Monday, October 17, 2011
The Mechanic
Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. ~Carol Welch
Do you take better care of your car than your body? Allow me the liberty to answer that question for most of you. Yes, you do!
When something isn’t right with your car, you waste little time in taking it to the mechanic. He tells you what’s wrong, gives you the price to repair it, and - whether it’s in your budget or not - you get that work done. You find a way because you know that if you continue to ride on that faulty equipment, even costlier repairs and possibly disaster looms. But when our bodies start rattling, creaking and grinding, we don’t fix it. We try to ignore it or just avoid doing those things that might hurt it. In other words, we continue to ride on that faulty equipment despite cries from your knees, hips, back and shoulder.
Is it me or is there something wrong with this picture? You’re in your car for one or maybe two hours a day. And you’re probably going to replace it in four or five years. News flash: you’re stuck in that body 24-7. And you can’t trade it in!
So why are we reluctant to invest in our bodies, even when they’re sputtering toward the breakdown lane? Cost is the most frequent objection when we sit down with members at Lifetime Fitness to show them the value of hiring a personal trainer. It’s not cheap, but someone could buy six weeks of training (twice a week, hour sessions) for less than $600. So for less than a set of tires, you could start a program that would address those nagging aches and pains and dramatically improve the way that you feel, move and look. Is that not a worthwhile investment?
At Lifetime, we conduct a brief assessment based on National Academy of Sports Medicine protocol. We look for postural imbalances, limited flexibility and other indications of potential future ailments. We take you through a Body Age test that might tell you that you’re, oh, 20 pounds overweight, your bodyfat is 30 % (obese) and you have the body of someone 10 years older than your chronological age. And to that, you say, “I can’t afford personal training right now.” Or, “I’m going to do it on my own.” Really? How’s that working out for ya?
You can’t afford not to! With so many people, their check engine light is on, but they refuse to think that they need a personal trainer. Before I became one several years ago, I would’ve told you the same. I had worked out consistently since my early teenage years, had built up my physique and THOUGHT I knew everything I needed to know – just like most of you guys out there. Well, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The more time I spend in the fitness industry, the more I realize how little I knew (and how much more I still have to learn). The science of exercise is constantly changing. My approach has changed, too. It’s no longer simply about giving a good workout and taking you to muscular exhaustion. It’s about making sure that your body is functioning properly with proper balance and postural alignment, good core strength and range of motion, hips and glutes firing. A good personal trainer really is very much like a mechanic, which is why corrective exercise is the fastest growing segment of the industry. Due to age, society’s inactivity, long hours in front of a computer and other occupational stresses on the body, oftentimes we have to be body mechanics and fix it first! Then and only then should we become more of a detail shop where we shift the focus to buffing up your muscles and getting you looking like a shiny, new showroom model!
And BEFORE you hire a trainer, make sure that he or she is qualified. Ask for his credentials. Inquire about his philosophy. Ask for testimonials. Take him for a test drive and demand a brief, complimentary session. If they balk at any of the requests, find another trainer. Just like mechanics, there are some shady, unqualified trainers so shop around.
Spreading The Health!
Robert Haddocks – National Strength and Conditioning Association – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist; NSCA – Certified Personal Trainer
National Academy of Sports Medicine – Certified Personal Trainer
Sunday, July 10, 2011
What's your FUNCTION?
We hear it all the time, so what exactly is “functional training?”
I ask because I’ve developed this reputation as being a very “functional” trainer. I don’t dispute that some of the exercises I do are a little different, but as long as they’re safe, functional and produce the desired effect, that’s all I’m concerned with. The definition of functional training continues to be discussed by many, including those of us in the fitness industry. If we as trainers don’t have a clear definition of it, I’m sure that most of you don’t either.
