Strength as a Foundation

On March 15, 2013 I became a regular person - well my perception of regular anyway - and I love it!

Why did I have to relinquish my super-hero status? I’ll leave it at this: I saw my dreams not just faltering, but failing. So, to get back on track, I stopped working two full-time jobs... which I had been doing for years for "fun" versus necessity. I took a break from my love-affair with iron. I also sit more than I have in about 15 years... that's a mega regular person activity!

Well, if we fast forward to today, my big dreams in life are properly realigned and effectively back within reach. But, I want to talk about what has happened to my physical foundation over that time.

SAPT’s methodology is based on the approach of Strength as a Foundation. We use various examples to explain why this is the best approach for building speed and explosiveness, but my favorite is “imagine shooting a cannon out of a canoe” sounds silly, right? Well that’s because it is. Never having operated an actual cannon myself, I can still easily imagine how ineffective and potentially dangerous it would be to try to shoot the thing out of a canoe.

The same concept holds true for performance training. If Strength as a Foundation is ignored, you’ve effectively set yourself or your child up for ineffective and potentially dangerous training.

Okay, so getting back to my little story: since becoming proudly “regular,” I’ve been working out at home and put a huge emphasis on improving my overall fitness. “Fitness” in this case meant I wanted to put a big focus on improving my cardiovascular system's functioning and efficiency. My exercise of choice? Running. And because of time limits I have only been lifting an average of 20-minutes, twice a week... but my running workouts stick around 60-90 minutes, 4-5 days a week.

Do you see where this is heading...?

I've let my foundation crack. My strength foundation. It sort of sucks. But, I planned for this to happen... I guess I just didn't know what it would feel like once I arrived. I've been lifting consistently since I was 19 years old. The longest break I’ve ever taken (up until this year) would have been a MAXIMUM of one week off from lifting. Crazy, but this 20-min/2x per week lifting has been going on for almost 4-months. With several weeks in there taken completely off from lifting.

I’ve been trying to shoot a cannon out of an ever destabilizing canoe. Attempting to keep up such a high volume, frequency, and intensity of running without maintaining my strength foundation is trouble. I’m feeling it now.

My goals have been accomplished in terms of “fitness” but I’ve been surprised what a slippery slope running that much and lifting that little has been. It’s like the losses are compounded. My knees often ache and the muscle mass in my legs (read: glutes and hamstrings) has dropped significantly.

What’s the plan and what’s the lesson?

I need to build muscle and lift weights more frequently. That’s the plan. And the lesson? As advertised, running really is detrimental to strength levels. I’m undecided about how I feel about this. Where I am in my life, running really lines up well with my mentality and goals. I can’t even begin to tell you how many excellent ideas I’ve had while running... SAPT was actually conceived during a run 6-years ago(!). But, I need to prioritize more prehab exercises to keep myself on the trails. In terms of the biggie compound lifts, eh, I’ll probably continue to take a break. 13 years straight of weight training means I’m certain the lure of the iron will pull me back when the time is right. In the meantime, I’ll continue setting a laser focus on building an amazing business and embracing my “regular” side.

Last week I attended a workshop on marketing for the small business owner. It was amazing and led by John Jantsch who is *tha guy* when it comes to this topic. As much as I believe the experience has already had a permanent and positive change on SAPT, I will try to exercise some self-control and stay on-topic. I do mention the experience for good reason: the first - and most tangible - impact from this workshop for our readers is in how we deliver content on the blog. Here are the changes you can look forward to:

1. Each month will have a theme that each primary (MWF) post will address. This month's theme: Give Me Strength!
2. We will be attempting to up our quality from an internal standpoint by actually editing posts ahead of time.
3. All this requires *gasp* planning, so posts should be more reliable with few, if any, missed posts.

Please engage if you like or hate or even have no feeling about what you read here!

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Lifting & Running = Monster Benefits - An Intern Post!!!

This week we're going with one theme: RunFAST. This is the new program we've been developing that we'll officially take the lid off of on Friday. I have to acknowledge, we're offering something totally new, so we're gonna take it slow and start with a post a bit more traditional in terms of the usual SAPTstrength banter. But check the blog every day this week. We've got 5 killer posts lined up.

