I was very fortunate to get a copy of Exercises for the Landmine DVD by my friends Shawn Windle and Brijesh Patel.  Shawn is the Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Indiana Pacers while Brijesh is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Quinnipiac University.  They are both outstanding Strength and Conditioning Coaches who also collaborated and developed SBCoachesCollege.com.  This is a great site with lots of content including articles, videos, presentations, and products for sale.  What I really like and respect about these guys is that they are real-world Strength and Conditioning Coaches who are training athletes on a daily basis.  When they release a product, I know that there is plenty of knowledge and hands-on implementation with their athletes behind it.

Exercises for the Landmine is an excellent resource for those who want to learn about the Landmine device and implement it in their training.  Honestly, I have only used the landmine as a standing, anti-rotational exercise.  I have actually never thought about how many exercises are readily available with this device.  What I really like about the DVD is that there is a logical progression from kneeling to standing.  What is interesting is that there are several variations of other more common exercises that can be used with the Landmine.  I highly recommend this DVD.  You can get it on SBCoachesCollege.com.

Here is a guest post by my current intern, Seth Munsey.  Seth does a real good job.  He recently attended the Perform Better 1-Day Seminar in LA.  I asked him to let me know how it went because I couldn’t make it.  Seth gives a great review here:

Perform Better One-Day 1/14/2012

On Jan. 14^th, I had the pleasure of attending the Perform Better One-Day Learning By Doing seminar at the LA Convention Center. This particular seminar is one of the many great events that are put on throughout the year by Chris Poirier and the Perform Better crew. If you have yet to attend a Perform Better event, I highly suggest that you get to one soon.

Mike Boyle

Coach Boyle is a strength and conditioning giant, and I am sure that if you are taking the time to read this, you’ve probably heard of him. Fortunately, I was able to hear Coach Boyle speak a few times in the last couple of months, and he has yet to under-deliver. The first half of his talk really focused on the attendees, and he challenged us to take a look at ourselves, and figure out who we are as coaches and whether or not we are ready to challenge the status quo. Coach Boyle went through a lot of information, which would make this review long enough for you to stop reading half way thru, so I am just going to hit on some key points that I thought were really good takeaways.

He presented us with a list of questions early on that really opened up many minds;

Am I Really Teachable?

· Am I open to other people’s ideas?

· Do I listen more than I talk?

· Am I open to changing my mind based on new info?

· Do I readily admit when I am wrong?

· Do I ask questions?

· Am I willing to ask a question that will expose my ignorance?

· Do I act defensively when criticized?

Now that many of you quickly skimmed that list, I challenge you to really go back and re-read each question carefully. Stew on each one for a bit and think about how honestly you could say yes to each question. I have always considered myself to be very teachable, yet after reading that list, I realized there are definitely areas that I could set goals to improve on.

Some other key points from the talk are:

3 Goals

· Prevent injuries in the actual training process

· Reduce incidence of performance or work related injury (keep people healthy)

· Feel better and/or improve performance

Knee Dominant Patterns

· Master the squat pattern and static supported patterns first!

· Lunges are not for beginners

· Don’t worry about functional, worry about safe

· 20 bodyweight squats in a minute before getting into single leg work

As you can tell, there was a lot of information, and I had to leave out a ton. Like I said in the beginning, if you have yet to hear Coach Boyle speak, it definitely needs to be put on your list of goals.

 

Alwyn Cosgrove

Alwyn is always a very entertaining presenter who juggles jokes with personal challenges. We as the audience always erupt into laughter at one of analogies, and then we go silent as we quickly realize that the joke is on us. He isn’t making fun of us, he is trying to challenge us; to make us realize that if we want to be successful, we have to start acting and thinking success.

Alwyn layed out his “Five Secrets for Fitness Business Success.”

1) Have a success mindset

2) Understand the mindset of the client

3) Practice the principle of the slight edge

4) Mastermind/Mentor with like-minded successful individuals

Alwyn also laid out some “Action Steps” that we can take to be more successful:

· Be the best

· Understand the mindset of the client

· Repostion yourself as a consultant

· Introduce semi-private training to increase your income and leverage your time

· Establish your training philosophy for the 21^st century market

· Continue to “sharpen the saw” by investing in yourself on an ongoing basis

· Commit to working with a mentor and being in a mastermind group

He also included a great quote by Jim Rohn, “Your level of income will rarely exceed your level of personal development.

