Does This Advice Make Sense?

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One piece of advice that seems to be haphazardly thrown around by personal trainers and strength coaches is to keep your shoulder blades pinched together or pulled back (retracted) while horizontally pressing.  Looking at this advice from a structural perspective of the shoulder complex, I cannot say this makes sense or should be a general rule.

The Shoulder Complex--posterior view. Image courtesy of The Skeletal System Pro III

First, look at the size of the area of the contact surfaces between the glenoid and the head of the humerus.  The head of the humerus is significantly bigger than the face of the glenoid.  Combine that with the overall lack of structural support of the gleno-humeral (GH) joint, and you can see that this joint has great potential, from a structural perspective, for movement.  Which makes sense.  For many of us, our shoulders move through greater ranges of motion than any other joint in our body.

Second, the structure of the glenoid itself is not ideal for keeping the head of the humerus articulating with it, especially anteriorly and posteriorly (to the front and to the back).  It would be like if you took a golf tee and chopped off the sides of it.  On the superior and inferior edges of the glenoid there is a bit of a ridge, but not anteriorly or posteriorly.

Golf Tee vs. Glenoid--Professional Depiction

Combine this with the difference in ligamentous support between the anterior and posterior aspects of the shoulder complex.

Ligamentous Support--anterior view. Image courtesy of The Skeletal System Pro III

Ligamentous Support--posterior view. Image courtesy of The Skeletal System Pro III

So, now we have a situation where there is better bony structural support on the superior and inferior aspects and better ligamentous support on the anterior aspect of the glenoid.  Posteriorly there isn't nearly the number of ligaments back there to support this structure.  Additionally, there are muscles attaching around the head of the humerus to try to control how this is sitting in the glenoid.

Okay, cool, so what's the point of presenting all this?

Well, imagine a situation where you are lying flat on your back on a bench and pressing dumbbells up towards the ceiling.  If you do not allow your shoulders blades to protract (come forward), i.e. you try to keep them pulled back or pinched together, you are potentially loading this joint such that at the top of the rep you have a zero moment to the shoulder, but there is still the potential to be creating large shearing forces within the GH if the scapulas (shoulder blades) stay retracted.

However, if you allow the scapulas to protract as you press through the range, there will be more structural support from the glenoid, minimizing the potential shearing forces within the GH.

See the image below for a visual depiction of what I just said.

Horizontal Press with and without Protraction--Professional Depiction

Does it make sense to always protract as you move throughout the range of a horizontal press.  I'm not sure saying that would be any different than saying you never should protract because there may or may not be situations where what that offers you is desirable, but I would suggest that the heavier the load is, the more sense it may make to allow the scapulas to protract if you are concerned with minimizing the shearing forces within the GH at the top of that range of motion.

Question:  Do you try to monitor what is happening to your scapulas when you horizontally press?  What about when your clients do?  Why or why not?

Your body.  Your training.

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What Is RTS?

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"There is no way to understand exercise, no way for this industry to move forward, until we fully comprehend that exercise is all about forces and joints!  Everything else exists and occurs to support the interaction between these two."--RTS

Your body.  Your training.

The Secret

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“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Disney’s story “Aladdin” is about a young peasant man, Aladdin, who comes across a golden lamp. When he goes to shine the lamp, out pops a magical Genie. The Genie tells Aladdin he can have three wishes. All he has to do is ask for what he wants and the Genie responds with, “Your wish is my command.” Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had personal Genies that would grant our every wish? According to the Law of Attraction, we already do.

This month’s book review is on Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret. What the term “The Secret” is referring to throughout the book is the Law of Attraction. It is called “The Secret” because the author believes it was once only known, and closely guarded, by the most successful and influential people in history.  However, with minimal facts and examples to back her claim, the thought seems more speculation than true causation. Although many of the book’s explanations might seem over simplistic and not scientifically sound, I found the overall concepts in the book quite thought provoking.

The whole book deals with the Law of Attraction, which basically states that you attract everything in your life through thoughts and actions. Your current life is a result of every previous thought or action and, according to the law, your future will be the result of your current thoughts and actions. Therefore, by choosing to think about what you desire, you will be more likely to attract that into your life. Likewise, if you constantly think about what you do not want in your life, you will end up attracting more of that as well. Whatever you think, you attract.

