Now weight just a minute…

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I’ve noticed more and more weight belts popping up in the gym.  This concerns me.  A lot.  Hear me out.

Our abdominal core muscles are the protectors of our spine.  It’s the core muscles that we want doing the work while we lift, rather than loading the joints of our lower backs.  Core muscles can be thought of as two cylinders, one within the other:

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The inner core muscles, which are directly attached to the spine, look kind of like the diagram below.  They are the stabilizers of the spine, and the protective, anticipatory muscles that help prevent injury.

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It is the outer core muscles, including the six-pack-ab muscles (rectus abdominis), that are the global movers of the lower back and abdomen, and the muscles that help us to push big weight.

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Here’s the problem with weight belts.  They allow your inner core muscles to cheat a little bit and still get the same work output.  When you activate your abdominal muscles against a weight belt, you increase your intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) and de-load the spine.  Which is wonderful when you’re going for a new 1-rep max.  It’s not so wonderful when you’re reaching down to put on your sock and your inner core muscles are used to relying on that artificial IAP, and therefore are under-trained and deactivated.  This is where injury happens.

And that’s the problem.  Weight belts help to train your big movers (your outer core), while ignoring your smaller stabilizers (your inner core).

This is the perfect storm for injury; muscular imbalances and stabilizer weakness.  Believe it or not, far more significant lower back injuries are reported in my practice due to everyday activities (picking up a load of laundry, getting out of the car, shovelling snow, brushing teeth, sneezing) than due to injuries in the gym.  In every one of these cases, I can find inner core weakness.  “But I can squat 300lbs, how can I possibly have a weak core?”  Because your outer core has been able to overcome that, often with the help of a weight belt.

Let me be clear: a weight belt can help you in the gym and it can be very useful during max efforts.  But it can definitely hurt you in the long run if used improperly.  It should absolutely NOT be used during a high-rep workout (as in, a typical WOD or met-con).  My stance on this one is black and white.  If you need your weight belt in a WOD, you are doing something wrong.  Scale the weight back.

I’m talking to you, my fellow CrossFitters.  Let’s be smart about this.  Let’s think about long-term spinal health instead of short-term gains.  Take off a plate, take off the weight belt, focus on form.

You’ll thank me later, I promise.

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Love the Snatch

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Let me tell you about a girl named Jen Young.  This girl goes to my gym.  This girl is 30 years old.  This girl also happens to have cervical cancer that has now metastasized to her liver.

September is Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month, and with her September 27th fundraiser approaching (in the form of a Crossfit Master’s Competition at Burlington’s Crossfit Altitude), it seems only fitting to share her story.  Here is a post she wrote on her blog only one year ago:

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I haven’t posted in long while. My spare time has been filled with my new part-time jobs coaching at CFA, and writing for Sweat RX magazine (getting paid to write has unfortunately trumped writing up recipes for free on the interwebs :). I am sad to say that it is not a tasty new dish that has me busting out my slightly rusty blog again; I decided to hijack my own recipe space to share en mass some recent news and subsequent reflections.

The News

On Sept 6 I found out that I have cervical cancer. I spent 10 very anxious days having no idea how bad it was or what was coming next and finally, yesterday, the results of some extra testing confirmed that it is a small cell neuro-endocrine tumor. This is a particularly nasty sort that normally lives in the lungs, apparently, and has a tendency to spread. It is also very rare. My Doctor is apparently somewhat of a Bigwig, and he and his Biggerwig colleague have seen only a dozen cases in their 20 years. However, I’ve caught it fairly early, and Bigwig assures me he has killed much larger beasts of its kind. I will kill it also. But it will come at the cost of several weeks of chemo (I start next week), then several weeks of radiation and probably major surgery, to make sure it doesn’t resurrect.

I don’t know if I will feel well enough to move, let along work out; some people are knocked on their asses, while others feel mostly fine, but I hope to visit CFA nevertheless as much as possible.

That’s the Readers Digest version. To those in my life, please don’t be shy about talking to me about it. I (probably) won’t burst into tears. Ladies especially, I’m very willing to talk about the details of discovery and diagnosis if you’re curious (men, don’t worry, I won’t start talking about the cervix here ;).

So onward to the philosophical part and the motivation for the title of this post.

The Ramblings

During those 10 days of waiting, and even today after learning the gory details, I find that I’ve actually surprised myself by not having a 24 hour meltdown. My cousin went through a similar ordeal ~5 years ago (also cervical cancer under the age of 30, coincidentally) and I distinctly remember thinking, “I don’t know how she’s so strong and positive, I would be a mess.” And when I first found out, I was a mess, for about 5 hours. But then, channeling my cousin, I gathered my composure and I went to my box to coach and to work out, because that’s what I’d planned to do, and I didn’t particularly feel like crying anymore.

It was a surreal experience, watching everyone around me carry on as though their world hadn’t just stopped spinning….because for them, it hadn’t. I have a new appreciation for this: you never know what’s going on in someone else’s life. Be kind, always.

