June 2010 Blog Posts (15)

With all the talk about breathing recently, it seems that the

industry is polarized, and I think it may be out of an error in

communication. For some reason, people read that training breathing is

important and that we all should be having our athletes demonstrate

“ownership” of good breathing mechanics, and people immediately assume

that the other, higher intensity, training modalities like heavy

lifting, jumping, and sprinting are replaced with work on breathing.… Continue

I have recently begun to comb through Clinical Application of Neuromuscular Techniques to enhance my knowledge of soft tissue therapeutics. As far as I know this is one of the more comprehensive textbooks that cover not only the

mechanics of dysfunction, but a handful of techniques designed at

addressing the issues,…

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There are two firsts occuring here. One, I have never written a blog before, so forgive me if I make any rookie mistakes. Two, I have never worked with MMA fighters, until now.

I recently started working with London Shootfighters MMA Team, based in West London, England. My role is to provide rehab support and strength & conditioning support for the team of professional fighters based out of the gym. I had no idea what I was getting into, having limited combat sports…

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Right now I am finally wrapping up Assessment and Treatment of Muscle Imbalance: The Janda Approach, a book that I would consider to be a must read for those who care to understand poor movement in an effort to understand what good movement actually looks like as well as to enhance your evidence base for exercise… Continue

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In one of my summer courses we have recently become involved in an extensive discussion as to the value of certifications and licensing as many other “professionals” are forced to go through in their respective

industries. You cannot sit for the APTA exam without a DPT curriculum

under your belt, you won’t be getting an MD without plenty of classroom

and lab hours, and you can’t become an accountant without a bachelors.

I tend to thing this is sound advice, but I do…

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Osgood Schlatter is a guy that most kids don’t really want to meet.

He’s not friendly, and often leads to painful anterior tibial

tuberosities in growing kids. While commonly attributed to a

“traction” based strain on the tibial tuberosity from the strong

contractions on the quadriceps groups during jumping, running, cutting,

and landing, however, like with most things, there are other factors

that need to be taken into account. A number of theories… Continue

This is a post that has been long time coming for me, but after a recent barrage of personal development posts from a number of professionals in the industry, I see no better time to put in my two

cents. While this should be common sense, as my good friend always

asks, “how common is common sense.” Unfortunately, I’m betting it’s

not very common in our field.

As a whole our industry is atrocious. Many call themselves “fitness professionals” when their…

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Some days in training athletes have record-setting days and other days athletes have atrocious performances, but regardless of what type of day it is a common theme prevails: their training demands on the

spot adjustments to the training program. Too often, we are too tied

into our written workouts and training templates to realize that it is

okay, at times, to shut things down.

If an athlete is unable to maintain a high level of performance, some…

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<div class="mceTemp mceIEcenter" style="text-align: left;">This is a previous post from last week at my blog www.zachdechant.wordpress.com.

So for quite a while I've had some issues with the box jump. I know many coaches who use the box jump extensively as a training exercise, as well as a form of testing. In healthy athletes it may not be as much of a problem, but anyone who has had any type of lower back disc issues high box…

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A while back my friend and I were having a conversation about some of the things we’ve learned in life, and my friend’s biggest lesson learned is to never be in the same place twice. I think that’s sound

advice, and advice that performance professionals too often fail to

follow. They just revolve again and again, reaching only the same

points but never further.

Take the coach who is so “philanthropic” that he fails to bill on time or even at all, costing…

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In my loose programming template, I have a few spaces carved out where I have the word “locomotive” within it. Inspired by recent conversation at Sports Rehab Expert

with a number of excellent contributors including Dr. Craig Liebenson,

Dr. Jeff Cubos, Joe Heiler, and Charlie Weingroff, I have decided to

expand on the benefits of certain locomotive drills and how they fit my

movement…

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A friend recently sent me this video that was posted on one of the biggest track and field websites, and asked my thoughts. I figured that it would be worthwhile to share them in a blog and I'd be very interested to hear yours.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

While I agree with his general principle that distance athletes should engage in strength and conditioning, I believe that he may be overreacting to the… Continue

For those interested, the latest NSCA bulletin has been published: Version 32.06, concerning the month of June 2010. Among other topics, new in this bulletin you will find: Continue

I got an e-mail from a friend of mine today asking about a discussion he and one of his colleagues had this week concerning coaching the split squat. The athlete in question seemed to have an

issue with proper hip extension and there was debate as to whether or

not he was “hanging” on his hip flexor. Now this particular company

uses the FMS liberally, but like many, it seems that there may be a

disconnect between the application of the FMS results to the…

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