Oh wait, I meant, “Ask the SAPT Coach.” Sorry, we were having a Zelda discussion with our interns the other day…

“Is there a benefit to doing your strength workout under time? If you get your cardio somewhere else do you really need to rush?” – Supa Fly Runner

Ok, that’s not really the name of the questioner, but she’s a really fabulous runner so that’s her assigned pseudonym.

Great question yeah? As in all fitness-related question the answer invariably is: It depends. *insert head scratching here*

Huh?

However, for simplicity sake, I’ll make the answer as straightforward as possible. I’m going to assume that there are two camps of people: 1- Team Runner. These folks run on a regular basis, either long distance or short. If they don’t run, they find their aerobic work somewhere else: biking, swimming, swinging (that would be me), or some other modality specifically for cardiovascular/anaerobic training (sprints, hills, monster fighting, stuff like that.)

Morpha, the water temple boss, keeps Link running for his life. Great cardio!

2- Team Not-Runner. These folks do absolutely NOTHING (intentionally) to train their cardiovascular system (aka aerobic training). These could include general fitness folks who lift weights (either seriously or not… I’m looking at you Mr. On-The-Phone-While-Doing-Curls-Man), powerlifters who DON’T training beyond lifting (yes, I know weight lifting can be considered a form of aerobic training, but let’s be honest, many powerlifters completely ignore their aerobic system. To that I say. “stop it.” Oooo… future post! Sorry, I got distracted. Back to this one.) or anyone who just sits eating beans like this guy.

nom nom nom...

Answer for Team Runner:

Assuming that you are strength training for the purpose of getting stronger (which, I would hope is the reason), then no, you do not need to rush the workout. The purpose of training under load is to prod the body to adapt to the stress by getting stronger muscles. It’s a bit more involved than that physiologically, but that’s the basic idea of lifting weights. So, if one is rushing about with little rest between sets, the body won’t be able to produce as much force (due to fatigue) thus one will be relegated to lighter weights. And light weights don’t cut it when it comes to building strength. Solution? Rest as needed between sets to allow for near to full recovery so that the most force can be produced each rep (translation: heavier weights can be used). This has the added benefit of improving rate of force development of your muscles. If you don’t want to read this lovely article by Kevin Neeld, then the bottom line is the faster muscles can produce the needed level of force (to say, run), then the faster you’ll propel yourself across the earth. It’s like the Bunny Hood in Legend of Zelda:

Yes! Link's rate of force development is increased ten-fold!

Focus on the purpose: increasing strength and don’t worry about trying to make it a cardio session (if you’re lifting heavy enough weights, you’ll be winded anyway. )

Answer for Team Not-Runner:

Even elite strength athletes need some sort of aerobic training. (as I alluded to, this will be a future post.) While the main movement of the day, be it a squat, deadlift, or press variation, should be completed with the needed rest periods in between, the accessory work can be sped up a bit. For those trainees who don’t want to do any outside aerobic work other than their weight room sessions, which is totally fine, hustling a bit during the accessory movements or throwing in a weight cirucit every so often would provide a suitable aerobic training effect. Having an efficient aerobic system, namely the body’s ability to use oxygen to produce ATP (the form of energy muscles need to function), is important both for recovery during training sessions and sustaining life. It would be unwise to ignore such things. This would be your heart status:

Not. Good.

Adding a little hustle to the accessory exercises will provide a decent aerobic training effect while still maintaining the goal of building strength during a training session. Training said system will help foster quicker recovery both during training and afterwards.

All that being said, again, it depends on what your training goals are but hopefully this post helps clear up the question of how to execute your strength training sessions.

Pretty soon you'll be rescuing princesses too!

Speaking of, I did that same walk four years ago (!!) and I thought I’d impart some of the wisdom I’ve picked up since then. Most of it relates to the fitness field, since that’s what I do for a living, but there’s some random tidbits thrown in there.

