Better Is Better

Sticky Skills Through Intelligent Movement

This week I spent my first couple days of the season on-snow.  Every year, Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance examiners have to do an “update” in order to be eligible to give certification courses throughout the season.

In the past, I would always be sure to spend several days skiing before this update to make sure that I was skiing my best.  Nowadays, I seem to be able to just step into the bindings and go.  Sure, it takes a few runs to really get my “snow legs” back.  But my skills just seem to be much more sticky than they were just a couple years ago.

I attribute that entirely to the way that I train nowadays.  Since discovering Circular Strength Training I have come to understand the importance of quality in conjunction with quantity.  Of course, this is the overarching theme of this blog.  More is not better.  Better is better!

I think the stickiness of my skills can be traced back primarily to a couple of CST principles.  The idea of progressive and incremental sophistication of skills is one of the big components that have to be considered.  So as we get better at a given exercise, we don’t just add more weight, more reps, more intensity, etc.  We also add more sophistication to the exercise.  For example, we might take a simple range of motion exercise and move it from linear movement to circular movement as control of the ROM is established.  This is well documented in the Intu-Flow program by Coach Scott Sonnon.

By constantly forcing our nervous system to adapt to learning new and more sophisticated permutations of more basic movement patterns, we are laying down ever more complex networks of wiring in the brain and nervous system.  This allows us more ready access to our previously learned skills and makes learning new skills much easier.

The other big piece of the puzzle when looking to add stickiness to your skills is the concept of the 6 Degrees of Freedom.  This comes originally from the field of aeronautics and describes all the ways in which an object can move around the three main spatial axis.  When applied to human movement it adds a dimension which provides astounding results.  For a visual representation of what the 6 Degrees look like in movement you can check out a post I did in which I applied them to sandbag training.

By moving the body along and around every potential plane of movement on a regular basis, you are keeping it honed for the expression of a wide variety of skills in a vast array of situations.  Again, that makes for stickiness.

Anyhow, what it all comes down to is a savings of time required on the snow (or in whatever sport I may want to do) in order to bring myself back up to optimal performance.  Cool stuff!

What are those Clubbell® Things?

When training clients with Clubbells®, I inevitably get questions about what those "baseball bat" or "bowling pin" things are.  Of course, when they pick them up they are quickly disabused of any notion that the Clubbell® is not a serious tool!  At a recent workshop in NYC I worked with a fabulous group of people on Clubbell® swinging and the place it holds in the broader Circular Strength Training system.  The following video is an extract from the workshop in which I explain where club swinging came from and why Clubbells are an important part of our system.  So if you have been wondering what those Clubbell® things are, sit back and enjoy.

What Are Those Clubbell Things? from Adam Steer on Vimeo.

You can find Clubbells on the Circular Strength Training site.  If you want a free ebook with everything you need to know to get started with Clubbells you can click here to sign up for the Momentum Training News and get the Clubbells 101 ebook for free.

Do you need a pull, a push or a nudge?

Sometimes it doesn't take much to nudge someone into action who is already leaning in the right  direction.  A colleague of mine likes to put it in terms of pushing and pulling.  He does not mind pushing his clients, but will not pull them.  In other words, if they are out in front and just need a shove from time to time, he is their man, but if they are unmotivated and he feels like he is there as a watchdog to drag them in for training every time he is not interested.

But if someone is really ready you don't even have to push, you just need to give them a little nudge.  It all depends on where the person is mentally in their process of deciding what is right for them.  There is an interesting and well recognized scale of mental readiness for exercise developed by Marcus et al.

• Precontemplation describes the stage of readiness to exercise of a person who is not exercising and has no intention of exercising in the near future.
• Contemplation describes the stage of a person who is not currently exercising but is thinking about exercising in the near future.
• Preparation is defined as the stage when a person is not only thinking about exercising, but also is starting to participate in physical activity on a limited basis.
• The Action stage describes the stage of someone who has recently become physically active on a regular basis.
• Maintenance describes the stage of someone who has been physically active on a regular basis for at least 6 months.

Marcus et al.(from Brenda L. Rooney, PhD, MPH)

Someone in Precontemplation could not even be pulled into a training regimen.  Wellness and exercise are not even on the radar.  You could probably pull someone in Contemplation into the gym and hopefully move them along the spectrum through action.  But as we move into Preparation, especially if you've been there for a while, sometimes it just takes a little nudge to make a meaningful difference.

The day before yesterday I sent a message out to my Momentum Training News subscribers.  It talked about the importance of taking action to achieve goals.  And it provided free access to the FlowFit program in order to start taking action immediately towards their wellness goals.  At any rate, I was very gratified to receive the following message as a result.

HI Adam,
 
Thank you so much for this email.  I had been an athlete at pretty high levels during my first thirty years.  I have fallen very out of shape which is not unusual and have been trying to build momentum to get my butt moving over the last year.  For whatever reason (usual, time, limited space home etc.) I had not been able to.  Now there really is no excuse with the suggestion you make to begin with flowfit!  I’m psyched, not cause it’s such a revolution but because it finally gets me going and I know where it’s gonna lead.  I am going to be by doing!
 
Many many thanks,

All this guy needed was a gentle nudge.  He was ready!  I left his name out because I don't know if he would want it floated out into cyber space, but I'm hoping he'll drop a few lines into the comments on this post.

So, what stage are you in?  Does it vary throughout the year?  Can you actively affect what stage you are in, or is it a completely organic process?  I'd love to have your thoughts.

Remembrance Day

Cintheaux Canadian Cemetry
Originally uploaded by Phil McElhinney

In Canada, today is Remembrance Day. I would urge you to take a moment to think about all those soldiers who have given their lives or devoted their talents to defending what they believe to be right.

