We have A LOT of members at the gym that have jobs where they are sitting for large parts of the day on their butts while staring into a computer screen and not exercising! As human beings this isn’t a very natural thing for us to be doing! Typically, we’d be walking to find water, hunting and gathering food, climbing trees, playing with children, laying in the sun, milking cows, mending fences, gathering wood, etc.. Nowadays, we’re not nearly as active as humans traditionally were and our bodies are paying the price! Only recently have we adopted such a sedentary lifestyle and being sedentary….. Leads to gaining weight – Think about how many more calories a person burns over the course of one week if they’re walking to work and have an active job versus the person that drives everywhere and sits down all day! The average American, that drives everywhere and has an office job, walks around 3km per day. The average person that doesn’t drive a car and has an active job can walk around double that! Considering that walking 1km burns roughly your body weight in calories, the more active male that walks everywhere can expect to … Read More
Oh my shoulders
Experience shoulder pain is a bit of a never ending story for CrossFitters. Sooner or later everyone feels that their shoulders are tired, hurt before the warm up or just constantly in various positions of the joint. But this problem is not limited only to CrossFitters. Thanks to my swimming experience I am surprised to say that having shoulder pain is natural for swimmers too. They even have a name for it: “Swimmer’s shoulder”. Whether you are a swimmer or you do Crossfit the signs and reasons for pain are the same. In my last post I talked about different injuries of the shoulder joint. Today I want to take a look at avoiding the injury. What we should do in order not to hurt ourselves. Stance Maybe its not a bad idea to start with something as easy as the way you hold yourselves. We do it all day every day and we do it wrong. Just think about the way you hold yourself when you wait for the bus or sit at work. Your back is bent, shoulders swung down and forward. We often look at our phones so our heads are also facing the ground. Try to … Read More
Are your shoulders opened?
As kids we loved to play on the playground. We would hang on the bar, do somersaults, think of ways to conquer the rig without touching the ground. All these natural movements would help us have strong, mobile and stable shoulders. But as we got older the movement of our shoulders got worse and if you now have a job where you sit all day you probably can move your shoulders only barely. And then one day you show up at CrossFit and start to do hand stands, lift heavy objects above your head and return to the rig. Ever wonder how do your shoulders must feel? Test them out! Try to find our if your shoulders are opened. What does that mean? That they are fully mobile and you can lift your arms above your head without your spine compensating the movement. This is very important for any vertical movement. Step 1: Lay on the ground, feet together, point your toes, lower your pelvis, suck in your stomach and make sure your lower back is glued to the floor. Now try to touch the ground above your head with your arms stretched out, don’t bend the elbows. Stop reading … Read More
How to avoid shoulder pain
One of the common issues that our clients have is pain in the shoulder joint that results in limitations in their training. Shoulders are probably used more than any other joint in our body during our trainings. The instability of this joint and the range of motion of the joint can often cause issues. We use the shoulder joint in following movements: All S2O movements (press, push press, jerk, thruster) Gymnastics on the bar (pull ups, mainly the kipping variation, toes to bar, muscle ups) Push ups, HSPU, hand stand, dips, burpees Snatch and OHS As you can see from this list, we do at least one exercises that engages shoulder joint in almost every single class. I would like to cover the most often diagnosis of shoulder joint pain so that you will know what your physiotherapist means when he or she tells you all the medical terms. I will also add couple tips on how to avoid shoulder pain. Bursitis – So called bursae are small sacs filled with fluid. They are located close to joints. Their role is to decrease friction between bones, ligaments and muscle origins. Bursitis happens when bursae gets inflamed. Movement of the joint or pressure on bursae then becomes … Read More