IOL Strength and Conditioning

You may be surprised, as I was, to discover how much movement should be available in a rib cage when it retains its optimal mobility. The majority of the joints in the body are in the thorax, where each rib connects to its vertebra in the back and to the cartilage and sternum in the front. The more joints, the more small adjustments can be made; there is a lot of movement possibility here if it’s not locked down.

Instead of rib cage, the Feldenkrais group uses the term rib basket to remove the impression of jailed immobility. When I heard that, I wished I’d learned it earlier; I really had no idea the rib cage was mobile. Happily, though, that lost mobility is recoverable once you discover the problem and start working on the fix.

Most of us have tight lats, and as you know, the lats encase much of the bottom and sides of the thoracic cavity. Any chronic tightness will restrain joint movement, and tightness of the lats, traps, serratus and intercostals are no different.  Even the rectus abdominus—the six-pack—will stifle rib cage mobility when the region is overly tight and pulling at the bottom of the rib basket.

Respiration also inhibits movement of the surrounding ribs, and this is one reason restoring respiration quality is at the top of Evan Osar’s fix-it list. He talked about this at length in both of the IDEA presentations I attended, including a demonstration of crocodile breathing.

Get yourself on the floor and follow along with Dave Whitley and Geoff Neupert here:

Habit causes the majority of thoracic movement problems. The idea of suck in the chest may not happen in today’s world, but it sure did in yesterday’s. Actually, these days, if advertising is any indication, it’s the young men who inhabit this image, whereas in the previous generations, it was the young women. Having been one of those at the time and having carried that immobility forward into adulthood, my sincere suggestion is to break that habit now while it’s easy [easier, that is].

The forward head posture many of us develop as we get a little older, and especially as we spend more time sitting at these computers, will absolutely lock up the rib cage. When the shoulders are pulled forward, the shoulder blades lose their ability to shift in and out, up and down, and with that so goes the clavicles. When the entire shoulder yoke gets stiff and immobile, what do you suppose happens to the thoracic cavity it’s attached to? Bingo, you hit the jackpot on that one: Locked down.

Finally we get to the neurological factor, the brain part, where in addition to bad habits, we discover plain-old forgetfulness. Odd to think of forgetting how to move the ribs as we reach for over the counter for the latte, but it’s happening, and unless you make yourself aware, it’ll keep happening as the years and decades mount. Other than the fortunate few, the older we get, the more immobile the rib cage unless – or until! – we purposefully keep it moving.

Here’s a longer intro to learning this type of movement awareness at home.

Last fall after an off-the-cuff comment by Dave Whitley in our IronOnline forum, he, Mark and Tracy  Reifkind and I started pulling together the pieces for a kettlebell workshop here in the San Jose area.

Featuring Rif, IronTamer Dave and Tracy, we’re set for Sunday, May 2nd, $149. This includes lunch (thought you guys would think that was important enough to list), and we’ll be filming this for dvd; the workshop fee includes a free dvd set once the dvds are ready.

We’re holding this at Greg Everett’s Catalyst Athletics in Sunnyvale. It’s just a few miles from the San Jose airport, if anyone wants to fly in, and we got a great discount ($59 down from $109) at a hotel about a mile from Greg’s that includes a hot breakfast (won’t be fancy, don’t get your expectations too high), and a free shuttle from the airport. We’ll have a number of people around, so no one will need to rent a car if flying in… we’re a friendly bunch.

Rif is teaching everything we need to know about lat strength, how to use the lats better in pressing and pulling, tissue quality and length and other stuff we never think of about these important back muscles.

Dave is presenting twice, once on kettlebells as a tool to teach movement and tension principles, the getup as the foundation for all grinding kettlebell lifts, how to perform the bent press and how to boost your military pressing power. His second session is on strongman stuff, how to learn bending and grip strength, breathing and feats of strength, and how these techniques can be used in our regular training.

Tracy is the Swing Queen. She uses a variety of swing progressions to add intensity to this simple exercise. Instead of just doing a few sets of swings and moving on, she teach us how to program the swings in ways we never thought of.

At the end of the day, they’ll bring it all back together for an hour of open questions and answers. We’ll be able to ask whatever was missed during the day, but better yet, we’ll see if they have different answers or if they share the same views. This promises to be my favorite part of the day.

Here are the rest of the details, including a sidebar with plenty of links to the presenters’ websites, blogs and video archives: San Jose Kettlebell Workshop.

In the new dvd set, Assess and Correct: Breaking Barriers to Unlock Performance, corrective exercise authorities Bill Hartman, Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey team up to give us a group of joint by joint self-assessments to identify movement deficiencies. Over the years, I’ve gravitated toward learning the various alternative movement-based modes of pain relief, and these three guys have contributed to that learning, Mike mostly about knees, Eric mostly about shoulders and Bill, well… everything that moves. Given that history, I was eager to get a look at their latest work.

This is a two-dvd set, the first one guiding us through the various assessments, and the second a corrective exercise documentary including progressions ranging from easy to difficult to be used once the evaluations are complete.

Thomas tabletop test

The assessment dvd includes the following tests (27 variations), each with visual, vocal and bullet point coaching cues: how to do it, what to look for and what would be considered normal.

• Neutral spinal alignment
• Cervical flexion
• Thoracic spine rotation
• Pec minor length
• Pec major length (clavicular and sternal)
• Shoulder flexion
• External shoulder rotation
• Internal shoulder rotation
• Scapular upward rotation
• Straight leg raise
• Groin muscle stiffness
• Hip and knee flexion
• Hip flexor strength
• Quadraped rockbacks
• Prone knee flexion
• Thomas hip extension test
• Hip abduction
• Hip adduction
• Hip internal rotation, seated and prone
• Hip external rotation, seated and prone
• Ankle dorsiflexion
• Glute medius function
• Glute maximus function

This review took awhile! I thought I would just let the dvd run while I made notes, but I found myself stopping to try every test. You’ll be pleased to know I “passed,” but I think I’d like to get any one of these guys to run me through the appraisals. I might have cheated.

Seriously, it will help to have a base of movement knowledge when doing the assessments for awareness in instinctively cheating the tests.  But still, with ample attention and patience, anyone can do this.

The set also comes with three pdf e-books , one a 137-page manual that reinforces and builds upon the teaching of the dvds, the second is 21 pages of sample warm-ups based on individual corrective needs and pain issues (I’m using page 21, the desk jockey option, which I’m sure is not an afterthought even if it is the last page), and the final is a 12-page document of their favorite static stretches, done after foam rolling and before dynamic movement… the Great Eight, my new everyday stretch list.

The right corrective exercises as chosen using the pd manual after running the assessments and watching the second dvd with its 78 exercises is miraculous.

Reverse lunge with posterolateral reach

But it’s not magic and it can’t be rushed. To get out of chronic pain or to break through a movement-caused performance barrier, you have to tackle this like it’s your job.

At $127, I know that’s a hefty price for most of us, but that’s about the cost of an hour medical or alternative therapy session, and I’m pretty sure if you pay attention and slowly work through the assessments and corrective exercise suggestions, this investment will get you out of chronic pain, while that doctor visit, chiropractor or massage would, at best, provide only temporary relief. You do have to do your own work, though, so it’s a little more of a challenge than an hour on a massage table.

Bottom line: All thumbs up. These guys do great work. Putting this level of material in a simple, easy-to-understand package for those of us not schooled in physical therapy is very amazing, and much appreciated.

