I was working out at a globo-gym the other day and I am very used to seeing plenty of meatheads. You got the grunters that sound like they are having an orgasm. You have Super Benchman who only does 16 sets of 3 on the bench press and nothing else. And you have the conversationalist who spends at least 90 minutes at the gym but 80 of those minutes are spent talking to his buddies about how hard he's hitting the weights recently. You know exactly who I am talking about and you have seen these guys at every YMCA, Urban Active, Gold's, whatever. Well this past week I ran into a guy I knew that is a corrections officer. This dainty fellow is about 6'6" or more and right at about 400 lbs. He's not a big fatty, although he does have quite a bit on him, he's just a double-extra large man. While I was completing my 4th set at the squat rack for front squats I saw him get on the bench press. I figured it was typical of people like him. But then I saw him do something completely out of left field that made me make a double take. He was doing single arm bench presses with the 45 lb bar. To say my jaw hit the floor is a bit of an understatement.
If you have never done single arm bench press with a bar, or with dumbbells for that matter, then you probably don't know how much stability is involved with this. This exercise takes tremendous wrist strength to simply hold the bar. Again, it's 45 lbs. This guy didn't even load the bar at all, he was simply doing the bar for sets of 12. I walked over to him, being the nosy mobility/stability fiend I am, and asked him why he was doing that and where he learned it. He said his department was trying to incorporate more mobility and stability training so that they could better handle their job. Corrections officers frequently are in very tough situations, are often off balance when detaining an inmate, and have to move in many different directions. He said since he started doing exercises like this he was able to do his job much much better. He was still doing some basic power lifting exercises but he was throwing these type of movements in also. He said he had done some research on movement based training and found he was able to carry himself so much better. Keep in mind this guy is a flippin' mountain.
My point in all of this is that mobility and stability training is moving into more than just your college and professional strength programs. It's hitting police departments, departments of corrections, fire departments, recreational athletes, and soccer moms that simply want to move better and thwart off that impending arthritis they think is genetic. I've already hyped MobilityWod, Gray Cook, Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey so I'm not going to beat that horse. But the word on this training is spreading. I am still new to the mobility/stability world and after attending a seminar a couple of weeks ago, I feel I have a ton more to learn still. If you aren't familiar with it, research those individuals and learn. Or contact me and I'd love to fill you in on what I know. The bottom line is I was very proud of this monster for incorporating this type of training and am very excited that the word is getting out on this.
Showing posts with label mobility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobility. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
CrossFit vs. Strength & Conditioning
Over the last few years, I have been involved in the CrossFit world. I first heard about CF in 2006 and it immediately grabbed my attention as something different. The workouts were unlike anything I had ever done before and was immediately hooked. I started reading more about it and even helped a couple of local guys start a CF affiliate. There are a lot of cool things about the CF world but perhaps the biggest thing that makes it strong is the sense of community and how everyone helps everyone. The CF world is all about community. It's great because there is an absolutely TON of positivity at all times. They have gone back to the basics regarding Olympic lifting and have stressed total fitness. That being said, there are limitations to the CF world. Specificity, overtraining (or as they say, under-resting...tomato, tomato), and the "coaches" don't always have the best background in exercise physiology. They may simply have a CF level I certification that they obtained from attending a weekend seminar and passing the CF test. While those are negatives, there are countless positives, the most of which is their emphasis on mobility (what's up K-Star?).
The strength & conditioning world is a little different. There is a lot more emphasis placed on research, specificity, and rest. I spent last Sunday with a bunch of S&C coaches and trainers. I was a little intimidated by the amount of knowledge surrounding me. I have my M.S. in Exercise Phys. but the people I was around last weekend made me look very elementary. The S&C world focuses a lot more on planned, specific, organized training in which there is a specific goal of every workout leading to a long term goal down the road.
Now, I like both worlds. I consider them to be separate tools in my toolbox. When I open my own place (soon, I promise), I will be taking methods from both of these worlds. After all, they both have the same goal, they just take different ways to get there. No program is a one size fits all where it's good for everyone that does it. Individuality is extremely important in S&C. My shoulder is not the same as your shoulder. My hips do not move the same as yours. If you have had an ACL replacement, I'm not going to load up the bar on you without putting your through some kind of assessment. Once you have been assessed however, I am going to throw everything including the kitchen sink at you to get you to be the very best YOU that you can be. I will take some methodologies from CF, and some from NSCA, and some from Gray Cook, and some from Mike Boyle, and some from Brian MacKenzie. It's like the chiropractor vs. physical therapist. Both of them are right. Both of them have their place place. So I will not apologize to my S&C coaches for following CrossFit. I will not apologize to the CrossFit community for retaining my CSCS certification or seeking my FMS cert. As many tools in the toolbox as I can get to turn you into a monster (thanks for that one Charlie Weingroff).
