I
just finished watching Charlie Weingroff’s DVD T=R3 (Training=Rehab) last week.
Charlie is a Physical Therapist and Strength and Conditioning Coach who works
for Drive 495, Nike and Canada Basketball. He is also an elite powerlifter.
In
2012 when I started to “look outside of the box” with regards to my schooling
& education Charlie was one of the first people that I was recommended to
by my friends from the University of Waterloo Strength & Conditioning Club.
I started following Charlie’s work then, bought his first DVD in 2013 and have
continued to follow him ever since. I have a lot of respect for him and have
learned a lot from him in regards to rehab & training. Regardless of
whether or not you agree with him you can’t deny the influence he’s had on the
fields.
Some of the great takeaways from the DVD were
1) I loved Charlie’s opening analogy of a snowglobe –
representing a performance team (ie doctor, PT, strength coach, psychologist
etc). The person at the top of the snowglobe – be it an owner, manager, or
consultant has a broader view of the operation as a whole and how everything
interconnects. Yet the individuals at the bottom of the snowglobe – the doctor,
the PT, the strength coach etc have a better view of each of their own
respective areas.
2) One of the things I’ve always loved about Charlie’s
work is how he preaches networking and working together with other individuals
to fill other pieces of the puzzle. In his 4 windows of success (which he’s
talked about in other interviews and presentations): Equipment, Technical &
Tactical, Biological Power, and Movement he goes over how everyone from the guy
designing a golf club, to a skill coach, to a strength coach to a PT can make a
difference in health & performance.
3) Going in hand with #2 Charlie
discusses 4 main components to his evaluation
- Movement: can the joints get
into the right positions
- Output: what you are
physically capable of on your best day
- Readiness: what you are
today compared to your best
- Sensory systems
4) During the DVD Charlie also went over a lot of great
info on motor skill acquisition, learning and coaching. A lot of it referenced
Nick Winkelman’s brilliant work. I’m not going to steal their thunder – go read
Nick’s research (a lot of it is on Research Gate) and buy the DVD.
5) In the past Charlie and I had differing views on the
FMS. In this DVD Charlie said that the FMS is not an injury predictor but it
still can be used to see if joints are “nice” and can get into the desired
positions – and I totally agree with both points and that perspective.
One concept he discussed is the idea of having your own
movement screen (if you don’t believe in FMS) that also looks at active vs
passive movements, eliminates joints and changes positions. For instance – if
someone can get to 110 degrees hip flexion on their back but can’t bodyweight squat
deep is that a mobility problem or a skill problem?
6) The biggest thing I’ve liked about Weingroff’s work –
and what I’ve carried into my practice … is the idea of being able to give
people an effective training stimulus while dealing with injuries and/or
mobility limitations. This DVD does a greater job of expanding on that.
7) One component of Charlie’s DVD that I feel a lot of my
colleagues who are into pain science would appreciate is the concept of
incorporating low-load movement variability into a warmup. While I still am
more cautious of certain movement patterns when they’re under high load
situations and/or are symptomatic in people …. we should be able to move our
spine around a little bit without fear of our back blowing up.
Following in this thread Charlie makes a great point that
there’s no such thing as a bad movement or bad exercise unless you categorize
what it’s for and the cost/benefit ratio involved.
8) In the DVD Charlie goes into great detail on the
differences between concurrent training (using examples from Mike Boyle
Strength & Conditioning and Westside Barbell) and block training as far as
their advantages, disadvantages and how to properly apply them. Having had a
superficial knowledge of block training I found this section interesting and
full of information.
Side note: Do not make the same mistake I did and try to
rush through the DVD set in a few days. Take your time.
9) One of the great points Charlie makes is the concept
of “lowest system load” in training. While this may seem contradictory to
what’s said above some exercises do carry a higher risk/benefit ratio than
others.
While I see some people on the internet harping about why
certain strength coaches do/don’t do certain exercises we have to remember that
strength coaches are the ones who are responsible for keeping their athletes
fit & healthy. Strength coaches are liable if an injury happens in the
weight room. In that situation I don’t know about you but the biomechanics guy
in me believes in exercises with the best risk/benefit ratio which again
depends on the goal.
10) To finish off the DVD set (before bonus content)
Charlie does a full subjective and objective assessment using the SFMA on one
of the attendees. The section of this that stood out to me was the idea of
making sure there isn’t something orthopedic or medical going on that’s
contributing to a person’s pain. While this may seem common sense to us in the
rehab world I have heard very scary stories of personal trainers who tried to
“treat” their clients pain when they had serious medical issues going on that
never got looked at until it was too late.
Anyways
my review has gone on long enough and I don’t want to steal Charlie’s thunder.
All in all I quite enjoyed the DVD and would recommend it for anyone in rehab
or S&C.
Tune
in next Monday for next week’s article “3 out of the box applications of
Interval Training for health.”
No comments:
Post a Comment