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Reflexive Stability: Regained. (Video Proof)

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It’s taken me 3 years to get here, but I think I can safely say that I’ve fully regained my reflexive stability. Not a bad trade off considering I never fully developed it as a kid and went for 36-37 years without it.

For a time investment, I’ll take that any day. It only took me 3 years to recapture and reclaim what I never fully developed as a child and compensated for under the heavy weights for years.

How exactly did I do it?

I’ll tell you that in a minute, but first, I wanted to show you video proof.

In my last couple of posts, I showed you me squatting 275lbs for 9 and 275lbs for 14. But there are a couple of things I left out.

First, here’s a video of me doing a Power Snatch from above the knee (Hang Power Snatch) with 100kg (220lbs) after a high pull with the same weight. I did it the day after the 275/9. Here’s what’s significant about it: I haven’t trained the Olympic lifts for 2 1/2 years. And the last time I snatched that weight from that position at 205lbs was… Can’t remember – maybe never. When I quit WL I was 215/220lbs – a weight I had maintained for about 5 years.

Here’s the second video. It’s me doing a set of squats with 315 for 10 reps about 5 minutes after that 275 for 14 I showed you in the last post. I haven’t done that weight for those reps in 10-15 years, again, at a bodyweight of 205.

Now I don’t show you those videos to show off or brag, because certainly those numbers are nothing to brag about. They’re average strength numbers, maybe slightly below. BUT, they are significant because I haven’t hit those numbers in at least a decade, and when I did them I was at a heavier bodyweight. Now I’m 40 and I’m supposed to be “declining.”

The Truth is just the opposite: I’m getting stronger day-by-day and feel better than I have since my 20s, heck, maybe even my late teens.

Now for the REALLY cool video that will blow your mind…

This is a video of my good friend (like a brother really) Tim Anderson. Tim weighs a whopping 155lbs soaking wet. In this video, he does a Get Up – a BARBELL Get Up – with 135lbs. And he did it on the spot – I called him and asked him to shoot some video of it. Now here’s the kicker – he hasn’t been training the Get Up at all.

Pretty freaky, right?

I think so.

Here’s the video and then we’ll discuss some more…

OK, you have to admit – THAT was IMPRESSIVE, right?

So how’d Tim get the strength to do that?

And more importantly, what does that kind of strength show?

Well, in order to do that kind of strength feat, Tim has to have all his reflexive stability – his Original Strength. Which he does.

So how did he regain it?

Simple.

He behaved like a child. (As did I.) He did “childish” things. Stuff that many “experts” would look at and dismiss because they are “too simple.”

But the fact of the matter is both Tim and I have used the complex for long periods of time. We regained some ground, but never all of it. So I guess we’re both either too stupid (probably not Tim – statistics major with a photographic memory, maybe me) or the systems we were using were too complex (quite possibly) or some combination of the two.

Regardless, reclaiming your reflexive stability – your Original Strength – is simple, easy, and fun. Best of all, it can be done without “precision” anywhere, anytime, with no special equipment in as little as 5 minutes a day.

Sound too easy, too simple?

It is.

To quote a lady who attended one of our seminars, “It’s stupid simple.”

Tomorrow I’ll show you what I mean by behaving like a child and EXACTLY how to reclaim your reflexive stability – your Original Strength – your God-given birthright of movement.

A Test So Easy A 2 Year Old Can Pass It…

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So we’ve been talking about about the concept of reflexive stability and its impact on your strength training and your results.

Specifically, I put forward the argument that all your aches, pains, and injuries – and all movement dysfunctions and compensations – come from a lack of reflexive stability.

Then we looked at the primary cause of reflexive stability loss – sitting.

I then showed you just a taste of what I’ve accomplished since having identified this loss and have been specifically addressing it over the last 3 years.

Today, let’s do a simple test – two actually – that will give you an idea of whether or not you have lost some of your reflexive stability.

Don’t worry – they’re easy.

In fact, the first one, my two year old son can pass with ease.

Here it is:

The Bodyweight Squat.

The bodyweight squat tests your lower body reflexive strength or rather, lower body dominant reflexive strength – whether or not you can move your lower body easily and effortlessly.

Here’s a quick video demo from Tim. (He did it on the fly – it’s kinda “ghetto”…)

A couple of quick pointers here:

1. You shouldn’t have to pressurize, power breathe, or use tension to get down into the squat. If you do, you’re using feed-forward (conscious) techniques to accomplish a subconscious (reflexive) activity.bodyweight squat

2. You should be able to hold yourself in the bottom comfortably, again, without using any feed-forward strategies.

3. You should be able to maintain your balance in the squat without falling forward or backward.

4. Same thing to stand up – it should be effortless: No grunting, power-breathing, abdominal bracing – nothing. Just stand up with ease.

