Awareness: Half-Kneeling

Standard

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.

Awareness

Standard

When it comes to either pain or performance issues, we’re often told that we need to get stronger.  We need to strengthen our core to help back pain.  We need to strengthen our legs to pedal or run faster.  We need stronger arms to swim better.  Strength is important for sure. There’s no substitute for it.  It’s money in the bank.

Awareness and pain

Here’s something slightly different to consider:  Awareness.  A lot of pain and poor performance issues aren’t so much strength-related as they are awareness-related.  By this I mean we need to know how to use our muscles to control our limbs and a lot of us don’t have the awareness we need to accomplish the task.  Here’s a common example:

A client complains of knee pain.  I watch them squat, walk up and down stairs, and maybe do some one-leg mini-squats.

The glutes aren't doing their job and the knees suffer for it.

I observe a valgus collapse–the knee or knees cave in as he or she moves.

What are the consequences?

This type of movement pattern sets us up for knee ligament damage, meniscus damage, IT band pain, patella pain, and possibly back pain.  Even if the person isn’t in pain, this is a very inefficient movement pattern.  Whether running or walking, this valgus pattern makes for poor shock absorption and energy transfer into the ground. We’re slow and weak when our knees collapse like this.

Why is it happening?

Back to the “A” word, awareness.  Very commonly we can’t use our glutes correctly–and we’re not aware that we’re not using them.  We have what Thomas Hanna calls “sensory motor amnesia.” We’ve forgotten how to move.  (Modern living is a killer.  We sit too much!!)

Why do glutes matter to knees?

The glutes (glute maximus, medius and minimus) along with the tensor fasciae latae start up in the pelvis and feed into the IT band.  The IT band then attaches to the top of the tibia right below the knee.  In this arrangement, if we tighten or squeeze the glutes the knee will rotate outwards.  If we release tension from the glutes then the knee will tend to collapse in.  Control of the knee largely resides at the hip with the glutes.  (By the way, we could discuss awareness of the foot as it pertains to a valgus knee too.  If the big toe isn’t firm to the ground and we don’t have competent arches then the knee may collapse in.)

The keys to the knees.

What’s the solution?

Often someone with knee pain has been told they need to strengthen muscles around the knees namely the quadriceps.  This was the thinking for years.  So people did knee extensions.  The muscles near the knee definitely got stronger but that didn’t improve the walking, running, or stepping pattern that was causing the pain.  Now we understand that the glutes have more influence over the knee than the muscles surrounding the knee.  The pattern of movement is the key factor.  It’s how we use our muscles! We must become aware of how we move, and aware of how we employ our muscles during movement. If we gain awareness of the glutes then we can start to control the knee.  Strength isn’t the main issue.  (The same can be said for the deep core muscles and back pain.)

We need awareness before we can get strong, fast or powerful.  In fact, if we’re not moving well–if we’re not aware of how we’re moving–and we add weight or speed to the scenario then we’re marching headlong into dysfunction, pain, and poor performance.  It’s analogous to hammering a bent nail.  The harder we pound the more it bends and we’re headed for trouble.

Awareness for performance: the bench press

I spoke with a friend and former client of mine who’s learning to bench press.  (My ego demands that I tell you he lives in another state which is why he’s working with a different trainer.)  He told me he learned to use his lats for the bench press. (Think of trying to bend the bar into a horseshoe.)  Now, with the lats engaged he’s got a stronger foundation from which to press.  He’s called in more muscles to help disperse the work.  His shoulders are more stable. Now he can get stronger and likely avoid injury.  Awareness should come first.  (I wish I were aware of all this stuff when I was training him!)

Beyond this example, Louie Simmons in the Westside Barbell Squat and Deadlift Manual directs lifters to identify their weakness–become aware of them in other words–and work to shore them up.  He says don’t necessarily do the exercises you like.  Do the exercises that work for you.

Awareness for performance: running

First, all the stuff above about glutes and knees pertains very much to running.  Remember that.  What else should we be aware of while running?  Think about where your foot lands.  Does it land way out in front?  It shouldn’t.  If it does you’ll likely have problems.  Rather, the foot should land just barely out in front of your center of mass and the foot should land right below the knee, not out in front.  If you watch recreational runners you’ll often see the foot land out in front. Watch elite runners and that foot lands very close to right underneath.  Think of your leg as a swinging pendulum.  If the pendulum swings wide then a) your foot lands out in front, b) your cadence is slower and c) it’ll take more energy to run.  In a better situation you’ll swing your pendulum/leg in a shorter arc.  The foot will land closer to you which will result in a faster cadence and you’ll be more efficient.  You’ll be faster and you’ll be in a better position to avoid injury.  For more on this and further awareness of how you should run, check out this very informative article by Jay Dicharry, author of Anatomy for Runners.

Awareness for weight loss

So we’ve discussed awareness as it pertains to pain and performance.  Where else does it matter?  Do you want to get leaner and generally healthier?  Then you better be aware of your eating habits.  Very similar to poor movement patterns, poor eating habits will over the course of time do great damage to our physique and overall health.  The problem is a habit is an unconscious thing.  We’re not aware of our habits!  We eat mindlessly in front of the TV.  We’re caught without healthy food to eat so we resort to fast food or packaged frozen dinners.  We take nibbles of junk snacks thinking that we’re not eating that much garbage, but by the end of the week we’ve consumed a lot of crapola.  The result?  We look and feel like a sick, sluggish mess.  What can we do?

