‘Addressing Mobility, Posture and BioMechanical Issues caused by Prolonged Sitting with Resistance Training’
- By Simon Griffin
24 Hours - 5 Days per week
11:00pm - 7:00am - Sleeping > 8 hours - Sleep
7:00am - 8:00am - Breakfast etc > 1 hour - Activity
8:00am - 9:00am - Commuting > 1 hour - Sitting
9:00am - 5:00pm - Work > 8 hours - Sitting
5:00pm - 6:00pm - Commuting > 1 hour - Sitting
6:00pm - 7:00pm - Rest/Dinner > 1 hour - Sitting
7:00pm - 8:00pm - Walk/Gym/Cycle/Yoga etc > 1 hour - Activity
8:00pm - 10:00 - Television/Reading/Relaxing > 2 hours - Sitting
10:00pm - 11:00pm - _____________ > 1 hour - Activity
We can see in the above diagram how the vast majority of a persons day can be spent sitting.
Sitting is considered a physiological stress as it is not a ‘natural bio-mechanical movement or non-movement’.
However, the body is resourceful and will adapt according to lines of physiological stress.
When we have repetitive movement or non-movements such as sitting, this adaptation causes muscles and other soft tissues to remodel to become stronger in the direction of stress.
This typically causes in an imbalance of strength to weakness in joints, resulting in loss of mobility commonly seen in the ankles, scapula, hips and spine.
This loss of mobility in these joints typically results in 1 of 3 issues:
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Lower Back Pain
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Knee Pain
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Shoulder/Neck Pain
Solely treating the source of pain will only get you so far in eradicating your pain, and will likely be a temporary solution.
It’s of course more complicated to look at the body as a whole and see what other joints may be the root of the problem, but it’s also necessary for long-term pain alleviation and functionality.
Mike Boyle & Gray Cook’s: Joint by Joint Approach argues that wherever pain is located in the body, the answer to the problem is usually found in either the joint above or below the area of pain.
Joint–Primary Need
Gleno-humeral– Mobility
Scapula – Stability
Thoracic Spine–Mobility
Lumbar Spine – Stability
Hip – Mobility (multi-planar)
Knee – Stability
Ankle –Mobility (sagittal)
This means that the answer to:
Lower back pain is often found below the lumbar, in the hip, which is typically insufficiently mobile, thereby demanding the typically stable lumbar joint to develop mobility that is was not designed for.
Shoulder pain can usually be traced back to an insufficiently mobile thoracic spine, which in turn causes pain in the shoulders due to their need to forgo their stability in place of mobility.
Knee pain typically is a combination of a lack of both ankle mobility and stability, alongside hip immobility. The stress of an unstable and immobile ankle, coupled with an immobile hip causes the knees to lose their necessary bio-mechanical stability, thereby causing pain.
Each of these issues are becoming more common in the 21st century due to an over exposure to sitting and a reducing activity levels of the population.
So, what to do about it within a Gym, and why address these issues with Resistance (Weight) Training?
Why Resistance Training?
Because intelligently programmed resistance training, based solely upon a scientific approach towards the body and each joints Range of Motion (ROM), results in free
mobility,
postural and
bio-mechanical developments,
unlike many other popular forms of physical training such as:
Yoga/Pilates
Cycling
Running
Aerobics
Martial Arts
Analysing the benefits of different physical training disciplines:
Joint Mobility - 1 Point
Joint Stability - 1 Point
Muscle Mass - 1 Point
Cardiovascular Health - 1 Point
Pain Prevention/Management/Alleviation - 1 Point
Mental Health Benefits - 1 Point
Benefits of Different Forms of Exercise
Tools within a Gym:
Tools in a Gym
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Barbell
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Dumbbell
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Kettlebell
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Gym Cables
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Plate Loaded Machines (Fixed Pivot)
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Other
5 Primary Movements of the Human Body
Push: (Vertical/Horizontal)
Pull: (Vertical/Horizontal)
Squat
Hinge
Isometrics (Stationary/Paused/’Asana’)
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Mobility
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Posture
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BioMechanics
Strength training and dynamic movements are superior to static stretching for improving mobility, posture and bio-mechanics according to numerous scientific studies:
In 2005, Hess et al. subjected a group of octogenarians to a resistance training program at 80% of 1RM, three times per week; after 10 weeks of training, participants improved their performance on the TUG test (Mobility Test) by 15.7%.
Fiatarone et al. demonstrated that resistance training raised functional mobility even in people over 90 years old.
