IOL Strength and Conditioning

As I first mentioned in the post about running a couple of weeks ago, a group of friends have committed to running the Marine Corp Mud Run next fall in Bakersfield, California. A few in the group could go out and run it today, but most of us need a little work, or maybe a lot. Some are going to need to drop some weight to help the joints handle the impact of training for this thing; I’m one of those — Monday’s D day, d as in d i e t.

Nearly everyone, those not young athletes, could use a forever bout with some corrective exercise — rehab or prehab, in today’s parlance. If you’re not familiar with the idea of corrective exercise and even less familiar with how to make your personal program, you need primer. Here’s the place to start: Joint mobility, structural movement, physical rehab.

A terrific option for knowing where to start with your corrective work is the Functional Movement Screen Gray Cook and Lee Burton developed. There’s a do-it-yourself home version described in Gray’s book Athletic Body in Balance, and you can also get an overview on their website, Functional Movement Systems.

There’s a short video showing the movement, a description and an implications overview. Click on the red test menu button to view the various screens, and give the screen a go. Where you fail — or the closest to failure — becomes your top corrective priority. Along with daily cardio, this is where you’d put your exercise attention during this introductory phase.

If you can’t quite swing the FMS, a shotgun approach is not the worst idea. There are some things that nearly everyone needs, so it’s a place to begin. Here’s a list to get you started.

Foam rolling is something to keep in the program forever. Here’s a long discussion on foam rolling, including links and rolling implement ideas.

Rolling the glute medius is going to tell you whether you need to roll your glute medius (heh heh), ditto the piriformis. Everyone needs to roll the IT bands along the sides of the upper legs, and also to roll their feet with a golf ball and roll their calves with a stick. The self-mobilization against the wall, shown below, is easy to learn, and will help remind the calves to unclench.

The Cook hip lift is pretty easy to self-administer, and glute activation exercises are not hard to learn.  Here’s a thread on glute activation.

The standing psoas test is easy to self-administer. Rolling the psoas and doing an isometric hold are the easy fixes for problems in this area.

The adductors — the leg and hip muscles that lift the leg away from the body — are important, as is spinal stability. Here’s a video showing a bit of both.

That ought to get you started. But if you want the full plan, including the D I E T part, here’s the link to our From Scratch Volkslauf Training guide. You’re very welcome to join us in Bakersfield next October, or to participate in the prep with no travel plans.

 2 DVD set, filmed at Michael’s facility in Winchester, Massachusetts, 2007, 97 minutes

The goal of this DVD, which it successfully accomplishes, is to help personal trainers and strength coaches discover the differences between flexibility and mobility, and to learn how to develop both. You’ve read Michael’s original Joint-by-Joint Training article, and Gray’s follow-up, Expanding on the Joint-by-Joint Concept, but what do you do with the information? You get it: The body a stack of bones connected through the joint segments. How do you program with this new stack-of-bones understanding? This DVD picks up where the articles leave off.

Incidentally, if you haven’t read and re-read both of those commentaries, break away and do that now. Here’s MB’s Joint-by-Joint Training, and here’s Grays’ Expanding on the Joint-by-Joint Concept.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Where the stress transfers when joint mobility isn’t acceptable
• Mobility vs flexibility — the length of the muscles vs how motion works to get the joints moving easier
• Shows how we fake mobility with compensation when mobility isn’t optimal
• What to look for in terms of quality movement
• What Michael may not be using or doing as much as in previous years
• Stability needs of the knee, and how this relates to the hip — the hip stabilizes the knee and responds to what the foot does
• Gray Cook RNT tricks using bands to trick muscles to fire better
• Plenty of progression of difficulty in various movements
• Unique set of needs at the hip, need active hip mobility to keep the low back stable and pain-free
• Lengthy discussion of hip musculature, especially the piriformis, adductors and IT band
• Tissue quality issues, the need of passive hip mobility, tissue density vs length
• Foam and other rolling implements

Michael’s placed a renewed importance on the value of stretching, in particular the Gary Gray concept of three-dimensional stretching using multiple planes of motion, for example a saggital stretch with a bit of light transverse plane motion. Michael explains how to think through the idea of tissue length to clarify creation of a better stretching program, although you can also simply follow his program as shown on the DVD.

