What is Strength and Conditioning?

Ok guys and girls, welcome to my first proper article for Macro Man. In my only other article so far I wrote a little information about myself to explain my background and how I got where I am today. If you haven’t read that yet, feel free to browse through it.

 I thought I’d start off with something simple – my opinion on what Strength & Conditioning (S&C) is:

“Strength and Conditioning is the physical and physiological development of athletes for elite sport performance. The role of the S&C coach is to bridge the gap between the theory of training and applied training, helping athletes to become faster, stronger and more flexible and to build their muscular endurance so they perform better and remain injury free.”

Done. Next Question? I joke. Let’s expand a little.

A lot of people think that being an S&C Coach is the same as being a personal trainer – there are similarities, I will admit, but that is not completely correct.

A personal trainer is employed to improve the health, fitness and livelihood of the general public, most often for aesthetic purposes; people seeking the beach body look, some looking to simply lose weight or improve cardiovascular fitness for health reasons, or, for the average young male, to be able to confidently get the guns out when the sun’s out!

S&C Coaches however are here to help people improve their physical performance at their chosen sport or activity. This comes in many forms; building strength and power, increasing speed, improving performance throughout the energy systems, and, potentially the most important, decreasing the risk of injury.

When I speak about building strength and power, I don’t mean turning athletes into muscle-bound bodybuilders. I mean helping athletes to improve their performance through strengthening the muscles in the motions most applicable to their sport, or improving the performance of the muscle groups that will have the highest carryover to their performance.

For example, at Harlequins we place a large emphasis on movement quality rather than just the amount of weight being lifted. This way we are activating the appropriate muscle groups, and decreasing the risk of injury.


Does doing a barbell squat or trap-bar deadlift have carryover? I believe so as it can positively improve the amount of force produced, and therefore apply more force through the floor when trying to reach top speed.

Next up, when I mention increasing speed, I’m not just talking about taking a million pitter patter steps in twenty metres using a speed ladder. I’m talking about improving mechanical efficiency so that maximum force is being exerted with every step and energy isn’t being wasted with wayward arm swing or leg movement.

“Speed, to improve it - basically, by focusing on the start and basic mechanics.”

Improving energy system performance is a little more complicated but to simplify it as best I can, it’s not always necessary to work out until you puke! This is quite often actually a detriment to results believe it or not. Neither is CrossFit necessarily the answer … but we won’t get onto that now. That’s a rant for another day (before you all hate me, I have nothing against CrossFit – I believe it’s doing wonderful things for certain population groups, however I don’t believe it is the be all and end all for exercise).

What I mean about energy system performance is understanding the needs requirements of your chosen sport, and training in a way that will enhance your performance for that type of activity. For instance, American Football Offensive Linemen are never going to cover 5k in a game, especially in one go, so why ask them to run 5k as a testing measure? Is there a need for aerobic base training? I believe so (contrary to a former article of mine). But is it all that needs to be done? No. Let’s get specific and see the gains.

With regards decreasing the risk of injury, there is no real downside to this in my opinion. Players of any sport at an Elite level are pushing their bodies to the limit regularly, and in order to keep them playing we need to keep them healthy. Simple.

Ok. So I think I’ve now pretty much covered what I believe S&C is, and what the role of an S&C Coach is. This should help you to understand my perspective when I write future articles for this site, and will also hopefully allow you to truly appreciate this industry.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you come back to read more such as upcoming articles on different recovery techniques, speed training and mechanics, and many more. 

This article was written by Rob Nitman. BSc. ASCC.

You can get hold of him here:

http://nitmanperformancetraining.com
nitmanperformance@gmail.com
Twitter – @NitmanPT
Facebook – Nitman Performance
Instagram – @nitmanperformance

References

1. Http://www.eis2win.co.uk/pages/Strength_and_Conditioning.aspx. Accessed 09/12/2014
2. Yetter, Mike. & Moir, Gavin. L. The Acute Effects of Heavy Back and Front Squats on Speed During Forty-Meter Sprint Trials. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22 (1), 2008.
3. Mannie, Ken. Speed Improvement: Its Machinery & Mechanics. Coach & Athletic Director, 70 (7), 2001.

Should Distance Runners Do Speed Workouts?

 The short answer to this question is an emphatic yes. But that wouldn’t be much of an article, so I probably should expand on that emphatic yes a little bit.

Recently I have been holding some workshops on sprint mechanics for a few groups of people, ranging from strength and conditioning professionals to decent level junior sprinters and Crossfit athletes. All of the seminars were enjoyable and led to some interesting questions and things for me to think about. The Crossfit athletes in particular had some good questions and points to make. Crossfit prides itself on developing an individual’s all round fitness, which includes both speed and endurance. As a result, people taking part in Crossfit need to be proficient in both sprinting and distance running. One of the questions athletes ask me is whether there is an efficient way to combine the two, i.e. do aspects from one area cross over into the other? This got me thinking, so I decided to approach the question of improving distance running as I approach the question of improving sprint performance, which includes:

1. Identifying the biomechanical demands, from both the scientific literature, and data
2. Identifying what has to happen physiologically to allow the correct biomechanics to occur
3. Identify what training can meet these demands.

