Exercise, Training, and Fitness | Chandler Collins, DC

It’s All Downhill From Here

by Dr. Collins on 12 Feb 2014
in Exercise, Training, and Fitness / Stress

If we ignore the current trend in professional sports to seek external, pharmacological help, there really aren’t any magic fixes for athletic performance enhancement. If our training techniques are optimal — and that’s a big “if” — then the methods available to try and take yourself to the next level are limited.

As usual, the trick is to get more fitness while preserving your health. Check out some earlier articles in this space to understand how the drive to improve our fitness can potentially negatively impact our health.

So, within these constraints, how do you get an edge? There are several techniques that have been used by both Olympic teams and weekend-warriors. Some are more available to the amateur athlete than others.

We’ll explore a few, break down the basic concept behind them all, and then finish off with a technique that can be used by anyone in day-to-day training.

More Air Please

Not too long ago the US Olympic Speedskating team was rumoured to have used supplemental oxygen to train its athletes. Team members put on masks that supplied oxygen at levels above normal atmospheric concentrations while they performed their usual workouts.

The idea was to provide “extra” oxygen to the athletes’ muscles, allowing them to engage a higher percentage of muscle fibers than they would otherwise. In so doing, the thinking went, they would be able to more effectively train a larger percentage of their muscle fibers than they would without supplemental oxygen.

Given the phenomenal success US Speedskaters had at the 2002 games in Salt Lake, many believe the technique is effective. It was an idea born out of the now popular “live high, train low” approach of having an athlete perform workouts at a lower elevation, enabling him to work out harder, while living at a higher elevation, reaping the benefits of the increased ability of his blood to carry oxygen after acclimatization.

Cool Down First

Everyone knows that you tend to get warmer when you exercise. In particular, the harder you workout the hotter you seem to get. It should come as no surprise then, to learn that world records in endurance sports are routinely set in cooler conditions.

Well, what would happen if you had a way to keep your body temperature cool, or even pre-cool it prior to exercise? This is exactly what the Australians did prior to the 1996 Olympics, with the development of a special ice jacket for their athletes.

The jacket was supposed to keep an athlete’s body temperature down in hot and humid conditions. With the body working under artificially cooler climes, it might be able to produce performances akin to the world record results seen when the mercury drops well below a normally comfortable 72 degrees.

Suspend Your Activity

When the media covered the amazing story of the thoroughbred Barbaro’s win at the Kentucky Derby and subsequent on-the-track injury, we were bombarded by video and photos of the horse suspended by a special pulley system to facilitate his movement and recovery (see http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0605/gallery.barbaro/content.1.html).

Similar contraptions exist for humans, too, when recovering from injuries that render us unable to support our full weight when we walk.

These devices support the pelvis, effectively reducing the weight that our legs have to bear while we walk on a treadmill. We can thereby retrain muscles that have lost strength due to trauma.

Instead of being used after an accident, what if we used such a device in training for competition? By removing a mere 10 lbs. of the load our legs have to bear under normal circumstances (and if you don’t think that’s a lot, try heading out for a 30 minute run carrying a 10 lb. weight next time), we’d be able to perform workouts at a much higher intensity, engaging, and thus training, a higher percentage of our muscle fibers.

And the Connection Is?

What do all these things have in common? Reduced stress. The technique applied reduces the stress from gravity, heat, or lack of oxygen.

In all cases an attempt is made to free the body of what is a common stressor, one that under normal circumstances would be considered unavoidable. In so doing, physiological resources become available to be applied to a not-so-common variable: the stress of training.

Unfortunately, all of these require specialized equipment and training to employ. So how can you and I get in on the action?

Go Downhill

Dr. Phil Maffetone, coach of six-time Ironman World Championship winner Mark Allen, recommends using a normal training tool: hills. Only this time, you’re not concentrating on going up the hill for its physiological benefit, but down the hill. The very thing that makes going downhill easy — lack of gravity stress — is what will allow you to push your muscles that little bit extra for an added training effect.

Whether doing this on the bike or on two feet, choose a long, gradual downhill section that will allow you to do some moderate intervals for at least 3-4 minutes. The longer the better.

Your pace should be right at the edge of your aerobic threshold. If you’re coming up on racing season and you’ve spent a few months steadily building your aerobic base, doing anaerobic threshold intervals downhill are appropriate too.

Play it safe, though. You can pick up a lot of steam headed downhill on the bike, so stay aware and keep your hands close to the brakes.

