Brian Schiff’s Blog

I readily admit I have had an aversion to abdominal exercises that involve straight leg lowering since my days in pee wee football where we were forced to do lifts and holds a few inches above the ground.  Some will relate to a modern day version of this exercise known as “six inches.”

As someone with tight hip flexors and who has personally suffered from sciatica in the past, I am NOT a fan of abdominal training that exposes the lumbar spine to large loads and undue risk related to exercises that involve long levers (e.g. throw downs, scissors, etc) and place high shear force on the spine.

I was reminded of why I feel this way in a fitness class this past week.  I take a cycle/core class at my local gym and have done a traditional spinning class twice per week for 3 years.  After 45 minutes of cycle, we move to a fitness room for core.  I have done this new format for three weeks. This week we were asked to do a series of exercises which included “banana rolls.” If you are unfamiliar with this move, check out You Tube for some video demos.

While this exercise may be effective for core strengthening, I can honestly say as one who has never done the move before that trying to execute it as part of a continuous sequence of movements without rest between the moves was very hard to do with proper form.   The fatigued state encouraged using momentum and straining to simply get the movement done (not to mention the fact my greater trochanter was sore from the rolling on the hard aerobic floor).

The next day I woke up with low back pain.  My back has not hurt like that in years.  In light of the role the iliopsoas plays by virtue of its attachment on the lumbar spine, we must consider the impact of reverse muscle action and how it creates shear on the lumbar spine during movements that rely on stabilization with the legs extended against gravity.  Additionally, for those clients like me with muscle tightness, increased lumbar lordosis and a history of low back disorders, health and fitness professionals must consistently evaluate safety and efficacy as well as trying to challenge clientele in a workout session.

For all of these reasons, I increasingly rely on neutral spine anti-extension and anti-rotation training exercises in my programming for athletes and clients of all ages and abilities.  That is not to say I never do rotational or active movements.  They are appropriate given the right order, progression and demands of the respective individual. I just think we must consider form and risk versus reward in exercise programming.

The exercise video below illustrates how to use sliders in a tall plank position to accomplish great core activation and hip/shoulder stability without stressing the lumbar spine with long lever movements. Keep in mind that quality should override quantity in terms of deciding repetition schemes. Do not let the desire to fatigue clients cause form to suffer as this may increase injury risk.

For more specifics on the execution and progression/regression of this particular exercise, click the link below to read my most recent exercise column for PFP Magazine.

Tall plank shoulder circles

Suffice it to say I will not be doing banana rolls again. While I am not completely discarding the exercise, I do think it should be done in a non-fatigued state and taught incrementally if done at all. Most importantly, we as fitness professionals must always remember to program exercises based on fatigue and skill level, while carefully weighing risk versus reward in group or individual sessions.

One of my favorite quotes from a well known fitness professional, Alwyn Cosgrove, is: “Exercise is a drug.  If we give the right drug in the right dose – everything works.  But, if we give the wrong drug or even the right drug in the wrong dose, we cause more problems than provide solutions.”  In essence, dosage matters a whole lot.  This means that getting it just right is also not by accident, but by careful analysis and exacting prescription.

After a thorough evaluation, exercise selection and progression must be predicated on the end goal for the athlete.  Where are they now?  How do I get him/her back to 100%  Understanding the injury itself, training and medical history as well as inflammation and healing time frames is important, but that is just one part of the equation.

For those with experience, you already know athletes heal differently and no two injuries are ever just alike.  Addressing the mental components outlined in my previous post, Return to Play: Part 1 (The Athlete’s Mindset), is the starting point.  Next, you must formulate a plan to physically mend, challenge and prepare the athlete’s body to return to its previous functional level.

Below are some BIG mistakes I have either made along the way or witnessed in my career:

1. Prescribing exercise solely based on the diagnosis – while logical and not entirely off base, we must learn to think globally and make sure we assess the whole athlete as opposed to isolating one area.  In my early days, I tended to focus on the affected area where symptoms were prevalent.  Keep in mind the symptoms may simply be the result of another weak link in the chain.  The FMS, SFMA and myofascial chains have taught us the importance of kinetic linking
2. Pushing too hard too fast – progressing sessions simply based on what the athlete tells me as opposed to properly moving through a sound functional progression with specific criteria needing to be met prior to moving on to the next phase of rehab can cause more harm than good.  While you may be able to go faster in some cases, do not get too greedy without satisfying set goals along the way.  You do not want to reinforce a poor movement pattern.  A misstep here may cause a recurrence of the injury, perpetuate inflammation or weaken healing tissue.
3. Not pushing the athlete hard enough – it is paramount that we assess client response “in the moment” rep to rep and set to set as opposed to just session to session.  Observe form and fatigue, but do not let the athlete coast or get bored with the lack of progression.  Understanding and applying fundamental exercise physiology principles and recognizing periodization is necessary to ensure complete restoration.

