Barbell Overhead Sqaut + Banded Kettlebell = Shoulder Stability

The shoulder is a naturally mobile joint.  For me and many others, range of motion in the shoulder is not an issue.  The challenge lies in creating enough inherent stability around that joint to keep it strong and pain-free during overhead moves such as the overhead squat.

KB Banded Barbell OHS-
Yep.  I said it.
This is a great warm-up move because of its sports specificity and the fact that it challenges range of motion with stability.

Are you going to earn some sideways looks when you are strapping kbs and bands to the bar?  Yeah.  Yeah you are.  You can just shrug that off with your nice, stable shoulders.

Person Food

Dogs have it easy.  Cats do to for that matter.  Take this guy for example.  I just watched him spend his entire afternoon getting weird on catnip and cleaning himself with zeal.

AC Milan:  wasted youth.

This wantonly indulgent behavior isn't even what I envy.  Where they have it good is with big bags of nutrition simply labeled "CAT FOOD."  If AC Milan here needs to bump up his caloric intake to recover from doing 7 minutes of burpees or some cat equivalent, he hits the food bowl twice.  Easy.  I want that.  If you know where I can get huge bags of balanced nutrition labeled "Man Food' please send me that link.  Until then, there is Viking Hash:

Behold.

1) 4 large sweet potatoes cubed
2) 1 yellow Onion
3) 1 shallot
4) 4 cloves garlic
Get the biggest wok you can find  good and hot and add items 1-4 with some butter (optional)

Cook the following items separately and add them as they are ready.

1.5 lbs. ground Turkey lightly salted
One Pack of bacon  (Bake in the oven, pour the grease into the potato/onion wok, chop into bits and add)
2 chopped turkey dogs (They were in the fridge so. . . )
1/2 lbs. ground beef
1.5 lbs. pulled pork shoulder  (6 hours in the slow cooker.  Add at the end.)

LOTS of olive oil

1 head of broccoli (rubbed with olive oil, salt & pepper then oven roasted @ 400 for 9 minutes)
16 brussels sprouts (ditto)

A fist full of spinach at the end.

If you're looking for caloric density, add all of the bacon and turkey grease and top it with an avocado and more olive oil.  I wish I could just toss a big bag of this stuff over my shoulder and eat it from a shiny metal bowl on my kitchen floor.

You may never know the occult pleasures of getting wacked out of your gourd on catnip and cleaning your entire body with a coarse tongue but you CAN have this.  Person food.  Enjoy.

Salt in the wound Part II: "Welcome to the world. It's salty and awful out here."

New skin is innocent.  It's vulnerable and naive to the threats which thrust it into existence.  For this reason many athletes have trouble breaking the cycle of broken/soft skin and getting their hands to harden up in a timely manner to return to competition.  The only way to throw this rose pedal soft epidermis into the wood chipper of your life is to let it know:  "Welcome to the world.  It is salty and awful out here." 

I've devoted the past week and a half to testing the commonly held gymnastics theory that soaking a torn callus in a super-saturated salt mixture 3x/ day makes the skin grow back with the callus already in place.  Calluses typically form as the result of physical irritation but this theory employs a chemical irritation to reach the same result.

Right Hand (Experimental Group) day One: 
The Salt Soak Group

Left Hand (Control Group) day One :
The Neosporin Group

I've been diligently salt soaking my right ring finger in super saturated salt water for over a week now.  I soak the right hand 3x/day for 20 minute spells.  This is easy to do.  I simply walk about handling my business while carrying a mug of salt water that I have my right middle finger submerged in.  I look like an unhygienic waiter.  Due to inherent base line of salinity in the body, the salt soak has only a minimal burn.

RESULTS:

Just look at that hardened digit on the right! Tell me that scaly talon isn't ready for ropes.

In the interests of full disclosure, I will admit that I contaminated these results. I gave up on the Neosporin and started salting both hands a few days ago. I made the early switch when the skin on The Experimental Group was healing tough, dry and resilient as opposed to the goopy mess of flesh which often opened and bled on the Neosporin hand.

The 2 draw backs to this salt soak technique are:

1. Cracking- The wound dries out quickly and is susceptible to cracking. For this reason, I recommend applying an unflavored chap stick to the tear a couple times per day and before workouts.
2. Convenience- My walking mug trick worked for me, but this technique is intended for torn calluses in the palm of the hand as well. Unless you are a security guard at a junior college, you probably don't have the time to sit with the palms of your hands in two saucers of salt water for an hour every day.

SOLUTION?

I have a couple new tears on the palms of my hands. I've abandoned the soak and have been employing a new technique that I'll call a salt rub. Instead of soaking the tears I just wash them, wet them, then pack salt into them. This feels awful- an electric sort of burning pain that takes about 90 seconds to reach it's peak. It is awful and it is effective. It's not for everyone. The choice is yours.

Salt In The Wound

I'm realizing that I'm in an abusive relationship with my skin.  We've had some rough times.  We're hot and cold.  Our families do not approve.  We're back together right now.  We're a passionate, fiery duo but we're meant for each other so we're making changes and making it work.  I left town with guns blazing and the wind in my hair but recently came crawling back with with benzoin tincture in my hands and a promise on my lips.  "I'm a changed man."  Me and my skin, we're going to make it this time.  This time is going to be different. . .

Saturday Squall is when my coach pairs me off against a man who is a friend, an in-house rival, and a notorious chauvinistic womanizer.  Squall for us is a a head-to-head competition designed to turn our enormous egos into fuel.  It keeps us sharp.  No one can mentally terrorize us like we can to each other.  He has a habit of innocently asking me "how old are you?" before we compete.  Out of respect for his chauvinistic privacy, I will refer to him as Shmryan "Shmollywood" Shmandrews. We have a well established rivalry where he wins some, and I look really muscular with my shirt off in others.  Anyway, this past Saturday me and my fresh, unblemished skin walked into squall that turned out to be a hand tear buzzsaw:

SQUALL #2
75 DU's
hand stand walk across gym
30 power snatches
"all good thus far"
3 rounds of 10 chest to bar pull-ups/ 12 wallballs
"C2B's can be tough but my super-amazing gymnast tape job holds up great and my baby soft skin is still intact."
3 Rope Climbs
"Dang."

