Ever heard of Muscle Activation Techniques (M.A.T.)? Or have you been curious about it, but was unsure what it was or how it worked? Read on as I interview one of our very own Le Physique trainers and M.A.T. Specialist, Gillian, about her expertise on this topic! Did you know? Gillian is one of only three M.A.T. Certified Specialists in Vancouver! 1. What is Muscle Activation Techniques (M.A.T.)?

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Surviving breast cancer is no small feat. In most situations, breast cancer is treated with either breast conserving surgery (lumpectomy/partial mastectomy) or mastectomy, followed by months of radiation therapy. Now that you have gone through the most challenging aspect, the next difficult task is continuing to live an active, healthy lifestyle, free of limitations. I believe the perfect sport to...

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In my previous blog, I explained the importance of post-workout supplementation, you can click here to see this post. In this blog, I will cover pre-workout supplementation – which is just as important! It is vital for individuals to fuel themselves properly before any amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities. This “fuel” will provide you with enough energy to complete...

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Many new cardiovascular training methods have been introduced but one has withstood the test of time, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) remains one of the top training methods to improve cardiovascular endurance. It has proven to be extremely beneficial to everyone who implements it into their training regimens. This training method is helpful for individuals who do not have 2 hours each day...

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The world is changing before our eyes and while some people have experimented Zoom or online personal training, it has never been bigger. Ever since COVID hit, Vancouver has forced the temporary closure of many gyms, community centers and personal training studios, many have explored taking virtual sessions. a) Privacy – one of the best parts of working out at home is the privacy aspect.

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Nicole: Hey, happy fall. I’m Nicole. This is Gillian and we’d love to talk to you today about what is fitness testing. I’ve had a lot of people say ‘is this really necessary?’ Can we just get started in personal training? 

And you know my last trainer we just started and it was great. I thought it would be a good topic to chat about. So fitness testing. Why do you think it’s important? 

Gillian: I think it’s important because the personal trainer or the kinesiologists can discover a lot from the person’s movements. You also want to make sure there are no underlying conditions and really want to have that baseline because it is great when a client is working and they may feel they are getting some improvement, but if you can show them this is your baseline, this is where you started.

Nicole: That’s true. It gives them something that is tangible to see, ‘Oh wow. I have come this far.’ That’s true because I find sometimes when I say, ‘Oh, we’re going to do a fitness screening or testing,’ people are very shy and self-conscious so they might say, ‘Oh, I know everything’s just bad. We don’t need to test.’

And that feels really true for a lot of people, but another thing that kind of feeds into this as people talk about motivation, they’re like, ‘well, I want to be motivated to work out.’ And when we can show them, it’s like, well on day one, this is actually the number that you started at and it’s now day 30 and you might be having a really crap day and you’re like, ‘Hmm, none of this is working but then we can actually show you.’ These were your measurements on day one and now day 30. They’ve all shifted in some fashion. So it just feeds into that motivation component. 

Gillian: Yeah, exactly. You have multiple fitness components. It makes it a lot easier. Who wants to be stronger, who wants to be more flexible or have more endurance to do the things? At least you can see this is where we start. Everybody thinks of it as like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s an exam or I’ve failed.’ There’s no pass or fail. 

Nicole: This is where you are on your health continuum.  You know, sometimes we add things and we will be a little less healthy. COVID-19 for example set a lot of people back. 

Gillian: But as I said, this is where you are in the moment. And so we have a way of tracking. 

Nicole: I think an important thing that you just touched on is there is no pass-fail. It’s uncomfortable sometimes for an individual to look at the scale and, or look at their flexibility measuring and it’s, you know, feel like they’re in this lower category. I mean, I went through gym class, being the last kid picked for the team. you know you get C or C minus in gym where PE that doesn’t feel good and that comes up for a lot of people. That’s where the responsibility is on the kinesiologist is to really lay that out for a person and say, it’s not a pass or fail, and there’s no judgment. We’ve all been there. I certainly was. Okay.  It’s exciting to see someone take that next step, the next step, and then the next step. So that’s, that’s a huge psychological boost. It’s a safety thing too. 

Gillian: I was going to say, and that’s the other thing: safety because your trainer wants to make sure that before he puts you on any cardiovascular equipment or makes you lift any weights.  Checking, resting heart rate, and resting blood pressure, looking at your heart rate when you’re doing a cardiovascular assessment so that there aren’t any surprises and I’ve come across surprises in the past. And I’m not talking about just older adults, but I had a really big surprise once with a 19-year-old, a person who had never shown any issues, but he had a big spike in blood pressure. That’s a way we can see if there are any underlying causes as well. 

