Applied Functional Development: Understanding what the REAL CORE is

This is Part 2 of the "More than meets the eye series". In this blog post we will focus on the CORE. Now, my definition of the CORE is much different from a lot of folks out there. I'll here from a client or patient, "I need to strengthen my core" or "I saw (insert celebrity athlete) doing core work. Can we do that too?"

I smile and then roll my eyes (in my mind, of course). I'd like to propose that when we refer to our CORE we are actually referring to our CENTER OF GRAVITY (COG).

Q: Okay...so what is the center of gravity?


In uniform objects like a solid ball, cylinder or square box, the center of gravity is located in the middle of the object. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is in physics, imaginary point in a body of matter where, for convenience in certain calculations, the total weight of the body may be thought to be concentrated. The concept is sometimes useful in designing static structures (e.g., buildings and bridges) or in predicting the behaviour of a moving body when it is acted on by gravity.

If you look at the picture above, you will see a dot in the characters that are different heights. We can say that this is the point where gravity will mostly act on a body in motion. Interestingly, coaches of basketball, football, and lacrosse players have said for years to "Watch your opponents hips!!!" This was done so that the defensive player can predict where the offensive player would be heading. Watching the head and feet are bad ideas because they can move in opposite directions from where the COG moves. WISE WORDS!

Q: Why is the COG in a different place in the cartoons above?


Because humans are non-symmetrical objects that are motion, the COG will not be uniform in them. The woman in the picture is more bottom heavy, so here COG is lower than the male who is very muscular in his torso. Correspondingly, his COG is higher. We see a slouched posture, also displaces the COG.

The coolest thing is that the COG within a person is not a fixed point either. When a person moves their arms or legs, it shifts the COG slightly. When we are carrying a heavy object like weights, a child, a book bag, this will shift our COG accordingly. Luckily for us, we have a very sophisticated nervous system that accounts for the movement of the COG and will redirect the our body so that we are able to keep some semblance of a base of support. This management of the COG's mobility and stability/balance is exclusively under the domain of the CNS which then normally regulates balance so that the person does not simply fall and hurt themselves. We see that the CNS calls all of the other bodily systems into play with particular emphasis on the neuromuscular and skeletal systems.

Q: What does this have to do with movement? 


As we go throughout our lives, we are rarely static creatures. In fact, a principle of function is that Function is DYNAMIC, meaning we are moving from a global body perspective down to the cellular level. Another Principle of Function is that Function is DRIVEN BY FORCES. We see that this principle holds true because GRAVITY is the main physical force acting on a human in motion.

When we base our strategies and techniques for rehabilitation, training and condition and prevention in Principle of Function, we can easily understand and implement successful programs for our clients and patients. In life, we are(should) be dynamically moving in all three planes of motions at all triangulations. With this, GRAVITY (a force) will be acting perpendicularly on the COG, driving it into it's trajectory along with momentum and the additional Ground Reaction Forces (GRF).

When we move, we want it to be in the most efficient manner possible. Running, jumping, sprinting, throwing, flipping, etc is how we manipulate our COG that is coordinated by neuromusculoskeletal system, among other body systems. b

Q: Okay, I understand more of the science, but how do I apply this to my movements?


I have observed many coaches doing "footwork" with their athletes. It's a great idea but let's think about what's behind that? The foot is pretty much a bag of bones and joints" who do not have a mind of their own. The foot is really responding to the movements perceived by the brain with input from the senses, right? So instructing your athlete to move their feet faster may or may not work. When we think in terms of COG, we easily understand the body will respond to the movement of the COG so it will not fall. If our body shifts over to the right suddenly, say if we are ice, the foot, ankle and leg will react to stabilize the body by possibly stepping wider so that the COG remains over a base point (i.e. the foot). The foot just got there, or didn't, but our focus was not to train it. It's the same thing with agility. The movement of our COG is dependent on what we are doing (function) so our body will compensate during our movement patterns.

I am posting a video I did a while ago called the 3-D Jump Matrix. It's a great study of seeing how the COG moves and how the lower extremities react. The reaction of the feet when they are IN-SYNC is the best examples.

Paradigm shift: THINK TOP DOWN INSTEAD OF BOTTOM UP REGARDING SPEED AND AGILITY TRAINING! We've done looking from bottom up way too long. Shift your focus.

If you have any thoughts or comments, please email me at will@3doptimalperformance.com

Thanks!

Will

Applied Functional Athletic Development: More than meets the eye

This week, besides being a holiday week, I have been fortunate to meet two AMAZING martial artists.
Ben, who is a 20 year old collegiate wrestler, is in the Top 3 grapplers as far as moving more naturally and athletically than most. Not only is he a great wrestler, he is also a great coach who INTUITIVELY moves and teaches in all 3 planes of motion.

The second is James, who is a Kung Fu artist/master. From what my client-patient tells me, he's been doing Kung Fu for close to 20 years. He just 'gets it' in terms of the way he moves and the way he instructs. When he was demonstrating as well as teaching, I could see he was FULLY ENGAGED in the movement. There was nothing in his body that was isolated. Kung Fu, by appearance, looks to be a lot of arm movements, blocks and kicks. However, being a biomechanist, I look at what is going on from the bottom of the foot to the top of head and everything in between as well as how internal and external forces are acting on the body.

Q: So why bring this up?


Funny that you should ask that! What I have observed is that when most people see my two friends in their respective activity, they are doing the big movements like the punches, kicks, trips etc without any authentic connection throughout their bodies. It's all arms or legs since that's what the most obvious motion is. I believe naturally gifted movers and athletes, have found ways to not only use their whole body for their activity, they also use their 5 senses in a coordinated fashion to deliver all pertinent information to the Command Center of the Body. When the brain is "fed" information, given no major neurological deficits, it can transform it into the proper movement with ease and a high level of sophistication.

When we see the big movements of the body, we usually miss the smaller and more important movements some of which are not subtle and then others that are unfortunately, not really able to be seen.

I included a picture of an iceberg above because that is what happens in movement. A lot of what we do is totally under the surface and cannot be seen and is generally enormous and complex. It's the finished product that is really at the tip of the iceberg.

Mind, Body and Spirit must be honored for us to reach potential.

Q: What does this have to do with MOVEMENT? 


Well, the short answer is: EVERYTHING!!!

In the next few posts, I will expand on the "More than meets the eye" series. We will cover:

Center of Gravity: What it is and its applications in movement
Joint Motions and possibilities
The Rock & Roll of the Soft Tissues
FiOS of the Body: Brain-Nerve connections

I am very excited to get into this information as it can be so transformational. If you have any questions or requests for anything in particular, please email me at will@3doptimalperformance.com

Thanks!!!

