Survival of the Fittest

I realize I’ve been all over the map lately, topic-wise, but hey, I did say I’d be compiling a hodgepodge of fitness information here. Therefore, it’s totally reasonable to transition from kvetching about the color selection of women’s trainers to posting an interview with one of the biggest names in the fitness biz.

Here, Michael Boyle, author of Functional Training for Sports: Superior Conditioning for Today’s Athlete (Human Kinetics, 2004), strength and conditioning coach for Boston University men’s hockey team, and founder of the hugely informative Web site www.strengthcoach.com, has been gracious enough to answer a few questions on — surprise, surprise — a wide range of mostly unrelated topics.

For more of his wisdom within this blog, see here, here and here.

JS: What are a few of the most common misconceptions you encounter when training athletes (i.e., what do you have to talk people out of doing all the time)?

MB: Number one is steady-state cardio work. I think it borders on useless for all but the most unfit. To me, steady state is for beginners who can’t tolerate intervals yet, or for recovery days. I think team-sport athletes should do almost no steady state work. For fitness enthusiasts, maybe twice a week at most.

Number two is lifting with light weights. I laugh at people who lift these little dumbbells out of fear of getting “too big.” It takes tremendous work to build muscles. What I want to say to most people is, “Don’t worry, you won’t work hard enough to build muscle anyway.”

JS: What are some basic pre-hab concepts athletes shouldn’t skip (but often do)?

MB: Athletes should foam roll to improve tissue quality and then stretch for tissue length. We need to take better care of our muscles. [Ed note: For some foam rolling stretches, check out “On a Roll” in the Experience Life November 2007 archives.]

JS: Best exercises to reduce your 40 time?

MB: Some variation of the squat. The 40 is about getting a bigger engine. In the simplest sense, a bigger engine (stronger muscles) equals more speed.

JS: Best agility exercises to improve change of direction?

MB: I’m not a big agility guy, but I think single leg plyos with stability emphasis are key. Lateral bounds with a one-second pause in a 2 to 30 degree knee bend are a great place to start.

JS: Most common dysfunction/imbalance/inflexibility in the body?

MB: Tight lateral hamstrings. It’s very difficult to get a good hamstring stretch. Most people end up stretching their low back instead of their hamstrings. Don’t flex the trunk when you stretch the hams. [See the photo below for Boyle’s recommendation for a hamstrings stretch that keeps your back decidedly not rounded.]

JS: What do you think is the best way for an overweight athlete to drop body fat without losing much muscle?

MB: Simple: Eat better. If it’s white, skip it. No bread, no cereal, no pasta, no rice. I would advocate grain-free for weight loss and reduced grain for general health. Corn and high fructose corn syrup have become the number one source of calories in our diet. Guess what — corn is a grain, not a vegetable. [Ed note: And the girl from Iowa bursts into tears …]

JS: How much barefoot training do you incorporate into your training programs?

MB: We don’t do much barefoot for practical reasons — it just takes time to get shoes on and off, etc. We do recommend less constructed shoes like the Reebok Smoothfit series and the Nike Free.

JS: Who do you ask when you don’t know the answer to a fitness question?

MB: Depends on the topic. For exercise physiology stuff, I go to a guy named Chris Frankel. Very smart guy. Works for the company that makes the TRX system.

For injury stuff, I ask orthopedic physical therapist Dan Dyrek. I have dubbed him my “smartest man no one has heard of.”

JS: Other thoughts?

MB: I don’t think training changes much. I think kettlebells are here to stay. I think some of the bootcamp and Biggest Loser stuff is irresponsible.

[photo credit: mil8]

Naturally, Valentine’s Day led me to thoughts of sugar. In particular, the heavenly cupcakes from Brown Betty Dessert Boutique, which made an all-too-brief appearance in my household for the holiday.

But the occasion stirred up something else — a sweet, sweet memory of something my childhood gymnastics teacher called the “sugar bowl.” (Also called a “king cobra” in yoga.)

