MAY 2022 | ISSUE 42

#QUOTEOFTHEMONTH

A message from Founder and Owner, Coach Tristan Mitchell:

Youth strength and performance training is a topic that has been on my mind as of late and we have a great podcast linked up below hosted by PhysioRoom’s Dr Andrew Fix interviewing a great friend of mine, Simon Escorcia. Simon runs a youth running club called Colorado Coyotes and in the podcast they’ll discuss all things youth running, sports development, and much more. With that, I figured we’d stick with the topic for this month. Side note - Andrew’s podcast, The Code, is fantastic and there are many good episodes to checkout after you have listened to this one!

At Lions Den we prioritize the fundamentals of strength training and high movement quality over how much weight an athlete can lift, how high they can jump, or how hard they can initially work. It’s important that we build the foundation of the strength training pyramid with strong fundamental movement patterns first and foremost. This kind of work isn’t always the flashy kind of training that many want and think they need to be doing but it’s the kind of work that will set them up for both short and long performance.

As coaches we do young athletes a disservice by asking them to perform complex strength movements when they lack the fundamentals necessary to perform those movements effectively and safely. In addition, for many young athletes spending the time and energy trying to learn overly complex strength movements isn’t a good investment of their training time. It often doesn’t translate to benefitting their sports performance and doesn’t always infer the physiological and mental benefits one would hope to gain from strength training.

A fundamentals first approach teaches young athletes transferable movement skills to benefit sports performance, it safely helps them improve overall strength (which provides numerous musculoskeletal benefits and much more), and it doesn’t burn them out mentally by asking them to perform movements that many of them instinctively know they are not ready to perform yet.

You might be wondering what exactly I mean by “complex strength movements” and “fundamentals”, let me provide a couple examples:

A very popular movement that many high school athletes will be asked to perform is a hang clean, now there is nothing wrong with a hang clean but if you can’t proficiently front squat first (displaying the shoulder, hip, and ankle range of motion requirements) then it’s hard for me to see the benefits of poorly performed hang cleans. I would argue that you’d be far better off working on becoming better at the front squat first, building the base strength, range of motion, and motor control. As the fundamentals are mastered, if learning to hang clean will benefit an athlete for their sport than progress them to it, far too often they are thrown into hang cleans while never actually being taught how to front squat (or any other variation of the squat!), let alone progressed through the nuances of how to properly hang clean.

Another example would be the use of plyometrics, again nothing wrong with plyometrics, but if an athlete can not maintain and display stability in a body weight squat, it doesn’t make much sense to ask that athlete to do box jumps, broad jumps, or other repetitive jumping drills. This often results in collapsing, or valgus, knees (think knees coming together with the feet more spread apart) which is a very undesirable movement mechanic to repeat, especially under the increased demand of speed (plyometric). Instead, lets make sure all athletes can show strong, stable positions in a slow and controlled environment before repetitively loading their tissues and joints in a highly demanding movement.

I am not making the argument that every young athlete should have perfect movement 100% of the time, there are learning curves that will be different for each individual athlete and movement errors are part of training, our goal as coaches is to mitigate them. When we start with and focus on the fundamentals we better position young athletes for short term performance benefits and build the foundation for long term performance and health. The best part about having a strong foundation of fundamental movement patterns is that you can build much more complex strength movements on that foundation if you so chose.

If you have questions on how your young athlete can build their best strength foundation contact us today, we’re here to help!

Ladies Lunch & Lift with Coach Sarah May 21st

#NutritionTip with Tammy!

Energy Balance: Calories In, Calories Out

If we’re talking in thermodynamics lingo, then of course a calorie is a calorie!   The fact that energy cannot be destroyed - it can only be gained, lost or stored - is a basic fundamental that we learned a long time ago.  

Big Food pushes us to focus on energy balance because they want us to believe that calories are just calories.  They say we are overweight because we eat too much and move too little.

However, it’s not quite that easy.  The human body is not a fixed machine and food is not just simple packets of energy.

Once the energy in food gets in the body, all bets are off.   Certain foods require a lot of energy just to metabolize them (like proteins).  Some foods pass right through us or feed the microorganisms that live inside us (like fiber).  Other foods tend to be stored instead of burned by our bodies (like an excess of simple sugars).  Yet other foods have calories that really satiate us (like healthy fats) and result in us taking in fewer calories.

Of course we can’t go totally crazy with food consumption and completely ignore energy balance.  We just have to change our focus from the quantity of calories to the quality of calories.  

Learn to eat real, nutrient-dense whole foods and stop the calorie-counting madness.  Real food satiates you, feeds your microbiome, crushes your cravings, protects your liver, helps you rebuild & repair tissue, and fuels your activity.

It’s more about what you eat than how much you eat!  Learn more in our small groups and individual nutrition therapy sessions. Reach out for a complimentary consultation today.

#MOBILITY

Thoracic Mobility Using the Foam Roller by: Coach Joel

What’s up Lions? This month we’re addressing shoulder health. If you’ve ever had a challenge with upper body posture, pain and stiffness in the lower neck, upper back & thoracic spine(t-spine) or shoulder complex, the following mobilizations will help. A stiff thoracic spine is a major contributor of shoulder and neck dysfunction. The t-spine smash is a favorite for those who experience these symptoms and work to improve them. Grab a foam roller, then get to the ground.

Trying to improve thoracic extension can be intense so it's imperative to incorporate your breathwork and accumulate at least 5 minutes of total work. Any breathing technique can work here as long as it includes deep, manageable inhalations and slow controlled exhalations. Focused breathwork simultaneously provides assessment of intensity and captures control of your nervous system. If you can’t breathe deeply, ease back with less pressure and/or arching range.

Test and retest your shoulder positions to see how well it worked. The best times to do this are after workouts involving holding heavy weights overhead. It also works great to break up long bouts at your computer. Before bedtime is always a great time due to the focused breathwork helping to jump start the parasympathetic nervous system and help promote good sleep. If you have questions, other issues or would like to dive deeper into creating a more supple body, please feel free to reach out. Let’s schedule a personalized private 30 minute session with your friendly neighborhood mobility nerd. Stay Mobile My Friends!

#PODCAST OF THE MONTH

The Code: A Guide to Health and Human Performance | Youth Running Development with Simon Escorcia