Will

Optimal Performance Quote Series: Coach John Wooden

"You haven't taught until they've learned"- Coach John Wooden

Back to Basics: It can help anyone from the Redskins to you

Once in a while, things come into my life that I really need. It may be one or two things at a time that have the same message but once in a blue moon, MULTIPLE events occur with the same message, and I have no choice but to notice and take action.

The message has been: GET BACK TO BASICS!!!

It's amazing how much I hear this everyday and see it lacking in many people, including myself. Please do not think that I am exempt from this. It is truly something that I have to work with physically, mentally and spiritually every day BUT the good news is that when I put a block in place that is missing, everything gets a little easier and makes A LOT more sense.

I can give multiple examples but the one that really jumped out at me the most was reading an article written about the Washington Redskins after their abysmal loss to the New York Giants. Redskins Linebacker London Fletcher had this to say:

"It's extremely frustrating," Fletcher said. "Same old story week in and week out, we're just not a sound fundamental football team. Poor tackling, probably the worst tackling team I've been around, don't do the fundamental things well: don't catch footballs, don't hold onto the ball, don't tackle well. Those things are things that you need to do on every level in order to win football games."

That's pretty powerful especially when its coming from an elite level athlete on a professional team. Now while this may not be the only issue that is plaguing the Redskins now, it's definitely a major factor.
 
Why is it that we are allowed to go through our lives without the fundamentals that London Fletcher spoke about? I do not believe it is limited to sports as it is easily seen pervading all aspects of our society.

When I started this post, I was going to use the picture of a building blocks but the more and more I thought about it, I felt as the building blocks were too much of a "static" analogy. Building blocks are necessary but I wanted something a little more natural so I choose the image of a tall tree with deep roots. As we know, as trees grow, they must sustain themselves by using their surroundings, above and below ground, for nourishment and stability. Branches reach upward to grab the important solar energy and the roots soak up nutrients from the soil. As the trees get bigger, the roots get deeper. That's what the BASICS are. The deeper when can go with our basics, the more better we will get with our skills.

Unfortunately, most people do not want to acknowledge their lack of the basics. Through various psychological mechanisms, they deceive themselves either subconsciously or consciously tell themselves that "I've got it". In my experience, that's the furthest thing from the truth.

I've been seeing a trend with people where they hit some kind of barrier that I'll call a PIVOT POINT. This pivot point is a point in the experience where a person starts to run into difficulty. Sometimes it's overt and sometimes its very subtle, but it's still there. At the pivot point, there are 3 choices that I have observed (or done). They are:

1) STOP. RESIST. DESIST. Most people will not go any further claiming it's too hard and completely reject this point. There will be plenty of excuses and people, usually other than that person, to blame. It's a knee jerk reaction. However, the sad thing is that it will continue to happen over and over in many aspects of the persons life and they finally get it.

2) MOVE OVER, UNDER OR AROUND THE PIVOT POINT BY DOING THE MINIMUM: This is also a fun one that I people will attempt to find the PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE in the moment.  They may get something accomplished but it will never be to their potential and they will always be left wanting more.

3) ENGAGE WITH SMART AND HARD WORK: This is the most challenging choice and its the road less travelled by many but the results that will follow from the detailed, thoughtful work will surpass their expectations and leave them feeling satisfied. Do not get me wrong. This is a difficult choice that comes with a myriad of experiences, up and down, during the process. However, the process of reaching your potential will be worth it.

Which option do you choose? Can you take a moment to think about a difficult aspect of your life and see what decision you have made for yourself? If you are unhappy and frustrated with something, more than likely, you will have chosen Options 1 or 2. How do you get out of that rut?

GET BACK TO THE BASICS!

As always, I welcome questions and feedback. Contact me at will@3doptimalperformance.com


Thanks,

Will

Optimal Performance Quote Series: Pig in Mud

"Never fight with a pig. It loves mud & stink and you don’t. Identify a pig and avoid it."

Stylishly Scientfic: Staying warm for outdoor workouts

I am going to start to do this more often in this blog so I can bring in a different perspective. I've asked my good friend, Read Wall, of Read's Clothing Project who is an expert in what I call Functional Fashion (my cheesy words, not his). In this post, Read gives great suggestions on what to wear during the fall and winter seasons and I will throw in a little science of why you should stay warm during your workouts.




Cold Weather Workouts


As the weather get colder…and colder…and colder…where was I going with this? Oh right, it's cold outside. It would be easy to call it quits and spend the winter on the treadmill dreaming of green leaves, shorts, and the gentle warmth of the spring sun. But we can't do that. For a number of reasons. First, the treadmill is boring. Like, fork in the eye boring. Second, staying inside deprives the body of vital vitamin D, which, among other health benefits, makes us fell not-crappy all the time. I think we can all agree that's a good thing.

But we need to remember to dress for the weather. Breathable, technical fabrics, layered correctly, provide the perfect level of warmth without sacrificing movement or, just as important, style. Look good, feel good, right?

So get outside, even when it looks like Ernest Shackelton wouldn't. Run, do some body weight movements, even grab a kettlebell. It's good for you.

Here are some ways to keep from getting frostbite while doing so:

Zoot RUNfit Jacket (ZootSports.com)- I've been running with this jacket for about a year now. It's gotten me through a lot. Cold can be tough, but this jacket is tougher.

2XU Thermal Run Tights (2XU.com)- If you've got it, flaunt it. Rock the tights.

Nike Thermal Running Pants (Store.Nike.com)- And if you can't, these will work, too.

Patagonia R1 Hoody (Patagonia.com)- An essential layering piece. Cool colors but warm where you need it.

Accessories (Note: Important!)

Patagonia Lightweight Glove Liners (Patagonia.com)

Patagonia Cap 4 Beanie (Patagonia.com)


Q: SO WHY WOULD I WANT TO STAY SO WARM DURING WORKOUTS?

A: Well, that's a great question. The easiest answer is so that we can avoid hypothermia, where the body temperature drops too low to allow for normal bodily functions to occur which includes, but not limited to, neuromuscular and cognitive function decline. WHOA...That is not good at all and through simple solutions like wearing the appropriate clothes, we can prevent a lot of that. When our body starts to sense a temperature drop, it will divert energy and heat to keep our core body temperature up as much as possible while pulling heat away from our extremities like hands and feet. This can get dangerous especially if we are in an activity like jogging, where our feet and hands are being desensitized because of the cold. The vasoconstriction, or tightening of the blood vessels to reduce blood flow to the muscles also reduces blood flow to the nerves which means we do not respond very well to gravity, ground reaction forces, mass and momentum. Because of our loss of proprioception, we may be more prone to injury.


Q: WAIT...HYPOTHERMIA? CAN YOU GO INTO MORE DETAIL ABOUT WHAT IT IS AND WHAT CAUSES IT?


