Now weight just a minute…

Leave a comment November 25, 2014 drworobec

I’ve noticed more and more weight belts popping up in the gym. This concerns me. A lot. Hear me out.

Our abdominal core muscles are the protectors of our spine. It’s the core muscles that we want doing the work while we lift, rather than loading the joints of our lower backs. Core muscles can be thought of as two cylinders, one within the other:

d0113727_5333d2d983c90

The inner core muscles, which are directly attached to the spine, look kind of like the diagram below. They are the stabilizers of the spine, and the protective, anticipatory muscles that help prevent injury.

inner-core-muscles

It is the outer core muscles, including the six-pack-ab muscles (rectus abdominis), that are the global movers of the lower back and abdomen, and the muscles that help us to push big weight.

rectus-abdominis

Here’s the problem with weight belts. They allow your inner core muscles to cheat a little bit and still get the same work output. When you activate your abdominal muscles against a weight belt, you increase your intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) and de-load the spine. Which is wonderful when you’re going for a new 1-rep max. It’s not so wonderful when you’re reaching down to put on your sock and your inner core muscles are used to relying on that artificial IAP, and therefore are under-trained and deactivated. This is where injury happens.

And that’s the problem. Weight belts help to train your big movers (your outer core), while ignoring your smaller stabilizers (your inner core).

This is the perfect storm for injury; muscular imbalances and stabilizer weakness. Believe it or not, far more significant lower back injuries are reported in my practice due to everyday activities (picking up a load of laundry, getting out of the car, shovelling snow, brushing teeth, sneezing) than due to injuries in the gym. In every one of these cases, I can find inner core weakness. “But I can squat 300lbs, how can I possibly have a weak core?” Because your outer core has been able to overcome that, often with the help of a weight belt.

Let me be clear: a weight belt can help you in the gym and it can be very useful during max efforts. But it can definitely hurt you in the long run if used improperly. It should absolutely NOT be used during a high-rep workout (as in, a typical WOD or met-con). My stance on this one is black and white. If you need your weight belt in a WOD, you are doing something wrong. Scale the weight back.

I’m talking to you, my fellow CrossFitters. Let’s be smart about this. Let’s think about long-term spinal health instead of short-term gains. Take off a plate, take off the weight belt, focus on form.

You’ll thank me later, I promise.

belt_1_1024x1024

I Ran a Race. I Won.

4 Comments November 18, 2014 drworobec

Yesterday I posted a status on my ‘Dr. Ashley Worobec Facebook Page‘ that showed a couple of pictures from my 10k race the day before.

My words were:

“These pictures sum up my weekend, and why I LOVE to run- this is happiness in its truest form. I raced in the 10k Hannukah Hustle in Hamilton on Sunday morning and I won! It wasn’t a big race, and my 43 minutes wasn’t record-breaking, but as 1st female, I even got a bike escort into the finishing chute and got to break through the finish line tape with my daughter in my arms. This first picture shows me stopping to grab her from the wagon (my 5-yr-old son wanted to stay put!) and the second picture shows the post-race bliss (and exhaustion!). Find something you love and throw yourself into it. The benefits will reach far and wide.”

And then I reconsidered, regretted, and thought-twice for a bit. Should I have put this accomplishment out there, so bravado and look-at-me and I’m-so-great? That’s not typically my style, not what I’m about, not who I am. And yet, I really wanted to share this moment with my patients. That’s the exact purpose for my Dr. Ashley page; a place where my patients can get to know me and what makes me unique in my time outside of the clinic. It’s where I can share my opinions on topics that I think would be of interest to them- be it fitness, parenting, or healthcare. I deliberately keep this Page separate from my personal Facebook profile, and that’s the part I’ve been reconsidering; why was I okay with posting this under my professional persona and not my personal? Answer: because somehow, it seems less show-offy, less girls-shouldn’t-brag, less boastful, and more polite. Somehow, I’m a degree removed.

All day, I’ve had people congratulating me on the race. The feedback has been wonderfully huge, and Facebook tells me that almost 2500 people have viewed those pictures. And yet, I keep downplaying my run, skirting around the compliments, trying to exercise humility after a showy post. I’ve “aw, shucks”-ed a lot. “It was just a small race,” I tell people, “I only won because no one fast showed up,” or “I was dying out there.”

Wanna know the truth?

I felt great. I felt effortless. I felt invincible.

And it was a small race and none of the super-fasts came to play, but it was still my first win in years, my first bike escort, my first finish-line tape, and the first time my kids saw their mama WIN. An outright, unequivocal, black-and-white win that they can understand. They’ve seen me head out into the pre-dawn cold Sunday after Sunday while they stayed in their cozy pj’s. They’ve heard me huffing and puffing as I pushed all 80lbs of them in the double stroller on my last training run. They’ve watched me cross off numbers on my training plan and cross off days on the calendar. And then they saw me win.

I hope they learned that fitness is fun. I pray they learned to seek out a passion. I know they learned that if you work hard you get rewarded.

I recently read ‘Carry On, Warrior‘, in which the author, also a blogger, talks about how she has no shame. She writes, “I’m shameless. I’m almost ashamed at how little shame I have.” I can see where she’s going with this. As my own blog grows, I can feel my filter loosening. My take-it-or-leave-it growing. My this-is-me flourishing.

This is me. I ran a race. I won. And I’m damn proud that my kids saw it happen.

Ashley019

I Preach Movement

Leave a comment October 7, 2014 drworobec

***This post was originally written as a Guest Blog post for Momstown.ca.

This is my final post for Momstown, as I’m finding the time commitment to be too much when my personal blog is where my true passion lies. It’s been a great experience with a wonderful company and I’ve learned a lot about the world of blogging!***

~~~~~

With a five-year-old and a two-year-old in my house about to embark on their respective SK and Nursery School starts, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ‘teacher role’ I’ve played in their lives to date. I’ve been fortunate to work part-time, and so I’ve been able to spend the vast majority of my daytime hours with their amazing little selves by my side.

I’ve thought back to the practical skills I’ve taught them: putting on coats, taking off shoes, washing hands. I’ve thought about the academics: colours, numbers, shapes. I’ve thought about the life skills: taking turns, using manners, saying hello. But if I had to choose one thing, just one thing, that I’m proud that they’ve learned from me, is that I’ve taught them to move.

They’ve learned that movement makes you strong. Movement makes you grow. Movement makes you confident, capable, and full of life. That movement makes you healthy. That movement is simply a part of life.

I practice what I preach, and I preach movement. They see me come home from the gym in the wee hours of the morning, tired and sweaty and happy. They see me huffing and puffing as I push them through the snowy streets in the running stroller. They see that we choose bikes rather than cars, exploring rather than TV, and playgrounds rather than movie theatres. They see movement not as a daily chore, not as a ‘physical activity requirement’, but rather as a normal part of every day.

Have you seen this phrase floating around?

screen-shot-2013-10-05-at-10-15-00-am