Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Weights, TRX and Brad Pilon's Anabolic Again - fascia-listic
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There's a theory that stretching the fascia is a way to support hypertrophy. It's sort of loaded stretching with opening up the wrapping around our bod that helps keep things together under the skin. Now, i don't know what the evidence is to support this theory, but i think i've experienced it. Feels kinda good. How'd this happen? By a happy side effect of enjoying a good e-book.
Brad Pilon (eat stop eat guy) got himself an Elite Fitness Rack and a stack of books to figure out how to beat his "i'm an experienced lifter and have anabolic slowdown" plateau with his "anabolic again" program. Now me, i got the book initially just for the research value cuz i like Brad's brain. And the theory of the approach is really sweet. As i started looking through the weekly programs i thought heck, i know i'll get stronger, this is different, and seems cool and safe.
So what the heck? i'm coming back from a shoulder tweak, have a long history of craving hypertrophy, and Brad's thesis is, in part, that you don't have to super eat to gain mass, and even a bit of mass makes a big difference (let's see the photo of that 1 pound steak again, brad?)
Now here's what really turned me onto this program, and it's not obvious. It's that the workouts move between the big bar and straps. A lot of the moves are standard things like bench presses and curls in the upper body work. But then there's strap rows. And many things to do with straps. I don't have straps. I don't have a rack on which to put straps. BUT i do have a TRX. And i like my TRX, but i have never blended a TRX with a weight workout.
I am SO SORE. in a good way. and ya, i really get that DOMS is not a sign of anything other than lack of familiarity with the move or load (which could be construed as a bad thing like heh loser why is this triggering you?) But here's the thing: moving between weight work that's compound moves but really stable, and then going and doing strap/TRX work that is not stable - requires more other little muscles to stay stable - and heh if you're doing tricep extensions by straightening out your arms while lying forward into said straps -well, my abs are sore over the full sheet - i feel like not only did i hit the abs, but the saranwrap of the body - the fascia - has been profoundly changed.
Seriously, getting at the fascia with a loaded stretch (as per left in these strap chest flies) is a kind of hypertrophic technique in itself. This belt work with the weights could be a potent factor. We'll see.
Is this an experience that everyone has with a TRX? for me this is new - and i do like going from stable to sensible not quite so stable, and i gotta say i feel sore in ways i haven't felt sore before - which suggests that muscles are getting worked in unfamiliar ways. And that's interesting.
So, so far (like one week) i really am digging Brad's program, and here's to blending strap work with weights. Solids and curves. Nice. Core without thinking about it. And lots of implicit plank work in there too.
If you give Brad's Anabolic Again program a go, leave a comment please. If you mix weights with straps/TRX's, lemme know. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Brad Pilon (eat stop eat guy) got himself an Elite Fitness Rack and a stack of books to figure out how to beat his "i'm an experienced lifter and have anabolic slowdown" plateau with his "anabolic again" program. Now me, i got the book initially just for the research value cuz i like Brad's brain. And the theory of the approach is really sweet. As i started looking through the weekly programs i thought heck, i know i'll get stronger, this is different, and seems cool and safe.
So what the heck? i'm coming back from a shoulder tweak, have a long history of craving hypertrophy, and Brad's thesis is, in part, that you don't have to super eat to gain mass, and even a bit of mass makes a big difference (let's see the photo of that 1 pound steak again, brad?)Now here's what really turned me onto this program, and it's not obvious. It's that the workouts move between the big bar and straps. A lot of the moves are standard things like bench presses and curls in the upper body work. But then there's strap rows. And many things to do with straps. I don't have straps. I don't have a rack on which to put straps. BUT i do have a TRX. And i like my TRX, but i have never blended a TRX with a weight workout.
I am SO SORE. in a good way. and ya, i really get that DOMS is not a sign of anything other than lack of familiarity with the move or load (which could be construed as a bad thing like heh loser why is this triggering you?) But here's the thing: moving between weight work that's compound moves but really stable, and then going and doing strap/TRX work that is not stable - requires more other little muscles to stay stable - and heh if you're doing tricep extensions by straightening out your arms while lying forward into said straps -well, my abs are sore over the full sheet - i feel like not only did i hit the abs, but the saranwrap of the body - the fascia - has been profoundly changed.
Seriously, getting at the fascia with a loaded stretch (as per left in these strap chest flies) is a kind of hypertrophic technique in itself. This belt work with the weights could be a potent factor. We'll see. Is this an experience that everyone has with a TRX? for me this is new - and i do like going from stable to sensible not quite so stable, and i gotta say i feel sore in ways i haven't felt sore before - which suggests that muscles are getting worked in unfamiliar ways. And that's interesting.
So, so far (like one week) i really am digging Brad's program, and here's to blending strap work with weights. Solids and curves. Nice. Core without thinking about it. And lots of implicit plank work in there too.
If you give Brad's Anabolic Again program a go, leave a comment please. If you mix weights with straps/TRX's, lemme know. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
PDF
Monday, July 5, 2010
Pressing Matters, Part II: Dan John's Overhead Press Template (for Gals especially) for a Bigger Press
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Last week, in Part I of Pressing Matters, we had an interview with Dan John about the Overhead Press (and related). This week, since Dan's said i can share the pressing template he gave me with y'all, that's what's presented below. By way of context, Dan John is a champion athlete in numerous disciplines, coach and author of Never Let Go
, and will be co-presenting a one-time-only workshop with Pavel Tsatsouline this Sept, founded on their forth-coming book. The workshop is called Scientific Strength Secrets of Extreme Performance.
Dan's growing intrigue with the role of the overhead press is well summed up from the interview here:
In the interview, Dan said that his training for women does not change much from what he does with guys. But he does say that "women should press probably every day, doing something in a pressing movement"
And so to that end:
Thank you, Dan John, for a groovy template. When i was tree planting up a clear cut in BC one summer, another plantar, joking through the fatigue said over lunch looking out over the sweeps of burns "To plant a tree, you must LOOOVE the tree." Likewise here, to press the kettle (as Jason Dolby's bud Milosh might say) you must love the kettle" And, for a gal, that means press it a little every day.
For me, coming back to this template from a shoulder tweak has been really interesting in terms of finding the right groove to make progress and not overdoing it, as i have been wont to do.
Models for me here are folks like Asha Wagner
(pictured left, with yours truly in the background) with her 24 pistol, pull up and press, who get great heavy results from volume+lighter loads.
If you do work with this protocol, please come on back and let me (and b2d readers) know how it goes.
Update July 20 - Here's some thoughts from Asha Wagner about part 1 and 2 of this coach john chat.
Related Resources
, and will be co-presenting a one-time-only workshop with Pavel Tsatsouline this Sept, founded on their forth-coming book. The workshop is called Scientific Strength Secrets of Extreme Performance. 
Dan's growing intrigue with the role of the overhead press is well summed up from the interview here:The overhead press would be along with the deadlift as the two most important lifts that most people should do. Yes, you should do a squatting movement every day, for the same reasons toss in a hinge, a walk, and joint mobility work, but for loading, you want the press (maybe even first and foremost in my thinking now) and the deadlift....If can overhead press it, you can bench it. The more you press overhead, the more stable you become overall. Also, for whatever reason, call it what you want, but pressing overhead seems to apply to sport and general badassary.A focus of the interview was the issue of women working to put up heavier presses - and heavier kb's in particular. I own it: i'm struggling to get from the 20 to the 24kg - which largely motivated these questions.
In the interview, Dan said that his training for women does not change much from what he does with guys. But he does say that "women should press probably every day, doing something in a pressing movement"
And so to that end:
Dan John's Pressing Template for Gals
to Increase Their Heavy (KB) Press
to Increase Their Heavy (KB) Press
Rule One: Press daily.
Rule Two: Mix up the presses as much as possible.
Rule Three: Going heavy and getting scorched will not help you.
Typical week, add anything else you like on top of it:
Day One: One arm press ladders of 2-3-5, left right, for up to to ten sets (lots of volume, lots of time here, so cut back on everything else. I suggest going L 2, R 3, L 5, R 2, L 3, R 5, and just wave up. It is amazingly refreshing even though it is a ton of volume
Day Two: SeeSaw Press, a few sets, maybe walking SeeSaw Pressing as part of the warm up, nothing serious.