A: Hypothermia "a decrease in the core body temperature to a level at which normal muscular and cerebral functions are impaired." - Medicine for Mountaineering.

This is caused by a a number of factors which include:

•Cold temperatures
•Improper clothing and equipment
•Wetness
•Fatigue, exhaustion
•Dehydration
•Poor food intake
•No knowledge of hypothermia
•Alcohol intake - causes vasodilation leading to increased heat loss

Q: SO I SEE THAT THE FIRST TWO FACTORS ARE COLD TEMPERATURES AND IMPROPER CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT.  IT SEEMS THAT I CANNOT CONTROL THE TEMPERATURES, BUT I DO HAVE CONTROL OVER WEARING PROPER CLOTHES.

A: Yes! Great observation and you see the wisdom in Read's selections where he is recommending the ZootRunFit Jacket which is a great outer shell that will keep too much heat from escaping. The 2XU Thermal Run pants, that will "wick away" the sweat from the body which you know is important as the body starts to sweat to cool itself down from the exertion but gets into a dangerous situation when we are soaked with sweat in cold weather. We cannot stop the sweating but can control the effects with layering of clothes. Finally, the gloves and beanie are important as well. Most will be wearing socks but many will neglect wearing gloves which are super important as the hands are the most distal part of the arm and will be low on the priority list of blood flow if the core temperature needs to be regulated.

Q: OKAY, I UNDERSTAND HYPOTHERMIA AND I WILL DO MY BEST TO STAY WARM BY DRESSING PROPERLY BUT I'D STILL LIKE TO KNOW THE SIGNS OF HYPOTHERMIA. WHAT ARE THEY?

A: According to the OUTDOOR ACTION GUIDE from Princeton University are 3 stages of hypothermia: 1) Mild 2) Moderate and 3) Severe. With Severe Hypothermia being the most life threatening.

Signs of hypothermia are the "-UMBLES" of stumbles, mumbles, fumbles, and grumbles which show changes in motor coordination and levels of consciousness


b. Mild Hypothermia - core temperature 98.6 - 96 degrees F
•Shivering - not under voluntary control
•Can't do complex motor functions (ice climbing or skiing) can still walk & talk
•Vasoconstriction to periphery

c. Moderate Hypothermia - core temperature 95 - 93 degrees F

•Dazed consciousness
•Loss of fine motor coordination - particularly in hands - can't zip up parka, due to restricted peripheral blood flow
•Slurred speech
•Violent shivering
•Irrational behavior - Paradoxical Undressing - person starts to take off clothing, unaware s/he is cold
•"I don't care attitude" - flattened affect

d. Severe Hypothermia - core temperature 92 - 86 degrees and below (immediately life threatening)

•Shivering occurs in waves, violent then pause, pauses get longer until shivering finally ceases - because the heat output from burning glycogen in the muscles is not sufficient
to counteract the continually dropping core temperature, the body shuts down on shivering to conserve glucose
•Person falls to the ground, can't walk, curls up into a fetal position to conserve heat
•Muscle rigidity develops - because peripheral blood flow is reduced and due to lactic acid and CO2 buildup in the muscles
•Skin is pale
•Pupils dilate
•Pulse rate decreases
•at 90 degrees the body tries to move into hibernation, shutting down all peripheral blood flow and reducing breathing rate and heart rate.
•at 86 degrees the body is in a state of "metabolic icebox." The person looks dead but is still alive.

e. Death from Hypothermia

•Breathing becomes erratic and very shallow
•Semi-conscious
•Cardiac arrythmias develop, any sudden shock may set off Ventricular Fibrillation
•Heart stops, death

Q: WHOA! THE FACT THAT YOU CAN DIE FROM HYPOTHERMIA IS SCARY. WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I AM EXPERIENCING IT?

A: Well, the first thing I will say is that I am not a doctor so I am obligated to say SEEK PROPER EMERGENCY CARE IMMEDIATELY! Do not pass go or collect $200. This is your life and if you have any doubt in your mind, please seek some professional care.

The OUTDOOR ACTION GUIDE suggests the following:

The basic principles of rewarming a hypothermic victim are to conserve the heat they have and replace the body fuel they are burning up to generate that heat. If a person is shivering, they have the ability to rewarm themselves at a rate of 2 degrees C per hour.
Mild - Moderate Hypothermia

1. Reduce Heat Loss

•Additional layers of clothing
•Dry clothing
•Increased physical activity
•Shelter

2. Add Fuel & Fluids

It is essential to keep a hypothermic person adequately hydrated and fueled.
a. Food types
•Carbohydrates - 5 calories/gram - quickly released into blood stream for sudden brief heat surge - these are the best to use for quick energy intake especially for mild cases of hypothermia
•Proteins - 5 calories/gram - slowly released - heat given off over a longer period
•Fats - 9 calories/gram - slowly released but are good because they release heat over a long period, however, it takes more energy to break fats down into glucose - also takes more water to break down fats leading to increased fluid loss

b. Food intake
•Hot liquids - calories plus heat source
•Sugars (kindling)
•GORP - has both carbohydrates (sticks) and proteins/fats (logs)

c. Things to avoid

•Alcohol - a vasodilator - increases peripheral heat loss
•Caffeine - a diuretic - causes water loss increasing dehydration
•Tobacco/nicotine - a vasoconstrictor, increases risk of frostbite

3. Add Heat

•Fire or other external heat source
•Body to body contact. Get into a sleeping back, in dry clothing with a normothermic person in lightweight dry clothing

Severe Hypothermia

1. Reduce Heat Loss

•Hypothermia Wrap: The idea is to provide a shell of total insulation for the patient. No matter how cold, patients can still internally rewarm themselves much more efficiently than any external rewarming. Make sure the patient is dry, and has a polypropylene layer to minimize sweating on the skin. The person must be protected from any moisture in the environment. Use multiple sleeping bags, wool blankets, wool clothing, Ensolite pads to create a minimum of 4" of insulation all the way around the patient, especially between the patient and the ground. Include an aluminum "space" blanket to help prevent radiant heat loss, and wrap the entire ensemble in plastic to protect from wind and water. If someone is truly hypothermic, don't put him/her naked in a sleeping bag with another person.

2. Add Fuel and Fluids

•Warm Sugar Water - for people in severe hypothermia, the stomach has shut down and will not digest solid food but can absorb water and sugars. Give a dilute mixture of warm water with sugar every 15 minutes. Dilute Jello™ works best since it is part sugar and part protein. This will be absorbed directly into the blood stream providing the necessary calories to allow the person to rewarm themselves. One box of Jello = 500 Kilocalories of heat energy. Do not give full strength Jello even in liquid form, it is too concentrated and will not be absorbed.
•Urination - people will have to urinate from cold diuresis. Vasoconstriction creates greater volume pressure in the blood stream. The kidneys pull off excess fluid to reduce the pressure. A full bladder results in body heat being used to keep urine warm rather than vital organs. Once the person has urinated, it precious body heat will be used to maintain the temperature of vital organs. So in the end urinating will help conserve heat. You will need to help the person urinate. Open up the Hypothermia Wrap enough to do this and then cover them back up. You will need to keep them hydrated with the dilute Jello solution described above.

