The past 12 months was a huge learning curve for us at No Regrets, as we covered a wide range of topics in great detail often about things that had always confused us in the past. In my own personal case I really got to know a lot more about the complex nature of working with shoulder and neck injuries, as I had to deal with my own shoulder injury, which I did very successfully treating on my own using information shared in our articles. You will find a lot of the stuff we share in our regular content with videos, newsletters and articles we learned on ourselves first. I knew a lot about shoulders before, but I know 100 times more now, just like I know a stack about ACL tears after going through that in 2016! The articles shared here are a combination of book smarts and us putting into practice with ourselves and real clients to find solutions to problems faced by many people today.
Where Do We Find Our Information?
Before getting into our best articles, a question I am often asked is "where do you find this information?" A lot of this comes from years of experience, this is my 14th year as a trainer this year, but you have to endlessly read books and attend courses on topics specific to the nature of what you do. Many times I have done courses or searched for books on topics that I am really stuck on with a particular client, or even to find a solution to my own problem like this year with my shoulder. I would read close to 50 books per year to do with exercise, injury, nutrition or lifestyle essentials. The person who thinks they know it all is a dangerous person, for they are ignorant to other possibilities. I have always found that the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know anything! Some examples of the great books I have read over the past few years are below.
The unique thing with health, exercise and fitness is that there is no black and white absolutes, only lot of grey. We are all so different and a great coach or trainer can help to identify these weaknesses and strengths to better guide you on the right path. As I said earlier this takes years of experience to get good at it, but also a great deal of knowledge to provide better framework to base decisions on. A great quote I always remember is:
"Wisdom is knowledge with experience. A person with great knowledge but no experience is a philosopher. A person with great experience but lacks the knowledge is ignorant. True wisdom combines both knowledge and experience."
Okay so let's get into our Top 7 articles! These are in no particular order of best to worst, just the ones that were most popular from 2017.
1: 16 Ways To Improve Your Health
This is an article we published right at the start of 2017 to give you a head start on getting yourself all planned for the year. An article that applies to everyone and one that will be relevant in many years to come. Really understanding what it means to be healthy is more than just losing weight. This article showed you exactly what health is, and 16 ways to go about improving it, and also by taking a more holistic approach instead of counting calories and trying to annihilate yourself with exercise that there is an easier way. And a way that enables you to make the destructive habits that are sabotaging your goals easier to change. Without a doubt there is some of our best stuff featured here across everything to do with nutrition, exercise, stress, sleep and how to put it all together into one manageable plan.
Click Here to read the full article.
2: How Functional Movement Can Help You Live A Better Quality Life
Again a very detailed article that also stands the test of time and applies to every person, no matter what age you are, if you have an injury or you are an professional sportsperson. Learning to move correctly is VITAL to our ability to live life to the fullest. Unfortunately very few people even know what good movement is, yet alone teach it to others or be able to identify where faulty movements lie. This article we cover the 7 Key Movement Patterns essential to ALL humans, showing you stacks of examples of how these are used in everyday life or sports, and also the relevant gym example to enhance it. We discuss how to assess your movement, using heaps of videos and pictures and show you what to do about it if you find you have a problem. This sums up our training philosophy of looking at how the body moves as a system of systems instead of looking and blaming isolated joints or muscles like most modern methods do.
Click Here to read the full article.
3: How To Get Rid Of A Stiff & Sore Neck
There is no real surprise this was one of our most popular articles. The amount of people suffering from neck pain these days is growing at an alarming rate. With the use of computers becoming so much more prominent each year and the introduction of lap tops, IPADS and smartphones, the rise of chronic back pain along with neck and shoulder pain injuries is substantial. If the problem is left unattended, and you just put up with the pain, it can lead to severe injuries that are very difficult to treat and lead to other more serious problems. Disc bulges in the neck are becoming very common, and not just limited to old people. The first thing people normally do is take some anti inflammatory pills, perhaps get a massage and maybe do some stretches and hope it goes away. And while all this gives some relief, it is just a short term remedy. It is really just using a band-aid approach to treating a much bigger cut or bleed. With regards to exercise intervention our instincts are to stretch the neck but this is probably the worst thing to do, especially if you start stretching the area that is already weak. Your answer lies in providing better stability of the head, shoulder and scapula.
In this article we show you how to do this and also provide with the knowledge on how neck problems are created in the first place, so you can treat the "real problem", prevent the onset of chronic pain and get rid of it for good.
Click Here to read the full article. (Also if you missed the most recent article about thoracic pain you may want to check that out as this includes many similar traits to neck pain. Read the article Why Thoracic Mobility Is The Hidden Cause Of Chronic Pain to see more).
