Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Changing Foot of the Vibram FiveFingeres Wearer: Review of feet size change over time
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I've been wearing Vibram 
FiveFingers (VFF's) for about a year now. Yup, a year. While the challenge of what to do out doors when either sub zero or wet wintery are still a mystery, wearing these shoes for this length of time has let me observe/experience an intriguing phenomena about which i've seen little (ok no) comment: feet changing size.
I'll say right now that i measure my feet by my second toe - happens to be the longest (tips on fitting VFF's here). Thus i have room in my VFF's in the big toe pocket. So much so that wearing the same size VFF's with or without socks was no problem. Initially. Something happened in mid may after wearing VFF's indoors from nov - march, and then just all the time from march - may. My vff's with sox started to feel small. On the right foot only and mainly pulling on the big toe. Where i'd had room.
I didn't know how to make sense of this. At a z-heath s-phase cert talking with DC Eric Cobb, i asked if one's foot size could change in shifting shoe types. Oh yes, he laughed. Great. Fortunately summer weather was coming and the sox could be dispensed with and the shoes were ok again.
Now it's getting cold, sox are coming back on and funny thing, the vff's (mainly the kso's) do not seem to be as tight now. Have they stretched out?
I asked z-health master trainer Zachariah Salazar at another recent z-health ho down - and a guy who's almost as footwear fanatical as i am - and he said that he's watched his feet change in both directions: as his shoes got flatter and more open, the feet got longer/bigger. But now, he says, as his muscles seem to be readapting in the feet again, they're pulling back in as his shoe size has come back down again. Perhaps that's what's happening with my feet - a re, re-adjustment.
Dunno. But it's interesting. I recently got to try on a pair one size up in the kso with socks. i'm sure this is what the current size *used* to feel like. time to think upping the size for winter wear - but they don't even feel that big without the sox. yup there's been a change in me, as the song goes.
Any other VFF wearers out there had any similar experiences?
Please post your foot size changing experiences.
Related Posts:
FiveFingers (VFF's) for about a year now. Yup, a year. While the challenge of what to do out doors when either sub zero or wet wintery are still a mystery, wearing these shoes for this length of time has let me observe/experience an intriguing phenomena about which i've seen little (ok no) comment: feet changing size.I'll say right now that i measure my feet by my second toe - happens to be the longest (tips on fitting VFF's here). Thus i have room in my VFF's in the big toe pocket. So much so that wearing the same size VFF's with or without socks was no problem. Initially. Something happened in mid may after wearing VFF's indoors from nov - march, and then just all the time from march - may. My vff's with sox started to feel small. On the right foot only and mainly pulling on the big toe. Where i'd had room.
I didn't know how to make sense of this. At a z-heath s-phase cert talking with DC Eric Cobb, i asked if one's foot size could change in shifting shoe types. Oh yes, he laughed. Great. Fortunately summer weather was coming and the sox could be dispensed with and the shoes were ok again.Now it's getting cold, sox are coming back on and funny thing, the vff's (mainly the kso's) do not seem to be as tight now. Have they stretched out?
I asked z-health master trainer Zachariah Salazar at another recent z-health ho down - and a guy who's almost as footwear fanatical as i am - and he said that he's watched his feet change in both directions: as his shoes got flatter and more open, the feet got longer/bigger. But now, he says, as his muscles seem to be readapting in the feet again, they're pulling back in as his shoe size has come back down again. Perhaps that's what's happening with my feet - a re, re-adjustment.
Dunno. But it's interesting. I recently got to try on a pair one size up in the kso with socks. i'm sure this is what the current size *used* to feel like. time to think upping the size for winter wear - but they don't even feel that big without the sox. yup there's been a change in me, as the song goes.
Any other VFF wearers out there had any similar experiences?
Please post your foot size changing experiences.
Related Posts:
- a year's worth of VFF articles at begin2dig
PDF
Friday, November 6, 2009
Getting the Rhythm of the RTK Long Cycle Dips (i think): Return of the Kettlebell Update 7
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This past Medium Day of Return of the Kettlebell was the Middle Weight 
Long Cycle day. Having been away from this for the past few weeks, i was curious to see if i could get back in the groove and what it would feel like. It felt GOOD. Why? i think i've got the rhythm of this sucker figured out - at least for myself. Why? i understand the double dip function better - i think - thanks to getting to spend some time with an champ Olympic lifter (and GS lifter) and z-health movement specialist Chris Hoffman a week ago, learning the clean of the clean and jerk, oly style. A revelation. It's amazing what the bar in front of one's face does to drive home how the dips in these moves are working. There's pretty much no move for move comparison between the C&J with KB's and one with an oly bar. But the rationale for the dips is pretty much the same, and that can be instructive.
So Phase 1 of smoothing out the Hard Style C&J - again - for me; your mileage may differ. Smooth swing up to the rack. Pavel talks about the importance of the clean all the time. Sara Cheatham has recently written about her experience of same. Last year i looked at how the clean had made all the difference for my work in the press.
The part of the clean i'd like to talk about though, is really the swing. It's feeling the double bells and arms and chest and hips move like a fluid unit when picking up the bells and getting the swing first back then up going. It's all connected, and, i might add, feels rather effortless. It was a joy and revelation to feel the smoothness of the down stroke go to the hike pass (described in Enter the Kettlebell if that's not familiar) and come up to the momentary rack/dip combo sweet spot. Once i became aware of that groove i started using it deliberately. I know i know it sounds obvious but there it was.
Phase 2 of effortless: connecting the up to the rack with the first dip.
From the cleaned bells comes the first dip. The dip down is getting the rocket fuel primed for the shoot up (to use a rough version of Pavel's RTK analogy). This loading by dipping down is taking some advantage of the elastic energy component of muscle. This is a pre-load. To be effective, that loading has to be turned around pretty fast, or the energy dissipates. So it's down then UP to get the bells moving up to the sky, taking off. And as they hit apogee, getting ready to go down again for the "jerk dip." Bone rhythmn can come to play here too where the hip and knee, and knee and ankle are working together to get the butt down, timed and coordinated with the load to make the most of the boost up.
