Month: October 2012

Optimizing Performance

A couple weeks ago Seth Bronheim and Varun Sriram, the Director of Nutrition & Fitness and Digital Marketing Manager, respectively, of Generation UCAN were in the Philadelphia area for an endurance event and had a chance to stop by Endeavor to check the facility out. While they were in town, we did a quick interview discussing how we’ve been recommending our athletes and general fitness clientele use Generation UCAN’s products, and what types of responses we’ve seen/heard. As you likely know, I’ve been a big proponent of UCAN since being introduced to the company several years ago at the annual BSMPG seminar in Boston.

Save 10% on all UCAN Products using the code “competehard”

If you’re interested in learning more about UCAN, check out these posts:

While UCAN is a young company, they’ve already gained popularity across many elite level athletic domains, including ice hockey, football, and endurance events. Anecdotally, we’ve had many players that felt like their legs crashed on them somewhere in the range of the middle of the 2nd to middle of the 3rd period and say they feel amazing through the whole game when drinking one of UCAN’s sports drinks immediately before the game or sipping it throughout. I’d encourage you to learn more about it, as it’s a much healthier alternative to many of the more commonly used sports drinks.

The video below is what I believe to be the first of several that they’re creating using some of the interview footage from our meeting at Endeavor and that with Cassandra Forsythe, a really bright nutritionist that I had the pleasure of meeting while I was an intern at Cressey Performance. As a brief aside, you’ll have to forgive my appearance. About 8 weeks ago I spontaneously made a decision that I was going to relive my glory days as a player and let my hair grow out until November (Flowvember?). This video was taken at about week 2 of the inevitable 12-week awkward grow out period. Enjoy!

…Not quite this awkward (2010 Playoff Beard)

UCAN Optimize Performance

If you need to restock your supply, you can use the code “competehard” to save 10% on all their products here: Generation UCAN.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Interview with Charlie Weingroff

If you’ve been reading my site for the last couple of years, you know that I have a great deal of respect for Charlie Weingroff. He’s incredibly bright, and has a truly unique perspective on the rehabilitation to performance training continuum. He continues to be a go-to resource for me as I dig deeper down the rabbit holes of performance enhancement, manual therapy, etc. Last week Mike Ranfone from Ranfone Training Systems interviewed Charlie. I really enjoyed the article so I asked if I could respost it for you guys, which RTS kindly allowed. Check out the interview below. Also, as a reminder, Charlie is doing a two-day seminar at RTS in Hamden, Connecticut October 27-28. This is a great opportunity for folks on the East Coast to learn from one of the brightest guys out there. I’m hoping to make it up, even though this is my only free weekend for the next two months! Check out this link for more information: Charlie Weingroff at Ranfone Training Systems

One of my favorite resources of all time.

New Interview with Charlie Weingroff

Mike Ranfone of RTS sits down with for a rare and insightful interview with one of the brightest minds in physical therapy and strength and conditioning, Charlie Weingroff.

RTS– So you’re a DPT, ATC, and a CSCS. Obviously you have the academic/professional credentials, but how about some insight into your own training and accomplishments?

CW: In terms of my own training, I’m sure just like everybody else, I’ve got some gym lifts that I might think are pretty good. But I don’t have anything that nobody else can’t top pretty readily. I am certainly proud of making Elite @ 220 with an 800 Squat, 510 Bench, 605 Dead. I have no clue what I weighed because for a little while, I never bothered trying to make weight. For that meet, I weighed in in full heavy sweats @ like 213 and sneakers, so I couldn’t have been more than 205 for that meet. I was also wearing Ace Briefs and an IPF Squatter, which is much less gear than most guys wear in Multi-Ply.

Some of the lifts I am most proud of are my first 43” box jump, which took me 6 tries to nail, the Van Dam split, 595 ATG raw squat, and Olympic 400m sprinter Tyrone Ross eyeballing a 40 @ around 5 flat….and yes, I was actually the one running.
And of course I dumped 675 to my knees on my final warmup 1 meet when I lost 9 pounds without knowing, I got pinned with 936, gave up a goal from the red line against St. Joe’s-Montvale my sophomore year, finished dead last in the tire toss in a Strongman, and got caught in a run down on a botched Suicide Squeeze. That was embarrassing.