Keeping a food journal is by far one of the most effective and cheapest things you can do to help become aware of your eating habits.  You can use any notebook.  Or you can use an online program such as MyFitnessPal.com.

Does this sound inconvenient?  Writing out 1/2 cups, tablespoons, grams, etc. can be a hassle. Guess what.  You don’t have to employ painstaking detail to get the benefits of keeping a food journal.  You don’t even have to track every meal every day.  If you eat some M&Ms, write “M&Ms.”  If you eat a salad write “salad.”  If you can only manage to track breakfast three days a week then that’s better than tracking nothing at all.  The point is to start to become aware of your eating habits.  Any progress at all is progress.  Awareness must come before you can expect to see change.

Awareness elsewhere in life

How are you handling stress?  What time do you go to bed?  If you’re trying to get in shape or you’re training to compete, you better know these things.  If you’re aware of your workouts but your not aware of how you’re resting then you’re compromising your ability to lose weight and compete.

Hard exercise is stress.  So is work.  So are some of our interpersonal relationships.  Alcohol and sugary foods cause stress.  The winter holidays are full of stressors.  If stress goes up in one or more areas then it must come down in others.  Otherwise you’re courting illness, injury or at the very least extreme fatigue.  If you’re feeling pulled in 100 directions then it may be a good idea to scale back your workouts a little.  Don’t give up though!  Recognize that more/harder exercise won’t help you if you’re highly stressed.  Finding some way to decrease some of your stress is critical to good mental and physical health.  Take stock of these things.  Be aware of what’s going on in your life.  Then you can take measures to manage things.

Just Over A Week ‘Til Race Day

Standard

The marathon is close and I’m feeling it. What does that phrase mean? I’m worn out! A summer of hard training, long runs, fast runs, a brutal trail race and the big 20 mile run Saturday-before-last means the organism that is me is feeling shagged out. My sleep patterns have been off a little lately, I’ve been a bit grumpy, and I’ve had two runs that were tougher and slower than they should’ve been. In other words I’m not in optimal condition.

As they sometimes ask on ESPN, “Is it time to panic?”

I went to a former client and good friend of mine to get his take on my condition. (This guy is a multiple-Ironman competitor and veteran of numerous Olympic distance triathlons, marathons and various very demanding and ugly adventure races.) I told him about all this. His words were, “Congratulations, you’re two weeks out from a marathon. You’ve been training hard. Feeling beat up and tired is completely normal.”

Wonderful! I’m normal! Psychologically, it’s very comforting to have someone who’s gone through this process tell me that all is probably very well. Seems like it’s a good time to discuss exactly what’s going on here and why I might be feeling a bit run over and rundown.

Whether we’re looking at strength training or endurance training, a process known as the General Adaptive (or Adaptation) Syndrome is at work. Rather than try to explain this myself, (I am tired after all) I’ll borrow from Cedric Unholz, a Vancouver-based collegiate strength coach and manual therapist. The following comes from his document, Resistance Training Theory and Adaptation Fundamentals. (Never mind that this is directed at resistance training.  As I said earlier, endurance training processes are essentially the same.)

The Stress-Response Model

The fundamental model underpinning all training and adaptation processes is derived from the ‘General Adaptation Syndrome’ initially outlined by Hans Selye in 1936, and later refined by the same author in 1956. In most training literature this concept is commonly referred to as the ‘supercompensation cycle’.

These models very clearly highlight that training is ultimately about applying appropriate stress to take advantage of the body’s subsequent adaptive responses. Any stimulus/stressor or recovery method, regardless whether acute or chronic in nature, will cause a response that will correspond to the principles of this concept and shape the response curvature. Similarly, a lack or over-application of stimulus will also be accompanied by a corresponding response profile.

In essence, this stress-response model (Figure 2) consists of four phases:

1. ‘Alarm reaction’ following a disruption in homeostasis (e.g. a training stimulus).

2. ‘Resistance’ where the body responds to the stimulus by recovering, repairing itself, and instigating a return towards the initial baseline.

3. ‘Supercompensation’ where the body adapts to the initial stimulus by rebounding above the previous baseline, in order to better cope with the initial disruptive stimulus should it present itself again.

4. ‘Exhaustion’, which could also be termed ‘Detraining’, sees a drop to the initial level of homeostasis (or below) if there is an inappropriate application of following stimulus; whether too much, too soon, or not enough.

Figure 2. The Stress-Response Model based on Hans Selye’s ‘General Adaptation Syndrome’

So in my case, my recent poor runs suggest that I’ve had a little too much stimulation and I was somewhat deep in the alarm phase of this model–somewhere in the A/B range of the curve. The strategy now is to get well into the C part of the curve for the race.

