No Sleep/No Recovery

Do you sleep enough? There is a good chance the answer is “no” because the average American gets between 5 and 7 hours a night.

Lets start with the basics, stats you may already know but like many of us simply don’t adhere to. For optimal health and recovery we should be getting 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night. I know, it seems pretty optimistic and maybe even unrealistic for many, but getting over that 7 hour threshold is important and you can really feel the difference.

Those that get less than 5 hours of sleep a night are 2.5 times more likely to have diabetes and are at 45% higher risk for heart attack. Sleep deprivation also makes seemingly simple tasks harder. Focus and creativity may be stunted, your thought process can be slower and learning new things can be more difficult. Lets not forget another big issue with lack of sleep, poor recovery.

If you exercise, which you should be, you need adequate sleep to realize all of the gains you are striving for by training hard. Our time in the gym is the catalyst for getting bigger, stronger, and better conditioned, but the time post workout is when your body is really making changes. Outside of simply functioning better, sleep is a vital part of becoming better.

Bottom line - if you do this: 

Then make sure to also do enough of this:

 -KO

The Order of Things

Gray Cook is one of those professionals in the fitness industry that continually seems to challenge my understanding of things and get me thinking about the “why”. Why are we training what we’re training in the manner we’re training it? There ought to be a reason and you should know what it is. One  topic that really stuck with me the first time I read it years ago is the idea that mobility should come before stability.

You’ll often hear that we should be stable first and, until I was forced to actually think about it, I would have agreed with this statement. It makes sense to want to be stable, but in terms of order look at it this way: as an infant we are super mobile and have to learn to stabilize all of that mobility in order to crawl, then cruise, then walk. So while our bodies obviously develop and change, taking some of this insane mobility with it, we should (barring injury) still possess full range of joint motion. 

Cook laid it out as “mobility before stability and stability before movement”. So he isn’t going against having stability early; he just adds the prerequisite of mobility first. Certain strength exercises especially compound lifts require adequate mobility to set up; once we start to perform said lift then stability is needed. To set up properly for a deadlift you have to have the hip and ankle mobility to get into the right position first. Without this you see compensations, which sets people up for injury because they are starting a resisted movement from a bad position mechanically.

If your hips lack mobility your body will find a way if forced to... even if it looks like this

 However, these types of compensations apply to movements outside the weight room as well. Over-pronation of the foot is not an uncommon compensation and can be the result of restricted ankle range of motion. If ankle dorsiflexion (bringing the toes up toward the shin) is restricted, the body compensates by pronating which is the combination of foot eversion (foot rolling toward the big toe while lifting the lateral side), foot abduction (foot turning out away from midline) and ankle dorsiflexion (toe moving up toward the shin). The lack of proper ankle mobility causes the body to compensate, which it will, to continue movement. 

All of this is to say that a proper exercise program should be training mobility, stability, strength and power. However, order does matter and starting with strength and power before adequate mobility and stability is a mistake that can easily lead to dysfunction and injury. As one’s training age advances and background adaptations, neuromuscular and connective, have improved along with joint mobility and stability, then strength and power can be consciously pursued.

-KO

Alleviating Low Back Pain

While a hugely vast topic, we can focus on some of the prime offenders that cause low back pain. Outside of specific injury, much of the low back pain or tension people experience is caused by soft tissue and fascia. I’ve talked about the lower crossed syndrome in previous posts and how that imbalance can create low back pain, but today we’ll deal with the posterior musculature.

Thoracolumbar fascia (diamond shaped, low back center)

At the base of the back is a large, multi-layered area of fascia called the thoracolumbar fascia. This is an attachment point for many muscles like the lats, glutes and transverse abdominus to highlight just a few major ones. You’ll notice that this means there are back muscles coming into the fascia superiorly, leg/hip muscles coming in inferiorly and core muscles coming around laterally from the front. Basically this area is a primary connector of the upper and lower body and therefore gets a lot of use. As you can imagine this means that excessive tension in any of these muscles can have an adverse affect on how the low back feels. This is where stretching and foam rolling for the back and hips comes into play.

Don't forget the lats when foam rolling

Starting at the top, when rolling the back out on a foam roller (like I’m sure you’re already doing right?) spend a little time tipping to one side of the back and giving it 10 – 15 good passes before going to the other side. This will target the lats, which can not only cause tension but also limit overhead range of motion. Side note: If you stand with your back against a wall and can’t rotate your arms all the way up overhead and touch, you’re presenting limited range of motion and this is a good place to start.

Using a lacrosse ball for myofascial release of the glutes...

  

...and the hip external rotators. If this is extremely painful start leaning up against a wall so you can moderate the pressure better.

