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Do you experience pain in your wrists while doing exercises like bench presses or planks? If so, then read on!
As I've mentioned 1,000 times (and you're probably sick of me saying it already), we always have to look distally (farther away) from the area in question. Think of your entire arms as a train. If the shoulder isn't working properly, you bet that you're gonna have elbow and wrist problems too. Take a look at the photo on the right from Thomas Myers' Anatomy Trains. You can see here that the pecs of the chest will influence the structures all of the way down to the fingers.
The number one complaint I hear from clients when doing the front squat is that their wrists hurt them. While the wrist pain is the symptom, the cause typically arises with poor shoulder mobility. If your front rack position is sub-par, your wrists now have to bear the brunt of that load. The lower your elbows are, the more wrist extension you need to compensate. In this instance, you need to work on opening up the pecs and lats to ease the stress on your wrists.
Because of this horrendous shoulder mobility, his wrists suffer.
I see similar problems arise in pressing movements. In the bench press or the overhead press, clients occasionally lack the necessary strength in their forearm flexors, so they fall into a hyperextended wrist position throughout the lift. A more "neutral" wrist position can save them a lot of discomfort. In these cases, the problem might not be mobility, but grip strength. I would have these people do exercises like hangs from the pull-up bar, plate pinches, or farmer walks to combat this. Sometimes, cueing alone can also go a long way to correct this issue.
This image from Liftbigeatbig explains different wrist positions. We never want significant extension in pressing movements.
Ultimately, if you feel pain in your wrists you have to check out how your shoulders are moving to properly assess the issue. Shoulder instability can manifest itself in a variety of different ways. Continuing to address your wrist alone will have little to no effect. I see a lot of people working to stretch their forearms to alleviate wrist pain, but rarely do they address other possible contributing factors like shoulder stability or grip strength. Global corrections will stimulate an entire chain reaction of positive effects.
Since I've made a post about shoulder restrictions, I've received a few requests about how to loosen up stubborn hips.
This is my dad, unintentionally showing off his perfect bottom position and impressive ankle dorsiflexion.
One thing I'd like to mention, which has been noted in previous posts, is that some people are just genetically and anatomically better suited for squats. Let's take my father, for example. My dad, who does not exercise, and has no notable sports background has a picture perfect squat. He has never mobilized a day in his life, and no one taught him proper squatting mechanics. In fact, I was stunned to watch him squat down to reset our Internet modem with absolute ease. Others will take weeks or months of mobility/motor control drills to execute a partial squat. If you're interested, Dr. Stuart McGill has an excellent video discussing this concept. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do to change one's acetabulum or femurs.
Don't be discouraged! There's hope for you yet. What we can do, instead, is put someone who may be...inept at squatting into a position that optimizes his or her anatomy. We can play around with foot position, stance, and different squat styles to see what is best suited towards their anthropometry (limb length/proportions). I always recommend that those who are struggling with their squat mechanics work with a qualified coach/movement practitioner to improve. If that is not an option for you, then you should spend some time playing around on your own trying different set-ups. Record yourself when possible. Remember that your squat will not necessarily look the same as mine.
Once you've settled on your ideal stance and foot position, now we must consider the role of motor control (yay for unintentional rhyming) in the squat. As you can imagine, there are many possible compensatory patterns that one might display throughout the movement. From knee valgus/varus, to shooting the hips back too far, to letting the chest drop, I've seen it all; this is when attention and mindfulness become especially important. Again, it will be invaluable to have a coach review your mechanics in these cases. With just a few simple cues, most errors are immediately fixable, and then you may continue to practice these on your own and engrain the proper sequencing in your head.
One exercise that I typically use with my clients who are learning to squat is the pole squat drill: this allows the person to understand how their weight should be distributed, and helps them achieve a lower bottom position almost immediately. I would also introduce them to the quadruped rock, which mirrors the sequencing in a squat and warms up the hips. These movements are best suited in the beginning of a session.
For clients who still have difficulty squatting after those drills, the goblet squat should become your friend. It is generally easier for individuals to assume a better position in a goblet squat. Holding weight in front of the body forces you to maintain a more vertical torso and achieve better depth. I always prescribe these (typically with a pause at the bottom) before moving clients on to barbell variations.
While many people spend an endless amount of time trying to stretch the hell out of their hip flexors, I find that those efforts are often wasted. Instead, implementing movements such as the goblet squat with a tempo (slow negative and 1-2 second pause) will allow you to kill two birds with one stone. Similarly, tempo single-legged exercises will do wonders for opening the hips. Bulgarian split squats necessitate a decent amount of hip flexibility, so it may be beneficial to start with a traditional lunge, again with a slow eccentric phase.
Finally, at the end of the session, the happy baby pose is ideal. Not only does this provide a nice stretch, but it's actually quite relaxing. You can also use this time to practice your diaphragmatic breathing. Focus on pushing your belly against your thighs as you inhale through your nose. Exhale through your mouth, and repeat. 1-2 minutes should be more than enough.
In the long run, an arsenal of hip flexor stretches isn't going to address the source of the problem. Teach yourself proper squat patterns, train your lower body with an eccentric emphasis, and show your hips some love. If you're diligent in your efforts, you'll be dropping it low on and off the dance floor in no time.
If you Google "mobility," you can find pages upon pages of articles about how to improve your mobility at any given joint. Thoracic mobility, shoulder mobility, ankle mobility, and the like are central themes on fitness blogs all over the internet (mine included). As a trainer, it satisfies me to see so many lifters and colleagues prioritizing the improvement in range of motion. Too much of a good thing can become detrimental, though. Having excessive mobility can be just as injurious as being tight and immobile.
