Sunday, July 25, 2010
The Beautiful Swing: Franz Snideman on the kettlebell swing as a perfect move
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Wouldn't it be wild if there was one movement that gave us a full body workout? You know, went from feet to fingertips, could be used for endurance, speed, power or hypertrophy work, and was super time efficient to boot? Turns out there is (of course - the questions are a set up for that, but you'll forgive me). It's the kettlebell swing.
In the DVD Secrets of the Shoulder, functional movement screen guru Gray Cook refers to the Kettlebell Swing as "one of the best kept secrets" in training, featuring it as a shoulder strengthener. When asked by Geoff Neupert in his Senior/Master RKC kettlebell interview series summer 09 what single move he would take to a desert island, Master RKC and Denmark's Threat Modulation Coach Kenneth Jay said "the Swing." Not the snatch, not the bent press, not the Turkish Get Up, but perhaps the most deceptively simple move with a kettlebell there is: the Swing. Why?
The Swing Overview. The kettlebell swing in brief is a dynamic move that *swings* a kettlebell behind one from a deadlift position, then accelerates forward into a standing position via hip thrust forcing the kettlebell to swing up to about chest height, with arms extended. One then draws the kb back down and behind into dl position again. Rinse and repeat as it were.
Its dynamic movement really does hit pretty much everything - even the eyes and the balance system of the body. It requires good sensory-motor communication to stay well grounded, great hip work that means appropriate ankle and foot movement, too; excellent shoulder dynamics, which hits the neck and upper back movement, great grip, and overall coordination to make the movement flow.
The basic movement can be varied for speed, endurance, power or hypertrophy by changing the bell size and tempo.
Indeed, there are a lot of ugly, half baked swings on youtube, so one misses the sweetness and potency of this movement. Justice to this movement must be done. And so to that end, i've sought out the Beautiful Swing. RKC Team Leader Franz Snideman has a Beautiful Swing. It is a master class in form. Franz has been kind enough to share this swing, and some tips about it, gratis. But first, a bit about Gentleman Franz (and he is) of the RKC.
Franz Snideman - Context
Franz Snideman Talks and Walks the Beautiful Move
Thank you, Franz for your time and sharing all this. That's gold.
Franz and his partner RKC Team Leader Yoana Terán Snideman have a suite of great fitness dvds that include rope training, kb programming, fat loss and more. Yoana will have a great resource on kb's while pregnant, forthcoming. Their blogs are rich resources of more tips and techniques too, which you can access from the revolution fitness site.
Summing Up
The swing is a super full body exercise that can be used from conditioning to speed training. It's use in intervals work (on for a hard period/off for recovery) makes it great for fat burning work, too.
If you're new to KB's a great place to start is with Tsatsouline's Enter the Kettlebell book and DVD. Once you get swinging, Franz's super tips help refine that swing practice even further.
As Franz notes, though, best council, find a swing coach you trust and work with that person to help you find your beautiful swing. We just can't see ourselves. I was fortunate to have Franz look at my swing when we were at a cert together. It took about 10 seconds for him - literally - to cue my hip position to get more power into the hip drive. More efficient movement, better loading of muslces, better workout, faster progress.
It's so worth it. A session with a coach is a great present for someone you love, too (it's funny how we're willing to get good stuff for the ones we love but think it's too decadent to get it for ourselves, sometimes).
Also if you're really keen, doing the HKC one day KB cert is a great way to have a senior or master RKC work with you for a full day on the swing, tgu and goblet squat
But if nothing else, hope this interview demonstrates why the Swing is both such an elegant and potent move when well exectuted, and why owning it - different hands, weights, speeds - takes practice (and coaching). One move; constant variety, full on whole body health. What's not to like?
Update: Part II: more beautiful swings - Franz's pics for exemplary swing.
Related Posts
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| Franz Snideman starting the one arm swing |
The Swing Overview. The kettlebell swing in brief is a dynamic move that *swings* a kettlebell behind one from a deadlift position, then accelerates forward into a standing position via hip thrust forcing the kettlebell to swing up to about chest height, with arms extended. One then draws the kb back down and behind into dl position again. Rinse and repeat as it were.
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| Pavel Tsatsouline demonstrating the hike pass of the Swing from Enter the Kettlebell where the Swing is the cornerstone of the Program Minimum |
The basic movement can be varied for speed, endurance, power or hypertrophy by changing the bell size and tempo.
- Mike Mahler, for instance, years ago made much of how this simple move could be used for hypertrophy.
- The first english language peer reviewed journal article has shown how a simple swing routine in 10 minutes gives one more than standard circuit weight training for cardio work.
- Indeed, changing bell sizes during swing sets lets one do "hills" focusing on alternating speed with power and endurance in one workout.
- Moving from two hand to one handed variants works the thoracic spine and shoulder differently than the two handed for more joint angle
Indeed, there are a lot of ugly, half baked swings on youtube, so one misses the sweetness and potency of this movement. Justice to this movement must be done. And so to that end, i've sought out the Beautiful Swing. RKC Team Leader Franz Snideman has a Beautiful Swing. It is a master class in form. Franz has been kind enough to share this swing, and some tips about it, gratis. But first, a bit about Gentleman Franz (and he is) of the RKC.
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| Franz Snideman, Revolution Fitness, doing a snatch lunge. |
Franz, what are some of the attributes that make the kettlebell so powerfully attractive for you?
Well, the design of the kettlebell is the powerful aspect. The offset handle which allows you to swing the kettlebell between the leg makes it unique. I've tried swinging dumbbells and it just feels awful. Don't do it! Barbells? Forget it....you cannot swing a barbell between your legs. Kettlebells win hands down in that department.
I would also say that because of the round circular structure it allows me to training my shoulders through a great range of motion which intuitively feels so much healthier for my neck, shoulders and upper spine.
One of the biggest reason I use kettlebells is because I can eccentrically load my hip extensor muscles (Glutes, Hamstring, Lumbar Erectors and some of the adductor muscles) with more force than I could do with any other tool.
The concept of virtual force comes to mind. You can assist gravity by actively “throwing or hiking” the kettlebell in back of you. What does this mean for me athletically? It means that my muscles are absorbing a tremendous amount of eccentric force which makes me stronger and more resilient. If athletes are getting hamstring injuries I would say they need more eccentric strength in their hamstrings and glutes. I have noticed little to ZERO hamstring injuries anymore in my sprinting with the addition of hardstyle swings into my training.
When you are training, where does the KB fit into your training regimine?
Great question. This actually varies from program to program. Right now I am doing Master RKC Geoff Neupert's Kettlebell Burn program which places the swings at the end of every training session. So at the moment I am using swings as interval/fat loss tool for 10 minutes three times per week. But I have had programs where my swings were first in the workout, especially if I am using a heavier kettlebell (32kg and up).
I think for newbies to kettlebell training perhaps swings should be the emphasis in their training program, at least for the first year or so.