1. There’s a big difference between training a 20-something college kid and a 40- or 50-something weekend warrior who wants to get in shape– the former is pretty indestructible, well, mostly, and the latter… let’s just say they have a higher mileage. The 20-something will be able to handle a higher intensity (relative to their training age) and they’ll recover much more quickly than and older trainee.  As a coach, I have to know how to taper the volume and intensity approrpriately. I made the mistake of training a 40-something like a 20-something… it didn’t work out too well. Lesson learned: know your trainee.
Just don’t tell that to Big Joe:

2. Most people know what they need to do to stay/get healthy— Eat more vegetables, eat less crap, and exercise. Boom. Everyone I’ve worked with knows this. Why are they still out of shape? Because there are seemingly insurmountable barriers to following through. It might be lack of time, lack of skill (as in cooking), lack of motivation… you name it, I’ve heard the “reason.” My job is not to expound upon the metabolic ramifications of eating too much cake or not working out, or to elaborate on the metabolic pathways of  fatty acids in the blood stream; my job is to help folks bust through those barriers keeping them from a healthy lifestyle. They don’t care about the health benefits of coconut oil as much as they do practical ways of making their lives healthier.

My job is to help prevent such poor choices.

3. Some people to understand Harry Potter and/or Star Wars references— ???

Like this:

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

4. Strength, raw strength, is absolutely the key to success in any physical endeavor– Whether it be an athletic feat (speed, vertical jump, the “first step,” agility etc) or normal life stuff (recovering from a surgery, playing basketball again pain free, being active with your kids…) it all comes down to strength. Strong people recover faster, they move better, and they can last longer through athletic challenges. Strong people, to paraphrase Mark Rippetoe, are harder to kill and are generally more useful. For athletes, the ones that jump the highest, are the quickest on the field and all those other requests we hear from parents every week, the ones with the most strength always beat the weaker athletes.

This is Conrad after BOTH his knees were replaced in the past year… he went into his surgeries strong and he came out stronger. Strength is essential! Always, always, always train for strength.

5. On that note, not everyone wants to be a powerlifter– However, not everyone wants to lift an insane amount of weight (I don’t understand this concept, but I’ve come to accept it). So, as a coach, I need to balance what I know is good for my trainee (namely, increasing their strength levels) and what they want to do (“tone” up or just feel good enough to make it through their daily lives). That involves compromise for both parties and it took me a while to reconcile that.

6. Simple is better— there’s all kinds of fancy programs and equipment out there. But I tell ya, keep it simple. (I’ve tried to throw fancy set/rep schemes in or super-strength techniques that will be boring to read about.) Only to find that the majority of my athletes do very well (for a long time) on training basic movements with basic progressions. Here’s a general workout scheme (aka: what you should do every workout):

Squat something heavy

Deadlift (or swing… hip hinge!) something heavy

Pull something (either yourself or a weight)

Push something (either yourself or a weight)

Carry something heavy for a while

Bam. Use barbells, weight plates, kettlebells, bands, and body weight. That’s really all you need. Repeat 3-5x/week. Eat lots of vegetables. There are times and places for getting outside the norm, sometimes for the sake of fun, but I’m consistently led back to the foundational movements and the old-fashioned method of “add more weight to the bar.”

7. There are a lot of closet Disney fans— we’ve been rocking the Disney station at SAPT… a LOT of people know the words…

Correct.

8. Everyone smiles at a poop joke. Everyone.

Disney and poop. We're all really 4 years old.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fantastic question! Short answer: no.

Long answer:

Or in Harry Potter terms, your wand-arm

Everyone has one limb or side that’s going to be stronger, more adept, and easier to progress than the other. That’s the result of handed-ness (being right- or left-handed) both in life, in sports/sword fighting, and obviously, wizard duels. It’s ok to have a difference, and unless you are 100% ambidextrous, or Superman, you’re going to favor one side over the other.

An example of acceptable difference would be maybe you can do one or two less reps on the lagging side, or there’s a couple pounds difference in what that limb can accomplish. In this case, you want to tailor your workouts to your not-as-strong side. You’re only as strong as your weakest link, so trying to train according to your stronger side will only increase the difference between the two. It can even help by starting your training sets with that side each time. I’m right-side dominant so I start all my sets of single-arm and leg exercises with my left side.

So if a disparity is normal, when is the difference too much? At SAPT, we screen our athletes and trainees for major differences in joint ranges of motion as well as strength differences (for example in total shoulder ROM or hip flexor strength). If the difference is enough to make you do a double-take, then well, there might be a problem. Large differences in either ROM or strength can lead to compensations that can eventually cause an injury. We don’t want that, so in those cases, we do address the lagging limb with specialized drills/exercises as we see appropriate.

