Just Fly Performance Podcast

Adarian Barr, a seasoned coach and inventor known for his unique insights into human movement, dives into the world of rotational forces and their vital role in athletic performance. He emphasizes the importance of 'tumbling' actions for speed enhancement, challenging traditional linear movement perspectives. The discussion covers the mechanics of levers, optimal training methods, and the interconnections of upper and lower body performance. Adarian highlights how understanding biomechanics can revolutionize coaching techniques and improve overall athletic capabilities.

Today’s show is with Angus Bradley.  Angus is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia.  He coaches out of Sydney CBD, co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar, and is also an avid surfer.  Angus appeared previously on episode 249 of the podcast, talking about compressive strategies in weightlifting, as well as the impacts of those compressive effects on narrow infra-sternal angle individuals in particular. Angus is one of the most brilliant, and practical individuals I know in the world of strength training biomechanics, and connecting it to movement and practical outcomes.  When it comes to making sense of how our body structure and pressure systems fit with different setups in the weight room, and how this might apply to dynamic movement, Angus is a top individual to learn from. So often in the weight room, we will say that it is all “general” (which technically it is) but then use that as an excuse not to understand the movements we are utilizing in detail that fit with greater concepts of the gait cycle.  Connecting strength work to the gait cycle is key in better strength training practices, as well as individualization. On the show today, Angus covers the dimensions of exercises based on center of mass position relative to the foot, and how this connects with the gait cycle, as well as how much an athlete is being “pushed forward” (and why that is important).  He’ll cover delayed knee extension in both lifting and sprinting (and how they might connect), concepts of foot shapes, and gait, as well as his take on “floating heel” work not potentially being everything it’s cracked up to be.  Angus will also give some practical ideas on giving more sensory information to athletes unable to access early stance well, how far to take wide and narrow ISA types in terms of “balancing their weaknesses”, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:25 – How doing the “wrong” intervention in training can still lead to positive results 11:30 – Understanding the implications of working through the various positions of the center of mass in relation to the position of the feet, and what this means for degrees of freedom in movement 18:30 – Some performance implications of wide-vs. narrow ISA’s in regards to mid and late stance, and jump technique 23:15 – The idea of “hamstring curling” one’s self out of the hole of a squat in order to delay knee extension 28:45 – Where Angus sees the benefit in “floating heel” training, and where he finds it not very beneficial 34:45 – How to re-train athletes to “let their femurs be” in squatting when they’ve been taught to shove their knees out in the past 39:30 – Thoughts on oscillatory squatting (and split squatting) and its impact on the mid-stance phase of lifting 43:30 – A discussion on developing mid-stance, narrow ISA’s and single leg squatting 49:00 – Flat vs. high arched individuals and what this means for how this impacts athletes in early vs. late propulsion 56:50 – How Angus’s lockdown sprint work went, and lessons he learned with squatted running 1:02:00 – Thoughts on the role of the adductors in movement, why some people may feel them more (or less) in sprinting, and how to train them in the gym “You can grab (IR and ER) if you just start pulling athletes back… heavy lifting just has a tendency to shove people forward” “A sign of a good athlete to me, is they will respond to their environment” “You can simplify it by looking at where they are in the sagittal plane and looking at that map of the foot, looking at where they are in relation to that base of support… if the center of mass is over the toes, you are going to be in that propulsive ER, if the center of mass is over the mid foot, you are going to be in that compressive IR, that mid-stance, and if you get them further back behind that base of support, they are going to be in that early stance and have nice access to that yielding ER” “From a performance perspective, I probably only need to pull (a wide ISA) back to midstance (instead of early stance) for a lot of them, just get them back a bit” “What everyone needs when they suck at anything is more external stability” “That’s why I love Hatfield squats, you just shove the arms out in front of you to keep the ribcage back” “I’m very high on goblet squats” “I think there is an association that slow, stiff people are stuck in their heels, and I just don’t see that” “If you just want to lift a massive weight, do a deadlift” “You are not necessarily helping an athlete develop their strengths and you are drawing all these mid-stance qualities out of them in the weight room, but maybe you are just making them a more well-rounded player” “Triple extension and that spring off the ground, that’s the byproduct of the push, the push happens on the ground with the flat foot, and that sets up that beautiful late stance” “(Squatted running) was allowing me to get into those sprinting shapes and get a sense of what mid-stance tastes like” “(To train adductors) Can they center themselves over their stance leg well, and can they do a hip shift well” About Angus Bradley Angus Bradley is a strength coach and podcast host from Sydney, Australia.  He coaches out of Sydney CBD, and co-hosts the Hyperformance podcast with his brother, Oscar. After focusing primarily on weightlifting for the first half of his career Angus finds himself spending as much time ‘outside of his lane’ as possible trying to identify the principles that transcend all human movement.  He works with a diverse crowd from strongman to surfing and everything in between. Angus has been mentored by Jamie Smith from Melbourne Strength Culture, and formerly dropped out of his major in journalism to tour Australia with his band.

