In the first installment of this series I talked about the most important thing you can do
to increase performance and longevity if you are an endurance athlete or any
athlete for that matter. And that is to
address your issues concerning tissue quality, mobility, and stability. These form the base that all other athletic
qualities are built on. This is not to
say that the most time should be spent on them, but if you have issues with
them get a handle on them and then move on to fun stuff. It’s like eating your vegetables before you
can have your dessert.
This
installment is going to address the middle of our pyramid; Movement Patterns
and Muscular Imbalances. As we saw the
first installment these two qualities are very much intertwined with each other. Due to this it is difficult and unnecessary
to train each in isolation even though that is how I am going to present
them. Oftentimes you’ll pick an exercise
that addresses one in earnest but still contributes to improving the other.
Movement Patterns
If I could
impart one piece of advice to newcomers to endurance athletics it would be
this; seek out someone who is very good
at what you want to do and have them teach you the finer points of what it is
you are doing. Things like running,
swimming and biking seem like innate skills that everyone should know how to
do. On one side of the coin this is
true. Most of us have been running since
before we could remember, learned to ride a bike when we were 4 or 5, and can
swim a few meters without drowning. But
on the other side of the coin there is a huge skill gap between “learning”
these activities as kids and being smooth, efficient, and good at them as
athletes/adults. And it’s this skill gap
that can lead to problems.
Running,
biking, swimming, and all other endurance sports are movement skills that must
be trained to be proficient at. It is
not my area of expertise to assess running, biking, or swimming mechanics. What I can do is assess the movements that
all humans should be able to perform with proficiency and inform you where you
have opportunities for improvement. It
is then up to the individual to take the improved human movements and apply
them to their sport of choice. Improving
the movement of a 4:00 marathoner won’t turn them into a 3:00 marathoner, but
they do have one more piece of the puzzle in place to get there.
I recently
assessed an Ironman competitor and Kona qualifier (big league of Ironman), and
marathon runner. When you look at the
list of his finishing times it looks great.
But when you look at his assessment sheet it tells a different
story. He also has a recent history of
bulging discs in his low back from a recent injury while attempting to pick up
a guitar.
I will not
say that what I saw in the assessment caused his injury, but it is something to
definitely keep in mind. This is that
whole longevity thing I’m talking about.
Injuries eat up valuable training time and decrease enjoyment of
activity. Fewer injuries equals more
years and more enjoyment.
Now, beyond
running, swimming, and biking there are a few basic human movements that all
athletes need to not only be able to do, but need to be strong in as well. Numero Uno is and always will be the squat. And one of the best diagnostic tools is to
watch and unloaded (using a PVC pipe or wooden dowel) overhead squat.
You can tell
a lot about an athlete’s current state just by watching them overhead squat. Each fault is like a clue into not only how
they perform when in motion and under load but also how you can improve that
performance. The reason that the
overhead squat is great for this is that its performance requires mobility,
joint stability, and coordination throughout the entire body.
The other
basic movements beyond the squat that should be trained and done well are the
hip hinge or dead lift, the push up and the chin up. This article would turn into a book going
through the finer points of each so I've attached a few quick videos below. But the importance of being competent in
these movements cannot be understated.
Get good at them, get strong at them, be a better athlete.
Movement and Pain
As I
discussed in the previous installment chronic (not from an impact injury like a
broken bone or sprained ankle) musculoskeletal pain is the end result of
dysfunction somewhere down the line, not necessarily at the source of the
pain. But now that you have an
injury/pain there are a few things that need to be done.
1. Find the
source of your dysfunction. This may
take some trial and error. One thing
that I will caution against is trying every possible solution at once. If you do this you won’t know what got you
better.
2. Keep doing what got you better. That last sentence is in bold for a
reason. I've seen dozens of cases where
an athlete has an issue, gets prescribed a remedy, pain dissipates, remedy is
ceased, pain comes roaring back. You
might want to put your sunglasses on and pull out your voice recorders because
another bold statement is coming at you. The
cessation of pain is not the end of your rehab. I’ll say it a little louder. THE
CESSATION OF PAIN IS NOT THE END OF YOUR REHAB! This brings me to point #3.
3. Pain
causes compensations in movement that do not disappear when the pain
disappears. Have you ever seen someone hurt
some aspect of their lower body and walk with a limp? Have you ever seen them limp long after the
injury has healed? There is an
evolutionary reason for this. Back in
the old days if we got hurt our bodies didn't say, “Alrighty, that sprained
ankle sure does hurt something fierce. Why don’t we take the next few days off, ice
it, and we’ll see what it looks like after some rest.” Uh, no.
If that happened we wouldn't have made it long as a species. When we got injured our bodies did some quick
rewiring so that we could keep moving to prevent A) starvation or B) getting
eaten by saber-toothed tigers.
But being
the scumbag frat bro that the human body is, it doesn't go back to the previous
movement pattern once our pain disappears.
It got comfortable in its new movement pattern and damned if it’s going
to change now. I can usually tell when
someone has had a previous lower body injury.
A history of sprained ankles is usually the easiest to see.
And as we
discussed in the first installment, faulty movement patterns, whether they are
in the form of running, walking, biking, lifting, or living are going to lead
to their own new problems down the road.
As in the example above we all know the person who limps long after
their injury is healed. And it’s always
that same person that then starts to complain about something else, usually on
the opposite side of the injury.
If you’re
injured or have pain you have to look at it with the big picture in mind. Focusing solely on the pain is too myopic to
be effective. This is why I tell all of
my athletes braces, especially for the ankle and knee, should be last on their
list of remedies. Treat the cause, not
the symptom.
