The professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo knows a thing or two about snapping spines. In his lab, McGill proudly shows off a machine that’s probably created more disc herniations than any other in the world. “We get real [pig] spines from the butcher and we compress them, shear them and bend them to simulate activities such as golf swings and sit-ups, and watch as unique patterns of injury emerge.” A disc has a ring around it, and the middle, the nucleus, is filled with a mucus-like liquid. Do a sit-up and the spine’s compression will squeeze the nucleus. On his computer, McGill shows how the nucleus can work its way out of the disc, hit a nerve root and cause that oh-so-familiar back pain. “From observing the way your total gym routine is performed, we can predict the type of disc damage you’re eventually going to have.”

While there are lots of ways to injure a back, the sit-up is an easily preventable one. According to his research, a crunch or traditional sit-up generates at least 3,350 newtons (the equivalent of 340 kg) of compressive force on the spine. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states that anything above 3,300 newtons is unsafe.

So McGill suggests replacing sit-ups with exercises to strengthen the core while not bending the spine: bridges, planks, leg extensions, bird dogs, and “stir the pot.” The bird dog, for instance, simply involves getting on all fours and, while keeping the core muscles tight, extending the opposite arm and leg, then switching limbs. “Stir the pot” is a more complex movement: moving shoulders in a small circle while in a prone push-up position with forearms balanced on an exercise ball.

The results of McGill’s decades of spine research is slowly being accepted outside the worlds of academia and elite athletics. Ian Crosby of the Calgary Fire Department saw the shift first-hand. He’s on a committee of the International Association of Fire Fighters that establishes criteria for the make-or-break fitness test. A few years ago, they reviewed the annual sit-up test, which involved doing steady crunches in time to a metronome. The problem, for Crosby, is that anyone being assessed “will train to get better. And that involves repeated bouts of sit-ups.” So last year, after talking to Stuart McGill and other experts, the IAFF dropped the sit-up in favour of the prone plank—basically a static push-up that will leave the unfit trembling with fatigue.

For those who believe sit-ups are the only key to strong abdominals, Crosby points to research that shows the new movements can be just as effective in improving core strength. A study of U.S. soldiers published earlier this year in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise compared sit-ups with back-friendly core stabilization exercises, including bird dogs, and found there was no difference in overall fitness between the two groups. In fact, those who did core exercises showed significant improvement in the army’s sit-up test.

The decline of the crunch can also be seen at ordinary sweat-filled gyms. Anthony Ierulli, manager of fitness programming for the YMCA in Brampton, Ont., says that while in the past all anyone “did were crunches, now they’re doing some Pilates and yoga that engage the abdomen in different ways.” But Ierulli emphasizes that changing routines isn’t enough if the technique isn’t there. And that requires finding a teacher who can fine-tune those unfamiliar exercises.

As for McGill, he keeps spreading his message. Recently, Asia Nelson, a local Waterloo-based trainer of yoga instructors, invited the expert to talk to her class of student teachers about his philosophy. She knows that not all traditional yoga postures are back-friendly. One example Nelson gives is the sun salutation’s forward fold—basically a standing crunch with the added hanging weight of the body. Now, after the professor’s lecture, she’s figuring out ways to modify that and other movements. While Nelson and the Y’s Ierulli recommend people find a balance between old and new techniques, McGill’s message is more blunt: “There are only so many bends in your spine until the discs eventually herniate.”

I’ve always been interested in what drives artist to write certain pieces and lyrics, and after listening to the band for 6 years I finally did my research.

Lead vocalist is Matthew Bellamy, one of my favorite musicians. His background is in classical music and he was even a composer. But that’s not really the interesting part. His political views are what I think drives his passion for music. His songs are so inspiring and now I understand why.

