Stair Climber Won’t Make Butt Bigger; Here’s Why
This article clears the air once and for all that your butt will not get bigger from using the stair climber.
Whether you worry that the stair climber will make your butt bigger, or whether you hope to get a bigger butt by using the stair climber, here is the information that will set everything straight, once and for all.
If only it were as easy as using the stair climbing machine to get a bigger, shapelier butt. It “ain’t gonna happen.”
This is good news to those fearing that their chubby behinds will grow in size, and rotten news for those with flat behinds wanting to make them fuller.
Why won’t the stair climber make your butt bigger?
Climbing stairs is a cardio or aerobic activity. It’s of a sustained nature, like walking, jogging or pedaling a bike is. It’s a cardiovascular exercise, not strength training exercise.
You’ve certainly heard of people lifting weights to get “bigger muscles.” Climbing stairs is not the same as lifting weights.
Bodybuilders who want a bigger butt know to perform intense barbell squats and intense, weighted walking lunges.
They are not on the stair climber to develop the size of their buttocks muscles.
Take this as a cue that the stair climber will not give you a huge butt.
Don’t also be led astray by photographers’ choices of big-butt models for stair machine pictures, either.
This isn’t to say the equipment won’t tone if you use it rigorously. Of course it will tone.
But to those who seek a dynamically endowed behind, and to those who fear their over-endowed behind will get even “fatter” by using this machine, you are hugely mistaken.
Paced stair climbing, like any aerobic activity, recruits slow twitch muscle fiber.
These fibers are designed for duration-based activity, not power-based activity.
These fibers do not grow in size. If they did, then marathon runners would have huge legs and huge behinds.
No matter how much time you spend on the stair climber, your butt will not get bigger because you’re using the slow twitch muscle fibers.
Again, they cannot grow in size. Only the fast twitch fibers can, and that’s when they are used for high power output or explosive-style strength moves.
Exercises that do indeed increase the size of the gluteal muscles are, as mentioned, barbell squats, walking lunges while holding heavy weights, plus additional strength training moves and full-force sprinting.
There are miscellaneous activities that are associated with a well-endowed rear, such as speed skating and gymnastics. Also keep in mind that:
- Some obese women have flat butts.
- Some slender women who hardly exercise have round shapely rears.
Thus, the shape of one’s rear isn’t just dependent upon body weight or exercise – genetics have a lot to do with it.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
How Fast Should You Walk on a Treadmill Desk ?
Find out if it matters how fast you walk when using a treadmill desk.
The treadmill desk, in which you walk while using a computer, is the solution to the hazards of sitting all day at the job.
More and more studies are surfacing showing the connection between excessive sitting and increased risks of, for instance, heart disease and mortality (Wilmot et al, Diabetes Research Group at the University of Leicester).
Now that you agree that a treadmill desk would solve the problems that prolonged sitting causes (including postural), the next question becomes: How fast should you walk with a treadmill desk setup?
How fast you should walk depends on your goals and your fitness level. How fast you should walk also depends on the nature of your desk work.
For instance, during heavy typing, you won’t be able to walk as fast as during reading.
This has nothing to do with fitness; it’s a matter of distraction from the movement — at least it is for me.
Then again, I haven’t had my unit long enough to determine if I’ll one day be typing hundreds of words like a demon while walking 3 mph.
Weight Loss
If you use a treadmill desk enough, your daily calories burned will increase. There is no question whatsoever about this. You can easily accumulate several miles a day (depending on speed).
Though your walking speed will be slow, it’s the accumulated mileage that will result in many extra calories burned over time.
Compare miles of very slow walking to endless hours of sitting like a mummy at a computer.
You’ll lose weight unless you eat more to balance the changed equation. But how fast should you walk, regardless of your goals (e.g., weight loss, improved posture, lower blood pressure, lower mortality risk)?
First get used to the contraption. It does feel awkward at first. Find your natural pace, as it applies to the type of work at hand (heavy typing, light typing, a lot of mouse clicking, scrolling and reading).
