You Must Stretch Your Butt!

I often come across people with low glute flexibility. Most of these people are runners but I also see this issue in people who do Tae kwon-do, personal trainers and the average Joe.

I ask why this issue comes about to myself on a regular basis. My conclusion is that people don't appriciate the long lasting effect of better glute flexibility. When you stretch your hamstrings on a daily basis you will see vast improvements in your movement. The runner can stride easy, the martial artist can kick  higher and the old man finds it much easyer to put his socks on! Buy what does better glute flexibility achieve. 

For a start short glutes is the number one cause for people walking like a duck! Short glutes causes a ridiculous external rotation of the thigh bone which leads to knees pointing out to the side.

Let's also consider that the glutes are a crucial part of hip movement and therefore undergo an incredible amount of work. Let them recuperate with an easy stretch so that they can do their job better. 

The glutes are important for correct hinge actions of the hip such as bending over. They are overlapping muscles to the hamstrings and can result in a much more poor sit and reach test result. Not to mention that you won't be able to pick something off the floor without rounding your back! 

Remember the complexity of the hip. Each muscle of the hip structure requires a considerable amount of stretching. 

Does Running Really Help Boxers?

Traditionally a boxer would run every morning that he trains on. The run may last up to 40 minutes. It's still common practice now. Let's weight up the good, the bad and the ugly! 

The Good

Running improves your endurance. This includes cardiac muscle growth, an increase in red blood cell amount, increased capillarization, Vasal dilation and an increase in muscular endurance.

Some athletes need to make weight. Running is a useful answers to maintaining a consistent  weight without cutting too many calories out of your diet. 

The Bad

Is running sport specific? Arguably but although running will help a fighter bust through a 12 round battle it does not involve explosive bursts of energy that is required for a dynamic punch. 

You build endurance orientated muscles by using endurance orientated exercise. Did you know that type 2 fast twitch muscle fibres can convert to slow twitch oxidative muscle fibres!  What makes this more annoying is that this is not the case for the opposite. Slow twitch muscle fibres will not convert to fast twitch muscle fibres. How annoying! 

The Ugly

It's time to look up the health risks. First of all repetitive stress on the ankles, knees or hips can put training to a brisk stop. Running can invite these types of injuries. 

Some research suggests that intense long distance endurance training causes scaring on the right ventricle of the heart. Cardiac scaring can lower life expectancy and increase the risk of heart disease. 

Practical Usage of this Information

Look at the good. Running is beneficial. I've been privileged to tran with various combat athletes from a variety of different disciplines and they all swear by their running.  The problems are seen when people opt for running as their main form of energy system training. Add explosive elements to your training such as HIIT training and rounds. I would recommend that athletes go about one explosive session for every long distance endurance session. 

Is Over Training a Myth?

I want to start this post with a small but relevant rant. My back is aching from all the lifting I've done this week, I can hardly lift my arm to type and my hamstrings feel although they're about to cramp bloody murder! Like many people who are involved in a lot of sporting activity I often hear people warm me about wearing myself out or "over training." Is there any relevance to this term? I am going to look into the daily habits of 3 elite athletes. Swimmer Michael Phelps, Football (soccer) player Michael Essien and Strong man Mariusz Pidzianowski.

Michael Phelps

According to michaelphelps.net this elite swimmer consumes a whooping 14,000 calories each day. As amazing as that sounds I'm sure you participate that consuming these calories is an absolute effort. It's also very difficult to complete this task on a clean meal plan but eating clean doesn't really concern the Olympic sensation. Here is an overview of his diet:

Breakfast

3 fried eggs, a tump of cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onion and mayonnaise. (I'm not done yet!)

5 egg omelet, 2 pieces of French toast which has been powdered with sugar and 3 chocolate chip pancakes.

Ow yeah and a blow of grits! 

Lunch

A pound of pasta with tomato sauce, 2 large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise which has been made with white bread and an energy drink. 

Dinner

A pound of pasta and tomato sauce, a full pizza and another energy drink. 

This goes hand in hand with a grilling training regiment of 6, 5 hour long training periods within a space of a week.

Michael Essien

Here we have one of Chelsea's star players. A man who sleeps for 14 hours every 24 hours. That is 6 hours more than what is recommended. dailymail.co.uk have published a mention to Essien's sleep and it's effects on his focus. The article also went about noting the physical benefits of higher levels of sleep. 

Mariusz Pidzianowski

Let's talk about athletes diet again. After all it was fun learning about the extreme eating pattern of Phelps but how does a multiple Worlds Strongest Man Champion match up? Here is Pidzianowski's meal plan according to theironsamurai.com:

Breakfast

10 eggs and 2-3 pounds of bacon

Lunch

A double serving of Polish pork chop, sauerkraut and potatoes.

Dinner

Any meat he can grasp with more sauerkraut and potatoes. 