In 2006, Holviala etal. proved that both muscle power and strength are important determinants of mobility, and that resistance training is a powerful tool to induce specific neuromuscular adaptations that translate into improved mobility in healthy older adults.
Greek researchers looked at a group of men who trained with loads at 40, 60, or 80% of their 1RM or one-rep max. The results showed that higher intensities were linked with greater improvements in mobility/flexibility. That is, the men who trained at 80% of their 1RM were the ones who saw the greatest improvements.
Optimal Standards of Strength to ensure efficient Mobility, Posture & BioMechanics
Male Standards
Vertical Pull: Bodyweight x 5 repetitions
Horizontal Push: Bodyweight x 1 rep
Squat: Bodyweight x 1 rep
Hinge: Bodyweight + 50% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Female Standards
Vertical Pull: Bodyweight x 1 repetitions
Horizontal Push: 50-70% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Squat: 75%-100% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Hinge: Bodyweight + 25% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Posture
Posture is how you hold your body.
There are two types:
Dynamic posture is how you hold yourself when you are moving, like when you are walking, running, or bending over to pick up something.
Static posture is how you hold yourself when you are not moving, like when you are sitting, standing, or sleeping.
As it is muscle that holds up our bodies, we can safely conclude that people with larger muscle mass and a homogenous muscular balance will inevitably have good posture.
Therefore posture is best addressed by aggressively strengthening the posterior chain muscles (the backs muscle’s), rather than through static stretching, ie yoga.
Resistance Training and the Female Body
Borges-Silva et al., analysed whether or not heavy-resistance training could improved mobility in older women.
His group study involved 3 groups.
Group A: Weight Training (Traditional Resistance Training: TRT)
Group B: Strength and Conditioning (Circuit Resistance Training: CRT)
Group C: Control Group (CG)
His study found that Group A and B experienced significant improvements in functional mobility as a direct result of heavy resistance training.
Osteoporosis & Weight Training
According to the HSE, women who weight train from the age of 16 have an 83% reduction in the risk of Osteoporosis.
Additionally, according to both the HSE & Get Active Ireland, 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of 50 will break bones from Osteoporosis.
As we can see from the above data, osteoporosis is overtly a female issue.
But, why is osteoporosis a female issue?
Why are more women affected by bone loss than men?
Women tend to have smaller bones than men.
Women go through the menopause, and some women can lose up to 30% of the overall bone in their body during this process.
If a female’s period started later than age 15, they are at a higher risk for bone loss as their sex hormones were not regular.
If a female has or had PMT (Premenstrual tension) their hormones are not regular, so they are at higher risk of bone loss.
If a girl/woman loses their periods NOT due to pregnancy. Eating disorders and/or over-exercising are a common cause of this and places the person at high risk to develop bone loss.
If a woman has endometriosis, their sex hormones are not regular, and they are at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis.
If a woman is on the contraceptive Depo Provera, this has been proven to cause bone loss.
If a woman has a hysterectomy, they are at a much higher risk of bone loss.
So, how to translate this information into the Gym and your own training?
Vertical Pull: Pull Up
Male Standards: Bodyweight x 5 reps
Female Standards: Bodyweight x 1 rep
Vertical Pull: Pronated Lat Pulldown
Male Standards: Bodyweight x 5 reps
Female Standards: Bodyweight x 1 rep
Horizontal Push: Barbell Bench Press
Male Standard: Bodyweight x 1 rep
Female Standard: 50% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Horizontal Push: Dumbbell Bench Press
Male Standard: Bodyweight x 1 rep
Female Standard: 50% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Squat: Barbell Back Squat
Full Range of Motion (ROM) necessary
Male Standard: Bodyweight x 1 rep
Female Standard: 75%-100% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Squat:
Goblet Squat/Barbell Front Squat
Full Range of Motion (ROM) necessary
Male Standard: 75-100% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Female Standard: 50%-75% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Hinge: Barbell Deadlift
Male Standard:
Bodyweight + 50% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Female Standard:
Bodyweight + 25% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Hinge: Kettlebell Deadlift
Male Standard:
Bodyweight + 50% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
Female Standard:
Bodyweight + 25% of Bodyweight x 1 rep
How is your head?
According to an article published in 2018 in the Irish Journal of Medical Science which examined the correlation between mental health and physical exercise, (involving 7539 participants), those who met the basic physical exercise levels routinely typically scored higher on the Energy and Vitality Index (EVI) and the Mental Health Index-5 (MHI-5), compared with those who did not met daily phsyical exercise standards.
This confirms what we already know:
Exercise benefits not only your physical health, but your mental wellbeing also.
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