My Dad and the FMS




Gordon and I at the Guiness Brewery, Dublin Ireland


One of the coolest things about my career is how interested in the field my dad has become. Just recently he attended the PerformBetter 1 Day in Seattle, where he was able to schmooze with the likes of Gray Cook, Tim Vagen, and Charlie Weingroff. Prior to that, he has read and watched all of Mike Boyle's info, has become a big fan of Dan John's work, and is now working his way through "Movement".

That's a pretty good list of continuing eductaion for anybody, let alone someone with no formal background in the field and a career in a completely unrealated area!

My favorite part of my father's keen interest in the world of performance enhancement are all the questions he comes up with for me. Working through "Movement" and having recently attended the PerformBetter Conference, he has been asking a lot of questions about the FMS. It's been a lot of fun helping him get a grasp of the concepts behind the screen. Not only do I enjoy speaking with him about my craft, but his questions keep me on my toes.

Its been said that the best way to learn is to teach. I couldn't agree more. Being asked to explain and pass along the knowledge I have gained really makes me think about the topics at hand and often I need to go back and rehash the information myself. I find this a great way to stay sharp and up to date.

Here are some of the questions and answers from our recent conversation:

Dad:
"So the FMS looks at how well a person moves?"

Me:
"Yes. It provides a baseline for acceptable movement. It's like getting your bloodpressure taken. In and of itself it probably won't tell you exactly what is wrong or right, but it will throw up some red flags if the score is outside of an acceptable range. If a person scores within the guidelines of the screen, it means they are good to go and train. If they score outside those guidelines, it means that the person needs to be looked at a little closer to determine the best course of action."

Dad:
"Then what do you do if someone just scores all 2's?"

Me:
"Nothing. If they score 2 across the board and have no assymetries I proceed as planned. The goal isn't to get someone to score straight 3's, its just to make sure there aren't any 1's or assymetries."

Dad:
"So how does the FMS score influence how you write a program?"

Me:
"For me, the overall concept of the FMS drives my programming. Understanding the Joint by Joint and continuing to learn more and more about the neuro-developmental foundations of human movement is what really influences my programming. On a practical level, if someone scores very poorly on the FMS, or if there is a trend of dysfunction or assymetry within the teams that I train, I will adjust the program accordingly."

Dad:
"What does Gray mean by 'Shunt muscles and spurt muscles?"

Me:
"Umm...I don't know. I'll go look that one up."

Continuing to learn and develop my craft is one of the things I enjoy most about my profession. The never ending quest to "get it" keeps me motivated and passionate, and I believe that is one of the keys to happiness. But helping others understand what I have learned is becoming more and more satisfying. The fact that I get to share that experience with my dad is priceless. I just hope I can stay far enough ahead to keep answering most of his questions!

Hotel Room Training

Well, it's been a while since I've had time to post anything on my blog. This weekend I finally have a bit of down time as my wife and I have traveled to North Carolina for a wedding. While she is out getting ready, I got in a quick workout in my hotel room. Since I know a lot of people who travel for business, I figured I'd write out what I did in the room to hopefully give some ideas of how to get a quick workout in on the road so that you can keep up with your fitness goals.

I've been training pretty consistently for the last few months, so this workout served as a nice little "recovery/mobility" session. Just like everyone else I've got my fair share of bumps and bruises accumulated over the years, and sitting on planes and rental cars tend's to aggrivate my "issues". This 20 minute routine helps me keep my mobility up and my aches and pains down. It's also a great way to relieve a little stress from the joys of modern travel!


All these exercise were done in my room, with bodyweight only.

