How To Make Life Suck A Little Less Each Day

Let's face it:  life can suck.  Not everyone can wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy, nor can we brush our teeth with a bottle of Jack despite what the music industry tells us.  Identity theft and oral hygiene issues aside we instead wake up way too early, low back tight, knees creaking walking to the kitchen, getting ready for a day of mind numbing work followed by an awful training session due to fatigue and having your soul sucked out of you.

Why must you turn my office into a house of lies

But this post isn't here to remind you of how awful your life is (your too small apartment, shitty car and awful haircut will do that for you); instead I'm here to help.  Today we will be discussing little tips which can help your life suck a little bit less.

Fish Oil

By now everyone and their grandmother has heard about the benefits of fish oil - improved brain function, improved mood, decreased joint inflammation, decreased LDL levels and a host of other benefits.  Researchers have shown fish oil supplementation to increase resting metabolic rates and decrease in body inflammation.  Other research has shown links between fish oil supplementation and improved lipid profiles, anti-depressant effects and mental health.  Bottom line, you want to get healthy?  Take your fish oil.  If you aren't taking your fish oil then I only have one question for you:  what the hell is wrong with you and get off my website.

A magic little pill that'll make you feel great, and you don't have to smuggle anything over the border

Dosages vary depending on who you ask.  The side of the bottle tells you to take 1 capsule (1 gram) per day.  The problem I have with that is usually these recommendations on the side of the bottle are meant for the average person, and in all honestly the average person is weak, stupid and out of shape.  Unless you're an underachieving sloth as well I'd rather listen to someone who has experience with success.  Those such as Dr. John Berardi, Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale and Coach Charles Poliquin have suggested higher doses; their specific dosing schemes can be found on their respective websites (listed on the right).  I've noticed marked improvements in skin quality when I regularly use higher dose of fish oil (15-20 grams), and decreased joint pain/increased mobility.

A Proper Warmup

So you're ready to tear it up in the gym.  You get there but something doesn't feel quite right - you feel a bit slow and sluggish, knees and hips creak as you take your first set on squats, hitting depth kinda hurts, you have no pop out of the hole.  Each progressive set feels heavier and makes your joints scream.  "Maybe I should take it slow today" but instead you jack up the weight.  Your final set involves the gym attendant calling the ambulance for you.

So what happened?  You were sluggish, couldn't find your groove and your joints hurt.  Sounds like someone didn't warm up properly.  Most serious lifters know the merits of a good warmup.  You can't smash serious weights without your body running like a well oiled machine.  A good warmup will help you accomplish a few things - increase body temperature, improve tissue quality before lifting, bring heart rate to a steady state during work, increase oxygen uptake and groove the proper motor patterns for lifting - just to name a few.  Qualitatively I feel a huge difference when I get in a solid warmup including light cardio (skipping rope or sled dragging), soft tissue work, dynamic and static stretching, mobility drills and activation work.  Days I don't do that my lifts feel heavy, I can't find a good lifting groove and my joints hurt the whole session.  Days I do get that in I feel like a million bucks, everything is going my way and I'm ready to go set after set.  As for warmup sets, I take a page out of Dave Tate's book; he's mentioned in past articles that at the famed Westside Barbell gym, they may do multiple sets with just an empty bar if they don't feel the right groove on their lift.  And if it's good enough for Westside it should be good enough for you.  Too many guys you see at commercial gyms will be 'platers' (another Dave Tate term), meaning they'll put on one plate (135 lbs), put on another plate 225 lbs) and so forth.  The problem is if your max is 185 lbs are you really going to jump up to 73% of your max (135 lbs) on your first set?  You will if you're a dumbass.

You are not better than him

Now there's scientific proof to back up what I'm saying; a study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research has shown marked differences in oxygen uptake, heart rate during work and lactate pH when comparing active warmups (mobility work, activation work), passive warmups (general things to raise your body's temperature) and no warmup.  The group that performed an active warmup prior to activity found increased oxygen uptake and decreased heart rate during work.  Long story short, those who perform an active warmup had greater metabolic efficiency.

