EricBeard.com Corrective Exercise and Success Blog

Hi guys!

I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I do most of my posting at EricBeard.com

I moved most of my content over there. You can visit for plenty of great videos and articles.

My You Tube channel has plenty of great FREE videos at YouTube.com/theericbeard

Thanks for reading and make a positive difference in someone's life today!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
AthleticShoulder.com
ericbeard.com

The Best Supplies in the Business

PRO is live!

NASM PRO is now HFPN go to http://hfpn.com/ and ENTER the code 12745 to join the A-team!!!

To join the A-team..enter 12745 when you are at step 4 under sponsor HFPN ID #...this is critical...if you miss this step, then you can't access the A-Team information!

Go to http://hfpn.com, click "go pro" green button on right, then click another Green "go pro button" on bottom right, fill out registration, at step 4 enter 12745 for sponsor HFPN ID A-team is live!!!

Thanks for reading!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

The Best Supplies in the Business

Corrective Exercise for The Shoulder Complex Just Changed Forever

Hi all,

As most of you know, I do most of my posting from ericbeard.com but I have been light on my posts lately because I have been slaving away on my biggest project to date! It is a 6 disc DVD series entitled Secrets and Staples of Training The Athletic Shoulder. Take a look at it at http://athleticshoulder.com.

Also, if you want a free video that touches on the importance of technique and corrective exercise for the rotator cuff then go to http://athleticshoulder.com and the video there will show you how to improve activation of the rotator cuff by up to 30%!

Thanks for reading!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
www.athleticshoulder.com
www.ericbeard.com

The Best Supplies in the Business

Corrective Exercise and "The Sitck" for Your Neck?

I was asked yesterday about this technique for the cervical spine. Do you think it is a good idea?

I answered by video on my website http://ericbeard.com

Thanks for reading!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

Corrective exercise for Strongmen? at Least Teach Them How To Squat!

My friend Jason Nunn of Nunn's Performance Training and http://nunnstronger.com asked me if I had read the article in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research "Comparison of Different Strongman Events: Trunk Muscle Activation and Lumbar Spine Motion, Load and Stiffness" by Stuart McGill, Art McDermott and Chad M.J. Fenwick . My answer was "no" but sounded interesting and would check it out. I did and this post is inspired by my reading as well as some of my teaching.

The rest of this post is continued at http://ericbeard.com/archives/2009/07/the-elite-strongmen-know-how-to-disassociate-squat-and-yes-do-their-corrective-exercise/

Thanks for reading!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
nasmproateam.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com

How to Spot Tightness in the Adductor Magnus

Did you see my video about spotting tightness in the adductor magnus?

Internal hip rotation is extremely important during functional movements like; squatting, walking, lunging and running. When the hip does not rotate internally like it should, there can be increased strain on the sacro-illiac joint and even cause low back tightness. If left unchecked, an overactive adductor magnus can cause tightness in the hip capsule and further restrict motion at the hip causing stress to the knee (especially in closed chain positions). Not good!

I will add more on my site http://ericbeard.com on this topic ...I am in the process of switching over all of my new entries to that site once i work out a few small bugs. My library of blogs is on there now. So if you want to peruse any of the 125 plus entries for FREE just visit http://ericbeard.com and use the search function to look up a topic.

Here is the video about spotting adductor magnus tightness...

http://youtube.com/theericbeard

Thanks for watching!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
http://theericbeard.blogspot.com
http://nasmproateam.blogspot.com
http://ericbeard.com
http://twitter.com/ericbeard
http://youtube.com/ericbeard

Glute Medius Activation for Corrective Exercise

Hi guys and gals!

I have moved all of my content to http://ericbeard.com so if you are looking for any of the

archived entries, please visit ericbeard.com

I will have the story that goes with this video there...and I think the video works better without my head...how about you?



Thanks for watching!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
http://ericbeard.com

Correct Breathing Patterns During Exercise

To breathe or not to breathe, that is the question!

Actually the question is "when" to breathe or "how" to breathe. The standard recommendation is to inhale during the eccentric phase (EP) of the repetition and exhale during the concentric phase (CP) of the repetition. Not bad general advice, but when you are working with a beginner just getting them to inhale and exhale during strength training is a victory, period.

Making sure that one does not hold their breath, especially during maximal lifts, is critical. There may be some benefits to inhaling during the eccentric phase (EP) of a repetition and exhaling during the concentric phase (CP) during strength training, but I believe you have to address this before you put a weight in some one's hand.

I often times begin with a "breathing test" to assess function of inspiration and expiration.



Short 1 minute 32 second video of a breathing test here...


(WOW! What a goofy still shot! lol)

I teach clients the importance of proper breathing patterns (more on this another time but activation of deep intrinsic stabilizers and relaxation of global musculature) and the drawing in maneuver.

NOT THE VACUUM POSE!



You can get fancy with alternating nostril breathing techniques and such..

..which is great, it just depends how thorough you want to be.

Just enough to get this to happen...


...and get these working together



Negative impact of not breathing? Well, yes, death...



...but increased arterial pressure (good old valsalva!) is a significant concern among the general fitness client and even amongst elite level power lifters and Olympic weightlifters performing max efforts lifts. So breathing consistently and comfortably are hugely important but the inhale on the EP and exhale on the CP may actually provide a better mechanical platform for us to produce force from and keep our spine and accessory structures (from discs to ribs).*for more on this see Chaitow and McConnell below...

We know that if we do not provide the necessary oxygen to working muscles, their performance will suffer. We also know that specific muscles can be conditioned...or deconditioned...so a deconditioned diaphragm may rob oxygen (Robin Hood Effect) from the larger muscles during athletic activity and negatively impact performance.

Breathing can be complicated when you peel back the layers.

I learned about four different types of breathing from Scott Sonnan
1) Normal volume(clavicular)-talking volume
2) Complementary volume (intercostal)-medium intensity exercise breathing
3) Supplementary volume (diaphragmatic)-high intensity level exhales
4) Residual (reserve)-which we have unless a lung is punctured or we expire

So..learn to breathe, learn to breathe while activating the core stabilizers and then learn to inhale during he Eccentric Phase and exhale during the Concentric Phase.

For some more reading on breathing...

By Leon Chaitow from Massage and Body Work Magazine. Click the link below

http://leonchaitow.com/PDFs/UnderstandingBreathing_MNB_JJ_07.pdf

More from Chaitow on breathing and back pain

http://leonchaitow.com/PDFs/pdfBackPainAndBreathing.pdf

Alison K McConnell, BSc, MSc, PhD, FACSM has a great piece on breathing and performance if you want to sink your teeth into something.

http://www.concept2.co.uk/training/breathing.php

Harms et al's work "Effects of Respiratory Work on Exercise Performance" is worth the once over as well.

There are many other experts to read to deepen your understanding of a complex but seemingly simple subject, but I hope this helps!

Thanks for reading and watching!

Eric Beard
Athletic Performance Enhancement Specialist
Corrective Exercise Specialist
theericbeard.blogspot.com
www.ericbeard.com