Here again is the link: Assess and Correct  or to copy and paste, go here:

http://www.assessandcorrect.com/about/

Excerpted from Advances in Functional Training, Michael Boyle, $34.95, pages 216-219

I worked on this book for about two months last fall. Before beginning, I was very familiar with Michael, had read his earlier book Functional Training for Sports several times, had read most of his published articles, was a member of his Strengthcoach.com website and had read many of his forum posts there. You can assume, then, while I appreciated having all this material collected in one place—in print—and categorized for each part to build upon the last, there wasn’t much that was entirely new to me. That is… until I got to the single-leg exercise classifications. These are entirely logical, and I felt like I knew them instinctively, but reading and pondering these explanations was illuminating. The following represents four pages excerpted from the 28-page section covering training on one leg. I think it’s brilliant stuff. ~ Laree

One of the major changes of the last decade in the fields of strength and conditioning and personal training has been an increased emphasis on exercises considered both functional and multi-planar. Where many strength coaches and trainers previously relied on bilateral exercises like squats and leg presses, we now regularly use exercises like lunges and one-leg squats. We’ll next look at the menu of single-leg exercises to classify the relative differences and benefits of each exercise, and evaluate where these exercises might best fit into our programs.

As we use more and more single-leg exercises with our athletes, we’ve broken these exercises into categories and placed the exercises in progressions. One of the drawbacks of having a broad range of exercises available is determining which exercise is appropriate for which individual, and at what point in training should each be used.

We often see an advanced exercise like lunges capable of producing extreme soreness recommended as a cure-all for nearly every lower-body issue. The current thought in some circles seems to be when in doubt, lunge. Yet prescribing an advanced single-leg exercise for a beginner can be a crippling introduction to the world of unilateral training. Using lunges initially can make sports practice difficult for the next few days.

When looking at single-leg exercises, it’s apparent they can be broken into knee-dominant exercises, variations of a squatting movement, and hip-dominant exercises, or those that prioritize the glutes and hamstrings and are variations of straight-leg deadlifts or bridging exercises.

Further investigation of the demands of single-leg exercises makes it necessary to break single-leg knee-dominant exercises into static exercises like one-leg squats, and dynamic exercises such as lunges and slideboard lunges.

In static single-leg exercises, there is no movement of the feet. One or both feet stay in contact with the ground. The body moves up and down in the sagittal plane or potentially side to side in the frontal plane, as in a lateral squat. Static knee-dominant exercise can further be broken into either static unsupported or static supported exercises.

Static Supported Exercises

Single-leg supported exercises describe a one-leg exercise done with some support from the remaining leg. The non-working leg could either be in contact with the floor as in a split squat or on a bench. These are not dynamic exercises as they lack translation. The center of mass stays in the confines of the base of support and the feet do not move.

A split squat is what we call a single-leg, static, supported exercise. It’s static: We’re not moving. It’s not a lunge. There is no step. It’s supported: We have the back foot in contact with the ground, a box, bench, or something else. Other examples would include the one-leg bench squat, the lateral squat and the rotational squat.

The rear-foot-elevated split squat, while harder, is still a static, supported exercise. All we’ve done is shifted the load more onto the front leg. This is a harder exercise than the split squat, and probably a better exercise for the more advanced athlete. This is a really important single-leg strength exercise, but it’s still static.

The pelvic implications of supported exercises are very different from the pelvic implications found in single-leg squatting, or other unsupported exercises. It’s very different in terms of what it’s asking the pelvis to do.

Single-leg supported exercises are a great introduction to single-leg training and should always precede the dynamic variations. An additional benefit of single-leg supported exercise is these exercises are excellent for flexibility.

Static Unsupported Exercises

Static unsupported single-leg exercises consist of single-leg movements done on one leg only. The non-working extremity is not allowed to touch the ground or any other object such as a bench. The only true static unsupported exercises are variations of one-leg squats. These may be referred to as one-leg squats, balance squats or step-downs in various texts.

The single-leg squat is an excellent example of knee stability. We won’t find an example better than that. As we look at a single-leg squat, we should think knee stability; this is the ability to exist in what we would call a single-leg, unsupported environment. Many of the single-leg unsupported exercises are frequently used as dynamic warm-up exercises, and are excellent for more experienced trainees in that function.

Carryover Limitations

Until recently, I did not distinguish between static unsupported and static supported exercise. Strength and conditioning coach Karen Wood convinced me otherwise. Wood’s rational is the limited functional carryover from the single-leg supported category to the single-leg unsupported category. In other words, performance of exercises like splits squats or rear-foot-elevated split squats did not carryover to performance in a true one-leg squat.

In static supported exercises, the hip rotators, adductors and glute medius do not take as active a role in stabilizing the femur. In true static unsupported exercises, the hip rotators, adductors and glute medius must actively work to prevent internal rotation of the femur. Static unsupported exercises are essentially tri-planar, as the movement may be sagittal, but the stabilizers must also prevent movement in the frontal and transverse planes.

A static unsupported exercise becomes a tri-planar movement automatically as the stabilizers work as anti-rotators. Wood’s thought process has caused me to program exercises in a manner we now define as progressive range of motion.

Progressive Range of Motion

Earlier in my career I would have scoffed at the idea of using partial movements. However, as I became involved in the rehabilitation of athletes with patella-femoral problems, I came to realize range of motion in the lower body needs to take a back seat to femoral control. Often in static supported exercises like a split squat or a one-leg bench squat, the athlete can move through a full range of motion, perhaps with significant loads, but still be unable to control the motion of the femur in an unsupported environment. In this case, lower-body strength is wasted because it does not fulfill its obligation to control the motion of the femur.

To illustrate the concept, in our facility, a single-leg squat will be done only to a pain-free range that demonstrates control of the femur relative to adduction and internal rotation. In other words, it is not enough to squat low. The trainee must squat low while maintaining control of the femur from the hip musculature.

In progressive range of motion training, the bodyweight load remains constant, while the range of motion is progressively increased. Once the trainee demonstrates full, controlled range of motion, the programming reverts back to basic progressive resistance concepts.

In the same program or in the same workout, we may simultaneously be using a single-leg unsupported exercise with progressive range of motion as in partial one-leg squats, followed by a single-leg supported exercise done through a full range of motion.

Progressions

Split squats should precede lunges; lateral squats should precede lateral lunges; and rotational squats should precede rotational or transverse lunges. Failure to do this will result in exceptional soreness, possible disruption of the training program, and often a loss of confidence in the coach or trainer by the athlete or client.

The reason for the exceptional soreness lies in the sagittal emphasis of most training programs. Many times range of motion is consistently gained in the same plane of motion; motion out of the sagittal plane involves muscle fibers and action not previously encountered.

Athletes often report unusual levels of soreness in an area that appears to be the adductors or the medial hamstrings and it sometimes seems even worse with lunges. Rolfer and author Thomas Myers describes the adductor magnus as the fourth hamstring, and in fact the adductor magnus is the third most powerful hip extensor.

Adductor magnus assists in hip extension by providing a counterbalance to the external rotator capability of the glute max, the most powerful hip extensor. The combination of extreme knee and hip flexion in a single-leg exercise stresses the anti-rotator and extensor capabilities of the adductor magnus in a way completely unfamiliar. This causes unusual soreness that can be injurious or even confused with an actual groin strain.

Many athletes don’t use the adductor magnus as a hip extensor until they begin to squat low or begin performing walking lunges. When they do these exercises, they activate the adductor magnus. The response is usually a painful one. The adductors, primarily the adductor magnus, plays a critical role in sprinting, acting as both a powerful hip extensor and a counterbalance to the external rotating capability of the glute max.

Dynamic Unsupported Single-Leg Exercise

The remaining single-leg exercises would be classified as dynamic exercises. In dynamic single-leg exercises, the body is translated in either the sagittal plane (lunge, slideboard lunge, Valslide lunge, TRX lunge or walking lunge), frontal plane (lateral lunge), or transverse plane (rotational lunge).