Lifting in the Morning

How many of you like to train first thing in the morning?  How many of you squat and deadlift appreciable loads while training in the morning?  How many of you complain of low back pain or herniated discs after squatting and deadlifting first thing in the morning?

Rise and shine

Spinal disc injuries are the bane of my existence.  Right up there with ruptured tendons they are my most  hated injury and I've already bulged my T12-L1 in January 2009 which has left a permanent mark on my physical performance.  For those of you performing low back-taxing lifts early in the morning you may want to think twice after hearing this.

Research from Dr. Stuart McGill has shown the spinal discs to be more susceptible to injury early in the morning than at any other time of day.  As you lay down when you sleep, osmotic pressures (pressure from the inward flow of fluids) cause your spinal discs to fill with fluid and overhydrate - this is one reason you are taller in the mornings than at night.  Throughout the day as you are upright that compressive effect from gravity is able to help drain the discs of excess fluid.  During this morning period overhydration the discs have been proven to be more susceptible to herniation and endplate fracture; any excess compressive/shear/torsional loads will damage the spinal discs more readily, and the ability for the discs to absorb said loads is decreased when overhydrated; disc bending stresses have been shown to increase by 300% and ligament stresses increase by 80% during this time.  Do yourself a favour and wait at least an hour after waking before attempting major lifts involving the low back, and be sure to warm up thoroughly (just like what I said a few paragraphs above).

Foam Rolling

You're in the gym and start to perform a couple bodyweight movements to get some blood moving but notice your range of motion sucks.  You want to perform some bodyweight squats but as you bend your legs you feel a noticeable pull and the front of your knee hurts.  Welcome to the world of referred pain and scar tissue adhesion.

As our bodies take damage from the outside world (lifting weights, falling off a ladder, getting your ass kicked by a troup of boy scouts), our natural protective mechanism takes over - thick inelastic adhesions form over muscles and fascia.  Unfortunately these adhesions can limit muscle elasticity, trap nerves causing referred pain and diminish blood flow.  Luckily we have many tools at our disposal to get rid of these adhesions.  We could shell out our hard earned money and see a specialist to poke and prod you (myofascial release) for an hour, or we could save our cash and do it ourselves via a foam roller.

Who thought a long rod could give so much pleasure

A foam roller is just a tool for self myofascial release, but we can use anything depending on the size of the muscle group, from a lacrosse ball to a PVC pipe - anything with enough rigidity to be effective but not rigid enough to bruise (unless you like that sort of stuff, I don't judge).  I won't get into foam rolling technique, but Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson wrote an excellent article a while ago on the subject right here.  The way I do it is I lay on my foam roller/lacrosse ball/whatever, and roll around til I find something that hurts.  Once I land on a painful area I'll apply constant pressure for 30 seconds or so, then roll along the direction of the muscle fibres.  The difference in tissue quality is night and day.  I can barely do a bodyweight squat without feeling the tightness in my quadriceps pulling on my patella and tightness in my hips.  After foam rolling my IT band, quadriceps, adductors and piriformis I can descend into my squat relatively pain free.  You could spring for a real foam roller, but with the rise in popularity over the past few years they've gone up all the way to over $50.  A generic white coloured one I purchased from an unnamed Canadian fitness supply store lost its rigidity after 6 months of use.  Some people shell out the cash for a good one but if you're on a tight budget head to your local hardware store and buy a lenth of PVC pipe.  You can wrap it in athletic tape to prevent slipping and if its too hard, wrap it in a thin mat.

Conclusions

Hopefully after reading all that you'll pick up some tips on how to get through your day with a bit more energy, a bit less injuries and aches and a few more PR's.  Feeling like crap?  Take your fish oil, warm up adequately, remember to foam roll and don't do your 5 second eccentric romanian deadlifts right after you wake up (the idiocy of 5 second eccentric romanian deadlifts will be discussed in a later article).  Remember, I'm on your side.


