Right off the bat you read that title and you are thinking to yourself, “What is ‘R’ going to stand for this time. Funny how much a letter can evoke pondering. Had I titled this the importance of Rhubarb, who knows what you would be thinking, but likely you would be thinking something about Rhubarb.  Hmm maybe my next post should be about Rhubarb Pie.

Training, no matter what the the method, has one goal. That goal is to Refine.

Be it bulk, strength, fat loss, speed, corrective, etc the goal is to raise you to another level of yourself. It is to perfect and polish your ability to the best level that you can. If you aren’t following the importance of ‘R’ then your efforts are all in vain.

The 4R list of success

Rest-”Freedom from activity (work or strain or responsibility).”
Regeneration-”Renewal or restoration of a body, bodily parts, or biological system (as a forest) after injury or as a normal process.”
Recovery-”Restoration to a former and/or better condition.”
Reality-”The quality or state of being actual or true.”

The key to drive most of those things is balance in training. If you always rest, you aren’t training. If you push too hard all the time, you are never recovering, where is the balance?

Yakovlev's Fig 1

The Pusher

In your training program you have “The Pusher.” The pusher can be any internal or external factor that guides you to excel past comfortable levels of training expression.

The Coach
The Trainer
The Competition
The Inner Montage

All of the above can be leaders of the push towards conditioning and excellence. All above can be leaders towards your demise.

The Stressors

The Stressors can exist in physical training, but they can also exist in the realm of environment and mental. Meaning running long distance in hot polluted air while thinking about the fight you got in last night with your mother, is not helping bring forth the ‘R.’

The Healers

The overall problem is that there isn’t in most cases the factor of “The Healer.” For every push and stress you need an equal ‘R’ reaction.  Time and investment in the former always leads to snubbing of the later.

The Food
The Bed
The Foam Roller
The ART specialist
The Therapist

While some of the above doesn’t have to be literal, it all goes back to investment of your craft. People constantly invest in the wrong parts of progress. You can see this in every area of life.

Example of Investing Wrongly In Progress

-Doing aggressive intervals before having the ability to do progressive increase
-Disposing of rest times before imposing pause in training
-Utilizing superset training before understanding the basics of one move at a time
-Running for endurance before decreasing body mass and reading the body for impact

This kind of training is the equivalent of buying a cell phone on the basis of being able to have 10 people in a network, but you are lucky if your mom still calls and leaves that daily message about her favorite TV show.

You must walk before you run and you must regenerate for optimal recovery. It all ties together and being cheap in the beginning will leave you with half ass results in the end.

The Side Effects of Neglecting “R”

Obviously some things are specifically dependent on goals, but overall you can look for these side effects.

-Decrease in performance
-Decrease in desired body composition
-Decrease in sleep ability
-Decrease in strength
-Decrease in immune system
-Increase in stress
-Increase in sensitivity to mental and environmental factors
-Increase in fatigue
-Increase in stiffness and joint pain vs DOMS

Regulating “R”

A few logical reactions to training and stress will help you implement the “R” factor into your program.

-Higher intensity means higher rest time and a longer need for recovery
-A push is necessary for optimum advancement, but don’t expect such a linear advancement even with a balanced drive.
-Expect your greatest improvements to come after days of recuperation.
-Any decrease in nutrient value will lead in a increase of time need for optimal recovery. Because of this nutrient timing while in a hypercaloric state is crucial to obtaining maximum “R.”
-You can greatly improve the “R” factor with an extra focus on things like longer sleep, foam rolling, and proper warm up and cool down programs.

Tie it all together

When choosing or designing a program make sure that for all your actions you have set in place a recovery reaction. In doing so you will see tremendous improvement in RESULTS.

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One of the most common questions I get asked about is posture.  Specifically, how to know if your posture sucks, and if so, how to fix it.

Let’s face it, our lifestyles are such that poor posture is somewhat inevitable.  We sit in front of the computer for hours on end; we drive to and from work; we slouch on the sofa watching TV; we sleep on the same side of the bed for years on end; we bend forward to vacuum, mop, clean the bathtub, and zip up little coats.  Etc. etc. etc.

