Dad, Ted Czekaj, and Deadlifts

 - - - - -

Some can't understand why a grown man, or anyone for that matter, would voluntarily do something like dead lifts. Most people have never considered pulling dead weight from the ground as a way to test and strengthen their being. 
 
With anxiety high, spine ratcheted oak stiff, hand calluses ripping, and the tune of multiple weight plates clanging off the floor, dead lifts are more than a total body exercise. They literally raise the body from walking dead; ascending from the can'ts and use'tas and leaky toilets and work schedule and Roth IRA and six varieties of cream cheese and a zillion other things that may be important but mean little in the moment.

As if you don't have time. As if jogging miles on end is somehow so much better for you. I know many legitimate "as ifs." This is for anyone interested in how I came to the truth about dead lifts.

- - - - -

It's in my blood.

My father was a beast. Lightening fast 220 pounders were exceptionally rare among high school athletes in the late 60's. He passed up offers from DI college football programs (most notably PSU) in order to sign as the 1970 first round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins.

Numerous times, men in dad's age bracket would come up to me as an adolescent telling tales of glory days. The exchange typically went something like this:

"Hey, you're Bobby Gorinski's boy," sizing me up, clearly unimpressed with my 6'1", 160 lb frame.

Small head nod, "uh, yeah."

After the awkward pause often came a personal testimony about the one that dad hit off the scoreboard at Forbes or over the trees behind left field at Shaft. Middle aged men have actually stiff-armed me in the chest as they recounted being pancaked while trying to make an open field tackle on Oldbobbygorinski.

I gave more head nods and smiles. How else do you respond? "Yep, you really got flattened" never seemed appropriate.

I bit on sports before I could talk, and have been involved with athletics for all of my life. I've always done fine, but nothing near the level of dad. Nobody posted a wikipedia entry about my athletic career.

Despite all the stories I've heard and what I've read on-line and in old newspaper clippings, I've never actually seen dad in action. I've been inspired by him, for sure, but not in the way of modeling.

 - - - - -

Enter Ted Czekaj (pronounced check-eye). He was a different kind of stand-out. When I was an impressionable freshman hooper, he was a cool senior and starting point guard. Ted was somewhere around 5' 10" with a very average build. He could handle the ball and shoot pretty well. But let me tell you that

Ted
played
like
an
animal.

Ted was intensity.

You could tell that the world disappeared when he stepped on the court. He outplayed guys with twice his strength or "natural" talent because he reserved nothing.  That scene also stands out in my mind; Ted gasping for air, eyes bulging, face like a mercury thermometer about to explode, making a steal here, diving after the ball there, fighting through screens, and setting up a teammates all over the court.

Here's an important thing: Ted didn't scurry out of control like a drama king for personal attention. He always operated with a cool head. On and off the court he was disciplined, respectful, and kind, even to freshman nerds. While underachieving peers mocked Ted, I watched him, identified with him.

Ted taught my first lessons in doing something wholeheartedly. Doesn't every success comes attached to a long line of "begets?"

That feeling of all-out commitment and Terminator-like oblivion to care and pain - I saw that it was good. I did carry the ethic and attitude of Ted through high school hoops, to the tune of about 900 career points. From there I took it to the classroom, finishing first in the Slippery Rock classes of 1998 (undergraduate) and 2001 (PT school).

Dad was proud of me.

- - - - -

But there's something about the sweat. Anything wholehearted without sweat is at least a step removed from intensity. You simply don't sweat the same in classrooms and PT clinics. Well, not usually. That's why a day or two per week this middle aged man needs to go Czekaj mad on the basketball court. Or preferably, when recovery allows, I work things out with the iron in my basement.

I have no idea who this is, but she's awesome.

I need to strain against something.

Life is still a mystery far beyond my control. And sports have far too many variables to recon with. But I'm given a say in resistance, sets, reps, and resolve. For a little while, anyway. I swear that if I couldn't strain against weights I would carry buckets of water or lift growing farm animals or work the earth by foot. Which is basically what dad does for his physical and mental health.

Ted? I haven't seen him for almost 20 years. I have no idea where he is or what he's done with his life. But I'm sure, certain even, that if he's still around, he's doing quite well.

