Our guest today is Adarian Barr, athletic movement coach, inventor and performance consultant. Adarian has been a mentor to me for almost 5 years, and opened up my eyes to the movement potential of the human body, how to observe it, and coach it more optimally. He has been on this podcast for many prior episodes, and has recorded a number of webinars for Just Fly Sports. The best way I can describe Adarian is that he just sees things that nobody else does in human movement, and creates a wonderful groundwork for us to creatively express those principles in our own training setups.
One of the biggest realizations, that I’m still regularly checking in on the implications of in my day to day coaching and athletic life, is how, when the joints and levers of the body are working optimally in “3D”, we tend to need much less barbell strength than we think we do to reach our highest speed performance potential. Not only this, but when we only operate in “2D” and don’t use our levers well, we need more weight room strength to be better athletes in that 2D paradigm.
One thing that Adarian does not post about often is weightlifting. Part of this is because the world of coaching is very hung up on “force” as a binary entity in human movement, and we need more education on joints and movement, rather than how to split hairs on lifting sets and reps. Adarian’s eye for movement does go well into the weightlifting world, however, and was can learn a lot from his recent observation in the area.
On today’s podcast, we dive into the Olympic lifts in particular, and how they can either foster athleticism, or suppress it, based on the lever systems we use in the execution of the lift. We get into this, and much more, such as the feet, torque, the drawbacks of hinging in the weight room, crawling, natural learning and much more in this in-depth episode.
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
6:00 The redundancy of “coaching up” natural-skill-based human strength movements
16:45 Adarian’s history with weightlifting as a football player and track and field athlete
24:50 Deconstructing the Olympic lifts in regards to what transfers to athletic speed and what does not
33:40 Good and poor “class 1” levers of the foot
41:25 Thoughts on the initial stages of the pull off the ground in athleticism
45:25 Using the hands more effectively to change the emphasis of exercise to the body
50:10 Full catches in the Olympic lifts, foot pressure and internal rotation, and how these can be optimized for athletic transfer
57:10 Why Adarian is not a fan of hinging from a foot loading perspective
“The feet are pointing out for a reason in (natural) squatting, because the calves are rotating them”
“A lot of people equate lifting to athletic ability, that the lift makes you athletic. The biggest thing is when I see the levers…. Some people when they (Olypmic) lift to get strong, I see them shrug, then they do a plantar-flex, which is a class 1 lever, then they catch the bar. That’s not going to transfer over (to athleticism) they are probably just going to get stronger”
“What do they say, look at the (lift) numbers he is doing that’s what made him fast. No! He can do those (lift) numbers because he is fast!”
“I used to think (Olympic lifters) were bumping the bar with their hips. What do you actually see? When they hit the bar with class 2 (foot position) it bumps them backwards (class 2 being advantageous for athleticism)”
“If the Achilles (tendon) isn’t working, you will be quad dominant or hamstring dominant”
“There are two “class 1” motions, there’s inversion/eversion, and there is plantarflexion dorsiflexion. Those ones that use inversion/eversion are going to really do something… that reflexive class 1 saves the day”
“That’s the beauty of the brain, it’s not going to let you hurt yourself… I’m trying to crash the plane (and let the brain save me)… It’s weird that people don’t let the brain work”
“Everything is rotational, the direction is linear, but the movement is rotational”
“Once the calves twist, the arches (of the foot) set with you. As I try to squat down, move the calf out of the way, and if you move the calf out of the way, everything else is going to work out below that”
“One of the foot’s jobs is to sense movement, where you are in space and time, and how much load is on the body, but it can’t do that until they have been pressurized, in a sense”
“Once you put the thumb down (in exercises) things start to change”
“People crawl like a robot… once you rotate that calf, shin angles change and you don’t have to lift your butt up to get your leg through…. Just as I would rotate the calf to do a lift, I would rotate the calf to crawl, because I want pressure on the foot to tell me something”
“Where is the information in the lift coming from, that’s really important”
Show Notes
Lift with More “Class 2” Lever Action in the Second Pull
Lift with More “Class 1” Lever Action in the Second Pull
Lifting with an “Eversion/Inversion” Dominant Class 1 Lever
Donald Thomas Tremendous Foot Pressure Deforming High Jump Shoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j3pbQH9nLU
About Adarian Barr
Adarian Barr is a track coach and inventor based out of Woodland, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, UNC Pembroke, Yuba City Community College.
He has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. Adarian is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles and relays. He has a master’s degree in Physical Education.
Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by some of the top coaches in the nation.
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