I will be thinking about my "Pop" who served through WWII in North Africa then through Italy and into the heart of Europe. He rarely talked of the horrors of the war, but my Grandmother would tell us of some of the things he saw and had to do. I am eternally proud of him. And I am proud of all our soldiers.

Thank you for your service.

I Love New York! NYC Clubbell® Workshop

Wow!  What a great weekend I just had.

Truth be told, I did not have much time to see the city itself.  But I had an outstanding time working with a gang of passionate individuals who came together to form a dynamic and exciting group.  I was hosted by Jeff Bell, owner of the exclusive Bond Street Fitness studio, to give a Circular Strength Training workshop centered around the use of our signature tool, the Clubbell®.

If you are in NYC, you owe yourself the opportunity to visit Jeff’s gym.  It’s the perfect playground for anyone interested in holistic and forward thinking training methods.  And with the addition of Clubbells and Jeff’s new interest in Circular Strength Training, I think another important piece has been added to the game.

I also want to take a second to praise my student Lauri Rudach (aka Clubbell Girl) who stuck her neck out to propose and organize this workshop.  She did a fabulous job pulling all the right people together to make this wonderful day happen.  And as a side note, she is kicking butt in her training and making great strides in her mastery of CST.  Watch out for big things from Clubbell Girl!

So many interesting backgrounds were brought to the table during this workshop, that I often found myself wishing that I had more time to chat with each person individually.  Everyone had interesting and valuable experience to share.  And that collective background made for some very exciting progress throughout the day.

When we arrived at day’s end for the final round-up, it was actually quite impressive to reflect on what this group had accomplished in one day of focused energy.  By having the right cues at the right time and applying their own movement backgrounds, these people accomplished as much CST progression in a single day as some people, working on their own, accomplish in the span of months.

I’d go back in a New York Minute to spend time with such a passionate bunch of people and do Circular Strength Training!  And to top it all off, the workshop fell on a beautiful, warm and sunny Fall day.  We split our day with a lovely lunch at a neighborhood sidewalk café where the Canadian Bumpkin got to people-watch as all the City Slickers went about their business in the big city!  ;-)

Thank you to all those who participated for giving me such a special weekend.

Cheers,
Adam

Fly Under the Radar

One of my current clients had a car accident a few years ago which "messed up her neck".  Of course, one of the staples of our work together is joint mobility, specifically Scott Sonnon's Intu-Flow program of joint health, mobility and movement pattern recovery and sophistication.

But my student has a bit of a strike against her in that she is very "tough."  This can be a good quality, but when working to restore joint health and musculoskeletal balance it can be a curse.  You see, if you push your body too hard, it will push back.  This is especially true when pushing into pain.

Instead, what we want to do is fly under the radar of the pain, shaving off tension and increasing mobility slowly from day to day.  It's not something that you can get done in one session.  Although most people will start feeling better with as little as one or two sessions, it is the drip, drip, drip effect of water wearing away at stone that we are looking for.

As soon as we fly above the radar of pain, we are going to be detected and attacked.  In other words the body is going to tighten up in reaction to what you are doing and you will not be shaving into the stored tension that you are trying to address.

In order to avoid popping up on the radar screen, the Circular Strength Training system uses a tool called the Rate of Perceived Discomfort.  Essentially it is a scale which runs from 1 to 10.  A rating of 1 is essentially no discomfort.  A rating of 10 is the worst pain you have ever felt.  When doing joint mobility we are looking to stay at around a RPD of 3.  If there is no discomfort, we aren't moving far enough in to create an effect, but if we go further than RPD 3 we are going to pop up on the radar screen.  RPD is one of three components in CST's overall Intuitive Training approach.

You can see Coach Scott Sonnon, creator of the Intu-Flow Joint Health and Mobility system, here performing some of the basic elements.  I highly recommend his new book which goes into great depth on the subject.  It is called Free to Move.

475 Continuous Clubbell® Mills: An Upward Performance Spiral

Those who know me can attest to the fact that I am a bit addicted to the Clubbell® Mill exercise.  If you aren't familiar with it, you can see me performing it in this clip.  I also have a web tutorial to help Clubbell® athletes take their Mills to the next level.

At any rate, at the beginning of 2008 I started a little challenge over at the RMAX community to see how many Mills could be done continuously with a 15 lbs Clubbell.  The repetitions had to be performed without rest and without switching hands.  I pushed it up to 400 straight per hand, but then put it aside.

Today I felt like giving it another crack, and hit a new PR of 475 straight reps per side!!  It always amazes me how much training resembles an upward spiral.  You put things aside to concentrate on plugging different holes in your game, and when you go back to what you have put aside, magically you seem to have improved!  If you look at training two dimensionally from the top it may look like you are just going around in circles.  That sometimes stops people scared from leaving something off.  In financial circles it is referred to as not wanting to lose your "sunk costs," or in other words the time / effort (money) you have put into something.

But when you switch to a three dimensional view, you can see all of a sudden that in fact your training, life, work, etc. are actually upward traveling spirals.  When you come back to something, as long as you have been working hard on shoring up your weak spots, you will be better than you were before.  This is definitely part of the overall Better Is Better philosophy.  Don't be scared to put something aside in order to pursue new and appropriate goals.  What is appropriate?  It depends on where you are in your training, what your strengths and weaknesses are, what compensations have developed from your training and your life and finally what your goals are.

The best tool you can use to perform that type of assessment and create your plan is the Training Hierarchy Pyramid used in the Circular Strength Training system (read about the THP here).

---

PS The image you see in this post is a silouette done by my private online student and graphic artist Keith Koger.  He did such a great job, and I think the image is so cool, that I decided to make a T-shirt out of it.  If you like it, you can pick one up at my Café Press store.