A six-pack is made visible by a low body fat percent; tight abdominal muscles come from a different method.  Your core muscles tighten when you can activate your entire core musculature.

The best exercises are ones that activate many core muscles. Popular exercises like sit-ups and crunches don’t make the grade, because they focus on single muscles and increases wear and tear on the spine. These best exercises are planks and side planks, because they activate your whole core.

If you are able to hold and plank or side plank for 1-minute or over I suggest adapting the exercise by lifting an arm (the plank) or leg (side plank). As you lift and arm or leg your focus is to keep centered hips.

What to look out for during the plank and arm raise

• Do your hips shift to the left or right?
• Do your hips rotate to the left or right?

What to look out for during the side plank and leg raise

• Do your hips drop?
• Do your shoulders roll forward?

If you happen to do any of these it doesn’t...

Lower back pain causes can be numerous and how to treat low back pain can be confusing. What is becoming clear however, is the importance of exercise for low back pain. It’s important for me to say, I don’t mean traditional fitness exercise that you see in gyms. I mean exercise for low back pain, many of the principles are the same, even some of the exercises are the same but you’re not trying to fatigue yourself to within an inch of your life.

What is exercise for low back pain?

Once the pain has reduced, it bridges the gap from injury or pain to full health and/or fitness. When I coach people with a bad back they are generally nervous or anxious about exercise and want to avoid the problem area. They think exercise is going to make their back worse and this is only true if they start with traditional fitness exercise or the wrong exercises for low back pain.

What is the right exercise for lower back pain?

The first thing to get right is your exercise and recovery balance. This id...

Maintain a better posture is essential for joint health and overall health. It reduces stress on the joint and surrounding tissues, helping you reduce risk of injury.

In this blog I’ll be sharing 15 everyday tips to help improve your posture. In the video you’ll learn 14 more tips to improve your posture with exercise.

Posture

Posture is both static and dynamic; static posture is how to hold yourself when sitting and standing. Dynamic posture is how to hold yourself as you move. Both are as important as each other and you’ll be healthier if you’re good as both.

Your spine

The spine is at the centre of your posture and it has 3 curves at your lower back, mid to upper back and neck. These curves need to be optimal in order to minimize the stresses to the spine. If any of these curves become exaggerated extra stress gets placed on that part.

3 posture deformities: Lordosis, scoliosis & kyphosis

All 3 postures affect a different part of the spine and all come their own muscle imbala...

The simple answer is yes, as an online client you have the privilege of direct contact for questions, queries & feedback. As Personal Trainer & Sports Massage Therapist I know the value of a personal service. With online support you’re able to get this personal service online.

About online training

I’ve taken my knowledge and professional experience of working with people with bad backs, poor posture and a weak core and created comprehensive programs. They give you everything I teach people face to face in an online format. These programs aren’t for people who want to dabble; they are for people that want to improve their health & fitness.

Each program includes my tried and tested formula of exercise and education. With a support email every 2-weeks.

Why every 2-weeks?

I am a firm believer you learn best when you’re given the space and time to do so. Every 2-weeks gives you the time to get a feel for the program, exercises, stretches and digest the information in the workshops. Yo...

Running is a popular activity; it’s great for your cardiovascular system, but can put a lot of stress on your joints. It’s a repetitive stress due to the long duration; this fatigues muscles and leaves you more prone to injury or pain.

There are a number of reasons why your back hurts after you run, one being, long duration. Others include; disc injury, vertebral fractures or sciatica. The latter are more serious that might effect a small number of the population. In this blog you’ll learn about common problems I find in people that are much more simple to overcome.

• Hip trigger points
• Poor core stability
• Poor core strength
• Training plan

Hip trigger points

Trigger points are small knots in muscles that cause pain elsewhere in the body. Trigger point in your hip can cause pain in your low-back, buttocks and legs.

Causes

Trigger points are caused by muscle injury or overuse, which harks back to the long duration of running. As a general rule I find the glutei medius and glute...