Improper form running downhill is also a great way to pick up a case of plantar fasciitis. The repetitive pounding on your calcaneus, or heal bone, is a common way to knock that bone out of position and inflame the connective tissue on the sole of your foot, the plantar fascia. Shorten your stride and stay off your heals, which is a good plan no matter what your running terrain.

Remember, it’s the downhill portion of the interval that’s important, so take it easy headed back to the top, spinning in a light gear on the bike, and jogging lightly, or even walking, when on foot.

This isn’t all to say that working the uphill portion of your terrain is useless. The strength-building benefits of uphill intervals are well known. Using the other side of the rise is a great way to change up your training and add a little extra to your routine, with little added stress.

Finding ways to effectively lower your total stress and still achieve good training adaptation will keep you healthy long enough to get optimally fit! Have fun!

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Slow Weigh Down

So here you are, caught in the weight loss abyss somewhere between the the culinary onslaught that was Thanksgiving, and the approaching diet-destroying duo of the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.

Time for exercise is in short supply. You figure that your best bet is to workout even harder than ever for the little time you have in order to maximize your calorie-burning hours.

Losing weight is all about burning more calories than you take in, right?

Well, no. It’s not quite that simple.

That idea leaves a lot unsaid about the overall effects of exercise on our bodies. There are lots of technical details involving fats, carbohydrates, and number crunching to illustrate why this doesn’t completely add up.

For now, though, I’ll spare you the mumbo-jumbo so we can get right down to understanding how different exercise intensities can impact our ability to get rid of those unwanted pounds. We can also use this knowledge to exercise in a way that helps you become more fit and stay healthy in the process.

The King of Core Muscles

by Dr. Collins on 08 Feb 2014
in Back Pain / Cycling / Exercise, Training, and Fitness

How often have you just finished a good 3-4 hour ride, only to be greeted by a sore, stiff back that isn’t too happy that you’ve decided to move from your usual hunched-over position on the bike? Do you have a hard time standing up after sitting for more than just a few minutes? Does your back occasionally “grab” on you if you bend over to pick up something you dropped? If any of these apply to you, it’s time for you and your psoas muscles to get intimately acquainted.

The psoas (pronounced SO-UHS) is a large muscle, deep in the core of your body. It originates from all of the vertebrae and disks (in between the vertebrae) in your lower back. It inserts deep in your groin area, on the inside of your femur, or thigh bone. It’s a thick muscle. Well developed, it’s about as big around as your lower forearm. This means the psoas has power. Power to move, and power to do damage.

If you’ve ever seen a sailboat mast you’ve probably noticed that the mast doesn’t just stick up out of the boat with no other support. There are usually wires, called “stays”, that run from the mast to the front, back, and sides of the boat to provide stability. Your spine needs similar help. Your back would not be stable if your spine simply stuck straight up from your pelvis with no assistance from other structures. Your psoas muscles provide a great deal of this support. In addition, the psoas is one of your primary hip flexors. This means one of it’s main jobs is to bring your knees closer to your chest. Anytime you’re bent over on the bike, sitting, or performing your best cannonball into the pool, the psoas is potentially in a contracted, or shortened, position.

This is significant for any cyclist. The psoas, just like any other muscle, can cramp or spasm. If you’ve ever had a cramp in your calf or the back of your thigh, you might have noticed that these muscles tend to cramp when the muscle is shortened, not when it’s stretched out. You also probably intuitively stood up to stretch out the muscle to relieve the cramp.

Since the psoas runs down the front of your spine, the only way to really stretch it out is to bend over backwards. Most of us don’t do this very well. So if you happen to be in the middle of a good hill climb, and your psoas decides to go into full-blown spasm, you don’t have an easy remedy! It’s exactly like having a cramp in your calf but not having any way to relieve it.

For anyone with back pain this means the psoas should get a lot of attention. On most people, psoas muscles that aren’t working well are usually (painfully) obvious. A psoas in spasm will not function to full capacity like a healthy, relaxed muscle, and will usually test very weak after a sustained contraction. A bodily “lean” to one side or the other is common. If you can’t stretch this muscle and relieve the cramp yourself, techniques need to be used that help relax the muscle without forcing you into a yoga-like move to bend over backwards.

Adjustments of the lower back and addressing pelvic torque can definitely help calm down the spasm. As with any muscle cramp, dehydration can be a key causative factor. Many of the stories I hear of people who’s back suddenly “grabbed” on them start out with a description of a long day in the saddle.

