Rows in 450 Words or Less

Hello, everyone! I took a break last time in my “Exercises Everyone Should Do” series but its back this week with every office workers best friend: Rows.
What does it do? – Almost every one of my clients (and probably most of you, as well) sits at a desk all day and, as a result of having their arms in a “typing” position during that time, they have a lot of stiffness and tension in their upper back. The cause of the tension is actually the fact that the muscles in the upper back and rear shoulders are overstretched and the muscles in the chest and front shoulders are tight. This leads to things like headaches, low back pain and feeling of constant tension. The Row is a key exercise in alleviating some of these issues.
How do I do it? - There are many Row variations, such as the X-Row and the Seated Row, but today we are going to concentrate on the basic Standing Row.

If you are in a gym, go to a dual cable stack and attach separate handles to each stack. If you are at home you can use a resistance band set in a door jamb.

Set the handles about waist high and grab them. Make sure that your chest is up, your shoulders are down and back, you are looking at a spot just above eye level and your core is tight. Take a step back with your arms straight out in front of you until there is some tension on the cables.

The big key to this exercise is the first move. Squeeze your shoulder blades together behind you and then bring your elbows straight back along the path they are naturally moving in. Be sure not to shrug your shoulders.

This exercise, along with strengthening overstretched muscles and loosening tight ones, promotes good posture and also reminds us how our shoulders are supposed to feel and move. Many times people just lose touch with their bodies due to factors such as a sedentary lifestyle and desk jobs, and don’t even realize the physical position they are in. Proper exercise reminds people how their bodies are supposed to move and feel and the awareness of that is the most important factor in regaining and maintaining good posture.

If you have any questions about Rows or anything else training related, please let me know. I’d love to put together a mailbag type column so fire away! You can email me at MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com or call me at 510-754-7113.

Have a great week and don’t forget to consult a doctor before beginning any exercise program

from the Castro Valley Forum September 23, 2009

Max Day Coming Soon!

Hello all. I just wanted to give everyone a quick update about my own training. It's been going well. This morning I deadlifted 335 lbs. for nine reps. I think I'm right on track for my 400 deadlift, 400 box squat and 175 overhead press. I'm pretty sure I'll crush the deadlift and box squat and probably just get the press, but I don't know about my 275 bench press. All my lifts keep going up, but my bench seems to be stuck. It's got to be a technique issue but I can't figure it out. I'm going to do this week, do a deload next week and then do some max lifts the week after that and see where I am. After that I'll see where I want to go. If my bench is as far behind as I think it may be. I'll probably try to focus on that. We'll see what happens, though.


If I can get someone to video the lifts I'll post them. In any case, we'll talk again soon. Have a great day!

P.S. I'm having a few technical issues with mobile posting to the blog. If anyone out there has any clue about that, let me know and I'll tell you what's going on. Also, there's not too much time left to let me know if you want me to start on Twitter. So far it's a no go, so if you want some workout tips and other things like that from me via Twitter, rally around the cause and let me know.
Last thing, I have a new article in tomorrow's Castro Valley Forum. Let me know what you think. Hopefully it'll make the San Leandro Times on Thursday. I'll post a link as soon as one pops up. Have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt
MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com
510-754-7113
Discover Your Strength!

Max day coming soon!

Hello all. I just wanted to give everyone a quick update about my own training. It's been going well. This morning I deadlifted 335 lbs. for nine reps. I think I'm right on track for my 400 deadlift, 400 box squat and 175 overhead press. I'm pretty sure I'll crush the deadlift and box squat and probably just get the press, but I don't know about my 275 bench press. All my lifts keep going up, but my bench seems to be stuck. It's got to be a technique issue but I can't figure it out. I'm going to do this week, do a deload next week and then do some max lifts the week after that and see where I am. After that I'll see where I want to go. If my bench is as far behind as I think it may be. I'll probably try to focus on that. We'll see what happens, though.

If I can get someone to video the lifts I'll post them. In any case, we'll talk again soon. Have a great day!





Mitchell Rothbardt, CPT ACE

Mitch Rothbardt Training

510-754-7113

http://mitchrothbardttraining.blogspot.com

Discover Your Strength

Three Tips to a Better Workout

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your regular exercise. You are exercising, aren’t you?

Anyway, this week I wanted to talk about some things I’ve been seeing in the gym lately.

There are a lot of people who work very hard. They go to the gym four times a week and are doing the best they can, but nothing is happening. They aren’t losing weight. They’re not getting stronger or more muscular. They’re not seeing results. I wanted to point out some things you can do to avoid this being you.

1. Get off the machines! I could write a book about this alone, but for now, I’ll just give you one (of many) reasons to avoid these evil hunks of metal. You simply don’t work the same amount of muscle when you use a machine. For example, when you do a standing barbell curl not only are you working your biceps, but you are working your core which is keeping you upright against the resistance of the moving barbell, you are working your grip strength because holding an object that is moving freely is much more difficult than holding an object moving along a fixed path and, since you are standing, you are also working your balance and lower body stability. When you do a machine curl, you are working your biceps and that’s it. What do you think is more effective?

2. Stop the mindless cardio! Sure, doing cardio is an important part of a good exercise program, but there are much better ways to do cardio than vacantly trudging along on a treadmill.

For example, compare that to this: do ten jump squats (a full squat with a big jump at the end) and then ten pushups. Then do nine jumps squats and nine pushups. Eight jump squats, eight pushups, all the way down to one and one. Do the whole sequence as fast as you can with no rest then tell me which one is a more effective cardio workout. This kind of work boosts your metabolism after you’re done which the usual type of “steady-state cardio” doesn’t do. That equals better fat loss and conditioning.