The reason for the ambiguity, in my opinion, is because there are so many variables to it. An exercise that’s functional for a hairdresser who stands on her feet all day might not be functional for the accountant who sits all day. Squats and lunges, though longstanding traditional exercises, also fall under the large functional training umbrella. Still, there are some elements of functional training that remain constant. First of all, the majority of it is ground-based. Why? Because that is how we homosapiens live: on our feet! That’s not to say I don’t do dumbbell chest presses, seated lat pulldowns, sit-ups or crunches (although the last two are vastly overrated and overdone). I love dumbbell presses, but just as often, I’m going to do a standing chest press with cables or bands, which is going to force me to engage the muscles in my core and make it more of a total body exercise. Instead of working mainly chest and front delts on a lying chest press, I’m now also working the stabilizers in my trunk, hips and even my legs. And if more muscles are engaged, guess what, you’re burning more calories, which is going to help you get lean!
Most definitions of functional training also include core-based, multi-joint, multi-planar INTEGRATED movement. This is a shift from decades ago when so much of weightlifting focused on lots of machines and performing isolated movements, which will build muscle but won’t do much else. As I wrote in my blog on rotation, again, it boils down to what you’re training for: for function and performance or for vanity? (For the record, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a little vanity. I include some isolated movements in my routine and my clients’ because, hey, don’t we all want to look better? I wish more people would take some pride in their appearance, but let me not even get on that soapbox).
Many years ago, training was driven largely by vanity: make my muscles bigger. So we - guys especially – obsessed on pumping up our arms with curls and triceps pushdowns. We did five sets of bench press - and then another five on inclines - because “Hey, how much you bench?” was the measuring stick of one’s strength. I benched with the best of them back in the day, but I don’t know or care what my max is these days.
When I assess my training style and what might make it different, I’d say it’s probably more function/movement-base with greater emphasis on hips and glutes. That falls in line with my training philosophy. My goal as a trainer is to get my clients to first to feel better, move better and then look better. And if I accomplish the first two, the third one will take care of itself. Where so many people go wrong is that they train with the PRIMARY focus of looking better, yet their bodies are hampered by inactive, non-firing muscles and postural imbalances due to limited flexibility/mobility. To go directly into a hypertrophy (muscle growth) phase would be akin to building a house on a faulty foundation. Sure, you might be fine for awhile. You’ll even start to look better. But eventually that house is going to crumble. As trainers, we have to assess and correct before we worry about building.
So when I think of functional training, I think of getting the body to do what it’s supposed to do; assisting the ease of movement. Because through the years all of us have developed restrictions and faulty movement patterns that sooner or later will manifest in the form of pain or injury. For instance, maybe you sit 8, 10, 12 hours a day, which leads to the shortening of your hip flexors. That in turn leads to an anterior pelvic tilt and excessive curve in your low back (lordosis). If you constantly carried your kids in your right arm, it may have caused a slight shift in your hips and back. That postural imbalance might not presently cause pain, but over time, it will. And it also will compromise your ability to produce power because your body is no longer optimally aligned. For instance, if someone lacks mobility in their hips and ankles and can’t do a bodyweight squat without arching their back, their knees caving in or their heels coming off the floor, do you think it’s wise to compound the problem and have them do a squat with 135 pounds on their back? That’s a back or knee injury waiting to happen.
The biggest problem in getting the body to do what it’s supposed to do is that most people don’t know what it’s supposed to do: they don’t understand muscles’ functions. And hey, I’ve been a workout junkie since high school, but I didn’t have a grasp of function until I became a trainer nine years ago, so I don’t expect my clients to. But armed with that knowledge, I train my body first for optimum function/performance. That’s why at 45 I don’t have the slightest bit of pain and why I do things athletically that I couldn’t do in my 30’s when I benched 350 and squatted 500 (and always had back pain. Hmmmmm…..!)
So my advice to most is to include a few more functional exercises, ones that make your everyday activities easier by improving your movement patterns AND then get you stronger. Remember, think feel better, move better, look better – and in that order. Don’t let vanity drive you. But she can be a passenger! If you’re experiencing weakness, tightness and pain in an area, don’t train around it. Correct it. If you’re unsure of what to do, drop me a line and I’ll give you a few tips.
Robert Haddocks is Certified Personal Trainer with the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the National Academy of Sports Medicine; and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the NSCA. He works at Lifetime Fitness in Woodstock, GA.
