Day 64 - Let's Break It Down

The Results are In...

And to my surprise, they don't look as bad as I expected.

Let's start at the beginning of the list and work through the findings.

Countermovement Jump

Always performed with hands on the hips to take out any assistance from the upper half.

Jump Height - 51.1 cm (Okay)
RSImod - 0.81 (Okay)
Contraction Time - 627ms (Would like to see this lower)
Vertical Velocity at Takeoff - 3.08m/s (Pretty Decent)
Concentric Impulse Asymmetry - 0.5% (Good)
Eccentric Impulse Asymmetry - ~10% Favoring the Left Leg (Not Great)

Overall this was a pretty decent jump evaluation. The main stand out was my eccentric braking issues, both the asymmetry as well as it effecting my RSI.

Single Leg Countermovement Jump

Same thing here, hands on the hips. Here are the results:

Jump Height - L 23.4, R 24.3
Concentric Impulse - L 179, R 183
Eccentric Braking Impulse - L 43, R 40
Peak Landing Force - L 2960, R 2890

This matches up fairly well with the only thing getting a bit out of whack being the eccentric braking impulse. I could definitely tell this was an issue during my trials.

The Running Specific Isos

Run-Specific Ankle Iso-Push

Peak Vertical Force - L 1811, R 1861
Absolute Impulse at 100ms - L 126, R 107
Peak Vertical Force/BW - L 2.1, R 2.2

The peak vertical forces align, but again there is an obvious imbalance favoring my left leg when high-speed movement is needed. Also my peak vertical force/bw is low at 2.1, with minimum standards being 3.1-3.3, and elite track athletes measuring somewhere North of 4.0.

Run-Specific Knee Iso-Push

Peak Vertical Force - L 2348, R 2449
Absolute Impulse at 100ms - L 142, R 112
Peak Vertical Force/BW - L 2.8, R 2.9

The asymmetry and weakness strikes again here. When given time, the peak vertical forces match up here, but when asked to create forces quickly, I fail to be balanced. The peak vertical force/BW also comes up short again, with my assessment values falling far short of the 4.2-4.4 standard, and even further away from the elite track athlete measures above 5.5.

Run-Specific Hip Iso-Push

Peak Vertical Force - L 595, R 619
Absolute Impulse at 100ms - L 35, R 26
Peak Vertical Force/BW - L 0.7, R 0.7

Okay, so to say we have a pattern would be underselling it. Asymmetry? Check. Weakness in comparison to the standards? Check! I am falling well short of the standards of 2.2-2.5 and over 3, respectively, here.

These three tests have been eye-opening to say the least.

Nordic Hamstring

The nordic hamstring is something that is much more familiar to people. For those not familiar with it, a quick YouTube search should be able to provide a good example of the exercise. To simplify it, the assessment measures your hamstring strength. I am doing 3 repetitions on this.

Max Force - L 442, R 381
Torque - L 165, R 142
Average Force - L 399, R 350

Asymmetry, you there? Yep. It looks like Nordbord agrees with the other assessments. Not much more I need to spend time on here...

Hop Test

The hop test is performed by hopping with a maximum height and minimal ground contact time, using only the toes and forefoot. This is a measure of your ability to create stiffness in the lower leg and use your elasticity.

Mean RSI (Height/Contact Time) - 1.34
Mean Peak Force - 5095
Mean Active Stiffness - 9.5% favoring the Right
Mean Time to Peak Force - 10.6% favoring the Right
Average Force Fatigue - 42.8% on the Left
Average Stiffness Fatigue - 28.5% on the Left

So this was another eye-opener. While the overall stiffness and time to peak force was just higher than I would like, the fatigue measures are off the charts. This is speaking towards the soreness and issues that I am having in my left soleus. I need to work on this for sure.

Wrapping This Up

While I could hit the Ochy run breakdown today I am going to leave it until tomorrow so I can go more in depth without losing everyone. This testing protocol has been a good start to developing a more specific training program as I work towards becoming a triathlete. I will be moving a significant amount of programming towards single-leg training, sending much of it towards hip extension work, then addressing my lower leg issues that have been bugging me.

Until tomorrow friends...