IOL Strength and Conditioning

This is part 10, the final piece of our 10-week series in which Gray further develops the 10 movement principles he presented in Chapter 15 of his book, Movement.

Here’s a pdf of the full set of 10 Movement Principles.
You are welcome to share this with friends.

Principle 10: The routine practice of self-limiting exercises can maintain the quality of our movement perceptions and behaviors and preserve our unique adaptability that modern conveniences erode.

When corrections have done their jobs and it’s time to get back to exercise, this is your opportunity to prevent future problems. The addition of self­-limiting exercises to the exercise program or as preparation or cool down can keep authentic patterns maintained. Since self-limiting exercises offer greater challenges, you can create situations to use these as a form of play or self-competition.

This is the bow I hope everybody gets to when reading Movement, because if they stop at Principle 9, they’ll literally think Gray Cook is a corrective exercise geek who doesn’t appreciate ‘bad ass’ strength training and exceptional feats of athleticism.

I like getting after it. I have accidents. I hurt myself all the time. I’m very much into pushing the limits. I really want people to explore as much physical capacity as they have.

If you’ve done your homework and have gotten your body right, go out and have fun. Run a marathon. Do an ultra. Fight somebody in an organized setting. Play some golf. Do whatever.

But self-limiting exercise means exercise that’s the 180-degree opposite of climbing on a treadmill, plugging into your iPod and just blindly becoming a rat on a wheel.

Self-engaging exercise and self-limiting exercise is balancing on a beam. It’s doing an inverted bottom-up kettlebell press or a Turkish getup. It’s doing some tumbling or gymnastics. These are all things that require us to be fully engaged. This engagement really closes a loop on the mind-body situation.

Here’s my thing if you have dysfunction. Our standard for this is anything below a ‘2,’ anything that’s an asymmetry or anything with pain in your movement screen. If you have a dysfunction, work on it. Clean it up. Get it fixed — get some help. Once you get above that cut-point, you don’t have to necessarily do six hours a week of foam rolling, then do your correctives. Make sure your corrective is solid and that you’ve made a true change.

Some of the activities I put in the Movement book are true examples of self-limiting exercise where they require engagement as well as a good blend of mobility and stability. Use some of those exercises in your weekly routine to really challenge all the different faculties you’ve brought together by recapturing some of your movement. Do this in exchange for becoming a corrective junkie.

I’d like to think that a few times a year I get back in shape after all this travel. My movement screen is not great, but it’s adequate. Without any stretching or foam rolling, I can maintain a great movement screen just by doing a few Turkish getups on each side, whether I’m weight training, doing stand-up paddleboarding or doing a little jogging.

All of those planes of movement and all of those movement patterns are in a Turkish getup. Many of them are also in a yoga sun salutation. Grab something that works for you and do it. It’s not so much done for corrective strategy. It’s self-limiting.

Please click here for a longer discussion of self-limiting exercise.

Ready for more?

Listen to Gray’s self-limiting exercise lecture

Order Movement, available in hardcover, paperback and e-book.

Consider the live workshop DVD, Applying the FMS Model

Excerpt from Gray Cook’s book Movement

Click here to download a larger pdf of this self-limiting exercise chart

Self-limiting exercises make us think, and even make us feel more connected to exercise and to movement. They demand greater engagement and produce greater physical awareness. Self-limiting exercises do not offer the easy confidence or quick mastery provided by a fitness machine.

The earliest exercise forms were self-limiting—they required mindfulness and technique. Idiot-proof equipment and the conditioning equivalent of training wheels did not exist. Great lifters learned to lift great; great fighters learned to fight great; great runners learned to run great. Their qualities and quantities were intertwined.

Self-limiting exercise demands mindfulness and an awareness of movement, alignment, balance and control. In self-limiting exercise, a person cannot just pop on the headphones and walk or run on the treadmill, fingering the playlist or watching the news on a well-placed monitor. Self-limiting exercise demands engagement.

The clearest example of self-limiting exercise is barefoot running. While running barefoot, the first runners connected with the sensory information in the soles of their feet. This works perfectly—this is the very reason the soles of the feet have such a uniquely dense distribution of sensory nerves. This provides a window to our environment, like the nerves in our hands, eyes and ears. The information provided by sensory nerves in the soles help all who walk on two feet continually adjust their movement, stride, rhythm, posture and breathing to meet changes in the terrain.

The modern running shoe allows us to ignore a sensory perspective of running that is only second to vision, and, as you know, the increase in running-related injuries paralleled running shoe development. When running barefoot, over-striding and heel striking is not an option—it produces jarring, discomfort and pain because it is not authentic. Is it not a bit peculiar that the quick twinges of pain refine the barefoot runner’s stride to help avoid running injuries, while the comfort of the modern running shoe later exchanged those friendly twinges for debilitating pain?

The modern runner uses braces to cover a weakness, often not taking responsibility to rehabilitate a problem, or dissatisfied with the rehabilitation process and its incomplete outcome. Christopher McDougall reveals this concept in an amazing story in his book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, a story that reminds us to temper all technologic advancements against historical facts and time-tested principles. He touches on medical and biomechanical issues, prehistoric man, exercise concepts and a detachment from the joy of movement we exchange for superficial results.

This book is highly recommended for trainers, coaches and rehabilitation professionals to help them see their respective professions through the eyes of the inquisitive, chronically injured runner. Christopher’s investigation and story connects important dots we can all appreciate. In his journey, he discovered rehabilitation and coaching wisdom that is logical and simple. The problem is that he had to dig to find it. Part of his digging was caused by our incomplete practices of movement assessment, exercise and rehabilitation.

Examples of other natural, self-limiting categories are governed by breathing, grip strength, balance, correct posture and coordination. Some exercises combine two or more self-limiting activities, and each has natural selective and developmental benefits. These exercises produce form and function while positioning the entire movement matrix for multiple benefits. As we train movement, anatomical structures model themselves around natural stresses.

Self-limiting activities should become the cornerstone of your training programs, not as preventive maintenance and risk management, but as movement authentication—to keep it real. The limitations these exercises impose keep us honest and allow our weakest links to hold us back, as they should.

Used correctly, self-limiting exercises improve poor movements and maintain functional movement quality. These exercises are challenging and produce a high neural load, which is to say they require engagement and increased levels of motor control at the conscious and reflexive level.

Anytime we don’t acknowledge our weakest links or confront them in training, we demonstrate the same behavior that caused our collective functional movement patterns to erode in the first place. Embedded in each workout, the self-limiting activities continually whisper the message that we cannot become stronger than our weakest links.

A word of caution: These activities are not magic. They don’t automatically install movement quality. They simply provide the opportunity should the individual be up to the challenge. Each of these activities imposes natural obstacles and requires technical attention. There is usually a coordination of attributes not often used together, such as balance and strength or quickness and alignment. These activities usually require instruction to provide safety and maximize benefits. If you do not respect them, they can impose risk.

However, patience, attention to detail and expert instruction will provide a natural balancing of movement abilities. These do not have to make up the entire exercise program. Instead, they offer mental and physical challenges against natural limitations and technical standards. These activities will not only provide variety, but should ultimately produce physical poise, confidence and higher levels of movement competence.

Ready for more?

Visit Gray’s site to learn more about his movement principles

Download a pdf of sample self-limiting exercises

Listen to Gray’s self-limiting exercise lecture

Order Movement, available in hardcover, paperback and e-book.

Boris Bachmann, the guy who recorded the squat techniques lecture (he’s also the Squat Rx guy from YouTube), asked me the other day, “Are there some sleeper lectures you think are absolutely fantastic that might have gotten overlooked so far? Let me know and I will do some impulse buying.”

