Movement compensation on crutches

Since I started to learn Karate when I was 7 years old, I have consciously or subconsciously been trying to improve the way I move.  I have learned that if I want to put my body in a certain position, there are loads of different ways I can do it.  But I have also learned that some ways are better than others.

Movement Compensations are when one part of your body doesn’t (for whatever reason) play it’s part fully when you try to do a movement.  In order to put your body in the desired position, a different part of your body has to do more than its fair share, or maybe change its role entirely, or “compensate”, in order for you to complete the move.

A classic example is if you get your leg in plaster and have to use crutches.  In this case, your leg is not working properly, so your arms, shoulders and other leg take over, compensate and support your bodyweight on the crutches so you can walk. 

Another common situation is that many people these days have stiff or immobile hips (hence my mini series on hip mobility recently).  With the hips not moving fully, the spine has to compensate by bending too much and this can lead to injury (click here for more on this).

In my series of “How To:” articles, most of the “bad” examples show classic Movement Compensations, where movement at the hips/shoulders is reduced, while movement at the spine is increased.

I’m sure all of you recognise the general situation from your working life.  If you are working in a group or team, and one of you is a bit rubbish and not pulling their weight, then to achieve deadlines or targets, the rest of the group/team has to do extra to make up for the slacker.  It is obvious this working situation is far from ideal, and the same goes for the body.

But our bodies are so good at compensating for weaknesses, it is often the case that we don’t even know that we have a weakness that is being compensated for!  And without this knowledge, we don’t do anything about it and this can lead to:

• The weakness is never corrected.
• The weakness gets worse.
• The compensating bodypart is chronically overloaded.
• The compensating bodypart is injured.
• Another bodypart has to compensate for both the original and new weaknesses.
• …and so on…

So now we know what Movement Compensations are, how do we avoid them?

• Maintain or increase mobility of your hips and shoulders.  If we can move these major joints easily, then we are more likely to move them instead of others.
• Strengthen all muscles that move the hips and shoulders.  It takes strength to move these joints through their full range.  If we find it physically hard to do this, we are less likely to keep it up.  And notice I said strengthen all the muscles, not just “tone up the sexy ones”.
• Apply it to every aspect of your life.  If you only do it for a couple of minutes a week during training sessions, you are less likely to do it in real life where it really matters.  Make proper movement a habit and it will become second nature.  Make it part of your background activity.

Follow these points and your joints will thank you!

It’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it.

Training when injured

My friend was out running in the rain the other day, slipped and twisted her knee.  It is now lovely and swollen and she has been advised to avoid too much force going through her knee.

So what does she do now?  Does she have to lay up for a couple of weeks recovering and possibly losing some of the fitness she has trained hard to gain?  Of course not!  This is where cross training (and a little imagination) comes in!

First of all, here is the usual obvious disclaimer:

As with any injury, get it checked out by someone who knows what they are talking about.  It is stupid being all macho, ignoring an injury or “training through” it and screwing up your body for months/years to come.

Pain is a signal from your body that something is wrong.  Listen to it!

Then you need to find out what things are best to avoid.  In the case of my friend, it is higher impact, explosive forces.  Especially those that can force the knee in directions it does not like.  Knees do not like sideways or twisting forces.  They only like bending back and forth.

So for the moment, running, jumping and sudden changes in direction is out.  But her upper body is fine, and simple straightening/bending of the knee is also fine.  So instead of focussing on what we can’t do, we need to focus on the various things we can do…and then get doing it!

This is called cross training…or doing something different to complement our goals.

So simple things first.

Cycling

Cycling.  This involves simple, predictable bending/straightening of the knees, with virtually zero impact.  It maintains mobility of the swollen joint, increases blood flow (which can help healing), maintains leg strength and is fantastic cardio vascular exercise (it gets you out of breath).

Swimming.  Avoiding breast stroke where you can.  Breast stroke kicking has sideways forces going through the legs (not what an injured knee wants).  And on a side note, if you swim like most people (including myself untill recently), you arch your spine and neck back sooo much in an attempt to keep your face out of the water so you can breathe.  Stick your face in the water between breaths.  Your fitness/neck/spine will thank you for it!  Anyway.  In my friends case, she might want to swim front crawl, or back stroke.  This involves simple kicking of the legs back and forth (again, in the direction knees like) and is great for fitness.

Upper body erg – or the arm bike

Upper body ergometer (arm bike).  We have one of these in the gym and they are great.  No legs involved at all, so you don’t have to worry about aggravating an injury, so you can concentrate on working hard!