AIS Stretch Routine on Bed:
     Hamstring Hip Rotation x10 each
     Long Adductor Sit Backs x10 each
     Short Adductor Sit Downs x10 each
     Glute Cross Under x10 each
     Multi Planer Hip Flexor x4 each position (3 positions per leg)
          *all these were performed with a "packed neck"

Joint Mobility Routine:
     Wall Inversion Ankle Dorsiflexion x10 each
     3 Way Squat x 5 each
     Toe Touch Squat x 5, then 10 left/right Thoracic Rotations
     Floor Slides with Post. Pelvic Tilt, "DNS" Anterior Thoracic Tilt, and Pelvic Floor Breathing x 10
     Bretzel T-Spine Rotations with Diaphragmatic Breathing x 10 each

Body Weight Circuit
     Packed Shoulder Push Up x5
     :5 Eccentreic Squat x 10
     SLDL w/ pause x 5 each
     Floor Slides x 10
     Alternating Floor Slides x 5 each
     Single Leg Squat on chair x 5 each
     Packed Shoulder Push Up x 5
     Lateral Squat x 10 each
          *Repeated 3x

All in all this took me about 20minutes while I watched a little SportsCenter. Raised the HR to that coveted 120-150ish range for a little bit, and was moving and feeling great afterword.

If you don't know and are interested in what any of this is, feel free to leave a comment.

Now, off to the wedding and festivities!

Kettlebell Band Swings

Kettlebell swings are a great exercise. They have several different places in my programming, ranging from teaching a dynamic hip hinge on the way towards Olympic lifting, as a replacement for Olympic lifts because of an injury, as a "power endurance" tool, or a late season- low load/high velocity power exercise.

A good friend of mine, Jack McCormick from San Diego recently showed me this variation of the swing. By incorporating a band to the exercise, we can effectively increase the weight of the bell, which is helpful if you only have kettlebells of a certain weight.

Another purpose of the band is a concept known as "accommodating resistance". Similar to benching or squatting using chains or bands, the Kettlebell Band Swing allows for more emphasis on acceleration because the band acts like a breaking mechanism at the top of the swing. Basically you can extend the hips as powerfully as possible and not have to worry about decelerating the bell at the top, since the band pulls back as the bell moves up. It also speeds up the return of the bell during the swing, so it adds an eccentric overload which is hard to get any other way.

I really like this addition to the already great exercise, the kettlebell swing. I feel it has added a component of power to our program which is very beneficial.

In Season Periodization

I recently had a great discussion with a Strength Coach friend of mine from California, Marcello Martinelli regarding how I periodize in season. He was curious if I use a conjugate or linear model meaning, if we typically lift twice a week, do I maintain the same volume and intensity on both days, or do I follow more of a higher percentage-strength based Day 1, and lower percentage-speed/power Day 2.

Well, I'll be honest when I tell you that all the different terminology still gets me turned around sometimes, but basically what I do is to follow a conjugate (I think) model during the in-season. However, I don't necessarily manipulate volumes and intensities between the two days, instead I let exercise selection determine the overall load on the system. In other words, we do follow a "Heavy day/ Light day" type of format, however I accomplish this by way of "exercise selection" variation, instead of a "percentage of maximum" variation.

To give you an example of what I mean, generally speaking we will lift Monday's and Wednesday's since the majority of our games are played Friday and Saturday each week.

Monday's will be our "Heavy Day", though the volume (sets/reps) and intensity (percentages) will be about the same as Wednesday. The way I accomplish a difference between the days is by using exercises that are inherently "heavier" or "lighter" on each day.

Monday we will utilize the Hang Clean as our Olympic Lift variation to develop power, and Trap Bar Deadlift as our Lower Body Push to develop strength.

Wednesday we will follow the same template, however our Olympic Lift will be a Clean Grip Hang Snatch, and our Lower Body Push will be a Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat.

By setting up the exercises in this way on these days, we will have a higher total load on the CNS on Monday, because the loads used in Cleans and TBDLs are much greater than the loads used for Snatches and RFEs.

While the percentages, sets/reps of each lift will be about the same (ex. 85% TBDL x3x5 / 85% RFE x3x5) the overall load is much lower in the RFE.

