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More mobility isn’t always good…

September 8, 2018

Earlier I wrote about why I don’t like the “knees out” cue in the squat (parts 1 and 2 here and here). It often comes down to athletes not understanding which muscles to use, and some being too mobile for their own good. They have trouble finding alignment. I also mentioned why not everybody needs the same amount of “mobility work” – working on it can actually predispose some to injury. If you have more passive ROM at a joint than you can actively stabilize, you are essentially asking for injury.  Passive range of motion without active control is a disaster waiting to happen. There is another way you can be hurting yourself or your clients by trying to “mobilize” the joints or muscles. It also has to do with something I mentioned in that same article. It’s something many trainers and mobility devotees don’t think about. It’s your bone structure.

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Why I don’t like “Knees out!” in the squat, Part 2

August 18, 2018

In Part 1 I talked about how an athlete’s mobility makes them respond to the “knees out” squat command differently, some of the complications that creates, and why it matters. I’d like to dig a little bit deeper into another reason I’m not a huge fan of using this phrase as a primary instruction. Downside #2 – Not Knowing Your Purpose The second reason I don’t like using “knees out” is closely related to the last point form part 1: many trainers don’t actually know what physical response they are looking for, and are simply using cues they’ve heard before. The goal of using the knees out command is to get  tension into the hips and to use the abductors to stabilize the knee over the base of support. Now, before I hear too many protests, let me say this. Yes, we do indeed squat between our legs, not on

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Why I don’t like “Knees out!” in the squat, Part 1

August 3, 2018

To be totally frank, I’m not a fan of the “knees out” coaching cue in squats. Sure, I use it from time to time with certain athletes and lifters. But I don’t generally like it for 2 reasons. First, I think it actually has the potential to screw people up, depending on their individual joint characteristics. Second, I think that there are many trainers and coaches out there who don’t actually know what the purpose of that cue actually is! (News flash: it’s not to get the knees “out” an arbitrary distance). Cueing clients is highly individual – some will respond or prefer hearing one thing over another, and as coaches we have pointers we find to work well for a variety of reasons. Not everyone will have the same verbal keys and that’s completely fine. It’s normal. If “knees out” works for your athletes and general fitness clients, keep

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“Find the Weak Point and Fix it!”

July 17, 2018

I’ve been thinking about this quote quite a bit. I don’t remember where I heard it, but I believe the entire world of sports performance training can be summed up in these words. Fix the athlete’s weaknesses. Use whatever tools are at your disposal to do it, and constantly learn new ones. Don’t limit yourself to only one kind of training. As coaches we often lock ourselves into stylistic boxes: bodybuilding, Olympic lifting, conditioning, or even corrective exercises. We end up convincing ourselves that only one kind of training is worthwhile, most often because it is our favorite kind of training. All the time we are missing out on chances to better ourselves and put essential coaching tools into our kit. This doesn’t serve us. It doesn’t serve our athletes or clients either. Playing Favorites There’s nothing wrong with having a favorite type of training—most of us got into fitness

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Challenge Your Biases

July 2, 2018

“It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”. This quote, often attributed to Aristotle, contains what I believe to be one of the fundamental keys to developing a training philosophy as a coach (or indeed, any development as a person). Challenging our biases as coaches – testing our views of the training world – is as uncomfortable as it is essential. If you’ve heard the name Frans Bosch before, you’re one of the few who have. You also probably have one of three opinions: He’s brilliant He’s crazy He trains runners, so he MUST be out of his mind (…said every powerlifter ever) Bosch has been of the most polarizing figures in performance training since the early 2000s. While he is very strong on biomechanics and anatomy, his approach to weight training has caused massive controversy. He tosses many core

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A New Study on Back Pain in the Army

May 7, 2018

New Insights On An Old Problem A significant study on back pain in US Army soldiers was published this month. Results show that lower leg injury dramatically increases a soldiers risk for back pain. This study reinforces the idea that substantial alterations should be considered in fitness training for soldiers and treatment of injuries. The authors investigated the relationship between past lower leg injury (LLI) and the development of back pain. They examined whether lower leg injury would increase the overall risk for back pain compared to soldiers with no injury. They also studied whether the speed of back pain development was different between previously injured soldiers and healthy ones. Lower back pain (LBP) is one of the top 3 reasons for lost duty days in the Army, and lower leg injury one of the most prevalent injuries in the Army. That makes this study doubly important. The Results The

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Proof That Good Coaching Matters

February 17, 2018

There are very few absolutes in the world of performance and nutrition. The most universally hated phrase (“well, it depends…”) is also almost always the most truthful answer, much to the frustration of the person asking the question! There is one study however, that shows without doubt exactly how much having a good coach changes an athlete or soldier’s ability to perform and resist injury. I want to cover it today because it’s so crucial. It was written by a fantastic research team, including possibly the world’s foremost spine and back pain researcher Dr. Stuart McGill, who I count as a mentor. Given the high incidence of back pain in the military, this is especially important. Stu is an amazing person, and I’ve learned more from him than I could possibly put into words. He is also an extremely rigorous scientist, and I love this study because it shows. Designing

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