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A very basic ‘scientific’ explanation for the Law of Attraction is that the universe is made up of atoms. Atoms are composed of a dense central nucleus containing protons and neutrons, as well as a surrounding cloud of electrons. The protons are positively charged and the electrons are negatively charged. As my high school chemistry teacher explained, if the atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of a football sitting at midfield. This means that much of the atom is not solid, physical matter, but rather, an electromagnetic field created by the charge of protons and electrons. With this perspective, nothing is actually solid; it only has the appearance of being solid. From there, when a person thinks, their brain transmits frequencies of that thought, or that energy, into the universe. Then, as the book explains, the universe essentially rearranges itself so that in some way the person ends up with what they are thinking about. The more powerful and consistent the thoughts, the more likely it is to be attracted.

Regardless of whether you choose to believe “The Secret” works or not, thinking positive thoughts and believing that your desires can and will come true is beneficial in many ways. Having the mindset that you control what happens in your life is a great way to take the first steps in achieving your goals. If you just sit back and think that whatever is supposed to happen in your life will happen, you could end up missing out on valuable opportunities and not realize it until it’s too late.

Ask for what you want in life, believe it will happen, and when the opportunity is there, take the actions to allow yourself to receive it. Everyone has the power to summon their own personal genie; they just need to take the first step.

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to experience a new outlook on why things happen in their life, both good and bad.

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Maintaining Control While Fatigued

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These days, thanks to RTS, I am much more about being able to control the resistance and the motion than I ever have been.  Essentially, what I am looking for from clients is the ability to own the motion at every point in the range in which they are moving.  This means if I were to tell them to stop or to reverse the motion at any point in time, they would be able to without risking injury or altering how the path of motion.  This also means that they have the ability to make every rep look exactly the same.

Image courtesy of lifeactivation.co.uk

Side Note:  This is part of the reason why I have begun using more and more machines with my clients.  I am able to put them in the specific joint positions and force scenarios that I want them to encounter so as to bias towards manipulating the force production requirements of certain tissues and maintaining certain sequences of joint contact surfaces throughout the motion.  This is very difficult to replicate with free weights or other devices that offer less passive support.

Back to the control.  When looking at one aspect of control as the ability to make each rep look exactly like the one before it, I cannot help but question if it makes sense in a controlled scenario to have someone continue to move through as large of a range as they can if they are starting to shake at the top and/or bottom of the rep.  This is most noticeable when the tissue is fatigued and you are trying to push through that fatigue to crank out a few more reps.

Image courtesy of charlottesoper.wordpress.com

What I have started to do with my clients is, when this shaking starts to occur, limit the range so they are reversing direction right before they start to shake*.  This shaking is involuntary, meaning they are clearly unable to control it, so how would this be different from moving a resistance so fast that each rep looks like a different exercise?  Right now, in my eyes, it's not*.

How do you know what tissue and which joint contact surfaces you are biasing if you are unable to control the motion?

How do you attempt to maintain control of the motion and resistance when you or your clients train, especially while fatigued?

Your body.  Your training.

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*These ideas were first presented to me during the mastery-level RTS courses.  I am trying to share how I currently apply these ideas to my clients.

FAQs about MAT (Part 1)

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How does MAT dif­fer from tra­di­tional exer­cise or other forms of therapy?

MAT is not a form of ther­apy; it is a form of exer­cise.  This is crit­i­cal to under­stand.  Tra­di­tion­ally, phys­i­cal ther­apy focuses on the big, macro view of reha­bil­i­ta­tion whereas MAT takes a very zoomed-in approach.  In fact, while phys­i­cal ther­apy will often con­cern itself with big move­ments of joints, MAT is con­cerned with spe­cific mus­cle fibers.  Phys­i­cal ther­apy is often there to relieve the pain, dis­com­fort, or other symp­toms of an injury whereas MAT treats nei­ther pain nor symp­toms, but rather attacks the root cause of what may be lead­ing to said pain and symptoms.