For the first RunFAST post, one of our interns has written a fantastic post describing in detail the benefits of lifting for ALL TYPES OF RUNNERS (yes, you distance folks can enjoy this, too!).

Why should you listen to this guy who I just admitted is an intern, well, he's a special intern. His name is Gustavo Osorio (or Goose from here on out) and he just graduated from George Mason. Goose was a member of the track team and a stellar decathlete who very recently repeated as CAA champion! Pretty cool, right? This guy knows his stuff. I learned a few things myself and, given that I was his strength coach, that means he really knows some awesome details about high-performance.

I opened up comments again, so please post your thoughts and share with friends. Here we go:

Lifting And Its Benefits For Runners!

“Strength is the foundation for excellence,” this is a mindset I’ve come to respect and adopt for myself after my short time here at SAPT. When you think about it a strong body is a health body, one capable of efficiently moving in any way and letting a person’s athleticism truly shine. Strength is without a doubt the foundation for speed and agility. This concept that may seem foreign to many runners because of all the myths regarding resistance training and running. Many runners and even some running coaches are under the impression that hitting up the weight room once in a while will only result in injury, getting “bulky”, and losing that speed they’ve worked so hard to achieve. When, in reality, a well-structured resistance training program can make the body bulletproof, make your muscles more efficient without bulk, and boost the training effects of your running workouts (aka make you faster).

Myth #1: Lifting (squatting and deadlifting) is bad for your back. Don’t do it!

When performed correctly and with the appropriate assistance work squats and deadlifts can help you build a bulletproof back, glutes, and hamstrings. All three of these muscle groups also happen to be three of the most common sites for sprains and injuries on runners. Coincidence?? I think not! When running you’re lower back acts as a shock absorber, while the glutes and hamstrings are used for force production to propel the body forward. If an individual doesn’t strengthen these muscle groups and continues to constantly hammer them with more running eventually the muscles breakdown from overuse and an injury occurs.

On the other hand, if an individual strengthens these muscle groups they reduce their chances of injury and increase the work load their body can handle. This means they’ll be able to put in more work on the track during practice and, when meet day arrives, fast times will be run!

Fun fact about elite runners, whether it be a sprinter or a distance runner, is that they have some type of year around resistance training program implemented into their training. When you get to the Olympic level and everyone is tenths of seconds away from each other, keeping your body healthy through resistance training makes the difference between being an Olympic medalist and not making the final.

Myth #2: Lifting will make you bulky and slow

A big fear amongst runners is that resistance training will put on too much “useless” muscle for them to carry around. Truth is, a resistance training routine will make you bulky and slow ONLY if you completely stop running and if you have no idea of how to make it sport specific. Just because you’re lifting weights doesn’t mean you’ll turn into the hulk overnight (or ever... let's be real here) but it can make your muscles more efficient at what they do. By training your energy systems through lifting you’re running can be exponentially enhanced. Think of your body as a car and that the energy systems providethree different types of fuel it runs on. These BIG 3 are: the phosphagen system, the anaerobic system, and the aerobic system.

The phosphagen system provide the equivalent of jet fuel for the body. It gives you tons of energy but it burns out super fast! How fast you ask?? Well it gives you enough for 6 to 10 seconds of all out exertion. It provides the energy for the beginning of every race and it is the most dominant energy system during short running event, 60 meters to 100 meters. It is also involved in any sport that requires any sudden bursts of speed and explosion such as basketball, baseball, football, and volleyball. This system is primarily trained through plyometrics and lifts that require high force production at high speeds.

The anaerobic system gives you a mix between jet fuel and regular gas, it still yields a high amount of energy and manages to last a bit longer, between 1 to 3 minutes depending on the intensity of the event. This system is the most dominant for the 400-800 meter distances.It is also involved in sports that require prolonged bouts of speed and some endurance such as boxing, wrestling, lacrosse, and soccer. This is a tricky energy system to train because it requires a mix of power training, muscular strength training, and some muscular endurance training.

