Part 2: FALSE: "If you can't do it slow, you can't do it fast."

As expected this particular post created some immediate responses from people who disagree. And some of them were quite predictable. Such as:

1. Well not for me or not in my art.
2. Not in this entirely different scenario or type of training.
3. Not when it's used for this unrelated purposes.

The reason I'm putting these objections in generic is to show how this post can be generalized. These types of responses should be called out for what they are whenever they show up.

HADOUKEN!

 (Image included again for my own amusement)

Well it worked for me - Nope

We've seen this before. In this particular type of situation we have the common error of attributing a satisfactory level of success to a training method that may not have anything to do with it.

1. That a given level of success is reached does not prove that this method produced the highest level of success attainable.
2. That a given amount of time was necessary does not prove that this method was the most time efficient method of achieving that.
3. That a given result occurred when multiple methods were employed does not prove that all methods were necessary for that result.
4. That a given volume of a method was employed does not prove that this was the optimal quantity of that training mode.

The last element is important because I acknowledge the value of slow training when utilized an appropriate amount.

What the person is actually saying when they say, "it worked for me" is that it produced a result they are satisfied with, in a time frame they are satisfied with, and as part of the set of things they did. They can't actually, logically at least, assert that it was the optimal method because no controlled experiment was performed.

And the controlled experiments clearly contradict this assertion.

Well it works in my art

This is an alternate version of the same excuse. The reply I got was that it works for "internal" martial arts. But unless "internal" means you just imagine the fight, then this it's just not true. To block, dodge and hit against, a resisting opponent you have to move fast. To move fast you have to train fast and you have to keep your slow training to an appropriately small amount.

The general logical fallacy term for this argument is Special Pleading.

Not in this different thing

Another reply I got was about situation awareness training. Well, that's not motor programming, so it was neither the original topic nor what I was talking about. Irrelevant.

There was also the reply about how it's good for balance. But that's not the same thing either but in a different way. Being balanced while moving slowly is not the same as maintaining balance while moving fast. It requires more power to stay balance at speed and this requires fast muscle movements as well. It requires fast reaction times and those are not trained at slow speeds either.

Not when it's used for this unrelated purpose

Yet another was that slow training is good for stretching. So what if slow actions are good for stretching? That's not relevant to martial arts application. That's not what we are talking about.

They are plenty of ways of stretching a muscle or joint besides using a specific technique from your art. And I don't want to interfere with the technique training by using it for this unrelated purpose.

Additionally, while I'm all for dynamic stretching this does not increase range of motion (the suggested benefit) and slow actions are not good dynamic stretching because it won't warm you up.

Not even slow training

One response was about how holding stances for a long time was good for conditioning. That's not even slow training. You've wandered off topic to grasp at straws to prove me wrong. Nope.

Conclusion

Turns out you weren't going to contradict my professional education and depth of knowledge regarding the decades of research with a quick sentence. Nope.

Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist

I passed my Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist examination yesterday! And I'll have a nice fancy piece of paper to put on the wall in about a month.

This is National Strength & Conditioning Association certification and they describe it like this:

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists (CSCSs) are professionals who apply scientific knowledge to train athletes for the primary goal of improving athletic performance.

They conduct sport-specific testing sessions, design and implement safe and effective strength training and conditioning programs and provide guidance regarding nutrition and injury prevention.

Recognizing that their area of expertise is separate and distinct, CSCSs consult with and refer athletes to other professionals when appropriate.

I am proud to have earned this qualification and I enjoyed going back and doing the necessary study to pass the exam. I am amused that the test included a variety of Administration and Organization questions that are really geared towards heading a large facility. I did worst on this part of the test. So I'm not qualified to head a large facility yet. So it's good that I don't. But all the things expected of a facility like my own I am doing correctly.

The certification also covers nutrition guidance. Between the studying for this and other recent reading I've done on the topic I will be formally adding this to the set of services that I provide.

Now I'm going to see how many entries for the blog I can bang out in a week.

Small Break for CSCS Exam

Hello all,

The reason I haven't been posting for a bit now is that I am studying up for my Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) certification from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

As such I am spending all of my "free time" studying. This is great. It is an opportunity for me to review and be reminded of little things that I have forgotten over time. Humans cannot just remember everything. Our brains do not work like computer hard drives. Periodic re-testing and continuous learning are both necessary simply to avoid sliding backwards.

See you sometime after the 28th.

Cheers,

The Role of Accessory Exercises

In the exercise plans that I put together for Longpoint I categorize the exercises as being either, Power, Primary or Accessory. The role of the power and primary exercises I assume are clear, but I think that elaborating on the accessory exercise concept will be helpful.