Dynamic single-leg exercises are among the most significant soreness producers in the coach’s toolbox, and should be implemented with great care. A static supported version of the exercise should precede the dynamic version for a three-week period. Lunges should not be used until the trainee has done at least three weeks of split squats.

Accelerative and Decelerative Patterns

It is further necessary to categorize dynamic single-leg exercises into accelerative and decelerative patterns. Accelerative patterns would be walking lunges and slideboard lunges. Accelerative exercises are pulling actions that mimic the mechanics of an athlete accelerating toward an object. These have high transfer capability to running.

Decelerative patterns would include conventional lunges, lateral lunges or any multi-planar, transverse or rotational version. The decelerative patterns have more application to braking and direction-change skills. Decelerative exercises are excellent for injury prevention, whereas accelerative exercises will greatly enhance movement capability. Both types are necessary, but they should not be viewed as either strongly related or interchangeable since they are markedly different.

The accelerative dynamic single-leg exercises have been inappropriately named and misclassified. Walking lunges, Valslide lunges and slideboard lunges are actually hip-dominant exercises that look knee-dominant.

Although the action in a walking lunge or slideboard lunge appears to be the identical movement to a conventional push-back lunge, the muscle actions are entirely different. Conventional lunges are knee-dominant and quadriceps-oriented and don’t produce unusual soreness. Any of the walking, slideboard and Valslide variations will produce exceptional soreness, particularly in the long adductors as noted above.

Effectively programming single-leg exercises takes on an entirely new dimension in light of this. In our programming, I have relied far too heavily on the static versions and have not used enough of the dynamic. In fact, the accelerative options may be the best one-size-fits-all choice.

Excerpted from Advances in Functional Training, Michael Boyle, $34.95, pages 216-219

We are poised at the foothills; looming before us are the staggering holiday mountains: Christmas and New Year’s. Though we’ve traversed the Thanksgiving Range with its mighty peaks, the December ascents remain a consuming and seductive challenge.

Peace and joy and good will claim our attention. Yet, I feel compelled to remind you of the subtle and pervasive pitfalls concealed before us.

It starts. You go to a small party… big deal! And eat a little more than usual—so? And drink a little. Eh!

Trixie brings homemade cookies to work and Biff brings his special eggnog. Good stuff and ‘ya can’t say no. Oops! You miss your classic midweek workout. And Friday—shoulders and arms—gives way to another party… Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob and the kids. Real good people, but they sure can pack it in.

A thin crack in your cool discipline appears. You gain weight, few pounds. Hmpff! Saturday your favorite morning workout is replaced with gift shopping and groceries for your Christmas party. Bring your own booze. Two am, as you clean up the party mess, you vaguely recall devouring a loaf of garlic bread and a bottle of vino with big Tony and big Angella. Those two should exercise.

“How quickly we gain weight,” you muse as you gingerly mount the scale on Monday morning before heading to work. You feel puffy and achy and grumpy. Not enough sleep these days. No way can you go to the gym feeling like a slug. Me llama es El Piggo. “Wednesday I’ll blast it,” you vow. The crack is now a gap and growing.

You eat and eat, forget the Wednesday blasting session and eat again. You feel guilty and fat—bad combination. Somebody from the gym asks where you’ve been and you tell him to mind his own business. Who does he think he is? The jerk! You’re a little high strung.

Now your pants don’t fit. Party, party, I love champagne. You hyperventilate. Who needs protein, pass the pie. Your sneakers don’t fit. What gym? Where?

You’ve contracted bulgebellious miserabeles. Your friends don’t recognize you. Your training gap has become the Grand Canyon. It has a life of its own like a slobbering alien from Krypton Three. Is this a hideous nightmare? Tell me I’m dreaming! How do I get outta here? Hellllppp meee!

Does this sound familiar, Bunky? Don’t let this happen to you.

Don’t miss your workouts. Cut them in half… and don’t eat too much. Cut it in half. Don’t let things get out of hand, 15-30 minutes in the gym 2-3 times a week is far, far better than saying “why bother.” These make all the difference in the world to keep you mentally and physically and emotionally together. They keep you connected, in control, toned, confident, strong, alert, disciplined, cute and charming. You’ll be so pleased with yourself, instead of displeased with yourself, a big dif.

You’ll smile instead of pretending to smile, you’ll laugh, you’ll love.

The gym is always a friendly diversion, and especially so around this peculiar time of the year. Let’s face it. December gets weird—the job, the markets, the malls, construction, shopping, shipping, receiving, the highways and byways. The gym with its mutually enthusiastic faces is a refuge, the only sane place in the nutty world. Peaceful, it’s your world—orderly, safe, stress free, productive, happy.

Don’t wander too far… don’t get lost.

There are been a number of visitors to the forum who show up with questions after reading the What is an Elevated Hip? post of a last year. The most common question isn’t as much what to do about it, it’s figuring out which side is out of normal alignment. Here are a couple of hints to help you sort things out.

What we loosely call an elevated hip is actually an asymmetry of the iliac crests, the top part of the pelvic bowl on one side is higher than the other. This results in a functional leg length discrepancy, and in the physical therapist texts is referred to as a hip joint lateral asymmetry or a lateral pelvic tilt. The top of the pelvis on the high side is flexing toward the spine; the hip socket is high, the pelvis is elevated and probably rotated forward toward the opposite side, and usually the spine will move in a convex arc, toward the opposite side.

This has a big affect on walking. There are three parts of gait representing movement in all three planes of motion, sagittal, frontal and transverse. Optimal gait involves an equal amount of each, and when parts are limited, we see other aspects taking over, creating a compensating gait. For example, picture Frankenstein for a dominant sagittal-plane walk, a runway model’s sway representing the frontal, or a John Wayne swagger as the transverse image.

With a lateral pelvic tilt, the hip joint isn’t able to move well. During walking the pelvis needs to move into posterior tilt during the stride forward; both sides need to move equally. Of course, this can’t happen if one is sluggish, somewhat stuck in an abnormal position.

The glute on that side won’t fire optimally with the pelvis out of neutral; the abductors are weak or not firing and are unable to stabilize the pelvis and move the leg. Instead, the QL lifts the leg around, creating a pelvic flexion toward the spine, rather than true transverse plane action.

This takes longer, meaning the normal-side foot will be on the ground longer as it waits for the elevated side to come around. You can see this if you sit at a mall coffee shop people-watching, and you can feel it in yourself if you find a quiet place where you can pay attention to your footsteps. In fact, attention to your foot pattern is a real good way to sniff out a hip problem.

The high-side hip is in adduction, and the normal side is in abduction. This generally means more weight rests on the outside of the high-side foot. When that happens, there will be less weight on the opposite foot, which will usually drop in, so the high-side foot will be supinated and the normal side foot will be pronated.

The tight areas are the outside hip area of the low side, and the side, glutes and low back area of the high side, including the QL, which will be tight from doing all the work during hip hitching. These you’ll foam roll or roll using a small myo ball.

The weaknesses will be primarily the abductor musculature of the high side. Working the abductors – the outside of the hip region – means fairly isolated work like side-lying leg raises, clamshells or some kind of propped donkey kicks, isolated so the lumbar area stays stable and the leg is only moving from the hip socket.

The psoas will probably need stretching, and the IT band will need rolling. The IT bands always need rolling.

There will probably also be a low shoulder on the side of the elevated pelvis — the length of the waist will be shorter on that side. Those of us who are novices at this will often go after correcting an obvious high shoulder, but it’s usually a factor of the opposite-side hip elevation and will correct itself when the hips level out.

With all our discussion of imbalances and movement patterns, we need to remember there are always exceptions to the rule. Some compensations are common to most people, but we can easily compensate in unique ways. Enforce a little caution on yourself; don’t just assume you’ve “got that” when you read about a functional problem that sort of matches your symptoms.

