CategoriesAssessment Corrective Exercise Product Review

Stretch the Tight?

Note From TG: It’s July 4th. I’m in Maine. There’s no way I was writing a new post today, so I decided to repurpose the post below.

It coincides with Dean Somerset’s Ruthless Mobility, which is currently on sale at half-off the regular price. The sale ends TODAY.

Toodles! 

I started with a new client yesterday. As is the case every time I work with someone new I’ll sit down with him or her (in this case her) and attempt to get all the pertinent information I’ll need to help them achieve their goals and to write an effective training program. Things like injury history, what their training has looked like previously, training preferences, perceived barriers on what’s limited them in the past, favorite 80’s cartoon, you know, all the important stuff.

Please tell me someone out there remembers Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears!?!?! And please tell me someone else out there tried to make their own version of Gummiberry Juice (which, when drunk by humans, gave them superhuman strength) as a kid by combining Mountain Berry Punch Kool-Aid with actual gummy bears???

No? Hahahaha. Well, uh, me neither. That’s just stupid talk!  Yeah, that’s what it is……stupid.

So anyways, along with the brief Q&A I’ll also perform an extensive movement screen so I can gain a better understanding of how someone moves and whether or not they present with any distinct compensation patterns which may (or may not) be “feeding” into their dysfunction or pain.

Many people have been programmed to think that increased range of motion is good – and that the more we have of it, the better off we are.

Yes and no.

For those who are stuck starring at a computer for ten hours a day and have little to no amplitude (ROM) in their daily lives (and as a result have the movement quality of a hipster wearing a pair of jeans 3 sizes too small), working on improving their mobility would absolutely be a priority and help to improve performance in the gym and their quality of life.

For someone like the individual I was working with yesterday, however – who had plenty of ROM, to the point where she was borderline hypermobile, yet still was under the impression she had “tight” hips – going out of our way to “stretch the tight” and work on improving mobility could have more deleterious effects than good.

She came in with a history of left hip/ITB pain, and upon testing her hip internal range of motion on that side, it was limited.

Pretty strange for someone with plenty of laxity, right?

As is par for the course, she has spent years stretching her hip in hopes of improving her mobility in an effort to get better.

It hasn’t worked.  Yet, I was able to improve her hip IR by a good 10-15 degrees in a matter of 30 seconds without “stretching” her hip. It was priceless to see her reaction when it happened.

So, how did I do it?

I’m Gandalf, duh!

Okay, in all seriousness what I did was work on her REACTIVE STABILITY, which is a term that Dean Somerset has tossed around for a while now.

The Cliff Notes Version: the body will limit a movement into ranges of motion it deems to be either risky, pain producing, or “un-known.”

This is often referred to as PROTECTIVE TENSION, which is what the body creates to help support an injured area.

If I test someone’s hip IR and it’s limited I can’t just assume it’s due to shortness or stiffness of specific muscles. It can definitely be a factor and the main culprit for some people, but it’s something I feel far too many fitness professionals gravitate towards because of an archaic mindset or because it’s “what’s always been perceived as the problem.”

As many of you know Dean (Somerset) and I are good friends. If you ever hear a joke that starts with an American strength coach and a Canadian exercise physiologist walk into a bar……

…..it’s probably us.

He and I have done several workshops together and I’ve had the opportunity to see Dean perform his voodoo assessment stuff each and every time. And it never ceases to amaze me.

One of the best “party tricks” he’ll use in our workshops is exactly the protocol I described above. In short, what he’s found (and I can confirm) is that reduced hip internal rotation is often a symptom of something not working and the body will compensate by forcing surrounding musculature to chronically fire and “tense,” impairing ROM, and thus mobility.

To be more succinct:  lack of hip IR = reduced lateral stabilization.

Have someone do a (correct) side plank, have him or her focus on deep, forceful breathing and watch what happens.

Awesomesauce, right?

The side plank helps work on lateral stabilization, which in turn tells the over tensed muscles to chill out, improves reactive stability, which then in turn takes away the “perceived threat” and ROM improves.

It’s not a catch-all for everyone, but you’ll be surprised as to how often it works. I should also note that it’s not something that will stick long-term. Typically the increased ROM will last a few hours, maybe a day. But for something like this to last at least now we know that it’s not a situation where we’re going to tell someone to “just go stretch.” We need to work on improving (lateral) stabilization.

And this is the type of stuff that Dean covers in Ruthless Mobility.

To reiterate, there are PLENTY of people who need to work on improving their mobility in the traditional sense – mobility drills, stretching, etc – and Dean covers that in droves here. So whether you or some of your clients need to work on mobility in specific areas (t-spine, hips, etc), this resource provides a TON of options.

Dean’s not a small human being. He practices what he preaches, and it’s amazing to see how supple he is in his own right! Trust me: you’re going to be watching the videos and think to yourself, “is that Dean Somerset or Houdini?”

But of more value, and more germane to the point(s) I made above, Dean covers stuff that most fitness peeps gloss over or fail to understand altogether. And that’s why I wholeheartedly feel this is THE next “go to” resource on the topic.

Not only do you get 4-5 hours of brilliant content, but you also earn valuable CEUs to boot. So there’s that to consider as well.

Ruthless Mobility is currently on sale at a heavily discounted price, but the sale ends tonight (July 4th). Get on it people. You won’t be disappointed.

—> Ruthless Mobility <—

CategoriesAssessment coaching Corrective Exercise mobility

3 Unconventional Ways to Move Better

Counting today’s post, four out of my last five entries have had a number included in the title. That’s never happened before.

Wanna know what else I’ve never done?

  • Gotten a speeding ticket.
  • Tried calamari.
  • Deadlifted 2000 lbs.
  • Cried to the movie Notting Hill.1

Nevertheless, in conjunction with Dean Somerset putting his Ruthless Mobility resource I sale TODAY (through July 4th) I wanted to share a few thoughts on the topic (mobility/movement/general badassery) that maybe some of you reading would find useful or interesting or mildly captivating.

