Have you ever watched, Vince Carter, Michael Jordan, or any of the great dunkers and marvelled at their jumping abilities? I sure have, and currently there are several Alpine Ontario athletes that are approaching their vertical power capabilities of these athletes. Several male athletes, Andrew Solomon and Dylan Fischer McCarney have vertical jumps over 35 inches, with Morgan Megarry following closely behind with a 33 inch vertical jump. Not to be outdone, Candace Crawford, after a summer of dryland training has jumped a very impressive 26.3 inches, followed closely by Ella Both (24.5”) and Natalie Knowles (24”) – note a healthy Julia Roth is capable of jumping over 26”.

Just for your reference, a typical NBA basketball player will jump 28 inches, the average for a NHL hockey player is 25 inches, and a typical female collegiate NCAA Division basketball player will jump 22 inches. Therefore these young AOA athletes are way ahead of the curve. In fact, jumping 35 inches will rank within the 97 percentile of athletes’ within the NFL combine and no CAST athlete is able to jump higher.

But what does jumping have to do with skiing?

Jumping is a very important measure of vertical power. In fact, if I were only allowed one test to identify talent, power and explosiveness I would choose vertical jump – there is no comparison. Vertical jump has been correlated with agility, skate performance, acceleration, weightlifting ability, sprinting, NHL entry draft selection position, and ski race performance in addition to many other athletic qualities.

In skiing, the ability to pressurize a turn and to handle the forces exerted by gravity requires tremendous power and strength respectively. Without question, skiing requires a great feel, skill and technical capabilities that are only enhanced with improved power capabilities. The greater the power an athlete possesses means they will be able to execute more aggressive lines, translating into improved race performance. 

 Testing an athletes’ vertical power is essential, and at a developmental level (Nancy Green, K1, K2) testing an athletes’ ability to land is equally important. Click here to learn about the protocols at AOA Fall Fitness Testing.  In fact, during previous fitness testing we’ve seen some alarming results – please refer to the AOA report: Alpine Ontario Fitness Testing Fall 2009 – Interpretations and Recommendations of Movement Screen. We’ll be discussing more about the problems when we discuss the single legged squat and the “CORE” – if you’ve read my previous series on the “CORE” you’ll know exactly what I mean.

Improving vertical jump is a huge athletic development priority for the AOA Dryland Program. To develop this quality requires first sound movement qualities. This is assessed through analyzing basic squat, overhead squat, and single leg squat mechanics.  From here we analyze an athlete’s ability to squat jump, counter movement, and how they jump after dropping from various heights. We call this process the Jump Index. Based on all this information we know how to train them to best develop their vertical power.

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1. Being a baseball player (and tennis when I was younger) as well as physio, I have an active interest in the shoulder, particularly in regards to over head athlete’s.

2. The course was run by Kevin Wilk. Kevin is a physio renowned across the world for his work with the shoulder. He is associate clinical director of Champion Sports Medicine in Alabama, and works closley with Dr James Andrews of the American Sports Medicine Institute. These men are THE go to people for shoulder injuries in Major League Baseball and most professional sports in North America. So these 2 factors combined meant this was a course I couldn’t miss.

Boy was it worth it!

Whilst it was pleasing that many of the principles of rehab described by Dr Wilk, were the same or similar to those I already employ, the benefit of learning from people such as this is that they fill in gaps you didn’t realise you were missing. For me this was in area’s of re-training proprioception, among others. It also really helped that Dr Wilk’s perspective was usually sports based, which is the primary population we deal with at FITS.

Over the coming weeks I will, detail the things I have learnt and how we will apply these to shoulder patients in our clinic, as well as our over head athlete’s.

Until then.

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Research from the United States has been trialling a collagen meniscal implant. The implant was created using tissue engineering techniques and derived from U.S origin bovine Achilles tendons. It has been tested extensively in vitro and in laboratory animal trials, and has now begun human testing. The purpose of the study in question was to determine whether the meniscal implant provided better clinical outcomes in the long term compared with the more traditional partial menisectomy. There has long been concern that a partial menisectomy may lead the patient to suffer from osteoarthritis later in life.

Medical advancements such as this have huge implications for many sports, but particularly, Alpine skiing and basketball. Many careers in these sports have been ended prematurely due to irreparable or repeated damage to the meniscus and therefore inability of the knee joint to cope with the demands of these sports.