Phase 3 of effortless: second dip - remembering "getting under the bar"
Pardon a digression that may not sound sensible if you haven't tried this with an oly bar. The clean is really different than the KB clean and it's a lot of fun. I encourage everyone to get with a trainer to give it a go. IT's a beautiful move. The main part of comparison - to me - is going from the clean rack to the second dip for the jerk. Again this is going to sound so basic to people who know this stuff, so forgive me for stating the well known like a revelation.
It's my understanding, in the oly clean & Jerk that the second dip is to get under the racked bar, so that (and here comes the "duh!" ) rather than pushing the weight overhead with our poor arms from the rack, a la a military press, we get down (way down) to get under the bar suspended in the air, to get an arm lock out under it, and then, voila, drive up with the legs. While the legs are going down the arms are straightening out and pushing the bar (nice bone rhythm). So dip one to power load and initiate the first stage of the rocket; dip two, as the bells are going up, to get an extra stage advantage getting under the bell. And this happens FAST because we're trying to beat gravity: we go down faster than the bell to maximize force coming back up under it to get it locked out standing up.
Time In the Rack and Depth of Dip
Two differences i've noticed with the KB/Oly C&J is time in the rack and the depth of the drop.
In the Oly C&J you can really pause in the rack before going for that second dip. In the KB version, we don't pause as long in the rack it seems. We move from a stable clean to the power drive first dip.
Another difference with the Oly C&J and KB C&J is that the second dip seems to be not nearly so low - which makes sense given the load differences and also again, we're not pausing under the load once our arms are straightening. We're getting down to get under but we don't stop under. We're generating more momentum, more stretched elastic component energy in this semi-dip to drive the bell up to full lock out. Still, the principles are the same with coordinating the dip down with the arms going up and then the next step the straightening up for the final hold.
As said, some of you may be saying what are you making a fuss out of? Yes you've just described what you're supposed to be doing in a C&J: getting under the weight so you can push more up than you can press. Yup, but sometimes seeing how similar but different things work help explain the model.
I'm currently C&J'ing the same weights i press. I don't really need to jerk these weights up. SO getting a sense mechanically of what their rationale is in a context where one CANNOT press the same weight one jerks for a 1RM is instructive. At least it has been for me.
I can now better take advantage of the physics where it IS necessary to understand what it's doing in what becomes more of an endurance / hyertrophy session (C&J'ing for reps as designed in RTK) than for strength/power of Oly lifting. This is likely pretty basic for folks well versed in both arts, but as said, for me: revelation. I like it.
And one may note the Hard Style C&J is thus z subtly different beast from the GS Long cycle where one does indeed rest and recover in the rack before dips. There's a difference therefore in the curvature of the thoracics, it seems, to hold the load and refresh, but not a huge difference.
Phase 4, power up: get up stand up, stand up
This actually seemed in some ways the hardest part of the move: once i had the bells up over my head, and locked out, i had to remind myself the fist few times to remember to finish the move by standing up all the way; it felt more comfortable to keep a bit of a bend in my knees when rep'ping, but no no, must get up and finish each rep. ta da.
Aside 1: grip
I was quite surprised by how much smoother this iteration through the cycle felt than the last time i did it. Even for the high rep rungs of the ladder. Definitely felt like i was getting to a more efficient movement (within hardstyle constraints).
And then i noticed it: my grip was different than it had been. Formally i had studiously practiced the clean up to the rack then fold the fingers into the bell against the handle. This time, i simply used a near fingerless grip for the press up rather than folding my fingers inside and against the handle. For me that seems to take less energy and just feels smoother.
After the sets were over i did some tests comparing the open grip to the folded fingers grip, and found that the open fingers (including loose thumb) worked the same muscularly, but again, less effort/energy on playing with finger positioning, and also felt like i was able to control the decent of the bell more readily.
I've been looking at the hand grips of various male and female GS master of sport holders, and it seems to be a personal thing: some do the fold; some do the loose grip. IF you note the grip of Scott Helsley in the vid above, you'll see something of what i'm describing with the open grip. I'm ok with that. Unless i learn of a specific reason to spend time reforging the grip to do the fold, i think i might just stay with this. We'll see.
Getting to the Bottom of the RTK HS C&J
So, in review, what happened in this session - it's the first time (3rd go through of the whole thing) where i've felt like i was starting to practice skills instead of learn new ones. Obviously each rep brings refinements, and i'm in no way saying i have all the skills for these moves. NOOOO. But what i am saying is that it feels like i'm moving past just the learning stage and into the practice stage. Things are starting to make sense. And the cool thing is when they make sense they feel far more powerful, smooth and effective. Which it to be preferred. Heavy Day next and i get to test if all this sweet talk about effortless form translates to the heavy bells for the long cycle.
Smiles everyone. Smiles.
Related Posts
Long Cycle day. Having been away from this for the past few weeks, i was curious to see if i could get back in the groove and what it would feel like. It felt GOOD. Why? i think i've got the rhythm of this sucker figured out - at least for myself. Why? i understand the double dip function better - i think - thanks to getting to spend some time with an champ Olympic lifter (and GS lifter) and z-health movement specialist Chris Hoffman a week ago, learning the clean of the clean and jerk, oly style. A revelation. It's amazing what the bar in front of one's face does to drive home how the dips in these moves are working. There's pretty much no move for move comparison between the C&J with KB's and one with an oly bar. But the rationale for the dips is pretty much the same, and that can be instructive.So Phase 1 of smoothing out the Hard Style C&J - again - for me; your mileage may differ. Smooth swing up to the rack. Pavel talks about the importance of the clean all the time. Sara Cheatham has recently written about her experience of same. Last year i looked at how the clean had made all the difference for my work in the press.