Right. The swing after all is the foundation of Enter the Kettlebell's Program Minimum. That and the Turkish Get Up and that's it. WIth respect to training kbs with others, is there a *kind* of training you do typically with your clients? If so, what are a few attributes you'd use to characterize it in terms of speed strength, power strength, endurance strength?
My clients range from executive golfer types who want to function and feel better while golfing, mothers wanting to get lean, high school athletes, runners, RKC's, massage therapists, grandmothers, grandfathers and pregnant women. I have a very wide range of clients. Regardless of the age, and the goal of the client,I always like to emphasize the following attributes:
- Movement Quality. Can they move well and with grace. This includes a lot of postural training and coaching throughout all movement.
- Correct Asymmetries. Perhaps the client has severe flexibility issues on one side of their bodies but not the other side.
- Full Body Strength: Teaching the person how to maximize the concepts of full body tension and relaxation. Basically getting people's brains to talk better to their muscles. For many women this means teaching them to pick much heavier objects than they are used to lifting.
- Power: the ability to apply strength quickly. This is the ultimate goal. Get people powerful and fast. Real life situations and sports usually occur and very fast speeds and we do our clients a huge disservice if they cannot use their bodies in a powerful, graceful and coordinated manner. The Hardstyle Swing and Snatch definitely come to mind here. I can't think of too many exercises that would improve power more than the swing and the snatch.
Quick Aside, you and your bro are both trainers. How the heck did that happen?
My twin brother Keats Snideman (RKC, CSCS, LMT) and I took an early fascination to sports and sport training. We knew at a very young age that we wanted to work in athletics and health. And I think because we are twins we naturally gravitate toward the same things. It's actually really cool to have you twin brother in the same profession. Not too hard to imagine what we talk about when we are together.
My goodness. Well, on another trait, you are also a speed demon. How has that manifested itself in your life, and where do see that fitting into anyone's training practice?
Speed Demon?Yes, i had the honor of your towing me for sprints at the first ck-fms, you may recall. That was so awesome - i don't think i've ever moved so fast.
Wow, thanks! I have been known to blaze the 100 meter dash in a decent time, but certainly not like Usain Bolt! Well, coming from a sprinting background I am very biased toward more anaerobic type training. This includes a heavy emphasis on lower reps for strength training and power training.
The emphasis for me has always been on quality and SPEED rather than quantity. I would rather get someone really fast at 20 or 30 meters before I ever let them sprint 100 meters. Why let someone condition their body to sprint slowly? If they have no speed to endure, why bother.
Getting people to learn how to explosively contract their muscles is not easy. However, by focusing on moving faster and better the central nervous system begins to get the idea that it needs to communicate with the fast twitch muscle fibers. I can't think of a better tool than the KB to assist in this process and the HARDSTYLE KB technique is based on power production which is why it is THE WAY to go for getting people faster and more powerful.
Franz Snideman Talks and Walks the Beautiful Move
Ok now for the main feature. Here, Franz and i chat about the Hardstyle (HS) swing. Styles of swing, folks in the RKC community have said, are not unlike styles of martial arts. Hardstyle is what the technique lead by Pavel Tsatsouline in the RKC has come to be known as in the West.
I'm not sure if it's you're favorite move, but it's a beautiful move the way you do it. So let's talk a wee moment about the swing.
I'm not sure if it's you're favorite move, but it's a beautiful move the way you do it. So let's talk a wee moment about the swing.
The swing is definitely one of my favorites, right up there with the kettlebell Snatch. There are so many details to great swing technique that we could in no way cover all of the aspects in this interview. But, let's give it a shot and at least lay down some of the fundamentals and basic instructions for a powerful and graceful swing.
Franz demonstrating the swing, view 1
The first thing one needs to understand about the hardstyle kettlebell swing is that hardstyle does not mean “ugly style.”
I think there is a great misconception about the RKC style of kettlebells in the fitness industry that you have to look tense in the face and look like some bad ass MMA fighter to properly do a swing. That is not correct. Learning the RKC style of swing is not about trying to TENSE your body as much as possible. It is all about learning when and how much tension to apply during the swing. This of course is a SKILL and requires a tremendous amount of practice, coaching and correction. It will not be mastered in one day, or one year.
Franz demonstrating the swing, view 2
I am still working on my swing and I started using Kettlebells in 2002. Think of learning the swing similar to learning a martial art. Over time you learn how to take off the parking brakes and express more power. A good hardstyle swing will look quick and powerful, but it will also look smooth, crisp, graceful and beautiful.
Okay, so here is list of what to focus on during the HS swing:
- Your stance. The stance must be wide enough to allow the KB to swing through the legs. Not too wide, not too narrow. It should feel like a very athletic position for you.
- Structure and posture. It is almost impossible to coach muscle activation so therefore we teach structure and position. If you can teach someone to get into the right position you will not have to coach muscle recruitment, the muscles will naturally do what they need to do. The hard part is getting people into the proper position, that is the biggest challenge. What is the proper structure and position to get into? You must hinge at the hips and push the hips in back of you (almost like you were trying to touch a wall 2 feet in back of you). As you hinge at the hips your shoulder will come forward which means your torso will be at a 45 degree angle (at least..and sometime more).
- The spine remains straight but not upright (look at video).
- The neck position will remain as neutral as possible in the swing. There will be some extension in the bottom position of the swing but certainly not excessive.
- There will be an “active Hike Pass” in the bottom position of swing. This means you will be using your LATS a lot. Hand will be loose but the lats will be fully engaged.
- The Hips. Once the hips are eccentrically loaded then you just stand up and extend the hips. If you loaded up the hip by throwing the kettlebell in back of you, standing up will be much easier and powerful.
Great check list, Franz. Tell me some of the things that make the hardstyle kb swing important to you for your own training, and for anyone's practice?
Number one is focused effort. Few exercises allow you to focus on redirecting the scattered energies of the body and channeling them into full body hip power. One of the main reasons I (and all of us) should practice the HS Swings is to learn how to groove a very powerful hip extension. Almost all sports require a powerful hip extension to sprint, jump, twist and cut. All sporting movements will benefit from kettlebell swings.
What are the elements of a Beautiful Swing?
Great posture throughout the entire swing [please see 4 elements of efficiency for more on this point- mc]. A tall, yet relaxed neck and face. The Arms should be glued to the ribcage. The KB should be actively hiked through the legs close to the groin. The Hip “Pop” should occur first which allows the KB to literally float in the air for a brief moment. The most important aspect is that the swings looks rhythmical and smooth, yet powerful. To quote Master RKC Brett Jones, Hardstyle does not mean UGLY STYLE. Be powerful in the swing but not to the point that it looks like you are about to have a heart attack. Most of the energy is generated from the hips and core. Your face and neck are not your core.
Your swing fascinates me: it goes so fast from the bottom and hangs at the top, and then it's fast at the bottom - most of us swing with what looks like a very even back and forth, but you have this lovely double tempo.
