Looking For A Challenge? Try the Snatch Grip Deadlift
Do you think you’re rather adept in the weight room? Feel pretty strong? You approach the loaded barbell, it’s deadlifting time, oh yeah, you’re a beast at this. Suddenly, the door creaks open behind you… a slow cadence of footsteps approach (maybe there’s a jingle of spurs to add to the ominousness).
“So, *snort* you think you’re some-bod-ee huh?” says a raspy voice. “Heh, heh, heh, heh,” the voice laughs derisively.
Beads of sweat break out on your forehead and the chalk on your hands slowly starts to disappear on your sweaty palms. It can’t be. Not him. Not today…
The snatch grip deadlift.
Yes, the snatch grip deadlift, the most humbling lift to ever saunter into a weight room. O! The abhorred and feared snatch grip deadlift! The bane of lifters’ pride everywhere. Like Mad-Eye Moody, the snatch grip deadlift looks a little scary, destroys weakness with the fervor of Moody attacking Death Eaters, and will humble proud lifters by turning us into bouncing, white ferrets.
Thus, if you’re at all interested in improving athletic performance, growing stronger, and upping your Jedi Mastery, then the snatch grip deadlift (SGD) needs to be in your strength box.
Why do them?
- The SGD improves hip mobility and increases the posterior chain muscles’ (glutes and hamstrings namely) strength rapidly. The starting position of the hips in a SGD is much lower than in a conventional pull, forcing the hips lower than a conventional or sumo stance. (Hooray mobility!) The hips must go through a greater range of motion which stretches the glutes and hamstrings at the bottom thus increasing the demand on said muscles to produce force. If the initial pull off the floor in a conventional deadlift is the weak link, the SGD is an excellent tool to strengthen the hamstrings (which play a prominent role in the first few inches off the floor). *Note* if you’re hip mobility blows and you’re unable to get to the bottom position without crumpling your spine, elevate the bar to a safe height, work on your mobility, and gradually decrease the elevation.
- Due to the wide grip, it challenges the upper back musculature and increases muscle recruitment of the following: erector spinae, rhomboids, rear deltoids, and the trapezius. Fellas, if you’ve ogled Bane’s traps, the SGD is for you! Ladies, you should not shy away from a muscular and well developed back; we don’t have enough testosterone to look like Bane (though, in my head, I am the female Bane) so train hard and do not hesitate to add SGDs into your training!!
Strong backs = more pull ups
- SGDs increase vertical jump height (all the basketball and volleyball players just perked up their ears…) Wha? That’s right, a very good jumper Please note that there will be additional updates from Power charter school during roster verification. will rely hip extension, not knee extension, to grab some air. Hip extension is created by glutes and hamstrings where as the quads and calves are responsible for knee extension. As informed readers and lifters, you all know that the glutes and hamstrings are FAR MORE POWERFUL than the quads and calves, especially in jumping. Look at these two pictures.
Notice any difference? The first is knee extension dominant while the second is hip extension dominant. Olympic lifters train the SGD (since it’s part of their sport) and I think their verts are pretty good?
Hopefully by now you’re convinced that you should add SGDs to your training. Let us, therefore, speak upon the subject of form.
1. Choose a conservative weight. Anywhere from 50-70% of your max. Actually, I’d start even lower if this is the first time, but that’s your decision.
2. Set up like a conventional stance, feet somewhere around shoulder-hip width.
3. Find your grip width. Kneel by the barbell, spread out your arms. Bend 90 degrees at the elbow, and move your hands straight down. That’s your grip (or at least a good starting point. Depending on your levers, you may have to adjust). I would do this before you’re first rep just so you don’t feel funky at the top. I’d also do this when no one is watching because, as my husband pointed out, you’ll look like you’re trying to do the Robot.
4. Grab that barbell, deep breath and brace.
5. Drop hips into position. (Read Dip, grip, and rip)
5.5. (as you drop the hips) Pull shoulder blades down and together and try to bend the bar around your legs.
6. Rip that sucker off the floor. Repeat steps 1-6.
CLICK ME FOR VIDEO (curse the lack of embedding! Yes, I know my knees are a bit wide, but I have a funky hip that won"t let me pull my knee in more.)
DO NOT…
1. Round upper or lower back for the love of all things iron! If there’s rounding you need to either a) lower the weight or b) elevate the bar since your mobility might not be there yet.
