Want a Higher Vertical and More Explosiveness? Don't Bypass the Basics

The vertical jump, along with the 40-yard dash, is one of the most common tests for athletic performance. With good reason. It’s a great indicator of maximal power output. You might not be preparing for the NFL Combine, but you still should be doing plyometric box jumps and working on your vertical. Here’s why. 

Box jumps help increase power and improve your muscles’ elasticity – which we’re losing as we age. I say this often, but you need to think of your body as a rubber band.  If your muscles can’t stretch and contract quickly, you won’t generate much power. A plyometric by definition is just that: a quick stretch of the muscle (as in when you squat before you jump) followed by a rapid, forceful contraction. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 50-inch box jump or a push-up off the wall. It’s still a “plyo,” so all of my clients, even my 80-year old lady, perform them. 

So how can you increase your vertical, your explosiveness, your hops? Squats alone won’t do much. Calf raises will do even less. It’s a combination of things, but it all starts with the simple but often overlooked elements: alignment, stability and mobility. Everything does. 

If you’re ankles aren’t stable, let’s say your feet pronate as you squat (possibly because of tight calves). You’re already at a disadvantage because of poor alignment. “The posture adopted in a given movement dictates the activation of the muscles responsible for force production,” the NSCA says. 

Taking it further up the chain, the same is true of the knees. If they cave in (possibly tight adductors or weak glute medius), that’s a faulty movement pattern robbing you of power. Think of any movement deviation like that as a detour. As you jump (or walk or run), energy is transferred from the ground up. But with a detour, an inefficient path is created and power is diminished. Worse, chances of injury increase. 

Let’s move up to the hips. As you lower the body in the eccentric phase of the jump, good ankle and hip flexion is needed in order to sit back and load the glutes – essential in every movement. Your glutes are SUPPOSED TO BE your strongest muscle. In most people, they’re not. That’s a problem. The glutes’ primary function is hip extension, the catalyst to launch you. Box jumps are an example of what’s called the “triple extension” of the ankle, knee and hip. It’s a staple of any good strength and conditioning program, whether it’s box jumps, push press, clean and jerk or a snatch. All are great to develop the power that’s needed on the playing field and will lead to not only a greater vertical, but increased speed and overall explosiveness.  

What’s another thing you need for a big jump, a powerful Olympic lift, sprinting or a good golf swing? Stiffness. Yes, stiffness. That might sound counter to flexibility, but muscles also need to be taut – on demand. Think of a spring or a coil. It’s tight. Learning to stiffen your core is tricky, but you must figure out the precise, split-second moment to tighten your trunk to transfer energy from the lower body to the upper body. It’s about timing, which only comes with practice and improving the communication between your brain and muscles. All movement is neuromuscular.

I’m often labeled as the corrective guy, but don’t be fooled, I’m all about power. Most people don’t realize, but corrective exercise and power go hand-in-hand. It’s the reason I’m still able to do nearly everything I did 20 years ago. And some things I do even better. I no longer squat 500 pounds, but because my movement patterns are more efficient (better alignment, flexibility and muscle recruitment), I’m able to produce more power. 

 Hey, I don’t care to squat 500 pounds anymore. Been there, done that. In their quest for quick results and huge max lifts, too many people bypass the basics. That starts with alignment, balance, stability, mobility and flexibility. I reserve at least one day a week strictly for those things and some bodyweight exercises. And guess what, I feel better leaving the gym on that day than any other. Think that’s a coincidence? 

See, I’m not worried about how much I’m lifting or how many reps I can get. So I’m able to slow everything down, focus and communicate with my body, getting it to work as one synchronized unit. You could call it dynamic yoga. Improved body awareness, enhanced communication leads to greater efficiency of movement which translates to more power. It’s really not rocket science. Yet, at the same time, I’m amazed by how many people continue with workouts from the Dark Ages. Come see me. I’ll show you the light! And I’ll have you springing to new heights. 

