Category Archives: Performance

Testimonial – Authentic and Unsolicited. Thank you for sharing, Scott!

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(after writing this, it looks a lot like a testimonial, so use it if you wish!)

Hi Maia,

I’m delighted to report that the philosophy of practicing FT with abandon throughout the day turns out to apply beautifully to skiing. I was tentative about getting back on the slopes today after very painful recent experiences where I could hardly stand up straight at the end of the day. After my first run today I felt some familiar strain in the low back. While riding the chairlift I felt inspired to see whether I could ski with a narrow stance founder. So…what happened on the next semi-steep bump run blew me away: I started the run in a shallow founder position, and quickly noticed that I not only didn’t feel any low back strain, but I was automatically placed in an aggressive and effective skiing position. And oddly, I felt my old high school racing form return and fluidly nailed the bump run and got strong edge articulation in the high-speed groomer section. Amazing!!

While riding the chair I did a few things that seemed to complement the founder-style skiing, in what amounted to active resting. Letting my poles hang between my closely spaced and parallel-positioned skis, I made side-by-side fists and isometrically pulled my knees together during the ride. At the same time I did decompression breathing. I was careful to not use the backrest of the chair and made sure to keep a nice curvature in the low back while breathing. I also added some good-mornings from that position.

The result was that I felt good each time I got off the lift, and skied strongly and well with little to no pain — and the conditions were bulletproof hard-pack to boot!

It was a joy to discover this, and I’m realizing that FT needs to be as much a part of my daily life as eating well and exercising. Thanks so much for helping me develop this new lifestyle, you’re a great teacher!

Scott

Foundation Training at Massage Boulder!

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foun·da·tion  [foun-dey-shuhn]
noun 1. the basis or groundwork of anything

Advanced Life & Sports Performance: Foundation Training

Foundation Training Testimonials

Maia Ignatz, Foundation Training Instructor
My expertise in human movement, anatomy, and physiology, paired with my passion for life, sport, and helping others, makes me a great Foundation Training Instructor. I constantly strive to learn more and be my best in what I love and do in Life!

Foundation Training & Massage Therapy are perfect compliments to each other. Through massage therapy you will improve or maintain the condition of your tissues and bodily systems – from your mitochondria, fascia, tendons, ligaments, muscles, organs, immune system, nervous system, etc. to your mental/emotional being. Foundation Training will teach you to move properly, increase strength and flexibility, improving the faulty movement patterns that are causing aches, pains, and injuries.

Foundation Training: Relieve Pain, Improve Athletic Performance, and Prevent Injuries
Foundation Training is a series of body-weight exercises based on properly integrating the muscular chains of the body. Foundation exercises begin with the Posterior Chain of Muscles, to stabilize your spine and pelvis – your core, because our modern lifestyles cause most of these muscles to become weak and imbalanced. Weak and imbalanced muscles result in pain, decreased function, and improper movement patterns throughout the body. Get the most out of life and sport by training your body to move the way it was intended to move.

80-90% of Americans will experience chronic back pain at some time in their lives; however, this does NOT mean that back pain is normal, it is not normal. Back pain comes in many forms, from low back pain, middle back pain, or upper back pain & neck pain, to low back pain with sciatica. Take action, be proactive and take care of your spine. Stop treating the symptom, the pain, and change the movement pattern(s) that are causing dysfunction, breakdown, and pain. Stabilize and strengthen your back & core with Foundation!

Everyone can Benefit from Foundation Training: improve spinal & pelvic – core – stability, improve posture, improve the integrity of every movement you make, improve performance, significantly decrease your chances for injury, and decrease or eliminate pain.

foundationtraining.com

How Can Foundation Training Make me a Better Athlete?
If you are interested in mastering powerful movement patterns to improve performance and get the most out of physical activity, Foundation Training is for you – from the recreational athlete to professional athlete. When the muscles of the posterior chain learn to work together, your body will naturally brace the low back and support the spine and pelvis, giving you a more stable platform to drive movement from. The large muscles that surround the hips will properly function to propel you forward with power and coordination. You will become stronger, more flexible, and more functionally fit, ultimately improving performance.

How Can Foundation Training Help keep me Injury & Pain-Free?
Think about the mechanics, if you improperly load a system (i.e. your body: low back, knees, etc) or you load a weak structure (your core: the muscles attaching to your pelvis), you will accelerate wear and tear in the areas that are absorbing force, resulting in injury and pain. Why might you improperly load you body? Because most people have learned faulty movement patterns, resulting in aberrant joint tracking and loading which leads to degeneration. Foundation Training teaches you to move properly, with integrity, spreading force throughout a chain of muscles – intended to absorb force, resulting in natural movement patterns and a decreased chance of injury and pain.

The Science:
Foundation training is neuroplasticity, or “muscle memory”.  With Foundation Training, the nerves that control/innervate the muscles are enhanced and the movement patterns become an embedded process.  Later, when mastering movement/activities of your choice, you do not have to think about how to move properly, these patterns and neurological pathways will be accessed automatically. With Foundation Training, it is the quality of the exercises and frequency that you do them that matter most. Foundation is a great bookend to any activity (before & after).

Why work with an Instructor?
Peace of mind, improved health & performance, efficient use of time & money – quality. You will get proper instruction from someone who is qualified to teach these very specific exercises. Working with a Certified Instructor will assure that you are taught to do the exercises correctly, safely, & effectively – for your body, and you will be more efficient with your time and training.

Please come to Foundation Training Sessions prepared to move, tremble, and sweat – wear comfortable, athletic clothing, bring a yoga mat and a water bottle.