Thanks MC! I think it's my sprinting background in which I am trying to achieve speed and that is why I go faster at the bottom. If I focus on the quick down swing it is actually easier for me to explode my hips and project the bell forward.
The secret for me is to load my hips at the last second. That means let the KB drop and then once it reaches my stomach/bladder area I quickly bend at the hips and let the lats drive the Kettlebell in back of me. It helps to wait a bit and let the bell drop and bend at the last minute. This creates more speed and power and this means more loading for the hip extensors. The secret for this tempo of swing is to first learn how to actively hike the KB in back of you and then immediately extend the hips and stand up tall.
What are your tips to achieve this swing tempo?
First is learn how to achieve the bottom position of the swing. Hips back and high in the air with minimal knee bend. Not straight legged at all but you do not want to turn the swing into a squat. You must learn to hinge from the hips and then the knees will contribute as much movement as they need to. From their I would practice hiking the KB in back of you and trying to get your arms to touch your thighs. Many people only get the hands in back of them, this is mistake. To get maximal loading you need your arms to reach way in back of you.
Besides yourself, who has a beautiful swing and what do you think contributes to that sense of it as a beautiful movement when you see *them* do it?
This is a tough question because there are so many RKC's that have great swings. I couldn't mention them all here. The following RKC's come to mind right now:
Master RKC Brett Jones
RKC TL Jason Marshall
RKC TL Keira Newton
RKC TL Delanie Ross
RKC TL Dustin Rippitoe
RKC TL Dennis Frisch
(list of links here for the above trainers)
(Update Aug '10- part II - see each of the above RKC's swing the kettle)
I have seen their swings and they are very powerful and graceful swings. Watching these instructors swing would definitely give all of us some good visual examples of what a good swing looks like.
What would you caution folks new to the kettlebell to consider before picking up that first kb to do that first swing?
I would encourage people that they need get some private instruction by the best RKC they can find. Nothing beats hands on training and learning. This is the best solution if people want to learn correct kettlebell technique.
Ok what *is* your fave kb movement and what are a few things about that movement that make it special to franz?
I personally like the Kettlebell Snatch to Lunge [shown above -mc]. You basically perform a explosive snatch and then immediately drop into a deep lunge. The drop is quick and the bell is almost weightless at the halfway point. I'll have to send you a video on this because a video would do much more justice than me explaining it.And now Franz, please say anything at all that you'd like to about KB's about, the swing, about training, and especially about why you'd get one with a kb as your tool of choice - for whom? why? or anything else you'd like.
I would recommend people to take up kettlebell training for the following reasons:
- The basic kettlebell movements strengthen all the muscles of the body in a harmonious fashion. This means more metabolic burn (potential fat loss). It also means that your body actually functions at a high level which is very important.
- Improves full body power and strength
- Improve mobility
- Cost effective / Time efficient training. Get more results off of less work
- Doesn't take up much space
- Easy to travel with
- Very versatile. There are hundreds of variations of the basic exercises that one can perform
- Delivers results quickly
Thank you, Franz for your time and sharing all this. That's gold. Franz and his partner RKC Team Leader Yoana Terán Snideman have a suite of great fitness dvds that include rope training, kb programming, fat loss and more. Yoana will have a great resource on kb's while pregnant, forthcoming. Their blogs are rich resources of more tips and techniques too, which you can access from the revolution fitness site.
Summing Up
If you're new to KB's a great place to start is with Tsatsouline's Enter the Kettlebell book and DVD. Once you get swinging, Franz's super tips help refine that swing practice even further.
As Franz notes, though, best council, find a swing coach you trust and work with that person to help you find your beautiful swing. We just can't see ourselves. I was fortunate to have Franz look at my swing when we were at a cert together. It took about 10 seconds for him - literally - to cue my hip position to get more power into the hip drive. More efficient movement, better loading of muslces, better workout, faster progress.
It's so worth it. A session with a coach is a great present for someone you love, too (it's funny how we're willing to get good stuff for the ones we love but think it's too decadent to get it for ourselves, sometimes).
Also if you're really keen, doing the HKC one day KB cert is a great way to have a senior or master RKC work with you for a full day on the swing, tgu and goblet squat
detailed overview of an HKC here
But if nothing else, hope this interview demonstrates why the Swing is both such an elegant and potent move when well exectuted, and why owning it - different hands, weights, speeds - takes practice (and coaching). One move; constant variety, full on whole body health. What's not to like?
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Update: Part II: more beautiful swings - Franz's pics for exemplary swing.
Related Posts
- Andrea Du Cane on Kettlebell Training
- Kenneth Jay on Viking Warrior Conditioning
- Dan John on the KB Press
- b2d KB Article Index
- Perfect Rep Quest series
- Full Muscle Firing for better strength and form.
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Thursday, July 22, 2010
Hormones - what are they really? upper level managers for the body's state.
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What do you think of when someone says Hormones? Maybe muscle oriented folks think about testosterone. Women tending towards a certain age think about estrogen. Athletes may think about adrenelein. Diet conscious may think about Insulin. Someone totally stressed may not know what to think about but that's epinepherine and cortisol. In the sesame street way of what goes together, all of these are hormones. But what does that mean?
If we pull up from the particular view of what an individual hormone does, it seems the big picture on hormones is that they are messengers or signals for the body - or some part of the body - that something has happened to it or part of it that has induced a state change. They are, in effect, state change managers.
Food enters the gut, hormones are released to tell the gut to get certain enzymes going to start breaking up the food, tearing it apart to do something with it - put it away, actually. Everything in its place and a place for everything. Different hormones take care of different parts of the change process. Carbs are broken down and are ready to enter the blood stream, insulin shows up to say "right this way" to ensure the glucose is used. Heck, even being hungry is perceived as a state change (check out ghrelin) where hormones are released to get an action happening (eg, feed me. feed me now).
Women are intimately familiar with hormonal changes that occur on a monthly basis to handle all the state changes that menses sets off. But that's what's happening: a change in our homeoSTASIS triggers these little do gooders - our hormones - to make sure that our bodies have an optimal response to that change for our survival.
Injury. Getting the blood to act in particular ways to clot - not something it does when its just pumping through our veins - is the response of our bodies to a pretty specific state change. And so what's the body doing? Providing an optimal response to survive by taking energy to get into the inflammation and healing process (whether we register the injury as pain or not depends on the richer context of what's going on with our body and mind at the time. We also have hormones to self-medicate, making opiates for us).
Need to sleep? Great big survival state change? Melatonin regulates that, too.
And last example, if we get startled or stressed, that is likewise a signal to the nervous system for a state change, in this case, prepare to flee. And its one most of us get triggered to some degree daily.
From a bang going off behind us, to having to give a public speech, to anticipating a bill we can't pay, our very physical being interprets these experiences as threat (or startle in some literature). At this threat signal, a slurry of different hormones are released to optimize our system to survive and get us away from tiger tiger burning bright.