Captivating like this picture of a kangaroo punching someone in the face:

1. Anterior Pelvic Tilt Doesn’t Always Have to be Fixed, Nor Is It Bad. Everything Will Be Okay. Seriously.

New Client: “I’m so excited to work with you. I was told by my previous trainer I had anterior pelvic tilt.”

Me: “Okay, explain.”

New Client: “Well, I went in for my assessment and he told me I had anterior pelvic tilt and that it needed to be addressed and that he’d write me a program to fix it.”

Me: “I see. How long did you do the program for? And, was it fixed?”

New Client: “I worked with him for eight months, and I don’t know if it was fixed. All I know is that we did a metric shit-ton of stretching, corrective exercise, and very little strength training.”

Me: “Well, that’s unfortunate. Excuse me while I go toss my face into a brick wall.”

Okay, the brick wall comment didn’t really happen…but everything else stated above was said verbatim as I sat down with a new client recently.

Without going into the particulars I went on to state that roughly 7 billion other people in the world “suffer” from anterior pelvic tilt, and that it’s truly reached pandemic levels of clusterfuckedness.

In short: I explained that, aside from scenarios where excessive anterior pelvic tilt may be causing pain or movement dysfunction, having it was not a disease or a scenario which always required intervention.

In fact, APT is considered anatomically neutral. I.e., Your lumbar spine has a natural lordotic curve.

To quote Bret Contreras:

“Is APT abnormal?

No, it’s not. According to a published study by Herrington 2011, 85% of males and 75% of females presented with an anterior pelvic tilt, 6% of males and 7% of females with a posterior pelvic tilt, and 9% of males and 18% of females presented as neutral. Anterior pelvic tilt is also the most common postural adaptation in athletes according to Kritz and Cronin 2008, and it seems to naturally occur with athletes that do a lot of sprinting. Therefore, it’s actually normal for healthy individuals to possess APT, and the average angle of anterior pelvic tilt ranges from 6-18° depending on the study and methods used to determine the angle, with around 12° appearing as the norm (ex:Youdas et al. 1996, Youdas et al. 2000, Christie et al. 1995, Day et al. 1984).”

As I recall, there’s no definitive test or “screen” which can correlate “x-degrees” of APT and one’s vulnerability to pain and dysfunction.

Some people have APT and walk around in considerable pain, while others have APT (even excessive APT) and have no issues what-so-ever.

However, those coaches with an acute eye for assessment and movement can often use a plethora of screens and tests to ascertain whether or not APT may be something that’s needs to be addressed.

To reiterate, APT is not always wrong (or bad)…but it can be problematic once we start allowing ill-prepared people to load the pattern and not only that…begin to add repetitions and/or speed.

Often, it’s the LACK of ability (or our proclivity to refrain from) posteriorly tilting the pelvis when bad things start to happen.2

As Tony B mentions above: There’s a big difference between cueing someone to arch like crazy (and thus encouraging excessive APT, resulting in poor positioning and increased instability) and cueing someone to posteriorly tilt the pelvis to nudge them into a more neutral spinal position.

 

NOTE: As Mike Robertson notes in THIS article, there is no such thing as a bad cue. However, there does exist poor cues when they’re not applicable to the individual or are used haphazardly (because you heard someone else use it).

2. Thoracic Spine Endurance is Often Overlooked

A huge shout-out to Mike Reinold for hammering this point home in a recent Inner Circle I watched on How to Improve Thoracic Extension.

Mike noted that in order to improve t-spine extension it is important to work on mobility (Windmills, Bench T-Spine Mobilizations, Quadruped Extension-Rotations, etc), however we can’t dismiss the importance of ENDURANCE in order to maintain it.

 

Mike also noted that with regards to posture, “sitting upright is fictitious.” The amount of hours many of us spend in a flexed position far out-weigh the number or hours we’re upright. As such, keeping an upright posture is freakin exhausting.

My words, not his.

Building spinal endurance (not strength) is key here.

Don’t get me wrong: strength is (and always will be) important. A healthy dose of horizontal rowing (DB rows, seated rows, chest supported rows, Seal rows) is never a bad thing.

However, when we’re talking about our “posture muscles” – the muscles that need to be on all day in order to keep us upright – endurance is the name of the game.

3. Lack of ROM Isn’t Always Because You Need to Stretch More

The second someone is told that they lack range of motion (ROM) in any part of their body, they’re immediately shown 37 different stretches and ways to “smash” their tissue.

Many end up cranking this joint and yanking that joint till their blue in the face.

One of the more common examples I like to use here is lack of shoulder flexion (or ability to elevate the arms above one’s head).

Many people are unable to do so without some form of compensation via forward head posture, rib flair, and/or excessive lumbar extension. Picture on the left.

The fix can be any number of things: addressing lat length, fighting a zombie, poor anterior core control, poor tissue quality in the pecs/pec minor, you name it.

And none of those approaches would be wrong. Fighting zombies is awesome.

However, stretching tends to be the “go to” modality for many fitness professionals, and frankly it isn’t always the answer.

Oftentimes, taking the time to teach people to get 3D expansion of the rib cage with their breath (front, side, and into the back) and then learning to fully exhale (to get rib cage down and promote better engagement of anterior core) will help to “open up” the thorax.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tested someone’s shoulder flexion and saw an immediate 10-20 degree improvement after having them perform ten good breaths.

I call it my Gandalf moment.

Except, you know, I’m not a wizard.

Did Someone Say Gandalf?

For more insights on the topic and wizard-like shenanigans I’d recommend checking out Dean’s Ruthless Mobility.

You get FIVE hours of content (digital or DVD) from one of the smartest coaches I know on assessment, corrective exercise, and how to get people moving better.

What’s more, CEUs are available AND it’s on SALE at close to 50% off the regular price.

Go HERE and thank me later.

Categoriesmobility Program Design

5 Mobility Exercises You’ve Probably Never Done, But Should

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Dean Somerset, who’s excellent new resource, High Tensile Strength, is set to be unleashed today to the masses. It’s a 6-month, semi-custom based training program based on how you move, where you need to work the most, and what your specific goals may be. 

