It is a thorough analysis of how many of the common orthopedic problems today arise from shoes and sitting, how to evaluate their development, and finally a look at how to implement prehabilitation or rehabilitative protocol to improve their condition. I sincerely wish that you will read through the whole thing even though it is a monster. I promise you will come out with a new outlook on this topic.

I’ve noticed that the page hits for page 2 and beyond are about 1/5th of this page. Please do note that this is part 1 of a 5 part article. You will have to click on to read the other parts at the bottom of this page.

Many thanks KC Parsons for taking the time to find pictures.

Note: We have an in-depth article on the feet as well, however, it does refer back to this article so I would suggest reading both if you have foot issues.

Shoes and sitting. Two things that are ubiquitous in modern society.

There has been recent media sensationalization of the detrimental effects of shoes. However, there has not been a lot on sitting other than upper body postural issues. Do these two things really have that much of an impact on our lives? Or is it just athletes?

Unfortunately, most information out right now does not look specifically at the effects that injuries have on the body as a system. Rather, most of the solutions to problems tend to focus on only reducing the pain or alleviating the problem at one joint specifically.

For example, shoulder problems often arise up around the ball head of the humerus and usually manifest in rotator cuff problems, but that pain and injury may be from a cascade of problems from loss of thoracic extension, proper scapular movement, and incorrect muscular activation. This is a topic for another article.

In this article, I am going to build a case against shoes and sitting. My eventual conclusion is there is a detrimental effect on most people and not just athletes. I will walk you through this process noting biomechanical and physiological issues. Then we will talk about how to correctly evaluate these conditions, and how to solve them. In the end, all should see the widespread damaging effects of these two things that we have not even considered dangerous.

There have been numerous articles in the past saying how shoes are bad for you. For example,

You Walk Wrong,
The painful truth about trainers: Are running shoes a waste of money?,
Cure all Running Injuries (and Pain) with One Simple Fix….Barefoot Running
Footwear Alters Normal Form And Function Of The Foot
Barefoot running debate – GREAT image that shows some of the dysfunctions we will look at later.

And more recently since this article has been written:
Barefoot Running: How Humans Ran Comfortably and Safely Before the Invention of Shoes

In general, these are true. For example, this abstract published in the Journal of the Southern Orthopaedic Association in 1994 states:

The shod foot and its implications for American women.

Throughout history, members of human societies have gone barefoot, and those societies seemingly had a low incidence of foot deformities and pain. Only one study has addressed the problem of infection through injury to the bare foot; otherwise, the unshod foot seems to have had minimal problems. Initially shoes were made in the shape of the foot and were sandals. Over time, shoes became decorative items and symbols of status and vanity. As the shape of shoes changed, they became deforming forces on the foot and the source of pain. Recent studies by the Council on Women’s Footwear of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society have tried to document the problems caused by shoes on the feet of American women. Attempts should continue to educate women on appropriate shoes and proper fit.

These are not the only cases. Another instance is this abstract from the August 1991 issue of Pediatrics. (I have a full text; if anyone is interested post in the comments.)

Shoes for children: a review.

1. Optimum foot development occurs in the barefoot environment. 2. The primary role of shoes is to protect the foot from injury and infection. 3. Stiff and compressive footwear may cause deformity, weakness, and loss of mobility. 4. The term “corrective shoes” is a misnomer. 5. Shock absorption, load distribution, and elevation are valid indications for shoe modifications. 6. Shoe selection for children should be based on the barefoot model. 7. Physicians should avoid and discourage the commercialization and “media”-ization of footwear. Merchandising of the “corrective shoe” is harmful to the child, expensive for the family, and a discredit to the medical profession.

These are some pretty harsh words. However, beyond that let’s dig a little deeper by looking at shoes and running.

The incidence of running injuries before the 1950s was low. But since the 1970s when shoe manufacturers have started to put more and more padding into shoes, the incidence of runners that have some injury every year is up to nearly 60%. Some of the cause could be to due confounding factors such as the rise in obesity, improperly fitted shoes, etc.; however, there is at least some reason to believe otherwise as we will shortly discuss.

Most of the common running shoes have lots of padding in the heel which incorrectly gives the user an impression that heel-toe running is correct. Significant amounts of heel-toe running can potentially cause long term damage in combination with other factors such as obesity, improperly fitted shoes, and strenuous activity, especially in children and the elderly. In heel-toe running, the joints are taking the impacts rather than your musculature dissipating the force correctly with mid- and fore-foot striking. One study showed that shoes mechanically alter stride compared to barefoot running resulting in lower net efficiency.

Walking, in which the heel does strike the ground first, is a fundamentally different gait from jogging, running, and sprinting which require a mid- and fore-strike to protect the body and operate at a high level.

However, beyond the walking and running mechanics, let us analyze why shoes are a problem.