2. Pop your hips up before lifting the weight off the ground. This movement is a sure fire way to piss off your back.
3. Rush your reps. NO BOUNCING the barbell between reps. Reset each time. Be patient, young padawan.
Tips:
- Practice your set up. Load the bar up heavy enough that you know you can’t pull it off the floor. Practice your grip and dip (see, you need to read that link about gripping, dipping, and ripping….). Pull yourself into the bottom position (maintaining a neutral spine) and hold for :20-:30. Repeat 2-3 times to work on the necessary hip, ankle, and upper back mobility.
- Use a hook grip. Not at all related to Captain Hook. (an actual hook would be rather useless in this case) Here’s a picture of the hook grip:
I switched to using it for my conventional deadlifts (to great success! Your grip is much stronger like this which negates the need for a mix grip (one hand under, the other over) the heavier sets.) and the SGD can produce a funky grip and it’s nearly impossible to use a mix grip on a SGD. The hook grip takes care of that. Though, it can be rather uncomfortable near the thumb joint (until you get used to it)
So, my fellow iron lovers, has the snatch grip deadlift won over your heart?
Where Athletes (Should) Begin
This past weekend, I took a trip back home to see my parents in Madison County, Va. Madison is a completely different world when compared to NOVA. The cows out-populate the people and most of the area looks almost exactly the same as it did when in the 70's. While there, I decided to get a crawl workout in at my old elementary school, which is actually shut down now and abandoned due to lack of a school-aged population to support it. Most people would consider this facility to be "out of date" because high-speed internet is in-accessible or because the cafeteria, auditorium, and gym were all the same room. But what I realized while there is that this school, despite being built in the the 50's, was outfitted with some of the best tools around for human and athletic development.
My workout that day was strictly work-capacity within my crawling pattern. So after a small warm up, I crawled for a set period of time in the field, switching between baby and spiderman variations (think fartlek style). This gave me plenty of time to think about the place where I spent a large portion of my childhood. As I looked at the playground that was next to the field, I realized that this type of facility is exactly what a lot of the athletes I see need.
As Head of Evaluations at SAPT, it's my job to find what dysfunction or deficit could be throwing off an athlete's movements and performance. This can be a mobility/stability issue, a vestibular issue (think balance), or a deficit in hemispheric communication (coordination, information processing in the brain etc.). Frequently, we as a society chalk up poor movement quality to poor mobility or a lack of strength, however I can assure you that those are rarely the roots of the problem. What I usually see are specialized athletes who may be able to perform the tasks of their sport or activities of daily living (perform, not always perform efficiently), but are extremely lacking in basic movement functions of the human body. A few common issues that I see include vestibular/balance issues, poor weight shift patterns, difficulty with coordination, especially within the transverse plain (rotating), poor scapular stability, and, of course, poor overall body awareness.
All of the previously listed movement deficits are caused more or less by not having a diverse base of movement. A lot of parents believe that their children playing the same sport year round is enough movement to keep them healthy. It's not. The truth is, the more they move within DIFFERENT activities and tasks, the better off they will be physically and even cognitively. This is why children have a naturally playful disposition. They want to play, which means moving and developing more neurological connections. The more engaging the activity, the better off they will be.
Now back to what I saw while crawling. Here is the playground that I was looking at:
You'll notice that there is a swing set (way in the back on the other-side of what used to be our special ed building), monkey bars, a balance beam, parallel bars, and pull up bars. What you don't see is a hop-scotch court, a tether-ball poll and a jungle gym. It was freakin' awesome and I had forgotten all about the time spent and the skills I developed on this playground. Take some time to imagine the abilities an individual would develop if they spent any amount of time on these pieces of equipment on a daily basis.
The swing would help to develop the vestibular system and its sensitivity with in the sagital plane (forward and back). This would help with awareness and could even carry over to weight-shift patterns due to the need to propel yourself. These weight-shifts are very hip dominant and actually load the anterior core, something our entire population could use. Let's also not forget how often, as children, we used to fling ourselves out of the swing, pretending that we were Evel Knievel jumping the Grand Canyon, then transitioning into a smooth tumble or landing into the grass. This helped us to learn force absorption and how to fall (or not to).