For sprinting, this is a reasonably simple procedure for me; I look at the data of world-class sprint performance to see what elites are doing. I look at the literature that describes and explains what elite sprinters are doing biomechanically (Ralph Mann’s book The Mechanics of Sprinting and Hurdling is excellent for this). I also looked at what the training literature says I should be doing in my training to achieve these biomechanical values. As an example, negative foot velocity at ground contact is important, with the data indicating that elite sprinter have a higher negative foot velocity than non-elite sprinters. Elite sprinters achieve this by being able to get their thigh higher, which allows a greater range of movement through which they can accelerate the foot. They also tend to have faster angular velocities at both the upper and lower leg, and so strength training should focus on working on this element.

What happens in an endurance race?

In an endurance race, the runners start from a stationary position, accelerate to their running speed, attempt to maintain that running speed for as long as possible, and then, depending on the distance run, possibly have a sprint finish. As the acceleration is such a small part of even the shortest distance event, it’s perhaps not worth dedicating much time to in terms of a training intervention. The sprint finish, again, is such a small part of the race that on the surface it seems like it might not be worth much effort. However, on the home straight races might be won or lost, or places gained or relinquished, so in my opinion it’s certainly a good idea to work on this part of distance performance (although this is probably more of use in track distance races, as opposed to marathons and ultra-marathons).


Instead, the majority of a distance race is spent running at or close to a constant pace. The faster this constant pace, or the longer the athlete can sustain it, the better the performance. Therefore, it is in the athlete’s best interests to a) run at a quicker constant speed or b) be more economical at their race pace, and therefore more resistant to fatigue. Saunders et al. (2004) found that for two athletes of the same VO2 max, the athlete with a better running economy (RE) was a minute faster over a 10km time trial. They also found that in elite endurance athletes, RE is a better indicator of performance than VO2 max. These results have been replicated in a number of studies, so seem to be scientifically valid.

How can running economy be improved?

There are plenty of factors that have been identified to contribute to improving running economy, both physiological and biomechanical. Not all of them can be improved by sprint training, but some of them certainly can. One of the key kinematic variables related to RE is a low vertical oscillation of body center of mass (Saunders et al. 2004). One way to prevent this vertical oscillation is to ensure that the support leg does not buckle on ground contact, and instead can maintain center of mass height throughout the stance phase. Buckalew et al. (1985) found that, as fatigue increases, the support leg knee bends more during ground contact, decreasing body center of mass (COM) height. A lower COM in turn can decrease stride length (Buckalew et al., Hauswirth et al., 1997). Decreased stride length reduces RE by requiring a greater number of strides to be taken to cover the same distance.

In a review article by Kyrolainen et al. (2000), the authors stated that as well the requirement to maintain a good body center of mass height the neuromuscular system also had to be functioning well. This was shown to be important as it allows for an improved stretch shortening cycle, which in turn increases joint stiffness at both the hip and ankle. Joint stiffness is important as it can store and release energy, requiring less chemical energy while running. Using less energy per step will improve RE.

How can sprint-based training help?

Sprint training could potentially help distance runners in a number of ways. Firstly, it provides a modality through which an athlete can directly work on the sprint finish. As the sprint finish occurs under high fatigue, and is in and of itself very fatiguing, good sprint mechanics in this phase are important. Being able to practice these through sprint training would be helpful.


Sprint training also increases muscle fiber recruitment. Increased muscle fiber recruitment can help in a few ways, one of which is that it provides more fibers that can be recruited when running at a lower velocity. This improves RE by allowing the athlete to be able to produce slightly more force per step. Being able to recruit more fibers may also help “spread the load” of running, which in turn may help fatigue resistance.

Spending time on sprint-based drills could also be useful. A lot of the sprint drills I do as part of my warm up, and pass on in my workshops, are designed to improve posture, coordination and localized strength and strength endurance. All of these aspects will have a part to play in improving running economy and resistance to fatigue. Sprinting under the watchful eye of an experienced and knowledgeable coach will also enable you to put the technical aspects you have learnt from the drills into practice. Sprint based drills can also teach the athlete to keep the body center of mass high. Drills can also provide some very specific strength work for the support leg, ensuring that the COM does not collapse during the gait. This can help offset or delay the loss of center of mass height that is associated with fatigue. This loss of center of mass is associated with the loss of stride length, which in turn is associated with a decrease in running performance.

Sprinters have long been aware of the benefits of plyometric training, but recently distance runners have been using this training modality to a greater degree. There are a number of studies on distance athletes undertaking plyometric training. Turner et. al. (2003) showed that six weeks of plyometric training improved running economy in distance runners compared to a control group. A study by Saunders et. al. (2006) mirrored this result. The study showed that just three weekly plyometric sessions, lasting thirty minutes each, over a nine-week training block improved running economy at 18km/h in highly trained distance runners. Another group of well-trained competitive distance runners took part in a study by Ramirez-Campillo et al. (2014). After six weeks of explosive strength training, the plyometric group performed better at both a 2.4km run and a 20m sprint when compared to a control group who didn’t take part in the explosive strength training. An important point to note is that none of these studies recorded an improvement in VO2 max from the plyometric training. The improvements in RE were most likely down to an improvement in the stretch shortening cycle. Plyometric training also improves tendon stiffness, allowing the body to both store and utilize elastic energy more effectively. Interestingly, this can mean that the muscles can produce more force without requiring more energy, which has a knock-on effect to RE.

