Blog Archive

If you feet look like this or have any of the indicators listed , you are almost guaranteed to have some degree of Morton’s Foot. This is a condition caused by our bodys natural incompatibility with flat surfaces, as we evolved on an un-paved, floored world for millions of years, and then recently started flattening everything.  This means your feet will be constantly unstable and as a result your body will be less stable. In this situation your body ( especially your feet and legs ) have to work much harder, and generate less power while standing, running, jumping, lifting etc.. everything that requires your feet will be harder.

“The ProKinetics insoles have allowed me to connect with the ground more efficiently by giving me better overall pressure contact where I needed it.  I wasn’t quite aware that the positioning of my body weight was less than optimal until going through the proper assessment with Anthony and Emile at Origin Athletics.  I am recovering from right knee pain and have no doubt that these insoles will place me on a better path to eliminating upstream pain and discomfort.

Skill

Snatch Pulls (Go 5 to 10 lbs. heavier than last week)

5 x 5

See last Friday’s post for description video.

*** Coaches leave 10-15 minutes to warm-up snatches before starting the workout

Workout: Bar Amanda

9-7-5

Bar Muscle Up (Progression is strict pull-ups, or banded strict pull-ups)
Squat Snatch (135/95 lbs)

15 minute time cap

6 years ago I received a call from a long term friend of mine. He is family to me; we became friends in primary school some 20 years ago. We caught up briefly over this phone conversation where he told me of travelling east with a French Canadian girl after planting trees in northern BC. We were all in transitional phases in that time of our lives. He retold a story of how he ingested a almost lethal dose of cough syrup; during a drive west from the atlantic, he proceeded to hallucinate while driving. The experience started with strange visions almost running him off the road; this immediately followed to waking in a ice bath to the sound of the Canadiens voice. With more details, I could hear the near death experience still heavy in his voice. After a moment of silence he asked “So, what’s new with you bro?”.

“Well, I broke my back.”
“What?!?!”

A few days before the phone call I had suffered my first bone break, well, crush. On a murky September afternoon I climbed 3 stories up a steel extendable ladder. At the time, I was a commercial painter. I had 2 more exterior window frames to finish before we could call that townhouse complete. The distance was too narrow for the genie lift to fit, hence the ladder. I was already second guessing the decision to go up when a few sprinkles of rain came down; nothing that would prevent me from going up, just an omen or 2. Langley is so lame. I went up, hung my cutting can on the edge of the ladder and started stroking away (paint on wall, not hand in pants). I realized I may not be able to reach the edge of the frame. Little did I know I would take the express route to the ground floor. I tossed my brush in the can and the ladder slid across the vinyl siding about an inch. The heart rate immediately climbed a few notches; I could hear it beating heavier through my ribs. I managed to place one foot down from the top rung; here came the last straw for the camel. The ladder slid from the wall like a slip n’ slide laced with grease. I spun 180 degrees and fell straight down. I slammed hard onto the surface beneath. The ladder bounced off the ground and came in for another lashing to my shin. My lower back seized immediately after the crunch that was muffled by the bodily impact.Vocally, I let out something from a horror film, pinned to the ground, riving in pain.

After 6 hours in hospital, carted around scanners, 1 morphine in the thigh, 1 gravol, 2 morphine intravenous, 1 gravol, I decided it was time to leave. After 3 failed attempts at sitting up, followed by extreme nausea and vomitting, I managed to walk a few feet with a walker. My footsteps were about and lengthly as an ant’s. I managed to make it around the information desk outside of my room without a walker; a lap test test that I had to pass to show I could leave on my own accord, with ant footsteps.

A few days later I received a phone call from my dear friend. He just sounded like he had a bad trip from some hallucinogen. I broke my back. Take that?

You can stretch your back all you want, put a pillow underneath your legs, roll out on a foam roller, or you can pop a couple painkillers. I’m sure you will find some temporary relief.

DeadBugs
Hollows
Bird Dogs
Supermans
Goblet Squats
Bracing
Rotational Movements
Motor Control Drills
Reverse Crunches
Planks
and training every angle, inside and out.

Compound lifts are NOT enough. Your back is weak. Put in the work. I can show you. I will make you.