Test yourself, read a little more and test again. Otherwise, you’re likely to be stretching an area that needs strengthening or working an area that needs soft tissue therapy. You’ll have yourself tottering around in circles, and that’s almost as frustrating as being entirely clueless. Actually, it’s more frustrating.

 This is a guest blog post from our friend, “the sandbag guy,” Josh Henkin.

Why use something so primitive? It isn’t in an attempt to be hardcore or “a bad ass.” There is a lot of science behind what makes what was once an old-school training tool into a standard for the modern lifter.

Core Strength

I hate that term more than most, not because everyone is using it, but because of the misuse of the it. The core is more than the abs; it’s the hips and low back as well, and some argue it’s even hard to separate the lats from the equation. Because the sandbag is so awkward to lift, it incorporates more of the core muscles more than any other training method. We do this instinctively to help become more efficient at the movements as the muscles work synergistically to deal with the awkward sandbag.

Sandbag training allows lifters to better develop the core because every traditional lift becomes a core exercise with the sandbag. For example, squatting has always been known as a great way to strengthen the midsection. With the barbell you have three options: You can perform front, back or overhead squats, all fantastic drills. However, only the overhead squat is a situation where the load isn’t perfectly loaded on the body’s strongest leverage points. In sandbag training, one can use eight different holding positions to challenge the body’s core to maintain posture during the squatting motion.

For example, in shoulder squatting one holds the load on one side of the body. This provides similar axial loading as it challenges the body to resist lateral flexion and rotation. The lifter will also find one leg actually works harder, a great way to strengthen the posterior chain. Such exercises quickly expose weaknesses as “filling in the holes.”

The list is endless with variations of squatting, lunging, step-ups, get-ups and pressing. With any traditional lift, the sandbag can add a new twist to stimulate new muscular strength and growth.

Get Stronger

Most are familiar with the term “farm boy strength.” Most people have met that one guy who grew up on a farm and never lifted weights yet has this tremendous strength that seems to transfer to everything. What did this guy do? He lifted odd objects all the time and developed tremendous strength lifting in different positions with implements that didn’t have comfortable handles or well-distributed loads.

The benefits of odd-object hefting didn’t elude many old-time strongmen. In fact, they often used sandbags to build the incredible strength they demonstrated in a variety of acts or in wrestling matches. In one of the most landmark books in strength and conditioning, The Encyclopedia of Wrestling Conditioning, author John Jesse outlines the following:

“Sandbags over 100 pounds are awkward to handle and provide a true test of all-around strength, particularly in lifting them overhead or bringing them to the shoulder with one hand. Some of the old-time strongman wrestlers would shoulder a 180 to 220-pound sack of grain to the shoulder with one hand and then walk several hundred yards with the bag on their shoulders. A few were capable of pressing the same bag overhead with one hand after bringing it to the shoulder.”

Sandbags build ligament and tendon strength like few other tools can. They fill in the holes that most strength exercises miss because of limited movement and predictable patterns. Strength expert Brooks Kubik best stated why sandbags work so well:

“You feel sore as you do because the bags worked your body in ways you could not approach with a barbell alone. You got into the muscle areas you normally don’t work. You worked the heck out of the stabilizers.”

Bodybuilding and Sandbags

There was a time when there was no difference between being a strength athlete and a bodybuilder. Many methods and tools crossed the lines between these two arenas and one could be strong and muscular at the same time. Even some of today’s biggest bodybuilders have used odd objects in their training.

Renowned strength coach Charles Staley calls sandbags our “most uncooperative” training tool. A lifter can use a sandbag for everything from a clean and press to a biceps curl. Whatever the drill, the sandbag adds a new dimension from coordination to gripping strength. This seems to integrate more muscles than a standard barbell or dumbbell lift and can introduce a much-needed variation to many programs.

Recently a strength enthusiast named Anthony Sharah shared with me, “In the past I followed a bodybuilding routine. I could never get my upper body size to grow to match my lower body. There is no doubt that sandbag training recruits more muscle fibers, or that it is different than barbell training.”

So many bodybuilding routines try to hit muscles from different angles, hit different fibers, and try to integrate muscles in so many different ways. In truth, those striving for muscle growth may find sandbags to be a great compliment to their training program because few training methods and tools can stimulate more muscles in new ways than the sandbag.

Filling in the Holes

Let’s say you believe that sandbags have a place. How do you integrate them into your training program? There are host of different strategies.

• Alternate sets of your favorite classic lifts with a sandbag variation. For example, barbell squats alternated with Zercher or shoulder sandbag squats; deadlifts, alternated with rotational deadlifts, half moon snatches, or even shouldering. The list quickly becomes endless and fun!
• Finish off your sets with a sandbag finisher. Want a more complete physique? After your bench press series, perform one all-out effort of sandbag clean and presses.
• Every cycle, switch out a traditional barbell or dumbbell lift with a sandbag variation. Perform shoulder lunges instead of dumbbells, work bear hug instead of barbell good mornings; use shouldering instead of deadlifts, overhead chop instead of your kettlebell swing.

In the End

Sandbags are not a fad; there just has never been a system of implementing the work into a rational strength training program. My goal is to not simply reintroduce the lifting community to sandbags and their variations, but to the powerful impact these can have on a well-structured program. Random assignment of sandbag lifts is as useless as doing such with barbells, dumbbells or even kettlebells. Utilizing them with extremely focused intent and purpose makes them a tool no strength athlete should pass up!

In the arena of functional fitness and sports performance, Josh Henkin is a widely acclaimed innovator. He is the creator of the Ultimate Sandbag and Sandbag Fitness Systems. In addition, Josh lectures internationally at conferences, top fitness facilities, and elite sports performance programs. He can be reached via email at jsandbags@hotmail.com.

Training Techniques for Coaches, Personal Trainers and Athletes by Michael Boyle

The cover athlete is Ingrid Marcum, during her win at the 2009 Nationals

In the seven years since the publication of his first book, Functional Training for Sports, new understanding of functional anatomy created a shift in strength coaching. With this new material, Coach Boyle presents the continued evolution of functional training as seen by a leader in the strength and conditioning field.

After an introduction into his new thinking, Michael uses ten basic sections to present everything a strength coach or personal trainer needs to understand modern training theory, beginning with his joint-by-joint approach to training, along with details of his use of Gray Cook and Lee Burton’s Functional Movement Screen. Next he discusses injury avoidance, treatment, rehab and training after injury. Then he updates the reader on the current thinking in core training, back pain, and on how the hip musculature works, and how it fails. We learn his philosophy on cardiovascular training, and see what has worked for the athletes training in his facility.

In the second half of the book, Michael shifts to training strategies, including which exercises he uses today and which he’s discarded, what equipment and tools are in use on his gym floor, how he develops speed, and, of course, there’s a large section on his now-famous single-leg training. Finally, we get to program design, where he puts the entire package together to mesh theory with daily reality. He’ll teach you the basic objectives of a sound program, and then over the course of 32 pages, he’ll show you exactly which programs he uses in a variety of client and athletic circumstances.

The category sections include:

• Mobility and Flexibility
• Injuries
• The Core
• The Hips
• Cardiovascular Training
• Developing Athleticism
• Equipment Choices
• Exercise Choices — The Basics and Single-Leg Training
• Program Design
• Sample Programs

You can grab a pdf of the full Table of Contents here.

This book is in stock and available for shipping.
The official release date is January 10th; bookstores and online stores such as Amazon.com will have the book available for order after that date.

Click here to place your order, $34.95.

90 minutes of new training ideas!