3 rope climbs isn't really a problem. I did 11 touch and go last week, but after those C2B's and the rushed tempo of no recovery between climbs, the three rope climbs became "a problem."

I'd typically tape my legs, my shoes, my face, etc. for this sort of wod but the events were announced just before we began and I foolishly dove right into it rather than slow down the momentum of the moment for my adhesive ritual.

I had a fast tempo going with butterfly chest to bar pull-ups that gave me a big lead on Shmryan heading into the final 3 climbs but he is very tan and he was gaining on me fast.  The first guy to touch the ceiling on the 3rd climb would win this squall.

I took off on the 3rd climb before he did.  I had to.  He is quite tan after all and a fast climber.  I began that climb with enough energy in the tank to make it to the top but not quite enough to make a controlled descent back down.  The result:

I get to the top before Shmryan does and reach for the ceiling and my hard earned victory.  I miss- I miss a freaking wall!  I fall part of the way back down the rope.  His small strong hands and leathery skin are nipping at my heels.  I struggle back up to the top, take another desperate grab at the ceiling and promtly fall 17' to the ground, leaving a good amount of arm, leg, and hand skin on the rope.  I'm not sure if I even touched the ceiling but the judges gave it to me.  For the moment my burning lungs and gaping flesh command my attention.  Squall #1 ended with a controversial missed rep by Mr. Shmandrews and my victory.  Squall #2 ended with an equally murky conclusion.  Until next time my mute, hairless, leathery friend.


That night I went to Foundations Crossfit's holiday party and got some interesting hand recovery advice from trainer Adam Wenzel.  Apparently, it is a commonly held belief in the gymnastics community that soaking hand tears in super-saturated salt water causes the skin to grow back strong and with the callus already in place.  I had several nasty tears available to test this theory and that's how I've spent the last few days.  I chose the right hand as the salt dip hand and the left hand as the traditional neosporin/soap and water control hand.  The right hand had the bigger and deeper tear so if it healed better than the left, this salt soak concept would be validated.

PICS!
Here's a pic of the poor digits immediatly after I removed the bandages when I got home on Saturday.

This poor bastard is my right hand.  This is The Experimental
Group= salt soak 3x/day

left middle finger:  the smaller tear of the two.  I will refer to it as
The Control Group=  neosporin+soap and water

This salt soak concept comes from Coach Sommer of Gymnasitic Bodies .  It works like this:

Step 1) Make a super-saturated salt mix

• Fill a small glass of warm water with so much salt that it no longer dissolves and their  is a small pile of undisolved salt in the bottom of the glass.

Step 2)  

• Put your ripped finger into that glass and keep it there for 10-20 minutes.
• Repeat 3 times per day

24 hours later.  Sunday, Day 2.  This photo is taken immediately after a 20 minute salt soak on The Experimental Group which is the miraculously normal looking digit on the right.

My skin and I are back together.  We're making a go of it, but as long as it has the unfortunate fate of being attached to me, it will always be in peril.

The Ripping and The Tearing Part II: Tape It Like a Gymnast

Here's how I tape my hands.  My previous technique was the one where you split the tape and run it between your fingers.  For me, this works much, much better.  I went straight from this video to a nasty KB/ pull up wod.  This heavy kb/ pull up combo usually opens my hands up.  I got through today without a blister.

 You can see the specs of the training that I follow here at oldcountrystrong.

The Ripping and the Tearing

If you've ever wondered what to do about your hands ripping and tearing during crossfit workouts, I can relate.  My coach likes to say that I'm made of paper.  I prefer to think of my flesh as a weak link that struggles to keep pace with the demands of the futuristic roboskeleton that resides beneath.

This guy can relate too.  If he had the for site to  read this blog before traveling back in time, he may  have  kept his flawless Futrure-Austrian skin intact as well as saving the planet from a robo-apocalypse.

The fact is that I rip my hands for a combination of reasons:

• Paper flesh/ futuristic cyborg strength etc. as described above
• Technique- I should let the bell skip to my proximal interphalangeal joint in the bottom of the swing, but I get all excited in competition and hold too tight.
• My taping techniques have all failed me.  In the photo beneath, the tape that I used was little more than bloody streamers by the mid-way point of the event.  I learned how to make a gymnastics grip from tape that is legal in all kb/crossfit events.  It will be the subject of my next post.  This post is about what I've done to harden up my hands.

Example:

Attempt #1 at The Lab

One workout that tore me up pretty badly was in an IKFF competition at The Lab a few months back.  It was a 5 minute demolition derby of #53 kettlebell snatch with unlimited hand switches.  I got 118 reps and the stigmata pictured on the left.

War wounds like these are cute for a minute.  They make nice FB profile updates, but it gets old pretty quick and I'm always on the lookout for a new technique that will keep my skin on my hands where it belongs.

I put two new techniques to the test this weekend at the Oregon Crossfit Winter Games.  Keep an eye on the Old Country Iron Club blog for a full write-up.  I hear it will be posted on Wednesday.

This turned out to be a perfect opportunity to compare the results as it turned out by random chance that event #1 at the OCFWG was the exact same event that opened my hands up just 3 months ago at The Lab.  The only difference was that this time the snatches were preceded by a 2k row and 60 seconds of rest.  Gross.

More Lab grossness

The intervention:

After my event at The Lab, I was approached by a spinal surgeon who was watching the event.  He told me that he uses a product called Benzoin Tincture on patients before surgery.  He applies it to the skin before putting people in casts and before they are bed ridden post surgery.  It toughens the skin to prevent tears and bed sores.  It's a natural product derived from the bark of styrax benzoin trees.  I came across a liquid compound at the Rite Aid in Jefferson Square, West Seattle for $6 just before I left for the OCFWG.  It has a tacky, sappy consistency which explains why one of it's uses is to hold athletic tape in place.  I didn't want any more stick than was necessary so I applied it twice on the day before the event then washed it off.  After washing it off, I still felt the thin protective layer but without the stick.

