Do you remember one of the things many teachers would say at the beginning of the year? You know when everyone is new to a class and nobody feels comfortable to ask a question? And even when the teacher would put a question to the students everyone would stay quiet. And so at a certain point the teacher would say questions are great because usually there is someone else thinking the same thing. This is the inspiration for this post. Hopefully the content helps a number of you as well with your training. Let's get at it. The other day Joanne K. was doing front squats and mentioned that often feels restricted in the hips. I say hips plural because she mentioned that the restriction alternates between right and left depending on the day. [caption id="attachment_3037" align="alignleft" width="200"] Psoas, one of the hip flexors So here's what we did.First of all I took a look at Joanne's squat pattern. This involves looking all sides and examining for alignment, depth and symmetry. What stood out was there was a slight collapse of the left knee. Now we had something to address. First we had her foam roll the left adductor followed by an exercise to activate the left external hip rotator. For this we used a banded clam shell exercise. This took all of about 5 minutes, or less, to do. When Joanne retested her squat she said it was substantially better without a pinching at the hip. But what about the fact the issue seemed to alternate from right to left depending on the day? Well first we'll assume the warm-up and training is performed in a balance matter. Then the other thing to examine is activities of daily living which may contribute to this imbalance. In this situation we discovered...

So we've picked up a new toy for the clients of Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. Obviously it's not a toy but a tool. And we can use it for almost everything we need to do with a client. We can train for strength and power with it. We can move it all planes and angles. And we can track loads and watts to be able measure improvements. What is this new tool? It's a Keiser Functional Trainer. Here's a quick video to give you an idea of what it is. http://youtu.be/P3FAFx4E_x0So what makes this trainer so great? I mean, you've probably see cable columns at most commercial gyms before, right? Well the difference is the versatility of the device as well as the ability to train for power. You can use each cable column independently or in tandem. You can use it for lower body and upper body. You can move through any angle and plane and extend the cable out 12 feet. So you can throw on a belt and do resisted cone drils. But the maybe the best feature about the Keiser Functional Trainer is that you can train at a variety of speeds and loads. And you can quantify all of them. Why does this matter? Well imagine using a traditional cable column and performing an explosive movement such as an explosive row. The pin is positioned in the weight stack at a particular load to provide resistance. When a explosive movement is performed on a column of this type the stack crashes into the top of the column. Plus you have no way of knowing how much power you generated. Now not only you not have the problem of the weight stack not crashing into the column at the top but you'll also be able to quantify your power...

Did you ever watch those tv specials 'When Animals Go Bad'?You know the ones I mean? They show video footage of a normally docile and affectionate pet or animal that just snaps and some poor unsuspecting soul pays the price for it?I remember seeing an animal handler have a koala bear freak out at Busch Gardens in Tampa once. The little kids that were so curious to see this cute bear all rushed the handler and surrounded him quickly.And if you can imagine to a koala bear seeing all these little monsters running at it and screaming the koala bear thinks it's getting attacked.So the koala starts clawing at the handler to get away. The bear doesn't want to be held by the handler while all these little people are charging forward.And up until that point I never realized that koalas have sharp claws. But after seeing the handler get sliced and diced by the koala I don't think of these animals as cute and cuddly anymore.Long story short the koala ended up back in its habitat. And the handler was taken away on a stretcher for stitches and medical treatment.So what the heck does this have to do with training and fitness?Well just like at the zoo sometimes we have different intentions of the final outcome.In this case the koala bear, the handler and the little kids all hoped things would have turned out a little differently.The handler probably didn't forsee a trip to the hospital for stitches and maybe a shot.The bear didn't forsee what it perceived as an apparent attack.And the little kids didn't realize they wouldn't be able to pet the bear and were a little distraught to see the bear attack the handler and be wisked away shortly after still snarling and trying to defend itself.Now back to the gym.Imagine...