In conclusion, it should be apparent that some form of sprint training can be useful for distance runners. Sprint training could enable an improvement in running mechanics, musculo-tendon stiffness, muscle fiber and motor unit recruitment, and reduce fatigue-related loss of center of mass height. All of these factors can improve running economy, allowing the athlete to improve their performance. Sprint training can also improve the sprint finish for athletes, which could be the difference between winning and losing in a close race.

This article was written by ex-Team GB Olympic sprinter, Craig Pickering. Please share this article so others may benefit.

My Love Affair with the Bulgarian Split Squat

Throughout my followings of internet gurus, I have met, tried, experimented, visited, believed and argued many different points at different times. Louie Simmons was my first. I subscribed to Powerlifting USA to read his column, bought chains, bands, glute ham machines, reverse hypers and a Westside Barbell T-shirt which he gave me (the dog on the shirt was actually his dog). I spent multiple days at the old pizza shop in a strip mall on Demorest Ave in Columbus. Louie is a great coach, incredibly knowledgeable and a great person. In fact, he is such a great person that he said to me it was time to move on and learn from others because what he does, powerlifting, could only get me to a certain point. I needed new concepts that would get me closer to my goal of developing sprinters. He introduced me to John Davies, and I learned a lot. But I still needed more. I saw Bompa, Verkhoshanky, Siff, Weyand, Schroeder, Poliquin, Pfaff, Seagrave, and others speak on multiple occasions. I was one of the first in the US to have a Nemes vibrating plate sold by the Kraaijenhofs and delved into the Bosco stuff. My success was good but not where I wanted to be. Dan Fichter of wannagetfast, got us connected to DB Hammer who was selling limited consultations; we paid to have questions answered and teach us how to build programs that got great results for high school athletes. DB taught me the importance of the Bulgarian split squat and isometric strength. Thus, my love affair began.

Split Squat Technique Generates Biggest Gains

Test an athlete on a movement that matters—40 yard dash, vertical jump, etc.—create a workout, stay with something for three weeks and remeasure. Repeat with others and see what works.

Along this journey, I have kept data on my athletes. I am a track coach who has access to many athletes with a variety of capabilities, and I have a gym and train athletes in a one on one/small group setting. And with these groups, I have always tried to keep notes, film and results on my athletes because my quest is to find exercises that improve athletic development and more importantly sprinting speed. Test an athlete on a movement that matters—40 yard dash, vertical jump, etc.—create a workout, stay with something for three weeks and remeasure. Repeat with others and see what works. For me, the isometric split squat has been a staple that generates powerful athletes. My fastest guys, 10.5-10.8/100m range have always had the strongest “holds” – that is what we call them – and they all jump between 35 to 40 inch vertical jump.

Figure 1: Hammer Strength Deadlift Machine

The evolution of the exercise for me has been an interesting journey. Holding heavy weight in that position can be difficult, even with the safety squat bar. So, while assembling my gym, I came across a yellow Hammer Strength Deadlift machine on eBay for $200 in Seattle. I won it and paid $400 for shipping, and it changed my gym. It came with a bar installed to put your back foot on, and all we had to do was grab and hold for the allotted 30 sec. The problem was that grip strength became the limiting factor. We added straps, but that didn’t work. We tried a variety of belts, OK for some people. But thanks to iron mind straps and Spud belt-squat belts, we put together a system that is very effective because the weight goes to the lower body and is not limited to upper body strength.

Figure 2: Deadlift Machine with Athlete

The position of the athlete may vary. But, basically, one foot goes forward, and one goes back. The weight should hang along the side of the hip, so the weight doesn’t pull the athlete forward. When the athlete squats into position, the knee moves forward over the second toe, and the hips sink back into a squat position. My cue for the athlete is to think that a rope is pulling your knee forward, and a rope is pulling your hips back to stretch the hamstring. It should look like a chair tipped forward. The athlete should feel the pressure in the glute and hamstring of the forward leg and a stretch in the hip flexors in the rear leg. If an athlete feels it in the lower back or quad, their form is off, or the weight is too much. Some athletes get a more intense contraction going down deeper while others get a better contraction not going down as far or even slightly leaned forward. I think the ankle rocker (knee going forward) is key. Once the ankle breaks 90 degrees, the athlete will get a good glute contraction. Another cue is that the shin should be parallel to the spine. That is the perfect position to get a good hip drive in my opinion. We start with a hold in that position for 30 seconds and continually add weight as we progress. You will be shocked to see how fast people increase weight. After a couple of weeks of the 30 second holds, we progress to the Cal Dietz Triphasic holds, where the athlete drops down fast holds for a three count and powers up. A coach can always change the workout with supersets and giant sets by adding single leg jumps or drops from a box.

Figure 3: Deadlift Machine Sideview

What I have found is that the stronger athletes get at this exercise, the faster they run and the higher they jump. I have had athletes who could squat the house but couldn’t run or even hold their body weight in the position. But, once their body learned the position and strengthened this aspect of their movement, they ran faster and jumped higher. Athletes that start with me who can already run may not be great at some of the traditional lifts but always seemed to do very well in the isometric exercises.

Why do I think this is the case? Isometric strength is responsible for stopping the momentum from an action. So, going down in a vertical jump, there needs to be a strength type to stop the movement going down. Most people are slow to reverse this momentum and lose energy in the concentric portion of the jump. Another way to look at it is that it creates a platform to push from. A rubber ball works great on concrete but not so great on sand.

