Month: January 2013

Good Core Strength Artice

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“I have a section called, ‘Stop doing crunches,'” said Westfahl. “If your core routine mainly consists of crunches, you are training for bad posture.”
– Alison Westfall personal trainer, Boulder

Briefly, if you’re an athlete (particularly a cyclist), a fitness enthusiast and/or interested in addressing back pain, you should check out a recent article from the Denver Post titled, Tom Danielson, Tour de France cyclist from Boulder, focuses on core strength, writes book to address back pain. The article covers former pro cyclist Tom Danielson and his trainer Alison Westfall and their approach to addressing Danielson’s back pain.  The two teamed to write a book called Core Advantage: Core Strength for Cycling’s Winning Edge.

Five clients mentioned this article to me and it definitely has some useful information in it.  The admonition to quit doing crunches is the first good piece of advice.  The second is the inclusion of the glutes as part of the core:

“Pain in Danielson’s spine compelled him to see Westfahl, who found his problem wasn’t rooted in his back, but in his glutes. She had him stop doing crunches — his primary core workout — and switch to other exercises, ones that, among other things, would persuade his glutes to start working properly when he rode.”

There’s more good information in the article including descriptions of three core exercises.  Have a look.  The book sounds interesting to me as well.  Probably need to put it on my wish list.

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Reverse Patterning the Squat

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I’ve gotten some great ideas from reading Gray Cook’s Movement and Athletic Body in Balance.  (I’ve written several times recently about the information in these books.  I don’t want to sound like I’ve joined the latest UFO cult or anything, but it’s what I’m into right now.  I’m seeing very interesting results, so that’s what I’m talking about.)  One concept in particular I’m finding very useful and exciting.  It’s known as reverse patterning.  Reverse patterning is discussed in chapter 14 of Movement.  Though it’s not called “reverse patterning” in Athletic Body in Balance, a very similar process is explored in chapter 6 of that book.

I’ve applied this concept to the squat and I think I’ve discovered a much better way to teach the squat.  It’s simple to teach, safe, and similar to the half-kneeling position, there’s pretty much only one way to do it correctly, that is the only way to do it in any form is to do it correctly.  If you do it wrong you basically won’t go anywhere at all.

Problems with teaching the squat

Most of us teach and learn the squat from the top down.  That means we start in the standing position, lower ourselves down low in a sitting-type of maneuver, then we stand back up.  It’s a fairly complex movement.  Coordinated movement must occur at the ankles, knees and hips.  Meanwhile stability must occur through all these structures plus the spine.  All the while the squatter must stay balanced.  Teaching this process can be quite challenging.

Very often a client has no idea at all how to do this: Their knees shoot forward, heels pop up, knees cave in, spine rounds forward, pelvis tucks way under–all kinds of movement faults occur.  Then I have to teach this funny movement by using all sorts of language and cues that may or may not resonate with the client.  So now it’s almost like learning to juggle, ride a bike and recite the Gettysburg Address all at once. Sometimes it goes very well.  Sometimes it can be a real hair-pulling sort of event for both parties.

(The funny thing is, if you watch any number of young children, you can see superb squat technique done over and over and over.  No one taught them.  They figured it out for themselves!  How did they figure this out?  Must be some simpler way to do this, no?)

Squatting from the bottom up

Gray Cook talks about primitive patterns.  These are movement patterns such as crawling, rolling, squatting and other movements that precede activities like walking and running.  These are fundamental patterns to humans. (Modern living tends to rob us of these patterns.  We sit too much.  We hunch over keyboards and steering wheels too much.  We don’t get down on the ground and move in funny ways enough.)  In the case of the squat, we all did our very first squat a long time ago.  I don’t remember my first squat and neither do you.  That first squat actually started at ground level as we were trying to emulate the people around us who were standing and walking.  At some point probably after several attempts, we stood up.

Typically when teaching the squat the difficulty comes from our trying to get to the bottom of the thing.  As I said previously, we often do it all wrong and it takes a bunch of work to do it right.  So instead of making it difficult to get down, why not make it as easy as possible to get into the bottom of the squat position?  This is very easy to do.  Watch the video to see the process.

 

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Awareness: Half-Kneeling

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I’m very much into the idea of awareness so I’m going to continue the conversation.  I feel like many of us aren’t fully aware of how to do a lot of things and as a result we’re weak, slow, and/or in pain.  We aren’t aware of our spinal position and stability (or lack there of) as we move.  We’re not aware of our scapulas as we use our arms.  We’re not aware of our glutes as we do all kinds of things.  We’re not aware of our pelvic position…  In general, we’re not aware of our inabilities, our instabilities, and our weaknesses.  So if we think we’re going to function well, be strong, and move fast without awareness then we are very mistaken.

