CREATINE UPDATES

There is an excellent article at t-nation.com about the 2005 NSCA meeting in Las Vegas. The author Chris Shugart is an excellent writer and coach. Here is a synopsis on the portion he wrote about creatine. NSCA stands for National Strength Coaches Association.
*Creatine results are not just water weight. Creatine can improve muscular endurance and can help enhance performance (anaerobic power)
*Creatine doesn't cause cramps, as some once believed. It will not harm the kidneys, even at large dosages for extended periods of time.
*Creatine can actually help you perform better in the heat due to its hyperhydration effects.
*Creatine is safe for kids. They eat meat and fish after all, which naturally contain creatine. Studies have been done on infants (4-8 grams per day) with inborn error of Creatine metabolism. There were no adverse effects.
*Athletes with a lot of fast twitch fibers of type II respond better to creatine than others.
To read the rest of this article please go to the website. He also summarizes an interesting speech he attended by the strength coach for the Air Force. I use chains in the Olympic lifts. You will know what I'm talking about when you read it. Thanks acudave@yahoo.com

TRAINING THE LATS

I remember watching the movie "Pumping Iron" and the scene when a bodybuilder is posing. Arnold is in the audience and making comments about the competitors. One competitor (Franco Columbo?) had such huge lats the Arnold and Robbie Robinson made jokes about him looking like a bat. All jokes aside, the lats don't have as much popularity anymore.
I think the reason for that is the obesity that we see in more and more kids today. The lats are a good measuring stick of relative strength, and the fatter an individual is, the harder it is to do just one chin. I emphasize lat strength to players and athletes I train as soon as I start working with them. If a kid is unable to do one chin-up, the day they can do one is an amazing event.
In Charles Poliquin's book "The Poliquin Principles", he has Chapter 11 dedicated to the Lats. He mentions the gymnast Yuri Chechi of Italy. If you watched the 2004 summer Olympics, you would have seen this amazing athlete in action. He is a ring specialist. That is the event that everyone goes wow at, when seeing it for the first time. The iron-cross is when the gymnast holds his arms straight out to his sides while holding the crucifix position. Adding weight while doing variations of chins while give you this look. I remember Yuri Chechi carrying the flag out for Italy in the opening ceremonies. That was with one hand. Very impressive. By the way, he finished third in an extremely closely contested event. But the major questions are why do I want to do these exercise?, and how do I do these exercises?
The lats are important in maintaining posture. I see my fair share of athletes that have shoulders that are forward with a rounded upper back. When you pull weights off the floor, they assist in maintaining the starting position. This would apply to the power clean and deadlift. For that matter, the position of the back in the squat is also assisted by lat strength and thickness. As I mentioned in my May 16th article "The Squat" the bar sits in a valley or gulley that is partially developed by the lats.
The lats also provide support to the shoulders in various pressing movements. The bench press is obvious, but the seated military press also. If you have ever experienced soreness in the lats after a heavy military press workout, you know what I am talking about.
So what can I do if I am unable to do one chin-up? If you have a lat pulldown machine that would be very helpful. I do think that chins and their variations are superior to the lat pulldown machine. So if you need assistance a partner is helpful. The downfall of a partner is how much assistance do they provide, and can this be measured? Well, an alternative to this is the flex bands I've spoken about previously. If you attach the band to the top of a power rack, and then loop your foot through it, the band will assist you in the chin-ups. There is a variety of bands, so you need to find which one will help you correctly. I like to think that once you have achieved 3 sets of 12 then you can make it slightly harder. You can then place 5 pounds or slightly more on a belt and continue to progress onward and upward. An alternative would be doing static holds at various positions within an entire chin up. A slow lowering of 10 to 12 seconds for a few sets can also add strength gains.
It seems that as we get bigger, certain exercise go by the way side. Some exercise are discarded because they are not good, but others should be maintained. The lats need chin ups and there variations, and you do to! acudave@yahoo.com

