Helping people to change.  Where to start?

People are strange creatures. They want advice, they pay you for it, they listen in awe, compliment you for being such a genius and then they do…nothing. Although I’m sure you’re glad to make ends meet, I suppose it just doesn’t cut it. A Facebook post ‘Have you ever fired a client?’  I came across may be a testimony of this phenomenon. Dealing with those types of clients can be challenging, I know it has been for me and my team.

Are you ready to change?

Anyone who had more than a handful of clients has noticed that the willingness to change can vary. Sometimes you sense it and sometimes it hits you by surprise. Well, if this is the case, you’re not off and it has been researched extensively. In healthcare, the dominant model is the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) from Prochaska et al.

Although not without controversy, it did give healthcare a structured approach to design intakes, inclusion, and exclusion criteria. One of those criteria is the question of when you plan to change. If the answer to that question is not within a period of a month, chances are that you are not ready yet. Although it’s a crude cut-off, it does help to increase chances of success, dramatically.

As a personal trainer however, you may not have the luxury of turning down clients, simply because they are not fully committed. Luckily there are tools and skills you can acquire to increase your chances of success.

The Transtheoretical Model Recognizes 5 Stages of Change

Recognize Willingness

Knowing that people are not always ready to change is one thing, but recognizing it and adjusting appropriately is going to get you through to the next level. Although the TTM recognizes 5 stages of change, I prefer working with the three stage model from Solution Focused Therapy (SFT). There are variations on the naming of those stages, but I choose to work with a shopping metaphor.

1. Window shopper

2. Searcher

3. Customer

As the name implies, the window shopper, is just passing by, with no intent to buy whatsoever. The searcher is actually in the store looking for something he likes. The customer is waiting in the line, knows what he buys and more important, knows what the price is.

It is really important to understand that these are NOT types of people, or just unwilling clients. These are stages in the willingness to change, and they apply as much to you and me, as they apply to your clients. We are in different stages at any given time with different types of problems. People can come in at any stage, move upward towards becoming a “customer” and then dive right back to the stage of “window shopper”. Although the stage usually does not reveal itself during an intake, we need to learn how to recognize it along the line, and more importantly, how to act upon it.

For readers familiar with the TTM, you can consider the window shopper and searcher as two sub phases in the precontemplative stage. The customer is from the contemplative stage and up. The question of when people plan to change is helpful in a medical environment, but may not work in personal training. Instead I watch for other ‘tells’.

But before we cover the three stages in detail, we need to address another important subject and that’s appropriate education.

Motivating or Educating?

Most people know that eating more balanced, exercising a bit more, and stress less is healthy. Most of your clients are also smart enough to come up with money to pay you, so you should consider them to be relatively intelligent. I also noticed that when people just do what they already know to be healthy, their health will skyrocket.  And yes, I’m sure you can tweak it, but the key message here is that people usually already know what is healthy, they just don’t act on it. So do you want to tweak or do you want to make big leaps?

The premise is that the client usually knows the answer, but sometimes they get confused. Who can blame them, I only have to watch two episodes of Oprah to get confused. People know what to do, yet we tend to put an emphasis on education. It is expected from us, it’s where our comfort zone lies. We sometimes measure our success by the fact that we told something the client didn’t already know. It’s human, it’s satisfying, but is it effective?

I can watch any given episode of Dr. Oz and learn something new. Does it make me more effective? No, what makes you and me more effective, is getting the client to do what he or she already knows.

You can get there by posing the right question! Make them think and make them work for it. Don’t let them slide with an ‘I don’t know’, keep pushing and compliment the hell out of them for their effort when they produce the right answer. It turns them into competent clients, in control of their own destiny and when the time comes, you can educate all you want. So for the time being, don’t educate, motivate!

Let’s talk a bit now about the three different stages described earlier.

