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!

Lights Out

Lights Out As the lights went out in the 2nd half of the Super Bowl, many began asking how the players would maintain their focus. When uncontrollable distractions throw you off your game-plan what do you do? Do you start thinking about disadvantages? Do you start buying into the idea of momentum? Do you start thinking about the outcome rather than the process? Do you lose control of your energy?

The key is to make sure that you continue the same controlled routines that you use in any other breaks--pre-game, timeouts, halftime, etc. Routines help us direct our attention to a purposeful approach rather than useless distractions. Whether it's a 1 minute timeout or a 35 minute delay, go back to your routine so you are prepared for when the lights come back on.

Pullin' It Up

So, today I'll be spending the better part of the morning in the dentist chair... so fun right? Anyway, in an effort to NOT disappoint the faithful SAPT readers, I posted an old blog post of mine from Strong Girls Win. I wrote this last year around this time. Apparently there was an article in the Washington Post recently about how women can't do pull ups... to that I say, "Poop on you." Clearly, they've never been to SAPT or come to a Buttkamp class. ---------------------------------------------

**Before delving into the wonderful pull up let's make sure we're clear: chin up is when your palms face you and a pull up is when your palms are away.**

Pull ups! The nemesis of so many women but, hopefully, this post will help you get a hang of them and perhaps, even like them. I've grown to adore pull ups, mainly because I stopped thinking negatively about them ("I'll never be able to do them!" ... Stop it. Stop that thinking right now.) and approach them as a challenge I can, and will, conquer.

Don't let pull ups intimidate you.

Here is a quick overview of the muscles involved:

Latissimus Dorsi- aka, the Lats, yes I capitalize them because they are awesome enough to earn a capital "L." These are your money makers when it comes to pull ups. The Lats' are powerful shoulder adductors and extensors which is the exact movement the humerus (upper arm) goes through in a pull up. Adducting and extending the humerus =  pulling your elbows to your rib cage.

Biceps Brachii- aka, your "guns," flex the elbow (like when you do curls).

Rear Deltoids- their role is more stabilization so I'm going to leave it at that.

Unfortunately, and I include myself in this category, we tend to focus on the biceps doing all the work as we try to "curl" ourselves up to the bar.  Instead, we should be focusing on firing the lats, shoving our shoulder blades into our back pockets and pulling our elbows to our rib cage.  The lats are by FAR a more powerful muscle and can generate enough force to pull our chins over (yes, over) the bar. If we rely on the biceps we look like Demi Moore in GI Jane (before she figured out how to fire her lats):

look familiar, minus the shaved head?

So how do we go about unleashing the Pull Upping Power buried deep inside? Here's a couple methods I've tried and found them to be quite effective:

1. Banded pull ups- we do them here at SAPT.Find a band tension that will allow you to do 2-3 sets of 6 reps. Gradually decrease the tension as you get stronger.

2. Negatives- jump up and slowly lower yourself down in 5-6 seconds.  2-3 sets of 4-6 reps should be plenty.

3. Iso-holds - using a band or jumping up hold the top of the pull up (chin OVER the bar) hold for 4-6 seconds for 2-3 sets of 3 reps.

Choose one of these methods and stick with it for 4 weeks then try another for 4 weeks.  I recommend working on pull ups at least twice a week but no more than four times. Though if you're doing pull ups more than twice/week, choose 2 methods and alternate between the two.  I've found that females tend to respond well to higher frequency and volume when training the upper body.

Few quick pointers before wrapping it up:

In the above methods, really focus on pulling your elbow to your rib cage. Try to pull yourself through the bar.

Pavel Tsatsouline talks about "greasing the groove." Essentially, practice doesn't make perfect, it makes permanent. Therefore, practice perfectly. The more you train the movement, the more efficient your body becomes at producing that movement.

Don't grind your reps. Steve wrote an excellent post on this. Grinding only fries your nervous system and teaches you bad habits. Learn from my mistake!

DON'T GIVE UP!!! Strength gains take a while so be patient with yourself.

Go forth and CONQUER!!

