As I mentioned last week, Saturday night my girlfriend and I had some major plans. No, we didn’t have reservations at some swanky Italian restaurant in the North End. Nope, it was all about STAR WARS IN CONCERT BABY!!!! While most girlfriends would bemoan the idea of hanging out with Star Wars geeks for an entire night, she rose to the occasion, and this is what I walked into when I arrived at her apartment to pick her up:
How awesome is that!?!
We met Steph HB and her family for some grub beforehand at Boston Beer Works, and I promptly got dominated by her son, Drew, in Star Wars trivia. However, I totally redeemed myself when he challenged me to see who could finish their dinner faster. I never lose to a ten year old, twice.
After dinner, we walked five minutes to the venue (TD Bank North Garden, where the Celtics and Bruins play), and were able to walk around a bit to see the exhibits on display. As you can imagine, I was in nerd heaven. Here’s a picture I took of Darth Vader:
And here’s Lisa and I next to Chloe Kardashian Chewbecca:
Needless to say, it was an awesome night all-around. The show itself was spectacular. It goes without saying that I cried like a 13 year old girl at a Jonas Brothers concert when the opening credits started. What’s more, Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in all the movies, was there in person narrating the entire show. If I weren’t in the nosebleed section, I would have ripped the man’s clothes off (no homo).
Unfortunately the show ended, and as we walked back to the subway to head home, Lisa received at least five comments about her hair. The Force is strong with this one it is.
2. We had an amazing turn out for Eric Cressey and Mike Reinold’s Testing, Treating, and Training the Shoulder: From Assessment to Performance seminar yesterday in Hudson, MA. I won’t go into too much detail about what they covered since they’re going to be releasing a dvd of the entire seminar in a few weeks, but needless to say it was an awesome day of learning:
- Assessing one’s breathing patterns could very well be the next frontier with regards to treating shoulder dysfunction. While there’s certainly a plethora of possible scenarios that could be the culprit for one’s shoulder pain; namely thoracic spine mobility, lack of scapular stability, rotator cuff weakness, acromion type, poor exercise selection, poor exercise technique, and hip mobility (to name a few), breathing patterns are just now starting to get a lot more attention.
- Oftentimes it’s the simple stuff that works the best. While many PT’s and athletic trainers like to use fancy equipment and machinery to treat their patients, Mike mentioned that the side lying external rotation is about as money as it gets when dealing with rotator cuff weakness- done properly of course.
- No one can understand what the hell anyone from Ireland is saying. Just kidding Robbie……;o)
- Rhythmic stabilizations, whether by manual resistance or using a small weighed ball (or even a body blade) are the shitznit when it comes to improving instability issues.
- Most people don’t know how to do a push-up correctly. Furthermore, Eric alluded to the fact that he’d much rather load a push-up with external loading than rush someone back to benching. Anyone who doesn’t think you can get a training effect from loaded push-ups, is kidding themselves.
- According to Roger, Rosemary (our resident chef) makes the best chicken he’s ever eaten outside of KFC. I guess that’s a compliment, right?
3. Speaking of assessments, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks Assess and Correct is now available.
I’m a firm believer that everything is an assessment. Someone comes to me with back pain, something as simple as observing how they sit up could be an assessment. Along similar lines, whenever I work with mothers who complain of low back/hip pain, I always ask which side they tend to carry their children on. More often than not, the side that bothers them the most is the same side they predominately hoist/carry their kids. Everything is an assessment.
It often amazes me that fitness professionals are so “inconsistent” when it comes to assessments. On one hand of the spectrum you have those trainers who spend three days assessing someone because their left big toe pronates three degrees. Conversely, you have those who don’t do anything other than show a client how to use the Cybex circuit. Sadly, the latter is usually what ends up happening.
Suffice it to say, the assessment is kind of a big deal. It’s what we use to ascertain what each individual needs with regards to any dysfunctions, imbalances, or postural issues that need to be dealt with. Furthermore, it essentially lays the foundation for all future programming FOR THAT PARTICULAR PERSON. Just like a snowflake, there is no one individual who is the same. And holy shit, that was the lamest analogy I have ever used, but I’m rolling with it.
If you’re a fitness professional, or just someone who’s beat up all the time, Assess and Correct will undoubtedly be a welcome addition to your library. Check it out HERE. Lets be honest, Eric, Mike, and Bill are smarter than God, NASA, and Sarah Palin……combined. You can’t go wrong.
4. EPIC fail of the week: thanks to Tom for the photo.
UPDATE: Wow, that’s the last time I post a blog without proofreading it first. I just came home and re-read what I wrote and found like seven errors. Where’s the grammar Nazi when you need her? Dammit mom,