Today’s show is a Q&A with Joel Smith.  It’s a lot of fun to see the questions you all have, and putting together a list of answers. Some major themes in this show included the dynamics of how an athlete learns and acquires a skill, how to give athletes ideal constraints to learn a skill better (particularly on the level of the arms in sprinting and step-action in jumping), and then questions on training the spectrum of the force velocity curve. There also were a lot of questions and answers that lent to training individualization based on the individual structure of the body and if one is a “power or speed” based athlete, which relates to an athlete’s ribcage structure and ISA bias, and of course, a lot of speed oriented questions. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 1:15 – The difference in training fascial vs. elastic athletes 7:33 – How to train a “power” sprinter with poor top end speed 13:40 – Thoughts on training at different points on the force-velocity curve 24:06 – Arm action in sprinting, and constraint-driven coaching versus “positional” coaching 34:14 – Structuring a weight training and performance program for speed and acceleration 36:32 – Why some athletes have a long vs. short penultimate step in jumping 40:45 – Thoughts on in-season programming for team sports 46:56 – Dealing with a toe-sprain and learning to feel other parts of the foot 48:30 – Frequency of training with bodyweight iso holds 49:37 – Thoughts on “inside edge” vs. “outside edge” in movement and training 54:35 – Fascial awareness in movement 55:42 – Is concentric power building in the weightroom worthwhile? 57:01 – How to use falling/slipping/stumbling reflexes to our advantage in training About Joel Smith Joel Smith is the founder of Just Fly Sports and is a sports performance coach in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Joel hosts the Just Fly Performance Podcast, has authored several books on athletic performance, and trains numerous clients in the in-person and online space.  Joel was formerly a strength coach for 8 years at UC Berkeley, working with the Swim teams and post-graduate professional swimmers, as well as tennis, water polo, and track and field.  A track coach of 11 years, Joel coached for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club for 7 years, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level, working at Wilmington College, and the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016. In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports with Jake Clark as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential.  In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field.  The evolving mission of Just Fly Sports is focused on teaching athletes to realize their true, innate power, and achieve the highest joy in their training, competition, and in the community.

Today’s show welcomes back running coach and biomechanist, Helen Hall.  Helen is the author of “Even With Your Shoes On”.  She is an endurance athlete, minimalist ultra-distance runner, 6 times Ironman and credited with being the world’s first ‘barefoot’ Iron(wo)man.  Helen is the owner of the Perpetual Forward Motion School of Efficient Running, as well as a running injury clinic, using the latest movement science and gait analysis technology to help people find solutions for their pain and injuries.  She appeared on episode 180 speaking on all things joint mechanics and technique in running. One of the most common things I hear (and have seen, especially in my club track years) about athletes is those who have a heavy heel strike when they run.  Excessive passive forces in athletic motion is never a good thing, but it’s always important to understand binary concepts (you had a heel-strike or you didn’t) in further detail.  There is a spectrum of potential foot strike positions in running, and nobody stays on their heel in gait, as we always move towards the forefoot. On the show today, Helen goes in depth on heel striking and the biomechanics of the heel in the running cycle, as well as the difference in heel striking motions in jogging versus sprinting.  One of the topics I frequently enjoy covering is how the human body can interact with nature and natural features to optimize itself (which includes optimizing running technique) and Helen speaks on how one can use uphill and downhill grades to help athletes and individuals self-organize their own optimal running technique. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:27 – Why Helen feels individuals heel strike in the first place 11:33 – Helen’s “happy medium” when it comes to socks in running 14:28 – Helen’s view on the heel bone and pronation in the initial strike in running 21:03 – How Helen would help an athlete who heel strikes in a sprint when it is not desired 29:28 – The importance of relaxation and “letting” the body move and react, versus trying to force the body into motion 38:41 – Nuances of using uphill and downhill running, what to notice, and how to integrate that into one’s stride 45:29 – How un-even surfaces can create grounds by which individuals can self-organize their stride and foot action 48:35 – How to leverage hills to optimize the function of the glutes in running “I never change somebody’s first point of contact; their bodies change their first point of contact themselves” “There can’t be a right or wrong, since there are so many people whose first point of contact is the heel, and they are not in pain” “If you land in front of the heel, then you get the eccentric loading of the Achilles and what it attaches to” “People decide they are in “this camp” or “that camp” and thereby the camps run parallel to each other and never exchange ideas” “You want to be landing, not in a pronating foot.. in the context of running… the descent is arguably a posteriorly tilted calcaneus because you are landing in a supinating foot… unless your foot is going to go “splat” immediately” “You want to land on a foot that is relaxed enough to give” “They are reaching for the step, and by reaching on the step through hip flexion, they are ending up on their heel first, and that may be giving them more control as they go through the forefoot” “In my experience, people do not go back to the heel-strike, and all you need is a slope (to correct it)” “If you want to slow down, the most natural thing in the world is to shove your foot out, and brake with your heel” “You have to be relaxed for the response in your unbelievably complex system to happen in .2 seconds” “When you go downhill on a heel strike that you don’t feel on the flat… so you get to feel what it’s doing on the flat that you didn’t know before” “If you are aware of the terrain, the brain to body connections will take care of themselves” “Even if you are an athlete who operates on a pristine soccer pitch, if you can get out in nature and operate your body and ask it to do natural things, you are going to be more resilient towards the injuries of “everything has to be perfect” “You can’t clench your glutes when you run, if you clench your glutes, you go backwards” “You know you are stacked when you have maximum head rotation” About Helen Hall Helen Hall is the author of “Even With Your Shoes On”, a comprehensive manual on teaching running in a natural manner based on the sensory capabilities of the human body.  