Today’s Thursday Throwback is an appropriate follow-up to last week’s post on the relationship between flexibility and muscle injury risk. If you missed that, you can check it out here: Does Flexibility INCREASE your risk of injury?
This is another short, but important read, as it touches on an idea that I think every youth athlete I’ve ever worked with has been taught incorrectly. Enjoy the post, and please pass it along to any friends or family you think would benefit from reading it!
Should You Stretch After You Pull A Muscle?
Think about the times in your life that you’ve “tweaked” a muscle or slightly strained/pulled it.
What was the FIRST thing you did on your own or were told to do?
If you’re like most people, you immediately stretched the muscle.
This isn’t always the answer
The very first thing I tell my athletes if they tweak a muscle is NOT to stretch it!
A muscle strain can range from a slight over-stretch to a complete tear. Assuming the muscle isn’t COMPLETELY torn, it’s likely that there is some micro-damage to the muscle and that the muscle feels tight because it’s guarding against further injury.
This means that most people are attempting to stretch an over-stretched muscle AGAINST the muscles’ contraction.
Not only is this not an effective way to speed up your healing, but it’s probably making your injury worse!
Think about your muscle as a rubber band. Now imagine cutting a small slit in the rubber band with a razorblade.
If you stretch that rubber band now, what’s going to happen?
The small slit is going to expand, getting longer and wider.
Does making a slight tear in your muscle longer and wider seem like a smart recovery strategy?
If you tweak a muscle, DO NOT stretch it. You can ice it if you want (although I’m not convinced that ice does anything either). If you’re going to stretch anything, stretch the muscles that OPPOSE the injured muscle.
Many muscles are overworked or strained because of a relative stiffness imbalance with their antagonists, so stretching the opposing muscle can help bring you back into balance.
Today’s “Thursday Throwback” is a quick one from 2009. This continues to be a trend we see in our assessments today and I think, while basic, highlights that you can go wrong on both ends of the flexibility continuum. Those that are too immobile at one joint are likely to move excessively at another. Those that are too mobile at one joint may be more likely to suffer from injuries as a result of a lack of stability and/or constant attempt to manage the instability (e.g. muscle injuries). This is why optimizing movement is such an important concept!
Enjoy the post below:
Does Flexibility INCREASE your risk of injury?
A couple weeks ago I did an audio interview with Joe Heiler for SportsRehabExpert.com, one of the most underrated membership sites on the web. I’m really humbled that he asked me to contribute.
If you’ve never been there, check it out. Joe’s a really bright guy and has compiled a lot of great information from other smart, successful coaches and therapists.
One of the things that came up during the interview was what we can do to prevent “groin” (adductor) strains. We’ve been fortunate in that we haven’t had too many adductor injuries in our athletes. This is probably, at least in part, due to the hip mobility and hip muscle activation exercises we use.
We did have a couple athletes complain of adductor pain though, and they all had ONE thing in common:
OUTSTANDING ADDUCTOR FLEXIBILITY!
This trend flies in the face of the “you got hurt because you didn’t stretch or aren’t flexible enough” way of thinking.
In these athletes, we were able to resolve their pain relatively quickly, by having them STOP STRETCHING their adductors, start stretching their glutes a few times a day, and by doing isometric adductor strengthening exercises by crushing a medicine ball between their knees for time.
The rationale was simply that their adductors were weak relative to their abductors (to be overly simplistic: weak groin, strong glutes).
By stretching their glutes and strengthening their adductors, we were able to shift the strength and stiffness relationship between those muscles into more balance and get rid of their pain within a week or two.
Today’s Thursday Throwback features 6 videos from Dr. John Berardi, the founder of Precision Nutrition. Dr. Berardi has been one of my go-to resources for nutrition information for the last 8 years. Not only does he stay on top of current research, but he’s the best in the industry at delivering nutrition information in a way that people will actually do it. I believe that most people have a general understanding of better and worse food choices, but few actually do. This seems to be a psychology/behavior change issue more than purely an information issue. This is really where Dr. Berardi excels. If you’re interested in learning more about Dr. Berardi’s system, check out this link >> Precision Nutrition
If you’re looking for something more hockey-specific, be sure to check out Brian St. Pierre’s Ultimate Hockey Nutrition. Brian currently works for Precision Nutrition and delivers high quality nutrition information in ways that are easy for players at all ages to implement.
6 AWESOME Nutrition Tips from Dr. Berardi
John Berardi is a brilliant nutritionist that has had a ton of success with a wide variety of people from elite athletes to non-athletes. His Precision Nutrition system is still the best nutrition product ever created. I think everyone should own a copy. For more information on Precision Nutrition, click here.
