This morning, I passed my 3rd home study course and I'm feeling excited. Check out the Titles of each and you might see why?
- Complete Core
- Complete Sports Conditioning
- Running Mechanics and Gait Analysis
All 3 emphasized reducing injury risk first and optimizing performance 2nd. None really talked about aesthetic outcomes in a deep way. I'm sure all 3 will pay great dividends to you in the programming you experience, the coaching you get and the problems we solve. Right now I'm in an information overload state, but here are 3 tips, you can use today.
Complete Core - “If you want to recruit the deep abdominal stabilizers, exhale on the concentric.”
If you want to target the lower abs, exhale through pursed lips during the lifting portion of an exercise.
Example: the push of a push up, the pull of a chin up, the stand of a squat or deadlift, the push of an overhead press, the pull of an inverted or DB Row, the punch or kick of a punch or kick.
Holiday Bonus - "respiration has a mechanical effect on muscle tension".
Got pain or tight muscles? Deep breathing, specifically inhales through the nose and hard exhales through the mouth, can help with pain. Focusing regular breathing (non-performance breathing) on both inhales and exhales through the nose, might have benefits, to low back pain, posture, performance, snoring, sleep apnea, rest & digest (turning up Parasympathetic Nervous System) and facial structures (more square shape faces with nasal breaths and longer faces with mouth breaths). What? I had to follow the links to learn some of this. Take some of the benefits with a grain of salt, but do practice being more mindful of how you breathe and practice breathing more through your nose for both inhales and exhales, except, when you're training or intentionally using explosive breaths.
Complete Sports Conditioning - “No one ever dominated a game because they were in great shape, but they did if they were fast.” - Mike Boyle #speedkills
Example: being fit, is the enemy of being fast. To be fast, you need to train fast, be strong & explosive, rest, then do it again. Avoid the mediocre. Avoid watered down reps because you haven't recovered. Watch Cristiano Ronaldo play soccer. He walks around, while everyone runs or jogs, yet he's the best player of this generation, probably because he's Portuguese, but more likely because he conserves his energy and positions himself to strike when opportunity presents itself. He's already one of the fastest players, but he's older, so he has to be more resourceful. If he conserves his energy and picks his spots, he can outrun most everyone. If he runs around a lot and the same opportunity presents itself, he may not outrun the opponents because he's a little tired and he's older so they may catch him.
Note: Some people talk about the amount of miles covered in a 90 minute soccer match. If you cover 5 miles in a soccer match and a soccer match is 90 minutes, then you've run 18min miles. That's slow. Don't run distance to get in shape for soccer or field sports. Do sprints, at least 2x/wk.
Holiday Bonus - Keep heart rate above 60% max heart rate for 20 minutes to get both an aerobic and anaerobic training effect.
Example: If you do a sprint interval and then recover to and keep your heart rate above 120 bpm, then you'll get almost full recovery and you'll stay aerobic. This heart rate is lower if your max heart rate is lower. Aerobic training is important to build a base (general physical preparation), but it can make you slower. If you sprint and recover to 60% of Max Heart Rate or 120 bpm as a guideline, then you get both faster and more fit.
Note: Here's how to tailor your 60% recovery heart rate. First find your resting heart rate upon waking or while laying on the ground for 5minutes. Next find your max heart rate by doing a maximum effort for 5-7minutes. Then plug your numbers in here.
(Max Heart Rate - Resting Heart Rate) x 60% + Resting Heart Rate = Target Heart Rate
Running Mechanics and Gait Analysis - Most injuries happen at the knee (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome or Iliotibial Band Syndrome).
Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome Example: Pain under the knee cap or lateral to the knee cap, with crepitus (crunchy sounds with knee bending), due to weak glute medius, hamstrings and hip external rotators. The leg with pain, have hips that adduct, a knee that abducts, a tibia or shin that internally rotates, a contralateral hip that sways, a rear foot eversion during the stance phase of running on the leg with knee pain and tight hamstrings, quads and IT-Band.
Treatment:
- strengthen glute medius, hamstrings and hip external rotators.
- strength quads, rectus femoris and IT-Band
- wear neutral cushioning shoe
- stop using motion control or stability shoes.
Notes: we address the strengthen and stretching most every phase, but maybe not every phase, specifically hamstring isolation (leg curls).
Holiday Bonus:
- roll your feet, calves & piriformis with a lacrosse ball.
- roll your glute medius, quads and hamstrings with a roller.
- stretch your quads (heel to butt), rectus femoris (half kneeling w/ foot on the wall) and IT-Band (standing, hip cross behind with same side arm reach overhead to opposite side).
- do lateral band walks, band hip external rotation from a 45 degree squat, 2-leg bridges, 1-leg bridges and leg curls with a stability ball, TRX or towel.
3+ Tips to help you strength your core through breathing, run faster by running fast, not slow and recovering appropriately and to reduce any patellar knee pain you may be getting with running.
Still growing,
Coach Mike
p.s. Attached is our 2018 training schedule. 1st day of training is M, 1/8. Registration and renewals are open.