Furthermore, I will alternate volume and intensity within the training session as well as week to week. So a 3 week phase might look like this:

Wk 1 5x80,    5x85,    5x82.5
Wk 2 3x82.5, 3x87.5, 3x85
Wk 3 5x80,    5x85,    5x82.5

The other exercises we utilize each day follow the same general guidelines, however if I am not using a percentage to dictate load, we will usually just follow a straight linear periodization throughout the phase, and then change the volume in the next phase.

For example, Day 1 we will usually do SLDL as our lower body pull, and Day 2 we will use Slideboard Hamstring Curl. Phase 1 may call for 2x8, while Phase 2 would call for 2x5. So we still try to have a "heavier" option Day 1 and a "lighter" option Day 2 with the exercise selection, and then let Progressive Resistance and Linear Periodization take over.

As an aside, I will admit that this is not always the case, as logistics sometimes dictate which exercise we can use effectively on a given day.

To continue to complicate things, we will progress or, perhaps more accurately, regress exercises as the season unfolds. The further along we get, the more I will shift the Power-Strength continuum towards power, as well as regressing exercises in difficulty. For example, even though Monday's are our "Heavy Day", at a certain point we start to lower the overall load in TBDL and add bands, so that we shift more towards developing a higher rate of speed rather than focusing on a higher level of strength. Down the line, we will move away from TBDL all together in favor of even less CNS demanding exercises. Day 2 will follow the same thought process, and will move from lower load, higher speed exercises, to a plyometric emphasis where we are all the way on the power side of the spectrum.

So the overall theme to my in-season periodization is to have a "Heavy" and "Light" day each week, however as you can see there is quite a bit of change, on several different layers that goes on from the micro to macro perspective. All in all the goal is to continue to address the things I believe are important in keeping my athletes as healthy as possible, as well as improve performance and manage stress and fatigue throughout the season. Nothing is ever set in stone, but this is a general synopsis of how I periodize in-season.

John Wooden on True Success

I love TED talks and this one is by one of the all time greats. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success.html

Giving Thanks

It's that time of year, time to think back and reflect on 2011, time to search for lessons both good and bad, reevaluate the progress or lack thereof you may have made, and give thanks for all our blessings.

2011 goes down in history as probably the best year of my life. I have had the good fortune of experiencing some of the happiest days and been the recipient of some wonderful luck. It's been a great ride and I can only hope to have half the year in 2012 that I've had this year.

Over the past few years I've been extremely fortunate to get to live and work in California at Stanford University. Not only is Stanford one of the truly incredible universities in the world both academically and athletically, but the people I got to spend most of my time with are some of the nicest, smartest, and hardest working people in my profession. I was very lucky to get to be a part of the Stanford Sports Performance Team, and I am very thankful for everything over the past few years.

I was invited on some amazing journeys this past year at Stanford, getting to experience another Final Four  and then traveling to China with the Women's Volleyball team. I was able to learn from some of the best in the field while at Stanford, and made many friends along the way.

There was not much that could pull me away from Stanford, but the stars seemed to align and I was again fortunate enough to be in the right place and right time to begin a new chapter of my career as Director of Sports Performance at UMass Lowell. Not only did I get the chance to get back into hockey, but I get to do it in Hockey East. On top of that, I get to live in Boston which is a dream come true for myself and my beautiful wife, Erica, and I get the opportunity to develop my own program as the first Director in school's history.

Speaking of wife, I had the single best day of my life in 2011 as Erica said "I do!" last summer! I can't express how lucky I am to have a wife as wonderful as she is. Erica truly is the only woman who could put up and love a knucklehead like me, and I am thankful everyday she didn't smarten up before the wedding!

In addition to all of that, I have gotten to spend lots of time with my friends and family, got to see my Grandmother this Christmas, and pretty much have been having a great time over the last 12 months.

If I have learned anything this year, its that everything happens for a reason. Its corny and I can't explain it, but the way things have fallen into place is just ridiculous. If you work hard and treat people well, good things tend to happen. I will certainly try to keep that in mind as I move into 2012.

It's been a great ride 2011, thanks for all the memories!

