The Benefits of the Bear Crawl

I can still recall the hatred I had for the Bear Crawl exercise in full football pads during August high school practice.  We used to start each practice with agility/warm up sessions with two cones ten yards apart.  The only drill I still remember with great disdain is the bear crawl.  Why?  It was hard, uncomfortable and when you do it all out, super taxing.  I was a fast sprinter.  Slow bear crawler.

Lately, I've been reading a lot about the Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization technique.  Really cool stuff.  Pavel Kolars work.  To dumb it down, they look at the bodies innate reflexes that we all are born with. Baby has no problem crawling and squatting and reaching and rolling.   Pain, posture and bad exercise selection can start to mess with these reflexes and we lose the ability to squat, lunge, reach ect.

By relearning some basic moves we are carving out better movement and pain free movement.

Back to crawling.  When was the last time you did a crawl?  It may have been high school for me.  I know I'm going to start playing around with them again.  It will reinforce cross crawl patterns and provide some core work and shoulder stability.  Regardless, there are performance carry overs.

I asked Stuart McMillan about it.  Stu is a tremendously smart strength coach that works in the UK with their track and field federation.  He works with the worlds best, 10 seconds 100 meter guys.  He uses it to increase work capacity.  The video below is them towing a sled.  How's that for a kicker, hard made harder.  It builds the work capacity without sacrificing quality of your next day efforts.  Sleds are great in that they are concentric exercises so you don't get sore.  He also stated you can't neglect the mental aspects of it.  It's hard and builds that tenacity, won't quit spirit.



Insert the bear crawl back into your exercise rotation.  Even if it's just part of your warm up, I think you will find some athletic and movement benefits from it.    PS:  Keep a look out for Stu's Blog to be hitting the internet soon!

The Latest Service at Train Out Pain Chiropractic: The Watt Bike

After months and months of debate, I decided to go ahead and purchase The Watt Bike.  In a few weeks it will be another service offered.  You will be able to test your peak power.  How many watts can you generate?

Why is this important?  If you are trying to improve as a power athlete you should be able to improve your power score.  If your training program is going well, your scores should increase.  If your training program doesn't improve, you need to switch up your training!

Insanity, by definition, is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

You will also be able to see which leg is doing more work.  Do you pedal more with your right leg vs your  left leg?  This is vital information.  The overworked leg is the leg that will over time develop more tightness and potentially more injury.

You will see this with a graph that is running right as you pedal.

You can try different positions and see what decrease or increases your power.  Real time results.

The picture I took was after my first 1000 meter time trial.  1 min 15.24 seconds.  Power avg was 423 watts.  Left leg was 51%, not to bad.  Cadence was 87 revolutions/per minute.  Not shown, was my peak power test that I did before this.  I maxed out at 1370 watts.

The Watt Bike, I believe, will become a vital training partner for cyclists.  I think it will also be able to measure important variables for non cyclists as well.  It's endorsed by UK Cycling and has just started to hit the United States.  Crossfit is actually starting to use them for some testing and competitions.

Aerobic capacity, max power, average power and pedaling technique, test yourself.  Simply put, are you getting better?  Measure it.  I always hear the old line by Peter Drucker, "What gets measured gets done."

Monday Motivation: Preparation Wins

It's Not About the Saturated Fat

For the longest time you and I have been lied too.  Saturated fat is bad for you and will lead to heart disease.  How many times have you heard this?  How many times have you said this?  It has been a few years since I first came to the realization that fat is actually good.  It does good things for the body. (Vit A,D,E,K can only be absorbed with fat) Cholesterol isn't the enemy it's made out to be. (a different post)

These "facts" on the dangers of saturated fat were first came to fruition from some badly reported, some say made up, reports by a guy named Ancel Keys in the mid 50's.  Poor research at best.  He confused saturated fat with trans fat.  Trans Fat is evil.  So yea...you saw some health issues.



Saturated fat has no link to cardiovascular disease.  A new report from the Netherlands, "Saturated fat, Carbohydrates and Cardiovascular Disease," explores the dynamics of this.  Essentially, saturated fat didn't have the impact on CVD.  It raised serum cholesterol slightly.  The carbohydrates (high glycemic) are the real CVD culprits.

So those low fat chips/crackers/cookies that are sold as a health food, not so much.

Is Stretching Just Wasting Your Time?

You will not find a more heated debate then stretching.  Friends, family, athletes, patients other therapist, they may swear by stretching.  Some will swear against it.  I personally find myself assigning less and less stretching for flexibility.  I'm starting to believe most stretching is just increasing sensory input to the muscle.

List your reasons for stretching.  If warming up, injury prevention, be less sore (delayed onset muscle soreness  DOMS), or increase in flexibility were on your list, you may be wasting your time.  All of these reasons have been firmly debunked with science and experiments.

That doesn't mean stretching doesn't have a place or have value.  It looks like stretching can make you feel better.  That is a great reason.  Stretching may decrease pain by increasing sensory input to the muscle.  The article that prompted this blog post is linked at the end. It is a great read that walks you through your thoughts, opinions and your personal dogma on stretching.  The article is called,  "Quite a Stretch."

Monday Motivation: Quotes and Music

Lisfranc Injury Explained

If you follow sports, you may have heard the term Lisfranc Injury thrown around recently with the injury to Houstan Texans quarterback Matt Schaub.

Lisfranc is an often misdiagnosed injury because of its rarity.  It essentially is an injury to the 2nd metatarsal head.  Often times the metatarsal head is displaced dorsally.  There will be swelling, pinpoint tenderness along the tarsometatarsal joint and the inability to bear weight.  When these three symptoms are present, be suspicious.  Another good guideline is that these three are still present 5 days after initial injury.

The Lisfranc joint complex is very important as this transfers energy from the midfoot to forefoot.  Without a stable midfoot you will not be getting up on your toes and plantar flexion will not be effecient.

On evaluation, besides palpating for tenderness along the tarsometarsal complex, check the dorsal pedis artery as it passes over this area.  The forefoot can also be pronated while the hindfoot is stabilized. This will cause pain. The athletes/patient ability to get up on their toes should also be checked.  When xrays are warranted, a weight bearing radiograph should be used as a non weight bearing xray will often not show any displacement.

The mechanism of injury is often a fall.  There can also be a strike or impact to the foot.  Indirectly, the foot can be stationary but the force of the body produces enough torque through rotation into the Lisfranc complex.

There can be various grades of injury from mild sprain to and avulsion fracture.   The treatment is anything from non weight bearing boot for 6-8 weeks to surgery where a screw is put in.