Think Fit. Be Fit.

The trouble with movement screens and the skill-based solution of the Athletic Movement AssessmentIf you exercise, you’ve probably done some type of assessment, whether it’s blood pressure, a functional movement screen, or a bootcamp instructor screaming in your ear while you attempt to hang on to a treadmill going 12 mph at a 10% incline.

What made that screen meaningful?  How was that information used to help you achieve your goals?  Did it predict injuries?  Did it predict skill?  Did it result in practical and effective solutions?  Do screens employ a one-size-fits-all approach, or do they give practitioners and individuals specialized tools to solve specific problems?  Do they reveal issues that don’t actually exist?  More importantly, if we assess only ONCE, and not repeatedly, does that assessment have any meaningful impact on our long-term prospects?

In this episode, entitled One And Done, we join Dr. Patrick Welsh, Co-Founder and Director of Athletic Movement Assessment, in a discussion on the background and limitations of clinical and gym-based movement screens.  Dr. Welsh presents a new, skill-based, iterative approach, designed to empower practitioners and clients with tools that truly uncover the roots of function, leading to more intuitive and productive solutions.

For more information about Athletic Movement Assessment, visit their website at www.athleticmovementassessment.com

In this episode we discuss:

• Background and limitations of past and present assessment models
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• Informative vs predictive assessments
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• The roles of the practitioner and client in regards to recovery and performance
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• Guidelines for decision making vs binary conclusions after assessments
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• The need for re-assessment

Glossary:

Assessment - The estimation or evaluation of the nature, quality or ability of someone or something

Dynamic Knee Valgus - A measurement of frontal plane motion of the knee where the femur and shank move medially causing lateral compression and medial distraction

Palliative Maneuvers - An intervention designed with the intent to improve movement quality

Sensori-Motor Model - A paradigm of information input, decision-making, and motor output, that characterizes how and why movements emerge in response to task constraints

You might also like:

Season 1, Episode 1 - Why We Move

https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/why-we-move/ 

Season 2, Episode 6 - The Goldilocks Zone

https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/the-goldilocks-zone/ 

Season 3, Episode 3 - Go With The Flow

https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/in-the-flow/ 

Follow the guests on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athleticmovementassessment/ 

Follow our hosts on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/fitnessforconsumption/

Follow the podcast network:https://www.instagram.com/thinkfitbefit_podcast/

Fitness For Consumptions episodes can be found at: https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/tag/f4c/ 

Kaleen Canevari is the Founder & CEO of Flexia, a personalized Pilates experience and smart reformer. Nikki Naab Levy has experience in Fitness Marketing and is a Pilates instructor with a passion for helping people learn how to move better. Nikki and Kaleen talk about how Flexia is making Pilates more accessible and the importance of integrating strength training with Pilates.  Kaleen, Nikki and Jennifer discuss how we can highlight diverse instructors, diverse bodies and  create better representation and accessibility in the fitness industry.

 Topics discussed:

• Pilates- What makes it confusing?
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• How Spring tension works differently than a barbell or dumbbell
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• What can we measure in Pilates?
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• Accessible Pilates
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• Date driven Pilates
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• Various types of feedback
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• Kaleen’s background in mechanical engineering 

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Kaleen Canevari:

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Jennifer Schwartz:

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Melanie Webb is an author, wildlife biologist, performance coach, and the founder and creator of WebbWell, a fitness and wellness app focused on bringing the beauty of nature into virtual workouts. Webb is pioneering a  customized approach to health with adventure fitness and performance coaching, amid mother nature.   

Jennifer invited Melanie to talk about the creation of her fitness app, WebbWell, and her passion for using technology to create an even playing field for all when it comes to health and wellness.

 Topics discussed:

• How and why Melanie launched her fitness app
• The healing process: nature and high performance
• Fitness apps becoming serene spaces
• The mental component of training
• Using the virtual space as a tool for wellness

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

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Melanie Webb:

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Webb Well App 

Discount Code for Mother Nature’s Gym: ThinkFit2022

Jennifer Schwartz:

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This episode also talks about how data collection is important, but it's only a part of the larger picture. "There is always another layer that can you use, to get further and deeper, into knowing the information."