Figure 4: Athlete demonstrates Bulgarian Split Squats on the kBox. Photo courtesy Exxentric.

My latest excursion takes this concept one step further, inertial training. Or in my case, an Exxentric kBox from Flywheel USA. It is a flywheel concept where one pulls on a cable that is connected to a flywheel. As they pull, the wheel spins. At the end of the strap, the flywheel reverses directions and pulls the strap back to the origin. The key is that the athlete stops the spin and reverses the wheel. By the way, the wheel pulls back harder than the concentric pull. Some people call this eccentric training and it is. But, as I sit and spot on my kBox, I have noted that the more explosive people are the ones who can stop that wheel more quickly than others. Again, they are stopping a momentum, in this case a fast moving cable trying to suck them through a small hole in a 25 pound machine. Even more interesting is that fact that as some of the athletes who are less explosive got stronger in their isometric squats, the better they reversed the wheel and the higher they jumped and the faster they ran. So the combination of these tools has been very effective in training athletes to be more explosive.

This post was expertly written by Chris Korfist

What should I do during my rest periods?

Squeezing in a gym session around work and your weekend hangover is difficult. When you finally find the time you need to make the most of every minute. That means no chatting up the pilates class and absolutely no #gymselfies! It also means putting your rest periods to better use than sitting on the bench, swiping through Tinder

Rest periods should change in length depending on the aim of your session. If you’re storming through a circuit you only have 30-45secs between sets and need all of that to catch your breath. But if you’re doing strength training and your rep range rarely heads above five, you should be taking a full 3mins of rest. If you don’t, your CNS won’t recover and your subsequent lifts will suffer.

But 3min rests in a 45min workout eats into much needed gym time. Not what you want when you’ve already pushed back meetings and re-arranged date night to carve out a free hour. To help improve your workout's efficiency we've picked our perfect filler moves to supplement your exercises and help you become stronger, more flexible and injury proof.

Deadlifts

You would have thought this ultimate strength move required all of your effort, but a bit of extra abs work can bolster your future performance. “Working on anterior (front) core strength will help you maintain a flat back throughout the lift,” says Mans. Perfect form means you lift with the correct muscles and can squeeze out that final rep with ease. Perform 1min of front planks, side planks or deadbugs between each set for a side-order of six-pack abs and an extra 10kg on your PB.

Back squats

You won't pack any power into your lower body if your 'squats' involve little more than a slight bend at the knee “Poor hip flexibility means you’ll struggle squatting to the necessary depth,” says Mans. Loosening your muscles with flexibility exercises between sets increases your range of movement and therefore your lift's efficiency. Do 30secs of kneeling hip flexor stretches and psoas quad stretches during your breaks. Google them and thank us later.

Bench press

To get the most out of your time at the bench you need to work through your 'sticking point' – that reallly difficult phase of the move where the bar is 3-5 inches from your chest. Wall slides are the perfect stretch to open out your chest muscles, boosting your range of movement and helping ease the bar's journey. “Wall slides are essential, especially if you've been sat hunched over in front of a desk all day,” says Mans. Do 15 reps every time you break from the bench. They’ll work wonders for your posture and boost your bragging rights.

Shoulder press

Your shoulder is made up of more muscles than you might think. Shoulder stability exercises work the smaller muscles and are essential for overall strength and avoiding injury. “Try 90 degrees external rotation exercises using a cable machine,” says Mans. Set the pin to a light weight and do around 12 reps on each arm. Popping a weak shoulder at the top of a lift won't just hurt like hell, it'll keep you out of the gym for weeks. Don't forget the little guys.

Can't Do Pull Ups? We Have 7 Tips to Get You There

Pull ups are a basic movement in CrossFit, yet in and of themselves they are an intermediate gymnastic movement. Starting out pulling your bodyweight can seem like an insurmountable task.

Don’t fall prey to the mistakes of progressing too fast, kipping before you’re ready, or skipping over the fundamentals. There are tons of strategies and methods of assistance to get your chin over that bar, but not all of them are helping you to get stronger.

Here we will learn where to begin and which alternatives are worth your time. Here are seven tips for achieving that beautiful, dead-hang pull up:

1. Work Your Mobility

Pullups begin as all movements do - with proper mobility. Work on being able to maintain a proper overhead position exactly as described in my article The Safest and Smartest Progression for Building Your Overhead Lifts. If you start with tight lats, chest, or spine you’re already in a compromised position. This will put more stress on your shoulder joint and spine. For a pull up, you must start in a deadhang position with active shoulders. Once you can hang in this position in a controlled manner, then you can start pulling motions.

If you are unable to achieve a proper active hang position, you can still start building strength while working on your mobility. Work on grip strength using heavy deadlifts along with farmer’s carries. Both will stress the forearm and hands in a similar way to a pull up. To begin building pulling strength, you can do bent over barbell or dumbbell rows. Both are effective at building pulling strength and require less mobility to perform correctly.

2. Get Some Hang Time

Once you open up the mobility to dead hang properly, then you need to start spending time on the bar. Dead hangs for time are an effective way to build shoulder stability and grip strength. Make sure you never let your form suffer during these.

