I’m sure the title of this post got your attention. I just saw this awesome video hosted by Tedx by Mel Robbins. Her presentation is called F— YOU – How To Stop Screwing Yourself Over and is perfect for everybody. Coaches, parents, athletes, loved ones, business executives, married couples, you name it.
Do yourself a favor and take 20 minutes out of your schedule to make yourself a little better and open your eyes to how you can get what you want. I’m sending this to all my athletes as it always helps when they hear the same message that I preach from another voice.
Enjoy.
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This morning I dropped a container of blueberries and they fell all over the kitchen floor. At this point I could have one of two things…gotten pissed off at the fact that I had to take the time to clean up the mess or laughed at my clumsiness and picked up the blueberries. I initially started to get frustrated and then realized that it wasn’t wasting the time or energy getting upset at such a miniscule thing.
I think this was a simple lesson that so many of us as coaches and athletes make day in an day out. We get upset and mad at a little thing that we couldn’t do or upset at an athlete for a mistake that they made. I’m all about doing little thing right and holding yourself and athletes accountable for doing little things, but I think we have to put things in context as every situation depends. If an athlete is making a mistake for a lack of effort, I will probably get upset and tell the athlete what they need to do and how their lack of effort isn’t going to help them succeed. But if they make a mistake but they are working hard, you have to realize that it’s not worth getting really upset over. Tell them what they did wrong, correct it and praise their effort. Too many coaches lose sight of the big picture and get upset over every mistake. If you scream and yell at every single issue that comes up then athletes will soon tune it out and when you really need to make a point about something it will go in one ear and out the other. If you don’t correct these things they will come back to haunt you, but realize that every mistake isn’t intentional and isn’t the end of the world. It will be better for your health, sanity and your athletes will respect you as well.
My good friend and strength coach at Wisconsin, Ray Eady, sent me this video yesterday and it got me thinking a lot about mobility and how training has changed over the years. Do yourself a favor and watch the video first before continuing to read on.
That was pretty impressive stuff and goes to show you what the human body is capable of doing in terms of mobility and stability. If you don’t know, mobility is the quality of moving freely…the key word is MOVING! It is not static flexibility (length of a muscle), but rather relies on the CNS to control how much movement is available at each joint. Stability is the ability to control movement…it does not mean, no movement, but rather controlling motion.
Breakdancing was extremely big in the late 70′s and throughout the 80′s and goes to show you what the human body can do….or could do at that time. You don’t see breakdancing as much as you used to back then and could it be attributed to the sedentary nature of our lives these days???
I’ve been a strength and conditioning coach at the Division I level for about 12 years now and know for a fact that my programming has changed over that time. Most of it has changed to structure in more mobility work and emphasize corrective exercise – not only because I’ve learned more about it over time, but because simply our athletes these days NEED it to handle the demands that are placed upon them by the requirements of their sport. They need it to play but also to be healthy even when they’re playing days are done.
What exactly is corrective exercise?
As some love it, and some frown upon it. Corrective exercise simply is exercise that is designed to restore and improve in-efficient movement patterns. It can be drill that you do in your warmup or between sets of your heavier movements. It can be things you do on a recovery day or things that you prescribe as “extra work”, but the goal is the same; we should be looking to improve movement and the quality of it.
How do we know if a movement pattern is in-efficient?
We assess and watch our athletes and clients move. We as fitness professionals should have an understanding of what ideal biomechanics are – not everybody is going to be the same, but we should have a fundamental understanding of what’s good vs. bad. Pain is another sign of somebody possibly having a movement dysfunction. Assessments such as the FMS, or drills from Assess & Correct, gives us a reference point to where somebody is initially before training them. If we don’t know where we are, how can we know where we are going or how we are going to get there? Assessing is part of the testing protocol along with performance based testing such as power, strength, and conditioning.
Mobility and adhering to the Joint By Joint approach has become a bigger part of my programs and every year I see new freshman come into our program, it re-affirms the changes that I have put into my programs. We emphasize it in our pre-work before our warmups, in our warmups, in between sets of speed and power work and in between sets of our strength work. There are a number of methods that we will use as well: soft tissue work using lacrosse balls, sticks, cobblestone mats and foam rollers, dynamic flexibility, band work, isolated mobility, integrated mobility, isometrics, PNF techniques, and full range of motion resistance training.
As our society has changed and the athletes we see may have different issues that impair their quality of movement, we as fitness professionals have to address these issues to help prepare them to be successful in sport and life.
