“After spending five years heading in the wrong direction regarding my training, I was left with many injuries in my upper as well as my lower body. I had multiple muscle/strength imbalances and horrible posture which caused overuse injuries, chronic pain, pinched nerves and other problems. I physically couldn’t do a single thing without causing some sort of pain. Even though I was only 22 years old at the time, I just assumed that I had headed so far down the wrong path that I would never recover and never be able to comfortably work out again. I accidentally came across one of Eric’s articles about one of my many problems. I read the article and instantly looked for others.

“After some deliberation I decided that Assess and Correct might be something that could help me. I gave it a try, consistently performing the exercises, in combination with other exercises recommended by Cressey, Robertson, and Hartman aimed at restoring correct posture. The best way to describe this product was that it completely changed my life.

“I have loads of mobility and stability in all the right places. I went through every exercise or mobility drill in every progression even if I didn’t need to. All the exercises are described thoroughly and simple to complete. Injuries or no injuries, I would recommend this product to every single person who lives and active lifestyle. I am a believer and will be a lifetime follower of Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, and Bill Hartman. Thanks, guys!”

Click here to pick up a copy of Assess and Correct for yourself!

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1. Bad Posture – Nowadays, pretty much everyone has rounded shoulders – which means that the scapulae are winged out.  When a shoulder blade isn’t sitting right, the rotator cuff muscles that attach to that scapula are at a mechanical disadvantage because they are outside of their ideal length-tension relationship for creating force; it’s analogous to trying to shoot a cannon from a canoe.

Incorporating some direct rotator cuff exercises not only strengthens muscles that you know will be operating at a mechanical disadvantage, but also educates a lifter about how the scapula should be positioned for ideal shoulder function.

2. Shoulder impingement is a physiological norm. – Research from Flatow et al. demonstrated that everyone – regardless of age, activity level, sport of choice, acromion type, gender, you name it – has direct impingement on their rotator cuff tendons.  If you know a region is going to get beaten up regardless of what you do in your life, why wouldn’t you opt to strengthen it proactively?

3. Rotator cuff tears are far more common than you think. – In consideration of the previous point, it should be no surprise that rotator cuff tears are actually far more common than one might realize – even if you look at asymptomatic subjects.  Connor et al. discovered that on MRI, 40% of asymptomatic tennis/baseball players had evidence of partial or full-thickness cuff tears.  The general population is no different; Sher et al. took MRIs of 96 asymptomatic subjects, finding rotator cuff tears in 34% of cases, and 54% of those older than 60.  And these studies don’t even include the ones who are actually in pain!  It makes sense to strengthen these areas proactively – even if your shoulder doesn’t hurt…yet.

4. Lots of people also have labral tears. – In the past, I’ve written quite a bit about Active vs. Passive Restraints.  In the shoulder, the rotator cuff would be considered an active restraint, as it’s something that can be strengthened to improve dynamic stability.  The labrum, on the other hand, doesn’t get stronger with exercise; it’s a passive restraint that provides stability.  So, if the labrum is torn or frayed (as it very commonly is in both lifters and overhead throwing athletes), then the active restraints – the rotator cuff tendons – need to pick up the slack.

5. The “Just do normal stuff and the rotator cuff will take care of itself” philosophy isn’t working. - That’s been tried for quite some time, and nowadays, as a society, we move like absolute crap and – as noted above – have a boatload of issues on MRI even if we’re asymptomatic.  With respect to the cuff, we’ve built the deltoids up to the point that they absolutely overwhelm the rotator cuff (particularly the supraspinatus), which is trying to prevent the humeral head from migrating upward into the acromion.

My article, Clearing up the Rotator Cuff Controversy demonstrates some of our favorite rotator cuff exercises and talks about how to include them in a weekly strength training program.

For more information, check out the Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD Set.

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First, let’s have a look at the two exercises.  Here’s the scapular wall slide:

And, here’s the doorway slide:

As the voice-over on the video above notes, the scapular wall slide is an acceptable fit for just about any workout routine.  The only exceptions would be those who have upper extremity pain with overhead motions (rotator cuff tears, etc.).

