Victory Friday | Issue 32
Tight Hamstrings? It's Your Quads! • Joe's Nugget • Letting People Fail - and Feel the Feels!
“I mean, I’d be better off going online and watching your videos, than doing that!” ~ My Mom (expressing her hesitance to do “typical”, hands-off, protocol- and exercise-based physical therapy)
Victory Friday is a weekly digest of reflections, insights, and tools from the world of functional manual and performance medicine. It is a free weekly publication. To support Victory Friday with a paid subscription, see below.
Is there anything cooler than doing “this” — or anything — for “this long”, yet still getting your mind blow, learning new things?
Next month marks 15 years of being a licensed. And not only am I loving it more than ever, but I’m as excited as I’ve ever been about what I’m learning.
And that’s why I’m here. Because I do think there are so many of us that:
are doing cool, mind-blowing things
are loving the experience: the science, the art-form, the problem-solving
and want to share it — both the benefits, to clients, and skills, to other practitioners
but they don’t. Or don’t know how. I write what I wish to read.
As such, I’m glad that you wish to read what I write!
Onward!
What I’m Into: Tight Hamstrings Because of The Quads?
I’ve been blowing my own mind a lot this spring. But this one is as mind-blowing as it is simple, if not silly.
I am feeling a lot better: running is far less stiff and I’m edging my way closer to “old me”1.
The profound stiffness in my legs and body, as a whole, is nearly gone. And I have been able run farther, faster and up and downhill.
Yet, as of a few weeks ago, I was still experiencing significant hamstring and sciatic nerve tension: tight enough to cut short a few runs and reinvigorate my frustration.
Then, on a particularly tight run, I thought back to a discussion we had during Fellowship in Steamboat: how the quadriceps fascia — muscle that lives on the front of thigh — actually inserts posteriorly on the femur (at the linea aspera).
Like an upholstered kitchen chair, the fascia of the “cushion” of the quad, wraps around the thigh and tucks neatly in to the back!
The implication: tensions at the fascial insertion on the back of the thigh could cause quadriceps tension, weakness, or pain on the front of the thigh.
Then, the “A-Ha!” moment:
What if the opposite were also true?
As you can see above, two realities:
That the quadriceps (blue) is much larger and lateral than most of us realize — and it wraps around to the back of the femur.
That the quadriceps and adductors (green) make up about 75% of the total circumferential area of the thigh!
Then, I considered:
What if, extensive — but “inert” — quadriceps stiffness was — through fascial interactions — compressing the hamstrings (and sciatic nerve)??
As such, it is quite possible that inert2 fascial tensions in that greater 75% of the thigh could cause stubborn compression of the hamstrings that no amount of focal hamstring treatment (massage, stretching) would improve.
My quads were crazy-stiff after some recent mountain up-down runs. Yet I had done nothing to address the quads.
I cut short the run and headed home. And for the next couple of hours, I extensively:
foam-roll massaged my thigh in three-dimensions, but in particular: the anterior and lateral3 thigh (blue area) and medial thigh (green).
stretched my hip flexors, quads and adductors (but not my hamstrings)
The results:
My toe-touch hamstring flexibility improved.
My running-related hamstring tension greatly improved!
Fascial awareness (and basic anatomy knowledge) for the win!
Give it a try at home: work the thigh in three dimensions and gauge the effect on hamstring mobility!
Cool Exercises I Like. A couple quickies:
Fix your push-up! Conor gives us this easy-but-potent strategy to prevent excess spinal extension in the full push-up (or tall plank) position.
Reciprocal push-pull. Reciprocal patterns aren’t just functional. They’re an avenue to restoring systemic fascial mobility! Love this “walking push-pull” from Functional Patterns.
Joe’s Articles. This one isn’t one by me, but it’s about me! A feature on me and the newest Uhan Performance branch in Sisters, Oregon.
Victory Friday. Lessons Learned from Coaching.
Track coaching officially ended (in Oregon) last week: the state track meet held at arguably the greatest track and field facility in the world.
It was good to be back. High school coaching is what got me into physical therapy.
