Author: Zac Cupples

Neck Strength, Narrow Infrasternal Angles, and My Joint Went Out! – Movement Debrief Episode 46

Movement Debrief Episode 46 is in the books. Below is a copy of the video for your viewing pleasure, and audio if you can’t stand looking at me. Here is the set list: How can we best train the neck for grappling or head impact sports? What are the mechanics behind the narrow infrasternal angle? What is the treatment strategy for a narrow infrasternal angle? Do joints go “out?” If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook or Instagram.They air every Wednesday at 7pm CST. Enjoy! and the audio version…                      Here were the links I mentioned: Sign-up for the Human Matrix September 15-16th here Here is a video of the neck bridge (courtesy of Expert Village) Action of the Diaphragm on the Ribcage Respiration Revisited Here are some exercise I give to people with a narrow infrasternal angle. My top is the diamond lazy bear: The toe touch to the squat the dorsal rostral squat and the sidelying pec twist Systematic review and meta-analyses of the difference between the spinal level of the palpated and imaged iliac crests Content validity of manual spinal palpatory exams – A systematic review Reliability of Physical Examination for Diagnosis of Myofascial Trigger Points The Mechanisms of Manual Therapy in the Treatment of Musculoskeletal Pain: A Comprehensive Model Neurophysiological effects of spinal manipulation Here’s a signup for my newsletter to get nearly 3 hours and 50 pages of content, a free acute:chronic workload

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Refer In: When Trainers Can Work with People in Pain

It is a common recommendation to immediately refer clients in pain to a medical practitioner. However, immediate referral is oftentimes not warranted, and in certain cases is discouraged. But as a trainer, how do you know when a client’s pain is a medical problem, and when is it not? With today’s podcast, I hope to answer that question for you, as well as give you tips on working with people in pain, and collaborating in a manner that is in your client’s best interest. Enjoy, and check out the modified transcript below                  Modified Transcript If you are a trainer, and your client has pain, what should you do? Well I’m glad you asked. Many people on the interwebz will make the claim that if your client has pain, you should refer. The reason why this claim is made is 1) because you do not want to make your client problem worse; 2) you also want to cover your ass. If you do something and your client’s problem gets worse, you could potentially get sued. That’s why people say “when in pain, refer out.” I think that this claim is bullshit, and here’s why. Reasons why immediate referral can be problematic There are three negative consequences when you pull the referral trigger too early. Pain does not equal tissue damage This claim assumes that pain and tissue damage are synonymous. If you listen to my talk, Practical Pain Education, you would find that

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Perfecting the Subjective Exam

The subjective examination is that first conversation, that first point of contact you get with a client. Your first chance to understand them and win them over. But what if you stumble during this crucial piece of the client interaction? What if you miss out on the key ingredients? What if you keep someone on your schedule who you can’t help? Well, if you listen to this podcast and check out the modified transcript below, you too will have answers to these crucial questions. And perfect your subjective exam. Enjoy:                   

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Diastasis Recti, Useless Exercises, and CRPS – Movement Debrief Episode 45

Movement Debrief Episode 45 is in the books. Below is a copy of the video for your viewing pleasure, and audio if you can’t stand looking at me. Here is the set list: What is diastasis recti? How does one treat diastasis recti? What exercises are generally time-wasters in the rehab process? What exercises ought to be used instead What is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)? What are some treatment strategies for CRPS? If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook or Instagram.They air every Wednesday at 7pm CST. Enjoy! and the audio version…                    Here were the links I mentioned: Sign-up for the Human Matrix September 15-16th here Unstable surface training Upper body unstable surface training Attention bias in complex regional pain syndrome: it’s not just about the body Space-based, but not arm-based, shift in tactile processing in complex regional pain syndrome and its relationship to cooling of the affected limb  Limb-specific autonomic dysfunction in complex regional pain syndrome modulated by wearing prism glasses Course Notes: Graded Motor Imagery NOI Recognise App Course Notes: Therapeutic Neuroscience Education Here’s a signup for my newsletter to get nearly 3 hours and 50 pages of content, a free acute:chronic workload calculator, basketball conditioning program, podcasts, and weekend learning goodies: [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Get learning goodies and more”] Diastasis Recti Useless Exercises CRPS

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Improve How Your Clients Move By Signing Up for the Human Matrix

Do you… Have patients who hurt multiple areas and are unsure where to start? Have training clients who can’t perform the exercises you want to despite extensive coaching? Want to maximize your client’s movement capabilities better than ever before? Want to know why incorporating breathing into your skillset is exceedingly important? Then welcome to Human Matrix: The Code for Maximizing Health and Performance. A course where you will become a master of understanding and affecting movement systemically, building up your client’s movement repertoire from the ground up and better than ever before. What you’ll learn when you Enter the Human Matrix ■ The impact maximizing movement variability can have on your clients. ■ How to normalize range of motion of the entire body to both reduce pain and improve how your clients move with a few simple movements. ■ How to integrate breathing into your practice to reduce your clients’ pain and improve their ability to move. ■ How to effectively coach squatting, deadlifting, pushing, pulling, and more to build the fitness and resiliency of your clients. ■ How to coach speed, agility, and power training to take your client’s performance to the next level. Course Outline Here is the tentative schedule of this two day seminar Day 1 9:30-10:30am: Model and Theory 10:45am-12:30pm: Axial Skeleton and Respiration 12:30pm-1:30pm: Lunch 1:30pm-3:00pm: Axial Skeleton Variability Assessment and Treatment 3:15pm-4:45pm: Pelvic Variability Assessment and Treatment 5-6:30pm: Putting the thorax and pelvis together Day 2 8:30am-10am: Variability Review 10:15am-12:30pm: Power Establishment – Mastering fundamental movement patterns 1:30pm-3:30pm: Power

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Upper Body Unstable Surface, Achilles Tendinopathy, and Manual Therapy – Movement Debrief Episode 44

Movement Debrief Episode 44 is in the books. Below is a copy of the video for your viewing pleasure, and audio if you can’t stand looking at me. Here is the set list: Is there a place for upper body unstable surface training? Can it be justified since we cannot justify lower body unstable surface training? What are some good treatments for Achilles Tendinopathy? What are my thoughts on manual therapy? What do I think about recent manual therapy trends? Is there a place for manual therapy? If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook or Instagram.They air every Wednesday at 7pm CST. Enjoy! and the audio version…                    Here were the links I mentioned: I couldn’t find a picture of the dome, but this article talks about it. The vestibular platform Shoulder Packing Tim Gabbett Deep friction massage to treat tendinopathy: a systematic review of a classic treatment in the face of a new paradigm of understanding. Achilles and Patellar Tendinopathy Loading Programmes Joel Jamieson Ultimate MMA Conditioning Lateral heel wedges Re-evaluating Manual Therapy Manual Therapy Musings Three-Dimensional Mathematical Model for Deformation of Human Fasciae in Manual Therapy The Mechanisms of Manual Therapy in the Treatment of Musculoskeletal Pain: A Comprehensive Model Manipulation and mobilization for treating chronic low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.   Here’s a signup for my newsletter to get nearly 3 hours and 50 pages of content, a free acute:chronic workload calculator, basketball

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Three Keys to a Successful Home Exercise Program

I recently had someone ask me about how I get people to do their exercises on the regular at home. Let’s face it, it can be challenging to have clients succeed if they are not doing the stuff they need to do at home. Only so much can be accomplished in the small portion of time we as clinicians and coaches spend with our clients. If you follow the steps I have in the podcast and transcript below, you can see home exercise program execution increase substantially. Enjoy!                    Modified Transcript We’re going to talk about designing and executing an effective home exercise program that helps your clients reach their goals. A lot of the keys are on you, my friend; regardless of if you are a coach, clinician, trainer, or nutritionist. I don’t care what you are! If you want your people moving effectively, and you use movement to help them reach their goals, this one’s for you. Educate on why the home program is important The first key, first and foremost, is education. You have to educate your people as to why doing activity X is important, and how is it going to help them reach their goals. Many times you will give an activity in a  home exercise program that does not seem related whatsoever to the offending activity. How is this breathing activity going to help me get to the mailbox without pain? How is activity B going

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March 2018 Links and Review

Every week, my newsletter subscribers get links to some of the goodies that I’ve come across on the internets. Here were the goodies that my peeps got their learn on in March. If you want to get a copy of my weekend learning goodies every Friday, fill out the form below.  That way you can brag to all your friends about the cool things you’ve learned over the weekend. [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Hell yes I want weekend learning goodies every Friday!”]

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Packing the Shoulder, Chiropractic Adjustments, and Unstable Surface Training – Movement Debrief Episode 43

