Diary of a Mad Man

Greetings!  I have survived!   It has been an absolute crazy past couple of weeks here.

I had the title of “Diary of a Mad Man” pop into my head when I was writing this up, so I thought I would include a live version of this Ozzy classic for your listening pleasure.

I remember seeing Ozzy on his “No More Tours Tour” in like 8th grade. It was awesome other than the treble was so high I think I had hearing damage for years after that.    I’ve seen him many times since on Ozzfest also. So much for retirement!

As you know, I am getting married this coming Saturday (yes, like in a 2 days) and I am very excited.

PhD Update

I have also been working on my dissertation paper regarding HRV (heart rate variability -  a way to measure biofeedback) and I handed in the latest revision to my advisor at about 2:30am today.   I already have more work to do on it as I got the revisions back already, but getting closer to submitting if for peer review and publication.

Once that is taken care of, I will then work on finishing up my paper on the effects of Energy Drinks (Monster Energy Drink) regarding heart rate, HRV, exercise performance (like, do the darn things even work?) effects on fat burning (via RER- respiratory exchange ratio) among other things.   I collected the data last year and have it analyzed already, so hopefully I won’t need to get any more subjects.  All the studies were fasted, so nothing like getting up at 4:45am sometimes to be in the lab (or sleeping there overnight—shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone though).   I still carry a pillow in my car to catch a quick cat nap for a few minutes wherever I can.

Once that is completed, I have my third paper to work on regarding Metabolic Flexibility as I am looking at a potential new way to measure metabolic flexibility without sticking someone with needles.   I will combine those 3 studies plus a literature review and conclusion into my final dissertation.  Lots and lots more work to go, but progress one step at a time is good.

Ever Wonder What It Looks Like?

I shot this short video, just for you!

Top Secret Location

I have only seen Jodie about 2 times in the past week, but we will get to spend a whole week in Mexico (top secret location) after the wedding, so we are super excited about the honeymoon!  It will be sooooo nice to finally spend some time together and then I get to see her for the rest of my life every day—yeah!!

Jodie and I

Perhaps I will have an re-enactment of this photo from our La Ventana trip.
Viva La Mexico

And lots of this!
Although I do have a hard time sitting still for long.

A huge thanks to Jodie also for all the wedding planning and to our friend Dana and Nicole too for all their wedding planning help.  I had no idea that planning a wedding was so much work, but it will be great!   Neither one of us do much that is considered “normal” so we are even getting married in a cave!

Project 86

For those that missed the engagement story, see this link below.

Mike and Jodie Are Getting Married- Caught on Video

We got engaged at a Project 86 show in Arizona (huge thanks to the lead singer Andrew,the Rev, and the P86 Tour Manager).    My wonderful colleges at work (I still work part time at a medical device company as an engineer for over 10 years now), bought me a Project 86 cake and had a nice celebration, wonderful card and gits too!  Thanks everyone!!!

Myself, Jodie and Andrew from Project 86

The Project 86 cake

Lifting

Of course I am still lifting myself and it is going well, despite crazy levels of stress and enough caffeine at times to approach the LD 50 for small fury animals.   Last night I came within 1 lb of breaking my all time bench personal record (PR) and pulled 8 singles at or over 365 lbs on deadlifts the day before.   Yeah for biofeedback training.  Keep your eyes open for the Grip n Rip DVD soon and it shows you the break down on how to custom your training to you!

I gave 435 a run, but no dice.   I will get it though and will pull 450 lbs by the end of this year.   My buddy Maximillian Barry (Nu_Fit on twitter) and a few others have a deadlift race.

We will celebrate once we both pull 500 lbs, raw.

I will get this deadlift very soon!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Plus, once my schedule frees up a bit post PhD later this year (fingers crossed) I plan to hang out and lift  more with those nuts Adam T Glass and Brad Nelson.   Doing the Tactical Strength Challenge Elite style 10 days after coming back from my honeymoon is going to be brutal though!  I will be traveling with trusty TRX suspension trainer though.  Maybe the professor will show up in a future video from Mexico, who knows!

The Blog Marches On!

