A stretch too far?

Tight, weak muscles are commonplace both in exercise newbies and seasoned athletes, and devoting some time to flexibility and corrective protocols is always a good thing. However, it's important to understand which muscles actually require attention. Stretching both sides of the body in the presence of an asymmetry will, at best, maintain that imbalance, whilst stretching all muscle groups regardless of your postural status could potentially exacerbate any shortcomings.

Take neck pain for example. Whilst it is possible to have compromised connective tissue or joint alignment in and around the cervical spine (the 7 vertebrae at the top of your spine), a common cause of neck pain (the smoke) can also be a lack of shoulder mobility or scapular stability (the fire). This results in the shoulder doing less work than it really should, leaving the muscles of the neck doing overtime and becoming fatigued. So whilst the problem is in the shoulder, the neck is the part that complains. Therefore doing a ton of neck stretches is not the answer. Regaining proper function of the shoulder is.

My advice here is to seek expert advice if you have tight, sore muscles or loss of mobile range. A thorough movement screen and kinetic chain assessment will soon highlight where the real problem lies and enable you to establish an appropriate course of action, which will ultimately lead to faster, pain free results. Hurrah!

How to improve your training results by 10% IMMEDIATELY!

When it comes to warming up, most people consider a 5 minute free wheel on the bike or treadmill perfectly apt in raising body temperature and increasing muscle pliability, and to be honest, there's probably no harm in it. This basic-of-all-basic exercise readiness strategies is definitely better than diving straight into high intensity or lifting programmes with no preparation at all.

It strikes me as odd, however, that in a society as time-starved as the one in which we all live, people still waste 5-10 minutes every time they train ambling along in the same plane of motion, potentially adding to already present movement pathologies. Let me give you a comparison.

In my first fitness job as club manager to a small corporate gym, I used to watch people coming in, head straight for the cross trainer and plod away for a few minutes before deeming themselves warm enough to move on to the fun bit of lifting weights. Fair enough.

At Phoenix Pro Fitness, our members walk in and their coach is usually waiting, watching the way they move as they enter the gym, looking for any signs of stiffness or assymetry from a day sat at the office. These, along with any niggles or tightnesses, are addressed right away with appropriate soft tissue work, clavitherapy, foam rolling and static stretching, before each member moves onto our flexibility and mobility series, both of which are on permanent video loops on our gym wall. These circuits, which last around 15minutes, cover the main areas of movement dysfunction so that by the time our members get to their core training and resistance training components, their glutes are activated, their hips are freer and their shoulder and thoracic spine mobility is improved. What does this mean? It means that our members are a) going to move in much more biomechanically sound patterns which means better power output and subsequently better results and b) that they're not going compound existing postural weaknesses or guarding patterns by adding load to those faults and encouraging further compensations.

I think a common mistake many people make is in thinking that aches and pains are just part of getting older, or training, and should be ignored, or 'worked through.' More often than not, this is just a recipe for more of the same, and eventual breakdown.

Obviously if you're not a member of Phoenix or don't train with a suitably qualified coach, you may have to forgo specific treatment at each session, but that doesn't mean you can't significantly improve your warm ups, and consequently performance and results each session.

Below are the exact flexibility and mobility protocols we use at Phoenix Pro Fitness, so please feel free to use them...

Flexibility Circuit



Mobility Circuit



We are dedicated to finding the key to every body's very best..

Charlotte Ord
Owner
Phoenix Pro Fitness