The Window Shopper

The main feature of a window shopper is that he has no problem. He does not need anything you have to offer and yet they are client. This sounds ridiculous, but it happens quite often. An example is a man who fainted due to hypertension and his physician advised him to exercise. He objects about everything you suggest. He has a bad knee, he does not like this exercise and he is tired after a week of hard work. You are stumped, because you thought that anyone that fainted due to hypertension, would be highly motivated. What’s the problem?

Well, for starters, he does not share your passion for exercise. You may need to take this seriously and empathize. The second thing is that he received great medication. He no longer has uncontrolled hypertension, ergo he has no problem. I can give you numerous examples, but we need to move on.

What a lot of window shoppers share, is that they have been sent. They do not participate willingly. That does not mean that there are any legal consequences when they don’t show up, but it’s more of a social pressure. It can be just to appease their physician, a spouse, friends or even a company. As far as they’re concerned, they don’t have a problem. Is is their spouse or physician that sees the problem. A series of questions may address this and the goal is to let him think.

• How did you come to the idea to contact a personal trainer?

• What do you think that the person who referred you, expects from our relationship?

• How does the person who referred you, expect you to benefit from our relationship?

Of course, you’re not doing this on the training floor. I have a separate intake meeting where I get to know my client a bit, do assessments, negotiate goals, and take an extensive medical history.  A selection of these questions should be part of an intake. They are designed to consider valid arguments. People do a lot of stuff, without thinking it through. They don’t know why they do it. At least let them say it out loud, so you have an understanding. It can turn window shoppers into searchers or even customers in the first session. You can then go on to ask what they think they can get out of this arrangement. All their answers can be become input for a back-up plan in a later stage.

The Searcher

The searcher has a problem, but he does not think of himself as part of the solution. It may be a bad knee, not enough willpower, or whatever they think holds them back. Your first priority is to make them competent. I’m sure you’re an expert on weight loss, you read this blog for crying out loud, but the thing is, so is your client. A thorough history taking will usually reveal that the client was successful in the past, usually without any help. You need to find that moment and chose. Do you want to take the credit, or do you give credit to your client? If you opt for the latter, you’re going to build their confidence and give back control. Think of the following questions:

• When have you ever succeeded before?

• What did you contribute to make this success happen?

• What in this conversation gives you hope, that you’ll succeed again?

Any answer is an excuse to compliment! Notice that the questions are designed to open up the client, make him think, and above all to give hope. Of course you may not like his answers, but that is not the issue at hand. He needs to be convinced that he was a part of the solution and will be again, as of now! When he is open to the fact that may have some control over his destiny, you may actually turn him into a customer.

The Customer

In this stage, the client has a problem and he knows he is part of the solution. Education to clients in a customer’s phase, is actually useful. I can recall an epic post from Mike Boyle titled An Apology Letter to Personal Trainers where he basically states that the personal trainer has a hard time training clients with only half the time and talent of an athlete. I can add that most athletes are in customer mode, while normal clients are in window shopper and searcher mode. With a personal trainer client, you get the best results by motivating instead of educating. With most athletes however, education is motivation. You can become effective with both, IF you recognize stages of change.

Although I have many suggestions of what you can and cannot do with customers, that is not the focus of this post and will be covered in a later post in this series. As a trainer, do whatever that made you successful before with your clients, but add the two additional stages of change. Your numbers will go up!

I do want to spend some time on relapses though.

Relapse

In life there are no guarantees, you can only increase your chances. Learning about stages of change increases your chances. So will preparation for relapse. If somebody makes a decision to change, they are almost in love with butterflies all over the place, supplying all the energy and resilience necessary to succeed. This usually last for about four weeks and when the love is fueled (by you), this period can be extended to about 12 weeks.

Then it all becomes ordinary and they have to work for it, and so do you. A relapse at that point, is an accident waiting to happen. Your clients can easily fall back in another stage. It’s your job to recognize it and adjust. I actually bring this up, on the first day with my clients. You may find this odd, assuming or even setting up for failure. However preparing for relapse, shows me that you are realistic and you care about quality. It’s a backup plan, because people are not computers.

