Bench Pressing and Shoulder Pain Solutions Part 2

If you just joined in the conversation here, be sure to read the post from yesterday below

Trainer Mike T Nelson Testimonial: Shoulder Pain While Doing a Bench Press Gone!

The Solution

Note, this is what worked in this case for exercise and this does not automatically mean it will work for you since everyone is individual.   This not medical advice and if you have a medical issue, talk to your doc.  It if it painful, don’t do it!

Hopefully that will keep my attorney happy, so here we go.

Shoulder Issue, Check My Hip?

The body is a huge X.  I know it goes not look like one, but trust me on this one.
As you step with your right foot, the impact force is transmitted up the back of the leg, past the right knee, into the right hip where it then moves over to the LEFT side of the body (around the SI joint), up the left scapula where it starts to split into 1) left upper trap and left side of the face and 2) left shoulder and on out to the left elbow and eventually the left wrist/hand.

The formal name for this it the “Back Force Transmission Line” and I first learned of this from Dr. Cobb of Z-Health.

It makes sense that the force would have to shift to the opposite side in order to keep the body balanced in gait (walking movement).  Look at what you do with your opposite shoulder/arm when you run!    Hopefully you will see some opposite motion going on there.   If all the force were to stay on the right side when you plant your right foot, it would be very difficult!

Don’t believe me?  Test it!   Run how you would normally run and now try these 2 drills
1) Run without moving your arms.    Get a buddy to do this and video it.
2) Run by moving your arms in the WRONG directions.  Humans are so hard wired to walk that this is VERY hard to do.   If you can do it easily, that is not a good sign.

Efficiency Is Key

The body is so amazingly designed I love it.  Looking a bit deeper, we see that the tendons, fascia and soft tissue are designed to absorb and return force; thus making movement much more efficient.

We Are All One

Many of you are familiar with Thomas Meyer’s “Anatomy Trains” and the idea of biotensegrity from Dr. Stephen Levin at http://www.biotensegrity.com/ If so, you are on the right track.

Cadavers To the Rescue!

The body is highly highly connected.  If you ever get the chance to do any cadaver work I highly highly recommend it.  When you start, you will see nice clean lines and everything looks very clean.  This is because at the lower level cadaver work, someone else has already prosected (cut, chop, cut cut, chop)  the cadaver for you!   This is not bad, as there are tons of things to be learned from this method since having undergrads hacking away on cadavers is not only expensive, but impractical.

Note: I am not implying any disrespect to those that have donated their bodies to science for use as a cadaver model, just trying to not use too many techy words so people can understand what is involved in the process.

As you do more advanced cadaver work (and the lab fee goes up to over a grand just for one class; still working on paying back many lab fees myself yet), you will soon find fat and fascia EVERYWHERE.  Trust me, you want to pick a lean cadaver if you can.  Seriously.

Perhaps you got to see the bodies exhibit, which is amazing too!

So we now that the body is all connected, and it appears that the primary path is the back force transmission line.

Serape Effect: More Evidence

The serape effect is primarily referred to as a crisscrossed connection between the lower and upper body, most commonly (maybe not so commonly as I am a big geek) used in discussing the connection from the shoulder to the opposite hip (glute).   It was first mentioned by Logan, G., & McKinney, W. 1970 (1), so there are some evidence from multiple sources for a connection between the shoulder and the opposite hip.

Cross Body Connection Here?  Yes!

No, not here!

Enter the Nervous System

So far we have made the case for the mechanical structure of the body and how it is all connected from your little toe to your pinky finger.
The nervous system is entwined in the picture too since it is actually controlling and sensing movement of the entire body.

Cross-Body Nervous System Connection?

Great question!   There does appear to be a nervous system connection that works “cross-body”.  Again, this probably goes back to a gait (walking) type motion.

In an experiment done by Kline TL et al. (3),  in stroke patients they showed quote, “rectus femoris in the impaired leg was active during finger flexion of the impaired hand in the stroke survivors and all four tested muscles in the impaired arm were active during extension of the legs ”

Note, this was done in stroke patients and in a similar study done by Ellis MD et al. used non stroke patients (um, normal people) they did not show a pattern in them (4).

Any Evidence In Non Stroke Patients?

In a very cool study from  Huang HJ,  et al. (6) published recently stated,  “We found increased muscle activation in passive lower limbs during active upper limb effort compared with passive upper limb effort. Likewise, increased muscle activation in passive upper limbs occurred during active lower limb effort compared with passive lower limb effort, suggesting a bidirectional effect”

English Please

While these neurologically intact (read = normal) people did an upper body movement, they saw increased muscle activation in a NON MOVING lower limb.    Back to our running example, try to move your arms in the wrong direction and it is really really hard.  It looks like our wiring is set to faciliate moving the opposite limb!

Can We Alter It?

Cortis C et al. (5) showed that interlimb coordination was better in soccer players, quote,  ”Regardless of age, soccer players always showed better performances (handgrip: 383 +/- 140 N; CMJ: 28.3 +/- 8.7 cm; IP: 55.2 +/- 12.9 s; and AP: 31.8 +/- 25.0 s) than sedentary individuals (handgrip: 313 +/- 124 N; CMJ: 21.0 +/- 9.4 cm; IP: 46.7 +/- 20.2 s, and AP: 21.1 +/- 23.9 s).  ”

While this is not the exact same thing, it is similar and appears to be trainable.  I know I am reaching a bit with these data here, but there is not one perfect study to directly point to any of this yet.  I think in the next 2-3 years (so someone is doing it right now) we will have a more exact study.

Enough With the Science!  Solution!

Back to our friend Dave and his bench rising from the dead from painful with the bar to 270 lbs in one session.

