LIFT – Part 1

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Josh

“As facilitators of skill development, it behooves us to enhance the movement capabilities of the individual to the greatest extent possible because that would extend the individual’s problem solving capacity. At the same time, we should facilitate the development of the cognitive and perceptual knowledge bases that support the meaningful organization of movement over a wide range of problems and a wide range of conditions.”
Susan Higgins – Motor Skill Acquisition

This is my goal in personal training.

Strength, “movement quality,” power, speed, endurance, flexibility, “toning,” fat-loss, weight-loss, muscle-building…whatever your goal is, it is horribly incomplete without the additional pursuit of your cognitive and perceptual knowledge, meaning-making, and organizational development.

Period.

So you want to be a personal trainer…

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Josh

I thought I’d published this little piece a while back, but couldn’t find it searching the leegertrained.com site. So here it is again…my take on PT certifications…

If you’re interested in becoming a personal trainer, my best advice is to pick a certification that matches your interests, and to immediately determine a “niche” or training specialty that resonates with you (this can be kettlebells, Pilates, Crossfit, etc.).

There are three big certs out there that everyone immediately recognizes:

1. ACSM – American College of Sports Medicine

http://www.acsm.org/

With their CPT certification (http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Get_Certified) being the “personal trainer” option.
ACSM is very medically/scientifically-inclined, and their certification reflects that, with a more clinical view of exercise.

2. NSCA – National Strength and Conditioning Association

http://www.nsca.com/

Their certification is the CSCS (certified strength and conditioning specialist)
NSCA is very athletics-focused. Their certification focuses largely on strength conditioning for athletes.

3. NASM – National Academy of Sports Medicine
www.nasm.org
NASM was founded by two physical therapists (“physiotherapists” in Canada), and so approaches exercise with a physical-therapy-bent – a lot of focus on joint angles, biomechanics, and exercises to “treat” postural dysfunction.

There are two “fringe” certs that people know of but that aren’t very highly respected:

1. ACE – American College of Exercise
www.acefitness.com
ACE is a “general” certification. Their approach is much simpler than those above. Their practical test focuses more on machine-based movements.

2. IDEA Health & Fitness – International Dance & Exercise Association

http://www.ideafit.com/

Now more known for their CEU’s and insurance offerings. They were one of, if not the, first fitness certification group back in the 1980′s.

Then there are all the specific sub-branches/certs you can look at once you get into it. For instance:

1. RTS – Resistance Training Specialist

http://www.resistancetrainingspecialist.com/

This is a new certification, and was created by one of the creators of NASM, who left that organization a few years ago. A friend of mine is going through this, and says it’s great. It looks very comprehensive, but I can’t vouch for it beyond that. If you’d like to talk with my friend about it, I’ll ask her if she’d be willing to chat/email with you.

2. Chek Institute – Paul Chek

http://www.chekinstitute.com/

Paul Chek has become a training guru. There are a few others, but he’s definitely the most “out there” and, simultaneously, the best-known. We can talk about Chek if you’re interested in my opinion on him.

3. Jon Hinds’ Monkey Bar Gym “Certified Natural Trainer.”
www.monkeybargym.com
The MBG is Jon Hinds’ creation. Personally, I think the natural trainer cert would be the best for anyone – but it’s not (currently) “scientific” – so it doesn’t fit into the medicalized view of exercise that is the authoritative stance in our culture.

4. Crossfit (www.crossfit.com)
The Crossfit trainer certification teaches a person how to apply the Crossfit training methodology.

As far as recommendations, it’s up to what you see as your interests/preferences. Personally, I’m not interested in clinical applications of exercise – and strictly/legally speaking, personal trainers are not allowed to “treat” anyone technically – so ACSM didn’t appeal to me. I have an NASM CPT certification, but if I had it to do over again, I’d probably go with the CSCS. It’s better respected in the “athletic” community.

(As it stands, with a Master’s degree in Kinesiology, I’m not really attached to any particular certification anymore. Most of my training methodology focuses on applying the most basic aspects of exercise physiology, motivating my clients, and exploring social-psychological aspects of the moving body.)

