In recent years the dangers of sitting to our health has attracted a great deal of attention as researchers have proven there is a link between lack of movement and injury/disease. All this attention has prompted many great improvements in the workplace to overcome the fact we have many jobs that require us to be seated and computer bound. From workplace exercise programs, to the amazing evolution of the stand-up desk which is one of the best things to be invented in recent times we are becoming much smarter and more aware of the need to move. However, there are many who remain oblivious to the danger this repetitive movement causes to your body and in particular the neck, lower back and knees. This article we will explain exactly what this danger is and how it can very easily create a vicious cycle of ongoing pain if you do nothing to recognize the warnings early on.

One of the biggest changes I ever made in my training career was understanding that it is impossible to blame, or credit, a single muscle for movement function. We hear this all the time, "you need to fire your glutes", "your hamstrings are tight", "you have a weak VMO" or,  "you have a weak core", the list of muscle blaming is endless where we one single muscle is made totally responsible for an injury or poor movement function. The problem with this assumption is that muscles perform multiple roles all within a split second to create movements like walking, running or even standing up out of a chair. Some muscles are more concerned with stability and deceleration, while others are focused on locomotion and acceleration and all of this happens in a blink of an eye. While it may appear for a certain muscle to be weak or tight, addressing it individually ignores how this muscle is truly used and the interaction it has with its synergistic partners. It also ignores the reason of WHY it is weak or tight in the first place! The reason I changed my thinking with exercise many years ago was my method of looking at individual muscles did not work! I helped some people but there were many that did not improve or became worse from this approach. This article I am going to explain what led me to find a better way to train and where we are now able to help many people with complex injuries and problems that previously we could not. And to help enhance your knowledge I have included a series of quotes from leading experts.

The value of using bilateral or unilateral exercises with strength training is one of those topics that has been greatly debated in recent years. There is one school of thought believing it is preferable to predominately use bilateral heavy exercises like the bench press, squats and deadlifts where maximum load can be lifted. And the other school of thought believing it is more beneficial to use single limb exercises that try to even out imbalance and asymmetry. There are pros and cons to using both types of exercises and I fall somewhere in the middle and often use a combination of both types of training depending on the person and the situation in front of me. I always believed the unilateral exercises were more for rehab and core stability and the bigger bilateral exercise the preferred choice for sports and increasing serious muscle and strength. Once again I was proven wrong and this article we explain exactly how unilateral exercises provide greater strength gains than many realize.