May 25 2013

Creating torque for pelvic floor activation

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that I am passionate about movement quality and using movement to help reduce aches and pains. A big influence in my decision to go to massage school was the impact Kelly Starrett and his MobilityWOD had on me, and how self-maintenance did wonders for those nagging aches and pains my clients experienced, along with what I experienced myself. His new book, Becoming A Supple Leopard was released not too long ago and it’s doing very well. I couldn’t be more excited that there’s a reference for people to educate themselves on movement quality, along with simple self-maintenance exercises that can be performed with minimal equipment. Granted, he can take things too far with the folks in his YouTube videos, so don’t get caught up in the “deeper and more painful must be better” mentality.

Creating torque is a concept that I first heard from Kelly a while ago, but he has a great definition in his book that I’d like to share: “Torque: Something that produces or tends to produce torsion or rotation; the moment of a force or system of forces tending to cause rotation.” When it comes to creating torque at the hips, applying a bit of lateral rotation (external rotation) has the ability to change the motor recruitment a bit; particularly for the squat and deadlift. Here’s a video Kelly uploaded almost 6 months ago:

As you can see, hips can play a role in back position and, therefore, back health. In the midst of knowing about this, I created a seminar at the gym that I call the Mobility & Motor Control Clinic. It’s limited to 5 people and we discuss a number of topics, one of which is creating torque. Here’s a photo from a recent MMCC:

I’ve modified it over the weeks, especially as I learn more, but it’s been quite fun. I try to help people understand that mobility comes from improved motor control. You can stretch all you want, but if you’re not locking it in with controlled movement, or you don’t develop a reflexive response to movement, then you probably won’t see any significant changes. Creating torque, in my opinion, is one of those helpful tools in creating a good reflexive response while locking in certain musculature that might otherwise delay in its firing pattern.

A blog I began following over the last few months posted recently on course notes for DNS B. DNS is Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization and is based on developmental kinesiology. In the blog post, Zac Cupples, physical therapist and operator of the blog, describes how external rotation “kicks in the pelvic floor musculature.” Check it out:

I work in a gym that trains predominantly females, so this was wonderful to hear. Not to say that men aren’t susceptible to pelvic floor issues, it’s just that the men who’ve come through our gym doors don’t run into the bathroom 3 reps into certain movements because they’re afraid they’re going to wet themselves. There could be other problems I’m unaware of, though, especially with men in relation to pelvic floor issues, so I apologize in advance for any ignorance. I am only limited by my experiences over the last 2 years.

I wanted to also give a quick demo with the set-up for my favorite lift: deadlift. The first 3 reps I just walked to the bar and pulled the weight. The next three I consciously turned my knees out and pulled. I could feel my glutes a lot more and, although it’s hard to tell, the arches in my feet felt a little higher. I find that it’s much easier to avoid valgus knee when you initiate a movement with lateral rotation at the hip.

Some common faults I see when people try to create torque at their hips is the compensation of hip flexion and/or knee flexion. Or they will turn their feet out. You don’t want anything to move or change positions except your knees rotating out. Not pushing out (abduction), rotating out.

Like any form of exercise, making your set-up a habit takes time and awareness for a while. As you “kick in” your pelvic floor with squats and deadlifts, it’s inevitable that your pelvic floor health improves over time. Be patient, be persistent, and deadlift. That’s how results are made.

Jeromie

May 16 2013

5/3/1 and my own assessment

For those of you who’ve followed my stuff for a long time, you know that I struggle with being consistent. I’ve tried various programs with little luck of sticking to it long enough to see progress. My biggest problem is structure. If it isn’t written by someone else, I have a hard time knowing how many sets I should do and how much weight I should put on the bar. Should I do 5 sets or 4 sets? More? Less? Where do warm-ups fit in? Should I do 70% or 80%? 85 or 90%? Should I take it under 70% and go for reps? What should I do for accessory work? Etc., etc., etc.

