Whether it is in our training, our nutritional habits or just life in general, there are these things we always need more of. Of course there could be individual differences, and not everybody needs the exact same things, but I’m pretty confident that this list could apply to pretty much anybody. So here it, in no particular order. Start including more of those things in your life right now, if you aren’t already!
1. Eat more whole foods on a daily basis. We just eat WAYYY too much processed foods on a daily basis. Like I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, we need to stop over-complicating nutrition and how many grams of carbs we’re eating, how much fat we’re taking in, counting calories, etc. We just need to eat whole, un-processed foods like meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and miraculously our dietary goals are going to fall into place. Why don’t you set up your alarm clock tomorrow morning 30 minutes earlier and take the time to scramble some eggs and eat a piece of fruit or two or simply throw some yogurt, protein powder, nuts and frozen fruits in a blender and drink that instead of stopping at Dunkin Donuts to get a bagel and a coffee because you’re in a rush to get to work because you snoozed too many times again.
2. Do more static stretching. How much time do you sit in a day? The answer is most likely between 8 and 12 hours. This is a LOT of time certain muscles spend in a shorten position.
Tell me this is not absolutely awful for your posture
We need to get that length back somehow or we will end up all locked up and barely be able to move at 50 years old. Stretch in the morning, stretch at night, stretch before your workout, stretch after your workout or stretch during your lunch break; whatever you prefer. Even better, why don’t you stretch at all of these times? Whatever you like. Just do it!
3. Listen more. It amazes me how many people are just talking all the time, want more attention and want people to care about them and what they have to say. Well, big news: people don’t care about what you have to say until you start paying attention to them. A wise man once said: “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care”. It couldn’t be any more true. If you want people to start paying attention, show them you’re interested in them in the first place. Stop talking for a second and listen to what people have to say. We have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. In this order.
4. Pull more. How many upper body pushing exercises do you have in your program? Now, how many pulling exercises do you have in your program? If you have a ratio of 1:1, it’s not bad, but I’d be willing to guess that you have more pushing than pulling exercises. Change that right now. Your posture will thank you later. You need 2:1 and maybe a 3:1 pulling to pushing ratio. Give it a try, and give me some feedback in 3 months when your posture has improved and when your shoulders don’t hurt anymore.
5. Walk more. We are getting SOOOO lazy in 2011, it is ridiculous. we don’t even walk anymore. When you see people fighting for parking spots close to the doors of the shopping center to save an extra 50 steps (especially when they’re going to walk anyway once they get inside), it simply amazes me. Are we really getting that lazy? And we’re wondering why the population is getting morbidly more obese every year! The secret to solve the obesity epidemic is not in the new diet out there, it’s not in the HIIT (high intensity interval training), it’s not in the shake weight and it’s not in crossfit.
Sorry dude, that’s not gonna do it!
Just freakin’ start moving for God’s sake! Starting tomorrow, you should start your day with a quick walk before eating breakfast, park at the furthest parking spot possible when you get to work (and when you go the grocery store and the shopping center as well for that matter), go for a walk during your lunch break, and don’t even get me started on the stairs vs elevator thing.
6. Read more. Buy a book every once in a while and read a little before going to bed instead of watching nothing interesting on TV anyway. As a society we read and less, and watch more TV, movies, videos, etc. Sometimes a little bit of time away from all that stimulation is good. Reading is very relaxing, too. It could be a good way to de-stress anytime of the day you need it. Whether you like fiction, humor or self-development books, there are thousands of options for you whatever you like. Here are a couple of my favorite non-fitness related books:
- How to win friends and influence people, by Dale Carnegie
- The 8th habit, by Stephen Covey
- Never eat alone, by Keith Ferrazzi
- The energy bus, by Jon Gordon
7. Variety. We need more variety in the foods we eat, the exercises we do and the sports and activities we participate in. Do you find yourself eating the same 3 fruits every week? Why don’t you buy a mango, a pomegranate or a couple of kiwi fruits next time you’re at the grocery store, you’ll be surprised how good they taste. Plus it’ll be a nice change of pace from the usual apple, banana and orange, huh?
Why don’t you try new exercises next time you’re at the gym to get you out of your comfort zone? I’m all for sticking with the same, basic exercises as main lifts to get better at it and gain strength, but you’re not doing only one exercise every day you’re in the gym, right? Try a Turkish Get Up tomorrow. I guarantee you it’ll be a lot more challenging than you might think and it’ll get your heart pumping for sure!
