Dave Cosnotti, former American Bench Press record holder in 2005, benching a total weight of 655lbs and an avid Mixed Martial Artists sits down with WR101 today. He has been undergoing a transformation in thoughts and changes after coming to see me to assist with reducing aches and pains while he trains. He discusses with WR101 about the importance of muscle timing.
What is muscle timing? Muscle timing is an intricate mechanism that allows your body to perform optimally and allow certain muscles to contract at the right place at the right time. For example, when moving your arm forward or to the side, movement should be generated from your mid back muscles first and then followed with the shoulder muscles. Most often you will see just shoulder muscles and little mid back muscles activating. It's a pattern your body has to follow to decrease risk for breakdown. It's also an adaptive pattern that can be lost because your body's mechanics are altered or hindered by certain muscles that have compensated over time to protect painful movements. I've seen over and over again a strong individual such as Dave present with pain because they have weak stabilizing muscles that aren't activating with complex motions.
Can I get the timing back? Yes. There are numerous manual techniques and exercises we as physical therapists and chiropractors implement to get your timing back. The best road back to better timing would be to first work on your posture. As I noted in my posture segment, things will naturally fall into place when your posture has improved. Your mechanics to allow proper movement will improve to allow better mechanical advantage.
Next is to work on muscular balance; changing imbalances can be caused by spinal and structural (bone and joint) misalignments, muscular tightness, and weakness.
In my exercise tips, I offer many free and safe suggestions to get your posture and muscular timing back on track.
Interview:
WR101: What have you learned about the importance of muscle timing since beginning to see me?
Dave: For starters; I've realized I'm not as strong as I thought I was; or should I say as I could be. A lot of my training principals are "old school" methods, which work very well, but they put a lot of strain on different parts of the body. After the first time you worked on my upper back, I began to grasp what exactly you were doing, and a thought came to mind. I thought about someone pushing a broke down car, and how it may be difficult for just one person. Well, when you get 2, 3, or even 4 more people involved, the moving of the car becomes much easier. An exercise like the bench press that appears to only involve the triceps, shoulders, and chest actually involves a lot more supportive muscles that backup those major muscle groups. Those supportive muscle when firing correctly, will add a lot more power and stability to the movement. I have noticed this since day 1!
WR101: How has working on muscle timing and adjustments of tight over-compensating muscles and weak stabilizing muscles changed your perspective about your training in the past? What will you do differently in the future? And how if you could reveal to us how you plan to implement these tools?
Dave: It kind of makes me cringe and thank God that I didn't suffer any really serious injuries. In a way it also makes me wonder how much better I could have performed if I was aware of these techniques and principles. As for my future endeavors; I am already incorporating all of these principles into my workouts so I can stay injury free. Sometimes we'll see retired football players, only 40 some years old, and they can barely move. I don't plan on being one of those guys!
The implementation is pretty simple! The stretches and exercises you've given me are performed 2-3 times per day, and I'll continue to get adjustments regularly. A lot of it is just making time to getting it done. I know now, I have to allocate at least 15 minutes to stretching and working on muscle timing each day.
WR101: How does building a foundational piece with stabilizing certain groups helped even the elite strength athlete like yourself or any athlete. How about the regular working class? Do you think this piece is critical in propelling you to be better?
Dave: For athletes or even people who workout pretty hard, it is imperative to have the stabilizing muscles working correctly. The healthier and less injured a person is, allows them to work harder and more efficiently. This is how you get better! I have found things like knee injuries that will prevent an athlete from running and squatting, have nothing to do with the knee at all. A perfect example; I came in to see you for a sore knee and it turned out my IT band was way too tight. You had me stretch and you performed some resistance work with me, and the symptoms were gone in a week.
I think these same things apply to working class as well. I mean who wants to perform at a subpar level in any class? I know guys who work office jobs, but play intramural sports, and they take it very seriously. Even if you don't play any sports, I doubt anyone wants to walk around or play with their kids and have to deal with pain and discomfort.
WR101: Final question: I was just wondering your take on this. There are tons of sites that have exploded recently and have become the latest craze, telling you to perform cross training and elite lifts as quick as possible in a circuit manner. Now if you lack the foundational pieces of exercises, how do you think this may play out for your avid gym-goer and why?
Dave: Great question! My warm-up in the gym goes something like this: 30-40 Pull-ups, 60-70 Push-ups, and 30 dips (All continuous for 4 sets). The numbers will decrease a little towards the 4th set, but I try to keep going for as long as I can. With saying this, if a person who didn't really have a good foundation even attempted this, not only would their ego be hurting but their body would be in shambles. Like I always say; you need to make short term (attainable) goals for yourself and beat them before you move on to something greater. Kind of like building blocks! I think of the cement or mortar for those building blocks as my foundation. They keep everything together but if that cement is missing at any point, the whole wall will fall down.
Thanks for your time Dave!