IOL Strength and Conditioning

We’ve got a dozen lengthy articles here in the blog, and another fifty or so threads in the rehab/corrective exercise section of the forum dedicated to sorting out our various physical dysfunctions. Let’s do a quick recap to bring it all together into a sort of introduction to fixing pain caused by a poorly functioning body.

Often we’re in pain here or there; other times we just don’t move as well as we used to. Everyone we know says, “Ah, getting older,” as if we’re not supposed to be able to move our joints after we hit our forties. The field of physical therapy has begun to develop new ways to teach people who to move again, and their work is expanding into the training rooms of pro and collegiate level sports and trickling down to us. Those methods give new life to beaten-up athletes and middle-aged desk jockeys alike, and somewhere in that group slides the likes of you and me.

Once on the structure and movement rehabilitation path, each time we find another problem we discover it’s connected to something else, another weak or tight or immobile or inactive bodypart that’s not working as it should. Sometimes it’s so confusing or overwhelming we want to give up, but usually before we get to that place we’ve had an amazing success… enough to keep us eagerly and greedily searching for more.

Because every body is malfunctioning to a different degree, and there are so many joints and muscles that might be involved, it’s pretty much impossible to tell you how to get started. Still, let’s take an overview, possibly enough to get you started on your own path to rehabilitation. Each bolded point below is a link to more information on that topic; when you get to one that intrigues you or sounds like something you’re having a problem with, click over and start your journey there.

• Joint mobility and stability—joint movement, encompassing both the ability of the joint to move through its widest safe range of motion, the ability of the nearby muscles to cause that motion, and stability, such as at the knee, low back, neck and elbow that have a short range of motion and the need to be stable
• Muscle flexibility—muscle lengthening, whether it can move to its full structural range, or if it’s instead shortened to a less than optimum length
• Hip mobility—tightness of some muscles and weakness in opposing muscles keeping your hip from its natural ability to move
• Pelvic tilt—anterior (tilts to the front) or posterior (tilts to the back); you may even have both
• Hip rotation—internal or external rotation; we need both, but in balance
• Strengthen weakness—discover and strengthen lesser muscles that are overpowered by larger surrounding muscles
• Fix the feet—if foot problems aren’t fixed, the structure will never be fully sound
• Activate muscles—waking up a muscle group that’s not firing well
• Thoracic spine mobility—optimal freedom of upper spine movement
• Pectoral flexibility—releasing tight muscles in the front caused by our forward-positioned lifestyles, creating poor upper spine position and mobility
• Core stability—the enduring power of the deep abdominal muscles that control posture and stabilize the spine
• Foam roller—a dense foam cylinder used in self-massage of the legs and torso, and even for the front delts, triceps and forearms
• Triggerpoints—adhesions in muscles or between muscles and tendons that cause surrounding muscles not to function well

Now let’s move over to the forum and get you some help sorting out your next step. Click here to review the topic list of our prehab/rehab and corrective exercise section; you’re welcome to join the conversations in progress, or to start a new topic with your personal concerns. Note: You do have to register and be logged in to post in the forum.

Want to skip all the reading and just get started? Here’s a three-week workout plan for those who don’t care much for the theories, and just want to get started on corrective exercise rehab work.

Bodyweight exercises have taken center stage as I attempt to train up a faltering structure; most of the corrective exercise experts remind us not to try to add strength to dysfunction, and they point to bodyweight work as a key in determining our fail points.

Yet, many of us can’t think of anything past the pushups and situps we learned wrong back in the third grade. Sure, a YouTube search will dredge up a few hundred clips, but are you sure you want to learn from the authority who calls himself iamdrunk?

There’s a guy, Steve Cotter, who’s well known in both the martial arts and the kettlebell worlds. He’s an outstanding kettlebell instructor, and a generous teacher; if you get a chance to join in a Cotter workshop, you’ll end the day having learned your money’s worth, and more. Just watching the guy is a jaw-dropper.

Meanwhile, for us at home, we have a chance to expand our exercise selection with his bodyweight conditioning dvd series. I expect you’ll plant your face in the floor a few times as he inspires you to try more than you’re able to pull off. I even had to drop back and relearn the basic pushup; somewhere along the time between grammar school and middle age, I picked up an elbow-flaring habit that Steve clearly and repeatedly advised against.

In his teaching, he demonstrates easy, beginning options to the movements, building on each one until only one in a thousand will be able to follow along. On top of these useful progressions of common exercises, we also lay our eyes on unusual ideas such as the side-to-side squat as demonstrated below.

His Encyclopedia of Bodyweight Conditioning is a three-dvd set that covers 56 upper body exercises, 62 lower body exercises and 42 core torso options. There are plenty of $40 and $50 dvds out there running a whopping 45 minutes; clocking in at almost four hours, Steve’s Encyclopedia is a gold mine as well as bargain.

Seriously, don’t you think you could learn something from this guy? Scroll forward to the 30-second mark for a mind-blower:

Byron calls Steve a mutant. You can be sure he means that most respectfully.

The last piece of the shoulder rehab puzzle fell into place recently, at least I hope it’s the last piece. Feels like the last piece. The 15-year progression went something like this:

Long-term trainees with aching shoulders always start with rotator cuff work using thin rubber tubing. We started doing that in the mid-‘90s and the trend continues, both for rehab and for daily warm-up.

A few years ago many added shoulder YTLWs to the mix, on a stability ball if they were bold enough to do that in public.

A couple years ago wall slides and joint mobility came to the forefront, and the forward-thinkers jumped on board. And the desperate.

These shoulder rehab efforts work, unless the damage done is serious enough to require medical intervention… er, surgery. For most of us, pretty good is good enough.

But is it really? What if there’s one more thing you could do that would make your shoulders feel young again? Would you try it?

A couple months ago in Florida, I had Bill Peel run me through the Gray Cook Athletic Body in Balance version of the functional movement screen. I passed the overhead squat progression, but it was nothing to brag about, and there was room for more range of motion in the backward shoulder movement. The worst of the lot that day was the thoracic mobility screen; I claimed a pass, but barely.

