TRAP BAR SQUATS WITH FAT GRIPZ: The exercise that does it all

TRAP BAR SQUATS WITH FAT GRIPZ: The exercise that does it all.

Lately, I studied the effects of this awesome exercise and here are the results:

1- Its a great core exercise
2- its been proven to be an excellent mass builder
3- Studies show that using fat grips increases dynamic stability in the shoulder girdle while increasing stability in the scapula.
4- It's a great exercise if you have hypermobility in joints
5- if increasing frequency of leg workouts is a goal, this exercise is a great warm-up on upper body days.
6- Since its a full body workout, its ideal for clients with weight loss goals
7- Latest studies show that incorporating this exercise to your routine will result in putting on inches to your arms A.k.A bigger guns lol
8- Its great with clients with Low back issues or beginners doing squats
9- Low Testosterone levels.... NOT Anymore!
10- Immediately increase upper body strength on the bench press and chin-ups

This list could go on and on! If you haven't tried it yet , I strongly recommend it!

SUPER BLOOD MOON CAPTURED WITH TELESCOPE APP 50X: SEPTEMBER 27-28 MOON O...

HOW TO FIX HIP,KNEE & BACK PAIN : WHEN SQUATTING, SITTING -RELIEF INJURY...

HOW TO FIX HIP,KNEE & BACK PAIN : WHEN SQUATTING, SITTING -RELIEF INJURY...

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH BOTTLED WATER?

I was watching TV when i found a documentary on bottled water and how it affected our environment. Now, I could of changed channels but it also referred to Montreal and Toronto so i was intrigued.Here are a few things i learned:
1-in 1990 the Bottle water companies made profits of 100 million and in 2000 jumped to a profit of five billion dollars
2-Most of the water in bottled water are filled tap water or re-filtered tap water
3-The Companies are rarely checked for quality control, some dated up to three years ago
4-By buying a filter or a Aluminum bottle filled with tap water you can save up to 750$ a year(enough for a trip to Cuba!)
5- In a blind study on 100 people tested 60% preferred tap water and could not tell the difference
6- In recycling centers,45% of the recycling are bottled water(700000 bottles a day) and 65 millions bottles a year end up in a landfill
7. C-CREST a Montreal based company tested 29 different bottled water and 70% were contaminated with bacteria.
So conclusion, are we really getting all the health benefits we think we are getting? The trick at the end is to make sure that you absorb the water (just add a pinch of sea salt) and that it is fluoride and chloride free

NATURAL SCAR TREATMENT THAT WORKS!

In posture today, there are many ways to try to fix a hip hike or a chronic pain. Dr. Bernard Bricot in the 80's created a system working with different sensors in the body. In his techniques, the most common is working with the eyes,feet, vestibular system, scars, Jaw and if needed assessing a shorter leg.

Today, I had an interesting case where the eyes, jaw was not a problem. So I proceeded to assess if my client had a shorter leg that resulted in a hip hike. At the end,I used a 14 millimeter Heel on the left side to reestablish his posture but he still didn't have full neck rotation.

I then proceeded to ask him if he had a scar somewhere in the body that might create obstruction to the fascia. He replied that he had a 2 inch by 2 inch scar on his left butt cheek that he never knew what happened since he was a baby. So we put some ice & then rosewood oil and almond oil mix on the scar in question.

To my surprise, he had regained full mobility in the neck but most important of all, his squat was impeccable and the hips leveled without the 14 millimeter heel. This my friends is called a false shorter leg. So in the future, know that a scar can and will result and changing your posture if left untreated.

For people interested the mix is 20% rosewood oil and 80% almond oil and if you want to see in the future if that scar is a problem, just ice the scar in question and check your range of motion and squatting pattern

JACK OF ALL TRADES OR MASTER IN YOUR FIELD?

JACK OF ALL TRADES OR MASTER IN YOUR FIELD?

Interesting last few weeks. The big challenge is always wondering how to incorporate new knowledge to existing one. Since the body is sensory based, all specialists have something to contribute to resolving problems. Clinical work is always interesting because you never know how a body is going to react to a certain type of treatment. Last week, I tried new knowledge to strengthen upper kyphosis postural dysfunctions that didn't agree with my body. Sadly one of my major issues of my life was AC joint impingements and anterior labrum tears. They love to re-surface!

My strength in the gym is that I love to try new knowledge and see the results on my own body before trying it on a client. One of the exercises re-injured my right shoulder. Which led me to believe that I needed more knowledge on the subject and like my teacher said ...dig deeper into the rabbit hole!