We’re now set with part four of Dan’s IronOnline workshop — or at least we will be Friday or Monday — the final DVD of the series, in which he shows us his sample warm-ups, a few workout varieties, and his famous barbell complexes. Trust me, these aren’t your regular Bomber bodypart splits, although over the decades Dave’s done his share of barbell rows, presses and dumbbell farmer walks, and he’s probably also done our share.

One of Dan’s key phrases here was, “The warm-up is the workout,”  and as he puts our crew through the paces, you’ll see how he can make that claim! He also uses members of the audience to demonstrate new movements, or to show his corrections when we went astray.

Here he uses Elke to show, as he tells the story and gives guidance on Koji squats, which I’m assuming you haven’t seen before.

Dan shows his daily favorites:
Gait Warm-up
Goblet Squat & Bootstrapper Squat
Hip Flexor Stretch & RDL Stretch
Plank Series
Horizontal Shrugs
Maxercist and Parked Rows
Crocodile Pushups
Heartbeat Squat
Kalos Sthenos Getup
Ab Circuit
Star Plank
Barbell Complexes
A full warm-up series
Sample workouts, insights and more

Includes pdf handouts of the sample workouts, warmups and barbell complexes

And in this clip, Dan’s pal Josh Vert performs the deadbug series, again with Dan at the controls.

Here’s where to get your copy of Dan’s 90-minute workout samples dvd, $29.95. Or if you’d like to save $20 now that the entire series is complete, here’s the link for the 4-DVD set.

What a great idea for Christmas — now you know what to ask for next week when you get the what do you want for Christmas inquiry!

Now that the new Michael Boyle book, Advances in Functional Training, is at the printer and the proof for the final DVD of the Dan John seminar weekend has been approved for replication, I found myself kicking around over the weekend wondering what of that huge mess on my desk most needed to be done. Those two projects have been my primary focus for nearly six months, so I wasn’t quite ready to backburner either one of them. Hey, how about I update the On Target Publications website?

So I get there to take a look and oops, what do you know… hasn’t been touched in about five years. Ouch! No new book updates, no new technology. It just looked b a d. You can probably guess what I did the next couple of days, and you know I’m going to send you over there to take a look. In fact, maybe I’ll even ask a favor: Would you let me know if you find any problems? Typos, browser issues, like that? Your review comments on the various book and dvd pages are most certainly welcome, too, because I know the authors appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Buried in the author pages you’ll find bits of history, perhaps how the books came to be published, or how I came to know the authors. I’ll continue to update the Forthcoming page as new projects hit the planning stage, but meanwhile perhaps you’ll want to know what’s up for now.

In the print department, Dave’s just begun work on his new, as yet unnamed book, which sounds like it will be part memoir, part motivational, part pictorial. The selection of photos is underway, which means he’s dreaming up memories to tell the stories behind the images. His memory articles are often the readers’ favorites, and just the idea of this new material is enough to lift my spirits.

I’m working on another book project in partnership with Byron Chandler, this one directed toward the maturing trainee who, perhaps through chronic pain, has discovered the training routine he or she has been using since 1980 is no longer doing the trick. I hope we’ll see both of these new books in early 2010.

May 1st we’ll be filming a workshop in San Jose, California, featuring Mark Reifkind and Dave Whitley for publication on DVD. This will be a paid day-long workshop; registration and seminar details will be online in January, and the DVDs hit production during May, available early summer.

And the weekend of September 25, 2010, will mark our 10th annual IronOnline bash to be held in Kansas City, where Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore will be on hand to present a workshop weekend, also planned for DVD publication. Details on that event will be posted in the IronOnline forum as they become available.

The new website is OnTargetPublications.net. If you find any problems, please give me a yell: ldraper@davedraper.com.

In part three of the four DVDs from the Utah workshop weekend, we get a taste of Dan John’s instruction for beginning Olympic weightlifting. Our original idea was this would be primarily for adults who’ve never lifted Olympic-style, and it’s certainly that, however one of the attendees is a competitive Olympic lifting, who told me a couple of Dan’s tips changed her lifting forever. So I’m thinking anyone interested in Olympic lifting will get something out of this one.

As I did last time for the kettlebell dvd and the time prior for the strength lecture, I pulled a couple of clips from the dvd to give you a taste of what went on during our time with Dan. First, let’s look at his take on pulling through the heels.

In this 80-minute DVD, Dan taught:

• Olympic lifting overview
• Snatch positions
• Push jerk
• Split jerk
• The Jerk
• Overhead squat
• Goblet squat
• Shoulder mobility
• Putting weights overhead
• Hamstring lengthening
• Romanian deadlift stretch
• Wrist flexibility

Now here’s one of value to everyone, even those without interest specifically in Olympic lifting: How to get wrist flexibility.

Having been at the event and as an adult with absolutely no Olympic lifting experience, I can tell you I left feeling fairly confident in my ability to snatch and jerk… a short piece of PVC pipe.

Seriously, it left me and the rest of the attendees with plenty of enthusiasm for learning the O lifts, and enough technique tips to give us a start on our own at home. Here’s where to get your copy of Dan’s Olympic Lifting for Beginners DVD, $29.95.

Laree Draper

A guest blog post by Nick Tumminello, the guy who
produced those self-myofascial release and self-mobilization dvds I liked so much.
Thanks, Nick, you’ve got great timing because my knees hurt! Laree

Injuries are an unavoidable part of life and athletics. Talk to just about any athlete or exercise enthusiast over the age of 25 and he or she is almost guaranteed to have some sort of pain, injury or limitation. One of the more common areas of trouble are the knees.

Often, past or present knee issues limit or totally prevent folks from performing many of the traditional lower body exercises. Movements like squats, lunges and steps place significant force through the knee and demand the knee joint move through a large range of motion, exactly what individuals suffering from knee issues need to avoid. People with knee pain are left confused and frustrated in their desire to train and successfully make gains in the gym.

That is, until now…

This article will provide you with a concept that I call Joint Friendly Training or more specifically, Knee Friendly Training. Knee-friendly training exercises are exercises that maximize results in strength and muscle, but place minimal stress on the knee joint. In other words, these exercises will help you get bigger stronger legs without creating more pain or discomfort. I know these exercises work because I use them every day with my injured athletes. Every exercise protocol provided has been battle-tested and proven effective in my gym time and time again.

This is NOT Corrective Exercise!

Before I provide the specific exercise protocols. I want to make a very important point: The exercises below are designed to work around your pain, injury or limitations. They are NOT designed to be rehabilitation exercises or corrective training. That training is best left to a qualified physical therapist.

There are two very basic and very common sense rules when using the knee-friendly training exercises below.

Rule #1 – If it hurts, don’t do it!

If one of these exercises creates pain during or after training, skip it and move on to another variation.

Rule #2 – Change is okay!

Don’t be afraid to modify a movement to better accommodate your specific limitations. For instance, use a lighter weight, a shorter ROM, or a slower tempo.

The Exercises

After I provide the specific exercises, I will describe a sample program showing how to apply them in your program.

Knee Friendly Exercise #1 - The Single Leg ½ Squat, ½ Deadlift
This exercise is one of my favorite lower body exercises for both injured and uninjured athletes because it’s a very efficient way to train the entire lower body. It combines the benefits of unilateral training, and leverages the timing and rhythm of both the quads and hips working together.

People with bad knees usually have trouble bending their knees past a certain point. The half-squat, half-deadlift limits the knee bend and allows the posterior chain — glutes and hamstrings — to bear some of the load and therefore to de-load the knee joint a bit.

½ Squat ½ Deadlift - Program Design Tips

• This exercise can also be done bilaterally – on two legs — using a barbell or dumbbells.
• Add load to the 1 Leg ½ Sq/DL by wearing a weighted vest, holding dumbbells, a medicine ball or a barbell.
• Isometric holds for 3-5 seconds at the bottom position are also an effective training option.

