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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I Am Pissed!  A Trip Inside My Head

I am really pissed off right now and I can’t focus on anything else, so you will get an inside look into my brain. Caution, you have been warned.

As readers of this blog know, I do training and nutrition work to get professional and every day athletes of all types performance increases. I’ve been doing it for several years now and I’ve spent well over $200,000 over the years on getting better at my craft via college, seminars, certifications, books, etc. This is not meant to impress you, but if you are serious about something you have to pay to play. I know many others that have paid very large sums to practice their craft, so this is no different.

Why I am Pissed

I am pissed off to no end now because I could not get the result I wanted from an athlete I worked with this morning. Note, this has absolutely nothing to do with the athlete and everything to do with me. I feel like I failed him because I did not have a solution to his pain issue. We spent 1.5 hours trying all sorts of things, with very little change. My agreement is that if I can’t get a performance increases or a large change in your pain, the session is free. The athletes satisfaction is my primary concern and I fully believe that if I don’t deliver, I should NOT be compensated. End of story.

The System Is Broke

This is the direct opposite to most professions. Take physical therapy (not to pick on them, but….) if you (not anyone who reads this blog, way too bright for that) are an average PT and you take 12 sessions to get a result and you charge $50 per session, you made $600. If you are a stellar PT and you get the result in 3 sessions, at the same price, you get $150. You were clearly better (got the same result in LESS time), but you made about 1/4 as much. How much incentive is there for you to get better? Not much!

True, that it is different when you own your own business, since if you suck, hopefully you will go out of business. If you suck, I don’t want you around to drag everyone else down and please go away and the sooner the better. I won’t get into the whole fitness business and how anyone can take a weekend cert by mail and be a fitness trainer. It makes me vomit in my mouth a bit each time I read it. Ugh. I need some mouth wash. Ok, I am back now. Where was I? I know business is very complicated and there are times where the most knowledgeable are also piss broke, but if you work for a large company, there is normally very little incentive to get better.

You’re Insane

I have many great friends in the field who are doctors, physical therapist, other trainers, consultants etc and almost all of them tell me I am completely out of my tree, coo coo insane, have a melon where my head should be because this is my expectation below

I expect that 99% of the people that walk through my door that I can get a dramatic performance increase (also many times equalling a decrease in pain) in ONE session that last 1-2 hours.

I’ve had many long discussions with many of them arguing that IF this is even physiologically possible. They say no and I say it is possible. If pain and performance are primarily (not entirely of course) controlled by the brain, we know that you can make changes in the brain extremely fast (as I have learned in Z-Health).

Yes, there are times that there will be a biomechanical and/or biochemical issue, but even then you should still be able to see a large change in one session.

I’ve seen athletes with missing rotators via MRI have no limitations on shoulder function and no pain.

Is this the norm? No, but it can happen. My point is that I feel the brain and nervous system are the most plastic systems in the body and are also open to the greatest change at the fastest speed (this is supported by research on brain neuroplasticity).

Does this mean we ONLY need to focus on the nervous system–no, of course not; but if pain reduction and performance are your goals, you have to address the nervous system.

Victory Destroys Knowledge

That was a great quote from Dan John. While I do remember many of the “successes” I’ve had, my failures stick in my brain like a canary in a coal mine. You notices I put “successes” in quotes since I did not do ANY of the darn work, the athlete did all the work and hence they should get the credit. I just helped point them in a better direction. They had the discipline to do the work!

I’ve been very fortunate to work with athletes to get them out of pain, avoid surgeries, compete in the Olympics pain free, bend over to pick up their kids without pain, take a ski trip vacation and ski 5 days in a row for the first time ever, etc. These are all great and completed by highly motivated athletes.

What I remember more are the cases where I could not do anything. We tried for 2-3 sessions or more with no change. Granted, these athletes usually had been everywhere and done everything, but I still feel like I should have had a solution.

I know that their pain is not my issue and that it takes many reps to over ride the lifetime of poor reps they have accumulated and that nobody has a 100% solution for chronic pain. Look no further than research on the success of various low back pain treatments and many of them are acute, no chronic pain issues. Yet somehow I feel I should have all the answers. They come to me as their last hope and if I can’t help them in a very short period of time I feel like I let them down and have failed them. Completely unrealistic I know, but I still feel pissed when I can’t get a result. I know there is a solution and when it evades me I can’t stand it. Yes I am neurotic too.