Even if you’re trying to be Jason Bourne. It’s that good.

Enjoy!

5 Mobility Exercises You’ve Probably Never Done, But Should

Mobility is a simple word with big implications.

In many circles, it determines whether you can progress from a basic exercise to a more advanced exercise. For instance, if you don’t have the ability to actively bring your arms over your head, the chances of doing a solid overhead squat or even overhead press without having some negative compensation through the spine become limited.

There’s also those who say mobility to a specific benchmark is needed to maintain health.

Things like squatting to the floor sound awesome and are a great way to show off for those who have the innate ability to do it, whereas those who might not have the anatomy to get there will be frustrated with their lot in life.

I’ve always viewed mobility a little differently and with a much less extreme “yes/no” kind of ideal:

“How much do you have versus how much do you use?”

Let’s say you can grab your knee and hug it to your chest, but when you have to do a squat you wind up looking like you’re more of a marionette puppet whose strings aren’t quite long enough.

Note From TG: or you can perform and nail this simple “deep squat” assessment from the floor (seen below). But, like Dean said, when you stand up and try to squat without assistance from the floor, you resemble a baby giraffe learning to walk.

 

This disconnect between where you could get to by hugging your knee to your chest and where you managed to get to when asked to squat means you may have to get some more control over your motion, and maybe not as much time spent doing static stretch or “muscle lengthening” exercises.

This doesn’t mean there’s no use for them, but that the use is not as well spent as others.

So in this vein, I wanted to showcase a few mobility drills that teach how to use a range of motion effectively, while also trying to use as much of it as possible. Some people will have anatomical structures that will allow massive excursions during these movements and some won’t. There isn’t a standard I would want anyone to work to in order to say they’re a sufficient exerciser or good person, but just use as much as you have, and work hard at using it.

Here’s a simple hint to make each of these exercises even more diabolically intense:

Whenever you get to the end of the range of motion, try to contract the muscles pulling it in that direction as hard as possible to try to coax a little more room out of each position. If you find a sticking point in the range, this would be a good point to try those max isometric tension developments.

#1: Rolling Cossacks

 

This movement works on getting some adductor stretch while also imparting some controlled rotation through internal and external rotation. Considering how overlooked adductors are to general health and function of the hips and knees, they can definitely stand having some direct work once in a while.

#2: Half Kneeling Elastic Thoracic Rotations

 

This is an active and vertical movement similar to the side lying thoracic rotation.

With most mobility drills, there should be a progression to coming off the floor into a more vertical position so that the usability of that mobility can be more applicable. This movement relies on core control to develop hip and thoracic spine rotation, plus some extension of the spine to accommodate the arm movement.

Try to reach the arm as high as possible and get the biceps as close to the ear as possible.

#3: Standing Hip Circles

 

These look deceptively simple, but can be massively challenging.

The key here is to make the movement come entirely from the hip socket doing the work. This means keeping the knees locked out and trying to not have any twisting from the hips, side leaning, or any deviation from neutral at all.

#4: 2-Step Kneeling Hip Stretch

 

This stretch focuses on developing tension into the hip flexors and glutes in reciprocal manner.

When in the half kneeling position, try to get the glute of the down leg to flex hard and drive into the hip flexor without letting the low back extend. When in the pigeon pose on top of the knee, try to drive the knee into the floor to get the glutes to respond to the stretch reflex more effectively. Don’t forget to breathe either.

#5: Shin Box

 

This is a solid way to start up a workout and work on improving hip internal and external rotation simultaneously.

It’s a simple movement with some excellent carry over into many of the activities you would want to include in your workout, and can be scaled down by simply putting your hands on the ground behind you, and scaled up by doing something like this:

 

You could even work into something like this if you’re feeling up for it:

 

High Tensile Strength

To see these exercises, as well as over 200 others in action, pick up Dean’s brand new product, High Tensile Strength.

High Tensile Strength

As noted above, it’s a 6-month training program that’s customizable based off a handful as self-assessments and it focuses on building strength, improving usable mobility, and making everyone feel like a million bucks.

Moreover, the workouts can be taken from the gym to the living room to the hotel room seamlessly, making it one of the most user-friendly and portable programs available.

In addition, and this is something I hope people can (and will) appreciate, Dean took 18 months to brainstorm, build, and hone this program before releasing it.

This isn’t some “quick money grab” project he wrote in 20 days. He put in a lot of work to make it right, and I think it’s his best to date. What’s more, the program is designed for both men AND women and it’s undoubtedly going to help a lot of people and provide a ton of direction in their training.

High Tensile Strength is on sale all this week at 50% off the regular price, and for a 6-month program is a steal!

For more information go HERE.

CategoriesUncategorized

Bridging the Gap Between Rehab and Strength and Conditioning

Dean Somerset is like Gandalf.

Except Dean doesn’t own a staff (I think), or fight dragons, have a Hobbit for a BFF, or have an affinity for taking long journeys towards mountains with ominous names.

In fact, Dean isn’t even a wizard!!  So what the hell? Why am I making the connection?

Dean’s a good friend of mine. In addition, as many of you know, he and I have collaborated on several projects together – Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body, and the Spinal Health and Core Training Seminar – in conjunction with our recent adventures traveling North America (and Europe) conducting our 2-day Excellent Workshop High Five workshop.

As an FYI: we’ll be back in DC next weekend (Oct. 17th), and we’ll also be making a cameo in LA this November.

For info on DC go HERE.

For info on LA go HERE.

Needless to say I’ve spend a lot of time around Dean in the past three or so years – both professionally and as buds.  Professionally speaking, I think it goes without saying we both run on parallel tracks with regards to our approach to training people. Why else would we collaborate on so many projects?

But this isn’t to say we agree on everything. We agree on a lot of stuff, but on the off-chance we don’t, we just settle it with a good ol’ fashioned knife fight.

Kidding.

This is where the comparison with Gandalf comes in.  Dean is smart.  Like, really smart. And I’d be lying if I said that some of the stuff that he’s able to accomplish with people in the gym isn’t short of wizardry.