Day Three: Heavy work with one arm presses, several sets of 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, with near max weights. Clean the goal bell and hold the rack for about five sets of two at the end.
Day Four: SeeSaw Press and Windmills.
Aside, Here's how i do SeaSaw Press and Windmills as a workout, to which Dan commented:
"That combination is very interesting indeed. The upside of not giving someone every detail is that "what you think I said" and "what I meant" merge into a brilliant little workout like this.
I have this nagging feeling that some women are good at the Windmill for all the wrong reasons, so when you mix the presses with windmills you are forcing yourself to double up on the lockouts work and the tension work. I often have to have my female athletes do all their standing presses on one foot (doesn't matter how you do it) simply to teach tension (and, sadly but honestly, to get them to shut up. The social dimension is tough for me to deal with in the weightroom).
mc, that is a lot of volume. For most people, I would tell them to ratchet it in a little, but if you choose your bell wisely, that could really help you. "
Just FYI - i've been pretty loose on the sets for this one - playing around with 7-10 rather than always going for 100 WM reps - pending what else i'm doing. And if i'm concerned i'm not being sufficiently attentive, i do a fatigue check (described here) as a reality check.
Also Dan's notes on the role of the windmill in last week's interview: importantee.
Day Five: 1-2-3 ladders with a medium bell, like the Enter the Kettlebell Program. If you can do 1-2-3-4-5 great...but the work of the week has been put in.
Days Six and Seven: Either Rest or just work some tension stuff into your training.
Keep the workouts in this order in the week, but feel free to rest any day you like. I have always liked resting on Sunday and Thursday, so plug those days in there. (M-1, T-2, W-3, Th-Rest (Days six and seven), F-4, Sat-5 and Sun Rest or whatever (Days 6 and 7). Things always come up which is why I leave the open days open. You can lift five to 14 days in a row without taking a break, but it seems to hit you hard at Day 15.
Just an idea, keep the concept and tweak it, but this is the general outline...
Aside: A few notes from Dan's interview can blend into this mix as well, such as pressing on one foot.
Thank you, Dan John, for a groovy template. When i was tree planting up a clear cut in BC one summer, another plantar, joking through the fatigue said over lunch looking out over the sweeps of burns "To plant a tree, you must LOOOVE the tree." Likewise here, to press the kettle (as Jason Dolby's bud Milosh might say) you must love the kettle" And, for a gal, that means press it a little every day.For me, coming back to this template from a shoulder tweak has been really interesting in terms of finding the right groove to make progress and not overdoing it, as i have been wont to do.
Models for me here are folks like Asha Wagner
(pictured left, with yours truly in the background) with her 24 pistol, pull up and press, who get great heavy results from volume+lighter loads.
If you do work with this protocol, please come on back and let me (and b2d readers) know how it goes.
Update July 20 - Here's some thoughts from Asha Wagner about part 1 and 2 of this coach john chat.
Related Resources
- Part I of Pressing Matters: interview with Dan John
- Kettlebell Articel Index at b2d
- It's Ok NOT to do that last rep
- Fatigue Testing: is your nervous system too pooped for the next set
- Volume and Lighter Loads for Going Heavy
Friday, July 2, 2010
Exploring the Body with Books - kinesiology live and in colour
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After hearing so much about kettlebell swings or presses or squats, ever wondered how our bodies support these movements? How muscels, joints and tendons combine with nerves and blood supply to get it going? Me too. So wanted to offer a few pointers to some of the references i really enjoy for exploring body movement, and in particular to highlight a new one to me, the Atlas of Living and Surface Anatomy for Sports Medicine -(US Link || UK link). 
I'll come back to that one in a sec.
The Power Three In writing about the shoulder last week, i referenced a couple of the anatomy/kinesiology books i like like, including the trail guide to the body
and the Anatomy of movement
, but especially the manual of structural kinesiology
- the latter being in about it's zillionth edition.
Why i personally enjoy the Manual of Structural Kinesiology so much has to do with its design elegance and economy: it's a thin book that lies flat but is remarkably well packed with focused information, great illustrations and photos, and fabulous tables summarizing joint action, planes of motion, neves involved (why do i have to keep going to wikipedia to get the femoral arteries providing the blood supply to these limbs?)
The amount of information packed into this book is also fabulous, and make learning about the interconnections of body movement highly tractable. The exercises at the end of each chapter really do make testing whether i've learned anything from a chapter about joint type or specific joints a real and valuable reality check. Surprisingly, the book has the best discussion of first, second and third class levers in the body i've encountered. It's surprising how much one slim volume can do well. It also well-models analyses of all the main joints involved in physical movements from push ups to pull ups. IF one has any questions about what closed and open chain movements after this, well, read again.
Anatomy of movement in contrast has fabulous line drawings and a greater focus on exploring exactly the relationship of movements to the joints of the body whether that's leaning back looking at the stars, or where our forearms most comfortably rotate when seated. By using recognizable movements, it also helps translate ideas like the various planes of motion, and what happens if a muscle isn't there. In fact a strength of the book is that illustrations of the movement go right beside descriptions of joint action.
What the book does not have is the kind of analytic summative pages of movements as in the Manual, but it does go into more detail it seems about the small muscles of the hands head and feet.
Trail Guides to the Body
likewise is without the summative tables, but is designed more particularly to help someone get hands on with the body and feel the movement of the joints doing their work. Hence the notion of trail guides: to find various physical milestones for boney bits, for instance, and likewise to find what are the optimal positionings of a limb to be in to feel or palpate where a particular muscle is. Even so, i still have a dickens of a time separating out the adductors.
When you just want to be Skin Deep. The book that is really blowing me away - that is fitting into an exact niche that has been missing at least for me in these other texts - including the Trail Guides - is this aptly named "atlas of living and surface anatomy.
" That is, it's great to see drawings of the musculature, but since we usually deal with people in their bodies, it's useful to get a sense of what all the bits and bumps actually translate to under the flesh. The Manual of Structural Kinesiology does offer photos of people in various positions with labels of what we're seeing underneath BUT NOT ENOUGH - at least not for me.
The Atlas not only shows real photos of real bodies labelled, but, taking it up a notch, shows photos of real bodies under the skin. The kind, wonderful people who have let their bodies be used for study are presented here. These folks are science heroes for sharing their reamains with us. Thank you.
Coordinating layers of Representation. It's a remarkable thing to be able to see how the various muscle tissues that in texts are highlighted abstractly in red or blue, actually just run together, not unlike white and red meat. TO be able to map x-rays to cadavers to abstract drawings is a potent combination. Some of the photos that show the real and delicate tracery of the nerves under the skin in particular especially contribute to making the physical real. Many muscle, manipulation and palpation tests are included. Like the Manual for structural kinesiology - but here illustrated in color - we also get charts of what normal ranges of motion are for all limbs discussed. Now where's a goniometer?? A google book preview is available for the text, though not the images
I have some greater confidence now of coming to grips with where the teres major is looking at one's shoulder blade. I am making sense of the flat bits of the trapezius, that from drawings i had taken to be more full. The short head of the bicep, and the insertion of the pec major all have had "ah ha moments." I can imagine the Big Desk version of this book including pictures of peopel of various heights, weights and ages for each of these postures being the Delux learning resource.
Other than Anatomy. Each of these more kinesiology-oriented books listed here, just for information, is quite different from a raw anatomy text like the amazing Netter's Anatomy
.
While beautiful to have for a deep reference of drilling down and into the body, the book does not provide analysis of movements supported by the limbs described. The text is rather an innert presentation.
That said, such an anatomy text is that: a full bore presentation of anatomy examining where all the tissue rests, from eyeball lenses to kidney dissections. Its concern is beyond the particular scope of movement. While important to have (and know) to put the whole body at least in context, for movement study, i do not find it as helpful as the above texts. I'm still looking for an ultimate general physiology/anatomy text, if such a beast exists. Netter is beautiful and perhaps classic.