These arrows above represent the stability-mobility continuum. Those who have tissue restrictions have a ton of stability, which those with a plethora of mobility lack. Some individuals, like gymnasts and dancers, fall into the class of "hypermobility." Essentially, they have ligament and tendon laxity, which means that their range of motion exceeds what is common or necessary for most people. This is more common in females than in males, but can be present in both genders.
Genetics and anatomy are going to be the two biggest indicators of where one falls on this continuum. There are, however, ways to improve this. Obviously, despite being born with tight shoulders, it's still possible to loosen up your tissues and become more supple. Conversely, those with joint laxity can do more in the way of strengthening stabilizing muscles in order to become more stable.
In some ways, stretching for someone who is hypermobile could be akin to an athlete with a stress fracture going for a 15 mile run. We want our muscles to flex and extend seamlessly, but hyperextension can be dangerous. Strength coach Eric Cressey notes, "Instead [of stretching them], these individuals need to work on building stability within the ROM they already have with quality strength training."
As an example, let's use the shoulder joint. The shoulders are already the most mobile joint, as they can move through a full 360°. With these great movement demands come tremendous risk, though. While the shoulders are very mobile, they're also one of the most frequently injured areas. A hypermobile client might have an overhead position that resembles that of the woman in the photo on the right. Not only is her lumbar spine in hyperextension, but her shoulder flexion goes well behind her center of mass. Certainly, this position is not ideal for supporting load, as it puts the shoulder girdle under tremendous stress. Now, if this client were to stretch her shoulders before a session, she's just going to further force herself into a precarious position, and she increases her risk of injury.
We never want to enforce excess movement in a joint. Each sport and activity places different demands on the joints and tissues, so the goal is to establish enough range of motion for your given sport. No more, no less. A baseball pitcher requires more external rotation at the elbow than the average person needs. Swimmers need flexible shoulders to move freely through the water. Ultimately, you have to find the optimal amount of mobility that will allow you to achieve the necessary positions of what you do. In my case, I was blessed with natural flexibility, so I spend very little time doing accessory mobility work.
There's no need to spend time forcing an end range that you don't need, and it may even be counterproductive. Choose your mobility work wisely, picking exercises that apply to the areas with which you need the most help. The movement requirements of an athlete of one sport aren't going to be the same for another. Some sports benefit from decreased mobility, while others require extreme bendiness: find the optimal area for you on the stability-mobility continuum!
Works Cited:
Hootman, Jennifer M, Randall Dick, and Julie Agel. “Epidemiology of Collegiate Injuries for 15 Sports: Summary and Recommendations for Injury Prevention Initiatives.” Journal of Athletic Training 42.2 (2007): 311–319. Print.
I'd say nearly every person I've trained has, during an assessment, mentioned a previous shoulder injury. Even I have suffered from the plague that is shoulder pain in the past.
The shoulder (glenohumeral) joint is the most mobile joint in the body. The ball and socket architecture allows it to move through all different planes. The downside to this excessive range of motion, however, is that, if the musculature surrounding the joint is not strong enough, injury is surely impending.
As a coach, I see two ends of the spectrum: the hypermobile (like myself), who have an abundant range of motion but lack the appropriate control overhead, and the stiff, tin men who can barely extend their elbows all of the way. Generally, men tend to fall on the latter end, while women are usually guilty of the former. Of course, there are plenty of ladies with tight shoulders, and mobile men, but this is the typical trend that I have noticed.
The ideal situation would be the middle (wo)man: someone who can achieve the positions necessary for his or her sport, but has sufficient strength as well.
Keep in mind that not all shoulder injuries are created equal. Depending where on the list of mobility you fall, your exercise prescription may need to change to cater towards your individual weaknesses. Someone who has really tight lats is not definitely going to be doing the same "prehab" as someone with weak lats.
Below, I will explain each scenario a bit more in depth, and give you some corresponding exercises to remedy those imbalances. Beware, as there are 7,000,000 clickable links coming your way for the exercise demonstrations.
Case 1: Hypermobility
The hypermobile individuals need more stability. I often find that these people These people need to strengthen the shoulder girdle and the back (latissimus dorsi, serratus anterior, etc.)
Although these guys can seamlessly execute an overhead squat, core strength tends to be minimal in this group. Usually, this will go hand-in-hand with poor rib position during overhead movements. Therefore, we need to address the lack of midline stability first, and strengthen the rotator cuff second.
Here are some exercises that will go a long way for this population:
If you fit into the "incredibly tight shoulders" group, then movements like an overhead squat are completely out of the question; the rack position on a clean or a front squat is nonexistent. Most likely, these people will have limited mobility in the thoracic spine (rib cage area). The pectoralis muscles and the latissimus dorsi are excessively tight, and then the lower/middle trapezius, rhomboids, infraspinatus, teres minor will be weak.
Click to enlarge.
First, you'll want to release tight muscles like the pecs and the lats. You can also try this stretch on the foam roller or this stretch on a bench to open up those overused muscles. The next step is going to be to strengthen those weak areas I listed previously. Some of the best ways to reach achieve that are the following exercises:
As you can see, the type of corrective exercises I would issue for each group is pretty drastically different from one another. Case 1 is working to stabilize the shoulder joint, whereas case 2 has a bit too much stability and needs to improve flexibility. While each exercise may add value to any workout routine, it's important to prioritize the most valuable movements, rather than trying to add 75 different correctives. Honestly, I could've added a gazillion more exercise ideas in here, but I figured it was best not to overwhelm you with even more links than I've already included!
As always, breathing will also influence the strength and stability of the shoulders, so make sure to reinforce proper breathing when you're doing these exercises, and even when you're just going about your day-to-day activities. Make some of these exercises a part of your regular routine, and you'll be well on your way to having solid shoulders resilient for any sport.
