Oh, Oh Sally!

I was a big RFTW fan!

Ok, who here hasn’t enjoyed meeting Sally of THE “Bring Sally Up” fame? Let’s see a show of hands or disgruntled faces.

Most people hate Sally, I, on the other hand, think Sally is hot! I think she is the kind of woman that can really teach you a lot. Oh she may use and abuse you, like most women, but in the end you realize that you are better for knowing her, even if it is for just 3-4 minutes.

So who is Sally? She is the most beautiful babe in the box. Her eyes sparkle and she bites her lip when she sheepishly smiles at you. She makes you nervous and takes your breath away. She is all woman and she will teach you things you never dreamed were ever possible. Yes, I love Sally and I can’t get enough!

I remember that first time with Sally, she was powerful, so difficult to keep up with, it seemed like she was going to keep going forever. I wasn’t man enough, I held on as long as I could. Maybe my expectations were too high, after all I thought I was the magic man, but in the end I finished before she did. I should have checked my ego at the door, because I had to bend over and pick it up off the floor as I left that day. And just like that she was gone, out of my life forever…..at least I thought.

Then, just as I thought I had forgotten all about her, she walked back into my life. But this time it was going to be different. I was different. I had learned, I had changed, as a man. I was stronger, more limber, and more determined to prove to her that I could take all she had and still want more. Yeahhhhhh, now it was personal! As the seconds grew into minutes and the minutes passed to hours I remember thinking I have her right where I want her, now, let’s finish this. And I did that day, 3 times!

Yeah, crazy huh? Oh it wasn’t my plan to Bring Sally Up 3 times on Monday but I loved every one of them. You see, with each serving of Sally I learned more about myself and as I was sitting down deep in that squat with the PVC overhear I had time to think. Think about what is different this time? Why do I enjoy it more than I hated it before? Sure, the quick answer is I had 95 pounds on my back, excuse me Lee, on my low back rack the first time, and this time I have a lightweight PVC pipe above my head. But for me it was never about the weight and as I destroyed Sally that third time I realized exactly what it was and it really started to click.

A couple things changed since that first time Sally kicked my butt:

1. I have worked harder on gaining greater depth in my squat

2. I switched from a low rack to a high rack for back squats

I think we as a community are lucky to have the leadership that we have, starting with General Lee Kelly and the coaches on staff. Sure, they have been talking depth for months now but sometimes we think we are limited in our abilities when in reality we are only limiting ourselves.

It’s a typical story, mine that is. Boy meets bar, boy squats bar, boy feels pain in knees and develops tendonitis because boy doesn’t squat below parallel. Boy blames it on mobility and old age, boy frowns, boy pouts, and boy gets angry but continues to squat above his true range of motion. Boy wants to get stronger, so boy spends more time squatting and as boy continues, knees ache more.

Right? Pretty typical story. Well, sometimes words from coaches aren’t enough and you just have to get hit over the head to understand it for yourself in your own stubborn way. It finally hit me, somewhere around 5:35 Monday evening what it all meant.

Now before I go on let me say this is all my experience with squatting and knee pain and we are all different. My knees are very different from yours. Our ROM is different, strength levels are different. Our injury and medical histories are different. I am by all means not a doctor of orthopedic medicine nor do I play one to pick up chicks at bars….anymore. That was college and seriously, didn’t we ALL do that? I think I still have some of his cards.

Let me share my theory with you and then I will try to back it up with a little something something we call science. Like many people my age, entering into Crossfit or any fitness activity we tend to protect ourselves, sometimes to our own detriment. It’s human nature. For example, I honestly did not think I could squat as deep as what was suggested, butt to ankles. I thought that was merely for the young of knee, first mistake. So I squatted to what I THOUGHT was my range of motion, around parallel, ok, maybe a little above. It is difficult to know how deep you are going unless someone is there to tell you, and tell you honestly.
I thought I was squatting to my ability, so perhaps subconsciously or knowingly, I would hold up. I thought this was better for my knees. Second mistake. I began to battle tendonitis and a groin pull, so I protected myself even more. I believed by squatting till I felt what I thought was a groin injury begin to grab my attention, I was doing what was best in order to keep squatting. Mistake number 3.

So the aches never went away, even became worse. The groin or supposed groin pull never got any better either, even after 3 months. For a while I would get nudged by coaches, go deeper, spread your feet, get your butt down, all things that made my state of discomfort worse. It wasn’t until my first round with Sally that I started to figure things out.

I don’t know if it was exhaustion, the weight, or just the lack of a will to live that taught me that I was becoming my own worst enemy. During one of the deep, long lasting squats with Sally I lost all sense of myself and gave in to the pressure of the weight on my back.

Actually what happened was I realized that I was fighting myself with the weight, making it much more difficult than it really was. Instead of relaxing and allowing my body to squat down to my full range of motion, I was fighting to hold it up out of fear of injury. Actually I was holding the squat instead of taking a squat. At one point I felt myself simply breathe and relax and as I did my squat deepened and instead of greater pain in my groin area, it was as if walking through a meadow of clovers on a spring sunny day. Actually, as I relaxed I moved right through the discomfort at probably around 80-90 degrees and as I eased into it the pain started to ease up. It was reverse squattology. What I thought would be more painful was in fact more comfortable, but then the quads starting burning and up I sprang.

It was a breakthrough, it made me think, am I actually making it worse by protecting myself erroneously by holding back? Am I causing the tendonitis to inflame by exerting greater force to stop my downward squat instead of relaxing and letting the muscles relax and stretch as they were born to stretch? Baby I wasn’t born to stretch…..hmm…..it was a thought!