The study took 311 patients with irreparable injury to the meniscus or previous partial menisectomy. The patients were randomized to receive either the collagen meniscal implant, or serve as a control by receiving a partial menisectomy only. They were followed up over a period of 7 years to determine the benefits of both procedures in the long term, rather than just a quick fix.

The results of the study were interesting, for two reasons. Firstly, the collagen meniscal implant was shown to stimulate the growth of new meniscal tissue, which eventually replaces the implant as that device is resorbed. It has previously been thought that the body was unable to produce more cartilage tissue once it is lost. The importance of this finding is illustrated best by the fact that patients in the study who had a chronic history of meniscal problems and multiple operations, were able to regain as much of their pre-injury activity levels as patients with an acute injury. The other interesting factor in this study was that patients with an acute injury to their meniscus who received the partial menisectomy regained activity levels equal to those acute patients who received the collagen meniscal implant. This means that in the short term, the implant may be a better option because it produces equal results to the menisectomy acutely, but better long term results.

The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are: that the collagen meniscal implant has positive results in terms of being able to produce new tissue growth, which in turn allows more normal distribution of biomechanical forces, and therefore in theory, better function of the knee, especially in an athletic population. The other positive finding from the implant is to return patients with a chronic history to pre-injury activity levels. This is positive because it indicates that the risk of osteoarthritis later in life may be reduced.  

Patients in sports such as Alpine Skiing and basketball (who require an extremely high level of control and force distribution at the knee joint to be successful) have an alternative option to removal of the damaged portion of their meniscus. Whilst further research is needed, a procedure such as this could be extremely beneficial to future athletes in these sports. They may be able to prolong careers that would otherwise have been cut short, and also avoid degenerative conditions such as osteoarthritis once they have stopped competing.

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Kraemer, William J; Flanagan, Shawn D; Comstock, Brett A; Fragala, Maren S; Earp, Jacob E; Dunn-Lewis, Courtenay; Ho, Jen-Yu; Thomas, Gwendolyn A; Solomon-Hill, Glenn; Penwell, Zachary R; Powell, Matthew D; Wolf, Megan R; Volek, Jeff S; Denegar, Craig R; Maresh, Carl M  

Abstract:

The primary purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the influence of a whole body compression garment on recovery from a typical heavy resistance training workout in resistance-trained men and women. Eleven men (mean ± SD: age, 23.0 ± 2.9 years) and 9 women (mean ± SD: age 23.1 ± 2.2 years) who were highly resistance trained gave informed consent to participate in the study. A within-group (each subject acted as their own control), balanced, and randomized treatment design was used. Nutritional intakes, activity, and behavioral patterns (e.g., no pain medications, ice, or long showers over the 24 hours) were replicated 2 days before each test separated by 72 hours.  

An 8-exercise whole body heavy resistance exercise protocol using barbells (3 sets of 8-10 repetition maximum, 2.0-to 2.5-minute rest) was performed after which the subject showered and put on a specific whole body compression garment one designed for women and one for men (CG) or just wore his/her normal noncompression clothing (CON). Subjects were then tested after 24 hours.Dependent measures included sleep quality, vitality rating, resting fatigue rating, muscle soreness, muscle swelling via ultrasound, reaction movement times, bench throw power, countermovement vertical jump power, and serum concentrations of creatine kinase (CK) measured from a blood sample obtained via venipuncture of an arm vein.  

We observed significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences between CG and CON conditions in both men and women for vitality (CG > CON), resting fatigue ratings (CG < CON), muscle soreness (CG < CON), ultrasound measure swelling (CG < CON), bench press throw (CG > CON), and CK (CG < CON). A whole body compression garment worn during the 24-hour recovery period after an intense heavy resistance training workout enhances various psychological, physiological, and a few performance markers of recovery compared with noncompressive control garment conditions. The use of compression appears to help in the recovery process after an intense heavy resistance training workout in men and women.  

Comments:  

Women experience less muscle soreness. Fascinating that women are thought to be more protected by muscle soreness  prior to the study because of estrogen biology,  other hormonal and cytokine factors, and some inherent muscle/connective tissue characteristics in contraction dynamics (1). This did not occur.