And here I sit, forever inspired by Ted and others who remind me of him; here still with dad's blood but not his size or talent, obsessed with physical performance, quite possibly because I never achieved what he did. This is the path that's led me to the sweet spot between plates of heavy iron, to a rite and ritual that has also shaped me in ways that matter.

Wide(ish) shoulders, functional strength, and favorable blood counts are but side effects. How many days will I be given to do dead lifts? I often can't understand how anyone lives without them. 

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A Spin on Vertigo

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Breathe deeply and brace hard. The chance of sudden heaving, volatile twisting, and terror is 100 percent. Hersheypark and its employees are not responsible for lost or stolen items, including items that fall out of pockets.

People drive great distances, stand on pavement for hours under the blistering sun, and pay large sums for this.

But the experience is not so great while rolling over in bed or putting on shoes. Positional Vertigo (PV) is all the terror of Hershey Park's best (or worst) brought to the comfort of your own home. It's a specific type of spinning, nauseous misery. The symptoms usually worsen with movement of the head but in severe cases may also occur while at rest.


Since treatment for feeling horribly sick and dizzy often involves specific methods that make you horribly sick and dizzy, it helps to have some understanding of what's going on.

Inside the temporal bones just behind each ear is a small organ called the vestibular labyrinth. This includes three fluid filled canals that are lined with very fine hair cells. Head rotation causes the fluid to create a waving motion of the hair cells, which in turn send signals to the brain. Specialized portions of the labyrinth contain small crystals that are sensitive to horizontal and vertical movement.

Yes, you do have rocks in your head.

To appreciate the almost unbelievable design of the vestibular system, simply roll your head in a moderate size arc of movement while reading this. For every degree of head movement, the eye muscles reflexively create a precise, equal and opposite amount of eye movement. Don't take it for granted that the letters remain in focus and your lunch in your stomach.

For a variety of reasons, the crystals can become dislodged and make the hair cells in the canals hyper sensitive. You and the house are not really moving, of course. The vestibular system sends signals to the brain that are in conflict with what the eyes are seeing. Suddenly the couch is a thrill ride, far worse than any amusement engineer could imagine.

It's difficult to say exactly why this happens. Problems often begin after a severe cold or prolonged period of bed rest. Other times the vertigo occurs with Meniere's disease, following trauma to the head, or as a general deterioration of the vestibular system in older populations.  

While positional vertigo literally stops people in their tracks, it's rarely serious except for increasing the chance of falls. The condition tends to disappear within six to twelve months, but the chance of reoccurrence is 30 percent. Medications that lessen nausea help buy some time but do not directly target dysfunction of the vestibular system.

Of course there is a "spin" to this! There's no need to grin and bear the debilitating discomfort for six or more months, hoping for the best. Trained physical therapists are able to help confirm whether or not the problem is truly a vestibular dysfunction as opposed to a wide range of other issues that cause people to "feel dizzy."

Interventions broadly fall into two categories. Moving the head through a specific sequence is thought to cause repositioning of the crystals in the vestibular canals. Side effects of this treatment for dizziness include dizziness. But only for a minute, or more precisely, 5 to 30 seconds. Accommodation exercises are thought to recalibrate the vestibular system and strengthen the mind's sense of equilibrium.

Treatments are often successful within two days to two weeks. Really - this is the closest thing to a quick fix that physical therapists offer. We may test your balance, your ability to turn quickly, look high and low, and send you back to normal life. Whether or not that includes bearing The Claw with a grin is up to you.

----

aches and prayers

"Do you hear it?"

Ryan's stands teetering on his left leg as I lower an ear toward his right knee. A group of children slow their way through the church lobby, watching me listen to Ryan bend and straighten, bend and straighten, bend and straighten his knee. 

"Seems like your kneecap is slipping over the edge of the femur."

I don't have ears to diagnose a creek from a pop. But I do know what problems are typically exposed when the knee is locked straight with the foot off the ground.

"So what should I do?"

I pause, thinking hard, not about functional anatomy. I'm usually glad, even honored to try and help. But in the past I've assumed too much, ready to talk biomechanics when friends and family are just looking for low pitched "hmmms" and common sense advice.