The strength & conditioning world is a little different. There is a lot more emphasis placed on research, specificity, and rest. I spent last Sunday with a bunch of S&C coaches and trainers. I was a little intimidated by the amount of knowledge surrounding me. I have my M.S. in Exercise Phys. but the people I was around last weekend made me look very elementary. The S&C world focuses a lot more on planned, specific, organized training in which there is a specific goal of every workout leading to a long term goal down the road.
Now, I like both worlds. I consider them to be separate tools in my toolbox. When I open my own place (soon, I promise), I will be taking methods from both of these worlds. After all, they both have the same goal, they just take different ways to get there. No program is a one size fits all where it's good for everyone that does it. Individuality is extremely important in S&C. My shoulder is not the same as your shoulder. My hips do not move the same as yours. If you have had an ACL replacement, I'm not going to load up the bar on you without putting your through some kind of assessment. Once you have been assessed however, I am going to throw everything including the kitchen sink at you to get you to be the very best YOU that you can be. I will take some methodologies from CF, and some from NSCA, and some from Gray Cook, and some from Mike Boyle, and some from Brian MacKenzie. It's like the chiropractor vs. physical therapist. Both of them are right. Both of them have their place place. So I will not apologize to my S&C coaches for following CrossFit. I will not apologize to the CrossFit community for retaining my CSCS certification or seeking my FMS cert. As many tools in the toolbox as I can get to turn you into a monster (thanks for that one Charlie Weingroff).
Monday, July 11, 2011
Hey parents, get your kids assessed
Over the course of my wonderful (sarcasm intended) marathon training, I encountered quite a bit of knee pain. To this day I am not sure exactly what that pain stemmed from. I was guessing it was from over striding and that the damage was too much when I changed my stride 4 weeks out from the race. I the weeks after the race it was still a little bothersome so I decided to give it more time. With that in mind, I decided to sign up for the Warrior Dash, Rock & Roll Half Marathon in Va Beach, and Tough Mudder. Yea, not exactly rest. The Warrior Dash has come and gone and that was only 3.5 miles. Not too bad of a run. I ran it with a buddy of mine who is in fantastic shape but he isn't what you would classify as a "runner". So I got to run a little slower than my usual pace which made the race more fun for me than competitive. Up next is the Rock & Roll Half in Va Beach during Labor Day weekend. I am very much looking forward to that since that is said to be simply a great experience with bands at every mile. This run will be used as a training run for the ultimate prize, Tough Mudder in November. I can't begin to tell you how stoked I am to run this.
Through all of this, I am battling a few nicks and pains. The knee is well documented but I have also incurred some stupid hip/groin issue. I think it has something to do with my adductor longus, iliopsosas, or pectineus. I used to think it was my inguinal ligament but upon further investigation I have deduced that it's not. Has a Dr. checked this out yet? Nope. My wife, the nurse, keeps trying to get me to get a professional opinion but I'm going to try and see if I can take care of it. Then last week my back decided to give me fits. My chiro says it's a bulging disc. Needless to say I have been laid up for the last few days with this. I'm not even going to go into the issue I have with my right shoulder and bicep.
I talk about all of this because the purpose of this blog is to showcase how I refuse to be sedentary and stop being an athlete. But it's kind of hard to do that when I keep incurring little issues like this. I guess that's what happens as we get older. Those little dings and pains that went away once we rubbed some dirt on it are a thing of the past once we get past the fine age of 30 (or 35 in my case). Those little dings turn in traffic stopping crashes that take control of your training and basically stop it altogether. That is why it is so important to be able to perform basic maintenance on yourself through the use of mobility and stability training, stretching, foam rollers, balls, rolling sticks, bands, and whatever medieval instrument I can get my hands on to push my body through all of the ranges of motion it should be doing.
You see, I'm not exactly a big guy. I'm what you would consider perfectly average; 5'10, 175 lbs. Most of my life was spent with me thinking that I was much bigger. When I played high school football (and briefly D-1 college), I was always the smallest guy out there. I was a 155 lb running back on a team that ran the ball roughly 99% of the time. I switched to receiver in college and even the kickers were bigger than me. I wrestled and have trained a bit in MMA and always went after the bigger guys. When I played basketball, I always posted up even though EVERYONE down low was bigger. All of this has led me to get the holy hell kicked out of me on a regular basis. I never had anyone telling me I couldn't do it (thanks Dad), so I did it. And while that is a great trait to have, the strength & conditioning world isn't nearly what it is today. So all of those little bumps, bruises, strains, sprains, and overall owies grew into much bigger problems as I got older. Now that I am a strength & conditioning professional, I see how vitally important it is for our athletic youth to begin mobility and stability exercises as soon as they start playing sports.