Since I assume most of SGW readers don’t go around comparing their hip internal rotation, let’s translate that into a practical situation. For example, you’ve noticed that one arm is stronger than the other. Let’s say you can overhead press 25lbs with your right arm, but only 10lbs with your left. That’s a red flag.

No, Mr. 50s-Dad-Looking-Man, not good at all.

What’s the best solution? While I don’t recommend abandoning training your right arm entirely, adding in an extra set or two for the left side would be a great start to help bring up the lagging left. The same could be said for a difference in leg strength. Adding in an extra set for the less-than-strong side would be the best option as it won’t lead to the opposite problem: having your left side stronger than your right.

Don't let this happen to you..

There’s research out there that, if injured on one side, training the non-injured side can help increase strength in the immobilized side anywhere from 5-25%. It’s called the cross-training effect. Charles Poliquin has a good article, with references, here that sums it up.  Ok, I know we’re not talking about injury here, but I wonder if that cross-education effect can apply to the less-dominant side. So, while the weight might be easier for your dominant side, since you’re tailoring your weight selection to you less-than-super side, moving that weight fast and under control (which trains the neural component of weight training. Whole ‘nother post there…) might increase your neural ability to produce force on the other side, thus leading to strength gains.

There you have it! Hopefully that offers some guidance in your training. Or you could just chase butterflies.

That would be me.

Yes!

There’s several recipes out there for it, but I made up a protein and fiber-rich version for the nerdy-lifter that I am. *Disclaimer* I’m still tweaking the amounts, so this may not be perfect but it’ll at least be a platform in which to launch your own version of lembas.

I used coconut flour as my base. Say wha? Yep, coconut flour is merely dried coconut meat ground up into a flour-like consistency. What’s so good about coconut flour? I’m so glad you asked!

Tell me about coconut flour.

Benefits of coconut flour:

1. Very high in fiber, about 9 grams for 2 tablespoons, which is fantastic for, well, the whole poop thing. Compare that to the fiber content of wheat flour, which is a dismal 1-2 grams… ick. Perfect for keeping you regular while traipsing through Middle Earth.

2. It’s gluten free which is helpful for those who have a gluten intolerance or allergy and still want to eat lembas. Or, even if you don’t it’s nice to give your system a break from the gluten of bread and other gluten filled treats. (it’s everywhere…).

3. Contains the healthy fats of the glorious coconut. However, I’m not sure how much of it is actually retained in the flour version since it goes through a defatting process. Some of that fat is better than none though. This helps fuel those long treks across Mordor. How else do you think Sam and Frodo made it? Not on fat-free Snackwell’s cookies!

4. Does not have the power to raise glucose levels like other flours (wheat, oat, etc) so those watching their blood sugar… rejoice! Steady blood sugar bodes well for sustained battles with orcs.

He doesn't care if your blood sugar is low..

Now, onto the recipe. Sorry I don’t have pictures. I didn’t think to take any during the process.

- 1-1 1/2 cups coconut flour (depending on how big of a batch you want to make)

- 1-2 scoops protein powder-o-choice

- 1 somewhat-heaped tablespoon of coconut oil, melted

- Roughly 1 cup of almond milk (or regular milk). The amount will vary depending on the consistency of the batter you desire.

- 1 egg or 1 heaping tablespoon of nut butter. Coconut flour can be very dry, so the addition of either one will help cut that down a bit. Just know that the peanut butter will take away from the lembas-y taste. I don’t think lembas had peanut butter in it.

- 1-2 tablespoons of agave or honey

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 275 and grease a cookie sheet.

2. Combine the dry ingredients, flour and protein powder, and break up any lumps with a spoon.

3. Add the coconut oil, egg (or PB), vanilla, and agave/honey and combine well.

4. Slowly add the milk until the consistency no longer resembles wet sand. It should be more clay-like or maybe slightly watery clay.

5. Spread evenly in pan and bake from 15-25 minutes or until lightly brown on top.

6. Allow it to cool before either gobbling it up or wrapping it in nice big leaves.

There we have it. A LOTR-inspired protein bar for the athlete or hobbit on the go!

