This looks like a job for me..

Thank you to everyone who have been patiently adjusting your schedules and locations and for your understanding during these fun fall weeks when we welcome the students, programs, bands, athletes, events, construction, grand openings, closures, and surely a few other things I'm forgetting.

Dips:


Last week I wrote about pull ups being a good developer for the arm flexors as an expression of the body's intent to elevate relative to a fixed bar overhead. Hopefully it was clear how the sequential chain of events works and the subsequent development of this chain of events. Again, hand strength is where it starts (if you can't even hold your body, you can't pull it.. much like a heavy dead lift) and then scapular stability, followed by scapular mobility, and finishing with the latismus dorsi doing most of the work and your biceps helping out in what little way they can relative to the bigger muscles at work.

This week I'll discuss the DIP as a developer of the arm extensors. Arm (elbow) extension happens when you decide that you want a little more space between your self and an object that is close to you. You're going to push something.

Push ups and the countless varieties of them are a fantastic way to develop that. The problem is that most people can either do way too many push ups or not nearly enough to stimulate the stress needed to facilitate any development. If you can do 40+ push ups repeatedly, then very likely your body is no longer accommodating the stress with physiological adaptation. The push up is mush like running in the sense that if you're good at it and it's fairly easy then you're just beating a dead horse, much like I am right now. On the other hand, if you can barely do 2 or 3 without dragging your hips on the ground, then the limiting factors are too great to overcome and the stress in the movers isn't enough of an issue for the body to respond against. So it's disregarded by the body as just another challenge that's too hard.

Enter "dips". Here's an example of the beginning of the dipping progression:



I searched for a solid 15 minutes and this was the best I could find. This is a great exercise for elbow extension but a lot of the movement is generated at the shoulder and chest and finished by the triceps. So if you feel other things burning, there's a good reason for it.

Next we move to the parallel bars:



Not a bad video. Again, stay tight in the torso. This is where scapular stability and mobility come into play. So make sure you follow the same progressions as with pull ups.

- First practice "support" where you just dangle for a good 30 seconds to a minute with nice hollow posture with your shoulder blades pulled together and down so your head and chest are high. Pull the elbows back and avoid flaring them out. No chicken wings! Keep your hips under your shoulders and you can bend your knees.

- Then move to "negatives" where you will ride the dip all the way down as slowly as you can. You can even have someone gently pull on your hips to "help". You must maintain the torso rigidity and the shoulder placement the entire time. So keep the blades and elbows back. Hold hollow.

- Once you can do them. Do them with some gusto. Avoid doing them slowly so do sets of only a few that are fast. Try to get a good 50 - 100 a week.

- If you can do 12+ then you might want to put a belt with some weights on. Or get some rings and do them on a set of rings.

Watch this: http://gymnasticswod.com/content/dip-rings

Notice how tightly he hold the "hollow" position through out the entire movement.



A little Controversy

I love controversy! I enjoy every minute of it. I like instigating it. I like fueling it. I like playing devil's advocate. I find it so interesting. And, at the end of the day, when everyone puts out their flames, I feel like learning takes place and things ultimately improve for the positive.

So here we go: Read as many or as few of these links and do with the information what ever your little heart desires.

Ready? Go!

http://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/noakes-s-big-fat-mistake-1.1266751
- Noakes wrote the book "Lore of Running." It was all the rage a few years ago but I threw it down after I read the nutrition section. It was status quo so I discounted the rest of it and tossed it away. His new advice is to tear the nutrition section out of the book. I may have to finish reading it now.

- Before you light your computer on fire, not all carbohydrates are created equal. Potatoes and yams are wonderful sources of starch (just peel them well). I eat massive amounts of them as I PERSONALLY function very well with them; BUT if I needed to shed a few pounds for various reasons, then I would consider reducing the amount of potatoes I was consuming.

http://www.nature.com/news/calorie-restriction-falters-in-the-long-run-1.11297
- Those of you counting your calories, I suggest you find something better to obsess over. Quality over quantity. And, if you think you're smarter than millions of years of development and you opt for a "low fat" or modified variety of something that didn't come that way from nature, well, you're probably wrong. Stop being wrong.

http://scdlifestyle.com/2012/09/dr-siebecker-explains-the-art-and-science-of-the-fodmap-diet-podcast-45/
- Not all "good" things are good for YOU as an individual. Especially things that ferment. Maybe if humans had ruminant stomachs. Jus' sayin'.

- Don't mess with how your body deals with fructose. Yes, high-fructose syrups are devastating to your liver.

http://www.naturalnews.com/037062_eggs_junk_science_financial_ties.html
- Check who pays for studies and don't take advice from people who stand to gain from you taking that advice.

- Keep in mind: the USDA (invested in AGRICULTURE) writes the federal diet guidelines. What if it was the USDI (ice cream)? What would the guidelines look like then? 8 servings of ice cream per day? SWEET!

http://www.cen-online.org/articles/90/i35/Glycosylation-Linked-Cancer.html
- I had to search what the word "glycosylation" meant. Seems like it means "to bind to a carbohydrate molecule". This is a bit above my pay grade, but pretty interesting.

http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/caveman-paleo-diet?fullpage=true
- Long-winded article that merely says "GO BACK TO THE SOURCE!" Eat from the source. Stop buying into hype and eating junk that scrambles your metabolic circuitry and eat real food. You stand only to gain from this approach.