Recovery strategy

The key word here is REST. I need to back off of the running, lifting, cycling, etc. in order to allow for supercompensation. That means lying around a good bit, sleeping in a bit, looking for any opportunity to sit. I’ve also been overeating a bit. I haven’t been too terribly gluttonous but I’ve definitely been taking in more good quality calories.  I’ve also been drinking a bit of delicious tart cherry juice from I got at the local farmer’s market.

Beyond rest and eating, I’ll modify my running plan for the final week before the race. I will likely do a long run on Saturday or Sunday of 6-8 miles and I’ll run it slow and easy. Next week I’ll probably do some speed work early in the week but I’ll cut down the reps. Then the mid-week three mile run at marathon pace sounds about right.

I’ve already cut back my weight workouts and I might do one upper-body focused workout next week but even just working the upper body can tax the whole system, so less is more in this regard.

Finally, if any of this is of interest to you, then definitely have a look at this Running Times article titled How Long Does It Take To Benefit From A Hard Workout? The information here should prove very valuable to anyone trying to strategize their race training.

***UPDATE***

Today I did a 3 mile tempo run and I felt good. I hit my pace without too much discomfort. All seems well.  I believe I’m right where I need to be.

 

Are All Calories Created Equal?

Standard

“Put most simply, the fewer carbohydrates consumed, the more energy these weight-reduced people expended.”
Gary Taubes, author, Good Calories, Bad Calories

A recent Harvard University study has produced some interesting results as regards various types of eating patterns, calories, and how these all affect weight loss maintenance.   The study is discussed in two New York Times articles; one titled What Really Makes Us Fat, the other titled In Dieting, Magic Isn’t a Substitute for Science is a Q&A with a veteran obesity researcher. ABC News also analyzes the study in For Calories, It’s All About Quality Over Quantity, Harvard Study Says.

There are two main points of consideration in this discussion.  First, there’s the question, “Are all calories created equal?”  Are carb calories the same as fat and protein calories?  Are refined sugar calories the same as calories from vegetables or beans?  The second question is, “What’s the best way to stay lean once we’ve lost the weight?”

(The country is full of people who’ve lost weight but can’t keep it off.  The big secret is this: Any diet will work.  If you follow the directions, you’ll very likely lose weight no matter what diet you chose.  From paleo, to the Zone Diet, to Weight Watchers to any of the vast number of other diets, if you follow it you’ll probably lose weight.  Done and done?  No. The most difficult part has just begun.  Keeping the weight off is typically very difficult.)

What about the study?  Researchers studied 21 overweight and obese adults, starting each on a diet that helped them lose about 12-13% of their body weight. Then, to help them maintain that weight loss, the researchers put the participants on a cycle of three diets, each lasting four weeks.

One diet is of the low-fat/high-carbohydrate variety as advocated by the FDA and the American Heart Association.  This diet suggests among other things that we eat a lot of grain products, both refined and unrefined; and that we seek to reduce fat consumption at all opportunities.

The other diet was a high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet similar to the Atkins diet.  This is almost the total opposite of the previously mentioned diet.  This diet encourages fat and protein consumption and discourages grain consumption–particularly refined grains.

The third diet was based on low-glycemic foods.  This diet was sort of in between the other two. Fewer refined grains were found here and more vegetables, beans, fruit and the like.  Plus there was less fat and protein than the Atkins-type diet, but more than the low-fat diet.

What were the results?  This is from the ABC News article:

The results weren’t good news for low-fat diet aficionados. When dieters followed that plan, their bodies burned fewer calories than when they were following the low-carb or low-glycemic index diets. And the low-fat diet changed certain metabolic factors in their bodies that typically predicted weight regain.

The low-carb diet seemed to help participants burn the most calories. But it also increased certain markers of stress and inflammation in the body, such as the stress hormone cortisol, which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and other health problems.

(I’m quite curious about this.  What’s causing the inflammation?  Is it high fat?  Is it high protein?  Is it low carbohydrate?  Is it a combination of some or all of these factors?  The Perfect Health Diet discusses research indicating that limiting protein intake can help with immune function, and that too much protein can lead to ammonia toxicity.  So that leads me to think it’s the protein that may be causing the inflammation.  Would someone please do a double-blind placebo study on this?  And please make it a long-term study while you’re at it.  Thanks in advance.)

In the end, the researchers found that the low-glycemic index diet struck the right balance for the participants. It helped the dieters burn more calories, though not as many as the low-carb diet, but didn’t seem to increase disease-causing stress markers in the body.

I like this observation as well:

“Remember the old food pyramid, with six to 11 servings per day of bread, pasta or rice at the base? In light of this article, it would seem to provide an efficient prescription for weight gain,” said Dr. Jana Klauer, a doctor in private practice in New York.

Gary Taubes, says in What Really Makes Us Fat:

The results were remarkable. Put most simply, the fewer carbohydrates consumed, the more energy these weight-reduced people expended. On the very low-carbohydrate Atkins diet, there was virtually no metabolic adaptation to the weight loss. These subjects expended, on average, only 100 fewer calories a day than they did at their full weights. Eight of the 21 subjects expended more than they did at their full weights — the opposite of the predicted metabolic compensation.

