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February 18, 2015

My Favorite Exercise Combinations – Installment 3

Throughout the fitness industry, utilizing med ball exercises has been a large component of increasing force development, improving neurological activation along the speed-strength continuum, not to mention it is just flat out fun to slam a ball.

No matter if you are into fat loss, improving athletic development, or gaining muscle, there are benefits for everyone when it comes to slamming stuff into the ground or a brick wall.

This week’s favorite sequence of mine comes in the form of slamming a med ball into a wall, and then performing a Turkish Get Up.

A1. Rotational Med Ball Shotput – 3×5/side (6-8lbs)

A2. Turkish Get Up – 3×1/side

Next Level Programming

The purpose of the rotational med ball scoop toss is to improve rotational force production in the frontal and transverse planes. If many exercises are performed in the sagittal plane, we may develop an “overdependence” on these exercises – and if we live in a three-dimensional world, we need to improve the way we interact with the world in a three-dimensional manner – not only sagittal plane, but also frontal and transverse plane.

Now, the funky part of this combination is the Turkish Get Up – to some people, this may not be a surprise of an exercise; others have never even heard of it before.

In fact, if you’ve never tried it before, it is a great combination exercise in its own regard. It targets abdominals, is a checkpoint for glute functioning when you go into the “high bridge” portion (where you squeeze your butt into the air), and then also includes a hip hinge, and lunging pattern.

It’s like those Highlight magazines you did those search puzzles in when you went to the dentist or doctor as a kid – it has some gems in there if you look really hard.

Highlights — The blind bull is blissfully balancing on one blue boot while wearing a blue belt and a blue blouse.

Now, the integrated portion of this combination is the sweet deal that you didn’t know you had until you rang up your coupon at the cash register:

Let me explain.

If you are throwing a ball, you need to produce force that will attempt to cross midline from sternum, sacrum, and sphenoid bones. In other words, you need to rotate appropriately (and on both sides in this specific drill).

skeleton_axial_180 — The purple bones will need to move independently of the white bones to create dissociation!

In the medicine ball throw, you need to push off from the ankle, activate the glutes to rotate (reciprocally if I may add), and have the trunk come along for the ride – which activates one set of obliques, and the opposite side of obliques. Further, this rotation of the trunk facilitates scapular motion as you literally throw the ball.

What is an “arm care” exercise that isn’t integrative?

So when you perform a med ball shotput, you integrate the feet, glutes, trunk, scapula, and even the neck and eyes because you won’t be able to hit your target (very effectively) if you could not look at it.

Now, when you perform a Turkish Get Up, you are doing the same exact thing, but slower and with more control.

As you move from the ground up, you are stabilizing both scapula in various positions, stabilizing the trunk in various positions, moving with adequate hip mobility, and improving sensory awareness of the body due to breathing (which means you shouldn’t be grunting or holding your breath), and slowing down the movement for control purposes.

These higher end movements involve utilizing a rolling pattern, that aim to reset and activate certain tonic/phasic musculature.

Lastly, the vision aspect is huge. You can improve your sensory awareness by integrating where your eyes are located into the mix – as you move from the “ground upwards” you should be keeping an upward look at the kettlebell as you move from step to step.

Look Up — The one on the right is probably more prepared than the other two for whatever is coming next.

Combine this with a fast paced med ball drill such as the shotput, and you can really enhance the way you exercise and improve force development!

If you liked what you read, please pass on this post! Much appreciated.

As always,

Keep it funky.

January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

My Favorite Exercise Combinations – Installment 2

There have been many combinations that have proven to be awesome in times past.

Peanut butter and jelly.

Rum and coke.

However, when it comes to exercise combinations, not many are as potent as deadlifts and kneeling glute mobilizations.

Before I digress down the combination, here are a few questions to keep in mind:

When is too much mobility ever the issue?
If you are too mobile, you need to display an appropriate amount of stability within that given range of motion.

pendulums — Core Pendulum Theory is still applicable

To take a practical note from my assessments with my athletes, there has been a larger shift towards a lack of internal rotation displayed within the hips, and an increase in external rotation range of motion.

There are plenty of different ways hips can present, and to be fair on all sides, there have been plenty of people who have more hip internal vs external range of motion, or even a unilateral or shift in one versus the other hip’s values.

Now, it is imperative to first take another step back and realize that this is not only indicative of the femoral position within the hip joint, but also what is occurring positionally at the hip. The hip can present in either an anterior pelvic tilt, posterior pelvic tilt, or a shift in one or the other (one hip is anteriorly tilted, the other posteriorily tilted). This isn’t saying one or the other is bad, however it is just something to take note of from an objective point of view.

With this in mind, if there is a lack of hip internal rotation, it can be attributed to either osseous (bony) adaptations, or a soft tissue restriction, and secondarily a lack of lateral or anterior core stability.

Essentially, the hip can play into how the femur presents. So whenever I do assessments, this is something that I keep in mind to not focus in on a minute detail – because it is always part of a bigger picture.

Often on Day 1 of an athlete’s return to exercise (after a long and grueling season), they just want to get lifting again. However, if little Johnny can’t get his femur into specific positions, or even hold a stable position during a lift, it is unlikely that he will be successful. Johnny needs more mobility before he can improve further.