Note: If you have any medical issues, see your doctor.  I am not claiming to cure or fix anything that you have currently going on.  Don’t move through pain and see a professional!

For the sake of entertainment, here is the process I used for Dave to get his shoulder pain reduced.

My goal was to get him to bench heavy again in a short period of time.  It just so happens that when you get someone to move better, many many times (with acute pain) there pain levels drop dramatically.  As my buddy Frankie says “the body really cares most about FUNCTION – what can you do.”

Step 1

Find out what movement is painful.

This may take a bit of work, but you want to isolate the painful movement.  In Dave’s case, it was primarily left arm external rotation with his elbow bent.

Step 2

Do the EXACT opposite motion with the opposite joint

The opposite joint to the left shoulder is the RIGHT hip.  Heck, they even look scary similar as both are a ball and socket joint.

We know that LEFT arm EXTERNAL rotation with his elbow bent created the pain.
What is the exact opposite of that movement?

Do you have it?

Are you sure?

Correct!  Right hip internal rotation with a straight (not bent) knee (knee is the opposite to the elbow).

Step 3

Perform a joint mobility drill in the new position

So with his right hip internally rotated, knee straight, laying down, we had him create a circle at the hip joint (joint mobility) very slow, with no pain.  He did 3-5 reps in each (clockwise and counter clockwise) directions.

Step 4

Walk around for about 20 seconds, retest the painful motion

Any difference?

If they stare at you like a 2 headed purple space alien, you are on the right track.  Then yell at them “Never doubt my VooDoo”  That always helps!

I learned this method from Dr. Cobb initially in R Phase, so thanks again!

I Left Something Out

Come on back tomorrow for part 3 as we are still missing something.

Can anyone guess what it is?

The hint is in the first part of the article.    What other exercise do you think we had Dave do for his homework?  No, you can’t ask Dave directly (nice try).

Put your guesses in the comments below, and the winner gets a free 30 minute phone consult with me (valued at about $50).

Comments must be posted by tomororw Friday March 12 at midnight CST to be eligible. You may only enter once, but you can leave multiple comments and the latest comment you left will be used for your answer.  I will do my best to scan my spam folder too, but I can’t promise that if your comment ends up in there that I will find it (getting over 100 spams a day now).  Once comments are in, I will post the answer and the final installment of part 3 (so Sat AM).

Summary

Today we went on a tour of the body to show that it is all connected by both mechanical links (muscles, soft tissue, tendons, etc) and the nervous system.     We provided data to explain how it all works together, gave some demos for you to test it yourself, and provided you a possible solution to try on your own.

Your homework is

1) If you have an issue, try it out first and see if it works for you.   Do this on your own risk and if you have an issue, go see a doc!

2) Figure out what component we did not address yet and place your comment below.  Closest one get a free 30 minute phone consult from me.

I am excited to see how gets it!  Don’t worry, even if you did Z-Health training, you can still enter below too for the missing component.  In the event of a tie, the first one posted (by time stamp) gets it.

Rock on!
Mike T Nelson

REFERENCES

1) Logan, G., & McKinney, W. 1970. The serape effect. In Anatomic Kinesiology (2nd Ed., pp. 154-561). New York: William C. Brown, Co.

2) Publications for Biotensegrity at http://www.biotensegrity.com/index.php

3) Kline TL, Schmit BD, Kamper DG. Exaggerated interlimb neural coupling following stroke. Brain. 2007 Jan;130(Pt 1):159-69.

4) Ellis MD, Acosta AM, Yao J, Dewald JP. Position-dependent torque coupling and associated muscle activation in the hemiparetic upper extremity. Exp Brain Res. 2007 Feb;176(4):594-602.

5)  Cortis C, Tessitore A, Perroni F, Lupo C, Pesce C, Ammendolia A, Capranica L.    Interlimb coordination, strength, and power in soccer players across the lifespan.  J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Dec;23(9):2458-66.

6) Huang HJ, Ferris DP.  Upper and lower limb muscle activation is bidirectionally and ipsilaterally coupled.  Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Sep;41(9):1778-89.

PS

Get those answers in the comment section now before the clock his midnight on tomorrow (Friday, March 11) for a chance to win a free 30 min phone consult with yours truly!

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking HERE and any time I update a post, you will know about it instantly!

You can also help out by hitting this  

Preventing Neurodegeneration and New Eat Stop Eat Contest

New Contest

I did a very cool interview with Brad Pilon of Eat Stop Eat in yesterday’s post.  I know everyone is super busy and the interview is a whole hour long, but I want to give you an incentive to check out the post by having another contest.

Review of Eat Stop Eat: Intermittent Fasting to Lose Body Fat

Starting now until this Friday Jan 15, 2010 at midnight central time, I am going to give away a free copy of my lectures on protein, fat and carbs.  They will take you through all the basics and distill YEARS of info into about 4 hours.  You will get them on MP3 so you can listen to them anywhere.  I will have this product out for sale (at some point soon, silly dissertation work) so you will be getting it WAY in advance.

4 Hour lectures Series: The Truth About Protein, Fats and Carbs: For FREE?

No matter what your goal, you need to know about how protein, carbs and fat affect your performance; from recovery to fat loss. Now you can take time to read all the websites, all the latest research and sift through all the information out there or you can just sit back and listen to a lecture on each one.  Nevermind that most of the information out there is conflicting and you will probably end up confused!

The lectures are from an Advanced 12 Week Nutrition online course I did this past summer; so you get to hear live questions being answered. The sound quality is good, but nothing stellar as I did not initially planned to release it; but after getting numerous questions about are fats evil, too many carbs will make my fat, too much protein will destroy my kidneys; I decided to release them and clear up some massive confusion.

