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I hope everyone had a great first open workout.  I know I did (sort of, it felt rather terrible but satisfying in a strange way).  We’re now in open territory and it’s time to showcase all of your hard work from over the past year.   I just released some new programming to optimize your performance through the open while keeping your body fresh and helping to minimize the risk of injury.

To purchase this month’s programming click HERE:

Changes and additions to this month’s programming:

• More modifications per workout – Depending on how beat up your body is from the open workout you can adjust accordingly
• More conditioning specific to the demands of the open.  We have a good idea of what we’ll be seeing and we need to be ready for it.
• Strength training maintenance – Strength work is kept at a maintenance level to maximize conditioning.
• Optional work specific to addressing exercises that have most historically shown up in the open.

My thoughts on last month’s programming:

• I felt the program addressed the specific demands of the open.  I routinely felt as if I was better able to handle higher volume workouts with less fatigue.
• My strength went down during this cycle.  This was expected but I was ready to accept a dip in strength for improved conditioning.
• A bit too much work in general.  I had an idea this was going to happen.  Last month was almost all open workouts which tend to be pretty challenging.  Both myself and several clients spoke to how drained they felt over the course of the month.  Overall I felt that this adequately prepared everyone for the open but was teetering on too much.
• Boring – The open is has been fairly predictable over the past few years.  The program reflects this.  Because of that there wasn’t as …read more
  

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Join us today as I interview physical therapist and running specialist Chris Johnson.  Topics discussed are:

• [4:14] Chris’s unique background as a physical therapist and athlete
• [7:30] How promoting longevity in fitness through smarter training is vital
• [9:24] One of the most critical mistakes runners make with training
• [10:05] 90% of runners run at 90% intensity, 90% of the time and 90% get injured – whoa
• [13:30] Chris’s current patient caseload and how he integrated running performance into his physical therapy practice
• [16:20] What are the most common injuries seen in the running population?
• [17:15] The importance of a thorough subjective during your initial evaluation
• [17:48] Chris’s assessment of an injured runner
• [18:34] Staging and typing an injury – Where am I in the stages of rehab?
• [19:14] The importance of single leg balance
• [19:57] Progression through the 1st ray and great toe
• [20:30] Eccentric closed chain tolerance – The step-down test
• [20:50] What’s frontal plane stability look like?
• [21:02] Can the patient properly hop?
• [22:00] We are returning runners to running too quickly after injury
• [22:44] How Chris progresses his runners back to running after injury
• [24:10] Teaching runners decision making while running – when to push and when to stop immediately
• [26:10] Chris’s favorite drills and progressions to enhance single leg stance

• [29:48] How Chris teaches progression through the 1st ray

• [32:52] Should we teach the short foot and can we actually teach a short foot?
• [33:53] How to cue people most effectively
• [35:18] How do we integrate more dynamic foot stability into our therapy once our patients have mastered static exercises (Single leg stance)
• [37:20] Chris’s favorite closed chain eccentric exercises – The importance of weightlifting for runners.  The runner’s “core four”

• [39:17] How Chris checks frontal plane stability and then treats it – Single leg balance and hip abduction

• [41:55] What does a typical running biomechanical analysis look like for …read more
  

It takes more than heavy weights to hypertrophy muscle. Add an insane volume phase if you want insane amounts of muscle. …read more