Today’s podcast features Dr. Michelle Boland and Dr. Tim Richardt, speaking on the topic of exercise categorization and classification, as well as the process of selecting and integrating gym training movements based on the specific needs of athletes and clients.
Michelle Boland is the owner of michelleboland-training.com and has several years of professional experience as an NCAA DI strength coach working with nationally ranked teams, and a wide variety of sports. Michelle is a leader in the integration of concepts rooted in the work of PRI and Bill Hartman into practical sports performance application. Michelle has appeared previously on this podcast on episode #108 speaking on functional performance training based on PRI ideals and more.
(You can grab Michelle’s “Resource Road Map”, a compilation of the best resources in the fitness industry for free at michelleboland-training.com/resource-road-map)
Tim Richardt is a physical therapist and CSCS who has been a competitive runner and strength training junkie since the age of 14. Tim has an awesome blend on knowledge on all things running, rehab, gait, and strength training principles. Tim’s personal journey through injury and rehabilitation, including 2 hip surgeries, has given him unique insight into effective long-term resolution of overuse injuries among endurance and strength athletes.
In traditional strength and conditioning and fitness models, we tend to have things like “squat”, “hinge”, “push”, “pull”, and perhaps several other movements, based on our preference, when working with athletes. Although the “old-school” classification certainly serves to facilitate a general balance of forces and muscle groups, we can improve our process even further by understanding how the human body works in gait and dynamic movement, and then reverse-engineer our exercise selection from there. When our movement execution processes can match gaps, or reinforce strengths in running, jumping, throwing and sport movement technique, we can eliminate guess work and give our clients, and/or ourselves, greater results.
On today’s show, Michelle and Tim speak on the evolution of their training processes and how they classify movements in the gym. We get heavily into running as a specific example, and how to reverse engineer training movements based on run technique. We also finish with chatting on how Michelle and Tim continue to integrate the “big lifts” into their programs, and what adjustments they have made in the versions of those lifts that stick with them in their training schemes.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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Timestamps and Main Points
5:20 Michelle and Tim’s recent modes of exercise and training and what they have learned from them
9:20 How Tim has been incorporating “one arm running” into his training and coaching routines
15:00 Tim and Michelle’s journey of evolving the lifts they utilized
20:50 What role do the big lifts still play in Michelle and Tim’s program, in light of other evolving categorizations
35:15 What starting point do Tim and Michelle go from when constructing a strength program for performance (for running specifically)
45:50 Adjusting the lifts in a program based on biomechanical running goals of the athlete
58:40 How a performance-driven session for Michelle goes in light of the big lifts and a modern idea on exercise classification
“We need to get out of these gross (exercise) categorizations that have really come from other sports (powerlifting, Olympic lifting)” Boland
“There is a difference between fitness and movement” Boland
“I think there is a huge benefit to bilateral lifts because we can hit them as a high intensity stimulus and maintain that over time, and then use split stance, frontal and transverse plane activities as movements that will keep them healthy over time” Boland
“We say the word “squat” but there are so many ways to squat” Boland
“The first thing I want to see (in regards to determining an exercise program) is what their running looks like” Richardt
“An individual (who is too vertical, and doesn’t generate horizontal force) might do really well with a rear foot elevated split squat to be able to fall, and “propulse” correctly. Conversely, if someone is falling forward too much, it might be worthwhile to elevate the front foot” Richardt
“You are going to have to take that whole stack (head, thorax, pelvis) and orient that forward, to give you a much more advantageous position to push from. If that goes too far, then you lose the ability to create enough vertical force to support yourself, and then you are a series of un-supported falls in space” Richardt
“How I view exercise categorization is, you need to pick two extremes, and then fill in buckets in between” Boland
“Are we dealing with someone that is maybe, “overly concentric” and doesn’t yield enough, and then we might use a super-slow eccentric, we are probably going to load them minimally, or not at all. We are probably going to elevate the front foot and teach them a yielding strategy, because that’s what that person needs” Richardt
“I use the warm up as increasing heart rate, blood flow, all that, while teaching them something that they are going to do later” Boland
“There is always going to be an element of gait at play in bilateral activity… even though both things are happening on the left and right simultaneously, we’re still dealing with the gait cycle” Richardt
“If we lose the ability to do a full-depth squat while chasing a 500lb deadlift, we are probably going to become a worse athlete, but if we can deadlift double bodyweight and squat pretty clean ass-to-grass, that’s going to be a more resilient athlete” Richardt
About Michelle Boland
Michelle Boland is the owner of michelleboland-training.com and is an in-demand writer and speaker in the field of human performance. She has several years of professional experience as a strength and conditioning coach at a Division 1 institution working with a nationally ranked top 5 Women’s Ice Hockey team, a nationally ranked top 10 Men’s Ice Hockey team, and other teams including Field Hockey, Women’s Soccer, and Men’s Basketball. She created Michelle Boland Training, in order to support others in achieving their performance and fitness goals to the best of my abilities.
Michelle earned her Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from Springfield College, has studied under mentors in the field such as Pat Davidson and is a leader in the integration of Postural Restoration Institute® based concepts into practical sports performance application.
About Tim Richardt
Tim has been a competitive runner and strength training junkie since the age of 14. He attended Penn State in order to pursue degrees in Biomechanics and Neurobiology, where he continued to run competitively at the club level. While in State College, he also helped to develop CrossFit Nittany, one of the town’s first CrossFit affiliates.
Tim’s personal journey through injury and rehabilitation, including 2 hip surgeries, has given him unique insight into effective long-term resolution of overuse injuries among endurance and strength athletes. He continues to sport an addiction to lifelong learning as well as a passion for all things running, strength, and rehabilitation. In his free-time he can be spotted throwing around a heavy kettlebell in the gym, sprinting 200 meter intervals on the track, or enjoying a long trail run up a tall mountain.
Tim has a B.S. in neuroscience from Penn State. He has attended Regis University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program, and currently resides in Boston, MA. Some of his certifications and course-work includes a CSCS, Crossfit Level 1, SFMA, exensive PRI course work, and a Dry Needling certification.
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