Movement Preparation

JOE SANSALONE Te Concepts and Principles of Movement Preparation

oday, we’re going to cover the concepts and principles o movement preparation. I’m going to talk about the ormat, the structure and how we use movement preparation with our clients and athletes at Optimum Perormance raining Institute. We link it with the Functional Movement Screen and to the corrective strategies rom Functional Movement Systems.

Afer activation and active elongation, we’d then go into using that in a little more integrated marching and skipping, using ull range o motion marching and skipping to start activating the central ner vous system and get those tissues moving more at the speeds and demands they were going to be used. We’d continue that process with some high-level neural excitation stuff with the rapid response drills.

I was first taught movement preparation by Mark Verstegen, the owner and ounder o Athletes’ Perormance Institute in Arizona. Te way I was originally taught, movement preparation was broken into our parts. Tose parts were activation, active elongation or dynamic movement patterns, integrated marching and skipping, and rapid response neural excitation.

Tis was antastic. Once the movement prep was finished, the body elt completely different than when we just did some stretching or warmed up on a treadmill. It changed everything I did and how I thought about preparing or training.

I thought the original ormat o movement preparation was an ingenious concept as presented. Mark’s ideas changed my entire way o thinking about preparing and warming up or training sessions, games and practices. Te specific purposes behind movement preparation were to use it to prepare or the perormance demands, develop exercises and drills, and use those our components to get the body prepared or the perormance demands o sport, lie, activities, games or whatever the training session was or the day. We looked at what was in store or the day’s training session and the demands that were to be placed on the body. We’d activate the key muscles. And would then actively elongate through dynamic patterns, because that’s how the muscles and tissues were going to be used, in a stretch-shortening ormat. Tat’s how we use our bodies, and the drills prepared the tissues or that. We used the stretchshortening cycle in the active elongation concept, which was ingenious as opposed to what we were doing beore—sitting around and stretching. With movement prep, Mark changed how we did everything in the strength and conditioning industry.

We ran into some problems though, minor things, and racked up some experiences over the years. Tat led me to change the prep ormat just a little based on the FMS’ corrective exercise strategies. As we were screening and assessing people, ofentimes their weak links wouldn’t allow or us to ollow the original movement preparation ormat. We were finding we’d get through movement prep in the original way, and would then have to do corrective exercises. Tings weren’t getting corrected through the traditional methods o movement preparation. I a person came in without need or much corrective work, traditional movement preparation worked beautiully in preparing the body because there were no undamental issues that needed to be addressed. We could go in and activate. We could actively elongate. We could do some integrated marching and skipping, and bang! Ready to go. We were ready to go because there were no major movement efficiency issues to deal with. However, we ound that nearly everybody had some weak link or some type o movement efficiency issue that needed to be addressed. So we came up with movement preparation or movement efficiency. Instead o thinking o movement preparation as preparing or the demands o

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Tis is the transcript o Joe Sansalone’s Sansalone’s Te Concepts and Principles of Movement Preparation audio lecture. I you’ve you’ve received this material, do not own the audio lecture and would like to le arn about it, visit movementlectures.com. For more rom Joe, visit him at optimum-performance-training.com.

the sport or o the training session, we decided to look at what the individual’s needs are, what the individual’s movement pattern needs are. Where are they inefficient at moving, where are they lacking in stabilization, where are they lacking in mobility, or where are they breaking down and compensating through movement patterns? We find these issue through the Functional Movement Screen. Let’s then use movement preparation as the time period to correct those issues with re-patterning and get their bodies as efficient as we possibly could—getting their movement patterns as efficient as possible so that, rom a movement efficiency standpoint, they could be at their best or the training session. We were no longer worrying as much about what was coming up in the training session, preparing or it and choosing drills or that session. We chose drills instead or what each body needs, where the inefficiencies are, where the people are breaking down when they start to move undamentally. We looked at how to get that corrected so when they come into the training session, not only do they have the nervous system really turned on and the tissues prepared through dynamic movements, but also get the brain running the system properly. We review the issues. Are they mobile where they’re supposed to be mobile? Are they stable where they’re supposed to be stable? Are they putting that together into proper patterns and limiting the compensations? Nothing is going to be perect. We’re not looking or perect. We’re just looking or efficient, adequate, solid movement patterns. Since most people don’t have this when they first start training, movement preparation should address this first and oremost. Ten the demands o the training session or the demands o the sport come second. So, I put together my own movement preparation based on the things I learned rom Mark, as well what I’d learned rom Gray Cook and the Functional Movement Systems team.

What I decided was to change the ormat o movement preparation to reflect what I had seen over the years, which was more o a need to address movement efficiency. Tis way people could bring the most efficient movement patterns to the training sessions, as opposed to movement perormance needing to be addressed as well as looking at the demands o the training session to dictate the drills used. Te movement prep part o the training session started taking on what individuals needed more than what the sport was or anything else, at least initially. As things changed in their movement patterns and they became more efficient, we started looking at making more o a maintenance-oriented routine—moving back to movement preparation more in its original ormat—and looking at how to replace some o the efficiency based drills and instead gear back toward preparing or the demands o perormance or the training session. Tis would look at the training needs, or example i doing more explosive work that day or or the demands o the sport or practice. It ended up being a blend o starting out with movement prep more or movement efficiency and blending it toward prep or the demands and activities o sport and lie, like Mark originally designed. Te movement preparation ormat I came up with or movement efficiency was based off the FMS corrective strategies ormat. Number one is to address mobility first. Right away, you need to address mobility, because it’s very hard to re-pattern anything i you don’t have the proper mobility. I there’s a mobility restriction, the body is going to always give up its stability and/or its dynamic stability to move around the restriction. Te body is always going to be orced into compensation i there’s a restriction, so we need to address the restrictions first. Secondly, we do good activation around key areas—specifically the deep core, the glutes, those kinds o things—and make sure those key areas are activated, turned on and working correctly.

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Tis is the transcript o Joe Sansalone’s Te Concepts and Principles of Movement Preparation audio lecture. I you’ve received this material, do not own the audio lecture and would like to le arn about it, visit movementlectures.com. For more rom Joe, visit him at optimum-performance-training.com.

Tird, we do re-patterning—re-education o that mobility or re-education o that new stabilization strategy that’s more correct now. Basically the way you’ll keep the mobility and stability you’ve improved and changed is through patterning and through movement patterns. We have to do movement patterns so the ner vous system learns and re-educates how to control joints, how to move joints, how to move muscles and control muscles correctly, in the proper sequence, proper timing and proper ormat. Essentially, this is building motor control. One technique we utilize to do this is reactive neuromuscular training (RN) within movement patterns. I you don’t already know what reactive neuromuscular training (RN) is, look it up at  unctionalmovement.com. Find material by Gray Cook, Lee Burton and those gentlemen who enhanced the concept. We re-educate and re-pattern using RN within the dynamic patterns classically seen in traditional movement preparation—split squats, lateral squats, rotational squats, bilateral squats, bodyweight bilateral squats, hinging and single-leg hinging concepts—and then turn those split squats, lateral squats and rotational squats into the lunging motions. We use other patterns also depending on the movement pattern issues o an individual like knee hugs, walkouts and hand walks. We use these as re-patterning drills built around the specific weakness or restriction in movement eficiency each individual has. But we start out with mobility. Get mobility first. Ten, re-activate and insert some stability where it’s clearly needed in the person. Ten, teach indi viduals to own and use that mobility and stability through patterns. Tis also dynamically prepares or the day’s training. It brings the most efficient set o movement patterns to the training session. o me, this is what movement preparation is all about—getting people to move properly, efficiently and correctly, and then onto the training session. We put power and strength in the training session