Summary If you are interested in getting more out of getting into how the body moves, these books are each recommended - they complement each other really well, but if you want to oh ah yourself, the Atlas is a great eye-openner - especially if you don't have a whack of bodies at your disposal to prod with a copy of any of these beside you. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
I'll come back to that one in a sec.The Power Three In writing about the shoulder last week, i referenced a couple of the anatomy/kinesiology books i like like, including the trail guide to the body
and the Anatomy of movement, but especially the manual of structural kinesiology - the latter being in about it's zillionth edition.Why i personally enjoy the Manual of Structural Kinesiology so much has to do with its design elegance and economy: it's a thin book that lies flat but is remarkably well packed with focused information, great illustrations and photos, and fabulous tables summarizing joint action, planes of motion, neves involved (why do i have to keep going to wikipedia to get the femoral arteries providing the blood supply to these limbs?)The amount of information packed into this book is also fabulous, and make learning about the interconnections of body movement highly tractable. The exercises at the end of each chapter really do make testing whether i've learned anything from a chapter about joint type or specific joints a real and valuable reality check. Surprisingly, the book has the best discussion of first, second and third class levers in the body i've encountered. It's surprising how much one slim volume can do well. It also well-models analyses of all the main joints involved in physical movements from push ups to pull ups. IF one has any questions about what closed and open chain movements after this, well, read again.
Anatomy of movement in contrast has fabulous line drawings and a greater focus on exploring exactly the relationship of movements to the joints of the body whether that's leaning back looking at the stars, or where our forearms most comfortably rotate when seated. By using recognizable movements, it also helps translate ideas like the various planes of motion, and what happens if a muscle isn't there. In fact a strength of the book is that illustrations of the movement go right beside descriptions of joint action.What the book does not have is the kind of analytic summative pages of movements as in the Manual, but it does go into more detail it seems about the small muscles of the hands head and feet.
Trail Guides to the Body likewise is without the summative tables, but is designed more particularly to help someone get hands on with the body and feel the movement of the joints doing their work. Hence the notion of trail guides: to find various physical milestones for boney bits, for instance, and likewise to find what are the optimal positionings of a limb to be in to feel or palpate where a particular muscle is. Even so, i still have a dickens of a time separating out the adductors.
example of surface anatomy labelling
(not from the Atlat; the Altas is WAY better )
When you just want to be Skin Deep. The book that is really blowing me away - that is fitting into an exact niche that has been missing at least for me in these other texts - including the Trail Guides - is this aptly named "atlas of living and surface anatomy.
" That is, it's great to see drawings of the musculature, but since we usually deal with people in their bodies, it's useful to get a sense of what all the bits and bumps actually translate to under the flesh. The Manual of Structural Kinesiology does offer photos of people in various positions with labels of what we're seeing underneath BUT NOT ENOUGH - at least not for me.
cover art from The Atlas of Surface Anatomy illustrating the quality of the image content
The Atlas not only shows real photos of real bodies labelled, but, taking it up a notch, shows photos of real bodies under the skin. The kind, wonderful people who have let their bodies be used for study are presented here. These folks are science heroes for sharing their reamains with us. Thank you.
Coordinating layers of Representation. It's a remarkable thing to be able to see how the various muscle tissues that in texts are highlighted abstractly in red or blue, actually just run together, not unlike white and red meat. TO be able to map x-rays to cadavers to abstract drawings is a potent combination. Some of the photos that show the real and delicate tracery of the nerves under the skin in particular especially contribute to making the physical real. Many muscle, manipulation and palpation tests are included. Like the Manual for structural kinesiology - but here illustrated in color - we also get charts of what normal ranges of motion are for all limbs discussed. Now where's a goniometer?? A google book preview is available for the text, though not the imagesI have some greater confidence now of coming to grips with where the teres major is looking at one's shoulder blade. I am making sense of the flat bits of the trapezius, that from drawings i had taken to be more full. The short head of the bicep, and the insertion of the pec major all have had "ah ha moments." I can imagine the Big Desk version of this book including pictures of peopel of various heights, weights and ages for each of these postures being the Delux learning resource.
Other than Anatomy. Each of these more kinesiology-oriented books listed here, just for information, is quite different from a raw anatomy text like the amazing Netter's Anatomy. While beautiful to have for a deep reference of drilling down and into the body, the book does not provide analysis of movements supported by the limbs described. The text is rather an innert presentation.That said, such an anatomy text is that: a full bore presentation of anatomy examining where all the tissue rests, from eyeball lenses to kidney dissections. Its concern is beyond the particular scope of movement. While important to have (and know) to put the whole body at least in context, for movement study, i do not find it as helpful as the above texts. I'm still looking for an ultimate general physiology/anatomy text, if such a beast exists. Netter is beautiful and perhaps classic.
Summary If you are interested in getting more out of getting into how the body moves, these books are each recommended - they complement each other really well, but if you want to oh ah yourself, the Atlas is a great eye-openner - especially if you don't have a whack of bodies at your disposal to prod with a copy of any of these beside you. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Pressing Matters: a wee chat with Dan John
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Greetings b2d readers and especially, if i may, to fellow Canucks, as tomorrow be Canada Day. To Roll in the New Great Summer month of July, something special: an interview with Dan John - mainly about pressing.
For some folks in strength training, Dan John needs no introduction. He is both an active coach in sport, and strength and conditioning as well as being an just-won't-quit competitive athlete in both his favorite sport, the discuss, as well as in the Highland Games. In very recent times, he has become a fan of the humble russian kettlebell, and a proponent of its value as part of one's trainstreing program.
I had the pleasure of connecting with Coach John at the past RKC II in San Jose, where we got talking about the Press in particular, and since then has ranged to a host of related topics from what makes a press beautiful, where it sits next to the deadlift, instinctual training, coaches and training women.
Dan will also be co-delivering a new workshop this fall with Pavel Tsatsouline for RKCs called SCIENTIFIC STRENGTH SECRETS for EXTREME PERFORMANCE (with a book to follow). The workshop i am told is also a once-only, not-to-be-repeated event.
And so without further ado, a conversation with Dan John.
Dan's Book. You have a book out called "Never Let Go" the title of which struck me as a wee bit ironic for a guy who has a reputation for throwing objects at speed away from himself. I know you explain this in the book, but could you review the rationale?
Kettlebells in general - You've progressively moved into working with KB's. How come? what's the attraction to this tool? Where, if i may, does it fit in with the rest of your personal practice and work you do with the athletes you coach?
The Press And speaking of the press, you seem to be a guy who likes the Press as a move, why? where does that fit into the Dan John picture of strength practice?
When we were talking about improving the press, you suggested that in your experience women have to press more than guys to press heavier.
Dan, in the RKC II as you know, one of the skills/strength tests for certification is a kb press. For men, it's half their body weight. For women, it's 1/4. Some gals have been saying a quarter is too light, why not a third, or even half for women too? For a 60KG woman, going by the men's chart, this would mean, closest bell is the 28. Personally, while the 20 is fine, i'm still working to get the 24 as a 58-60kg gal.
I guess what i've been wondering is given that if we accept that women need more volume to press heavier, more volume can also mean higher exposure to possible overuse injury. Is it worth it to put up the strength requirements for women? and if they were to go up, what would you see as a sane progression?
Something all yours, kenneth jays and pavel's volume emphasis along with Asha Wagner's training results. Asha pistoled a 24 without ever training it - just trained a lot of pistoling the 12. a lot - is that doing a lot of lighter reps (50-60%) is a potentially great way to train for The Big Lift. This may seem like stating the obvious, but i'm not sure if i have lost the plot? how might you suggest that be tuned?
* women's strength in general
Training colleague Kira Clarke recently suggested that a coaching colleague has seen a correlation between strength and persistent well being. This is worth repeating so let me post it here, from Kira:
* everyone needs a coach?
On the theme of gym bags and coaching then, a lot of folks who practice their sport or their skill do so without getting together with a coach. They run or they lift or do whatever independent of any formal checks. They may say i don't know anyone, i'm only doing this for myself, not competing, why do i need to spend money on a coach i know what i'm doing. THoughts? Suggestions?