RESULTS:

Boom!  This flawless future-Austrian skin is alive and well.

Success.

116 reps for a #1 overall finish in that event without so much as a blister.  

Above is a shot of my hands after those events and the 4 more that followed.  As I eluded to before, I also employed a new taping technique that I'll cover at another time, but there is something to this Tincture of Benzoin.

The Perfect Ice Bath

 A Quick Recipe For Chilled Man-Stew

There are those times when you train so vigorously that you know you will be worthless for the rest of the day and be sore for the next three.  On those occasions I turn to the ice bath. This thing is magical.  I step in feeling beaten down and bad, five minutes later I step out feeling well, still beaten down but good. 

Everyone knows to ice an injury.  I'm not breaking any paradigms there.  When you apply ice to an inflamed tissue, vasoconstriction occurs and fluids are flushed out of the area.  That is why an ice pack on a swollen ankle is helpful.  Now imagine the effect of submerging your entire lower body to the lower back in ice water and chasing that inflammation 3-4 feet away from the source of pain. 

Everyone has their own technique for coping with the raw physical discomfort of an ice bath.  Here's mine:

It doesn't have to be like this.

Well it doesn't really have to be like this either, but this guy has the right idea.

• If you're inflamed enough to consider an ice bath you are probably exceeding your free radical tolerance too, so start off with some CoQ10 and vitamin C.

• I Keep 4-6 large water balloons filled and in my freezer at all times.  My kids had a phase when they froze everything so I came upon this idea by accident.  I like to use big birthday balloons or the grenade colored water balloons.  You don't want to skimp with those little hand held balloons.
• These are particularly useful when you are hitting the ice bath when you are still a hot, boiling mess from whatever terrible sport/wod/event you just took part in.  The ice cube ice bath heats up as the cubes melt, but not the frozen balloon bath.  
• Fill the tub half way and add a cup of Epsom Salts and 4 frozen water balloons with the balloon peeled off.
• Fill the rest of the way
• Add two trays of ice cubes 
• Pull on a wool hat, a scarf, grab your phone, set a 5 minute timer
• Climb into the tub.  If this is only for your legs, get a FIRM grip on your phone and pull up a mindless app.  I recommend Plants vs. Zombies.  I've actually let the timer run through 3 times trying to keep those pesky undead beasts off my lawn.
• If your arms are trashed too, as mine were this morning from a thorough Franning, then put the phone down.  It's time for full commitment. 
• Grab one of those orbs of ice that's floating around and give yourself a deep ice massage in the biceps and forearms.
• Step out of the tub 5 minutes later and feel WAY BETTER than you did 5 minutes ago.

Vitamin T: The Testosterone Experiment

There was a time when men were men.  A time when Testosterone flowed through America as the Ganges River flows through India.  I am speaking of course about the 1970's. 

Where does the bear end and the Burt Reynolds begin?

It's not just fashion.  Brazilian wax has nothing to do with the fact that men just aren't this hairy anymore.  It is a well documented fact that testosterone levels in American males have been on steady decline over the past 40 years. (1)  Gail and Laughlin demonstrated in a 2008 prospective, population-based study of 794 men that  Testosterone insufficiency in older men is associated with increased mortality independent of risk factors and co-existing conditions. (2)

As a tribute to our fury brethren of the 70's, and to baseball players of the 90's (and perhaps as a way to compensate for the fact that I was the last guy in my middle school to grow a mustache), I devoted last month to naturally raising my testosterone levels with over the counter nutraceuticals provided by my friend and colleague, Dr. Christopher Merlino.

The Plan:
I- Establish my baseline free Testosterone levels with a blood draw.  (After which draw he warned me that this experiment was likely going to fail.)

II-  Take whatever supplementation Chris threw at me over a 40 day span to move those numbers.

III-  Re-test the T numbers after 40 days.

Merlino went with a concoction of following:

• DHEA at a 3x physiologic dose
• American Ginseng
• D-Ribose
• Co- Q10

His goal was to enhance pathways and provide the body with pre-coursers that result in testosterone production. As is illustrated in the Testosterone Pathway chart below, it is reasonable to expect increased exogenous DHEA to drive a deficient testosterone pathway.

Results:
After 40 days of supplementation we re-checked my numbers:  My free Testosterone  levels came in at a whopping 779. 

According to a study by Vermeulen et al published in journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, normal total testosterone in healthy men are:  Age 25-34 , average 616.

 This would have been enough to send the mustacheless masses of the Seattle area knocking down Dr. Merlino's door had my baseline number not also been 779. 
Before 779/After 779= Net Change of 0.
As it was, my little experiment likely drove higher estrogen levels in my system as the testosterone wasn't able to go any higher.  Let this experience be a warning to you:

Disclaimer- Always track the results of new supplementation under medical supervision or risk inadvertently and ironically raising your estrogen levels.

Conclusion: 
 It would appear that my diet and lifestyle (lifting heavy things and eating meat) spike my T levels just about as high as they are able to go.  Either that or my high T levels compel me to lift heavy things and eat meat. . .

Free Radicals, Crossfit, and Supercompensation

"If eating a sandwich gives you a rash, eat paleo.  If it doesn't, eat Spartan."


I eat paleo a few times year.  Typically for about a month at a spell.  The rest of the year I follow what Zach Filer of Old Country Iron Club calls Spartan Diet.  This way of eating suits me because it has a few more food options than paleo does and I respond well to paleo no-no's such as yogurt.

The Spartan Diet is essentially The Mediterranean Diet tweaked to deliver calorie dense nutrition for athletes.  The need for this nutritional plan came in response to meet the recovery needs of athletes undergoing six week long waves of progressive barbell training called Caliber Cycles.

The details on how to follow The Spartan Diet will be the topic of future posts but some basic foundational principals include:

• High white meat intake
• High vegetable intake
• High olive oil intake
• Moderate red wine intake
• Low red meat intake
• Limited grain intake
• Yogurt with berries daily-  see as follows.