One set of hormones (epinephrine or adrenaline) accelerates heart rate and inspiration to get the peripheral system (our limbs) ready to move fast. Other catecholamines are released to mobilize fat from storage into free fatty acid to be right ready to be used as fuel for the long run away from the predator. Cortisol kicks in to shut down digestion: we really don't want to burn precious ATP for digestion when we'll need it for motoring. If we survive we can digest later. Testosterone (tarzan's chest beating, for instance) actually gets turned on in these situations to help reduce the fear response and "man up" as it were so we don't go totally fetal. Intriguingly, estrogen also seems to have similar calming effects to startle (at least in rats). Gender - in rats - is a player, too, it seems in whether testosterone or estrogen reduces either accoustic verses light based startle too. Isn't that wild? Indeed there's a great quote in that source that says "testosterone skulpts the male brain [of the rat]"
Anyway, suffice it to say - there's a lot of hormones released in stress to deal with a lot of the systems in
Similar Profiles: stress and exercise
What is quite cool is that exercise has just about the same profile as stress in terms of hormonal responses. Catecholamines, which are great for fat mobilization, are triggered as soon as we get moving at a clip. The greater the intensity, the greater the release. So HIIT does get more fatty acids mobilized that slower steady state, as we discussed looking at Trapp's work over in this piece on different HIIT modes.
SO it seems even if we're not in startle or threat, the fact that we're moving requires similar hormonal responses: energy to the limbs rather than digestion, fat mobilization to keep going. Even the speed of hypertrophy occurring is as we know, an adaptation to demand. It seems in some cases where the environment is also perceived by the nervous system to be a potential threat, the adaptation (hypertrophy and strength) is accelerated. We saw awhile ago in Get Huge or Die that resistance workouts in a reduced oxygen chamber also caused faster hypertrophy - and that the hormanal cascade in that case seemed greater than the normal air environment: survive and get bigger to be better adapted to survive that again. Maybe.
Connecting Stress and Exercise: move it move it
Fact is, we can see two things from this understanding of hormones as state change managers (upper level management to be sure).
First, exercise is a state change (from stasis to motion) that sends hormones to optimize our body for that movement. When we move with those hormones in an exercise state, we usually feel pretty good. The hormones do their job: support movement. We derive benefits.
Second, stress has pretty much the same hormonal profile as exercise type movement - getting the heart rate up being the main observable factor. So, if we're having hormones released to say "i've just had a signal for you to get going: here come the chemicals to turn your body into a mean moving machine" and then we DON'T move, what happens?
Let's see, we feel like crap, we don't sleep, we gain weight, our skin can get funny, we are more susceptible to disease. Why?
In part because our body will keep trying to pull us out of the fire the only way it knows how. It seems to assume if we don't respond we must be deaf and so it amps up the signal.
Use it or ... Break It
As proposed, our hormones are signals responding to state change requests (startle or fear or stress are all requests to our nervous system to get us somewhere safe), if we do not respond to the message to change, it seems that the message gets louder: more hormones will get poured on the fire.
That is, our bodies are trying to tell us to use what thoes hormones have evolved to do: optimize getting away, that's movement, and if we don't listen to them, they get louder and louder until we finally break.
Like pain is a signal to change that gets louder until either we finally do something about it, or we become incapacitated, likewise these other hormones. Stress goes up. Digestion goes down. Sleep degrades.
We see this kind of signaling to support change not just in stress but in digestion: the in rush of fast digesting starchy carbs to our system is seen as a state change. That triggers insulin to get the sugar into the blood cells for conversion to energy. When we overeat regularly - put in more fuel than is required for a state change (we don't need the energy to do something), we can develop insulin resistance - the cells that usually respond to insulin knocking at the door to pop in some fuel for energy say bugger off. Or go deaf. So what does the body do? "you're not listening to me: let me amp up the signal" - more insulin to say "knock knock I AM HERE, CELL, WITH A DELIVERY" - and what can't be used by those cells gets moved to fat.
Eventually there's a viscous cycle in highly restistant (and often overweight or obese) folks, where even when they're eating well, the body is so resistant to insulin's effects, they are effectively starving while gaining more fat.
AT this point as well someone may be on insulin injections because the pancrease cannot produce enough volume on its own for these now-deaf cells literally to GET the message. And as you can image, large folks who aren't getting energy from their food are going to feel too pooped to get mobile. When we break, we really break.
Intriguingly (at least i think so) - movement can once again help accelerate the repair process because we are so plastic and adaptable. If we move we can redevelop insulin sensitivity. Strength training is fabulous for this. Dave Barr has a nice piece explaining this process. In other words get insulin levels to where they need to be to process the food into energy for the cells, get nutrition under control, and then get moving to develop greater sensitivity again - and we do see many people backing way off in type 2 diabetes from their shots: their messengers have been heard, the system realigns. Homeostatis and safety once again.
Move it Move it, Walk it Off.
So what do we see?
With both stress and eating, it seems the simple way to deal with the hormonal pattern we recognise as stress is to move: we thereby use the hormonal signals for what they were designed to support: physical action. Kill it or run away. Mission accomplished, back to calmer state. And from that calmer, stabler place, we can can look for strategies to help us deal effectively with whatever is freaking us out.
Before we get to calmer state is the run away or kill it process to blow off the physiological effects of the hormal cascade. Literally. Indeed, breathing, as we've talked about before, is a huge part of movement to rebalance our carbon dioxide and oxygen in our bodies, which helps send signals that ah ha yes we're dealing with the threatening situation; it's over; our system is going back to homeostasis thank you very much.
Something we rarely do when we're feeling our hormonal cascade for fight of flight kick in at a work place is to go for a walk. With my students, i'll do a coach and stroll from time to time. Walking has many great benefits from mirroring what the other person is doing to this physical use of these signals to DO something physical. We both calm down and engage better. One of my colleagues is also a dancer. He paces frequently when we're working together. That's a good thing, again for many reasons, but processing hormones that are signalling MOVE is a good thing.
No wonder archimedes flew out of his tub and ran when he discovered density - the excitement set his adrenaline going and he blew it off by running. Hopefully the later realization of his nekked butt in public didn't cause a stress cascade to ratchet up.
Vent the Hormonal Soup Pot: Feel Good with the Body where it Wants to Be - in Balance
We hear all the time that people feel so much better when they start an exercise program. We usually focus on the feeling better as down to body comp change, so improved self image, aerobic health (heart and lungs), energy up'd.
All great and true, but we kinda tend to miss, don't we, the fact that perhaps we're feeling less stressed and sleeping better because we are also venting the steam from the soup pot of hormonal build up we get when (a) we live in a stressful environment and (b) it's generally pretty sedentary.
We are physical beings rather than brains with annoying bodies. We're wired to move in response to an awful lot of our hormonal signals.
Summary
In this likely grossly oversimplified view of hormones, we could say there's a hormone to support any state change to the body. Whether the state change is from a threat, ingestion of food (or toxin), an injury, sex, anything that causes the body's state to change, there's a hormone that deals with optimizing whatever the body needs to do to stay safe - protecting itself for survival. That goes for fuel use, run away and hide, procreate, whatever is triggered.