A couple years ago, I was introduced to Wendler’s 5/3/1 program. It’s boasted as a simple, but effective strength gaining protocol and the people who were using it were seeing great improvements. I ended up with a PDF of the book and tucked it into a file on my computer for two years. One day about 6 weeks ago (maybe 2 months now), I bought an iPad and loaded my PDF books onto it so I could read them when I had downtime. I was thoroughly impressed with the simplicity of 5/3/1 and decided to use it as a template for a client of mine. One comment she’s made is that she feels like she was slacking this whole time and now she feels like she’s actually pushing herself. It creates less demand and fatigue on the nervous system which leaves her feeling refreshed after her lift. Something everyone should consider about their own programming – do you finish and feel good while making progress, or are you finishing with a desire to nap, leaving your energy zapped? One of the two will lead to quitting or injury, so pay attention to your body’s cues.

A week or so after I wrote her modified program, I decided I wanted to try the non-modified version on myself. When I was talking with some gym buddies about this program a couple years ago, they sent me an excel spreadsheet laying out a year’s worth of 4-week cycles. Each new cycle adds 5 or 10 pounds, depending on the lift, for steady and consistent progress. The only problem I encountered is this program is all about working at a percentage of your 1-rep max or your calculated 1-rep max using submaximal weight and rep ranges. With school coupled with work, my training took the backseat. Food and sleep (besides homework) became the priority of my free time. I work from ~6-11am or 12 pm Monday-Friday, 8-11am on Saturday, help with online training, had clinic once a week (this quarter is twice a week), school is from 6-9 or 10pm Monday-Thursday (this quarter is Monday-Wednesday), plus seminars I attend over various weekends (I actually have one this Sunday, coincidentally). My lack of training since October meant that I didn’t really have an accurate idea of what my 1-rep max or my calculated 1-rep max would be for any of my lifts. So I guessed.

The weeks are laid out as 5-5-5+ the first week, 3-3-3+ the second week, 5-3-1+ the third week, and a deload week. The + indicates that you should be going for as many reps as possible beyond the prescribed rep range. The nice thing about having all of the percentages laid out in an excel spreadsheet is that my weight, sets, and reps are laid out for me in black in white and all I have to do is warm-up and load the bar. I often use my deload week weight as my warm-up weight, too. Accessory exercises are whatever you want them to be based on your goals. Personally, I prefer mostly pulling movements and hamstring-specific movements. And on days that I don’t have enough time, I just do my main lift and be done until I have more time for accessory work. That could mean later that day, the next day, or a day later in the week, but I don’t stress about it and I am finally being consistent. There’s nothing to think about, really, it’s all done for me. I can utilize my accessory work to keep me from being bored and use whatever set and rep schemes I like. I’ve finished my 5-3-1+ for my deadlift and bench thus far this week and I’ve been feeling good. And strong. Well, not that strong, but stronger than I’ve felt in the last 8 months since school started.

The reason I bought my iPad was to utilize the filming feature to help clients with form. And for pictures to brag about their accomplishments when I remember to take them. I decided to film myself doing my 1+ set for deadlift. I was able to get 5 reps, so I probably guessed pretty accurately (I think I was able to get 6 on bench). I wanted to know what it looked like and wanted the opinion of my eFriend Brad Gatens. He said my hips looked high which brought my shoulders a bit forward in front of the bar which would make it harder to pull back. Dave Tate wants your hips to drop straight down as if you’re trying to set your nuts onto the bar (his words, not mine).

I am going to work on keeping my hips lower so my shoulder are back more during my deload week so I can see how they feel and see if I can maintain that for my next cycle. I also need to work on getting tighter before I pull (I was trying to focus on my breathing and bracing). Here’s the video.

I take a sumo stance because I am 6’3″ and it shortens the range-of-motion a bit. It’s also been helpful in maintaining a neutral spine. I actually feel much better with a conventional stance after using the sumo stance for a while. Filming and critiquing is the way things are done with the online coaching program my boss offers, so it’s nice to be able to utilize this tool for myself.

Just a fun FYI, my client on the modified program did 195# for 13 reps on her 1+ for deadlift. Beastmode. I’ll keep you up-to-date on how things are progressing and I’ll try to remember to film more movements for my own self-critique. We all need a coaches eye, even if it’s just to make sure you’re still moving well.

Jeromie

May 8 2013

SMRT Reads – The Video Edition

Class was cancelled tonight, so I decided to throw up a quick post of videos I’ve come across over the last few months. And in exciting news, I got engaged over the weekend. Let’s hope she doesn’t get her eyes checked anytime soon.