RTS– Knowing what you know and doing what you do, how have you been successful in integrating all of your disciplines and where do you see most people/coaches missing the mark on how to effectively train/rehab?

No one wants to be told what NOT to do.

CW: I get it. I really do. It’s just human nature to not be told what to do, or especially what not to do. People want to be shown all these exercises or techniques that they “can do when they back in the clinic or gym on Monday.” I said on my DVD that everybody just wants the house. Gimme the keys, show me the front door, and let me have it. I’ll do everything you say, just show me.

Well, the fact of the matter is that there is so much good that we can do in terms of exercise or manual therapy selection, program design, coaching cues, that being told what to do nothing more amounts to “Hey, here’s how I do it.” That’s not teaching. That’s showing.

I see folks missing the major messages of general principles and rejecting messages of restriction in favor of off the wall, crazy exercises that defy the logic that got us all to the dance.

2. Training others with personal bias. Ours or Theirs.
When we train ourselves, we can do whatever we want. Like I suggested above, I get human nature. I know my shoulder hurts more when I bench a lot, but guess what? I still bench a lot. And when my shoulder feels better, or one day when I need surgery, I am going to be driven to get back to holding 5 wheels over my face. Coach Boyle would slap me sideways for this approach. But I am honest to myself and my own vices. I get it. I respect my emotional attachments.

But I’ll be damned if I am going to push my own lunacy onto someone that trusts me with their most sacred thing on Earth, their body. If they trust me, if they trust you, they deserve best practice. Best practice means they don’t always get to do what they want. They don’t get to do what we like. They get to do what is absolutely the best. There are few other expert service professions where the customer gets to decide what they get. Look how jacked up the food industry is.

Just because you’ve learned something from someone supposedly credible, or you don’t understand what someone a lot smarter than you is talking about, this just means you need to dig deeper into accepting or rejecting a new message. I don’t find this optional. We must give people what they want, yes………, but in the context of what they need.

Giving up.

Lots of people complain. I complain. In our profession, people complain even more when they are exposed. They rationalize. They try to explain why they are doing what they are doing even though it is painfully clear what they are doing is bullshit.

Well, the last thing I think folks are missing the boat on is simply not trying, and maybe risking, to find a new atmosphere or environment in which to be great. The client or patient population, rules of the facility, business model, etc. are not letting them be who they want to be. Rather than gameplan how to use the current situation as a launching pad to something better, they piss and moan and reject messengers that call them out on the mediocrity of their practice.
Whatever or get off the pot. And guess what? There are people a lot smarter than you. Do what they do, not what you feel like doing.

RTS– I’ve heard you state that increasing muscular contractility is “where the money ‘s at”, or basically learn to contract the muscles harder. Do you mind expanding on that as long as it doesn’t imply squatting on a swiss ball?

CW: There are 2 major ways in which we can stronger. One is through physiological means. This would include all of the local adaptations to muscle tissue that will yield more force production.

But the other major way we can get stronger is by learning how to contract your muscles harder. This can be thought of as neurological strength, and there are many, many ways to access this. This is perhaps the overwhelming principle taught in the RKC School of Strength, how to access the maximum strength that the muscle is capable of. Part of this is ground in neurophysiologically through motor unit recruitment, but it is also taking advantage of joint centration, irradiation, and superstiffness. Contracting muscles harder and using neurological inhibition drives the initial lift and then the training drives the easier approach to physiology.

Examples are keying into certain forms of choice to move the bar, contracting more muscles in a particularly pattern, and gripping harder onto the bar or bell as well as the contacts to the floor.

RTS– And this (previous answer) is important regardless of your chosen endeavor? Bodybuilding, athletics, etc.

CW: I’ve just found that because it is typically undertrained in most training populations and it has a much higher potential for adaptation, training the neuromuscular approaches has an amazing yield.

