NEWMAGAZINEPREVIEW ARTICLE1ST ISSUE RELEASES JULY 1ST

Elevating Fitness Through Functional Training

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Metcon MagazineMetcon is a new digital maga-zine focused on functional train-ing. We will release our first is-sue on July 1, 2016. New issues will be released on the first day of January, March, May, July, September, November. Each is-sue highlights a different sport and how athletes can benefit from incorporating functional fit-ness into their training. Every is-sue also contains education arti-cles written by premiere doctors, nutritionists, and trainers fo-cused of increasing performance through strength and endurance training and proper nutrition.

In the First Issue• Correcting Common Issues

with the Clean

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Squatters

• Cues & Progression for the Snatch

• Proper Bench Press Form

• The Science of Plyometrics

• Amelia Boone - Training and nutrition with OCR Superstar

• Joe De Sena - Becoming Spartan Fit

• Common OCR Mistakes from OCR Elite athlete Evan Perperis

• Functional movements OCR athlete need to be doing

• Goal Based Training

• The Coaching Disconnect

• The Problem of Evening Hunger

• Recipe: Lettuce Wraps with Chicken and Avocado

Sign Up for FreeSign up now to make sure you receive our first issue featuring Obstacle Course Racing with Amelia Boone and Spartan co-founder Joe De Sena.

You can sign up now at www.metconmag.com/subscribe

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In exercise and sports science, achieving triple extension has been the goal of many com-

mon athletic movements. Triple extension is a position in which the ankle, knee, and hip are ex-tended. In functional fitness pro-gramming, there is revolution in the way coaches and trainers look at movement. Most function-

al exercises and workouts em-phasize what I call global quad-ruple extension. This means the athlete extends the foot/an-kle, knee, hip, and the thoracic spine. The inability to get to this position results in poor perfor-mance and pain. The following is a list of joints that I find are routinely restricted and prevent athletes from moving efficiently into this globally extended posi-tion. Keep in mind that dysfunc-tion at one joint leads to dysfunc-tion throughout the entire body.

Big ToeLack of extension in the big toe prevents our foot from creating an arch when our heel hits the ground. This is referred to as the windlass mechanism. As the heel strikes the ground during gait, our foot rolls into pronation (col-lapse of the arch). The contact

of our toe with the ground slows pronation and pulls on the plan-tar fascia to form the arch of the foot. The inability to slow prona-tion leads the athlete to over-pronation, or pushing off almost completely from the big and sec-ond toes. This forces compensa-tion from other joints to slow the knee as weight is transferred.

How this impacts an athlete’s performance: Many functional workouts have exercises that in-volve transferring weight from

The sport of fitness is incredibly dynamic and re-quires explosiveness, coordination, flexibility, and

stamina. Often overlooked is the importance of maintaining a center of mass.

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5 Joint Restrictions

HINDERING Your

FUNCTIONAL TRAININGBy Jeremy McCann

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If our joints aren’t aligned, we waste energy.

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one leg to the other (i.e. running, lunging, farmer’s walks, etc.) These exercises are examples of locomotive movements for which the goal is going from point A to B. To be efficient, an ath-lete should perform this move-ment in a straight line. Think of traveling: You want to take the shortest direction to get to your destination. Taking the scenic route usually costs more in gas and time. Running is no differ-ent. If our joints aren’t aligned, we waste energy. An athlete who overpronates pulls their knee closer to the their midline. This means they must constantly compensate with other muscles to prevent their knee from col-lapsing inward. The end result is likely pain and definitely a waste of calories and increased fatigue from using muscle im-properly.

A person who overpronates will often complain of plantar fascii-tis, Achilles tendinitis, and hip bursitis.

AnkleAt the ankle, if we find a talus bone that has shifted laterally, then this is an indication we are carrying more of our weight to-ward the midline of our body. The ankle accommodates this shift in weight distribution by turning the feet outward. In doing so, the Achilles tendon gets twisted around a bit and movement be-comes compensated. Dorsiflex-ion (the turning of the toes up and bending the foot back to-ward the ankle) is lost and our brain will ask other muscles to pick up the slack, thus creating a compensation pattern.

Most functional exercises in-volve bending at the ankle, knee and hip to absorb impact from below (running, jumping, etc.) or control forces from above (bar-bell squats, cleans, etc.). When the ankle doesn’t bend well, the knee and hip will try to make up the difference. A restriction at the ankle joint will force the knee

to travel forward and ask the quadriceps to carry the burden of slowing the knee down. This puts the glutes in a poor position to load up and limits the amount of force that can be produced. For an athlete who is exploding out of the hole during a barbell squat, this is detrimental to force production. Our ability to create power from our gluteus maximus hinges largely on our ability to extend our hips backward as we descend into a squat. Lacking dorsiflexion pulls our knees and drags our hips with it.

An athlete who suffers from a lack of dorsiflexion will often complain of shin splints, knee pain, and low back pain.

