My Trip To See Bushido Bad Boy!

As many of you may know already, Bushido Bad Boy, a long standing and highly respected member of T-Nation is a newly qualified Osteomyologist, and as a favour to a total training newbie (me), BBB offered to lend me an expert hand to help me identify and address any structural imbalances and weaknesses I may have before I embark on my long road of adding muscle.

So on Saturday (23rd May)I went to Wales to pay him a visit, and to find out how many problems I actually have!

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My day started with me waking up at 4:15am feeling like death, but it wasn’t anything that a Spike tab couldn’t fix. After getting myself ready with a bag packed and a breakfast shake in me, I left my house at 5:25am making my way to Paddington Station to catch my 7am train.

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On my way to Wales I was very observant, probably due to the Spike. It’s amazing how many people you see eating absolute crap in the morning. No wonder everyone’s Obese!

I ended up getting to Wales at 10:30, and met BBB in the station car park. I was sure to wear a bright red T-Nation shirt for easy identification; of course you can’t miss Bushy, because he’s a bloody big guy! We went straight off to the gym from there, nice enough place on an industrial estate, with a cute girl behind the counter (sorry guys, no picture).

BBB then proceeded to go through his assessments, starting at the toes and working upwards, testing everything for ROM, flexibility, and to see if the muscles are firing correctly and in order. Here’s a few of the things he had a look at;

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The Tests

1/ ROM and flexibility of all limbs. Starting at the toes and working up to the nexk and everything in between.

2/ The internal and external rotation of all limbs. Starting at the legs, then spinal rotation, the neck and finally the shoulders.

3/ Tests were also done on individual muscles, the Psoas, Glutes, IT Bands, Spinal Erectors to make sure they were all firing correctly, as well as checking limb length.

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During these tests, I found out a lot about myself and the human anatomy in general. I found out that all of my lower body has problems, big and small, everything from my toes, all the way up to my spinal erectors. And my upper body is pretty much A OK. The only problem I have is my Pec Minor being really tight on the right side which is pulling my right shoulder slightly more forward then the left one.

I also found out that I have really tight quads which are leading to poor knee flexing, and I have IT Bands which are, in BBBs words, “as tight and thick as steel cables”. There was a big smile about to break across my face, until he told me it was a bad thing!

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We also looked at my squats and lunges, focusing on form, depth and technique, to check if my if my technique was a direct cause to any of my problems. My squat form wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad either. We also went over some of the more simple exercises that I could do to help correct some of my issues.

My lunge technique turned out to be pretty crap, but that was due to a combination of things. Firstly I have limited extension of my great toe on both sides, which is leading to poor toe extension on both sides, which means when I lunge, my back foot balance is on my toes instead of the ball of my foot. Because this is a bony issue, it’s not something I can fix, though now that I am aware of it, I can train around it.

I also have one femur (right) longer then the other, but oddly, that leg actually feels the shorter out of the two, which is leading to over activity in my left glute med and min, and is a major contribution to the imbalance that I have. This issue is partly because I have a very flat arch on my right foot, which causes the foot to pronate, my right tibia to internally rotate and hence my my right leg to be ‘functionally shorter’ then my left.

Having one leg that does not support my pelvis as much as the other causes various biomechanical issues. The lateral stabilisers of the pelvis are imbalanced and overworked.

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So in short, my upper body is totally fine, apart from one small issue. But my lower body is totally fucked up! Everything is either tight, has poor flexibility, poor rotation, isn’t firing correctly (in order), or isn’t firing at all (erectors). So now when people call me a tight ass, I can say, “I know, my Osteomyologist told me!”.

What I Learnt!

This was a real eye opening experience for me. I learnt a hell of a lot on this trip. It doesn’t matter how big you are, how strong you are, or how good you look in the mirror (just to clarify, I’m none of these at the moment), there is a high probability that you have one or more major problems, and possibly a few smaller ones as well.

And if you continue to train the way you do and fail to address your structural problems, chances are you’ll just make them worse, and that isn’t good!

So you may be big, you may be strong, and you may have Hawt Abz for the Summer, but will any of that shit matter in 15-20 years when you’ll need a walking stick just to get to the end of the driveway?!

I thought not!

So T-Nation members, hopefully you’ll take my word for it when I tell you that you should make an appointment to see a “Body Specialist” ASAP, and it’ll probably be a lot better if you can find one who is either experienced in, or has an open mind towards body building / weight lifting, so they don’t tell you to stop lifting.

Stay safe!

London Runner.