So the main focus on this article today is... Should someone become a jack of all trades or a master in a particular field? I have a lot of respect for everybody in this field of work that master their craft to perfection and make a difference in somebody's life. I believe that all therapists should study a bit of everything to increase knowledge and understand problems in many points of views but should not stray too far from their own expertise. This is where building a wide and reliable network of individuals becomes important to any clinic.

A little reminder to all therapist out there... remember that you are doing good and when it comes down to it, you are helping your clients get better with each treatment you do.

Let's heal the world one treatment at a time and be the best you can be... always!

TEACHING HOW TO SQUAT WITH PERFECT FORM WITHOUT POSTURE... IMPOSSIBLE!

SQUATTING 

The ability to squat properly is always an interesting subject. Lately, i have doing a lot of clinical trials on getting the perfect squat. Aligning the hips is always my first priority. I believe that the deep front line in Thomas Myers Myofascial meridians is the key to this equation. The fact that the ribcage is directly influenced by the psoas major can also contribute to a good or bad form. Looking back at the first classes years ago, i was taught to stretch the hip flexor to inhibit the culprit. If that didn't work, proprioception like tapping on the muscle to create activation was the next step.

Even after all the Stretching & activation, sometimes a faulty pattern could make squatting impossible, forcing me to regress the exercise to reeducate the person involved. Today but adding Posturology to the mixture, squatting becomes easier and less time consuming on the persons hour. One must consider all sensory aspect to get optimal results in the gym. One thing that did surprise me is New Age Performance Mouthware. Aligning your jaw properly makes a world of difference on my clients squatting ability but its important to mention that my best results were with the diaphragm inline and the proper convergence exercises for the visual aspect. This is just the beginning on how to get the best squat... stay tuned

HOW TO ASSESS AND TREAT PAIN WITHOUT LOSING YOUR TIME!

STATIC TROUBLE LEADS TO A STATE OF OVERCOMPENSATION.

Today I had the pleasure of doing clinical trials on how to fix pain and injuries. There is always an order in which to assess and treat pain. The first thing you must do when assessing pain is to take care of articular constraints first. When we look at the Deep Front Line linking to the diaphragm, it is easy to understand how releasing hip joints and shoulder joints can be beneficial in relieving most of the pain in an individual.

The next step is to assess when is massage therapy or fascia treatment necessary to release asymetric tensions. Since step one requires releasing and/or activating the diaphragm line of the body, it is only logical to me to follow up with Myofascial treatments. One of the things I've noticed by following this order is the strengthening of the transverse abdominis on the left side that often stiffens the left side of the rib cage creating the inability to rotate the T-spine. This is where I tell the clients to start foam rolling and mobilize the ribcage doing quadriped external rotation.

Now is the point where we relax and let a massage therapist take over and release what left of the asymetric tensions. All these steps will result in giving back mobility to the body and pain relief which is much needed in some clients.

As you can see all professions and specialties have something to contribute to the health of an individual. I hope this article helps you decide what is the next step in treating yourself in the future!

RETHINK YOUR EXERCISE SELECTION , THINK MOVEMENT IN ALL THE PLANES OF MOTION

The power of thinking three dimensionally

I find it interesting that in this day in age many people only swear buy one technique or one way of thinking. To fix an injury one must think multidimensional. Our bodies move us in every plane of motion that God has given us. To look at a problem through flexion or extension is only thinking unilaterally. A joint flexes, extends, abducts & adducts and some even have the power of circumduction. We are masters and have more ph.ds than ever in human evolution. To excel in one craft today is the same thing has getting a hammer as a tool. From this moment for most specialist, everything looks like a nail. This is why one must look at a solution that involves all aspects of the body. The body is made of fascia, bones, organs , muscles just to name a few. The solution will never be easy when the human body is so complex to begin with. Tonight,I wish this little article makes you see things through a broader spectrum and I wish you a world of discovery.

RECALIBRATING YOUR POSTURE WITH GYM EQUIPMENT? TOTALLY!

HOW TO recalibrate the hips for Posture and Performance before a leg day using your typical gym.

Knowing how to reboot your body before a leg session can be a tricky thing. So today, I decided to write an article on how to get the maximum out of your gym membership using all the tools available there. Here is how to do it without the scientific knowledge.

The recipe you will need: 
- proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching
- a few good yoga poses
- and finally nautilus machines!

First, I would recommend starting up with yoga ( the child's pose). This pose will help you stretch the posterior chain to get rid of excess lordotic posture and facilitate the recalibration of your pelvis.

