They say pain can be a humble teacher, a somatic response from the CNS to avoid certain movement/exercise.  After bi-lateral shoulder surgery and enough rehab to make Dr. Drew look like an amateur, I can say that pain has been a humble teacher in helping me design exercise protocol for my current athletes and clients.  In conjunction with these injuries is the education from the likes of Mike Reinold (The Athlete’s Shoulder, Optimal Shoulder Performance), Robert Donatelli  (Physical Therapy for the Shoulder), and Eric Cressey (Optimal Shoulder Performance).  These experts have aided me in the process of designing appropriate screening and protocol for my business.  As coaches, it is our job to design safe and effective exercise.  Below are five ways to enhance the function of the shoulder.

Get a large group of athletes’ ages 15-18 in a strength and conditioning facility and you’ll have a testosterone level higher than the sales of Jillian Michael’s new Kettlebell training DVD (hopefully not).   Through my experience-training athletes, this can lead to the “one up” mentality where form and execution are compromised in favor of heavy weights.  The “next biggest plate” philosophy where the athlete thinks, “hey I’ll just add another 25lbs to each side” is a humble lesson that no well-instructed athlete should learn in the presence of an educated coach.  As a coach, I have personally learned this lesson and now consistently remind my athletes of “progressive overload”, five pounds at a time. 

“It’s so easy a caveman can do it!” That’s what Gieko says about car insurance.  I wish I could say the same for strength and conditioning.  The fact is in this day and age there is too much sizzle and not enough pop, too many machines not enough free weights; too many exercises not enough logical progression, and too much gimmick without the RESULTS.  It’s scary to walk into a gym and see where we currently are in the fitness industry.  Leg curl machines are being maintenanced while rust and cobwebs are being collected on the free weights and barbells.  Records of progress and exercise prescription are not being kept, technical proficiency is non-existent, and exercise selection is just plain scary. We now have “The Kettle bell Man”, “The TRX Man”, “The Resistance Band Man”, one tool wonders expected to solve all the problems.  As Coach Boyle said “Would you hire the chain saw man, to trim the shrubs in your front yard?”  The following is a list of solutions to many exercises that are currently plaguing mainstream gyms. 

There is an evolutionary process involved in most professions called learning that can change the way we view things.  Alwyn Cosgrove or Michael Boyle might call these “Ah ha” moments.  Moments that make you scratch your head and think aloud, moments that challenge the way we have done things in the past, moments that allow us to grow (many of us are reluctant to grow for fear or just plain stubbornness).  It is in these moments that good coaches become great, or good coaches remain stagnant because they are stuck with “the way things used to be.”  Alwyn Cosgrove said “If you put a group of the most successful strength coaches in one room and their students in another, the students wouldn’t agree on any training philosophy or principal, whereas the coaches would agree on almost everything.” Indeed it is my personal experience that there are far more similarities than differences between good strength coaches.  Our job is to make athletes bigger, stronger and faster while reducing the chance of sport related injury. 

Although I am a relatively young strength and conditioning coach, I continuously take the time to educate myself through lecture, readings, DVD’s, seminars, mentorship programs, and most importantly through experience in training my athletes/general clients. I have had the opportunity to learn, apply and grow from many of the best in the industry. If this business has taught me one thing its that the learning process is truly ever evolving!