• Whole body vs. segmental garments. How does whole body garment compression compare with short or upperbody compression?  More research is needed.
• Sleep quality is unaffected. Interestingly, even with the use of the garment, sleep quality was not affected and if limbs were kept in a more elongated anatomical position, repair might have also been more geometrically optimized for repair.
• “Dynamic Casting” – a mechanism for the compression. The investigators propose enhanced soft tissue repair with the use of compression might be well because of some limited immobilization (2)or more likely the limitation of extra movements with compression holding the limbs in what has been called “dynamic casting” effective in reducing soft tissue in damage repair studies (3,4). This might have also been an important factor in limiting the amount of excessive movement and impact oscillation of the body’s musculature during normal activities and locomotion performed during the waking hours, which has been shown to be an important aspect of compression’s mechanical characteristics at the compression levels used in the garments in this study (5).
• Special Situations: the benefits of whole body compression is very interesting. I’m interested to see the utility of this garment within these contexts

1)      athletes at altitude. In particular for Alpine Athletes. who need several days to acclimatize/  

2)      During heavy training or competition bouts (i.e. Training camps). The accumulation of fatigue, muscle soreness, and impaired performance qualities is very common during multiple week training camps. These factors also impact injury risk.  

3)      To facilitate improved recovery from high intensity training; At times during the off-season, athletes will be exposed to high intensity exercises, including eccentric and high reactive exercises (i.e. drop jumps)    

4)      during tournament or competitions that last several days. Many of our athletes compete during competitions that last several days. Their ability to maintain performance is paramount when fatigue, soreness, injuries, and mental fatigue accumulate over the course of the competition.    

5)      Athletes with tendinopathies.   

• Use in combination with other rest and Recovery Techniques. Of course this is one tool that works in conjunction with: 
  • Diet 
  • Hydration levels 
  • Soft tissue techniques 
  • Electro-modalities 
  • Supplements 
  • vibration 
  • Contrast baths, cryotherapy 
  • Fitness level 
  • Sleep 
  • Environment 
  • Winning or losing 
  • Magnitude of physical / psychological trauma  
  • Etc…

Comment References  

1. Clarkson, PM and Hubal, MJ. Are women less susceptible to exercise-induced muscle damage? Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 4: 527-531, 2001.
2. Apple, FS, Rogers, MA, Sherman, WM, Costill, DL, Hagerman, FC, and Ivy, JL. Profile of creatine kinase isoenzymes in skeletal muscles of marathon runners. Clin Chem 30: 413-416, 1984.
3. Kraemer, WJ, Bush, JA, Wickham, RB, Denegar, CR, Gómez, AL, Gotshalk, LA, Duncan, ND, Volek, JS, Newton, RU, Putukian, M, and Sebastianelli, WJ. Continuous compression as an effective therapeutic intervention in treating eccentric exercise-induced muscle soreness. Sport Rehabil 10: 11-23, 2001.
4. Kraemer, WJ, Bush, JA, Wickham, RB, Denegar, CR, Gomez, AL, Gotshalk, LA, Duncan, ND, Volek, JS, Putukian, M, and Sebastianelli, WJ. Influence of compression therapy on symptoms following soft tissue injury from maximal eccentric exercise. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 31: 282-290, 2001.
5. Kraemer, WJ, Bush, JA, Newton, RU, Duncan, ND, Volek, JS, Denegar, CR, Canavan, P, Johnston, J, Putukian, M, and Sebastianelli, WJ. Influence of a compressive garment on repetitive power output production before and after different types of muscle fatigue. Sports Med Train Rehabil 8: 163-184, 1998.

Additional Resources:   

In the media: CNBC  

Research on Garment Compression   

Davies, V, Thompson, KG, and Cooper, SM. The effects of compression garments on recovery. J Strength Cond Res 23: 1786-1794, 2009.  

Duffield, R, Cannon, J, and King, M. The effects of compression garments on recovery of muscle performance following high-intensity sprint and plyometric exercise. J Sci Med Sport, 2009.  

Duffield, R, Edge, J, Merrells, R, Hawke, E, Barnes, M, Simcock, D, and Gill, N. The effects of compression garments on intermittent exercise performance and recovery on consecutive days. Int J Sports Physiol Perform 3: 454-468, 2008.  

Kaufmann, DA and Ware, WB. Effect of warm-up and recovery techniques on repeated running endurance. Res Q 48: 328-332, 1977.  

Kraemer, WJ, Bush, JA, Wickham, RB, Denegar, CR, Gómez, AL, Gotshalk, LA, Duncan, ND, Volek, JS, Newton, RU, Putukian, M, and Sebastianelli, WJ. Continuous compression as an effective therapeutic intervention in treating eccentric exercise-induced muscle soreness. Sport Rehabil 10: 11-23, 2001.

