Functional Performance Enhancement and 3-D Mind/Body/Spirit Enhancement Transformation for anyone wanting to reach their full potential based on Applied Functional Science.
I am grateful to be able to do what I do every day working with athletes and non-athletes alike. They always present different challenges and it's fun to see what happens when you help someone with a physical breakthrough.
Here is a portion of an email I received from one of my collegiate athletes about one of his teammates.
"Also, my friend here has had lower back problems for
forever and hurt it especially bad this morning doing box jumps, and
is really having trouble bending down and moving at all. The trainer
says its because his abs are weaker than his back, and his right hip
is higher than his left hip. they did stim and stretched it today,
and it made it a little better. But he wanted me to ask you if you
had any advice to give him or anything about it since its really
giving him trouble."
First, I'm always impressed by this young man's concern for his teammates. He's not only a great athlete, he's a great guy and unfortunately, that is becoming more and more rare these days. Anyway, I made the quick video below explaining my thinking behind his teammates' lower back pain as well as a quick hitter to get him on the road to fully functional. Please excuse the rough editing.
If you have any questions that you'd like me to do a webcast on, please let me know and I'll see if we can make it happen. Email questions to will@3doptimalperformance.com
EDDIE GEORGE, FORMERLY OF THE DALLAS COWBOYS, IN CRESCENT LUNGE (ANJENAYASANA)
In the mid 90's when I started doing yoga as a high school student, it was REALLY weird. I mean, being the only guy out of a few hundred students to do yoga really challenged me physically, mentally and spiritually. However, thanks to my Aunt Tracy, I was far ahead of the Yoga for Athletes movement in the US that exploded a few years ago.
Since the early 2000's, MANY athletes from the high school level all the way up to the professionals have been incorporating yoga into their training and conditioning programs. Many strength coaches, sports coaches and athletic directors have finally "bought into" the many benefits that yoga can have on their athletes and some have even required it! (I love that, by the way).
REAL MEN DO YOGA was a book that I referred to constantly when starting yoga at the high school level. I referenced guys like Shannon Sharpe in the NFL, Barry Zito in the MLB, as well as entire teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bulls who practiced yoga. This somehow made it acceptable.
I can remember the season that we started yoga, our incidence of injuries like pulled groins and hamstring strains decreased dramatically. The guys were more limber and able to stay relatively injury free. It was pretty amazing and we have kept it going ever since.
HOW YOGA CAN BENEFIT ATHLETES
Well, the most obvious benefit is the stretching aspect that the practice can bring to someone. Depending on the type of yoga (Iyengar, Ashtanga, Power, Vinyasa, etc), they will get more or less strengthening, aerobic conditioning, as well as a faster or slower pace. Some folks love the slower and more detailed work an Iyengar class brings while others prefer the athletic and faster pace of a Power or Ashtanga class. I think its up to the person to really see what 'fits' them and go with it. It's easy for people to go to a few classes with one instructor and say "Yoga really isn't for me." That's like saying "Food isn't for me." There are so many ways to approach yoga that become even more diversified by the number of teachers. The possibilities are endless.
Another reason, is that it really starts honing your overall athletic abilities. In a post I wrote on Applied Functional Athletic Development, I referenced KINESTHETIC AWARENESS or the ability to sense where and what your body was doing in space. This awareness MUST be taken into the yoga practice and when it does, the athlete learns a little more about their body. They appreciate how a bend here or a twist there activates and stretches the soft tissues in the body. This sense can be taken deeper and deeper so that the athlete becomes very familiar with how their body moves. This directly translates to athletic performance so when they need their body to do something big or subtle (such a changing their pitching in baseball a minute amount), they will already have developed the control and sense to do it. PRETTY COOL --- YOGA MAKES FOR BETTER ATHLETES!!!
WHAT TO FOCUS ON...
With all that being said, I think there are areas that athletes need to focus on. I can safely say I've taught hundreds and hundreds of classes over the last 10 years and I've come to see a few trends. For athletes, THE HIPS and the surrounding neuromuscular complex is where I tend to start.
