Human Animation

Don’t trade joint health for more training volume.

It’s not worth it in the long run.

All of the squats in the world won’t make you a better hip joint.

Take it from me:

1. Find a system that works
2. Prioritize your joint training and health
3. Invest quality time and energy into the process
4. Transform marginal gains

You don’t need to train more squats, foamrolling, or theraband work to acquire a healthy joint.

But you do need joint-specific training.

Here are two ways I’d start the process:

1. Get an assessment
2. Begin a regular Controlled Articular Rotation Routine (CARs)

For an assessment, DM me directly, and I’ll send you a link to book.

Sign up for our mailing list and receive a free CARs video for the shoulder, spine, and hip. www.GainACCES.com

You’re underestimating how useful compensation can be in a clinical setting.

The majority of clients benefit from controlling the motion they compensate for and the compensation itself. 

Divorce the joint systems, control relative joint motions, and you’ll have a more functional joint.

How to “strengthen” your low back:

Old way
* Plank
* Bird dogs
* Clamshells
* Piriformis stretch

How to improve your lumbar spine:

New Way
* Improve joint/capsular workspace
* Improve connective tissue architecture
* Improve CT load-bearing capacity
* Train slow + fast-twitch muscles

NEW > OLD

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3 Week Wave of Heavy Effort Strategy

Neurological Inputs

Using the heavy effort method and the sub-maximal effort method.

Week 1: Pin 4 > 3 types of resistance > 4 rep max

Week 2: Pin 3 > 3 types of resistance > 3 rep max

Week 3: Pin 3 > 2 types of resistance > 2 rep max

training

Pin 4 Rack Pulls

- Heavy Effort Method- build up to a top set of 4 reps

- 3 forms of resistance. Straight weight, bands, and chains. Easy external variables to tinker with to avoid stagnation

Do you or someone you know experience “tech neck”? Neck pain, headaches, limited range of motion, tingles in the arms or fingers, all of the above.

Free training video in the ACCES community forum for tech neck symptoms.
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The FRS-Internal Strength Model From a Manual Therapist’s Perspective

One of my client’s whiteboard notes during our assessment and education meeting.

You can see that a simple way to use the model is to list out the inputs and fill in the inputs with their subjective and objective needs, then use the inputs appropriately to create the desired changes and adaptations in a treatment setting and a training setting.

Our main focus for the bulging discs in the L4/5 and L5/S1 in the acute phase is to focus on slow-twitch muscle fibers to generate low amounts of force into the deep tissues of the lumbar spine and learn to control the affected joint segments. Inputs 1 & 5 of the ISM.

Programming their training until the next visit:
Once per day > In a supine position > lumbar extension and flexion sacrum to L3 x5 each direction > 60s of a low-intensity isometric in the zone of extension (lumbar only)

Acute disc injury? Give this training a rip.
Warning: This training will be done in just a few minutes, which is underwhelming and not sexy (that’s what she said). Enjoy!

Compensations as a treatment strategy

At first glance, the word compensation may have a negative connotation to it. However, it doesn’t always have to be so. In my experience, compensations are beneficial and can help clients understand their bodies more, which in turn helps them heal and improve.

My strategy with him has been to teach him to compensate on purpose and use it to our advantage. Because he has such poor control and awareness of his body, we chose to focus on the lumbopelvic-hip complex as an entire system versus learning to control the individual bits. I thought this would make it easier for him and his nervous system to learn and control these compensational patterns.

As a manual therapist, I’m constantly on a quest to treat clients effectively and by conserving energy. I am trying to be as lazy and effective as possible to save my body.

This is a knee mobilization I came up with when treating my friend’s knee. It allows me to use my body and keep my hands free to treat the specific tissue I want and easily manipulate the intended joint.

My friend, who is essentially a baby elephant, is also very good at relaxing, which makes treating his patellar tendon and medial knee joint easy and difficult at the same time.

By pinning his foot/ankle in my knee pit > putting him in tibial external rotation > and pushing his knee medially to create more length in his medial knee joint/tissue (MCL, meniscus etc) > then having him isometrically contract into me at the foot/ankle AND cueing him to use my body to his advantage by driving force from the hips. This allows him to inadvertently drive more force into the foot/ankle and tibial rotation by using compensations to our advantage.

This is an especially great mobilization if you work on large athletes or humans.

Let me know what you think of this if you try it out.

Valley of Death

Our strategy to get you out of “the valley of death.” Recall that this is the area where we have fallen due to a lack of specific training in the forms of joint-specific training and others.

The only logical means of getting out of the valley is training and treatments that specifically treat and manage what you need, given your goals and lifestyle (demands). The concurrent strategy of using both treatment and training simultaneously will hedge against the volatility of setbacks.

Over time, with proper training, the valley will become shallow, as will the frequency of setbacks. Keep in mind that this is a long game that is non-linear and is a game of marginal gains—making small incremental improvements resulting in multifaceted effects. 

Thank you to and for their Lineman Special Strength manual. This was my actual email and whiteboard illustration for a client last month. Showing that LSS concepts and systems apply elsewhere.

New Training Block in the Joint-Specific Training Library

Wrist + Elbow + Forearm

Golfers elbow? Use your hands to block? Carpal tunnel? Gymnast? Software engineer? Pianist? We got you!!

Force-Posture Curve + Connective Tissue Load-Bearing Capacity

In a recent case, the relationship of forces at different angles revealed the shortcomings of connective tissue architecture.

1. As the angle of the knee regresses, ie, more flexion, the ability to produce force decreases and is below the threshold of the CT architecture to bear a load. FLBC

3. As knee flexion increases (more extension) force output decreases again and knee pain goes away. F