The Bio Mechanic

Holy quad pump 🤯

Reverse sled drags are gnarly. Like their sexy friend the sled push, they are concentric-dominant movements that are a great in-season option because of their propensity to NOT elicit a lot of delayed onset muscle soreness because of a lack of an eccentric part of the movement with the quads.

Here’s a neat one; Single leg-Single arm Landmine RDL with lateral shoulder press.
Break down the components first
1️⃣kickstand RDL
2️⃣single leg RDL
3️⃣single arm single leg RDL
4️⃣Iso lateral shoulder press
5️⃣Iso lateral shoulder press with knee drive
6️⃣Put it all together.

Coaches don’t make their money on making something harder. Add load, speed, or decrease stability, and any movement will be harder. The trick is knowing how to make something EASIER. Regressions, breaking down the components, intellectualizing the process.

I can’t just do regular bent-over rows, right? 😉

I love the left leg adductor and right external oblique activation to maintain the trunk’s transverse plane stability for this.
For this variation, you should be thinking to fire the elevated leg glute; it’s not just hanging out looking good for the crowd. This will help with the arm drive on the row.

2️⃣8️⃣

Tuesday was my 28th trip around the sun.

What a year 27 was.

Looking back, 15 and 27 have been the most impactful years of my life. At 15, I won a state championship, then moved 1500 miles away from everything I’d ever known and loved to attend boarding school.

27 aged me. I have some white in my beard that wasn’t there before. My hair is thinning. My body still cooperates as well as ever, thankfully.

But I aged in useful ways as well.
In business. In technical knowledge. In experience. In my network.

I had months on end of waking up at 6, working 4 hours, driving 10 miles home, walking my dogs, driving back to work another 5 hours, try to get 30 minutes of movement in after work, then get home and crash. This isn’t a job where 9 hours of work means 45 minutes of productivity and 8 hours of bu****it. It was 7-9 hours of intellectually and physically demanding work that requires 100% attention at all times.

That’s only motivating if you’re making enough money to justify the effort, and I wasn’t in my old job.

Some days, it felt like pushing this sled.

I would blink and a week vanished.
But I can earnestly say I got better in every capacity this year. The me of one year ago would be very proud of the me today.

It’s a reminder that progress of all kinds in life isn’t linear. Recognize opportunity, because growth can happen explosively, if one is ready to capitalize on it. I think I got better in one year than I had in the previous 5.

And that’s okay.

I have far more to write about in the coming year.

Onward. 🤙🏻

If your sport involves running, sled pushes and pulls of all kinds should be part of your training.

The force vector advantages, the neat little trick of it not eliciting much delayed onset muscle soreness because the contractions are primarily concentric-only in nature (key for in-seasoning programming when adaptation is what you’re looking for, not soreness), and they are primarily single leg movements.

All positives in my book.

Weren’t following my stories this week? You missed a lot of fun; last 4 days have been a whirlwind.
On Wednesday at 12:30pm EST, I was on the phone with who needed help in Napa for the PGA tour event, the Fortinet Championship.
10 minutes later I had flights booked to San Francisco. 5 and a half hours later, I was on a plane. By 11pm PST, I was in a hotel outside of Napa Valley.

Had a blast being part of the team for a few days while he competed.

Learned so much about the analytics and coaching of golf as a caddie that goes into the brilliant work of

I’ve worked with high level professional athletes for years; however, seeing them compete in person is always a reminder of just how special these people are.

On this trip, I saw my good friend , who I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years (since we graduated boarding school).

Those who follow this page know that I recently took control of my career and went independent 9 days ago. One of the many reasons I made that move was so I could be in charge of my schedule, and life, and make decisions like that.
To be in a position to help a friend in need.
Decisions like that are urgent and time-sensitive, and requiring approval from a boss in that moment was not an option given the time constraints.
The appointments I had for Wednesday-Friday I simply rescheduled in the terminal, and all was well. I couldn’t make that snap judgement call a month ago.
Success takes a village. I’m constantly reminded of that. The emotional and logistical support of my girlfriend made this trip far easier. The encouragement my father has given me to press forward, 8 years into this career.
To see the better part of a decade of dedication to this craft begin to pay off in the form of support of so many the moment I decided to be my own boss again is humbling and ferociously motivating.

Taking the leap is sometimes the hardest part.

And it doesn’t always pay off.

But you’ll never fly if you don’t try.

Getting better, or stronger, or faster, or more coordinated at something requires repetition and practice. It’s important to have a broad and extensive movement schema to pull from as an athlete, especially in open field/ice/water/ varied-terrain sports, combat sports, etc. But, ultimately, to IMPROVE strength or improve a skill, you have to REPEAT that skill. Think of how a golfer swings faster, or a boxer punches faster and harder, or a soccer player kicks; all require improvements in high threshold motor unit recruitment, task-specific coordination, and more. I practice many different movements in my own training, and will expose my athletes to many different movements, but when I am chasing hypertrophy, strength, or power adaptations, FAMILIARITY IS KEY.

In short, have a master key to many movements, but pick a familiar lock to get better at picking THAT lock.

Single arm mace throws are quickly becoming a favorite of mine- I’ve been playing around with a few different stances and elevation changes with it. With this one, I added a half turn and a triple extension off the back leg.

Time to fly 🦅

1️⃣TRX Flying Front Kick: this one is not for the feint of heart. The more upright your torso, the more challenging it will be.
For regressions, follow this: TRX elevated leg lunge, TRX elevated leg plyo lunge w/leg extended (add hand touchdown), TRX elevated leg lunge with knee drive, THEN add the kick. High octane stuff.
2️⃣Landmine rotational clean: get into the outside glute, don’t be afraid to rotate into the lead leg, think jump AND turn not jump THEN turn. caught me mid set so I had to flex on him 🤣
3️⃣Landmine 90° turn and press: Don’t forget to dip and coil into the front leg before you jump, that’s where your power comes from.

Sorry about the lack of audio, something happened when recording these videos. Enjoy the movements without my heavy breathing and grunting 😂