A month of focused attention to shoulder range of motion and remedial thoracic spine mobility work didn’t change much, so what was missing? I thought about some of the practices of the past months and remembered my problems with posture; specifically that in the end it wasn’t back strength to hold my shoulders in position that was missing, it was that tightened muscles in the front were pulling the shoulders forward. No amount of strength would be enough to keep my shoulders back until the muscles in the front were stretched regularly to give them the length to rest in good postural position.

Huh. What if that’s the problem with the rear range of motion in the shoulders? Huh! What do you know? It’s magic!

If your shoulder range of motion to the rear is lacking, one side more than the other or both sides equally, give this a try:

Lie on your back on the floor, knees bent, feet flat as if standing. Raise your arms overhead to rest on the floor; if both arms are flat on the floor, move along… there’s nothing for you here.

If only the backs of your wrists or not much more of the arms are touching the floor, or if one side if touching more than the other, rest in position, breathing regularly and deeply into the abdomen. Occasionally, breathe deep, expand the ribcage and keep it expanded by letting out a tiny bit of air and refilling the space. The point of this is to use your full air to hold the ribcage open and as far as possible from its connections at the spine. Stay there, arms overhead, knees bent until you begin to feel the backs of your arms flatten onto the floor.

This is probably going to take awhile, five minutes, ten, maybe more. You’ll probably be okay with that, though, because as it happens it feels a bit miraculous. The muscles and tendons of the upper torso and the thoracic spine and rib cage are relaxing, lengthening, and you can feel it happening.

In a few days, what was stressful and took fifteen minutes will be easy, relaxing and will only take five.

Couple of tips:

If you simply can’t get your hands overhead, start with a lesser angle, such as hands outstretched in a T position. If (or when) the backs of your arms rest heavily on the floor, move your hands up a bit, heading towards a Y angle. This way you’ll ease your way into the overhead position over time; it may take what feels like too much time, but in the end, it will work.

If there’s a twinge in your upper back, different than the stretching that you feel throughout the upper torso, you may need to roll around on a tennis ball or medicine ball to address a triggerpoint or a tight lat before doing the stretch. The trigger point work can be outrageously painful, but the upside is releasing that triggerpoint may be a key — and immediate — factor in relieving your shoulder pain.

Final points:

Don’t do this early in the morning; afternoon or after a workout is best. A light and easy doorway stretch — not forced — is good in the morning to reverse overnight sleeping posture, but your thoracic spine and rib cage aren’t ready for this radical stretch before warming up to the day.

After resting with the arms overhead for awhile, has one side settled onto the floor with the other side still lifted? Try shifting the hip of the lifted side. Did the shoulder just flatten? Triple bingo going on here: Go back and read up on the troubles of hip rotation.

It’s remarkable, really. And it may be the answer to the last of your shoulder distress.

*****

Late edit: I’ve had a few private notes about this from people who were amazed at how this worked for them. However, one person pushed too hard and tweaked his shoulder, so let me bring up two more points.

Relax into this; don’t push it. The point is to wait long enough to allow your body to relax. You can’t make that happen… you have to be patient enough to lay there until it happens.

Which brings up point two: This may take days, weeks even. Dave’s doing this, and his hands overhead are nearly a foot off the floor behind him. Seriously… no, I’m not exaggerating. No amount of forcing is going to loosen up his upper torso. He’s going to have to wait it out, and so might you.

We’ve been talking about corrective exercises a lot, and many readers don’t really know what this means and how it might apply to them. Let’s take a closer look at one common habit to demonstrate how a simple twist can expand up and down the body.

Think about how often you stand on one leg. Most of us do it regularly throughout the day, and it’s somewhat likely it’s causing a problem that starts at the hip and reverberates from there.

Get up from your chair. Seriously, stand up. You’ll have to feel this to catch the meaning.

From a standing position, shift your weight to the right leg. Go ahead and rest your weight to the side as you’d normally do. Does your left hip drop down and your right hip jut out?

Re-center yourself and put the palm of your right hand on the front of your right hip. Shift back to the right side, only this time slow it down. Do you feel how your hip actually turns?

What has just happened is your right hip rotated inward, moving the weight of your body off the muscles of your full leg and onto the weaker muscles above the back of the hip and at the outside of the leg. Over time, this common habit is causing both tightness and weaknesses that are not natural.

Next, still with your weight on the right leg, purposefully bring your hip around so it’s facing the front, which is its correct position. Do you see how hard that is to do, and to hold there? Those are the tightness and weakness issues keeping your hip from its natural placement. Interesting, isn’t it?

We’ve seen the problem at the hip and realize we’re reinforcing that bad position numerous times each day. You next question may be, “What’s the big rip?”. What’s the difference if the hip rotates inward?

Go back to the original side stance, the weight resting fully on your right side with the hip jutted to the right. Look down at your knee (you may have to drop your pants for this one; hope you’re not at the office). Is it still facing forward, the healthy way it should be? Nope, probably not – how could it be? You have knee pain? Stop and read this again, slowly; you’re onto something important.

No wait, let’s look a little further: The ankle’s messed up, too, isn’t it? The knee is turned in, so the weight on the ankle is toward the outside. And there’s pressure on your heel instead of having your weight balanced on your entire foot, am I right?

Just for kicks, check out the left side by shifting your weight over there. Is it as bad as the right?

You’ve just seen how our bad standing habits, our postures, have a ripple affect down the body. Over time, this puts strain on the joints, connective tissue and muscles causing the joints to become less mobile in an attempt to protect the body, causing arthritis due to excessive pressure in unnatural positions, causing muscle tightness and vulnerability at crucial points, all leading to a list of easily fixable pain that can last a lifetime.

And that can be prevented if you’re willing to recognize that Dave and his peers were wrong about one thing: There actually is a little more to this than just hitting the iron, and in this case, those science guys really are onto something.

We talk about this and more in the movement patterns section of the forum. This stuff is important, and I’m so thrilled it’s becoming part of the mainstream fitness discussion.

Time and time again, our IOL forum discussions entertain while they educate. I can’t begin to measure all I’ve learned from my friends there, nor count the times they’ve had me giggling at my desk. Let’s take a look at some of this week’s top conversations.

Here’s a guy who’s been training for 25 years and is thinking of quitting the weight room because of back pain. The forum members gather around with re-building suggestions that most readers would do well to practice.

Over here, Andy asked for clarification on central nervous system burnout. We’ll see some interesting comments, with a real zinger from Keith Wassung that makes clear the whole CNS question.

Ever wonder why anyone would stand on a stability ball? Let alone try to do loaded squats on one? Byron begins the discussion on balance work.

Every guy I know walks around the gym rubbing his shoulders (fewer women do this, because most of us aren’t as stupid about bench pressing). John Izzo contributes his 7-phase approach to protecting the shoulders, and a good group chime in with questions and additions on this important subject.

Wondering about Smith Press or barbell, behind the neck or in front, a member from the UK asks for views on shoulder pressing.

When would you choose a full body workout; when is a split routine better? The pros and cons of both are discussed in this thread.

In the IOL Co-op Training Log this month, Dan Manor leads a team through a fat-loss quest during April. There’ll be plenty to read in here this month, me thinks.

Spend a little time clicking around the 16,152 topics. There’s a lot to learn, and we promise some grins along the way. With 422,277 posts, however, it make take you a bit to catch up. How’s the weekend looking?

I was talking with my friend, Val, recently, and discovered I’d never told her about foam rolling. She’s a hairdresser, works hard with her hands outstretched at shoulder height hour after hour, day after day. If anyone’s a candidate for foam rolling, a hairdresser would surely be in the first balloting.

First you want to know what the heck is a foam roller. Simple: it’s a dense foam cylinder used (for this discussion; there are other uses) in self-massage of the legs and torso, and even for the front delts, triceps and forearms for the adventurous.

Think of it as a way to get a short massage daily, without driving anywhere or paying anything, where you get to zero in on exactly the spot the responds the most. Perfect! You’ll roll your way from calves to shoulders, staying on each muscle area for about ten short strokes, avoiding the joints and bony spots.

The key to enjoying the process and getting the most benefit is to settle in, relax and enjoy the process. Trying to hurry your way through this is a bit of a waste of time, unlikely to do much, even though it doesn’t take very long to run the body.

With regular foam rolling of the thoracic spine, my back stays loose and unbound, free and mobile with rare need of a chiropractor. Compared with pre-foam rolling, that alone is remarkable.

Those knots of spasming muscle you have, or those nasty, pain-referring adhesions in the fascia that connects the muscles into tendons and bones, those can all be released and relieved with your cheap home foam roller.

Calves, hamstrings, quads, IT band along the outside of the legs, glutes, spine, lats, back of the shoulder, front delts, triceps, top and bottom of the forearm, one tool, no waiting for a mate to feel like giving you a massage. I love this thing, and when you get one, if you have patience and try it daily for a week, you’ll love it, too.
I use a quick run over the foam roller as a pre-workout wake-up call that takes two minutes at most and prepares the mind and body for the warm-up moves to follow. Post-workout, five minutes becomes ten as the worked muscles welcome the gentle massage. A glance at the clock is required to remind me there’s still work to be done, time’s a’wasting.

It’s a wonderful feeling that will help athletes, week-end warriors, aging fitness enthusiasts, desk jockeys, hairdressers and construction workers alike. As those decades-old aches begin to diminish, you’re gonna write back and thank me for this one. In turn, I’ll refer you on to my pal, Dan Martin, who’ll tell you to thank Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson. I pretty much lose the trail there, and cannot tell you who first began rolling or who invented the foam gizmo.

Here’s our forum conversation on foam rolling if you’d like to read more or join in the conversation. Quick pointer: Spend a few extra bucks for the black or blue EVA rollers; the white foam seems to crush too easily for all but the smallest of adults.

One of our common complaints is the trouble we have getting a doc to order the blood tests we want. Or perhaps we’re just curious about something — Vitamin D, for a good example — yet don’t need any other doctoring at the moment. Most of us set our blood chemistry curiosity aside at this point, thinking we’ll remember the question during our next visit to the doctor’s office.

Or not.
Easy solution: Skip the anxiety, arguing or subsequent frustration and order the tests you’re interested in via Life Extension’s Blood Testing Panels.

The only downside I can see is that you don’t know in advance where the labs are. LEF is using LabCorp as their lab, so before you order, make sure there’s a LabCorp location near you. Here’s a link to the LabCorp locations.

In case you need a refresher, this is a list of recommended tests for the status of your heart. And here’s a link to a great deal of cholesterol information, three years of cholesterol posts pulled together to keep you reading for the next couple of hours.

In this link, Life Extension provides an in-depth discussion of blood testing protocols, and the value of bringing our blood chemistry to optimal levels.

Do you have time for some price shopping? Compare the Life Extension costs with those of HealthCheckUSA, where they also use Labcorp facilities for the blood draw. A couple test prices I checked were identical, but not all. It may be worth the trouble to check both places for your needs.

I’m a big fan of regular blood testing. Try the Vitamin D test, what a trip that will be if you discover your Vitamin D is low, which it very well might be. This one’s a biggie, and until recently very few of us knew it. Check out that Vitamin D link if this is a new one on you, then make a plan to get your bloodwork done.

The astute will have noticed a certain level of weirdness gaining steam in my training the past couple of months. It’s been all over the map as I jump to a problem area, make some progress and move along to another. The upside of training weaknesses is that progress comes fast; the downside is there sure are a lot of them to work on once you get to noticing, and hey, add to that the training sometimes looks ridiculous.

It’s a mess of small and large issues to write about, but since it’s a sure thing most who read this have one or two pain problems that are a result of weakness in another area, I wrote a long forum post describing all the exercises I’ve used over the past couple of months. Some are still in the rotation; others provided the needed results and have been dropped for the time being, if not forever.

