Injuries are a part of sport and life. It is an unfortunate reality and a lesson some encounter with greater frequency than others. I have had my fair share of injuries as well. The reason why I am writing this post is because of my most recent injury.

Over the past 14 weeks, I have been prepping for a strongman competition in Iowa on May 16. The training cycle had been going smoothly and I was feeling good heading into the final days before my taper. Four days ago, I pulled my left bicep during tire flips. The tire flip is one event that is notorious for causing bicep injuries due to the large amount of mechanical stress it places on the biceps. Fortunately, I did not suffer a complete tear, no surgery needed. However, competing is out of the question. When you are self-employed and your job requires the uses of your hands, there is no need for any further set backs.

For some, injuries mean down time from training. They see injuries as an obstacle. Not in my mind. An obstacle is what you see when you take your eyes off the goal. There are still ways to train around injuries. Sure, I will not be able to do anything stressful with my left arm for 3-6 weeks, but I can still get a powerful training stimulus from a incorporating squat and single-leg variations for lower body strength, jumps/bounds/hops for more intensive CNS stimulus, and training my non-injured arm to help maintain strength and speed recovery of my injured arm.

Wait….what? Training your non-injured arm helps to keep your injured arm strong and heal faster?

For many of our readers, you may not be aware of the specialized background that Gallagher Performance has in personal training, athletic development, chiropractic rehabilitation, manual therapies, and sports-injury care.

Whether you are pursuing professional services for personal/performance-based training or you’re thinking of seeing a health professional about a sports injury, Gallagher Performance has two board-certified specialists who are capable of addressing your goals and needs.

Meet the Staff

Ryan Gallagher LMT, NASM-CES: Head Performance Coach
Ryan Gallagher is the Head Performance Coach and a Licensed Massage Therapist at Gallagher Performance. Ryan has quickly established himself as a highly sought after coach for athletic development, helping athletes achieve new performance bests while implementing specialized strategies along with manual therapy to keep his athlete’s healthy during their competitive and off-seasons.

Ryan has been involved in the fitness and sports performance industry since 2007. During that time, he has worked extensively with youth, high school, collegiate, and professional athletes. He has also worked with competitive strength athletes in powerlifting and Strongman, as well as physique athletes (bodybuilding, figure, and bikini).

Ryan is certified as a Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES) through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and is also a Nationally Certified Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) through the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in Sports Management with a concentration in Wellness and Fitness from California University of Pennsylvania.

To compliment his educational background, Ryan is an accomplished athlete in the sports of ice hockey, bodybuilding, powerlifting, and Strongman. HIs diverse athletic and educational background provide Ryan with an highly extensive and unique skill set that allows him to efficiently and effectively help his clients achieve their goals while staying healthy in the process.

Sean Gallagher DC, DACRB, NASM-PES: Director of Sports Therapy, Performance Coach
Dr. Sean Gallagher is the Director of Sports Therapy and also serves as a Performance Coach at Gallagher Performance. In 2009, Sean earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, IA. Prior to attending Palmer, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Exercise & Sports Science from Ohio University.

After graduating from Palmer, Sean entered a residency program in Palmer College of Chiropractic’s Sports Injury & Rehabilitation Department. The residency is the only one of its kind within a chiropractic college in the United States. Under the direction of former Olympian, Dave Juehring DC, DACRB, CSCS and Ranier Pavlicek DC, ATC, DACRB, CSCS, the residency provided Sean the opportunity to further the development of clinical skills in the realm of diagnosis, treatment and management of sport-related injuries. During this time, he received extensive training in manual therapies and developmental stabilization methods influenced by the German and Czech rehabilitation schools.

Sean graduated from his residency and completed his board certification in 2012, making him one of a select few chiropractors in the country that have successfully completed a rehabilitation and sports-injury residency. He is a board certified rehabilitation specialist through the American Chiropractic Rehabilitation Board (ACRB) that abides by the standards set out by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies.

To compliment his clinical training and experience, Sean also serves as a Performance Coach with years of experience working with athletes of all abilities and is a certified Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) through NASM. He is an accomplished athlete in the sports of ice hockey and Strongman. During his time at Ohio University, he was part of the 2004 ACHA D1 National Championship team. In 2001, he was named to the NHL’s Central Scouting Service “Top 10” High School players in the US and was ranked among the top players in North America (US and Canada). As a competitive amateur Strongman, he has won or placed in several NAS sanctioned competitions since 2010 and was a National qualifier in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Our staff welcomes the opportunity to get you back to 100% and help you reach your fitness or performance-related goals. When you think of sports performance training and chiropractic rehabilitative care in the Pittsburgh area, remember the team of experts at Gallagher Performance.

 

I first started working with Sean, at Gallagher Performance, due to an injury to my back/SI Joint in 2014. The injury occurred December of 2013 and I went through almost a year of physical therapy and other doctor appointments before coming to Sean to fix the problem. Sean realized what the problem was and started giving me a combination of chiropractic adjustments and specific exercises to strengthen the area and eliminate the problem.

Over the time when I was injured, I was unable to do anything overly physical. The worst thing that can ever happen to a former athlete is to realize that they can no longer be athletic. I needed to do something more, so I came back to Sean immediately and had him write me up a plan and provide one on one guidance to help me achieve my fitness goals. Sean prescribed a rigorous training program that challenged me day in and day out. I noticed results very quickly and within 12 weeks, I felt better than I had felt in the past 10 years!

I am still going strong with Sean's plans and I look forward to seeing what the future brings using the PROVEN Gallagher Performance methods. Sean single handedly took me from a stale couch potato and he has given me back my manhood! Thanks to Sean I feel like an athlete again. I would recommend Gallagher Performance to ANYBODY looking to get in better shape! They are the best around, hands down!

Had a couple quick thoughts on sports performance training that I wanted to share, so here it goes….

1. Advanced athletes don't always need Special Developmental Exercises (SDE)
One of the more popular trends in the fitness industry is “sport specific training”. While the training of advanced athletes must always consider the specifics of their sport, this does not always mean they need advanced exercises. For the young athlete and athletes with minimal training experience, there is no need for advanced exercises or the “Train like the Pros” mentality. This is generally well understood. However, when it comes to high-level athletes or athletes with several yeasrs of training experience, coaches/trainers may assume that they need highly innovative, cutting edge training. Parents can also fall into this trap as well due to marketing tactics. The truth is that they need the basics too. They need the basics just like everyone else. In some cases, they may need a lot of the basics. It can be surprising how poorly some high-level athletes move when they are removed from sport.

With that said, keep in mind that high-level athletes generally have the ability to adapt very quickly to repeated exposure to a given stimulus.  They have the ability to make dramatic improvements from week to week in terms of quality of movement, strength, and power development. This ability is a huge reason as to why they are such gifted athletes. The value of Special Developmental Exercises (SDE) in the preparation of high-level athletes for sport competition cannot be understated, but nothing can take the place of sound coaching that utilizes effective program variations and additions to meet the ever-changing complexities of the individual. When it comes to high-level athletes, programs may need to be updated at higher frequencies to promote continual development of the desired physical attributes the athlete needs. These updates should never be random, but applied with purpose and intent to promote continual development.

At the end of the day, some high-level athletes may be better served by training that focuses on the basics and laying a foundation for continual development through proper periodization rather than concentrating their training on fancy, innovative training methods.

