Saturday Studies

It's Saturday and a great day to start a new little series where we highlight interesting studies and research we've come across. 

In the ever evolving world of Sports Performance it is extremely important to know how to read literature and take away information from research. 

The term evidence-based practice is becoming more and more popular, essentially meaning, does what you're doing have evidence behind it to support it.  Is your training program just thrown together without much thought, or is there valuable research out there to support and verify what you are doing actually works and is effective. 

I think being in the loop with research is extremely important, but I also understand many studies and research are flawed.  Their set-up is weak, their controls are poor, they use untrained subjects, the duration of the studies are short, many don't understand exercise technique or realistic programming, and it's very easy to mistake correlation for causation. 

They're needs to be a good balance between research based practice and experience based practice.  If you've been in the trenches for some time, you know what works and don't need research to tell you so.  Research hasn't covered everything, and has missed the boat on some important areas, and just because research hasn't supported something is not a good reason to not use it if you see results. 

Ok let's look at 2 studies for today

1. Fear of re-injury (kinesiophobia) and persistent knee symptoms are common factors for lack of return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Suffering from an ACL injury can be devastating to an athlete.  I can't speak for every having one, but knowing plenty of people who have, it's easy to point out the major differences in how people emotionally respond to the injury. 

With improving surgery techniques and rehabilitation protocols, some athletes can see full return in as little as 9-12 months.  Go back about only a decade and an ACL is an 18-24 month rehab, and for some career ending. 

BUT with this increased push for faster recover, and individuals out there re-defining the rehab process (Adrian Peterson), the pressure is there for athletes, especially high level athletes to get back faster and faster. 

This studied interviewed 135 post-ACL surgery patients varying from recovery time of 12-24 month post-operation.  Now the short comings of this study rear it's head in the fact that not many of these people were actually serious athletes the rehab protocols are not specific, and it consisted of phone interviews. 

Of the 135 subjects, 46% returned to pre-injury activity level, while 54% did not.  The researchers focused on the 54% that did not.  They were questioned why not, and the top response was due to persistent knee pain, instability, and stiffness.  The second reason was fear of re-injury.  In fact, 52% of those who had not returned to pre-injury activity levels said fear of re-injury was the reason they had not returned yet. 

This is important because, there is really not a psychological standard for rehab and this might give way to not only retraining the body, but also retraining the mind.  This is something that has been known for years, but it's give support to re-thinking the rehab process a little bit. 

Take no look further than RG3 and Derek Rose.  Anybody who has watched RG3 thus far this year can see he's not himself and doesn't trust his knee.  Now he'll tell you he's not worried about it, but his actions speak louder than his words.  Derek Rose sat out this past years off-season because of fear of re-injury.  He was cleared by doctors, meaning his body and biomechanics were ready to go, but his mind wasn't. 

So all in all, this study supports maybe adding another aspect to ACL rehab, a mental component.  One that caters to the unique personality type and re-trains the brain and mind to getting back in action.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23906272

2. Muscle Activation Levels of the Gluteus Maximus and Medius During Standing Hip Joint Strengthening Exercises Using Elastic Tubing Resistance

This study looked at how 4-way band hip work activated the various hip and glute musculature.  We all know how important the hips and glutes are for performance, but also know weak hips and glutes are associated with a number of lower limb injuries and dysfunctions. 

The 4-way band hip work is extremely common in rehab settings, but this study looked to see if they were actually effective.  They used 26 college aged individuals and had them perform 3 sets of the band work in each direction. 

What they found was that no direction managed to activate the hip and glute muscles in a large enough manner to effect strength gains through EMG.  It is thought that 50% of MVC (max voluntary contraction) is needed to elicit strength work, but this 4-way hip work did not achieve that number.

Let's look at some flaws in this study.  First no technique was discussed, and in the 4-way hip exercise technique is imperative to get proper results.  Secondly they used bands, and the resistance level of these bands is not specified, but we might guess that the resistance level was not high enough to register higher muscle activation.  Lastly they used college aged participants, which is great for many strength and conditioning studies, but I personally feel the 4-way band exercise is more of a rehab or clinical type of exercise that pertains more to post-operation or older people.

Personally I feel the a 4-way hip movement can be effective, but technique and teaching is important.  It is easy to hyper-extend the lumbar spine to make up for glute involvement, and it's also easy for the hamstrings to be over-active if the glutes aren't cued properly.  But on that note, I would most definitely start with closed chain movements such as glute bridges, hip thrust and then advance to reverse hypers, bird-dogs, and quadruped hip extensions before doing 4-way hip.  But many patients or clients cannot get into the positions needed for those exercises, so the 4-way hip becomes the go-to exercise. 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23921445


Go Get 'Em!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23921445

Training Youth Athletes: The Essentials

I work with a lot of youth athletes throughout my day, and the field of youth training has become a major field and becoming more and more popular.  In fact, over 4 Billion dollars are spent each year on youth training and athletics. That's a lot of money being spent on the development, fitness, and training of youngsters. 