Boy that’s a real hard one because for me, I’m more into the talking than the learning, if you know what I mean. So while trainers might really go for one and coaches might really go for another and therapists yet another, I get a kick out of just listening to the talking… Dan John’s (goal setting), Dick Tyler’s (storytelling), Chip Conrad’s Sweet Chant and Lou Shuler’s Hero’s Journey. People like me who like bio stories will enjoy listening to Ric Drasin tell his tale.

Mike Mahler’s discussion of hormone optimization was fabulous (hold on to your wallet — I ended up buying four new supplements to try!), as was Jerry Brainum’s on supplements and Robert Yang’s on gluten. Brooks Kubik’s talk is on training for senior lifters, learning how to plan recovery, real good for some of this crowd. Tom Furman’s was excellent, especially as we get a little older and lose mobility.

Charlie Weingroff’s is a real big learning circle, very nice, and Evan Osar kicks in there on the human movement side as well. I really enjoyed Robb Rogers’ and also Tim Anderson’s; those were both a little different and off the mainstream.. stuff you probably haven’t heard before.

Oh, jeez, I can’t believe Boris got me doing this.

Anybody with trigger point curiosity, Perry Nickelston’s is super; there are a couple lectures on back pain (Eric Beard and Sam Visnic, and Eric also has one on shoulders), and one by Tom Patrick about his journey through back pain and back to golf.

Locked up t-spine? Sue Falsone is her usual wonderful self. Foot pain? Ron Jones has you covered. Wondering if all this fascia science is real, or important? Paul Ingraham dives into that one.

Want to learn something unexpected? Stacy Barrows and Martha Peterson. Need a Gray Cook fix? Self-limiting exercise, plus a discussion with Craig Liebenson and one with Joe Heiler. Lee Burton’s work with the core is unmatched, as is Brett Jones on corrective exercise and strength… short but complete overviews there, then you’d just get to work, right?

Brian Bott works with football players, Brijesh Patel with college athletes. Dave Whitley teaches breathing drills, Jim Schmitz has been coaching O lifting since the ’60s. Chiropractic literally saved Keith Wassung’s life — Keith Norris, Skyler Tanner and Mark Alexander are physical culture slash paleo crusaders; Mark Snow works group and bootcamp trainees using the FMS, and Pat Rigsby knows the business side of bootcamps like nobody else.

Michael Boyle’s talk on fat loss — well, Mike’s just great at everything, really — and Mike Roussell talks fat loss like a lean guy, too.

The Nicks — Winkelman and Tumminello– are superb coaches and know how to teach (the Winkelman talk is pretty cutting-edge, coaches should check that out), ditto Vince McConnell, who talks about privately coaching athletes in season in their sports. Zach EvenEsh is an extremely successful high school athlete coach, and in his lecture he tells how he trains them.

Galina Denzel is a specialist in training pregnant women, and tell us not only how the body changes during pregnancy, but how to train a woman to get her ready for delivery and baby rearing. If you train women, or if you’re pregnant, this one’s a must.

Oh! And there’s this Boris Bachmann guy who really knows squat.

Here’s your link to the Movementlectures.com Full Lecture Listing.

Had a fun conversation with Charlie Weingroff the other day in which we decided to partner up to release his popular 12-hour Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training DVD set in digital format. It’s ready today: Charlie Weingroff’s Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training downloadable video set, $20 per disk.

From disk one, Charlie discusses Gray Cook’s joint by joint approach to training, made popular by Michael Boyle

From disk two, Charlie talks about his definition of the core, and covers a bit about how the diaphragm works.

From disk three, Charlie talks of how little we know about how pain influences motor control.

From disk four,  Charlie demonstrates proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching — PNF stretching for hamstrings.

From disk five, Charlie explains Professor Vladimir Janda’s famous crossed syndromes, what they are, where they come from and what attention we need to give them.

Also from disk five, here’s a look at upper body rolling patterns.

From disk six,  Charlie demonstrates RNT used for a faulty deep squat with a Gray Cook band.

Charlie Weingroff’s Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training downloadable video set, $20 per disk.

Nick Tumminello

Although the pistol squat is a trendy, cool-looking old-time exercise, it’s not something we use with our clients and athletes at Performance U.

We don’t feel the pistol squat exercise is “bad,” nor do we feel it’s dangerous. And, we don’t get caught up arguing against pistols, nor will we try to convince anyone to stop doing them.   All we can do is share the training methodologies that make the most sense to us, along with the exercise applications we’ve found to work best for us.

That said, in our training with individuals of all levels from pro athletes to active seniors, we haven’t found the body positions and force production patterns involved in the pistol squat exercise to have as much value and functional carryover as some of the other creative, hybrid single-leg squat variations we use, which I’ve displayed in this new Secrets of Single Leg Training 2-DVD set.

You can see more about why we don’t use the pistol squat in this video:

Sure the pistol squat can make you stronger!  It’s also very challenging exercise. And, if you enjoy doing them, then great! But we’ve found other single-leg squat training optionsto be more beneficial because they more accurately match the body postures we see in sports and daily living. And they more closely replicate the force production patterns we are looking to improve with the clients and athlete we train.

I worked on Dave Whitley’s breathing practice lecture again today, and was reminded of how badly I’d been breathing for the past 30 years. You don’t really think of it until someone teaches you — and maybe you’re breathing fine, but unless you know enough to feel the difference between chest and belly breathing, you don’t know for sure. When I first started studying this, I didn’t even know air was supposed to get deep in the belly; I thought air went into the chest.

The first clue, and it was a big one, was a Feldenkrais breathing lesson, in which we were taught to seesaw the air from the chest to the belly, alternating between breaths, and then to direct the air to different areas. Huh! That was interesting.

A few months later, I saw Dave Whitley and Geoff Neupert do a YouTube demonstration of crocodile breathing, and started practicing that.

It didn’t take long to feel like I got it, but then, a couple of years ago, Charlie Weingroff said he could see my breathing in the chest and belly, but there was nothing going on in the middle. I had no clue what he meant, and even less how to fix it. A year went by, and along comes Kelly Stoll, a Rolfer, who also noticed the missing link between top and bottom. She grabbed the fascia just under my ribcage, pulled up — way up — and told me to breathe air into the pulls, repeating the process a half dozen times to traverse my torso.

The next day, I noticed the space just under my ribcage moving in and out smoothly, the place that had been still before. That was the day I discovered a nagging mid-back pain I’d had for years was… gone.

It isn’t possible to put the feeling of that discovery into words, not for me anyway. But I’ll tell you one thing: I want you to learn this for yourself.

Here’s Dave’s breathing drills lecture: Fundamental Breathing Drills.

The movementlectures.com site launch last week went super smooth and we didn’t crash the server, not even once! Nearly a year in the making, we now have 45 lectures available for immediate download, ranging from exercise technique to physical rehab, from physical culture to goal setting — there’s something for everyone, and inexpensively, with instant access. There are another 17 lectures nearly ready for publication, and a dozen recorders jetting around the country collecting new material. Which of these is your new favorite lecture?

