Health & Fitness Blog - LF Fitness

Form check for pelvic & spinal posture.

Standing posture is more important than you think. It relates to core engagement, under/over activity of muscles and proneness to injury. Whether you are performing a light single arm bicep curl or a heavy barbell overhead press, this post is relevant to you and you should take just as much care!

Here’s a run down of the essential things to execute and not to execute, relating to the photo below…

✅ribs stacked on pelvis

✅pelvis tucked under

Training as a beginner and as an advanced/experienced athlete is similar yet different when it comes to strategically working out for maximal results. Here I’ll explain some ideas and techniques to keep in mind, which you may want to implement in your training 👉🏻…

First of all we look at motor unit recruitment and development, the power houses in our muscles that grow from stress from training. As a beginner your muscles haven’t developed their low threshold motor units - the ones activated for smaller degrees of work. So… any type of exercises that requires much coordination and/or is done relatively easilyy (low rpe, potentially not a compound exercise) can easily develop these low threshold units. This training won’t work well forever as one builds up towards growing their high threshold units as who have developed these must stimulate those higher threshold units to order to see strength gains.

So…

🏋🏽🔥 How to balance cardio and weights 💪🏼🎧

As known, both cardio respiratory exercise and resistance exercise is important for overall health (as well as numerous other things)

But as we know both can be intense, demanding, and thus require a lot of recovery - it is shrewd to strategically plan when and how much to do of both.

Here's a post on how to find that balance that works for you:

❚·══·❚ First we must think about our priorities...

What is our goal? Strength or fitness. Choose then allocate 60-80% of you training to be of that training style.

🏃 Spot reduction. Toning. Curves. Proportions

💪How can we work on creating our ideal aesthetic...

You've probably all got a dream shape, a body with the right proportions and tone, and seen others as real life examples who have your perfect look. Today we'll go over how body shape changes work and what to focus on to attain some great changes...

🏋🏽Targeted or spot fat loss. This is a common goal for many people, but is it something we are capable of doing? Unfortunately the answer is no, in that it's not impossible, but neither is it straight forward and easy. The first thing to understand is that we can't control where we lose fat from. But, what we can do is lose it. It's based on genetics where we store fat and so you may gain it or lose from somewhere first or last that is different to anothe…

💪🏻 Breaking through a strength plateau…

Have you been stuck on the same weight and reps in your program? Maybe it's time to make some changes to regain strength & improvement in your fitness journey...

Exercise selection matters, and you could benefit from switching your exercises. It’s salient to change the coordination & neuromuscular challenge and/or to target different areas. You can introduce a new movement / swap one out. This could be to incorporate or eliminate the use of some certain muscles, change from a stable to an unstable environment or set up (vice versa). This can be not just physically for a different stimulus but also to alter the mental stimulation & challenge as sticking to same exercise can be mentally monotonous. Renewed enthusiasm can lead to better performance as boredom can lead to low intensity in your execution. This can keep you motivated & engaged, and prevent…

Loaded stretching has the remarkable ability to promote (longitudinal) muscle growth, meaning it can help increase the length of your muscles over time. By applying a controlled load while stretching, you create tension on both ends of the muscle, stimulating the growth of new sarcomeres—the basic structural units of muscle fibers. As these sarcomeres multiply, your muscles can expand lengthwise, leading to improved muscle definition and overall aesthetic appeal

How this can elevate your flexibility game:

Not only does loaded stretching foster muscle growth, but it also works wonders for your flexibility. By engaging in loaded stretches, you challenge your muscles to reach beyond their usual range of motion, encouraging them to adapt and become more pliable. This increased flexibility can enhance your athletic performance, allow for better exercise form, and reduce the risk of injuries. It's a win-win situation for your muscles and overall mobility

Stretch-mediated hypertrophy, also known…

Getting a "toned" body...

The concept of "toning" is often associated with building muscle definition and achieving a leaner appearance. While heavy weights are not necessarily required for toning, they are undoubtedly beneficial for muscle development and achieving the desired results.

Here's some information to consider:..

1. Resistance Training: Toning generally involves incorporating resistance training exercises into your workout routine. Resistance training helps stimulate muscle growth, improve muscle definition, and increase overall strength. This can be achieved using various tools like dumbbells, machines, barbells, resistance bands, or even bodyweight exercises. As the toned look requires some muscle definition and visibility, resistance training is your go to to growing increasing muscle mass. Wave goodbye to depending on light weight and myriads of repetitions and welcome and embrace the heavy weight. (And no, before you ask, you will not explode and turn bulky by lifting heavy. That massive look takes much time, effort,…

Seeing results from the gym.

It all starts with some goals or motivation to get us moving in the right direction. Whether it be to our 1st visit or the 100th, we have this drive to make change to see an improvement in ourselves. Quite often we want the transformation to transpire within a few sessions or even immediately, and it can get frustrating if the process is taking time and nothing much is observable visually. So here are my tips on how to go about this and what to do to get you to your end goal...

- Good things take time, that's why not everyone has the amazing results you're after. Know that sustainable and healthy results don't come from a binge of taxing workouts all at once, they come from consistency over time. Whilst lots of training is great for practising discipline, it can play havoc on…

What's the right amount of training for me?

How much should I train? How hard do I train?

For muscle growth and strength improvement, it's all about training often and consistently at that intense level near or at failure point. But...as much as it is necessary to train hard and frequently, we must consider it a bit further...

