My Running & Strength Program

I’ve got a trail race coming up this weekend in Steamboat Springs. It’s the Ski Haus Continental Divide Trail Race. It’s 15 miles with 4800 ft. of elevation. This is the longest race I’ve ever run and it’s by far the longest race I’ve run in over two years–and I’m hugely excited about the prospect. It’s going to be reasonably brutal but beautiful and fun.

I feel like I’m fairly well prepared. I’ve used a modified version of the FIRST half-marathon program. It’s a three-day per week program that uses speed work on the track, tempo or moderately fast runs, and long slow runs. I’ve also been strength training twice per week. The main feature of my workouts have been various types of jumping. A notable Finnish study has shown that explosive jumping-type movements improve running economy in a way that simply running will not. (I’ve written previously about strength work for runners, here and here.)

(Jumping work like this is sometimes called plyometrics. The definition may vary depending who’s doing the defining. Some insist that plyos must be a rather high magnitude type of activity such as depth jumps off of a high box. Simply jumping or bounding from the ground doesn’t necessarily count as true plyometrics. In any event, the stuff I’m doing for this workout plan involves jumping. You can decide whether or not to call this jumping a plyometric workout.)

I based my plan loosely on this one from the Running Times. I added work each week for three weeks. Plans of this type vary in nature. The Finnish study involved a 9-week plan. The Running Times plan was a 6-week plan.

Plyo workouts are very intense and there’s a lot of loading on the muscles and connective tissue. For this reason it’s very easy to quickly overload things and become overtrained or injured. Further, my run plan involves both track workouts and hill workouts. Those type of workouts are in some ways similar to plyometric workouts and they can be quite taxing. For these reasons and because I know that more work doesn’t always equal better work, I opted for a 5-week plan. I didn’t want to grind myself up too much. Going forward, I may try a longer plyo plan.

Jumping exercises:

Week 1:
- 2 leg jumps up from the ground 2 x 10 reps for both workouts.
- I simply focused on jumping as high as I could into the air and then landed as softly as possible with as little noise as possible.
- The soft-as-possible landing approach was used on all jumping exercises.
Week 2:
- 2-leg box jumps x 6 reps
- Workout 1 is 3 sets
- Workout 2 is 2 sets
- First week was onto and off of a 1-ft. high box.
- Following weeks were onto and off of a 2-ft. high box.
Week 3:
- 2-leg box jumps x 6 reps
- 1-leg hops onto and off of a small box x 10 reps each leg
- Workout 1 is 3 sets
- Workout 2 is 2 sets
Week 4:
- 2-leg box jumps x 6 reps
- 1-leg hops across a basketball court
- 2-leg long jump across a basketball court
- Workout 1 is 4 sets
- Workout 2 is 2 sets
Week 5: Taper week–this week!

I’m backing off my workload this week in order to allow all my previous hard work to take hold. I wasn’t sure at the start of this plan whether or not I’d do any plyos this week. Doing more work this week definitely won’t improve my race performance by much if any. Doing too much work this week can definitely have a negative impact on my race.

Barbell clean & press: Lifting weight overhead is known as a press. Before the bench press became popular in the 70s, the press was the original weight exercise that indicated your manhood. To get the weight overhead, one must bring the weight from the ground to the shoulders or clean the weight. The ability to do these things is tremendously useful, fun and generally wonderful. My goal is to clean and press my body weight (200 lbs.). This exercise may have no effect at all on my running. That’s fine with me.

Workout one is 3×5 reps. Most recently I used 100 lbs.
Workout two is heavier at 3×3 reps.
Taper week is only one workout.

Pistol squat: The pistol is an interesting exercise. It’s essentially a squat on one leg. They’re nearly impossible when you first try them, especially if you have long limbs like me. I’m doing them because running is a one-legged activity. Also, I’ve been doing a lot to get my glutes to work correctly. If your knee caves in on this exercise then the glute isn’t doing its job. I keep the knee aligned with the outside of my foot when I do these. This exercise works everything from the foot to the glutes and spine. I figure getting strong on one leg is a good idea.

Typically I did 3×3 reps. Other days I did double or singles.
I varied the exercise. I started by doing a short-range squat onto a high box, then working down to lower boxes then no box at all.
Right now I can do three good pistols on my right and two on my left. I’m fairly excited about my progress. I’ll add weight at some point.

Pull-ups/Chin-ups: What can you say? Pull-ups and chin-ups are very challenging. Done properly they are a tremendous upper body exercise. Hands, arms, shoulders, back and abs all get work here.

Workout one is about 4-5×5-6 reps
Workout two is 2-3×5-6 sets.
I superset most of these sets with the following exercise, the glute/ham raise.