on top o that, so we’re never putting any o those things on top o dysunction. We’re clearing out as much dysunction as we can and getting them as eficient as possible first. Once they’re efficient—i you look at the Functional Movement Screen, or example, and they’re scoring at least symmetrical ‘2s’ everywhere—we can talk about maintenance components and using Movement Prep more or preparing or the demands o the session while maintaining good movement efficiency. Instead o mobility being something we’re actively doing and really working toward, now it’s a check. Come in and check mobility. Get on the oam roller, check to make sure there are no trigger points or key spots are restricted. Check flexibility, or example the ability to go into hip extension, the ability to abduct the legs and/or the ability to hinge the hips. I it’s needed, do some flexibility work or some specific joint mobility work. I not, move right to the activation work to make sure everything is turned on and firing as it should. Ten third, work on patterns. Do some o the key dynamic patterns. Now it’s starting to look more like the classic model o movement preparation o activation, dynamic patterns and then some explosive neural things like the rapid response or marching and skipping drills. However, when people first come in, it’s more about movement efficiency. Until we have that movement efficiency, we don’t need to worry as much about the demands o the training session or the sport with movement preparation. Tat comes later. At first, we’re looking at proper mobility, proper stabilization and proper re-patterning o the key weak link. Whatever that is, that’s the key. Find the weak link and pattern that first. Go to the next weak link. Ten go to the next weak link i there is one. Once we have those, we basically make a movement prep routine shif, and change to reflect which weak link is the one we’re working on until there are no more.

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Once there are none remaining, we again go back to the more standard movement preparation.

ficient and their patterns are much better with this way o doing movement preparation.

I it’s done right, you are doing some mobility, doing activation o key areas—the glutes, deep core—doing some general dynamic patterns, then some marching and skipping. I you’ve cleared out any movement efficiency issues, this should help you hold it. Tat should keep it. Go back and recheck screens, but that should help you hold good efficient movement and allow you to train as you want to train.

We implemented and slowly moved to this ormat over the last our or five years. What’s unny is that afer people get efficient, it works back into the original way it was taught— with some maintenance drills just to check in and make sure everything is where it belongs. I the person is moving the way they should and the patterns look good, we go to Movement Prep more based on the demands o training. I someone has some time off and things all back, we go back into more o the corrective exercise movement prep ormat.

What I ound with this change o movement preparation rom its ocus on the demands o a sport or training session (linear speed, multi-directional speed, upper-body strength, lower-body strength or power) to a ocus on improving movement efficiency, I was getting a much better ‘stick and hold’ o the corrective exercises—they were holding much better. Using movement prep to address movement efficiency o the weak link, movement restriction or the movement pattern deficiencies helped us hold the corrections better than just doing traditional movement prep and extra corrective exercises. Tis is because we were addressing the weaknesses as soon as they came in. We weren’t putting any other movements on top o anything already dysunctional. We were attacking what they needed to get the body prepared or the training sessions. Tey squat better. Tey deadlif better. Tey push and pull better. Tey rotate better with this change in Movement Prep ormat. When we get into doing these things in the training session, we reinorce movement patterns and people motor learn at speed and under load. When we add load and speed, we start reinorcing patterns. As Gray and Lee always describe: Get movement efficiency solid first, and then get the strength, the power and the speed on top o that to make it hold and finally, enhance perormance. We ound we had a much better ‘stick’ o the corrective exercises. People’s mobility and flexibility hold much better. Tey maintain stability and the stabilization strategies the correct way. It’s more e-

