PDXStrength News

Blog 4 – Warm Down and Cool Up

When I started writing this blog post, I thought it would be an interesting concept to write about warm-ups and cool-downs without an introduction and conclusion. But then I thought about how much I like each of you and wouldn’t put you through such a preposterous idea. Without such an introduction, there’s no hook, there’s no engagement. So here we are. BOOM. Introduction complete. 

Now, taking that concept in to PDX Strength –working out without warming up and cooling down– would be just as preposterous. For those of you who have been in class for a long time, you know that we try to start every session with a question of the day (my FAVORITE thing), move through a warm-up together, work into some combination skill/strength/metcons, and then depending on time have some structured or suggested cool down (AKA wellness). 

Even though we are at home and our routines are a little less structured, we can find success bringing this type of structure to our home workouts. Having an intentional warm up can be very helpful to break through the sluggishness we might feel right before we workout – yes, even if that takes up some of the already limited amount of time we have. 

But where do you start? We can start by simplifying what we’re talking about. An appropriate warm-up should elevate the heart rate, drum up a little sweat, and make us breathe a little heavier. That’s the main goal every time. Start on a larger scale – run, jump, burpee – then move to a more targeted effort – squat, push-up. If we have limited time we could go out for a run around the block, or do something like “Roxanne” – play the song, burpee every time “Roxanne” is said. 

For a cool down, we want to shoot for the opposite – slow the heart rate, body relaxes a bit, and we control our breath – a walk around the block, active stretches or yoga, intentional control of our breath. In a cool down, we will never get back to a resting state, but we can start the process. 

Think about a warm up and a cool down as an introduction and a conclusion of a blog. It just makes for a better story… Conclusion.

Coach Dylan

Welp, here we are again. Week 2 – Blog 3. We have started our member check-ins at the gym and are excited to try out the Zoom Meeting yoga. We’re also very excited and proud of how all of you are staying engaged with us. I’d encourage all of you to also stay engaged with fellow members as you can too. Coaches are a small part of the culture, members are at the heart of PDX Strength.

With that said, a short conversation in response to a recurring conversation about – “what do I do now?” 

Carrying a theme over from the last blog, many of you have checked out equipment, but maybe not enough weight to do a linear progression or progressive overloading of movements, so we are finding yourself in the situation of not knowing what the next step is. 

My advice would be to start from the beginning. Work light, prioritize technique, add volume (as opposed to weight). We have the opportunity to work on our fundamentals because we aren’t confined by class time – some of us may find that we have more or less than that.  Since we don’t have face-to-face time:

• Pick a movement.
• Google/YouTube – “How to…”
• Find multiple sources – I’m always an advocate of learning from multiple people. All coaches have different styles. You may find some one that speaks more directly to you than we do. Pro tip – AVOID any “motivational” video or personality. 
• Try it out.  Really search for feeling priority muscle groups.
• Put it an EMOM – 10 minutes, work intentionally for about :30/minute.
• Try again in a few days. 

What we are shooting for here is high quality repetitions to build a better foundational movement pattern and to turn on some of the supporting muscle groups that we may have deconditioned over time. Patterning is an essential component to building strength and one of the biggest limiting factors in our ability to progressively build muscle capacity and strength because poor movement patterns are highlighted under heavier loading. 

I’ll be honest this is going to take diligence and discipline. It is a hard move to shift from feeling a heavy squat to feeling a light squat. BUT! Lucky for us, our bodies respond to new stimulus so if we are prioritizing a new feeling over loading we will see results. AND we when come back to the gym re-tooled, we will be more prepared than ever for that squat cycle that never seems to end. 

Be Safe. Move Well. 

D

Our routines and workouts are no doubt looking a little different these days – different times, different location, different people, different objects. We might feel a little funky doing deadlifts with a backpack or ground to overheads with a bag of dog food or carries with a case of water, but those objects are just as viable for weightlifting as any. No, they aren’t as sexy as a barbell and yes, your neighbor thinks you’re a little weirder than before, BUT they also happen be phenomenal tools for building foundational strength. Why? Well, I’m glad you asked… * cues Magic School Bus Theme Song * 

Let me start by saying that barbells (and dumbbells) are great strength and conditioning tools. With that said, we need to understand that they have been developed to easily apply progressive overloading (adding weight to the same movement overtime) and for competitive purposes (using the same implement across individuals to compare strength). 