Essentially, you lie on your front, palms on the floor near your ribs, and slowly arch your head and body backward, using your hands for support. You then bend both legs at the knee and touch your toes (or heels, even) to the top of your head. Presto, change-o, you become a sugar bowl.

And I used to be able to do that! Out of curiosity, I tried to recreate the experience this morning, and was instead left with a bad taste in my mouth.

All that remains of my sugar-bowling skills are the ability to look upward and the ability to bend my legs. Not very impressive. The length of my body from knee to shoulder, on the other hand, will only agree to a gentle curve. A very gentle curve. My head and feet remain worlds apart.

What in the world happened?! While I’m sure tight hip flexors play a role, I have a hunch the main problem is that my thoracic spine has become immobile.

Thoracic immobility in athletes is a topic I’ve been pondering for a few months, ever since I read two articles on the topic by Michael Boyle, founder of www.strengthcoach.com. The articles, located at T-Nation, are called “A Joint-by-Joint Approach to Training” and “The Essential 8 Mobility Drills.” (Disclaimer: The accompanying ads and graphics are kinda racy. Don’t click if you don’t want to see.)

Boyle, a high-profile performance expert and oft-quoted Experience Life source, explains that some joints need stability (like knees, shoulders and the lumbar spine), while others need mobility (think hips, ankles and the thoracic spine) to function optimally. And that if one of these joints isn’t as stable — or mobile — as it should be, it can send pain and injury up or down the chain to its neighboring joint.

In other words, an immobile thoracic spine may be to blame for pain in your upper or lower back. (Um, check and check.)

Fitness expert Bill Hartman has blogged on the topic, as well. He blames poor thoracic spine mobility for slouchy posture, impinged rotator cuffs and impaired scapular movement (Hartman recommended several scapular-correcting exercises in EL’s November 2007 article “Balance Your Blades”).

But there is hope, says Boyle, and the single best exercise you can do to increase thoracic mobility is a piece of cake. Since, as Boyle says, when it comes to thoracic mobility, “almost no one has enough, and it’s hard to get too much,” you can do it every day.

First, duct tape two tennis balls tightly together (I found two hardly battered tennis balls in the dog-toy bin — score!) and place them on the floor. You’re going to do a series of crunches on top of these bad boys, beginning with them positioned at the bottom of your rib cage and ending just above your shoulder blades.

Do five crunches at each level, and slide down about a half a roll of the ball after each set. Keep reaching forward with your arms at a 45-degree angle from the floor, and return your head to the floor after every crunch (that part is hard to remember to do). Stay away from the cervical and lumbar spine — you only want to mobilize the thoracic region of your spine.

For a video of this thoracic-mobility crunch in action, click here.

I’ve done two sets so far today, and I think I’m hooked. I can feel parts of my spine flexing in ways it probably hasn’t since my childhood gymnastics days, and while not super comfortable just yet, the exercise is satisfying in the same way foam rolling is — I sense I’m doing something good for my body for the longer term. I may never do another sugar bowl, but better posture and less back pain would be plenty sweet enough.

Thanks to an oh-so-brief kettlebell workout yesterday morning, I’m feeling a little more fatal than fatale today. (I knew that was going to happen!)

Luckily, I have The Stick (pictured above) and my trusty foam roller handy to break up the mess in my muscles.

These myofascial-release tools are useful even when I’m not sore — actually, especially then, because it’s easier to distinguish “hot spots” (especially tight or knotted tissue) from general tenderness.

They do inflict some degree of pain during use, though. Especially to my piriformis and ilitotibial (IT) bands.

But it’s worth it. This guy knows what I’m sayin’.

To get the scoop on a range of myofascial-release techniques, see “Deep Release,” available in the July/August 2007 EL archives, and “On a Roll,” from the November 2007 issue.

You know who else uses foam rollers? Ninjas, apparently.