If you feel that you can walk faster and still maintain concentration, then slightly increase the speed. If it feels really weird, slow the speed.
To get an aerobic workout without the distraction of quick stepping, go very slowly but use an incline if the machine offers this feature. A 1.5 mph walk at 15 percent incline will exercise the heart.
While you’re waiting for a slow page to load, increase the speed for a brisk walk or slow jog, even if it’s for 10 seconds.
A bunch of these 10-second spurts throughout the workday will add up over time.
If your feet begin feeling uncomfortable, take a break and/or try a different pair of athletic footwear.
Don’t overdo it. Don’t assume you can walk for hours on a treadmill desk the first time you try it just because the speed is super slow.
No matter how fast you can sprint across a basketball court or how much weight you can squat at the gym, this doesn’t mean your feet can handle prolonged slow walking without prior conditioning for this.
Listen to your body when it comes to using a treadmill desk, and walk as fast as you feel comfortable.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Source: sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121015090048.htm
Renegade Rows with Pushups: Muscles Worked, Benefits
Renegade rows with pushups is one of the best routines for hammering the entire body at once.
I’m a former certified personal trainer and I’ve been doing renegade rows for quite some time.
This exercise is when you insert a pushup in between the rowing action.
What muscles are worked during pushup rows?
The entire upper body. Plus the core and legs.
What more can I say? The pushup portion works the pectoralis (chest) muscles, as well as triceps muscles (back of upper arms) and anterior deltoids (front of shoulders).
Pushups also engage the core (lower back and abdominals), since these muscles must isometrically contract to allow the pushup motion (isometrically means that the muscles do not lengthen or shorten while remaining under tension).
The rowing aspect of the renegade targets the middle back muscles (chiefly the rhomboids), the biceps muscles (front of upper arms), and the forearm muscles.
The plank position that precedes each rowing motion engages the core.
The entire body gets tanked during renegade rows with pushups, especially when a pushup is done after every single row, rather than after both arms do the rows.
There is some leg recruitment as well, but it’s minor.
The legs work to support your body, but no matter how exhausting your set of renegades with pushups is, the legs will not (or at least, should not) feel fatigued when you’re finished.
Benefits of the Renegade Row
This should be obvious. The entire upper body gets nailed during this routine.
Of course, you have to make it challenging. If you’re very strong but use only 15 pound dumbbells, you will be depriving yourself of a much more effective workout.
Here is what I recommend: Figure out what weight dumbbell (or kettlebell) you would have to lift during renegades, with a pushup after every single row (not double), such that 14 to 16 single rows are barely possible – they are very difficult, and after you complete that 14th to 16th lift, your arms’ ability to lift is dead.
However, you still have some pushups left in you. Hands still on dumbbells or kettlebells, you can continue doing just these, anywhere from one more to 10 more before collapsing to the floor.
You immediately stand and are breathing very heavily, heart rate very fast, as though you just sprinted your fastest 100 meters. This is how it should be.
If your pushup ability exceeds your rowing ability, hold the “down” position of every pushup for an extra second or two.
If it’s the other way around, hold the “up” position of every row for a 2-count.
After a routine like this, wait five minutes before going at it again. It should be that strenuous.
If you use dumbbells with rounded ends, the dumbbells will be more difficult to handle, as they will want to roll about.
To minimize this, every time you place the dumbbell back to the floor, place it so that your palm is facing towards your legs.
Otherwise, setting the dumbbell down so that your palm is facing your opposite arm will give the weight a greater propensity to roll outward.
What day should these kinds of renegade rows be performed on? Chest day or back day. How many sets? As many as you feel brutal enough to perform.
Feel free to tweak the routine any way you desire, such as doing two rows in a row on each arm before each pushup.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
Renegade Row Intensity Techniques for Killer Core Workout
There are a number of ways to add intensity to renegade rows, but few people do this!
Yes, you can add intensity to renegade rows – many ways! I do renegade rows on my chest days. Kettlebells can be used in place of dumbbells.
The first way: Add intensity to renegade rows by adding a pushup after the dumbbell lift is performed by both arms.
