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• “X” Out Knee Pain While Lunging

  Posted: March 16, 2011

  

  One of the most common (and debilitating…as I can certainly vouch for!) sources of pain for an athlete or active gym goer is anterior knee pain…or in laymen’s terms….pain at the front of the knee. If you’ve got it, you certainly know what I’m talking about. If you don’t have it (yet) let me describe for you quickly what the sensation feels like. Picture John Rambo carving out your kneecap like a Thanksgiving Turkey with a hunting knife he dipped in salt water! Yep…it hurts!! But there’s hope!! Read more »

  
  

• PISTOL SQUATS WERE HARD…UNTIL NOW!

  Posted: September 14, 2010

  

  One of the hardest exercises you can do for your lower body is the pistol squat.  This one legged exercise requires a combination of balance, enormous glute strength and the ability to reverse momentum at the drop of a hat and go from a controlled descent into an explosive ascent!  The reality is…due to the high demands of this exercise (and everything I just mentioned that’s needed to pull it off) most people just skip this and move onto other leg options in their quest for bigger legs.  That is a BIG mistake!

  As I’ve spoken about many times before, there is no better way to train your legs than with single leg training….for two reasons really.  The first is that by doing so, you immediately are able to decrease the load that’s necessary to challenge the legs.  No more 300 pound back squats necessary to spark leg growth.  In fact, take the strongest buddy you know and ask him to do a single leg squat holding just 45 lb dumbbells at his side and I guarantee you he struggles.  The point is, the legs only know what the stress FEELS like and not really what the stress IS!  As long as it FEELS like a challenging task…it is.  Since single leg training can up the ante much quicker than double leg…we don’t have to subject our spines to the excessive weights that are needed to be borne across the shoulders from a heavy back squat.

  The second advantage of single leg training is the ability to recruit more glute involvement into the exercise and to isolate weaknesses right side vs left.  Believe me…if you’re right side is a whole heckuva lot weaker than your left, you’ll know it with single leg training and you might be able to hide it with two legged exercises.

  So that said, we know how good single leg training is….and I’m telling you that the Pistol Squat is the King of the Single Leg movements…so how do you do it (especially if you can’t do it!!!).  Good question.  Check out my latest youtube video where I show you exactly how you can start pulling off this incredible leg builder TODAY, even if you can’t do one right now.  Yep, just another example of “finding a way” here at AthLEAN-X to pull off anything if you can just put a little creativity into your training.  Take a look:

  Once again, AthLEAN Elast-X bands come to the rescue and make the impossible…possible!  If you still haven’t gotten yours then you better act quickly because the first shipment of these do-everything training aids is almost entirely sold out.  You can get them at http://athleanelastx.com

  The point is guys…no matter what you’re currently doing for your leg training…it’s time you start to highly consider adding single leg movements to your routine.  They are not only incredibly effective but in the long run…will protect the health of your knees and back much more than the alternatives.  As you can probably imagine, it’s hard to squat at all when you’re back or knees won’t let you.  Keep them happy and you’ll keep your leg growth consistent as well.

  Stay Strong,

  Jeff

  PS.  Have your knees and/or back been telling you for years now that whatever you’ve been doing in your leg workouts is necessarily “working”?  Looking for some new and creative ways to get bigger and stronger legs that don’t destroy your joints in the process?  Then it’s time you checked out the AthLEAN-X Training System.  Developed to get you that athletically built, strong, and powerful physique of the pros…from the guy that actually trains the most elite pro athletes in the world.  Be ripped, be athletic looking…be “AthLEAN” in the next 90 days!

  
  

• DEEP SQUATTING AND YOUR LOWER BACK – THE FINAL WORD

  Posted: September 1, 2010

  

  Walk into any gym and take a peak over at the squat racks and what do you see?  Usually a few bulky (a nice way of saying fat) guys who wear weight belts cinched so tightly around their waists that they look like funnels!  But take a look besides them.  What’s there?  Yeah, the white stuff…besides that pile of weights.  No, that’s not talc powder for improving grip…it’s actually crushed spine and bone from lifters past who disintegrated under yet another heavy loaded deep squat!  When are they going to learn?!?  Let me help clarify why this is happening and how I can help prevent your spine from suffering a similar fate.