Works Cited:
Beasley, Lauren. "Getting Control of Overhead Movement: 5 Basic Drills to Prepare the Body." Breaking Muscle. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
Beasley, Lauren. "The Scapula: How It Can Make or Break You." Breaking Muscle. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
Cressey, Eric. "Shoulder Hurts? Start Here." Eric Cressey. N.p., 16 May 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
Cressey, Eric. "Shoulder Impingement." Eric Cressey | High Performance Training, Personal Training. N.p., 18 Jan. 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"Ankle mobility" seems to be a buzzword these days. Coaches often tell their athletes that the limiting factor in their squats is the lack of range of motion in the ankles. Everyone claims to have poor ankle mobility, and they're all looking for the magical way to improve it. You'll see them stretching their ankles into oblivion, hooking resistance bands around their malleoli, and placing barbells on top of their knees, yet their efforts are futile.
Why isn't your ankle mobility improving? Well, as I've said before, stretching is like a Band-Aid. It will result in a temporary improvement, but it doesn't get to the root of the problem. You cannot, I repeat, cannot, change the length of a muscle. Therefore, no amount of yanking and distraction and stretching will not miraculously lengthen the gastrocnemius and soleus (calf) muscles. Instead, you have to address the cause of the stiffness.
A lack of ankle mobility can be the result of either improper motor patterning, poor choice in footwear (think: high heels), or it may be from minimal stability up the kinetic chain.
The ankle is, as you see in this photo, a "mobile" joint. The knee is a stable joint, and then the hip is another very mobile joint. If the ankle does not have adequate mobility, the knee and hip will suffer as well. Mike Boyle, a very well known Strength and Conditioning coach, notes:
An immobile ankle causes the stress of landing to be transferred to the joint above, the knee. In fact, there is a direct connection between the stiffness of the basketball shoe and the amount of taping and bracing that correlates with the high incidence of patella-femoral syndrome in basketball players. Our desire to protect the unstable ankle came with a high cost. We have found many of our athletes with knee pain have corresponding ankle mobility issues. Many times this follows an ankle sprain and subsequent bracing and taping.
Address the ankles, and you cure up a lot of other issues! Here are some ideas to help improve your bottom position in your squat and free up some movement in your ankles.
1. Change your footwear. Now, here's where the shoes can be a very important factor. If you're wearing shoes that act as a cast, meaning they try to provide the strength artificially, your body no longer needs to or wants to utilize this strength on its own. So many people roll their ankles because, guess what? They have weak ankles. An ankle sprain is entirely preventable, in most cases!
Other shoes like high heels force your feet to remain plantarflexed (pointed) for hours on end. As a result, the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles become reflexively shorter to adapt to the way you move. Your body remembers routines, and it likes to conserve energy wherever it can. Therefore, regularly wearing certain types of shoes will affect the musculature around the foot.
2. Strengthen your dorsiflexors. Individuals with tight calves have overactive plantarflexors (gastrocnemius, soleus, plantaris, tibialis posterior, flexor hallucis longus, flexor digitorum longus, fibularis longus, and fibularis brevis), which are the muscles that point the foot. A ballerina, for example, would have incredibly strong plantar flexing muscles. The dorsiflexors are the muscles that pull your toes towards your kneecap (tibialis anterior, extensor hallucis longus, extensor digitorum longus and fibularis tertius); these muscles will contract at the bottom of your squat, so if they're stronger, you'll see significant improvement.
One of my favorite exercises for this is banded dorsiflexion. This movement also strengthens the hip flexors, which will further develop your bottom position. Bear crawls will also help improve the range of motion in the calves. For an extra challenge, try them with straight legs.
3. Improve rotation of the fibular head (pronation). As you squat, the fibula, the outer bone in your lower leg, has to rotate. When you have muscular tension in this area, then you will have a limited amount of rotation. If you have this problem, you may experience pain on the lateral portion of the leg.
To improve this rotation, you can do banded eversion and inversion, or you can do this half kneeling drill. Rolling out the calves with a lacrosse ball will also help improve your range of motion.
4. Correct your squat pattern. Finally, we have to think about motor patterns. The vast majority of people I've met who appear to have insufficient ankle mobility, actually just don't understand proper sequencing. Usually, they don't grasp the concept of "hip hinging," and they initiate a squat or a deadlift in an anteriorly tilted pelvic position. I want to help my clients understand what it feels like to initiate a movement properly at the hips. I will start these people doing a squat with the help of a TRX or gymnastics rings. A wall squat will also help reinforce good movement patterns. Sometimes, people just don't really grasp how a well-executed squat or deadlift should "feel," and in those cases, these drills can elicit immediate results.
If your ankles are stiff, stop trying to stretch the hell out of them against the wall. Figure out why your calves are so tight in the first place, strengthen the weaker muscles, and build a rock solid foundation for all of your lifts. With more range of motion in the ankles, the rest of your joints will be spared of excess wear and tear, and you will improve your mechanics.
If your shoulder hurts, you've probably assumed something with your shoulder is inherently dysfunctional. While that may not be false, you also have to consider what's going on around your shoulder. Ida Rolf, a famous Structural Integration practitioner said it perfectly, "Where you think it is, it ain't."
Sometimes, the area in question is not necessarily the root of the problem, and you need to look at the bigger picture. As I've said before, it's impossible to break the body up into parts. Everything in the body affects everything else. Dysfunction in one area will indubitably cause further dysfunction elsewhere. In fact, the source of the discomfort may be where you'd least expect it to be.
Believe it or not, your butt has a tremendous influence on your overhead strength.
