Posts by Skylar Pond

Neck Injuries with Kettlebells?  Fix Your Gaze / Fix Your Swing.

Whatever modest success that I have had as a kettlebell competitor is due to the quality of my coaches.  One of which is the current Guiness World Record holder for the hour long cycle and multiple Master of Sport in IKFF,  the other is her coach, is the lead instructor for the Crossfit Kettlebell certification process and is an accomplished kettlebell athlete himself.  If you find yourself lucky enough to receive their direct coaching and cues, do as you’re told.  The results will follow.  Their technique requires no external validation but I’ll provide it  just the same.

Zach, Roo, their affiliate coaches and their interns teach the kettlebell swing as an integrated athletic movement. I will not endeavor to define the entire sequence.  The purpose of this post is to explain one fact:  We fix our gaze on a fixed point as we snatch and as we swing.  Our necks are relaxed.  The gaze is fixed on a single point allowing the torso and thoracic spine to rotate around it. The result is a smooth and subtle cervical extension at the bottom of the swing and a relative mild flexion at the lockout at the top of a kb snatch.

Here’s an example of the subtle cervical motion that I am describing.  This short clip was taken at my last competition.  This is how I was taught to move.  Please notice that I fix my gaze on a spot on the floor about 8′ in front of me.  Notice how I do not swing my gaze up and down with the bell as though I’m holding an orange or some other citrus fruit under my chin.  I do not move my neck.  Rather, my head is fixed and my body moves around me.

The reason that we move this way is simple and intuitive.  We fix our gaze because it is the safest and most efficient way to move.  Mild relative cervical motion occurs at the bottom of the swing for the same reason that a swimmer’s fixed neck rotates during a freestlye stroke relative to her rotating upper body.  When you fix your gaze, you are not extending or moving your neck and head but relative extension does occur.  A mildly extended neck position when not weight bearing is not dangerous or inefficient.  It is a primal position hard wired into our neurology from our most primitive locomotor patterns.  Watch a person move for the first time.   What default cervical position does a baby adapt as it crawls?

The alternative to this relaxed and intuitive strategy is fixing the head as though holding a tennis ball under the chin and sweeping the head and gaze from floor to wall in each swing.  This alternative approach is so stiff, unathletic and dysfunctional, that you need only try it to realize that it is a poorly thought out idea.  Just for fun and to drive home the point, I’ll break down a brief argument into three categories:  Safety, Performance, and Biomechanics.

Safety

The kettlebell swing is not a weight bearing neck exercise.  It is an explosive hip movement.  It is a jump where your feet never leave the ground.   In the kettlebell swing the neck is not weight bearing.  There is no more risk of a compressive extension injury while extending the neck a few degrees at the base of a kettlebell swing as there is looking up at a basketball before jumping for a rebound.

If you are recovering from a neck injury that is so inflamed that the mild relative motion involved in the proper mechanics of a swing is causing pain and inflammation, you need to put swings on the shelf for a couple weeks, get an assessment, some treatment, heal up and get back to the bell when you’re ready.  It is better to peel back to a regression movement rather than defile your technique and stubbornly push through with stiff necked kettlebell swings.

Q- Ok it’s safe, but is fixing the gaze an effective way to stabilize and use the spine and has this been proven?

A- Yes it is.  And Yes, it has.

Performance

Gabriele Wulf is a professor at the University of Nevada.  She has published and impressive volume of studies over the past decade exploring the importance of fixing the gaze on an object and it’s effect on efficiency of movement and athletic performance.  Her colleagues and she refer to it as “external fixation” or “attentional focus” and have proven time and time again that gaze fixation improves measureable markers of athletic performance in everything from muscular recruitment, to throwing darts, to juggling.

In 2007 she and her colleagues analyzed in a published controlled study the effect of fixing the gaze upon a target in the vertical jump test.  As I described before, the hip extension of a kb swing or snatch closely matches that of the mechanics of a vertical jump.  This is as good a study as we can ever hope to find on this topic. In fact it exceeds the expectation that I had when I began researching this article.  In her study, she had uninstructed control groups to simply jump as high as they were able using whatever strategy they felt was most effective.  Those participants were then instructed to fix their gaze upon the vertical target (mild cervical extension and gaze fixation- sounds familiar right?) and attempt again.  Their vertical jump and center of mass height improved measurably and significantly (1.0 cm improvement on average) compared to controls.   If you have the time, please read the linked out studies.  The case is closed on performance.  Thanks for playing.  We could skip to my a conclusion from here,  but I’ve got one more thing on my mind so bear with me for another paragraph or two.