2. Where you “feel " the exercise is just as important as how the exercise “looks”
We all know therapists, trainers, and gym gurus who preach “technique, technique, technique”. The importance of technique does not need repeated, but the idea of textbook technique may be more of a myth than fact. Technique, like exercise programming, should not be handled "one-size fits all" fashion. How an exercise "looks" is important, but what is too often forgotten in regards to exercise is where that individual "feels" the movement. For example, you observe an athlete performing a movement with what appears to be “perfect technique”, yet they do not “feel” the movement activating muscles in the right places. This example also highlights why feedback from an athlete can be extremely valuable. It is extremely valuable to know where your client/athlete “feels” the exercise. Don't just assume they are feeling proper muscle activation all because the exercise “looked good” from a technique viewpoint. Helping the client/athlete to "feel" the exercise while maintaining proper technique simply comes down to coaching, tweaking technique, and/or finding the right cues to promote the visual imagery necessary for them to connect their brain to the movement.
More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/quotes-and-insights-from-buddy-morris-strength-coach-of-the-arizona-cardinals/

After the recent posting of Two Years at Gallagher Performance, we received a generous amount of positive feedback. You all are too kind and please know that we truly appreciate it. Along with your feedback, we received a number of messages from people wanting to know, "What have you learned?"

That question really got my mind going. Honestly, another year in business teaches you a great deal. Certainly a simple sentence or two would not be sufficient to answer the question.

All things considered, this past year has provided several friendly reminders of why we do what we do at GP. Some of the biggest lessons learned came in the form of routinely dispelling common misconceptions when it comes to owning and operating your own business in the competitive health and fitness/training industry.

So, for your entertainment, we present to you our thoughts on a few misconceptions that we routinely encounter.

Misconception #1 – We work “Banker’s Hours”
One of the biggest misunderstandings we have come across is that professionals in the fields of health or fitness work Monday-Friday, 9-5 or that they work minimal hours a day to operate and fulfill the needs  of the business. In reality, owning your own small business is a 24/7, 365 days a year responsibility. When you are not handling daily business operations, you are either working countless hours answering emails and phone calls, programming for clients, filing necessary insurance paperwork, updating social media and blog content to creating an Internet presence, etc. When it’s all said and done, days can add up to 10-12 hours real quick. This becomes especially true during the peak seasons of spring/summer when our schedules fill up with high school and collegiate athletes.

People get into the health and fitness industry all the time because they claim how much they love it and that it’s their “passion”. Others get into to make a fast buck, never once realizing that it’s a job. It’s a fun job, but it’s still a job. You better love what you do because there are certainly easier ways to make more money while working less hours. With that said, we have learned over and over again that we love what we do.

Misconception #2 - Success Comes Quickly
Believing success comes quickly is another huge misconception, especially within the fitness industry. It seems as if no one wants to put in the real work. The honest, hard work earned through time. Earned through experience. Earned through the professional growth one gains by working with a number of clients of various backgrounds and developing a track record of success. The traditional approach to professional development appears to be old fashioned. Nowadays, newbies to the fitness industry would rather focus on growing their Facebook or Instagram following by creating the “appearance” of success rather than truly earning it. We have a small number of likes on our Facebook page and even fewer followers on Instagram, yet we continue to grow. We grow because of the track record of success we continue to develop, not because of some selfie posted online. If business success had anything to do with selfies and hashtags, we would have been finished long ago.

Similar to other successful businesses, our growth stems from putting in the work and building our business from the floor up. We did not build our business backwards by first creating a huge following while having little to no experience. Rather than focusing on creating a huge following, we prefer to focus on quality of service and building a track record of success, thankful that those who have worked with us are more than willing to tell others about our business. The process never goes as quickly as you'd wish, but there's more satisfaction in the climb than being at the top. We've learned that we love the process. We love the grind. We recognize that nothing meaningful ever came from quick and easy. Besides, the individuals hoping for "quick and easy" seem to be the ones who enter the industry and are out within a couple years. Likely because their "image" of success could not longer compensate for their mediocre results and what they lacked in knowledge and experience.

Misconception #3 – Knowledge Doesn’t Have Value
This misconception probably bothers us the most and it stems from the typical, “Let me pick your brain....” scenario. Keep in mind; we realize that being part of the health and fitness industry is about helping others by providing sound advice and guidance. Ryan and I both went into business realizing that we will be providing a lot of free advice, but there is a fine line that must be respected. The health and fitness industry is both knowledge and service based, so a genuine respect for one’s knowledge would be very much appreciated. I would argue that the industry is primarily knowledge-based, as services (program design, nutrition structure, etc.) are dependent upon knowledge. However, unlike services, It becomes difficult to attach value to knowledge.

When it comes to receiving advice, it’s as it people assume advice should be given away freely. After all, it’s just information, right? Wrong. We field so many questions on a regular basis from people who are ultimately looking for free information. They are looking for guidance from a knowledgeable individual, in hopes of better organizing their own training or nutrition for their self-betterment. Usually it goes a little like this, “Real quick, how would you structure my workouts or my eating/macros so I am able to achieve ABC goals” Quality, experienced coaches understand that there is no “quick” answer to this question. If you have respect for a coach/trainer, please have respect for their knowledge and appreciate the fact that it supports their livelihood. It’s how they earn a living; it’s what they get paid to do. Respect the fact that you are receiving knowledge from them and there is value attached to that. Don’t be a serial freeloader.

Wrap Up
Misconceptions can prove to be a great learning tool. We recognize that dealing with these common misconceptions and many others is a part of job. So let's hear from you. To our professional colleagues and friends in the health and fitness industry, what are some of the common misconceptions you encounter on a regular basis? We welcome your responsible replies and comments.

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/are-you-promoting-independence/

April 2015 marks two years since Gallagher Performance opened and with the anniversary on the horizon, I thought it was time to start reflecting back on our second year in business.

All our services from chiropractic to massage to personal training to sports performance training continue to experience steady, consistent success. Sure we do not operate at the volume of more established businesses, but our business model places a greater focus on individualized instruction over pure numbers. To us, business success is not simply measured in terms of client volume or monetary gain. For us, success is also measured by identifying how others have been positively impacted by their experience at GP. This could be in the form of clients experiencing improved self-image and confidence that extends beyond the weight room, improved markers of health, improved ability to perform activities without pain or limitation, avoided surgeries, or learning how you inspired a young athlete to pursue a career in chiropractic or fitness. This is exciting to us and it is humbling to learn how you are making a difference.

In regards to our services, it has been another great year. GP’s chiropractic and rehab therapy has been recognized as one of the best in the Pittsburgh area. Our personal and performance training services continue to generate tremendous results for our clients and athletes. The results keep our clients loyal and the referrals coming in. We have truly cared about delivering quality in all services since we opened. It’s a great feeling to see how much our clients appreciate the attention, know-how, and confidence they receive while working with us. When you focus on quality of service and improving the consumer experience, only good things can happen.

Of all our services, this is most easily observed with our sports performance training. In only two years, we have seen our sports performance training services utilized by a variety of athletes from a growing list of amateur/club organizations, high schools, and colleges. In addition, GP continues to direct the Strength & Conditioning program for the Franklin Regional Hockey Organization.

Here is a glimpse into what types of athletes we have worked with and where they are coming from:

Sports/Events

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cross Country
• Football
• Golf
• Hockey
• Lacrosse
• Physique (Bodybuilding, Bikini, Figure)
• Powerlifting
• Soccer
• Strongman
• Track and Field (sprint event focus)

• Franklin Regional
• Greensburg Central Catholic
• Hempfield
• Penn Hills
• Plum
• Seneca Valley

• Andrew Brncic, Alderson Broaddus University (NCAA DII) - Football
• Colin Jonov, Bucknell University (NCAA DI) - Football
• Colin Childs, California University of Pennsylvania (NCAA DII) - Football
• Jake Roberge, Northwestern University (NCAA DI) - Soccer
• Ben Dipko, Slippery Rock University (NCAA DII) - Football
• Christian Wilson, Mount St. Mary’s (ACHA DIII) - Hockey
• Ryan Grieco, Lake Erie College (NCAA DII) - Baseball
• Evan James, Penn State University Greater Allegheny (NCAA III) - Baseball
• Dante Luther, Washington & Jefferson University (NCAA DII) - Football
• Charan Singh, University of Massachusetts (NCAA DI) – Football

Your nervous system has a nasty of habit of adapting.