• Most shoes now have an elevated heel as padding. In walking or running, the knee tracks over the toe as you take a step. With an elevated heel, the foot is already tilted forward which means the ankle does not need to bend as much during movement. Not taking a muscle often to the edge of its range of motion means that the muscles start tightening up. This limits the range of motion (ROM). Thus, with shoes there tends to be a loss of 10-20 degrees range of motion in ankle leading to tight calves.
• The padding in the shoes is problematic as well. Our body and feet have proprioceptors that allow us to feel the ground as we are moving. This gives us the ability to make small corrections to maintain proper posture and movement. The padding in the shoes allows improper corrections to be made (as they will not be punished by awkward landings), and decreases our natural proprioceptive ability and affect ankle coordination abilities. This leads to inactivated muscles on the plantar aspect (bottom) of the foot and decreased ankle stability especially with inversion and eversion corrections. In addition, this may lead to increased frequency of falls in the elderly.

As you can see, shoes are a problem especially compared to barefoot ability. This is even more evident if we are aware of the fact that the plantar aspect of the foot has 3 different muscle layers including the plantar fascia. Let’s now take a look at some more studies supporting the two points above.

Photos from medlineplus and eorthopod

This study showed that “a significant increase in leg stiffness from the barefoot to the “cushioned” shoe condition was noted during hopping. When running shod, runners landed more dorsiflexed (foot tilted upward) but had less ankle motion than when running barefoot. [...] The primary kinematic difference was identified as running speed increased: runners landed in more knee flexion. At the ankle, barefoot runners increased ankle motion to a significantly greater extent than did shod runners as speed increased.” When running barefoot, the forefoot receives the ground* with less than 90 degrees of dorsiflexion. Thus, the comment above regarding dorsiflexion with shoes running is deceptive. Obviously, decreased range of motion is the big thing as I talked about above.

* Note that minimalist shoes like sprinters use with proper technique show similar biomechanical patterns as barefoot running. I will talk about this in the next few segments.

Likewise, flatter foot touchdown and increased leg stiffness was found in barefoot running. Increased “leg stiffness” is good because that means the muscles are taking the brunt of the forces rather than your joints.

One study on ankle sprains showed that awareness of foot position is impaired by shoes. The authors also noted that there was increased muscle activity during inversion with shoes. They concluded that this was the body’s adaptive mechanism to oppose the increased tendency to roll the ankles with shoes as opposed to barefoot.

In a similar vein, this investigation showed that as the “shock ability” of the materials in running shoes decreased, foot control (proprioception) increased. Loss of proprioception is implicated in as much as 50% of running shoe injuries!

“This experiment showed that the sandals not only restricted the natural motion of the barefoot but also appeared to impose a specific foot motion pattern on individuals during the push-off phase.”

The best evidence, however, as far as we are concerned it from actual biomechanical evidence. This can be seen clearly in this study of the biomechanics of shod vs. barefoot running.

Results

Increased joint torques at the hip, knee, and ankle were observed with running shoes compared with running barefoot. Disproportionately large increases were observed in the hip internal rotation torque and in the knee flexion and knee varus torques. An average 54% increase in the hip internal rotation torque, a 36% increase in knee flexion torque, and a 38% increase in knee varus torque were measured when running in running shoes compared with barefoot.

In the next section, we will talk extensively about internal rotation, valgus, and varus states. However, the discussion here provides an ample preview:

“The observed 36% increase in the knee flexion torque with running shoes potentially increases the work of the quadriceps muscle, increases strain through the patella tendon, and increases pressure across the patellofemoral joint. Furthermore, a 38% increase in the knee varus torque implies relatively greater compressive loading on the medial tibiofemoral compartment, an anatomical site prone to degenerative joint changes, as compared with the lateral compartment. Finally, the disproportionately large 54% increase in the hip internal rotation torque may have particularly high clinical relevance, given previous findings that indicate that competitive running may increase the risk of OA of the hip joint.”

The internal rotation torque and quad dominance in particular in conjunction with tight calves are some of the main reasons of the dysfunctions we will discuss later.

Finally, we have this study which indicates that “selecting shoes based on plantar shape had little influence on injury risk.” Basically, no matter how expensive your shoes or how much ’support’ they provide, they don’t decrease your injury risk. This is a very strong case for flats/minimalist shoes/barefoot.

This article on the ankles also provides some relevant material to the discussion.

Note: The loss in range of motion from the calves covers why I do not have to mention why high heels are terrible for women. Even though women look good in them. Similarly, in sports with extensive plantar flexion such as pointing the toes in gymnastics and figure skating it is possible to develop similar problems.

Sitting has become a huge problem in modern society. Sitting is obviously common for school and most jobs. However, throw in decreasing amounts of recess and lack of activity for adults as well as obesity and you have a full blown epidemic.

There has not been much talk of this in the media. However, most of the sports communities knows the problems associated with sitting and its detrimental effects on athletic performance. Even so, the effects of sitting are more widespread than just poor athletic ability. Let us analyze why sitting is a problem.

• In sitting, the butt / gluteal muscles are in a stretched position. When a muscle is allowed to be in a stretched position for extended periods of time such as in school or office jobs, the muscle becomes weaker and thus inactivated. This is the opposite of what happens with the calves in their shorter and tighter position. Thus, with sitting the glutes become weak and inactive.
• The hip flexors which are shortened in hip flexion, like the calves, become shorter and tighter. The hip flexors consist of the iliopsoas, rectus femoris, sartorius, tensor fasciae latae (TFL), and adductors longus and brevis.Thus, with sitting the the hip flexors become short and tight.

