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The Dreaded "BOX"

I was able to do a few presentations last year at the NATA conference as well as a couple other smaller conferences to share my approach to how I address certain areas of clinical interventions - specifically the thoracic spine, training deceleration, and movement (3 separate topics).  Since then, I receive about 2-3 emails each week regarding something contained in on of my presentations.  More often than not, however, I get the something similar to the following:

I attended your -insert specific presentation here- and really enjoyed it.  There was a lot of good content, and your delivery is beyond amazing (I added that, but it is my story so hang on until I get to the point). I really like how you approach the application of deceleration in rehab, and feel like I can apply a lot of you concepts in my practice.  I typically try to think outside the box and feel that some of the drills you presented will allow me to do expand that .  So here is my question- for an ACL post-op patient how long after you initiate quad sets, active straight leg raises, and stool pulls do you wait to begin your deceleration training?

 Now, that is a totally made up scenario but VERY similar to what I regularly get.  My initial thought is always "way to think outside the box, now take your hand of the box and take a step away from it".   There are a lot of people that say they think outside the box, but to me that is like having to tell people you are pretty.  If you have to tell people you are then you aren't.  It is something that should be inherent in your approach and in your decision making process.  To me "Thinking outside the box" is beginning to fall into the same category as "Functional Training" and "Sport Specific Training" - terms people use to describe and market what they do without actually doing anything different than anyone else.

So, for those of you outside the box thinkers is that a way people describe you or how you describe yourself to other people?  If you are the latter, re-examine what you do and try to take a step further away from that rhetorical box, until you get to a point where you fall under the former. 

Anyone feel like this?

" I Keep Bangin My Head Against This Wall......"  How often have you felt like this in your own training, when you train your clients/athletes, or with other aspects of your life?  Inevitably, everyone at some point will have this feeling in regards to some aspect of their daily lives.  The question then, is what do you do because of this feeling.  Einstein defined stupidity as doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results.   Do you continue on your same bull-headed path to frustrations "hoping" that something will change, or do you actively look to create the change that will re-direct the path you are traveling down?  If you chose the first option, Einstein called you stupid several years ago.  Sorry, just pointing out the facts.

I recently spent a few hours with Master RKC Jeff O'Connor with the hopes that he could help me move past a couple training plateaus that I had been stuck on (and yes, I was being bull-headed with what I had been doing. ie - stupid).  In the three hours I spend with him, I was repeatedly reminded that ignoring my own issues wouldn't make them go away. (It's not like we are all 2 years old and everything disappears when we close our eyes.)  He did this both verbally - telling me to quit avoiding my restrictions, and physically - putting me in positions that made me face and acknowledge my restrictions.  And, surprisingly over the past couple of weeks by re-directing the course of my own training those restrictions aren't as obvious and more importantly those plateaus are for the time being not an issue for me anymore. Could I have fixed my problems by myself? I don't know, I hadn't fixed them in the previous 6 months and wasn't moving forward very fast.  I was putting in a TON of time and effort, but not seeing much in the way of results. 

So, the moral of the story: If you aren't happy with your training (or  you aren't happy with the results your athletes/clients are getting)  it is time to re-evaluate what you are doing.  What can you change or do differently that will give you the results you are looking for.  Maybe it is a little change, maybe it is a drastic change, but either way there needs to be a change.  Take the initiative to do something different, and you might be surprised by the results you get! 

Back again.

As it was pointed out to me earlier this week, I haven't posted anything for a very long while.  My excuse was that I wanted the flyers for the upcoming HKC and Athletic Development Workshops to stay at the top of the page, but if you haven't seen them by now and don't have the dates on your calander will seeing them one more time change anything?

So here is my question today:   If the squat is as simple as it looks (triple flexion) then 1) why do so many people struggle to squat correctly and 2)why do so many instructors struggle to fix it / teach it?

My opinion -which in my opinion is correct- is that the squat is much more complicated than it looks.  Two questions that come to my mind when I see someone that can't squat is can they / how do they  touch their toes and can they / how do they roll over?  Another question  - how do we originally learn to squat (with no instructions mind you)?  From the ground up, but only after we have rolled over, crawled, and pulled up.  Miss one of those steps and squatting won't happen.  But yet as adults, when we come across someone that can't squat how do we typically try to fix it?  MORE SQUAT's or a different type of squat.  Here is an experiment - hit your hand with a hammer.  Remember how it feels and then drop that same hammer from 12" onto your hand.  Feel any different?   Probably not.  If someone can't squat they can't squat.  Period, it doesn't matter what variation they do.    Squatting more won't fix a bad squat, it will just make them more efficient.

Back to how we learn initially - from the ground up.  Roll them, then once they have that down forward bend them (unloaded RDL) emphasizing pushing the hips back.  If they still have problems, time for an FMS.

Also, try this work out:  8 minutes and 30 seconds of turkish get ups.  Under control and using perfect form, attempt as many as you can with a light/moderate load.  I told 2 kids I work with that I do 32 get ups every morning in 8 1/2 minutes instead of drinking coffee.  They didn't buy it , but I finally convinced them.

I decided to try it this AM for my get up practice.  Turns out, they might have been right - but I wasn't wrong, just not motivated enough.