5 Most Common Issues Seen in High Intensity Training
Is your shoulder bugging you? Any knee pain during squats? Elbow feeling pinched?
LETS TALK TRAINING TIPS BEFORE YOU GET TO THE PLACE OF SAYING “YES” TO ANY OF THIS...
5 Most Common Issues in High Intensity Training
With training can come tweaks, aches, and pains. The alternative? Tweaks, aches, and pains due to INACTIVITY, tightness, and weakness. So - what can we do?! Our best to prevent them or take care of them when they pop up!
The NUMBER ONE most effective way to prevent minor tweaks and injuries - MOVE WELL and USE APPROPRIATE WEIGHT!! We post suggestions for how to use the right weight for YOU, how long each round/set should take, how many reps you should be able to manage in a row etc. We also demo each movement and provide a FULL written description about how to do them correctly. ALSO - there is a full video on how to do many movements with Miranda, Jeb or Julian coaching you through as well as a full video demo library on the Street Parking Members Only website.
All that to say: USE THAT INFO! You really have no excuse!
AND - if you are ever unsure if you are doing the movement correctly - you can always take to the Street Parking Members Only Facebook Group - upload a video of yourself performing the movement - and use the hashtag #spcoaching to get feedback from one of our coaches!!
Of course - we also encourage you to WARM UP using your own warm up or one of the warm up suggestions we provide daily. And to add in Street Parking Maintenance (our yoga mobility videos found on Members Only) as often as you can!
To see video examples of all of the following pre-hab exercises you can head over to the Street Parking Members Facebook Group and search #SPREBUILD.
Keep in mind that the exercises listed here are PRE-HAB and great to add into warm ups if you have run into issues with these areas in the past or simply have concern and want to prevent them!
SHOULDERS - Impingement, rotator cuff issues
Problems with the shoulder come down to an imbalance of all the surrounding musculature of the shoulder, for example the pecs and lats. We need to make sure that the surrounding muscles of the shoulder have a good level of sensitivity and awareness that they need to be moving with the shoulder, and we also need to look at the strength of them. If the surrounding muscles are not strong enough to go along with the shoulder, that is when we will see a change of position in the shoulder to compensate, and that’s when you could potentially experience some pain. How are shoulder issues diagnosed? We first look at the type of pain. Sharp pain means there is potentially some partial damage. Achiness could mean the muscle has been overworked and is getting tired and needs rest. We also check for pain during active and passive movement.
Pre-hab exercises:
Pec focus - Hold a wall ball in front of you with your arms bent at a 90 degree angle and biceps pressed against your sides, shoulders down. Brace your abs. Go through a few repetitions of squeezing your biceps down firmly against your sides and holding, engaging the pecs. You can add in slowly lowering the wall ball while doing the same squeezing motion, and even pushing the ball out away from your body. Shoulders should be down, and remain in place and move very little, focus should be kept on engaging the pecs and keeping arms pressed firmly against sides.
Lat focus - Hold your arms out to your sides and open them so that the elbows remain against your sides and your palms are facing up. Arch your back and squeeze your lats together. Slowly raise your arms while continuing to engage your lats and keep the tension. Lower and repeat. If you cannot raise your arms, small pumps work just as well.
ELBOWS - Tennis elbow, elbow soreness
Elbow issues are typically a sign that the shoulder area is unstable as well. If you have an unstable shoulder, the joint or surrounding musculature can’t do the work as well. The load has to go somewhere and if it is unstable in the shoulder, it’s going to go into the elbow. Tennis elbow is typically an irritation situation where someone has done a lot of twisting and pulling and the small connection points in the elbow become irritated. Approach this by working on the shoulder and helping it to become more stable. Typically with an elbow situation rest is prescribed to bring irritation down along with rehabilitative exercises.
Pre-hab exercises: (The shoulder pre-hab exercises are great for elbows as well!)
Hold something in your hand that is wide (like a container or ball) that you can grasp firmly with fingers spread and a wide open hand grip. Hold your arm with elbow bent at a 90 degree angle, bicep pressed firmly against you side. While squeezing your pec and bicep and tricep, slowly lower and raise the object, keeping the elbow and bicep against your side and keeping tension in the muscles.