Online training has an advantage over face to face coaching because gives you the opportunity to learn about you. I’ve taught PT’s full-time in the classroom and I’ve taught blended weekend courses. In my experience during full-time courses the student relies more on the tutor, but blended courses encourage the student to work more independently. They also tend to answer their own questions, learn for themselves and ask for confirmation from the tutor and online training offers you this.  

The role of trainers, coaches and therapists

It’s the same story with with PT clients I work with daily, many seek a trainer, coach or therapist to fix them, but only you can fix you. Trainers, coaches or therapists should be facilitators to you fixing you. Online training allows you to think for yourself and gain empowerment of your physical health and fitness.

Teaching, Learning, Education

Teaching basically means to share and to educate is to lead out. If you’re told what to do an exercise or ...

A foam roller is becoming an essential piece of kit when it comes to exercise. They can benefit you in many ways, such as reducing muscle tightness, increasing your range of movement and making muscles more supple. As their popularity grows, more are being released into the market. With more choice you can become unclear, which is the best for you?

In this blog you’ll learn…

1. What foam rollers do
2. When do you use a foam roller?
3. About different types of foam roller
4. What effects they can have on your body?

What do foam rollers do?

Foam rollers are a form of self-massage. You apply pressure to a tight area and the movement over the muscle begins to release the muscles tension. As the muscle tension is released your muscles begin to function better, reduce risk of injury and perform better.

When do you use a foam roller?

From the perspective of a workout, it’s good to use a foam roller before a workout because your muscles function better after their use. You can also use them i...

To strengthen your stomach muscles and not wreck your spine means not using traditional exercises like; sit ups and crunches because your core is made in a way that these exercises ineffective. The exercises that strengthen your stomach muscles without wrecking your spine make your stomach muscles contract together.

For more detail about this please watch the tutorial above

4 of the best core exercises to get you started are;

• Plank
• Side Plank
• Shoulder Bridge
• Bird Dog

There are 3 reasons why these exercises are important;

• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• Hoop stress
• Muscles are divided into sections with tendons and fascia

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Many people think a strong muscles makes a strong core, but this is incorrect. Each of these exercises make multiple core muscles contract at the same time. It’s this that makes your stomach muscles stronger.

Hoop Stress

Your core is one unit and muscles are divided into separate units....

Online training is a powerful tool that can help you get more from exercise than seeing someone face to face. Possibly a bold statement, but I believe it’s true because you take ownership. Don’t get me wrong, seeing professional face-to-face is valuable. I am one and I know the value people get from seeing me.

However, online training offers you some things you might not have thought about. Below are 7 benefits you gain from one of my online training courses. Please watch the tutorial above for more clarification.

1. You learn how to overcome low-back pain
2. You learn about your body and how it works
3. You learn about your low-back pain
4. You learn more from the course/program
5. You can learn at your pace
6. You don’t become dependent on a Trainer or Physio
7. You become empowered

All 7 of these benefits encourage you to grow, expand your knowledge and skill set. When people work with me face-to-face my goal is to make them independent because that’s where the value is.

If you’re learning...

Why does my back hurt? Is a common question I’m asked and they want a simple answer with a quick remedy. Unfortunately the answer is rarely simple and there isn’t a quick remedy.

Low Back Pain

Most low back pain is a build up of small “injuries” that go under the radar until they hit a critical mass. As they reach this point they you feel pain but before you thought you were fully fit.

The basic causes of these small “injuries” are small incorrect movements and too little recovery to match your exercise. Your body is working in deficit and not able to catch up and therefore it’ll eventually “fail”

Why does my back hurt? The answer

The first part of the answer is more questions. As a professional I need to find out more about your activities to find out your shortfall. As your shortfall exposes itself you can begin to fill in the gaps. In the video above you’ll what questions to ask to uncover where your lower back pain might be coming from.

Why does my back hurt? The remedy

The...