Movement Debrief Episode 43 is in the books. Below is a copy of the video for your viewing pleasure, and audio if you can’t stand looking at me. Here is the set list: Is there a place for packing the shoulder? Should we coach the shoulders to be down and back? How should we coach the shoulder to move? Do wide infrasternal angles cause more trap issues? Do chiropractic adjustments work? How to improve shoulder external rotation? What are my thoughts on unstable surface training? Is there any research supporting unstable surface training? What are the best ways to work on stability and balance? If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook or Instagram.They air every Wednesday at 8:30pm CST. Enjoy! and the audio version…                      Here were the links I mentioned: Infrasternal Angles The unreliability of posture Manipulation and mobilization for treating chronic low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Spinal Manipulation Institute Restoring Shoulder Motion Here is an example activity I use to restore shoulder external rotation Effects of Strength Training Using Unstable Surfaces on Strength, Power and Balance Performance Across the Lifespan: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis The PEDro Scale for grading evidence The Problem of Transfer with Charlie Reid Here’s a signup for my newsletter to get nearly 3 hours and 50 pages of content, a free acute:chronic workload calculator, basketball conditioning program, podcasts, and weekend learning goodies: [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Get learning goodies and

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Variability, The Problem of Transfer, and Gymnastics – Charlie Reid

 I recently had a great conversation with my dear friend, Charlie Reid. Charlie is a very successful trainer in the San Francisco Bay area, and a wealth of knowledge when it comes to a variety of fitness domains. He reached out to me to help audit his thought process, and it turned out we had an incredible conversation. Here were a few topics we discussed: Where does variability training fit when chasing fitness? What do certain variability tests theoretically look at, and what are the relevant mechanics? How well does variability training transfer to higher level activities? and many more  Click below to check out the video, and read along with the modified transcripts. I’ve linked some helpful pictures and links throughout. Enjoy. or if you’d rather, here is the audio version: Modified Transcript Charlie: I’m always looking for people to to audit my own thought process on things and help with shifting my paradigm. I’ve had these conversations with Joe Cicinelli regularly about interjecting PRI-based things with with fitness. It’s not even PRI, it’s just looking at like the body with this neuro-pulmonary/neuro-mechanical lens that I want to move towards and understand more of, but I’m also a pragmatist. I want to be as practical as I possibly can within the context that I’m working. That’s always a challenge. How do we take this information and make it as practical as possible? I’ll start with a confession first. I don’t I actually have a strong prejudice against PRI clinical exercises.

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Hip Adduction and Abduction, Course Takeaways, and the Draw-in Maneuver – Movement Debrief Episode 42

Movement Debrief Episode 42 is in the books. Below is a copy of the video for your viewing pleasure, and audio if you can’t stand looking at me. Here is the set list: What is normal hip abduction/adduction range of motion? What tests do I use to assess these ranges? Why are these limitations theoretically present? What is the treatment hierarchy for hip adduction and abduction? What are some of my favorite moves to improve these measures? What are my top 3 takeaways from the PRI courses I’ve attended? Why the draw in maneuver is complete bullshit and what you should do instead If you want to watch these live, add me on Facebook or Instagram.They air every Wednesday at 8:30pm CST. Enjoy! and the audio version…                      Here were the links I mentioned: Sawbones Pelvis model Hip range of motion debrief Infrasternal Angle Debrief An Anatomic Investigation of the Ober’s Test Toe Touch to Squat for a narrow infrapubic angle Diamond Bear exercise for a narrow infrapubic angle Here is a move I use to improve active hip abduction. You can put the femur in relative external or internal rotation pending on which of those directions is limited: Bill Hartman Postural Restoration Institute Inefficient muscular stabilization of the lumbar spine associated with low back pain. A motor control evaluation of transversus abdominis. Adriaan Louw Here is the Paul Hodges video I talked about Here’s a signup for my newsletter to get

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Frequently Asked Questions

Over the last year I’ve been asked a bunch of questions, and I’ve tried to answer them immediately. Instead of sifting through all my Movement Debriefs to get your answer, maybe you just want to get a quick answer and then go apply what you learned. Or maybe you can only stand listening to me for so long. I GET IT! Well, look no further. Below is a link to every question that I have answered thus far on my Movement Debriefs. While I won’t continually update this post, going to my FAQ page will be updated after each debrief. If you have a question, just sign up for my newsletter, and when the next email comes by, just hit reply and I will do my darndest to answer yours. [yikes-mailchimp form=”1″ submit=”Yeah, I want Zac to A my Q”] Learn away my fam! Continuing Education   PRI vs. DNS Exercise Coaching Anchoring Old Movements to New Coaching Progressions Getting Changes to Stick Home Exercise Execution Lower Body Death of the Vertical Tibia Slideboards Squats Performance Agility Programming Exercise Programming Periodizing Physical Therapy Sessions Upper Body Dead Hangs   Overhead Pressing Pushups vs. Quad Sets   Health and Wellness The Off-Switch Sleeping Tips for New Parents Stress Response Taking care of your health Personal Development Daily Routines Building Daily Routines Deciding What to Learn Just in Time Learning Embracing Failure Detaching Refocusing Check Your Ego The Art of the Debrief Work-Life Balance Professional Development Questions to ask an interviewer New

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