A couple of days ago a friend asked me 'What can I do to tone up? I don't want to injure myself but I need to turn things around.' Here's what I told him. First of all it's important to understand that this would be somebody that I wouldn't be able to coach and monitor the workouts. And this wouldn't be someone that I had worked with in the past that I knew their movement patterns, previous injuries and strength/weaknesses. Instead this was someone that wanted to 'tone up his upper body' (he flexed his biceps and grabbed it with the other hand as he told me this). And since he was highly motivated and wanted some help I gave the quickest answer I ever have regarding training as safely and as effectively as possible. Rule #1 - Maintain a stable head position You've probably heard the expression 'where the head goes the body will follow' and this applies to training. When you train you want to set the head in a neutral position and maintain that throughout your training. Too often we see people trying to crank out extra reps and they throw the head back (when standing) to generate some momentum and squeeze out another rep or two. Not only does this take stress off the working muscles, where you want it to be, it puts stress where you don't, such as on the low back. [caption id="attachment_4209" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Notice the position of the low back when the head looks up. ***quick drill to test this out...place your hands on your low back and look up at the ceiling...did you feel your low back relax?...now look down at your toes...did you feel your low back tighten up?...keep your head stable and neutral to avoid creating motion through the...