If you can’t squat without meeting those criteria, you’ve lost some of your reflexive stability.

(Don’t worry – it’s VERY simple to get back – and very natural too – nothing complex either. The “fixes” are easy to do and VERY powerful in their effects/results. More on them in a bit.)

Ok, test #2 (Which I don’t think my 2 year old can pass yet…)

The Push Up.

Ah, yes, the lowly Push Up. How many ways can we screw you up? Let me count the ways…

But I digress.

The Push Up is a great way to check your upper body dominant reflexive stability.

But, there’s a way to do it and a way not to, so don’t discount this humble little “test” right off the bat.

Here’s a video from Tim (also “on the fly”):

Now, Tim gave some good basic cues.

Let’s go deeper.

There are some other things you need to be aware of here:

1. Just like the Bodyweight Squat, stay away from feed-forward tension. So no abdominal bracing, no buttcheek squeezing, no power-breathing, etc. Just push yourself off the ground.

2. Like Tim said, the body should remain as one piece. No sagging, twisting, or turning.

And, yep, it’s that simple.

So What’s It Mean If You Can’t “Pass” These “Tests”?

It simply means that you should devote some of your attention – a whopping 5, maybe 10 minutes out of your entire day – to regaining your reflexive stability. Again, it’s easy to do – nothing complicated.

Why Should You Reclaim Your Reflexive Strength?

Quite simply, it’s your birthright.

You were made to have it and use it. And now that you’ve lost it, you’re physically leading a sub-par life. If you’re ok with settling for less than the best, which is very easy to have, by the way, then ignore this stuff. Go watch Real Housewives Of Wherever-ville or American Idle… That’s your perogative.

However, if you’re interested in moving and living a vibrant, healthy, fulfilled and joyful life, free from aches, pains, and movement restrictions, then reclaiming your reflexive stability (or as Tim said in the videos – reflexive strength – the words are interchangeable) will help you do it.

Not only that, but all your results depend on it – fat loss, conditioning levels, strength gains. Think about it: If you’re body isn’t moving the way it’s designed to, you’re automatically leaving results on the table that you shouldn’t. If you can’t move the way you originally were designed to, then you’re compensating, which means you’re not as efficient as you should be. And that means slower progress, regardless of the goal.

As I’ve said before, at 40 years old I have more energy, more strength, and move better than I ever have. And it’s all because I reclaimed my reflexive stability.

Here’s a quick video of some more of what I’ve been able to accomplish since I’ve been focusing on this.

This was taken two days after the video I posted in the last blog. It was also filmed after performing 30 minutes of grueling advanced reflexive stability work. There’s 275lbs on the bar and I do 14 reps with it (I thought I did 15 at the time but apparently I can’t count – same thing happened last video – did 9 and thought I did 10…) – something I haven’t been able to do in 15 years – since my mid 20s. Again, my bodyweight is around 205lbs.

When you focus on reclaiming your reflexive strength, you’ll be able to perform again like you used to – or in Tim’s and my case – better than you used to.

Now go ahead and raise your hand if you wouldn’t want to do that…

The ROOT Cause Of [Many] Aches, Pains, And Injuries*

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*[BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: I’m not a medical professional. Just a dumb trainer who’s figured out how to finally lift heavy stuff again after 10+ years of trying. If you have active or chronic pain, or an acute injury, go see your Medical Doctor. What I’m about to present is based on the research, observation, experimentation, and practice of myself and a few others. Proceed and read with caution. This may or may not help you out.]

I know A LOT about aches, pains, and injuries. Too much in fact. And it’s not because I’m married to a DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) either.

Nope.

I’ve been going to the doctor for knee pain since I was 13. I remember going out for the cross country team my freshman year of high school but having to quit due to excruciating knee pain.

Then when I was 16, I dislocated my right patella while wrestling. (Later verified by my orthopedic surgeon through x-rays.) My coach put it back in, and I put an icebag on it, and wrapped it in an ACE bandage. I was wrestling again the next day. From that day on I had chronic right knee pain in everything I did. EVERYTHING. Takedowns. Running, jumping, kneeling, walking, climbing stairs. Everything.

Things only got worse when I started lifting heavy. I avoided squatting for the first two years of weight training cause of the knees. Eventually, I “manned up” and got under the bar and fell in love with the beautiful brutality of a heavy squat.

In spring of 1998 I “sprained” my left SI joint squatting and that put me out about 3 to 4 months, following one of the corrective exercise guru’s cues.

And then in 2002 I injured my lower back deadlifting – so bad in fact – that my body spasmed to form a protective brace from my chest to my hips. I couldn’t bend over for a week. In fact, my diaphragm spasmed so I couldn’t even take a full/deep breath. It was all shallow breathing for a week.