I ask because I’ve developed this reputation as being a very “functional” trainer. I don’t dispute that some of the exercises I do are a little different, but as long as they’re safe, functional and produce the desired effect, that’s all I’m concerned with. The definition of functional training continues to be discussed by many, including those of us in the fitness industry. If we as trainers don’t have a clear definition of it, I’m sure that most of you don’t either.
The reason for the ambiguity, in my opinion, is because there are so many variables to it. An exercise that’s functional for a hairdresser who stands on her feet all day might not be functional for the accountant who sits all day. Squats and lunges, though longstanding traditional exercises, also fall under the large functional training umbrella. Still, there are some elements of functional training that remain constant. First of all, the majority of it is ground-based. Why? Because that is how we homosapiens live: on our feet! That’s not to say I don’t do dumbbell chest presses, seated lat pulldowns, sit-ups or crunches (although the last two are vastly overrated and overdone). I love dumbbell presses, but just as often, I’m going to do a standing chest press with cables or bands, which is going to force me to engage the muscles in my core and make it more of a total body exercise. Instead of working mainly chest and front delts on a lying chest press, I’m now also working the stabilizers in my trunk, hips and even my legs. And if more muscles are engaged, guess what, you’re burning more calories, which is going to help you get lean!
Most definitions of functional training also include core-based, multi-joint, multi-planar INTEGRATED movement. This is a shift from decades ago when so much of weightlifting focused on lots of machines and performing isolated movements, which will build muscle but won’t do much else. As I wrote in my blog on rotation, again, it boils down to what you’re training for: for function and performance or for vanity? (For the record, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a little vanity. I include some isolated movements in my routine and my clients’ because, hey, don’t we all want to look better? I wish more people would take some pride in their appearance, but let me not even get on that soapbox).
Many years ago, training was driven largely by vanity: make my muscles bigger. So we - guys especially – obsessed on pumping up our arms with curls and triceps pushdowns. We did five sets of bench press - and then another five on inclines - because “Hey, how much you bench?” was the measuring stick of one’s strength. I benched with the best of them back in the day, but I don’t know or care what my max is these days.
When I assess my training style and what might make it different, I’d say it’s probably more function/movement-base with greater emphasis on hips and glutes. That falls in line with my training philosophy. My goal as a trainer is to get my clients to first to feel better, move better and then look better. And if I accomplish the first two, the third one will take care of itself. Where so many people go wrong is that they train with the PRIMARY focus of looking better, yet their bodies are hampered by inactive, non-firing muscles and postural imbalances due to limited flexibility/mobility. To go directly into a hypertrophy (muscle growth) phase would be akin to building a house on a faulty foundation. Sure, you might be fine for awhile. You’ll even start to look better. But eventually that house is going to crumble. As trainers, we have to assess and correct before we worry about building.
So when I think of functional training, I think of getting the body to do what it’s supposed to do; assisting the ease of movement. Because through the years all of us have developed restrictions and faulty movement patterns that sooner or later will manifest in the form of pain or injury. For instance, maybe you sit 8, 10, 12 hours a day, which leads to the shortening of your hip flexors. That in turn leads to an anterior pelvic tilt and excessive curve in your low back (lordosis). If you constantly carried your kids in your right arm, it may have caused a slight shift in your hips and back. That postural imbalance might not presently cause pain, but over time, it will. And it also will compromise your ability to produce power because your body is no longer optimally aligned. For instance, if someone lacks mobility in their hips and ankles and can’t do a bodyweight squat without arching their back, their knees caving in or their heels coming off the floor, do you think it’s wise to compound the problem and have them do a squat with 135 pounds on their back? That’s a back or knee injury waiting to happen.
The biggest problem in getting the body to do what it’s supposed to do is that most people don’t know what it’s supposed to do: they don’t understand muscles’ functions. And hey, I’ve been a workout junkie since high school, but I didn’t have a grasp of function until I became a trainer nine years ago, so I don’t expect my clients to. But armed with that knowledge, I train my body first for optimum function/performance. That’s why at 45 I don’t have the slightest bit of pain and why I do things athletically that I couldn’t do in my 30’s when I benched 350 and squatted 500 (and always had back pain. Hmmmmm…..!)