We've seen that not listening to these hormonal messengers can cause the signals to keep coming, get louder. Their getting louder if not attended to often causes that part of the system to break, which will have incapacitating effects for us.
We've also seen that the pattern of many of these cascades seems to be addressed by movement: from large movements like going for a walk and getting the heart rate up (which induces harder breathing automatically) or smaller movements like self-induced deeper breathing.
We have not discussed that some of the signalling can be trained based on behaviour - like the cues to get hungry - but we have seen that we can often restore function to an overtaxed signalling system - like insulin resistance - by getting moving. Walking is great, breathing is great. Mobility drills, also effective. As we have seen before in Move or Die all this movement also sends lots of proprioceptive information to say "we're fine; we're in use; we're moving." All good.
So micro summary?
By the way, if you're a trainer, and are interested in how to integrate understanding this hormonal cascade with training/coaching your clients, the topic (among a lot of others - see overview here) is covered in the z-health r-phase certification. If you go for the cert, please let 'em know mc recommended you: we don't get cash for referrals - we get credit towards our continuing zed-ed. Thank you. -mc
refs
What do you think of when someone says Hormones? Maybe muscle oriented folks think about testosterone. Women tending towards a certain age think about estrogen. Athletes may think about adrenelein. Diet conscious may think about Insulin. Someone totally stressed may not know what to think about but that's epinepherine and cortisol. In the sesame street way of what goes together, all of these are hormones. But what does that mean?
If we pull up from the particular view of what an individual hormone does, it seems the big picture on hormones is that they are messengers or signals for the body - or some part of the body - that something has happened to it or part of it that has induced a state change. They are, in effect, state change managers.
Endocrine system: the generators of hormones
Women are intimately familiar with hormonal changes that occur on a monthly basis to handle all the state changes that menses sets off. But that's what's happening: a change in our homeoSTASIS triggers these little do gooders - our hormones - to make sure that our bodies have an optimal response to that change for our survival.
Injury. Getting the blood to act in particular ways to clot - not something it does when its just pumping through our veins - is the response of our bodies to a pretty specific state change. And so what's the body doing? Providing an optimal response to survive by taking energy to get into the inflammation and healing process (whether we register the injury as pain or not depends on the richer context of what's going on with our body and mind at the time. We also have hormones to self-medicate, making opiates for us).
Need to sleep? Great big survival state change? Melatonin regulates that, too.
And last example, if we get startled or stressed, that is likewise a signal to the nervous system for a state change, in this case, prepare to flee. And its one most of us get triggered to some degree daily.
From a bang going off behind us, to having to give a public speech, to anticipating a bill we can't pay, our very physical being interprets these experiences as threat (or startle in some literature). At this threat signal, a slurry of different hormones are released to optimize our system to survive and get us away from tiger tiger burning bright.
One set of hormones (epinephrine or adrenaline) accelerates heart rate and inspiration to get the peripheral system (our limbs) ready to move fast. Other catecholamines are released to mobilize fat from storage into free fatty acid to be right ready to be used as fuel for the long run away from the predator. Cortisol kicks in to shut down digestion: we really don't want to burn precious ATP for digestion when we'll need it for motoring. If we survive we can digest later. Testosterone (tarzan's chest beating, for instance) actually gets turned on in these situations to help reduce the fear response and "man up" as it were so we don't go totally fetal. Intriguingly, estrogen also seems to have similar calming effects to startle (at least in rats). Gender - in rats - is a player, too, it seems in whether testosterone or estrogen reduces either accoustic verses light based startle too. Isn't that wild? Indeed there's a great quote in that source that says "testosterone skulpts the male brain [of the rat]"
Anyway, suffice it to say - there's a lot of hormones released in stress to deal with a lot of the systems in
Similar Profiles: stress and exercise
What is quite cool is that exercise has just about the same profile as stress in terms of hormonal responses. Catecholamines, which are great for fat mobilization, are triggered as soon as we get moving at a clip. The greater the intensity, the greater the release. So HIIT does get more fatty acids mobilized that slower steady state, as we discussed looking at Trapp's work over in this piece on different HIIT modes.
SO it seems even if we're not in startle or threat, the fact that we're moving requires similar hormonal responses: energy to the limbs rather than digestion, fat mobilization to keep going. Even the speed of hypertrophy occurring is as we know, an adaptation to demand. It seems in some cases where the environment is also perceived by the nervous system to be a potential threat, the adaptation (hypertrophy and strength) is accelerated. We saw awhile ago in Get Huge or Die that resistance workouts in a reduced oxygen chamber also caused faster hypertrophy - and that the hormanal cascade in that case seemed greater than the normal air environment: survive and get bigger to be better adapted to survive that again. Maybe.
Connecting Stress and Exercise: move it move it
Fact is, we can see two things from this understanding of hormones as state change managers (upper level management to be sure).
First, exercise is a state change (from stasis to motion) that sends hormones to optimize our body for that movement. When we move with those hormones in an exercise state, we usually feel pretty good. The hormones do their job: support movement. We derive benefits.
Second, stress has pretty much the same hormonal profile as exercise type movement - getting the heart rate up being the main observable factor. So, if we're having hormones released to say "i've just had a signal for you to get going: here come the chemicals to turn your body into a mean moving machine" and then we DON'T move, what happens?
Let's see, we feel like crap, we don't sleep, we gain weight, our skin can get funny, we are more susceptible to disease. Why?
In part because our body will keep trying to pull us out of the fire the only way it knows how. It seems to assume if we don't respond we must be deaf and so it amps up the signal.
Use it or ... Break It
As proposed, our hormones are signals responding to state change requests (startle or fear or stress are all requests to our nervous system to get us somewhere safe), if we do not respond to the message to change, it seems that the message gets louder: more hormones will get poured on the fire.
That is, our bodies are trying to tell us to use what thoes hormones have evolved to do: optimize getting away, that's movement, and if we don't listen to them, they get louder and louder until we finally break.
Like pain is a signal to change that gets louder until either we finally do something about it, or we become incapacitated, likewise these other hormones. Stress goes up. Digestion goes down. Sleep degrades.
We see this kind of signaling to support change not just in stress but in digestion: the in rush of fast digesting starchy carbs to our system is seen as a state change. That triggers insulin to get the sugar into the blood cells for conversion to energy. When we overeat regularly - put in more fuel than is required for a state change (we don't need the energy to do something), we can develop insulin resistance - the cells that usually respond to insulin knocking at the door to pop in some fuel for energy say bugger off. Or go deaf. So what does the body do? "you're not listening to me: let me amp up the signal" - more insulin to say "knock knock I AM HERE, CELL, WITH A DELIVERY" - and what can't be used by those cells gets moved to fat.