No matter how many times I listen to him talk, even if it’s something I’ve heard him discuss 47 times, I still walk away dumbfounded with some new nugget of information. This is why I love working with him so much. He always makes me better and pushes me to think outside the box.

Too, he has an uncanny ability to take really complex topics – anatomy, fascial trains, movement assessment, nuclear fission, why it is it takes women F.O.R.E.V.E.R to get ready – and water it down so numbskulls like myself can understand.

He also has a gift for being able to dig deeper on certain topics and not resort to haphazard or arcane answers to people’s questions. He’s able to engage people in a way that’s understandable, relatable, and – not many people can do this – in a way that’s entertaining.

I don’t say all of this to blow sunshine up his ass (although, given that Dean lives in Edmonton and only sees two months of warm weather per year, he can use all the sunshine he can get), but rather just to reiterate that I have a ton of respect for him and the quality of the information he consistently puts out.

To that end, Dean has just put his flagship resource, Post Rehab Essentials 2.0, on sale this week to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.

This is an EXCELLENT resource for any personal trainer, coach, or fitness enthusiast looking to take his or her assessment and programming skills to the next level. Maybe more importantly, this is a resource that helps bridge the gap between the rehab world and strength and conditioning world.

To save face: This IS NOT something that encourages trainers to diagnose stuff and play physical therapist. There is a scope of practice that needs to be respected. But it does arm them with the tools necessary to assess and write effective, safe programs for the walking wounded, whether it be helping someone deal with lower back pain or programming around a bum shoulder or knee.

Many trainers get stymied or act like a deer in headlights once a client/athlete comes to them with an injury to work around. Post Rehab Essentials 2.o is a great tool to help prevent that from happening in the first place.

Here’s a little taste to wet your palette.  Once it hits your lips………..

—> Post Rehab Essentials 2.0 <—

CategoriesUncategorized

Edmonton Workshop: Dean and Tony’s Sequel (That Doesn’t Suck)

I hope everyone had a relaxing and well deserved Labor Day weekend.  The weather here in Boston was piss poor all weekend, so there wasn’t much that Lisa and I were able to do.  We did meet up with her old college volleyball team and ate dinner with her coach on Saturday night.  And some of you may recall on Facebook a few weekends ago I was asking for advice on bike buying tips.

Lisa’s new job is only 1.5 miles from our apartment, and it makes a lot of sense for her to start biking to and from work to help save time in the mornings.

We know as much about bikes as we both know about World of Warcraft.  If you ask me the only thing you need to know about buying a bike is which one makes you look the most jacked.  But needless to say there’s a bit more to it than that.

After test riding a few different brands, Lisa ended up really liking the Specialized Vita, and that’s exactly what she ended up getting.

This is her after I dropped her off at the bike store and she rode her brand spankin new bike home.

And as much as I’m sure everyone is thrilled to read about Lisa’s new bike – I mean come on, how good does she look? –  lets jump into more pertinent territory.

Namely:  Dean and Tony’s Traveling Fitness VooDoo Magic Time Roadshow

Or, to put it in non-five year old speak:  Dean Somerset and I doing a sequel to our Boston Workshop, but this time in his neck of the woods up in Edmonton.

AKA:  The Edmonton Workshop.

But unlike most sequels, which generally bite the big one (thanks Matrix Reloaded), this one won’t suck. I promise.

We’ll be covering the exact same material as we did in Boston; you know stuff on assessment, corrective exercise, breathing patterns, coaching the big lifts, and how to make an F-16 out of paper mache.  But I’m sure we’ll be adding a few smaller details to the mix.

For a full breakdown and tentative itinerary go HERE.

The Boston Workshop was a huge success (no one left early!), and many who attended were more than happy to offer their words of appreciation and praise:

“The workshop with Dean and Tony was fantastic. They mixed science with real life, in the gym, practical solutions. I feel like I’m better off after attending in all aspects of my ability to train others.”

– Ryan Andrews, Precision Nutrition Coach, author of Drop the Fact Act & Live Lean.

“This clinic was a home run!  I’m a trainer with a yearly budget for continuing ed. I’m glad I spent it here.  I signed up because I knew these guys would drop some knowledge bombs…. I wasn’t disappointed. Tony and Dean’s Excellent Workshop gave great insight on post-rehab exercise and how it can be used in conjunction with training, as well as hammering technique in the basic lifts. I’ll admit I went back to the drawing board to re-evaluate my training techniques.

These guys are tops in their field. I would recommend this seminar to any beginner level trainers /strength coaches, right on up to advanced.  It will separate you from the pack.

Thanks Guys!”

– Clark Evans, Boston based trainer.

“Dean and Tony are not only two of the brightest guys in the field, and they’re also two of the most entertaining.  Newer trainers will get brought up to speed on progressive training strategies and take away hands-on coaching techniques.  More experienced coaches will benefit from Tony and Dean’s refined understanding of more complicated concepts.  The only part that was weird was at the end when they made everyone do a group hug for 10 minutes, but after they explained it was really a “mind meld,” we all understood.  Don’t miss this seminar!”

– Mark Fisher, co-owner of Mark Fisher Fitness, NYC

We want this to be a one of a kind learning opportunity for those in attendance.We’ll do our best to cover the stuff YOU want to learn about, and want to spend less time talking and more time doing. As coaches ourselves, we both feel more comfortable on a training floor with people working their tails off. We want to give you that same kind of experience.

As such, we will also limit registrations to a max of 30 people in order to keep it as intimate and give you as much face time with Dean and Tony as possible. This will also allow us to give more individual instruction on coaching specific movements, spotting corrective strategies to implement, and answer questions efficiently.

The whole shindig is going down the weekend of October 19th and 20th at World Health City Centre in Edmonton.  It’s the weekend AFTER Canadian Thanksgiving, and the weekend before it starts getting cold as balls.

