Single leg exercise develop proprioception, increase hip joint stability and core strength, and can be used as a quick screen to check for asymmetries – if you’re not including them there’s a good chance that you’ll be lopsided!

One of the most common problems I see is the “knee collapse”. This can be a serious problem, especially for those that are loading a lot of weight during their single leg exercises.

Luckily, the nervous system has a pretty amazing way of correcting faulty movement patterns, if given the right environment and a little stimulation in the right places.

Check out the following video to identify and correct the very common “knee collapse” problem, and please leave your comments or questions below.

Ramon

Having specific teaching strategies for each exercise or movement can speed up the entire process, make sure the exercises are learnt correctly the first time, and get our clients back into the workout as quickly as possible.

A couple of days ago one of our Self-Paced Kettlebell Instructor Program participants posted a comment that prompted me to share how I think when it comes to instructing with kettlebells. I hope the video below will give you some insights into part of the learning/teaching mindset that I use.

Here’s the comment in full:

It’s great seeing it broken down like that. When I started I picked it up relatively quickly, but when I tried to introduce a friend to the kettlebell swing he was having trouble with the hip break and trying to lift the kettlebell with his arms. I didn’t know how to coach him around it. I think the hip break problem was tight hamstrings, but now I know how to chunk it down and will be able to coach each movement before adding them together. – Oliver Goldsmith

Like every other organism on the planet our ability to learn and adapt is essentially a survival mechanism… and a large part of surviving is making sure we do not damage ourselves.

Our sophisticated onboard computer, the nervous system, uses information gathered by receptors throughout our body to determine various actions such as: how much neural drive to allow for a particular muscle action, or what sort of range of motion can be given to the joints.

If there is a chance of damaging ourselves, neural drive will be decreased and range of motion will be limited…. it’s a survival mechanism.

But whether or not we are under threat, we are always gathering information, processing that information, and producing an (almost) instant response.

Every movement we make, every exercise we perform, feeds information to the proprioceptive system – the part of the nervous system that gives us the “map” of our body position in time and space. That information is then used to help determine neural drive, range of motion, and various other things in the very next split-second – it’s that fast.

How fast? Mechanoreceptors, which contribute to the collection of information for the proprioceptive system, travel around 300 miles an hour. This means that the information gathered by the proprioceptive system will contribute to making changes in the way our bodies behave, almost instantly. You can change your strength, power, speed, range of motion, balance… ALMOST INSTANTLY!

So how can we use this to information to our advantage?

Well, if every exercise we perform has an immediate impact on how we perform in the next split-second, we simply need to test the effect an exercise has on us. Is the exercise facilitating the nervous system and enhancing strength, power and speed, or is the exercise inhibiting the nervous system and reducing strength, power and speed.

The same exercise with two different people can produce very different results.

Here’s a little test to try in your next workout.

From a standing upright position, do a forward bend. Legs straight, feet together. Let your arms hang down. How far can you get? Find some way of marking your range of motion.

Next, do some press-ups. Just a normal on the hands and toes press-up. Do a full set.

Then, go back and check your forward bend. Did you get further, or not as far?

What does this tell you?

There are exceptions, but generally speaking, if you got further in your forward bend, then the exercise (the press-up) is enhancing function because you’re now being allowed more range of motion. Range of motion testing is just one way to test the clarity of the proprioceptive system.

A clearer “map” equals less risk of self-damage, and less risk of self-damage means the nervous system will ramp up neural drive, increase ROM etc.

If you didn’t get as far in the forward bend, then your nervous system is “shutting down” your range of motion from doing the press-up. This could be because the brain has interpreted the information that was relayed from the mechanoreceptors from doing the press-up, as potentially damaging. Modifications may need to be made to the press-up exercise so that it facilitates the nervous systems ability to increase ROM instead of inhibiting it.

Having various methods of assessing the effect that every exercise has on us will allow us to be able to: know exactly what effect the exercise is having ie positive or negative; determine whether an exercise needs to be modified; and determine whether or not the exercise should be included in the training program at that stage.

Remember, any movement or exercise can affect the nervous system in a positive way, or a negative way. It will either enhance strength, power and speed, or limit it. These changes are almost instantaneous, and usually outside conscious awareness.

The nervous system is a very powerful learning, adaptive, survival machine, that responds to exactly what we feed it, so we really need to know exactly what changes each and every movement or exercise is having on us – because if we’re not assessing, we’re guessing!

Ramon David

1 Minute rounds, no rest in between. Repeat for as many rounds as you feel necessary.

Kettlebell used was 20kg. Club 8kg. Thick rope. Enjoy!

Think about it this way. Our clients spend most of their day in the seated position. They sit on the way to work, they sit at work, they sit at meal times, they sit watching tv. They sit.. a lot!

This seated position, as we know, affects their posture and how they move – It will alter muscle firing patterns. And this will ultimately affect how they perform in a workout. It’s not the only element, but it’s a major one.

So our clients are really good at… flexion!

The problem with taking them out of this position and taking them into the extension patterns that they need, is that their body has adapted for flexion and has compensated accordingly.

These compensations will have a direct impact on how the body performs during the workout, including: how much neural drive is provided for a movement (strength/power); whether further compensations occur; how much shear force the joints or bones are put under (increase injury) and many other factors.

Taking the time to address movement dysfunction will not only dramatically enhance performance, but will also reduce the risk of injury substantially – especially when included before the workout that we’re about to punish our clients with.

The following video looks at addressing some of the major dysfunctional movement patterns that most clients present with.

In the many hundreds of movement assessments and screens I’ve run my clients through, I can’t remember anyone that didn’t need to improve thoracic spine, shoulder and hip joint mobility (amongst other things). But, if you’re using movement assessments or movement screens then you will have already identified many of your clients’ dysfunctional movement patterns, and I’m sure you’ll see how the movements in this video tie in with that.

The patterns used here are movement-based corrective exercises. Load/unload principles, fascial train concepts, and function relevant to kettlebell training have been incorporated.

This mobility drill has been designed to give you an effective full body 5 minute warmup that will enhance the kettlebell workout.

Enjoy!

Please leave any comments or questions below, I’d love to hear from you.

Ramon David

After a good hour of this we had arrived. “Nous sommes ici” (We are here), the Frenchman utters and with the flick of a switch we are standing in front of illuminated cave paintings 30 thousand years old - some of which are in such pristine condition that they look like they were painted yesterday…

As the light reflects off the surface of the rock, we can see exactly what the paintings would have looked like under the light of the fire torches that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have used. The animals on the wall come to life! They look 3D and move under the flickering light – an effect created by using the contours of the rock to shape their features. My description doesn’t even come close to the experience, and the daily concerns in my life now feel insignificant in comparison to how these people lived.

They lived such a simple life, that revolved around meeting the most basic of human needs. These days we tend to over-complicate things, especially when it comes to health, fitness, and our psychological wellbeing. But think about this for a moment. For millions of years we lived very simple lives and even though we’ve changed our lifestyle dramatically we still operate on the same “wiring” as we did then.

So what does this have to do with fitness I hear you say?! Well, everything!

Imagine, for a moment, what your life would have been like if you lived at that time. How did you sit, how did you move, what tasks did you perform. How did you live day to day?!

Let’s start with some of the basic movements that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have performed. Two of the most often used movements were 1. Picking things up and 2. Carrying them. It’s how we would have collected and brought back food and water to our campsites. It’s how we would have picked up rocks and logs and built the tents that we lived in. In fact, one of the most supported theories for how we became bipedal was so that we could carry things more easily over long distances.

And while this lifestyle is very different from how we live today, we’re still anatomically the same. We’re still basically built that way. To lift, and to carry.

It amazes me how many times I hear “what are farmers walks?” or I see a “dead-lift” that looks nothing like one, yet these are 2 main resistance movements that should be the cornerstone of just about every training program.

There are so many “health” and “fitness” benefits when lifts and carry’s (dead-lifts and farmers walks) are incorporated strategically and correctly into our training programs that we could literally fill the rest of this page.

While we are built like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we need to consider the fact that we have changed our environment and lifestyle dramatically since then. We need to allow for the effect that this dramatic lifestyle change has had on us, the sedentary people.

There are many considerations when incorporating these exercises – and really when prescribing any exercise or movement pattern. But instead of giving you what I think are the key considerations for dead-lifts and farmers walks, I’d like to mention 2 key mindsets that have been of great benefit to me as a personal trainer and coach, and I hope will help you in being able to decipher what is right for you and your client when incorporating these, and other movements.

1. Put on the “common sense hat”! For example, it doesn’t make much sense to me to get my client doing a 1 leg dead-lift on a bosu when they can’t even do one on solid ground. We could go into how counter-compensations occur etc, to explain why one wouldn’t do this, but is it really that necessary?! My “common sense hat” says get back to basics first, and do the basics well.

2. Assess and test everything! The only way we can really determine with any level of objectivity whether our client is ready for something, and then how they respond to it, is to assess and to test. Adding resistance or weight to any movement or exercise will always enhance whatever is present in that movement. If the client has faulty movement with a squat or lunge for example, adding weight to the movement will tend to just enhance the fault – ie make it worse. Assess the movement pattern first, and then have some sort of testing method to see if what we’re doing actually has a positive effect.

There’s obviously a lot more to it than that operationally, but having these mindsets will go a very long way with the overall results, and in establishing a successful career in the health and fitness industry (which is for another post).

Getting back to basics is also something that I think we all need reminding of every now and again. So if you’re ever in the South of France and fancy going to see 30 thousand year old paintings for a reminder of how we lived, I can recommend a few good caves

Next week I’ll be releasing a video series on the 3 biggest mistakes that personal trainers make with kettlebells that can injure clients and exactly what you can do about it.

- The first video starts off with gaining an understanding of why most kettlebell swings are performed incorrectly and how that can cause back injuries. This has a lot to do with not building the necessary foundation first – which is the dead-lift. From there we’ll go into some magic bullet corrective-exercise techniques and much more. If you want access to this video series, just click the “free kettlebell video” on this page and pop your first name and email in and I’ll send you the first video.

Until then, farmers walks and dead-lifts and don’t forget your “common sense hat” and assess and test everything!

I’d love to hear what you think – please leave a comment below.

- Ramon David

Ps. If you have a client that can’t dead-lift properly, the video next week also includes a step by step breakdown of a very easy and effective way to teach it.