The aerobic system gives the body the same effect gas would in a car, it doesn’t let you go blistering fast but it give you a constant stream of energy to keep you going for miles. This is the dominant system in athletes who compete in endurance events such as triathlons, marathons, long distance swimming, and cross country skiing. This energy system can be trained through circuit training and low weight/high rep/low rest lifting.

**WORD OF CAUTION: Train a certain energy system through lifting does not mean you’ll necessarily get faster. When you integrate a lifting program on to a running program correctly the two can complement each other quite nicely. However if all you do is lift aerobically and then expect to go run a marathon you most likely won’t finish.**

Myth #3: Lifting has no positive transfer to running.

Another great benefit of resistance training is the improvement in something called your Rate of Force Development (RFD). [Side note: Kelsey did an amazing job of going into great detail on RFD, if you haven’t read her posts I strongly recommend them! Part 1 and Part 2.] Basically what that means is how fast your muscles can produce a high amount of force. This is beneficial to runners and all athletes because producing higher amounts of force at a faster rate enable you to move faster. Through training this can help optimize your stride length (amount of distance covered per step) and increase your stride frequency (how fast your feet hit the ground) both of which will also make you faster.

This last bit is something most people often neglect, but it makes a world of difference in their running. Aside from improving energy systems and Rate of Force Development lifting can be used to improve running posture. When performed correctly the squat and the deadlift teach people to brace their core and to properly align their back so it’s in the neutral position. A lot of people can go through an entire running career (like myself) without ever realizing that this has a massive positive transfer to running.

The two pictures above demonstrate how the body should be aligned during the deadlift and squat. If you take a side picture of yourself you should be able to draw a straight line from your hips to the base of the head.

Let’s take a look at Tyson Gay coming out of blocks. You can make a straight line from his hips to his head, JUST like a squat or deadlift! Coincidence?? I think not!  By keeping his back in a neutral position and bracing his core he is getting the most propulsion out of the power he is putting on the ground. By keeping his core rigid (not tense) all the force being placed on the ground is not lost or being absorbed by an arched or hunched back. Same thing would happen if you lifted with a rounded back, the spine would absorb a lot of the force going up (deadlift) or down (squat) instead of letting your legs and glutes do the work.

Now take a look on the right at Carl Lewis, he is in the Maximum Velocity phase of the 100 meters which means he is trying to maintain his top speed for as long as possible. The line from the hips to the head is still there which means he is getting the most out of the force production. But that’s not all! Notice how his hip are neutral and not anteriorly rotated, his butt isn’t sticking out. This allows him to get a higher knee drive, cover more ground with his stride, and keeps him from kicking his leg too far back. A great way to teach this to people is the finishing position in the squat and the deadlift often referred to as the “lock out”. And like the squat/deadlift lock out phase if his hips were too posteriorly rotated, too far forward, he would put his back out of alignment and sacrifice kick back range of motion.

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My Experience with ART: Part I

For years I’ve been interested in restorative and rehabilitative techniques. Whether it be something in the “do it yourself” category such as foam rolling, or something a bit more invasive like dry needling (a technique used by doctors of physical therapy to release tight muscles in spasm), I'm always interested in finding out what seems to “work” and what seems to be an expensive waste of time.

One of the rehab techniques that really sparked my curiousity was ART, or Active Release Technique. Was it a fancy style of massage? Was it chiropractic manipulation? I came to find that it was a style of treatment that involved locating scar tissue in the body that is suspected of causing soft tissue restriction or dysfunction, and using a combination of manual pressure and the patient’s own movement to break up the gunk in the body and restore the tissue to proper function.

As I read more about it and talked to several patients that have had ART before, the general consensus was overwhelmingly positive. I couldn’t resist anymore and got myself an appointment with Grove Spine & Sports Care.

The Assessment/Evaluation

I came in with no urgent concerns or problems, but I knew that I had some movement dysfunction of my own. My hips are fairly tight and I will get some lower back soreness from a long day of sitting, and my left hip will bother me if I over-do it with squatting movements. I was very curious to see what kind of condition the soft tissue in my lower back and hips were in.

Just as I suspected, there was something up with my left hip. My hip flexors are both super tight, but even more so on the left side. I’ve always felt that this is pulling my spine into a less-than-optimal hyperlordodic position.