Related to dieties, and conversion, are there any attitudes that you see in folks coming to a new training practice - like oly lifting or kb's - where they've drunk the kool aid, and focus seems to narrow perhaps rather than enlarge, or everything is seen through the lens of the One True Movement? Any suggestions for folks either going through this, or observing it?
You coach folks who are frequently identified as athletes, who compete formally in sport, and then there's the rest of us who mayn't compete or think about competition. I'm not quite sure how to frame this question, but do you think there's something important about either formal competition or some kind of external check in performance that any athlete - formal or not - should consider? Do you think it's important (that's not the right word) for people to compete or be evaluated in some way (i think about the challenge of being evaluated at the RKC certs for instance)? and if yes why? or why not?
Well on that note, could you offer a few moments in your own athletic practice that have been particularly meaningful to you, and why?
- fave dan lift?
What's a practice perspective that you'd say has been of most pracitcal (and/or spiritual) benefit for you in your athletic career?
Coming up Later This Week:
Hope y'all enjoyed that. With Dan's permission granted, coming up later this week i'll post the routine Dan gave me for increasing the press (part II of the interview).
Related Links
For some folks in strength training, Dan John needs no introduction. He is both an active coach in sport, and strength and conditioning as well as being an just-won't-quit competitive athlete in both his favorite sport, the discuss, as well as in the Highland Games. In very recent times, he has become a fan of the humble russian kettlebell, and a proponent of its value as part of one's trainstreing program.
I had the pleasure of connecting with Coach John at the past RKC II in San Jose, where we got talking about the Press in particular, and since then has ranged to a host of related topics from what makes a press beautiful, where it sits next to the deadlift, instinctual training, coaches and training women.Dan will also be co-delivering a new workshop this fall with Pavel Tsatsouline for RKCs called SCIENTIFIC STRENGTH SECRETS for EXTREME PERFORMANCE (with a book to follow). The workshop i am told is also a once-only, not-to-be-repeated event.
And so without further ado, a conversation with Dan John.
Dan's Book. You have a book out called "Never Let Go
" the title of which struck me as a wee bit ironic for a guy who has a reputation for throwing objects at speed away from himself. I know you explain this in the book, but could you review the rationale? No, thank you, that makes sense. That's really kind of cool. So with that grounded base for discussion, let us move to something it usually makes good sense to keep in hand when practicing. Kettlebells.Well, of course, I discuss this in the book, but it comes from T. H.
White’s “The Sword in the Stone
.” It was the book, along with Jerry Kramer’s “Instant Replay
,” that turned me into a reader. In the book, young King Arthur (Wart) is taught by Merlyn by being turned in animals. The first law of the foot, animals who live and die by their foot or talons, is “Never Let Go.” I base my life on the principles of that book…odd as it might sound.
Kettlebells in general - You've progressively moved into working with KB's. How come? what's the attraction to this tool? Where, if i may, does it fit in with the rest of your personal practice and work you do with the athletes you coach?
The attraction of the tool is simply that: it is an awesome tool! On my limited porch, I recently moved, I can train hard, really hard, with the space that used to be about the size of my storage in my training area. I love Double Kbell Cleans and Front Squats for working hard and I love windmills and Get Ups for stretching and assessments. The Kbell is harder than it should be no matter what you are doing. Too light? Do them bottoms up! And, there is nothing better than Kbells for swings.It's really intriguing to me how many senior kb practitioners are celebrating the Swing and the bottoms up press. Potent training can be pretty simple.
The Press And speaking of the press, you seem to be a guy who likes the Press as a move, why? where does that fit into the Dan John picture of strength practice?
The overhead press would be along with the deadlift as the two most important lifts that most people should do. Yes, you should do a squatting movement every day, for the same reasons toss in a hinge, a walk, and joint mobility work, but for loading, you want the press (maybe even first and foremost in my thinking now) and the deadlift. I have worked with women in fat loss programs that simply get everything they need from pressing. Now, they also were on zero carbs, stacking ephedrine and caffeine and aspirin, drinking huge amounts of water and walking every day, but the simple overhead press seemed to pop them to another level.
If can overhead press it, you can bench it. The more you press overhead, the more stable you become overall. Also, for whatever reason, call it what you want, but pressing overhead seems to apply to sport and general badassary.Do these thoughts vary when thinking about the KB press rather than bar/dumbbell? or when you think of the press now, do you think pretty much press=kb press?
Well, for me, with my new situation, I can’t just pop into the garage and pick one of four O lifting bars, or dumbbells. I have kettlebells, so there you go!When you think about the press, or the kb press in particular, then, what would you say is the art of the press, and of developing a beautiful press?
Well, two things: first, the alignment of wrist, elbow and shoulder. I used to be dumb enough to teach this, now I just have the person do a Bottoms Up Press and then, after lots of failing, flailing and fumbling around, the person gets it right and I say “Yes, just like that.” The response is “Oh, I didn’t know that.”
The second is stability. Pick up a foot (either works, but not both at the same time) while pressing and just note how the body locks down in support. That is the key. Certainly, there are details, but I like to let the body teach you what to do. If there is a “secret” to coaching, it is to provide a simple drill to address an issue.Around women and pressing.
When we were talking about improving the press, you suggested that in your experience women have to press more than guys to press heavier.
“Press more” in terms of volume, of course…women should press probably every day, doing something in a pressing movement. I didn’t say heavy, I didn’t say 100 reps. In the same vein, woman should stop stretching all the time. They are predisposed to flexibility, yet lack in pressing strength. No, for total candor, I like the female design and I am not being critical. My point is that everyone likes to play to their strengths and ignore their weaknesses. Women need to press. Women tend to have a narrow shoulder base vis-Ã -vis the waist and it is difficult to press with that issue. I would argue that a guy can get away with just one press in his program, but a woman should master every variation they can find. I have had some great insights, by the way, from training women, as working with this “problem” has given me some insights to improve my own lifting. So, I decided to add more variation into my training and it has made it more fun and more productive.In that conversation, you've also plugged in doing windmills with presses to complement the press. How have you seen these go together?
In terms of load, well, adding weight to a woman’s press is stubborn work! Percents are worthless and it is really hard, like with Dragondoor Kbells, for a woman to jump up the four kilos from like the 12 to the 16. So, we get back to drills and stability work. This is fine. One little thing: if you screw up a press, you can get hurt like “Bang!” So, drilling, training and thinking is also a way NOT to hurt yourself.
The more I teach and work with Windmills, the more insights I am gaining about the upper body. This one guy in Ohio dismissed the Windmill with “I just feel it in my ribs.” I thought to myself, well, you know, the ribs are a amazing series connective tissues, hard matter and key organs below and the beauty and design of the things are poetry (certainly, it’s a rare epic that doesn’t mention them somewhere) and if you feel them moving and stretching, that’s good. Also, with all the hip work I have been doing, the Windmill is a MUST after every hip stretching workout. It is the best way to stretch the outer hips I know.Are there other moves related to supporting the press you'd suggest?
The Get Up for a moving shoulder analysis, the various presses like SeeSaws and the like, and, this won’t surprise too many people, the Double Kettlebell Front Squat. If you worked with me, you would know this one. It is a great way to teach the rack and the need to squeeze.RKC II Strength Requirements for Women's press
Dan, in the RKC II as you know, one of the skills/strength tests for certification is a kb press. For men, it's half their body weight. For women, it's 1/4. Some gals have been saying a quarter is too light, why not a third, or even half for women too? For a 60KG woman, going by the men's chart, this would mean, closest bell is the 28. Personally, while the 20 is fine, i'm still working to get the 24 as a 58-60kg gal.
I guess what i've been wondering is given that if we accept that women need more volume to press heavier, more volume can also mean higher exposure to possible overuse injury. Is it worth it to put up the strength requirements for women? and if they were to go up, what would you see as a sane progression?
For me, this is one of those questions for someone with more experience. I wouldn’t mind a quick study of this as something to discuss it with the hard numbers, but I think a lot of women can just grab the 16 and press it with no training. The 106 KB is NOT something most guys can just pick up who weight over 100 Kilos. So, I have mixed feelings about this. I like standards, but I also like people to feel they can do accomplish the task. Real mixed feelings…Interesting...So if we think about upping weight, though, what are the cues you'd give your athletes - perhaps the gals in particular - to help head off overuse injuries before they occur?