Fun stuff.

By this point my knees hurt so bad to squat I couldn’t get down without 225lbs on my back. I’d put the bar on my back and literally free fall into the bottom. It reminded me of popping the clutch on your car.

Meanwhile, I’d been doing a bunch of corrective exercise (since 1998 actually with the corrective exercise guru’s home study course), including self-myofascial release on the foam roller. And I’d gotten really good at “activating” my transverse abdominus too, despite my mishap back in ’98.

In January 2005 I tore the labrum in my right hip. That was fun and a lesson in the futility of alternative medicine. Four months later I took a cortisone shot just to get some relief.

In September of 2005, I did the same thing to the left hip. No alternative medicine or cortisone this time.

Unfortunately, but the end of the year, I could no longer even sit on the toilet (sorry to be so graphic) my knees hurt SO badly. You know that sensation when you hit your thumb with a hammer? Now double that. That’s how each knee felt. I literally had to use my arms and hold on to the sink to sit on the john. How sad.

This is as low as I could squat without excruciating pain.
January 2006: This is as low as I could squat without excruciating pain.

 

At that time, I got involved in and subsequently became a very vocal advocate of a “performance” system simply because the guy running it helped me get out of pain. (And got me hooked on unwittingly paying him LOTS of money to stay out of pain.)

I took that system to it’s logical conclusion and almost blew out my back again – probably permanently.

At that point I quit using his stuff and called one of my buddy’s who teaches for another movement system and he “diagnosed” the problem.

I had no “reflexive core stability.”

Zero. Zilch. Nada.

He gave me a couple of exercises that made me sweat, huff, and puff, almost as much as a kettlebell complex. The sad part is that I was lying on my back, it involved rubber bands, and I only did 3 reps on one leg, and 2 on the other then I was done.

It was the “reflexive core stability” thing that got me.

And it’s what’s getting you too.

Well, not exactly.

Reflexive core stability is a “subset” for lack of a better word, for “reflexive stability.”

And it’s what you’re missing that causes your aches, pains, and even overuse injuries. (Not contact injuries from sports – like ACL injuries from getting hit in the knee playing football.)

What is “reflexive stability?”

It’s your body’s subconscious ability to anticipate and control movement. Specifically, to stabilize and move the right joints using the right muscles at the right times, at the right speeds to get whatever job it is you’re doing, done.

Whether it’s running or jumping or even lifting submaximum and maximum loads, your reflexive stability allows you to get it done – and here’s the KEY point – WITHOUT thinking about it.

(SIDENOTE: Heavy strength training, including advanced calisthenics, like gymnastics exercises, requires active thought – or feedforward tension. Traditional athletics should not.)

Reflexive stability, as the name suggests, is based on your reflexes.

These reflexes get “dull” like a knife blade, from lack of use (disuse, misuse) and so your body no longer functions, or operates, the way it was designed to.

How and why? We’ll save that for the next few posts.

As a result, you develop “compensations,” which are your body’s way of surviving and keeping you moving. We now call these “movement dysfunctions.” And as a results of the compensations, when you go to move, one of several things happens to cause aches, pains, or injury:

  1. Your joint moves, but the wrong muscles stabilize and move it, and so it moves incorrectly (Trendelenburg’s Gait comes to mind here).
  2. Your joint doesn’t move well, so other joints which aren’t supposed to move as much move more (thoracic spine and lumbar spine come to mind here).
  3. Your joint moves, but the muscles stabilizing and moving it are moving at the wrong speed(s) – like a muscle pull when running.

And because of that, we seek modalities and treatments that address the symptoms, but don’t fix the underlying root cause – restoring your reflexive stability (also known as “reflexive strength.”)

What have I been able to accomplish since I “discovered” this idea of restoring reflexive stability?

Well, bilateral chronic and acute knee pain is no longer an issue. (I can sit on the can and get off it with ease – just in case your wondering. There’s a mental picture for you that you can’t take back. You’re welcome. ;-] )

Reflexive core stability is back and working better than ever. I can do bodyweight Pistols all day long. Got the One Arm One Leg Push Up too. And, I’ve actually been setting some “real” strength PRs as of late – hitting numbers I haven’t hit 10 to 15 years. (I’ll show you some of those videos too.)

In the meantime, how do you know for sure that you need to regain your reflexive stability and how do you go about doing so?

More on that in upcoming posts.

Feel free to leave a comment or question below.

Beating A Dead Horse? Core Stability, Part 1 – Core Instability: A Personal History

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There has been TONS of information written on the concept of “core stability” over the last 15-20 years. Between that and creatine, I’d argue that these are the most “covered” topics.

So why am I writing about it?

Because after 12 years, I’ve finally got it again.