So you really have no excuse not to attend,

For more information and to sign up, please follow the link below:

—> Edmonton Workshop <—

CategoriesCorrective Exercise Strength Training

Recapping Dean and Tony’s Boston Workshop (Includes Best T-Shirt Ever Made)

Now that I’ve had a good 24-36 hours to decompress my brain, I wanted to take a few moments and share some of the shenanigans that went down last weekend at Cressey Performance.

As many of you know, my good friend and brotha from another motha, Dean Somerset, came to town for a few days along with roughly 20-25 personal trainers, strength coaches, chiropractors, and general fitness enthusiasts for our Boston Workshop that he and I hosted at Cressey Performance.

Stealing a line from Dean’s synopsis of the weekend over on his own blog, “it was without a doubt one of the best, most switched on groups I’ve ever had the chance to speak in front of, and everyone was really engaged, quick to volunteer, laugh, get their hands dirty, and make it a great experience for everyone.”

On Friday for all the attendees who came in a day early and had nothing better to do than sit at their hotel room watching re-runs of Games of Thrones on HBO we had the one and only Eric Cressey (THE Cressey behind Cressey Performance) come in and speak to the group on “Elbow Shizzle.”  His title not mine.

One of the main take home points was that when it comes to the elbow, especially with regards to the UCL, you have to take into consideration what’s going on up the kinetic chain – specifically the brachial plexus – in order to make any drastic progress with regards to tissue quality and eliminating pain.  The ulnar nerve starts up near C5-T1 and is often impinged in that area.

In many ways, an “elbow snafu” might not have anything to do with the elbow in the first place!  It’s imperative to look up (and down) the kinetic chain to rule other possibilities out.

Too, it’s important to take into consideration congenital laxity – especially in the baseball population – to dictate treatment and how one’s strength and conditioning program will flow.  The LAST thing you want to do is to excessively stretch someone who scores high on the Beighton Laxity score.

Afterwards, for those who wanted to stay, move around a bit, and play with all the toys in the facility, we had “open gym” where people could get a workout in and break a sweat. I may or may not have played Tiesto.

I played Tiesto.

Because I was at the facility playing host Lisa, my girlfriend, was kind enough to pick Dean up at the airport along with Guillermo who flew in all the way from Mexico to attend the event.  No sooner than everyone walked through the door and dropped their bags did we hightail out of there to walk down to my neighborhood bar and grill to get our grub on.

The best part of the night was that after the fact, when we left the restaurant, walked outside, and waited to cross the street, some dude drove by with all his windows rolled down BLARING the theme music from Star Wars.  It was pretty much the most baller thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I couldn’t help but think to myself, “that dude’s got his shit together.”

Dean and I were up early Saturday morning and I want to say that he pwned roughly 600 mg of caffeine before we even got to the facility.  A tip of the hat to you kind sir!

After a few house warming words and greetings, Dean started things off with discussing the big rocks of assessment. What an assessment actually means, what to look for, and what kind of assessment should be done.

Do we just stand there creepily like a Mr. Smithers and stare?  Is there any place for a movement based assessment?  Are all assessment created equal?

At the end of the day, it’s about gathering as much information as you can to better ascertain what YOU as the fitness professional will do to get your client the most efficient (and safest) results possible.

I followed suit by breaking down the CP assessment.  I was adamant that what we do at CP isn’t necessarily what I feel everyone should be doing, but that they kind of should (hint, hint).

I divided the assessment process into three parts:  static (posture, single vs, bilateral stance), isolative (hip ROM, shoulder ROM, Thomas Test, adductor length, 1,2,3,4 I challenge you to a thumb war, stuff like that), and integrated (movement based:  squat pattern, lunge pattern, push-up pattern, etc).

The entire afternoon was then spent going back and forth with the attendees demonstrating the different assessment that Dean and I utilize and then allowing them to practice on one another to get a better feel for everything.

And, I managed to do all of this without taking my shirt off, which is saying something.

Saturday night a bunch of us met up for an all-you-can-eat meat fest at Fire and Ice in downtown Boston.  Ben Bruno even made a cameo appearance!

Here’s a pic that I Tweeted as a frame of reference of how glorious this place is:

Sunday was lined up in much the same way at Saturday was.  Things kicked off relatively early – 9 AM – with me discussing “corrective exercise,” and what the even means.

I broke down the Law of Repetitive Motion and spoke to how that equation helps set the stage for how we can go about addressing any imbalances, weaknesses, and even pain.

The main point I hit home, however, and something I feel serves as the “umbrella” for ALL corrective exercise was this:

Correct movement is corrective!

Sure we can do the song and dance where we wrap eight different bands around someone, have them stand on a BOSU ball, and juggle a bunch of oranges………but what are we really accomplishing here?

And this isn’t to downplay things like spending time coaching people on how to engage their core or working on glute medius activation.  That stuff certainly needs to be addressed sometimes.

But while I’m admittedly biased – I am a strength coach – I think there’s a lot to be said about grooving more efficient patterns (squat, hip hinge, lunge, push-up) and getting people strong(er).

Getting people stronger can be corrective.

After a quick lunch break Dean took over with some brand spankin new material and covered a topic he titled VooDoo: Hacking Anatomy for Immediate Results.

Again, stealing for Dean’s own review of the weekend: “My talk came up at the end, all about how reactive core training can improve flexibility without taking joints through a range of motion (aptly titled “Voodoo”). We discussed the importance of breathing for upper body and lower body limitations, and went through how to get reactive stabilization from breathing drills and specific core training directives to help improve specific limitations.”

To cap things off we had an expert panel Q and A which, along with Dean and I, also included Ben Bruno, Jim “Smitty” Smith (of Diesel Strength), and Mark Fisher (of unicorns, ninjas, and Mark Fisher Fitness).

On Monday Dean and I took a few attendees through a small group training session that started with a “flow” warm-up, and then we proceeded to deadlift their faces with a bunch of angry my-mother-never-loved-me-and-I-punch-kittens-in-the-face-for fun music blaring in the background.

Three guys broke PRs HERE, HERE, and HERE (this one includes one of the best celebratory fist pumps ever).

Afterwards Dean hung out at CP to observe the madness and wore what’s arguably the most epic t-shirt ever made.