This is a performance diet.  Will you lean out?  Yes, but that is not the point.  There are dozens of weight loss diets out there to choose from if that is what you are looking for.  This nutrition gives you your best shot at recovering from a heavy 5,5,5+ on Monday in time to do it again on Wednesday without over training. 

The Spartan Diet:  Part I-  Berries have all the anti-oxidants you need.

If you google search "oxidative stress" with "Exercise" or "Crossfit"  you will likely come across alarming blogs and studies that demonstrate that "extreme" exercise releases FREE RADICALS!  For example:  P90X and Crossfit Athletes Beware

The relationship between increased free radical production (RONS) and exercise was first demonstrated by the early work of Dillard and his colleagues in 1978.  Since that time there have been nearly 300 original studies published exploring this relationship and how to mitigate it.  Wellman and Bloomer's  Acute Exercise and Oxidative Stress:  A 30 Year History is a comprehensive summary of that work and is worth a read.  The main points are summarized below.

This post began as a research project on which anti-oxidant supplements would be most effective for blunting the spike in Free Radical (RONS) production associated with high intensity exercise.  My research pointed me in another direction though. Free Radicals are not the villains they appear to be. 

• RONS are produced by high intensity exercise
• Conditioned athletes only produce spikes in RONS with higher intensity training
• Free radicals are agents of cellular damage and aging
• Anti-oxidants can act as "mops" that soak up or neutralize free radicals
• For decades researchers have attempted to isolate the perfect combination of anti-oxidant supplementation to minimize the post exercise spike of RONS.
• These studies were rarely successful
• When the proper dosage and timing of vit. C, E, Co Q10 etc. was isolated, the results were surprising
• Those test subjects who experienced a successfully blunted RONS production also experienced a blunted training effect.
• They did not exhibit the typical positive results of exercise such as increased insulin sensitivity, strength gains, increased production of superoxide dismutase etc. (1,2)
• RONS appear to play a role as messenger to stimulate a compensation response that causes the health benefits of exercise.  
• As with all stimulation, there appears to be an ideal volume of RONS production which stimulates an acute anti-oxidant response (4) and adaptation or supercompensation.  Below that volume, the body does not respond.  Above that volume tissues are damaged. (5)
• Anti-oxidant supplementation for the purpose of mitigating exercise induced RONS production is only recommended when training beyond your fitness level in the case of an unusual event that exceeds your body's capacity to respond such as a 50 rep max, marathon, competition, etc.

For normal training I recommend low volumes of whole food sources of anti-oxidants in the form of blue berries, cherries, raspberries etc.  The anti-oxidants found in these whole food sources evolved over millions of years to withstand the oxidation of constant sun exposure.  The relative volume of anti-oxidants present in this whole food sources is low but diverse and has been shown to improve anti-oxidant response following acute training bouts of training.  (6)

Conclusion:
Yes free radicals cause cell damage which causes aging and yes intense exercise causes an acute spike in free radicals but please don't throw the baby out with the bath water.  Those regular spikes in ROS free radicals cause your body's adaptive reactions that make you a fitter athlete and person.  It makes your body more resilient to normal daily free radical deluge that your body endures every time you consume food and every time you are exposed to sunlight.  The best way to manage your ROS balance is to have a fit oxidative response.  High intensity exercise is how your body gets it's oxidative swole on. 

It is not necessary to attempt to suppress the ramped up RONS production associated with regular high intensity exercise.  Daily doses of complex anti-oxidants in the form of whole foods such as blue berries is all the nutritional support you require to maintain an ideal volume of exercise induced free radical exposure.

Sources:

1) Wellman and Bloomer's   

Acute Exercise and Oxidative Stress:  A 30 Year History

2) Gomez-Cabrera  
J Physiol. 2005 Aug 15;567(Pt 1):113-20. Epub 2005 Jun 2.

3) Free Radic Biol Med. 2008 Jan 15;44(2):215-23. Epub 2007 Jul 31.

4) Acute Exercise Increases Plasma Total Antioxidant Status and Antioxidant Enzyme Activities in Untrained MenBerzosa,Cebrián,Fuentes-Broto

5) SCOTT K. POWERS and MALCOLM J. JACKSON

Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress: Cellular Mechanisms and Impact on Muscle Force Production
6) Traustadóttir, Davies 

Tart Cherry Juice Decreases Oxidative Stress in Healthy Older Men and Women

Clubbells and Indian Clubs: Legit Rehab Tools or Passing Fitness Fads?

For thousands of years Indian Club training has made guys in their underpants way stronger than you are.

If this is the first time you've heard about Indian Clubs or Clubbells, you're a little behind the curve.  They've been used as training tools for fighters from all around the world from Russia to Iran for thousands of years.  You could argue the case that the club has been around as a weapon and training tool for about as long as the opposable thumb.  

Pehlwani wrestlers popularized club training in India in the early 1900's.  To this date The Great Gama is the only wrestler in history who has remained undefeated his whole life which was substantial, as his career had spanned more than 50 years.

The Great Gama

Club training clearly worked for Gama.  If you are looking to dominate the Pehlwani Wrestling circuit you would be a fool to leave clubs out of your routine.  The more relevant question is whether or not this training has a universal application.  Are Clubbells merely a fun way to mix up the routine and run the house in obscure Indian Wrestling circuits, or are they useful tools for adding stability to injured shoulders and strength to competitive olympic lifters and kettlebell competitors?  I just began working with clubs recently.  The following are my initial observations:

PROS

• I'm Not Good At Clubbelling.  This is good.  Beginers make progress fast, progress that may transfer over to stability and strength in other areas.

• Accuracy-  You must be precise when performing a clubbell move.  A wrist angle slightly off is amplified by the length of the club bringing an otherwise acceptable snatch crashing down onto your shoulder. 

• Grip-  In many moves, you are throwing the club away from the body and stopping that momentum with the strength of your grip.  This move is called The Mill.  When performed with the proper intensity, it replaces an athlete's hands with what feel like monkey claws.

