Today’s podcast features Bill Hartman and Chris Wicus. Bill Hartman is a physical therapist and in-demand educator with his modern approach to human mechanics and training. Bill has been an influential figure to many guests on this podcast, as well as my own views on training. Chris Wicus is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience, a former professional ultimate frisbee player, and a 2nd degree black belt in karate. He has coached a wide variety of athletes across 17 sports and has been mentored by many top experts in the field.
Bill and Chris host the “Reconsider” podcast together and speak on various cutting-edge approaches to human movement in a way that prompts thinking on existing processes in the field, and how to move forward with current understandings of training and biomechanics.
So often in physical training, athletes are told to master the basics of “Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Etc.”, but unfortunately, within this framework, there is little to no consideration of how various body types have the capacity to carry out those lifts, and what impact intensifying those movements will have on indivdiuals.
On today’s show, Bill and Chris speak to the nature of the big lifts (squat, bench, deadlift), and how both “Narrow” and “Wide” ISA athletes (elastic and muscular) will be able to process those movements. We talk about the helical nature of our human design, and how it impacts movement preferences. We also discuss specific strength strategies for athletes who are more narrow and wide, and how to better tailor one’s overall strength program to one’s athletic needs.
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Main Points
6:49– Optimizing Fitness Training for Personal Strengths
13:20– Structural Archetypes: Impact on Athletic Performance
20:32– Helical Influence on Exercise Selection
21:17– Helical Design Influence on Exercise Selection
23:32– Optimal Deadlifting Structure for Performance Success
27:06– Optimizing Performance Through Helical Angles
30:30– Optimizing Force Production for Athletic Performance
31:42– Enhanced Performance Through Strong Grip Training
48:52– Structural Bias Optimization for Deadlift Stance
1:07:54– Optimizing Squat Training for Structural Archetypes
1:12:42– Optimizing Squat Variations for Body Structure
1:18:28– Tailoring Exercises to Individual Constraints for Performance
1:20:14– Archetype-Based Training Support Network and Resources
Quotes
“The more I lifted in the gym, the worse I felt. So then I start just running more. And by the end of my athletic career was just mostly sprinting and running and not so much of, like, the slow grindy stuff.” – Chris Wicus
“You look at the difference between 100 meters sprinter, an 800 meters runner, and then a 5K runner, and you’re going to see this progressive difference in body type – Bill Hartman
“At all measures of scale in a human, all levels of scale. So down to your DNA. So DNA is structured helically. A collagen fiber is structured helically. All of your joints move on helical pathways. So we are helically designed” – Bill Hartman
“And so it’s not, that narrows can’t do deadlifts, but we’re going to make modifications that are going to make it more ideal” – Bill Hartman
“Too much force production because of the way that we produce force takes away something else that I needed.” – Bill Hartman
“The best, the most athletic I ever got, I had, like, a 38 inch vertical at one point, was doing like; high rack deadlift pulls, where you drop it from the top and dead depth drops. Depth jumps. And that was like, the majority of my training. And it was super heavy” Chris Wicus
“The more you compress something front to back, the farther the joint orientation is away from midline. So that’s why sumo becomes more comfortable for people. Especially you have a really. If you have a really athletic narrow, he’s probably. Or she’s probably experiencing a lot of compression from front to back. So a sports sumo position might be the best thing for them because, with the squeezing from front to back, everything is just going away from midline” Chris Wicus
“As long as you have some type of key performance indicators running in the background, it doesn’t really matter what you do as long as the ranges of motion that you expect are there. Their perceived pain and injury and their movement is to a certain degree that you want.” – Chris Wicus
“Okay, that sticking point, the reason it’s called a sticking point is because it’s a transitional behavior. It’s a shape change in the pelvis. It’s a positional change in the anterior outlet. It is a higher demand to maintain the internal pressures because think about it, if I put a bar in your back, what did I just do? I instantly created the amount of pressure that’s pushing you into the ground.” – Bill Hartman
Show Notes
About Bill Hartman
Bill Hartman is known for finding solutions for people in pain that have failed with other forms of treatment. He is an in-demand educator in his approach to restoring a pain-free lifestyle, and understanding the governing principles of movement as applied to human performance. He regularly mentors physical therapy students and interns many of whom have gone on to land positions in professional sport or become successful business owners themselves.
Bill owns IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana and Co-owns Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson, where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. He is the author of the book, All Gain – No Pain: The over-40 Comeback Guide to Rebuilding a Fit and Pain-free Body After Pain, Injury, or Physical Therapy.
About Chris Wicus
Chris is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience. His coaching journey began around 25 years ago as a karate instructor, where he taught people from ages 4 to 70. He holds a 2nd degree black belt and was a nationally ranked ultimate frisbee player in college, later playing professionally. His own experiences with injuries and rehabilitation led him to pursue studies in Integrative Kinesiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Chris has worked as a performance coach across various levels, training athletes from 17 different sports, including Olympians and professional athletes. After completing graduate studies in sport coaching, psychology, and management, he became the training and education director at a high-end facility in NYC, where he trained A-list celebrities and high-level executives.
Over the years, Chris has learned from leading experts in rehabilitation, exercise physiology, speed, agility, and strength & conditioning, dedicating thousands of hours to education and coaching to become an effective problem-solver for his clients.
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