Nick Tumminello Hybrid Strength Training & Conditioning | Ft.Lauderdale Personal Trainer | Sports Performance & Bodybuilding » Functional Assessments / Movement Screen

Assessing our Assessments – Part 2

nick — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:31:05 +0000

I’m back with another installment of my Assessing our Assessments series. In this series, I look at simple and effective ways of improving the way Fitness Professionals use Postural Assessments and Functional Movement Screens. . As I mentioned in Part 1, I use my own hybrid style Assessment of Gray Cook’s Functional Movement Screen. Eventually, I may make an assessments for Strength Coaches DVD. Please comment below and let me know if you’d be interested in purchasing that kind of product if I produced one? . Part 1 of Assessing our Assessments was some what controversial. Today, in Part 2 – I’m simply going to provide you with a piece of advice (from the trenches) everyone can use from Strength Coach to Athletic Trainer to Personal Trainer to Physical Therapist. .

Regardless of who you are or who you work with, if you’re using some sort of Postural of Functional Movement Assessment, take this simple advice piece of advice -

Don’t EVER make your clients feel bad!

. No, I don’t mean you’re going to be nasty to them. I’m talking about when you’re performing their Functional movement/ Postural assessment. Don’t jump at every chance to tell your client what a train wreck they are! . Keep in mind you are working with someone who knows they need help. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have hired your services in the first place. They may already be uncomfortable with how they look, move and/or feel. Don’t add to that by telling them how horrible their posture is, how poorly the move or that their glutes don’t work. By the way, if you’re telling folks their glutes are off, you must read this post! . I don’t care how poorly someone performs during a Functional Movement assessment! – I never tell my clients anything but positive stuff like “nice work, you did exactly what I asked of you!” or just simply “good job!”. . I’ve even seen other presenters at conferences bring up a Fitness professional from the audience, assess all their supposed “dysfunctions”, then proceed to tear this poor volunteer to pieces in front of all their colleagues and friends. You should see the negative body language and uncomfortable facial expressions of these poor folks who were only trying to learn some new training techniques. Instead, they get publicly embarrassed. That’s certainly not what these folks paid for nor is what your clients are paying for either! . My friends the “let me show you all your dysfunctions, or show you all the ways you suck at moving because I’m so super educated” tactic is certainly not I how I teach nor how I deal with clients. Again – DON’T MAKE ANYONE FEEL BAD! You can still discuss what needs to be improved and help people without seeming condescending or trying to “break people”. . When doing my assessments, I may be thinking “Man, I’ve got lots of work ahead of me with this person”. But , my client doesn’t need to know that. I’m happy to tell folks in a diplomatic way, what they need to work on and improve. But, I will never say anything that could possibly be discouraging or make them feel bad about their body and how they move. . Keep in mind that above all the fancy technical training tactics and exercises, we work with living, breathing people with thoughts, feeling and emotions. Your clients mental/ spiritual fitness is just as important as their physical! If you have never seen the movie Patch Adams – There is a great quote where Patch says “The only difference between a Doctor and a Scientist is Doctors deal with live people”. We can take a lesson from Patch! . I hope you enjoyed today’s post!

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Don’t forget to comment about if you’d like me to produce a DVD teaching my Performance U method of Functional Movement Assessment?

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Low Back Pain – An Inside Look at the Spine

nick — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:24:21 +0000

As I mentioned in these posts, Low back pain is a popular topic because so many folks, of all ages, suffer from it. . My good friend and colleague, Mark Young, has provided us some incredible videos about the anatomy of the spine and why specific exercises like Crunches, Squats and Russian Twists may be more risky than others. . The value of the information Mark’s videos provide us is priceless! – And, you get them here absolutely FREE! . NOTE – the views displayed in the videos below do not necessarily coincide with the Performance U approach to Strength & Conditioning. . . . . . . .

I always pride myself on being a neutral, non-biased educator. So, in my next post, I will talk about the negative side of looking at the spine in the manner in which Mark provided above. You absolutely don’t want to miss it. So, stay tuned!

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Muscle Activation – Can a Muscle be turned off?

nick — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:50:30 +0000

These days, it’s not uncommon to attend a Fitness Conference or be at a gym and hear Fitness professionals saying something to the effect off… . - You glutes are not firing or, Your glutes are off! - Your Transverse Abdominis (TvA) is turned off - Your (fill in the blank)__________ muscle is not activating . I’m sorry to say but statements like the ones above in most cases are inaccurate and flat out wrong! .

There are only 3 reasons for a muscle to actually be turned off:

1. Paralysis

2. Deinnervation

3. Death

. Now, if you work with dead clients -you have the most boring job in the world and you’ll never get paid! The other two reasons require a qualified Therapist, not a FItness Professional! .

The TRUTH is -

- If you can walk, your glutes are on!

- If you can breath, your TvA is on!

. Now, lets get one thing crystal clear – Just because a muscle is active, doesn’t mean it’s level of activation is optimal! . This is why I use Muscle Activation exercises as a regular part of my Warm Ups… and you should too! . Throughout our daily living/working activities, we tend to spends lots of time sitting, slouching and not doing much athletic activity. . In these cases, certain important muscles such as your glutes, scapular stabilizers and abdominals tend to down regulate their level of activation below optimal levels needs for safe, efficient and healthy movement. . Over-time, this can lead to problems such as poor posture, sub-optimal athletic performance and drastically increase risk of injury. . Also, it can drastically hinder your performance in the gym if nothing is done during the transition stage from normal activity to athletic/gym based activity. This transition stage is your Warm Up! . Muscle activation exercises help to quickly restore muscles to optimal levels of activation by utilizing exercises that cause your CNS to up-regulate them. .

The BIG take home Message!

. There are 3 very important points you should take away from this post: .

1. Muscles usually aren’t off, the muscle’s level of activation is simply down-regulated!

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2. If a muscle is actually turned off, it’s beyond the scope of practice of a Fitness Professional to deal with.

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3. Do your Muscle Activation exercises before EVERY workout!

. . Leave your comments below and tell us about your favorite muscle activation exercises and techniques! . .

How Strong Are Your Glutes, Really?

nick — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:14:24 +0000

by Nick Tumminello 07/06/09

_ The importance of a strong, shapely backside is obvious, but how do you achieve it? Coach Nick’s never before seen techniques are guaranteed to work.

Continue reading…

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Flexibility vs. Mobility

nick — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:20:46 +0000

I’m finally getting around to posting videos from a few of my latest workshops. Check out the video from my Dynamic Warm Up – New Concepts and Techniques Workshop at IDEA Fitness Fusion in Chicago. I will be posting a few more workshop videos here so keep checking back. Additionally, I have a few choice videos coming exclusively to only my newsletter subscribers. So if your not on the list, sign up now at the top of the page. _ _ _