How the freak has it taken me 12 years to get this information and apply it?

Well, honestly, because I’m stubborn.

If you can relate (stubborn) stick with me.

History.

I first hurt my back in 1998 Back Squatting late at night. During that period of time, I was studying Paul Chek’s works. And at that time, Paul, and everyone else it seemed, advocated actively sucking your navel to your spine to “activate” the fabled Transverse abdominus – one of the key muscles in the “Inner Unit.” I had been playing with it on certain exercises and foolishly decided to apply it mid-squat session. BSQ’s were last in the workout that night and I was supposed to hit 160kg for 10 doubles with 60s rest between sets. I think I was on set 5 when I heard a loud pop accompanying a sharp pain in my left SI joint.

Tough guy that I am, I completed another set and a half before I decided to quit.

I couldn’t squat for another 6 months. Fun.

The second time I hurt my back was on a rep max set of Deadlifts with 405lbs in 2002. I was doing this after Snatches and Cleans with around 70%. I heard another loud pop on the left side again on the 8th rep. But I determined to go to 10 so once more, foolishly, so I continued.

I couldn’t get out of bed the next day and couldn’t bend over for a week. My abs and diaphragm were locked in spasm.

About this time, conveniently, I was neck deep in studying model on a company that still has a big name in the fitness world. Little did I realize that the developer of this model completely ripped off the FMS and misapplied some key concepts, not least of which was “Reactive Neuromuscular Training.” (Makes sense why I won’t name “the model” now, huh?)

I was still using kettlebells in my own training and with my clients at this time, but was relying heavily on “the model” and honestly, making very little progress, at least by my definition. I did, by combining “the model” and what I had learned in the original Russian Kettlebell Challenge book (a classic to this day), finally get rid of the chronic and nagging throbbing in the bottom of my left heel.

But both my knees were routinely sore, despite passing “the model’s” guidelines, loading up the reverse hypertension machine to 500lbs, excessive foam rollering and quad/hip flexor stretching, and so I trained around them.

But shortly thereafter, in January 2005, while training for a weightlifting meet three months away, and having some stellar training progress, I injured my right hip. Badly. Walking became difficult. Squatting and pulling almost non-existent. Single arm kettlebell lifting was working well though. I took a cortisone shot and the thing cooled off.

Then in June, I went to the RKC because I still couldn’t swing that darn cannonball with a handle through my legs using 2 hands without back pain.

It was awesome. I learned how to Swing properly. How to pull myself into my squat with my hip flexors (At least you’re supposed to do that – I couldn’t really do it…). How to really press with your lats to protect your shoulders. And a ton of other stuff on movement and strength.

I met the Evil Russian and made some fast friends, some of whom, like Brett Jones, I am honored to call my friends.

In September of ’05 I injured my left hip while warming up with 50kg in the Overhead Squat. I knew immediately what I’d done as it felt virtually the same as the right one. The MRI concluded that indeed it was the same injury as my right one.

By November, I couldn’t sit on the john without lowering myself using my arms.

Enter Z-Health in January 2006. We hosted the first East Coast R-Phase and my business, Triangle Personal Training, became a launching pad for Z’s East Coast Ops. We went full in as a business. I went full in as a trainer. I extensively studied R-Phase and when my colleagues got their certs in March, I waited until December to finish mine. The payoff was that I-Phase in July of 2007 was a piece of cake from a movement perspective.

After making “fast” progress on the pain and movement re-acquisition front, I competed in a weightlifting meet in November 2007, for the first time in almost 8 years. I Snatched 10kg below my competition best.

But I hurt my left hip once again in April of 2008 during a pre-comp Snatch workout. (It was the best Snatch workout I had in 8 years!)

From there, I never recovered.

The rest of 2008 and the first half of 2009 was spent trying to fix the hip and gain some traction, some momentum, something.

I ran a high-volume Squat cycle in July of ’09 but could never find my groove. And after traveling to Hungary and San Diego, it seemed I lost it completely. Upon returning, I climbed back under the Squat bar and had no strength and no groove. And my left hip was hurting. Again.

Once again I found myself unable to squat and was rapidly losing my strength, no matter how much Z I was doing.

So, in November, I flew to Pittsburgh to see Brett Jones to see if he could help me out and find out what was wrong with my left hip.

Brett put me through the Functional Movement Screen. I got a 11 or 13 out of 21. I had no core stability and several asymmetries. Weird.

Now here’s a question I’ll leave you with:

How could I have done 4 years of Z-Health –

  • cleared their visual tests
  • cleared their vestibular tests
  • cleared their myofascial winding tests
  • have above average joint mobility and
  • have above average movement control

And still have asymmetries and a lack of core stability?

I’ll answer that in my next post on this topic…