 Footnote: Be sure you have good ankle, knee and hip stability before starting plyometrics. According to the NSCA, you should be able to squat at least your bodyweight before advancing to plyometrics. That’s a good rule of thumb for near maximum jumps, but I believe one can still do some low level jumps and then gradually increase. 

Now, hop to it!

SPREADING THE HEALTH! 

ROBERT HADDOCKS, CSCS, CPT, CES

The Secret to a Six-Pack? Lemon juice!

What’s the number one goal of most of my clients? Lose weight, especially around the middle. Ladies want a tighter tummy. Guys seek a flatter stomach and the sought-after six pack. So how do you get those fitness magazine abs?

I’m going to let you in on a secret - one I normally share only with my paying clients. Skip the sit-ups. Don’t waste your time doing cardio. You can eat whatever you want. Heck, go back for seconds. There’s just one simple trick: drink three ounces of lemon juice with ALL of your meals. It’s that easy.

 You see, lemon juice is highly acidic. The citric acid cuts through bodyfat like a hot knife through butter, melting away fat from your midsection. It works like magic. Russian bodybuilders have been using this trick for years, getting their abs super cut before competition. That’s it. Isn’t the sour taste a small price to pay for getting that sexy six-pack?  

 Now, here’s the bitter truth…

If you think for a second that lemon juice is going to help define your abs, I’ve got some ocean-front property in Atlanta to sell you. It amazes me how gullible some people are, looking for an easy solution. Let’s get this straight. There is no quick fix. No miracle pill. No magical fat-burning wrap. No miraculous Seven-Minute Workout that’s going to deliver amazing results. Get those silly notions out of your head.

The quick fix solution is foolish for any exercise program, but it’s especially true of abdominals. You could eat unhealthy and still gain muscle. You cannot, however, eat poorly, and get chiseled abs. Just ain’t gonna happen. The only way you’re going to do that is – in order - through diet, cardio and blasting those abs in the gym. It’s a three-tiered approach. Leave out one and it’s going to be that much harder for those abs to surface.

Despite the lemon juice lie, it is true that you don’t need to do a lot of sit-ups. I do them sparingly. My ab routine consists of a lot more rotational moves with a cable, resistance band or medicine ball. Those exercises are far more functional and you’ll burn more than double the calories, leading to a leaner body and trimmer waistline. (I’ll tell you why I avoid sit-ups in an upcoming blog.)

Like sit-ups, long distance cardio is over-rated. You don’t need to do more than 20-30 minutes per day of traditional cardio. But that should include some intervals, not just slow, steady state. I haven’t done traditional cardio (treadmill, bike) all summer, but I do have a couple of workouts per week that are strictly conditioning with sprints and circuit-based training. With those, I keep my heart rate elevated and that style of training (HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training) will lead to EPOC – Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. If you’re reaching those levels, your metabolism revs higher for up to 48 hours, burning hundreds of calories. You can walk or jog for two hours a day, but that won’t get you into that EPOC zone.

 Still, the most important ingredient of a six-pack is diet. It’s been said that diet accounts for 70% of your results. I think that number is high if you’re talking overall fitness, but when it comes to your abs, that’s about right. And I do believe that most people know exactly what they should and should not eat. You know that pizza and beer or Coke every Friday night is counter-productive. Those Frosted Flakes or Cinnamon Toast Crunch, (man, I loved that stuff) are not in your best interests. Drop the sugary snacks and fat-laden chips and dips. Include protein with EVERY meal. Your body burns more calories to process protein and it lowers the spike in blood sugar levels that carbs can cause.

 For me, “diet” comes down to making smart, informed choices and moderation. I can’t lie, I enjoy a few cocktails on the weekend. I might have a couple of glasses of wine during the week. Despite the current backlash, I still eat bread. I drink more than a half-gallon of milk a week (mostly in my post-workout protein drinks). But make no mistake -  you have to cut the processed carbs, the sugars, the unhealthy fats. I’ve snacked all summer on celery, carrots, broccoli, nuts, boiled eggs (along with fruit).

