The walking wounded

[neoclubber]

I've read a great deal about the health effects of CST so I wanted to share the following.

I am in no way making light of these often very serious injuries . . .

The magnitude of the complaints is what got me shaking my head. You might think this is a from a military hospital in the middle of Baghdad on a day of fierce fighting . . .

No.

This is a page on a popular web site about weightlifting. The page is devoted to discussions of injuries.

http://stronglifts.com/forum/injuries-f8.html

Amazing what folks do to themselves at the gym . . . of course, most of these were self-inflicted in that the trainee did not use a spotter, let his ego win out and pile on too much weight, bad form, not warmed up . . . etc.

But if something is this dangerous, you have to wonder how good for you it really is.

Anyway . . . got me thinking . . .

[kcsportsdoc]

This is why I no longer work out at a gym, but instead brought the gym to my office. The sheer number of potential and actual injuries you see occurring in the average gym on a daily basis would be staggering if anyone ever really analyzed the situation scientifically. And unless you can put the blinders on, you never get to your own work! Sad, but true. At least with CST, there are trainers and coaches who think "health-first" as opposed to never really sparing a thought for health, only fitness or aesthetics.

[Scott Sonnon]

Don't think it's restricted to weight-lifting. The Yoga Journal reported that yoga... a "healing modality" has a 9% hospitalization rate in USA. Nearly 1 in 10 people are hospitalized from practicing yoga in USA. Think about that.

The tri-ring integration of CST makes us shine not merely because there is a specific science which makes us "health-first" fitness, but more importantly because of mobility. When people here of mobility as the primary focus of exercise, they think of mere joint mobility. Joint mobility is just one of the rings.

Motor sophistication... incremental development of grace (the true expression of power)... ought to be the central cornerstone of every fitness modality. But it's not. Rarely if ever is it.

Branded "flow" - motor sophistication holds the highest premium in CST because not only should we have the suppleness, the learning rate, and the ease of childlike grace, but we ought to be better than children... more sophisticated, refined and efficient. We should have the "clean slate" of children with the motoric efficiency of martial arts masters. That's the goal of CST.... and you can't do that if you're focusing on external markers - physique appearance, benchmark attributes, not even competitive performance.

Performance, attributes and appearance must be an outpouring from healthy mobility... from incremental development of neurological efficiency...

Professionals from a wide array of disciplines are embracing CST's unique systematic approach to motor sophistication for this very reason. Pain and injury free performance, long and uninterupted careers, personal physical development like that of the thousands of years of martial arts which underpin the Circular Strength Training System.

Down, down the rabbit hole, we go... every day, better than the day before.

[Scott Sonnon]

"Exercise (e.g., weight lifting, aerobics, stretching, walking, jogging, and running) was the leading injury-related activity for women [treated in hospital emergency departments] aged >20 years and ranked among the top four types of injuries for men aged >20 years."

http://www.cdc.gov/Women/natstat/injury.htm

[hermanchauw]

Performance, attributes and appearance must be an outpouring from healthy mobility... from incremental development of neurological efficiency...

Words to live by.

[neoclubber]

We should have the "clean slate" of children with the motoric efficiency of martial arts masters. That's the goal of CST.... and you can't do that if you're focusing on external markers - physique appearance, benchmark attributes, not even competitive performance.


In my few weeks on this forum this is what I've learned . . . and it's a sort of "Alexandrian solution."

You can't try to fit CST into any preconceived notions of exercise based on the programming most of us have in our heads: Bodybuilding, exercise to look good naked, exercise for fat loss, exercise to increase speed or jumping ability . . . etc.
We're programmed (probably since the first day of elementary school PE) to think of exercise as creating some increased performance capability which will pay of in sports, martial arts or appearance.

I suspect that in some competitive personality types (like me) this is exacerbated with time.

Something like CST is not a sub-set of this type of exercise, it's more like the ying is to the yang (sorry to be so Far Eastern here).

If I were going to describe CST to anyone I would always begin by saying: "don't try to "fit" CST into your preconception of exercise.

Instead, you need a bold stroke of mental imagery in which you can see traditional exercise in the left hand and CST in the right . . ."

Hope that makes sense; it's one of my lessons learned as a newbie.

[hammer_2020]

http://stronglifts.com/forum/toughen-up-t12072.html

Pretty much the mentality I used to train with when I was about ten years younger. I'm regretting it now - specifically, my knees are regretting it now. Would that I knew then what I know now.

