Back pain and injuries happen when you’ve trained hard and long enough. While I will be the FIRST medical professional to tell you that heavy training should not be avoided and that long term back strength is great for your health, there are times where...
By Chris Gai and Madison Franek (Evidence Based Movement)If you’re on this site you’ve probably heard of, seen, or maybe even been that athlete, attempting to “break up adhesions” or “realign fascia” in the name of self-care and recovery. There’s no doubt that foam roller...
Hip mobility is absolutely crucial to the fitness athlete wanting to perform optimally. When working on mobility, we want long-standing improvements in mobility that also translates to improved performance. And that's exactly what you'll get with these 8 hip mobility drills. If you want a done-for-you...
I’ve seen too many patients come to my physical therapy clinic with hip pain secondary to poor advice given by mistaken trainers & therapists. While this has obviously not been done purposely, there are a number of concepts that every trainer needs to know when...
Big shocker coming….ankle dorsiflexion mobility is very important for optimizing movement in athletics. Okay maybe that isn’t the most shocking news. But perhaps no-where more than Olympic weightlifting and CrossFit is ankle mobility crucial to performance. So here are my five favorite ankle mobility movements!Need...
The psoas march is among my favorite corrective exercises to prescribe for athletes needing improved lumbopelvic control. This exercise has helped athletes with everything from psoas strains, low back pain, squat technique, and even “tight” hip flexors (because often weak muscles become tense). If you...
We've covered how specific mobility limitations, hip socket alignment, and bone lengths can impact squat performance in the last three parts of this series. In this final installment of individual differences affecting squat technique we will discuss sports variations.Let's begin by looking at Olympic weightlifting...
In Parts I and II in this series on how individual anatomical differences can impact squat performance we covered the effects of various levels ankle mobility, hip mobility, and hip boney anatomy. These two articles provide a significant amount of evidence for the need to...
Last week in Part I of this series on individualizing squat technique prescriptions, we covered how an athlete’s hip and ankle mobility (or lack thereof) can impact their squat form. These variations in individual anatomy mean that many of the “rules” for what a proper...
One of the biggest misconceptions I see and hear when working with various fitness coaches is that there is a certain way to squat and certain keys to proper squat mobility. Knees must be positioned in a certain spot, feet must be pointed a certain direction,...