Snowboarding Through the Coach's Eye

We see faulty movement patterns happen all the time. Knees caving in during a squat, back rounding over in a deadlift, shoulders rolling forward during a row, arch collapsing in the feet... the list goes on. Most of these movement patterns are given their proper attention in a controlled setting such as a performance training facility, but what happens when you walk out the doors of SAPT? These faulty movements continue to occur, we just don't give them as much attention. It doesn't have to take a deadlift, goblet squat, or bulgarian split squat to demonstrate faulty movement.  It's everywhere, even on the slopes!  Here's a quick movement analysis of a snowboarding clip.  Enjoy!

Thoughts on Injuries: Get Stronger

Tadashi wrote a great post last week. If you haven't read it... you should do so. I wanted to expand a bit on this particular point of his post:

Another aspect that all of these athletes have in common is that they were strong before the injury occurred. If you are a healthy competitive athlete, you have NOTHING to lose by getting stronger. The stronger you can make your active restraints (muscles) the more protection you build around your passive structures (ligaments/tendons/bones). Just ask DeJuan Blair, center for the San Antonio Spurs, who has no choice but to depend on his quadriceps and hamstrings to stabilize his knee. Why? Because he actually has no ACLs. Both of his ACLs were operated on when he was in high school, but the surgery was not successful in repairing the ligaments and the remaining scar tissue was re-absorbed. If his lower body musculature didn’t pick up the slack for this missing ligament, I’d take a wild guess and say he wouldn’t be playing professional basketball. Or any basketball.

Building the strength in all the right places will also build confidence coming back from an injury. As Adrian Peterson rushes down the field breaking tackles and making cuts he’s probably not thinking, “I sure hope this new ACL stays in one piece on this play.” Subconsciously I know he’s thinking “I’m sure glad I have enough control in my glutes to keep my knee tracking properly and my hamstrings are strong enough to prevent anterior translation of my tibia!” Sounds like something he would say

Smart man huh? I agree 100% that being stronger (before and after an injury) decreases the chance of injury (assuming non-contact), decreases the recovery time and, in some cases, allows an athlete to return to play despite having an "unrepaired" injury. Couple of examples:

Conrad Mann, resident Superhero at SAPT, recently had not one, but two knee replacements in the past year. Guess what? He was already in pretty good shape (100 pound chin up... check out the T-Day lift from 2011) and was quite strong heading into his first surgery. (he came in and trained the day before, both times!) Guess what? He's had an extremely rapid recovery (enough to impress his doctor) and actually started trap bar deadlifting about2 months ago. Need I mention that he's trap bar deadlifting 200 lbs already? His glutes, hamstrings and core were very well developed before surgery which all have helped supported his new knees during the period of learning to move with titanium instead of bones in his legs.

Brett Contreas and Dean Somerset (both of whom were my encouragement after my own back injury to continue to train wisely) are two strength coaches who have had some pretty serious back injuries. Both found exercises that they could do and still create a training effect (aka: getting stronger) as well as incorporated solid rehab techniques mobility and soft tissue work. They also are two brilliant fellows and learned everything they could about what muscles needed to be trained in order to protect their backs when they were able to train more aggressively again, despite the injuries remaining "un-fixed." Thanks to both of them, I learned how to rehab my own back, strengthen my active restraints around my spine and train like a beast again.

Also, I tore both my labrums in my hips (passive restraints) 3 years ago because if stupid training techniques and FAI. What can be cause FAI? Weak glutes, weak anterior core (thus an exaggerated anterior pelvic tilt) and joint laxity. I had all three. Exercises such as squatting when these are present are perfect for cultivating tears in labrums. Well, after 2 years of training, my glutes are stronger, my core is stronger (thank you swings!) and I've worked on joint stability in both my hips and lower back. Guess what? Unless I perform a movement that directly causes my hip to internally rotate, like getting in and out of a car, I pretty much forget that I have torn labrums and I trust that surrounding muscles are strong enough to protect my hips.