Why Are There Accessory Exercises at All?

I could, and I have, put together programs where all of the exercises are done at the same intensity. And for a general purpose, full body program that's perfectly fine. Though you will want to program the bigger exercises first so that you aren't fatigued when doing your deadlifts or squats.

However, for sport specific and advanced programs there is a level of focus on specific exercises that creates better benefits. If all the exercises in a day were at the 5RM intensity then the later exercises would suffer, you just wouldn't be able to actually provide max effort.

Programming Accessory Exercises

Accessory exercises will follow a couple of basic guidelines for how they are incorporated into the program.

1. Later in the workout. Do the big, complex, multi-joint, power and primary exercises first.
2. Lower intensity. Accessory exercises should not be more intense than 8RM. In some cases I won't do more than 10 or 12 RM, for exercises that use a small number of muscles.
3. Cover the movement patterns that aren't under the primary exercises. The objective is a balanced full-body program, but not all the muscles need the same intensity each day.

Progressing Accessory Exercises

With our major exercises it's important to see progress. If you're not seeing progress it means that there is a problem that needs to be fixed. With the accessory exercises there should be some progress over time, but it does not need to be fast. If I do the same weight for an entire month that doesn't worry me.

And some of the more minor exercises are really about factors like balance and stability rather than strength. In these cases it's sufficient to just keep doing them, rather than to push them to be substantially harder. These are exercises like the mini-bands that I've described before.

Conclusion

Don't confuse the purpose of primary and accessory exercises. They are both necessary parts of a complete program but the primary exercises are the ones that will have the biggest effect on performance, injury prevention and health. The accessory exercises round out the program and complete it.

Knees Over Toes Lunges

There exists a common piece of wisdom in fencing training that the knee should not extend in front of the toes while lunging. My friend Max asked about this recently. One part of the question is that both a limited lunge and lunge with the knee more flexed show up in historical manuals.

A "perfect" lunge with the knee behind the toes.

A lunge with the knee well past the toes.

And both kinds of lunge can also be seen in high-level competitors in modern sport fencing.

The Principles

The concern is generally phrased that letting the knee go past the toes will damage the knee in the long run. Others will argue instead that as long as the knee is strong enough that it shouldn't matter.

From a technical terminology standpoint we are talking about the amount of flexion at the knee joint. The top picture shows about 110° of knee flexion (0° is the knee straight). The bottom picture would be closer to 130° if the thigh were parallel to the ground - as it is the angle looks similar but this fencer has their hips higher than the other.

The forces on the various structures of the knee change throughout the range of motion. The ligaments are tightest around 90°, so the lunge differences we are discussing won't matter since both options flex the knee past 90°.

Compressive forces on the  cartilage and articular surfaces increase with knee flexion. Forces between the underside of the patella and the femur are larger than the forces between the femur and the tibia and menisci. Theoretically this means the kneecap would be at greater risk, but really there are enough differences between the ways an injury can occur that a simple comparison of the numbers is not compelling.

The Research

Well, I couldn't find any published research on this question. But since all the peer-reviewed research on fencing could fit on a 3.5" floppy disk, that isn't surprising. The closest research I could find was on squat depth, such as, "Are Deep Squats a Safe and Viable Exercise?"[1] This is a commentary article where a for and against position are presented by different exercise scientists. The article summarizes a large number of relevant studies. I'm going to extrapolate from this to our question about lunges - any time conclusions are extrapolated or generalized from separate research we should be aware that we could easily be wrong. There could be any number of unaccounted for factors in our lunge question that just don't show up in squat research.

There is ambiguity in the research regarding the risk of injury from deep squats. Overall it would seem that there is no clear correlation in population studies between injury and squat depth. But this could be explained by self-selection. That is, those individuals who continue and/or do well with deep squat exercises are those whose knees would not have been injured - for whatever reason, perhaps some natural advantage of their joint architecture. While those who refrain from deep squats, even for unconscious reasons, may  be more susceptible.

Biomechanics studies clearly show greater compressive forces from deep squats. And greater forces do mean greater likelihood of both acute and chronic injury. So the concern is certainly plausible.

The above is for healthy individuals. In those with known knee problems we can be confident that limiting squat depth, and by extension the knee position in lunges, will reduce pain. The safe generalization is that the motion - squat or lunge - should remain within a pain free range. Whether that is sudden pain during the motion or the ache afterwards doesn't matter, pain is our indication to avoid that extreme.