3. Avoid Jumping and Rubber Bands

Jumping pullups and banded pullups are popular in the CrossFit world as a way to get in a workout, but I’ve found little success with these methods and little direct translation into actual pull up strength. Strict banded pullups can be decent for building strength, but during a metcon they get abused and people begin to kip, bounce out of the hole, and squirm in all sorts of ways to finish their reps. If you’re after metabolic conditioning, switch to rows, deadlifts, rowing, ring rows, or some other variation.

4. Build Strength

To get your first pullup what you want to do is build strength. This means operating at 80%+ of your max effort at a minimum. Ring rows are one of the most effective methods to build strength and are easily varied in intensity by changing your positioning. Mark your foot positioning each workout and begin to creep your body closer to parallel with the floor each time. This will increase the load by involving a greater percentage of your bodyweight.

Negative pullups are also effective at building strength. Start with a five-second controlled descent and build to longer durations of time. Eccentric work can be very taxing and leave you sore, so start conservatively and add on as your body tells you. Don’t combine a lot of eccentric pulling work and then a hard metcon involving similar movements.

5. Stay Focused

Remember the body can adapt well in one way at a time. It’s hard to increase strength and endurance at the same time. This is why we cycle our training and have times when we focus on strength and times when we focus on conditioning. If your goal is to do a pull up, then focus on getting that first one now, and then multiple reps later.

6. Resist the Kip

Don’t kip until you can do at least five strict pullups. Kipping is the translation of horizontal momentum to vertical force and allows you to do a greater number of pull ups. Kipping is more efficient, but it also loads the shoulder dynamically, putting more force on it. If you are unable to control your bodyweight, there is no reason to add momentum on top of that.

7. Climb a Rope

Another movement great at building pulling strength is rope climbs. Rope climbing with efficiency involves using your legs to hook the rope and push yourself higher. Your arms hold you in place as you bring your legs up. So for a rope climb you only need to be able to hang on, not just pull your way to the top. Therefore, this is a great tool for people still working on building their pulling strength. If you’re a beginner, though, remember to let your legs help you so you don’t just focus on your arms and get burned out.

Respecting the pullup, training for your current ability level, and listening to your body will yield long-term results. If you’ve never done a pull up, then it’ll take time to get there, but the long smooth road always beats the ups and down of overtraining and progressing too quickly.

3 Simple Ways to Heal a Stiff, Sore, or Injured Neck

Now, we are going to focus on cervical strain and give you some simple ways you can help yourself heal.

Cervical Strain or Sprain

In the case of a cervical strain/sprain, there are a number of things that can be done to facilitate healing. As a licensed acupuncturist I have been trained in numerous treatments and protocols to help this condition, but I wanted to pick techniques that wouldn’t require any special knowledge or training to do. These three therapeutic techniques are intended to be used after the acute-phase of the injury, which is the first four days after the incident.

Remember that after a neck strain/sprain, the muscles in the neck will often become tight, guarding the affected area and limiting motion and mobility.Anything that can be done to safely alleviate muscle tension, improve range of motion, and promote blood circulation to the affected area, is going to help the healing process.

A. Manual Cervical Traction

Applying gentle traction to the neck can often ease and elongate tight muscles, allowing pinched nerves or compressed blood vessels to be released.

Tight muscles will constrict and compress everything around them. The idea behind using traction is to create more space and alleviate pressure by improving the blood supply to the neck muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the affected area.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to:

1. Lie down on your back and place a folded (lengthwise) hand towel under the occiput of your head. This is the rear part of your skull that rounds out away from your neck.
2. Have a friend gently pull the towel straight towards them. Try to get them to hold the position for at least 3 minutes.
3. Repeat the exercise 2-3 times per-day or until you feel some relief. I have seen excellent results in my own clinic with as little as a few minutes a day.

B. Hydrotherapy

Soaking in Epsom Salt can be very helpful for the release of muscle aches and pain. It is informative to remember the actual name of Epsom Salt is Magnesium Sulfate. Among magnesium’s many functions is it will reduce the rate of calcium binding after a muscle contracts as it competes for the same binding sites as calcium, which contracts a muscle.

Something as simple as an Epsom Salt bath can be of great benefit in relaxing a tight muscle.

It is easily done by

1. Adding 2 cups of Epsom Salt to a warm bath full of water.
2. Soak your neck in the bath for 15 - 20 minutes, allowing the Magnesium to be absorbed through your skin.

C. Acupressure Point for Stiff Neck

Luo Zhen is the name of an acupuncture/acupressure point used specifically for a stiff neck. The point is found on the back of the hand in between the two bones in the depression just past the knuckles of the pointer and middle finger.

How to use Luo Zhen to treat a stiff neck:

1. Massage the point on the opposite side of the body from the neck pain. If the right side of your neck hurts, massage the point on your left hand. You will need to massage this point by pressing into it with the tip of your finger, and make sure to use enough pressure to feel slight tenderness at the point.
2. Maintain that pressure while making very small circles with your pressing finger.
3. At the same time as you are stimulating the acupressure point, exercise the neck by rotating your head side to side. You should slowly begin to notice a slight increase in your range of motion while experiencing a decrease in pain.

Once, I treated an elderly woman with severe neck pain and limited range of motion from sleeping in a bad position.

I tried using the acupuncture point Luo Zhen for several minutes while she exercised her neck. To my surprise, there was no result or improvement at all.

