A good 90% of my clients (both for massage therapy and training) complain of some sort of pain regularly. In fact, it’s often the reason they seek me out in the first place. For the general population, nagging perpetual pain in the upper back, shoulders, and knees is egregiously common.

For athletes or generally active people, minor or severe pain or injury in and around the joints is a regular (and often self-induced) occurrence. In my experience, many of these issues arise from three main shortcomings:

• Ignorance
• Laziness
• Ego

While many injuries and chronic issues do require medical intervention (as an aside – I am not a medical professional and I cannot diagnose, treat, nor prescribe), many of these inconvenient aches and pains can be avoided—or at least greatly attenuated.

If you are an athlete (or if you just work out a lot), you probably already know this. You may even do a little bit of mobility here and there. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn’t. Let’s talk about why and the how.

The Big 3

There has been a big push for more mobility in the fitness communities in the past eight years or so. This is great. Having the mobility to move our joints through full ranges of motion is important.

Additionally, having the stability to keep ourselves from moving past a healthy range of motion is just as important. Having the body awareness to know which muscles we are activating and stretching, and when pain is or isn’t a serious warning sign, is even more important.

In many fitness programs, one, two, or all three of these elements get ignored. The mobility revolution has been fantastic for many reasons, but often results in the neglect of stability and kinesthetic awareness.

Self-care and maintenance—while many in the fitness communities brush it off as weak or “soft”—is crucial to our health and wellness. It’s not rocket science, but it can most definitely be boring.

And it’s not sexy. These days hitting a new PR in our squat, or running our fastest mile, or doing 50+ pull ups is considered sexy. Static stretching, foam rolling, band exercises, and isometric holds are not sexy.

You know what’s even less sexy? Not being able to get out of bed in the morning without pain while your body sounds like a giant bowl of Rice Krispies. Or maybe aggravating your shoulder to the point that you can’t fasten your own seatbelt for a week.

Whether you are an athlete or an office worker, preventative maintenance on your body is a big deal. Acquiring the knowledge and budgeting the time to properly perform this body maintenance is also a big deal and can be a huge obstacle for many of us, so let’s talk about “the how.”

When it comes to working on “the big 3″—technically, you don’t really need anything, but it can be helpful to have some tools at your disposal. I recommend getting a couple of Therabands, a lacrosse ball or two, and a foam roller.

If you don’t have any of these tools, you can still do a whole lot. In other words: no excuses. I could write an entire book on this, and I’ll give a sample routine at the end of this article, but let’s talk about the bare bones basics.

1. Mobility: When it comes to mobility (increasing your range of motion), there are two main components: soft-tissue manipulation like foam rolling and lacrosse ball triggerpointing and good old fashioned stretching.
2. Stability: Stability exercises can come in a few different forms, but my favorite stability tools are Theraband exercises, isometric holds (like planks), and unilateral exercises.
3. Body Awareness: Kinesthetic awareness is much more complex. Many of us go into autopilot mode when we move and building kinesthetic awareness forces us out of that mode. Think about what muscles you are activating when you move; are you bracing through your core? When you drive through your heels can you feel your glutes and hamstrings engage? When you hold in a plank are you activating your leg muscles and pulling your shoulder blades down your back? This attention to detail becomes increasingly important as we age and especially important if we are injured or suffer from chronic nagging pain. It takes work—and it takes diligence. Don’t be lazy, this is your body. Pay attention.

As a general rule, I try to mix one “bracing” exercise, two stability exercises, and two mobility exercises into my routine 2-3 times per week. That’s it. It takes 10 minutes (I usually work it into my warm up), and I’m good to go.

Not sure where to start? Here are some examples.

Get In Touch with Your Joints and Muscles: 1. Bracing

Take 2-3 minutes to work on bracing your core and stabilizing your low back with pelvic tilts.

I follow a 3-4 step bracing sequence:

• Breathe (inhale and exhale)
• Pull belly button back toward spine (engage the abdominal muscles)
• Neutralize spine (ensure there is no over-arching or over-rounding)
• Squeeze glutes
• Slowly release and repeat

Get In Touch with Your Joints and Muscles: 2. Upper Body Stability

• 1:00 – Scapular push ups

Start in a high plank position. Begin with your bracing sequence with a neutral spine, then, without bending your elbows, squeeze your shoulder blades toward one another, and then push them apart. Every part of this movement should be deliberate and controlled.

• 1:00 – Pull aparts

Pull aparts can be done with whatever grip is most comfortable for you:

• Grip pronated (facing the floor)
• Grip supinated (facing the ceiling)
• Grip neutral (palms face each other)

Set your grip on the Theraband with your hands directly in front of your shoulders and your arms parallel with the floor. You should have tension in the Theraband throughout the entire movement.

Squeeze your shoulder blades back toward each other while you pull the band apart. Stop when the band touches your chest and then slowly release the band back to the starting position.

Do your best to keep your rib cage from “flaring” forward during this movement. Use your bracing to keep your torso and hips still.

Get In Touch with Your Joints and Muscles: 3. Upper Body Mobility

• 1:00-2:00 -Thoracic foam roll and extensions

We are targeting the mid-to-upper back here so avoid the low back and avoid the neck. Start face up on the ground, hollow out your torso, place the foam roller under your upper back, and use your legs to push yourself forward and backward.

Pause with the foam roller against a tense area (across the shoulder blades is a good one), place the hips down on the ground, and arch back over the foam roller, dropping your arms back over your head. Hold for 10-15 seconds, return to the rolling motion and repeat these extensions in a few more spots on the upper back.

Get In Touch with Your Joints and Muscles: 4. Lower Body Stability

• 1:00 – Lunge hold, per side

Stagger your legs with one foot a healthy distance in front of the other. Lunge down to hover your back knee and drive through your front heel, keeping your front knee over your front ankle. Bend both of your legs and keep your torso upright. Squeeze your glutes and quads.

Get In Touch with Your Joints and Muscles: 5. Lower Body Mobility

• 1:00 – Figure 4 glute stretch, per side

Begin by lying on your back with your working leg crossed over the other in a figure 4 shape. Place your hands (or if you need, you can use a band to assist you here) behind the hamstrings of the non-stretching leg, and lean back to pull your legs in toward your chest. Avoid excessive rounding of the back here, try to keep both hips on the floor.

The post 10 Minutes to a Pain Free Body appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

At the most basic level, pain is perceived as a wholly negative phenomenon. There is no denying that feeling pain or seeing pain in others is unpleasant and even upsetting. But pain can be a very beneficial asset in life, and if one becomes accustomed to pain, they are more likely to not allow it to become a problem.

I have voluntarily subjected myself to many types of pain over the course of my Labors, to demonstrate that if one embraces pain, it can be a transformative experience. I recently undertook and accomplished the goal of running 20 miles a day for 100 consecutive days to raise awareness for increased suicide rates within the veteran population. The degree of pain I experienced during this labor was not comfortable; it was not fun; and it was not glorious by any means. But I can also say without reservation that I am a better person because of the pain I endured.

If pain is accepted and embraced, it can lead to an increased sense of pleasure, an enhancement in one’s own life, and even elicit a positive reaction from those around us.

The Required Antagonist of Pleasure

The first positive benefit of pain is that it can enhance pleasure by providing a contrast. Pleasure is pain’s opposing phenomenon. While pleasure can obviously be felt regardless of whether one has felt pain in their life, feeling pain makes feeling pleasure all the more enjoyable, as there is something to compare it to. If you were happy all the time, how would you know it? Research in psychology indicates that:

“Pleasure is limited by the amount of pain it removes. That is, pleasure is only understood within the context of pain and the relief of pain is itself a pleasurable experience. Consider the enjoyment of food after a long fast, the pleasure of cool water after being in the hot sun, or the sensation of a hot spa following submersion in icy cold water”¹

In essence, pleasure really has no meaning unless it can be compared to its antagonist. Subjecting oneself to pain makes the pleasure that follows doubly satisfying. I have personally felt this juxtaposition during many of my labors. For example, in 2015, for Parkinson’s Disease research, I climbed a 20ft rope so many times within a 27-hour period that it equated to the height of Mt. Everest (29,030ft). My entire body felt torn, especially my arms. However, after weeks of recovery, the simple fact that my arms were no longer in pain gave me an immense amount of pleasure. Just acknowledging that lack of pain made me feel physically well and mentally more resilient.

