Thanks so much for watching guys! Also, we have 3 more videos in the pipeline right now: one about my progression from scratch to one arm handstand as an adult, another will be version 2.0 of our scientific stretching video, and the desperately needed pt 2 for our pain science video (we covered the why, but we still need the how) and then the plan is to do the deep dive into volume that you guys were asking for after the last video. Let me know which of these you guys would be excited to see and I’m happy to change up the order or do something different (like a deeper dive into OPTIMAL theory).
Hey Bren, To be honest ALL of the listed upcoming vids are about topics i know there is so much to be learned for me! However the pt. 2 of the pain science vid. and the video about volume would be my personal favourites!👍💪 P.S.: hope you were able to understand, since I'm from Germany...🙃
@@mr.broccoliwarrior9303 Thanks so much! I feel the same honestly, but those two will also be the most work ahahah. looking forward to them though and thank you for the feedback :).
Also guys heads up- lots of things been going on lately, and one of the other videos I've been working on with my brother actually moved far ahead of schedule, so the next few videos will be totally different than what I had planned (other than stretching 2.0,) but I'll be getting to pain science pt 2 and the volume video after the next 3 that are in the pipeline. They're going to be good!
Great video! You should do a review on Naudi Aguilar of Functional Patterns. That dude thinks he's God's greatest gift to mankind. He constantly slams any practice other than FP, but I'd be interested in your thoughts.
I wanna see all of them too! However especially the handstand and pain ones, because I've had pain in my joints (especially wrists shoulders and knees) for three years now (no success with physiotherapy or chiropractic or docs etc) and it's really frustrating cos I really would love to be able to just to a handstand, or even a downward facing dog without pain at this point tbh. Keep up ur vids ur awesome!!!
40 years ago I began my journey. Mixing it up always made sense to me. I wanted to be fit for every thing I challenged myself with. Barefoot most of my life. I free fly paragliders, Hike, lift weights, build things, dance,practice Thai Qui Qui Gong weight train, calisthenics. The list goes on. Movement is life. Be your own guru, make mistakes, reach further, grow. Meditate
This is the channel I was looking for and I'm surprised it's not bigger, but that's only a matter of time. Hope you end up getting the exposure you deserve!
SO DAMN GOOD! Thanks Bren, SO much quality info that isn’t talked about on calisthenics/fitness channels! I’m so glad I went to check out the channel and didn’t stop at the Ido critique. New favorite teacher 🙏
Awesome stuff! Thank you for putting your hard work and time into this video. I really appreciate it. As another commenter pointed out, this content is so needed and super underrated. I hope you start getting more exposure because I know more people need to hear this stuff!
Thank you so much Octeris! Means a lot- comments like these keep me going even with how much work these videos are to make. Share with your friends that need it!
Thanks Bren for your very nice and structured insights that are really helpful 🌿🙏💫 I just wanna add that foamroll and massage are more supposed to be used to remove adhérences between fascias (which are felt as trigger point and the result of bad combinaison or cooking methods) with adequate movement, oxygenation, sleep, balanced and unprocessed food intake, hydratation and sun exposure foamroll and massage have a really really really usefull power to relieve tension long term (if we stick to a good life hygiene of course) but it’s not miraculous it need like anything a little bit of tinkering , patience and should be melt with some adequate movement, may be some stretch with full rom postural breath meowing , walking a bit 3 times a day , etc… 🌿🙏💌 Love and care
Great video. My favorite image was the pirouette. Spellbinding. Also, good that you talked about upper/lower crossed syndrome and how the concepts were wrong. What have you seen as the main issue with APT?
