How Should I Start Adding Sprints to My Training?

Today's question comes in from a YouTube commenter

A lad that seems to have previously trained in Wild Geese with Paulie, so an Eskrima practitioner I assume.

Here's what he wrote:

"Hello Dave.

Some wise advice there.

Especially the part about the mental aspect.

I am a 54 year old man. I have been regularly working out since I was 39 when Paul Cox triggered something of a eureka moment in my head with something he said at a class in WG.

In more recent years, nearly all of my training has been lifting / pulling based - deadlifts, squats, chest-press, shoulder-press, pullups, various rows etc.

I also do some kettlebell and gym ring stuff.

I would like to shake things up a bit and start plyometric and sprint training.

How would you recommend I approach this in a way that I can hopefully avoid injuring my older body?"

- Ciaran Cosgrove via youtube

Now, I'd love to know what was said that triggered that eureka moment.

However, overall, what Ciaran is suggesting looks sound.

A Squat

A deadlift

A chest press

A shoulder press

Some pull ups

Various rows

Some kettlebell stuff

Some rings stuff

There really isn't anything missing there for general all round strength and fitness.

But our hero would like to add in plyometrics and sprints.

Which is also a great idea.

If I were to suggest the biggest error people make with plyos and sprints is going too hard with too much volume.

With most training, especially as we age or if we're competing in other energy demanding roles, we need to look for our minimum effective dose.

That means getting the most out of the least.

When it comes to plyos and sprints, this is especially true.

Start slow, start light and start with low volume.

Sprinting conjures up images of the likes of Gatlin or Bolt howling down the track at lightning speeds.

Which is fine if you’re a teen/tween or you've been training this way for many years

But to start out, just like in lifting, we have to lean into the principle of progressive resistance training.

That is to say, start way below our max and slowly creep up on it.

This allows our bodies to adapt, allows us to work on technique, keeps us capable of recovering well, and as we're deliberately not pushing hard, next week we will beat this weeks numbers by a small fraction and that is motivating.

Go too hard and you will need a longer recovery, and beating those numbers will be nigh impossible.

Not only that we could easily surpass our current tissue tolerances and hurt ourselves, especially if technique isn't optimal.

This makes sense with lifting, only a fool would walk into the gym after an extended break and load up a bar with their expected 1rm and try lift it….

Yet this is what happens with jumps, plyos and sprints.

So sprint, but sprint slowly, and over a relatively short distance.

In time this distance can increase, as can the speed (effort)

We can start with a few sets of jumps or plyos

2 footed jumps are easiest, skipping for example is great entry point.

We can bounce on 2 feet with a variety of intentions.

Light bounces, as in skipping, are a start point

Add in more sring for height and we're looking at more power

Bounce more rapidly and we're learning to rebound quicker

Bounce forward, backwards, sideways and more to experience different loading vectors.

Bounding is exaggerated running.

Basically Bounding from one leg to the other.

I get folks to start Bounding with an emphasis on a good landing.

That is to say, stick every landing before initiating the next jump. This both limits the power used and encourages a self correction on technique.

We can bound going straight forward, out at angles (think jumping out at 45° or so) or laterally where we travel sideways.

Start with controlled “stuck” landings

Gradually reduce the time stuck and reduce the contact times until eventually you are truly Bounding like Tigger from the Winnie the Poo stories.

Bounding guides you into single leg plyos, ie hopping drills

These start small and easy then progress to add in a variable.

This can be length, longer hops

Speed, covering ground faster

Height, higher hops for more power.

Direction, forwards/backwards etc or changes of direction

So how much should we do?

Start with 10 - 20 landing.

Yup, that few.

Tendons take time to develop.

If you're doing a variety of drills, different landings, then you can lean towards the higher number.

As you go more intensely, ie faster, higher or longer, reps go down.

Just as you would with a heavy barbell lift.

As the intensity (load) of a deadlift goes up, we would naturally lift it fewer times.

You can add plyos in towards the end of your warm ups on the gym for 10-20 reps (2 sets of 5 or one drill, 2 sets of 5 on another)

Which means you'll get frequent exposures. It may also help your lifts pop better…

Sprints I'd do once, maybe twice a week.

Warm up, plyo, sprint.

Lots of rest (2+ minutes), use the time for movement, mobility, rehab etc.

Then if you wish go in for a few sets of Cleans, Squats and Swings.

But build slowly over time.

