A Philosophy of Strength and Health

One of our former interns stopped by last week. She's deferred admission to a graduate program in S&C for a year to work in the private sector. She's the head of performance training for a small, private rehab/performance facility. The owner has given her full reign to revamp the youth training program. As some side work, she's taken on a few adult personal training clients at another commercial gym. This is an experience all young strength coaches should have--the opportunity to work with adolescent athletes, and apply/progress basic bodyweight movements with them. I'll argue there's also excellent value in doing the same with general population adults. She's seeing results. Decreased joint pain in her adult clients and youth athletes. Increased confidence and function. She's learning how to build proper movement progressions and seeing the power of these movements applied over time. Young strength coaches working in the collegiate or other ty...

Just a test post to try out the new Google Photos and a link to a good article. This is a picture of the conference building at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center. I had the great fortune of visiting this beautiful place last week and meeting many bright and thoughtful strength & conditioning professionals. I'd like to share a fantastic blog post by Andrew Wilson and a link to a great Google Hangout featuring Andrew Wilson, Al Smith and Mark Upton. If you are reading or are contemplating reading the new Frans Bosch book, you'll probably find the topic of dynamic systems and a more ecological approach to motor control / learning.

Current 6' 9" Pepperdine starting MB Mitch Penning front squats 100 kg in high school.   I get asked this question all the time. There are two major things to consider: 1. Does the athlete have ankle mobility issues with basic squatting? 2. Are you going to train the full snatch and clean, or lift from the ground on a consistent basis? If you answer "yes" to either of these questions, you should encourage your athlete to use weightlifting shoes during training sessions, with all barbell movements. Weightlifters wear these funky, clunky high heeled shoes for two reasons. First, firm soles give the athlete a firm connection to the platform so there is no loss of force when driving the feet into the ground on lift off, recovery from the bottom or the dip and drive of the jerk. Second, heeled soles give the athlete additional ankle dorsiflexion, which allows for optimal vertical torso positioning on lift off and recovery. Melanie Roach (53 kg) prepares to ...

This is video I shot back in 2007 when I paid a visit to the wonderful state of Washington to spend a few days with Melanie Roach and her coach John Thrush. Mel was working very hard to come back from back surgery and make the 2008 Olympic team. I went out to take some video for John for a more in depth look at her technique and to document improvement. As you will see in the graphs at the end of this video, Mel had made some great strides in her snatch technique and was no longer losing velocity on the barbell like she was prior to surgery. I was able to show her this using video and velocity measures captured via Dartfish. Eventually, Melanie went on to make the 2008 US Olympic team and place 6th in Beijing, snatching a lifetime best of 83 kg and going 3/3 in the snatch. She also set a new American record in the total with a 193 kg total, which included a 110 kg Clean & Jerk. This record still stands, as does her American record of 113 kg in the Clean & Jerk which was set...

This is a post from back in 2011. Just a little overview of the people and places that have influenced my thinking and approach to performance and health. Since 2011, I've certainly grown even more. Hope to share that growth over the next year. http://ironmaven.blogspot.com/2011/04/philosophy-of-strength-and-health.html

This blog is back. New year, new job, new home. Lots of good topics to cover. I look forward to the discussion and sharing. And like the Nordic Combined guys, I'm all out of bubble gum. So it's time.

I was encouraged to learn that Nolan was put in splints and not casts.   Immobilization of any joint makes rehab more challenging. But immobilization of the elbow ups the ante. It is a complex joint with many connections, articular surfaces and degrees of freedom. It connects the shoulder and the wrist and allows the basketball player to handle and shoot the ball with grace and unlimited variety. Failure to do the rehab well from the beginning might compromise Nolan’s ability to shoot and play in the future, not just keep him from playing this season. I had to make sure he understood this from day one, regardless of how painful, boring or monotonous the work was. It is interesting to note that immediately after the fall on November 19, Nolan's wrists hurt the most and were the focus of initial evaluation.   He could move his elbows fine.   It was only after sitting with ice on his wrists for several minutes that the injury to the elbows became apparent. After ic...