This is the common way that renegade rows with a pushup are performed. The pushup comes after the dumbbell lift is done on both sides.
So lift with the right arm, set weight down, row with the left arm, set weight down, then do a pushup. Then lift with right, then with the left arm, then do a pushup. And so on.
However, why wait until after you row with both arms to do the pushup?
Add further intensity to renegade rows by doing the pushup after each single row!
Go with the right arm, pushup, then row the left arm, pushup, then right arm, pushup, then left arm, pushup, and so on.
I rarely see people doing it this way (other than myself and my clients). And when I do see people doing it this way, they always use light weights.
So to add even more intensity to renegade rows, use heavy weights, either kettlebells or dumbbells – but use dumbbells with a hexagonal shape because round-end dumbbells can create a rolling problem. Forget the 15 pound weights and go for the 25 pounders.
A well-trained man should be able to do this with 50 pound dumbbells. I’ll correct that: 70 pound dumbbells.
If you think I’m losing my mind here, if I can perform renegade rows with 50 pound dumbbells – after every unilateral row at that – then a well-trained man should be able to move 70 pound dumbbells likewise.
There are more ways to add intensity to renegade rows.
After you achieve muscle failure … just do pushups – keep doing them to failure.
So this way, you reach failure twice in the same routine:
1) Upon performing renegade + pushup, whereas the rowing motion starts falling apart and you reach muscle failure with that particular movement, and 2) You abandon the rowing portion and continue doing just the pushups until you can no longer do those, either.
Throughout all of these movements, you must concentrate hard on maintaining good form!
There are several ways to break form while doing these, such as “walking” the feet; performing incomplete or low rows (pulling the weight up closer to the hip rather than bending arm near ribs as though you are “elbowing” someone lying on top of you); allowing butt to poke up so that body is approaching a V shape; and sloppily lowering weights by allowing them to bang back to the floor rather than lowering them with control.
More ways to add intensity to renegade rows:
Place feet on an elevated surface such as a stepper platform (that’s used in step aerobics classes), or – if you’re a total animal – place feet on a stool! This is wicked!
And yet another way to add intensity to renegade rows is to do them off of one foot, either that foot on the floor or on a stool.
There is yet one more way to add intensity to renegade rows, but it comes with a warning: You risk injuring rotator cuff.
But then again, if you’re doing “upright rows” and cable crossovers, you risk injuring rotator cuff. So here goes:
Use dumbbells that are round, rather than hex. I don’t know at which point in poundage this starts becoming a problem because I’ve always used hex style.
But one day I was at a gym with only rounded dumbbells, so I proceeded to perform renegade rows with 40 pound dumbbells … and promptly knew there was a problem.
Each time I proceeded to lift, the support hand … which was on the dumbbell on the floor … began fighting against that dumbbell to prevent it from rolling rightward.
It made me think that any moment it would roll out to the side and pull my shoulder out with it.
However, when I do renegade rows, the dumbbells are in neutral position (my palms face each other).
For me, this position is highly preferable.
If dumbbells are positioned so that their ends face each other, the propensity for rolling is diminished.
For the ultimate intensity technique with renegade rows, use very heavy weights; perform the pushup after every unilateral row; and prop feet up on a stool. Vicious!
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
Bent-over Barbell Row vs. T-bar Row for Building Lat Muscle
Find out what a study determined activates more latissimus muscle: bent-over barbell row or the T-bar style!
So which is better when it comes to building up the lat muscle, the bent-over barbell row or the T-bar version?
According to an electromyography study of men and women who all had at least two years of strength training experience, the bent-over barbell row comes in at 93 percent, and the T-bar row comes in at 89 percent.
What do these numbers mean?
A value of 100 percent means maximum stimulation of muscle fibers. The study was conducted by Tudor O. Bompa, PhD and Lorenzo J. Cornacchia.
In an EMG, electrodes are placed on the muscle area of interest, and muscle activity is recorded as exercise is performed.
The more muscle fiber activation, the greater the potential of gaining strength and mass.