3. Add Heat

Heat can be applied to transfer heat to major arteries - at the neck for the carotid, at the armpits for the brachial, at the groin for the femoral, at the palms of the hands for the arterial arch.

•Chemical heat packs such as the Heat Wave™ provides 110 degrees F for 6-10 hours.
•Hot water bottles, warm rocks, towels, compresses
•For a severely hypothermic person, rescue breathing can increase oxygen and provide internal heat.


Afterdrop

Is a situation in which the core temperature actually decreases during rewarming. This is caused by peripheral vessels in the arms and legs dilating if they are rewarmed. This dilation sends this very cold, stagnate blood from the periphery to the core further decreasing core temperature which can lead to death. In addition, this blood also is very acetic which may lead to cardiac arrythmias and death. Afterdrop can best be avoided by not rewarming the periphery. Rewarm the core only! Do not expose a severely hypothermic victim to extremes of heat.


I hope this was informative from a style and a scientific standpoint. We all want to reach our best and by being smart and working hard, we can get to those goals. Please make sure you dress properly if you are going to do outdoor workouts during the cold months. We hear a lot on the news about people suffering from heat stroke but we also hear about many who are struck by the various stages of hypothermia.

If you have any comments or questions to either Read or I, please send mail to will@3doptimalperformance and I will pass any questions on to Read.

Read is also the designer of 3 great shirts for men that are made especially for athletes focusing on a nice fit. What is great is that Read is donating part of the proceeds to help promote education in Africa. Please visit his site at http://www.readsclothingproject.com/.

Stay warm!

Read Wall and Will Stewart

Optimal Performance Quote Series: Abraham

“You can’t manifest beyond what you believe.”

-Abraham

6 tips to keep the holiday weight off

"FOOD IS MEDICINE" is the main tenet of the Institute for Functional Medicine. I truly believe this as I have cleaned up my diet over the last few months and have NEVER felt better in my life. I typically eat between 2-3 lbs of vegetables per day and have at least 4 servings of fruit. It's probably closer to 8 with my mondo-breakfast smoothie. Imagine my surprise when I dropped 15 lbs easily just by cleaning up my diet.

As we come close to the holiday season with all of the company, friend and family parties, it becomes very easy to pack on the POUNDS between Christmas and New Years and when New Years Day comes around, we feel a little guilty and get our much bigger butts into the gym. I actually read a statistic that most people gain between 5-8lbs during the holiday season. (HOLY SMOKES!!!)

Well, how about for 2011, you not even get to that point???? Below are 6 simple tips to keep the weight off and put you ahead of the "New Years Resolution" crowd in the gym.

1) Stick to the 90/10 rule with food. 90% of the time you want to eat WHOLE, UNPROCESSED FOOD and 10% of the time, go crazy and eat what you want. I do this on a weekly basis but some people have taken to mean it during every meal. Honestly, once you start to clean up your diet, you wont crave the foods that are not so good for you.

2) Go for the salad first. Challenge yourself to eat at least 2lbs of veggies per day.  Here are some GREAT Holiday salad ideas.

3) Have a great smoothie for breakfast with nuts or eggs. Go here for some good ideas. I use a healthy acai juice with no added sugar or preservatives

4) Go 90/10 rule with liquids. 90% of the time you want to drink WATER but the other 10% of the time live it up with GOOD QUALITY eggnog, wine, seasonal beer. Sodas and other sugar beverages are in general, CRAP, so unless there is a great holiday root beer float with eggnog ice cream you want to make, SKIP THEM!

5) Get at least 30-45 minutes of movement per day. That could be traditional gym exercise, walking, jogging, swimming, Yoga class. If you want to stimulate your digestion, go for a walk after a big meal instead of falling asleep. You will get some fresh air as well as getting your body moving.  Check out my quick hitter circuit video below.

6) Invest and take good vitamin supplements like a multi-vitamin, Vitamin D (to boost immunity), Probiotics (to improve digestion), Fish Oil (for the cellular maintenance), Magnesium (the "relaxation" mineral) and a Vitamin B complex (to improve brain function). For more info go to Dr. Mark Hymans' great post on supporting your immune system during the winter which includes great info on supplements and vitamins.


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Will

Optimal Performance Quote Series: Leon Fleisher

"Subvert the dominant paradigm” - pianist Leon Fleischer

Looking functionally at Osgood-Schlatters Disease

Recently, a few of my athletes have been coming to training with knee problems which has been neatly diagnosed by their doctors as Osgood-Schlatters Disease. Unfortunately, this effects many adolescent athletes BUT not all of them so it made me start to think, "What in the world is going on here?"  Basing my thought process in Applied Functional Science. , and with guidance from Dr. David Tiberio and Lenny Parracino of the Gray Institute, I wanted to write a short post on this monster known as Osgood-Schlatters that has and is taking out my athletes.

WHAT IS OSGOOD-SCHLATTERS DISEASE?

According to Wikipedia, it is:

Osgood–Schlatter disease or syndrome (also known as tibial tubercle apophyseal traction injury) is a rupture of the growth plate at the tibial tuberosity.[1]



Sinding–Larsen–Johansson syndrome is an analogous condition involving the patellar tendon and the lower margin of the patella bone, instead of the upper margin of the tibia.


The condition occurs in active boys and girls aged 9–16[2] coinciding with periods of growth spurts. It occurs more frequently in boys than in girls, with reports of a male-to-female ratio ranging from 3:1 to as high as 7:1. It has been suggested the difference is related to a greater participation by boys in sports and risk activities than by girls.[citation needed]

The condition is usually self-limiting and is caused by stress on the patellar tendon that attaches the quadriceps muscle at the front of the thigh to the tibial tuberosity. Following an adolescent growth spurt, repeated stress from contraction of the quadriceps is transmitted through the patellar tendon to the immature tibial tuberosity. This can cause multiple subacute avulsion fractures along with inflammation of the tendon, leading to excess bone growth in the tuberosity and producing a visible lump which can be extremely painful when hit.


Now this is an interesting analysis of the disease but it never really gets to the WHY of the situation. As we look functionally at OSD, we look at the site of the injury but it would be shortsighted to not look below and above the knee to see if we cannot find out who is zooming who in this situation.