You won’t change your body without making sacrifices. You don’t need some radical diet. If you eat Paleo or vegan, hey, good for you. Each has its merits. Bottom line, you need to make better choices and do it CONSISTENTLY – not just before your high school reunion, a wedding or a trip to the Bahamas. So stick with the lean meats, fish, fruits and vegetables, nuts, etc. Be sure to read nutritional labels. Look for the hidden sugars. Know what you’re eating. Make sure it’s not Wal-Mart ice cream sandwiches. Those aren’t sugar-free. (They are, evidently, melt-free!)

But to melt away that stubborn belly fat, clean up the diet – especially cutting carbs. Kick up the cardio – spiking it with more conditioning. Add some rotational cable chops and kettlebell swings to your traditional ab training.  Train on your feet and make those abs be dynamic stabilizers, absorbing and producing force. That is their primary function – not assisting in spinal flexion as they do in a sit-up. Oh yeah, that’s for an upcoming blog.

SPREADING THE HEALTH

 

Robert Haddocks, CSCS, CES, CPT

 

 

 

 

The movement toward movement

 

 So many people are missing the boat.

 I attended the National Strength and Conditioning Association regional conference last month. The NSCA is the premier fitness organization when it comes to training college and professional athletes. You might think the focus of the conference would have been on hoisting heavy weight and producing maximal power, an essential element in football and many sports. Not so fast.

 The recurring theme: focus on corrective exercise, efficient movement and quality-based not quantity-based protocols. Speed, strength and power might rule on the playing field, but all of that is compromised if efficient movement isn’t established first, coaches said. The Functional Movement Screen is replacing the bench press, squat or power clean as a measure of athletes’ potential – and it’s a viable indicator of future injury. If an athlete doesn’t demonstrate good balance, flexibility and mobility in the seven dynamic assessments of the FMS, then he or she is given a series of corrective exercises until they do, said Georgia Tech strength coach Mike Bewley. Then, and only then, do they start lifting.

“If you can’t squat properly, why are you actually squatting heavy?” NSCA regional director Gary Schofield asked the crowd at the two-day conference in Atlanta.

So if these coaches of elite athletes are prioritizing movement patterns (and stretching and yoga), don’t you think that maybe you should, too? Look, 95% of you are not and were not D1 athletes. I’ll speculate that most of you don’t move as well as they do. So what are you doing to address your deficiencies? Do you have enough hip flexion in your squat?  If you lack depth on your squat, is it due to hip or ankle restriction or both? How’s your thoracic mobility? How do you know? To continue lifting with movement impairments only reinforces a bad pattern and increases the chances of injury.

 An injured player, no matter how strong he might be, is useless to his coach. That’s why Atlanta Falcons strength coaches Jonas Beauchemin and A.J. Neibel talked more about “movement efficiency,” emphasizing mobility and stability. “We want to make sure they’re moving well,” Neibel said. “If they move better, they’ll avoid all the unnecessary wear and tear and that gives them a chance for a long career.”  

 Schofield is steering this movement boat. And he’s not afraid to rock it. The head strength and conditioning coach at Greater Atlanta Christian, Schofield has always challenged conventional thinking and methods. I’ve known Schofield for 10 years and there’s no one in the industry that I respect more. His visionary style led to him being chosen at the NSCA’s national high school coach of the year in 2012. High honors.

 Shannon Turley, Stanford strength and conditioning coach, also is being recognized for similar training techniques.  His athletes don’t touch a weight the first two weeks of the program. It’s all movement-based exercise. Stanford football coaches initially questioned if Turley’s methods would work in a sport that demands so much physicality and brute strength. Not only has the football program thrived in the six years since Turley arrived, injuries have been reduced by 87%, according to a New York Times article on his training philosophy.