However, we can utilize the doorway slide in certain folks to get to where we want to be a bit faster.  More specifically, these folks are the ones who are REALLY immobile in their upper extremity and wouldn’t even be able to get their arms back even close to the wall on the wall slides.  So, in addition to not making them feel bad about their “tight shoulders”, the doorway slide actually allows us to use the doorway as a stretching implement to get a gentle stretch across the anterior shoulder girdle (predominantly pec major and minor).  There are three very important coaching points:

1. Don’t let the head poke forward, as a forward head posture is simply a substitution for not retracting/depressing the scapulae or horizontally adducting the humerus.

2. Don’t crank too aggressively on the shoulders; it should be a subtle stretch.  And, it shouldn’t be used with those (particularly overhead throwing athletes) who already have increased external rotation and, in turn, more anterior laxity.

3. Make sure to focus on pulling the shoulder blades down and back as the elbows are lowered.  You shouldn’t have movement of the humerus without movement of the scapula.

For more shoulder mobility drills and the rationale for them, I’d encourage you to check out our Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.

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Understanding Elbow Pain - Whether you were a baseball pitcher trying to prevent a Tommy John surgery or recreational weightlifter with “tennis elbow,” this series had something for you.

Part 1: Functional Anatomy
Part 2: Pathology
Part 3: Throwing Injuries
Part 4: Protecting Pitchers
Part 5: The Truth About Tennis Elbow
Part 6: Elbow Pain in Lifters

Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture – This series was published more recently, and was extremely well received.  It’s a combination of both quick programming tips and long-term modifications you can use to eliminate poor posture.

Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 1
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 2
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 3
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 4

A New Paradigm for Performance Testing – This two-part feature was actually an interview with Bioletic founder, Dr. Rick Cohen.  In it, we discuss the importance of testing athletes for deficiencies and strategically correcting them.  We’ve begun to use Bioletics more and more with our athletes, and I highly recommend their thorough and forward thinking services.

A New Paradigm for Performance Testing: Part 1
A New Paradigm for Performance Testing: Part 2

I already have a few series planned for 2011, so keep an eye out for them!  In the meantime, we have two more “Best of 2010″ features in store before Friday at midnight.

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Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture – Part 1
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture – Part 2
Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture – Part 3

We’ll pick this up with tips 13-16.

13. Look further down the kinetic chain.

I spent much of the last installment discussing the role of the thoracic spine and glenohumeral joint in distorting upper body posture.  However, the truth is that it goes much further down than this, in many cases, and isn’t quite as predictable.  As the picture below shows, a posteriorly rotated pelvis (swayback posture – third from left)) can kick off a nasty thoracic kyphosis, but an excessively lordotic posture (second from left) can do the exact same thing; it really just comes down to where folks compensate.

In the swayback posture, we see more flexion-based back pain (in addition to the classic upper body injuries/conditions), whereas the lordotic posture kicks off extension-based back pain.  Stretching the hip flexors a ton will help the lordotic folks, but usually have minimal effect for the swayback folks.  So, you really have to assess the hips individually and contemplate how they impact what goes on further up.

Likewise, you can look even further down the chain.  Overpronation at the foot and ankle kicks on excessive tibial and femoral internal rotation, which encourages more anterior pelvic tilt – which goes hand-in-hand with a lordotic posture.  Further up, we may compensate for this lordosis by getting more kyphotic to reposition our center of mass and remain “functional” and looking straight ahead.

14. Get ergonomic…conservatively.

While some ergonomic adjustments to your work station can be extremely valuable, simple modifications often yield the quickest and most profound results.  I’ve known folks who have gotten symptomatic relief by going to a standing or kneeling desk to get away from extended periods of time in hip flexion – and by getting the computer screen up to eye level.

Likewise, I always remind people that the best posture is the one that is constantly changing.  So, regardless of how “correct’ your posture may be, it should always be a transient thing.

15. Use 1-arm pressing and pulling variations.

This recommendation will be appreciated by those of you who have checked out my new product, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.

If you’re doing the program, chance are that you’ve noticed that there are quite a few unilateral upper body movements – often one in each upper body training session.  The reason is pretty simple; you train thoracic rotation and scapular protraction/retraction on each and every rep.