I am hoping to crank out some updates for you tomorrow AM yet,   I will probably not have computer access in Mexico, so comment replies may be very slow.

Summary

That is the update on all the crazy updates from here.  What is new in your life?  Any good wedding stories that you wan to share? Post away in the comments

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Bench Pressing and Shoulder Pain Solutions Part 3

If you just joined in the conversation here, be sure to read the posts from the start of this series below

Shoulder Pain While Doing a Bench Press Gone Part 1

Bench Pressing and Shoulder Pain Solutions Part 2

The Solution So Far

In part 1 we discused Dave coming into the Extreme Human Performance Center here in Minnesota with pain while doing a bench press without any weight on the bar (so 45 lbs) and awhile later in the same session working up to 270 lbs without any pain!

In part 2 we discussed a solution that you can try yourself and what I did to get Dave back to benching pain free in a short amount of time.

The key in part 2 was the nervous system and looking at some opposite joints.  Dave’s LEFT shoulder was the issue, so we did some very specific mobility work for his RIGHT hip.

Now in Part 3, we will discuss the other key factor to keep you moving in the right direction, setting personal records (PRs) and increasing your athletic performance both on the field and in the gym!

Biomechanics

Most of you are probably surprised that I am now discussing more biomechanics.  When I first started learning more about exercise, I was convinced that the biomechanical path had all of the answers   Heck, I even did a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Tech (say what up to the Yooopers) with a concentration in Biomechanics.  I spent years looking at the stuff and read even more for fun.  I will save you the discussion about the mathematical theory of plasticity and other fun stuff; so stick with me.

When I started doing Z-Health about 3.5 years ago, I fully realized the power of the nervous system since it was actually controlling the muscles and of course your movements. WOW!  Seems so obvious I know.
If your nervous system is out of whack, your performance is not ideal!

Most of my blog posts here are about how to deal with the nervous system and get the most out of it, primarily because

1) it works

2) almost nobody is talking about it

3) it works really fast

It will probably be a surprise to some of you that I am now talking about biomechanics again!  The reality is that optimal lifting technique is always important and almost everyone agrees on that.

Integration

The key is how to integrate the nervous system into the biomechanical model.  Many fitness experts are way too focus on biomechanics ONLY.  Do we truly know if your right glute is not working and that is your issue? Maybe, maybe not.  Is it ONLY your psoas?  What about all of the other muscles around that area?  Whatever your answer, we need to stay focused on the END RESULT.  That is what matters.

Are you lifting more weight while having less pain and becoming a better athlete?

“The Answer”

The approach that I use now is simply addressing 1) the nervous system and 2) the mechanical system (soft tissue, muscle, etc).

The nervous system answer was in part 1.

The mechanical answer is that we need to change the function of the tissue to work better.

In Dave’s case, we found that he had a very hard time with right hip internal rotation with his knee straight.  After doing that, the pain dropped dramatically.

I suspect that there is some tissue in his right hip that needs better function.   How do we get better function and then a tissue change to that area?  Exercise!  Load ‘em up.

Corrective Exercise

Truth be told, I have not done any standard “corrective exercise” work for about 3 years now.  I used to do a crap ton of it and while it worked to some degree, but I was never happy with the results.

The solution In Dave’s case he ended up doing a forward lunge to 45 degrees on the right leg with internal rotation at the hip.

How?

“Test the parts then test the whole” -Frankie Faires

We tested a forward lunge – good
Next tested a forward lunge to 45 degree – better
Then a forward lunge to 45 degree with internal hip rotation – best!

The testing was a range of motion test as discussed in the Gym Movements DVD and in the new upcoming Grip n Rip DVD (which has tons of amazing info on it, coming soon, so stay tuned here).

Car Talk

Ever listen to the Car Talk guys Click and Clack?  I have only listened to them a few times and I loved that they were so excited about cars.  I get the same way about exercise and human performance – how to get you to bust even more PRs!

If your car pulls to the right going down the road, what do you do?  You turn the steering wheel a bit to the left to get the car to go straight.

Think of this steering as changing the effects on the nervous system.  Each time you do a mobility drill targeted at the nervous system, you are turning the wheel a bit to the left.    The downside is that the car now go straight (increased performance, less pain), but you need to keep providing input by turning it a bit left.