(Please note that Taubes is the author of Good Calories, Bad Calories.  He essentially proposes some of what is suggested by this study, namely that a high-carb diet–particularly one high in refined carbs–is bad and that a high-protein/high-fat diet is good for us.  His article for the NY Times highlights the good of this diet.  He doesn’t mention the following information.  Perhaps there’s a conflict of interest.)

Now, here’s a wrinkle.  Dieting, Magic Isn’t a Substitute for Science is the other NY Times article. It’s a Q&A with Dr. Jules Hirsch, emeritus professor and emeritus physician in chief at Rockefeller University, who has been researching obesity for nearly 60 years, about the state of the research. With regard to the benefits of high-fat diets, he says:

They report that people on the Atkins diet were burning off more calories. Ergo, the diet is a good thing. Such low-carbohydrate diets usually give a more rapid initial weight loss than diets with the same amount of calories but with more carbohydrates. But when carbohydrate levels are low in a diet and fat content is high, people lose water. That can confuse attempts to measure energy output. The usual measurement is calories per unit of lean body mass — the part of the body that is not made up of fat. When water is lost, lean body mass goes down, and so calories per unit of lean body mass go up. It’s just arithmetic. There is no hocus-pocus, no advantage to the dieters. Only water, no fat, has been lost.

The paper did not provide information to know how the calculations were done, but this is a likely explanation for the result.

So the whole thing might have been an illusion? All that happened was the people temporarily lost water on the high-protein diets?

Perhaps the most important illusion is the belief that a calorie is not a calorie but depends on how much carbohydrates a person eats. There is an inflexible law of physics — energy taken in must exactly equal the number of calories leaving the system when fat storage is unchanged. Calories leave the system when food is used to fuel the body. To lower fat content — reduce obesity — one must reduce calories taken in, or increase the output by increasing activity, or both. This is true whether calories come from pumpkins or peanuts or pâté de foie gras.

To believe otherwise is to believe we can find a really good perpetual motion machine to solve our energy problems. It won’t work, and neither will changing the source of calories permit us to disobey the laws of science.

So Dr. Hirsch draws a different conclusion from the researchers and the reporters.  I don’t have a solid enough command of statistics to advocate in either direction.  Both Dr. Hirsh and Gary Taubes suggest that more useful information would come from a long-term study of this type.

What seems clear though is that we should steer well clear from processed foods.  A high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet seems to best best for weight loss but also may cause an increase in the stress hormone cortisol.  The study suggests that making an extra effort to avoid fat may not be very helpful in the battle to rid our bodies of fat.  The third and possibly healthiest eating strategy revolves around a healthy intake of low-glycemic foods.  The Wiki entry on low-glycemic foods states (emphasis is mine):

There are some specific factors to look for in foods that can indicate their glycemic index: Low glycemic foods contain: Fat, Whole grains, Protein, Raw Starches, legumes, vegetables, fruits and dairy products. High Glycemic Foods contain: Refined grains, refined sugars, increased amylopectin: amylose ratio, and often high sugar fruits have a high glycemic index.

Finally, we’re often told to eat more of this that and the other.  “Eat more healthy fat.”  “Eat more fruits and vegetables.”  “Eat more whole grains.”  We’re rarely told to “Eat less” of anything. Therefore I like what Dr. Hirsch has to say about the matter:

What would you tell someone who wanted to lose weight?

I would have them eat a lower-calorie diet. They should eat whatever they normally eat, but eat less. You must carefully measure this. Eat as little as you can get away with, and try to exercise more.

 

Training Update: I’m Running Well.

Standard

My training–particularly my running–is improving very nicely.  I’m getting faster and I’m able to run without pain far more than I’ve been able to in roughly a decade.  I think several factors are at work here:

1)  I’m using my glutes: I’ve mentioned recently (here and here) that I’ve learned a tremendous amount of how to use my glutes to both stabilize my knees and propel me forward.  This has been a huge bit of progress for me.

2)  I’m aware of my arches:  I recently stood on a device called a pedobarograph.  Quite interesting.  It showed me pressure was distributed through my feet as I stood on it.  Turns out my arches were a bit collapsed.  It wasn’t anything terrible but something worth working on.

I’m an advocate of minimal shoe running so I didn’t want to turn to an orthotic insert.  I did a bit of research and found a tremendously helpful article about the three different arches of the feet–not just the one arch most of us think of.  The article described where each arch is on the feet and how to move and perceive the arches.  Unfortunately, the article and the site it came from seem to have vanished from the universe. I plan to do a video demonstrating where these arches are and how to move them.  The video in the next paragraph should be helpful as well.

3)  I’m toeing off:  Along with using my arches, I’m also focusing on using my big toe to help propel me forward.   It’s the last thing I feel on the ground as I drive forward.  I’ve realized that in past years I haven’t been doing a very good job of this. This is a complex thing.  Here’s a video from the Gait Guys that touches on the muscles and the actions that are responsible for good toe and arch mechanics.  (BTW, the Gait Guys put out a lot of detailed info on all things pertaining to gait.  They can also be found at Youtube.  If you’re having problems with your feet, knees, hips, etc. you may find their information very helpful.)

