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For me, in-season training has always been a double-edged sword. We walk a fine line between providing enough of a stimulus to continue making improvements in the speed-strength and power aspects of the force-velocity curve while keeping the volume-load low enough to keep the athletes fresh for competing at a high level. Since our athletes usually have heard that in-season lifting is a maintenance program, it does take them a while to come around to the idea of getting positive work done in the gym during the season.

We keep pushing the athletes during their competitive season because I believe in momentum—not just the measurable version of momentum from physics, but the immeasurable version of cognitive momentum. While cognitive momentum is not easily measured, it is easily seen during a game.

We see cognitive momentum all the time in games when it looks like one team can’t do anything wrong, and the other team can’t do anything right. Without momentum, even when the play calls are correct, someone either is physically out of position or mentally makes a mistake. Either way, the play is broken and not performed correctly. Or the call is correct, and the players execute it correctly, but the other team makes a great play to stop it.

While the team without momentum always seems to be out of position, the team that has it always is in the right place at the right time. That, my friends, is the power of cognitive momentum, and it has nothing to do with mass or velocity. It has everything to do with confidence.

Confidence is contagious, and it has a very specific feedback loop. We can thank evolution for this. I don’t need to tell you that life is risky. If we were constantly trapped in our own heads, overthinking every situation or making every choice by relying on the fight or flight mechanism in the limbic area of our brains, humanity would have faded out long ago.

Evolution gave us an advantage with our brains and social behavior. With these two gifts, we can learn and rationalize our choices, which let us dictate how much of our time and resources we’ll apply the next time the same opportunity occurs. Let me show you what I mean.

When someone believes they will be successful, has great effort, and takes massive action, of course they’ll find success. When someone is skeptical and filled with uncertainty, they never put great effort into their actions. And they get mediocre results, at best. In both of these examples, the outcomes will match the person’s belief, which reinforces the feedback loop. In other words, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Momentum in the Weight Room

While admittedly I’m biased, I believe this feedback loop starts in the weight room because we have absolute control of the results we get while lifting. The athlete controls their effort. The athlete controls their recovery and nutrition. The athlete controls the outcomes.

There is far more control in the weight room than the competition arena where the coaches control the substitutions and play calls. The refs play their part, too. And while they never seem to make the right call, they keep both sides equally unhappy. So, the big question is, how do we keep people certain about what they’re doing in the weight room?

First, we never talk about in-season lifting as a maintenance program. In-season lifting is all about speed and power development. Our athletes constantly get feedback about their speed and power by using my favorite tool in the weight room, the GymAware.

GymAware accurately measures bar speed or power for almost any lift, but we stick to our big three: squat, bench, and clean pulls. After our warm-ups, all returning athletes will go through what I call a ladder. They take one attempt at a given weight and record their speed or power result.

When using the ladder progression with in-season athletes, there are three rules the athletes must follow.

1. 1. Effort. They must hit their normal squat depth every rep. The athlete must have a controlled descent and then move the bar up as fast as possible.

1. 1. Cut off. Each phase has a minimum speed. Each athlete keeps going until their velocity is at or close to the minimum speed, or they cannot make the next weight increase.

1. Stay healthy. There is a lot to account for during in-season training, and I know that some days the residual soreness of the prior game or a new illness or injury affects people. If an athlete feels terrible, they can stop at any time.

When the athletes follow these rules and continue to perform their ladders, training session after training session, two important things happen. First, the athlete will touch all the points on the force-velocity curve within the workout. Well, maybe they won’t hit the true maximum force part of the curve if they follow that day’s recommendation for the minimum speed. Assuming they do, they will hit strength-speed, power, speed-strength, and speed ranges, which are exactly what I’m looking to develop.

Second—and most important—we now can implement a personalized training program in a group setting. Meaning, once the athletes have worked their way up the ladder, we know what weight will get them into each of the force-velocity zones. And I know that the weights to train in the next training session in these zones might be the same, or they might change.

In the above example, the athlete’s program called for them to continue the ladder until they hit 0.5 m/s and then do reps on the minute with the weight that corresponded to or around 0.75 m/s. During the first week, their training weight was 315, but during week two they were at 225. You can see the difference between weeks one and two. This athlete had a few things going on, but the big thing was that they had significantly more plays going into week two than they did at week one.

Programing with the GymAware takes a little learning on everyone’s part. Still, whatever we’re working on developing with the current block, the athlete eventually understands that their program will adjust to where they are at when they walk into the gym. All the athlete has to do is adjust their program based on the results of their current ladder.

Using the above example, if we were to program the athlete’s week one weights on week two, we would have physically and mentally crushed that player. On the flip side, had I used their week two weights in week one, there wouldn’t have been enough of a stimulant to provide a positive training effect.

The crazy thing is that, even though the athletes only get one rep at each weight on the ladder, time and time again it’s proven to be enough stimulant to hit new PR’s in-season. Let me say that again. Just by following the ladder and the velocity-based sets and reps, we have multiple athletes hit new maxes in the middle or end of their season. Considering that my in-season training emphasis is on developing speed-strength and power, not maximum strength, I’ll take new PRs as a nice side effect.

Predicting Readiness and Game Performance

When I first started using the ladder system with our teams, we were experimenting with the idea of velocity-based training. Our priority was keeping people in their velocity zone, but we also happened to keep track of the velocities of everyone’s warm-up weights.

The ladder idea was born by an accident that has become one of the happiest I’ve experienced in the weight room. It wasn’t until we started plotting these data points that any of us understood what we had in front of us: a force-velocity curve specific to each individual athlete waiting to be discovered. Sure, it took a little Excel magic to make it look pretty, and it took time to evolve to its current form. Now, by the end of each training session, we generate reports that look like the one below.

Depending on people’s backgrounds, this report either has too much or too little information on it. For my staff, we are most interested in the actual data that is hiding within the curve itself. The red line is the average personal velocity for each of the weights, and each dot represents the specific result and day we tested the ladder. As I said, that’s the data my staff members like to dig into—but our sport coaches are more interested in the predicted status of the athlete.

The predicted athlete status concept took some time to develop. We started looking at the massive amount of data sets and then asked how the data we had correlated with the athletes’ performance in practices and games. After all, our job is to make sure our athletes are playing to the best of their ability, so why wait until practice or a game to find out they weren’t playing very well? We had the tools in front of us with the GymAware data and the observational data the sport coaches gave us on how their athletes performed. Now, we just needed to put it all together to create a model that could predict game performance.

Pretty cool, right? Yeah, I think so too.

If you’ve ever worked with athletes in the middle of their season, you know there will always be fluctuations in their performance. The grind of the season wears people down, and there are always small nagging injuries. Then there are the outside influences like sleep, family life, and in my world, academic pressures.

All of these factors and others combine to make subtle changes in an athlete’s day-to-day performance. The question we kept trying to answer is: What is an acceptable drop in performance? Looking back at all our empirical and anecdotal evidence, we came up with four categories to rate the athletes.

It’s very rare for athletes to rate in the top GOLDEN category. Typically, we’ll see this with student-athletes who compete in the fall sports. I wish I could say the only reason they perform greater than 110% of their average is that I’m that good of a coach, but I can’t.

Usually, the athlete didn’t do much if anything over the summer and is experiencing super-compensation from training. We’ve also seen athletes who took their training very seriously have a great week. Whatever the reason, they feel that they’re on top of their game, and if they test into the GOLDEN category, everyone expects big things from them at the next game.

Primarily, we see athletes in the GOOD category. There might be a little drop in their numbers, but it’s within the expected range. They are in-season, and accumulated fatigue is a real thing, but they should be able to live up to their practice and game expectations.

When the fatigue is too much, we see people slide into the CAUTION group. We hear back from their coaches that they were a “half-step slow.” Typically, these athletes haven’t recovered and need a little more rest to get back into the green GOOD category. That means taking fewer reps at practice or even having a day off. This was a hard sell to coaches at first, but now they understand that a tired athlete is a slow athlete, and sometimes rest is best.

That brings us to the last group: the red, DANGER category. This group is now significantly slower and weaker in the weight room. At this point, their coaches usually say they’re a step or two behind. When we have athletes in this category, our first move is to have a conversation with them to help everyone understand why. We’ve come to learn that when people are in the DANGER category, there may be a few things going on. Typically, it’s any combination of the following:

• • They are sick, either expressing or just starting to show symptoms.

• • They are injured, and we know about the injury, or they were trying to “grind through” it without seeking treatment.

• • They are overly stressed.

• • They are not eating or drinking correctly. Or they’re hungover.

• • Their training is not correct. Either they are under- or over-trained.

• They didn’t give their normal effort.

