personal training

She Pulled the Pin!

It was around this time two years ago I received a text from a client saying she had a really sore foot and wasn’t able to run. It was the morning I was flying out to the DVRT Master Trainers Summit in Las Vegas. At this time, I wasn’t able to assist, but what I did do is refer out. The GP called for an MRI and the results that came back were something a runner would never want to hear.

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“You can’t run”.

Wait I have heard that before. Read here about my come back from knee surgery.

Diagnosis: A non-displaced ligamentous / capsular avulsion at the calcaneocuboid joint, basically a VERY SORE FOOT. The recommendation; a boot for 8 weeks, no running and strengthen.

“You need to strengthen your glutes, calves and foot”.

OKAY!

As good as boots are to immobilise the foot and needed for cases like this, they are extremely harsh on your gait. Generally people find over time issues in their hips and lower back due to the compensation when walking. You can try and match a shoe height to the boot height, but it is very difficult. Determined to hit the track when the boot was removed, Beth was given advice to work on strengthening the glutes, hips and calves.

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But, was this the solution……..

Could we do more? Well the Boot was ‘GONE’ and running it was…..we now programmed to gradually build the kilometres with no pain. Beth was on track for the SUNNY Noosa 1/2 Marathon.

What happened next brought me to tears…….a text message on race day with what should of been her finishing time!

“I broke down at 8km in so much pain, I couldn’t keep going”.

Instantly things go rushing through my head, what happened, was something not looked at..........I repeat, “WAS SOMETHING NOT LOOKED AT”.

I remember thinking we got her up to 18km no pain! WHY, WHY, WHY????

Ok so I was missing something but what was it. At the time, I couldn’t work it out so I referred out for the 2nd time. Plan 1 didn’t work! What are we missing??? 1st the podiatrists, which then lead to another health professional. I trusted my judgement to refer out but I was now out of the loop.

Beth was frustrated and needed answers and I needed a solution! I went back to the books for answers, infact I went to Josh Henkin and said I need to start reading again, I’m finding this problem. He sent me the title of the below book and WOW did it open my eye’s and give me not just a better understanding but……….

That’s it, that’s the answer I was looking for.

But was it too late…I had referred out it’s now almost 12 months on until we get an email.

Dear Cam,

I want to thank you for all your help and support however I have spent $$$$ since I last saw you on further treatments and still no better. I have decided to stop all treatments with all health professionals.

Hmmmmmmmmmm!

My reply: Thank you for the email…..BUT I’M NOT GIVING UP AND WON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER, we are going to reassess.

At this point I had just completed my Ultra Marathon after knee surgery and knew if DVRT could fix me, I knew we could give this a CRACK.

I said to Beth that I had read this really cool book and it aligned with everything we spoke about within the DVRT system.

Wait that can’t be ‘Glutes, can it’????

John Gibbons a UK Osteopath in his book ‘The Vital Glute’ talks about the importance of glute strength and how everything connects together.

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But wait, she was doing glute bridges and foot exercises.

CONNECTS TOGETHER......well there was the missing link.

So we retested the glute firing pattern. The right side fired ok but the left side (pain side) the pattern was hamstring, NO GLUTE, opposite low back.

“NO GLUTE?”........Well there’s your issue!

John Gibbons talks about the cylinders firing in a car, if the mechanic puts the leads on the wrong way it will run but not that efficient. This is no different to our body and I quote John Gibbons, P70, ‘The Vital Glute’, “In our case, if we are particularly active but have a misfiring dysfunction, our bodies will also break down, ultimately causing us pain”.

So what did we do!

We sent her away for 4 weeks and asked her to do 100 squats a day! With a dysfunctional hip..

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I DON’T THINK SO!

But what we did do is work on a few of the exercises below with the importance of connecting the upper and low body together through grip strength and firing the lats, glutes and core.

The glute began to work……. so we continued….

We threw a lot at it as Beth need answers and best of all results.

From mobility to lunging patterns we were gaining momentum quickly. Strength gains began and so did the kilometres.

And then????

Sunday 13th October 2019 THE BEST PART!

