A REAL in depth look to general fitness.

This is an extension to the note I wrote in Facebook. Would like to specifically share this to those who follow this blog. However, be warned that first time readers will be mind fcuked. This note was for myself to read but if you do find yourself digging deeper into this with me you'd find many valuable info to help you outdo yourself in any sport you do.

So this writing starts because of this lady approaching me for PT when I was teaching swimming this morning. She asked me to train her for IronMan China next yr and she got some injuries from her weekend easy rides. No deal due to cost.. But it triggered a very frequently visited thought in my mind.

Often ppl with a fitness goal in mind come to me and talk abt injuries after their so called easy and normal workouts.. More often than not, Neck & Shoulders and Lower back ranks the top two injuries followed by knees and hamstrings then ankles.

The first qn I ask is if they know their body parts and how they work?

After that then I ask abt stretches.

If we don't even know the origin and insertions of your commonly trained/utilized muscles, how can we stretch them (let alone train or even activate them) properly?

This is a note to most of you in my circle working out too. I had a case study of this lady who trained in a very prestigious sports team and got injured.

After some medical testing on the healthy leg.. they found that the VMO(inner part of quads, FYI quads have 4parts) of the quads are not activated at all during her squats in strength training session. The weakened part of the caused a ACL tear in a pylometric jump in one of her "Normal" daily training. How can? So much for being able to perform at a high level eh?

Now if i may ask, What about the rest of your life? Are you going to spend it telling everybody around you I did this and I did that and brag about how many injuries you have?

I, for one, will prefer to spend it doing LSD and working out smartly and improving til the ripe old age before I die.

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Food for thoughts:
1) muscles work in pairs, one contract, the opposite will stretch.

2) muscle fibers contract by fibre movements starting from insertion to origin. To stretch a muscle, we have to hold the insertion in place and try to shift the origin away from the insertion.

3) a stretch for each muscle part should be at least 30secs to overcome the stretch reflex.

4) gym strength training are always high intensity. No such thing as easy strength training day unless it's an off day.

5) during strength training.. Always train with stability activation, activate your core.
Reason? You can't apply force in real life situation unless you're stable. Ever tried walking down the stairs with your TV? it probably weigh way lesser than what most regular gym geeks does in shoulder press or bicep curls but notice how hard is it to walk down the stairs with that thing in your arms and having to walk down 1 stair case at a time and often the arms are probably strong enough but the legs, back and body in general already starts to give way. One thing that stays strong? A man's ego.

Anyway, Below list from easiest to hardest stability training.
I) lie down
II) seated
III) squat (knee behind toes, 90degrees knee flexion at max)
IV) standing (no left to right or front n back swaying)
V) single leg standing (same as standing)

6) during strength training(Not power lifts), make sure there is no momentum involved. Strength training requires activation of muscles(I.e thinking about it).. If you just swing the weights around, not only will you not be training the contraction of the muscles but the swinging momentum of the weight can cause hyperflexion/hyper extension of joints and thus injury.

7) cardio workouts above RPE of 8/10 are hard workouts. Easy runs, bike and swims are not suppose make you breathless to the point that you can't talk during the session/immediately at a short break.

8) plyometric workouts(tuck jumps, 10secs sprints, power lifting) are ALL high intensity due to the high speed contraction of vast amount of muscle fibers.

9) you're only as strong as your weakest link(s). What good is an arm that can carry 100kg db curls but the back can't even stand straight with that weight? What good is a 20kg shoulder press if you can't even flex your arm to scratch your back due to inflexibility and untrained shoulder stabilizers?

10) CORE MUSCLES =
I) Lower back
II) Glutes
III) Hamstring
IV) Calves
V) Hip stabilizer muscles (Pic below) 
VI) Abdominal Muscles

Hip stabilizer/mobility muscles

Quadratus Lumborum: Inner muscle that helps oblique in Trunk Lateral flexion/stabilization

* Iliacus: prime mover for hip flexion or for flexing trunk on thigh during a bow.

* Psoas major/minor: same as iliacus, also effects lateral flexion of vertebral column (spine); important postural muscle.

** Iliacus and psoas major are commonly referred to as Iliopsoas, also HIP FLEXOR muscles.

T.A. or Transverse Abdominis: Muscle that acts like the weight belt power lifters wear. This is the MOST IMPT muscle all athletes need to train and learn to activate (sucking in and up of your "inverted triangle" with the base at your hip bone). This muscle wraps around your whole abdominal region and holds your guts in place and stabilize your hips as you move your legs. Doing planks with stomach sucked in also tends to activate this muscles.

Sartorius: The paired stabilizer band/muscle to ITB. Primary functions are: Assists in flexion, abduction and lateral rotation of hip, and flexion of knee. Secondary function when in concentric contraction, it holds your knee in correct hinge joint alignment as you squat/sit/stand/climb. When activated, it eliminates/prevents lateral movement of knee.