So the next time you have back pain, while on the saddle or anywhere else, ask yourself a few questions. Are you dehydrated? Have you had other lower back “twinges” or discomfort that might have been your body’s way of telling you that everything wasn’t quite perfect? Do you feel “twisted”, with one hip or shoulder higher than the other? If you can’t clearly answer questions like those and address the problem, get some help to do just that. Your body will thank you!

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The Risk of Training

by Dr. Collins on 07 Feb 2014
in Athletic Injuries / Cycling / Exercise, Training, and Fitness

If you’re training for a race, you probably understand that you will have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone in order to get better. You’ll have to increase your training volume, intensity, or both. You’ll have to add in new exercises or modify others.

However, most of us also understand that though we feel good with a certain level of training, if we add too much too soon at some point we will break down. We know that while we could perhaps handle 50 miles in the saddle, for many of us, attempting 150 would leave us sore, sick, injured, or all of the above.

Sooner or later what we all find out is that there is a risk/benefit ratio to exercise. Almost all forms of exercise have some benefit, but there are none that don’t also carry risk, either short or long term.

Working with both weekend warriors and elite athletes in my office and at the local mega-university, I have the unique perspective of seeing athletes at their worst. That is, I see them when they’re broken. Being in this position rapidly teaches you certain lessons about what kinds of training potentially have the most detrimental effects.

Since it’s much better to be an informed decision maker, let’s run through a short list of high-risk activities. These are things to which you should never let your guard down if you’re interested in maximizing both your training longevity and performance. Here they are, in increasing order of risk…

Eccentric Training

I’m not talking about exercises that make your friends think you’re strange, but rather movements that emphasize eccentric muscular contraction. When you raise a bar bell (or a beer for that matter), the bicep muscle in your arm is shortening while it bears the load. This is a concentric muscular contraction.

When you lower the bar bell, your bicep is lengthening while it bears the load. This is an eccentric muscular contraction. Eccentric muscular contractions are far more damaging to muscle tissue. Some amount of microscopic tearing is thought to happen with eccentric contractions, especially when under significant load.

This is the reason downhill running beats you up far more than going the other way. Explosive, jumping-type movements – what plyometrics are largely based upon – can be risky because of the heavy eccentric load your muscles are put under. This is true not because of the jumping involved, but because of the landing, which is an eccentric activity.

Weight Training

Among athletes, I see a huge number of injuries come from the weight room. Much (though not all) weight work is designed to isolate particular muscles or muscle groups, loading them in a specific, measured fashion, such that they will adapt and respond to a far greater degree than they might otherwise.

While this is arguably a great way to gain strength and fitness, it is a form of load that our bodies don’t generally encounter in nature. Bodies are “designed” for cooperatively combining the action of many muscles at once, to produce complex, multi-joint movements. Loading up a specific muscle without the aid of his neighbors places a higher likelihood on the risk for injury.

High Intensity Training

This one’s a doozy. Increasing training intensity too much at one time is one of the most frequent causes of sickness and injury. How many runners have we all encountered who were doing just fine plodding along at 20-30 miles a week, only to get injured the first time they attempt (usually unsupervised) speedwork?

Intensity needs to be increased in careful, measured doses. When starting out, if you’re having second thoughts about whether you can handle a planned workout, you may be biting off more than you can chew. Never increase volume and intensity simultaneously, and be sure to get guidance from veterans of high intensity work or a good coach before jumping off the deep end.

Poor Technique

This may seem obvious, but poor technique is by far the biggest cause of athletic injuries. Using good technique means performing a movement in a way that doesn’t place joints, ligaments, and muscles in mechanically disadvantaged positions.

Most people understand that complex movements like a golf swing or a power clean in the gym require excellent technique in order to both perform optimally and avoid injury. The not-so-obvious part is that people frequently assume their technique needs no adjustment for relatively more simple movement patterns like a running stride or pedal stroke. This is a dangerous assumption to make.

Adding poor technique to any of the other activities mentioned above creates a true recipe for disaster. Attempting focused eccentric movements, weights, or high intensity training without regard for proper technique is a sure way to end up on the couch for weeks, if not longer.

No matter what your sport, spend the time to develop good technique habits, and regularly seek guidance from those who have the knowledge and willingness to help you learn the best movement patterns.

It should be noted that, with the exception of poor technique, all of the methods mentioned above can be applied carefully and deliberately to achieve excellent fitness gains. However, getting better at an athletic activity, particularly of the endurance variety, is largely about staying healthy long enough to allow prolonged, consistent training uninterrupted by injury or sickness. That is, you have to survive long enough to get good. Keeping your guard up to these common pitfalls will help you do just that.