We, women that is, have made great strides in leveling the playing field (pun intended) in the past century. The first Olympics didn’t allow women competitors because it wasn’t feminine to compete in sports. In the 2004 Olympics over 40% of the participants were female. Alright!

And upward!

While this and many other victories have been accomplished by the gentler sex, we’re still a long way off from the fellas. Today’s post isn’t a man-bashing post or even a mildly miffed post, it’s just musings on how we can encourage this next generation of women to continue to strive forward and bring more support to women’s athletics.

A macro view would be to increase the incentive to strive for professional or elite level athletics.

There’s a HUGE pay gap between professional male athletes and professional female athletes. As of 2004, the average WNBA salary is 2% (!!!) of the average male salary. (this is a good link for other examples).  Also, there’s a bit gap in the funding of male collegiate and female collegiate sports. We kinda get shafted when it comes to money for scholarships, equipment, funding for trips, etc. Yes, I know there’s more to it than just increasing the athletics budget, but even just a little more incentive would be nice. Maybe a reason holding back female athletes is, well, it’s a lot a work for not a lot of return. It’s hard to want to pursue a slim chance at professional sports when you need to pay bills.

I know part of the money issue is due to the lack of viewership (aka: advertising and money-making ability) and the only way to cure that is to create a demand for coverage for women’s sports. I don’t watch many sporting events in general, but every time I’ve come across and ESPN channel… usually it’s a male sport on.

When women’s sports are on, generally during the Olympics, how many people (sorry, guys, I’m calling you out) are watching women’s beach volleyball for the sake of the game and not spandex? There were even jokes across the interwebz about this spike in interest in women’s volleyball, and while it’s kinda funny, it’s also not at all. The coverage of the women athletes often is much more about their bodies than, I think, of their athletic ability. During the past Olympics, you didn’t see NEARLY the media (print too) coverage for the female shot putters, weightlifters, or say skeet shooting, than volleyball did. (no offense VB girls!)

Why are the female sports watched for the way the females look and not for the performance of the sport they’ve worked so hard at?

Case in point, this is a frequently used image on strength sites/blogs, usually to tout glute training. Got it, it’s important, but does anyone ever mention what this young woman does, who she is, what she competes in? NO! (I couldn’t even find out who she was after searching.) I’m not saying that we can’t use images of athletes to demonstrate points and no, we don’t have to name every one, but, the fact that this particular picture of a woman is used repeatedly, and often some sort of remark about how great her glutes look, irks me. It’s usually not mentioned that she’s an elite level sprinter. *sigh*

Again, I don’t know how to fix this, I can only guess at the wild world of professional sport recruitment and media spots/deals, but women don’t seem to have as many opportunities to seek professional employment. A small start would be to recognize and applaud all female athletes for their hard work, not the way their bodies look.

Taking it down to a more micro level, I don’t think young girls and teens are encouraged half as much as their male counterparts to compete in sports. I’m not talking about individual families, there’s some AWESOME parents (mine included) out there who encourage their daughters to excel athletically, but more as a society thing.

I wrote on “Strong is the new Skinny” a couple weeks ago and that type of mentality is prevalent in the subtle messages women/girls receive on a daily basis. It’s ok to be competitive and athletic as long as you still look sexy and fabulous. It’s ok to be an athlete as long as your uniform shows off your buxom butt or curvacious hips and chest. But I see a definitive lack of encouragement in women to pursue athletic careers for the sake of being a top athlete. It seems that the media filters the images of women to portray the athletes who also happen to be gorgeous. (I’m not blaming the athletes; they hit the genetic lottery!)

Why is this necessary?

I blame the constraints that, as a society, we still impose upon women that they have to look a certain way in order for their strength, athletic prowess, and dedication to training to be “acceptable.”

Growing up and over the course of my training career (as an athlete), I’ve been discouraged in various ways from my male counterparts that training isn’t really for girls. I’ve been talked down to, almost as if they were patting my head and saying, “That’s nice, dear,” when I’ve expressed my training goals. I’ve been told by a fellow or two that if I lift I won’t, to their dismay, be “soft” and feminine, I’ve been laughed at for wanting to become a competitive bodybuilder because, well, it takes too much discipline and hard work and it would be ludicrous that a woman desire to do that. I know I’m not the only one who has faced this attitudes towards athletic training.