Biomechanics

Some have mistakenly referenced the Joint By Joint model of movement to rationalize striving for a fixed neck/ cervical region.  The Joint by joint model is adapted from Janda’s Layer Syndrome as pictured below.  It describes a common biomechanical fault of stiff/ hypertonic neck and upper back.  This is not an ideal to be aspired for.  This is a pathological presentation.  These stable/hypertonic areas require mobility.  When these imbalances or not addressed, the result is the Upper and Lower Crossed Syndromes also pictured below.  These models, when understood and applied correctly, would actually support increased cervical mobility which is achieved with the fixed gaze, mobile cervical style of swing as taught by my coaches and most of the serious coaches in the kettlebell world.

In fact, fixing the treatment area and creating relative motion at that segment by moving the body around it is often THE most effective way to rehabilitate, activate and treat the neck.  Examples of this style of mobility include the Turkish Get-Up and Baby Get-Up for shoulder and glute medius rehabilitation.  The days of clam shell exercises and banded external rotation exercises are behind us.  If corrective exercise is to have a lasting effect, it must be integrated and functional.

Conclusion:

Holding a tennis ball, large orange or grapefruit under your chin while exercising is not entirely useless.  Grapefruit is high in citrus bioflavonoids which help in the healing process and will prevent scurvy.  If you are holding a grapefruit under your chin while you kettlebell, please remove it and eat it.  Don’t worry about “breaking your canister” by fixing your gaze.  Athletes’ necks move when they kettlebell swing, when they swim, and when they jump.  Attempting to swing your gaze from the floor to the wall with a stiff neck will not make you safe, nor will it make you effective.  When you swing a bell, lock your spine into a rigid lever, fire your hips into extension, and allow your neck to relax and respond naturally.

About the Author:

Dr. Pond holds the rank of IKFF Elite Level Sprinter which he earned at this year’s Northwest Kettlebell Championships in the #70 snatch division.

This repost is brought to you by the Blog of Morgan Junction Crossfit– Old Country Strong

“Winnie The Pooh is JACKED.”

– Well worn poohbook

I’ve read my boys our  A.A. Milne copy of Pooh so many times that the hard cover was lost and forgotten years ago.  I’ve always been fond of the bear of very little brain, but this was an angle I had not yet considered.

This all started with the Zach Filer’s random and passionate assertion that “Grizzley bears eat honey for strength.”  It then got personal – “Winnie the Pooh is JACKED.  YOU need to get #poohjacked.”  Yes, he sometimes hashtags verbally.  This came a little out of left field but he was armed with the swift and blinding logic of a man used to arguing his point.

1)       “The man has no neck”

2)       “His arms are as thick as his quads!”

3)       “He doesn’t have thumbs so he carries shit with a Gorilla Grip all day long.”

The guy is starting to make a lot of sense here.  I looked over my old book with new eyes and came to the following conclusion:

I do need to get Poohjacked, and you do too.

First off, let’s get real clear about which Winnie The Pooh we’re talking about here.  The original 1926 Pooh is the only jacked one.  This is an important distinction and it may prove useful.

Exhibit A – JACKED  

– A thumbless Gorilla grip farmers’ carry all day long without a stitch of clothing on. The guy is a legend.

Exhibit B – Distinctly NOT JACKED

 – Rounded Thoracic spine to match some anterior head carriage.  Shame.  Oh, and Sweet midriff. 

Never mind the fact that the Disney bear or Exhibit B has so habitually broken his gorilla grip that he actually grew thumbs.  The important distinction between the two and the secret to the original Pooh’s stoutness is his rigid spine.  He is a stuffed bear and likely has no spine so he has that genetic advantage  but you could learn from this bear of very little brain.

Maintaining a rigid spine during athletic movements allows the athlete to treat their spine and surrounding musculature like an efficient and simple system of levers and pullys.   The ability to maintain rigid tension through that lever determines how much energy is wasted in the motion between the 26 individual elements that compose the lever that is your spine.

Countless other examples of #Poohjacked can be found.

– Rigid spine = Perfect hamstring tension while dislodging one’s self from pots of hunny.

– No spine means no problem knocking out hollow rocks and long sets of perfect push-ups while hitting that morning session of “stoutness exercises before the glass.”

