I spent the weekend doing yardwork, and it’s mid April. This typically doesn’t happen in Edmonton, but hey, I’m not one to complain. I even had to turn on the air conditioner for a few minutes.

Anyhoo, Today I wanted to share a few cool things, some upcoming things, and stuff you might have not known existed but can’t continue your life without them in it.

 

1. The Fitness Summit, April 29-30, Kansas City, MO

This annual event is one of my favourite “conferences” to attend. I use air quotes on conference because really it’s more of a social gathering where some smart people get up and talk about things relating to fitness or health. I even get to have a turn at the mic this year, building off last year’s successful title of “Best Presentation of the Weekend.”

Speakers for this year include Alan Aragon, Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, Pete Dupuis, Tony Gentilcore, Greg Nuckols, Nick Tuminiello, Dr. Bret Contreras, Roland Denzel, Dr.Suzan Kleiner, and a bunch of other heavy hitters.

Oh, and me. I’ll talk a bit too.

There’s still some seats left, so get on it faster than barbeque gets eaten in a roomful of people who lift.

Click HERE for more info and to register

 

2.Other Speaking Events

In a couple of weeks, Lindsay and I will be off to Europe for the better part of 3 weeks. We’re planning on hitting up London, Paris, and then training through to Prague, Czech Republic, then flying to Oslo, Norway, back to London, and then home in a circular path of excellence. While in Prague and Oslo, Tony Gentilcore and his wife will join us and we will throw down some epic Complete Shoulder & Hip workshops.

Space is still available for both of those workshops if anyone over in Europe wants to crush deadlifts, learn about shoulders and hip, and feel like an all around badass.

Following Europe, Tony and I will also be heading to Minneapolis in October to run the Complete Shoulder & Hip workshop, this time at Movement Minneapolis, the home base of Dave Dellanave and Jen Sinkler.

After that, I’ll be running a solo show of Complete Shoulder & Hip in Vancouver, BC Canada, so there’s lots of opportunities for everyone to come and hang out and hear me say things about stuff.

Click HERE for a full schedule, and for more info on specific locations.

 

3. Men’s Health Reposted a Shoulder Video

It’s pretty cool that this little exercise had a decent and positive effect with a lot of people. Men’s Health even decided to repost it under their umbrella, and at the time of this posting it’s been viewed over 80,000 times collectively.

As always, open forums bring out the best in people, especially when you read the comments. One such gem was “Are you kidding me? I work in a hospital and get more of a workout turning 500 lb patients.” There were a few mysoginistic slurs in there as well, but I figured that didn’t need sharing. I guess he missed the point where this wasn’t shown as the greatest exercise of all time, but just a simple easy drill to get some scapular motion. Can’t win em all I guess.

4. The Power of Test Re-Test: How to Supercharge and Add Value to Your Assessments – Tony Gentilcore

This is a concept I discuss at length during workshops and speaking engagements, and it’s something I think a lot of people could benefit from in terms of finding value in what they’re doing.

One of the big tenets comes down to simply asking “What did that do?” with respect to specific exercises, movements, and techniques in terms of creating mobility or strength for specific movements. If I show a side plank drill to help improve hip internal rotation, it should improve hip internal rotation. If I don’t test the outcome, I’m not really using the easiest tools to get the job done, I’m just assuming something works when it might not. Tony did an awesome job at summarizing this concept in his post.

 

5. Everthing You Need to Know To Master The Bench Press Safely – Lifehacker

This was a fun article to contribute to, alongside Omar Isuf (#ohcanada) on how to bench press for performance and to reduce the risks of injury. Everyone wants to lift heavy, but no one wants to get their upper back tight!!

 

6. Economic Impact Study: Neuromuscular Training Reduces the Economic Burden of Injuries and Costs Compared to Standard Warm up in Youth Soccer – BJSM

This is a study completed in Calgary that looked at the injury rates and severity of injuries in terms of costs of treatment when comparing 2 different modes of warm up: a basic static stretch and active warm up used everywhere for ages, and more neuromuscular training techniques focusing on stability, core strength, eccentric strengthening, and balance.

The researchers found a 38% reduction in rate of injury using the NMT warm up, and a 43% reduction in health care costs in that group compared to the basic warm up group. This means. An injury rate reduction of 1.27 injuries per 1000 contact hours is a significant reduction, and something a lot of training programs would strive for on their best days.

It lends a lot of credence to using more complex warm ups to help reduce injuries, not merely to stretch or run a few laps. Spend some time getting prepared to play versus just getting onto the field and it can pay dividends, not just in your playing ability but also in whether you wind up spending more time on the treatment table than on the field.

Enjoy the rest of the week!!