Second, I would activate the left hamstring and gluteus maximus using the seated leg curl machine with a slight retroversion of the pelvis. ISOMETRIC HOLDS WITH LIGHT WEIGHT!

Third using the abductor and adductor machine, strengthen the left inner thigh and the right outer thigh.

Follow up doing a half kneeling one arm pull with a pulley with a retroversion tilt of the left hip while pulling with the left arm.

Finally all that is left is to stretch using PNF, the muscles that are over compensating any squat pattern.

- stretch the right gluteus maximus
- stretch the right adductor group
- stretch the right sacro iliac ligaments
Also there might be a possibility that the capsule of the left hip may also be tight.

There you have it! Instant performance for kick ass leg day! ENJOY...

CORE STABILITY IS VITAL IN TODAY'S SOCIETY. .. MORE THEN EVER!

CORE STABILITY IS VITAL IN TODAY'S SOCIETY. .. MORE THEN EVER!

In 1996 I started to study at the Chek Institute. My first class was scientific core conditioning. That was the day I started training on Swiss balls & stopped working on flat surface benches. The first quote i heard from Paul Chek was "FLAT SURFACE TRAINING IS DEAD!" . In the last few years, I see all these articles trashing swiss balls or any board which is considered too unstable.

One of the quotes i remember from past seminars is "If the average human being can walk on this earth perfectly balanced against gravity with a fully erected spine, how much stability is too much to stability when it comes to training". That was an interesting point!?

Then specialists started questioning how functional is functional stability training on a swiss ball. Especially when I was viewing a video of someone seriously injuring himself squatting on a Swiss ball.

The truth is that stability is needed more than ever today as we push the boundaries of performance. The latest evolution of transport or commuting to work is now Unicycles, Segways and 2 wheel self balancing boards. Trust me, I have tried every single one of them and when they say "self balancing" , you could not be more off from the truth!

Here is my advice to you if you want to have fun with this new technology. Find yourself a gym with a wide variety of stability boards and swiss balls and train your core, legs and ankles. I own one of these boards and although they are highly unstable, they are a lot of fun!

Flexion and Rotation of the spine a risky buisness...

Flexion and Rotation of the spine a risky buisness...

We look at training as a way to increase aesthetics and performance through all the planes of motion. We elaborate programs to work the entire body with the purpose of creating symmetry & reach the clients goals. Sadly, many patterns (pushing, pulling, twistting, bending Squatting & lunging) require perfect posture to avoid injury.

In posturology, we learn that rotation can come in contralateral and homolateral rotation of the body. Sensory work(eye and breathing exercises) are essential to avoid unnecessary flexion and rotation creating imbalances when performing complex and compound moves.When I think of it, many movements prescribed today contain the risk of injury through flexion and rotation.kettlebell swings, cleans and many other strength and power moves are prescribed by trainers without adequate stabilization of the hips and teaching accurate timing. WHY? Simple...faster gains and weight loss.

I feel we must assess more in order to avoid injuries and set backs. Squats, deadlifts, kettlebell swings and cleans are all important building blocks in building amazing athletes and physics. In the end, without proper posture and symmetry, even basic moves can create flexion and rotation resulting in severe injuries.

IF you're not assessing your guessing! TRUE OR FALSE??

IF you're not assessing your guessing! TRUE OR FALSE??

This week another great article popped into my mind as I was working on a client last Saturday. There are a lot of assessments and testing out there but how many are accurate and reliable. As a health professional, I rely on many assessments and a lot revolve around the shoulders. One of the most popular one I can think of is the fist to fist test. This assessment is great to find out if there is a lack of mobility in the internal rotation or external rotation. You can even access if the problem in the shoulder is caused by the scapula or the T-spine.

In the process of learning how to reposition a diaphragm, we are taught that the body is lateralized to the right causing a protraction of the right shoulder and also and downward rotation of the left shoulder. I'm sure you know where I'm going with this! Of course the left shoulder will have a poor fist to fist result compared to the right one. So what would you do at this point? Probably stretch the pect minor and the triceps brachii on the right shoulder. then you would probably follow up with the mobilization of the scapula itself. Finally if all this fails, check if the spine needs to be foam rolled to increase range of motion in the shoulder girdle.

Although when I started working with the client and I repositioned his diaphragm correctly, I actually got perfect symmetry by creating the opposite effect. The right shoulder blade ended up in a downward rotation and the left shoulder had regain protraction. My client from this moment on felt relief in the shoulder and had regain perfect mobility on both shoulders. When I retested the fist to fist test, you guessed it ... he had a great improvement on the left side and was now more tight on the right side.