Also, after being in the industry for a while, my take is that what people need more than anything is regular, fun, and diverse activity (hence my involvement in Exuberant Animal). But, beyond that, I think folks also need to get much stronger…and that’s what the NSCA/CSCS promotes – over and above “functional training” etc.

The process for all of these will be relatively the same:
1. Decide on the right cert for you
2. Purchase the prep package – books/dvd’s, etc.
3. Study
4. Take the test

NSCA recommends 6 months, I think, to prepare for their test. If any of the certifications offer in-person seminars (I think it’s the only way to get the RTS cert), I’d highly recommend that option. Basically, you get the books, etc., study, and then go to a weekend-long seminar during which the instructors present everything in person and ask questions, and you get to take the test on the final day.

After that, it’s:
5. Get signed up at City Hall as a Sole Proprietorship (if you want to do this), and/or apply for a position at your local corporate-gym.
6. Get trainer insurance (typically about $100-$150 per year), usually available through one of the major certifying boards.
7. Buy business cards (you can get them for the price of shipping on various websites).
8. Start marketing and networking – online and in your community.
9. Start training people!

The Industry
Keep in mind, unlike massage therapy which is regulated by State nursing boards and a national certification exam, there is no regulated “national certification” necessary for personal training. You can literally just go out there and say “I’m a personal trainer,” print business cards, etc., and no one will be able to stop you.

A few people in the general populace might question your abilities, but according to research, the general public knows very little about what proper qualifications might be for a personal trainer, and less about the specifics around the various certifications out there. Most people pick a trainer based on – 1. Referral, 2. Looks, 3. Personality. (see my blog post on this research).

It’s important to note that you won’t be hired at any gym (like Sports Club LA, Equinox, or Gold’s) or brought on at any PT studio (like DIAKADI Body, Regular Exercise, Perfect Fit, AIM, etc.) without one of the Big Three certs – they all require a cert, and some require specific certs and some prefer a particular cert over others. So that’s another consideration – if there’s a specific gym/group you want to work with, find out what cert they like.

The big point behind my saying that, though, is that personal training is not really an “industry” yet. In my experience, the majority of the people who are very successful personal trainers have significant others who (at least help to) pay the bills. Granted, I know a couple of people who break this rule, but for the most part, it’s true. Training income can be highly sporadic – clients get unmotivated, sick, go on vacation, etc., and training is the first thing to go when emergencies come up (or the economy tanks).

The scientific aspects (physiology, anatomy) of physical training are very simple and straightforward, unless you’re dealing with very advanced athletes who are trying to eke an extra .1 percent of performance out of themselves, or if you’re dealing with “special populations” of any type.

Training is different from the simple application of that scientific knowledge – it’s personality management and coaching, and to a large degree, art – taking the knowledge you have and using it to make creative solutions to the individual problems you encounter when working with your client.

Hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have any questions!

Social Conformity, and the Chuck Wolf Seminar I Went to on Saturday

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Josh

I want to start here by talking about the social conformity experiments of Asch and Milgram back in the 1960′s.

Asch had people seated in a room, with a leader at the front. Six of the seven people sitting down were in on the experiment (“confederates”). Only one of them, number 7, was the “experimental variable.” There were cards with lines drawn on them, and the people were asked to identify the relative lengths of the lines.

When the subject was allowed to make his/her own decisions about the length of the lines, they were 99% accurate. When the other people (the confederates) were allowed to answer about the lengths of the lines first (incorrectly…as in, “A is shorter than B,” when it is not), the subject would conform to their answer 35% of the time.

In Milgram’s experiment, someone in a position of authority (a confederate) dressed in a lab coat, instructed the subject to ask questions to an unseen person in the room next door via a microphone/speaker system. Also, the subject was to administer electric shocks to that person if they gave incorrect answers.

The subjects would deliver “450 volt shocks” (there were no actual shocks administered, the screams and pleading of the person in the room next door were acted) 65% of the time.

Milgram said that part of the results were due to the conformity effect Asch noticed. But also, that part of it was due to “the agentic state theory, wherein, per Milgram, the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and he therefore no longer sees himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow.”

One of his later experiments combined conformity and obedience, and noticed significantly greater compliance in the subject.

Social Conformity Is Evident in This...hold on a sec...where'd I put my blow-dryer...