Boris Bachmann: Squat Talk | Brett Jones: Corrective Exercise Essentials | Brett Jones: Key Concepts in Corrective Exercise | Brett Jones: Strength for Success | Brian Bott: Building a Bulletproof Program | Brian Bott: Training the Trenches, Football | Brijesh Patel: It’s Not All About the Sets and Reps | Brooks Kubik: Strength Training for Older Adults | Charlie Weingroff: Trainable Human System | Chip Conrad: Why On Earth? Excerpts from Our Sweet Chant of Frantic Power | Craig Liebensen and Gray Cook: Dialogue on Function | Dan John: Intervention

Dan John: Goal Setting, Second Millennium, Plus a Decade | Eric Beard: Anatomy of Shoulder Impingement and Beyond | Eric Beard: Understanding Lower Back Pain: Functional Anatomy Interventions and Prevention | Evan Osar: Strategies and Techniques to Improve Human Movement | Gray Cook: Applying the Functional Movement Screen Model | Gray Cook: Self-Limiting Exercise | Jerry Brainum: Supplements: Those that Work vs Those that Don’t | Jim Schmitz: Olympic Style Weightlifting for Strength, Health, Physique, Fitness and Sport

Joe Heiler and Gray Cook: Meaningful Impairments | Keith Norris, Skyler Tanner and Mark Alexander: Paleo Discussion | Keith Wassung: Introduction to Chiropractic | Lee Burton: Core Testing and Assessment | Lou Schuler: Hero’s Journey into Fitness | Mark Snow: Using the FMS in a Group or Bootcamp Setting | Martha Peterson: Relieving Chronic Muscle Pain With Somatic Education | Michael Boyle: Fat Loss Secrets | Mike Mahler: Importance of Optimizing Hormones Naturally | Mike Roussell: 21 Ways to Lose More Weight

Nick Tumminello: Practical Program Design | Nick Winkelman: Coaching Science: Theory into Practice | Pat Rigsby: Boot Camp Financials | Paul Ingraham: Fascia Science: Does it Even Matter? | Perry Nickelston: Triggerpoints for Pain | Ric Drasin: The Golden Years | Robb Rogers: Functional Training vs Performance Training | Robert Yang: Nothing Wholesome in Eating Whole Grains | Ron Jones: Health from the Ground Up: A Practical Guide to Understanding Feet, Ankles and Shoes

Stacy Barrows: Foam Roller Methods for Optimal Posture and Movement Organization | Sue Falsone: Thoracic Spine: The Missing Link to Core Stability | Tim Anderson: Miracle of Crawling | Tom Furman: Ability to Move | Vince McConnell: Role of a Personal Strength Conditioning Coach | Zach EvenEsh: Training and Development of the High School Athlete

Click on the episode link to listen here
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Episode Twenty-Five:
Stability training has been a popular training method in recent years, but are we thinking about it correctly? Is motor control a better concept?

Episode Twenty-Four:
The benefits of barefoot training are many, but some of the results are conflicting. Why train barefoot—and when is it best not to?

Episode Twenty-Three:
What does Gray mean when he says, “If you can’t touch your toes, don’t deadlift”?

Episode Twenty-Two:
What do you do when someone can’t perform a test due to a physical limitation?

Episode Twenty-One:
Here Gray describes the “Three Rs” concept of fitness and rehabilitation

Episode Twenty:
Let’s see what Gray has to say about exercise and chronic pain

Last summer after a conversation about not having enough time to sit comfortably to read or watch training videos, Gray Cook, Lee Burton and I partnered up to build a new audio lecture site, movementlectures.com. Wouldn’t it be nice, we thought, to be able to listen to speakers lecturing on subjects we need to keep current with — just download the files to iPods and laptops for listening on planes, on the road or out for a health walk?

Yes, we decided — that would be nice.

So we called on colleagues to record lectures on topics they’re eager to talk about. Over the course of the last months, we gathered a bunch of recordings, made transcripts and pulled these together into a collection of inexpensive downloadable audio and text files.

And you are about a week from getting a look.

We’ll open with the first 50 lectures; there are another 20 in varying stages of completion that will be rolled out a few a week until finished. At that point, our expectation is one new lecture a week… ongoing. These recordings range in duration from 15 minutes to nearly 3 hours, and span the price scale from $2.95-$20, with most of them being around $5.

With all new websites come glitches, and to offset that we’re going to roll it out slowly over our available outlets. First look will go to those on our Facebook page, so that’s where to head to get in on the ground floor.

Movementlectures.com on Facebook

Jerry Winick

It was May, 1963, I was 20 years old and was looking for work. I had joined the Navy right out of high school and spent three years stationed in Washington DC.  During my stint, I worked out regularly and built a pretty good body.

Dave Draper, Jerry Winick

When I got out of the navy, I intensified my weight training to a point where I was in the best shape of my life.  It was at that time that I started to enter physique competitions locally, one of them being at a local movie theater in Brooklyn. The competition was in conjunction with a Steve Reeves movie called Hercules Unchained.  

When I arrived at the theater, I found out that the other contestants were made up of some of the best body builders of the time – Larry Powers, Jon Bianculli and a few others. Joe Weider was also there to view the event. When the time came for posing on stage, I started to sense that something special was happening. The audience went wild, I won the event.

The next day I got a call from Joe Weider. He asked me if I wanted to work for him at his plant in Union City, NJ.  I immediately said yes and I started the next day. When I got to the plant I was introduced to the man with the largest muscular arms in the world, Leroy Colbert. I also met Harold Poole. I thought I was dreaming. I was told I would be working with these 2 guys in the back room area helping customers with their needs. Joe also told me that there would be one more person working with us and his name was Dave Draper. They described Dave as a tall blond, very muscular kid from Seacaucus, who would potentially be the greatest bodybuilder of all time (he really said that).

About a week later, Dave finally came to the plant to start work.  When I met him, he was like a gentle giant, the nicest, sweetest guy I ever met and what a body! The four of us made a great team. Customers  came from long distances to meet “Joe’s Backroom Boys”

The backroom had an array of free weights, which we were able to use at anytime. When customers came into the back, they would watch us work out.  Leroy was so funny, he was always joking around. Harold was much more serious. I think he worked out 8 hours a day.

As the days went by, Dave and I became very good friends. I was dating Joe’s receptionist, Sheila, who eventually became my wife. Dave and his wife Penny would go out on Saturday nights with us.

In July of 1963, the contest season started.  Dave had entered the Mr. New Jersey contest, which he won easily. I was doing a posing exhibition for the event. A month later, I entered the Mr. New York contest and placed 2nd to the great Freddy Ortiz. I went on a month later to finish 2nd in the Mr. East Coast event.

Once September came, there was the Mr. America and Mr Universe contests at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It was a great venue to hold an event of this stature. I continued to work out heavily for the big event.   Dave and I  trained together, sometimes in his garage in his Seacucus home, but mostly in the backroom. With Dave’s encouragement and inspiration, I was ready for the competition. I finished 2nd to Larry Scott in the middle height class of the Mr. Universe event. I was very pleased.

Dave and Jerry, demonstration in a high school auditorium, 1963

Right after the event, Weider Enterprises began their relocation to the west coast. Dave went with the move and I stayed in New Jersey. That was my brush with greatness.

What an amazing time to be a writer! You now have control over your writing life and your income in a way never dreamed before by writers, not only of earlier generations, but even just a few years ago. It’s astonishing… and wonderful.

It’s not so wonderful for most publishers, because this career freedom the writers now enjoy in most cases comes directly from the income of their former publishers. That doesn’t have to be the case, though. If publishers are able to switch mentality from Big Business Boss to “publishing partner,” things can be real bright for everyone. My sense is that most writers really have no desire to pay for editing, cover art or learn how to typeset, index or format digital files. They’re just fed up with making 10% of retail, or maxing out at $10,000 for three year’s work after waiting two years for the book to be produced. Who can blame them?

Smaller, more nimble publishers can adapt to this new market if they can put aside traditional bookmaking in favor of today’s new opportunities. On the print book side, this means printing fewer books per print run, and, for publishers like On Target, limiting or even canceling the old-school open returns policy. Returned books are the biggest area of loss for a publisher, about which the writers and customers are usually in the dark. Let’s just say if only half the books come back from a store, dinged-up, for full refund, that’s considered a good sell-through. cRaZY, is what that is, and smaller publishers, while possibly losing a few random bookstore sales (and honestly, I’m not even sure that’s true anymore), would be well-served to consider outright cancellation of the decades-old full returns policy.

On the ebook side, we need a radical change of mindset. What has happened to most publishers is different than what’s happening with writers who are self-publishing to the digital market. Writers are playing with pricing, and, although bouncing around some, are mostly trending down, even way down. Publishers took a different track; they mostly price their ebooks based on print book pricing. I think the idea behind that is to help hold up print book pricing, but I’m pretty sure that’s backwards.