FLEXIBILITY SERIES HIP ROTATION

I apologize for the printing of these articles. I had a cold/sore throat that hit a lot harder than I thought it would. I even missed a day of practice. If you know me, it takes a lot to do that. The last time I missed a practice in 2002, I had my appendix removed. Priorities!
Rotation of the hip occurs internally and externally. If you stand facing a fence and lift one leg so that the femur, or bone that runs from your hip to your knee, is parallel to the ground, you can perform this test. Watch the leg from the knee to the foot. When the foot moves toward the opposite side of the body, that is internal rotation, and when the foot rotates away from the body that is external rotation. If you have a light weight at the end of a string, and watch it swing left to right you will see a similarity. There should be a 90 degree ankle maintained at the knee joint and hip joint when performing these two tests.
The tests are done with the tester placing one hand on the knee to eliminate any movement, and the other knee at the ankle. The movement is at the ankle only. There should be a 40-50 degree movement in both tests. There should be slightly more flexibility on the internal rotation form of the test. There a lot of variables involved in this test like the sport, position, sex, body mass. A gymnast or hockey goalie will probably be hyper mobile, while a nose guard will not.
One of my favorite books that covers a lot of these tests is orthopedic Physical Assessment by David J. Magee (3rd edition).
Next week is the shoulders. Thanks! acudave@yahoo.com!

WEBSITES

I often get asked what websites I look at. Matter of fact, this is probably the most often asked question. My favorite website is elitefitnesssystems.com. Louis Simmons is the person that is responsible for any strength gains I make after the age of 40. Elite sells a lot of his and other products. Louie also has a separate website called westside-barbell.com. In the April and June issues of Powerlifting USA, you can read a fairly detailed history of his lifting over the last 25 years. Unfortunately he has had surgery recently, which may permanently shut him down.
Westside barbell is a template or system that can be adapted to many different sports. I have even use a derivative of it with tennis players!
I initially used the box squat in the 1980's. I was fortunate enough to train with George Frenn, who was the originator of the box squat. We used it differently than what is used today, but I did not fully appreciate what I was learning. In 1997, a few powerlifters started reading Louis Simmons articles in Powerlifting USA. My experiences the second time around where different. One key element I did not buy into was the knee position. My first cycle pushed my squat to 335 for two. I use a 8.5 inch box. Unfortunately my knees were so sore I could not squat for three weeks. I repeated the process and squatted 350 easy! I was impressed with the improvement with little effort I was putting into it, but again my knees were very sore. Again, I was out 4 weeks this time. Yes I am stubborn at times. This time I backed off the weight and kept my knees over my ankles. It was at that point I experienced no soreness. Wow! Eventually I worked up to a tough 385. I did this over a 10 month period. I also realized that I need to strengthen my knees, and improve post workout recovery. I covered part of my sled work that strengthened my knees in my 4/29/05 article "What is he doing?". Nutrition and lifestyle are the keys to workout recovery. I have touched on that area, and will continue to do so. Thanks for the questions and to "T", yes I was late this time. I have a throat that is inflammed, and it may be a no go for tommorrow. Thanks for keeping me on schedule. acudave@yahoo.com

FOOD LOG OR FLOG

I talk to players each week that say yes to everything you ask them. Unfortunately if you immediately ask them to explain what you said, you will find a majority who don't know what you said. Unfortunately, that is not the only example of hearing without listening, but this article is on nutrition, not relationships between men and women. I wish I had a penny for every time someone asked me "I would like to put on some muscle, could you help me?" My answer has always been "write down everything you eat for the next 5 to 7 days". This would include the protein (P), carbohydrates (C), fats (F), and calories (CAL) in each item. Here is an example of what a meal might look like:

8 oz beef (93% lean) P-50, C-0, F-12 CAL-300

1 cup of veggies C-10, CAL-40

1 tablespoon olive oil F-14, CAL-125

3 fish oil capsules F-2, CAL-20

TOTAL P-50, C-10, F-28, CAL-485

Most athletes have no idea what amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and calories they need to get to their goal. This entails reading a lot of labels, weighing things, and being pretty damn anal. But this must be done. Why spend all that time weight training, running, jumping, and practicing when your body will be unable to fully recover from all of that activity. You may need a small scale, a measuring cup, and a paperback that tells you the number of calories in an apple and other foods. This will eliminate guessing what you ate, realizing some of the things you need to eliminate, avoid overeating and undereating, improve your willpower, reduce constant plateauing, and clearly defining your goals. Down the road you will end up creating flash cards with your favorite meals and their caloric breakdown. Rule #1 is to keep a food log of absolutely (Rocky Balboa) everything you eat for a period of five to seven days. Weigh yourself at the beginning and the end of the measuring period. You can divide the total calories by the number of days it took to consume them.

Hey if a web log is called a BLOG, why not call a food log a FLOG!!!

Honestly, if you can't do this step, I wonder about your commitment. And you should to. Thanks for the questions at acudave@yahoo.com

FLEXIBILITY SERIES TENSOR FASCIAE LATAE, OR TFL FOR SHORT

The TFL is located on the lateral portion of the hip. It abducts (pulls the leg away from the center of the body), internally rotates the hip, flexes the hip, and is a knee extensor. It is a muscle that works very closely with the glute (your butt) and the Iliotibial Band (ITB). It is an area where traumatic hits can take place. A good example is a football player using his helmet or shoulder pad to hit the area of the hip where the TFL is located. The TFL runs along the entire length of the front part of the leg. If you are hit there enough, calcium deposits can occur, and can be a painful result of playing offensive or defensive line in the NFL. For that matter, playing on some of the hard Astro-Turf fields of "the Day" would also contribute to this problem.
The test is primarily for flexibility, but can also point out previous injuries to the good coach. The athlete is on one side while the leg being tested is drawn slowly back by the tester. If the knee on top can for the most part, fall behind the knee of the leg on the table, this is considered normal flexibility. If the knee being tested can go lower than the knee on the table, that is considered hyper-flexible. At the age of 47, I am barely able to pass this test. Unfortunately, as we get older, our hip flexibility decreases. In a young athlete, poor flexibility will hinder them when it comes to lateral movement.
An excellent stretch is to lie on your back, and lift one leg across your body. Keep both shoulders flat on the ground. For example, if your left leg is crossing your body, your left shoulder should remain on the ground. This will also help your hip, but if you are able to do this on a table, and play with the angles a little bit, you will know what I'm talking about. A nice picture of the TFL and ITB can be found on page 502 of Gray's Anatomy for students. There are other orthopedic tests that would be of help to others coaching and evaluating athletes. Go to go to practice. Questions at acudave@yahoo.com are always appreciated. I received a nice one on wrestling that I will answer later.

ELECTRICAL MUSCLE STIMULATION

The following information is from the books:
1)Supertraining by Mel Siff and Yuri V. Verkoshansky 1999
2)Science and Practice of Strength Training by Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky 1995
3)Modern Strength and Power Methods Christian Thibaudeau (E-Book)2003?

