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     Juerg Senior Member Username: Juerg Post Number: 594 Registered: 04-2006 |
Dear Fact Canada, My name is J. T. I am a track and field distance runner living in the United States, I am emailing you because I noticed that your organization was affiliated with powercranks. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on the product and how useful it would be for a college level distance runner. I have been trying them out for about two weeks now, I can do them for about twenty minutes now on gears 1 and 3. I noticed that my hip flexors and my groin feel pretty sore is that normal? I was wondering too, how much will my running mileage decrease when I am using the powercranks? I noticed that I haven't been able to run much the last three days due to soreness in my hip flexors and groin, but I am still able to use the powercranks for about twenty minutes when I can't run. Is that normal let me know. J Hallo J. T. Thanks for your question, and as I mailed you privately , this is a very nice topic to at least shed some lights from our point of view to your question. 1. FaCT philosphy is build on functional and structural workouts. 2. It is based on some very basic ideas developed by Hans Selye. Functional means in any case where you start a new idea or a new muscle coordination pattern , like with the independent pedals a so called "ALARM - phase " Alarm phase means,: Due to the new challenge to your system in many areas like : - intramuscular coordination- inter-muscular coordination and possibly neuro muscular activation , you will have a high risk of overloading your system. Because you are used from other workouts to push yourself to a higher limit you possibly overload the involved muscle chain at the beginning by far too much. Here some points to remember: Using the independent pedal on a bike for runners is, properly used a very smart way to train some muscles ( Iliopsoas/abdominal/rectus femoris ) in a very efficient way. it is like you do high knee exercises for sprints or runs, but with resistance and not just with your leg weight. Nevertheless there is some drawbacks to be aware of. Here some , but they are more : a) By using this movements you train the hipflexion involving muscles so called concentric only. This is not completely true : If you go fast and relatively with lots of resistance ( which is actually much easier) you will use the hipflexor muscle groups concentric. If you take very very little resistance on your trainer and try to go very slow you may actually get some eccentric work as well. Now the position on the bike will be so , that you never will be in a ) degree hip joint position ( like standing straight up ) but always in a hip flexion position , like sitting on a chair) If you now work so intense, that you already can do 20 min after 2 weeks you work possibly too much too fast. This leads to different overloads in your hip flexion system. a) the load on the hipflexor will be so high , that you over exceed far above 30 % of maximal EMG activity. Okay sounds complicated, but what it means is, that you will use more thanm 30 % of your overall strength in this hip flexion muscles to full fill the task. As soon you use more than 30 % and even up to 50 % you have 2 choices. : 1 cheat by using other muscles. 2. your bloodflow to the working hip muscles will be dramatically reduced due to the muscle contraction around the blood vessels and you will at that moment in fact start to work with a reduced blood flow and a reduced ability to bring O2 into this area. . In this case it is not the ECGM , which will stop you , as you may feel, but rather a external "survival" mechanisme , called perhaps H+ The reduced blood flow and reduction of ability to produce ATP with oxygen dependent energy help ( FFAQ and glucose) will force your body to try to create ATP oxygen independent, as ATP demand and delivery are getting out of balance. This will change the pH due to 9increase of locally produced H+ and possibly other not yet understood chemical reactions in the Na.Ca and Mg game. This will start to reduce your ATP and the body will somehow protect you from "emptying " your ATP completely, otherwise you would react with a rigor mortise or no ATP = dead for that muscle. The problem is, that this overload together with some mechanical overload will create some disadvantages like DMSO or simply inflammation and swelling and at the end pain. Some easy movement the next day may make you feel somewhat better due to the decrease in swelling with help of the muscle contractions. The low ATP in the flexion muscles will make the muscle tight and it may be that the muscle actually will be shorter , due to the low ATP content. ( we need ATP as well to relax) Now here is the risk. Imagine a bungy cord. a metal hook on each end , and an elatic part in the middle. If that elastic part looses elasticity and you still pull , you will start to pull on the hooks. In a muscle it is similar but the opposite. If the muscle is overloaded he will get shorter and will loose for the moment some elasticity. This will create more pull on the 2 hooks ( tendon , where the muscle attaches to the bone. ) Normally we will see , that that reaction is stronger, where the hook is shorter. Tennis elbow, enthesopathie on the pectineous att. and so on. In your case you will feel it on the trochanter minor , a small bony spur , where the iliosoas attaches inside your leg or in a bad situation on the ramus pubis, ( pectineus