Putting Your Best Foot Forward with Chuck Wolf
On Saturday, I attended a conference put on by the WAC Academy and the University of San Francisco, featuring Chuck Wolf, on the topic of “how the muscles and actions of the foot affect the hip, gluteal complex, and spine. By changing body angles, utilizing reaches, understanding how the foot functions, and applying the concepts from the Flexibility Highways, the fitness professional will come away with methods to enhance traditional exercises into a truly three dimensional chain reaction movement.”

Chuck was a really nice guy, and has a long history in post-rehab athletic conditioning. He walked around and said hello to everyone before the conference started, introducing himself and getting to know folks.

Yeah...you tell em Sammy!

But…those shoes…
You know how they say that women often look at a man’s shoes to learn more about him? I do that too…for everyone. When I looked at Chuck’s, I was shocked. He had large, Adidas, what looked like motion-control sneakers on. What Mick Dodge would call “flower pots,” and Tom Brown would call “foot-coffins.”

I began to wonder what Chuck was going to tell us about the foot and ankle.

Been There, Done That
I’ve been in this industry long enough, and been to enough of these seminars, to know not to expect too much. Most of the time, the information you get is rehashed, recycled stuff from the PT world. Chuck, as it happens, works in a PT clinic in Orlando. He hangs with those guys. That’s his social crowd…uh…social conformity…hint…hint…

Starting out, he talked about the structure of the foot. The bony structure. We didn’t get into musculature, except for the gross musculature of the shin – gastroc/soleus, anterior tibialis.

Chuck actually said that “the control of the ankle comes from the shin.” While I agree with him to a point, I strongly disagree with him in every other way.

There are something like 25 muscles in the foot, and three layers of musculature within the foot itself. The bottom of the foot is laced with muscles. So, if you want to talk about things “from the ground up,” you need to start there. On the bottom of the foot.

4 layers of foot muscle...courtesy Frank Netter

Knee-Jerk Reaction
I’ll admit that I quickly tuned out. The other trainers there were doing some sort of social-conformity thing. They were very interested in speaking in PT lingo – “pronate, supinate, evert, invert, abduct, adduct.”

These last two, by the way, are apparently defined in certain circles, opposite to the normal understanding – that is, by judging whether a limb or body part is ab/adducting by the motion of the distal portion (furthest from the trunk of the body) of the limb to the proximal portion. I learned that abduction is when you move the limb or body part away from the midline, and adduction the opposite. And I’m not clear on the reasoning for the new definition. If you can enlighten me, please do!

Anyway, they wanted to “dig deep,” but only into what he was presenting. Not into the topic itself. Which I guess is fair. I guess.

Chuck said that flat footed people have a greater incidence of ACL tear. That may be, but why is that the case? He didn’t say. Actually, a few studies (here’s one) have shown that people with flat feet have lower risk of ankle injury than those with high arches.

There it is! Right there! I can see it!

Yes, I know the ACL is in the knee, not the ankle. So you’re saying the strain isn’t transferred to the ankle, but instead, goes up the chain to the knee. I guess I can understand that, to a point. But usually, soft tissues change structure to match kinetic patterns. So the argument that a person with flat feet automatically has pre-stressed ACL’s is suspect to me. If they had flat feet their whole life, wouldn’t the ACL conform?

Is it flat feet that cause ACL tears, or is it poor motor patterns?

Haile Gebrselassie hasn’t had any problem being one of the world’s greatest long-distance runners for years in spite of gross over-pronation:

The point of this section, though, is what gets missed when you skip over the bottom of the foot, and move straight to the calf and ankle.

Or, also, what gets missed when you skip over the most basic reflex patterns that stem from the stimulation of the bottom of the (bare) foot? See this paper for ideas about that.

This little cutie knows what I'm talking about...

Where’s My Cookie?
Look, I can see the multitude of perspectives there are on the human body. I can smell them and taste them too. I’ve touched those perspectives with my own hands. Trust me.

I have two problems with what happened to me on Saturday:
1. The body is not that complicated.

2. The way of addressing it in these complicated (and contradictory) terms, only causes confusion and dismay. And,

3. People seem to have turned off their brains…they’re just following anyone who stands up and says “follow me.”

I’ll explain the way I look at the body in another post…so STAY TUNED!!!

Sorry for the rant…hahaha…

Training in groups

Posted on December 19, 2009 by Josh

A recent article on the Boston ABC-online site makes a great point – Share a Trainer, Save Money at the Gym.

There’s so many benefits to training with groups, that it’s almost silly to comment on it.

So I will!

Training with others will do a few things:

Save money (if you’ve hired a trainer)
Provide support and motivation
Create an atmosphere of creative competition
Reduce anxiety and perceived effort
Builds community

Is that enough?

I won’t cite all of the research that shows that the above effects “actually happen.” Instead, I’ll just ask you to consider your own experience with physical effort, solo and in groups.

While a few people are very motivated to do physical things alone, many (I’d say most) are not. Most folks are more motivated when there are others around.

The best example I can think of is, of course, kids on a playground.

Some kids play solo…for a little while. Usually the split is (from my “professional observation”) probably around 20 percent solo playtime, and 80 percent group or partner play. I think that ratio is probably a little different at different developmental times, but probably remains close to that until kids stop being active (whenever that is for the individual).

My new training location is setup really well for partner and small-group training, so I’m really looking to promote that in the near future. It helps people to save money, and provides all of those great benefits above.

If you’ve ever considered working with a trainer, find a friend who has been thinking along similar lines, and then look around for a trainer who trains small groups or pairs.

Trying to catch up with the past…

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Josh

My client said this to me the other day.

Josh, he said, “I realized that I’ve been trying to catch up with the past.”

Wow, I thought. That’s deep.

The more I think about it, the deeper it gets.

How far down does the rabbit hole go?

First, I guess, you need to decide what this means for you. For me, it means that there are places and things that I keep trying to get to that are based on ideas I had in the past. They aren’t current. It’s like trying to go someplace with a map of a different area. Some of the streets have the same names. You might get somewhere. But you won’t get where you want to be, because you aren’t admitting where you really are.

Where in your life are you trying to catch up with the past? Where are you doing things based on old ideas of yourself, or hopes or dreams you had years ago, instead of dealing with yourself in the present moment?

Once I started to think about it this way, a lot of things came up for me. I’m still trying to learn this lesson – to drop old ideas and start from right here, right now.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Go where you want to be…

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Josh

A good friend of mine, Sam, developed an incredibly unique approach to life. He said (at least) a couple of things that always intrigued me, and that have stuck with me over the years.

One of those things is the title of this post – Go where you want to be.

The first time I heard Sam say this was in reference to finding a parking spot, of all things.

We were going to meet up at a club in DC to hear a band play, and I spent about fifteen minutes looking for a spot. When I got into the bar, there was Sam, having a beer, looking relaxed, as usual.

“How’s it going, Josh?” he asked.
“Great. Took me forever to find a spot though!”
“Huh,” Sam said.

We talked some more, the band played, and then it was time to go. We walked out of the front of the bar and there was Sam’s car! Parked right in front! I hadn’t even noticed it on my way in.

“Nice spot!” I said.
Sam looked at me and paused, as he did once in a while – usually after I’d said something earlier related to a life-philosophy idea, and the time had come to talk about it.
“You have to go where you want to be Josh” he said.
I stared at him like he’d just told me I should eat a banana.
“What?”
“Yeah. I just go where I want to be. If I’m looking for a spot, I don’t drive all around the place looking for one. I drive right up to the front of the place first. That’s where I want to park. Usually, there’s a spot right there for me. When there’s not, I work my way out from where I want to be – not vice versa.”

We parted for the evening, but the words have never left me.

I think about this a lot, and apply it to much more than parking, and I think you should too. Think about places in your life right now, where you aren’t going where you want to be.

Then turn around and go there instead.

Real Progessive Training

Posted on July 5, 2009 by Josh

I’m working on a project right now…I might call it “Real Progressive Training” or something catchier, like – HOT TRAINING FOR FUNCTIONAL SUPERFITNESS BODY HOT! Yes, I said “hot” twice! If that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will! I might add the word “kardashian” to the title too…for no specific reason…

But that aside, let’s talk about “functional training” for a second. It’s constantly on my mind. As a trainer, I want my clients’ function to improve. I want them to have greater range of motion in their joints, with greater control of that range of motion, and greater strength (of all types) in that control.

