Do you know what Rhabdomyolysis is?  You may have first heard about it from the infamous Iowa football workouts in the winter of 2011.  Twelve to fourteen football players were hospitalized following three days of intensive workouts.  So what is rhabdomyolysis? Well its a "breakdown of muscle fibers that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream. Myoglobin is harmful to the kidney and often causes kidney damage." (Medline Plus, 2013).  



Recently, Bret Contreras posted on this topic with all the available research.  His very comprehensive overview of all the research is excellent for understanding the symptoms and return to exercise guidelines.  It's imperative to understand how rhabdomyolysis presents, is diagnosed, and treated to be a competent strength coach.  

How many of your athletes can overhead squat correctly without substitution?  My guess is not too many, especially some of the more hypertrophied ones.  While most of us in physical therapy look at movement quality of the overhead squat without weight (think FMS), there are many athletes that overhead squat for improvements in performance.  So if we see these patients or athletes with improper movement patterns in the overhead squat, what can we do to try and correct these poor movement patterns?  
Well, this could be an all day topic but one of those ways is to begin implementing some corrective exercises for specific joints and muscle groups that are lacking mobility.  Each individual will present a little different and we always must take that into account when considering corrective exercises.  In this post, Dan Pope provides video demonstration to some mobility exercises for the hip flexors, hip external rotators, t-spine, ankles, and shoulder joint to help begin correcting deficits commonly seen in the overhead squat.  While we cannot agree with all of his points, it is clear he has some valuable exercises for us to add to our toolboxes for future clients.  We encourage you to try out some of these exercises and decide for yourself some of the value they can bring to your clients.  

Sleep is a topic that is constantly debated in performance.  Being one that doesn't sleep much as is, I hate to admit the benefits of sleep but its important to separate the facts.  In this post, Eric Cressey discusses some of the direct effects of sleep, including its effect on hormones, physical activity, body composition, and enhancing sleep quality.  Check it out!