Triathlon Training: Benefits Of Massage

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Written by: Cliff English

Are you an athlete who cringes at the thought of making massages a part of your regular training habits? Coach Cliff English explains why seeking massages before your muscles seize should be an integral part of your training plan.

I definitely cannot say massage therapy is a foreign recovery modality concept to most triathletes, and even the most stalwart holdouts can be seen on occasion receiving a post-race massage or two. It seems massage is still viewed as a luxury and an indulgence and is used very infrequently. Most will still wait until every muscle has seized up and muscles and tendons are about as tight as the weave of carbon on your carbon-fiber bike.

Sure, if you wait until that point, you will garner some brief relief from your ailments. However, for an athlete at any level, the real benefits arise from frequent massage therapy and from working with a massage therapist that understands sports massage and your body. I believe that if you are serious about your sport and performance, it is essential to integrate massage therapy into your training program. To help convince those that are still unsure, I have enlisted the help of certified massage therapist Briana Averill to strengthen my points. Averill is a licensed and nationally certified massage therapist in Tucson, Ariz. She works with runners, cyclists, triathletes and swimmers ranging from the weekend warrior to Olympic medalists.

Massage therapy has numerous benefits for athletes. Massage can speed up recovery after a large day of training, a race or a big block of training. According to Averill, “Massage increases blood flow to the muscles to help speed healing by flushing out the metabolic waste.” Averill says it can also give the athlete a chance to reconnect his mind and body and decompress. In a similar manner, “active recovery” can be utilized in the weeks that you do not have a massage scheduled, and it is also a very effective means of flushing metabolic waste.This would usually entail a light 30-minute swim or a 60-minute bike ride at a lower-end aerobic effort (zone 1).

Averill says that regular massage can help manage and prevent injury by bringing awareness to areas of the body that are not functioning or responding as efficiently as possible. “The therapist, if he understands the nature of the various injuries or dysfunctions can treat the athlete accordingly if it is within his scope of practice to do so,” she says.

The ideal frequency for massage therapy is twice a week for an elite athlete, once a week minimum. For a recreational athlete, it would be once a week to once a month based on need.

In coaching, one of the key components to success is a strong athlete/coach relationship built upon trust and effective communication. Similarly, it is key to establish a relationship with your massage therapist so he not only gets to know your body but also is able to work out with you what type and depth the massage should be for what you need in that microcycle (week) or training cycle. Massage should be periodized, and when you integrate it into your yearly plan, it will really reap huge benefits.

“Every person is different and what is highly effective for one person may not be for another,” says Averill. “But in general, for big load weeks, getting a good, deep flush once or twice a month is great, but not so deep that fatigue is increased in the muscles.” Averill cautions that your therapist should be in tune with your body and should have the experience to know how much is beneficial. Recovery weeks are a good time for more specific work. Then, in a competition week, it is all about what works for you as an individual just as with a taper.

“Some of my clients have responded well with deep, specific work early in the week before a race,” says Averill, “while others just prefer a nice, easy flush mid-week to a few days before.”

Ideally, I like to have my athletes get a massage the day before either a day off or the day before a light “active recovery” day. This is a good example of how to effectively use massage as a key component in a microcycle. A deep massage the day before a key track session or bike interval session will leave the athlete feeling sluggish for that session, and for most it would end up being a tough day of training.

When possible, schedule your pre-race massage early in the race week and then definitely get a post-race massage either right after the race (highly recommended) or the day after with your regular therapist. Throw in an ice bath lasting three to five minutes somewhere shortly after the race, and you will get the type of recovery that most pros use. This combo will have you recovered and ready to start another block of training in no time!

For daily preventive maintenance, it is also recommended to do a little self-massage with a foam roller, a TP massage ball, quad ball, roller stick or pretty much any self-massage torture apparatus you can get you hands on.

The rollers are effective to roll out the quads, IT bands and calves while the smaller balls are perfect for getting into glutes, adductors and soleus muscles. Remember that while a healthy dose of pain is always part of a triathlete’s daily regimen, too much may not always be a good thing.

Staying on top of your recovery with frequent massage is a great way to keep your body fine-tuned and running like the world-class machine that it is!

Coach Cliff English has over 15 years of experience coaching athletes ranging from age-groupers to Olympians, first-timers to Ironman champions.

Triathlon Training: Benefits Of Massage

*Remember, you do not have to be an athlete to benefit from regular massage therapy! Everyone can benefit from making regular massage therapy a part of their health and wellness routine!!

Hey Athletes…

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Off-Season / Maintenance

Maintenance is often the key to athletic success. To ensure that you will be ready for your next activity or event, whether it is days or months away, a personal strategy can be devised. Deep tissue is one therapy that will release the knots and patterns that may inhibit your performance. The Off-Season is a great time to work towards normalizing repetitively used and stressed muscles and other  tissues.

Sports maintenance massage is performed when an athlete has reduced his or her training schedule, is not competing, or during the athlete’s off-season. A sports maintenance massage works with an athlete’s strength, flexibility, coordination, biomechanics, posture, stress patterns, scar tissue, and existing injuries.

Sometimes, athletes do not perform to their maximum potential during their season due to recurring injury. Additionally, they may not have made enough time for massage therapy, appropriate rest/recovery periods, and exercises for proper rehabilitation during the season; and most athletes do not want to miss any training because of injuries, so they return to action before their injuries have sufficiently healed. This is why sports maintenance massage is so important and why it is ideally received when the athlete is not competing or during the off-season.

With consistent sports maintenance massage therapy,  the therapist and athlete can work together to achieve the greatest changes for the athlete and support a higher level of athletic performance.