Preface:

The next few article’s we are going to share with you are going to be different.  They are being written by 2 different authors and blended together.  This lends 2 different perspectives, 2 different backgrounds, and 2 different voices to the content.  It is pretty awesome.  You will see two different colors and formats of text:

The blue text aligned left is written by Brandon Hetzler of Movement Outlaws.  

The black text that is aligned on the right is written by Dr. Mark Cheng.  Why did I ask Dr. Cheng to work on this with me?  Well, read about his background here (https://www.drmarkcheng.com/about/).  That’s why, and anytime I have the opportunity to collaborate with someone this awesome, I take advantage of it.

We hope you enjoy this endeavor and after reading it feel like it was worth your time.  While everyone will read the exact same words, everyone will hear a slightly different story based on their background and perspective.  If you have questions feel free to ask in the comment section or via twitter @MovementOutlaws. 

Why is strength important for athletes?

Simple question, but, before you move on to something else without reading this article, can you answer that question in one sentence that everyone understands?  We’ve all heard the ad – “RedBull Gives You Wings.”  That’s the template I want you to use, but adapted to this question: “Strength Gives you __________.”  Can you fill in the blank with 2-3 words?  If you can, move on to something else; but if you can’t, give us a second and read on.

If “Strong” is on one end of the strength continuum, then words like weak or fatigued balance out the opposite end.  For this article, we are going to go with fatigued being on one end and strong balancing out the other end of the continuum.  “Fatigued” implies we have begun to move away from however strong we are, and, at the end of the day, when we line up against each other for any competition I can only access whatever level of strength I have – getting stronger is not an option at the moment.  I’m fresh (as strong as I can be) or I’m fatigued.  Let’s explore both to see if we can fill in the blank.

Fatigue

Fatigue is a reality of life, especially so in sports and athletics. When we exert ourselves and push beyond our comfort zones, we find the limits of our endurance. At the moments when our endurance starts to falter, how well we can maintain efficient, intelligent responses to the varying pressures and stimuli around us often decides whether or not we can survive the game and the inherent risk of injury. Injury, pain, and fatigue are the 3 great detractors of athletic potential, and the best athletes are superbly skilled at avoiding or managing all 3.

The more inefficiently we move, the sooner we fatigue. The greater the levels of fatigue we face, the greater the likelihood of injury we face. It’s undeniable that movement ability and quality degrade as we fatigue. Thus, being able to manage fatigue and employ intelligent movement strategies when we fatigue are paramount skills in the human performance arsenal.

What is Strength? 

Strength doesn’t guarantee success in sports.  Strength doesn’t ensure injury prevention.  More importantly, what is the translation of how strength affects performance? Strength is like a road.  When we are strong enough to train for success in our endeavors (this level of strength requirement will change depending on what those endeavors are), we are like a multi-lane divided highway.  We have multiple lanes plus a broad shoulder on the right and a full median on the left.  When we are just strong enough to get through our daily lives, we are like a 2-lane highway with a shoulder on one side, and the center-dividing line down the middle.   When we are weak, now we are a single lane road with no shoulder and not even a yellow line.  When we are fatigued, now we resemble a one lane, gravel country road.

When was the last time you went for a drive anywhere – the middle of Hillbilly MO or in the Urban Sprawl of CA – and you were the only car on the road?  Often, we are navigating through traffic, construction, and closed lanes.  Guess what? That happens in life/sport too.  The other drivers on the road, the traffic, those are your movement compensations.  The closed lanes we encounter, or detours, those are your injuries you haven’t addressed yet – they either slow you way down or bring you to a complete stop.  The construction areas, are the areas you are actively working on fixing or just getting better.

Injuries are a fact of life in combat sports and martial arts. Most of the training revolves around causing it or responding to another’s attempts to cause it to happen to you. As someone whose life’s passion revolves around martial arts & the associated restorative practices and medical traditions, I’m fascinated with whatever can give me a better understanding of the causes of injury and how to avoid them.

The late, great Carlson Gracie, Sr. said that even the best jiu-jitsu black belt fights like a brown belt after taking a truly solid hit. After 2 hits, he functions like a purple belt. After 3 hard hits, he’s like a blue belt, and after taking 4 big hits, it’s just survival mode. While there are always exceptions to the rules, it’s pretty much the same with fatigue. In my own experience, the more tired I’ve been physically, the less able I’ve been to move with coordination in the ring or on the mat.

The onset of fatigue.

Once we start a task, that is as good as our physical conditioning will be or get.  Spending the next month getting stronger has no bearing on the here and now.  As we begin any physical exertion, our strength levels start a decline.  As we progress through a practice/training session, we have started a journey that will take us from the city to the country – the roads get smaller and worse, and the traffic picks up.  In any situation, and on any road, you can go 100mph with your foot pressed to the floor.  Your skill will determine your ability to maintain this and your success.  But, as you fatigue and as the roads get smaller and more congested from everything going on within us, the likelihood for “problems” increases – not necessarily a major wreck or injury, but some issue to slow you down.

There have been countless times in training and in sparring that I’ve tried to push myself past the point of diminishing return. While my eyes were able to see the target or the threat, it felt like an eternity before my body could react. Recently, after returning to Olympic style Taekwondo training, which prizes high kicks delivered in rapid-fire succession and deft footwork, following almost 2 months off to serve at the Winter Olympics in Korea, I had an experience that once again confirmed that fatigue is usually a solid predictor of injury risk. 

After a particularly vigorous 20-minute warm-up session led by one of the instructors, I was already drenched in sweat & could feel my legs getting heavy. And after barely 10 more minutes in a stuffy chest guard and restrictive protective gear, my feet weren’t moving back & forth from the ground to their targets surefootedly enough, and I ended up spraining my ankle just short of a fracture as I stepped down after throwing a kick. As of this writing, I’m still recovering from this injury and doing my best to both train around the injury while addressing other parts of my game that needed attention. This hasn’t been my first time dealing with an injury sustained while too fatigued to maintain proper movement control under conditions where proper reactions under duress were essential.

 

The take-aways from today’s Article:

1. Strength gives you wiggle room.  It does not guarantee success in a sport or activity and it doesn’t guarantee injuries won’t happen.  It does provide a buffer for when things don’t go as planned and when things begin to go sideways.  It allows you to adapt, and to spend training time focusing on the skills you are trying to learn and not on just surviving the training session.
2. Fatigue begins to accumulate as soon as you begin an activity.  As fatigue builds up, we break down – in regards to strength, technique, and skill.  Understanding this concept and understanding how to mitigate this can help in the planning of training sessions as well as help you decide if your capacity is where it needs to be.

Looking Forward to Part 2:

Part 2 will pick up right where Part 1 leaves off.  We will get into why Dr. Cheng’s story is a story told every day by athletes in every sport at every level.  We know injuries happen as fatigue builds up, and we have known it for a while.  Part 2 will explore how assessment and understanding the interconnectedness of Strength and Movement can begin to move the needle in addressing these issues.  Stay tuned!