The part of the clean i'd like to talk about though, is really the swing. It's feeling the double bells and arms and chest and hips move like a fluid unit when picking up the bells and getting the swing first back then up going. It's all connected, and, i might add, feels rather effortless. It was a joy and revelation to feel the smoothness of the down stroke go to the hike pass (described in Enter the Kettlebell if that's not familiar) and come up to the momentary rack/dip combo sweet spot. Once i became aware of that groove i started using it deliberately. I know i know it sounds obvious but there it was.
Phase 2 of effortless: connecting the up to the rack with the first dip.
From the cleaned bells comes the first dip. The dip down is getting the rocket fuel primed for the shoot up (to use a rough version of Pavel's RTK analogy). This loading by dipping down is taking some advantage of the elastic energy component of muscle. This is a pre-load. To be effective, that loading has to be turned around pretty fast, or the energy dissipates. So it's down then UP to get the bells moving up to the sky, taking off. And as they hit apogee, getting ready to go down again for the "jerk dip." Bone rhythmn can come to play here too where the hip and knee, and knee and ankle are working together to get the butt down, timed and coordinated with the load to make the most of the boost up.
Phase 3 of effortless: second dip - remembering "getting under the bar"
Pardon a digression that may not sound sensible if you haven't tried this with an oly bar. The clean is really different than the KB clean and it's a lot of fun. I encourage everyone to get with a trainer to give it a go. IT's a beautiful move. The main part of comparison - to me - is going from the clean rack to the second dip for the jerk. Again this is going to sound so basic to people who know this stuff, so forgive me for stating the well known like a revelation.
It's my understanding, in the oly clean & Jerk that the second dip is to get under the racked bar, so that (and here comes the "duh!" ) rather than pushing the weight overhead with our poor arms from the rack, a la a military press, we get down (way down) to get under the bar suspended in the air, to get an arm lock out under it, and then, voila, drive up with the legs. While the legs are going down the arms are straightening out and pushing the bar (nice bone rhythm). So dip one to power load and initiate the first stage of the rocket; dip two, as the bells are going up, to get an extra stage advantage getting under the bell. And this happens FAST because we're trying to beat gravity: we go down faster than the bell to maximize force coming back up under it to get it locked out standing up.
Time In the Rack and Depth of Dip
Two differences i've noticed with the KB/Oly C&J is time in the rack and the depth of the drop.
In the Oly C&J you can really pause in the rack before going for that second dip. In the KB version, we don't pause as long in the rack it seems. We move from a stable clean to the power drive first dip.
Another difference with the Oly C&J and KB C&J is that the second dip seems to be not nearly so low - which makes sense given the load differences and also again, we're not pausing under the load once our arms are straightening. We're getting down to get under but we don't stop under. We're generating more momentum, more stretched elastic component energy in this semi-dip to drive the bell up to full lock out. Still, the principles are the same with coordinating the dip down with the arms going up and then the next step the straightening up for the final hold.
As said, some of you may be saying what are you making a fuss out of? Yes you've just described what you're supposed to be doing in a C&J: getting under the weight so you can push more up than you can press. Yup, but sometimes seeing how similar but different things work help explain the model.
I'm currently C&J'ing the same weights i press. I don't really need to jerk these weights up. SO getting a sense mechanically of what their rationale is in a context where one CANNOT press the same weight one jerks for a 1RM is instructive. At least it has been for me.
I can now better take advantage of the physics where it IS necessary to understand what it's doing in what becomes more of an endurance / hyertrophy session (C&J'ing for reps as designed in RTK) than for strength/power of Oly lifting. This is likely pretty basic for folks well versed in both arts, but as said, for me: revelation. I like it.
And one may note the Hard Style C&J is thus z subtly different beast from the GS Long cycle where one does indeed rest and recover in the rack before dips. There's a difference therefore in the curvature of the thoracics, it seems, to hold the load and refresh, but not a huge difference.
Phase 4, power up: get up stand up, stand up
This actually seemed in some ways the hardest part of the move: once i had the bells up over my head, and locked out, i had to remind myself the fist few times to remember to finish the move by standing up all the way; it felt more comfortable to keep a bit of a bend in my knees when rep'ping, but no no, must get up and finish each rep. ta da.
Aside 1: grip
I was quite surprised by how much smoother this iteration through the cycle felt than the last time i did it. Even for the high rep rungs of the ladder. Definitely felt like i was getting to a more efficient movement (within hardstyle constraints).
And then i noticed it: my grip was different than it had been. Formally i had studiously practiced the clean up to the rack then fold the fingers into the bell against the handle. This time, i simply used a near fingerless grip for the press up rather than folding my fingers inside and against the handle. For me that seems to take less energy and just feels smoother.
After the sets were over i did some tests comparing the open grip to the folded fingers grip, and found that the open fingers (including loose thumb) worked the same muscularly, but again, less effort/energy on playing with finger positioning, and also felt like i was able to control the decent of the bell more readily.
I've been looking at the hand grips of various male and female GS master of sport holders, and it seems to be a personal thing: some do the fold; some do the loose grip. IF you note the grip of Scott Helsley in the vid above, you'll see something of what i'm describing with the open grip. I'm ok with that. Unless i learn of a specific reason to spend time reforging the grip to do the fold, i think i might just stay with this. We'll see.
Getting to the Bottom of the RTK HS C&J
So, in review, what happened in this session - it's the first time (3rd go through of the whole thing) where i've felt like i was starting to practice skills instead of learn new ones. Obviously each rep brings refinements, and i'm in no way saying i have all the skills for these moves. NOOOO. But what i am saying is that it feels like i'm moving past just the learning stage and into the practice stage. Things are starting to make sense. And the cool thing is when they make sense they feel far more powerful, smooth and effective. Which it to be preferred. Heavy Day next and i get to test if all this sweet talk about effortless form translates to the heavy bells for the long cycle.
Smiles everyone. Smiles.
Related Posts
- b2d kettlebell article index, with the other RTK updates and the perfect rep series.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Vibrams FiveFingers Update: Airports and Running up that Hill - in winter?
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Well, after months of successful walkthroughs through security at international airports in VFF's with no footwear removal requests, i finally hit an airport - Phoenix Arizona - where the staff said "those are classified as shoes; take them off" Is there no end to the in(s)anity? Is it ridiculous to see thin-soled foot wear as possible explosive material? is there a rationale for this? or have these folks jumped the shark? So just to note, at least one airport is catching wise to VFF's. Drat. What's your experience been? On the plus side more positive running experiences:
Of late i've been trying to gate my runs to be able to maintain breathing in through my nose throughout. I dunno, but they sure feel less stressful, easier, when this becomes the limiter for
just transport runs (getting from a to b). Anyone else tried this? The pattern seems to go so well with the forefoot touch of VFF running
And what about hills and running up them? The VFF barefoot run pattern also seems to make hills less obdurate, smoother. I know that VFF is just enabling this style; it's not because of the shoes. I know i know. But. Without these i'd nay have discovered these changes.
As to those changes no doubt most of you have seen this comparison video on an evil treadmill, but in case not, here goes again.
Winter Wet and VFF Strategy?
I have a question as well: what are VFF faithful going to do for footwear when winter hits? Whether that's winter in Seattle/UK where the rain it raineth every day (and of personal interest), or in the Great White North where it's just dam cold (at least there are rubber footed snowshoe boots that can be brought to bear on city streets - effectively cheap moccasins with some tread). But what are you all doing? Post a comment and please let me know.
thanks
mc
ps
Thanks to birthdayshoes.com Justin for the early alert about women's KSO Trek's making it to The Rest of Us in early 2010. If any gals have experience fitting the boys Treks, please share.
Related Posts
Well, after months of successful walkthroughs through security at international airports in VFF's with no footwear removal requests, i finally hit an airport - Phoenix Arizona - where the staff said "those are classified as shoes; take them off" Is there no end to the in(s)anity? Is it ridiculous to see thin-soled foot wear as possible explosive material? is there a rationale for this? or have these folks jumped the shark? So just to note, at least one airport is catching wise to VFF's. Drat. What's your experience been? On the plus side more positive running experiences:Of late i've been trying to gate my runs to be able to maintain breathing in through my nose throughout. I dunno, but they sure feel less stressful, easier, when this becomes the limiter for
just transport runs (getting from a to b). Anyone else tried this? The pattern seems to go so well with the forefoot touch of VFF runningAnd what about hills and running up them? The VFF barefoot run pattern also seems to make hills less obdurate, smoother. I know that VFF is just enabling this style; it's not because of the shoes. I know i know. But. Without these i'd nay have discovered these changes.
As to those changes no doubt most of you have seen this comparison video on an evil treadmill, but in case not, here goes again.
Winter Wet and VFF Strategy?
I have a question as well: what are VFF faithful going to do for footwear when winter hits? Whether that's winter in Seattle/UK where the rain it raineth every day (and of personal interest), or in the Great White North where it's just dam cold (at least there are rubber footed snowshoe boots that can be brought to bear on city streets - effectively cheap moccasins with some tread). But what are you all doing? Post a comment and please let me know.
thanks
mc
ps
Thanks to birthdayshoes.com Justin for the early alert about women's KSO Trek's making it to The Rest of Us in early 2010. If any gals have experience fitting the boys Treks, please share.
Related Posts
- the entire B2D VFF article index
- and of course birthdayshoes.com
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Why Not "Train Through Pain"?
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Lately i've had the opportunity to listen to a lot of athletes talk about various injuries, ongoing problems, and how many of them have tried to "train through the pain." Probably we've all done it (do it). The way our nervous systems are wired, however, that's a sub-optimal response to pain that can often lead to more problems. This post is meant to be a quick look at some strategies on how to respond to a pain cue to get back in the game.
Who needs to "work through the pain"?
In a life and death situation, a person may need to work through the pain. The price of staying alive might be worth the potential long term cost of whatever damage is sustained.
A workout in a gym is not the same (is it?) Getting in a few extra reps so as not to spoil a set and "working through the pain" may have untold consequences for no benefit. Seriously.
Apparently we just don't know what the consequences of even a seemingly trivial injury can be for cascading through our systems and causing other issues. Knowing that there may be significant consequences when we break ourselves, we may need to ask ourselves: when there's pain, why not just stop and figure it out? why put our bodies at risk just to finish a set? who cares really, ultimately, if we get in 10 reps rather than 8? or 2?
I think a lot of this just-work-through-it comes from most of us not knowing what pain really is or not having tools specifically to respond to it appropriately. So i'd like to offer a little bit about what pain is, and some simple but effective pain response strategies.
Background A lot of the work i'm summarizing stems from pain research. Books like David Butler's Explain Pain, and the Blakeslee's the Body has a Mind of It's Own are super general references in this space. I was introduced to the following models/work on pain by Eric Cobb at the first Z-Health certification. When we focus on the nervous system, as Z-Heath does, and get that Pain is an action signal from the brain manifesting through the nervous sytem, we have a whole lot more tools to deal with pain as events.
Pain is in the brain, first and foremost, and it means Threat is caused by what we're doing. So CHANGE.
Pain is not what happens at the site of pain - like the ache in the wrist or the sharp pain in the back coming up from a poor lift. It's a kind of summation of a lot of information. We've all had experiences where a paper cut means nothing we ignore it and get on with our day, and other days where the same paper cut really HURTS and demands attention. This is because pain is not about the thing itself (the injury); it's about the whole system context of how our entire system is doing at that moment, including perceived threat. Yup, we can feel pain in response to the anticipation of something occurring.
