This weeks education emphasized stability. Stand with feet together and knees locked out. It would be fairly easy for me to push you over. Now move your feet shoulder width apart, slightly more stability. Next, sit your hips back and bend your knees into an athletic position, even more stability! Now stagger one of your feet four inches forward and the other, four inches behind. What have I ultimately asked you to do? Widen your base of support and lower your center of gravity. Both of these will help create a more stable base. Yet some individuals can still be knocked off their feet in the final position just as easily as the starting position, why?
Core stability is probably the most important component to an athlete. When I say core I’m not referring to the closest layer of skeletal muscle tissue which we often to refer to as the “six pack.” Abdominals are really designed for two simple movements, anti-rotation and anti-extension. Although the abdominals allow us to perform sit-ups or crunches leading to spinal flexion, they truly are designed for the two former anti- movements. In essence they provide protection to hyperextension to one of the most abused system of skeletal structures in the human body, the lumbar spine. This won’t be a physiology lesson but the spinal cord provides a paramount interpretation of tasks. When referring to muscle contraction or reflexes, some of the input is dealt specifically at the spinal cord level and never reaches the brain. Our spinal cord makes decisions for us that have been instinctually ingrained into our DNA.
When I think about stability I think of stiffening the core by use of intra-abdominal pressure through breathing and truly engaging the lower aspect of rectus abdominis. There’s controversy between the terminology of stiffen and bracing. Some will say you need to brace, which, in my opinion sounds as though it’s a super high threshold hardening of the abdominals that prevents inhalation and exhalation from occurring. I prefer the term stiffen for the fact that it sounds as though I am still able to control my breathing and allowing my diaphragm to work properly while still being explosive, loose and agile all at the same time.
Along with the stability portion of education, we also discussed ways to provide external cueing instead of internal cueing. The individuals at Nike Sparq have found that external cues are considerably easier for athletes to understand. The issue with internal cues is that it puts the focus on the person’s body rather than the actual movement that is trying to be executed. Along with internally putting a focus on them, it can cause those who are too overly self-conscious to be too judgmental of what their body is doing resulting in a focus on what they are looking like rather than moving correctly. External cues put the athlete’s thoughts on the task, helping “focus the lens” and execute the movement with higher efficiency.
An example of an external cue for someone who struggles to fully extend their hips during a clean would be “push the floor away as fast as possible.” This places the emphasis on pushing into the ground rather than a similar cue of “push through your heels.” Both provide practically the same biomechanical movement yet the interpretation of how the athlete is supposed to execute the movement can get lost in translation with internal type cues. One of my favorites for providing a stable shoulder position for the bench press is “break the bar.” This naturally places the arms in an externally rotated position that locks in the shoulders to provide the most potential for power transfer. Think of an unstable shoulder position the same as a 56k, dial-up connection. It is flakey at best and fluctuates constantly. Now think of the externally rotated shoulder position, external cued, “break the bar” position. It’s a high-speed broadband connection that is tight, fast and super consistent. I use it this cue for everyone because it’s super easy to understand and immediately puts them into a great position.
Try to develop external cues for your biggest problem exercises and watch how quickly your athletes will blossom into movement proficient powerhouses.