While there are many people, organizations, and groups doing great work in advancing and progressing this field, there still remains a great percentage of youth being poorly trained and coached. 

We can all objectively look at youth athletes and say they are not adults, but we see trainers training them like adults anyway. A youth athlete needs to be trained, progressed, and treated differently from advanced and mature athletes. There are basics and principles that apply to both populations, but the routines, intensities, and methodologies differ.

Let's look at some essential components that need to be in place for the best possible environment for youth development.

photo:elitefts.com

Play

Training sessions with youth athletes is not going to look the same as training for mature competitive athletes. You need to understand that the structure needs to be altered in ways to cater to the uniqueness of youngsters. 

Hard-nosed, tough, intensive training doesn't work well with youngsters, they thrive on variety and fun. Finding ways to make training a by-product of playing and having fun makes the kids feel more involved, motivated, and captivated to your training. 

Kids need to play, it's as easy as that.  David Elkind, the author of The Power of Play says “Children are self-directed learners — they are naturally curious — and how they learn is through play."

“Children learn through playing, through active exploration that feeds their imagination, not by always having others organize the world for them,” says Susan Linn, a psychologist at the Judge Baker Children’s Center and Harvard Medical School and the author of The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World

Play is a natural thing for all mammals, and no different for youngsters. During play, kids get the opportunity to use imagination, be creative, explore their physical and environmental boundaries.

Success

To build a positive self-image structure so the kids have a string of success. Nothing builds confidence and deepens intrinsic motivation like small successes over time.

Just as with coaching, you need a training philosophy to guide you on your training path. Working with youth athletes requires having a little bit of a different philosophy than if you were training a high school, college, or professional athlete. You need to understand the different emotional, mental, and physical differences in youngsters. Understand they are at the very beginning of their exercise life, and their needs to be specific goals and guidelines to give them the best experience possible. 

Fun

This goes hand in hand with play, and it's simple, youth athletes need to have fun. 

They are kids, they don't have the attention span, mental or emotional state to be dedicated in serious, focused training. They can handle some sort durations of that, but for the most part you need to find ways to make your training fun. There are so many different ways to “hide” training into fun games and activities. 

The first question you should always ask when programming – Is this fun? The more fun you can make your training the more connected, motivated, and enthusiastic your kids will be to train.

Technique/Form

DO NOT allow for the execution of poor form. If there is one area to be a stickler, this is it. At this young age it is essential to implement correct movement patterns and techniques. This will not only set them up for the long-term, but it will also reduce their risks of injury.

Moving incorrectly increases risk of injury and develops/reinforces faulty mechanics that might not be exposed right away, but during more complex movements and higher intensities it will rear it's ugly head.

The movements and techniques you teach in practice will be the same movements and techniques that athletes will use during competition or in a state of stress. Kelly Starrett likes to say – Practice Make Permanent! Make sure what your cementing and making permanent in your athletes is something you can stand behind and be confident in.

So overall you need to ensure they are in correct positions and performing the exercises to a high standard. Don't worry about adding weight or resistance, worry about the basic techniques and positions and hammer away how important it is.  

Long-Term

Training youth athletes is about the long-term NOT the short-term. 

We need to stop chasing increased vertical jumps or other testing numbers. Youngsters are in such a prime phase of growth and development that biomotor improvements occur naturally. 

Muscle growth is naturally taking place, hormones are often at peaks, youngsters get faster, stronger and more powerful all by themselves. Your goals should be to set-up your athletes for the long run. 

You do this by teaching the fundamentals in a fun and exciting manner. Your program should develop knowledge, motivation, and skills to engage in lifelong physical activities. The goal should be to created life-long athletes; give them the tools to continue with fitness because you showed them how enjoyable it can be. If a kid has a bad experience at the youth level, it will highly discourage them from fitness for the rest of their lives. So don't think you're forming professional athletes; you're forming the basics and fundamentals of exercise in a fun and engaging manner that will encourage the kids to continue to love fitness. 

Communication

Your communication needs to be clear, concise, and easy to understand.  As a performance coach, we all love to use fancy anatomical or biomechanical terms, but when working with youngsters, this often is not the best way.