Mobility and stability does not equal getting on the bench press or squat rack. It involves teaching the athlete simply how to move properly. It teaches them how to land properly. It teaches them how to engage all of the muscles necessary in order to fully support the movement that is required by the sport. If you are a parent reading this, please ensure that if you have children participating in sports, you speak to a strength coach who knows about mobility and stability training. Listed below are a couple of websites that you can check out from some people a heck of a lot smarter than me that have dedicated their lives to this. Please check them out. Also, if you have any questions on how you can better assess some of the problems you have going on, please feel free to drop me a line or simply come to my Guerrilla Bootcamp starting on July 23.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Theft, injuries, and races
It feels like forever since I have written in my blog. For those that follow this, I'm sorry, I missed you too. For those that are stumbling on this for the first time, I give you a big hearty WELCOME!
About a month ago I got my computer stolen. My house was broken into and the bastard thieves stole my computer, the kids Wii, and my wife's jewelry. Violation and anger were the feelings I had for a few days. So I had to wait for the insurance to send me the insurance money to get a new computer. I couldn't get on this site at my work because the fascist pigs there seem to think they are paying me to do a job and not post silly blogs about me thinking I am still that 18 year old athlete I once thought I was. Long story short, I now have a computer. Got myself a shiny new Mac. I still don't know how to use it but I figured out how to get on Safari (Internet Explorer for you PC peeps) and post a quick update to this.
Over the last few weeks I have been battling a slew of nicks and pains. My right shoulder and biceps tendon have been bothering me off and on for about 1.5 years. I got a shot in my bursa hoping that would make it feel better but it didn't. Thanks Doc. I'm still not positive how the problem occurred but I'm pretty sure it's from my lack of mobility in my t-spine while performing pullups and overhead presses. See kids, that is why it is extremely important to ensure you look at your total functional capacity, including mobility and stability while training. My lack of mobility in my t-spine caused my shoulders to take a brunt of the forces from that and they weren't prepared to do so. So, they got injured. No I spend about 20 minutes on the foam roller and other various mobility exercises found on www.mobilitywod.com. Another thing bothering me lately is my left leg. Obviously you already know a bit about the knee but my hip is causing great discomfort whenever I squat or jump. Odd.
Anyway, enough about my theft and little pains. I just wanted to get something out there to keep you interested and know that I didn't forget you. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about the Warrior Dash in Chicago I did last weekend. I also talk about some other upcoming events going on. Stay tuned!
About a month ago I got my computer stolen. My house was broken into and the bastard thieves stole my computer, the kids Wii, and my wife's jewelry. Violation and anger were the feelings I had for a few days. So I had to wait for the insurance to send me the insurance money to get a new computer. I couldn't get on this site at my work because the fascist pigs there seem to think they are paying me to do a job and not post silly blogs about me thinking I am still that 18 year old athlete I once thought I was. Long story short, I now have a computer. Got myself a shiny new Mac. I still don't know how to use it but I figured out how to get on Safari (Internet Explorer for you PC peeps) and post a quick update to this.
Over the last few weeks I have been battling a slew of nicks and pains. My right shoulder and biceps tendon have been bothering me off and on for about 1.5 years. I got a shot in my bursa hoping that would make it feel better but it didn't. Thanks Doc. I'm still not positive how the problem occurred but I'm pretty sure it's from my lack of mobility in my t-spine while performing pullups and overhead presses. See kids, that is why it is extremely important to ensure you look at your total functional capacity, including mobility and stability while training. My lack of mobility in my t-spine caused my shoulders to take a brunt of the forces from that and they weren't prepared to do so. So, they got injured. No I spend about 20 minutes on the foam roller and other various mobility exercises found on www.mobilitywod.com. Another thing bothering me lately is my left leg. Obviously you already know a bit about the knee but my hip is causing great discomfort whenever I squat or jump. Odd.
Anyway, enough about my theft and little pains. I just wanted to get something out there to keep you interested and know that I didn't forget you. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about the Warrior Dash in Chicago I did last weekend. I also talk about some other upcoming events going on. Stay tuned!
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