One of my biggest pet peeves in this industry, though, is mindless application of methods. “Functional Training” is still a hot topic, and everyone attributes “functional” benefits to their product – Crossfit, stability balls, etc. Let’s take the example of stability balls.

Stability Balls

If you haven’t heard of stability balls, I’m not sure where you’ve been. They’re everywhere. They’re in homes, they’re sold as “functional” desk chairs, they’re in gyms, they’re in the street!!! Stability balls, aka Swiss balls, were first used as circus implements in Italy, back in the earlier part of the 1900′s. A Swiss physiotherpist found that the instability caused by the balls helped her patients to recover normal function more quickly.

I would imagine it was an inductive case of monkey-see, monkey-do. If the people with the greatest balance in the world (circus performers) balance on these things, using them with my clients (albeit in a toned-down manner) will eventually bestow unto them a small fraction of the attributes those circus performers have.

Anyhow, soon physical therapists all over the world were using these things with their clients, to introduce instability, and thereby challenge their clients’ proprioceptive (awareness of position in space/time) and kinesthetic abilities.

One young enterprising trainer (Paul Chek) grasped onto the potential for the use of these tools in training normal clients. Another inductive case of monkey-see, monkey-do. It probably went like this - “If it helps sick people to get better faster, it must help people who are well to get even better.”

However, instead of going back to the souce (the circus), and taking cues from there, this trainer took all his cues from the physical therapists. He basically started giving sick-people exercises to non-sick people. This is now a huge (and hugely misguided) industry – giving physical therapy/rehabilitative exercises to general personal training clients.

That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be any crossover, or that knowing these techniques is bad. However, these techniques are usually misused, and certainly overused by personal trainers.

Case In Point

Strong and Asking to be Injured...

Let me relay a personal story first. A good friend was doing bench presses on a stability ball, with 70lb dumbbells. The ball burst. He landed on his back on the floor. When his elbows hit the floor with those 70lb dumbbells on top of them, his radial and ulnar bones shattered. He was in immobilization rings for six weeks, and in physical therapy (not personal training) for six months afterward.

There are two points I want to make here:

1. Once you pass a certain weight threshold, why would you want to be unstable?! Further, and related, at that threshold, how unstable are you, really? In the image above, with the 100-and-whatever-pound dumbbell pushing down into the floor, how unstable is that guy (that’s Paul Chek, for those who don’t know). And,

2. At what point do you throw the risk/reward calculation out the window? Take the above example again. What is he gaining, that can’t be gained in another (safer) way? Is it really necessary to do that movement, that way? What happens if that ball bursts? It may not seem like very far, but 2 feet is a long way to go when you have 100+ pounds on your chest. Ribs will break, at a minimum. What if the ball slips out behind him? Broken coccyx? Why the hell is that bench right there?! He’s not using it for anything! Is it there just to compound the danger?!

Consider this, friends, before you buy in to “functional” training. Use your common sense. And when my next project is done, buy my book.

OCD Strikes the Fitness World!

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Josh

A recent article by Jon Feld in the IHRSA (the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Assocation) online journal (also in their print publication) reveals that the fitness industry has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

The article starts off well enough – “Once considered an extra, a special service, in the club industry, fitness assessments have since become a fundamental element for most clubs and their members,” Feld writes.

But then Feld starts talking to Everette Aaberg, manager of a gym in Dallas – “Now, before we even begin to consider cardiovascular readiness and general conditioning levels, and prior to testing any movement patterns, we must first obtain a complete understanding of postural deviations, joint limitations, and functional muscle imbalances,” observes Aaberg. “It’s critical to identify biomechanical abilities before embarking on any other testing.”

Oh. Okay Everette. I mean, if you really think it’s necessary…

“We go through the entire body, joint by joint, to look for any range-of-motion limitations, identify any muscular imbalances, and establish training and treatment priorities,” he says. “This information is correlated with other assessments, such as postural and gait analysis and general movement-pattern testing, to help determine exactly what remedial exercise program and treatment plan should be developed.”