Certainly publishers are telling the truth when they discuss the costs of editing, artwork, indexing, typesetting and formatting. Those costs are the same, regardless of format. The book printing, shipping, warehousing — and the ugly returns — are the part that goes away as we move from print to digital. The other costs are still there.

But where the thought-process breaks is in the attempt to lump all book customers together. Here’s the thing: The print customers and the digital customers are different. There’s some crossover, certainly, but most readers are one or the other. And even if they still read both formats, they — we — think differently when we consider a book purchase. Amazon has changed our comfortable price points, and guess what? $9.99 is where we’re going to find the top for awhile. Sure, I’ll buy a higher-priced ebook, but a price over $9.99 slows me down with an “I’ll decide later,” which of course never happens — for the publisher, and the writer, that is a lost sale. And this is even for a book I know I want. A book I happened to scroll across has absolute no chance over $9.99… none. The mental pricing for print books is much, much higher, and it doesn’t matter a jolt that I understand book publishing costs. Amazon has trained me, just like it’s trained nearly every other ebook buyer on the planet.

Now we’re to the part where I tell you which direction On Target is going. Oh, heck, I don’t even need to tell you… you’ve already guessed: Our top ebook price is $9.99. This is now in place across all the digital resellers, and on our On Target and davedraper.com sites. Our ebook pricing is no longer related to the print book price. It’s a different product, different market, different pricing guidelines.

In partnership with the writers, which is exactly how I see small presses succeeding as we move forward — a partnership — we’ve decided to put all the digital formats in one package when buying from our site. I can’t make that work for people who want the convenience of buying from Amazon, BN.com, Apple or the other reseller sites since they only sell in one format, but if you buy from us, you’ll get the full package, epub, prc and PDF files that will work on the full selection of readers and devices. This will allow you to move from device to device — we don’t use digital rights management (DRM),  you’ll read it on your phone, your laptop and your iPad, all for the same price. I am so happy to have settled into this, thrilled really. It just feels… good.

The benefits of the new pricing range from increasing the potential customer base, to allowing people on a budget to grab a digital copy in addition to an earlier purchase of a print book that rests on a now-dusty shelf. The biggest benefit for publishers and writers is that instead of crushing the book market, digital devices have exploded the practice of reading. The readers are there, more now than ever. We just need to learn how to respond better to their reading needs.

Laree
On Target Publications, digital

I think by now you’ve heard that Monkees star Davy Jones died earlier today. This seems like a good day for a Monkees review — did you know Dave was on the show?

The Sunday School Times and Gospel Herald, July 1, 1972
Sylvia Storms

The sandy-haired youth in the jeans frowned slightly and jammed his hands into his pockets. Then, with a shrug, he reluctantly followed the probation officer through the black iron gate. Just inside, the young man stopped dead in his tracks and stared.

“This is a gym?” he exclaimed. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

The officer smiled. “This is the place I’ve been telling you about!”

The sight before the boy was hardly that of an ordinary gym. Zuver’s Gym and Muscle Hall of Fame in Costa Mesa, California has to be one of a kind. And the same goes for its owner, Bob Zuver, an ordained minister and former weightlifter, who originated and built the gym and its equipment. He says that it’s a fun place to work out.

Bob Zuver on the “Big Phone”

Inside the heavy iron gate stands a fearsome-looking fiberglass gorilla. Not far away are a ten-foot superman and a fiberglass elephant lifting a barbell with its trunk. The door leading into the main gym weighs two tons!

Everything inside is big. There are a 1,000-pound lift, a 500-pound blog, and several unique racks. Bells ring and lights flash when they’re lifted. There is also the world’s biggest drinking fountain, made from a fire hydrant.

How has God chosen to use the gym and its fantastic equipment to win souls to Christ? Let the Zuvers tell it.

“You need something unusual to interest the kids and the others who com in regularly to keep in shape,” said Bob. “The main purpose of the gym, “added Jean, his dark-haired wife, “is to build fitness and strength, not only in the physical realm, but also in the mental and spiritual realms.”

Zuver’s Gym has an amazing outreach. Six hundred members work out regularly, and thousands of others—men, women and children—have visited the gym on tours and have heard of Jesus Christ. Housewives, former drug addicts, ex-convicts and yes, even musclemen, belong to the club. And the ministry doesn’t stop there. Bob is available for counseling, and he works closely with police and probation authorities. Additional gyms have been set up in the juvenile hall, at Joplin Ranch and at other youth and prison farms.

Zuver’s name is a household word to muscleheads and weightlifters throughout the world. Not only is the name synonymous with the zany gym, but it also stands for equipment made by the Zuvers in their own factory and sold to gyms throughout the country.

Some of the biggest names in weightlifting have visited Zuver’s Gym to set records. An All-Orange County lineup of lifters Bob coached won the 1968 United States Senior National Powerlifting Championship team award. The gym has more unusual heavy-duty equipment than any other training facility in the world. Because of this, many of the country’s strong men have heard of Christ.

“Weightlifters need Christ, too!” declared Bob. “That’s why God literally built this gym!”

It all began in a small garage in 1960. After a whirlwind conversion at the age of 30, Bob Zuver attended a Bible college and became a nondenominational minister. During this preparation, he taught Sunday school. One Lord’s Day after class, two boys came to him and asked whether he would teach them a few things about weightlifting. Bob agreed to help out with a few pieces of equipment he had in his garage. The word spread. Within a month, one hundred boys were meeting there. Within three months, the garage was bursting at the seams with boys, and Bob realized he’d need to find a bigger place quickly.

“We started out with a makeshift bench and one set of weights,” he explained. “Gradually we added to it and expanded. Every time we reached a point where we needed money, the Lord provided. When we were ready to pour the foundation for the new place, the Lord sent a Christian who owned a cement company and who happened to hear of our need, with several thousand dollars’ worth of cement. We stepped out in faith, and the Lord met each step.”

Asked for past history, Bob and Jean emphasized, “We’re interested in what God is doing now and is going to do in the future. This is His ministry, and we’re just working for Him.”

Bob had been a contractor and a Navy frogman before his conversion, and Jean had been a professional dancer. They were married later, while Bob was stationed in Virginia with the Navy. After his discharge, they came to California. Bob was a loose ends, and his nerves were very bad. He was searching for peace of mind. “For some reason, I was on my way to China to find it. I thought, how many problems can you have just walking around in a bunch of rice paddies?” he said seriously.

But the Zuvers never got to China. One evening not long before they were to sail from California, Bob was on his way to a gym. He passed a little Assembly of God church, and decided to go in. The Lord saved him that night. Within a short time, his entire family of 15 (two brothers, their wives and their children) were brought to Christ through his witness. One brother became a minister and a missionary to Mexico. The other is a Christian businessman. In each case, God has used the background of the individual to fulfill His purpose.

Bob and Jean both had been trained for the physical fitness and beauty contest business. God was to use them in this special field.

“We have prayed over every piece of equipment in the gym, and for every person who walks through the door, “Jean said. “The Lord has shown us that if you claim big things for Him, you’ll get them. That’s the reason for the ‘God Is Big’ sign on the wall. God isn’t limited in His thinking. We shouldn’t be either. Everything we have in the gym is big. It’s a means of bringing people in to hear the gospel—a conversation piece and a fun place as well.”

The Zuvers don’t push religion down the throats of their members. If the Lord leads, He’ll open the way to speak His Word, they believe. Many people come into the gym out of curiosity.

One curious man saw the ‘Christ is the Answer’ sign, which is located at the end of the room. (It’s 12 feet long!) He saw the ‘Gospel Barrel’ which holds tracts and devotional material. Bob spoke to him briefly about the Lord. But it was a year and a half later when the man came knocking on the Zuvers’ door at home. “I remember the things you told me,” he said to Bob, “and I’m ready now to accept the Lord.”