Tensor Fascia Latae -> Iliotibial Band/Tract: Commonly known as ITB. Works in pair with Sartorius for knee stabilization and also aids in hip flexion.

Adductor Longus & Gracilis : Breast strokers.. These are the muscles you use to squeeze your thighs together. Not your ankles.

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Shoulder stabilizer/rotatory cuff muscles:

Supraspinatus:
Helps in abduction of arm in first 10 to 15 degrees, after which rear deltoid takes over majority of abduction.

Infraspinatus:
Also helps in abduction of arm.
Plays major part in conjunction with Teres Minor(below) to rotate the upper arm bone/humerus outwards. Keeps the arms rotated towards the back, those who have problems closing the arms, you need to train this.

Teres Minor:
Plays minor part together with Teres minor for humerus external rotation. Together with Teres Major it holds the humerus bone against the shoulder joint.

Subscapularis:
Performs internal rotation of the humerus bone. When the arm is raised, it draws the humerus forward and downward. (FREESTYLE SWIMMER'S CATCH POSITION EVERYONE.) It is a powerful defense to the front of the shoulder-joint, preventing dislocation of the head of the humerus

These 4 muscles help you to keep your shoulder girdle stabilized when you raise your arms or apply force with your arms. The humerus bone is your upper arm's bone and it is hanging on your shoulder with some tendons and muscles, it is not as sturdily attached as per your knees or hips with so much support. These SITS muscles presses the humerus bone FIRMLY against your shoulder joint and thus prevents it from dropping out.

Thus training these 4 muscles will help prevent injury coming from the arm/shoulder rotation movements from Swimming/Throwing/racket or batting sports.


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End of simple introduction to human physiology. Those are the minimal number of parts you ought to know in order to start proper physical training without injuries. Without stability in joints, the big/fast guns/muscles are as good as Nothing.

Cheers
KK

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT A POST TO BOAST ABOUT WHAT I KNOW. I am very VERY extremely concerned about everyone working out around me. Those whom I know and I care for. I hope I can be of help in every single bit/ways that I can by means of what I've studied and learned from Mr Chan and Many experienced coaches and teachers that I've chanced upon in life.

Special Thanks to my workout buddy Peilin, My shifu Mr Chan (Senior FI of SSC) and also Shirley Cheah, Consultant of Singapore Gymnast National Team for the wonderful teaching.

25082010 swim Squad

Work Done:

500m warm up with every 6th stroke sighting.

KH (Suppose to do with Alvin):
Before main set, 300m of mixed strokes (sides and breast and free).

Main Set:
2x 500m with 2 mins rest.
Emphasis on stroke techniques and continuous swimming.

Cool Down:
200m Breast Stroke

The Rest:
Main Set:
4x100 Mixed pace with 10 secs R
200 Breast cool/down
3x200 (1.5K RP, Moderate, All out)

Cool Down:
200m Breast Stroke

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Some points to note...

KH:
- Breathing still rolling towards the shoulder (i.e up and back). Should roll up and slightly forward instead.
- Sometimes arm comes out too high, out of water. Have to find a balance between keeping the arms up near the surface and not letting the hip sink by using your back to pull it. Rmb the reverse back extension exercise we did.
- Sighting still using too much force and coming up too high. It should be slow and calm.
- Your arm pull still have some dropped elbow and timing is not right at times. Leave your arm in front when breathing/sighting. Right arm pull too late, Left arm pull too early (before finish breathing)
- Pull from shoulder width out and down Gently to hold first, then push yourself forward by pushing the whole forearm and palm (MAINTAIN perpendicular to the floor throughout the whole push) BACKWARDS.

Just remember that every movement that is about bringing your head out of water has to be done GENTLY. Any forceful jerking or lifting will cause a significant drop in your hips and disruption in your overall body position in water. I.E Not streamline.

Being calm and relaxed is the hardest thing to do during race because of the adrenaline rush and also your slight fear of open water. Lets do open water swim next week. :)

Grace Under Pressure is Key.

Samsam
I noticed significant improvement in swim timing. I got a feeling its a by product from your consistent training that you've been doing. The functional resistance training is helping your core quite a bit and thus the better streamlining and a stronger pull.

The only grudge I bear right now is that your arms are STILL not straight and sometimes going too deep especially after you breathe. Wilson and KH please take note of this too.

Ken, Teck Beng and Hong Jun
Three of you have the Most natural swimmer body. Long arms, big palms and long bodies, Biggie foot too. Intriguingly, there is a number of same problems between you guys.

