Rest + Recovery = GROWTH

Active Recovery is a great way to decrease acute muscle soreness and expedite the healing process by creating an environment conducive to tissue repair and remodeling.

The goal is to reduce any hemorrhage or bleeding which can impede tissue repair and retard inflammation by controlling localized edema.

Below are some quick tips that can not only get you back in the gym faster but will allow for more consistent training at a higher level leading to greater results.

v     Engaging in active recovery activities at a low intensity like walking or light bike rides can help improve circulation increasing blood flow and provide oxygenated rich blood to damaged muscle tissue, which will increase toxin and carbon dioxide removal and increase nutrient uptake.

v     Applying ice to sore muscles within the first 24 to 48 hours will help control inflammation and edema or swelling.

v     Massage techniques like deep tissue massage or self myofascial release through foam rolling (Roll to Improved Athletic Performance) can break up muscle adhesion, increase deep muscle temperature, alter muscle viscosity, and increase blood circulation which studies have shown can diminish swelling.

v     As a special note, it may be best to stay away from heat application for acute muscle soreness. Heat therapies might be a better choice for muscle soreness present beyond 48 hours. At this point we may be experiencing delayed onset muscle soreness where more extensive micro trauma has taken place and return to activity may take an additional 1-2 days. Applying heat too early can increase local edema and swelling, delaying tissue repair by increasing tissue separation and delaying transport of white blood cells and phagocytosis.

Want to read about more ways to increase your body’s recovery rate? Check out the Recovery page by Strength and Conditioning Coach Joey Greany at http://www.joeygreanypersonaltraining.com/recovery/

Give up those Sit-Ups: Maximize your Core Training

Crunches, Sit-Ups, Leg Raises, Ab machines, and more are part of our arsenal in sculpting a flat, wash board midsection. Many programs exist today that focus an entire 45 minutes to core training. After all, who wouldn’t want a chiseled six pack?

The problem we run into, however, pertains to the function of the core musculature and our approach to training. The abdominal muscles aren’t made to work in strict isolation like popular lumbar flexion movement patterns such as crunches and sit-ups. Rather they work to dynamically stabilize and transmit force from the lower half to the upper half. The abdominal muscles work to maintain alignment and proper movement patterns between the spine and pelvis, maintain stabilization of the spine, and to help minimize excessive stress and altered movement patterns of the pelvis during involvement of the upper extremities. It’s important to remember that excessive flexion like Crunches and Sit-Ups can create a muscle imbalance and dominance, causing a lengthening and eventual weakening of the posterior musculature like Erector Spinae, leading to altered movement patters, lower back pain and anterior pelvic tilt.

Try to incorporate core exercise that stress stabilization and resist movement. The focus and goals for these training sessions for the client, athlete and trainer/coach should be on creating a reactive environment versus a “fixed” environment, preparing the body for the functional activity or sport.

Some choices for integrated exercises include plank variation involving the movement of upper and lower extremities, changing center of gravity, bridge variations that will engage the Glutes instead of the Hamstrings, teaching proper recruitment patterns and focusing on neutral lumbar, avoiding excessive hip extension. “Pointers” or movement in a quadruped position is also great for functional stability, again focusing on neutral lumbar so we don’t train in a lordotic position and a neutral cervical position as well. This position is much for forgiving for the spine and yields greater activation for the Obliques, T-Extensors and Lats versus a complete face down, prone position, which again makes it difficult to maintain a neutral spine and take pressure off the lumbar region. From this position you have many dynamic movements, anti-rotation, shoulder flexion/hip extension combinations adding in various training surfaces for increased difficulty.

 It is also important to keep in mind while all movements are performed, focus on bracing or flexing of the abdominal muscles while maintaining good alignment and a neutral spine. This will work to create proper activation of the abdominal muscles as well as that all important Transverse Abdominis. This is a very important concept as most coaching cues call for the pulling of the belly button in during abdominal movements. While this will activate the TA to a point, all other abdominal muscles will shut down in the process, creating a major loss in core stabilization.

So remember, don’t train on a hunch, get rid of the Crunch.

Great read for those interested in the research done on core activation during integrated movement versus fixed, isolation movements:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22580983 

Roll to Improved Athletic Performance

Roll to Improved Athletic Performance

It doesn't matter if you're training for sport, sit at a desk all day or are a busy stay at home parent, our muscles are working non stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Athletes strive to repeat the same motion over and over again, with improved efficiency. After all practice makes perfect...but practice also creates asymmetries that can lead to altered movement patterns and inhibition. Sitting at a desk all day answering phone calls, sending emails and filing paper work may seem like a low intensity activity for the body, but think of all the postural muscles activated and the kyphotic or slouched position we work in all day. This causes certain muscle groups to work in an overacted position thus lengthening and weakening the antagonist groups. (Just think of the tightness and stiffness you feel after sitting at a desk for a prolonged period of time and you can relate.)

Over a prolonged period of time trigger points or small nodules, develop within muscle tissue as a result of overuse, repetitive movement, acute trauma and inflammation. Trigger points can lead to a decrease in neural drive to the innervating muscle which in turn leads to decrease in function and altered movement patterns as the body tries to find the path of least resistance. When synergists and stabilizing muscles are called upon to carry out a work load greater than their design, additional complications can surface.