Value: a normal hour of my time is currently $110 an hour x 4 hours = $440, you will get it for free IF you are selected!

• 1 lecture on protein
• 1 lecture on carbohydrates
• 1 lecture on fats
• All on MP3 to put on your ipod

Here is some feedback from the overall course that each person paid $300 for a full 12 week course (you are just getting the first 3 weeks)

Seriously, it was most invaluable.

Was it worth the money?  Absolutely.  Very thorough. I would sign up again for the same topic or similar ones.  Keep me on your list please if that happens.

Jeanne Petrick, Chicago, IL

Occupation:  Pilates Instructor

Was it worth the money? Yes

Mike is very up-to-date with current literature and research

Tom Gallo Grinnell, Iowa

Occupation Physical Therapist

Was it worth the money? Yes.  It motivated me to probe more detailed into the material  to ask questions that were not perhaps covered in the reading material.

No matter how much you know about nutrition  ( I have some background) , a person can continue to learn and benefit from others who have studied and researched the same subject.  Also, you are genuinely interested in assisting, answering questions and your sincerity comes across.  I feel I have a great resource in you now and I could write to you at anytime and ask questions, etc.

Carrie Strom  Tucson, Arizona

Occupation— co owner of baseball academy  www.gabriels.biz

All you have to do is read the post and make a comment on the blog.  Make sure to enter your email address when you place your comment so that I can reach you.

After all comments are placed by midnight this Friday, I will then randomly pick one person as the winner and email them the product for free!

How Do I Potentially Win A Copy?

For a few minutes of your time to learn about some cool stuff you may win a free product.  Go to the post right now by clicking below, leave a comment, and you may win!  Feel free to pass it around to all your friends.

Review of Eat Stop Eat: Intermittent Fasting to Lose Body Fat

What If I Don’t Win, Can I Buy A Copy?

If you don’t win and still want to buy a copy, email me by clicking HERE.

Preventing Neurodegeneration

As you know I am a huge neuroscience geek and am convinced that the concept of brain neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to undergo physical changes) will have HUGE impacts to fitness, sports performance and overall health.

Dr. Bryan Walsh over at Precision Nutrition had a great article on Preventing Neurodegeneration that just came out, so check it out below.

Preventing Neurodegeneration

by Bryan Walsh

Take a moment and think about an elderly person you know.

* How well do they taste or smell their food?

* How good is their memory?

* How well can they balance or walk?

* How healthy is their digestion?

If they haven’t aged gracefully, chances are they can’t do any of those things very well. And you can thank their brain function for these symptoms of degeneration.

Anti-Aging Gone Wrong

The degree to which the elderly can perform normal daily activities is directly related to the amount of brain degeneration they’re experiencing in their twilight years. In fact, the anti-aging movement has it completely wrong. It’s not about hormones. It is about brain function.

When your brain stops functioning, your body stops functioning. And conversely, the healthier your brain, the healthier your digestion, your response to stress, your hormones and your response to exercise.

In this article, we’ll provide a broad overview of a very complex system in the body, the brain. Plus, we’ll share some ways of nutritionally improving your brain function today.

Your Brain – The Basics

Your brain is a vital organ that helps run every other system in our body. For example, 90% of the brain stem’s output goes into something called the pontomedulary reticular formation, which stimulates the vagus nerve.

Uh, what?

Well, that’s just a fancy way of saying that 90% of your brain’s output directly impacts activities such as digestion, gastrointestinal motility, enzyme production and salivation, and other parasympathetic activities.

read this rest at Precision Nutrition by clicking HERE.

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking HERE

Ouch, the Muscles Around My Shoulder Hurt:  Testimonial for Mike T Nelson

What are you waiting for?

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking HERE

How to Harness Brain Neuroplasticity for Extreme Human Performance

Are We Missing the Boat?

Ever seen something that you were pretty sure was true and all the evidence was pointing in that direction, but you still felt a large chunk of the data was missing?

I always feel like that trying to explain some concepts in Z Health and how  your brain is in control of your performance in the gym and on the field.  Optimize your brain and your body HAS to follow.

How does the brain get information?

Eyes + Inner Ear (vestibular “balance”) + Joints (proprioception) = Extreme Human Performance

Optimize each one of these and you are set.   This will also allow you to add strength and not degrade your movement performance when done correctly.

If you come to me as an athlete that wants to be a D1 football player and coach says you need to get stronger.  Let’s say I add 100 lbs to your squat in 6 months, but in the process you move like you are dragging your right leg.  Did I make you stronger?  Yes!  Did I make you a better football player?  No!  Will coach (and you) be happy?  No!  What you are really saying is that you want to be a better football player and you and your coach think that strength is the ONLY way.

Strength is great and a huge component to athletics, but it should NOT come at the cost of movement efficiency.    How can we get an increase in performance without making you walk like Ethel?  THAT is the key and we need to look at the brain.

Data Please

Watch the slide show below.  It is a bit crazy, but hang in there

If you only get one thing, here is the take away

“The physical characteristics of your BODY IMAGE may affect how your brain works your body”

I would even go as far to say that they will instead of may (but we need more data of course).  If your brain is the key to performance, than maybe there is something to this body image thing.  The brain can actually change over time, so it is not fixed even if you are an older adult (concept of neuroplasticity).

Body Image, But I Already Look Good!

Not that type of body image there Fabio!  Body image is referring to the map that your body generates of yourself. When I busted up my ankle several years ago, I had a horrible map of my right ankle at the time. It just felt like a big lump and very “dumb.” It was not uncommon that I would bump it against things in my home (which does not help the healing process). My body image (map) of my right ankle was horrible. How do you think my ankle performance was at the time? Horrible! I could barely move it at all due to the injury.