Glute/ham raise (GHR): This one is a tough one to describe. This article describes it well. This is an essential assistance exercise used by Olympic lifters and powerlifters. Very strong people often do them, so why shouldn’t I? We don’t have a genuine GHR machine at my gym, so I’ve done a modified version. Similar to the article, I’ve hooked my feet under a pull-up machine. These are very very tough! So, I’ve used bands wrapped around the machine and myself to give me further assistance in doing the exercise.

You might wonder if a hamstring curl could provide the same benefits. Probably not. The GHR calls on the glutes, hamstrings and abs to contract together. This is similar to how we actually move when we run, jump or lift. In contrast, the hamstring curl isolates the hamstrings. This rarely if ever happens in typical human movement. Further, I’ve found hamstring curls promote overextension of the lumbar spine which is rarely a good thing.

Workout one is 3 x 8-12 reps
Workout two is 2 x 8-12 reps
I typically supersetted this with pull-ups.
I used different thicknesses of bands to provide either more or less assistance.

Kroc row: The “what?” The Kroc row is a slang term for a version of the one-arm dumbbell row. Read the linked article to get a full description. I’m doing this to 1) get a stronger upper back to help with my pressing and 2) build my grip for deadlifting which I will resume in the Fall.

Workout one is 3×12-15 reps depending on the weight
Workout two is 2×12-15 again depending on weight.
I superset this one with the ab rollout

Ab wheel rollout: You’ve seen the ab wheel on an infomercial. Doesn’t mean it’s not a very useful tool. This is a very good exercise to engage the external obliques and thus keep the pelvis in neutral. Keeping a neutral pelvis is very important in avoiding back pain. I know because I spent a lot of time not keeping my pelvis in neutral. Mike Boyle’s article dissects the ab wheel rollout very thoroughly.

Workout one is 3×5-6 reps
Workout two is 2×5-6 reps
I superset this with the Kroc row.

Training Update: I’m Running Well.

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

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.

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.

Book Review: Easy Strength

If you’re reading this blog then you probably have some interest in getting strong(er). Since you’re interested in this laudable endeavor, you should know the names Pavel Tsatsouline (just Pavel will do) and Dan John. Further, you should be aware of their newest book Easy Strength. The book is targeted at athletes (which really is everyone to some degree) and coaches. The gist of book is how to get stronger with the least effort. The idea is to spend the minimum amount of time getting stronger so that the athlete has plenty of time and energy to practice his or her sport.

Most anything from Pavel or Dan is worth reading and understanding. Easy Strength is no exception. The book is more than just a bunch of different workouts. Four quadrants are examined in which an athlete might find him or herself during a career.

Quadrant I sees the athlete (often a kid) introduced to all sorts of games, exercises and movements. This quadrant is an inch deep and a mile wide. An athlete in Quadrant II may play a specific sport which requires a mix of strength, speed, mobility, endurance, etc. Think basketball, football, soccer, wrestling… An athlete in this quadrant must work on all these qualities and thus can’t be the best at any one quality. The athlete must live with compromises. Quadrant III is where most of us live. We’ve narrowed our focus to a few things but we’re not world champs. Quadrant IV is for pinpoint specialization. Here you’ll find weightlifters, sprinters, elite distance athletes, etc. These athletes have a very narrow focus and thus have very narrow training needs and requirements. The authors refer back to these quadrants throughout the book, and give considerations for the training needs of each of these athletes.

A quick word on the word “stronger.” It doesn’t necessarily equate to “bigger.” Many athletes (and everyone else on earth) need strength but not lots of muscle mass. Easy Strength takes this into account. Meanwhile some readers do want more muscle mass. This issue is also discussed in the book.

Oh, and the book is also chock-full of all kinds of workout programs and reasons to use them. A continual theme throughout the book is “less-is-more,” and the workouts reflect this idea. The problem is there are so many interesting workouts that like me, you may find yourself wanting to do “this one and that one and that one and that one too!” Pavel and Dan would tell you to pick one and stick to it. Get all you can out of it then move to another workout. Don’t blend this one with that one. So I picked one. It’s the 40-Day Workout. The workout is similar to the Power to the People deadlift workout. For a very thorough description of this workout read Dan John’s blog post called Even Easier Strength. Here’s the basic rundown:

Pick five exercises: a press, a pull, a hinge (deadlift, kettlebell swing, Romanian deadlift), a squat, a loaded carry, possibly an ab movement. (A pull and a hinge may be combined as in a deadlift for instance).