LOWER BACK
If you feel pain in the muscles in your lower back it is important to address it to prevent it from potentially going deeper from the muscles into the spine causing something more serious like disc issues. Your lower back muscles are not the ONLY muscle group in that area that are responsible for working to support your spine. With all of the musculature around your back there are many large muscles that should be involved in supporting your spine when you do high intensity movement. For example your core (abs, obilques, hip flexors, AND low back) helps to brace your back so core strengthening movements should be incorporated into weight training.
Pre-hab exercises:
Using a wall ball (or something relatively light) stand with toes forward and feet planted, slight bend to the knees. Hold med ball in front of you with arms down straight. Turn knees inward, brace abs hard, hinge forward lowering the ball slowly down to the ground and back up again. Upper back should be slightly rounded as your lower. Hamstring, obliques and lower abs should be loaded so that the erectors in the back can relax as you lower.
KNEES
Knees are similar to elbows in that they are hinge joints. Hinge joints are meant to assist movements, they are not meant to be load bearing. People who experience knee pain need to assess if their hip flexors and glutes are working because they have a larger job and if they don’t fire properly it can put more stress on the knees. For example, if there is pain in the patella (the part over the knee cap that attaches to the top of your shin) that’s likely an irritation situation in which the quads may have been super well worked and therefore are strong, but the hip flexors have not been, so the load is going straight to the knee joint. Another thing to look at is your gait when running and lifting to see what you could be doing that is causing the knee to twist rather than hinge as it’s meant to. A common issue with this one is the foot turning out (like a duck foot) when walking/running - or even on box jumps!
Pre-hab exercises:
Knees and feet can be worked together. Balance work is great! Stand on one leg knee slightly bent, make sure all toes are firmly planted into the ground. Practice lifting and lowering the toes while on one leg. You can practice hinging forward on one leg, while focusing on keeping all toes firmly planted and do toe touches. Also try some single leg deadlifts with a light weight while still focusing on keeping toes down and planted. Adding in some of the Street Parking Butts and Guts sessions can be great for single leg training and strengthening as well.
FEET
You might have an issue with flat feet - or suffer from plantar fasciitis. Both are signs that your big toe or toes do not get used during exercise work, running and walking. They never get trained so you are left with general weakness in your foot from heel to toe. If toes are missing when your plant your foot, then you are only getting 80% of your foot to do the work. Your foot is your base and if you’re putting heavy weight in your squat and only 80% of your foot is on the floor maybe you’re missing a link in term of glute work, nervous system activity, etc.
Pre-hab exercises:
See the above knee exercises!
**Please understand we do our best to give advice based on information provided, and if you have serious concerns you might want to contact an in person doctor.
We LOVE Crossover Symmetry...
Both Julian and Miranda are big fans of the Crossover Symmetry Systems as they are some of the most consistently used ‘equipment' in the garage.
Julian religiously uses the new Hip Halo to warm up daily and strengthen the glutes/get them firing to protect the disc issues he "acquired" after years of lifting heavy for competition.
Miranda has used the Shoulder System for YEARS to deal with the issues and problems she has in her right shoulder from the car accident.
We love and believe in the benefit of Crossover Symmetry so much that they have provided SP Members a discount on their products - so be sure to use code “STREETPARKING” on your order!
* Check out the Members Only DISCOUNTS page for more discount codes with our favorite products and companies!
PRO-TIP ON YOUR STREET PARKING MEMBERSHIP & EXPERIENCE:
USE THE MEMBERS ONLY WEBSITE - This is the BEST place (as in better than Wodify) to view ALL workouts (Daily, Accessories, Extra programs like Pull up progressions, 5k program, Strength program, etc.) with ALL the videos like Warm Ups, Daily demo videos, the Movement Library, Maintenance videos, and SO MUCH MORE.
> > > Save it to your home screen on your phone and use this FIRST to check the daily workout complete with demo video!
Questions about your Members Only access? Email support@streetparking.com
Questions for a Street Parking coach? Email coaches@streetparking.com