If you’re a hockey player, get out there and play soccer once in a while. If you’re a basketball player, try baseball if you have a chance. As I’ve said many, many times our body adapts to whatever we do and our muscles and joints get stressed the exact same way all the time. When you’re in your off-season, just do something else. Get out there and try a new sport or activity you’ve never tried before. It’ll change the stress on your body, helps you stay away from injuries and prevents you from eventually getting bored of playing the same sport year-round.
Variety is the spice of life!
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Before I in delve into today’s subject that is the groin pain epidemic, I want to make a short side note. I just finished reading the Hero Handbook by Nate Green yesterday, and I must say that it is one of the most inspiring thing I’ve read in a while. Nate talks about how to become your own hero through your lifestyle, your mindset, your training and your nutrition. It is a very quick read, it’s 136 pages and the characters are big, so you should be able to read it in less than an hour. And the best thing of all (which I still can’t believe) is that Nate gives the e-book for FREE on his website! All you have to do is go to Nate’s website and download it. As simple as that; no tricks, no signing up for anything, nothing! It doesn’t get any easier than this. Do yourself a favor and read the Hero Handbook RIGHT NOW!!
As for today’s subject…Groin pain, adductor strains and sports hernias are becoming an epidemic among athletes today, and especially among hockey players. Playing the same sport year-round, poor training protocols (or simply no training at all), over-training and faulty movement patterns are all perfect set-ups for groin pain, especially for hockey players because of the nature of the sport.
Before I go any further with my recommendations, I will say this: it is very important to clear out any other possible underlying issues in the first place. Groin pain may be caused, for example, by Femoral Acetabular Impingement (FAI), which would warrant the subject of a whole book in itself. In short FAI is an abnormality (usually a bony lesion) on either the femoral head or the acetabulum itself that creates impingement and may translate into groin pain. But I digress. What I’m saying is to get checked out first to make sure the issue is not coming from somewhere else.
The first step to take with groin pain problem is to stay away from anything that hurts for a little while. If you’re a hockey player and have some groin pain while skating, the first step to take is to stop skating, and I mean completely. I know it sucks being forced to stay away playing, but this is a necessary process to follow, and it will all be worth it in the long run. If you think the injury is not that bad and you’re just going to suck it up and keep playing until it goes away, it’s a BIG mistake. First of all, groin pain, groin pulls and adductor injuries don’t magically disappear, especially if you keep doing the same thing that’s been causing the pain (skating, in this case), and first thing you know is the pain is going to get worse and worse and you’ll have to suffer for months. So as much as it sucks, you need to take that time off.
Foam roll your adductors and your hip flexors. Most of the time, athletes will have scar tissue built up in their adductors and some kind of soft tissue limitation in their hip flexors.
Stretch your hip flexors, glutes and hip external rotators. Because of the nature of a sport like hockey (repeated hip extension, abduction and external rotation), athletes will have a loss in adduction and internal rotation, as well as hip extension range of motion.
Rectus Femoris Stretch (Hip Flexor)
Prone 90/90 Glute Stretch
Strengthen the adductors and the psoas, which is usually the weakest of the 3 hip flexors. These 2 muscles usually are very weak because they are underutilized in different sporting motions, especially the skating stride.
Lying Med Ball Crush
Seated Psoas Lift (make sure the thigh is above 90°)
Using this approach, you want to make sure to use these strategies at least twice a day, everyday (foam rolling, stretching and activation drills). We’ve had hockey players (and many of them) with pretty bad groin pain getting back on the ice totally pain-free in as little as 2 weeks after they start applying those exact recommendations. The key is really just to stay away from anything that hurts and be consistent with the exercises, and chances are you’ll be back on the ice (or the field) in no time.
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It’s been a little while since I’ve done a random thougths post, and since I have a couple interesting things to share with you I figured now would be a good time!
1. All the Endeavor staff is on Eric Cressey’s Show and Go program right now and the progress we’ve all made since starting the program 6 weeks ago has been phenomenal! I hit PRs on the trap bar deadlift and the front squat and I also added 5 pounds of muscle since starting! And all the Endeavor staff has made similar progress. Eric actually gave us some love in his blog this past Tuesday in that regard; CHECK IT OUT HERE. Eric has done an incredible job with Show and Go and the results speak for themselves. If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you get it. You are provided with 16 weeks of programs to get bigger, stronger all while reducing your risk of injuries and imporving your posture. How much better can it get? Eric also provides you with videos for every single exercise in the Show and Go programs. Get your copy of Show HERE.