She is an endurance athlete, minimalist ultra-distance runner, 6 times Ironman and credited with being the world’s first ‘barefoot’ Iron(wo)man.  She has completed “the hardest ironman in the world”, Ironman Lanzarote in 2011. Helen is the owner of the Perpetual Forward Motion School of Efficient Running, as well as a running injury clinic. She specializes in the solving of chronic pain and repetitive injuries, be they in the neck, shoulder, back, hip, knee, ankle or foot and connected to sports or not. Helen uses the latest movement science and gait analysis technology to help people find solutions for their pain and injuries.  She is a cofounder of Barefoot Audio, an audio tool merging evocative coaching cues to inspirational music composed specifically with efficient running in mind. She is the author of the YMCAfit Barefoot/Efficient Running course and manual and was the coach to the inov-8 Natural Run program. Helen is qualified as an Anatomy in Motion Level 4 Practitioner, has multiple CHEK certifications, as well as certification in lymphatic therapy.

Today’s show welcomes back JB Morin.  JB Morin is currently full professor and head of sports science and the physical education department at the University of Saint-Etienne.  He has been involved in sport science research for over 15 years, and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journals since 2004.  JB is a world-leading researcher on all things sprint related, having collaborated with and analyzed some of the world’s best sprinters, such as Christophe Lemaitre. JB also does lots of sprint research that is highly applicable to team sport settings, such as information that can be gleaned from force-velocity profiling.  He has been a 2x previous guest on this podcast, speaking on elements of heavy sled training, force-velocity profiling, and much more. When it comes to sprinting from point A to point B, the time on the clock does not necessarily represent the strategy an athlete used to get there.  Athletes who can direct their sprint forces in more of a horizontal vector are going to be able to reach higher top velocities, and be more resilient towards injury. The question then becomes, how do we assess, and train athletes in respect to the direction they are producing sprint forces?  In today’s episode, JB speaks on how the specifics of an athlete’s force production (in the horizontal vs. vertical direction) will highlight elements of how fatigued that individual is, and their predisposition to injury in the short term.  JB also goes into how to measure force production in sprinting, new research on joint actions in early and late acceleration, hill training vs. sleds, hamstring research, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:00 –  Some new work that has come out in sprint research recently, showing the importance of the hip and ankle outputs in sprinting, even in the first few steps of acceleration 16:20 –  Thoughts on sprint technique, or force-velocity profiling and how that might link to potential injury in team sport situations 24:00 –  The relationship (and differences) between one’s maximal horizontal force, and their maximal sprint speed, and what it means for injury risk 30:50 –  How having a poor maximal horizontal force output can show up in the biomechanics of how an athlete is sprinting 37:15 –  How elite athletes will start to change their force-production orientation (less horizontal, over time) once fatigue starts to set in during a training session 45:00 –  How hill training compares to heavy sled training in terms of forces and velocity 50:30 –  New studies and thoughts on hamstring injury in athletics 54:20 –  Thoughts on training the feet and lower leg for the sake of sprinting 58:40 –  JB’s thoughts on how to set up good research on sprinting in athletics “75% of the energy that is generated to run is generated at the hip and calf level” “Team sport is so chaotic, it’s the worst way to assess an athlete’s acceleration capability, the game environment is not reproducible” “Our studies show that pre-season maximal force output is not related to (injury risk) but when you measure that maximal force output throughout the season, the last measurement is related to the risk of injury in that measurement period” “You need to measure (force/velocity) regularly, not only in the pre-season period… there are so many changes throughout the season” “You can have people with the same 25 meter splits, but different profiles at the beginning of the spectrum or the end of the spectrum” “If you take two athletes with the same magnitude of ground reaction force, the best in acceleration will be the most horizontally oriented vector” “The last studies a-posteriori connected very clearly (horizontal force output) to the hamstring and glutes muscle function capability” “If you are more quad dominant, and push vertically, you will not go to a very high top speed” “I’ve seen some professional rugby players coming back from a few (off) days or weeks, because of an injury, and sprinting (pr’s), because they were chronically overloaded” “Most of the sprint related (hamstring) injuries, occur at high speeds, but also in linear movements” About JB Morin Jean-Benoit (JB) Morin is currently full professor and head of sports science and the physical education department at the University of Saint-Etienne.  He was formerly full Professor at the Faculty of Sport Sciences of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (France), and has been involved in sport science research for over 15 years, and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journals since 2004.  He obtained a Track & Field Coach National Diploma in 1998 and graduated in Sport Science at the University of Besançon, France in 2000. He obtained his PhD in Human Locomotion and Performance in 2004 at the University of Saint-Etienne, France (Prof. Alain Belli), in collaboration with the University of Udine, Italy (Prof. Pietro diPrampero). JB’s field of research is mainly human locomotion and performance, with specific interest into running biomechanics and maximal power movements (sprint, jumps). He teaches locomotion and sports biomechanics, and strength training and assessment methods. JB’s has collaborated with French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre and his group/coach, and he is member of the French Soccer Federation research group, teaching professional coaches about sprint mechanics and training for acceleration. He also collaborates with New-Zealand professional and national rugby teams, and with professional soccer clubs in France and Spain. He practiced soccer in competition for 10 years, practiced and coached track and field (middle distance and 400m hurdles) for 8 years, and he is now enjoying trail running, road cycling and triathlon.

