Mike,
My body feels like a train wreck lately and I was hoping you could point me in the right direction.
I feel like I’m falling apart from the neck down. I’ve spent the past 5 years as a professional wrestler. During that time I’ve had a large list of small, and a few not so small injuries accumulate.
A big part of the problem however is I have some very bad muscle imbalances/structural dysfunctions. They’ve begun to affect my training or are very noticeable on certain movements. I’ll try and run things down for you from the ground up so you have a good understanding. I apologize in advance as this may get slightly long though.
- I was born with no arches in my feet, and never developed them.
I have very externally rotated feet, as well as very externally rotated legs all the way up. I often find myself standing (I’m on my feet 10 to 12 hours a day due to my other job) to where the inside portion of my knee is facing forward. I tend to stand with my weight on one leg, which Im trying to stop doing.
My lower back is in bad shape due to years of not training it properly and wrestling, including a seriously hyperextended lower back about 5 years ago that I don’t think Ive ever totally been the same from. The hospital placed me on strong sedatives and painkillers for about a month. All I could do was lay in bed all day for about two weeks. I youthfully began wrestling again about 2 weeks later (I was very new in the business and couldn’t afford to take any time off).
I often get very bad shin splints due to running and wrestling. I’ve also been having some ligament pain I believe on the inside of the knee due to the way I stand. This is coupled with very bad ankle/foot pain, in the bones/muscles along the top of the foot where it meets the ankle. (Especially the outer foot)
From the time I was born until about 13 years old I used to have terrible leg pains, especially at night. They were never really diagnosed (my mom used to call them ‘cramps’, but they were definitely not muscular cramps) that I believe were a result of my legs developing the way they did and having no arches. For some odd reason I used to walk on my toes until I was about 4 or 5. I began walking very young (7 months) if that makes a dfference as far as structural development at the time.
My shoulders have also been killing me every time I wrestle lately. I believe it is a rotator cuff problem, as I think I am very weak in that area. Also, about 6 months ago I tore some of the stabilizer muscles in my right shoulder. That’s not my diagnosis, but I’ll come to that in a second.
My squat and dl’s are at a sticking point. The numbers arent great, but they’re okay. The problem is there are some exercises I’ve noticed Im weak in. Like, extremely embarrassingly weak. Reverse hypers immediately come to mind, as I’ve seen people in much worse shape than I am use 3 to 4 times the amount of weight I do. Also, while on this exercise I have a VERY hard time keeping my legs from rotating so the outside portion of my legs are facing upward and the inside facing the ground. Even 20 lbs seems to cause this.
Any type of delt raise does as well. I can use my bodyweight for 5 x 5 on military presses, but I struggled recently doing a set of 10 on our gyms icarian lateral raise machine. Christ, the fat lady in spandex before me was using 30 lbs. And bent over laterals? 5 lbs is tough for me, despite the fact that I’ve been chinning and rowing consistently for about a year now. Ive always struggled with these exercises, and while my chins are coming up, my bent over rows are horrible, literally about half of my bench numbers. Ive also noticed when Im doing them (knees slightly to very bent, depending, lower back with a good arch) my legs start to shake uncontrollably near the end of my set. Lower back? I deadlift, and my numbers arent horrible seeing as Ive only made them a consistent part of my workout about a year now.
Squatting with any form but 1 is impossible to do safely for me. Wide stance squats with my feet facing very very out (like 3/4 of the way to having my toes face sideways out) is the only way I can keep an arch in my back and maintain vertical. Toes totally forward, shins vertical, medium stance squat? Forget it. My lower back rounds to hunchback - like proportions and I fall over, even with no bar.
I do see a chiropractor. It has helped with back pain trememndously. However, I see them for free (my wife is the office manager) and while they are very good chiropractors, they’re both a bit older and not up as much on sports medicine, athletes, things like that, so it’s hard to really know what to do in certain situations. Every time I have anything going on with me physically, their advice is to not wrestle or train for 6 weeks. Not really an option on either front chief, ya know? Shit, I’d wind up doing neither ever again if that was the rule.
Due to time and neglecting flexibility over the past few years, I’m very tight all over. I’ve begun your Hardcore Stretching program as of two days ago, incorporating PNF into most of it. The glute/posterior chain and especially the piriformis stretches are the hardest on me. Very very tight. I will be doing this program 6 nights a week.
As for training and all now, I really want my training to be structured around correcting any of this that can be corrected. It seems like there are some areas I definitely need to majorly strengthen, and I am enjoying doing heavier training. I have been using Dan John’s great One Lift A Day program, and was wondering if it would be possible to use a template such as that (possibly throwing in some assistance exercise Westside style but overall the workout being focused around one lift) or any other intensive strength program while adding in extra work in the weak areas and just maintaining or even dropping strength in the other areas until everything is corrected. Possibly like with the OLAD program, cuban press, bent over rows, chinups, deadlifts, reverse hypers and (gulp) feet forward medium stance box squats. Would there be any way possible to arrange a split like this and avoid overtraining? Is any strength specilization program possible while trying to correct these problems?
Also, if you have any views on anything other than training that could be of help to me, I’d be really interested in hearing it. It just seems like I’m falling apart before I even hit 25. Especially after wrestling the night before my body will hurt for a week later with just random nagging things. Then, time to do it all over again. I’d truly like to correct this while becoming stronger and bigger at the same time. Thank you once again for taking the time to read all of this. Any advice would be great!
Kubo