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1. 5-Site Integrity
2. Excellent Movement Qualities
3. Explosive and Reactive
4. Great Work Capacity (sort of)
5. Deliberateness

5 Site Integrity – To move correctly requires our whole body to work correctly. We can’t look at one joint, when we are developing an entire system. It takes mobility, control, and stability of 5 key areas during all our movements to develop a) movement efficient, b) power, and to c) prevent injuries. These 5 areas from head to toe are: cranio-cervico, scapula thoracic, lumbopelvis, knee and ankle and foot.

Whether you are going to be an elite skier or someone that enjoys physical activity you must possess 5-Site Integrity. It is an essential quality of life and vital component of physical literacy.

Excellent Movement Qualities – An elite skier must possess excellent movement qualities. We’ve assessed some basic movement qualities during fall AOA fitness testing. Unfortunately many of our skiers are unable to perform a single legged squat with various movement dysfunctions, most notably dynamic valgus and thoracic collapse. These movement dysfunctions impede an athlete’s ability to acquire skill while increasing their risk of injury – such as an ACL rupture, patellofemoral problems, tendinopathies, low back problems, etc.

Common movement dysfunctions we’ve seen with young developing skiers:

• Poor 5-Site Integrity: weak trunk, thoracic rounding, lumbo-pelvis tightness
• Thoracic rigidity
• Dynamic valgus – resulting from poor leg strength and control
• Poor lateral movements
• Poor intrinsic foot strength
• Poor body awareness – related to strength and “balance”

Explosive and Reactive. To handle the forces exerted on the body during a race requires tremendous strength, power, and reactiveness. Failure to develop adequate force will lead to an inability to execute proper turn mechanics and will lead to compensatory changes and injuries.

Great work capacity (SORT OF) – Having a prerequisite amount of “aerobic conditioning” is necessary to be successful. But over developing this quality comes at the expense of power and explosiveness. Take look at the most successful racers – they don’t look like marathon runners. They are powerful athletes, because the sport demands it.  An article about developing the energy systems of an alpine racer will be posted shortly.

Deliberateness. The acquisition of skill and the development of an athlete are not by chance – not at the elite levels. It requires a systematic approach, based on deliberate practice and integration of all factors that contribute to performance (such as nutrition, psychology, rest and recovery, financial support, stress management, injury prevention, etc.)  for at least 10 years of 10,000 hours. No one is except of this pathway and each individual must value the relentless pursuit of excellence. A plan can only be executed when it is matched with equal resolve.

Where do you measure?

How do you develop these qualities?? The first step is to be tested. At AOA Spring Fitness Testing, May 8^th we will be evaluating each athletes’ movement, work capacity, explosiveness (power) and reactive abilities. Reports will be generated that will show where each athlete ranks, compared to age normative data and in comparison to provincial, national, and world class athletes.

Get tested…

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What is the importance of classifying movements?

By classifying movements and assessing the unique qualities of those movements we can:

a)      Identify common movement dysfunctions. For example an athlete with poor thoracic mobility will collapse their spine during a squat, single legged squat and during all power movements such as vertical jump, broad jump, and lateral movements

b)      Breakdown complex movements into simpler movements. For example, coming off a screen and executing a jump shot (i.e. 40 inches) integrates:

1. Lateral movement to move around the screen
2. Horizontal movement to accelerate into and out of the screen
3. Rapid deceleration to set-up the jump shot
4. Jump shot

Therefore, by individually assessing each of these qualities we can see how the individual movements work by themselves and function as an integrated whole.

c)      Train. When we identify a problem or deficiency in a mode or type we can triangulate on the need and figure out a solution using various training approaches.

Figure 1: Movement Classification System. Modes are classified into basic and power movements. Types are based on anatomical planes – vertical, horizontal, lateral and rotational.

Movement modes classify movements into basic and power movement modes. This is a relative category where low speed body weight movements are considered basic movements, and movements with high speed movements are power movements. You can see in the Figure 1: Movement Classification System are examples of basic movements and powered movements organized according to the movement types.

Movement types are movements classified according to anatomical planes. In the figure below you can observe the four movement types. Agility and change of directions are combinations of various movement types. It is important to appreciate that each movement type is distinct. Movements in the vertical plane are distinct qualities from horizontal and lateral. For example, high jumpers (vertical type) are not elite sprinters (horizontal type) and just because you are a good sprinter (horizontal type) does mean you can run an effective run a wide receiver route in football (agility / COD). The take home message is each movement type needs to be tested separately.