Muscular Balance
There main two components to muscular balance are size and strength. As endurance athletes size is not what you
are going for, but strength is. Having
either a front/back or left/right discrepancy, or a little of both, is a killer to performance for a
variety of reasons. From a decrease in
efficiency to low power output to injury, addressing muscular imbalances is a
must.
Now, when
addressing muscular imbalances the main areas of concern are the hips and the
shoulders. Everything runs through these
two complexes, especially the hips. If
something is off in the hips you will usually find something off somewhere
else.
The Hips: Follow the Pelvis
 |
| Side View |
The pelvis
is the big, wing-like bone that connects the legs to the spinal column via the
hips. Any time we move our bodies
forward force goes through the pelvis and up into our upper bodies. When assessing the hips you are looking at
where the ilia and their components are in relation to each other.
The most
common tilt is one to the anterior (front).
This is when the pelvis is pulled forward and down creating a
hyper-lordotic curve. It’s kind of like
always being a little bent back. Not
good for the spine. This is caused by
the hip flexors shortening and the glutes and hamstrings not having the
strength to pull the pelvis back into place.
Having short, tight hip flexors and weak glutes and hamstrings are
symptoms of front side dominance during activity and excessive sitting during
inactivity. The hip flexors get used a
lot and the hip extensors not so much.
Over time the imbalance develops.
 |
| Left: Proper pelvic alignment. Right: Anterior pelvic tilt. |
There is
also a left/right imbalance that can occur.
This is when one side of the pelvis rides higher than the other. The cause of this is usually more complex
than one side is tight and the other is weak.
One thing to
remember when looking at the hips is that, due to the interconnectedness of the
human body, imbalances in the hips will affect and influence the position of
the shoulders. With the anterior tilt of
the pelvis comes a shortening of the rectus abdominus (six pack muscle) which
pulls the rib cage forward and down. Big
picture is if you find something wonky (medical term) in the hips you’ll more
than likely find something wonky somewhere else.
The Shoulders
The same
thing is seen through the shoulders.
Excessive slouching and internal rotation of the humerus- as seen in
people who sit and reach a lot- and not enough strengthening of the upper back
create kyphosis. Extreme examples are
seen in people who appear to hunchbacked.
In the upper
back there is a lot going on what with having the whole floating bone/socket joint thing. I’m talking about your scapula
AKA the shoulder blades. The scap’s main
jobs are to connect the arm to the torso via the shoulder socket and to buffer and protect the shoulder from dislocation. We have a very high degree of freedom in our
shoulders which leaves it vulnerable to dislocation. Where the hip has a deep socket and the
strongest muscles of the body to keep it in place the shoulder has a shallow
socket and relatively weak muscles keeping it on lock down. When we throw an object, perform a pressing
movement, or pull our arm through space the shoulder blade moves to prevent
the humeral head from slipping out the back side.
People who
have kyphosis and shoulder pain often have dysfunctional scaps. Most often they are stuck in place and have a
hard time sliding with the movement of the upper arm. This problem is a common one is swimmers and
dentists. Swimmers because they are
constantly using the front side musculature (pecs and anterior deltoids) and
dentists because they are constantly hunched over with their arms extended in
front of them.
The Fixes
Luckily,
these issues have relatively simple fixes.
Enter the glute extension, the face pull and their numerous variations. The exercises are not a panacea for their
respective imbalances. You still need to
learn to squat and do pull ups and chin ups and all the rest, but they go a
long way to help sort the issues out.
They are best used for activation and maintenance of strength, although
they can be used to build strength if you are starting from a very low level to
begin with.
These can also be done lying flat. However you do them your goal to squeeze your butt cheeks like you are trying to crack a walnut.
Don't just pull your hands back with these. Pinch your shoulder blades together, then pull with your elbows.
Along with the exercises there is usually mobility work that needs to be done on the front side. In the hips it is usually the quads, hip flexors, and adductors that are tight. In the shoulders you’re going to want to show some love to your pecs and lats and ensure they have proper mobility through stretching and myofascial release.
Along with the exercises there is usually mobility work that needs to be done on the front side. In the hips it is usually the quads, hip flexors, and adductors that are tight. In the shoulders you’re going to want to show some love to your pecs and lats and ensure they have proper mobility through stretching and myofascial release.
Doing one or
the other is never as effective as doing both.
If you only stretch you've got no strength on the other side to hold
your new mobility in place. Your tight
muscles will just get tight again. If
you only try to strengthen what’s weak you’ll be fighting a losing battle to
get the full range of motion and the full benefit. Do both and you’ll be so much better for it.
The Wrap Up
As an
endurance athlete the topics in this article should be the bread and butter of
your strength training program, especially the muscular balance aspect. You should strive to perfect the basic human movement movement
patterns so that they become automatic but because of the highly repetitive
nature of endurance athletics training them under load is extremely
important. Training these movements and
being strong at them keeps your body in a healthy balance. And being in balance is a recipe for success.
If it has
been a few years since you've attempted a squat or any of the other basic
movements, chances are your brain has rewired a new and incorrect movement
sequence. If you've ever seen a toddler
squat down to play with something you realize that the ability to squat is
something that we lose over time.
This is why
any time I work with new athletes, especially young athletes, my first mission
is to get them to squat, push up, and perform chin ups properly. I want these patterns to be so ingrained in
how they move that they literally cannot perform them wrong. And if they do I want them to look around and
silently think to themselves, “Oh crap that squat was bad. I hope Troy didn't see that.”
Like all things in the human body proper movement and muscular balance are so intertwined that you can't train one without effecting the other. Strengthening your hips and hamstrings is going to have effects on your gait. Training and improving your gait or swim stroke or pedal stroke while getting stronger is going to give you the most bang for your buck and help keep overuse injuries far far away.
