Feedback To Keep On Track

No matter the vocation feedback is an important aspect of competency. We are constantly receiving feedback from our bodies, and should be training to improve the quality and perception of that feedback loop so that we move better.

When training another person I may ask for feedback to supplement what I see in how the person moves so that I can more effectively improve their performance and thus the results.

But once in awhile it's the clients that provide feedback on my performance, and more often than not it makes me feel pretty damn good about what I do. Over the first few days of this year I've gotten a couple of gems worth sharing.

The first is a person that had to go in for some intestinal surgery. This person's nurses were impressed that after only a couple of days she could sit up and roll over without pain, which the nurses attributed to the function and development of core musculature.

The surgeon further complimented her on a lack of visceral fat, which we all know to be the more dangerous sort, and which probably complicates the surgeon's job when digging around in there.

Made me feel pretty good about the real world benefits of the training we have been doing in the gym.

Another client is two weeks out from her due date for her first child, but you would never know it by how she is still kicking ass in the gym. Another person much earlier in her pregnancy that just joined our pre-natal small group training program couldn't keep up with her in Tuesday's training session.

I have expected her and the other women now in their third trimesters to start coming in complaining about back, shoulder, and neck pain, but that hasn't happened. I haven't seen any of their strength levels drop off either, which seems to help in making their pregnancies easier to get through.

Just goes to show the benefits of showing up and being consistant.

Another person had joined the Movement Program in order to address pain he was having while training for a marathon. All the typical symptoms - knee pain, IT tightness, hip/lumbar discomfort. We spent a couple of months improving his movement quality through getting his hips, ankles, and thoracic spine more mobile while improving glute function, core strength, and scapular function.

Funny thing. About the time he could do a respectable squat without compromising his lumbar spine, and when his scapula were properly moving his shoulder in a good range of motion he noticed that the pains had disappeared and he no longer became as fatigued on his runs.

That's not to say there isn't much room for improvement in our training at Edge, but I hope to be fortunate enough to receive more feedback like that in 2011. I know that I'll put in the many hours of continuing education to help make that happen.

As you move into the new year take a few minutes to review your progress over the past year, and consider what that tells you about what to change or improve concerning strategies to hit your goals.

One more shameless plug. We will be holding a workshop on smart goal setting and developing strategies to reach those goals on Saturday, Jan. 22nd, from 11am-1pm. See the Edge site for more information.

Fitness on Dysfunction

This past weekend I took the opportunity to attend the Perform Better training summit held in L.A.. The fitness pros PB brings in are among the best in the business and I always come away with knowledge worth it's weight in gold.

One of the themes this year appears to be using kettlebells, but that's a topic for another day.

One of the big ideas I came away with was from Gray Cook, co-creator of the Functional Movement Screen, the best way I've seen to assess a person's ability to move and stay healthy.

Gray talked about how vital it is to not put fitness on dysfunction. What this means is that if your trunk stabilizers (core) are not firing well, or if your hips are not as mobile as it should be, by continuing to push ahead you are running the risk of injury.

I'm a victim of this myself when I ignored my own stiff hips and thoracic (mid-back) tightness, which resulted in back spasms and lost days at work. Instead of fixing the issues I continued to train hard and before long - wammo. It took some Chiropractic and ART (Active Release Technique) to get me back on my feet, and I really learned a valuable lesson.

I see it all the time in the gym: A new member comes in a wants to get in shape ASAP, however their shoulders are tighter than a drum and they can't squat past parallel. What happens if this person simply started bench pressing and squatting hard is that bad movement patterns are re-enforced (putting fitness on dysfunction), and it's only a matter of time until they will have pain and be forced to back off or get injured.

Better to take a step back and fix the problems, and still get good workouts in the process, then to be forced to take 10 steps back due to injury. One of the analogies Gray used was continuing to run your car with a bad wheel - sooner or later larger problems will occur.

A poor trainer, in hopes of retaining a client, will often just keep hammering them with cool, trendy exercises while ignoring the underlying issues.

The smart trainer will begin each session with a few minutes of specific mobility work and dynamic stretching, then use exercises designed to help achieve better joint range of motion, posture, and core stability.

It doesn't take a Malcom Gladwell to figure out who will ultimately attain their goals and move without pain.