So the moral of the story tonight is always be critical and skeptical and don't be fooled by the results of an assessment. Assessments are great tools for finding clues on how to fix the problem but don't take the results literally!

THE 1% BRAIN PARADIGM : FAULTY ENGRAM PATTERNS

THE 1% BRAIN PARADIGM : FAULTY ENGRAM PATTERNS

Welcome back to the fitness fix Montreal. This week's article idea came from a client of mine. Last Saturday, I complimented Bob on how cool his new shirt was. Funny enough, he replied that it was an old shirt that he had bought six years ago. In fact, he said that he only wears 1% of his wardrobe!

So for this article, I would like to make you think about what is a faulty engram pattern. This concept can be defined by the "law of facilitation". When an impulse passes through a certain set of neurons to the exclusion of others, it will take the same course on the future occasion, and each time it traverses this path the resistance will be smaller.

In a nutshell, we need to understand that the 1% brain is often seen in everything we do. Notice that people in general like to do the same exercises, eat the same foods and finally wear the same clothes over and over again. The results at the end... We create ourselves food intolerances and injuries through overuse a certain fibers while working out our favorite muscles groups (pects, biceps and abs).

So here is my advice for you guys to avoid having a 1% BRAIN... Try a wide variety of foods and don't be afraid to experience new exercises. Do what Bob did last Saturday maybe try on an old new shirt that you've never worn before! AND ENJOY LIFE

SCARS & FASCIA HEALTH GOES HAND IN HAND!

SCARS & FASCIA HEALTH GOES HAND IN HAND!

Hope everybody is having a great week! This week's article literally fell into my lap. Earlier last week, I was using my hoverboard to go to my office. All was great until I lost control of my board due to lack of concentration & probably underestimated the cracked sidewalk at the McGill gates.

I totally wiped out that day and injured myself badly falling on my elbow,shoulder and whole left side. No biggie, I cleaned the wounds and sprayed Yunnan Baiyao to reduce the swelling. To make sure that all the injuries were going to recover, I even used laser therapy and also did edema tapings on my forearm, wrist and left hip. Now comes the fun part... How am I going to train this week with injuries on every joint on my left side? I tried a few exercises and found that neutral grip bar presses was actually good considering my injuries.

What happens to me next was actually interesting! I was on my 5th set and my rotator cuff started shutting down. My supraspinatus started to hurt and it felt like I had an impingement. I tried to find a solution to my problem and found that the deep arm line was all screwed up. My ulnar Periosteum was initially in pain after the fall and still today a bit sensitive to the touch as I'm writing this article. I should have chosen a different exercise that didnt touch the line of my injury. So as you see fascia does matter in the body and can affect how injuries are perceived by the body. For people that wonder where can you find this information on all fascia lines : Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers

Applying fascia,P.N.F stretching and breathing exercises for results...

COOL CLINICAL TESTING AND RESULTS! Applying fascia,P.N.F stretching and breathing exercises for results...

It's been a grueling summer for me with so many classes I had to study. I studied holistic nutrition & postural restoration using modern techniques and osteopathic techniques. One of the good parts of taking so many classes, is the aftermath that comes after expanding your mind to a new way of thinking. I was once told by a good friend and mentor (Bob McAtee) that I was a good synthesizer! Cool, i do love testing out knowledge.

To be honest the best part of taking classes is trying the knowledge out on yourself and see the result through many applications. So for this article,I will focus on the little discovery that was made these last few months. Since most of my studies was done on working on different aspects of posturology, one of my clinical testing was on flexibility using the different types of postural restoration.

So here was my hypothesis... if using diaphragmatic release on the anterior interior chain of the body and modern posturology restores full flexibility to the body, How long would it take for fascia and muscles to get tight doing repetitive patterns of one's preferred muscles example:pectorals.

THE RESULTS: Postural muscles got tight very fast and needed some inhibition. Bob McAtee's "facilitated stretching" came very handy! As for stretching fascia line using Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers, that took a couple of months before I started feeling it in my joints mostly my elbows.

So here is the game plan if you want to incorporate all these techniques together. Diaphragmatic work and modern posturology should be maintained on a daily basis with the help of facilitated stretching to make sure that compensatory patterns (tonic muscles) are inhibited. Fascia release and yoga can be incorporated 1-2 week as needed on off days.

Thks for reading this article... feel free to share , comment and like!