Last week, the Q & A section of Eric Cressey’s newsletter addressed thoracic spine mobility. (For background on why thoracic spine mobility is a good thing — nay, a great thing — see my Feb. post on the topic, “The Sugar Bowl: Thoracic Spine Mobility.”)
In his letter, Cressey reminded us not to limit ourselves strictly to forward-and-backward movements (such as crunches on two taped-together tennis balls), but to add a rotation component, as well.
The challenge is that adding rotation in the right place can be tough to do. Oftentimes, it’s not the exercise that’s the problem, but the way we do it — we rotate from our lumbar spine (low back) instead of our thoracic spine (mid-back). Simply put, mobility in the thoracic spine is desirable, while mobility in the lumbar and cervical spine are not — stability, not mobility, are the goals of the latter two.
I asked Cressey, author of Maximum Strength, a few questions about how to effectively incorporate rotation of the thoracic spine and minimize rotation of the lumbar spine. See his answers below.
Jen Sinkler (JS): How do you incorporate thoracic spine rotation safely? That is, if I’m already hypermobile in my lumbar spine and immobile in my thoracic spine, how do I ensure that rotation during an exercise isn’t occurring lower than intended?
Eric Cressey (EC): I will actually get in and put my hand at the lower thoracic spine on athletes when they do this the first few times. Basically, I cue them to “hinge” around my hand. [JS addendum: Physical therapist and author Shirley Sahrmann instructs athletes to “think about the motion occurring in the area of the chest.”]
JS: What kind of exercises incorporate thoracic spine rotation?
EC: There are a bunch on Mike Robertson’s and Bill Hartman’s Inside-Out DVD, but quadruped extension-rotation and side-lying extension-rotation are two we use a lot. We also use a seated broomstick t-spine extension-rotation.
JS: What are a few of the best exercises for shoring up the lumbar spine so it becomes immovable?
EC: Basically, anything that imposes a destabilizing torque on a stationary lumbar spine. So, side/prone bridges (gravity does the job), Pallof Presses, tall/half-kneeling cable chop variations, landmines, etc.
Google ‘em. Or, if you’re not in the mood, check out this thoracic rotation exercise demonstrated by Michael Boyle, founder of www.strengthcoach.com.
[I was thisclose to posting an adorable picture of a stretching cat, but fought the urge … for now.]
Some athletes consider stretching a mandatory part of their fitness routine, believing it prevents injury, wards off soreness and/or boosts performance. Others skip it, remaining unconvinced of the benefits of stretching, even through the barrage of advice to the contrary from coaches, trainers and teammates alike. (What fortitude this latter group has! Or perhaps they’re just lazy?)
Though most experts will still recommend doing what works best for you, the latest round of research goes to the lazybutts. Kind of. Under some circumstances, anyway.
It’s a squishy, controversial topic that writer Kelle Walsh tackled in the June issue of Experience Life, covering when, if, and how stretching is most beneficial for athletic performance and musculoskeletal health. If you want to check it out, by all means please do so: “Stretch and Reach: The Unexaggerated Truth About Stretching.”
If, on the other hand, you prefer your info bite-sized, allow me to synopsize:
Static stretching immediately before activity does not prevent injury, and may, in fact, add to injury risk because 1) stretching weakens muscle for a short period of time and 2) it has an analgesic effect, masking pain that would otherwise serve as a warning sign to ease up.
Additionally, preworkout stretching inhibits the stretch reflex, which helps you, say, jump higher. Stretching just messes with it for a short period of time, but still — do you want to spend the first few minutes of a game even a titch slow?
Dynamic flexibility drills (controlled movements done through full range of motion), are the exception to this rule. They’re good preworkout and actually increase coordination and muscle response time.
Ballistic (bouncy) stretching is bad for your connective tissue and insertion points. (But that’s old news.)
Stretching after a workout doesn’t prevent soreness. That DOMS is gonna getcha regardless. (And the rhythm will, too, if you stand too close to Gloria Estefan.)
Stretching after your workout can help you maintain your current level of flexibility, but if you want to see flexibility gains, you should add general flexibility to your regimen. Our experts recommended at least 20 minutes, three times a week. Yoga fits the bill.
Incorporating a general stretching program (such as yoga) appears to help prevent injury and boost athletic performance. Yoga fanatic Kareem Abdul-Jabar is onto something: When muscle is stretched regularly, it becomes stronger and contracts more rapidly, resulting in increased force and speed.
ONE ANGLE THIS ARTICLE did not cover was therapeutic stretching programs, often prescribed by physical therapists and designed to address compensation patterns caused by spending time in chronic, repetitive positions, such as hunched over a computer (hmm, painfully close to home, that one). For more on stretching to combat muscle imbalances, see “Office Imbalance” from the March 2007 EL archives.
Mike Robertson, MS, makes an important clarification about such stretches in his May 14 blog entry, and gives the go-ahead to include what he calls “acute corrective” static stretches, even in warm-up. It’s up to you what you’re comfy with, but here’s how he describes his stretching strategy:
Pre-workout, we include what’s called “Acute Corrective Strategies” to help re-groove better movement patterns in the muscles. For instance, we would stretch your hip flexors, and then follow that up with an activation drill to enhance neural drive to the glutes. In this case, we’re very specific in the stretches that we would perform.
After you’ve included the “acute corrective” drills to optimize neural drive to the glutes, you’d move in to your dynamic flexibility drills. Just as an aside, you can do this either before or after your dynamic flex, it’s really more of a preference than a physiological law.
Now at the end of your day, that would be the optimal time to go through an extensive static stretching routine. This is where we would stretch all the muscle groups that we outline within [the Bulletproof Knees program]. Most people have a very poor stretch tolerance, so this should help quite a bit.
ADDITIONAL READING:
In our man Eric Cressey’s latest newsletter, aside from a mention of his interview here (wahoooo!) he also digs into stretching and its myths. He calls static stretching “relatively outdated,” which is music to my ears as I am a proud member of the lazybutts when it comes to the static stuff.
Lastly, Gina Kolata of The New York Times covered the topic of stretching in March: “To Stretch or Not to Stretch? the Answer is Elastic.” She concludes that “research to date is inadequate to answer most stretching questions.”
How ’bout you? Do you stretch? If so, what works best for you?
At Cressey Performance, stability balls are holey. No, that’s not a typo. I mean employees literally use knives to puncture them. With glee.
Don’t believe me? Here’s videographic evidence of one of the founders of this Boston-based high-performance training facility, Tony Gentilcore, expressing his disdain for what is, Cressey Performance employees say, an oft-misused piece of fitness equipment.
Their hatred stems from the wide misinterpretation of how to develop functional fitness.
You see, many trainers widely recommend doing squats, lunges, curls, and anything else you can manage while teetering precariously on a stability (or Swiss) ball, balance disc, Bosu ball or wobble board. Countless articles are filled with reasons why this is a fabulous idea, the main being that such exercises add a balance component and thus not only engage the target muscles, but also engage lots and lots of small stabilizing muscles. Meaning, you get the extra benefit of improved proprioception (awareness of your body in space), so why not?! Right? Right?
Even the magazine jumped on the balance bandwagon, publishing an article about how balance boards aren’t just for balancing anymore. (It was years ago! I didn’t know any better!) [Hides in shame]
[But ref! I wasn’t the only one! Pleeeease don’t send me to the sin bin …]
PROBLEM IS, the latest research shows that while doing such exercises are great for rehabbing ankle injuries, they can actually de-power healthy athletes. So if you’re healthy, and your goals have anything at all to do with getting stronger, faster and more powerful, you actually don’t want to wobble. (That’s not to say you should cut out abs and upper-body exercises like pushups on the ball — I’m just talking about exercises that involve standing or kneeling on such contraptions.)
Jen Sinkler (JS): How do you define functional fitness? And how is that different from widely held beliefs?
Eric Cressey (EC): Excellent questions. The term “functional” as it relates to exercise was first applied in a rehabilitation context, as therapists worked to help restore function in patients through modalities that best simulated and carried over to their daily lives. I feel strongly that functional training (or rehabilitation) should be specific to the task at hand for an individual in a given environment. The problem nowadays is that we are trying to say that a given exercise (or training style) is functional to everything — and that’s just not possible.
It goes without saying that different individuals have different “required” and “desired” functions to accomplish in their daily lives. In its truest sense, functional training refers to preparing individuals for the demands that lie ahead in everyday activities, work, recreational activities and competitive athletics. Because these demands are different for everyone, it’s important to realize that true functional training programs must be specific to the individual.
JS: What happens to a healthy athlete who does exercises standing on an unstable surface? And why don’t these exercises work to make you a stronger, more balanced athlete?
EC: Our research showed that replacing as little as 2 to 3 percent of overall training volume with unstable-surface training (UST) in healthy, trained athletes impaired the development of sprinting speed and vertical jump height — and there was a trend toward significance on the agility front, as well. There are a ton of reasons for the decrease in power output and performance. In a broad sense, all of these explanations can be considered fundamentally related to the fact that UST does not adhere to the principle of specificity of training.