The video is a bit technical but the long and the short of it informs me that the exercise known as the calf raise or heel raise should benefit me.  Specifically the heel raise should help condition the muscles that maintain the arches in my feet (the flexor hallucis brevis, the abductor hallucis, and the tibialis posterior) I’m doing a lot of these daily in the 15-20 rep range.  I’m also jumping rope.

4)  I’m lighter and stronger: I’m under 200 lbs. for the first time in about 10 years.  Less of me always makes running easier.  It’s also a big help in mountainbiking.  Not only am I lighter but my numbers in the gym are pretty decent being that I’m running and biking a lot.  I power cleaned 175 lbs. recently.  My squat is around 225 lbs. for 2 reps (I’d really like to get that number up….  some day).  My deadlift is about 335 lbs. for 2-3 reps.  My pistol squats are improving in terms of range of motion, reps, and technique.  Stronger + lighter = better.

5)  The FIRST plan is working:  I “first” used a Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) run plan for the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler several years ago.  It was the best race I’ve ever run so I figured I’d use the FIRST half-marathon and marathon plan for my two upcoming races.I like these plans because they have me running only three days per week.  I’m doing a speed workout on the track, middle distance “tempo” run, and a long run.  I’m doing other things on other days of the week, typically lifting and/or cycling or just resting.  Three runs per week is quite a bit less running than is advocated by other plans.  For an explanation of the plan, have a look at Training Science.com.

6)  Beet juice(?):  I’ve mentioned the benefits of beet juice.  Now, I never attribute one outcome to only one factor, but every time I drink beet juice before a run I feel really good.  I go (for me) fast and I’m able to cover (for me) long distances while feeling quite decent.Perhaps this is a nonsensical placebo effect, it’s all in my head and purely psychological.  Guess what: Who cares?  If I think it makes me a better runner then it’s probably making me a better runner.  Hooray for me and my brain.  We shall choose to be happy.

I Know How to Walk and Run: Part II

Standard

In the previous post I discussed my difficulty in solving my running-related pain issues.  Analyzing and changing one’s running technique is a challenging thing, but I’m going to attempt it.  I’m mainly going to discuss running here but these concepts apply to walking as well.  (Don’t think that poor walking mechanics don’t matter.  We spend a lot of time walking.  If we’re doing it wrong then we’re really hammering the body into a mangled mess.)

Really important thing #1: Let the foot drop right below you.  Don’t reach out with your heel.

It’s vital to get the foot strike correct when running.  I now realize that for years I was reaching forward with my leg, putting my heel out in front of me, and hitting the ground with my heel. This is bad.  It promotes overuse of the hamstring muscles and de-emphasizes the glutes.

I then spent the past year to year-and-a-half trying a forefoot strike.  I thought this was an effective correction of my heel strike but I was still doing several things wrong.  First, I was still reaching out ahead of me.  As a result I was still using my hamstrings too much and I wasn’t using my glutes enough.  And though I was hitting with my forefoot and avoiding a heel strike, I wasn’t allowing my heel to settle to the ground.

Now I’m doing things a lot better.  First, I drop my foot directly below me.  In fact, it feels like my foot is dropping behind me.  Let me emphasize the word “drop.”  I passively let the leg unfold underneath me and let gravity pull my foot to the ground.  I don’t actively try to do much of anything with my foot.  I often pay attention to how things feel down there but I don’t try to pull my foot off the ground or push off in any particular way.  Steve Magness discusses this process in is superb post How to run with proper biomechanics.  I’ve bolded the key points:

Once the knee has cycled through, the lower leg should drop to the ground so that it hits close to under your center of gravity. When foot contact is made, it should be made where the lower leg is 90 degrees to the ground. This puts it in optimal position for force production. The leg does not extend outwards like is seen in most joggers and there is no reaching for the ground. Reaching out with the lower leg results in over striding and creates a braking action. Another common mistake is people extending the lower leg out slightly and then pulling it back in a paw like action before ground contact. They are trying to get quick with the foot and create a negative acceleration. This is incorrect and does not lead to shorter ground contact times or better positioning for force production. Instead the paw back motion simply engages the hamstrings and other muscles to a greater degree than necessary, thus wasting energy. The leg should simply unfold and drop underneath the runner.

I know I’m running well when it actually feels like the foot is dropping behind me.  (It’s not actually behind me, it’s just dropping quite a bit further back than it used to.)  I now focus on hip extension when I run, or using my glutes to drive my leg back.  With this proper foot placement I can feel my glutes turn on and propel me forward.  It helps to have a slight forward lean through this process.

Really important thing #2: Lengthen through the hip

This concept of what I call “lengthening through the hip” has had a massive impact on my walking and running technique and thus my pain issues as well.  Denver-area physical therapist Rick Olderman helped me solve a strange little bodily riddle I’d had for years, and this hip lengthening process was right at the core of it.

For a long time I noticed that standing on my right leg was a lot different from standing on my left.  When I would stand on my right leg I always sort of tipped or shifted to the right.  It didn’t feel right.  My balance would shift in a sort of exaggerated way.  This was happening every step.  Standing incorrectly on my right leg when walking and running also meant I would land badly on my left leg.  Lengthening up and pressing my weight through my hip into my foot solved this issue.