When we look at what elicits symptoms from a person suffering from OSD, we see that it generally mid-range to deep knee flexion. With our knowledge of functional muscle function, we know that the quadriceps decelerates knee flexion, and this makes sense that the tensile stress on the tibial tubercule would cause micro-avulsions in an immature structure if the force exceeded the threshold of the bone/cartilage. Now we also know that many muscles also cross the knee joint that would aid in the deceleration of knee flexion like the powerful gluteal muscles, hamstrings, as well as the gastroc-soleus complex also known as the calf muscles.

The body is not going to allow the knee to not be decelerated. If it did, we would simply fall over with every step we tried to take. When the body sense that the powerful hip and calf muscles are not doing their job, it will OVER-recruit the quadriceps which will do the job but at the expense of the causing microtrauma to the tendon and insertions of the muscle. When we get this OVERUSE, we get....OSGOOD-SCHLATTERS DISEASE.

WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR PREVENTION?

Fortunately, training, conditioning, rehabilitation and prevention of the cause of OSD, are all in the same boat.

If you suspect an athlete is suffering from it, you want to direct he or she to a doctor so that they can receive an accurate diagnosis as well as treatments.

According to Mayoclinic.com, Osgood-Schlatter disease usually gets better without formal treatment. Symptoms typically disappear after your child's bones stop growing. Until that happens, your doctor may recommend mild pain relievers and physical therapy.

However, we can start get a jump on Osgood-Schlatters by getting the powerful gluteals and calves working to help decelerate knee flexion so that the quadriceps do not have to work so hard.

Here's a quick program:

HIP FLEXION WITH SLIGHT KNEE FLEXION TO ACTIVATE GLUTES AND HAMSTRINGS

1. Standing one leg, if possible, slightly bend the knee to about 10-20 degrees or to the point that doesn't cause pain.
2. If there are balance issues use a chair in front of the athlete to help stabilize.
3. Using the nose a driver, start bending from hips with the spine in neutral as much as possible to either chest or hip height.
4. The athlete is concentrating on using the glutes to slow down the anterior pelvic rotation along with the hamstrings.
5) The feeling of a stretching of the glutes and hamstrings. Do this 5-7 times PROPERLY. A trained therapist or strength coach should be able to guide a young athlete in this if necessary.
6) This should be followed up by EASY lunges, to the same nose driver height and knee flexion.

I will post a video of this in a day or so.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know at will@3doptimalperformance.com

Effective vs Efficient: Shortsighted thinking at its best

Recently, my high school kicker has been having some intense back problems. He was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis a few years ago but after his rehab has been OK for the most part. Interestingly, he has had a great season and made a 44 yard field goal during the game last week to push our team to a 27-14 win against a rival school.

He's kicking with good power and accuracy but this is coming at a cost of his body. During the summer, he worked on getting more power and has done so but after evaluating him last week, it was obvious that he lacked any hip extension and was exclusively using extension from the lumbar spine. What a great way to irritate a previous injury! We've done some soft tissue therapy on him after his doctor gave him the "OK" to play. He's uncomfortable, but he'll make it through to the championship game this Saturday.

The thing about Chris is he's very effective at kicking. He's also a great kid so its hard to see him in pain after he's being so effective in making all of his kicks. However, the reality is that he's not really being efficient in using his whole body during his activity and it's causing him a great deal of pain.

Looks like this University of Texas kicker is getting the most out of his whole body.

We spoke in detail about this, and he and I both came to the conclusion that his while he's being effective, his kicking mechanics are off and not efficient; and that he's probably not going to be able to sustain that level of performance when he kicks in college. I truly believe that Chris can go to the next level (as tough as I am on him) but only if he is willing to step back and do some structural work to "clear the path" of function as well as do the functional movements that will coordinate his athletic ability. It will not be easy. Actually, it will be a lot of hard work that will require him to step back and be dedicated, intelligent and humble throughout the training process. (More of that in a later post)


SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH EFFICIENT VS EFFECTIVE???

Effective (adj.): Adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.



Efficient (adj.) Performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort.


If you want an easier way to memorize the difference, remember this sentence: “Being effective is about doing the right things, while being efficient is about doing the things in the right manner.”


As I searched the Internet, I found many articles dedicated to contrasting and comparing the two. However, only one made mention of combining the two. I would like to propose:

EFFICIENTLY EFFECTIVE

AND

EFFECTIVELY EFFICIENT

Oxymorons? Maybe. However, I think that they are intimately connected by HARD WORK.

Dedication to excellence and optimal performance comes at the cost of getting into something and REALLY doing the work that it entails. It is not just touching on details. It is a commitment to delving into the depths of the activity that you are in and extracting the most from the moment or person working with you.( I've mentioned this in my post on OPTIMAL COACHING).

The thread that unites Efficient and Effective is DEDICATION.

Can you step back and objectively look at the things that are the most important AND least important in your life and evaluate whether or not you are being EFFICIENTLY EFFECTIVE AND EFFECTIVELY EFFICIENT?

Can you learn to be a better athlete/student/parent/child/employee/employer? Sure! I guarantee you that it will take hard work to get there but the results will AMAZE you.

Enjoy the process of being E.D.E (Effective. Dedicated. Efficient).

Best regards,

Will

Any Yoga is NOT good Yoga!

WAY TOO MUCH LUMBAR EXTENSION!!! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME IF YOU LOVE YOUR BACK!

A few years ago, someone said to me "Any yoga is good yoga" and I reluctantly agreed because I was a budding young teacher and this person had been teaching for a while. To this persons credit, she was (and still is) an AWESOME teacher and must have been comparing her way of instruction to students that resulted in good alignment and form. Unfortunately, not everyone does not have her deep and rich understanding of the mechanics of the poses. Actually, these days, I think its almost the opposite, especially in some of the Power Yoga and Vinyasa classes where getting a workout in is put over proper alignment. 

I have the opportunity to come into contact with hundreds of yoga practitioners per week who may be regular to my class, a drop-in or completely new to yoga. "Open Level" is what we call some of those classes. What I see from some of the non-regular students in their yoga poses forces me to stop class and really instruct on a particulars. Their alignment is all out of sorts but worse off its just plain dangerous and will more than likely lead them to a repetitive stress/strain injury. Some things I see are:

HYPER EXTENDED LUMBAR SPINES
LOCKED ELBOWS
OVERLY TENSE SHOULDERS
OFF BALANCE POSES
OVER ROTATING AT THE LUMBAR SPINE

The list goes on and on. The cause of some of these are structural like tight hamstrings that are compensated for, tight thoracic spine that is compensated for at the Lumbar spine. These can be worked through. But some of these are just from BAD HABITS and what gets me is that these bad habits extremely limit the practitioners progress.