Remember there are a number of different types of learners, and you're communication needs to address these different types.  You may have a couple of visual learners, some other auditory learners, a few kinesthetic learners, and finally some critical learners.  Know each type of kids thrives with different types of communication, and you need to pick up on that type and adapt it for each individual athlete.

When teaching an exercise use this progression

1. Name the exercise. Use one name and stick with it throughout the lesson.
   
2. Explain the exercise. Use simple terms to describe the exercise and tell the participants how the exercise can benefit them.
   
3. Show the exercise. Demonstrate the exercise several times and from different angles so that all participants can see a full picture of proper execution.
4. Perform the exercise. Ask the participants to perform the exercise and offer positive, constructive feedback on proper body position and technique.
5. Observe the exercise. Walk around the exercise room and watch the kids strength training. Look for specific skills and ask participants to assess themselves and their peers.
6. Discuss. At the end of the session, encourage kids to honestly talk about their perceptions of the day’s activities. This information will help you plan the next session.

This makes sure you hit all the different types of learners, and ensures your communication is effective. 

Secondly, remember youngsters need more positive reinforcement, and need to feel like they are making progress. Now this doesn't mean you have to sugar coat everything. No, you still need to be honest and strive for the behavior and exercise technique you want. Kids can see right through fake complements; give real, honest, positive feedback and they will respond positively.

You should be giving between 6-10 positive comments to every 1 negative comment.  A great tool to use is something called the sandwich technique.  This technique involves surrounding your negative feedback or coaching adjustment between two positive statements. 

For example you have a baseball athlete that is making errant throws because they aren't getting their lead leg pointed at their target.

A poor coach might tell the kid, “Come on, hit your target, stop making that mistake”.

Instead sandwich your desired technique and behavior change between two positive reinforcements. 

So a good coach would say, “Johnny, you're doing a great job getting your body into position to field the ball, but remember to point your lead leg at your target so you can make an accurate throw. I really like your effort and how well you're getting into proper fielding position.” 

 

Note the difference, and how you would feel if you were the kid. You understand the coaching point and you received a specific coaching point instead of something general. The athlete won't feel like everything is negative, they received positive reinforcement and will want to continue to receive that positive feedback. 

Famous UCLA basketball coach, Jon Wooden, used this same sandwich technique in a different form. He called it – Do this, Not That, Do This. He showed or described the desired technique, then a common mistake to be aware of, and finally again showing or describing the desired technique.   

Finally encourage your athletes to make errors and feel free to explore and be creative in the training environment. Make it clear it's ok to make mistakes, just make those mistakes while giving full effort.  Making errors can enhance the learning process and give kids the opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes. It leads to feelings of progress and self-efficacy, which in turn leads to greater and deeper involvement.  You can control this feeling by how you respond to mistake.  Do you convey the message that it's ok to make mistakes and then make adjustments?  Or do you yell and punish for mistakes?

Closing

I believe that training young, developing athletes is one of the most important jobs there is.  As a coach, you can effect so many different factors of that kids development, from cognitive, emotional, and physical.  Ensuring these essentials can go a long ways in having a posiitive effect on your youth athletes, and giving them the best opportunity for growth.

Go Get 'Em!

Random Thoughts

1. Football Beyond The Stats

I've mentioned this before, but want to reiterate it again.  Shawn Myszka's website breaks down the movement patterns, efficiencies, deficiencies, and biomechanics of NFL players.  Shawn does an incredible job of breaking down, and relating movement on the field to training in the gym.  Plus he questions the role and actions of NFL Strength Coaches.  To have been in an NFL Rookie Camp first hand, I can attest to the fact that not the training environment nor the warm-up, provided specialized or individualized protocols nor teaching technique.  I mean they're are dealing with multi-million dollar athletes, and they use generic, cookie-cutter stuff.  Doesn't make much sense.  But back to Shawn's stuff, I could read this stuff all day, so go check out his evaluations, especially if you're a Vikings or Packers Fan.

Clay Matthews
Deion Sanders
Tavon Austin
Randall Cobb
Chad Greenway
Harrison Smith
Cordarrelle Patterson

2. Calorie Really Just A Calorie?

"A recent study found that individual humans who ate, as part of an experiment, 600 or 800 calorie portions of whole wheat bread (with nuts and seeds on it) and cheddar cheese actually expended twice as much energy, yes twice, in digesting that food as did individuals who consumed the same quantity of white bread and “processed cheese product.”

While you can't discount calories and the basics of thermogenesis, the study further strengthens what many have been saying for years.  A calorie is NOT  just a calorie.  Two foods may be similar in calories, but the make-up of those calories is also important in our bodies hormone responses, metabolism, protein synthesis, nutrient delivery, etc.