He also takes a series of performance supplements such as Creatine, magnesium and amino acids. He often has a protein shake after his evening session to. 

Now it doesn't sound that bad. I forgot to point out that he eats chocolate and candy in a stupidly high quantity! He says he needs to eat in this manner for energy.

Now as interested as I am in the man mountains eating plan I take more interest in the way he trains. He takes part in a split routine every morning. This is a popular form of weight training where you work a specific muscle group each session. This ensures that you don't train the same muscles back to back for adequate recovery. He then spends his evenings practicing his strong man events. He does this 6 days per week. 

Now he does resistance training twice a day 6 days per week. This completely goes against the standard 3-4 days per week! A rule developed to ensure that the muscles are not over trained. After all the muscles grow in recovery and not during the gym session itself.

What have we learnt from these athletes?

Well they're certainly not normal! But in all seriousness we can point out the the key to their success comes down the habits which support their intense training. 

A. You need adequate calorie intake to train hard

B. you need plenty of rest for your body's recuperation

I take more interest in Pidzianowski than anyone else. It's because of the anaerobic activity that he puts his muscles through and the fact that he only rests for one day per week. How can his muscles develop if he doesn't give them time to grow? 

I like to make a praise to one of the best books I've read on resistance training. It's called the Naked Warrior (I promise it is a book related to fitness!). The author Pavel Tsatsuline talks about the "grease the groove" methodology which simply suggests that we should practice our lifting, not train our lifting. Don't work to over fatigue yourself but lift heavy and influence your nervous system development. There's a lot more to the physiology than what was stated but in a nut shell you can lift multiple times per day and still develop strength and lean mass.

Basically I am a firm believer that correct nutrition and loads of rest aids in a much more relentless training plan. However the human body does have its limitations and you can't train like an elite athlete whilst working regular hours in your everyday profession. Here are signs to look out for:

Elivated or irregular heart rate

Just about any sleep related issue such as insomnia, drowsiness or restlessness

Frequent illness. This is particularly common for anyone on a low calorie diet

Do you have a good sense of humour? 

I'm a big fan of Saturday Night Live and they really put me in giggles with this sketch on Michael Phelps diet. Enjoy? 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_rk0iRE59Q

 

A Quick Explanation of Muscle Mass

I hope this post is of interest to many people as well as the clients who have asked my this question and have therefore persuaded my to go about writing these paragraphs.

This post involves a question that is on the tip of many clients tongue:

How do we develop mass?

Hypertrophy is when a skeletal muscle grows. This is not to be confused with the increase in the number of muscle fibres which is called hyperplasia. There are two ways in which the diameter of skeletal muscles can safely increase. The first is called myofibrilla hypertrophy. Myofibrilla hypertrophy is the increase in myofibril (muscle fibre) size. The second way is known as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy which involves the increased storage of glycogen. Neither one of these forms of hypertrophy happens solo. This explains why people with similar dimensions can differ so vastly is strength. Myofibrilla hypertrophy is what correlates to strength development. 

When a resistance is applied the myofibrils will be placed under a high level of stress. This stress causes micro tears. With a correct training intervention these tears will not be substantial enough to cause an injury but your muscles will need to rest for at least a day. After all, they don't grow in the gym. Your muscles grow during recovery. They grow to manage the resistance that you have forced upon it. 

Here's a pic from Instagram. This is my brother Aled with physique competitor Sergio Constance. 

Dead Lifts and Back Hyper Extensions

If I had a penny for every time a new client came to me with a back injury I could probably retire! It's commonly believed that low flexibility is the key issue that is associated with pain. We must however look closer at the facts:

#1. The mid section has the primary role of preventing movement.

#2. Low hip mobility and low t-spine mobility will force unwanted mechanical demands on the lower back. These demands are over rotation or too much flexion/extension. 

#3. Rotating past 5 degrees may result in a cartilage tear.

So what can we learn from this? Well you don't want to over-stretch the lower back as it will result in more injuries. There are special circumstances such as rehabilitation and age related stiffness but more often then not you do not need to isolate your lumbar spine with stretches. You do however need to strengthen the lower back. Here are two exercises and their different demands:

Dead Lift

The dead lift is often viewed as a hamstring exercise but is more commonly placed into a back routine. The reason lies in how this intense compound movement recruits multiple back muscles from the quadlatus lumborum, the multifidus, the various extensors around the mid and upper back and of course the erector spinae. 

Pro's

This exercise is practical. It mimics various day to day movements. It also places a heavy amount of resistance on the back muscles which many people shy away from. A correct amount of heavy resistance is good practice against unwanted spinal flexion.

Con's

Dead lifts require good hip flexibility, good spinal control and correct lifting technique. If one of these three factors are gone then the lift will fail. The lift may even cause an injury. Make sure you have quality technique before racking on the plates. 

Back Hyper Extensions

I feel that this exercise is under used. Gym goers avoid isolating the back because of potential injury. Training the back reduces injury risk! I cannot stand naivity on the topic of injury prevention. 

Pro's

This beauty is an isolation exercise. If you have the key aim of strengthening your lower back this is the drill for you. If you wish to strengthen your lower back because of an injury you have gathered you must seek medical advice first.

Con's

The technical difficulty of this drill comes from setting up the machine. You should be able to comfortably hinge over the pads. The pads should provide a good cushion for your upper thighs. Injury will only come if your form is weak. Always maintain a neutral spinal alignment. 

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Laws of Leg Day

Leg day is the most dreaded day of the week. So dreaded that many people avoid it which leads to them looking like the dog Spike from the old Tom and Jerry cartoons! For those of us with common sense there are simple steps we can follow to ensure that our day of blasting our lower limbs will be worth its weight in gold.

Step 1: Train Legs on a Monday

I can’t speak for the rest of the world but in South Wales Monday seems to be international chest day. On days where you need a free squat rack, have no desperation to use the bench and have a desperate need to torch those weekend calories, you can but that Monday is the ultimate day to get in the pit.

Step 2: Don’t Train Your Traps Before Leg Day

So it’s time for quadriceps domination but 2 days ago you decided to show your trapezius muscles who’s boss. So fool you. If you’re trapezius muscles are sore then balancing the barbell on your upper back will feel like taking a pat on the back from Edward Scissor hands.

Step 3: Train Chest after Leg Day

Leg day does not interfere with chest day but chest day has no such forgiveness. If your chest is tight it can be painful to retract your arms into the correct position for a back squat. Your concentration whilst squatting should purely be on technical perfection, not on pectoral pain! I like to train chest the day after leg day because it’s my favourite workout of the week. Its pretty much a reward for my brutal effort on that grim day before.

One Repetition Maximum Testing

Strength is the ability to apply as much force as possible. This is not to be mistaken with power which is the multiplication of strength and speed. The easiest way to find out how strong you are is obviously to find out how much you can lift. 1 repetition maximum testing must be completed safely and efficiently and this is your guide on how to do it. Let's lift!

Why do we Perform 1 Repetition Maximum Tests?

First of all 1 repetition maximum testing will demonstrate the effectiveness of a training programme. Simply put if you're test results are improving you know that your training programme is well structured to your goals and physiology. It's worth repeating the test every couple of months. When you plateau at a particular weight you will need to alter your programme and possibly re-assess your nutrition plan. 

1 repetition maximum testing is the best way to determine correct training load. If you wish to build raw strength you will aim to lift 80 to 90 percent of your max. To improve your muscle tone and mass you may look further to lift at 79 percent. Finally you may wish to improve your power. Lift 40 percent of your one repetition maximum with a fast and explosive tempo on each lift.

Warming Up

Whilst warming up you must consider the lift you are planning on testing. I'm going to use the squat as my example. 

First of all we must roll out any muscle which are tight. Muscle tightness is not the same as muscle shortness. Tightness is caused by the overuse of muscle fibres which causes them to knot. It is also important not to overdo foam rolling. 1 minute on each tight area will be fine.

A light heart raiser helps to improve circulation. Perform 4 minutes of light cardiovascular exercise. You should be breathing heavier than normal but still be able to hold a comfortable conversation with a training partner. 

The squat requires good mobility around the thoracic spine, hips and ankle. Therefore we must perform mobility exercises which accommodates for these demands. Never perform static stretching whilst warming up as this specific type of stretching method is associated with lowering the elastic properties of skeletal muscle fibres. 

A strong squat requires powerful activation of the trunk and gluteus muscles so 2 sets of a plyometric exercise will aid in the warm up. Attempt 2 sets of Kettlebell Swings (please remember than plyometrics are centred around utilisation of the stretch shortening cycle and not jumping for the sake of jumping!) 

Know it's Time for the Test!

You're headphones are in blaring out your favourite upbeat jam, you're warm, ready and across the way the barbell awaits you. 

You need a spotter. They are essential for safety and technical feedback so don't ever max out without a spotter! In some cases when you're starting to lift proper scary weight you may even need 2 bros manning the barbell as you lift.

Find a weight that you can lift for 15 repetitions. This is further stimulating the nervous system. 

It is now time to perform 1 repetition on each and every set until the test has concluded. Go up in small increments of 2 to 2.5 KGs. Take a brake of 3 to 4 minutes between each set. When you're at a resistance that you cannot lift you have found your 1 repetition max. 

It's not for Everyone

1 repetition testing is NOT safe for people with cardiovascular and respiritory issues. I found this fantastic chart so that you can test your strength with a higher repetition range.

Stretch out. You've worked hard!

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