The best way to assess your posture is to get an objective view of your body.  You are looking to compare yourself to “ideal” and to also compare yourself to yourself, left versus right.

Equipment Needed: A camera, a printer, a pencil and a ruler/straightedge.

Step 1: Dressed in minimal clothing (men=conforming shorts/bathing suit/boxers; women=jog bra/shorts, swimsuit, etc.) take photos from the front, left, right, and rear.  Stand in YOUR normal relaxed posture.  No flexing.  No trying to stand up straight.  Be sure to get your entire body in the picture, feet and top of head.

Step 2: Print your photos out on regular non-photo paper.

Step 3: Using a pencil and a ruler, draw a vertical line through your body.  For the front view, aim for your nose, belly button, and between your feet.  For the rear view, bisect your head, buttocks and between your feet.  For the side views, bisect your shoulder and hip.

Step 4: Look for asymmetries.  Front and rear views are easy … the shoulders and hips should be at the same levels left and right.  The spine should be straight.  Weight should be equally distributed.  The side view gets slightly more complicated.  Basically, the vertical line should bisect the ear, shoulder, hip and outside ankle bone.  Look at the pelvis.  Does it appear that the pubic bone and ASIS are both shifted downward?  This is indicative of an anterior pelvic tilt.  What is the head doing?  Does the ear fall in front of the shoulder?  This means you have forward head posture.

Step 5: Fix it!  Below I’m going to give you some easy steps to take to correct minor postural disturbances.  However, if you find that everything is out of whack, do yourself a favor and please go see a professional in person.

Okay, so you’ve got work to do.  How do you fix it?  Keep in mind that some postural problems might have some underlying structural issues.  Like a scoliosis.  Or a true leg length difference (where if they were to take an x-ray of your entire lower half, one femur would be longer than the other – or one tibia).  Or Schuermann’s Disease.  And some postural issues have more than one cause, and will require a strong dose of patience along with concerted focused effort to correct.

1.     Anterior Pelvic Tilt: In general, stretch the hip flexors (TFL, iliopsoas, and rectus femoris); stretch the lower back; and strengthen the abdominals and hamstrings.  Sometimes this is just a matter of awareness too.  Many people just hang out in an anterior pelvic tilt out of habit.  Especially women … and more so those who have given birth.

2.    The Slouch: Stand with your heels against a wall, with your butt, shoulder blades, and the back of your head all touching the wall.  Drop your tailbone a touch.  Lift your breastbone toward the ceiling.  Drop your chin.  Now hold this posture as you step away from the wall.  Take your hands and rotate them outward.  As you do, you will feel your shoulder blades realign on your back.  Hold that position as you let your arms relax again.  To keep yourself there, have someone place tape (I use athletic) along your spine from your shoulder blades to your buttocks.  Trust me, when you slouch again, you’ll feel it!!  If you find this position supremely hard to maintain, then you need a boatload of thoracic work – foam roller, tennis ball extensions, reach and roll; as well as probably some pectoral stretching.  You probably also need some isolated lower trap strengthening.

3.    Forward Head: This doesn’t usually occur by itself, but sometimes it does.  The key here is to get the postural muscles working again to keep the head in a neutral position.  In forward head, the suboccipital muscles get short and you get a shearing force across the lower cervical vertebrae (usually around C5) with adaptive shortening occurring in the scalenes.  The levators get tight from working hard to hold the head up against gravity.  To fix it, lie supine (that’s on your back) with your knees bent and no pillow under your head.  Gently nod your head down.  Think about pressing the crown of your head away from your shoulders.  This MUST be a low-effort movement to elicit the postural muscles and not the sternocleidomastoids.