My hip external rotators on my right side were also locked up, causing me to turn my right foot out more when I stand or sit relaxed.

But the fun didn’t end there. There was junky tissue in my adductors, spinal erectors, QL, and some scarred up ligamentous tissue in my lower back.

So I proceeded to have much of this knotted up nonsense “released” by the good Doctor. The “releasing” consisted of having deep pressure applied to the restricted area, and then moving my own body in a way that would stretch the tissue against the pressure. For example, for my hip flexors, I started in a side-lying position and deep manual pressure was applied to my psoas right next to my belly button. While the pressure was maintained I had to extend my hips by throwing my top leg back and reaching up toward my head with my top hand.

I was warned that it may cause some deep burning and even a painful sensation, but I thought it just felt awesome.  I was still smiling throughout the session, so I guess that puts me at a 0-1 according to this fullproof scale.

After getting my left hip flexor, right external rotator, and left adductor magnus released I got up off the table to walk around and feel out my freshly ironed out hips. I must say I was very impressed. I did a few bodyweight squats and could definitely feel the increased ease at which I dropped down to depth.

The initial evaluation and first ART session was enough to convince me that there is something magical happening here. Of course it would be naïve to assume that my experience will be the same as others, but for those of you who have some nagging soft tissue aches and pains I definitely recommend you try it out! Stay tuned for further experiences with my future ART sessions.

10 Reasons You Should Swing Heavy Bells

So, I forgot to post on Wednesday. Sorry folks! To make up for it, I present this: As the title states: Swing. Big. Bells.

Me and Natasha, just swinging around.

1. Glute strength- Do you want a strong butt? Of course you do, that's why you read this site. Swings are fantastic glute builders. The glutes are the most powerful hip extensors so it makes sense to perform exercises that force the glutes to extend the hips... hmmm, sounds like swings huh? The powerful snap of the swing carries over into other lifts such as the deadlift and squat. The glutes also play in vital role in sprinting and jumping. So if you want to be the Athlete-Of-Steel, you needs buns of steel. Swing it baby!

Gotta build the wheels if you want speed!

2. Upper back strength- During the swing, the upper back is essentially holding an isometric contraction to maintain the "chest up" postion throughout the swing. The lats are working hard to keep the bell close to the body (so it doesn't go flying away and pull you with it). The rhomboids and the teres major and minor are doing their duty of keeping the shoulder blades down and back and keeping the humerus in it's socket (kinda important). Guess what? Chin/Pull ups require those muscles too.

All my ButtKamp Ladies are swingers (the G-Rated kind, not the other kind) and ALL my ButtKamp Ladies' have improved in the pull up/chin up. We now have 2 women who are able to do a body weight chin up...(Suzanne, above, is one. The day after this, she nailed it!) pretty awesome! Personally, I've noticed an marked difference in my pull up strength, both my 1-rep max (weight on my waist) and my total rep max (how many I can do) have increased. With all the work the lats and upper back do in the swing, I don't think it's a cowinky-dink. Once again, the upper back strength also carries over to the big girl/boy lifts: squats and deads. Try performing either with a weak upper back and you'll find yourself stapled by the weight.

3. Injury prevention/rehab for lower backs- I professed my love and belief in swings for back rehab on Wednesday. The nature of swings, strengthening glutes, upper back, the spinal erectors, and core muscles, perfectly align with the needs of most back-pain sufferers. Most of us have, weak glutes, upper backs, cores, and spinal erectors. I know mine were (thus part of the reason I have injuries). While I can't claim that swings will heal any injury, they can at least prevent further injury (or injury if there isn't one present) and build up the muscles that protect the injury.

4. Grip strength- When your forced to grip a heavy weight while it's moving, you're going to build up some pretty strong hand and forearm muscles. One of my weak links in the deadlift (and pull ups) was my grip. I found this out pretty quickly once I started doing high rep, heavy swings. My forearms were on fire and my grip often gave out before the rest of me did. If you like picking up heavy things and walking around, swings will help build up an iron grip so you can pick up heavier things and walk around even more.

Keep on walkin'...

