Terminology questions

Economic

Hi all,

I am a beginner in terms of learning the ins and outs of the
terminology involved in fitness and there are some terms that
have been coming up regularly both here and in articles I read
that I don’t fully understand. I would be grateful if anyone was
able to educate me.

Psoas

Is the psoas is the same as the hip flexor or is it something
else?

Am I right in saying that this is a muscle that and would be
built up by all exercises involving the hip, i.e. squat and
Deadlift, therefore strengthening it generally isn’t a problem
but rather tightness?


Rhomboids

Where exactly in the back is the rhomboids and what do they do
exactly?

How does you work them, if you were to isolate them how would
you do this? Is there such thing as a weakness in your rhomboids
and how will this show up in sporting performance and in general
outside sport?

Is there such thing as tightness in the rhomboids and how would
this show up and how would you sort it?


CNS

How exactly does the central nervous system work?

You can gain strength but not muscle by you CNS adapting (I may
be phrasing that badly) how does this happen?

What is overtraining the CNS and how does this happen? Does it
just happen to strength athletes, or is it a facto with
athletics and field sports and how do you avoid it?

BobbyOLeary

I can answer the anatomical stuff to start but I'll leave it to someone else to detail the other stuff.

Economic wrote: »

Psoas

Is the psoas is the same as the hip flexor or is it something
else?

Am I right in saying that this is a muscle that and would be
built up by all exercises involving the hip, i.e. squat and
Deadlift, therefore strengthening it generally isn’t a problem
but rather tightness?

The psoas muscle is a muscle that originates along your lumbar vertebrae in your back and joins another muscle called iliacus. This "new" muscle called iliopsoas then runs down and attaches to the top of your femur (roughly). Contraction of this muscle leads to hip flexion (closing of the hip joint) and so it is known as a hip flexor. Any muscle which crosses between the trunk and the leg anteriorly (the front of the body) can be classed a hip flexor.

And you're right, tight hip flexors are a bigger problem than weak ones.

Rhomboids

Where exactly in the back is the rhomboids and what do they do
exactly?

How does you work them, if you were to isolate them how would
you do this? Is there such thing as a weakness in your rhomboids
and how will this show up in sporting performance and in general
outside sport?

Is there such thing as tightness in the rhomboids and how would
this show up and how would you sort it?

The rhomboids are located between the spine and the lower half of your scapulae (shoudler blades). Rhomboid Major and Minor are involved in what is known as stabilising the scapulae. Essentially the muscles contract to "lock" the scapula in place and to prevent it from moving during a movement. Think of a bench press where you pinch your shoulder blades together prior to a lift for stability. This is rhomboid major and minor (along with levator scapulae) working to stabilise the scapula.

Band work is the way to go for working these. Transform has some good videos on it if I'm not wrong.

Dunno about tightness, I've never read about that.

Hope some of that helps, I'll pop by later to fill in some more if someone else hasn't.

kumate_champ07

CNS is important for deadlifting, you learn to fire all muscle groups at the same time, everything working together in perfect harmony, it allows a more efficient lift.

Its kind of about a 'mind-muscle' connection, thats my short explanation/opinion

d'Oracle

Economic wrote: »

CNS

How exactly does the central nervous system work?

http://health.howstuffworks.com/brain-nervous-system-ga.htm

kevpants

Economic wrote: »

CNS

How exactly does the central nervous system work?

You can gain strength but not muscle by you CNS adapting (I may
be phrasing that badly) how does this happen?

What is overtraining the CNS and how does this happen? Does it
just happen to strength athletes, or is it a facto with
athletics and field sports and how do you avoid it?

CNS is actually a misnomer. Your CNS has nothing to do with lifting it's your auxiliary or external nervous system or something AFAIK.

What it means when people talk about it is the neural aspect of lifting. The pathways where your brain sends impulses to your muscles etc telling them to exert force. If this systems becomes fatigues you get weaker. By stressing/resting this system it gets stronger.

This is the difference between mass and strength and the benefits put forward by practitioners of lifting heavy singles. Extra muscle doesn't necessarily mean extra strength. The neural aspect is more important.