Applied Resources:

1.         Boyle M. Functional Training For Sports. Toronto: Human Kinetics; 2004.

2.         Gambetta V. Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning Toronto: Human Kinetics; 2007.

3.         McGill S. Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance Waterloo: Waterloo Press; 2005.

4.         Sahrmann SA. Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes. Toronto: Mosby; 2002.

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I realize I’ve been living in the past. My previous efforts has gotten me to where I am today, but I’m nowhere close to where I should be athletically. Today during one of my infrequence workouts I tested my vertical. It’s 36. I’m not pleased with this at all. My squat is poor and my overall conditioning has been weather by work. I’m incredibly frustrated. I’m letting everyone know this stops today!! Nothing is more frustrated to me than not living up to one’s potential. I’m no exception to this rule. I’m holding myself accountable to you. Share in my goal to reach 40”. I will achieve this goal. I know it’s possible. I’ll promise to regularly up-date you on my progress. I won’t let work interfere with this need. I’ll make appropriate adjustments to my life to make this happen. I have to do this.

I’m going to show everything along this journey – video, video comments, research etc.

Sincerely,

Thomas

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I have been continuing to use the Isagenix products as I mentioned in my last post. This means, Ionix shot and tablet in the morning, protein shake after my run, MRS mid morning, lunch, MRS mid afternoon and dinner. With a second protein shake after lifting weights at some point during the day. In addition to this, I have been told to add a scoop of cleanse powder with my MRS’s. This is a powder form of the cleanse drink I did in the 2, 2 day blocks over the first 14 day period. This is to help me keep my body cleansed and rid of impurities after the base cleanse 2 weeks ago.

This part of the challenge wasn’t as easy as it might have been, as you might have seen in other posts, I spent last week away working as the physio for the Alpine Ontario Ski Team. This modified my routine in the following ways:

• Less exercise: Although I did a partial workout each day I was away, due to my responsibilities with the team I wasnt able to train as much as I have been during the challenge.
• Diet: For the most part I did my best to a) eat healthy and b) not eat too much. But, this was easier said than done, and I will admit that I got swept up in the apres ski life a little and drank more than I would on a day to day basis, although I should add only once did I really drink to excess.
• Timing: One thing I learned from my experience with the team is the difficulty they have in keeping a routine diet. I found myself standing on top of a mountain for up to 5 hours after breakfast, before lunch. I didnt feel very hungry, but I wasnt doing anything either. After the first day, I got myself set up with my shakes in a bag and the water ready so that I could make it mid morning. I also took a piece of fruit to tide me over until lunch. I continued to have the Ionix shot in the am, along with the tablets. I also had the whey shake after my modified workouts.

Overall this week probably wasnt textbook, but I think I did ok, and with the added cleanse powder in each shake, hopefully I flushed out some of the impurities I was taken on, eg beer.

After returning from Calgary I was able to get back into my routine diet wise, but I didnt run this past week because I was a little tired in the mornings and still catching up on some sleep. I did lift weight each day and was back to eating well.

Good Friday turned out to be a very good day for the challenge as well, although there was no work, I had some paper work to catch up on on, so after a few hours of that, I did a work out. I was planning on squatting, but decided time was of the escence, so I did some tire flips, trying to work on my explosiveness from a lower position. I found this uncomfortable on my wrists, so I switched to box jumps. I did 5×5 from one 36″ box to another. After each set, I tested my vert jump with 5 jumps…….success! Multiple improvements on my previous best of 26.4″ up to a new PB of 28.1 inches!

Now, I still have one week to go of shakes etc, and then 2 days of cleansing. Then I will re-measure on the scales (whilst obviously keeping an eye on performance goals) and make my final decisions. I should be able to then decide if the improvement in vert is due to help from the products in increasing my lean muscle and therefore allowing me to become more powerful, or just from the reduced body weight  and thus having to push less weight off the ground, or just the benefit of exercise over time.

I also wanted to mention t

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The Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies recently published an article by Eyal Lederman: The Myth of Core Stability. Mark Young made mention of it late last year so I figured I’d check it out myself. The following information is a summary of Lederman’s conclusions. But first and foremost…

DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!

ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT STABILITY AND THE ROLE OF CORE MUSCULATURE

Despite the role of the core musculature in creating spinal stability…

• Alterations and damage to the abdominal musculature (i.e. pregnancy, post-partum, post-surgery, etc) does not seem to directly influence low back stability and/or pain.

Despite the exponential number research studies conducted in the last decade…

• Low back pain has yet to be directly related to spinal instability.

