My three favorite talks:

Al Vermeil, Lee Burton and John Berardi

When I arrived to the summit on Friday morning I was overwhelmed with my possibilities. It was between Mike Boyle's, Preparing to Workout, John Graham's, Design and Application of Resistance Training and Conditioning Programs, Alwyn Cosgrove's, Designing Effective Semi-Private Training Programs and Al Vermeil's, Speed: The Ultimate Weapon. Naturally, I was at a four-way intersection where no compass, GPS or trail of breadcrumbs could help me choose a direction. In a last minute decision I chose Al Vermeil, when convinced by a co-worker it would be extremely beneficial due to its focus on drive, first-push and leg angles. This was the first time I had seen Al and let's just say he more than impressed me from his very first slide. Al's opening slide was his acknowledgments. He mentioned that when giving a presentation always open with your appreciation to those who helped you get where you are, a great life lesson. Al continued on by dissecting rate of force development through triple extension on the first push and most importantly, hip extension. "Tell me a sport that doesn't require the use of good hip extension…" Al commanded. We all sat quietly. He continued by mentioning that in even a sport like golf, where hip extension may not seem as crucial, that studies have shown a direct correlation between vertical jump height and distance of drives of the tee. He then continued with an assortment of exercises emphasizing first push and shin angles, including lean fall runs, push-up starts and rollover sprints. He then added the simplicity of including medicine ball work with your sprint drills, such as squat to chest pass, to sprint or long jump to med ball chest pass to sprint. It was a mixed bag of plyometrics all with their own twist of medicine ball drills. I left with more than a dozen exercises I cannot wait to try myself or with my athletes. I was fortunate enough to catch Al later on outside during a break and pick his brain. After talking shop for a few minutes, he mentioned to me how upset he was about the way the industry is using the internet. He told me that if everyone spent more time learning and less time giving negative feedback, saying that this guy is an idiot and that guy is close-minded, we would all be better off. He told me that the reason our industry is always changing and people are always learning is because no one is ALL right, no one has ALL the answers, only opinions and ideas of what works based on learning and experience. He told me, although you may not agree with what someone thinks that does not mean you need to be negatively vocal about it, just don't use it. Plain and simple. Meeting Al was truly enlightening and refreshing.

One delicious burrito later, and again, after another tough decision, I sat in on Lee Burton's Fundamentals and Techniques for Core Testing and Assessment. For a second time I was able to hear someone I had never seen before. Lee opened by mentioning that if he asked everyone in the room to define "core" he would get 100 different answers and they would probably all be right to some degree. He then talked about something so simple, that I never really thought of. He asked, "What makes the core dysfunctional?" His answer was, "a stability or mobility imbalance and/or any pain will result in an inefficient or compensatory movement." Basically any pain, or any imbalances in mobility, whether it is restricted mobility or hyper mobility, all lead back to a dysfunction in the core. Lee then gave us the seven tests of the Functional Movement Screen, explaining that these are crucial to identifying mobility and stability problems. The seven tests are; squatting, stepping, lunging, reaching, leg raising, push-up, rotary stability. Lee closed by showing a few slides that showed simple exercises that could help identify whether the core is dysfunctional. He said the best ones for testing the core are exercises that need to show symmetry from both sides, such as tall or half kneeling chops and lifts. Also side planks or bridges, are the hips driven all the way through on one side and is the other side unstable? These are all great tests on exercises that are found in many programs.

The last presentation I saw was Dr. John Berardi's, Nutrition and Injury Recovery. The only thing that impressed me as much as his knowledge was his ability to speak in public, and keep an audience involved and interested. He began by saying he would not have a Q&A at the end because the entire talk would be open to conversation. I could not have agreed more when he said it was best to ask and answer questions when they are relevant and the information is fresh in our minds. John broke his talk down into such comprehensible information, someone with zero background in nutrition could have sat in and understood just about everything. In order to understand how nutrition can help recover from injury, John first broke down the stages of soft tissue and injury repair. He described it as a three step process; step 1 -- Inflammation, during inflammation we experience pain, swelling, redness and heat. He explained how although inflammation is often very unpleasant, it is a necessary step towards recovery. Step 2 -- Proliferative phase, inflammation begins to subside. Also, damaged scar tissue is removed and new vasculature is developed. Step 3 -- Remodeling Phase, the scar tissue formed will be degraded and new, strong connective tissue will be laid down in its place. Now that John had taught us about the three phases of injury recovery we could start to understand its relationship to nutrition. What he touched on next was anti-inflammatorys. As we learned in step 1 of injury recovery, the inflammation process is crucial to a good recovery, so loading up on anti-inflammatorys could actually slow healing down. John then discussed our best foods for controlling inflammation. Fats. The three types of fats, trans-fats, saturated fat and monounsaturated fats, should all be taken in equal parts. Meaning, each type should make up 1/3 of your overall fat intake. To try to balance your fats he recommended increases intake on the following foods, because people tend to not get enough of them, olive oil, mixed nuts, avocadoes, flax oil and ground flax. Another few examples of foods that will help regulate but not suppress inflammation are curry powder/turmeric, garlic, pineapple, cocoa, tea and blueberries. After wrapping up on inflammation John went into calorie and macronutrient needs. Ideally 1g per pound of body weight in protein daily. Along with protein, each meal or snack should also contain fruits or vegetables, with a higher emphasis on vegetables. Micronutrients John recommends are; vitamins A, B, C and D, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc. He suggests avoiding vitamin E when injured because it may actually slow down recovery. The last few supplements he mentioned as great additional nutrients are glucosamine, chondroiton and hyaluronic acid, these are all more effective for chronic injuries not acute. In closing John mentioned that food intake should be your primary means for nutrients and supplementation should be secondary.

Although there were dozens of other talks I would have loved to write about, and dozens more I would have loved to see, these three had most of an impact on me. Every time I leave a seminar my brain is racing with new thoughts and ideas, this one was no different. It was great to have so many great minds in the same building and I hope everyone felt as lucky as I did to have learned so much.