Athletic Development, Sports Preparation & Performance Coach / Licensed Massage Therapist

Last week I discussed how people can get enamored with certain exercises which the often leads to confusion when it comes time to write the program as the individual is paralyzed with all the potential options and overwhelmed with the notion that they have to do everything in one training session.

In that article I also included a link to the old Bill Starr 5×5 program. This program can take you a long way as it affords you the time to work on your exercise technique for some of the key lifts in strength training (you don’t need to max out loads to do the program and even beginners can perform the program with very light weight and just making small increases each week and of course if an exercise does not work for an individual for one reason or another you can simply swap it out for something else).

Once you have performed that program long enough and are ready to move on, a simple way to set up your training would be to concurrently train different qualities. For example, instead of focusing only on strength in your workout you would actually try and perform a little bit of everything - a little strength, a little power (speed type activities), and a little repetitive work (for anatomical adaptation or local muscle endurance).

With most beginners or those that only have a short period of time to prepare for a competitive season this sort of concurrent approach seems to work really well. For the beginner it exposes them to a variety of different stimuli and allows them to make a vast number of adaptations in their overall fitness. For the individual with only a few weeks to prepare for their competitive season this type of program will ensure that they are hitting the major qualities they need for their sport when time is limited (obviously when possible it is best to have an appropriate amount of time to focus on the necessary qualities and not be forced to rush into things).

Below is a simple concurrent training program I used a few years ago for some high school athletes who were familiar with the proper technique for the basic exercises because we first spent time learning them.

Day 1
Warm up (Begin with movements specific to FMS needs and progress to dynamic activities like squats, push ups, skips, hops, and easy jumps)
1) Box Jump – 3×5
2) Bench press- 3-5 x 3-5
3a) 1-leg/2-arm DB RDL- 3×6-8
3b) one arm db row- 3×6-8
4) core work

Day 2
Warm up (Begin with movements specific to FMS needs and progress to dynamic activities like squats, push ups, skips, hops, and easy jumps)
1) Medicine ball over the back throw- 3×3
2) Squat- 3-5 x 3-5
3a) Db incline press- 3×6-8
3b) 1-arm cable row – 3×6-8
4) core work

Day 3
Warm up (Begin with movements specific to FMS needs and progress to dynamic activities like squats, push ups, skips, hops, and easy jumps)
1) Power Clean – 3×5
2) Pull up variation- 3-5 x 3-5
3a) Split squat – 3×6-8
3b) DB bench press – 3×6-8
4) core work

As you can see, the program is pretty simple. Each day begins with some sort of explosive movement – Day 1 = Lower body explosive, Day 2 = Upper body explosive, Day 3 = Total body explosive (Olympic lift variation is usually what I select here. You can choose to do the full lifts or just perform pulls if you are more comfortable with that). The strength training program is just made up of three exercises – a push, a pull, and a lower body exercise. Again, you can use which ever exercises you like. The first exercise immediately following the explosive exercise is considered the “main lift” for that day and is loaded the heaviest. Each of the three days has a main lift devoted to one of the three main movement patterns – push, legs, pull. I used 3-5 sets x 3-5 reps down as the sets and reps will vary depending on (a) how the athlete is feeling and (b) what the athlete did the week prior so that we can progress properly. These don’t need to be full on max effort lifts and usually we are leaving 1-2 reps in the tank with one out of every 4-5 weeks we make an attempt to work up to an RM load (if the athlete is up to it). The next two exercises, which make up the other 2 movement patterns that were not main lifts for that day, are performed for reps to enhance local muscle endurance or for anatomical adaptation (hypertrophy). I usually use 6-8 reps but sometimes we will do 8-12 reps. For these exercises, again, we commonly leave 1-2 reps in the tank but there are times where we may try and do reps to exhaustion. The workout concludes with some basic core work, usually done in a circuit fashion which also will include some sort of “pre-hab” activity for the sport.

Additional notes:

• The rest intervals for the explosive activity and the main lift (the heavy strength exercise) are as much as the athlete needs, usually 3-5min, to ensure that they can move the load as quickly as possible (even with the heavy strength work they are trying to move the weight fast). The rest intervals for the exercise following the main lift is shorter and can be anywhere from 1-2min (sometimes down to 45sec).

• Rest intervals can be completely passive rest, however, I do like to occupy some of the rest interval time (especially for the exercises requiring longer rest) with some of the corrective strategies that were used in the warm up which focus on the athlete’s main needs. Of course it should go without saying that exercise selection should be driven by the athlete’s needs and deficiencies. If the movement screen uncovers a glaring limitation that takes a specific exercise off the table then a different exercise which is more appropriate should be substituted, to ensure the safety and health of the athlete, while that limitation is appropriately addressed through corrective strategies or other means necessary.

