Preventing Injuries through Understanding Proper Muscle Recruitment

By Paul Roberts

What Does Sand & Steel Do?

• Triple Assessment System (Movement, Nutrition, Composition)• Personal Training• Group Training• Nutrition• Benchmarks/Assessment

Professionals looking for:• Weight loss• Strength Gain• Body Composition Improvement• Rehabilitation• Sport Specific Training

Who are our Clients?

Free Assessmenthttp://www.sandandsteelfitness.com/deals/coupon/Unlock Code: NQF_Assessment

Paul Robertspaul@sandandsteelfitness.com571.257.7007 www.sandandsteelfitness.com

• Owner of Sand & Steel Fitness (Old Town Alexandria)• BioMedical Engineer from Johns Hopkins• CrossFit Level 1 Trainer• Russian KettleBell Club HKC certified• TRX Suspension Trainer Certified• Patent attorney specializing in surgical tools and

repair, health monitoring tools, and fitness equipment

Overcoming Health Obstacles:• Death and Depression from Obesity, • Cancer, • Cholesterol, • Sports Injuries: hamstring Pulls, • Bicep Rupture.

Move Safer= More Strength +Less pain

Moving Safer Requires:1. Knowledge of which muscles to

contract2. The ability to contract the correct

muscles3. Testing to make sure those muscle

contract4. Moving through the full range of

motion5. Knowledge of the correct form6. Execution of the correct from

The 8 Strength Movements1. Squat- a compound movement using

quadriceps, Hamstrings, Gluteus muscles

2. Lunge- movement involving standing with your legs split, utilizing glutes and hip flexors and tibilias anteriorus

3. Hinge- Movement of the pelvis forward and backwards utilizing the glutes. Essential movements for lifting heavy loads and preventing injury.

4. Push- Movement away from the midline of the body. Involves: pectoris and triceps

8 Basic Movements Cont..

5. Pull- Movement towards the midline of the body, involves trapezious, rhomboids, biceps, and grip muscles (e.g. brachialis radialis)

6. Flexion/Extension- Flexion is the forward bend of the spine while extension is a backward movement. Exemplary muscles include rectus abdonminus and erector spinae

7. Twist/resist twist- or Lateral flexion involves the isolation of he trunk muscles in a side to side fashion. Transverse abdonminus, obliques, and other core muscle

8. Gait- The biomechical movements of the legs and arms while spinning, walking running etc.

Complex Movements

95% of all exercises movements are just a combination of two of the 8 movements we just explained. Correct form only requires knowledge of how to do the foundation movements.

• Thruster = Squat + Press• Snatch = Pull + Hinge + Squat• Kettle Bell Snatch = Pull + Hinge• Burpee= Push, Hinge, Squat• Muscle Up= Pull, Flexion/Extension

What Movements Should I do

Muscle Group Simple Middle Tier ComplexTricep and Chest

TRX Pushup & Flat Pushup

Suspended Pushups

Burpees, Medball Pushups

Tricep and Chest Bench Dips

Parallel Bar Dips Ring dips

Glutes and Hipflexor TRX Lunge

Weighted Lunge

Plyo Lunge Vipr Lunge

Glutes and Triceps

KettleBell Front Squat and press Thruster, Squat Clean

Quads Glutes shoulders and triceps DB Squat and Press Clean and Jerk SnatchCore, Glutes, and Lats

KettleBell Two Hand Swing

Alternating Swing

Gunslinger, side step swing

Back, lats, grip, Biceps Lateral Pulldown

Pullups / Chest to bar

Bar and Ring Muscle ups

Simple: safer, builds more muscle, better for rehabilitation, scaled by increasing resistance

Complex: more mentally stimulating, burns more calories, increases strength through neuron development

Answer: depends on your goals and current level of experience and fitness

What Program do I use?

1. Weight? Reps? Sets?2. Rest between Sets?3. Range of Motion?4. One sided? Two Sided? 5. Progression/Regressions?6. Isometric/Isotonic?/

IsoKinetic7. Negative?8. Strip Sets?

Random Programming Doesn’t Work

1) Strength Athlete running 10+ mile 3x a week2) Machine Circuit until fatigue3) Standard Group Class only- Spin, Total Body

To Improve you need:• Defined and realistic goals• Detailed documentation of improvement• Testing to make sure goals are reached• Psychological support during training• Analysis of mistakes when failures occur.