For your viewing pleasure.

Jeromie

P.s. “I’m feeling suppler and leoparder already.”

May 4 2013

The Calorie Conundrum

This is a re-post of an article I wrote that was influenced by Go Kaleo‘s post titled: “Adrenal Fatigue as a Cover for Starvation.” I used the same calculators that she uses and her chart is below with the same adrenal fatigue link underneath of that. I previously failed to give proper credit for the topic, but I felt this information is too important not to share. I hope you find this information as helpful and useful as I have.

This might be the most important post I’ve written. The reason I say this is because it’s about fueling your body for its daily energy needs. When your body has enough fuel, it performs its best. When it doesn’t, it slows itself down. This is called the resting metabolic rate, or RMR.

I’ve recently come across an interesting concept about meeting the basic energy needs of the human body. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy you expend at rest. Typically the example used is if you were in bed-rest, the number of calories your body would need to operate with little-to-no movement is your BMR. The second thing to look at is total energy expenditure, or TEE. This incorporates activity into the BMR equation. I’ve found two calculators for figuring out this equation that I wanted to link:

Calculator 1
Calculator 2 (link acts up on occasion)

Personally, I’ve been playing around with calculator 1 more, so I will be using that for my examples.

Destroying your health for aesthetics is not worth it.
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I say that because in an attempt to lose weight, most people reduce their caloric intake to lower their RMR all-the-while increasing their energy expenditure via exercise to “burn” more calories than they consume. I think this might be doing more harm than good for most people and I hope to open your eyes to some examples. I want to start by finding the BMR of an 18-year-old female who’s 5’4″ & 130 pounds. Using calculator 1, it is determined that her BMR is 1484. When plugging activity into the calculator, let’s say she does 30 minutes of moderate exercise, 1 hour of light exercise, and 1 hour of standing/walking. Add 8 hours of sleep and you have a TEE of 2343. So, for her size and activity level, her body wants 2300+ calories. If she were on bed-rest, she would need at least 1400 calories.

How many of you know women who are only taking in 1200 calories or less? How many of them are older than 18, taller than 5’4″ and weigh more than 130 pounds?

Let’s do the math on a hypothetical woman in her late thirties. Leaving everything else the same, I changed the age to 39, the weight to 190 pounds and the height to 5’7″. The BMR increased to 1581 and TEE increased to 2836. 1200 wouldn’t even be half of what this hypothetical 39-year-old’s body would need her to consume to fuel her daily life. It’s over 300 calories less than what her body would need if she were on bed-rest.

If you think about it, what is the hot topic right now with fatigue? Adrenal fatigue. Let’s look at the signs and symptoms compared to anorexia (or starvation):

Adrenal fatigue:

Difficulty getting out of bed in the morning
Non-refreshing sleep
Inability to handle everyday stress
Feeling overwhelmed by relatively minor challenges
Mild depression
Struggling to get through the day
Tendency to avoid conflict
Ongoing fatigue not relieved by sleep
Weariness
Lack of energy
Lethargy
Mental fogginess
Fuzzy thinking
Frequent infections
Longer recovery times from illness, injury, or trauma
Intolerance to cold
Hair loss
Lightheadedness
Low blood pressure
Increased cravings for salty foods, sugary foods, refined carbohydrates
Caffeine dependence
Low Libido

Anorexia/Starvation:

Extreme weight loss
Thin appearance
Abnormal blood counts
Fatigue
Insomnia
Dizziness or fainting
A bluish discoloration of the fingers
Hair that thins, breaks or falls out
Soft, downy hair covering the body
Absence of menstruation
Constipation
Dry skin
Intolerance of cold
Irregular heart rhythms
Low blood pressure
Dehydration
Osteoporosis
Swelling of arms or legs
Low libido

Looks like there are many similarities, aren’t there?

Image via this link

With no data to support my next statement, I honestly believe that the people who’re trying to survive on a caloric intake less than their BMR are running on adrenaline and cortisol. It’s only a matter of time before things start to really slow down. For example, a study titled “Weight loss, weight maintenance, and adaptive thermogenesis” was recently emailed to me in a discussion about caloric restriction. Participants were given a protein-enriched formula with 51.9g of protein, 50.2g of carbohydrates, and 6.9g of fat. This was given 3 times a day for 8 weeks. RMR was measured at the beginning, after 8 weeks, after 20 weeks, and after 52 weeks.