Knee Friendly Exercise #2 – Anterior Lunges
Anterior lunges are based on the same principle as the ½ Squat/DL. This lunge variation is knee-friendly because it emphasizes more glute recruitment. By increasing glute recruitment, we automatically bring in more muscular help to the knee.

This exercise also makes a killer glute and athletic performance drill for uninjured athletes. I warn you, though, anterior lunges will make your butt very sore if you’ve never tried them before! Like any other new exercise, once your body adapts, that intense soreness goes away.

Anterior Lunge - Program Design Tips

• Only go as heavy as you are able while still maintaining optimal spinal alignment, a proper lordodic curve.
• Alternate legs or do all reps on the same side, then switch.
• Shorten your stride or amount of lean relative to pain tolerance levels.

Knee Friendly Exercise #3 – Romanian Deadlifts
RDLs are a very commonly used exercise. Therefore, I don’t think it necessary to cover them in in depth. That said, RDLs are a very knee-friendly way to lift big weights and build more muscle and strength.

Knee Friendly Exercise #4 – Monster Walks
Monster walks are one of the most popular exercises I teach to my clients during training and when I present to fitness professionals at national conferences. This exercise is fun, easy to learn, and most importantly, it works!
As in the theme of this article, monster walks require little to no bending of the knee and therefore are very easy on the knee joint. Even my clients with very severe knee issues can use monster walks to strengthen the lower body without pain or irritation. All you need to perform monster walks is a heavy resistance band like the ones used in band-resisted bench presses and squats.

Monster Walk – Program Design and Coaching Tips

• Prevent the pelvis from rotating more than a few degrees.
• Walk while emphasizing movement from your hips via the glutes.
• Stay tall.
• Monster walks are best performed for time frames of 30-60 seconds.
• To increase load demand, use a heavier band or walk farther out.

Knee Friendly Exercise #5a & 5b – Single Leg Bench Hip Bridge
This is another one of those exercises that is simple to learn, works with anyone, and builds big-time muscular strength and size. It’s also a personal favorite of my lovely girlfriend, Alli McKee,  an experienced strength coach and competitive figure athlete. You can get all of Alli’s workouts here on her blog.

There are actually two ways to perform the single-leg hip lift. You can use a bent leg, as shown in the pictures of Alli below:

Single Leg Hip Bridge — finish position

Single Leg Hip Bridge with Straight Leg - finish position

When performing this exercise with a straight leg, be sure to keep your toes pointed straight toward the sky.

Here’s an example of the wrong foot position:

Single Leg Hip Bridge - wrong foot position

Here is the correct foot position:

Single Leg Hip Bridge - correct foot position

Single Leg Hip Bridge – Program Design and Coaching Tips

• Place the flat part of the weight plate on your shin. The plate should not be uncomfortable to hold.
• Lift hips as high as possible and pause for 1-2 seconds at the top.
• To create more balanced muscular development and add variety to your training, alternate bent leg and straight leg hip bridge variations every other workout.
• Use a larger plate or multiple stacked plates to increase the load.

Knee-Friendly Exercise #6a, 6b, and 6c - Sled Training
With sled training, you get a knee-friendly way to both improve your strength and improve your level of conditioning. In this section, I’m going to cover my three most effective knee-friendly training drills using a sled.

Sled Pushes

• Sled pushes, when done correctly, will crush even the fittest and strongest of athletes.
• Keep your back fairly straight, with your hips and shoulders close to level with one another.

Check out these two hard-working master figure competitors performing heavy sled pushes:

Sled Push – Coaching and Program Design Tips

• For strength and muscular gains, go as heavy as possible for 25-40 yards.
• For improvements in conditioning or for fat loss, use lighter loads for 50-100 yards.

Forward Sled Drag
This drill is a personal favorite of mine for building the legs, burning fat and developing long-lasting conditioning levels. Since this type of training has become more popular, there are multiple equipment options available depending on finances. On the high end, you can buy a Prowler. A cheaper option is to buy a weighted sled. Although I have both pieces of equipment, I still prefer the last option…a used oversized tire. The best part about getting a tire is the price…FREE from the junkyard!

Here, at Performance U in Baltimore, we perform our forward sled drag using a big tire.

Forward Sled Drag – Coaching and Program Design Tips

• Stronger athletes need a larger, heavier tire…DUH!!!
• Lean forward with a straight back.
• Take big strides.
• For improvements in strength, go 20-40 yards.
• For improvements in conditioning or fat loss, go 40-100 yards.
• For dynamic effort training, cover 15-25 yards as fast as possible.

Reverse Sled Drag
The reverse sled drag is a great knee-friendly way to create terminal knee extension and develop your quads. This exercise is no slouch in the fat loss and conditioning department either.

This exercise can also be performed with the Prowler, a weighted sled, or a giant tire. I like the tire because I can get outside and work on my tan while getting stronger.

Reverse Sled Drag – Coaching and Program Design Tips

• You can stand tall or drop into a partial squat while performing this exercise.
• Alternate each position every workout to create balance and add variety.
• For strength gains, go as heavy as possible for 20-40 yards.
• For fat loss or improved conditioning, go lighter for 40-80 yards.

Putting it All Together
Now that I’ve provided you with the specific exercises, here’s a sample-training program. This program demonstrates a sample two-day knee-friendly leg training split.

Sample Two-Day Knee Friendly Strength & Conditioning Program

Day 1
•    Romanian Deadlifts: 4 x 5-8
•    1 Leg Hip Bridge (Bent Leg): 3 x 8-12 paired with Reverse Sled Drag (low stance): 3 x 30-40 yds
•    Calves: 2 x 20-25
•    Forward Sled Drag (for conditioning): 100 yds x 2
Day 2
•    1 Leg ½ Squat 1/s DL: 4 x 10-15
•    1 Leg Hip Bridge (Straight Leg): 3 x 8-12 paired with Reverse Sled Drag (tall stance): 3 x 30-40 yds
•    Calves: 2 x 20-25
•    Sled Push (for conditioning): 50 yds x 4

Note: When pairing exercises, you should perform exercise a, followed by exercise b, and then repeat for the subscribed number of sets. For example in Day 1, the leg hip bridge paired with reverse sled drag should be performed as:

•    Leg Hip Bridge: 1 x 8-12
•    Reverse Sled Drag: 1 x 30-40 yds
•    Leg Hip Bridge: 1 x 8-12
•    Reverse Sled Drag: 1 x 30-40 yds
•    Leg Hip Bridge: 1 x 8-12
•    Reverse Sled Drag: 1 x 30-40 yds

Knee Friendly Cardio

All of the sled variations I provided above are excellent ways of improving cardiovascular endurance and metabolic conditioning. However, those exercises will gas you out fairly quickly. If you are looking for a knee friendly cardio option you can perform for extended periods of time, watch the video below:

Conclusion

So there you have it! I’ve given the specific exercises, shown you how to perform them safely and correctly, and provided a comprehensive training program. You now no longer have the option of using the “I have bad knees” excuse to not train, build muscle, and get stronger or lose fat. You have all the tools, so…get to the gym and get after it!

by Colin Sheard
Health and Strength, The Official NABBA Journal, January 1971
From the William Moore Collection

John Steinbeck should be writing this. I know of no other pen capable of doing justice to the essential Dave Draper. Between the two men is a fundamental affinity, a depth of feeling that even kinship couldn’t deepen. Here is a man after Steinbeck’s own heart; a subject worthy of his pen.

In Steinbeck’s book “Travels With Charley,” is a passage in which he describes the giant redwood trees. Moving, evocative, awe-inspiring, his love for the redwoods is consummately expressed. It communicates.

It is significant that Dave spoke to me of those trees. That his dearest wish is to go and live in the rugged beauty of their surroundings. He seeks peace and quiet, clean air to breathe and the space expressive of mental and physical freedom.

