Time For Some Basic Body Maintenance
When you were a baby, you were able to stick your foot in your mouth. Think about that. Sticking your foot in your mouth. Try to do that now, and every 49 out of 50 of you will most likely find this to be laughable.
Why does this even matter? Well, an extremely simplified way of putting it is that if you're unable to draw ROM (range of motion) from a joint that is supposed to be able to provide it, then you're going to compensate at a joint that is not supposed to move. A quick example of this is that many people with low back pain tend to have stiff hips (their back is moving to pick up the slack, due to lack of mobility at the hips).
- If you’re a weightlifter, better mobility will improve your positioning during the set-up, thus giving you a greater mechanical advantage. This will allow you to move even heavier weight, and, more importantly, do it safely.
- If you’re an athlete, greater mobility is going to help you produce more force (a quick example being that improved dorsiflexion ROM at the ankle will prevent you from prematurely drifting on to the ball of the foot, thus allowing more force to come from the powerful posterior chain).
- Heck, even if all you care about is tending your garden well into your years, you’re be at reduced risk of back pain due to the fact you can sit into a deep squat without significant rounding of your lumbar spine.
I recently came across an old picture of myself getting ready to face-off, back in my competitive lacrosse days, that brought home the very point I addressed above (I'm in the red/black on the left): As you can see, I'm as low to the ground as possible. When getting into position for a face-off in lacrosse, it's generally accepted that one of the keys to gaining an immediate advantage over your opponent is to be lower than they are.
When looking at this picture, I was promptly struck by the fact that it was much easier for me to get into this position back in high school than it would be for me today. I didn't know it at the time, but I was asking my body to provide quite a bit of ROM at my ankle and hip joints, and also throughout my entire thoracic spine. This, in turn, would put me in better position to utterly destroy him win the face-off.
Anyway, this picture gave me a pretty large "pillow womp" to the face. I realized that, while I do perform about 10 minutes of mobility drills before my lifting sessions, it's not even close to the quantity I need to undue the hours of sitting (in my car, in coffee shops, at my desk, etc.) each week. Gradually, over time, I have lost mobility and created more positional problems for myself. I decided to make a greater effort in prioritizing my movement quality via some quality drills (which I show below).
Given that most of you spend 40+ hours per week (and this is probably giving you more than deserved credit), you'd be wise to listen up. This past Sunday I spent a good deal of time fixing up all the sticky junk restricting my motion. I took some pictures of some of the drills I've found to be the "best" in hopes that you can benefit, too.
Spend two minutes per side for most of these drills. Remember, doing some quick bodyweight squats before your lifting session isn't enough to undue the abuse you give your body from sitting (aka "the slow death position") 160 hours a month.
Before I begin, I can thank Kelly Starrett of the Mobility Project for a few of these drills. He's doing a great thing over there (to put it mildly) by encouraging people to daily work on their grody joint mobility.
For the first three, you can use any table or bench. The last picture shows a variation I'll use in coffee shops (not kidding), as it keeps my foot off the table. Think "chest tall" for all of these. You'll cover hip flexion+external rotation, throracic spine extension, and get in a bit of adductor work, too (in the first photo).
Next, we'll receive a bit of improved dorsiflexion ROM (in the top left photo), as well as some much-needed work on the iliopsoas and rectus femoris (a few of the hip flexors) in the right and bottom photos. You can use any wall or elevated surface for ankle drill, and can use a couch, chair, etc. for the right one. You'll need a sturdy resistance band for the bottom mob shown.
And, lastly, enjoy some extension of the thoracic spine (and perhaps a bit of stretching in the lats), by propping your elbows up on a bench:
For all of these drills, think "contract....then relax." Hold the stretch for about ten seconds, relax, and then repeat for two minutes or so.
You'll feel like a million bucks when you're done, not kidding.
My Vacation Post
I’ll warn you right now that this post doesn’t have an underlying message – sorry about that, but I’m on vacation and just feel proud I remembered to get my post up on time today! In fact, at this moment I’m sitting at the dining room table in our apartment overlooking the golf course at our resort in Phoenix and looking forward to a run and lift after I finish this post. Here are my scattered thoughts related to both training and vacation: I’ll admit Phoenix is hot this time of year, but humidity is the great equalizer. I swear 110 degrees in Phoenix at 30% humidity feels better than 96 degrees and 78% humidity in DC. Check out the photo, I had to document the car reading (the highest we’ve seen it is 124).