- There is a lack of body rotation towards the non breathing side.
- There is a dropped elbow during catch on the non breathing side.
- There is a dropped elbow after the pull passes chest (inability to see after passing chest.)
- Hip sinks. Weak Lower back, glutes and hamstrings.

Lawrence
Sam and I both noticed there is an increased tendency from you in using a straight arm pull. The start of the catch should be a flexed elbow.
The pull timing also tend to be more continuous than gliding now. Will be a whole lot better if you do just 1.5seconds more of gliding each stroke in hard effort. :)

Vincent
Your physical prowess is really admirable. However, I've personally told you about self control over your physical execution versus stroke integrity.

Also, the control over your exertion, hopefully the heart rate counting helps you. You have to count fast and not lose count. because your fitness is high, the hr drop is QUICK. You could recover in 10secs without moving anything just to count your hr. so in order to be accurate, you need to count 6secs then multiply by 10 to see what effort you've done and justify your timing achieved against your effort put in.

Heart rate, Stroke count and also your breathing (relax? or short and rapid all the time?) are ways to control and be aware of what you are doing in your swim. If your bilateral breathing is causing you to take shorter breathes and feel congested/breatheless in your swims then I rather you not do them because right now your focus to improve on should be the relaxation part. When you practice with such breathelessness, you'd just further force yourself to pull faster in an attempt to take in more oxygen (rapid breathing). Take deep breathes. Breathe out long. That feels much better. :)

You've proven to yourself during the 3x200 that you have incredible endurance in your upper body. But what I felt in your swim is you're getting a little frustrated from your own timing because despite an attempt to do bilateral breathing, the timing isn't improving. This is all due to a very choppy stroke and also shortened pull (only up to slightly pass your RIBS, when the correct one should end past your HIPS and mid thigh!).

Please see Teck Beng's quote below and discuss with him if you feel like you need another perception of stroke than mine. :)

Wilson
Bro, after so long never swim, there is a drop in endurance I believe you felt that. Not stopping to drink in between sets is a sign of nerves in getting your fitness back. Work consistently, sort out your work stuffs and timing. Fitness will come back in no time. I will help you. :)

Lastly, for now, the arms are going too deep, there is a lack of relaxation in your swim despite your exaggeration to TRY and relax. I can see you're relaxing and gliding more in your pull but the over-control in your strokes caused a backfire. Just let things flow and breathe deeper when you need more air. Don't try to hide in the water too long to glide because at the end of the day if you hyperventilate or don't get enuff oxygen, things are gonna fall apart anyway. The pull isn't gonna be strong because of lack of oxygen, the turning of body will suffer because of the rush to gasp for another mouth of air so as to go back and glide longer and prolong the suffering eh? Get my drift...

Just go do some 30mins practice on your own if you can, you know what to do, just need the time to do them. Jiayou. :)

MariMari (& her little lamb)
I see POWER in your BIKE! How come no POWER in your SwImmmm???
It doesn't make sense because they all come from the same muscle group. I see an improved effort to continuously kick but the kicks are all from the ankles instead of from the thighs. LAZY!
I see a high elbow catch at the beginning but right after the catch everything gets SLOPPY. Immediately after the catch, you have to push the arm straight back.. cannot let the arm become soft for a split second before pushing!
Is your breathing impaired in swims? Please let me know by next session, because I really don't see a reason why aren't you pulling HARDER because you proved that you can push harder than that in your cycling!!! The only reason I can guess is that you find swimming to be very breatheless and that is caused by your controlled exhalation in the water. Try exhaling slightly more forcefully completely and see if it helps you in your exertion!

You're a strong girl like samsam! Jiayou!!!

Calvin!
Always telling me you can't, but you're outdoing everyone else! haha.. I got nothing to say this time round except the kick can be a little more rapid and continuous if you want to go faster. Overall, I am very proud of your swim despite a cough. Keep up the good work! :)

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Teck Beng pointed out a very key phrase that everyone should take a look and learn from.

"First, do Not create drag. Even in exhaustion, lost in form created drag which is much much worse than lost in positive propulsion."
TB.

It cannot be more true. Even for myself, when I get tired in swim, the first thing that I think of to shave timing is NOT how to Pull FASTER/HARDER/MORE. At those chaotic situation of race pace lung busting swims of 100s and 200s, I am always, ALWAYS thinking about keeping my body's streamlining and visualizing how my body is moving through the water and finding ways to keep my hip higher on the surface and also doing a proper holding the water with the gentle catch despite feeling my guts are gonna puke at those high intense efforts.

Of course the very first requisite for you to be able to do that, is that you need to do ALOT of thinking in your slow/moderate swim. Until your breathing, pulling and basically just about every single basic things are so automatic that you can just Execute without much thoughts. When you can do that, then you can blast your efforts like a bull and still think about the more minor details that can enhance your swims. Keep thinking guys. :)


Cheers
KK