Taking Responsibility for my Movement

Guest Post by Carina Huggins

Corrective exercise is about rebuilding and strengthening connections.

It is all about taking active responsibility for your movement.  It is so much more than listening to cues from a coach and correcting them during a WoD.  It is so much more than letting your mind fade and body take over.  

A few months back, I participated in a low back pain research study.  During the study, I was able to observe my multifudus and transverse abdominus muscles on an ultrasound screen.  A key component of the study was building the patient’s awareness of the mind-body connection.  The clinical researcher asked me to imagine my TrA contracting.  I did, with some skepticism, and was shocked to see a tiny grey band of muscles on the ultrasound screen flinch in response:  My transverse abdominus, were moving in response to a thought.  Not even an active attempt at a movement.  Just a visualization!  It was in that moment that I really began to understand the mind-body connection.

The last few months have been about re-routing the energy that passes between the brain, nervous system and skeletal system. It is a deeply transformational practice that involves immersing yourself completely in sensation, yet at the same time, keeping your mind active and aware. The nervous system is quite a dynamic system. If you observe nerves under a microscope, you can see that they are like strange little star fish - alive, moving and constantly forming new connections.  

Somewhere in the middle of struggling up out of a squat, with a weighted bar on my back, I take note of what my body wants to do, and how it wants to get the bar up there.  Before, I would have just carried on that path upward toward the rack, my mind absent and in the “zone.”  It is SO much easier to just let go mentally, and let your body take over, with the habits and patterns that it knows.

 This detached “zone” state - or sticking with your current patterned movement is common.  Even if you see people responding to corrective cues, at some point it slips and they revert back to what their body has patterned.  It is so much easier to just go with what you body feels is "normal" to it.  Even if your "normal" isn't what is "right."

CrossFit lit up my nervous system; new movements and activities resulted in a surge of activity in my muscular and nervous systems.  Those connections took place in the context of acute pain, dysfunctional movement and imbalance.  After thousands of reps at another CrossFit box, bad patterns were deeply ingrained and compensatory patterns were well developed (the only way I kept up with some movements despite my clear limitations was through compensation.)

Unsurprisingly, acute pain was established.  Unfortunately your muscles do not speak English.  They only speak in the language of pain.  And in emitting these pain signals up to the brain, they really, really hope (and pray) you have the sense to figure things out.  Because they really, really hope (and pray) that you have good connections between your mind and body. 


Training at CrossFit MOST, I have to be aware.  No more detaching during a workout into a muddled place called “the zone.”  

I need to go deep inside myself to feel which muscles are priming themselves to fire. In a split second, I have to shake off the physical sensations of my muscles burning and reconnect my mind with my body.  I focus on my body is supposed to do, and think about activating the right muscles to make that movement.  

Doing it right sometimes feels unnatural:  Strange and unfamiliar territory.  Just like a squat felt the first time you ever did one with a bar. Just like a wallball felt, the first time you threw it and caught it with your face!
It may be subtle (nobody is going to guess from your pain-face that all this crazy shit above, is going on in your mind!) but it is very, very effective.  

With time and repetitions the connections are being forged and strengthened.  Many corrective movements do not feel alien anymore.  Inside, my nervous system is responding and the right muscles are developing.

In the space of half a second, I have gone through this profound process on the inside.  On the outside, my coach is observing my squat and complementing me on it.  It has begun to take on the form it should, and I am rising up to the bar.

Repatterning movements through corrective exercise involves internal intelligence. 

To improve mind-body connections, you must have a bridge.  That bridge is coaching and the development of deep internal awareness.  Coaches help us with both - they bring to us that awareness of our patterns and behavior, tapping into the knowledge base that the body has already developed.  Then, they help us reformulate everything that we’ve learnt up to that point: Through explanation, demonstration and touch.  

Much of the rest of it is up to you.  For deep, fundamental change you must get away from passive WoD-brain.  You must focus in on bodily sensation and the internal experience.  Sometimes you want to throw off those cues and do it the easier way, the way your body has programmed.  But you cannot.  You have to summon willpower and take in the cues and start forging those new connections.

It's Not About the Destination

I am going to start by apologizing to you all; unfortunately 3 degrees and a love of writing has left me with the inability to write a short guest blog post, but grab a coffee, settle in and let me tell you a little story.  

When you go out into the mountains for a hike, you spend 90% of your day slogging upward, along crags, unstable boulders, dusty trails.  You wipe sweat off your forehead and swat imaginary bugs.  Your view is constantly blocked by trees or rocks, or maybe the backpack or butt of the person in front of you !  Most of that day is spent muttering under your breath, grunting with effort, day dreaming about the cold beer or delicious lunch at the top.  Your reward.  Your achievement.

10% of your day is spent at the top of the mountain, or at a lake, basking in the reward, eating that delicious lunch under the warm sun, enjoying that cold beer you spent the last hour dreaming about. 

Yet, when we descend from a mountain and drive home, we think about the entire day, not just that short moment at the top.  And we realize it was the entire thing that was truly rewarding.  Why?  The pleasure is to be found not in the reward, but in the entire journey. 

This is an important way to approach CrossFit, and one that is often lost on athletes.  When you are in a sport that offers such instant gratification – a short, intense workout with immediate rewards, quick results and obvious improvements over the short term, it is easy to focus on the goals, the places you want to get to, and the achievements you will eventually log in your book. In fact, here are the results I got addicted to:

  

But what about all those little moments along the way?  What about all those WoDs that just sucked the life right out of you?   What about the things you had to go through to get where you wanted to be?  How can you keep doing that over the long term if you don’t focus on the value to be derived from those moments?