However, EMG results aside, one can understand why the bent-over barbell version is better at lat recruitment than the T-bar row simply by considering how these exercises are done.
Shutterstock/Master1305
In a free-weight T-bar row — in which the tool is an Olympic bar wedged in a corner — the exerciser pulls against the resistance with a hand placement of about shoulder width, using an attached handle.
Sometimes the exerciser has their hands on the barbell, which means an extremely narrow grip.
This subtracts from the activation of the latissimus muscle; more biceps and forearm muscles get involved.
When one uses a cable-machine attachment placed under the bar, this allows the hands to be apart, but it’s still a narrow grip.
In a bent-over barbell row, typically the exerciser uses a wide hand placement.
The wider the hand placement in the grip, the more activation of the latissimus muscle.
embhoo. CreativeCommons
Both exercises are performed while one stands and leans over, so in both cases, there’s core and leg involvement. A striking variable, then, is how far apart the grip is.
However, another variable needs to be considered when pitting the bent-over barbell row against the T-bar: ergonomics and convenience.
Let’s face it; it’s a hassle to set up the corner barbell. In a bent-over row, the weight is already ready to go (if you use a pre-fixed weight), can be done anywhere in the gym.
What about the T-bar row apparatus? Hand placement can be wide.
And the lat muscles are more isolated since the equipment stabilizes the rest of the body.
To be honest, I do not know which version of the T-bar row the study investigated. All I know is that the bent-over barbell row came on top.
The T-bar apparatus is also quite uncomfortable for many, and the fact that the entry and exit of the movement requires lateral shifting of the resistance isn’t exactly inviting.
The bent-over barbell row is more comfortable for most people.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/BLACKDAY
Source:
myfit.ca/archives/viewanarticle.asp?table=fitness&ID=28&subject=Best+Workout+Exercises
Is Lifting Weights Easier for Tall People?
Learn why it’s a myth that lifting weights is harder for tall people.
It’s often said that tall people have a harder time with lifting weights, and that it’s easier for short athletes.
Let’s assume that it truly is, collectively, more difficult for tall people to lift weights.
Does this mean that it’s harder for a healthy 5’7 man to strength train than it is for a healthy 5’2 man?
After all, the first person is a lot taller.
Is the tallness relative, or is it absolute, when it comes to lifting weights?
Let’s assume it’s an absolute issue, that is, those over 6’3 have a hard time lifting heavy weights.
Take a look at any strongman competition. Note the heights of the athletes.
Though many of the events favor extreme height, such as the Atlas stone (above) and the fingal’s finger, what really stands out is that even the tallest of these athletes (e.g., Mike Jenkins at 6’6 and Brian Shaw at 6’8) are built with massive amounts of muscle.
This means these very tall men have been able to lift super heavy weight loads in the gym as part of their training.
Their significant muscle mass didn’t come from just eating two pounds of chicken every day.
A classic argument is that weightlifting is more difficult for tall people because they have a greater range of motion through which to move the resistance.
The flaw with this thinking is that, along with the greater range of motion, is a longer body, with longer limb segments. It’s all relative.
The 5’7 man may seem to have a small range of motion for the bench press because the distance that he creates through the air, from when his arms are bent to when they’re straightened, is shorter than that created by a 6’5 man.
However, this distance is within the context of what their arms are attached to: chest/shoulders.
To make this easier to understand, imagine you’re sitting several feet behind a man who’s bench pressing, so that the top of his head is facing you.
Imagine that person is six feet even. Now imagine his arms are the same length as those of a typical five-foot person.
Imagine him bench pressing with these super short arms attached to his chest and shoulders. What happens?
By the time the bar gets down to that man’s chest, his upper arms are still way LESS than parallel to the floor. The angle that’s created by his elbow flexion is quite large.
The range with which he must press the weight back up, once it’s lowered, is minimized, because the “bottom” of the movement has his elbow flexion minimized, due to such relatively short arms.
Now picture a five foot tall man with six foot long arms. Imagine him lowering that bar to his chest.