You’ll find examples of his favorite stretches, including his full hip stretching protocol with specific examples of how to move the hip against a stable femur, stretching the hip rotators, and the more rare concept of psoas stretching.  You’ll gain an understanding hip flexion, as per Shirley Sarhmann and Mark Comerford, and grasp the idea of overuse problems vs weaknesses.

The second DVD opens with a conversation about the Boyle lunge matrix, the progression from saggital plane mobility through frontal plane mobility and into transverse plane activity. As Michael completes this section, he transitions from the static squat versions to the dynamic lunges, to the lunge reaches with a resisted component, careful to point out the difference between a panoramic and a multi-planar lunge matrix.

He then moves to the lumbar region, describing the need for lumbar stability instead of mobility. This is a fairly lengthy section pointing out exercises he’s moved away from and those he uses in his program today. Expect to spend some time on the core section to discover what positions he’s now using for core training, including specifics of what to look for as you watch others, then moving to his isometric progressions for higher difficulty. Again we get to see what his athletes and clients are doing now, and what they’re no longer doing… and why.

Next we move to the oft-neglected thoracic region, where Michael again explains how thorax mobility factors into the joint-by-joint concept. How do we fix this? Michael demonstrates the trick, then carries forward to the scapulae and shoulder girdle lecture and a substantial shoulder circuit demonstration. This is another area in which Michael really shines.

This DVD set is a complete lecture and demonstration of how to use the idea of mobile and stable joints in your training warm-ups. If you haven’t yet put this in practice, this is your key to putting the joint concept into motion in your training. Get your copy of Michael Boyle’s Joint by Joint Warm-up and Training DVD from this link via Perform Better. Note: the PB sales page shows this as a 60-minute DVD, however this is in fact 97 minutes.

Amby Burfoot

Back in the ‘70s when folks my age started jogging, logging our runs in a red Jim Fixx training log, Amby Burfoot took over the editor’s duties at what was then the opening days of the still-popular Runner’s World magazine. This 1968 Boston Marathon winner wrote to us passionately of striding along a country road in a way that made the reader unable to sit still.

Coming off our IronOnline escapade at Fort Leavenworth last month, steam is already building for a group effort at a USMC mud run in Bakersfield next October. You laugh, but some of us are a long way past our road running days, and it’ll take awhile to build up the mileage without adding more trauma to the plentiful ravages of a life well-lived. Plus, (I heard this but haven’t fully subscribed to the notion), at least a couple of trusted advisors warn of a need to whittle off a dozen pounds if there’s any hope of hauling these bodies over the ever-so-creative Marine Corp obstacles.

So here I am, thinking about running again, and I remembered the Burfoot articles in Runner’s World and John L. Parker’s Once A Runner (originally published in 1978), the character role of the fictional Quenton Cassidy so obviously built on racers Parker had known or perhaps had been. This one didn’t snare me and I’d put it aside and ordered the electronic version of Amby Burfoot’s The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life, having given up on the hero Cassidy after a deluge of college boy dialogue.

But almost as soon as I started Amby’s book (I can call him Amby since I’ve “known” him since the late ‘70s), Mark Reifkind posted a few quotes from this classic racer’s tale. This forced me back for a redo, which worked better once I skipped about a quarter into it, past the initial dialogue and well into the indoor racing season… which sizzles.

As to the reading experience, I still have to go with Burfoot for the aging former jogger who’s pondering a return to the streets. It’s not a method book, and won’t give you a clue how to go about this transition that makes your hips ache at the thought. What it’ll provide is even more important: desire. In Amby’s view, “The experience is what matters, and the experience is basically the same for all of us.”

Now here’s one that’s particularly relevant: “Distance running requires you to take the long view. It takes weeks and months, at the least, to get in shape. Give yourself time. Don’t make hasty and unnecessary mistakes. Remember: You’re in it for the long run. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself accordingly.” Both Runner’s Guide and Once a Runner are quick reads that share a glimpse of the spirit of running. If the idea of some mileage on foot is gnawing at you, either will give you a good shove. For those who haven’t been competitive racers, Burfoot’s is probably a better jump-off point.

For the fun of it, here’s a choice thought from Parker: “A runner is a miser, spending the pennies of his energy with great stinginess, constantly wanting to know how much he has spent and how much longer he will be expected to pay. He wants to be broke at precisely the moment he no longer needs his coin.”