knee pain | Wild Geese Fitness Training

Knees, Upper Backs, Strength and Wolverine…….

3 05 2013

Today I’ve a few things on my mind. As per normal, my little grey cells are banging on overtime and I’m struggling to tame them into a single coherent article.

So I’ll not bother.

Instead we’re going to talk about:

The Knee
The Upper Back
How Strength Makes Problems Go Away
Wolverine.

So lets begin:

1 – The Knee.

The knee is blamed for a lot of problems, but unfairly so.
On it’s own it’s a complicated beast, essentially working as a hinge but also allowing for a limited amount of rotation. In a fully functioning human being, the knee will last for a lifetime or more, so why do so many have so many issues with it?

Here’s a clue:

Stand up, let your trousers hang naturally. Now, pinch some fabric and give it a twist, do it anywhere from the hip or thigh area. What happens below? Do you see creases forming around the knee? Do you see deformities in the cloth from the pinched area all the way to the floor?
Well that’s a very close analogy to what happens in the muscles and more importantly the fascia of the body.
If you have tightness forming in your calves, your quads or your hip flexors, I’ll place a bet that if you aren’t feeling knee issues yet, then you will soon.
I’ve discussed this topic at length in the past and will do so again I’m sure, but for now here’s one i wrote in response to some of our BJJ guys going on about sore knees.

Now THIS one comes from Mike Robertson, he’s much smarter than me, so read it.

2 – The Upper Back.

Would you like to still be standing tall in your twilight years?
What about having the shoulder stability to throw a knockout punch?
How about the explosive rotational power to take an opponents balance or twist out of a tackle?

Well to tick off all the above, you need a powerful upper back. You need to train this with a dynamic pulling action.
There are many upper back drills, any rowing variation will work,as will pull ups. But non are truly dynamic.
Enter the High Pull.

Better yet, the Half Kneeling High Pull.

Why half kneeling?
Well, it takes out a lot of the hip action forcing the upper body to do more of the work.
The half kneeling position is great for balancing the hips and stabilising the core.
The drill is unilateral and trains the diagonal pulling action of the core, something that is often neglected as people obsess over their anterior core. Imagine taking that “oblique crunch” that is so popular and working the exact opposite movement. Explosively. With weight.

Here it is:

3 - How Strength Makes Problems Go Away

Getting stronger can fix the vast majority of your aches and pains.
It’s the reason Wild Geese Martial Arts founder Paul Cox, with his 50year old arthritic hip and screwed up shoulder can still do this:

Not only that but regularly rolls with the BJJ guys.
How is this possible when he’s on the waiting list for a hip replacement?

Strength.

Strength from deadlifts, squats, kettlebell swings, jerks and figure 8′s.
Strong muscles, those that are trained holistically in a balanced method keep the body moving smoothly, they take some of the stress away from the joints, they ensure an aligned structure.
In other words, strength rules.
If you think you’re too old to strength train, have a look here:

4 – Wolverine

I have a finisher I like to use with my guys, it’s a countdown set of Kettlebell Swings and Bodyweight Squats.
We start with Swings for say 35 reps, then do 5 bodyweight or hindu squats. The swings go down by 5 reps each set, while the squats go up by 5 reps each set. This continues until the numbers are reversed. Needless to say, speed is a factor, get it done with minimal rest.

Usually I write it up as follows:
Beginners: 25/5
Intermediate: 30/5
Advanced: 35/5
Batman: 50/5

Then some smart arse pipes up asking ”whats the next level after Batman?”
Well, there’s only one superhero harder than Batman, only one with more attitude and that’s Wolverine.

So the Wolverine level Swing / Squat countdown is with extra attitude.
Use Double Kettlebell swings and Jump Squats, minimal acceptable level for Wolverine is 35/5.
I did it swinging a pair of 32′s outside the legs, and it sucked.
What will you do?

Thats all for today.

Will see you after the weekend

Regards

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com

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Tags: Batman, knee pain, strength, Upper back strength, Wolverine
Categories : Kettlebell lifting Dublin, Strength and Conditioning

Putting your foot in it

25 07 2012

“Hey, nice foot”
“Why thankyou, have closer look”

Today I want to talk about your feet and ankles.

Before I do though i need to draw your attention to Mondays post where I mentioned the 1 Mile Walking Swing challenge for RehabCare.
I have just set up a fundraising page over on mycharity.ie and would appreciate it if you could show some support.

But back to your feet.

Just this morning after the bootcamp I had one of my lads come up to me and ask about running technique as he’s feeling ankle pain. I looked at him and saw a pair of pronating feet.

Last week one of my other lads was telling me how his knees were sore from a run he did the day before. I looked down and saw a pair of pronating feet.

I have a lad who has terrible hip problems and has suffered for years despite going to Doctors, Physio’s, Osteopaths and even Chiropractors. In fact his previous strength coach was a qualified physio, Nobody managed to help him. I looked down and saw a pair of pronating feet.

I could go on, but I think you must be getting a theme here.

What does “Pronate” mean? Simply put, the ankle is rolled in towards your midline, the arch of the foot is moving towards the floor.
It is incredibly common.

In many cases it is also self inflicted.

Lets take an analogy to help explain this.
Have you ever had to wear a cast? Maybe you broke your wrist or leg or something, or perhaps you know someone who did.
After they’ve work the cast for 6 weeks or so, what did the limb look like when the cast was removed? How did it compare to its opposite number?

It was smaller and weaker right? It had atrophied as a result of being cocooned and immobilised in the protective cast.
Makes perfect sense.

But day in, day out we cocoon our feet in our shoes. Often the shoes are restrictive or extremely supportive.
Would this not make the muscles in our feet atrophy?
Damn straight!

