TuesDi

A: 65-85-100-100
B: 6:09 175#
HSPU off the box

A: 135 – 155 – 175 – 175

B: 10:01 w/ scaled HSPUs (25lb plate + abmat)

6am used everything but the kitchen sink this morning. Pretty sure there was only 1 barbell going spare. Every abmat and almost every plate was used.

Kudos to Will and Sara for making a crowded WOD go seamlessly (again). When are we moving to 28th street? We could make a WOD out of moving the gym up there.

Invictus programming:

B. 1:09 – 1:02 – 1:05min
C. 3:28 - 3:32 – 3:36min
rows in 1:46.9 – 1:50.4 – 1:52.3. 
I highly recommend Not doing the row so fast.

ready to see the open wod tomorrow

On the adductor article, while I generally agree with the point made, I want to add some points based on my own observations and experience.  If you’ve taken a class with me when we are squatting, you have probably heard me go over something along these lines before, but I’m hoping this will help people.

The adductors are a large and powerful muscle group (or at least they should be), and I think that a lot of proportional weakness in them is caused by people not knowing how to properly engage them, or not being able to get into a position where they can effectively use them.

Long story short, the adductors both adduct the leg (bring the legs together), and extend the hip (stand you up out of a squat).  However, they can only effectively work to extend the hip if the knees are out.  Once the knees start to cave in, the muscle is shortened and loses part of its potential to stand you up.

Why does this happen?Maybe the adductors are weak and the brain is protecting them from injury by using other muscles, maybe they are too tight and can’t get into position.  Alternatively, maybe they are stronger than the opposing muscles that keep the knees out, and as a result the adduction function wins the battle for control of the knee (and hip) in a squat as a result the hip extension function is diminished.Of course there are often related upstream and downstream things going on too, especially in the foot/ankle and spine that play into this, but that is beyond the scope of my point here.

So, on the other side, what muscles keep the knee out when we squat?  Sure, the abductors (with a B) can move the knee out, but they do not do such a good job of that when your foot can’t move.  But while the hip is flexed, like during a squat, the external rotators of the hip (which include the glutes among other muscles), will move the knee out when the femur (upper leg) is rotated and the foot can’t move.Try it – pick your leg up with the knee bent and rotate back and forth at the hip, your foot will swing like a pendulum.  Now, put that foot on the ground and do the same thing.  Your knee should move in and out.

One big problem is that the hip needs to be able to externally rotate and hold that position to keep the knee in place in order for the adductors to work to extend the hips along with the hamstrings, glutes, and quads.  If the glutes and other external rotators are weak they cannot maintain this position well, and if the knee position is lost the adductors get left out of the hip extension party and leave the other guys (quad, hamstring, low back) to do the work.  And since they aren’t being used, they get proportionally weaker too. 

This presents a bit of a chicken or egg scenerio and may seem overwhelming, but the simple takeaway is to fix muscular imbalances you have and to improve your movement skill so that you can use all available muscles to move the weight and avoid favoring only the stronger ones.  Sometimes this needs to be done by going down in weight to improve technique and sometimes by doing some drills to re-educate your body on how to move the way you want it to.  I am a big fan of a lot of the Z-Health stuff for that.

Pesonally I find my adductors to get more sore than any other muscle group after a heavy squat day.  That was not always the case, but once I got a lot of my own form and movement issues sorted out, the weights shot up pretty fast.  I also saw improvments in almost everything else since my hips were moving better and more efficiently.  I of course still have work to do, but that was my own experience.  If you don’t feel them at all after, maybe you should consider looking at your squat form.

I tried to simplify as much as I could, but I’m hoping this is helpful.  I see a lot of people that look like they have issues with heavy squats & pulls, and this is a good place to start to fix issues.

6:23, 113#, 10lbs and abmat 

5/3/1 press
3 at 125
3 at 145
9 at 162

Cleans 3 by 3 135-155-185 singles 225-230x 2 (fail)

3 rounds
7 squat snatch at 115
9 bar facing Burpees
30 double unders unbroken

10:04