Abs and Posture
By David Grisaffi

Posture is a very important topic for functional movement in everyday activities as well as in athletic performance. From reading your question, it's apparent that you have several issues that need to be addressed. First and foremost is your posture situation and what you called a "swayback." Sometimes people get swayback confused with a flat back. If your brother has the same condition, then you can probably look at your dad and grandfather and find the same postural circumstances. Swayback is a condition that creates a posteriorly rotated pelvis (tucked under tush), rounded shoulders, bent knees and forward head posture.

Posture is the position from which movement begins and ends. If you do not express good posture, your body is subjects to extra stress to your joints structures. Having ideal posture creates a balanced environment for your supporting structures and helps avoid helps avoid injury and deformation of the body.

Most swaybacked people are on the taller side. They tend to look down on other people, which contributes to this type of posture. To understand it more, we must look at upper cross and lower cross syndromes. Upper cross syndrome is created by an imbalance between trunk extensors and trunk flexors. The trunk flexors tend to be dominating and stronger, thus creating a short tight abdominal region, pulling the rib cage closer to the pelvis. Characteristics of this condition are forward head posture, drooping rounded shoulders and a pigeon chest. The knees and ankles tend to bend because they have to counter balance the hump backed upper body. In swayback posture, we could easily have both upper cross and lower cross syndrome and often do. One leads to the other and vice versa.

To compensate for the sway and to keep the center of gravity over your base of support (feet), your back/pelvis tend to flatten out and gravitate forward. Lower cross syndrome consists of tightening of the hamstrings and abdominals while lengthening the lumbar erectors, thigh muscles and hip flexors.

To correct these postural situations we must stretch the tight muscles and strengthen the long and weak muscles. For example: rounded shoulders - stretch the chest muscles, and perform such exercises by doing exercises such as the prone cobras, dumbbell bent over rows and alternating Supermans. To address the lower cross syndrome, we would we need to stretch the hamstrings and abdominals and tighten the hip flexors with such exercises as like the Prone Jackknife.

The second part of your question was related to your recreational hockey playing. Ask yourself, "What position does a hockey assume?" The answer is, a bent over position (picture the body positioned for a slap shot movement). This position and movement is made up of several different movement patterns. The slap shot is a combination of a side lunge, and upper body twist and a push. So some exercises you would want to do would include multi-directional lunges, woodchoppers and bent over rows.

Hockey is also different from other sports because you get pounded into the boards. This can result in massive structural damage to your body. There are some steps you can take to help compensate for this type of collision. First you must have good stability in your neck and lower back. To obtain this stability, your conditioning program should include but not be limited to Swiss ball neck training, one arm C. R. A. C. dumbbell press, and supine lateral ball roll. Your program should also include shoulder shrugs, dead lifts and high pulls. These exercises strengthen the muscles in your cervical spine area and develop good core strength.

The final part of your question said, "How do I get rid of the love handles and beer belly?" First of all, the love handles and the beer belly come from poor eating habits. Sometimes part of it is your genetic code. We carry fat as a protective mechanism to guard against starvation. However, love handles and the beer belly usually come from your body having stubborn fat deposits. These stubborn fat deposits are fat cells that will not relinquish their energy without a fight.

Stubborn fat cells are estrogen dominant cells and estrogen is a fat producing hormone. Believe it or not, beer contains hops; hops contain estrogenic compounds which help you develop that beer belly. To rid you body of stubborn fat, you should eat more cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Avoid drinking anything from a plastic container, eat organic food as much as possible, increase omega 3 oils (fish) and decrease omega 6 intake. Plus avoid Soy proteins and minimize alcohol consumption. Hope these tips help!

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Go to: Firm and Flatten Your Abs:

Coach David Grisaffi,
Tacoma Washington

P.S.If you enjoyed this workout, then you will love the workout programs in my Firm And Flatten Your Abs E-book. You can get more information on the home page at:
www.FlattenYourAbs.net/index.html

About the Author:

david_grisaffi.gifDavid Grisaffi majored in physical education and holds multiple certifications including 3 from the prestigious CHEK Institute: Level II high Performance Exercise Kinesiologist, Golf Biomechanic, and health and lifestyle counselor. He's also certified by the ISSA as a personal trainer and specialist in performance nutrition. David has been a high school wrestling and baseball coach and is currently an independent trainer and strength coach. He has been sought after by some of the top athletes in professional sports including world champion boxer Greg Haugen and professional golfer Michael Putnam. David’s ebook, Firm And Flatten Your Abs is an online best seller which teaches you how develop “six pack abs" while improving strength, function and athletic power at the same time. Find out more on the home page at: www.FlattenYourAbs.net