Kevin Neeld — Hockey Training, Sports Performance, & Sports Science

The Most Overlooked Part of Exercise Performance

My outlook on optimal exercise performance has changed drastically over the last 3 years, largely as a result of having taken 8 PRI courses and 2 DNS courses. There are positions/postures and stabilization strategies that make me cringe now, that I and the rest of our staff, spend a lot of coaching energy on trying to correct on a daily basis. Today, my friend Eric Cressey is back with another outstanding video that includes:

  1. How posture can affect breathing and how this ties in to certain common injuries
  2. A powerful exercise to better position the breathing musculature and improve posterior expansion (a limitation common to almost ALL athletes, and many general population folks as well)
  3. A 3-exercise mobility -> stability continuum to help improve upper body range of motion and core control, the last of which can also be used as an assessment

And yes….Tony is back:

Tony Gentilcore

As I mentioned about Eric’s last video, there are 4 exercises presented in this video that we use a lot with our clients. More importantly, Eric is referencing a philosophy of view of movement in general that underlies everything we do.

Check out the video here >> Breathe Better, Move Better

One of the things Eric mentions it a bit in passing is that using one of these exercises tends to improve range of motion in other areas (notably shoulder and hip rotation, which is incredibly important for everyone, but especially baseball and hockey athletes, the two sports that Eric and I work with the most, respectively). In many cases, aggressively stretching to improve range of motion without FIRST addressing the position of the involved bones (e.g. rib cage/spine positioning in an upper body example) can be driving pathology/further injury. Similarly, the inability to appropriately position and utilize the diaphragm can drive imbalances in length, tension, and control throughout the entire body. In other words, this stuff is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

Check out the video here >> Breathe Better, Move Better

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

P.S. The 4th exercise Eric presents is a great assessment. Check out the video and give it a try yourself! Breathe Better, Move Better

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Kevin Neeld

Kevin Neeld Knows Hockey

Kevin has rapidly established himself as a leader in the field of physical preparation and sports science for ice hockey. He is currently the Head Performance Coach for the Boston Bruins, where he oversees all aspects of designing and implementing the team’s performance training program, as well as monitoring the players’ performance, workload and recovery. Prior to Boston, Kevin spent 2 years as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the San Jose Sharks after serving as the Director of Performance at Endeavor Sports Performance in Pitman, NJ. He also spent 5 years as a Strength and Conditioning Coach with USA Hockey’s Women’s Olympic Hockey Team, and has been an invited speaker at conferences hosted by the NHL, NSCA, and USA Hockey.