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How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Topic 3: Resistance Programming for the outdoors What should outdoor trainers be doing when it comes to resistance? All outdoor trainers should be practicing safe, effective and balanced resistance programs. This means making sure that the client is performing exercises for chest (push), back (pull), legs and core- in every session. For most clients, especially those who are training for weight loss, increased strength and better general physical health, the session should focus on functional, compound exercises. WHY should trainers be doing this? As personal trainers, we will be dealing with different people who have different goals, needs, wants and abilities. It is up to the personal trainer to come up with a plan to safely and effectively guide their client towards achieving those goals. Every time we write a program we should ask ourselves “WHY?” Why are we prescribing this particular program? Why is our client doing 50 push ups and 50 dips for the 12th week straight? Why do they have to run for 20min?? If you can justify your answers to these questions correctly you will manage to prescribe a safe, well balanced, effective and FUNCTIONAL program. Background on the Human Body & Movement The human body is a complex yet amazing structure designed to move through the linking of bones, joints and muscles into myofascial chains from toe to fingertip. Early research into human body movement was conducted in the 1930s. Researchers connected electrical equipment to cadavers to stimulate the muscles in order to see what effect it had on bones and joints. The conclusion from this research was that movement occurs in the joint, and that muscles need to cross the joint in order to create movement. Research progressed in 1950s when the similar tests were conducted, however this time research was conducted on live bodies. Both tests were done with subjects lying down on tables. It was around this time that body building machines were introduced. Most of these machines worked muscles in a single joint as a result of the research results. More recent research has improved our knowledge of how body movements occur. We now know that nothing we do in life is in isolation and most of our daily activities (besides sleeping) are done in vertical position, not lying down. For example when you drop something on the floor, how many joints do you use to bend, pick up the object and return to a standing position? Therefore, to create functional resistance programs you need to plan for compound multiple joint movements. Functional exercises involve the 20 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star co-ordination of the nervous system and musculoskeletal system working together. The latest research has found that the body is made up of myofascial chains, which connect the body in many ways and create the forces we need to move. Myofascial Chains There are many various ways the body is connected and blended through different lines and slings. Training and programming in this manner is much more functional and life specific, especially in the outdoors. As a personal trainer the main slings and lines you need to focus on are: Posterior Oblique Sling • • • Gluteus maximus Latissimum dorsi Thoracolumbar fascia (TFL) Example Exercise: Lunge Row 21 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Anterior Oblique Sling • • • • External obliques Internal obliques Intervening anterior abdominal fascia Adductors of the thigh Example exercise: side lunge chest press with rotation 22 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Lateral Line • • • • • • • Peroneal muscles IT band Hip abductors Tensor fasciae latae (TFL) • Gluteus maximus Lateral obliques External/internal intercostals Sternocleidomastoid Example exercise: step up with shoulder press 23 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Spiral Line • • • • • • • • Splenius capitis & Cervicis Rhomboids Serratus anterior Infraspinatus External oblique Abdominal aponeuroses Internal oblique Linea alba • • • • • • • • Tensorfasciae latae (TFL) IT band Tibialis anterior Penoneus longus Biceps femoris Sacrotuberous ligament Sacral fascia Erector spinae Example exercise: DB lunge to uppercut rotation 24 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Superficial Front Line • • • • • • • 2 Flag Point 25 Short and Long Toe Extensors Anterior tibialis Patellar Tendon Quadriceps Rectus Abdominus Sternchondral fascia Sternocleidomastoid Note: You use this line everyday and in conjunction with other myofascial chains. Basic movements done standing up such as walking or running will incorporate this line. Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Superficial Back Line • • • • • • • 2 Flag Point 26 Plantar Fascia Achilles Tendon Gastrocnemius Hamstrings Sacrotuberous Ligament TDF Erector Spinae Note: You use this line everyday and in conjunction with other myofascial chains. Basic movements done standing up such as walking or running will incorporate this line. Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Longitudinal Sling • • • • • Erector Spinae Deep Lamina of theTDF Sacrotuberous Ligament Biceps Femoris Peroneus Longus Example exercise: squat press 2 Flag Point 27 Rarely is the entire sling activated during the whole movement, there are parts that are active and others that are inactive. Designing programs utilising slings and lines takes practice. Remember that some of your clients will be de-conditioned or lacking in sufficient fitness/strength to perform these exercises. You will need to regress and build a solid foundation for technique before moving on to the more advanced exercises. Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Functional “Life Specific” Exercises- Planning for the outdoors Most elite athletes enlist the help of sports conditioning coaches. They are responsible for periodising and designing a sports specific program to help an athlete reach their ultimate goal. They work on improving or maintaining an athletes strength, power, endurance, flexibility, agility or balance. One of the key things that strength and conditioning coaches focus on when planning a sports specific program is the principle of training movements, not muscles. Most clients are like our own mini athletes, and they all need a functional “life specific” program. Training your clients in life specific movements allows them to perform day to day complex actions as efficiently and effectively as possible. While they probably don’t have to tackle, swim or ride a bike for a long time, most of our clients participate in ‘life events’ such as ‘The 9 Hour Office Challenge’, ‘The Mother’s Obstacle Course’ and ‘The Public Transport Contest’. Even though the majority of our clients won’t be the next Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps, a thorough foundation of strength, power, endurance, flexibility, agility and balance will help your clients to negotiate life’s challenges with energy and efficiency. Therefore just doing back, chest and legs as mentioned above is becoming more and more ‘out dated’ – a more advanced way to program is to provide your client with resistance exercises that target the myofascial slings and lines within the body. A myofascial sling is when muscles, fascia, bone, tendons and ligaments lie in a series, parallel to one another. These slings are anatomically connected and functionally related. The whole body is connected this way, for example, you have front and back lines that run from your foot all the way up to your skull. Slings allow the body to store kinetic energy and when they contract they act as one continuous muscle. You use slings in every movement you make during the day, for example walking, running, getting in and out of the car or preventing yourself from falling over. Rules of programming for functional life specific resistance exercises When planning a functional program some of the rules that you need to remember are: • • • 28 Train a movement, not a muscle- functional movements require multiple joints Functional movement is multi-planar Most of our everyday movements are done unilaterally Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star • Most of our everyday movements are anterior, so plan for posterior focused exercises to encourage muscular balance throughout the body. Train a movement, not a muscle Everyday tasks such as taking shopping from the car, pushing a baby stroller, moving furniture, lifting your children or pets require multi joint movement, muscles working together and good core control. From this, we can see that adopting the method of training muscles in isolation will not adequately prepare the client to undertake these tasks. Research has proven that training in isolation will lead to an increase in injuries and will also create muscle imbalances. Another consideration of prime concern is that most isolation exercises, especially those conducted on machines do not require core control. This is important to remember because around 80% of all people will experience back pain at some stage of their lives and this can be due to poor core control. Take a sit up and a wood chop- which do you think is more life specific and functional? • • • • Sit Up Wood Chop Focuses on superficial muscles • Focuses on deeper postural muscles A large number of workers spend a great deal of time in • Requires balance an anterior flexed position • Is life specific (e.g. trunk (e.g. sitting at a desk, driving rotation is performed in many a car) so they need extension daily activities such as not more flexion twisting to hand something to Larger clients will find it more someone) difficult to perform a crunch • Is not limited by size of the effectively as their excess client girth restricts movement • Can be easily progressed and Performed in a supine regressed as necessary position, it requires little balance or co-ordination and is therefore not functional Less functional <------------------------------> More functional Functional movement is multi-planar Whether we play sport or just enjoy going for an easy jog, our bodies are designed and often required to move forwards or backwards, turn right or left and to rotate. Our training should enhance our ability to make these movements more efficiently, therefore we should aim to train in 3 dimensions. More traditional exercises are performed in linear movements such as a straight pull or push resulting in an increase in strength- but only in those planes. Unfortunately, life is not lived in linear so it is therefore important to carry out exercises in all different planes- for example, choosing a multi-directional lunge over a static lunge. 