I find the hips are the tightest/strongest/weakest/most dysfunctional area of the body because of our lifestyles. For example, at the high school level, our students sit in classes for 6+ hours per day for years and years and then come out for athletics after academics, lunch and sometimes chapel. They do their 15 minute warm-up and they are off for 2.5 hour practices. Needless to say, imbalances will arise pretty quickly.
Can the foot/ankle complex be locked down because of sitting, bad shoes/cleats, past injuries, etc? SURE!
Can the thoracic spine lack the proper Type I and Type II motion from training and condition that focused solely in the Sagital plane and ignored proper motion in the Frontal and Transverse Planes? SURE!
I have seen when a thoughtful assessment has lead to the discovery of these dysfunctions and really freed the athlete from any neuromsuclar pain and discomfort and then allowed them to move well. I acknowledge all of that, BUT I still start at the hips because they are the power source of the body.
HOW TO START YOGA FOR ATHLETES
Generally, the first physical movement pattern I teach is the Sun Salutation (or Surya Namaskar in Sanskrit). Now, every teacher will teach them a little differently but for the most part, it's the same.
Because of my biomechanics background, I absolutely INSIST on good form as bad form can also injure someone. No one wants to herniate a disk in their spines and especially not from something that is touted as a restorative/preventative aspect of their athletic development.
Below is a video showing the Sun Salutation "A" and Sun Salutation "A" with a Crescent Lunge, like in the above picture with Eddie George Please make sure that you properly warmed up to do this. Never just jump into any movement especially one that takes you through to (or close to) your end range of motion. This Sun Salutation can be done every. It will take about 10 minutes but you will refreshed and energized afterwards.
If you have any questions regarding the movements, I'd love answer them as well as any questions you may have.
"I'm not afraid to take a step and if I fail, I fail. I pick myself up and move on. If we can all learn one thing in life, it's don't be afraid to take on something that you believe you're capable of achieving." -Michael Jordan
KAIZEN is a word in the Japanese language that means "CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT." It was first introduced into English as a way of to describe increasing efficiency of the manufacturing process by statistical analysis. I first heard it through the TOTAL IMMERSION swimming method that encourages swimmers to have a goal of swimming better each time they get into the pool.
To truly practice, kaizen a person needs to be mindful of their thoughts, words and actions. That's much easier said (and typed) than done. We live in such a fast paced society that most of the time, we just "do" things without thinking about them. When is the last time you drove to work or school and thought "How did I get here?" I have had that happen on more than one occasion. It seems like we are almost beamed from one place to another. The unfortunate thing is those precious moments are moments that you and I will never have back.
A wise man once told me that TIME is the only commodity that we can never truly get back. Once a moment is gone, it's gone.
As we go about our lives, its so easy for us to go on auto-pilot in a number of situations. As a employee, supervisor, therapist, coach, teacher, parent, student, etc., we all have moments that we are not really there. It's one thing for you to miss something in your life but for most of us, we usually have someone else sharing a experience with us; and for us not to be FULLY PRESENT robs ourselves and the other person of the experience.
Can we afford to miss moments with others when the future is so uncertain? I hate to bring up an unfortunate event but it's powerful. On 9/11, we lost thousands of Americans in a terrorist attack. What is even sadder is there were probably moments that those people may have missed with their loved ones who may have thought "I'll see Mom/Dad/Sister/Brother/Friend later. We'll have plenty of time." Later never came.
Take a moment to look up from reading and take in the scene. Then take a moment to reach out to someone you have not talked to in a while and maybe reminisce with them. Smile at a stranger. Hug your loved one.
Being better doesn't require you to sweat, run, lift weights, practice Yoga, etc. It just requires you to be PRESENT 100 PERCENT. When you are present, you leave space for yourself to improve. If you are present, those improvements will be there before you know it.
Many athletes go through their entire career doing the "regular" activities like lifting weights, running, doing plyometrics, etc. These are all important to development but unfortunately there are hundreds of other ways to develop athletes that are never really pursued unless it pushed by a progressive athletic development team. Fortunately, I have been blessed to be part of a team like this for the past 6 years where we regulary integrated traditional weight lifting, functional training, Yoga, Pilates, swimming conditioning, martial arts and gymnastics. Our success at winning multiple conference championships every year and sending student athletes to top-tier athletic collegiate programs has been a result of good skills coaching, good athletes and a good multi-discipline training and conditioning program.
