Due to the large increases of pleasant emails and forwarded replies from others to my inbox I will share my thoughts on the current material proposed by Mike Boyle and Gray Cook. Since this is business and I have nothing personally against Mike and Gray I will focus on the information proposed by them in order to keep things fair. Some of Mike’s material is fantastic and I suggest being part of strengthcoach.com to download some great articles. Buy his ebook as well as it’s an excellent overview. Mike best strength is to make this blue collar or practical in real settings. Gray is also a good resource and I suggest being exposed to his work in seminars or conferences. Still, coaches need to realize that their information is a starting place and not an end.
The functional movement screen teaches screens and not practical anatomy, observation skills, and critical thinking. An example of this is the Joint by Joint approach to training or mobility proposed by Mike Boyle.* instead of talking about the foot and ankle being more than dorsiflexion I felt the author should have explained the value of the gait cycle. The reason I again go into this is I see a lot of adductor problems from foot biomechanics. When reviewing the article that Mike wrote I had to agree that he had a nearly complete (excellent article) program to fix the sports hernia. My only problem from my training of high level athletes is that the foot mechanics has a specific relationship on the gait modulation. If your foot is jammed and locked it will find another pathway to finish the task. This is why I scream at my computer when people stop at iso holds or cable pulls beyond the 90 degree angle when the EMG (not surface) state that the psoas burst happens very early. Just because it is active beyond 90 degrees doesn’t mean you should train it that way. It’s a lumbar stabilizer but a femur action based muscle as well. In a hockey boot the foot mechanics are changing the muscle recruitment and contractile classification of the muscles involved. The same can be said for pronation issues with some sprinters, since they are closer to supramaximal (absolute) performance the buffer zone of injury reduction becomes thin as hair. Spike plates will increase this effect and that’s why I agree with Francis with his point of running barefoot in the grass. Possible departure angles being too aggressive could overload the adductor group, resulting in a tear in acceleration. Weak QLs could overload the psoas as a healthy pelvis laterally tilts and rotates in sprinting and this is exaggerated in hurdling. My point is to think of why the psoas is weak or overloaded rather than just saying it’s shut down from sitting.
* I do not condone the use of marijuana, hence why I stay away from the joke some in the industry made about Mike and Gray were smoking marijuana with Keiser made hookahs when they talked about joint mobility and stability.
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