Do these exercises five days a week. Do about 10 reps per exercise. That may come in sets of 2×5 reps, 5×2 reps, 3×3 reps, six singles or other combinations that come out to about 10 reps. Work hard–but not very hard. These workouts are practice, not a red-line suffer-fest. The workouts should feel fairly easy. You should feel strong at the end of your workout, not flattened and half-dead. Don’t max out on reps or weight but rather nudge the weight up gradually as you move through the 40 days.

I’ve taken about a month off from lifting. My goal is to get stronger generally and a little more muscular. My workout looks like this:

Warm-up: Z-Health mobility work, core activation, jump rope, kettlebell swings, body weight lunges/squats, med-ball throws or some combination of these.

Main lifts:

Front squat
Barbell overhead press supersetted with face-pulls, batwings and some band pull-aparts
Deadlift
1-arm farmer walk
strict leg lifts
(Technically there are more than five exercises here, but the additional shoulder exercises are supplemental exercises, not heavy main lifts.)

To get a little bit of a cardio boost I go through the work as fast as I can–but not too fast. I rest as needed but I’m pretty much lifting as quickly as I can load and unload the plates. I’ll take more rest as the weights get heavier.

I’m really enjoying this workout. I get to lift every day. I don’t kill myself doing it and it’s fun to add a little weight each time. Plus it’s simple. I don’t have to mind too many variables. A couple of my clients are playing with this workout as well.

Easy Strength is a great read. It’s fairly profound in its message with extremely valuable information from the most experienced strength coaches in the world and reasonably easy to understand. If you’re even semi-serious about getting stronger–as any human should be–you need this book.

Z-Health S-Phase: Athletic Vision Skills

Last weekend I finished the third of four basic courses (R, I, S, T) that make up Z-Health. S-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:

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.
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.”
Focusing/Accomodation: This is the ability to change focus quickly and accurately from near to far and back again.
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.”
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.
Depth perception: This skill allows you to quickly and accurately judge the distance and speed of objects moving towards and away from you.
Imagery: This is the ability to picture events with your “mind’s eye.”
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….”
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?

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.

Goals & Motivation

Choices to make: strength or endurance?

I feel fantastic these days. My varied lingering aches and pains are dwindling to fleeting annoyances. I actually feel like some sort of athlete! And now my mind turns to various athletic goals. I have strength goals–pulling 500 lbs. on the deadlift, mastering the barbell snatch, and cleaning and jerking my body weight (at the very least) for instance. I also have endurance goals such as running a marathon and doing the Epic Single Track mountain bike race series at Winter Park next year. I want to do it all! But as I’ve mentioned before (here and here) it’s not realistic to pursue both high-end strength and endurance goals at the same time. If you work hard enough in one direction, then your abilities at the other end will suffer. From the injury and burnout perspective, doing a lot of endurance work plus heavy strength/power work will very likely put you in a bad spot very quickly. So I’ve got to choose, and it’s a tough call.

Short-term reward vs. long-term benefit

I mentioned previously that getting stronger helps one’s endurance abilities but it doesn’t work the other way. Increasing one’s endurance work tends to make one weaker. Further, dropping weight via dropping muscle mass makes running and biking much easier. Hauling around extra weight never helps. The whole idea of losing strength and mass is sort of tough to swallow. But if I continue to lift to the degree that I’ve enjoyed–then I’ll impede to my endurance abilities.

As I’ve thought about all this, I realize I’m facing the sort of dilemma faced by many of us who want to get in better shape. The issue boils down to a short-term reward vs. a long-term goal. We know in some part of our brain what we should do, but in some other part we desire something else in the here-and-now. We’d like to be thin some day for example but a bowl of ice cream is looking mighty good right now. Or maybe I’d like to have more muscle mass and better bone density, but I really feel like watching TV right now. Does this sound familiar? In most cases, the short-term reward wins out. This can be a titanic struggle at times. It’s you vs. your brain!

Add weight to be strong.

One of the most respected and knowledgeable strength coaches in the country is Mark Rippetoe, owner of the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, and co-author of the books Starting Strength and Practical Programming for Strength Training. (If you want to get stronger, stop reading right now and order both books. They are superb.) If he’s talking, I’m listening. Recently, I watched a video from his site about tall athletes. (I’m 6’3″ and that qualifies as reasonably tall.) It’s a forum discussion with Rippetoe, former Olympic weight lifting champion Tommy Suggs, big time powerlifter Jim Windler, and strong man/nutritionist John “Johnny Pain” Shaffer. An audience member asks about training concerns for tall athletes. (See, tall people have long limbs or levers. Long levers can’t move as much weight as short levers. Thus we tall people have a few questions sometimes on what we should do to get stronger.) The discussion moves to eating and body weight. Shaffer recommends one weigh 3 lbs. per inch of height–as a starting place— in order to be able to use your levers effectively. For me that’s 225 lbs. Right now, I’m just about 200 lbs. Here’s the video in case you’re interested:

Roundtable: Tall Athletes from stef bradford on Vimeo.

