Check out the video above: In this video, I demonstrate how to utilize a concept and create exercises to improve mechanics. I specifically focus on the goblet split squat exercise and explain how to change cues to mimic early stance mechanics, moving over the foot into mid stance, and dropping down through the split squat. I then translate this concept into a dynamic activity by performing a single-leg jump. 

Click here to ask a question or comment about this blog post. 

It’s no wonder runners and hikers avoid the weight room, since we typically think about weight training as big weights, veins popping, and muscles contracting violently. However, if we REFRAME weight training as the MANAGEMENT OF TENSION, we can start to wrap our heads around its usefulness. 

TENSION allows us to push ourselves forward, to absorb impact, and to spring off the ground.  In running and hiking, there is a cycle of tension. Running has a quicker cycle with shorter time on the ground, while hiking has a slower cycle with longer time spent on the ground. 

Tension in areas where it is not needed, however, can limit movement and if the TIMING of tension is off, we reduce efficiency through energy leaks. This can mean less speed and miles covered for more energy expended.  

Overall, our bodies need to learn how to BOTH GENERATE TENSION AND LET IT GO. 

Tension is a spectrum of magnitude, and it's always there just to keep us upright. However, if we store too much tension when...

Weight training is often seen as detrimental to running performance or unnecessary for hiking. However, I think most people just need to learn a different way to weight train.

We typically view weight training as barbells slamming on the ground, big weights, and veins popping out of biceps, oh my! That can be intimidating for anyone and possibly unnecessary for anyone outside of Crossfit, Bodybuilding, or Powerlifting.

We need to REFRAME weight training, as an avenue for more purposeful training, as an avenue to reconnect with how our bodies feel, as a way to intervene on aches and pains, as a way to move better, and as a way to build on our physical preparation.

Weight training can support improvements in,

• Gait Mechanics - allowing you to run and walk more effectively
• Joint Ranges of Motion - allowing you to reduce movement restrictions that may be causing aches and pains
• Running Economy - allowing you to spring off the ground more efficiently
• Climbing- allowing you to avoid
...

Check out the video above: In this video, Michelle explains why she made the decision to stop barbell deadlifting when she started taking running more seriously. Michelle discusses the negative outcomes of using barbells as a loading strategy for exercise selection and the importance of balancing force production with movement freedom in running. Michelle also highlight the need to prepare the body for the demands of running and counteract those demands to avoid stiffness and joint range mobility reduction. 

Click here to ask a question or comment about this blog post. 

Welcome to Reframe Performance!

My name is Michelle Boland and I’ve spent years testing elite athletes in exercise physiology labs, training everyone from professional athletes to IT professors, speaking at health and performance events, and coaching people both in person and remotely. At the same time, I’ve fallen in love with hiking mountains and running trails.

My new endeavor, Reframe Performance, will bring all of these pieces together to help others build momentum towards running and hiking further, while avoiding the aches and pains that take them away from what they love to do.

Reframe Performance will be for running and hiking enthusiasts, because more often than not, runners weight-train like they are Crossfitters or bodybuilders, and wonder why they feel so stiff during their runs…and let’s face it, most hikers avoid weight training altogether.
It’s time to REFRAME what the weight room can do for you by learning how to train a different way, so you can run more freely and ...

As trainers, we can oftentimes get consumed by the latest biomechanical assessments, programming strategies, and equipment, as we are passionate about getting people jacked and strong. However, the new and shiny stuff can sometimes distract us from the things that make trainers valuable; our ability to communicate effectively with others, to make the best decisions about how to progress people into fitness, and to be a supportive guide. The bare minimum for personal training should never get lost in what we do - be kind and personable, make good decisions, and teach people how to sustainably exercise.

Let’s review some things that can lead us astray from the bare minimum requirements for a personal trainer...

#1 Don’t make your clients feel like sh*t about themselves.

A close friend, let’s call her Tatianna, recently shared her experience of being duped into a personal training session at a local gym. The trainer, let’s call him Dill, did an assessment on this 53 year old female bef...

Progression in the weight room is not solely based on external loading (i.e. how much absolute weight lifted). Progress can be accomplished in various ways in order to improve performance, movement options, fitness, experience, and may even assist in external loading abilities.

Here are some valuable elements of client/athlete progress:

1. Accumulation of volume is one of the key components to improving qualities of fitness. Increasing the number repetitions and/or sets throughout a training program is fundamental to progress.
2. Progress through various positions (i.e. 1/2 kneeling, tall kneeling, etc.) and expose to positions that the body struggles to achieve (i.e. if client lacks hip extension, progress through positions that challenge hip extension, then you can challenge those positions under loading).
3. Progress through coaching cues. Simplicity is king but an element of progression can be attention to detail or changes in the focus on attention. For example, the first couple week
...

See the whole forest before seeing one tree:

START WITH, HOW DO YOU DEVELOP FITNESS?

Then work backwards, learn and coach basis exercises, optimize the exercises that you do, accumulate volume, then use your tools to intervene only when a barrier towards fitness/performance is encountered.

When we learn something new about movement problems during continuing education events or within systems we tend to start with, how can I fix this person’s movement problems?

We tend to want a clean slate to work from but we are not going to give people a clean slate with movement. We have very limited time with people, thus limited influence. The best thing we can do is use the tools to address movement problems to develop fitness.

Addressing movement problems is a need but not a necessity, the majority of the time. Don’t let the tools you have acquired to become the barrier towards fitness.

“The lie you are fed becomes the story you believe”- Dr. Bryan Chung

I don’t typically barbell back squat clients as we have safety bars and cambered bars that I think are useful tools for adding load to the squat pattern. But the words I choose are careful. I don’t tell people that back squatting ‘isn’t good for you’ or that ‘you will get injured back squatting” as your words have the ability to influence someone’s beliefs. Be responsible for that influence with the words that you use, which they will then use as prior information to make future predications.

Someone saw me back squatting last week and said “that’s not good for your back.” That is a scare tactic that they have been fed.

• Is there a direct cause and effect?
• Does everyone who back squats have low back pain?

Usually people put personal limitations on their own capabilities so they will cling to those words or use those words to limit themselves or others. Those words also create fear.

Fear comes from misuse of l...

Gym Partners, Group Classes, Semi-Private Training, Tribes.

Each of these satisfy the human need for relatedness through socialization.

As humans we have a fundamental need to be connected with or able to relate to other humans.  Relatedness, how connected and secure we feel in our environment, is dictated by our personal relationships and past experiences to help to regulate and guide our behavior.  So, if we lack the sense of connection and security to our environment, we as humans may lose our motivation to act and dysregulated behavior may ensue.¹  This can take form as an elevation in heart rate, poor sleep quality, reduced work efficiency, or even social seclusion.  We have to have strategies to help us self-regulate.

A logical first step in regulating behavior in a new environment is to develop relationships to allow any threat perceived to be dampened.  Coaches are positioned to have a pivotal role in helping regulate their clients behavior. However, it requires well-devel...