More specifically, I’ve become very keen on improving the rotary stability portion of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS.)  I’ve realized that rotational stability is sort of a hidden weakness and an under-appreciated ability. Rotational forces are acting on us all the time and we often don’t know it. If we don’t control rotational forces correctly then we’re at risk of injury and poor performance.

Part of this process includes the half-kneeling position.  You can use this position as both a test and an exercise.  The interesting thing about this process is either you do it correctly and you succeed or you do it wrong and you fail.  Unlike say, a bench press where you can make the bar move up and down in a multitude of ways that may or may not be safe and effective, staying upright in the half-kneeling position equates to the one and only way to do the exercise correctly. Thus, the test is the exercise and the exercise is the test.

I discussed the half-kneeling position with Denver-area PT Mike Kohm.  He’s worked with a lot of runners and cyclists including some pros.  He says it’s not uncommon to put a strong, capable athlete into a half-kneeling position and they instantly become an unbalanced clod with no idea how to stabilize his or her body.

Why is this and why does it happen?

By going into the half-kneeling position we’re taking the legs out of the equation and putting a lot more work into the hips and trunk–aka the core.  Mike suggests that many athletes have very strong legs that can compensate for an inefficient core.  Why not go ahead and get a competent core?  Gain awareness.  Shore up the weakness.  Get really fast/strong/mobile, etc.

The first video goes into the half-kneeling process.  The second video is from Gray Cook; it covers the lift and chop which are often done in the half-kneeling position.  Finally, if you’re interested in expanding on exercises to improve rotary stability, check out Can’t Turn This by Brett Contreras at TNation.com. It’s full of several very effective exercises that should help you improve the very under-appreciated ability to resist rotational forces.

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Gray Cook, FMS & Dry Needling

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The true champion will spend more time working on weakness than showing off strength.
– Gray Cook, Athletic Body in Balance

Gray Cook

I’ve taken great interest recently in Gray Cook’s material including the FMS or Functional Movement Screen as well as two books by Gray, Movement and Athletic Body in Balance.  Gray is a physical therapist, strength coach and kettlebell instructor.  Much of his work focuses on identifying our weaknesses and improving our poor movement patterns.  He’s been in the fitness/rehab world for a while and I’ve known of his work for a while but just recently have I really dug into it and I’m finding it very fascinating.

Functional Movement Screen

The FMS consists of several movement patterns: the overhead squat, inline lunge, hurdle step, shoulder mobility reaching, straight-leg raise, trunk stability pushup, and rotary stability pattern.  These movements are fundamental to the way we move.  They combine elements of stability and mobility.  The purpose of the screen is to identify deficient movement patterns, asymmetries (this is a potentially HUGE issue) and pain.  If someone test poorly on any of these tests then we know what areas need corrective exercise.  This is a process of identifying weaknesses and making them strong.

Visit to PT Mike Kohm & dry needling

I wanted to get a first-hand exposure to the FMS and the clinical companion to the FMS which is known as the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA).  (The SFMA is used by physical therapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, etc. to further investigate painful and dysfunctional movement.)  I looked up FMS/SFMA certified practitioners in the Denver area and I selected Mike Kohm of Neuromuscular Strategies.  Mike is a PT and a yoga instructor who has experience with runners and cyclists. When I made my appointment I had nothing much wrong with me.  I’ve had a little bit of right shoulder pain which has improved recently, but mainly I just wanted to see if there were any odd movement issues that I might want to take care of.  A few days prior to my appointment I strained my right hip flexor while running sprints.  Perfect time to see a PT.

I won’t go into every aspect of the assessment but it was a very thorough examination that did indeed expose some less-than-optimal movement patterns.  He ID’d some funny movement at my right tibia and we figured out more about my right shoulder.  We looked at some exercises to improve both areas.  Just a couple of days later and both areas are moving much better.

As for my hip flexor, he did some dry needling on the strained area. This procedure is similar to acupuncture but it doesn’t rely on quite the same method.  It involves inserting an acupuncture needle into a tight, spasming muscle.  Sound like fun?  It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, though it wasn’t any party either.  I felt a stick and then a sudden but very brief cramp and then the muscle relaxed.  Mike used the needle in three spots.  It definitely felt better afterward.  Mike said he thought dry needling could cut down by half the healing time for strained muscles.  Sounds good to me.