Pain and Your Brain

Another reason why pain can be beneficial is that it enhances one’s long-term cognitive ability and self-regulation. When one subjects themselves to pain, they are essentially demonstrating to themselves the depths to which they are willing to go, which can be used in the future to compare all other painful experiences. Two Australian researchers found that introducing aerobic training increased pain tolerance and improved vigor, while decreasing fatigue, tension and depression.²

When one subjects themselves to pain (in the above example, intense aerobic exercise), all future experiences of pain that are less intense than the initial exposure have something to be compared to. This enhances self-regulation, by providing a reference point for the amount of pain that one’s body can endure, and also increases cognitive ability by decreasing depression and anxiety.

I can personally attest to these enhancements, specifically during another labor of mine that involved pulling a full-size pickup truck for 22 miles across Death Valley. By the end of this event, I understood how far I could push my body under the most extreme external conditions, giving me a benchmark for all future pain-inducing experiences. Death Valley represented the depression and desolation that envelops the minds of those afflicted with PTSD and thoughts of suicide.

After accomplishing my mission under those excruciatingly painful conditions, I felt a sense of hope that others within that same space, mentally, could find strength in their most vulnerable state and greatness after their darkest hour. In truth, all pain comes to an end, no matter how seemingly hopeless and desolate the environment is that surrounds you.

The Shortcut to Mindfulness

A recurring lesson during all my Labors is that pain can be used as a tool for self-mastery and mindfulness. I do not measure success by having mastered a skill, setting a world record, or by simply reaching a destination. Those things can be done with diligent study and practice in most cases. I am more concerned with the man I need to become, and the degree of pain I will embrace or overcome along the way.

Pain increases our presence in life. Imagine building a house, and as you’re hammering a nail into a plank of wood, you slip with the hammer and smash your finger. What will you do? Will you immediately continue building the house, or tend to your finger? Of course, you will first tend to your finger; this is the function of pain. It interrupts everything that we are thinking, feeling, or doing, and forces us to focus on what is happening right here and right now. The effect is that we are more engaged with the present and less engaged with external, uncontrollable factors.

In essence, pain is a shortcut to mindfulness. During my 100-day journey of running 2000 miles, the more I suffered, the more pleasure I felt. Sometimes it was the “runner’s high” after a particularly grueling 20-mile run, and at other times it was simply the pleasure of knowing that I had survived another day, mile, minute, or step. The fact that I was in pain meant that I had an opportunity to discover a means to embrace or overcome it. If I allowed my mind to solely focus on the pain, both my mind and my efforts would be debased. To reach the end of my labor, I needed to do it step-by-step and day-by-day.

Pain is only a symptom of the effort I put into my Labors. So, step-by-step, I ran toward my goal and through the lens of pain, I saw that the 100-day effort was made from 100 single days. There was no difference between one day and another. 99 days became 98; 50 days became 10 days; and finally, I reached the last day. The first and the last day were no different. The beginning was the end and the end was the beginning.

Witnesses to Pain

Finally, pain can be beneficial in a more outward way, by producing feelings of empathy and affiliation within those witnessing the pain itself. When a person is in pain, those surrounding that person want to help relieve it by helping that person out in any way they can. Have you ever watched a friend, family member, or loved one go through some sort of physical pain or mental anguish, and just felt that you would do anything to relinquish that pain? This feeling can be manipulated to induce good in the world.

By subjecting myself to a 20-mile run for 100 days straight, I used this feeling to raise awareness for veteran suicide rates. And it largely worked, as people read about my story or actually watched me in person, and felt the need to contribute to my cause or support in any way they could. If done correctly, one can subject themselves to pain in order to transform the world for the better.

The feeling of pain is by no means fun. It can prove to be excruciating at times, and simply overwhelming if one is not prepared for it. But through the experience of pain, people become better. They have something to compare pleasure to. They increase their pain tolerance and cognitive ability, and can elicit a positive emotional response from others, which can be used to create a more positive world. This is what I hope to achieve through my Twelve Labors, and I believe that I am on my way to doing just that.

Do not fear pain. Under the right context, it can be a tool for self-discovery, mindfulness, and a great multiplier in life. You just need to find a purpose or cause that makes it worth embracing. 

References:

1. Bastian, Brock, Jolanda Jetten, Matthew J. Hornsey, and Siri Leknes. “The positive consequences of pain: A biopsychosocial approach.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 18, no. 3 (2014): 256-279.

2. Anshel, Mark H., and Kenneth G. Russell. “Effect of aerobic and strength training on pain tolerance, pain appraisal and mood of unfit males as a function of pain location.” Journal of Sports Sciences 12, no. 6 (1994): 535-547.

The post Learning to Accept and Embrace Pain appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

That’s me. How much effort do you really put in when you get under the bar? (Source: Gym Jones)

If you want to achieve your goals, then you have to do more than just show up. You have to work, to grind, and to suffer. Just because you showed up doesn’t mean you’ve put in an honest day’s work. And it certainly doesn’t mean you’ve done something to make yourself better.

Nothing in Life Is Easy

We are inundated with infomercials and training systems promising radical, life-changing results for three easy payments, little time commitment, and little effort. We have been led to believe we will be successful by paying some money and putting in a minimal amount of work. How can that be true? And how many times have you already tried that shortcut and failed?

Nothing in life comes easily. If it does, you don’t want it because chances are it comes with a catch. It may be the road less traveled, but the harder road is always the road to take, and the right way is always the best way.

IN ANY DISCIPLINE THE SINGLE GREATEST DETERMINANT OF SUCCESS IS THE TIME A PERSON IS WILLING TO GIVE TO HIS OR HER GOALS.

In the realm of fitness, most people blame external forces when they don’t achieve their goal. They make excuses for their poor showing. Time, equipment, lack of knowledge, poor genetics. They rarely look within and blame the real culprit – themselves.

The most successful people in the world share something in common: they are willing to make sacrifices where others are not. They are willing to do whatever it takes. There are no excuses. They embrace hard work, they are willing to give everything they have, and they are willing to suffer. We could learn something from these people.

3 Different Ways to Suffer

1. Working on Weaknesses

Often in the gym, we will gravitate to the exercises we like. In general, we like them because they are easy or make us feel good. Does this help us improve, though? How many of us work on our weaknesses regularly?

A weakness develops because we have neglected to work certain attributes or ignored certain exercises (probably because we dislike them). If I were to give one piece of advice regarding training, it would be to make a list of your strengths and weaknesses and then for the next month only work on your weaknesses.

You’ll be shocked at the progress you will see if you do this. It won’t be a fun month and it will be filled with all kinds of exercises you likely hate, but I can guarantee results.

Don’t deny yourself progress by taking the easy path. (Source: Gym Jones)

2. Doing More Work

The best athletes in the world train all the time. It is what they do. In fact, in any discipline the single greatest determinant of success is the time a person is willing to give his or her goal.

Do you think Michael Phelps became the best swimmer in the world by swimming four hours a week? Do you think Rich Froning is the best CrossFit athlete in the world because he trains only once or twice a week? How many hours of practice did Michael Jordan need to complete to become the best basketball player of all time?

The best people in the world practice all of the time. It is their life. They became the best by being willing to put in more time and quality practice than anyone else.

So a key to improving is to do more work. If you are showing up to the gym three days a week, it simply isn’t enough. If you want to achieve your goals, then you need to be in the gym every day. There are no excuses, and it isn’t about finding more time. It is about making the gym a priority. Yes, I get it that you are busy, but there is always more time available. You just need better time-management skills or you need to be willing to make a sacrifice.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HURTING A LITTLE. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING IN A LITTLE DISCOMFORT.

There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep eight full hours a night, seven days a week, that adds up to 56 hours. You still have 112 hours left – and are you really sleeping eight hours a night anyway? (You should be.)

Let’s say you also work twelve-hour days, five days a week. That is working 9:00am to 9:00pm, Monday through Friday. The total work is sixty hours. Subtract that from your 112 hours and you still have 62 hours left to play with. You should be able to commit at least five to ten of those hours to train.

Even if you trained for ten hours, you’d still have 52 left. If you think you don’t have enough time, then what are you doing with those 52 hours? Watching TV, playing with your phone, checking your Facebook?

If you really think you don’t have enough time to train, then do something for me. Every time you check your text messages, Facebook, or Instagram do ten burpees. You’ll quickly see how much of a time suck these things are.

Yes, you may have to suffer by giving up some other things you enjoy. But the bottom line is that you need to sacrifice, give a few things up, make more time, and get more work done.

Or you can be happy being mediocre. Your choice.

