Body Balance Follow-up Evaluations – Men’s National Rowing Team
April 20, 2013
Do You Roll Like A Baby?
April 20, 2013
I had a meeting today with my financial adviser who is 33 years-old and keeps fit with regular training like Crossfit and biking. He told me that he was having back and shoulder pain since buying a new Tempurpedic mattress about three weeks ago. He wanted to know my opinion about the mattress, so I told him flat out that I do not like them. Sure they are nice and fluffy and conform to your bodies’ weight distribution which is all great until you have to change position. This is where the problems start and it is because many people have forgotten how to roll properly.
All infants with normal motor development learn how to roll exactly the same way. I am going with Nature on this one. I explained to him that unless you have the strength and flexibility like you did when you were and infant, rolling like a log could be a challenge. Thankfully for most you just need to relearn how to roll, simple enough. The reality is many adults have lost their flexibility and strength balance and they are forced to use a poor movement strategy and that’s probably why they get hurt.
Once I explained to him that he was probably not coordinating his body properly like he did when he was an infant where the shoulders and hips move together as one unit (log roll), it made sense to him. Hey I am not going to fight Nature on this one and since all infants with normal motor skills use the log rolling method why deviate.
As a spine and sports specialist for most of my 18 year physical therapy career I can tell you that most patients who have injured their low backs have lost this innate skill. So the next time you roll over in bed make sure you move your shoulder and hips together as one unit. You can practice this by lying flat on your back and rolling to the left 10 times and repeat to the right.
To emulate the way an infant rolls over (rolling to the left); start on your back and reach your left arm as if you were going to grab onto a bed rail while simultaneously pulling your left knee towards your chest (stop at 90 degrees of bend like when you are in a chair). Repeat 10 times then do the same to the right. This is one of Nature’s best core exercises. Once you re-learn how to roll any mattress choice would be fine.
Technique and Injuries
April 15, 2013
I recently received an email from a well-known rowing coach. He expressed his concern that recently posted rowing articles – whose authors focused on teaching people their own particular style of rowing — could actually increase rowing-related injuries. These same concerns apply to other endurance sports as well.
I haven’t read the articles he mentioned. And I likely won’t. It’s not because I don’t think the information is useful –I am sure it is. It’s because my current views on how rowing injuries occur puts little emphasis on rowing technique as the culprit.
Over the past four and a half years since I started my business, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about rowing injuries, from the hundreds of clients who have come to me because their chronic training-related injuries have failed to improve using traditional medicine.
Seeing clients from all over the US and Canada allows me to work with endurance athletes who train using a variety of technical styles, coming from so many different clubs and school programs. Regardless of the coaching style they’ll return to after I see them, a large majority (over 90%) will recover in a short period of time. What this has led me to believe is that technique, is really a very small player when it comes to chronic training related injuries.
Recovery from these chronic injuries, regardless of the technique used, occurs by first identifying individual flexibility and strength deficits. Once these deficits are identified, clients are then taught how to use my very specific exercise program to re-activate deficient areas of the body.
Many of my clients travel from far away. Often, I see them only once or twice so we have to get it right. The one thing I don’t do is coach specific sport technique. I do however teach my clients how their deficient muscles groups have forced their bodies to compensate by using poor movement strategies, which will eventually become good strategies as they correct their individual deficits.
Endurance athletes with chronic training-related symptoms have what I call a ‘bad toolbox’ — a poor balance of strength and flexibility. This bad toolbox doesn’t allow them to coordinate or move their bodies in an ideal way, and is part of the injury sequelae. I do see a small percentage of clients (high school girls) who suffer from chronic injuries, but who do have excellent posture and body sequencing. Yet, they sustain chronic injuries because while they are super flexible, they are also super weak. Once balanced, strength is restored, and symptoms disappear.
I only begin coaching specific technique (in my sport rowing, but could be done with other sports) about 6 to 10 weeks into a corrective exercise program. Athletes can now get into and maintain much better body posture. Their new ‘tools’ not only eliminate their injuries, but also allow them to create more power because they’re now better at applying forces through their legs, trunk, and arms. This is the foundation of proper technique.
The reality is that most endurance sport-related injuries that I’ve observed and treated are because athletes have poor ‘toolboxes’ — poor strength and flexibility. Once the athlete corrects the identified imbalances, they can return to the same coaching style without symptoms. I agree that proper bio-mechanical sequencing and good body posture do reduce injury risk, but have also observed injured athletes who have excellent posture and technique. I believe that the key to reducing the risk of training-related injuries lies in maintaining a strong and flexible ‘toolbox’ through well maintained and healthy body balance.
Dedicated to Making You Faster, Stronger, and More Resistant to Injury
Coach Kaehler
PS- If you would like more information on proper training secrets, please look out for an upcoming FREE REPORT called the “Training Manifest” which I will be making available shortly on my web site. I will let you know shortly by email, when you can get this informative eBook, by going to www.trainingmanifest.com or www.coachkaehler.com . Simply sign-up, when it’s available, so you can download and read this SPECIAL REPORT.