Hopefully, we can have an open and honest conversation about what is causing their decreased performance. Most of the time, this helps us correct the problem within a week by making routine adjustments to the athlete’s daily schedule. Some of the adjustments can be as easy as going in for treatment for an injury, changing what they’re eating and drinking, or taking a day off to get physically or mentally right.

Whatever the underlying reason for their decreased performance, we can only find out why they are in the DANGER category if there is a conversation. This helps the coaches plan for poor practice and game performance. Also, because they do not see as big of a role for the game, they take fewer reps in practice. Believe it or not, that’s OK since fewer reps mean fewer exposures to injuries. We’ve also seen an increased injury rate for the people in the red group. I’d rather see a reduced week of practice instead of a week (or more) with them sitting in the training room rehabbing.

Wrapping Up

I admit, my take on in-season lifting is different than that of many others. While we all do what we think is best for the athletes we work with, this is where momentum comes back into play. If you’re constantly telling your athletes that the only goal is to maintain their strength or speed during the season, you’re setting their belief patterns.

At the start of this article, you saw how beliefs lead to action. If the athletes believe what happens in the weight room is not important, whatever actions they take will never be done with great effort. They believe it’s OK just to have an OK lift since we’re not pushing to get better. That cycle of belief and action creates momentum heading down a path that I don’t ever want to go.

On the other hand, if your athletes believe in the mindset of attacking everything they do, that will create momentum, which will take you down a different path. The belief in attacking a workout, even in the middle of the season, puts the focus back on the athlete to control the things that they can control.

I’ve been involved with sports long enough to understand that one of the hardest things to do is get in the gym and attack a workout while in the middle of the season. But that’s exactly what I ask athletes to do. Sure, we can go through all the physiological changes I expect the athletes to get from the program, but the greatest transfer of this style of in-season training happens to the little grey and white cells that reside between their ears.

It’s about building momentum into the next game. Instead of focusing on all the things they cannot control, we constantly reinforce that when they learn how to push and fight through a workout, they will push and fight through a close game.

Very few, if any, of the thousands of athletes I’ve worked with initially had the mindset of always attacking their workouts. Luckily, this is a teachable trait as long as someone is around repeatedly telling them that giving up is not OK. I believe the trait that humans have that separates us from all other life is the dignity of choice. We can decide what we believe and decide how much action to take because of that belief. From everything I’ve witnessed in my life, the only real choice for any issue is taking the easy way out or the hard way out.

You see it in sports all the time. A team gets down, and they choose to give up—the easy way out. Their effort disappears. Their intensity disappears. Their will to win disappears. In my experience, this is what happens to people who haven’t learned how to get through hard times, like attacking a lift even when they don’t want to.

Momentum in sports starts in the weight room. It’s up to the coaching staff to decide which direction the momentum will take the athletes and team—down the path of the easy or hard way out. Remember, all it takes to build momentum is a push from the coaching staff.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

Serious athletes are always looking for ways to get a leg up on their competition. This often means using the best equipment, practicing hard and on their personal time, and getting the nutrition their bodies need to function at their very best.

Another part of a serious athlete’s regimen is refueling their bodies after an intense workout with one of several types of sports drinks. While these sports drinks are advertised as an essential part of an athlete’s lifestyle, you might be surprised to learn the key ingredient in most sports drinks is none other than sugar—and lots of it. Four of the market’s leading sports drinks have more sugar than a conventional full-size candy bar.

That’s not to say that sports drinks aren’t a viable drink for athletes—but they’re better suited for serious, intense athletes who need to refuel after a grueling training session, practice, or game. These drinks, while tasty, are not beneficial for youth and high school athletes in many cases.

And the amount of sugar they pack isn’t ideal for anyone’s oral health. The common denominator with sports energy drinks, regardless of who consumes them, is the amount of sugar and its effects on an athlete’s teeth and gums. And while teeth don’t help an athlete run, skate, jump, kick, swing, or lunge, oral health care can have an impact on the entire body.

One path to poor oral health is not supplementing sports drinks with water. Another is not taking care of your teeth as you should, whether it’s proper brushing and flossing or wearing a mouth guard and the right headgear while competing. Regardless of the reason, one thing is certain: poor oral health has the potential to lead to a sub-par performance when you hit the court, floor, ice, or diamond. This post will examine why. Let’s dive in.

How Big of an Issue is Poor Oral Health for Athletes?