One o the biggest things I learned is, it doesn’t really matter how well you movement prepare or the demands o the training session, sport or practice i your movement efficiency undamentals aren’t good. I weakness is still underlying, you can do all the movement preparation you want, get great dynamic movement patterns, rapid response and neural excitation, but you’re still going to have compensation i you don’t address the movement pattern efficiency issues first. I kept seeing this over and over again, and still do. As soon as I switched to this new ormat, getting away rom the classic model a little bit and instead doing movement efficiency first, I saw much better movement patterns in people. Tey were still getting the other benefits we want rom the dynamic warm-up, rom the movement preparation, which is the central nervous system getting stimulated, things getting activated and turned on. Te active elongation still happened through our dynamic stability and re-education o patterns. We were getting probably better activation now that we’d first cleared mobility and restrictions. Everything still ends up in the same place. It’s just a little different method or a bit o a different ormat that is better or us, at least as people start with us. As people progress, we move back into more o that classic model as a maintenance movement preparation. We then direct it toward the movement demands o the training session, making sure

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they’re movement demand prepared, as opposed to just movement prepared within their individual body and in individual movement patterns. In review, let’s hit the highlights— Te original purpose and ocus o movement preparation was to use drills and exercises to acti vate. Next, actively elongate through dynamic patterns with ull range o motion movements, like split squats, lateral squats, hinging and single-leg hinging drills. Ten, traditional movement prep goes into integrated marching and skipping to take active elongation and activation into more explosive movements to reinorce it in the central nervous system. It then goes into the neural rapid response component to get good neural excitation or the session. Te exercises selected in traditional movement prep are based around the movement and perormance demands o the training session not the movement pattern corrective needs o the individual. Tis is an important distinction. For example, i you’re preparing or linear speed, you do linear things in your movement preparation. I you’re going to do multi-directional speed, you’ll do multi-directional and lateral things in the movement preparation. Everything in traditional prep is reflective o the training session demands and orces on the body, as opposed to what we do now, which is about the weakest link in a persons movement pattern undamentals, how the person is moving undamentally and what their movement pattern capacity says. When very inefficient at certain things or when there are specific problems, we gear movement preparation to address these instead o looking at the movement demands o a training session. It doesn’t matter i you’re doing linear speed or multidirectional speed. We’re not going to gear movement prep toward that until we’ve used movement preparation to fix the problems with how you move at a undamental level.

Tat’s the big take home here. Tat’s the big dierence. Address movement preparation and use the ormat o movement preparation to enhance movement efficiency first, to correct compensations and movement pattern dysunctions first. It happens pretty quickly when you do it this way. It used to take us a lot longer to develop sound movement patterns. When we use the corrective ormat as the Functional Movement System teaches, it really holds much better that way. Tis means we address mobility first, back up mobility with stability and activation work to keep the mobility, and then re-pattern that mobility and stability through good dynamic stability work and re-education o movement pattern work. You’re then bringing a more improved and much better moving system to the training. As soon as those FMS scores change and things are looking good, you move into movement prep more toward the demands o the training session. We look at the demands o the body that day, the types o perormance demands depending on loads and speeds, as well as the angles and joint movements needed during the training session and de velop movement prep based on these things. Make sure you include active elongation as well as marching and skipping drills that represent and prepare the tissues or those demands, as originally taught. It really comes back ull circle. But I want to really illustrate the differences. Te one thing I think a lot o movement preparation or dynamic warm-ups are missing is addressing the weak links in movement pattern undamentals. Where do you address these weak links i you do it the other way? Do you address the movement ineficiencies aferward? Tat’s what I did or a while. It took a lot longer, and it just didn’t work as well. It didn’t make sense. Doing a dynamic warm-up first and then working on joint mobility afer or working on static stability afer just doesn’t make a lot o sense.

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Te ormat o movement preparation or movement efficiency is as ollows— Te first component is to address mobility. Tis includes oam rolling, Stick work or whatever you consider sof tissue work, simply to build potential or flexibility and mobility. Sof tissue work does not necessarily change mobility or flexibility, but gives more potential or it by clearing out trigger points, restrictions, adhesions and things o this nature, either through a skilled practitioner’s hands like a manual physical therapist or a skilled massage therapist. Otherwise, you can simply use the oam roller and the Stick, although these won’t be nearly as eective or efficient as a skilled body worker’s hands. However, it can support the therapist’s work and it can at least break the improper neural tone. It certainly can address the neural trigger point component and calm that down a little to let the tissue relax. Te oam roller or Stick doesn’t do much or actual myoascial release, but it certainly turns down some o the ‘noise’ inside the muscle to allow it to relax a little, which then gives you the potential to lengthen it through flexibility work better. Tat then allows you to move the joint a little better through some o the joint mobility drills we’ve learned or the ankles, hips and the thoracic spine. So, mobility comes first, with some type o sof tissue or trigger point work. Next will be some flexibility, and then some joint mobility. Tese build on each other. One gives way to the next—one builds potential or the next. Sof tissue work builds potential or the flexibility to allow you to move the joint better through your joint mobility drill. Te second component is activation. Once you give a joint or a muscle more length or more movement, you then need to re-insert stability somewhere else. Otherwise, the body will most likely tighten back up that same area. We get that activation through stabilization exercises that use sensory rich challenges to eed the deep core proprioceptors inormation that stimu-

lates automatic reactive contractions. Tis means doing something that creates those reactions and responses inside the body to stabilize, like a tallkneeling exercise, hal-kneeling exercise or rolling pattern. Te third piece would then be to take that mobility and stability into good patterning. Good patterning usually means re-educating that stability into a movement. Tis is dynamic stability—the ability to stabilize in one plane or two planes while moving in another. You can put a highlight on your area o need by using the reactive neuromuscular training component. Tis will help build and re-educate those patterns. You’re getting the active elongation at the same time through this re-patterning and re-education o movement patterns and you’re doing it around a specific weak link. Tis brings you to the most efficient body standing there—as efficient as the person is going to get at that moment. Ten you can decide the best course o action and training rom that point, determining what kind o demands you want to put on them that day. You may also consider, ‘We’re going to do linear speed today.’ Tey are capable o doing linear speed training at that point. We have movement efficiency or linear speed, so let’s add a ew extra quick, explosive movement preparation drills. Tese might be marching, skipping or doing neural rapid response things, or another active elongation drill to help even more specifically tune the body or the demand o that training session or movement skill. You can then do a linear speed session at this point. Once the person’s movement efficiency is good, say they’ve been coming in or a couple o weeks, three weeks or whatever it took, you have the person moving well and the weak link is no longer a weak link. Te weak link is now with the other tires, more inflated as it should be and more balanced with the other tires on the car. When we have that kind o symmetry in the body, all we need to do is go back through the mo-

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bility part more as a check. Once efficiency is good, check in with the mobility. Have people come in and at least check in with the oam roller. Check in with your essential flexibility drills. Check in with your joint mobility. Check in with your activation. I that’s all good, all you need to do is balanced dynamic movement patterns. Tis is where you can select a variety o dynamic movement patterns like split squats, reverse lunges, lateral lunges and hinging movements—various knee hugs and things o that nature. Tese now have a place to help reinorce and keep the corrective changes you’ve made through the previous movement efficiency ormat. Now you’ll use these drills to hold the corrections. Ten, you’ll do some explosive marching, skipping, neural rapid response, maybe even med ball work to reinorce what you already have. Now, also, pick the correct dynamic patterns to prepare or the demands o the session. We’ve moved to the next step, which is movement preparation to hold and reinorce the movement efficiency you de veloped. Here we now build on that, preparing or the demands o the sport, game, practice or training session—the power, strength, speed demands or whatever is needed. Choose your drills around that now. But still check in with mobility. Check in with the oam roller, flexibility and mobility. Check in with activation. Make sure the patterns are still there. Just check in. I it’s not, you have to go back. Sometimes the quality won’t be there; it depends on what’s going on. I you have to step back, just reinsert all the things rom the movement preparation or movement efficiency. It seems to work well or us. We get a good response. People move well. We’re able to move them into what we want to do a lot quicker than we used to.

Te last thing I want to discuss about movement preparation is the conversation or argument o whether or not to do movement preparation at all—movement preparation versus not doing movement preparation. One argument is that warming up—that process o going through movement preparation—is a waste o time. Some people don’t have the opportunity in lie or in jobs, especially tactical like the military, firefighters or police officers. Tese people don’t have an opportunity to do a dynamic warmup or movement preparation. When a criminal runs across the street, they just have to go. Tey don’t have a chance to warm up when a fire breaks out. In the military, they don’t have a chance to drop down and do movement preparation to be prepared to run across the field. Tey just have to do it. So, why do movement preparation beore training i your job doesn’t allow you to do it beore you have to perorm? We’re not teaching people to rely on movement preparation to be able to perorm. You should be able to perorm. You should be able to walk in and not necessarily need to do movement preparation to perorm. Once your movement patterns are efficient, you shouldn’t need to go through this whole song and dance or hal an hour to just lif weights, perorm, build strength or power, sprint down the field or chase a criminal. You should be able to perorm on demand i needed. But to any good perormance, there’s always a lot o rehearsal. A lot o rehearsal and a lot o preparation go into any great meal, any great perormance and any great presentation. You should take the opportunity to go through rehearsal or go through movement preparation to bring the most efficient body or to bring the most prepared body or the demands o your job or lie or training session whenever you can. You should. Why wouldn’t you? It only makes sense to do that whenever possible. It can only make you better. It

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certainly can’t hurt you. You should also have the ability to be able to wake up, get out o bed and still perorm those same tasks without movement preparation i need be. Now, anybody who’s ever done movement preparation knows that no matter how well you can do those same tasks cold, you’re always going to do them better warm. You’re always going to perorm a little bit better warm than cold. But you should still be able to perorm cold. One o the keys to being able to perorm cold is rehearsing and getting good through movement preparation in your training session. You hope when the opportunity comes and you can’t do movement prep, you can still perorm well, partly because o all the times you did go through movement prep and have rehearsed good patterning. Tere’s going to be a time and a place when you’re going to have to do your workout without movement prep. You’re going to have to go into a competition—Olympic weightlifing, powerlifing or something like that—and you’re not going to be able to do the same exact warm-up. You don’t want to always rely on that warm-up routine to be mentally and physically prepared. You should be able to mentally prepare without it. Tere are times to try to go into your training without going through all o your movement preparation. However, i you have the opportunity to go through the prep, even at your competition, do it. Athletes still constantly go through preparation to be at their absolute mental and physical best even at competitions. You shouldn’t necessarily need it, but just because you have a job where you’re going to have to go rom a cold state to suddenly attacking something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do prep in training just to simulate your job reality.

I you have an opportunity in your training to train most effectively, you should. I you eel you can be completely prepared without actually having to go through those things, that’s great. I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water on this one. Make sure that you’re moving efficiently. Tat’s the key. Ultimately, your movement patterns are solid. You’re moving efficiently. Your body is as prepared as it can be or the demands o your lie, job, sport or training session. Movement preparation should be a part o this. Any great perormance, any great meal or any great presentation always has a ton o preparation and rehearsal put into it. I movement preparation is done correctly in your training sessions, when you’re on the field or on the fire truck, you should be able to call upon everything you’ve used, done and built upon at those moments in training and movement preparation. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to present this material. A special ‘thank you’ to Gray Cook, Lee Burton and Brett Jones o the Functional Movement Systems staff or everything they’ve taught me. A very, very special ‘thank you’ to Mark Verstegen, Sue Falsone, Nick Winkelman and the rest o the AP staff rom whom I’ve learned so much over the years. A very special ‘thank you’ to Mike Boyle, my first mentor, or all I have learned rom him over the years. Tank you to Karen Johnson, our physical therapist at OPI, I’ve learned so much rom her over the years as well. My ability to present this is because o everything I learned rom them. Tank you guys so much or everything.

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Movement Preparation

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