Says Steinbeck: “The vainest, most slap-happy and irreverent of men, in the presence of the redwoods, goes under a spell of wonder and respect. Respect — that’s the word.”

And that’s what I felt for Dave as I listened to him, as I sensed his claustrophobic need to stretch his spirit in such an environment.

So with apologies to them both, and feeling about as tall as I did when reading about the redwoods — I was on tiptoe peering over the grass — here’s what I learned about Dave.

His father was physically inclined. Football and basketball provided the outlets. Dave’s two brothers were mostly intellectually involved. His own need for physical expression came at the age of 12, and for four years, in and out of school, it was expressed mostly in gymnastics. From then on he devoted more time to developing his physique, not with any aspirations to physique titles, but as a means of self-fulfillment. He always trained alone. “I have no love for ball games or team events. I’m a lone man.”

He likes to use heavy weights and move fast. But his training is spontaneous.

“The regimented counting of sets and reps interferes with instinct. I like to tinker about for a while. Until something takes place, an involvement and rhythm, a flowing thing. It doesn’t always happen that way, but when it does I’m in rapport with the weights. The physical exultation lifts me out of myself.”

The outcome in terms of development?

“Hard quality. Balance of the smaller muscles; intercostals, serratus, rear deltoid. Larger muscles are often fully developed but lacking in finer points. Details come through care.”

This love of physical involvement is Dave’s sole reason for training. “Contests came because it seemed the thing to do, and because it seemed favorable to enter for financial reasons.”

There hasn’t been many. The first one came at 19, when he won the Mr. New Jersey title: “Not a strong contest,” commented Dave.

In 1965, he became Mr. America and in 1966, he won the IFBB Mr. Universe. But…”I have no lust for contests. When committed to one, I have a premise which distracts me. I have a tendency to doubt, to rely less on instinct. I am depressed, exultant, at odds with myself and everything. I feel out of step, make mistakes which I know are my own fault and I feel a sense of shame.”

The favorableness of the financial reasons was realized when his successes brought offers from films and TV.

“Don’t Make Waves,” starring Tony Curtis, brought Dave a role which he described as “sympathetic to the bodybuilder.” He also took part in a hillbilly series on TV. But there were offers to which he wasn’t attracted, roles in which he was to appear intimidating, or subjected to ridicule.

“Rather that prostitute the feeling I have for physical culture, I wouldn’t film.”

His financial resources come mainly from a half share in Gide’s Health Company, Long Beach. Named Food of Life, this company distributes supplement products throughout America. Exhibitions and demonstrations are arranged in which biochemists give talks on health and ecology. Dave handles exercise and demonstrates its vial importance in achieving health and all-round fitness.

But he is never happier than when working with his hands, and his creative skill augments his income in the making of distressed furniture… furniture skillfully beaten with a chain, and judiciously burned to achieve the effect of centuries of use, simulating furniture used in the castles of 200-300 years ago.

“I had an itch to make something. So I made a table. It turned out poor and I broke it up. But I’d found my medium; I love working in wood, and sometimes iron. I made more things and they turned out pretty good. A friend asked me to make something for him, then another, and another.”

Word got around, carried by the quality of his craftsmanship. Restaurant owners sought his skill to enhance their interior decorating. He now has a shop in his house, and his work goes far and wide.

Was he taught woodwork at school, or did he receive tuition elsewhere?

“I taught myself; if you’re school trained or trained at all, it’s not instinctive, not creative. They’re not your own ideas.”

His own ideas! Instinctive! Creative! Dave said he is a lone man. He is also his won man; seeking expression in the things he does best, in his own way, without help. Self reliant, confident in his own strength and ability.

As he talked, I watched the hands with which he loves to work. He used them occasionally to express a point. The tools of a craftsman; large, able, skillful, descending from forearms bulging with a strength that can be tempered to a delicacy of touch that transforms wood — and iron — into shapes and patterns of his own creative instinct.

In 1969 Dave went to South Africa, where he did about a dozen shows for Reg Park. It was a turning point. A widening of horizons in more sense than one. The itch to travel, to widen his interests, was upon him.

However…”The world makes it difficult to determine any kind of future. I don’t think much in terms of what’s ahead. The increased temp and acceleration, the pollution, industrial and political disputes… the whole scheme of things, including self, is difficult to resolve. The development of society is so dynamic, no subject is free. Life is momentary. Security! Insecurity! I hope the food supplement company does well enough to allow me freedom to travel. I’d like to come back to Europe for about a year. To move freely, in a camper, make direct contact and feeling with people.” Readers of “Travels With Charley” will catch a glimpse in that last statement of the affinity I mentioned, between its author and Dave.

“Then the redwood country. It’s freedom I want, not material things.”

What of the bodybuilding scene in America?

“There is an increase in attention to bodybuilding and fitness. In the years 1967-69, it was dying out. The attitude was negative. People were not physically inclined. I had, in fact, questioned it myself. But incentive has been rekindled. There is a big movement, new feeling, more positive attitude in current thinking and life style. Don Howorth has had much to do with its revival.”

It would be heresy for any bodybuilder to admit he hadn’t seen a magazine picture of Dave Draper. But what conclusions are drawn? How does the “man” come through in any physique shot?

“People are impressed by pictures. Training shots are all right, but candid shots impress more. They reveal more, set an intimacy. In this way, those who look toward the physique man for something, get to know him better.”

The truth of that statement is best shown in the paradox of the physique shot, in itself; in the varying misinterpretations it evokes from those who, so often, look for the wrong things. Dave’s feeling that the candid shot reveals more is well founded.

But no shot of Dave, and I’ve seen many, is capable of revealing his real character. There is a clean, wholesome quality about the man. His wants are simple. His longing to achieve them stated with engaging frankness. In a word, “candid” describes him. That’s why he prefers the camera, within its limitations, to show him as he is. But it would need a wide screen to project him. He is a truly big man, in every sense of the word.

I was told I’d get little out of him; that he wouldn’t say much. How little are they who told me that.

He is one of the most articulate men I’ve ever met. And he was in spate. As he spoke of certain things, he lit up. The planes of his face shaded off into softer lines, toned to varying depths of emotional response.

He is renowned for his physique. Ranked among the world’s best. His coming was eagerly anticipated, has been for several years. How then, does he measure up? How tall, what weight, what chest and biceps measurements? It never occurred to me to ask. I wasn’t interested anyhow. When gold is pouring into your lap, you don’t stand up and risk it falling away. I was caught up in the current of his words, carried along most willingly to whereever he wanted to take me.

We went back to his childhood, his youth, brief candles that soon threw out lengthening shadows of responsibility. Whatever he may have lost in the early years, Dave has found much that eludes the majority of men. And his deeper sense of values is most seen in the simplicity of his requirements.

Dave deviated from his rule of training alone and joined Frank Zane and Arnold Schwarzenegger in their training for the Universe.

“It was good. Exciting! I found a new surge of energy.”

Coming when he did, Dave entered NABBA’s Pro Contest at its most fiercely contested. If he took back little to show for his effort, he left much behind of what he brought, of himself. This “candid picture” will, I hope, bring a little of his greatness to those denied the chance of meeting him.

I hope he makes the redwood country. It’s where he belongs. Like the redwood themselves, he engenders respect. And not a little awe!

A couple of years ago at a Justin Price lecture, I heard him tell a group of exercise professionals if they took only one thing home from the workshop, it should be to have all their clients roll their feet over tennis balls or golf balls every morning and every night. I started the next day, and it’s a rare day when I don’t stall near a ball of some size to work self-myofascial massage on the bottoms of my feet.