I’m sure your weight loss program is sound, but I can Google thousands of them. You want to be impressive? Show me your backup plan, you’ll be one of very few!  ”Chance favors the prepared mind” – Louis Pasteur!

Alternatives

You may have noticed that I did not mention Motivational Interviewing (MI), a technique to motivate clients and commonly practiced in healthcare (Hettema J 2005). It’s a good technique, like solution focused therapy (Bakker JM 2008). I combined them, submerging them in the principles of Positive Psychology, a research area that is interested in the things that make life, worth living. They complement each other very well. We call it motivational solution-focused coaching (MSC).

Another popular coaching technique is Rational Emotive Training / Therapy (RET), although it’s more about education then motivation. Educational in how irrational you are and how to correct it.

Then you have the infamous Neurolinguistic programming (NLP). To be honest, I don’t even know what it is anymore. Its basics did not hold up against scientific scrutiny and nowadays it seems to be a bucket for all sorts of coaching and counseling related techniques, with different selections per course. I have been trained in all of the previous mentioned techniques including NLP. And I learned something very important from all of them.

Helping people change, is not just a matter of ‘just do it’. It’s not just a matter of leading by example, nor firing inspirational one-liners once in a while. These may spark something, but it usually won’t last. Most techniques that successful people use, work for them, not per se for their clients. The use of positive self-statements for example, only works for the people that don’t need them (Wood JV 2009). The ones who actually need them, are constantly reminded of what they are not.

I see people writing brilliant programs, showing great insights in exercise physiology, and then they counsel their clients with lines you would put on a bumper sticker. It’s sub-optimal.

I have found that embracing the fact that the client is an expert of his own life, will convey respect, and empowers them. Research shows us that the techniques I talked about in the first half of this article, are not necessarily more effective than any of the other scientific-based alternatives I mentioned as alternatives, but they work faster (you win an average of two sessions) and they are less taxing for the coach (Bakker JM 2008). That’s because the client does all the work. MSC is solid and my team has put thousands of clients through it, with hundreds of successful cases on video. This stuff works!

Winding Down

There are some good techniques out there, that have passed scientific scrutiny. If you are new to this, Motivational Solution-focused Coaching is a great start. If you want to expand your coaching skills, you may want take some of the pearls that complement your current skills and apply them to clients.

Recognizing stages of change is the start, adjusting accordingly is a valuable skill to master. I will elaborate on it in detail, in the coming three posts that will be published on Mark’s blog. For now, I would suggest that you monitor your sessions or your conversations the coming weeks. Try to answer the following questions, after each session / conversation.

• Could you recognize stages of change?

• Could you recognize a shift in stage when it occurred?

• When did I educate, when I was supposed to motivate?

• What can I do better in the next session with this client?

If you care about your clients and care about results, you want to master this. That’s why I’ll leave you with this ‘assignment’, that will help you to create a foundation for the coming posts. Coaching is not a spectator sport. Read, apply, reflect, and adjust to master it. You can practice it with every conversation. You want to help your client to change? There you have it, T-minus 0 to take off!

References

Bakker JM (2008), Bannink FP. Solution focused brief therapy in psychiatric practice. Tijdschr Psychiatr. 2008;50(1):55-9. Dutch.

Hettema J (2005), Steele J, Miller WR. Motivational interviewing. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2005;1:91-111. Review.

Wood JV (2009), Perunovic EW, Lee J. Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others. Psychol Sci. 2009 May 21

Chi L. Chiu has a master’s degree in nutrition, one in health sciences, and is currently a grad student psychology. He is the owner of Chivo personal training, Chivo physical therapy, Chivo sports performance, and Chivo Continuous Professional Development center for lifestyle professionals. He is a member on various government and non-government funded advisory boards and works with clients on a daily basis.

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In case you didn’t notice, this week I launched my product How to Read Fitness Research and the product is literally blowing off the shelves!

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But today is the last day to get it at almost 40% off.  After tonight (April 22nd) at midnight, the price will go from $37 to $77 and you’ll never see that price again.  If you’re on the fence and trying to decide…now is the time to get it.

