Functional Path Training

Step by Step

Adaptation to various training stimuli take time. You can’t force adaptation to happen faster than the athlete’s current level of trainability and physical capacity. You must be willing to go step by step Sometimes it is small baby steps forward, sometimes there are steps back and sometimes there are giant leaps forward. Have a system that defines the process, then trust the process and take it step by step.

GAIN 2022

GAIN is back in person in 2022! Applications open today for GAIN 2022, taking place from June 14 to June 18 at Rice University in Houston Texas. Space is limited, so apply soon to secure your space. Some key details are below and you can learn more and register at: https://thegainnetwork.com/events/gain2022/

When is GAIN? June 14 to June 18, 2022

Where is GAIN? Rice University in Houston Texas.

How do I apply? Submit your application at: https://thegainnetwork.com/events/gain2022/ Please be aware enrollment is limited. We will let you know within ten days if you are accepted.

What is GAIN? GAIN is a community of professional’s eager to learn and willing to share ideas and information. GAIN is not about more exercises, sets, reps and training methods it is about passionate people who pursue excellence with honesty, integrity and respect to make a difference in the lives of the people we coach and teach. It is open to Strength & Conditioning/Athletic Development coaches, Sport Coaches, Physical Therapists, ATC’s, Chiropractors, Doctors and Physical Education teachers. You can learn more about GAIN our this week’s GAINcast (https://www.hmmrmedia.com/2022/01/gaincast-episode-235-its-gain-time/) as well as the 2019 State of GAIN presentation (https://thegainnetwork.com/video/state-of-gain-2019-gambetta/).

GAIN Mission - To focus on the possibilities for enhancing human movement with no limits or limitations and emphasize connections and links between all disciplines in the same manner we emphasize connections and linkages in the body.

How much does GAIN cost? Tuition is $2299 for new attendees and $1299 for returning attendees. This includes breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, and lodging at Rice University, as well as access to the GAIN Library, GAIN Master Class Series archives, and HMMR Plus membership.

Why do I have to apply? Can’t I just sign up? Having people apply is part of what makes GAIN special. It would be easier to make it open for anyone to enroll, but that is not what GAIN is about. We are looking for people willing to share and challenge themselves and others to grow professionally. The people in the network with you are as important (maybe even more important) than the faculty experts. The connections and inspiration you get from those around you have a significant impact on the experience.

Who are the faculty? Our full faculty is listed on the GAIN website. We’ve chosen a faculty that has a tremendous breadth of experiences and a record of excellence in across all fields of sports performance from skills coaching to athletic development, to sports medicine and physical education.

Where can I learn more about GAIN? Visit our website (https://thegainnetwork.com/events/gain2022/). You can also call us at 941-378-1778 or email Vern Gambetta at [email protected]

The Posterior Chain?

What is the posterior chain? Is it a meaningful term or a term of convenience without real meaning? In a training manual that I just received produced by a national federation (In a sport plagued by hamstring pulls) there were twelve exercises listed under posterior chain exercises. On a visit to observe a DI football team the strength coach proudly told me how they do six posterior chain exercises as part of each lower extremity training session. Guess what, this year they had had more hamstring pulls and other lower extremity catastrophic injuries than any team in their conference. Is there something wrong with this picture? Sure, you bet there is. The prevention has become the cause. Frankly I just do not understand why we keep fooling ourselves, all you must do is understand function. Rather than focus on the areas of the body (Hamstrings) that are at risk of injury, look how that segment fits into the whole kinetic chain. But it is not usually the hamstring’s fault, it is a lack of coordination; other muscles did not do their job. The term posterior chain has created another problem rather solving a problem. It also has created confusion where and when we need clarity. Let’s get back to a focus on the kinetic chain and the interaction and coordination of the links in the change that result in efficient movement that is essentially a chain reaction. It does not require any fancy machines, no new terminology, just a repetition of basic movements in multiple planes, encompassing multiple joints that emphasize coordination of force production, force reduction and proprioception.

Some Lessons on Strength Training Learned Over 60 Years

I wanted to summarize some practical conclusions from my personal experiences so that young coaches and athletes starting out would not make the same mistakes I have made in my journey.

There is no form of human motion that does not require some expression of force; therefore, all sports will derive benefit from sport appropriate strength training. The physical quality of strength is the underpinning for the optimum development of other biomotor qualities. That being said it is crucial to have an in-depth understanding of the strength and power demands of the sport you are preparing for and design the program to meet those demands while also considering the qualities of the individual athlete.

The weight room can be a trap because gaining measurable strength (Chasing numbers) can be seductive. To a certain extent there is a direct return on the investment, the more you do the more strength you gain, especially at younger training ages and in the anabolically enriched (Often it’s the biology not the training program) teenage male athlete.  It is imperative that you never lose site of the fact that strength training is about developing strength you can use and apply on the field, court, track, or pool, and this does not always equate with strength you can measure in the weight room.

Even though we know better there is still a huge influence from bodybuilding training methods, the emphasis in these programs is on training the muscles. This can be very seductive, but questionable in the transfer to sport performance. My mantra after learning by going down the path of bodybuilding and coming to a dead-end street is to never lose sight of the fact that you must train movements not individual muscles. Athletic movements depend on muscle synergies and coordination; it is not a bodybuilding contest. Develop “go muscles” not” show muscles” that look good at the beach but do not transfer to function.

As far as Olympic lifting the key here is to remember that you are not training Olympic lifters but that you are training athletes who are using the Olympic lifting movements to increase explosive power. There are many adaptations of the Olympic lifting movements with dumbbells, sandbags and kettlebells that will fit a wide variety of sports and level of athlete. Get beyond the bar, as the sole mode of resistance here and it will offer a wide range of possibilities for improving explosive power.

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons I have learned and has been reinforced over the last 15 years is the roll of strength training with the female athlete. Strength training is a must for the female athlete starting out at or before puberty and continued throughout her career. The female athlete must strength train more often and never stop including training right into taper/peaking phase of competition. My rule of thumb is to emphasize volume of intensity is selecting the distribution the work. Female athletes will get more bang for their buck from the time invested. A good comprehensive strength-training program will help to create a favorable endocrine hormonal environment that will have a very positive influence on body composition

It is not about facilities and fancy equipment. Think bodyweight before external resistance. You can strength train anywhere and anytime. Do not make your program dependent of facilities. The same goes for time, something is better than nothing. In certain sports and where there is an extended competitive season a 15 to 20-minute workout three to four time a week is better than one hour long session a week. Make the strength-training blend with the sport training where possible. Never underestimate the value that a short sharp session can have to prime the endocrine hormonal system and positively stimulate the nervous system.

I certainly could go on, but I think it is best to end with a concise definition of strength training that I have evolved over the years: Strength Training is coordination training with appropriate resistance to handle bodyweight, project an implement, move, or resist movement of another body, resist gravity and optimize ground reaction forces.

I will continue to search for better ways and more efficient strength training methodology. I personally strength train at least three to four days a week, an imperative necessary with aging to try to offset the effects of gravity. For me the journey continues.

Center of the Universe

You folks out there who self-identify as strength coaches, the weight room is not the center of the universe. If you are going to develop a complete adaptable athlete ready to thrive in the competitive arena, then strength & power are important, but there are many ways to develop those qualities outside the weight room. The weight room is appropriate in certain phases of an athlete’s career and during a training year. It should never be the center of the athlete’s physical preparation unless they are a weightlifter. Too often the weight room becomes a dark hole where athletes disappear never to be seen again. Sure, they get “strong”, but to the detriment of other physical qualities without any consideration of the transfer of that strength to the actual sport. So many times, what is done in the weight room stays in the weight room. Take a step back and look at the big picture of developing the complete athlete. Get to know the sport you are preparing for, know the athlete’s position or event and above all get to know what the athlete needs. Be an athletic development coach not a strength coach.

Shapes

The essence of efficient movement in everyday life and sport is the ability to make effective and appropriate shapes for the activity. From a sport performance perspective making shapes and changing shapes is a central objective in training. It is a perspective to view movement with new eyes. In training shapes, I have borrowed liberally from gymnastics, dance, and elementary physical education – these are the foundations on which to build shapes demanded by the sport. The actual physical preparation for making better shapes and changing shapes demands a combination of strengthening, lengthening and body awareness work that helps the athletes eliminate any weak links limiting the ability to make the desired shapes. Shape work can be done away from the pool, track, field or court to help prepare the body to make the necessary shapes and get into shapes beyond the normal. Training shapes is another step toward building more robust athletes. I now try to schedule some shape work every training session and I am continually pointing out to the athlete how an exercise we are doing will help make them better at the required shapes in their sport. Learning to speak the language of shapes and shape shifting will make you a more effective coach and develop better athletes.