The monkey bars integrate scapular stability into a total body movement. It also helps develop grip strength and hand-eye coordination. Plus, when a child is on it their body rotates as they swing, adding to the activation of the rotator cuff and its ability to stabilize within multiple planes of movement.
The balance beam provides perhaps the most obvious of benefits, but I don't think many people understand just how crucial good balance is. In addition to the constant shifting of weight which gives a significant amount of sensory input to the vestibular system, the need to stay up on the beam forces the individual to properly interpret that input and respond by shifting to their center of gravity. Not to mention that it is dynamic when walking the beam so the center of gravity is ever-changing. The more centered an athlete can maintain themselves means the faster they will be able to shift to change direction.
Parallel bars can have a host of benefits depending on how they are used (yes, you can do more than dips on them). Similarly to the monkey bars they also provide scapular stability, but within different motions and angles. They also help to develop core strength and control as the child swings their legs back and forth.
Pullup bars also seem obvious in benefit when looking in the eyes of an adult, but have waaaay more benefit when you see them through a 9 year-old's eyes. Occasionally a child will attempt to knockout as many chinups as possible, but it's far more likely to see them doing something much more beneficial: hanging, swaying, and hanging upside down. I believe that most of us can remember climbing and fidgeting up a bar, kipping our way up and hooking our feet to hang upside down. What's the benefit? I feel the hanging and swaying have already been covered in the previous paragraphs, but being upside down throws a whole 'nother level of vestibular stimuli at them. Every rule of gravity is all the sudden flipped in the child's eyes. It challenges their whole perception and makes them start off of a blank slate for patterning, and they immediately begin learning.
Hop scotch is a fantastic game for early athletic development. I mean, it was developed by Roman solders to test speed and strength after all (they carried weights). This game not only teaches balance and footwork, but it also helps with force absorption. Many programs will throw athletes through speed and agility drills when the athlete has poor force absorption, mechanics, and pretty poopy single leg mechanics, which in turn can lead to disastrous results. But, if the athlete grew up playing hop scotch, then there's nothing to worry about and lil Suzie's hopscotch skills might just help her blow her older brother away in any cone or ladder drill.
Tether-ball is an extremely underrated game for more than just simple, hand-eye coordination. It's a multi-planar, open-loop activity that engages the visual cortex for feedback AND feedforward mechanisms. To put that in simple terms, it requires dynamic/reactive movements in multiple directions (something that is rarely a bad thing) and it gives feedback immediately after the movement as to whether the action chosen was effective (causing the child to more accurately adjust the next movement). It also requires the child to visually track the ball, predict its flight path, adjust their movement based off of the visual input and to execute the volley based off of previous feedback from past volleys. Combining all of these actions into one task helps to get the visual cortex active and force it to communicate with the motor control center. This helps with interpretation of visual, sensory input and theoretically can have carryover to MANY other activities besides just sports (let's not forget that people with dyslexia have been found to have low activity within their visual cortex). Not only that but due to the nature of the game, there is a fairly high volume of volleys, which means the player will get more feedback in one game of tether-ball than they would with other activities of similar benefits. So in short, tether-ball is freakin' sweet for development.
Last but not least, there was a jungle gym. These babies are like monkey bars on steroids. Not only can a child hang from them and swing to the next bar, but they can do it diagonally and laterally. They can also crawl over top of it, which as a quick google search will confirm, offers a plethora of physical and developmental benefits. Children will spend a lot of time hanging upside down from these as well and will even start to attempt to climb it upside down. This just adds to more vestibular and proprioceptive stimuli and puts it into a locomotive pattern.
All of these wonderful, accessible tools for human development were just sitting at a run-down, abandoned school. Many people would look at them as if they were dangerous, primitive structures, and a waste of time. Our society has become so wrapped up in sport-specific development that we've started to lose sight of what's really important. Many children today participate in the same sport year-round, getting used to the same stimuli and becoming, "stuck" within their movements, but justify it because it's exercise. When broken down, many sports only offer a limited degree of benefits on a developmental or movement scale. Sticking a child into only one or two sports (though better than them not doing any activity at all) means that they're only addressing a limited number of systems that affect our movement.. This is fine if the individual is further through their development and has had a very broad movement base, but that is seldom the case.