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This post is long overdue. The season has been extremely busy but finals just ended and hockey will have a bit of a break until after Christmas while each hoops team still has a game this week. The last couple weeks were filled with lots of games, workouts and preparing for the end of the semester. I haven’t been able to sit down and really digest a good book, but what I try to do is read some articles and one very good one is Why Shoes Make Normal Gait Impossible? This is a very good read about the effect that shoes has on the human body. This goes along with another great read by a good friend of mine, Art Horne, who put out a book on barefoot training, entitled Barefoot in Boston.
I also just picked up a copy of an outstanding book regarding gait from Dr. Thomas Michaud, called Human Locomotion. I’m excited to delve into this one as the topics in the table of contents really jump out at me. Dr. Michaud has published numerous book chapters and journal articles on a variety of subjects ranging from biomechanics of the first metatarsophalangeal joint and shoulder, to the pathomechanics and management of vertebral artery dissection. In 1993, Williams and Wilkins published Dr. Michaud’s first textbook, Foot Orthoses and Other Forms of Conservative Foot Care, which was eventually translated into four languages and continues to be used in physical therapy, chiropractic, pedorthic, and podiatry schools around the world. In addition to lecturing on clinical biomechanics internationally, Dr. Michaud has served on the editorial review boards for Chiropractic Sports Medicine and The Australasian Journal of Podiatric Medicine. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Michaud has maintained a busy private practice in Newton, Massachusetts, where he has treated thousands of elite and recreational runners.
Dr. Michaud is offering the book at the student price, which is $20 off the regular price of $100. That’s a great deal for a book that covers many gait related issues that plague so many athletes. You can pick up a copy at www.HumanLocomotion.org, when you click on “The book”, be sure to click the link asking for student pricing. I put the synopsis of the book that is on the back cover below if you want to find more info about the book.
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In the course of a year, more than 1.9 million runners will fracture at least one bone and approximately 50% will suffer some form of overuse injury that prevents them from running. Despite the widespread prevalence of gait-related injuries, the majority of health care practitioners continue to rely on outdated and ineffective treatment protocols emphasizing passive interventions, such as anti-inflammatory medications and rest.
With more than 1000 references and 530 illustrations, Dr. Michaud’s text on human locomotion presents a logical approach to the examination, assessment, treatment and prevention of gait-related injuries. Beginning with a complete review of the evolution of bipedality, this textbook goes on to describe the functional anatomy of each joint in the lower extremity, pelvis, and spine. This information is then related to normal and abnormal motions during the gait cycle, providing the most comprehensive description of human locomotion ever published.
Human Locomotion also discusses a wide range of conservative interventions, including a detailed guide to manual therapies, a complete review of every aspect of orthotic intervention, along with illustrated explanations of hundreds of rehabilitative stretches and exercises. The final chapter summarizes state-of-the-art, proven conservative treatment interventions, providing specific protocols for dozens of common gait-related injuries, including Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures and hamstring strains. Whether you are a chiropractor, physical therapist, pedorthist or podiatrist, this text provides practical information that will change the way you practice.
Here is a review of Charlie Weingroff’s Training=Rehab, Rehab=Training DVD set by up and coming strength and conditioning coach, Cheri Pearce. Cheri interned for me last spring, and then spent the past summer interning at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning. She came back as a volunteer this fall and is heading off to intern at Cressey Performance in January. She has been extremely busy but found time to review this DVD set that I can’t recommend enough. If you haven’t picked up this set yet, you are missing out. I’ll have a link after the review on where you can pick up a copy.
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At first glance of Charlie Weingroff’s DVD set I thought it was going to be beyond my scope of knowledge. Never judge a DVD by its cover. The first 10-15 minutes are Charlie in a nutshell. He is a WWE fan, Golf expert, fantasy sports participant and Green Lantern fanatic. He is human ladies and gentlemen, not just some ridiculously smart Physical Therapist/Strength and Conditioning Coach. He gives props to his influences such as, Gray Cook, Vladimir Janda, Shirley Sahrmann and Mike Boyle as the basis for his current philosophies on rehabilitation and training.
One point Weingroff makes clear, that no matter what field you presently reside, basic principles for the human body remain the same. This is why he is actively trying to bridge the gap of between the doctor, physical therapist and strength coach. He believes that each professional plays an integral part in the steps back to performance and encourages you to surround yourself with colleagues of similar conceptual belief systems.
