Tweaks: Part 3- Be Pro-active

MetCon//

6:00 AMRAP

Row 20/15 Calories

15 Front Squat 115/75

7 Over the Bar Burpee

 

There a million different injuries caused by a million different things. Any diagnosis is a guess, sure it can be a really educated one, but still a guess, and with that diagnosis, any treatment is a guess at best as well. Your knee hurts? Hmm I must have tight quads. Show me some stretches coach! Well maybe you have a weak glute so you don't squat deep enough. Or you can't keep your knees tracking over your toes in your deadlift. There might be a hundred different possible solutions. Our tweaks might be from flexibility issues, more likely poor movement patterns, and actually sometimes perfect movement patterns but over-use might be the culprit. 

"My ___________ hurts! Give me a stretch coach!" We can't just throw stretches at every problem! Sorry.

One of the parameters of "Functional Movement" is that it follows a Core-to-Extremity pattern. The first thing moving is our hips and trunk and then section by section out to our limbs to move our full body or a load. If our movement originates with our core, and that core moves every day, if we want to stay injury free, that core just needs to become very robust. There's 4 sides to your trunk, and maintaining thick and resilient muscles there is the key to a healthy back and hips. Ab's, Obliques, Back! If your low back is a consistent problem spot, you can do all the butt foam rolling or t-spine mobilization in the world, but if you don't have robust abs and spinal erectors, it'll continue to be a problem spot. You should be doing extra GHD hip or back extensions, Oblique crunches with a dumbell or kettle bell, and sit ups or planks. There's usually time after class to hop on the GHD if you want a bombproof back!

When we move away from that trunk, Shoulders and Hips. The shoulder/elbow problems and hips/knees problems we usually see are from people who struggle to move to full ranges of motion. It's the same person with shoulder tweaks who struggles to support the barbell or dumbell straight overhead with a locked out elbow. The same person with sore kness or hips, also struggles to sit all the way down in their squat with their knees tracking over their toes. A great way for these people to prevent tweaks is to spend EXTRA time in those positions that are hard for them to maintain. Sounds counter intuitive, but if you can't hold a rock bottom squat, you just need to spend more time sitting in that deep squat. That is yes, on your own time, but also during warm-ups and WOD's. I actually saw a lot of this during today's shoulder-to-overhead and running WOD. Many athletes, once they extended their arm as far as possible, they had the dumbell headed right back down too early. Especially if locking out your elbow overhead with a dumbell is tough, you should spend that extra moment on every rep reaching to get that arm straighter and straighter throughout the workout. Uncomfortable? Sure, but more beneficial than you probably even know. Anyone struggling with a good front rack position needs to do the same, anytime you catch a clean, send those elbows higher each time if even only for a moment. Our bodies respond really well and those shapes become easier and easier to achieve as long as you're diligent. 

So if you're following, Trunk= increase stability, Shoulders/Elbows and Hips/knees= increase equally stability and flexibility. 

When we get the furthest away from the trunk, your ankles/toes and wrists/fingers, ok now we're talking about stretching. Stretch them haha! 

Devin JonesComment