This happens because many yoga teachers do not understand how the body REALLY works. Anatomy is studied but its focused on muscles and not the correct biomechanics of the WHOLE BODY. Understanding how joints and connective tissue all work TOGETHER, based on unifying principles of function, allows the teacher to create an authentic practice.

Simply calling out a pose in class is not teaching. It's reciting lines. Don't get me wrong. I was in that boat once. I am not blameless. However, when I found my way into understanding the body the other parts of my yoga teaching opened significantly and my students really were able to progress physically, mentally and spiritually. If they feel more comfortable in one, they will feel more comfortable in the other two. 

As a teacher and yogi, I am constantly working toward being as authentic as possible. Interestingly, that is where the hard work is. Being fake and artificial takes no work at all.

YOGA TEACHERS: Keep studying the sutras, chanting, inspirational reading, etc up. It's good. Get yourself into biomechanics and functional anatomy. If you want to see your students move with ease, efficiency, grace and power, sink your teeth into the science of movement. Do not be put off by it because it gets technical. GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE AND GET TECHNICAL! Your students will keep coming back and getting better and better every week because they will understand the body more. Help them own their practice.

This may ruffle some feathers. That's okay. My intent is to encourage you to study some of the science of yoga as well as the spiritual and mental. They are not SEPARATE!!!!

I will post some videos detailing certain asana soon. If you have any requests, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Any questions or comments can be sent to will@3doptimalperformance.com

Thanks,

Will

8 ways to maximize your time with your trainer/coach/therapist/teacher

I have mentioned many times that I wear many hats as a coach, teacher, therapist and trainer and they all have their own set of experiences that are particular to that "hat", but there are a lot of similarities that I see as well.  Very often people come in and pay me a good deal of money to help them with their issues of performance enhancement, weight loss, pain elimination, etc but unfortunately, some of  these people are not maximizing their time with me.

Unfortunately, but I have to say this, we are very much in a "DO ME" culture. Now let me clarify that. What I mean is that people think that if they show up, that they've done their part and now its up to us to do the rest and "fix" them. Wow!

First, that is A LOT to put on someone. Yes, we are the ones with the training in the area that you are having an issue with BUT the truth of the matter is that it is VERY DRAINING for us to be the one leading the ship especially when its not our ship.

The real truth is that its a TEAM effort. As therapists/coaches/trainers/teacher/doctors, we are not on some higher level than you and unfortunately that is the way its been taught for many years. If you come in to us, we will do our best to help you; but what usually happens is, we do great work in the session, we give you "homework" to do and then you may do some of it but not all of it. Then you come back the week after or at the next visit and we ask "How's it going? How did you do with the homework?"

Well, what happens is folks tell us "Great! Did all my work" and then we get into the session and we find out you didn't do your work and in fact are at the same place you were last week. Sound familiar?

If you REALLY want results, come in with a TEAM MENTALITY that we will both give it all we have at the session and especially afterwards. That's where the real work comes in. Yes, WORK. Many professionals, would LOVE a client who asks us to draw from our deep resources of knowledge to help you, but this is AFTER you have put your work in. There is nothing more draining that a client who asks a lot but gives very little.

KEY POINTS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR TIME:

1) Come in with a clear purpose that you are willing to state upfront to your professional. If they can help, great. If they cannot, they will pass you on to someone who can.
2) Come to work as team.
3) Ask questions. If you are not clear on something, PLEASE PLEASE ASK US! We want you to be CRYSTAL CLEAR on what needs to be done.
4) Do your homework! We know when you do not so please do not get frustrated with us that you are not improving. Remember, TEAMWORK!
5) Be consistent with your visits. We need to see you so that we can go to the next logical step even if that visit with us is to say, "We are as far as I can take you but here is a great person to see to get you to the next step." Professionals build relationships in our business for that reason. Your improvement benefits everyone.
6) Be honest. If its working, tell us. If it's not working, tell us.
7) If we are awesome, tell others about us!
8) Remember that many of us got into our profession to help people, and we really do appreciate you.


I hope this wasn't too preachy. Believe me, I'm not an innocent party. I am going through it right now with one of my teachers. However, at the end of the day, I know that he has my best interests at heart and wants to see me do well. He just called me out on not being a team player. I respect his honesty and integrity. That's why I'm dedicating this post to ROBERT DURSO of the Golandsky Institute. He is a teacher/trainer/coach/therapist par excellence.

Any questions, comments, feedback can be sent to will@3doptimalperformance.com.

Thanks,

Will

Optimal Performance Quote Series: Nova Knutson

"Hint: The cage is not locked." - Nova Knutson

Are you being 3-D Authentic?

A week or so ago, I was able to go to a Functional Soft Tissue Transformation course by one of my mentors, Lenny Parracino. He is a great teacher and a guy who is really paving the way for functional therapy.

In his workshop, he mentioned that what separates his practice from other practices was that he looked at each of his client-patients as INDIVIDUALS and took through through movements and soft tissue therapy that was AUTHENTIC as possible to their true function. Hmmm....

Lately, authenticity has been popping up a lot for me, and I started to ask myself why do I continue to see this theme. Am I not being authentic in my life? Well, the truth of the matter is that while I sometimes think so, I am probably being "semi-authentic" which is probably an oxymoron. Is it either/or?

However, there are clear moments that I am being authentic. Andrew Cohen, said this about being authentic:

The authentic self is the best part of a human being. It's the part of you that already cares, that is already passionate about evolution. When your authentic self miraculously awakens and becomes stronger than your ego, then you will truly begin to make a difference in this world. You will literally enter into a partnership with the creative principle.

Being authentic doesn't take work. It is already there and it feels comfortable. It's not forced. There is no ego that interjects judgements. The tough thing is that the pull of the ego is so great, we cannot break free from its grasp and feel a sense of anxiety when we try.

W.H. Auden said:

We would rather be ruined than changed.

We would rather die in our dread

Than climb the cross of the present

And let our illusions die

Audenn could refer to so much. In my profession, I am tasked with helping people move better so that they are more efficient in their function. Sometimes that takes soft tissue work, corrective exercise, functional conditioning, nutrition, and even behavioral changes. I can say that I have rarely had a client-patient who was ready to jump into change. There is always a hesitancy because the familiar feels easy. We're accustomed to it. Change is hard and like Auden said, people would rather be ruined than changed. However, it is that movement, that Transformational Zone(TZ), as we say in Applied Functional Science, when we move from one direction into another. The eccentric loading of our mind, body and spirit that got us to one point, is ready to propel us to the unloading or explode concentrically in another direction.

Unfortunately, this Transformational Zone needs to be sequenced appropriately and all known blocks removed so that the sensation of flow can happen. The TZ  could also be seen as a breakdown to a breakthrough. Sometimes its a little more anticipated and sometimes its spontaneous. We have to be ready for both because when that time comes, we have to just let go.