The bottom line is when you train with the neurological methods, you can lift more weight. And when you lift more weight, you are going to get whatever you are looking for, strength, hypertrophy, metabolic demand, minimal dose for maximal effect, etc. This is more anecdotal, but I think accessing the neurological mechanisms yields a neurological system that is less insulted from training and is likely in a better state of preparedness to come back for another workout. This isn’t quite evidence-based, and everyone will be a little different along with preparedness being linked to training volume and intensity. I do think applying joint centration, irradiation, and PNF may pink line some things to the CNS that are typically red.

RTS– Core pendulum theory and joint by joint approach sounds like pretty advanced theories, are they only applicable to elite athletes or can they be utilized by any coach, athlete, therapist?

CW: I think these messages are applicable to all facets of training or rehab and for all individuals. They are explanations that give us guidance to the What, Why, and How of improving and restoring qualities. I mentioned before that I am dismayed when trainers and clinicians just want the “house.” I think the Joint by Joint and Core Pendulum are the blueprints of the house. Understanding these principles can allow you to make up your own movement screens, tests, and assessments, and choose the most ideal approach to manual therapy and exercise. I think they are for everybody.

RTS– Other than your upcoming seminar @ RTS on Oct. 27-28, do you haven any big projects or plans coming up?

CW: I still have several big talks and seminars throughout the rest of this year, and I’m sure I’ll be adding things as they come up. I am very much committed to a rehab and training mentorship probably in the 4th quarter, and we will probably film the training portion as a follow up to the first DVD. We are closing in on 1000 copies sold, so I tend to think there’s interest there. I am always excited for how Nike Sparq Performance is growing, and how all of our roles may change as we grow.

Don’t miss your chance to see Charlie Weingroff present his ideas in person at Ranfone Training Systems on Oct. 27-28! Click on the link below for more details.

CHARLIE WEINGROFF SEMINAR

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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What Muscles Do You Use to Shoot?

Last week I received a question from a reader that I’ve gotten a few times in the past and thought I’d address here. If you have specific questions you’d like me to address in a future post, please post them in the comments section below!

Question: If you could please tell me what muscles are used in taking the slap shot. What muscles are being used eccentrically, concentrically as well as isometrically. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Chris

I’ve written about exercises to improve shooting power quite a bit in the past, as I know that’s a question a lot of players have. Whenever I get these questions, my first thought is “why do you want to know?” I suspect that the line of thought here goes something like:

I (or my son/daughter/member of my team) does not have a very hard shot (by someone’s standard)
I need to learn what muscles are used in shooting
I need to strengthen these muscles to improve my shot power

In response to this thought process, I could dissect all the muscles involved with various shot patterns, how their roles change depending upon body position, and explain their actions. That said, I think in this situation I might be providing the right answer to the wrong question. In my opinion, a better, more direction question would be:

“How can I improve my shot?”

Improving a shot in hockey comes down to a few simple concepts:

Technique
Accuracy
Release
Power

In almost every case, all of these things feed each other. If someone isn’t strong enough, they may not be able to shoot with the ideal technique (especially true at the youth levels). A slow release can make a hard shot seem slow, since the goalie/opponents have an opportunity to adjust their positioning to the expected shot before it gets off.

Check out the video below of my buddy Johnny Gaudreau. He’s not going to win any hardest shot contests, but he sure finds the back of the net!

Quick release and accuracy may be more important than shot power for some players

Many coaches like defensemen with a big shot from the point. This certainly isn’t a bad thing, and in many cases is desirable. That said, Mark Recchi played the point for years on the power play and almost exclusively took snap shots. As mentioned above, sometimes placement is more important than power.

I’ve also heard stories of some of the world’s top scorers admitting that they didn’t “aim” as much as just try to get the shot off as quickly and as hard as possible. The point of this discussion is to recognize that many players have found success using different strategies, most of which gravitate toward their talent predispositions. If you’re the parent or coach of an undersized player, they will absolutely benefit from some strength training, but they may never have the hardest shot on their team. That’s okay; they can find success with other strategies!

