Do You Wanna Get Down?

It's time to talk about injury prevention.  Nothing will put you down from OCR faster than an injury.  But most injuries are preventable.  Learn and execute a few simple things and your training and racing season will likely be injury free.  By that I mean debilitating injury.  As you know by now, my tendency is to re-injure my L5 herniated disc.

Although I injured it over twenty years ago, the problem started long before that.  It was due primarily to cumulative trauma.  That means I was doing something wrong repeatedly over time.  The injury only manifested itself upon extreme stress one time when I was lifting and twisting with a relatively light weight.  This kind of injury is usually blamed on a one-time event.  It is not.  Pay attention to cumulative trauma.  Because of it, I re-injured my back two years ago and had a lousy season.  I did it doing a team telephone pole running carry.  Now I just don't do that anymore.  The picture below at ABF Mud Run is me carrying a tire - walking.  I simply will not run.  The jarring compression on my spine will likely cause it to herniate again.  No thanks.

You can learn to prevent injury while at the same time learn to master just about any obstacle on the course.  Most obstacles require that you are able to do some form and combination of the following three simple body weight exercises: squat jump, pull up, and muscle up.  A simpler beginner form of the three is the air squat, chin up, and push up.

Learn the proper form and technique for these three.  Perfect the motions.  Do them to failure.  Learn to work through the sticking points, especially when you are tired.  Tiredness is one of those times when you lose a bit of concentration perhaps, let up a bit on form, compromise on technique.  Avoid that and you avoid injury.

Here are some examples:

The log hurdle - this is a combination jump squat and muscle up.  I see more people get injured on this simple obstacle than any other.

The military wall - combination jump squat, pull up, and muscle up.

Most people start these two obstacles by running up to them.  That does absolutely no good.  All your energy and momentum is forward.  But you need all your energy and momentum upward!  So start right in front of the obstacle and do a jump squat.

Can't do a jump squat more than a hundred times without stopping?  Then you have a weakness.  A weakness like this is a target for injury.  Start doing air squats as a normal part of your routine.  Everybody jokes about doing leg day.  It's no joke.

The best routine I know for perfecting these three simple moves is called "the Murph".  Run a mile.  Do 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, and 300 air squats.  Then run another mile.  Are you a beginner?  Cut it into a quarter and work your way up.  Can't do pull ups?  Get some resistance bands to help you.  No go on pushups?  Start on your knees.  Poor range of motion on air squats?  Do what you can, and stretch, and foam roll, and work with a partner.  Modify, modify, modify.  Work hard and work smart.  Stay healthy my friends.