If we are doing thoracic mobility work and lower trap/serratus anterior activation drills in our warm-ups, this is a perfect opportunity to create stability within that new ROM and solidify the neural patterns we’ve hoping to establish (and get an added core training benefit). You simply can’t get this with bilateral exercise, particularly in a supine (bench presses) or prone (chest-supported rows) position.

16. Add range of motion, not just load.

This note is one that anyone with a decent power of observation could make.  Walk in to any gym, and notice the people with the absolute worse posture as they go through their workout routines.  What do they do?

They move as little as possible on every single rep.  They squat high, don’t go anywhere near the chest on bench presses, or just make up exercises that amount to violent spasms.  And that’s just the ignorant folks.

Among advanced lifters, you’ll see a lot of folks with terrible shoulder mobility and posture sticking with board presses and floor presses (which are certainly justified in limited volumes at specific training times), and doing rows with crazy heavy weights that force them to substitute forward head posture in place of anything even remotely close to scapular retraction.

In short, these folks keep working to add load, when they really should be maintaining or even lowering the load while adding range of motion.

Wrap-up

Hopefully, this series brought to light some concepts that you can put into action right away.  Down the road, I may “reincarnate” this series as I think up some more strategies – or based on reader feedback.  Are there other areas you’d like covered?  If so, post in the comments section and there may be a Part 5 afterall!

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Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 1

Strategies for Correcting Bad Posture: Part 2

Today, we pick up with tip #9…

9. It’s not just the strength exercises you perform; it’s how you perform them. Often, people think that they just need to pick a bunch of “posture correction” exercises and they’ll magically be fixed.  Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, as making corrections takes time, patience, consistency, and perfect technique.  As an example, check out the following video of what some bad rows often look like in someone with a short pec minor, which pulls the coracoid process down and makes it tough to posteriorly tilt and retract the scapula.  The first substitution pattern you’ll see (first three reps) is forward head posture replacing scapular retraction, and the second one (reps 4-6) is humeral (hyper)extension replacing scapular retraction.

Ideally, the chin/neck/head should remain in neutral and the scapula should retract and depress in sync with humeral movement.

Of course, these problems don’t just occur with rowing motions; they may be seen with everything from deadlifts, to push-ups, to chin-ups.  So, be cognizant of how you’re doing these drills; you may just be making bad posture worse!

10. Get regular soft tissue work. I don’t care whether it’s a focal modality like Active Release, a mid-range modality like Graston Technique, or a more diffuse approach like general massage; just make sure that you get some sort of soft tissue work!  A foam roller is a good start and something that you can use between more targeted treatments with a qualified professional.  A lot of people really think that they are “breaking up scar tissue” with these modalities, and they certainly might be, but the truth is that I think more of the benefits come from altering fluid balance in the tissues, stimulating the autonomic nervous system, and “turning on” the sensory receptors in the fascia.

For more thoughts along these lines, check out my recap of a Thomas Myers presentation: The Fascial Knock on Distance Running for Pitchers.

11. Recognize that lower body postural improvements will be a lot more stubborn than upper body postural improvements. Most of this series has been dedicated to improving upper body postural distortions (forward head posture and kyphosis).  The truth is that they are always intimately linked (as the next installment will show) – however, in the upper body, bad posture “comes around” a bit sooner.  Why?

We don’t walk on our hands (well, at least not the majority of the time).

Joking aside, though, the fact that we bear weight on our lower body and core means that it’s going to take a ton of time to see changes in anterior pelvic tilt and overpronation, as we’re talking about fundamentally changing the people have walked for decades by attempting to reposition their center of gravity.  That’s not easy.

So why, then, do a lot of people get relief with “corrective exercises” aimed at bad posture?  Very simply, they’re creating better stability in the range of motion they already have; an example would be strengthening the anterior core (with prone bridges, rollouts, etc.) in someone who has a big anterior pelvic tilt and lordosis.  You’re only realigning the pelvis and spine temporarily, but you’re giving them enough time and stability near their end range to give them some transient changes.  The same would be true of targeted mobility and soft tissue work; it acutely changes ROM and tissue density to make movement easier.

Long-term success, of course, comes when you are consistent with these initiatives and don’t allow yourself to fall into bad posture habits in your daily life.  In fact, I have actually joked that we could probably improve posture the quickest if we just had people lie down between training sessions!

