Holistic Corrective Exercise For Fitness Professionals

Upper body mobility problems can have devastating effects on your ability to get the results you want from your fitness program.

Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain strength or improve athletic performance there’s just no way you can optimize either without proper upper body flexibility.

Some of the most problematic areas of the upper body for most people involve limited range of motion at the neck, shoulders, throacic spine (rotation deficit) and lumbar spine.

Now, if you’ve tried all kinds of static stretches and various techniques like self-myofascial release without impressive results then here’s a simple but highly effective upper body mobility routine I’ve designed that will improve active flexibility of the upper body quickly.

I call it my Medball Mobility Circuit and it can be performed in less than 8 minutes.

All you need is a light weight medicine ball (2kg-3kg) and the circuit is ideal for anyone from the beginning trainee to more advanced. Read the rest of this entry »

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Too many client assessments being taught to personal trainers are completely missing the mark.

Push-up tests, trunk curl-up tests, bench press tests, leg press tests sure these are fine if you only want to get average results for your training clients.

But, if you want the BEST results possible you need to get really awesome at assessing posture, muscular imbalances involving the upper and lower body, functional movement and flexibility.

It’s too bad because this is where most certification programs drop the ball.

They either don’t teach these kinetic chain assessments at all and instead remain lost in the stone-age of generalized fitness assessments and traditional gym exercises or they only teach a small handful of more advanced assessment techniques that often leaves trainers still wondering how to implement them.

Last year I had the privilege of hanging out with strength coach Elliott Hulse for a couple of days in Florida and it was like a huge breath of fresh air for me to know how much knowledge Elliott has in using advanced client assessments and training methods to get results for his clients and athletes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Just a quick post today to address hip mobility.

If you or your clients suffer from lower body injuries there’s typically ONE reason why this is happening…

…Most nagging injuries involving the lower body are caused by muscle imbalances at the hips.

But, it doesn’t stop there.

An important thing to keep in mind is that everything in our bodies are related which means if the hips are affected so is everything above and below to some degree.

That means a growing list of injuries to the knees, feet, ankles, low back, shoulders or neck if the imbalances at the hips are not properly addressed.

So, I shot this video to share 10 powerful hip mobility exercises you can use to get your clients moving & feeling better quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

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When it comes to assessing fitness clients there’s so many different methods it can make your head spin like Linda Blair on the movie ‘The Exorcist’

Imagine a client coming to see you with that going on!

Talk about bad alignment…

…Fortunately, strength coach and personal trainer Mike Robertson is here to help put it all together and get your head back on right in this interview where he shares the 3 critical keys to assessing your fitness clients as well as:

• The types of fitness assessments he uses with his clients

• What constitutes a comprehensive fitness assessment

• How to assess clients without overstepping your scope of practice

Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, quite a few of you took up my offer and grabbed the Advanced Kinetic Chain Assessment & Program Design Course.

To those of you who did I personally want to say thanks and I would love to hear your feedback on how the information from the course has helped you out.

So, I was hoping you could do me a quick favor and let me know.

And, for those of you who decided not to get the course I was hoping you could let me know why not.

Who knows, maybe I’ll give a few random prizes to some of you who are willing to take a minute to do this.

It’s super easy. Just leave me a comment below.

That’s it.

See?

Super easy!

I really would appreciate it.

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What is it about fitness assessments that’s got the fitness industry divided?

Some say fitness professionals should be taught to use specific assessments to help their clients overcome nagging injuries and achieve their goals.

Others say doing so is overstepping our boundaries and that we should leave these assessments to physical therapists and doctors.

Well, I won’t get too deep into why doctors and physical therapists should NOT be performing fitness testing but I will say that I get pretty ticked off whenever I hear or read this kind of nonsense.

Cardiovascular, trunk curl-ups, push-ups, sit and reach and body composition have become pretty standard in our industry for clients who fit the ‘apparently healthy’ label.

But, it’s rare to find clients that fit into this category.

The reality is that most clients may come to us with weight loss goals but are hampered by physical ailments resulting from muscle imbalances that keep them from doing a number of exercises and activities.

Sure, we can simply modify things but as you know modifications are less effective, don’t always work and disempowers trainers.

It’s important for us as fitness professionals to be more than symptom managers and tackle the causes of muscular imbalances.

Eliminate the causes and the symptoms will go away.

The first step is understanding how to identify those causes which is where most Personal Trainer certification programs fall short.

They either teach general fitness tests that aren’t specific for identifying muscle imbalances, are thrown together in the wrong sequences or based on simplistic assumptions of ‘tight’ and ‘weak’ muscles.

The truth is that a muscle may appear to be tight or weak without that actually being the case.

Stretching a muscle or muscle group that is assumed as ‘tight’ isn’t going to be harmful but it certainly isn’t going to be effective either.

And, if it ain’t effective it ain’t gonna produce results!

If we are using our expertise in human anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and biomechanics to create exercise programs to help our clients improve their lives then what’s the problem?

For example, here’s a simple kinetic chain assessment that’s commonly taught however I added in a few extra pieces of critical information you can use that will provide instant feedback about the entire kinetic chain. Read the rest of this entry »

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Last night I was thinking about the blessings I have in my personal and professional life.

In 2000 when I first began my career as a fitness professional I never imagined I would travel internationally as a Personal Training Skills Development Coach and Holistic Health Educator getting paid 3-figures per hour. Read the rest of this entry »

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How many times have you listened to your clients with knee injuries or lower back pain  tell you all about why they can’t do a simple functional movement like squatting because of their ‘bum knees’ or ‘bad back’?

I’ve seen this type of scenario also play out in physical therapy visits.

And, the typical response of most Personal Trainers and Physical Therapists is to modify the movement to avoid aggravating the injured area or eliminating the movement altogether.

The problem with this approach is that it just doesn’t benefit the client/patient in the long-run because Read the rest of this entry »

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There’s nothing more frustrating for a runner than running with knee pain that’s unexplained and you can’t pin-point anything that might be causing it.

It’s no fun when you’re laid out on the couch with ice packs on your knees popping ibuprofen like it’s candy.

Unfortunately, most runners go through one failed attempt after another to eliminate the pain such as visits to the doctor, rest, ice, pain relievers or (in some cases) surgery.

So, why do these methods fail miserably to eliminate knee pain when running?

Because they’re focused on Read the rest of this entry »

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Hey guys I’m finally back after an incredible trip to Istanbul & Ankara, Turkey where I presented 2 Functional Training Coach Certification programs dealing with exercise and sports related injuries.

This was my first time going outside of the U.S. and the people of Turkey were awesome!

I pretty much lost count of how many connecting flights I had to board and I still feel like I’m on an airplane.

I stayed at the 2 best hotels in Istanbul…very cool indeed.

About the only drawback was that all the TV channels were in Turkish and French and I don’t speak a lick of either so I had to stick with reading a couple books I brought along during my quiet time.

I got to eat some really good Mongolian BBQ and also had grilled, marinated chicken on a skewer at one of the nicest restaurants the city has to offer.

Now, I’ll admit my most embarrassing moment happened when Read the rest of this entry »

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