The Essential Gym Equipment

If you want to improve your movement capabilities, is there gym equipment that can help you? If moving better is important to you, you’ve probably wondered what gym equipment would best help me reach that goal? Gym equipment is endless and often gimmicky, so what would the essentials be to get me to where I want to go? Fortunately, you can improve your movement capabilities without much equipment. Being able to position your body with many of the coaching tactics we discussed is the #majorkey That said, there are some equipment pieces that make coaching WAY EASIER. And I’ll tier this for you fine folks based on your budget 🙂  If you are just building a home gym or beefing up your current gym, then check out Movement Debrief Episode 138 below!

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Incorporating Breathing into Training

Struggle knowing where breathwork fits? You might be head over heels for all things breathing, but what if your clients aren’t? Maybe you are the person who struggles to get buy-in to breathing-based exercises? Or you are unsure where to put it into training. Or maybe you are looking for sneaky ways to incorporate the principles WITHOUT YOUR CLIENTS EVEN KNOWING. The biggest error peeps make incorporating breathwork into training is making it something separate.  In fact, looking at movement in this fashion is an all-encompassing model. Following principles that go BEYOND BREATHING is a major key. Don’t worry folks, we will go over those principles, and make it SUPER EASY to get your clients all the benefits with less pushback. Check out Movement Debrief Episode 136 below to learn how.

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Top 10 Posts of 2018

At the end of each year, I like to see what you beautiful…sexy…outstanding people liked. What the fam….recognized (fam). This year, it seems like errbody was loving all of the movement-based work that was discussed. You want practical application as a coach or clinician, you got it! I also loved how all the guest posts I had this year made the top 10. There were some rock solid contributions from my fellow colleagues. Guess I’m going to need more album features if you know what I’m sizzlin’. I want to thank you, the fam, for making 2018 an outstanding year. It has been all the comments, questions, stories, and praise that keeps me outputting content for you. I think we will keep doing this another year. Why not? 😉 But enough rambling. Let’s check out the top 10. First off… 10. The Reckoning: Part Deux Course Review This was an excellent seminar that was run by two of my favorite doctors in the game: Pat Davidson and Ben House. The topics covered were a great variety of areas I needed more exposure in. If you want to learn how our movement limitations are evolutionary, the ins and outs of hypertrophy or fat loss, blood sugar regulation, you’ll just scratch the surface of what this course covered. If you ever get a chance to hear Pat or Ben in person, do so. In fact, you can hear Pat, myself, and Seth Oberst in February.  9. Why You Need Sun Exposure My man Iordan

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Costa Rica Underground S&C 2018 Retreat Review

I recently had the opportunity to attend a strength and conditioning retreat hosted by none other than the legendary Ben House at his Flo Retreat Center. The retreat consisted of a morning filled with meditating, writing, thinking, and of course learning. Afternoons were time to bro down with fellow bros at the beach, on hikes, and exploring all the wonders that Costa Rica has to offer. The experience was life changing for me. Very rarely do I get a chance to be a part of a community like we had in Costa Rica, especially as a mercenary PT. I had the opportunity to learn from great people, share phenomenal moments, and make new friendships that I hope last a lifetime. If you want to get schmarter, meet amazing people, or simply get away from the riggers of a overconnected environment, I strongly encourage you to sign up for one of these retreats. I’m hoping to be there again next year. Without further adieu, if you want some knowledge bombs from the heavy hitters who were there, check out the review below.  

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December 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 December 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!”] Biggest Lesson of the Month I’ve been thinking a lot about generalism and specialism. Becoming a generalist involves implementing things with an individual that intend to have systemic effects, whereas the specialist implements things that intend to have a specific effect. Think about encouraging your clients to sleep effectively, eat more vegetables, and move effectively. Implementing these three strategies will lead to system-wide effects first and foremost, and may impact a specific goal that you have. These are the tools of a generalist On the flipside, consider a surgical procedure, medication, etc. These modalities have a higher likelihood of meeting a specific goal first and foremost, but the system-wide effect is less certain. Though upon careful reflection on this thought, really anything we implement as a generalist or specialist is riddled with uncertainty. Both types of practitioners are necessary to maximize health, longevity, and/or performance. Quote of the Month “Ego is about who’s right. Truth is about what’s right.” ~Mike Maples Jr Ego is something I’ve been working on getting

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Practical Basketball Conditioning

Hey party people. Just when you thought I was done guest posting, I got another spot on my guy Mike Robertson’s website. This post was a follow-up to the basketball conditioning mistakes post I did last week. If conditioning mistakes are the disease, this post is the cure. In this post, I discussed the following topics: What the energy system demands are in basketball The three conditioning qualities a basketball player must possess to be successful The high/low method and more You can check out the blog here, or at the big ol’ link below. If you want some of MR’s best energy systems posts, I’d check these bad boys out: You NEED Long Duration, Low Intensity Cardio 6 Tips for Writing Better Conditioning Programs 5 More Thoughts on Energy Systems Development Real Talk About Aerobic Training for Athletes Enjoy. Practical Basketball Conditioning

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The 3 Biggest Basketball Conditioning Mistakes

Hey party people. In case you missed it, I did a guest spot on my guy Mike Robertson’s website. Mike has been a cat I’ve known for many years now, and has (and still does) profoundly influenced the way I coach. His posts on deadlifting, bench pressing, and on long duration low intensity cardio are simply some of the best things you’ll find on the internet. Please support this cat. In this post, I discussed the following topics: Why general preparation is no substitute for specific preparation Why basketball ought to be practiced according to energy system demands What those energy system demands are How to use acute:chronic workload to safely progress conditioning You can check out the blog here, or at the big ol’ link below. Enjoy. The 3 Biggest Basketball Conditioning Mistakes

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Start at the End: A Case for Special Physical Preparedness

“I need to get my wind back.” Every time I heard this I cringed. I did all the right stuff returning guys back to sport. I’m talking getting guys more neutral than Ron Hruska on a tropical island, FMS scores that Gray Cook would be ‘mirin’, hop tests that Kevin Wilk would foam at the mouth over, and high intensity continuous training sessions that would make Joel Jamieson say “really?” Yet as soon as they got onto the court, they’d be smoked. I’d hear that cursed phrase over and over again. What was I doing wrong? I thought we address all of their performance needs, yet we would continually run into the same problem. It wasn’t until I learned the following axiom that we broke this pattern:

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