Now what I think many of us do, myself included, is play it safe. Do what we know. Take the path more travelled. It's easier to do what we know or follow in others shadows. For some, that's fine. That's their choice, but I think those reading a blog on optimal performance want more than to just be shadows.

In your life, what are you fearing now? What is keeping you from being great? Can you identify one area and take small steps to change directions for the better. I do not mean side stepping either. I mean turn this around for the better. It may be a HUGE rock but as we do functional soft tissue and training with people, we know its one fiber at a time. Chiseling down the "big rock" to smaller ones that are more manageable. It may take a few days, months or years but there is nothing like the sensation of moving freely.

Are you moving freely in mind/body/spirit? I will tell you now its not easy but boy is it rewarding.

Will

Be your authentic self. Your authentic self is who you are when you have no fear of judgment, or before the world starts pushing you around and telling you who you're supposed to be. Your fictional self is who you are when you have a social mask on to please everyone else. Give yourself permission to be your authentic self.

~ Dr. Phil

How to save your throwing arm from injury

Recently, I have had to deal with a few injuries related to throwing with my athletes that has also been concurrent with a rise of throwing injuries of a few professional athletes like Stephen Strasburg and Brett Favre.

Some of these injuries are not serious and the athlete can continue playing but others, like Strasburg, unfortunately, ended their seasons prematurely.

What do all of these have in common?

The short answer was that there was more than likely a breakdown somewhere in the kinetic chain that caused the body's tissues to be overexerted in a compensation that lead to the injury. That's the easy answer. The bigger question is WHERE in the kinetic chain was there a breakdown?


THROWING BASICS 101

When we look at throwing in any sport, we see a VERY complex skill. It requires the full body to be completely coordinated to achieve a efficient and injury free motion. This means that the from the big toe up to the top of the head, everything must be in working order and orderly working.

Proper joint motion must occur at the right time, place and speed so that the muscles and connective tissue that are attached can ECCENTRICALLY LOAD so that they can create the CONCENTRIC UNLOAD/EXPLODE which results in the throw.

When there a glitch in the process somewhere, we get an overloaded compensation somwhere else in the body that leads to an injury. For Straburg and Favre, it's focusing in on their elbows. For other throwers, it can go into places like the shoulder and lower back. It just depends on the person.

The question is now HOW DO WE TRAIN AND CONDITION FOR THE SKILL OF THROWING FOR POWER AND ACCURACY AS WELL AS FOR INJURY PREVENTION?

The process lies within Applied Functional Athletic Development design. In my other post 5 WAYS TO PREPARE YOUR ATHLETE FOR SUCCESS, I outlined the process focusing on the foot and ankle, but the same process applies for skill of throwing to develop an proficient injury free motion. It is:

1) Functional Prep

2) Fundamental Movement

3) Complex Movement

4) Skill (Throwing, in this case)

A lot of times, people tend to skip the one step or another and when that happens, we can get SOME results but not as comprehensive as is possible using the 4 step process.

In the next blog post, we will go over the Fundamental Preparation that everyone who is starting to throw, throwing or maybe post rehab should do. We'll also do some investigations into some of the elbow injuries that throwers suffer from. There are already posts on Rotator Cuff impingement  and Shoulder Instability.

Please send any questions or comments to Will@3doptimalperformance.com.

Thanks,

Will

A quick and dirty functional circuit for a total body workout

Very often, I get emails from friends asking me about a simple yet functional workout.

As many of my client-patients and athletes know, I am all about exercies being multi-planar to be functional. A while back, I wrote the post "3 exercises every athletes needs to do". They are:

LUNGES

SQUATS

PUSH-UPS

Putting the movements into a nice sequence works very well. Because function is TWEAKABLE, this cicuit can be done many ways.

For instance, you can change the number of reps within the circuit from 1-(whatever).

You can do each movement (lunge, squat, push-up) for time before you move to the next one like 45 seconds for lunges then 45 seconds for squats, etc.

You can speed up or slow down the movmements.

You decrease or increase weight of dumbells.

The number of possibilities is ENDLESS but I wanted to just shoot this video out as a INTRO TO FUNCTIONAL FITNESS.

VIDEO DETAILS

In the video, you will see me:

Do the lunge matrix with:

Both arms reaching to knees back to shoulder (bicep curl)

Both arms reaching to ankles to an overhead press

Do squats and push-ups with the single-plane tweaks of:

XXX - Feet/hands neutral

RXX- Right foot/hand forward

LXX- Left foot/hand forward

XWX- Feet/hands wider than hip distance

XNX- Feet/hands narrowr than hip distance

XXE- Feet/hands turned out

XXI- Feet/hands turned in

This circuit can be progressed into the double-plane and tri-planar tweaks, but I will save that for another day.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know.

Best,

Will

Slowing down to Speed up Development: Secrets of Success series

Faster. Stronger. Bigger.

Thats the tagline of a lot of training and conditioning programs. They LOOOOOVE to get you doing something faster. However, is faster always better?

Recently,  I was coaching our fall conditioning group in "Stances and Starts" which is basically starting in different foot positions like right or left foot foward and then going to small jog with either the same or opposite foot moving first. For some reason, a few of the guys were in good stances and when they started, there was a moment where they rocked back and then rocked forward into the jog. At first, I was puzzled as to why they would do that. It wastes a lot of time and is pretty uncoordinated. Well, I had to stop the whole group for a moment to tell them that when you want to start walking/jogging/sprinting, you simply had to lose your balance forward, the body would react by moving either foot forward. Therefore, rocking back to then go forward was very inefficient. After a few times, some of the boys got it but one did not. He simply wanted to just get started any way that his body could do at the time.  I let another coach work the rest of the drill and coached this young man. I told him to simlply "slow down, feel the weight of your body (which is 6'8", 230lbs) in the balls of the feet, lean forward and just go but DON'T RUSH!" Everytime I saw him start to rock back, I stopped him and had it do it over and slower. Big guys need to have as much finesse, balance and body awareness as anyone else on the court. If not, it makes for a BIG ineffective clumsy player. Well, after a few minutes of really focusing and slowing down, he was finally able to feel the ground under feet and every start and stance after that was perfect.

This young man need to allow himself to slow down and get into his body. So many people, especially athletes, go through their activity with their brains half-on and hoping that they 'get-it'. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't but when they do not get it, the recipe for success is not going to be do it faster. Speed covers up a lot of errors. It's in the slow speed that's when we can see what's going on.

Below is a video of the famous golfer, Ben Hogan, who was meticulous in his practice. You will see him do a few super-slow swings. It's amazing that Ben is taking the time to a) breakdown his swing into parts and b) do it a slow speed so that he is aware of the movements taking place. Notice also who he steps slowly into place. Not only does this take patience, it also takes a tremendous amount of discipline to practice with intent, focus and attention to the most minute detail.