1. Frequency: Frequency refers to how often you train a particular muscle group or perform a specific exercise. The optimal frequency depends on factors such as your training experience / exercise selection, recovery ability, and the intensity and volume of your workouts. As a general guideline, beginners may benefit from training each muscle group 2-3 times per week, while more advanced individuals may prefer 3-6 sessions per week, with proper rest days in between.

2. Volume: Volume refers to the total amount of work performed in a training session, typically measured by the number…

Myo reps - a way to spruce up your workouts 🧠💪

📈💥MYO REPS, short for "Myogenic Repetitions," is a cutting-edge training technique designed to push your muscles to the limit and unlock their true potential. By focusing on high-intensity, focused sets with strategic rest intervals, MYO REPS help you tap into your muscle fibers like never before, sparking new growth and strength gains!

When used once per workout towards the start with an exercise that biases the short position of a muscle, a major benefit is that it generates more effective reps without additional fatigue/ time. When there are significant time constraints for training and there isn’t another good option available. For example, they may be useful for a person who has only 10-15 minutes to complete their final exercise before needing to leave the gym. Alternatively, they may be used even if there aren’t external time constraints when an…

We've been conditioned to believe that intense soreness equals a killer workout. But the reality is a bit more complex. Here's why:

1️⃣ Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS): That next-day soreness, known as DOMS, is often attributed to microscopic damage and inflammation in the muscle fibers. While it can be a sign of muscle adaptation and growth, it doesn't necessarily correlate directly with the effectiveness of your workout. So, don't fret if you wake up feeling less sore after a challenging session!

2️⃣ Movement Variation: Our bodies are remarkable machines that adapt quickly. If you change your routine or introduce new exercises, your muscles may experience soreness due to the unfamiliar movement patterns. However, as you continue training consistently, your body becomes more efficient, and the same exercises might not leave you as sore anymore. That doesn't mean you're not working hard!

3️⃣ Individual Differences: We're all unique, and our…

👉🏻 Common Posture issues...

🏃🏼‍♀️Everyone has different flexibilities. Each part of their body will have a certain unique extensibility and contraction ability, which all plays a part in gross movement of the body. Normal flexibility for every individual is contingent on their genetics (for bone structure and tissue attachment sites) as well as their lifestyle and training routine which will determine how (often) they move their body to alter their flexibility and mobility in areas.

🧎🏼We’ve all heard of the need to warm up and stretch before a session, and perhaps do some drills, activation and mobility work too. Yes it is paramount to being able to reach great range of motion for exercises - like a squat especially, but are you doing the right ones, the ones your current movement patterns are blaring at you to address. Here I will list a few of the most common issues with…

👉🏻 Common Movement Compensations.

🦵🏼 Feet Turned Out: a stance with feet turned out is very commonly due to limited ankle mobility (perhaps tight calf muscles) or spawning from anterior pelvic tilt. Turning a foot outwards causes the arch in the foot to pronate (collapse onwards) meaning the more outward you go the flatter your foot will become.

When the body’s in movement (walking/running/jumping) the tibia and fibula (shin bones) will internally rotate. Often, this can lead to lumbar lordosis (APT), as the femur will externally rotate causing the hip to tilt forwards to maintain much contact with the femur. This causes overuse of muscles in the shin and tenderness along the inside of ones shin.

With flatter feet from externally rotated feet and depressed arch, comes underactive intrinsic foot muscles - which won’t be supporting the arch of the foot as they should. These intrinsic muscles are responsible for…

👉🏻Romanian Deadlifts... one of my favourite compound movements - great for increasing not just hamstring and glute strength but grip strength too 😉

- keeping shoulder blades pulled back, locking in the lats

- sliding the weight along thighs

- letting your head and gaze follow as you descend

- using hips to drive the weight up and pushing through feet rather than pulling with arms

- locking armpits down towards hip

What are your rest times like? Are you waiting too much between sets or too little?

You’ve probably heard of the gold standard of rest time being 1-1.5 minutes for hypertrophy, but do other rest times work well too? Recently, I read up on having > 2 minutes rest. Ever since perusing the research and trying it myself, I don’t think I’ll ever do less. The two main reasons were… phosphocreatine store replenishment and CNS fatigue.

- 2 mins rest is roughly the time needed for phosphocreatine stores to replenish within our mitochondrias (cell powerhouse). A phosphocreatine molecule is used to generate another ATP molecule to be used as energy from our muscle once the initial ATP is used and turns into a ADP. ATP has 3 phosphate parts and ADP has 2, subsequently requiring a phosphocreatine to restore the 3rd phosphate. Now, with ATP being the primary metabolic pathway…

Are you overtraining? 🤔Working out vigorously and regularly yet hardly progressing? If so, you may be in the same boat as I’ve been in.

👉🏻As we know, there needs to be a sufficient stimulus for muscle growth to occur. Often we hear the notion of muscles needing to be shocked and challenged profusely in order for hypertrophy to ensue. But all too often, people can cross the border and add junk volume and unnecessary intensifiers that just create more damage than growth. Yes, we damage muscles through resistance training for them to be rebuilt, but there is a point where we can create damage we are unable to recover from. It was found that after 2 sets taken to failure, any subsequent damage to the muscle via additional sets was followed by less hypertrophy for that muscle group used. Meaning that intensity and volume will need an inverse relationship for…

Morning ☀️ vs Evening 🌙 training.

Ever thought about when is best to train besides how it fits around your schedule? Here’s a run down of the pros and cons of both…

Morning…

Pros ✅

- higher testosterone levels (a third higher than in the evening)

- cortisol levels naturally higher in the morning