What To Do

To keep myself sane, I don’t work primarily with chronic pain clients. The toll on my psyche is more than I can handle and the logical conclusion is that the better you get, the harder the cases you get and at the end you will only be left with your failures. I know I can’t handle that. I do, however, take on “hard cases” to force myself to learn. I learn more from the difficult ones than from any others. Fear of failure will drive you much farther than success, but you need to be aware of the cost.

Performance increases are relatively easy for me now. I know that sounds like a super arrogant statement, but it is true. Most athletes have just a slight (or major) movement issue that is impairing their current performance. Remove that (which could be mobility, visual, vestibular or soft tissue) and performances goes up. Think of it as removing the king pin from a log jam. Once you do that, the whole river flows again just by that one minor change.

Your Trip Is Complete

There you have it. A trip inside my brain to see what drives me. I did warn you that it is a bit of a scary place. I’ve been told by multiple well meaning people that I need more knowledge like I need a hole in the head and I should spend more time on marketing. My business model of primarily seeing athletes for single sessions once a month or even less is the worst possible thing to do. What you realize very fast is that once someone is out of pain, they forget they ever had pain extremely fast, so your time for referrals is very short. Getting new clients routinely is much harder than working with them routinely. I do have some reoccurring clients, but most come for an acute change and that is what I deliver.

While I am spending more time learning marketing and business now (and they are no evil and truly needed), my true passion is bridging the chasm between research land and practice. We can learn a ton from both and in the process and I move step by step closer to that 99%. I may never get there, but if you aim high and miss by a bit, you are still much higher than if you aimed low. Don’t tell this to my psyche if you see it lying on the road somewhere trying to hitch hike!

A HUGE Thank You!

Thanks to all for their support and reading this blog. It truly means a ton to me and I promise I will do everything I can to help as many athletes of all types destroy their old personal records. I feel incredibly fortunate that I know exactly why I was put on this earth and exactly what I want/need to do. Many spend their lifetimes looking and wandering, so I am truly blessed and grateful.

I need to send a very special shout out to my soon to be wife Jodie too for all of her endless support and to my family. Thank you!!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Phone Consultation Testimonial for Mike T Nelson: Low Back and Hip Pain

Another testimonial from a recent phone consult I did

I had been experiencing low back, hip and leg pain as well are forearm pain for several months. After going to my chiropractor and back doctor several times with no relief, I decided that I wanted to work with a Z-Health practitioner. However, there were none in my immediate area. I also wanted to work with a Z-Health Master Trainer. I contacted Mike regarding a phone consultation.

During our consultation Mike asked me multiple questions about my health and the pain I was experiencing. He had me doing different movements while on the phone and spent as much time with me as needed.

Mike had me to do arm circles, foot work and eye drills as well as recommending some changes to my diet.

He has continued to correspond with me via e-mail to provide additional suggestions to reduce and manage my pain including breathing exercises.

My pain is now greatly reduced and I am sure it will further diminish overtime as I continue to do all that Mike as recommended.

I would highly recommend Mike to anyone who is in pain.

—Brett Williamson

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Brett for taking the time to write that up and taking the bull by the horns 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.

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

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

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Gym Movements Biofeedback, Z-Health Joint Mobility, Where is the hard data?

Walter Miller, Strength Athlete, Middleweight wrestling champion circa 1919

I am back!  Did you miss me?

Thanks for your patience with my response to comments last week. Jodie and I had a blast in Baja Mexico at a small town called La Ventana. We went down with some friends to hang out, see that orange thing in the sky that they call the sun and kiteboard.

We had a blast and Jodie did great kiteboarding too! I got out and rode 4 days (every day that there was wind) and even did a 7 mile downwinder back to where we were staying. More details to come soon.

Gym Movements, Z-Health, Hard Numbers Please!

One of the requests that I have received is one asking for hard numbers. Since I am a researcher, I like numbers. Heck, I did a whole MS in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics, so I better like numbers! ha! To be honest, they were never my strong suit, but after years of practice I got pretty good at it. When I started I did not think any math beyond Calc 4 even existed, wow, I was wrong.

I need to thank Kevin who is a strength coach on the East Coast for taking the time to do this. While this is far from a peer reviewed, placebo controlled study, it does show us some important things.

Take it away Kevin!

Mike

I purchased Gym Movements and I am really looking forward to the video. This past weekend I have been testing myself and 2 of my high school clients with both Z Health and some of the material I saw from the Gym Movements clips. this past weekend I had a girl I train do the following

Step 1 Toe touch test

Step 2. Vertical Jump Test (18 inches on a jump mat)

Step 3 do a “bad squat on the toes for 10 reps

Step 4 Jump again (16.4 inches)

Step 5. do some Z Health drills (ankle and hip mobility)

Step 6 Retest vertical and hit 18.2

Step 6. Static stretch (hit 16 inches)

Step 7 Z Health drills (18.5)

She looked at me like I was crazy and asked what I was doing? I filled her in and she was very interested in what I had to say

With me this weekend I have been doing static stretch tests, Active Isolates tests and Z Health test and EVERY TIME. I get more range of motion with the Z Health Drills I learned from Sara’s DVD.

I will let you know what I think about the Gym Movements DVD, but I think a combination of the Gym Movements DVD and getting the Z R-Phase is what I need

I am amazed how much your body “clears up” by just doing the ankle Mobs.

Thanks

Kevin

What Did We Learn

Now we have some hard numbers to show that what you do training wise and mobility wise has an IMMEDIATE effect upon your body.

Good training and mobility results is massive changes, very fast! I first learned this at the R-Phase cert from Dr. Cobb. When I do Z-Health sessions, the whole premise is that you have them walk (gait) and then try a Z-Health drill, then have them walk again. If their gait (walking movement) is better, that is a good drill. If not, then try another drill.

Exercise will have the same effect.

Good exercise= better movement and performance

I Want To Hear From You!

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments and if you have any similar data, I would love to hear from you!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Quoted in Muscle and Fitness, Nick Tumminello and More Randomness

If you pick up the latest issue of Muscle and Fitness Hers, look for my quote in there regarding caffeine and fat loss.

Dave Barr wrote a great article on supplements for fat loss, so a huge shout out to him for quoting me in the article and pick up a copy today.  Thanks Dave!

Nick Tumminello

I have the honor of having a guest article over at Nick’s site.  Head on over there and learn

• Are people training the gym without their heads?
• How to fire up those glutes and hip
• Why should you bother with joint mobility work
• Do you need optimal joint mobility in ALL your joints?

Go to

Z Health Ichabod Training with Mike T Nelson

Super Bowl Throwback

The Super Bowl is coming soon and it is NFL playoff time, so I thought I would throw up this classic video.

I am not saying I can dance well (other than the white boy shuffle, which I rock at), but it looks like they are trying to shake a squirrel out of their pants.

Rock on!
Mike T Nelson

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Will Static Stretching Make Me Weaker?

Yes! Next question?

“But I love to do it and it feels good. Plus my strength is not going down, so you are full of crap”

I get lots of these emails. Literally I do.

This is not really even debateable in my opinon.  From the latest study below, the authors state:

“There is an abundance of literature demonstrating that a single bout of stretching acutely impairs muscle strength, with a lesser effect on power.”

Of course static stretching is not going to make your knee cap shoot across the room or make you instantly as weak as a kitten; but I don’t feel it is an optimal way to increase strength and movement efficiency.

If I Don’t Static Stretch, Can I Move Like Crap?

Most don’t want to give it up since they assume their movement will get worse. I agree that athletes of all types need to move well and movement quality is of high importance, I just don’t think static stretching is the best tool. I would much rather have athletes do dynamic work and joint mobility work (like Z-Health).

What About Long Duration Static Stretching?

An even worse idea!  Yes, I understand the proposed concept of very long (5-20 minute) static stretches to reset muscle length, but there are much better ways to do it.  What is the cost of this practice?  Who in their right mind is even going to do it beyond the most motivated athletes? Many barely warm up as it is in most gyms.

I stole this one from my buddy Frankie, “Drugs make you feel good too, but I would not recommend them.”  So just because something feels good does not automatically mean it is good for you?  How do you determine if an exercise is good for you?  I would go with some form of biofeedback.

Comments?  What do you think?

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

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REFERENCES

Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2009 Dec 18. [Epub ahead of print]

To stretch or not to stretch: the role of stretching in injury prevention and performance.

McHugh MP, Cosgrave CH.

Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, New York, USA.

Bennet Sisters Boxing Circa 1915

Guest post on Training for Females by Brian Copeland

Today I have a special guest post from my buddy Brian Copeland in Colorado.  Brian was actually an assistant when I did my RKC back in October 2007 on  Brett Jones’s team.  Fast forward a few years and Brian was at the RKC assisting again when I was assisting this past June here in Minnesota.

Sit back and let Brain explain why females need to train hard and don’t believe all that crap about only using the pink dumbbells.    I routinely have women using the 16 kg kettlbell for swings within a 1-2 sessions to start.

Take it away Brian……

Getting Tone but NOT Big for Female Trainees

By Brian Copeland, RKC, PFS, Z-Health Performance Coach

My female clients always say the same thing to me; “I don’t want to get big and bulky.” Well… you probably couldn’t even if you wanted to! In this article I am going to cover some basic concepts to getting tone and healthy without getting big or bulky

Concept 1 – Hormones:

Women by nature are lower in the hormone testosterone; this is the hormone that is responsible for the image of oversized men with large heads, no necks, hairy backs and bad tempers. It is in fact the hormone that helps people build muscle; that is why many professional athletes take legal or illegal substances to increase their testosterone level beyond natural levels.

Ladies, if professional athletes have to increase their level of testosterone to get “big” then as long as you don’t take steroids you will be fine. You just don’t produce enough of the hormone to get manly looking; in fact if you put any muscle on it will only improve your hourglass figure.

As international strength and conditioning coach Mike Mahler says,

“Getting too big is like having too much money; it isn’t going to happen!”

Concept 2 – Body Fat Level:

High body fat is almost always the culprit in looking bulky or big. In reality a woman who puts on muscle and looses some body fat will look leaner; here is why. Muscle weighs twice as much as fat per volume. That means if your right butt cheek weighed 4 lbs from fat but your left one weighed 4 lbs from muscle, your left one would be half the size!!!

Putting on muscle and dropping the fat is the fast track to looking thin. Now remember, women do not gain a lot of muscle so you will probably replace the 4 lb right butt cheek with a 1 or 2 lb butt cheek. Just make sure to replace both cheeks at the same time ok!

Mike’s note.  Don’t believe Brian, check out this video below

Ok, back to Brian…

Now what about too low of body fat? Have you ever seen a female professional bodybuilder who has veins on her stomach? That is because her body fat is super low, as low as 3%. Now I’m a pretty lean guy with a six-pack and I’m over twice that level of body fat to give you an idea. It is completely not natural for a woman or a man to be that lean. To get that lean those professional bodybuilders (there is that word ‘professional’ again) must work SUPER hard and eat SUPER strict and take TONS of supplements. Plus they usually can only make themselves look like that for a couple of days or even just a couple of hours before their body fat increases up to a healthier level.

So to summarize, if you don’t want to look like a man, lower your body fat to a feminine level (when you think you look good), increase muscle as much as you can and don’t worry about dropping to a bodybuilder level of body fat because most people aren’t disciplined enough to even come close to that level

Concept 3 – Strength Training:

There are plenty of good intentioned but uninformed people who are more than willing to offer quick and easy advice about fitness, unfortunately they almost never know what they are talking about. Even worse are the countless articles written in women’s magazines by self proclaimed fitness experts who will tell you what you want to hear in order to sell the magazine. Things like, “Walk Your Way To Skinny” or “The 2-Minute Per Day Fitness Program To Getting A Lean And Sexy Body.” WOW, sign me up! That easy huh? Well, in reality anything in life worth pursuing requires some work. There are no free lunches folks!

Conversely an interesting fact is that getting a lean and sexy body does not have to take a lot of time and it does not have to hurt when you do it. If you are attending spinning classes for 2 hours a day or doing countless fire hydrants to make your buns firm then I’m here to tell you stop wasting your time! There is a better, more effective, faster way!

There are two types of training that should be considered for the non-athlete who wants to improve the way their body looks, cardio training and strength training.

Many women are scared of strength training because they associate it with big bulky muscles. We have already covered why women will not get big and bulky so let’s cover what real strength training is, what it is not and what it will do for you.

What it is:

• Training with fairly heavy weight or a fairly challenging exercise
• If you can lift it more than 7 times, it is too easy (light)
• Exercises that use as many muscles at once as possible
• Brief, intense and over with very quickly

What it is not:

• Training with light easy weights or exercises that don’t really challenge you
• If you can lift it more than 10 times, it is way to easy to do you any good (there are exceptions to this rule but that is for another topic)
• Isolation exercises like dumbbell curls or thigh machines
• Long, drawn out, exhausting workouts leaving you feeling like crap

What real strength training will do for you:

• Create muscle tone
• Make you healthier and… stronger of course
• Prevent injuries and teach to you lift heavy or awkward object without hurting yourself
• Make daily life activities easier to perform. Such as picking up the baby’s car seat, with the baby in it, picking up groceries out of your trunk, etc.

Pavel Tsatsouline, an internationally sought after strength and conditioning coach says, “Strength and tone training are the same thing.” If you want to get strong, use heavy weight but don’t do a lot of set or reps. Sets and reps will tear down the muscle and will cause the body to go into survival repair mode. In order to survive your next brutal workout it will replace your old muscle with more muscle! Lifting heavy weight a few times and then going home will make you stronger and more tone without adding any bulk.

Why am I having trouble getting buns of steel?

The glutes have a lot of strength and leverage. When you see a powerlifter squat or deadlift a bar bending load, it is the incredibly strong glutes that do most of the lifting. When you do butt squeezes, fire hydrants or any other silly moves popular in muscle sculpting classes you are not even coming close to the potential of your glutes’ strength. If you were not challenging the glutes why would they get more tone?

If you are ‘feeling the burn’ and think that you are accomplishing something, all you are experiencing is a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles and does nothing for the tone of your muscles. The way you feel has nothing to do with if you are physiologically improving yourself.

Don’t believe me? In the Guinness Book of World Records look up a picture of ‘Captain American’ who holds the world record for the most consecutive number of sit-ups, about 25,000! This dude sure must have felt the burn more than anyone but he does not even have a six-pack to show for it, even at his low level of body fat!

Concept 4 – Cardio Training:

The final concept I’ll talk about is cardio training. I won’t spend much time here but in summation, 20-30 minutes of cardio max is what the doctor ordered, literally! Dr. Al Sears the Director of The Center for Health and Wellness in south Florida who has helped over 15,000 patients overcome heart disease and loose weight says those long cardio sessions such as marathon running are incredibly bad for your health. The constant pounding on your joints is bad for your feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back.

It also decreases muscle mass (as is apparent from looking at any big time marathon runner) and guess what… the heart is made of muscle. Long aerobic sessions will decrease the size of the heart itself which in turn makes the heart more susceptible to heart attacks. The heart will beat until the day you die, no pun intended. You do not need to train it to beat longer; you need to train it to handle larger volumes of blood and oxygen through brief and intense cardio exercise. Have you ever seen a movie where bad news is delivered to someone and they grasp their heart, and then keel over from a heart attack. Well, that is what you need to strengthen your heart to do, keep beating when sudden intense spikes in the heart’s output is demanded.

Dr. Sears recommends brief and intense interval style training to strengthen the heart. A way to accomplish this is with High Octane Cardio. 1-minute of moderate cardio exercise followed immediately by 30 seconds of intense cardio, followed by a 1-minute rest. Then repeat the 1-minutes moderate followed by the 30 second intense, rest again and repeat.

As always consult a doctor before beginning any type of training program, especially if you have any pre-existing health conditions which may put you at risk.

About Brian Copeland

Brian Copeland is a certified Z-Health Movement Reeducation and Integration Specialist, RKC certified kettlebell instructor and Progressive Fighting Systems certified Martial Arts instructor. Brian specializes in helping women and men integrate fitness into their lifestyle, eliminating aches and pains and improving their athletic performance.

Visit Brian at http://www.bccorefitness.com/

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Ouch, the Muscles Around My Shoulder Hurt:  Testimonial for Mike T Nelson

What are you waiting for?

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How to Harness Brain Neuroplasticity for Extreme Human Performance

Are We Missing the Boat?

Ever seen something that you were pretty sure was true and all the evidence was pointing in that direction, but you still felt a large chunk of the data was missing?

I always feel like that trying to explain some concepts in Z Health and how  your brain is in control of your performance in the gym and on the field.  Optimize your brain and your body HAS to follow.

How does the brain get information?

Eyes + Inner Ear (vestibular “balance”) + Joints (proprioception) = Extreme Human Performance

Optimize each one of these and you are set.   This will also allow you to add strength and not degrade your movement performance when done correctly.

If you come to me as an athlete that wants to be a D1 football player and coach says you need to get stronger.  Let’s say I add 100 lbs to your squat in 6 months, but in the process you move like you are dragging your right leg.  Did I make you stronger?  Yes!  Did I make you a better football player?  No!  Will coach (and you) be happy?  No!  What you are really saying is that you want to be a better football player and you and your coach think that strength is the ONLY way.

Strength is great and a huge component to athletics, but it should NOT come at the cost of movement efficiency.    How can we get an increase in performance without making you walk like Ethel?  THAT is the key and we need to look at the brain.

Data Please

Watch the slide show below.  It is a bit crazy, but hang in there

If you only get one thing, here is the take away

“The physical characteristics of your BODY IMAGE may affect how your brain works your body”

I would even go as far to say that they will instead of may (but we need more data of course).  If your brain is the key to performance, than maybe there is something to this body image thing.  The brain can actually change over time, so it is not fixed even if you are an older adult (concept of neuroplasticity).

Body Image, But I Already Look Good!

Not that type of body image there Fabio!  Body image is referring to the map that your body generates of yourself. When I busted up my ankle several years ago, I had a horrible map of my right ankle at the time. It just felt like a big lump and very “dumb.” It was not uncommon that I would bump it against things in my home (which does not help the healing process). My body image (map) of my right ankle was horrible. How do you think my ankle performance was at the time? Horrible! I could barely move it at all due to the injury.

To a lesser extent, this happens to all athletes. If your wrist wrist does not have 100% mobility, the body map is fuzzy because of it.

The Fix Is In

How do we fix it? For most, starting on the joints is key since they take a fair amount of abuse from desk jockeys with mousie right hand to elite athletes with crazy shoulders from throwing 90+mph fast balls to football players hitting each other at mach 2. Daily living takes its toll and getting all the joints to move through a full range of motion to clean up the body image (map) and allow more performance.

Remove the Brakes

Less than optimal joint mobility is breaking your current performance. I like the Z Health R Phase for mobility work since it targets the joints, but just plain movement is a great start.

Summary

We have evidence now that your body image will affect your performance. Fix your body image (movement map) by first starting off on some joint mobility and watch your performance sky rocket.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson
PS
Leave any comments below and tweet the heck out of this one! Much appreciate all the help!

REFERENCES
Full paper at
Interdependence of movement and anatomy persists when amputees learn a physiologically impossible movement of their phantom limb

References below taken from
Physiologically impossible movement of phantom limbs explained

1. Damasio A (2000) The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of consciousness. (Vintage, London).
2. Churchland PS (2002) Self-representation in nervous systems Science 296, 308-310.
3. Ramachandran VS (1998) Consciousness and body image: lessons from phantom limbs, Capgras syndrome and pain asymbolia Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London – Series B: Biological Sciences 353, 1851-1859.
4. Price EH (2006) A critical review of congenital phantom limb cases and a developmental theory for the basis of body image Consciousness and Cognition 15, 310-322.
5. Moseley GL, Olthof N, Venema A, Don S, Wijers M, Gallace A, & Spence C (2008) Psychologically induced cooling of a specific body part caused by the illusory ownership of an artificial counterpart Proc Natl Acad Sci 105, 13169-13173.
6. Moseley GL, Parsons TJ, & Spence C (2008) Visual distortion of a limb modulates the pain and swelling evoked by movement. Curr Biol 18, R1047-R1048.
7. Parsons LM (2001) Integrating cognitive psychology, neurology and neuroimaging Acta Psychol. (Amst). 107, 155-181.

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I trust you had a great Turkey Day (if you are in the USA) and a great weekend to everyone else. Jodie and I took a short trip to South Padre Island Texas for some kiteboarding time and had a blast. I got to ride 4 days and Jodie got in some great practice with the kite 3 times. I will have more details on it very soon.

Just a quick note that I had an article on “Pain and Performance” published on Boddicker Performance. I know what you are thinking, “Ugh, that sounds about as much fun to read as having a testicle removed” but I tried my best to make it a bit more entertaining while staying true to the science. You will have to be the final judge on that, but here is some feedback

“You are the only person I know who can make reading about the pain neuromatrix pain free for everyone.   Great post”  –Dustin Schlichting

Go there and find out for yourself. (Note, it is a bit hard to read, so feel to print it out. Carson is working on changing the format soon).

Pain and Performance

Rock on

Mike T Nelson