Nicole:  Yeah. Safety. I think we sort of harp on that a lot here on Le Physique, a lot of times people you get so used to how your body feels and that ache and pain, but sometimes when you sit down with someone and they’re like, ‘Hey, tell me what hurts.’  You’re like, ‘I’m fine. I know I injured my shoulder.’ And then we’re like, ‘Which one?’  And then it’s like, ‘it’s my left one.’ 

We sort of gloss over some of sometimes how we feel. We’ve done the full interview in the consultation and intake, but then we’ve got that little piece of paper that’s got like epilepsy, Cardiac disease, and then someone checks it off and they’re like, ‘I forgot to tell you that I have a pacemaker.’

And we’re like that’s really important to know. And again it’s not just an ageing population that has pacemakers.  Young people too. There’s a lot of stuff that we might even just say, ‘oh, you’re not something that older people deal with.’ And it’s like, no, it’s actually not, you know, we’re seeing it in younger populations as well. 

Gillian: Yes. 

Nicole: So what about fitness testing? Because we have two different types here. We’ve got more of a fitness base testing and then I tend to send to you more to our rehabilitation testing. So I thought maybe we could talk a little bit about the difference.

Gillian: Yeah. So it’s kind of based on also the medical information and medical history that we get. So, for example, if a 70 has some shoulder issues or back issues, the testing will be modified. It’ll be specific to where their needs are. If it’s on one side, we want to make a comparison out. We will make sure that both sides have a value that we can work with there.

Nicole: When you say that, are you talking about a bilateral difference? 

Gillian:  Absolutely. Yeah. The nose thing is if that person has an injury. We can start some compensatory motion and then it’s like, okay, I injured my shoulder. Right. My lower back hurts. 

Nicole: See how that plays in together. And the nice thing is there are so many different types of assessments out there is that we can tailor the assessment to the client. Someone might come in with fitness goals but they have a shoulder injury or low back pain. We can pull in some of those rehabilitation assessment pieces and put those into the initial assessment.

So it doesn’t have to be fully from A or B. It could be 80% of this one. And then 20% of column B. Right. So again, customizing how we do our assessments. 

Gillian: Absolutely. 

Nicole: So, anything else that you want to talk about? 

Gillian:  People should be excited to get the baseline to see because as I said, one word you’re working out. You’re not always realizing you’re getting these gains or that you’ve come a long way that you’re getting ahead on your journey because it isn’t terribly countable. So if you have a baseline, I mean, it’s fantastic. 

Nicole: Great.

Gillian: You get to see this is where I was at. This is where I am now.

Nicole: How often should people get tested? 

Gillian: Well, again, it depends on the test, but they want to have, that they need for their, you know, their goals, their wants their needs. I would say that every three, six or nine months. 

Nicole:  Yeah, you’re right. That’s a vague question. 

Gillian: It’s really, really hard. 

Nicole: Something like, like a DEXA scan and we do have a colleague that does, scan DEXA scans for body composition. And we would say once a year. 

Gillian: Yes, that would be appropriate.

Nicole: You know, we wouldn’t say once a week, whereas you might step on the scale once a week.  If that works for some people. 

Gillian: Well, maybe, you know, and I do have a person who steps on the scale once a week and then every six weeks we do some measurements as well so that we can see how things are proceeding. 

Nicole: I think what we’ll do is maybe we’ll talk about on the next video, some of the fitness components that go into what we’re looking for. cause because again, with the fitness column, Side of the things that even kind of breaks down into functional and aesthetic.

And everyone has a different goal. So, you know, you might’ve heard me say step on the scale and been like scales that’s so old school, no one does scales. In what might be more to a client is strength. So we might say, okay, how many push-ups can you do? Yeah. what is, you know, what’s your core strength like that?

Gillian: They might even have you stepping upscale because it has to do with the cardiovascular, you know, workup that you’re doing. We want to know what your body weight is, sort of see what is your energy expenditure? 

Nicole: Yeah, I think, I think the key thing is for people to know that we’re looking at the data, right?

We’re looking at the numeric of how this is going to influence program design because that’s the other piece that we didn’t talk about is that information is valuable to us before we start. 

Gillian: Absolutely. 

