Back to Basics & workshop

It's been a couple of busy weeks so please excuse my lack of blogging.
First up today the Kettlebell In the Age of Quarrel workshop is in 2 days. I'm really looking forward to hanging out and learning from some high level coaches for three days. In addition to KB work there will be alot of work on mobility, agility, Qi Gong, animal-based movement derived from kung fu systems, and Indian clubs.

In other words, strategies and methods by which to improve our quality of movement and long term health. Anyone who has been injured or otherwise not able to move as well as they once could can attest to the impact this has on our lives.

It's not about getting ripped, it's about moving and feeling better. Once you do that then fitness can really happen.

In my experience people that have done some sort of martial arts have a kinesthetic awareness that is hard to teach in the gym. Martial arts obviously stresses moving your body without external loading (weights) in a very precise and measured manner.

Not only will you get conditioned and learn valuable skills but create an awareness of quality of movement that is important in daily life. It can be the difference between breaking your wrist or hip after a fall or being able to roll out of it.

I've gone through the car window of a careless driver throwing open their door while biking and came out without a scratch. I'm sure that little incident would have ended badly if I didn't know how to do a rolling breakfall.

Steve Cotter can move. Very well.



And while we're on the topic of moving better one exercise I see done wrong all the time, and which is very hard for many that look "fit" is the good 'ol pushup.

Eric Cressey just did a fantastic little video on how to do this seemingly basic exercise that many people have trouble with. If you struggle with pushups don't worry about how many you can do, but back up and really get your form correct and you'll end up way ahead.

I can't stress enough the multiple benefits of pushups: Core strength, glute activation, pushing strength, postural improvements.

Get Some Meat

Eric Cressey has a great article on T-Nation today concerning working the most important movement patterns for most people - namely those that work your back, hamstrings, and glutes.

We all know most guys tend to do some curls, bench, and hit the showers and completely neglect movements that will REALLY give them some results, both strength-wise and with the ladies. And strangely all the women I've trained never complain about having a nicer butt.

It seems everyone gets big benefits by working the other mirror muscles. The posterior chain muscles are also responsible for keeping your back healthy and posture good despite most of us spending alot of time at desks and on a computer. Funny how that works.

to quote:

Eric Cressey sees it all the time.

"A lot of lifters show up at my gym for the first time with virtually no meat on their hamstrings, glutes, and upper back," he told me on the phone last week. "And those muscles have the biggest potential for overall strength and growth! What's more, these lifters are as weak as they look."

I take a quick mental image of what my hamstrings and back look like. "Yeah, my hamstrings are my major weak point," I admit.

"I just kind of expect it when someone walks into my facility," continued Eric. "I see around 70 athletes per day, many of them at the elite level. And because of their weaknesses, even the ones who think they're strong aren't gaining nearly as much muscle as they could.

"And if you hammer the muscles of the upper, middle and lower back, as well as the glutes and hamstrings, you'll not only see muscle growth there, you'll see it virtually everywhere in your body," Cressey says. "But first, these muscles need to be primed for growth by activating high-threshold motor units as often as possible and with the right volume."

Recruiting high-threshold motor units — the muscle fibers that have huge potential for building strength and size — is of course a matter of lifting heavy weights (at or above 80 percent of your 1RM).

So if you aren't doing so right now start doing more chinups, rows, KB swings, deadlifts, and single leg exercises. You will feel and see the results. It's that simple.

Save Your Low Back

Back on the research tip here. Eric Cressey just did a fantastic article on low back health. In it he draws heavily on the research of Dr. Stuart McGill, someone who's advice I've used with dozens of clients.

If are a trainer or are someone interested in back health do yourself a favor and pick up one of Dr. McGill's books - follow the link above.

Back to the article there are a couple key points I'll quote.

Broadly speaking, you can classify the majority of back pain sufferers into extension-based or flexion-based back pain.

Extension-based back pain typically is worse with standing than with sitting. These folks will present with everything from spondylolysis (fractures), to spondylolisthesis (vertebral slippage), to diffuse lumbar erector "tightness." Typically, those who suffer from extension-based back pain will have short hip flexors, poor glute function, and a lack of anterior core stability.

Effectively, the hip flexor shortness and insufficient glute contribution leads athletes to substitute lumbar extension for hip extension in movements such as deadlifting, jumping, throwing, or any other task that requires hip extension. The end result is typically some very prominent anterior pelvic tilt, as seen in the photo at right.

Conversely, flexion-intolerant individuals have more pain in sitting, as they tend to have flatter backs and therefore increased stress on the posterior ligaments of the spine. This is your classic symptomatic disc pain patient — with or without radicular pain into the legs.

Flexion intolerance is very common in office workers and cyclists, and you'll typically see folks with poor psoas function. The psoas is the only hip flexor active above 90 degrees of hip flexion, and typically, these folks will substitute lumbar flexion for hip flexion in these positions.

Unfortunately, it's been my experience that correcting flexion-based back pain can be a long battle for the exact same reason it develops: it is difficult to get a person to stop sitting so much in today's world.

Most of my clients fall into the flexion-intolerant category because they are sitting so much, while those that have problems due to sports or yoga (I see more people messed up from yoga than you'd think) are extension-intolerant.

The next part addresses something I see all the time. When someone tends to use their low back to move, instead of their hips, chances are about 100% that they have back pain or will. You've got to learn how to use your hip muscles (including glutes) and not the low back. Period.

The premise is pretty simple: you want to move predominantly at your hips and thoracic spine, and while a small amount of movement at the lumbar segments is normal, you don't want to encourage extra motion there.

As I noted above, there are specific situations that call for individualized mobilization protocols at the lumbar spine, but in terms of what you can accomplish with your own training, the general principles of "mobilize thoracic spine and hips, stabilize lumbar spine" apply.

Here's where it gets interesting. The American Medical Association (AMA) still uses lumbar spine range of motion as the qualifying criterion for allowing lower back pain patients to return to work. In other words, you needed to attain a certain amount of gross lumbar spine rotational range-of-motion to be considered "safe" to return to work.

Surprisingly, as Parks, Crichton, Goldford, and McGill observed in the discussion of their 2003 study (5), there isn't a single study out there that shows the lumbar spine range of motion is correlated with having a healthy back; in fact, the opposite is true!

Those with high lumbar spine ROM and power are more likely to be injured, whereas those with better lumbar spine stabilizing endurance are the healthy ones. And, interestingly, there really isn't any way of knowing what an individual's original "normal" spine ROM was, so they have to assume that someone had "average" spine ROM.

Yes, that study from the world's premier spine researchers was published just over six years ago (meaning that the data was probably collected at least seven years ago). Meanwhile, the AMA hasn't caught on, and chances are many doctors haven't, either, as this has been the "standard" for decades (28 years, actually, to my knowledge).

Do your back a favor and read the article.