Training | Merisoiu Technique Institute

February 27, 2017

Running After Knee Injury – Testimonial Client Experience

Mariepaule had a really bad knee injury. She did the therapies recommended and got the OK. Then she came to work with Alexandra.

Through consistent running technique and natural movement practice, coaching and practicing by herself, Mariepaule recovered nicely and managed a 2 day walk, 2nd day combined with running.

This is what we look at on the Running Technique Workshop. Of course, changing the way you move and use your body takes time, but on the workshop you will leave with a few concepts that, if used, can make a huge difference.

While same results cannot be guaranteed, with practice, natural running technique will help you run faster, further, with less effort and fewer injuries.

Book your spot for the next workshop in East London, Canada Water.

August 1, 2016

Managing Psoas Imbalance in Athletes with Sports Massage

The human body is the best working machine there is; however, many are guilty of not operating it properly. One of the most common results of improper use and maintenance of the body is psoas imbalance, which is evident through an imbalanced body posture.

But it is not just that the body looks lopsided; another issue with psoas imbalance is that it comes with physical discomforts.

What is the psoas muscle?

This is the most essential muscle group in the body. It allows you to bend and flex your trunk so you can haul your body off the bed every day. This muscle group can be found in your core and the muscles are connected from the 12^th thoracic vertebra to the L5 lumbar vertebra, through the pelvic region and femurs. Basically, they are the only muscles that run from the spine down to the legs.

Psoas muscles also help protect the internal organs and contribute to your psychological health.

What causes the imbalance?

When the psoas is constantly contracted due to stress, or when you often sit for a long time, work out intensely regularly, sleep in a curled position, or even perform a number of crunches and sit-ups, an imbalance happens.

The surrounding muscles compensate for the compromised condition of the psoas and the pull of tight psoas muscles can make one leg shorter than the other, create a significant sway back posture, posterior tilt to the pelvis for some, and pains.

Why do athletes suffer from it?

If you are an athlete — say, you are a runner, a cyclist or a martial artist — there are movements that cause great strain on your iliopsoas muscles, the primary connectors between your torso and legs. When you run and do not shift your weight properly, or you spend hours bent forward to stay balanced on your bike, or you favour a leg for kicking when you do martial arts, your psoas muscles can spasm, tighten and weaken resulting in an imbalance.

Physical discomforts due to psoas imbalance

When the psoas muscles are weak and tight, sharp pains can accompany these discomforts and you can feel them in the following areas:

Groin
Hip or pelvic area (if a psoas imbalance is not treated properly and right away, the pain in this area may lead to the loss of hip joint cartilage and labrum tears of the hip joint)
Belly
Lower back — right at the waist and the knees (especially when the leg is lifted)

Other discomforts you may experience due to psoas imbalance are:

Constipation
Dysmenorrhea/menstrual cramps
Shallow breathing (which means that the body many not be taking in enough oxygen)
Easy exhaustion (difficulty in breathing and pressure on the internal organs can make a lot of movements physically draining)

Sports Massage is one treatment option for psoas imbalance that may be considered.

Managing psoas imbalance in athletes

According to a study published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, psoas imbalance or syndrome can be easily missed during diagnosis because its symptoms are similar to other conditions.

Thus, the first step toward managing and treating psoas syndrome is getting the correct diagnosis.

The treatment and management of the psoas muscle can be divided into three phases: the acute, recovery and maintenance phases.

Acute phase

Your main goals here are to reduce the symptoms you are experiencing (including spasms, swelling and pain) and to restore a sense of normalcy to your daily living. In order to achieve both goals, you may need to combine medication with lots of rest, gentle stretching and the application of an ice pack.

At this stage, it is crucial to avoid activities that can further stress the affected muscles. Stretching should be done gently and must be avoided after the application of cold compress.

Psoas muscle rehabilitation

The primary goal of rehabilitation is to restore the normal range of motion, strength, endurance and other activities specific to your sport. This can be achieved through stretching and exercise.

At this stage, you can also begin a resistance training program using weights or resistance bands. For endurance, you have to work your way slowly using exercises like cycling and stair climbing on a machine using a low volume of resistance.

Maintenance

During the maintenance phase, your main goal would be to strengthen the muscles affected by psoas syndrome in order to boost performance. At this point, you can perform the exercise you did during the rehabilitation phase and combine these with exercises that target the hamstrings and iliopsoas. Resistance should be increased every third or fourth workout.