Nicole: And that helps us to streamline so that you can reach your goals sooner in a more efficient manner. How many times have you seen an individual who may be slender and you know, they’re just like, I can’t run a block. Or someone who’s, you know, bigger bone and they’re. They’re very strong in the lower body. So some of these measures is to take away the judgment.

Where’s the bang for the buck going to be? If we tweak this component in alignment with your goals, then it’s far more streamlined. We’re not trying things. We’re not guessing we’re actually assessing and then picking the right path. Yes. It’s super exciting. And I know it’s so stupid. How we geek out about these things.  

Gillian: I know we are nerdy. It’s like let’s play. 

Nicole: And that’s the kind of trainer that you want.  You don’t have to do the measuring, let us do it. We get excited about it and create a plan and based on all of that information, and then you just need to show up. You don’t even have to smile. Just need to show up in gym clothes and then we’ll handle that. 

Gillian: Well, it’s just putting a smile on your mask. 

Nicole: Exactly. I think it could be a joker mask. Yeah. I think that’s good. We’ll do another video about individual components in more detail, but hopefully, that gave you an idea of why this is so important.

Why fitness testing, fitness screening, health assessments are an integral part of your fitness plan and really needs to be the first starting point before you jump into anything.

Joel Harris

The post Are Fitness Assessments Important? first appeared on Le Physique | Vancouver Personal Training.

Nicole: Can you teach me how to do the Dead Bug? I see everyone doing it at the gym and I can’t get it. It seems pretty easy to me.

Gillian: That’s the dying mosquito… definitely. Okay. Let’s see your starting position. I just want you to bend your knees a moment, bring your feet down and we are going to first check-in with your body.

So do you feel like you have equal pressure across the back of the hips? Have you got equal pressure across the back of your rib cage?

Nicole: Yes.

Gillian: Now keeping equal length through both sides of your rib cage length through your neck. Make sure that your head feels comfortable. We are now going to bring your legs one at a time to tabletop…brilliant. And the other one, can you keep that equal pressure across the back of the hips?

Nicole: Yes.

Gillian: All right. Now, bring your hands up towards the ceiling, palms facing in. Perfect. So the idea here is you have got to use your breath. You’re going to use your deep core muscles to maintain stability through your core as your arms and legs are in motion.

So you’re going to bring one leg down and bring down the opposite arm away from you. Inhale that up. Exhale… I want you to pull that in. And again, you do not want to feel any shifting through your pelvis or your torso. Inhale the other leg down and exhale and bring that back and let’s do that again and help reach into your nicest, stable exhale back in.

So even though you have one leg, you still want to feel like that leg is actively assisting in maintaining your pelvis and as you reach back and feel like you’re arching your back to get that motion. Only go as far as you feel comfortable in that range. What do you think, Nicole? How’s that feeling?

Nicole: It definitely helps with the cueing, without the cueing, there’s a tendency to want to sort of sink into the move and allow that big gap. And then also the cuing while making even pressure from left hip to right hip, and then obviously if you have shoulder issues, you don’t have to do the arms and you just be here.

Gillian: Exactly.

Nicole:  And just really focusing on that core, but this is nice actually having that coordination piece and trying to keep the shoulder girdle. It sets in the spot versus sort of sinking in.

Gillian: Now you’re going to check in with the rest of the body, make sure you’re not creating tension through the neck or the jaw….Shadow, what do you think?

Nicole:  (Speaking for Shadow) Meh… where’re my treats?

Gillian: Where’re my treats? Yes…

Nicole: Where’re my treats?

Gillian: I don’t know. Let’s go get them.

Nicole Yamanaka

Nicole has worked with one of BC’s leading fitness gyms as a top achiever with several awards in personal training and customer service. She is passionate about motivating, educating and expanding the minds of her clients and students to achieve more than just physical fitness. Nicole draws from her background and varied experiences such as yoga, rock climbing, kickboxing and pilates, to provide fun alternatives to “traditional exercises.”

The post How to Do The Dead Bug first appeared on Le Physique | Vancouver Personal Training.

In this video, we talk about how to do a squat with the right mechanics. (With Shadow’s help of course!) Enjoy!

Gillian: Bring your hands to your hips. So we want to go into a squat by maintaining the weight through your feet. The main thing is through your heels without falling backwards. Your chest is open. Shoulders are open. Now take a nice little inhale. Go down into a squat just slowly reaching back, then exhale, press the floor away.

A few things to note – are you keeping your weight balanced on both legs?

Nicole: Was I leaning?