My purpose was to try out a variety of movements to find out which felt most effective for me, what I personally needed the most. Those that were easy got dumped after the first try; the hard ones are the exercises that made it into the rotation. Remember, we’re looking for problems and fixes, not easy exercises.

That was my thought in making the long list for others to try. If it feels too random for you, pick the exercises you think you need and create your own workout/s.

I do think most people who’ve been training for a long time will be surprised at how feeble they feel on some of these easy-peasy exercises. Most of us have weak spots that need attention, and that’s why I hope you’ll continue on and give the post the time needed to simmer into your brain.

You’ll be surprised to discover the workouts each took only about 20 minutes to do a single set in the order listed. The first couple of times through will probably take about twice that until you get the hang of the exercises.

I’d do one set of each exercise the first week, two the second and up to three the third if you can spare the time. By that point, you’ll know which are hard, which are easy. The easy ones get set aside in favor of those that are difficult for you… those are the ones you need.

Off you go then: Bodyweight Rehab Introductory Workouts.

Physical therapists and coaches for professional athletes have not always been ahead of bodybuilders when it comes to building a muscular body. In fact, in terms of nutrition and weight training, the guys of Dave’s competitive years led the charge for today’s athletes. Yet I must say that leadership role has been reversed over the past decade, and these days it’s the strength and conditioning coaches and the athletic PT folks who are making remarkable strides in revamping how we think about our training programs.

What a great time this is to be a young athlete, and what I mean by that is that over the next few years the new generation will get corrective exercise, movement screening and instructions such as daily foam rolling as part of their athletic training. Soon this stuff will be done by coaches down to the high school level, and, as the athletes age, they’ll take this knowledge with them into adulthood. Those athletes have an excellent chance at less pain in their golden years, something the Golden Era bodybuilders unfortunately were not able to demonstrate.

Corrective exercise and movement screening is how this is filtering down to the average weight training athlete.

I’ll give you a brief introduction so when your kid comes home spouting his or her coach’s instructions, you’ll be up on the lingo. Better yet, you’ll start taking note when the terms come up in forum conversations and exercise newsletters, because there are gems in this new work that can truly reverse some of your nagging aches and pains. I kid you not.

The term corrective exercise broadly refers to specific exercise or stretches designed to target a defect in a person’s physical movement. What happens is in our lives, either through our day-to-day work, unbalanced exercise selection in the weight room, lopsided sports activity like golf, tennis or softball, or just plain sitting around too much, muscle groups work at diminished capacity, letting others take over the tasks.

Often the wrong muscles doing the work, or one side of the body working better than the other, will cause a cascade of physical problems, such as back and knee pain. Sometimes the problems have gone on long enough they can’t be fixed without surgery, or can’t be fixed at all, but more often than not, a month of attention to corrective exercise rehab will reverse a future of pain, and with surprisingly little effort.

The guys leading us into this bright future come from two basic schools of thought: movement screening and structural assessment.

Gray Cook, the author of Athletic Body in Balance, and his business partner, Lee Burton, have designed what they call the Functional Movement Screen, a set of physical tests used by physical therapists, strength and conditioning coaches and, increasingly, forward-thinking personal trainers. Their philosophy in creating the screen is to test the movement and use the exercises they’ve come up with to correct the faulty movement pattern. The point with the FMS is to fix the problem, not dissect it down to the various causes; to their thinking it doesn’t matter what caused it, just fix it.

On the other side we find guys like Gary Gray, Justin Price and Anthony Carey, who prefer to assess the athlete or client’s structure, discover the discrepancies and prescribe exercises to fix the various issues.

Many of the suggestions will be the same, regardless of the method of discovery. The real problem for most of us in today’s environment is that, while increasing rapidly, the professionals able to do the assessments are still few and far between. Chances of a skilled pro in your town are relatively rare, which leaves us looking at the movement screening for our at-home fixes.

As an aside, I will say if I lived in San Diego, I’d be at Justin’s or Anthony’s clinic in a heartbeat, or if near Danville, Virginia, I’d be over at Gray and Lee’s place as soon as I could get an appointment. Ditto Gary Gray’s in Michigan. Another guy who can help you out in Connecticut is John Izzo of StandApartFitness.com. The beauty of this stuff is it can be as little as a one-time visit – get tested, get your assignment and get to work, so even if you have to make a drive to get assessed or re-assessed, it’s not like it’s a weekly appointment. It’ll be worth it, I promise.

Assuming you don’t live in those areas, here’s whatcha do next: Gray Cook took the Functional Movement Screen that he and Lee designed for the pros to use, and dumbed it down for the rest of us. In Athletic Body in Balance, you’ll find five simple tests (don’t read that to be easy tests) you can do at home to determine your weakest link. From there, the book goes on to tell you exactly how to fix it, which exercises or stretches and in what order you should best tackle them.

On Tom Incledon’s recommendation, I tested myself when the book first came out in 2003. I failed so miserably I bagged the project, thinking a book for “athletes” wasn’t for me. Failure in movement means pay attention… Get a clue!Unfortunately, I didn’t pick that book back up until a month ago.

This time, however, I knew enough about the corrective exercise movement to know the failures were signposts pointing me in the right direction. I followed the instructions and re-tested a month later, last weekend in fact, and the success of February’s exercise effort was remarkable. Instead of ramming the pvc marker into the doorway, falling over (yes, I’m talking about to the floor) or missing the position entirely, all five tests received a passing grade. I’m not done; nothing was perfect, yet the progress in four weeks was truly outstanding.

Lest this not sound like it’s simply about passing a test, let me tell you a bit about how things feel: My back feels better, my shoulders move better and without pain, my posture’s straighter, and my stride is longer and more athletic. I want more of that and have targeted the exercises suggested for last weekend’s lower-scoring tests.

