A royal pain in the...knee?

Knee pain is one of the most common overuse injuries that afflict people. Slow developing, overuse knee pain can have a slew of causes. But with just a few quick exercises to add to your day, you can prevent knee pain from slowing you down!

First off lets take a look at the anatomy of the knee.

The upper leg bone (femur) ends in the shape of two big knobs. These are called condyle's with the one to the inside of your leg being medial and the one to the outside being lateral. On top of these sit the patella (knee cap). The knee cap slides up and down the groove as we flex and extend our knee. It helps to think of the knee cap as a train and the femoral groove as the tracks.

Usually the patella runs smoothly up and down the track. However, as is usually the case with overuse injury knee pain, the patella gets pulled to one side or the other.

As you can see in the picture, there are quite a few muscles that affect the knee. If one of these muscles begins to tighten up due to overuse, or if one becomes weak, the patella will be pulled to the side of the stronger muscle. As a result it is very important to keep the muscles that directly affect the patella flexible.

There are also indirect factors that can cause knee pain. The two most common are immobile ankles (tight calves) and immobile hips (tight/weak glutes).

I'll start with tight calves first. Basically the muscles of the calf regulate the ability of the ankle to move. If the ankle cannot move into a dorsiflexion position (foot comes up towards the shin) then during squatting the knees will suffer from an increase in shearing force. Shearing force occurs when one bone (the femur) has energy moving in a sliding force across an adjacent bone (tibia). As a result the knees will suffer a lot of pain as the passive tissues attempt to prevent the shearing force from actually causing movement.

The muscles at the hips on the other hand control the rotation of the femur. If the muscles at the hips get weak they will allow the femur to rotate internally. When this happens, again the patella will not track correctly in the femoral groove. As a result the patella will get irritated as the added friction will begin to wear on the back side of the patella.

So what can we do to keep these things from happening?

Soleus Stretch

Beginning with the calves, simple calf stretching daily for a total of 60-90 seconds will help keep the calves flexible. Most important is stretching the lower calf. To do this we lean against a wall as if attempting to push it over. This will stretch the back leg. Then simply bend the back knee slightly while keeping the heel of the back foot on the ground. Hold this for :15-20 seconds and repeat 3 times on each leg.

To stretch the glutes you do a seated glute stretch by sitting in a chair and laying your ankle across the opposite knee, sit up with a tall posture and lean forward from the hip. You should feel a stretch in the hip of the leg that is off the ground.

Split Squats

For strengthening, simple hip bridges, single leg Romanian Dead Lift and split squats work well. Just be sure to push through the heel of the foot that is doing the work. 

Next week we will look at common back injuries and how you can prevent them.

What YOU can't do...but WE can.

I know a lot of you are struggling with your eating habits. Changing a routine that has been around for 20 years is not an easy thing to do.

But most of the good things in life take work. Weight loss is something that nobody can do for you.

YOU have to want it...

YOU have to work for it...

YOU have to learn to eat properly.

But WE can all be the ones to help and encourage each other if one of us falls of the band wagon. Lack of accountability and social support are two of the top reasons for not succeeding with weight loss goals.

So you have to ask yourself the following question:

Who is in my support group?

What I need you to do today is write down 3 people that you have already told about your weight loss goals. Make sure you talk to these people on a regular basis.

Because odds are your brother in-laws mother isn't going to remember that you are trying to change your shape and she certainly isn't going to ask you how it's going.

These people need to be people you see on a daily basis who can encourage you and support you.

Another option would be to join an online support group like the ones at www.calorie-count.com. Follow this link to see what I am talking about. --> CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Am I lying to you?? Pt. 1

Often times in a social setting somebody will come to me with their story of how they are struggling to lose weight, they still feel flabby, that they have no energy and are always tired, despite working out a few times (at least twice) a week. I can often see the frustration in their faces and towards me. With an education in exercise science, they look at me as if that whole "eat right and exercise to lose weight" idea is a lie and that they are just genetically programmed to be overweight for the rest of their lives.

The truth is there are two parts to that equation: Proper Nutrition + Proper Exercise = Change. It really is that simply. But it is not easy. Today let talk briefly about nutrition and eating habits.

Most people only eat between 2-3 meals a day. Many get less than that (which would be 1 per day). However new research shows that by spreading calorie needs out over the course of a day. The simplest way to put it is this - If you take in more calories than you use, you will gain weight. Even at individual meals this occurs.

For example, if you have a lunch of 900 calories but over the next 3 hours (the time it takes to digest food) you only require 500 calories of energy due to biological function and other work, your body will store those 400 calories as fat!! And who wants that??

