A Message for Those Struggling with Mental Illness
It WILL Pay Off: A Message for Those Struggling with Mental Illness, was a log post I wrote four years ago as I was battling depression, anxiety, insomnia, and OCD. Rather than edit my original post to reflect my current state of mind, I’m using this article as an update as I continue to evolve — a lot of things
10 Ways to Increase your Longevity in Powerlifting
Do you fall into the category of lifters who don’t move outside of the 1-3 hours spent in the gym? If so, you’re not going to last very long in this game. Here’s how to increase your longevity as a powerlifter.
Do You Want to Increase Your Overhead Strength?
Are you not performing optimally because of a tight scapula? Limited scapulae mobility can prevent you from increasing your overhead strength the way you want to.
Structuring a Rehabilitation Plan
Physical rehabilitation is as much about the mind as it is the body. The right attitude is the first step to putting a stable, consistent rehabilitation plan in motion.
Training Through Setbacks
No matter the area in life, you are bound to face setbacks. When it comes to powerlifting, you are the only one who can decide what is best for you and whether you will compete or not.
The Post-Surgical Knee: The Stability and Proprioception Rebuild
The initial stages of the balance, stability, and proprioception phase will be performed through the slow rebuilding of ROM through single-leg movements and will eventually use more advanced dynamic movements, such as jumping and landing mechanics drills.
The Post-Surgical Knee: The Range of Motion Rebuild
The focus of this article will put on the importance of the phase following the rehab phase in terms of the rebuilding of stability, strength, and proprioception in knee injuries, such as patellar fractures and ACL tears.
Three Questions You Should Ask Your Chiropractor
Finding a new healthcare provider can be tedious and frustrating, particularly if you don’t feel you’re being heard. Start a new visit off by asking the right questions to be sure you’re speaking to the right professional.
Stress Management for Growth and Recovery
Whether it’s good or bad stress, how can we deal with stress so it does not outstrip our ability to recover? There are plenty of techniques to explore, so turn off the TV and grab your cat (or dog) so we can start trying some out.
WATCH: Reconsider Bands as Your Strength Warm-up
Are you really utilizing your muscles at their maximum strength?
WATCH: I am Jordan Shallow
“I’m not the strongest guy in the world, but I might have a run as one of the stronger chiropractors.” elitefts coach and columnist Dr. Jordan Shallow wants to make his mark in chiropractic, education, training, and fitness — and he might be doing just that through his travels and writings.
Project Return to Press: The Road Back
You really don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. But man, when you’re able to bench again… there’s nothing like it.
Should You Load a Stable Joint?
I’m here to present the case that you should load your stable joints; otherwise, how will you increase its stability?
Project Return to Press: No Barbell, No Problem
OK, maybe I shouldn’t have gone so hardcore with jiu-jitsu, but you know what? I made the best of my injury and learned from it.
Programming Through Injury: Good, Better, and Best Options
Programming through injury doesn’t need to be nearly as complicated as we make it. It’s not really all that different than programming a regular training block for a movement with a few differences.
The Mind-Body Link: Posture Yourself Into a Winning Position
Posture makes a huge difference in every aspect of your life. It can be one of the reasons you were (or weren’t) mugged. It also can turn the tide mid-game from a loss to a victory. Try practicing your posture and see the difference for yourself.
Even More Conjugate For A Little Old Man
This little old man’s secret to recovery lies in one word: bands.
Paying the Price of the Platform
The wear and tear of the sport doesn’t end when the lifter stops competing. The price of the platform may be one that they will pay for throughout the rest of their lives.
Are Bands a Bad Idea for Rotator Cuff Strengthening?
The proper resistance profile for strengthening external rotation should have less resistance in fully lengthened and fully shortened muscles and more resistance in mid-range lengthed muscles. While bands are great tools, they aren’t so great for strengthening rotator cuffs.
Don't Ignore Systemic Interplay
If we want to help people, we have got to stop picking camps and start putting the client first. Here’s a prime example of how to do that with a focus on the respiratory system.
3 Ways I Stopped Straining My Adductors
I tried a few different things to combat the soreness and tightness I had in my adductors. Foam rolling them before and after training, stretches, adductor machine… the list went on. No matter what I did, the pain was still there. So I did more recovery, compression, and Copenhagen warm-ups.
Top-5 Exercises to Keep Your Spine Healthy
Here is a list of my top-5 exercises that I use to train lats, hamstrings, abs, and glutes. These exercises not only target the intended muscles but they also give the spine ways to recover and stay healthy. For some context, I have severe disc degeneration.
Neck Training Guidelines to Reduce Incidences and Severity of Concussions
A strong neck is critical to preventing concussions in athletes participating in contact sports — but what are the best ways to strengthen necks?