You can palpate the SCM; it’s the cord-like muscle that runs from the bump on your skull behind your ear down to where your collarbone meets your breastbone.  It must stay relaxed/soft when you are nodding; otherwise you are working too hard.  The low effort will trigger the deep anterior cervical muscles which work to prevent the anterior shearing as well as creating space in the suboccipital area, and stretching those muscles.  Once you have mastered this in supine, you can move to standing.  It also helps to do some focused SMR with a tennis or lacrosse ball – upper traps, suboccipital muscles, levator, rhomboids, etc.  You will also need focused lower trap strengthening.  And in all exercises (from pushups, to deadlifts, to shoulder presses), the awareness of keeping your head in a neutral position.

And now go tell your mother that you’re sorry.  You should have listened to her when she told you to stand/sit up straight!

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A University of Connecticut graduate, Julie is a licensed physical therapist and personal trainer who specializes in corrective exercise and injury treatment/prevention.  She is certified as a personal trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.  Find out more about Julie at her website http://www.keenfitness.com You can also reach Julie at JulieKeenPT@gmail.com

by Julie R. Keen

As a physical therapist, I get asked a lot of questions about eliminating pain. Most are from regular active folks who have everyday stressors (physical and otherwise) that are contributing to suboptimal mechanics and abnormal mobility/stability, ultimately leading to pain. Although many conditions do need treatment from a qualified professional, there are many things that one can do at home with minimal equipment to enhance normal mobility, improve stability, restore normal movement patterns, and reduce or eliminate pain. So if you don’t have a specific injury, but have aches and pains in various locations, then these tips are for you.

1. Stretch

Recently there has been a backlash against static stretching. Research shows that if it is done prior to activity/sport/weightlifting it decreases power output from the muscle. Okay … but that doesn’t mean that static stretching shouldn’t be a part of your overall fitness routine? We don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, right?

Many people have shortened muscles because of the way we live our lives. We commute 30 minutes for work, driving a car. We sit at a desk for 8 hours per day. Then another 30 minutes to get home. Add things like sitting for meals, sitting on the toilet, surfing the internet, sitting to watch TV at night and that adds up to a LOT of sitting.

Consequently, things like hamstrings and hip flexors get “tight” (short is a better term physiologically, but since most refer to muscles as “tight” we’ll go with that for now). We are on the computer, with our arms in front of us, and most of us are probably slouching for at least some of the time. Much of our time is spent reaching forward, so pectorals get tight.

I could go on and on here with various muscles. The point is that muscles will lose length if they have no reason to work through that length. This is where static stretching can help overcome this shortening. Yes, dynamic stretching is superior prior to a workout/sporting event to preserve optimal performance, but 5-15 minutes of dynamic work is generally not enough to overcome the effects of the rest of our daily activity. This is where static stretching comes into play.

• If you have muscles that limit your range of motion, then they need to be stretched.
• If your posture is sub-optimal, then you have muscles that need to be stretched.
• If you are having pain/stiffness, then you have muscles that need to be stretched.

In my fifteen years as a physical therapist, I have yet to find anyone who did not need to stretch at least one muscle. But, keep in mind, just because a muscle feels “tight” does NOT mean that it needs to be stretched. What determines a muscle’s need to stretch is its length. Common muscles needing to be stretched include: hamstrings, hip flexors/TFL, rectus femoris/quads, piriformis/glutes/deep hip rotators, pectorals, calves (gastroc and soleus), adductors, suboccipital muscles, and lats.

2. Posture, posture, posture

Your mother was right. Sit up straight. Don’t slouch. There are numerous reasons for this, the most primary related to performance being that if you are not in optimal posture, you will not have optimal movement patterns. Over time, your joints and muscles will adapt to the suboptimal posture, and that brings about a whole host of other issues.

Easier said than done though, right?

I have a simple trick to help you “remember” to maintain good posture. All it takes is a friend and a roll of athletic tape.

Step 1: Take off your shirt, and stand up tall. Don’t worry about chest out, belly in or any of that malarkey. Just imagine yourself stretching up as tall as you can be. Rotate your palms outward as much as you can (with your arms hanging by your sides). Hold your shoulderblades in this position, then relax your arms again.
Step 2: Have your friend place a strip of tape from the top of your shoulder to the top of your buttock, along the right side of your spine. Repeat on the left side of your spine.
Step 3: Put your shirt back on.