3. Things to Read

Ines Subashka of Inspired Fit Strong recently asked me to give her my Top 5 Books For Fitness Professionals to Read.  She also asked some of the biggest names in the business to do the same.  It's funny because in the Sports Performance World, the rest of the people in that group are A-Lister's, while I'm a D-Lister.  Party Crasher! 

4.  Overweight Is Not So Great

Studies have shown if you’re obese or severely overweight, your life expectancy drops by 6-7 years.   Given today's life expectancy's, that's almost a 10% shorter life.  You can also expect to spend around $300-1700 extra on medical expenses every year.  (Peeters 2003; Tsai 2009)


5.  Coaches Eye

Coaches Eye is an awesome app you can download to record and analyze your athletes movements.  It's great because it can calculate joint angle, breakdown frame-by-frame, and replay video immediately.  It's an incredible coaching tool, all from your phone or tablet, and it's only $4.99.

5.  Female Athletes

Studies have indicated that females may be up to 3 – 4 times more likely to incur an ACL injury than males when playing the same sport (Grindstaff, 2006).  There may be multiple reasons for this, but a couple very important reasons are, lack of strength and control around the knee joint (especially the hamstrings), improper landing/deceleration mechanics, and often joint laxity.  All of these problems can be remedied with a proper training/fitness program that addresses these areas.  Check out our article on the topic HERE

6. Our Prezi's

Check out our little series of Prezi's HERE.  As the summer winds to an end, we here at BBA start loading our calendar with speaking engagements.  We have 8 dates already set for the fall, with topics ranging from baseball to rest/recovery to golf to nutrition to basics of sports performance (fire/police/tactile on the way too).  If you would like to schedule a presentation on one of these topics, or another topic, contact us at buildingbetterathletes.bba@gmail.com. 

7. Doubling Protein Promotes Weight Loss While Protecting Against Muscle Loss

"A new report appearing in the September issue of The FASEB Journal challenges the long-held adage that significant muscle loss is unavoidable when losing weight through exercise and diet. In the report, scientists show that consuming twice the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of protein while adhering to a diet and exercise plan prevents the loss of muscle mass and promotes fat loss." 

This supports what coaches have been saying for years, more protein = better results, no matter your goal!  Doubling the recommended RDA protein intake gets you closer to the gold standard of 1g of protein per 1lb of body weight.  If you're an athlete, you especially should be getting that proper protein intake.  Read the Article HERE

8.  Being Mean and Selfish Sucks

"We found evolution will punish you if you're selfish and mean," said lead author Christoph Adami, MSU professor of microbiology and molecular genetics. "For a short time and against a specific set of opponents, some selfish organisms may come out ahead. But selfishness isn't evolutionarily sustainable."

Moral: Don't be a dickhead.  That's why we give out FREE Assessments/Movement Screens to anybody at our facility!  Plus always putting out great, free information ;)

9.  Ohhh Goodness

1988 was a great year, both of us here at BBA were born in '88, so obviously it was an incredible year.  Well, unfortunately '88 just got bumped down a peg due to this...

10. Predictions

It's about that time of year to make some bold predictions, so here we go (BOLD team wins)

MLB World Series - LA Dodgers vs. Detroit Tigers
BCS National Championship - (Hurts to say it) Alabama vs. (Also hate to say it) Ohio State
Superbowl - Seattle Seahawks vs. Houston Texans
Fantasy Football - Team Dr. Tobaggan Mantis vs. THE WORLD!
2014 World Series - DA CUBS!

   *let us know your thoughts below or join our FB Page

11.  Sport Signs

Check out these hilarious sport signs




Go Get 'Em!



References

Hammond RA, Levine R. The economic impact of obesity in the United States. Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2010;3:285–295. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3047996/.

Peeters A, Barendregt JJ, Willekens F, Mackenbach JP, Mamun Al A, Bonneux L. Obesity in adulthood and its consequences for life expectancy: a life-table analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2003;138(1):24–32.

Tsai AG, Williamson DF, Glick HA. Direct medical cost of overweight and obesity in the USA: a quantitative systematic review. Obes Rev. 2011;12(1):50–61. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2009.00708.x.

Terry L Grindstaff, Robert R Hammill, Ann E Tuzson, and Jay Hertel. Neuromuscular Control Training Programs and Noncontact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Rates in Female Athletes: A Numbers-Needed-to-Treat Analysis.  J Athl Train. 2006 Oct-Dec; 41(4): 450–456