References:

P J Nestel, W E Connor, M F Reardon, S Connor, S Wong, and R Boston. Suppression by diets rich in fish oil of very low density lipoprotein production in man. J Clin Invest. 1984 July; 74(1): 82–89


van der Tempel H, Tulleken JE, Limburg PC, Muskiet FA, van Rijswijk MH. Effects of fish oil supplementation in rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 1990;49:76-80

Sinn N, Bryan J. Effect of Supplementation with Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Micronutrients on Learning and Behavior Problems Associated with Child ADHD. J Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 2007;28(2):82-91

Peet M, Horrobin DF. A Dose-Ranging Study of the Effects of Ethyl-Eicosapentaenoate in Patients With Ongoing Depression Despite Apparently Adequate Treatment With Standard Drugs. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2002;59:913-919.


McGill SM. Low back disorders: Evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation, Human Kinetics, 2007, p96


Adams MA, Dolan P, Hutton WC. Diurnal variations in the stresses on the lumbar spine. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 1987 Mar;12(2):130-7.


Brunner-Ziegler S, Strasser B, Haber P. Comparison of Metabolic and Biomechanic Responses to Active vs. Passive Warm-up Procedures Before Physical Exercise. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Aug 20

Gossman MR, Sahrmann SA, Rose SJ. Review of length-associated changes in muscle. Experimental evidence and clinical implications. Phys Ther. 1982 Dec;62(12):1799-808

Exercises You SHOULDN'T Be Doing

We've all seen on just about every single training related website a list of exercises you should do that'll make you big, strong, lean, jacked, etc, etc, and that's all well and good.  But have you noticed when you walk into your local commercial gym some douchebag doing something that makes you go "What in the blue hell is going on here."  Odds are that if you haven't seen that, YOU are that douchebag.  Have no fear, this post will help weed out what exercises you should stop doing.

Good or Bad?

Theoretically, every single exercise in existence can have benefits as well as risks.  I'm not going to tell you to stop squatting because if your hip angle is less than X degrees you'll increase your chances of spinal disc herniation by 2000%.  Everything we do has a certain risk/reward or pro/con ratio.  It's just that some have a ratio so out of whack its best not to do them.

Squats and Deadlifts are excellent exercise for developing total body hypertrophy, maximal strength and a bulletproof posterior chain but if done incorrectly can send your L4/L5 flying across the room.  You shouldn't stop doing Squats and Deads immediately but we have to understand the risks involved and how we can minimize said risks by improving technique.  Similarly, for bicep curls we've all heard the argument that if you're under a certain weight or under a certain training age they're pretty useless, and I agree.  However, if you're a 300 lb competitive bodybuilder who needs to bring his biceps up, then yes bicep curls are an acceptable exercise.

This post is not going to tell you when Squats, Deadlifts or Bicep Curls are suitable to perform, but instead look at exercises have a very poor risk/reward ratio.

Situps

The situp has been a staple exercise since the dawn of man.  A favourite among gym teachers, fitness enthusiasts and Izzy Mandelbaum; the situp claims to boast superior abdominal training and allegedly develops 'totally hawt abz, bro.'

"I want you to sleep on this tonight, it'll toughen your vertabrae."

However, there are a few fallacies with the general principles of situps:
- Traditional situps recruit mostly hip flexors!  Studies have shown that during situps there is a high degree of activation of rectus femoris and psoas; both hip flexors.  Combined with the fact most of us who work desk jobs do nothing but stay in seated hip flexion for 8 hours a day you've done nothing more but shorten your hip flexors further and introduce a host of postural imbalances.
- Repetitive low load spinal flexion is the major cause of spinal disc herniations.  Research from Dr. Stuart McGill has shown a link between repetitive low load flexion/extension of the spine and disc herniation, and documented in Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation.  When you're performing 100's of situps at once that's nothing but repetitive low load spinal flexion; keep doing that for a few years and your chiropractor and orthopaedic surgeon will be very happy - someone's gotta pay for their Ferraris and bidets.

