I may not have much to contribute yet to the GT fishing community, as I'm still new to the game, but I do have some good contributions to add to this topic. I studied exercise science and nutrition at the university and have helped clients loose over 100lbs (45Kg) in fat, while helping the build muscle in the same process, as well as having helped clients recover from injuries sustained in both sports and everyday life.
Some of the major factors of why people injure themselves while training is, 1. not properly warming up, 2. pushing themselves beyond their personal limits, 3. preforming exercises incorrectly and trying to push more weight than what they can handle, and 4. not training and strengthening their core and joints, to be able to handle the stress and rigors that the body endures while training. These are also some of the same reasons why people do not achieve the results that they desire while in the gym, these and many other factors, such as diet, diet, and diet! Did I mention diet??? Anyways.......before going in the gym and trying to be tough and macho, one should always do a warm up. Ideally, one would use a foam roller to find trigger points, which are knots and adhesions in their muscles. This technique is called self myo-fascial release (SMR). You can google this or look up how to do this on youtube. They would start by locating them, then after you located them, you would use your body weight to create the tension between you and the knots against the foam roller. You will hold this position for 20 to 30 seconds. 30 seconds at most. After 30 seconds your GMO's ( Golgi Tendon Organs) take affect and relax you muscle. Therefore, you would not receive any further benefit by holding tension for more than 30 seconds. What happens afterwards is that by having held tension on the knot in your muscle, you should have helped break up the collagen fibers in the muscle and by stretching the muscle afterwards, it will help align your muscle fibers in to proper position, while helping eliminate the bundle of collagen fibers, giving you the optimal situation to stretch and to become more flexible. I know it is a bit scientific, but this is the process. A mixture of isolated active stretching, (seated hamstring stretch etc) and dynamic stretching. (jumping jacks, frankenstein's, butt kicks, etc) are the most productive ways of stretching in my opinion.
Now comes that part of actively training using stability and stabilization techniques. The reason why we want to do this type of training before we start lifting heavy is simple. We want to preserve our bodies and not become injured in the process. What happens when you start putting heavy loads on untrained and weak body parts and joints, is that they give out, causing ligament and tendon ruptures, muscle strains, tendonitis, calcification in the joints, arthritis, and the list goes one.
We would start training in proprioceptively rich environment, which is an environment that challenges internal balance and stabilization mechanisms of the body. We could start off with something simple such as standing on one leg while be do dumbbell bicep curls and then progress to standing and doing the exercise on a balance beam or a foam pad, up to the level of properly preforming the exercise on a BOSU ball. This is just one example. By preforming the exercise in this manner, it not only helps you body make the connection between your internal balance receptors in your brain, but it also strengthens your joints and your core.
Let's talk you our core for a minute. Majority of lower back pain comes from having a week core. This is why you see a lot of guys in the gym injure their lower back's, beside trying push too much weight and improper form. Doing a million sit ups is not the solution to the problem. Sure, doing a variety of abdominal exercises will help, but lets not for get that the other half of our core muscles are in the posterior region of our midsection as well. One of the main core muscles that lacks strength in many individuals is the erector spinae. Without training these muscles as you would the rest of the muscles in your body, the possibilities of injuries just stack up against you. Good core exercises that would really include you posterior core muscles would include planks, good mornings, bird dogs, and back extensions. These are just some of the many. While preforming the variety of stabilization exercises, your core automatically engages itself, therefore you get the added benefit of strengthening your core muscles at the same time. Without having a strong core, you will be limited to how well you can preform and your chances of injuring yourself will only increase.
The exercise routine that we normally perform and see in the gym is the typical body building routine. Chest and tri's one day, back and bi's the other, shoulders and calves, and a legs day. (just an example) This is where you would normally see guys doing 3-6 exercise per body part to help increase in size. Stability and stabilization training is a night an day difference to this routine. We work every muscle group in the same day, while preforming 1-3 sets of exercise, 12-20 reps, up to 90 seconds of rest between sets, with a 4/2/1 tempo (4 seconds on the downward phase, 2 seconds on the upward phase, and 1 second hold on the to help stabilize.) You should preform 1- 2 exercises per body part and train in this phase 2-4 times per week, between 4-6 weeks. From there, that is when you should start incorporating heavier weights, after the core and joints are strong.
Here is a link that provides you some more info, as well as some exercises. (I'm not promoting their products.) You can also type in stabilization exercises on youtube and there are plenty of videos with examples of exercises. In short, whatever exercise you normally do in the gym, do them in an unstable environment with a slow tempo and increase the difficulty as your body become accustomed to it. Example, single leg dead lifts with a dumbbell, progress to doing them single legged on a foam pad, to an air disk, to both legs on a BOSU ball. Just another example.
I hope this information is beneficial and helps properly train your body for the next time your battling that monster of a GT! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Ray
http://www.performbetter.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PBOnePieceView?storeId=10151&pagename=131