So my advice to most is to include a few more functional exercises, ones that make your everyday activities easier by improving your movement patterns AND then get you stronger. Remember, think feel better, move better, look better – and in that order. Don’t let vanity drive you. But she can be a passenger! If you’re experiencing weakness, tightness and pain in an area, don’t train around it. Correct it. If you’re unsure of what to do, drop me a line and I’ll give you a few tips.
Robert Haddocks is Certified Personal Trainer with the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the National Academy of Sports Medicine; and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the NSCA. He works at Lifetime Fitness in Woodstock, GA.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Stretttttch it out....
In my blog last month, I talked about an overlooked component of exercise routines: rotation. Most people just don’t realize how important it is. But almost everybody knows the importance of stretching, yet very few regularly incorporate it in their routine. And then they wonder why they feel old. Why they can’t spring up from the couch or bend down to tie their shoe. Or why they have various aches and pains throughout their bodies. Hellooooooooooo!
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of stretching DAILY. My people, most of you aren’t 22 anymore. That means your muscles are not as pliable, as elastic as they once were; your joints not as mobile. So what exactly are you doing to address that, which essentially is the onset of the hunched over, shuffling, one dimensional old person? I’d venture to say that most of you stretch fewer than 15 minutes per week. At best, you do a couple of quick stretches before or after a workout and call it a day. Well, you need to be stretching about 15 minutes PER DAY. Trust me, your body will thank you for it.
I often tell my clients at Lifetime Fitness to think of their body as a rubber band. If I have a rubber band that I can pull back, oh, two inches, it’s not going to create much force on the return. But if I can pull my band back six inches, it’s going to snap back and sting you in an explosive recoil. The body is the same way. If you can’t stretch and eccentrically load your muscles, that subsequent concentric contraction, the unloading, is not going to be as powerful. I’m not a science guy, but that’s simple physics. On top of that, your muscles have what the National Academy of Sports Medicine refers to as “length-tension relationships.” To produce movement the inner workings of the muscle have to form bridges or “force couples.” When there is adequate length/flexibility, the maximum amount of force couples are formed, thereby allowing for the greatest force production. To get a better idea, do this: bring your hands together and interlock all 10 fingers. Those five “couples” form a pretty strong bridge, yes? But, if you could only lock two fingers from each hand, that bridge is weakened. The same thing happens with your muscles. When muscles are tight and not optimally aligned, you unknowingly compensate and develop faulty movement patterns, and muscles aren’t able to produce maximum force.
Another example: if your hip flexors are tight (perhaps you have an office job and sit all day), you’re being robbed of power. Your hip flexors’ primary function is to raise the knee up toward the chest. If they’re tight, you can’t generate explosive knee lift when you run. Your band won’t stretch. Also, when that same leg is in the trail position, because the hip flexor can’t lengthen, your foot is going to come off the ground sooner than it should. This greatly reduces your ability to transfer those ground forces and push off, sending power back up through the kinetic chain. And because of that tightness, you’re expending more energy every time you lift that leg, the inefficient movement leading to premature fatigue. Also, tight hip flexors often cause an anterior pelvic tilt, which leads to excessive curve in the low back (lordosis) and a domino effect of further troubles.
There’s a lot more to stretching than bending over and touching your toes. Of muscles, I often say, “make it long, make it strong.” So you need to develop a flexibility routine – including foam rolling - for your entire body, particularly where you have tightness. Go through it 3 or 4 times a week at a MINIMUM. Fellas, dismiss your preconceived notions and take a yoga class. Try to incorporate some multi-planar movements that lengthen your abdominals, hamstrings, hip flexors, etc… Buy a book on stretching (“Stretch to Win” and “Wharton’s Stretch Book” are two of my favorites, but there are several good ones out there).
Increased flexibility is going to help you feel better, move better and perform better athletically. I have one client, an avid golfer, who in six weeks is consistently whacking the ball 25 yards longer, much to the amazement of his buddies. (He’s also popping up from the couch. Feeling like a new man at 58, he called his improvements “the most amazing transformation I’ve ever seen.” And the bulk of our routine has consisted mainly of increasing his range of motion throughout his body (and stability of his hips and torso).