So, from our last exercise combination, we know that the femur must display a posterior glide into the acetabulum as hip flexion occurs. And there are tons of exercises that require hip flexion – step ups, squats, and everyone’s favorite – deadlifts.

So, other than motor control, a stretching of the posterior hip capsule might be necessary to stimulate receptors within the joint – a sort of way to “wake up” the sleepy butt muscles by providing a stretch reflex to the joints that are involved in the movement.

A1. Kneeling Glute Mobilization

A2. Sumo Deadlift

The exercise order matters in this specific case – that is, mobility allows for the hip joint to receive input to allow for more range of motion to occur, and then that mobility is not only capitalized on by performing an exercise that requires more mobility, but this new range is also “stabilized” by activating the muscles of the posterior chain – the ones that were just stretched into a further range of motion.

Further, two incorrect things often happen with the deadlift.

Knees collapsing (so using the thought of the path of least resistance, if the hip isn’t going to move… the knees will move in its stead).
Flexion of the lumbar spine (if there is not enough stability within the abdominal musculature or a bracing strategy is utilized, often L4-L5 of the lumbar spine will flex due to its susceptibility to flexion range of motion).

These items matter because if there is not enough flexibility of the posterior hip muscles, and your glutes are essentially stiff, then you won’t be able to hip hinge appropriately.

You’ll break down either at the lumbar spine or the knees.

For efficiency’s sake, the order matters because if you perform your given number of sets and reps of your mobilization, and you are aiming to hit some big numbers, there is less reason to capitalize on the newly found mobility AFTER you’ve already deadlifted (if the sequence was switched around).

You might as well not be doing the drill, or do one less set to reduce redundancy, and save on time. (This gives you more time for making PB&J sandwiches, ya?)

Some modifications on the choice of deadlift involve using a trap bar deadlift, conventional deadlift, RDL, or in actuality any type of hip hinging exercise.

You should see a pattern here – whenever you sit back, or whenever you perform hip flexion, you need a specific type of mobility in the hips. If you lack that mobility, where else will you achieve that range of motion?

As always,

Keep it funky.

January 21, 2015

My Favorite Programming Sequences: Installment 1

I’m starting off a new series of exercise programming favorites. This will aim to demonstrate very pragmatic programming choices for how I program for our athletes at Cressey Sports Performance.

In my recent post “So… What Do You Do? Part 2” I explained that I have been recently collecting assessment information in order to see where I am pragmatically with my exercise options.

“There’s an input… and an output.” –Charlie Weingroff

Through the large handful of assessments I’ve had in my disposal at this facility and past ones, there is a large discrepancy of unilateral instability that is often displayed through the midsection. Couple this with lack of range of motion, and we can begin to unravel a sequelae of neurological and systemic degradation.

APT — Lack of “anterior core” stability is coupled with a lack of pelvic control.

Some have called this gluteal amnesia. Following the Joint by Joint Approach will allow us to come to the conclusion that often the “core” will need stability, and the hip will need subsequent mobility.

Whether you are utilizing an active single leg assessment, or you are utilizing a passive test to determine the available range of motion at the hip, it is understood that the glute medius and glute minimus are hip internal rotators, or rather they are recruited when the femur is asked to internally rotate within the hip joint (acetabulum).

These specific muscle groups involve stabilizing the “core” by recruiting obliques, and reducing lumbar erector spinae recruitment patterns.

A1. Single Leg Work

A2. Side Bridge or Side Plank

If our aim is to improve stability in a unilateral fashion, when the femur on the stable leg performs hip flexion, you are receiving an input aimed at improving lateral stability, as Tony Gentilcore put it, and this allows for literally ALL qualities (core stability, hip mobility, and strengthening via single leg training) to be improved upon.

This sequence also allows for the femur to shift into the acetabulum in a more posterior fashion as the lead leg goes into hip flexion (and the opposite is in hip extension) in a reverse lunge, for example.

If you don’t have stability of the core, nor do you not have adequate range of motion within the hip joint, what else is a better option than the combination of these two exercises to improve range of motion and quickly stabilizing what you have gained?

Who Is It For?

There aren’t many restrictions when it comes to this exercise sequence. If you have severe pain, probably a good idea to get it checked out, just to be safe. But other than that…

Using this as a “Phase 1” of programming to quite literally “reprogram” propioceptive input to the brain is not the worst thought process.

He doesn’t need to do side bridges in between these lunges.

Troubleshooting

Focusing on breathing and rib position, making sure you push *away* from the floor (which will reinforce abdominal control), along with hip positioning (posterior pelvic tilt while sideways) will help reinforce an appropriate position – and ultimately a great deal of awesomeness as displayed above.

This sequence is not meant to replace a lack of mobility found within the hip – however, it can be reinforced by including a posterior hip capsule stretch, which will allow a more relative input to the back of labrum, and by “activating” the glute medius/min, along with external/internal oblique recruitment from the side plank, you will be providing several opportunities for improving movement acquisition or learning.

Not bad for the first search term for “glute mobilization.”

Til next time.

Keep it funky.