To a lesser extent, this happens to all athletes. If your wrist wrist does not have 100% mobility, the body map is fuzzy because of it.

The Fix Is In

How do we fix it? For most, starting on the joints is key since they take a fair amount of abuse from desk jockeys with mousie right hand to elite athletes with crazy shoulders from throwing 90+mph fast balls to football players hitting each other at mach 2. Daily living takes its toll and getting all the joints to move through a full range of motion to clean up the body image (map) and allow more performance.

Remove the Brakes

Less than optimal joint mobility is breaking your current performance. I like the Z Health R Phase for mobility work since it targets the joints, but just plain movement is a great start.

Summary

We have evidence now that your body image will affect your performance. Fix your body image (movement map) by first starting off on some joint mobility and watch your performance sky rocket.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson
PS
Leave any comments below and tweet the heck out of this one! Much appreciate all the help!

REFERENCES
Full paper at
Interdependence of movement and anatomy persists when amputees learn a physiologically impossible movement of their phantom limb

References below taken from
Physiologically impossible movement of phantom limbs explained

1. Damasio A (2000) The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of consciousness. (Vintage, London).
2. Churchland PS (2002) Self-representation in nervous systems Science 296, 308-310.
3. Ramachandran VS (1998) Consciousness and body image: lessons from phantom limbs, Capgras syndrome and pain asymbolia Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London – Series B: Biological Sciences 353, 1851-1859.
4. Price EH (2006) A critical review of congenital phantom limb cases and a developmental theory for the basis of body image Consciousness and Cognition 15, 310-322.
5. Moseley GL, Olthof N, Venema A, Don S, Wijers M, Gallace A, & Spence C (2008) Psychologically induced cooling of a specific body part caused by the illusory ownership of an artificial counterpart Proc Natl Acad Sci 105, 13169-13173.
6. Moseley GL, Parsons TJ, & Spence C (2008) Visual distortion of a limb modulates the pain and swelling evoked by movement. Curr Biol 18, R1047-R1048.
7. Parsons LM (2001) Integrating cognitive psychology, neurology and neuroimaging Acta Psychol. (Amst). 107, 155-181.

If you liked this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking HERE

Great question here about scar tissue and the use of SMR (foam roller) and other implements from Chris and Mark Young had some great comments too in response to my foam roller posts.

Foam Roller Exercises : Just Say No

I figured that I get lots of questions on the standard 4 phase Z Health approach I would republish the answer here for everyone.

Mike,

What do you suggest for removal of scar tissue if self release (foam rolling, baseball/lacrosse/golf ball) is removed from the picture?

Chris

Great question Chris.

I think the bigger question is “What can’t you do?”

Now this may be a problem for various reasons and scar tissue may be one of them.

I tend do the the following to get athlete bodies working correctly again:

1) joint mobility work

2) visual work (eye movements actually)

3) vestibular work (head rotation, tilt or chin down or up)

4) hands on work

Most of the time on a first session, joint mobiity work is enough.  Guy came in a while back and his shoulder did not go all the way when moving it out in front.  Joint mobility work (Z-Health) on the same side wrist, opposite hip, opposite foot/ankle got his arm almost all the way up (was only at about 70% before).

If joint mobility work is not having a good response, I will test their eye reflexes (PREP, taught in Z Health I Phase).   PREP=postural reaction to eye position.  If they were not normal, they do drills with an eye position and joint mobility.

Example: bad ankle

A female athlete came in a while back with an ankle issue.  In order to get her hip muscles to fire better, she had to move her eyes up and while holding them up, do some ankle joint mobility work.  Hip muscles (glute med, psoas and RF) fired up and her gait (along with her ankle) was much better.

If eyes + mobility don’t work I will add in vestibular work, using PNRT (postural neck reflex test).  A recent athlete came in post ACL replacement and post Physical Therapy  and on his first visit the joint mobility was not working, so I tested his eyes and they were normal (PREP test only), but his PNRT was positive (not normal) for his head rotated right. So his drill was an ankle mobility drill with his head turned right.  Moved much better, knee was much better.  (note I find it is rare to find ONLY vestibular issues)

Some times it is a combination of all 3

Mobility +  eyes + inner ear = optimal function and movement

This is hold the brain gets information to execute movements too (joints + vision + vestibular).  We are reverse engineering better movement by fixing the “bad” signals!

If that still does not work, I will check the tissue by just moving it in specific orientations at 3 different layers 1)skin 2) fascial 3) deep.   Note, most of the time I am not FORCING the tissue to move, I am holding it in a specific orientation and then using joint info, visual (ocular motor too) and inner ear (vestibular) work to ALLOW it to release.  I am working to find the correct combination to the safe via spinning the dial, vs trying to blow up the safe.

Another Example: Powerlifting and hamstring strength

Awhile back a powerlifter came in and her left hamstring would not fire up to 100% and gait could be better.  At the time she was deadlifting about 3xs body weight.  Went through the testing above, using a gait assessment after each drill.

On a manual muscle test, the left hamstring was still weak and gait was off.  Ending up doing a right elbow circle (neuro reflex to the opposite knee/hamstring aka probably interlimb coupling), with her head rotated right (vestibular input), with her eyes open and in the up position (looking up), while I held deep (not remotely painful) pressure on the whole hamstring (all 3) in a position to the “right.”

As she rotated her head and did the elbow circle, I could feel the hamstring tension to the right melt and it moved easily.   Had her walk and gait was much better, left hamstring fired up great.  Later I heard her DL went up, but hard to say what I did was directly related to it; but moving better is always a good adaptation.