Teaching my son to push past his limits and enjoy the process of hard work. (Source: Gym Jones)

3. Working Harder

Just walking through the gym doors and scanning your membership card or taking part in a class doesn’t ensure you will be successful. You need to work for your success. You need to suffer for it. But many people have no idea what genuine, hard work looks like. They show up to the gym and go through the motions.

When you are at the gym – go for it. Don’t go halfway. People fall into the trap of doing “junk intensity.” That is when you are working hard enough to beat yourself down, but not hard enough to facilitate a meaningful change in your fitness.

MOST PEOPLE REALLY DON’T KOW WHAT “ALL OUT” IS. THEY THINK THEY KNOW, BUT THEY DON’T.

To improve, you must push yourself past your perceived limits. You must put yourself in an uncomfortable position. You must feel some pain. You need to sweat and you need to bleed. Training should never be easy. You should leave the gym mentally and physically exhausted. The goal each day is to experience “the moment.” That point in a workout where you don’t know if you can continue.

If a workout is hard enough, you will know it. During a workout you should think four things:

1. “I’m not going to make it.”
2. “I want to quit.”
3. “I’m going to die if I keep going.”
4. “I’d rather just die than finish this.”

That is the effort required. Anything less is not acceptable. Learn to hurt and learn to suffer.

Strategies and Tests to Help You Suffer

I can’t help you work on your weakness or create your desire to make more time. That is on you. I can help you figure out what real, genuine hard work is.

Most people really don’t know what “all out” is. They think they know, but they don’t. Here are a few tests that will teach you how to hurt and what your limits are. In exploring those limits, you will learn how to suffer.

Try one of the following tests of physical and mental endurance to increase your capacity for suffering. (Source: Gym Jones)

1.5 Mile Run for Time

Plan a mile and half course and run it as fast as humanly possible. This isn’t a walk, this isn’t a jog. The entire effort must be a push. If you don’t want to collapse at the end of this, then you didn’t go hard enough.

My advice is to do this every week for six weeks straight. On the first effort, go as fast as you can. Then, each subsequent week, your goal will be to set a new personal best and beat your previous time. By doing this, you will ensure that you hit your limits and force yourself to suffer to burst through them. By the end of six weeks, you will know what it is to go hard.

GOOD GOAL: 9 MINUTES FOR THE AVERAGE RUNNER.

2,000m Row for Time

This works the same as the mile and a half run, but on a rower. Just program 2000m into the rower and row it as fast as you can. I love the rower because the computer is staring you in the face. You can’t run and you can’t hide.

Here’s a tip to gauge intensity: if you don’t want to quit at the halfway point, then you aren’t going hard enough. If you do this right you’ll know what it is like to suffer.

GOOD GOAL: 7 MINUTES FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON.

60-Second All-Out Run, Row, Bike, or Ski

If you give it everything you have, a minute all-out is about a minute too long. To do this, you need to be in the right frame of mind. Try to break the machine you are using. You need to fight, scratch, and claw for every extra meter or calorie. Give this everything you have.

If you thought you were working hard during your hour at the gym, this drill will teach you that you were wasting 59 of those minutes.

The rowing machines in our gym have claimed the spirit of those who test their limits with the all-out sprint. (Source: Gym Jones)

Death by Burpees

This is a simple test that can be done anywhere:

• Set a clock and let it run.
• During the first minute, do one burpee.
• During the second minute, do two burpees.
• In the third minute, you’ll do three.
• By the fifteenth minute, you’ll be doing fifteen.

Eventually, you will come to a point where you can’t or won’t continue. Either way you’ll learn to suffer.

GOOD GOAL: HITTING THE SEVENTEENTH MINUTE.

Suffering Isn’t All Bad

Don’t let the idea of suffering frighten you. So many people want to take the easy way out. But when it comes to training, there is no easy way. The harder path is the best path.

There is nothing wrong with hurting a little. There is nothing wrong with being in a little discomfort. You may think this doesn’t seem fun, but you’ll learn to enjoy it. You’ll learn there is nothing more fun than achieving your goals. It will make all that suffering worth it.

The post The 3 Types of Suffering That Empower Your Workouts appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Masking it with pills or shots is only going to prolong the problem. Your pain will simmer and smoulder, just waiting for its next chance to flare up. If something hurts, it’s time to address the sticky root cause. This may take some digging to find, but the alternative is a self-imposed life sentence.

Don’t Be A Hero

Have you ever met somebody who seems to wear their pain like a badge of honor? As if having never-ending aches or injuries were a sign of success? It’s not. But too often acute pains become chronic, and we start to identify with our pain.¹

That pain begins to define our perception of normal, and life takes on a very different hue. We wake up one day and realize: I have a “bad” shoulder. Or hip. Or back. Then resignation sets in, and we accept that maybe we’re just not able to do the things we used to do.

That’s garbage. You aren’t stuck there. The truth is that healing from pain can take a long time. And recovery deserves that respect. If we muscle through the process, gloss over it entirely, or fail to address the root cause of our pain, then we’re doomed to repeat it.

Honor Your Pain

It seems like a strange idea at first. But pain (the sensation) is a good thing. It means your body works and wants to stay alive. Our perception of pain is where things get tricky. Don’t fall for the mistake of blaming your body for pain, or punishing yourself over it.

Be curious. Pain is a chance to learn about your body. To resume a dialogue with it. After all, pain is just a message. The way you interpret it is up to you. You have a choice.

In fact, a mindfulness practice has been shown to have analgesic effects.² The simple act of bringing conscious attention to your body is a built-in painkiller. You might ask yourself if you can explore the boundary of your perceived pain. Can you draw a line around it? What sensations do you notice besides pain? Can you feel the ground underneath you? What is your breath doing?

I want to be clear: getting out of pain is not easy. But living with pain is not normal. It’ll be the hardest work of your life, but if you’re stuck with ongoing pain, the best gift you can give yourself is to find a way out.

More on dealing with pain and injury:

Training Should Not Interfere with Your Health

References:

1, S Harris, et al., “Role loss and emotional adjustment in chronic pain,” Pain. September 2003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3959(03)00251-3.

2. JA Grant and P Rainville, “Pain sensitivity and analgesic effects of mindful states in Zen meditators: a cross-sectional study,” Psychosomatic Medicine. January 2009. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e31818f52ee.

The post Pain Is Not a Life Sentence appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I don’t offer a treatment program or a diagnosis, but I offer something of arguably equal value: the knowledge to objectively decide the best course of action for you. If you have been grappling with pain – chronic or acute, localized or widespread – read on to learn the true nature of that which ails you.

Learning About the “Enemy”

Pain is so intrinsic to the human condition that we often don’t stop to consider its characteristics. The simplest explanation is that pain is when something hurts. Something is bothering you, motivating you to stop what you are doing, change your position, or otherwise avoid what you believe to be causing the discomfort.

Most people associate pain with bodily injury. Although there is often a correlation, there are more complex cases such as chronic pain and phantom pain where no physical damage is evident. In fact, pain is largely a neurological phenomenon. It is a sensation modulated by the brain, based on inputs that are not only sensory but also social, emotional, and psychological. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines it as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”¹

“Most people are used to physiological explanations for their ailments, so they don’t realize that with pain there can be a vicious cycle at work.”

Notice that emotions are mentioned in the definition. Being plagued by pain is stressful and disheartening. But most people are used to physiological explanations for their ailments, so they don’t realize that with pain there can be a vicious cycle at work. Persistent pain exacerbates stress, which in turn can lock the body even deeper into the pain pattern. There is much research documenting this link between the tangible and the intangible when it comes to pain.^2,3

How Does It Work?

Older models of pain put forth that an injured site shoots pain signals to the brain – in other words, that pain originates at the tissue level. But we now know this is not entirely accurate. There are certain cells called nociceptors that detect noxious stimuli and relay this information to the brain. But from there, it’s up to the head honcho to create the sensation of pain. It does not actually come from the local site.

The relationship between brain and body

By no means am I saying that pain is caused by the mind, or that it’s all made up in your head. Rather, think of the brain as a factory foreman who uses past experience, machinery inspections, worker reports, and other markers to regulate operations. Nociception is important in producing pain, but so are other, less tangible things. Subconscious factors are among the resources your brain weighs when determining how much pain to create. In this process, your brain also looks to past experiences, social context, beliefs, and a wide variety of other variables.

In light of this, researchers such as Ronald Melzack, Patrick Wall, Lorimer Moseley, and David Butler developed and furthered something called the neuromatrix model of pain.⁴ It takes note of the nuances discussed above, and so the recommendations for treatment are more holistic. Foremost among the interventions is education about the science. After all, beliefs that are limiting or misleading can contribute to chronic pain. The first step in alleviating unnecessary burden is to learn about and understand it.⁵

The cycle of pain and outcome

My Back Is Bad, My Pain Is Bad – or Are They?