Below are 6 awesome videos of a TV interview that Dr. Berardi did with Christine Williams on the show “On The Line”. Take the time to watch these. Dr. Berardi goes through a lot of awesome nutrition strategies that will help you lose fat, and get lean and strong.
Part 1 – On The Line with Christine Williams
About me, my work, about the differences between athletes and recreational exercisers, and more…
Part 2 – On The Line With Christine Williams
How much protein should we eat, the body mass index, how to gauge progress, and more…
Part 3 – On The Line With Christine Williams
Advanced nutrition, healthy food/supplements, metabolism boosting foods, cravings, and more…
To learn more about how Precision Nutrition can help you get in the best shape of your life, click here.
Part 4 – On The Line With Christine Williams
Cutting cravings, metabolic slowdown with age, healthy recipes, fruits and veggies, and more…
Part 5 – On The Line With Christine Williams
Metabolism preservation, ideal rate of progress, crash dieting, loose skin, and we take some calls…
Part 6 – On The Line With Christine Williams
How to exercise, exercise for seniors, day 1 of your program, and more…
To learn more about how Precision Nutrition can help you get in the best shape of your life, click here.
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Fundamental Lower Body Movement Patterns
In this week’s “Thursday Throwback”, I wanted to share another article from 2009 that highlights the progressive differences in fundamental lower body movement patterns and how force production from the involved musculature shifts as body angles change. This idea has been described using different terminology over the last several years, including Mike Boyle’s classification as exercises being more “knee-dominant” or “hip-dominant” or what I describe in Ultimate Hockey Training, simply, as lower body pushing or pulling patterns. Terminology aside, it’s important to recognize how subtle changes in body angle changed the emphasized musculature so that you can choose exercises based on the specific result you want. If you have any comments/questions, please post them below. Enjoy!
Fundamental Lower Body Movement Patterns
This Summer I started working with a ton of new athletes at Endeavor Sports Performance. These athletes had been training, but not with me.
Part of building a solid training base is learning the three fundamental lower body movement patterns:
Stiff-Legged Deadlift The stiff-legged deadlift (SLDL) is largely a hip-dominant movement. You’ll maintain a slight knee bend, but the entire movement involves tilting the pelvis forward, then using your glutes and hamstrings to pull yourself back upright. The emphasis is almost entirely on the glutes and hamstrings.
Deadlift The deadlift pattern is similar to the stiff-legged version in that it involves tilting the pelvis forward as far as possible, but is different from the SLDL in that it involves a deeper bend of the knees. A bend of the knees means more force production from the quadriceps.
Squat You’re probably picking up on the trend here. The squat pattern uses slightly less forward tilting of the hips and slightly more knee bend, which involves more force production from the quads relative to the SLDL and deadlift patterns.
These differences in loading emphasis are pretty clearly illustrated by noting the maximal forward hip/torso angle in the “down” position of these exercises. During the SLDL, the torso is almost parallel to the ground. During the deadlift, the torso is slightly above parallel. During the squat, the torso is slightly more vertical than the deadlift. And during a front squat pattern, the torso is almost completely vertical.
It generally takes less than a month for the majority of my athletes to master these movements. Then it’s time to “load the hell out of them” and get them strong!
The last article touched on the various limitations to range of motion (ROM) and presented the idea that it’s not always desirable to improve ROM. If you missed that post, you can check it out here: Understanding Range of Motion: More is not better
Today I want to expand on that concept by taking a broader look at what drives athletic performance in general. Simply, if we want to improve performance, we need to have a construct of what’s limiting it.
Diving right in…
While there are inevitably more than what’s presented here, these are what I consider the 8 major determinants of sport performance:
Genetic Capacity
Movement Capacity
Physical Capacities
Technical Skill
Tactical Abilities
Fuel State
Psychology
Readiness
Genetic Capacity
To expand in a little more detail, Genetic Capacity describes an individual’s ceiling for movement and physical capacities, and although not listed above, probably intellectual capacities as well (this falls within the tactical skill bucket). This also speaks to how some individuals naturally excel at endurance OR power activities and why certain athletes may have an increased chance of success in certain activities versus others. This is certainly not to say that any given athlete should only pursue those activities in which they’re genetically predisposed to success. I’m a huge proponent of “playing the underdog” and utilizing the doubts of others as fuel for your own development. I also don’t think success can ever be wholly dictated by genetic predisposition. The expression of genetics can surely be modified (a field known as epigenetics has emerged from this idea), depending on the stressors placed on the body. That said, genetics can’t be ignored either, as they will certainly play a role in determining your peak capacities.