FMS Self-Assessment & the Bretzel

Finally, there are a lot of interesting and informative Youtube videos discussing the FMS and corrective strategies.  Here are a couple.  The first is an abbreviated version of the FMS that you can use to evaluate your own movement patterns.  The second is a very useful thoracic spine mobility drill known as the Bretzel.  There are two versions of the Bretzel.  These drills can be quite useful in addressing shoulder pain among other things. Try some of this stuff out and see what happens.

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Running Awareness: Cadence, Foot Placement, Lean

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I just started the new year with a run in the cold with my dog.  It was a good run and I can report that I’ve tuned into something(s) important. I was aware of several gait-related details that I adjusted and played with, those being cadence, foot placement and the degree to which I lean while running.  Why was any of this on my mind?

Cadence

First, upon reading the excellent Anatomy for Runners I’ve become more aware of my running cadence aka how often my feet hit the ground.  The author Jay Dicharry discusses a popular notion that the ideal cadence is about 170-180 RPM.  I’ve run with a metronome a few times to investigate this idea and compare this range to my normal cadence.  Turns out my cadence was quite a bit slower.  The problem I found when running at  this higher cadence is that my cardiovascular system felt overwhelmed!  Maintaining even the low end of that cadence was very challenging.  Seems that I may have found a simple solution.  Before I get to that, let’s discuss why a quick cadence may be beneficial.

Changing cadence to prevent overstriding

I mentioned in my last post that where your foot lands is very important in running.  You want the foot to land as near to your center of mass as possible, not way out in front of you, a situation also known as overstriding.  Several elite-level running coaches have discussed cadence and foot strike position.  I’ll let their words do my talking.  First, Steve Magness at Science of Running says:

“Then why is everyone in a rage over increasing stride rate? Because as I’ve pointed out before, most recreational runners simply overstride, which artificially creates a very low stride rate. Why? Because the foot lands so far out in front of the Center of Mass that it takes a while for your body to be over it and ready to push off. So, when some running form coach says to increase stride rate to X, what ends up happening is the runner is trying so hard to increase stride rate, he chops his stride a bunch by putting his foot down earlier and landing closer to his center of mass, thus decreasing the overstriding. Nothing particularly wrong with that.

Where we go wrong is in the logic that the stride rate increase is the key. No, it’s not. It’s the elimination of the overstriding. Using the cue to increase stride rate is a way for coaches/runners to reduce the heel striking overstride.”

The key concept here is that it’s not cadence in and of itself that’s so important, but rather by manipulating cadence we can improve the location of where the foot lands.  Pete Larson at Runblogger puts it well when he says:

“In other words, reaching with the leg is bad, and increasing cadence can help us avoid doing that. Let me repeat – overstriding is what we are trying to prevent by manipulating cadence. If you don’t overstride, manipulating cadence might not be wise or necessary.”

Now, you may be asking why is overstriding an issue?  Essentially overstriding is harder on the body.  In contrast, keeping the foot closer to you won’t beat you up so much.  I won’t go into the details but if you’re interested, then please check out Jay Dicharry’s posts on Loading Rate Part 1: What Does it Mean for You and Part 2.  (Part 2 is a very interesting discussion as to why a forefoot, midfoot or heel strike may not matter at all.)

Leaning forward

I’m obviously on the lookout for gait and running mechanics information.  I recently discovered a very good site called Kinetic Revolution. There’s all sorts of very useful science-based information there for runners and triathletes. Among all this wealth of good stuff, I came across the post titled Essentials of Running Mechanics. That post features a video from a South African running coach named Bobby McGee.  (Insert whatever obvious Janis Joplin joke you’d like.) Leaning forward is the first thing McGee discusses.  Through leaning we can go faster or slower: more forward = faster, more upright = slower.

 

Remember earlier I mentioned that this faster cadence was overwhelming my heart and lungs?  At the 1:34 minute of the video McGee discusses this issue. He says to simply get a bit more upright (don’t lean so far forward) to slow down and control the cardiovascular exertion.  I tried it today and it worked perfectly!  I was able to a) maintain proper foot placement under my center of mass by b) speeding up my cadence and c) adjusting my lean so that I was more upright.  The overall result is that I maintained a quick pace and felt good doing it. I felt my glutes working well.  Foot placement felt ideal.  All-and-all I was very pleased with what this small adjustment did for me.

 

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