So if you want to restore some vitality to your muscles and stave off feeling old and creaky, improve your athletic performance – and reduce your risk of injury - it all starts with improving your flexibility. It’s pretty simple. You want to feel better, feel younger? STRETCH.
Robert Haddocks, CPT, CSCS is personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness on Hwy 92 in Woodstock.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of stretching DAILY. My people, most of you aren’t 22 anymore. That means your muscles are not as pliable, as elastic as they once were; your joints not as mobile. So what exactly are you doing to address that, which essentially is the onset of the hunched over, shuffling, one dimensional old person? I’d venture to say that most of you stretch fewer than 15 minutes per week. At best, you do a couple of quick stretches before or after a workout and call it a day. Well, you need to be stretching about 15 minutes PER DAY. Trust me, your body will thank you for it.
I often tell my clients at Lifetime Fitness to think of their body as a rubber band. If I have a rubber band that I can pull back, oh, two inches, it’s not going to create much force on the return. But if I can pull my band back six inches, it’s going to snap back and sting you in an explosive recoil. The body is the same way. If you can’t stretch and eccentrically load your muscles, that subsequent concentric contraction, the unloading, is not going to be as powerful. I’m not a science guy, but that’s simple physics. On top of that, your muscles have what the National Academy of Sports Medicine refers to as “length-tension relationships.” To produce movement the inner workings of the muscle have to form bridges or “force couples.” When there is adequate length/flexibility, the maximum amount of force couples are formed, thereby allowing for the greatest force production. To get a better idea, do this: bring your hands together and interlock all 10 fingers. Those five “couples” form a pretty strong bridge, yes? But, if you could only lock two fingers from each hand, that bridge is weakened. The same thing happens with your muscles. When muscles are tight and not optimally aligned, you unknowingly compensate and develop faulty movement patterns, and muscles aren’t able to produce maximum force.
Another example: if your hip flexors are tight (perhaps you have an office job and sit all day), you’re being robbed of power. Your hip flexors’ primary function is to raise the knee up toward the chest. If they’re tight, you can’t generate explosive knee lift when you run. Your band won’t stretch. Also, when that same leg is in the trail position, because the hip flexor can’t lengthen, your foot is going to come off the ground sooner than it should. This greatly reduces your ability to transfer those ground forces and push off, sending power back up through the kinetic chain. And because of that tightness, you’re expending more energy every time you lift that leg, the inefficient movement leading to premature fatigue. Also, tight hip flexors often cause an anterior pelvic tilt, which leads to excessive curve in the low back (lordosis) and a domino effect of further troubles.
There’s a lot more to stretching than bending over and touching your toes. Of muscles, I often say, “make it long, make it strong.” So you need to develop a flexibility routine – including foam rolling - for your entire body, particularly where you have tightness. Go through it 3 or 4 times a week at a MINIMUM. Fellas, dismiss your preconceived notions and take a yoga class. Try to incorporate some multi-planar movements that lengthen your abdominals, hamstrings, hip flexors, etc… Buy a book on stretching (“Stretch to Win” and “Wharton’s Stretch Book” are two of my favorites, but there are several good ones out there).
Increased flexibility is going to help you feel better, move better and perform better athletically. I have one client, an avid golfer, who in six weeks is consistently whacking the ball 25 yards longer, much to the amazement of his buddies. (He’s also popping up from the couch. Feeling like a new man at 58, he called his improvements “the most amazing transformation I’ve ever seen.” And the bulk of our routine has consisted mainly of increasing his range of motion throughout his body (and stability of his hips and torso).
So if you want to restore some vitality to your muscles and stave off feeling old and creaky, improve your athletic performance – and reduce your risk of injury - it all starts with improving your flexibility. It’s pretty simple. You want to feel better, feel younger? STRETCH.
Robert Haddocks, CPT, CSCS is personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness on Hwy 92 in Woodstock.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Rotation, rotation, rotation
Simple question: how much rotation is there in your routine? Chances are, not enough.