The same sign has been instrumental in other decision for Christ. One man who came to the Zuvers’ door early on a Sunday evening asked to see the gym. He didn’t see much more of the gym that the sign, though. “I’ve been running from God,” he said to Bob, “and I believe He sent me here to talk to you.”

The Zuvers work most frequently with youngsters. The police and probation officers send many kids to the gym. As a result, many of these have found Jesus Christ, including several gang members in Costa Mesa. Others come from Calvary Chapel, Melody Christian Center, and other churches located throughout the county that work with young people for physical rehabilitation. Bob helps rebuild their bodies, which many times have been wasted from drug addiction. And he encourages young converts to grow in grace at the same time.

Jean works with the ladies on Tuesdays and Thursdays in weight reduction and fitness programs.

Many have confided in her their special problems, and she has often been able to point them to the one answer, God’s Son. “A lady came in one day with a load of troubles,” she recalled. “She’d been coming in quite regularly, but I was waiting on the Lord before I approached her. When everyone else left, I was able to lead her to Christ. Now He is carrying her burdens.”

Zuver’s Gym has a young man named Mike who works out with the men on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a half day on Saturday. He told me he had barely made it through high school. He had done time in jail for three counts of burglary, and he had taken drugs. God dealt with him through Campus Crusade, and at the age of 21, he accepted the Savior at a Billy Graham Crusade in Anaheim. When he first visited the gym, he was a longhaired new Christian.

“I was probably the first longhair Bob ever allowed in the gym,” he said with a smile as he pointed to the posted list of gym rules. “He’s pretty strict with the rules, be he bent them a bit that day! Finally I learned to cut my hair and clean up!”

Mike felt the Lord leading him into the gym business, but he had his doubts. “How can you have a ministry in a gym, I thought, with all those muscleheads running around?”

But he went to Bible college in preparation, and Bob gave him a job.

“I had a lot of learn about God’s ways, “Mike declared. “He’s so big and powerful that we can’t box Him in. The gym is not just a physical thing. We’re here to win souls. Nobody in the gym business has ever sprung forth in this way for God, to my knowledge.”

It’s the prayer of the Zuvers that other Christians interested in the business will catch the spirit and open Christ-oriented gyms throughout the country.

“We’d like to see a Christian gym in every major city,” they said fervently. “We believe that Christ is the answer for everyone, and we’re willing to help any church or Christian couple by teaching them how to run a gym and by setting up the gym at near cost. Something is needed to replace the non-Christian health clubs, and this is a fantastic means of winning people to the Lord!”

And this brings us right back to Bob’s statement earlier that “weightlifters need Christ, too!” And it’s a wide-open ministry.

The Gospel Herald, July 1, 1972

A Zuver’s Memory

The Pistol Packin’ Wife
Jean Zuver, late 1970s

It was 9PM, almost closing time at Zuver’s Gym in Costa Mesa, Ca. Ordained minister and muscleman Bob Zuver was about to lock up the gym and send every one home. I was waiting for Bob to come inside for his late dinner when I heard a woman’s voice yelling and cursing loudly at someone still inside the gym. “Come out here, you little cock roach or I ‘ll come in there to shoot you!” she yelled while swinging her hand gun in the air. She was yelling at her husband, who was still inside the gym.

Hearing the commotion, Bob stopped the angry woman at the door.  “Hold on, lady. You are not going to shoot your husband in MY Gym…tonight or any other night!” Then after he took the gun away from her, Bob brought her and the gun into our living room and sat her down on the couch.   After I made about my 100th pot of coffee  for the day, I sat down with her in the living room. After a few sips of the strong coffee, Bob said to her, “Okay, now let’s talk.”

After hearing her berate her husband, he learned they were a very violent couple, with drugs and booze being the main cause. Bob had been counseling the husband in the gym now for many months and he had mellowed out for the better. And this had angered his wife even more. She had truly intended to kill her husband that night.

Long story short: Bob and I were both able to quiet her down that night in our living room.  And she finally found peace  from our Spiritual counseling.  Later on the couple moved from Costa mesa to a new town to start a new life, and we worried they might slip back into drugs and booze again.  But many months later the wife called me on the phone to tell me all was well and they would not return to their old lifestyle. They told me they loved their new Christian lifestyle, found a great little home church and had even found a good little gym to work out at.

I thank God He led them to us so we could be a part of this happy ending.  God is still Strong. He is still Great and He certainly is STILL GOD!

Jean Zuver, 2012

Originally published in Ironman Magazine, September 1988
Reprinted with permission of Dr. Ken and Ironman publisher John Balik

In college during the volatile 1960s, I enjoyed playing football. Lifting weights and becoming stronger was also high on my list of things to do, and a number of college teammates at the University of Cincinnati felt the same.

One of my teammates was Larry Gordon. He was easily noticed due to his outstanding physique. If he wasn’t a bodybuilder, he had certainly lifted weights in a serious manner. He was a former Mr. Cincinnati winner, and quite strong in many lifts, especially the bench press. At 5’10″ and 190 pounds, his All State running back status paled in comparison to his lifting accomplishments.

Larry decided to leave school, at least for a while, with the intention of traveling to California. Six months later, he returned much bigger and unbelievably stronger. He raved about a gym that sounds like it had fallen off of another planet. A gym where sirens announced the lifting of a heavy squat; where one could test ones strength against a variety of odd shaped dumbbells and globes. Here strong men strained to become stronger under the guidance of a Lutheran minister who allowed only gospel and religious music as background to the clanging of heavy iron.

Oversized fiberglass gorillas and a two-ton front door added to the atmosphere. Everyone’s purpose was to become stronger, this at a time when most “serious” California gyms were dedicated to the enhancements of their members’ muscular measurements.

This strength training oddity was Zuver’s Hall of Fame Gym.

In 1968 I found myself sitting in Zuver’s Gym, receiving the first of many lectures from the Reverend Robert Zuver. In time, I became quite friendly with Bob, his wife Jean and their two sons. His son Ricky “The Rhino,” in fact, was forever exhorting gym members to “help Ken on his next squat.” A different type of gym? Words still, after two decades, fail to describe it, and the feeling one got upon the initial visit.

The walls that supported the very high ceiling were decorated with signs exhorting one to further heights. The good Reverend included many spiritual messages, meant to augment the muscle that filled the air. Signs reminded one that “Profanity Is Not Tolerated On These Premises,” nor was it. Unlike the typical gym, members policed newcomers, reminded them that respect was to be shown to all others, and the equipment, at all times.

Each of the three competitive powerlifts was given a special place. Many heavy duty benches, forerunners to today’s sturdy, high tech products, lined one wall. Like other California gyms, a particular training philosophy dominated the programs of most of the members and competitive lifters. The primary auxiliary exercises were dumbbell bench presses and dips, done with very heavy weights. Special short benches would be pulled close to angled dumbbell racks, built so that one could in fact bring the 100- to 250-pound bells to ones chest without dangerously cleaning them. These benches were constructed so that a spotter could literally launch the trainee back towards the angled rack, allowing for replacement of the dumbbells, which were held close to the lifter’s chest the entire time.

Few gyms have angled dipping bars, which allow for a variety of grips, and Zuver’s was the only one that had a 12-foot version, allowing for more than one lifter to train simultaneously.

In order to safely allow for the use of 300-pound dumbbells, a converted railroad flatcar rode on a track beneath the dip bars. This added to the safety and convenience of moving such heavy weights from one end of the bar to the other.

While the lat pulleys were very strong, one cannot forget the day Wayne Coleman, later to gain fame as professional wrestling’s Superstar Billy Graham, loaded the weight carriage to an absurd limit. Although the carriage failed to move, the solid iron lat bar handle literally curled around Coleman’s upper back, ensuring this semicircle of iron would forever remind others of his legendary strength.

A refreshing pause by the water fountain was met by the clanging of fire bells. In a tribute to the firefighters who trained in his establishment, Bob had covered the fountain with a fire helmet, which, when lifted on its hinges to allow access to the drinking spout, triggered the bells.

The specialized squatting racks also were never to be forgotten. One had its own 300-pound bar, indicating that only the heaviest of squats could be done within its confines. Bob’s walls were mounted with 100- and 200-pound plates for the stouthearted. An airplane bomb hoist provided a foot-operated safety spot within the rack, an innovation that protected both the lifter and his spotters.

The power rack in the back of the gym had lights and sirens, which alerted other gym members that a member of Zuver’s competitive powerlifting team was about to make a personal record attempt. This, of course, allowed everyone present to cheer the lifter on, and made for enthusiastic training sessions.

Every piece of equipment was by far the most heavy-duty I had seen up to that time, anywhere. Conventional leg extension, curl and press machines were available, all handcrafted by Bob and his young sons. Bob felt that one could lift as heavily as possible only if he had the confidence that comes from the knowledge that the equipment was the best, the sturdiest and the safest available.

Bob’s expertise led him to manufacture his own line of strength training equipment. These design innovations are still utilized today, although I am sure many are not aware of their origins. He also provided all of the unique lifting apparati used in the early World’s Strongest Man contests. Needless to say, “well equipped” was an understatement at Zuver’s Gym.

Interestingly enough, the gym was not located on commercial property. Bob had long maintained an interest in physical fitness, and had converted his garage into a small but functional home gym. His bench, squat racks and other odd pieces were homemade, yet good looking, and well used by many youngsters in the neighborhood.

Bob’s interest in Costa Mesa’s youth eventually let to his garage being an unofficial meeting area and positive hangout for many formerly disruptive adolescents, youngsters who had been led into positive pursuits by the Zuver family. In time, Bob’s wife insisted that he either give this up, or build a real gym. They purchased the house across the street from the one they lived in, and converted it into a gym. At the time I wandered into the gym, they had expanded it a number of times, and it provided an excellent training facility, although they would not even have have showers installed until late in 1968.

Bob’s collection of strength “odds and ends” was given a permanent home on a specially constructed platform in the rear of the gym. My favorite was the Big Barrel, a metal monstrosity filled with 200 or 250 pounds of constantly shifting water. I became the twelfth man to elevate the barrel overhead, a feat requiring one to first roll it up the length of his body before attempting an overhead thrust.

When I returned to New York, I told many tales of Zuver’s Gym and the great powerlifting team they had. Len Ingro, Tom Overholtzer, Bill Whitting, Jim Waters, Willie Kindred, Rudy Lozano and others won local, state and national honors, often jostling with the more famous club from Bill West’s Culver City garage.

Upon a return visit to Southern California two years later, I returned to Zuver’s Gym, only to find it had again expanded and now housed a complete women’s fitness area. The approach to the gym, what had in fact been the driveway to the house, featured a life-sized gorilla statue, huge iron gates shaped like a pair of muscular arms and a cascading waterfall that fell over huge boulders that formed the new front of the gym. It was a sight to see, and a sight to remember.

For those who do remember Zuver’s Hall of Fame Gym, it was fondly recalled as an inspirational and colorful home of powerlifting. The wonderful workouts, unusual and enthusiastic environment, and the great lifts born of camaraderie and encouragement all come to mind when the name is mentioned.

More than a challenger for the powerlifting titles, Zuver’s Gym remains one of those chapters of strength training history that make the sport what it is today. No gym has ever quite recreated the championship atmosphere fashioned by Robert Zuver.

Enthusiastic thanks for Dr. Ken for this glimpse of the special place that was Zuver’s. For a photo collection and other memories of Zuver’s from people there at the time, here’s a choice IOL forum thread you’ll get a kick out of.

To sink your teeth into the era in which Zuver’s fits, start here, with a Zuver’s memory excerpt from West Coast Bodybuilding Scene.

Our old forum friend, Bill Luttrell (RIP), offered up his later memory of Zuver’s.

Bob Zuver died August 22, 2008 in Lake Forest, California after a battle with cancer. Rest in peace, Bob; we thank you for the great memories.

Bob Zuver
Sportscope Magazine, 1977

Over 10,000 people have come through the doors of my gym in Costa Mesa at various stages of the elusive quest for physical fitness. Now, after 17 years of being the in the business of fitness, if there is any one principle I would communicate to an individual engaged in that pursuit, it would be this: moderation and balance.

Contrary to what may seem obvious, one of the greatest hindrances to the development of physical fitness is overzealousness. It leads a person to make impossible demands on the body. One day someone much like yourself decides it is time to shape up and shape up right now. You enroll in a health club, work out vigorously five or six times a week and even go on a diet of lettuce leaves and bird seed!

What happens to our fitness zealot (and I have seen it countless numbers of times)—you burn yourself out in no time at all physically, emotionally and psychologically. Training soon becomes a drudgery and in no time at all you are back, further back, than when you started: shackled, burdened and guilty.

Forget about trimming down and shaping up on thirty days or bust. Instead of being a burden requiring strict discipline, becoming physically fit can be and should be fun.

How? By being moderate and being consistent. Consider exercising in terms of a regular and lifetime investment, not as a short term all-out blitz. Fun and enjoyment comes from seeing results and improvement and continuing that way to get the most life has to offer in good health and good shape.

Then there is balance. Without emotional and psychological harmony, a person cannot be considered to be in a state of physical fitness. For 17 years I have had the opportunity to share that concept, the importance of the spiritual aspect of life.

As a minister, it was always me desire to have a church to have a positive effect on people’s lives. But instead, the Lord led me to a ministry of fitness, combining the development of the body and the spirit—development mentally, spiritually and physically, or total fitness.

When a person comes to my gym or my gym equipment center, they can experience three things: big, fun attractions, a serious program of physical development and the availability of spiritual counseling.

In keeping with my belief that total fitness is for everyone, Zuver’s Fitness Center is in the business of offering the finest and most durable gym and exercise equipment available…to churches, recreation centers, schools, institutions, homes and businesses. The line ranges from the original heavy duty Circle Gym weight training equipment to the lighter exercise equipment to meet the needs of anyone and everyone.

Zuver’s Fitness Center also offers complete training for anyone interested in owning and operating his own fitness and health center. We have a complete service to fully equip a gym, teach weight training, exercise and nutrition tot eh gym owner, as well as train him in the management of the new business.

It is a rewarding pursuit for me to offer this opportunity so that with a minimal investment, an individual can not only own his own business, but also be in the business of making total fitness—health and happiness—available to others.

Bob Zuver was clearly a man before his time—this was written in 1977!

Click here to enjoy our wonderful Zuver’s collection of photos and memories.

Zuver’s Fitness Center
Fitness is Fun
Orange County Chamber of Commerce, March 1977

Bob Zuver finds “The Blob”

Almost two decades of commitment to an ideal has benefited Orange Countians with the opportunity for a better way of life, Bob Zuver, owner and president of Zuver’s Fitness Center Inc, started out in a simple garage in Costa Mesa 17 years ago with the belief that men and women have the right to enjoy life to its fullest. He dedicated himself and his business to fulfilling that right in the lives of hundreds and thousands through the years with the concept that to live right is to be fit, and that fitness is fun.

Today, over 1,000 of the highest quality items of exercise and gym equipment in the nation can be found in Zuver’s Costa Mesa factory showroom.

Zuver’s inspiration and motivation is sustained by the conviction that his business is not just for his own profit, but for the profit of the lives of others. Bob says, “I’ve seen so many men fight and scratch to get ahead in the business works, and when they make headway or approach retirement, they are two wasted to enjoy it because they didn’t take the time or have the discipline to invest in their health and fitness along the way.”