Adaptation is the ultimate goal of training. Physical training is intended to create the stimulus needed for adaptation. Adaptation takes on a number looks, be it increased muscle mass, increased strength, improved speed and power outputs, or increased cardiovascular efficiency. The desired adaptations will always depend upon the needs of the athlete and how periodization influences each training phase or block.

Training phase? Training block? Periodization?

If these terms are unfamiliar to you, let us emphasize why they need to be important to you: Your nervous system gets bored of everything.
Our bodies are wired in such a way that unless we change some variable (volume, intensity, frequency, etc.) of the training stimulus, we will ultimately fail to continually adapt.

Periodization and the pursuit of adaptation is the foundation of scientific progression in physical training and athletic development. Great coaches will put you on a program long enough for you to adapting to it, then they introduce change.

Periodization is simply organization of training. One must have an expertise of how organization of training and exercise selection expertise impacts development. This is a prerequisite to training anyone, but unfortunately there are many under-qualified trainers and coaches out there that do not understand these concepts. Entire teams or groups of individuals should not all be performing the same training. This would assume the entire team or everyone in your group training class has the same deficiencies. Approaching training in this fashion is just ridiculous and deserves to be criticized. Periodization and training is an individualized process. The fitness industry and fad-based training has convinced the public that periodization and planning is not needed. Well, at least until training fails to produce meaningful results.

Understand there is no perfect program or system, just phases of training. Training is an ongoing process. Periodization and the planning of training is an ongoing process. This is why your trainer or coach must be putting some thought into your training, otherwise your success is always in jeopardy.

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/commonmistakesindevelopingyoungathletes/

Health and fitness is a service-based industry and, like all service-based industries, the Internet has dramatically changed how people are reached with marketing and sales strategies. Among many factors, a huge player is the rise in popularity of social media and the entertainment it provides. From Facebook to Twitter to YouTube to Instagram, one has the opportunity to reach people with greater ease than ever before.

Certainly, there are many positives that can result from this; however, there is the other side. The side where the opportunists, the con-artists, and the shameless self-promoters thrive. They have more interest in deception than education. Sure they can entertain and fascinate, but are they providing something of substance? Social media has opened the door to anyone who wants to push health and fitness information before anyone can scrutinize the quality, making sure it holds up to the science of human and exercise physiology.

So how do you identify the frauds? The con-artists? The over-night sensations who compete in one event (show, competition, race) and are now parading themselves online as some go-to fitness expert before anyone has realized they are only serving one giant cup of nonsense, likely peddling other's work and intellectual property as their own?

My brother and I ponder this subject quiet often. We discuss it with close friends and colleagues in the health and fitness industry. So here is a short list of items that should make you question both what you are reading and the person associated with it.

1) Lack of qualifications for what they claim to do.
Honest members of the industry will come straight out and tell you what they’re trained to do and more importantly, what they are not trained to do. In the fitness industry, some jobs don’t require much of a formal education, while other jobs require quite the opposite. A run-of-the-mill personal trainer only requires a basic certification before gaining hands-on experience. Those who work in high-performance settings, with specialized clients, or integrate therapeutic or corrective measures into their programs will require considerably more education as they are held to higher standards of competency. Naturally, the higher you climb, the greater your earning potential. The problem arises when trainers mislead and misrepresent themselves, acting as if they are qualified in areas they are not, all in the name of earning the almighty buck. They are usually the ones who are also trying to convince you that education is not importance and "only experience matters". This is just wrong. Stop it. This is a classic con-man scheme.

2) They Suffer from Selfie-Hashtag-Buzzword Syndrome.
Social media has created a monster known as the selfie. Those trying their best to break into the fitness industry want to make as much noise as possible. What better avenue than selfies, right? They use their endless stream of selfies as if they are pushing a business card in your face. As if somehow we should buy into what they are doing and come along for the ride. Then to top it all off, they bombard us with hashtags, buzzwords, and trendy phrases intended to connect, motivate, and inspire. Ultimately, they want you to buy into them. They want your attention and your business. Most in the fitness industry are guilty of this, and I must admit we play the game as well. But if you sift through all the selfies and hashtags and find only more selfies and hashtags with nothing of real substance, red flags should go up. There is a point at which those that you follow online must stop existing in the virtual world and provide a physical form of interaction. Who have they worked with? What results have they produced? If their body of work is mostly selfies and hashtags, they're a fraud.

3) What they say doesn’t line up with how they look.
This builds off my earlier point. Sure there are plenty of trainers and coaches and fitness experts who look great and seem to have the body of your desires (attention ladies). The are usually the one posting selfies, using their body as their business card. They want you to know how great they look on a constant basis. There are thousands in the health and fitness industry that look great. So what?  Does that necessarily mean they know what they are doing or that they possess the knowledge on how to help you reach your goals. I agree that people in the health and fitness industry should “look the part”. They should exemplify health and fitness because it's their passion, not because they are trying to sell you on themselves or their products. Looking the part is important, but if you are going to base who you decide to work with solely on how they look, you could be in for a rude surprise. Talk to them. Ask them questions. They should be knowledgeable. They should be educated on the subjects of anatomy, physiology, nutrition, human movement, and how these topics relate to your goals.  People get into these industries all the time because it looks easy on paper. It’s not easy.  If they are clueless, they are in the wrong business.

4) They always have something to say, always trying to sell.
If someone is really good – meaning they know what they’re talking about and consistently get quality results – you never hear from them. Rather you hear about them – from their clients, colleagues, and their competition. But, you never hear from them directly.

What about the imitators? They are all about making noise. All about getting as much attention as possible. They will not only hustle to get your attention. No, hustling is not enough. They are going to overwhelm you, wave after wave after wave of their propaganda.

Trust your gut the next time some health or fitness “expert” pops up on your social media and your reaction is, “Not them again.” Your gut instinct is usually an honest one.

Final Words
There are plenty of honest individuals and organizations in the health and fitness industry that operate themselves with integrity. Seek them out. They desire to properly educate and help others achieve their goals, doing so with tremendous success. These are the trainers and coaches you need to find and receive guidance from when you are unsure of how to pursue your goals. But with all the noise and distractions, they can be hard to find because they aren't out there shamelessly promoting themselves. Unfortunately, there are far too many frauds and con-artists who end up getting more business than they should because of the noise they generate. Noise does not equal results. Hopefully this article allows you to best identify who you should be trusting with your health and fitness pursuits. And hopefully it helps you to ignore the noise.

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/the-truth-about-functional-exercise/

https://gallagherperformance.com/training-tip/

https://gallagherperformance.com/how-to-develop-physical-fitness/

Ryan and I have been fortunate to be influenced and mentored by some great coaches and athletes when it comes to the understanding of athletic development. There is no doubt that they have had a substantial impact on our abilities and coaching methodologies. Even with all the great mentors and book smarts, the lessons learned from being competitive athletes ourselves has had a significant impact on our coaching methodologies as well. From the point of view of an athlete, all that matters is wins and losses. At the end of the day, being an athlete is about developing your body’s potential for higher levels of performance. There are many coaches and many systems that currently exist which will have you believe their system is the only system. And they can be very good at it. With the amount of information that exists today in regards to developing strength, speed, power, etc., it’s not surprising why many trainers and coaches are doing their best to make the most “noise”. Noise may get you attention, but ensuring meaningful results is another story.