Thomas Myers's explanation of the term "tensegrity" is a wonderful example of this: he discusses how a pull in one part of the fascia (a sheath of connective tissue that surrounds the muscles) will absolutely create a ripple effect in the rest of the surrounding structures. Muscles that share a similar sequence or action will interact with one another.
Think of the body as a giant "X." Intuitively, the opposing halves of the body move together to create balance. You'll notice that your right arm comes forward with your left leg when you walk or run. Here, we are subconsciously using the functional line (as Thomas Myers refers to it).
Check out the booty on this model...
You'll notice in the photo from Anatomy Trains that the latissimus dorsi (shoulder extensors) are intricately connected to the contralateral (opposite side) gluteus and hamstrings complex. Walking requires one side of your lattisumus dorsi to contract and pull the arm behind the body as your opposite leg reaches forward and the hamstrings lengthen. The internal and external obliques are rotating your torso, bringing your left shoulder to your right hip and vice versa.
Now, imagine that your glutes aren't firing properly. How do you think this lack of glute activation might affect your mechanics, not just during a sprint, but also during a deadlift or, even, a pull-up?
A study on this idea by Carvalhais et. al. notes:
"there are extensive connections between the latissimus dorsi and gluteus maximus muscles and the thoracolumbar fascia, which suggests a possible pathway for myofascial force transmission ... The results demonstrated that manipulation of the LD tension modified the passive hip variables, providing evidence of myofascial force transmission in vivo."
In summary, participants who contracted their latissimus dorsi, either actively or passively, all saw a notable amount of response in the gluteus maximus.
Although the glutes are a part of the "lower body" and the lats are considered to be in the "upper body," the pairing of these two muscle groups is important. We always have to understand muscular synergists and antagonists. In other words, we have to understand which muscles work together to produce a given movement, and, likewise, consider the muscles that have the opposite actions.
The best way to fix a lack of synergy between the latissimus dorsi and opposing gluteus maximus is to add some more cross crawling patterns into your routine. Train you brain to sequence the proper muscular activation by utilizing exercises like bear crawls, marches, and bird dogs, as prescribed in the link.
My job, as a trainer, is to analyze movement. I look for flaws in a sequence. When someone complains of pain in a given area, I don't want them to point to where it hurts. I will learn more by watching them move. Someone's gait or squat pattern can tell me a lot.
Take notice of global movement patterns, and, maybe then, you'll learn the whole story. Think outside of the box.
Works Cited:
Carvalhais, Viviane Otoni Do Carmo, Juliana De Melo Ocarino, Vanessa Lara Araújo, Thales Rezende Souza, Paula Lanna Pereira Silva, and Sérgio Teixeira Fonseca. "Myofascial Force Transmission between the Latissimus Dorsi and Gluteus Maximus Muscles: An in Vivo Experiment." Journal of Biomechanics 46.5 (2013): 1003-007. Web.
Dooley, Kathy. "Anatomy Angel: Dorsal Sling." Dooley Noted. Kathy Dooley, 4 Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Aug. 2015.
Myers, Thomas W. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2001. Print.
Shin, Seung-Je, Tae-Young Kim, and Won-Gyu Yoo. "Effects of Various Gait Speeds on the Latissimus Dorsi and Gluteus Maximus Muscles Associated with the Posterior Oblique Sling System." J Phys Ther Sci Journal of Physical Therapy Science 25.11 (2013): 1391-392. Web.
Yes, this model has an incredibly impressive physique, but I'm referring specifically to her posture. Her ribs, in particular, are the first thing I notice.
Rib flaring is an extremely common postural fault. I mainly see this in women, but there are many men who are guilty of flaring ribs as well.
You might be thinking, "you can only see her ribs because she's so lean!" or " maybe that's just the way her ribs are!" No. Her ribcage sits that way because of core instability and a lack of thoracic awareness.
A forward ribcage usually goes hand in hand with other postural issues like lordosis and scapular winging. An unstable core results in dysfunction all up and down the kinetic chain. Ideally, we want to maintain our center of mass over our...well, center. There should be a straight line leading from the ear lobes all the way down to the ankles (lateral malleoli). Note the drawing on the right. This photo details the optimal posture: his weight is centered on his whole foot, his ribs sit directly over his pelvis, and his head does not jut forward like many sedentary, laptop-absorbed folks we see today.
If the ribcage protrudes in front of the hips, we cannot properly engage the rectus abdominis, and, thus, the function of the muscles around shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles will be compromised.
Additionally, the ribs will pull forward your center of gravity and affect your balance, along with your gait. Any movement will be altered, because your ribs are, quite literally, several steps ahead of you.
At the other end of the spectrum, take a look at Georges St. Pierre, a professional MMA fighter. You will notice that his core is rock solid and stable, unlike the bikini model in the above picture. Maybe that's why he's one of the most successful (and highest paid) fighters! Which of these individuals do you think has a stronger abdomen?
Someone's standing posture will tell you a lot about how their bodies will move during weighted exercises. Just imagine how both of these individuals will look once they press barbells overhead. The lifter with a flared ribcage will almost, 100% certainly, be hyperextended, while an individual with proper abdominal bracing can maintain a secure position.
Sometimes, a prominent ribcage will not be immediately visible while standing. In this case, I employ the wall slide test. If a client cannot bring their forearms to the wall without reaching their ribs forward, they fail the test. I now know that they have limitations in the shoulder, and I work from there.
This model does NOT pass the test...
9 times out of 10, telling someone to bring the "ribs down" is not enough to help them understand. I've realized that these people usually lack the kinesthetic awareness to do that--they don't know how to properly engage the musculature around the ribs.