With tra­di­tional exer­cise, you are weaker when you fin­ish your train­ing or work­out than when you began it.  How­ever, with MAT, you fin­ish stronger than when you started, as is demon­strated by the MAT posi­tion tests used through­out the ses­sion.  This makes MAT a great pre­cur­sor to both exer­cise and ther­apy as you will be more pre­pared for, and there­fore will receive greater ben­e­fit from, both expe­ri­ences after an MAT session.

How is MAT different from**:

--Chiropractic work?

MAT is a great adjunct to chiropractic work.  Depending on the doctor, chiropractic work may focus on more of the mobilization of joints, specifically the spinal facets.  Comparatively, MAT focuses on stabilizing joints via improving the contractile capabilities of the muscle fibers that control the joints.  From the MAT viewpoint, once stabilization of a joint is achieved via improved muscular contraction and control/management of the joint, mobility of that joint may improve, as well.

--Massage?

Depending on the type of massage, this modality tends to lean towards relieving muscle tightness by pushing through the belly of the muscles fibers (right through the middle).  The MAT thought process is that muscle tightness is secondary to muscle weakness, which means we believe once the tension producing capabilities are restored to the muscle fibers, the feeling of tightness felt elsewhere in the body may dissipate.  We believe muscle tightness is a specifically orchestrated event put in place by the brain in order to intentionally limit a joint's range of motion in order to protect yourself from injury.  Additionally, with MAT we are pressing right where the muscle fibers insert into the bones.  This means we are not feeling for tightness or tissue quality but rather for the bone itself.

--Passive stretching?

Passive stretching tends to force a limb to move further around a joint than it could move on its own.  Essentially, this is having somebody else impose their will onto your body under the notion that whatever your brain has decided was enough range of motion for you at that joint is incorrect and needs to be "fixed".  Comparatively, MAT simply provides the brain with additional options than it currently has to complete a task.  Your brain decides whether it wants to use those specific muscles to control the joint.  Nothing is forced upon your body.

--ART?

Granted, I do not know much at all about ART, but from what I have gathered from others as well an insinuated from the name, it seems that this modality is attempting to release adhesions between (or within? I'm not sure) the muscle(s), that may or may not be there in the first place but allegedly can be felt by the practitioner.  It is attempting to release over-active tissue whereas MAT is attempting to stimulate under-active tissue.

**Note:  All of these modalities may be perfectly appropriate for an individual given their current setting, goals, and structural and neuromuscular capabilities.  I am by no means trying in insinuate that one modality is better or worse than another, but rather just trying to give a comparison between them given my limited knowledge of most other modalities.

How long does the process take?

This is completely specific to the individual.  Lifestyle factors and medical history need to be thoroughly taken into consideration throughout the process.  Even then, figuring out what is actually causing the muscular inhibition is often very challenging.  Is it a pec muscle that is causing the dysfunction in the hip?  Is it a nerve-root issue where muscles that are innervated by the same spinal level are causing each other to become inhibited?  Is it the shoes you are wearing?  Your diet?  Your stress at work?  Did you fall on your wrist a few years back and forget to put that on your client intake because it didn't require any medical attention but now your knee is bugging you because of that?  All of these questions and more need to be looked at and thought through throughout the process.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of FAQ's about MAT!

What other questions do you have about Muscle Activation Techniques™?  Drop a comment below so I can address them in future posts!

Inter­ested in find­ing out more? Check out the “Mus­cle Acti­va­tion Tech­niques™” page.
Inter­ested in set­ting up an assess­ment time or dis­cussing this sub­ject fur­ther? E-mail Char­lie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

Your body.  Your training.

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Overtraining Part 3: The Systems of the Body

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In this post I will give brief explanations on how and why the various systems of the body can become overtrained.

Part 1     Part 2

Image courtesy of imperial.edu

Overtraining The Endocrine System

In Overtraining Part 2: Understanding Overtraining, I discussed the different forms of stress and the systems of the body it affects.

I also stated “essentially all stress is handled the same way by the body”. What this means specifically, is that the body reacts with the same “fight or flight” response to nearly all stressors.
So… when the body receives a stress, regardless of form, in most cases it will produce the hormone cortisol. Cortisol itself is not inherently bad. Without it we would not be able to handle the craziness of an average day in the modern world. However, like nearly everything that can benefit us, too much of it starts causing problems.  With all of the unnatural stressors we face every day, intense exercise could prove too difficult to recover from.

