Thriving vs. Surviving
Survive and advance has become the motto of the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. However, I believe the teams that thrive, not survive, are the one’s that advance. Surviving suggests doing just enough to get by, while thriving suggests owning an opportunity and being better off because of the circumstances.
The term survivor is used to describe many who have made it through adversity: cancer survivors, Holocaust survivors, and sexual abuse survivors to name a few. While surviving is certainly the first step in overcoming adversity, perhaps thriving should be the focus. Allow me to explain.
He is considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time. In 1993 he had a streak with at least one goal in 12 consecutive games and was on pace to lead the league in points, when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer. He missed two months of play and his team struggled. However, on his final day of radiation he returned and scored a goal and an assist. Even while missing two months of play he ended up winning the scoring title by 12 points. Following his return, the team went on to win 17 straight games. He went on to play for a total of eight more years, while coming in and out of retirement. Today he is co-owner/chairman of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have been one of the best organizations in sports during his ownership. Mario Lemieux is not just surviving. He is thriving.
In 1944, because he was Jewish, he was placed in a work camp in Auschwitz where he became inmate “A-7713”, which was tattooed on his left arm. He was separated from his mother and his youngest sister, who were killed in gas chambers, while his father was beaten to death at a work camp. After living in France he moved to the United States where he has written over 40 books (57 total in his life). In 1986 he received the Nobel Peach Prize. He has received the Congressional Gold Medal, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, and serves as a Professor at Boston University. He received an honorary knighthood in London. Elie Wiesel is not just surviving. He is thriving.
Starting at the age of nine she was molested by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend. The abuse eventually led her to run away at the age of 13. From there she went on to earn a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. Since then she became the host of her own TV show and became one of the premier interviewers in the world. She is an actress, producer, businesswomen, writer, philanthropist and publisher. She currently has her own TV network, magazine, and radio channel. Lastly, she is a billionaire and one of the most powerful women in the world. Oprah Winfrey is not just surviving. She is thriving.
These examples are not meant to minimize the tragedies that each experienced. All of them had to battle to get to this point in their lives. Yet their ability to thrive in the face of yesterday’s adversity allows each of them to be great today. The old saying, “what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger”, certainly rings true for all of them. So, when your time comes and adversity hits, as it does for all who live, how will you react? Will you be satisfied with surviving and advancing or will you challenge yourself to thrive? Surviving isn’t always a choice, but thriving is.
Set/Rep Schemes: Is 3x10 King?
We received a question recently about set/rep schemes (for SAPT-ers, those first two columns on your program sheet) and I thought it would be a fabulous blog post. "What's the right formula for number of sets and number of reps for an exercise? I'm so used to hearing '3 sets of 10,' is that right or wrong?"
Excellent question, especially since the coaches at SAPT don't really program 3 sets of 10 on a regular basis. Hasn't this been a burning question on your mind? Of course it has, so let us dive in.
First, a brief history lesson. The famous "3 sets of 10" actually came out of the brains of two fellows named Dr. Thomas Delorme and Dr. Arthur Watkins. They were the first ones to develop a structured weight training protocol based on progressive overload. They wrote a paper (1948), and later a book (1950-ish), detailing their research findings. One quote I thought was rather lovely:
“The number of contractions per bout is arbitrarily set at ten. If fewer repetitive lifts were required, the resistance could be increased. Whether ten is the optimum number for rapid increase in strength has never been established in terms of criteria other than the empirical practice of weight-lifters. It is probable that the number closely approaches the optimum.”
See? 3 sets of 10 reps is not set in stone; it's just the numbers the good doctors worked with and recorded their results. You can read about it here, if you want.
Now, moving onto why we've expanded upon Drs. Delorme and Watkins' work. Subsequent research as led to insights on how muscles work and grow stronger. In the effort of remaning true to the KISS principle, I'll list a small snippet of the knowledge out there. Keep in mind that this is merely a scratch upon the surface of what goes on physiologically during weight training. (such as, energy systems used, hormonal responses and what types of conditions elicit the various physical responses of the body. It will blow your mind. Mine is continual blown up every time I read more about muscles. )
Ahem,
- As load increases, reps decrease and vice versa.