The caloric intake of the formula was just under 5oo, so the participants were given just over 1400 calories a day for 8 weeks. Resting metabolic rate (RMR) expectedly declined, but what opened my eyes was the fact that a year later, their RMR hadn’t changed. They basically slowed the participant’s metabolism down so much that it was still below their baseline metabolic rate 52 weeks later. The authors concluded this may lead to weight gain. It’s also known as yo-yo dieting. The participants’ caloric intake didn’t go below 1000 and it still demonstrated how caloric restriction can wreak havoc on your body. No wonder people gain and lose those same 10-20 pounds year after year.

The conundrum here is what do you do? Well… whatever you want to do. But here’s what I would suggest considering:

1. Figure out your BMR so your calories never go that low again.
2. Figure out your TEE so you know the amount of fuel your body needs.
3. Monitor your caloric intake – just do it long enough to monitor how much you’re actually taking in and what it would look like to eat enough to reach a caloric intake that will satisfy your TEE.
4. If you’re trying to lose weight, cut 300-500 calories from your TEE. The 18-year-old example would need 1800-2000 calories and the 39-year-old example would need 2300-2500.
5. Give your body the time it needs to heal. It could take months.
6. Adjust your TEE as body composition changes happen.
7. Enjoy life. And enjoy the food.

Depending on how many times you’ve restricted your calories and/or exercised yourself to exhaustion will depend on how you respond to refueling your body with the appropriate calories that it has needed all along. It won’t all be pretty, but here are some things to expect:

1. Sleep. Your body utilizes this as an opportunity to repair itself, so you might find yourself in need of a regular nap while your body heals. Adjust the sleep dial on calculator 1 and watch the TEE go up. You know those pesky cravings you get when you’re sleep deprived? It might be your body telling you it’s lacking fuel.
2. Body composition changes. You might gain weight, you might lose weight. I have no idea how your body will respond, but with enough time and an appropriate reduction of your TEE, you will be better off in the long run.
3. Your libido might go up. Hooray for sexy time!
4. Your energy levels might go up. You deprive yourself of food for long enough, that’s an obvious one.
5. Sleep quality might improve. You should already know I place great importance on sleep.

Some things you will also need to consider:

1. Don’t punish your body with exercise. Use it to show yourself how truly strong your are by sticking with strength training at a low intensity.
2. You should stop the cardio. This includes high-intensity interval training. There have been studies showing that prolonged cardio is detrimental to thyroid health, which is the last thing you need if you’re trying to heal. It makes sense that if you decrease your RMR, with your thyroid hormones highly involved in metabolism and energy, your thyroid hormone production would slow down as a result. Exchange cardio/HIIT for walking or napping. I will say this: after you start to feel better and have been fueling your body adequately, I bet the negative health effects of running are a side-effect of eating too little. Make sure to use the calculator when you feel healthy enough to start running again so you minimize the risk of hormone disruption.
3. Building a better relationship with food. I am not qualified in this area, I just know the value in the psychology behind building healthy habits. You might think I’m reading your mind when I say you probably have a lot of fear, guilt, and shame when it comes to food and your relationship with it. Find an appropriate outlet to let go of those feelings and start giving your body what it needs: energy.
4. Don’t intermittent fast or follow a ketogenic diet. Feed and heal your body before you start to play with your macronutrient timing and percentages.
5. Don’t use stimulants like coffee, energy drinks, energy pills, and the like.
6. Remember micronutrients. Eating more doesn’t mean eating more junk. Keep your overall health in mind.

It’s hard to move often if your body doesn’t have the fuel. It’s hard to move smart if you don’t have the energy to connect your brain with your body. Don’t go hungry anymore. Treat yourself with the respect, love, joy, and health that you truly deserve.

Jeromie

Apr 16 2013

3 Fixes for the Hip Hinge

Today’s post was offered as a guest post for Everyday Paleo.

