Mar 09

Why we squat with chains at NLPT

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(This article is aimed at NLPT athletes who have no background knowledge of chains, and NLPT parents who might be concerned at all the weird noise coming from the gym.)

At NLPT, many of our athletes squat with chains attached to the bar. At first glance, this probably seems like a gimmicky tool to make ourselves look cool and create a lot of noise. But while it absolutely does make us look and sound cooler (obviously), that’s not why we do it. There are actually a few great benefits that the chains provide to both advanced and beginner lifters.

Background

I really wish I could take credit for coming up with this idea, but sadly I can not. Lifting with chains was popularized by legendary powerlifting coach Louie Simmons, who trains world-class (think 1000 lb + squatters) lifters out of his gym, Westside Barbell.

I know what you’re thinking…”But I’m not a powerlifter.” Quite true. But that doesn’t mean we can’t borrow some of the tools powerlifters use to get strong. Also, there are some benefits to lifting with chains that are unique to young athletes.

Matching the strength curve

In muscle physiology, there is a phenomenon called the force (or tension)-length relationship. All this means is that the amount of force a muscle can produce depends partly on its length. A real easy way to demonstrate this is to extend your arm out across a table with your palm facing up. Then have a friend try and press down against your hand and you try and use your biceps to bring your hand towards you. Next, perform the same exercise, except this time start with your elbow at a 90 degree angle. You’ll quickly notice how much stronger you are at the 90 degree position than the fully extended position.

This happens when squatting too. As anyone who has ever performed a heavy squat can tell you, the most difficult part of the lift is the bottom, and it (generally) gets easier as you stand up. When training with straight weight (no chains), this means that we will always be limited by the weight we can handle at the bottom of the squat. So in essence, we’ll always be training at near 100% of our capacity at the bottom, and around 70-80% of our capacity at the higher positions, no matter how strong we get.

Go back and watch the original video, and just watch the chains. You will notice that as the athlete descends the chains will pile up on the ground, and as he comes up, the chains become suspended in the air. If you haven’t figured it out by now, this means the total bar weight gets lower as the athlete’s position gets lower (and is able to produce less force). This is what’s called accommodating the strength curve. The chains allow us to train at a higher percentage of that 100% capacity throughout the full range of motion.

It’s always funny to watch an athlete’s reaction to chains the first time they use them. When squatting with straight weight, there’s often a moment of relaxation just as the athlete gets to the top. In fact, when moving submaximal weights, the athlete often needs to decelerate at the very top to keep from jumping off the ground. With the chains, that tension is maintained throughout the a greater portion of the lift, which is a VERY weird feeling the first time it’s experienced.

Your set-up can screw you up

Setting up the chains is not as simple as just throwing them on and starting to squat. Don’t use enough and you’re missing the benefits of the chains entirely. Use too much and the bottom position is much too easy. The thing you want to keep in check is the DIFFERENCE between the amount of chain resting on the ground in the top and bottom positions. A good rule of thumb is to have about 15-25% of the total weight deload on the bottom. At NLPT, we make sure this is taken care of for all the athletes. In the top video, you’ll see one of our athletes squatting with 185lbs of bar weight, plus 40lbs of chain weight. This means the total weight is 225 at the top and 185 at the bottom–an 18% difference between the two positions.

Chains reinforce proper tempo

One of the hardest concepts to get athletes to buy-in to is the idea of moving the weight as explosively as possible at all times. Instead, most naturally prefer to move the bar with just as much speed and force as is necessary to complete the rep. In other words, if an athlete is squatting 100lbs, I don’t want him or her to push into it with 100lbs of force, I want them to push with 150lbs of force (or whatever their max is) and really accelerate through to the end. Both scientific research and practical experience have shown that lifting in this way leads to the greatest gains in strength and rate of force development.

Because the chain literally piles up as the athletes stand, the chains inherently teach the athlete to move with greater acceleration than if they were just using straight weight. With extremely high loads, this is crucial, because if the athlete doesn’t begin the ascent with enough speed, it’s unlikely that he or she will successfully complete the rep.

The chains are like having a second coach there, they simply force the athlete to move quickly.

Chains deload the most challenging position

Another key benefit for using chains with beginner athletes is that it deloads at the position where things are most likely to go wrong. Unlike experienced lifters, the motor patterns of beginner athletes are highly variable. You see all sorts of whacky movements, spasms, and bar paths that you just don’t see polished and efficient lifters make. Also, these variations are more likely to happen as the weight gets heavier. This is just ONE reason why I don’t like using extremely high loads with unexperienced athletes.

With the squat, I find that the chains take some of the stress off of the bottom position and allow them to settle into “the hole” much easier. The only way to understand how it feels is to do it, but it really is like there’s someone guiding you along into the right position. I like this aspect for lifters who are still learning to handle heavier weights with the squat.

