That's a fancy name for jumping. Adding it to your training program is a great way to burn calories and increase your overall strength, power, and endurance. The problem is, while many people can get off the ground (accelerate), they don't land so well (decelerate) resulting in injuries. In UBC this week, we've begun working on jumping and will work more next week on developing proper form when landing so participants can get more fat-burning bang for their fitness buck.
So, how do you stop yourself after jumping off the ground? You decelerate the speed and thereby decrease the force on your joints by:
•Landing on the ball of your foot and sinking into your heel. •Flexing at the hips, knees and ankles. •Maintaining a straight back/neutral spine position. •Maintaining your chest over knees and knees over second toe
This means you need the ability to properly load the muscles eccentrically while maintaining proper form.
We'll continue more on this next week with action!
Bruce Lee was a master at executing incredible feats of movement with unparalleled precision. One key to his incredible success was his devotion to perfect training form. While your fitness quest may not include your own version of his famous "two-finger" push up, it does illustrate what the human body is capable of and that proper exercise form is highly important to optimal fitness.
On a more practical level, exercising with bad form often leads to three things:
1) wasted training time 2) poor results 3) injury
Why? Because your bones are not positioned properly, which means your muscles can't create the most efficient amount of force in a balanced way to optimally perform the movement pattern.
What does that mean? Your body won't be trained in the most meaningful way. You'll likely overuse some muscles while underusing others. Supporting structures (aka tendons and ligaments) are forced to perform compensatory actions. Your overall training period is longer than it needs to be, in terms of noticeable change, than if your exercises were done more efficiently. Your results are less than stellar and your body, therefore, is not acquiring the look or ability you were after. Even worse, the imbalances are both visually and practically noticeable, AND they are create wear and tear on your joints and supporting structures. Your acquired dysfunctional strength/weakness then, more often than not, leads to injury.
So what can you do?
Learn to exercise correctly! Invest in yourself by taking whatever steps are necessary for you to get fit the right way.
Here are some quick tips:
1. Get help. Invest in a knowledgeable personal trainer or find a seasoned fitness partner (one who has invested time researching/learning proper technique themselves). Not only will you lessen the risk of injury, you'll also learn the necessary skills to move correctly. You'll also benefit from having someone to watch you and offer cues while you learn.
2. Use the machines. What?! Yes, as you may know I am not a big proponent of machines for most people. If you are NEW to exercise, however, and don't have someone to help you, using a machine can can help to "put" you in the right position. This can help you to acquire sound movement patterns while your mind and body learn correct positioning.
3. Slow down. One of the biggest issues with bad form is that people do exercises too fast. If you have any type of imbalance weakness, your stronger muscles WILL take over the exercise, so to speak, even if they are not suppose to. Slowing the tempo can give you a chance to consciously recruit the weaker ones.
4. Use the mirrors. Watching yourself increases your chances of doing the exercises the right way. Look at your joint positions, notice unnecessary shrugging, see and then feel where your body is in space. It's amazing how many times clients finally "get it" when they can see themselves while receiving cues.
5. Breathe. Your muscles need valuable oxygen to function properly. Holding your breath during even a single exercise repetition can cause you to feel fatigued sooner, leading to sloppy performance. Monitor your breathing and focus on maintaining a constant flow of air.
For many URBAN Boot Campers, running is an important component of long term success. Unforeseen injuries and pain can hinder exercise adherence and are often the result of overtraining or improper conditioning. A recent review of research has shown a number of muscular imbalances to be the cause of injury, most notably weak gluteals.
Statistics indicate that between 65% and 80% of all recreational and competitive runners experience some type of overuse injury annually. Such injuries include patellofemoral knee pain, illiotibial band syndrome, shin splints, Achilles tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis, and stress fractures. The vast majority of such injuries, ~80% affect the lower-leg, with nearly 40% occurring at the knee. Unfortunately, science and medicine have yet to truly understand the mechanisms behind such injuries.
Researchers recently reviewed the literature over a 28 year span from 1980 to 2008 and concluded that two mechanisms appear to underlie all lower-leg injuries. First, a small number of studies implicated "atypical foot pronation mechanics." Pronation, which occurs during the stance phase of gait as the foot flattens causing internal rotation of the tibia and femur, is essential to generating energy for the next stride. However, excessive or insufficient pronation leads to poor energy production and consequently to excessive motion about the foot and knee.
Second, and more prominent, researchers uncovered a growing number of studies that suggest "inadequate hip muscle stabilization" leads to a majority of overuse injuries. Because the hip muscles, specifically the gluteus medius, minimus and maximus stabilize the leg during gait, poor strength or conditioning of these muscles results in excessive stress at and below the knee.
Recent studies have shown that improving hip muscle strength reduces the incidence of knee pain in runners. With running season in full-swing throughout the country along with races every weekend there's not a better time to encourage runners to maintain their strength training programs.
Ferber, R., et al (2009) Suspected Mechanisms in the Cause of Overuse Running Injuries: A Clinical Review. Sports Health. May/June
Next time: Exercises to strengthen the gluteal muscles.
Some of you may have noticed me hobbling around a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle while running on a trail. Even now it's still weaker and less stable than before.
I've been working on strengthening it and being more aware of how I move, so I've recently noticed that I sit with my ankle turned out for much of the time I sit working at the computer. BAD HABIT! No wonder it rolled. "Sickling" the ankle can lead to increased ankle sprains as the ligaments on the outside of the joint become "overstretched" with time.
Do you have any bad habits that could make you more susceptible? I'm correcting mine!
Here are some great articles to help you learn more about your feet and ankles, and ways to prevent foot and ankle injuries. As we move into the season of outdoor activities (not to mention Outdoor URBAN Boot Camp season), it is extremely important that you keep your feet and ankles in tip-top shape!
Plyometrics!