• Variety-  Due to the specific angles that can be created at the wrist with this long lever arm, there are infinite applications and movements to train.  

"The night time is the right time. . . "

CONS

• Perhaps due to their perceived Indian roots, many feel compelled to attach a psuedo-spirituality to the teaching and practice of clubbelling.  See photo.

Plan:

• Master a few basic clubbell moves that address my shoulder weaknesses (mills, casts etc.)  

• Add these moves as a supplement to my typical crossfit training

• As an experiment, compete in a USAW olympic lifting competition and an IKFF Kettlebell Competition in September and see if the clubs lend some universal strength and stability

If it works for this guy. . .

Hamstring Strain: Rehab For Rapid Recovery

A strained hamstring is worse than it sounds.  It means that your hamstring muscle is torn.  A first degree strain is a tear on a microscopic level, while a third degree strain is a muscle torn in half that collects in a ball above the knee.  A second degree strain is a partial tear accompanied by bruising and a palpable notch in the tissue.


How do you know if you pulled/ strained/ or tore your hammy?  You'll know.  A good sign that you are about to tear your hammy is that your age to strength ratio is out of balance and you are about to play flag football. 

Prognosis:
A grade one strain is the most common and is what is usually referred to as a "pulled hammy."  These should still be taken seriously in the first 3-5 days as it doesn't take much to turn a grade one strain into a grade two, or a grade two strain into a grade three. As a general rule, grade one hamstring strains should be rested from competitive sporting activity for about 3 weeks and grade two injuries for about 4 to 6 weeks. In the case of a complete rupture, the muscle will have to be repaired surgically and the rehabilitation afterwards will take about 3 months. 

If you know any athletes you know that these general rules are almost impossible to enforce when there is a game to be played.  For that reason let's explore some techniques to accelerate this lengthy and tedious healing curve.


1)  Avoid the Injury:

• Build up to full speed over time when preparing for a max effort sprint particularly when recovering from a hamstring pull.  You'll need 10 minutes of general warm-up before getting serious.  An example of escelating intensity post warm-up could look like:  100m @ about 85%, 200m@ 85%, 300m @90% before going 100% on subsequent 400m, 300m 200m and 100m.  This scheme would have been a good idea for me a week ago.



Here's an image of my right hamstring at the time of this posting.  I'm 7 days into a grade II and feeling pretty solid.  I'm on pace to return to balistic movements next week.  The following is the approach I'm using to get those results:



2)  Rehab the Injury:

• Control inflammation in the first 3-5 days-
• RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation)  I iced 5-7x/day for 10-20 minute spells
• Anti-Inflammatories- I do not recommend NSAIDs, but I have had success with the topical anti-inflammatory Traumeel.  It is better than tiger balm.  I know this to be blasphemous among many of my mentholated friends but traumeel is a blend of topical anti-inflammatory herbs supported by research and found to be equally effective at combating inflammation as NSAIDs but with a different mechanism without NSAID's well documented side effects.
• Avoid inflammatory foods by going paleo for the initial 3-5 days at a minimum.
• High-end your fish oil intake.  I went to 4 tbs./day for the first 5 days.
• Reduce muscle spasm-  Muscle spasm is a common and painful symptom of a hamstring injury. Because of the trauma to the muscle, signals of contraction are confused, and the muscle may be stimulated. 
• Keep the muscle lengthened but not stretched.  
• Avoid the seated position as much as possible.
• General soft tissue work can help with both the inflammation and the spasm of an acute strain.  We're not talking deep tissue massage here.  I used Graston on mine on days 2-5 by day six I was feeling pretty good.  Rather than breaking up adhesions, the goal was to facilitate healing by combing the broken edges back together. 
• Other useful techniques are foam rolling and pin and stretch. 
• Increase growth hormone and healing factors to your leg by continuing to train vigorously-  The hamstring is off limits for a while so hit everything else like it owes you money.  This is your chance to break away from those righteous  functional movements and indulge in a Jersey Shore-esque upper body jackage fest.  Baby oil, while lacking any medicinal or anti-inflammatory properties, is often liberally applied to the arms during and after these workouts.  Go ahead and hit those bench presses, those bicep curls and don't forget the shrugs.  For cardio, you can remove all of the sleeves from your t-shirts for time.  Enjoy yourself.  You've popped your hamstring and you deserve it.

Fist Pump'n Like a Champ.

What is an Exertional Headache?

An exertional headache (AKA thunderclap headache, exercise headache or sex headache) delivers the abrupt sensation of giving birth through the head.  They strike at moments of high exertion such as when lifting heavy objects, while having an orgasm, or while doing both.  They are often accompanied with the thought: "Am I having a stroke?"

The pain of a primary exertion headache is the result of compromised biomechanics in the neck leading to a spasm of the suboccipital muscles that attach the base of your skull to your neck.  This results in increased blood pressure in the vessels in the brain and causes a benign but exquisitely intense wave of throbbing pain that can last between 5 minutes and 24 hours.

There are two classes of exertion headaches:  Primary and Secondary. 

1) Primary Exertion Headaches are the direct result of high exertion and simple biomechanical factors without an underlying pathology.    Approximately 3% of the population suffers from benign primary exertional headaches.  (Neurology. 1996;46:1520-1524)

2)  Secondary Exertion Headaches are exertion headaches that crop up because of an underlying lesion such as a brain tumor or brain hemorrhage.  While the vast majority of exertion headaches are of the primary benign variety, sufferers of exertion headaches have an increased rate of intracranial lesions when compared to the general population according to numerous published studies.
If you are having exertion headaches, you would be well advised to have your medical doctor give you a physical to rule out signs of the worst case scenario.  Ideally, this would be a physician with a sports medicine background so as to avoid the irritating questions of "why do you lift heavy things?"  "Don't you know that squatting below parallel is bad for your knees?"  or "who told you that is how people procreate?"