Today’s show welcomes back Randy Huntington for a “part 2” of the recent episode #282 , speaking on the success of Chinese sprinter, Su Bingtian, and the third podcast with Randy in total.  Randy is a track and field coach who has spent his recent years as the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience. Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps, has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members.  Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. In the last podcast, Randy spoke on several elements of the training methods that helped Su Bingtian to become the fastest accelerator of all time, such as sled and resisted sprint training, special strength work, and more.  There was still a lot left to cover after the last episode, so for this show, we will dive back in (literally, in regards to the water training) to Randy’s training methodology. For today’s episode, Randy speaks in depth on Su Bingtian’s weekly training setup, and how he spaces out the weekly work, with a focus on rest and recovery.  He will get into the topic of training density, and how this can be modulated with training cycles of various lengths (as opposed to only sticking with a traditional 7-day cycle).  Randy will get into elements of water training, tempo sprint training, his version of over-speed work, and much more.  This is an awesome compliment to the popular “part 1” of my recent chatting with Randy, and great material for coaches in any discipline. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:39 –  Details on Su’s weekly training setup, and how “work + rest = adaptation” 11:17 – Thoughts on how much, and how often to apply tempo work to team training 15:35 – How various cultures can have an impact on the type of training that athletes in that culture will optimally respond to 18:56 – The importance of water training for recovery, and recovery training in general, in Randy’s program 36:51 – Why the biggest need in coaching is on the level of youth coaches, and not those who work with elite athletes 42:06 –  How Randy isolates the specific focus of his training sessions, not doing too much work all in one session 46:06 – Individual factors in elastic vs. muscular athletes in the construction of a training program 51:51 – The power of being able to move athletes around selectively amongst training groups in individual sports 55:21 – How Randy looks at long term training and seasonal shifts in training emphasis 59:51 – Principles on going beyond a typical 7-day weekly training cycle, into 9 and 10 day cycles. 1:04:51 – How Randy utilizes the “bigger players” in a training year (such as intense training methods, heavy lifting, intense plyos, etc.) and how he measures and manages recovery 1:12:06 – How Randy applies overspeed training with his athletes “I look at work, but I put the rest in first in the week, and then I follow it back up with what work we are going to do prior to the rest” “I like using pulse (for tempo training), I’d rather use SMO2 (when I can)… that gives me a very accurate appraisal of when to go again” “I make our strength coaches run (tempo) with the sprinters” “In China, you can’t give them a lot of time off, they fall apart very quickly if they have a lot of time off (Koreans were like the too)” “How do you increase density without (going to steroids)… that’s how I arrived at (water training)… my whole approach has been recovery based first, I’d quit before I’d ever go to (steroids)… the water for me, serves for Su, the density of training I need him to do” “If the pool is accessible, I’d go there after every session” “There is almost no better way to do hip flexor work than to get in the water” “Because water is denser too, you find the best pattern, you groove your movement pattern even better” “Deep water is pure recovery work to me…. Tempo is still work; is it recovery? I wouldn’t make a steady diet out of it.. there is only so much gravity based training you can take” “You can refresh that (coaching) spark by going back down to middle school and high school” “You can destroy elasticity pretty easily by overtraining” “I tend to put the jumpers on a 9 day cycle, the sprinters on a 7 day cycle, and the 800m is on a 7-10-10-5 cycle” “We go to 9 day cycles if we need to fit in everything I need to fit in” “You only extend a training cycle for recovery, in 7 days, you are creating density but you are not taking time to recover… you start thinking density more than intensity or volume” “3-day cycles are the easiest to figure out; so you got acceleration, weight training, speed… or acceleration, weight training, recovery” “Rolling 3 days are pretty easy to program” “If you want to get scientific with anything, get scientific with adaptation.  Get scientific with sympathetic/parasympathetic balance” “I don’t do over-speed training, I do assisted-speed training… that’s the thing you look at; where am I in my ability to apply force to the ground without creating blocking forces” Show Notes Su Bingtian’s Sprint Training Schedule: Monday: Acceleration Tues: Lift (power) Wed: Short Speed Endurance (ASSE/GSSE) working into pure speed day over time Thursday: Lift (upper body + 1 power style lift) Recovery Circuits in Afternoon Friday: Acceleration Sat: Lift (max strength) plus longer speed endurance session About Randy Huntington Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience.  Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events. Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history. Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell. Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.