29 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star , Take 5 To refresh your planes of movement knowledge, check out: http://training.seer.cancer.gov/module_anatomy/unit1_3_termi nology2_planes.html Most of the everyday movement is done unilaterally Walking, running, throwing, brushing our teeth are all preformed by one limb. Even when we stand we tend to transfer more weight on one leg than the other. Training in unilateral fashion will improve coordination and also help with some muscle imbalances. How many people are stronger in their writing arm when compared to their non-writing arm? You will notice the same imbalances in the lower body; most people will be tighter and stronger on one side of the body opposed to more flexible and weaker on the other. Another great benefit from training unilaterally is that our clients will need to activate their core just that bit more. Most of the everyday movements our clients perform are anterior so plan for posterior As outdoor personal trainers you should avoid the trap of always planning for pushing movements or training only the anterior lines of the body. Remember that a true craftsman chooses the best tools for the job, not the favourite, so do not always revert to push ups, dips and squats. A number of clients work sitting down in front of the computer for long periods of time. If their workstation is not set up correctly and if they don’t have good posture and a strong core, they will most likely be tight through their chest, sitting with their shoulders rolled forward and with a hunched back. If you prescribe numerous push ups for this client, with no pulling movements planned, you will be enhancing the effect of the shortened chest muscles. This will result in poor posture and, most likely, lower back pain. It is imperative that a program is prescribed with emphasis placed on muscular balance, postural improvements and core control. Simple exercises such as standing Resistance Band row are very effective for clients who spend a lot of time sitting down. This type of exercise will encourage your client to open up their chest and hips, and will also work their core. 30 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Topic 4: Core programming for the outdoors Muscles of the core The core is the body’s power house. Every movement or exercise you perform needs to start at the core. Therefore having a strong, functional core is crucial for everyone. The muscles that make up the core are: • • • • • • • • Transversus abdominis Multifidus Diaphragm Pelvic floor Internal & external obliques Quadratus lumborum Rectus abdominis Erector spinae. Incorporating core exercises in the outdoors From large commercial gym chains to the local yoga and pilates studios, core stability seems to be the popular term to use with pretty much everything, but what does the term ‘core stability’ actually mean and why is it so important? The core refers to the trunk region, incorporating the muscles mentioned above. It connects the upper and lower body and therefore is responsible for movement, balance, posture and protection. This is why, whether you are training an athlete who needs to throw a ball very fast or a client who needs to maintain correct posture at their desk job (in order to alleviate lower back pain), you need to include exercises in your program which will improve your client’s core stability. Exercises such as Back Squat, Dead Lifts, Cleans, and any standing unilateral exercise all require good communication between your brain and your muscles to stabilise the spine and pelvis and engage the core to produce smooth, strong and functional movements. This is why these exercises are effective compound and functional core stability exercises. You can increase the intensity of core exercises by adding unstable equipment such as swiss/fit balls, balance discs, and BOSUs. As an outdoor personal trainer you need to prescribe functional, life specific core exercises – not just ab curls that work on the superficial ‘6 pack’ muscle. Using equipment such as resistance bands and medicine balls and doing exercises unilaterally can create functional core exercises. It is very important to continually program and prescribe core exercises for your clients because it will not only improve their performance and efficiency, it will also reduce risk of back injuries and pain. Alternately, if you have clients who suffer from back pain, doing specific core exercises may reduce their pain and aid in quicker recovery. 31 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star To improve someone’s back you must also work on their front. 2 Flag Point When doing core exercises, remember to focus on perfect technique. Keep asking for feedback when doing these exercises make sure the client is ‘feeling’ it in the targeted area. To learn more about the core, including how to assess and re-train core control, see another Network CEC course- “Nailing the Core” by Lisa Champion. Example outdoor core exercises Wood chop TRX push up and roll in 32 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Straight arm wood chop Band side step into wood chop Overhead med ball chop 33 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Med ball smash-pass back Stick Wrestle 34 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star • • • • • Med ball wood chop- high to low Med ball wood chop- overhead Stick wrestle Partner taps Med ball lunge with partner taps ~ Stop Watch the following clip for demonstrations of the above exercises: and OUTDOOR CORE EXERCISES Watch http://www.fitnessnetwork.com.au/ceccourses/outdoorptstar 35 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Topic 5: Flexibility programming for the outdoors What is flexibility? Flexibility is known as the range of motion at a given joint. Flexibility is joint specific and sports specific. There are two types of flexibility dynamic and static. • Dynamic flexibility (moving): Describes the use of the desired range of motion at a desired velocity (usually quick). Dynamic stretching is best used in the warm up session prior to training. For example slow and controlled leg or arm swings or torso twists. • Static flexibility (still): Describes range of motion without consideration for speed of movement. This is the maximum range a muscle can achieve with an external force such as gravity or manual assistance. Static stretches