I hope that helps a bit.

Summary

Basic joint mobility work is Z-Health R Phase, eye and head movements (vestibular) is Z Health I Phase, hands on work (holding tissue) is Z-Health T Phase (level 4) work.  Minimal amount to get the job done = less collateral damage to fix later (although I don’t see them again as much which is my goal, but is a crappy business model–hahaha)

Most don’t need direct tissue work right away, but that is not to say it can’t work.  Physiology is messy and many things can work.

If anyone has comments/questions on this one, post away in the comments!  Comments make me feel all warm and fuzzy and it is getting colder here in Minnesota now.

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS
If you want any info on the Z Health certs, let me know and drop me an email or give them a call and tell them I sent ya.  I am NOT an employee of Z-Health, but I do make a few bucks off of cert referrals.   Again, I would never recommend something that I don’t use myself or feel that works great.

Key Z Health R Phase Concept #9:The Neuromatrix of Pain

I know it sounds like a concept from the movie The Matrix, but it is a newer (ok, not really that new, but not overly well accepted) theory about pain.  Pain lives in the brain.  Pain is needed for survival.  There is actually a condition where some don’t feel pain, and they have horrible problems with doing all sorts of nasty stuff to themselves since they don’t get the signal that “Hey, what is that I smell, oh, I left my hand on the hot stove!”  Duh!

The pain in the brain can go awry though and start to cause other issues.   According to the Neuromatrix of Pain, you have 2 areas to work on

1) Signals – alter the signals coming in to the brain.  Movement can do this, as can other things

2) Interpretation -  how the brain translates that signal.

By working on both of these, many times pain can be reduced or eliminated.   Now it is not always that easy, but greater than 50% of the time with acute pain (chronic pain is a whole different can o’ worms) it can be altered in 1 session!  Pretty crazy.   It still amazes me to this day when just a few of the correct joint mobility (or sometimes eye or head movements) get man athlete to move much better.  When they move much better, a vast majority of time their pain drops dramatically.

Move Better = Less Pain

I’ve seen this myself to date about 90 times (conservative estimate).   I know it sounds crazy, but it is true.

Summary

What you thought you knew about pain is most likely out dated! Pain is a multi focal event. If you are in pain, you are NOT performing at an optimal level. Period. You need to get OUT of pain ASAP for extreme human performance.

I have a few other articles that discuss this, so check them out below

Pain Blog Posts (these are just a few)

Is Pain Bad for Performance ?

Pain and Athletic Performance, a New Study

Z Health, Pain and Limb Shaking

Nerve Flossing Z Health Style- I can rotate my neck

Tennis Elbow Pain and Tendinosis: An Exercise Fix

Biomechanics of Pain and a Shot to the Nuts

If you want to feel, move and perform better, drop me a line today for a session!  Just hit the “contact” tab above to reach me via email for details.  I guarantee everything I do 100% and your satisfaction is my top priority.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Key Z Health R Phase Concept #8: 4 Elements of Efficiency

Behind the curtains of the Z-Health Athletic Performance system rolls on.    Only 1 more left after today.   If you missed the last one, see below

Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #7: Enemies of Efficiency and SMA

Last time we learned what the enemies of efficiency were, so today we are going to learn how to move efficiently.  Watch Usain Bolt shatter a World Record.  What do you see?

9.58 Usain Bolt 100 M World Record Berlin 2009 – The best free videos are right here

Z-Health 4 Elements of Efficiency are

1)Perfect Form
2)Dynamic Postural Alignment (tall spine)
3)Synchronized Respiration
4)Balanced Tension/Relaxation

Most only stop an exercise when their form breaks down, so this is after too much tension (there goes #4), their breathing is out of whack (#3) and their spine is not tall and long (#2) and hopefully they stop now as their form is degrading.   This is the path of INefficiency.

In Z-Health, it is recommended to stop once there is EXCESSIVE tension and this takes care of the others. Does all that tension and “sour puss face” when you are bench pressing really help you lift more weight? Go back and look at the Soviets in the 70s and 80s and note their expressions. They did not have excess tension, heck some hit PRs (personal records) and they looked like they were going to fall asleep! They learned that EXCESSIVE tension was not efficient. Again, this does not mean tension is bad; but excessive tension is not ideal.

Do you see any excessive tension here?
Vasily Alexeev – 230kg. (507lb.) Clean & Press

Breathing

There are 2 general types of breathing

1) anatomical match

2) biomechanical match.

If you are teaching efficiency, anatomical match is what you want as you will breath out when the lung field is in a collapsed position and inhale when it expands.

Examples of Anatomical Breathing Match

Kettlebell Press:  breath in on the way up (expanding) and breath out on the way down (arm pushing in on the lung area).

Squat: exhale on the way down, and inhale on the way up

Bench press: exhale as the bar is pulled down and inhale on the way up.

Biomechanical match is just the opposite of this and is inefficient.

Without opening a whole can of worms, there are times you want to make exercise inefficient, but for a vast majority of yoru work you want to make it efficient.

Many have no idea which method they are using or why, so awareness is a great start.

Make it LOOK easy.  Most violate all the elements of efficiency in the gym.  Watch elite athletes, do they make it look easy?  Yes!  You get what you practice.

Thoughts?  Be sure to leave a comment below.   I love comments!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

The Perfect Pull Up

Below is a short video on how to do the perfect pull up and chin up.  Anyone else remember the Presidential Fitness test in middle school?  Man, I HATED that thing.  Let’s drag the most unathletic, string bean (read me) out in front of everyone else and see just how weak he really is.  Ugh.  The only part of the contest I even close to 50% was the shuttle run since I was in basketball and figured out that if you clean off your shoes before you run, you can stop exactly on the line.  Everyone else was sliding around like they were trying to be human dust mops on the floor.

Guess which exercise I hated the most?  Pull ups.  You had to do them in front of EVERYONE so there was nowhere to hide.  I got up there and just hung from the bar as the gym teacher told me to GO!  Well, I was pulling and I swear to you that my elbows did not bend at all.  The gym teacher told me to start again and I said that I was pulling.  After the third time of him telling me to start the exercise I just let go of the bar.  Oh, the good times.

Rant Almost Over

That stupid test is worthless.  You want to have kids HATE exercise really fast, that is your ticket.  I have not seen one President do it either.  You should teach kids HOW to move and HOW to do the darn test and maybe have them PRACTICE it a few times first.   Ok, back to today’s lesson.

Why Bother With Pull Ups?

• They are a great developer of the back muscles (you know, those on the opposite side of your chest you crazy 3 day a week bench nut!)
• Muscles like to be balanced and many time that stall in your bench press is actually from your body attempted to not let you get too far out of whack.  Start to balance it out with some pull ups and you will be rocking.
• Pullups and Chins can be done almost anywhere too!  No more excuses

What You Will Learn

• A cool neurologic “hack” to dramatically increase your pull ups.
• What perfect form looks like
• Options if you can’t do a full pull up

Testimonial Time

Here is what Gail has to say about it.  Gail first came to see me at the very end of August to work on her pull ups for the Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC).  We did a Z-Health movement session and some pull up practice.  Here is her exact email sent on Sept 1.

September 1, 2009

From: Gail Jensen

To: Mike T Nelson

Training continues to go well though I can still do only 1 pullup (of course, I was on vacation for a week-I did work out one day at the Gold’s Gym in San Juan-they are still pretty old school-not a kettlebell on the premises!). I keep trying to convince myself that pullups are easy and I visualize myself doing 2 or more. I also do the chicken neck prior to each pullup. I hope I can soon move beyond this “plateau” I seem to be facing. It helps to train with a partner, too.

Fast forward only 4 weeks and Gail cranks off 6 at the Tactical Strength Challenge.  Check the stats for yourself below

TSC Results Fall 2009

First off, I need to send a huge congrats to Gail as she did all the work; I just provided her a few tips that I show in the video below.

Perfect Pull-Up Video:

Techniques, Tips and Neuro Hacks to Increased Performance

Contest Time (read How to Win a FREE T-Shirt)

Ok, here is the deal.  I am so confident that if you do perfect practice pull ups as above along with some neck mobility (as shown) above that you will increase your pull up numbers in record time I will put a T-shirt on it from my friends at Protein Factory again.

Details

• Contest starts today and ends exactly 45 days from now, but you need your numbers in the comments section below within 6 days from today
• Go find a pull up bar and do your initial numbers today if you don’t have them.
• Use the techniques above and follow them to a T.   Do perfect reps only!
• Get as much volume (read practice) in as you can without any pain.  Do chins, pulls up, neutral grip, etc.
• Report your numbers back here in the comments section by Wed Oct 28 at 5pm CST to be in the contest.  No exceptions
• The one that shows the most improvement (measured by number of reps) wins the Protein Factory T-shirt shipped to them on me (sorry to my international friends, USA only for the T-shirt since customs is a big pain but if you win outside the US I will think of something for ya).

Its Go Time!

What are you waiting for.  Send this on to as many friends as you want.  You have only 6 days to enter your comments below with your starting reps to be in the contest.  I would love to see at least 20 people in the contest.  It is FREE, you may win a free T-shirt from Protein Factory, I will provide answers to your questions below, and your bench will probably even go up!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

Fat Loss Performance Tip

Below is an abstract on how you can increase the calories you burn while working to drop body fat without a decrease in performance. As always, if you want to deflate the muffin top you need to take in fewer calories than you burn off. If you miss that part, you will not loose weight. But once you have that down, the tip below may help you out.

The take away is that a calorie free beverage during training, appears to help performance about 2-3%.  Nothing huge there, but since you did not take in any calories it might help a bit.

Our perception molds our reality, so if you THINK you are drinking calories, you can get a slight performance boost.  To quote Jodie L. Rummer “potential for pre-performance brain input could be huge!”   The biggest changes in performance will be advances in neuroscience, and we are just on the very edge of unraveling it.  I believe this study was one of the first to look at a performance change combined with fMRI (brain imaging) in relation to an ergogenic beverage.

Let me know what you think
Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Other References

Go rinse your mouth: a novel way to improve endurance performance? J Physiol June 1, 2009 587 (11) 2425-2426; published ahead of print March 30, 2009,

Carbohydrate sensing in the human mouth: effects on exercise performance and brain activity