This summer, I took on the job of not only training and conditioning my high school athletes, I also worked with current collegiate athletes. Many of the guys already had summer programs from their coaches, and I didn't want to fuss with their programs. What I did do was to insert some training that worked on some of areas that were not focused on. We did a lot of functional training with the 3-D Lunge Matrices and 3-D footwork as well as tweaked some traditional lifts like the Power Clean.
We also did some VERY non-traditional work which consisted of:
At the end of the summer, my collegiate athletes reported feeling stronger, quicker and more flexible than they ever had. Even as I checked in this fall, they are still feeling great and many are still following the program that we did this summer within reason of their primary athletic schedules.
An example schedule looked like this (including their respective school workouts):
Monday: Functional Training
Tuesday: Traditional Lifts and 3-D Lunge and Squat Matrices
Wednesday: Pilates Core work and Functional Balance Training
Thursday: 3-D Footwork, Agility, Speed and Quickness
Friday: Yoga and Aquatics
Athletes were responsible for maintaining their individual sport skills so many would do it after their workouts.
What we saw was the guys were moving better, able to recover faster and maintain a high level of skill work during tournaments and games. Additionally, injuries that had affected the guys during their seasons were able to heal properly and didn't bother them all summer and into their seasons or preseasons.
In the next few posts, I will cover in more detail what we did with YOGA, PILATES AND AQUATIC CONDITIONING and will include videos as well.
Take a look at your workouts. Are you including any cross-training to give your body a rest from its routine and give your brain a chance to create a few more neural pathways from the different activity?
If you want to jump the gun a bit, try this: Instead of going to the weightroom today, look for a beginners Pilates or Yoga class. Get there a little early and tell the teacher you dont have much experience. Teachers LOVE to have new people in their classes and most will give you a little extra attention. Afterall, we want you to come back. (Note: If you are a guy who is nervous about going into a class full of women, SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE AND GO then CHECK YOUR EGO at the door. Not to mention, the women in classes are usually beautiful and I have seen on more than one occasion people chatting it up after class. It's a win-win for everyone!)
How about swimming? Do 2 or 3 pool lengths destroy you and have you rethinking your athleticism? If so, check out TOTAL IMMERSION. It's amazing swimming instruction by revolutionary coach, Terry Laughlin. I went from struggling with 2 lengths to being able to swim a 1/2 mile easily and ready for more. There are tons of Youtube videos as well as thorough explanations of the method by Terry.
I look forward to sharing with you. If you have any thoughts or comments about how you cross-train, I'd love to hear them.
These are the enhancement variables that stimulate conditioning for the intended activity/sport:
Functional movement (replicates specfic movement within sport)
Cardiorespiratory training
Speed, Agility, Quickness conditioning
Structural conditioning
Complex conditioning (Power Snatch, Power Clean, Hang Cleans, etc)
As you can see, these movement are a lot more complex than the lunges, squats, skips, jumps, etc that make up FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS. These enhancement movements are as close to the activity/sport as you can get, so having the fundamentals well established will benefit all athletes. It's hard to do Power Clean if you cannot squat properly. The same goes for lunges in 3 planes of motion with Speed, Agiliity and Quickness training. Low mobility and stability (mostability) in the body, in particular the hips, equals `low results from the training. It's as simple as that.
Whenever we take on a new class of athletes, they ALWAYS want to do the sexy lifts like Power Cleans because they think that will get them results faster. Of course they will get some results, but unfortunately, they eventually plateau. As soon as we can convince them to take a month or so off of the "Big Lifts" and focus on the FUNDAMENTAL MOVMENTS, they moan and complain at first, but when they come back a few weeks later, they find that their lifts have skyrocketed WITHOUT them doing any of the lifts. Imagine that!
However, when they do move to the ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS we insist that they still do all of the work in 3 planes of motion and not limit themselves to the traditional stances. After all, we are getting them as close to the activity as possible and unfortunately, sports are not predicatble. The movements within the acttivity, must be spontaneous but controllable. The athlete needs to know that they can be in almost any position and be able to decelerate their body eccentrically so that they concentrically accelerate or unload the entire neuromuscular system.