- As total exercise volume increases, intensity will decrease and vice versa.
- Muscles will adapt to the demands placed upon them (SAID principle).
So how does that help us coaches (and self-trained folks) determine set/reps. Well, as always, it depends.
If your goal is strength (which, by the way, it should be), you'll want to stick to lower rep ranges (1-5) with weights closer to your 1 rep max. I shall NOT be diving into percentages and what percentage matches with what rep scheme as I've found they're wildly different person to person. Generally, the closer you approach your 1 rep max, the less repetitions you can perform. As a coach, the exercises that stay in this range, typically, are the money-makers: squats, deadlifts, chin/pull ups, and presses.
If your goal is strength, which it should be, (no, this is not a typo. Strength is the KING of physical adaptations.) using the 6-8 rep range lends itself well to assistance lifts such as single-leg work, rows, pushups, anything-that's-not-your-main-lift, again, you can lift a heavier load for 6 reps than you can for 10, so... strength means picking up heavy things. This rep range affords a longer time under tension (meaning the muscles are working longer than say a 2 rep deadlift set), therefore building up their strength-endurance a bit instead of, say, a max-effort strength.
Now, this is not to say that you can't get stronger using the 3x10 protocol (assuming you're increasing the load), but it tends to only work for a little while, and it works best with beginners. In order for muscles to adapt to lifting heavy things, you have to impose that demand upon them by lifting heavy things. It would be more effecient to lift a lot of weight a few times than a little weigh a lot of times (this goes back to the energy system and hormonal response thing I mentioned earlier. This will be a future post... but for now, from a physiological standpoint, you'll get stronger faster lifting more weight a few times.)
Comic break.
Another reason, outside of the strength reasons, SAPT coaches use sets less than 10 is technique. We've found that having someone, especially a beginner, perform sets of 10 squats just ends up in fail. Form goes out the window as muscles get tired and attention wanders. There's a lot going on in the big lifts (chest up, butt back, toes up, on your heels, brace... etc) and it's difficult to keep it all in your head when you're first learning for extended sets. Thus, sets of 5, for our beginners, works out nicely. Our more experienced athletes stick with this rep range as they progress, well, because they're lifting heavier things.
Brain overload...
We do program sets of 10, but usually it's a corrective or mobility exercise, such as a facepull or wall slide, or sometimes we'll throw in some reverse crunches so our athlete's can "feel the burn."
In the end, we stick to the lower rep ranges to either practice technique (beginners) or elicit strength adaptations (experienced). As the smart Drs. said, the reptition number was arbitrarily set at 10. Later, research found that strong people lift heavy things a few times. The set/rep combinations are endless; train for strength, keep it simple, and have a fun workout!
Colorado Dreamin’
Last week I had an awesome opportunity to spend a few days snowboarding, relaxing, and getting beat up by trees in Winter Park, Colorado. Having spent most of my time here on the East Coast it was amazing to witness the breathtaking scenery and culture out in Winter Park. If you like snow and want to get away, I definitely recommend visiting! The Mountains are Huge… Like Really Huge
Growing up I’ve frequently visited the local mountains within a few hours of Northern Virginia, and they now seem like mole hills in comparison to the mountains out west. In the handful of days that I was there I did my best to explore as much of the mountain as I could, but despite my efforts the last day of my trip came and I realized I only hit a tiny fraction of the skiable terrain (which turned out to be over 3,000 acres).
Altitude is No Joke
I’m by no means an elite level athlete, but I feel like I’m in decent shape. So when I began walking up a flight of stairs and started breathing heavy I couldn’t help but think… “HUH!?”
The base of Winter Park is about 9,000ft above sea level, with the highest peak being 12,060ft. Compare this to Northern VA’s ~500ish ft above sea level.
I could almost FEEL the decreased oxygen levels in the air, which is a big reason for some endurance athletes using altitude training to improve performance when competing at lower elevations. The idea is that the body will start to acclimatize to the thin air and adaptations will occur, such as naturally increased erythropoietin (leading to increased red blood cells), increased number of blood vessels, and increased buffering capacity. In other words, improving the body’s oxygen delivery system. It is still a controversial training method and I cannot say from dedicated experience that it “works” (I was there for five days and I doubt my mile time improved).