Putting his Chiropractor's kids through private school.

Stability and Bosu Ball

I know you've all seen this:  some weirdo standing on a bosu ball doing 1 legged bicep curls, or overhead press or squatting on the stability ball.  Again, if you haven't seen it odds are you are that weirdo.

 This guy's orthopaedic surgeon just put a down payment on a new boat.

Why do people do this exercise?  You'll usually get one of two answer:  "It's totally functional, much more functional than those heavy squats you're doing", and "It works my core better than those heavy squats you're doing."

Come on, did you accidentally stumble into an anti-squatting convention?  Let's look at the first statement:  What is functional?  Common sense tells us that 'functional' will relate to something which will help function - didn't need an English professor to tell us that one.  So what kind of function do we get standing on a stability ball?  Unless you play Slamball, not much.

However, this sport looks so awesome maybe I will start squatting on a bosu ball

Additionally researchers such as Dr. Vladimir Zatsiorsky in his book The Science and Practice of Strength Training discuss the issue of Specificity - how well an exercise carries over to a specific act or performance.  So unless you play a sport with bouncy floors, performing exercises standing on a bouncy surface won't produce much specificity.

Going to the second statement, research stated in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research has shown that in comparisons of horizontal and vertical pressing on a stability ball vs. a stable bench, muscle activation of the rectus abdominis (the 'six pack'), anterior deltoid and pectoralis major showed no major difference on either surface.

Treadmill Running

Walk into your local commercial gym, what do you first see?  Other than the weirdo doing overhead press on a bosu ball, most likely a bunch of mice running on a treadmill.  "But what's wrong with a treadmill?  I want to lose fat/improve my aerobic capacity/stare at the chick in front of me on the elliptical."  I won't get into the arguments of steady state cardio vs. optimal fat loss, but here's the view from a biomechanical standpoint.

What's the difference between treadmill running and road running?  On the road you are master of your own domain?  Want to go further; run a bit harder.  You have complete muscular control of what you are doing.  On a treadmill you are stationary relative to an observer standing on the ground.  The belt you run on which keeps you in place is assisting with your hip extension - you perform the knee extension and hip flexion (forward stride), which by the way is mostly quadriceps activation, then the belt takes over and passively performs hip extension and knee flexion for you, which is mostly hamstring/glute activation.  So what's the problem here?  The passive hip extension/knee flexion eliminates the need for you to activate your own hamstrings/glutes - the belt does it for you so your body doesn't have to.  However, you are still activating your quadriceps during the knee extension; this is essentially highly repetitive quadriceps activation with very little hamstrings/glutes activation.  Talk about muscular imbalance - perform 300 reps on the leg extension machine and do no hamstring work.  In a week let me know how your knees feel.  That imbalance of forces, a force couple, exerts high forces on the anterior (front) side of the knee with no balancing force on the posterior side.  Unequal distribution of forces will produce what?  Structural imbalances, weak muscles and pain.

Enjoy your knee pain, ladies.

Conclusions

There are safe ways of performing exercises mentioned.  Want to train your abdominals but at the same time insist on using a stability ball?  Sure thing, try to stir the pot.  Have a 10k race coming up and want to improve your aerobic capacity?  Run outdoors or on an indoor track.

Like I said earlier, every single exercise we perform has an associated risk/reward.  Sometimes the ratio is favourable and that's why we perform that exercise, but at other times the ratio is so low we don't even think about it.  If I told you "I'll give you 10 bucks if you sprint 100 yards with steaks tied to you while being chased by velociraptors", is the risk really worth the reward?  The same goes for the exercises mentioned above.

References:

Juker D, McGill SM, Krpof P, Steffen T. Quantitative intramuscular myoelectric activity of lumbar portions of psoas and the abdominal wall during a wide variety of tasks. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 1998;30:301—310.