Rather than give up, I decided to try again. This time I worked on the point for more than ten minutes and then rechecked. She had a very slight increase in her range of motion. After forty minutes of treatment we had the full mobility of her neck restored and no pain.

Patience and Persistence Are Important When Treating Neck Pain

I’m not telling this story to say that everyone is going to have these types of miraculous results with this or any of the other techniques. What I want to point out is sometimes it will take some patience and the ability to acknowledge even a small amount of progress in order to fully restore one's health. Had I just given up after my first attempt, the treatment may not of had any benefit at all.

Do you have a sore neck? Give one of these treatments a try and post your results to the comments below.

10 Strength Training Principles That Will Make All the Difference

1. Start with Bodyweight

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” - Leonardo da Vinci

Let’s start with an admission. My name is Chet Morjaria, and I am a barbell addict.Don’t get me wrong; I love strongman and odd-object training too, amongst other forms of lifting heavy things. But for me, the barbell is where it is at.

However, underneath this mentality is a deep foundation of bodyweight training. No matter how much you can squat, pull off the ground, or get over your head - if you cannot pull yourself up to a bar there is a fundamental and functional strength concern that needs to be addressed.

In addition to the impressive levels of strength that can be built through bodyweight training, it requires an understanding of where your body is in space and where it is in relation to itself - kinaesthetic awareness and proprioception. These are crucial elements of any form of strength training. It can also be argued that the carryover from bodyweight strength training to barbell strength training is greater than the other way round, in the majority of cases.

2. Address Weak Links

Whether you like CrossFit or not, there is one aspect of the way CrossFitters train that you cannot deny - addressing weak links will make you stronger, quicker. Whereas CrossFit does this in a generalist fashion, you can be a little more specific when it comes to your strength goals. Work out which movements or body parts let you down when the going gets tough and the weights get heavy. Then address these elements systematically and specifically.

If you don’t know what your weak links are, go to see a good strength coach and find out. Even better, get them to provide you with a program that will bring these up to scratch. Working on your weaknesses will have the biggest carryover to the rest of your life.

3. Utilize Carryover

We’ve seen this concept of carryover mentioned twice now. Time to drag it out from the back of the stage and give it a mic and a spotlight. You have limited time, energy, and other such expendable resources. To get the most out of your training, you need to work out what works for you, in terms of movements, reps, sets, tempo, and more.

There is only one way to truly work out what does work for you. Get yourself under the bar and experiment. Record your experiments and learn from them. You can also speed up that process by learning from those who have been there before.

4. Train with Strong(er) People

There are plenty of ways you can find strong(er) people. Seek out the strongest person in your gym and ask to train with them. Look up a club specific to the type of lifting you do and get yourself down there to train. Find people who eat, sleep, breathe, and compete in it at a high level. You think these people haven’t learned something along the way?

If you don’t think you can learn from such people, you are wrong. Leave your ego in your gym bag and soak up the inspiration from people who have been there, done that, and got the blood-stained T-shirt.

5. Build a Base with the Basics

So far we’ve looked at strategies to employ in order to get yourself stronger. Now let’s make sure you have the strength basics down.

It doesn’t matter what form of strength training floats your boat or what you are lifting - barbells, odd-objects, or kettlebells to name a few. Ensure that you are pushing, pulling, squatting, hinging, and carrying on a regular basis. These are basic human movements and foundational to building a solid base of strength. Make sure none of these are missing from your training.

6. Find the Missing Piece

Listen to your body. ‘Niggles’ or worse, full-blown injury can be your body’s way of letting you know what’s missing from your training program. A good sports therapist will supply you with a prehab or rehab program. Often the pieces in this program are a good indication of what is missing from your fitness routine. Or you could just let me shorten the process for you: You need to do more rows and rotational work.

7. Be Coachable

Whether you are lucky enough to be coached regularly or not, be open to any coaching you receive. There is a difference between being coached and being coachable. Coaching is a two-way process, and those that give the coach something to work with allow the coach to learn about how you work and how you respond to different styles of coaching. A good coach will use this information to help motivate and improve you in a way that works best for you.

8. Choose Your Flavor

Let’s say you are already doing almost all of the points this article lays out. You have the basics down, are conscious of the gaps, and have the right people around you. Yet you do not seem to be getting much closer to your goal.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s likely you are going about your strength training the wrong way. If you are working towards specific strength goals, you need to build the appropriate kind of strength. The foundation is that of absolute strength, but there comes a point where you need to make sure your style of training is a good fit.

Take the Olympic lifts as an example. These are fast lifts. Training in slow and steady movements will not prepare you as well as explosive and powerful ones in terms of developing the flavor of strength required - in this case, speed-strength.

9. Less is Better

We have discussed a number of strength training principles here, and a number of them involve assessing the way that you train. However, do not confuse this with continually adding stuff to your training schedule. We are talking about efficiency of training. Make sure that as you develop your training, you also streamline your approach to optimise virtuosity, recovery and, of course, intensity. Keeping your program sharp in this way will also allow you to simply assess exactly which of the modifications you are make are working and which are not.