If you’re planning a trip to a location of high altitude I’ll pass along the advice that the locals told me: “Drink a ton of water and don’t overexert yourself.”
Elbow Dislocations are a Rare but Awful Injury
Like other sports and activities, injuries are just an unfortunate slice of the snowboarding pie. A friend of mine took a hard fall while bombing down a hill at probably 45 mph, and didn’t get up as quickly as I’d hoped. During the tumble his shoulder ended up locked into internal rotation with his forearm trapped between his back and the ground, all while skidding across the snow.
This resulted in the bones in his elbow (humerus, radius, and ulna) separating from eachother. Despite the severe pain and gross looking elbow he handled it like a champ and we were able to get him to ski patrol.
According to a veteran in the ski patrol department, an elbow dislocation is one of the highest ranked injuries purely from a pain scale perspective. Apparently it is a very rare injury as well, at least on the slopes. With close to 40 years of ski patrolling under his belt, he has only seen two elbow dislocations during his career.
Pizza and Honey is a Match Made in Heaven
After a hard day of riding we went to get some food and ended up at the resort’s pizza parlor. When I walked inside I noticed something strange: there was a bottle of honey at the tables.
Confused and afraid, I demanded answers. The response was simply “Um… to put on your pizza? Duh.” I drizzled some honey on my pizza and was very pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was. It was even better with honey+sriracha.
My friend’s injury was a bummer, but otherwise I had a great time in Winter Park. The community is extremely friendly (no one locks their doors!), the food is great, the mountain is amazing, and the scenery is really out of this world. I definitely cannot wait to visit again!
Getting Dunked On
Fingers are pointed, laughs are boisterous, and a sense of embarrassment often fills a basketball player when he gets dunked on. I previously wrote about the reaction to Guard Brandon Knight getting dunked on by Center DeAndre Jordan. Brandon Knight: Dunked ON!
Having worked with basketball players at the high school, college, and pro level I have noticed that the “getting dunked on” phenomenon is something that exists at all levels of basketball. The act of dunking on someone should have more to do with the dunker rather than the player who was dunked on, yet players around the country often focus on the defender.
After the Knight dunk, NBA players took to twitter to voice their opinion:
Harrison Barnes, the rookie starting Small Forward for Golden State said, “Why jump B Knight?”
LeBron James said, “Hey coach Spo I'm gone have to just give those 2 pts up!! Hahahaha! Damn Brandon Knight. Gots to he more careful!”
Shelvin Mack, who recently signed a 10-day contract with the Atlanta Hawks said, “Why did he jump?”
Brandon Rush, who has played 2 games this year due to a season ending injury said, “Brandon Knight, no bro.”
Knight, who graduated from high school with a 4.3 PGA and was the Gatorade National Player of the Year, took the ribbing by his peers in stride by making light of the dunk. He also took the ball to the hoop on the very next possession and got to the foul line, where he made 2 free throws.
The perception that Knight did something wrong by making an attempt to block a shot is crazy to me. He was simply doing his job by playing defense. Great players are willing to take risks and fail. What if the 6-3 Point Guard was able to block the 7-foot Center? Surely that would have been impressive, and more importantly, it would have stopped 2 points from going in the basket.
It is with that in mind that I decided to lookup some of the greatest basketball players of all time and see if they’ve been dunked on. I found footage of Jordan, Barkley, Duncan, Ewing, Mutombo, O’Neil, Wade, Bryant, and James all getting dunked on. You can checkout my video here …..
Turns Out, the Legends Get Dunked On, Too!
So it turns out that Knight is actually in quite good company. And maybe, just maybe, he took his first step toward greatness. So the next time a guy gets dunked on, how about we give praise to not only the dunker, but also the player who was dunked on. After all, it certainly is an act work acknowledging, but for completely different reasons.