Next we’ll focus on the lower half. Foam rolling, or better yet using a lacrosse ball, on the glutes and hip external rotators can really do amazing things. The glutes obviously get a tremendous amount of use and can therefore get pretty “junky” if you don’t give them some attention. With the lacrosse ball I generally spend a minimum of 30 seconds in each area searching for "hot spots" and really working the affected areas. If you're using a foam roller the same 10 - 15 passes is a good place to start, but you may want to add more in the long run. The lacrosse ball, while definitely more intense, can get into the muscle better and really loosen the hips and glutes up so give it a chance even if it's tough at first.

Interestingly, the glutes and lats have a common line of pull through the thoracolumbar fascia meaning they work together, especially during locomotion. This is why the left arm pulls back at the same time the right leg does when running. The left lat pulls the left arm back while the right glute pulls the right leg back, drawing a diagonal line of pull through the thoracolumbar fascia. 

The common line of pull between the lats and glutes.

While these techniques can really work wonders we must remember that loosening tight tissue is only half the battle; strengthening weak areas is a must for lasting improvement. 

-KO

Coconut Oil for the Skin

Looking for a quick and easy way to cut your exposure to synthetic chemicals? Try using coconut oil instead of lotion.

The lotion I recently replaced contained 11 ingredients, the first being water, four others needing to be looked up because I had no idea what they were, and three of those showing moderate concerns about toxicity by the environmental working group. So not the worst product out there, because I already care about stuff like that, however, improvements could still be made. 

Coconut oil contains one ingredient plain and simple.

Bonus: for a weekend treat try popping some popcorn in coconut oil. It gives the popped kernels a nice buttery flavor, eliminating the need for actual butter, just salt and enjoy. Doing it this way also means you're not using pre-packaged popcorn thus eliminating the chemicals used to line the bags and make the butter flavor.

-KO

Energy System Training

I’ve been doing some study on energy system development and recently came across a video that really impressed me. For starters it is presented by a really smart guy, Eric Oetter, but it's also backed up by scientific data; especially one, the Tabata study, that often gets used to promote high intensity work not aerobic training. Here I’ll offer some of the highlights of the video and a link to a written version of the presentation if you care to read it in its entirety.

One of the first takeaways was that the lactic and alactic energy systems (anaerobic systems that produce short, explosive power) have the ability to be improved upon by about 30% each. The aerobic system, on the other hand, can see up to a 240% improvement. This is why so many “average” people can train for and actually complete a marathon, but very few can post competitive 100M sprint times.

Next was how many negatives there are to focusing primarily on anaerobic type training. Please note that I didn't say high intensity work is bad in general, but because it’s extremely sympathetic nervous system driven, heavy use of anaerobic training can cause a host of negative adaptations especially coupled with the stressors of modern life. People can become “stuck” in a sympathetic state where their body never really gets into recovery mode. They just end up in a continual “fight or flight” state creating a negative feedback loop which is generally not good for ones health.

One of the main adaptations to continual lactic type training is a thickening of the myocardium of the left ventricle. In other words body building for the heart, which allows a stronger contraction but limited ability to stretch. This means the stroke volume, amount of blood pumped out at each contraction, isn’t increased so the only way to get more blood to the body as exercise intensity increases is by increasing pump speed. Focusing on an aerobic base first causes an overall larger left ventricle so the heart has a larger capacity. This means a higher stroke volume or more blood ejected on each contraction, which equates to a lower overall heart rate. This is good because a resting heart rate above 60 beats per minute usually equates to someone more or less stuck in a sympathetic state, a continual fight or flight mode, which is not a good thing. If you are someone with limited capacity for exercise duration you may want to check your resting heart rate, if it’s above 60 you would probably benefit greatly from increased aerobic training.

Left ventricle hypertrophy creates a stronger contraction, but limited ability to stretch and take in more blood.

Lastly, and most interestingly to me, the Tabata study was used to back up the idea that one should focus on building a good aerobic base rather than doing super high intensity work all the time. The Tabata study showed that the participants who performed the high intensity protocol saw an increase of about 23% in anaerobic capacity over the first four weeks. They realized another 5% increase over the subsequent two weeks, totaling a 28% increase in about 6 weeks. The part that is so fascinating is that if the body has the capacity to improve the anaerobic systems by about 30% total and it only took 6 weeks to see a 28% increase, there really isn’t a need to continue doing high intensity work past this point. 

The take-home is basically that when mapping out a training program, aerobic work should come first, followed by alactic work, and lastly the high intensity stuff about six – eight weeks from competition. Or, if you don't have a specific competition date, don't neglect training at lower intensities to realize aerobic based training adaptations. 