Did he give you a timetable on how long it will take to correct them? Also will you eventually be able to maintain the corrective excercises on your own afterwards.Good post.

Nice thread. Are you being molested in the last picture? :slight_smile:

[quote]bond james bond wrote:
Did he give you a timetable on how long it will take to correct them? Also will you eventually be able to maintain the corrective exercises on your own afterwards. Good post.[/quote]

Not as yet. I only saw him on Saturday and it’s also a Bank Holiday weekend with great weather, plus I did have a lot wrong with me, so it could take a while to do the write up.

I’m not sure on the time frame of sorting it all out, but I’m sure when I go back to see him in the future, he’ll be able to tell me how much progress I’m making.

Like I said, I’m glad I got it done, otherwise I would have continued to do exactly the same things in the gym, and make everything worse without even knowing it.

LR

Cool article/post. I need to see someone for sure but I don’t really know who to see or what to look for in the person I’m going to see… Could you or BBB enlighten me on this.

Thanks
Scott

[quote]thosebananas wrote:
Cool article/post. I need to see someone for sure but I don’t really know who to see or what to look for in the person I’m going to see… Could you or BBB enlighten me on this.

Thanks
Scott[/quote]

Thanks mate.

Like I said towards the end of the post, and one of the things that I think is most important, is make sure your Chiropractor or Osteomyologist has experience when it comes to lifting weights, or at least is open minded towards it.

The last thing you want is some Cardio bunny telling you that you should stop lifting weights, it’s bad for you health, BLAH BLAH BLAH!

When you see someone with training experience, like BBB, he’ll be able to look at the exercises you do, you form, and assess which are helpful or a hindrance towards your own biomechanical movement.

One example I can give you, is from one of my assessments;

I always thought I was getting a good workout in my erectors when dead lifting and doing good mornings etc… but when we had a look at this, Bushy told me that my erectors aren’t firing at all, and it’s actually my QLs have become overactive and dominant over the erectors.

If I never went to see him, there’s no way I could have ever found that out by myself, and would have continued to do everything wrong. But this way, he showed me some activation drills for the erectors on a swiss ball, which should get them firing again the way they shhould.

So if the person “body specialist” you go and see doesn’t know jack shit about weight lifting then there a chance they’ll give you advice that doesn’t really fit in or go hand in hand with your resistance training.

LR

What sort of degrees/letters after their name etc should i look for, what is considered best?

Scott

cool man. thanks for posting.

what are some of the exercises, stretches, what-have-you that you are doing as a result of this new knowledge?

Sounds like a great trip. If you, or BBB, don’t mind me asking, where in Wales in he located?

I have been wanting to get thoroughly checked out for ages, and having someone who is so into training like BBB to go to would be awesome.

you know what sucks about flexibility problems?

theres only lame ways to fix them.

I want my gym to have less trainers and more Osteomyologists on staff.

My body is an absolute mess, I could really use something like this. Always wanted to visit Wales, I’d be looking at winter time.

I’m very happy things are working out for you, BBB. Cool mini-article, too!

[quote]thosebananas wrote:
What sort of degrees/letters after their name etc should i look for, what is considered best?

Scott[/quote]

Maybe BBB can help you out with that one.

LR

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
you know what sucks about flexibility problems?

theres only lame ways to fix them.[/quote]

Really? They may seem lame, but it’s better then a hip replacement or spinal surgery in 20 years time.

LR

[quote]trextacy wrote:
cool man. thanks for posting.

what are some of the exercises, stretches, what-have-you that you are doing as a result of this new knowledge?[/quote]

I haven’t actually started a full rehab type program yet, but I will be starting soon.

But things I implemented yesterday at the gym were, Erector activation drills, an exercise for the QLs that BBB showed me, and also have incorporated a lot more stretching (especially for the soleus, quads, hamstrings and pec minors).

I also did some single leg extensions after front squats and some seated calf work with a DB resting on my knee (don’t have seated calf machine @ my gym), I might have to change these a little though, maybe rest my toes on a plank of wood or something so I have a stretch in the negative portion of the exercise.

That’s all I’ve incorporated at the moment, but there’ll be a lot more.

LR

Awesome!

BBB is one of the coolest guys on this board - always helpful.

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
It was very kind of you to write such a flattering article, LR, thanks.

BBB[/quote]

No worries man, it was fun for me to write on the train ride home. And it was also my intention to share my experiences with other members, just in case they may have some imbalances that they don’t know about and need to fix.

LR

Cool thread. Maybe T-Nation could do an article on BBB. Helps out everyone and knows damn near everything. Pisses me off actually :wink: