Perform Better Chicago Day 3

Fully recovered from the previous evenings festivities (thanks again to Chris Poirier for his hospitality and John Hall for the ride back to the hotel), Day 3 started off strong with Gray Cook of the Functional Movement Screen fame.

His topic was safer strength with a focus on progressions to mastering the deadlift which he felt was one of the most important lower body/posterior chain/core exercises. I don't think too many people will disagree with that.

His driving home point, was to maintain your ability to perform a deep squat (a la FMS), but your loading should come primarily from deadlift variations. This would include single leg and double leg variations. He also included some self-testing for stability which is included on his video on the same topic. Oh, and don't forget to breath like a crocodile.

Todd Wright, head of strength and conditioning for University of Texas Basketball, was up next.

Apparently, UT was having quite a few injuries so Todd went to work to find out why. Seems they had a number of ankle mobility and foot issues especially in their best athletes. Todd showed some really great slow-mo video of his guys in action which really lets you appreciate what such gifted human beings can do that many of us can't. In one case, he showed Kevin Durant jump off of an ankle that inverted so severely that for most it would have resulted in a fractured ankle. The injury took Kevin out of the game for some retaping, and he returned to finish the game and missed one day of practice.

Todd also showed some cool before and after gait video showing how improving ankle mobility improved the gait pattern and relieved pain elsewhere such as the back. Todd obviously does a great job with his team, and while I wouldn't agree on everything he presented, overall is was definitely worth listening.

The Evolution of an Athlete was the presented by Eric Cressey. While I'd communicated with Eric via email in the past. We didn't get to meet until this weekend. He's your typical muscle-head powerlifter with a big gut and even bigger anterior pelvic tilt (this isn't really true...it's an inside joke). Eric's one of the up-n-comers in the strength conditioning field who's way to smart for his age.

His talk outlined how an athlete's training should progress based on his knowledge base, self-awareness, and his training age. A word to the wise. Most of you are training at least one level too high for your optimal progress.

I also stole an exercise from Eric called the Paloff press (which I believe he borrowed...don't worry, I'm sure it'll end up in one of Eric's t-nation articles).

Like I said it was great to talk with Eric a bit, and we were able to have a couple of really solid discussions that were as interesting as some of the formal presentations.

I'm not sure, but he may have a future in the strength/conditioning/fitenss field. :)

The champion enters the ring last. That must be why Alwyn Cosgrove spoke last on the last day of the Summit (the champ entering the ring thing was Alwyn's line).

Not only has the guy made cancer his bitch on two occasions, but he gives a top-notch presentation.

Case in point. I was privleged to see this presentation before anyone in the general public had ever seen. I've seen him present it before. And I'd watch it again if presented the opportunity.

Mike Robertson was sitting one row behind me. He's seen it before. Get the picture?

A quick synopsis of the Real World Fat Loss presentation...

Everything you've been told in the popular media about how to lose fat is WRONG.

It's not even supported in the peer-reviewed research.

The father of aerobics, Kenneth Cooper, said it was wrong.

Alwyn has real-world research from over 16 years of running 200-300 clients through their training on a weekly basis.

He's got the before and after photos to prove that it works.

BTW his method is available in the form of his product called Afterburn.

We then said our good-byes and headed our separate ways.

I got some directions from the hotel as to how to get to the interstate only to find that all the on-ramps were closed for construction. You'd think since the on-ramp was only a couple blocks away that the concierge would have had a clue. Had it not been for my inherited, uncanny sense of direction, I'd still be driving around Chicago looking for I-90.

Anyway, congrats to Chris Poirier and the Perform Better staff for an outstanding Summit.

Bill