6 MOVEMENTS THAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN YOUR WORKOUTS

Like the majority of people who begin a weight lifting program, I built my workouts around a typical body part routine. Monday I would focus on my chest, shoulders and triceps, Tuesday was legs, calves and abs, and Wednesday's workout included my back, biceps, and forearms. This is all I knew, which was gleaned from the various bodybuilding magazines in the 1980's. It is a very effective program for those whose primary goal is to compete in a physique contest where the body is judged while standing still. Today, this "split" routine is how most people, regardless of their goals, continue to train. And how most trainers still train their clients.

When I first started studying for my National Academy of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer certification, I became fascinated with the structure if the human body. Everything in our body is connected, with muscles running vertically, horizontally, and diagonally to ensure proper movement. Just pick up any anatomy book, or better yet read Thomas Myers' Anatomy Trains, and you'll see what I mean. 

As an example, let's look at the latissimus dorsi, commonly known as your "lats". This large back muscle on each side of your spine originates as far down as your last lumbar vertebra, and on its way up to its insertion on your opposite side upper arm bone, it attaches to your thoracic spine and ribs. Now picture pitching a baseball or shooting a layup in basketball. When you release the ball from your right hand, your left leg is planted on the ground. Power is transferred from your left foot to your right arm, with that lat muscle being the conduit from the left hip/glute to the right shoulder.

So what's my point? Unless you're working out solely to look better standing still, there is no reason to ever train your body by isolating your muscles. It simply doesn't make sense. Our body is designed to move as one unit, not a bunch of separate muscles working independently.

With that being said, a complete workout program MUST include these six basic movement patterns, provided you can perform them without pain. These movements all utilize multiple muscles and multiple joints. They will challenge your body in a way you are designed to function, and will burn more body fat than single muscle group exercises. Here are photos of my daughter Emily performing these 6 essential moves:

1. SQUAT (a kettlebell goblet squat)

2. UPPER BODY PUSH (a basic push-up)

   

3. UPPER BODY PULL (a band-assisted chin-up)

  

4. HINGE (a kettlebell deadlift)

  

5. LUNGE (alternating leg lunge)

6. TWIST (TRX Rip Trainer Lacrosse shot)

  

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ACL TEARS: A TWIST OF FATE?

Ahh. 'Tis the season. And while the local departments stores already have their stockings hung by the cash registers with care, I'm referring to the fall/winter sports season. Yes, football and indoor volleyball are already upon us, while basketball and skiing are right around the corner. Unfortunately, with these sports come a huge increase in knee injuries.

Every year there are over 100,000 reconstructive ACL surgeries in the United States. That's an average of 2,000 repaired knees in each state. And about 1/3 of these involve high school-aged female athletes. If you didn't already know, females are 4-10 times more susceptible to knee ligament tears than men. We can get into a discussion on the reasons why this is, but who cares? What we need to do is twist the arms of physical education teachers, strength and conditioning coaches, and athletic directors to prioritize reducing the risks associated with these traumas.

Let's start with a little simple anatomy and physiology. The anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL and the medial collateral ligament (MCL) are both attached to the femur, or thigh bone, and to the tibia in your lower leg. They work together to keep the tibia from moving forward and inward. These two ligaments are the most prone to tears when discussing knee injuries. When torn, the knee joint loses stability, especially during rotational activities and when participating in almost every sport. Recovery from these tears are a fate worse than death--they are expensive, lengthy, and physically challenging. And once you suffer this type of damage, your chances of a future injury are significantly more likely. Just look at Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose for recent examples.

These ligamentous injuries rarely occur when we're standing on both legs. Usually the damage is done when we are running and try to decelerate, stop, and or change directions too quickly. They are also caused by landing awkwardly after a jump, causing the knee to twist and/or hyperextend. Weak glutes and hamstrings, and a lack of ankle dorsiflexion also contribute to the likelihood of knee issues.

To stop tempting fate, athletes and exercisers need a thorough strength and conditioning program that begins with a complete warm-up. This warm-up must include exercises that take all joints through their full ranges of motion, as well as incorporating movements in all three planes of motion. The attention here is on stabilizing and mobilizing the proper joints.

There also has to be a strength component in your plan. This doesn't just mean lifting weights. It means learning how to control movement while under a load, known as eccentric strength. An example of this is being able to "stick the landing" when jumping or hopping. This is functional eccentric strength. Remember, these injuries almost never happen when on both feet, and they never occur when seated or laying down. Therefore, machines such as the leg press, leg extension, and leg curl should never be part of your arsenal for combating knee problems.