The funny thing about kids is they instinctively know exactly what they need. This is why EVERY child has a playful disposition and is always squirming around when they are told to sit still. How many times have you seen a 5 year-old spinning in circles to make themselves dizzy? Or perhaps throwing a random object in the area to try to catch it? Or pretend the floor is lava so that they can try to balance and walk over all of the furniture? We learn through movement and different movements teach us dfferent lessons to help us unctions through multiple situations. The hemispheres of our brain communicate through solving sensory-integrated tasks and movements. Limiting the amount of stimuli a child gets by having them do very repetitive activities or sitting them in front of a TV for, "educational" shows only provide a false sense of productivity for our society. The reality is doing so only limits their true potential. We tell them to stop playing around or to put that down and we wonder, "why can't he just concentrate?," "Why can't she EVER sit still?," Why is ADD so prevalent in our society?," "Why am I seeing so many movement dysfunctions in our youth?".... In a society that has watered down its physical education curriculum and that does not actually utilize the importance of free-play in development, I can't imagine why.
Think Critically and Don't Believe Everything You Hear. Example: "Forks Over Knives"
Recently, I decided to watch “Forks Over Knives,” since it’s on Netflix and I’d heard of this movie for a while (depending on who I ask, I’ve heard whisperings that it’s a “vegan propaganda” film or “the TRUTH!”. You can probably guess which group of people recounted which description.) Anyway, I wanted to watch it myself (without reading/seeking any other opinions) and see what all the fuss was about. Essentially, it was Dr. T. Collin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn trying to persuade the public to renounce their meat-eating ways in favor of a plant-based diet.
Before I go further into my thoughts about the film, I do want to emphasize that I whole-heartedly agree with one of the main themes: DIET AFFECTS EVERYTHING! By loading our bodies with whole foods, including LOTS of vegetables and fruits, we can combat and prevent many “lifestyle” diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer to a degree.) Doctors and other medical professionals would do their patients a much greater service if they advocated lifestyle/diet changes before prescribing loads of medications. Nutritional education and adaptions are MUCH safer (no nasty side effects) and cheaper options ($500/bottle medication anyone?). That message, I can stand behind, and think that those of us in the fitness industry should also seek to educate our clients on the importance of whole food, vegetable-heavy diets.
I also have no intention at all to attack vegans. If veganism works, power to you! The point of this post is not to dissuade any vegans/vegetarians (because I doubt I will, just as they can’t dissuade me from eating eggs) nor do I have a malicious intent to tear down veganism. Our bodies a vastly different and I have no business telling someone who strives to eat the best they can for health that they’re wrong.
I do however, intend to demonstrate why trusting a movie such as “Forks Over Knives” as gospel is not a wise idea. There were a LOT of questions that popped up in my mind during my viewing. The studies sited in particular raised my eyebrows. From my experience in researching nutrition topics, I understand that many scientific studies are either a) flawed or poorly designed or b) the results can be misinterpreted or skewed. We see this daily in the “New Study!” that newscasters spew forth every other day, without actually reading the study. (that’s a whole other blog post of wrath)
Here were a couple of my queries:
1. The movie compares a “standard Western Diet,” which I mentioned before in posts and how it’s not-so-great, and a “plant based diet.”
Ok, I get it, but does that mean there’s nothing in between? Does the fact that I eat meat and eggs negate the following: I don’t eat processed or fried food (I even make my own ketchup), I rarely have refined sugar any more, I eat roughly 4lbs of kale a week (you can ask Steve) and a crap-ton (actual measurement) of vegetables every meal, and tend to be a vegetarian on the weekends? Why are people like me lumped into the same category of eating as folks who eat McDonalds and slurp Slurpees three times a day? It was either one or the other. The film makers didn’t even acknowledge that there, perhaps, are healthy people out there who also happen to eat meat.
2. Speaking of meat, the movie referenced “animal protein” a lot. (You could make it a game: ten pushups every time “animal protein” was mentioned. You’d be VERY sore the next day.) However, it didn’t seem to include fish. Only chicken, beef, pork (which were almost exclusively bacon icons in the illustrations. See point above and I don't even like bacon!), dairy, and eggs. Um, last time I checked, fish are animals. Why wasn’t fish demonized or even acknowledged?