HipA lot of people don’t understand the pelvis isn’t just one piece. Al-though, at first glance it may ap-pear as one cylinder, it really is made up of four pieces: a right and left innominate (hip), the sacrum and the pubis symphy-sis. With that being said, one hip should be able to flex while the other extends. One of the most common postural deviations that occur is an anterior pelvic tilt. This is when one or both innomi-nate bones tilts forward. This position will lock the back of the pelvis in place and prevent it from extending the hip.

Without the proper ability to flex and extend at the hip, an ath-lete will be forced to compen-sate their movements when do-ing things like running. The hip is very dynamic and can perform many different movements. Flex-ion of the hip comes with exter-nal rotation, while extension of the hip is coupled with internal rotation. A person who lacks the ability to extend to an anterior pelvic tilt will also lack the abil-ity to internally rotate well. This will drive the brain to compen-sate by moving the leg forward, which usually means the leg must be swung forward from the side. As a result, the athlete will

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shift a lot when they run. Again, energy is wasted and perfor-mance suffers.

An athlete who has an anterior pelvic tilt will often complain of pain in the sacroiliac (SI) joints, quadratus lumborum (QL) mus-cle, and knees.

Thoracic SpineExcessive thoracic kyphosis (rounding of the shoulders) may have the biggest observable negative impact on global exten-sion. Our scapula is attached to our rib cage. A rounded thorac-ic spine pushes the scapula up and forward. This closes down on the humerus and makes it impossible to get the arms over-head without manipulating the position of the spine. Excessive rounding also changes the posi-tion of the rib cage, because it is normally accompanied by an excessive arch in the lower back. In doing so, the ability to prop-erly recruit the trunk muscles is inhibited.

Many functional exercises are performed in the sagittal plane (a vertical plane that passes from anterior to posterior, divid-ing the body into right and left halves). From the shoulder, there are many exercises that involve flexion and extension of the shoulder. The shoulder is pretty dynamic and can move in and out of multiple planes, but it re-ally depends on the positioning of the scapula to do it efficiently. When the scapula is too high, you will need to compensate by arching at your lower back to get you arms over your head. Again, this is an example of an energy leak, in which the goal is to get weight overhead; but to do so, the entire spine must be deviated. The more kyphotic a person is, the more lordotic (the bigger the arch in the low back) the lumbar spine usually will be. In addition, when a person has an excessive curve in their tho-racic vertebrae, they will also lose rotational mobility. Consid-

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Keep in mind that dysfunction at one joint leads to dysfunction throughout the entire body.

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center of mass to a forward po-sition. Almost as if a person is constantly falling, the athlete’s brain will need to recruit addi-tional muscle to maintain align-ment and good positioning. This is counter-productive for an ath-lete who is trying to be faster, stronger, and go longer because muscle gets trained to do a job. A muscle that is easily stimu-lated can be recruited when it is not needed. This is the concept of synergistic dominance and reciprocal inhibition. Poor align-ment for an athlete leads to mus-cle imbalances and movement impairments. A forward head carriage is an example of this. If we go back to our functional anatomy, we know the levator scapula muscle attaches from the base of the skull to the top of the scapula. A forward head carriage will shorten the levator scapula and the upper trapezi-us. Proper shoulder function and rib cage positioning will be very difficult to achieve because the lower trapezius will be inhibited and the scapula will be hard to depress.

A forward head carriage is as-sociated with shoulder impinge-ment, neck pains, and head-aches.

In most parts of life, becoming great has very little to do with what you already excel at and everything to do with the little parts we hide. Functional train-ing has revolutionized the capac-ity of the human body. Our “en-gines” are stronger, faster, and fitter than in any time through-out history. The only thing that will slow us down is failure to take care of our smallest hidden parts.

About the AuthorJeremy McCann is a pain re-lief exercise expert, master trainer for The Biomechan-ics Method and owner of Range of Motion Fitness in Riverside, Calif. In addition to his advanced certifica-tions from The BioMechanics Method, he also holds nu-merous corrective exercise specialty certifications from some of the industry’s most prestigious institutions, in-cluding the Gray Institute, National Academy of Sports Medicine, PTA Global and FMS.

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ering how much rotational power is needed for running and rope climbing, this spells doom for athletes looking to crush multi-modal PRs.

An athlete who has an excessive thoracic curve will often com-plain of shoulder impingement, tennis elbow, and mid-back pains.

NeckA forward head carriage is the most common postural devia-tion seen at the head and neck. The head weighs 8 to 11 pounds. We need to remember that the spine is one piece. If the neck is out of position, the rest of the body either follows it or is taxed excessively to hold it in place. One of the muscles over-worked by a forward head carriage is the levator scapula. A short and overactive levator will pull up and forward on the scapula and make movement of the shoulder dysfunctional.

The sport of fitness is incredibly dynamic and requires explosive-ness, coordination, flexibility, and stamina. Often overlooked is the importance of maintain-ing a center of mass. Having a forward carriage displaces this