10. Test the Mind

Who sets your limits? The body will give up long before the mind does. Find ways to challenge your everyday training principles and push past perceived boundaries. Here are three ways to do so:

• Competition: Put yourself into a competitive situation in your chosen field of play. Anyone who has done so will attest that lifting in a competitive situation is worlds apart from lifting on your own in your favorite corner of the gym. Some people seize up. Others revel at the chance. Whatever happens, you will learn more about yourself and the way your work (or don’t work).
• Coach: A good coach should know you better than you know yourself. Putting yourself in the hands of such a person can help you take yourself to places that you didn’t think possible, knowing that you are still within the realms of safety whilst doing so.
• Change: Mix it up from time to time. I advocate having one play session a week, where you can do whatever you want. Always do combinations of 5s and 3s for squats? Try 20 reps. Always lift with a barbell? Pick up an awkward object and lift that instead. Trying something new removes any notion of a reference point in terms of personal bests, or limits.

(By the way, the answer to the question at the start of this section is there are no limits.)

In summary - be considered about what you train, how you train, and who you train with. Yet sometimes, throw this consideration to the wind and dive head first into unfamiliar territory. Ingest, understand and adopt the strength training principles outlined above to drive your strength to the next level, and beyond.

Why the Numbers on Weight Machines Are a Lie

For several decades now, the fitness game has been blessed with commercial fitness and “wellness” centers (whatever that means). The first thing you notice when you enter one is an endless supply of machines, most of which can only exercise one body part in one motion.

Now, I'm not going to do a long free-weights-versus-machines rant. That has been done many times and by much more articulate people. What I am going to explore is how the novice is slyly conned by the manufacturers of these machines.

The Problem of Mechanical Advantage

Whether we are novices or Olympic medalists, we all like to lift more weight. It satisfies the ego and is an innate part of the human condition. Nothing wrong with that. Strength athletes need something to measure their progress with and the amount of weight on the barbell or machine seems to be an objective way of doing this. Since this seems obvious, you are probably wondering how the manufacturers of weight machines (and by extension those who purchase them for their facilities) find a way of conning you.



Let's start with the weight stacks used in many of the machines. Most weight stacks are fairly accurate. Some have been discovered to be slightly lighter than advertised, but this is not the main way you will be fooled. Any variances of this type are not that significant enough to worry the prospective gym member.

Where the real problems occur is in the mechanical guts of the various machines. It is fact that the makers build in a certain amount of mechanical advantage to their wares. Do you remember this term from high school physics? You likely at least remember this is what makes a machine desirable in the first place. The whole idea is that a machine can move more resistance than the effort put into it.

Levers, Pulleys, and Inclines

That works well in the industrial world, but in the gym things are a bit different. Trainees are told to keep track of their workout poundages in order to track progress. This makes the figures they enter into those little books very important. And as we've all been trained to be good little consumers, we like to think we are getting our money's worth.

"The whole idea is that a machine can move more resistance than the effort put into it."

In the gym, that means that our effort should equal the machine’s resistance, not that resistance be far greater than effort. We want that 1:1 ratio. What goes in must equal what comes out. But that is not what happens with many of these machines in gymnasiums today.

If you also remember from physics, machines can be divided into levers, pulleys, and inclines. The observant gym members will note that all of these can be used on various machines. If they are even more observant, the gym members will notice that seldom do they experience a 1:1 ratio of resistance to effort.

Almost all of the machines give the user a little bit of help, making the ratio anywhere from 2:1 to 5:1. Many machines utilize not just one such assistance device, but often two or even more, each with its own mechanical advantage. You must then multiply them all to get the total mechanical advantage. Let's look at each type of machine separately.

The Overhead Press Machine

This machine is based on a simple second-class lever. The fulcrum is at one end, the effort is at the other, and the resistance somewhere in the middle.

The trainee presses up on the ends of the lever while the weight is attached to somewhere closer to the fulcrum. Our mechanical advantage is simply the ratio of the distance the lifter’s hands are from the fulcrum (A+B in the graphic below) divided by the distance the weight/resistance (W) is from the fulcrum (A).



The machine in my gym has a 4:1 mechanical advantage. Let's say a trainee selects 200 pounds and rattles off a nice set of ten reps. If he forgets his high school physics, he is going to feel pretty strong. But should he? By now you should know that he shouldn’t. All he really did was fifty pounds for ten reps, nothing too impressive to someone who could do the same with a 200-pound free weight.

The Pulley Machines

Some of these are honest and some of them are not. How can you tell? Remember what your physics teacher said - and count the number of supporting cables.

More than one cable means you do have a mechanical advantage. Many machines have two supporting cables and some even have three, often hidden so that counting them is difficult. To be fair, some machines label the stacks to compensate for this.

In addition, some machines have not only an advantageous lever, but it is attached to a 2:1 pulley system. In that case, you feel very strong as you write down your day’s poundage.

The Incline Leg Press Machine

We all know that we can incline press a little more than we can military press, but not as much as we can bench or decline press. This is a good illustration of the effects of force vectors.

Left: Incline Press; Middle: Bench Press; Right: Decline Press

But there is another machine in the gym where this incline idea is used more insidiously. You all know what I'm talking about. It's the leg press machine, the favorite of squat dreaders everywhere. Some truly awesome poundages can be moved on this device and they are all very gratifying to the ego. Even former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright boasted of a 400-pound leg press, and she was in her seventies at the time.

But those who want to do leg presses instead of those nasty old squats should be aware of one thing. Most leg press machines made today are built with tracks moving at a 45-degree angle. Back in the 1950s, we leg pressed lying on our backs and resting a barbell across the bottoms of our feet. This was a stupid thing to do, of course, but it had one advantage. It at least gave us some honest reading of what we were pressing.