3. Dr. Campbell sites a study he performed on rats in which he had two groups of rats, one being fed a diet of 5% casein and the other 20% casein. Each group was injected aflatoxin to see which group resisted liver tumors/cancer. Two questions: 1) the movie said that casein was the main protein found in milk… um, isn’t whey also found in milk (and has been found to have a plethora of health benefits)? 2) The results of the casein study was very sneakily extrapolated and applied to “animal protein.” Doesn’t casein act differently in the body than protein from beef or chicken? Casein generally is the protein most milk intolerant/allergic people react to yet often they have no trouble with whey (my husband is one of those). Isn’t that an indicator that perhaps other proteins should have been tested as well?
4. In addition to emphasizing a hefty vegetable diet, Drs. Campbell and Esselstyn recommend that whole grains should be included. While I’m not a paleo advocate, nor am I “anti-carb” or “anti-grain,” I couldn’t help but think back to various posts I’d read from other smart people about the not-so-awesome aspect of grains (note: this post by Mark Sisson has lots of links to studies in it, so if you want to skip through and find them, please do so), specifically gluten in wheat, which Stephen Guyenet has graciously provided. Again, I'm NOT PALEO, but I do know that grains, gluten specifically, can cause problems in some people. Just something to think about.
5. There were several testimonies from various people that were in dire health straits. (you could almost hear the melancholy chords of a violin in the background). Two women in particular stuck out to me, one woman who was diagnosed with diabetes claimed,
“My diet was pretty abominable. I thought the two principle food groups were caffeine and sugar.”
the other,
“I ate all the chocolate candy I could eat. Ate every donut I could get my hands on. Oh I just loved things like that. A lot of gravy.” (this was said by a woman who had 2 heart attacks by age 59.)
Ok, even my lowly strength coach brain knows that a diet like that will lead to diabetes and heart attacks. It’s no wonder a diet that was anything but what they had been eating was going to make them healthier. When you start at the bottom, the only way to go is up. Also, since when are caffeine and sugar animal protein?
Ok, that’s enough questions for now. I had more, which spurred me to research some of the claims and studies presented in the film. Thankfully, I didn’t have to search for long. Denise Minger wrote a fantastic, objective, and fact-filled review here. I highly suggest you read her post. Seriously, it’s fabulous. She provides links to the studies, can site stated information, and I appreciated that she made no claims she couldn’t back up. I will share my favorite part (this is in reference to the rat study mentioned above):
Don’t get distracted by those red letters! What we’re interested in is the sentence near the bottom, which the film’s producers apparently didn’t notice: "In all, 30 rats on the high-protein diet and 12 on the low-protein diet survived for more than a year.”
Let that sink in for a moment. Maybe it’ll hit a little harder if I told you that in the “high protein vs. low protein” experiments discussed in this paper, 10 low-protein rats died prematurely while all the high-protein rats stayed alive.In other words, the overall survival rate for the 20% casein group was much better than for the 5% casein group, despite the fact they had liver tumors. The low-protein rats were dying rapidly—just not from liver cancer. And as we’ll see later, the reason the non-dead, low-protein rats didn’t get tumors was partly because their liver cells were committing mass suicide.
AND
Although Campbell is trying to explain why his rat studies have relevance for humans, this statement actually highlights why they usually don’t. In Campbell’s experiments—as well as the Indian study that inspired him all those years ago—the rats received very high doses of aflatoxin to initiate cancer in the first place. Protein only appeared to work as a cancer promoter in his studies, not an independent carcinogen. And even though the range of protein was reasonable for a real-life situation, the amount of aflatoxin exposure would be really hard to replicate unless you had a death wish and a bottomless stomach. Quoting Chris Masterjohn’s “Curious Case” article again, to get the sort of aflatoxin exposure that caused even a “barely detectable” response in Campbell’s rats, you’d have to eat about 1,125,000 contaminated peanut butter* sandwiches over the course of four days. I don’t know about you, but I doubt I could eat a lick over 900,000. More than that is just gluttony!
Oh I love when the truth come into the light! The rats died! I couldn’t stop laughing in disbelief at the blatant disregard of the film producers to NOT include that little bit of information. That’s kinda important don’t you think? It sounds so promising, the low protein group had no cancer… oh wait, that’s because they were dead. Oh, and the surviving low-protein rats’ livers were killing themselves, cell by cell. Nor did they bother to mention the amount of aflatoxin was waaaaaaayyy above the normal amount of exposure.
