INVERSION: You are only as strong as your lower back

One of the most common injuries for weight lifters, bodybuilders and aging men in general is lower back pain. My own history with lower back pain has been long and antagonizing. It wasn't until recently that I discovered the benefits of regular inversion and the accelerated pain relief that it offers. And I must say, my back hasn't felt as good as it does now in years. I no longer live in the almost constant dread of throwing my back out. Then being out of full commission for weeks at a time until it healed.

One day while sitting in my office I took notice of a commercial for teeter hangups on the television. For those who are unfamiliar with teeter hangup, the company makes inversion boots, inversion tables and other lower back pain relief devices. Because I was desperate for relief from my back pain and willing to try anything I paid full attention to the Teeter commercial. After the commercial was over I realized, I COULD USE MY SOLOFLEX FOR REGULAR INVERSION SESSIONS! I gave it a try. It worked beautifully!

I know there has to be other Soloflex owners out there who are also dealing with regular bouts of lower back pain. Who have never considered their Soloflex Muscle Machine as the means of long term back pain relief.

Here is the theory behind why inversion is believed to work to relieve lower back pain. The constant pull of gravity has a cumulative negative effect on the joints and spinal discs. Inversion puts gravity to work by placing the body in line with the downward pull of gravity. Not only can inversion therapy help to temporarily relieve back pain, but it also can be used as a method to relieve other negative effects that gravity has on the body. Hanging upside down stretches and relaxes the muscles and reduces stress on all the spinal discs.

Inversion temporarily lengthens the spine, increasing the space between the vertebrae, which relieves the pressure on discs, ligaments and nerve roots. This reduction in pressure on the discs translates into less back pain.

The inner core of the spinal disc is made of jellylike material which provides the "cushioning" in the back. You can lose up to .5" (1.3-2.0 cm) in height daily during your waking hours from the compressive effects of gravity. This daily height loss reverses overnight, but not 100%, resulting in permanent height loss, loss of flexibility and shock absorption. While inverted, you are able to temporarily reverse the downward pressure on your discs, helping the discs to recover an regain lost moisture and lost height, with improved flexibility.

Lying down in bed only releases 75% of standing body weight on the spinal discs. The hundreds of ligaments and muscles that encase and stabilize the spine act like a bunch of rubber bands holding the spine in compression equal to 25% of standing body weight. Inverting to 60 degrees helps to reduce the disc pressure to at or near zero.

Inverting yourself to as little as 20-25 degrees for even a few minutes can help relax tense muscles and speed the flow of lymphatic fluids which flush out of the body's wastes and carry them to the blood stream.

Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system has no pump. Only the alternate contraction and relaxation of the muscles moves the lymphatic fluid "uphill" through capillaries and one-way valves to the upper chest for cleansing. Inverting the body so that gravity works with, not against, these one-way valves stimulates the flow of lymph system, helping to clear toxins from the body.

Your heart must work against gravity to pump blood up to your brain, which is the body's largest consumer of oxygen. Inversion is a simple way to improve circulation to the upper body.
When inverting, you are helping your heart to move the blood from your feet, legs, and lower body. This allows the blood in your limbs to circulate more easily, which may help to drain blood from varicose veins.

The experience of thousands of people who invert regularly is that it gives us the relief from back pain we have been looking for. Just as important, we gain the rejuvenating effects of inversion on the entire body, providing health benefits far beyond the relief of back pain.

The Proper Form Myth

A comment from one of my YouTube viewers addressed the poor lifting form that I used in my "Arms" Shock Routine video. From the instant that I reviewed the finished footage of the video I knew that my sloppy form would become a topic of intrest to someone. So, I waited. My plan from the beginning was to respond to the form issue with a blog post if ever a viewer broached the subject. The subject has been brought up, so here is the post.

Please consider the following.

In this example, I will say each set must be completed within 30 seconds.

Using proper lifting form, if, within 30 seconds, you moved 20 pounds for 10 reps, at the end of the set you will have moved a total of 200 pounds  (20 pounds X 10 reps = 200 lbs).

Using  fair to good form, if,  within 30 seconds, you moved 20 pounds for 15 reps, at the end of the set you will have moved a total of 300 pounds  (20 pounds X 15 reps = 300 lbs).

Which of these sets will put the greatest demand on the body?  Correct - the fair to good form set.  Because a greater  total  amount of weight was moved within the same 30 second period.

The greater total amount is all your body cares about when it comes to building muscle.    It strives to meet the greater total amount demand.  It could care less about  proper form.  Muscles only respond to the demands associated with  the form being used. 

The most physically powerful and visually impressive guys in the gyms often prove my point with regard
to proper form.  I personally cannot remember one huge guy standing firm  on the "proper form" issue.   Unless he was being forced to do so by the equipment he was working out on.

Personal trainers and trainer wanna-bes, on-the-other-hand, are often found  on  soap boxes with  proper form speaches for everyone within earshot.

I think many of us would progress faster if we spent  more time picking the weight up and putting it down. And less time pretending that form will be the decisive factor in our ultimate success or  failure.

The First Step To Getting Ripped

Avoid the weight scale. Don't get on it more than twice per month. Use the mirror as your progress guage. Your bathroom scale cannot distinguish between fat and muscle. Your eyes can. So focus more on how you look than on how much you weigh when you are working on cuts and muscle definition.

Diet management will be your key to success. Not doing more sets or more reps or increasing your aerobic activity. All of those things are necessary but alone they won't get you there. If they could the gyms would be full of ripped guys instead of being full of puffy smooth guys trying to get ripped. The exception to this rule would be if you are doing extreme workouts like P90X or some other non-stop intense activity .

The problem with P90X type workouts is that it is difficult to maintain the results without working out like you are on speed everyday.

To get ripped you must know how much food you need per day and lay out those meals in advance. This means you have to carry prepared food with you when you are leaving home. Or you must carry enough protien supplements to replace high the protien meals you will require throughout the day.

This is how to closely estimate how much food you will need throughout each day. You will have to adjust theses calculations as you lose fat.

1. Find out your weight.

2. Next we must calculate the bare mimimum calories you will need per day to sustain yourself. To do this multiply the answer from line one by 10.5:      Line 1 X 10.5 =

3. Consider your physical activity for the average day. If you are currently not getting any exercise multiply line 2. by 20%. If you are getting a light amount of exercise say, being on your feet at least 2 hours per day, multiply by line 2 by 30%. Multiple by 40% if you get moderate exercise every day. If you do intense exercise 3-4 times per week use 50%.

4. Add line 2 and line 3. This is your daily calorie need. Or close to it.

5. Now subtract 500 (this will allow you to lose about a pound per week). The resulting number is your ideal daily calorie intake.

If you follow this formula you will lose weight.

John. This Soloflex User Got Focused And Made Some Major Changes

This post is one I am really excited to make!   It is about my new friend John and his recent physical transformation.    John's experience will not only inspire Soloflex users, but anyone wanting to shed a few pounds.   John is the first to demonstrate the Soloflex Muscle Machine as a valuable tool for building, toning and sculpting muscle while following a serious weight loss regimen.  Sure, others have undoubtedly used their machine during weight loss, but John is the first to document it publicly, as it happened.

 

These are photos of John before and after and of his home gym.  John's gym is ultra streamline, with two classic Soloflex machines. His gym is clearly capable of doing everything any die-hard weightlifter or bodybuiler could need.  Johns gym also has  additional safety features.

                                                             

You can follow John's actual progress and posts by going to the comments sections of my Hybrid Soloflex videos. 

 

The following is a cut and paste from an email that John sent to me today outlining his diet and progress.  It serves as a great guide for anyone interested in taking control of their bodyweight issues.

"The most dramatic change came the last 3 weeks of my eating plan. I used a homeopathic product called hCG in drops form. The diet was very extreme 500 calories a day for three weeks. Now I'm on eating about 1100 calories a day. The first picture was me at 188 lbs.

"The second picture was me at 172lbs. I wanted to go down to 165 lbs but I lost another 17 lbs in 21 days. The whole time on the hCG I did some exercises on the Soloflex and with the free weights. I walked alot every day a very fast pace. Usually 3 miles on my way to and from work. The first part of the diet I followed the James Bond diet Daniel Craig used for Casino Royal.

"After the intial loss I plateaued which is when I discovered the hCG diet. I've been on it for 3 weeks with the drops and almost 2 weeks off the drops. I completely gave up all starchy carbs these past 5 weeks. I eat 2-3 melba toasts or bread sticks a day. At each of three meals I have 4-6 oz of protein, green vegestables, and a piece of fruit. a lot of coffee, tea, and water. I have much more energy, sleep better, and a whole new wardrobe. I even fit into my Army uniform from 31 years ago which is a size 38 when I was 29 years old. I just need to tighten up the slight bid of fat arund the middle. I took your advice and bought a fat burner called Recreate. I start tomorrow."

 

Done like an expert, John.  Thanks for leading the way.

 

How To Create Your Custom Workout Using The Gadget Located On The Right Side Of This Page

The workout gadget will produce two weeks of routines. As you progress through the input steps of the gadget you will be able to enter a start date for your routine to begin. Day 8 of the routine will be the same as day 1 of the routine. In other words, you will start the weekly routine all over again on day 8. Beginning with day 1.

The first box in the gaget requires your "Split information". Here you are able to decide how many times per week you want to work all of your major muscle groups. You are able to "Split" your full body workout up to span the course of a seven day period.

Box two requires you to decide how many days per week you want to do your "Split" workout. Said another way, "How Often" do you want work your entire body in a week?

You will not input information in the third section of the gadget. In this "Traning Days" section the gadget will inform you how your work and rest days will be broken up after you apply the informaion you have entered in the first and second boxes.

The "Weak Muscle Group" section is pure genius! We all have one or two week muscle groups. The workout gadget takes your individual weaknesses into consideration and builds your routine to focus more one those groups.

The "Exercises, you cannot do" area is self explanatory. Check the exercises listed that you can't do or prefer not to do. The workout gadget will give you exercise options which will allow you to still work the scheduled muscle group(s).

After you input all of this information and press Continue you will discover more options at the top of the gadget to select from.

Enjoy your workouts and I hope you find the workout gadget as useful as I have.

The Second Thing You Need To Know To Get Ripped

After you have workd out a close estimate of how many calories you must limit yourself to daily, next you must lay out your diet.  In the beginning you will have to literally read the nutritional lable on everything you plan to eat.  Count calories.  Count grams of protein and count grams of carbohydrates.  At first this is a royal pain in the ass.  But it is a necessary evil.  After a while you will get used to your diet and will be able to roughly figure food values in your head.  Then counting everything will not be necessary.  Until then a small note book to log your food intake and gram values each day is a must-have.  I still have my old pocket notebooks and will be posting some of my actual daily meals on this blog sometimes in the future.

Before I go further I should probably pause and tell you how log I had to follow this diet to get ripped.  Well, in three months I was astounded by the results.  By month 4 I had to begin to consuming empty calories just to keep  from looking too freekish.  Overall I had droped 20 lb of fat before I reached the degree of muscular definition that you see in the Soloflex Hybrid videos.  Do not think for one moment that you cannot achieve the same results.  You can.  I have seen others do it, you can as well

The two main rules that you have to keep in mind when you intend to get ripped is to keep your daily consumption of carbohydrates between 100 - 300 grams.   Focus on getting your carbs from complex carbohydrate sorces.  Avoid simple carbohydrates.  Or keep them to a minimum.

The second rule is to consume 30 - 40 grams of quality protien every 2 hours.  This step serves multiple purposes in the process.  1.   It keeps you from feeling hungry to the point that you lose control and stray off your diet.  2. Your body has to use more fuel to digest protien than it does for other food components, which means you will burn more calories.   3. You will meet your muscles REAL protien requirement needs.  Most people who workout aren't even close.  As a result their progress from their workout routines often lag. 

A high protien diet will require you to drink a lot of liquid.  Drink often (limit alcohol.  Most alcohol has way too many carbs) while on this diet.

 Begin the diet with your carbohydrates around 300 grams per day and slowly, work down to about 100 per day.  Or when you reach the degree of cuts you desire adjust your carbohydrates to maintain that level.  You will have to pay close attention to your body to do this. 

Keep your breath fresh.  The side effect of this diet is bad breath.  The smell actually comes from your body using protien as fuel.  The side effect passes as your body adjusts to your new diet.  Until then be aware of your oral condition.  Plenty of liquids will help keep your system flushed and keep the breath problem small.

Thats it.  Get to it.

Inversion Weight Training Preparation

For anyone interested in inversion weight training I will make the following suggestions.

Spend time just hanging in the inverted postion for a week or two. Rapid internal changes will take a little time to get used to. Invest time in mounting and dismounting the machine. This is how I adjusted to the quick blood pressure changes which occur when standing up from the inverted postion. Workout slowly and carefully. Pay atttention to any changes in consciousness. At the first sign of dizziness stop and dismount the machine. After you dismount hold on to the machine to keep your balance until you feel oriented again. Your ability to reorient quickly will improve as you get used to the exercises.

My idea behind inversion weight training is simply an extreme attempt at muscle confusion. But it works. I consistently experience muscle soreness after I do inversion weight training exercises. I always use light weight when doing inversion exercises. My consistent ablily to get sore from using light weight when doing inversion exercises is how I guage the potential of this type of training. I consider inversion weight training a valuable, though certainly unusual, way of introducing muscle confusion. It is a great method for shocking the system when progress has stalled.

All of this is theory, of course. I could be doing nothing more than creating the slow on-set of mental retardation by weightlifting in an inverted position. But somebody has to volunteer to be the lab rat in the name of expanding our fitness horizons. It might as well be me.