Eventually there's a viscous cycle in highly restistant (and often overweight or obese) folks, where even when they're eating well, the body is so resistant to insulin's effects, they are effectively starving while gaining more fat.
AT this point as well someone may be on insulin injections because the pancrease cannot produce enough volume on its own for these now-deaf cells literally to GET the message. And as you can image, large folks who aren't getting energy from their food are going to feel too pooped to get mobile. When we break, we really break.
Intriguingly (at least i think so) - movement can once again help accelerate the repair process because we are so plastic and adaptable. If we move we can redevelop insulin sensitivity. Strength training is fabulous for this. Dave Barr has a nice piece explaining this process. In other words get insulin levels to where they need to be to process the food into energy for the cells, get nutrition under control, and then get moving to develop greater sensitivity again - and we do see many people backing way off in type 2 diabetes from their shots: their messengers have been heard, the system realigns. Homeostatis and safety once again.
Move it Move it, Walk it Off.
So what do we see?
With both stress and eating, it seems the simple way to deal with the hormonal pattern we recognise as stress is to move: we thereby use the hormonal signals for what they were designed to support: physical action. Kill it or run away. Mission accomplished, back to calmer state. And from that calmer, stabler place, we can can look for strategies to help us deal effectively with whatever is freaking us out.
Before we get to calmer state is the run away or kill it process to blow off the physiological effects of the hormal cascade. Literally. Indeed, breathing, as we've talked about before, is a huge part of movement to rebalance our carbon dioxide and oxygen in our bodies, which helps send signals that ah ha yes we're dealing with the threatening situation; it's over; our system is going back to homeostasis thank you very much.
Something we rarely do when we're feeling our hormonal cascade for fight of flight kick in at a work place is to go for a walk. With my students, i'll do a coach and stroll from time to time. Walking has many great benefits from mirroring what the other person is doing to this physical use of these signals to DO something physical. We both calm down and engage better. One of my colleagues is also a dancer. He paces frequently when we're working together. That's a good thing, again for many reasons, but processing hormones that are signalling MOVE is a good thing.
No wonder archimedes flew out of his tub and ran when he discovered density - the excitement set his adrenaline going and he blew it off by running. Hopefully the later realization of his nekked butt in public didn't cause a stress cascade to ratchet up.
Vent the Hormonal Soup Pot: Feel Good with the Body where it Wants to Be - in Balance
We hear all the time that people feel so much better when they start an exercise program. We usually focus on the feeling better as down to body comp change, so improved self image, aerobic health (heart and lungs), energy up'd.
All great and true, but we kinda tend to miss, don't we, the fact that perhaps we're feeling less stressed and sleeping better because we are also venting the steam from the soup pot of hormonal build up we get when (a) we live in a stressful environment and (b) it's generally pretty sedentary.
We are physical beings rather than brains with annoying bodies. We're wired to move in response to an awful lot of our hormonal signals.
Summary
In this likely grossly oversimplified view of hormones, we could say there's a hormone to support any state change to the body. Whether the state change is from a threat, ingestion of food (or toxin), an injury, sex, anything that causes the body's state to change, there's a hormone that deals with optimizing whatever the body needs to do to stay safe - protecting itself for survival. That goes for fuel use, run away and hide, procreate, whatever is triggered.
We've seen that not listening to these hormonal messengers can cause the signals to keep coming, get louder. Their getting louder if not attended to often causes that part of the system to break, which will have incapacitating effects for us.
We've also seen that the pattern of many of these cascades seems to be addressed by movement: from large movements like going for a walk and getting the heart rate up (which induces harder breathing automatically) or smaller movements like self-induced deeper breathing.
We have not discussed that some of the signalling can be trained based on behaviour - like the cues to get hungry - but we have seen that we can often restore function to an overtaxed signalling system - like insulin resistance - by getting moving. Walking is great, breathing is great. Mobility drills, also effective. As we have seen before in Move or Die all this movement also sends lots of proprioceptive information to say "we're fine; we're in use; we're moving." All good.
So micro summary?
- hormones are state change managers
- a lot of their messages are about movement
- when we don't respond to those messages by moving they amp up the signal
- if they keep amping up the signal, we break
- getting back to movement can help restore even pretty broken systems
- best: find a way to move first to deal with the signals
- so that the space can be found to get other strategies not to be quite so triggered by those stimuli, or to reduce the requirements for those off-setting stimuli.
- be kind to yourself if in that state: it's not optimal for lifting heavy or learning new skills - walk, mobility work - all can help restore function
By the way, if you're a trainer, and are interested in how to integrate understanding this hormonal cascade with training/coaching your clients, the topic (among a lot of others - see overview here) is covered in the z-health r-phase certification. If you go for the cert, please let 'em know mc recommended you: we don't get cash for referrals - we get credit towards our continuing zed-ed. Thank you. -mcrefs
HERMANS, E., PUTMAN, P., BAAS, J., KOPPESCHAAR, H., & VANHONK, J. (2006). A Single Administration of Testosterone Reduces Fear-Potentiated Startle in Humans Biological Psychiatry, 59 (9), 872-874 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.11.015Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Van den Buuse, M. (2001). Estrogen increases prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle in rats European Journal of Pharmacology, 425 (1), 33-41 DOI: 10.1016/S0014-2999(01)01139-6
Toufexis, D. (2005). Sex Differences in Hormonal Modulation of Anxiety Measured with Light-Enhanced Startle: Possible Role for Arginine Vasopressin in the Male Journal of Neuroscience, 25 (39), 9010-9016 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0127-05.2005
Zouhal, H., Jacob, C., Delamarche, P., & Gratas-Delamarche, A. (2008). Catecholamines and the Effects of Exercise, Training and Gender Sports Medicine, 38 (5), 401-423 DOI: 10.2165/00007256-200838050-00004
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
How get strong if (part of) our muscles aren't actually on?
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So that seems like a dumb question, doesn't it: how do we get strong if our muscles aren't actually on? After all, we work out; we get lots of reps in - we seem to get stronger, and then someone says about that plateau we're hitting "maybe the reason you're not getting that press is that you're weak." Excuse me? You talking to me?
That happened to me today. As some of you know i'm trying to get the 24kg KB press - hence the wee recent chat with Dan John about pressing. But today, at the 9S strength and suppleness course, one of the components was getting some muscles checked to see if they were firing on demand. Eg, anterior delt. Pretty important in pressing. What did i learn? It wasn't staying on through a good part of the range of motion possible of that muscle. Let me clarify - part of the muscle wasn't staying on through the ROM. In my case, close up to the origin was having a hard time. Just part. Consequence? Sucky press progress.
So we looked at ways to help a person (a) learn the range of motion of the muscle with respect to its action on a joint and (b) how to cue the person to get that part of that muscle to come on in that range of motion. Gotta tell you there were a lot of "Oh so that's what that muscle feels like when it's working" comments.
The big deal here is that we're talking about parts of the whole muscle - not the big "my glute med isn't firing" but "this part of my glute med at this ROM is not firing."