I want this for you, too, so just go ahead and spring for Gray’s book, Athletic Body in Balance. Yes, I know you don’t feel like an athlete. Just do it anyway.

At first glance, you may think agility training is not for you. That’s sure what I thought the first time I tried it; I’m no athlete and perhaps neither are you. Yet, agility training is hugely beneficial to the non-athlete because not only will the hips become stronger, the ankles will become both more mobile as well as more stable, and overall balance will increase.

After agility training, if you take a stumble over a curb, it’s extremely likely you’ll catch yourself with no more than a second’s hesitation. Without agility, that stumble may become a swollen ankle with a two-month recovery period, and we might even tack on a broken wrist to finish out the picture.

Earlier we learned how to make your own agility ladder. Now let’s figure out how to use it.

Lay out your ladder on a flat surface, outdoors, indoors… wherever you have a little space to move. You’ll be running or jumping through the ladder openings and to the outsides, so make sure you have side-to-side space in addition to ladder length.

You’re looking for light footsteps for quickness and balance, as opposed to an upright jogging style. Lifting your knees higher than normal jogging is going to work your hips in a way you probably haven’t done in awhile, and cutting back and forth between the sides of the ladder will work lateral movement, another lost ability for must of us. Take it easy at first, because you’ll probably be a hurtin’ puppy tomorrow.

Run through your movement prep or activity mobility warm-up before you get near this thing. Include in that some upright walking/running mobility such as toy soldiers, heel kickbacks, high knee runs and the like.

Use your arms – pump your hands and keep your elbows high with your shoulders and hands relaxed. Keep your torso controlled and your head steady.

Examples of basic agility drills

Agility drills can (and should) be done both forward and backward. Repeat the drills, making sure to alternate between the left and right as lead foot. Drills can also be done hopping with both feet held together.

• One ins – run forward, light and low to the ground, one step in each square.
• Two ins – same as above, but stepping twice in each square.
• Hop scotch – One foot in the first square, two feet in the second, and repeat, alternating sides on the single-foot squares.
• Out, Out/In, In - Left foot outside, right foot outside, left foot in square, right foot in square.
• Shuffle – Start at the left side, step into the first box with your right foot, then with the left. Shift your weight so you can stop out to the right side with your right foot, then step into the second square with your left foot and head back to the left. Think in-in-out, in-in-out and you’ll get it.
• Shuffle.Stick – This is done the same as the shuffle above, only you’ll “stick” in place on the outside step before shifting off in the opposite direction.
• Lateral feet – Step twice in the first square (left/right), then twice outside the first square toward the right (L/R). Step twice in the second square (L/R), then twice outside the second square toward the left of the ladder (L/R). Continue forward through the ladder, then repeat, changing the lead foot to right/left.
• Lateral Shuffles – Turn to the side and shuffle through the ladder to the right. Repeat the shuffle to the left.

What you’re working on with agility ladder training is control of your feet using your hip strength, as opposed to more leg and glute strength as seen in the momentum of forward full-stride running. At the same time we’ll be cutting from side to side, working the lateral hip muscles, as well as sticking in place to practice stability and deceleration with the landings.

Here’s a link to some quicktime movie clips of agility ladder drills from University of the Pacific.

At last weekend’s Power Systems strength and conditioning workshop, Jay Dawes did a session “Developing Total Athleticism,” which included about an hour on agility ladder drills. This part was an audience participation bit, and being a bit of a klutz I seriously considered standing to the side as the rest of the hundred or so personal trainers went through the ladder training.

I was startled to discover how fun it was, and that I wasn’t quite as terrible at it as expected. Heck, I didn’t even fall! So, after the session I popped over to the Power Systems sales booth to pick up an agility ladder just for the fun of it. What’s twenty bucks, right?

Wrong. Those things cost $70 and up, and I’m not kidding. I yanked my hand back off that goodie and backed away thinking, jeez, I can make one of these.

Turns out I could. Total cost in money, $5.43. Time invested, about three hours because of fumbling fingers. (Reminder to self: Add finger mobility to joint mobility sessions.)

Here’s how to make an agility ladder for under six bucks.

The material you’ll need is 20 yards of fabric trim and a spool of outdoor canvas thread. The trim needs to have a little heft to it because it needs the weight in order to lay well. Too wispy and your ladder will flutter with the breeze.

Measure out two lengths of 15 feet of the trim. This is your ladder length.

Depending on the material chosen, you may need to address end frill. The trim I got started unraveling at the cut, so instead of simply making cuts, I instead marked the cut and wrapped a piece of scotch tape around it. Then I cut in the middle of the tape, making a ravel-proof end on both sides. Cloth athletic tape would have been better, had there been any handy.

Lay the two lengths together, outstretched. Measure 17-inch lengths, beginning the measurements 3-4 inches from the end, and mark both lengths with a Sharpie. These will be your openings, the ladder boxes.

Cut the remaining yardage in 36-inch strips, again taping before the cuts if there’s any potential for end frill.

Line up the 36-inch strips and mark at the 10-inch and again at the 26-inch points.

How you’ll put the ladder together depends on your work space. Once you have the trim measured and cut, this will make sense and you’ll organize yourself without instruction. I started with the intention of laying the entire piece out and wrapping the joints while in place on the floor, but quickly realized I’d be fully incapable of any agility whatsoever after hunching over the project for the duration.

Using about 20 inches of the canvas thread, knot the center of the thread around the first junction, carefully lining up the Sharpie marks. Wrap the thread over and over the junction points using a figure-8 wrapping to heavily secure each section.

We’re in a bit of a dispute around here over the last bit. Dave thinks I should fasten a dowel to one end to enable rolling it up. I like the rolling-up part because this thing is nice but could easily slip into a tangled mess. On the other hand, I’m not so keen on making any part of it less flat and may just use a dowel roll up, unattached. Dave thinks that’s silly, that I’ll never trip over it. I think he said, “what was I trying to make, something froofroo, or an aggressive training tool.” You’ll have to work out the roll-up attachment issue on your own.