See 4:20 for a quick lesson on genetic presdispositions and sport performance
Movement Capacity & Physical Capacities
Movement Capacity encompasses qualities like range of motion and movement quality, which can be quantified with a variety of testing methods, including those espoused by the Postural Restoration Institute and Functional Movement Systems, among others. Physical capacities build on movement capacity by putting movement more within the context of sport requirements. This bucket includes all components of athleticism, such as acceleration, deceleration, max speed, multi-directional power across the full spectrum (high load/low velocity to low load/high velocity), strength, core function (this plays a role in movement capacity, but also in physical capacity within the context of transferring and dissipating loads), and conditioning.
Technical Skill & Tactical Abilities
The development of movement and physical capacities lays the foundation for the development of technical skill. One cannot improve, for example, a sport-specific skill that necessitates power the individual does not possess. This is a fairly obvious statement, but it’s one that is often overlooked by sport coaches who want something out of an athlete that simply isn’t there (yet). Tactical abilities, which refer to an athlete’s understanding of game-specific situations and the ability to read and react to plays, are similarly influenced by technical skills and physical capacities. In the case of the former, it may be more appropriate to say that the expression of tactical ability is influenced by technical skills. If an athlete’s processing allows him/her to know the perfect play to make, but doesn’t have the skill to execute, the limiting factor is technical proficiency, not tactical ability. In the case of the latter, there are several ways to link physical capacities to tactical ability, but an easy one to highlight the relationship lies in the effect fatigue has on mental processing. Fatigue is multi-factorial, as we’ll see, but it’s easy to see how poor conditioning could lead to earlier fatigue and compromised mental processing.
Fuel
Being appropriately fueled ensures the athlete has the resources necessary to express their current maximal abilities, physically and psychologically. This is one of the most overlooked components of maximizing performance in youth sports. As I told a team of HS lacrosse players last weekend, “All of your diets are terrible; some of you are just more aware of how terrible they are than others.”
Psychology
Sport psychology also has a lot of facets to it, but one of the major components that determines the success of an individual (or team) is what has been described as “Grit”. Grit can be more simply defined as “resilience” or “stickwithitness”. It’s the quality that determines how an athlete responds when things don’t go according to plan. Another major piece deals with the Yerkes-Dodson Performance-Arousal Curve, which illustrates that there is an optimal zone of arousal (think excitement) below and beyond which performance is compromised.
Readiness
Lastly, all of these factors intertwine and combine with all other forms of life stressors (environmental, lifestyle, relationship, etc.) to determine an athlete’s “readiness”. Within this context, readiness primarily refers to how recovered an athlete is from previous stressors to perform optimally at any given moment. The reason I’m suggesting that all of the aforementioned factors dictate or influence readiness is because they all, with the possible exception of technical and tactical abilities, place a stress load on the body or determine how an individual will tolerate/adapt to that stress load. Poor movement quality may increase internal resistance to basic movements foundational within a given sport, leading to increased internal stress for the same output. Aerobic fitness in general is correlated to an individual’s ability to tolerate stress (from all sources). Moreover, accumulated training, practice and competition loads will influence how “fresh” an athlete feels at any given moment. Eating low quality food can cause an inflammatory response within the body that increases internal stress. And finally, inappropriate or excessive anticipatory stresses related to an upcoming competition can initiate a hormonal response that alters an individual’s recovery and therefore their readiness.
As you can see, and this is very much the tip of the iceberg, there is A LOT that goes into optimal performance. As coaches, it’s important to recognize that someone may not be living up to your expectations because of any one of these factors. In hockey, for example, coaches always want everyone to be faster. The reality is that some players are going to be more explosive than others, and while I think we can shift everyone toward faster skating speeds with quality training, there will still be a speed bell-curve. From a sport coach’s perspective, the question then comes down to how this player, despite not being the fastest on the team, can make a positive contribution within your system based on the other things they bring to the table (e.g. “redeeming qualities). Not every Hall of Famer is the fastest athlete on the team.
The video below is of Tom Brady’s 40-Yard Dash from the ’00 NFL Combine. It’s 10 seconds, which is barely enough time to squeeze in the run.
I understand QB is a position that may be more forgiving for this type of physical profile compared to others, but it’s also a position that has coveted extremely explosive athletes.
The point being, Tom Brady has had an incredibly successful NFL career despite not being the most physically gifted. Every athlete has redeeming qualities; it’s up to the coaches when selecting a team to make decisions about whether any given athlete’s redeeming qualities have a place in their system. Once this is determined, an athlete cannot be faulted for, nor should a coach expend too much mental energy on, his or her lack of genetic gifts.
Optimal performance is dictated by a number of factors, many of which were highlighted above. In order to determine why an athlete may not be living up to their potential and/or the coach’s expectations, it’s important to both understand the various opportunities for limiting peak performance, and to have a series of assessments to monitor the modifiable factors. The next article will highlight several assessments that can be used to accomplish just that. Stay tuned!
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