One common idea is that biomechanics, posture, tissue quality, and other structural issues are root causes of pain. This is an incomplete and even harmful idea if it convinces people that, for example, their body proportions are “horrible” or they have permanent scar tissue. These are self-defeating ideas that further develop fear and avoidance – not a place from which you can tackle your pain.

If body structure were absolutely key in producing pain, how could you explain the majority of study subjects with “bone and soft tissue abnormalities” in their knees or those with “abnormal findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans” who feel no pain? ^6,7

No one likes pain, obviously. But it is necessary to survive. It is a strong incentive to avoid actions and behaviors that might harm you. Some people are born without sensitivity to pain, a condition called congenital analgesia.⁸ While you may think them lucky, they are at far greater risk for deadly injury because they do not realize when they have hurt themselves.

The bottom line is that pain is an alarm system, an output of the brain meant to defend against perceived threats by encouraging you to avoid them. These perceived threats usually involve tissue damage – a bruise or a broken bone. In these cases, addressing the physical problem will alleviate the “threat” and therefore the pain. But when keeping your body healthy and active is not enough, it’s time to do more sleuthing to determine and confront the source of your pain.

When you’re ready to make a change, start off small. Give your body the pampering it deserves so it can muster its recovery resources and feed a positive stimulus, rather than a negative one. Mindfulness is one tool you can use. It relieves stress, which can positively impact how you feel physically, plus it empowers your mind to remain calm, focused, and in control.

“The bottom line is that pain is an alarm system, an output of the brain meant to defend against perceived threats by encouraging you to avoid them.”

If certain positions or movements cause discomfort, find ways you can regress – use less range of motion or move more slowly – so there is no pain. Explore movements that are agreeable. This teaches your nervous system that not everything is dangerous. As more positions become pain-free, you will find you are less scared and are building momentum to liberate yourself from pain.

Perhaps the most important course of action, though, is reasserting your own worth and goals. Pain is a nuisance, but don’t let it get the better of you.

Being a Student

All of this fascinates me because I, like any other athlete, suffer pain. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell why it happens or whether your active lifestyle and workouts contribute to it in some way. I am not a researcher, and I do not make a living by treating other people’s pain. I am just seeking to be informed and to be an active participant in my own experience with pain.

I have found quite a few pioneering resources to be helpful:

• Pain Science is run by a former massage therapist who takes great care to scour the research and critically examine conventional wisdom.
• Better Movement targets not only the topic of pain but also the nervous system in general, movement skills, and how these all relate to physical performance.
• Lorimer Moseley updates along with his team over at Body in Mind, presenting new perspectives and recommendations based on the latest research for pain patients.
• SomaSimple is a forum of not only physical and manual therapists, but also all others who are committed to intellectual rigor, thorough review, and mature discussion.

If traditional methods of treatment don’t seem to work for you, there is still hope. You can take responsibility for learning the latest pain science and applying it to your own story. You can investigate your lifestyle, emotions, and relationships to your body and pain. You can choose to be mindful and take control of your own struggles.

Just remember: if it hurts, it means your brain cares about you.

More on pain and recovery:

• Understanding the Brain is the Key to Being Pain Free
• Facing the Pain: Let It Be Your Guide
• 5 Steps to Safely Train Around Lower Back Pain
• New On Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. “IASP Taxonomy.” International Association for the Study of Pain. Accessed June 13, 2015.

2. Nils Georg Niederstrasser, P. Maxwell Slepian, Tsipora Mankovsky-Arnold, Christian Larivière, Johan W. Vlaeyen, and Michael J.L. Sullivan, “An experimental approach to examining psychological contributions to multisite musculoskeletal pain,” The Journal of Pain 15 (2014): 1156-65.

3. Tim V. Salomons, Tom Johnstone, Misha-Miroslav Backonja, Alexander J. Shackman, and Richard J. Davidson, “Individual Differences in the Effects of Perceived Controllability on Pain Perception: Critical Role of the Prefrontal Cortex,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19 (2007): 993-1003.

4. Ronald Melzack, “Pain and the neuromatrix in the brain,” Journal of Dental Education 65 (2001): 1378-82.

5. Adriaan Louw, Ina Diener, David S. Butler, and Emilio J. Puentedura, “The effect of neuroscience education on pain, disability, anxiety, and stress in chronic musculoskeletal pain,” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 92 (2011): 2041-56.

6. K.A. Beattie, P. Boulos, M. Pui, J. O’Neill, D. Inglis, C.E. Webber, and J.D. Adachi, “Abnormalities identified in the knees of asymptomatic volunteers using peripheral magnetic resonance imaging,” Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 13 (2005): 181-6.

7. Maureen C. Jensen, Michael N. Brant-Zawadzki, Nancy Obuchowski, Michael T. Modic, Dennis Malkasian, and Jeffrey S. Ross, “Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine in people without back pain,” The New England Journal of Medicine 331 (1994): 69-73.

8. “Congenital Insensitivity to Pain.” Genetics Home Reference. March 30, 2015. Accessed April 6, 2015.

9. Hiroaki Nakashima, Yasutsugu Yukawa, Kota Suda, Masatsune Yamagata, Takayoshi Ueta, and Fumihiko Kato, “Abnormal Findings on Magnetic Resonance Images of the Cervical Spines in 1211 Asymptomatic Subjects,” Spine 40 (2015): 392-8.

10. Ulrike Bingel and Irene Tracey, “Imaging CNS Modulation of Pain in Humans,” Physiology 23 (2008): 371-380.

11. Steven J. Linton and William S. Shaw, “Impact of Psychological Factors in the Experience of Pain,” Physical Therapy 91 (2011): 700-11.

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of The American Physiological Society.

Photo 3 courtesy of The American Physical Therapy Association.

Photo 4 courtesy of Adam Meakins.

The post Dealing With Pain: Educate Yourself Toward a Better Future appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Standing upright on two legs is unique to our species. It has given us an evolutionary advantage to be more mobile and agile for survival. However, that advantage often comes with a price. Dysfunctional gait patterning may be linked to numerous musculoskeletal pain conditions that impact your ability to move.

The Role of the Lateral Sub-System

Fighting gravity forces with only two points of stabilization as opposed to four increases vulnerability in key areas. During movement the body integrates four sub-systems and one intrinsic stabilization system for stability. The four systems are:

• Lateral Sub-System (LSS)
• Deep Longitudinal Sub-System (DLS)
• Posterior Oblique Sub-System (POS)
• Anterior Oblique Sub-System (AOS)

Each system works together to produce efficient power and force. Dysfunction in one subsystem may negatively impact muscle activation, timing, and sequencing of the others. The single-leg stance portion of the gait cycle involves control of frontal plane forces via the LSS. If this subsystem is dysfunctional, repetitive impact forces travel to the upper and lower extremities causing injury.

“If the LSS is dysfunctional, then impact forces will be transmitted into peripheral joints that may be recruited for stability.”

The LSS is comprised of the gluteus medius, tensor fascia latae (TFL), adductor complex (adductor magnus, adductor brevis, adductor longus, gracilis and pectineus) and the contralateral (opposite side) quadratus lumborum. These muscles provide essential frontal plane stabilization. Frontal plane related injuries are some of the most common in sports and physical activity, particularly in the knee.

The muscles involved in the LSS are significant for the efficient function of the pelvis during standing and walking. Walking and running add tremendous external load to stabilization requirements of the body. If the LSS is dysfunctional, then impact forces will be transmitted into peripheral joints that may be recruited for stability.

When this happens, the joints and soft tissue become more vulnerable to injury and overuse syndromes, (sprains, strains, tendinitis, bursitis, etc.). The extremities are power amplifiers of the core. So, when the core loses its ability to initiate power, the extremities must work that much harder to generate and control force. The extra work decreases durability and increases risk of injury.

Symptoms and Syndromes of a Dysfunctional LSS

• Recurring knee pain
• Hip pain
• Iliotibial band syndrome pain
• Pulled groin and adductor injuries
• Sacroiliac pain
• Plantar fasciitis
• Sciatica pain
• Ankle injuries
• Lower back pain

Training and Intervention Strategies

Foam roll the subsystem: glute medius, glute minimus, adductors, and the opposite side quadratus lumborum. Foam roll the quadratus lumborum for up to thirty seconds only. Too much time on the roller may cause this muscle to reflexively tighten. Remember, more is not better. Better is better.