Calculating and cutting took about an hour; the thread work took another couple hours. If you or a willing accomplice has agile fingers, this part will go much quicker. No duh.

Side note: In looking for a link to agility drill videos for the “using your agility ladder” guide, I happened upon a 15-foot ladder for $39.95 over at jumpusa. If a DIY project is beyond your interest level, this one’s close to half the price of the strength and conditioning models.

Next we’ll talk about what a beginner might do with this goodie: Using an Agility Ladder.

I’m a big fan of attending seminars and workshop weekends on topics that have my attention — website work, book publishing, software, stuff like that.

Since the early ’80s, I’ve been going to day-long or several-day conferences on weight training, including several trips to the big IDEA conferences, which formed much of my thinking, built on my enthusiasm and helped open my eyes to training methods I hadn’t seen here in the gym.

In fact, I went to one just last weekend and learned more of the structural assessment stuff we’ve been talking about over in the rehab/prehab section, and am eying one of the upcoming Perform Better Summits.

Alwyn Cosgrove sent a note this morning to tell of a workshop weekend he’s contributing to, featuring many of our favorite training educators, and it’s to be live ONLINE.

One of the downsides (aside from money, it’s probably the only downside) of attending big conference weekends is that you’re forced to chose between multiple sessions taking place at the same time. Alwyn and his partners have this remedied by archiving the sessions, giving “attendees” access to all the sessions for three months. We don’t have to miss a word!

They’ve got a terrific presenter line-up and a really great plan going here. It’s 50% off right now, $99. I wish I had the cutoff date for the discount, but that hasn’t been disclosed yet. I’ll letcha know when I hear.

Right now there are 102 55-minute sessions lined up… yes, that says one-hundred-two sessions. This is the bargain of the decade, no kidding. If you have any interest in this field at all, can spare the bucks, and will actually take the time to watch the seminar videos online, this is a no-brainer.

After I signed up for the conference, I signed up for an affiliate link, which I’ve never done before, but as long as you may be signing on anyway, I can use the affiliate bucks to pay for some bandwidth.

Here’s the link to check out the online conference, and here you’ll find the expo calendar pdf that shows the sessions to be archived.

Body alignment starts at the ground and works its way up the body via the fascia beginning at the toes and moving through each joint. Over time and for a variety of reasons, we develop weakness and tightness in various muscles around the joints, which will need to be addressed for good body function. However, if foot problems aren’t fixed, the structure will never be fully sound.

Most shoe-wearing adults pronate at the heel (tilt toward the inside) on either one side or both, and some people pronate on one side and supinate (tilt toward the outside) on the other.

This sets off a pattern causing problems of the foot such as bunions (a bony protrusion grown to help balance the tilt) and plantar fasciitis (irritation of the fascia sheathing under the foot).

Moving upward, foot positioning other than neutral pulls on the calf muscle, twisting it, which in turn torques the knee, causing knee pain, faulty wear and eventually arthritis or worse.

Crossing behind the knee and moving up the other side, the IT band along the outside of the leg gets tight, yanking at both the knee and the hip at the other end.

Now we’re at the hip and discover, because of the calf twisting and knee torquing, a pronating foot on one side leads to a functional leg length discrepancy on the other. The bones of the legs don’t actually measure different; the abnormal function of the other side causes a tilt in the hip.

We can then cross over the body and expect to see a lower shoulder on the other side, one that if nothing else, loses mobility and aches as the years go by.

Ligaments in this body lengthen over time (and these do not regain the normal length even after the problem is fixed, which is to say, fix this as early as you can); muscles and tendons lengthen or tighten; muscles weaken or stop firing entirely.

Additionally, this body is a mess of triggerpoints and sensitivity as over time it reacts to disfunction that begins in one or both feet.

For about 85% of adults, this can be fixed by foot and ankle exercises and a flat shoe with a $40 orthotic such as the green Superfeet insole. Begin wearing the insole about a half hour a day, because you need to retrain your body to handle the neutral position.

You’ve been training for 20 years, maybe 30. You’re strong, in much better shape that your co-workers. But where’s the payoff? Your back hurts as bad as the next guy’s, heck, maybe worse. You know it’s been worth all the effort, you just know it. I mean… right?

We’ve been talking about steps needed to take to bring things back to the upside. One of the ideas that’s floating to the top is that after decades under the bar, without doing anything to strengthen the smaller muscles, the big movers are strong and they sort of take over and do all the work. The smaller stability muscles weaken and sometimes stop firing entirely. We need to fix that.

Then, in a lot of cases with us doing the same exercises over and over, we’re building a case for decreasing joint mobility.

Even more likely these days, it’s a case of plain old sitting too much. Hey, what are you going to do? You have a job that requires sitting at a desk, right?

Here’s what you’re going to do; you’re going to find the problem areas and fix ‘em. You don’t have to get a new job—hopefully. You just need to strengthen what’s weak and loosen what’s tight, get the joints back in full range of motion and when you do, it’s pretty likely that nagging ache will fade into a memory.

We’ll be talking about this stuff a lot more in the coming months and years. In the process, we’ll introduce and link you up with some of the guys doing remarkable work in this fascinating new field, guys who do hands-on work, who’ve written books, articles and dvds, and who give seminars on this emerging field of structural assessment. During the course of the past few years, and projecting ahead another year or two as the dust settles, we’re getting to the place where the common person can sort this out without memorizing anatomy. It’ll tax you a little, but won’t push you over the edge.

Meanwhile, John Izzo has started a great thread in the forum with his article “5 Exercises Everyone Should Perform.” In it he describes the foundation you can use to fix a broken body that works well in the gym, but flounders through the rest of your daily life.

The thread then goes on to develop the thoughts of how and when to train spinal rotation, and provides an introduction to faulty movement patterns. That’s going to be the base of a whole lot more conversations that will set your brain afire. Until then, join us in the forum to develop the discussion, and feel free to ask your questions there.