I caught the Wimbledon men’s final on Sunday and was struck by the single leg strength and hip mobility Djokovic displayed as he cruised to his first Wimbledon title. It’s really staggering if you think about it. The picture is, clearly, not from Wimbledon, but you get my point.
Yesterday, Ryan and I spent the day driving on the Apache Trail, which wraps around the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. The most noteworthy part was the 22-miles of off-roading (the Arizona Dept. of Transportation called it “unpaved”) we did in our rented Taurus. It was a lot of fun but that portion alone took us like 90-minutes to get through at 10-20mph. However, the big payoff are two lakes that can only be accessed via this unpaved portion and they are amazing! Well worth any damage the car we don’t own may have sustained.
As you can imagine the resort’s “fitness center” leaves a lot to be desired. BUT, it does have enough that I’ve already accomplished a couple of great circuits. Afterall, vacations lend themselves to a trifecta of eating, drinking, and sitting – I’m willing to do two of the three and this vacation I’ve chosen eating and drinking. For the rest of the week, I have no intention of letting my training drop off and will simply modify what I have already written for myself. Today will be:
A1 Broad Jump
4x3
A2 Spiderman Stretch
x3
DB Front Squat
5x5
B1 Lateral Stepdown
4x5
B2 3-Point Row
4x5
C1 45 deg Back Ext
3x8
C2 Something for Grip
3x:20
Happy 4th of July
I hope everyone is enjoying the 4th and having an opportunity to get outside, grill some awesome food, and watch some explosions later on today. If you have a cat, be sure he/she doesn't steal your drink (as Latte is doing in the video below). We'll be back tomorrow!
Bird-Dogs, Verticals, etc.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm experiencing some major writer's block this morning, so it's going to be short and sweet today.
1. I thought I'd share an exercise I've been using for some active recovery circuits, and as a filler exercise in some of our overhead athlete's programs. It's a sandbag walkup with a pushup position bird-dog at the top.
While this exercise may seem a bit "frou-frou" at first glance, don't knock it till you try it. In fact, most will need to start by lifting the arm only, as adding the alternate leg lift will cause many people to topple over.
Why I like it
- The hand-walking portion helps to promote scapular stability (via strengthening of the serratus).
- The alternate arm+leg lift gives you some pretty solid benefits in the trunk stability department, as your entire body will have to resist rotation (in the transverse plane) and hyperextension of the low back (in the sagittal plane).
- You can perform it nearly anywhere. Whether you're traveling, at home, in the gym, etc. all you need is something (a phone book, aerobics step, etc.) to elevate your hands on.
How to do it
- Don't fall over.
- The main thing you need to watch out for is hyperextension (excessive arching) of the low back and you lift up the opposite arm and leg.
- Hold each reach for a two-count.
- Perform for 6-10 repetitions.
When it comes to taking an off day, you either have people doing nothing, or you get those that consider 400m repeats and/or long distance running an off day. Both are sub-optimal and will most likely hinder your recovery process.
Toss in this walkup variation along with some mobility drills, crawl variations, bodyweight split squats, KB swings, etc. and you'll have yourself accelerating blood flow to damaged tissue, ungluing sticky joints, charging yourself for the following day's training session, and enjoying the sensation of undoing the musculoskeletal nightmare of sitting at a desk for 8 hours straight.
2. We just re-tested the vertical of Alexis (who plays for one of VA's premiere volleyball teams), after 16-weeks of training with us.
Long story short, her vertical jump improved 9 inches over the last 16-weeks. And yes, we're measuring absolute vertical displacement, not simply how far up she can touch (as she's grown 1/2" over the past four months, which we took into account). A huge congrats to Alexis for all her hard work!
How did we accomplish this? Simple. Lots and lots and lots, and lots, of jumping, "plyometrics," and endless agility drills. The more of these, the better. (Go back those two sentences again again, but with a healthy dose of sarcasm).
The reality is we rarely used more than 15 TOTAL jumps in a given session (and she only trained twice a week).
Increase the horsepower, the brakes, and the accelerator. Therein lies the key. Furthermore, most trainees can benefit tremendously from developing eccentric force absorption and muscle contraction (one example of this would be altitude drops....using the appropriate progressions), which will lay the framework for enhanced concentric strength potential. Then, Voila! We have more reactive and stronger athletes capable of greater force and power output.