Uh. The entire body? Joint by joint? Depending on whom you ask, there are anywhere between 145 and 360 joints in the human body. How long does this process take?! Isn’t this a little obsessive?!

Oh come on, Josh…I can hear you say…this isn’t really OCD!

Well, let’s talk about that. NIMH defines OCD as “an anxiety disorder…characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Repetitive behaviors such as handwashing, counting [measuring], checking [assessing], or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away. Performing these so-called “rituals,” however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them markedly increases anxiety.”

Supposedly, OCD is “caused” by excess serotonin in the body, and is usually treated with a combination of behavioral/psychological, and chemical treatments (serotonin reuptake inhibitors). Serotonin is found predominantly in the gut of mammals (along with the nervous system). That’s funny. Could there be a connection between serotonin levels and diet?!

Lots of serotonin makes animals dominant and/or aggressive, or anxious. Serotonin triggers emptying of the gut, making animals hungrier. Of course, it all goes together – more aggression/anxiety = greater energy expenditure = hungrier animal.

But exercise mediates serotonin levels – especially vigorous exercise (i.e., you get really sweaty). Sad that 1. We aren’t getting sweaty anymore, and 2. Our trainers are just as OCD as we are…

Ultimately, we dont get to find out the answer to that question. The next thing we learn in the article is from another interviewee, more OCD behavior – “‘Specific muscle groups and individual muscles are now tested with an eye toward preventing injuries and improving the overall level of fitness,” indicates Boyd Lyles, Jr., M.D.’”

Ah. A doctor! That sounds good. But…how do you do that, Dr. Lyles?!

The answer, more assessments.

Assessments are so prevalent, they’re overtaking fitness itself. In many gyms, trainers spend each hour with their client doing “functional exercise.” The client barely breaks a sweat! In what way are they becoming more “fit?”

Meanwhile, the client wonders what the hell is going on. Why is there such a discrepancy between their look and the guy on the cover of Men’s Health, or Women’s Health, or Men’s-Women’s-Fitness-Muscle-and-Magazine.com?

It must be because they can just exercise all day. Or because they’re super-strict with their diets. Or…maybe it’s that you aren’t even remotely challenging yourself with movement during the week (OCD trainer or no). Or, maybe it’s that your trainer has you spending so much time perfecting your ability to perform bizarre “functional” movements that don’t challenge you, that your body has no reason to adapt to anything.

Here’s a simple way to get in shape:

Go to your cupboards and refrigerator and throw out everything made with high fructose corn syrup, white flour, white sugar, artificial flavors, artificial colors, hormones, or antibiotics. Go to the store and buy versions of those same foods that don’t have that crap in them. Make it easy on yourself. While you’re at it, buy more fresh (not wrapped in plastic) vegetables and fruits. Stop eating takeout, or at restaurants.

Then, play more. Play much more. Here’s how you do that, because I guarantee you’ve forgotten – go to the playground and watch the sweatiest kids. Write down what they’re doing. When they have to go home for dinner, go out there and do exactly what they did. Find a friend to play with. Play for hours on end. Don’t join a league sports team. Don’t play kickball. Don’t be organized or formal about it. Just play. Run as hard as you can till you can’t anymore. Spin in circles till you’re dizzy. Play.

If your “adult” “sensibilities” won’t allow you to do that, you can go the exercise route. Set aside fifteen minutes and do something as intensely as you can. You can do just one exercise, like the burpee, pushups, situps, lunges, squats, jumping, or you can string them all together – burpees, then pushups, then lunges, then situps, then squats – switching when you get tired. Jump rope, run, crawl on all fours…whatever. Do that every day till it gets easy. Then send me an email and I’ll give you some more ideas.

Still Unconvinced

Posted on February 6, 2009 by Josh

Physical therapy, and the various other branches of the medical field all have something in common – they all attempt to “fix” maladies occurring in the patient.

As I mention in a previous post, many personal trainers are starting to blur the line between being strength/fitness coaches and being physical therapists.

While it’s important to be able to recognize and to address obvious structural
or muscular problems in your clients, I’m still not convinced that this should be the end-goal of a personal trainer, or of the client of a personal trainer.