When I see someone with ribs like the woman in the first photo, I immediately check their breathing. I am never surprised to see that these people abuse the muscles in their necks and chests to breathe rather than taking advantage of their diaphragms. Often, breathing alone will make a huge impact in the position of the ribs. Aside from doing breathing drills, I like to use the following exercises to teach my clients how to activate the muscles that retract the ribs:
Teaching proper joint alignment will allow for optimal posture and mechanics in all activities. Strive to employ better movement patterns. Don't lift weights you can't move without perfect technique. You may limit your risk of injury, and you will be much stronger in the long run. Keep your ribs down, and learn to utilize the core properly!
The knees are the largest joints in the human body. Unfortunately, these large joints also seem to be an even bigger area for pain and injury. In the U.S. alone, surgeons perform around 700,000 knee replacements annually--that's a lot of bionic knees! Other knee-related injuries include ACL tears, MCL tears, patellar tendon tears, patellar tendonitis, dislocated patellas and osteoarthritis. In my opinion, many of these surgeries or injuries are easily preventable. With the proper training protocol, you can avoid knee pain and inevitable surgery down the line.
We use our knees for a lot of different activities from walking and running to jumping, squatting and lunging, and therefore they withstand a lot of impact. It is incredibly important to prioritize solid movement patterns to avoid any further stress.
I should warn you, that this post will be fairly heavy in anatomical jargon. Brace yourself.
The "knee" covers an area of four bones: the femur, the fibula, the tibia, and the patella. As a hinge joint, the knee can only flex and extend. Though its actions are simple, the muscles around it are vast and complex. Some of the important muscles that directly help the movement of this joint are the hamstrings complex (semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris), the quadriceps complex (vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and rectus femoris), the calf muscles (gastrocnemius, popliteus, tibialis anterior, and the peroneals). If you feel overwhelmed with the laundry list of muscles I just mentioned, fear not! I will elaborate.
Now, we need to remember that the body acts as a chain. One part of the body reacts to the feedback of another part. What are the two major joints near the knee? If you guessed the hip and the ankle, high five! We cannot just consider the knee in the case of knee pain, but rather, we must think about how the surrounding joints are compromising the integrity of the knee. If you have poor hip or ankle stability, the knee is going to work a lot harder to compensate for the lack of stability elsewhere.
Let's start from the ground up, at the ankle. The ankle can plantarflex (point), dorsiflex (flex upwards), invert/supinate, or evert/pronate. Check your feet. Are your arches exceedingly high or collapsed? What happens to them as you squat or jump? Ideally, we want to strive for a perfect balance between pronation and supination when standing. Both of these two movements are completely natural ankle movements when walking or running, but we do not want either in excess.
If, for example, you squat and your ankle collapses (pronates) completely, you will likely experience some collapse of the knee with it. The muscles on the inside of your leg (adductors) are over-active or tight, while the antagonists (abductors) will be lengthened. Do you often feel pain in your IT bands? Well, you may fit into this category of people. Your IT bands may be tense because they're working really hard for some other guys. Think about how this position is going to effect the ligaments and tendons in your knee!
Look at the relationship between his knees and ankles in the squat.
Conversely, if you drive your knees out too much and shift your weight laterally (supinate) your feet, the opposite will happen. Your adductors are going to be lengthened while your abductors will work over time. I was one of these people. The lateral areas of my knee always caused me pain, because I was nearly rolling my ankles as I squatted.
Obviously, the ankle position will effect the knee and hip mechanics, and vice versa.
If one lacks sufficient strength in the gluteus medius and the peroneals, the lifter will, again, revert to a valgus (collapse) of the knees. Weak gluteus maximus will result in an abuse of the quadriceps complex, which is going to pull onto the patellar tendon for dear life. Put more simply, if your glutes aren't strong enough, your knees are going to pay the price.
As I said, we want to maintain a balance in how we shift our weight as we move. Too much outward shifting of the hip or ankle is just as counter-productive as shifting too much weight inward. True strength comes from a balance.
Some of these inefficiencies may be a matter of learning. You might not understand what a proper squat should look like, and there for cueing and repetition will go a long way. If cueing has not helped, then you need to follow a strengthening and mobility routine. The exercises I've listed below will be tremendously helpful.
Now that we've made it through the meat of this article, it's time to learn how to correct these faults. Figure out where you lie on this spectrum of movement dysfunction, and correct your mechanics as necessary.
Here are some great ways to mobilize the hips and the ankles:
Where there is pain, there is weakness and dysfunction. You don't have to "accept" being in pain. Strengthening the hip and ankle muscles are vital in perfecting your mechanics and preventing unnecessary stresses on the soft tissues of the knee. Pay attention to those stabilizers and you will save your knees for many years of heavy lifting to come.
Works Cited:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 06 Jan. 2015. Web. 29 June 2015.
Myers, Thomas W. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2001. Print.
In the prequel to this post, I explained why so many of us carry a lot of tension in the neck. Stress, poor posture, and breathing can all contribute to elevated shoulders and a heavy head. I taught you a few quick movements that will strengthen the muscles of the chest, back and shoulders, and today I want to teach you some more exercises that will emphasize the neck musculature.
Lately, I've initiated my posts with a little bit of an anatomy lesson, so I'd like to continue that trend and talk a little bit more about the prime movers of the neck and their functions. First, we have the sternocleidomastoid muscles. I know, that name has a hell of a lot of syllables. The sternocleidomastoids (say that 10 times as fast as you can) are two big, strips of muscles that are on either side of your throat. They rotate the cervical spine (the neck), flex your neck forward, and also flex it laterally. Next, you have the scalenes. The scalenes are several tinier strands that wrap around the front of the neck. They work in conjunction with the sternocleidomastoids and laterally flex the neck and help you breathe. There are several other muscles in the neck, of course, but these are going to be the few that I discuss for the purposes of this post.