I'm not sure what's behind the noisy knee. Kneecaps grind unevenly on femurs all the time for various reasons. If I had knowledge of a fool proof technique or set of instruction that would immediately relieve the misery of a dear friend, by all means, I'd eagerly share that.

But getting to the root of any matter takes time. We must prod, strain, and explore what precipitates the problem. We have to check strength and mobility at the foot, ankle, and hip. Then we scrutinize the details of basic activities like walking and squatting. And that's just the evaluation. Correcting the issue usually takes time. It's an investment, never without effort, rarely a simple matter of "in" versus "out," crack, clunk, and you're all fixed.

Oh, right. Ryan is still in front of me, waiting out my though pause with a look of expectation.

"Do you want to take a few minutes to look at the details?"

"Or maybe, hmmm, you should rest and take it easy for a few days."
 
- - - - -

I don't blame anyone for not wanting to go there - with all the detailed investigation. I'm pretty sure that I've done this in my prayer life. I'd like simple clarity on an issue. Some specific instructions or divine intervention would be nice.

Or would it? It just seems so...improbable...that the full complexity of any life issue can be holistically addressed by a simple, pain free granting. How are we to be reformed by quick answers and miraculous fixes? I'm not saying God can't, or that we shouldn't bring our concerns before him. Who am I to tell anyone how to pray? But it does seem that a shift in emphasis is in order.

Ugh. Who has time for all the self examination, the seeking, the deliberate waiting and watching as things unfold? Who wants all the prodding of sensitive areas when a knee brace and some ibuprofin may do the trick?

Who brings themselves still and quiet before the Lord with no agenda? Who humbly listens and prays for patience and the ability to be at peace while actually engaging the uncertainties, challenges, and pains of real living?

  Anyone who can do this - they might move mountains.
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Top 5 Training Mistakes

JMC and Jason Reed recently gave me an opportunity to speak on their radio program called Fresh Set. One of the topics we hit on was common training mistakes. Let's just say that my speaking skillz could use some work.

Truly legitimate disclaimer: No matter how many mistakes this training snob wants to write about, the biggest mistake is not training at all, sitting around complaining about how you look and feel and "use-ta" be way awesome.

Nonetheless, if you're awesome enough to undertake the discipline of regular exercise, get the full pay off. Try to avoid these mistakes.

1. Failing to set specific goals.

You should be specific about a few goals, both long- and short-term. Goals like "gain muscle" and "lean out" are not going to cut it. Identify and write down realistic yet challenging goals, so you see it concrete. Make sure there's a time frame. Don't try to accomplish anything too fast or set too many goals at once.

There's nothing wrong with setting a goal to complete a 5K race or half marathon if you enjoy that sort of thing. But distance running is not the measure of all things fitness. Neither is bench press THE measure of the man.

Writing out specific goals helps you choose your training wisely. For example, no reasonably fit person is going to max out their fat loss and muscle gain at the same time. If you're fairly sturdy and strong and would like to focus on your conditioning, don't also expect to put on 10 pounds of muscle.
Goals for a wiry 20 year-old may be to attain 18 body weight chin-ups and a 28" vertical jump. If those are the goals, then don't train with a body part split routine that's tailored for a 35 year-old bodybuilder who's mostly sedentary outside of the gym.

If your goal is to lose 4 pounds per month over six months and maintain that weight at 12 months, then don't train like a marathoner. I've seen people get trapped in the cycle that you simply can't win: eating less and less and jogging longer and longer distances to sustain weight loss. There are better ways to go about this.

2. Poor exercise selection.

First off, you can and should do more than just run (or walk). In this writing I proclaimed the good news that you don't have to jog!

I'm no fan of machines for strength training. Leg press and lat pull-down machines are okay at times. Chest press when you're in a hurry. But that seated torso twists machine? I've written about the ridiculous leg outtie-inny machines here.

Free weights are best; just you and some iron and gravity. Understand that a very large portion of functional strength has to do with building a strong and efficient nervous system. That simply doesn't happen when doing hard core Nautilus seated shoulder raises or Hammer Strength leg extensions.

Skipping the three sets of 8 to 12 on 10 different strength training machines should leave you plenty of time to get well acquainted with the big lifts. Squats, dead lifts, overhead presses, horizontal presses (bench, dumbbell presses, etc.), weighted dips, rowing, and weighted chin-ups. Depending on your baseline strength, stability, and mobility, it may take you 3 or 4 months to identify what variation of these lifts are best for you, and another month or two to find your groove of good form in those lifts.

ACTUAL RESULTS from doing one dead lift!

 And yes, people get hurt jumping into the best exercises like squats, dead lifts, and heavy presses when they haven't given adequate time and careful attention to the details. Be patient and move along slowly. No, really be patient.

Some of the most unglamorous advice you will read: put the time into identifying what exercise variations are best for you and perfecting form. Maybe you simply can't squat safely, but I'm pretty sure that your knees and low back will tolerate heavy single leg squats and backward lunges off a step.

Also, a lot of isolation exercises, free weights or otherwise, are rarely a good idea. This includes ab crunches. And that thing where you do a massive drop set of bicep curls, going down the rack from heavier to lighter dumbbells? You will never see a fit and strong guy doing that.

If I could pick just one exercise that's most worthy of heckling, it's tricep kickbacks. Don't let me catch you doing them unless you can press at least 193.67 pounds overhead or do eleventeen handstand push-ups.

3. Poor frequency.

What I'm referring to here is over-doing it or under-doing it on a regular basis. People seem to be gung-ho all-out or nothing. Both work against you.

Athletes push themselves hard under the weights 2 or 3 times per week, then condition for their sport twice per week on top of games and practice. That's a lot of time and painful effort for little to no benefit. Is it any wonder that performance goes down when coaches and athletes pay no respect to recovery?

On the other hand, some folks never get around to consistent exercise because they just don't have the time. If working out means packing a bag and driving to the gym and shooting the breeze and training 3 sets of 10 on 15 different resistance training machines then doing some abs and cardio then driving home; well yeah, who has time for that?

Just about anyone can warm up and then go run (or speed walk) some intervals on a hill. It takes very little time and equipment to perform variations of squats and/or deadlifts, an upper body horizontal push and pull, and an upper body vertical push and pull.

4. Too much variation.

This refers to changing things up and beginning a new training scheme every other week. While getting stale and stuck in a training rut can also be a problem, rarely do people work too hard at a good training cycle for too long. Structured variation is absolutely called for. But please understand that "never doing the same thing twice" isn't necessarily a good thing, especially for athletes.

The term muscle confusion has been used to describe variety. Varying reps, exercises, and other training variables so that you never adapt to one thing. The bad news is that you never adapt to one thing. Muscle confusion is great if you want to be perpetually sore and never find your true limits in any performance measure. I call that chasing fatigue. Why are you getting tired and (later) sore? "Confusing" your muscles is a lot easier than challenging them head on to do 2% more/faster/higher than they did 2 weeks ago.

Again, be patient. Beginning slow and easy seems to build a "training momentum" that helps you continue to roll when things really get challenging. Schedule your routine and set your goals over months and years, not days and weeks.

5. Incompatible nutrition

I'm no nutritionist, but running two miles 3 or 4 times per week is not a license to eat like a stray animal. I've wondered how adult men can play some pretty intense basketball 2 or 3 days per week and look exactly the same year to year. I'm really not one to judge others, but they are often the ones complaining about getting heavier. On the other hand, super strict dieting and other fast weight loss tricks will come back to get you one way or another.

If you're training like a bear to gain size or strength in the middle of practices and an active life style, for heaven's sake, eat. A lot. It's much harder to put on lean (muscle) weight than it is to lose (fat) weight. If you're training hard and eating boatloads of mostly healthy food and somehow getting a big beer belly, deal with that later. Until then you need to eat to support muscle growth and not worry about getting simultaneously more ripped. Putting on some muscle always causes the body to appear more "ripped," even if you have not actually lost any (fat) weight.

6. Oh, and here's a bonus training mistake that I don't see often, but a big one nonetheless.





For heaven's sake, WHY?

Seriously get off the unstable surfaces unless you're rehabbing a significant ankle or knee injury/surgery.