Photos from blogpost and chiropractic-help

It has been investigated “whether gluteal muscles could be activated more effectively by stimulating the proprioceptive mechanism during walking.” They came to the conclusion that balance shoes help especially with lower back pain helping fire inactivate gluteal muscles. Ironically, you could just walk barefoot and do balance work to stimulate foot proprioceptors as well as do gluteal activation work. We will get to this later.

There are varying degrees of inactivation. Gluteal inactivation does not mean that the glutes fail to activate altogether. Rather they will fire although with decreased intensity or a delayed pattern which may be ineffective during proper recruitment during certain movements.

There is another interesting study done on a variety of subjects.

RESULTS: There were 1832 deaths (759 of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 547 of cancer) during 204,732 person-yr of follow-up. After adjustment for potential confounders, there was a progressively higher risk of mortality across higher levels of sitting time from all causes (hazard ratios (HR): 1.00, 1.00, 1.11, 1.36, 1.54; P for trend <0.0001) and CVD (HR:1.00, 1.01, 1.22, 1.47, 1.54; P for trend <0.0001) but not cancer. Similar results were obtained when stratified by sex, age, smoking status, and body mass index. Age-adjusted all-cause mortality rates per 10,000 person-yr of follow-up were 87, 86, 105, 130, and 161 (P for trend <0.0001) in physically inactive participants and 75, 69, 76, 98, 105 (P for trend = 0.008) in active participants across sitting time categories. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate a dose-response association between sitting time and mortality from all causes and CVD, independent of leisure time physical activity. In addition to the promotion of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and a healthy weight, physicians should discourage sitting for extended periods.

The very intriguing thing to note here is that sitting, even when adjusting for smoking, physical activity, and other mortality factors, has a dose-response association (meaning that the more you sit) the higher your risk of death. The P-value for this is <.00001. P-value is used in studies to incidate significance of data — generally anything under .05 is significant which means that 95% (1-.05) of the time this data is unlikely to occur. This data is particularly strong which means that 1-.00001 = 99.999% of the time this data set would not occur. This indicates that sitting is extremely insidious and dangerous the more you do it.

Another study seems to verify this conclusion. After adjusting for physical activity and other factors, those who sat greater than 6 hours per day were 37% more likely to die than those who sat less than 3. With a lack of physical exercise those who sat greater than 6 and less than 3 hours were 94% and 48% respectively more likely to die. Associations were strongest for cardiovascular disease mortality.

Consider that we now all send our kids to school for 7-8+ hours a day for 15+ years, and have desk jobs for much of our adult lives…. this is not a good sign.

Note: there will be more studies to come on gluteal activation; however, as a lot of them relate to the injuries that is specifically why they will be discussed later. I just want you to know that I do have my position on this topic supported at least as much as I have supported my case against shoes.

In conclusion, we learned that shoes and sitting cause many problems. This is a big problem because they are ubiquitous in modern society. Shoes tend to allow the user to run improperly (heel-toe) and hinder proper ankle biomechanics. In addition,

Shoes tends to cause the problems of

• Tight calves resulting in loss of 10-20 degrees of dorsi-flexion ROM in the calves.
• Inactivation of the muscles on the bottom of the foot and the ankle stabilizers.
• Decreased proprioception of the lower limbs.

Sitting tends to cause the problems of

• Inactivation of the gluteal muscles.
• Tight hip flexors (i.e. iliopsoas, rectus femoris, sartorius, tensor fasciae latae [TFL], and adductors longus and brevis).

In the next segment we will discuss look at the systemic biomechanical issues that arise from these deficits. Click below for the next part.

Part 2: Systemic biomechanical issues

What is the root of this problem, anyway?  In today’s world we are bombarded with information from every angle.  We are immersed in the “Information Age” during every moment of our lives.  We seem to be obsessed with the concept of a maximal amount of information in a minimal amount of time.  This is abundantly clear with the advent of websites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and Facebook (don’t forget to add us to Digg, Stumble and Facebook using the buttons at the top, by the way.)  In a twenty minute time span, the average person can be exposed to dozens of short videos, articles and lectures on topics ranging from engineering, economics, world politics and even dirty jokes.

With all of this information swirling around it is easy to get a bit lost.  When there is so much information, how can one possibly sort through it to make a logical, informed decision on the important topics?  It turns out that one of the most common ways we try to sort through our questions is to seek out the guidance of an “expert” by reading articles, blogs, books, etc.

Let’s step back for a second to analyze this situation.  We willingly and knowingly put some of our most important decisions into the hands of someone who is, at best, an outsider to your personal situation or, at worst, a complete stranger.  While this seems incredibly impersonal and impractical it is the only method that makes sense.  There are simply too many important domains that exist and not nearly enough time to investigate each domain thoroughly.

