Topic #14 Series (Part 1) Best Selling Book: “Becoming a Supple Leopard” by Dr. Kelly Starrett
Our blogging team of professionals is looking forward to reading and reviewing one of the hottest books on the market over this next month. This 2nd Edition book (released on May 19th, 2015 but originally in 2013) comes from the basis of the CrossFit WOD (Workout Of the Day) movement that has spread across the United States over the last decade. Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai co-founded CrossFit around 2000 on the west coast. Dr. Kelly Starrett started San Francisco CrossFit in 2005. In 2007 when I was at NC State I hired an intern Nate Dine (now with Milwaukee Brewers AA organization at the Biloxi Shuckers-AA) to teach me as much as possible about CrossFit. During those months we dove into the workouts and science to explore the training philosophy. Much has changed over the years to this series will provide an opportunity to relook at the system.
This book was given to me as a gift by one of my athletes Katie Lawson after I trained her to gain strength and decrease her 800 meter time by 30 seconds last spring. She came to me after suffering some injuries and could not fully participate in her physical education classes. We were able to make significant process as she reached her personal goals.
Our blogging team’s approach will be selecting a section of the book and then highlighting and discussing our opinions about the material presented. In this first part I will be discussing the introduction and first two chapters.
Who is Dr. Kelly Starrett? In his book he states on Page 14 that he is a teacher. A teacher for athletes, for the military, and for coaches. He says he’s forming a revolution to empower people to live more integrated, pain-free, self-actualized lives.
In this blog I will give my response to the first three sections including: the preface/introduction, mid-line stabilization and organization in spinal mechanics, and the one joint rule. The highlights included will not be inclusive to the entirety of the text but should provide the reader with a conceptual basis of understanding with my responses to this information. The principles and theories in these first 3 sections lay a foundation for the movements and mobilization techniques for the rest of the book.
As a teacher and coach, I dove into this text two weeks ago to learn what an accomplished Doctor of Physiotherapy would teach me about the principles of resolving pain, preventing injury and optimizing athletic performance. As a visionary for youth athletic sports I’ve seen a major issue that is rising to epidemic levels in adolescents with pain and injuries. I was convinced of this in June 2013 when I documented an article called “Trends in High School Strength and Conditioning” about the lack of strength and fitness levels in our youth. In the near future I plan to release this article on the MorlandSTRENGTH blog.
In Section 1 Mr. Starrett encourages patience and consistency with your workout routine to reproduce the correct movement patterns. He began a mobility project blog called MobilityWOD.com where he filmed one video per day to document and encourage others to join the knowledgeable and supportive community.
You might wonder about the title of the book…What is a Supple Leopard? A powerful and efficient moving animal, how humans are intended to move. This reminds me of my friend Tim Anderson’s approach to training in crawling with Original STRENGTH.com. Why do so many people move poorly and inefficiently? Because there is a lack of education between what enhances correct movement patterns and the trainers and coaches that are teaching it.
I liked the reference from Peter Drucker (world-renowned management consultant, educator and author: “What gets measured gets managed.” In the high school sports environment and in the personal training environment it is critical that movement technique gets managed and not just the amount of weight that is moved.
Mr. Starrett says there are lagging indicators that show you have been moving incorrectly. Yoga and general stretching might not be enough for the athlete or client for preventative maintenance. As the title suggests, a mobility WOD (Workout Of The Day) could be the next step to ensure a successful and pain-free workout routine. If a coach or trainer can learn proper movement patterns in the way the body is designed to move, it could put less stress on the system and reduce injury or pain.
In 2010 I learned the Functional Movement System (FMS) and became certified in it to screen athletes. I began dialoging with a physical therapy friend who owns his own clinic, which created a check and balance system for me. To date I’ve screened hundreds of students with the FMS system which serves as a “safety net” for my methodology to steer those I work with toward correct movement patterns. It allows a basic vocabulary to be used to produce more complex movements required for optimal athletic movements.
The gym can be a lab to measure correct movements and learn from your clients. Some examples of this would be closed circuit dead-lifting techniques and design in basic recovery measures in the plan. According to Starrett, errors that coaches and trainers make include: no warm-up or cool-down, sleep deprivation, dehydration, poor nutrition, prolonged sitting, and stress. These aspects should be monitored and tracked to ensure a proper feedback system.
In chapter 1 the principles and theory covers mid-line stabilization and organization or spinal mechanics. The need to organize the spine in a neutral position and then create stability is known as bracing. I remembered some dialogue I had with staff when I was served as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at NC State University, and looked up that research on the theories of bracing. Spinal position has long been emphasized and queued by trainers and coaches, and introducing a new reference with the “two hand rule” wasn’t ground-breaking for me. The standing sequence explained on page 40-41 is helpful for practitioners until fatigue or another position is required. This was explained in a recent explanation of the “evolution of the text neck.” http://bit.ly/1OGBSxH We currently use the active straight-leg test in our training as we prescribe low abdominal circuit regularly to assist in the posture component.
In chapter 3 the “one-joint rule” states that when working from a braced neutral position flexion and extension should occur only in your hips and shoulders and not in your spine. The hip hinge test and overhead test are two ways to measure the mid-line stability of these sequences. The push-up and the squat are two movements that can be explored to teach the load order of sequencing. The bottom line expressed in this section is that your spine is not designed to handle loaded flexed or extended positions. Some simple corrective movements like stand up from a deep squat could be used as a way to correct this pattern. Mr. Starrett calls your shoulders and hips primary engines because they abide by the same laws of torque (covered by Coach Taylor in the next Blog).
In summary, I found the first 3 sections cut through some clinical jargon to present a simple way for a layman to think about and view movement. Even though I’ve heard many of the concepts presented my hope is that the readers were able to relate some prior information to this blog. There are always ways to grow in your approach and I’m excited to see how this series can support our progress to becoming better practitioners. If you have any comments or feedback please post them below and we will review them and include them in the discussion. Thanks for reading.
Chris Morland, MS, CSCS, SCCC, USAW
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“The views, opinions, and judgments expressed in this message are solely those of the authors and peer reviewers. The contents have been reviewed by a team of contributors but not approved by any other outside entity including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh.”