12. Add “fillers” to your program. Mobility drills aimed at correcting bad posture are often viewed as boring, and in today’s busy world, they are often the first thing removed when people need to get in and out of the gym quickly.  To keep folks from skipping these important exercises, I recommend they include them as “fillers.”  Maybe you do a set each of ankle and thoracic spine mobility drills between each set of deadlifts – because you’d be resting for a couple of minutes and doing nothing, anyway.  These little additions go a long way in the big picture as long as you’re consistent with them.

I’ll be back next week with Part 4 of the Correcting Bad Posture series.

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With that said, we pick up with tip #5…

5. Don’t overlook a lack of glenohumeral (shoulder) joint internal rotation. When it comes to bad posture, everyone thinks that the glenohumeral joint is only a “player” when it’s stuck in internal rotation; that is, the ball – or humeral head – is rotated too far forward on the socket – or glenoid fossa – meaning that the individual just doesn’t have adequate external rotation.  And, this is often true – especially in non-athletic populations.

However, you’ll also very commonly see poor posture folks who present with big glenohumeral internal rotation deficits (GIRD), particularly on the right side (for very legitimate reasons that go well beyond the scope of this article).  This is much more common in athletes, particularly overhead throwers (read more: Static Posture Assessment Mistakes).  When the posterior rotator cuff is stiff/short and there is an internal rotation deficit, we have to substitute excessive scapular protraction (winging) or thoracic flexion/rotation each time we reach for something.

So, for many folks, posterior shoulder mobility and soft tissue work is an important inclusion in cleaning things up in terms of appearance, function, and shoulder health.  If – and only if – you’ve been assessed and it’s been determined that you have an internal rotation deficit that compromises your total motion at the glenohumeral joint, you can integrate some gentle sleeper stretches (scapula stabilized!) to get a bit more ROM in the posterior cuff.

6. Don’t overlook a lack of glenohumeral (shoulder) joint flexion. The shoulder is a tremendously mobile joint, so we need to appreciate what goes on outside the transverse plane as well. In particular, I see shoulder flexion limitations as a big problem. These limitations may come from the lat, teres major, long head of the triceps, or inferior capsule.  Another overlooked cause can be posterior cuff restrictions; it’s not uncommon to see both GIRD and major shoulder flexion limitations on the same side.  As the picture below shows, the infraspinatus and teres minor run almost vertically when the arm is abducted a mere 90 degrees – which means that they’re struggling to lengthen fully to allow full shoulder flexion (and abduction, for that matter).

These restrictions that can contribute to both faulty compensation patterns in certain positions, as well as overall bad posture chronically.  Let’s have a look at what these issues look like in the real world. First, in someone with a shoulder flexion limitation, you’d first want to check them in the supine position, with the knees flexed and back flat (to avoid substituting lumbar extension for shoulder flexion).  Ideally, the arms should rest flat on the table – so this would be a “not-so-hot” result (especially since the arms “fall” to the sides a bit instead of staying in “attempted flexion”):

Next, let’s take this same shoulder flexion limitation, and look at what would happen actively.  In the first three reps of the video below, take note of the position of our subject’s head at the start and finish of each rep; you’ll see that as he “runs out” of shoulder flexion, he substitutes forward head posture.  On the next three reps, after I cue him to keep his cervical spine in a more neutral posture, he has to arch his back excessively (lumbar hyperextension) to complete the movement.

Now, imagine taking this walking disaster (only kidding; I had Dave fake it for the video, as he’s actually a finely tuned trained killing machine who can’t be stopped by conventional weapons – and he’s single, ladies) taking up overhead pressing, Olympic lifting, or just reaching for a glass on the top shelf.  Then, imagine him doing those tasks over and over again. Obviously, the posture will get worse as he reinforces these compensation schemes – but something is going to surely break down along the way; it’s just a question of whether it’s his low back, shoulder, or neck!

Correcting these issues is easier said than done; as I noted, there are several structures that could be the limiting factor.  However, for those looking for a relatively universal stretch they can use to get a bit of everything, I like the wall lat stretch with stabilization, one piece of a comprehensive (but not excessive and boring) static stretching program included in Show and Go.

7. Don’t ignore the thoracic spine. The previous two examples focused exclusively on the glenohumeral joint, but the truth is that it is tremendously dependent on thoracic spine positioning.  Ask any physical therapist, and they’ll tell you that if they can get the thoracic spine moving, they can instantly improve glenohumeral joint range-of-motion without even touching the shoulder (this is incredibly valuable with folks who may have stiff glenohumeral joints that can’t be mobilized aggressively following shoulder surgery; they need ROM in any way possible).  And, truthfully, you can substitute a lack of thoracic spine extension for the shoulder flexion problems and compensation schemes above, and a lack of thoracic spine rotation can work in much the same way as a GIRD (substitute excessive scapular protraction with reaching tasks).

If you ever want to quickly check to see what limiting thoracic extension does to someone’s upper body posture, just put them in supine position and push the sternum/rib cage down – which will bring the thoracic spine into flexion. Watch what happens to the position of his chin, and the size of the “gap” between his neck and the table:

Now, just consider what kind of “yank” this puts on the sternocleidomastoid chronically…

…and you’ll understand why a lack of thoracic spine mobility can give people enough neck pain and tension headaches to make Lindsay Lohan’s hangovers look like a walk in the park.  And this doesn’t even consider what’s going on with scalenes, suboccipitals, levator scapulae, subclavius, and a host of other muscles that are royally pissed off!  Also, think about all those folks in your gym doing hours and hours of crunches (especially while tugging on the neck).  Ouch.

For that reason, we need to get our thoracic spine moving – and more specifically, we need to get it moving in both extension and rotation.  I’ve mentioned in the past that the side-lying extension-rotation is one of my favorites (assuming no symptoms); remember that the overwhelming majority of the range-of-motion is coming from the upper back, not just the shoulder:

Here’s another we’re using quite a bit nowadays in our folks who have good internal rotation (which we want to keep!):

8. Watch your daily habits and get up more frequently. I’m at 1,140 words for this post right now – plus several pictures and videos.  In other words, some of you might have been hunched over your computer screens trying to figure out what I’m saying for over 20 minutes now – and that’s when “creep” starts to set in an postural changes become more and more harmful (both aesthetically and functionally).

With that in mind, make a point of getting up more frequently throughout the day if you have to be sitting a ton.  Likewise, “shuffle” or “fidget” in your chair; as Dr. Stuart McGill once said, “The best posture is the one that is constantly changing.”  Now, shouldn’t you get up and walk around for a few minutes?

I’ll be back soon with Part 3 of this series, but in the meantime, don’t forget to check out Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better at a $30 off discount through tonight.

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First, though, you might like to see me rocking the Ron Burgundy mustache at CP this past weekend.

All of the CP clients were fired up to train on Saturday because they knew there might be the opportunity for a mustache ride, but they were all disappointed that I just don’t roll like that; it’s a classy ‘stache.

Anyway, moving on, today’s featured product is Optimal Shoulder Performance from Mike Reinold and I.  Through Tuesday at midnight, you can get 20% off this DVD set by heading to www.ShoulderPerformance.com, adding the product to your cart, and then entering the coupon code CYBER20 at checkout.  Whether you’re a weekend warrior, baseball coach, rehabilitation specialist, fitness professional, or competitive athlete, there’s a lot to be learned by checking out this resource; the feedback has been excellent from those who have purchased it thus far.  Here’s a sneak preview:

On to the strategies for correcting bad posture…

1. Train more frequently.

Obviously, in many cases, those with bad posture often simply don’t exercise enough, so any motion is good motion.  However, this also applies to regular exercisers who hit the gym 3-4 times per week as well.  Why?

Well, I do a lot of my “corrective” work in my warm-up programming – and the more often you train, the more often you’ll have to do your foam rolling and mobility warm-ups.  So, breaking your training program up into smaller components on more frequent days might be the best way to force yourself to do the things that you need the most to correct bad posture.

2. Use daily mobility circuits.

Along the same lines as the “increase training frequency” recommendation, it’ll never hurt to repeat your mobility warm-ups during your daily life. If you are someone who is really in need of drastic changes, do your warm-ups twice a day, seven days a week (on top of any static stretching you do).

3. Strengthen the deep neck flexors.

When you get stuck in a forward head posture, the deep neck flexors (muscles on the anterior portion of your neck) really shut down as the sternocleidomastoid, suboccipitals, levator scapulae, scalenes, and upper traps get dense, fibrotic, and nasty.

You can start off by simply doing chin tucks against the wall (put the back of your head up against a wall, then make a double chin without the back of your head losing contact with the wall). Then, you can progress to quadruped chin tucks, a drill I learned from Dr. William Brady.  In this drill, you’ll work against gravity as you pull your head into a more neutral cervical spine posture.  Most people will butcher this on their first try by going into hyperextension as they get to the “top” of the movement.

When you get the technique down, you’ll actually notice some crazy soreness along the anterior aspect of your neck in the days that following. We usually go with sets of 5-6 reps and a 2-3 second hold at the top of each rep.

4. Go with a 2:1 pulling-to-pushing ratio.

This is a recommendation you see quite a bit, but nobody really talks about how to “smoothly” apply it to a program.  Here are a few approaches I’ve used in the past:

a. Simply add an extra pulling exercise on the end of a day’s session.

b. Pair a bilateral pulling exercise with a unilateral pressing exercise – and do “halves” on each pressing set.  In other words, if I was doing 6×6 chest-supported rows (CSR) with 3×6/side 1-arm incline DB presses (IDP), here’s how I’d set it up: CSR, IDP-right, CSR, IDP-left, CSR, IDP-right, CSR, IDP-left, CSR, IDP-right, CSR, IDP-left.

c. Make the pulling exercises in your program the A1, B1, and C1 options, with the pressing as the A2, B2, C2.  And, simply have an extra set of each of the pulling exercises – meaning you just don’t return to the pressing exercise for a last set.  This might work out as more of a 3:2 pulling-to-pushing ratio, but you can always tack an extra set or two on at the end to make it work.

I’ll be back soon with more strategies for correcting bad posture, but in the meantime, don’t miss out on the Optimal Shoulder Performance sale that is running through Tuesday night at midnight. Just head to www.ShoulderPerformance.com, add it to your cart, and then enter the coupon code CYBER20 at checkout to receive 20% off your order.

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In the first installment, I talked about several of the common problems athletes have that make them perform more like an oversized truck and less like greased lightning.  In this installment, I’ll give you some solutions to those problems.  Let’s get to it!

Problem #1: Bad Feet
Solution: Spend Some Time Training Barefoot.

One simple thing you can do for bad feet is spend a little bit of time each week training barefoot. Your body won’t let you move in a rearfoot dominant posture when you’re barefoot because it’ll hurt too much.

As an experiment, try taking your shoes off and lightly jog a few steps down the street. You’ll probably find the ONLY way you can do it is to get up on your forefoot.

Also, pay attention to which muscles you “feel” the movement driven by when you run barefoot.  I don’t recommend training on concrete regularly. but if you have access to a fairly soft surface (grass is ideal and most carpet works fine), don’t hesitate to scrap the shoes for a while.

Here is a video that clearly shows the difference between running with shoes on and off.

The idea is to do enough barefoot training that your feet strengthen and begin to favor the barefoot posture even when wearing shoes. Even 20 minutes once a week on grass is helpful.

If barefoot training isn’t an option you can always train in lighter footwear that helps mimick barefoot running. Shoes like Nike Free 5.0 or 7.0 and Vibram 5 fingers can be an option here.

Problem #2: Lack of Glute Dominance.
Solution: Really Focusing on Strengthening the Glutes!

In short, if you want glute dominance, you need to spend significant time strengthening the glutes. Try this experiment.

Go in the gym, warm-up and knock out a couple of sets of 10 paused manual reverse hyperextensions. If you don’t have a dedicated machine, find a bench, hang a dumbell between your shins, and do a couple of sets of 10 reps with a slight pause at the top.

Now that you have a good glute pump, take a casual stroll and see if you notice any differences in how you’re walking. You’ll likely notice that your strides are longer and you’re better positioned to drive off the balls of your feet when you walk because your hips inherently want to extend more.

That’s a good thing from a speed perspective!   Strong glutes favor a longer, more efficient, and more powerful stride. They also keep you injury free.

Problem #3: Lack of End-Range Strength in the Psoas.
Solution: Get Strong at 90 Degrees Hip Flexion or Higher.

The key for a strong psoas (and proper knee lift in sports) is strengthening the muscles that lift your knee up to 90 degrees or higher.  Here is an example of that and an exercise for that.

Being strong in 90 degrees-plus of hip flexion also helps ensure optimal femur control, or put simply: it ensures the muscles high on your hip are controlling your thigh bone.

Problem #4: Lack of Mobility in Key Muscle Groups.
Solution: Regularly Stretch/Mobilize the Quads, Hip Flexors, and Ankles.

Stretching the quads and rectus femoris turns off what are often tight and overactive muscles controlling the knee – and that promotes better hip dominant movement.

The psoas must be strong, as I talked about earlier, but it also must be mobile enough to not negatively impact posture.  An excessively tight psoas will negatively impact gluteal recruitment. If you’ve ever looked closely at a picture of the psoas, you can see the majority of the muscle lies up above your hip joints in more of the deep abdominal region.

I’ve noticed many people are both weak and tight in the psoas.  People that are really tight often have adhesions in the upper psoas. The upper psoas is hard to get to and in my experience requires a solid twist of the upper body to reach effectively.

When it’s dealt with effectively, it’s not uncommon to hear an audible “pop” in your lower ab region as the adhesions release, followed by an immediate ease in breathing and increased feeling of looseness in the hips.

Here is a good all-in-one stretch I recommend for the quads, rectus femoris, and the psoas:

And here is one for the ankles:

Most people should stretch daily and the more extensive your impairments the more frequently you should do so. I’ve had some people stretch for 20 seconds every hour of the day while others can get away with one short session per day. Many people can improve significantly simply by implementing proper mobility work for these muscles.

Problem #5: Lack of Strength and Power in Relevant Muscles
Solution: Give Resistance Training an Honest Effort.

To move like lightning, you have to be able to get lots of force into the ground – and that means you have to have strength in the right places.  That means the hip extensors, knee extensors, and plantarflexors must be strong and powerful.  How do you get them strong and powerful?

You must do some form of progressive resistance training.  That means some type of squatting or lunging for the knee and hip extensors, and some type of toe press or plyometrics for the plantarflexors.  You then must take that base of power and apply it into progressive sport-specific movements.

Fortunately, all the specific stuff is taken care of in The Truth About Quickness Insiders System. The important thing from a longer term perspective is that you or your athletes spend time developing a base of strength through common strength exercises like squats, Bulgarian split squats, lunges, and deadlifts.

That about covers it!  Hopefully you’ve found this short list of problems and solutions beneficial in your training or coaching. Stay strong and good luck with it!

As you may already know, Kelly and Alex Maroko just released The Truth About Quickness Insiders System, a resource I highly recommend.  This outstanding product will be on sale at a great introductory price ($40 off) only through this Thursday at midnight.

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Today I’d like to talk a little about some of the common problems I see in athletes that prevent them from being as fast, quick, and explosive as they could be.

You need a good combination of optimal movement patterns and force. Movement patterns are affected by things like your posture, muscle balance, mobility, and coordination.  Force is affected by your strength and power.

You can be strong with the ability to exert lots of force, but if your movement patterns are off you won’t transfer that force efficiently, and thus won’t move very fast and explosively.

You can have great movement patterns, but if you don’t have force behind those movement patterns, you wont move very fast and explosively either – so the key is creating the balance. Now that I’ve talked about the type of problems, let’s get to the problems themselves.

Problem #1: Bad Feet

For years, coaches in a multitude of sports have belabored the key, “Stay on your toes!” Although literally being on your toes is a bit of an exaggeration and is likely to lead to a trucked toe, staying on your toes really means you drive off the balls of your feet and less on your heels.

Watch many great athletes when they accelerate or sprint and their heels barely seem to hit the ground. This is without any conscious input on their part. Most people are rearfoot dominant, which means they carry too much weight on their heels when they walk, run, or move in general.

Moving more towards the mid and forefoot favors quicker, more efficient, less stressful movement, and also makes it easier to activate the powerful hip extensors, which have the capacity to really make you fly. If you want to be a good athlete, you need to get off your rearfoot and onto your mid and forefoot.