Now, I am not saying that you shouldn’t think for yourself.  In fact, my opinion is the exact opposite.  I believe that one can achieve a working level of ability in many domains.  Specialization is for insects, after all.  Yet, it is impossible to get through life without letting people do some of the thinking for us.  It is somewhat laughable to think that we could all learn the detailed intricacies of health, fitness, nutrition, theology, religion, finance, engineering, art, design, computing, optics, photography, survival, quantum physics, sustainability, economics, construction, architecture, baseball statistics, painting, feng shui…I think you get the point.

While we must defer to expert advice on at least a few domains of knowledge, some of us can get “lazy” and just have other people do the thinking for us.  I contest that this issue is more likely rooted in maturity – not laziness.

For someone totally new to a domain (or who simply does not care about that domain at all) we have little choice but to be at the mercy of experts.  When we are new, our knowledge consists mostly of things heard in passing by someone more knowledgeable on the topic (mostly everyone).

Additionally, at this early stage we are at a disadvantage because we are reliant on simplifying complex subject matter so that we can make better decisions in the future (e.g. “fat = bad” or “cardio = running”).  This is commonly referred to as judgement heuristics (Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Todd & Gigerenzer, 2007), that is, a mental short-cut.  It is also common for a novice to not understand context dependence and this puts them at a heavy disadvantage when trying to understand complex subjects.  This is the main reason why a novice often refers back to blanket statements.  For example, when we are this new to a domain we may say things like “carbs are bad,” or “thirty year mortgages are the best option” without addressing the context around those choices.  Oftentimes this is done because we may have heard that applied to another specific context by an expert.

Now, being so new, studies show that when if we are confronted with expert advice them we will pretty much comply with anything that said expert says – unless we care about the topic. (Epley & Gilovich, 2006; Petty & Wegener, 1999)  When we start to develop a genuine interest we immediately react more pro-actively and show higher levels of critical thinking than someone who does not care at all.  This is one of the first steps towards not being such a newbi — er, novice.

This means that we are starting to weigh expert advice.  At this stage, it becomes clear that experts often contradict one another and these contradictions require that one “picks a side.”  This is especially true in any sort of controversial field like fitness or health (which most of us should be reading this for, anyway.)  Sadly, this leaves us with a ton of options regarding which expert is correct.  If you haven’t figure it out by now, I really like scientific studies – and there are quite a few to show that we often avoid making a choice when there are “too many” options (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000).  This is where we see many people get stuck and may avoid fully considering the available data.  The more choices that exist, the more complicated the decision.

Once we decide on an opinion that makes the most sense to us, we are still not out of the woods.  There is a snare in the road that catches many people – the phenomenon of defending the first opinion/conclusion we have ever heard   even if they have a lesser background on the subject matter.  This can likely be traced back to the human tendency to even just appear to be consistent with what they have stated in the past. (Brinol, Petty, & Wheeler, 2006; Mather, Shafir, & Johnson, 2000; Rusbult et al., 2000).  People are very reluctant to go back on their ideas once they state them to others.  Getting someone to state their ideas out in public may instill that dedication to consistency which makes a belief so hard to change.  Studies even show that we will trick ourselves to perceive things differently just to remain consistent with previous actions and beliefs (Regan & Kilduff, 1988) What is worse is that most of us reading blogs on the web are likely also avid forum junkies/bloggers that write down and broadcast their views to a very wide audience regularly.  It is very difficult to step back away from a massive commitment to an idea such as a massive written broadcast. (Tedeschi, Schlenker, & Bonoma, 1971; Schlenker et al., 1994). At the bottom line, the reason for the trap doesn’t matter – it’s escaping the trap.  Getting out can be tricky business since it often gets compounded by a second trap – arrogance.

Arrogance is understandable.  Being more knowledgeable than a true novice their statements may be taken as expert advice.  The grandeur of being hailed as an expert can be empowering and is often something we may be reluctant to sacrifice for the greater good of propagating wholly true information.

What allows us to mature and progress beyond this point where we have read many things and have reached some neophyte conclusions?

Consider this: you have dozens of concepts and ideas in your head that were created out of convenience because you were under informed.  At one point you had to blindly believe others so that you could just learn more about a topic.  A closed mind cannot assimilate new evidence to older, more convenient ideas.  With a closed mind our original and incomplete opinions cannot be refined and corrected.  Without challenging our existing knowledge it is impossible for false assumptions to be fixed.

At this point it may seem a bit daunting since we would seemingly have to investigate every new bit of information.  This is not necessary.  Rather, there is an understanding that we can continue to gain more knowledge until we are confronted.  This confrontation may be an idea or concept that is inconsistent with their knowledge.  If it is important to the individual, then they will be able to investigate the point and analyze the argument from both sides to come to a logical conclusion.  Sometimes that logical conclusion is that no definitive conclusion can be made.  This leads to the common “more information or research is needed,” mantra that oftentimes irritates some people.  Sadly, the world is not painted in black and white, alone.