They’re fun

Aside from all of the scientific reasons why chains are a great tool, another great benefit is that they’re just plain fun. The chains make lots of noise, and for most athletes (myself included) there’s just something indescribably cool about the sound of a chain piling up on the ground.

Training shouldn’t be all serious all the time. I feel it’s important for the athletes to have fun and experience new things. After all, I not only want them to have a great training session on that day, but I want them to keep coming back week after week, and year after year. As long as there’s some actual benefit, and the athlete isn’t being put at risk, I’m in favor of any device that makes training a little more fun.

Mar 07

Olympic Lifting for Athletes: Random Thoughts

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Here are just some random thoughts and observations I have regarding the Olympic lifts for training athletes.

  • Olympic lifting for athletes is not the same as Olympic lifting for Olympic Weightlifters. For athletes, the lifts are a tool to increase performance in their sport, for Weightlifters, it is their sport. They must be approached differently. I am not an Olympic lifter, nor am I an Olympic lifting coach. These are COMPLETELY different entities.
  • Coaches who don’t teach the lifts because they say it takes too long to learn should qualify their statements. I personally don’t use them in team environments because yes, they would require more time to teach than I have available. But for athletes I see in a small-group setting, I don’t see time as being an issue. I often program in ’10-15 minutes’ of practice, instead of specific sets and reps while athletes are in the initial learning stages.
  • I’m not looking for technical perfection. Again, these are not Olympic weightlifters. I don’t care about the optimal distance of the shoulders in front of the bar, or the knee relative to hip angle and the moment of bar contact. I care that the basics of the lift are there for them to reap the benefits, that the athlete can complete the lift safely, and that their technique will not be their limiting factor for progression.
  • Yes, the lifts are great. But no, they’re not for everyone. I won’t give them to an athlete unless I know we have enough time to dedicate to learning, that the athlete’s body is structurally prepared to handle the movement, and the athlete psychologically prepared to handle the learning process.
  • I’ve found that teaching with a broomstick is useless. You need to have a little weight in your hand in order to get some kinesthetic feedback.
  • I’ve found the clean is easier to teach if the athlete already understands the snatch. Unlike the clean, you can’t pretend to use your hips to snatch the bar.
  • In sport, the ability to relax quickly is just as important as the ability to get tense quickly, the O-lifts inherently teach this.
  • They also teach the athlete how to properly accept a high amounts of force from a relaxed state very quickly.
  • Except maybe for box jumps, they’re the only class of exercises I can think of that REQUIRE you to be explosive in order to complete them successfully. I like this self-limiting aspect.
  • “The hook grip feels weird.”…..Get over it.
  • The O-lifts are simply a tool to get better, they’re not a religion. There are LOTS of other ways to get stronger and more explosive.
  • Jon North is a beast. YouTube him.
  • If you can, pull from the floor. This keeps you honest and prevents you from cheating (especially on the clean) when the weight gets heavy. But keep in mind the first pull (floor to below knee cap) is not done explosively, this will pull you forward and ruin the rest of the lift.
  • There are no arms in the Olympic lifts.
  • I personally don’t use the full Olympic lifts with the athletes I coach (catching the bar in a deep squat). I prefer to use the power versions (catching the bar above the parallel point of the squat). The purpose of catching the bar in a low squat is to move more weight, pure and simple. All I care about is developing explosiveness, which I feel can be accomplished without the added risk of this position. And YES, when I lift, I perform the full lifts, so I do understand the process. But this is my opinion at this time, get back to me in a few years.
  • Stay. On. Your. Heels. Dammit.
  • Athletes: Enjoy the process of learning something new. If it feels weird and uncomfortable, that’s a good thing, it means you’re in touch with your body. You’ll get it.
  • If you’re watching people Clean on YouTube, there’s a 99% chance that it sucks. Just watch highlights of the Olympics, those guys are pretty good.
Jan 16

Improving Power with Glute Activation Exercises

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Many of our athletes perform what we call “gluteal activation exercises” as part of their warm-up routine. The purpose of these exercises is not necessarily to strengthen the glutes, but to get them firing properly before we go into our exercises for the day.

A recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research showed that performing glute activation exercises enhanced power output on a vertical jump test, giving support to this kind of warm-up protocol.

Methods

The study examined a group of 30 professional Australian Rules Football players, who were divided into three different groups, each performing a different warm-up protocol.

  1. The gluteal activation protocol (GM-P) consisted of one set of 7 different exercises targeting the glutes.
  2. A whole body vibration protocol (WBV-P) consisted of standing statically with 10-30 degrees of knee flexion on a vibration platform for 45-seconds.
  3. A control protocol did no specific warm-up (CON).

Within 5 minutes of the warm-up, each subject performed 5 consecutive counter-movement jumps on a Smith machine to assess their peak power output. The highest peak power achieved during the 5 jumps was used for analysis.