Bumping against a genetic ceiling (again and as usual) after 25 years under the weights can make a person lazy in the gym. Once a person gets fairly close to the top of the strength curve, the return on workout investment is tiny. And many of us back off because maintaining 80% is simple, and seems like enough… in fact, is enough for most.

But guess what. Last week in the gym turned up a couple of PR sets. Nothing spectacular — I haven’t gone to low reps, heavy work on anything — but notable after not seeing any gains for years, and while not working toward them.

Why do I think this is happening? A few contributions:

The stabilization work is strengthening weaker muscles, so there are more overall muscles firing. The cardio fitness gets me past the reps where perhaps the muscles would have been strong enough before, but gasping for breath stopped the set early. Core strength adds an extra percentage of oomph that can’t be measured, or even noticed to the uneducated. Ballistic kettlebell work is contributing to fast-twitch muscle fibers not used in bodybuilding or powerlifting.

It’s a big picture effort that will take attention. Speaking as one a few months down the road, it’s worth it, folks. What I’m saying here is this stuff is for everybody. You young folks, dedicate a few minutes a day toward this now and you’ll never have to drop back to basement-level rehab. Youth will compensate for weakness for a while, but eventually the weaknesses will get your attention. Oh, man, will they get your attention.

If you’ve been nursing an ache forever, address it now. Unless you remember a specific injury, it’s likely there’s a weakness showing itself, or you’re doing something wrong — either at work or in the gym — or, very likely, it’s posture-related.

Overcompensating with the stronger muscles works for awhile, and the stronger you are, the longer this may work, but when the weakness shows through, you’ll be at the least slammed to the ground, and at worst, doing rehab not only on the underlying weakness, but also on your newly injured compensating muscles. The longer you ignore it, the more complicated it becomes to sort out the mess.

But. There’s a huge upside: Rehab works astoundingly fast. A month, two months… the progress can happen so quickly it’s hard to remember what the bad times felt like. Some of the things I tried didn’t work, or other solutions were perhaps unnecessary for me; others are still on the template for next efforts.

Perhaps there was a little waste of energy and money, but not much, and compared to what might have eventually been spent on doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists — mental therapists! — well, hey, not bad. Not bad at all.

What worked, in order of presentation, but not necessarily importance:

Back extension exercises to strengthen posture muscles

Foam roller and myofascial release ball to release spasming muscles and break down trigger point knots

Attention to upright posture, five minutes at a time, hour after hour and day after day

Heart rate monitor, spin bike with good bike pedals, mp3 player to propel aggressive interval cardio work

Back stabilization and fundamental core work

A few minutes daily of joint mobility and muscle stretching

Kettlebells, three types of workouts in support of the above (cardio conditioning, core strength and back strengthening)

To catch up with us, this is where the back rehab story begins.

You’ll have to put yourself and your physical wellbeing at the top of the priority list for a few months to pull this off. Once finished (knowing, of course, that we won’t be completely finished until that final day), you’ll be in a much greater position to affect your family and friends, your work and your projects because you’ll feel good — excellent even — and you’ll be strong and hearty. Things that were difficult or impossible will seem effortless. Go for it!

This is a reprint from a forum post of 2006. The conversation continues with more ideas to further your journey, here.

If you’ve followed this series of posts, you’ve understood that I have some very definite preferences regarding home gym equipment. Lest I be considered an “armchair trainer,” following is a description of the equipment (most of it, not all) in my home garage gym and my feelings about the equipment.

I have a power rack…which is not currently seeing much use. Since I don’t do the barbell bench press anymore and my squatting is currently confined to the use of a leverage squat machine, there aren’t too many movements that require the use of the rack for safety. It occasionally sees use for partial deadlifts and I’m in the process of cobbling together a T-bar rowing attachment…but it doesn’t really see much use right now. I still consider it a valuable piece of safety equipment, especially if you train the bench press and the squat alone.

Next to the power rack, I have a leg extension/leg curl bench. Despite the crowd that says leg extensions are bad for the knees and that the leg curl is useless for the hamstrings, this piece of equipment gets a fair amount of use. I use several sets of leg extensions as a warm up for squats, mostly. I’m finding that my hamstrings are worked more directly by Romanian deadlifts and good mornings, rather than leg curls but that doesn’t invalidate the machine for me.

I have a seated lat pulldown machine. This unit gets a lot of use and allows for a lot of different movements. Sadly, I can’t do low rowing with the unit but when the price is considered ($40 used at Play It Again Sports,) that little inconvenience fades away. As described in my gym set up articles, I use a single revolving lat bar with angled ends. I also have a triangle handle attachment and a single handle. Both of these items do “double duty” in other applications, as well.

I have a vertical leg press machine (yet another steal from Play It Again Sports.) Although the placement of the machine in my garage is rather inconvenient, I use this item rather frequently. It seems to work my quads and hamstrings in a way quite different than machine squats.
My most often used machine has to be my leverage squat unit by PowerTec. I can do three variations of squats, calf raises and shrugs/Hise shrugs with this machine. Since the machine has built in spotting stops, I can work the squat into the ground (should I desire) and do so in complete safety.

I purchased a hyperextension bench but I’m using it less than I thought I would. More than likely, this is due to the inconvenience of needing to move the machine in and out of a storage position in my cramped garage.

I have a fairly study and well padded flat bench and a cinder block or two for when I need it to be an incline bench. Not getting a lot of use right now. I’m eschewing most seated work and lying work for standing…just because I feel that standing work involves a lot more of the body. Why throw out the benefit of ancillary work for a little comfort?

Regarding various bars, I have the usual items and one or two specialty bars. I have both a five and six foot exercise bar and one Olympic bar, as well as a bent bar in both exercise and Olympic trim. I recently acquired two specialty bars, (guess where from?) a shrug bar and a two inch diameter “thick” bar. The shrug bar is being used at least once a week and is one of my favorite pieces of training gear.

Eleven pairs of fixed weight dumbbells occupy a three tier rack. Combinations other than what I have are constructed with plate loading dumbbells. Three plate trees with one inch pins hold almost all of my plates. I have a pretty fair mix of Olympic and standard plates and more than enough iron to accommodate my present (and future) level of strength.