Gillian: Yeah, a little bit. And another thing you may notice / a good way to check, is to just take a look at your kneecaps. Are they level? are they slightly rotated? So you want to continue breathing through this. How’s that feeling?

Nicole: Feeling good.

Gillian: So sometimes people want to bring their hands forward and gives them that extra balance and allows them to sit back a little further.

Nicole: One of the keys that I like to say is “start the motion with the hips.”

Gillian: Yes.

Nicole: Now it depends on the client, but starting the motion with the hips, then you get that backwards sort of feeling. Otherwise, people think, “Oh go down. Then it looks like this…” *knees jut forward and spine stays upright*

Gillian: Yes…

Nicole: Okay, I’m going down. And then it looks like this *heels come up* and people think “Oh my God, my knees. I really hate squats. My knees hurt.” That’s because we’re shifting the weight onto the forefoot.

Gillian: Yes because a lot of people will tend to go forward.

Nicole: Then it turns into this quad dominant movement. Where want we is to get the glutes. You want to sit onto the heels and midfoot, toes are touching the floor. They’re just light.  You’re going to sit the hips back. So Gillian said reach back like there’s a stool behind you. A dirty toilet seat is another one that I use. People get that. Sit the weight back. And when you’re new, you may have that sensation of falling back. That’s okay. You’re just finding your edges, “like how much this way. Nope, how much this way.”  And to counterbalance, you have to put your head forward.

Gillian: Absolutely. Another little thing is if you have trouble engaging your gluteal muscles, sometimes if you’re just pushing out through the sides when you’re coming back up like you want to spread the floor apart, you can get into the gluteal muscles and they assist you with that hitch extension.

Nicole: So the thing with that cue is when we demonstrate, it doesn’t look like we’re doing anything. But the action is I’m pushing with my feet this way, but obviously, your feet aren’t going to go anywhere so you’ll get more of that glut engagement and then with the upper body like I said – this is a complex movement.

Gillian: It is. It’s a multi-joint action going on here.

Nicole: in order to sit the hips back, you have to bring your head forward. Sometimes you’ve heard the cue, keep your back straight. And people interpret it as keep your back upright. I can still bring it forward and it’s still straight. Yes versus this.

Gillian: The tightness here and tuck the tailbone under.

Nicole: One other cue with the upper body is to maybe look forward versus looking down.

Gillian: Yes.

Nicole: Because if you look down that it brings you into this collapsed position. I had an old instructor who used to talk with the power position. And could you imagine if you going to receive something and you’re just like get into the power position. And you’re like, okay, Jimmy jump and you can catch them. Now, imagine doing it like this – you instinctively know this is wrong. This just doesn’t feel strong. Whereas when you’re here, it just feels more powerful because it is. Right? Your spine is aligned. Abs are engaged. We didn’t talk about that.

Gillian: Not yet. No, we didn’t.

Nicole: So abs are engaged as we’re always trainers, always like, are your ads on or your ads on

Gillian: If you want to generate that force. You have to have your core muscles engaged here.

Nicole: Now Shoulders are down, neck is long, neutral position. Lots of stuff going on in the squat. We wanted to feel this mostly here, but we didn’t want to neglect to address your upper body positioning as well.

Gillian: When we say shoulders down, we don’t mean like pressing down like this and creating tensions through the neck, or you want to just keep them out of your ears versus seeing them open

Nicole: So if you find that this is happening and you’re like: “I don’t know how to stop this. Maybe your squats are just here right now.”

Gillian: Exactly.

Nicole:  Like you’re just testing your edges. Where can you go with a neutral position? This is fine. For now, we’ll probably just encourage this for now. We’ll address that in another video, but for your basic squat, just take it to a high stool position. Get comfortable with that motion and then we’ll expand from there.

Gillian: That was good. Cool. Excellent. Thanks

Nicole: Thanks Shadow for your help.

Gillian: Shadow was in the middle of it all.

Joel Harris

The post Squats 101: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly first appeared on Le Physique | Vancouver Personal Training.

Have you ever had an ache and wondered if the pain means that your muscles are growing and getting stronger, or if it means there’s been damage and needs some rest? 

Kinesiologists and trainers tend to classify these uncomfortable sensations as “good pain” or “Bad pain” but what does that mean? Isn’t all pain bad?

It can be challenging for new gym-goers to know how hard to push themselves and understand what your body is telling you. Is this sensation good pain good or bad? In this blog post, we’re going to explore the differences between good pain and bad pain and how to interpret the different signals your body is giving you. 

What Is Good Pain?

