This past weekend I was able to sit in on a Training = Rehab workshop with Charlie Weingroff in Calgary. For those who don’t know who Charlie is, consider this your warning.

First, he has a doctorate in physical therapy, meaning he knows his stuff from the academic perspective. He’s also worked as a therapist with the Marines, NBA, and most recently with Nike World helping to change the structure of the coaching system in the United States. He’s also a beast who has back squatted over 800 pounds, and can hit the splits on demand.

I was fortunate enough to co-host the event with Michael Maxwell, which essentially meant I was Charlie’s taxi and provider of energy drinks, as well as the IT guy who got to set up the projector, but it also meant hitting dinner to crush some steaks and pick his brain in private. The dude’s smart. There’s literally no other way to put it.

As a result of this experience, I wanted to share my biggest takeaways from the weekend. If you’re interested in seeing more from Charlie, check out his website CharlieWeingroff.com and also look at getting his DVD pack for the Training = Rehab seminar, as it’s well worth the cost.

Point #1: Assessments shouldn’t be complicated. Essentially it should boil down to two simple questions:

Does the individual move in a way that is able to be deemed as “normal?”

Does the movement create pain?

If the movement hurts, find out why or refer out to get another set of eyes to help out. The assessments should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Point #2: Stability does NOT mean stiffness without the ability to move. It means being able to control the body’s ability to maintain a specific position, regardless of the relative health of that position. This means that a kyphotic posture where someone’s hunched over the keyboard is a stable position. This means that bracing of the core with maximal co-contraction of the abdominals and low back muscles is necessary, but not for extended periods of time, or in all situations. Sometimes malleability can actually be considered stability.

Point #3: Static stretching and low load aerobic exercise are definitely beneficial. The downside is that static stretches have to be held for more than 30 minutes in order to increase the sarcomeric length in series (meaning “lengthening” of muscles) to have any appreciable change to a muscle. The other alterations are a neural re-set that alters the tone causing the muscle to hold a partial contraction. Low load aerobics can help improve oxygen delivery to tissues throughout the body, which can help improve recovery from soft tissue injuries, but only if the heart rate is kept below about 60% of heart rate reserve (about 120 beats per minute, for most people). Most static stretching doesn’t do anything, and training with low intensity for a conditioning purpose or for weight loss is straight up whack, yo.

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Point #4: Sometimes the best measurement tool is the standing occulometer. Simply looking at a movement can tell you if it looks right or jacked up, and fixing how the movement looks can usually result in fixing most of the problems in the world.

Point #5: The biggest difference between humans and a lot of four-legged mammals is our ability to produce extension between T4-T8.

Point #6: Loaded carries will help the shoulder more than doing any specific rotator cuff exercise. The key is to use gigantic amounts of weight, where the arm can’t flex and the trap can’t shrug to hold it. This is something that’s been said by Dan John and Mike Boyle, plus Dr. Stuart McGill has done some EMG studies on it to prove the point, so it’s probably something that should be included in more trainers’ programs, even if their clients don’t have shoulder problems.

Point #7: Patellofemoral Syndrome is not about the knee cap. If the majority of knee issues around this area are at all related to the knee cap tracking laterally and the vast us medial is isn’t working properly, it’s not because the vast us laterals is pulling it sideways, it’s because the femur is rotating in relation to the knee. It also me ants the foot and ankle are forcing the tibia to internally rotate as well. This means training the knee isn’t going to do anything. Another way to avoid knee pain is to train squats with a vertical shin to avoid compressive forces of the kneecap pressing into the femoral condyles.

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The VMO deactivation is a reactionary mechanism in the presence of a threat, not necessarily due to the fact that there is anything wrong with the muscles function, so training it in isolation is pointless.

Point #8: Eccentric actions can help to favourably remodel tissues like the patellar tendon and triceps tendon. The disc is made of similar tissue, so it should work there too, right? Nope. The patellar and triceps tendon don’t have a liquid nucleus pushing against it from the inside, irritating it and causing it to breakdown from two directions, which is another reason that performing spinal flexion exercises for someone with low back pain may not be a great idea, especially if they have any presence of disc issues.

Point #9: The transverse abdomens is never off, unless you’re dead. When the low back is injured, it down-regulates and delays its reaction, but it’s never off. Combine it with the other deep core muscles like the multifidus and pelvic floor, and they all work to anticipate movement. The outer core muscles produce the movement on the foundation of inner core activity. When I first read in Therapeutic Exercise For Spinal Segmental Stabilization for Low Back Pain, I incorrectly assumed that the transverse wasn’t working when he back was injured, but it was more that the transverse was simply delayed, not shut off. The diaphragm will drive intra-abdominal pressure that helps to activate all the core muscles. If you aren’t breathing properly, you can’t get core the right core activation to build a monster, regardless of the transverse activation.

Point #10: Corrective exercise is incredibly simple. It’s less about finding the right individual segment of the body that’s not moving properly, and more about making sure the movement in question is absolutely bullet-proof to the ability of the person in front of you. What this means is working on correcting the lift, and as a result the questionable areas will iron themselves out. If not, the person will have to get some additional soft tissue work or even some therapeutic joint work done, which means all trainers should have a network of health professionals they can refer their clients out to help their training programs and to make them as trainers look like gold.

Point #11: Being right seems to be one of the biggest concerns with a lot of people in fitness, and they’ll pretty much pick up arms to defend their beliefs. If their beliefs show some serious evidence of being wrong, they still don’t accept it, all in an effort to be right. Being right is easy. By simply changing your beliefs based on the evidence presented, you have the chance to be right all over again.

This was definitely a fun weekend, and getting a chance to get my geek on was a truly fantastic opportunity and one I’m hoping to get a chance to do again soon. It’s one of the perks of the job, getting to learn what I love to do and finding new ways to make people hate life and get strong all at the same time. I’m getting all jacked up just thinking about it, so it’s time to go and lift some heavy things.