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But remember, there is no risk on your part.  I wouldn’t trust half of the crap that is out there in the fitness industry either which is why I’m offering a 60 day money back guarantee.  Simply purchase the product, take it for a test drive, and if you decide that you don’t love it within 60 days just shoot me an email and I’ll give you your money back.  Easy as pie.

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So if you’re thinking about getting it…there is really no reason to hold off.  Pick it up now before the price goes up!

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How to Read Fitness Research<== Only a few hours left!

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PS: Have a great Easter weekend!  I know I’ll be eating lots of chocolate Easter eggs lean turkey and vegetables.

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I apologize for the lack of updates this week as it has been a crazy one for me.  However the week has ended on a tremendous note with my sister and her husband having her first child making me an uncle to their beautiful girl Keira Grace!  At the same time, we’re ramping up for Cadence’s first birthday party this weekend so the days have just flown by.  I can’t believe it has been a year already!  I am so blessed. 

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In any case, I have just a few things to throw down in random fashion for you today:

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Happy Thanksgiving to my American Friends

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With all of my American friends and family celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend I want to wish everyone a Happy Turkey Day.  Although we’re not formally celebrating Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend (we celebrate in October because November is the month we build our igloos for winter and tune up our dogsleds for winter) I think this serves as a reminder to take a moment today to be thankful for all of the positive things we have in our lives and even for the challenges that we’ll have the opportunity to overcome.

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Free Brainy Gear Swag

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Last week I offered up a free Brainy Gear t-shirt courtesy of Alan Aragon and that has now been officially awarded by random draw to Trey just for dropping a comment on the blog.  Congrats Trey!

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Christmas Gifts for Fitness Fanatics

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This week my friend Leigh Peele put together a great list of Christmas gift ideas for fitness enthusiasts that is definitely worth checking out.  If you’re looking for stuff to ask for, this is a good place to start.  Check it out HERE.

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FREE Rotaters!!!  Comment and share to get ‘em!

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Several months ago some guy on Twitter named Chris Melton and I were having a discussion about shoulder internal rotation deficits when he mentioned that he was the co-creator of a product called The Rotater.  I asked him about it.  He sent me one.  A true bromance was born.

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If you’re unfamiliar with the Rotater, it is basically “a patented shoulder prehab, rehab and stretching tool that allows a patient or athlete to passively self-stretch internal & external shoulder rotation to increase shoulder function, range of motion and performance.

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When combined with our Strong Arm attachment, the Rotater becomes a mobile rotator cuff strengthening machine as well.”

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I have to admit that initially I was concerned about movement of the shoulder blade instead of just movement at the shoulder joint during stretching, but having played with the Rotater for a few months now I can honestly say that pinning the scapula in position by leaning into a wall or lying down on the back for some of the stretches basically solved that issue.

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Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the Rotater is a magic bullet for shoulder health.  Y still have to do your t-spine mobility work, scapular stabilization drills, and all of the other things your know you should be doing for shoulder health, but I truly believe that the Rotater is a great addition to your arsenal.

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As a result, I recently asked Chris if he’d thrown down a Rotater for my Christmas giveaway so you could experience this for yourself.

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He said “NO”.

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Instead of giving away one Rotater he said that he would give away THREE Rotaters AND a strong arm attachment for each!

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So check out the Rotater HERE…and then drop a comment below letting me know that you want one.

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But since there are three of them I’m going to wait until we’re over 100 comments on this one before I do a draw.  So if you want to score yourself one of these babies you’re going to need to drop a comment below and then share the holy hell out of this post on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever social media you’ve got.  Once we reach 100 comments I’ll do a draw and you might just grab one of them for yourself.

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On your mark, get set, comment, and share!

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The draw for this item is now closed!  <—- Thanks for participating.

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So it is now November 17th and since the start of this month I’ve already given away 2 tubs of Nitrean protein powder, Advanced Techniques in Glutei Maximi Strengthening by Bret Contreras, Muscle Imbalances Revealed by Rick Kaselj, and as of Monday I awarded a copy of Bulletproof Knees by Mike Robertson to Bobby for dropping a comment on that post.

