Thursday, February 11, 2010
Preview Gym Movement: Immediate Performance Improvement with Real Time, on the spot, Self Assessment Strategies
The folks call the approach Gym Movement: Perpetual Progress, and it's key proponents are Adam T Glass and Mike T Nelson, while it's founder as i understand it is Frankie Fairies (no T middle initial).
The premise as i understand it so far is that we can readily test each move we may want to carry out in a workout to see if it, or a variant of it is more appropriate for where our nervous system is at right at that moment. The following is the intro video by Frankie Faires and Craig Keaton.
However you may find that demo vids of the approach in progress by Adam are more illustrative
There's even more by adam at his new site here. I'm definitely intrigued by how this approach may improve within-workout performance.
My current experience has been to use z-health mobility work to address performance weaknesses - when a lift doesn't feel right, or isn't performing right, use appropriate i-phase drills (usually it's i-phase stuff as sport specific mobility/opening work) and go at it again. Usually this produces a good response and immediate change.
What Gym Movement seems to be suggesting is that - and i interpolate here - while you might tune a movement, there may be a more optimal movement for you to do that day. This is where i'm currently unsure. And i suppose the response from anyone in this space - especially in z-health - would be to say, "just test it"
In other words, go ahead and tune the movement, then test myself using these assessments demo'd above in Gym Movement to see if even tuned, they're the optimal ones for me to make progress. These assessments will seem familiar to folks who have done z-health certs or the elite performance workshop. Indeed, i've asked how this is not a repackaging of z-health assessments; here's Master Trainer Mike T Nelson's reply. Faires, a level 4 Z-health instructor, notes in his reply to my query, that he brought these moves to the Z-Health community.
What may be particular about his approach is this location of test everything before you do it to find what's optimal in the moment. That's interesting, don't you think? Though again this does seem to resonate with the R-phase certification in Z-Health. So, the deeper question for me, is what happens when taking a suite of assessments to be combined - as they're presented in Z-Health in anywhere from a 3-6 day workshop/cert context - and factoring out just a couple of them into a self-assessment 40min DVD?
The last move is not always best. One thing watching some of the vids by adam is that ya might think oh well the second or third move will always have a better range of motion because you've been moving more. Not so. Try it for yourself. I definitely found yesterday that my second move of choice consistently tested poorer than the alternate - no matter where in the sequence it was. Relationship to arthrokinetic reflex perhaps?
I still have questions. For instance, i might test better with my toes turned out for a squat than in, but is that what i want? or do i want to get better at toes more neutral? Perhaps the answer is keep practicing the Z-health mobilty drills or FMS movements to enhance better dorsiflexion or whatever, but work with what's optimal that day and see how it improves - or not - over time. And if it doesn't improve, that ought no doubt to be a sign of something.
More To Come. So i have the DVD coming, and Frankie has kindly agreed to have a sit down with me after i've had a chance to digest it and chat here at b2d about it, but i wanted to alert you b2d readers to this seemingly extremely simple approach to get optimal. There's so much available on the web by these guys, i'm really intrigued to see what's left on the DVD. IT seems they're really motivated to let folks test the waters themselves. So that if you want the DVD great, but you can get going without it. That's pretty durn intriguing.
Personally, i'd check out the site, because there are even more free videos there - even if it looks like your typical health marketing site. alas - but push a little beyond that and you'll be happy to have done so.
Please let me know if you've been playing with this approach and what you think, and i'll be back with a deeper review here in the next month or so.
best
mc Tweet Follow @begin2dig
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Friday, November 20, 2009
Z-Health Essentials of Elite Performance Workshops: Hands on Z-Health Including Self-Assessments - way cool
This 3day workshop that started (i believe) with Dragon Door acting as host for the past two years, only offered via DD and only once a year, that provided a three day overview of three core parts of Z-Health: R (dvds | review), I (dvds | review) and S (dvds | review), a day on each. Now Z-Health is offering these workshops, lead by founders Eric Cobb and Kathy Mauck, internationally.
For UK trainers, we are in the process to have the workshop REPS certified. In the US, i believe the process may already be complete of having the workshop listed for CEU's with the various sports certification groups. Will check.
Schedule
The next one, i'm very pleased to say, is happening in London, Feb 5-7, 2010.
The one after that is Boston, March 5-7, 2010. There will be more (see the z-health calendar).
You can register by hitting the highly descriptive banner below, or using this link
What's Covered And Why Attend. This workshop is a fabulous way to check out the Z-Health program beyond the drills on the DVDs, get a hands-on check of your own practice if you've been using the DVDs - or a full, theory-meets-practice overview if you're interested in the performance benefits of the approach either as a coach or an athlete. There's stuff in here, too, that isn't covered in the certs. So this is more and other than a "best of" the Z-Health certs. It is a workshop in its own right, geared to give an athlete/trainer the theorerical and practical foundations for making our practice closer to that Perfect Rep i've spoken of before.
Indeed, at a recent Z-Health certification, we were told that even though we've gone through each of the certifications, attending this Essentials workshop is a Good Idea as there are a range of self-assessments taught that are unique to the workshop. Dang, there's more? There's more. So whether you're a trainer or an athlete there's material here to benefit everyone's practice. You can tell i'm jazzed about this, eh? And because already highly trained Z-Health trainers are encouraged to participate, you'll find yourself likely surrounded by folks who can help you get even more from the weekend experience with expert hands-on assistance.