• The workout looks brief and it is. It should take somewhere around 50-70min depending on the time needed during the warm up. This leaves time for other activities such as practice, energy system work, sprinting, etc. The way these other things fit into the program is essential and will vary depending on the time of year, the athlete’s needs, and the focus of the program. Depending on these factors the workout may be even lower/higher in volume or the intensity may be scaled back/ramped up. The key is to remember that you are training an athlete and not a powerlifter so what you do in the gym is really an adjunct to the actual sport, it isn’t the “main show” itself.

To recap, it doesn’t need to be overly complicated. It is easy to get swept away with complex periodization schemes, block periodization, undulating systems, and vertical integration. However, for most beginner athletes with a young training age a concurrent program that addresses their needs and is tailored to complement their overall sports program (practice and competition) will get you very far. As the individual gets more advanced you can begin to consolidate similar qualities onto separate days or into specific blocks of concentrated loads.

Keep it simple. Work hard!

Patrick
patrick@optimumsportsperformance.com

One of the hardest things for a coach can be which exercises to put into their program and which to leave out.  These days this problem seems to be even more challenging because there appear to be so many options with regard to various training tools and people trying to invent “new” exercises:

• “When do we do kettlebells?”
  
• “Where should I program in the TRX exercises?”
  
• “At what point during the workout should I do the Turkish get up?”
  
• “Where do we do speed work?”
  
• “What about plyometrics?”
  
• “Should I use the agility ladder?”
  
• “Do we deadlift or squat?”

On and on the list goes and in the end I think people can get paralyzed with all the options that they end up doing EVERYTHING!

It is easy to get enamored with certain exercises and feel that your program is inferior without them – “If I don’t do Turkish get ups my athletes will never improve.”

The fact of the matter is, there is nothing wrong with any of the exercises above.  What is more important is how you use them. As I stated, people end up getting so hung up on certain exercises and training tools that they don’t know how to write a program without them.  This leads to programs that are incredibly long in duration and sometimes a bit muddy in terms of their focus and direction.

Less Is More

A few weeks ago, on his facebook page, my friend Charlie Weingroff posted THIS link to the old Bill Starr 5×5 program and asked “Does it need to be more complicated than this?” 

I really don’t think it does!!

In reality, I believe that you can actually do a ton with only a hand full of exercises if you can do them well and know how to manipulate other training variables in order to get what you want out of them in terms of the specific stresses you are looking to impose on the individual.

Talking with my friend Joel Jamieson the other night he echoed these sentiments stating that, “There are really only about 7 or 8 exercises I use any more. I may throw something in that is “different” every once in a while just to keep people from getting bored, but I always come back to my main exercises. It isn’t like the squat just stops working! Look at Bondarchuk’s program. His throwers do the same five exercises year round!”

What I love about the Bill Starr program, linked to above, is that it uses only a small group of exercises – you can squat, press, and power clean or you can squat, press, and row – and you get good at doing the basics! 

Nothing fancy, no crazy bells and whistles, just basic exercises and you do them three days a week so that you get really, really good at doing them.

This simple view of training is something that I appreciate most from guys like Dan John (his Intervention DVD was excellent) and Dr. Ken Leistner (one of these days in the near future I am going to buy this collection of all of his old Steel Tip articles).

I know it is easy to get enamored with exercises and believe that one exercise may have some sort of magical power. We have all been there before! However, I urge you to step back and remember that not only are the basics key…they also work! Pick 3-5 exercises that you feel are cornerstones of your training program and hammer them out. Instead of constantly rotating the exercises around change the rep ranges, sets, rest interval, and rep tempo to impart a different type of stress on the body and to get something different from the same lift.

The longer I work with people the more I find that my list of exercises begins to shrink.

Patrick
patrick@optimumsportsperformance.com

Two words can be used to describe this book: MUST HAVE!

I was first made aware of Dr. Thomas Michaud when I read his chapter, The Foot: Hyperpronation and Hypopronation, in Warren Hammer’s book Functional Soft-Tissue Examination and Treatment by Manual Methods. The chapter was full of useful information and I have read it now several times and still come back to it to reference it when needed. So, when I heard Dr. Michaud was writing a new book I was extremely excited. It was actually Dr. Craig Liebenson that informed me of the book several months ago while we were having dinner in Phoenix. Dr. Liebenson had a copy to review in PDF format and pulled it up on his phone to let me take a quick peek. I knew right away as I was scanning the first chapter on the evolution of bipedality that I had to have it.