Their relatively small diameter allows you to hold it fairly close to your center of mass and the loading remains balanced over an easy-to-find center point. This allows you to apply more force more efficiently (and safely), which in turn allows you to lift more weight than most other tools. 

Because of the barbells-allow-me-to-lift-the-most-weight-therefore-they-are-the-best-tool mentality, we get a little too caught up in the sexiness of a big back squat. Total weight is only a part of the strength and equation. What we really care are things like torque (twisting or rotational force) and moment arms (the distance from an axis point to the line of force acting on that axis – think hips to the center point of a barbell in a deadlift) because 100 pounds to you, is different than 100 pounds to me. 

Enter that odd object. Because odd objects are just that (odd), they change the strength and conditioning equation drastically by creating different balance points and moment arms that are farther away from our center, which means more force can be applied with less weight. Further, since the odd object is almost always away from our center, it forces us to use stabilizing muscles in the core than a barbell does; meaning that more effort can be applied through an entire range of motion (this makes them GREAT accessory work to build that big sexy back squat). They can also be frustrating because there is a fine line between using a weight that you feel in control of and a weight that is in control of you. It’s hard to find the sweet spot because objects (generally) cannot be loaded. 

All of this to say that while we all have recently been rethinking our daily routines, we can also rethink our workouts and loaded movement (AND be just as effective). 

So, yes, you can use that bag of dog food or that coffee table as a weighted implement. And yes, you will look ridiculous. But at the end of the day, we’ll still be bringing sexy back when we get back to normalcy. 

Coach Dylan

Hello PDX Strength Tribe,

With all of the changes happening around our community, we’ve been thinking about different ways to engage with you – enter mini-blog numero uno.

Since we are all experiencing changes, a good topic to start with is variance. We spend much of our time in class (and in our recent videos) finding modifications, but rarely does this mean making a movement more challenging. For those that want to try harder variations* in the safety of your own home, here are a few things to consider:

Prioritize Eccentricity
The eccentric phase of a movement is the lengthening or stretching of the muscle group. We can often think about this as the lowering part of a movement or moving towards the ground. Prioritization here intensifies a movement by involving more muscle fibers into the total range of motion. We have a tendency to forget about this when we move faster or start to get tired because we can get a little assistance from our friend gravity, or if you’re a flat earther from the ground’s magnetism. To incorporate – flex or actively engage the priority muscle groups during the movements OR add tempo/timing to your movements. For example, in an air squat think about pulling yourself down rather than dropping OR add a :02 (or more) lowering phase.

Be Dynamic
If tempo isn’t your thing, we can also intensify (some of) the concentric – or shortening – phases by making them dynamic. This essentially allows us to work in a larger range of motion because we are prioritizing full extension, often propelling us off the ground (Take that, Earth Magnet!). Because of this, we also add a little stabilization or catch effort into each movement. To incorporate – think about jumping any time you are on two hands or two feet, and potentially shifting hand/foot position on the catch. For example, in a dynamic push-up we could add a clap, move our hands out/in, jump our hands to an elevated target, etc.

Move Around
Saving all the science-y stuff here (except for perhaps another Flat Earth reference). Our bodies move in all directions, therefore we should move in all directions – forward/backward (run/drag), up/down (burpee, any one?), side to side (Cossack squat), unilaterally (single arm/leg), and rotationally (… like the Earth.). We are often good at the forward/backward and up/down parts because they are predominately how we move in our lives and in the gym. To incorporate – combine planes of movement together. For example, instead of a traditional lunge substitute the Cossack squat or instead of a regular plank do a side plank (don’t forget the other side). Some of you might even come up with a totally new movement altogether.

I encourage all of you to take on the WODs that have been posted, modify them as you see fit, try out something new, play a little bit more in in your workouts, ask questions on Instagram and Facebook, and embrace and explore new variance.

*A coaching note here. Everybody can work towards a more challenging modification. When we make a movement more challenging we also need to modify the time under tension. As the intensity increases our sets/reps/seconds decrease.