2. I really like to learn new exercises and stretches as it adds variety to your training, and most of the time these new exercises and stretches will feel totally different than any other thing you’ve been doing. This is why I like the wall adductor stretch so much…probably my new favorite one!
I will admit that the position is a little suspicious, but the benefits you get from it are totally worth it! Give it a try, and make sure you keep your butt as close to the wall as possible and keep your knees straight.
3. Last week, I celebrated my first Thanksgiving by eating a lot of food and watching football all day! That holiday also marked the return of a couple of our hockey players who took the opportunity to get a couple of training sessions in at Endeavor while they were back home for Thanksgiving. While conditioning the guys on the slideboard with Phil Collins blaring on the stereo, it just reminded me how much of a good time this past summer was.
I can’t wait for next summer!
4. Last week I was talking with one of my friends in Montreal who was telling me about some knee problem he’s had for a while. He also told me that he saw a professional who recommended he gets some orthotics because his feet were the problem. After getting the orthotics, his pain magically disappeared. But within 2 months though, his knee pain came back to bother him. I was trying to explain to him that his feet probably weren’t the problem and that someone needed to look at him with a more global perspective than just looking at the feet. He agreed to go see anyone I would refer him to, but he also insisted on the fact that the professional he saw put him through different tests for his feet and that there was clearly a problem there. And he also said something like: “the guy’s gotta know his stuff he’s worked with professional sport teams in the past”. As I’ve said before, and as I’ll say again, I don’t care if you work with pro athletes, you still can suck at what you do. That doesn’t mean you’re good; it only means you have good contacts and you’re good at selling yourself. But I digress. After contacting an athletic trainer I used to work with in Montreal and explaining her the situation without letting her know what I thought about the situation, here was her reply:”Orthotics might help in the acute phase, but in the long run they are crutches most of the time and they probably won’t correct your real problem. You need to look at the global picture and not focus only on the knees and feet, and assess everything from the hips down.” I couldn’t have agreed more. It’s really great to see people in the field who really get it. And more than anything else, it also highlights the importance of having a good network of professionals around you.
Whether you’re a high level athlete, a professional bodybuilder, a recreational lifter or just someone trying to lose a couple lbs, you need to include soft-tissue work in your workouts/training sessions. Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY in the entire world has soft-tissue limitations in the form of trigger points, adhesions or knots as it is most commonly referenced to. By moving everyday (daily tasks or sporting events), by holding positions for prolonged periods of time and even by slouching on your couch for hours, your body will develop trigger points that will cause some sort of restriction in your muscles. Whether that translates into a restricted range of motion in your joints or by referred pain to other areas of your body (the most common one being headaches associated with trigger points in the upper back and neck region), trigger points affect your daily activities and your workouts, so it is very important that they are taken care of; otherwise that could lead to bigger problems like tendonitis/tendinosis, busitis, joint pain, pulled and strained muscles and so on.
The number one option and obviously the most effective one would be to get manual therapy work done. But the problem is that I don’t know too much people that can afford manual therapy 1-2 times a week! Therefore, self-usable tools are a valuable thing to have at your disposal; this way you can take care of your soft-tissue quality by yourself and not spending thousands and thousands of dollars on manual therapy. I still encourage everyone to get some manual therapy done every once in a while (once every 1-2 month if possible). As valuable as these tools are, they don’t do the same job a qualified professional will do.
That being said, there are tons of soft-tissue work tools available on the market, with the foam roller being the most common one.
I really like the foam roller, but let’s face it: when someone has been foam rolling on a daily basis for over 6 months, these things don’t do much. With that in mind, here’s my top 3 soft-tissue work tools:
1. PVC Pipe
Probably one of the cheapest options available, but also one of the most painful (read: effective) tool you can use. The PVC pipe is basically a logical progression from the foam roller. This is definitely not an option for beginners who have never used a foam roller as you will cry for your mom the first time you try it! The PVC pipe is best used for quads, IT band, calves, glute maximus, adductors and lats.