Rowing.  I love these machines!  But make sure you do them right.  Sit tall to look after your spine, and make sure when you bend your knees, they are between your arms.  Don’t twist them out so your arms are between your knees.  Remember, knees don’t like twisting!

Punching the bag.  Be honest now…are you really all that surprised I’m suggesting this?  I LOVE it.  You will just have to make sure you stay in one place.  No Ali-Shuffle for the moment.  Just stand in front of the bag and show it who is boss and keep out of breath.

Increasing your Background Activity levels.  If you are seriously struggling to find any form of training, then make sure that the rest of your time is not spent sitting down watching X-Factor.  Do something, anything else.

We will all get injured at some point.  The trick is to not throw our arms in the air and say

“buggerit!  I’m screwed!  I may as well sit here and eat cake until I’m fixed!”

Instead, we just work out what we can do, then get on and do it until we are able to get back into training for real.

1. Get injury checked out by someone who knows what they are talking about and start re-hab.
2. Find out activities/exercises you can do that do not aggrevate injury (eg if you lower limbs are injured, use upper limbs more and vice versa).
3. Adapt your training plan accordingly, then get on with being consistant.

Please do your bit and “share” this with your friends with the buttons below.  Ta!

Strength Training with Pressups

“New and important guidelines” have been released today about recommended physical activity levels for people in the UK.  Click here to read them and see how you compare.

Here are just a couple of my thoughts…

• It recommends aerobic activity (remember the golden rules of aerobic activity:  Get out of breath, Stay out of breath, Do it often) AND ALSO muscle strengthening activity.  And I know I sound like a sexist bastard when I say this (but I was brought up surrounded by women, my closest friends are women and i train a hell of a lot of women), but ladies!  Pick up some heavy-arsed weights!  Please!  In 50 years time, I do not want to be pushing you round in your bathchairs because your bones have crumbled away through osteoporosis, because you wrongly thought you would get “bulky” if you picked up anything heavier than you bloody handbag!  Click here to read everything I have written about getting stronger.

• It recommends “vigorous intensity” activity each week.  This is more than just a gentle stroll…it means something that really works you hard and pushes you out of your comfort zone.  Remember, “hard work” are not swear words.

These new  guidelines also include the following points:

• “The intensity at which we exercise is key, and light activity such as strolling and housework is unlikely to have much positive impact on the health of most people. For aerobic exercise to be beneficial it must raise your heartbeat and make you sweat.
• The more exercise you do, the better. Everyone should do a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise but that really is the minimum for health benefits. If you can go beyond 150 minutes, you’ll gain even more health benefits.
• Sedentary time (time spent sitting down to watch TV, use a computer, read or listen to music) is bad for your health, even for those who are achieving 150 minutes of exercise a week.”

In other words, it is saying that we should improve both our Background Activity and Peak Activity levels (click here for more information).

And finally, how many of us do you think are meeting the old recommendations of 30 minutes of activity at least 5 times a week?

• England: 40% of men and 28% of women
• Northern Ireland: 33% of men and 28% of women
• Wales: 36% of men and 23% of women
• Scotland: 43% of men and 32% of women

If you are interested in getting some real health and fitness benefits from your training, contact me for some coaching!

Strength Training with Pressups

“New and important guidelines” have been released today about recommended physical activity levels for people in the UK.  Click here to read them and see how you compare.

Here are just a couple of my thoughts…

• It recommends aerobic activity (remember the golden rules of aerobic activity:  Get out of breath, Stay out of breath, Do it often) AND ALSO muscle strengthening activity.  And I know I sound like a sexist bastard when I say this (but I was brought up surrounded by women, my closest friends are women and i train a hell of a lot of women), but ladies!  Pick up some heavy-arsed weights!  Please!  In 50 years time, I do not want to be pushing you round in your bathchairs because your bones have crumbled away through osteoporosis, because you wrongly thought you would get “bulky” if you picked up anything heavier than you bloody handbag!  Click here to read everything I have written about getting stronger.

• It recommends “vigorous intensity” activity each week.  This is more than just a gentle stroll…it means something that really works you hard and pushes you out of your comfort zone.  Remember, “hard work” are not swear words.

These new  guidelines also include the following points:

• “The intensity at which we exercise is key, and light activity such as strolling and housework is unlikely to have much positive impact on the health of most people. For aerobic exercise to be beneficial it must raise your heartbeat and make you sweat.
• The more exercise you do, the better. Everyone should do a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise but that really is the minimum for health benefits. If you can go beyond 150 minutes, you’ll gain even more health benefits.
• Sedentary time (time spent sitting down to watch TV, use a computer, read or listen to music) is bad for your health, even for those who are achieving 150 minutes of exercise a week.”