“Unilateral farmer’s walks are the Mount Everest of challenging the lateral sub-system.”

Foam rolling is thought to stimulate intrafascial mechanoreceptors, which convinces the nervous system to let you move farther with greater ease and with greater strength. It primes your nervous system for activation of the pattern. After releasing the system it’s time to activate the pattern.

Start down on the ground in a low stabilization environment with side planks. Perform side plank isometric holds for 30-60 seconds on both sides.

From there, progress to standing, low-load, frontal plane-dominant movements:

• Side step patterns
• Step ups
• RDLs (no weight)
• Reverse lunge
• Forward lunge
• Side lunge
• Loaded carries (farmer’s walks)

Farmer’s walks are recommended to load up the system. Holding something heavy activates the core, and because of the extra weight, you pay more attention to the movement. You now move with intention.

Start by holding equal weights in both hands. Then progress to holding uneven weights (one hand holds lighter weight than the other). This trains your body to adapt to changes in external load.

A unilateral farmer’s walk.

Now progress to unilateral (one-sided) carries. Unilateral farmer’s walks are the Mount Everest of challenging the lateral sub-system. Heavy carries have high crossover into improving activities of everyday life because it’s a pattern most people have to do when picking up groceries, luggage, kids, or anything else.

Maintain quality and control of the movements at all times. Quality over quantity rules the corrective exercise road.

Summary

Observing the body as a fully integrated kinetic chain involving the lateral sub-system can reveal underlying compensatory patterns that are lurking in the shadows causing chronic pain. If you hit a roadblock in improvement, take a step back and work on LSS functional patterning of the body.

Take a look at these related articles:

• Beyond Crawling: Cross Patterning for Athletes
• 10 Loaded Carries to Strengthen Your Training 
• Why Your Mobility Work May Be Harming You
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. Cook, G., Movement: Functional Movement Systems : Screening, Assessment, and Corrective Strategies. Aptos, CA: On Target Publications, 2010. Print.

2. Elphinston, J., Stability, Sport, and Performance Movement: Great Technique without Injury. Chichester, England: Lotus Pub., 2008. Print.

3. Lewit, K., Manipulative Therapy in Rehabilitation of the Locomotor System. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999. Print.

4. Vleeming, A., Movement, Stability, and Low Back Pain: The Essential Role of the Pelvis. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997. Print.

5. Weinstock, D., NeuroKinetic Therapy: An Innovative Approach to Manual Muscle Testing. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic, 2010. Print.

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 3 courtesy of Strength Education.

The post Lower Extremity Pain? Check Your Lateral Sub-System appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In addition to structural and mechanical issues, there are psychosocial elements that contribute to pain. An overwhelming amount of evidence shows pain does not come simply from our habitual mechanics. Our mental habits and prevailing attitudes can cause just as many problems.

RELATED: Facing the Pain: Making the Physical Mental and the Mental Physical 

In this article I’m going to address some common psychosocial components that can contribute to increased pain perception. I’ll also explain the steps you can take to move beyond this problem and return to a pain-free life.

When Pain Isn’t Mechanical

Movement starts in the mind. Whatever it is you’re going to do starts with thinking about how to do it and how it’s going to look and feel. Many of us have experienced the benefits of mental techniques such as visualization and positive attitude. Unfortunately, it works both ways. Believing you’re going to crush your personal record can help you. But believing that next box jump is going to be painful can also make it so.

Fitness and movement professionals tend to first look for mechanical dysfunctions to identify potential sources of pain. Despite the acknowledgement that pain is often more complex, I still believe identifying mechanical issues is a good start.

“Believing you’re going to crush your personal record can help you. But believing that next box jump is going to be painful can also make it so.”

It’s about simplicity. If the pain in question only happens during a particular movement, can be easily replicated by reproducing the position, and easily remedied with a combination of cuing and manual modalities that lead to better movement, I think it would be a bit odd to assume the problem wasn’t mechanical.

But where it gets weird is when the pain doesn’t seem to have a direct structural basis. As I see it, this type of pain can be subdivided into two categories:

1. Pain That Originated Structurally, But Remained

This type of pain is often blamed on things like residual inflammation and scar tissue formation. Sometimes it may be that simple. Often it’s a bit more complex.

There’s a growing school of thought that much of residual pain can be attributed to some type of protective mechanism that is a combination of actual physical sensation in conjunction with certain psychological states. It can be hard to pin down this type of pain because while there are several common culprits, psychosocial pain is unique to each individual.

RELATED: How to Return to Training After a Low Back Injury

If you’ve ever been seriously injured, you were likely a bit nervous about going back to the activity that caused your injury. This anxiety may very well cause you to perform the movement in question poorly, thus aggravating or recreating the injury.

In addition to this, it’s also possible that the tissues themselves have developed a type of proprioceptive-hypersensitivity. Your tissues “remember” that the last time they were in this position, things went badly. They try to prevent you from going there again by causing you pain. This type of guarding is a common issue where certain muscles tense to maintain positions of protection. Fear of re-injury or pain can increase guarding and further complicate the problem.

2. Pain That Can’t Be Attributed to a Specific Physical Structure

Lower back pain (LBP) is a common example of this. Many practitioners attribute LBP to things like postural imbalances, bulging discs, and poor core stability because, anatomically speaking, it makes sense. Unfortunately, there’s a wealth of evidence demonstrating that while those things can all contribute, none of them reliably predict the likelihood of developing back pain in pain-free individuals. There are also people who have lower back pain despite having good posture and healthy vertebrae. So what gives?

RELATED: Myths About Disc Bulges: They Are Not Forever – But Training Is

Some studies have identified that psychological factors such as job satisfaction and depression are better predictors of back pain than structural markers. Other factors such as insomnia and anxiety are also common in individuals with back pain. On the whole, the presence of these variables seems to present much more reliable predictions of developing chronic LBP than structural factors.

A Multifaceted Approach to Pain

While LBP is one of the most common psychosocial-pain hotspots, I’ve also seen a many individuals with neck and jaw pain that seemed to be predominantly psychological. Simply put, just increasing strength and range of motion doesn’t always solve the pain problem.

“There are even some studies that suggest people persist in feeling pain because of the attention they receive.”

There are even some studies that suggest people persist in feeling pain because of the attention they receive. To be clear, the studies don’t suggest people are faking the pain to get attention, but that they are continuing to feel it because they are receiving a psychological reward for doing so. Where to draw the line between actual physical pain and perceived pain is yet another issue complicating matters.

If improving strength, increasing mobility, and resolving physical issues aren’t the solution, then what is? As usual, a multifaceted problem requires a multifaceted approach whether you are a coach of an athlete in pain or you are the person in pain yourself.

1. Understand Exercise-Induced Pain vs. Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is typically defined as pain that persists for more than six months. One of the larger mistakes I see professionals make is applying the principals behind chronic pain to the treatment of sports injuries and vice versa.

RELATED: 4 Things You Don’t Know You’re Doing That Sabotage Your Performance 

It’s entirely possible that your chronic LBP isn’t caused by poor posture. It’s also entirely possible that your intermittent back pain is the direct result of your poor posture and dysfunctional movement patterns. Most of the studies I’ve seen that demonstrate no link between posture and pain were not done with an active, strength-training population.  A qualified clinician should be able to determine the difference with a handful of interventions and test/retests.

2. Educate Yourself and Your Clients

Educating your athletes, your patients, or yourself is integral in overcoming training anxiety. We fear what we don’t know and can’t understand. If you are a coach or practitioner, don’t just give your athletes corrective exercises. Help your clients understand what was causing the pain and what effect your intervention will have.

“One of the best ways to overcome fear is through teaching. Show your athletes there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Simply being told you should be feeling less pain can have a substantial psychological benefit. Empower your athletes to understand and regain mastery of their bodies. Take them through the movements they are afraid of and show them they can be done without being hurt. One of the best ways to overcome fear is through teaching. Show your athletes there’s nothing to be afraid of.

3. Examine the Context of the Pain

Is the fear, anxiety, or loss of motivation directly related to exercise? Or is it a prevailing aspect of the athlete’s personality?

RELATED: How to Use EFT to Overcome Challenges in the Gym 

If an otherwise calm, collected individual has had his or her confidence dashed by an injury, then that’s one thing. If the athlete is also frequently tired and complains of other issues such as anxiety or a general lack of motivation, then the problem may be larger than his or her fitness.

You need to be able to spot the signs of anxiety and depressive disorders and how to approach the problems responsibly and compassionately. If you are the one suffering from chronic pain, consider this for yourself, as well.