How to Address Primary Exertional Headaches

When someone presents in my office with an exertional headache I address the biomechanics of the neck with cervical traction, Graston Technique for deep soft tissue work, and a chiropractic adjustment called an occiput lift.  Due largely in part to the Crossfit Games Open wod #4, I have had many opportunities to work on exertional headaches lately and this combination gets results.

K-Starr has some handy self care techniques that will keep your symptoms in check long enough to get an appointment with someone who can do some corrective work for you.

Is it safe to continue training with exertional headaches?
To get back to normal training, it is typically the case that you have to lower your intensity levels and go 1-2 weeks without inducing the headache before you can return to normal levels of pain free exertion.
Primary exertional headaches are benign.  After getting confirmation from your MD that there's no underlying cause, it is safe to train with or through the pain.  It is however not always possible to continue to train as it feels as though you have been punched in the brain and Trent Reznor has built a nest behind your eyes. 

You think Mastodons Used Tubing For Shoulder Stability? Dude, They Didn't Even Have Hands.

I once had the bad habit of partially dislocating my shoulder.  An MRI revealed a torn labrum in the right glenohumeral joint.  The solution- surgery.  I wasn't too keen on this as I was a young man bent on playing rugby every weekend.  I decided to give it six months of conditioning (and rugby) to see if I could avoid the surgery and stabilize the joint on my own.  It was the success of this experiment that  led me to where I am today. 

From my many years spent breaking and fixing myself and subsequent years fixing others, this is what I've learned: 
1)  Isolation movements are boring.
2)  Things that go unused are not effective. 
For these reasons, there is only one simple criteria for determining the single best exercise someone should do:   The one that they will perform regularly and with intensity.

Done regularly, with intensity and over a sustained period of time tubing isolation exercises for the rotator cuff might be the world's best stabilization exercises ever.  EVER!  The problem is that they are mind numbingly simple and no one has ever EVER stuck with them long enough to be preventative.  When the pain goes away, so does the tubing.  Look at this image below.  Does she look to be having a great time?

Exactly.

In your shoulder you want a strong flexible joint, but what the shoulder gains in range of motion, it often compromises in stability.  To maintain the balance of stability and flexibility, you'd be well served to use movements that demand both.  Enter Kettlebell Conditioning.


I like that Kettlebell movements begin in what is call the Warrior Stance.   The humeral head is pulled deep into the socket accentuating the depth and stability of the labrum.  This is easy to do but difficult to remember.  Stand as far away from a wall as you can and still reach it with your fingertips.  Now keeping your arm straight and without pulling your shoulder up toward your ear, draw your hand away from the wall by retracting your arm deep into the shoulder socket.  Easy right?  Now keep it that way while you perform the following movement:

The Arm Bar

This guy's form isn't great, but he's huge so he's in the post.

Could you picture this mastodon rocking hard to 80's glam rock while pounding his external rotators with tubing exercises?  Perhaps he left his medical tubing and his disappointment in the trunk of his car next to his World's Largest Person trophies and he's just making do with the Arm Bar in a pinch.  

If you own KB's you already do Arm Bars with the KB you own right?  So if this posting is useful for you, you can't do anything with the information for lack of equipment.  Solution? 

The Broomstick Arm Bar

What makes a kettle bell superior to a dumbbell is that the weight is off center.  For that reason when substituting a stick for a bell you don't hold it in the center.  The longer the stick the greater the stability demands on the shoulder.

After the press set your arm deep into the socket (warrior stance.)  Keep the stick parallel to the floor and at a 90 degree angle to your torso.  I do it like this:  3 sets on each side without a rest between, just a reset period as you saw above in The Arm Bar clip.  The time spent in the position is determined by the weight you use.  Stay there for several moments beyond your comfort level and rest when it begins to wobble and sway.

If it takes several minutes to get to that point of fatigue, it is time to make a change.  3 arm bars + 1 Turkish Get Up followed with 2 more arm bars all on the same arm before switching to the other side. That should do the trick.

The Arm Bar isn't the only thing out there but it gets results because it's a challenging functional movement that pushes stability demands and flexibility limitations in the same movement.  Before the next time you sit down to dutifully knock out a long cycle of elastic band rotators ask yourself:
"What would a mastodon do?" 

WWAMD?

Rhodiola and Adrenal Fatigue

 Adrenal Fatigue is the sort of thing that would stop a marauding viking or a Communist regime dead in it's tracks if it weren't for adaptogens such as rhodiola.

Being a Viking can be stressful.

Your adrenal glands are what allow you to respond to stress.  They are small glands that rest on top of your kidneys and they are an important part of your sympathetic nervous system as they release the catecholamines which we associate with the "fight-or-flight" response.  It appears that these glands have a finite capacity to produce these important hormones.  



Freedom hating is demanding on the adrenals.



 A life well lived can be pretty stressful.  Most of the people that I know like to drink lots of coffee, lift heavy things, and procreate.  All of these activities are demanding on your adrenal system.  When your lifestyle demands more stress hormone then your adrenal glands are able to provide, you run at a deficit which manifests in the symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue.

Symptoms include:
Mid line weight gain, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating, reduced sex drive and other upleasantries.

We all know that being a marauding Norseman or a Communist Empire bent on defeating freedom can be somewhat demanding on the adrenal system.  How then did Joseph Stalin and Sven Svensvenson not fall to the aforementioned ailments of chubbiness and morose fatigue?

 They used adaptogens such as Rhodiola that's how:

"Rhodiola has long been used in traditional medicine, primarily in Russia and Scandinavia. The Vikings used rhodiola to enhance physical strength and endurance, and it was commonly used by many Northern peoples to treat fatigue, poor physical endurance, nervous system disorders, and infections, and to enhance fertility."(1)

USES:
Rhodiola has been shown in studies to improve cardiovascular performance by reducing perceived exhaustion and by improving the cardioprotective capacity of lung tissues in hypoxic environments.(2,3)  Decrease lactate levels and skeletal muscle damage due to prolonged exercise(4,5.)  Rhodiola has long been used for treating the perceived effects of stress and anxiety as well.  This is not the sort of supplement that I have used on a maintenance basis as I do fish oil or vitamin D.  An early study showed decreasing cardiovascular returns with prolonged use but more recent long-term trials have showed continued benefits with chronic use. (4,5)

WHEN TO USE IT
You don't have to wait until you suffer overt symptoms before you supplement.  I start to consider this supplement when I'm training hard and I start to wake up at 2am. 


