I just returned from a trip to the World Athletic Centre (WAC) in Phoenix, Arizona for a coaching apprenticeship program (Link below). Under it's umbrella are some of the world's best track and field coaches and athletes. Resident coaches include Dan Pfaff, Stuart McMillan, Andreas Behm and Nick Sheuerman. It attracts the highest of high calibre of athlete in the sprints, hurdles, jumping and throwing disciplines. Aries Merritt trains here, the 110m hurdler who took Gold in the 2012 Olympics. So, please excuse me if I sound a little star struck but I felt the luckiest of lucky to be mixed in with such a great group of really hard working individuals. I was also humbled once again as I decided to join in the warm-up one day. God forbid those photos NEVER surface!
It was a fantastic week and I'm still processing the huge volume of information I acquired, although jet-lag is making even writing my name difficult. Below is a few learning's from the experience.
Beauty is in the simplicity
WAC operates from the track at the Paradise Valley Community College, which is a state university. The athletes then go to Athletes Performance (owned by Mark Verstegen), about 1 mile away to do a Weights room session straight after the track session. The Community college had it's own fitness facility, average age was about 65. I used this gym daily and loved it. I had to put this picture in because it was so inspirational. This chap was 79 and using battling ropes much better than I was!
But lets not get distracted by OAP fitness, back to high-level Sport.......
What I really noticed was there was a distinct lack of high tech equipment, force plates, timing gates and every other conceivable electronic gadget for the week I was there. There was a track, athletes, coaches and massage coaches. That was about it.
But what there was, was plenty of high quality training and coaching. Everything was about precision and technical mastery, subtlety of movement. The knowledge behind every simple cue or instruction was vast. There was also a LOT of track side physical therapy. I think this was one of the biggest learning's for me; the high priority that is given to a good dynamic drills based warm-up and mobility.
Gracovetsky proposed through his model that lordosis was the single most important factor to control distribution and transfer of forces between fascia and muscles, followed closely by trunk flexion.
This is supported by the human gait model proposed by Frans Bosch, whereby he postulates the importance of pelvic oscillation to efficient loading and unloading of leg and hip musculature.
Different degrees of trunk flexion affect the distribution of load through fascia and tissue and this has huge implications for teaching Olympic lifting or weight training and running, since pelvic position and trunk position will determine to what degree muscles over fascia do the lions share of the work. This not only has implications for injury management but energy costs, as work done by fascia has a low metabolic energy cost.
It did make me rethink this notion that the pelvic "tuck under or tail tuck" that occurs during deep flexion in a squat is poor form. Another opinion and it is only opinion! is the actual "tuck under" is an automatic safety response to lifting heavy and protecting the spine, as it is a way of "tensioning" the posterior chain. The angle of trunk flexion would make sense to optimise fascial use. It is what precedes it that is the problem. The hyper-lordosis or over curving of the lumbar spine places a big emphasis on the lower back musculature. It is likely that the hyper-lordosis magnifies the "tuck under" as there is then a bigger angular magnitude of change. Just a thought.
Preserving spinal health by minimising forces will be of high priority and this is likely controlled subconsciously to a large degree by the central nervous system. Whatever position that looks like will be the “best” position for that athlete, so there is no anatomical perfect position. It all comes down to function for that specific task. Loss of lordotic control or loss of integrity of the fascia should be of huge importance when considering the management of the athlete and hence the time and priority given to physical therapy at the WAC.
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| A 79 year giving it some! |
But lets not get distracted by OAP fitness, back to high-level Sport.......
What I really noticed was there was a distinct lack of high tech equipment, force plates, timing gates and every other conceivable electronic gadget for the week I was there. There was a track, athletes, coaches and massage coaches. That was about it.
But what there was, was plenty of high quality training and coaching. Everything was about precision and technical mastery, subtlety of movement. The knowledge behind every simple cue or instruction was vast. There was also a LOT of track side physical therapy. I think this was one of the biggest learning's for me; the high priority that is given to a good dynamic drills based warm-up and mobility.
Supple like a Leopard by Kelly Starrett is a good starting point for some really good mobility exercises. I rate it.
The 45 min warm-up included at least 20 minutes of myofascial stretches. There is another good book called The permanent pain cure by Ming Chew. These exercises are based on Guy Voyers work, a renowned doctor and therapist. This is something I have been playing around with over the last year and was really encouraged to see it in practice at WAC.
The 45 min warm-up included at least 20 minutes of myofascial stretches. There is another good book called The permanent pain cure by Ming Chew. These exercises are based on Guy Voyers work, a renowned doctor and therapist. This is something I have been playing around with over the last year and was really encouraged to see it in practice at WAC.
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| Track side therapy at WAC |
Know when to outsource a problem
No one can be a master of all trades but it is relatively less effort to identify and befriend those that are truly excellent in their fields. The more autistic and on the spectrum generally the better. One of the interesting things about Dan Pfaff as a coach is he has a really good network of; Biomechanists, Endocrinologists, Biochemists, Molecular Biologists, Exercise Scientists and every other "ist" and "ologist" out there. Not least because they know better what research is credible and what isn't and how to analyse data.