So I’ve written a lot. I’m sorry if I disappointed any that I didn’t respond with research of my own (Denise did such a thorough job and I didn’t want to steal her thunder; nor could I hope to produce anything close to the level of awesome as that post). The main reason I wanted to write this post was to encourage all of you to think critically about any nutrition or exercise related information that you come across, either through blogs (including this one), movies, advertisements, etc. There is a LOT of misinformation out there and that definitely contributes to all the conflicting opinions out there when it comes to the fitness/strength field. It’s important to seek the facts yourself, seek the actual studies that are sited to see if the information presented is really what the study demonstrated. I know reading research is tedious and often difficult to understand, therefore, find a few sources that you KNOW are trustworthy at dissecting research papers. (like Denise Minger, Stephen Guyenet, Alan Aragon, Bret Contreras to name a few, do an internet search for them).
I’ll admit, towards the end of the movie, I was starting to wonder if a plant based diet really was the best way, mainly because I was emotionally invested in some of the testimonies. I was ecstatic for these people who were healthier, happier, and had a better quality of life. My emotions were starting to skew my logical side and what I knew to be true. This is why it’s terribly important to critically examine information.
My encouragement to you (can be applied to ALL aspects of life): Too often our emotions rule over our logic. Let us break this habit.
Tips For Training While Traveling
Today's post is brought to you by Mike Snowden, traveler extraordinaire. The summer is a wonderful time to get out and travel for some vacation time. If you’re like most of us here at SAPT, you hit the road or jet set with a bar, some plates, a few kettlebells and a prowler. For those of you who may have forgotten a few of these trip essentials while you were packing, you may have to get a little more creative to keep up with your training. Below we’ve put together a few short workout ideas based on what you may have available to you.
Level 3- A Loaded Hotel Gym
If you are lucky enough to find that your hotel gym is fully stocked like SAPT (sadly, without the amazing staff) get in there and take full advantage of it. To ensure you are not spending your entire vacation in the gym, take a couple of days to train the body as a whole. In a recent post, Kelsey spoke about training 5 movement patterns in the same workout. The order of these movements and the exercises can vary but focus on completing an exercise from each group:
1) Hinge- Ex: RDL, Kettlebell Deadlift
2) Squat- Ex: Goblet Squat, Step back Lunge
3) Press- Ex: Bench Press, Floor Press, Overhead Press
4) Pull- Ex: TRX Row, Pull Up, Chest Supported Row
5) Carry-Ex: Farmers Walk, Waiter Carry
Level 2- The Gym That Looked Better Online
If you arrived on site to find your hotel gym is a room with a flat stability ball and a few dumbbells don’t worry because things are still looking up. With the limited tools you can still focus on the same principles as the level 3 crowd. An important change to make here is pay more attention to the tempo of each reps. Now you can get creative and add some isometric holds. If you want to really have some fun, slow your repetitions down by taking 3-6 seconds to lower followed by 3-6 seconds to lift the weight.
Level 1- A Hill/ Stairs
This is level 1 but it’s still pretty awesome. Running a hill or hitting some stairs are great ways to expend some energy (Hello Lactate!!). One effective way to tackle this task would be to run to the top and walk back down as your recovery period. If you want to turn it up a notch knock out some PUPP work at the top and a mobility exercise like a Yogaplex at the bottom before your next run. Use this time to work on getting extra supple by doing some mobility and soft tissue work. A frozen water bottle (Smart Water has a nice shape) works great as an impromptu foam roller.
There you have it! A few ideas to keep you fit during the busy summer travel season. Happy lifting!
Off-Season Recommendations for Track & Field Athletes
Today's post is brought to you by the Goose-Man himself. As a collegiate decathlete, Goose knows a thing or two about off-season dos and don'ts. The principles dictated here can be extrapolated to most any field sport: soccer, lacrosse, football, etc.
Off-Season training for track athletes is a time to give the body a break from all the pounding it took during the season and prepare it for the punishment it’ll face during the upcoming season. This isn’t necessarily the time to work on explosiveness or power, but it is a perfect time to prepare your body to move fast. Here are 4 things you should focus on to reap the most benefits from your off-season training:
- Strength
- Body Awareness
- Posture
- Range of Motion
Strength
Regardless of event (sprints/hurdles/throws/jumps/distance) increases in muscular strength will decrease the chance of injury by preparing your body to deal with the stress of training. However, this doesn’t mean pick up the closest body building magazine and go to town on the hottest new workout for your beach muscles.