2. LaCrosse Ball
Another very cheap, yet effective tool. The lacrosse ball will do a very good (read: painful) job, just like the PVC pipe. The lacrosse ball is better suited for smaller muscles hard to target with a PVC pipe or a foam roller. As a fair warning, you should try a tennis ball first and progress to a lacrosse ball when it gets too easy. The ball is best for plantar fascia (bottom of foot), calves, glute medius, TFLs (hip flexor), infraspinatus and teres minor (rotator cuff) and pecs.
3. Thera-Cane
The thera-cane is definitely a more expensive option, but still under 40$, and totally worth it. With its very unique shape the thera-cane is built to work on muscles usually hard to access, like the ones in your upper back and neck region. It’s probably the most addictive soft-tissue work tool ever; I have one in my living room, and every single time I watch TV, I end up using it for 10-15 minutes. The thera-cane is best for rhomboids, levator scapulaes, supraspinatus, teres majors, pec minors and upper, middle and lower trapezius.
Give all of these a shot if you haven’t already, you will feel the benefits immediately!
I really like static stretching as a post-workout modality to restore length in the muscles that have been worked during the training session. It’s also a good way of cooling down after an intense training. It definitely doesn’t have to be very long; the key is to select a couple important movements or muscles to stretch and spend 4-5 minutes at the end of the session to stretch them. Depending on the sport you play (or what your fulltime job is), the best options might be different for everyone, but as human beings living in 2010 we still all have similar lifestyles; so the muscles being important to stretch are going to be similar for most. Here’s my top 5 favorite static stretches post-workout:
In my last blog post, I explained the concept of synergistic dominance and how it can relate to injuries in sport performance. Today, I’m going to go into more specific examples as it relates to sport performance and how we, as strength coach, can help prevent that kind of imblance that may lead to injury.
Hamstring Pulls
Hamstring pulls are a very common injury among athletes of all level. Athletes will tell you, the worst part about hamstring pulls is not only that it happens a lot; it is a recurring injury that you will have to deal with over and over again. It seems like it’s the type of injury that you just can’t get rid of for good. Agreed that some athletes may just go back to playing and practicing at 100% too soon, but is that really the only reason why it happens? Is everyone suffering a hamstring pull going back to play too soon? I don’t think so. Is it the fact tha we treat the symptoms and not the source of the problem and that’s why the problem keeps coming back? I think so.
During what action does an hamstring pull occur most? While you run or while you sprint I think is the answer. If we analyze the running mechanic and the involvement of the hamstring during that movement, we’ll find that the hamstring contributes to the hip extension (leg going back) while running; and the faster you run, the greater hip extension and contribution from your hip extensors are going to be. So far, there is no problem to the hamstring contributing to the hip extension as it is one of the 2 most important functions of that muscle (the other one being knee flexion). But let’s not forget that the hamstring is not the only hip extensor; the gluteus maximus (butt muscle) and the adductor magnus are also hip extensors. A point could be made that the erector spinae (lower back muscles) may help during hip extension by extending at the lowert back. It is important to note though that this is a compensation mechanism and it is not desirable when running, but it does happen in some athletes, especially if one of the hip extensors is not performing up to par. So what’s wrong about the hamstring in the running stride if it’s just performing its action like its supposed to? Well, because of it’s attachment point far down from the hip on the tibia and the fibula, it makes the hamstring line of pull not optimal at all; that’s why the hamstring “should be” a synergist in the hip extension phase of the running stride.
I say “should be” and you’ll understand why in a second.
The gluteus maximus is a powerful hip extensor that attaches on the illi0tibial band and the gluteal tuberosity. Because of its higher attachement, it makes the glute max a much more efficient hip extensor than the hamstring; therefore, in the running stride it should be the agonist in the hip extension portion.
The problem is that it’s not more often that not. Because of our daily activities (pretty limited) as it is in the 21st century, the fact that we sit way too much, in our car, at work, at school and at home, we leave the glute max in a stretch position most of the day. Combine that with poor lower body training habits (read: focusing too much on the knee extension and knee flexion) the glutes get left out most of the time. All of this leads to a problem that lower back expert Dr. Stuart McGill refers to as “glute amnesia” where your glute muscles are dormant and can’t activate properly. So what happens when the glute max, which should be the most efficient hip extensor, is dormant during running? You guessed it! The hamstring will take over; therefore, be overused and constantly stressed, which might lead to a hamstring pull sooner than later. Not convinced? Look at the glute muscle definition of athletes who pull hamstring frequently; I’m willing to bet that have none have none, meaning that the muscle is underused (or dormant).
