In the August 8, 2005 edition of Sports Illustrated, the off-season workout regimens of five NFL players were highlighted for being the toughest and most innovative of all the workouts used to prepare guys for the rigors of their season. Two of the five players – Donovin Darius and Donovan McNabb - have suffered season ending injuries.
All five of these workouts illustrate a dangerous trend that is becoming common among all pro athletes, the belief that you prepare the body to take physical punishment by subjecting the body to even more punishment. This is wrong and potentially injurious.
The argument against these programs in general can take place at a different time and place. However, the argument against McNabb’s program can be made quite clearly and succinctly right here.
A “sports hernia” is a tear in the muscles of the lower abdomen. If you want a complete technical explanation you can click here, and for a simple explanation click here.
Let’s go back to the Sports Illustrated item and take a look at McNabb’s workout routine. In this article we are told that twice per week McNabb gets “stretched to the limit” by a woman who is a referred to as a “stretch therapist.”
This stretching routine occurred with one of McNabb’s legs strapped down to a table while the therapist “begins tugging, rotating and generally contorting McNabb’s body into extreme angles it gets wrenched into during games.” McNabb’s torturer, I mean therapist, claims that she can give him 20 percent more range of motion, and that this therapy can help him withstand the strain his body experiences during a game.
There is even a picture of McNabb – in obvious discomfort – being twisted about by this woman.
This whole idea is so laughably off base that it would be funny if we weren’t talking about the livelihood of a pro athlete – and the fortunes of his team - being adversely affected by such a wrong-headed theory and practice.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Imagine of those Abu Ghraib prisoners got a chance to play. They woulda been stars!
2 - Matt Paprocki
Look who's on the cover of Madden this year. There's your problem. He's the latest in a long line of cover athletes to either collapse his entire game or get serverly injured. The only one who was on the cover and made it out was Ray Lewis, though that's debateable too.
3 - Matthew T. Sussman
So it wasn't training. It was tough actin' John Madden, the antithesis of being in shape!
4 - Mark Sahm
Nice conspiracy theory, Sal. I agree that there is a fine line between stretching to work on your flexibility (a vital part to any athletic success) and trying to be too proactive. Was the trainer his personally, or part of the Eagles' organization?
Anyway, if McNabb's range of motion was limited before, wait until he comes back from surgery. That woman will be putting him in a medieval device with horses pulling his limbs to get that 20% back.
5 - sal m
with regards to mcnabb's stretch therapist, that's a great question...i attended a strength and conditioning seminar that featured the eagles head strength coach, and I asked how the team handles the situation where a player has his own coach/coaches...he kind of shrugged and basically said that if these guys want to try something on their own the team can't really stop them...this is mind boggling when you consider that the team's entire fortune depends on McNabb...these players are multi-million dollar assets and you would think the team would protect them better...
and actually I don't think I'm putting forth a conspiracy theory, i'm disagreeing on substantive grounds the current trend of what is basically overtraining athletes to prepare them for their respective sports...
6 - Bennett
Y'all know that every team in the league chipped in $100 to send to this lady in to rip his crotch, right?
Simpletons.
7 - Matthew T. Sussman
Forget Sal's conspiracy theory. Bennett's the one with the tinfoil.
Now if only Peyton Manning would drink the tea I laid out for him (rubs hands together)
8 - Mark Sahm
Bennett: Those teams could have saved some dough and just sent a posse of strippers to rip McNabb's crotch. Now THAT is a hernia worth bragging about.
9 - Sam Jack
I looked on SI.com, couldn't find this article. Any idea if it's there?
10 - RJ
"So it wasn't training. It was tough actin' John Madden, the antithesis of being in shape!"
I'm literally LOL over that, Suss... ;-)
11 - sal m
here's a link to the picture of mcnabb being tortured...
and here's the link to go to the story on all the workouts with the pictures...
12 - Temple Stark
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Cheers. Temple
13 - diamond dave
Great article. And one more thing: flexibility without strength in the end range of movemement is just begging to get injured. Mobility is applying strength and stability in all movement, including end range. Flexible just for the sake of being flexible is weakness. You don't have to be a PT or trainer, just read some good Mike Roberston articles on T-nation/index.do.
And these trainers get paid HOW MUCH???!!!
14 - sal m
diamond dave:
if you want to see an even more ridiculous program check out albert pujols' program that is the cover story of the new M&F magazine.
15 - Mike Cruickshank
I am little concerned that there is a case of group think going on here. I saw that picture of him and he looks like he is falling asleep, not writhing in pain. Maybe there is another picture that I haven't seen but what doesn't make sense to me is that one of the primary principles of the Fredricks stretch to win system is that you NEVER stretch to the point of pain.
I would hope that before people bash the fredricks on an open forum that they might do a little more research into their workout. Several top strength coaches from Charles Staley to Joe Defranco ,swear by Ann Fredrick's work.
I would also caution about the need for everything thing to be so sport specific. For the most part, much of what we do as trainers is General Physical Preparation which our athletes then transfer to the field by practicing their sport. Sure, there is a degree of specific work in that I would have different goals in my workout for an NFL lineman than I would a golfer, but not everything we do has to mimic the exact speeds, positions, and patterns of what our clients do on the field.
I do not know the fredricks personally, only from what I have read in their book and seen on their dvd and I would hope that some of the posters here have done the same before opening up a littany of criticism on their system when it is obvious that very few here know much about the specifics of it given that most of you don't even know the woman's name.
In closing, my final comment is that while dynamic stretching is a great tool, it is only a tool and not the whole picture. And just like static stretches dynamic stretches have great value to all athletes but also have negatives too.
16 - BILL
Any links to that Albert Pujols workout?
17 - Steve Sullivan
Hi:
Great article by Mr Marinello. It is heartening to see a S&C coach speak so eloquently about the Principle of Specificity.
As a Dr Mike Marshall pitching instructor I find it difficult to explain to parents that not only is stretching a waste of time but that muscles contract they don't "stretch". I also find it difficult to explain to them that there sons won't find more velocity in the weight room. Only by throwing a baseball faster do we throw a baseball faster. We overload the involved muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones in the specific way we pitch baseballs.
Nice article.
Steve Sullivan