Category Archives: Thoughts

Are You Buying a Drill or a Hole?

Posted on June 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

As a person in the fitness industry, I am often asked “what do you think of this exercise?” While my thoughts on various exercises run the gamut, I am more concerned with people’s mindset. A good friend of mine said, “A person doesn’t buy a drill because they want a drill. They buy the drill because they want a hole.” Most likely, you don’t give a shit about a certain exercise, and neither do I, what you are really asking me is, “Will this exercise help me reach my goal?” And your goal may be to lose weight, get stronger, look better or whatever. Chances are one exercise is not going to magically get you to your goal.

So instead of talking about what exercise will get you to your goal, let’s talk about your goal and really look at it. Do you think this new sit up variation is really going to help you look great for swimsuit season? Chances are no. You probably have to look at your nutrition as well as your entire fitness regimen and come up with a plan beyond ‘do more crunches.’

It’s like asking your financial planner ‘what do you think of this stock?’ Chances are your financial planner is shaking their head because you think buying 100 shares of some stock is going to make you rich while at the same time you constantly max out your credit cards and outspend your income and exceed your budget.

You have to look at the goal and the whole system. Life is not linear. There is no single variable that we can change to suddenly become awesome. It’s a lot of little things all added together that makes improvements and gets us to our goals. Sure, one good thing can lead to another but don’t fall into the trap of discarding one thing after another endlessly looking for that magic bullet that will fix it all. Success is an additive process: do one positive thing, then another and another until you succeed. Don’t stop until that happens.

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The Rise of Superman

Posted on May 28, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler is a fascinating book full of both hyperbole and possibility. I do not think it lives up to the title however I feel that it opened my mind to some wonderful ideas that are already being implemented in CrossFit and can be refined further with better knowledge of the flow state.

According to the author Flow exists as a very real state of consciousness where time slows down (time dilation) our brainwaves change from beta to theta and we release hormones like dopamine. It is a state where we accelerate our performance in a non-linear manner and make tremendous gains. It is where creativity emerges and where people become, in the author’s words, superhuman.

Apparently, the phenomenon has been studied in office workers to jazz musicians but is most highly developed in extreme sports enthusiasts. He claims that their physical accomplishments and rapid development are attributed to Flow and but for this state their accomplishments would not have come to pass.

The most intriguing part of the book is the idea of flow triggering and flow hacking. Can we summon this flow state at will? That is the important question and his best solution seems to be jumping off buildings but does concede that there are some less extreme ways to enter the state.

The things you need to create a flow state are focus, instant feedback, risk and community. I was not shocked to find that these are things that we have in CrossFit. It is yet another example of an extreme situation that pushes people into a flow state where they make tremendous gains in short amounts of time.

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Posted in Book Review, Thoughts

More About the Overhead Position

Posted on May 19, 2014 | Leave a comment

Another interesting result of the shoulders down cue is that it limits range of motion in shoulder flexion. There are but a few people that can achieve full 180 degrees of flexion at the gleno-humeral joint with a depressed scapula. Try Warrior 1 with shoulders up and shoulders down and see where the humerae situate themselves. Almost all of you will have your shoulder angle go from 180 to 165 degrees. Now re-orient this position upside down. In an inversion you either compromise position by over-extending the spine (a yogini favorite) or you actually upwardly rotate and elevate your shoulders despite your years of training.

So why the direction to depress them when in Adho Mukha Vrksasana? It is probably an artifact of the Mysore palace where Krishnamacharya watched young english soldiers practice gymnastics. If you follow the history of artistic gymnastics, you will see an evolution of the handstand from a banana-shaped or yoga handstand to a straight vertical handstand—-the modern handstand. Gymnastics evolved as the physical demands of gymnastics increased. The initial banana-shaped handstand is easier to balance and more accessible for people with tighter shoulders (older men in the military and modern yoga practitioners). As the entry into gymnastics got younger and the physical skills became more demanding the straight body handstand became the default. 180 degree shoulder angle and a straight body simply supports more weight (bone stacking) and allows for more advanced skills.

Sadly yoga teaching is more the stuff of mythology and religion than science so there still remain many cues that are passed down from teacher to student without further investigation. Watch this video and see for yourself.

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The Overhead Position

Posted on May 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Shoulders Down Debate has raged on for years. Let me weigh in on it. I got dragged into a conversation about this video from the American Yoga School which I mostly agree with.

Here is my response.

The overhead position is entirely misunderstood by yogis and fitness people and really everyone. The reason for this is that yogis and most other people have never used their shoulders as they were designed. Evolutionarily we were designed to brachiate as well as support heavy loads with the shoulders. The best test for proper position is not what can you do one time with light weight but what can you do many times with very large weight. i.e. Does your shoulders down theory work with a hand balancing circus performer, a gymnast throwing a vault or a weightlifter clean and jerking twice their bodyweight? A 100lb vegan talking about shoulder strength is about as useless as a pig looking at a wristwatch.

Looking at examples from athletes that push their shoulders to the limits we can see what gymnasts and Olympic weightlifters do to support large amounts of weight overhead. A gymnast vaulting will put up to 6 times their bodyweight into their shoulders dynamically and Olympic weightlifters consistently lift and support 1.5 to 2 times their bodyweight overhead. Those athletes will tell you that you absolutely must shrug your shoulders to your ears anything less will be disastrous when trying to vault or lift. A simple youtube search of hand balancers at Cirque du Soleil will confirm that these performers shrug up creating both elevation as well as upward rotation of the scapula.

However, the conversation does not stop there. That would be simple two dimensional thinking. Our shoulders work in three dimensions. In order to stabilize the shoulder adequately you need to create an external rotation torque while in flexion. That is what creates a tightening of the joint and the ligaments and stabilizes the humorous in the glenoid. It will also pull the scapulas around the rib cage. You can refer to countless Kelly Starrett videos confirming this fact.

What is lost on the yoga practitioner and many other fitness people is the disambiguation of external rotation and depression. If you take your right shoulder into flexion and shrug up (elevation and upward rotation) and then externally rotate (screw in the lightbulb) your shoulder will move down away from your ear. That is due to the humerous being tightened and stabilized into the glenoid cavity but it is not the same as depression. However, from mere outward appearance someone might mistakenly cue it as “shoulders down”.

f you don’t believe me, try a one-armed handstand with my way and your way and you will see which way is stronger and more stable. Even better, try doing front or back handsprings with your scapulas depressed.

So this guy is half right. The part he is missing is the external rotation.

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Novocaine

Posted on May 12, 2014 | Leave a comment

I just got home from the dentist and my mouth is numb with novocaine. It is such a strange and bizarre feeling. I try to say simple things and everything comes out wrong. It made me wonder if this loss of motor control and dexterity over my mouth and tongue is similar to what some of my students experience.

Often when teaching people how to move, I assume everyone has motor control over their arms and legs and various joints, but am constantly amazed when they don’t. This novocaine makes it clear to me that lack of motor control can be contributed to lack of proprioception. Since I cannot feel my mouth and tongue, I have a hard time speaking clearly which is something that I still have the wiring for in my head. I have been using words for 40 years but suddenly, I cannot enunciate. When the numbness wares off, I will go back to speaking normal, but what about people that a lack of proprioception. I am not suggesting that people walk around numb all the time, but effectively, many people cannot feel their hamstrings, or their spinal erectors or their lats and the results are the same. They cannot move correctly. Even if our bodies are naturally wired to move a certain way, when we lose that proprioception our movements break down.

Think of long distance runners, many of them have psychologically gone numb from the waste down in order endure the hours and miles. They learn to block out not only the pain but all sensation. Thus they are able to keep going but often times with poor mechanics. And, unfortunately, we do not often see a return of proprioception after the race. The problem just compounds. I have found that the very worst movers I encounter are the long endurance athletes.

Thank goodness there are ways to develop proprioception. I use Yoga Tune Up therapy balls and other corrective exercises to reintroduce people to their bodies. It is quite empowering if you have people that are willing and able to rediscover themselves, but sadly with the return of sensation often comes the return of pain. That is why most people shy away from it and live their lives numb. Of course pain is not inevitable. We have techniques to eradicate the source of pain, but we can fix it if we can’t feel it. Don’t numb your pain! Find the source of it and eliminate it. Move better. Live better.

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Posted in Mobility, Thoughts

The Sports Gene

Posted on May 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

I just listened to the audiobook version of The Sports Gene by David Epstein. I highly recommend it to anyone that is in the fitness industry or is interested in athleticism.

What I really enjoyed is that Epstein discussed not only genetic predispositions to athletic traits, but also gave weight to the necessity of training as well as technology in the development of athletes.

This TED Talk is a great overview. I had heard of the book, but this video got me to pull the trigger in downloading the book.

One of the best take-aways from this book is that there are genetic differences that make people respond to training differently. Apparently, most people are effected positively by exercise (although some are not). Some people respond much better to explosive anaerobic training and others respond better to slower aerobic training. Unfortunately, Epstein and many coaches feel that individualized training programs is what is needed. However, instincts tell me that constantly varied CrossFit programming is what works for the majority of people by having a broad range of stimuli. Imagine if you had 100 athletes and you wanted to maximize their fitness, if you trained them all anaerobically, you would see a disparity of results based partly on their genetics disposition to anaerobic training. Conversely, you would probably see a similar disparity if they were all trained aerobically. However, if you trained them in a mixed modality manner such as CrossFit you would probably see less of disparity between the athletes. Although, those most sensitive to a particular training modality might not be optimized and have less gains than if they were to specialize.

The other side of this is that really we can’t know the genetic predispositions of all our athletes and absent such knowledge a program based on constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity is the best way to maximize the results to the greatest number of people.

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Mastery

Posted on May 1, 2014 | Leave a comment

This Ted Talk video by Sarah Lewis is pretty amazing. The idea that the “near win” motivates people toward mastery and virtuosity. How can we create near wins in ourselves and our athletes?

“Mastery is not a commitment to a goal but a constant pursuit.”

If we want to really be masterful, we can’t merely chase goals. We must pursue headlong something just outside our grasp. “Lord grant that I desire more than I can accomplish.” Michelangelo

I always reminded coaches at my gym, that the pursuit of virtuosity occurs in that gap between where you are and where you want to be. The struggle is to always create a gap that challenges us, motivates us and calls to us to be better than we are. The side effect of this is often ennui. The constant realization that we are never quite as good as we hope to be. We are left reaching.

In our reaching we often create and do wonderful, beautiful and inspiring things that, ironically, to us seem less than wonderful, beautiful and inspiring. This gets me fired up and excited to work harder and embrace the struggle. There is no end, you have just keep going.

On another note, how good a speaker is she? I love how she speaks so clearly and never has filler words. She stops, pauses, breathes and continues right on. It’s flawless. If I was going to critique her, I would want to see her being slightly more dynamic with her body language (she has robot arms) and making better eye contact with the audience. Still a masterful talk.

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Bionics

Posted on April 4, 2014 | Leave a comment

The possibilities are amazing. I am stunned with how far bionic technology has come. Watching “The Six Million Dollar Man” when I was a kid, I always dreamed that we could do things like this. The reality of this is bringing hope to injured and disabled people around the world. I approve.

What bothers me…and I do not want to diminish the awesomeness of this… but I have to wonder about what will happen if the algorithms are wrong? I am student of human movement and I see a lot of bad movement out there. Even with great athletes and great movers there are faults in basic mechanics. Likewise there is still a lot of debate about what constitutes good movement. Let’s just take an example if scientists were to model running technique, there is a great deal of controversy in what is proper technique. If they build a model on a faulty technique what happens?

As a student of good movement, biomechanics, anatomy and human performance, I see how bad movement can create a lot of pain and physical problems. My concern is that if mechanize and amplify bad human movement we could be have some negative side effects from what should be a great technological advancement.

That being said, I would love a new exoskeleton.

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Grit

Posted on March 31, 2014 | Leave a comment

In this TED talk Angela Lee Duckworth talks about grit as being that factor that determines success more than talent. She poses the very important question, “How do we teach grit to our kids?”

When you look at talent or success as simply hard work over time, how do you motivate the drive to keep trying and working hard?

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The Safety Card

Posted on March 14, 2014 | Leave a comment

People throw the safety card as if we are all supposed to stop in our tracks at the mere mention of Safety. Safety is a relative term. It is not a black and white issue. Safety exists on a continuum of most risky to least risky. However, no physical endeavor can guaranty complete safety. Likewise, we cannot divorce the risk of certain activities from the fallibility of human behavior.

People say this exercise is unsafe, that workout program is unsafe, you can’t and you shouldn’t do them. As if some kind of movement is inherently dangerous.

People need to move better. People need to be responsible for their own actions. Stop pushing the blame off yourself. Nobody is making you do anything.

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