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Why You Have An Athletic Injury

by Dr. Collins on 04 Feb 2014
in Athletic Injuries / Back Pain / Exercise, Training, and Fitness / Knee Pain / Neck Pain

It might seem as though I’m being loose with my article titles, but I assure you I’m serious. If we really stop and look at the kind of injury that befalls your average athlete, we’ll find that this kind of impairment afflicts most of us at one time or another.

To start though, we have to know what we’re dealing with. The easy, broad way to define athletic injuries would simply be as an injury an athlete gets.

More specifically, it would be something that impairs the ability of that athlete to perform. The movements athletes perform — running, jumping, throwing, swimming, etc. — are the same ones the non-athletes utilize, only less often and less vigorously.

Some confusion arises over how injuries are diagnosed and classified. For example, the cause of your average case of tendinitis — inflammation of a tendon — is frequently chalked up to “overuse”. What does this mean?

It could certainly be said that an athlete might tend to work a body part a little more than the average Joe. A pro tennis player will exercise and put much more stress on her elbow as part of hundreds of serves in practice and match play.

But this doesn’t explain why she got tendinitis and her teammate, performing the exact same regime, did not.

Two players are as different as their genetics, environment, and training, but beyond this there must be some mechanism by which the tendon of Player “A” became inflamed and that of Player “B” did not.

I suspect the “overuse” classification of athletic injuries is frequently the descriptor added to an inflammatory condition for which the causal factor is unknown.

Evaluate Function, Not Pain

The impairment of the athlete is no different than any ache or pain you might have from time to time.

A wrist that hurts when opening a jar.

A shoulder that stings when you reach for something in the back seat.

A knee that “talks to you” when you climb a flight of stairs.

The ankle that still hurts from time to time after you twisted it years ago.

All of these ailments have a cause that goes beyond the stand-by “getting old” or “the same thing my Dad used to have” explanations.

More information can be garnered — and a more distinct cause perhaps identified — if time is taken to evaluate a person’s function, and not just their pattern of pain. By this I mean looking beyond where it hurts to try and ascertain, for starters, what movements are restricted, how posture has shifted, and what muscles are not working as they should.

The more specifically movements and muscle function can be evaluated, the better we’ll be at isolating the things that need to be addressed to improve function. If function is improved, the pain almost always takes care of itself.

How can I assume that you have an “athletic injury”? From the above it follows that athletic injuries result from impaired function. I haven’t seen a patient walk in the office yet who didn’t have an area that, once thoroughly evaluated, didn’t have some impairment of function.

We never walk around in a perfect state of function. Rather, we’re always in some state of adaptation to the stresses that befall us, both past and present.

The Fix

Whether we experience pain is determined in large part by how well we are able to adapt to a potentially injury-causing stress. Twisting your ankle may or may not hurt depending upon how well you alter the way you walk and carry your body weight differently over knees and hips.

A body will fix a problem by itself — healing a torn muscle, for example — if it has the resources to do so. It will otherwise adapt its function so that that particular muscle is utilized minimally.

Fixing the problem thus depends on isolating the part that isn’t performing normally. That is, find out how function is impaired, and then address the condition that is preventing its restoration.

This is very much like the circuit breaker in your house tripping when you try to flip the switch to turn on the lights in the bedroom. The circuit for the bedroom lights could have blown due to a number of reasons. Faulty wiring, electrical overload, or a short in a particular appliance, to name a few.

Getting the lights back on then requires two things. First, address the problem. Remove the appliance that’s causing a short, for example. Second, reset the circuit. Only by performing both actions will you get the lights back on.

Bodies work similarly, but the circuits are a lot more complex. When seeing patients, the “circuits” I fix every day can require the restoration of alignment with an adjustment to the joint, fascial work around an impaired muscle, or the aid of supplemental nutritional enzymes to help clear out debris and damaged tissue.

As we are indeed holistic individuals, the restoration of function can require that we address the entire spectrum of chemical, structural, and psychological stresses that each of us encounters every day.

For lasting change, however, we must both address the cause of the problem and do whatever is necessary to “reset the circuit”. Anything less is a disservice to you as an athlete in the game of life!

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It’s All Downhill From Here

Slow Weigh Down

The King of Core Muscles

The Risk of Training

Why You Have An Athletic Injury

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