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Articles, Baseball, Football, Golf, Movement, Sports, Track and Field

December 28, 2016

What is the oblique sling, and how does it affect me as an athlete? Are you a baseball player and want to throw harder and hit the ball further? Or are you a volleyball player that wants to increase arm speed and hit harder? Or are you a quarterback that wants to throw with a little more mustard? Your ability to do so is dependent upon your ability to load and create length through your oblique sling. This sling is our bodies personal whip. Understanding how to use it is a insanely effective way to improve sport performance.What Is The Oblique Sling Your oblique sling is a line of musculature that runs from your shoulder to the contralateral side of your pelvis. In other words, right shoulder to left hip and left shoulder to right hip. This line of musculature is what rotates our pelvis into side lying. As mentioned, it is our bodies own personal whip. When looking at your torso, your oblique sling begins just above the hip at the external oblique, moves to the rectus abdominus, to the internal oblique, to the serratus, and into the pec on the opposite side.  Picturing this line of muscle anatomically allows you to see its importance in generating rotation. It plays a huge role in all rotational sports. As a strength coach that works with mainly overhead and rotational athletes, this is an important concept to understand and continue to find new ways to address and fine tune.Role Of The Oblique Sling In Throwing Your oblique sling plays a massive role in the stretch reflex of throwing. Briefly, the stretch reflex is also known as the stretch shortening cycle. The stretch reflex involves eccentric lengthening of the muscles involved in the movement, which stores elastic energy, allowing us to generate power. An Eccentric...

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August 6, 2016

Active Mobilization and Re-Patterning To Improve Overhead Position and Shoulder MechanicsIn this video Chris Duffin and Brad Cox from Acumobility are at Titan Barbell in Medford, MA working on Strongman Semaj.  Semaj had sustained a right shoulder injury that has been negatively impacting his overhead mobility. During assessments, we found that he has poor internal rotation of the shoulder with limited overhead range of motion and restricted trap and pec muscles. Our goal is to provide some corrective strategies to improve end range of motion and stability in the shoulder girdle. We accomplish this through the following progression:Active Mobilization of the ShoulderUsing our unique Vice Technique we start by placing an Acumobility Ball on a trigger point in the external rotators (i.e. back of shoulder) while at the same time applying compression from the opposite side in the subscap and lat muscles with the BoomStick. Complete 5 to 8 reps of internal and external rotation.Applying the same Vice Technique we work both rhomboid and pec muscles. Place an Acumobility Ball on a trigger point at the top of the rhomboids, apply pressure using the BoomStick to a restricted area in the pec, and go through a press up motion at 45 degree angle from the body. Find two restricted areas in the pec and complete 5-8 press ups in each area.An alternative method to release the pec muscle while preventing trap over recruitment is to use a banded distraction technique. Get into a tall kneeling position, place a band over the top of the shoulder and anchor it under the rack. Place an Acumobility ball in a trigger point in the pec muscle, press into the ball while going through internal and external rotation of the shoulder.Stability Re-Patterning:To cement in the mobility work that we just...

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Articles, Chris Duffin, Movement

May 31, 2016

In this piece Kelly Starrett and Chris Duffin are clearly fired up and addressing topics in a rapid-fire fashion. Starrett and Duffin quickly hit on and address numerous topics on movement mechanicsMuch of the focus of the discussion surrounds the future of role of the responsibility of the strength coach. Duffin and Starrett challenge the status quo of the current role and when clinical intervention is brought in. Both articulate that these roles need to change, but this also involves people on both ends of this spectrum needing to “up their game”. Clearly defining what those roles are and then educating to those expectations will reduce injury rates and improve performance of athletes.Kelly and Chris also clarify the expectations on what athletes are doing for prep work. While both provide significant education online via the MWOD and KABUKI.MS platforms they find some people take this prep work to far. Standards for length of time and what is done are covered.They also discuss how complementary both of these products (MWOD & KABUKI.MS) are to cover the athlete’s needs for learning proper movement patterns, mobilizing, and performing the correct preparatory movement patterning.Additionally KABUKI.MS is offering a 50% off initiation for the first 100 people who sign up from this video with code: MWODhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8zpvGEqPS4...

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May 27, 2016

Assessment and Correction Strategies for Hip Shift and Pelvic Tilt in Squat and Deadlift with Chris Duffin and Brad CoxKabuki Strength's Chris Duffin and Acumobity's Brad Cox team up for a video series on re-patterning, correctives, and cueing for strength training.  Much of the greater depth of content will be housed on Kabuki.MS in the indexable and searchable video library.  However an entire public series of video's will be available as well where Brad and Chris meld their innovative style of assessment and corrective strategies together as they apply to strength athletes.The first in the series is dealing with addressing both hip shift and pelvic tilt when we see them in squatting and deadlifting patterns.  This video goes far beyond what other videos' on this subject provide.  They dive into how to assess and understand the root of the issue then develop the specific strategy based on the outcomes of your assessment.  In this video they walk through 5 different assessments and multiple strategies for dealing with it.Products used in the video include Kabuki Strength's Boom Stick and Acumobility Products.  More in depth videos will be published on Kabuki.MS.  Also keep an eye out for more collaborative efforts between Kabuki Strength and Acumobility.You can video the video above!...

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Articles, Movement

April 25, 2016

 

By Phillip Snell, DC
Chiropractic Physician
Creator of FixYourOwnBack.com

On occasion, I refer to a formative patient I had in my chiropractic practice many years ago. I call him Carl. Carl was a big strong guy that had lifted heavy and played hard for most of his life. While his prior activity was apparent in his physical frame as he sat in front of me, it was juxtaposed by his emotional state. Carl was crying…and not just a trace tear on the cheek, either. This grown ass man was sobbing and fortunately for me, it was tears of joy. He had suffered a disc injury while lifting, and subsequently re-­‐injured it several times. He’d seen a handful of chiropractors who painfully bounced on him to try to get some magic crack which made him feel worse about as often as it had made him feel better. He’d had more needles stuck into him than his mother’s pin cushion. He’d seen many physicians and surgeons who had all given some sort of advice that resembled “Stop lifting” or “These opioids should take the edge off” or “We can cut you open and snip that out”. He’d heard about poor surgical outcomes and was leery of going that route. His fear of surgery was rivaled by his fear of lifting which had now generalized to include lifting his child, lifting the garbage and lifting his socks from the floor. Carl didn’t know when the other shoe was going to drop and he was incredibly frustrated that his source of solace-­‐lifting-­‐could have seemingly turned on him like a traitorous friend. But he wept at the moment because of what we had just done in the clinic.

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We had lifted a bit of weight, only 35# or so, but the importance of it rivaled his 3X BW deadlift he had been proud of. He had lifted the weight a bit differently than he had lifted before, and he lifted it over and over, and the pain in his back was totally absent. First, the fear with the movement fell from his shoulders and then the happiness gave way to the tears of joy. He looked at me and said the words that aimed me in the direction that places the readers of this article and I in proximity to each other. He said “Where in the hell was I supposed to have learned this?”

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Articles, Chris Duffin, Movement, Powerlifting, Sports

April 7, 2016

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Recently I presented at University of Western States Chiropractic College on the topic of the bench press. I often get questions from the clinical community about the bench press. The deadlift and squat are discussed quite frequently as functional and corrective movement patterns, but the bench press is the dirty little step child that never gets covered in these environment, making it the most asked topic from this community. If it is covered, the posturally correct flat back or “sternal crunch” bench press is considered the most functional and preferred pattern.

Yet the question always remains: why can you bench more with an arch then? Correct patterns on the squat and deadlift help you lift more but the bench does not. Additionally, it’s easy to observe more shoulder deviation and control of shoulder centration/position with the flat back bench than an arched bench. Often times, people with lack of control of shoulder position can be corrected almost immediately by placing them into an arch. This is counter to what one would expect if you’re moving from a correct/functional position to an incorrect.

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Articles, Chris Duffin, Dr. Stuart McGill, Methodology, Movement

March 14, 2016

In this two part series, Chris Duffin sits down with Dr. Stuart McGill. Dr. McGill is the leading researcher on Biomechanics in the world. He is a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada). His advice is often sought by governments, corporations, legal experts and elite athletes and teams from around the world. Difficult back cases are regularly referred to him for consultation.In this rare interview, McGill and Chris share their passion for engineering and design outside of the human body and movement. They reach into discussions about vehicle suspension and chassis design and relate the same processes to ‘tuning’ of the human body for performance....

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Athlete, Dr. Stuart McGill, Movement

March 14, 2016

March 10, 2016 Stuart McGill, University of Waterloo and Backfitpro Inc. Most patients rarely receive the most important part of the prescription to get rid of back pain from their doctor – the knowledge and understanding of their condition required to become their own best advocate. They remain clueless and frustrated, left in the dark about what behaviors must be stopped in order to alleviate the cause of their pain. As well they need guidance as what is required to build a pain-free foundation that will allow them to get back to enjoying all their usual activities.

Stuart McGill Back message

 

Getting “passive” treatments such as prescriptions for pain medication without a plan to stop the cause itself rarely creates a long-term solution. While medication may be a part of a broader approach, a thorough assessment of an individual’s specific pain triggers will identify a pain mechanism that will guide a targeted treatment plan.

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Articles, Chris Duffin, Dr. Stuart McGill, Movement

March 11, 2016

In this two part series, Chris Duffin sits down with Dr. Stuart McGill. Dr. McGill is the leading researcher on Biomechanics in the world. He is a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada). His advice is often sought by governments, corporations, legal experts and elite athletes and teams from around the world. Difficult back cases are regularly referred to him for consultation.In this second piece they discuss where athletes often go wrong in their warmup routines and the impact to their performance. Following their easily incorporated suggestions for improved competition and training prep will increase your performance and reduce your risk of injury. They also delve into the subject of maximizing ‘neural drive’ and how to do so in athletic development....

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Articles, Chris Duffin, Equipment, Methodology, Movement

October 14, 2015

By: Don Berry, DC CK FMS SFMA  My Background, I am a Chiropractor and have been in practice for over 26 years I specialize in movement restoration and rehabilitation based on the Neurodevelopmental Model using a variety of Movement Assessment tools that look for Dysfunction. I have been a Martial Artist for 31 years, lots of different styles but primarily Wing Chun Kung Fu. Only in the past few years have I gotten interested in Powerlifting thanks to an introduction to Marty Gallagher from some friends in Kettlebell world.The importance of the background is to bring to light, that I had a lot of tools at my disposal and a lot of great coaches. But, for some reason there was a disconnect between my 4 worlds: Clinical Practice, Martial Arts, Kettlebells and PowerLifting. Chris at the DMS was able to tie all of that up for me and help me end two years of pain and frustration. Part 1: My Shoulder Dislocation and Two Years of Frustration to Recovery I had just set a national record in my age weight class for a raw squat for 420 lbs. My shoulder was a little tight so I planned to keep the bench light and murder the Dead Lift. Unfortunately, my shoulder gave out on the bench at 275 lbs., a weight I could rep for sets of 5 in training. That was it for me that day and for a long time to come. At the time of the injury I was in a bit of pain but mostly in shock as to why this had happened. I really didn’t get the answer to that until just a few weeks ago at the Duffin Movement System certification (More on that later).   The only input I did get was from Kirk Karwoski who said, “Your...

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