4. Know When to Get Help

Regardless of its location, if your pain is excruciating or persists for longer than a week with zero decrease, then it’s time to seek the help of a qualified medical professional. Your first stop should always be your primary care provider to rule out anything severe or life threatening.

If you or your athlete is afflicted with some type of depression or anxiety, there are a variety of effective treatment options. Cognitive behavioral therapy in particular has shown some promise as a non-pharmaceutical intervention to improve psychosocial pain disorders.

The First Step to Solving Pain

Regardless of the cause, pain is your body’s emergency alert system. It means there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

It can take some courage to admit the issue might be in your mind. As someone who has struggled with depression and pain throughout my life, I can tell you that help is out there. The hardest part is taking the first step.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Understanding the Brain Is the Key to Being Pain-Free appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Your Common Habitual Faults

Maybe it’s the way you sit. It could be the way you use your phone or how you watch Netflix. Sometimes the worst positions we find ourselves in aren’t physical but mental. Faulty mindsets yield faulty habits and suboptimal results. The bad news is you’re probably guilty of at least one of these things. The good news is it’s entirely within your power to fix these problems.

RELATED: Posture Hack: How to Have Better Desk Posture (Video)

I work with a variety of patients and clients whose goals are every bit as diverse as their demographics. These are a few of the most common habitual faults and thoughts I’ve encountered – and the solutions for you to implement.

You Believe in “No Pain, No Gain”

Most things worth doing are going to require hard work. This is true. Hard work is not always pleasant and will likely take a great deal of discipline and drive. Also true. What I don’t understand is when we decided that hard work and pain are the same thing and that we should use the same language to talk about them. 

RELATED: Why Your Mobility Work May Be Harming You

Work means you are feeling the appropriate amount of metabolic and muscular distress in the appropriate parts of your body. Pain means something is wrong. Always.

You might have used improper technique and the pain was the result of a bad position. It’s also possible you’ve been using bad positions and poor technique for so long that your labrum is two faulty push-ups away from becoming confetti. It seems obvious that knowing the difference could be useful.

“Work means you are feeling the appropriate amount of metabolic and muscular distress in the appropriate parts of your body. Pain means something is wrong. Always.”

Generally, we’re pretty good at judging whether we’re damaging ourselves. But most of us ignore these signals because we’ve been taught to do so. Stop ignoring them. You’re doing yourself zero favors by soldiering through that seven-out-of-ten shoulder pain every time you do a pull up.

Pain and inflammation are self-propagating. They won’t just go away if you keep inciting them over and over, no matter how tough you are. But with a little self-awareness and practice, it’s not difficult to recognize what you’re feeling. It is your body, after all.

This is not an invitation to embrace your inner candy-ass and shy away from hard workouts. It’s a simple truth. If you’re serious about your fitness, then you need to learn the difference between hard work and pain.

You Think Your Exercise Injuries Aren’t Preventable

The nature of athletic injury is complex. Live competition involves a lot of variables you can’t control. But similar to my first point, we often use the same language to discuss both athletic and exercise injuries. This is problematic because while athletic injuries are not always preventable, exercise injuries almost always are.

Why? Simple. A training session is a controlled environment.

Someone once told me that he believed injuries are random. That no matter what you do, if you train hard, you’re going to get hurt. He said it’s like driving a car. Even the best driver in the world has a chance of getting into an accident. I actually think it’s a great metaphor, if a bit lacking in depth.

“When you have complete control over the load, movement selection, technique, and rest intervals, it doesn’t make sense to assume the injury was the result of another factor.”

An athletic competition is like driving on the road. Even if you maintain your car and drive with care, you’re still subject to the actions of other drivers. Training is like practicing in an empty parking lot. You might scuff your bumper from time to time, but if you total your car in an empty parking lot, then I think we can safely say you did something wrong.

When you have complete control over the load, movement selection, technique, and rest intervals, it doesn’t make sense to assume the injury was the result of another factor. I’m cool with training like athletes and working out in a competitive environment. But let’s stop using that as an excuse to ignore the flaws in our approach.

RELATED: 10 Ways to Plateau, Burn Out, and Avoid Getting Strong

You’re Sitting Like This

A few days ago I was hanging out with my friend and his fiancée. She asked me why she was having intermittent knee pain and pointed to the part of her knee that hurt. I know her pretty well, so it wasn’t hard to guess. I repositioned my legs and asked her if she ever sat that way. Her response, “Yeah, all the time. Why?”

Sitting with your knees together and your feet apart and underneath you is just asking your knee to be angry. It’s knee valgus. This position is the same thing that every coach cues their athletes to avoid in any squat-based movement.

RELATED: Moderating the Knees In Versus Knees Out Squat Debate

While you might not be doing it under heavy load, you’re probably doing it for an exponentially longer duration than you would in a set of squats. Siting like this shares many of the same risks and negative effects that active knee valgus presents, including a wonderful predisposition to utilize poor motor patterns and further jack yourself up.

This passive seated posture is so pervasive that when I Googled the wods “girls sitting,” I found numerous examples. In fact, when I told my friend’s fiancée how to correct her problem, she said, “So, I should just sit like a dude then?”

“While you might not be doing it under heavy load, you’re probably doing it for an exponentially longer duration than you would in a set of squats.”

I’m not advocating one extreme or the other, nor am I claiming that “dudes” can’t suffer the same issues from the same position. The point is that the problem is incredibly common. If you ever find yourself sitting like this, you should stop and get into a better position immediately. And while you’re at it, you should probably stop standing with all your weight on one foot and your hip pushed out to that side, too.

You’re Looking at Your Phone Like This

After the success of my last Google exploit, I decided to then search for “standing and texting.” I was treated to a plethora of images, all showcasing people smiling and staring at their screens with their head hanging on their traps and their shoulders internally rotated.

I imagine you’ve heard how desk posture can be bad for your body. Using your phone with this same posture may not have the same effect on your hips when you’re standing, but it’s every bit as bad on your shoulders and neck.

RELATED: Working Out Isn’t Enough: Advice for Desk Workers

Hands in, elbows out, shoulders forward, head forward and down. It’s almost a list of exactly where you don’t want your shoulders and neck to be. It puts all of the muscles in your upper back in a long-term, passive stretch that effectively shuts them off. This can result in anything from poor performance and shoulder stability, to crippling anterior shoulder pain and tension headaches. Don’t do it.

“Hands in, elbows out, shoulders forward, head forward and down. It’s almost a list of exactly where you don’t want your shoulders and neck to be.”

Pull your shoulders back, keep your head up, and hold your phone in a position that doesn’t require you to stare at the floor. (I’d say you should also stop looking at your phone for so long, but then how would you find my articles?)

Your Habits Define You

Our habits, mental and physical, define a large part of who we are. If you can kick any of these, you’ve just defined yourself as a stronger, fitter, more functional human. Congratulations on the upgrade.

Photo 1, 3, & 4 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post 4 Things You Don’t Know You’re Doing That Sabotage Your Performance appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This point has somehow become controversial in the past, but it really need not be. It is an old belief that when you are injured you need to rest, both yourself and the injury. Now, I’m not telling you to go and train through pain. No, that is different. But I am telling you that you need to get off your butt and continue training, exercising, and moving.

Undoubtedly, what your training looks like will change depending on your injury. You will have to modify some exercises, while taking out others all together. You will have to add some more injury-specific rehabilitative exercises. But you need to keep up with your regular activities, to keep you both physically and mentally on track, to keep working towards your goals, and to rehabilitate.

Yes, to rehabilitate. You see, exercise actually promotes tissue healing. Tissues need to be loaded in order for them to get stronger and to be able to withstand loads imposed on them on a day-to-day basis. Resting, on the other hand, causes a decrease in the loading of the tissues, which can cause the tissues to actually get smaller and lose strength, exactly the opposite effect of what we want.

The key is loading your injury properly. Too much, too soon can be a problem, as can too little for too long. This is why it’s best to work with a professional who can push you when you need a push, and slow you down if you need to be slowed.

No Pain, No Gain

The old saying, no pain, no gain, isn’t always true. As a therapist who does primarily manual, hands-on therapy including things like soft-tissue release (otherwise known as Active Release), I always tell my clients it might hurt a bit. Stripping muscles doesn’t usually feel good at the time, but the results are pretty incredible, making those moments of discomfort totally worth it. So yes, in this situation, maybe some pain does lead to gain.

But this situation isn’t the norm – it’s the anomaly. There is a reason we feel pain. Pain is our body’s way of warning us. Warning us that there is a problem and that something isn’t right. Push through the pain and you will simply exacerbate the problem, likely leading yourself right to an injury that will sideline you from your training. Doesn’t seem like a gain, does it?

Further then that, training through pain changes the way your body moves and functions. It alters your motor patterns, causing them to become dysfunctional. Do that once or twice, no big deal. Do it continuously, and then you’ve developed a dysfunctional way of moving that will lead to further pain and injury down the road.

One of my clients and I have a way of measuring pain. When she is training we distinguish between pain and pain-pain. For us, pain is just the exhaustion of hard work. The muscle fatigue, soreness, and feeling that you just can’t go on anymore. This pain is acceptable. Sought after even. But pain-pain, that is the bad kind. That is pain that causes hurt and dysfunction. Pain that signals to us that it is time to correct something. Pain that warns us.

You Need to Stretch More

I hear this all of the time when people come see me for the first time. “I know. I really need to stretch more,” they say. “I’m not that flexible and that’s why I got hurt.”

Now, I’m not saying that stretching isn’t important, but there is more to it. A lot of the time when I see clients who have tight muscles, it is because these muscles are doing more work then they should be, taking up the slack of some underactive muscles. Or, alternatively, muscles simple feel tight when they are actually lengthened and weakened. You see, your body tries to protect the muscle from lengthening any more, so it gives you a sensation of tightness to help avoid pulls and strains.

So stretch away, guys, but until you fix the root cause of the problem – those underactive muscles or those lengthened and weak muscles – your tight muscles are just going to keep getting tighter. You have to fix the cause of the problem. Muscles are tight for a reason. Sure, stretching is important, but that can’t be all you do to fix your injury. You need to strengthen. Address the real issue at hand.

Orthotics Will Cure You

Orthotics will not cure you. In fact, for most of you they will only make things worse (there is a very, very small percentage of orthotics wearers that actually need them).

Yes, I said they will make things worse. When people come in to our clinic or training studio who wear orthotics, we always see the following: they are weak, have some serious mobility restrictions going on, and have some serious soft tissue tightness happening.

Why? Because the orthotics change the way you move, not allowing proper motor patterning or proper muscle activation to take place. This is explained well by Dr. Nigg, founder of the University of Calgary’s Human Performance Lab who studies running shoes and orthotics. According to Nigg, your body has to work much harder for the same movement while wearing orthotics, meaning you are much more inefficient. In addition, Nigg said wearing orthotics increases the stress on your joints by almost 50%, while actually leading you to lose muscle strength. Why would you want this?

And I know what most people will say to rebut this point: “But I have flat feet. I need orthotics.” But do you, really? Dr. Nigg explained that arches are an evolutionary remnant, needed by primates who needed to grip trees with their feet. “Since we don’t do that anymore, we don’t really need an arch,” he said. “Why would we? For landing – no need. For the stance phase – no need. For the takeoff phase – no need. Thus, a flat foot is not something that is bad per se.”

Orthotics may have an immediate benefit, but you are swapping short-term gain for long-term pain. They are not the cure you are looking for.

You’re Strong, So That Means You Won’t Get Hurt

Strength is important, no doubt about it. And yes, lacking strength or having muscle imbalances is definitely a risk factor for developing injuries, both traumatic and overuse. But just because you’re strong doesn’t make you injury resilient.

I’m going to use back pain as an example. Many people who suffer from back pain are incredibly strong. Even in the core. They can do hanging leg raises with ease or take an ab wheel from a standing position until their nose is touching the ground, but somehow they still have back pain. That is because though they have strength, they lack something imperative – endurance.

When it comes to our back, our muscles have to be able withstand low loads over a long period of time in order to maintain stability. Muscle strength doesn’t help us here. We need to be able to maintain contractions over longer periods of time. And you’d be amazed at the number of incredibly strong individuals who have a complete lack of muscle endurance. So remember, strong doesn’t equal injury free.

As a checkpoint, leading back expert Dr. Stuart McGill said that in order to decrease the risk of having back pain you should be able to have the muscular endurance to hold a front plank for two minutes. Try it out – can you make it the full two minutes?

Your Shoulder Hurts, So It Must be a Shoulder Problem

This point can be hard to understand sometimes. What if I told you that I have fixed someone’s shoulder by only treating and working on their opposite hip? Seems crazy, doesn’t it?

Well, the truth is your body does not work in isolation. Your muscles all work together to create movements, and when they move dysfunctionally, it alters the way your entire body moves. This means a problem in one place can actually lead to pain elsewhere.

This is where seeking the help from a professional becomes important. Sometimes shoulder pain stems from a shoulder problem, but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the site of pain is nowhere close to the source of the problem. And until you discover the true problem, you will never successfully rehabilitate your injury.

You Can Do It Alone

I will make this last point short and sweet. You need help. Everyone needs a coach, and you are no exception. When you are injured you need to work with a professional who knows what they are talking about and can help to both treat your injury and guide you through your training to speed up your recovery.

References:

1. Kahn, K. & Scott, A. “Mechanotherapy: how physical therapists’ prescription of exercise promotes tissue repair.” British Journal of Sports Medicine 43 (2009): 247-252.

2. Kolata, G.. “Close Look at Orthotics Raises a Welter of Doubts.” The New York Times. January 17, 2011.

3. Tishya, A., Wren, L. Beaupre, G., Carter, D. “Tendon and ligament adaptation to exercise, immobilization, and remobilization.” Journal of Rehabilitative Research and Development 37 (2000): 217-224.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Saturday

I took my time with my warm up. I was doing power work today and hoped everything would be fine.

• Speed clean, power clean from floor plus jerk: 55kg for 2×3+1+1, 75kg for 2×3+1+1, 95kg for 2×3+1+1
• Power clean from hang plus power clean from the floor plus jerk: 55kg for 2×3+1+1, 75kg for 2×3+1+1, 95kg for 2×3+1+1
• Power clean from the floor, clean, 2 front squats and a jerk: 55kg 1+1+2+1, 75kg 1+1+2+1, 95kg 1+1+2+1, 105kg 1+2+1

My groin was way too sore, so I discontinued the clean portion of this series and switched to power clean from the floor with a jerk at 110kg. I did four power cleans and a jerk. On the first set I missed the jerk – how ugly is that? – and the second set was way worse. I thought the workout was ending, but my conscience was bothering me, so I finished with clean pulls – 145kg 2×5, with the last rep of the second set being a slow pull.

Sunday

I had to repeat Saturday’s workout, hoping it’s not the same disaster. 

• Speed clean and jerk 5 plus 1: 60kg 2×5+1, 90kg 2×5+1, 100kg 3+1, 100kg 4+1
• Power clean from the floor plus jerk: 90kg 2×5+1, 100kg 3+1, 100kg 4+1

I was going to give my groin a second chance as it felt much better than yesterday. Next exercise was one power clean, five front squats, and a jerk at 100kg for 2×1+5+1, then 110 kg 2×1+5+1. It’s amazing what a difference one day takes. The only problem was my blood sugar levels crashing. Must eat better in morning.

Monday – No Workout

Tuesday – Back Squats

After a long warm-up my groin was a little touchy, but I was still trying to get some work done. 

• Back squat: 70kg for 2×6, 100kg for 4×6 – Absolutely no pain – felt great.
• 130kg for 1×6 – A little bit of discomfort.
• 140kg for 1×6 – A lot of discomfort.

I finished off with one set of speed squats with 90kg. The weight felt light, but my groin felt sticky.

Wednesday – Stretch and Massage

Thursday – Front Squats

The warm up felt great with 20kg. I jumped to 70kg and it still felt great. I jumped to 100kg and it was still feeling great. The gods must be with me! I moved up to 118kg for six reps, 123kg for four reps, and 123kg for two stop squats. It felt so good I jumped to 133kg for an easy set of two reps and then 138kg for another set of two. I am always amazed what I am capable of doing when I do not hurt.

Friday – Long Circuit

Sixty minutes at 35 seconds work with 25 seconds rest between stations. This was tough but work was steady. I actually enjoyed it. Must be that pain thing.

Terry Hadlow got started in Olympic weightlifting in 1970 and is the only Canadian to have competed in senior nationals in five different decades – 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. Follow Terry’s journal here to learn about his approach to training and competing.

The post No Pain, No Gain (Athlete Journal 38) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

It seems like the best way to end up in pain is to move too much or move too little. Fundamentally pain arises from a lack of balance in our lives, whether in a literal sense or a figurative one. If we look at our society at large, we notice two polar opposite trends. There are those who are completely sedentary and/or obese, who have a subsequent prevalence of pain and disease. However, there is also a supremely fit population on the other end of that spectrum. While we have the fattest country on the planet, our culture still dominates the world stage in athletics and has a large population who are beyond fit. Whether it’s through use of the emerging trends such as adventure races and CrossFit or traditional modes of exercise, increasingly our culture has more fit people than arguably anywhere.