Then, when I became a staff physio — and “had to” work full-time — I gave it up.
Among the gifts of private practice: the freedom and autonomy to choose how I spend my time. I returned to coaching in 2017 and 2018 — only to stop again, to reinvest in my professional development.
I finally returned this spring. And despite the costs of time, energy and opportunities elsewhere: I just love it.
So many ways to impact young people. So many teachable (and nuture-able) moments that can’t be had in a clinical setting.
And so many lessons for me!
The lessons learned this spring are far-reaching. A couple key take-aways:
A. Learning the Hard Way. Humanity progresses by standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. Those who incurred difficult, painful lessons pass along that information and advice so that — well — we needn’t re-invent the wheel.
That is the essence of teaching, coaching and mentorship. Of parenting and doctoring, too.
In athletics, coaches — through rich experience with other athletes, or as an athlete, themselves — function as executive cheat-sheets: they hold a roadmap, their best pathway to learn, progress and achieve: as quickly and as high as possible.
Yet, invariably, not all lessons can be taught. Many must be learned the hard way.
Sometimes, no matter how much a coach (or parent, or medical professional) knows, the mentee — the athlete, child, or patient — isn’t buying it. Or isn’t willing to take the path you offer.
They must do it their way. Or, they simply must hit a low enough “bottom” to be willing to heed your advice or plan.
It’s human nature. People have to learn. And often, they have to learn that their way doesn’t work.
And, ultimately, the deepest, strongest lessons often come from failure.
As a coach, parent or medical professional that possesses a deep knowing, it is all to easy to:
force your advice upon unwilling parties, and
become frustrated when it is refused
It has taken time for me to learn this hard lesson — that allowing people to fail is often necessary to move forward.
The key: allowing survivable micro-failures that teach lessons, to help avoid catastrophic macro-failures.
B. Let them Feel (But Add Perspective and Direction). As the season drew to a close, there is a typical bell curve of athlete achievement and satisfaction:
some achieve great things
some experience mixed results
some fall short of their goals and expectations
When interacting with upset, angry, or sad people, it’s too easy to try to extinguish those emotions:
“You shouldn’t feel that way, because [A, B, C]!”
We mean well. We see things differently. And, to be honest, negative emotions make many of us feel uncomfortable. So, often, we’re quick to extinguish them in any way we can.
However negative or misguided they may be, it is more important to validate those feelings. If a kid, partner or patient feels a certain way — it is vital they be allowed to feel that emotion and let it flow through them.
But we needn’t just sit there and mirror (“Yeah, you failed! That’s sad!”).
What I did this year:
Add perspective. One of our freshman girls was particuarly upset about a poor performance. She finished far behind the winner and did not qualify for state. Her teammate, also a freshman, did qualify for state. My addition:
“I know you’re upset and that’s okay. But you worked so hard and learned so much this year. You helped [your teammates] to run their best. Be proud of being a great teammate and know that your hard work this year, will pay off, the next.”Direct the energy. Rather than extinguish or “argue against” the emotion — sadness, anger, frustration”, I redirected it. After adding perspective, I added:
“Remember how this feels. Use this feeling to motivate your focus, energy and efforts, next year”.
Once again, we often learn more from failure. And so, too, do we gain more joy after experiencing — and deeply swimming in — the painful emotions of anger and sadness.
Feel it, contextualize it, and use it!
Issue 32 is in the books! Please share any feedback, comments, ideas and suggestions!
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend,
I’ve been dealing with complex fascial tension that’s all-but-ruined my running. More in Issue 13 (subsection: “Be the Patient”)
See Issue 9 and the concept of Inert Stiffness Dysfunctions: stiff (and often asymptomatic) dysfunctions that cause significant pain and dysfunction, elsewhere.
It’s crazy: for as knowledgeable as I am, I often “miss” key orthopedic and anatomical realities. Among them: the vastus lateralis muscle — not just the iliotibial band — is so lateral that its lateral margins are actually posterior on the femur bone!
Your info is always great, Joe :)