Our guest for today’s show is Dr. Edythe Heus.  Dr. Heus is a nationally known chiropractor utilizing kinesiology with 22 years of experience.  She is the founder of the RevinMo, a unique corrective exercise program and co-author of ProBodX.  Dr. Heus is a thoughtful investigator whose diagnosis and treatment is based on specialized knowledge of the body's interconnectedness. Dr. Heus has enjoyed great success, and works with many professional and Olympic athletes. When training individuals, it’s easiest to focus only on “outputs”, such as the load on the bar, or how fast an individual ran through sprint gates.  In taking a full-view at training, it’s also important to understand more subtle inputs, and how the body organizes movement from a fascial perspective. I’ve routinely noticed in the world of track and field, and swimming, a cycle where athletes experience an injury, have to do “rehab” (subtle) work (and also get a deload from the typical intense work they are doing) and come back to their sport to set personal bests within a few weeks or months.  As such, it’s worthwhile to study the full spectrum of “rehab to outputs” in human and athletic performance, and how we can organize each of these methods through a training session, or one’s career. On the show today, Dr. Heus will speak on balance and proprioceptive training methods, such as pipes and slant boards, advanced foot training concepts, and information on the fascia and how it responds to various training methods.  This is an important concept for anyone, and particularly those individuals who wish to learn more about the “softer” side of performance that can make a large impact on one’s function and resistance to injury. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 – How Edythe got into a more “alternative” position on exercise and training in her career 19:30 – Deeper thoughts on balance training, and how it benefits the nervous system 38:30 – From a balance perspective, what athletes should be able to do from a fundamental movement perspective 56:00 – Assessing the feet and the abdominals in the course of balance-oriented training 1:02.00 – Using slant boards to train the feet 1:06:00 – Edythe’s thoughts on toe strength 1:21:15 – How Edythe can feel the fascial system working in a particular exercise, and what exactly is “fascial training” “A quality of a person’s life is directly related to the health of their feet” “I see what I do, whether it is treatment or training, because I don’t separate those, as a collaborative team effort (between myself and the client)” “(I want to know) why are we not getting the response from the nervous system or the fascia that is possible?” “Balance, for me, isn’t just standing on unstable surfaces” “Balance is a form of novelty, and the brain thrives on novelty… I also challenge them textually” “Instability just simply, makes the cerebellum work” “Balance comes in so that your inner and outer environment can better communicate with each other” “One of the components I think is critical in training is a perception of risk” “Do some of my stuff before the lift, do it after, and then your lift is going to be better, and you are going to build on what you gained from that lifting, so heavy weight stuff definitely has to be on a stable surface” “I don’t think that without an unstable surface, that you are going to get all parts of your being integrated” “We want to automate as much as possible so there is not much thinking involved, so when you do have a skill you actually want to learn, you’ve got more bandwidth for that skill, so that you are not using all your bandwidth (for your sport skills)” “Let’s automate everything that we can, our body is designed for automation” “The thing I teach is, “are people able to be in their feet”” “The fascia has a spiral design; if you had to train a single plane of movement, it would be rotation” “I will allow people to struggle with that “arch downhill” just a little bit, because when they get it, it’s solid” “The arch uphill is the least needed of the four slantboard positions” “Anyone with a pronation problem, I ask, “what’s going on with your pelvic floor”… you aren’t going to get the feet working properly if you got pelvic floor issues” “(the fascia) doesn’t like held positions; holding a posture more than 10-15 seconds straightens out the collagen fibers, and you lose the waviness that lends to elasticity” “Some shoes are very rough, and they create problems all the way up, from the texture of the shoes” “Be very particular about the (physio) ball having the same tone that you would want in your tissues, which means that there is elasticity and give, not tension that feels unpleasant… I can’t even look at someone on a deflated (physio) ball” Show Notes Pipe Training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyceUFmvlEo Slantboard Training Methods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITXRchznLz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS9ENhUH1a4&list=PLGlTos0mCZTytU-Y4pk7mPG2vtSiBU0vP   Win a 3-Pack of Virtual Classes with Dr. Edythe Along with the show today (depending on the time you are reading this) you can win a free 3-pack of virtual classes with Dr. Edythe, and to get in on that deal, you can follow these instructions: Select 3-Pack on RevInMo Virtual Classes(scroll all the way down to see packages) Make account on MindBodyOnline When shopping cart comes up, there will be a field to enter promo code, enter “FLYREV” and the shopping cart should be at $0. About Dr. Edythe Heus Dr. Edythe Heus is a nationally known chiropractor utilizing kinesiology who during 22 years of experience has embraced a holistic concept of health. She is the founder of the RevinMo, a unique corrective exercise program and co-author of ProBodX.  Dr. Heus is a thoughtful investigator whose diagnosis and treatment is based on specialized knowledge of the body's interconnectedness. Finding the point of origin of injuries, she uses appropriate sequences of exercise to improve performance and keep patients from coming back with the same recurring injuries. Dr. Heus has enjoyed great success, and works with many professional and Olympic athletes. Throughout her career, Dr. Heus has lived by the mantra, “Challenge what’s possible.” And that is what her clients see her do every day.