I find complete arrogance to exist when trainers or coaches speak in terms of absolute laws when it comes to specific systems or movements and their necessity for enhancing sport performance. For example, when one takes on the stance of broadly advocating movements such as Olympic lifts or powerlifting-based programs with a primary emphasis on the squat, bench press, and deadlift to develop strength-speed attributes of athletes, it must be examined very closely. There are many popular programs that exist today that can promise increased performance on a number of levels. It's all about selling a product. However, what escapes most is the fact that no element of an athletic development program should be carelessly added into the mix. You can't just randomly select a program based on it's popularity or how your buddy responded to it. You should not just add in something because someone told you to do so or you read it online.

What a lot of trainers, coaches, and athletes do not understand well enough is the impact movement has on the CNS. Movements such as the Olympic lifts, squat, bench press, and deadlift can all impose a significant amount of stress upon the central nervous system (CNS). The high CNS demand is generated from the necessity to execute these movements against maximal weights or submaximal weights at maximal velocity. The intent is to develop varying degrees of strength-speed qualities. It should be emphasized at this point that the typical athlete can adapt to only 2-3 CNS stressors at one time. Keep in mind, CNS stressors are not limited to physical training such as weightlifting, sprinting, jumping, etc. CNS stressors will also include practice, games, competitive events, and time devoted to sport-skill acquisition. These all come with a cost to the athlete’s CNS reserves. Understand that the athletes will take a significant beating from practice and competition. So any strength and conditioning work that is integrated into sport work will also draw heavily on the CNS. Trainers and coaches must accept the fact that they end up losing something in the weight room. But whether it is due to ego or fear of losing specific performance markers, there are many cases in which trainers or coaches may overly stress their athletes in the weight room, eventually leading to negative performance outcomes.

The importance is this: introducing movements, such as the Olympic lifts or variations of the powerlifts, while an athlete is focusing on more important tasks, such as developing sport skill, can come with negative consequences.

Now don't get me wrong. The utilization of the Olympic lifts, squat, bench, and deadlift have been used by elite athletes around the world. They more than serve their purpose in developing qualities that power-speed athletes desire. However, they should not be applied without first understanding the context. Sure an athlete may become stronger in the squat, bench, or clean, but are they performing at new levels on the field? Is their new strength level transferring into improved acceleration, speed, or power outputs in competition? Has the process of achieving increased strength interfered with their sport performance all because it was poorly planned?

This is exactly why educating athletes on what they need to focus on at the appropriate times during the competitive calendar is such a huge part of the process at Gallagher Performance. Young athletes want to work hard, but they need direction. The same can be said for any of our training clients, regardless of their training goals. They are all willing to put in the work provided it pushes them towards their goals. We have no “system” to sell our athletes and clients on. We address their needs while providing them the understanding of the sensitivity of the process. This, in turn, creates a more educated, more independent individual who understands how to achieve their goals despite all the noise and nonsense that exists in the fitness industry.

Sure many of our posts and articles may not be the most "popular" or most "liked". We don't give away a lot of information like other popular sites. We don't have a popular ebook. We don't give out sample training programs that are easy to follow or apply because the context will vary for everyone. One person may apply it and see tremendous results, while another may see no significant improvements. Rather, we write with the goal to educate. When it comes to fitness-related writing, it is definitely more popular to give people "fish" rather than "teaching them how to fish". This could be considered a bad business model when you look at what is deemed as successful in the fitness industry. So if teaching people how to be more sustainable on their own is not popular, we can live with that.

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/thinking-of-taking-your-child-to-a-trainer-read-this-first/

https://gallagherperformance.com/learn-how-to-spot-the-fitness-frauds/

“Everyone has way more strength and power than they know how to use.“ 
          - Larry Mather, Canadian Weighlifting Coach

Let's be clear about something: Movement is a skill. This means that exercise form is a skill. Strength is a skill. Speed is a skill. For those that have participated or are currently participating in athletics, you can appreciate the importance of practice in developing skill. Who will progress more rapidly at their sport, the individual who practices 2 hours per week or the one who is practicing 10 hours per week? Assuming all things are equal, the individual with the greater training volume will progress and achieve mastery the quickest. Understand that training volume accounts for a number of factors including training frequency, duration, load, intensity, velocity of movement, etc.

Why am I bringing this up?

Frankly, there seems to be a lot of misinformation being perpetuated about building strength, speed, or mastery in regards to highly technical movements such as sprinting, squatting, and the Olympic lifts (snatch, clean and jerk). What cannot be forgotten is that these movements are a total body approach that requires every joint to contribute in order for quality work to be performed. They require a high degree of skill and neurological coordination in the execution of the movement. Regardless of whether you want to debate where stability or mobility is needed at specific regions of the body during specific joint actions, the concept of adequate neuromuscular integrity in all directions must be present.

From a motor learning perspective, strength and power development is neuroplasticity. Clients and athletes are basically undergoing computer programming during training. The greater training volume one experiences, the quicker neural pathways will adapt to become more efficient and coordinated. When you focus on the how (technique), the how much (load or amount of weight lifted) will take care of itself. A more skilled lifter is typically stronger. They can display greater strength potential due to skill in technique and skill in their ability to generate and apply more force.

If you’ve ever coached an athlete or client through technical movements, you will most certainly understand that technique is of utmost importance. Coaching  technique as it applies to sprinting, squatting, weightlifting requires that one understands biodynamics and physics. Meaning, doing it the right way is the easiest way. This also means that if the client or athlete is displaying poor technique, often times there is central motor coordination issue that must be addressed accordingly. This is what is know as, "Training the Brain." Yes, muscular imbalances and poor joint dynamics may exist, but it is very common that perceived lack of mobility is simply a result of faulty motor patterning. Rather than focusing on mobility drills and stretches to improve movement quality, appropriate cuing and biofeedback may be all that is necessary. Just watch an experienced coach in action and you’ll understand what I mean.

A coach that understands how to help their client or athlete "Train The Brain", will unlock strength and athletic potential they never knew they could achieve.

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/qa-with-head-performance-coach-ryan-gallagher-lmt-ces/

https://gallagherperformance.com/advanced-training-for-elite-athletes/

GP: Do all of our readers out there a favor and tell us a little about yourself, your athletic background, and your coaching experience?
AS: Hey guys! My name is Andrew Stimmel & I’m a 2006 graduate of Franklin Regional. I played college lacrosse at Ohio State University where If was a Defensive MVP, captain and Major League Lacrosse draft pick. Currently, I’m an assistant coach and the Director of Player Development at Yale University where I work with our midfielders, defensive personnel and goalies.

GP: What drew you to coaching after your collegiate career came to an end?
AS: I think I always enjoyed coaching; I just don’t know if I realized I wanted to make it my profession until my 5^th year at OSU where I was able to act in a GA role for Ohio State. That year made me realize what I was truly passionate about; mentoring and teaching. Coaching at this level is a fully integrated approach not just limited to on the field strategy but dedicated to the total person development. We see these kids every day for 3-4 hours (sometimes more) so we have a tremendous opportunity to impact their future as leaders of the workplace, community and their families.

GP: Now that you’re in the collegiate setting as a coach, what are some things you see athletes struggling with in regards to physical preparation?
AS: Physical preparation is our number one goal in the offseason and also one of the biggest things we preach to our incoming freshman. If our guys are out of shape and lacking the necessary conditioning/strength to play at full speed, they don’t participate. The risks for injury are too high and it’s simply unproductive for their individual development. The lack of physical preparation with our incoming guys is usually pretty obvious; inflexible athletes who are fundamentally unprepared for the speed and physicality of the college game.

GP: We often need to have the conversation with prospective clients about the whole idea of “not playing sports to get fit, but rather being fit in order to play sports”. How often do you see this play out in your experience? How much attention do you give to general physical preparation prior to the onset of the competitive season?
AS: I can understand at a younger age parents wanting their kids to participate in sports to get fit and stay active; it’s a great way to achieve those things as well as foster the concepts of teamwork and work ethic. However, as kids get bigger, stronger and faster, that type of player is being put at a huge disadvantage that can easily lead to injury. It is imperative to have some type of intentionality to physical preparation prior to your competitive season not only to perform at a high level, but prevent injury.

GP: Taking those questions and thoughts and expanding on them, what training tactics, systems, or methods do you see most coaches and trainers utilizing that are hurting their athletes more than helping them?
AS: With the exponential growth of the sport of Lacrosse over the last 15-20 years, there is a large group of people trying to capitalize in the industry. A few of the tactics, systems and methods I’ve seen that I don’t really believe have any positive impact and may actually hurt athletes are:

1)    Any weighted “lacrosse specific” exercise. Probably one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever seen. Why are we going to strap a 20lb weight vest to a 10 year old who can’t properly execute the skill or physical mechanics as is? The best way to shoot harder as a young player is to learn the proper mechanics and execute it properly during your practice time.

2)    Any banded/weighted/resistance exercise specific to running technique or footwork. I’m not completely against resistance methodology that add bands to weights or certain exercises for top level athletes; college athletes or professional athletes who are physically prepared to execute fundamental movements properly with the added load. However, when you see younger kids working predominately with bands when, again, they can’t execute a proper body weight squat, proper running technique or transfer weight properly during change of direction, it’s hurting them more than helping them.

GP: Several of our readers are parents of young athletes. From your perspective as an accomplished athlete and collegiate coach, if you were a parent of a young athlete what specifically would you be looking for in a trainer/strength coach/physical preparation coach? 
As a parent of a young athlete I would be looking for someone who is going to be honest about what my kid needs to be doing right now. If he’s a young athlete, don’t sell me on training him like a professional athlete; train him like a teenager. Get him basics first; proper movement techniques, foundational strength, correct deficiencies that could lead to injuries and maybe more serious things in the future. As a parent, it’s easy to get attracted to weight room numbers. However, what does it mean if those numbers don’t produce a better athlete on the field? Bodybuilders care how much you bench; college coaches care how you perform on the field. That’s what I’m looking for as a parent!

 
Thank you Andrew for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights from the experience you have gained not only as athlete, but now as a coach and the role you take on in player development. We hope our readers find this as informative as we do!

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/commonmistakesindevelopingyoungathletes/

We get asked quite often about our training philosophy when it comes to athletes. Many parents want to know if the training their child will receive at GP is going to be sport-specific. While specificity in training matters, many of our athletes and their parents are surprised to learn how general or fundamental their training must be in the early phases. What needs to be clarified is understanding how much training experience the athlete has and the physical traits that must be developed. The vast majority of athletes we work with are involved in the sports of football, hockey, baseball, and basketball. Success in these sports are highly dependent upon power-speed qualities. We must train these athletes to develop the abilities that allow them to jump, sprint, cut, and dominate their opponents with brute strength. It's our job to make them bigger, faster, stronger, and more durable. It's our job to physical prepare them for the demands of their sport.

Aspiring young athletes are in need of building a broad foundation rooted in movements that will develop strength, speed, flexibility, and body awareness. For the evidence-based fans out there, we use movements and exercises that all have been proven through research to work. But more importantly, the exercises used have stood the test of time and have served as the backbone to athletic development programs for decades. Sprints, jumps, throws, compound strength exercises, Olympic weightlifting movements when appropriate, and general calisthenics have all play a role in the training of some of the greatest athletes in the world.

But the exercises are not simply enough. Almost every single one of our athletes must be exposed to a high volume of training without a high degree of variation. It's important to respect the neural adaptations young athletes or novice trainees undergo during the training process. High volumes of training will help ensure motor learning and skill acquisition while developing the connective tissue strength needed for more intensive training down the road.

This template serves to lay the foundation for the neuromuscular qualities required to meet the increasing needs for speed and power development. It's simple math really. If an athlete improves relative strength, that athlete will be faster and more explosive. Keep in mind that that other factors can be at play too. For instance, that same athlete must also maintain or improve movement quality to improve speed and explosiveness.

However, these are only portions of what goes into a quality athletic development program. It's much more than simple "strength and speed". This is why we feel the value of a qualified strength and conditioning coach or athletic development coach is severely under appreciated. Unfortunately, far too many people have been misinformed by either poorly educated trainers or by the internet. They haven't experienced the difference guided athletic development can make in their performance. Having a coach to guide young athletes not only in their development, but also in areas such as nutrition and cultivating the mind set needed to achieve their goals can give them a huge advantage over their competition.

That's why we love what we do at GP. Not only do we get to work with clients and athletes that have big dreams and big goals, but we also help them develop habits that create a healthier lifestyle. When we have them giving us their best, they deserve nothing less than our best!

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/understanding-the-benefits-and-concerns-of-youth-strength-training-programs/

https://gallagherperformance.com/periodization-keep-athletes-track-fo-success/

https://gallagherperformance.com/the-essentials-of-speed-training/

GP: Please introduce yourself and give our readers some information on your professional, educational, and athletic background and achievements.
To all the readers out there, my name is Ryan Gallagher and I’m the Head Performance Coach at Gallagher Performance. Along with that I’m a licensed massage therapist, corrective exercise specialist, and nutritional consultant. My undergrad education was in Sports Management with a concentration in Wellness and Fitness and was completed at California University of Pennsylvania. I attended Hocking College in Ohio for massage.

Most of my childhood was spent participating in almost every sport imaginable. Around my mid-teen years, I decided to fully commit to ice-hockey. I was fortunate enough to play at the junior level, but through high school and after, I had a number of different injuries that derailed my playing career. Once I was done with hockey, I committed myself to strength athletics and I have since been competitive in powerlifting, strongman and bodybuilding. While I have competed with success, my eyes are on bigger goals that I have set for myself. My plans are to continue to compete for as long as I can. As far as competing goes, I have some plans but will keep that quiet for now.

GP: When and how did you become interested in sports performance, fitness, and nutrition? What have you found to be the most rewarding?
It all started with the influence of my parents and older brothers. Growing up, hockey was an expensive sport to play. My parents were willing to sacrifice a lot of their time and money in order to let me play a sport I deeply loved (and still do). I can clearly recall hearing both of them say, “If you want to play normal, club hockey you can. You can just have fun and take it easy. But, if you want to play juniors, if you want to travel and get exposure, then you need to meet us half way. You will need to work for it.” Essentially what I was committing myself to was a part-time job of training for hockey. Three-a-day training sessions in the summer were the norm and hitting the gym throughout the season was standard. My parents were willing to support me, so I wanted to push myself to say thank you. Once the training and sports performance aspect began, training became more than just a “thank you”. For me, it became an immediate love. Having brothers that came before me and were highly successful didn’t hurt at all either. They provided a great influence and had years of know-how under their belts to help direct me from the get-go.

The most rewarding part of it all is the process. Everyone wants the outcomes, and they want them immediately. But, the process of working towards your specific goal will tell you more about yourself than anything. Those who can grind and stick with something for an extended period of time will often realize far more significant results than others. Notice I said significant, not necessarily successful. There is a major difference.

GP: As a trainer and performance coach, you have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of clients. You have worked extensively with youth athletes, as well as high school, collegiate, and professional athletes. You have worked with competitive strength athletes in powerlifting and Strongman, and physique athletes (bodybuilding, figure, and bikini). And you have done so with tremendous success. It’s uncommon to meet a trainer who is competent in handling such a diverse client base while providing them with the guidance needed for successful outcomes. What allows you to handle such a diverse client base with success?
This answer could be long winded and boring, so I will try to keep it short and sweet (kind of like me!). The obvious component is the understanding and education on how to properly address each individual and their specific needs. Despite all the accolades, degrees, or certifications one may have, it is my opinion that an incredibly invaluable skill set is the ability to read your client. To know when to push them, when to back off and how various external and internal stressors may be at play. These are lessons that no textbook can teach you. You either have that x-factor or you don’t.

