Besides working with our personal training and fitness bootcamp clients, I often work with people who need help with injury rehab / injury prevention. Today I just had a consultation with a competitive floorball and soccer player complaining of “unexplained” back pain. This is quite a common type of back pain that seems to come and go. It isn’t the kind caused by a bulging disk that you can get from lifting a weight improperly, or from twisting yourself into an un-natural position.

When visiting most back health people, they would focus on – no surprise – the back. Adjustments, massage, or even acupuncture, usually focus on the site of the injury.

However, because this client is extremely active in many sports this means a few things…

• He has to train alot to get good
• To get good at a particular skill e.g. kicking a soccer ball, you need to do thousands of repetitions of that skill
• All sports have “overuse” patterns – the movement most done in that sport
• All overuse patterns lead to some parts being tight/short and some parts being long
• The uneven length and tightness of the various muscles leads to them pulling on the connective tissue (called fascia) unevenly, twisting the body gradually over time, leading to poor function and likely, pain.

I experienced this myself because I played six years of competitive softball, and I must have swung the bat thousands of times in one direction and nearly zero times in the other. I also used one hand to throw with that same direction of twisting. That is why one side of my body is tighter than the other and it has taken alot of massage and stretching to get things back to somewhere near normal.

So… for this client, we assessed his range of motion all over his body and found out where he was out of balance. We used acupressure and stretching techniques to help balance him out, and within 10 mins, he was pain free. I also taught him how to do these stretches at home to keep his new found range of motion.

These methods are by no means “magical” although the fast results may appear to be! But I do know that there are many people who can benefit from a personalized stretching program. That is why I have managed to get my Australian colleague and stretching expert Keith to come to Singapore to give a stretching seminar. 3 hours of pure usable knowledge that will help you customize a stretching program to keep you pain free and flexible forever!

Check it out here, its a once in a lifetime opportunity:)

BTW thats Keith in action in the picture.

Recently I was asked a lot about the range of motion that we should have in training. “why do we use exercise A rather than B?” etc. Here is what both clients and personal trainers need to know about range of motion.

You need to know that there are three different ranges of motion (ROM).

• ROM of the muscle
• ROM of the joint
• ROM of the exercise

While it is not possible to go through every possible exercise, lets use the common bench press as an example.

When using a barbell, the full ROM of the exercise is until the bar touches your chest. However, the main muscles used (prime movers) are the deltoids, the pectorals and the triceps muscles. The joints involved are (mainly) the shoulder and elbow joints.

When the bar is at the bottom, touching your chest, is your shoulder or elbow at the end of its ROM? No. Are your triceps, pectorals or deltoids stretched fully? NO.

For example the clavicular portion of the pectorals (the “upper chest”) would have a fuller range of motion in a elbow in line with ears fly. And the triceps would have a fuller range of motion for example in a lying dumbbell triceps extension.

The shoulder and elbow joints would be at their end range when doing one of the many possible flexibility tests for those joints.

So, whenever you think about ROM, you need to know which ROM you are talking about. And also note that it’s not possible to get full ROM in everything all the time. If you did so, you would dilute the benefit of the exercise you were trying to perform by using too light a weight, or by risking injury.

This means that the key to success and complete development is variety of exercise structured into your program. This is how we help out clients succeed in both our group bootcamp fitness programs and our personal training programs. Science based variation of your exercises for maximum results.

I know family members, personal training or bootcamp fitness clients and friends who have been seriously injured playing sports or performing daily tasks like shifting furniture or carrying kids. The question is are these preventable? Well, they are preventable if they are non contact – i.e. you were not punched, kicked or tackled! However almost all non-contact injuries are preventable with the right kind of athlete training programs.

Below are two videos inspired I believe by Australian sports performance coach Ian King, one of the veterans of the field of sports conditioning, and a man who has helped many athletes get medals in international competition. They illustrate how the usual mindset of “oh it’s just my bad luck that I’m injured” is wrong and doesn’t make sense.

Proper strength training can vastly reduce the chances of all injury.

Strength has a positive correlation to EVERY other physical attribute. That means, if you are strong, it helps you be quick, run fast, jump high, have better endurance, speed, and everything else. That is why any good training program should have phases where strength is the focus. That is part of the program design you get in our personal training, athletic training and fitness boot camp programs.

As a coach, we have to lead by example…here is a recent video of me working on strength.

I have been taking an old fashioned supplement. It used to be sold in Singapore, but its cheap and I think the profit margins are low so the local supplement distributors don’t carry it.

I first read about it on Charles Poliquin’s site, and how it will help digestion and absorption of food. So that the nutritious food and good supplements which I am already eating, can be properly absorbed and not go to waste (literally down the toilet).

It is Hydrochloric acid. Good for dissolving metals…and good for digesting food.
(don’t worry, our stomach linings protect us from it while still allowing digestion to go on inside the stomach… yet another brillitantly designed piece of body machinery)

We test all our clients personal training, fitness bootcamp or NS fitness…for deficiency in this important function of digestion. And when we get rid of the problem with good supplements that heal your digestive system, results are boosted FAST!

One of my clients missed 2 training sessions this week. He is one of the most dedicated guys who has gotten some of the best results of any client!

But why miss training?

Stomach viral flu that’s why. Constant toilet trips for 3 days, and a trip to the hospital for an IV drip. He lost 3kg in 3 days.

He got dehydrated, weaker and less healthy.
He’s back now but it will take about a week or so of proper eating and training to get back to pre-sickness levels.

But hey! Isn’t that what some places in Singapore that specialize in weight loss do?

Wrap a client up in cling wrap and stay in a heated room to lose “weight”… or some injections that cause your body to cleanse itself? (While not taking into account the removal of those toxins)

I think I have found the perfect analogy.

Those therapies have no scientific backing (and those centers will not be able to provide any…).
They are dangerous
They work as well as…

A Stomach Flu Virus

Same mechanism – you lose water, and go to the toilet more…
Same results – you lose health

Buyer beware. There is no magic pill or potion that sheds pounds. But if you do what we ask as part of our exercise and nutrition programs like our Fitness Bootcamp and personal training programs, the results are almost magical with NONE of the side effects:)

As a fitness instructor here in Singapore I always take a look at how Singapore residents behave so I can help them achieve their fat loss, weight loss and fitness goals better! Here are some my observations about the way us Singaporeans approach their health and exercise.

• We DO have the time – If only we watched less TV and played less World of Warcraft
• We can achieve great health with only 3 hours of proper training per week – If we are eating the correct foods and taking care of our nutrition instead of letting what hawkers and restaurants sell us be our guide.
• Cardio is NOT bad for health – It is good to stay healthy so some activity like going for walks and playing sports recreationally is good for us!
• Cardio is BAD for fat loss – especially if we have limited time, it is simply not challenging enough for our bodies to force us to lose fat
• Women are motivated by encouragement – in general
• Men are motivated by challenge – in general
• Many people have poor hip function and mobility – leading to knee and back problems
• Many people have poor upper back posture and weak middle and upper back muscles – leading to shoulder and neck problems
• Barefoot training is really helping my clients with their foot/ankle health as well as their balance but DON’T buy those shoes with “5 toes”. They mess up your toe function and make you have knee pain!
• Warming up is very important – so is static stretching during the end of the day. But the warm up has to be specific for the task. For example, if you are warming up for squats, do squats! If you are warming up for soccer or basketball, you will need to add in some movement and running drills in multiple directions – specific to the task.

Putting these observations into practice is how we come up with out personal training programs as well as our fitness bootcamp, athlete training programs and Pre National Service training packages