Now, the majority of people spend most of their time in cervical flexion, meaning that they are looking down at a computer, a book, or a smart phone. The upper trapezius are lengthened and over-active, while the sternocleidomastoids (SCM) are shortened and tight. When upright, many people maintain this position, because the body is lazy and doesn't like to recruit any more muscles than it needs for a given task. We walk around all day looking like the hunchbacks of Notre Dame.
The primary role of the head and neck, though, is to maintain joint centration and navigate our centers of mass. If our heads are cranked forward, now the entire system is out of line. Your center of mass has shifted from its ideal position, your "center," directly over your pelvis. Ideally, we want the earlobes in line with the shoulders.
If your center of gravity is too far forward or backwards, all of your movements will be altered from your clean and jerk to your 40 yard time. Alignment = optimal mechanics and balance.
Many coaches of sports like wrestling and football prioritize training the neck to avoid concussions and other potentially traumatic traumas to the head. While many of these teams make use of high-tech machines to isolate the neck, I believe neck training is best done (especially initially) without any added weight. Your head should be more than enough!
Here are 5 of my favorite exercises:
1. Neck flexion
2. Neck Extension
3. Lateral Flexion
4. Neck Rotation (prone)
5. Neck Rotation (supine)
Each of these movements can be done for 1-3 sets of 10 repetitions. I recommend starting out with only one or two sets, because you may find that you will be fairly sore after these exercises. The great thing about these movements is that they don't require equipment, and they won't take you long. I recommend my clients do them upon waking up or before bed.
The idea is to realign your center of mass so that you can perform most efficiently. Your balance will improve, you will better your hip and shoulder stability, and all of your muscles will function as they should. Find your center and master your body.
Works Cited:
Collins, Christy L., Erica N. Fletcher, Sarah K. Fields, Lisa Kluchurosky, Mary Kay Rohrkemper, R. Dawn Comstock, and Robert C. Cantu. "Neck Strength: A Protective Factor Reducing Risk for Concussion in High School Sports." J Primary Prevent The Journal of Primary Prevention 35.5 (2014): 309-19. Web.
Falla, D., G. Jull, T. Russell, B. Vicenzino, and P. Hodges. "Effect of Neck Exercise on Sitting Posture in Patients With Chronic Neck Pain." Physical Therapy 87.4 (2007): 408-17. Web.
Keating, Jennifer. "Predicting Short Term Response and Non-Response to Neck Strengthening Exercise for Chronic Neck Pain." Journal of Whiplash & Related Disorders 4.1 (2005): 43-55. Web.
If you had to pick one place where you regularly carry the most tension in your body, what would you choose? I'm willing to bet you chose your upper trapezius muscles.
The upper trapezius muscles seem to be (in my experience) some of the most overused and abused muscles in the human body. Many people I see are, either consciously or unconsciously, in a constant shrugged posture: their shoulders are by their earlobes and necks are pulled forward. Why is this?
There are a few factors that contribute to tight upper traps:
Posture. Sedentary individuals seldom remember to sit upright. Often times, you see people with significant flexion in the thoracic spine, protraction of the cervical spine (neck) who are hunched over their computers. Forward head posture will place extra stress on your vertebrae. According to chiropractor Dr. Jason Queiros, "Every inch you hold your head forward, you add 10 pounds of pressure on your spine. Let’s say you’re leaning into your monitor by just two inches, that’s 20 extra pounds that your back and spinal column have to endure." The muscles in your back and neck need to compensate for this imbalance.
Breathing. Stress individuals have the propensity to overuse accessory muscles for breathing like the scalenes, sternocleidomastoid, and the upper trapezius, rather than the diaphragm. The tonic muscles in the front of the body shorten, while the phasic muscles in the back lengthen. Neck breathing facilitates a constant "shrugged" position of the shoulders, which are going to put your upper trapezius muscles into overtime.
Shoulder stability. The overworked upper trapezii may prevent the other shoulder stabilizers and rotator cuff muscles from functioning as they should. The lower and middle trapezius, the serratus anterior, the rhomboids may all be dysfunctional or under-active as a result.
Now, the way most people look to alleviate tight traps is through stretching or massage. While these modalities can be extremely effective, they are usually short-lived in their relief.
Now, conjunction with adding some breathing drills into your daily routine, some supplementary shoulder stability work could do you some good. Here are a few of my favorite exercises:
What's most important, throughout all of these movements, is to make sure you're not shrugging your shoulders, otherwise your efforts will be ineffective. I often find myself tapping my clients on their shoulders to remind them.
If you want to find provide your traps with some relief, corrective exercises and breathing drills are going to be the most effective methods to lessen tension. Once you're aware of it, you'll probably be surprised to find out just how often your body instinctively reverts to a shrugged position. The key is consistency. Let some of your other surrounding muscles do their job and give your traps a break...
For every exercise, there's an equal and opposite, behind-the-neck variation. Behind-the-neck lat pull-downs, pull-ups, push presses, strict presses, are just a few examples of exercises I've seen people try to do behind their necks. Perhaps they're trying to hit the same muscle groups in a new way, or target different muscles altogether. Regardless of the reason, I am not generally a fan of the behind-the-neck training club.
Given the overwhelming number of shoulders stuck in internal rotation and spines stuck in kyphosis for the average desk-worker or sedentary individual, many people already come into the gym with a slew of shoulder restrictions and postural limitations. The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body. Because of the huge range of motion in the joint, many people have poor stability overhead. Men and women alike suffer from scapular flaring (see below) as a result of lifestyle habits and poor posture.
She may look like she's at peace, but she's forcing her shoulders into an unstable position!
It is often difficult enough for someone to maintain shoulder stability in the traditional variations of a pull-up or strict press. Now, once you start trying to do these movements behind the neck, you're just reinforcing a dangerous position that may lead to pain or injury in the future.
