Vancouver Canada Personal Trainer and CEO of The Bar, located in South Vancouver. My passion is to help people become better and move better, using a science based approach for optimizing each individuals performance in different areas of training. My main areas of focus are in Powerlifting, Calisthenics, Joint mobility, Rehab, sports performance, Fat loss and conditioning. @Adairtrainer
Sure it's great people are getting out and walking around to find Pokemon it's definitely an improvement of overall actively in the average population, I see more people outside now than in the past 10 years...but I find it really strange that even though they are outside everyone is blindly staring down into their phone the whole time while having horrible posture doing so.
Be aware of both your surroundings and your posture because people are spending hours in these positions, over time it will have a huge impact on your functionality and even decrease your lung capacity by 30%!
If your going to hunt for Pokemon bring your phone up to your face rather than face to phone, this will not just improve your posture but make you more aware of your surroundings as well👌🏻💪🏼
Ps. No I don't play Pokemon haha
-Shawn Adair
The Bar - Strength and Conditioning
Vancouver BC
Your set up is one of the most important parts of a successful lift and maintaining good form, having a solid repeatable set up that you run through each time will save energy increase strength and also lower your chance for any form break down or injuries. These are all important variables to consider when squatting because they will drastically change your squat with even the slightest adjustment in technique or mental cueing.
Remember everyone is built differently and will squat differently, there is no such thing as a "perfect squat" only general guidelines to follow. Everything on that list can be adjusted quite a bit depending on the person, narrow stance/wide stance, high bar/low bar, feet straight/ feet out ect....one is not better than the other, it's more about what's best for each individual athlete!
As a coach it's my job to find what's optimal for each one of my clients depending on things like high/weight, torso/femur length and/or joint mobility restrictions. The first main goal is getting them squatting safely and then the next will be getting as close to optimal technique as possible for their own personal mechanics. Come down to @thebarvancouver to get an assessment done by ether myself or anyone of our other trainers to see how well you move!
This is a test I use with my clients to determine what muscles are tight/overactive around the hip capsule, a lot of people that have pain in the hips try to fix the problem directly at the hip. In a lot of cases I have tested people and the Rectus Femoris (a quad muscle) is the main culprit to their pain and releasing it makes a huge change in performance and pain relief!
I recommend you get this test done by a qualified coach/trainer but you can also do it yourself and use it as a great stench for the hips😊😊😊😊While laying down on a box/table, grab one leg and pull it into your stomach slightly, let your other leg hang in a relaxed position. Pull your ribcage down and flatten your spine to the box, It's a very common error to arch the back during this test or stretch so try to keep the back flat! So here's the main things to look for💪🏼.
👉🏼(Iliopsoas) -Does the thigh reach extension, the knee should be just under the box into slight extension.
👉🏼(Rectus Femoris) -Can the knee break 90" without the thigh raising? The knee should be able to be at a 90" angle without raising the thigh.
👉🏼 (TFL)-Does the thigh move laterally into abduction? The knee should line up with the hip not track in or out.
I hope this helps some of you out, I only had 1min to explain this when there is so much more to it 😁 for a more personalized approach contact me for a 1on1 full movement joint mobility assessment adair.personaltrainer@gmail.com
A staple exercise in calisthenics and general fitness, the average person should be able to perform at least 1 body weight push up with decent form but you would be amazed to know how many cant. There are a lot of different ways to teach push ups depending on each individual's stability,mobility,strength and body control. This is how I personally teach the push up to clients and others around me, I've applied these techniques over the last few years with great results from all different types of people. In this video I'm showing some very common mistakes most people make, also how to properly progress the push up so that anyone can learn no matter what level your at.
Run through this check list next time you do some push ups,
The set up
-Hands pointed forward
-Shoulders over wrist
-Screw hands down to develop torque and stability in the shoulder
-Pack scaps (shoulder blades)
-Chin tucked
-Ribcage down/Neutral Spine
-Contract glutes
-Whole body tension
Try to keep your body like this through the whole movement💪🏼 The execution
-Breath into your belly and compress your mid section activating your TVA
-Actively pull yourself down into position keeping your forearms pretty much vertical and until the elbow breaks 90"
-Think about "Pushing the floor away" as your coming back up and then exhale and repeat
That's a basic overview of the push up, it gets WAY more advanced like weighted, clapping, 180s, 360s ect... this is just a general overview hoping to help some of you as well, More videos coming soon! Let me know what exercises you want to see next, Vancouver Personal trainer - Shawn Adair
As some of you are reading this..... are you in a kyphotic / forward head position? Did you know for every inch your head moves forward it increases the weight of the head on the spine by an additional 10 pounds. This is a major contributor to issues like neck pain, shoulder pain, tightness, weakness, headaches, osteoarthritis and even decrease lung capacity by 30% so it's important to be aware of these issues and take care of them as needed. Posture affects everything we do in and out of the gym and is often overlooked by most personal trainers, before an individual starts any intense exercise program posture should be assessed and corrective work given as needed. It's the main foundation for every movement our body makes no matter what type of activity/training your doing, posture will even affect your form on certain exercises. No matter how hard you train in the gym if you have any major postural issues it will limit your ability to use your body to it's full potential and will also increase your chances for injury. Performing corrective work with a qualified coach will greatly help improve any imbalances and restore proper length tension relationships for optimal control of your body, this will transfer over to improvements in all areas of training even improve your breathing/bracing and over all appearance as well.