Furthermore, Weingroff is not your typical boring classroom teacher. He is animated, passionate and accessible. His personality draws you in and keeps you wanting more. I found myself looking up articles he was referencing because I want to know what he knows. As I watched the lecture and practical based DVDs I was nodding in agreement with his ideas simply because they made sense. He easily explains difficult concepts in a way any one can understand. What I admire most about Charlie Weingroff, while his opinions are his own he will distinctly define what is fact and how he arrived at that conclusion because he has the knowledge to back it up. He truly wants you to be a better trainer, coach or therapist and that comes through on the DVDs.
Cheri
This post has been a long time coming as I see too many people in the industry lacking critical thinking skills when it comes to training, rehab, and ultimately making our athletes and clients better. We shouldn’t be sheep and follow blindly what others are preaching and teaching us. We need to think critically to take the information that we learn at seminars, through reading (online and books), and speaking to other professionals to really try to understand how principles are implemented and how it fits into your philosophy and your system. We shouldn’t blindly copy what others do if we don’t understand the message/principle and how it is applied to each coach’s own individual situation.
Critical thinking skills aren’t being developed in our young professionals and we need to emphasize teaching our assistants, volunteers, interns, co-workers and students how to apply principles and develop a system of training. If principles are understood than creativity will be your only limiting factor…often times exercises are seen without the understanding of how they ultimately fit into the entire program. Don’t blindly copy others without understanding the true meaning. Seek first to understand and then decide if the new exercise(s) can fit into your system, philosophy, facility and if it will fit with your athletes.
Hopefully we here at SBCC allow you to think critically and make you think about what you do, why you do it and how and when you might be able to implement some of the ideas we share with you into your programs.
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My good friend and one of the best Strength & Conditioning Coaches in the industry, Eric
Cressey and I go way back. We were at UCONN together for grad school and I like to think that I helped him get really into strength and conditioning when he came to volunteer in the varsity weight room. He’s someone who’s been great to bounce things off of and learn from and he just put together an awesome video detailing why you’re not:
:: Getting Stronger
:: Getting Leaner
:: Adding Muscle
:: Becoming More Athletic
You can check it out here:
Eric is one of the most respected coaches in the world and works with over 70 professional athletes, including Major League All-Stars. He also is a regular contributor to Men’s Health, has been featured in ESPN and Yahoo Sports, has written/created
best-selling books and DVDs, and is one of the world’s most sought-after experts on performance training.
With many of Eric’s clients having millions of dollars on the line based on their performance and him only having a few months each year to maximize their results, he’s made a science of studying what holds people back from getting stronger, leaner and more athletic in a hurry…and he’s found one limiting factor that is the difference between a training program’s failure and success 99% of the time…and he share it on this video:
If you want to get more out of your training, there may be no more important video that you will ever watch than this one:
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I recently did an audio interview with Kyle Newell over at www.newellstrength.com which has some really good training information along with some other interviews from other prominent coaches.
Check it out here and just scroll down the page or you can download it here.
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This past week, I had the pleasure of reviewing Craig Liebenson’s new 3 DVDs. These are a precursor to his Functional Training Handbook that will be coming out in early 2012. The book is a must have as the line-up of co-authors is out of this world. I had the privilege of being asked to contribute to this book and was floored by the request. I’m very excited to be able to take a look at the final product when it comes out.
Back to the DVDs…Dr. Liebenson is one of the leading specialists when it comes to back pain and resolving this troublesome issue that so many people experience. He has been published on numerous occasions as well as being asked to speak at a number of worldwide events. He has a great blog that you can follow here.
His new DVDs are Core Stability Training DVD, Flexibility, Yoga Training and Ergonomic Postural Advice DVD, and Functional Performance DVD. These 3 are quite different but similar at the same time. All three give you insight in Dr. Liebenson’s thought process when it comes to restoring health, improving flexibility, improving posture and improving performance. The exercises that Dr. Liebenson shows cover everything from breathing assessments, to core stability training and even plyometric training. The progressions are well thought out and give the viewer exercises that they can include into their current clients and athletes programs immediately. The best part of this DVD set is that Dr. Liebenson just doesn’t show you the exercises, but common errors, what to look for and teaches you why they should not be left out in your programs.
I recommend these to any athletic trainer, physical therapist, strength and conditioning coach and personal trainer looking to give those that they work with every opportunity to become better.
You can pick them up at the following links:
Functional Performance Training DVD
Flexibility, Yoga Training, and Ergonomic Postural Advice DVD
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