4: How To Use The Single Leg Squat To Pinpoint Your Weakness
Out of all the leg exercises you can use to build strength and athletic power for sports, or stability and great movement for everyday life and avoiding serious injuries the single leg squat would be my number one choice. This one movement does so many great things for your body it is incredible. The best part is that it shares the exact timings with other joints and muscles in activities we use everyday. Meaning that if you improve this at it's primal level you can also enhance these other activities too! As much as it is a great exercise it is a very important assessment tool we use extensively in our rehabilitation programs for all types of injuries from patella tracking to complete ACL tears, to herniated disc injuries and all the various lower limb injuries like plantar fasciitis or achilles problems.
But how do you know what to look for? In this article I am going to show you how powerful this one exercise can be, and how it can save you a lot of time and pain in finding answers to your injury if you have one or finding energy leaks hindering your performance in sports or the weights room.
Click Here to read this full article which is a must read for anyone with lower limb injuries or playing sports.
5: Bulging Disc Treatment All Starts With How You Move With Daily Activities
The past year we have seen so many cases of bulging discs, each one a bit different to the next in terms of exercise selection, but they all shared something in common. Poor movement strategies with bending in particular. We tend to blame the injury on the movement we were doing at the time or what we did just prior to the back going. Eg Lifting a box, gardening etc. But really the cause of these injuries is very rarely from one incident. The true cause of these injuries is from moving poorly repetitively. Common daily activities we think nothing of, are where the injury is formed. Many of us may be able to go through life getting away with some bad movement if it is countered enough with good movement. However the person who does not build reserves and just keeps stealing from their body, will pay the price.
The very first thing you should do with your treatment for a bulging disc is to identify your poor movement and eliminate it or change it. If you ignore this, you are likely to suffer repeated episodes that get worse each time. This article I am going to share with you some valuable information on how to do this.
Click Here to read the full article.
6: 3 Key Factors Needed To Heal An Injured Shoulder
As I mentioned in the beginning this year I was really suffering with all types of shoulder problems that my methods and knowledge I had at the time, that worked well with others for years were not doing any good in correcting my problem. I had to go and find our more about shoulders and find answers to these problems. And I did! What I found out was how integrated the shoulder region is to the thoracic spine and the scapula. Previously I was using a simple approach of trying to loosen tight muscles like pecs, and strengthen back muscles like the rhomboids and middle traps. The classic upper cross syndrome treatment. This was only making my situation worse.Once I changed my approach I found there was 3 key factors that HAD to be implemented simultaneously. Within weeks of using this I began to feel a difference, and then after a few months I was completely pain free, but interestingly with much more mobility than before, without using one single stretch!
The 3 key factors are
- Improving thoracic mobility with extension and rotation
- Improving posterior tilt of the scapula
- Improving upward rotation of the scapula
The last one was the most important for me and my particular shoulder problem. Other people I have seen this year it may have been any of the three. The key is I now had ways of assessing it, and also correcting it.
Click Here to read the full article that goes into detail about how this works.
7: Why The Turkish Get Up Is The Ultimate Strength Training Exercise
I can already hear the groans from some people who absolutely hate this exercise. But funnily enough it was one of our most popular features this year. Possibly one of those exercises you hate but know it does so much great stuff that you respect it. I must admit I have a new found respect for this exercise. Over 10 years ago I used to do this but with the purpose of trying to smash myself, not really understanding what it actually did if I was doing it correctly. This year this one exercise was a pillar to me getting on top of my shoulder problem but also really enhancing how I moved.
The one person who really convinced not just me, but the whole team of trainers as to how powerful this one exercise is was Christian Haider who was our client of the month in August. Make sure you read his story (click here to read) as he describes how training helped him get his life back and see a picture of him doing this exercise with a 30kg dumbbell!
The reason this exercise rocks is the fact it requires all the things that people are lacking the most. Stability in the shoulder and pelvis, combined with mobility in the thoracic and hips. Add on top of this the coordination and concentration required and that you are working in 3 planes of movement at once and you now have the ultimate exercise. Great for injury, great for sports, great for older adults looking to maintain mobility. It is that good!
Click Here to read the full article and see a breakdown of what happens in each phase of the movement and also the technique.
Summary
Okay that wraps up 2017 and gives you a good reflection on some of the great stuff we shared this past year. I always think what we are going to cover next year as this surely must cover it all. But it is amazing how much each year we learn and get smarter and better at finding more efficient ways to get stronger, fitter and more healthy. Our inspiration comes from people like you firing questions to us and challenging us to find solutions. So please if you have a question shoot it through and we will do our best to answer in one of our newsletters or videos.
And if you live in Melbourne and would like to know more about any of our Personal Training programs please fill in the form below to request a free consultation and I will be in touch within 24 hours to schedule a time.