Misfit Podcast
Misfit Athletics provides information and programming to competitive Crossfit athletes of all levels.
Misfit Podcast
Cortez: New Misfit Affiliate Phase - E.352
Ever wondered why Forrest Gump's iconic cross-country journey began with Nike Cortez shoes? Our newest training phase draws inspiration from this powerful symbol of fundamental movement - running - while building a comprehensive foundation for the entire training year ahead.
The Cortez Phase represents our commitment to starting fresh with the most basic and essential human movements. We're focusing on deadlifts as our primary barbell movement, alternating between heavy strength days and conditioning integration to build both absolute strength and work capacity. This methodical approach ensures athletes develop proper posterior chain engagement that transfers to virtually every other movement pattern.
For gymnastics, we're emphasizing strict pulling and pushing movements that establish true upper body strength rather than relying on momentum or compensation patterns. Our approach to progressive scaling in these movements recognizes that bodyweight exercises require the same thoughtful programming as loaded movements - your body is the weight.
Perhaps most significantly, we've made running our conditioning bias. Running forces athletes out of the gym and away from machines, revealing true movement efficiency without equipment to mask compensations. Our detailed approach to running preparation addresses everything from big toe mobility to hip stability, recognizing that quality movement starts with proper joint preparation.
Throughout this podcast, we emphasize that movement quality must precede load or intensity. As a coach, this phase offers a perfect opportunity to establish or reset fundamental movement patterns with your athletes. For gym owners, we discuss how creating top-down buy-in for programming philosophy creates a culture of intentional practice rather than mindless exercise.
Ready to join us for this foundational journey? Visit teammisfit.com and click "Sign Up Now" for a two-week free trial on StreamFit, SugarWOD, or PushPress. Experience programming that builds not just immediate fitness, but long-term athletic development for life.
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We're all misfits. Alright, you big, big bunch of misfits, you're a scrappy little misfit, just like me.
Speaker 3:Biggest bunch of misfits.
Speaker 4:I ever said either.
Speaker 2:Misfit Podcast. On Monday, may 12th, the Misfit Affiliate phase Cortez starts. So we're going to spend the majority of this podcast talking through sort of the finer details of what we're trying to accomplish and then, because this is the very first, phase that we're doing in the sort of 25, 26 calendar for Misfit Affiliate. Uh, we'll talk a little bit about the big picture and how we think about these sorts of things.
Speaker 2:Um as always, before we get started on that, we've got a little bit of housekeeping, we've got a little bit of live chat and then we will jump into Misfit, affiliate, cortez, phase.
Speaker 2:Um, really the only thing to to add to when this phase starts is that you can head to team misfitcom and click on sign up now to get a two-week free trial. You'll get that trial on your choice of hosting platforms. That'd be stream, fit, sugar, wad and push press. Um, also, if you would like to subscribe on the Misfit Athletics or on the Team Misfit, website specifically and receive the document that way um you can get signed up and if you are, looking for a sample?
Speaker 4:uh, just shoot us a message and we will send one your way Also.
Speaker 2:Misfit Athletics. Off-season block two begins Monday, May 26th. Um, if you are on off-season block one, you're doing a continuation of deciding whether you're going to go with the strength bias phase or the conditioning bias phase and we'll have a podcast out here in a couple of weeks on that, or if you are just getting started, um you're going to be sort of making that same decision. All right, gentlemen, what's up, how are we doing? Hello, what's up, how we doing?
Speaker 3:Hello, that's, you can't hear him, can you?
Speaker 1:I'm currently in more.
Speaker 4:I'm currently in mortal combat with Amazon. Oh, who is? Is the?
Speaker 3:saga continue. We get any updates.
Speaker 1:This is the mo. No, not really. It's that. I am now Amazon's likely most recently blacklisted customer for arbitrarily no reason and because Amazon's customer service consists of somebody 8000 miles away who's actually incapable of solving a problem or doing anything that isn't part of, like, the six bullet points script that they're fed. I am not able to use the number one retailer on the planet for essentially no reason. That's so crazy.
Speaker 4:They try so hard to acquire customers.
Speaker 2:It's the most infuriating. They listen to every word you say.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:They definitely do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they definitely give a fuck about individual customers. That's so crazy. Like blacklisted as far as like, uh, like, like either do not reply to emails, do not like you know, on on like just irritated customer, like doesn't you know, flagged for, flagged for being rude and disrespectful, like whatever, whatever internal fucking mechanism they have to flag individuals. I, I suspect that I've been flagged because because what started initially is just like. I just want an answer as to why this account was restricted and then but but of course the email that gets sent to you about that is a generic one. That and that also specifically says in the email our customer service team can neither reverse this decision nor provide details on the matter. They can only confirm that this decision was made. The omnipotent investigations division of Amazon, apparently makes those decisions, but it also doesn't happen to have any phone support.
Speaker 1:So a multi hundreds of billions of dollar company has a, has this invisible ghost investigations division which neither replies to our emails nor has the capability of that's probably intentional, right.
Speaker 4:I'm not actually convinced that it actually exists.
Speaker 1:I think, there's a decent chance that it's just AI because I've never received anything more than like an automated or like canned response from them, but holy fuck man Like you know.
Speaker 4:I'd be lying if I said like you know what?
Speaker 1:Fuck Amazon. I'm never going to use them again, because I'd really like to be able to just purchase things on Amazon because I didn't do anything wrong. Um and the. The super short version for everybody is that, uh, our, our family's account got hacked. Whole bunch of purchases were made and apparently, like, whoever hacked it also requested a whole shitload of refund or returns or something like that. Um, so that account and then, I'm assuming, everybody on that account their name, their address, their payment information also got flagged, and so my new account is just like got arbitrarily flagged because a previous account was flagged, but there's not a single breathing amazon employee who is apparently capable of reversing that decision or certainly nobody who answers a phone um on the customer service end and if you've ever tried, have you ever tried to?
Speaker 1:like find the phone number to contact amazon like where?
Speaker 4:how do I contact amazon?
Speaker 2:it's like impossible they don't, they don't want to talk to you no, I feel like anything I've ever done with them has been via the chat right, like I don't think I've ever tried to call amazon yeah, yeah
Speaker 1:right now I'm actually just working on like a weekly rotation of trying to ruin like two to three amazon customer service representatives days per week. Uh, because I am in fact, that petty when it comes to incompetent human beings but you might be fighting with ai, who has endless stamina oh man, that would be wild ai with like a bangladeshi accent and like a dog barking in the background. For the likely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're flagging you each time you call. They're going to send you deeper into the AI.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably, Probably. They're actually.
Speaker 2:they're actually doing this so that they can record you and you're going to click a permissions box and you're going to end up being the AI chat support. It's like black mirror. You're going to be trapped in Amazon.
Speaker 4:I'm actually just working for Amazon right now.
Speaker 1:I'm an unpaid employee.
Speaker 2:They're getting hundreds of hours of your voice Probably.
Speaker 1:They have they have they probably not hundreds, but they have. They have some number of hours, Dozens of minutes, dozens of minutes, dozens of yeah, it might even be a dozen hours at this point.
Speaker 4:But yeah, if anybody, if anybody listening works for Amazon and can provide a. I don't know solace like a comforting word.
Speaker 3:You tried this, but there is a request, a phone call, that you can provide them your number with. I don't know if you've tried that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I've spoken to Amazon on the phone. It's the same.
Speaker 3:The person you're going to speak to is a quote account specialist Gotcha.
Speaker 1:And then the supervisor of said account specialist also can do nothing other than file an appeal and then tell you that they'll get back to you in 24 to 48 hours, and then they don't.
Speaker 2:Can you have an alias on Amazon and then tell you that they'll get?
Speaker 1:back to you in 24 to 48 hours, and then they don't Um.
Speaker 2:can you have an?
Speaker 4:alias on Amazon. Can you be like Keith?
Speaker 1:Falkenstein, I should.
Speaker 4:Uh, I think the only factor there would be my payment, my name, the credit card, the name credit card. Right that that?
Speaker 1:whole the. You know, the restriction is just an algorithm that just identified a name and a billing address and our will happily fuck you over that way and then, once again, not a single live human being on amazon can, uh, actually solve a problem, which is yeah, if you work for amazon, get fucked. Also help please.
Speaker 2:In that order, not in that order maybe that's why we can't get back on apple podcasts, hundreds getting us blacklisted from all the tech companies. No, fly, they probably they.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they probably all just like it's just an internal algorithm just like this guy was mean mean to someone on amazon. So this fucking guy I don't mean to someone on Amazon. So this fucking guy, I don't like him either.
Speaker 3:On Apple, I would pay a premium if you started to record those customer service calls and I, yeah, well, I'll start my own podcast. Customer service calls. I like to listen to those. You could do.
Speaker 1:Honestly I should, because like then you could just put that on the internet and be like hey guys, this is what this is, amazon. Like, just like you want to. You want a very you want an answer to a very logical question, after a very thorough explanation of exactly what happened and why this is ridiculous dude, you got to do the influencer version.
Speaker 2:You create a new account on Instagram yeah, and you say this is day one of me trying to get unblacklisted from amazon and you show some shit.
Speaker 1:This is day two of me trying to get could be it, that's what you got to do could be it, although I think I've been blacklisted so deeply that the the series would end in like eight seconds because, like day two, I give zero views.
Speaker 2:Thanks for subscribing. You're screaming into the abyss.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 4:yeah, on the internet to Amazon, just screaming into the abyss man. Yeah, those folks.
Speaker 3:Seb, you got anything for us? I mean just the travel stuff to Newark Airport. I just don't want to do another 25 hour drive in less than a week.
Speaker 2:Listen, if you don't stop sending me Mookie Betts videos in Red Sox uniforms. Maybe the universe is going to serve you up like a 7 day delay our brains differ.
Speaker 3:I sent that because I thought it was a cool highlight clip of those guys. Are our brains like? Our brains differ? I sent that because I thought it was a cool like highlight clip of those guys just hanging out and having a good time. You took it as I was like I was like I was jabbing, but I was not jabbing at all.
Speaker 2:But I just so, you never know, I could be creating attention on the podcast for entertainment purposes, who knows? All right, michael jordan, I get it. Purposes. Who knows?
Speaker 4:Michael Jordan I get it.
Speaker 3:I made it up. As you know, every time we travel, there's always a wild delay or cancellation, for whatever reason. I'm just trying to get ahead of this. If I'm going to be stuck at the airport for 10 hours tomorrow before flying, I might as well drive and get there faster, that's all.
Speaker 2:Well, hopefully that's not the case I'm chancing flying american again tomorrow to head to the world fitness project. And the last time hunter and I did that was a real fucking hoot that was the philly camp, so we'll see how that goes um.
Speaker 4:So for for life chat I have it's almost kind of like a few recommendations.
Speaker 2:So my screen time went up a bunch recently for no reason other than I'm half monkey and I can't stop opening apps that I don't want to open um, so I downloaded an app called unplug u n p l u q and you can do the like typical things with it where you say, like I have, like I know I'm going to be with my son from this time to this time so I can set a thing where you can't open the apps and then you get to set how you would open the app if you really needed it, and you can change the difficulty level.
Speaker 4:And I found that the most annoying one was shake your phone on level five, so you have to I have to do this If you're watching on YouTube, I have to go like this like 40 times like it takes a long fucking time to get that bad boy to open and like part of that is not just because, like if I was alone is what it is but like if a person sees me if I'm in public or my wife is like you want to open Instagram.
Speaker 4:Bad enough that you're going to shake your phone like that like that many times, so I feel like there's a little bit of like embarrassment attached to it.
Speaker 2:So if you are stuck on, the dopamine train and need to figure out how to help yourself without just deleting all of your apps and your social media accounts.
Speaker 4:I recommend trying that app. So far, so good On that segue to.
Speaker 1:I'm rereading the Chimp Paradox.
Speaker 2:That's why I said that. I'm half monkey Chimp Paradox. We actually covered some of the way back on an episode. I don't know if if you were um on with us at that point, Seb or not, but we just talked through um sort of the idea of the the human brain, the chimp brain and the computer and the different parts of your brain and sort of how to use them. Um, and the guy who wrote it ended up helping a lot of really high level athletes.
Speaker 4:So definitely the kind of book that could be helpful for people on the coaching side for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean the athlete side definitely as well, but sometimes it can go a little bit better if you're sort of looking at it from an outside perspective. It can go a little bit better if you're, you know, sort of looking at it from an outside perspective. And then, last but not least, um, I jump back in on the. I don't know hunter did you watch any of the latest season of black mirror.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you keep up with any of that. No, I watched the last few seasons. Not really watch the first season, or two maybe, but there's some there's some shit, yeah, yeah, there's some shit in there.
Speaker 2:And then the final episode is like really long and it's a follow-up to the. Did you watch the one with jesse plemmons where he replicates, like clones people and puts them into his video game and he's like the starship commander?
Speaker 1:no, do you watch that one uh, that sounds very. Was it an early one? That sounds kind of. Yeah, it was like season two, maybe season three yeah, that sounds he's the blonde lady works in like a, like an office, yeah and he goes home and he like plays a video game and he like makes himself the yes like the hero. I think, yeah, I think yeah, I'm almost certain I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's like a, like a hour long, hour and a half long, like follow-up to that episode yeah, where, like they're still. The people are still in the video game, but he's dead because he dies at the end of the first one um.
Speaker 4:So anyways, if you're into, Black Mirror. There's been a lot of ups and downs with the seasons and whatnot, but this season's fucking great. I can tell you, though, that it's one of those shows where you watch it before bed, and then you have the weirdest fucking dreams.
Speaker 1:That's my problem is that I don't like I don't. I know I need to pay attention to it, so that's a little barrier tree at night, and then I also don't don't want to be like anxious while I'm watching, I just want to fucking zone out and get ready to go to bed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for sure all right, um, thank you for hanging out with us for a live chat. Uh, let's, let's get into the cortez phase. So um, I enjoy the affiliate versions of these podcasts. Um, specifically because we're speaking to coaches a little bit more than we normally would.
Speaker 4:Um, we're speaking to people that understand the programming, that have been working through it um.
Speaker 2:We're also speaking to a lot of members at gyms.
Speaker 4:Like I know, I know people that follow the program um at their affiliate, our affiliate um, you know, listen to this podcast and to you know just to get a little, a little insight into what we're doing, maybe get excited about what we're doing, that sort of thing and before we get into the specifics of the phase.
Speaker 2:There's just this overarching thing of when we sit down to plan out an entirely new year. We're sort of building on progressions right. We're like laying foundations for certain movement patterns, certain energy systems you know certain strength progressions and we're working our way through the year and even though we are, you know, just trying to move the needle on health and fitness for the general population we use some of the principles that we have on the competitive side, just because we know how to use them to progress and move the needle with athletes.
Speaker 4:So when we're talking today, about some of the.
Speaker 2:You know what we would call, quote unquote, slow lifts or the strict gymnastics or just getting people outside on their feet instead of, you know, indoors on a machine, that sort of thing. A lot of that is based on. Partially it's the weather. We're from Maine when it comes to the running. But a lot of that is based on starting over with so many of these things and doing a lot of base building and getting people to a point where they can really feel like some major things change as we turn over another year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I think it's like, despite the fact that it's not a, I think the crossover goes both ways between you know the programming that we use for competitive athletes and the programming that we write for affiliate athletes. There's there is crossover and for the most part like the, the ideas remain the same. It's just simply a matter of like, what, a what?
Speaker 1:somebody who has a little bit more time, space, energy and just like commitment to the sports side, versus just your average everyday affiliate goer, the. I think the, the words, like you know, the our needs vary by degree, not by kind. Applies, like within CrossFitters as well. Like everybody, whether you're an affiliate athlete or a games athlete, needs to be able to squat, you need to be able to pull, you need to be able to push, you need to be able to do it strict and, to a certain extent, kip or you know a little, make it a little bit more dynamic. But the difference is more a matter of like, what, who, the who, broadly, who the workouts are written for. And then there's a level of trust that we have that the coaches. Coaches have to scale your athletes appropriately, like you hopefully learned in your L1, l2, and are able to apply on the rubber mats of your own gym.
Speaker 4:So, getting into this phase.
Speaker 2:It's funny because we've talked over the years and this doesn't actually matter. It's just a fun conversation about what is the holy grail of strength movements deadlift versus back squat, right like which is which and we could get into um that argument if we wanted to.
Speaker 4:But the cool thing is, we don't have to um, we get to deadlift and back squat.
Speaker 2:We get to do both of those things, um, and we start the year with the deadlift because there's what you can do to your, to your midline your posterior chain to just kind of the back half, that back plane of your body can make some very significant changes in your ability to squat safely, to squat squat with better technique, to sort of brace and do that, so we don't have to choose. We get to go in and maybe choose the order a little bit more.
Speaker 4:So not to bury the lead the focus, the bias on the barbell is going to be the deadlift and the way that it works is something that we've kind of developed over time and have found the most success with and really leans into that concept of GPP is heavy day week one, inside of a conditioning piece in week two, back to a heavy day in week three. We're alternating back and forth, um, between those things, um and it's kind of funny because this is to me I don't know if you'd agree.
Speaker 2:Hunter one of the like most prime examples of us making sure that what we do doesn't just work in theory. It works out there in the gym in terms of like the long-term success of the athlete, and this style produces more results across, you know, across a year in terms of GPP than it does to to separate everything all the time and make it. You know, we're just going to do the deadlift heavy every week and we're not going to put it into conditioning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean if I had to guess it's like oh, it's just a, it's just a slightly biased GPP, and that's what it is right, Instead of a super structured, periodized lifting program like the, the. The downside with that would be as if we deadlifted once a week, then we're not going to probably put that movement anywhere in a conditioning setting Right, we're probably not going to deadlift twice in a week, regardless of the stimulus.
Speaker 1:You know whether it's heavy or light. We're just like there are so many movements and you know things, other tools that we can use, that we're probably just not going to be in a scenario where it's like this is, we do that once a year with the back squat, but for the rest of the time it's important to kind of give athletes the opportunity to definitely lift heavy, do the lift, as you know, as a traditional strength training movement, but then also, like, hopefully, apply some of the like you, hopefully. We get athletes every once in a while and they have kind of a light bulb moment with a movement A deadlift is is occasionally one of them and then they can go apply that into a conditioning setting and all of a sudden the conditioning work feels a little bit better, they're able to go a little bit faster. There.
Speaker 1:They improve their overall fitness, they're able to go a little bit faster there, they improve their overall fitness and then at some point in the future, all of a sudden their deadlift one rep max when they get that random deadlift day and you get a random handful of athletes who PR their? Deadlift, even though it's not necessarily supposed to be a one rep max day, but athletes who just kind of grind away and are consistent in the gym.
Speaker 1:I'd say that's by far the most important factor of. It doesn't matter as much which days you get into the gym, just that you get into the gym many days, as many days as you can. I think just the the, that style, the alternating back and forth, just gives athletes the chance to to do both and eventually they're going to see that the PR happen when it is like one rep max day and even though that's a small element of fitness, the one rep max um you know, it's, it's, it's nice for an athlete to be able to see proof of concept is right in your face, exactly yeah yeah, the the one thing that I'll say to
Speaker 4:coaches is like when it comes to the deadlift.
Speaker 2:Hey, let's get into a, let's get into a good position.
Speaker 4:Let's make sure that your your arm angle is perpendicular to the floorlift.
Speaker 2:Hey, let's get into a, let's get into a good position let's make sure that your your arm angle is perpendicular to the floor. You get your knees out of the way. You push your hips through.
Speaker 4:There's a simplicity to it, but it's one of the only movements, and this is why I want coaches to really dig into you've gotten, you've got. You know it is seven or eight weeks here to dig into this as a coach.
Speaker 2:It's one of the only movements where like people you know athletes don't really change that much. Like I'm not a squatter, I need.
Speaker 4:I just like if an athlete's not a squatter.
Speaker 2:Quote unquote based on you know body type, size, limb length, whatever you have to put, put an absurd amount of work to move the needle the deadlift can go from.
Speaker 4:I don't get this. This doesn't make sense. Do I get it? I've had competitive athletes go from like the open workout is announced and it's got 100 deadlifts in it or something or 90 deadlifts and they're, they're done, they're cooked to like oh, just get your knees out of the way and push your hips through like this is a, this is a leg exercise not a, you know, grip and back exercise like that sort of thing. They have those epiphanies.
Speaker 2:And then they're.
Speaker 4:You know, they go from bad or mediocre in a movement to fantastic at a movement, um yeah, which I think is awesome.
Speaker 2:The other piece that comes to mind is the general population. Their mind is blown by the physique of certain CrossFitters and assume that we're just all on steroids and when you really think about it, there's a very, very high level of bodybuilding going on, built into programs Like like, like you're coming in and yes, you're, you're, you're on the heavy days, you're getting stronger you're influencing your neuromuscular systems whatever. But on the in.
Speaker 4:WOD days. You might be doing 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 deadlifts and, like you're really, you know, manipulating tissue and muscle fibers and like really growing from a strength perspective, so it makes sense that doing both of those things would end up, over a long time horizon, yield you better results than just doing like straight up powerlifting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think if you, if you're somebody who's predominantly interested in the lifting stuff like CrossFit is the best accessory work you can do. It's like 100% assuming you're doing it correctly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think the like put a bow on the point of the deadlift too, I think like it for and you were talking to coaches like this is you know the, the deadlift, the, the the benefit to the deadlift is hopefully somewhat obvious that everybody needs to be able to do it. Everybody has to be able to pick something up safely off the ground. The downside is that it's also a lift that athletes can perform horrendously um, and I actually had living proof uh, yeah, well, I had to stop my 5 pm class yesterday um because it'sa it's a rowdy bunch it's a.
Speaker 1:It's a great squad. Um, it is a. It is a. I'm young enough to move not that great and probably not pay the price for it right now, and I'm like you motherfuckers like that.
Speaker 2:You should have called me. It's my current cane. Yeah, it's my future.
Speaker 1:My current tagline is, or you know, it's the the chickens will come home to roost. And for I was explaining the subsequent class, my 630 class, a little bit less experienced, so it was a bit of a different kind of vibe as far as me really teaching, like getting people just to learn how to hinge properly. But I was talking to one of the newer members and I'm like, yeah, man, you know, this is one of those lifts that it's, it's worth really learning how to do correctly and, more, more importantly, like using the musculature that you want, um, because like you are capable, like I have no doubt that I could put he's, he's practicing, basically practicing with like 155 on the bar dude, like middle-aged male, um, he's physically capable of dead lifting a hell of a lot more, but I'm like and I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'm not arguing with him because he's new, he's happy to just deadlifting a hell of a lot more. But I'm like, and I'm not arguing with him because he's new, he's happy to just learn how to do it correctly. But you know, I'm saying like, yeah, you know, there's a lot of younger kids who, like, are really just want to sling, basically right.
Speaker 1:I just want to put as much weight on the bar and I can lift and that's. You know, that's great, there's value to that and provided it's not like atrocious which it wasn't but it is a very common theme to hear people like you know, I don't, I don't use my glutes or my hamstrings, and I'm explaining. You know, most athletes are super underdeveloped there because, just like the nature of life, which is I sit down for the most, most of the day, my glutes and my hamstrings, all the tissues get matted down and tacked down and it's, you're essentially asleep. And then you come into the gym and we're trying to recruit those muscles that are largely just completely shut off for for people. So, and then you know, even if you can get them activated, get them warm, there's the ego.
Speaker 1:The next hurdle is the ego element of saying like hey, well, like, let's only lift what you're capable of lifting correctly.
Speaker 4:So it just be.
Speaker 1:That's kind of just like a not a word of caution, but just a call to coaches to like, remember, like. The point here is to teach athletes how to like lift in the gym safely so that they can go out into the real world and then also do that without getting injured. The goal is not let me put you know a number that's 30 digits higher than it should be on a whiteboard. But I'm walking out of here, you know, with a cane, basically, and the deadlift just has that capability it can make you really fucking strong, um, or it can, it can injure you, um, and you can make that argument with every single thing that we do, whether it, whether it's crossfit or not, if you do a movement poorly enough times like you will injure yourself, but um, yeah, funny thing too.
Speaker 4:Is it done correctly, makes it okay in other situations to do something incorrectly and not necessarily incorrectly I think we get in the training space we get too obsessed with that perfect back angle, you know that sort of thing, yeah like you doing the deadlift the way that you're supposed to makes it okay for you to go grab an Atlas stone a sandbag to actually use your back and bend over and pick something up that you shouldn't, but like there are circumstances, plenty of times in life where
Speaker 2:it's just not going to be possible for you to get into a great position.
Speaker 1:But you have to be in a good position when you're training those muscles and letting your spine know that everything deadlift translates so well, or it can, it's like, if you're able to learn how to use your posterior chain.
Speaker 1:As an athlete like you, make every single other movement so much easier. You learn how to squat properly. All of a sudden, pain in certain joints goes away because, like, I'm actually recruiting the muscles that are necessary. I'm learning how to stabilize my spine. I'm learning how to basically like I was talking with somebody about why they're you know why does their midline, just you know they get set up in a perfect position.
Speaker 1:And as soon as they pull the slack out of the bar, their back, their midline just gives. And it's like, well, you know, honestly, your midline's probably not strong enough. Like we spend a lot of time in dynamic positions in CrossFit, thinking like kipping toes to bar movements where, like momentum allows us to skirt around baseline strength or like even in the deadlift case, like an isometric strength type movement, like if you follow the program, how many of your athletes can do a dozen or more toes to bar but can't hold an l-sit for more than like 10 seconds and the difference between the you know that static, isometric strength versus you know, being able to use your hips and potentially like skirt around proper movement patterns, just by by nature of like the kipping or the or a dynamic movement, it's like, okay, well, that's fine, there's a place for that. But when we deadlift, like that is not a dynamic movement, at least not in your spine.
Speaker 1:Like that that is not the point here. So teach athletes to, to lift that posterior chain engagement fundamental to functional movements, and your athletes are going to be much happier and healthier moving into the rest of the year.
Speaker 2:Before we get into gymnastics, talk to me about PAP. How do we use that within the deadlift? What can people expect?
Speaker 1:On those lift-only days, when the deadlift is that primary focus, you'll also do something called PAP, post-activation potentiation, which is essentially like basically, we take a lift, it's something that's heavy, it's a little bit slow, but it recruits a lot of musculature, the deadlift being a perfect example.
Speaker 1:You finish your set of deadlifts. You then do something that is much more lightly loaded or completely unloaded but enables you to do it really powerfully. So think about just like a broad jump or an explosive vertical jump or a tall box jump. In certain training circles you might even see somebody do like a set of back squats and then a very short sprint outside. We might ask you to sprint for a very short period of time on a bike, for example, but the idea being that we've recruited and excited a lot of musculature and neurons, like, literally like the neurological system in your body. We've excited those with a heavy, slow lift and the idea is now your body is primed to move a much, much lighter or zero load extremely fast and we're basically just capitalizing on your body being ready to, you know, move. It's similar to like if you were to, if you've ever done like a walkout with a back squat where I put one hundred and ten percent of my back squat on my
Speaker 1:back and I just stand there out of the rack and now I felt what it's my body's felt a heavier weight. I then take a bunch of weight off and then I squat it and it's like, oh, that felt so much better because my body was prepared for the loading. It's the same idea here. Your body is like prepared to do something explosive. So we can kind of capitalize on that and maybe get a little bit more adaptation by by asking you to do something really explosive after a set of deadlifts, in this case.
Speaker 2:And most people are especially meatheads are looking for a way naturally, to do what's happening here.
Speaker 4:So, like back in the day you would always before helen, you would always grab a 70 pound kettlebell and swing exactly you'd be like damn, like this feels great, or literally like I'm gonna turn this song up as loud as I possibly can. I'm going to have my friend slap me in the face. I'm going to have smelling salts.
Speaker 2:whatever it is Like, we're looking for those ways to go from this homeostasis, like everything's feeling good to. I got to go lift this really heavy thing and for someone who doesn't have experience with that, forcing it, forcing that feeling is incredibly helpful, so that's one of the ways that like, if I can tell that someone is like they go over to the bike and they're like hey, coach, like, and they get off and they go do their thing.
Speaker 4:It's like now, we're not trying to like fatigue you, we're trying to like wake you up, like get your nervous system, and be like okay, this is the thing that we're going to like wake you up, yeah, like get your nervous system and be like okay, this is the thing that we're gonna go do, because we have really good ways to warm up for other things that are proven.
Speaker 2:But that, like really heavy thing, can be challenging again for people to just go from, like I'm standing here having a conversation with my friend, so I'm picking up 300, 400, 500 pounds, yeah, yep, yeah.
Speaker 1:And if you're like, if you're somebody who's ever done a sport, think like did you ever do over speed training, baseball or football, where they like attach you to a parachute and slingshot you forward?
Speaker 2:we had some people show up like when we we got a new coach in football we had some people show up to do some of that stuff, but it was, it was never done properly, yeah, I don't know if it was done properly but I remember it during like a hockey camp where it's like we'd like that's where I would see a lot of that stuff would be.
Speaker 1:Yeah it like attach like a parachute, like a small parachute, and you sprint for like a short period. The parachute is kind of is obviously slowing you down and then you let it go, or in certain instances it's like you're there's actually like a slingshot that, on go, forces you to run faster than you are actually capable of doing. It's basically just a way to to train your body to move faster than it's currently capable of and then hopefully, you know, in the future maybe it's, maybe the baseline that you move at is actually a little bit higher than before. So that's kind of the concept.
Speaker 4:It's a good. I was just gonna say it's a little bit.
Speaker 1:It's a little the way we have it here. It's a little bit bastardized, like if you were to Google this, if you're unfamiliar with it. It would say, like you know, do a set of squats, rest 10 minutes, do a sprint, and it's like, okay, I don't have, I don't have three hours to do this training session, but um it it works. It's worked super well for members the last few years. So, um, we're going to ride that train until the wheels fall off.
Speaker 2:The uh the baseball version was proven to be false. When you swing the heavier bat and then you go swing the lighter bat. It feels lighter, but your bat speed's slower.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember reading that and hearing about that.
Speaker 2:But if you train a heavy bat for reps outside of that and then go swing the lighter bat, you have faster bat speed, but yeah interesting. Okay, um gymnastics focus. This is probably the most clear and concise, like back to basics. This is how we can get um someone who's really good at pushing and pulling gymnastics, um someone who's really good at pushing and pulling gymnastics to level up, and how we can get someone from man.
Speaker 2:I'd really love to just be able to do a, you know, a toes to bar or a push-up or handstand push-up or chin over bar pull-up workout rx um anytime we start that over, it's cool because each iteration, each version that we're giving an athlete is almost personalized, in a way, like when I look at the way that it's programmed like each person is getting something out of it that will relate to their own capacity a little bit. So basically it's kind of a similar path as the deadlift in terms of how often does it show up.
Speaker 4:Is it in a dedicated strength slash skill session?
Speaker 2:or is it in a conditioning piece?
Speaker 4:One of the questions that I have for you.
Speaker 2:Hunter is the suggestions for levels and scaling and things of that nature because this is one of those ones where it's like not all that skill based. You know there are ways to be more efficient. But what are your recommendations Like? If you were to pull up an example of one of the days, what would your recommendations be so that everybody?
Speaker 4:in class gets a good good session.
Speaker 1:Sorry, what do you mean? So like you pulled up one of the sessions on the sheet and read the session
Speaker 3:out but then said like this is what I would do in certain instances.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. So the first one of the phase is in week one and it's three by 20 strict pull-up, three sets of 20 strict pull-ups with four minutes of rest in between. Um, and this is one of the ones where, like the the notes in there, but like so, I personally, like I can, I can perform 20 strict pull-ups. That's close to my like max number of reps, but it is like that is in, that is a potential for me. I could do that first set of 20 completely unassisted.
Speaker 1:There's plenty of athletes who you know can't do one single one unassisted. We need an immediate level of assistance, whether that's with a band, whether it's a or some other form of assistance. But the idea here would be like you start with the most difficult version that you can and then progressively scale something that we wouldn't typically recommend and say a conditioning piece. Like you know, you, I'm sure you coaches, and even if you're an athlete listening to this you're like I'm going to start with, I'm going to start with eight chest to bar pull ups and then, once it gets hard, I'll switch to chin over bar, and personally I don't like that. That's generally not something we try to do here is like progressive scaling in the workout, like if you know you're going to need to modify something in the middle of a workout, like it's already too difficult.
Speaker 1:Like it doesn't get easier when you switch it up in the middle of a workout. But for gymnastics, strict pull-ups, push-ups, getting the requisite kind of volume in for a lot of athletes is actually kind of what we want to do, and this session could be totally fine as three sets of 20 where every single athlete, regardless of your ability, uses a band or some form of assistance. But in this instance we're just asking athletes to like start with the hardest version you can and progressively scale. You could also think of it as almost like a drop set for a body weight movement.
Speaker 1:I think people tend to think about a body weight movement as being like unweighted Um, and it is in the sense that there's not an external load, but like your body provides the loading. And if you know if you can only perform one single strict pull-up, you can think about that as like that's your one rep max pull-up is one single body weight pull-up. And if we were going to write a progression to improve that, if that were a back squat, well, you wouldn't just go do your one rep max back squat once or twice a week until it went up. You would. We would do percentage work right. We would do 60, 70, 80, 90%.
Speaker 1:We need to think about body weight gymnastics in a similar vein, where it's like, okay, the goal isn't necessarily to load the body weight movement, it's to increase our capacity for repetitions or for volume in that, in that those specific, specific movements and with body weight stuff, I think that also just provides a really good avenue for coaches to talk to athletes about things like nutrition. Um, because, quite bluntly, like, your body mass is the limiting factor in body weight movements. Um, and like, no matter how many strict pull-ups you do, if you're 30, 20, 30 pounds heavier than you need to be, you're carrying around 10, 20 extra percent body fat. Like no amount of strength building is going to make that is going to be correlate to, or, you know, equivalent to, improving your nutrition and therefore your body composition, body fat percentage, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Right. The good thing too is, there's obviously the rare case of like, like you know I don't want to call anyone out, but like a you know, a marathon runner comes into the gym and they're like they can't pull themselves up over there because they've, they've torched their muscle tissue.
Speaker 4:The the, the like technical aspect of what hunter's talking about in relation to like a drop set to percentage based stuff is when you are not doing the, the, the strict version.
Speaker 2:when you're not able to do that, you're not able to make the neuromuscular adaptation of someone who hops up and does 10 plus reps. And there's really only two ways that we're going to move the needle we're going to have the neuromuscular adaptation, so like the far end of that would be Hunter puts a 25 pound dumbbell between his feet and knocks out a bunch of reps. That's going to have, there's going to have an effect on your nervous system.
Speaker 4:The other way is just good, old fashioned, like manipulate muscle tissue, and if we're going to do that in a class setting, drop sets can be one of the best ways to do it, because we're not going to say five minutes rest between every single time you go to do this thing right.
Speaker 2:It's just not going to fit within the class, so the drop set allows us to go through and manipulate the muscle fibers and the muscle tissues in a shorter period of time. Um, and you know, those are the two ways to to get stronger, and we have both options, depending on where you're at in that progression.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we worked pretty hard to to make the gymnastics elements in this. In this phase, like again, you'll either see some stuff in a workout like week two has bar muscle-ups in a Metcon and some strict handstand push-ups in a Metcon and that's kind of how we classify the strict pulling and pushing days for that week. I know the bar muscle-ups not strict but trying to mix in pulling and pushing there's a lot of like max rep week. Looking at week three max rep seated dumbbell, strict pressing.
Speaker 1:So you're going to see a lot of different formats of pressing inverted barbell row, so making sure that we're pulling and pushing in different planes as well, which is really just important for like, obviously for strength development for all, but also for, like, joint health as well. Um, all right, everyone's favorite part of the podcast um our conditioning bias.
Speaker 4:So this phase, talk about burying the lead.
Speaker 2:This phase is called cortez um cortez is the model of nike shoe that forrest gump wears when he decides to go a run and, uh, he fucking takes off in his plaid shirt um and his khakis and then eventually is seven.
Speaker 4:I were looking at some, you know for, like marketing inspiration, that cardigan that he's wearing towards the end is wild.
Speaker 2:Like he's running across the country and he's like tiny little red running shorts and like a yellowish sweater if I remember correctly, um, but we are biasing running.
Speaker 4:Um, yeah we're going to take a look at this, We'll we're going to pause. We're going to take a look at this, We'll. We're going to pause.
Speaker 3:We're going to. We're going to pause for a fit check. Go ahead, seb. Waiting for the to start playing real quick.
Speaker 4:before I play for you guys, give me one sec.
Speaker 3:what did you cancel your youtube?
Speaker 2:premium. What's going on here?
Speaker 3:no, no, it's logged in as uh, as my person damn by the way youtube premiums the best.
Speaker 1:Definitely worth it I was talking with a friend who said they like he uh got like the free trial for travel and he's like don't get the free trial because you'll never go back, you can't go back. Yeah, like just the idea that you can't close your phone and keep listening to something.
Speaker 2:This is a ton of good content on there that's not considered a podcast so it doesn't, you can't download it as a podcast but you can definitely just click on it and listen to it when you're doing whatever yes, look at that sweater guy look at that thing.
Speaker 1:That looks good, right. Does it have like a? Does it have a?
Speaker 3:collar, I don't even notice it like starts like almost like shoulder pads wow that thing's awesome. What if you can buy that?
Speaker 2:somewhere I gotta get one gotta be I'd tell you I'm about.
Speaker 1:Amazon, but I'm not allowed to buy anything on Amazon. Fucking twats Full circle moment.
Speaker 2:All right, so we are biasing running. When you talk about back to basics, this might be the most basic thing possible. Taking a CrossFitter out of the gym there's no knee sleeves. There's no grips, there's no. Chalk, there's no this is my special rower. I like to row on a 10 damper.
Speaker 4:Hey, guess what?
Speaker 2:There's ground outside and you're going to go move yourself across it it really it moves the needle, it expresses fitness, it tests fitness it tests.
Speaker 4:Athlete IQ, because unless you've got, to watch it.
Speaker 2:You're going to stare at the whole time.
Speaker 4:It's not telling you hey 135, not a good pace on this row or at the beginning of this 20-minute workout. People are out there cooking at a 530 mile. I see it when I leave in the 5 pm class you know, busts out the door and I'm in the parking lot. I'm like that's a bold move. Cotton yeah, we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1:We'll be back in three minutes to see what's going on. Yeah, seriously.
Speaker 4:So it's just like. I would consider, you know, if we're talking about Holy Grail, that's up there, that's way up there. It might be at the tippy top.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we recently had a couple of our like resident physical therapists, members who are also PTs and they have a lot of experience with working with runners specifically they they both have experience competing in um, competing in like distance running. One of them was like borderline profession, like semi-professional um distance runner, and the his wife, is a like collegiate division one sprinter, one sprinter. And they came in they did a little bit of a, they did some education stuff. We tried to set them up at the kind of early spring before like we got running. But the goal was to kind of like teach members like one running. Running should not be pain, like pretty much every movement we do here, like the movement should not be painful, and if it is painful, there's you know, it's, you're not allergic to the movement, you're.
Speaker 1:you're probably moving incorrectly. More than likely you've got some residual, whether it's an injury, maybe just tissues that aren't are, are tight or junky and are just like referring pain elsewhere. Or you just like, like people, we even and I'm guilty of this too it's like you send athletes on a 400 meter warm up run and you're not.
Speaker 1:we're not like heavily evaluating technique Like not I don't think there's a single CrossFit coach on the planet besides maybe Chris Henshaw, who looks at you, know an athlete's gait as closely as they look at you, know an athlete.
Speaker 2:I only look at it midline.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm not trying to refine it, right.
Speaker 1:And we right yeah, I'm not trying to refine it right and we don't even know what necessarily to do with that?
Speaker 4:it's like someone's got a weird fucking running gait.
Speaker 1:It's like, stop that. Like you're making me uncomfortable, I don't know what you're doing, I don't like it. But like we know how to correct a midline fault in in a deadlift, but in running it's kind of like, well, that's just kind of how that person runs and there's a there's a little bit of truth to that, but also like there is a technical aspect to running.
Speaker 1:There is this idea that like, well, it's like my back starts to hurt after a mile of running.
Speaker 1:It's like, okay, well then what we know is that you're doing something wrong and just like, the maximum amount of time your body has before it starts to break down and get tight or refer pain into your low back is one mile.
Speaker 1:So it's like, in the same way that you wouldn't ask an athlete to back squat 90% of their one rep max and expect them to do 10 reps with it, it's like, okay, maybe, maybe one mile, a one mile run is your equivalent of a five rep max and you're not ready for the 10 rep max weight until we can, like, improve some mechanical efficiencies and running, or, you know, strengthen supporting muscles or teach you how to run properly. You know, again, we talked, talked a lot with them about you know heel strike versus a toe strike, like what muscles need to be strong, like your hips play a huge role in your ability to stabilize your pelvis. And like, if you don't think about your, your midline and your posture at all while you run, it's like no wonder, like things start to hurt after a certain period of time of running and it's like we need to stop thinking about running as, like I'm a CrossFitter, I don't do that, or like I can only run this far before it starts to hurt. It's like no we don't.
Speaker 1:We don't do that with like a dead. If it's like if your back starts to hurt with a deadlift, we take some weight off, we learn how to do it correctly and then we continue to deadlift barring. You know something an extenuating circumstance, and I think crossfitters and crossfit coaches need to have a similar mentality with running, because it is a super useful movement.
Speaker 1:It's arguably the most functional movement that human beings do. It's not a CrossFit movement. If you're a human being, you need to be able to run Because you know this being the time of year. For us up in Maine that's accessible. It also just kind of makes sense to start the training year off with again like deadlift, deadlift, run, pull up, push up, like not not to not too much more functional of a list from, like a foundational physical capacity perspective than those those couple movements right there.
Speaker 4:It's funny because I like try to watch people run and figure out why there are these like batches of people that look like whether they're fit or not, fast they're running this person can run this person.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure exactly what that is. I don't know if I would call it running um, and I think part of it is whether you sprinted or not, when you were younger and not from the like aspect of like narps and like athletes and all of that. But just because some people who run look like they think that if they're picking their knees up, in the air that that's going to propel them forward and like high knees is a thing you can do, that you can literally just like march in place and do that and sometimes it's like there's so
Speaker 2:much leg drive and so much pulling when you're sprinting that you, that you sort of realize that like, yeah, the knees are going to go a little bit lower and like the amount of hip versus hamstring is going to change but I kind of got to be leaning forward a little bit, you know, with some decent, decent posture and pushing and pulling myself forward yeah, as opposed to like, because you see this, and part of it to me is this like amount of energy that gets slammed into the ground and then picked back up, right it's not like, like you want, like when you watch.
Speaker 2:I think baseball is one of the best sports to watch for this, because you get that side view of them especially on like a double or a triple where you can really watch them running.
Speaker 4:And they look like the. The really good athletes look like roadrunner, they look their foot looks like it's going in a circle the whole time um and like you see I see it the most when I'm watching people run down the road.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean because you just see someone, they're like hey, you know what? Like shit's not going well for me. I better like I don't want to die when I'm, you know, 60, so I'm gonna start running down the road every day and it's good for you, but I'm not. Can we? Can we talk? Do you have five minutes?
Speaker 2:to talk about my lord and savior pushing and pulling into the ground you know what I mean, like your hamstrings yeah, you see some wild shit. So um yeah what, what like?
Speaker 4:what is? What is?
Speaker 2:the coach going to do so. My main questions here are what can we do to?
Speaker 4:you know, introduce some of this stuff.
Speaker 2:And then the elephant in the room with running is it requires a level of rehab and prehab that a lot of other movements don't to be able to do it. You know one, one and a half two times a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I mean as far as like. So there are plenty of athletes for whom, like, the prescribed running volume might be too much. Um, and what we have to remember is, like a lot of times the goal is not necessarily like the exact movement, but a time domain or a stimulus. So, for example, let's see if I can find like an easier one. That's just rounds for time here. Ok, four minutes by four, a 400 meter run, some farmers step ups and then max handstand push ups in the remaining time.
Speaker 1:So one single run at the front end of this workout. Four times, which means 800, I'm sorry, a mile of total running, four by 400.
Speaker 4:You've got an athlete for whom, like 400 meters is a lot Like what do I do?
Speaker 1:Well, we've got a couple options. We can say like or maybe like a cumulative mile of running, that's more running than I've ever done in my life. And like I don't think that I can do that, it's like okay, well we can do a couple things. We can just run 300 meters each time, and if the athlete is slow, then like they're going to finish that 300. In the same time, a quote normal athlete takes to finish 400.
Speaker 4:We don't need to modify anything. Maybe I'm an athlete, or maybe you've got an athlete who is they've?
Speaker 1:they're just getting reintroduced. So. So option one is just obviously to reduce the distance for that more deconditioned athlete could also.
Speaker 2:That should happen more often than it does at the level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure for, especially for athletes who, just like you, know their their main goal is to complete the run, which probably means they're not focusing all that heavily on their foot strike and their body positioning, so they are putting a somewhat of a beating on their joints um, even though we want them running, so like modifying distance, especially for deconditioned athletes, is by far preferred to just sitting them on a bike like full swap.
Speaker 1:Another version of that is like you know, maybe you've got athletes, we've got a handful of women at the gym who are recently pregnant or, you know, are reintroducing movements back after having had their children, and it's like OK, a mile of running is too much, but I can run.
Speaker 1:What do I do? Well, like, instead of a 400 meter run each time, let's do a 200 meter run and then 400 meters on a bike, so you're getting the same amount of time spent on that movement, but you know, the cumulative running volume is much more manageable.
Speaker 1:Or maybe it's like, hey, you're just going to do just do the first two rounds of the workout, as 400 meter runs like 400 is the farthest you've run. Great, do it twice. The last two rounds of the workout you're actually just going to do, we'll just put you on a bike for that, so we're able to reintroduce a volume of running without necessarily going straight to like what's written especially if it's not appropriate so um, those are probably the two main ways that I would. I would scale running but like I got one.
Speaker 2:I got one challenge for people.
Speaker 4:Um, when it comes to this, the C2 bike is an extremely poor scale or movement swap for running.
Speaker 2:I think you take the workout and you look at whether the run is trying to introduce interference, or if it's not, and then you choose between ski or rower and echo bike Like those three things are going to elicit and. I would actually lean this might be a bias for me, but I would lean more towards, my heart rate gets higher and I have less muscle fatigue on the ski and the echo bike than I do the rower.
Speaker 4:I have a little bit more like localized muscle fatigue that would affect, say, my toes to bar, my pull ups, like that sort of thing. But you want to look at what the like like if if it's, if it is like a very hip driven thing, like don't do the skier, like that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:But I think those three machines really allow for that like running is that like your blood is boiling, like you can.
Speaker 4:You know, you can feel the acid dilation like that's what we need from it and the c2 bike is an amazing machine, but it is.
Speaker 2:It's not surprising that it's swapped in um, for certain things, because if you back off, just a little bit.
Speaker 4:It's not heavy breathing or leg fatigue so I would just put that out there as like a try to stay away from that it's a great tool that needs to be used properly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my, my primary preferred machine. Alter alternative is the is the echo or assault bike.
Speaker 4:I think it gives the right it's the right combination of especially the echo fatigue, but but breathing as well.
Speaker 1:I think the C2 bike is especially the echo fatigue, but, but breathing as well. I think the C2 bike is. Yeah, I think it's used incorrectly by most affiliate level athletes and mostly because it's it's easy and it's fun. It's like what do you mean? I can sit down and just use the weight of my legs and and turn the resistance down as far as I can, and I'm still getting it done. It's like, especially if it's distance and distance, yeah, fuck them up.
Speaker 4:And do a calorie conversion.
Speaker 2:And then they might not hate it, but they'll hate their score. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I definitely prefer. That's a really good point. The assault bike is by far the preferred running alternative, just because I think it's the most similar feel you can get.
Speaker 4:So yeah, that's just a call to coaches to like the.
Speaker 1:The modificate the scale. Scaling for running is not not running. It's like okay if someone is legitimately in need of modification, like let's get them running the most that they're capable of doing, so safely. Disliking running, not liking running, not being good at running, are all wonderful excuses for me to tell you to piss off and go run. Um, so agreed, yeah, so what do?
Speaker 2:you do, I'm I get a little obsessive with things like running warm-ups and running cool-downs for myself and I think an athlete's sort of aftermath in running, and then what they need before varies quite a bit, so at the affiliate level. It's like one person rolling their arch with a lacrosse ball versus another person whose Achilles is pinned down. That really needs to floss versus the person who needs to do like foam rolling on their calves like how do you?
Speaker 2:is it a plethora? I am at literally asking like I'm not even like no, yeah, like answer like what do you do in those instances?
Speaker 1:for the most part like activation type stuff, is like kind of where we, we lean most heavily. One of the things that, um, we I sent my coaches like kind of a an unofficial, like the misfit, unofficial running warm-up, but it started off with like one of the one of the biggest things we learned from our pt running kind of gurus is the the big toe joint um is like wildly important as far as, like your ability to flex. So if you were to like kind of put, put both, put your both feet try to visualize this put both feet together with like on when you're like on the balls of your toes, like you're on your big toe, and then try to drop your knees to the ground and like basically, just, you're just basically put bending that big toe back as far as it goes. But the less range of motion that you have in that toe joint, the more likely you are to defer to like internal rotation of the hip for example.
Speaker 4:So if that toe doesn't, isn't able to like flex, as you kind of like.
Speaker 1:you know, when you're running you kind of roll off your toes. If that joint doesn't bend far enough, your body will compensate and in order for it to find like forward range of motion, you're going to like for a lot of athletes, it's well, I'm just gonna let my knee cave in, Like I'm gonna find that range of motion you're going to like for a lot of athletes, it's well, I'm just going to let my knee cave in, like I'm going to find that range of motion. And we see that a lot. I see that a lot with athletes who have poor arch support or just like run. You know, you've got your athlete coaches can probably think of a few athletes who just, no matter how hard you cue them, their knees collapse inward when they squat.
Speaker 1:whether that's a range of motion thing, a body awareness thing, whatever it is like that happens with running as well, and like flexibility in that big toe joint and the ankle are like you know the obvious most most important, important things to to kind of mobilize.
Speaker 1:So stretching out, like mobilizing the big toe, a banded type distraction for the ankle joint, are like great kind of mobilization options, just getting the joint moving a little bit. I love flossing. It gives me aids every time. I try to get a group of more than like two athletes to try to floss, because it takes six hours, takes athletes like four.
Speaker 1:Try to get a group of more than like two athletes to try to floss, because it takes six hours, takes athletes like four hours to roll a floss band and do it, but it is an excellent technique, uh for for, especially if you've got really junky tissue um you know that that's just kind of like you alluded to, like an Achilles that's really tight, or you don't have very good range of motion in your calf, your Achilles tendon, your ankle. To begin with those are kind of like the three areas. Yeah, that's exactly what we're Great, yes, sweet so yeah, if you're watching on YouTube. We didn't get to the second one down there that first one, yeah, that that big toe kind of flexion.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that would be flexion or extension of the big toe, but I don't even know what a little bit of movement, soft tissue work, whether it's a foam roll or whatever in that area. Great, we start there. And then the activation stuff. I think the easiest like kind of the big three are your calves, so simple things like calf raises. We learned like a single leg calf raise type movement. It's kind of like it's almost like a tempo calf raise but essentially making sure that the calves are ready for work. Your anterior tibialis, basically your shin muscle, doing tip raises.
Speaker 2:Those babies get cooked if you log mileage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, and like that. If you're somebody who struggles with knee pain, like I, learned that movement from knees over toes guy as a way to kind of like improve the health of your knees. But basically calves and tibs, think about that as one thing. But hips, specifically like glutes, and your even more specifically outer glutes, like your glute medius, those side hip muscles are usually responsible for stabilizing the hips.
Speaker 1:So again you get an athlete who complains about low back pain. Their hips get tight. Whatever it is like, odds are that those muscles are not supporting the pelvis in the way that they should as they're running, even though they're lateral muscles and you're moving generally like in the frontal plane, just forward and backward. Those stabilizers are hugely important. And then, in a similar vein, like actual core activation whether that's simple, like hollow rocks, dead bugs, like hanging strict knee raises, that sort of thing but making sure that athletes understand like there's musculature in your core and your hips that connect down into your legs and whatnot, and just making sure that that stuff is like warmed up and ready to go.
Speaker 1:Those are kind of the mobilization and activation checkpoints I'm trying to get athletes to do. I'll tell people to kick off their shows, kick off their toes, kick off their shoes and do that big toe stretch while I'm briefing, at the whiteboard Maybe it's a day where I'm going to say hey grab a lacrosse ball, take your shoes off and just mash the shit out of the bottom of your feet. Yeah, it might be another one. Those are great to do like at the whiteboard while you're briefing, because it kind of takes time and like you know you want to get it done, but you don't want to.
Speaker 1:Like, you got incorporating the hour, so I'll do that. The activation stuff usually goes by pretty quick and then athletes are more ready than they were 10 minutes ago to to run and, uh and and put those joints and musculature through some paces.
Speaker 2:Right, and that other stuff that I talked about.
Speaker 4:um, you know we're we're making a concerted effort at the gym here to to have the cool down culture, um, really sort of you know be a thing and those other things that I'm talking about come into play more post workout and then come into play more.
Speaker 2:Let's say, we're running twice in one week and the athlete comes in and they can feel that that might be when an athlete would want to floss, roll the arches, do something preceding the activation stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the flossing if you're not sure, I would just Google or go to YouTube and look in Kelly Starrett like Achilles floss, calf floss, something like that, that can be really good, and if you're somebody who is a runner, who has spent a lot of time running.
Speaker 1:odds are like your lower legs are tight and those tissues are really like matted down and glued together and flossing is an excellent way. That's one of those things that hopefully we have time to do, like one leg in class within that one hour, within the one hour block, and then, like athletes feel a lot better afterward and they just do the other leg. But yeah, so yeah, voodoo, flossing the calf for Achilles pain. I think he's got a handful of videos up there. But yeah, those floss bands are seriously magical. If you don't have any at your gym, they're seriously magical until you're at 5 pm class um with 6 000 people yeah, trying to get 20 people to roll up a floss band in less than five minutes.
Speaker 1:So I mean I would say one.
Speaker 2:So more frequent than one out of 25 times the floss band unrolls before I'm Therefore how many people within your class are going to roll that thing up 75% and drop it? Listen.
Speaker 1:I've even like. I've been like if I just roll up the bands for them, there's no way they'll fuck this up.
Speaker 2:And then it's like I can see somebody just like pick it up and drop it like immediately.
Speaker 1:Okay, fuck me Like I'll, or start to roll it, and then it comes unwrapped and then they like, wow, like I'm already halfway done here. So then they just grab and like wrap, and now this is taking like eight times as long and I'm like I, I'm just I'm, my brain is shutting down. I just tell everybody to take the floss band off and go run a mile. I need, I need some me time after watching you all try to floss yeah, or under the bowling alley and back.
Speaker 2:I'll see you. Yeah, go touch, go touch hannaford all right, um, I'm gonna, I'll go first on final thoughts here, and it's based on sort of two intersecting ideas, so one would be I've had the opportunity to talk with a few um.
Speaker 2:Misfit affiliate either affiliate owners, head coaches, whoever's sort of in charge of, of, um subscribing to the programming and disseminating ideas and things like that. Recently, um, and would would love to get on a call with, with anyone that's that's listening. Just email me, coach at misfitathleticscom and I'll send you the Calendly link that I've sent out to other coaches. But really in those, conversations talking to people about this idea of culture being top-down, and that relates very heavily to programming as well.
Speaker 4:So, the first step in that process would be listening to this podcast. Listen to the podcast, go through all of these things, get the concepts, get the ideas and then from there it's about arming your staff with very similar information.
Speaker 2:And that can be done at a higher level, like, hey, you guys also listen to this podcast. It can be done on a daily level. You know, weekly programming, meeting, whatever works best for your gym.
Speaker 4:But if you understand the concepts and what we're trying to accomplish here and your staff does, and then certain members might also listen to this podcast or want to have those conversations.
Speaker 2:When the understanding of all of this stuff comes together, you get a higher level of buy-in and then you get more return on investment for the actual workout itself.
Speaker 4:Because, like at baseline, words on a page can't make anyone fitter, then it's okay, you can do this.
Speaker 2:but if you're not into it or you don't, believe in it or you're not putting a certain level of effort into it then that's not going to be as good as you know again creating that culture.
Speaker 4:So just think about it from that perspective and I'm bringing it up because we are restarting.
Speaker 2:This is a new opportunity for you to set a baseline of how somebody picks something up off the floor, moves their body through space and running.
Speaker 4:Does strict pulling understands?
Speaker 2:how to use their back and strict pulling, understands how to brace their body when they go to do strict pressing, you know, so that they're not sort of fighting against themselves and all of that stuff will translate so well as we add the next podcast, the next phase, that sort of thing. But the buy-in has to start at this point, Like there's again.
Speaker 4:Just that level of responsibility. I'm an affiliate owner.
Speaker 2:I'm the head coach, I'm on a staff and we're following this programming. How do we make it as good as possible versus just oh, I've heard good things about these guys.
Speaker 4:Click, subscribe and like here members, here's this thing that these other people wrote. Hope you like it I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Congratulations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think my my final thoughts on this one is that, like it both.
Speaker 1:This is both for coaches and athletes potentially listening to this like the reason that we, the reason that the hopefully the reason that you pay way more for a monthly gym membership than you could if you were going to planet fitness is because you have somebody who is teaching you how to do a movement correctly, because otherwise you would just pay $10 a month for a program online and then go do it on your own. So if you're going to pay somebody to learn how to do something correctly, and if you're going to be in the business of teaching somebody how to do something correctly, what we're trying to do here is to make humans that are happy, healthy and able to be that way for a very long period of time. When we start to move poorly, when we start to do movements, either a bastardized form of them, or put the ego kind of ahead of the cart before the horse, so to speak. As far as like, well, I can do this weight for five by five deadlift, but like is my back going to like it? I don't know.
Speaker 1:We'll find out tomorrow on tomorrow's edition of. Am I going to wake up debilitated or not? My, my call to action is just like but what is the point of doing all this training if we're not going to do it correctly?
Speaker 1:What is the point of doing this training, if we're, and I'm, I'm very much a type, a kind of like, I don't want to say perfectionist, but I if like for the most part, if I'm going to do something, I want to do it to the best of my ability and to like the most correct extent possible.
Speaker 1:Um this is just not short-sighted things like that's yeah, that's what can happen there that's fair too, and like I like I've done it for a long enough time and I've I've practiced, you know, spent a lot of time practicing this sort of thing. But for athletes who are like really kind of drink the Kool-Aid, we got to remember to kind of like pull the reins back on them a little bit sometimes and remind folks that like the purpose of what you're doing here is to set a foundation for, like, a healthy body 5, 10, 20, 40 years from now. And by kind of placing the ego ahead and saying like well, I'm going to do this like 60% correctly and, you know, move on with my day. It's like. Again, my question is like what's the point? Like why not do this exceptionally well? Why not, as a coach, tell the athlete, hey, man, like take the weight off the bar. Like you're doing this incorrectly, Like you're going to get injured if it's not today, it's a couple, it's, you know it's eventually and like why would we like what is so important about that weight right this minute that we can't just like do a little bit less of it and do it perfectly?
Speaker 1:So this is kind of the time of year to try to instill that sort of mindset into athletes, that you should be more proud of the quality of movement that you come into the gym and demonstrate than you should be about the score that gets put on the whiteboard, because your quality of movement, that sticks with you for well as long as you have your body, and the score on the whiteboard lasts until it gets erased, like five to six days from now. So, um, you pick which one's more important. I'll you know. I know which one is for, for myself and hopefully for the members at Misfit Gym Portland. But that's what that's. That'll be my kind of closing thoughts as we start a new training season.
Speaker 2:So for you know a lot of this we're speaking to people who are already subscribed to the program, people who are not subscribed to the program yet that are listening to this as a bit of an audition, to see if you think that this would fit for your affiliate. You will notice when you get your two-week free trial that we've got what. I consider to be some kind of retention tools, some extras built in there.
Speaker 4:So there's a competitor extra every day.
Speaker 2:Keep the community whole, keep the community together. Don't have that open gym culture of.
Speaker 4:I follow this. I follow that.
Speaker 2:Give them a sort of structured. Here's the one hour class. If you want more, we've got it for you. And then we've also got our engine class, which you can choose to run an actual engine class like we do at our gym. Here A lot of people like fits really well in the weekend. People want to come in and get a nice long sweat and potentially have a little bit more.
Speaker 4:you know sort of time to do that, or it can be sort of built in in the same way that you do the competitor extra. Hey guys, if you want to work on your engine.
Speaker 2:We have a really structured program that flows well with everything else.
Speaker 4:So yeah.
Speaker 2:Cortez phase starts Monday, may 12th. Teammisfitcom. Click sign up now. You can get a two-week free trial on StreamFit SugarWatt or PushPress. If you would like a sample of what the programming looks like when you get it from TeamMisfitcom directly contact us and we'll send one your way.
Speaker 1:I want to give one thing real quick to the engine program, because this is something that we've. I don't want to say I've been asked about or folks have mentioned it. Hyrox is becoming a pretty popular thing. The engine program is well one.
Speaker 1:A lot of those workouts look like Hyrox workouts to begin with, but Chris has programmed for this first, the Cortez phase, the one first of the three engine days per week is actually a Hyrox day. So that comes free with the engine program, is included with the subscription to the affiliate program, and that one day per week is actually like a high rocks day where a one hour class you get, whether it's a like a partial high rocks or maybe just a couple segments of the like the race. You expect a lot of running, rowing, skiing, sleds, that sort of thing, but that's a. I think that's a cool feature of the the engine program that chris plugged in to this coming phase. So and if that's something that you you would like, let us know and we'll we'll continue to to plug that in, because that that seems to be getting a little bit more popular for uh for crossfitters um to to participate in, so that'll be a cool.
Speaker 1:We can get people to do those movements in that time domain.
Speaker 2:It's going to move the needle. So you call it whatever the fuck you want to call it, and if again, it's a retention tool for your members, to call it IROX. Then great, do it, did we do it, we did it.
Speaker 4:Thank you for tuning into another episode of the Misfit.
Speaker 2:Podcast TeamMisfitcom. Click on sign up now. Misfit Podcast teammisfitcom. Click on sign up now misfitathleticscom. Or the link in bio on our social media to get signed up for the individual programming. See you next week Later.