What went from an initial foot issue, to an ongoing injury, to PULLING THE PIN!

Beth regained hope and always trusted the system and Beth ran her first marathon ‘Injury Free’.

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Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

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The journey with us started 2 years ago, but Beth’s real journey started 6 years ago. Check out her post race speech here

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What I learnt was, I needed to back myself trust that it would come together. Being able to learn from the best is a real honour and now we get to share that with Australia.

2019 Master Trainers Summit

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Want to learn more and how you can assess your clients to take them to new heights? We will be covering this and so much more in our upcoming workshop in November. To register follow the link!

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Trainer Smarter Not Harder

Bouncing back!

A month or so ago I woke to the excitement of Josh posting about how Ryan Reynolds has been using the Ultimate Sandbag for his upcoming Deadpool movie.  Jessica a HUGE fan of all movies Ryan Reynolds was over the moon the Ultimate Sandbag was being used in his training.   See the full article HERE

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This got me thinking as I prepare for our upcoming Certifications.  Our previous workshop at Hustle Fitness Sydney, I broke the Ice with "Introduce yourself and tell us who your favourite Super Hero is".  

I know, I know you have probably been asked this question before, however I thought it was quite appropriate as 'Avengers' was on the TV the night before the workshop. 

More to the point it was one of the responses I was given that has stuck with me.  The owner of the business said his favourite Super Hero was his Dad, which I thought was a wonderful answer and set the seen for an awesome workshop.

My wife (Bec) has watched my journey grow over the past 7 years and my passion grow stronger and stronger for the DVRT system.  Going back a little over 12 months, Bec not by choice under went major abdominal surgery.  Little did she know that everyday lifting, movement and the things she took for granted became really challenging.

Determined to get going again her first goal was in six weeks to get strong enough to get on a plane and fly for 20hr to the Arbonne International Conference in Las Vegas.  After the first couple of weeks of rest we would spend 5-10 minutes a day on the floor completing ISO pull exercises to start activating the core.  A simple movement using the Ultimate Sandbag and squeezing the floor with her feet was enough to active her tummy muscles.

Making it to Las Vegas and having an AWESOME time, the next goal was hitting the sunny sandy beaches of the Gold Coast for the Australian Conference.  This is where we started to really spend more time on movement and was able to start seeing big gain.  

Still having some challenges with movement we had to think lateral and play around with things like the Dead Bug and the Glute Bridge as raising of the legs to high still showed some weakness.  Until you get your hands on an Ultimate Sandbag you don't realise how much you can get from 'PULLING THE HANDLES APART'

Pulling the handles apart activated her lats and core, which allowed for a stable pelvis giving Bec the ability to start increasing the movement in her arms and legs.  We have a running phrase at one of our ladies sessions 'Proximal stability, gives distal mobility', meaning if we work on strengthening the core and muscles closest to our spine our arms and legs will move more efficient.  

A huge stepping stone, creating tension to allow the legs to come off the ground.

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Adding the Ultimate Sandbag into traditional movements such as the Dead bug and the Bird Dog not only brings the body together to connect as one but gets us results faster.  No we are not asking you to throw the USB's or move them really faster, in fact we are asking you to slow it down and create as much tension or friction as you can depending on the movement you are completing. 

Being able to use the core Ultimate Sandbag as a tool of feedback allowed tension to be achieved in the right places for a beautiful corrective exercise.

Having a tool or piece of equipment is one thing, but knowing what to do with it to train and move with intent is another thing.  That's why we are really excited that 12 months on Bec is now able to achieve what you see in the below video.  It actually bought a tear to my eye when we were filming this workout because I would honestly say 12 months ago we had a vision and when it all comes together it is EXCITING.

Not only can you use the Ultimate Sandbag for corrective exercises you can also put it into awesome workouts with true functional meaning.  It's now your chance to take advantage and learn how you can train at home or in the gym.  Reply to this blog and we will send you the education discount course code to apply to your next DVRT Ultimate Sandbag course.

Click the image and check out or up coming workshops and certifications.

Click the image and check out or up coming workshops and certifications.