I was listening to Jake Tuura's Jacked Athlete Podcast and stumbled upon a title that interested me. It was Episode 21 and was titled PRI for Meatheads with Kyle Dobbs. Now, I don't know Kyle or for that matter Jake but, these podcasts have been really good for me to encourage me to think.
I actually paused the podcast (I was driving) so I could come home and write this article.
Kyle stated,
“if I've got an athlete that doesn't have any injury history or any discomfort. I'm probably not going to fix what's not broken, I'm probably not going to try to fix problems that aren't there.”
This is perfect wisdom. I can remember hearing Gary Cook say something like “don't bring rehab solutions to fitness problems”.
So many of us are bored and just looking for rabbit holes to run down. Then we want to drag our clients with us. What I realized is that I don't really need any of the abbreviations ( PRI, FMS, FRC, etc) if I have clients that are not in pain.
These are “tools in the toolbox” that don't need to come out every day and, may not come out at all. What most clients need is a good dose of the basics. They need to follow our CFSC methods. They need to roll, stretch, warm-up, lift and condition.
Dobb's goes on to say ;
“if I've got an athlete who's functioning really well and isn't exhibiting any mal-stress or pain issues, I'm not necessarily going to try to change that athlete”.
I tell this story often to illustrate my point. I call it The Motorcycle Jacket Story:
A guy wants to go out for a ride on his motorcycle on a cold day. He goes outside, starts up the bike and goes to zip up his leather jacket. He realizes the zipper is broken so, being a resourceful guy he simply puts the jacket on backwards to break the wind.
Two minutes into the ride he hits some ice, falls of the bike and is knocked unconscious. A good Samaritan stops and tries to help and, shortly after an ambulance arrives.
The ambulance driver asks the good Samaritan what happened. The good Samaritan simply says “ he was breathing when I found him but, by the time I got his head straight he was dead”.
A bit morbid but a great illustration of why we don't try to fix things that aren't really broken.
My 2020 lesson was that our KISS philosophy (Keep It Simple Stupid) is going to work 90% of the time. I don't need to feel bad that I'm not using PRI, FMS, FRC or anything else as long as my client is happy and healthy. What we probably need more of is CST, Common Sense Training.