How do you do that? Well, unfortunately you’re unlikely to find much in the way of relevant scientific or laymen’s information specifically delving a great deal into this topic. That doesn’t change the fact that there are no shortage of gimmicks out there that promise this. There are even products like jumpsoles out there designed to make you move on the balls of your feet.

The problem is the verbal cues and training aids are relatively worthless because most people don’t have the inherent muscular recruitment patterns and strength to move in this posture naturally. If you have to think about it or force yourself to move a certain way it’s generally not gonna be very effective.

The key is optimizing your muscle development and movement patterns so your body inherently takes an “on the balls of the feet” posture without you having to voluntarily force yourself to get in that position. When that happens it’ll feel natural and efficient. I’ll talk about how to do that in the next installment. Now let’s get on to some of the other problems.

Problem #2: Lack of Glute Dominance

When the hip extensors are strong, they tend to “want” to drive your movements a bit more than someone who’s glute deficient. Generally speaking, walking, running, jumping, and most other athletic movements can be driven primarily either from the muscles acting on the hip or the muscles acting on the knee.

When referring to muscles that act primarily at the hip, I’m referring mainly to the glutes and psoas. Muscles that act more at the knee include the quads, rectus femoris, and tensor fascia lata. When movement is primarily generated from muscles acting higher on the hip, it promotes a more efficient and less stressful movement pattern.

When movement is primarily generated by the muscles acting on the knee, it tends to promote more rearfoot dominant movement as well as knee pain, hip pain, and a ton of other common problems. Guess which pattern fast and slow athletes favor, respectfully?

Have you ever noticed that really fast athletes often hardly even look like they’re trying? They’re quiet and effortless when they move. Slower athletes often sound like a bull when they move. Their feet SLAP the ground like a pancake and you can hear their tension a mile away.

A large reason for that discrepancy is one group is using their hips to drive their movements while the other group is using their knees. Knee dominant movement is typically inefficient, loud, and it often hurts. Hip dominant (glute driven) is quiet, fast, and smooth.

Problem #3: Lack of End-Range Strength in the Psoas

The psoas works in concert with the glutes to control the femur from the hip. A strong psoas promotes optimum hip and foot mechanics. Everyone has heard coaches yell, “High knees, high knees!!”

Some athletes inherently run with high knees while others barely lift their feet an inch off the ground. Those who don’t do it naturally aren’t really helped much by the cue. The psoas is the muscle responsible for raising your knee up to 90 degrees and above from a standing position.

When the psoas is weaker than the rectus femoris and tensor fascia latae you will have a more difficult time getting proper knee lift when you run, and also, due to the influence on the posture of your hips, also be succeptible to overuse injuries like IT band issues, knee pain, and plantar fasciitis.

Problem #4: Lack of Mobility in Key Muscle Groups

The quads, rectus femoris, ankles, and hip flexors often tend to be tight. This favors improper/faulty movement and prevents the optimum transfer of power through the lower kinetic chain. It also favors common injuries like patellar tendonitis or plantar fasciitis.

If you’ve had knee or foot pain, chances are you have at least one of these mobility impairments. Anyone that has considerably increased the muscular development of their thighs will have a tendency to lean towards having tight quads.

That’s not to say that muscular development of the thighs is a bad thing by any means, but one must pay attention to mobility.

Problem #5: Lack of Strength/Power in Relevant Contributing Muscles

This is the simplest problem of all – and also the one that will arguably have the biggest impact of all. It encompasses the “force” part of the speed and quickness equation. The more force you exert against an object, the faster you can move that object. In the case of speed and quickness, the moveable object is your body and the object you’re applying force to is the ground.

The problem is most people are too weak to be explosive and quick. I’ll give you all the information on how to address and fix that and the other problems in Part II of this article series – which will run tomorrow.

Tomorrow (Monday) at midnight, Kelly and Alex Maroko will be releasing The Truth About Quickness at a huge introductory discount.  I’ve reviewed the product and can say without wavering that the information it contains is outstanding; this resource will make for an excellent addition to any coach or athlete’s library.  For more information, head over to their early-bird discount page HERE.

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