First off he believes in “georgism.” look it up. Pretty cool.
His inspirationg for one of my favorite songs right now especially with the olympics is “united states of Eurasia.” this song was written after he read “the confessions of an economic hitman” by John Perkins. I plan on reading this book as it uncovers the methods of our war in the middle east. And the only way to keep our oil supply was to invade and take over the middle east. Which brings me to my next book, “the grand chessboard.” which talks about president Bush’s designed plan for 9/11 and using as a way to invade the middle east.

I always felt this way after watching “loose change.” but now it just keeps unfolding. You do your own research and find out for yourself, and go get the new Muse cd.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaceOff/weight-debate-fat/story?id=9911743

I love squats and will always do some form of squats (back, front, split, etc). The day I no longer do squats will be the day after they roll my corpse into the furnace. However, not all of my clients do squats, and this article touches on why.

Each of the four perspectives offered here are useful.

The Squat: Good Exercise Gone Bad?

by Nate Green

A few weeks ago a video of strength coach Mike Boyle presenting at a seminar hit the Internet, and boy did it piss some people off. Why? Just take a look at this quote from Boyle:

“This is going to be the hardest thing for people to accept. The muscle-head crowd, the T-Muscle crowd…they’re gonna be like, ‘Mike you’re saying don’t do squats any more.’ Yes, I’m saying don’t do conventional squats any more.”

I watched the clip again. No more squatting? But isn’t it the king of lower body exercises? Just what the hell was going on?

The forums were already exploding with people agreeing and vehemently disagreeing with Boyle. I had to get to the bottom of it.

So I called Boyle to get his thoughts. Then, because I wanted to hear other points of view, I called Dave Tate, Christian Thibaudeau, and Eric Cressey.

I learned a ton about squats over the next few hours (more than I cared to know, honestly). But more importantly, I had the information to decide for myself if I’d continue to squat or not.

After reading this article, I hope you’ll be comfortable making your own decision, too.

But don’t take anything here as gospel; it’s just four dudes who really know their stuff.

The Functional Strength Coach: Mike Boyle

The squat isn’t a leg exercise.

I’ve watched over two million squats and have come to this conclusion: the squat is not a leg exercise; it’s a low-back exercise.

The whole purpose of the conventional squat is to put a barbell on your shoulders and transfer power from there, through your body, and into your legs. But the weak link isn’t your legs—it’s your back. Watch someone squat and you’ll see they rarely have trouble getting out of the hole. But nearly all of them will bend forward when they fail.

You have to see where I’m coming from.

My business isn’t getting someone to squat a lot of weight or getting someone’s legs big. It’s developing the best performer and exposing that person to the lowest injury-rate possible. I have to look at everything from a risk to benefit ratio.

Here’s what we found.

We realized we could load the spine with fifty percent less weight, do a single-leg exercise, and quadruple the benefits. If one of our athletes could squat 400 pounds for one rep, we’d put 200 pounds on his back, and have him do a rear-leg elevated split squat (Bulgarian split squat). The average reps, we found, were 10 to 14 on each leg.

What that tells me is that if we split the load in half and do ten reps with what was half of our regular bilateral 1RM load, it makes it a superior exercise.

Why wouldn’t you do this? It’s like if I offered you the exact same car but sold it to you at half-price. “But, Mike, I’ve always paid full price.”

What these guys are saying to me is, “Mike, I’ve always risked my spine and I’m going to keep doing that.”

I say fine. Do what you want.

Bodybuilders have always wanted a way to get more out of their legs.

That’s why they’d use the leg press or the leg extension machine. Because it “took their back” out of the exercise. Well, why not take less pressure off the back from the start, get more load on each leg, and fully reap the benefits? And why do bodybuilders really care about the squat? They just want big legs, right? There are other ways to get ‘em.

I know what people are going to say.

Oh, Mike Boyle’s a pussy and doesn’t want to lay it on the line. He doesn’t even look like he lifts. Whatever. It doesn’t bother me.

I’ll never have my athletes do a back squat again.

