Metcon Magazine Preview - 5 Hindering Joint Restrictions

Elevating Fitness Through Functional Training
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PREVIEW ARTICLE
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Metcon Magazine
Metcon is a new digital magazine
focused on functional training.
We will release our first issue
on July 1, 2016. New issues
will be released on the first day
of January, March, May, July,
September, November. Each issue
highlights a different sport
and how athletes can benefit
from incorporating functional fitness
into their training. Every issue
also contains education articles
written by premiere doctors,
nutritionists, and trainers focused
of increasing performance
through strength and endurance
training and proper nutrition.
In the First Issue
• Correcting Common Issues
with the Clean
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective
Squatters
• Cues & Progression for the
Snatch
• Proper Bench Press Form
• The Science of Plyometrics
• Amelia Boone - Training and
nutrition with OCR Superstar
• Joe De Sena - Becoming
Spartan Fit
• Common OCR Mistakes
from OCR Elite athlete Evan
Perperis
• Functional movements OCR
athlete need to be doing
• Goal Based Training
• The Coaching Disconnect
• The Problem of Evening
Hunger
• Recipe: Lettuce Wraps with
Chicken and Avocado
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2 METCON | June 2016

June 2016 | METCON
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““
5 Joint Restrictions
HINDERING Your
FUNCTIONAL TRAINING
By Jeremy McCann
Big Toe
Lack of extension in the big toe
prevents our foot from creating
an arch when our heel hits the
ground. This is referred to as the
windlass mechanism. As the heel
strikes the ground during gait,
our foot rolls into pronation (collapse
of the arch). The contact
The sport of fitness is incredibly dynamic and requires
explosiveness, coordination, flexibility, and
stamina. Often overlooked is the importance of
maintaining a center of mass.
In exercise and sports science,
achieving triple extension has
been the goal of many common
athletic movements. Triple
extension is a position in which
the ankle, knee, and hip are extended.
In functional fitness programming,
there is revolution in
the way coaches and trainers
look at movement. Most functional
exercises and workouts emphasize
what I call global quadruple
extension. This means
the athlete extends the foot/ankle,
knee, hip, and the thoracic
spine. The inability to get to this
position results in poor performance
and pain. The following
is a list of joints that I find are
routinely restricted and prevent
athletes from moving efficiently
into this globally extended position.
Keep in mind that dysfunction
at one joint leads to dysfunction
throughout the entire body.
of our toe with the ground slows
pronation and pulls on the plantar
fascia to form the arch of the
foot. The inability to slow pronation
leads the athlete to overpronation,
or pushing off almost
completely from the big and second
toes. This forces compensation
from other joints to slow the
knee as weight is transferred.
How this impacts an athlete’s
performance: Many functional
workouts have exercises that involve
transferring weight from
4 METCON | June 2016

If our joints aren’t
aligned, we
waste energy.
June 2016 | METCON
5

one leg to the other (i.e. running,
lunging, farmer’s walks, etc.)
These exercises are examples of
locomotive movements for which
the goal is going from point
A to B. To be efficient, an athlete
should perform this movement
in a straight line. Think of
traveling: You want to take the
shortest direction to get to your
destination. Taking the scenic
route usually costs more in gas
and time. Running is no different.
If our joints aren’t aligned,
we waste energy. An athlete who
overpronates pulls their knee
closer to the their midline. This
means they must constantly
compensate with other muscles
to prevent their knee from collapsing
inward. The end result
is likely pain and definitely a
waste of calories and increased
fatigue from using muscle improperly.
A person who overpronates will
often complain of plantar fasciitis,
Achilles tendinitis, and hip
bursitis.
Ankle
At the ankle, if we find a talus
bone that has shifted laterally,
then this is an indication we are
carrying more of our weight toward
the midline of our body. The
ankle accommodates this shift in
weight distribution by turning
the feet outward. In doing so,
the Achilles tendon gets twisted
around a bit and movement becomes
compensated. Dorsiflexion
(the turning of the toes up
and bending the foot back toward
the ankle) is lost and our
brain will ask other muscles to
pick up the slack, thus creating
a compensation pattern.
Most functional exercises involve
bending at the ankle, knee
and hip to absorb impact from
below (running, jumping, etc.) or
control forces from above (barbell
squats, cleans, etc.). When
the ankle doesn’t bend well, the
knee and hip will try to make up
the difference. A restriction at
the ankle joint will force the knee
to travel forward and ask the
quadriceps to carry the burden
of slowing the knee down. This
puts the glutes in a poor position
to load up and limits the amount
of force that can be produced.
For an athlete who is exploding
out of the hole during a barbell
squat, this is detrimental to force
production. Our ability to create
power from our gluteus maximus
hinges largely on our ability to
extend our hips backward as we
descend into a squat. Lacking
dorsiflexion pulls our knees and
drags our hips with it.
An athlete who suffers from a
lack of dorsiflexion will often
complain of shin splints, knee
pain, and low back pain.
Hip
A lot of people don’t understand
the pelvis isn’t just one piece. Although,
at first glance it may appear
as one cylinder, it really is
made up of four pieces: a right
and left innominate (hip), the
sacrum and the pubis symphysis.
With that being said, one hip
should be able to flex while the
other extends. One of the most
common postural deviations that
occur is an anterior pelvic tilt.
This is when one or both innominate
bones tilts forward. This
position will lock the back of the
pelvis in place and prevent it
from extending the hip.
Without the proper ability to flex
and extend at the hip, an athlete
will be forced to compensate
their movements when doing
things like running. The hip
is very dynamic and can perform
many different movements. Flexion
of the hip comes with external
rotation, while extension of
the hip is coupled with internal
rotation. A person who lacks the
ability to extend to an anterior
pelvic tilt will also lack the ability
to internally rotate well. This
will drive the brain to compensate
by moving the leg forward,
which usually means the leg
must be swung forward from the
side. As a result, the athlete will
6 METCON | June 2016

shift a lot when they run. Again,
energy is wasted and performance
suffers.
An athlete who has an anterior
pelvic tilt will often complain of
pain in the sacroiliac (SI) joints,
quadratus lumborum (QL) muscle,
and knees.
Thoracic Spine
Excessive thoracic kyphosis
(rounding of the shoulders) may
have the biggest observable
negative impact on global extension.
Our scapula is attached to
our rib cage. A rounded thoracic
spine pushes the scapula up
and forward. This closes down
on the humerus and makes it
impossible to get the arms overhead
without manipulating the
position of the spine. Excessive
rounding also changes the position
of the rib cage, because it
is normally accompanied by an
excessive arch in the lower back.
In doing so, the ability to properly
recruit the trunk muscles is
inhibited.
Many functional exercises are
performed in the sagittal plane
(a vertical plane that passes
from anterior to posterior, dividing
the body into right and left
halves). From the shoulder, there
are many exercises that involve
flexion and extension of the
shoulder. The shoulder is pretty
dynamic and can move in and
out of multiple planes, but it really
depends on the positioning
of the scapula to do it efficiently.
When the scapula is too high,
you will need to compensate by
arching at your lower back to
get you arms over your head.
Again, this is an example of an
energy leak, in which the goal
is to get weight overhead; but to
do so, the entire spine must be
deviated. The more kyphotic a
person is, the more lordotic (the
bigger the arch in the low back)
the lumbar spine usually will be.
In addition, when a person has
an excessive curve in their thoracic
vertebrae, they will also
lose rotational mobility. Consid-
June 2016 | METCON
7

8 METCON | June 2016
Keep in mind that
dysfunction at one joint
leads to dysfunction
throughout the entire body.

ering how much rotational power
is needed for running and rope
climbing, this spells doom for
athletes looking to crush multimodal
PRs.
An athlete who has an excessive
thoracic curve will often complain
of shoulder impingement,
tennis elbow, and mid-back
pains.
Neck
A forward head carriage is the
most common postural deviation
seen at the head and neck.
The head weighs 8 to 11 pounds.
We need to remember that the
spine is one piece. If the neck
is out of position, the rest of the
body either follows it or is taxed
excessively to hold it in place.
One of the muscles over-worked
by a forward head carriage is
the levator scapula. A short and
overactive levator will pull up
and forward on the scapula and
make movement of the shoulder
dysfunctional.
The sport of fitness is incredibly
dynamic and requires explosiveness,
coordination, flexibility,
and stamina. Often overlooked
is the importance of maintaining
a center of mass. Having a
forward carriage displaces this
center of mass to a forward position.
Almost as if a person is
constantly falling, the athlete’s
brain will need to recruit additional
muscle to maintain alignment
and good positioning. This
is counter-productive for an athlete
who is trying to be faster,
stronger, and go longer because
muscle gets trained to do a job.
A muscle that is easily stimulated
can be recruited when it is
not needed. This is the concept
of synergistic dominance and
reciprocal inhibition. Poor alignment
for an athlete leads to muscle
imbalances and movement
impairments. A forward head
carriage is an example of this.
If we go back to our functional
anatomy, we know the levator
scapula muscle attaches from
the base of the skull to the top
of the scapula. A forward head
carriage will shorten the levator
scapula and the upper trapezius.
Proper shoulder function and
rib cage positioning will be very
difficult to achieve because the
lower trapezius will be inhibited
and the scapula will be hard to
depress.
A forward head carriage is associated
with shoulder impingement,
neck pains, and headaches.
In most parts of life, becoming
great has very little to do with
what you already excel at and
everything to do with the little
parts we hide. Functional training
has revolutionized the capacity
of the human body. Our “engines”
are stronger, faster, and
fitter than in any time throughout
history. The only thing that
will slow us down is failure to
take care of our smallest hidden
parts.
About the Author
Jeremy McCann is a pain relief
exercise expert, master
trainer for The Biomechanics
Method and owner of
Range of Motion Fitness in
Riverside, Calif. In addition
to his advanced certifications
from The BioMechanics
Method, he also holds numerous
corrective exercise
specialty certifications from
some of the industry’s most
prestigious institutions, including
the Gray Institute,
National Academy of Sports
Medicine, PTA Global and
FMS.
romfit.com
fb.com/romfitness
fb.com/JeremyMMcCann
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