My L1 is a triangle, big love,

Chesty

Warm up: 

25 yoga push ups

25 hip openers (coaches choice)

25 cossack squats

Technique:

Burpee Beep Test!

*Leaderboard*

Workout:

Every 3 minutes for 15 min (5 rounds) perform the following

Note: there are three tiers for todays workout, pick the one that best suits you.

1. Seasoned: 20 Wall Balls, 20 D Ball Slams
2. Usual suspect: 16 Wall Balls, 16 D Ball Slams
3. I hate Wall Balls: 12 Wall Balls, 12 D Ball Slams

Coaches can reverse the workout order for half the class if needed.

Improved Circulation

Faster warm up and enhanced overall circulation. Graduated compression of the limbs actively encourages and increases venous return to the heart and lymph nodes.

DVT Protection
Deep Vein Thrombosis is a condition that mainly affects the lower body and is typically associated with long periods of travel or inactivity. Compression garments can enhance blood flow in these areas through enhanced venous return, reducing the risk of DVT and swelling in the ankles and limbs.

Reduced Damage
Muscle containment is crucial to minimizing swelling post exercise and can significantly reduce severity and duration of muscle induced injury. Things like DOMS.

Increased Performance
When you train your muscles are exposed to vibration. This major cause of muscle fatigue, known as muscle oscillation can be reduced when wearing compression. This will result in improvement in muscle endurance, strength, power output and lower heart rate.

Heightened Agility
Applies pressure to the the skin surface to increase the body’s awareness for improved posture, agility and stability (proprioception); this in-turn helps technique as an improved sense of the body’s senses means improved balance, control, and coordination.

Increased Protection + Comfort
Proper compression fabrics wick moisture from the skin to keep the wearer dry and comfortable. Great ones embed antibacterial, odour resistant application to help minimize odour and prevent bacterial growth.

Faster Recovery
By offering graduated pressure they will improve the recovery cycle by aiding in the pumping action of the cardiovascular system; removing blood lactate from exercising muscles leading to reduced swelling, faster muscle repair and reduction in muscle soreness.

They feel amazing against your naked body. 2XU does it the best.

Make any exercise, training, or regeneration feel the best it can.

Big Love,

Chesty

Warm Up:

Dynamic Lengths

then 6 mins of

20 goblet squats

20 banded lateral walks

1 min of front rack mobility (per side)

Technique:

Front squat 5RM

Warm up with 5,5,5,3,3,2, then attempt your 5RM

This is leaderboard.

Workout: 

12min AMRAP

3 Power Cleans 135/95

6 Pull Ups

At the top of every minute perform 2 front squats (except the 1st and 12th minute)

There are many elements of my chosen profession (Strength and Conditioning/Movement Coach) that I love; I am constantly humbled by the immense amount of information available. The rich discussions that arise from mechanical hypothesis and tried principles of old, elicit a never ending debate on making people better. I have been guilty of movement dogma; sometimes I get too consumed in my current readings. Although this may set me up for rude awakenings of narrow thinking, it allows me to fully pursue an ideology. Like clockwork, I come around from entertaining an idea. If you can’t challenge your train of thoughts or etiquette, change is fear, and traps you. This covers so much more than strength and conditioning; however, leave the surpassed emotions for your life coach.

It is time to talk about knees…In, or out? A great article attached HERE

Whether you are a coach or being coached, you have been exposed the variety of coaching cues. There are so many different camps it’s hard not to think you may fall into a cult. The important thing to know is they are all trying to get you squatting more, and some more safely.

Knee’s out is common and expressed often, sometimes too much. This is all relative to your mobility demands and positioning. This cue usually helps with people who have severe tendencies to collapse inwards during squats, known as knee valgus (commonly related to injuries occurring at the knee from cutting whilst running or side trauma from external force). Some camps encourage knee’s out, feet forward, in line with a neutral spine to create more torque (muscles exert forces which create joint torques. They contact and pull in certain directions causing rotational force along various joints of the body). This can be misinterpreted and exaggerated, resulting in some cases knee varus (commonly related to hyperextension stress or a blow to the medial side of the knee).