[kcsportsdoc]

And lest we forget, there are many health professionals, trainers and coaches who equate mobility (specifically, lumbar mobility) with instability. By that outmoded rationale, spinal fusion would be more desirable than sophisticated mobility. Believe me, I fight this battle against the conventional wisdom every day. It ain't easy, but converting the skeptical heathen :) and helping those who are desperate for change is the most satisfying work.

[DaveRandolph]

And lest we forget, there are many health professionals, trainers and coaches who equate mobility (specifically, lumbar mobility) with instability. By that outmoded rationale, spinal fusion would be more desirable than sophisticated mobility. Believe me, I fight this battle against the conventional wisdom every day. It ain't easy, but converting the skeptical heathen :) and helping those who are desperate for change is the most satisfying work.

Are you saying that the idea that the ankle is mobile, knee stabile, hips mobile etc up the spine is not correct? ( I think that's the progression). I think Mike Boyle, Gray Cook and others state the that the lumbar spine should stabilize while the thoracic should be mobile and you believe the lumbar should be mobile?
If so to the same extent as the rest of the spine?

Thanks

[kcsportsdoc]

Hi Dave,

When I'm talking about mobility in the lumbar spine or any other joint, I'm referring to the normal amount of physiological motion that should be available. This is by no means a scientific reference, but from being in practice as a D.C. for 10 years and in the fitness field for over 20, it's been my experience that the majority of adults have insufficiencies in the lumbar spine and the hips. Many low back pain sufferers may have adequate or even optimal motion in certain planes, but have deficits in others.

I would further say that the shortened hip flexors you see in many, many low back pain patients tends to fix the lumbar spine in extension. The tethering of the spine leads to immobility, not stability, if you see where I'm going. The fixed spinal extension in these instances is due to excessive tightness, not core activation.

I had a long, tedious explanation here where I referenced strength ratios between antagonist pairs, but it was putting me to sleep. Suffice to say that if you mobilize appropriately and reasonably, you'll develop and maintain the ROM in the lumbar spine you require, no more and no less. The type of mobility drill you find in programs developed here (and elsewhere) do not lead to deformation of the non-contractile tissue (ligaments, for example) in my professional and personal opinion. Deformation of these elements leads to instability as the joint loses structural integrity. Does that make sense? It's really late here and I really have no business being awake, let alone answering a serious question.

[DaveRandolph]

Hi Dave,

When I'm talking about mobility in the lumbar spine or any other joint, I'm referring to the normal amount of physiological motion that should be available. This is by no means a scientific reference, but from being in practice as a D.C. for 10 years and in the fitness field for over 20, it's been my experience that the majority of adults have insufficiencies in the lumbar spine and the hips. Many low back pain sufferers may have adequate or even optimal motion in certain planes, but have deficits in others.

I would further say that the shortened hip flexors you see in many, many low back pain patients tends to fix the lumbar spine in extension. The tethering of the spine leads to immobility, not stability, if you see where I'm going. The fixed spinal extension in these instances is due to excessive tightness, not core activation.

I had a long, tedious explanation here where I referenced strength ratios between antagonist pairs, but it was putting me to sleep. Suffice to say that if you mobilize appropriately and reasonably, you'll develop and maintain the ROM in the lumbar spine you require, no more and no less. The type of mobility drill you find in programs developed here (and elsewhere) do not lead to deformation of the non-contractile tissue (ligaments, for example) in my professional and personal opinion. Deformation of these elements leads to instability as the joint loses structural integrity. Does that make sense? It's really late here and I really have no business being awake, let alone answering a serious question.

Thanks, yes I understand what you are saying

Almost everyone I deal with has tight hip flexors and all the the lumbar mobility of a board. We do lots of IntuFlow for the lumbar spine as well as the cool down/compensatory work on Scot's Kettlebell Foundations DVDs for opening up the hips and regaining lost ROM.

[kcsportsdoc]

Exactly! Thanks, Dave. It was after midnight and I was concerned that I was rambling more incoherently than usual. :)

If you take the experiences you've had with people and extrapolate that out over most of civilization, you begin to understand why there is so much back pain, stiffness, reduced quality of life, etc., etc.

[DaveRandolph]

No problem, I was up very late that night too.

People sit too much and play desk jockey as Scott calls it. Most of my clients have tight hip flexors, excessive pelvic tilt, tight hamstrings, rounded shoulders etc.

I typically run new clients through Cook's FMS screen and give them stretches. I find Scott's Compensatory cool down work is fantastic and we do it after almost every class, unless the class was particularly intense in which case we do some shoulder mobilty and QiGong.