As we look through this functional process, we see that it is a process that when followed, yields results that athletes can take to the field and even to the bank!
I will revisit the ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS in future posts to go further in depth on one particular conditioning as well as the various tweaks that can be applied to them.
Here is a video that demonstrates one category of the ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS as well as a FOOT POSITION tweak that is applicable to the Complex Conditioning lifts.
This clip is a 3-D version of the Power Clean. Traditionally, the move is taught with the feet facing forward but rarely do we still a symmetrical stance in sports, so we had Tony move into various foot positions to illicit different neuromuscular responses. This should not be attempted until an athlete has a very good grasp on the various positions with low to no weight.
RESULTS: One athlete in particular, as a high school junior (6'2 185lbs- wide receiver), was able to max squat 405lbs even after he had surgery for a sports hernia about 6 months prior (Note: He was cleared by the doctor for full activity). This athlete did not squat heavy for most of the summer but had been working with the various squats in single, double and triple plane stances, so when it came time for more weight, all of the muscles were able to coordinate to eccentricallly decelerate to a concentric acceleration.
I am fortunate enough to train athletes of many different sports like football, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis and wrestling to name a few. Each sport and each athlete come with their own set of needs and desires to get better, so I have to really take a look at each sport and person and break down the fundamental movements.
What I hear time and time again is that FOOTWORK IS IMPORTANT. Many of the athletes want to be quicker and more explosive and that can be challenging given the many variables of sports. However, when we go back to our basics, we look at the JUMPING as a fundamental movement of footwork. When we talk about Jumping, we are referring to movement from 2 feet to 2 feet. As hopping is 1 foot to 1 foot (regardless if its the same foot or moving to the other foot).
To start building the fundamental movements, we will take a simple jump and turn it into a 3-D JUMP MATRIX.
In the video below you will see that the athletes first start jumping with both feet IN-SYNC, meaning they are going in the plane of motion in the SAME direction. We then tweak the jump to be OUT-OF-SYNC so that even the feet are moving in the same plane, they are moving in OPPOSITE directions from each other.
The benefit is that we are training the neuromuscular system to be able to eccentrically load the muscles of the lower extremities from the intrinsic muscles of the feet to the deep muscles of the pelvic floor(and everything in between) in ALL 3 PLANES OF MOTION so that they are able to concentrically unload in a coordinated manner to ensure maximum SPEED, AGILITY AND QUICKNESS.
Can you get all of this from one matrix? Well, my challenge to you is to time yourself in a agility test and write down your results. Do the 3-D Jump Matrix for 10 days then go back and retest yourself. You will be pleased at your results.
You will need to tweak the timing of the 3-D JUMP MATRIX starting with at least 15 seconds for both in-sync and out-of-sync movements in one plane. So in the sagital plane, you would go 15 seconds in-sync and then 15 seconds out-of-sync for 30 seconds total. Rest 10 seconds. Then move on to the frontal and transverse planes. That is one set. Do this for 3 sets and add a set every other day that you do the 3-D JUMP MATRIX.
I'd love for you to report back and tell me what your results were.
Here is a new video with Matt, who is demonstrating both common and uncommon lunge matrices.
The COMMON lunge matrix simulates what would be a motion that we would normally do like stepping to pick a box up, or rotating the hips to turn around.
The UNCOMMON lunge matrix simuates movements we usually dont do normally BUT we still see those movements. For instance, crossover steps in basketball.
Matt started with no arm drivers but then as he progressed, he started to incorporate reaches first to his ankle. He then changed to overhead reaches and then finally combined the arm reaches, going ankle to
overhead reach.
I got a great comment from Jugo who added that these lunges could easily be applied to a basketball progression and I fully agree. Thanks for your insight, Jugo!
While all three are important just in terms of overall athletic development, I would say that LUNGES AND SQUATS are the ones I have most athletes focus on first. The reason being is that most every sport has a variation of a squat or lunge movement in it.