Overuse injuries are rarely caused by me! The volleyball crazies and the basketball loons with all their year round clubs and travel teams and all the BS lying about full ride scholarships. We have girls with multiple ACL surgeries and then someone comes into the weightroom and tells me that I am overdoing something? I guess it “can” happen, but just remember Pavel’s basic programming point: any idiot can “work you out.” And, there seems to be plenty of idiots on the internet. Hire someone who will teach you, train you. That will prevent most problems: proper training. Pay attention: if you are about to fail, stop. Rest, start again.high volume; lighter loads for strength
Something all yours, kenneth jays and pavel's volume emphasis along with Asha Wagner's training results. Asha pistoled a 24 without ever training it - just trained a lot of pistoling the 12. a lot - is that doing a lot of lighter reps (50-60%) is a potentially great way to train for The Big Lift. This may seem like stating the obvious, but i'm not sure if i have lost the plot? how might you suggest that be tuned?
The one great lesson that lifters can learn from throwers: you should thrive in submaximal ranges. Not every throw is the World Record…they can’t all be gems!
* women's strength in general
Training colleague Kira Clarke recently suggested that a coaching colleague has seen a correlation between strength and persistent well being. This is worth repeating so let me post it here, from Kira:
"My coach friend (Will Heffernan) has a simple test (and benchmarks) he uses regularly on his athletes (he adjusts them for different types of athletes, but these are his general guidelines)
Squat or deadlift: 2 x bodyweight
Inverted rows in 1 minute: 30+
Pushups in 1 minute: 50+
Pullups in 1 set: 10+
Bench press: 1.5 x bodyweight
In his experience, once his athletes hit these numbers (and ratios) their injuries drop significantly. And as they surpass them, he still likes to see lower/upper body strength numbers increase together, and the bodyweight numbers increase maintaining the ratio of approximately 5:3:1."
[...]
He recommends the following for female athletes ...Does the above resonate with you at all as injury proofing? Anything you'd highlight or modify?
deadlift: 2 x bodyweight...
pullups: 8+
pushups: 50+
inverted rows: 30+
bench press: 1-1.25 x bodyweight
(It's basically the same benchmarks he uses for 100kg+ male athletes)
He also shared the following snarky remark ...
"The biggest problem that female athletes suffer from is the low expectations of male coaches"
I have two very strong daughters (State Champion in the shot for Lindsay) and a very strong wife. One of things I would agree with entirely is that male coaches often coddle their females (sadly, literally true) but I have pushed my family to some big numbers in the weightroom simply by expecting it. There is no question that the human female is not that weak in comparison to the male, I just read about this in a book (I’m usually reading about two or three at a time, so I don’t remember which one) and for primates we are pretty even between males and females. So, we shouldn’t be afraid to push females in the weightroom. I do.What are your approaches to help keep your athletes injury free, and do you modify that council at all between gals and guys?
This is going to shock you, but I change nothing working for males or females. I have to admit, I have more feminine products in my gym bags than most guys.
On the theme of gym bags and coaching then, a lot of folks who practice their sport or their skill do so without getting together with a coach. They run or they lift or do whatever independent of any formal checks. They may say i don't know anyone, i'm only doing this for myself, not competing, why do i need to spend money on a coach i know what i'm doing. THoughts? Suggestions?
Well, I need a pair of eyes to watch me! No one coaches me and it really hurts my quality of training. I would strongly suggest that everyone get some level of coaching. It doesn’t have to be much, but it really helps. I am cutting my own income, but some coaching can help. Now, don’t let the coach become a God with all knowledge and all knowing and all this and that. It’s just a coach. One’s deity should be a bit more complete.* attitude of the Converted?
Related to dieties, and conversion, are there any attitudes that you see in folks coming to a new training practice - like oly lifting or kb's - where they've drunk the kool aid, and focus seems to narrow perhaps rather than enlarge, or everything is seen through the lens of the One True Movement? Any suggestions for folks either going through this, or observing it?
How about: Get over it?That's pretty clear. Still on coaching, this topic of instincutal vs planned routine training seems to come up more frequently. Your thoughts on "instinctual training" vs "training plan?
How about: Shut up?
Number Two is my issue with the guys on the net, especially. One 40 kilo snatch and they start giving advice like the Olympic champ. Show some discipline and continue to learn. I snatched 142.5 and felt like I still knew nothing. Hell, I still don’t!
I really think you need a lot of experience to train without guidance. I like what Alwyn Cosgrove says about doing a program: now, you can critique it. So, do about ten different programs, then try something on your own. I was a fairly accomplished athlete when I did ETK from Pavel, AfterBurn II from Alwyn and the Velocity Diet from Chris Shuggart. That’s the key: follow plans until you trust your instincts to follow plans.* Athletic Achievement/reality-checking
You coach folks who are frequently identified as athletes, who compete formally in sport, and then there's the rest of us who mayn't compete or think about competition. I'm not quite sure how to frame this question, but do you think there's something important about either formal competition or some kind of external check in performance that any athlete - formal or not - should consider? Do you think it's important (that's not the right word) for people to compete or be evaluated in some way (i think about the challenge of being evaluated at the RKC certs for instance)? and if yes why? or why not?
Well, sports gives you the right world for a goal. It is on this day, at that place, with these “things.” So, no BS. You do what you say you will do. It is hard for a person to follow their goals without the built in support systems that a sport naturally has going for it.Personal moments of athletic happiness?
Well on that note, could you offer a few moments in your own athletic practice that have been particularly meaningful to you, and why?
* Dan Faves?I always love overcoming all the barriers in the way of being a champion. There are so many…
- My daughter’s last throw, personal best, winning toss to win the State Championship in the shot put.
- Having both daughters in the finals at the state meet in the discus…at once!
- The many times I have won things on the last throw or last effort.
Double Kettlebell Press- fave dan throw?
Discus!!!- fave dan move he wishes he could do but currently does not see himself doing in this lifetime?
The Bent Press- fave dan move he wishes he could do and can see that happening this lifetime?
A correct WindmillFinal Dan Thoughts
What's a practice perspective that you'd say has been of most pracitcal (and/or spiritual) benefit for you in your athletic career?
If you'd reference “To Grad from Dad” on my website here? It is all of this…and more!You bet sir. Thank you for your time. Much obliged. That was fun.
Coming up Later This Week:
Hope y'all enjoyed that. With Dan's permission granted, coming up later this week i'll post the routine Dan gave me for increasing the press (part II of the interview).
begin2dig (b2d) on Facebook
Related Links
- Asha Wagner: Women's Beast Challenge Tamer
- Eccentrics for Tendinopathy
- Andrea du Cane: Windmill Queen and Strength Master
- Windmills and Press Combo (inspired by dan john)
- The Shoulder Girdle
- The Rotator Cuff
- This is protection for ankle injuries?
- mc's rif on Kenneth Jay's beast pressing protocol
Monday, June 21, 2010
The amazing shoulder - part 2: glenohumeral joint & muscles (yes rotator cuff too)
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In part one of this quick tour of the amazing shoulder we looked particularly at the shoulder girdle and the muscles that act pretty much directly on the scapula. The main take away was that significant muscles like the traps, rhomboids, pec minor, serratus anterior and levator scapula all work pretty much *just* to move the scapula and so reposition the shoulder joint socket to extend range of motion for the arm moving in the shoulder.
In this piece, we'll overview those pixie rotator cuff muscles and look at why they can be such a pain - in the shoulder - and how understanding the movements these muscles support may help reduce injury risk.
We'll also take a quick look at the big muscles like the lats that opperate on the main shoulder joint, the glenohumral joint. From here we'll speculate about shoulder injuries and habits to avoid them.
The shoulder tour part II: The Glenohumeral Action
Rotator Cuff What is it with the rotator cuff? we hear about so many injuries to the shoulder, and we likewise hear so much about the need to "prehab" these muscles to defeat injury. And i'm not a bystander here: i've likewise run my shoulder into the wall and shook my head to say "what is this pain? what is this thing? what needs to change? what the heck is wrong here?" I've had folks say "ah, that's the supraspinatus most like" -Um, could you unpack that a bit? No? ok. So here's a go at trying to get a little better understanding of a bit of what's happening with the rotator cuff.