 Jorge Bonnet thought heavy Olympic lifts were the only way to go. Why wouldn’t he? They helped him become a five-time Olympian in judo and bobsledding. Bonnet still has the look of a fighter. But the 49-year old Puerto Rican battles back and neck pain, which he attributed to the years of heavy lifting. “I love to load,” he said. “I just don’t like the pain.”

 As a young, competitive athlete, Bonnet simply did what he was told. And what was accepted. Put as much weight on the bar as you can and lift it. Then lift it again. It worked for Bonnet, just as it works now for the growing legions of CrossFitters. But now older and wiser, Bonnet questions that quantity-based approach. “Why sacrifice long-term health for short-term success?” asked Bonnet, who created PurMotion, a line of equipment that is more functional and less stressful on the joints than Olympic lifting.

It was refreshing to hear so many strength coaches focusing on efficient, quality movement. I’ve adopted that philosophy over the years, which isn’t always popular. Some clients want to go hard and heavy even when their movement patterns are poor. The problem is most people (including some trainers, sadly) don’t know what a good movement pattern looks like because they have no idea of anatomy, function, muscle recruitment, biomechanics, etc. Suffice it to say, the speakers at the conference know a little something. These coaches train athletes to perform at the highest level and must place a premium on strength and power. But they’re recognizing it’s all about movement first.

“Most people don’t get it,” said Trent Murphy, a Stanford defensive end recently picked in the first round of the NFL draft.

Sooner or later, they will.

 

Spreading The Health,

 

Robert Haddocks, CSCS, CES, CPT.

 

P.S. Be on the lookout for my new website, www.moveyourbest.com. Coming soon.

Back pain in the bedroom

“Do not assume that what feels natural is the best way to move.” – Gray Cook

 

Does your back hurt after sex?

I had a client - this is a true story - who often came in after a night of “pleasure” dragging like he was beaten by a mob. Hands on hips, he winced with each step. What the heck was he doing – or trying to do? I didn’t have to wonder about his exploits. I knew the reason he was hurting.

His ass was weak.

Let me explain. I hesitate to call this a textbook case only because of the act involved, but it reaffirms what I preach to my clients  - and anyone else who will listen: the need to activate and strengthen the glutes. If they’re not firing – and this poor guy’s clearly were not – even routine activities like bending over, bending down, standing up or sex, can become painful. As I explained in a video last week, the body will find a way to get things done – even if it is, ultimately, to its detriment.

 “There are many different ways the body can move. Some are efficient and some are not. It is possible for an athlete to perform well even when poor form is used. But eventually the athlete will experience breakdown, inconsistency, fatigue, soreness and even injury,” writes Gray Cook, the pioneering physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach.

For efficient movement you need good glutes. The gluteus maximus is a large muscle with many functions, one being to extend the hips. Tight hips and weak glutes compromise that ability, affecting the way you walk, run, jump – and more. The brain senses this shortcoming and, in my client’s case, calls on the low back to help thrust the hips back and forth. Bad move.

Why? The primary job of the lumbar spine is stability, not mobility. So you’ll never see me or my clients on a back extension machine bending all the way to the floor or doing weighted side bends. For safety and effectiveness, you’re much better off doing a walking unilateral suitcase carry with a 25-pound plate or more. This forces true core stability as the muscles of the trunk must contract in order to keep you tall and upright.

Mobile hips and strong glutes are the back’s best friends. Muscles absorb and produce force. Your gluteus maximus is one of the strongest muscles in the body. Well, it should be. If it’s weak, the body compensates and develops bad movement patterns, most of which increase the risk of injury.

Cook, creator of the Functional Movement Screen, which has become the standard in assessing athletes, calls the spine a “victim.”  If your back hurts, look for dysfunction above or below. It is there, in many cases, where you will find the culprit. My own back misery years ago had little to do with the spine itself. It stemmed from working two desk jobs and sitting 15 hours a day, tightening my hip flexors and weakening my glutes.