For the first few months of my journey, I was completely, narrowly focused on an end-state.  NO MORE PAIN  (OK, probably slammin' body too).  Those goals were a constant companion through workouts.

 I found the first few months to be a rollercoaster.  I couldn’t believe how frustrated I would get over the simplest exercises, or how upset I’d feel about a pain flare up.  I’d constantly think “one day I won’t be hurting anymore” or “One day I’ll be RXing WoDs.” I fixated on the future.  That end-point.

Weeks turned to a month.  A month turned to 3 months.  Over time I dug in and got settled into the routine of rehabilitation.  But a part of me continued to count the days, thinking that the end point must be getting closer.

 However, life throws you curve balls.  In the Fall, I started developing low back pain, and in the winter slipped on ice.  A silly slip turned into 2 days in my bed, not even being able to roll over onto my side.  It took another 6 months to stabilize my low back and get it to a point where I could do basic movements again.

You cannot predict life.  Nor can you control it.  I was pissed off and thought that all of this wasn’t worth it.  Everytime I thought about my end-goal, I wanted to give up. 

If I’ve got one thing going for me, its’ that I am very stubborn and stubbornly face down challenges.   I eat them up and push through them with the right support.  As soon as I could, I was back at it. 

This time, however, it was different.  I threw myself into education, asking my coach and therapist what was going on, why I was doing this, what it was affecting, why this hurt or that hurt.  If a movement was programmed into a workout, I’d be asking "why?" and "how?" and "what’s the effect of that movement?"  I think I've googled every single muscle mentioned in each conversation I've had with Coach Swagar.

 I started journaling every single exercise or stretch, I wrote down how I slept, how my recovery was, what ached and what connections I could see between my exercises and how things were improving.  On my shelf right now I have 7 Moleskine journals filled from page to page with my workouts and notes over the past 18 months.

  I researched nutrition, dedicated a room to rolling and stretching, and made it a routine.  All of a sudden, the journey took on a new meaning for me. I began to enjoy it and see it as valuable in itself.

Through that process, I finally learnt to focus not on the destination, but the journey itself.   

While I was going through this tremendous personal growth & development, a team was hard at work planning how to get me back to the place I needed to be. 

In my early days, my vastly inferior knowledge led me to believe I’d be doing some stretchy band stuff, rolling and some simple exercises for a few weeks, et voila!  Back to smashing out Grace, or Murph!  I had no idea of the detailed planning that goes into the project that is fixing a busted-up CrossFitter. 

This is a very condensed version of what has occurred over the past 18 months under the close guidance, expertise and care of CrossFit Most.  

This right here demonstrates why it is important to seek the guidance of an experienced professional if you are dealing with biomechanical issues.  

1.) Identification of muscle imbalances, weaknesses & improper patterning

2.) Develop rehabilitation plan of attack & reduce acute pain

        -Tissue sparing exercises & stabilization

-Manual treatment plan (including active release, cranio-sacral therapy & osteopathy, graston, spinal decompression, myofascial rolling & stretching, ice & heat, anti-inflammatory nutrition protocols)

3.) Correction of individual deficiencies

Tissue sparing exercises & stabilization,

Spine (damaged thoracic spine – degenerative disc disease & osteoarthritis), lack of voluntary abdominal control or stability, ankle dorsiflexion, improperly patterned hip hinge, sciatica, pec tightness & shoulder instability, poorly functioning gluteal muscles / gluteal amnesia)

4.) Re-pattern functional compound movements

(where we are in August 2012!  Yay!)

5.) Increase the intensity of general strength training.

6.)  Training for power development and performance. 

Back On Track With Corrective Exercise

Back On Track With Corrective Exercise

Bent over a crumpled female athlete crying on the ground, I said, with an assertive tone “ you need to stop crossfiting, it should not be painful.” Then I got a plastic bag and ran outside and put some snow in it so that she could ice her back.

This athlete soon became my first corrective exercise client and my dear friend. She has helped me develop a keen eye and a dedication to form and correct movement. From that day on I dove into learning more about how to help people correct their imbalances and bad biomechanics.

My new passion for form and correct movement became a curse. I would watch CrossFitters move, picking out weaknesses and improper patterns. I saw so many clients that should not have been doing what they were doing. It truly opened my mind to form leads function and one of my many Swagarisms of “ just because you can do it, does not mean you should”.

I will introduce my crumpled female athlete, Carina Huggins. She had been a CrossFitter for a year before she fell to the pain.  Her problems were vast from a motor vehicle accident she was in two years prior to CrossFit. From the accident, she had developed problematic muscle imbalances and extensive compensations. Carina had multiple pain areas and structural imbalances. Her road to corrective movement was going to be long, so I sat down with her rehabilitative team and made a plan.

Pain management was our first battle and EDCUATION on what she needed to be doing to stop this pain.

Education was a big part of the first months with Carina. She is a very intelligent person who wanted to know what we were doing and why. So we needed to educate her and inform her every step of the way.

This is now a philosophy that I maintain for all my clients. If you take the time to educate them as to how and why you are doing things they are more likely to succeed. However, it is a choice. Many people want the quick fix the magic pill. Sorry to say, but there is no pill or magic when it comes to Corrective Exercise. It is a long process.  It takes time and hard work, discipline and attention to detail. It takes motivation and internal strength. This lends to another Swagarism “Rome was not built in a day.”

Coach Swagar