From my experience, one only needs to go through this process a couple of times.  Once we understands that things are not in black and white; that sometimes more research really is needed; that some opinions just cannot be generated then it opens their mind to see that this applies to all domains across the board.  For example, I may know nothing about the Chevy Camaro or the Ford Mustang – but I will understand that there may be more to the “which is better?” argument than engine size and turning radius.  I may make a decision on my preference with no further information – but at least I realize that I have made a shortcut in the interest of time and energy.

Reaching this level of understanding can take a great deal of time for most people.  For most, it requires that one is confronted with conflicting viewpoints over and over again before coming to the realization that justification is always needed to make a final decision.  There comes an understanding that there can never be the “one study to rule them all” and that logical decisions need to be made based on existing theories, concepts and practices.

The long and short of it is that sometimes we understand that there is not enough information. Even when there is enough information we can still be challenged with a new idea.

So, if you are one of those people who were sent to this article because you have been talking about “something I read somewhere” or made a bold claim without backing it up, then you may want to consider the following things:

1. Who wrote or told me about what I am passing along?  Is this a credible source for this information?
2. If I am being told that my information is inaccurate, why may that be so?  Why does someone think I am wrong?  Do they have counter evidence?
3. Is it possible that both of us can be right, just in a different context?  That is, does my claim apply to some people whereas the other claim can apply to others?
4. Is there really enough information to make a decision or should we call for more research?

If you take the time to consider and ask these questions then we all stand to learn a lot more from each other.

First, we need establish what the common rules are:

1. Save static stretching until the end of a workout

2. If there are hip dominant athletic movements, then it is a good idea to stretch your hip flexors.

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The quick physiology…

Static stretching basically forcibly lengthens your muscles (via sacromere stretching) and inhibits the muscle spindles which are located in the belly of the muscle. These muscle spindles are sensory receptors that send feedback to the central nervous system. If the muscle is lengthening too rapidly, the CNS will send motor feedback (reflex) to the muscles telling them to contract. This is the body’s protective mechanism often called the “stretch-shorten cycle” which is there to prevent the muscle from straining or tearing.

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Let’s take a look by examining the etiology of strained/pulled muscles.

All strains/pulls are pretty much the same so let’s take a look at one of the more common ones — the hamstring strain.

Now what happens often in kicking sports and sprinting is that the hamstrings get fatigued very quickly. This is because the hamstrings do double duty as primary movers with the glutes in hip extension, and also act as an eccentric control for the the lower leg in the knee drive forward (image 1-6 for the left hamstring).

This physiological data has a two implications:

1. Without stretching, as the muscles fatigue, if they do not have enough strength-endurance to contract to prevent lengthening you get a strain. This is what happens with kicking sports and sprinters if their hamstring strength-endurance is not well developed regardless of static stretching or not.

2. With stretching, the muscle spindles act to reflexively activate the muscle to keep it from elongating too quickly too far in the ECCENTRIC phase. If the strength-endurance of the person is too low (novice runners) or the person is extremely powerful (extremely fast runners) or somewhere inbetween the addition of static stretching may increase the chance of a hamstring strain.

As we can see the potential for injury may increase especially in sports or exercises with a large eccentric component if we static stretch the muscle before exercise.

P.S. Groin strains are similar to hamstring strains because of their dual nature in kicking and sprinting sports as well.

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Energy conservation

This manifests itself in 2 ways.

1. Static stretching before a workout decreases the ability to exhibit maximum power or strength up to approximately 25-30 minutes after stretching. So it is not a good to static stretch before workouts.

2. If the resting muscle length is too long (too much static stretching overall), then one of the problems you encounter is that the stretch-shorten reflex does not work as well. Excessive flexibility such as the splits may be counterproductive for sports that do not require it because it will decrease your ability in power or strength movements.

For example, the stretch-shorten cycle is also used for energy conservation such as “bouncing” out of the bottom of the squat with the hammies (Oly lifting, weightlifting, etc.) as they lengthen under tension, or in the plyometric moment on the calves/hamstrings during sprinting.

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Examining the hip flexors exception

The one exception is stretching the hip flexors before any explosive hip extension movement. We know that as a muscle lengthens rapidly the stretch-shorten cycle sends feedback to the CNS which relays the message to tell it to contract. In hip extension, the hip flexors are performing the eccentric component (as well as the rectus femoris) resisting against the extension and hyperextension of the hip.

We want to static stretch them to inhibit the stretch-shorten cycle so that we can increase the power of our hip extension/hyperextension allowing us to sprint faster, squat more powerfully, or anything that requires power or strength in a hip extension movement (which is almost every lower body exercise).

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In conclusion

Thus, we come to the few conclusions we arrived in the introduction (underlined) with a little bit added on as clarification, plus an additional rule.

1a. Save static stretching until the end of a workout.

1b. BUT only static stretch if you need the flexibility for your sport. Flexiblity that is sufficently developed for sport is fine where it is, and OVERdeveloped flexibility may have to be remedied with strength/power training without any static stretching.

2a. IF there are hip dominant athletic movements, then it is a good idea to stretch your hip flexors.

2b. Most people’s are too strong and short because we sit a lot. But if you’re a lucky person where yours are underdeveloped and weak then be wary of static stretching them until they are sufficiently strong because of the potential for groin strains.

3. If our sport requires flexibility in it (such as gymnastics and the splits), then clearly static stretching before it may be beneficial to hit the positions.

Similarly, with novice lifters if flexibility is limiting their ability to hit technically correct positions (aka bottom of the squat has butt winking with tight hamstrings), then use static stretching so they can improve their form for their lifts. This is something that must be addressed both before and after lifting to improve their ability to do the lifts technically correct.

I like this rule, and the more I train the more I realize that’s how it should be.

When you first get into exercise you just want to do it. But then you find out about all of this other information that you need to know to make your workouts, nutrition, etc. more effective. It’s overwhelming. However, it need not be that complicated.

Basically, the gist of KISS is keeping everything simple. There’s 4 things that you need to be doing to have good results with your training namely (1) training, (2) nutrition, (3) sleep, and (4) low levels of stress.

1. Training is best kept simple. Workout hard and rest hard. Put your best into your workouts, and they will give their best back to you. But when it’s time to rest, make sure you really rest. Don’t try to complicate things with so many exercises or so many varying repetition schemes – just work hard and you’ll get results. As you learn about your body and understand more then you may need to vary it up, but by then you’ll generally know enough that it shouldn’t be complicated.

If you ever find yourself thinking about programming for more than 10-20 minutes, you’re probably overcomplicating things.

Define goals -> Select exercises -> organize them into workouts -> Go do it.

2. Nutrition… keep it simple.

I think this article from the guys at LifeSpotlight says it very well.   Essentially, just eat real food.  Over in our beginners section we put together a great article that breaks it down into very simple, easy to follow guidelines.

3. Sleep is simple. Get 7-8 hours per night. Maybe a bit more or a bit less depending on your body’s needs. No exceptions. Make time if you have to.

4. Low levels of stress. Self explanatory. Don’t worry so much. Training and sleeping help alleviate stress, but don’t get all worked up about anything going on in your daily lives. Just step back, take a few deep breaths and deal with it.

Try to schedule some ‘you’ time every week – massages, learn new sports or do other activities, meet new people, etc. Chronic levels of stress will beat you down hard and be disruptive to your training so try to stay as stress free as possible.

1) Mistake: Not Enjoying the Process

Let’s be realistic – human beings typically don’t do things they don’t enjoy. Diet and training are no exception.

This is not to say that you need to love every minute at the gym. When I am going in for my last set of a heavy squat I sometimes can’t help but stare at the ground and mutter, “I really don’t want to do this.” The same goes for the sets of work for one-armed chin-ups. The negative feelings, however, are far outweighed by the positive. All in all, when I walk out of the gym I find that I thoroughly enjoyed myself – despite the fact that I may have had a bad day or didn’t perform as well as I wanted.

Similarly, when it comes to diet, very few of us are happy to watch everyone else eat the birthday cake or huge bowl of ice cream. Forcing yourself to sit on the sidelines of social eating is going to set you up for a poorly balanced diet. This is because many people fall back into the trap of consistently eating poorly after a “day off” from eating well.

This gives rise to two troubling questions: How can I enjoy what I hate? How can I consistently stay away from what I love?

To address the first question, we need to find goals that you would absolutely love to achieve. Maybe you really want to run that mile track around the park. Maybe you play in a weekend softball league and would like to get around the bases faster. Maybe you just saw a video of someone demonstrating parkour and that really lit your fire. Everyone’s life involves movements – find the movements you really enjoy performing and identify workouts and short-term goals to achieve them. Going to the gym for years to “look good” will have one of the following results:
(a) You stop working out after a short time.
(b) You get bored and become jaded.

To address the second question the answer is simple: don’t. Dieting and training doesn’t need to be boring. If you seriously don’t like tuna and brussell sprouts then you don’t need to eat them even though they are undeniably “healthy” foods. Instead, identify those foods that are really enjoyable to you AND considered healthy. Make a menu of these healthy foods and then you know exactly what you can eat and what you can avoid. Even then, once you have established a relatively “healthy” way of eating you may want to incorporate a scheduled “cheat day” into your routine. Avoiding the things you love for an unpredictable period of time is a proven cause of stress. Having a cheat day alleviates immediate stress; scheduling the cheat day alleviates long-term stress.

The key to healthy living and dieting is consistency. If you have one day a month or week where you eat a terrible meal that’s not a travesty. If you have terrible meals every day then its a problem. The best way to stay consistent in eating healthy is to schedule a cheat day (one day a week or something similar) and stick to it no matter what. This helps keep sanity and you get to really eat the things you love.

2) Mistake: Not Understanding Mistakes

Over my years of training in various disciplines, I obviously made many mistakes, learned a bunch, and grew from it. I see many people who, in their training, lack the open-minded nature to understand that what they are doing is not correct. Rather than admit that they may be wrong, they continue to do poor workouts without exploring their methodology. Understanding that you will err in some way is an important part of the growth process.

3) Mistake: Working Too Hard

When most people find their way into an athletic lifestyle, they get addicted to their sport and to being active. This is great but comes with a major caveat.

Many athletes, even some who consider themselves seasoned, often neglect the importance of rest and recovery into their regimens. Working out for 6 hours, 7 days a week, is a bit overkill. When I first fell into my athletic lifestyle I was going to the gym twice a day for 3 hours at a time, then would scratch my head as to why my performance was not improving.

A vast majority of the population can be considered a novice or intermediate trainee. At this level one can recover quite quickly from the stresses of a workout. Therefore, a short, 20-30 minute workout 6 days of every 8 will provide substantial performance gains. Depending on goals, these times and cycles will vary, but the bottom line is that less is usually more.

You must remember that you are an individual, and your own rest cycles will be determined based on your personal level (novice, intermediate, advanced, or elite) in your domain (all inclusive, power lifter, weight lifter, long-distance runner, short-distance runner, bodybuilder, etc.).

4) Mistake: Violating KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

A common error I see among novices, self included, is a lack of simplicity in diet and exercise routines. Usually those who become obsessed with fitness start reading very much, from very different sources. The sources never seem to agree and always seem to have very strong points that contradict one another.

Results, however, are one thing that you can never, ever question. At a novice and intermediate level, keep your workouts simple. Do not worry about your fast and slow twitch fibers. Don’t worry about your energetic pathways. Don’t worry about your omega-3 to omega-6 ratios in your diet. Sure, these things are important, but you are better off worrying about them when you know much more about them. If you stick to eating real, whole foods in tandem with a regular workout program then you can certainly see major results before you have much knowledge about the details.

If you try to make things too complicated too soon, it is disheartening and you wind up swearing off training, diet, research or all three because it is much too complicated.

An important thing to remember is that, no matter who says any different, no one knows EXACTLY how the body works. An overwhelming number of biological and physiological findings have occurred within the past 20 years, and most of the groundbreaking discoveries have only been happening in the past 100 years. Hell, DNA was only discovered in the 1940s. The effects of IGF-I on muscle growth are still being explored, and were only been discovered about a decade ago.

The point is, don’t let yourself get bogged down by science that is still yet incomplete. Train for results.

5) Mistake: Blindly Following Sources/Informers

This is where the fitness industry fails horribly in delivering quality content to its members. Standing in line at the grocery store you can be looking at five different magazines – each of which is advertising 10 days to flat abs or 30 days to sexy legs. Sadly, an overwhelming number of people begin a program involving these ineffective cookie-cutter workouts. The results are never good – this is just a bad idea.

Another bad idea is to not question a more scientific or practical source – such as an article from the Journal of Applied Physiology or the ACE’s certified personal trainer study guide.

Having dealt with dozens of PhDs and trainers on a daily basis, all of whom are well respected in their field, I have come to learn much about the knowledge possessed by both individuals on opposite sides of the spectrum. Whether the source in question is a PhD or a trainer, they have respect from a group of people somewhere. Their certifications, degrees and titles leave people with the impression that they know what they are talking about. While many PhD holders and trainers have an in-depth knowledge of a specific aspect of their field, oftentimes the buck stops there. Some individuals in these positions realize the limitations of their expertise. Others, however, apply their specific knowledge to a broad domain – which results in myths and falsehoods spreading through the fitness industry like wildfire. A good example of this is how many studies attempt to extrapolate data found in a nutritional study based on a population of ten undergraduate students.

Recent studies are showing that individuals totally turn off the part of their brain associated with critical thinking and counterarguing when they are confronted with advice from someone they consider an “expert.” [1] The way to counter this natural tendency is to remain vigilant and question all sources.

With this in mind, anything written by a trainer or PhD should be taken with a grain of salt until they have been proven credible through your own research or their acceptance in the fitness community in which you belong. Even then, one should constantly be trying to reevaluate the validity of the expert statements. Would you convict someone of murder based on a single eyewitness testimony? Some more hard evidence is usually needed.

You should always question what people tell you, including those who are “credible.” What you will come to realize over time is that some people know very much about one domain but know little about another. For example, Fred Hatfield (a.k.a “Dr. Squat” and, anecdotally, a PhD holder) knows much about heavy squatting, but I would not go to him for advice or information specific to planche progressions. Some (poor) trainers think that because they know much about one domain, that they know much about all domains. This is just not true. You will never see an expert on airplanes trying to fix a locomotive. They are two different things, both accomplishing similar goals, and you should keep this in mind when reading articles or asking advice from trainers.

A true professional trainer will not only enjoy answering these questions, they will likely be happy that you asked. If your trainer gets upset by questions like this I would seriously question their experience and merit.

6) Mistake: Lack of Goals

Goals are pretty much the only reason any of us exercise. Training is a means of achieving your goals. You probably have goals even if you don’t think you do. However, you likely have not framed them in a quantifiable, useful manner.

For a long time I had no quantifiable goals, I just wanted to “look better” or “not be fat.” You run into this mistake with a lot of people, in my experience. Their only goal falls into the following categories: “be skinny,” “workout without getting too big,” “be healthy,” “looking good naked.” To fix this trend, it is important to make sure your goals are quantifiable. Setting quantifiable goals, a wide variety of them, will accelerate your training vastly whether you are male or female.