5. Cardiovascular and muscular endurance- Don't like running? Me neither. I do love to swing though. Swinging is excellent for building up cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance (the ability for muscles to produce sub-max force over an extended period of time). Don't believe me? Try this: do a ladder of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Take a breath for every swing you do. How do you feel? Oh wait, I can't hear your over you pounding heart and labored breathing...

I see too many people talk while using this...

6. Core strength and function- During the swing, the midsection must remain tight not only to protect the spine, but also to transfer the force of the glute contractions into the bell to swing it. The core has to also be able to relax slightly so you can breathe throughout the workout (pretty important piece of exercise, that breathing. Generally, you inhale on the way down, brace on the way up, and breathe out forcefully at the apex of the swing.) and immediately brace for the next cycle of contraction as the bell swings forward. For those with back pain, sometimes the core muscles aren't firing in the right order. Swings help retrain the muscles in this sense.

7. Joint-Friendly conditioning- As mentioned, swings are pretty safe for those with back injuries (most of the time anyway). They're a perfect conditioning tool for those with cranky knees, ankles, and shoulders (mostly). They're also good introductory training for deconditioned individuals as they're scalable to individual strength and fitness levels. Unlike running, which essentially is thousands of one-legged hops, swings have very little negative joint impact (the elbows can take a beating if the upper back isn't doing it's job though so be prudent!) so it's less likely that you'll sustain an injury and want to quit exercising.

Done...

8. Leanness- This is more anecdotal than factual, but swinging promotes leanness better than any other form of conditioning I've run across (outside of regular sprint sessions, which can take their toll on the system physically as they're pretty stressful). Coach Dan John has spoken of the power of the swing to help athletes/trainees maintain a lower body fat percentage and I've noticed in myself as well. It's not going to be the magic bullet, but for those who train hard and eat pretty well, the addition of swings can help pull the body fat down a bit without too much stress to your system.

9. Overall strength- Swings involve the whole body, in case you couldn't tell from the above points. If you want to increase your strength, add some of these in and you'll be amazed at the carry over into the rest of your workouts/activities.

Hagrid-like strength in a little body

10. Self-Defense- If swings help build up the glutes and hamstrings, which are the primary movers and shakers of sprinting, should you be attacked by zombies or some other terrifying creature, you'll be able to scamper away pretty darn fast. Or, if you're brave, just swing your bell at them and let go. 60+ pounds to the face will mess any body up. Pretty sure Kathy could take down any foe.

If those didn't convince you then, well, I have no words.

You're Doing It Wrong: Split Squats (lunges) and Knees Edition

I haven't done one of these posts in a while so I thought it was high time we had another "You're Doing It Wrong" post.

Diving right in, a common complaint we hear at SAPT is knee pain during split squat or lunge variations. Typically it's pain in the front of the knee, though sometimes it's on the sides as well.

*Disclaimer* Please remember that I'm not diagnosing anything and if these general fixes in this post don't help your knees feel better, I'd say there's probably an underlying issue that needs more digging either from a coach (for the easy, common problems like tight or weak glutes) or a therapist of some sort (assuming the coach refers you to someone if your pain is outside of their scope of practice).

Ok, so two of the most common errors we see during split squat/lunges are:

1. Pitching forward into the front knee with the shin angle less than 90 degrees to the floor. Typically, the front heel rises off the floor as well, thus limiting glute involvement in the movement (mostly of the front leg). Glutes don't like that; they like to be involved with exercise so don't leave them out!

2. Shifting too much of the body's weight to the back leg and crumpling into a ball of poo in the back. The front shin will often drift past 90. Again, this position takes out the glutes' involvement and puts too much emphasis in the quads. This causes more pressure to be exerted on the knee joint, which makes it cranky.

Here's a video to distinguish the two errors, followed by a correct split squat. Note that these form corrections carry over to the lunge variations as well.

So how do you do it right?

1. Keep a 70/30 weight distritbution of front to back leg.

2. Keep your front heel down and push through it (as if you were squishing a bug) as you straighten your legs.

3. Squeeze your butt and abs (hmmm.. that sounds familiar.)

4. Don't let your front knee stray over your toes. Your knees will be happier that way.

That's it! Follow those simple guidelines and split squats and your knees should work together like the Harry Potter Trio!