This concept is a little tough to effectively describe in words but here goes:  As my foot hits the ground below me, I think of lifting my trunk away from hip.  In my mind the hip and the rib cage of the stance leg are separating–moving away from each other, and I’m sort of getting taller in the process.  I don’t think of bounding or hopping though.  I’m trying to make my leg longer below me and behind me as I move forward. A slight lean forward from the ankles helps me do this all correctly.

This movement is sort of a subtle kind of thing to grasp.  Describing this process is sort of like describing chocolate to someone who’s never tasted it.  It’s not like simply flexing your elbow or bending your knee.  It’ll probably take a bit of practice to get a feel for this.  The goal should be to take this strange-feeling novel movement and turn it into a habit. The video below should help explain this.

I Know How to Walk & Run: Part I

Standard

However, just like throwing a baseball or shooting a basketball, running is a skill that must be learned.
– Steve Magness, running coach

For almost 10 years now I’ve confronted various chronic aches and pains.  I love to run but often my running efforts have been derailed by some extremely frustrating issues.  My most recent battle has been with Achilles pain/heel pain/plantar fascitis/somesuch in my left foot.  I’ve been dealing with these issues for about two years–and it’s driven me insane.

Of course the idea of quitting is nonsense.  Humans should be able to run.  I want to run and so I’ve searched for a solution.  I can very happily report that it seems I have indeed found the key and I’ve spent the past eight weeks or so running almost daily.  Seems up until recently I was walking and running incorrectly.  Now I know what I’m doing!

Thanks to Rick Olderman

First I must thank Denver-area physical therapist Rick Olderman for helping me with this process. He’s by far the best physical therapist I’ve ever worked with–and I’ve worked with quite a few.  Rick truly understands movement, not just muscles and joints. He’s helped me see and feel what I’ve been doing wrong and how to change my ways.  If you’re battling with chronic pain and you’re in the Denver area, I highly recommend a visit to Rick.

Tough concepts to discuss

The idea of learning (or re-learning) how to walk and run is sort of a strange thing to consider. Most of us are able to use our legs to ambulate across the earth at various speeds.  We typically don’t need to spend much time thinking about how to do this stuff, we just do it.  But how well do we run or walk?  In my case, I developed poor movement habits–but I didn’t know it.  I never actually lost the ability to walk/run, I just lost the ability to do these things efficiently and properly.  We know that habits are very hard to break, especially if we can’t identify them.

Identifying and dissecting poor walking/running habits is pretty tough.  We’re talking about fairly complex processes that we do without thinking.  It’s like blinking or breathing.  Analyzing this stuff is challenging and then teaching someone a new method of walking or running is even tougher.  As a strength coach and personal trainer, I can say that we rarely consider how to teach someone proper gait mechanics.  At the Science of Running, big-time running coach Steve Magness discusses this issue in his excellent blog post titled How to run with proper biomechanics (This post is absolutely essential reading for any runner or running coach.):

“Distance runners and coaches seem to hate the topic of running form. Most subscribe to the idea that a runner will naturally find his best stride and that stride should not be changed. However, just like throwing a baseball or shooting a basketball, running is a skill that must be learned. The problem with learning how to run is that there are so many wrong ideas out there. This is partly due to the complexity of the process and partly due to a lack of understanding of biomechanics. It’s my belief that the wide range of “correct” ways to run has led to this apathetic attitude towards running form changes by most athletes and coaches.”

Over the next several posts I’m going to discuss my understanding of gait mechanics and how you can analyze and improve your gait.

 

 

 

Can Yoga Be Harmful?

Standard

“With it went my belief, naïve in retrospect, that yoga was a source only of healing and never harm.”
– William J Broad, NY Times

If you haven’t read or heard about it, the New York Times recently ran an article titled How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.  It’s far from the perfect article.  For one, it’s full of anecdotal evidence.  Second, many of the examples given of yoga causing injury consist of people doing rather extreme versions of a pose or movement.  I think the article does bring up valid questions: Can yoga cause harm?  Is it always safe for everyone?

I’ve had a couple of harsh experiences with yoga.  Once I had a teacher that thought since I looked big and strong I could do some sort of headstand.  I figured I would follow the teacher’s lead and give it a shot.  Without question I was not ready for this pose.  I left the class with a very painful shoulder.  This instructor had been teaching for years and was very highly sought after at the gym where I worked.  I was in another class where an instructor all but insisted that I move deeper into a pose and I simply couldn’t do it.  My nervous system was trying to protect me by preventing further movement into this position and she had me trying to force my way into a deeper range of motion.  Again, by the end of class, I was in a bit of pain.  This is not what I was after.

My observation is that yoga is often championed as a panacea cure-all for any number of ailments: back pain, knee pain, mental stress, possibly even digestive issues.  I can’t say everyone says this type of thing but in every gym setting where I’ve worked yoga is discussed and presented in this glowing fashion. But is yoga really any different from any other type of exercise? Might there be a few risks?

First and foremost, yoga is movement.  So is running a 100 m sprint.  Driving a golf ball is also movement.  The power lifts are movements.  Typing on a keyboard and watercolor painting?  Also movement.  Guess what: Movement can cause injury!  (By the way, try NOT moving and see how healthy you become.)  Further, yoga is a lot of very different movements.  One may be quite safe, another quite unsafe.  All parts of yoga can’t be viewed fairly as the same thing.

We can probably agree that movement is essentially necessary and usually healthy.  We can probably agree that walking is typically safe and healthy.  But what if we have a sprained ankle?  Or a damaged vestibular system such that we can’t tell which way is up?  Then even walking might be quite harmful.  Lifting weights is similarly healthy in most cases.  If we have a herniated disk or if we use bad technique then lifting may be very unhealthy.  Why would we view yoga as any different?  If we have poor kinesthetic sense then moving into any number of poses could cause pain and/or injury.

Further, we as Americans often have the view of “If a little bit is good then a BIG WHOLE LOT must be great!” More is better in other words. I’ve heard some yoga people speak proudly of not only how deep they can move into a pose but also how quickly they can move from one pose to another.  Sounds a lot like the talk in any weight room.  Just substitute weight and reps for poses and depth of motion.

Glenn Black is an experienced yoga teacher who’s interviewed for the Times article.  He speaks to other yoga teachers and practitioners on the issue of injuries.  He talks about ego.  (I think the popular image of yoga is that it is an ego-less type of thing.  But what human activity is free of ego?)  Black says, “My message was that ‘Asana is not a panacea or a cure-all. In fact, if you do it with ego or obsession, you’ll end up causing problems.’”  This seems a very wise statement, and I’m pleased that this article may start to shed light on the idea that yoga should be evaluated the same way as any other type of exercise.

 

 

 

Z-Health S-Phase: Athletic Vision Skills

Standard

Last weekend I finished the third of four basic courses (R, I, S, T) that make up Z-HealthS-Phase (Sport, Skill, Strategy Phase) deals with two things: vision training and sport specific mobility.  There was a lot of learning but there was also a lot of real fun.  We spent a good bit of time out on a grass ball field working on all sorts of sport movements from sprints to catching to changing direction and accelerating.  This is a breakdown of the athletic visual skill portion of S-Phase.

The Power of Vision

I think it’s probably obvious to you that vision is important.  Very important. As humans it’s our most valuable sense.  (If we were dogs, we’d be talking about our noses.  If we were bats, it would be our hearing that’s the big topic.)  The loss of any of our other senses (hearing, taste, touch, smell) would make life quite difficult but loss of vision would likely make life nearly impossible for most of us.  (This is taking nothing away from blind people who are able to live a full, rich life.  My point is to say that we rely on vision more than the other senses.)

Thus, our visual skills impact every part of us.  We know if we have a bad prescription for lenses then we can experience pain often in the form of headaches.  Similarly, visual impairment may throw off our balance or make us nauseous.  We may be scared or extremely cautious of driving or walking stairs if our eyes don’t function correctly.  In the other direction, we can enhance our balance, mobility, speed and strength if we enhance our visual skills.

Visual Skills

When I speak of vision skills, I’m not really talking about eyesight.  Eyesight is what your optometrist measures in his or her office.  That’s simple stuff.  You’re seated.  They eye chart isn’t moving at all and neither your balance nor any type of coordination is tested along with your vision.  In other words, there’s very little real-world stress or stimulation that’s used in an eyesight test.  When we discuss vision skills, we’re talking about a skill set made up of the abilities:

  1. Dynamic visual acuity: This skill allows you to see objects clearly while either they or you are in motion.  In very nearly every sport (and in non-sport activities such as driving) we must have exceptionally good vision anywhere from a few inches out to 300 feet.
  2. Eye tracking: This refers to your ability to move your eyes and track an object in motion.  It pertains to “keeping your eye on the ball.”
  3. Focusing/Accomodation: This is the ability to change focus quickly and accurately from near to far and back again.
  4. Peripheral vision: This skill is well described by the phrase, “how well you can see what you’re not looking at.”  These are the things you should be able to see “out of the corner of your eye.”
  5. Vergence flexiblity and stamina: This is the skill to keep both eyes working together in unison under high speed, physically stresfful situations and differing environments.
  6. Depth perception: This skill allows you to quickly and accurately judge the distance and speed of objects moving towards and away from you.
  7. Imagery: This is the ability to picture events with your “mind’s eye.”
  8. Sequencing: This refers to the skill to correctly see and put together a series of movements in order.  It’s sort of a Simon-says type of thing.  We see this particularly when learning sports movements: “First do this, then do that, then do this….”
  9. Eye-hand & Food-hand coordination: These interactions are the ultimate basis of athletic skill.  Here we use our ability to take in visual information and translate it into the necessary body movements.  (It’s also how we live a big part of our non-athletic lives.)

If any of these skills are deficient, then we won’t perform as well as we should be able, whether it’s on the playing field or in every day life.  Conversely, if we spend a little time training these skills, then we can expect progress in any number of areas from sport skill to pain reduction.  Most recently I’ve been using some visual drills to help a client overcome hip pain.  It’s quite interesting stuff.

The S-Phase course taught us tests and exercises to evaluate these visual skills.  The video below is an example of one of the drills we learned.  It’s called the Pencil Pushup.

For further information on what’s behind visual skills, how to assess them and how to improve your visual skills, the Z-Health site offers an article titled, The Eyes Have It.  Another article, Reflexive Lifting, discusses ways to modify your eye position and posture in order to increase your performance in the deadlift and the kettlebell swing.

Finally, this video illustrates (among other things) the role of the eyes in the chin-up.  Watch the whole video to learn more about Z-Health in general.  At about the eight minute mark Dr. Cobb demonstrates what happens when we change eye position during a chin-up.  Try it out on your own and see what you discover.

It’s the Cycling Stupid?

Standard

Despite what I said in my last post about feeling great, a number of my years-old aches and pains have returned–and it frustrates the hell out of me!!  I can spend several weeks feeling great.  I can run, lift and bike however much I want and everything feels top-notch.  Then the symptoms come back.  My left heel and Achilles starts to ache.  My left glute feels weak.  Parts of my left hamstring often hurt.  (Maybe I should amputate my left side?)  And I’m right back where I’ve been for way too long.  It’s all of these things that have led me to continue to investigate pain, injury, nervous system dysfunction, and how to overcome these issues. 

Giving up is not an option!

Cycling-related issues

Bicycling has been one of the constants over the course of my pain.  It’s been one activity that I’ve largely been able to do pain free.  But now I’m wondering if the bicycling is setting me up for the pain and dysfunction I’ve been experiencing.  Beyond that, it may be sitting in general that’s an issue for me.

It’s probably no surprise to you that spending a lot of time on a bike saddle isn’t always the healthiest thing a man can do.  Various nerves and blood vessels can be mashed which can result in a variety of problems including erectile dysfunction, numbness, prostate issues.  Here’s a decent rundown of potential men’s health issues related to cycling.

Cycling may also have implications beyond that most sensitive of areas.  If we look at the hip flexion and extension in cycling vs. hip flexion/extension in running, then we see that that cycling keeps the hips in a very closed type of position.  We go from lots of flexion to slightly less flexion as we pedal.  We never get full hip extension.  Thus we may create glutes that are overly stretched out and weak while simultaneously restricting various other nerves in the low back and pelvis.  Add this to the fact that we all wind up sitting a lot during the day no matter how active we are, and you might see how we can quickly create problems in the hips that may filter out to other areas of the body.

Nerve flossing

This is your wiring.

Something else I’ve started recently is a bit of nerve flossing. “What?!” you say? If you look at the chart on right, you’ll notice that the nerves run out from the spinal cord and out through the limbs all the way out to the fingers and toes.  Along the way they travel through various passages.  As we move our nerves must move too–at least they should move.  They should slide back and forth smoothly as we bend, reach, sit, stand, twist, etc. But sometimes these nerves sort of become stuck.  As you might guess, nerves are somewhat sensitive.  They don’t much like being stuck, squished, pinched or otherwise messed with. We can end up with what’s known as nerve impingement or nerve entrapment.  Nerve entrapment can cause pain, numbness, weakness and/or pins-and-needles in any number of places. Someone can have an entrapped nerve for instance in their knee and they may feel symptoms down in the ankle or up in the hip.  Fortunately we can mobilize these nerves though and un-stick them. Watch the nerve flossing videos to see how.

(These are drills which we’re taught in Z-Health T-Phase.  I haven’t attended T-Phase yet but I’m dying to go.  Nerve flossing isn’t exclusive to Z-Health. It comes from the world of neurodynamics.  Good resources for neurodynamics are the NOI Group and Neurodynamic Solutions.)

I started doing some of these last week and felt better immediately.  I’m doing a lot of them every day and I’m sort of playing around with different angles and different amounts of tension as I do them.  My theory is that if I free up the nerves several good things should happen.  First, I expect reduced pain right off the bat. Second, I expect better movement as the nerves should conduct impulses from the brain out to my working parts and back again. Better movement should help resolve any deformities in soft or hard tissue.  (For more on this concept read about Wolff’s Law and Davis’ Law.  These laws describe how tissue remodels along the lines of stress. Further, these laws govern such things such as bone density, arthritis, and callouses.  Arthritis is reversible by the way! Don’t let a doctor tell you otherwise.)

So the plan is this: As much as it “pains” me, I’m laying off the bike for several weeks.  How long?  I’m not sure.  It’s the one part of the equation that I really haven’t changed so I need to investigate it.  Further, I’m going to continue with the nerve flossing and lots of to see what happens.

Further, my idea is that running is something humans have done since before the start of forever.  Bicycling meanwhile is quite a different activity from anything our ancient ancestors did, and it’s a very new activity relative to how long homo sapiens have been on earth.  Thus it may be the sort of activity that causes some weird stuff to happen to us–or me specifically. So my hope and my expectation is by reducing the cycling I’ll resolve some of these issues, and this will allow me to run.  I will eventually return to cycling and see how I feel.  This whole process, should it work, should enhance my cycling ability as well.