 

Todd Durkin

If your sitting in a room with Todd Durkin and you’re not inspired and motivated, then immediately check your pulse. Todd is the owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego where he trains the like of Drew Brees, Ladanian Tomlinson, and many more.

Todd’s talk was titled “Core & Cuff” and he spent the hour outlining many of the exercises he uses to strengthen the shoulder complex and core with every person who trains in his facility. He made it a point to say that these routines were not just for the Drew Brees of the world. They are great for fitness enthusiasts, weekend warriors, young and old athletes, elite athletes, etc… Basically, everybody that has a shoulder complex that isn’t torn apart.

Most of Todd’s talk was a video montage of many of the different exercises his clients do, so I will stick with giving you his “10 Secrets to Success.”

1) Feet to Fingertip emphasis

2) Understand myofascial slings

3) Bilateral vs. unilateral movements

4) Frontal and transverse emphasis

5) Different hand positions (he has his clients do most exercises using many different grip positions)

6) 2:1 backside to front-side emphasis

7) Dis-association of shoulder and hips

8) Core is 60% of your power

9) Build joint integrity FIRST!

10) “Flex T” is your home position

 

Gray Cook

Gray’s talk was titled “Mobility, Motor Control, Movement.” Gray is a great speaker who always keeps me engaged, even when I don’t fully grasp what he is saying! Some of the key points of Gray’s talk were;

· Our profession needs to develop Standard Operating Procedures. Every pilot, every surgeon, every firefighter has SOP’s, why not us?

We need a rating and ranking system that will;

· Provide SOP

· Improve communication

· Improve collaboration

· Elevate education

· Improve safety

· Create a system that yields consistently better results

· Categories create clarity for the consumer

And five final points;

· Establish a SOP for identifying dysfunction within fundamental movement patterns

· Separate painful movement patterns from dysfunctional movement patterns whenever possible

· As a general rule do not manage or treat painful movement patterns with exercise

· Within dysfunctional movement patterns identify impairments

· Establish minimum levels of mobility followed by minimum levels of motor control

 

Overall, it was a great day of learning and networking with like-minded professionals. I always enjoy attending these events and hope to see all of you there in the future!

 

I generally don’t promote products on this blog.  The reason being is that I feel most of the information products out there are not any good. A product has to be top notch for me to recommend it. I wouldn’t promote something that I personally wouldn’t use myself or with my athletes. I don’t typically get caught up in the continual hamster wheel or product promotion that this industry tends to put out.

During a recent visit with my friend and Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Nichol, we discussed internet experts and how there is an abundance of them. Internet experts who are putting out material based on what? Their overwhelming experience that has drawn results huge enough to share via a book or dvd?

What is important to me when I am deciding to purchase a product or not is the product creator’s credibility. Ask yourself who does this person train?  I feel that there are strength and conditioning coaches or trainers out there who don’t train anyone. Or, they try to give the impression that they train “thousands of athletes” when really it is just a handful of clients.  Also, how long have they been doing what they are writing about?   These are legit questions to ask yourself before you purchase a product.  Back to my friend and colleague, Matt, he happens to be one of the best hockey strength and conditioning coaches on the planet and has walked the walk for years.  He is someone who I would buy any info product from.

Now, I am not going to lie.  I plan on producing and eventually selling 2 separate DVD’s and a book.  These are projects that I have been working on during the last few months (over a year for the book).  I will launch them on the internet and hopefully have people who would like to promote it- if it is good enough.   My credibility will then be judged before it is purchased and I am ok with that.

One product that I came across and bought once it was launched is Easy Strength by Dan John and Pavel Tsatsouline .  I downloaded it to my Ipad and read some of it on a recent 13 hour flight from Sweden to Los Angeles.  Simply put, this book is a must-have for any Strength and Conditioning Coach.  To me, this is the best Strength and Conditioning book published since Mike Boyle’s Advances in Functional Training: Training Techniques for Coaches, Personal Trainers and Athletes.  You will not be disappointed with Easy Strength as you will see why I have become such big fans of these gentlemen’s’ work.