Need to hold plank while you check if a heffelump has eaten your honey in the bottom of a Very Deep Pit? Not a problem.

Conclusion:  Life is hard when you have a spine.  Everything from hamstring tension to your workplace ergonomics wants to flex your spine and compromise that powerful lever that you work so hard to maintain.  The explosive hip extension that you cultivate as an athlete is a canon.  If your spine lacks the capacity to lock into rigidity, then you are firing the canon from a canoe.  Every time you pick something up, every time you sit down, you have a choice.  Build a barge.  #poohjacked

Written by: Skylar

About the Authour: Dr. Skylar Pond graduated from The University of Western States with a doctorate in chiropractic in 2008. He continued his education at UWS to achieve the additional degree of Certified Chiropractic Sports Physican and serves as the team physician of the Old Country Iron Club’s Competition Team. To fully view Sky’s background and look at his home facilities web page Click Here to learn more about the Doc.

This 5 Movement flow is a staple for my shoulder rehab patients lately.  I have this flow down pat and run through it quickly before EVERY workout that I do as part of my warm-up.  I recommend that you do the same for 2-6 weeks.  Your scap will thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38DMbZEl0iI?rel=0

Hey everyone,

Here’s a mobility that is especially useful for those readers of mine who are employed, as sitting at keyboards shortens the pec minor and internally rotates the shoulders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8QDSPlNF-M

Here’s a new mob that I came up with yesterday.  It combines two of my favorites:  Scapulothoracic Motion & aggressive Pec Minor pin and stretch.

I talk to the MMA crowd here and say “scapula blade” dozens of times, but this is an essential mobility for desk jockeys and gymnasts alike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOT10sx9LvE?rel=0

Sport Chiropractic Seattle

One thing that sets this clinic apart from other sport chiropractic clinics in Seattle is the emphasis we place on sport specific rehabilitation.  We strive to blur the line between rehab exercises, strength exercises and sport specific movement.  In this installment of “Around The House Kettlebell” I demonstrate how to use a dowel or broom handle to recreate the shoulder stability demands of a  Kettlebell move called: 1/2 Turkish Getup Return with Windmill.  This light weight version is used here in the clinic as a stepping stone to the weighted kettlebell version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bUeCITBJvQ?rel=0

Clinic Tour Video

If you are seeking Sports Chiropractic in Seattle, please do not make the mistake of assuming that a chiropractor with athletic hobbies is your answer.  Sports Chiropractic is not regular chiropractic performed by an athlete.  Sports Chiropractic is a style of practice that requires an additional skill set which is not typically taught in school.  It requires the right tools, the right education and a lot of hands on experience.  When you assume that a practitioner with athletic hobbies is a sports medicine chiropractor, you may be disappointed to find yourself on a 64 visit treatment plan to correct the alignment of your neck subluxations, especially when you are there for your knee pain!

Sports Medicine Northwest is in fact owned and operated by competitive athletes but that is not what makes us an effective sports medicine clinic.  We are effective by design.

Dr. Pond has the post-graduate degree of Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician.  We use a combination of soft tissue techniques including Graston Technique and Orthopedic Massage.  Our patients benefit from personalized and challenging home care in the form of exercises and self mobilizations.  These are tools that last a lifetime.  We are constantly updating our rehab tool kit with tapes, bands, balls, cups, compression etc.  We also perform extremity and spinal manipulations as well as acupuncture.

We built this space, selected the equipment, designed the treatment protocols and hired the right staff to achieve the goal of being the best option in Seattle for sports chiropractic.  We built this place for you.  If you are an athlete in pain seeking an alternative to rest, ice, NSAIDs, and more rest, please come see us and find out what we can do for you.

Dr. Pond is the Team Physician of the Old Country Iron Club.

Everybody knows the classic piriformis stretches of Thread the Needle and Pigeon pose. More modern/ trendy versions involve elevating the front leg onto a box before leveling the hips into a pigeonesque pose. These moves do a good job of targeting piri and the gemellus muscles but they often fail to help with hip pain that results from volume squatting. If that sounds familiar, try this squat specific version out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSLbXbrT6p0?rel=0

This is a modification of the Ido Portal Flow where I emphasize scap protraction, change the order of movements and add a banded pull-apart. Use this daily for 8 weeks particularly as a warm-up. As a warm-up do one set with 10 reps each. As a strengthening routine to be used 2-3x/ week hit 3 consecutive sets.