You can facilitate faster recovery by cross-training in other sports including skating, cycling and dancing.

Preventing psoas musle weakness while boosting performance

Apart from preventing psoas syndrome, strengthening the muscle group can lead to enhanced athletic performance.

Exercises like leg lifts, hanging leg lifts, low lunges, v-sits, bridges and reverse planks may be performed before your main workout or after it.

Incorporating sports massage

If you are suffering from a psoas imbalance, you cannot opt for traditional massage therapy. Most therapists cannot target the affected muscles because of their location, and are unaware of the proper techniques required in working on the psoas.

Therapists that specialise in sports massage in London can help relieve tension in the psoas muscle while aiding in the increase of flexibility and restoration of movement by utilising specialised techniques.

The psoas muscle is crucial not only for sports but also for the movements required for most daily activities. Therefore, it is essential that this muscle group is strengthened and stretched. If you experience any of the symptoms associated with psoas syndrome, consult a physical therapist or qualified massage therapist to help fix the problem.

About the Author

Ben has been a practical pain management trainer and a celebrated massage therapist. He believes human well-being is deeply connected to the health of mind and body both, including deep tissues.

He holds numerous certifications for best of breeds massage techniques helping him on a mission for healthy London and then rest of the world. He has been an active contributor in massage technique research and on Massaggi blog.

July 12, 2016

Workout In Your Daily Routine – Stairs

Enough with the boring going up and the down the stairs, or even taking time out of your busy schedule to plan your workout.

To work your body throughout the day, every time you go up the stairs, at the top DO A PRESS-UP. Every time you go down the stairs, at the top DO A PRESS-UP.

Depending on your level of fitness and time, you can do more than 1 of course. But if you are at the beginning of your journey, it’s enough to start with one.

Lose weight, tone your body and enjoy.

March 28, 2016

Complexity Of Movement Enhances Your Problem Solving Skills

Complexity-Of-Movement-Enhances-Problem-Solving-Skills

The more complex the movement it the more your brain develops, enhancing your brain-body communication and coordination. What that means for you?

Everyday you perform complex tasks that requests a lot of back and forth communication between your brain and all other areas of your body, inside and out. Some of them we are conscious of, others are automatic and beyond out control.

Improving the communication brain-body mean you will handle these tasks more effectively and efficiently, with less risk of damaging your body. Complex movements involve using several muscles and joints in an exercise (i.e. squats or lunges).

But there is more than the physical. The more complicated the movement is (and now I mean more than how many muscles and joints are involved, but complicated movement) the more focus, thought and problem solving skills you have to put into it.

Just like a muscle your focus and problem solving skills will improve as you master movement, or Body Mastery as I call it. And where do you think you will use these? In your life, your job, as a mother or father, passing these skills on to your children.

You see, what you do in training is not, or shouldn’t be, only about fitness and health, as we see them from the outside. It has ramifications throughout your life and impacts the lives of the people around. We must look and develop beyond the surface, if we are to be motivated and consistent in anything we do.

Unleash Your Physical Potential 12 Weeks Programme was created to develop these skills, and many others. Sure, it involves physical development – improving your fitness, stamina, strength – then we also have nutrition. But beyond the surface there is much more going on, you develop the skills, discipline, perseverance and focus you will always need no matter what you do in life or who you are.

The online programme is very complex, but I have structured it in such a way so you can take small bites and learn complex movements step by step. After 12 weeks of guidance from me, and another 12 weeks developing by yourself (there are 2 parts on the programme) you will have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and several training routines, to develop the body and mind.

WHO IS IT FOR

There are 2 groups of people who’d benefit from this programme:

1. Those getting back into fitness or getting into fitness and want to do it the right way

2. Those already fit but with the desire to learn more, develop new skills, improve performance, and learn new exercises and techniques.

Have a look at the programme, sign up for a plan, and let’s take your health, fitness and life to the next level. Unleash Your Physical Potential

March 4, 2016

The Best Exercise For Your Triceps

Have you ever thought whether there is a different exercise out there, more interesting and less boring than the usual diamond pressups and triceps extension? Among the best arm workouts you can do is this funny looking exercise, which uses only your own body weight? Yeah, you hear me right, I am an advocate of body weight training. That’s because for the majority of people, body weight training is enough and it can be progressed and regressed.

Furthermore if you practice this triceps exercise you not only tone your triceps bu you also:

improve your posture (probably the number 1 benefits of this triceps exercise in my opinion)
strengthen your core muscles (abdominal muscles, side of the abdomen, back muscles, hips and diaphragm)
protect your lower back and reduce the risk of low back pain (for many people standing exercises or pressups and planks can be detrimental if they do not have good core control and body awareness; problem solved with this triceps exercise)
stabilize your shoulder joint (stronger in a safer way)
stretching and opening up the chest and shoulders
shoulder mobility
mobility in wrists and ankles
finger strength (particularly if you practice on uneven terrain, such as the outdoors)

What does all this mean to you? It means you can have a toned, strong, fit, healthy and truly powerful body in a safer way (this is key). Well….you must do other exercises of this type as well, do develop the body all round.

When I say “of this type” I mean exercises that work more than just big muscles in the body, think about posture, fingers, toes, mobility, flexibility and much more.

Remember, you are as strong as your weakest link.

That’s why I believe this is triceps exercise is among the best out there. One that enables you to strengthen your body in a safer way than other methods.

Here’s a video we made at one of The MTI Online Academy : The Crab Walk or Inverted Crawl.

February 23, 2016

How To Make Your Morning Exercise Routine More Interesting And Fun

Here’s a method which will help you get out of monotony, make exercising more fun and different and reduce bias in the choice you make when you choose your exercise.

We unconsciously do more of the things we are good at and which we love. This means progress slows down to the point where we make very little progress. When you have a Personal Trainer or a Coach, they will give you exercises you are not good at, but when you have to choose alone we tend to be biased without realizing.

So here’s a way to solve this problem and to also make things more interesting. This is not a method of training to get results though. If your training needs set repetitions and sets, a certain structure, then this is not going to work. But it will make things different.

February 17, 2016

Squats And Lunges – Why Should You Care About Body Weight Distribution

Everything you do is body weight distribution, and body weight transfer, as well as balancing (walking is balancing for example). Understand and practice these 3 concepts (and posture) and any exercise or movement you will ever do will be correct. But only if you practice these concepts.

Incorrect body weight distribution simply leads to:

One side of the body will take more of the weight than the other. Thus chances are this side will be over worked, and muscles strained in the long run, while the other side will weaken.
Stress injuries. If you walk, run, squat and lunge while one side of the body takes of weight, and so more of the aggressive impact, it will increase the risks of injuries. It may not happen this year or the next, but after years and years.
Knee pain. This is very common particularly when squatting and lunging, but also standing, walking and running.

When we squat or lunge we are told “knees behind the toes!” Why??? Give the reason why. I’ll tell you why. When the knees go too far over the toes, your body weight distribution is lost. There is more weight going on the front of your feet, while you take the weight off the heels (even if heels are still on the ground). This causes the knees and ankles to take more and more pressure.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you bring the weight back on the heels and lift the toes of the ground. That’s not good either. The solution is The TRIPOD.

How to distribute your weight correctly

Every moment you stand, whatever you do, you will form a tripod with your feet.

THE TRIPOD = BIG TOE + LITTLE TOE + HEEL

When you stand, walk, run, squat, lunge, balance on one leg etc, keep The Tripod firmly rooted into the ground. That’s it. FOCUS.

If you need advice or would like to know more about coaching programs contact me.

January 26, 2016

Press-Ups – Most Common Press-Up Mistakes

I will be using the same video I used in the first post on press-ups: Press-Ups – Why It’s Difficult To Do A Full Press-up, to list some of the most common mistakes we do when learning and practicing press-ups.

There are 3 main reasons why we make press-up mistakes:

We don’t know how to do it – no one taught us
We want to do a lot of them – a lot for some people can be 10; we try to do a lot of them regardless of HOW we do them
We get tired and we lose technique without realizing – having no one next to us to correct leads to even more mistakes

Practicing and repeating press-ups with incorrect technique can lead to:

Muscle strain – particularly the neck, lower back and shoulder blades
Lower back pain
Shoulder pain
Elbow injuries
Muscle imbalances

When you lose technique, further repetitions are useless and you are wasting time and energy.