In other words, it is saying that we should improve both our Background Activity and Peak Activity levels (click here for more information).

And finally, how many of us do you think are meeting the old recommendations of 30 minutes of activity at least 5 times a week?

• England: 40% of men and 28% of women
• Northern Ireland: 33% of men and 28% of women
• Wales: 36% of men and 23% of women
• Scotland: 43% of men and 32% of women

If you are interested in getting some real health and fitness benefits from your training, contact me for some coaching!

This one is for all you office workers out there.  If you find yourself sitting in front of your PC for 8 hours a day, you are probably storing up a load of problems for your body.

Not only the obvious ones like getting fat and unfit, but soon your joints are going to start giving you problems, your mobility will reduce and risks of repetitive strain injury (RSI) will increase.

Workrave – http://www.workrave.org/

So I want you to take a look at a FREE little computer programme called Workrave (http://www.workrave.org/).  It is totally free and you run it in the background of your computer.  Then every few minutes it flashes up a reminder to take “micro-breaks”.  These can be simply 30 seconds where you are not staring into your monitor, or you stand up and walk round your desk a coupe of times.  Basically, it reminds you to not spend 8 hours solid sitting, peering into the screen.

I have been using it with a couple of people to help them improve their flexibility/mobility.  Everytime it flashes up a reminder, they spend 30 seconds doing a mini stretching routine.  The programme itself even has a few standard stretches/exercises built into it that you can follow, or you can just use the timer to remind you to do any kind of “little and often” task (eg – taking a swig of water, getting off your butt, sucking up to the boss etc).

And, if like me, you are not allowed to install anything onto your work PC, there is even a “portable” version that will run off any standard memory stick (http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/workrave_portable).

So seriously, if you work in an office and have ever used that as an excuse as to why you can’t increase your activity levels, try this little app and see if you can increase your background activity (click here for more details) levels.

Oh, and by the way, I am in no way affiliated to Workrave and am not getting sponsored by them or anything.  I just find it a fantastic little tool that can help people that want to help themselves.

Swag

I stumbled across this story (click here for the story).  Basically, people were paid money if they managed to lose bodyweight.  And they were more successful than another group of people who were not paid money.

But, when they were measured again 9 months later, they had regained most of the weight.

This is a very common thing for people and can turn into “yo-yo dieting”.  This is where you lose weight, regain it (and usually a bit more), then lose it again, then regain it (and usually a bit more), and so on for ever.

There are many reasons for yo-yo dieting, but in my opinion, a big one is that:

People focus on the wrong thing.

In this study, the people focused on “getting the money”.  So as soon as the study was over, and there was no more money to be earned, their focus disappeared and they fell back into their previous ways.

In many other cases, people “go on” a diet for a short, predefined time period.  This is often limited by an event of some kind, such as:

• A wedding.
• A reunion.
• A holiday.
• An arbitrary number on the scales.

And as soon as this time period is up, their point of focus is gone, so they go back to their old bad habits and they pile the pounds back on.

A much more successful way of losing weight, and keeping it off, is to simply focus on a different target.  Instead of focusing exclusively on “losing weight”, focus on:

Changing your habits and behaviours.

Change them gradually, steadily and permanently.

Some examples of good things to focus on include:

• Cutting out processed foods for 6 days out of 7.
• Doing at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day (moderate activity can be classed as something that gets you comfortably out of breath, eg walking, cycling, gentle swimming etc).
• Gradually increasing your periods of vigorous exercise to 3 or more times a week (I class vigorous exercise as something that works you significantly harder than your background activity, such as sports, exercise classes etc).
• Include a mixture of colourful vegetables in every main meal of every day (no matter who you are, and no matter how much veg you are currently eating, it is very safe to assume it is not enough.  So stop pretending I don’t mean you…because I do mean you…Yes, YOU!).

So by focussing on some of these more open-ended habits and behaviours, you will end up healthier, fitter, at a better bodyweight and you are much more likely to maintain that weight.

This is because once we are in a certain habit, it is much easier to stay in that habit.

And for all you parents out there, you are much more likely to pass these habits and behaviours onto your kids.  That means that they are much less likely to join the ranks of overweight/obese children here in the UK.

For more information on changing your habits and behaviours, click here.

For more example of good eating habits we should all try to get into to help us live fitter, healthier lives, click here.

And as always, if you like this, or know anyone who might like it, please use the “share” buttons to pass it on (you know how rubbish I am at spreading the word!)

Taking lots of breaks from sitting at a desk is good for the waistline and heart health, research suggests.  Click here to read the news story in full.

Research showing that if you sit around all day, you will get unhealthy.  But if you regularly get up on your feet (even for a minute or so) you can improve your health.