In order to get the bar to his chest, he must execute extreme elbow flexion, such that when the bar is at his chest, his upper arms are way PAST parallel; his elbows are forming a very acute (much less than 90 degree) angle.
From your point of view, sitting several feet behind him, you see extremely bent arms, elbows poking towards the floor.
To push the weight back up, this person must begin the movement with very bent arms, elbows below the level of the bench, even.
That’s a lot of space through which to push the weight. It will thus be much more difficult.
Do you now see what’s really going on here?
It’s not absolute overall body height that’s the issue when it comes to lifting weights.
It’s limb length relative to one’s height.
A short person with “gorilla arms” will have a harder time benching heavy weight than will a very tall person with the so-called T-rex arms.
However, the tall person with the T-rex arms will be at a disadvantage when it comes to picking heavy objects off the floor; he’ll have to bend over way more or squat deeper to reach the object: a greater range of motion.
There are mighty strong tall people, and mighty strong short people.
Certain sports favor certain body proportions, regardless of height, while other sports favor being very tall (swimming) in combination with proportions (e.g., Michael Phelps).
On the other hand, with his ridiculously short legs and abnormally long torso, Phelps probably could never have excelled at skiing.
Being tall, in and of itself, does not make it harder to lift weights.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Ajan Alen
Sources:
bodybuilding.com/fun/only-the-strongest-mike-jenkins-workout.html
theworldsstrongestman.com/athlete/brian-shaw/
violentheropowerlifting.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=334:mariusz-pudzianowski-mma-strongman&catid=3
Why Strongman Competitors Are So Tall
There’s more than one reason why strongman competitors are so very tall.
Isn’t it odd that many champion powerlifters aren’t all that tall, yet when it comes to strongman athletes, it’s not uncommon for them to exceed 6’5?
Strongman champions Mike Jenkins and Brian Shaw stand 6-6 and 6-8 tall, respectively.
They aren’t exactly oddballs in this sport, either.Though many strongmen competitors are quite tall, there are exceptions, such as great strongman champion Mariusz Pudzianowski, whose height is listed at six feet or 6-1 (depending on source).
Fitness forums are replete with debates over which height has the advantage in weightlifting, with many tall trainees insisting that their height is an impediment, while many trainees in general believe that being short allows people to lift more weight.
Where are the 5-7 strongman competitors?
There are 12 strongman events:
Atlas stone, axle press, car flip, deadlift, dumbbell press, fingal’s finger, frame carry, keg toss, log press, squat, tire flip, yoke.
Being very tall is a big advantage in the following strongman events:
Atlas stone, car flip, fingal’s finger, keg toss and tire flip. That’s five of 12 events, and some experts would even say that being extra tall is an advantage in the yoke-carry due to fewer strides from longer legs.
Atlas Stone (top image)
The strongman competitor must pick up several spherical stones, successively placing each one on top of pillars, and each preceding pillar is shorter.
The shorter the strongman is, the more he has to go up on his toes to get the stone on the two highest pillars.
The taller strongman does not need to do as much overhead hoisting; the pillar lineup is the same height for all the athletes.
To make this very clear, imagine that a strongman competitor is only five feet tall.
He’d have to raise the very heavy stone completely over his head with straight arms to get it on top of the highest pillar, and likely on his toes at that.
A seven footer would only have to lift it as high as his neck for the highest pillar, feet flat on the ground.
This doesn’t mean that the very tall strongman is stronger — in the absolute sense — than the shorter man; the issue is biomechanics, not absolute strength.
Furthermore, taller athletes have longer arms; this means more arm to wrap around the stone when picking it up and carrying it to the pillars!
Car Flip and Tire Flip
The taller you are, the less you have to push above head level to knock over the car, and a tall competitor doesn’t need to push as much upward as the shorter man to flip a tire.
A push that’s closer to horizontal than vertical or upward is easier to do because it involves more chest muscle.
Fingal’s Finger
Being very tall is a major advantage here. On the ground are long, very heavy finger-like cylinders.
Artur Andrzej, CC
The athlete picks one up at the end and pushes it to a vertical position, then continues pushing it to knock it over.
A short person will have to spend more time pushing it up to vertical. Envision a 3 foot tall man doing this with a 15 foot long finger, then imagine a 10 foot tall man pushing up a 15 foot long finger. The advantage is crystal clear.
Keg Toss
The taller the strongman, the less distance he needs to toss the keg to get it over a very high bar.
He stands, back facing a very high bar, grabs a keg and (picture the “kettlebell swing”), tosses it up and over his head, high up in the air, to clear the bar.
A 6-8 man has eight inches less of tossing height to contend with than a six-foot-even man.
And there’s more: The taller the athlete, the longer the arms, meaning the greater the torque when tossing.
With a taller frame comes more body weight, which helps out in towing/pulling events.
Now you know why being extra tall is a big advantage for strongman competitors, and that’s why strongman competitors tend to be very tall.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Sources: bodybuilding.com/fun/only-the-strongest-mike-jenkins-workout.html; theworldsstrongestman.com/athlete/brian-shaw/; http://violentheropowerlifting.com/index.php?; ption=com_content&view=article&id=334:mariusz-pudzianowski-mma-strongman&catid=3; http://violentheropowerlifting.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=334:mariusz-pudzianowski-mma-strongman&catid=3
Why People with Intellectual Disability Should Lift Weights
An intellectual disability should be no barrier to lifting weights at a gym.
When I say that people with a mental handicap should lift weights, I’m obviously referring to those who have no medical issues that would contraindicate strength training — and those medical issues would have to be pretty severe, since many “typical” people train with weights despite having an assortment of medical conditions.
Secondly, people with an intellectual handicap would have to have an educable level of cognitive skills to truly benefit from a weightlifting program.
With scores of mentally challenged adults in the workforce, able to hold down a job, why don’t more of them lift weights?
This is because they are rarely encouraged to do so. After all, most of the general population doesn’t even lift weights.
Weightlifting is a Special Olympics event, but those athletes represent an extremely, extremely tiny percentage of people with mental challenges who pump iron.
Another obstacle is that many people, including their family members, believe these men and women are not capable of learning a weightlifting program.
This is really odd, because Special Olympians learn far more difficult activities such as skiing, equestrian, basketball, soccer, figure skating and gymnastics.
Weightlifting IS a Special Olympics sport!
What a fantastic self-esteem booster training with weights would be to someone who’s down on himself or herself for not being “smart.”
When I had a part-time job in Chicago working with mentally handicapped adults, I took one, an obese 24-year-old, to the gym to get her interested in lifting weights.
She had mild mental retardation and had absolutely no trouble duplicating strength training exercises that I first demonstrated.
Unfortunately, she didn’t become hooked. But the point is, she was able to replicate my correct techniques.
At one of the chain gyms I go to, there is a young man with Down syndrome who independently uses both machines and free weights, while his father works out elsewhere in the gym.
Parents of adults with mental challenges need to see the light and realize how invaluable a strength training program would be for their grown kids, or even teenagers.
When I had the part-time jobs in Chicago, I was floored at how miserably out of shape most of the adults with mental retardation were, even though many had high levels of academic functioning.
There is no intellectual barrier as to why a “high functioning” person with an intellectual challenge cannot engage in a full-fledged strength training program for fitness.
In fact, even when they do have behavioral concerns, they can still be excellent candidates for strength training.
One woman comes to mind, “Belinda.” I’d also had a part-time job at a group home where she lived.
At her job, Barbara was responsible as an employee in the daycare center at a health club. At her group home, she acted very childish.
Early every morning before her shift started, she used the health club’s equipment for an hour, unsupervised, and she was not flabby like so many intellectually handicapped adults are.
This goes to show you that even not-so-high functioning mentally challenged adults can still benefit loads from lifting weights.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Freepik.com
Women with Long Femurs: Back Squat vs. Kicking
If you’re a woman who’s mad that your long femurs make squatting difficult, here’s a reason to embrace those generous thigh bones!
Are you a woman who’s been struggling to pull off a decent squat at the gym, and have realized that the obstacle is your relatively long femurs? I’m a certified personal trainer and have years of martial arts training.
