Will Williams Visit to Movement Minneapolis

Will Williams from PA and Maryanne Garvin from CO came out this weekend for two days of biomech this weekend, it was a very rewarding time for me to spend time with these two exceptional trainers.

Will and I met in 2009 when I attended the RKC II. At the time Will was a vegan who was around 220 lbs and suffering from a variety of pain issues in his shoulder, upper back, hip, and ankle. I am pretty certain Will hated me from some online comments and articles I made over the last few years. After kicking it all weekend we obviously were supposed to be friends.

It was a great time having you out brother

I began working with Will in the spring of this year to teach him to resolve the pain issues he was struggling with. He had stopped most of his training after having a hernia repaired and was in need of something new. After 5 phone calls he finally decided to try out this crazy business of “toe touches and arm raises” and reduced his pain in several weeks.

Jumping forward to right now- this was the best I have seen Will move and look in over a year. Will weighs in right now just over 235 and is able to lift barbells, kettlebells, and hit some impressive body weight drills with no pain or discomfort.

On Friday we covered some barbell lifts and how to break them down by component, and some recommendations on new tests to run for his specific injury history.

Saturday Maryanne and I spent the better part of 6 hours covering biomechanics and Gym Movement along with some specifics relating to her profession in Pilates and body work.

We went down town to watch the UFC at Ugly Mug, had an awesome dessert and watched Brock Lesner get destroyed by Cain Velasquez in the first round.

Sunday we covered application of the Movement Model to a variety of drills and goals, talked some biochem/MetFlex, and rehab protocols. I am very excited to see how much better Maryanne’s clients recover with these new ideas for her rehab program.

I will share some of the topical areas I covered in more depth

• Modifying gym movements to life movements
• Asymmetrical work with varied implements
• Programming for each of the three kinds of clients
• Dissecting movements by component to weed out weak links
• MetFlex overview with application for each of the three clients

Some thoughts I would like you to ponder:

If we view fitness practice from the lens of movement- does your personal practice make sense? The more we look at how people train the clearer it becomes most people are very confused. This is apparent by their lack of results. Are you unsure of what results means? Less fat, more muscle, more strength, more endurance, more flexibility, more stability, more mobility, more power, and superior global movement. There are concurrent results, there is no reason why you should not be increasing in all quantities of movement at once….unless you don’t know what you’re doing.

Does your fitness program propel you forward to feeling better day to day, week to week., or does it leave you feeling burned out, trashed, and fucked up?

I have a question, what is a back off week? I have not had a de-load, back off week, or down time in over a year. I am told over and over they are “essential” but my practice does not confirm this “fact”

Barbells, Kettlebells, Maces, Clubs, Grippers, Hammers, bands- these are tools. They are not systems of training. They are merely resistance for movements of the body A press is a press is a press, the only difference is how the tool provides resists the movement. The foundational knowledge for any tool is mechanics and physics, not special schools and courses glorifying the tool.

The role of the trainer is education to the client. Not a babysitter, not a hired friend, not a drill sergeant.

Looking forward to having you back out brother.

ATG