 HOW TO USE IT
Rhodiola has a more stimulating effect at lower amounts, and a more sedating effect at higher amounts. In medical treatment, the usual amounts taken are 200 to 600 mg per day of a standardized extract to at least 3% rosavins and 0.8 to 1% salidroside. The nonstandardized amount would be 1 gram three times daily of the root, the amount for the alcoholic extract (40% alcohol) is 5 to 40 drops two to three times per day (with a weight to volume ratio of 1:1 to 1:5 ). Rhodiola is usually taken before meals.

Golden Root, Rhodiola rosea, Roseroot

Visualization and Mental Practice- Take Off Your Shirt and Charge Around Like You Are On Fire. The Wold Cup Goal Will Be Soon To Follow.

My first experience with mental training came in the second grade.  I was at recess playing my first game of rugby.  We were uncertain of the rules and it took me only 10 minutes to find a way to break my collar bone.  Clavicle fractures are common and pretty painful.  Where the x-rayed clavicle once held smooth margins it was formed into the shape of a jagged X.  I wore a butterfly brace and initially a sling too.  After a couple of weeks, the orthopedist called my parents to schedule a time for me to come into the office and begin moving the arm again.  My parents were delighted to tell him that I wasn't available because I was on the mound pitching for my little league baseball team.

My parents love that story.  They take full credit for my rapid healing due to the fact that they had me practice a healing visualization each night as I went to sleep.  As I remember it I pictured a video game similar to Centipede where I blasted bits of material into the cracked bone.


An example of an effective visualization for manifesting butterflies.

The world is full of successful people who have built empires or defeated diseases who will tell you that positive visualization was pivotal to their success.  If you think the guy in the picture above got where he is today without some solid mental practice think again.  Bill Starr recently published an article detailing the techniques he successfully implemented in competitive olympic lifting for decades.  Now that he has retired he continues to use these same visualization techniques every night to prepare for for running errands the next morning.  That may appear a little OCD for most people who would rather being doing instead of visualizing but does it really work, and if it does why? 

The overwhelming majority of research on the topic of mental imagery/ mental practice is supportive and is statistically relevant.  From healing times in stroke victims,(1,2,3) burn victims, (4) depressives (5) to performance based outcome measures,(6,7,8) mental practice has been well studied and its utility validated.

Based on these studies and many others we could say that Mental Practice "works," but research is never very good at explaining why something works.  For that, you have to turn away from the measurables of research labs and into the touchy feely world of metaphysics and philosophy.

Visualization is a skill that improves with practice.  There are many different approaches and step by step models to follow that all basically revolve around visualizing yourself accomplishing a task with as much detail as is possible without getting distracted during the process.  Techniques involve engaging as many of your senses as possible to effectively create the scenario and engage your nervous system. 
 
It was proposed by Geshe Michael Roache in The Diamond Cutter and in popular New Age films such as What the Bleep Do We Know, and The Secret that any technique can work but only if it effectively convinces some part of your conscious or subconscious mind that the event visualized actually occurred.  This establishes a pathway and a neurological precedent that the body can use and replicate.  Proponents of this theory would tell me that the reason why my Centipede visualization sped my clavicle recovery was because during those visualizations I effectively tricked myself and "felt" as though I was healing faster giving my body no alternative but to go ahead and heal faster.
 
Also at work here is an idea that the physical world or objective reality is the construct of our internal subjective experience.  Have you ever noticed that some people have it easy because things always turn out well for them?  This idea proposes that it's the other way around.

The take home here is not the old "Fake it til you make it." The intent of which statement is to mislead others about your success until you eventually embody that success.  Instead, the goal is to "Fake it in a way that some part of you believes it."  The point is to manipulate and mislead yourself so that you will get out of your own way.  Still lost?  Try this out.  To manifest a successful visualization you simply skip the struggle and go straight to the celebration.  Here is an example:

Only suckers wait for objective reality.  Fire your kids' soccer instructor.  The four step process of scoring a game winning goal in the 2014 World Cup is simple: 
1)  Remove Your Shirt.
2)  Throw Said Shirt Into the Stands.
3)  Run In Circles As If Engulfed In Flames.
4)  Wait for objective reality to conform to this otherwise irrational behavior.



1-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21073100
2-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20022993
3-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19608100
4-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2502071/?tool=pmcentrez
5-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2672052/
6-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16368636
7-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20508474
8-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2525972/

$1 Chinese Food

Does this sign look familiar?  It does to me.  It resides just South of Tacoma by Fort Lewis.  You know that overpass that always has yellow ribbons flapping from it and Support Our Troops picketers?  That's the one.  Any seasoned traveller of I-5 between Seattle and Olympia is familiar with this disheveled sign and wondered just how far one dollar goes on exit 119.  This blog is not typically a restaurant review but I'm making an exception for this Northwest landmark.

I attended undergrad at TESC in Olympia, Washington and played for a rugby team in Tacoma at the time.  With my practice commute alone, I've driven past this promise of sketchy frugality hundreds of times but I never considered it a legitimate piece of advertising.  Until recently, I thought of it as part of the landscape like the Tacoma dome, or the really bright sign in front of the Emerald Queen Casino.  My parents live in Olympia and my little brother is in Portland so I still drive past this sign regularly enough to get me wondering if this offer is legit.

This holiday weekend, with our bodies and minds still polluted with the trappings of yuletide spirit, my little family and I ventured to see just what $1 buys South of Tacoma.

Jackpot.

I was surprised to see that the Wok In Wok Out was open to the public much less busy but it was both.  The $1 Chinese Food sign implies the sketchiest Chinese Food Restaurant in history complete with a murky fish tank and red dank carpeting. In reality, Wok In Wok Out was a more like an Asian taqueria.  Everything on the menu isn't $1, but for $6.14 the whole Pond family left satisfied.  Disregard the pained facial expressions below.  We are a solid 48 hours out and we appear to be clear of any volatile GI symptoms. 