Beyond a doubt, the business man is a prime target for high blood pressure and heart attack. With a small investment, says Zuver, a business establishment can have the equipment necessary to build and maintain fitness and even the very life of its executives and sales representatives. In fact, all across the country more and more firms are setting up small fitness rooms for their employees. It has even shown to improve actual business performance.

Zuver’s Fitness Center is totally unique in the field of weight and gym equipment manufacturing. There are the only firm in the nation to—

• Stock a complete line of highest quality equipment form light duty selectorized equipment to the country’s very best free weight equipment, used by the LA Rams for over four years now);

• Custom build any piece of equipment;

• Staff experts in weight training programs and nutritional guidance;

• Offer free and complete training for individuals interested in setting up, owning and operating their own gym business.

Bob Zuver describes himself as a man of deep person conviction who “will never compromise service or quality” for the sake of profit. “My business is to give others the best life has to offer.”

And now, here’s an article you’ll enjoy: Ken Leistner’s memories of Zuver’s.

Book Excerpt: The Bill Pearl Tribute from
Brother Iron, Sister Steel
by Dave Draper

It was the weekend before the Mr. America contest in 1965. My training was going well, as far as I could tell. Truth was I didn’t yet know how to tell. I looked okay, but compared to what or whom? I was working hard, eating hard, braced with hard discipline and felt hard. My first months at Muscle Beach were a crash course and I established training methods I would follow forever; but I learned the essentials quickly and settled into private, unmitigated early-morning workouts. They were silent, undistracted and unrelenting: no compromise and no competition. How sweet it is.

Two years of isolated training and I wasn’t sure who I had become. I moved with three different training partners at different stages and the reinforcement and friendship were priceless. They knew the Mr. A was on my mind and stood by my side; they were too close, however, to offer the critique and subjective counsel I now sought. Only an outsider could provide an evaluation and dare to place it in my hands. Who could I trust? I needed to know if I was ready for the competition in New York City only eight days away. I also needed a pair of posing trunks. Did I mention—procrastination was one of my specialties, followed by irresponsibility and dimwittedness? Nobody’s perfect.

If you got on Washington Boulevard and followed it east for five miles you’d find yourself in East Los Angeles and standing in front of Bill Pearl’s Gym. If you walked in the front door at 6 p.m. you’d find Bill, forearms pouring out of a cut-off sweatshirt, sitting behind a wood desk, chair tilted against the wall. If you arrived at 6 a.m. Bill Pearl was under a bar, bench pressing or squatting some absurd weight for a lot of reps. His training partners would be exuding energy, zeal and perspiration. For my first visit I chose the evening hour after a gentlemanly phone call to assure he would be there. Didn’t need to go to East Los Angeles if he wasn’t. Bill was the man I could and would trust with the deed of critical analysis; thumbs up or … er … thumbs down.

A legend at thirty-five, Mr. America, Mr. Universe — twice, served in the Navy, built and owned several gyms over the years, the man was known for his incredible power and ability to bend coins and tear license plates and phone books in half. “Hi, I’m Dave. Can you tell me if I have muscles? I don’t know.” “Sure, Dave. Why don’t you come here tomorrow morning at six when my huge partners and I can stand you under the skylight and take a good look. Bring your posing trunks.”

Me and my mouth. How could I say, “Never mind” or “I don’t have posing trunks?” There are the tough times, Buster, when you can’t go forward and you can’t go back and you can’t lie. The only thing left was the truth. I was right on time, my big grin and my big gym bag and my big feet. I found the skylight on my own but couldn’t find my posing trunks. No problemo, Big D, you can borrow mine. Bill’s generosity is also overwhelming. I didn’t ask for music. Silence was loud enough.

I hit a few shots like Joe Weider, The Master Blaster, had taught me. Joe could pose a molting ostrich and he’d win “the overall” and “most muscular” hands down at any pro show on the globe. The gold metallic trunks offered by Bill fit perfectly and I felt pumped by the end of my routine. The guys were excited and full of suggestions, which further warmed me up and put the disabling self-consciousness to rest.

A few more run-throughs with additions and deletions, a change in timing and tempo, posture, facial expression and attitude adjustments and I was a different animal. You can win this thing, Draper. I’m tellin’ ya.

Click here to buy this book — $24.95

Click here to read another excerpt

Click here to read an excerpt from Bill Pearl’s Beyond the Universe

Click here to read an excerpt of Dick Tyler’s West Coast Bodybuilding Scene

by Gray Cook

Human movement is a complex thing. The many systems of the body that assist us in growing, developing and becoming movement-learning machines are a literal miracle by no stretch of the term. Understanding human behavior will never be an exact science whether we look at emotional, social, group dynamic, or human behavior as it relates to movement patterns.

The book I wrote on movement titled Movement is 408 pages, and that’s intimidating. My point with such in-depth work was not to intimidate readers or scare people out of the movement professions. It was to make them consider everything that goes into movement-learning function and dysfunction, and then de-complicate the process with a systematic checklist approach to common movement behaviors and tendencies.

In a previous article on function, I mentioned a new book introduced to me by Mike Boyle called The Checklist Manifesto. This book has a consistent and parallel theme to the other books Why We Make Mistakes and Blunder. It talks about how the more complex a human endeavor becomes and the more technical and skillful a job becomes, the more it’s necessary to rely on a systematic checklist approach for structure and consistency.

I spent the first part of the Movement book talking about the complexity of the human movement learning system and going over some motor learning principles as well as musculoskeletal limitations. But my point, by the time you get to the middle of the book, was to distill these rules and principles down to a movement-based checklist that allows the user to take immediate and consistent action following systems and principles that promote movement change.

In a way, you could say I got real complex in my own paranoid attempt not to leave anything out. In contrast, the functional movement systems should be simple, effective and inexpensive to use so a majority of users can benefit. It can be an effective part of physical education, personal fitness, strength conditioning and rehabilitation in the future.

Since I wrote Movement, it has been my mission to make sure my lectures show a different side of functional movement systems. Where the book seems very in-depth and technical, I want my lectures to demonstrate the logic and consistency of following a system when we develop exercise programs or try to change or improve the way people move.

As I’ve said before, the purpose of the movement screen is not to legislate or enforce movement perfection. It is to make us all agree that there must be a tipping point, a point of minimal functional competency. Anything below this level will probably require a different technology than simple conditioning if movement is to improve.

Therefore, I went on a journey and shared my idea with Lee Burton, my business partner, and Chris Poirier of Perform Better, the key sponsor for the majority of our Functional Movement Screen workshops. We devised the idea of a pre-conference symposium at the three Perform Better summits in 2011—Rhode Island, Chicago and Long Beach.

In a nutshell, this was our idea: We wanted to do a quick overview of the system for people who were both certified in the movement screen or just learning about it, and then pull people from the audience and have them screened right there. From this, we took their data and put these on a score sheet. We then projected each score sheet onto the screen for everyone to see, and then we discussed programing for the individual while considering their movement screen alongside the other information they provided. For those who were unable to attend the events, we turned the cameras on… and did not turn them off. We knew we would have some great spontaneous examples, and we captured the whole thing.

The reason I call this Functional Movement Improv is because we felt like an improvisational comedian who takes a topic and immediately spins it into a funny skit. We attempted to create a training program for an individual from a screen and a few questions. This was ambitious to say the least, because we were not creating programs for just any client or athlete. We were challenging the current programs of fitness, performance and rehabilitation professionals. To put it a different way, we were programming the pros. Our secret weapon: The movement screen.

Each time someone from our audience came to the stage, the new program was constructed following a movement-based checklist. The rules of movement are simple and easy to follow, but cannot be overlooked. Each time we did this, the people onstage learned they should be doing something they currently were not doing. They also learned they should not be doing something they currently were doing.

Our point in the drill was if we can improve the programming of exercise professionals with a 10-minute movement profile, imagine what you can do for your clients, athletes and patients with the extra information.