Are you able to slow down to really get a grip on what you doing? It doesn't have to be athletics. It could be anything from work to raising a family. Some moments deserve a slow practice to appreciate the subtleties of the activities as well as the big movements.

Is there something you aren't getting within an activity? Here's a simple solution:

1) Slow down. Breathe.
2) Break the movement down into parts. Taking one big skill in one bite can be too much to deal with but smaller parts, that are then connected together make the task MUCH more approachable and attainable.
3) After practing slowly, start to integrate speed and if there is something still wrong, go back to Step 2 and do it again. Maybe something else in the chain is going wrong. If so, find and fix.

Have a productive day!!!

Will

The Myth of Mistakes: "Secrets of Success" series

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."

-Miles Davis

Miles Davis was an icon as well as being an iconoclast. He redefined Jazz and Blues and will always be a true legend. Sometime in between making music, he was able to find some deep truths. I read the above quote in college and ALWAYS remembered it. However, it has taken me a while to really live that truth.
 
From a young age, many of us are made painfully aware of our perceived mistakes. We drop a pass, miss a passage from a piece, miss a bill payment, eat junk food. The list of mistakes goes on and on. Reactions from others can compound the feelings of guilt or anger that we may have when we make a mistake such as the "oooooh" of the crowd after a basketball player misses the game winning shot. The list of reactions goes on and on too, but I'd like to offer this:
 
THE SECOND SECRET OF SUCCESS IS THAT THERE ARE NO MISTAKES!
 
Last summer, I found a great book. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle is an awesome book and I've suggested it to anyone who would listen. In it, Coyle explains that talent is really not all its cracked up to be. He broke it down to three vital components of so-called talent.

1) Deliberate Practice
2) Ignition/Motivation
3)  Master Coaching

The book is well worth the read but I wanted to mention an awesome blog post by Coyle. In his post "The 0.25 Second that makes all the difference" he recounts a story of the audition process of the Bolshoi Ballet Company.

Here's an excerpt from his blog:

But there’s another way of thinking about error, and it begins with a story I heard recently about Marina Semyonova, a master teacher at the Bolshoi Ballet in the fifties.

The story goes like this: Every year, Semyonova would hold a tryout for the Bolshoi, which was (and still is) one of the world’s greatest ballet troupes. You can imagine the scene: dozens of brilliant young dancers milling about, years of experience holstered and ready, their dreams on the line.

At first, the tryout would proceed like any other: the dancers would try to show their abilities and vast repertoires. But then Semyonova would surprise them. She would stop the audition and teach them one new move – something they’ve never tried. They weren’t big complex moves – to the contrary, they were quite simple. It was as if the top-level audition suddenly was replaced by a beginners’ class.

The beginners’ class section took only a few minutes. But it was by far the most important moment of the audition, because by the time it was over Semyonova knew precisely which dancers to pick and which to pass over. And as the record shows, she proved to be right far more often than not.

Semyonova wasn’t a neuroscientist, but she was onto something. She wasn’t interested in measuring levels of skill – which changes over time and can be frustratingly unpredictable. She was zeroing in on a tiny slice of time that makes a massive difference in our learning ability — that primal instant right after we make a mistake.

That instant – which this very cool brain-scan experiment shows to be about 0.25 seconds – is a fork in the road; the moment when things tip one way or the other. Either the mistake is judged as a verdict and thus blocked out — or it’s seen as a piece of information to be used. And indeed, in the experiment referenced above, the students who used their mistakes (whose brains processed them deeply in that magical 0.25 seconds) ended up scoring higher than students who didn’t.

I love this for so many reasons. That "mistake" was instant feedback of how much we can better. It's a launch pad to success. However, we've been programmed that they are bad.

Do you dwell on your mistakes? Do you get down on yourself for making an error?

Allow yourself to be open to the possibility that the kind of mistakes that you think exist, really do not. Allow the moment after you've done something that did not go your way to be feedback, acknowledge that it's neither bad or good, own it and move on to do it better next time.

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none"

-Miles Davis

Functional Pilates for Athletes: Cross-Train like a Pro Series pt. 4

If someone would have asked me if I would take, train and then finally teach Pilates ten years ago, I would have said "NO WAY!"  As a yoga teacher, I even snubbed Pilates as a "yoga knock-off" but after training in the system for the past 6 years, I take it all back.

WHO DOES PILATES?
Originally called "Contrology" by its founder Joseph Pilates, evolved as a system of rehabiltation for injured soldiers during World War II.  Joseph noticed that when the soldiers were able to move sooner, even in hospital beds, they recovered much faster. Over time he developed his system and finally moved to New York City where it became a mainstay of conditioning and rehabilitation for injured dancers, many of whom danced under Balanchine and Graham (both very physically demanding forms of dance). For decades, Pilates was used by dancers not only as conditioning but rehab. However, much like yoga, the tremendous benefits of Pilates emerged and made their way into mainstream America and finally into professional athletics. Thats right! Athletes like Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Jason Kidd and Curt Schilling have all been doing Pilates and swear by this amazing system.

HOW IS PILATES FUNCTIONAL?

Many of my colleagues poo-poo Pilates, but I really think it's because they do not understand it. Their arguement to me is "when are you ever on your back crunching up in athletics? We need to train upright for function because that's where they will be performing." Well, as Gary Gray, PT says "It depends".
Looking back at Fundamental Movements, those included activities like lunging, squatting, running, jumping, hopping, pushing and pulling. However, those movements could also be lying on the back, side, and front. These movements are FOUNDATIONAL movements for us to get into our bodies.

In my last post on FUNCTIONAL YOGA FOR ATHLETES, I mentioned that it develops a greater kinesthetic sense or where and what the body is doing in space. One of the main tenets of Pilates is FOCUSING on your body.  Pilates, done correctly, requires a great deal of precision that will not let people turn their brains off as they may do during an "abs workout". When the movements are refined, it will not only be a "good workout" physically, they will have honed their awareness of their body.

Can Pilates strengthen the core? Sure, but I think it's way deeper than that. On top of the kinesthetic sense, athletes can find Pilates to be restorative in nature. Because they are either lying on the back, side or front for Mat-based Pilates, there is less load to the joints. Also, going through these movements, muscles are being eccentrically loaded and concentrically exploded  while their joints go through their range of motion in a non-weight bearing way. Joints and muscles are able to find more space, mobility and stability during the session.

Below is a quick video of the "5 Abdomnial Series" with an explanation. These five exercises that are done in a "flow" manner are great for starting to turn on all of the nerves and muscles of abs.

As always, I welcome questions and comments.

Thanks,

Will