Joint vs. Muscular Restriction

Over the past couple weeks at Endeavor, we’ve had a bunch of new and prospective athletes come through our doors. When I teach new people our warm-up, the words “mobility” or “mobilization” come up repeatedly.

Mobility is a term frequently used to describe one of two things:

The ability for a bone to move (e.g. roll, glide, spin, slide, etc.) within a joint
Global range of motion around that joint

It’s important to understand that mobility around a joint is dependent upon several factors:

The anatomy of the joint itself (e.g. bone shape/contact, cartilage support, etc.)
Supporting ligaments (size, strength, direction of pull, integrity, etc.)
The extensibility of the muscles surrounding the joint

Of these, most people think of improving range of motion around a joint as simply improving the extensibility of the muscles around it. Many times, this can be an effective strategy, but sometimes it’s not that straight forward. Mike Boyle first introduced this concept to me within the context of ankle mobility.

He correctly pointed out that if someone lacks dorsiflexion range of motion (knee going forward over the toes) it may have nothing to do with tight calves. Instead, it may be that your talocrural joint (tibia and fibula on top, talus below) isn’t gliding the way it should be. As a result, your dorsiflexion ROM will be limited and you may even feel sensations of impingement in the front of your ankle. Bill Hartman does a great job of discussing this issue specifically in these two videos:

Self-Ankle Mobilization 1

Self-Ankle Mobilization 2

Improving range of motion isn’t always a simple fix. Like all things in performance, you need to get down to the cause of the limitation, not just guess your way around the symptoms.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Research Review Service Fitness

As you may know, I’ve been writing for my friend Shawn Thistle’s Fitness Research Review site for about a year now.

He and I had spoke before the site went live about the direction he wanted the site to go. We both agreed that most fitness professionals are extremely busy and rarely make time to stay current on research, despite recognizing the importance.

As one of those busy professionals, it can be a bit overwhelming to train athletes all day and still make time to spend a couple hours reading research. I’d say about 7/10 times I sit down to read a text book or research article I glaze over within seconds and realize I’m never going to retain anything. That’s what makes Fitness Research Review Service such a brilliant idea. I usually pop over to the site and read through a review or two in about 15 minutes, and spend a couple minutes digesting the information and figuring out how I’m going to apply it in my programs. Then I can go home to eat dinner and do something that doesn’t involve strength and conditioning (get a little balance in my life! …not my specialty).

I just read a review from Patrick Ward outlining a simple neural strategy that everyone could use during just about every exercise to help improve their force output (read: strength). It doesn’t get much more applicable than that!

Shawn wanted me to share this info with you:

Research Review Service FITNESS, now in its second year, is an online service designed to help busy fitness professionals incorporate current scientific literature into their client interactions.

How RRS-Fitness works:
Every week, RRS posts 1-2 new reviews which analyze, contextualize, and put into practice the findings of a recently published scientific article from industry-leading peer-reviewed journals. Each review takes 5-10 minutes to read and focuses on the practical application of results and functional knowledge of research methodology. The reviews are all contained in a database that subscribers have full access to (it now contains > 175 reviews!). Topical content is varied and comprehensive, ranging from exercise sciences to sports injuries and rehabilitation.

The overall goal of RRS-Fitness is to increase knowledge translation from the scientific literature to those in contact with clients in all types of exercise and training environments.

Top 5 Reasons to Subscribe to RRS-Fitness:
1) Weekly reviews of the latest research.
2) Quickly read and applicable information in the comfort of your home or office.
3) Affordable subscription rates compared to attending conferences.
4) Large database of existing reviews.
5) Save your time, stay current, and improve your results!

RRS-FITNESS Mission Statement: RRS FITNESS will strive to enhance evidence-based knowledge translation and practical application in the exercise and fitness industry by providing contemporary, relevant and applicable scientific literature to subscribers in a consistent, unbiased, easily understood format. Our overarching goal is to disseminate exercise sciences research to training professionals, students and institutions worldwide. RRS FITNESS will operate in a financially and environmentally responsible manner, and maintain a strong commitment to prompt customer service.

If you have any questions about the site, please do not hesitate to contact me!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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Building The Efficient Athlete

Interdisciplinary learning is a hot topic in the human performance industry right now. Many strength and conditioning coaches will argue that we don’t need to study physical therapy or athletic training. Others swear by it.

Frankly, I find it hard to imagine doing my job without knowing a bit about physical therapy and athletic training. I understand it’s not my job to diagnose injuries or do initial rehab. I also understand that athletes with persistent pain need to get it looked at by the appropriate professional.

With that said, I rarely see a completely pain-free athlete without injury complications. Take a look at one of the elite level hockey training groups we had last Summer at Endeavor:

Posterior shoulder dislocation
Chronic groin pain
Thumb surgery and knee “giving way” at angles >90°
Sports hernia
2 players with shoulder labral repair

6 high level players; 5 significant problems. Unfortunately, groups like this are becoming the norm. With the increased emphasis on year-round hockey, it’s becoming almost inevitable for older players to have some sort of hip dysfunction. With the horrible rounded over posture that most hockey players carry themselves with, it’s becoming almost inevitable for older players to have some sort of shoulder dysfunction.

Not every strength coach or “trainer” needs to be a licensed PT or AT, but we should have, at a minimum, a profound understanding of functional anatomy. There are dozens of great resources out there, but many are pretty hard to digest.

The one resource that I couldn’t live without (and reference on a pretty regular basis) is Building the Efficient Athlete with Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey.

This DVD set is truely timeless. I liken it to taking a functional anatomy course in college, with one major exception. I paid over $3,000 out-of-pocket to take a 4-credit functional anatomy class as part of a Doctorate of Physical Therapy program at a reputable university. I can honestly say I learned less implementable information from that course than I did from watching and re-watching Building the Efficient Athlete (and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper!).

Recognizing dysfunction and abnormal movement patterns can prevent injuries, but you can’t do that if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Step 1: Watch Building the Efficient Athlete

Step 2: Repeat Step 1

Step 3: Recognize dysfunction in your athletes and help them prevent future injuries

-Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Select Teams

Last week was tough. The Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup marks the end of one of the most exciting years of hockey in my lifetime, and the end of my 3-month Flyers playoff beard. Maybe that’s not a bad thing since I was accused of looking over 10 years older. Although…at least I wasn’t being carded for rated-R movies!

Beard Wow.

The off-season is here. Within the next few weeks, almost all kids will be out of school and the Summer will officially be upon us. That means most of the players, if they haven’t yet, will be receiving invitations to tryouts for any of the seemingly never-ending list of “select teams”.

I could rant forever about how most of these will get you no exposure at all and are geared toward sucking as many kids as possible into an overpriced tryout…but I’ll spare you. In my lifetime, I’ve seen many qualified players get dismissed from these teams. They usually don’t take it well. Players start comparing themselves to the players that made it, wondering why they aren’t good enough and what they’re doing wrong. As with any tryout, kids that make it gain confidence and feel like they have a future in hockey. Players that get cut start to question whether or not they’ll ever realize their dreams. It’s unfortunate.

At Endeavor last week, I overheard two of our hockey players talking between sets about these select teams. One said, “I got cut every year and was told I’d never play at a high level.” The other responded, “I never even got the tryout invitation!”

The funny thing is, BOTH of these players are top NHL prospects. Yep. They weren’t quite regional select team material, but the NHL will give them a shot. Seems a little backwards.

Two Hockey Development Truths:

1) Every player develops at different rates. Many stars at the peewee level plateau shortly after and/or quit.

2) Even exceptionally great coaches make mistakes.

One of the players I mentioned above said, “I should probably thank them. Getting cut pissed me off so much it motivated me to prove them wrong.” This is the EXACT attitude you should have if you get cut from a team. Make them regret overlooking you. Put the work in to develop your skills and athleticism.

Hockey players need to stop waiting to be discovered and start making themselves impossible to ignore.

Countless players have been late bloomers and went on to have extremely successful careers. You can too.

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Shooting: Off-Ice Exercises

After a research-filled post on Stretching for Hockey and a long rant on NHL Combine Test Results and why comparing off-ice testing results between players is senseless, I thought I’d stick with something a little more laid back today.

Hockey players can improve their shooting power by improving their rotational power off the ice. Essentially, rotational power is maximized when it’s initiated through the hips and transferred through the core.

Check out a few of my favorite exercises below to improve rotational power (and hockey shooting power). I actually learned the “partner toss” variation of this from my colleague Mike Potenza from a video he posted on Hockey Strength and Conditioning. If you aren’t a member yet, I’m officially disappointed. You can try it for 7 days for only $1. I even bought a shorter domain name (http://HockeySC.com) so you don’t have to type in http://HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com everytime you want to go to the site. It can’t be any easier!

On to the videos:

Front Standing Med Ball Scoop

Side Standing Med Ball Scoop w/ Partner Toss

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have medicine balls and a flat concrete wall to throw them against, try adding an explosive rotational component to other upper body exercises:

Rotational 1-Arm Cable Chest Press

Rotational 1-Arm Cable Row

Mix these exercises into the beginning of your training sessions and you’ll start to notice that your shots have a little more power behind them.

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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