Quantifiable goals usually have a magnitude and specific direction. “Be able to perform 10 kipping pullups” is a good quantifiable goal. “Lose 10 pounds by May 1″ is another good example.

Firstly, setting quantifiable goals gives you direction. It gives you something to check off a list. Studies show that creating to-do lists, and then checking things off of them, actually releases neurotransmitters that heighten mood. If you don’t believe this, try it for yourself – you will notice that crossing something off your list actually does give you a little bit of a high.

This is what psychologists call “positive reinforcement” and is known as the most effective method of behavior modification. We are modifying you as an athlete and your dedication to your training. Taking advantage of your biochemistry and psyche is a great way to accelerate your training and keep you focused on an ever-changing list of achievements. Before you know it, the list of goals gets tremendous and you have tons of new things that you want to do. With a longer goals list there is just that much more room for growth.

7) Mistake: Failure to Keep a Log

This is another one that is pretty major and often overlooked. When you do finally set goals, how do you know when you have achieved them if you never write them down? If you do write them down, but do not note your progress, how do you know that you are actually getting closer to your goal? If you feel like you are on a hamster wheel in your training, looking back over your log is a great way to make sure that you are not just running in circles but actually progressing.

Another aspect of log keeping, especially in a skill sport like parkour, gymnastics or weight lifting, is often overlooked. Recording your training in a log allows you to record how you have been FEELING during these workouts. Sure, your day of training might have sucked, but you might have felt that you were not up to par that day. Maybe you had a stuffy nose or you went on a bender the night before, which negatively impacted your performance. It also lets you note how much fear and/or confidence you had that day. I recently went to the Museum of Sports in NYC where some logs of elite-level athletes were put on display. Each of these logs not only listed performance metrics, but also their state of mind and thought process. It was nice to see things like “Felt great today, focused on positive thoughts and the game went really well” in an olympian’s training log. These small, seemingly insignificant thoughts impact your training, which impacts you reaching your goals.

Another benefit to keeping a log, especially if you maintain it on a forum, is that this leaves it open to critique and criticism. At this point, you should understand that you WILL make mistakes. Asking others, especially those with more experience than you, to review your logs allows you to get more detailed advice from them and achieve your goals faster.

Mistake: Misunderstanding Workouts Selection

It is extremely important to understand why you are doing what you are doing.

Perhaps someone suggested that you do a 5×5 linear progression on olympic lifts. Maybe another person told you to do a split routine including biceps curls, bench presses and front shoulder raises.

Which one do you do? What influenced your decision?

If you honestly don’t know why you do the exercises you are doing, then I recommend that you STOP doing them until you figure that out. A good example of this is wall sits. Many people do this exercise, but why? There are few, if any, situations where your body will be in this position functionally. Yet many people train this, some of them with goals to hold wall sits for over an hour. There are many workouts and goals like this. If that is what you want to do, then more power to you, but you should understand WHY you are doing it.

Once you identify why you are doing a certain movement, you should really verify that this movement/technique will actually help you achieve your goals. This can be done by seeking out external resources and experts with more experience and better formulated opinions than your own while you figure out the details.

9) Mistake: Arrogance

Once I started hitting some of my goals, particularly in weight loss, I began to think that if anyone needed advice they should come to me. It took me being put in my place by quite a few people before I realized that I did not know it all. I think this is just human nature, because since I realized the error of my ways, I have noticed this is a problem with many people.

One thing to remember when giving advice is that there will always be someone out there with more knowledge and information than you. Unless you can back it up with solid facts, don’t say it or pretend like you know anything about it.

Coaching people takes experience. Not just experience doing something for yourself, but experience as a teacher and a trainer. You need a solid understanding of what you are trying to coach. A solid understanding denotes that you have examined multiple people from multiple angles.

At my current level of experience and understanding I do not consider myself any sort of authority in any aspect of fitness. This is why I give most of my advice with the disclaimer that it’s based on my personal research and opinions rather than my professional knowledge.

This is something many people can, and will, learn the hard way. The hard way means posting or speaking out in public and being put in your place brutally by someone who knows much more than you. When this happens to you, then my advice is to embrace the moment, be humbled and hit the gym/library to learn more so it doesn’t happen again.

10) Mistake: Reinventing the Wheel

We see further ahead by standing on the shoulders of giants. That is, we learn more by learning from those before us. As I said before, there is no real reason to try to invent movements or ways of training. People have been training for centuries. Some of the best methods of getting strong and fast for long periods of time are already well known and developed.

It will save you a lot of time if you learn to ask the right questions and read the right articles so that you can stick with what has been shown to work, as opposed to trying new things that will just impede your training.

While gains at the highest levels of performance are constantly being reevaluated, you should wait until you know more about the techniques surrounding your goals before attempting to work out like an elite athlete.

Keep it simple and always focus on achieving your goals!

References:

1. Engelman, J. B., Capra, C. M., Noussair, C., and Berns, G. S. (2009). Expert financial advice neurobiologically offloads financial decision-making under risk. Public Library of Science One, 4, e4957, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004957.