Pain is not isolated; Pain takes place in the brain. It is an action signal; it's an event that is telling the body that something, somewhere is wrong (ie under threat) and to deal with it. We ignore it at our peril, and working through the pain like an ache in a rep is actually being stupid in a non life threatening situation.
Here's part of why.
In a tissue injury, nociceptors (things that detect noxious stimulus in the body, and that live particularly around joints and in muscle) get fired up and a whole chemical soup gets going around the site of trauma to deal with it. Incredibly, that response in and of itself can be pretty varied and doesn't mean there's PAIN yet. Based on whatever else is going on in the body, signals go up to the brain, and based on that context, the brain decides whether to signal or even surpress a pain event.
If the brain says this is pain, however, it means, for whatever reason, we need to attend to it.
Pain is a Threat Response - real or perceived. The nervous system is always on; it only checks a single binary condition: threat or no threat. The response to threat to the body is to respond to the area where there is threat. Often that's a kind of shut down sequence.
Consider what happens dramatically if we have an inflamed finger. The range of motion is restricted, right? Or sore quads from DOMS - range of motion and also power can often be restricted. We are being held back from injuring ourselves further in the current circumstances.
Pain becomes a clear action signal not necessarily to stop what we're doing but to change what we're doing (which sometimes does mean "stop" - temporarily)
If we decide to go ahead with that lift anyway, when the body is pulling muscular firing power away from the site and sending up pain events to say this is not a happy thing, then we're stressing our bodies out further which cranks up stressor chemicals, cortisol can get going and well, we're well far away from an ideal environment for performance, right?
It's a feedback loop for more shutdown, more pain: by working against ourselves we start setting up the body to act more to defend itself, while we're taxing it further and potentially injuring ourselves more.
I've spoken with experts about what's going on with people who say they trained through the pain and after awhile it went away. The consensus seems to be that in those cases (a) the person is actually most likely developing new movement patterns away from the site of pain (b) doing so sub-optimally at a potential cost to overly sensitizing those sites to future pain/trauma events. Similar people who "work through" pain will often also talk about the same kind of pain showing up months/years later as a now more persistent ache, or have other physical issues.
The costs of risking "breaking" ourselves in some way by working through pain are potentially complex. We really have no idea what might be the one seemingly trivial thing that can set up a cascade of events in our nervous system that will have repercussions. So even though we're very robust, and will adapt to almost anything, to ensure the robustness of the system it's really easy just to learn some strategies to respond to a pain/threat event.
Here's an analogy with stress. Stress or anxiety like we might feel before having to get up in front of a group of people and give a talk is an example of a threat response. Chemicals start to get released from the brain to get us ready for fight or flight. Often people who are stressed are encouraged to go for a walk or move and they report feeling better: we effectively start to use those chemicals for the purpose they've been stirred up - to move. The same chemicals (catecholamines) pretty much get fired up every time we work out and get our heart rate up. So they're not bad, they're just physical, and there is a physical response available. If we become aware of "getting stressed" - note the breathing responses etc and respond, we can quickly get back to normal performance.
Pain is a similar kind of response to threat - perceived or actual - and is an action signal. Again, often (not 100% of the time, but often) movement can likewise help both diagnosis that there's an issue and check if there's a good response to the action signal.
The right mobility can be an optimal response to the pain action signal
So, with all the athletes i work with, i recommend that at a minimum they consider making mobility practice a regular part of their daily routine. If you're interested in more of the details of why, here's an article. Likewise, if you haven't and especially if you're concerned about your performance goals, consider getting your movement in general and your specific ahtletic form checked by a movement specialist to make sure you're repping in good patterns.
Scenario of Pain Event Listening
SO let's say you're doing something that fires up a pain signal in the elbow or forearm.
You check your shoulder range of motion.
You can only get your arm up to the start of your ear - usually you're behind it. Something's wrong.
You do some opposing joint drills and recheck - your arm mobility is back to normal. awesome.
You recheck your form for whatever was hurting, remember your form: tall spine, good breathing, focus on open form, pain is gone, life is good again.
Yes it can happen that fast. The nervous system mechanoreceptors fire at 300mph. And with the SAID principle, we respond exactly and immediately to what we're doing.
Now there may be instances where the ROM does not come back; where the pain is acute when doing ANY ROM of the given move. That may be time to bag it. Rule no. 1: never move through pain because of all the above: upping threat, further shut down, more threat response chemical events etc. Related strategies are, when and as possible: reduce the range of motion of a movement that causes pain so you work outside the pain zone; reduce the load that brings on pain in any ROM.
An intriguing benefit of regular mobility practice is that, by practicing regular and better movement, better information is getting to the nervous system about where we are and what our options are, so there is a decreased incidence of injury and in no small part increased performance as well. Why? Mobility work helps us achieve the Perfect Rep - or at least efficient movement (discussed mid article here), which is the least likely to result in problems, because it also enables the best ROM from which to respond to the unexpected.
An example of mobility and connecting up nervous system communication we've talked about at b2d before is with the arthrokinetic reflex - a powerful example of what happens (1) with a threat response in the nervous system - when it senses even the slightest impingement - and how to fix that with self-mobilization and (2) how performance improves when connecting the neuro-reflexes in the body: here connecting eye movement with hip movement.
So why shouldn't we train though Pain, in brief?
We really don't know the extent to which a pain event can screw ourselves up for right now, or for some event in the future. Like a stress fracture in metal, it may be fine for some time, but it becomes a progressive site of deterioration until suddenly there's a potentially catastrophic break. By not stopping to deal with the pain, we set up a cascade effect of progressive responses in the body to get us to attend to the ever amping up signal. These further events have further costs on our performance. A way the body may deal with unattended pain is to bring on a compensation that will lead to other/new pains. Likewise, ignoring pain can also set up various sensitizations to pain that can trip the pain from a single acute incident to something that gets would up into our nervous system and goes chronic, also potentially harder to address. All in all, it's not nice.
Bottom line?
Who needs to "work through the pain"?