You don’t say!
When you run there are two chains, or groupings, of muscles doing work: the posterior chain - calves, hamstrings, glutes, and lower back - and the anterior chain - quads, abs, and hip flexors. The posterior chain muscles are the main movers when running; these muscle produce the force needed to move forward while sprinting and upward while jumping. The anterior chain muscles help stabilize the hips and ensure a smooth power transfer from your legs to the ground.
Field event athletes such as throwers and pole vaulters should also focus on increasing upper body strength. THIS DOES NOT MEAN BICEP CURLS AND TRICEP EXTENSIONS ALL SUMMER!!! Focus on strengthening the shoulders (think overhead pressing variations)and upper back muscles for they will be doing most of the work for throws or vaults.
Body Awareness
Improving your proprioception, the brain’s ability to sense the position and movement of all body parts through space and time, is something not many athletes think about but most would benefit from. Knowing where your body is in relation to it's surrounding is helpful when: performing rotational techniques while throwing, staying inside the lanes when sprinting, controlling your body over hurdles, maneuvering in mid-air when pole vaulting, and running in a tight pack during distance races. It can also help avoid injury by aiding in regulation of body biomechanics/movements while lifting or training.
One of the most efficient ways to improve proprioception is simply by focusing on your own movements. This may sound obvious but the fact is that the ability to focus is a skill, and like every other skill it needs to be practiced! Weight lifting and training should be as much a mental activity as they are a physical activity. Focusing on your movement throughout warm up routines, lifting sessions, and event practices will increase your proprioception to the point you’ll be able to “feel” when you do something wrong.
Posture
Another aspect of training often forgotten is posture. Distance runners and sprinters must maintain an upright posture with a neutral pelvis in order to maximize the power produced by their anterior chain and maintain a high forward knee drive. Throwers, whether they spin or glide, will have to maintain some type of event specific posture to maximize their efficiency through the power position on each throw. Most track and field athletes who suffer from bad posture exhibit either an excessive anterior pelvic tilt or a protracted shoulder girdle . In layman’s terms they often have an arched lower back or rounded shoulder.
Anterior pelvic tilt can hinder running performance by reducing the levers on the anterior chain muscles by placing the body in an awkward position. Specifically for sprinting, this affects stride length and power by allowing the legs to flail back too far after each step. The further back your legs go the harder it will be to cycle them back forward with a high knee drive, thus hindering the body’s ability to produce forward motion. This may result from weakness in the abdominal muscles, hamstrings, and/or glutes. Tightness in the hip flexors and spinal erectors can also contribute to this. Strengthening your core and anterior chain as well as incorporating flexibility work will help remedy this problem.
Protracted shoulder girdles will have detrimental effects on the health and performance of overhead athletes like throwers and pole vaulters. Rounded shoulders increase the risk of injury during activities where the elbows are over the shoulders or behind the shoulders such as shot putting, pole vaulting, or throwing the javelin. (note from Kelsey: since the shoulder blade can not glide properly, all kinds of pinching and fraying of tendons and ligaments can occur in the shoulder. Set your blades free!) This can also decrease shoulder range of motion which will hinder performance by decreasing the “pull” you can get on the javelin or shortening the “orbit” on your discus throw. This condition results from weakness in the scapular retractor muscles, like the trapezius and rhomboids, as well as tightness in the pectoralis minor. Strengthening the scapular retractors and diligent use of SMR techniques will help rid you of this problem.
Guuuuurrrrrl, look at his posture!
Range of Motion
Range of motion (ROM) refers to any joint’s ability to move through its full potential of movement in all three planes of motion. In layman’s terms a joint’s ability to move in all the ways it is supposed to move. Optimal range of motion requires both flexibility and stability. Flexibility deals with a muscle/tendon’s ability to stretch and allow limbs to go through the full range of motion of a joint. Stability deals with the muscles surrounding a joint and their ability to keep that joint in place while it moves. (Note from Kelsey: both these components MUST be present for safe and efficient movements.) Improving full body, all joints, ROM can be beneficial to all track athletes. It helps throwers hit a better power position, increases the length of a runner’s stride, improves the technique of hurdlers, and allows jumpers to more easily maneuver their bodies in the air. Please reference the SAPT Blog or YouTube Channel for articles and videos on exercise to help you on your quest for suppleness!
