Better Is Better

A pain in the hip!

This past week, I went from a fully functioning and very active person to someone who hobbles about in serious pain.  It didn't happen from an impact or a precise moment in time.  It crept up on me incrementally, getting a bit worse each day until finally it become excruciating to move or touch my right hip!  And the culprit is a tiny (well it used to be tiny) little bursa.  Bursitis!  Aaarrgg!

It is amazing how painful such a little thing can be.  And it is humbling to see how quickly one can go from fully functional to highly dysfunctional.  Above all, it makes one thankful for the blessing of good health.

Compensation patterns in action
Although it is extremely frustrating to be injured, at the same time it is also quite interesting to put on your analytical hat and attempt to fully understand what is going.  This injury in particular provides an acute view of the process which leads to the kind of Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA) which we so commonly run across. 

In this case, the inflamed bursa sits under the attachment of the Gluteus Maximus at the hip (on the trochanter).  Even before I knew exactly what the problem with my hip was, I noticed that my Gluteus Maximus was shutting down.  Now it makes sense.  To avoid the pain, the body works around that muscle.  So other muscles are going to have to pick up the slack to create movement.  If I don't realize this is going on, or if it goes on for a long time, I will actually "forget" how to fire the glute properly and will function with the "replacement" patterns instead, eventually leading to a new injury elsewhere.  This inability to use the correct neuromuscular pattern is what we call SMA in Circular Strength Training.

If you think of all the seemingly insignificant little aches and pains you have on an ongoing basis, you can begin to imagine all of the tiny compensations you may be making to work around them and avoid pain.  Over the long haul, if not addressed those little compensations can become big problems elsewhere.  Who knows, maybe this bursitis in my hip started years ago in some other spot...

Expectations

We can't help it.  It is the way our brain is wired.  We're associative creatures.  Correlations between known and unknown are how we navigate the world.  So going into a new situation, we will naturally create expectations as to how we surmise things to unfold.

I recently attended a professional development conference for strength and conditioning professionals.  In large part, what drew me to the event was their featured presenter.  I have enjoyed reading this coach's stuff for some time.  And I was very excited about hearing him speak.  But unfortunately, although he is clearly a brilliant coach, he was not able to teach me anything beyond the fact of his own brilliance.

Conversely, I had absolutely no expectations of other presenters of whom I had no previous experience.  As it turns out, some of the most inspiring sessions of the weekend were from those coaches from whom I expected little.  In fact, two coaches who I had never even heard of totally blew me away.  I'm still digesting what they gave me, while the premier presenter's talk is pretty much forgotten.

I think we have to be careful about judging a book by its cover.  Disappointment can come in a beautiful package, and things of beauty can be hidden in seemingly unlikely places.

Baby steps make for giant leaps

I was just looking quickly through the blog and paused on the "Pocket Wheel" post.  It dawned on me that only a year ago I could barely get in and out of a threaded bridge without landing on my head.  It is incredible what incremental progression within the framework of a well developed plan can do for progress.

And I think that is true for anything.  If you have a project you want to accomplish, start it now.  Do a little bit every day.  And before you know it, you will have met with success.  If there is a physical skill you would like to achieve, figure out what is holding you back.  Come up with a plan to chip away at whatever that is on a daily basis.  Reevaluate your progress on a constant basis and modify the plan.  Before you know it, and without even realizing it, you will have far surpassed the goal which you originally set.

Sensory Motor Amnesia - Do you have it?

Over the past few weeks, I have had the privilege of adding several large group classes to my training business.  This brings a whole new dynamic to the process which I am really enjoying.  It also allows me to  observe a very large number of people in very little time, which is intriguing.  Trends reveal themselves directly when working with a sample of 30-60 people all in one go.  These same revelations happen with individual clients, but are often less striking because of the more gradual unfolding of the results.

One of the more interesting phenomena to observe in these classes is Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA).  Basically, this is just a fancy way of describing the fact of the body "forgetting" how to perform an action or movement.  This can sometimes happen through injury, but can also be the result of a sedentary lifestyle in which certain postures and motions are trained repetitively (such as sitting at a computer) at the expense of a more varied movement pallet.