GP: With the extensive amount of information available today, nutrition and nutritional advice can become extremely frustrating and confusing. What is your philosophy when it comes to nutrition? 
Perhaps it’s because I’m only familiar with the fitness industry, but there is a strong correlation with confusion and the fitness industry. I don’t think there’s an industry out there that is more confusing and frustrating. People love to create confusion because confusion creates dependency. So he or she that yells the loudest will more than likely make the most money. Especially if it goes against the grain of what is traditionally applied.

When it comes to nutrition and my “philosophy”, I guess you could say I don’t really have one. My end goal with clients is to establish a plan that is sustainable for them. If any one client can’t stick with a plan that is set forth, the success rate of that plan is drastically reduced. The approach is similar to the quote, “The person who goes 90% for years will go much further than the person who goes 110%, burns out, and quits.” That essentially sums up the approach I take with my clients.

Most clients just need direction. Whether that is a set plan to give them absolute direction or whether it is step-by-step process of educating them on healthy habits for long-term success. At the end of the day it comes back to knowing your client and how you need to tailor their program(s) to their needs at any given moment.

GP: As a massage therapist and corrective exercise specialist, you have integrated recovery and corrective strategies for your clients and athletes. What are your thoughts on the importance of movement quality and recovery strategies in client progress?
Pushing the limits of the human body and sport performance doesn’t necessarily come without paying a price. Our goal is to keep our athletes and general clients healthy through the process, but aches and pains inevitably settle in. Some people may be baffled by that, but take your squat from 500 lbs to 600 lbs or your 40-yard dash time from 4.50 down to 4.40 and, trust me, your body is going to be feeling it. Wanting to minimize the effects of hard training, most of our athletes partake in an in-season care plan that is set forth to include weekly treatments to injured areas or general recovery work to help them stay fresh. These guys and girls are getting the snot kicked out of them sometimes during their athletic events. Once they feel the difference in how taking care of their body helps their performance and overall well-being, they’re hooked. Some of them come in anticipating an hour massage on their low back because their low back is sore, but we may do an hour of extensive hip and abdominal exercises instead. That is a judgement call. That client will end up leaving with no low back pain and in a much better place both physically and mentally. Some will need more focused soft tissue work, others there may be other factors at play. Again, it comes back to knowing what your client needs and what will truly benefit them.

Establishing proper movement is critical and the foundational element in determining long-term development of the client you’re working with. If they don’t move well for them, then really, it’s all for not. I emphasize moving well for them because it’s different for everyone based on individual physical traits and characteristics. There is not a textbook way of performing any movement. Yes, there are obvious technicalities to each movement, but how it’s applied to everyone is different, and often not textbook.

I could go on about how the whole fitness industry can be it’s own worst enemy, but that would be more of a rant than anything. People need to get off their high horses and realize that because a movement isn’t done to their personal specifics, it is not necessarily wrong for that individual and the goals that they have.

So proper movement for the individual has to be established first. Once that is established you would be surprised at how many issues are removed. Especially once that client becomes stronger. Strength never hurt anybody.

GP: You have become sought after by both athletes and coaches for your ability to develop speed. If anyone would doubt it, your results speak for themselves. You have had the ability to further develop athletes who have either plateaued or failed to achieve results in other training programs. What do you attribute this ability to?
You won’t get anywhere without a substantial amount of knowledge and experience backing up your intentions. I was fortunate enough to start training and working with athletes at a very young age. So even at my age, I’ve been able to put in close to 10 years of professional experience working with clients from various demographics with an array of end-goals. The good trainers eventually make it to the top while, unfortunately, some really poor trainers are there too. The education, and arguably experience, only take you so far. It goes back to my earlier answers. Understanding your client, knowing them almost better than they know themselves, and being aware of how to direct them will set the framework for continual development.

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/3-simple-steps-to-reduce-your-risk-of-sports-injuries/

https://gallagherperformance.com/3-benefits-of-integrated-training-and-therapy/

https://gallagherperformance.com/faqs-frequency-avoided-questions-of-strength-conditioning/

Tyler Milto (5'11", 200lbs) recently competed in the teenage division of the 2014 NAS Great Lakes Strongman Championships on September 13th. Knowing of GP's experience and background in the sport of Strongman, Tyler came to us back in June with the ambition to compete in his first contest. Tyler already had an impressive strength base for his age. We knew with the proper coaching and programming, he would be able to not only improve all his numbers, but be able to transfer that strength and endurance to meet the special needs of Strongman competition. We formulated a plan and provided Tyler the structure for training and he put it into action. Through his preparation, appropriate changes were made to continually see progress in his performance numbers. Along the way, Tyler impressed us with his display of consistent, hard work throughout his preparation.

All his hard work culminated in Tyler taking first place in the teenage division and turning in some impressive numbers along the way. Here is how Tyler finished in each event:

1. Log Clean and Press (clean once, press for reps): 150lbs for 11 reps, 60 sec time limit
2. Deadlift: 235lbs for 31 reps, 60 sec time limit
3. Farmer's Walk: 150lbs per hand, 60ft course w/ turn at 30ft, finished in 14.2 seconds
4. Tire Flip: complete 14 flips with 500lbs tire in 60 seconds

Gallagher Performance gave me a competitive edge I would not have had without them. The depth of knowledge that flows from the offices of Gallagher Performance is phenomenal and seems to be never-ending. I saw my strength, power, and speed substantially increase in such a short amount of time that one would assume it was unnatural. Thank you Gallagher Performance. I highly recommend training with them.

The purpose of this article is to provide some basic information about the importance of understanding the role posture and function have in pain, injury, and movement dysfunction. The hope is that you will gain an understanding of why your chiropractor or therapist must evaluate and bring into consideration issues that may not seem related to your pain.
Patients come to us with symptoms and we want to get to the source of their symptoms. In addition to providing relief through manipulative therapy and treating muscular adhesions, it can prove to be incredibly valuable to identify the source of their symptoms. In my experience, the source of a client or patient’s symptoms is often found in painless dysfunction of the motor system.

All too common, providers become reductionist in their evaluation and treatment of the motor (aka musculoskeletal) system. In order to provide long-term solutions and minimize reoccurrences, a holistic or global approach to evaluating functional capacity is needed to identify what is driving pathology in the motor system. This concept is of critical importance when you understand that the majority of motor system pathologies exist because the demands of activity exceed the individual’s capacity. If the demands upon the motor system are at a high level, then capacity must be even higher. Even if demands are relatively low, capacity still must exceed the level of the demand. If there is a capacity “shortage”, the result is a higher injury risk. In musculoskeletal care, one of the greatest challenges is identifying functional capacity “shortages” and how to address them during the course of conservative treatment to provide both immediate and sustainable results.

Professor Vladimir Janda and Dr. Karel Lewit pioneered the process of identifying functional pathology within the motor system. The model is in contrast to the traditional North American orthopedic model, which focuses on structural pathology (ex: disc herniations, rotator cuff injury, labral tears, etc.) as the reason for pain and impairment. But simply focusing on structural pathology can take your eyes away from identifying key reasons as to why they developed in the first place.

Outside of structural pathologies, the functional approach to managing motor system pathologies includes identifying joint dysfunction, muscular imbalances, trigger points, and faulty movement patterns. Faulty movement patterns are protective movements that form in response to pain or the anticipation of pain. These are often the hidden causes of injury, the reasons why many structural pathologies occur. Czech physician Vladimir Janda likened musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction as a chain reaction, thus stressing the importance of looking beyond the site of pain for the source of pain. Janda observed that due to the interactions of the skeletal system, muscular system, and central nervous system (CNS), dysfunction at any one joint or muscle is reflected in the quality and function of joints/muscles throughout the entire body. This opens the door to the possibility that the source of pain may be distant from the site of pain.