  Lets start with a quick anatomy lesson.  The lumbar spine is the lowest segment of your spine (just above your tailbone) that is naturally curved inward or toward the front when viewed from the side.  It’s primary job is to provide stability to the pelvis and hips and its available motion is much less than what you’d see further up the spine in the thoracic area (mid back) and cervical area (in the neck).  The area however is so crucially important to not only well being but also entire spine health that there are numerous thick muscles intimately surrounding the lumbar segments (like construction support beams) that provide extra protection from undesirable movement.  Well…even those muscles can’t protect the spine from stupidity! Sorry to be so blunt but it’s true.

  Perhaps the worst motion you can subject your lumbar spine to is flexion under load with a bit of rotation.  Take a look again at that rock bottom squat and what are you seeing?  Lots of posterior pelvic tilt (or FLEXION) with a load (ummm….can you say 300 + pounds sometimes?!?) and a bit of rotation (even the slightest difference in foot placement right vs left can cause you to rotate your pelvis ever so slightly).  This is the recipe for disaster.  There have been many a deep squatter who has blown out their disc mid-set and never were the same again. It’s serious…and oh so preventable!

  First of all, most of you know already that I think that there are plenty of ways to overload the legs that don’t involve heavy back squatting.  Single leg Bulgarian Split Squats (with dumbbells), pistol squats, etc are all ways to push your limits of strength and size without endangering the health of the lower back.  But that said, done correctly (rarely ever done), the back squat can be ok as long as you’re stopping your reps at parallel.  I say parallel but understand it can be taken slightly lower AS LONG AS YOU CAN MAINTAIN THE FLAT BACK at that lower position.  As soon as that tailbone starts to curve under like a dog tucking it’s tail after stealing your grilled chicken (that would be my Black Lab Charlie!) you better stop that rep right there.  Reverse direction, power up with the legs and keep the head up as you push back up to a standing position.  The rewards of going any lower just don’t justify the risks.

  Now, as a physical therapist who has seen numerous lumbar disc herniations in my day…it’s usually quite obvious as to what motion led to the final blowout but it’s not always so cut and dry as to what repetitively led to that last straw breaking.   In some cases we’ll never know.  But what’s important to realize is…when it comes to protecting your back in the long run…you want to minimize your exposure to movements we know physiologically don’t jive with how your body works.  Rock bottom or Deep Squatting is one of those moves.  Protect your back and prevent having it confused with powdered talc.  Be the one at the squat rack that’s not only getting it right, but is standing upright years later…feeling strong, pain free and fresh from years of doing this exercise the right way.

  Stay Strong,

  Jeff

  If you’ve either suffered from lower back pain that has been caused by your workouts or is causing you to miss your workouts…it’s time you start training smarter.  For all new and unique ways to spark new muscle growth and strength without breaking down your joints in the process…come check out the AthLEAN-X Training System (developed by former NY Mets Physical Therapist Jeff Cavaliere) and discover how to put your final painful rep behind you forever!

  
  

• CAN SINGLE LEG TRAINING DOUBLE YOUR LEG MUSCLE GROWTH?

  Posted: June 30, 2010

  The throwback, old school, powerlifting strongmen are going to fight me on this one…but I’m ready to come out swinging.  In my experience, single leg training (in

  the form of heavy Bulgarian split squats, pistol squats, physioball single leg curls, single leg RDL’s and weighted step ups to name a few) can have a more significant impact on leg growth than traditional squats, deadlifts and hamstring curls.  Having worked with some of the most elite professional athletes (and yes…incorporating many of those same olympic power lifts into their workouts at times) I can tell you from experience that the most significant results that I could get from my clients almost always came when the single leg lifting was the focus.

  Why is that?  To me it’s simple…it’s all about muscle recruitment and overload.

  When you’re doing huge multijoint exercises like heavy back squats and deadlifts, the tendency is to call upon every muscle you can that might remotely be able to pitch in even just a bit of force to help you overcome the weight and complete the rep, set or drill.  While this is good for developing total body power, it can have a sacrificial effect on muscle size as the brunt of the work is being distributed across multiple muscle groups instead of the ones you’re trying to target in the first place (in this case the quads, hams and glutes).  Spreading the force out makes it more difficult to reach muscle group overload and total momentary muscle failure (that is a prerequisite for new muscle growth).

  On the other hand, performing many of the same exercises, or at least movement patterns, but instead switching to single leg varieties makes you have to decrease the weight a bit but at the same time increase the overload.  When you do a single leg squat…you’re immediately easing the burden on the spine and lower back by switching from the “bar across the back” posture to a “dumbbells at your side” position.  This alone allows you to stay more upright, maintain a better back posture throughout, and distribute the weight more into the quads than the hips.  Since quad growth is what you’re after, you’ve boosted the effectiveness by actually decreasing weight…..just by targeting the load better.

