Shoulder pain: rotator cuff

Having pain again so need to go and see the doc…this video was a timely reminder of how the shoudler *should* work…

Sports injury: Supraspinatus tendonitis

I've been out of training this week because of my shoulder pain. I eventually went to the doctor to check what I could do to self treat it and she explained I probably have Supraspinatus tendonitis (sometimes called rotator cuff tendonitis): an inflammation of the supraspinatus tendon. Tendons attach to bones and I can feel it acutely at the point in my shoulder where the joint is, especially when I raise my arm above my head or try to move it behind my body. BBC Health says that: "overuse is ...a common cause", and I think I might have aggravated it by doing a very wide lat pull down.

Here's a decent article outlining treatment, management and rehab.

Hey! Take care out there!....

Happy New Year with happy feet

After a somewhat long absence from the dojo I returned this week to normal lessons and found that my foot regime had worked a treat. Over the holidays I had a bit more time than I usually have so I was able to pamper my neglected feet. Don't get me wrong, they're not *that* disgusting but other than clipping my toenails and keeping them clean I don't really pay them much attention. After all, they're just feet, right?

As a martial artist though I really should give them more time. The reason? Hard skin. This is pretty pesky stuff and I don't really want to end up with calluses or corns on my feet. Towards the end of the year they'd been groaning a bit from barefoot practice on cold, hard dojo floors so over the holidays I took a bath and used a pumice stone on them. Following this up I doused them with a rich hand cream. My feet loved it and my first sessions back were pain-free and light.

Look after your feet martial artist!

Basic anatomy 'baffles Britons'

"Less than 50% of the more than 700 people surveyed could correctly place the heart, BMC Family Practice says.

Under one-third could place the lungs in their correct location, but more than 85% got the intestines right."

Article here.

The above study shows that a large proportion of people just don't know where the major organs lie! Although I can't scoff too much- there's always room for improvement and I had to think long and hard about one of the items in that article (not the heart, ok!?).

Knowing anatomical features and weaknesses is important for the martial artist, not only to have maximum effect when we need it but also to know where we shouldn't strike or apply pressure. The human body seems, to me, a fairly weak structure and the news is often peppered with tragic stories of people being killed in an altercation where only one punch has been thrown. Most of these people, I'd guess, didn't enter the conflict with the idea of killing but ultimately somebody is laying on the floor with their life seeping out onto the pavement. (Det Sup Alan Betts said, "This tragic case is a powerful reminder to all that it can only take one punch to kill a person.")

Some martial artists may find this cautious approach alarming, after all the aim of martial technique is to inflict damage on the opponent (or points in tournament) and I'd be happy to hear from others on this. If you know positions of organs and vital points you are better placed to get out of that altercation by ruse rather than by staring down at a corpse. Of course it is rare to kill in a fight (safety in MMA) and these stories of one punch kills may be flukes; a guy hits his head on the pavement.... There's not much you can do about that once you've lamped the guy and he's heading floorward. The reality is that street or domestic violence doesn't happen in a padded ring: very often it's a bar or a pavement where falls can break you or your opponent.

"The punch was of sufficient force to fracture the jaw and it must have rendered Mr Trimmer unconscious as he went to the ground in a way that quite obviously meant he was unable to break his fall." (Eugene Warwood probably still in jail and Edward Trimmer still dead)

I'm not advocating entering a fight in a state of fear, but knowledge of anatomy, awareness of what's going on and confidence in your technique will help in a 'situation'.

So, I'm armed with anatomical knowledge and a respect for humans but how would I react if my family was in danger?

Body clock, nutrition and exercise

I watched Horizon documentary the other night:The Secret Life of Your Bodyclock and learned plenty about the way our bodies react throughout the day and night to our activities and conversely when those activities are best suited to our bodyclock. I was particularly interested by the ideas about exercise and eating. When is the best time to exercise and what should our eating patterns be like?

The documentary alluded to Siffre's famous experiments of living in a cave for 6 months without natural light to see how is body clock reacted. Based on this and other experts analysis the programme comes up with some interesting results:

- Between 7 and 11 in the  morning our body has an increased blood pressure, vessels can't widen and blood is stickier (more resistance to flow) showing that the heart is under great pressure. Statistically you are three times more likely to have a heart attack.