I’m not sure about the front squat; I may find we’re not getting strong enough and put it back in, but I doubt it. When I’ve taken this much time to make a decision I’ve rarely gone back.

We still hammer our lower bodies.

We do rear-elevated split squats, unsupported single-leg squats, trap bar deadlifts and single-leg straight-leg deadlifts. We hit it hard, so don’t think we’re slacking.

That video wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction.

Look, we haven’t done a back squat in over 10 years and we stopped doing front squats this summer. I didn’t just want to create controversy on the Internet. My “negative” point of view on squats is the product of over 25 years of thinking about the best ways to get strong and stay injury free.

The Powerlifter: Dave Tate

There’s no such thing as a bad exercise.

There’s just bad application or bad programming. Is there something wrong with the squat? Yes and no. If the program is a disaster or the person isn’t built for it, then yes, there is something wrong. If it’s programmed well then I don’t see any problem at all.

We don’t just train the squat.

We train the movements that would make the squat better. From my experience, training the squat week in and week out without having a program to make the squat better is going to be a huge problem.

That’s why we may use the cambered or safety squat bar. We may do box squats, belt squats, or squats against bands.

Let’s put things in perspective.

First, it’s an exercise that’s part of a sport. The squat, bench press, deadlift, clean, jerk, and snatch all are part of sports and are pretty fucking important. I mean, they don’t have a single-leg squat competition.

The squat was probably one of the first exercises ever done with a barbell. It’s one of the few that has stood the test of time. How many other machines, products, or fads have come and gone?

If it were truly a bad exercise it would have faded out a long time ago.

You’ve got to have balls to do it.

I can’t think of another exercise that builds more confidence. It takes persistence and straining to get better.

At what point did it become not functional?

We’re going to sit down and pick up shit all our lives. Now all of a sudden these main lifts aren’t functional? What’s more functional than sitting down?

It’s hard to sell a squat.

It just doesn’t make you any money. Give me twenty bucks and I’ll tell you the greatest exercise ever. You ready? The squat. No, you can’t have your fucking money back.

From a powerlifting standpoint, it can be overused.

Anything can be over-trained. But if you’ve got a program that’s producing a bunch of people who are squatting 275 pounds, your program sucks. We’ve got high school kids doing that after training for a month.

We don’t use single-leg movements.

They just don’t transfer over for powerlifters. If one leg is already stronger than the other, doing single-leg work doesn’t balance anything out. It just makes it worse. We need our guys to be able to push evenly with both legs.

It all depends on what your goal is.

If it’s to get bigger legs, break out a tape measure and calipers. If your legs are getting bigger, you’re not getting fatter, and you’re not squatting, then keep doing what you’re doing.

The worst thing you can do is switch because someone told you to. If you’re making progress with what you’re doing, then stick to it.

The Bodybuilder: Christian Thibaudeau

I think the squat is a great exercise, but only if you’re built for it.

Guys who have long legs compared to their torsos, like hockey players, would turn the back squat into a low-back exercise since their leverage is different. And if you worked primarily with those kinds of athletes, then I could definitely see why you may not think the squat is an optimal exercise. Still, it’s great for the guys who have shorter legs and longer torsos.

Here’s how to tell if you’re a natural squatter.

Stand in front of a wall with your hands behind your head in a squatting stance. Your toes should be about six inches away from the wall. Do a regular squat. If your knees or face touch the wall you’re not built for squatting. If they don’t, you’re fine. If you fall over backward then you need to lay off the booze.

If you’re not built for squats, don’t worry.

Just replace them with trap bar and snatch-grip deadlifts. You’ll get some great quad development from those two exercises.

Even if you are built for squats, you still may “fall forward.”

In this case the squat is showing you what you need to work on: your low-back and abs.

My training partner Nick has strong legs but always fell forward when he went above 365 pounds. His back was his weak link, so we dropped the squat for six weeks and worked on his low-back. When he came back to the squat it increased by 50 pounds.