For those having a hard time seeing the fine print, here’s a screen shot:

And since that’s pretty much the most absurd and funniest note to end on, I’ll stop there.

It was an amazing weekend, filled with amazing people.  And I’m truly honored that so many people took time out of their busy schedules to come hang out and (hopefully) get better.

Dean and I will most likely be doing this shindig again.  Maybe we should do a worldwide tour!

CategoriesUncategorized

Boston Workshop: Come Hang Out With Dean and Tony (Early Bird Special Ends)

I don’t think I’ve ever posted a blog post on a Sunday, so this must be for a good reason.  And it is.

It’s just a quick reminder that the EARLY BIRD special for mine and Dean Somerset’s Boston Workshop hosted at Cressey Performance the weekend of July 27th is ending on Monday, July 1st (whenever Dean wakes up from is beauty sleep).

We’re priming this whole shebang to be an epic weekend for sure. For starters we have a special guest speaker to kick things off Friday (the day prior) for all those people who arrive early and want something to do other than stare at their hotel walls or watch re-runs of Game of Thrones on HBO.

I don’t want to spoil anything but whoever this guest speaker is, I can tell you he deadlifts a metric shit ton of weight and he has an affinity for shoulder anatomy.  Oh, and his last name rhymes with Schmessey……;o)

Day numero uno is going to be all about assessment. We’ll go through the ins and outs and rationale for an assessment, but also include a large “hands on” portion as well. And, if we all play our cards right, Dean will use interpretive dance to demonstrate how to go about assessing one’s diaphragmatic breathing prowess.

Day two is going to be a hodgepodge of a number of things:  corrective exercise, programming considerations around hip, shoulder, knee, and core issues, and knowing how (and when) to regress or progress exercises.

In addition we’re going to cover coaching cues and technique when it comes to squats, deadlifts, and overhead dwarf throwing, to name a few.

It’s going to be an intimate affair since we’re capping the total number of seats available to 30. Our goal is to make this as dynamic and informative as possible, and we want to give people as much access to us as possible.

To help sweeten the pot, CEUs will be available through the NSCA and ACE. As well, I heard through the grapevine there may be some other “fitness celebrities” making the trip, so it’s looking like this is going to be a worthwhile networking opportunity as well.

Like I said, though, the early bird special ends on Monday (July 1st), and the price is going to increase significantly after that.

===> Come Hang Out With Dean and Tony <===

 

CategoriesUncategorized

Gentilcore/Somerset Boston Workshop

When asked to name popular dynamic duos many people will inevitably toss out examples such as Batman and Robin, The British Bulldogs, Thelma and Louis, peanut butter & jelly, and while many non-nerdy types will gloss over this last one, even Optimus Prime and Megatron were once BFFs and “brothers-in-arms” while on their home planet of Cybertron.  That is, of course, until their friendship turned into an episode of Gossip Girl.

You see Optimus was given the title of Prime by the Council of Cybertron, a title that Megatron felt was rightfully his. Megatron called Optimus a big, fat meanie head.  Optimus was like, “oh no you didn’t!”  And then all hell broke loose, and the two brought their little disagreement to Earth.

And while I’d love to sit here and discuss Transformer mythology with you until the cows come home, I know that’s not necessarily the reason you log onto this site on a daily basis. Besides, I have some pretty BIG news and more important matters address.

Speaking of dynamic duos, both Dean Somerset and myself are going to be putting on a two-day workshop here in the greater Boston area the weekend of July 27th.  Saturday July 27th and Sunday July 28th to be exact.

Dean and Tony’s Excellent Workshop High Five

While we’re half jokingly using that as the title, anyone who reads our respective blogs understands that even though Dean and I like to NOT take ourselves too seriously, we also pride ourselves on providing top-notch information and doing our part(s) in trying to make the industry better.

This workshop is going to be our attempt at doing just that.

Our goal is to cover a litany of topics ranging from assessment to corrective exercise to exercise technique to how long it takes before I start saying “eh” every other sentence from hanging out with Dean for an entire weekend.

Pssst:  Dean’s Canadian…..;o)

In all seriousness we’re really excited about this opportunity, and while the goal is to target personal trainers and coaches, anyone who has an interest in fitness and making people better would gain a lot from attending this workshop.  As Dean put it:

You’ll be able to follow along even if you’ve never taken an exercise physiology course or worked as a trainer before. If you know the difference between your diaphragm and your knee, you should do alright.

The workshop itself will be held on my home-turf, Cressey Performance, and for those curious CEUs will be provided!

Also of note: our goal is to keep this fairly “intimate” and small(ish) in size, as we’d really like to give people the opportunity to interact as much as possible with myself and Dean. To that end, we’re capping the number to 30 attendees.

Space is expected to go quickly, so if you’re teetering on whether or not you should come (and you totally should!), you’ll want to take advantage of the early bird special as soon as you can.

For more information – including topics covered, dates, cost, hotel info, etc, please follow the link below. Really hope to see you there!

====> You Should Come to Boston! <====

CategoriesProduct Review Rehab/Prehab

Post Rehab Essentials 2.0: An Inside Look

For most of you who read this blog on a regular basis, I don’t really need to introduce Dean Somerset.  The man is quickly climbing the “kind of a big deal” ladder in the fitness community, and has really gained a reputation for being one of the brightest minds in the industry.

For those who aren’t familiar, here’s a brief introduction:

1.  He’s a strength coach as well as the Medical & Rehabilitation coordinator at World Health, located in Edmonton, Alberta.

2.  He’s a regular contributing author on T-Nation.com, as well as writes a pretty kick-ass blog HERE.

3.  He’s the co-contributor to several DVD compilations such the Muscles Imbalances Revealed series (both the lower and upper body versions), as well as the Spinal Health and Core Training Seminar of which I was part of as well.

4.  He can deadlift in the mid-400s (and 500 is just around the corner).

5.  His wife, Lindsay, is an accomplished tri-athlete and has recently qualified for world competition over in Europe!

6.  He owns two dogs, and loves rainbows.

Okay, I made the rainbow part up. But come on: I had to bust his chops in some way.

