by John Churchill

Where to start your Strength Training

The absolute best place to start strength training, if you have the means is to seek out a professional personal trainer who can assess your movement patterns. A good personal trainer can find the patterns which work and the patterns that need improvement to help tailor a program to meet your goals. If a personal trainer is not in the cards for you, seek out a group training class. However, before you head to your first class, start with some good foundations of movement to make the most out of your training and to prevent injury.

Breathing is important.  The Breath Test

Good movement begins with something we all do every day all day and think nothing of it. If you have a past riddled with injury you have probably had some dysfunction. That is breathing. As a trainer for the last 12 years, I begin every new client, no matter their history, with breathing exercises. You should be able to breathe using your diaphragm not your accessory muscles of breathing. You can test this yourself with the following exercise:

1 – lying flat on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor place your right hand on your collar bones and left hand on your stomach

2 – take 5 deep breaths in though the nose (2-3 sec) and out though the mouth (4-8sec)

3 – Take note of which hand is moving first is your right hand on your collar bones moving or your left hand on your stomach moving

4 – Bring intention and focus to breathing with your diaphragm – you should be able to breathe deep into your lungs by pressing your diaphragm down causing your stomach to raise slightly (moving your left hand) and timed before your right hand on your collar bones moves.

5 – Repeat 10 to 20 breaths (about 2-4 min)

How to Brace your Core

In this instance I will refer to the core as the muscles that make up a cylinder around your spine from your rib-cage to your pelvis. We can compare that cylinder to a pop can with a top – diaphragm, bottom – pelvic floor, sides – transverse abdominus, multifidus, obliques, and abdominis rectus. All three components of the core need to be coordinated together to create internal abdominal pressure which will support the spine. If you stand on a pop can it can easily support your weight if all the components are intact. But if you dent the side of the can it will crumple. The same with the core, if one of the muscles is dysfunctional or even non-optimal you will lose stability from your core. This asks the question of how to properly brace your core to create the appropriate internal abdominal pressure?

1 - You will begin with breathing properly because this makes the top of our cylinder.

2 – We want to seal up the bottom of the cylinder by pulling up on your pelvic floor, i.e. it will feel like you are stopping yourself from going pee.

3 – Finally, we will create a nice solid hoop around our waist.

The third step is a very misunderstood one, back in the 90’s there was a study done where they saw a peak contraction of transverse abdominis (TA) by hollowing your stomach (drawing your belly button to your spine) even though this may create a large contraction of TA it does not add to stability of the spine. Rather we want to “brace the core”. To brace your core, pinch your waist (between your hips and ribs) and make a gentle cough. You should feel a contraction with your fingertips on your waist. That is what a braced core feels like. Now try to reproduce that feeling by pressing your stomach back into your fingers or try to cough and hold the contraction. This is what a braced core feels like. Think about somebody coming to punch you in the stomach and you don’t want it to hurt as much.

How to train Core Strength

The Deadbug – this is a simple looking exercise but much like any exercise we do, can be made very difficult in execution when done with intention. It is not what you see people at the gym doing, lying on their back holding a ball between their knees and hands and flailing their limbs about. Follow these steps and focus on the steps we have already discussed about breathing and bracing your core. 

1 – Lying on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.

2 – Find your neutral spine by pressing your back into the floor and arching your low back off the floor while keeping your butt and shoulders in contact with the floor, this is your end range of motion, next find a place in the middle of that range of motion and place your hands under the small space created under your low back.

3 – Brace the core using the 3 steps - form a solid top to the can with your diaphragm, pull up with your pelvic floor and create the strong hoop around your waist to complete the cylinder.

4 – Lift your right foot 2” off the floor focus on how much pressure is on your hands if you are bracing correctly there should be no pressure change bring your foot back to the floor.

5 – Now lift your left foot 2” from the floor it should have the same result no pressure change in your hands.

6 – Relax everything and begin back at step 3.

If you feel the pressure increase or decrease that means you are using compensation patterns to move your hips, probably your hip flexor is supporting your low back instead of doing what it is intended to do “flex the hip”. Keep practicing the deadbug until you can stabilize your hips while you lift your leg.

Now you can move

This is all great information, but you thought that this article was about where to start your strength training. Breathing and core bracing is the start of every exercise we will ever do. You need to be able to utilize your diaphragm while breathing resulting in the ability to brace your core properly. As soon as your core is braced appropriately you have now created a stable platform to move effectively. Now you can head into a class with confidence or see a trainer and progress much faster or you can simply grab a mat and head to the floor for some fundamental movements in your basement.

Want to learn more?

Come in and chat with one of our trainers Rob N, Rob S or myself. We can help you learn proper and effective movements to get the most out of your strength training.