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org

Overtraining The Nervous System

Performing high neurologically demanding exercises and workouts (i.e. anything done with near-maximal speed or using near-maximal load) is generally going to tax the nervous system more than a similar workout using less speed or less load.  Performing too many exercises of high neurological demand in a workout, or not allowing the nervous system to fully recover between workouts high intensity workouts, is likely to result in overtraining of the nervous system. To get a better understanding of the nervous system, check out The Parasympathetic Secret by clicking HERE.

Image courtesy of bodybuildingsecretslive.com

Overtraining The Skeletal System

Perhaps a typical weekly training split..

Monday: Chest, Triceps.
Tuesday: Back, Biceps.
Wednesday: Legs.
Thursday: Shoulders.
Friday: Arms.

If this resembles anything similar to your weekly training split, consider what this break up would look like from a joints and skeletal system perspective.

Monday: Shoulders.
Tuesday: Shoulders.
Wednesday: Legs.
Thursday: Shoulders.
Friday: Shoulders (perhaps a lighter shoulder day, though).

If you are having shoulder pain when you lift, it could have absolutely nothing to do with your ratio of pushing to pulling exercises or weak rotator cuff muscles, and everything to do with the fact that you beat up your shoulder joints in literally 80% of your workouts.

Also, consider the example of jogging 5 days a week where the exact same stressor is placed on the joints thousands upon thousands of times of times in a row.

Continuous and repetitive stress on the skeletal system is ideal for creating over-use injuries down the road.

Image courtesy of life.dailyburn.com

Overtraining The Muscular System

Blasting a particular muscle group once per week in an attempt to create muscular damage and soreness can often lead to overtraining of the muscular system if appropriate rest/recovery methods are not taken. Check out Are You Sore? by clicking HERE. Also, if the 30 minute and 2 hour post-workout windows of increased nutrient uptake are not taken advantage of, recovery can be severely compromised and even a “lighter” workout can lead to overtraining the muscular system.

Image courtesy of lifewithnature.com

Overtraining The Digestive System

Eating foods not in alignment with your metabolic type, eating non-whole foods, eating the same foods every single day, and/or eating foods you have sensitivities/allergies to, you can overwork and damage your digestive system, leading to a variety of different problems that can show up anywhere in the body.


The Interconnected Systems

As I wrote in my book review for The Source on Paul Chek’s, “How To Eat, Move, and Be Healthy”, every system of the body is interconnected and dependent upon the others. By overtraining one system, you are putting additional stress on all of the other systems. Appropriately training the body as a whole unit, with all of its systems taken into consideration, will prevent overtraining of a specific system, and thereby preventing a “weak link” in the human chain.

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I Can Make You Happy

                           Image courtesy of ebay.com

“There is a better way to measure success than in houses, cars, flat screen TVs and money. Success in life can be measured as the amount of time you spend doing what makes you happy with people that make you happy.” –Martin Rooney

American society has been trained by large corporations that material possessions will make us happy. When we buy something—new clothes, a new TV, a new car—we are essentially buying good feelings.  Soon enough, though, the good feelings wear off or something newer and better comes. Then, in order to have more good feelings, we buy something else, none of which are essential to our survival. Every advertisement on television promises you will, in some way, become happier if you buy their product. Why not cut out the middleman? Why not choose to become happier directly, without the need to spend money on material possessions?

This month’s book review is on Paul McKenna’s international bestseller I Can Make You Happy. As a hypnotist, McKenna takes an approach different from many other self-help authors. This book is not filled with motivational stories or inspiring quotes. It does not tell readers how to find happiness in the little things of their everyday life. It is a straightforward, practical approach to making readers happier using many different mental exercises.  McKenna believes the human mind is like a computer. All of the thoughts and behaviors a person has can be reprogrammed to be happier and healthier. This reprogramming is done primarily through visualization, hypnosis, and other methods designed to allow readers to develop a deeper understanding of their feelings and emotions. By consistently applying the techniques in the book, these new happier and healthier thought patterns become habitual at the subconscious level of the mind, leading to greater overall happiness.

I chose to review I Can Make You Happy because I believed other people would benefit from reading it, but also because I needed to read it for my own benefit. After 6 weeks of absolutely no exercise, minimal brain stimulation, and the majority of my free time spent isolated in a dark room due to constant migraines, I was in need of something to help lift my spirits. Although this book was different from the motivational message I was originally expecting, I read it anyway; 15 minutes at a time. I was having difficulty with the visualizations because I no longer had the ability to completely focus my brain. I continued to work at it and listened to the guided relaxation CD daily. Eventually things slowly started improving with my headaches, concentration, and especially my attitude and outlook on the whole situation. I have made significant progress since that time, and this book is one of many things I believe helped me along the way, primarily with keeping a positive mindset and knowing that I would get better.

I will continue to practice the techniques in this book and encourage others to do the same. Whatever your current level of happiness may be, this program can help you become happier. However, someone that is unable to control their mind will have difficulty with the visualizations in the book. Because of this, their brain will need to be trained to concentrate and visualize, so it may take longer to see results. With that, I recommend this book to anyone looking to become happier, especially if other methods have been tried and failed, regardless of their current level of happiness.

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Are Sports The Best Form Of Exercise?

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Definitions (according to Dictionary.com):

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• Sport:  an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling,boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

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• Exercise:  bodily or mental exertion, especially for the sake of training or improvement of health

Take-aways:

1) Exercise is about health; sport is about competition.

2) Sport has prerequisites of skill and/or physical prowess; exercise requires some level of exertion, anywhere from nearly non-existent to maximal.

Questions:

1) Can participation in sports lead to reaching your exercise-related goals?

2) Can participation in exercise lead to reaching your sport-related goals?

3) Can sports be manipulated in order to ensure that the demands of the activity do not surpass your structural and neuromuscular abilities?  Can exercise?

4) If fat loss is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

5) If long-term health is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

6) If life-long participation in physical activity is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

Answers (my opinions):

1) Perhaps, but it is usually done in a higher-risk manner that may or may not exceed your structural and neuromuscular capabilities.  Rarely are people moving at a slow and controlled speed during sports, and this absence of control lends itself to a greater likelihood of certain consequences, particularly acute and chronic injury.

2) Perhaps, depending on what you do and how you do it.  I would argue that there is a greater likelihood of reaching your sport-related goals through exercise than the other way around, but I don't have any data to back this claim.  Even finding injury rates in sports vs. exercise proves difficult for me in part because I'm below average at finding relevant information through search engines and also in part because most articles do not differentiate between sports, whether recreational or competitive, and exercise.

3) Manipulating sports to your needs and abilities is fairly difficult due to the inherent rules of sports, however, exercise is easily manipulable as long as you or someone you are consulting regarding exercise knows what you/they are doing.

4) Really, this answer will cover questions 4-6.  There are a ton of factors involved in determining the outcomes to these questions, so a truly accurate answer is not feasible in a blog post format.  However, one thing to consider is that participation in sports is an enjoyable experience for some people and if that experience keeps them coming back and wanting to participate, then these goals may be reached.

At the same time, understand that sports have an inherently higher risk associated with them due to their competitive nature as well as the established rules that go with them, so if taking that risk leads to acute or chronic injury, achieving the aforementioned goals becomes exponentially more difficult.

Final Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoy participating in sports, but if that were my only form of exercise, my body would be a wreck at the age of 24.  If you like participating in sports, awesome, but I would strongly encourage you to at least consider the idea of having part, if not most, of your exercise be in the form activities that are well within your structural and neuromuscular capabilities.  Constantly pushing these limits through participation in sports is putting yourself in high-risk situations time and again.  If you are going to do that, you have to make sure your body is prepared for it.

So, are sports the best form of exercise?  I cannot say for certain, and quite frankly I think it is an irrelevant question.  I think a better question would be, "Are sports an appropriate form of exercise?".  Once again, I cannot answer this with complete certainty, but for most people I would lean towards no.  And yet, for a lot of people, it seems sports are their exercise of choice.

Just some food for thought.  And now it's time for me to make some food for stomach.

Questions:  Do you participate in sports, competitively or recreationally?  If yes, how often do you train to prepare your body for those sports?  If no, why not?

Your body.  Your training.

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