My network is growing but I outsource all my mathematical, IT and data analysis problems to my brother, an Actuary, who is truly excellent. I discovered this was probably best after realising my limit was a quadratic equation.
This brings me onto the next point
This brings me onto the next point
Fascia
Following on from mobility and myofascial stretching, we can get more specific with the lumbodorsal fascia.
My previous understanding of the role of Fascia was in force transmission, however reading Serge Gracovetsky's work on Spinal Engine Theory reinforces just how important it is for human movement and hence the high priority the coaches at WAC place on myofascial stretching and mobility. There are some good and quite funny YouTube videos of his lectures. I have added this on at the end of this post.
The functional role of the lumbodorsal fascia was elucidated only relatively recently. Classic works on the myofascial system were carried out by Harry Farfan (1970’s), Bogduk (1980’s) and Vleeming (1990’s). As a consequence of this research, the gradual evolution of a mathematical model came about to explain the problem of redundancy of the spinal muscles. The model persuasively explains why the lumbodorsal fascia can help a human lift loads as heavy as 250kg, despite the fact that the erector spinae in an isolated context can only lift 50kg. Even factoring in intra-abdominal pressure to stabilize the trunk, such pressure would have to be over 20 times human blood pressure, hence an impossibility for only this to account for the reality of what is possible.
The role of the lumbodorsal fascia is to minimise stress on the spine by offloading force to other structures in the musculoskeletal system. Its role is therefore not only to offload force but is essential to the survivability of the spine. The properties of fascia will also explain why “instability” is so important in human design and the fact that instability is a benefit to movement and mobility.
Collagen which makes up fascia is visco-elastic in property, with 1/3s time constant. The implication of this is any static holding of position will result in loss of function. Effective use of fascia therefore relies on cycling or “oscillating” loading and unloading of collagen and muscle. This allows tissues to rest and recover to maintain spinal stability.
The role of the lumbodorsal fascia is to minimise stress on the spine by offloading force to other structures in the musculoskeletal system. Its role is therefore not only to offload force but is essential to the survivability of the spine. The properties of fascia will also explain why “instability” is so important in human design and the fact that instability is a benefit to movement and mobility.
Collagen which makes up fascia is visco-elastic in property, with 1/3s time constant. The implication of this is any static holding of position will result in loss of function. Effective use of fascia therefore relies on cycling or “oscillating” loading and unloading of collagen and muscle. This allows tissues to rest and recover to maintain spinal stability.
Gracovetsky proposed through his model that lordosis was the single most important factor to control distribution and transfer of forces between fascia and muscles, followed closely by trunk flexion.
This is supported by the human gait model proposed by Frans Bosch, whereby he postulates the importance of pelvic oscillation to efficient loading and unloading of leg and hip musculature.
Different degrees of trunk flexion affect the distribution of load through fascia and tissue and this has huge implications for teaching Olympic lifting or weight training and running, since pelvic position and trunk position will determine to what degree muscles over fascia do the lions share of the work. This not only has implications for injury management but energy costs, as work done by fascia has a low metabolic energy cost.
 |
| Trunk flexion and pelvic tilt modifies the distribution of forces through the fascia and erectors spinae. The oscillation occurs at each step and delays the onset of fatigue. |
Observation of teaching cues at WAC, it was very apparent the high level of technical instruction. The volume was kept low but the emphasis was in the detail, the “how”- technical mastery. Subtleties of movement were emphasised and the all too well known debate of what to do about a pelvic position that is hyper-lordotic was revisited with the opinion from Dan Pfaff that is should ALWAYS be retrained to a neutral position. The rational can be explained through the above, whereby oscillations from a starting “neutral” position allows more mechanical work to be done by fascia compared to muscle.
It did make me rethink this notion that the pelvic "tuck under or tail tuck" that occurs during deep flexion in a squat is poor form. Another opinion and it is only opinion! is the actual "tuck under" is an automatic safety response to lifting heavy and protecting the spine, as it is a way of "tensioning" the posterior chain. The angle of trunk flexion would make sense to optimise fascial use. It is what precedes it that is the problem. The hyper-lordosis or over curving of the lumbar spine places a big emphasis on the lower back musculature. It is likely that the hyper-lordosis magnifies the "tuck under" as there is then a bigger angular magnitude of change. Just a thought.
Preserving spinal health by minimising forces will be of high priority and this is likely controlled subconsciously to a large degree by the central nervous system. Whatever position that looks like will be the “best” position for that athlete, so there is no anatomical perfect position. It all comes down to function for that specific task. Loss of lordotic control or loss of integrity of the fascia should be of huge importance when considering the management of the athlete and hence the time and priority given to physical therapy at the WAC.
References
YouTube clip part 1 of 3 lectures on Fascia by Serge Gracovetsky.
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