Why would a woman want to do this?

I don’t think these men were mean-spirited or spiteful; I think they spoke out of ignorance. Perhaps these men wouldn’t say such things if female athletics was more prominent in the media. Perhaps if they saw the vast athletic achievements of women, it wouldn’t be so strange for a female to train hard for a purpose. Perhaps if we older women, stepped up into the postions that can impact the next generation of athletes, those girls would have strong role models to follow and not think they can’t be an athlete.

Let's set up the next generation for success!

And ladies, let’s not be afraid to grunt.

Why in your upper traps of course!

It should be renamed "Tension-Holder"

We get tense and shrug our shoulders (or, for you muscle-action fans, elevate our scapula and extend our necks). All that tightness leads to knots and kinks in our necks and shoulders. And those can lead to decreased performance in the picking up of heavy things and lead to some compensation patterns/pain.

Don’t think this is important? Let me ask you this: do you lift your arm over your head on a regular basis (either in a weight lifting setting or throwing a baseball or hitting a volleyball… cough cough). Your shoulder blade needs to be able to move freely along the rib cage in order for this to happen without pain or compensation. Well, those knots in the traps inhibit normal locomotion so you can bet your boots some compensatory patterns will appear and then you’re stuck with a potential for injury or cranky shoulders. (And since it’s all connected, pain could even travel down into your elbows and fingers.)

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Check out this and this, two trigger point sites and see if you’re experiencing pain in any of the shaded red areas.

And, for extra credit, you can check out your sternocleidomastoid…

Anyway, so we know we have knotty bits up in our traps, how do we get rid of it? I found a great technique from Kelly Starrett to help break up the knotty party.

Take a lacrosse ball or tennis ball and brace it against either the corner of a wall or a convenient power rack, as in the video below. (I just realized you can’t see the lacrosse ball, but there is one there). Place your traps on the ball and wiggle around until you find the super tense, knotty bits.

From there, rotate your head both to the side and to the front. You’ll want to hold a couple of seconds at the top each time.  I’ve found I can get at the knots a bit better if I put my same side hand behind my back (it internally rotates the shoulder and depresses the shoulder blade, thus stretching the traps out a bit more).

After doing such things for a bit, take same side arm and move it up and down in a “Y” pattern (it’s hard to see in the video, sorry) and then straight out to the side a couple times too. Again, this just jostles the fibers of the traps a bit to help work out those knots.

Play around with your angle, you’ll have to probably hit a couple different places on each side to get all the nasty bits. However, afterwards you’ll feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders.

Victory Dance!

Keep it simple for me.

Ok, so let’s talk prevention. Hamstring pulls often occur because of a) a previous pull (number 1 reason!) or b) hamstrings are required to do something they can’t handle on their own (like sprinting full tilt with form resembling poop). The latter is like Neville Longbottom in Potions class: imposing demand that produces in disastrous consequences.

The Not- whiz at potions

So how do we prevent hamstring pulls in the first place? In no particular order:

1. Soft tissue work- stay on top of it, literally, jump on that foam roller and lacrosse ball! Work out the nasty, gunky tissue that tends to form in the adductors (especially near the insertion points on the pelvis and knee joint), hamstrings, calves (specifically the gastronemius since it crosses over the knee joint), and of course, the glutes. If the glutes are gunked up, then they’re not going to fire properly or contract with full force thus leaving an increasing burden on the hamstrings to extend the hip. For example, if the glutes aren’t firing properly during a sprint, guess who has to extend the hip? Yup, the hamstrings. And as I’ve mentioned before, the hammies are strong hip extensors but they’re woefully under qualified to handle the brunt of it without the neighbors to the north. Gunky muscles = dysfunction = potential injury.

2. Strengthen your glutes- as mentioned above, the hamstrings need help extending the hip. The glutes are MUCH better at doing so and are at a more advantageous position, mechanically, to do so anyway. Check out this diagram:

Oh sassy anatomy man, how we've missed you!

See how LONG the hamstrings are compared to the glutes? Also note the fibers: hamstrings have long, parallel-to-the-femur (thigh bone) fibers whilst the glutes’ fibers are short and diagonal to the femur. The glutes can produce more force because they’re shorter and can do so with less stress to the fibers. Every hear about anyone tearing their glute? Didn’t think so. Anyway, all that to say, GET YOUR BUTT STRONGER, and you’ll be half way there to hamstring ouchie prevention. (I could also go into activation, teaching your glutes to fire sooner during the movement, but this post will get too long if I do so).

3. Don’t be stupid- don’t jump into do intense exercise without warming up or without working up to it. If you haven’t sprinted in a while, probably not a good idea to go out and do 100 m sprints all out. Use your brain.

This qualifies as stupid. Consequently, also the same form if you're trying to protect a hamstring.

There you have it, simple yet rather effective preventive measures.

But what happens if you’ve already pulled it? Couple of methods that we use with our athletes:

1. Don’t be stupid- This is a common one isn’t it? Don’t do anything that irritates the injured hamstring. It’s already pissed off at you, no point in angering it further and prolonging the recovery period. Seriously, if it hurts, don’t do it. We tend to take a very conservative approach with out athletes and we’ll replace any exercise that might hurt it.

2. Soft tissue work- Oh look, this one is back too! It’s almost as if we turned the Time-Turner and are reading the prevention methods.

For explaination...

Be careful with this though. Sometimes the injured tissue should NOT be touched, but this doesn’t mean you can’t work on the surrounding areas. Depending on the severity of the injury, a good ART or massage therapy session might be in order. Gently working on the tissue can aid in the healing process. Perhaps some gentle stretching is in order, but be careful with that too.

3. Rest- Lay off of it. It’s not going to heal if you keep aggravating it. This is often the hardest part of recovery for athletes; they want to jump back in too soon. One day pain-free does NOT mean the hamstring is healed. Sorry. Give it a couple weeks and ease back into your regular activity with pain as you guide.

I don't wanna rest.

There you have it. Pretty simple stuff but will do you well in the long run!

Thieves Beware...

Have you tweaked/pulled your hamstring (due to your tightness maybe?)? Today, we’ll go over some of the reasons why the hamstrings might be tight and in part 2 we’ll go over some of the prevention/rehabilitation techniques to deal with hamstring tweaks. You may be surprised to find that your tight hamstrings are not actually tight… That sounds like something Professor Dumbledore might say.

Ok, so here’s some of the causes of “tight” hamstrings. (You’ll see why I put “tight” in quotation marks at the end.)

1. Protective tension.

This is when the brain is telling the hamstrings to remain “on,” for one reason or another, and it creates a sensation of tightness when the hamstrings are stretched. Why does this happen? I’m actually a good example of this. I have congenital laxity (meaning my joints are loose and I’m fairly flexible) but for a period of about 3 years, my hamstrings were constantly tight and I could feel them being tugged on every time I would put them in a stretched position, and because of my laxity (and a lifetime of NEVER feeling tight) this was as odd as Hagrid’s love for horribly frightening beasts.

Yep. That weird.

Here’s what was happening: my pelvis tilted, wildly I might add, anteriorly (forward).

Hamstrings pull the pelvis posteriorly or down and backwards.

The hamstrings attach to the (posterior) bottom of the pelvis (your “sit” bones) and my brain sensed the pelvic tilt I was constantly in and was desperately trying to prevent me tilting forward anymore by causing my hamstrings to fire constantly to pull me back into a neutral position. Thus, this unceasing firing of my hamstring was causing a sense of “tightness” in my hamstrings despite the fact that the actual muscles were not tight. Once my pelvic tilt (through lots of KB swings and anterior core work) was in a more neutral position… voila  The tightness was gone. So, if your hamstrings feel tight, check our your pelvic alignment.  Stretching the hamstrings will NOT improve your flexibility in this case.

2. Neural tension.

I know this sounds similar to the above reason, but this tension generally results from an injury. The most likely answer is an injury to a lower back disc. (since the nerve for the hamstrings runs through that region.) If there’s damage to a disc in the L1-S1 region, there’s probably compression on the nerve for the hamstrings which could be causing mishaps in the neural messages causing hamstring tightness. Usually this type of tension is accompanied by other symptoms such as tingling, shooting pain, electric pain or numbness. Two common tests to check for spinal issues are the slump test and the heel drop test (which consists of standing on your toes then dropping to you heels. If pain occurs, congratulations! You might have a compression issue.)