I capped the very surreal day with a doozie of a WOD (100 burpees, interspersed with either 2 rope climbs or 5 deadlifts, every minute on the minute) that left me weeping (only half because of the rope climbs) in a heap on the floor.

I have had the occasional meltdown since then; last Sunday the frustration of 200 double-unders squeezed the emotion right out of me and I found myself sobbing in the back lot during the rest period. But these periods of stress and panic are far fewer than I had expected, which has lead me to conclude that CrossFit has made me far more capable of handling the Real Life unknown and unknowable than I ever imagined possible.

CrossFit, and especially competing in CrossFit, has trained me to accept what I can’t control. I don’t pick the daily WOD, I don’t influence who else shows up to compete, and I certainly can’t do much about their performance and eventual score. Fretting about what others are doing (or what has happened to other people with cancer) won’t help me to do better. Whining about a workout won’t change it, and no amount of moping is going to make my cancer disappear.

As I sat in my car in the parking lot after the first news, having a good cry and wondering how I would deal with what was to come, something Brit said once, ages ago, came sharply to mind. “You know,” she said, “if I lost a leg or something, I’d just go win the Paralympics instead.” She may have been joking, but it struck me as inadvertently profound life advice. More recently, I interviewed Stouty, an adaptive athlete and fantastic crossfitter, who lost the use of both legs and actually DID go win at the Paralympics.

I am entirely in charge of my own actions and attitude. I can’t control what the treatment will do to my body, but I can do my best to prepare it with good food and sleep, and I can manage my stress by staying as positive as possible.

I am approaching this cancer as I would approach a heavy bar; determined, ready, and convinced that it will go overhead, because I trust that I have trained sufficiently. I know that my body is in the best shape it’s ever been in, and I trust that crossfit and paleo have made my body as strong as it possibly can be.

I feel physically prepared to win this battle, but I also feel mentally prepared. This last 10 days has proven to me that even though “Murph” and “Fran” make me feel anxious over the pain I know is coming, I also know, without a doubt, that I will finish them, one way or another, and that you all will be there cheering until the very last rep.

I refuse to let this disease dictate my every waking moment. I will not let it take the joy from things I love to do, and the people I love to be with. CFA is my sanctuary; a place where I know that I can go and forget the world for an hour of shared pain and exhaustion, or find a hug if I need one. Thank you all for making CFA the place that has prepared me for this, and that I am confident will help me through it.

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Please come out to support a great cause on Saturday.

A Healthy Back

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“A Healthy Back: for Crossfit and for LIFE”….. this is the presentation I’m doing at Crossfit Altitude on Thursday evening, (February 6th at 7:00pm).  It’s going to be a hands-on, active-participation, lots-of-questions-and-answers event and I’ve capped the registration at 20 people so that we can have some great learning opportunities and hopefully some ‘a-ha’ moments.

The reason that I wanted to host this talk is that I’ve seen an increase in the number of lower back injuries in my practice as of late.  “But you’re a chiropractor” you say, “don’t you always see lower back injuries?”  The answer is yes, but my practice is centred around athletes and active people, so I see a whole host of other injuries as well; from ankle sprains and elbow pain to migraine headaches and knee problems.  Unfortunately, back injuries seem to have claimed the top spot for the past few months.  So the point of this event is education……. leading to prevention.

What’s the plan, you say?Anatomy-of-the-back

  • We’re going to talk about anatomy.  If you don’t understand the components of your lower back, how can you understand how to keep it healthy?
  • We’re going to talk about the three most common back injuries that I see in my practice, and how they relate to Crossfit specifically.
  • We’re going to move; we’re going to stretch, and strengthen, and talk about tips and suggestions that you can implement into your everyday life.
  • We’re going to have lots of time to chat; I want participants to go home with all of their back pain/injury/health questions answered.

One of my very first blog posts, that you can view here, was surrounding the misconception that Crossfit causes injuries.  I argue that injuries are simply a part of sport, and that the benefits of an active lifestyle far outweigh the risks.  I feel very passionate and definitive about this statement.

This event is currently full, but if the interest is there,  I would be happy to host another one.  Or to come and talk to your group about injury prevalence and prevention, specific to your situation.

As long as we are using our bodies, we need to take care of them!

See you on Thursday.

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Here’s the associated blurb:

Crossfit does not cause lower back injuries, but poor form and weak mechanics do! Do you want to learn how to PREVENT and FIX common lower back injuries? Do you want to avoid that nagging post-deadlift ache? That chronic prolonged-sitting pain? That constant I’m-sore-until-I-warmup discomfort? Then come and join Dr. Ashley Worobec as she talks about common lower back injuries, how to prevent them, and how to fix them! This will be a hands-on active-participation seminar, so come dressed for movement! You will go home with a new appreciation of your lower back and some tips and tricks to keep it healthy and strong so that you can continue to Crossfit (and live) pain-free.