The "strained" right knee?

Lots of knee related content this week. My good buddy Eric Cressey sent me the following link today regarding a knee injury to Washington Wizards forward Antawn Jamison. Please observe:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=281007006&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

While I don't expect pro-level teams to divulge what's going on with all their athletes, let's be clear that there's a significant difference between a strain and a sprain.

From the Mayo Clinic website:

Sprain - A sprain is a stretching or tearing of ligaments. Ligaments are tough bands of fibrous tissue that connect one bone to another. Common locations for sprains are your ankles and knees.

Strain - A strain is a stretching or tearing of muscle or tendon. People commonly call strains "pulled" muscles. Hamstring and back injuries are among the most common strains.

Now I don't know about you, but when I see someone's knee buckle like that, it's pretty rare that it's a simple "strain." The exception would be if someone blew their quad tendon, which he doesn't appear to have done.

Instead, when buckling occurs it typically occurs due to ligament damage - possibly a torn ACL, MCL, etc. I'm no sports medicine doc, but I'd be surprised if this was a simple muscle pull and that he's out a week or so. (For his sake, however, I hope I'm wrong - he's a helluva player.)

So as I stated up front I don't expect teams to divulge all their insider secrets, but at the very least the reporting of injuries leaves a lot to be desired for an anatomy geek such as myself.

Stay strong

MR

If you want to learn more about knee injures and how to prevent them, check out my knee manual.

Motivated Clients

While I normally train first thing on Tuesday mornings, I had a consult with a potential new client this morning at I-FAST. Over the course of the conversation, we got to talking about my various experiences in the field (rehab, personal training, strength coaching, etc.) and he asked me which I liked best.

It took me a moment to process, but then it dawned on me: I like all of them! They all present different challenges. Most importantly, the real key here is the people you are working with. In the past I've almost always had a fair amount of people who were unmotivated; in all honesty, achieving their goals just wasn't their top priority. Now keep in mind not everyone was like that, but I always had a few.

Today, every member of I-FAST is 100% dedicated to achieving their goals. I can say with complete confidence that there's not one single client that I don't enjoy training. Why? They are dedicated and serious about achieving their goals. When you have dialed in clients, it makes everything you do as a trainer, coach, or therapist that much easier.

If you live in or around the Indianapolis area and you aren't gettin the results you want, please e-mail us so we can get you on the right track.

If you're a trainer, coach or therapist, do your best to align yourself with positive, dedicated and hard-working clients and athletes. You'll have better outcomes and you'll enjoy your work that much more in the long run.

Stay strong
MR

A great weekend with EC

As many of you know, I spent the past weekend in Boston with my boy Eric Cressey. Even though I was smoked by the time I got in Friday night, hanging out with EC is a sure-fire way to get the juices flowing. As soon as we got to his apartment we got down to business planning some future projects and discussing business in general.

Saturday morning we were up by 6 am to attend a seminar in Andover, MA. The primary presenters on this day were Kevin Wilk and Bob Mangine, and the entire day was spent talking about knee injuries, rehab and training. Needless to say, I was in heaven! If you haven't heard these guys speak before and you're serious about your continuing ed, you owe it to yourself to hear them speak. This day alone was well worth the cash I shelled out to attend.

While I have no plans on doing PT any time soon, it really helps to understand what PT's go through on a daily basis. If nothing else, you'll refine your knowledge of functional anatomy and how it applies to the training you're doing. Taking it a step further, if you are good at what you do and have a great network, you can brand yourself as the post-rehab guy in your area - the one that takes them AFTER rehab and gets them back to 110%. Not a bad niche if you ask me.

After the seminar EC and I decided we had sat all day, we needed to train. We got a quick and dirty session in, and I got beasted by a bar only known as El Gordo. This bar is friggin' thick, and it was definitely a shock to the system. I hit 3x5 there, 3 sets of chest-supported rows superset with alternating DB bench, some face pulls, some ab work, and called it a night. I'm still sore two days later.

Later that evening we caught up with the one and only Tony Gentilcore, and Cressey Performance's newest coach Brian. It was a great meal (turkey tips rule!), but the combination of tryptophan and two Miller Lites and I was ready for bed.

The next morning started with Kevin Wilk dropping repeated knowledge bombs on us regarding shoulder health and function. Did I mention this guy is ridiculously smart? And oh yeah, his patient lists reads like a Who's Who of the NBA, NFL and MLB. I was pleasantly suprised on this day, though, that nothing he said went too far over my head. While my primary focus is on knees, I want to learn as much as possible about every joint, and I've been working hard to get my shoulder info up to snuff. It doesn't hurt when you have EC and Bill in your corner, so I don't have any excuses to lack knowledge in that regard.

The day finished up with my Colts stealing a victory from the Texans, and my alma mater Ball State has broken into the college football Top 25 for the first time ever! As I stated, it was a great weekend.