You can find a justification to stop doing any exercise. It doesn’t mean you should stop, though.

If I’m doing a bench press and I always fail at the mid-point, it doesn’t mean the bench press is a bad exercise or will hurt my shoulders. It just means my shoulders are weak compared to my other pressing muscles. I’d be smart to take some time off of pressing and fix my shoulder weakness.

It’s called the bilateral deficit.

If I do reps with both legs on the leg extension I may be able to do 200 pounds. But if I do each leg separately I may be able to do 120 pounds with each leg or 240 pounds total. How does that work?

Well, when you do a unilateral movement, the whole nervous impulse is sent to one side and allows you to focus more of your attention and muscle fibers on that single working limb.

That’s one of the reasons people with long limbs will do better with single leg movements: they’re able to recruit more muscle fibers.

But as that athlete becomes more and more efficient at recruiting muscle fibers, you’ll see the deficit vanish and they’ll be at the same strength. Then it’s time to go back to bilateral movements.

When you switch back to the squat it may take two weeks for it to go up.

It’s called delayed transmutation of gains. You’re basically getting a new body. Let’s say you’re used to driving a Honda Civic but now you have a Lamborghini. Even though the Lamborghini is more powerful, it takes some time to learn how to handle it. It’s the same thing with your body.

The Athlete-Creator: Eric Cressey

I don’t contraindicate exercises; I contraindicate people.

People may be skewed because they deal with different populations. Mike deals with mostly hockey players. For those guys, it’s understood that you’re going to play most of your career with a groin strain. It’s a population where their hips are an absolute disaster. They have poor hip internal rotation and bad adductor tissue quality and length. And when those are your issues it makes it harder to squat deep safely.

I’m in the same boat, too.

I tend to be more cautious with upper body stuff since I deal with more baseball players. It’s understandable. But a lot of our guys still squat. We do mainly front squats but we also do back squats with the cambered and safety squat bars. It all depends on if their flexibility is up to par.

I wonder if we’re taking this stuff a little too far.

I don’t know if anything is truly functional. The guys who walk through our door, their problems can be fixed with a little more strength and a better attitude.

I’m a huge single-leg fan.

But I think you’re missing out if you drop squats altogether. Bilateral movements are still our bread and butter. I mean, you squat every time you take a shit.

It’s not so cut and dry.

Some guys can’t front squat because they have shoulder problems. Does that mean the front squat is a bad exercise? Nope, it just means guys with messed up shoulders shouldn’t be doing them.

You want to be a better squatter?

Optimize your hip, thoracic-spine, and ankle mobility. Work on core stability and see what happens. If you fix all of that I don’t know why you wouldn’t squat. Athletes have been doing it forever; it’s just a damn good exercise.

This is what I found

Definition of Ankylosing Spondylitis (bamboo spine)

Article updated and reviewed by Ariel D. Teitel, MD, MBA, Chief, Division of Rheumatology, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Manhattan on May 12, 2005.

Ankylosing Spondylitis is an inflammatory disease of unknown origin, first affecting the spine and adjacent structures, and commonly progressing to eventual fusion (ankylosis) of the involved joints.

In extreme cases, the patient develops a forward flexion of the spine, called a “poker spine” or “bamboo spine.”

Description of Ankylosing Spondylitis

Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is a chronic form of arthritis that falls into the category of the spondyloarthropathies, or arthritis that affects primarily the spine.

In people with AS, the joints and ligaments that permit normal movement of the back become inflamed, producing pain and stiffness, usually beginning in the lower back, and often progressing into the upper spine, chest, and neck. As a result, the vertebrae may fuse, causing the spine to become rigid. Other joints such as the hips, shoulders, knees, or ankles may also be involved. Up to half of patients have arthritis of peripheral joints (hips, knees). Recent evidence strongly suggests a familial tendency in AS.

