Everyone Needs a Coach/ Z Health Work from Brad Nelson

Greetings!

New blog post below that I reposted here from Mike T Nelson Training blog. I have every session I've done back to about Feb of 2007 logged there. It started as just a way for me to log what I was doing in a searchable format. I am also in an informal study looking at the effects of the Earth Pulse unit and wanted a way to track my results.

The earth pulse unit puts out pulsed magnetic waves to facilitate sleep and recovery. So far it really seems to help my cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) but not too much of a change on strength (although others have reported great strength changes). I also normally don't have any problem sleeping at night either (getting enough sleep is an issue at times though). The unit is currently having some buttons fixed on it, so it will be interesting to compare the times of use and no use to see what changes occur.

I will keep you all updated and check out their link above for more information or click HERE for a coupon code to get $50 off of a unit (full disclosure, I do not get paid any money for any purchase of an earth pulse unit).

Training Goals
My main goal for training is to IMPROVE my life overall and I place movement quality as the highest priority that I want to improve. If a lift makes my movement worse, I simple don't do it since it is not meeting my current goals. The current cylce I am doing has the following goals after movement quality
1) increase deadlift (max single)
2) increase bench press (max single)
3) maintain CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness)

So keep that in mind when viewing, as what I do is customized for myself and my current goals; so it may or may not be best for you and your goals. I am happy to answer any questions on it though and as you can see I do eat my own dog food in respect to movement training.

Z Health Session
Went to see Brad "No Relation" Nelson for some Z work on myself this past Thursday

Wanted him to check my scar. In short, I have a midline scar on my chest that is about a foot long from when I have open heart surgery to fix and ASD (atrial septal defect) when I was 4.5 years old.

For background, see this link . In no way am I am complaining about this in any form, since without the surgery then I would have probably only made it to age 20 at best, so I am EXTREMELY thankful.

I am also doing some visual work since I currently have major suppression of my right eye. In essence, it would be the same for someone to do everything with only 1 eye (I don't have binocular vision currently), but I will get it figured out. I had a "lazy eye" when I was a kid and they patched my good eye so that my eyes would track normally.

Visual work background HERE.


Thursday's Work
So I wanted Brad to do some Z Health level 4 work around my scar. He found some big restrictions and quite a few released around the left side of my rib cage. At the end, the lower part of the scar was pretty good. Feels like the left side is twisted around from front to back. Makes sense since I had scoliosis growing up too. Brad was amazed that my upper back (outside of some sticky thoracic spots) is basically normally now. Before my scaps were quite twisted and stuck up funny like a stegosaurus!

Did some Z Health Cranial/Cervical Spine work. Homework drills are

Posterior glide, hold and lateral tilt to the right
Posterior glide, hold, move jaw right, hold, then lateral tilt to the right

Left feeling great! Thoracic felt awesome! Did some Brock string work and not a huge change, by my right eye stays on now for a few seconds and flashes off and on withOUT hold my scar or having it taped. Still a ways to go, but overall movment felt great. Had more energy, did a DL session in the afternoon that felt better than it has prett much ever (with a straight bar) and bench session that night went great. Had training partner check my thoracic spine at the end and it was the best he has ever seen so far. Felt great, had more energy although my face became quite flush/red during the day and after doing the exercises, but went away by the next day.

Why Am I Telling You This?
The whole point is that EVERYONE NEEDS A COACH! While it is true that I should know my body better than anyone else, I can't watch my movement all the time.

Having feedback about your movement and asking for help is NOT a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. There are many that are willing to help you reach your goals, so reach out to them NOW! It is NEVER the right time, so if it is important to take the first step TODAY.

Thanks again to Brad "No Relation" Nelson again. Be sure to check out his services and Kettlebell Classes here at Kinetic Edge Performance. I am extremely picky about who I work with and who I allow to do work on myself, and I highly recommend Brad.

Rock on
Mike N

A Random Rant on SAID, Overload, DOMS, and more

Just some random thoughts that are running around in my head. I am off to the local NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) conference this weekend and then buried in research/exams, etc for awhile.

Pretty scary that I am giving you a snapshot of what goes on in there--yikes! You can thank Aaron S for the prompting of this rant. Check out the link to his blog on the upper right here--great stuff.

Overload and SAID are NOT the same although similar.

I took a whole class on aerospace physiology once and it was great! Bone loss in space is one of the biggest issue for long term space travel. The study I looked at showed that russians who were in space a long time, years out while back on earth still have less bone mass (BMD) than before their trip.

The body only has a SENSATION of DOMS. As you know, pain levels vary across the board to the same stimulus--so it is a poor indicator at best of performance. In a lab they can pull enzymes like CK, etc to actual monitor muscle damage for the purpose of studies since they know only using a VAS for pain is not the best.

