Your Personal Needs

Research For A Safe & Effective Weight Loss Program

Examples Of Diet Types  

Weight Loss Tips & Keys For A Successful Weight Loss