Rotation was a neglected, almost ignored component of training many years ago. Going waaaaay back to my high school days, I can’t think of any rotational exercises that we did, excluding maybe some sit-ups with a twist. Everything we did, benching squatting, pressing, pulling – almost all of it was done in linear fashion. Although it’s addressed more nowadays, rotation still is overlooked by many, especially non-athletes, your average Joes and Janes in the gym, you know, the ones who say, “I just want to get toned.”
But the ability to rotate is critical for everyone, not just athletes. Strength coach Mike Boyle, who is one of the pioneers of the functional training movement that started about 20 years ago, says “torso training” isn’t fun and doesn’t work the mirror muscles, but it’s a key to injury reduction and improved sports performance.
“Ask yourself, how many sports involve flexion and extension of the trunk?” he wrote in his book “Functional Training for Sports.” “The answer is very few. Sports is about stabilization and rotation.”
And so is everyday life. The human body moves in three planes, frontal (which actually is out to your sides), sagittal (flexion and extension) and transverse (diagonal). Think about it. With no rotation, we’d all be walking around like mummies or tin soldiers. Rotation, however slight, is needed in something as routine as walking. Picture a decrepit, old person. As they walk, they shuffle with no rotation, right? Completely linear, one dimensional. That’s in part because of limited plantar and dorsiflexion of the ankle, but it’s also due to lack of mobility in the hips, torso and thoracic spine. So if something as simple as walking is compromised due to lack of the ability to rotate, think how much it’s magnified on the athletic field. A baseball player who can’t rotate quickly and powerfully to hit and to throw simply isn’t much of a baseball player. Same holds true for golf or any racquet sport. And the ability to turn and rotate is the essence of agility, which is needed for virtually every sport.
Gary Schofield, director of sports performance at Greater Atlanta Christian school in Norcross, is all about multi-planar movement.
“Rotational training has become an integral part of the weight room,” he said. “Rotation occurs in every fundamental movement pattern we do.”
Paradoxically, you need stability before you have mobility (or power). The body has to be able to withstand rotational force before it can produce force, Schofield said. (There’s a saying in the business, “you can’t launch a cannon from a canoe.”) Schofield, who’s one of the best in the business, uses resistance bands and twisting movements with medicine balls, kettle bells or weight plates. Schofield likes to do the movements as quickly and forcefully as possible to mimic the required speed of sport. Someone who is deconditioned, inexperienced or susceptible to back pain, should progress slowly before attempting all-out power movements. Boyle, who also likes to use medicine balls and cables, said torso training should be done at least as often as conventional abdominal training (crunches, sit-ups). Wood choppers, lunges with rotation are great exercises along with explosive medicine ball tosses to a partner or against the wall.
Both athletics trainers believe that where people go wrong is in their approach. Too many train abdominals - or any body part - to look good rather than to perform better. Yes, your abs are responsible for flexion and extension of the trunk, but far more often they act as dynamic stabilizers, absorbing and producing rotational force. So ask yourself, particularly those of you who aren’t 18 anymore: are you training for function or are you training for vanity?
Besides, crunches alone aren’t going to produce a six-pack. “Abdominal definition is the result of diet, not torso work,” Boyle wrote. Really, it’s a three-pronged approach: diet, cardio and blasting the abs with exercise. You can do 1,000 sit-ups a day, but guess what, that’s not going to get rid of the existing fat around your belly because it’s impossible to spot reduce. Fat loss boils down to one thing: burning more calories than you’re consuming. Furthermore, sit-ups and crunches, while effective, contract or shorten the abdominals (and the hip flexors), but like any other muscle, abs need to be lengthened, which can be accomplished through some rotational exercises.
The muscles involved in rotation —-the abs, obliques, transverse abdominus, glutes, hips —- all help in supporting the spinal structure, Schofield said. They also serve a powerful link from the lower body to the upper body. So get them stable and strong, start rotating, and with proper diet and cardio, other benefits - like that coveted six-pack - will surface.
Robert Haddocks, CPT, CSCS, is a personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Woodstock.