Interesting to note that someone with severe DOMS and high amounts of pain moves like dog poo. Hmmmmmm. They tend to move like chronic pain patients or even worse. I don't think that is the goal.

Louie (at Westside Barbell) is the man, and if strength is your main goal (ala Westside) than you need a ton of SAID practice and a crap load of frequency. The trick is that they don't play nice together (lots of heavy max lifts=no good). They know that eccentrics take too long to recover from (limit frequency) and are not as directly specific to their needs. Instead of ONLY trying to focus on recover, they do the intelligent thing and limit exposure to eccentric work in the first place.

I have looked at some newer research and I think that some DOMS or muscle damage is needed for hypertrophy, but even then I don't think DOMS should be the GOAL. There is a role for them in injury reduction/ploys too since you want to DECELERATE the force as quickly as possible and that requires large eccentric forces by the muscle, tendons, joints, etc. .

I did listen to Mark Verstegen's talks on Recovery (from the Fit Xpo) recently and it was pretty good. I wonder about ice baths all the time though and me thinks it is specific to each person's NS (nervous system). I did some informal testing awhile back on ice/heat for injuries on a few people and I could never predict which would help. Usually the athlete already knew if they were not brainwashed. Ask "Did heat or ice feel better?" and they can normally tell you. Another option is simple ROM testing while using ice or heat.

Any comments, let me know.
Rock on

Model Integrity and Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC)

Model Integrity
Just wanted to point out a new company called Model Integrity that is run by my good friend Shannon. The name really says it all and the company works with models of all types with the highest integrity. Shannon wanted to offer honest information and legitimate resources in the talent industry. The modeling industry, notoriously plagued with scams, can often leave aspiring models (& parents of young models) misguided and short hundreds or thousands of dollars, leaving them no further along in their pursuits than when they started.

Mike T Nelson Fitness Consulting is very happy to be a sponsor of this great company with the highest integrity.
If you are in the Twin Cities, MN area, be sure to check out their upcoming event! Check out the links below
Model Integrity home page
Model Integrity blog

TSC Update

It was that time in the Spring when the TSC was upon us. This event for those who have not heard of it consists of 3 events

1) Deadlift--max lift (weight) with 3 lifts (attempts). Belts are allowed, but no suit/supportive gear allowed (raw)
2) Max Pull ups (palms face away)--no cheating/kipping. Elite division adds extra weight
3) Max Kettlebell (KB) snatches in 5 minutes. Women use a 16 kg, Men 24 kg and Elite division 32 kg KB (33, 55 and 72 lbs for non metric minded people)

Each competitor is ranked on each event. The lowest overall number is the winner. See TSC Challenge for more info and past results

There were many more competitors this time than even this last Sept and the even keep growing each year.

Once again everyone there was super nice, competitive yet supportive.

Big thanks to Brad "No Relation" Nelson and Jordan for hosting the event once again this year at the Kinetic Edge which is a beautiful facility. They did a great job of getting everyone through in time and yet allowing enough time between events. Check out the Kinetic Edge here.

The competition gets stiffer and stiffer each year, which is great!

My training cycle for the event was not as ideal as I would have liked, but is any training cycle ever perfect? My main goals were to deadlift 425 and 125 reps for the KB snatch in 5 minutes (and not completely embarrass myself with pull-ups)

Weirdo Soft Tissue Work
The deadlift was first up and I had done some new Z Health tissue release work that I got from Dr. Cobb at a recent private session and I was really feeling good.. It looks insane as I am doing a modified back arm circle, with my eyes up and to the right while holding a fold of tissue under my right pec and applying specific pressure--all done at the same time for about 10-20 seconds. After that I have never had that much internal rotation in my right hip EVER I believe. Goes to show that EVERYTHING is CONNECTED in the body! I've done some soft tissue work on others too with similar results and I've felt knots/restrictions virtually melt beneath my hands.

So on my way to the event I realized that most people have no frame of reference of how good they could really feel! I am not sure of a good way to communicate that the body you have not is NOT the one you will have in the future!! If you are doing thing correctly, the body you will have in the future should be BETTER. Yes, this applies to "older" people too. I don't believe in "old-fartis" as my buddy Steve calls it.