Human Locomotion: The Conservative Management of Gait-Related Disorders  is about as content rich as it gets. Dr. Michaud has put a lot of time into making sure this book is up to date with as much current information as possible. There is probably over 1000 citations in the book and, where possible, Dr. Michaud even discusses old ways of thinking and old beliefs and points out the error of those ways and shows the flaws in the research that led people down the wrong road. He then offers new ways of thinking or looking at things and, when applicable, ties the ideas back into evolutionary research to show us just how we got here.

Speaking of evolution, the book opens with a twenty page chapter on the evolution of bipedality.  Through this chapter Dr. Michaud tells the story of how we became “upright man”.  He traces the line between all of our hominid ancestors detailing the changes in bones that took place and the alterations in gait mechanics that evolved to allow us to stand upright. The chapter is truly fascinating to see the lineage.

From there, Dr. Michaud goes over the structural anatomy of our lower extremity detailing information about bones and joints, the planes of motion of how those bones and joints function (the foot obviously being the most complicated of the group), and then the muscles involved. Based on my experience of reading Dr. Michaud’s chapter in Warren Hammer’s book, I was under the impression that this text would focus mainly on the foot and ankle, but I was terribly mistaken! Dr. Michaud goes over all the details of the lower extremity and talks about their relationships to human walking.

The next two chapters are on the finer aspects of gait. The first chapter details the ideal movements of gait while the following chapter highlights abnormal motion during the gait cycle. In the chapter on idea gait mechanics Dr. Michaud doesn’t just talk about walking, but also, discusses running economy and talks about why some runners are better than others and what makes them great. The abnormal gait chapter goes through a lot of interesting information regarding how the medial longitudinal arch develops and how the foot functions (and doesn’t function). Similar to his chapter in Warren Hammer’s book, Dr. Michaud spends a considerable amount of time on issues of hyper- and hypo- mobility (although he expands this to the entire lower extremity and does not just look at the foot) and even throws in several pictures consisting of exercises and manual therapy techniques for testing and treating these joints.

The two gait chapters are then followed by a chapter on biomechanical examination where Dr. Michaud goes a bit deeper and expands on some of the evaluation techniques he spoke about in the chapter on abnormal gait. This chapter consists of assessment procedures in supine lying, prone lying, sitting, standing, and then finally evaluation of gait itself. The gait evaluation section is excellent and it gives you ideas of things to try and pick out when watching someone walk/run. I believe that gait is something that we can probably stand to look at more often and this chapter is a step (no pun intended) in the right direction.

Chapters six and seven go into greater detail on orthotics and shoes. The chapter on shoes is particularly interesting because Dr. Michaud talks about the history and evolution of the modern running shoe and even gets into looking at some of the contemporary footwear such as MBTs and Vibrams. As well, this chapter does go over the “barefoot running” debate and Dr. Michaud makes recommendations on who should be doing this, who should not be doing this, and when it should be used.

The final chapter is fifty pages of treatment protocols based on various common injuries of the foot and lower extremity. For each injury Dr. Michaud discusses the etiology of the injury, some of the possible flaws in how the injury was considered in the past and conservative treatment options. Rather than giving step-by-step treatment protocols Dr. Michaud gives some ideas and stresses the importance of a comprehensive evaluation and treatment. I thought this was a key piece as many books discuss very specific step-by-step protocols for injuries and it is important to keep in mind that human beings are not protocols. Each person is unique and will posses unique movement and have unique presentations of injury. Being comprehensive is the only way to gather a full picture.

Overall this book was an incredible read. It is one that I will come back to many times for reference. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is obvious that clinicians and orthopedic practitioners will benefit from reading this text but I firmly believe that strength coaches and trainers also stand a lot to gain from this book. Understanding how we ambulate is a key concept for a trainer or strength coach to understand because it is the cornerstone of human movement and something we (probably) take for granted.

For more information on this book and to read a sample chapter: CLICK HERE.

To listen to an audio interview with Dr. Michaud on human locomotion and the book please head over to Sports Rehab Expert.

Patrick
patrick@optimumsportsperformance.com

Every year I spend a significant amount of time (and money) on professional development – courses, workshops, books, DVDs, seminars, etc – so I figured I would review the first book I read in 2012, Dynamic Body by Erik Dalton and Contributing Authors.

The first thing I will say about this book is that it reads really easily!  I read a lot of textbooks and, as many know, textbooks can get incredibly dense and dry.  Often there is nothing but columns and words for pages and pages and the reading process can get pretty slow during those times.  This book is the complete opposite.  It is put together incredibly well and the format is very easy on the eyes.  I read the entire text, just over 400pgs, in a few days.  It is one of those books you can sit down and read 50pgs in and not even realize it.  The layout is great, the pictures and charts are displayed very nicely, and it is well written.

Now onto the content…..