Dean just released his brand spankin new product, Post Rehab Essentials 2.o today, and I wanted to give people more of an inside scoop as to what to expect from it.

Unlike most sequels, which suck (yeah, I’m talking to you The Hangover Part II), PRE 2.0 really takes the information offered in the first edition and takes it to another level.

Speaking candidly, I’ve only just started to watch the videos myself, but from what I’ve seen thus far – I’m pumped that this information is going to be making its rounds.  It’s undoubtedly going to make people (and the industry as a whole) better!

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I was nodding my head in agreement as I was watching the first section. It got to the point where I was high-fiving my computer screen.

Nevertheless, below is a candid interview that Dean and I did the other day which, outside of discussing the product itself, is chock full of knowledge bombs in of itself.

Enjoy!

TG: Dean! Okay, lets cut to the chase:  I know you’re an Oilers fan, but they unfortunately didn’t make it to the playoffs.  Are there any teams left on the docket that you’re rooting for?

Side Note for a little TG Trivia: I for one, have never been to an NHL hockey game, and while the Bruins are still in the chase, sadly, the only time I’ve ever stepped foot in TD Garden (where both the Bruins and Celtics play) was for a live Star Wars in Concert event.

Literally there was a live orchestra playing music from Star Wars with a giant screen playing scenes from all the movies in the background.  Upping he geek-factor ante, Anthony Daniels (who plays C3PO in all the films) was there in person narrating the event.

Too, Lisa dressed her hair up in Princess Leia “buns,” and we had our picture taken with a live StormTrooper.

It was pretty much the greatest day in my life. True story.

DS:  Funny enough, I’m probably one of the very few Canadians who not only doesn’t play hockey but never even learned how to skate. I only started watching hockey a few years ago and didn’t even know what offside was until 2010.

That being said, I do watch the Oilers when they play because it gives some good water cooler talk while I’m training clients. Plus, I may or may not be eventually working with them directly in the coming seasons, and recently had a chance to do all the exit testing on the entire team for this current season, which was pretty cool.

I just want a Canadian team to win so that Montreal has something less to cheer about as they were the last Canadian team to win the cup back in 1994 (I think).

TG:  So, I was a huge fan of the first edition of Post Rehab Essentials, and I really felt it was a product that helped me better understand the assessment process as well as hone my programming writing skills. Like a ninja.

First off:  what was the impetus behind releasing a second, more awesomer version?

What does this version contain that the other didn’t?

And Secondly:  what do “we” actually mean when we use the term “post rehab?”

DS: Awesome questions. Much like you, I train people all day long and do things like writing and blogs on the side. I try to stay up on research as much as possible given the number of hours in a day, and try to view my own clientele as a cross section of average people, in which I can test to see if certain things provide better benefits or worse.

If something doesn’t seem to hold up across the board, I toss it out. If it’s something that’s universally effective for the vast majority of my clients, I continue to use it. When I put out the first version, my thinking of how the body worked was in one place. This current version represents the refinement of those thought process and includes a broader implementation of the concepts instead of spending as much time talking about the theory and anatomy.

That’s still there, but I wanted to make this more of a hands-on version.

For your second part, post rehab essentially means once you’ve received medical contact and have been cleared to begin a workout program in a guided setting.

Think of if you go into a chiropractor with a really sore back. They crack you, and send you out. You go into the gym not knowing whether you can do your favourite exercise program of high volume leg presses, stiff leg deadlifts and elbow to knee crunches.

What do you do? You find someone who has gone through Post Rehab Essentials V.2.0 to make sure they have tools to work with that won’t cause them to become a walking bag of fail.

TG:  Since this is a product that’s targeted towards personal trainers and coaches (and for those who are just fitness nerds in general), where do you feel most tend to miss the boat with regards to writing effective programming?

DS: Another great question. I feel that trainers have forgotten how to coach. We’re more concerned with giving the exercise than teaching the client how to do it properly. Stu McGill has said there’s no bad exercise for the spine, just contraindicated ones for the specific individual, and even then every exercise is bad if done incorrectly.

This video series brings back the coaching aspect to training and helps you understand how to get someone out of a poor spinal position with their exercises, how to hip hinge, what it means when their shoulders shrug into their ears, and how to fix that. These simple fixes can represent about 90% of every training program.

Correct exercise is corrective in nature.

TG:  OMG!!  Yes!!!  I couldn’t have said that better myself.  Whenever we start with a new intern class almost always they want to dive into assessment on day #1.  Much like you I’m under the mindset that they need to LEARN HOW TO COACH, and do it well, before we start discussing the finer points like assessing hip IR/ER or discussing the differences between flexion vs. extension based back pain.

One of the main points you covered in PRE 2.0 that really hit home for me is the whole concept of protective tension.  Put another way: people aren’t nearly as “tight” and stiff as they think more as they’re actually just really, and I mean REALLY unstable.

Can you kinda give everyone a Cliff Notes/Laymen’s terms synopsis of this whole phenomena?

DS: Muscles are pretty dumb creatures. They’re the slave of the nervous system, and if the brain says to contract, they will. If it doesn’t say to contract, they won’t. It’s really that simple. If you have a muscle that is constantly “tight” and won’t release no matter how much work you do to it with respect to stretching or SMR work, you may need to ask why it’s tight in the first place. Typically it’s trying to provide some form of stability for another area that isn’t being held tight enough.

Think of the hip flexors as a classic example. I’ve found that when people who have chronically tight hip flexors, they also tend to have very unstable spines coupled with weak abs. The same thing goes for tight posterior hips and lateral core stability.

Note from TG:  For those looking for a cool demonstration of what we’re talking about, I’d HIGHLY encourage you to watch the video below.  It’s eleven or so minutes that will blow your mind.

TG: Breathing and breathing patterns are all the rage in the industry nowadays.  I’ll admit that we use a fair share of them at Cressey Performance and that we find there’s a TON of efficacy for their implementation.