3. Have a plan! Have a reason for everything you do. Don’t just jump on a machine because it’s there. Have a purpose. This means having a goal and doing the things that will take you towards that goal. If you don’t know how to get there, pick up a book or hire a knowledgeable trainer. A good plan will include how to begin and, just as important, how to progress.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments and please consult your physician before starting any exercise program.

from the Castro Valley Forum - September 9, 2009

Mitchell Rothbardt
MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com
510-754-7113
Discover Your Strength!

New Article

Hello. This is just a quick one to say that I have new article the Castro Valley Forum as of last Wednesday. I am pretty proud of this one because it covers some things that I have really noticed as problems in peoples workouts. Here is the link: http://castrovalleyforum.com/pdf_viewer.html

Just click on Page 16.

Please let me know what you think about it or let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for any future articles. Email me at MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com or leave a comment here. Keep in mind that if you do email me, I will get it on my phone immediately and will be able to respond to you ASAP. I love my phone.

So...phone...do you wanna go out this weekend?

Last thing. I am thinking about joining the Twitter revolution, but I will only do it if people are actually interested in following it. Please let me know if you want to see me do this. Also, if anyone out there has any suggestions to make the Twitter experience better for my readers, please let me know. By the way, the Tweets will be quick training tips or reminders or a good way to let my clients know that I have some free time. It won't be letting everyone know that I just had a bowl of oatmeal.

In any case, I'll talk to you soon. Hope you have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt
MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com
510-754-7113
Discover Your Strength!

Balance

A few years ago I had a friend who also was a bit of a gym rat. He was a pretty big, but he had the posture of someone who did a whole lot of bench pressing at the expense of everything else. I didn't have the knowledge then to know exactly what I was seeing, but his arms would hang down in front of his thighs instead of to his side, and as his arms were hanging his hands were turned inward. In other words his palms were directly in front of, and faced his thighs. I now know that the reason for this was because his chest and the front of his shoulders was overdeveloped in comparison to his back and rear shoulders. At the time I just thought it was because he was big.

I remember one day we were talking and he mentioned that all of his friends looked like that and he found it unusual that I didn't. We didn't have a good reason why but now I know that it was because of balance. You see, even then I just understood the value of balance in your programming. I always did pulling exercises like pullups and rows to balance out the pushing exercises like the bench press,and a result I stayed away from the "bench gorilla" posture.

Just look at that internal rotation! He needs to do some rows.

Anyway, that brings us to this morning. I've always known that if you were able to bench press a certain weight, you should be able to do a pullup with pretty much that same weight (bodyweight included). So, for example, my maximum bench press is about 265 pounds. My body weight is about 175 lbs. That means that I should be able to do a pullup with about 9o lbs. hanging on me. After three sets of good benching and two sets of heavy weighted pullups (35 lbs. for six good reps) I felt good and decided to add a 45 lb. plate to the 35 lb. plate that was already on my belt to see what I could do. I know it's only 80 lbs. added not 90, but after the work I had already done, I didn't think about quibbling over 10 lbs.

In any case check out the video.

I know the video is a little grainy, but I'm proud of this lift. My bench number is not great, to put it mildly, but many people that have great bench numbers can barely do one or two good bodyweight pullups. I'm very happy and proud that I've put in well rounded work. Now if I can only get that bench number to 275, I'd really be happy!

Mitchell Rothbardt
Mitch Rothbardt Fitness
MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com
510-754-7113
Discover Your Strength!

The Deadlift in 450 Words or Less

In this series of articles, I’m going to discuss some basic exercises that everyone should be doing. I’ll tell you how to do them and why they’re important. This week: The Deadlift.

What does it do? – The deadlift may be our most important exercise. It works nearly every muscle in the body in one way or another from your shoulders down to your toes.

How do I do it? – In many respects the form is similar to a squat. There are some differences, however. The main one being that with the squat, the weight is held around our shoulders and with the deadlift, the weight is held at arm’s length down at the lower body.

Like each exercise I’ve talked about there are many variations of the deadlift, from stiff-legged deadlifts to sumo to snatch-grip and many others. Today we are going to talk about what the great coach Dan John calls Potato Sack squats. (Don’t worry, even though he calls them squats it’s a great beginning deadlift variation.)

Ideally you should use a dumbbell, although a filled up grocery bag can be a great option.
Place your feet where they’d be if you were about to jump as high as you could, hold the dumbbell with your hands under the top of the weight and let your arms hanging straight down in front of you. Be sure to stand tall with your chest up, your core tight and looking straight ahead.

Moving your hips back first, and being sure to maintain the form and posture I described, lower the weight to the floor and then stand back up.

Some people might have trouble lowering the weight all the way to the floor at first. That’s fine and somewhat expected if you’ve never done this before. In that case you should lower the weight to a bench or a couple of phone books. Just go as low as you can while maintaining form. Always remember that correct form is the most important thing. Eventually, if you work on it, you’ll be able to go down to the floor.

The great thing about deadlifts, and most other effective exercises, is that the movement pattern is used in so many of our daily activities. Have you ever picked your sleeping child up off the floor? Pulled your suitcase off of the luggage carousel? Grabbed one of those Costco sized packages of mangos? Mmmm, mangos. These are all deadlifts of one type or another and doing these things with that in mind should keep you healthy and strong.

Drop me a line for more ideas and don’t forget to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program.

Mitch Rothbardt

MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com

510-754-7113

Discover Your Strength