In a life and death situation, a person may need to work through the pain. The price of staying alive might be worth the potential long term cost of whatever damage is sustained.
A workout in a gym is not the same (is it?) Getting in a few extra reps so as not to spoil a set and "working through the pain" may have untold consequences for no benefit. Seriously.Apparently we just don't know what the consequences of even a seemingly trivial injury can be for cascading through our systems and causing other issues. Knowing that there may be significant consequences when we break ourselves, we may need to ask ourselves: when there's pain, why not just stop and figure it out? why put our bodies at risk just to finish a set? who cares really, ultimately, if we get in 10 reps rather than 8? or 2?
I think a lot of this just-work-through-it comes from most of us not knowing what pain really is or not having tools specifically to respond to it appropriately. So i'd like to offer a little bit about what pain is, and some simple but effective pain response strategies.
Background A lot of the work i'm summarizing stems from pain research. Books like David Butler's Explain Pain, and the Blakeslee's the Body has a Mind of It's Own are super general references in this space. I was introduced to the following models/work on pain by Eric Cobb at the first Z-Health certification. When we focus on the nervous system, as Z-Heath does, and get that Pain is an action signal from the brain manifesting through the nervous sytem, we have a whole lot more tools to deal with pain as events.
Pain is in the brain, first and foremost, and it means Threat is caused by what we're doing. So CHANGE.
Pain is not what happens at the site of pain - like the ache in the wrist or the sharp pain in the back coming up from a poor lift. It's a kind of summation of a lot of information. We've all had experiences where a paper cut means nothing we ignore it and get on with our day, and other days where the same paper cut really HURTS and demands attention. This is because pain is not about the thing itself (the injury); it's about the whole system context of how our entire system is doing at that moment, including perceived threat. Yup, we can feel pain in response to the anticipation of something occurring.
Pain is not isolated; Pain takes place in the brain. It is an action signal; it's an event that is telling the body that something, somewhere is wrong (ie under threat) and to deal with it. We ignore it at our peril, and working through the pain like an ache in a rep is actually being stupid in a non life threatening situation.
Here's part of why.
In a tissue injury, nociceptors (things that detect noxious stimulus in the body, and that live particularly around joints and in muscle) get fired up and a whole chemical soup gets going around the site of trauma to deal with it. Incredibly, that response in and of itself can be pretty varied and doesn't mean there's PAIN yet. Based on whatever else is going on in the body, signals go up to the brain, and based on that context, the brain decides whether to signal or even surpress a pain event.If the brain says this is pain, however, it means, for whatever reason, we need to attend to it.
Pain is a Threat Response - real or perceived. The nervous system is always on; it only checks a single binary condition: threat or no threat. The response to threat to the body is to respond to the area where there is threat. Often that's a kind of shut down sequence.
Consider what happens dramatically if we have an inflamed finger. The range of motion is restricted, right? Or sore quads from DOMS - range of motion and also power can often be restricted. We are being held back from injuring ourselves further in the current circumstances.
Pain becomes a clear action signal not necessarily to stop what we're doing but to change what we're doing (which sometimes does mean "stop" - temporarily)
If we decide to go ahead with that lift anyway, when the body is pulling muscular firing power away from the site and sending up pain events to say this is not a happy thing, then we're stressing our bodies out further which cranks up stressor chemicals, cortisol can get going and well, we're well far away from an ideal environment for performance, right?
It's a feedback loop for more shutdown, more pain: by working against ourselves we start setting up the body to act more to defend itself, while we're taxing it further and potentially injuring ourselves more.I've spoken with experts about what's going on with people who say they trained through the pain and after awhile it went away. The consensus seems to be that in those cases (a) the person is actually most likely developing new movement patterns away from the site of pain (b) doing so sub-optimally at a potential cost to overly sensitizing those sites to future pain/trauma events. Similar people who "work through" pain will often also talk about the same kind of pain showing up months/years later as a now more persistent ache, or have other physical issues.
The costs of risking "breaking" ourselves in some way by working through pain are potentially complex. We really have no idea what might be the one seemingly trivial thing that can set up a cascade of events in our nervous system that will have repercussions. So even though we're very robust, and will adapt to almost anything, to ensure the robustness of the system it's really easy just to learn some strategies to respond to a pain/threat event.
Here's an analogy with stress. Stress or anxiety like we might feel before having to get up in front of a group of people and give a talk is an example of a threat response. Chemicals start to get released from the brain to get us ready for fight or flight. Often people who are stressed are encouraged to go for a walk or move and they report feeling better: we effectively start to use those chemicals for the purpose they've been stirred up - to move. The same chemicals (catecholamines) pretty much get fired up every time we work out and get our heart rate up. So they're not bad, they're just physical, and there is a physical response available. If we become aware of "getting stressed" - note the breathing responses etc and respond, we can quickly get back to normal performance.
Pain is a similar kind of response to threat - perceived or actual - and is an action signal. Again, often (not 100% of the time, but often) movement can likewise help both diagnosis that there's an issue and check if there's a good response to the action signal.
The right mobility can be an optimal response to the pain action signal
- So first things first: never move through pain. If pain happens, stop and check. That stopping is a movement response.
- Next, pending severity we can quickly check where the mobility around the joints where the pain occurs may be restricted. So sore elbow - how's the shoulder movement, wrist movement, elbow movement without load (it helps also to learn what the ROM of these joints is for yourself). If there's pain through everything, just frickin' stop.
- Knowing some mobility work for the related joints, going through them where there's no pain, and rechecking range of motion - better worse no change - is again a great fast way to see how things are going. If things are improved awesome, you may want to try - gently - to see if the original move is ok, and if the load has to be reduced to move through the ROM without pain
- Recheck regularly to see where the threat is
- Move a bit as soon as you can without ever moving into pain.