att). Now 2 scenario. As long you only overload the muscles you will see after a few days rest , that it is gone and you start the workout somewhat smarter. If you already overloaded the tendon attachment you need a longer break before you start again smarter. Now why is there little pain in cycling , but often more pain in running? You have the answer actually above: In cycling the distance from one origin of the muscle to the other is shorter due to the position. In running you will extend your hip far further , than in cycling , and the too "short" (thight) muscles will create much more pain due to the different length. This , but in the reverse explanation is a problem for Icehockey player and cycling. If Icehockey player cycle a lot in the summer with normal pedals, they train very strong the hip/knee extension system. The never train the hip flexion system.Even worse, they always have the hip flexion system in a very shorten position. In 1 month camps on Ice start , and you have many players with groin pain and injuries. Now take a short break and imagine a runner or beter a Ice hockey skater and see , what his hip will do in a full step on the ice. Now imagine a muscle, who never got in that stretch position. Yes you will ask shall I stretch . Answer is yes, but wait till the pain is gone, as in case you stretch in a inflammation and the muscle is still thight you will make the problem worse. 1. The muscle has to relax 2. The muscle has to be "re-build " structural nutritional intervention 3. Now you start smarter back on the power cranks 4. Now you integrate eccentric work for the hip flexor , as well as some good pectineus and rectus stretch exercises. 5. You never stretch before a workout and you never stretch immediately after a work out 6. You make stretching a part of you daily activities. 7.Forget the "classical " stretching you see in magazins like runners world and so , as they are still far back to Bob Anderson time. Stretching evolved dramatically in the last 10 - 15 years , and we have as in lactate and VO2 still the "old" time fiddlers out there selling versions form far back. So for now try to make some sense out of the above and please come back for more :crazy " confusion if needed. Take time and you keep in shape till you are an old age athlete.  | ||
| Jst81161 New member Username: Jst81161 Post Number: 1 Registered: 07-2008 |
Dear Juerg Feldmann, This is Jonathan Tan I read your post regarding the powercranks and how I need to be aware of the excessive concentric movements on my hip flexor and to be aware of what is going on with my body. I understand what you mean about the rubber and hook principal regarding cycling and the comparison in running. The post mentioned as well to be aware to train the eccentric muscles when using power cranks and to train "smartly". I looked on the website regarding various drills regrading powercranks should I use those when using powercranks. The post mentioned as well to stretch a certain way after using powercranks. I was wondering what stretches should I use that will complement using the powercranks. I read also you mentioned that I shouldn't do static stretching before or after exercise I was wondering when should I stretch and should it be dynamic? I was also wondering if you could give me a basic training program when using the powercranks that will complement my running. I will pay you for the program. Let me know how much. I am just a college student so if you could take that into consideration I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time and for getting back to me. Jonathan Tan | ||
| Juerg Senior Member Username: Juerg Post Number: 598 Registered: 04-2006 |
Hallo Jonathan Thanks for your feedback , and your info. We actually don't offer training programs over the net , as it works against our own ideas of "no cook book approach" We like to asses the few athlete we train in a regular fashion and give them very specific workouts based on the situation they are in . The same will be unfortunately true for a individual stretching program. I also don't believe , that we can just take some drills from a "cook book " and do that , as it would be the same as 220 - age , or a 40 year old man has a shoe size 42 , if not too bad he still will need this shoe. In stretching the key is to make a difference between a functional; muscle tension "stretching" and a structural muscle length change. We create the word: MIB and MDH Muscular imbalance and muscular disharmony. I will see whether Herb can make a Blog with a very short basic script we produced for a high school class here for a fitness eleven class. As a short summary: The key for "stretching" is to find out , whether your muscle or muscle sling is really mechanically too short , or just overloaded with a too high tension. Depending on the assessment you may choose your technique and the time investment. Based on this and some practical testing you can add "stretching" as a part of a training program.  Here a "not cook book" example for a spec. athlete with some specific problems and some individual exercises he has to do. There are different timings and control ideas as , when a muscle is too short or to high tension, and depending on this there are certain techniques , which may work better than others. Try to find a good coach or a physiotherapist who is interested in this type of training and takes the proper time to reach a good result. Good luck And check in a few days , perhaps we can make a Blog for your information. |