Chris Beardsley's Garage Gym

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No workout post today because I’m off on holiday next week!  In the meantime, I thought this might be interesting.  I was sitting revising my muscular anatomy the other day, for my personal training qualification.  I had just finished reading the section on the ankle and foot and had started jotting down the details of the origin, insertion and actions of the intrinsic foot muscles.

If you have never had the pleasure of trying to memorise the intrinsic muscles of the foot, I suggest you don’t devote the time unless you absolutely have to.  It is very tedious.  In between memorising the various details of the dorsal interossei and the plantar interossei and the lumbricales (sounds like a place in Spain to me), I started flicking through Google Reader to keep my mind awake.

Settling on Carson Boddicker’s blog, I began reading a short post every so often as a break.  Soon, though, I was making more notes from reading his blog than I was from my anatomy text.  I was amazed at the sheer volume of great tips and useful information.

Introducing Boddicker Performance…

Here are my notes of what I thought were Carson’s top 30 blog posts (noting that there is much, much more).  You can’t really do a top 10 because his writing style is to give lots of small points in different posts rather than long, comprehensive articles.  However, I am aware that it’s a lot of posts to link to all in one go so I hope Carson will forgive me for setting them all out here:

1. The core: Carson notes that this is essentially all of the components of the axial skeleton (scapulae to pelvis) with all of the muscle, bone, and fascia in between.
2. Squat technique:  Carson notes that this is often poor because of (1) poor hip and ankle mobility, (2) a desire to load heavy to soon, (3) anthropometry, and (4) weak glutes.
3. Squatting cues: Carson suggests that his athletes (1) grab the floor with their feet, (2) initiate the movement by pushing their hips back, (3) externally rotate and abduct the legs (”spread the floor”), and (4) activate the lats to assist in stiffening the core.
4. The body compensates.  Carson notes that, for example, in disease states, some people begin to recruit muscles you’d never think of as respiratory muscles.  To assist in inhalation, the triceps brachii and erector spinae are called into action.  Conversely, to assist with exhalation, pec major starts to play a big role.
5. The law of repetitive motion:  Carson reminds us that this is I = NF/AR, or injury equals the number of repetitions (N) times the force (F), divided by amplitude (A) times rest (R).  The key is to minimize the damage of NF and maximize AR. 
6. Ultramarathon tips: Carson gives a few tips that relate unsurprisingly to the law of repetitive motion.  To help minimize injury, (1) incorporate faster runs, (2) match strength/mobility time 1:1 with running time, and (3) improve quality and quantity of nutrition.
7. Females knee injuries: Carson notes that these are very common.  To help minimize injury, (1) push the knees out when bending the knee in an exercise such as a squat, (2) get their glutes stronger, (3) use filler exercises such as x-band walks between main exercises, and (4) incorporate barefoot training for proprioception.
8. The knee is more stable than the elbow: according to Carson, although people think that the reverse is true because they hear about knee injuries more than elbow injuries.  However, the knee is injured more frequently on account of the fact that it works in closed-kinetic chain activities nearly exclusively (excepting kicking).  An elbow, however, acts predominantly in open-chain movements.
9. There are seven key considerations for athletic improvement according to Carson and they are (1) Strength, (2) Reactivity, (3) Metabolic Development, (4) Movement Quality, (5) Tissue Quality, (6) Nutrition and (7) Sleep.
10. Multi-directional training for the sagittal athlete: Carson notes that this is effective for injury reduction, for example, using a slideboard for runners.  Runners spend so much time driving in the sagittal plane that their movement skills only apply to straight ahead movement.  This post made me want to go out and get a slideboard for my garage.
11. The perils of CrossFit: according to Carson include poor programme design, little coaching, no progression, poor lift execution and an overly-fond prevalence for the puke bucket.
12. Plantar fasciitis may be caused by calf knots: Carson notes that pain in areas like the plantar fascia may not be due to an issue at the fascia itself, but rather higher up.  If the tone of the calf muscles is excessively high, it will simply place too much stress on the soft-tissues of the plantar surface and create pain.  We need to reduce tone of the calf muscles and begin to restore proper ankle and foot function with targeted soft-tissue, mobility, and strengthening work.
13. Why barefoot is best: Carson explains that (1) the modern shoe has an elevated heel relative to the forefoot, leaving the foot in plantar flexion, (2) the shoe desensitizes the organs in the feet that provide awareness of your body’s place in time and space, and  (3) softer midsoles allow significantly greater pronation.  Overpronation can lead to a gamut of nasty issues like Achilles’ tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis, shin splints, and stress fractures.