Come down to The Bar and get a full postural assessment, we base our gym on quality of movement and helping people train PAIN FREE is my main goal, learn how to take care of your body because it's your only place you have to live 😊
💥@inaz_irock💥 I'm so proud of her and how far she has come in such a short time! The photo is from about 4 months ago you can see not just aesthetic changes but postural changes as well! Her right shoulder was elevated and protracted forward in a kyphotic position, now she's almost neutral and in good alignment with some back shredz to go along with it. She's following her macronutrient intake very well and averaging 1 pound a week for consistent safe fat loss to keep in off in the long run, this is only the begging she's going to make even more gainz with a little more time! Great work Naz🙏🏼😊
Getting messages like this really makes my day😊 it lets me know that I'm doing something positive and helping others in all different areas. This is motivation to keep learning as much as possible and fuel my passion for helping people become better in all aspects of health and fitness💪🏼
Most problems with pain or poor movement patterns are normally not just localized in 1 area, everything is aligned through your kinetic chain and if one of those chain links are off it will affect your joints up stream and down stream from the issue. For anyone with knee problems I would first look at what the feet and hips are doing because they play a major roll in alignment and stability of the knee, you can see from the photo that once the feet collapse the knee moves inward (valgus) putting undue stress on the hip then putting stress on the back and even affecting alignment of your shoulder as well😁
If you are starting an exercise routine and have these issues it's very important to plan in some corrective work to help realign your body for optimal performance and stay injury free! It's very common in bootcamp style classes people get yelled at and completely destroyed by a "coach" doing hundreds of repetitions with so many movement dysfunctions and very little if none of actual movement corrections or corrective work being thought.
Always remember with any sort of exercise class/program you do, if this is something you want to do for life it should always be quality before quantity. Anyone can make you tired,sweaty and sore but not everyone can make you better so choose wisely 🙏🏼😊
This is a sagittal plane shoulder assessment to check "SHOULDER FLXION" I use it with all my clients before starting any exercise program to see each individual's joint mobility/strength/weakness or motor control problems with the shoulder, limited shoulder flexion will have a huge impact on exercises like overhead pressing, handstands, Olympic lifting and overall injury prevention for the shoulder.
Shoulder flexion is the ability to get your arms overhead without any restrictions or compensation in the spine, having full range means you should be able to go from 0-180 degrees of flexion ending with the humerus beside your ear without any pain or restrictions. Before taking this test it's important to be aware of any individual postural alignment issues that could be affecting joint kinematics and the outcome of this test, if the shoulder or scapula has any major alignment issues it's going to have a big impact on your shoulder flexion and over all mobility of the joint.
The 2 main assessments I use are passive and active shoulder flexion, here is how to do them.
💥Passive shoulder flexion test:
-Lay on the ground in a prone position, knees bent, hands beside hips and thumbs pointed to the ceiling
-Posteriorly rotate your pelvis so lower lumbar stays flat against the ground throughout the entire movement
-Start by raising your arm while keeping the shoulder, elbow and wrist in a straight line then with the help of a partner or gravity try to let your humerus drop down beside your ear and thumb touching the floor behind you. Make sure to stop if your back lifts off the floor at any point of the movement, if you can remain in neutral and reach the floor move onto the active assessment.
💥Active shoulder flexion test:
-The same rules apply as the passive test but this time you will be actively contracting the shoulder flexors (Anterior delt/ Coracobrachialis/ Biceps brachii/ Pec major) also the traps/ serratus anterior are involved in flexion above 90 degrees along with a few other muscles.
-Standing with your back flat against a wall, keep your feet 6-8" away and maintaining a neutral spine position during the entire movement.
-Raise your arm with thumb pointing up and stop if there is any change in positioning of the spine or you feel you hit end range.
There are actually a lot of areas that may be limiting or inhibiting the ability to get your arms overhead including soft tissue, length tension relations, motor control, joint capsule restrictions or alignment issues and it's very individualized. These are some of the main areas that I work on with clients that make a big improvement to the vast majority of people.