Why would we Care to get More Muscle going?
Contractions: Muscle fibers are wee wee things making up the body of a muscle. Motor units - nerves going to the bundles of muscles - don't all come on at once. But they also don't come on part way. THere's no dimmer switch to a muscle. They're either on or off. The strength of a contraction is relative to the number of motor units that come on. Another cool point is that the ratio of motor units to fibers changes depending on body parts. Hands, feet and eyes have for instance way way higher rations of motor unit to fibers than say the legs or the forearms. There's also issues around the squencing of motor units firing in a contraction, but we'll set that aside for the moment
So the potential to see the effect of motor unit shut down may be greater in the bigger muscles with fewer individual motor units per fiber.
Main point: If a bunch of motor units are not being recruited, or they turn off part way through a motion, we get squishy bits or what feels like dead zones in the body of the muscle.
Conversely, the more motor units firing, the more fibers get triggered, the more force can be produced, the more easily we lift - or the more load we lift and the smoother the lift that can keep the muscle on throughout the action. THis is likely a gross oversimplification that does not take into account recruitment patterns and wind speed etc, but it seems to work as a general model.
Example I had the pleasure to work with a great guy and super coach, big guy too, muscle wise, who said that he had trouble with his squat - his DL overtook it completely. By comparison his shoulders are beautiful. So let's see if those massive delts may also be associated with sans squishy recruitment.
WHen muscle testing his shoulders - the delts and the teres major in particular - everything was solid throughout the range of motion. No squishy bits (unlike mine). Wow. When we tested the quads it was quads be gone. They were just a sea of squishy bits. Wow.
Now, obviously this guy could squat me on his back all day long no problem, so he's not "weak" in the 99lb sand kicked in his face kinda way. But it's plain that he could be stronger and faster if more of the muscle was willing to come on.
Aside: Nervous System Perspective. Everything's connected.
In many cases that weekend, we worked on muscles, helped folks get squishy bits to come on more fully, and tested that yup performance was going up. And in some cases pain was going down at the same time.
With super coach's quads, we did not get so much action back in the legs. A bit of history revealed that super coach's biggest issue is plantar fascitis right now and that's his priority. It may be that in his case, his nervous system is not willing to pour more juice into his quads to let him go heavier if his base is in pain. Poor feet feeling, not so safe for adding greater load. Could be. So wisely super coach is focusing on what his bod is telling him to do.
In other cases, helping one muscle to fire better, helped an entire system to opening up and got people to a whole new level of happy.
Plugging in Muscle Work.
Learning to feel what a muscle feels like - what it's role is in a movement is an interesting exercise.
Here's where some kinesiology can help
- by knowing what muscle is reponsible for what action in a movement, we can see if it's doing its job to support that movement.
This approach to performance checking is another reason why we all need a knowledgeable coach. If progress is stalling it may be that it can be addressed more rapidly by a quick anatomy function check to see if something needs a little attention to be brought to it to come to the party than looking at 20 different lift variations to see if that's the ticket. It's not to say that those lift variations aren't key plateau busters, but for them to function optimally, it would be better for them to be situated on an optimally functioning base, no? Accelerate progress.
A coach can cue our awareness of the muscle, it's ROM and check when it's coming off and help us practice attention to keep that part of a muscle on.
Tuning
Muscle work like this, it seems to me, is tuning. It's not the single factor foundation thing in itself that will solve all ills or create training shortcuts. It's a refinement on top of good movement quality to begin with and *then* tuning the muscles within this quality foundation.
It's polishing part of the global picture. But goodness what a big difference a little bit of polish, a little bit of tuning can make: the image is clearer; the music more harmonious - the effect more enlivening.
Muscle tuning in this way therefore seems to make great sense as part of a whole package of coaching/tuning for performance and well being: start with cleaning up whole movement (i like z-health r-phase for this); then dial it in even more with a coach who can offer muscle tuning (and more - like working in the wonderful world of ligaments - no kidding - but that's for another time).
Related Posts
That happened to me today. As some of you know i'm trying to get the 24kg KB press - hence the wee recent chat with Dan John about pressing. But today, at the 9S strength and suppleness course, one of the components was getting some muscles checked to see if they were firing on demand. Eg, anterior delt. Pretty important in pressing. What did i learn? It wasn't staying on through a good part of the range of motion possible of that muscle. Let me clarify - part of the muscle wasn't staying on through the ROM. In my case, close up to the origin was having a hard time. Just part. Consequence? Sucky press progress.
So we looked at ways to help a person (a) learn the range of motion of the muscle with respect to its action on a joint and (b) how to cue the person to get that part of that muscle to come on in that range of motion. Gotta tell you there were a lot of "Oh so that's what that muscle feels like when it's working" comments.
The big deal here is that we're talking about parts of the whole muscle - not the big "my glute med isn't firing" but "this part of my glute med at this ROM is not firing."
Why would we Care to get More Muscle going?
Contractions: Muscle fibers are wee wee things making up the body of a muscle. Motor units - nerves going to the bundles of muscles - don't all come on at once. But they also don't come on part way. THere's no dimmer switch to a muscle. They're either on or off. The strength of a contraction is relative to the number of motor units that come on. Another cool point is that the ratio of motor units to fibers changes depending on body parts. Hands, feet and eyes have for instance way way higher rations of motor unit to fibers than say the legs or the forearms. There's also issues around the squencing of motor units firing in a contraction, but we'll set that aside for the moment
So the potential to see the effect of motor unit shut down may be greater in the bigger muscles with fewer individual motor units per fiber.
Main point: If a bunch of motor units are not being recruited, or they turn off part way through a motion, we get squishy bits or what feels like dead zones in the body of the muscle.
Conversely, the more motor units firing, the more fibers get triggered, the more force can be produced, the more easily we lift - or the more load we lift and the smoother the lift that can keep the muscle on throughout the action. THis is likely a gross oversimplification that does not take into account recruitment patterns and wind speed etc, but it seems to work as a general model.
Example I had the pleasure to work with a great guy and super coach, big guy too, muscle wise, who said that he had trouble with his squat - his DL overtook it completely. By comparison his shoulders are beautiful. So let's see if those massive delts may also be associated with sans squishy recruitment.
WHen muscle testing his shoulders - the delts and the teres major in particular - everything was solid throughout the range of motion. No squishy bits (unlike mine). Wow. When we tested the quads it was quads be gone. They were just a sea of squishy bits. Wow.
Now, obviously this guy could squat me on his back all day long no problem, so he's not "weak" in the 99lb sand kicked in his face kinda way. But it's plain that he could be stronger and faster if more of the muscle was willing to come on.
Aside: Nervous System Perspective. Everything's connected.
In many cases that weekend, we worked on muscles, helped folks get squishy bits to come on more fully, and tested that yup performance was going up. And in some cases pain was going down at the same time.