1. E. S. Chambers1,

2. M. W. Bridge1 and

3. D. A. Jones1,2

Abstract

Exercise studies have suggested that the presence of carbohydrate in the human mouth activates regions of the brain that can enhance exercise performance but direct evidence of such a mechanism is limited. The first aim of the present study was to observe how rinsing the mouth with solutions containing glucose and maltodextrin, disguised with artificial sweetener, would affect exercise performance. The second aim was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the brain regions activated by these substances. In Study 1A, eight endurance-trained cyclists (Graphic 60.8 ± 4.1 ml kg?1 min?1) completed a cycle time trial (total work = 914 ± 29 kJ) significantly faster when rinsing their mouths with a 6.4% glucose solution compared with a placebo containing saccharin (60.4 ± 3.7 and 61.6 ± 3.8 min, respectively, P = 0.007). The corresponding fMRI study (Study 1B) revealed that oral exposure to glucose activated reward-related brain regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex and striatum, which were unresponsive to saccharin. In Study 2A, eight endurance-trained cyclists (Graphic 57.8 ± 3.2 ml kg?1 min?1) tested the effect of rinsing with a 6.4% maltodextrin solution on exercise performance, showing it to significantly reduce the time to complete the cycle time trial (total work = 837 ± 68 kJ) compared to an artificially sweetened placebo (62.6 ± 4.7 and 64.6 ± 4.9 min, respectively, P = 0.012). The second neuroimaging study (Study 2B) compared the cortical response to oral maltodextrin and glucose, revealing a similar pattern of brain activation in response to the two carbohydrate solutions, including areas of the insula/frontal operculum, orbitofrontal cortex and striatum. The results suggest that the improvement in exercise performance that is observed when carbohydrate is present in the mouth may be due to the activation of brain regions believed to be involved in reward and motor control. The findings also suggest that there may be a class of so far unidentified oral receptors that respond to carbohydrate independently of those for sweetness.

Footnotes

*

(Resubmitted 2 October 2008; accepted after revision 17 February 2009; first published online 23 February 2009)

Play Now:

 Fat_loss_tip_CHO_sensing: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Muscle Hypertrophy (I wannna get hyooooge)

There has been some very cool studies presented recently in the literature regarding muscle hypertrophy (increase muscle size) and I thought I would take some time to see what new insights we can find to maximize your hard working time in the gym.

Hold on, as here we go!

• Most studies are about 1 year old at best by the time you read them. Presentations are the most updated, as shown by the first abstract below. I went to that session at the ACSM Annual meeting since I was there presenting some other data and it was great! Almost 1.5 years later it comes out in print form.
• The opposite condition from muscle growth (hypertrophy) is atrophy (wasting or getting smaller). If we can really understand muscle atrophy, it will help us figure out hypertrophy.

Tales of Brick Layers and Igloos

Look, Canada!

Two processes occur at the same time

1) Protein Synthesis, adding more protein to muscle tissue.  Think brick layers making a house (or snow blocks making an Igloo if you live in Canada)

2) Protein Degradation (proteolysis), taking more protein from the muscle tissue. Think of your neighbor that you don’t like stealing bricks from your house before they set up (or chipping them off in the middle of the night).  If you live in an Igloo, beware of flames.

Ideally, we want protein synthesis (commonly called an anabolic process) to be increased and protein degradation (commonly called a catabolic process) to be decreased.  End result is more muscle!

In some cases of muscle atrophy, the catabolic processes, are about the same but the anabolic process are reduced.  Some loss of bricks, but almost none being put up (lazy workers), thus resulting in an OVERALL loss of muscle.   The hole in the bucket is bigger than the water coming in. No good!

Fernando et al. found, “After 16 wk of RT, gains in muscle mass, type II
myofiber size, and voluntary strength were similar in young and old”

This is great news, since you can get better if you start training at ANY AGE! Enough with the age excuse!  If I hear one more person state that it is all downhill after age 30 I am going to scream and then chuck a kettlebell at their head.

Bezerra P et al did a cool study where they hooked up 1 leg to electrodes to zap it (youch!) and also had them do a muscle contraction.

• They found a cross educational effect (the LEFT leg got stronger) with just the zapping of the right leg.
• No change in muscle hypertrophy of the LEFT leg, but the right leg got bigger (increased size, CSA).

The nervous system is key for strength and size, but local stress (muscle contraction) is needed for a size increase!

Al Shanti et al stated “Many reviews have focused on understanding the signalling pathways of IGF-I and its receptor, which govern skeletal muscle hypertrophy. However, alternative molecular signalling pathways such as the Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent transcriptional pathways should also be considered as potential mediators of muscle growth.“

In English please!

Growth factors IN the muscle (not to be confused with ones just in the blood) like IGF-1 are well known to affect muscle size.

The author argues that other pathways like calmodulin-dependent pathway may be just as important.   There are MANY pathways to muscle size increases with the more popular ones also being the mTOR-1 and probably AMPK too.

Great, But What Can I Do?

• Stimulate the muscle! Go lift something as local stress is probably the biggest factor for muscle hypertrophy.
• Eat something. Increasing insulin may help decrease the protein breakdown process
• Have protein after you train. Protein is required for adding muscle size, so have about 20-30 grams after you are done training.  I prefer CFM whey protein from Protein Factory, but have some protein first and then get nit picky about exactly what type.

Any comments, let me know!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

REFERENCES

Regulation of Muscle Atrophy: Wasting Away from the Outside In: An Introduction.

Urso ML.

US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA.

Whereas it is clear that periods of detraining, disuse, injury and aging are marked by losses in skeletal muscle mass and function, the emerging literature suggests that there are unique molecular signaling alterations depending on the perturbation. Understanding the phenotypical adaptations in skeletal muscle and factors that are thought to promote or inhibit genes involved in the atrophy program will elucidate how the muscular system responds to decreases in activity. Recent advances in the discipline have identified specific and innovative methods to promote skeletal muscle hypertrophy including gene therapy, pharmacological, and nutritional interventions. The same success has not been met concerning attenuating skeletal muscle atrophy. If novel approaches are to be implemented in humans to mitigate disuse- and age-related skeletal muscle loss, it is imperative that we evaluate critical regulators of skeletal muscle atrophy from a system to the cellular level. The symposium “Regulation of Muscle Atrophy: Wasting Away from the Outside In” was presented at the ACSM Annual Meeting in Indianapolis on May 29, 2008, to provide an overview of the skeletal muscle atrophy literature and our current understanding of the atrophy program from the whole system to the molecular level. In addition, this symposium addressed the feasibility of intervening with specific countermeasures to attenuate atrophy. This introduction identifies the scope of the symposium, which evaluates our current understanding of the atrophy program and how this information can facilitate the development of effective countermeasures.