I’ve seen firsthand the kind of voo-doo magic that breathing drills and diaphragmatic correction can have on many common injuries and dysfunctions.  

What do you feel are the major benefits/take-aways that most people can gain from paying more attention to them?

DS: Core stability comes from the interplay of the pelvic floor, diaphragm, obliques, rectus abdominis, and multifidus (plus quadratus lumborum, but who’s counting). When you want to have a stable spine to lift stupidly heavy things, having the ability to squeeze your core tight between these structures is incredibly important. Likewise, recovering from hard workouts comes down to breathing through your entire lung deeply, rather than just shallow breathing through your upper ribs and shoulders.

The shoulders hang off the ribs. If there’s any issue with the ribs, the shoulders will be directly involved, meaning potential shoulder issues could have their roots in faulty breathing mechanics. People with low back pain breathe in a very guarded manner, which affects their core stability in a negative way. People with hip issues tend to be back breathers, forgetting how to get their diaphragm going. You picking up what I’m putting down yet??

Endurance athletes benefit the most from breathing work as that’s their gas tank. If I can get a runner to do a breathing exercise and it means their threshold speed goes up by a half mile an hour (true story) with no other intervention, it’s pretty important. I’ve had people breathe for 5 minutes and double their squat depth.

Breathing effects everything you try to affect.

TG: You also cover core training and what that actually means.  So, what does the word “core” mean to you?

DS: You mean teh abz?? In reality, core training is pretty simple. Make the core reactive so that it can contract really hard and make the spine stiff and strong, and then train it to pulse on and off.

Think of a baseball pitch.

The windup really doesn’t involve a lot of max core contraction. But at a certain point, the core has to brace incredibly tight, incredibly quick, and then turn down the tension at another point of the follow through so as to generate a whip effect. If the core was simply tense the entire time, you wouldn’t get any whip, and you would most likely throw molases off the mound instead of heat.

Likewise, with people who have a history of back pain, they has a defect in the ability to generate tension through their core and brace their spine, and then create a hip movement or a shoulder movement to propel stuff into or through other stuff. They tend to either hold on to tension too long or not generate tension quick enough to get stabile to control the spine during movement. It’s sort of like watching Lindsay Lohan walk down the street.

Core training typically involves learning how to brace the core in a neutral spine position, then getting them to control that neutral spine while either creating movement in other joints or resisting forces being applied to their body that try to push them out of neutral spine. Once they can do that, we can start looking to hit up things like heavy deadlifts, backflips, and cutting off that truck full of gun lovers on the free way.

The End

And there you have it folks. Post Rehab Essentials v. 2.0 is on sale for this week only!  The entire set is shot in HD, and you’ll get immediate access once you purchase.  If you’re a fitness professional or just someone who loves learning about the human body and performance, I can’t recommend this one enough.  It’s a game changer for sure.

===> Post Rehab Essentials 2.0 <===

 

CategoriesMiscellaneous Miscellany

Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: “GentilSet” or “SomerCore” Workshop?

1. I’ve got some exciting news to report.  No, Matt Damon isn’t reprising his role as Jason Bourne. No, a group of Victoria Secret models haven’t moved into the vacant apartment upstairs.  And no, unfortunately, Justin Bieber hasn’t fallen into a live volcano.

While all of those things would be pretty awesome, what I have to share today could very well tear a hole into the space-time continuum and alter all of human existence.

Slight exaggerations aside, Dean Somerset and I are tentatively planning an East coast/kinda Northwesternish (like way up north, like where it’s only warm like twelve days out of the year north) coast two-day workshop later this summer and fall.

We’re shooting for a two-day workshop here in Boston later this summer (and again, up in Edmonton, Alberta in the fall) where we’ll target personal trainers, coaches, and fitness enthusiasts and open up Pandora’s Box to discussing everything from assessment to corrective exercise to program design. But more importantly our goal is to make this a very hands-on (non-creepy) workshop where we have minimal lecture and place more of a premium on coaching!

In Dean’s words:  “We want people who attend to leave knowing about what we discussed, not just intellectually, but how to put it into action immediately when they return, and with enough competence to not have to refer back to notes while doing so.”

Like I said, we’re still in the initial planning stages but we’re excited as shit.  Read:  pretty excited.  I mean, Dean can’t contain himself!

That said, I’d still love for people to sound 0ff on this and let us know if there’s enough interest?

Due to space we’re going to keep this pretty exclusive and limit it to like 30-35 people.  Some candles, a little Sade playing in the background, some Femoral Acetabular Impingement talk.  Who knows where it will go…..;o)

Seriously though, who’s in?

More details to follow soon.

2.  Some other cool news.  For only the second time since its release, Eric Cressey is placing his flagship program, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better on sale all this week until THIS Saturday (May 20th) at midnight.

Not that I need to sing its praises or anything, but the program is the bees knees.

I’ve seen with my own eyes countless people transform their bodies and make progress in the gym they never thought possible.  So if you’re still one of the few who have balked at trying it out for yourself, at 48% off the normal price you really have no excuse not give it a whirl.

3. As someone who routinely trumpets the message that women should can the Zumba classes and lift heav(ier) things, I’m always trying to relay top-notch, informative, POSITIVE material to the masses to help convey that same tone.

HERE is a fantastic blog post by Dave Hedges on why there’s really no such thing as a “women specific program.”

Fantastic job Dave!

4. And since I recognize that a fair share of women visit this site on a regular basis, here’s a litte Ryan Gosling for you.

I don’t know about you, but that video cracked me up!

5. And finally, keep your eyes peeled for a future TG original piece on BodyBuilding.com. The higher ups reached out to me last week asking if I’d be interested in contributing some content on a monthly basis, and I jumped at the opportunity.

Of course, my one prerequisite was that I’d be able to discuss the importance of getting stronger and that I wasn’t going to write about pec blasting, bicep pulverizing, or any other broscience shenanigans.

To that end, I just submitted my first article to them last night titled Top 3 Squat Mistakes.

Mistake #1:  What You Think is Proper Depth, Ain’t Even Close…….;o)