TSC Deadlift
The deadlift was first up and I felt pretty good about it overall. I hit my opener at 385 lbs and it felt pretty good. I rushed the set up at the bottom a bit though. Next up I called 405 lbs which had been a lift that I felt I should have made many months ago, but had yet to complete and was starting to really piss me off to be honest. In the past it felt like someone stapled it to the floor (even though I had done 400lbs in competition). This time it actually came off the floor quite well, but I felt I rushed the set up at the bottom of the lift a bit. I got it to about my knees and my hamstrings started shaking violently--crap. I thought about dropping it, but I felt I was not going to injury myself and the thought of getting it that far and aborting just sucked. So I locked it out for a 5 lb PR. I skipped my next attempt as my body was saying "that is enough of that for today". Below are the videos.

and

Again, I can't recommend this form to anyone and this never happened in training, but I was happy to clear this "mental hurdle".

Unfortunately Shawn Friday had a hamstring issue during one of his big deadlift attempts (he was smoking everyone in the DL). I did some Z Health right afterwards and it helped a fair amount and he is recovering nicely last I heard now (anyone have an update?). He will be back for more next time!

Everyone did great in the deadlift and my training partner Matt Finlay pulled a PR at 330 lbs too! He got 350 to just below his knees and that was it, but next it will go all the way up. Videos below of Matt and then Aaron Friday puling a nice PR (personal record) at 415. Nice job Aaron and he won our bet; so a free Z Health session for him.

Aaron Friday

TSC Pull-ups
Pull ups were next and nothing to report really other than I found my lats! Wow, I actually felt my lats working on a pull-up, so that is great news. I decided it was time to train pull-ups for next time, so I am working on finding some wall space in my garage and will be ordering a pull up bar. Anyone want to buy a windsurfing board? I am selling it to free up some wall space. I have a smaller pull up bar on my power rack, but the spacing is quite narrow and it seems to mess me up, so that is my excuse for not training them. Matt got 4, which is a PR (well, we never trained them so an easy PR).

You will have to tilt your head to watch the video. I haven't figured out how to rotate it yet.

.

All Aboard the Pain Train.

Time for pain! Enter the 5 minutes of hell know as KB snatches!
Anyone who has ever done this can attest to that. Yeah, there are freaks that are doing it for 10 minutes and beyond, but for us mortals 5 minutes is more than enough. My goal was to hit 125 reps in 5 minutes with the 24 kg (55 lb) KB that it was much faster than I thought it was going to be! I could have used a couple more weeks to practice as I felt my CRF (cardio respiratory fitness) was not the best, but I was still able to crank out 120 reps which I was very happy with. I decided when I started that no matter what I was NOT setting the KB down until 5 minutes expired, even if that meant switching hands for every rep at the end, that thing was not hitting the floor until 5 minutes.

I managed 30 reps in a row on my right hand before switching to my left and hitting 33 there before switching again. You can switch hands as often as you like, but you will normally have to do a KB swing on a hand switch and it costs you some time. After that it was a blur up until the end and I was hurting at about 108 (last years PR) and my training partner started counting backwards to help me hit my goal. Sounds cornball, but ANYTHING at that point to take your mind off the burning in your lungs, glutes and hams is worth its weight in gold.

Once I sat the KB down I have never felt that much blood forced into my glutes, hams and forearms in my life. I think climbers call this a "flash pump" Youch. And it was very painful, but after moving around for several minutes it finally went away and I was fine the next day. Mental note--next time do more than 6 warm up reps! Dooooh!

Below is a short video of Matt rocking the 24kg KB at the start of the test

Overall it was a great time and it was awesome to see everyone competing again like the Fridays (Aaron and Fawn), Nick, Brad and Joe and meet the new competitors-Maura, Dena, Alex, Greg, Albert, and Jala

Check out these blog entries from other competitors

Maura Shuttleworth
Fawn Friday
Aaron Friday
Russiankettlebellroom
Kinetic Edge
And to those crazies in CA
Franz Trainingblog

Woodbury, MN Tactical Strength Challenge Results 4-5-08

Here's the results:
Name BW DL Place P-Us Place Snatch Place Total Pts Overall
Women's Divison
Fawn Friday 125.2 275 1 12 1 120 1 3 1
Maura Shuttleworth115.8 250 2 11 2 60 3 7 2
Dena Smith 131 215 4 4 4 105 2 10 3

Men's Division
Aaron Friday 156.8 415 3 18 1 114 6 9 1
Alex Vanos 188 445 1 11 4 120 4 9 2
Sean Schneiderjan 219.5 425 2 3 7 139 1 10 3
Nick Jasken 183.4 325 7 17 2 124 3 11 4
Greg Merth 175.2 285 8 13 3 133 2 12 5
Mike Nelson 209.6 405 4 6 5 120 5 13 6
Albert Suckow 218.6 390 5 1 8 107 7 18 7
Matthew Finlay 214.8 330 6 4 6 83 8 19 8

Men's Elite
Brad Nelson 193.6 475 1 12 1 87 1 3 1
Joe Pavel 204.8 405 2 11 2 74 2 6 2

It is a fun environment and I would encourage EVERYONE to sign up and plan on the next one in Sept.