(Something I already knew! Mornings are for larks, not for people....)

- If you increase your activity at the right time of day it can be beneficial! Exercise in the afternoon reduces blood pressure by 10 -11 % while exercise in the morning does not reduce bp at all.

Even gently walking in the afternoon can be beneficial.

- Body temp and alertness rises in afternoon and exercise is best late afternoon /early evening.

When training or the Olympics, the cyclist Chris Boardman says he found no pain in evening training like he experienced in the mornings. Records in cycling tend to be broken in afternoon and evening. In cycling hard training seems to be often conducted in the evenings when the body temperature has risen. This helps as the body seems to be in a pre-race or warm up mode.

(The only caveat was that balance and hand steadiness may be better in the morning.)

- Our eating patterns now show that the average UK main meal of the day is at 8pm. Linda Morgan from Univ Surrey says that over the last 100 years our eating patterns have changed: 100 years ago we had big breakfasts, large lunches and less in evening. Recently this has been reversed so that little of our day's calories are consumed in the morning and more later in the night. This means glucose remains in the blood more in the evening: high blood glucose levels in the evening is not great. According to her experiments into eating we should aspire to: "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper."

So we haven't learned something we didn't already know, right? I mean we train in the evening as that's when most lessons are held: after people have come home from school and work and not too late as to interfere with our sleeping (I find if I exercise late int he evening I have to wait some time to come down before I can go to bed). 

Plus I eat too much anyway. Interestingly if I stack my calories up at the start of the day I'm in a better position for my insulin to regulate my blood glucose levels throughout the day (it seems). I did read a long time ago about an American football coach who recommended to players who wanted to lose weight to eat nothing after 8pm. This is something I aspire to do- it also helps with my IBS!

"Paleoanthropologists tell us that our ancestors left the trees for the ground millions of years ago. Competing hypotheses attribute this shift from a predominantly arboreal to terrestrial locomotion on postural-feeding, socialbehavioral, or thermoregulatory pressures. In any case there is a strong consensus among scientists that our heritage is deeply rooted in both climbing and bipedalism, i.e., both swinging from the trees and functioning on two feet."

"In the broadest and most useful sense, the functional distinction between arboreal and terrestrial skills is that arboreal skills are rich in pulling movements whereas the bipedal movements mostly comprise hip extension and pushing movements. As a consequence of this

distinction and the dearth of climbing skills drawn upon in fitness programs, the pulling capacity of modern athletes is woefully deficient. Compare briefly the number of pushing to pulling movements available in the course of our normal training. Push-ups, dips, handstand push-ups, bench press, shoulder press, and jerks versus, what, pull-ups and maybe rope climb?"

" Even the bodybuilding repertoire, which includes seated cable rows, bent-over rows, one-armed rows, and curls, includes more pulling movements than more functional and developmental weight training like weightlifting and powerlifting, but the motivation and value behind these moves is somewhat more anatomical or cosmetic than functional."

Thanks Crispin for pointing this out. Although a piece of advertorial for some climbing equipment I thought it was interesting to examine where we came from and how this affects our range of movement, limitations and strengths.

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/18_04_Macroclimbing.pdf

My bloody thumb!

Energetic sparring and conditioning session at Tang soo Do last night. I learnt another important lesson whilst bashing up a fellow student: keep your bloody thumbs tucked in! I didn't have my gloves so was free sparring 'naked' (so to speak) and as I thumped him (with a good straight punch I might add!) I caught a hard part of him and as my thumb wasn't tucked tightly round correctly I whacked the end of it which drove it backwards and stressed the first joint. (the carpometaparpal joint apparently! see below) Bollocks, it hurts. But as I said I'll learn. Hopefully ... I'm fairly sure I've done this before! 

Subsequent bag work was good as I was then obliged to tuck it in firmly to contact correcty without further injury.

As it was the last lesson of the year we went for a curry afterwards. The company was great but the Curry Queen on Mill Rd has gone done the swanny for sure....