Randy Moss = Prone to a hamstring injury?
How can we solve the problem? The first step is to start by activating the glutes; before strengthening the muscle and integrating it into more dynamic movements, you need to make sure it can fire properly without other muscles taking over. A good example of a basic glute activation exercise is a glute birdge done lying on your back.
While doing a glute bridge, you want to make sure you are really activating your glute muscle. Meaning you need to squeeze your butt cheeks together and drive your hips up; you want to avoid hyperexteding at the lower back or “feeling it” in your hamstrings. The glute bridge is one basic example, but you have a variety of glute activation drills and variations that you can use like birddogs, superdogs,s 1-leg glute bridges, wall marches, etc. The next step is to strengthen the glute muscles with hip dominant movements like pullthroughs, straight-leg deadlifts and the like. And as you progress, you want to incorporate proper hip estension through the glutes with more athletic movements like lunges, squats, sprints, jumps, etc.
Hip Flexor Pulls/Strains
Another good example could be made with hip flexor pulls or strains. First of all, it is important to consider that there are 3 major hip flexors in the hip: the rectus femoris, the tensor fascia latae (TFL) and the psoas major.
Rectus Femoris
Tensor Fascia Latae & Psoas
Most of the time, the TFL or the rectus femoris are the ones who happen to get injured; very rarely will you see a pulled psoas. Similarly to the hamstring pull, one gets overused and one get underused. That’s what causes the imbalance and in the long run the overuse injury. Rectus femoris pull are common in activities that involve running or sprinting (football, soccer, track and field); the reason is that these sports are very quad dominant and the rectus femoris, which is a hip flexor but also a knee extensor and one of the 4 quadriceps muscle, is stressed a lot. Conversely, hockey players see more TFL strains/pulls because hockey involves more lateral movements and hip abduction(think leg pushing laterally away from the body). The TFL happens to be a hip abductor as well as a hip flexor, therefore the TFL gets stressed more in a skating stride than on a running stride. Both cases leave out one muscle, which turns out to be, most of the time, the underused one: the psoas. Why is that? The psoas is the only hip flexor active above 90 degrees, therefore if we have movements in sports that don’t flex the hip higher than 90 degrees, it’s going to put more stress on the TFL or the rectus femoris depending on the demands of the sport.
Once again, one of the ways to take care of the problem is to activate and strenghten the weak link; the psoas in most cases. Knowing that it is the only hip flexor active above 90 degrees, we should use drills that put the hip into flexions greater than 90. There are different progressions and drills that can be used to accomplish that. The standing psoas lift is one of them.
The goal is to set up with your foot on a box or bench that will put your knee higher than your hip level; from that position you simply want to lift your foot off the box/bench and making sure you are not rounding at the lower back to compensate for the lack of hip flexion strength. And of course, there are many other options, including sitting on a bench, lying on your back, using bands, etc.
But whether it is to help prevent the ocurrence or re-ocurrence of hamstring or hip flexor strains or pulls, be aware that there are a lot of other factors to take into account. Mobility, flexiblity, stability and soft-tissue quality are just a couple of the factors that also need to be addresed to prevent overuse injuries like strains and pulls from occuring. Also note that the strategies that I mentioned above WILL NOT replace adequate physical therapy treatment in the case of a pulled muscle; they are meant to be used in conjunction with it to treat the source of the problem.
So, hopefully you now have a better understanding of functional anatomy and you can use these principles to help prevent your athletes injuries. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
I will get a little more theoritical than usual in this 2 part series; but for those of you not so familiar with geeky anatomy stuff I will still try to make it as simple and understandable as possible.
Synergistic dominance…what the hell does that mean?
Synergistic dominance refers to muscle action during movement. Let’s start at the basic: when you have muscles performing an action (flexion, extension, etc.) you will have an agonist muscle as well as antagonist and synergist muscles. The agonist is the primary muscle involved in the movement performed; the antagonist is the opposing muscle to the one performing the action, which must relax as much as possible to let the agonist contract; and, the synergist(s) is the muscle(s) that assist the agonist in its action. Let me give you a very simple example for those of you who that I might have already lost. In a simple bicep curl exercise, the action performed is an elbow flexion. In this case, the agonist muscle would be the biceps brachii since it’s the main muscle performing the action. The triceps brachii would be the antagonist because it’s the one on the other side of the arm and one of its functions is to extend at the elbow joint; therefore the triceps must relax to allow the biceps to contract more effectively.