So, with all the athletes i work with, i recommend that at a minimum they consider making mobility practice a regular part of their daily routine. If you're interested in more of the details of why, here's an article. Likewise, if you haven't and especially if you're concerned about your performance goals, consider getting your movement in general and your specific ahtletic form checked by a movement specialist to make sure you're repping in good patterns.
Scenario of Pain Event Listening
SO let's say you're doing something that fires up a pain signal in the elbow or forearm.You check your shoulder range of motion.
You can only get your arm up to the start of your ear - usually you're behind it. Something's wrong.
You do some opposing joint drills and recheck - your arm mobility is back to normal. awesome.
You recheck your form for whatever was hurting, remember your form: tall spine, good breathing, focus on open form, pain is gone, life is good again.
Yes it can happen that fast. The nervous system mechanoreceptors fire at 300mph. And with the SAID principle, we respond exactly and immediately to what we're doing.
Now there may be instances where the ROM does not come back; where the pain is acute when doing ANY ROM of the given move. That may be time to bag it. Rule no. 1: never move through pain because of all the above: upping threat, further shut down, more threat response chemical events etc. Related strategies are, when and as possible: reduce the range of motion of a movement that causes pain so you work outside the pain zone; reduce the load that brings on pain in any ROM.
An intriguing benefit of regular mobility practice is that, by practicing regular and better movement, better information is getting to the nervous system about where we are and what our options are, so there is a decreased incidence of injury and in no small part increased performance as well. Why? Mobility work helps us achieve the Perfect Rep - or at least efficient movement (discussed mid article here), which is the least likely to result in problems, because it also enables the best ROM from which to respond to the unexpected.
An example of mobility and connecting up nervous system communication we've talked about at b2d before is with the arthrokinetic reflex - a powerful example of what happens (1) with a threat response in the nervous system - when it senses even the slightest impingement - and how to fix that with self-mobilization and (2) how performance improves when connecting the neuro-reflexes in the body: here connecting eye movement with hip movement.
So why shouldn't we train though Pain, in brief?
We really don't know the extent to which a pain event can screw ourselves up for right now, or for some event in the future. Like a stress fracture in metal, it may be fine for some time, but it becomes a progressive site of deterioration until suddenly there's a potentially catastrophic break. By not stopping to deal with the pain, we set up a cascade effect of progressive responses in the body to get us to attend to the ever amping up signal. These further events have further costs on our performance. A way the body may deal with unattended pain is to bring on a compensation that will lead to other/new pains. Likewise, ignoring pain can also set up various sensitizations to pain that can trip the pain from a single acute incident to something that gets would up into our nervous system and goes chronic, also potentially harder to address. All in all, it's not nice.
Bottom line?
- A pain event is non-trivial. It means something. So it's a good idea to listen to that signal.
- At a minimum, never move into pain: reduce range of motion/load/speed as necessary (for awhile this may mean non-movement, but getting to possible movement is a good idea)
- Mobility work like z-health rphase/iphase is a fabulous tool kit to be able to self-assess to respond to that pain event and get back to practice asap.
- lots of articles about the z-health approach to movement/mobility
- Mike T Nelson's great exercise approach to Tendonitis/Tendonosis
- mike t nelson presents a new study on pain/performance.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Enhancing the Viking Push Press with Bone Rhythm: more Progress with Return of the Kettlebell
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While the Hard Style approach teaches tension as strength, it is also concerned with movement efficiency. One of the best and most simple techniques to bring efficiency and power into a movement is to harmonize the timing and forces of the joints used in the move. Eric Cobb in z-health refers to this as Bone Rhythm. In this article on my continuing experience with the double kettlebell work of Return of the Kettlebell, i take a look at refining the efficiency, speed and power of my Viking Push Press with attention to Bone Rythmn.
Return of the Kettlebell (RTK) (early review here) provides a formal introduction to the Viking Push Press (VPP), a move that used to be taught only at the RKC II certification. One of the things this means is that the move has been field tested a lot before being introduced to a general kettlebell practice situation, and so has been found to have therefore no small benefit in practice.
In RTK, the Viking Push Press is used to kick off the explosive blocks that include the double kettlebell long cycle clean and jerk. It is well described in RTK so just a quick review is that
Connecting Bone Rhythm with the VPP
Bone Rhythm is a concept that's taught first in the R-Phase certification in Z-Health (review), then again at S-Phase and is now also available in the fabulous Z-Health Vol. 1 of the Complete Athlete (reviewed in detail here). I've discussed it here, too, in this presentation of the KB front squat. and here as well in the context of powerful, efficient movement.
Effectively, the idea of bone rhythmn is to get the timing of the joints to happen together. So for instance, in the squat, the movement of the knee finishes at the same time as the hip, both in going down and in coming up. It's well worth practicing this timing. For example, i could get BR happening in my squat really well going fast. Slowing it down, the knee always finished before the hips. I recently had the opportunity to work with Z-Health Master Trainer Katie Bigelow who had me sorted on slow control of BR in about 20 mins. I am now strong like ox. No kidding. BR = simple physics. If both ends of a lever work together, the movement around the joints at the fulcra is that much more efficient.
The opposite of bone rythmn is what happens on a sea saw if the heavier kid decides not to cooperate when the lighter kid is trying to come down: the lighter kid is whaling away to get her end down and the other kid - isn't pushing up at the same time, so a lot of energy is just spent refee'ing. Once they get in sync, momentum takes care of the rest. Effortless movement; less force needed to keep the movement happening.
SO where/how can we apply this concept in the VPP? here's what i found and you might want to play around with this, too. I'd suggest starting unloaded/naked/no weight.
Gating the Knee Dip. If the arm is up and locked out in the starting position, as the arm
comes down into the rack (somewhat different than the clean rack so good to watch Kenneth Jay demo this on the RTK video), dip the knees. Two things to connect:
Your mileage may vary, but i found that when the arm and knees sync'd up, the feel of the dip was that goldilocks "just right."