Results and Discussion

The GM-P group demonstrated a higher peak power output compared to the other two groups. Why did this occur? In muscle physiology, there is a phenomenon known as post-activation potentiation (PAP), where the power of a muscle’s contraction can be enhanced following a voluntary contraction of the same muscle. However that’s probably not what is going on here since PAP involves performing maximal-level contractions. In this study, we instead have an example of power enhancement following a low-level contraction. There is no definite explanation for this, however the authors suggest that changes may occur at the cortical level (in your brain) after executing low-level contractions, which has been seen when looking at contraction of the transverse abdominus (an abdominal muscle).

Study Limitations

There was no pre-test of the athletes’ peak power output. Instead the authors inferred that there were no differences between groups by comparing previously measured vertical jump heights, although it does not say when these measures were taken. However, I assume that these vertical jump heights were done free-standing, while the post-test for the study was done in a Smith machine. Without a pre-test using the same post-test procedures, it is difficult to be certain that all groups started at the same level.

The total warm-up time that for the two testing groups was very different. The gluteal activation group had to perform ten repetitions of seven different exercises before they were tested. In my experience, a warm-up like that would take at least 3-5 minutes if done properly. The vibration group stood on their platform for just 45-seconds. The authors explained that 45-seconds was chosen for practical reasons, as they wanted to know what they could implement into their team’s actual pre-game warm-up routine. While I understand this reasoning, this completely changes the intent of the study. If the purpose is to see what warm-up protocol is most practical in a real-world setting, then that’s fine. But if the purpose is to examine what warm-up protocol improves peak power the most, as many variables as possible need to be controlled so you understand what is causing the effect. However, this limitation does not take away from the most important finding of the study, which is that the activation exercises are better than doing nothing.

Practical Applications

Gluteal activation exercises are easy to do and require no fancy equipment. If you’re trying to decide what should be included in your warm-up prior to training or competition, these should absolutely be on your list.

References

Crow, J. F., Buttifant, D., Kearny, S. G., & Hrysomallis, C. (2012, Jan). Low Load Exercises Targeting the Gluteal Muscle Group Acutely Enhance Explosive Power Output in Elite Athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research .

Jan 04

Training Young Athletes: Things that matter, things that don’t

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Getting a young athlete (9 – 13 years old) into the gym for the first workout of their life is one of my favorite experiences as a coach. To think that moment is their first experience doing any sort of exercise or fitness is so incredibly humbling and exciting that it is difficult to express in words. It is one of those rare opportunities to truly have a positive and lasting impact on someone’s life. It’s why I do what I do.

There is also a lot of responsibility on my part to make sure the athlete has a successful hour and wants to return for more. Although learning and improving as a coach is a life-long process, I feel that my experience so far has taught me a lot about  what is important and what is not for those first few sessions and months of training.

What’s Important

Connection

When meeting a new young athlete, my first job is to make a warm introduction and get a read on the kid. Most of the time, the athlete will be very intimidated, nervously looking around the gym and trying to get a handle on their new environment. I usually don’t say much and just let them take it in. But very quickly, I try to get some kind of personal of connection going. It’s important to let them know that instead of some angry gym coach, I’m a friendly and approachable guy who is only here to help. I find making a joke at my own expense accomplishes this pretty well. After I get them smiling, we begin. This is a crucial step because I firmly believe that before an athlete will buy-in  to any directive I might give, they’ve got to buy-in to me first. We don’t have to become best friends right away, but some personal connection must be made and they’ve got to like who they’re dealing with.

Praise Effort, not Skill

I can’t tell you how many mistakes I let slide in these first few sessions. And still, I am constantly yelling out “nice job!” and “beautiful!” all the time, even if the execution isn’t that great. But that doesn’t mean I’m simply giving praise for nothing. I reward effort and attention. If I see the athlete is making a real effort to do what I’ve said, they get a pat on the back, even if it’s not perfect. Athletic development is a long, long process. I really don’t feel it’s that important to to attain perfection in the first week. Right now I need to develop the habits that will lead them to that goal. We’ll get there eventually.

One Thing to Focus On

It is so easy to overwhelm someone in this situation. I really don’t give an athlete more than one thing to focus on for any particular exercise. Too much information overloads the system and will just cause them, and me, more stress and frustration. Simplicity is key.

Physical AND Mental Stimulation

Most kids have the attention spans of goldfish. They will get bored very quickly if they’re not given something that forces them to engage. I incorporate tons of balance and coordination work in those first programs not only because they are essential athletic skills, but because they are impossible to do without becoming aware of the body. They are also just tons of fun. And while I’ll be the first one to say that sweating a lot does not equal a “good workout”, I do feel that kids want to and should crank it up a bit. They want to work, they want to sweat, and in my experience, nothing puts a bigger smile on a kid’s face than giving them a high-five after pushing the Prowler around for a bit. That sense of accomplishment is important and they deserve it.