 Topics discussed:

• The importance of mental wellness and physical wellness.
• Does fitness need to be trauma-informed going forward?
• Using technology and collecting like data points, in order to think critically.
• Our entire being as a system of systems 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

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You can find Ben Dragavon at Dragavon Perfomace:

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Athletic Training Institue

Jennifer Schwartz:

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If you’ve been attuned to conventional fitness wisdom, at some point you’ve been advised to avoid certain exercises, like leg extensions, at all costs.  Why?  Because of the noxious shear stress that may damage your knees.  Do you too have the Fear of Shear?

Shear is a type of force that arises when adjacent structures move in opposing directions, and frankly, it occurs in most joint motion. So, if that’s the case, why does its presence ring so many alarm bells in the heads and hearts of physical therapists, trainers, doctors and fitness enthusiasts?

Well, it might have something to do with a paper published in the early 1990’s by members of the esteemed Mayo Clinic that found significantly higher levels of shear at the ACL in an open chain vs closed chain condition.  Their unambiguous conclusion?  Avoid open chain exercises, like leg extensions, if you are rehabbing an injured or newly reconstructed ACL.  Of course, that translates into “avoid leg extensions at all costs, period.”

So, is this settled wisdom?  Or…what can we learn when we put on our mental magnifying glasses and sift through The Fine Print?  

In this episode we discuss:

• The terminal knee extension “paradox”
• Did the conditions set up by investigators favor a certain outcome?
• Did the subjects’ amount of practice time affect the outcomes?
• How significant, in terms of possible tissue failure, was the stress placed on the ACL in the open chain?
• What are the real life conditions that lead to ACL injuries? Do they happen in open or closed chain conditions?

Join us in The Fear of Shear, our third installment of our The Fine Print series, where we take a second look at research publications and expose some details easily missed at a first glance.  Should you avoid open chain exercises?  Well, you’ll have to listen for yourself and make an informed choice, but if you're avoiding knee extensions because you’ve got the Fear of Shear,  perhaps, fear not.

Glossary:

Closed Chain Exercise* - An exercise in which the terminal end of the segment is fixed and restrained.

Open Chain Exercise* - An exercise in which the terminal end of the segment is free to move.

Season 3, Episode 8 episode page: www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/the-fine-print-fear-of-shear

Other Fine Print episodes

Fine Print: Feb 2021

Fine Print: Standing cable press

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Season 3, Episode 7: Center of Attention

The Center of Mass and Movement Efficiency

Don't miss this VISUAL podcast: Watch the YouTube

Raise your hand if you’ve heard this before; the center of mass of a body, and its current relationship to a line of force, will have a significant impact on how efficiently that body moves.  If you’ve heard it, it very well may have been from us, about two episodes ago in The Forest Through The Trees (Season 3, Episode 5).  It’s not that we’ve run out of ideas already, it’s that we feel this information is so important to helping you make quality movement decisions, whether in sport or exercise, that we wanted to double down, elucidate further and provide some clear imagery so you can visualize what we’re explaining.

Things like plates on a bench press or the speed on a treadmill are things we can see and make sense of with our naked eye.  As with joint torques, the center of mass (COM), center of gravity (COG) and ground reaction forces (GRF) are not visually detectable without sophisticated instrumentation.  While these concepts may initially appear a bit abstract, they are absolutely critical to understanding what is happening when we move.

We know this is tricky stuff, and NOT something you might come across easily on a social media scroll.  But we also know that with a little time, and some better teaching tools, you can understand this fluently.  That’s why we’ve done a first of its kind (for us) visual episode going through all of it in detail.  We illustrate lines of force, and examine them through computer generated models, explaining clearly how subtle differences of position can have a significant impact on how efficiently, or inefficiently a given exercise will be performed.  We pride ourselves on not being “click-baitey” here at F4C, but, simply put; If you lunge, you MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO!

In this episode we discuss:

• A recap on how posture(s) affect performance
• How we can set up a lunge so that more of the load is on the forward leg
• How the traditional lunge position can limit activity from your plantar flexors
• Why a standing cable press demands significantly lighter loads and how we modify our posture to enhance loading

Glossary:

Base of Support (BOS) - The area scribed by every point of contact between a body and its supporting surface. 