Phone: 404-317-4666
Email: robhadd@hotmail.com
Rotation was a neglected, almost ignored component of training many years ago. Going waaaaay back to my high school days, I can’t think of any rotational exercises that we did, excluding maybe some sit-ups with a twist. Everything we did, benching squatting, pressing, pulling – almost all of it was done in linear fashion. Although it’s addressed more nowadays, rotation still is overlooked by many, especially non-athletes, your average Joes and Janes in the gym, you know, the ones who say, “I just want to get toned.”
But the ability to rotate is critical for everyone, not just athletes. Strength coach Mike Boyle, who is one of the pioneers of the functional training movement that started about 20 years ago, says “torso training” isn’t fun and doesn’t work the mirror muscles, but it’s a key to injury reduction and improved sports performance.
“Ask yourself, how many sports involve flexion and extension of the trunk?” he wrote in his book “Functional Training for Sports.” “The answer is very few. Sports is about stabilization and rotation.”
And so is everyday life. The human body moves in three planes, frontal (which actually is out to your sides), sagittal (flexion and extension) and transverse (diagonal). Think about it. With no rotation, we’d all be walking around like mummies or tin soldiers. Rotation, however slight, is needed in something as routine as walking. Picture a decrepit, old person. As they walk, they shuffle with no rotation, right? Completely linear, one dimensional. That’s in part because of limited plantar and dorsiflexion of the ankle, but it’s also due to lack of mobility in the hips, torso and thoracic spine. So if something as simple as walking is compromised due to lack of the ability to rotate, think how much it’s magnified on the athletic field. A baseball player who can’t rotate quickly and powerfully to hit and to throw simply isn’t much of a baseball player. Same holds true for golf or any racquet sport. And the ability to turn and rotate is the essence of agility, which is needed for virtually every sport.
Gary Schofield, director of sports performance at Greater Atlanta Christian school in Norcross, is all about multi-planar movement.
“Rotational training has become an integral part of the weight room,” he said. “Rotation occurs in every fundamental movement pattern we do.”
Paradoxically, you need stability before you have mobility (or power). The body has to be able to withstand rotational force before it can produce force, Schofield said. (There’s a saying in the business, “you can’t launch a cannon from a canoe.”) Schofield, who’s one of the best in the business, uses resistance bands and twisting movements with medicine balls, kettle bells or weight plates. Schofield likes to do the movements as quickly and forcefully as possible to mimic the required speed of sport. Someone who is deconditioned, inexperienced or susceptible to back pain, should progress slowly before attempting all-out power movements. Boyle, who also likes to use medicine balls and cables, said torso training should be done at least as often as conventional abdominal training (crunches, sit-ups). Wood choppers, lunges with rotation are great exercises along with explosive medicine ball tosses to a partner or against the wall.
Both athletics trainers believe that where people go wrong is in their approach. Too many train abdominals - or any body part - to look good rather than to perform better. Yes, your abs are responsible for flexion and extension of the trunk, but far more often they act as dynamic stabilizers, absorbing and producing rotational force. So ask yourself, particularly those of you who aren’t 18 anymore: are you training for function or are you training for vanity?
Besides, crunches alone aren’t going to produce a six-pack. “Abdominal definition is the result of diet, not torso work,” Boyle wrote. Really, it’s a three-pronged approach: diet, cardio and blasting the abs with exercise. You can do 1,000 sit-ups a day, but guess what, that’s not going to get rid of the existing fat around your belly because it’s impossible to spot reduce. Fat loss boils down to one thing: burning more calories than you’re consuming. Furthermore, sit-ups and crunches, while effective, contract or shorten the abdominals (and the hip flexors), but like any other muscle, abs need to be lengthened, which can be accomplished through some rotational exercises.
The muscles involved in rotation —-the abs, obliques, transverse abdominus, glutes, hips —- all help in supporting the spinal structure, Schofield said. They also serve a powerful link from the lower body to the upper body. So get them stable and strong, start rotating, and with proper diet and cardio, other benefits - like that coveted six-pack - will surface.
Robert Haddocks, CPT, CSCS, is a personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Woodstock.
Phone: 404-317-4666
Email: robhadd@hotmail.com
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