Our guest for today’s show is Erik Huddleston.  Erik was recently on the podcast, on episode 269, speaking about important elements of squat technique based on individual frames of the athlete.  After the show, I had some other important questions left over that I wanted to discuss, and also in that time, Erik has made a career transition to working in the NBA. Erik is currently an assistant sports performance coach with the Indiana Pacers and head performance coach for their G-League affiliate, the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants. He is the former director of performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST), along with having NCAA D1 experience. When we program training for athletes, what factors are we considering when we select exercises? Do we just pick movements that are novel and random, or do we have a greater philosophy that helps us decide what types of movements to use, and when?  What about timing, such as exercise selection in the training sessions coming off of, or leading them up to competitions or tough practice periods?  Or, do we ever ask ourselves about what an athlete’s development level (youth vs. pro) might mean for them with the types of exercises we are prescribing from a compression and expansion perspective? On the show today, Erik speaks on organizing exercise selection based on an athlete’s training schedule (such as post or pre-competition periods of the training week, or even training year), how to use weight placement to train various athlete body types, and some critical differences in training, from an expansion/compression perspective, regarding youth vs pro level athletes.  It’s so easy to fan-boy (or girl) over the workouts of “elite” athletes, but the key to good coaching is always knowing how to engage an athlete where they are at in their own development. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:28 – How to organize training based off of periods of “expansion” and “compression” 11:42 – How Erik quantifies what players are experiencing in practice and games from a “expansion/compression” perspective, and how to give them what they don’t have then, in a gym setting 14:54 – Exercise selection principles that help athletes optimally reset in their “off” days 21:55 – How to adjust exercises to help them ramp up to a game or competition situation 24:20 – What a pre-season training load looks like compared to in-season in professional basketball 29:00 – What pre-season training looks like in high school sports where athletes have a lot more time to prepare without high volume sport loadings 34:41 – Situations where more compression will help an athlete, vs. situations where it will potentially hurt an athlete 39:25 – How to set up training for “pylon” shaped individuals to help their reversal ability in jumping and athletics 46:20 – How “flipping the pylon” of the torso, and having wide shoulders impacts squatting selection 52:06 – How the shape of one’s torso impacts the types of plyometric exercises that players should utilize 54:46 – How to prescribe jump programming to individuals who have a hard time yielding in their movement relative to the ground 59:10 – How to approach plyometrics and jump training for youth athletes vs. elite athletes who are already at a relatively high level, and playing jump oriented sports constantly “Keeping player assets on the court is the most important part of my job” “Give them some of what they don’t have that they are getting from the training and the basketball stimulus” “I have to assume that the vast things that are occurring on the court are output driven… that’s where we get into that compression end of the spectrum” “My training before a game is really really output driven, it’s really force production driven… ramping them up like that is the appropriate thing to do” “When they have an off-day, that day is generally going to be an input day, or this expansive quality that we are looking for… how do I restore position that allows them to recover well”? “When things are intense, when training loads in the court are high, we try to match that with a high intensity in the weight room also” “When you are prescribing your compression in the right way, it doesn’t take a lot of it to move the needle forward in terms of force output… but it quickly on the back end can take away from some expansive qualities” “Muscle mass by nature, is compression… and whether that is positive or negative is a case by case basis” “If I’m looking to bias the inhaled portion on a split squat, I’m going to coach an inhale” “That traffic-cone shaped individual, they just don’t have the base in their thorax to be able to re-direct pressure and volume… so obviously that’s something we want to work on with the force output side of things” “Breath hold and exhale are the game thing…. A breath hold is just an exhale against a closed glottis” “I’m not big on coaching cues while doing something, I want to set (an exercise) up in a way where an athlete will be successful” “(For young athletes) I use line hops, ankle hops, with the emphasis of getting off the ground quickly.  (Pros) I band assist a lot of their jumps… they are already really good at getting off of the ground quickly… I try to allow them more time (to find the heel in their jump… you do want these guys to have access to the positions where they can redistribute force well” Show Notes Expansion/contraction flow chart for training   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Erik Huddleston (@eph.24) About Erik Huddleston Erik Huddleston is currently an assistant sports performance coach with the Indiana Pacers (NBA) and head performance coach for their G-League affiliate, the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants.  He is the former director of performance at Indianapolis Fitness & Sports Training (IFAST).  Erik previously spent time at Indiana University & Texas Tech University with the men’s basketball teams.