Guimaraes AC, Vaz MA, De Campos MI, Marantes R. The contribution of the rectus abdominis rectus femoris in twelve selected abdominal exercises. An electromyographic study. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1991 Jun;31(2):222-30

Callaghan JP, McGill SM. Interverterbral disc herniation: studies on a porcine model exposed to highly repetitive flexion/extension motion with compressive force, Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2001 Jan;16(1):28-37

McGill SM. Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation, Human Kinetics, 2007, p106-107

Reynolds, Gretchen.  Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back, The New York Times Health Online, July 17 2009

Zatsiorsky VM, Kraemer JW.  The Science and Practice of Strength Training, Human Kinetics, 2006, p6-9


Uribe BP et. al. Muscle Activation When Performing the Chest Press and Shoulder Press on a Stable Bench vs. a Swiss Ball, JSCR 24: 1028-1033,2010


Alton F, Baldey L, Caplan S, Morrissey MC. A kinematic comparison of overground and treadmill walking, Clin Biomech, 1998;Sep13(6):434-440

Kinetic Links

I want you to try an experiment at home:  pick up a baseball and throw it (preferably outside, unless you have a girly throw).  On your first throw only use your arms; no hip movement, no drive off the ground, no shoulder whip.  Observe how far it goes.  Now throw the ball again but use your whole body.  Drive the foot off the ground as you release, use a good wind up, activate your double peak (that's a topic for a new day).  Now observe how far it goes.  Unless something went terribly wrong, the second throw probably went a lot further.  Why you may ask; we'll get into that.

Physics 101

Remember back to high school physics class; depending on the quality of the school you attended you may have learned a thing or two about free body diagrams and joint/member analysis.  Imagine the human body composed of rigid bodies/members (bones) all connected via pin joints (joints).  Now this system is free to articulate in all 3 planes of motion, constricted by freedom of articulation of each specific joint.

Taking this idea one step further, these interconnect rigid bodies function as a multibody system - if you disturb one member down the chain it will result in the displacement of a member somewhere further up.  The movement of the multibody system are governed by laws of kinematics and statics; if enough force is applied to a member, that member will move in accordance with the magnitude and direction of external force, as well as its set trajectory based on articulation limitations (ie. a knee joint will have very little medial/lateral movement before something breaks).  If I apply a certain force and velocity Traditionally this kind of modelling is used widely in the Engineering field to predict movements or stress limits of rigid bodies (ie. trusses which support a construction crane), but the human body is nothing but a multibody system so these comparisons hold true (for the most part).

Imagine if the sliding mass were to move in the negative x direction (based on the legend in the centre of the picture).  The prismatic joint limits the sliding mass to only move in the x direction, similar to as how your elbow is only able to bend with 1 degree of freedom.  As the sliding mass moves it pushes the flexible beam.  The movement of the flexible beam causes rotation of the rigid driving body along the revolute joint.  This results in the driving torque shown.  Therefore it can be concluded that the magnitude of the driving torque is dependent on the force applied at the sliding mass.  The greater the force from the sliding mass, the greater the driving torque.  Cases like these crudely model what occurs when a linear force drives a torque; such as in an internal combustion engine when the linear piston motion drives the crankshaft.

Human Applications
"Thanks for the physics lesson, Newton.  How does this help me?"  Like I said earlier the human body can be modelled as a multibody system.  Instead of rigid beams and sliding masses and revolute joints you have bones, skeletal muscles, internal forces developed by skeletal muscles and various types of joints.  When you apply external forces somewhere, a resultant displacement and force will occur elsewhere depending on the magnitude of the applied force.

Back to the baseball example when you push off the ground with your foot you are creating a normal force exerted by the ground onto your foot, with the same magnitude in which you pushed off.  A harder push off results in a greater normal force.  As that force at the foot increases resultant forces are transmitted through the body toward the end output - your arm.  Along with internal reaction forces from muscle activation (ie. hamstrings/quadriceps from the pushoff, deltoid/pec minor during the shoulder activation), the output at the arm will be of a high acceleration/force.  Ignoring throwing mechanics, the harder you push off the further the ball should travel.  The same concept applies to any sport; hockey slapshots, football tackle, throwing a knockout punch in boxing, etc.  Any striking sport coach worth their weight will tell you power in striking comes from the hips and lower body, not just the arms.  For the boxer plant your foot as push off the toes as your punch leaves, rotate the hips and let the arm follow - knockout out ensue.