Examples of Programming that Doesn’t Work

Why aren’t you improving?

• People train what they are strong at or are coordinated at; when in

fact they should train the opposite. Work the weaknesses and

imbalances to break through plateaus.

• The body is a master of finding the easiest way to do things and

improving movement efficiency.

• If you want to lose weight, your body works against you my

optimizing movement efficiency to decrease the amount of energy

required to perform the movement.

• Muscle confusion helps prevent over adaptation. Too much muscle

confusion prevents growth.

The Three Energy Systems• Creatine Phosphate- Utilized in short term intense activities.

Lasting up to 10secs--Very High Power, Very Low ATP produced--i.e. Sprints of 5-15 secs with 3-5mins of rest

• Glycolysis- All out exercise lasting 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Uses Glucose to expend energy. Lactic acid builds up easily --High Power, Low ATP production--i.e. 8x :30 sprints with 1min active recovery

• Aerobic/ Oxidative- Begins after two minutes--Low Power, Very High ATP production-- 60mins of work at 70-75% maximum HR

Strength, Conditioning,

and Endurance

These Three Fitness Goals Correlate Directly to Specific

Energy Pathways

StrengthStrength:• Primarily the creatine phosphate system. It is dependent on

mitochondria density, number of muscle fibers, and granularity of neural pathways.

• Power is a measurement of force times x distance, and it’s the way we measure strength in CrossFit.

• i.e. Sprint, Maximal Box jump, 1RM Squat

ConditioningYour ability to maintain a movement for 30-120 secondsPower generation is based on Glycolitic Pathway system, Lactic Acid. Failure occurs when

your ability to tolerate the acidic nature in your muscles gives way. This is known as lactate threshold

Weighted objects work well with conditioning work.Programs are designed to have weights that you can maintain for 60-90secs.I.e. Dumbells, Kettlebells, Suspension Trainers

Put it to the Test

Strength vs Conditioning and the Goblet Squat

EnduranceDefined as the bodies ability to perform under

an oxidative aerobic condition

(running, swimming, and general fitness)

Any movement done for greater than 2mins is an endurance related exercise in the oxidative state.

Endurance athletes know their limits before they are in a glycolitic state. They train to stay in the oxidative state as long as possible and work at a pace that allows for that capacity.

Why can’t I run forever?

Joint, Gait imbalancesRunning slow enough to maintain energy productionSleep fatigue BONK

Goals and Training SystemDepends on your Goal

Weightloss – for 99% of the population = energy and workout time are fixed, so effective weightloss requires finding the movements that generate the most calories per hour burn without risk of injury.

Strength Training – Requires lifting very heavy or running really hard etc. To do that safely, absolute mastery of technique is needed, plus foundational correction of internal weaknesses.

Conditioning – Requires working against the desire to stop. Most CrossFit and competitive sports work in this energy system. 400M dash, sets of 15-25 reps. Requires raising heart to about 80-90% of maximum.

Sports Specific i.e. Soccer- you need the movements, and glyoclitic state (rest and sprinting)

Lunge, push, twist- move and recovery

Better conditioned athletes can restore their levels quickly to keep going

Health Hazards of the Weekend Warrior

What is required to cause Skeletal movement?

Answer: The brain’s ability to recruit muscles in a certain sequence.

Movements regarded as simple, become impossible when the neural

pathways atrophy from lack of use.

Proper squat form becomes impossible without glutes

Why forms matters

The Mutant Kettlebell Squat Lat LiftBack Flexation Curl

The Shoulder Focused PlankThe Penguin PushupThe Stripper Deadlift

The Calf Squat

Starting a ProgramProper form is paramount. To know you are recruiting the right

muscles you need someone to observe your form.

The body is capable of finding a way to create the desired movement, but by recruiting from the wrong muscles overload of joints and tendons occurs. Overuse of the wrong muscles means the right muscles aren’t helping. Hamstring Pulls, IT Band Issues, Tennis elbow.

When the wrong muscles are used, then other muscles are overloaded adding stress to tendons, joints, and ligaments resulting in injuries.

Overload is the prime cause of injury.

Programming the Squat• Reps per Set (4, 8 12, 25)• Changes in Load type (Vipr, Kettlebell) • Regression- Strap/band• Changes in Weight Position