Weigh more. Go slow.

So, to be strong–really strong–I should eat to get big. But the creator of the universe is a comedian and he or she has dictated that if I’m big I’ll also have a really hard time running very far or biking up through the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It’s obvious: As body mass goes up, endurance performance goes down and vice versa.

I’ve had personal and dramatic experience with this sort of thing. Back in college I went to Europe for four weeks to take “classes.” (It was a vacation disguised as school. Had a wonderful time!) At the time I was riding bikes with a group from a local bike shop in Denton, TX. I didn’t touch a bike while overseas. I ran a lot. I lifted a very few times and I walked constantly. I dropped about 1o or 15 lbs without thinking about it. I got back to TX and the next time I rode I smoked everyone but the very fastest rider in the group. So I became a much better cyclist without improving my cycling skills. The weight made the difference, and this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Here’s some more evidence.

An article on Peak Performance Online cites a study from the University of Georgia that compared run times of men vs women. Part of the study had the subjects perform a 12-minute run test. Here’s a discussion of the results:

“Males did significantly better on the test, running an average of almost 3300 metres in 12 minutes, while females covered just 2750 metres. Although male performances were about 20 per cent better, males didn’t run more economically than the females, and male V02max values were only slightly (5 per cent) higher. What caused the big difference in performance?”

“As it turned out, percent body fat averaged 20 per cent in the females but only 11 per cent in the males. When Sparling analysed the data, he found that 74 per cent of the variation between male and female performances could be accounted for by the difference in body fatness, while a much smaller amount (20 per cent) of the difference was determined by the males’ higher V02max values. The higher amounts of body fat in the female runners acted as ‘dead weight’, increasing the energy cost of running and making quality running paces seem more strenuous.”

Now, clearly fat and muscle are different types of tissue, but too much muscle will still count as “dead weight” during a ride or a run. So the debate in my head continues. Fortunately, as I’ve eluded to before, strength work does help endurance athletes. So as it stands, I can still get a lot stronger and improve my endurance performance. The downside is that I will not reach my genetic potential in strength so long as I continue the endurance activity. I’m also going to focus on reducing my body fat. I don’t carry too terribly much body fat but I also don’t work much to reduce it, and I probably should.

Congrats to Linda Purcell: 135 lb. Deadlift

Quickly I want to congratulate my client Linda Purcell on very successfully deadlifting 135 lbs. for two sets of three reps this evening during our workout. (That’s the barbell with a 45 lb. plate on each side.) Linda is very enthusiastic about lifting and she always enjoys the deadlift–which may be my favorite lift too. Her form was perfect. The lifts were crisp and I think we’re still a long way away from her true maximum lift. Nice job.

Potomac 7.5 Mile Swim for the Environment & Team RWB

The Big Swim

Mike Piet of Arlington, VA is a former client and good friend of mine. He is a superb triathlete. He’s competed in several Ironman Triathlons (including the Cozumel Ironman) and countless other triathlons and endurance events. Most recently he competed in the Potomac 7.5 Mile Swim for the Environment, and he did quite well. He finished 3rd overall and he was the first non-wetsuited competitor to cross the finish line with a time of 3 hrs 52 min. Further, he raised $500 as part of the effort to clean up the Potomac River. This is a tremendous achievement and I applaud his efforts. Here’s a link to his Race Report.

Team Red, White & Blue

Further, Mike will also be racing as a part of Team RWB (Red, White & Blue). Team RWB is a non-profit organization that brings athletes together in support of wounded war veterans. Their mission is to enrich the lives of wounded veterans and their families. They work to re-introduce wounded vets back into society. RWB members raise funds and awareness through participating in a wide range of athletic events. To learn more about Team RWB including volunteer and donating opportunities, go to the Team RWB site.

If you know a vet then you may know that returning from combat and taking up a “normal” life can be excruciatingly difficult. Combat vets have gone through things that most of us can’t imagine. Upon returning stateside they’re often patted on the back and expected to take up life where they left off, but there is a lot of hard work involved in readjusting to civilian life. This is the perhaps the hardest part of war. So if you have funds or the time, please find a way to donate to Team RWB.

Denver Fitness Journal

All Things Health and Fitness by Kyle Norman, MS, CSCS, FMS, RRCA Running Coach

Training & Racing Updates