TIMING

While the control of specific core musculature has been highly regarded in its “relationship” to low back pain…

• Trunk muscles perform motor reorganization in the presence or expectation of spinal pain, yet this has not been shown to actually cause low back pain
• Traditionally prescribed core exercises do not effectively affect the timing of trunk muscle synergistic contraction nor do they reset onset timing in those suffering from chronic low back pain

STRENGTH

While it is known that trunk muscle strength may decrease as a result of low back pain and injury…

• No evidence exists that demonstrates a lack of trunk muscle strength or endurance actually predisposes one to low back pain
• The findings pertaining to atrophy and a loss of trunk muscle strength resulting from chronic low back pain are still inconclusive
• Traditional core stability exercises do not provide enough of a stimulus to result in actual strength gains

CORE MUSCLE ACTIVATION

There are still many practitioners that still follow the single core muscle activation concept (TrA), unfortunately…

• Core musculature do not work independently from others within the trunk region during normal movements.
• Evidence has yet to show that one can specifically activate a muscle group (within the trunk) in isolation.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORE STABILITY TRAINING AND MOTOR LEARNING

While training for an activity often leads to skill development in that activity (i.e. piano)…

• Trunk control is activity specific (running vs jumping vs throwing), and thus, training to contract the abdominal musculature while on one’s back is dissimilar to normal movement and therefore, conflicts with the basic principles of transfer and adaptation.

Although many novel core exercises are now performed in more “functional” positions (i.e. standing, moving)…

• The internal-focus approach of having patients actively concentrate on contracting their abdominal musculature is counterintuitive to motor learning principles. Focusing on tasks external to the body is more conducive to performance improvement.

Furthermore, while individuals are constantly reminded to continuously tighten their core musculature…

• The human body is designed to move efficiently and expend the least amount of energy possible, therefore, it is likely that energy will be wasted if co-contractions of the trunk musculature are continuously performed during normal daily activities.

CORE STABILITY FOR INJURY PREVENTION AND THERAPY

While an asymptomatic individual may present with weak abdominals…

• Performing core stability exercises does not translate to prevention of injury

While the research on core stability exercises for low back pain treatment seem promising…

• Specific core exercises may be no different from general exercise or manual therapy

CORE STABILITY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE CAUSE OF LOW BACK PAIN

While our understanding of the aetiology of back pain has increased tremendously over the last decade…

• Chronic and recurrent back pain has been shown to be associated with psychological and psychosocial factors and its relationships to structural factors have been lessened.
• Advising one to “brace” the core while seated is unlikely to offer additional protection against pathology and may in fact increase compressive forces sustained by the spine.
• Core stability may have little preventative effect in those who suffer from acute back injuries (i.e. falls, sports) since these injuries often occur well before the nervous system is able to engage itself and offer protection.

POTENTIAL DAMAGING EFFECTS OF CORE STABILITY

Although compressive forces on the lumbar spine may contribute to low back pain…

• These forces may actually come from core exercises themselves since abdominal co-contraction during movement may provide further increases in spinal compression.
• “Natural” strategies of trunk control have been shown to be more superior to abdominal “hollowing” and “bracing” without the unwanted and excessive spinal compression.

While core training may be aimed at biomechanical dysfunction…

• Continual focus on these methods may shift the focus away from potentially more therapeutic interventions, such as in those suffering from pain associated with biopsychosocial factors.
• Core stability training may actually promote chronicity.

TAKE HOME POINTS

• Musculature weakness and imbalances may actually be a normal variation rather than a pathology
• Isolating the trunk musculature from the entire body may simply act as a means to promoting the “core” industry
• Abdominal weakness/dysfunction may never lead to back pain
• Trunk contraction may provide very little to back injury prevention
• Core stability may not be any more effective than general exercise or manual therapy
• The therapeutic influence may actually be a reflection of general exercise effects rather than stabilization
• Continuous trunk contraction may actually lead to unwanted spinal loads
• Traditional “hollowing” and “bracing” techniques may actually be unnecessary

If accessible, I strongly encourage you to read the paper in full. While Lederman makes some valid points, it was quite interesting that of the 200+ references cited, only one was primarily authored by Stu McGill, a 2003 study at best. Further, much of the points Lederman alludes to have already been elaborated upon by McGill in his book, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance (also available in my “Educational Resources” above). Again, the above information are merely a summary of Lederman’s conclusions

Make sure you leave a comment and let me know what you think!

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