Center of Gravity (COG) - The vertical projection of the center of mass through the Base of Support (BOS).

Center of Mass (COM) - A point within an object or body at which all the constituent segments of that mass sum to zero; the point at which the object or body is balanced; the point at which a force may be applied to cause a linear acceleration without any rotational acceleration.

References:

Hofmann, C.L., Holyoak, D.T. and Juris, P.M. (2017). Trunk and shank position influences patellofemoral joint stress in the lead and trail limbs during the forward lunge exercise. Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 47(1): 31-40.

You might also like:

• Season 3, Episode 5  - The Forest Through The Trees
• Season 3, Episode 4 - Cue Talent

Episode page: 

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TFBF Network

Fitness For Consumption

Dr. Lauren Fisher prepped for eight months to hike the Grand Canyon from rim to rim. The transformative and spiritual journey made her fall in love with movement again.

Jennifer invited Lauren to talk about this journey and how she learned that having a goal gives her structure and helps her discover her why. Lauren also talks about the importance of being psychology informed and how it plays out in your exercise.

 Topics discussed:

• How Lauren trained to conquer the Grand Canyon
• How that experience showed her that having a set goal gives her structure
• The importance to be psychology informed
• Why the joy of movement is the ultimate goal
• What it means to be trauma informed and where to start to take that next step into health

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

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You can find  Dr. Lauren Fisher at Wellness Junction Del Ray:

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Jennifer Schwartz:

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The maintenance of your muscle system is paramount. Sleep, energy, movement and quality of movement can be improved by working with muscle.

Jennifer invited her friend Lauren Eirk to discuss what strength and muscle has to do with her philosophy, her program called Fitness Integrated Science and how she teaches yoga teachers to work with muscle and improve muscle to be more functional on a holistic viewpoint.

Lauren also talks about the importance of being a part of accessible wellness care.

 Topics discussed:

• Lauren’s yoga background and methodology
• The importance of maintaining muscle
• Why your form matters
• Lauren’s app, Fitness Integrated Science TV

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

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Follow us on Instagram @thinkfitbefit_podcast

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You can find Lauren Eirk at her websites:

Fitness Integrated Science

Fitness Integrated Science TV

You can find Jennifer Schwartz at her studio and social: Instagram

Studio in Alexandria Virginia

WRITE A REVIEW and WIN: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.  

Screenshot and send it to [email protected].

 Topics discussed:

• The history of the machine and why it was invented
• Who this could be beneficial for and when and what circumstances could it be beneficial for them
• How it’s been modify and how we can modify it for our benefit
• The main structural points and maintenance of The Smith Machine
• The place where the Smith machine shines
• Jennifer’s and Meredith’s favorite exercise to do on the Smith Machine

Episode page: https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/smith-machine-part-1

Jennifer Schwartz:

Website

Instagram

Twitter

Meredith Mack

Website and app

Instagram

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us.

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JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Trauma infused work is a promising new holistic approach that is popping up in yoga, therapy and wellness. This conversation isn’t fully about the trauma-informed trend, it’s a delightful mix on being open to different tools for holistic living and an upcoming community event at Jennifer’s studio in Virginia. 

Jennifer invited her friend and colleague Christina Kauffmann to discuss yoga informed trauma, the Sacred Spaces book, CBD, and building community through movement.  

You’ll even hear Christina discuss her most painful tattoos and her experience with Jennifer’s unique training services.

Topics of discussion:

• Christina’s yoga approach
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• Trauma informed yoga explained
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• Pain and awareness
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• Mindfulness vs Interoception 
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• CBD products and popularity

episode page: www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/christina-kauffmann-discusses-harmony905-cbd-and-trauma-informed-yoga

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Christina Kaufman

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Harmony 905 Website 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

episode.

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Links of interest:

Giveaway: enter on Instagram or by reviewing on iTunes

Open house enrollment 2/5/22: https://impactyourfitness.typeform.com/openhouse 

https://www.instagram.com/harmony905_/

Check out Christina's authorship and yoga: https://onamission.bio/christinak/