-KO

A Couple of Things...

-->A couple of quick things about food...

--> Got the above quote from a friend and couldn’t agree more. Cutting out processed food and soda will improve ones health plain and simple. Nothing fancy required, just real honest to goodness food.

On a similar note...

  -->

If farmers have to wear suits like this to work the fields we may want to seek alternative growing options. After seeing this picture, no argument can be made against the fact that the chemicals being used to improve crop yields just aren’t good for our health.

-KO

Hinge and Squat Movement Patterns

-->

Squats And Deadlifts; Not Just For The Boys

This post will expand on the "movement based training" post from last year. If you haven’t read the post or aren’t familiar with this approach to exercise programming I would recommend starting here for basic perspective. In this post I’m going to focus primarily on the lower body portion of a movement-based program and expand a bit on the content from last time.

The lower body portion of a movement based system should be thought of as having two main movement patterns: “squat” and “hinge”. The “squat” pattern contains knee dominant exercises like squats, lunges, step-ups, etc., which are biased toward the anterior chain or the front of the hips. The “hinge” pattern is hip dominant and includes all deadlift varieties and hip extension exercises. These exercises are biased toward the posterior chain or the back of the hips. By splitting the lower body exercises into these two categories we can control the strength balance around the hip complex, which is very important for performance enhancement as well as injury prevention.

Traditional Deadlift

With the deadlift ("hinge") there is a much stronger focus on extending (opening) the hips as the weight is lifted off the floor. You will notice that the athlete above begins with the hips higher and the back more parallel to the floor than with a squat. This opening of the hip angle makes the glutes and hamstrings the focus since they are the primary hip extending muscles.

Back squat                          Front squat 

With the squat we see that the hips are lower, which increases the angle at the knee making it a more quad dominant movement. Bar placement will change the loading a bit with the front squat being the most quad dominant of the two due to the anterior loading and more upright body position (less acute hip angle). 

Barring injury or major movement restriction I almost always teach these two movements because of the benefit they provide and how functional to life they are. I will generally work into the deadlift after a few weeks/months depending on ability, but the squat movement can usually be taught right away unloaded.

Other "hinge" pattern (hip dominant) exercises:  

Romanian Deadlift (RDL) - though I prefer to see a neutral neck like the picture below.

Single Leg RDL

Glute/Ham Developer (GHD) - Hip Extension

Hip Extension

Single Leg Hip Extension

Hip Thrust (loaded hip extension, can be done with shoulders elevated like the hip extension above)

Other "squat" pattern (knee dominant) exercises:

Lunge

Step Up

Rear Foot Elevated or Bulgarian Split Squat

While this is not an exhaustive list it represents some of the best exercises from each group. 
Make sure to alternate between each lower body movement to evenly train the hips and don't neglect the single leg exercises either, balance needs to happen side to side as well as front to back.

-KO

As they do in Instanbul

-->

Everyone has their favorite exercise for the hypothetical argument of “if you could only do one exercise, what would it be?” The reality is there are probably a couple exercises that legitimately offer the “bang for the buck” that is needed to qualify for this scenario. The Turkish get up is definitely one of those exercises; it taxes the entire body and provides a myriad of benefits. While it doesn’t offer the overall strength building and all around beastliness of a deadlift or the cult like following of the squat, it definitely deserves a look. 

The “get up” is fantastic for creating transitional stability, forcing you to maintain composure in a continually changing position against an external load. The key to the “get up” is to take it slow, break it into multiple pieces and make sure you “lock in” each position before moving to the next.

 After safely getting the weight into place assume the starting position with the working arm locked out overhead and the leg on that same side bent (third picture). From here push yourself up to a seated position with the weight still locked out overhead (fourth picture).

Once stabilized in the seated position, extend the hips (first picture) and pull the straight leg through so you are in a kneeling position with the non-working hand still on the ground (second picture). From there "windmill" yourself up to a lunge like position with the knee still on the ground (third picture). Lastly, lunge up to a standing position, the weight locked out overhead (fourth picture). This marks the half way point, now you have to reverse the process to complete one repetition on this side. Obviously this needs to be done on the other side as well.

If the kettlebell pulls the shoulder into too much flexion a dumbbell can be used to help center the weight over the arm. 

 

Turkish Get up with dumbbell

If you have cranky shoulders and the overhead position is less than pleasant, a sandbag get up might be the ticket.

Sandbag get up

 All in all this is a great exercise that can be very challenging when done right and loaded appropriately. If this is totally new to you feel free to start with no weight, just lock the arm out overhead and don't forget to keep it that way as you move.

-KO