3 and 4. Nasty fibrotic tissue or tendonosis in the hamstring.

Sometimes muscle fibers get junky and gunky, either from poor movements, overuse, or prior injury, which changes the length and function of the muscle. Instead of the muscle fibers running parallel and working harmoniously, they’re twisted up like spaghetti noodles (and work as well together and a plate of spaghetti). Soft tissue work such as SMR or possibly work by a professional is in order to help restore the tissue quality.

Not the way muscle fibers should be...

5. The hamstring muscles are truly short.

Yep, you’re one of those people who either because of your genes (not your jeans. Ha!) or a surgery where the hamstring was immobilized in a shortened position (though this is not common), your hamstrings are actually shorter than they should be. This can happen in folks who sit down a lot during the day because the pelvis is tilted posteriorly (tucking your butt under) which does shorten the hamstrings a bit. However, this probably isn’t the main source of tightness since they are only short at the very end range of motion.

So what have we learned? If your hamstring is tight, it’s not necessarily it’s fault nor will endless hamstring stretches change anything (even if you’re drew the genetic short stick. Stretching won’t do that much. Sorry.).  Soft tissue work in the hamstrings, adductors, and glutes as well as some dedicated anterior core work and glute training (*cough* swings *cough*) can help to solve some tight hamstring issues.

Hamstring issues, begone!

Check back in tomorrow for some hamstring injury causes and care.

1. Theodore Roosevelt said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” This especially applies to any one working in the service industry, such as a coach. (I’m positive other famous coaches, Mike Boyle for one, have said this, but I found out that good ol’ T-Man Roosevelt said it too.) Steve and I have been privileged to see this in action on two instances this past month. The first was announcing our very first, “Most Improved Athlete,” which we awarded a young lady who has made dramatic improvements. This particular athlete kinda lives in her older sister’s shadow a bit so it was really, really, REALLY cool to have the opportunity to tell her how much the coaches noticed her hard work and accomplishments. I teared up a bit watching her face light up in surprise and delight.

The second instance was last Friday, Steve and I went to a softball game in which we had athletes on both teams playing. I was definitely in my I-want-to-go-home mode, but Steve encouraged me to go. The excitement on our athletes’ faces was priceless and as we were leaving, one of them silently mouthed, “thank you!” as we waved. *Cue my heart melting like ice cream on a hot day*

It’s easy to forget the impact, as coaches, we have on our athletes and I think we have more joy seeing stuff like that than they realize. It was pretty sweet. We wish we could go to all our athletes’ games, but alas, the world is not perfect.

2. Last week I posted the “Deadstop SL RDL” and I’ve programmed it in for a handful of athletes. First off, why do a single-leg RDL in the first place? Bullet points:

These are kinda important...

- Excellent way to train the adductors, hip stabilizers (aka various gluteal muscles), core stability (anti-rotation), and all those other stabilizers in the lower leg and foot. Single leg work tends to help even out imbalances also.

- Perfect for runners as it trains the muscles they need to propel themselves quickly over the earth. Obviously, it’s not just for runners, but it helps any athlete that needs to run… aka: all of them.

- Great single-leg option for those who have cranky knees or people who hate lunges (slowly raises hand…).

If you, or a client, is struggling to master the singl-leg RDL (which can be a toughie), here’s a progression I’ve found works well in process of mastering this elusive exercise.

1. Bowler Squat

2. Band-assisted SL RDL

Ok, I stink at using our ipad to upload videos. Basically, attache a band to a pole, hold it with one hand and do the SL RDL with the band to help balance. Hold the band in the OPPOSITE hand of the working leg.

3. Deadstop SL RDL

4. SL RDL, contralateral hold

5. SL RDL, loaded in both arms

Ta-daa! Your Jedi skillz have been raised.

3. I have an extremely goofy dad. It’s great; growing up was always an adventure and it was even funnier watching Steve acclimate to his new father-in-law. My dad taught me all the essential skills (how to throw a frisbee, how to pretend to walk into poles, how to balance almost any object on my finger… you know, the important stuff.) and, most importantly, not to take yourself too seriously.