I know it was posted in October, but I hope you’ve been working on a proper hip hinge. As a trainer, I wanted to address three common things I like to “fix” with clients. I say “fix” because there’s a trend in the fitness industry that there are “right” and “wrong” ways to move. I disagree. I would say there’s more optimal and less optimal. In order to understand the first critique, I want to introduce you to the righting reflex.

The righting reflex is the way your body corrects itself when it’s taken out of its normal upright position. When you lead with the head, the rest of the body follows; this is why a cat always lands on its feet. When it comes to hip hinging, the natural inclination is to initiate the movement with the head up looking forward. This is your righting reflex at work. It can be very effective when you’re lifting maximal loads, but when you’re training submaximal loads, you’re training in a position of increased cervical extension. This leads me to my first fix.

1. Keeping a neutral head position

When you’re in the start position of your deadlift, which position do you think is more optimal at keeping your neck in a position of minimal strain?

If you chose “A” you are correct.
The way I like to explain my correction to clients is how would you finish the deadlift?

If you chose “A”, you are correct.
You should be able to see how starting in the first position “B”, and keeping all things stable and rigid, would mean you would finish in the second position “B”. That’s quite far fetched because of the righting reflex, but exaggerations make for great teaching tools. I use the cue “tuck your chin” when the client is in the starting position. You could also have them pretend they’re trying to hold a tennis ball or an apple against their neck using their chin. Because facial drivers can help, looking up (without moving your head) and pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth can help you feel like your head is up, without actually having your head up. This will help clients start the movement the same way they finish. Speaking of finishing positions, this leads me to my second fix.

2. Finishing your hinge with hip extension

This should seem obvious: if you’re doing a hip hinge, standing up and finishing the movement would equate to hip extension. Except our bodies are the greatest compensators. For example, in both of these deadlifts, the lovely model Nicole has stood all the way up. Can you tell which one she finished with her hips and which one she compensated by using her lumbar spine?

If you answered that “A” is hip extension, you are correct.
Both deadlifts appear as though she stood all the way up, but one used hip extension and the other used her lower back to compensate. Notice how her ribs flare up in photo “B”, as well. Kinda hard to get an ab workout when you force one of its attachments way up like that. And yes, you should be getting an “ab workout” every time you life heavy because your core should be braced to keep your middle stable when you lift. As awkward as it sounds, as you’re standing up from your hinge, pretend you have a dollar bill between your cheeks and you don’t want to drop it. You’ll be able to stand up and extend your hips without as much extension coming from your low back. For the third fix, I’d like to discuss standing up.

3. Utilizing the posterior chain in the hip hinge

The muscles involved in the hip hinge are primarily the large muscles of the posterior hip: the glutes and the hamstrings. In an anterior dominant society, our quads and hip flexors tend to want to take the brunt of the load, including exercises intended for muscles of the posterior chain. This is better seen with movement, so I filmed a quick video to show the difference between loading the glutes and hamstrings and loading the quads:

If you watch the bar path in the first three deadlifts off the rack, Nicole was able to keep her weight shifted back to load her glutes and hamstrings. She then stopped and changed the bar path to load the quads by shooting her knees forward as soon as the bar passed them. You want to make sure to keep your weight back so your knees stay behind the path of the bar. As I mention earlier, this doesn’t mean it’s wrong, and it’s definitely not wrong to train the anterior chain, but it’s my opinion that hip hinging exercises should be loading the backside, not the front. Save that for squats.

These are just three of the things that I look for when I am coaching the hip hinge in person and online. What are the things you look for?

Jeromie
Move Often. Move Smart.

Apr 1 2013

SMRT Reads – April Fool’s Day

The nice thing about being a UWS student is that I have 2 weeks off for spring break. This is the beginning of my 2nd week, and I have plans to spend this weekend at the beach with my lady.

Right now, thanks to my school’s library, I have Secrets of Primitive Patterns to watch and I now have time to read a book or two that isn’t required for a class. I’m about 75 pages or so into The Physics of Superheroes.

Does that make me a primitive superhero?

Here is a compilation of videos for you viewing pleasure. The last video is the parody, considering many people have already taken advantage of April Fool’s jokes today.

I want to preface the videos with a quick note: Kelly Starrett’s MobilityWOD was a big influence in my decision to go to massage school. I wanted to be licensed to help people with their mobility using my own hands and intuition instead of coaching them on using several of the tools available to me, such as a lacrosse ball, the foam roller, and pull-up bands.