Erik did a great job of assembling an excellent cast of contributing authors.  The first thing that jumps out to me about this group is the diversity.  As we seek a more well-rounded and holistic approach to treating clients/patients it is important to have a multi-disciplinary system.  The various authors and the different topics covered in this book embody that nicely.  Erik didn’t stop at just getting other massage therapists or manual therapists.  He included movement professionals and researchers to all lend their knowledge and expertise in an effort to open up the lines of communication between these different fields. 

I really appreciated the incorporation of movement therapies in this books because, being a strength coach for 6yrs before getting licensed in massage therapy, it is something that I felt has been lacking in the massage field.  This book will give massage therapists a good understanding of incorporating movement therapies into their practice as well as the importance of finding professionals in your area to help form a referral network with to ensure that all of the client’s needs are being met!

The book begins with a great chapter by Art Riggs.  Art’s chapter was about developing a therapeutic touch and he raises some great points.  Oftentimes, when teaching my class at the massage school, I find that students want to work “deep” and they end up being way to aggressive for the client, usually leading to a negative result of the treatment.  Art’s chapter does a great job trying to articulate something that takes a long time to develop.  This is a chapter I will be reading a number of times for sure and will be trying to bring some of the ideas and concepts to my students at the massage school.

Erik himself contributed five of the twenty chapters and each one is complete with bodywork techniques and exercise recommendations based on the particular pathology being covered.  Two of the chapters deal with injuries and aches and pains that can occur with two sports that are very popular right now, especially for the baby boomer generation, golf and cycling.   The other three chapters deal with biomechanical issues prevalent in our society - anterior knee pain, sacroiliac issues, and problems associated with the foot and ankle complex that occur due to wearing high-heeled shoes.  As too be expected, the chapters highlight Erik’s command of anatomy and movement.  Erik takes a multi-disciplinary approach and has a couple of movement therapists also demonstrating exercises that can be used following manual treatment.

Another treat for me in this book were the two chapters written by Robert Schleip (one of those being co-authored with Divo Gitta Muller).  Dr. Schleip’s research has been something I have been following for a number of years and I am really excited whenever I get to read something from him because he always does a great job of not limiting his ideas to just the fascial system but also embracing the nervous system and how the work we do has profound impact over the nervous system, fascial system, and other systems of the body.  I feel that the information he has been proposing is top notch in terms of pushing us to look further and deeper into human physiology when we put our hands on people.

Along the same lines, Gil Hedley offered a wonderful chapter on fascial anatomy based on his numerous hours of human dissection.  This is the first time I have ever read anything from Gil Hedley or even been exposed to his work (aside from the “fuzz speech” on youtube that everyone seems to always reference).  Instead of just having clients lie on the table while we perform what he calls “manual surgery”, as we try and “dig out” their adhesions, Gil talked about the importance of inviting movement into our treatment approaches to help incorporate the client into the treatment session rather than having them just lie there.  Movement is extremely helpful in allowing clients to move through their adhesions and scar tissue and “break up the fuzz”.  As they say, “motion is lotion!”

Dr. Craig Liebenson’s chapter on “A Rehabilitation Roadmap” was excellent (what else would you expect from Dr. Liebenson?).  Dr. Liebenson covers various aspects of assessment, looking at human movement, and developing a process for addressing the movement capacity of our clients.  This chapter will be of particular benefit to massage therapists looking to formulate a system of assessing their client’s movement, rather than just getting people on the table and performing massage.

This is only scratching the surface of the information in this text.  As I stated, there are twenty chapters and just over 400 pages of content!  I really can’t say enough good things about this book.  There is something to learn in each of the twenty chapters and each of the author’s unique contribution is greatly appreciated.  Both bodywork and movement practitioners will stand to benefit from this book as it embodies a multi-disciplinary approach that is greatly needed to not only get people out of pain but also restore function and improve health.

For more information or to purchase a copy of this book, CLICK HERE.

Patrick
patrick@optimumsportsperformance.com

Hope everyone had a great New Year and holiday season.

Around this time of year one of the things I most look forward to is Joe Heiler’s Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Teleseminar on Sports Rehab Expert. 

This year’s group of interviewees is a really great one and I am incredibly honored and humbled to be a part of it.

• Shirley Sahrmann
• Cal Dietz
• Charlie Weingroff/Bill Hartmann
• Pavel Tsatsouline
• Kyle Kiesel
• Patrick Ward
• Greg Rose
• Eric Cressey
• Craig Liebenson
• Mike Reinold

The teleseminar begins Wednesday, January 17th, with a new interview being posted once a week for 10 weeks.

The best part is that the interviews are FREE!!

If you would like to sign up to check out the interviews as they are made available please GO HERE.

Patrick
patrick@optimumsportsperformance.com