The best exercises for …

It drives crazy to see posts that list the best exercises for ______ , you fill in the blank. This holds back good training. It is never about the exercise. Rather it is about the movement. Understand the movements necessary to prepare the athletes for the demands of their sport, then select the exercises that meet those movement criteria. Not complicated, very basic.

Stop and Think?

Why do we persist in prescribing exercises that isolate individual muscles? Instead, we should be focusing on the coordination of movements and muscle synergies that involve those muscles. What is important in human movement is how everything is integrated into the kinetic chain to produce smooth, rhythmic flowing movement. Lest we forget strength training is coordination training with appropriate resistance. Isolating individual muscle just creates neural confusion. Training movement's not muscles gives you more bang for buck in terms of efficient use of training and biomechanical efficiency.

Focus on Function

The body is a system. It is a system like no other. It is a completely open system, that is highly adaptable. The whole of the actions that the body can achieve is greater than the sum of its parts. When the body needs to solve a moment problem it is almost magic what it can do. Never sell the body and its capabilities short.

If you want to understand function start with walking gait. Gait is very basic but incredibly complex when you put it under a microscope. Gait is the basis of function. The legs and arms move in opposition and the shoulders move in a counter rotation to the hips. There is constant loading and unloading from toenails to fingernails in response to the ground and gravity. Running adds another degree of complexity because of the flight phase but the principles are the same. Learn to look at movement with new eyes. Look at gait as the basis of throwing, jumping and freestyle swimming.

Searching for symmetry is contrary to how the body is constructed. The body is fundamentally asymmetric. The heart is on one side, one lobe of the brain is slightly larger than the other, there is a dominant foot, leg, arm, hand, eye, and ear. Because the body is smart this fundamental asymmetry is proportional and has no negative effect. Today because we are able to measure more, there has been a tendency to look at these asymmetries as something that must be corrected. If fact these perceived asymmetries may actually be what makes the athlete able to perform at their best injury free. We must also remember that as an athlete accumulates training age in a particular sport that the body will adapt and favor a limb or a side of the body.

To understand function in the body and how to train it don’t forget to look under the hood. You must understand muscle function which in most cases is significantly different that what is taught in traditional anatomy courses. We do not live in an anatomical position; we move all joints through multiple planes of motion heavily influenced by gravity and the ground. The brain does not recognize individual muscles, it recognizes muscle synergies and patterns of motion, therefore it is futile to isolate individual muscles. Isolating individual muscles results in neural confusion. Train the linkages and connections and the links will take care of themselves. The goal in training movement is to link, connect, sync and coordinate to produce efficient flowing athletic movements.

The solution is quite simple -  take advantage of the bodies wisdom and construction to train and rehab movement using multiple joints, working through multiple planes of motion in a proprioceptively enriched environment. Never lose sight of the fact that each athlete is a case study of one and will respond slightly differently so it is important to base training on principles and can be adapted to each individual.

Hopefully this post has raised some questions and will stimulate thought and discussion. The longer I coach, the more I am in awe of what the body can do. Just like I present movement problems for the athlete to solve, each day as they solve those movement problems raises more question about what I need to do to make the athlete better. It’s a process!

Muscles Firing - Where is the switch?

This is a post I wrote over many years ago, if anything this thinking is more pervasive now than it was then.

 

"A lot of things weren't firing -- his glutes, his hips, thighs," (Training Guru to the star player – name deleted to protect the guilty) told the newspaper. "I wouldn't say his condition was the most severe, I wouldn't say it was the best. ... But if I were to classify it on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most extreme, I'd say he was definitely in the seven, eight category."

This is definitely one of my pet peeves. If those muscles were not firing how did this player walk? Let’s get logical rather scientific. If there is an injury the body is very intelligent much smarter than the coaches and therapists who try to intervene by turning muscles on or off. The body will guard and call-in a substitute, as in most teams the substitutes are not as good as the starters, what we need to need to do is figure how to get the first string back into the game and playing as a team. We don’t do that lying on a training table trying to get individual muscles to fire and then hope we can get them back into sequence. We need to figure out what muscle synergies we can use to coordinate all those muscles to work together as a team. Otherwise, it would be so simple, just find the master switch, program the body, turn it on and just like flipping a light switch beautiful motion. Hate to break to the gurus, but there is no switch. We need to understand planes of motion and muscle actions and be able to figure out how to manipulate those variables along with the ground to get the first team players back on the floor playing together. Just remember if they ain’t firing you ain’t moving. It is not about firing it is about coordination and teamwork. Join the team and skip down the functional path to movement bliss.