High Performance Minutia

 - - - - -

I don't think you're nervous enough
It happened to show its own face
Search for the soulless ends
Now point him towards rest. 

      -Chevelle/Highland's Apparition


Power = Force X Velocity

There are many methods (exercises, program design, equipment, supplements, etc.) of developing a powerful body. Some of them are nearly worthless. Quite a few provide an ounce of benefit in exchange for a boatload of effort and expense. The few that deliver that tiny edge with little expense? Those are the details you want to give some attention.

A recent edition of the Strength and Conditioning Journal  contained three studies on the type of strength and conditioning minutia that I can stand behind. If you want to develop more power in training and achieve new heights in competition, get scared and have some caffeine.

Researchers noted wins and losses of high level power lifters, collecting data on various hormone levels before, during, and after competition (1). Although all competitors experienced a surge in testosterone after their events, the winners hit a higher level than the losers. It feels great to compete and to be finished, and victory is sweet.

More importantly, those with the highest cortisol levels before battling the weights demonstrated superior lifts. The ones who lifted the most were nervous, excited, on edge. There are a number of ways that elevated cortisol is thought to improve athletic performance. "Fight or flight" helps the brain, nervous system, and muscles to lift things, apparently about 2 to 3% heavier than those with less cortisol.

The second study examined the effect of caffeine on bench press performance. All subjects performed a bench press test after having either caffeine or no caffeine (on two different days). After a moderate does of caffeine, subjects completed (on average) two more repetitions in a bench press test and reported lower levels of perceived exertion.

This study adds to a long line of evidence (some of which I talked about HERE) that caffeine helps your body to move better and your mind to feel like pushing it. But don't overdo it, rock star.

The final study measured each participants vertical jump under three slightly different conditions. The conditions were 1) jump as high as you can, just jump, 2) jump for maximal height, reaching toward a target, and 3) jump as high as you can over a hurdle set near the subjects estimated peak jump height.

Subjects jumped highest when a challenging hurdle was placed in front of them. I've had suspicions on this for quite a while. In the back yard, I've made friends jump onto and over picnic tables and lawn chairs stacked on boogie boards. 

Jumping into naked air is kind of lame. Jumping toward a target is good for some motivation and feedback, but it's not the same as jumping OVER a challenging obstacle that scares and mocks you. You have to ignore any hint of fatigue and make every jump count, or else you pay a little. The result is a lot of repeated, extra high maximal effort jumps, which adds up to a killer vert.

                                                 O's ottoman jump

Forget the supplement stack, the fancy chrome exercise machinery, and the reverse undulated periodization lifting schedules. Cortisol, caffeine, and lawn chairs are your ticket to Awesometown. And rest, we all need rest.

Maybe it should have been Awesomeville. I don't know, I haven't been there myself. I was just excited to see some verification of the back yard and basement observations.

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1. The effects of training volume and competition on the salivary cortisol concentrations of olympic weightlifers. BT Crether et. al, J Strength and Conditioning Research 25(1) 10-15, 2011. 


2. The effects of caffeine ingestion on mood state and bench press performance. MJ Duncan et. al. J Strength and Conditioning Research 25(1) 178-185, 2011.


3. Kinematic and kinetic variation among three depth jump conditions in male NCAA DIII Athletes. JP Smith et. al, J Strength and Conditioning Research 25(1) 94-102. 2011.

Donkey Shoulders

Shoulders can be a bit tricky, to say the least. They're like donkeys, responding better to a smart coaxing than a kick in the ribs. The more you try to force them, the more they inflame and stubbornly resist. And don't try to sleep on one - a sore shoulder or a donkey.
I've learned to be pretty conservative with exercise and hands-on mobilization directed at the shoulder, at least for the initial visit or two. Shoulders will refuse to do their part very well until you've addressed the lay of the land around them, namely the scapula, thoracic spine, and soft tissue restrictions of nearby muscles and fascia. 

Understanding finnicky donkey shoulders (as well as many other orthopedic problems) requires a good grasp on the concept of a symptom threshold. Symptom threshold is why it's challenging (or dishonest) to say precisely why any one body part is not happy.