Electrical muscle stimulation or EMS, has been used extensively by the physical therapy community for many years. My first exposure to EMS was while I was a physical therapy assistant at Hoag Hospital in the early 1990's. It's primary use was for back patients that were either post-operative or attempting to do anything they could to avoid back surgery. I was always interested in this area since one of my old training partners told me about his dad's surgery. His dad had a laminectomy in the early 1980's, and at the time success on this type of surgery was 21%. That sounded like lousy odds! For a historical perspective on this area go to spineonline.com. I would also recommend reading any books by Dr. Stuart McGill a noted orthopedic surgeon. He has outlined logical exercises on back strengthening. I also have to thank Coach Carlisle at USC for showing me more on these exercises. Anyway back to EMS.
In the above case EMS was used for neuromuscular stimulation for pain control or movement patterning (1). The intelligent coach would then say, if it can be used to make someone better who was previously ill, then why can't it be used to make someone better who is already healthy. That application is expressed in some of the other areas that Dr. Siff and Dr. V spoke about in their book (1). Imposition of local physical stress to provoke supercompensation, local restoration after exercise or injury, and general central nervous and endocrine restoration after exercise or injury were the 3 other areas mentioned in their book (1). Local restoration and actual muscle strengthening are the areas that Charlie Francis and Christian Thibaudeau talk about the most. I realize that this is a rarely used in American Sports, but it is interesting that Jerry Rice has been known to use EMS for some time. Not that it will improve his ability to catch the ball, but maybe it has contributed for his relatively injury free and long career. Pages 206-215 cover many studies that review the area of EMS. If you venture to page 219 you can see a device that is used by Jay Schroeder and his athletes in the development of upper body explosiveness. It looks like a Smith machine, but with a larger area to push and receive the force.
In Christian Thibaudeau's book (3) is a chapter dedicated to EMS use. This is layed out in a simpler and easier to understand format. Part 4 of his book is EMS for Sports. He speaks about increased muscle strength, increased muscle mass, increased vertical jump/power, increased running speed, increased recovery and prevention of atrophy, with a fair share of studies. Some of which overlap Dr Z's and Dr V's work. Th unit that CT talks about is Compex Sports US. They are available to individuals in the US, but are presently manafactured outside the US. Go to their website for more info.
The initial exposure to this area was through Dr Z's book (2). A short area of pages 167-169 cover specifics on frquency, modulation and other areas related to EMS. If you have an interset in this area, I highly recommend these books.
I brought this up because I will be doing some experimentation in this area of the next year and hope to share this with my clients and people on my website. This is a debatable area, but with such renowed individuals as the ones I mentioned, I believe this is an area worth investigating. Next week I will be publishing my early results on this years freshman class. This way a coach will have a chance to see some before and afters. Thanks for those questions at acudave@yahoo.com.

QUOTE "THE MORE DISADVANTAGED (LEVERAGE WISE) YOU ARE IN A PARTICULAR LIFT, THE MORE OFTEN YOU NEED ASSISTANCE EXERCISES."

I was at the beach on the 4th of July, and don't typically do any work on that day. It was fortunate to be at Heather and Holly's place which is literally right on the beach. The Jen was there so it made things even more the special. I hope all the 21 to early 30 year olds are able to recover today. I am typing this article at a public library where a couple next to me are sniffling and have sun glasses on, but both have a great tan! They look tired. At least they are not at a kennel looking for their lost pet. The 5th of July is notorious for that.
I originally going to quote Charles Poliquin today, but saw this great quote by a reader named Brandon Green. If you go to t-nation.com you will see a Christian Thibaudeau (CT) article on the deadlift. Scroll down and you will see an interesting discussion about the article. The comment by CT about the Russians success with developing heavier lifters versus other countries hits home with some of my articles. The countries that dominate the lower weight categories and the neural efficiency training is typically not well understood in the U.S. The use of the tape measure, and stop watch are probably two of the better examples of neural training. Please read this article and think about the comments.
The deadlift can be used, but I believe to many athletes training for other sports go to heavy in this lift. It is brutal on the (central nervous system) CNS, and is not the best for speed development. Obviously strength is important but there are other exercise that can be more helpful in developing the lower back. I have been experimenting with different versions of the reverse hyper and will discuss this at a later date in detail. I will say that the position of the lower back versus the end of the pad can dictate a slight difference in which muscles are effected. Also there can be no movement between the hip and the knee, which places more emphasis on the hamstrings and completely eliminates the lower back. A one legged version of this is amazing. Anyway, enough Dave, that is for a future article. If you take a weight that is 20 to 60 pounds more than you can Power Clean, and do fast deadlifts, it would probably be more beneficial for your speed development, than a 1 rep max. The deadlift can also be tough on maintaining good technique. High pulls would also be helpful with 15-30 pounds above your max power clean.
Nevertheless follow the commentary, it is very insightful. Any questions I can be contacted at acudave@yahoo.com
Thanks again Jen, and I hope chili is OK.