Thrive Under Pressure: Recover Rapidly.

This posting is designed to help a group athletes out of Crossfit West Seattle in their upcoming Caliber Cycle.  These recommendations are general and are applicable to supporting recovery from any high intensity training cycle. This is the 4th Cycle that Zach at CFWS has run this year and we've learned a lot about how to get the most out of our efforts.  Most importantly:  Recover rapidly, Don't get hurt, and Don't get sick.

General:  

Many people commit to a fundamental nutrition change for the duration of the 6 week cycle.  Some go the Full Monty with strict Paleo.  Others go ala carte and cut out alcohol, gluten, dairy, or some other nefarious element of their lifestyle.  Do this.  Take a look at your nutrition and lifestyle and decide on your priorities.  What are you willing to commit to for six weeks to get the most out of this cycle?  Before the last cycle I made a 2 column list with Goals in the left hand column and Commitments in the right hand column.  It looked something like this:

Goals:                                           Commitments:

Weigh #200                                  Add 6 tbs. olive oil a day,GOMAD, 6 grams creatine/day

 Squat #370, OHS #225               Sauna on Wednesday, fish oil 20g/day, sleep by 9pm

57" box jump                                Find or build a 57" box and Jump On It.

Everyone will have their own goals for the end of this cycle but the key is recovery and the path there is the same:

1. Fuel Recovery
2. Control Inflammation
3. Prevent Injury
4. Don't Get Sick

1-Fuel Recovery

Whether you hope to gain or lose weight in this cycle it is important that you increase your caloric intake.  If you wish to lose weight then you are in the right program.  Adding a few pounds of skeletal muscle over the following 6 weeks will increase your metabolism.  Remember that calories are a measurement of energy.  You are planning on expending a lot of energy and you plan to recover quickly, so it is wise to plan on consuming a lot of quality calories.  The calories you consume will not cause you to grow.  They will pass through the following hierarchy:

1. Fuel Your Efforts in the Gym
2. Fuel the Recovery From Your Efforts
3. Fuel Adaptation/ Strength Gains
4. Fuel Growth

Many people who are afraid of "getting too big" only satisfy the first requirement and risk injury because they lack sufficient energy to recover and continue training without injury.  A simple way to increase your calories is to add something with a high caloric density such as nuts, avocados, olive oil, or a post-workout concoction of milk and protein powder.  For those of you who wish to add an alarming amount of volume to your stature, it won't be easy.  You'll have to eat in a way that is extreme and uncomfortable.  A wise man named Scotty once told me "The meals should be harder than the wods."

2- Control Inflammation/ Advil is not a vitamin.
Inflammation is not the enemy.  Inflammation is the initial step in the healing process.  It would be a mistake to rely on NSAIDs to suppress the pain of inflammation.  NSAIDs weaken your joints leaving you susceptible to injury.   Chronic consumption of NSAIDs often leads to serious gastric and kidney problems.

Instead relying on NSAIDs, control inflammation with:

Fish oil- That's right.  Lots of it too.  The guidelines in this link are extreme but if you are ever in your life going to take a high volume of fish oil, now is the time.  Buy it.  Then drink it.
 
Contrast Therapy-  Several minutes in barely tolerable heat and going right into shockingly cold water.  The occasional rest day at Banya 5 or the Y are easy ways to get this done.  After a series of particularly heavy training days make your tub into an Ice Bath and submerge your whole body to your chin for 5 minutes.  This constricts your capillaries and hastens recovery.  Its also strong immune support.  For a convenient alternative simply alternate your shower hot 2 min/cold 2min for three cycles.

NSAID alternatives-  When you're looking from the relief that you typically get from NSAIDs, try proteolytic and digestive enzymes.  They speed the inflammation and healing process instead of suppress it.


Don't Get Sick and While You're Up, Don't Get Hurt

3-Support Immune Function

It is well documented that the immune system can be suppressed during periods of high stress and intense training.  There is evidence that supplementing Vitamin C with bioflavinoids during periods of intense training decreases the frequency of upper respiratory tract infection.  A gram/ day of Vit C is enough to keep you well.  Make sure a that your supplement contains at least 500 mg bioflavinoids though.  Without this important co-factor, your vitamin C levels may actually drop due to poor binding and competitive inhibition of your food based Vitamin C intake.

There is some evidence to support the claim that supplementing the minerals Zinc and Magnesium during intense training cycles prevents hormonal imbalances and the resultant over training symptoms of fatigue and malaise.  The dose used in this study was 3mg/kg body weight/day.  Zinc is an excellent supplement for preventing and fighting upper respiratory infections anyway which makes it a quality supplement to use anytime you feel you may be close to your training threshold.  Just be sure to have something to eat first.  Zinc supplements on an empty stomach deliver a "rowdy tequila bender" level of nausea.


4- Prevent Injury
Everyone will experience some physical discomfort during this cycle.  It is normal for muscles to get sore after a hard workout.  It's not always necessary to "listen to your body" because your brain will often misinterpret terrible and glorious things like Fran and 400m sprints. "Help.  Stop.  Take a break.  You are killing me."    It is an important skill to filter these false alarms and recognize true warnings of impending injury.

Now is the time to get proactive about the weak links in your kinetic chain.  You know your spots:  shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, hip, knee, ankle- address your weaknesses.  Mobility issues in any of these joints will be exposed in the basic olympic lifts.  Make it a priority to get to class early and spend 5-10 minutes improving your range of motion.  The MWOD has dozens of quality mobilities for the major movements that we'll be implementing.  Supplemental therapies such as ART and Graston are sometimes necessary to make progress in areas with a history of injury.


Summary:  There you have it.  It is easy to thrive under pressure:  Recover quickly, don't get hurt, and don't get sick.  Contact me with any specific questions regarding recovery and supplementation.  Have a great cycle.