Movement Quality and Awareness

When it comes to the actual exercises, the only thing I really care about is quality of movement, or should I say, getting THEM to care about quality of movement. Again, I don’t go crazy on technique, but I do get the kid’s attention on how they’re performing each exercise, what feels right and wrong, and establishing some body awareness. I get them to understand that we’re teaching their body new skills, and it’s important to learn this stuff correctly before we hit the big weights when they’re older.

Variety

I feel it is very important to expose young athletes to as many different movement situations as possible. It is crucial that athletes learn to be adaptable and develop the ability to pick up on new motor skills very quickly. One sure fire way to stifle this is to expose them to the same exercises over and over again. In addition to their warm-ups, I usually prescribe between 6-8 exercises per workout, and change things up every 3 weeks. This could include traditional strength moves such as squats or pushups, or more complex tasks such as balance work, hand-eye coordination drills and spatial awareness tasks.

Fun

I love training, and I want kids to learn to love it as well. I want them to understand that a gym isn’t something you should associate with physical torture, but with personal challenge, growth, accomplishment, and good times.

Learning the hip hinge.

What’s Not Important

Sets, Reps and Rest

Doesn’t matter. I could give a crap about the optimal rep range for strength versus endurance. In my experience, the normal rules of sets, reps, and rest just don’t apply to young kids at first. First of all, they are so weak and deconditioned that any set or rep scheme will lead to improvement. Secondly, I feel it is unnecessarily risky to load up a young athlete so much that they can only perform a couple of reps. As far as rest, I’ve seen 10-year-olds execute a program that would take me over an hour in about 20-minutes. Why? The little buggers don’t rest! They just go and go and go. And why is that? First because they don’t know any better (which is when I step in), and second because they are so little and weak that their bodies simply can not produce enough force to actually get fatigued. It’s really quite fascinating. My rationale for programming sets and reps for young kids is based on two considerations: safety and attention. I keep things very conservative and safe, and again, because of the “goldfish factor”, only give them what they can pay attention to. Simple and easy-to-remember is the key here, usually 3 sets of 5 or 10 for everything.

Load

Again, I’m just not big on this for newbies. Most young athletes won’t even be using any weight, but on the off-change that they are, I pick a weight that is somewhat challenging, but not overly so. I just don’t care if they can eek out another 5 lbs on the next set, it’s not the primary goal at this stage in their training. Besides, research has shown that novice trainees can gain strength with loads as low as 60% of their 1RM. I stick to this principle until their bodies begin to mature and the potential for strength gain really increases.

Exercise Order

Somewhere in the hallowed halls of strength and conditioning’s ancient archives, there is some law that dictates the optimal order of exercises within a session (speed before power, before strength, etc.). I simply don’t pay attention to any of that when writing these kinds of programs. The order of exercises and the program as a whole must be balanced and make sense logistically, that’s about it. Besides most of the exercises I have young athletes do incorporate multiple athletic qualities at once.

Jul 17

Using the Gym to Predict On-Ice Performance in Hockey

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Peyer KL, Pivarnik JM, Eisenmann JC, and Vorkapich M. Physiological Characteristics of National Collegiate Athleteic Association Division I Ice Hockey Players and Their Relation to Game Performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(5): 1183-1192, 2011.

This is a very interesting study out of Michigan State that investigates the relationship between certain physiological qualities and actual in-game performance. Typically, hockey-related research looks at how athletic qualities off the ice such as strength or explosive power relate to skating speed in a controlled laboratory setting. The assumption here is the faster we can make a player, the more successful he/she will be. But is this always the case? Success in the game of hockey is not as straightforward as objectively measured sports such as swimming or track and field. It relies instead on a host of skills and abilities that are both physical and tactical in nature. Speed, while important and modifiable through training, is only one of those abilities.

The purpose of the study was twofold: First, to examine the relationship between physiological abilities and plus/minus, believed to be a good overall measure of game-performance. And second, to describe physical fitness and skill characteristics of players grouped together by the coach’s subjective evaluation.

Methods

Subjects

The study examined data from the 2007 NCAA Men’s Hockey Division 1 Champion Michigan State Spartans. All players from the team, with the exception of goaltenders, were included in the study (N=24).

Measurements

  • Age
  • Height
  • Weight
  • Body composition
  • VO2max – Measured on treadmill
  • Leg press – 400lb repetition maximum
  • Bench press – 155lb repetition maximum test
  • Push-ups – Repetition maximum
  • Chin-ups – Repetition maximum
  • Land sprint test – average of 12, 110m sprints (ouch!)
  • Timed skating tests – Dot-to-dot, lighting test, lap sprint
  • Plus/minus
  • Player ranking as determined by the coach

Results

The researchers took all measurements and looked for correlations between total plus/minus score. Four tests were considered significant:

  1. Land sprint test (r = -0.568, p = 0.006)
  2. Chin-ups (r = 0.462, p = 0.03)
  3. Leg press (r = 0.554, p=0.009)
  4. Bench press (r = 0.499, p = 0.021)

When taking the coach’s subjective rating for each player into account, the researchers compared only the top and bottom six ranked players, and found a difference only in plus/minus. However, the researchers noted a trend for the top six to be younger, heavier, faster in the sprint test, and have better leg strength. It is possible that with more subjects, these trends could be significant.