Janda also recognized that muscle and connective tissue are common to several joint segments; therefore, movement and pain are never isolated to a single joint. He often spoke of “muscular slings” or groups of functionally interrelated muscles. Muscles must disperse load among joints and provide stabilization for movement, making no movement truly isolated. This ultimately is the reason why many providers within physical medicine are catching onto the saying, “Stop chasing pain.” Chasing pain and other symptoms (ex: tightness, stiffness, restricted movement) may provide short-term relief, but are you providing long-term results?

A common intervention in the rehabilitation of motor system pathology is therapeutic exercise and resistance training. These exercises are used to help restore any number of neuromuscular qualities, such as endurance, strength, and motor control. But often, even in a rehab setting, exercises fail to progress a patient in the recovery process. Sometimes, the application of exercise can make a patient's condition worse. Similarly, many people with the intention of being healthy and wanting to help their body “feel better” will use resistance training in their exercise regimen. Working out, exercising, strength training should improve our state of muscle balance, right? Sure they get the cardiovascular, endocrine, and psychological benefits of exercise, but they start to wonder why all their exercising is only making certain areas of their body feel worse. This is why it’s important to learn that unless exercising occurs in a thoughtful manner, based on a functional evaluation of movement and capacity, the benefits of reducing injury risk, improving posture, enhancing motor control, and restoring muscular balance will be difficult to achieve.

For example, what Janda discovered is the tendency for certain muscles within the body to become tight and overactive, while others have the tendency to become weak and underactive. So if someone is performing general exercises, the brain will select the muscles that are already tight to perform the majority of the work. This is a phenomenon knows as “compensation” or “substitution”. Muscles that are already chronically overused will continue to be overused, leading to greater risk of an overload injury. The muscles that are “weak” have developed a sensory-motor amnesia that will not correct itself unless the exercise is carefully selected and tailored to activate these dormant muscles. Such exercises emphasis the quality of the movement pattern over any prescribed number of sets or reps. The eye of the provider can’t be focused on isolated impairments, but on finding the motor control error. Finding the hidden causes of injury or motor system dysfunction.

Remember, what enhances performance also reduces injury. Finding the solutions to enhancing performance will often address hidden motor system dysfunctions. If you are training for athletic performance, you must build functionally specific or sport-specific capacity. If you are recovering from injury, you must build function rather than solely focusing on palliative measures and treating the site of symptoms. In either scenario, you are building a better athlete and fast tracking the rehabilitation process by taking a functional approach to motor system dysfunction.

More related reading:

https://gallagherperformance.com/powerful-innovative-approach-improving-body-functions/

https://gallagherperformance.com/the-importance-of-functional-evaluation/

If we had to sum up the training philosophy at Gallagher Performance, it would be,

“Our training revolves around the utilization of ground-based, multi-joint, proprioceptively rich movement patterns that are developmentally specific to each athlete during the weight training portion of the program, while concurrently addressing the specific metabolic demands of each athlete with our energy system training. All aspects of our programs adhere strictly to scientifically supported methodologies.”

Recently, I was having a conversation with one of our clients about what it takes to be ready to compete in sport. The conversation mostly centered around athletics and how to be in the best "condition" possible. Specifically, this client was talking about certain people they know and hold in high regard as having a high level of physical fitness. All was going well until they said something very interesting.

In regards to someone they know, they said, "Man, are they fit. They are probably the most fit person I know."

When I asked them what makes that individual the "most fit" person they know, they just stared blankly back at me. There was no response and you could see the wheels churning away trying to figure out the answer.

Fitness is a craze nowadays. Women want to be fit. Men want to be fit. Athletes want to be fit. People want to be fit. Health clubs, personal trainers, smart phone apps, and infomercials want to sell you on becoming more fit. Slogans such as “Forging Elite Fitness” and titles such as “Fittest Man on Earth” or “Fittest Woman on Earth” make the concept of fitness very intriguing. Many people have come to believe fitness is a complex process. To most, the idea of “fitness” brings to mind someone who is muscular, lean, strong, and has stamina for days. This “idea” of fitness seems to be nothing but mere marketing and often leads people down the road of overcomplicating their exercise or training program.

So, that begs the questions, "What is fitness?"

Physical fitness is actually quite simple if we define fitness as “the quality of being suitable to fulfill a particular physical task”. If your task is to compete in the 100m dash, then your fitness levels must enable you to successfully compete in that event. If your task is to start in the NFL, then your fitness must enable you compete at your highest level possible week after week.

Developing Physical Fitness
Physical fitness is achieved during the process of physical preparation or how prepared you are for competition. The ultimate goal of physical preparation is to have each athlete at their best during competition and is accomplished via a systematic process to promote adaptations that raise levels of both fitness and preparedness. Fitness adaptations thus follow the SAID principle (Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands). Meaning, if you want to gain muscle, get stronger, and be more explosive, you better be sprinting, jumping, throwing, and lifting weights to allow those specific adaptations to occur. The SAID principle also means that an athlete’s level of fitness should always be specific to their sporting demands.

Debating who is the most “fit” athlete or individual on the planet is a ridiculous conversation. How can someone say that an NHL defensemen who plays almost 30 minutes per game over an 82 game is more or less fit than an Olympic caliber decathlete? How is that Olympic decathlete more fit than a Navy SEAL? How is a Navy SEAL less fit than the “Fittest Man on Earth”? How is the winner of the Boston Marathon more fit than the World’s Strongest Man?

Do you see what I am getting at?

An athlete’s fitness levels (strength, power, stamina, energy system development, etc.) will always be specific to what is required by their primary sport form. Just because someone is the “Fittest Man on Earth” does not mean they will have the ability to withstand the demands of competing within another sport at elite levels. Personally, the “Fittest Man/Woman on Earth” title would be better renamed to “Fittest CrossFitter on Earth” because that’s all the title means. The notion that elite fitness in one event or sport is somehow superior to the fitness required in another is either arrogant or ignorant (possibly both).

Understanding Physical Fitness Adaptations
To better understand physical fitness and the specific adaptations that result from training, we must first consider the training system commonly used to achieve improvements in endurance, strength, and power. This training system is known as concurrent training. Concurrent training is defined as, “the simultaneous inclusion of strength training and endurance training within the same program.” Concurrent training may be a necessary means for some athletes and individuals. However, for most, the application of concurrent training is widely misunderstood and poorly organized in the pursuit of all things “fitness”. They want to improve endurance, so they do a lot of aerobic exercise. They may run, bike, or swim for hours each week. They also want to get lean and strong, so they lift weights 2-4 times per week. These are the people who train and train and train, yet fail to see significant improvements in any number of neuromuscular adaptations.

Aerobic and strength adaptations are very divergent. The human body is simply not capable of adapting appropriately to two very different training stimuli. You can go run for a long period of time or you can be explosive and strong from weight training. Now, I understand nobody wants to be both an elite marathon runner and Strongman. However, there are people who want high levels of aerobic capacity while also becoming muscular and strong at the same time. Unfortunately, many of these same people plateau quickly or fail to see significant improvements because concurrent training attenuates muscular growth, strength, and power gains. There is an interference effect created when one attempts to simultaneously improve both aerobic fitness and neuromuscular qualities such as strength and power. The training approach is doomed from the beginning if specificity and attention to detail in training organization does not enter the picture.

To understand why, we must then understand the competing long-term adaptations that occur from strength training and endurance training.

