Articles

We are living in an era where often disparate fields of medicine, rehabilitation, pain science, and strength & conditioning can communicate freely and openly, ultimately improving human performance. This post is an example of such. I am happy to share an open...

We've already discussed how to increase performance with breathing and bracing strategies during movements (I highly recommend checking out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 to get the whole picture), but what about when the training, competition, mission, or workday is...

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed how mouth breathing can alter head-neck control. In Part 2, we talked breathing during max effort. And as we discussed, holding your breath (with appropriate mechanics) is a natural, physiologic method for maximizing spinal...

In Part 1, I discussed why mouth breathing destabilizes the entire upper body via the loss of packed neck position. In Part 2 of this series on breathing and performance, we need to discuss breathing under max load. There is a growing interest in breathing mechanics...

This is the first in a multi-part series on breathing and performance. I think we can all agree that mouth breathing is not ideal. It ruins your date and makes you dread sitting next to a mouth breather on an airplane. But aesthetics aside, it significantly...

In the past few weeks I have seen numerous athletes with jaw pain or TMJd (temporomandibular joint dysfunction- Google it for more general knowledge). In all cases, they had chronic forward head positioning particularly exacerbated with heavy exertion. We see this...

This week's post is a public service announcement to get everyone to cease and desist leaning on one leg (i.e. hanging on one hip) when standing. Many of us do it without even thinking, shifting our body weight over onto one leg and just hanging out there. But in the...

This week's post is about the importance of the pursuit of perfect movement mechanics in the face of challenge. Being at the end of your rope means that you have used up any buffering of poor mechanics and the margin for error is slim. I love Urban Dictionary's...

This week's post is a short explanation on why we need to prioritize motor control, particularly of the spine, in our tight and restricted athletes. The tendency is often to look right at the joint or muscles that appear tight. Can't bend over? Must be the hamstrings....

This week's post is really a post of posts in that I have organized and summarized all of my shoulder and overhead performance articles into one. The goal here is to collate what we have so far in order to fix and improve shoulder mechanics as this is, in my opinion,...

The last few weeks we have discussed how to improve the overhead position essential for nearly any skilled athlete who needs to generate an active, stable shoulder. Whether it's throwing, pressing, overhead squatting, hand-stands, pull-ups, you NEED a stable and...

This week's post is a follow-up to last week's primer on midline stability in overhead positions. In it we discussed how to prioritize fixing the overhead pressing position by correcting lumbar overextension first. Oftentimes poor anterior core control is lacking,...

Shoulder pain is the 3rd most common orthopedic complaint (behind the low back and knee) and it's no wonder considering how so many of the sports, exercises, and skills we perform are 'shoulder expensive'. Olympic lifts, volleyball, throwing sports, swimming all...

This week's post is a primer on an excellent, quick way to view an athlete's ability to maintain motor control during a movement needed for virtually everyone (athlete or not). The ability to simultaneously stabilize on one leg while dynamically moving and controlling...

Last week we discussed 3 common mistakes athletes and coaches make that destroy training sessions and decrease performance. We have gotten you to stop sitting, encouraged (mandated) goal implementation for every training session, and improved your warm-up. But what...