Football stances are squat positions
Running up and down the court in basketball, soccer and lacrosse are basically lunges.
Heck, even swimming starts are squats to a jump.
These movement are EVERYWHERE in sports, so athletes would benefit by mastering these FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS in all 3 planes of motion.
Of course, squats and lunges are not the only FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS. Add to the list:
Walking
Shuffling
Pivoting
Skipping
Jumping
Hopping
Balancing
Jogging
Sprinting
Pushing
Pulling
Reaching
These FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS are the underpinnings of the next step of ENHANCEMENT MOVEMENTS and finally the ACTIVITY OR SPORT.
In my experience, when basic moves are not solid, there are "holes" in the persons athletic foundation. Again, these holes can easily lead to dysfunction and injury.
Supported by the a sound FUNCTIONAL PREPARATION OF THE STRUCTURE, our athlete is better able to execute with CONFIDENCE anything he is asked to do when his FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTS are sound.
Athletes of any level physically work harder than most people. Bones, joints, muscles, soft tissues and nerves are all working together to ensure that the person is able to complete the task they set out to do.
Unfortunately, many athletes are either injured or do not adequately prepare their bodies for the activity. When this happens, athletes can feel stiff, sluggish, tight, etc and performance suffers drastically. In some cases, the athlete may injure or reinjure themselves.
In Part I of the "How to functionally train athletes that win championships", we cover 5 SIMPLE BASIC steps for FUNCTIONAL PREPARATION.
Training athletes is serious business. A good coach can make an average/good athlete into an All-American. However, the flip side of that is that a bad coach can ruin a good athlete. Unfortunately, that happens more often than not.
Many times strength and conditioning coaches just do what they know instead of what the athlete REALLY needs. Putting an athlete through a workout just to get them sweating, grunting and cursing is a waste of time for the athlete and seeks to indulge sadistic coaches.
Do not get me wrong though. I am all for strenuous workouts WHEN APPROPRIATE for an athlete but this is after I've taken them through a comprehensive evaluation that determines what they want as well as their needs.
Yes, wants and needs can be different, and what I've found in 10 years of training and conditioning, is that the athlete will have both. It's the responsibility of the coach to differentiate AND bring them together in a program that benefit that athlete in the short and long runs.
In this series, we will look at a functional progression, that when applied to your athletes, can take them to the next level in their athletic development.
Our 4-part series will cover:
1) Functional Prep Strategies and Techniques: Making sure the neuromusculoskeletal system is in working order using various orthopedic techniques, joint mobilizations, soft tissue therapy and other modalities to properly prepare the body for the upcoming work.
2) Fundamental Movements: Focusing on movements that are necessary for the activity/skill like lunging, squatting, pushing, pulling, jumping, jogging, sprinting, etc.
3) Enhancement Movements: These are the enhancement variables that stimulate conditioning for the intended activity like functional movement, cardio training, speed conditioning, agility, quickness, complex conditioning (Power Snatch, Power Clean, Hang Cleans, etc).
4) Activity/Skill: Seamlessly integrating the athletes training and conditioning into their sport to ensure maximum results
When this progression is followed, we are better able to train our athlete for the demands that they will be required to do on the field, court, pool, etc. It is a step-by step process that is the equation for successful athletic development, but only if it is adhered too in a logical manner.
Thoughts? Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear them.
This BLOG is a collection of topics inspired by my experiences working with clients and athletes engaged in a wide range of physical, mental and spiritual activities. It is intended to provide insight, ideas, reflection, inspiration, challenge, and provocation on matters that matter in athletics, academics, arts, other movement based activities and in life.
It's always a privilege to help others achieve their potential and to contribute to their success - please be in touch if I can be of service to you in any way. I appreciate your sharing this BLOG with your colleagues and associates.
3-D OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE offers cost effective functional performance enhancement solutions to all of your athletic, academic, artistic and movment based activities based on the Principles of Applied Functional Science.
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was a book that I referred to constantly when starting yoga at the high school level. I referenced guys like Shannon Sharpe in the NFL, Barry Zito in the MLB, as well as entire teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bulls who practiced yoga. This somehow made it acceptable. 
