6 Mistakes: Fitting Round Pegs into Square
Holes
by Eric Cressey
There's one old adage that gets used quite a bit in the world of
strength and conditioning and physical therapy. "If you only have a
hammer, everything looks like a nail." But you know what? It's an
adage because it's true!
A lot of people probably dislike me because I'm not a cut and
dry, black-and-white issue guy. I won't just tell you to "do this"
or "do that." I'm pretty sure that "it depends" is the correct
answer to 90% of the questions I'm asked regarding corrective
exercise and strength and conditioning.
I get irritated when I see people trying to go
"one-size-fits-all" with fitness training. Obviously, this has
implications in terms of performance and physique improvements, but
because I'm such a functional anatomy geek, I need to explain how
trying to jam a round peg in a square hole can lead to
injuries.
You've got to make sure the training suits the
trainee.
1) Forcing Deep Squatting on a Flexed Spine
In the training world, not squatting deep is sacrilegious. Many
lifters have been relegated to the deep, dark corners of the
Internet after posting videos of squatting only to parallel, or
worse, above, and being berated by their keyboard warrior
counterparts.
Unfortunately, that depth isn't really safe for everyone.
Flexibility and stability limitations (outlined in my To Squat or
Not To Squat newsletter) can lead to lumbar flexion (rounding) as one approaches
the rock-bottom position. So, as heretical as it might sound, some
people just aren't made for squatting deep.
Here's a perfect example: Omri Geva is a Cressey Performance
athlete who's a member of the USA Skeleton Developmental Team.
Relative to his overall body size, he has a freaky long spine, with
some serious hypermobility.
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I doubt there are many lifters out there who can do that in
shoes, let alone barefoot.
Now, here's the thing... his long spine (and its pliability in
flexing) is advantageous for his sport, which involves sprinting in
a position of lumbar flexion. Take a look at him in
action.
This is flexion
without axial loading. However, loading
his spine in flexion would quickly chew up his back. Like everyone,
Omri has a certain "cut-off" point at which his spine slips out of
neutral and into flexion.
Watch what happens when we take him from a 14" box height
(appropriate, as it keeps him in neutral) to a 13" box, where he
slips into flexion.
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Remember that we want to squat to get better at our chosen
sports, and enhance our quality of life. Is that extra inch of
depth really going to make
that big a difference in how you
look? Even if it did, is the extra risk of injury worth
it?
I'm all for deep squatting, but it's important to individualize
squat depth for
everyone.
2) Forcing Overhead Pressing on Overhead Throwing Athletes
I recently gave a presentation about training overhead throwing
athletes. In it, I mentioned that I didn't use overhead presses
with any of my baseball guys. When I returned home, I already had
four emails from strength coaches and trainers asking me why not.
They each read something like this:
"Why you don't do any overhead training with your throwing
athletes? Isn't it important to maintain balance in the shoulder
musculature and, by eliminating that plane of movement, are we not
putting our athletes at a greater risk for injury?
If an athlete is structurally and mechanically sound in their
movement, shouldn't they be okay when performing overhead
movements?"
Now, if you think about it, that second question actually
answers the first. I've never seen a pitcher who is "structurally
and mechanically sound" in his movements, and the research has
verified that.
Some key points I've mentioned in other articles:
• Compared to position players, pitchers have less
scapular upward rotation at 60 and 90 degrees of abduction.(1) Upward
rotation is extremely important for safe overhead activity. So, the
more you throw, the more screwy your upward rotation potential
gets.
• 86% of major league pitchers have supraspinatus
partial thickness tears.(2)
• While the labrum provides approximately 50% of
the stability in the glenohumeral joint, all pitchers have
some degree
of labral fraying.(3)..
• Considerable research suggests that congenital
shoulder instability is one of the traits that make some pitchers better
than others, as it allows for more external rotation during the
cocking phase to generate velocity.(4)
• Most pitchers lack internal rotation range of
motion (
ROM) due to posterior rotator cuff, and possibly capsular,
tightness and morphological changes to bone (retroversion). This
increases the risk of anterior instability.(5)
Retroversion in action,
• Subscapularis strength is incredibly important
to prevent anterior shoulder instability in the above scenario.(5)
Ask any good manual therapist and they'll tell you that almost everyone
you see has some degree of subscapularis shutdown.
Now, with all that said, telling an overhead throwing athlete to
perform an overhead press is like giving him a 1984 Chevy Cavalier
with no brakes, and sending him into the Daytona 500. It's a
disaster waiting to happen.
3) Wearing Spandex Just Because You're "a
Cyclist"
Summer is upon us, and here in New England that means plenty of
folks with big fat rumps have taken to the roads with their bikes
and their horribly inappropriate Spandex shorts.
Oh, so wrong.
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