Curriculum. The following if from the workshop page on the Z-Health site, to give you a sense of the curriculum.
But Wait! There's more. Really. So this is cool, right? Learn an awful lot of performance assessing/enhancing tools in 3 days. It does get a wee bit better. If you decide at the course that you want to get into Z-Health and certify, considerable %'s of your workshop fee, up to the complete fee, will get applied to the cert fees. The value of an already super workshop in its own right gets extended to support your education further. That's kinda cool.Day 1 introduces the basic principles of the Z-Health system from our Level 1 Certification R-Phase (Re-education, Restoration, Rehabilitation).
Learn:
1. How Z-Health targets the body's governing system, the nervous system for lightning fast results.
2. Neural training principles that will FINALLY help you sort out fact from fiction in the confusing world of fitness.
3. Dozens of dynamic joint mobility drills that can instantly create dramatic changes in your posture, strength, power, flexibility, and coordination
4. Ways to harness the governing law of human physiology, the SAID principle, to super-charge your training and results.
5. Powerful self-assessments for precise, on-the-spot decision-making to always know if a drill or exercise is the right one for you or your clients. [this is gold. period. it's also the heart of the z-health ethos: assess, test, re-assess. you need to know how to check if what you're doing is making a positive effect or not. With the focus on the nervous system, that response comes back immediately with the tools on how to evaluate that response -mc]
6. The neural principles that govern how your muscles, nerves, and joints MUST interact for truly effective and pain-free movement.
7. The six must-do high-payoff joint mobiity drills for everyone.
Day 2 shows you how to take the building blocks from R-Phase to the next level and beyond by introducing you to the principles of our Level 2 Certification I-Phase (Integration), which focuses on drills to remove the road blocks to your natural athleticism.
Learn:
1. The Z-Health athletic movement template – your guide to athletic movement mastery.
2. Your body's Neural Hierarchy (visual, vestibular, & proprioceptive) and how problems in any of them can put the brakes on your strength and performance.
3. How your visual muscles function reflexively and how to use this information to make immediate gains in your strength, speed, flexibility, and mobility.
4. Visual and vestibular (balance) self assessments that will make your nervous system run like a fine-tuned machine. [this is a great component of the course -mc]
5. The seven essential balance training drills for real-world performance. [this is a great component of the course, and it has NOTHING to do with stability balls or bosus. you will be happily impressed. -mc]
Day 3 builds on the athletic movement foundation you established in I-Phase by focusing on precise sports mechanics essentials taken from our Level 3 Certification, S-Phase (Sports Phase).
Learn:
1. The difference between your eyesight (20/20) and real-world sports vision skills.
2. 10 different sports vision assessments that will show you how to develop the eyes of a pro. [ok, this one is huge both for yourself to self check and for any athletes you may train from the very young to the elite. These simple checks can lead to profound and IMMEDIATE performance differences. no kidding -mc]
3. The Quickness Hierarchy and why there is more to your speed than just raw musculuar horsepower.
4. 6 biomechanical movements that will quickly become the foundation of your newfound sports speed.
5. 5 specific drill sets to help you master the mechanics needed for maximum linear speed and explosiveness.
6. Multiple ways in which you can utilize every drill you've learned to maximize your total body explosive power.
[each of the above speed associated suites is awesome. If you ever thought you were a slow person (me, hands up), these drills/techniques will help change your mind. I keep saying immediate, but really the benefits are that fast: do the drill, you get the blast off. IT's not muscular; it's technique. very cool]
And of course, like all Z-Health's products there's a 100% satisfaction guarentee. But just by way of context? The first time the workshop was offered, over 60 people attended and over 90% signed up on the spot to do ALL the certifications.
Ok, why am i waxing so enthusiatic about this workshop? Yes it's great that it's a sampler of big chunks of the Z-Health program, and the more people doing Z-Health the healthier and happier the planet. Yes it's a great way to get one's personal practice with Z-Health tuned, BUT because of its design, a person really DOES get the tools necessary right off the bat from this course to make huge transformations to their performance, and with the folks they may train. This is a full meal deal, real thing.
Now three days is just not enough to get into the depth of all Z-Health has to offer in any one of these areas. R-Phase for instance is a 6 day certification. But it's designed to provide such a super efficient tool box that a person just can't miss. And as said, the ratio of Z-Health trainers in the room to participants is so good that the quality of the delivery is just amplified.
This *needs* to become the workshop of choice for any trainer looking for excellent Continuing Ed credits. This *needs* to become the workshop of choice for universites to send their elite athletes and ALL their coaches to, to improve their programs immediately. That sounds like a rather bold claim, but especially if you are a trainer or coach, you'll get that after the first hour in the course. Likewise as athletes (and Cobb sees anyone who moves as an athlete), you'll see how the first technique presented will help open up the possibilities for progress.
Ok, the summary then is that the benefits of the course are not things you have to wait to try to see if they'll help. You'll get it immediately. At the speed of the nervous system. And that's cool, eh? Please, by all means, check it out (sign up :) ), and hope to see you in London or Boston in the New Year.
Related Posts
- Overview of Z-Health - what it is and why it's so fast
COACHING with dr. m.c. 