This is a typical "jazz handz" pose my dad frequently makes us do in family photos.

I should mention my dad is a general in the Air Force and continues to surprise his coworkers by randomly balancing his hat on his finger in meetings.

Don't be fooled, beneath the surface lurks a goofball...

One lesson I’ll never forget is, how to eat like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Usually, this lesson occurred on the nights Mom wasn’t home for dinner, but sometimes she was there too (much to her exasperation I’m sure to have 4 roaring T-Rexes at the dinner table). Anyway, my mom sent me this video and I nearly fell over laughing. I felt proud that I already knew how to eat like a dinosaur.

4. We’ve had a bit of an increase in hamstring pulls/tweaks lately at SAPT. Two of them are volleyball girls that tweaked their beloved hammies during games either jumping or moving forward quickly. Be on the look out for hamstring injury post next week (that, ladies and gents, is called a “teaser.”) that will go into more detail about caring for and preventing hamstring ouchies.

My suspicion is that both girls were relying on their hamstrings to propel them (either up or forward) into hip extension instead of utilizing those gluteal muscles the SAPT coaches harp on so much. See, hamstrings are pretty good at extending the hip, but they’re not so great by themselves. They need the help of their powerful northern neighbors, the glutes. Kinda like how Rob Stark from Game of Thrones is a good king of the North, but he really needs his direwolf to hold any clout… (at least, I think Greywind plays an pivotal role in making Rob Stark King of the North.)

Rob goes from "good" to "great" with his powerful wolf

Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, TRAIN YOUR GLUTES! Strong butts help prevent injuries such as cranky hamstrings.

5. Disney music is rapidly becoming the favorite Pandora station at SAPT. How can anyone NOT be happy while listening to “Be Our Guest?”

That’s it folks. Have a great weekend!!

We will prevail. Let’s Go Hokies and Bostonians!

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As a kid, my mom used to make us quiche. I like quiche, it’s a great way to hide spinach and make kids eat it.

Incognito vegetables are the way to go!

But let’s clean it up a bit yeah?

Here’s a quiche recipe that the Reeds very much enjoy and it doesn’t require any crust (or the hard labor that can go into attempting to create just the right amount flaky and desirable crust…). So what does one use for crust?

Rutabaga!

The hobbits of the vegetable world return!

Thin slices of rutabaga placed strategically along the bottom of the pan creates a delightful, fiber-full, nutrient dense crust that doesn’t require much work outside of slicing up the rutabaga. Here’s my ode to the rutabaga.

I also swapped out kale for spinach (because as we all know kale totally pwns spinach when it comes to fighting free radicals and boosting your immune system). I don’t use just the egg whites because that’s just silly, use the whole egg!

For flavoring, I threw in some garlic, onions, and crumbled some bacon (for Steve). I suppose a little cheese wouldn’t be unwarranted if one likes cheese.

People who don't like cheese.

Rutabaga-Crust Quiche:

- 1 rutabaga, peeled and thinly sliced

- Fistfulls of kale, preferably 4-5

- 1 onion, chopped

- Minced garlic, as much as you desire

- 4-8 eggs, depending on the size of the stomachs this quiche is intended to feed

- 1-4 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled

- Cheese, if desired

- Salt, pepper, basil, sprinklings of each

1. Start cooking your bacon, if you’re using it.

2. In a pan (I’m not going to tell you what size. You can figure out such things.) grease the bottom and place sliced rutabega until bottom is covered. Since you’re standing there, you should also preheat the oven to about 375 degrees.

3. In a blender, chop up the kale with half the eggs. Once that’s mostly blended, add the rest of the eggs and blend again until smooth. I also add the salt, pepper, garlic, and basil in here.

4. Pour the eggy kale in the pan atop the awaiting rutabega. You can sprinkle the bacon in now (and any cheese.)

5. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the center is firm.

6. Hooray! Eat your fill of vitamins K, A, C, D, various B vitamins, as well as the disease fighting sulfurophanes, isothiocyanates, manganeses, magnisium, phosperous, fiber, protein, choline… and bask in your healthiness.