Most general descriptions of muscle function are explained from a reference of anatomical alignment.

Anatomical alignment is much like lying on your back, arms at your sides, palms up, legs straight, toes up.

When you begin moving out of such an alignment, joint angles and muscular functions change.

For instance, gluteus medius is primarily known as a hip abductor and external rotator.

In standing and walking, it will resist the hip’s tendency to adduct and internally rotate at the hip. 

In a complex movement like a squat or a lunge, as the hip flexes its moment arm changes such that the muscle no longer abducts and externally rotates the hip but rather it becomes an internal rotator of the hip.

If you’re trying to correct someone’s lunge because their knee tends to “cave in” at 90 degrees of hip and knee flexion by strengthening their gluteus medius, best of luck because it won’t help due to the change in the muscle’s change in function.  Look for a posterior chain weakness in this case.

Learning more about how a muscle functions throughout a joint’s range of motion will help to assure proper corrective strategies and exercise selection.

Bill

How do you know if your current program is effective in improving your athletic performance?

When was the last time you assessed your posture, your range of motion, your strength levels, your body fat, or your anaerobic power?

The testing methods you use will, of course, depend on your needs and your goals.

Strength is one of those qualities that’s easy to develop and easy measure.  If the loads keep increasing, then you’re stronger.  However, is that strength transferring to your on the field performance? 

Perhaps not.

For instance, your vertical jump, which is an easy way to measure power, may stagnate or decline with an overemphasis on high volumes of strength training.  If your sport demands a high level of power for on the field success, your record weight room numbers may not be indicative of an effective program based on your current needs.

Test, determine your needs, design the program, execute the program, retest, and repeat.

Bill

So I mentioned last week that I’m training in the wee hours of the morning these days due to a busy schedule.  I didn’t expect so many of you to be so concerned for my lumbar spine health.

First thanks for reading the blog, second, thanks for caring, third, congrats for reading Dr. McGill’s book, and fourth, don’t sweat it.

For those who’re in the dark about my comment above.  Here’s the scoop.

As you sleep, the lumbar discs are decompressed and will hydrate (aka, swell with water) which puts the annulus of the disc at a greater risk of injury during lumbar flexion activities.  According to Dr. Stuart McGill, in his book Lower Back Disorders, it’s best to avoid bending exercise until after the first hour of rising from bed.  After the first hour of being up, the disc dehydrates by about 90% of what it will all day, so after the first hour, the injury risk goes down.

Makes good sense.

Now let me give you some insight into what I’m actually doing.

I’m up at 4 a.m. (It was actually 3:59 this morning which is kinda scary…has my brain adjusted to the early hours…could I be a…gasp!…morning person?!).  I walk down the hall to “drop a little water weight” and then head off to the kitchen to mix up my workout drink. I get dressed for training and head back down the hall to the gym.

I’m in the gym at about 4:15 give or take a couple minutes (depends on how hard I had to argue with myself to leave my warm bed).  I then do some form of warm that includes dynamic mobility drills.  This is to wake up and raise my body temperature.

At no time from the time of rising until about 4:30-4:40 have I performed any lumbar flexion activities (even during dressing and putting on my shoes) as I’m very aware of the risk.  So I’ve got about 30-40 minutes of no flexion and only body weight loads at best.  If 90% of the water that will leave the disc does so in the first hour, I’ve got a good start and risk is already down. 

After this point it’s strength training and metabolic training.  Still no lumbar flexion activities (don’t confuse lumbar flexion and hip flexion).  Even if it wasn’t early in the morning, my approach would be the same. 

By the way, I would be just as concerned about lumbar flexion for someone who sits slouched at desk all day or just drove home from work and went right into their strength training program.  The passive posterior structures will tend to lengthen and the nucleus of the disc may shift due to periods of prolonged flexion and may place you at greater risk for instability and lower back injury if the spine is loaded before creep of the tissue is restored.

If you haven’t read Dr. McGill’s book, you may be as much as 6 years behind on your approach to treating and preventing low back injuries.

Bill

Strive to maintain the normal lordosis of the lumbar spine during lifting.

Doing so assures that the angle of pull of the erector spinae create a posterior shear force on the lumbar vertebrae, thus reducing the high anterior shear forces that are associated with back injuries.  You also avoid the repetitive strain on the posterior aspect of the lumbar discs that can result in herniation.

This may require that you reduce the depth of your squats or pull your deadlifts from a box until you’ve developed sufficient mobility in your hips.

Bill

Closing the kinetic chain by putting your hand on the floor promotes co-contraction of the rotator cuff.  This can improve glenohumeral stabilization.

Because the scapula is free to move, you must rely on active stabilization of the scapula.  The greater your scapular stability, the greater your potential glenhumeral stability.

The push-up requires active stabilization of the trunk.  Weak trunk musculature is a common reason why some have difficulty completing an effective push-up.

There’s no equipment required…contrary to what some commercials may say.

They’re easy to unload for those lacking sufficient strength to do them on the floor.  Simply “raise the floor” by placing the hands on a sturdy bench, a barbell secured in a rack, or even a wall for deconditioned exercisers.

There are infinite variations that can be done isometrically, explosively, loaded with weighted vests, chains, bands, off-set hands, narrow hand spacing, one hand, on a medicine ball, on two medicine balls….you get the point.

Bill

P.S.  You can now get NSCA CEU credits for your purchase of Inside-Out: The Ultimate Upper Body Warm-up.  Contact Mike Robertson at info@robertsontrainingsystems.com