Our guest for today’s show is Randy Huntington.  Randy is a track and field coach, who has spent his recent years as the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience.  Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps, has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members.  Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. More recently, Randy has had tremendous success coaching in Asia, a capstone of which has been Su Bingtian, who recently set the Asian 100m dash record of 9.83 seconds at age 31.  En route to his 100m record, Su broke the world record in the 60m (as a split time) with a 6.29, which converts to around a 4.07s 40 yard dash. When a teenager, or relatively untrained individual takes a few tenths off of their 40 yard dash, or drops a half second in the 100m dash over several years time, this is a normal and natural occurrence, and isn’t something that really demands digging far into.  On the other hand, when an already elite athlete, who is at, or slightly past their “prime” years, moves into their 30s and smashes sprint records, this is something that is truly worth putting a close eye on. On the show today, Randy Huntington speaks on some of the training elements that helped sprinter, Su Bingtian achieve his recent results.  Randy goes into his views on special strength training for speed, particularly on the level of the lower leg, and speaks on the use of banded and wearable resistance in speed training, as well as some nuts and bolts on resisted and sled sprint work.  On the back end of the show, Randy gets into training the elastic and fascial systems of an athlete, and how to optimize an athlete’s elastic response to training in plyometrics and beyond. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, Inside Tracker, and Lost Empire Herbs. For 25% off of an Inside Tracker order go to info.insidetracker.com/justflysports For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:02 – What’s been happening with Randy in his last 4 years of coaching, particularly with Su Bingtian and his success 12:24 – Some of the big training elements that helped Su Bingtian get down to 9.83/6.29 from 10.0/6.50 in his time working with Randy 18:37 – Using banded and wearable resistance methods for improving speed and “bridging” the gap between the weight room and the track 25:58 – Randy’s advice for using sleds/heavy sleds in training 32:59 – The “train your frame” system and the importance of body proportions and structure on optimal sporting events for athletes 37:01 – How Randy uses sleds for contrast training, as well as concepts on wave-loading and how many sets in a row to utilize 40:25 – The importance of elastic energy in athletic performance, and how under-estimated the elastic contribution to performance is, as well as how important dynamic elastic ability is for running endurance 50:44 – The nature of the advanced spikes and track surface used in the Tokyo Olympic games, and its impact on athletes 55:04 – Randy’s take on optimizing the elastic and fascial systems of an athlete, as well as a chat on ground contact times in plyometrics 1:06.28 – How improved foot strength played into Su’s improvement in the 100m dash, as well as in various portions of the race, as well as how Randy trained Su’s foot strength 1:08:26 – The role of harmonics and resonance between one’s foot/body and the running surface, especially in the course of a 100m dash race 1:19.56 – How to increase the eccentric rate of development in standard exercises, such as a partner pushing a partner down into an exercise 1:28.10 – Randy’s take on jumping off of an angled surface, versus a flat surface in jumping, or in jumping machines “(In 2016) I took (Su) over to the Kaiser seated calf, and tested him, his power output was 735 watts, which was weaker than my weakest female triple jumper… so our first goal was to get that soleus strength as high as we could get it… now he is in the 26-2700 watt range” “Even though (Su) was a quick starter, he wasn’t a fast starter” “Elasticity wise, (Su) couldn’t rebound off the ground… so we got him into low amplitude single leg rebounding and slowly brought it up” “I see 3 things that are my best teaching tools, the 1080 (sprint) and the sled… then the exogen, and then the activator belt (a belt with tubing attached to limbs)… those are the 3 most important integration tools, integrating the weight room to what you are doing on the track” “When we do drills, we’ll do activator belt, exogen, off” “You can’t underestimate the need for the psoas the other hip flexors to be really powerful and strong” “If you are going to use external loading, you had better be prepared to rest a while” “A heavy sled to me is a sled with close to your bodyweight, then we went half the bodyweight, then we would quarter the bodyweight” “Even that first step (in a sprint) becomes elastic in nature, pretty quickly” “In the jumpers, we are seeing close to a 1 to 1 ratio between femur and tibia… the RSI indexes are reflective of the anthropometric indexes of the athletes” “I do things in 3’s… occasionally I do them in 4’s if I want to push the nervous system to take it” “When you start talking about (elasticity/power) in isolation, or discreetly, you can get yourself in trouble because the body is a system” “That’s the whole goal is to figure out how to get the athlete to access that elastic ability” “To train (elastic/fascial) we go back to low amplitude” “I started wearing earth shoes in 1977 and my vertical jump was gone, because the Earth Shoes had a negative heel, I just kept stretching slowly, my Achilles and I lost the elasticity in my calf” “I don’t know if there’s one exercise you can pick, but high hurdle hops may be close to it, as a great way to destroy anybody’s elasticity and their ability to create good ground contact times” “(Regarding ground contact times) you have to measure it, to see at what height athletes achieve their best ground contact times, because then you can go a little above it, or a litte below it” “I don’t use the word “jump” very much with jump training, I use “bounce” training” “Soleus is usually the most undeveloped muscle in the lower extremity” “The key to the 100m is,  you have to wait for the track to give something back, and at that point, that’s when you feel and go…. you gotta race enough to feel max velocity” “The Keiser seated calf is one of the most under-rated training machines ever made” “You must get your foot adjusted (by a therapist) if you are a jumper, sprinter, thrower, distance runner… it’s like having a race-car” About Randy Huntington Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has over 45 years of coaching experience.  Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events. Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history. Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell. Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.