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Since my initial list of giveaways was announced I figured I should let you know that I’ve also added the Strength Training for Fat Loss DVD by Nick Tumminello to the mix and yesterday I got word from Mike Boyle that he’s going to throw down a free copy of his new book for the giveaway as well.  Keep your eyes glued to this blog and make sure to sign up for my newsletter (left side of the page), RSS Feed, Facebook, and Twitter to make sure you don’t miss an opportunity to score some FREE STUFF.

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And since I’ve been in a research geeky kind of mode this week, I figured I’ll thow down a FREE t-shirt courtesy of Alan Aragon today.  Alan quite simply has an incredible research review that I think EVERYONE should subscribe to, but that is beyond the point.  Today, I’m putting up one of Alan’s brand new Brainy Gear t-shirts up fror grabs.

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Simply drop a comment below letting me know you want one (and which one you think is the most awesome) and your name will go into the hat for a free shirt at the end of the day on Friday.

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What are you waiting for?  Get at it!

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A couple weeks ago I posted a link to a survey about the content you’d most like to see on the site and I sincerely want to thank all of those who filled it out.  The information was most helpful and I’ll continue to work hard to provide you with stuff you want to see/read.  Of course, you should always feel free to let me know if there is something I might be able to comment on that you’re interested in and I’ll do my best to cover it.

Below are the survey results with thoughts and comments:

What type of blog content would you like me to produce? (Click all that apply)

71.7% – Research Review
71.7% – Corrective Exercise
68.3% – Strength 
55.0% – Assessment
51.7% – Athletic Peformance 
48.3% – Fat Loss
38.3% – Explanations of how studies are actually done
38.3% – Product Reviews 
31.7% – Video Blogs  
30.0% – Hypertrophy 
28.3% – Angry Rants 
26.7% – Obesity 
15.0% – Audio Interviews (Podcasts)

So it seems we have a couple clear winners.  Research reviews and corrective exercise seem to be what the vast majority of people are interested in while strength, assessments, and athletic performance weren’t that far behind.  I was actually surprised to see fat loss and hypertrophy so far down on the list.

 
If you could only pick one of the above, which would you MOST like me to do? (one answer)

16.9% – Corrective Exercise 
15.3% – Athletic Peformance 
13.6% – Fat Loss 
11.9% – Assessment 
10.2% – Strength 
8.5% – Research Review
5.1% – Explanations of how studies are actually done
5.1% – Audio Interviews (Podcasts)
5.1% – Video Blogs
3.4% – Hypertrophy
3.4% – Obesity
1.7% – Product Reviews

Interestingly, these answers told a different story.  While corrective exercise remained high on the list, research reviews fell several spots.  Fat loss also seems higher in this group which is more in line with what I had expected.

3. I’m considering producing a monthly research review dedicated specifically to hypertrophy, fat loss, strength, rehab/prehab, and performance. Would you be interested in such a review if it cost $9.99 per month?

Yes – 25.9%
No – 74.1%

As far as percentages go, the vast majority apparently aren’t that interested in the monthly research review.  However, that still leaves a heck of a lot of people in that 26% that are interested so I’ll be giving this more thought. 

4.  If there is anything I’ve neglected, please let me know here what you’d like to see on my site.

This was my favorite part of the whole survey and I really loved learning more about many of you in this section.  I also appreciated that positive feedback from many others.  For the purposes of this post I’ve left in only those posts that are relevent to blog content.

- I think you need a better looking website

This is possibly true.  I honestly haven’t made great attempts in this regard as I’ve been focused primarily on content.  I’m a minimalist at heart and I always try to get by without getting to flashy or fancy.  For now I don’t see any major moves to update the site, but I’ll definitely take this into consideration as I know appearance does influence how long people stick around when they arrive on a page.

- A general review of what are the best foods to accelerate fat loss and build muscle for ALL ages, including senior bodies.

