What Medical Students Can Learn from Strength and Conditioning Coaches and PT's, Part III

I initially wanted to finish up my series on the rotator cuff, but I've instead decided to instead write about the way "strength" people approach life. This is due to events earlier, in which it was confirmed that I achieved the distinction for Surgery, making it 2 postings in a row for final year. Despite the undeniable joy (I did shed a tear), it was hard to be happy knowing that there were a few friends who failed the last block.

So for this blog post I'll talk about what we can learn from these strength athletes etc as regards to their approach to life.

Among the most dedicated people in the world with the highest most levels of patience and perseverence are the powerlifters. I mentioned it earlier in Facebook and I'll say what I typed again, as it literally visualises how powerlifters approach lifting - the pursuit never stops, and setbacks are never a hindrance:

"Live like a powerlifter. Break a personal record, break a division record: you don't stop training to break further PR's. No complacency. You get injured, you bomb in competition, you stagnate or regress in training: it still doesn't matter. You dust yourself off, reanalyze, and go back to working your ass off to break your PR's. Fix your weakneses, train around injuries, whatever it takes to keep on breaking PR's."

Powerlifters are never satisfied, due to an insatiable desire to lift heavier and heavier. It doesn't matter whether they are among the best or among the weakest; since their no 1 competitor is themselves, there is never a lack of motivation.

Powerlifters are also among the people who have the highest amount of determination. The smart powerlifters train around pain; the most determined among them train right through it, regardless of whether it's the wrong or right thing to do. There are powerlifters who deadlift 250 kg's of weight after a consistent 4 hours at most of sleep, due to having not just handling a day job, but also to take care of children as a single father. Day in and day out, never missing a training session. And of course, despite nagging back pain, hip pain, whatever pain.

We medical students should be the same. Never stopping to improve ourselves after getting high achievements. Never stopping to improve after a setback. There is no complacency, and no giving up. There's no being a pussy.

And how about the bodybuilders, who are frowned upon as drug-assisted narcissistic gay shameless bastards? Of course, we're talking about the serious ones, not the ones you see at the gym "playing around" without direction every day, ending up looking as if they never did touch weights.

Bodybuilders are the ones to look for inspiration when you want to learn discipline.

Bodybuilders are known to calculate and record everything: training, diet, whatever. Their training is carefully monitored to ensure that their body is in symmetry. Their diet is made up of carefully selected portions, to be eaten at exact times, to provide them with just enough proportions of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. They examine if their diet conforms to their protein:body weight requirements. Which is different for different days.

All this is done while suffering hunger pangs and irritability. All in the name of getting shredded down to 2-4% body fat contest time. Need an idea how much fat there is on their bodies during contest time? Try pinching the skin over your knuckles. That's how thin their skin is everywhere on their bodies contest time. It requires 100% discipline to achieve it. And 100% discipline to make sure that during off season, their body fat doesn't rise too high, so that it is never too hard to achieve the same level of leanness during competition season.

And this fact is the same regardless of whether the bodybuilder is natural or drug-assisted.

How disciplined are we?

And how about their quest for knowledge?

Strength athletes are known to learn not from textbooks, but from their own knowledge. How do bodybuilders know the function of a particular muscle? It's by gauging their soreness after a particular exercise. That's how they know how to bring up a lagging body part.

For example, bodybuilders know that the lower part of the pec major is used in horizontal adduction, while the clavicular (upper) part is used in shoulder flexion, along with the anterior deltoids. Why? IT's because they know that regular benching enhances the lower pecs; doing normal benching only leads to what is known as triangle tits (when seen from the side). To enhance the upper pecs, bodybuilders employ incline benching to give the chest a full, well-rounded look.

There's no need for an EMG to examine the function of most of the functions of the skeletal muscles; bodybuilders study themselves to find out which exercises enhances most what muscles, allowing them to derive the function of a particular muscle. That's how they know the difference between the soleus and gastrocnemius, upper and lower pecs, the different range of actions between the 3 heads of the triceps, the difference between the brachioradialis and biceps. They learn from themselves.

Is it really any surprise that serious strength athletes understand the musculoskeletal anatomy more than medical students?

Powerlifters on the other hand, are the masters of human movement. They understand how the body moves as an integrated unit. Why? Again, it's because they study themselves. They understand how the increased strength of particular muscles can lead to high gains in terms of movement strength. They experiment on themselves to see strength gains.

How many of us medical students actually take the time to formulate the forest from the trees? Or improve the trees to get massive forest improvement? The fact that most of us suck in terms of problem-based approaches to patients certainly suggests that we're not very good at it.

And lastly, strength athletes are known to study medical (especially orthopedic) conditions to integrate into their knowledge. They are known to circumvent medical intervention and succeed. They are known to fix their own musculoskeletal problems without relying on the knowledge of doctors, of whom most only understand "ice it and rest it". Never understanding the underlying functional problem leading to the injury or even suggesting ways to fix it.

How many of us spend time learning something that is just not in our textbooks?