Trigger point release therapy like Self Myofascial Release, can lead to improved recruitment patterns and return to normal function and eventually improved performance.

An easy example of the body compensating for overactive muscles and altered recruitment is during a squat. If there is excessive exterior rotation of the lower leg, excessive flexion at the hips or plantar flexion at the foot/ankle, there may be various movement impairments present restricting the body from proper movement patterns. If there is a restriction in the foot/ankle complex, for example, the body may compensate by turning the feet out during the eccentric phase of the squat or if the cue “keep your feet straight” is said, there could also be a forward lean during the eccentric phase. If your personal trainer or coach doesn't address this issue, the body will either stop once the impairment restricts movement or will cause excess exterior tibial rotation in order to allow the squat to continue. Proper evaluation and implementation of Myofascial Release, lengthening and strengthening exercises will help alleviate this impairment and correct inhibition leading to improved performance and motion free restriction.

Check out the links below from top Strength and Conditioning Coach, Joey Greany, on foam rolling and a great visual demonstration of muscle adhesion and trigger points.

http://www.joeygreanypersonaltraining.com/videos/

For more information on Joey, check out www.joeygreanypersonaltraining.com

Plan your Goals, Plan for Success

Plan your Goals, Plan for Success

Having a clear plan of what you want to accomplish before entering the gym can really make or break your session. Try to mix things up by altering your rest time between sets and changing up the way you "stack" or arrange the training of various muscle groups. Something as simple as this can really add to the intensity of your session as well as work on overall work capacity and recovery.

Stacking a lower body push and a lower body pull, like a squat variation with a reverse lunge or RDL, is a great way to give antagonist muscles a chance for recovery while keeping the workout moving and heart rate high. The same can be said for upper body, an example being a chest press variation stacked with a row variation.

You can keep a similar trend of push/pull, but allow for even more time for ample recovery by stacking a lower body push with an upper body pull. Here were are ensuring even attention to anterior and posterior chains, while again continuing to keep the workout tempo high and allowing for stabilizers and synergists to rest for the upcoming work set. An example of this is a squat stacked with a pull up variation.

It is important to keep in mind that volume and load will ultimately dictate whether this form of training is prudent. As the loads increase, so do the neuromuscular demand as well as stress on joints and bone structure. With such high demand, more recovery time is required between sets.

Utilizing the stacking examples listed in the beginning of this post, works well with more "athletic" movements such as single leg exercises and push up and inverted row variations that require dynamic stability to execute.  Keep in mind that when training on an unstable surface, we are actually losing the ability to increase force production.

Slow the Clock to Speed Up Gains

Slow the Clock to Speed Up Gains: Tempo & Time-Tension Value

Building strength and lean muscle mass is the object of any recreational fitness enthusiast or competitive athlete. Some may call it “toning” while others want to be muscular, but in the end all goals are the same. And with the Internet at our fingertips, we are constantly bombarded with information on the latest training fad, the most current scientific research and how our favorite celebrities train.

My goal with today’s short post is to give one or two small concepts that will simplify a Beginners approach (who may not a have a coach or trainer available) to program design and yield positive changes in body composition and performance. These concepts can also be placed into Intermediate and Advanced training programs.

If you have a clock, a watch or a cell phone, you have the means to shock your muscles and nervous system and create a positive adaptation. We all know that tempo is important when speaking about creating an environment for growth. The amount of time a given muscle is under tension will aid in induced mircotrauma following a few other cascading events, leading to muscular hypertrophy and altered muscular efficiency. This can be achieved through focus on a slow eccentric or by increasing the number of repetitions. Using the accepted “standard” rep range to cause hypertrophy, 8-12 repetitions done with a 3-4 second eccentric can find its equivalent with a higher rep range of let’s say 15-20, where a faster tempo can be utilized, but the total tension time will be about the same due to the increase in repetitions.

Bottom line…focus on how long the muscle is working versus getting OVERLY creative with the movement pattern itself.

Taking the Push Up, for example, we can perform 20 pushups in a controlled fashion, with a typical tempo of 2-0-1 focusing on good lumbo-pelvic-hip stability and extension at the top to force proper protraction of the Scapula. That same Push Up, without adding elevated body alignment or BOSU ball component, can be performed with a 4-5 second eccentric, followed by a 2 second isometric hold, and a forceful 1 second concentric push.

Next time you’re at the gym, trying playing with tempo of each repetition. You’ll be surprised just how much the time of a repetition can change the time it takes for the body to respond and grow!

“Spring Training…Time to Prioritize”

It seems as though more and more youth and high school athletes are specializing in one sport, choosing to train year round as opposed to participating in multiple athletic endeavors. While this does allow one to focus all time and efforts, it poses concern regarding repetitive bout syndrome and creating movement impairments and kinetic chain dysfunction. To help alleviate some of these issues, proper program design including a de-loading phase post competitive season, should be implemented, however this is for another post.