W, T, Y, and I your way to a stronger serve, pitch, or bench press…
Initially, the vast majority of our clientele exhibit less than optimal upper-back strength/stability, and a drastic imbalance between the upper traps and mid/low traps (the upper traps proving to be dominant in this relationship). Considering a large portion of our clientele are overhead athletes, the scenario above provides a perfect recipe for shoulder dysfunction. Desk jockeys and bench press “specialists,” keep reading because you can benefit from the information below as well. One of the many drills we incorporate into our clienteles programming to increase strength and reduce asymmetries in the stabilizing muscles surrounding the shoulder blades is W, T, Y, and I. The clip below was taken from our online database of exercises that we use to coach our distance coaching clientele. Without further ado, I give you the W, T, Y, and I drill:
The drill’s benefit lies in the execution of the movement (what else is new, right?). A couple important coaching cues to note are as follows:
-Perform these drills on a flat-solid surface where one is parallel to the ground. This will ensure the delts and upper traps don’t take over the movement. My preferred surfaces are a bench, or treatment table. You’ll see these drills sometimes performed on stability balls or other unstable surfaces. I’d advise not doing them on these surfaces as it’ll detract from force output and subsequently the conditioning of the upper-back musculature.
-Avoid hyperextension of the lumbar spine (lower back) as this will again limit the effectiveness of the drill.
-Be sure to squeeze the middle of the back (lower and mid trap activation!) when performing these movements. If you feel like you’re shrugging to raise the arms, that’s a sign your upper traps are taking over and you’re now just compounding problems…
-If you’re having a difficult time performing them bilaterally (both arms simultaneously), try performing them one arm at a time.
-Try to relax the neck as much as possible; stare at the ground NOT the wall in front of you.
If you’re an overhead athlete it’s imperative that you address your upper-back through drills such as these. Honestly, your pitching career probably depends on it.
For our bench press “specialists” in the crowd, if you think addressing the retractors and depressors is a waste of your time, enjoy benching 185 the rest of your life…if you’re lucky enough to bench the rest of your life.
And for the desk jockey whose neck and shoulders kill him after a day at work, or weekend golf/tennis match, come see SAPT and we’ll get you right.
To improve your fastball, serve, bench press or just quality of life, give me a clicksee right HERE…
A pocket full of M80’s and Roman Candles…who’s coming with me…
Chris AKA Romo AKA "Put your dishes in the dishwasher, please"
Goal Setting at the 50% Mark
We are now halfway through 2011. Well, actually, tomorrow marks the halfway mark, but I'm preparing you in advance. You can thank me later, no worries. 50% of 2011 is gone, never to return.
How are those New Years Resolutions looking?
If your goal was to lose 30lbs of fat, have you lost 15lbs by now?
If your goal was to add 40lbs to your max squat (or bench, deadlift, weighted chinup, etc.), are you at least 20lbs stronger?
If your goal was to get in 156 workouts this year (that’s just averaging 3 workouts a week), are you on track to complete your 78th workout today?
Or even if your goal was to get in just 104 workouts this year (an average of two workouts a week), are you going in to take charge of your 52nd workout today?
It’s amazing how quickly time passes by. Don’t waste a single moment.
If your goal is fat loss, get back on track NOW. If your goal is muscle gain, start TODAY.
If your goal is to run a Marathon (*injury free*) next year, please don’t wait and try one of those “16-week” training programs (they’re a hulk of B.S., by the way). No one ever became world-class at something in 16-weeks. Begin your movement training, mobility work, dynamic flexibility, core work, energy systems development, strength training, and running training now.
Not sure where to begin, or having trouble holding yourself accountable? Easy. Hire a coach to guide you through the process. After a long day's work, the last thing you probably want is to worry about is knowing whether the workout you’re doing is actually optimal for your desired outcome.
Hiring someone to design the program for you, and walk you through the process, takes all the guesswork out for you. All you need to do is show up. Not to mention, you get to train alongside a group of other like-minded individuals, which will only fast track your progress and make training more enjoyable.
Not sure of the optimal number of sets and reps for a fat loss workout? Uncertain if you’re following the 80-20 rule in order to ensure you’re putting on muscle mass as fast as you could be? Confused as to how to efficiently prepare for your next running event? (Hint: the answer isn’t logging endless miles on the road each week).
Start now. Where are you going to be another six months from now?
It's a simple question: Look at your behaviors. Look at your goals. Do your behaviors match your goals?
But the time is going to pass anyway.
-Steve