Common press-up mistakes (you will also see them and explained in the video below):

Head hanging – straining neck muscles. You should focus your attention on a point just in front of your hands. Not just your eyes but the whole head.
Sinking into the shoulders – for beginners in particular, this is sinking into the shoulders to give the impression the body is lowering. Shoulders must be stabilized and the press-up is done by bending the elbows to lower the body.
Elbows to the side – places unwanted stress on the joint and can lead to overuse injury. Although this makes it more difficult learn how to do press-ups with elbows going back, brushing the sides of the body.
Hips sinking below the chest – lower back pain and the abdominal muscles are not working. Hips should follow the chest. When the chest stops the hips stop as well. Hips never go lower than the chest. We do that because, again, we have the impression we go lower in the press-up.
Hips too high – core is not working. This is a pressup variation, forming an “A” shape. But for classic press-ups the hips have to follow the chest. However, if you are unsure it is better to have your hips higher than lower. Hips higher – core not working, while Hips lower – over arching back and lower back pain. Better the first, if you are unsure.

Correct these press-up mistakes and you will train and strengthen your whole upper body. The more correct you do them, even just a few at a time, the more effective they are.

And here is the video I promised, jump at minute 2:48 for press-ups mistakes:

January 25, 2016

Press-Ups – Why It’s Difficult To Do A Full Press-up

Doing a full press-up is very, very achievable but not as easy some think. You just try it a few times and expect to go from not being able to bend your elbows to a correct full press-up

There are many muscles involved in doing a correct full press-up. Because there are so many muscles involved, for a beginner, until those muscles strengthen, it takes a while. That is why it is important to have patience and practice, if you want to do a full press-up in the end.

Why-It's-Difficult-To-Do-A-Full-Press-up — Image source: http://www.md-health.com/What-Muscles-Do-Push-Ups-Work.html

These are roughly the main muscles press ups work. There are also the oblique muscles (side of the abdomen), lower and upper back muscles. The whole mid section of your body need to work to keep you in the right position.

So you see, it cannot happen over night. Work and consistency needs to be put into it. So I have put together a video with how I managed my full press-ups and how I helped my clients who really wanted to do this. Hope it’s good enough to help you as well.

January 22, 2016

Tools And Methods For Tracking Your Progress

To make any progress you must know where you are, where you want to be, how you are going to get there and how you will measure or track the progress.

Some things will work for you, while others will not. How will you find out what works? And how will you find out if you are heading in the right direction? Through some form of measurements. And the more you know the better.

Try to see these numbers as guidelines towards your end goal. Try not to attach emotions to them, no matter what they show, they are there to help you.

These are a few examples on how to measure your weight loss progress, body fat percentage, maybe you want progress in term of circumference, muscle mass, etc. I will give you methods you can use home by yourself, and they are not expensive. So let’s get to it:

Measuring tape

When you want to reduce waist circumference. Done in the morning and no clothes to ensure reliability of measurements – measurements must be taken under similar conditions to be able to compare them.

Scales

If you simply want to see different numbers. Scales can misleading though. If you drink a liter of water you will be heavier, yet there is not more fat there.If you replace fat with muscle the number on the scale will not change and can even go up.

It is a nonetheless a way to monitor your weight loss progress and for maintenance, and must be used in the morning naked to ensure consistent measurement conditions.

Some scales show the fat % as well as bone density and water %. Depending on which scale it is, it can do more or less.

Skinfold calipers

One of the best ways, and most accurate ways to measure body fat percentage, without . It is done skinfold and it looks like this:

If you ever buy one you should find all the instructions of how to use it and where on the body.

Heart rate monitor

Some use heart rate to monitor the intensity of their training. I personally have never used this type of monitoring but it’s nonetheless a good way to set your goals.

Hand held body fat analyzer

You enter your details such as height, weight, age etc, you hold it front of you with your arms straight and wait until it measures. If you google the name you will find them.

These are probably more precise than scales but not more precise than skinfold calipers. Measures fat percentage, muscle mass, heart rate (at rest or after exercise), BMI (body mass index). Depending on the model it can do more or less.

Other ways of monitoring progress in terms of training goals: Distance
Time
Speed
Reps
Sets
Weight
Or a combination of them.

For flexibility you can use a ruler or measuring tape to see where you stop (i.e. where you stop when you reach your toes, do the box split or any other stretches that can be measured).

In terms of weight loss I’d use the skinfold calipers. This is a brief explanation of how these tools work, but enough to give you an idea of how to measure your own progress. Of course you can always contact me to discuss in more detail, and what it best for you specific goals.