For starters, let's analyze the neck position of someone doing an exercise behind his neck.
If you've read my previous posts, you understand that the position of the neck impacts the position of the rest of the spine. This particular...gentleman is obviously very muscular. Despite this, however, his cervical spine (neck) is flexed, and he is reinforcing the dreaded forward head posture ("chicken head" posture). This exercise may be counterproductive for him as it could potentially lead to some neck pain down the line.
Now, let's move on to what might be happening to the shoulders in a movement like the lat-pull downs in the above photo.
As the result of the neck position, (because the human body works as a chain) his shoulder stability is also compromised. Ideally, his scapula should slide down the ribcage as he pulls the bar towards his traps. However, if the shoulders are internally rotated, the shoulder blade tilts forward and slopes off of the ribcage.
Many Olympic lifting coaches teach jerks or presses behind the neck, because it enables the athlete to keep his torso more upright in the dip. Unfortunately, for most, this might also damage the integrity of the shoulder position in order to maintain a vertical torso.
In an ideal situation, a behind-the neck exercise might be beneficial for an athlete. Unfortunately, the shoulder position is often compromised. If you have had shoulder issues in the past, you more than likely lack mobility or stability in the shoulder joint, and these types of exercises will just exacerbate your issues.
Unless you are certain you can sustain an ideal position in a behind the neck exercise, perhaps your routine is better off without them!
The squat, lunge, bench press and overhead press are all great exercises--they are compound movements that will help improve strength, power, and stability. Unfortunately, I see many people performing this movement on a machine that limits the benefits of these movements: the Smith machine.
Don't try this at home...or anywhere else, for that matter.
You've probably seen this machine at your gym before. The Smith machine is where great exercises go to die.
The reason why I am so adamantly against the usage of the Smith machine is simple: the machine creates stability for you by forcing you to move through a fixed range of motion. Part of the glory of a squat or bench press is that our bodies must find stability on their own. When you take a barbell out of the rack, you may feel a little bit shaky at first. Your shoulder stabilizers are working hard to prevent the barbell from yanking your arms behind you during the bench press. The same phenomenon occurs on the squat. If you can't properly stabilize your hips, you will either fall backwards or forwards, or your knees will cave inwards as you stand.
Squatting on the Smith machine is basically like telling your core to go take a nap while you do your set. You will notice that you will be able to squat significantly more weight on a Smith machine, because you don't need to stabilize your midline! As a result, your legs can concentrate solely on moving the load on your back. While this may sound like a positive, I can assure you it is not. If you want to improve your body's reflexive strength and prevent unnecessary injuries like rolled ankles, then stick to free weights.
When you're walking down the street, you are not moving on a fixed plane. Your hip adductors work to prevent excessive hip abduction, and vice versa. Your torso must rotate slightly to navigate your center of mass. These actions are innate and help create efficient movement. Similar reactions happen in the squat: your abductors prevent the ugly valgus knee position, your erector spinae instinctively push against the barbell to prevent your torso upright, and your glutes are suppose to help you extend the hips as you stand. Many of these muscles will go to sleep when you squat on the Smith machine, because they aren't necessary.
Don't cheat yourself. Wake up your stabilizer muscles and train with purpose.
"The human body is a machine which winds its own springs."
-Julien Offray
You've taken the first step and bought yourself a gym membership. Now you think to yourself, "okay, what the heck do I do with all of this equipment??" Some of the machines in there look like Medieval torture devices. It's easy to lose yourself in the rows of fancy gadgets in there, but in reality, all you need to achieve your fitness goals is your own bodyweight and some free weights.
Regardless on your fitness goals (increase in strength, increase in size, fat loss, etc.), I recommend you avoid the weight machines at all costs. (Okay, if you REALLY want to use the cardio machines, fine. That's a little bit different.)
Here's why:
Stability- Try something for me: stand on one leg and try to balance yourself for as long as you can. Now try to balance yourself while you're laying on a leg press machine. It is quite obvious that you do not need to create any stability for yourself when you're in a fixed or seated position predetermined by a machine. Your smaller stabilizing muscles, which I continually talk about, turn off when you use a machine, simply because they don't need to fire. There's a reason why you can leg press 2-3 times what you can back squat. Our bodies only like to use muscles that are absolutely necessary in an effort to conserve energy, so it will stop firing any muscles that don't need to fire. Those ever-important glutes that I wrote about will most likely not fire on a leg press they way they will on a squat or a lunge, just as those shoulder stabilizers won't fire on a chest press or a lateral shoulder raise machine.
Range of motion- No matter what the exercise, it is important to use a full range of motion for each repetition. When we are strapped into a machine, the machine chooses our range of motion for us, and rarely does it take you through the full range of those muscles in any given movement.
Joint stress- Certain machines can place tremendous stress on your joints and connective tissues. For example, the leg extension machine stresses the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the other ligaments and tendons that hold your kneecap in place. Open chain exercises (isolations) can irritate those tissues more than closed chain (compound) exercises.
Functionality- The word "functional" is thrown around a lot. Here, I use "functional" to relate to the transfer to our day-to-day movement patterns. How will machines or open chain exercises carry over to your ability to play sports, pick up your kids, or go run a 5k? It won't. However, a deadlift has a direct transfer to picking up heavy furniture, and a squat has a direct transfer to standing up from your desk chair correctly. Using machines will train your body to adapt to isolating one muscle at a time, and of course we never want that! We want to train movement, not muscles!
This machine makes me cringe every time I see someone use it!
