Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

Patrick Ward writes a fantastic article on the SFMA Assessment and Anatomy Trains.  See Anatomy Trains author, Tom Myers at this year's BSMPG summer conference - June 3rd and 4th.

SFMA and Anatomy Trains: Concepts For Assessment and Treatment by Patrick Ward

There are a number of ways to become indispensible.

Some more successful than others. 

Sure doing exactly what the boss says will get you started, but to be truly indispensible, you must challenge your boss, your co-workers, and of course demand that they challenge you in return.

Below Seth Godin outlines how you may become a linchpin in your organization.

A linchpin hierarchy

1. Do exactly what the boss says.
2. Ask the boss hard questions.
3. Tell the boss what your best choice among the available options is. Insist.
4. Have co-workers and bosses ask you hard questions.
5. Invent a whole new way to do things, something that wasn't on the list.
6. Push and encourage and lead your co-workers to do ever better work.
7. Insist that they push and encourage you.

“What should I do? 

Should I not listen to my friends?

They’re my friends.”

Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.
Friends don’t let friends make bad decisions, take the easy way out, support bad habits or enable them to continue down a dangerous path.

Friends tell you when you’re wrong because they’re your friends.
Friends will tell you that you’re making a poor choice and help you find a better one.

Real friends, the ones you want to surround yourself with, are the ones that aren’t afraid to tell you that you’re wrong….

Because that’s what real friends do.

Sorry Lebron – time to find some new friends.

I once heard Mike Boyle say if you ever want to get fit, simply go to your nearest commercial gym and do the exact opposite of what everyone is doing.  I decided to put his theory to the test at our general student fitness facility this past week. 

Number 7-9

7. Commercial Gym Choice: Lifting Slow

Nearly 100% of all exercises you’ll see are performed slow and steady, (well, except for the guy on the seated calf raise machine that’s popping his heels up and down like a jack rabbit!)  That’s fine if your goal is to move slow, but most of us still want to kick butt on the weekend playing tennis, changing direction on the soccer pitch or simply running down their friends in a game of ultimate Frisbee.  Like the treadmill, it never hurts to crank it up a notch and vary the speed or tempo of your core lifts.

Opposite: enter heavy stuff moving fast. Now if you really want to scare people at your local commercial gym start performing an Olympic lifts or a variation thereof.

8. Commercial Gym Choice: Only Training in the Sagittal plane – besides the cable cross-over exercise I saw, every exercise was sagittal plane dominant, not to mention each and every piece of cardio equipment (treadmill, bike, elliptical and stair climber) was all set in the sagittal plane.

“Well how is anyone suppose to design a machine that can exercise in multiple planes? – it’s just not possible!”

That’s my point (well, not this point, but another point – go run around outside, play tag, racketball, sprint, whatever – just do it in multiple planes, multiple speeds and multiple directions.

Opposite: I think I covered that in the above – but for this day it was simply finishing off with a lunge series in all directions (Gary Gray made this famous with his lunge matrix)

9. Commercial Gym Choice: Only Bench for upper body strength.

I know that bench is king when it comes to developing upper body strength but it certainly doesn't have to be the only exercise.  There is nothing worse (besides bicep curls in the squat rack) then watching a group of guys standing around another group of guys waiting for them to finish their bench routine so they can start theirs. 

Opposite: Push-ups and push-up variations.  I'm a huge push-up fan so this was easy for me to incorporate into my workout (not to mention there wasn't an available bench in site anyways).  Push-ups only require gravity, and well, that can be found pretty much everywhere.  Put your hands in various positions - close together, far apart, one ahead of the other, feet up, on a buso-ball - just start pushing.
Read a great article on push-ups by Ray Eady, Strength and Conditioning Coach from University of Wisconsin by clicking HERE.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

I once heard Mike Boyle say if you ever want to get fit, simply go to your nearest commercial gym and do the exact opposite of what everyone is doing.  I decided to put his theory to the test at our general student fitness facility this past week. 

Number 4-6

4. Commercial Gym Choice: Bicep Curls in the Squat Rack

Squat Racks are for squatting – not barbell curls!  Why must everyone feel the need to curl inside of a squat rack? I know, the weight is soo heavy that if you were ever to fail you’d have the safety bars there – gotcha.

Opposite: This one is easy – I squatted.
Side note: apparently squatting in a rack designated for arm curls is not appreciated at commercial gyms – if you choose to squat – avoid eye contact with the gym members; you’re interrupting their bicep time.

5. Commercial Gym Choice: All Show – No Go.
If one thing became clearly evident during my squat time, it was the need to exercise and only exercise those muscles that can be seen in the mirror.  A quick survey of those around me included: cable cross-over, more bicep curls, overhead DB press, seated bench press and leg extensions. 