are best done when the muscles are really warm at the end of the session. Clients can perform static stretches anywhere in the outdoors and this can be a very relaxing way to end the session. Because flexibility has many benefits, it is important that the cool down and stretch section is not rushed and that each stretch is held for at least 30 seconds. If your client has an area that is particularly tight, it can be stretched multiple times. Ensure that clients have a mat to lie on and a towel or band to assist with stretching. Partner stretching A star outdoor PT should always have some degree of hands on care with their client and stretching your client at the end of the session is a good method to demonstrate you care. If you haven’t been stretched before using the above methods, ask a friend to stretch you and see just how good it feels.If you have a large group, you can buddy up your participants and do partner stretches. Another form of partner stretching that is very effective is PNF (proprioceptive muscular facilitation) stretching. This is when partner “A” passively stretches the muscles while partner “B” - who is getting stretched, contracts the same muscle by pushing against them in an isometric contraction then relax the muscles and repeat. 2 Flag Point 36 It is important that the group participants are educated on the safety and correct technique of stretching before they perform partner stretches or PNF. It is also essential that the pairs communicate with each other and don’t over stretch their partner. Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star Why is it important? It is important to include flexibility training as part of every session. Here are some of the reasons why stretching is important: • • • • • • • • • • As we age our tendons and ligaments lose their elasticity, so it is important to stretch to maintain the ROM of your joints Flexible muscles are more forgiving, if they’re tight and contracted, you’re more likely to be injured Having good flexibility allows you to increase your physical performance, allowing the joint the ability to move further with less energy It increases blood supply and nutrients to joint structures, which in turn increases circulation, leading to greater elasticity of surrounding tissues Good flexibility improves posture It allows good range of motion, may improve motor performance and skill execution May reduce post exercise muscle soreness, or DOMS, by reducing muscle spasm associated with exercise Maintaining and gaining flexibility decreases risk of injury from sports or basic activities in life e.g. reaching into the back seat to retrieve your laptop Stretching can improve your coordination. This is beneficial to sports but can help you out walking on uneven surfaces Relieve stress, improve your mood and alertness How will it improve the function of myofasicial chains? Through life and poor posture our bodies have the tendency to allow certain muscles to tighten up and create knots through the muscles. When muscles are tight, unbalanced or knotted our body will not function to the best of it’s ability. In these situations sometimes stretching is not the best answer, for example if you have very tight hamstrings where the fascia is thick and there are many knots throughout the muscle, a static stretch will only succeed in stretching the end points (origin and insertions) of the muscle making that section longer but having a minimal effect on the body of the muscle where it is tightest. In this case, massage or self-myofascial release (SMR) can be most beneficial. When the muscle is warm it is possible to break down these knots (known as adhesions) and allow the muscle to be stretched. Foam rollers or tennis balls can be a great tool to aid in this process. If a particular sling or line is unbalanced or has tight/knotted muscles throughout, it will significantly decrease the function of the sling or line. For clients to reach their potential they need to have balanced, flexible muscles. If you neglect your client’s flexibility training you can be sure that they won’t reach their potential and will most likely plateau in strength as well as increase the chance of injury. 37 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09 How to Become an Outdoor PT Star 2 Flag Point It is essential that the body is adequately hydrated prior to commencing flexibility training as dehydrated muscles have very poor elasticity. Stretch the tight muscles, strengthen the weak muscles and perform flexibility training (including the use of rollers or massage tools) after each session with well hydrated muscles. Posture Assessment It is imperative that joint movements are not looked at in isolation, as more distant joints will influence each movement. An effective test you can perform to demonstrate this to your client is detailed below: • • • • Start with your client sitting on a chair Ask them to slump forward creating poor posture Whilst maintaining this position, ask them to elevate both arms above their head Now have them straighten up creating good posture and try it again Unless your client presents with any shoulder problems, they will be able to elevate more with a neutral spine than a slumped one. By assuming a slumped position, the thoracic spine is inhibited from extending properly. This extension of the upper back is necessary for full range elevation. Without extension, it is difficult for the shoulder to fully elevate. Prolonged slumping over time may eventually cause compensation elsewhere in the body (such as the lower back, or the shoulder itself). This may eventually lead to breakdown of these joints due to the excessive movement. 38 Kate Henderson and Marin Lazic V2 16.03.09