Although fancy new machines can be enticing, I urge you to step away from the Smith machine and try a back squat (or better yet, a front squat or an overhead squat). Back off of that silly crunch machine and try some hollow rocks or weighted planks. You will save yourself from injury and ultimately build a stronger, more stable body, ready for any task you ask of it! Channel your own inner Terminator and turn your body into a machine.
Sources:
Escamilla RF, Fleisig GS, Zheng N, Barrentine SW, Wilk KE, Andrews JR. Biomechanics of the knee during closed kinetic chain and open kinetic chain exercises. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1998 Apr;30(4):556-69.
Stensdotter AK, Hodges PW, Mellor R, Sundelin G, Hager-Ross C. Quadriceps activation in closed and in open kinetic chain exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2003 Dec;35(12):2043-7.
Chow JW. Knee joint forces during isokinetic knee extensions: a case study. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 1999 Jun;14(5):329-38.
Having a big butt is certainly preferable for models twerking in rap videos, but it's also extremely important in athletic performance. Weather you're a soccer player, a running back or just simply working out to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to make sure you're giving your butt the attention it deserves.
I know what you're thinking: "But Arianna! I can squat 250 pounds. My glutes are really strong!" In a perfect world, you would achieve glute activation in the back squat, but many of the back squats I see people execute in the gym make use of the anterior quadriceps muscle and recruit minimal activation from their posterior chain. The truth is, if you are a predominantly sedentary person (meaning you sit for 4+ hours a day at home or at work), you probably don't know how to correctly activate your glutes because you're not using them for the majority of the day. Fear not--you are part of the American majority who sits at a desk job all day. It's no wonder that we don't know how to activate the right muscle groups considering we don't use them as often as we should.
Underactive or weak glutes can cause a ton of problems, including lower back pain, knee pain, IT band syndrome, and a whole slew of other maladies. Your quadriceps may be strong enough to squat 250 lbs, but guess what? If you learned how to activate your glutes properly, you would easily squat over 300 lbs.
The gluteus maximus (one of three muscles that make up what we collectively call the "glutes") is the biggest muscle in your body. Now, if we learn how to properly employ the strength of this tremendous group of muscles, we are going to see some real magic happen. Whether we're doing a deadlift, a squat, a box jump or a clean and jerk, we need to learn to properly harness the power from our glutes in order to move the most amount of weight and avoid injury.
In order to utilize the strength of the ever-powerful gluteal muscles, we must focus on activating them. Some great exercises can be found in my previous article about warm-ups, but I'll list a few more that I really like here:
Once you learn to properly engage your posterior chain, you will see tremendous gains in strength while simultaneously protecting your body from injury. If you have humongous quadriceps and a small butt, that should be a red flag to you that your glutes needs some more attention. Channel your inner Nicki Minaj and start building a bigger booty!
Conventional gyms are fully stocked with machines from wall-to-wall, racks of dumbbells and bars with an array of plates to load them. What many globo gyms lack, however, are the more non-traditional items. Toys like tires, sleds, and sandbags provide a whole new stimulus for your brain and your muscles alike.
Let's take a sandbag and a barbell of equal weights, for example. A barbell is a solid, stable object; a sandbag, on the other hand, is much more unstable. Sand may move around within the bag, forcing you to constantly move with it. Try doing a front squat with a barbell and then a front squat with a sandbag.
Image courtesy of Men's Health
You will immediately notice a huge difference.
Sandbags, chains, ropes, kegs, pipes or balls filled with water, stones, sledgehammers, tires, and a partner (willing, of course) are all great tools to add to your training bag. These objects will really take your training to the next level, because they require significantly more core stabilization than fixed objects.
These tools allow you to challenge yourself in a new way, and they're all very cheap (or free) to use! You can be resourceful and throw some objects together that you would have otherwise allowed to collect dust in your basement.
We've all been guilty of it at one point or another: pounding away hundreds of crunches in hopes of getting a "six pack." The fact of the matter is that many people care about "getting abs" for their aesthetic value rather than focusing on training them for developing stability and core strength. It is called your "core" because that is where every movement initiates. Whether you're squatting, deadlifting or doing an overhead press, it all starts with a tight, strong core. The core muscles allow you to stabilize your hips and shoulders: that is their primary function. Treat these muscles as the gateway to total body strength. You want to see real "core strength?" Look at a gymnast or a pole dancer--they have complete and total control over their centers of gravity. Essentially, developing a strong core means manipulating your center of gravity efficiently and effectively.
Russian Olympic gymnast Alexei Nemov
So why are crunches a waste of time? There are many reasons, but the main reason being that crunches are only really engaging the rectus abdominis muscles (the superficial muscles that can make up a "six pack"). This means that your intrinsic core muscles (like the transverse abdominis), your obliques, and your hip flexors are all left unactivated. To be more efficient and really develop core strength, you must utilize all of the rectus abdominis and activate the hip flexors. The hip flexors will help stabilize your pevis in exercises like the squat or the deadlift. As I mentioned earlier, the CrossFit methodology notes that "[they] train [their] athletes to think of every exercise as an ab exercise." While doing designated core exercises can be beneficial, you must remember to engage your abs in every exercise that you do.
The most important thing to note, however, is that if you really want "6 pack abs," you must, and I repeat, must make sure you follow a healthy diet. Body fat percentage is what really accounts for visibility of muscles. You can't expect to counteract eating a whole pizza by doing 100 v-ups and running a mile; our bodies simply do not work that way.
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As I've mentioned 1,000 times (and you're probably sick of me saying it already), we always have to look distally (farther away) from the area in question. Think of your entire arms as a train. If the shoulder isn't working properly, you bet that you're gonna have elbow and wrist problems too. Take a look at the photo on the right from Thomas Myers' Anatomy Trains. You can see here that the pecs of the chest will influence the structures all of the way down to the fingers.
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