Muscle fatigue and what we call “DOMS” (delayed onset muscle soreness) is usually felt 12-48 hours after your act of physical activity and will usually start to subside shortly after that period. 

DOMS type muscle fatigue is the result of microscopic tears in the muscle tissue that are caused by overloading your muscles more than they are used to. For example, by increasing the amount that you bench press, your muscles are going to try to train themselves to be able to lift that extra amount and in doing so, produce those microscopic tears. Generally, the more you push yourself, the more muscle fatigue you will experience.

If your soreness doesn’t prevent you from doing activities of daily living, such as brushing your teeth, brushing your hair, sitting, standing, chasing after your kids or dog, but elicits a groan and choice words for your trainer, we would fit this kind of discomfort into the Good Pain category.

Here are some tips for dealing with soreness after exercise from Elizabeth Quinn, MSc. Sports Medicine, BSc. Psychology 1: 

• General muscle soreness will go away in 3 to 7 days with no special treatment so if you’re unsure and the soreness is mild then just wait to see if it subsides. If the soreness persists then it might be time to seek treatment. 
• Use the RICE method of treating injuries: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. If this doesn’t help then consult with a kinesiologist, physiotherapist, or doctor.  
• Although research doesn’t find gentle stretching reduces soreness, some people find it simply feels good. 
• If you are in constant or considerable pain, try using a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication (aspirin or ibuprofen) to reduce the soreness, though it will not actually speed healing. 
• There is some evidence that performing Yoga may reduce muscle fatigue  DOMS.
• Although it might seem obvious, avoid any vigorous activity that increases pain. 
• Allow the soreness to subside thoroughly before performing any vigorous exercise. 

What Is Bad Pain?

Bad pain occurs when there is damage to muscle, tendons or ligaments, bone or cartilage. The pain does not seem to go away and resurfaces commonly during your workouts or afterwards.  Do not confuse this recurring pain with “feeling the burn” during a workout. The bad pain will tend to last longer and may limit your usual daily activities such as brushing your teeth as well as movement.

Pain surrounding a joint may be due to damage to a tendon, a ligament or cartilage. All of these would be considered to cause bad pain and maybe (but not always) described as a sharper sensation.

If the pain is due to an unknown cause and keeps recurring, you may have a stress fracture. This is a localized pain (only in one spot, along the fracture) that can turn into a larger fracture if not treated and can become a lifelong problem.

Dr. Carol Otis, M.D. provides some warning signs of bad pain and recommends if any of these do occur, you should seek advice from your doctor as soon as possible. Note that you do not have to have all of these warning signs to be diagnosed with a bad pain:

• Your pain does not go away in 12 to 48 hours after ice treatments, rest and gentle stretching
• Your pain is sharp and/or severe
• Your pain is localized in the joint, not the muscles surrounding it
• Your pain limits your motion.
• Your pain is accompanied by numbness, weakness or swelling in the joint.

Treatments of bad pain include seeing your physician or physiotherapist for exercises and a proper diagnosis as well as RICE. Whenever in doubt consult a doctor about your condition.

Preventing Pain

While good pain is a normal part of a strengthening program, it is important to ensure that it never crosses into bad pain. One wrong move or poorly programmed workout can easily set us back if we need to take time off for unnecessary bad pain recovery. Prevention of bad pain includes but is not limited to:

• Using proper technique during your training or workouts
• Using the right equipment
• Avoid pushing yourself too hard too fast
• Giving yourself adequate rest periods, especially if you’re just starting a workout routine. For example, if you want to start a running program but haven’t run in a year, don’t try to run three times a week for an hour.

Avoid any sudden changes to your exercise routine or the time you exercise. Another way to find your comfort zone is to use the ten percent rule, which dictates you increase the intensity of your workout by ten percent each week, gradually building up your muscles over time. 

If you’re new to working out, it might be worth the investment to work with a personal trainer who can guide you through a workout. An experienced personal trainer will know how hard to push you and build in appropriate progressions.

Reading your own body is a good indicator of whether you are feeling good or bad pain. Pay attention to how you’re feeling is important to any workout routine but if you’re still unsure, please give us a call and we’ll be happy to help you with any questions you might have. 