"This is more or less completely safe and you can move tremendous weights on it. The trouble is you are not lifting as much as you think you are."

But today we have something better - the leg press sled on a 45-degree angle track. This is more or less completely safe and you can move tremendous weights on it. The trouble is you are not lifting as much as you think you are.

  

To determine the actual weight, you have to take the cosine of the angle the machine deviates from the vertical. The gentler than angle, i.e., the more it deviates from the vertical, the easier it is to lift. Most leg press machines today are on 45-degree angles, although some are far gentler. The cosine of 45 degrees is about 0.71, giving a 1:1.4 mechanical advantage. This means that Ms. Albright's 400-pound leg press is really only 285 pounds if she did it on a 45-degree angle.

Look Past the Numbers

I'm not sure if the manufacturers were thinking of this, but I'm sure it occurred to somebody that a mechanical advantage could be turned into a financial advantage. People like to move big weights and most don't care about the engineering niceties.

The gym owners who buy these machines are well aware that progress is best proven with impressive figures. And maybe it doesn't bother the average trainee as long as they can see progress. Being able to lift eleven plates in the stack is still better than being able to lift ten. Whether it's 110 pounds or 110 “something-or-others” makes little difference since it's still more than 100.

Serious trainees will not be fooled, but they're a minority anyway. And this is yet another reason why free weights have enjoyed a renaissance even as the machines have taken over in commercial gyms.

Why 10 x 3 Is Best for Strength and Size

One of the things that has always stuck in my head as far as training goes is to do the opposite of what most do. Breaking Muscle athlete and super-coach Charles Staley is the guy who said this. It’s a fairly simple concept. If you see people using machines, then do free weights. If you see people doing chest and biceps, then do legs.

But the biggest disconnect usually comes when we talk about volume. Everyone knows typical gym training begins with three sets of ten. There is actually some science behind that. Back in the 1960s, Dr. Thomas DeLorme found that people responded better to multiple sets than they did to a single exposure, both in terms of building muscle size and strength (which explains why high-intensity training doesn’t work long term).

While sets of ten will work to begin with, they do have some limitations, especially for the natural trainee. Sooner or later the decreasing intensity in these sets of ten will have you need to work fewer reps per set. To begin with, a set of ten may leave you out of breath and flushed, but it won’t stay that way. The best way to think about it is like going for a jog. At first it’s difficult to even get around the block, but if you keep running those relaxed runs, you will be covering more and more distance pretty quickly. And at that point the only way to get fitter is to run faster

 

It may seem like a strange analogy, but there are far more similarities than differences between strength and fitness training. Beginners usually find themselves training at around seventy percent of what they are ultimately capable of. In fact, there is even a table to work out how hard you are working based off how many reps per set you are doing called Prilepin’s Table. A single set that is the heaviest thing you can lift once and once only represents 100% of your maximum. Looking at Prilepin’s Table, you’ll see that it goes down and eventually ends up at sets of ten and a corresponding seventy percent effort.

 

One of the things people often lose sight of is how many total reps are in a session. There’s a real reason why top strength coaches record not just weight, but sets and reps in their students’ work, as it helps to calculate the total intensity for the session, and even the training cycle. When you look at successful training plans the majority have one big thing in common - they share a total number of reps between the mid twenties and low thirties.

 

Think about it:

 

• 3 x 10
• 3-4 x 8
• 5 x 5
• 4 x 6
• 6 x 4

 

But there’s one incredibly valuable scheme that is overlooked in these plans, and that is the flip side of the old three sets of ten. What happens when you do ten sets of three? Let’s look at some of the benefits of 10 x 3:

 

• In a lift like the deadlift, where the set up can often be half the battle, this gives a trainee more opportunities to learn how to set up properly.
• Fatigue per set is kept to a minimum, reducing the possibility of injury. It’s rare to hear of people hurting themselves on the first rep of a set, but far more common for people to push hard while fatigued and hurt themselves on the eight, ninth, or tenth rep.
• Instead of thirty reps done at seventy percent intensity, this is thirty reps done at around 85% intensity.

 

This style of training allows for much greater stimulus to be applied to the muscles, which will result in greater strength and hypertrophy along the way. This is a great tool to use with opposing muscle groups and big lifts. Good choices are:

 

• Front squats and Romanian deadlifts
• Front squats and power cleans
• Bench press and chins

 

It can also be used to good effect on its own, and Westside Barbell made the 10x3 workout famous when they started using it for speed work on their Dynamic Effort days. For people who have never tried it, the end result is similar to what Dan John had in mind when detailing the One Lift a Day program. Just know that ten genuinely hard sets of three in a big exercise will take some time to get through, and the rest needed to do all this properly will make what seems like a small workout push out to the hour mark.

 

I’d suggest scheduling no more than two workouts per week for the ten by three sessions and using lower intensity work on the other days. A good sample split would be:

 

• Monday: 10 x 3 front squat and power cleans
• Tuesday: 5 x 5 bench press and chins, 3-4 x 6-8 of another upper-body pair
• Wednesday: Rest or easy cardio
• Thursday: Same as Monday
• Friday: Rest or easy cardio
• Saturday: Same as Tuesday
• Sunday: Rest or easy cardio

 

Give it a try for six weeks and see how fast you grow in size and strength.