With the knowledge I have now, I know less is more, and the overall goal is to create change. You don’t need to feel like a muscle is ripping off, nor do you need to get in so deep that it makes you cringe or bring a tear to your eye. It’s unnecessary. With that said, I do have some videos by Kelly embedded below, with the caveat that you do not need to get as aggressive as he does. It’s about change, not damage.

Back to our regularly scheduled program: enjoy.

Jeromie

Mar 14 2013

SMRT Reads – Pi Day

Happy Pi Day, everyone!
It’s also another “holiday,” but I’ll just let you click on the link to find out.

Class ended early tonight because it was mostly review for finals next week. Second quarter is almost done which will be the halfway point of the program. Considering I wanted to be licensed yesterday, I’m pretty excited to have another quarter almost completed.

Today’s SMRT Reads are more training oriented. First up we have 6 Kettlebell Exercises You’re NOT doing But Should Be. I particularly like the last two. I’ve taken a liking to kettlebells over the last 6 months, and I am hoping to attend some certifications in the near future.

Which is a great segue into this:

The next blog post is a Random Thoughts article by Bret Contreras. This is the article that I discovered Sam Giguere’s training videos on YouTube and they’re badass (random thought #10). This is also where I discovered my next post.

Ben Bruno wrote a training 101 article for Livestrong and I’ve recommended it to many people who were looking for some guidance or couldn’t afford training and wanted something more to do than run. I like its simplicity and inclusion of all the important basic elements of a training program: push, pull, hinge, and knee dominant movements.

Lastly, if you’re going to be performing things like push-ups or dips, this is a very helpful tutorial. And Justin is awesome:

Jeromie

Mar 7 2013

A case for minimizing polyunsaturated fatty acids

I came across a study recently titled “Consumption of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup does not increase liver fat or ectopic fat deposition in muscles.“

When I saw that the increased consumption was delivered via low fat milk, I realized that in order to see drastic changes in body fat, the study would need more unsaturated fatty acids; specifically, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Never mind the fact that the study was only 10 weeks and that triglycerides elevated (not a good thing), but the body is a system full of systems. You need a trigger to set off a cascade of issues, and in this case, it’s inflammation. That lead me to search around for some old research and blog posts I’ve come across about PUFAs.

There’s “Corn oil in treatment of ischemic heart disease” where we find things like:

There were much better results from the control group eating animal fats than either of the oil groups. Yes, that includes the beloved and overrated olive oil.
And there’s always having to stop the trial because “oil” caused heavy glycosuria in the diabetic subjects:

Another fun one? How about “Cirrhosis and corn oil.” And we also have “Cirrhosis and fish oil.”

I guess if you didn’t know what foods contain high levels of PUFAs, now is the time to share. They’re the foods with large amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, such as:

- Corn oil
- Soybean oil
- Sunflower oil
- Safflower oil
- Peanut oil
- Cottonseed oil
- Flaxseeds
- Chia seeds
- Fish oil supplements

These oils should only comprise ~10% or less of your dietary fat intake with an n6:n3 ratio of 3:1 or less. Yet if you read food labels, you’ll notice they’re in just about everything processed and/or refined. Especially if you add the highly-processed canola oil to this list. This not only increases intake above 10%, it would not surprise me if the n6:n3 ratio for most people was 15:1 or more. This is why I recommend eating out as little as possible – the cheap oils are the refined oils high in PUFAs.

On the other hand, you have “Dietary Saturated Fatty Acids Reverse Inflammatory and Fibrotic Changes in Rat Liver Despite Continued Ethanol Administration” and “Dietary saturated fatty acids down-regulate cyclooxygenase-2 and tumor necrosis factor alfa and reverse fibrosis in alcohol-induced liver disease in the rat.”

Thank you butter, ghee, lard, tallow, and coconut oil.

Some other interesting information on the topic of PUFAs can be found:
Here
Here
And here

One last note from the first study above on sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup – don’t forget to read the fine print:

You wouldn’t want your subjects to gain weight when ConAgra, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, and the Corn Refiners Association have given you funds, right?

We need to eat up all this corn somehow.