Pacman knows a little something about knockouts

One thing I haven't mentioned too much are the internal forces of the human body.  What separates us from the machines is that we are able to produce forces internally through the contraction of muscles during activity.  This gives us an assistance in output force based on how efficient we are at contracting muscles.  When you perform a dumbbell curl, for instance, the force generated to overcome the weight of the dumbbell is not magically bestowed upon you; it is generated by the shortening of the biceps brachii and that internal force is what is lifting the weight.  The ability to more efficiently create these forces through muscular contraction is what separates beginner and elite level weightlifters.  Based on this evidence, going back to our throwing example, a person with stronger calves, quadriceps, hamstrings and shoulders will throw the ball much further.  The combination of applying external forces and high internal forces is what will make a person excel in a physical task.  Further explanations of internal forces will be saved for another day.

Going back into the modelling of the human body as a kinetic link, its not just me who's saying this.  Various biomechanical principles are based on this, and it serves as the basis for some chiropractic technique.  In an interview at T Nation many, many years ago chiropractor Dr. Ken Kinakin had this to say about fixing disorders:

I'll keep working on their shoulder, but if the problem keeps coming back I'll drop down to the lower back and work on that. Once that's fixed I'll drop down to the knee and also the ankle. A lot of times a sprained ankle can go all the way up. In that same vein, dentists sometimes use orthotics (insoles for your shoes) to fix the TMJ joint in your jaw. A dropped arch can affect the entire body biomechanically and neurologically.

What Dr. Kinakin is saying that an improperly applied force at the bottom of the kinetic link can lead to disorders way up.  Sprained ankles may result in an altered walking gait, which can apply forces from ground contact at odd angles.  These oddly applied forces can make their way up the link into your shoulder or TMJ.

Researchers, including spine biomechanics professor Dr. Stuart McGill have made the link between kinetic links and resultant forces to the spine.  Altered walking gaits and improper loading patterns to the foot while walking have shown to increase injury causing forces to the spine, which explains why your low back hurts after walking for so long.

Conclusion
So there's a quick introduction into Kinetic Linkages and the human body.  The take home message is that everything in your body is connected.  Our bodies are nothing more than a set of rigid members and joints, controlled via internal forces, or our muscles.  When we apply an external force at one point of this linkage there will be a resultant force elsewhere.  Using this knowledge we can plan on optimizing any athletic movement; boxers will drive off the ground with their feet in order to maximize punching power, football players will big into the field with their spikes and drive forward to achieve that spring to make a tackle; the examples are endless.

In later posts I hope you delve further into this topic and how it pertains to certain sports.  Hockey, Football, Golf, Mixed Martial Arts; anything which requires you to move, can be governed by what has been mentioned today.  Keep this in mind next time you throw a ball, jump onto a box or punch someone in the face.

References:
Kinematic Couple (Kinematic Chain); http://sports.jrank.org/pages/9192/kinematic-couple-(kinematic-chain).html
J. Wittenburg, Dynamics of Systems of Rigid Bodies, Teubner, Stuttgart (1977)
A.A. Shabana, Flexible Multibody Dynamics: Review of Past and Recent Developments, Multibody System Dynamics, Volume 1, Number 2, 189-222; 1997
W. Schiehlen, Multibody System Dynamics: Roots and Perspectives, Multibody System Dynamics, Volume 1, Number 2, 149-188; 1997
C. Shugart, The Symposium of a Lifetime:  An Interview with Dr. Ken Kinakin, Testosterone Nation (2002)
Callaghan*, J.P., Patla, A.E., and McGill, S.M.  (1999) Low back three-dimensional joint forces, kinematics and kinetics during walking.  Clin. Biomech. 14: 203-216.