Thoughts and Interpretations

The main takeaway from the study is that stronger players seemed to have better plus/minus ratings. Although one could make the argument that the “strength” tests were really measures of endurance as opposed to maximum strength, I would say that strength was still indirectly measured because maximum strength is going to have the biggest influence on strength-endurance. Think about it this way, who is going to get more reps out of a 155lb bench press: someone that benches 200lb or a someone that benches 300lb?

It’s interesting that there was a significant relationship between the land sprint times and plus/minus, but not the on-ice sprint times. The authors don’t go into much of an explanation on this, but if you examine the procedures there is a major difference in the way these tests are performed. The land sprint test was an average of 12 different 110m sprints, while the on-ice tests only took the best time of two trials. Again, we see a correlation between a test that involves endurance (of speed) rather than a maximum attained value.

The choice to look at plus/minus is interesting too. The authors even note that the measure of plus/minus and its reflection of a player’s ability is somewhat controversial in the hockey world. In my opinion, plus/minus is also heavily influenced by what kind of team the player is on. Here is a look at the top 15 and bottom 15 plus/minus rankings in the NHL for the 2010-2011 season. You’ll see that there are some pretty good players in both lists, but check out their team rankings and I think you’ll see where I’m coming from.

 

Aside from looking at different measures of performance, I would also like to see some different tests being performed in future research. Maximum vertical jump height has been shown to correlate well with on-ice skating speed and is an obvious choice. Additionally, correlating true maximum strength values using free-weight exercises would be valuable to learn about.

Final Thoughts

I like this study because it aims to be different. While the need for examining the relationships between physiological abilities still exists, I like that the researchers are looking for new ways to investigate the nature of performance and success in hockey. The more these kinds of studies get done, the more we will understand about performance and how we can design more effective strength and conditioning programs.

Jun 23

Training Around Osgood Schlatter Syndrome

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Any coach or parent that spends time in the world of youth sports has probably heard of Osgood-Schlatter Syndrome (OSS). The most common overuse injury among children, OSS is a condition that results in chronic anterior knee pain usually after or during a period of activity. From a training perspective, this issue is a little different than what we would normally deal with in the gym (muscular weakness, lack of joint mobility, poor movement patterns) since there is very little we can do to actively improve the condition. However, that doesn’t mean training has to stop. It just means the approach is going to be a little different.

So What is Osgood-Schlatter Syndrome?

OSS is typically seen in growing, highly active children between the ages of 12-15 years for boys, and 8-12 years for girls. Pain is caused by a chronic and repetitive traction stress on the tibial tubercle—the major insertion point for the quadriceps muscles—by the patellar tendon.

 

Younger athletes are more susceptible to OSS because the secondary ossification center (the area where mature bone is formed) of the tibial tuberosity has not fully developed and isn’t strong enough to resist the force put on it by the quadriceps. This repetitive stress can cause pain, swelling, and even further growth of the tibial tuberosity (Gholve, 2007).

 

Hold on A Second…

At this point, I could see where some parents or coaches might be thinking this is a great case AGAINST strength training for young athletes. While I see the logic, I think the term “strength training” needs to be qualified and put in perspective with the other stresses that most young athletes undergo.

The Law of Repetitive Motion

Before going further, let’s look at the Law of Repetitive Motion, which has been used to explain the factors that can contribute to soft tissue injury.

Where: I = Injury; N = Number of repetitions; F = Force; A = Amplitude (range of motion); R = Rest

 

According to the equation, risk of injury goes up when: the force is too high, the number of repetitions are too high, the amplitude (range of motion) is too low and concentrated, or if rest is insufficient. Usually, injury involves a combination of these.

When considering what “strength training” is, I think a lot of parents and coaches have this image of a young kid with a loaded barbell on his back, red in the face, eyeballs popping out, and straining like hell to stand back up into position. This is not the image I want to promote. While heavy barbells have their place for mature and prepared athletes, I don’t want parents and coaches thinking that is what we are doing with their kids

In fact, a well-designed strength and conditioning program takes into account the components of the Law of Repetitive Motion by:

  • Keeping the force high enough to induce an adaptation, but low enough that the athlete is able to safely handle it.
  • Not doing excessive repetitions beyond what is necessary to induce the desired training effect.
  • Keeping the amplitude high by always encouraging full-range of motion and introducing a variety of movement patterns and exercises.
  • Allowing for sufficient rest both during and between training sessions.

