Month: March 2012

More Hip Mobility

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Recently I mentioned that you sit too much, and we looked at a hip mobility complex to help you combat the effects of sitting.  Here’s another very good hip mobility process from Kelly Starrett at MobilityWOD.com.

I’ve been doing this drill myself and with other clients and we’ve been seeing very nice results from loosening tight low backs to improving squat performance and generally realizing that we’ve got all kinds of tight, gunked-up tissue in our hips. All this tightness and restriction can mean trouble for knees, ankles, low backs, shoulders–all sorts of parts. Try this drill. Keep working on it. Do it frequently especially after long bike rides or any long period of sitting and before your workouts.

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Less Sleep = More Eat

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A recent study from the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University indicates that lack of sleep contributes to overeating and thus obesity.  Here is the conclusion:

The findings of this study link restricted sleep and susceptibility to food stimuli and are consistent with the notion that reduced sleep may lead to greater propensity to overeat.

What’s happening here?  Researchers found that, “Overall neuronal activity in response to food stimuli was greater after restricted sleep than after habitual sleep. In addition, a relative increase in brain activity in areas associated with reward… in response to food stimuli, was observed.”

So it seems that sleep restriction caused subjects to like food more.  They found it more rewarding.  Weird!  The take home message is obvious: Get some sleep!

In this study subjects either slept about nine hours or were restricted to only four hours.  How much sleep should you get?  Ideal sleep time may vary from person to person.  WebMD says, “Most adults need seven to eight hours a night for the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as five hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day.”  If you’re a hard-training athlete then you probably need to be on the high side of those numbers.

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A Questionable Case for Running Shoes

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The New York Times Health section discusses a study from the University of Colorado in Boulder comparing the metabolic costs of running in shoes vs running barefoot.  The results suggest that shod running is more energy efficient than unshod running.  These results deserve a few questions.  First some background on the study. 

Subjects of the study were 12 barefoot runners–runners who knew how to run barefoot in contrast to novice barefooters.  “It was important to find people who are used to running barefoot,” says Rodger Kram, a professor of integrative physiology, who oversaw the study.

These runners were then asked to run several times in a yoga sock on a treadmill or while wearing the 150 gram Nike Mayfly, a lightweight running shoe.  Then the researchers taped 150 grams’ worth of thin lead strips to the top of runners’ sock feet. By adding an equal amount of weight to the bare foot, they could learn whether barefoot running or shod running was more efficient.  The study reports these findings:

1. For every 100g (3.5oz) (the average weight of a deck of playing cards) added per foot, energy cost increases by approximately 1% whether running barefoot or shod.

2. Running barefoot and in lightweight shoes do not significantly differ in energy cost.

3. When controlling for shoe/foot mass, running in lightweight shoes requires ~3-4% less energy than running barefoot.

So it seems that wearing a shoe is a good idea if you want to conserve energy as you run.  This would be important obviously during a race.  Here are some questions and observations:

1. The positive result of wearing a shoe was seen in 8 of the 12 runners.  That means 1/3 of the subjects saw no advantage from running in shoes.  Extrapolated out to a large population that means a significant number of barefoot runners are at no disadvantage running in bare feet.  I wonder if any of them are more efficient in bare feet?

2. The study was done on a treadmill.  Treadmill running is quite different from real running.  What if the study was done on a road or trail?

3. The study looked at the Nike Mayfly.  What about other shoes?  It’s a light shoe.  Would even lighter shoes be better efficiency?

4. A commentator on the Times article made the following observation: “Flaw: the only way for the comparison to be valid is if the weight distribution of added weights were precisely the same as the weight distribution of the shoes themselves. Anyone who has ever studied the effects of mass distribution on movement would know that.”

So did the way the weight was added to the (mostly) bare feet affect the runners’ efficiency?  What if the weight was distributed differently?

5. The study enlisted experienced barefoot runners as subjects.  Alex Hutchinson of Sweat Science and Runner’s World discusses that issue:

Finally, all the runners were midfoot or forefoot strikers, both barefoot and in shoes. This condition was imposed to prevent confounding effects from comparing rearfoot to forefoot striking efficiency.

These conditions raise an important caveat. One of the proposed advantages of barefoot-minimalist running is that it automatically helps to correct overstriding — an extremely common problem among inexperienced runners. The fact that all these runners were already forefoot strikes suggests that none of them were likely overstriding, which would make them less likely to benefit from barefoot running. It’s possible that a truly ‘random’ group of runners might have been less efficient in the shod condition, because more of them would have been dramatically overstriding.

It’s good that someone has done this study.  The debate isn’t over and it’s always good to have another view.  There’s plenty more studying to be done.

One thing that I keep coming back to is the fact that the fastest runners in the world wear shoes–at least when racing.  So from the performance standpoint there seems to be some benefit to putting something on your feet.  Further, if you’re happy with you performance and enjoyment of running then you should probably stay with what you’re doing whether it’s shod or unshod.

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Essential Hip Health Drills

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I’ve recently mentioned California-based physical therapist Kelly Starrett, and his very interesting blog MobilityWOD.com.  (I’m doing his Mobility Course in Denver at the end of April.)  One of his posts discusses why sitting is poison for your ability to move.  (Also, check out Why sitting all day is slowly killing you for more details on this evil activity.)  He’s on to something.  Sitting is bad and we need to do something about it.