Competing Long-Term Adaptations 
1) Strength Training (short duration, high force output)

• Neural Adaptations – synchronous firing, recruits large populations of motor units, rapid rates of force development, improve rate coding
• Endocrine Adaptations – Growth Hormone (GH) and Testosterone release, anabolic environment, stimulation of satellite cell activation and muscle protein synthesis

• Neural Adaptations – asynchronous firing, recruits small populations of motor units, slow rates of force development
• Endocrine Adaptations – impaired anabolic hormone signaling, elevated Cortisol and catabolic hormone production, inhibition of mammalian target of rapamyacin (mTOR), essentially shutting down the pathways for stimulating muscle protein synthesis

Lately, the age-old debate on the role of genetics vs. work ethic in determining training outcomes has been a popular discussion with our athletes. Recently, some of the results our athletes have seen during their time training at GP has been chalked up to “genetics” by some outsiders. From their perspective, training is all the same. At the end of the day, they are lifting weights, running, jumping, etc. There was not, or could not, have been anything special about our training system that allowed these athletes to excel beyond what they had previously done. In their opinion, the results these athletes achieved had everything to do with being genetically “blessed”.

What becomes apparent with their argument is the lack of appreciation that exists in regards to the sophisticated nature of training methodologies aimed at long-term athletic development. Long-term athletic development is a concept many coaches, trainers, athletes, and parents are either unfamiliar with or don’t have the patience for. They want immediate results; regardless at what expense those results come with.

When athletes approach us for coaching, we have a big task on our hands. There is a lot of information we must gather regarding each athlete in order to design the most effective training program possible. Keep in mind, there is an incredible amount of detail that will influence how each athlete will respond to training and it is our responsibility as coaches to know the details and address them appropriately during training. The information we gather by spending sufficient time testing and analyzing various performance markers before and during training becomes invaluable in understanding what to address with our athletes.

When designing and coordinating the training plan, we also account for each athlete’s current state of readiness to train. There are a number of factors to consider when determining readiness to train and this information is critical to know as a coach. The ability to identify the degree of intensity and volume an athlete can handle during each training session is critical to progress and avoiding unnecessary training loads. We want to ensure that each training session produces quality work, not pointless work. It’s incredibly easy to ruin an athlete; getting them to progress year after year is a tremendous challenge.

What critics fail to see is exactly how much work, quality work, these athletes put in week after week for months. They don't acknowledge the endless hours of discipline and hard work that athlete was put into a training system that addresses their developmental needs. Instead, nowadays, people find it more convenient to simply blame genetics for their comparative lack of progress or dismiss the athlete’s hard work and suspect cheating (i.e. drug use).

This is truly a shame because it is the culture sport has created. It’s unfortunate to have a young athlete become bigger, stronger, or faster and, in turn, have their peers and others in their lives ask them, “What are you taking?”

Let me be clear about something: if you are failing to see progress in your training program or are seeing more time on the bench than on the playing field, chances are you are simply being out-worked in terms of quality of effort and direction in your training.

You really should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself how bad do you want it. If you want to be great in your sport, greatness is not something you simply decide. You must act upon it. There is a lot of discipline and hard work required to become an elite-level athlete.

Roughly, how much hard work?

You may or may not be familiar with the “10,000 hour rule”. The rule basically states that 10,000 hours is the amount of work needed to reach mastery in any discipline or skill. Even thought the rule has received some criticism, the point remains that it at least provides us with a tangible number when understanding how much time is needed to develop a high-degree of mastery in any pursuit.

Let’s break down the 10,000 rule a bit further. If you practiced your sport two hours a day, five days per week, it would take you just under 20 years to reach your 10,000 hours. More commonly, most young athletes practice their sport 1 hour per day, 3 days per week. At this pace it would take an athlete 64 years to achieve mastery. As you can quickly tell, being a “recreational” athlete will never allow you to reach elite status. Mastery requires time, a lot of time, and thus is a serious decision to dedication that one doesn’t make on a whim.

Remember, hard work is only one side of the coin. Anyone can work hard. Anyone can go nuts during a training session and work to complete exhaustion. For novice trainees, this may even produce some results in the beginning. But what happens in the coming weeks or months when you stop developing and hit that dreaded plateau? This is one of the biggest problems we see, especially in developing athletes. Far too often, talented kids stop developing because of poor attention to individual considerations. When working with young athletes, there has to be a period of development that cannot be rushed. This requires an extreme amount of patience on the part of coaches, athletes, and parents. Athletes must earn the right to progress by being consistent in gradual development.

At GP, we consider coaching athletes to be a long and potentially slow process. We also acknowledge that some athletes may not be interested in this approach. However, our interest is not just in creating quick and easy success for athletes, but directing a process that will allow them to reach their true athletic potential. From a coaching stand point, anyone can create changes in an athlete. It’s not hard. Simply having anyone perform an exercise or a routine that is new will create change. But, is that change purposeful? Was it directed towards meeting that athlete’s needs? Or was the change made to simply make a change without an understanding as to why the change was made?

This is where hard work within a well-directed training program, under the guidance of a knowledgeable coach will trump hard work without direction. Our training system tailors each program to meet the individual athlete’s needs, differences, and current level of readiness to train.

It is not uncommon for some of our athletes to tell us they have “worked harder” during training sessions. They are accustomed to coaches running them into the ground and trainers mindlessly make them do high-intensity work with little rest. What else do we hear? We hear these same athletes are failing to improve. Rather many of them feel extremely fatigued and unmotivated. Sure they saw some results to start, but lately they are frustrated and confused.

When first starting at GP, they may feel that our system of training looks “easy”. This is a huge mistake. Our training may appear to be “easy”, but each training session is demanding. Each session is extremely detailed and may move at a slower pace than some athletes care for. News flash: if you’re more interested in going nuts than being productive, there’s not much any training system can do for you. Simply put, if you work hard to get better as an athlete, but also have some detailed thought applied to your training, the results will be greater than you would ever expect.

Yes, athletes with superior genetics do exist. Their genetics will allow them to progress more rapidly and experience great adaptations to training stimuli than athletes with lesser genetics. But they are more rare than you think. When it comes down to it, quality work in a well-designed training program aimed at long-term athletic development, under the guidance of a knowledgeable coach likely has more to do with superior athleticism than genetics alone.

As the saying goes,

“Genetics are the hand you've been dealt, but it's how you play the hand that counts.”

Evan James has had quite a journey during his baseball career.

Evan is a 2009 graduate of Penn Trafford HS. During his time at Penn Trafford, he was a standout pitcher on the baseball team. After his high school career, James moved on to play junior college baseball, receiving All-American honors in 2010 and a scholarship to play at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. During his time at Northwestern Oklahoma State, Evan developed shoulder impingement in his throwing arm and took a medical redshirt in the process. Desiring to receive therapy back in Pittsburgh, Evan transferred to Penn State Greater Allegheny (PSGA) in the summer of 2012. He returned to health and his pitching form quickly, quickly, receiving All-American honors at PSGA in 2013.

On February 16, 2014, Evan was pitching in a live pre-season pitching/hitting session at PSGA with scouts present from the Tampa Bay Rays organization. During that live session, Evan was struck in the head by a line drive. The trauma he sustained was serious and life-threatening. Later that day he underwent emergency brain surgery and reconstructive repair of fractured skull and jawbones. Surgery left Evan with 4 plates and over 190 staples in head. He was told he would have a minimum 6-month recovery process and that he would never play baseball again.

Evan had different ideas. To his doctor’s surprise, Evan flew through his speech and physical therapy. He progressed so quickly that last month he received full clearance to resume physical training. He hopes to return to the mound at PSGA either this fall or spring of 2015. Beyond his collegiate career, Evan still has the potential to sign with the Tampa Bay Rays as the organization will continue to watch him.