  Same goes for a prone hamstring curl.   Sure you may be able to lift over a 100 lbs when doing this exercise on one of the machines that you’ll often find a line waiting to use, but what does that really matter?  You’re lifting the weight up with equal parts momentum, lever arm advantages, and strong leg domination compensating for the weaker leg.  If instead you switch that out to a single leg physioball bridge and/or curl…now you’ve instantly increased not only the difficulty of the exercise but also the targeted effectiveness of it.  Don’t believe me?  Try a couple reps of a high hamstring bridge on a physioball and tell me if you don’t feel the right muscles working at the right time?!?  It lights a fire in the hamstrings unlike any other exercise.  Overload them by placing a weight plate across your lap if you’d like and you’ll better be able to recruit the fibers of the currently dormant hams and be able to rely upon them when you need them the most!

  The direct, targeted focus again…allows you to streamline your efforts, increase your focus, but then still apply the same amount of intensity and determination to just one or two muscle groups instead of 6-7 at one time.  Same effort, targeted focus.  For me and my athletes I work with it can be just what the doctor ordered for explosive new muscle growth to occur.

  Want to learn more about the effectiveness of single leg training and how to incorporate it into your workouts for explosive new growth?  Simply visit http://athleanx.com and see how the pro athletes use the same exact training principles to get lean, muscular and powerful physiques that help them to both look and function at the top of their game

  
  

• VERTICAL JUMP INJECTION – PUMP UP YOUR UPS WITH JUST 4 EXERCISES

  Posted: May 22, 2010

  

  If you poll most guys and ask them what the most frustrating body part to train is (and most hated!), 7 out of 10 of them will tell you it’s the legs! And can you really blame them?  After all, most of these guys are religiously doing their heavy squats (that are taking their toll on their backs), deadlifts (that are scraping their shins with the bar on the way up (from using substandard form) and leg curls….but nothing changes!  No size increases.  No significant strength increases.  No fun!

  But does it have to be this way?

  Not if you’re train the way the legs ARE CRYING OUT TO BE TRAINED….Explosively!

  When it comes to lower body workouts the legs seem to respond best to movements that bring out the fast twitch fibers and keep the slow twitch fibers dormant.  You’ve probably heard the term “plyometrics” before?  Well, this is the fancy word for explosive leg training.  Basically what you have with plyos are a period of loading and unloading of the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.  The switch between the two happens so fast and is responsible for the fast twitch firing!

  For instance, when you’re doing a jump squat, the explosive jump is followed by a soft landing and controlled descent.  Once the bottom of the movement is reached the opposite side muscle group (in this case the quads) kicks into full gear and contracts forcefully.  This reverses the direction you WERE traveling in and now sends you off in the new direction more powerfully than you would have even intended to be.

  It’s like a baseball coming into the hitter at 90 MpH and leaving the bat at 125 MPH! Load up the legs with the soft controlled landing and then explode all of that potential energy back into the legs and you’ll be noticing new power from sources you never knew you even had.

  So how do you incorporate plyos for maximum results?  Simple.  Pick four of these bad boys and throw them into a 4 exercise circuit and have at it.  Remember, you don’t want to ever sacrifice reps for bad form on these, since they are very high risk high reward exercises.  Instead, know that you can confidently perform the exercises with good form and then shift your focus to keeping your rest times minimal and each rep more explosive than the last.

  What you’ll start to notice is….not only will be feeling stronger more quickly, but you’ll also see some incredible size gains, vertical jump improvement and quickness gains!  That’s the coolest part, especially for you athletes out there reading this!

  It’s all tied in together.  Build explosive legs and your vertical jump will seem like it’s growing by leaps and bounds….literally!

  Build explosive legs and your quickness will improve.

  Keep doing squats that are killing your lower back and you will see neither.  After all, it’s tough to run when you’re back is in agony!

  If you want to see what this type of Xplosive Leg Workout would look like…then just click on the link and watch how these 4 exercises can completely change the way you train your legs.  As a matter of fact, once you’ve completed just 5 of these workouts I’m sure you’ll agree….you’ll be able to say goodbye once and for all to the “chicken legs” and instead start showing off your pillars (and save the chicken legs for dinner!)

  Stay Strong,

  Jeff

  Want to watch celebrity fitness trainer Jeff Cavaliere demonstrate his 4 EXERCISE Leg Circuit Workout and get the same results his top professional athlete clients are getting?  Then go to XPLOSIVE LEG WORKOUTS and see how you transform your legs into two sticks of dynamite by training the right way!