1 pound of fat = 3500 calories. So if you have an excess of 200 calories per meal and eat 3 times a day, it will only take about a week for you to put on a pound of fat. After 5 weeks you will have in the neighborhood of 5 pound of fat.

The picture to the right is a woman holding a model of 5 pounds of fat. Imagine if that was off of your body? -->

Now to the change. To change the way you look, you have to change the way you work; Change the way you eat, the foods you eat and when you eat.

Earlier this week I sent you to a website to estimate how many calories you needed per day. If you need that again, click here.

Now take that number and divide it by 4 meals per day. This is how many calories you need per meal. Keep it in the ball park, it does not have to be exact.

But here is the where the hard work comes in: You need to measure how much food you are eating and journal what you eat and when you eat it. Open a free account at www.calorie-count.com and start to log what you are eating. You will be surprised at how many calories you are taking in that you don't need. And by eating more frequently, you will have a steady stream of energy in, instead of one huge amount of energy that only weighs you down.

Remember, we who say that changing the way you look through eating and exercise are not lying to you. It has, can and will be done.

5 Ways to Improve your Results

Now that we have officially started a new 4-week period of our Hi-5, there are a few things I would like to recommend to everybody to get the most out of the time.

1. A heart rate monitor - a heart rate monitor allows us to see what your maximal heart rate is during workouts. Knowing this number allows you to know how long to rest for as well as determine your heart rate recovery during intervals. The higher your heart rate, the more calories you're using!!

2. Eat Breakfast - Most of you have heard this and can truly testify to the truth of it. If you show up without eating breakfast, odds are you're going to be on your way home after class and swear you're never coming back. Breakfast can truly make the difference between a quality workout and miserable time. So be sure to eat something right early in the morning like a banana, or a small cup of yogurt, or a slice of toast with a little peanut butter on it.

3. Drink Water - As hard as you are going to be working over this next 4 weeks, your body will need extra water to replenish what leaves in sweat and also to improve the efficiency of muscle contractions. This will allow you to push yourself harder and get more out of your workouts (bigger bang for the buck!!)

4. Stretch - I am going to bet dollars-to-donuts you're going to be sore at some point during this 4-weeks. You might be reading this and saying, "i'm already sore!" But don't be afraid. Moderate soreness is a sign of progress. Intense soreness, not so much. A way to reduce soreness as well as improve recovery time is to stretch. Go through the warm-ups in the evening, during the day get up and put your joints through their end range of motion.

5. Don't be afraid to use some weight - part of losing fat and feeling better is gaining a little muscle. The "I don't want to bulk up" line is a complete joke and if anybody uses that line as an excuse, I will take it as meaning you are afraid of hard work. Here is why that is a lie. In order for you to build enough muscle for you to feel as if you are bulking up, you would have to eat an extra 500-600 calories a day and you'd have to workout 6-7 days a week for much longer than we workout.

These 5 things will put you on your way to improving the way you feel, look and move.

Is "it" really better than nothing?

We hear it all the time. Or at least I do.

And I hear it without regard to topic. If it is anything that requires commitment, people seem to use it as a scapegoat. And it is VERY, VERY aggravating. More importantly because once people find out what I do for a living they seem to offer up this information freely.

"Well I walk in the morning. And I know that isn't much, but...[shrug] something is better than nothing."

And you know what, I guess they are right. But at the same time, it is such a cop out. Is that the kind of effort you put into your marriage, your job, your parenting, your personal relationships? Your health should be no different!!

Think about all the people that rely on you, on the things that have you as a common theme. If you are not healthy, fit and able to do them then those jobs, kids, and relationships are going to suffer. If you are going to do something, commit to it and put all of your effort into it.

if you've only got 45 minutes in the morning to exercise, then get to business!! Don't mess around "warm-up" on the treadmill, then do 15 minutes on the e-lie-ptical. If you're serious about changing the way you look, feel and get things done through the day, you need an exercise program that can deliver a butt-kicking of a workout in 45 mintes.

This is the type of workout we do at our Hi-5 FitCamp. We get in, spend 10 minutes actually preparing our bodies for exercise and then start cranking out some fat-blasting, muscle building, exercises like single leg squats, lunges, push-ups, modified pull ups, planks, ball slams and cable chops. I can tell you if you AREN'T doing these exercises, then you are missing the boat.

If you're ready to start an exercise program that can literally change your life, then sign up for our next Hi-5 FitCamp. This is without a doubt better than any other "bootcamps" in town. How do I know? Because i've been through them worked for them and I have seen how they design their programs. And it's just like 90% of gym goers, and it goes something like this, "What do we want to do today?"

You gotta have a plan, man!! You can't wing it. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We start on April 13th. I hope to see some new faces who really want to change their life and drop some fat of their frame.