Q&A
Q&A: Neck and Head Pain During Barbell Squats
The previous workout when performing squats I was close to failure when i started to get a intense pain in my neck and the back of my head ( I had this again last night during squats). My training partner believes my head and neck position is too far back causing me to tense my upper back and neck very hard on the eccentric part of the squat causing pain where the neck tendons attach to the skull. Has any of your clients had this problem? What do you recommend?
Hyperextending the neck is a common fault during barbell squats and may be a large part of the reason you are feeling the pain in your neck. As you descend and the hip angle decreases, if you continue to look straight ahead your neck will extend significantly by the time you reach the bottom position. The head and neck should remain in a neutral position relative to the body throughout the exercise. The chin should be just slightly down. Imagine you are holding a tennis ball between your chin and sternum, and maintain that position.
The bar may also be positioned too high. During barbell squats, the bar should be positioned just over the spines of the scapulae, on the lower traps and rear delts, and not higher on the traps on the back of the neck. When the bar is placed high on the traps, it tends to place a lot of pressure on the spinous processes of the seventh cervical or first thoracic vertabrae, which can cause serious damage over time. While the higher bar position may place more of the load on the quadriceps, since a lower bar position will allow a greater load to be used overall, in the long run it should result in better overall thigh development.
In short, keep your head in a neutral position, the bar on the lower part of the traps/back of the rear deltoids just above the spines of the scapulae, and you should no longer feel any pain in your neck during squats.
Q&A: What is Metabolic Conditioning?
What does metabolic conditioning mean? Is it necessary? Does high intensity training provide it?
When most people think of training to improve endurance, they think of conditioning the cardiovascular system to improve transport of blood to the working muscles. Metabolic conditioning is the other side of the coin - conditioning the muscles to better use what’s being delivered to them by improving the efficiency of the different metabolic pathways. › Continue reading
Q&A: SuperSlow and Fat Loss
Drew,
First, thank you for your response in advance.
I am embarking on a 2 week trial of superslow. The trainer is roughly doing 10/10 with a 2 minute maximum w/no rest between the 8 exercises(I failed at approx. 1:45 on all exercises). The workout took about 25 minutes. He wants me to train only 1x week. My goal is to lose fat around my midsection (I have some fat due to inactivity after a car accident in which I was hit by a drunk driver as well as poor eating habits) and get stronger/more fit. I am 47 yrs old, 5? 8” tall and weigh 170lbs. with approx. 10% BF.
I thought of doing something close to Darden’s “a.s.a.p.” (1500 cal diet w/SS work). Do you have advice that might help me get the best result I can achieve?
BTW, I feel very tired after my 1st SS workout today. The studio has all Med Ex machines.
Thanks again and I appreciate your contributions and I look forward to your response.
If your body fat was accurately measured at 10% you should have very little fat around your midsection to lose. At 10% body fat most men’s abdominal muscles are starting to show fairly good definition. My first advice would be to have your body composition re-measured.
Assuming you actually are 10% body fat at 170 pounds, and are still relatively inactive, a rough estimate of your daily calorie expenditure would be around 2,300. If you start working out more than once weekly and become more physically active on a day to day basis this number would increase. An estimate of your daily calorie deficit for near maximum fat loss would be around 500 - your body can get roughly 30 calories per day from each pound of stored fat - so I recommend starting at 1,800 calories. If you eat less than that and your daily calorie deficit exceeds the amount of energy you can get from your fat stores the difference is going to have to come from other tissues, which could mean a reduction in muscle mass. › Continue reading