At this year’s IDEA conference a presenter, Sue Hitzmann, did a long session on fascia, the connective tissue that gives our bodies form. She’s a massage therapist who studied the new science of neurofascial anatomy, and in teaching her practice to others, developed a self-treatment method she calls MELT. I’ll prepare an overview of her presentation later, but for now I want to focus on her foot treatment.

Her technique for the feet takes our simple tennis or golf ball foot rolling a step further, using a game plan rather than the all-purpose, all-direction roll we did before. She uses a ball nearer the size of a golf ball, and begins with a softer ball to introduce the action to the fascial system, and later moving to the harder round after the fascia begins to loosen.

Rather than rolling, Hitzmann suggests position point pressing, moving the ball around the foot in a systematic way — mid-arch, along each of the metatarsal knuckles, back to the insole, out to the outside of the foot and down to the base of the heel — each time pressing down, holding but not rolling.

Next, she instructs what she calls shearing, in which the ball is used as a prop to hold the foot at an angle, waiting as the fascia begins its release.

Finally, the ball is rolled underfoot, side to side under the knuckles and up and down the length of the foot, only instead of rolling with pressure as we’ve been doing, this technique is called “rinse and friction” and is done faster and with less pressure.

You’ll find this fascinating as you play with it, especially using the smaller ball and applying directed pressure under the metatarsal knuckles, where you’re likely hear or feel the joints shifting.

One day on my pass by the triggerpoint ball, I stumbled upon a fascial release magic trick, a combination of techniques that sort of cuts the corner between joint mobility and soft tissue work.

In addition to rolling a ball underfoot, ankle mobility is my second daily must-do. Well, this day, I was in a hurry and sort of jumbled the two together. (I wonder if this is how most new training ideas are unearthed; we think these are brilliant folks figuring out how to accomplish specific tasks, but instead they’re just busy folks in a hurry.)

The triggerpoint therapy ball I use is about the size of a tennis ball, slightly larger, a little more dense, with density that shifts during use. With the ball stable under my forefoot, I started a little ankle rocking, a joint mobility drill to drive movement into the ankle joint. The action looks a lot like this Mike Boyle ankle mobility drill, only instead of having the toes propped on the edge of the platform, the foot is on top of a tennis ball.

As I began to experiment with various ways of applying pressure, I noticed the subtleties: Rolling, friction and steady pressure are all different than rocking, and rocking with a semi-stiff knee versus a bent knee is quite dissimilar, too.

When you think of the fascial lines, remember to consider length. The long stretches of connective tissue are how a knot in one place can cause pain a distance away. If you’re attentive as you rock your ankle with a ball under the metatarsal knuckles with a straight knee, you feel the pressure moving up the back of your leg and behind the glute, and you may even catch a hint of it higher up your back.

Play around with this tomorrow and I think you’ll be convinced it’s one for the daily to-do list.

Another quick tip in closing: It involves the tennis ball peanut gizmo we got from Mike Boyle (who, I’m told, originally got it from Sue Falsone — Mike’s big on crediting sources, and now that I know where he got it, I have to go back and make some fixes on this one).  Turns out the taped-up peanut works really, really well on the lats, up the side of the underarm and down the top of the triceps. A regular ball rolls out from under, whereas the ball peanut stays steady. I think you’re going to like this one. Well, both actually.

One guy in our industry with unusual ideas is Evan Osar, a real favorite of mine. I’ve been following his youtube videos since he started filming a year or so ago, and I read his monthly newsletters, so I was eager to hear him present his sessions at the IDEA conference a couple of months ago. The presentations, Improving Hip and Trunk Rotation, available on DVD or instant access, and Improving Balance in the Baby Boomer, ditto availability, were fabulous, and as you might guess, right up my alley. So I, uh… I took some notes.

One of the highlights were his thoughts on why we lose joint range of motion. This is a primary problem as we get a little older, and we need to know what’s causing this decline in joint mobility so we can fend it off. Sure, sitting at this desk is a factor, but there are others reasons, and one I’ll bet you never thought of.

Evan Osar, IDEA World Conference, Anaheim, August 2009

The second big reason we lose range of motion is injury. These can be caused by a traumatic impact event, but at least as often a new injury is caused by a previous one. An injury often shuts down movement near the affected joint, causing less motion in that extremity than in the non-injured side. With asymmetries in range of motion, the larger the difference between the two sides, the greater the potential for injury.

We also have a problem with learned behaviors like lousy walking habits, standing in a hip strut or faulty cardio exercise style — think Stairmaster, hands on the rails, shoulders jammed up toward the ears, hips shifting side to side instead of long, forward-moving walking strides, all of which contribute to a stuck thorax with a lumbar area moving way too much.

When we talk about hip mobility, we’re concerned with movement — range of easy motion. The second and equally important aspect of joint action is stability: Is the surrounding musculature able to hold the joint in the center of the socket. This is called joint centration, the optimal access of rotation of the joint. Bad centration equals bad rotation, and vice versa.

Habitually holding a position causes the body to lose the ability to center the joint, sometimes due to tightness or weakness, and sometimes due to poor neuromuscular control, the brain sending faulty signals.

When we boil it all down, it comes to this: We need to create better centration of our joints. If the pelvis is stuck in anterior or posterior tilt (Osar, in opposition to many writers in this industry, believes most people are in posterior tilt), the hips are unable to center in the sockets.

One of his examples is overactivation of the glutes, a sort of always-on squeezing at the back of the hip socket. To quote Evan:

“This over-activation drives the head of the femur forward in the socket and generally leads to increased activation of the external hip rotators. In turn, this leads to decreases in internal rotation requiring compensatory changes in the knee, spine, and/or ankle. Focusing on releasing the posterior hip through fundamental patterns will often improve ROM without doing any other release techniques.”

In another example, as we lose internal rotation at the glenohumeral joint, the shoulder moves out of centration. You can see how this works if you stop reading, close your eyes and picture the joint pulled off-center in the socket.

Without joint centration, range of motion begins to decrease. Limited range of motion and weakness go together. Joints lock down to provide stability when the brain senses weakness.

We get pain because of too much uncontrolled motion; we’ve got to be strong enough, and maintain enough neurological control over the muscles surrounding the joints to provide stability of joint on top of joint.

This uncontrolled motion — this instability — is also why we lose balance.

I’ll decipher my notes on his baby-boomer balance improvement session another time. As I expected, it was also an exceptional talk in which he developed the ideas of stability and, surprising to me, spent a great deal of time on breathing patterns. I’ll flesh out my memories and post his bullet points later this month; in the meantime, go over to Evan’s website and sign up for his newsletter for a glimpse at his monthly insight into learning how your physical body truly functions.

As I think about the new Dan John kettlebell dvd, part two of his four-part weekend seminar series DVD we’re expecting from the replicator late in a few days, I again realize how much information he packed into the weekend. When you’re in the thick of things, it’s hard to comprehend the quantity of new information, or the value we get when guys like he and Dave simplify things to the core. That’s what happened during our weekend in June, bullet by bullet Dan hit the target for our group of IronOnline attendees.

And as you know, we got it all on film.

Here’s a look at Dan using professional snowboarder Josh Vert to demonstrate the bottom of the Kalos Stenos Turkish getup.

And in this clip, Dan explains Mark Cheng’s theory of the four knots of the shoulders and hips, and expands on it to include his thinking about the chain-link core.

One thing that will surprise most viewers is the true explosiveness of the ketttlebell swing. It’s much more violent than what most will expect, and as it turns out… Dan was right, and it’s a good thing. I liked my trusty, lazy old form of swings, and had no back pain experience to cause me to search for a new technique. Less than a half-hour into the workshop, I was convinced.

If you need some convincing yourself, you can order the new Dan John kettlebell dvd today, and we’ll ship it the day it arrives in inventory.