So I began adding more mobility exercises to workouts. I wanted to see if the key to happiness, or at least a better squat, lied in the depth of the squat rather than the load on my rack.
I made some progress, I will say the mobility was a help. I felt like maybe I was getting deeper in depth. On Monday the real test was on. I was going to double the wods, one in the am and one in the pm. Sally round one showed up in the morning and I made it through. I was worried about how my knees would react but they held up and I felt like I was getting deeper, not sure, but that was how if felt. Sally round 2 happened that afternoon and remarkably, and maybe it was just a figment of my imagination, but it felt even better. I was expecting the second effort to be brutal on my tendonitis and I thought I would be less mobile. It was just the reverse. I know I felt better and was getting deeper as if my hips and quads were relaxing and stretching even more. One other thing happened in round two, my quads were totally on fire.

I had never really felt that before, I usually have knee pain before I truly feel it in my quads. Red flag? Perhaps. But now I was feeling total quad engagement. It was a different but great feeling. So I repeated the WOD that afternoon and I was about to head out to pick up my sons when someone approached me with the “I dare you to eat this live worm” look on her face. Hey, let’s do Sally again! Uhhhh, ok! Let’s give it to Mikey! So hesitantly I grabbed on to Sally round 3 and I saddled up. I had absolutely no expectations and maybe that was the key. But somewhere around minute 2 it all fell into place.

I relaxed, my quads were like noodles, and maybe in retrospect that was what I needed. To just fully exhaust my quads so they would totally relax and stretch. There was one point when I was in my happy place that I actually forgot about how much my quads burned and I just sat there in the “grass” position for the first time in my life I could feel my ankles kissing my A–. It was, it was almost magical. It was painless and it was amazing! And then it hit me, relax you big dummy! No knee pain during, after or the next day. It was a like a lightbulb going off inside of a flashlight that hit me on the head. Stretch, the key to happiness might just be in the stretch and depth of the squat.

Skeptical? Still think deep squats are a bad idea? I wasn’t sure myself, I mean I knew deep squats were the best way to build strength but I just thought at my age it was not possible. So I began to read, read, and read some more. Although it is a very controversial subject in the fitness world there are some things that I found that validate my theory, at least in my own mind.

1. The squat is a functional human movement that we are born with. We practically deep squat in the womb. Go back and pullout your ultrasound pictures. What position is the body? You call it the fetal position. But look at the flexion of the hip and knee joints, it’s full range baby!

2. Squatting butt to floor is natural for babies learning to stand on their own. They never bend over, they just take a big ole squat, sometimes literally. (Seems like I may have heard that in on-ramp somewhere). Squatting butt to floor is a natural movement, stopping halfway down is altering what is natural. It adds stress to the joint by preventing the muscles to naturally perform their job.

3. As we age we begin to squat shallower and shallower, but only as a result of laziness and lesser flexibility. It is not because our joints cannot bend, as above, but because our muscles won’t or don’t. That is purely a mobility issue, not a joint issue.

4. Lastly, a study was performed by Salem and Powers that showed there was no noticeable difference or increase in stress to the patellofemoral (knee) joint when squatting at depths of 70, 90, or 110 degrees. This was the kicker for me, in other words by going below parallel, at 110 of ROM, it causes no additional wear and tear on the joint itself than squatting to 70 degrees or well above parallel.

So if deep squats do no harm, why wouldn’t you want to gain all the benefits of your hard work? The squat is the king of all exercises. Squatting causes your body to release massive amounts of hormones that lead to muscle growth as well as the breakdown of fat. It incorporates a larger number of muscles to work. It burns more calories. It builds and strengthens your quads, hamstrings, core, low back and wait for IT……the squat is the most important exercise that exists today for those of you wearing lulus. Yes, the squat is your butt’s best friend. Mr. Maximus, your audience awaits! If you want a better butt, you better squat and squat it like it is hot!

That goes for dudes too, the squat, not the lulus, I have issues with that! The hips and butt play a larger role in athletic activity, sports, and fitness than any other body part. If you work it, and work it good, it will pay off in the end….so to speak.

Ok, so back to me and after all, this is about me. So besides all the butt talk, I am convinced that I have been my own worst enemy when it comes to tendonitis. Again, I am no doctor, do your own research and learn what is best for you. But for me, the key is in improving my mobility and learning not to fear fear itself but to just allow my body to do what is natural and that is squat my butt down deeper.

It is a work in progress; it is not an overnight fix. I have to work diligently on improving my ROM. I like to use the couch stretch and the goblet stretch in combination with additional hip mobility that we have learned at Crossfit NWA. I do this every day regardless of the WOD. Mobility never asks for a day off so don’t give it one. I reduced my weight and my ego. In order to work on depth I had to lighten the load. If you have a big ego and a small butt, then you know what the problem is. And lastly, I have to learn to relax when I am in the deep squat position, let it go; find my happy place for a while. Embrace the suck and just breathe and relax, you will see a big difference. I know I have seen a big change in just a few days. Trust me, knee pain sucks and if you can reduce it or eliminate it without surgery, you do it.

It may not solve your knee pain, but it is definitely helping mine, and hopefully my butt too! Just so you know, the butt does not fully engage in the squat until you get to 90 degrees, the deeper you squat the more bang you get for your buck!

Anyway, this was supposed be about knee pain. So my tips to you are simply this, work on your mobility, get with a coach to work on your technique and depth, and don’t be afraid to get low, way down deep. That is where the most benefits are.

God bless and see you at the box!

The WOD Father

Sally, wherever you are, I miss you and I love you. Come back soon!