Give the tendons and ligaments plenty of time to adapt

Over on Instagram is a dude called Matt Watson who runs Plus Plyos (https://www.instagram.com/plusplyos) have a look at his work, it's top drawer.

He's the guy I would go to for training plyos and sprints if I wanted to really go down that rabbit hole.

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.Wg-Fit.com

www.DaveHedges.net

Why Keeping Neutral Spine isn't always good advice

Neutral.

Meaning boring.

The idea of neutral spine has cropped up several times over the past few weeks and many many times over the years.

People ask, “should I keep my spine in neutral?”

When I ask that what neutral is, they usually show something akin to a soldier standing to attention or someone trying not to soil themselves.

So what actions do we expect from our spine?

Your spine does 6 basic actions.

It flexes forward and extends backward

It laterally flexes (side bends) left and also right

It rotates both left and right

And to throw a spanner in the works, it does many of these at the same time. Flexing forward and to the left while rotating right as just one example

Neutral is that moment in the middle where it's doing non of them.

Neutral is where nothing of note happens.

Kind of like your car, when do you use neutral when driving?

I can think of two occasions, one when changing between gears I pass through neutral, the other is when stationary and I knock it out of gear.

Same with the spine. It passes through neutral as it goes from one side to the other.

Or it might be in neutral when nothing exciting is happening.

The only time neutral spine is a worthwhile cue is when beginners are learning the basic barbell lifts.

To this end, neutral spine is a “squat rack rule”

It has use and validity in the squat rack when doing squats, deads, bent over rows etc.

At least in the early stages of training these lifts.

What about outside the squat rack?

In Wild Geese in Dublin, outside of the squat rack you usually find people practicing Muay Thai, Judo, BJJ, Filipino Martial Arts and a lot more.

And you’ll not see a neutral spine anywhere.

You'll see spines flexing and extending like bamboo stalks in a high wind.

Those 6 spine actions listed above are pretty arbitrary definitions used to describe spine motion, in reality there is a lot more to it.

Not only that, the spine, with its 25 or so individual bones each articulating with the one above and below, and the huge amount of muscle connections, well, there's a lot going on.

It is my opinion that the better our spine is able to move and the more we load it through articulation, the stronger and healthier it will be.

In fact, an old yoga saying “You're only as old as your spine is flexible” comes to mind.

Thankfully there's been a recent push from the evidence based crew on social media showing us how it's nigh impossible to maintain a true neutral spine with studies to back them up.

And also that no two spines “rest” in the same position.

Similar, yes.

The same? No.

My spine, with my old injuries loves to flex right especially in the lumbar region.

Yours, may not.

And of the 100's of spines I've looked at during assessments, I've yet to come across one that we'd actually call “neutral”

Even in, no, especially in, the highest performing athletes!

So what do we really mean when giving the neutral spine cue?

We mean muscle tension and intra abdominal pressure.

Intra abdominal pressure (IAP) is where is inhale and hold the air in while we tension the muscles.

The pressure is like pumping up a car tyre so the soft and malleable rubber becomes rock hard.

This is what we want to achieve IAP, tension.

Tension that allows us produce the highest forces possible.

Be that lifting, or something athletic.

The difference between lifting and something athletic is usually timing.

In a heavy Lift we may need to hold that tension for several seconds. Often with a bar in both hands, driving through both feet.

But a throw or a punch happens in the blink of an eye, and comes with a weight shift from one foot to the other.

So we should practice strength, power and creating that tension in a variety of positions at a variety of speeds.

You should know my now that I'm a fan of Turkish Get Ups (if not, see last weeks entry) and unilateral (single limb) lifting.

I also love momentum based training, ie kettlebell Swings and snatches, Bulgarian Bag and mace training.

All these require the spine to demonstrate one or more of its six actions, usually simultaneously and while under load.

While also shifting our centre of mass as the weight swings.

In my warm ups, you will notice, if you look for it, movements that take your spine in each of the six directions.

This is deliberate.

I want your joints, including those of the spine, to experience their full ranges of motion. As joints move they load muscles which sends sensory information up to the brain.

Essentially, when we move we're reminding the brain we can move and how manage movement.

If we lock movements down, we lose the the skill of managing movement outside of what we practice when it inevitably happens.

And it will.

So neutral spine, while said with good intentions, is a poor cue and an even poorer life choice.

Neutral, as we said earlier, is where nothing happens.

My engine is disconnected from my wheels in neutral. (I could talk about the spinal engine here, we'll save that for future newsletters)

The same can be said for athletic movement.