Off-Season Training: Overhead Athletes
Last week, we laid out some general guidelines for athletes heading into their off-seasons. You should read it, if you haven't already. Today, we'll delve into some specifics for overhead athletes (i.e. baseball, softball, javelin, shot put, swimmers (though it seems as if they never have an off-season), etc.). Shoulders are rather complicated and annoyingly fickle joints that can develop irritation easily which is why proper attention MUST be paid to shoulder mechanics and care during the off-season. There is nothing "natural" about throwing a heavy object (or a light one really, really fast) and shoulders can get all kinds of whacky over a long, repetitive season. I'm going to keep it sweet and simple.
1. Restore lost mobility and improve stability
- Hips: they get locked up, especially on athletes that travel a lot during the season (helloooo long bus rides). Restoring mobility will go a long way in preventing hip impingements, angry knees, and allow for freer movements in general. Locked up hips will prevent safe, powerful throws and batting, thus, now is the time, Padawans, to regain what was lost!
- Lats: Usually tighten up on the throwing side and create a lovely posture that flares the rib cage and makes breathing not-so-efficient. Loosen up these bad boys!
- Breathing patterns: Those need to be re-trained (or trained for the first time), too. Breathing affects EVERYTHING. Learning proper breathing mechanics will do a lot to restore mobility (T-spine, shoulder, and hips), increase stability (lower back and abdominal cavity), and create a more efficient athlete (more oxygen with less energy expended to get it). I've written about it before HERE.
- Pecs and biceps: These guys are gunky and fibrotic and nasty. Self-myofacial release is good, finding a good manual therapist would be even better, to help knead that junk out! One caveat: make sure that as you release these two bad boys, you also add stability back into the shoulder. This means activating lower and mid-traps and the rotator cuff muscles to retrain them to work well again. Why? Most likely, the pecs and biceps are doing a LOT of stabilization of the shoulder (which they shouldn't be doing so much) so if you take that away through releasing them, one of two things will happen: 1) injury will occur since there's nothing holding stuff in place, 2) no injury, but the pec and/or bicep will tighten right back up again as your body's way of producing stability. So, mobilize then stabilize!
2. Improve scapula movement and stability
Along the lines of restoring mobility everywhere, the scapula need particular attention in overhead athletes as they are responsible for pain-free, overhead movements. Below is a handy-dandy chart for understanding scapula movements:
Now, over the course of the season, an overhead athlete will often get stuck in downward rotation therefore at in the early off-season (and throughout really) we want to focus on upward rotation of the scapula. Exercises like forearm wallslides are fantastic for this.
Eric Cressey notes that the scapula stabilizers often fatigue more quickly than the rotator cuff muscles. This means the scapula doesn't glide how it should on the rib cage, which leads to a mechanical disadvantage for the rotator cuff muscles, which leads to impingements/pain/unstable shoulders.
As we increase the upward rotation exercises, we want to limit exercises that will pull the athlete back into downward rotation, i.e. holding heavy dumbbells at their sides, farmer walks with the weight at sides, even deadlifts.(whoa now, I'm not saying don't deadlift, but limit the volume on the heavy pulls for a few weeks, and like I said in the last post, training speed work will limit the amount of load yanking down on those blades.) Instead, athletes can lunge or farmer carry in the goblet position (aka, one bell at their chest).
There is more to be said, but let us move on, shall we?
3. Limit med ball work
At SAPT, we back off on aggressive med ball throwing variations for the first couple weeks post season as the athletes have been aggressively rotating all season. Instead, we'll sub in some drills that challenge the vestibular such as single-leg overhead medicine ball taps to the wall. (I don't have a video, sorry.)
Or, stability drills such as this:
If we do give them some low-intensity throws, we'll have them perform one less set on their throwing side than on the non-throwing side.
4. Limit reactive work
We don't usually program a lot of sprint work or jumps the first few weeks. If we do program jumps, we'll mitigate the deceleration component by adding band resistance:
5. Keep intensity on the lower end
As mentioned in the last post, instead of piling on weight, we enjoy utilizing isometric holds, slow negatives, and varying tempos to reap the most benefit from the least amount of weight. We also maintain lower volumes over all with total program.
There you have it! Tips to maximize the off-season and lay a strong, stable foundation for the following season!
