Weekly Learning: Number One

 I might try a new weekly or semi regular installment of a concept called weekly (even if it isn't) learning. Mostly thoughts on what I've read or experienced in clinic.  I'll see how it evolves.  I've been thinking that it would be good practice to sit and think about the week.  

A win:  Had a patient that was getting repeated knee pain for months after exactly half mile of running.  Swelling on the outside lateral knee.  I had treated the foot and hip and knee in all various combos.  Big rocks were checked and rechecked.  One evening I sat and throught through the anatomy and reviewed some old French Anatomy notes I have.  Taken from the 1800's before Fascia wasn't eliminated.  I reviewed an old Guy Voyer video and throught through some joint jumping techniques that I have learned from a Guy seminar taught by the amazing Brian Murer.  Some individuals will have a lateral sesamoid bone and can have various IT band attachments (up to 5).  I worked the tissue and joint pumped the joint in various ways.  Two days later I got a text he had run 5 miles with no pain or swelling!  Pretty cool.  

A Loss:  A profesional runner I have worked with retired from foot pain.  It was a frustrating experience for him, to state it mildly.  I'd get to check it every 5-6 weeks.  I have probably read more about the foot in the last year than any other anatomy to try to figure this out.  Worked on trying to create exercises to emphasis better control in the foot and in the body.  Just nothing ever clicked.  Very bummed for him.  The goal for any athlete is to retire because they aren't good enough or they have accomplished what they wanted to.  Not to let injury decide for you.  Very humbling to know you couldn't help.  

But it also puts into clarity the importance of keeping learning, keep thinking, keep tinkering.  I'll cross paths again with injured athletes from various things.  I owe it to that future athlete to get better.  When an athlete trust their career and dreams to help keep them healthy,  it's not a thing to take lightly.  Keep learning, get better.

The Adductor Magnus really has 4 parts if you take the blood vessel areas as zones.  Zone one acts as a hip stabilizer, 2 and 3 are middle zone and are conductors of movement.  Zone 4 is basically acting like another hamstring.  Interesting stuff.  

Why Do We Train

Why do we train?

To answer this question becomes the foundation for the rest of the story.  Get this wrong and your trajectory is off and you will miss the mark.

Better to go slowly in the right direction than quickly in the wrong.  

Filter One:  Why do we train?

Here are some common answers.  To be better at my sport.  Let's break this down a bit further.  To be a better football player, would be completely different than being a better runner.  Does a better runner mean I run faster or run further? 

To be healthier.  What does health mean to you?  Less body fat, more muscle, better cardiovascular capacity, better bone density? 

To look different.  Growing up as a kid in the 80's I wanted muscles like Rocky.  Some people want to get bigger, some people want to get smaller.  

To Feel better.  Training has a calming, almost euphoric result.  Brain producing BDNF produces less anxiety.  Some train to deal with depression or sadness.  Mental health from training can be just as great as the physical. 

Filter Two:  What is the most precise description to the answer of filter one.  Example.  To better at sport.  Football.  I'm a little small.  I need to get bigger.  Fat don't fly, so I need to put body armor on.  AKA...muscles.  My goal is hypertrophy.  

Example.  I want to be better runner.  I want to run faster.  How do I run faster.  This can be a bit more complicated.  Lets go through a few scenarios.  I get niggles here and there that disrupts my training blocks.  Training for this scenario is figuring out why you can't handle load.  My goal is capacity of my tissues.

Am I to big?  Again, fat don't fly, so perhaps better body composition is in order.  My goal is better body comp.  

I am generally weaker than the accepted norm for my level of compotition.  But as a runner/biker/climber/ weight gain may not be desirable.  My goal is strength without the additional hypertrophy.  

Filter Three:  What are the best exercises to choose to reach the desired outcomes.  Best becomes individual.  Individual aspects will vary widely.  Mobility, technique, training history, injury history, limb size will all provide unique data points to consider.  Most importantly, does it get a yes from the first two filters.  

Example.  Is the lying leg curl a good exercise.  Strength.  Probably better choices.  Hypertrophy, I might keep this.  Running faster, def better options.  Rehabbing a hamstring strain, I might keep this one in.  

Common pitfalls to better training.

As Dan John says "keep the goal the goal."  Losing focus on why you are in the gym is easy to do.  We get enamored with toys, exercises we saw on social media, or what are friends are doing. 

We get caught up in a certain exercise.  A barbell is only a tool.  A back squat with a straight bar, deadlift or bench has come to be the holy trinity.  Please remember, those are a sport in and of itself.  Even powerlifters have now devised bars that are more ergonomically designed to support the gain of strength without risking joint health.  Being dogmatic with a straight bar is foolish.

Being stuck with prescribed ROM.  I never was able to figure out why a 45lb weight plate is 17.72 inches in diameter.  Why the barbell is 8.5" off the ground.  Manipulate the ROM for your best health and for the desires of your goal.  Perhaps raising up the plates by 6" allowing the bar to be 14.5" off the ground is the best for your hypertrophy goals?

Going from one thing to another.  Not sticking with a thing long enough to see it through the end.  

Sticking with something to long is the other end of that quandary.  How you became a 400lb deadlifter, will not be how you become a 500lb deadlifter.  Training and special exercises will most likely need to change. 

Mistaking getting good at an exercise for thinking that it has proper carry over.  This probably gets filed under picking better exercises.  Thinking that you put 40lb on your bench and thinking that you will be a better football player is very rarely true.  

Seeking fatigue.  I think this is one of the biggest pitfalls.  People think that getting tired is a good thing.  Just because you get tired, doesn't mean you had a good workout or that something positive happened.  Just like busy doesn't equal productive.    

Training like you have always trained.  For a few years after I was done with bobsledding, I found myself still training like I was going to push a bobsled.  Except I wasn't.  My mobility was deteriorating, my aerobic base didn't exist, and I was starting to feel beat up.  But it was what felt comfortable.  I still felt "strong" because I could lift a lot of weight, but it was not improving my quality of life, in fact it was hurting it.  My filter was still in "to be better at a sport, when I needed it to be healthier, 

How we train should change when lifestyle, goals and circumstances change.  How we did something should not be the reason for how we do something now.  Use these three filters to devise a better plan.  Be wary of the pitfalls, and above all have fun in the process.  Training should never end, so if it's not fun, it will.