Lessons of the Jaw: A Few Thoughts on the Body's Intradependence
As you read this, I'm either in surgery or in the recovery room. For those who don't know, I am having lower jaw surgery to correct a severe over (also called "open bite") and cross bite. That being said, blogging might be a bit spotty (more so than usual) over the next couple weeks, but I'm going to do my best. Seeing as this surgery has been on the forefront of my mind for quite a while, I thought I'd share a bit of the physiology connections I've learned over the past year or so. It's actually pretty interesting how dependent the body is on it's collective parts. So dependent that something up in my face affects the rest of my body rather dramatically. We'll do bullet points because I really like them.
Lesson 1: Pain is sneaky. Sometimes the origin and/or cause is not where you think.
I've known I would need this corrective surgery at some point for quite a while now. About 3 years ago, I experienced severe and prolonged pain in my tempromandibular joint (TMJ), the hinge joint of your jaw that connects the lower to the upper. I didn't have the means to have surgery at the time and the pain receded a bit, so I put it on the back burner. Just over a year ago, I started having migraine/severe headaches in the front of my head that would last for days, even weeks. Medications didn't help. Then I started to have shoulder pain on my right side. This made me think something else was going on since I knew I wasn't doing anything that would aggravate my shoulder.
I popped over to this site and discovered that a tight sternocledomastoid can cause both pain in the head and shoulder. Sure enough, I had knots the size of marbles all along these muscles. Guess what? The SCM connects right up behind the ear, near the TMJ, thus a misaligned jaw (being used for thousands of reps per day) will definitely cause some tension in the poor ol' SCM.
Lesson 2: The suboccipital muscles are really, really important.
I also had pain in the base of my skull on a regular basis, thanks to irritated suboccipital muscles. I trolled around to find some information and perhaps home treatment to help manage the pain symptoms. I came across fellow strength coach, Patrick Ward's post here. Readit, seriously, it applies to everyone. It'll blow your mind how important those little muscles are to your overall health. Patrick Ward goes into the implications of tight suboccipitals and their effect down the stream, such as posture in general and neural control over postural muscles. I found it interesting that "voluntary trunk control" was one of the muscle functions affected. Guess what? I struggle with bracing my right side. I know that sounds weird, but I can not get as "tight" on the right side without really thinking about it. Might be why I have a collapsed disc to the right side?...
Lesson 3: It's seriously all connected.
Then I came across this paper (you don't have to read the whole thing unless you're super-into-science and research papers) that linked symptoms of TMJ dysfunction and jaw pain with the suboccipital muscles. Check out pages 13 (yup, I have all those symptoms, including impaired vision) I should also note that I've suffered from vertigo since I was 13, so perhaps, once my jaw/bite is corrected and those muscles are no longer strained, I might see a decrease in symptoms. Page 15 which connects hypertonic (too tight) neck muscles with TMJ muscles dysfunction and pain, and 17 describing short cervical muscles and posture and how they research has found correlations... craziness. Upper cross syndrome, a posture <--- description used by those in the health field, is either a creator of tight neck muscles or the result of tight suboccipitals. It's a bit of chicken-egg questions, but either way, they tend to coexist. So, if you have a hunched posture, try massaging the base of your skull, that might help loosen some things up!
Lesson 4: Pain eventually conquers proprioception
We recently had an in-service where we learned about the neuromuscular implications of injuries in regards to training athletes. The main point I retained was, if muscle tissue is acutely damaged, such as a sprain, or chronically irritated, such as repeated spraining of said ankle, the muscle spindles, which reside in the tendons, will no longer respond accordingly, much like Ariel responding to her father's command to stay away from land... Poorly.
Muscle spindles are proprioceptive organs that control the stretch-reflex, for example when the doctor taps your knee and your leg kicks forward a bit, the muscle spindles are rapidly stretched (when the mallet hits your patella tendon) and they respond by sending a signal to your brain to flex the quads (thus, pulling your knee into a bit of extension).
So, damaged muscle tissue, specifically the muscle spindles and especially chronically damaged tissue ("damaged" doesn't necessarily mean an acute injury, but a chronic posture, like your shoulders slumping and your neck protruding forward as you peer at the computer screen) tend to lose their ability to provide valuable feedback to the body in the form of proprioception (where your body is in space i.e. balance). Instead, pain signals are sent. This is bad on two fronts: 1) it hurts 2) lack of proprioception means loss of muscular control, be it voluntary or involuntary.