14. Metabolic base training: Carson’s philosophy is to (1) introduce runs at goal race pace to make race pace feel like second nature, (2) build internal plumbing by generating adaptations to aerobic training (a weekly long run and extensive tempo sessions), (3) teach your body to manage lactate production (continuous runs at anaerobic threshold pace or intervals), (4) spend time working at 3k-5k pace, which are highly correlated with pace at VO2max, and (5) maintain or build movement quality, strength, and power.
15. The difference between hill and flat running: according to Carson is that if a hill has a slope greater than about 4 degrees, the mechanics of the running stride changes from a cyclical absolute speed pattern (the one that middle and long distance runners should be in constantly) to one that mimics the mechanics of acceleration.  That is a huge distinction.
16. Downhill running could lead to beneficial adaptations, explains Carson, as some studies have demonstrated that rats exposed to bouts of downhill running adapted by adding significantly more sarcomeres in series (12%).  Sarcomeres are the contractile units of muscle.  When a muscle contracts, sarcomeres shorten to create changes in tissue lengths and to create movement.  if you add some sarcomeres into series, and have 112 sarcomeres where only 100 were previously, each sarcomere has to shorten significantly less to produce the same change in position.
17. Kinesio tape thanks to Carson, now I finally know what it is and what it is supposed to do.
18. Plantar fasciitis or plantar fasciopathy? (note one)  Carson notes two things re foot pain: (1) pain in the foot can be caused by issues in the lower leg, which can be addressed using soft tissue work, and (2) if we reduce pain and then allow people to return to training without attempting to alter the movement pattern that injured the athlete initially, it is a simply matter of time before the athlete reaches begins to experience pain again.
19. Plantar fasciitis or plantar fasciopathy? (note two) Carson notes that reduced ankle dorsiflexion range of motion is a good indicator of future foot pain, so in order to prevent reoccurrance, this should be addressed.  (1) Note that shoes place us in plantar flexion!  (2) Those who lack dorsiflexion will often pronate at the subtalar joint to achieve adequate dorsiflexion via the midtarsal joint at the expense of adding stress to the plantar fascia.  To fix the issue, improve ankle range of motion using mobility drills.
20. Cybernetic periodisation Carson always takes into account the athlete’s state of mind and other stressors in programming workouts.  For example, if an athlete has a big proposal due at work due in 24 hours, he’s moving across the city, and his dog just ran away, it may not be the best time to load him up with a huge lactate tolerance session…
21. Short lats? Carson explains that he inability to maintain the arms overhead during the deep squat might be due to short latissimus dorsi muscles.
22. Pec minor problems?  Some triathletes inspected by Carson had incredibly tender segments of pec minor and obvious anterior tilt of their scapulae as a result of training imbalances.  Soft tissue work helped.
23. Resistance training for endurance athletes Carson explains that this can be used to challenge and develop the resiliency of connective tissues, cement motor patterns, and improve performance.
24. Programming resistance training for endurance athletes: according to Carson can fit in most places on an endurance athletes schedule without undue harm, so long as it is intense but not exhausting (unless the athletes are doing sprints as part of their programme).
25. Mobility tendancies amongst distance runners: Carson has found acceptable dorsiflexion of the big toe and ankle to be more the exception than the rule in his athletes.  Consistently, his evaluations of incoming athletes show hypomobility at the hallux and ankle mortise, with the midfoot and subtalar showing more variation.
26. Big toe immobility is a problem Carson explains that this is because when the big toe does not extend well during late (running) stance, plantar flexion torque decreases, knee flexion increases and hip extension decreases.  To compenstate, there must be an increased drive of the hip flexors to advance the leg.  When the foot is fixed upon the ground, this contraction creates potential for lumbar rotation and lateral flexion, potentially leading to low back pain and dysfunction.
27. For core stability, Carson recommends that you use the half-kneeling kettlebell bottom-up press because  you are required to perform strong activity at the hand leading from a limited base of support and you are in a position that forces you to utilize authentic core stability.
28. Core competancies for the overhead press: Carson suggests you need (1) good thoracic extension, (2) scapula upward rotation, and (3) shoulder packing abilities, as well as (4) breathing, (5) proprioceptive vertical, and (6) gripping abilities.  To get to these points, you should make your own the following exercises: (1) the Get Up, (2) the Arm Bar, (3) The Handwalk, and (4) the Chin up.
29. High-heeled shoes: Carson explains that they lead to to adaptative shortening of the plantar flexors, which is a bad thing.
30. How long should we hold stability bridges for? Carson notes that if he’s dealing with the post-rehab population, he’s going to go with McGill’s 8 to 10 second holds but in a healthy athlete, pain-free athlete, he’s comfortable being a bit more aggressive.

I hope you find Carson as informative and interesting as I did, that long and otherwise tedious afternoon!

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