You sit too much.

By the way, if you’re saying, “But I don’t sit that much,” I have several questions for you:

1) Are you a non-Amish/non-lumberjack American in the modern world?  If you say “yes” then you sit too much.

2) Do you own a car?  If you say “yes” then you sit too much.

3) Is there a desk and/or a computer involved in your life?  Clearly your answer is “yes” because you’re reading this.

4) Are you a cyclist?  If it’s “yes” then you sit too much.

5) You sit too much.

Deep posterior hip muscles

Effects of sitting

So what does sitting do to us?  First, we get restrictions in a bunch of our muscles and tissues.  Particularly we see restrictions in our posterior hip capsule.  This type of restriction can contribute to a condition called anterior femoral glide syndrome, which can cause pain at the front of the hip and generally bad movement.  Further, the various

muscles in this region can become impaired, tight and weak.  Sitting shuts down these muscles and our brain literally forgets how to use these extremely important movers and stabilizers.  All of this can result in various aches and pains, poor balance, difficulty sitting and standing, poor running form, poor lifting form–it’s all bad!! What’s the solution?

Mobilize & strengthen

Superficial posterior hip muscles

The best way to address these restrictions is to move.  We’ve got to move the tight tissues and we have to re-learn how to operate these muscles that have likely gone dormant.  What follows are three drills borrowed and adapted from Shirley Sahrmann and Nick Tumminello.

Simply doing these movements and feeling a stretch in the hip will help loosen tight tissue, but we want to go beyond that.  Again, we need to re-learn how to use these muscles and in order to do that you must contract them as you’re doing these drills.  Think of adjusting the tension of your glutes in much the same way as you’d adjust the tension of your bicep during a bicep curl.  You’ll maintain tension throughout the movement even as the muscle become stretched.  You’ll probably

find it difficult to maintain a perceptible contraction as the glute stretch.  Work on it.  It’s a skill that you should develop in order to overcome pain and perform better.  It’ll take practice but the payoff will be tremendous.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stuff You Should Know About

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Here are several things from food, books, exercises and blogs of which you should be aware.  This is information and exercise that will improve your health and performance.

Look at this blog: MobilityWOD

MobilityWOD.com or Mobility Workout of the Day is a blog from Dr. Kelly Starrett.  Kelly is a San Francisco-based physical therapist and Crossfit affiliate.  His blog is chock full of how-to videos designed to improve your movement and fend off or overcome injury.  Just the other day I watched Tight Ankles = Bad Squatting.  I tried the drill and my years-long on-again-off-again right ankle pain was gone!  Gotta love instantaneous results!

Read this book: Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes by Shirley Sahrmann

Okay, read this book only if you’re a fitness or injury rehab professional.  Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes is a tremendously detailed text on how to identify and fix movement problems.  I’m wading through it right now and it’s a challenge but the information is amazing. If you’re in the fitness/rehab industry, definitely get this book.  Dr. Sahrmann’s second book is Movement System Impairment Syndromes of the Extremities, Cervical and Thoracic Spines.  I’m looking forward to that one too.

The author, Shirley Sahrmann, DPT is a pioneering, award-winning physical therapist.  She’s a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Take this supplement: Vitamin D

Vitamin D is important for a wide range of healthy human functions.  Vitamin D is a key component of calcium absorption and thus bone health.  Low levels of Vitamin D are associated with asthma and some cancers.  It seems to offer a protective effect against multiple sclerosis and it boosts immune function. Unfortunately Vitamin D doesn’t show up naturally in too many foods.  Some foods are fortified with Vitamin D but supplementation may be the best way to ensure adequate Vitamin D intake.

Humans with sufficient sun exposure have the ability to manufacture Vitamin D.  It’s still cold in much of the country so that means minimal sun exposure–so there’s a good reason to supplement.  (Interestingly, using to much sun screen too often may be problematic in Vitamin D production.  Like many things, eliminating sun exposure may be unhealthy.  Don’t be terrified of the sun.)  Further, people with dark skin and older folks have a tougher time manufacturing Vitamin D.

Recommendations vary but it’s from 2,000 and 5,000 IU per day from supplements and sun is a good idea.  Big men need more Vitamin D than small women.

Do this exercise: the deadlift

Picking up heavy things off of the ground is something homo sapiens have been doing since… well… before we were actually homo sapiens.  As long as there’s  gravity we’ll keep doing it.  That’s what the deadlift is: pulling a weight off of the ground from a dead stop.  The deadlift isn’t just for powerlifters either.  It’s a tremendous total-body strengthening exercise that anyone can do with proper coaching. If you learn to deadlift then you’ve learned to use good body mechanics to lift an object.

Here’s a good instructional article on the deadlift from Stronglifts.com.  And here’s a rather poetic video on the deadlift from Crossfit.

Eat this: coconut oil

Coconut oil seems to carry a whole raft of health benefits.  Weight loss, improved immune function, better digestion, favorable cholesterol profile are a few of the likely benefits of coconut oil consumption.  You can cook with it, put it in smoothies, rub in on you skin and put it in your hair.  What other product is so versatile?

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