First, the GlenoHumeral Joint. In moving to the rotator cuff, we're moving away from a focus on the shoulder girdle and the movement of the scapula to the main reason for the scapula: the gleno-humeral connection - or connecting the extremity that is the arm to the trunk of the body - the upper body in particular.
Where that connection takes place is with the humeral head of the humerous being knit into the glenoid cavity (or fossa) of the scapula. Note again the side view of the scapula - the glenoid fossa is rather shallow, but there's a liner/washer called the glenoid labrum that gets inset into that cavity before the humeral head makes contact. And then there's a capsule that goes around that unit, and ligaments around that. Those ligaments are kind of like a snugly-but-loosely laced sneakers - there's some give because of all the range of motion in the shoulder. This looseness - it's a bug; it's a feature.
Rotator Cuff Job 1 - holding ball in socket.
Just for context, there are four rotator cuff muscles: 1 on top, the SUPRAspinatus, 1 covering the front that goes against the underside of the scapula that is against the ribs the SUBscapularis, and two on the back of the scapula, the infraspinatus and and the teres minor
The top muscle, the supraspinatus (supra=above the spiney bit), attaches from the top of the scapula at the big scapula spine, runs along the top of that ridge, goes under the acromium process of the scapular spine, over the bursa on the top of the glenohumeral capsule and then attaches onto a big bump at the top of the humerus, the greater tubercle. That is a very popular attachment point - like the superior spine of the scapula but much smaller a peak. So when this muscle contracts, it's going to help pull the arm up to 90 degrees from one's side - called abduction. Note i say "help" - we'll come back to this assistance role. Mainly it's stabilizing the ball of the humerus in the glenoid socket.
The subscapularis which attaches along the entire scapula underside (the scapula fossa) the attaches around the front of the humerus at the lesser tubercle. If you imagine these fibers contracting, they're going to contribute to turning the humerus in (internal rotation), pulling the humerus across the body, pulling the arm back (into extension) and, of course 'stabilizing the humeral head in the glenoid fosa' - as the manual of structural kinesiology puts it.
The infraspinatus is the complement to the subscapularis: subscapularis = under(side) of the scapula; infraspinatus means below the spiney bit. Names are nicely descriptive. Where the subscapularis covers the underside of the scapula, the infraspinatus covers the whole backside of the scapula below that big scapular spine. Where the supraspinatus attaches to the top of the greater tubercle, the infraspinatus attaches to the back of the greater tubercle. So again, if we imagine pulling / contracting that attachment, the kinds of things that can happen to the arm are - its turned out (externally rotated), it's also going to pull the arm back into extension. It also helps with what's known as horizontal abduction. Big role - stabilize the arm in the socket - we might add especially when it's being moved about.
The teres minor is like a support for the infraspinatus. Teres just means round and smooth (cylyndrical). and that's sort of what this muscle is. It hangs onto the lateral border of the scapula (the edge closer to the arm), and then plugs in under the greater tubercle of the humerus. So what's it going to do? Exactly the same as the infraspinatus: *stabilization,*external rotation, extension and horizontal abduction.
Note: horizontal abduction is different from abduction: abduction, the arm is being raised up at the side; horizontal abduction assumes that the arm is already up at ninety degrees and infront of the body, and so the arm is being pulled back (abduction - ab is latin for from, as in away from rather that ad, to, towards).
Summary of RCM Action That's it: 4 muscles with pretty functionally descriptive names.
They all have four things in common:
They're so WEAK, what's the point of being muscles?
In reading kinesiology texts, a word repeated all the time about the rotator cuff muscles is "weak" - they provide weak adduction, weak abduction, weak rotation - weak weak weak. no leverage. like a person trying to open a door when the handle is in the middle of the door.
If they're so weak what are they doing there? One of the best reframings of the roll of the RCMs is in the Anatomy of Movement
. There Calais-Germain uses the term "active ligaments" to describe the function of these muscles. Considering that it's the tendon part of the muscles that usually comes to grief when we talk about overuse injuries or RC problems, gosh that makes sense. Ligaments are pretty fixed things - little stretch - that are used to support attachments around joints and often over joint capsules. In many ways, the RCM's mirror this role.
Indeed, every movement that a muscle in the rotator cuff supports "weakly" there is a complementary big muscle to do, literally, the heavy lifting. So let's look at these big lifters next.
Extrinsic muscles of the glenohumeral joint: the heavy lifters. The big movers of the arm are the deltoids, mapping mainly to the action of the supraspinatus, the lats, mapping mainly to the infraspinatus and teres minor, and the pecs with the subscapularis. Mainly. There's also the corachoid brachialis, a small but potent flexor.
The deltoid is usually considered the main "shoulder" muscle. It's a goodly three part triangular mass that connects on both the first third of the scapula, around the front of the acromion process and into the under edge of the scap spine. And the next big deal is that it attaches to the humerous at its very own "deltoid tuberosity" of the humerus.
So what's it do? This will sound familiar: the front bits will elevate the arm (abduct) and going past that, flexion the arm, as well as turn the arm in. The mid part will also abduct or lift the arm up to the side - as in a "side lateral raise" move. And the back part will do that horizontal abduction thing while rotating the arm out. So front rotates in; back rotates out. Cool that one muscle has these opposing motions within it.
The pec major - the big chest muscle - likewise has mutlipte parts: upper or clavicular and lower or sternal.
The muscle attaches around the clavicle at the top and then along the sternum (middle of the rib cage). It plugs into the frontish of the humerous at yet another tubercle, the "intertubercular groove."
The pec's upper fibers turns the arm in as well as pulling the arm across in horizontal adduction. We see horizontal adduction when we bear hug someone. The lower fibers also support horizontal adduction and internal rotation, but they also complement the lats' action of extension from flexion down to neutral (arm at side).
The lats - i've written about the action of the latisimus dorsi in relation to the pull up and the swing elsewhere. Suffice it to say here that it's a great big muscle that runs along the bottom half of the thoracic spine and into/onto the hip and attaches to the inside (medial lip) of the humerus.
The action here is to pull the arm back (horizontal abduction) also to extend the arm back down (extention) past where the pecs can get to, rotate the arm in, and bring it down/across the body.
Aside - you've likely noted that with the body, if there's a greater somewhere there's a lesser; if there's a minor there's a major.
The Little Lats: the Teres Major Tucked away on the back of teh scapula is one more muscle - the teres major. It is not a rotator cuff muscle; it attaches on the humerous not up at the head but just behind where the lats attahes at the medial lip of the intertubercular groove. It's main action difference from the lats is that, when the arm is out at the side (abducted) it helps pull the arm back down to the side.
It complements the lats, the pecs and works with the rhomboids.
RCM vs Extrinsic Muscles - Local vs Global or Hinges vs Handles.
So what's with the duplication of effort between the rotator cuff muscles (intrinsic g/h muscles) and these big muscles? If we use the model of active ligaments for the rotator cuff, i think we're away: the RCM's have the local job of just focusing on the socket: keeping the humeral head in that fosa and supporting that contact while the joint is moving. Snug snug snug. Hang on tight.
The big muscles are all about levers - all about really lifting the whole upper arm up, out, over, down, across and back with load. And to do big lifts we need both big fat rope and length.
Consider openning a door. The hinges hold the door in place and hold it up - they're close to the edge of the plank that moves around the door attached to the lintel. Great. They're not huge, but they're strong and do the hinge job nicely of keeping the door in place and letting it move when it's moved.
But what does this big moving action? The big handle on the door enables force to be used to open the door more easily. We know with heavy doors, some handles are also really big bars and can be grabbed with both hands. Why so far from the hinge and so big? If the handle were right close to the hinge, or even in the middle of the door - short lever - a heavy door is hard to open - maybe immovable. Indeed, putting a lot of force on a small handle close to a hinge may simply wreck the handle and still not open the door.
When the handle is close to the end opposite the hinge, then the width of the door becomes the length of the lever and a longer lever (in this case acting like a wheel barrow type lever) can make a big door easy or easier to move. Having a big handle means more force can be applied more easily, to the lever as well. Consider the teres major on the scapula complementing the pull on the humerus of the lat - kinda like a two handed pull.