Life is rough and injuries happen. But, like Tadashi said, injuries are not the end of the world for an athlete, or even the average Joe (and they're not an excuse to stop working out!!). Get stronger today to prevent injuries tomorrow. And, should something come along that busts you up a bit, figure out how to work around it. You can always strengthen something. If you train wisely, do your rehab and keep striving to get stronger, injuries can be easily overcome.

RGIII! And Some Thoughts on Injuries

On Sunday I was watching the NFL playoffs at a local sports bar. In the fourth quarter of the Redskins-Seahawks game we all watched in horror as rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III fell to the ground with a serious knee injury. The whole room filled with Redskins fans fell silent with an overwhelming sense of devastation. Then the silence was replaced with frustrated murmurs and angry comments.

“Coach Shanahan shoulda taken him out in the 3rd!”

“Why was he even on the field?!”

“NOOOO!!!”

Being a Skins fan myself I can understand the frustration. However there was one comment that cut across the room that really… irked me.

“Well that’s it man, there goes his career. He’s done.”

Hrm...I disagree. I heard the same comments uttered last season when it looked like Adrian Peterson’s knee imploded. Over the next year he had surgery, did his rehab, and got back in the game as if he never skipped a day. Sports are brutal and athletes get hurt, but they can come back. Peyton Manning is another example. After having a level of his cervical vertabrae fused together he returned to help bring his new team to the playoffs.

One of my biggest inspirations is Ted Toalston, a competitive powerlifter in the 198 weight class. In 2011 he suffered a very severe lumbar herniation and underwent spine surgery. Since then he has been smart and consistent in his training, making his return to the platform with a performance that qualified him for the world championships. At the WPC World Championship he pulled off a 705lb squat, 479lb bench, and 650lb deadlift. He listens to his body, does his mobility work, takes care of soft tissue restrictions, trains hard, and trains smart. This is all within a year's time, and I’m pretty sure the bulk of it was spent taking all the right steps to recovery and return, not face-palming at home thinking “there goes my career…”

A lot of their success boils down to their goal-oriented attitude. If these athletes thought, “well, there goes my career,” there would be no point of aggressively attacking the rehab process and doing everything they need to do to get back into the game. If there is something they need to do to get better they will find out what it is and they will do it. The work ethic that helped them become great athletes in the first place is the same work ethic that will get them from injured to playing, and I think it is something we can all learn from and be inspired by.

Another aspect that all of these athletes have in common is that they were strong before the injury occurred. If you are a healthy competitive athlete, you have NOTHING to lose by getting stronger. The stronger you can make your active restraints (muscles) the more protection you build around your passive structures (ligaments/tendons/bones). Just ask DeJuan Blair, center for the San Antonio Spurs, who has no choice but to depend on his quadriceps and hamstrings to stabilize his knee. Why? Because he actually has no ACLs. Both of his ACLs were operated on when he was in high school, but the surgery was not successful in repairing the ligaments and the remaining scar tissue was re-absorbed. If his lower body musculature didn’t pick up the slack for this missing ligament, I’d take a wild guess and say he wouldn’t be playing professional basketball. Or any basketball.

Building the strength in all the right places will also build confidence coming back from an injury. As Adrian Peterson rushes down the field breaking tackles and making cuts he’s probably not thinking, “I sure hope this new ACL stays in one piece on this play.” Subconsciously I know he’s thinking “I’m sure glad I have enough control in my glutes to keep my knee tracking properly and my hamstrings are strong enough to prevent anterior translation of my tibia!” Sounds like something he would say.

The same can be said about a strong core. You should build up the strength in your abs, lower back and glutes to the point where you are confident in the muscular stiffness you can create around your spine, and not simply pray that you have enough structural integrity in the passive structures in your back as you unrack a heavy weight. Whether you are hurt or healthy, there no reason why you shouldn't strive to be stronger and more confident.

The Redskins had a tremendous season, and I am looking forward to the return of RGIII. To the pessimistic fan that thinks all is lost for the young quarterback:

“Strength is never a weakness” -Mark Bell

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t- you’re right.” -Henry Ford