Interestingly enough these two extremes have a relationship and correlation to pain, both physically and emotionally speaking. This pain tells us a lot about our collective emotional health. Clearly obesity in its inherent nature signifies a lack of balance. A sedentary person seeks comfort in the moment by being, well, sedentary. It’s certainly more comfortable to eat and watch TV on a sofa than to run five miles. However, that choice to seek comfort in the moment is a clear choice to avoid pain. The irony is that is exactly where someone who eats copiously and doesn’t move ends up – permanently uncomfortable and in pain.

But what about being super fit? Are fit people running from a pain of sorts and possibly even running right into it as well? In a particularly tough stretch of my life I was running and exercising multiple times daily to manage (or avoid) the stress and pain of that time. While on the surface exercise is better than, say, self-medicating through food or drugs, it can still be an avoidance of pain, and therefore a round trip right back to it. At that time, my father in noticing my gaunt frame and tense body asked, “Son, what are you running from?” Good question, Dad.

The reality is pain cannot be avoided in our lives. It occurs and in the long run it can only be faced. At a certain point pain should even be seen as a welcome adversary, for pain is perhaps our best teacher. Indeed we learn through our trials. Every athletic or physical injury that I’ve suffered has had a sliver lining. First, pain has made me a better-educated and more empathetic coach. Second, it has led me to make better-informed decisions as an athlete. Most importantly though, such trials have helped me grow personally.

Pain Happens: Face It and Switch Directions

I bulked up in my twenties, putting twenty plus pounds of muscle (in my upper body, of course) on my lean frame that doesn’t really support such weight. In the process I partially tore my rotator cuff and it required surgery. The rehabilitation process was extensive and it forced me to search for other arenas to exercise and express myself physically. I picked up my first road bike at that time, which I ended loving and making a part of my life. Instead of focusing on what I couldn’t do, I found something I could. Pain of a different sort can also be a guide. After a particularly tough stretch in my life – the loss of both a relationship as well as other major life changes – I was led to step into a martial arts studio and begin my journey there. Years later, it’s part of my life’s work and I have become a coach.

When you are going through pain or a trial, it seems there’s always those people who like to lend you that wisdom of “everything happens for a reason.” You feel like punching them, but you can’t because your either too bruised emotionally or physically to do so. Even though we hate to hear this, they are right in a way. This old adage is irritating, because why on Earth would bad things happen to good people? Well, they don’t happen on purpose, so to speak. They happen because each and every one of us grows, learns, and becomes either better or worse by these trials and how we face them. Pain happens for the reason of being our guide and teacher. The pain happens and then we must find acceptance, support, and a new way forward.

Acceptance

When we finally stop to face the pain and listen with humility, we put ourselves in a position to grow, learn, and ultimately move past it. Facing the pain is the first step and it is the biggest step. It is here where we stop to sit with it and develop our game plan in and around it. As a teacher once said to me, “Eric, lean into the pain.”

Support

When we are in pain, we need help. We need good counselors, good healers, and good coaches. We need to get help, but not always in the way we typically seek it. In wanting to get rid of pain, many of us will seek those who would help us mask it. However tempting, we have to think bigger and broader, and recognize that pain will always return until we get the message and truly deal with it. Rather, seek those who will help you answer what caused your pain and what comes next.

Change

Martin Luther king Jr. said it well: “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Facing pain is about first accepting and then moving forward. You can’t keep running if your knee is in pain. You need to stop, face your pain, and then do something else (for a while, at least.) When I tore my rotator cuff, lifting weights in the upper body and baseball were out for a year, and road biking was in. I kept moving forward.

In part two I will explore the mind-body connection to pain. We’ll look at the lack of balance that causes pain, and the process of making the physical mental and the mental physical.

Is there a time in your training or in your life when you’ve experienced pain? What helped you most – denying it or acknowledging it? Post your thoughts to the comments below.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Facing the Pain: Let It Be Your Guide appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Pain and CrossFit. What a complicated and fascinating issue. This is where the ego, the mind, the heart, the soul, and the body all scramble for power. There are as many opinions on this issue as there are people who do CrossFit and people who coach CrossFit. After almost five years of running a CrossFit facility I have crystallized my own philosophy regarding the role of pain and hurt in CrossFit coaching and programming. After five years of doing some things wrong and trying to be a careful observer of my clients, we made some serious changes in how we programmed and guided our athletes and clients.

The framework I use to guide our programming goes like this – CrossFit, at this juncture in time, is two things and they hold hands but they are not married. The two things are:

• Thing 1: A competitive sport with sponsorships and prize money.
• Thing 2: A strength and conditioning program perfect for a wide range of folks

If you are down and dirty with Thing #1, competing for glory, podium spots, and money, then hurting is where it’s at. As many wise observers have commented, the CrossFitter at the top of the heap is the one who can suffer the most. If winning is important to you, if being stronger, faster and more powerful than the person next to you is what you want, then prepare for pain and a lot of it. Prepare to get injured, and to work past, around, and through injuries. Nothing is more incredible than watching a human being find the limit of his or her body and mind. Watching someone work through feelings that would stop most of us in our tracks is chillingly awesome in the true, old-fashioned sense of the word awesome. That is why we, as humans, love our athletes, our soldiers, our record-breakers. We watch something turn real that only existed in someone’s imagination because of the physical and mental effort put forth by a fellow person.

But, hey, the majority of people doing CrossFit are not competing for money, medals, or glory. They came to a CrossFit gym because they wanted to feel better, look better and do more. They came for Thing #2. They have kids, families, jobs, grueling hours, and days of running around their communities, accomplishing hundreds of things a week. If they hurt or are in physical pain their ability to be patient and loving, to be going-going-going, to wrestle with their 10-year-old who sat in a chair all day, to tune pianos, to lift their patients, or to sit at their computer are all negatively impacted.

If these people who make our world function are injured or hurting, then things break down for them. They spend money on massage, physical therapy, surgery, or worse – alcohol and medications. Injury, pain and hurting are not positive parts of CrossFit for them. Injury, pain and hurting are not part of CrossFit even at the root. The definition of CrossFit is “constantly varied, functional movement performed at high intensity.” It doesn’t say if you don’t get hurt, if you aren’t in pain, you haven’t done CrossFit. But that little phrase “high intensity” is where, I believe, the confusion lies.

“High intensity” is that place where the line between Thing #1 and Thing #2 gets blurred. High intensity is where this idea of misery and pain is born. But in truth, high intensity is, for most, non-competitive CrossFitters, simply discomfort. Novice CrossFitters believe they are dying when their muscles seize up and they run out of easily accessible oxygen. I think this is where the idea that CrossFit is synonymous with suffering was born. I think a wise way to think about this concept comes from the coaching words of James Fitzgerald – something about “getting comfortable being uncomfortable.” That is one of the gifts of CrossFit. Learning to be comfortable when you are out of your comfort zone.

For novice CrossFitters, all it takes is a couple of 400m runs or practicing getting upside down in a handstand to be outside the comfort zone. High intensity can be reached at 10 burpees per minute for some people. Discomfort isn’t the same as hurt or pain. The power of CrossFit comes from tackling your own individual barriers and that can involve a truckload of discomfort (primarily mental and emotional of course), but the power of CrossFit does not come from physical hurt or pain. Testing yourself and learning new things about your ability is a gift of CrossFit and it doesn’t require hurt.

A wise and careful coach can guide you to a place where you test your limits, push your personal comfort zone, and learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable without hurting or injuring you. You simply do not have to get hurt to receive the gift of CrossFit. It is a matter of pacing. All it takes to give someone the experience of being uncomfortable at a new level is to add two more 1 pood kettlebell swings to their interval. All it takes to give them a new experience of themselves is to give them twenty seconds on the battle rope when they wanted to stop at fifteen. For a better athlete maybe it takes shortening the rest intervals.

There are a million ways to give someone the experience of pushing past their personal physical and mental barriers in a CrossFit gym. It doesn’t take injuring them or hurting them. My grandfather called that using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. You don’t need to smash the furniture to swat a fly. You don’t need to hurt your clients to show them the power of CrossFit.

Click here to read another rebuttal from CrossFit coach Mike Tromello

Photos provided by Miguel Tapia Images and CrossFit LA.

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