So back to our broken arm. You’ve had the cast removed, what happens next? Usually you get refered to a physio (at least this used to happen) to get some exercises to rebuild the muscle and restore lost function in the newly healed limb.
After a month or so you should be right back where you started.

But we never do this for the feet, we simply fit a set of orthotics or similar.
Is there another way? Yes.

First off, unless you are out pounding the pavements for miles on end, lose the fancy runners. You only need the cushioning if you’re running on the streets. Get off road in a simpler or minimalist shoe and you’ll very quickly feel better. If you’re a gym user get the least supportive footware going, something like a school plimsole or a minimalist shoe. Better yet, forgo shoes entirely, we don’t allow them on our training floor at all, everyone is actually barefoot (not pretending in pair of vibrams). At home loose the footware entirely.

Then start to retrain the foot and ankle musculature. The following sequence is quick and easy, add it into your warm ups. I t fixed the runners knee issues I mentioned earlier in a single session, but do it regularly to really reap the rewards:

Walk forwards and backwards on the balls of your feet (planter flexed)
Walk forwards and backwards on the heels (dorsi flexed)
Walk forwards and backwards on the outside edge of the feet (supinated)
Walk forwards and backwards on the inside edge (pronated)
Walk forwards and backwards pigeon toed (feet turned in)
Walk forwards and backwards “Charlie Chaplin” (feet turned out)

This helps to rewire the brain-foot connections, sort of like defragmenting the hard drive and getting it running more efficiently.

I also strongly recommend picking things up with your toes, start easy with say a sock, then gradually move to harder objects like a pencil or a marble.

The last thing is to e aware of your foot position. Monkey Bar Gym founder John Hinds has a nice expression for this, he tells people to imagine they have ice skates on.
The blade of an ice skate runs centrally along the length of the foot, so to balance you have to keep the ankles pushed out a bit. Simply doing this and using the toes to grip the floor will activate the muscles in the feet and lift the arches.
It takes effort, but the long term benefits are well worth it. Your feet after all are your foundation, and like any structure, if the foundation isn’t solid, it will collapse.

Regards

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com

See also this post from my friend Shane over at FFI, he has these five things to say about feet: CLICK HERE TO READ

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Tags: back pain, Collapsed arch, hip pain, knee pain, posture, pronated foot
Categories : Strength and Conditioning

Releiving Knee Pain

7 01 2012

This is just a quick post as I covered this topic a few months ago.

Knee pain has been a much talked about topic of late, I’ve heard many people complaining of it, some train with me others are people who just seem to love telling me their physical ailments as soon as they find out what I do for a living.

Here’s the thing, there a very strong possibility that your sore knees are merely a symptom. Chances are your problem lies elsewhere and I’m going take an educated guess and say it’s your quads and hip flexors that are to blame.
You see, when the hip flexors and quads get tight they pull on the knee-joint causing pain.

Of course there’s a little more to the topic than just this, but for many of my guys this simple stretch has relieved their discomfort in both the knee and low back. Not bad eh?

Watch the video, then apply.

Regards

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com

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Tags: Hip Flexor Stretch, knee pain, quad stretch
Categories : Mobility

Knee Pain and Jujitsu

28 09 2011

Knee pain and jujitsu / wrestling seem to go hand in hand, but does it have to be this way?

My opinion is no, it doesn’t.
Due to the nature of the game, you are going to pick up injuries, and the knees are vulnerable. But that doesn’t mean you have to suffer. No, you can go a long way to preventing knee issues with some smart training.

In this article on knee injury for i wrote for the GAA website, An Fear Rua, I spoke about how strength and mobility through the hip joint is a major player in knee health. For a GAA player I simply suggested that they spend time with the Kettlebell Swing to develop the power endurance and range of motion through the hip.

But for a grappler, wrestler it’s a little different. Yes the swing is still an extremely valuable exercise and should definitely be utilised, but a JuJitsu man must develop strength through extreme ranges of motion. Not just in the hip, but the knee as well.
While range of motion can be developed with some stretching and mobility work, the strength aspect is too often forgotten about.

Before I go on, I’d just like to point out that many of the stretches I see in a BJJ class are a cause of knee pain. It’s not that the stretch is particularly bad, it’s more often that the student isn’t ready for it yet. An important phrase to remember is the following:

“The knee is the release valve for the hip” – Tom Furman

Tightness in the hip often manifests itself in the knee. If you try to rotate the hip, say you’re attempting a rubber guard, but you haven’t yet developed range of motion, your knee is going to pick up some of the slack, and it won’t be happy about it.

Two very common hip stretches I see are these:

Nothing wrong with the stretches per se, but they both will put a rotational strain on the knee joint, if your baseline hip flexibility isn’t up to scratch, both these stretches can aggravate the knee.
So, what, don’t stretch?
Of course you need to, there are better ways. These are my hip stretches of choice:
1 – Hip Extension & Internal Rotation Combo

2 – Hip Flexor and Quad Stretch:

3 – Glute Stretch:

Between these three actions, you will most likely find one that hits a problem area for you, and likely relieves back and/or knee issues that you already have.

Next have a look at this sequence, it’s a yoga based set that we use a lot. It’s put together from a few sources and has had a profound affect on my guys overall health. We generally cool down with this after training:

Now we come to the strength issue.
You need to squat, end of.

The single leg squat is one of the best leg training drill available, done right with proper balance and mobility you will get down into full range of motion, developing strength in the hip and knee.
The balance and stability needed to perform single leg work, as well as the fact that the back is safe even if rounded (no little or no external load is needed for single leg work) make this an effective and safe training drill, just so long as you progress slowly.
And don’t take my word for it, here’s world renowned Strength Coach, BJJ Black Belt and World Champion Steve Maxwell giving his opinion: