Monday, January 04, 2010


Grooving the Club Swinging...and a shout out to Adam Glass...
And a Cat picture since those seem to more popular than my training advice at the moment...

Adam Glass has been talking quite a bit about what he is calling Biofeedback in training - basically "testing" a movement to see how your body responds to it. Taking the toe touch as an example - measure or gauge your toe touch before you try a movement - lets say a "squat" (any squat) - then perform a few squats and then retest your toe touch.
Did it get better or stay the same or maybe even get worse?

If better - that is a good movement to train for today
If same - keep looking for a movement that does make a difference
If Worse - do not perform that movement today

Simple right?

Well - I teach this concept all over the world as a way to make sure the corrective strategy you are using to help correct a movement pattern is actually a good corrective drill.
Do a t-spine rotation then re-test the Shoulder mobility screen - better = keep the drill, no difference or worse = try another drill.
Applying this strategy to exercises is the next logical step and it was Adam that took that step.

For myself my ASLR (active straight leg raise) is usually an "issue" so during my club swinging practice today I test various Club Swinging postures and movements against my ASLR and found some interesting results.
There are two postures my body "liked" and one that didn't do a thing for me and only one Club Swinging movement that didn't improve my ASLR. What postures and movements? You'll have to wait for the Club Swinging Essentials product!

The link to Adam's blog is below - I recommend you check it out.

8 comments:

P. J. said...

Brett,
Good info, I recall you having me test ROM during some of the drills you taught me. I had forgotten that until I watched Adam's videos and started using it with exercises. I've added this concept to my warm-up mobility work and corrective drills. I've found a few interesting things. FMS type drills almost always improve testing ROM. Joint mobility is very hit or miss, even with areas that feel like they need to move better, such as wrist and elbow. Also finding that sometimes mobility work on one side improves it, the other side doesn't.

Brett Jones said...

PJ
Like I said - I do the test - apply drill - retest thing consistently on correctives but just didn't apply it to exercises/exercise selection.
JM can be very specific in application and results.
FMS is more "global" IMO

Keep us posted

P. J. said...

yep, I'm definitely finding JM to be very specific and I don't have the expertise to decide what that specific application is. I'm just doing drills based on R phase DVD and my session with you.

Mike T Nelson said...

Good stuff Brett and glad training is coming along.

Biofeedback is great. Re-assessment is critical.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
Extreme Human Performance

Brett Jones said...

Thanks Mike

Randy Hauer said...

Brett, I've seen Adam's videos and it's intriguing stuff. I mentioned to him the Bulgarians used to use (and maybe still do) heart rate as a bio-marker for training weights. If, while anticipating an attempt, an athlete's heart rate went up beyond a certain % the weight was judged too heavy for that day and backed down, but they didn't abandon the movement altogether.

Runners and cyclists alsouse the heart rate for biofeedback to adjust training on the fly. Runners gotta run and cyclists gotta ride so pace and distance are going to be the variables judged.

I wonder if there is a connection between heart rate and ROM feedback? (Like = lower HR and expanded ROM. Neutral = no change and No Like = increased HR and decreased ROM) If so, then maybe just wear a HRM.

Do you think testing ROM after every rep is an emerging training paradigm?

Brett Jones said...

Randy,
Interesting stuff - I think the concept of "testing" exercises for positive and negative reaction will become a more popular but some will have a hard time with it.
Correlating ROM with heart rate might be interesting to investigate.

Adam said...

Brett

in the last few months I have pulled a lot of concepts i had floating to one solid state. It is a very exciting time for me- better and better applications all the time. I am breaking PRs every single workout. Every single workout. More to come.

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