Speed of the Push into the Press. In the VPP, there's no pause in the rack; it's an explosive
push back up once the arm comes down into the rack. From there it's straight back up, using the extension of the knees from the dip to help drive up the bell into lock out.
Here's where unloaded practice can help give you the feel for this next part. In this part, the goal is to have the elbow lock out at the same time as the knees finish. Let me repeat: it's much easier to get the feel of this connection without a weight. Knees and arms finish together.
Single Once you have the feel of this unloaded, take the light bell you'd use for double VPP work, and work on a few singles to keep that coordinated knee extension with arm extension. The arms are traveling further, so they're going to be a bit faster than the knees.
When you have the feel of that, time to go for double kb's - and in this case, i'd encourage you to check a mirror just for your outline - you want to check how synced you are.
Double Now as soon as you go double, you may find that your arms lag behind your knees in terms of which finishes first. Ok. But what you'll start to get is that the main part of the coordination, the power of the knees to drive with the elbows past the sticking point is the main timing connection. You'll feel the rhythm look in - especially if you have the rack and up position right. Coordinating the push of these repetitive reps will go from wearing to smooth and powerful.
The Rhythm of Life is a Powerful Thing
It is very much a rhythm that just feels sweet, and really does make the difference between moving through 5 ladders of these things fresh and strong or feeling sluggish and blick. I'm pretty sure if you spend a little time playing around with bone rhythm and the rack position you'll feel like you could go for ages on the VPP, and really get those eccentrics popping with clean good feeling reps.
Related Posts
Return of the Kettlebell (RTK) (early review here) provides a formal introduction to the Viking Push Press (VPP), a move that used to be taught only at the RKC II certification. One of the things this means is that the move has been field tested a lot before being introduced to a general kettlebell practice situation, and so has been found to have therefore no small benefit in practice.In RTK, the Viking Push Press is used to kick off the explosive blocks that include the double kettlebell long cycle clean and jerk. It is well described in RTK so just a quick review is that
- a) unlike it's cousin the regular push press, it begins in an overhead lock out position
- b) lighter weights can be used to build up reps at speed for lots of volume, so it situates as a potential overspeed eccentric practice for training that stretch cycle for speed/power
- c) there are no pauses in the rack.
Connecting Bone Rhythm with the VPP
Bone Rhythm is a concept that's taught first in the R-Phase certification in Z-Health (review), then again at S-Phase and is now also available in the fabulous Z-Health Vol. 1 of the Complete Athlete (reviewed in detail here). I've discussed it here, too, in this presentation of the KB front squat. and here as well in the context of powerful, efficient movement.
Effectively, the idea of bone rhythmn is to get the timing of the joints to happen together. So for instance, in the squat, the movement of the knee finishes at the same time as the hip, both in going down and in coming up. It's well worth practicing this timing. For example, i could get BR happening in my squat really well going fast. Slowing it down, the knee always finished before the hips. I recently had the opportunity to work with Z-Health Master Trainer Katie Bigelow who had me sorted on slow control of BR in about 20 mins. I am now strong like ox. No kidding. BR = simple physics. If both ends of a lever work together, the movement around the joints at the fulcra is that much more efficient.
The opposite of bone rythmn is what happens on a sea saw if the heavier kid decides not to cooperate when the lighter kid is trying to come down: the lighter kid is whaling away to get her end down and the other kid - isn't pushing up at the same time, so a lot of energy is just spent refee'ing. Once they get in sync, momentum takes care of the rest. Effortless movement; less force needed to keep the movement happening.SO where/how can we apply this concept in the VPP? here's what i found and you might want to play around with this, too. I'd suggest starting unloaded/naked/no weight.
Gating the Knee Dip. If the arm is up and locked out in the starting position, as the arm
comes down into the rack (somewhat different than the clean rack so good to watch Kenneth Jay demo this on the RTK video), dip the knees. Two things to connect:- get the speed of the arm coming down into the rack to meet the speed of the knees bending. sync these up.
- get the knee dip to keep going only until the arm comes down into the rack, so the arm and the knees finish their movement together.
Your mileage may vary, but i found that when the arm and knees sync'd up, the feel of the dip was that goldilocks "just right."
Speed of the Push into the Press. In the VPP, there's no pause in the rack; it's an explosive
push back up once the arm comes down into the rack. From there it's straight back up, using the extension of the knees from the dip to help drive up the bell into lock out.Here's where unloaded practice can help give you the feel for this next part. In this part, the goal is to have the elbow lock out at the same time as the knees finish. Let me repeat: it's much easier to get the feel of this connection without a weight. Knees and arms finish together.
Single Once you have the feel of this unloaded, take the light bell you'd use for double VPP work, and work on a few singles to keep that coordinated knee extension with arm extension. The arms are traveling further, so they're going to be a bit faster than the knees.
When you have the feel of that, time to go for double kb's - and in this case, i'd encourage you to check a mirror just for your outline - you want to check how synced you are.
Double Now as soon as you go double, you may find that your arms lag behind your knees in terms of which finishes first. Ok. But what you'll start to get is that the main part of the coordination, the power of the knees to drive with the elbows past the sticking point is the main timing connection. You'll feel the rhythm look in - especially if you have the rack and up position right. Coordinating the push of these repetitive reps will go from wearing to smooth and powerful.
The Rhythm of Life is a Powerful Thing
It is very much a rhythm that just feels sweet, and really does make the difference between moving through 5 ladders of these things fresh and strong or feeling sluggish and blick. I'm pretty sure if you spend a little time playing around with bone rhythm and the rack position you'll feel like you could go for ages on the VPP, and really get those eccentrics popping with clean good feeling reps.
Related Posts
- b2d kettlebell article index - including previous posts on progressing through RTK (warning, they're not all pretty) as well as other KB related articles.
- movement index - articles in the movement/neurology space from warm ups to stretches to all things Z-health.
- if you'd like hands on help with BR and other mobility concepts: Next ZKB workshop: Nov 29, Edinburgh
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