Generally speaking, I’m not sure that there really are any magical foods that will make fat loss go any faster.  But there are certainly some fundamental principles to ensure that fat loss goes smoothly.  Perhaps I can blog about this in the near future.

- You are an honest guy, I like that.   Sell stuff that you recommend.

I ONLY sell stuff I recommend.  Anything less is sickening to me.  If you’d like more product recomendations I can certainly do that.  Mind you, product reviews didn’t fair very well in the survey.

- I think case studies are cool because it lets us get in your head and see how you take all the info and put it into play.

I think this is a great idea!  I’ve actually done this previously where I documented the whole process I went through with a specific client over the course of a year.  If this is of interest I can certainly do this.
 

- Assesment video blogs, specifically table assesments! If you do not have 5 of those produced soon I will never ever talk to you again!  Just kidding.

Truthfully, I don’t really do table assessments in the strictest sense.  I like my assessments to be portable so I can do them anywhere without any specific equipment.  However, I can do some assessment videos for those who care to see some of the process.

- Since I am 52, I would like to see info on what guys my age can do since we are no longer 25. America is greying and I still want to be active and fit.

This is the coolest thing about this survey.  Had I not done it I never would have known the age range of this audience.  I’ll definitely cover this in the future.

- Applications to steroid-free strength and CNS function.

People get strong without steroids?  Just kidding.  But it would be helpful to know which type of strength we’re talking about here.  Powerlifting, strongman, relative strength?  The more info I have, the more directed the blog post can be.

WHERE AM I GOING FROM HERE?

Ultimately, I’m going to try to cover more of the topics that most please the masses as well as the topics mentioned in the comments section.  I’ll still post other stuff as I see fit because it is my blog and I can pretty much do whatever I want.  I forsee doing some research reviews in the near future as there are a couple topics I really need to clear up.

 Beyond that, I encourage you to remain vocal in the comments section as this stuff gives me the fuel for future posts and lets me be more connected with my readership.  Thank you all again for reading my stuff.  Every day it still amazes me that people want to hear what I have to say.

Have an excellent week!

A couple days ago I posted some great videos by Joe Sansalone on how to properly perform the prone Y exercise.  If you missed them you should definitely check them out HERE.  Recently I had a brief discussion with Joe via email and asked him if I could share it here because I think the information was incredible.

ME:  After watching your videos on StrengthCoach.com it got me rethinking the whole notion of doing the old YTWL combo (although I currently use Nick Tuminello’s ordering of the exercises found HERE).

Given most people’s inability to properly do the Y pattern, I was thinking that doing the whole thing as a combo might not be the best idea until they can program each exercise properly by themselves. Would you generally agree with this? Moreover, would you ever program them all together?

Joe:  I agree that doing the whole series may not be the best idea, especially with beginners or people with major scapulo-thoracic issues. I often and most of the time program them separately and in various places in the program depending on several factors.

I agree that until a person has mastery of each movement and some base level of strength to perform each one correctly into some level of fatigue, that it is counterproductive to do them as a series. Often it seems we do exercises just to be able to say we did todays program instead of seeing if the client is actually getting the intended benefit of the program. I think this can easily happen with the YTWL as a series. We simply perform them because we know it has benefit and because it is on the paper.

I do sometimes perform them together as a means for developing scapulo-thoracic and shoulder stabilization endurance. Often times in movements the scap muscles will act as stabilizers as much as prime movers and certainly the rotator cuff is being asked to control and contribute to the humeral part of the YTWL series and because of these facts I think, if mastery and proper motor programming is present within each movement prior, than the whole series done together and properly progressed to external load can be good to develop strength-endurance in the shoulder girdle.

I do think that it is more likely to need to separate the movements then link them together for the points you mentioned.

Me:  I recently read a study that demonstrated that a wallslide performed facing a wall primarily activates the serratus anterior and not the lower traps. Do you think this has any implication for why doing a Y against a wall helps as a progression to the Y on the floor since they both upwardly rotate the scapula?