You bring the car in and find that you had a bent tie rod (or some mechanical issue) that was causing the car to pull to the right all the time.   They drop a new one in (for way more money than you expected) and hours later your car now goes in a straight line, without you having to steer it left a bit.  Nice!

Your Body As a Car

Tissue is constantly changing, and by doing this particular lunge, it is like replacing the tie rod in your car; over time the tissue will adapt to a new and better function!  The results is more performance and less pain PERMANENTLY.    The shorter the issue, the shorter this process.

Summary

For long term change to have you hitting PRs like a crazy person in less pain, you need to
1) Address the nervous system via joint mobility work (some times eye movements too, but that is another topic)
2) Address the mechanics of the tissue via “corrective” exercise

Without addressing both of these, your results may be more short term.

I know this was something that I did NOT do for quite some time.  Athletes would come in, I would address the nervous system and get them out of pain and moving better; but long term they would have other issues or the same one would crop up again.   I knew they still had some “movement issues” but once they were out of pain it was hard to get them to come back again.

Now I incorporate some type of loading into their “homework” to get them moving in the right direction in case I don’t see them again.    I also emphasize that they need to have their lifting form evaluated to make sure it is correct and good for their body!   A perfect squat may NOT be the best exercise for them.

Don’t repeat my mistakes and be sure to address both the nervous system and the mechanical system with a customized approach.

Comments?

What do you think?  Let me know below!  I look forward to your comments as always.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

PS
For more information on how to set up your own training program to have you hitting PRs in the gym all with less pain, you will need to pick up the new Grip n Rip DVD once it is out.   As soon as it is released, I will have the info here.  Not sure what the final price will be as Adam Glass,  Brad Nelson and friends are handling it; but I know it will not be cheap.   If you are good, you are not cheap.

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Bench Pressing and Shoulder Pain Solutions Part 2

If you just joined in the conversation here, be sure to read the post from yesterday below

Trainer Mike T Nelson Testimonial: Shoulder Pain While Doing a Bench Press Gone!

The Solution

Note, this is what worked in this case for exercise and this does not automatically mean it will work for you since everyone is individual.   This not medical advice and if you have a medical issue, talk to your doc.  It if it painful, don’t do it!

Hopefully that will keep my attorney happy, so here we go.

Shoulder Issue, Check My Hip?

The body is a huge X.  I know it goes not look like one, but trust me on this one.
As you step with your right foot, the impact force is transmitted up the back of the leg, past the right knee, into the right hip where it then moves over to the LEFT side of the body (around the SI joint), up the left scapula where it starts to split into 1) left upper trap and left side of the face and 2) left shoulder and on out to the left elbow and eventually the left wrist/hand.

The formal name for this it the “Back Force Transmission Line” and I first learned of this from Dr. Cobb of Z-Health.

It makes sense that the force would have to shift to the opposite side in order to keep the body balanced in gait (walking movement).  Look at what you do with your opposite shoulder/arm when you run!    Hopefully you will see some opposite motion going on there.   If all the force were to stay on the right side when you plant your right foot, it would be very difficult!

Don’t believe me?  Test it!   Run how you would normally run and now try these 2 drills
1) Run without moving your arms.    Get a buddy to do this and video it.
2) Run by moving your arms in the WRONG directions.  Humans are so hard wired to walk that this is VERY hard to do.   If you can do it easily, that is not a good sign.

Efficiency Is Key

The body is so amazingly designed I love it.  Looking a bit deeper, we see that the tendons, fascia and soft tissue are designed to absorb and return force; thus making movement much more efficient.

We Are All One

Many of you are familiar with Thomas Meyer’s “Anatomy Trains” and the idea of biotensegrity from Dr. Stephen Levin at http://www.biotensegrity.com/ If so, you are on the right track.

Cadavers To the Rescue!

The body is highly highly connected.  If you ever get the chance to do any cadaver work I highly highly recommend it.  When you start, you will see nice clean lines and everything looks very clean.  This is because at the lower level cadaver work, someone else has already prosected (cut, chop, cut cut, chop)  the cadaver for you!   This is not bad, as there are tons of things to be learned from this method since having undergrads hacking away on cadavers is not only expensive, but impractical.

Note: I am not implying any disrespect to those that have donated their bodies to science for use as a cadaver model, just trying to not use too many techy words so people can understand what is involved in the process.

As you do more advanced cadaver work (and the lab fee goes up to over a grand just for one class; still working on paying back many lab fees myself yet), you will soon find fat and fascia EVERYWHERE.  Trust me, you want to pick a lean cadaver if you can.  Seriously.

Perhaps you got to see the bodies exhibit, which is amazing too!

So we now that the body is all connected, and it appears that the primary path is the back force transmission line.

Serape Effect: More Evidence

The serape effect is primarily referred to as a crisscrossed connection between the lower and upper body, most commonly (maybe not so commonly as I am a big geek) used in discussing the connection from the shoulder to the opposite hip (glute).   It was first mentioned by Logan, G., & McKinney, W. 1970 (1), so there are some evidence from multiple sources for a connection between the shoulder and the opposite hip.

Cross Body Connection Here?  Yes!

No, not here!

Enter the Nervous System

So far we have made the case for the mechanical structure of the body and how it is all connected from your little toe to your pinky finger.
The nervous system is entwined in the picture too since it is actually controlling and sensing movement of the entire body.

Cross-Body Nervous System Connection?

Great question!   There does appear to be a nervous system connection that works “cross-body”.  Again, this probably goes back to a gait (walking) type motion.

In an experiment done by Kline TL et al. (3),  in stroke patients they showed quote, “rectus femoris in the impaired leg was active during finger flexion of the impaired hand in the stroke survivors and all four tested muscles in the impaired arm were active during extension of the legs ”

Note, this was done in stroke patients and in a similar study done by Ellis MD et al. used non stroke patients (um, normal people) they did not show a pattern in them (4).

Any Evidence In Non Stroke Patients?

In a very cool study from  Huang HJ,  et al. (6) published recently stated,  “We found increased muscle activation in passive lower limbs during active upper limb effort compared with passive upper limb effort. Likewise, increased muscle activation in passive upper limbs occurred during active lower limb effort compared with passive lower limb effort, suggesting a bidirectional effect”

English Please

While these neurologically intact (read = normal) people did an upper body movement, they saw increased muscle activation in a NON MOVING lower limb.    Back to our running example, try to move your arms in the wrong direction and it is really really hard.  It looks like our wiring is set to faciliate moving the opposite limb!

Can We Alter It?

Cortis C et al. (5) showed that interlimb coordination was better in soccer players, quote,  ”Regardless of age, soccer players always showed better performances (handgrip: 383 +/- 140 N; CMJ: 28.3 +/- 8.7 cm; IP: 55.2 +/- 12.9 s; and AP: 31.8 +/- 25.0 s) than sedentary individuals (handgrip: 313 +/- 124 N; CMJ: 21.0 +/- 9.4 cm; IP: 46.7 +/- 20.2 s, and AP: 21.1 +/- 23.9 s).  ”

While this is not the exact same thing, it is similar and appears to be trainable.  I know I am reaching a bit with these data here, but there is not one perfect study to directly point to any of this yet.  I think in the next 2-3 years (so someone is doing it right now) we will have a more exact study.

Enough With the Science!  Solution!

Back to our friend Dave and his bench rising from the dead from painful with the bar to 270 lbs in one session.

Note: If you have any medical issues, see your doctor.  I am not claiming to cure or fix anything that you have currently going on.  Don’t move through pain and see a professional!

For the sake of entertainment, here is the process I used for Dave to get his shoulder pain reduced.

My goal was to get him to bench heavy again in a short period of time.  It just so happens that when you get someone to move better, many many times (with acute pain) there pain levels drop dramatically.  As my buddy Frankie says “the body really cares most about FUNCTION – what can you do.”

Step 1

Find out what movement is painful.

This may take a bit of work, but you want to isolate the painful movement.  In Dave’s case, it was primarily left arm external rotation with his elbow bent.

Step 2

Do the EXACT opposite motion with the opposite joint

The opposite joint to the left shoulder is the RIGHT hip.  Heck, they even look scary similar as both are a ball and socket joint.

We know that LEFT arm EXTERNAL rotation with his elbow bent created the pain.
What is the exact opposite of that movement?

Do you have it?

Are you sure?

Correct!  Right hip internal rotation with a straight (not bent) knee (knee is the opposite to the elbow).

Step 3

Perform a joint mobility drill in the new position

So with his right hip internally rotated, knee straight, laying down, we had him create a circle at the hip joint (joint mobility) very slow, with no pain.  He did 3-5 reps in each (clockwise and counter clockwise) directions.

Step 4

Walk around for about 20 seconds, retest the painful motion

Any difference?

If they stare at you like a 2 headed purple space alien, you are on the right track.  Then yell at them “Never doubt my VooDoo”  That always helps!

I learned this method from Dr. Cobb initially in R Phase, so thanks again!

I Left Something Out

Come on back tomorrow for part 3 as we are still missing something.

Can anyone guess what it is?

The hint is in the first part of the article.    What other exercise do you think we had Dave do for his homework?  No, you can’t ask Dave directly (nice try).

Put your guesses in the comments below, and the winner gets a free 30 minute phone consult with me (valued at about $50).

Comments must be posted by tomororw Friday March 12 at midnight CST to be eligible. You may only enter once, but you can leave multiple comments and the latest comment you left will be used for your answer.  I will do my best to scan my spam folder too, but I can’t promise that if your comment ends up in there that I will find it (getting over 100 spams a day now).  Once comments are in, I will post the answer and the final installment of part 3 (so Sat AM).

Summary

Today we went on a tour of the body to show that it is all connected by both mechanical links (muscles, soft tissue, tendons, etc) and the nervous system.     We provided data to explain how it all works together, gave some demos for you to test it yourself, and provided you a possible solution to try on your own.

Your homework is

1) If you have an issue, try it out first and see if it works for you.   Do this on your own risk and if you have an issue, go see a doc!

2) Figure out what component we did not address yet and place your comment below.  Closest one get a free 30 minute phone consult from me.

I am excited to see how gets it!  Don’t worry, even if you did Z-Health training, you can still enter below too for the missing component.  In the event of a tie, the first one posted (by time stamp) gets it.

Rock on!
Mike T Nelson

REFERENCES

1) Logan, G., & McKinney, W. 1970. The serape effect. In Anatomic Kinesiology (2nd Ed., pp. 154-561). New York: William C. Brown, Co.

2) Publications for Biotensegrity at http://www.biotensegrity.com/index.php

3) Kline TL, Schmit BD, Kamper DG. Exaggerated interlimb neural coupling following stroke. Brain. 2007 Jan;130(Pt 1):159-69.

4) Ellis MD, Acosta AM, Yao J, Dewald JP. Position-dependent torque coupling and associated muscle activation in the hemiparetic upper extremity. Exp Brain Res. 2007 Feb;176(4):594-602.

5)  Cortis C, Tessitore A, Perroni F, Lupo C, Pesce C, Ammendolia A, Capranica L.    Interlimb coordination, strength, and power in soccer players across the lifespan.  J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Dec;23(9):2458-66.

6) Huang HJ, Ferris DP.  Upper and lower limb muscle activation is bidirectionally and ipsilaterally coupled.  Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Sep;41(9):1778-89.

PS

Get those answers in the comment section now before the clock his midnight on tomorrow (Friday, March 11) for a chance to win a free 30 min phone consult with yours truly!

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Trainer Mike T Nelson Testimonial: Shoulder Pain While Doing A Bench Press Gone!

The Night I “Couldn’t” Bench Press By Dave “The Athlete Creator” Sandel

Just like every other Tuesday, it was bench press night with Mike. However, this Tuesday was different. I sent him an email earlier in the day stating:

“Tonight might be prehab/rehab for me. I was feeling just a touch of shoulder pain in my left shoulder after last week, and it was worse after training last night. This is, unless, your voodoo works again.”

So, I showed up at the usual time, did my usual Z-health CNS warm-up, and did some push-ups to test my shoulder. Push-ups tested fine and without pain. I thought, “Hmm, maybe everything will be alright tonight.”

Then it was my turn to warm-up with the empty bar. After a few slow, pain-free, concentrated reps I decided to try exploding a rep off my chest. That nearly caused my left arm to collapse because of the shooting pain in my left shoulder, just as I had felt before.

After a brief description of the previous night’s workout, Mike put his head down and started mumbling something to himself. Something about external rotation, abduction, sagittal planes, and some other stuff I didn’t quite recognize (eventhough I’m studying for my CSCS certification).

After a minute or so he finally had his answer. We started with some z-health mobility work directly on the shoulder, and then tested it out on the bench. It was better, but still not pain-free.

This is where it got a little weird…

He had me lie on my back, internally rotate my right leg (remember, my left shoulder is what was hurting), and perform cross-body leg circles. After a few tests doing band pull-aparts, we decided to try it out on the bench.

Lo and behold, I was virtually pain-free!

He explained what the drill was doing and why it works. I understood all of that, and it made perfect sense.

Now, I know there is a direct connection between opposite-side joints, but I still can’t wrap my head around why a “trauma” to my right hip is causing pain in my left shoulder. Oh well, I’ll leave that for another visit.

In the end, you’re probably wondering how my bench press session went.

Well, as I stated in the beginning, I walked in thinking I was going to be doing some mobility and prehab/rehab work all night. As it turns out, I actually ended up bench pressing 5 more pounds in a max effort lift than the previous week!

Not only that, but I added more volume on my accessory lifts as well! All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good night.

Thanks, Mike!

Dave Sandel
www.athletecreator.com

Bench 45 lbs with Pain To Bench 270 lbs Without Pain In One Session?

How?

I know this seems insane that someone could literally go from barely being able to press the bar without pain to benching around 260 lbs without pain, so that is the reason I had him write it up in his own words above.

If you are interested in how the heck this can work and look into the methods behind the madness, drop a comment below and if I get 10 comments by 1pm tomorrow (Thurs March 11, CST) I will have a post about how it works.

If you are in pain, you are limiting your performance!

This also saved Dave about 4-8 weeks of “standard” rehab type exercise work, during which he would be told not to bench (and for good reason since benching was painful).

Add to that time period 4 weeks at least to get back to where he was before and we probably saved him about 3 months in one session!

How much would you pay to get 3 months of training time back?

I know I would pay a lot for that.

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Dustin for taking the time to write that up and taking action to look for an answer to his pain and movement issues.

• If you are interested in a phone consult, for a limited time they are only $90 per session (normal rate is $110) and are 100% guaranteed.  If you are not happy for ANY reason, there is NO charge, email me by clicking HERE
• If you are in the St. Paul, MN area, you can see me in person for $110 per session (normal is $125) and it is 100% guaranteed also, email me by clicking HERE

Drop me an email by clicking HERE to move better with less pain today!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are still not sure, see all the other testimonials below

Mike T Nelson and Extreme Human Performance Testimonials

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PPS

10 comments below by 1pm tomorrow Thurs March 11 for the secret to how this is done!  Post a comment below now.

Amazing Feet on TED Talks

The feet truly are amazing and if you have not seen TED Talks, you are really missing out.

Optimal foot/ankle function is essential for elite athletic performance.

Messed up feet/ankles = messed up hips =  piss poor athletic performance

I loved this talk, especially since I did a Masters in Mechanical Engineering focusing on Biomechanics.

Check out this one below!

What do you think?

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

PS

Thanks to Laree at DaveDraper.com for initially posting this one

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Biofeedback Training: Move Forward In All Possible Directions

Sam Langford

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”-Goethe

The PR train rolls on with biofeedback training (ala Gym Movements)!

I have been hearing about tons of people busting PRs like crazy.   If you are on twitter, use the tag #Preveryday and start posting your PRs for a chance to win a really cool prize from Ryan at Stronger Grip.

Last night I was working on my dissertation paper and took a “study break” to go lift.  Trap Bar Deadlifts were sounding good, so I put on 135 and tested it and waaaaala, tested great!

I worked through my warm up and kept adding weight and it kept testing well.  I did 405 and it was easy w great bar speed (another indicator is the speed of the lift).

Whoo ha!

This was 20 lbs off my current PR and I knew that I could do 455 lbs, so I added a 25 to each side.

The moment of truth: it came up a bit slow, but felt very smooth and I got it!  This was a 25 lb PR is only a few weeks.

425 x 1 PR on Jan 31, 2010

455 x 1 on March 7, 2010 (unfortunately my camera was full and I did not get it on film)

So in about 5 weeks I was able to add 25 lbs to my max.  The interesting part is that I only trained trap bar deadlifts one other time during those 5 weeks.  On that day, 365 lbs felt very heavy and I just did some reps around 315.

Optimal Every Time

By using biofeedback it allows you to test what will be best for you on that day at that time!  Maybe today is a max lift on bench but your program design says to do 3 x 10 for squats.    Did you just miss a great bench session?  How would you know?

Ask any experienced lifter and they will tell you to not miss those days that everything is working well, you feel “on” and you should go for a new max on that day (1 RM, 1 rep max).  You may not get that day “back” for some time.

I call BS on this.

I would say that if you test it each day, you can have a virtual ground hog’s day of never ending PRs!

This ground hog loves hitting PRs too!

This may not always be a max lift (1 RM), but it will happen in the following

• Volume (total amount of work done)
• Intensity (max weight lifted for a single rep or % of 1 RM)
• Density (amount of work done in a given time)

Keep moving forward in whatever direction you can, each day.    Your goal is do and be better tomorrow than today.  Nothing stays the same.

There is nothing special about me at all.  Heck, most of the athletes I train make faster progress than I do.  The goal is to be better today.

How many people do you meet that are BETTER each time you see them?

Sign me up!

Comments

What do you think?  Is this possible?  I want to hear from ya in the comments!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Death to all Fitness Gurus?

A revolution is coming….

I can see it off on the distant horizon.

You may not see it yet, but you will soon.

I can smell the fear of others.

There is a secret “they” don’t want you to know. “They” will have to change soon. Change is not something “they” do well.

What?

What the heck am I talking about? Perhaps I spent too long lifting in my garage with too many paint fumes. Maybe it was the funk filled air at the Fishbone concert last night.

Here is what I am talking about

The Movement Certification: The BioMechanics of Physique Transformation

Biofeedback

What if everyone starts setting personal records (PRs) on their own? What if they stop paying for program design based only on what someone else THINKS is best?

There is no way a piece of paper written by the greatest trainer/guru ever can compete with feedback from one’s own body used in an intelligent way. It will never be able to compete.

How will a piece of paper take into account the changes in your stress level that day?

• Your kid kept you up late last night, so you only got 4 hours of sleep.
• They started a riot again and since you are on the SWAT team you have to make sure order is kept.
• You had a paper that was due (I am way to familiar with that one recently).

You get the idea. How will that piece of paper tell you to alter your training?

You may opt to take the day off completely, but we can all list times when we slept 4 hours, ate “bad” food, dragged our sorry butts to the gym and still set a PR.

I did this awhile back when I was taking an advanced physiology class at the U of MN and working full time at a med tech company. I got up at 6am, packed my food, went to class from 8-6pm, hit the gym for a short training session, ran home, showered and worked on stuff from work and class homework until 1am, and repeated that for 5 days in a row. By Friday I was spent, tired and did not want to go to the gym.

I remembered a Henry Rollins quote

“If I can just get to the gym, I will lift the weights” -Henry Rollins

So I made it there. I was supposed to take day off since I was pushing too hard, but I wanted to lift.  The paper said, “no go, you will get crushed.”  I figured I would go and just do some general work and call it a day.

I felt good after my warm up and hit up some bench.  Hmmmm, it felt good and the weights felt light.  I worked up to a max and hit a new PR!  The paper was completely wrong and I set a PR. Weird.

Good thing I did not listen to that piece of paper.   The reverse is also true.  I’m sure you’ve had days that on paper looked great, you may have even felt great; but your performance sucked!

The end result is what needs to be measured and the cost to achieve it considered.   More important than listening to your body is to test it.

Death to All Gurus

• What if this does take off?
• What will happen to all the industry gurus?
• Will there be a split and those you want inferior results will be side with them?
• Will they change?

It will be very interesting to see. Fear is a powerful motivator.

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves – regret for the past and fear of the future.” -Fulton Oursler

I will leave you with a great video from one of my new favorite bands

Left Spine Down : Welcome to the Future

Left Spine Down – WELCOME TO THE FUTURE (Music Video in HD)
Uploaded by leftspinedown. – See the latest featured music videos.

TAKE IT BACK
(WELCOME TO THE FUTURE)

Comments

What do YOU think? Is this an oncoming trend or a flash in the pan? Will it work? Will it last?

Leave a comment below and let me know!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Are you making your workouts easy or hard?

Check out this video of Olympic super start Apolo Ohno training.  Tell me what you see most of the time:

What do you notice when he competes?

What did you see?

Do you see what I see?

He is the most decorated Winter Olympian and there is nobody competing on the level he is for the length time he has in speed skating.

Watching him skate is a thing of beauty. Power and grace. Extremely fluid. He makes it look very easy, but is competing at the highest level.

Why is it that most (not the readers of this blog of course, way too bright for that)  are making it look hard?

The goal is to make the difficult LOOK easy.

Make it look easy and get BETTER results.

Sounds insane I know.  Try it first before you dismiss it.  Test it.

As the old saying goes, success leaves clues.

Drop me a line in the comments below and let know your results!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

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Joint Mobility for a Shoulder Issue, Which Joints Help the Most?

Common wisdom would say that you need to work on the shoulder.  Perhaps

Further done the chain they say scapular mobility.  Perhaps

Now thoracic spine mobility is the in thing.  Does that help?  Perhaps

What about opposite hip function since we know they are connected via the serape effect?  Perhpas

Opposite foot and ankle?  Same side wrist?

The key question is “How do you know”

Test it

Everyone is different, so you will need a custom approach with each athlete.

In general, for shoulder issues I find the following to work really well

• Same side wrist
• Thoracic Spine
• Opposite Hip
• Opposite foot/ankle

Does this work all the time?  No, but most of the time is does for acute/chronic movement issues.

If you get rid of the pain, is the athlete good to go?

No, you need to make sure they can play their sport at the same level as before.  Performance must be evaluated.  If there is still a decrease in performance, they are not 100%, despite passing whatever wizz bang test of the week they ace.

Comments?

What do you think?  What works for you?  Let me know in the comments section!  I love comments!!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

Thanks to Jodie for letting me film her in the video as an example.  Only 3 more weeks until the big wedding date for us!

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Testimonial for Mike T Nelson: Hip Flexor and Groin Tight and Painful on Squats

Mike T. Nelson single handedly took me out of pain in 10 minutes.

I had been doing many months of heavy front squats when my right hip flexor and groin area became extremely tight and painful. No matter what method I used, it just simply would not let up. After suffering for weeks, I decided to call on Mike.

During his consultation he showed my some joint mobility/ Z-Health type drills and I was doing squats about 3/4 of the way to rock-bottom in 10 Minutes!

My pain was a solid 8 out of 10 at its worst before the consultation. 5 days after the consultation with Mike T. Nelson I was at Grip N Rip 2.0 (a workshop in Woodbury, MN) hitting Personal Records on the Deadlift, PAIN-FREE.

Stop wasting time at your local doctors office and get out of pain and start moving BETTER with Mr. Nelson.

-Dustin Williams, Owner of Wrought Iron Strength and Conditioning, Hugo, MN.

If you are in pain, you are limiting your performance.

If this can be done for pain, imagine what we can do for your performance!

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Dustin for taking the time to write that up and taking action to look for an answer to his pain and movement issues.

• If you are interested in a phone consult, for a limited time they are only $90 per session (normal rate is $110) and are 100% guaranteed.  If you are not happy for ANY reason, there is NO charge, email me by clicking HERE
• If you are in the St. Paul, MN area, you can see me in person for $110 per session (normal is $125) and it is 100% guaranteed also, email me by clicking HERE

Drop me an email by clicking HERE to move better with less pain today!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are still not sure, see all the other testimonials below

Mike T Nelson and Extreme Human Performance Testimonials

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