Click here to download the actual study paper.

Some practical tips from the story:

• Stand up to take phone calls
• Walk to see a colleague rather than phoning or e-mailing
• Have meeting standing up
• Taking the stairs instead of the lift
• Centralise things like rubbish bins and printers so you need to walk to them

Basically, what it is suggesting to do is increase your Background Activity (click here).  I love it when I am right!

And my favorite quote was:

“‘Stand up, move more, more often”

5 simple things anyone can do to help them manage their weight.  Click below to see the video clip explaining them:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12068595

And if you are interested, number 3 in the clip is talking about “Background Activity”.  Click here, here, here and here to see what I have written about it in the past.

And number 5 in the clip is talking about food diaries.  Click here to download a free food diary for yourself and find out a bit more about them.

If you like this, or know someone who might like/benefit from it, please share it using the buttons below.  I’m bloody useless when it comes to publicising things, so I’m hoping you can help me.  Thanks!

Out turned footprints in the snow.

This seems a small problem, and in the big wide world, it is not that major.  But that is one of the nasty things of it.  Because it is not that much of a major problem, it is ignored and never addressed.  So it lingers and becomes a habit.  And before you know it, this minor, insignificant trifle that you have ignored for years, is causing chronic pain in all your lower joints.  Now it is a big deal because it is preventing you from doing the things you took for granted, or the things you always dreamed of doing.

Pronated feet

Now I don’t know if the feet had caused the knee problem, or vice versa, but they are almost certainly linked.  And it shows how a small, insignificant problem can fester, spread and become a big problem in other parts of the body.

Knocked knees

This follows on from my last post about kids PE lessons in school, and how it is important to learn the basic movements skills.  And there is not much more basic than walking in a straight line.

So now while the snow is here and you are bunking off work, take a look at your how you move/walk.  Not only when you are exercising, but in your everyday life also.  And see how making a small change now can pay big dividends later.

It is a well known, but well forgotten fact that our bodies don’t improve during exercise/training.  Instead, they improve after exercise/training.  Put simply, during training, our bodies are damaged/broken/busted up.  And in the hours/days following, our bodies repair/improve/upgrade themselves, and make them just that little bit better than before.

Everyone out there is hunting for the newest/bestest way to exercise/train, but very few care, or even think about, their recovery.  So here are some basics about recovery.  These basics are applicable to everyone who exercises.  But it is obviously much more important for those who train hard numerous times a week, compared to those who might go for a gentle walk once a week/fortnight.

So what do I mean when I am talking about recovery?  Well, I define it as follows:

“Returning the whole body to a pre-training state”.

Jam Sandwich – High GI carbohydrates and calories.

And to keep it simple, I am going to split it into 3 sections:

• Nutrition.
• Physical.
• Mental/emotional.

Nutritional recovery.

When we train hard for a prolonged duration, our bodies use up a lot of resources.  The easiest ones to deal with are fluids, carbohydrates (energy) and proteins (muscle).

• To replace lost fluids, you want to be drinking (no, that does not mean alcohol!).
• To replace energy, you want to be consuming high Glycemic Index (click here) carbohydrates, such as sweets, ice cream, chocolate, cakes, sugary drinks etc.  In fact, as long as you are training hard, the half hour after training is the best time to eat all those things we should otherwise be avoiding/limiting!  (If, however, your goal is to lose bodyfat, ignore this bit.  It will not help you!)
• To repair/preserve muscle, you want to be consuming food containing protein.

Milk – fluids and protein.

And ideally, we want to have a quick “shot” of all these within the first half an hour after training. So how do we do this?  You can get sports recovery drinks that contain all the above in a single bottle.  These tend to be convenient and practical and easy to consume within the initial half hour after training.  Alternatively, you can simply:

• Drink your bottle of water or glass of milk (fluids and protein).
• Eat your jam sandwich on white bread and a handful of raisins (high GI carbohydrates).
• Eat your meat/dairy/egg sandwich on white bread (protein and high GI carbohydrates).

This initial quick “shot” get the recovery process going as soon as possible.  But within a couple of hours after training, we should be aiming to sit down and have a good meal of proper food with an emphasis on plenty of complex carbohydrates and protein.  This gives the body the tools it needs to replace all the resources it used during training, so it will be ready to train hard again next time.

Physical recovery.

When we train, our muscles burn up a lot of energy and dump out a lot of waste products.  These wastes are then literally flushed away by the blood flowing round our body and through the muscles.  But when we train hard, the wastes products can’t be flushed away fast enough, and they hang around in the muscles, causing aches/stiffness/soreness etc.