It's also interesting to note the varying degrees of SMA that exist within a group.  It would be even more interesting to talk to each one of those people in order find out why they do or do not exhibit signs of significant SMA.  What are people doing, or not doing, which causes them to lose or to maintain their natural movement?

One thing for certain, looking fit and strong does not preclude the presence of SMA.  I think this has much to do with performing the same movements over and over again in either group fitness classes or during individual weight training or other conditioning methods.  Apart from repetition, there is also the fact that much of the conventional exercise wisdom has people doing "safe" movements which move along a linear and often fixed (machine) path.  When asked to perform a fairly "natural" full body movement, many of these seemingly fit people have a great deal of difficulty.

That being said, it is also quite astounding to see the progress in those which take a genuine interest in learning and exploring new movements.  I especially noticed this last night with the Quad Squat (à la Forward Pressure).  To compare the same people doing the movement three weeks ago, the difference is night and day.  This is encouraging and rewarding.  These people are rapidly learning to apply the strength and conditioning they have gained from their previous experience to more integrated movement which will prepare them for the surprises of life and sport.

And they are having fun.  It is rewarding to have so many people come up to me and tell me how cool it is to do "different" movements.  Even though they find the movements tough, they enjoy the challenge and are invigorated by learning new skills.

Of course, my methods are not for everyone.  Some people like the status quo of their more conventional methods and will end up sticking to those, choosing other classes or modes of exercise.  I'm fine with that.  At least they are doing something and enjoying it.  The true battle is against sedentarism.  And I applaud anyone who is out there giving the example of an active lifestyle.  But at the same time I admire all those who are jumping on the bandwagon of exercise which is truly transferable to the demands of life and sport.  Relearning to use our bodies the way they were meant to be used is a great gift.

Another study busting the slow cardio myth...

Here is another study which adds to the evidence that slow, steady-state cardio is not the best way to lose fat and stay fit...

Updated: 4:07 p.m. ET Sept 20, 2007

LONDON - A friendly game of soccer works off more fat and builds up more muscle than jogging, new research shows.

Danish scientists, who conducted their research on 37 men, also found the soccer players felt less tired after exercising than the joggers because they were having more fun.

"This is good news for men who prefer to play football (soccer) with their mates," said Dr. Gary O'Donovan, a sports medicine expert at the University of Exeter who was not connected to the study.

To measure how hard the men were working out, the researchers strapped heart monitors to their chests and compared blood samples and muscle tissue before and after matches and jogging sessions.

The researchers selected men with similar health profiles aged 31 to 33 and split them into groups of soccer players, joggers, and couch potatoes — who not surprisingly ended the three-month study in the worst shape.

Each period of exercise lasted about one hour and took place three times a week. After 12 weeks, researchers found that the body fat percentage in the soccer players dropped by 3.7 percent, compared to about 2 percent for the joggers.

The soccer players also increased their muscle mass by almost 4.5 pounds, whereas the joggers didn't have any significant change. Those who did no exercise registered little change in body fat and muscle mass.

"Even though the football (soccer) players were untrained, there were periods in the game that were so intense that their cardiovascular was maximally taxed, just like professional football (soccer) players," said Dr. Peter Krustrup, head of Copenhagen University's department of exercise and sport sciences, who led the study.

The soccer players and the joggers had the same average heart rate, but the soccer players got a better workout because of intense bursts of activity. Krustrup and his colleagues found there were periods during soccer matches when the players' hearts were pumping at 90 percent their full capacity. But the joggers' hearts were never pushed as hard.

Unlike the soccer players, the joggers consistently thought their runs were exhausting.

"The soccer players were having more fun, so they were more focused on scoring goals and helping the team, rather than the feeling of strain and muscle pain," Krustrup said.

And if you prefer not to play soccer, just grab a copy of the 4x7 DVD from RMAX International!!