Trust me, you will feel this when you forget to maintain good posture!

Editors note: It F*%king hurts

3. Foam Roll

Yup. It’s been said many times before, everywhere you look on the internet. Get yourself a foam roller and roll. Better yet, get a foam roller, a tennis ball, a lacrosse ball, and the book The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies. Find your tender spots (trigger points) and work on them. Some need a roller; some need something smaller, like a lacrosse ball (or a tennis ball if you are a wimp). The key to remember is that muscles shouldn’t be tender. If they are, then the muscle is not functioning optimally. These trigger points also refer pain to other areas, so work on tender spots that might not necessarily be close in location to your aches/pains.

4. Breathe

I know it seems silly. I mean, not breathing is not compatible with life, right? Many people don’t breathe properly though. Deep diaphragmatic breathing has many benefits from stress reduction to improving shoulder function.

Here’s a quick test to help you know if you are breathing diaphragmatically.

Step 1: Lie on your back in a comfortable position.
Step 2: Place one hand on your lower belly (just below your navel). Place the other on your chest, just below your throat.
Step 3: Breathe. Which hand is moving?

Ideally, your belly hand is moving, and your chest hand is staying still. If this is not the case, then there are some simple fixes.

Practice, practice, practice!
That’s right, you need to practice breathing. Follow the steps above, and focus on making your belly hand move. Keep your shoulders, neck, and chest relaxed. If you find that you can’t do it, flip over onto your belly. Fold your hands up by your forehead, and rest your forehead on them. Concentrate on filling your belly “balloon” and feeling it press into the floor. Imagine that your belly is a giant balloon and you are filling it with air, starting at the bottom and moving upward. Fully exhale after each breath by pulling your navel in toward your spine. Concentrate on the breathing and let all other thoughts float out of your head. Perform for 5 or so minutes.

5. Build Core Strength and Stability

I really hate the term “core,” but I haven’t found a suitable substitute. To give a “definition” so that we are all on the same page, your core is the center of your body. Your trunk. The muscles that surround your core include the abdominals (all four layers), back muscles (deep and superficial), pelvic floor muscles, and hip muscles (all – glutes, hip flexors, adductors, deep rotators, etc.).

Believe it or not, many chronic pains can be attributed to poorly functioning core muscles. If your back hurts and you haven’t sustained any injury, I’d bet your glutes are not functioning properly. I’d also bet that your abdominal muscles are involved as well. If your knee hurts, you guessed it, your core muscles are involved again. Your shoulder? Yup. Glutes, abdominals, adductors, it’s all tied together.

Many poor movement patterns are also tied to core function. Can’t squat? Yes, could be hip or ankle mobility, but also could be core strength/stability. Trouble with pushups? Core.

Think of it this way. One job of our trunk is to provide a base for the extremities. If the trunk is stable, then the arms and legs have a solid base from which to provide movement. If the trunk is unstable, the arms and legs lose efficiency, and excess strain on the joints and muscles occurs, over time causing pain and dysfunction. It’s like walking a straight line,easy to do on a firm, level, hardwood floor; but not quite as easy on a moving fun-house floor.

These are my five favorite core strengthening/stability exercises:
1. Woodchop – in tall kneeling or half kneeling.
2. Reverse woodchop – in tall kneeling or half kneeling.
3. Turkish Get-Up. Dumbbell or Kettlebell.
4. Pushup variations – start with what you CAN do and progress. If you start too difficult, you will create issues instead of fixing them.
5. Overhead DB/KB walking. Snatch a KB or DB overhead, then walk. Aim for duration versus distance. Do both sides to stay balanced.

There you have it. Follow these five tips and you’ll have less pain in no time, moving more freely, and gaining in your workouts. If not, please see a qualified professional.

A University of Connecticut graduate, Julie is a licensed physical therapist and personal trainer who specializes in corrective exercise and injury treatment/prevention.  She is certified as a personal trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association.  Find out more about Julie at her website http://www.keenfitness.com You can also reach Julie at JulieKeenPT@gmail.com

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Feature item for this post: Foam Roller