It's like when Superman fell off his horse. Adding mass to his quads wasn't going to make him walk again. It's the neural pathways that were broken. Same if you want to squat 200kg. All the muscle in world won't move it if the neural part isn't ready.

Roper

Psoas- what Bobby said. Having mobile hips is vital to your general as well as athletic health. Deep lunging, sumoing, overs and unders, hurdle steps will help you have this.

Rhomboids- what Bobby said bar the videos thing. I actually haven't seen any good videos explaining band work/scapula stability work online. We do stuff that simply doesn't translate to video or text. Scap push ups, pullups, vertical and horizontal band work as well as face pulls all require a level of concentration that I've never seen explained well online. Maybe I just haven't seen every internet video though.

CNS- spot on kevpants, it's not technically your CNS but your PNS (peripheral). Your brain doesn't actually lift the weight for you, if it did, I'd be a fvckin legend as I'm smrt. No really the PNS functions differently to the CNS but the term CNS is fair enough I think though my biologist friend would disagree.

Racy

Rhomboids - At the dan john seminar weak rhomoids were mentioned as being one of the most common problems people have whether they are an experienced lifter or a beginner. He showed us an exercise called batwings which can help with improving your rhomboids, i can't find a video but what you do is:

Lie face down on a bench holding a light db like 5 to 10kg pull your hands up until your thumps are in your armpits, hold the weight in this position for 5-10seconds and then release, repeat 5-10 times. Kettlebells work better but weight is weight.

kumate_champ07

I should have stated *single rep deadlifts, its important for very heavy lifts.

Economic

Thanks lads there were some great explanations there but now I got some questions about the answers

I think I have an understanding of the what I asked and thanks to everyone for that. I just have a few qustions on the answers you gave me.

For Roper:
What are over and unders?
What are hurdles steps? (is it a dynamic stretch?)

For Racy:
I presume Dan John said that rhomboids were a problem in expierenced and begining lifters because as Bobby said you need them to contract so that they lock the scapula in place while lifting and if you can't get them to contract your more or less lifting from an unstable surface?

Did he say why they were a problem with most lifters?

Feel free to correct me on any way I've phrased anything.

Thanks again.

Roper

Economic wrote: »

For Roper:
What are over and unders?
What are hurdles steps? (is it a dynamic stretch?)

take an Olympic bar and walk over it, then lunge under it, sideways. You've just done an over and under. Step over the same bar like a hurdler, step back. You've just done a hurdle step. There are too many coaching points to explain here. By and large that's it though.

I presume Dan John said that rhomboids were a problem in expierenced and begining lifters because as Bobby said you need them to contract so that they lock the scapula in place while lifting and if you can't get them to contract your more or less lifting from an unstable surface?

Sod everyone else I'll answer. The ankle bone is connected to the, knee bone. The song goes on and on and basically to sum up it says that everything is connected. Your upper body is a unit in itself and imbalances between front and back cause damage over time, particularly to the shoulders. Proper scapular stability is vital to the shoulders.

Did he say why they were a problem with most lifters?

Because no one likes working their back, everyone likes to bench and pump the guns. Stabilisation exercises are boring, repping big weights is exciting and attracts girls, and the kind of girls who are attracted to men repping big weights are the wrong kind of girls. The wrong kind of girls are the best kind.

Economic

Roper wrote: »

Sod everyone else I'll answer. The ankle bone is connected to the, knee bone. The song goes on and on and basically to sum up it says that everything is connected. Your upper body is a unit in itself and imbalances between front and back cause damage over time, particularly to the shoulders. Proper scapular stability is vital to the shoulders.
Because no one likes working their back, everyone likes to bench and pump the guns. Stabilisation exercises are boring, repping big weights is exciting and attracts girls, and the kind of girls who are attracted to men repping big weights are the wrong kind of girls. The wrong kind of girls are the best kind.

Thanks man you've just made up my mind for me, I had been going down the wrong track. I need a biceps day, a chest day and though you don't mention it a abs day ( I think I'll be exercise specific and call this crunch day) Now just one more question these "wrong type of girls" where can a man find them if he knew a friend looking for one?