Many people have tears in the cartilage ring that deepens the shoulder socket (the labrum), rotator cuff tears, or other structural defects of the scapula. Many times inflammation of the involved tissue is visible when viewed under a microscope. But not all of those people have problems. Many of them function fairly well because they haven't reached the threshold of pain...

YET.

There's usually a number of factors that contribute to crossing that threshold. I've read and learned through experience that while most people manage to get by, their body is just a step or two removed from threshold.

A fall, a heavy strain, or last weekends painting project may have seriously stirred up a shoulder pain, but there are often factors that have been years in the making. Those "years in the making" issues often keep the involved tissue from healing correctly after trauma.

Shoulder... mistakes.

 A typical example of the symptomatic threshold might look something like this:

-Most people sit for a significant amount of time with their thoracic spine slumpy, their shoulder blades protracted and arms rolled in front of them (poor static posture - factor 1).

This exercise is good for physical therapists.
Do it if you want to go to rehab.

-Then don't exercise much, or they go and exercise, performing far too many pressing movements (poor exercise program selection - factor 2).

-The exercise and other movements takes place in that same kyphotic, protracted position (improper movement patterns layered on poor posture - factor 3).

-They have weak rotator cuff and upper back muscles (factor 4).

-Maybe they have a type 3 acromion. This is a slight structural issue of the shoulder blade that allows less space for the upper arm bone and shoulder tendons (factor 5).

-On top of those issues that were present all along, the person suddenly gets a "factor 6." Maybe that's a weekend golf tournament or tree pruning competition. Or maybe there's trauma, like a fall from a horse or bike.

The point is that there's some kind of heavy strain, trauma, or repetitive overuse that's simply the straw that broke the camel's back. The shoulder that had been sitting on the brink of a problem crosses the threshold, and ouch.

When it's been a few weeks and the shoulder has not recovered from factor six, you really do need to address the other factors.

Simply resting and taking some medicine will often get the shoulder back below threshold. But all it takes to get back to square one is an awkward reach, throw, or lift. The more modifiable factors that you can address with rehab and other modalities, the better chance you have of keeping that shoulder functioning how you want it to. 

That's about the best we can do. 
 - - - - -

weather the weather

 - - - - -

Lately the weather
has been so much better
and consequently so have I .          

-Reliant K


Many of my patients claim they can tell when bad weather is coming. They feel it in their joints, and I believe them. Why does bad weather seem to cause people to turn into meteorologists?

After reading some reviews like this semi-scientific look into meteorology, I imagine that grandmas knee couldn't do much worse than the local accuweather team, especially if grandma reported the forecast with charm and charisma.

"Yeah, it's going to rain tomorrow. Or maybe snow. About zero to ten inches."

Wintery mix? Is "wintery" a word? Spell check says no.


Anyway, one reasonable explanation for the achy and stiff joints has to do with barometric pressure.
Every moving joint in the body is encapsulated by a tough connective tissue called the...joint capsule (imagine that). Joint capsules add a little stability and secrete synovial fluid. Synovial fluid delivers nutrients to joint structures and helps to lubricate the spin, glide, and roll that takes place between cartilage and bone.

There's good evidence that synovial fluid responds to changes in barometric pressure, just like any other type of fluid. When the barometric pressure drops, the pressure of the synovial fluid also drops, which may cause fluid retention within and around the joint capsule. 

Under normal circumstances, a little change in the pressure and fluid content of the joints is no big deal. You don't hear many teenagers going around forecasting rainfall based on how high they can elevate their shoulders. But degenerative and inflamed joints are highly sensitive to such changes in pressure.

Change is the key word here. There has been no clear scientific connection between specific joint symptoms and barometric pressure. If anything, it's simply the change in barometric pressure, altitude, humidity, and other conditions that are thought to lead to symptoms.

In other words, moving to Florida is not going to fix arthritis, and a bad back should be able to tell when good as well as bad weather is coming. Everyone hurts more on a gray February day in the mid-Atlantic. A week in Aruba may be "medically necessary," indeed, but your synovial fluid won't be thanking you for all the change.

And if your physical therapist asks if his plan of care has left you moving better, worse, or no different, whatever you do, don't put the blame on you. Blame it on the rain. Yeah, yeah.

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