TRANSLATIONAL
SIGNALING RESPONSES PRECEDING RESISTANCE TRAINING-MEDIATED MYOFIBER
HYPERTROPHY IN YOUNG AND OLD HUMANS.Mayhew DL, Kim JS, Cross JM,
Ferrando AA, Bamman MM.

University of Alabama at Birmingham.

While skeletal muscle protein accretion during resistance training
(RT)-mediated myofiber hypertrophy is thought to result from
up-regulated translation initiation signaling, this concept is based on
responses to a single bout of unaccustomed resistance exercise (RE)
with no measure of hypertrophy across RT. Further, aging appears to
affect acute responses to RE but whether age differences in
responsiveness persist during RT leading to impaired RT adaptation is
unclear. We therefore tested whether muscle protein fractional
synthesis rate (FSR) and Akt/mTOR signaling in response to unaccustomed
RE differed in old vs. young, and whether age differences in acute
responsiveness were associated with differences in muscle hypertrophy
after 16 wk of RT. Fifteen old and 21 young completed the 16 wk study.
The phosphorylation states of Akt, S6K1, RPS6, 4EBP1, eIF4E, and eIF4G
were all elevated (23-199%) 24 h after a bout of unaccustomed RE. A
concomitant 62% increase in FSR was found in a subset (6 old, 8 young).
Age x time interaction was found only for RPS6 phosphorylation (+335%
in old only), while there was an interaction trend (P=0.084) for FSR
(+96% in young only). After 16 wk of RT, gains in muscle mass, type II
myofiber size, and voluntary strength were similar in young and old. In
conclusion, at the level of translational signaling we found no
evidence of impaired responsiveness among old and, for the first time,
we show that changes in translational signaling after unaccustomed RE
were associated with substantial muscle protein accretion (hypertrophy)
during continued RT. Key words: translation initiation, hypertrophy,
muscle fiber, aging.

Effects
of unilateral electromyostimulation superimposed on voluntary training
on strength and cross-sectional area.Bezerra P, Zhou S, Crowley Z,
Brooks L, Hooper A.

Department of Exercise Science, Southern Cross University, P.O. Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia. j.bezerra.10@scu.edu.au

In this study we investigate the effects of unilateral voluntary
contraction (VC) and electromyostimulation superimposed on VC (EV)
training on maximal voluntary (MVC) force and cross-sectional area
(CSA), as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging of knee extensors.
Thirty young men were randomly assigned to either a control group (CG),
VC group (VG), or EV group (EVG). The VG and EVG trained the right leg
isometrically three sessions per week for 6 weeks. After training, MVC
increased in the right leg in the VG and in both legs in the EVG, and
EVG was significantly different from CG (all P < 0.01). increased
CSA was found only in the right leg in the VG and EVG (P < 0.01),
and correlated with improvements of MVC (r = 0.49, P = 0.01). It
appeared that the EV training was equally effective as VC at increasing
MVC and CSA, while having a greater cross-education effect. Increased
strength without muscle hypertrophy in the unexercised leg of the EVG
indicated that neural adaptation was responsible for the
cross-education effect.

Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent
transcriptional pathways: potential mediators of skeletal muscle growth
and development.Al-Shanti N, Stewart CE.

Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health,
Manchester Metropolitan University, John Dalton Building, Oxford Road,
Manchester, M1 5GD, UK.

ABSTRACT The loss of muscle mass with age and disuse has a
significant impact on the physiological and social well-being of the
aged; this is an increasingly important problem as the population
becomes skewed towards older age. Exercise has psychological benefits
but it also impacts on muscle protein synthesis and degradation,
increasing muscle tissue volume in both young and older individuals.
Skeletal muscle hypertrophy involves an increase in muscle mass and
cross-sectional area and associated increased myofibrillar protein
content. Attempts to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie
muscle growth, development and maintenance, have focused on
characterising the molecular pathways that initiate, maintain and
regenerate skeletal muscle. Such understanding may aid in improving
targeted interventional therapies for age-related muscle loss and
muscle wasting associated with diseases. Two major routes through which
skeletal muscle development and growth are regulated are insulin-like
growth factor I (IGF-I) and Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent transcriptional
pathways. Many reviews have focused on understanding the signalling
pathways of IGF-I and its receptor, which govern skeletal muscle
hypertrophy. However, alternative molecular signalling pathways such as
the Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent transcriptional pathways should also be
considered as potential mediators of muscle growth. These latter
pathways have received relatively little attention and the purpose
herein is to highlight the progress being made in the understanding of
these pathways and associated molecules: calmodulin, calmodulin kinases
(CaMKs), calcineurin and nuclear factor of activated T-cell (NFAT),
which are involved in skeletal muscle regulation. We describe: (1) how
conformational changes in the Ca(2+) sensor calmodulin result in the
exposure of binding pockets for the target proteins (CaMKs and
calcineurin). (2) How Calmodulin consequently activates either the
Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent kinases pathways (via CaMKs) or
calmodulin-dependent serine/threonine phosphatases (via calcineurin).
(3) How calmodulin kinases alter transcription in the nucleus through
the phosphorylation, deactivation and translocation of histone
deacetylase 4 (HDAC4) from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. (4) How
calcineurin transmits signals to the nucleus through the
dephosphorylation and translocation of NFAT from the cytoplasm to the
nucleus.