Likewise, we can look at position: the pecs pull from the arm to the furthest possible point away - the middle of the front of the body. The lats also go to the arm from the middle of the back of the body. With the delts, which are well supported by the pecs and the lats - likewise these muscles run almost to the middle of the top of the scap and the clavicle and then into near the middle of the humerus, like a tetter totter.
So why all these injuries? A modest proposal.
SO if the rotator cuffs are just support muscles, and there are these big levers to move the arm when loaded, why are they getting hurt so much of the time? That's a good question. Let's assume we're not talking about accidents where someone flies into one's shoulder, rips it off, or one falls on the shoulder and dislocates it, ripping tendons. Or let's also assume there's not some genetic defect that causes tendons to rub against a deformation in bone. From here, it seems a biggie issue in athletes is "overuse" injuries of various kinds, resutling in various kinds of tendinopathies (discussed with respect to the shoulder, over here).
When do these kinds of injuries usually happen? For instance why do i get issues with my left shoulder not my right? After months of double pressing was i listening to my left shoulder or my right during sets? was i relecutant to stop when my left may have been flagging a little more than my right? did that cause me to hyperextend my shoulder a bit, and cause the supraspinatus to rub against the acromium and inflame and pull and get messed up?
In other words, can a lot of overuse injuries be put down to form failure of one kind or another? Shoulder overuse issues are really common in swimming apparently - is one side of teh stroke less perfect than the other causing the support muscles to do more work than the big muscles?
Practice to avoid Failure?
There are lots of folks who have lots of programs for strengthening the rotator cuff, rehabbing it and all that. Maybe that's great and appropriate. Me, i'm wondering however if focusing on the site is missing the source of an issue. How often is an overuse injury for instance the fault of the little muscle that pays the price rather than limitations in the effectiveness of the big muscles?
How might one know? My bias is a movement assessment.
Consider if the problem in the shoulder is from lack of good mobility in the thoracic spine. Or if the issue has to do with poor firing of the lat to support the shoulder. Will rotator cuff-focused rehab hit these issues? In other words, my bias is to consider at least first what the larger movement issues may be and work from there.
How might one address the issue? Suppose one has done their movement assessment and has a bunch of specific movement oriented work. Then joint mobility work as part of normal practice, and exercises that support one's practice (like the turkish get up and the windmill for the shoulder) are going to assist in good holistic movement.
Likewise, everyone needs a coach. It really pays to have an experienced coach look at our form and critique it and tune it. Some of us have never had an expert look at our movement. Hopefully the complexity of the above muscular interaction will provide good reason to make sure the movements we are performing are optimally supporting the way we move best to perform an exercise - and to be ready to quit when that form fails.
Summary
Scapula Moves for Greater ROM. In the first part of this series, we saw that the scapula moves up and down, back and forth and rotates up and down too for depression, elevation protraction retraction upward and downward rotation - all to extend the possible range of motion of the shoulder
RCMs In this part of the series we've seen how the arm that the scapula is moving about to extend its reach is both held to the body at the joint via the rotator cuff muscles - and more particularly how the big movers like the lats and the pecs especially and the delts in concert with these actually LIFT the arm up down around and back from these various scapular positions.
Glenohumeral Joint We've considered the role of the rotator cuff as local stabilizers or "active ligaments" to keep the arm in the socket for when the global levers of muscles are moving the humerus through its range of motion especially with load. That the rotator cuff muscles are like door hinges to hold the door in place so it can move, and that the big muscles are like the action on the well positioned lever to open the door.
Based on this model, we've considered that when injuries to the little support muscles occur it may be not always be becuase of particular weakness on their part but because of more systemic failure on the part of the grosser movement. As such, tuning our movement is a good idea, and we can do this by working on the range of motion of our joints, our movement quality with practice of rich multiplanar movements like the turkish get up and windmill, and that we can get a pair of pracitced eyes on our form at least from time to time to ensure we're moveing as well as we think we are.
Coda
This two part series is by no means exhaustive in terms of the shoulder girdle or joint - i haven't even touched on the role of the clavicle or the role of elbow flexors and extensors that connect into the shoulder. Nor have we talked about the nerves running through the shoulder and how neck mobility can consequently help with shoulder movement.
Really this two parter has just been meant to share some appreciation of the three core components of shoulder movement: that the scapula moves to support range of motion; that the rotator cuff holds the arm moving with that scapula and that the big arm movers lift/pull that arm as its stabilized in that joint. That story is told in the amazingly odd shape of the scapula.
I hope these pieces may inspire folks to explore a little deeper or at least help make a bit more sense of what's happening in the shoulder and from here help make a bit more sense of our own movement practice.
Any mistakes in here - including soggy analogies - are mine.
best
mc
Related
In this piece, we'll overview those pixie rotator cuff muscles and look at why they can be such a pain - in the shoulder - and how understanding the movements these muscles support may help reduce injury risk.
We'll also take a quick look at the big muscles like the lats that opperate on the main shoulder joint, the glenohumral joint. From here we'll speculate about shoulder injuries and habits to avoid them.
The shoulder tour part II: The Glenohumeral Action
Rotator Cuff What is it with the rotator cuff? we hear about so many injuries to the shoulder, and we likewise hear so much about the need to "prehab" these muscles to defeat injury. And i'm not a bystander here: i've likewise run my shoulder into the wall and shook my head to say "what is this pain? what is this thing? what needs to change? what the heck is wrong here?" I've had folks say "ah, that's the supraspinatus most like" -Um, could you unpack that a bit? No? ok. So here's a go at trying to get a little better understanding of a bit of what's happening with the rotator cuff.
First, the GlenoHumeral Joint. In moving to the rotator cuff, we're moving away from a focus on the shoulder girdle and the movement of the scapula to the main reason for the scapula: the gleno-humeral connection - or connecting the extremity that is the arm to the trunk of the body - the upper body in particular.
Rotator Cuff Job 1 - holding ball in socket.
Just for context, there are four rotator cuff muscles: 1 on top, the SUPRAspinatus, 1 covering the front that goes against the underside of the scapula that is against the ribs the SUBscapularis, and two on the back of the scapula, the infraspinatus and and the teres minor
The top muscle, the supraspinatus (supra=above the spiney bit), attaches from the top of the scapula at the big scapula spine, runs along the top of that ridge, goes under the acromium process of the scapular spine, over the bursa on the top of the glenohumeral capsule and then attaches onto a big bump at the top of the humerus, the greater tubercle. That is a very popular attachment point - like the superior spine of the scapula but much smaller a peak. So when this muscle contracts, it's going to help pull the arm up to 90 degrees from one's side - called abduction. Note i say "help" - we'll come back to this assistance role. Mainly it's stabilizing the ball of the humerus in the glenoid socket.
puts it. The infraspinatus is the complement to the subscapularis: subscapularis = under(side) of the scapula; infraspinatus means below the spiney bit. Names are nicely descriptive. Where the subscapularis covers the underside of the scapula, the infraspinatus covers the whole backside of the scapula below that big scapular spine. Where the supraspinatus attaches to the top of the greater tubercle, the infraspinatus attaches to the back of the greater tubercle. So again, if we imagine pulling / contracting that attachment, the kinds of things that can happen to the arm are - its turned out (externally rotated), it's also going to pull the arm back into extension. It also helps with what's known as horizontal abduction. Big role - stabilize the arm in the socket - we might add especially when it's being moved about.
Note: horizontal abduction is different from abduction: abduction, the arm is being raised up at the side; horizontal abduction assumes that the arm is already up at ninety degrees and infront of the body, and so the arm is being pulled back (abduction - ab is latin for from, as in away from rather that ad, to, towards).
Summary of RCM Action That's it: 4 muscles with pretty functionally descriptive names.
They all have four things in common:
- they all attach to the scapula
- they each attach near the humeral head
- they all primarily stabilize the the arm in its socket.
- they all rotate the arm in the socket either up, in or out (hence the name, rotator)
They're so WEAK, what's the point of being muscles?