Compare that to an athlete who doesn’t train, and instead plays only one sport fives-times a week all year long. You have:

  • Moderate to high levels of force. Sprinting, changing direction, jumping and landing can put forces that are more than double the athlete’s bodyweight.
  • Extremely high repetition. How many steps, strides or jumps do you think can occur over the course of an hour-long soccer, hockey, or basketball game? Hundreds? Thousands?
  • Low amplitude since there is little to no variety.
  • Insufficient rest both during and between sporting activities.

Combine that with the fact that most sports involve quadriceps-dominant actions (skating, acceleration/deceleration, jumping), and I think you know where I’m headed with respect to the real culprit of Osgood-Schlatter Syndrome. But I digress…

So You Have OSS…now what?

Managing Your Activity

Limit what causes you pain

This one may sound obvious, but in my experience, athletes really have a hard time with this one. OSS is rarely so debilitating that an athlete can’t even move. In most cases, it is painful and irritating, but if they “suck it up” it is something they can keep going with. But playing through the pain of OSS is like driving a car with the emergency brake on and deciding that in order to go faster, the car needs a bigger engine. I’d rather just remove the brakes.

For some, rest may mean a slight cutback on activity. For others, it may mean totally abstaining from sports for a while. Whatever the case may be, choosing to focus on getting healthy is always the smart decision. Evidence is inconsistent in terms of how long it takes for the condition to resolve, with some studies reporting several weeks and others up to 6 or even 12 months. But one consistent finding is continuing to play only prolongs the condition (Gerulis et al., 2004; Bloom & Mackler, 2004).

Patellar straps

The use of patellar tendon straps have been shown to reduce the strain on the patellar tendon, and may be a suitable option for some athletes during activity (Lavagnino et al., 2011). Although this study was done on adults with patellar tendinopathy, and not adolescents with OSS, I suspect the mechanism of pain is pretty similar. Personally, I’ve known a few athletes that have used these with success in managing their OSS.

In the Gym

Rest does not mean a break from training, it just means we have to train a little smarter. This is where a little knowledge of anatomy can come in handy. Since this condition is caused by the chronic stress on the tibial tuberosity by the patellar tendon, we need to limit any activity with a high degree of quadriceps activation–namely, anything that forces us to overly rely on knee extension to perform the activity correctly.

What we can’t do

As stated before, we are not going to be doing anything that causes the OSS to flare up. Although there are always exceptions for what some can and can’t do, for most this will include:

  • Sprints
  • Plyometrics or other jumping exercises
  • Sled pushes/drags
  • Front squats
  • Most lunging variations

What we can do

For the upper body, we’ve got the green light. The only word of caution I’ll give is this does not mean you can “double up” on volume and intensity. If I thought doubling up would produce a greater training effect, I’d double the length of all of my workouts. Train the upper body as you normally would.

For the lower body, you can still get a great training effect provided you are being smart. Since we know a high degree of quadriceps activity will likely cause pain, emphasis should be placed on exercises that focus on the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, and low back).  Again, the list below is just what I’ve found works for most people. If it causes you pain, cut it.

  • Deadlifts (assuming they’re performed correctly)
  • Single-leg deadlifts
  • Glute/ham raises
  • Hip thrusts and glute bridges, both single and double leg
  • Sled walks (strike the ground with the heel first, not the toe while dragging the sled)
  • Adductor strengthening exercises

Concluding Thoughts

Just like most injuries, Osgood-Schlatter Syndrome is simply what happens when excessive stress meets an unprepared tissue. If it happens to you, listen to your body and take the time to get well. It’s better to take a few weeks off, hit the gym and get back to 100% than to play at 75% for the next two years.

References

Bloom, J.O. & Mackler, L. (2004). What is the best treatment for Osgood-Schlatter disease? The Journal of Family Practice, 53(2).

Gholve, P.A., Scher, D.M., Khakharia, S., Widmann, R.F., & Green, D.W. (2007). Osgood Schlatter Syndrome. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 19(1), 44-50.

Gerulis, V., Kalesinskas, R., Pranckevicius, S., & Birgeris, P. (2004). Importance of conservative treatment and physical load restriction to the course of Osgood-Schlatter’s disease. Medicina, 40(4), 363-369.

Lavagnino, M., Arnoczksy, S.P., Dodds, D., & Elvin, N. (2011). Infrapatellar straps decrease patellar tendon strain at the side of the jumper’s knee lesion. Sports health: a multidisciplinary approach, 3(3), 296-302.

 

 

Jun 15

Why Your “Plyometric” Routine is Killing Your Results

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From talking with parents and other athletes, one of the more popular training methods coaches use with their players is performing endless amounts “plyometric” (probably the most misused term in modern sports training)/jumps and sprints, in the desperate hopes that players will get faster and more explosive. While this type of work definitely has its place, using it in excess only leads to diminishing results and a whole lot of knee pain.

