Plainfield North boys doing the state of the art stretching rountine called "foam rolling" (Dr. Damhoff photo)
This week we had a bye from competition for our top group. I want to dedicate this blog to writing a little bit about how I approach some of the things such as strength work, warm-up and cool down, etc. with our team. One thing for certain is I’m always open to new information. I think too many coaches close the door and say ‘we’ve been doing this for years and it’s always worked so I’m not going to change it.’ To have that mindset will only hurt your team and your athletes.
Now I’m not going to give away all my “secrets” but I do believe that there are some things that all cross country teams should be doing and things that they should not be doing. And, with my background in chiropractic and sports rehabilitation, combined with my knowledge of running, I would like to think that what we do is pretty good and I’m sure there are many programs out there doing very similar things to what we do. For those teams that still get in a circle and static stretch as part of your warm-up, do sit-ups or abdominal crunches , don’t do any strength work or don’t do a dynamic warm-up/cool down, you need to catch up and make some changes to your program.
Let’s talk a little bit about static stretching. I recommend all my athletes to never static stretch. Yes, that’s right, I said never, not before, not after, not that night, never. I’ve read too much research (Example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19918196) that clearly shows it will decrease your abilities as an athlete regardless of if you’re a sprinter or a distance runner. When I coached in St. Louis at Parkway West High School, the distance coach was Dale Shepherd, a Missouri legend and hall of fame coach with 40+ years of coaching. Dale is one of the most knowledgeable and likable figures that I’ve met in the sport and he was adamant about static stretching before practice. I was adamant about not static stretching. I printed off a lot of the research and highlighted the articles for Dale so he could make his own judgment during the track season.
Dale came back and made various complaints about the studies and how they were performed and continued to have his athletes static stretch throughout the track season. However, much to my surprise, at the end of the following cross country season, Dale came up to me and said that for the first time in coaching for 40 years, he didn’t have his athletes static stretch. He said ‘see, old dogs can learn new tricks and he winked and walked away.’ Dale Shepherd is one of the greatest coaches I’ve met and I have the utmost respect for him. So what do we do instead of static stretching? We do a dynamic warm-up and cool down. We foam roll every day, before and after, sometimes even during a workout if something flares up. If you haven’t researched foam rollers or used one before, I highly suggest checking them out. They’re a very valuable tool not only for injuries but in preventing injuries, increasing blood flow and decreasing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). We also do some dynamic triplanar stretches if needed for the athlete. A common area we do that in is the calves.
When it comes to the strength work that we preform, I have a master plan but the details can change on a daily basis depending on time considerations and on how the team is feeling. As Tony Robbins best put it, “Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” I think strength work is very important for distance runners. Strength work not only helps prevent injuries but posturally can make huge differences in terms of running mechanics and efficiency. It’s a must have in any cross country program.
Nike coach Alberto Salazar has really embraced the strength training in his runners and it shows in Galen Rupp and Mo Farah and their ability to finish off strong races. Strength work has become much more than just pushups or pull ups. I don’t ever shy away from taking our kids into the weight room and having them lift real weights. Some other key components include medicine ball work, bounding, glute activation work and barefoot work. I preach good form on everything and I hold our kids to a higher standard because of my background and they know it. We never do anything without a purpose and I always make sure they’re aware of the purpose. If there isn’t a purpose, there isn’t motivation and they won’t have any desire to do the exercise correctly, that’s my internal philosophy on the matter.
Another large part of our focus is spent on core work but not sit-ups or abdominal crunches. A sit-up places 764lbs of compressive force on your lumbar spine! This is according to Dr. Stuart McGill, a spine biomechanics researcher from the University of Waterloo who is one of the world’s foremost researchers on the topic. He states that sit-ups are a good way to cause a lumbar disc herniation. I doubt that most of you reading this could punch with 764lbs of force so every time I see teams doing AB crunches or sit-ups; I grimace at the thought of what that’s doing to their lower backs. A general rule of thumb in core work is to avoid these flexion types of movements such as sit-ups and AB crunches. Instead, stabilize the core and promote stabilization. Exercises that do that include bird dogs, side planks and one of my favorites, “stirring the pot.” We also spend time working on our breathing mechanics. We focus on activating and using our diaphragms. The function of the diaphragm is twofold, it provides respiration and stability. However, most people, unless you’re a musician as they’re taught to breathe with their diaphragms, are very dominant chest breathers. Chest breathing leads to inefficient respiration, a lack of core stability and the risk for potential injuries up and down the biomechanical chain as a result.
As you can tell by now, I thoroughly enjoy discussing these types of topics. If you’re interested in more information or have questions about anything, please email me at briandamhoff@gmail.com and I’d be more than happy to help out. It’s just as important for coaches to improve as it is for athletes and that’s a philosophy I will hold until the day I stop coaching! This weekend our team runs at the hilly Locktoberfest Invitational. This will be our first race running with our top guys together as one group since the First to the Finish Invitational and a pivotal race to see how we match up against some of the top teams in the state and our conference. Our guys are pumped and our coaching staff is pumped, the weather looks fantastic so I can’t wait for Saturday!