Foam Roller Research

Thanks to Smitty at Diesel Crew for running my article on foam rollers. Be sure to go to the Diesel Crew site and check it out as they do some great stuff there and tons of back articles too.

http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles.htm and
http://www.dieselcrew.com/

So I will probably known for a long time as the guy who dislikes foam rollers. The main points of the foam roller post was

1) don't move in pain as pain shuts down the nervous system
2) it is probably not addressing the SOURCE of your issues

Can I point to tons of peer reviewed articles about foam roller? Nope. Up until now I have not found one (although I have heard of some new studies going on that are not completed yet). Here it is

I will fully admit that it is not a super cool, randomized, placebo controlled, double blind, country wide, tons of people enrolled study; but it is a pilot study (smaller, easier to run). A pilot/smaller study is going to be a great place to start, since there are virtually no existing literature on the topic.

The summary of the study was that it did not show any change in range of motion (ROM) after a foam roller intervention. Not earth shattering, but I thought I would pass along the information.

I would be interested to see if the subjects were doing the foam roller work in pain/discomfort. Pain has "bad effects" on the nervous system (anyone getting tired of hearing that yet?)

New Blog Added!
New blog added, so check out Sara's article below. Great information that everyone should read and pass on.

Pain is individual and Dependent

Z Health Level 4 Update Day 3 completed

Just another quick rapid fire update before I head off to the last day. sniff sniff

As stated the other day, ANY THREAT can be interpreted as pain and pain and poor performance are the same thing. I just realized this AM that one of the reasons I love David Allen's system of organization (called "Getting Things Done") is that it allows me to take tasks and put them into a system and get them off my mind and I believe it also reduces the threat level. I am sure all of us reach point where it feels like there is WAY more things going than we can do, which is a threat and at min leads to increased stress.

Wrist mobility can be huge for shoulder ROM and we learned some super fast drills to assess it.

Strength can be viewed as a threat. You are strong enough to lift it already but your brain/nervous system won't let you. Two great examples of this are Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute mile and Fred Hatfield squatting over 1,000 lbs. Both were feats that people said could not be done, but they did not believe them and did it. Soon after, there were many more in a few weeks to months that did the same thing. Their beliefs were shattered.

Stress is only a stimulus--disstress vs eustress

The primary area of threat to the body is the head and esp the eyes (vision). This will have huge ramifications for sports performance and pain reduction. I don't see enough people in the training/performance enhancement field addressing this at all. A running back with great vision will have a HUGE advantage. Why do you think top athlete always talk about "seeing the game" etc. Now some of that goes beyond just vision, but vision is a great start.

Example, I have been doing some visual work (eye muscle work too) and it has made a huge difference. I had my private session with Dr. Cobb and we worked on more visual items. I had a "lazy eye" as a kid and they patched my good eye at that time to force my other eye to work more. So today my eyes track together (for the most part), but I am suppressing the signal from my other eye; so I am only using one eye. Dr. Cobb had me do some drills to get both of my eyes "back online" and the difference in gait and posture was crazy. I had neurally chunked my current posture (and basically everything) to my vision of only using one eye so once I get my other eye back online I will have binocular vision, and that is going to absolutely huge.

Visceral pain and referred pain and what to do about it. Yes, it may not be your shoulder that is the true source of the issue. I watched a private session and saw that it was the liver on an athlete here that was affecting his shoulder pain and range of motion. Yes it sounds insane, but look up "Head's zones" if you are interested. Again, ALL DETAILS MATTER. Dr Fernando Cervero has some good stuff on visceral pain too.

Breath retraining. Think of how many breaths you take a day--about 20 to 26,000 EACH day. If this is messed up, it is not good. Since it is controlled by muscles and the nervous system it can be retrained. If you are breathing with only chest and not your belly you will need to check this out (contact me with any questions of course).

For all you cardio bunnies, efficiency is HUGE! Breathing is a huge part of this and with some simple drills can shave time of your best times very quickly.

Neurodynamics--what is it and how to test for it.

Nerve glide testing for all the majors nerves in the body

Cranial Sacral--what is it and does it work? The cranium is extremely important (remember it holds that thing we call a brain). The lines (sutures) are NOT fused. There is current research to back this up. The first time I heard that I thought it was bull crap, but it is true.

There is a connection between the top of the spine (C2) and the coverings of the skull/brain; so you can affect it by very precise mobility work with the head and upper spine.

There was more but my ride is on the way.
Rock on
Mike N