Back pain frequently is a symptom. You must find and treat the cause. And then you can treat yourself to more of life’s simple pleasures – whether that’s playing with the kids, the grandkids, golfing, gardening or, yes, even sex - pain free!

 

SPREADING THE HEALTH!

 

ROBERT HADDOCKS, CPT, CES, CSCS

Contact me with any questions about personal training, small group or corporate training. E-mail - robhadd@hotmail.com

 

 

 

Abs training tips: Look deeper and burn the flab before you see the ab!

 Guys have a love affair with the six pack – even if they never get it. Ladies, too, seek the sleek, magazine cover midsection. What should you be doing to get the abs of your dreams?   

As with any bodypart, there isn’t a single best exercise, but you need to keep in mind the following.  First, if you’re looking for a taut tummy or rippling abs, recognize that sit-ups or any abdominal exercise is just a piece to the puzzle. You can do sit-ups and crunches ab nauseum, but if you’re not lean enough you won’t see a trace of your six pack. Gotta burn the flab before you see the ab! So a healthy diet (lean meats and other protein-rich foods, fruits and vegetables, avoiding sugar and processed carbs) with at least two hours of cardio a week – including high-intensity intervals - are prerequisites.  

Most people don’t seem to understand that. The other day I watched a well-intended guy buzz around the gym. He hopped from kneeling cable rope crunches to leg raises to an ab crunch machine. No rest. He grunted on the machine, curling his body in a herky-jerky motion with several plates on the weight stack. Then he got up, grabbed his coat and left. Did he work his abs? Sure he did. Was he "feeling the burn"? Probably.

But let’s look a little deeper than the superficial six pack this guy was after. All three exercises were done in a linear or sagittal plane. He shortened his abs and hip flexors on all three. His shoulders were protracted with excessive cervical flexion on two of them. Now picture the stereotypical old person. Shoulders are hunched with neck flexed. Their movements are one-dimensional, linear. Gait is shortened (perhaps due to tight hip flexors). So why would you exercise in a way that reinforces that posture and robs your overall efficiency of movement?  There’s little carryover from a sit-up to everyday movement or athletic performance – and even less on any ab machine, most of which should be outlawed.

Please understand, I’m not saying don’t do sit-ups and crunches. They are – in moderation - part of a solid ab routine. But they’re over-rated and over-done. At the least, they’re done without the complementary exercises and stretches to balance all of that contraction and movement in an undesirable position. Like any other muscle, abs need to be lengthened and worked through multiple planes of motion. With sit-ups or crunches, the abs concentrically contract (shorten) to assist in spinal flexion. That is a function of the rectus abdominus, but it’s not one that it does often.

The primary function of the abs is dynamic stabilization of the trunk. Abs absorb and produce force, normally in a rotational pattern. Think of throwing a baseball, swinging a tennis racquet, punching or even transferring your groceries from the cart to the trunk. That’s how your abs work. That’s how you should train them. Your regimen (unless you’re getting ready for a bodybuilding competition) should consist of integrated movements, mainly on your feet. Incorporate rotational movement with cables, kettlebells, bands and medicine balls. The isolated movements should only supplement. That’s the finishing touch. Once again, the six-pack is a superficial. Treat it as such. You wouldn’t slap a new coat of paint on a dilapidated house, would you?

A sexy six pack means nothing if the deeper core muscles (the transverse abdominus, internal obliques, multifidus) aren’t firing and able to provide support in posture and movement.  So remember a couple of tenets of my training philosophy: 1) Integration before isolation. 2) Train the body inside out. 3) Rotation, rotation, rotation. I’m not going to get into my preferred abdominal exercises here. It’s tough sometimes to get a clear picture in print when multiple movements are involved. So I’ll save that for an upcoming video. Be on the lookout! And when it comes to your abs, look deeper. And look at your diet.

Robert Haddocks

CPT, CES, CSCS

Spreading the Health!

Note: Let me know what you want to read or see in future videos and I’ll do my best to put something out there for you.