Sources:

• 1. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/doms.htm; Elizabeth Quinn, MSc. Sports Medicine, BSc. Psychology; Accessed July 17, 2009
• 2. http://www.sportsdoctor.com/articles/pain.html; Dr. Carol L. Otis, M.D., Accessed July 21, 2009

Nicole Yamanaka

Nicole has worked with one of BC’s leading fitness gyms as a top achiever with several awards in personal training and customer service. She is passionate about motivating, educating and expanding the minds of her clients and students to achieve more than just physical fitness. Nicole draws from her background and varied experiences such as yoga, rock climbing, kickboxing and pilates, to provide fun alternatives to “traditional exercises.”

The post The Difference Between Good Pain Vs. Bad Pain first appeared on Le Physique | Vancouver Personal Training.

Nicole: We are doing straight arm pulldowns. This is going to work lats mostly, a bit of rear delts. That’s kind of it, right? 

Gillian: A little bit into that serratus anterior interior.  

Nicole: So, shoulder stabilizers.  We’ve got all the postural stuff. It’s a whole-body exercise. Mostly lats though, that’s the big focus. I’m going to have Gillian start by grasping the bar with a palm down position. All right. You’re going to bring it down to almost right out in front of you like a zombie. 

Gillian: Perfect.

Nicole: This is called a straight arm pulldown because our arms are straight. The action is, she’s just going to bring those palms and the bar right down to her thighs. That’s the motion. She’s going to slowly, with control, bring it back up to parallel to the floor and then back down.

So things that I’m looking for, and I’m going to start from the floor and work up. Her knees are slightly bent. That’s going to allow her to use her own muscles to control pelvic position, use her abs to lock into a neutral position. And then once we’ve established this is good, I’m looking at the shoulders stay relaxed and down, in a neutral position while she’s pulling down the bar.

So one thing that people tend to do if the weight is a little bit heavy is they’ll use the whole body, or if they know that I’m watching, they will try not to use the body and then they’ll turn into a triceps press. I have seen all sorts of weirdness with this, or a lot of momentum, or maybe they’re really good at controlling, but they just don’t control their shoulders, so the trapezius come up towards the ears. I know it’s far too heavy. We will lighten the weight.  

Gillian: Or people start to shift back a bit. 

Nicole: Another position that’s potentially doable – so if you want to grab that bar again is with the hips slightly back, she’s still got straight legs, knees bent, hips are just kind of out of the way so when she brings that bar down, she’s got a touch more range of motion. I would accept this as a position as well. She can still go back up to zombie.

Again, she has a little bit greater range of motion with this. How’s that weight after doing that?

Gillian: It gets heavy after a while. 

Nicole: She’s getting tired a little bit. 

When I’m spotting her, I’m going to have my hands on her lats because that’s how I can tell she was actually using these. And I can visually see whether she’s starting to creep those traps up the shoulders up a little bit. I like to say, squeeze. Think about squeezing the back of your armpits.

People can tend to get that in the down position, but when they’re here, I’ll touch here and say: ‘Yeah.’ See if you can connect with that first before you start the movement versus going: ‘Oh shoot. I’m supposed to be doing something right?’ And good. And then exhale. If she’s really contracting through here it’s easy to also draw the attention to the midsection and pull those abdominals in so that way she’s not, again, the hips are not coming into that motion. That looked really bad. Any thoughts?  

Gillian: Okay. A couple of thoughts about that. Don’t hold your breath. A lot of people will go and hold their breath. They should have this nice little exhale and hold their belly button into your spine. It’s almost like you want to float through the top of your head, inhale as your arms come up. Exhale. Yeah. And inhale out. As with any exercise, try not to hold your breath. 

Once again, wrists, make sure they are nicely in alignment. If you have issues trying to get the back of your armpit, imagine you want to bend the bar on your pinky side. So it’s almost like you’re trying to bend it into a horseshoe shape so you can actually get a little bit of rotation through here and get into your armpits.

Nicole: Yeah. And just be aware that it’s that cue is an awareness cue. You’re not actually going to try and grab the bar. 

Gillian: No, it’s just pushing through the pinky side a little bit, just a titch. 

Nicole: Some people, if you’re really dominant in life, we use these three fingers the most. A lot of times, people will do things, not even knowing in this internally rotated position. When we just draw attention to the outside of the hand, it just starts to get different fibres on because you don’t think the pinky’s doing things. 

Gillian: The other thing is if it starts to become very fatiguing, a lot of people will do that. You want to keep your breastbone nice and heavy. Take it down. Inhale that up. Exhale for a second. 

Nicole: Perfect. Love it. Straight arm pulldown. Love that exercise. Have fun.

Joel Harris

The post Straight Arm Pulldowns 101 first appeared on Le Physique | Vancouver Personal Training.