Unfortunately all good times must come to an end, and a bumpy flight home paired with a pre-6 am morning and I'm back to reality. As the saying goes, though, "You can sleep when you're dead."

In the interim, it's time to kick ass and take names. Have a great week!

MR

Download the FREE SMR E-MANUAL

In case you missed it a while back, I released a 100% free e-manual on self-myofascial release. It covers why you should do it, how to do it, and throws in some functional anatomy and other miscellaneous knowledge bombs along the way.

Did I mention it's totally free?

Here's the link; just right-click, "Save As," and enjoy!

http://www.robertsontrainingsystems.com/smr1.html

Stay strong

MR

R.I.P. - Remembering our Prowler

It's a sad day today at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.

Many of our clients have one goal: To lose body fat and kick some ass. Yes, I realize that's two goals. Whatever. We take great pride in pushing our clients to the limits, and in the end helping them break through perceived limitations when it comes to their body/physique.

While every component of our fat loss programming is somewhat metabolic in nature, we love finishing people off with energy system work at the end. As many of you know we aren't huge fans of overpriced treadmills and recumbent bikes; they take up too much space and cost too damn much. We much prefer alternative methods like med ball or body weight circuits, kettlebells, Airdyne sprints and everyone's favorite, the Prowler. They're more fun, and our clients really enjoy the workouts.

As we were training clients today, Bill turned to me and asked "Where's the Prowler?" We have a great strip out back where our clients pay their body comp dues, so we immediately walked back there to find it. Unfortunately, the shady dumpster people got the best of us today and stole our Prowler. We had been training out there numerous times when the following discussion had gone down:

Shady Dumpster guy, leering at our Prowler - "Is that scrap?"

Us - "No!"

So to whomever decided that our $500 Prowler would make a nice piece of $25 scrap metal, thank you. We appreciate your willingness to steal our stuff to make a quick buck.

RIP Prowler #1 - you will be sorely missed.

MR

Random Thoughts - 9/30

In case you missed my newsletter yesterday, it was a doozy! All kinds of good info but here's a short recap (and more!)...

- I was on the FitCast this past weekend; we discussed mobility, knees, and the fallacies surrounding corrective training. You can check it out at www.thefitcast.com

- I had a new article go up today at FigureAthlete.com titled "Breaking into the Industry." If your goal is to become a personal trainer or strength coach in the future, you owe it to yourself to read the article.

- I'm headed to Boston this weekend for a weekend with those freakin' studs from Cressey Performance - you know, Cressey, Gentilcore and Larrabee. And oh yeah, I guess I'm going to a seminar too :(

In all seriousness, the seminar sounds sweet - you know you're a dork when the thought of two-days worth of talk on spines, shoulders and knees gets you excited.

- I also expect some serious brainstorming between Eric and myself this weekend. It's hard to get us together, but whenever it happens we get serious work done.

- Training is going really well right now, and I feel like I'm in a good place overall. I haven't updated it in a while, but I'm going to update the training log ASAP.

That's it for today; have a great day!

Best
MR

It's on YOU

Ok, I have to blame this little rant on Leigh Peele - it's all her fault!

You see, I read her blog post here a few days ago and it was so damn good I had to e-mail her about it. And it also got me all worked up thinking about goal setting and achieving things in your life.

A few days ago, I was in a little mini-slump; jet-lag, sleep deprivation and a little bit too much fun in Vegas will do that to a guy. Now I could've easily hung out in this state for days, weeks, months, or even years, but luckily for me whenever something like this happens I "wake up."

No, there's nothing spiritual or wacky about this; quite simply I realize that I control what goes on in my life. If things are good, I made them that way. If they aren't? Well, I did that too. Basically, it's on me to make my life what it can and should be.

I think far too often we forget about how much control we have over our own lives. We're far too quick to blame bosses, spouses, kids, and other external influences on our current state of being.

Take a second to really think about this stuff, ok? I promise, it will be worth it...

- What is going right in your life right now? What have you done to create this environment? Don't play around! Write this shit down - it could be with regards to your training, financial status, relationships, whatever. It all comes together, so whatever is really important to you write it down.
- What is going wrong in your life right now? What have you done to create this environment? Write this down as well for future reference.

All that I ask is that your honest with yourself. And let's be realistic here, sometimes we're the best at kidding ourselves versus others. When you tuck yourself into bed tonight, think about where you're at and if it's really where you want to be. If not, how can you go about getting yourself back on track? Or if you're on the right track, getting yourself to the next level?

Self-evolution and improvement definitely isn't an easy thing. If everyone could key in on this stuff with a laser-like focus we'd all be 6% body fat, freaky strong, ridiculously wealthy and living the life of our dreams. I'm not there yet, but that definitely won't stop me from trying.

If you're not doing the things you want, the bottom line is this: Ask yourself if what you're doing now is in-line with your long-term goals and dreams. If it's not, figure out a way to get yourself going ASAP.

The arm chair psychologist is now out of the office - that will be $200 ;)

Stay strong
MR