Athletic movement requires the spine to move from one side the other and back again quickly.

As the hips turn left and shoulder right, we rotate the spine, stretch loading all those muscles that run between the hips and shoulders, stretching them like elastic bands, generating force and tension which when released unfurls the spine with violence and power.

This is athletic movement

Do not train it out of yourself.

And remember, motion is lotion. Move your spine in all directions frequently.

Build up very carefully the ability to flex and extend under load, most lifts train the extension very well, but don't forget Flexion.

Or side bending and rotation while we're at it.

Use Get Ups, Windmills, Half Kneeling lifts, Single Leg Lifts, Chops, Slams and throws.

And keep doing your mobility work (joint mobility or 100 rep warm ups, or both…)

And finally, send in your questions to be answered.

We all have questions about health and fitness, lifting and training. Don't be afraid to ask.

Chat soon

Dave

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.Wg-Fit.com

www.DaveHedges.net

Are Turkish Get Ups Useless

Recently there has been a chat about the Turkish Get Up

Many coaches are set against it.

Most think it's over rated

Some think it'll cure cancer 

But most recently has been Mike Israetel from Renaissance Periodisation speaking about how he even views a coaches value by how they use the Get Up and says for his sport of BJJ it is completely useless.

Is he right?

He's not wrong, but there's a lot more to the story.

Mike refers to the “tactical stand up” in BJJ, a move common across the various Ju Jitsu based practices. 

The actions done during the Get Up that take us from sitting on our bum to standing are very similar as usually taught.

And here is where Mike is spot on.

Because a lift resembles a sporting application does not mean it is going to help the sporting application. 

We have seen this proven time and again in other sports.

Eric Cressey an American strength coach special in training professional baseball players talks about weighted baseballs.

A baseball is 5oz.

To improve throwing power, he will have players use up to 11oz.

He states in a 2009 article talking about this, he does 3 throws each at three different weights topping out at 11oz then finishing the session with the regular ball.

He also reduces the distance thrown by throwing into a net for safety reasons.

Why stop at 11oz?

11 is no magic number and I've no idea how Cressey arrived at it or if he has subsequently changed. 

But at some point the athlete will change their technique to throw the heavier ball.

Same with resisted sprints. 

We often have athletes sprint dragging a sled, a parachute,  even a partner.

But there is still a tipping point where the load becomes too much and the athlete (unknowingly) changes their mechanics.

Now, those two examples are about loading the actual movement we're training. 

And still we see how we can run into problems. 

What about an exercise that happens by some coincidence or maybe design, to resemble a sporting movement?

As in the Tactical Get Up in grappling and the Turkish Get Up in lifting 

Now we have to consider force vectors, or to simplify it, the direction of force. 

If you're going to stand up in a grappling context, first,  very few people actually stick to the Tactical Get up method, and two you're not standing up under load, the other guy is far enough away that you have time to attempt to stand.

So that's that argument finished. 

But does this render the Get Up a useless exercise?

Oh hell no!

In fact, Eric Cressey who I mention earlier uses them with his pro baseball players. 

Would he use a useless exercise with million dollar athletes?

Of course not.

Baseball pitchers arguably place more stress on their shoulder tissues than just about any other athlete. So anyone training these athletes must understand shoulder health and care.

And this is exactly where the Turkish Get Up comes in.

Done well, with appropriate load and form, it is one of the key movements I give people in shoulder rehab.

What other sport has a reputation for ruining shoulders?

Well, BJJ of course.

So does a top tier shoulder health exercise belong in a BJJ players training arsenal?

Absolutely 

They may benefit more from half Get Ups, just to the seated position,  maybe bottoms up Get Ups with the kettlebell upside down than from the full lift.

So how should we use Get Ups in a program?

We can use them early as a primer. I like them before upper body work, they prime my shoulders for heavy pressing.

You can do them mid training,  warmed up enough use decent load, not too fatigued to make it dangerous. 

Or you can end with them as a kind of loaded mobility drill.

If coming back from shoulder injury,  they become your upper body push for a while.

Do them once per week or do them multiple times per week.

There really aren't any hard and fast rules on the exercise.

Unlike the squat and Olympic variants, they haven't been studied every which way from Sunday, which is a shame.

Just don't over play their value or dismiss them as a circus trick (which if you look up acrobalance acts, it actually is)

Use them as you would any other movement 

Use them as the answer to a problem.

And if the problem calls for a different answer, well do that instead. 

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.Wg-Fit.com

www.DaveHedges.net