Tactically

There is also, of course, the tactical considerations of lunge length. The more the knee is flexed the longer the lunge that can be obtained. A longer reach is it's own tactical advantage. However, a longer lunge is also a longer recovery. So there is a trade-off - higher risk of getting hit by the riposte or afterblow. As a technical coach I would counsel a more conservative lunge, but that is based on my study of Hope's system.

As a fencer I will sometimes take much longer lunges, when I feel the opportunity is right. Sometimes I am wrong and my opponent gets the afterblow. Sometimes I still fall short, but don't get hit either, in which case I was still wrong, just not as wrong. And sometimes I hit where otherwise I would not have and do so safely.

The ability to recover quickly from a long lunge is dependent on the strength of the lead leg, and I think this is where the biggest component of strength actually plays into our question. A strong leg is less likely to suffer many kinds of injuries, but not really the kinds of injuries that occur from deep knee flexion. There are legitimate exceptions though. One of the fencers I train has healthy knees that can withstand a long lunge, but her strength in balance is lacking and she falls too often. I'd tell her to limit her lunge length to reduce injury and falls (but she's 14 so I don't expect it to take).

On the other hand one of my frequent opponents has a nice technically perfect lunge length and knee angle, but her strength-to-weight ratio isn't as good so she has a slow recovery. Which I can exploit when we fence.

Conclusion

If the historical system you study shows a deep lunge then I would feel free suggesting a person train that, as long as it's pain free.  In general, I will always counsel a conservative approach; it is easy for young, healthy athletes, or simply highly competitive adults, to overtax themselves in ways that they will regret years later.

And there is a component of individualization, rather than a one size fits all answer. This is the responsibility of the coach and requires time, observation, experience and thought to answer


Bibliography

1. Schoenfeld, B., & Williams, M. (2012). Are Deep Squats a Safe and Viable Exercise?: Strength and Conditioning Journal, 34(2), 34–36. http://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0b013e31824695a3

FALSE: "If you can't do it slow, you can't do it fast."

The title of this post is the text from an image meme I saw today on Facebook. In it some Asian Martial Arts looking dude is about to shoot fireballs from his hand.

Source

This is a common meme in martial arts training. And martial arts training is pretty much the only realm of physical training where someone might say this. And let's be clear, we mean Asian martial arts when we say this. A boxing coach isn't going to say this. A wrestling coach isn't going to say this. That fact is the first thing I brought up in the discussion thread where this popped up.

Muscle Memory

On the thread from the original image source we see this comment:

Here we get to one of the two key components of this: the idea of how muscle memory works. Muscle memory is the creation of motor programs in our brain: connections of all the various nerves involved in a particular action are formed and strengthened. Timing components are tied together so that everything happens at just the right moment. The timing of doing something slowly is clearly not the same as the timing for doing it fast. So the motor program for fast is not the same as the motor program for slow.

Each individual motor unit in our muscles is supplied by a single nerve from our brain, through the spine, to the muscle. Each motor unit is comprised primarily of either Type I or Type II fibers. Type I are the slow, weak fibers and they are used to move slowly. Type II fibers are the fast, strong fibers and they are used to move at fighting speed. As such the neurons for fast and slow movement are not even the same neurons in the brain. And, so the motor program for fast is not the same as the motor program for slow. It cannot be.

Running is just fast walking

One of the other points brought up in this thread is the assertion that "running is just fast walking."

This statement is false. We can see it merely in the definitions of the words.

Run:

to go quickly by moving the legs more rapidly than at a walk and in such a manner that for an instant in each step all or both feet are off the ground. (Dictionary.com)

Walk:

to advance or travel on foot at a moderate speed or pace; proceed by steps; move by advancing the feet alternately so that there is always one foot on the ground in bipedal locomotion. (Dictionary.com)

 

Emphasis added to make clear the difference. That's not even bringing up the volumes of data from gait studies, especially myography studies. Myography studies show that different muscles are used at different times and in different ways (such as eccentric vs. concentric).

One cannot get good at running a race simply by walking a lot. They aren't the same activity.

And we see the same thing in martial training, especially with weapons. If I perform a descending cut slowly versus quickly there is a clear difference. Slowly I have to battle gravity, I have to keep my weapon from falling faster. Quickly and I outpace gravity by a significant margin.

Cut slowly and my muscles that pull upwards are actually doing most of the work with an eccentric (lengthening) activation. Quickly and the opposite muscle groups are doing most of the work with a concentric (shortening) activation. Different muscles used differently. So the motor program for fast is not the same as the motor program for slow.

Furthermore, as I train a given motor program the myelination of the neurons increases. Myelin is  the insulation on the "wires". It makes the signals go faster. And it means that one motor program influences another less and less the more it is trained.

Doesn't this contradict "slow" strength training?

Sure. If I had ever said that all we need is strength training. But I have repeatedly said otherwise. The key neurological benefit of strength training is that it teaches the motor units near each other to fire in sync. Also, muscles can better synchronize when they are better myelinated.

There is a speed below which strength training becomes less useful but that's only when it you are aiming to move at less than one or two seconds for the motion. That timing is for each of up and down. So two to five seconds (with a pause at either end), total per rep, is still good training for a 300 ms strike.

But slow training is useful!

"My dance instructor said so." Sure, but it's really a matter of how much slow training and how slow. What slow training can do is teach us the proprioception of the correct movement. That is: what does it feel like to move through the correct motion. This feeling is built from the movement sensors in the joints.

But we also have movement sensors in our muscles and they are clearly not getting the correct propriocetive training.

Proprioceptive training doesn't take that long. A few dozens of repetitions max. You can do that in the first few days of learning a new action. Taking a long time to get good at doing an action slowly is a waste of time.

How slow is also worth noting. Jogging can be part of training for running a race, since it is the same gait. But walking is not. Jogging really is slow running. So it can be a (small) portion of your race training.

I've just started learning a new style of dance. And the instructors will have us do new actions fairly slowly. But only a minute or so. Then they turn the music on.

Conclusion

Martial arts training has buckets of old traditions many of whose origin is lost to time or simply forgotten. (Slow training may have been intended for meditative purposes.) And there arises a problem of people who do not critically analyze these traditions. Of people who do not update this "wisdom" based on new facts.

The motor program for fast is not the same as the motor program for slow.

Now there's a part 2.

Should you be doing Prehab?

In accordance with Betteridge's Law, if the headline ends with a question mark the answer is almost always "no". However, in our case it is more nuanced than just this.

My post here is going to be a general response to things I see frequently. As with previous times when I do this I am going to use a specific example for illustrative purposes, but in no way should this be taken as an attack on that individual.

There are plenty of examples of videos describing "prehab" exercises suggested for various sports and exercisers. Prehab, short for pre-habilitation, is generally meant to be exercises undertaken by most people intended to prevent injuries and other problems that arise from training. Or to correct pre-existing, underlying problems.

One of my coaches pointed out that part of the appeal of videos and posts like these is the impression that they present an easy fix. "If I just do this one exercise then that will make up for years of bad posture or lack of strength training." etc. There are seldom easy fixes. I can't think of any in this field.

Diagnosing

Are there specific exercises that you should be doing for that specific problem that you have? Quite possibly. But . . .

The internet is not a good place to figure this out. I get quite bothered by any blog post that aims to diagnose what's wrong with you. Diagnosing a physical problem without hands-on work and direct observation by a trained professional is usually just not doable.

Furthermore, anyone with a license in what they are doing cannot say that they diagnose a problem unless they have a corresponding clinical doctorate. Diagnosing problems without such training and licensure is usually against the law. Plus it normally violates your professional organizations standards of conduct and ethics.

And so help me the phrase, "self-diagnose". Please understand that medical professionals use people who say this as the butt of jokes because of how often they are wrong. Google University is not the same as years of education and a residency.

Don't over-estimate your knowledge in a topic.

What do I do instead?

I don't claim to diagnose people. I won't until I finish my doctorate and pass my boards. Instead I say things like, "I think you have X but I can't be sure." And then I follow it up with, "you can do A, and I feel comfortable recommending it because it might help, and it's unlikely to make things worse."

And I will only do this on a case by case basis with people that I work with regularly in-person.

Plenty of times I just say, "I don't know."

Lack of Specificity

One of the big problems with any pre-hab recommendation, especially one from the internet that doesn't involve an exam, is that it lacks specificity. Videos will frequently contain elements that are a "test" for a problem. But, if you get a positive result on a test for a particular problem and that test is correct 60% of the time, then it is right more often than it is wrong. But it's still wrong for plenty of people. A complete exam will use multiple overlapping tests to reach a result with a high likelihood of being positive, but that's not doable without that in-person exam and expertise.

Also, frequently, great big assumptions are being made about people. A video may suggest back exercises for everybody based on the assumption that everybody works a desk job. And has bad posture. And has done so long enough that they've suffered structural changes. Those three assumptions are progressively less obvious - the viewer, or the speaker, may not know they are making the assumption. A foam roller for your back is only pre-hab if you have structural changes leading to a fixed kyphotic spine.

Why am I Writing this Post?

Let's be honest here, a big part of my objection is basically to amateurs acting like experts.

There exists a strain of resistance to experts in our culture. The idea that people who have education, knowledge, and experience gained from other such professionals is overrated. Or out of touch with reality etc. That one's gut can provide just as accurate an understanding as years of study.

The great advances of the modern era are a result of study. Of experimentation. Of critical analysis of people's gut intuition. In athletic training, in the 50's there arose a new paradigm that included actual efficacy testing of training methods. After 60 years of published, peer-reviewed research the experts can make very clear, consistent statements about a variety of topics in this field. We can back them up with volumes of data and with the teams and athletes that have won over those who did not know about or use this research.

Professionals using the best scientifically tested methods produce athletes that beat those who don't.

Additionally, these teams have lower injury rates.

In my internship at Boston University the rowing coach for the freshman, lightweight (therefore weight limited) team came to us because the rowers were putting on weight. We knew this was bunk. Freshman college students don't gain weight from the gym. We all know why the really gain weight and it's on the weekends.

The peer-reviewed research clearly shows that the type of program we were running with these athletes is simply incapable of producing significant hypertrophic gains that would make them heavier. The coach's gut intuition was wrong. We used the research to prove it. This let us justify continuing with a well designed program that benefited the athletes. Hooray!

But I've seen this sort of problem even from experts. I am much more inclined to trust a video of this nature when it is highly specific. Of if it just says that this kind of exercise is part of a complete approach without saying that it addresses any specific problem.

But if an expert says something like: "[this is an exercise] you should be doing." without any kind of specification or targeting, then I get cranky.

A specific example for illustrative purposes.

The video that provoked this particular post is Bit #14 over at Valkyrie WMAA. In the video there is the common problem of the benefits or function of an exercise either being mis-categorized or overstated. In it foam rolling and lacrosse ball self-massage is set-up as being good for strength, stability and as a warm-up. Self-massage is not any of these things. Self-massage is a perfectly good thing to do but not to achieve any of those objectives.

Then some ankle exercises with a band are described as increasing strength and flexibility. The resistance only does one of these things - increase strength. There is also an error of exercise specificity. Seated resistance band exercises for the ankle are indicated in those recovering from an injury of the ankle. But it's not a practical, functional exercise. It does not use the ankle in the way that you use it in everyday life or in HEMA. Ankle strengthening should be done while standing or moving with a general population of people who are capable of participating in a HEMA class.

The second "pre-hab" video in the series on Valkyrie contains additional, common errors in the understanding of pre-hab.

In it dynamic stretches are referred to as pre-hab. They are not. Dynamic stretches are simply the opposite of bad exercise program design. So to be clear, I support using dynamic stretches before working out (though I don't like the ones shown in the video), but do not call them pre-hab. They are not intended to increase strength or stability, the benefits of pre-hab noted at the beginning of the series. Nor should they be used to increase range of motion, since stretches that increase ROM are inappropriate before exercise.

The other pre-hab action in the second video is a static stretch. Like many other pre-hab recommendations it makes specific assumptions about people. Furthermore, static stretches are counter-productive before exercise.

This gets to a common problem with pre-hab recommendations. The assumption that everyone has this problem and needs physical therapy style exercises for it. The ankle strengthening is suggested as if everybody will need an injury recovery type of ankle exercises. That's a big, and usually incorrect, assumption. The fact that a random person has some weakness in this particular band exercise, in a single direction of movement, at whatever level of resistance is being generated, is implied to be evidence of it's need and value.

But is there an actual everyday or fencing action that the person has problems with? That's what might be an indication for such an exercise.

What Prehab would I recommend?

• Scapular movement patterns and stabilizer strengthening, plus external rotator strength for Longsword.
• The same for Hope's smallsword, but due to different actual positions and with an emphasis on the static position versus dynamic components.
• External rotator strength for any thrust heavy system.

That's about it. Anything else needs to be specific to the person.

I invite readers to comment with specific questions about pre-hab. I'll use those questions to guide upcoming posts.

Conclusion

Most pre-hab videos and blog posts are either not actually pre-hab but are frequently perfectly good components of an exercise plan; or contain worse errors like "diagnosis". Highly generalized or blanket solutions are unlikely to be right for you.

An Ideal Workout Scheme

I've got some significant advantages this year. I'm self-employed, at a gym. So I can set my own schedule, which means I get a full night's sleep every night, and I'm at the gym almost every day. As such I can set myself up with an ideal workout program.

Odds are that none of my readers can implement a program like this. That's fine. By explaining what ideal is we can look at it as a thought experiment and also take the achievable parts and implement them where doable.

What's Ideal?

First we need to establish what ideal we are looking for since ideal is necessarily based on objectives. The plan I'm about to describe is not ideal for a marathon runner or a tennis player. The objective I wanted to work on is maximum strength as a foundation for developing sport specific characteristics. As such the plan is a modified powerlifting routine.

Powerlifting is competition in Deadlift, Squat and Bench Press. Our basic, core movements with a program geared towards the highest strength possible - that is the highest 1RM. I also wanted to include the Olympic lifts because, as a(n actual) power athlete, I need those characteristics as well. (Powerlifting is not actually maximum power, the Olympic lifts do that. And competition in the Oly lifts is called weightlifting, even though it's not actually the most weight - go figure.)

The only real omission in powerlifting is a dynamic back exercise, since the deadlift is basically isometric for the spinal erectors and upper back. There are also overhead movements missing, though the bench does work those muscles and the overhead lifts from the Oly lifts cover that reasonably well. Therefore, my plan added these components in.

The plan

The plan's outline comes from this blog post by Greg Robbins over at Eric Cressey's blog.

• Monday - Squat High
• Tuesday - Deadlift Low
• Wednesday - Bench High
• Thursday - Squat Low
• Friday - Deadlift High
• Saturday - Bench Low

The days are divided up by our core exercises, so that we get two days of each, which is a lot of training volume. More volume gets us technical training as well as gains in weight moved. This plan keeps the same muscle group from being used maximally two days in a row e.g. my back is relevant for the squat but not maximally like it is for the deadlift.

There are two days between each day of a core exercise, which is sufficient recovery time.

There are no two days in a row of High intensity, thereby allowing me to recover in a whole body sense and not just in a muscle specific sense.

The heavy days have a warm-up portion for the main exercise as well as the maximal lifts. These are submax and help me dial in my technique as well as utilizing post-activation potentiation. The linked article describes this component.

Category	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	Squat High	DL Low	Bench High	Squat Low	DL High	Bench Mid
Warm-up			Planks	1-Leg Stability	Turkish Parts	Planks
Prep	Box Jump	Turkish Get-up	Heavy Throw	Single Leg Box	Broad Jump	Yoga Push-up
Oly	Clean	Snatch High	Landmine Snatch	Clean and Jerk	Snatch Low	Landmine Jerk
Main Warm-up	Squat Warm-up		Bench Warm-up		DL Warm-up	Incline Bench
Main	Squat High	Deadlift Low	Bench High	Squat Low	Deadlift High	Bench Mid
Accessory	Step-up		1-arm Bench	Split Squat	1-arm Row	Lat Pulldown
	Suitcase Carry	RDL	Wrist Circuit	OH Squat	SLDL	Pallof
Prehab		YTI - Scapula	Ext. Rot.			Wrist Ext/Flex

* Squats are Front Squats - of course.

What else is going on

All of this is in addition to the regular training that I undertake. So there is the conditioning at the beginning of each of my classes, which includes some velocity-power work and more of the trunk stability components.

Plus, of course, there is all my technical training with the sword. Altogether I was getting about 12-14 hours a week of intense training. Plus the walking to and from work (a kilometer each way) and to any other place since I don't own a car. And going out dancing periodically. It's a lot.

Actually, it was too much to start with.

The down side

I overtrained. I felt like I'd done too much lifting to get technical training in as well, so my swordwork was decreasing. I recognized it fairly early and made adjustments. I removed some exercises (which is already reflected above). And I reduced the volume on others. I hit a sustainable point though. It just took some trial and error.

Applying it to your own case

Well, now how does this apply to you? Many ideas are possible. Here are a few ways:

• First you can arrange your schedule around the core lifts instead of body parts or some such. You do Deadlift, Squat and Bench every time for a 3-day schedule but each day there is a most important, most intense lift.
• You can run a 4-day program with Deadlift and Bench one day, and Squat and Pullup another. It's still more.
• Perhaps this just motivates you to do a Powerlifting program for the early phases of your periodization.
• Just put more sets in for the core lifts, at submax intensities, to get the technical training time under the bar. 

There are lots of other possibilities and I'd love to hear your thoughts, too.

Conclusion

I encourage you to put a lot of thought into what you could be doing to maximize your training. 

Sword Shoulder - A Response to Jess Finley

Recently my friend Jess Finley posted some video commentary about shoulder injuries in Longsword and Messer. There are some good points, and I want to flesh out some of the things you can do to prevent the common issues that she describes.

This post will make more sense if you watch the video first.

I disagree with one wording choice. A forward shoulder position is not pulling the shoulder out of it's socket.

The primary issue Jess describes is an overextension of the arm which can stress the shoulder.  She notes this in particular for women. I don't doubt the association between this problem and women. In part because she makes a good observation that the shoulder blade wings out. Given that our society discourages women from engaging in actual strength training, especially for the upper body, it is not surprising that this is more common for women.

An extreme example of scapular winging ("Wingingofscapula". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikipedia.)

The most common cause of this is weakness of the serratus anterior muscle. The serratus anterior has it's major role in keeping the scapula pinned to the ribcage. The muscle attaches to the underside of the shoulder blade, on it's inner edge and then to the ribcage around the sides. The muscle's action is to protract the scapula i.e. slide the shoulder blade forward and also to upwardly rotate the scapula.

Secondary to this is strength of the rhomboids and middle trapezius. These muscles attach to the inner edge of the scapula and then to the spine. As such they retract the scapula, that is slide it towards the spine. Therefore they can help stabilize the scapula, but only by preventing it from moving forward also.

Our focus then needs to be on the serratus anterior development. There are two basic exercises for this:

1) Push-up plus (scapular push-up): set-up for this exercise in a push-up position. Your arms will stay locked out during the exercise and the torso needs to be kept in neutral posture. Then squeeze your shoulder blades together and then push them out. This lowers and raises your whole body (which you are keeping locked into good posture.

2) Incline presses: any kind of exercise where you are positioned on an incline bench and pressing upwards will make good use of the serratus anterior. This can be done with dumbbells, barbells and other tools. Make sure to fully extend the arm upwards to get full motion forward of the scapula. And make sure to use enough weight for strength gains - that means enough that you can only do 12 or fewer repetitions.

The rhomboids and middle trapezius will assist the serratus in stabilizing the shoulder blade and so exercising them will also be of benefit. Exercises for these can start with basic upper back exercises like rows: one-arm, barbell, cable etc. Single joint exercises like reverse flyes can be added if more is needed; but usually it is not.

Forward, Rounded Shoulders

Jess also talks about having forward, rounded shoulders, which is common with folks who work at a desk job. People who have had this for a long time may have shortened there chest muscles and so stretches may help those folks. However, it's frequently more about attention to posture and ergonomics. Additionally, strengthening the back, as I just described, will help.

Jess also makes a good point here about making sure that when you are strengthening the pecs you also need to work the back, otherwise you end up with your shoulders pulled more forward.

That's only a brief look at rounded shoulders and I'll likely get back to it in another post.

The Rotator Cuff

The rotator cuff also plays a role in shoulder health and pain, but it will be covered in future posts.

Conclusion

Ultimately, a basic strength training program using intensities that actually develop strength (as opposed to the way most magazine's describe resistance training for women) will be sufficient for most people with this type of problem. The additional exercises here can accelerate the improvement or cover when a basic program is not working.

Don't Believe the Hype

I have a sense of humor. Even if it may not come across in this blog.

So enjoy: The 5 Saddest Money Grabbing Attempts by the Fitness Industry, by Cracked.

A little bit of a reply to this first

ViPR
(This video was painful to watch) Blending functional movements with strength is not hard. Picking things up is a functional movement after all.

It's So Versatile!

1. You can use it like a line painted on the ground
2. Like a broom stick
3. Throw it

Sauna Suit
There are no shortcuts. Sweat is just water. Not fat.

Power Mechanics from Grip

Alright, so a friend, Maxime Chouinard, asked on Facebook about how he was taught to grip the weapon in Irish Stick. He then goes on to describe something that is standard in saber and similar to the way Medieval weapons are held.

Here's what he said:

Instead of using a hammer grip we are told to extend the thumb and mostly hold the stick firmly with the top three fingers. We tense the rest when striking. People often ask me why. And the way I understand it is that the thumb allows you to get a little bit more snap, more control and also a little bit more extension when the fingers are tensing. 

There are a variety of advantages to this method of gripping and he wanted me articulate the biomechanics of why this is so.

Control

The first, and most important, is the way in which this grip allows you to control the weapon better. This matters more with an edged weapon than the Irish stick, but this is a difference of degrees. 

The tips of your fingers are exquisitely sensitive with some of the highest nerve ending density in the body. This provides highly detailed information for adjusting edge alignment and positioning the weapon.

Further, by holding the weapon at the end of your fingers you are able to move them to move the weapon, making small changes. This improves edge alignment, it's how you make a disengage with a foyning weapon and a variety of other actions.

Power

Now we get to something that seems trickier and would generate more debate but really doesn't vary as much as people think. 

Do you hold the weapon with the first two or three fingers or the last two or three? As long as all the fingers are on the hilt all the time then it doesn't actually matter. What I would not want to see is an open hand where only the first one or two fingers are on the hilt - this is good for twirling a stick but bad for fighting.

If I have my first couple of fingers gripping the weapon firmly and the bottom two just holding on then I can squeeze those fingers as my strike approaches it's target to improve the hit. Or I can hold primarily with the bottom two fingers and squeeze the grip into the top two. It ends up being nearly the same. 

Both are described and/or depicted in the source material and the biomechanics are just about the same.

What's going on is that the forearm muscles involved in both grip and ulnar deviation/adduction are all activating at once. These are mostly the muscles on the inside of your forearm - the paler side - with some of the muscles on the other side activating as well. These are probably fairly big muscles if you train a lot. (Flexor carpi radialis and extensor carpi radialis are the most significant but the flexor digitorums are also involved).

What's termed ulnar deviation or adduction of the wrist I like to think of as wrist extension, because that's how it's used related to the movement of the rest of the arm - as I extend my arm towards the target I adduct the wrist to extend farther.

(Similarly, I think of plantarflexion of the ankle as extension - this also makes the names less stupid)

So as I extend the wrist I add rotational energy to the weapon and a small motion at the hand creates a large motion at the tip i.e. it increases the velocity significantly. Increased velocity is increased power.

This also firms up the grip at the moment of impact so that you: a) transfer power efficiently in to the target; b) don't lose the weapon just because you actually hit something; c) can cut with opposition or parry effectively.

It's important to avoid over-extending the wrist as this means you lose the advantages I just described from the stronger grip. If you let your hand hang by your side you should note that it is not quite in line with the forearm.And this is as far as you should extend the wrist. Any further and the bones don't line up right for good energy transfer.

Training -  the easiest way to train this tensing component is to strike a pell. The brain will automatically tense the wrist/forearm muscles when you work the pell with power and this will make it the default when you strike. Pell work is also one of the only training methods described in historical sources.

The Thumb

With the thumb on the back of the grip you can also add it's opposability muscles to the action of generating power. This works well for lighter weapons like saber and stick, but you need the thumb wrapped around the grip for a heavier weapon like a broadsword, rapier or Medieval sword. However, this is as much providing a solid pivot point to lever the grip as actually move it. The motion is still mostly generated by the lower finger muscles.

Seizing the Weapon

Another point that Max brings up is the vulnerability of the thumb in weapon grabbing techniques. Interestingly, the Irish Stick tradition takes basically the opposite thought on this from the way I've seen it described before.

It is easiest to seize the weapon or disarm your opponent by twisting it into the thumb side, as opposed to twisting towards the palm. Putting your thumb along the back of the grip makes it even easier to be disarmed. So if I was worried about being disarmed I'd keep my thumb wrapped around the grip like I do in Broadsword and with Medieval swords.

But the Irish Stick tradition says that getting your thumb in the way of a disarm is just going to get it injured, so holding the thumb along the back is viewed as protective and advantageous. Max said, "it allows you to let go of the stick more easily if it gets grabbed and twisted." That's an interesting difference in perspective. I wonder if it has to do with the relative safety of grabbing a stick versus a blade leading to more techniques based around disarms after grabs.

Weak Grip?

(Remember, any time you see a question mark in a headline the answer is almost always, "no" - Betteridge's Law.)

One other question that Max poses is whether or not baton instructors are right to criticize this as a weak grip. Near as I can tell the answer is no. However, it has to do with style preferences and method of use. The baton that I've seen includes a lot of stick twirling and for that action wrapping the thumb around the stick will be stronger than the back of the grip alternative.

But if you are hitting to injure then the grip used for Irish Stick is just fine.

So, if you aren't planning to twirl the stick like a baton then it shouldn't matter. Read that how you like.

Follow Up

After I posted this Max replied. And he let me know that the baton he was talking about was things like police baton not French La Canne. As to why they cling to the hammer grip he suggests the following:

I think its one of those things that got developed out of simplicity's sake (easier and quicker to teach a hammer grip to soldiers and policemen) and then repeated on an on without anyone really questioning it.

I have no trouble believing this explanation. That being said, I'll note that each approach has it's advantages and it's more important to know how to use the system to train to it's fullest rather than to compare systems.