Today I would like to go over a few key points to keep in mind when preparing for your upcoming season. Many athletes, especially at the high school level, don’t have access to a structured and monitored strength and conditioning program. Even more alarming is while there may be a coach in the weight room during open hours, a large percentage of high school athletic programs don’t have an Athletic Trainer readily available except for the actual day of competition.

To assist in maximizing peak performance and minimizing, not preventing, the environment conducive for injury, it’s key to take a step back and utilize a more open view approach to training as it leads up to pre-season and in-season. As the pre-season approaches, keep in mind that practices and training sessions involving sport specific movements will begin. As the frequency and intensity of these training sessions increase, it is important to proportionately decrease the frequency and intensity of your personal training programs.

An example can be seen in pre-season baseball workouts. After the your schools tryout period has ended and team workouts begin, you will “get back in the swing of things” with base running drills and long distance running like poles and perimeter runs (although not the most preferred for baseball competition)  Regularly scheduled cage and throwing sessions will also take up time during the training week. With the increase in rotational demands, both acceleration and deceleration, and throwing, strength training programs must be reduced. 

Medicine ball and plyometrics training techniques have become very popular and are valuable tools in any conditioning program, when prescribed correctly.  With the increased demands from running and agility drills (lateral shuffles for infielders and drop step tracking drills for outfielders where demands on multiplanar, dynamic stability and hip mobility to name a few become very important) keep a keen eye on the amount of ground contact drills like box jumps and broad jumps within your own training program.

In my opinion, the main focus for anything sport oriented Strength and Conditioning program should be to bring the body to a balanced, stable condition, followed by improving on power and strength (which is dependant on sport and more specifically position and the individual needs), then to prepare the body for a transition into the competition season and finally peaking in athletic performance while maintaining 80% of the gains made during the offseason.

For an athlete of any level to attempt constant frequency, volume, and load of training in-season equivalent to that of the off-season will not only hinder the chances for prolonged, peak performance (as any athletic season will inevitably bring about fatigue no matter how conditioned) but will also put that athlete in an environment susceptible to overuse and non-contact related injuries, that may have other wise been avoided or more easily rectified.

Do you speak exercise?

Below are a few terms that we have all read on fitness sites and heard by our trainers and peers in the gym. Hopefully once we can understand the language, our bodies will begin to speak it...

Positive (Concentric) – This is the shortening of a muscle during repetition of an exercise. Example: When your arm bends during a Biceps Curl.

Negative (Eccentric) – This is the lengthening of a muscle during repetition of an exercise. Example: When your arm straightens during a Biceps Curl. The eccentric muscle action results in the greatest amount of micro-trauma, yielding DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness which can last 24-28 hours.

Sticking Point – This is the point of a set where you find it very difficult to complete the full repetition. Typically towards the end of your set, it is recommended that your exhale as you complete the repetition, avoid holding your breath.

Warm Up – A warm up is put in place to prepare the muscular system as well as nervous system for the upcoming activity. This is an important activity as this will ensure proper deep muscle temperature, recruitment pattern, active Range of Motion (ROM) and hopefully decrease, not prevent, the chance of injury. 

Stay tuned for future blogs that will go into greater detail regarding various forms of warm up including General and Sport Specific.

Sets – The number of “blocks” or segments where a given amount of repetitions are performed. Example: 2 sets of 10 repetitions. This means you performed 10 repetitions straight through, either rested or performed another exercise, and then returned for your 2^nd block of 10 repetitions.

Repetition – The amount of times a movement is performed in a given set. Example: 10 repetitions in a set of Biceps Curl means you curled a weight 10 times before stopping.

Quick Topics for Quick Results

Leucine, part of the branch chain amino acid group, has been seen in countless studies to be the key component that ignites protein synthesis(muscle growth)  as well as increasing muscle recovery time.



Glutamine is an amino acid found to be key in promoting muscle recovery and reducing soreness.



Creatine is the most researched and proven 100 % natural strength and muscle building product used to increase cell volumization.(when muscle cells hold more water, it signals the cell to increase protein synthesis (muscle growth) to create more room for cellular fluid.



Upon completion from a lift, you have a certain amount of time to capitalize on androgen receptor sensitivity (sites where hormones like testosterone bind to ignite muscle growth) insulin sensitivity (insulin acts like a taxi cab that shuttles amino acids into muscle cells aiding in growth and repair) and overall nutrient uptake. This is also the time when your body uses nutrients for repair and not as stored fat.  The key is to ingest a fast absorbing protein source (whey protein isolate or hydrolayse) and a fast absorbing carbohydrate source (something that is high on glycemic index like dextrose or waxy maize starch)



Research has found that vitamins C & E are key markers of muscle recovery. When ingested post workout, the markers that show muscle damage are minimized, leading researchers to believe that those two key vitamins expedite the rate of muscle recovery and initiate the remolding phase.



Caffeine has been shown to have a powerful but short half-life effect on endurance and power out put.(thus why it is banned by the Olympic committee)  It has also been shown to increase caloric expenditure from exercise by anywhere from 10-30% (this can add up over the course of a month if your goal is to reduce body fat)