You might be surprised that elite athletes have some of the worst oral health issues, even if they brush and floss. According to a report from the UCL Eastman Dental Institute published in the British Dental Journal, elite athletes—such as Olympians and professional athletes across 11 sports—had tooth decay, gum recession, and acid erosion.

Specifically, the study surveyed 352 high-caliber athletes while also asking how they cared for their teeth. According to the report, the vast majority of athletes brushed their teeth twice a day, flossed, didn’t smoke, and visited the dentist regularly. Yet, a routine dental checkup on all of the athletes discovered the following:

• Nearly half of all the high-caliber athletes studied showed signs of untreated tooth decay
• A majority of the athletes had gum inflammation, which is an early sign of gum disease

And about one-third of the athletes revealed that their oral health issues harmed their training or performance.

So if oral health habits are on point, what is behind these dental issues? Three things: sports drinks, sports bars, and energy gels. Specifically, 87 percent of the athletes surveyed reported regularly consuming sports drinks, and 59 percent and 70 percent ate sports bars and energy gels, respectively. The study verified the increased risk of oral health issues that may arise when athletes consume these regularly without taking additional steps in routine dental health practices.

We’ll get into how these sports drinks, sports bars, and energy gels can affect the teeth in a later section. We’ll also tell you what athletes can do to offset some of the effects of consuming these items.

The good news from the study is that the majority of the athletes surveyed said they were willing to do more to care for their mouth should they continue consuming drinks, bars, and gels with their training regime. And that’s a good thing—because a healthy mouth equals an overall healthy body. We’ll explain more throughout this post.

Sports Drinks 101

Because four of the market’s leading sports drinks have more sugar in one individual 20-ounce bottle than a conventional candy bar, the effects on your teeth can be significant if you’re not careful when drinking them. A 20-ounce bottle of Gatorade, which falls under the PepsiCo umbrella of entities, contains 34 grams of sugar, or about one-third of the daily recommended intake.

PowerAde—the sports drink owned by Coca-Cola—has the same amount of sugar in the same sized bottle. Then there’s Vitaminwater, which sounds much healthier than it is. In fact, it’s not much better when it comes to sugar quantity, as a 20-ounce bottle contains about 32 grams of sugar. We’ll round out this list with chocolate milk, which is advertised as the best post-game beverage for youth teams. Depending on the brand, however, a bottle can contain up to 44 grams of sugar—an even higher amount than Gatorade and PowerAde.

We’re not saying that you should eliminate sports drinks from your practice or game routine, but it’s important to know what you’re consuming—especially as it plays into an athlete’s overall oral health. It’s why following some of the tips and suggestions in this post is important. It’s also why water—that’s right, good ole’ H2O—is by far the best sports drink, whether it’s the only beverage an athlete drinks during play or it’s part of what they consume overall.

Common Oral Health Issues and How They Occur

Everyone knows that sugar is bad for the teeth, but do you understand why? Or how it impacts them?

While sugar is just one piece of the puzzle to bad dental health, it’s a very important piece. Essentially, the mouth is a bacteria battleground. And though this may seem somewhat gross, not all types of bacteria are bad.

One type of mouth bacteria produces acid when it comes in contact with sugar, like the sugar in the sports drinks, sports bars, and energy gels. The acid removes minerals from tooth enamel via a process called demineralization. Tooth enamel serves as a protective outer shell on your teeth. It protects your teeth from hot and cold temperature extremes and tooth decay while keeping the teeth bright and white.

Now, it’s worth noting that your saliva is always acting to offset demineralization via remineralization, which is a process of replacing lost minerals and strengthening tooth enamel. Too many acid attacks in a short time, however, can render remineralization useless. When this occurs, the tooth enamel gradually weakens and tooth decay begins to set in.

If tooth decay is not treated quickly, it can increase to the point where more than a filling may be necessary to correct the issue. In severe cases, decay can spread down to the deepest layers of the tooth, requiring intensive dental procedures, such as root canals.

Gum disease also can have far-reaching consequences. It occurs over time when plaque begins to build up on the teeth, usually due to poor brushing and flossing habits. When we leave plaque untreated, it hardens over time and may cause gum inflammation and bleeding. These are often characteristics of the early stages of gum disease, or gingivitis. If left untreated, they can lead to periodontal disease.

The good news is that we can often reverse gum disease when caught in its early stages. If we don’t catch it soon enough, the whole-body health effects associated with periodontal disease can be very significant. These include bad breath, tooth loss, sensitive teeth, and pain while chewing. And then there are more serious side effects—hormonal changes, a greater risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and increased risk of stroke.