Assisting me at each Summit were some of our functional movement screening instructors, along with our functional movement staff. On the last two events including the Summit in Long Beach, I had my long-term co-pilot, Brett Jones, helping me.

Certainly without exception, every person who was screened who then came onstage to have the screen exposed to the world learned something they did not already know about movement, and discovered something to add or subtract from their exercise programs.

The attendees for this Summit were some of the best of the best trainers, strength coaches and rehabilitation professionals I’ve met. They had done their homework and knew their stuff. They were also a surprisingly fit group of people who not only taught and learned training, but lived it as well.

My source of pride here is that our little system introduced these people to holes, inconsistencies and insights into their own programming. The point of the drill was not to demonstrate that I’m a good exercise programmer, because I didn’t do anything that wasn’t already exposed as simple movement logic in the Movement book. I followed my own 10 principles and basically questioned them about movement patterns they were or were not doing in their exercise programming.

When the movement screen showed us a dysfunction, we questioned any conditioning exercise pushing against that dysfunction. When the movement screen showed the need for a correction, we introduced corrective strategy. If the movement screen did not find dysfunction in a pattern, we didn’t find a problem with conditioning that pattern.

In a very improvisational open format, we turned exercise program design into a systematic process—not simply based on a person’s goals, available equipment or my background or preference of exercise. We turned it into a process that started with the individual’s own unique signature or thumbprint of movement.

People learn faster when we figure out the way they like to learn. Some are introverts. Some are extroverts. Some want to learn in auditory format. Some are kinesthetic learners. Some need to read, practice and then read again.

If we know the way someone learns, we can design learning systems that address their needs in a more efficient manner. Taking a movement profile does the same thing for physical movement.

Watch the following excerpts from this four-hour presentation where we built a case for movement screening, demonstrated how efficient the model can be, and then closed the day by revisiting the principles that allowed us, all from different exercise and rehabilitation backgrounds, to find common ground in a movement profile.

I hope you enjoy! ~Gray Cook

Click here to review the details of the 4-disc DVD set, or place an order.

Stop Chasing Pain Review of Dr. Craig Liebenson’s New DVD Series
Perry Nickelston, DC, FMS, SFMA

Dr. Craig Liebenson is an icon in the world of chiropractic and rehabilitation. He is a pioneer in the field of understanding movement dysfunction and corrective exercise strategies to alleviate pain. His primary mission is to help people and restore their quality of life. He is a true giver in every sense of the word by teaching, sharing, and educating clinicians on his techniques. Needless to say, I really, really like the guy! Lol He is not only a trusted mentor, but a dear friend as well who has been an inspiration in helping me become a better doctor. It is my honor and privilege to review his latest contribution to the world. An impressive 3-Disc DVD Series which includes:

1. Functional Performance Training DVD

2. Core Stability Training DVD

3. Flexibility, Yoga Training and Ergonomic Postural Advice DVD

Triple Threat of Knowledge

I see people suffering in pain everyday at my Pain Laser Center. They are searching for answers. Searching for hope. Searching for an alternative to traditional therapies that are grossly inadequate. They come to me for help. By learning from experts like Dr. Liebenson I am able to provide my clients with a system that is based on sound principles that deliver maximum results. This DVD collection has been an invaluable asset in my goal of teaching clients how to move better to feel better. It’s all in how you move!

Dr. Liebenson’s DVD series is high quality with easy to follow exercise selections. There are clear camera angles with ideal distance for optimal learning. The audio is impeccable since Dr. Liebenson has chosen to voice over the videos by adding an audio track separately. This makes his explanations and instructions easy to follow and understand. So many DVD’s are published on the market that have low quality sound and bad camera angles. Not these DVD’s. No expense spared here.

The Chapter selections are easy to navigate and are divided into subsections so you can select a specific exercise you want to do. The overlay music is relaxing and smoothing. Not a distraction at all. Very easy to remain focused on the exercise and what Dr. Liebenson is saying. You have the option of purchasing the videos individually or as a set, which I highly recommend. They complement each other nicely and the levels of learning are integrated so you can continue from one DVD to the other.

Dr. Liebenson builds a solid fundamental foundation of movement and expands exercises in difficulty and challenge level based on your individual needs. Exercises are broken down into easier options for the novice and more challenging exercises for athletes or advanced users.

Functional Performance Training DVD

This DVD helps to re-educate your body. Dr. Liebenson reviews exercise basics and fundamentals so you can ‘own’ the movements. The section on ABC’s of Long Term Athletic Development was very enlightening. You learn principles of pushing, pulling, rotations and reaching as they relate to movement.

The end of the DVD covers Advanced Performance Training, agility and plyometrics (which can be very difficult to master unless you have a skilled coach like Dr. Liebenson). He also has an informative section on speed development which is built on functional power. Overall an excellent DVD to get you primed for functional movement training.

Core Stability Training DVD

This DVD is jam packed with awesome information. There is so much here to learn regarding the true techniques of core training. Core training is a popular buzzword now in the weight loss and fitness industry. Due to that popularity there inherently arrives a plethora of misinformation. Dr. Liebenson sets the record straight on the truth about Core Training.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first section on ‘Health Club Tips’ teaching you how to perform popular machine based training correctly. My pain relief clinics are located inside fitness centers and I constantly see people doing gym equipment exercises wrong. They are setting themselves up for injury and are not maximizing movement for metabolic fat burning.

Dr. Liebenson covers ‘Abdominal Bracing’ which is a SECRET WEAPON to core stability and injury recovery. This section teaches my all time favorite movement, ‘The Dead Bug.” You have to see it and then you will know what I mean! There are sections devoted to quadraped patterns, side bridges, The Superman, hamstring curls and bridges, and the McGill Abdominal Curl Up.

Section 6 on the Dying Bug is worth the entire price of the DVD in my opinion. This exercise alone can transform your body. Plus it’s the coolest name ever. Lol Section 14 is on the Shoulder/Upper Back Training which is critical to muscle balance and alleviating common pain complaints in the head and trapezius region. The ending track has a good example of a fully functional core routine that you can perform. It teaches you the thought process behind designing your own program.

Flexibility, Yoga Training and Ergonomic Postural Advice DVD

Besides having a really cool title, this DVD integrates many strategies for overall body balance. The Yoga and Respiration section is priceless in teaching proper breathing for a fundamentally optimized core. You learn assessments and techniques for maximizing diaphragmatic breathing required for relaxation and core control. Ergonomics sections demonstrate little tricks you can do at work for alleviating tension and soreness. There is an extensive section on learning to hinge with your hips for stability and reducing the risk of lower back injury.

Balance tactics are covered in detail to ensure proper stability and asymmetry from one side of the body to the other. You will find this section rather challenging. However, implementing balance training can make fast improvements in how you feel and move. Get more active with a Dynamic Warmup section showing you various ways to get your heart pumping and body moving.

The Brugger Postural Correction exercise is a gem. Stretching and mid-back postural corrections are included since this is a common area for abnormal postural referred pain. The DVD ends with another complete sample core functional routine that helps tie everything together.

The short and sweet of it is, this series is a MUST HAVE! Investing in yourself and your education is a win-win combination. Dr. Liebenson is sharing techniques learned in the trenches over the course of his distinguished career and these exercises are selected because THEY WORK! When it comes to corrective and functional exercise more is not better, better is better! It’s about precision of movement and quality over quantity. When you move better, you feel better.

This DVD series will teach you how to move better, without the risk of getting hurt. These are not your traditional hum drum boring exercises you have seen before. These are unique and effective. You will notice a positive change in your body with this program. Stay focused and don’t get discouraged. It takes time to master movements. But when you do, oh my you will feel incredible. That is a good thing! What are you waiting for? Click below to purchase them on AMAZON.

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A heartfelt and personal thank you to Dr. Liebenson for sharing his DVD’s with me. Amazing piece of work my friend, and keep it coming!

Perry Nickelston
Stop Chasing Pain