Advice for North Dakota's Athletes

Strength and conditioning is one of my greatest passions, but isn’t WHY I love to coach. I’ve always found facilitating progress in the weight room the most interesting, but it’s really just a small part of a more complex equation. I think we all get into coaching at one point or another, because we want to help younger people solve that equation.

I want, more than anything, to offer the athletes in my area every opportunity to excel in the sports they love so dearly. As proud as I am of the progress I made as a college athlete, I know now that there is so much more I could have done. Knowing that makes me feel compelled to provide athletes in the area with all they need to reach their own maximum potential. Athletes in North Dakota are behind the curve a bit for reasons we’ll get into later, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reach your highest potential (i.e. Carson Wentz). It just takes a different mindset to continue ascension in your respective athletic endeavor.

Some may wonder where I come off thinking I have great advice for our local athletes but I’ve always felt that I have a unique perspective for athletes in rural communities for a few of reasons:

·      I was born in Minot, ND and attended Des-Lacs Burlington Public School for all but 3 years of my primary and secondary education. I played baseball and basketball in high school at the Class B level.

·      I excelled in Baseball (my first love) and I accepted a scholarship my senior year of high school to play at Minot State University.

·      My athletes are always surprised when I tell them this: after my first semester in college athletics, I quit the team. Looking back: I came in completely unprepared and had no clue what it takes to be an admirable athlete at the collegiate level. This set me up for one of the best decisions I’ve ever made as a young man.

·      After a year of not being an athlete, and serving tables 50 hours per week. I realized how unique the privilege of competing in college athletics is and contacted my old baseball coach. I rejoined the baseball team at MSU as a walk on in the Fall Semester.

·      Throughout school, I had the opportunity to coach young athletes at performance venues in the private sector. Since graduation, I’ve made private strength and conditioning my career, but also have the opportunity to coach in the university setting. Most people don’t understand how different these coaching environments are, but it gives me an opportunity to experience that difference every day. Over the last 7 years I’ve been able to get a feel for the difference between high school and college athletes and what separates the young men and women who have fulfilling athletic careers from those who get weeded out.

Now that you know my background, here is my first list of advice for athletes growing up and competing in our state.

1.     Lead first

·      Leadership is a pretty vague concept and not everyone understands it. It's fairly simple if you want it to be: show up early, stay late, sacrifice personal opportunities and lend them to teammates, ALWAYS BRING POSITIVE ENERGY, take care of your academics, and help hold teammates accountable are a few ideas that come off the top of my head. The list of traits that make up quality leaders goes on and on. But I’m telling you, if you’re not the most talented player on your team, it’s the most fulfilling way to conduct your athletic career. Taking on the demanding role of leadership isn’t for everyone, but I’ve seen guys who were vastly under talented hold roster spots because they were relentless workers. Cutting the guy who is soaked in sweat at the end of every practice will set a bad example in any organization. Honing your leadership traits just might be the best way to hang around long enough to get the opportunities you need.

2.     Take the weight room seriously

·      Of course I’m a little biased, but here’s the deal. If you come from North Dakota, especially rural North Dakota, you’re behind. Know that, and embrace it. In North Dakota we don’t have large metropolitan areas to draw from, so statistically it’s highly unlikely that we produce a high margin of athletes with advantageous builds. Seeing a 6’ 6” class B basketball player is like seeing a double rainbow. Let’s face the facts; most of us are of Scandinavian or German descent. As a result, we’ve got a whole lot of 5’ 10” athletes chalked with a slow twitch muscle make up. So find the weight room, learn everything you can about it, and put it to use. You’re going to need it.

3.     Be consistent, and be patient

·      I played class B baseball in North Dakota. I can count on one hand how many times I faced velocities over 85 mph before I graduated high school. When I got to college that changed in a hurry. Everyone threw hard and had more than a 2-pitch arsenal. It’s pretty unrealistic to think that I would be dominant right from the get go (but that’s what I thought). There was a frustrating learning curve I needed to endure before getting my chance. For me, defense always came easy. So that’s where I took as many innings as possible as I slowly developed my ability to handle the new looks I was getting in the box. My freshman and sophomore years consisted mostly of spot starts and defensive substitutions. I tried to earn time at every position my coach would allow me to take reps at. My advice to you is to FIND A ROLE early and play it well. I know you were the bee’s knees and cat’s pajamas in high school, but you aren’t anymore. You’re a small fish in a big pond and you’ve only heard stories about some of the fish you’re trying to swim with now. Carson Wentz has become the gold standard for athletic development in North Dakota. Remember, he didn’t play until his junior year at NDSU. That’s 3 years of strength sessions, meetings and practice. He was STILL the 2^nd overall pick in the NFL Draft. Don’t mope about limited opportunity. Just keep your head down and keep preparing. When it presents itself, make the most of it.

4.     Skill, Skill, Skill!

·      As I said earlier, most North Dakota athletes are physically disadvantaged. We need to be honest with ourselves about our size and speed. Our climate and heritage put us in a unique spot. You combine that with sparsely populated areas and next level athletes are hard to come by. When you consider what we’re working with genetically and climatically, it’s hard to be surprised about our state’s relationship with hockey. Sports like baseball and soccer, where our genetic model would fit, tend to take a backseat because of our climate. I should say that no matter what sports you fall in love with and decide to pursue, your background isn’t an excuse. There is a way for you to excel, and it comes in the form of skill development. We see guys defy the odds all the time simply because they were willing to put in the time necessary to develop their skills and knowledge of the game. If you are 6’ 4” playing the 5 spot on your high school basketball team you need to understand NOW that there probably aren’t any college coaches looking for power forwards and centers your size. You need to start developing the skills necessary to play other positions. I know you’ve always been the tallest kid on your team, but at high schools all around the country young men your size are the ones bringing the ball up the court. If you want to play next level you need to work harder than everyone else at developing the skills of your sports. Steph Curry has become the epitome of doing more with less. He didn’t become the MVP of his league because he was bigger, faster and stronger than everyone else. He did it because he always has the ball on a string, has great vision, and can shoot from anywhere on the court. It’s ok that we’re undersized and fairly slow, but we need to come to grips with it and find other ways to be successful. The best way to offset your physical limitations will always be your skills and intelligence. Never stop developing those two traits.

5.     Ask Questions

·      My freshman year of high school basketball, I got to play a bit with our JV team. There were some talented sophomores and juniors on the team so at the time I was proud of the accomplishment. After our first 10 or 11 games I stopped being asked to dress for the JV games any more. I played for our freshman team, then got showered up and watched JV and Varsity compete from the crowd. After a few games of this, I mustered up the courage to ask why I was no longer dressing JV. Turns out, my dad had told my head coach I was struggling with my Physical Science grade and asked that I no longer dress for JV games. A bad physical science grade was limiting my opportunities as an athlete. I remember thinking for two weeks that I was a worse basketball player than when I started. Had I never asked why, I probably wouldn’t have ever made it back to dressing for the JV team. I’ve seen far too many young athletes miss opportunities because they were afraid to ask what they needed to improve on and take action.  A lot of times, if you’re willing to ask for advice and take consequent action, you’ll find that what’s blocking your progress can be fixed more easily than you think.

This is obviously a pretty compressed list of things athletes from the area can do to be successful at the next level. There are a number of other things you can do to have a fulfilling “next level” career, wherever that may be. I think this is a great place to start no matter what your goal is. They’re applicable to the freshman that is trying to dress for the JV team, the senior in high school looking to sign a college letter of intent and junior in college who has yet to receive their opportunity. These are all lessons I wish I had been given playing sports in rural North Dakota. If reading this blog gives one young athlete a unique perspective to a challenging situation or helps guide them to reaching their potential then it was worth the time.

As always, thanks for reading.

Caleb Heilman

The FMS's Influence on Strength and Conditioning (Part 3)

I wrote vaguely last week about how I use movement screens at Heilman’s Performance to facilitate our program design. I discussed that the individual scores we collect on each athlete provide guidance to three key factors of any well designed strength and conditioning program: initial prescription, regressions, and omittance. These scores give us just enough insight to decide which exercises to prescribe, which need to be altered to provide the most benefit, and which exercises to avoid entirely until a particular movement pattern can be cleaned up. I would like to discuss in this blog what exactly I’m trying to identify with a screen and more specifically how it helps us arrive at a decision concerning the three aforementioned factors.

Collecting FMS Scores

If you didn’t read the previous blog, I suggest you do so. Here is the link. Also, take time to watch the video that I posted on the FMS to get familiar with the 7 tests. If you watched the video you know that each test is given a score of 0, 1, 2, or 3. There are certain cues used to set up and guide a client or athlete through each pattern. 

If pain is reported with a movement – 0, that athlete or client is referred to a clinician.

If the whole movement is CLEARLY dysfunctional, there are positions that the athlete or client is CLEARLY unstable in, or there are OBVIOUS mobility restrictions throughout the pattern - That particular movement is scored a 1.

If the athlete/client is able to complete the movement in its entirety with no pain and limited difficulty - That movement is scored a 2.

If the athlete is able to complete the movement in its entirety with no restrictions, compensations or dysfunctions. – That movement score is a 3.

To put it into more layman’s terms, I like to think about the scoring like this:

It hurts. – 0, referral.

“That was terrible.” – 1

“That was OK, not terrible, but not perfect.” – 2

"Oh, that's what it's supposed to look like." - 3

Seeing your first perfect score on the overhead squat is like seeing a unicorn, you’ve never seen one before, but when you see it, you JUST KNOW. It’s beautiful. – Score THAT a 3.

How do we use the screen scores to create programs?

I’ve talked a lot about using the FMS as a “red flag mechanism” before designing our training programs at Heilman’s Performance. That means we’re using the standardized scoring of movement patterns to alert us of dysfunctional movement that could potentially be the cause of serious injury down the road. These “red flags” also alert us of movement dysfunctions, which if trained often and under significant load, could acquire an injury as a result of their training, which, I think most S&C Coaches would agree, is the ultimate no-no. 

What qualifies as a “red flag?”

Basically what we’re looking for first and foremost are people who score a 3 on one side of the body and a 1 on the other. These are obvious asymmetries and the first red flag we look for. If there are no asymmetries to address, we then look for movements that a score of 1 was given. These are the outliers. The movements that cause problems down the road. 

I think it’s important, before I get into specifics, to reiterate that we aren’t necessarily using the screen to apply a “movement profile” to every single athlete or client. But we’re trying to catch the outliers. We want to catch the few that have major dysfunctions before they turn those dysfunctions into a major injury. Or worse, we hurt them by asking them to perform something they aren’t ready for. I’m looking for the 3/1’s that are out there competing pain free. For now.

Now let’s talk about some more specific prescription, regression, and omittance examples from each individual screen.

Overhead Squat (OHS)

·      Prescription – If your athlete or client scores a 3 on the overhead squat, that’s a good sign. Chances are that they’ll have a fairly clean screen throughout. In my opinion, a 3 on the OHS clears the athlete for Back Squatting, Overhead Squatting and all of their regressions. In my program design, if I want to prescribe high intensity training, I use my 3’s to do it.

·      Regression – If the athlete or client can’t complete a quality OHS with his/her heels flat on the floor, but can with his/her heels lifted off the floor, their OHS is scored a 2. In my opinion, a 2 tells me that I can squat that athlete with a heel raise. We usually just slide 5 pound plates under their heels to assist with ankle dorsiflexion and the movement usually cleans up quite a bit. A score of 2 also tells me that a particular athlete may benefit from having the movement loaded anteriorly. Regressing the back squat to a front squat or goblet squat where the load is held in front of the body, will allow the athlete to load the big three joints involved (ankles, knees, hips) much safer.

·      Omittance – Any athlete or client who scores a 1 on the overhead squat at my gym doesn’t perform bilateral squatting until we can get them to a 2. This athlete may be dealing with serious mobility restrictions in the ankles, hips, or thoracic spine and until we can get those taken care of, loading the movement will likely be hard to watch and provide complications. These athletes generally get a steady dose of ankle, hip, thoracic spine mobility drills, breathing exercises, and unloaded squat patterning in their warm up before we dial up the intensity on the squat.

Shoulder Mobility (SM)

·      Prescription – The shoulder mobility screen is performed on both sides of the body and at my gym, provides us with guidance while prescribing their “pushing” exercises. Any athlete or client that scores a 3 on both sides, we allow to perform pressing exercises bilaterally (barbell bench pressing, military pressing.)

·      Regression - Athletes that present with a shoulder mobility asymmetry, which we see in almost ALL of our baseball/volleyball athletes, are regressed from bilateral barbell movements. These athletes are prescribed exercises that are done unilaterally or where the thoracic spine is free to move naturally. Pinning the shoulder blades against a bench and bouncing a barbell off your chest is a really poor way to mobilize the thoracic spine. Landmine pressing, Turkish Get Ups (TGUs), Planks and push ups are all good options. Landmine pressing and TGUs allow the thoracic spine to move freely throughout the press and the scapulae to achieve full upward rotation as the humerus is flexed and elbow joint extended. Push-ups, likewise, allow full scapular range of motion throughout the push. These two exercises have worked well for me and my athletes and clients in training the press w/o exacerbating any underlying issues.

·      Omittance – Shoulder mobility can be a bit more complicated as it’s important to determine whether or not asymmetry has come from and underlying issue, or is simply an adaptation to outside stress (e.g. throwing your entire life.) Unless shoulder mobility scores are a 3/1 I don’t apply much corrective exercise. If the 3/1 score is because of structural adaptation, without a clinician on deck to assist in manual therapy techniques, trying to correct this asymmetry could do more harm than good. I do believe, however, that it is our job to not make things worse with our exercise prescription. These athletes with scores of a 3/1 or a 1/1 are generally held out of pressing exercises and prescribed breathing exercises and thoracic spine mobility drills in their warm up.

In Line Lunge (ILL)

·      Prescription – With the in line lunge screen I’m looking for one of two things. Can the athlete or client absorb momentum on their lead league with proper joint alignment and do they have the hip mobility necessary to complete a lunge. If you see instability in an athlete (we see it often in young ladies) as they shift their weight forward to the lead leg, you know this athlete needs to learn deceleration techniques before one of those joint structures takes such a beating is begins to fail. At Heilman’s Performance we do stationary split squatting and unloaded walking lunging to help a young athlete learn to absorb their momentum on a lead leg. If an athlete or client is unable to get their back knee all the way to the floor in a lunge, you likely need to prescribe some hip mobility drills. Brettzels and quad rocking (exercises that both extend the hip and flex the knee simultaneously) can provide elongation to the rectus femoris (the quadriceps muscle that spans both knee and hip) and really clean things up quickly.

·      Regression – Putting an athlete or client into a rear foot elevated split squat or loading up their walking lunges with heavy weight can be disaster for them if they don’t know how to absorb the stress of their body weight. Bringing them back stationary split squatting and challenging them rotationally in half kneeling positions can be a good way to make them more proprioceptively aware of the forces that keep them from absorbing stress properly.

·      Omittance – Athletes/clients that score 1/1 on their ILL screen will be held out of exercises that are concentrically dominant like plyometrics, sled pushing, and sprinting until they are taught to decelerate properly. These are athletes, I would warn, if made to perform these exercises in high doses are the athletes that turn up with tibial stress fractures in pre season (note to volleyball coaches.)

Hurdle Step (HS)

·      Prescription – An athlete who scores poorly on both sides of the hurdle step screen is likely dealing with a motor problem. Watching some one step up and over something and then back to start position can give us a pretty good idea of how much core control that person has. An athlete or client who scores a 1/1 will likely need to be retaught how to control their hips from a neutral pelvis and lumbar spine. Deadbugs, leg lowering, and other unloaded forms of anti extension exercises can be a great place to start. At Heilman’s Performance, any athlete who scores poorly on the hurdle step receives a heavy dose of anterior core training (where they are usually lying supine and mobilizing their extremities) and balance retraining. We actually keep it as simple and practicing hip flexion and toe touching while balancing on one leg in the warm up.

·      Regression – Athletes and clients who score poorly on the hurdle step are people who have a hard time stabilizing one side of the lower half while mobilizing the other. Expecting them to perform well in dynamic movements is pretty unrealistic. A good example of a regression for these athletes or clients would be prescribing a reverse lunge (where the athlete is stationary) instead of a walking lunge (where there is more dynamic stability involved.)

·      Omittance - Athletes and clients who score a 1/1 we keep away from high intensity unilateral plyometrics and strength exercises like box step ups until their motor control is cleaned up. Athletes or clients with an asymmetrical score on the hurdle step (3/1) are also held out of bilateral lower extremity exercises.

Active Straight Leg Raise (ASLR)

·      Prescription – The ASLR is a test that tests the athlete or client’s ability to hinge their hips unilaterally from a neutral pelvis and lumbar spine. It gives us a great inside into the types of hinging exercises we can prescribe. Athletes and clients with a clean score on the ASLR can do things like deadlift heavy weight from the floor. Athletes or clients who score poorly can benefit from some hip mobility exercises, re training the hinge pattern and re-teaching core control of the hips through flexion.

·      Regression – When we have an athlete with a poor score on the ASLR, we know that they’re unable to hinge their hips through sufficient range of motion while keeping their lumbar spine in a stable position. These athletes, during their hinging exercises, such as deadlifts and Olympic lifts, could benefit from starting in the top position or having their barbell brought closer to them by using blocks. Romanian deadlifts are a great regression, because the athlete starts with the barbell in the top position and only hinges as deep as his/her hips will allow. Just before his/her lumbar spine breaks neutral, the barbell is hinged back to the start position. Olympic lifts from the hang also work great, because of the top position start. Expecting athletes/clients with 1’s on the ASLR screen to pull heavy weight off the floor without involving their lower back in unrealistic.

·      Omittance – As I said earlier, athletes with a  1/1 on ASLR don’t deadlift from the floor at my gym. We work with their hinge patterns in the range of motion they can currently control while we work in their warm up to create new ranges of motion. An athlete that is asymmetrical (3/1) receives no bilateral lower extremity training. Yes I said it, these athletes don’t jump, squat, or deadlift off of two legs until we have them to a 3/3 or a 2/2. I believe the asymmetrical ASLR score is the most important score to respect. Ignoring this glaring asymmetry in such an important fundamental movement can be catastrophic down the road.

Trunk Stability Push Up (TSP)

·      Prescription – At Heilman’s Performance we use the TSP just to give us feedback on the athlete or client’s upper body strength and ability to stabilize their core through a pressing motion. We keep it pretty simple, a low score tells us we need more anterior core work and press work while a good score tells us that athlete’s probably been doing plenty of pressing and probably doesn’t need a real heavy dose of it.

·      Regression – An athlete or client who scores low on their pushup test needs to learn to stabilize their core in space and create force with their upper extremity simultaneously. Allowing them to lie down on a bench and press an implement like a barbell or dumbbell probably isn’t going to teach them that. Regressing these pressing movements to plank holds and push up variations is our go to. An athlete that scores low on their TSP will generally learn to do push ups with their hands on a bench or with a coach assisting the movement with a super band.

·      Ommittance – As I said before, these athletes and clients don’t have a very good idea how to stabilize their core and push simultaneously. Staying away from exercises that stabilizes their core for them, like a seated chest press machine or a bench press is probably best until they have mastered the plank and the push up. That’s not to say that these exercises are going to do any damage to the athlete, they probably just aren’t going to provide the most bang for your buck.

Rotary Stability (RS)

·      Prescription – The rotary stability screen gives us a good look at how opposing extremities work together and “communicate with each other,” and also how our core responds to rotational forces. A low score on the RS tells me that there is a break in communication between the left side upper extremity and the right side lower extremity or vise versa. Re-training the way these extremities interact with each other through the core can be taught easily through exercises like deadbugs and birddogs.

·      Regression – A young athlete or a client with a poor RS score is probably the kid that starts pushing a sled aimed straight ahead and some how ends up with the sled finishing 12 feet to the right or left of where he/she originally started. Or the athlete who can’t seem to stay in their own damn lane at track practice. Helping them understand how to resist the rotational forces on their pelvis and core through things like reactive neuromuscular training (RNT) exercises can be of great benefit. That being said, I don’t know that you have to wait on dynamic movements, but you should at least make sure you’re aware of why their sled push started on the turf and ended up in the bathroom.

·      Omittance – Some may tell you different, but I personally don’t omit any exercises depending on and athlete’s RS score. I do, however, let it dictate how much anti rotation and RNT work I give to an athlete. An athlete with poor RS gets a heavy dose of Anti-Rotation holds, Half Kneeling RNT exercises, Deadbugs, birddogs, and glute activation exercises.

I should note that these are just the ideas that I apply to the programming at Heilman’s Performance. They are in no way anything other than my opinions on the matter. I am just hoping to provide some guidance as to how strength coaches and personal trainers can put this information to work for them. Usually if I have a reason, via my screen scores, to avoid a certain exercise, I can find away to elicit the response I’m looking for with a different exercise. I think the biggest benefit we’ve had at Heilman’s Performance of using screen driven programming is that our technique has become much more sound. Working with young athletes is always going to be a struggle on the “technique” front, but when you work with a system that allows to you decipher what they will and will not handle well, it really seems to clean up. Using the screen scores to design programs has allowed my athletes to train with less knick knack injuries and achieve great progress in the weight room. I know this blog got pretty long winded, but I’m hoping it can provide guidance to any strength coach or personal trainer who might be looking to implement pre-design screens into their program.

As always, thanks for reading,

Caleb Heilman

The FMS's Influence on Strength and Conditioning (Part 2)

I wrote yesterday about how I see pre-training movement screens fitting into the yearly programming for strength and conditioning professionals. I’m hoping today to give a little bit more insight as to how exactly I see strength and conditioning professionals putting those assessment and screen scores to work for them. I should note that I’ve only been using scores from pre-training screens like the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) for 3-4 years and I’m certain that the way I implement the system is far from flawless. I try and stick to the principles of the system as much as possible and keep things as simple as possible when there is a score that grabs my attention. As I alluded to in my previous blog: bigger, faster, and stronger is still the ultimate goal, just not at the expense of available and healthy.

At Heilman’s Performance we collect scores on the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). You can purchase a kit that will aid you in the entire screen and in my opinion; it’s the most efficient process that provides you with the most valuable feedback on the functions of the neuromuscular system. Most people can get through a screen on an athlete or client in 9-12 minutes. By the end of it you can have a pretty good idea of how that person moves and any “red flags” that may need retraining or any referrals that need to be made. The FMS, in my opinion, gives you the best start. The great people at functional movement systems have since come out with other assessments like the Y-Balance Kit and the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA - which is a breakout for clinicians when pain is reported). We don’t use either of these methods yet in our athlete assessments at Heilman’s Performance.

This is the best crash course (I know you guys are busy) I’ve found on YouTube highlighting the 7 tests that make up the functional movement screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkPYqPIeBjc

It’s important to let you guys know that I’m not just promoting the functional movement systems. It just happens to be the screen that we use as our check and recheck at Heilman’s Performance. What I’m trying to encourage is that you have SOMETHING to provide you with feedback before you start throwing exercise prescription at people. The basic questions we want to help people with are:

Do you have a screen? Any screen?

Does it provide you with usable feedback?

How do you use that feedback?

And do you have a method to check whether or not the screen is improving?

Ok, now let’s get a bit more specific about how some of these scores affect a strength and conditioning session. Again, this is just how I let individual scores guide me through my program design. I encourage you to find a screen that works for you and your clients, and develop your own methods of helping to improve it.

As of this writing, I use pre-training screens to affect my program design in one of three ways:

Applying Regressions

This is the idea of taking a fundamental movement (like a squat) and finding a more efficient way to train it than the way initially proposed. Most people understand squats, so I think it makes for the best demonstration. A lot of people jump immediately into back squatting (where an athlete or client rests the bar at the top of the shoulders at the base of the neck) when they first learn to squat. I would consider the back squat one of the most advanced strength training exercises you can apply to an individual, whether they are an athlete or a member of the general population. I generally use back squats with my more advanced high school and college athletes, but it’s pretty rare in my programming. So let’s just assume, the back squat, is our top tier exercise for the squat pattern, here is a simple example of how I might regress it.

Back Squats

Front Squats – Switching the load to the front of the body generally helps provide counter balance through the movement and allows the athlete/client to load the joints structures of the ankles, knees, and hips more safely. Young athletes are also less likely to overload this exercise. Nestling a rugged steel barbell against your throat isn’t exactly an enjoyable experience for most.

Goblet Squats – An easy way to provide counter balance to the movement without the kinesthetic awareness that a barbell requires. Sometimes our “under the bar” experience makes us forget that the weight room isn’t the most comfortable place to be for a lot of people, and barbells can be scary. Loading with a dumbbell can allow you to train the movement with sufficient resistance, without putting an athlete into fight or flight mode.

Air Squats – Performing a squat without load is still a squat, bro. And besides, gravity is pretty strong.

Assisted Squats – This is where you can have a client hold on to a fixed barbell or a TRX to keep them upright as they move throughout their squat pattern.

Exercise Omittance

At Heilman’s Performance we use certain red flag scores that we get from our screens to tell us when we should just avoid some exercises entirely. It’s not to say that we don’t think training all the fundamental movements are important, it’s just to say that in some instances, we can get the stimulus we desire from something else. That something else should allow us to take the 5 steps forward we all want without taking 10 steps back somewhere down the road. In my next blog I’ll discuss this further in depth with each test score we collect but a good example off the top of my head would be:

An asymmetrical shoulder mobility score = no bilateral barbell pressing.

We see instances all the time that one shoulder in an athlete has considerably more mobility than the other. Until that asymmetry is cleaned up, I don’t see any reason for them to be trying to apply the equal amount of work to a single implement (a barbell). A lot of asymmetries in shoulder mobility will come from previous injuries or as structural adaptations made by the individual depending on their past experiences (e.g. Most baseball players). Because of these changes made due to past stressors, some people may never have a symmetrical score on a shoulder mobility test. THAT’S OK! Just don’t let them get under a two hundred pound barbell and bounce it off their chest or push it overhead multiple times. You’re taking two sides, one more capable than the other, but you’re expecting them to split the work 50/50. Sounds like a disaster in the workplace, but it’s something we should take into account in the weight room too.

Again, I need to stress that I think pressing is important, I just think that for this population a landmine press (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCfcGei-NqM) or a single arm press with a dumbbell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVM2S2KWX6Q) would be better options.

Exercise Prescription

We use standardized functional movement scores at Heilman’s Performance to assess mobility and stability through the fundamental human movements. It would only make sense, then, that we design our programs to reflect the information that we collect from those assessments.

The way we do that is to train a certain number of movements at least twice per week. As long as the movement score dictates that an athlete or client can control a certain movement through a safe range of motion we apply an exercise that fits the individual, their goals, competitive sport, training ability, and training phase.

If all movement scores are clean, the movements I make sure to train at least twice per week are:

Squatting – Back Squatting, Front Squatting, Goblet Squatting.

Hip Hinging – Deadlifting, Kettlebell swinging, Olympic lifting.

Stepping/Lunging – Most any exercise performed on a single leg.

Pushing – Bench pressing, overhead pressing, push ups, Turkish get ups, planks etc.

Pulling – DB or barbell rowing, suspension trainer rowing, or pull ups.

These are five of the fundamental movements that we can get pretty good feedback on via our screens. I’m also convinced that if you took just these five movements, and found a safe way to train all of them at least twice per week, you would have pretty well rounded athletes and clients. HOW you train each and every movement should be dictated by the information that you gather from your pre-training screens.

These movements provide a good platform for our initial program design. As I said before, anything else we decide to add could be dictated by a number of variables. Our baseball and hockey players, for example, tend to have more rotational power exercises mixed in. Our sprinters work with the sleds and Woodway treadmills more often. If an athlete’s goal is to deadlift 400 lbs, and I think we can safely pursue that goal, I’ll try and design a roadmap to that goal. The key is that every program we design covers a safe way to train squatting, hinging, stepping, lunging, pushing and pulling. Everything else is exactly that… Everything else.

One good example of how exercise prescription is dictated by pre-training screens would be this:

A person who can’t touch the shins below their knee caps without rounding over at their lower back probably doesn’t need to pick up anything from the floor just yet. Bring the barbell or implement closer to them first, and work on their ability to hinge their hips effectively. Or, if it’s an athlete, that you insist on moving load, try a Romanian deadlift, where the athlete starts with the load at the top and only hinges as far as their hips will allow.

Finding a screen that will tell you whether or not your client or athlete is ready to perform any of these movements under sufficient load should be something you take care of before you start prescribing any exercises. In my next post, hopefully this week, I’ll provide you with more examples of how I use specific feedback from the FMS and other movement screens to dictate how I regress, omit, and prescribe certain exercises, but I hope this was a good start.

As always, thank you for reading,

Caleb Heilman