Let’s take your average 15-year-old male athlete just getting started in training. For him, this style of training will definitely lead to improvements in strength, power, and speed–leading this young man to think he’s on the right path to athletic stardom. This isn’t a reflection on the “superiority” of the program he is on, it is simply because being a novice trainee, his potential for adaptation is so high it really doesn’t matter what kind of training doing. It just needs to be more demanding than what he was doing, which was nothing.

So after experiencing success with jumping regimen, this athlete comes to the conclusion that he must be doing something right. And logically, why would he have any reason to change? Unfortunately, you can only do so much “speed training” before the body adapts to it, at which point no further increases in performance will be seen.

But power (which is really what the athlete is looking for) is made up of two qualities: force  and velocity. By spending most, if not all, of his energy on the velocity part of the equation, our jump-happy athlete is completely neglecting the force side of things, and severely limiting his power potential.

This is why young athletes need, and respond so well, to basic strength training. At NLPT, we do very little jump or “plyometric” training with our beginner athletes, and instead focus on increasing their much-neglected strength levels.

It’s now mid-June and we’re now in the process of re-assessing most of our athletes after their first 8-weeks of training, and it’s not uncommon to see 3 or 4 inch increases in vertical jump heights. All from increasing their force output.

Do what works, not what makes you tired!

 

Jun 13

The Common Goal of Training

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“The ultimate goal of training is to generate the greatest possible force and/or rate of force development in the intended direction of movement.” – Digby Sale

 

This quote from Dr. Sale out of the text Strength and Power in Sport (2003), is one of the most elegant statements I’ve read about strength and conditioning. It’s simple, it’s concise, and it’s 100% true.

Obviously there are tactical and mental aspects that are required for success in every sport (it doesn’t matter how strong you are if you don’t know your position), but from a training perspective, the athlete that can display the most amount of force in the right direction will generally come out on top.

If you don’t think this quote applies to your sport (maybe you’re a marathoner), then think about it in this way: what athletic quality limits your ability to quickly apply force in the direction you want? For a marathoner, aerobic capacity may be limiting his or her ability to maintain the desired level of force output (you can’t take a step if your heart is about to explode!). But that doesn’t mean all runners need to do to improve is run. Suppose you’ve got a high-level of aerobic capacity, but you’ve got the strength level of an infant. Working on your maximal strength will allow you to put more force into the ground, thereby improving your stride length. And the more distance you can cover per step (assuming your stride frequency doesn’t change), the faster you’ll go.

A football lineman may be able to squat 700lbs in the gym, but if he lacks explosive strength (rate of force development), he’ll never get the chance to express that strength on the line.

A pitcher might have certain joint mobility restrictions that screw up leverages and ultimately mask some untapped velocity.

A basketball player may be quick and explosive, but have a crappy vertical jump due to a low level of maximal strength.

A javelin thrower may have all of the physical abilities, but may be lacking the technique required to transfer force to the javelin.

While Sale’s quote can apply to nearly all sports, how you go about achieving the goal of “more force in the right direction” is dependent on the sport itself and the limitations of the athlete.

May 08

Risk Factors for Groin Strains in Hockey

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Adductor (groin) strains are one of the most prevalent injuries in the sport of hockey. It has been reported that adductor strains account for 10% of all injuries among elite Swedish hockey players (Lorentzon et al., 1988), and 43% of all muscle strains among elite Finnish players (Molsa et al, 1997). Between 1991 and 1997, a total of 617 groin/abdominal injuries were reported in the NHL, and it is estimated that groin injuries result in 25 missed player games per NHL team per season (Emery et al., 1999). Anecdotally, I can attest to the high number of groin problems just from working with a large number of hockey players all year round.

The first step in reducing injury occurrence is knowing what the risk factors are. Below is a short summary of some of those risk factors and what can be done to reduce the risk of an injury.

 

1. Adductor Weakness. Unlike running, which is a movement that occurs primarily in the sagittal plane, skating occurs in both the sagittal and frontal planes. The hip extensors and abductors are the primary movers responsible for creating force, while the hip flexors and adductors are what recover the leg after each stride. Additionally, the adductors are also responsible for eccentrically decelerating hip extension and adduction just prior to concentrically bringing the leg back under the body. It is believed that this repetitive eccentric stress on the adductors is responsible for the high incidence of adductor problems in the sport of hockey (Sim and Chao, 1978).

So what does the research say? A study by Tyler et al. (2001) on the relationship between hip strength and flexibility with adductor strains showed that among NHL players, hip adductor strength was 18% lower among players that suffered an adductor strain compared with those that didn’t. Additionally, they compared the relative strength between players’ adduction and abduction strength and found that adductor strength was 78% of abduction strength among injured players, whereas for uninjured players, that figure improved to 95%. These numbers show that not only is general weakness a concern for adductor injury, but balance of strength between the adductors and abductors is a significant characteristic as well.