9 Ways to Upgrade Your Sleep Hygiene Tonight
People tend to agree that it’s important to get a good night’s sleep, but most probably don’t actually get that sleep. Using what I’ve learned from something called sleep hygiene, you can finally get those 8 hours of shut-eye you’ve been whining about not getting.
The Injury Equation
Whether they know it or not, most therapists and trainers who are following the current injury paradigm are focusing solely on one part of the equation; they are exclusively focused on tissue tolerance, which is essentially a one-dimensional view.
The Training Effects of Intramuscular Pressure
Why is it that you feel weak after returning to the gym after a little bit more than a week? It really comes down to intramuscular pressure. Use it to your advantage to maximize performance.
How to Get Through a Near Career-Ending Injury
It’s said a person is only one injury away from ending your sports career. When dealing with that kind of injury, we often neglect how it affects our minds, which are almost just as easy to break as our bodies.
Improve Your Recovery with These 5 Things
If it is not important to incorporate recovery modalities, why on earth am I doing an article on my top five ways to improve recovery? Because they don’t work, but these 5 simple things you can dial in and focus on will work.
Muscle Doc's Big(gest) Three: Core Movements for Strength and Perfo...
When we talk about the Big Three, we’re usually talking about squats, deadlifts, and bench presses. Well, guess what: There are even more bigger and better Big Three movements out there. Find out what they are if you dare…
Understanding Groin Injuries: Complex Groin Injuries
When a doctor who knows how I train gave me his diagnosis, I had no idea what to do because I hadn’t met anyone that had this constellation of stuff. Neither had he. The best foundation we came up with was based on the same principles in the previous articles.
3 Things Physical Therapy School Taught Me About Being A Strength Coach
I could write a big article covering every detail about physical therapy and strength coaching, but I’ve chosen to spare your computer screen space and discuss the most important topics about what physical therapy school taught me about being a strength coach.
Can A Hickey Help Your Recovery?
This isn’t a hickey from your teenage years; the kind of hickey I’m talking about is created from a recovery modality known as “cupping.” Does cupping work, or is it just a fad that could leave you bruised and broken? OK, it DOES leave bruises, but broken? Not so much.
Why You Should Pull the SSB Handles In While Squatting
The Safety Squat Bar is a great tool to help build strength in the upper back, but if you’re looking to get the full effect out of this bar, you should consider applying this subtle cue in order to load the erector muscles of the spine in their purest function.
Should the Patient Hear the Pop?
When I started adjusting patients, I liked the sound of popping. I was really attached to it. But if you’re just trying to hear that “pop,” you might end up hurting someone for something that might not have been necessary in the first place.
Understanding Groin Injuries: Tendon Injuries
Tendon injuries suck. The healing process for tendon injuries is slower than it is for muscle tears. If you ended up rupturing your tendon, you may require surgery. But there are still some things you can do in terms of rehabbing certain tendon injuries…
Why Your Bones Need Time to Recover
We’re starting to see more and more bone injuries. We’ve seen it in powerlifting, where all of a sudden, if someone, especially younger lifters — they don’t have enough time to lay down that bone properly — I’ve seen bones actually snap. That’s why recovery is so important.
The Bulgarian Split Squat: Which Side Should You Load?
There are movements that I think all coaches should have a fundamental understanding in, and it’s hard to think of an exercise more worthy of a deep dive than the Bulgarian Split Squat. Go grab your dumbbell so we can figure out which side to load.
If I Don't Have a Practitioner, Where Do I Go for Help?
I don’t care if it’s a physical therapist, a chiropractor, or a medical doctor. You need someone who looks at the overall picture, not just the area that’s giving you trouble.
The Ghost in the Machine
Your body is like a race car. Even the best race cars break and wear parts down. When one of those things breaks, it, in turn, puts added pressure on other parts, which are then at risk of breaking. Take your foot off the gas pedal every now again and recover.
Understanding Groin Injuries: A Muscle Tear
The biggest thing you need to take away from muscle tears is that the healing process is largely chemically based and physiologically mediated in order to remedy the mechanical disruption and restore (again) mechanical strength.
Adjusting to Life Post-Hip Replacement
After undergoing a hip replacement surgery and another surgery on my other hip, it goes without saying I’ve had to adjust how I train. But let me just say, I am so glad I went through with these procedures. The pain is worth it, I promise.
Shooting From the Hip
Sometimes, I have to remember I am not Superman. I remembered how I have been feeling, sleeping, and how much I have been working. So I took a break and slept in… and managed to get this article done, too.
Understanding Groin Injuries: A Primer
I’m not going to lie, I’ve had a number of injuries through my training, but Dave was right: groin injuries are a different beast, and the nature of the beast is going to depend more fully on what actual tissue was affected.
FAI and the Rehab Process: Re-Activation and Re-Alignment
Following the Femoro-Acetabular Impingement diagnosis procedure and the loosening of areas of concern, the next step in rehabbing FAI is the re-activation and re-alignment stage. This may involve re-activation of the glute through hip extension, abduction, and external rotation.
Keyboard Warriors Need to Stop!
People with similar issues can respond differently to the same treatments, so having multiple solutions is a great way to increase the likelihood of success. As for arguing about different solutions with experts on the internet? Not so great.
Troubleshooting Strength Injuries: Dealing with Injury
For those of you who are currently dealing with a significant injury, this article, the fifth and final part of the Troubleshooting Strength Injuries series, will help serve as a road map to recovery.
FAI and the Rehab Process: The IT Band as the Root of All Problems
Soft tissue therapy is an undeniably important aspect of the rehab process of Femoro-Acetabular Impingement, but there’s a commonly overlooked aspect as well: the iliotibial band, or IT band, which is often a major player in the cause of FAI.
Troubleshooting Strength Injuries: How to Autoregulate
Autoregulation is about being able to gather as much information as possible to assess the current situation and knowledge. Once you know that, you can apply this knowledge to autoregulate your training… but you’ll need to learn a couple of skills first.
WATCH: SSTSS Presenter Dr. Kinakin on Weightlifting Injuries in Athletes
With all of his credentials, it’s no wonder Dr. Ken Kinakin has been a speaker at elitefts seminars — and he’ll be taking up the role again for the upcoming 2019 Strong(er) Sports Training and Success Summit. Here are the topics he’ll be presenting on.
The Art of Programming for Injury Prevention/Risk Management
I believe the most important role of a strength and conditioning coach is to create programs that minimize the risk of injury. Armed with knowledge from a study on rugby injuries, I wrote a program that focuses on strengthening injury-prone areas. Here’s what I came up with.
Femoro-Acetabular Impingement and the Rehab Process: The Diagnosis
Femoro-Acetabular Impingement (FAI) can often be asymptomatic and will not affect some people’s daily lives — even who test positive to the diagnostic procedures. However, that does not mean that the management of FAI should be ignored, as it may be a factor in hip osteoarthritis in later life.
Buddy Morris on Stress and Recovery for the Athlete
“Play the game; don’t let the game play you.” Coach Buddy Morris (one of the speakers for the 2019 Strong(er) Sports Training and Success Seminar) talks about stress adaptation and recovery with Dave Tate, Tom Myslinski, and Jim Wendler in the sixth video of a nine-part conversation.
Troubleshooting Strength Injuries: What is Autoregulation?
There’s a sweet spot where stressors are present as motivating and growth factors but not too much to where athletes become chronically sympathetic, causing a cascade of performance-altering events. This spot is called autoregulation.
Choking on My Face — The Final Installment
After being officially diagnosed with sleep apnea, it was time for the CPAP machine to arrive. Let’s just say I felt like a cross between a giddy kid on Christmas Eve and as reluctant as Darth Vader probably would’ve been in the bedroom. Little by little, I’m feeling better, thanks to the supportive gear for my lungs.
Troubleshooting Strength Injuries: Warning Signs of Injury
Understanding the warning signs and red flags of injury are paramount to successfully pushing your body to the brink without derailing due to injury. So what signs did our example athlete miss in the previous article?
Hybrid Performance Group — A One-Stop Shop for Recovery
Do you need help recovering from an injury? Do you want to prevent future injuries? If so, Hybrid Group Performance is for you. The clinic’s co-owners, Dr. Tyrel Detweiler (who’s also an elitefts columnist) and Dr. Devee Sresthadatta, talk about the origins of Hybrid Performance Group, their treatment philosophies, and more.
An Epic Q&A with Dr. John Rusin and Dave Tate
Is Dave still following Dr. Rusin’s protocol? What are Dr. Rusin’s top-two training takeaways working with Dave? In this Q&A, Dave Tate and Dr. John Rusin share their overall experiences from video series “Fixing Dave Tate” and “Breaking John Rusin,” and more.
How Irradiation Can Be Detrimental
Even though Instagram makes neural irradiation look cool, please take a moment to stop and ask yourself: What is it, and why are you doing it?
WATCH: I am Dr. Tyrel Detweiler
Meet Dr. Tyrel Detweiler, a former college football player-turned-chiropractor who opened Hybrid Performance Group in Columbus, Ohio. Hybrid Performance Group is a multi-disciplinary clinic that offers chiropractic and physical therapies for athletes and active people.