Why You Need to Lift Overhead

'The Military Press is bad for your shoulders.'

'You don't really need any direct shoulder work - they get hit by working all of your other major muscle groups.'

Sound familiar? Well guess what - you should and need to press overhead! There are a lot of reasons why - here's an excerpt from an article on overhead lifting from the CrossFit Journal that can explain in better words than I can:

"The overhead press is an important component of upper-body training for several sports, and it is one of the oldest weight-room exercises. It has been used for years as a primary exercise for shoulder strength and rehabilitation because of its balance of anterior/ posterior muscle involvement. In contrast to the bench press, which is an inherently anterior-dominant movement, the press locks the weight out overhead to recruit all the musculature on both the front and back of the shoulder. This provides a superior strength stimulus for all the muscles involved in stabilizing the shoulder girdle and handling loads that must be moved through
an overhead range of motion. In addition to being functionally necessary, training overhead work capacity is above all safe. In fact, failing to prepare for the rigors
of ordinary overhead movement can predispose the shoulder to mechanical dysfunction."

An important note: the traps should be activley engaged when weight is supported overhead. From the same article, here's why:

" ... the anatomy of the shoulder lends itself best to pressing overhead when the trapezius is engaged at the top of the press. This is because the shoulder blades (the scapula, plural scapulae) support the weight overhead—because the arm bones—the humerus, ulna, and radius—articulate with the scapula, and line up under the load when the arms are locked out ..."

'Active traps' - or shrugging the shoulders up towards the ears - is also important for preventing shoulder impingement, as it the scapula is rotated up and out of the way by the trapezius contraction.

So there you have it - don't be afraid of incorporating the overhead press into your workout routine. Here is a link to the full article quoted above in the CrossFit Journal.

Go on a 'Mental Diet'

This is the 10 day mental challenge, taken directly from Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins.  It's an amazing exercise that I'm currently taking on myself - it relates to your life as a whole as much as it relates to your fitness goals:

Rule 1:  In the next ten consecutive days, refuse to dwell on any unresourceful thoughts or feelings.

Rule 2: When you catch yourself beginning to focus on the negative, immediately redirect your focus toward a better emotional state.

Rule 3:  For the next ten consecutive days, make sure your focus is on solutions and not problems.

Rule 4: If you backslide, don't beat yourself up!  Get right back on track.  But if you continue to focus on the negative - for longer than two minutes - you have to wait until the next morning and start the ten days over.

Think about how much your mood and overall quality of life could change if you were to use this exercise to change your thinking patterns for good!  How incredibly powerful!

P.S. This is just a small tidbit from this book - it's one of the best of its kind that I've read.  Here is a link to order the book on Amazon.

The 90% Rule

Ever wonder exactly how compliant you have to be with your fitness program to get good results?

It's pretty simple, really ... use the 90% rule and you can't go wrong!

Let's say you eat five times per day, seven days a week.  That gives you 35 meals on an average week.  The idea is that you need to adhere to your meal plan 90% of the time - s0 three to four meals out of the thirty five you eat can be off of the meal plan.  This could be in one day or spread out over the week.

Now, if you eat a whole pizza for one meal and a gallon of Hagen-Dass for another, you might be going a little overboard :)  But if you stay reasonable, go ahead and have whatever you want for those meals - you need it and deserve it!  It keeps you sane and gives you something to look forward to.

Let's apply this same rule to your workouts.  Let's say you're working out five times a week total including cardio and lifting.  That makes about 20 workouts over the course of the month.  According to the 90% rule, we can miss two workouts a month and be fine!  The key is to stay on track for the rest of the month.

So don't get me wrong here - I want you to be as structured and consistent with your workouts and diet as possible.  However, I also realize we all have lives outside of working out and stuff comes up!  The point is not to stress out when you miss a workout or go off the diet a little - the key is getting right back on track where you left off.  Also, if you go much past 90%, the results you're going to get are going to start going down drastically.

The other key is having a plan in place for your workouts and eating.  If you have crappy advice in the first place, you're probably going to get pretty crappy results!  There is plenty of info right here on The Fitness Monster to design a solid workout and eating plan for yourself - or you can contact me directly and I'll design a workout and diet plan just for you!