Interestingly, adductor flexibility was not associated with adductor strain.

2. Time of Year. Most people who spend a lot of time close to the game of hockey don’t need a scientific study to tell you when most groin problems pop up. It is pretty common knowledge that this is an issue that is most problematic right at the start of each season when players resume higher-intensity on-ice workouts. One study found that groin/abdominal injuries were 5 times higher during NHL training camps compared with the regular season, and 20 times higher than the post-season (Emery et al., 1999).

3. Practice vs. Games. The risk for sustaining a groin injury is significantly higher when in actual competition compared to practice. One study reported an incidence of 1.4 injuries (not exclusive to adductor strains) per 1000 practice exposures compared to 78.4 injuries per 1000 game exposures (Lorentzon et al., 1988). As far as groin strains, Emery et al. reported that injuries occurred six times more often during games than practices. It is possible that the higher velocity of skating may be responsible for the higher injury incidence, as it has also been shown that adductor EMG activity increases with skating velocity greater than any other muscle group (Chang et al., 2009).

4. Previous Injury History. Just as it is with concussions and ankle sprains, one of the best predictors of a future groin injury is a past one. One source found a recurrence rate of 44% among NHL players (Tyler et al., 2001).

Take Home Message

It seems that if you’re a hockey player interested in getting a groin strain, the best way to go about it would be to not train all summer, and then dive right in to competition as soon as the season rolls around. Sadly, this is the path that many players take.

Although it could be argued that adductor strength is the only risk factor on the list that’s actually modifiable, I have to believe that if you address the strength deficit, the other risk factors will disappear. Be smart and get going on a well-designed strength and conditioning program that focuses on strengthening the adductors, and you’ll reduce the risk of a groin pull regardless whether it’s in practice, a game, during the preseason, or in the playoffs.

References

Chang R, Turcotte R, and Pearsall D. Hip adductor muscle function in forward skating. Sports Biomechanics. 2009. 8(3): 212-222.

Emery CA, Meeuwisse WH, Powell JW. Groin and abdominal strain injuries in the National Hockey League. Clin J Sport Med. 1999, 9(3):151-6.

Lorentzon R, Wedren H, Pietila T. Incidences, nature, and causes of ice hockey injuries: a three year prospective study of a Swedish elite ice hockey team. Am J Sports Med. 1988. 16: 392-6

Molsa J, Airaksinen O, Nasman O, et al. Ice hockey injuries in Finland: a prospective epidemiologic study. Am J Sports Med 1997. 25(4): 495-9

Sim FM, Chao EY. Injury potential in modern ice hockey. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 1978, 6: 378-384.

Tyler TF, Nicholas SJ, Campbell RJ, and McHugh MP. The Association of Hip Strength and Flexibility With the Incidence of Adductor Muscle Strains in Professional Ice Hockey Players. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2001, 29: 124.

Mar 03

Front Squats vs. Goblet Squats

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Q.With form being everything, isn’t one really just as effective as the other?  I’d say yes.  In fact, I would go farther to say that the front squat requires you to balance and stabilize more (given the length of the bar) AND then better increase strength/mass (with the ability to add weight).  But heck, what do I know?

A: I use both exercises with athletes for very different purposes:

1. I find it easier to teach the squatting pattern to novices using the goblet. It’s easier to load, there’s less to stabilize, and there’s really no risk of them dropping anything during the movement. It also gives them a good reference point for how deep to go in the squat: elbows to knees.

2. For a lot of people, lack of core strength (not, leg strength) is their limiting factor in squatting. If you want a demonstration, stand with your arms straight out in front of you and perform a deep squat. Without letting your weight shift to your toes, place your hand behind your back like you’re being put in handcuffs. If you found yourself laying on the ground, you’ll see what I mean.

The goblet position, because it’s held in front of the body, acts as a counter-weight and allows people to “sit back” a little easier. Therefore, I can get a good training effect for the legs without having to compromise stability. Once their anterior core gets stronger, I progress to front squatting.

3. Yes, there’s only so much weight you can hold in your hands before it just get’s impractical…and dangerous. I think we can both agree that doing a squat with 100lbs ain’t that impressive. But imagine trying to get that 100lb dumbbell into position for a goblet squat. Broken toe waiting to happen. Logistically, it makes more sense to just load up a barbell.

4. Sometimes front squats can be painful for people with AC joint problems, since the bar lays directly across the joint. So goblet squatting is a nice way of getting a squat in without aggravating the shoulder.

So my thoughts? Goblets are superior for teaching, developing good patterns, and working, weak links, and training around injury. Front squats are superior for healthy, competent athletes looking to get strong.