As an athlete competing in the sport of CrossFit, Storm is in pursuit of his maximum athletic potential. If you’ve ever trained next to him, doing the same workout, you can appreciate how far above ‘normal’ his fitness really is. Unfortunately in the last few years, competition coincided with injury for Storm. His left hip and right shoulder would give him problems on and off throughout training, and on multiple occasions, stood directly in his way during competition. In the last year Storm has become incredibly curious about why these injuries have happened and what is within his control to do about it. As it turns out, he and his coach have found the concept of strength-balance to be an absolute game-changer for his training. Read on to hear what Storm has to say about the value of strength-balance testing for his health and performance.
What did you learn through strength-balance testing?
Through the process of strength-balance testing, my coach and I were able to uncover some key information about my hips and shoulders. Using some simple and methodical testing we determined that my left leg and hip muscles were substantially weaker than my right, which was true for both squatting and hinging patterns. For example, when testing single leg romanian deadlifts with 205lbs, I could do 9 reps on the right and only 5 reps on the left.
It also became very clear that my right shoulder is objectively weaker than my left, and there are certain planes of movement that are much weaker than expected. For example, my pressing strength was significantly stronger than my pulling, and I hadn’t developed nearly as much strength in a high-pull as other planes.
These findings were a major break-through for me; finally it all made sense. When I would get extreme pain with squats it was because the tissues around my left hip were always carrying more stress than they could handle in order to keep up with the weights the right side was able to lift. Rather than each leg splitting the work evenly, I was able to squat heavy because the right side would take on the bulk of the work.
The strength-balance findings related to my shoulders finally explained why I would get significant pain with burpees, overhead support exercises and pulling variations like kipping and butterfly gymnastics movements. My right shoulder was actually never strong enough to support all of the stress of kipping and the butterfly motion. Since these movements leverage the power of hip extension, I was still able to get the work done even though my shoulder was not strong enough to do so on its own. Over the span of 7 years training in this way, the strength gap between both sides has grown and the weaker tissues have finally had enough.
How has your training changed recently?
Having this information allows my coach and I to tailor my training to address the specific weaknesses identified. I am no longer concerned about not being able to perform at the level required to be competitive in the sport or being limited by injury at the time of competition. I am confident that all of this strength balance work will allow me to hit new barbell personal records in the near future!
Training sessions look quite different for me these days, these are a few new principles that inform what I do in the gym:
First things first: What is the lowest hanging fruit that will get me closer to my goals? This must come first in the session. The beginning of the training session is when you have the most energy and focus, so it is important for me to prioritize the movements that will move the needle the most. For me, it’s my strength-balance exercises. I now incorporate targeted exercises to address the imbalances like unilateral movements for the weaker leg and hip, and specific exercises to strengthen my right shoulder
Time under tension: tired tissues love time-under-tension, it’s what they need to heal well. Rather than moving weight quickly or explosively, damaged tissues respond most favourably to ‘low and slow’, slower movements increase the amount of time the tissue is working for. As an added bonus, slow movement helps to improve mobility, positioning control and overall strength. Slowing down my exercises has allowed me to be more intentional with my movement. A major change for me has been incorporating this concept into my conditioning pieces as well. For example, I’ll perform dumbbell cleans with a 3 second negative as I bring the dumbbell to the ground, or take 3 seconds to lower my chest to the ground during a burpee. I’ve taken traditional CrossFit movements and layered on my own intention so that they serve my body better. Slowing it down during training will give me the foundation for explosiveness when it’s time to perform.
Less time on bilateral movements: I haven’t PR’s any of my major compound barbell movements in years, and I believe a huge part of that is because of my strength imbalances. What’s exciting to me, is that I’m noticing the carry-over from all the unilateral work I’ve been doing already. With 3 months of dedicated strength-balance work and which included no typical bilateral barbell movements, I recently participated in a few Rogue challenges that included a barbell and performed really well. I did a traditional deadlift at double-weight (390lbs) for 18 reps immediately following a 2000m Ski Erg. I also performed 30 Clean and Jerks at 225lbs in 5:26 (*with NO shoulder pain). It was awesome to see that stepping away from bilateral barbell movements gave me an opportunity to perform better when I returned to them. I think it’s important to remember that as a competitive CrossFit athlete, bilateral barbell movements get to be an element of our training but they shouldn’t be the only way we get stronger.
Until my strength balance and symptom levels reach a point that I’m happy with, my training plan will continue to centre around corrective exercises throughout all elements of my programming (strength work, mobility work and conditioning) to set my body up to perform at its highest potential. Within the last three months I’ve already made significant strides. For the single arm high pull, in April I could do 10 reps with 40lbs on the right and only 29lbs on the left. Now, I can do 6 reps at 58lbs on right AND left. Similarly for my single leg deadlifts, I started at 205lbs, 5 reps on the left and 9 on the right. Now, I’m up to 225lbs for 9 reps on both sides.
Where does strength-balance fit in for competitive athletes?
In the competitive CrossFit space athletes often talk about working on weaknesses and identifying holes in their performance. Typically they’re talking about weakness with specific olympic lifts or gymnastic movements the athlete finds particularly challenging. I strongly believe that strength balance is a large component missing in these conversations. Perhaps the real limitation around someone’s snatch or handstand push-ups came down to strength-balance in the shoulders. Continuing to work on their snatch might not actually get them the results they’re looking for. I think it’s important to acknowledge how much stress a competitive athlete is putting on their body too. At the highest levels of performance, any weaker areas in the body are going to be stressed at a much higher level than outside of competition. Incorporating more strength balance work may allow athletes to improve those CrossFit specific weaknesses while also addressing minor or major injuries. I really encourage people to learn more about what strength-balance testing reveals about their capacity.
Strength-balance has become a crucial element of my training. It serves as the foundation for addressing my weaknesses, reducing risk of injury and supporting me in expressing my maximum athletic potential as I move closer to my goal of qualifying for the CrossFit Games.