I don't know too much on how to restore muscle spindles and transfer them back to being proprioceptive and not pain oriented, but I do know that a) removing the irritaing stimulus (in my case, setting my jaw in the correct alignment) b) improving tissue quality through manual therapy (professional or at home) and c) retraining the muscles to move how they should (i.e. standing up straight instead of slouching, or going back to the ankle example, walking without a limp or favoring the ankle).
Lesson 5: Implications for training.
Another random fact, there's a correlation with a cross bite and scapular winging (the shoulder blade sticking up instead of laying flat on the rib cage). Winging impairs overhead movement, messes up the rhythm of the humerus and shoulder girdle and makes picking and lifting heavy things a bit problematic. I've done just about every exercise under the sun to fix my wing, to no avail... maybe surgery?
Anyway, as a coach, just by looking at my own situation helps me work with our athletes here at SAPT. If at first the basic, usual cues don't fix a problem, like "pulling yourself to the floor" during a push up to fix a winging scapula or "crack a walnut" to prevent knee pain during the squat, then, maybe there's an underlying issue that demands a different approach. Maybe some dedicated soft tissue work is in order to correct a nagging pain or it might be severe enough to refer out to a physical therapist or doctor. Whatever the case, if after working with an athlete diligently doesn't solve the problem, probably time to delve a bit deeper. (and check their bite! Kidding.)
Some SAPT Video Highlights: Post-Rehab Deadlifts, 1,000lb Prowler Drags, Pistol Shenanigans, and More
I have a number of topics I'd like to write about, but they'll have to remain on the back burner for a little while due a few pressing deadlines occupying my time. I know a few of you are waiting for me to do a Q & A based on a few email questions that have been sent my way; I'll be getting to those soon, I promise. In the meantime, hope you enjoy!
1. The other evening, I was shootin' the breeze with a couple of our interns, when the topic of pistol squats became infused into our dialogue.
I made a sarcastic comment to Chavez, along the lines of "Hey, why don't you try a pistol squat to a box jump, I think that'd be really easy." (Translation: I can think of a thousand activities that would be safer than attempting a pistol squat to box jump, one of which being throwing yourself into a lion's den with a T-bone strapped to your face, and another being hopping into a live volcano.)
Well, next time I'll learn to hold my tongue, as apparently Chavez doesn't back down from a challenge, no matter how outrageous it may be:
2. Many of you know Conrad from this story that Coach Tadashi wrote up on Conrad entering his first powerlifting meet just a couple months out of his second total knee replacement surgery. (Mind you, the two operations took place within a year of each other.)
Well, we have been continuing to help him along with his post-rehab training, and needless to say he has been doing spectacular, along with recently celebrating his 65th birthday to boot.
Just this past week he hit a 2-rep deadlift at 225lbs + 60lbs chains, so, using our arithmetic skills, that gives him 285lbs at the top of his pull. As you can see, he still had PLENTY of room in the tank to spare. Good stuff!!!
He's come a long way with his deadlift technique over the past few months. Sure, he could extend his T-spine slightly more, and pack the neck, but I give him three green lights for the time being.
3. One of our prior high school athletes, Carson, has been enrolled in our Distance Coaching Program since he left for college last Fall. Throughout his first 12-week distance training cycle with SAPT, he added an impressive 35lbs to his prior deadlift max (410lbs).
Here he is ripping a solid 445 pounds off the ground. I'm saying he'll have 500lbs in his grasp well before he graduates college!
Way to go, Carson.
4. Big Joe - even though he's an "endurance athlete" - finds anything involving heavy weights, or a challenging task, unconditionally palatable. Mix the two together and you get a 1,000lb Prowler Forward Drag by Big Joe from last Saturday morning:
Strong!
5. Here is Sheik, a cat who resides in the same dwelling as Kelsey and I. The other day, she insisted on refusing to allow any Hershey's kiss to remain alive while she still walked the Earth. She inexorably hunted down and destroyed them all, no matter how many continued to slide across the table in their efforts to pass her by.
That's all for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