Add a progressive inventory of single leg movements such as squats, dead lifts, hops and bounds into your routine. These will enhance your body's ability to stabilize itself while you're playing your sport. Once your body can demonstrate the ability to reactively stabilize, you should insert some power exercises to your program. This means adding exercises that generate as much force as fast as possible, while controlling the movement. Power training is necessary to excel at all sports, as well as to keep from getting hurt in everyday life.

There you have it--a guide to keeping you from twisting in the wind because you weren't properly prepared for the unforeseen demands of your sport. Follow these recommendations and your Christmas list won't include a new knee brace, titanium crutches, or a gift certificate booklet to Physical Therapists R Us!

 

If you have questions on specific exercises that should be incorporated into your training program, give us a call at 775.432.1356.

Move Better. Eat Better. Live Better!

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CONTROL PAIN AND GET YOUR LIFE BACK

Did you know that tightness in your calf muscle can be a cause of TMJ? Or that shoulder pain can be a result of tension in a thigh muscle? If not, you are about to discover some powerful information that truly can change the way you live your life. I'm going to give you some strategies to help alleviate, and very possibly eliminate, the pain you're now suffering.

 

I want to discuss trigger points. I covered this topic a couple of months back, but it is so prevalent among almost every client I've ever worked with that I feel it bears more attention.

 

What are trigger points? Basically, they are knots or adhesions in our muscles and fascia (picture cellophane wrapping all of our muscles, bones, joints, and everything else inside us) that occur as a result of stresses we've placed on our body. These stresses can be chemical, nutritional, emotional, and/or mechanical. These knots release a chemical called hydroxyproline that causes irritation, sometimes almost paralyzing-like, to our nerves.

We need to reduce or get rid of these trigger points and the pain associated with them. This is done by putting pressure on our muscles. Look back to our first two sentences and note that trigger points in one area can refer pain in another, seemingly unrelated, part of our body. If you have shoulder pain for example, you may have adhesions in your glute (butt) muscles or even just above the knee. Therefore, it may take a little experimenting to find the origin of the pain.

 

Back to applying pressure--you must apply enough pressure to begin to flatten out that knot. If what you're doing looks more like rolling out a pie crust, you won't be very effective. The pressure has to create a level of discomfort, but not to the point where it's so painful that your body tenses up.

 

The tools you need are fairly inexpensive--less than the cost of one visit to a quality massage therapist. We use high-quality foam rollers (about $25), tennis balls ($.75), Lacrosse balls ($2.50), and massage sticks (around $30). You don't need more than this.

To get started, take your device, find a painful spot in a muscle, and apply pressure on that knot from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, then move on to the next one. The crucial take-away here is that frequency trumps duration. You can do your soft tissue work several times a day (start with once or twice and slowly work up to 5-6) if necessary, but don't focus on an area longer than a couple of minutes at a time.

 

And I'll be very honest here--the first time you get into a nasty trigger point, it can be excruciatingly painful. So much so that you may ask yourself whether or not it's worth it. Trust me--it is. That pain means you have an issue that will only get worse, and can easily lead to a serious injury. Don't give up!

 

Once you get rid of a trigger point, it's a good idea to go back to that spot every couple of weeks to see if it's returned. Very often, repetitive movements, lengthy sitting, and the like can cause trigger points to return. This may create compensation movements elsewhere in the body that will result in more pain.

 

I'll leave you with a few final notes:

• If you have pain anywhere in your body, you have a trigger point issue. You have a muscle problem. You have a fascia concern. If you don't address them, your pain will get worse;
• Drink plenty of water after soft tissue work. You are releasing toxins and other gunk back into your body, and they need to be flushed out. Try to drink 3-4 glasses of water within an hour of finishing your therapy;
• If you have more than one trigger point in a muscle, work on the most painful one first. Then move to the next most painful, and so on;
• Stretch the muscle slowly after you work on the knots. Never stretch first as you can make that trigger point even tighter;
• Finally, seek medical advice if your pain doesn't improve, or you feel things are getting worse. You may have a more serious issue at hand.

I can tell you in complete honesty that doing soft tissue work has helped me immensely with how well I move, and the same is true for dozens and dozens of clients I've coached. Don't put this off any longer. Now is the time to take back control of your body and your LIFE!

Move Better. Eat Better. Live Better!


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