Those are probably the major players in the Wicked Willie Garage Gym. I have lots of other “specialty” toys and homemade items but the above list comprises the staples…the “work horse” items, if you will. I guess it could be said that I practice what I preach.

Accountability and encouragement are two very powerful factors in logging workouts publicly. Anyone who participated in the End of Year Challenge knows this, if they didn’t know before our group accountability project. Most ended the year in a better place physically than when they started the challenge in October, which is pretty much not the case with the rest of the crew. (Or so I’m told.)

Let’s take this a step further. While challenges made too frequently will eventually die a slow death as people get bored and drop away, we can still use the group training log as an often-changing model under which the rest of us can follow along at home.

Think of this – our IOL Co-Op Training Log — as an opportunity to learn new exercises, workout combinations or lesser-used training tools. Each month a new group of three or four trainees will plot their workout plans in advance, tell us their purposes for the month and log their progress, ask questions, and give or take feedback as considerations come up in the journals. The trainees will have somewhat related goals, and the goals will change each month as the trainees surrender their spots to other loggers.

The following month another group of loggers will demonstrate entirely different regimes. You can follow along at home, changing up your workouts month to month or retaining the exercises and programs you enjoy.

The trainees will pre-plan and post their scheduled routines at the first of each month so the rest of us will know what to expect, perhaps to select a program to follow on our own, and to be able to make adjustments to account for equipment variances.

This will introduce readers to new training regimes, and to challenge us all to keep our training regularity during busy times or stressful months.

February (that’s tomorrow, days are getting longer, did you notice?) we begin with three guys who are training with the basic movements, squat, deadlift, press, plus assistance exercises. As a bonus for our opening month, Wicked Willie will run a squat rehab guidance program designed for those with a problem squatting well, and which will be helpful for anyone who wants to learn good squat form.

Come on, get in on the adventure while it’s on the tarmac preparing for take off.

Originally published in Ironman Magazine, September 1988
Reprinted with permission of Dr. Ken and Ironman publisher John Balik

In college during the volatile 1960s, I enjoyed playing football. Lifting weights and becoming stronger was also high on my list of things to do, and a number of college teammates at the University of Cincinnati felt the same.

One of my teammates was Larry Gordon. He was easily noticed due to his outstanding physique. If he wasn’t a bodybuilder, he had certainly lifted weights in a serious manner. He was a former Mr. Cincinnati winner, and quite strong in many lifts, especially the bench press. At 5’10” and 190 pounds, his All State running back status paled in comparison to his lifting accomplishments.

Larry decided to leave school, at least for a while, with the intention of traveling to California. Six months later, he returned much bigger and unbelievably stronger. He raved about a gym that sounds like it had fallen off of another planet. A gym where sirens announced the lifting of a heavy squat; where one could test ones strength against a variety of odd shaped dumbbells and globes. Here strong men strained to become stronger under the guidance of a Lutheran minister who allowed only gospel and religious music as background to the clanging of heavy iron.

Oversized fiberglass gorillas and a two-ton front door added to the atmosphere. Everyone’s purpose was to become stronger, this at a time when most “serious” California gyms were dedicated to the enhancements of their members’ muscular measurements.

This strength training oddity was Zuver’s Hall of Fame Gym.

In 1968 I found myself sitting in Zuver’s Gym, receiving the first of many lectures from the Reverend Robert Zuver. In time, I became quite friendly with Bob, his wife Jean and their two sons. His son Ricky “The Rhino,” in fact, was forever exhorting gym members to “help Ken on his next squat.” A different type of gym? Words still, after two decades, fail to describe it, and the feeling one got upon the initial visit.

The walls that supported the very high ceiling were decorated with signs exhorting one to further heights. The good Reverend included many spiritual messages, meant to augment the muscle that filled the air. Signs reminded one that “Profanity Is Not Tolerated On These Premises,” nor was it. Unlike the typical gym, members policed newcomers, reminded them that respect was to be shown to all others, and the equipment, at all times.

Each of the three competitive powerlifts was given a special place. Many heavy duty benches, forerunners to today’s sturdy, high tech products, lined one wall. Like other California gyms, a particular training philosophy dominated the programs of most of the members and competitive lifters. The primary auxiliary exercises were dumbbell bench presses and dips, done with very heavy weights. Special short benches would be pulled close to angled dumbbell racks, built so that one could in fact bring the 100- to 250-pound bells to ones chest without dangerously cleaning them. These benches were constructed so that a spotter could literally launch the trainee back towards the angled rack, allowing for replacement of the dumbbells, which were held close to the lifter’s chest the entire time.

Few gyms have angled dipping bars, which allow for a variety of grips, and Zuver’s was the only one that had a 12-foot version, allowing for more than one lifter to train simultaneously.

In order to safely allow for the use of 300-pound dumbbells, a converted railroad flatcar rode on a track beneath the dip bars. This added to the safety and convenience of moving such heavy weights from one end of the bar to the other.

While the lat pulleys were very strong, one cannot forget the day Wayne Coleman, later to gain fame as professional wrestling’s Superstar Billy Graham, loaded the weight carriage to an absurd limit. Although the carriage failed to move, the solid iron lat bar handle literally curled around Coleman’s upper back, ensuring this semicircle of iron would forever remind others of his legendary strength.

A refreshing pause by the water fountain was met by the clanging of fire bells. In a tribute to the firefighters who trained in his establishment, Bob had covered the fountain with a fire helmet, which, when lifted on its hinges to allow access to the drinking spout, triggered the bells.

The specialized squatting racks also were never to be forgotten. One had its own 300-pound bar, indicating that only the heaviest of squats could be done within its confines. Bob’s walls were mounted with 100- and 200-pound plates for the stouthearted. An airplane bomb hoist provided a foot-operated safety spot within the rack, an innovation that protected both the lifter and his spotters.

The pow