Common ways to reverse early gum disease include gum cleaning, typically by a dentist, and combining a water flosser with plaque-removing mouthwash in one’s oral care routine.

Effects of Oral Health on Athletic Performance

Think oral health doesn’t have any effect on athletic performance? Think again. And we’re not talking about missing a shift in a hockey game when you get high-sticked in the mouth and need to stop the bleeding. A visit to the dentist can fix that. Poor overall oral health is much more difficult to correct, which is why it’s important to prevent these issues before they become severe.

Here are some of the detrimental health effects poor oral health can have on athletic performance.

Oral health affects the entire body. Poor oral health can have a trickle-down effect on the entire body. Evidence suggests that tooth decay and gum disease can lead to a greater likelihood of infections and inflammation throughout the rest of the body—conditions that could halt an athlete’s training, practice, and play while treated.

And when we say oral health, we’re not just talking about brushing and flossing. We mean wearing a mouth guard and appropriate protective headgear while participating in sport to prevent dental injuries. Any dental issue—whether it’s trauma from an injury or poor oral health—can impact the entire body.

Poor oral health affects overall wellbeing, quality of life. Another key inhibitor of exceptional athletic performance is mental health. Yes, athletes need to be mentally tough, capable of shaking off bad pitches, bad shots, or poor play to rise above the competition. And to be mentally tough, athletes need the right amount of sleep to help their bodies recover and have the ability to “get in the zone” when they need to. Remember, poor oral health impacts the entire body—mentally and physically. If an athlete’s mood and confidence are off, their performance can suffer accordingly.

Sleep issues. An athlete’s body needs sleep to recover, and tooth issues can greatly impact healthy sleep patterns.

Serious health issues. As noted in the above section, periodontal disease can wreak serious harm to your body. It can lead to an increased risk of developing heart disease, suffering from a stroke, or developing diabetes. Even serious, well-conditioned athletes may experience these harmful side effects.

How Athletes Can Limit Tooth Decay and Oral Health Issues

If you’re working with serious athletes who need or choose to refuel with something high in sodium and glucose after a workout or during practice or competition (like the market-leading sports drinks), know that they aren’t immune from oral health issues that can come from sugar-heavy beverages.

The good news is that there are a variety of ways to combat tooth decay and gingivitis that may result from an uptick in sugar consumption. Here’s a look at how athletes can help reduce their risks of oral health issues when sports drinks, sports bars, and energy gels are part of the norm.

Wash sugar down with water. Tooth decay occurs when sugars produce acids that help accelerate tooth decay. However, if these sugars can’t stick around inside the mouth, they can’t do the damage they would when left to linger. On this note, one of the easiest things athletes can do to reduce their risk of tooth decay is to chase high-sugar drinks with water. The water dilutes the sugars and rinses them from the mouth.

Brush regularly. Dentists recommend that everyone brush at least twice a day and floss at least once each day. Many of us associate basic brushing and flossing with removing food debris that’s lodged between teeth. But they also help remove sugars, plaques, and bacteria from the mouth before they have a chance to do too much harm.

Keep in mind that many elite athletes will shower after an intense training session, practice, or game. To keep their oral health in top-notch condition, athletes also should make brushing a part of their post-practice and post-game routine. Doing so helps remove sugar and bacteria before they have a chance to fester and do true harm. What’s more, if you brush after consuming something high in sugar, the experts say not to brush right away. Instead, they recommend waiting a while to brush; and brushing after showering does this.

Don’t chew tobacco. Though not nearly as many athletes chew tobacco as they did years ago thanks to its well-documented health effects, it remains commonplace in some sports. In addition to increasing the chance of developing heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer, smokeless tobacco leads to a greater likelihood of cavities, teeth abrasion, staining, foul breath, loss of jaw bone, gum disease, and other oral health issues. Nearly four percent of all American adults use smokeless tobacco in some way.

Wear a mouth guard. As noted, good oral health means more than just brushing, flossing, and taking care of your mouth—it also means taking steps to minimize the risk of dental injuries. Poor oral health has an impact on the entire body, and sports-related stress can lead to issues such as teeth grinding and dry mouth. So while some athletes wear missing teeth like a badge of honor, know that not taking care of injuries can potentially impact the entire body.

The good news is that you can take steps to prevent oral injuries, and wearing a mouth guard is arguably the easiest and most effective way to do so. For the best protection, a custom-made mouth guard is the ideal preventative solution. For athletes who wear helmets, ensuring the equipment fits properly is another key to preventing dental injuries. An improperly fitting helmet can jostle and move around on the head, which could lead to injury.

See the dentist regularly. Everyone should see a dentist for routine cleanings and checkups at least twice a year, or once every six months. For those with oral health conditions, visiting the dentist quarterly may be suggested.

Seeing the dentist is important for several reasons. One, a dentist will assess the overall condition of the mouth and often catch small issues that can be corrected before they turn into much more significant issues that aren’t as easily—or affordably—corrected. Dentists also monitor levels of tooth decay and gum recession to identify any problems they need to address. And they’ll take the time to remove gum disease-causing plaque buildup that’s festering inside the mouth.

While many of us may view the dentist as nothing more than a tolerated inconvenience, regular visits are essential to maintaining good oral health and continuing to perform at a high level.

Don’t smoke. Though smoking is typically associated with lung issues, it also can wreak havoc on the mouth. Smokers are much more likely to experience periodontal disease as plaque and tartar buildup more quickly thanks to all of tobacco’s ingredients. Smoking also restricts blood flow in the gums, leads to a greater likelihood of developing oral cancer, and can cause bad breath and teeth staining. The vast majority of competitive athletes don’t smoke, but those who do can expect oral health issues, regardless of how often they see the dentist or how dedicated they are to their oral health routine.

Closing Thoughts

We’re not trying to scare you into ditching sports drinks, sports bars, and energy gels altogether. This post intends to let you know what’s inside the food and beverages you consume and how their ingredients might impact your oral health if you’re not careful.

Yes, these sports energy products have their benefits, especially for serious, hard training athletes. But when consuming high quantities of sugar becomes a regular occurrence, it’s important to know how to keep the mouth healthy. Doing so could be the difference between making the team or getting cut and winning the gold medal or no medal at all. Poor oral health can cost you more than you might think.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

Over the years, we typically change our minds constantly. What was once important loses its significance, and what was once useless becomes the center of our universe. The purpose of this article is to explain why I changed my mind about the seated calf raise and now feel that it is a vital and often overlooked exercise for training.

At one point in my career, I felt that training the calf was pointless—the hip and knee joints were where it was at for sprinting and running, and the calves were just there. I felt that they were useful but not crucial, sort of like an appendix. Since they weren’t a big deal, I wouldn’t waste my time training them. Looking back on this, I see how laughable this thought was.

My Eureka Moment with Athletic Performance

I started to question myself, as well as the intelligence of others, when I read an article about Natalia Verkhoshansky and then asked her about it myself in person. She made a statement that the exercise in the weight room most related to change of direction for her athletes was the seated calf raise. I thought there was an issue with the translation or some other language barrier and refused to believe it.

I was still very skeptical when I talked to her in person at a hotel bar in New Orleans. She told me that it was indeed the seated calf raise that had the biggest relationship to improved change of direction ability in her athletes. Then I started teaching anatomy and kinesiology in the same semester, and her statement completely made sense as to the how and why.

Examining the biomechanical modeling literature, when gait is studied at walking speeds, 80% of the propulsive forces come from the ankle and 20% come from the hip.¹ Some of you may gawk and ask, “That’s 100%, what about the knee?” The knee takes care of 100% of the negative forces, which are braking forces. These are what stops the momentum downward to allow for the other joints to utilize propulsive forces.

When gait is studied at maximal sprinting speeds, 80% of the propulsive forces come from the hip and 20% come from the ankle, with the knee again providing the braking forces. The gastrocnemius, soleus, and plantaris muscles are what account for those propulsive forces. I never in my wildest dreams thought this was possible, and it wasn’t until I further examined the gait cycle and realized how it worked that everything clicked. When the foot touches down directly underneath the body, the hip works as a hip extensor to propel the body forward after the thigh passes the imaginary perpendicular line drawn from the center of mass to the ground. It is actually the calf that causes those propulsive forces, rather than the hip.

When looking at the line of pull of the muscles on the joint, this becomes more apparent. The hips would have to rotate anteriorly and have a fairly significant accompanying lumbar extension to be able to continue being the primary driver. This is obviously inefficient, and it wouldn’t be done unless there were several factors necessitating its use. Instead, it is the calf pulling on the calcaneus that drives the forces at the ankle to cause plantar flexion for this further drive.

You may read this and think, “Okay, I get the calf raise now, but why is this kook talking about the seated calf raise?” I’m glad you asked. If we go back to our anatomy, we need to examine the origin and insertion. For most actions, the origin of the gastrocnemius is on the medial and lateral epicondyles of the femur, with the insertion being at the calcaneal tuberosity via the Achilles tendon.²

When explained more simply: The gastrocnemius crosses both the knee joint and the ankle joint and can serve as a knee flexor and a plantar flexor. For most actions of the soleus, the origin of the soleus is on the fibular head and lateral plateau of the tibia, with the insertion being at the calcaneal tuberosity via the Achilles tendon. To put this simply: The soleus only crosses the ankle joint. This is a very important distinction to make.

Muscular restrictions occur when a muscle is too tight to allow for a greater range of motion. Once the knee bends (provided that the gastrocnemius wasn’t so tight that the knee couldn’t extend), the gastrocnemius is now no longer at a stretch, and its tightness can no longer be the limiting factor if there is a dorsiflexion restriction, as there is slack in the muscle. If the restriction is one of the triceps surae group, it must be the soleus, since that is the only muscle now at maximal length.

This is not to say that the only thing impacting dorsiflexion is the soleus; of course, it could be muscles impacting arch control like the tibialis posterior, an issue such as a bone spur, or another reason for locking one of the many joints of the foot distal to (and including) the talocrural joint. I will say that most strength and conditioning and personal training professionals will lack the training to determine the other issues. For me, if the soleus intervention does not work, I punt and refer the athlete out to an individual whose scope of practice includes the areas that are the issue.

If we examine the deep squat movement of the functional movement screen (FMS), we should remember that the first attempt to get a 2 rather than a 3 is to elevate the heels. By elevating the heels, you start out in plantar flexion and allow a greater number of degrees of dorsiflexion before hitting the end range of motion. In other words, it allows an individual to get around the dorsiflexion restriction. Often, simply elevating the heel by an inch and a half will allow the person to do well on the deep squat.

For some reason, when this cleans up the pattern, many people tend to want to go stand on slant boards to try and stretch out the calf (which is not a bad idea). However, most end up doing them on a straight leg. This stretches out the gastrocnemius, which couldn’t be the issue during the deep squat—it is either the soleus or something else that isn’t the triceps surae group. The likelihood increases when bending the knee and allowing the stretch to be placed on the soleus.

More Mounting Evidence for Training the Soleus Muscle

One other interesting thing about the soleus is that it can actually posteriorly translate the tibia. While most people refer to the origin as the part closest to the joint off of the torso and insertion as the point most distal to the joint off of the torso, that’s not completely correct. The origin is simply the least movable bone, and the insertion is the most movable bone. Hence the term, “the insertion is drawn to the origin.”

This is important because when the foot is planted (the heel is down and stays down) and the soleus turns on, plantar flexion can actually occur by the tibia moving backward. This allows the soleus to aid in the hamstring muscle group to posteriorly translate the tibia during activity.^3-5 This is important due to the ankle and its role in ACL injuries. Research has shown that the mechanism of the non-contact ACL tear is an internal rotation and adduction force of the hip, as well as an anterior translation of the tibia in relation to the femur.⁶

A major point to this, especially as it relates to ACL tears, is that the studies by Elias et al., Fleming et al., and Mokhtarzadeh et al. found that while the soleus was an agonist to the ACL, the gastrocnemius was an antagonist—meaning that it worked against the ACL. It does so by working as a knee flexor, but from below the knee joint rather than above, as the hamstrings do. This distinction is important as it indicates that the line of pull is different even though the end result is the same (knee flexion). Yet they have different impacts as far as how the muscle works with the ACL (the hamstrings are agonists and the gastrocnemius is an antagonist).

When changing direction, which is how the non-contact ACL tear occurs, the body understands that it needs to drop the center of mass. Movement forces (moment) are reduced at that point in time and required to stop and redirect the body properly. To accomplish this lowering of the center of mass, there is a “triple flexion” (as opposed to triple extension) that occurs: dorsiflexion of the ankle joint, flexion of the knee, and a flexion of the hip.² If there is a range of motion (ROM) issue at any of those joints, the other two will increase their flexion to compensate for it.

