S&C or Personal Training for Health Benefits?

How many coaches are training people and not really addressing why they are doing what they are doing and then not even checking to see that it works. The job of a strength and conditioning coach is not to simply make players tired and fatigued, although this may lead to increases in some elements of fitness and even in elite sport people do it.

I think what is very important though is that the only goals of a strength and conditioning coach are :

1: Prevent Injury

2:Improve Physical Performance

I think that the two goals written above get mis-interpreted and sometimes athletes end up following the personal trainer route of training for general fitness.

Dont get me wrong there are some amazing PT's, I know a few myself but in many instances they are faced with clients who dont really have a goal other than drop a dress size, lose fat or look better. It is very important then that the training done by many PT's (probably rightly for those goals) and to be honest, normal gym goers, who get on the bike or treadmill for half hour and burn calories, is not performance enhancement training for sports. Just making people tired as is seen in circuit training and other such activities is not a basis for performance enhancement. Athletes need to be following structured training programs which are multi-faceted after being screened for movement inefficencies via something along the lines of the PCA. This will measure athletes in the basic movement efficiency that make up sports and games, such as lunge, squat, step up, brace and rotate. This then gives a basis for program writing and allows a specific plan to be created and monitored/adapted as the days/weeks pass.

This program must be adaptable and this is where good coaching comes in and many miss the trick. Vern Gambetts talks a lot about watching movement and that "testing is training and training is testing". We never stop assessing our athletes because we should be constantly looking at how they move and where the weaknesses lie and adapting their program to make them move better over time, giving them a better base and mechanical resilience.

For goal #1 above I think that every S&C coach should work with a physiotherapist or sports rehabilitator for a few weeks a year and try to see and feel what they see and feel. This will give you a solid grounding in how the body breaks down through injury so that we can then try to prevent it by giving our athletes the movement efficiency to cope with their sport. Kelvin Giles says that every injury has a journey and we need to be trying to source the paths that it took so that we can not let it happen again in others. This analysis of injuries and MDT group discussion about how they occured over time builds personal experience and when coupled with a solid anatomical and bio-mechanical knowledge, allows coaches to see poor movement that could leads to injury in a gym or field setting.

The Problems with Anterior Pelvic Tilt

So What is Anterior Pelvic Tilt?

Well if you imagine your pelvis is a bucket of water and if your pouring water onto your toes, you are anteriorly tilted and if your pouring water onto your heels you are posteriorly tilted. Often people with lower back pain will have an anterior pelvic tilt and this can be because as your pelvis tilts forwards you are also increasing your lumbar extension (lordosis) putting lots of pressure through your spine. 

Vladimir Janda categorized this form of dysfunction as 'lower crossed sydnrome' and said it was often coupled with 'swayback', weak abdominals and increased lumbar lordosis.  The muscular weaknesses observed in this condition are detailed in the table below:

Tight 

Iliacus and Psoas 

Rectus Femoris 

TFL 

Adductor Group   

Errector Spinae   

Gastrocnemius,Soleus 

Weak/Inhibited 

Rectus Abdominis

Oblique

Gluteus medius

Gluteus maximus 

Hamstrings

Also the stress at L5/S1 due to this syndrome can also cause problems with the sacroiliac joint and knee.  Piriformis syndrome can also be implicated which occurs when the piriformis muscle gets tight and/or spasms, which causes the sciatic nerve to become irritated, literally causing a 'pain in the bum' and or down the back of the leg and  into the back.

So how do we fix this common problem in athletes?

Well firstly we need to address the soft tissue problems associated with lower crossed syndrome and these may include muscular adhesions, trigger points and active release at glute medius, TFL, iliopsoas and sacro-tuberous ligament.  Once we have done this we can progress into a stretching and strengthening routine addressing the problems listed in the table above. 

However when we have identified a condition like this it is important to realise that we cant just have all our soft tissue work done, then stretch and think that we have addressed the problem. It is important that posture is looked at and athletes actively try to change their posture by retraining and in this case strengthening the rectus abdominis is crucial.  A favourite exercise of mine for this is Gray Cook's curl up which when done correctly is excellent.