With all that said, let’s dig into the heart of this question: What muscles are used in shooting and how do we train off the ice to improve shooting power?

Do muscles matter?
There are in excess of 600 muscles in the body, most of which are active in some capacity during a max effort shooting pattern. Some will be used to “load”, some will be used to accelerate through the shooting pattern, and some will be used to decelerate the movement. While it might be possible to dissect the role of every muscle in every shooting situation, I think the training application of this information would get pretty muddy very quickly. For example, for a right-handed shot to open up and take a big slap shot would involve an eccentric loading of the back-side (right) external oblique during the loading phase, an isometric action during the transition from the wind-up to lowering the stick, and a concentric action as the player accelerates the stick down. This is just one example of one muscle in one shot from one position. To use information like this to design specific exercises to address each component would be overly laborious and incredibly inefficient. Not to mention, muscle action is position- and velocity-specific, so simply doing a bunch of Russian twists to train the obliques would leave A LOT to be desired (not to mention this is a garbage exercise anyway).

Scrap these in favor of plank rotations and belly press variations

In contrast, I’d urge you to temporarily let go of thinking of the involved muscles and start thinking more in terms of movement patterns. When you view sports in this frame, you’re able to train multiple muscles in their sport-specific roles simultaneously. This concept, however, has been bastardized by the “hockey-specific” folks that started loading up hockey sticks with resistance tubing and having players go through shooting motions in this manner. A few things to consider:

Shooting patterns, like all truly sport-specific movements, are position and velocity dependent and involve a very specific motor program within the nervous system. Creating an excessive overload during sport-specific patterns can NEGATIVELY affect the motor program, ultimately leading to a sloppier pattern. This is especially true with movements where accuracy is a primary objective.
Relevant to the above, tubing progressively increases resistance as it gets stretched, so the resistance is maximized as the players stick reaches the “follow through” phase of the shot. This is the exact opposite of shooting on the ice, where maximum resistance is reached either during the transition from wind-up to shooting phases, or during contact with the puck. A much more effective way of utilizing this concept would be to use pucks that are MODERATELY heavier (e.g. ~ 1 oz for bantams and midgets, and up to ~2oz heavier for juniors, college, etc.; peewees and below shouldn’t use heavier pucks!)
Off-ice training can have a HUGE impact on sport-specific qualities by breaking down the movements into more fundamental patterns that don’t directly mimic those used on the ice, but still have some similarities. For example, shooting is a low load, high velocity rotational power movement. These can be trained off the ice using med ball throw variations from different positions, that will help mimic the rotational loading and force generation through the hips, transfer of this power through the core, and follow-through through the upper body. In this way, the pattern is similar enough that it can transfer to on-ice improvements, but not so similar that it will interfere with the accuracy/precision of the movement on the ice.

Tube-resisted shooting: The key to developing inaccurate shots and sports hernias

Our med ball work can generally be broken down into these variations:

Shotput or scoop
Front standing or side standing
Static or dynamic start

In this way, we’re able to address a wide variety of shooting environments that players face on the ice. We generally progress to lighter loads throughout the off-season to help shift toward higher velocity movements. I’ve posted a ton of these videos in the past, so if you’re interested in seeing these exercises in motion, check out the posts below!

I hope this clears up any confusion regarding the most appropriate off-ice training strategies to improve on-ice shooting power. Please post any questions you may have below!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Mobility Circuit for Hockey Players

Today’s post will cap off a 3-part series on creating on- and off-ice training and conditioning programs that compliment one another from an energy system standpoint to allow a stronger adaptation. If you missed the first two parts, check them out at the links below:

Short and sweet today. Check out the video below, which features all 11 exercises in the mobility circuit I presented in a previous post.

Mobility Circuit for Recovery

If you’re interested in learning more about the importance of mobility on hockey performance and how it fits within a comprehensive hockey training program, I covered these topics in depth inUltimate Hockey Training.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!