Weekly Recap 5/24-5/30/2020
Hello! Hello! Today we have 2 articles, an Instagram post, and a Youtube video for our weekly recap. We start of with two articles focusing on the spine, which can be a common topic when it comes to strength training. One article is a little bit of a history lesson and goes over the history of posture from the 16th century to now. The other article covers the research on lifting with a straight- verses rounded-back when lifting. Then we move on to an Instagram post about lifestyle; and then, we end with a Youtube video about rest periods. We hope you enjoy the variety of good content we have this week.
Articles of the Week
Upright and Uptight by Tom Jesson
This article is an interesting history lesson about posture. I’m sure most of us have heard something about posture and have been told to “sit up straight,” “avoid slouching,” or “keep your shoulders back.” In this article, Tom Jesson talks about how the idea of posture goes back as far as the 16th century but it wasn’t until around the 18th century that posture was linked to discipline and soldiers. Then during the 19th century, posture became linked to health and well-being. Read this article to get all of the details of the history of posture and how it became linked to our own society today.
Put your back into it: No evidence straight-back lifting is safer, says experts by Liam Mannix
To continue the conversation about the spine, we now have a quick article about how research shows that there is no correlation between lifting with a “straight-back” or a a rounded-back when lifting. It seems to be drilled into people’s minds that everyone needs to lift with a straight back, otherwise, they will end up having back pain or herniating a disc. Even though, we hear this over and over, the research does not support it. As the article sums it up in the end, what is important when it comes to lifting is to slowly progress overtime. In the end, you will end up building a strong, resilient back.
Instagram Post of the Week
We have a very truthful post from Dr. Spencer Nadolsky (@drnadolsky) that I am sure applies to most people who “just can’t figure out what is wrong with them.” I personally have heard many people talk about not feeling well and being run down. They said they don’t know why and think that they need to go see their doctor and get testing done. The overwhelming majority of these people have nothing clinically wrong with them…they just have an unhealthy lifestyle. People would be better off if they looked at their lifestyle and fixed some of the big rocks in their lives such as sleep and nutrition.
Youtube Video of the Week
Laslty, we have an awesome Youtube video that sums up how long you should rest for hypertrophy, strength, and power. Some people like to like rest and chat for 10 minutes between sets while others zoom through circuit style with no rest between movements. There is definitely a happy medium here. Also, rest times will vary depending on the goal of the exercise. Watch this to get a better understanding of how you can optimize your rest times to help you to maximize your training and progress towards your goals.