The brachialis muscle is also an elbow flexor, but is definitely not the strongest one; therefore it assists the biceps during a biceps curl exercise. In this case the brachialis would be a synergist muscle to the biceps.
This is just to give you a basic idea of what synergist muscles are and what their implication is in different muscle actions.
So now we know that synergist muscles assist the agonist in its action; but what is synergistic dominance?
At every joint in the body, depending on the action performed, you usually have many different synergist muscles. The concept of synergist dominance is pretty much a muscle imbalance that refers to an agonist muscle not doing its job for different reason (dormant muscle, weak agonist, short or stiff antagonist, etc.) and the synergist taking over most of the work load to compensate for the problem. Then, what happens when a muscle that is supposed to just assist another one in its action is forced to take over? It puts more stress on that synergist muscle (more than it would be supposed to handle) and it puts you at risk for different types of injuries: muscle strains, muscle pulls and
tendonitis/tendinosis just to name a few. And the thing is it can also create some pretty bad muscle imbalances across your body and that can lead to a lot more problems. Therefore, it is very important to get muscles to work optimally so the athlete can perform at high level without being exposed to overuse injuries because of muscles not activated properly.
The goal in this part one series was to give you an idea of what synergist dominance is and what can result from it if that type of imbalance is not taken care of. In part 2, I will give you more concrete examples and how you can help fix them with proper training
In my last post I touched a little bit on the importance of stretching. The post was about static stretching, but I also mentioned that dynamic stretching is another important part of the puzzle. In fact, dynamic stretching is often overlooked; a lot of people are familiar with it, but at the same time so many people use only static stretching to warm up when there’s a much better option.
Dynamic stretching is really important to improve range of motion as it will improve stability and control within that full range of motion. Therefore it’s also more specific to any sport than static stretching is (think about it, how many movements are done passively in sports?). It is not only important to have good range of motion around our joints, but also to have body control within that new range of motion if we want it to be helping us perform better in the gym and when play sports.
With our athletes, we always use a dynamic stretching warm up at the beginning of every session right after doing some soft-tissue work with the foam roller to get the muscles more pliable and react better to dynamic stretching. We try to include drills that will improve mobility mainly at the ankles, hips, thoracic spine and shoulders (which are the joints that are meant for more mobility). And we’re also going to try to include drills that will improve stability and control within that full range of motion.
Here is an example of one of the warm ups we use with our athletes that my colleague Kevin Neeld has put together a couple of months ago:
Please note that I performed only 3-4 reps for ONE SIDE ONLY of the drills in the video just to keep it shorter. Obviously, we always perform everything on both sides usually! This is the full warm up:
- 3 ways ankle drill vs wall 5,5,5/side
- Penguin’s walk on 25 yards
- Rectus femoris mobilization vs wall x8/side
- Reverse lunges with rotation x8/side
- 2 way hip rock x6/side
- Lateral lunges x8/side
- Side-lying rotation-extension x8/side
- Side lying bow & arrow (5sec holds) x 5/side
- Yoga push ups x8
- Inverted reach x8/side
The exercises are paired in such a way that we mobilize a joint in a more passive way and we immediatly stabilize that same joint in its new found range of motion with the very next exercise (example: rectus femoris mobilization to improve mobility of the hip flexors followed by reverse lunge to get stability in that full range of motion).
This is just to give an example of what a good warm up should include to improve range of motion with your athletes and prevent the risks of injuries, but keep in mind that are tons of other options to include in your dynamic stretching routine.
I would probably not teach you anything if I told you that static stretching is an important part of any training program and that it is very useful from an injury prevention standpoint. But static stretching has became increasingly important with the years as we move less and less and spend more and more time sitting; that’s where modern life has led us.
Muscles spend hours in a shortened position and that affects our posture and the way our body moves in a very bad way. Therefore, we need something to reverse at least some of the damage we inflict on our body. Static stretching will help restore proper length on these shortened muscles.
Here are 2 of my new favorite stretches I use on a daily basis:
First one is a box hip flexor stretch that I stole from Strength Coach Mike Boyle. It helps lengthen those hip flexor muscles that spend so much time in a shortened position from all the sitting, but you can also add some hip internal rotation to put more emphasis on the psoas/iliacus. The opposite side hip flexion is also maintained and you want to press down with your foot on the box to change the empahsis of the stretch compared to a traditional hip flexor stretch.