Opposite:  decided to superset some scapular stabilization work with the squatting then finish up in the squat rack with some dead-lifts. (I know I’m not squatting in a squat rack but figured it was better than bicep curls – still getting weird looks)

6.  Commercial Gym Choice: All Push – No Pull

If there is one exercise, ok, the one other than bicep curls that seems to dominate commercial gyms it’s the bench press.  I’m not sure why no one likes pulling, I guess it’s because there is not enough mirrors in the gym – maybe if gyms put in mirrors like at department stores where you try on clothes and can see all angles people would start emphasizing other body parts in their training?

Opposite: Pull-ups (not lat machine pull downs), inverted body rows and bent over DB rows.

It’s not by accident that I added three pulling exercises to contrast the one dominant pushing exercise that is most popular.  3:1 ratio seems to clean up a lot of dysfunction and sure makes your shoulders feel a lot better.

7-9 tomorrow....

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

I once heard Mike Boyle say if you ever want to get fit, simply go to your nearest commercial gym and do the exact opposite of what everyone is doing.  I decided to put his theory to the test at our general student fitness facility this past week. 

1. Commercial Gym Choice: Laying down and lumbar flexion

I think this exercise choice can be summed up best when I heard one kid ask another,”Are you sure this is suppose to hurt like this?”

Opposite Choice: anything not involving lumbar flexion including front bridges and McGill’s Big Three.

(ahhh, sweet back relief)

2. Commercial Gym Choice: Slow Paced Jog

What’s the definition of crazy? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  I’ve never understood why people continue to jog at a slow pace for hours on end and then act surprised when they haven’t lost any weight or end up injured.

Opposite Choice: it was a nasty Boston day with snow and sleet so elected to stay inside and join the herd of runners on the treadmills except choosing to ramp both speed and incline upwards while jumping on and off in 30:30 second sprint intervals. 

 
3. Commercial Gym Choice: Partial Body Weight Movement

During the aforementioned sprint rest intervals I couldn’t help but notice on the woman on the treadmill beside me. Her treadmill was set to the highest incline possible with both hands on the front rail holding on for dear life!  I’ve never seen anything like it before – it was as if she was in a hurricane and the rail at the front was her lifeline! Not to be outdone, the guy on the stair climber just down from her had the reverse-extended-elbow lock on each hand rail suspending his body weight overtop of the moving stairs below.  If you choose to utilize any type of “cardiovascular” equipment be sure to move your own body weight and not have the machine help you out.

(ok, so she's not hanging on for dear life, but why is she hanging on at all? Is it that hard to walk?)

Opposite: I was still sprinting without holding on so I figured this one was covered.

More tomorrow....

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

.... you might just end up being fired with enthusiasm.

T.G.I.F - Thank Goodness I'm Fired-Up! 

In discussing a case of stress fractures with some friends recently, the concept of Load vs. Mechanics was discussed.

“It’s all load. Too much running, too much conditioning heading into the season,” suggested the athletic trainer in the room.

“No, no, no – that kid was set up to fail from the start. She’s got funny feet and that’s the reason. Everyone else ran the same distance and didn’t have a problem.”

The conversation ultimately boiled down to this:

Are you applying an unreasonable amount of load to normal mechanics or are you applying a reasonable amount of load to unusual mechanics?

Yes, too much load too fast will always get you there, but having “abnormal” mechanics will certainly ensure that you get there a whole lot faster.

My father would always tell me that every time you point your finger there are three others pointing right back at you.

So the next time your athlete walks in reporting a stress fracture don’t be so quick to point the finger at the group down the hall, and instead ask yourself if that athlete suffered their injury from load or mechanics and what you did to screen, monitor and address the problem BEFORE it sidelined them.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

I’m always amazed during fall pre-participation screenings how accepting we’ve become to athletes reporting pain.

“Ya, it hurts, but it never keeps me from playing.”

That line is often followed by:

“Ok, let me know when it really bothers you” (which is usually too late) or, “just make sure you ice after practice each day (like that was some magic bullet which was going to keep them from missing practice or playing time during the year).

One of the most important reasons to screen your athletes prior to participating in athletics is to “filter” out those that experience pain during simple motions and motor patterns. If an athlete reports pain during a deep squat or a simple McKenzie press up, how do we expect them to get through fall camp?

Reporting pain is not a bad thing.  It’s simply an opportunity for us to address dysfunction before that pain becomes a problem.

“Pain is a warning sign. Long before pain represents a chronic problem, it can alert us to poor alignment, overuse, imbalance and inflammation.  We embrace all the other warning signs in our lives – computer virus alerts or the oil light on the dashboard – but when it comes to the body, we act as if the warning sign of pain is an inconvenience.  We cover it up so we can keep moving. If we ignore pain’s natural self-limiting nature, we are ignorant to the lessons its ancient design provides.”
p. 50. Movement by Gray Cook.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

Is it any wonder that both Listen and Silent contain all the same letters?
How many times have you been listening to a colleague only to find your mouth moving the entire time?

They say silence is golden; rearrange the letters and you’ll find listening might just be as valuable.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.