Posted on October 7, 2019October 7, 2019 by martincolangelo

Training Principles You Have To Live By: RECIPROCAL INHIBITION

(RI) Reciprocal Inhibition – describes the process where the muscles of one side of a joint relax in order to accommodate a greater contraction in the muscles on the other side of the joint.

Without RI muscles on both sides of a joint may fire simultaneously and work against each other.

RI is typically used to achieve greater range of motion in a stretch. You may have heard of “Contract/Relax” – yea thats RI and the Golgi Tendon Organs at work.

How it occurs doesn’t really matter to you.

What does matter is what you do after.

The only reason to stretch a muscle is to promote length and greater range of motion. Once that extra range is created you must then train it!

Mobility is Posture Specific: I would not suggest stretching any muscle in isolation – but to do mobility exercises that relate directly to a functional movement (like a squat).

This way you point all your arrows in the right direction.

Lastly,

This process takes advantage of the stretch reflex and is an effect way of literally training your reflexes. Something you will want to have later in life.

Posted on September 11, 2019September 11, 2019 by martincolangelo

Every Day Movement

IN THE GYM,

you practice movements that your body will default to when you have to use similar movements in your daily life.

However – you should not categorize ‘exercise’ as something to only to be done in the gym.

Here is why – Evolution: In order to eat, ancient humans had to move. There were certain things they had to do every single day in order to survive: walk, climb, sprint, hide, hunt …. using a whole in the ground as a toilet… All of these activities require mobility & motility.

The Modern World has turned this evolutionary structure on its head, and serious health issues have arisen because of it.

We need a ‘return to nature’ of sorts, to bring us back into balance.

… Return to natural movement … to functional movement !?!

(great segue, I know )

SO, what should I be focusing on when it comes to exercise and functional movement?This first point is also a highly overlooked aspect of coaching:

How are you BREATHING, are you maintaining POSTURE / technique and what are your EYES doing. If you involve all 3 of these things into your movement practice then you will be in BALANCE.

Second point:

you need to balance out your pushing and your pulling. Train the Lower body and the Upper Body with these pushing and pulling movements
- The lower body should be trained more than the Upper body
- Pulling movements should be trained more than Pushing movements

Getting Strong and Mobile is actually quite straight forward once you figure out certain rules and start to follow them. (more on this in a later post)

However it gets tricky when you start to talk about “Asymmetries and Corrective” – because of individual differences. More on this in the next post…

Posted on December 20, 2017 by martincolangelo

Principle Based Training: Strength

1) Safety First (2) Strength has a greater Purpose (3) Tension is Strength (4) Relaxation is Strength

5) Perfect Technique (6) Long Rest (7) Simple (8) Sinister

Strength Principles

If you follow these principles you will ALWAYS progress.

Because you will always have in the back of your head the reason you are training – making motivation a non-issue.

These principles should help construct your notions of how you workout (i.e. hardstyle, long rest),

and also guide you to a more holistic way of training and care taking of your self (relaxation/recovery).

1) Safety First

This includes personal space, choosing the appropriate weight, location and equipment.
It also means not training yourself to a point were the risk of injury becomes greater than the benefit received from the exercise.
Pain = NO gain (usually) – I am always reminded at this point of some Paul Chek says : “Train, don’t Drain”

2) Strength has a greater purpose

“Sparta, Rome, the knights of Europe, the samurai… worshiped strength.
Because it is strength that makes all other values possible.”
(Enter the Dragon)

Strength is a SKILL; that means it can be TAUGHT, and that you are either GOOD at it or BAD at it – you are either strong, or weak. Being GOOD at something is valuable, but aspiring to be better is even greater.
Train strength because it carries over into everything else you do in the world : be it physical or mental.

3) Tension is Strength

This means HARD STYLE : you must learn how to utilize your bodies tension in order to improve your performance. This is achieved through certain tension techniques.
- including: 1) make a white knuckle fist
  2) drive heels into floor
  3) crush a walnut between your Glutes
  4) squeeze the Abdominals
  5) utilize power breathing
- the next step is knowing when to use them, that involves some strategy on your part.
Without proper abdominal bracing (tension) your risk of injury increases.
With proper abdominal bracing you can literally do anything you want (except fly).

4) Relaxation is strength

The other side of the coin of tension is relaxation and thus also the other side of Strength.
This includes proper rest between sets and appropriate recovery between workouts.
If you CANNOT relax (if you CANNOT exhale with an audible sigh of relief) you need to figure it out… Without Relaxation you will always have elevated cortisol and low testosterone levels (which is harmful over long periods of time).
Relaxation is also a Mobility Principle: along with breathing and patience; if you lack either of these it is now wonder why your strength and mobility goals seem so unattainable no matter how hard you try. You are trying too hard!

5) Perfect Technique

Every Rep. Every Set. Every Time…. technique, technique, technique : when you start a new training program or learn a new skill the first few weeks of improvements is predominantly NEUROLOGICAL. Only then will muscular adaption starts to occur.
Similarly once you train yourself past the stage of muscular adaption, almost ALL progress becomes neurological and technique based again.
Attention to technique while training (and having a coach provide correction/feedback) will fast track your road to strength – all the while SAVING YOU FROM INJURY.
INJURY PROOF YOURSELF by training with good form. The human body CANNOT perform perfect reps while under a high amount of metabolic fatigue – which brings us nicely to our next point….

6) Long Rest

Proper rest intervals are critical : serious strength training requires 3-5 minutes and even up to 15 minutes rest between near maximal lifts.
I go deeper into this subject in a previous post entitled : ‘Training Considerations: Rest, Set Type and Mental Management’
Pavel confirms everything I mention in his article ‘Long Rests: Russian Science to the Rescue’
A final reason to rest long and to keep the sets short (20-40sec max), is what Al Ciampa says in the above article, namely :

“If you let the “burn” in the muscle rise too high, you literally destroy the mitochondria, the very thing you tried to build”
the last tip I have for you comes from a source I cannot remember but it goes: “Don’t confuse Strength and Conditioning with Conditioning and more Conditioning”

7) Simple

For building impressive strength use the KISS principle.

Check out StrongFirst Simple and Sinister: a strength and endurance program that will prepare you for literally ANYTHING

Simple because the exercises themselves are easy to learn
Simple because you use only a hand full of exercises and you get really good at them. Furthermore, as your technique improves, the greater the training effect becomes.

8) Sinister

Sinister because training for strength is HARD WORK!
The individual movements themselves may be ‘simple’ – but the combination of maintaining technique and speed while fatigued (and still using heavy weights) demands that your body adapt.

check out Simple and Sinister at the StrongFirst website:

Kettlebell Simple & Sinister

Remember,

If you follow these principles you will ensure progress.

Have fun with this information and explore what works best for you.

If you get confused or just don’t know where to start / what to do – that is when you need to get a coach.

These principles are useless unless there is a goal or end product in mind.

> if you enjoyed this post, share it with someone who you think would benefit

Martin Colangelo

“The Better Movement Specialist”

Stay Strong my friends!

Posted on December 12, 2017December 12, 2017 by martincolangelo

Principle Based Training: Workout Organization

1) Mobility 2) Reactivity 3) Speed/Power

4) Strength 5) Endurance 6) Relaxation/Recovery

Training Principles

This topic is important for those who desire efficiency and want to get the most out of their workouts.

If you want to get in shape (whatever that means) and not just be OK at a bunch of different exercises, you will have to plan out -step by step – the path to your goal.

Since most people don’t have fitness goes beyond simply ‘getting fit’,

This article will be about the very general goal of getting fit.

With this goal in mind, we can begin laying out the step by step process towards ‘fitness’.

> If you follow this workout organization, you will find yourself on the fast track to fitness success.

1)Mobility

Soft tissue work first. Do this in order to get the tissue moving in the right way.
Foam roll, Band work, Active Stretching
Write down a mobility goal, ideally have it relate to an exercise you know you will be doing later i.e. better hip mobility in the deep squat.
Some Movement Patterning work for the exercises you know you will be doing later is a good idea.

2) Reactivity

Having slow reactivity means you have a slow nervous system, this is an indicator of how much time you have left.
you can train reactivity in many ways:
- vision training
- balance training
- catching and throwing exercises
- changing directions (of any movement on demand)
It is important to do this prior to lifting, because the effects of this type of training will increase your ability to produce strength later in the workout.
Doing this after a workout will reduce the training effect.
This is also a good time to practice a new skill

3) Speed/Power

Must be done prior to any excess fatigue.
Speed development means fast twitch muscle fiber development.
Metabolic waste is detrimental to speed development I.E. no one gets faster as a game progresses.
This section will recruit high threshold motor units and will encourage myofibrillar hypertrophy
Choose compound movements – jumping, explosive kettlebell movements, Olympic lifting, sprinting, plyometrics etc.
keep reps LOW (1-5 reps) and rest HIGH (3-5 minutes)
complete recovery between sets is required, don’t confuse speed training with conditioning…. it is trained more like strength.

I want to remind you that this is not THE way, this is just one of many ‘ways’.

All I am trying to do it make your life easier.

If your reading this then you more than likely care about your body, you already workout and want to know more about the health and fitness world.

If you order your workout according to this template, you will be following the body’s natural way of optimizing and improving your energy systems.

You will therefore be getting the most out of each workout.

Damn love efficiency…

4) Strength

this section of your workout is where you stress your body for 3-5 sets with 1-3 different exercises.
choose a grinding, compound movement for sets of 3-6 repetitions with about 3 minutes rest. (Ex. Deadlift, Press, Pull Up, Squat…)
this section will encourage sarcoplasmic hypertrophy

5) Endurance

Conditioning in this template means anything more than 6 reps
If your ‘explosive’ movements stay explosive, and form remains strict – this section can last for as long as you do.
this section is highly goal dependent:
- if you want slow-twitch muscle hypertrophy = sets of continuous movement for 40 – 120s, equal amount of rest.
- if you want to burn calories = heavy 3-5rep Deadlift/ followed by 30-60sec Swing/ followed by Plank until you ‘recover’…
Find yourself a qualified strength and conditioning coach – one who doesn’t confuse strength and conditioning with conditioning and more conditioning.
- This is because there is a difference between muscular conditioning – and – cardiovascular conditioning … each has its own considerations and ideal training methods.

6) Relaxation/Recovery

this section should be as long as needed, some need 5 minutes, others 15.
1. breathe deep
2. decompress your spine.
- decompression exercises include : hanging, child’s pose and cobra, cat-camel, Sphinx pose etc.
Post Workout Window for Improved Recovery: there is a 6-9 hours window post workout that if you time either your recovery procedures or sleeping cycle to correspond with this window you will enhance your recovery and your ability to train the following day.
Meditation and other mental practices will help tremendously for those athletes committed to their progress. Since mental practice takes time – However, even 5 minutes will go along way!

> if you enjoyed this post, share it with someone who you think would benefit

Martin Colangelo

“The Better Movement Specialist”

Stay Strong my friends!

Posted on December 2, 2017 by martincolangelo

Principle Based Training: Mobility

Ready to ‘Work Out’?

This article is about MOBILITY – which for many, improving mobility will in fact be a Workout!

This is because when you extend, stretch or move into unfamiliar areas of your body’s range of motion – your sympathetic nervous system will become activated.

Once you start feeling sweaty, dry mouthed and your breathing is not as easily controllable – you know you have activated sympathetic pathways.

The trick is to realize when and where this happens – and then try to relax!

Below are 6 PROVEN techniques to enhance your mobility and get the most out of what you already have.

Mobility Principles

Relaxation
Breathing
Patience
Use your Strength
Create Space
Share the load

Explanation:

In order to increase your mobility, you must be able to RELAX while in uncomfortable positions. Struggling in and out of ranges of motion will never create improvement.
BREATHING in a specific fashion will ensure relaxation. Making sure you continue to breath is key + how you breath is just as important – exhale twice as long as your inhale – saying “HHAAAA” as you do.
Long term mobility changes take a long time and a lot of PATIENCE. So keep at it. Think in terms of months.
Mobility involves using your STRENGTH to push and/or pull yourself into more range of motion. Opening up new, functional ranges of motion is not a passive exercise. Prepare for some had work.
while ‘stretching’ don’t just sit there; wiggle around, contract and relax your muscles, rotate and ‘search’ or tightness – and then breath into it. This will help to ‘CREATE SPACE.’
Share tension throughout your body. Learn to link muscles from head to toe in order to effectively ‘SHARE THE LOAD’ – (this works with Strength as well). Understand that no muscle or joint is in isolation. To ensure mobilization is happening in the desired area you must ensure appropriate tension is used throughout the body.