The second one is more of an upper body stretch as it will stretch your pecs, your lats and improve that hunched over posture by improving your thoracic spine range of motion. When performing this one you want to try to wrap the ball over with your upper back and let your arms hang in a “Y” position. You can play around with it a little bit by moving your arms down in a “T” position to get a greater pec stretch (sternal portion) or by moving your arms up in an “I” position to get a greater lat stretch. It is truly one of my favorite as it is the total opposite of the position we are stuck in all the time when we sit.
Unless you have been living in a cave with no internet access for the past 6 years, you have probably heard of Eric Cressey before. Eric is one of the industry’s leaders in strength and conditioning. He is a well established coach, writer and business guy as he’s been owning his own facility for the last three years and has been coaching thousands of athletes in different sports. Eric is also an accomplished lifter himself as he used to compete in powerlifting and he still deadlifts well over 600 pounds to this day.
Eric is also a VALUABLE source of information with all the material he’s written. I would recommend all of his articles and products to anyone trying to become a better strength and conditioning coach. To say that I have learned A LOT from Eric during the past few years would be an understatement. Here is just a couple of things I have picked up from him lately. Enjoy!
1. Taking care of shoulder health is more than just strengthening the rotator cuff.
If you want to have healthy shoulders, you obviously need to take care of them in your training. If you do some stretching and some strengthening exercises for the rotator cuff and think it’s taken care of, well, the sad truth is that you are leaving out a lot of very important factors that play a huge role in shoudler health. Here is a list of all the things you should consider when working with people with bum shoulders or when trying to keep shoulders healthy:
1. Soft-tissue quality (primarily pec major and minor, levator scapula, scalenes, lats and rotator cuff)
2. Scapular stability
3. Thoracic spine mobility (in extension and rotation)
4. Range of motion at the gleno-humeral joint
5. Tissue length of the following: pec major and minor, levator scapula, lats and biceps.
6. Rotator cuff strength
7. Hip and ankle mobility of the opposite side (as the shoulder have fascial connections with these 2 joints)
8. Breathing patterns (as breathing through your chest instead of your belly can lead to over stressing muscles like the pecs and scalenes)
As you can see, there is a lot to address to prevent/treat shoulder injuries, and these factors happen to be even more important when dealing with athletes from sports like baseball, swimming and basketball, as these athletes put tremendous amounts of stress on their shoulders.
2. Soft tissue work and flexibility work go hand-in-hand.
Almost everyone by now knows that tissue length and tissue quality are of paramount importance to stay away from imbalances and injuries. But did you also know that these 2 need to be combined for optimal results and lasting changes. Once you work on your soft-tissue quality, whether it is with foam rolling, ART, Graston or just good ol’ massage, you should work on tissue quality right after.
Once you have removed the adhesions (or knots) in your muscles, doesn’t it make sense to stretch them right after, before you have new adhesions/knots reappear? In fact, right after soft-tissue work, your muscles are more pliable and less resistant to any change in length, so you should take advantage of that time to “re-educate those tissues on how to deform properly” as Cressey put it himself.
3. Get out of those high heels!
Wearing conventional “high heeled” sneakers with a lot of cushioning and support around the ankles are probably the worst thing you can do to your feet and ankles. It limits your range of motion at the ankle (especially in dorsiflexion) and it modifies the way you walk and run as you don’t have to absorb ground forces as much as all the padding in the soles is doing the job; your feet are basically becoming lazier. You are also losing a good amount of proprioception in your feet as they are separated from the ground by a 1-2″ cushion. And as Cressey said it himself: “…wearing sneakers has really screwed up the way people run, and in my opinion, has caused the exponential rise in injuries among distance runners.” That doesn’t mean we should all ditch our sneakers, but I think we should definitely make better footwear choices. Nike Frees, Puma flats and Vibram Five Fingers are all better options as they keep you closer to the ground.
Although not yet socially acceptable, this is probably the best footwear choice you could make!
Doing more barefoot stuff (like warm ups and deadlift) in our training is another way to go as it will reestablish proprioception in our feet.
If you’re interested to learn more from Eric Cressey, I would suggest you check out his website and sign up for his FREE newsletter!
Tell me this is not absolutely awful for your posture 
Sorry dude, that’s not gonna do it!
- The 8th habit, by Stephen Covey