From a biomechanical perspective, relatively long femurs will literally get in the way of a depth squat if you want a decently upright back, and will also make parallel squatting difficult without leaning way forward (unless you use a wide-enough stance).
I have good news for women who tell people, “My squat sucks because of my long femurs.”
The good news is that, while long femurs (meaning, they are lengthier than your torso, regardless of overall body height), are a biomechanical disadvantage in the squat, particularly the back squat, they are a blessing for kicking.
To prepare for kicking, the leg needs to chamber, driven by hip action. Imagine which would generate greater power (especially in a rotational kick like the roundhouse), since the femur is the driving force: long femur chambering from the hip, with little drag from a short tibia, or short femur with all the drag from a long tibia.
Another way to look at this is to imagine a two-foot long plank of wood (this part represents the long femur) with a one-foot long skinner plank (representing the short tibia) attached to its end that can swing about. You whack this contraption as hard as possible into a heavy bag.
Now, take the same device except that the first part of the instrument is only one-foot long (representing the short femur), and the second, thinner portion is two-feet long (long tibia).
Hold the short portion and whack the device into a heavy bag.
Which device generated more power? The first one, of course! Though the longer board with shorter attachment has a greater range of motion as far as extension of angle, than does the shorter board with the lengthier attachment, it also delivers more power.
I was recently viewing an MMA fight online. A man was knocked out cold by a high knee kick to the face.
It’s easy to imagine how much easier it would be to deliver this kind of kick if you had a generous thigh bone.
The guy with short femurs would have to work harder to get his knee up there, if he could even reach his opponent’s face at all.
Women and Kicking
Speaking of knee kicks, I doubt any man would want to be kneed in the groin by a knee that’s driven by a long femur versus short thigh.
Women can think of their long femurs as very nasty weapons in a self-defense situation.
Another great kick for women is the roundhouse knee kick. Visualize this kick going at a heavy bag if you’re familiar with this kick, and then visualize it being done with short and long thighs. I needn’t say more.
Women must train faithfully to develop reliable self-defense skills. If a woman delivers a haphazard street kick, femur length won’t matter.
Long femurs are an advantage in the following basic full-leg kicks: front, side, round, hook and axe; and in all knee strikes.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/bg_knight
Women, Short Torso, Long Femur, Sucky Squats?
A smart woman with long femurs relative to torso and/or shin bone length will know this is why the parallel back squat is difficult without a lot forward lean.
The back squat is not the be-all end-all, especially if you don’t want massively muscular thighs.
When I was a personal trainer my female clients wanted attractive, firm and shapely legs.
Assuming you, as a woman, don’t want the largest muscles possible, why would you need to do the back squat, then?
If a woman’s goal is to lift as much as can be, then she should work on the back squat. After all, holding a 100 pound dumbbell in each hand for dumbbell squats is not practical.
But a woman does not need to back squat a 200 pound barbell to get firm, shapely legs or slash body fat.
And besides, when’s the last time you had to lift heavy weight across your back from a squatting position outside the gym environment?
If all you want are a sizzling pair of legs and a loss of body fat, and you have the long femur to short torso issue, then stop struggling with the back squat and focus on these following exercises:
Dumbbell Squat
Split squat
Shutterstock/Artsplav
Stability Ball Squat
George Stepanek, CreativeCommons
Weighted walking lunge
Weighted walking lunge. Freepik
Leg Press
Freepik/master1305
Box Jump
Freepik/tonodiaz
Squat Jump
Leg Extension and Hamstring curl
Sprinting
Unless a long femur short torso woman wants to compete in powerlifting or professional bodybuilding (where big thigh muscles are prized) or be seen squatting impressive amounts of barbell weight, there is no logical reason why she must struggle with the back squat.
And remember, the struggling will have a negative effect on the psychology of squatting. You’ll dread it. You won’t have passion for it.
It’s OKAY to admit that your’e not built for squatting due to femurs being too long for your torso and/or relatively short shins.
Focus on developing your prowess with other forms of squatting.