In reading kinesiology texts, a word repeated all the time about the rotator cuff muscles is "weak" - they provide weak adduction, weak abduction, weak rotation - weak weak weak. no leverage. like a person trying to open a door when the handle is in the middle of the door.
If they're so weak what are they doing there? One of the best reframings of the roll of the RCMs is in the Anatomy of Movement
. There Calais-Germain uses the term "active ligaments" to describe the function of these muscles. Considering that it's the tendon part of the muscles that usually comes to grief when we talk about overuse injuries or RC problems, gosh that makes sense. Ligaments are pretty fixed things - little stretch - that are used to support attachments around joints and often over joint capsules. In many ways, the RCM's mirror this role. Indeed, every movement that a muscle in the rotator cuff supports "weakly" there is a complementary big muscle to do, literally, the heavy lifting. So let's look at these big lifters next.
The deltoid is usually considered the main "shoulder" muscle. It's a goodly three part triangular mass that connects on both the first third of the scapula, around the front of the acromion process and into the under edge of the scap spine. And the next big deal is that it attaches to the humerous at its very own "deltoid tuberosity" of the humerus.So what's it do? This will sound familiar: the front bits will elevate the arm (abduct) and going past that, flexion the arm, as well as turn the arm in. The mid part will also abduct or lift the arm up to the side - as in a "side lateral raise" move. And the back part will do that horizontal abduction thing while rotating the arm out. So front rotates in; back rotates out. Cool that one muscle has these opposing motions within it.
The pec major - the big chest muscle - likewise has mutlipte parts: upper or clavicular and lower or sternal.The muscle attaches around the clavicle at the top and then along the sternum (middle of the rib cage). It plugs into the frontish of the humerous at yet another tubercle, the "intertubercular groove."
The pec's upper fibers turns the arm in as well as pulling the arm across in horizontal adduction. We see horizontal adduction when we bear hug someone. The lower fibers also support horizontal adduction and internal rotation, but they also complement the lats' action of extension from flexion down to neutral (arm at side).
The action here is to pull the arm back (horizontal abduction) also to extend the arm back down (extention) past where the pecs can get to, rotate the arm in, and bring it down/across the body.
Aside - you've likely noted that with the body, if there's a greater somewhere there's a lesser; if there's a minor there's a major.
It complements the lats, the pecs and works with the rhomboids.
RCM vs Extrinsic Muscles - Local vs Global or Hinges vs Handles.
The big muscles are all about levers - all about really lifting the whole upper arm up, out, over, down, across and back with load. And to do big lifts we need both big fat rope and length.
Consider openning a door. The hinges hold the door in place and hold it up - they're close to the edge of the plank that moves around the door attached to the lintel. Great. They're not huge, but they're strong and do the hinge job nicely of keeping the door in place and letting it move when it's moved.
But what does this big moving action? The big handle on the door enables force to be used to open the door more easily. We know with heavy doors, some handles are also really big bars and can be grabbed with both hands. Why so far from the hinge and so big? If the handle were right close to the hinge, or even in the middle of the door - short lever - a heavy door is hard to open - maybe immovable. Indeed, putting a lot of force on a small handle close to a hinge may simply wreck the handle and still not open the door.
When the handle is close to the end opposite the hinge, then the width of the door becomes the length of the lever and a longer lever (in this case acting like a wheel barrow type lever) can make a big door easy or easier to move. Having a big handle means more force can be applied more easily, to the lever as well. Consider the teres major on the scapula complementing the pull on the humerus of the lat - kinda like a two handed pull.
Likewise, we can look at position: the pecs pull from the arm to the furthest possible point away - the middle of the front of the body. The lats also go to the arm from the middle of the back of the body. With the delts, which are well supported by the pecs and the lats - likewise these muscles run almost to the middle of the top of the scap and the clavicle and then into near the middle of the humerus, like a tetter totter.
So why all these injuries? A modest proposal.
SO if the rotator cuffs are just support muscles, and there are these big levers to move the arm when loaded, why are they getting hurt so much of the time? That's a good question. Let's assume we're not talking about accidents where someone flies into one's shoulder, rips it off, or one falls on the shoulder and dislocates it, ripping tendons. Or let's also assume there's not some genetic defect that causes tendons to rub against a deformation in bone. From here, it seems a biggie issue in athletes is "overuse" injuries of various kinds, resutling in various kinds of tendinopathies (discussed with respect to the shoulder, over here).
When do these kinds of injuries usually happen? For instance why do i get issues with my left shoulder not my right? After months of double pressing was i listening to my left shoulder or my right during sets? was i relecutant to stop when my left may have been flagging a little more than my right? did that cause me to hyperextend my shoulder a bit, and cause the supraspinatus to rub against the acromium and inflame and pull and get messed up?
In other words, can a lot of overuse injuries be put down to form failure of one kind or another? Shoulder overuse issues are really common in swimming apparently - is one side of teh stroke less perfect than the other causing the support muscles to do more work than the big muscles?
Practice to avoid Failure?
There are lots of folks who have lots of programs for strengthening the rotator cuff, rehabbing it and all that. Maybe that's great and appropriate. Me, i'm wondering however if focusing on the site is missing the source of an issue. How often is an overuse injury for instance the fault of the little muscle that pays the price rather than limitations in the effectiveness of the big muscles?
How might one know? My bias is a movement assessment.
Consider if the problem in the shoulder is from lack of good mobility in the thoracic spine. Or if the issue has to do with poor firing of the lat to support the shoulder. Will rotator cuff-focused rehab hit these issues? In other words, my bias is to consider at least first what the larger movement issues may be and work from there. How might one address the issue? Suppose one has done their movement assessment and has a bunch of specific movement oriented work. Then joint mobility work as part of normal practice, and exercises that support one's practice (like the turkish get up and the windmill for the shoulder) are going to assist in good holistic movement.
Likewise, everyone needs a coach. It really pays to have an experienced coach look at our form and critique it and tune it. Some of us have never had an expert look at our movement. Hopefully the complexity of the above muscular interaction will provide good reason to make sure the movements we are performing are optimally supporting the way we move best to perform an exercise - and to be ready to quit when that form fails.
Summary
RCMs In this part of the series we've seen how the arm that the scapula is moving about to extend its reach is both held to the body at the joint via the rotator cuff muscles - and more particularly how the big movers like the lats and the pecs especially and the delts in concert with these actually LIFT the arm up down around and back from these various scapular positions.
Glenohumeral Joint We've considered the role of the rotator cuff as local stabilizers or "active ligaments" to keep the arm in the socket for when the global levers of muscles are moving the humerus through its range of motion especially with load. That the rotator cuff muscles are like door hinges to hold the door in place so it can move, and that the big muscles are like the action on the well positioned lever to open the door.
Based on this model, we've considered that when injuries to the little support muscles occur it may be not always be becuase of particular weakness on their part but because of more systemic failure on the part of the grosser movement. As such, tuning our movement is a good idea, and we can do this by working on the range of motion of our joints, our movement quality with practice of rich multiplanar movements like the turkish get up and windmill, and that we can get a pair of pracitced eyes on our form at least from time to time to ensure we're moveing as well as we think we are.
Coda
This two part series is by no means exhaustive in terms of the shoulder girdle or joint - i haven't even touched on the role of the clavicle or the role of elbow flexors and extensors that connect into the shoulder. Nor have we talked about the nerves running through the shoulder and how neck mobility can consequently help with shoulder movement.
Really this two parter has just been meant to share some appreciation of the three core components of shoulder movement: that the scapula moves to support range of motion; that the rotator cuff holds the arm moving with that scapula and that the big arm movers lift/pull that arm as its stabilized in that joint. That story is told in the amazingly odd shape of the scapula.
I hope these pieces may inspire folks to explore a little deeper or at least help make a bit more sense of what's happening in the shoulder and from here help make a bit more sense of our own movement practice.
Any mistakes in here - including soggy analogies - are mine.
best
mc
Related
- part 1 of the amazing shoulder: the scapula and shoulder girdle
- why move or die?
- what's mobility pracice?
- training to avoid the sprain: iphase
- nice piece in am. fam. physician on shoulder instability
- nice ref on SLAP tears in the context of baseball players - great figures.
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