Now, on the my next big point.  I strongly believe you need to know how HARD the exercises you suggest are in order to effectively prescribe them.  One of my primary philosophies is that I will not prescribe exercises I cannot do.  Not only is this critical for teaching proper form, it is a must to gage fatigue, workout demand, recovery needs and so on.

Possessing a solid grasp of volume and intensity is also essential.  For example, having an athlete who is 6 weeks post-op with a bone-tendon-bone ACL autograft reconstruction do too much eccentric quad loading will inevitably lead to anterior knee pain or patellar tendonitis.  Would you do 10 separate eccentric quad exercises (2-3 sets of 10-15 each) in one hour ?  I do not do this type of volume on my healthy knee, but I have seen rehab done this way.  We must always keep a watchful eye on load, time under tension and overall volume throughout the rehab process.  The proper balance is critical.

Continue reading…

Working with athletes of many disciplines affords me an opportunity to look at many shoulders week to week. Increasingly, I am seeing more Crossfit athletes for various shoulder problems.  In many cases, they have rotator cuff tendonitis, impingement, AC joint pain, labral pathology or a combination of the aforementioned issues.  The other big group of athletes I see is throwers.

These two groups share many of the same dysfunctions including posterior shoulder tightness and decreased mobility. Tightness in the pecs and lats is commonplace.  I feel latissimus tightness often goes unnoticed or perhaps is not an area of emphasis in prehab/rehab plans.  Tight lats will restrict elevation and contribute to postural dysfunction.

With restricted elevation, athletes may turn to excessive spinal extension and/or rotation to achieve elevation necessary (e.g. overhead squats, snatches, throwing) and this can contribute to poor movement patterns.  I have also seen this impact volleyball players asymmetrically with serving and hitting.

Lat tightness can easily be assessed by placing the athlete supine and simply asking them to bring the arms completely overhead.  While most people do not have 180 degrees of flexion, I feel working to achieve elevation greater than or equal to 160 is completely reasonable.  The body often uses abduction and external rotation to make things work (and this is natural for throwers), but the more pure elevation capacity we have the the better.

Crossfit involves lots of pull-ups and throwing heavily utilizes the pecs and lats for acceleration.  It only follows that muscular tightness in this region may need to be addressed.  Step one often involves soft tissue mobilization/compression techniques.  I prefer to use a Trigger Point ball or Grid to work on the soft tissue mobilizing it on the wall (TP ball) or floor (Grid) in an elevated position.

Next, I like to employ active mobility work.  I recently featured a simple exercise using the BOSU Ballast Ball in my PFP column. The pictures below reveal a rolling double arm version, as well as a single arm method/progression.  These active movements can also be complimented by sustained holds as desired.

For a more detailed description and application of this exercise, click here to read my “Functionally Fit” column.  I had one Crossfit enthusiast see me for limited shoulder mobility as it was hindering his overhead lifts and causing back pain.  He had about 130 degrees of shoulder flexion.  Daily STM using the foam roller, mobility work and some stretching increased his elevation by 10 degrees in 2-3 short weeks.

So, the take home message is that overhead athletes should assess and address this limitation if it is present as it may cause kinetic chain issues and energy leaks.  Improving mobility will better enable utilization of proper muscle activation and optimal movement patterns.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. Today is Small Business Saturday, and as a small business owner I like to bring attention to it. In light of that, I am offering a whopping 40% off all my products today until the end of the day on Cyber Monday (3 days only).

This is my way of saying thanks to my readers and supporters. So, if you have been thinking about buying a book, DVD, or foam roller now is the perfect time to take advantage of this deal.

Click here to see all the inventory. To receive the discount, simply enter coupon code SBS12 and hit apply prior to checking out. Happy Holidays!

Below are two videos demonstrating some sliding exercises I like to use in training and rehab.  The first video reveals one of my tougher hamstring exercises I prescribe, while the second video displays some shoulder/core stability variations using sliding discs.  I have included links to the PFP columns that better explain the set-up, execution and application for each exercise.

Click here for the Functionally Fit Column on sliding hamstring curls.

Click here for the Functionally Fit column on sliding shoulder raises.