Typically, the disease begins slowly in the lower back and progresses up the spine to the neck. Deterioration of bone and cartilage can lead to fibrous tissue formation and eventual fusion of the spine or peripheral joints. AS is diagnosed three times more often in men than in women. Diagnosis is often overlooked or missed in women, who may show more mild disease.

Causes and Risk Factors of Ankylosing Spondylitis

The disease primarily affects males under 40 years of age and generally burns itself out after a course of 20 years. The male: female ratio of the disease is 3:1. Persons with a genetic marker called HLA-B27 have at least a 1% chance of getting AS. This marker is more commonly found in Caucasians than African Americans. The presence of human leukocyte antigen B27 (found in over 90 percent of people with this disease) and circulating immune complexes suggests immunologic activity. However, the actual relationship between the gene and the disease’s development has been difficult to confirm.

Symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis

The first symptom in 75% of patients is low back pain that is usually most severe in the morning or after inactivity. The pain improves with exercise, as opposed to many other forms of back pain. It should be present for over three months. Other symptoms depend on the disease stage, and may include:

·Stiffness and limited motion of the lumbar spine

·Pain and limited chest expansion caused by involvement of the costovertebral joints

·Arthritis involving shoulders, hips and knees

·Kyphosis (curvature of the spine) in advanced stages, caused by chronic stooping to avoid symptoms

·Hip deformity with limited range of motion

·Tenderness over the inflammation site

·Mild fatigue, fever, loss of appetite or weight

These symptoms progress unpredictably and the disease can disappear temporarily or permanently at any time. Less than 30% of patients have severe disease.

X-rays of the sacroiliac joints are used to help confirm the diagnosis of AS. These may be normal in the first few months of disease. Other forms of arthritis may mimic AS. Rheumatoid arthritis does not involve the low back. Other spondyloarthropathies exhibit features not found in AS. Reiter’s Disease patients often have rashes, ulcers and more peripheral arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis patients usually have longstanding psoriasis. Occasionally, forms of osteoarthritis may mimic the x-ray appearance of AS, but these patients’ back pain may not improve after exercise and they will not have lab tests showing inflammation.

Poor prognostic factors include: hip arthritis, swelling of digits, high ESR in blood, weak response to NSAID’s, and diminished motion of the lumbar spine. Cigarette smoking also correlates with poor outcome.

Treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis

Physical therapy helps considerably in the treatment of AS to prevent the characteristically stooped posture as the spine begins to fuse. No treatment stops the progression of the disease, so management aims to delay further deformity by enforcing good posture, stretching, and deep-breathing exercises and, in some people, wearing braces and lightweight support.

The pain and stiffness may be relieved by analgesics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). These may include aspirin, Indocin, Anaprox, Tolectin, and Clinoril. Indocin is often the NSAID of choice. NSAID’s represent the mainstay of treatment but may be discontinued due to adverse reactions or lack of efficacy.

TNF inhibitors are part of a new class of drugs (biologics) that block the body’s inflammatory messengers. These drugs (Enbrel, Humira, Remicade) decrease the inflammation caused by a protein called TNF (tumor necrosis factor). Enbrel or Remicade may help decrease joint and back pain in AS patients with active disease. Good response to TNF inhibitors may be predicted in younger patients, patients with shorter disease duration, patients with elevated blood ESR/CRP, and in patients with a better baseline functional status. 80% of suitable patients respond to a TNF inhibitor; half experience an overall improvement of about 50% in disease control. TNF inhibitors may reactivate tuberculosis and should not be used in patients with recurrent bacterial infections. Other serious side effects can occur with these drugs.

Oral prednisone (a corticosteroid) rarely produces any benefit, but intra-articular (injections into the joints) corticosteroid injections are occasionally helpful. Methotrexate may be helpful for treatment of patients who have prominent extra-spinal involvement, and is also given in combination with infliximab. Sulfasalazine is also helpful for arthritis outside the spine in AS.

Taken from www.healthscout.com