Mastering Fitness
Lance Goyke

Personal Trainer, Fitness Educator, and Web Developer

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Tag: lunge

Leaning During a Lunge

Leaning During a Lunge

October 7, 2019 / / 0 Comments

So you’ve caught yourself or someone else doing this little lean thing while lunging.

Whatever is going on, you know that it ain’t right. That’s a great start! But… what IS going on?

Addressing the Thorax

There are a few things that might be going on here. I’ll describe them based on how they look.

  • Lateral translation of the thorax, looks more like a listing pole
  • Side crunching of the thorax, looks more like one shoulder is lower than the other
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Maybe You Shouldn’t Do Yoga, CrossFit, or Squat Deep

March 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments
tl;dr
Doing any one thing in particular is unnecessary for your goals, no matter what they are. But doing something is necessary for progress.

  1. Find a direction.
  2. Figure out what steps will get you towards there.
  3. Re-evaluate monthly.
  4. Stay the course.
  5. Make every day a win.

Fitness is a bit of an amorphous target. It’s generic. Does it mean cardiovascular fitness? Weight loss? Relative strength? Absolute strength? Weight deadlifted? Flexibility measured? Workout done in x number of minutes?

Is your goal a fitness goal? Or are you just trying out a new training method?

Most people I work with — at least the “regular” people with day jobs — want to be more fit. It would always be nice to be skinnier, stronger, leaner, toner, healthier, smarter, more muscular, more patient, more even-keeled, less anxious, less depressed, less neurotic, less unstable.

But if you want these things, we have to talk about goal setting.

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Deadlifting knee pain can come from caving or twisting in the leg

What to Do When Your Knee Hurts While Deadlifting

January 23, 2018 / / 0 Comments
tl;dr
Knees hurt sometimes. It’s okay. Try to improve your form (details below). If that doesn’t work, try a different exercise like split squats, step ups, or lunges.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Medical Disclaimer
  3. Why Does Your Knee Hurt?
    1. What is knee pain?
    2. What is the deadlift?
    3. Analyzing your deadlift
      1. View your deadlift from the side
        1. Round back
        2. Arched back
        3. Balanced feet
      2. View your deadlift from behind
        1. Knee caved in
        2. Knee splayed out
        3. Hip shift
  4. Fixing Your Deadlift
    1. Fix knee alignment
      1. Feet stay flat
      2. Hip-knee-ankle inline
    2. Fix hips shifting
      1. Hips twisting
      2. Side shifting
    3. Start from scratch
  5. Modify the Plan
    1. Why are you deadlifting?
    2. Try single leg exercise
    3. Switch up your workouts
  6. Stress Management
    1. What is stress?
    2. Sleep
    3. Nutrition
    4. Mental health
  7. Hire a professional
  8. Summary

Introduction

Sometimes our bodies don’t hold up as well as we wish they would.

Even just last night I went for a walk and limped the last half of it because of my knee. And I’m 28 years old! (at the time of writing this)

Why is pain such a pain?

Due to my own creaky joints, I tend to specialize in training people with aches and pains. When it comes to helping my clients, fixing poor technique is always first on my mind. Bad exercise form can stress your body in ways that your mind does NOT appreciate.

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