Our guest for today’s show is Logan Christopher.  Logan is a strongman, author, owner of Legendary Strength and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs.  Logan previously appeared on episode 111 and episode 187, where he discussed mental training in depth, as well as the “6 layers” of strength.  Logan has also written several books including “Mental Muscle” and “Powered by Nature”, both of which I have found impactful reads.  Logan is a master of using the natural machinery of the body, our mind, and our environment to help us reach our highest potential as humans. An interesting saying you hear over and over again is that “the game is all mental”, or it is “90% mental” by many elite athletes.  Although there are general physical standards to be successful in many sports (think of the body type of a runner or a jumper, or the long arms that are very helpful in making it to the NBA) it is impossible to overlook the role of the mind, especially in elite performers.  Perhaps one’s genetic structure can help one to “get in the door” in the sport they are most suited for, but it is always going to be the mind that allows them higher levels of success. On the show today, Logan talks about many facets of both physical and mental training.  He starts with an important facet of coaching we haven’t gotten much into before, and that is on the language a coach uses to describe exercises, and training in general, and how these can impact training outcomes.  He also speaks on specific learning styles that can also be used in one’s visualization routines, as well as his take on the use of analogies and imagination in athletic skill performance.  Logan also goes into elements of old-school strongman training, as well as a quick take on why testosterone has dropped across the world over the last 50-100 years by a substantial margin. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs.  For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:40 – Talking about managing training in context of holding back and achieving balance in order to have continual progress 11:10 – How the language a coach uses in the course of a workout can impact the outcome of the training (especially on the level of over-training) 14:25 – The four learning styles, and how to leverage these learning styles for better training results 20:40 – How to specifically optimize the auditory learning style in training 23:10 – How to approach strengths vs. weaknesses in terms of the four learning styles and physical training 32:00 – How analogies, as spoken about by Nick Winkelman, can be effective for athletes in light of Neurolinguistic programming philosophy 33:40 – How imaginatory ability impacts one’s physical and athletic abilities 39:10 – If Logan could pick only one mental training tool for himself now, and then 10 years ago, what he would utilize 43:10 – How much mental training Logan does now that he has over a decade of mental training under his belt 50:10 – Some old school strongman lift performances from the past that haven’t been touched in the last 50 years 55:25 – Speaking on the link between breathing and strongman training 59:10 – Why testosterone has dropped so much in the last 50 years “Typically I don’t even refer to my workouts as workouts, I refer to them as “training”” “I like to use the word “severety” for “effort” instead (of intensity)” “Words do matter, this is going to change the results we get” “(With language) taking a small thing and compounding it over time is going to be a big difference” “The four (learning) styles are visual, auditory, kinesthetic and digital” “Most people in sport tend to be kinesthetic learners…. The visual and kinesthetic are common in athletes” “As a coach, we are going to coach predominantly in our own style” “Very often, we find the audio component is completely missing from internal imagination, but there is tremendous power in the potential of audio to “boost the signal” (related to a physical performance)” “The quality of your audio matter, more-so than the words you are saying to yourself” “If you can’t (scream “I am the greatest”) you can imagine it, and you can feel that energy as if you are saying it out loud with that sort of tone or belief behind it” “Beliefs structure what we do” “Mental training is not a “then and there” kind of thing, but also a building thing over time” “Here’s the thing, you are mental training whether you think it or not, because you may not have the awareness, but thoughts are going through your head, visualizations are going through your head, you may have to step back and tweak it to make it work well” “If people want to get really good results, you are going to have to learn some things about mental training, and then practice” “You are doing mental training whether you think you are or not, so some people are going to by default be better at it… going under the hood and actually looking at the techniques and what kind of specific mental drills we can do is a surefire way to improve your performance” “(Why testosterone has dropped so much) the basic answer is: Pollution” “(In terms of helping support our endocrine system/testosterone) Eating organic food, drinking fresh or filtered water…. skin care products are quite horrible (more of an issue for women than men)” “When I talk about testosterone it is more of a healthy living plan” “Here’s something to keep in mind, anything you put on your skin is going into your body, it absorbs through your pores” About Logan Christopher Logan Christopher is a strongman, entrepreneur and mental training expert from Santa Cruz, CA.  He is the owner of legendarystrength.com and is the CEO of Lost Empire Herbs lostempireherbs.com.  Logan is the author of Mental Muscle and Powered by Nature, along with having written hundreds of articles on strength, health, herbalism, mental training and more. Logan is regarded as an expert in the mental performance field, and he has in depth expertise as an NLP Master Practitioner and certified hypnotist.  As a strongman, Logan has numerous feats to his name, such as phonebook tearing, nail bending, truck pulling and kettlebell juggling.  This blend of interests and abilities gives Logan a unique perspective in the strength and human performance industry.