Movement is the domain of the personal trainer. And movement itself will often “cure” the ills of the person seeking the help of a trainer. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.

There are three “classic” postural deviations, first identified and categorized by Vladimir Janda (to my knowledge). They are Upper Crossed, Lower Crossed, and Layer Syndromes.

Trainers or therapists will often say that Upper Crossed Syndrome is “caused” by shortened/tight (or “facilitated”) musculature of the upper chest and lengthened/weak (or “inhibited”) musculature of the upper and mid-upper back. They will attempt to “fix” this issue by stretching the muscles of the front of the body, and strengthening the muscles on the back.

Lower Crossed Syndrome is similarly attributed to facilitated thoracolumbar extensors (the iliacus, psoas, rectus femoris, quadratus lumborum, latissimus dorsi, etc.) and inhibited thoracolumbar flexors (abdominals and gluteals, among others).

Layer Syndrome is a more pervasive series of imbalances, throughout the body as a whole. Often recognized by “Over development and activity of the deep neck extensors, scapula elevators, spinal erectors, and hamstrings are common. This is combined with muscle weakness in gluteals, deep neck flexors, lower scapula fixators, and abdominal musculature.”

My issue with these descriptions is that they are only that – descriptions. What therapists or trainers who use these terms are doing is describing the syndrome, not explaining the cause. The cause of all of these syndrome is unbalanced movement (either due to lack of movement, excessive movement in a particular direction, or both) across the shoulder girdle, pelvis, or (as is usually the case, since the body is a single unit) both.

And what is the “cure?” As Phil Page and Clare Frank recognize in their paper on the Janda Approach – “the coordinated firing patterns of muscle are more important than the absolute strength of muscles.” Similarly, the coordinated firing patterns are more important than any classification of facilitation or inhibition.

So what’s the point, Josh? The point is this – the coordinated firing patterns of muscles occur in natural movement. And while it is important to recognize people’s deficiencies, and to try to fix them, stretching and strengthening particular muscle groups (say, stretching my pecs and doing more face-pulls to correct my upper-crossed syndrome) does not constitute natural (whole-body) movement.

If the entire body is not involved, the dominant pattern will eventually find its way back to supremacy. This is no different from any other “habit” – the smoker who tries to quit without altering their entire lifestyle or behavioral patterns will ultimately start smoking again. The dieter who tries to diet, but doesn’t empty the cupboard of the Little Debbie snacks, thinking that those are their “reward” after a good week…etc. In fact, I’d go so far as to attribute this typical biological behavior to our current economic state in the US. Why is it true? Habit is the definition of economy – habits save time and energy for an organism. The trick is to form habits that are helpful and useful, and not harmful or wasting.

I’m still unconvinced that all of these “therapies” are really useful or necessary. Granted, there are people with true pathologies (conditions rendering normal functioning impossible), but for the most part, most people simply seem to be suffering from a general lack of movement.

To me, most of the aim of any therapy is getting the person simply to move again. If, instead of focusing on the isolation of syndromes and their treatment, we were to focus on the progression of the individual through a continually widening range of healthy, whole-body, movements (by this I mean fundamental motor patterns, mostly associated with gait – crawling, walking, skipping, running, sprinting, and the exaggerations of those movements – lunging, crawling pushups, jumping, etc.), we might treat the person to improved structure and function simultaneously, without “treating” them at all – and without boring them to tears with countless sessions involving ridiculous instructions to isolate particular muscle groups or stretch their opposites.

Exuberant Exercise

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Josh

I just got back from a trip to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to visit my family and attend my grandma’s 89th birthday celebration. It was awesome!

While I was there, I got to go sledding with my nieces, who are 6 and 10, my sister, and my fiancee Mary. We had the best time sledding down the snow-covered hills, and then sprinting back to the top.

When it was all said and done, everyone was totally wiped out, and starving! Mary remarked on how hungry she was.

Sledding is one of those types of play where you just don’t realize how hard you’re really “working.” You’re also challenging your stabilizing musculature, running uphill on a slippery, uneven surface.

So if you’re in a place where there’s snow – GO OUTSIDE AND GO SLEDDING! Go every day! Have fun! You might end up with washboard abs in the process!