The vast majority of athletic endeavors involve stable surfaces where instability is applied further up the kinetic chain. Therefore, it becomes important to differentiate between instability at the foot, which is accustomed to stable surfaces in closed-chain motion, and instability at the torso and arms, which often encounter instability while the base is stable. In this regard, unstable surface training may prove more useful in measures aimed at training the core and upper body musculature (e.g., movements seated on or lying across a stability ball, with or without added resistance) than with exercises targeting the lower body. I could go into a complete physiology and biomechanics discussion, but that took me 94 pages in my master’s thesis! Let’s just say that unstable surface training provides for some unfavorable biomechanical consequences (namely, overpronation), lower force production and impaired plyometrics activity (longer amortization phase between eccentric and concentric actions).
Believe it or not, there’s also some evidence to suggest that healthy individuals who train on unstable surfaces are more likely to encounter both chronic and traumatic knee injuries. My theory is that if you work to lock up an ankle that doesn’t need extra stability — and encourage anterior-weight-bearing in the process (via overpronation) — you’re asking for hypermobility (excess movement) at the joint above.
JS: When is unstable surface training appropriate?
EC: Lower-body UST has a ton of merit in those returning from ankle sprains. UST has proven effective time and time again with respect to addressing the chronic functional ankle instability seen in lateral ankle sprains. Basically, this is a proprioceptive deficit in the peroneal muscle group on the lateral aspect of the shin. These muscles prevent excessive inversion, but if they don’t fire fast enough, you’re likely to re-sprain.
I also feel that unstable surfaces can be applied effectively in the upper body — as in the case of unstable push-ups, or dumbbell presses on a stability ball. It really comes down to where you apply the instability. If it’s at or above the hips, you’re golden.
Honestly, the problem is that the only research (before we came along, that is) was done on injured patients and untrained individuals. Comparing them to healthy, trained athletes is altogether inappropriate. As a result, rehabilitation protocols were promoted to healthy individuals as an effective training initiative when, in fact, they are counterproductive.
In spite of this new research, you won’t likely see a change in people using them this way simply because a) few people actually read the research and b) a lot of people have a significant vested financial interest in the success of these implements, so they aren’t about to jump ship when they’re still separating people from their money with poor training recommendations.
JS: Who does have the green light to do exercises standing on balance contraptions (i.e., what if you don’t care about getting stronger, faster, more powerful)?
EC: At risk of sounding insensitive, if you aren’t concerned about being stronger, faster or more powerful, then you have no right to complain when you get hurt. Unstable surface training in the lower body impairs power and rate of force development. Even if you’re not an athlete, even if you’re a 90-year-old woman concerned about falling, don’t you think that fast and forceful muscle actions are going to help prevent you from breaking your hip?
Honestly, I wish more weekend warriors would think of themselves as athletes, and not just gerbils running on treadmills or circus clowns standing on stability balls.
JS: How should healthy, competitive athletes train instead? What kinds of exercises should we do?
The list could really go on and on. We do a thousand things, but honestly, aside from a few unique circumstances, outside of the realm of rehabilitation, lower-body unstable surface training isn’t justified.
ON THAT NOTE, please enjoy the following videos. (What do you think Mr. Cressey would have to say to these fellas?)
Do you have questions? Differing opinions? Stories of stability gone wrong? Leave your thoughts in the comment section. And remember, if you want to get your hands on Cressey’s new book, Maximum Strength, click here.
Thanks to the readers who offered up their suggestions and experiences with mental training techniques in response to Friday’s post. Much appreciated!
Funny thing, what the universe sends you when something is on your mind. Last week, I signed up for a teleseminar series I read about on Eric Cressey’s blog so I could “listen LIVE to 16 of the world’s top muscle building coaches and authors as they ’spill their guts’ and reveal their BEST training, nutrition, injury prevention, mental and supplement information EVER… absolutely FREE!”
The email notification I got about today’s interview said:
[T]odays interview is with Pete Siegel R.H., who is the
world’s most foremost mental training coach who has
worked with 100’s of pro athletes and celebrities reach
their full potential.
Hmm, relevant much? Sounds like the emphasis will be on mental fitness for bodybuilders, but since mental training skills are applicable to all sports and fitness pursuits, I fully expect to learn how to develop a “champion mind,” too.
The only thing is, THIS INTERVIEW IS GOING DOWN IN ABOUT AN HOUR, at 3 p.m. Central Time.
If you’re interested in getting in on it, hurry up and click here. (If you have problems with the link, that ain’t my problem. I’m just the unaffiliated messenger.)
If you happen to listen in, too, let me know what you think!
UPDATE: If you missed the call, there’s still a replay up at the same link. If it’s anything like the Bill Hartman call last week, it’ll be up for the next 24 hours, and you can even download an MP3 of the interview.
could “listen LIVE to 16 of the world’s top muscle building coaches and authors as they ’spill their guts’ and reveal their BEST training, nutrition, injury prevention, mental and supplement information EVER… absolutely FREE!”