Jeromie

Feb 16 2013

Mobility for truckers and road trips

A friend of mine saw my post A Quick Tip For Those Who Sit and inquired about what he could do as a truck driver. I’m sure he sits for many hours per trip, so I can understand why he reached out to me. This can also be applied to anyone who drives for multiple hours, in general.

When you think about the position you’re in while driving, you have hip flexion, knee flexion, pronation, internal rotation of the shoulders, and more than likely forward head posture. Not to mention any tilting or rotation that may be occurring at the hips or elsewhere. That’s a big load. You will want to invest in a few “tools”, as well. If you want to pack a foam roller and use it at rest stops, that’s great, but something smaller is probably more feasible. I would recommend a lacrosse ball or a tennis ball (or both, depending on your mood). The lacrosse ball can be quite intense, so it’s nice to have a less intense alternative with the tennis ball. And some people like to use The Stick, but I prefer a regular old rolling pin. It gets the job done and I only paid $2.00 for it at the secondhand store.

Now that you have some tools, you can utilize stretching and self-myofascial release techniques to open up some of the areas of concern. First, for the hips, we have a hip flexor stretch that can be done in the passenger seat of the truck, if there’s room for your head. If not, it can be done at a picnic table at a rest stop or you can just go into a lunge position without elevating the foot.

As you can see, the rolling pin will come quite in handy. The second and third video is for the hip rotators. These are delicious, I might add.

Now that you have some drills for the hips, let’s look at the shoulder. Start with some pec minor self-massage with one of your balls; you can throw in levator scapula work, too because it’s usually necessary. Follow that up with a pec stretch.

And the stretch you can just do in a doorway, like this:

If two at a time is uncomfortable, or you don’t have a doorway, just do one arm at a time on the corner of a wall or building.

Another area that is often overlooked is pronation of the forearms. We do it to drive, sit at a computer and type, and rip a barbell off the floor. You know, your forearm also supinates………. So, break up some of that heavenly goodness, while you’re at it.

Lastly, I’d like to add that forward head posture can add a lot of unnecessary tension to the upper back and neck. So here’s a quick chin tuck technique that might help give the neck extensors a break by strengthening some of the neck flexors.

Coincidentally, I recently came across a product made by BackJoy® that was designed to keep your hips more aligned during prolonged sitting. Do I own one? No. Do I know if it works? No. But I know people who use it and love it, so I can’t knock it until I try it for myself. You might like it and find that it helps with the hours accumulated on the road. Click here for more information.

I hope this gave you some ideas of how to stay mobile and loose on those long trips hauling goods across the state.

Jeromie

Feb 10 2013

SMRT Reads 2-10-13

Today’s post is a bit of a throwback. See, these articles I came across in December of 2011 and January of 2012, but I saved them (via the “Favorites” option on Twitter) for posts like these where I accumulate the information all in one place.

One of the blogs that really gave me insight into the biomechanics that I look for to this day is 70′s Big. When it comes to foot placement, bar placement, hand placement, cues, and all-around beat mode, 70′s Big is one of my favorites. Justin posted Q & A 10 back in December of 2011 which gave some insight to deadlift mechanics and pull-up programming that I thought you could learn from, as well.

One of my favorite posts from this blog is “Building a Solid Foundation” in which I feel it’s important to look at foot health. They’re your “foundation”, or your base for movement, and if things go wrong at the feet, it translates up the whole kinetic chain. 70′s Big has two posts on the feet titled Foot Awareness and Foot Drills to help you be aware of your feet, tied together with drills to help strengthen them.

One thing I’d like to address is easing your way into minimalist shoes. Although I agree with concept behind minimalist shoes, own minimalist shoes, and wear shoes with a flat sole when they’re not minimalist, it’s easy to overdo it and jump in too fast, too soon. This article on The Barefoot Running Injury Epidemic sheds some light on the subject.

Now that we have your feet ready and willing, might as well strengthen your hips and hit them with some mobility drills. The first is by Ben Bruno on hip exercises you’ve never tried before (although, you may have by this point). The second article is by Adam Vogel on breaking up your hips to fix your squats.

Now it’s time to study for my pathology midterm.

Jeromie

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SMRT Reads 2-10-13

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