With super coach's quads, we did not get so much action back in the legs. A bit of history revealed that super coach's biggest issue is plantar fascitis right now and that's his priority. It may be that in his case, his nervous system is not willing to pour more juice into his quads to let him go heavier if his base is in pain. Poor feet feeling, not so safe for adding greater load. Could be. So wisely super coach is focusing on what his bod is telling him to do.
In other cases, helping one muscle to fire better, helped an entire system to opening up and got people to a whole new level of happy.
Plugging in Muscle Work.
Learning to feel what a muscle feels like - what it's role is in a movement is an interesting exercise.
Here's where some kinesiology can help - by knowing what muscle is reponsible for what action in a movement, we can see if it's doing its job to support that movement.This approach to performance checking is another reason why we all need a knowledgeable coach. If progress is stalling it may be that it can be addressed more rapidly by a quick anatomy function check to see if something needs a little attention to be brought to it to come to the party than looking at 20 different lift variations to see if that's the ticket. It's not to say that those lift variations aren't key plateau busters, but for them to function optimally, it would be better for them to be situated on an optimally functioning base, no? Accelerate progress.
A coach can cue our awareness of the muscle, it's ROM and check when it's coming off and help us practice attention to keep that part of a muscle on.
Tuning
Muscle work like this, it seems to me, is tuning. It's not the single factor foundation thing in itself that will solve all ills or create training shortcuts. It's a refinement on top of good movement quality to begin with and *then* tuning the muscles within this quality foundation.
It's polishing part of the global picture. But goodness what a big difference a little bit of polish, a little bit of tuning can make: the image is clearer; the music more harmonious - the effect more enlivening.
Muscle tuning in this way therefore seems to make great sense as part of a whole package of coaching/tuning for performance and well being: start with cleaning up whole movement (i like z-health r-phase for this); then dial it in even more with a coach who can offer muscle tuning (and more - like working in the wonderful world of ligaments - no kidding - but that's for another time). Related Posts
- What is z-health
- Pelvis Power - working hip opening in the press.
- the other side of the gym: sensory motor work
- Fatigue testing: is the next rep one too many
Friday, July 16, 2010
Vibram FiveFingers Bikila: Learning about the Name behind the Name & Fast Shoe Look
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Abebe Bikila was a two time olympic marathon winner. In 1960, he ran barefoot - the way he had trained - when the shoe sponsor Adidas didn't have shoes that he liked. Cool is that (a) he won (b) he broke the record (c) it's the first gold medal for Africa in Olympic history. He won gold in the 64 olympics, too. What's amazing is that he died young, at 41, four years after a tragic car accident that left him a parapalegic.
Vibram has a new shoe out designed specifically for runners and for running. They could have called their new shoe anything. They've called it Bikila. When you know something about Abebe Bikila's remarkable story, Vibram picked a pretty potent person to honor. As such, however, the shoe has a lot to live up to to be worthy of the name.
This is a first post quick look at this new shoe that was initiated at the 2010 Boston Marathon.
First point - to me, and chatting with birthdayshoes Justin - they fit more like the classic than the kso with slightly more shallow toe pockets. At least one other reviewer finds them more like a "second skin" than his other VFF's. Not sure there. They are the same size no. for me as the KSO - but i'm going to check a size smaller just to confirm this is right (see what i mean by prelimnary review?)
The shoes are also stiffer in the foot bed and more contoured than other VFF's and the inner thickness of the foot bed is more Flow like than KSO. The lining is very nice. very comfy. The tread is also intriguing with additional little tread bits for traction. The uppers are designed to look like the uppers of the kso, but they're actually one piece of soft silky like material.
Another unique to this model feature is the strap in: there is one strap across the top, that pulls to the inside rather than the outside, but there is no strap running to the back. So these need to wrap around the foot like a stiff sock to stay on. And it seems to work. Everything is smooth and seemingly seamless.
Initially these were the hardest vff's to put on, but after a few attempts, they do respond to the usual toes first, rock 'em in, pull up the heal. They're pretty, too. And that's not bad.
Feel. They definitely feel like there's more shoe there than in the other VFF's - even the flow. And that may be from the stiffness of the shoe and the extra tread bits - stiffness is not a bad thing.
The buzz in the commnity about the bikila's is that they're rocking runners. That will be for a follow up post. But for now,
while i worry about sizing, i'm just thinking about Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia. Keen to learn more about not just a great athlete but a great spirit, too. May be one of the best things that VFF has done is getting more of us to learn about the inspiration for their shoe's name-sake.
(quick update on sizing here - take away: stick with kso sizing)
Related Resources
Abebe Bikila was a two time olympic marathon winner. In 1960, he ran barefoot - the way he had trained - when the shoe sponsor Adidas didn't have shoes that he liked. Cool is that (a) he won (b) he broke the record (c) it's the first gold medal for Africa in Olympic history. He won gold in the 64 olympics, too. What's amazing is that he died young, at 41, four years after a tragic car accident that left him a parapalegic.
Vibram has a new shoe out designed specifically for runners and for running. They could have called their new shoe anything. They've called it Bikila. When you know something about Abebe Bikila's remarkable story, Vibram picked a pretty potent person to honor. As such, however, the shoe has a lot to live up to to be worthy of the name.This is a first post quick look at this new shoe that was initiated at the 2010 Boston Marathon.
First point - to me, and chatting with birthdayshoes Justin - they fit more like the classic than the kso with slightly more shallow toe pockets. At least one other reviewer finds them more like a "second skin" than his other VFF's. Not sure there. They are the same size no. for me as the KSO - but i'm going to check a size smaller just to confirm this is right (see what i mean by prelimnary review?)
The shoes are also stiffer in the foot bed and more contoured than other VFF's and the inner thickness of the foot bed is more Flow like than KSO. The lining is very nice. very comfy. The tread is also intriguing with additional little tread bits for traction. The uppers are designed to look like the uppers of the kso, but they're actually one piece of soft silky like material.
Another unique to this model feature is the strap in: there is one strap across the top, that pulls to the inside rather than the outside, but there is no strap running to the back. So these need to wrap around the foot like a stiff sock to stay on. And it seems to work. Everything is smooth and seemingly seamless.
Initially these were the hardest vff's to put on, but after a few attempts, they do respond to the usual toes first, rock 'em in, pull up the heal. They're pretty, too. And that's not bad.Feel. They definitely feel like there's more shoe there than in the other VFF's - even the flow. And that may be from the stiffness of the shoe and the extra tread bits - stiffness is not a bad thing.
The buzz in the commnity about the bikila's is that they're rocking runners. That will be for a follow up post. But for now,
while i worry about sizing, i'm just thinking about Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia. Keen to learn more about not just a great athlete but a great spirit, too. May be one of the best things that VFF has done is getting more of us to learn about the inspiration for their shoe's name-sake.(quick update on sizing here - take away: stick with kso sizing)
Related Resources
- VFF article index
- Solving Calve issues when first running in VFF's
- How to Fit VFF's
- Running Barefoot vs Shoes: videos
- Running Shoes as Single Factor THinking
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
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
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