Knee’s in is a rarely used as a cue. In the right circumstances, knee’s in can be helpful. This is often never used as a cue for it bares too much risk to the novice lifter. Someone who lacks experience or sound proprioception cannot grasp enough control to prevent injury causing valgus. With significant weight this can be deemed to fail; however, this is something you may view among elite powerlifters and olympic lifters. The idea here would be to align, with neutral position in mind, the foot, ankle, knee, hip to increase the force applied through the hip drive. This also can occur naturally in many squats to find momentary stability whilst driving out the hole. The alignment of the knee in relation to the ankle is something to note as well; non of these lifters actually collapse.  With honed stability one may play around with a knee’s in cue or technique. The body will always try to find stability somewhere, and it will hunt for it. You will also never hear KNEES IN KNEES IN.

We want to avoid these:

The debates will always rage on. These usually stem from stated absolutes and self proclaimed gurus who find a cure. There is no one cure for something as individual as a squat. There is more to value than just joint torque and setting PR’s; take a little weight off and dial more of your attention to a neutral spine If your ass curves under, stop, you need to stabilize before you go any deeper.

The important thing to realize here is we get caught up in details because the of the pursuit for perfection. For the general squatting public, “knee’s out” will always have more value than its “knee’s in” counterpart. I suppose the best summary of these debates would be “Knee’s not in.“.

Takeaways

1. Push through the heels with the big toe planted
2. Keep the chest up (don’t allow the spine to flex)
3. Flare the feet out slightly
4. Keep the head/neck in neutral
5. Go as deep as neutral allows (breaking parallel is to be earned)

It’s all about how awesome your feet, ankles, hips, and spine are. Spend your time where it belongs.

A supple leopard is a nice goal, but know when you’re a gazelle, and adjust accordingly. You have the rest of your life, if you do this right.

Big love,

Chesty
Sir Talks-A-Lot

Tuesday’s Lesson Plan: SNATCH TECH DAY – NO PRESS-OUTS. PERIOD!

**Coaches, make sure you stick to the time limits for each Part of this hour. There’s a lot to get through in the hour! Set a clock.

Part 1: WARM-UP: 10 minutes

Coaches will put you through a snatch warm-up, going through the components of the day:

a). Dowel Dislocates x 30
then grab a barbell
b). Overhead Squat x 10
c). Pressing Snatch Balance x 10
d). Heaving Snatch Balance x 10
e). Snatch Deadlift x 10 (focus on proper body position here)
f). 3-Position Snatch x 5

Part 2: SNATCH BALANCE (Heaving) – 15 minutes

5 sets of 3

Part 3: 3-POSITION SQUAT SNATCH (High Hang Squat Snatch-Hang Squat Snatch-Squat Snatch. You must complete all three lifts before putting the bar down.)  -15 minutes

Note: this is the reverse order from last weeks snatch technique day!

Warm up the 3-position snatch for 5 minutes and then hit the 7-minute EMOM

7 minute EMOM – 3-position Squat Snatch (Every minute on the minute, you will do one High Hang Squat Snatch, followed by a Hang Squat Snatch, followed by a Squat Snatch).

Part 4: SNATCH DEADLIFT – 10 minutes

5 sets of 5 – go heavy here folks, 10-20 lbs heavier than you can snatch.

If you had a chance to see East Van’s got talent this past weekend you would have caught a glimpse of the Dancing Kitties performing excerpts from their version of the Nutcracker.

If you are interested in seeing the entire show, they are performing Friday December 13th at 8:00pm  at the Norman Rothstein Theatre in the Jewish Community Centre. Check out the details below and I hope to see you there!

The Sunday afternoon show is already sold out, so let me (Twinkle Toes) know if you would like tickets for the Friday show!

Monday’s Lesson Plan

Pre-Warm-up: Coaches will lead you through a dynamic warm-up

Warm-up: Tabata Russian Twists (use a gray or red KB)

Skill: Front Rack Lunge (5 x 12 AHAP)

AHAP = As Heavy as Possible

12 = 6/6 on each leg

Workout: 2013 Taranis Titan Challenge Workout #2:

20-15-10-5

Toes to bar
Hand Release Push-ups
Burpees
Box Jumps (24/20″)

Steve Howell won this workout in a smoking fast time of 7:49.

*Time Cap: 15 minutes