The best ways to aid our physical recovery is to help our body flush away these waste products, and bring in fresh resources.  And probably the best method of all, starts before the training session has even finished…

Active recovery, or a good cool down.

Active Recovery – an easy jog.

This is probably the most important method of physical recovery.

Depending on the duration and intensity of the training, this can be 5-10 minutes or more of gentle, easy aerobic activity, eg an easy bike ride, gentle jog, nice swim etc.  You can interspersed this with your static stretches to improve your flexibility if you like.  But contrary to popular belief, these stretches have little to do with reducing aches and soreness in the following days.

The idea behind active recover, is to simply keep the heart rate ticking over and the muscles gently pumping away, to help flush out more waste products and get fresh resources in quicker.

And Active Recovery does not end there.  You can, and should, use it later on in the day, or even on the following few days.  When you are feeling sore and stiff, there is nothing like a gentle, easy (ie not hard/intense/difficult) walk, jog, bike ride, swim etc to mobilise your body and help get rid of your aches and pains.

Passive recovery.

Passive Recovery – relaxing.

This is probably what most people think about when they talk about recovering from training…sitting or laying down, not moving and basically chilling out.  And it works.  Because the body is not working hard any more, it has the chance to get on with the business of repairing/improving itself.

But many studies have shown time and again that people do not recover as well, or as quickly, compared to Active Recovery.  This is possibly because the blood is not flowing as quickly/well as in a moving body.  So bad stuff is not circulated out, and good stuff is not circulated in as well.

So after a hard training session, even though you may want to collapse in a pile…it is usually not the best thing to do if you want to feel better.

Contrast baths.

Contrast bath – the cold bit.

This is a simple method to again, help the blood flush out the muscles.  You alternate between 3-4 minutes in a hot bath (37-43 degrees C), and 1 minute in a cold bath (12-15 degrees C), and repeat 3-5 times.  When you are in the hot bath, your blood vessels expand and more blood is shunted into your muscles.  And when you get in the cold bath, these blood vessels contract and all the blood is flushed out of the muscles.  This is the same principle as Active Recovery, except you end up nice and clean at the end.

If you don’t have access to 2 baths, do the same thing in your shower (1-2 minutes hot, 10-30 seconds cold).

Massage.

I have no personal experience with massage, but understand that it can increase blood circulation in the area being massaged.  This can help flush out waste products in a similar way to the previous 2 methods.  But the few studies I have read about massage have shown that they are not as effective as Active Recovery.

If you have a deeper knowledge than me, leave a comment below.

Mental/emotional recovery.

Emotional Recovery – a good nights sleep.

This aspect of recovery is very often overlooked by people.  And while it is much more of a consideration for high level athletes, or people who train hard/compete several times a week, it can and does effect your regular exerciser.  Usually when they have been doing the same routine for a long time without change.

Constantly putting yourself under pressure by training hard, or competing every week can take a mental toll on anyone.  Or constantly going through the same motions of the same workout, for months on end, can make the most enthusiastic exerciser grimace.

So a very effective way of recovering emotionally/mentally, is change.  These changes can include any or all of the following:

• A change in training intensity.  Alternate between easy/hard training sessions, so you don’t get stuck in a rut.
• A change in training duration.  Spice things up by sometimes having a longer/shorter session than usual.
• A change in training type.  Do something completely different.  Make it a totally different activity.  eg, if you are a cyclist, go off and spend a week hang gliding or something.
• A change in the company you keep.  If you are always training with the same people/team mates, spend some time away from them thinking/talking about something other than your last/next training session.
• A change in your training environment.  This can simply mean try out a different gym, or train outside instead of inside (or vice versa).

The above are all good tactical (short term) ways of recovering emotionally/mentally.  But we should all try a more strategic (long term) approach.  This involves having as stress free lifestyle outside of training as possible.  This is usually much harder to achieve, but can include the following:

• Spending quality time with friends/family who you can relax around.  But pick them carefully.  Being in the middle of an arguing family/group of friends is not stress free.
• Try to avoid clashes between training schedules and school exams/work assessments etc.  Coming from a competitive training session straight to a competitive school/work environment is not stress free.
• Develop a network of “helpers” who can assist you in your training logistics.  Eg, mechanics to take the stress of equipment from you, or drivers to take the stress of getting to/from training/competition from you.
• Ensure you get a good nights sleep every night.  Sleep is the bodies natural way of mentally and physically recovering.  You ask any insomniac how important a good nights sleep is.  Don’t skimp on it!

As you can see, the above are much more long term strategies that may or may not be practical for everyone or every situation.  But they do help!

But if you remember only one thing from this article, remember this…

“We improve in the time that we are NOT training”.