Is your homemade exercise routine doing you damage?

It was only the other day I found myself down at the local park observing, as I do other PT's, their clients and other people with what was very obvious to be a home made exercise routine. This is what I unfortunately witnessed...

I'm going to start with the PT I observed training a middle aged woman who was approx 20kg overweight. The PT (he) was taking his client through some boxing and she was putting in a very big effort which was great to see. The PT on the other hand showed shocking technique as he slapped the focus pads whilst holding them only putting his client at an increased chance of wrist injury. The combinations were boring and can be best described as group fitness boxing. (lots of punches with next to no technique).

Moving on I witnessed a male for approx 15min cycle through an obviously home made exercise program. Pushups in a very shoulder dominant position, behind the head chinups, crunches all the way to upright, hanging 90* leg holds just to name a few. Now at a quick glance his postural analysis determined very easily that he had rounded shoulders and lordosis (tight traps, delts, chest, lats, hipflexors, and quads etc).

The exercises he was performing also with bad technique were hitting all the above muscles and only contributing to his worsening posture. Also increasing his chance of pain and injury in the future.

Word of advice don't set yourself up for failure. Far to often I see people with obvious postural conditions following a program that is only making their condition worse. If you have a trainer question them, if you haven't sought advice then do so... If your program consists of mostly the following then best you change it.
- chinups, pushups, situps, bicep curls, squats, bench press, front raises.

Any questions shoot them through and as a final note please NEVER EVER especially if your a trainer have people doing pushups whilst boxing. It increases the chance of injury, is very boring and only encourages poor boxing technique.... Come on people it's one of the first things we ever learn !!!

Shoe selection and exercise

There are more and more fancy looking shoes entering our stores moving towards 2012. Many of these are offering more support and dynamics designs. Can the need for a fancy looking shoe offering more support contribute to incorrect technique, increase the chance of injury and leave out wallet feeling empty? 

Let's look at resistance or gym based training first. Bare foot training has been proven to be the most effective as it allows for more sensory contact with the ground and therefore better balance. Muscle recruitment through the lower limbs is higher and therefore overall better results can be achieved. Gyms however require footwear to be worn at all times and Vibram five fingers lead the way in shoe design allowing for barefoot training in gyms to be possible. If your a serious gym nut go get a pair and see the difference. If you happen to feel weird wearing them in public then a flat sole shoe such as volleys or converse are the next best thing.

Training in runners will make stability increasingly difficult to maintain due to their cushioning nature and therefore cause an exercise in some cases to become less beneficial and potentially more dangerous.

Whilst running at higher speeds the body naturally rises up to running on the ball of the foot or toes. This allows for a faster more efficient stride and is the bodies way of reducing shock up through the skeleton when making contact with the ground. Commonly whilst running at slower speeds people generally fall back to planting the heel first which can cause shin splints, knee and lower back pain.The need for more cushioned footwear therefore increases. Barefoot running causes the individual to maintain striking the ground even at slower speeds with the ball of the foot or toes and therefore once the style is adopted is considerably more effective and results in less wear and tear on the body. 

So the question remains is a more cushioned runner only really masking an incorrect running style and should I move towards barefoot training . . .?