Own the Movement before you Load the Movement

A recent forum thread I was involved in on StrengthCoach.com prompted me to write about the topic of being able to complete a movement under load, but not at bodyweight.

The actual thread was regarding athletes who could not bodyweight squat, but had good technique under load. The author wanted to know why this was occuring and if it was appropriate to continue to apply load with the goal of; A. improving the movement pattern, and B. increasing strength levels.

I do not believe that it is appropriate to add external load to a pattern when that pattern is "off" under no load. There is an exception to this, which I will talk about, however my general thought is that the consequences to this are more negative rather than positive.

The problem with adding external load to a movement pattern when a person cannot adequately complete the pattern without load is that you are creating artificial stability. It's the reason many people can bench press a significant amount of weight, but have trouble with pushups. The bench is creating the stability that your body must come up with in the pushup. Without that stability, you can't push as hard or as effectively. The same holds true for working out with machines. The equipment provides the stability instead of your body.

"Whats the big deal with that?" you might be asking. Well, if you have any aspirations of getting up from the bench and moving around in real life, or if you are an athlete and need to run around and move during your sport, that "strength" that you have developed without the addition of real stability will be at minimum less useful, and at worst potentially detrimental to your health.

In the example of someone who cannot squat properly unless they are under load, what they are doing is using the force of the weight as a crutch to put them in the proper position. Stability is created by the load, allowing proper mobility to occur at the correct places so that the movement can occur. Unfortunately, this is what is known as "adding strength to dysfunction". When that weight is removed, the stability that was created and is necessary is taken away, and the all important mobility is lost, resulting in an inability to complete the pattern. It's akin to adding horsepower to a car whose alignment is off. That horsepower will result in faster breakdown, as more force is directed inappropriately causing undesired wear and tear.

So basically, "adding strength to dysfunction" means increasing the chance of injury. This is why it is so important to be able to complete fundamental movement patterns before external load is applied, and why programs like P90X and Crossfit are potentially hazardous. These types of workouts throw these rules out the door in the name of "work capacity" or "bravado" and are recipes for disaster.

However, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, there are some exceptions to the rule. In the SC.com forum thread the idea of the addition of a small amount of load actually being useful to improving the pattern was brought up. In this example, a Kettlebell was used to help the athlete "groove the pattern". While this is still the same concept of adding a load which in turn is causing artificial stability, the difference lies in the amount of load. A small amount of well directed load will create some stability, which will allow the athlete to learn how to squat properly. Again, the amount of load or force is the important concept here. Taking an athlete who cannot bodyweight squat and adding 135lbs to a back squat might result in a decent looking squat under load, but it won't help improve the unloaded movement pattern. Its just too much of a crutch. Performing a Kettlebell Goblet Squat with a 12kilo Kettlebell may in fact be just enough load to teach the neurological system how to move correctly.

You see, for motor learning to occur, there has to be just a little bit of struggle. It has to be just a bit of a challenge to the system, so that your brain can overcome the obstacle and "learn" how to move properly. This is a concept sometimes referred to as RNT, or Reactive Neuromuscular Training. Another common example would be to wrap an elastic band around the knees of someone who goes into valgus collapse during a squat. The band actually pulls the knees further into valgus, but if its just the right amount of force, it tells the brain to "turn on" all the muscles which are responsible to keeping the knees out, and voila! The person can squat correctly!

The key however is not to depend on the crutch forever. The idea should be to remove the band or to get rid of the kettlebell and perform the movement correctly. And that is where the art of coaching lies. Knowing how much load to apply, and when it is appropriate to apply it or take it away is crucial. To much load, no motor learning. To little load, not enough challenge- no motor learning.

As always, the goal of exercise should be to improve movement. Whether that means getting in and out of your favorite recliner with less pain, losing the holiday weight after the new year, or improving your speed and agility on the ice, the same fundamental concepts apply. Everything comes down to the human body, and no matter what skills you put on top of that frame, proper movement is proper movement.