Joe:  I am not a big fan of studies that say this exercise activated that because it seems to me what gets activated greatly depends on where the electrodes were placed and even more on the individual muscle recruitment patterns and execution/proficiency of the person being tested based on their functional capacity, mechanics, restrictions and dysfunctions.

If you take a person who sucks at using their glutes to extend their hip in a bridge due to inhibition because of a tight anterior hip capsule, they will be forced to reduce the neural drive to their glute and increase greatly the neural drive to their hamstrings and lumbar extensors. This would make a glute bridge appear like it activated more hamstring and low back than glute. if in three weeks they were taught to do it right and went back and got tested again the results would show the opposite. This is my problem with studies on exercises and muscle activation. Often times the way the exercise is being executed isn’t taken into account. Look at the plank. People who do it poorly feel the low back due to an inability to control spinal extension and excessive anterior pelvic tilt and those who do it right feel the abs because they are able to properly resist sagital plane force to the spine and pelvis. Muscle activation and recruitment patterns all depends on how the exercise is performed, therefore I do not put much value into these studies because they do not seem to account for movement efficiency or the motor programming of the subjects. I would need to be there to see how each subject was moving to decide if the outcome of the facing the wall wall slide was accurate and then I would need to see a huge sampling.

I think there is an engineered and architecturally designed correct way to move and I think how well we move determines what muscles fire and the sequencing.

Me:  I love your thoughts on breaking apart the series. Your videos really got me thinking along this track. The idea of reintegrating them for strength endurance had not dawned on me though. This is definitely an important step.

Do you teach all movements in the YTWL series in the same way?  (i.e., reach, then set the scap, then perform the movment?)

Joe:  I always teach beginners to purposefully lengthen the muscles first we are trying to activate and contract with each movement. I feel it helps to facilitate a better concentric contraction and recruitment of the target muscles.

With more advanced people I move to elevating them so they can move through a bigger range of motion. With this there is more natural lengthening due to the increased ROM, so i do not find the need to purposefully emphasize the reach or eccentric lengthening here since it is already going to happen for the most part.

Me:  Awesome Joe!  Thanks.

Joe:  My pleasure.

In my next post I’ll include a few more of my own thoughts on this series, but in the meantime you can find Joe on his business page on Facebook and get on his case for not having a blog of his own to share all of his amazing knowledge.

Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion in the fitness industry about barefoot running due to the popular book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  To be honest, I never did read the book because it had so much hype and I find that hype often amounts to disappointment on my end.  Besides, I’m not personally very interested in distance running.

However, the discussion in the industry lead me to wonder more about whether we should limit the use of shoes and whether things like Vibrams and other deconstructed shoes like Nike Frees had any merit.  Around this time I mentioned to my friend Carson Boddicker that he should do a blog comparing barefoot and shod running and he certainly didn’t disappoint. 

In the end Carson put together the most comprehensive series of blog posts I’ve ever seen on this subject.  But before you dive in, be forewarned that Carson is crazy smart and he doesn’t hold back on his biomechanical understanding for the sake of the lay reader.

If you’re looking for a cake walk and someone to say “shoes are bad, feet are good” you’re not going to find it here.  But if you’re looking for an in depth, research based series on shod versus unshod running then you need to read each and every piece below.

(Despite looking like a ton of reading, each blog in itself is relatively short and certainly worth the effort)

Barefoot Running: Anatomy

Barefoot vs Shod Running

Running Economy and Barefoot vs Shod Footstrike

Normal Gait Mechanics

The Big Toe and Windlass Mechanism

Mobilizing the Big Toe

Afferent Control and Running

Irradiation, Concurrent Activation Potentiation, and the Feet

Shoelessness and Injuries

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

“Prevention of injuries can be done by (at most 10 words). The most important thing to do prior to beginning any sport/physical activity/exercise routine is (name one thing). Preventing most (adjective) injuries is (possible or impossible, chose one) because (provide your reasoning).”

Check out my answer and those of many other industry pros HERE.

When you’re done, feel free to play along and leave your answer in the comments section below.