Body Building and Injury Prevention

September 6, 2009

Author: Maribeth Bunch, Pedorthist

CEO Walk2bFit.Com

All Rights Reserved

Did you know that body building exercises are those in which the largest numbers of nerves are communicating with the largest numbers of muscle fibers to enable a bodybuilder to lift weight. A leg press, while a great muscle building exercise, is less effective than a free weight leg squat.  A free weight leg squat requires you both to control you own body as you move up and down, and to control and balance the weight. You are creating neuromuscular stimulation in almost every part of your body.

A leg press, on the other hand, does not force you to balance the weight, and all the core muscles which are involved in a free weight leg squat can take it more or less easy.  Body building exercises involving more than one or two sets of muscles will be giving you increased neuromuscular stimulation; kettleball exercises are perfect examples. Because a kettleball is an off-center weight, your entire body, including your core muscles, has to work to maintain your balance while you are controlling the kettleball. None of your muscles remain static.

Balance and Posture

Good posture is critical to achieving the balance required in body building training and performance.  Many of us don’t realize how extremely important good posture is to effective and efficient movement.  In fact, our muscles, especially those responsible for our core stability, all function best from a position of good posture or neutral spine.

Good posture is simply the ability to maintain the normal spinal curves.  Further to this, dynamic postural stability is the concept of maintaining a desired alignment against forces and loads throughout an entire movement.  The first step towards improving your posture is to first become aware of it.  Poor posture doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a function of poor habits in all activities day in and day out.

In order to have great dynamic postural stability you need to train the muscles that act as the support wires for the spine.  If you can’t visit a chiropractor or personal trainer, you may want to try a balance board.  The Altus Balance Board challenges the body, while minimizing chance of injury. Use the Balance Board for rehab or training to strengthen muscles, ligaments and joints. It develops dynamic balance, stabilization and coordination by providing moderate instability without fear of injury. Stand, lunge or squat your way to increased strength and toning. Includes exercise chart with step-by-step instructions.

Since you can’t take your balance board with you wherever you go, most bodybuilders wear special shoes with extra arch support as a ‘tool’ while developing and strengthening the core muscle groups.  The only negative side to training with a balance board and shoes with arch supports is while your workout, your posture and skeletal system are aligned and you are achieving balance during that timeframe, but what about the rest of your day?    Most likely you’ll fall back to the habits of poor posture that took years, if not decades to develop.

Retraining poor posture to good posture while developing your core muscle groups is a 24/7 mindset.  A great tool for round-the-clock retraining and avoiding injury and rehab altogether is wearing prefabricated arch supports.  Instant body alignment can be achieved by wearing arch support in your shoes throughout the day (not only during training) since arch supports support the FOUR arches of your feet and are biomechanically designed to realign your skeletal system by holding your feet (the foundation of your entire body) in the correct position 24/7.

There is a symmetry that your body must engage between posture and balance to prevent injury from overweight bearing pressure.  If you look at the image, you’ll note that the skeletal structure is not aligned, there is not symmetry or balance.  Adding weight to an unbalanced structure will cause it to collapse and can damage soft tissue since the body is asymmetrically aligned. Your feet are the foundation to your entire skeletal structure.

NOTE:

Visit http://www.walk2bfit.com and read about arch supports and body alignment.  The arch supports are priced at $59.99 and come with a fit guarantee and lifetime warranty and are shipped directly to you with wearing instructions.  The manufacturer of the product worked directly with Dr. George Alznner in the development of orthotics and has been selling to sports trainers and doctors around the world for nearly fifty years.  These products are sold direct from the manufacturer for $150.00 a pair!  The great thing about them is they can be work in all of your shoes 24/7 for ‘round-the-clock’ body alignment.  Good Feet Stores and other specialty prefab arch support retailers sell the Alznner or branded products that are of equal quality and design for over $200 a pair!  Sensitive feet love them; ideal for flat feet, high arches and safe for diabetics.

Posted in Ask The Experts, Diabetic Footcare, Just Ask Dr. Scott!, Pro Trainer - Chris