As the ankle tends to be dorsiflexion-restricted in many athletes, the additional flexion comes from the hip and the knee, and the heel tends to lift up to compensate for this lack of dorsiflexion in accommodation of the additional flexion of the other two joints. This results in an anterior translation of the tibia, which is one of the major mechanisms of the ACL tear and may be one of the reasons that those with dorsiflexion are at a greater risk of tearing their ACL. Now, increasing the soleus length (again, if it is in fact the muscle that is restrictive) will decrease the likelihood of a dorsiflexion restriction and thus reduce the likelihood of anterior tibial translation. The strengthening of the soleus will increase its ability to posteriorly translate the tibia.

Connecting the Scientific Dots by Implementing the Exercise

I have talked a great deal about anatomy, biomechanical modeling, and kinematics. How does this relate back to the seated calf raise and the reason I like it? It targets the soleus like no other exercise can.

Since the knee is bent, when the athlete goes from full stretch to full contraction, not only does it improve the ability to dorsiflex (in terms of ROM), but it also improves the force that will be provided by ground reaction forces during sprints and jumps. It will also increase the ability to posteriorly translate the tibia to help prevent injuries. This is especially important if athletes already do standing calf raises, as this targets the gastrocnemius, which is an antagonist to the ACL.^3-5 If you don’t develop the muscles in balance, it increases the likelihood of issues.

When performing this movement, I used to think of it as an accessory exercise to do at the end of the workout, if at all. I found out, much by happenstance, that it is actually quite effective when done before squats and other major exercises. I have always had tight calves and an impatient disposition.

I have been training at a commercial gym, due to childcare needs, and often have to wait for someone to do their dancing combined with curls and ab wheel rollouts in the squat rack before I can squat. Being impatient, I thought I’d do some exercises that wouldn’t affect my squat but would still let me finish my workout in time to shower and get my kids. I started doing the seated calf raise while waiting because no one was ever using that machine.

Lo and behold! My squats felt much more comfortable and looked better, and I squatted deeper than when I didn’t do seated calf raises before squats. There is a marked difference on the days when I’ve tried to not do them before squatting and the days I have done them. For me, anecdotally, this has led to reduced knee pain and feeling more solid under the barbell. This may be an enhancement of motor control through the sequencing of the exercises, but I possess no actual data to corroborate this statement.

Make the Accessory a Priority in Your Programming

As a strength and conditioning coach, I used to think that some things were unnecessary, and I know many other S&C coaches who think the same way. I remember saying earlier in my career that the biceps brachii were also like the appendix, great to have but unnecessary, as you have other things that flex the elbow. I now know the error of that statement.

I think that, all too often, we want to make statements or decisions to show how smart we are—how we are smart enough to buck conventionality and show we know more than the architects of the human body. Unfortunately, I think that we often find this to not be the case.

Through teaching anatomy and kinesiology, I have made myself reevaluate my views on how the human body functions. It almost seems to me that we should go through another round of teaching these classes once our viewpoint evolves after spending time as professionals. We would have a greater context, and we could change the way we program based on good information rather than the rhetoric thrown around at the bar (both the weight room and the pub).

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References

1. Dorn, T.W., Schache, A. G., and Pandy, M.G. “Muscular strategy shift in human running: dependence of running speed on hip and ankle muscle performance.” The Journal of Experimental Biology. 2012; 215(11); 1944–1956.

2. Neumann, D.A. (2010). Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System: Foundations for Rehabilitation. Mosby/Elsevier.

3. Elias, J.J., Faust, A.F., Chu, Y.-H., Chao, E.Y., and Cosgarea, A.J. “The Soleus Muscle Acts as an Agonist for the Anterior Cruciate Ligament: An in Vitro Experimental Study.” The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2003; 31(2): 241–246.

4. Fleming, B.C., Renstrom, P.A., Ohlen,G., Johnson, R.J., Peura, G.D., Beynnon, B.D., and Badger, G.J. “The gastrocnemius muscle is an antagonist of the anterior cruciate ligament.” Journal of Orthopaedic Research. 2001; 19(6): 1178–1184.

5. Mokhtarzadeh, H., Yeow, C.H., Hong Goh, J.C., Oetomo, D., Malekipour, F., and Lee, P.V. “Contributions of the Soleus and Gastrocnemius muscles to the anterior cruciate ligament loading during single-leg landing.” Journal of Biomechanics. 2013; 46(11): 1913–1920.

6. Myer, G.D., Ford, K.R., Khoury, J., Succop, P., and Hewett, T.E. “Development and Validation of a Clinic-Based Prediction Tool to Identify Female Athletes at High Risk for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury.” The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2010; 38(10): 2025–2033.