Me again ;D Finishing this series, i asked about your views on posture imbalances previously, just saw you elaborate at around the 20 minute mark. I really like how you come from a perspective of "it's not the best to assume the cause the and effect", you gave the cooking/molecular example. Obviously by this point, you can tell that the cause and effect of my back pain has been of great stress for me, I think I need to refrain from seeking information for a bit, and just start a routine, get my body moving, and learn some things in that manner. Edit: Wow After typing this, i continued watching and you made this point: "You can never be fully prepared for things you havent done, we could spend 5 months on land and teach you ___ but if you never get in the water youre not going to be very effective. Sometimes its good to throw you in the water, you'll figure out a lot. While it might feel overwhelming, you're gonna learn faster" sir do you see how this would resonate with me? Lol. Along with my dumb random movements, I also just did portals squat v2 from 9 years ago, imma do it every day. Surprisingly for how ass my back and knees feel, I can squat in place for 12 minutes so I'm happy about that, one day I wanna hit 30 minutes in one go. Maybe my posture will improve along the way. I noticed on reddit, a lot of people who like or give credit to movement, and bodyweight fitness in general really have distain for Ido portal for his secrecy of information. wish he was a more open fella :( One thing even all his haters agree on, he has good information, they just have problems with him in every other regard.
Thanks Dustin! I'm working as hard as I can over here, more on the way :). Curious, do you mean more educational movement videos in general, or more videos in the intro to movement series in particular?
@@BrenTeachesMovement educational movement videos in general. The concepts around recovery and volume have been super helpful. Also, the new philosophy around learning. I started my own BJJ academy last year, I just turned 39. And I’m trying to build the best program around. There isn’t much bjj around where I live (central Maine) so I really want to build something special here. I also need to improve my own training and growth. While minimizing injuries and stuff.
Yo, just found you. I'm wondering if you are planning on releasing a book on these concepts anytime soon? Great work. The movement space is behind some sort of abstract wall for most people. I beelive the movement space needs someone to do what kneesovertoesguy did. Bringing movement as a practice to the general population so it can become a part of our entire culture once more, we cetainly need it. Great work dude. Glad I found your channel.
I really enjoy your channel! great content and hope to learn more from you in the future. Just have to make one comment on the UFC part. The set of rules in the early ufc fights you showed were favoring the bjj guys very much I guys. I agree with your point that the skillset matters a lot, but if you had 2 fighters with the same skillset the one with more muscle mass would still win im shure ;)
Everything, everywhere, all the time!!!!! When you referenced that I was uplifted thinking I am grasping this concept well having mentioning it to you a number of times now during the “what have we learned” portion of the sessions :) I am honestly becoming quite addicted to movement training and fee I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. Thank you Bren!
Love seeing all the progress you're making Angelina and yeah- I love things like this that have levels of depth in them. Now you're really starting to get it- but I wouldn't be surprised if a year goes by and you're like WOAH- now I really get it :). So much depth in that one little quote- I think it's funny that I didn't appreciate it at all at first. Keep it up!
Just discovered this channel and this kind of content is something I've really been missing on TH-cam. Keep it up, really enjoy this! Also, I feel that the concepts in OPTIMAL theory can be applied to so much more than just training. The same kind of feedback loops can be seen in any kind of interactive setting with "students" and "coaches". I see it every day within engineering and software development for instance.
I love the comments about bare feet! I quit wearing shoes while working out a few years ago. My masseuse reinforced my inclination that I’d actually build better dexterity in my feet without shoes. And it cools me off so much better.
I am so grateful that you made these videos and have such a wonderful channel. I’m a bit older and more injury prone than most of your audience. I am eager to try this program for at least the next 3 months to see if my body will adapt and become more mobile (strong, flexible, agile,etc). Again, thanks. You rock.
Going to the park to practice this now. Thank you for your well put together and informative videos. I appreciate your work and I'm sure many others do.
Just discovered your channel and subscribed! I myself started online coaching with Ido since 2012 (on and off), and I am happy to see honest movers like you talking about Ido's education. Too many make video 'reviews' without any real understanding of the proces! Wish you all the best!
I wonder many times during our session, what makes a good movement - and found your description, "everything, everywhere all the time" helpful. "All joints involved should be, synchronized, cohesively" will generally make a good movement.
Wow this was really amazing ! It was such an in-depth intro and is best suited for newbies like me ! This series will really be an awesome experience !
Nassim Taleb's quote is is also about the idea of "skin in the game": the idea that people who understand the molecular composition of food may fool themselves into thinking they knew how to cook. Kind of what your Sports Medicine people did.
Love the information from this series. The part about driving reminded me of the deliberate practice theory which says practice has to contain certain elements for it to facilitate growth.
This series is brilliant and deserves 10 times the views it has. I love the balance you strike between science, experience and intuition. It makes all the concepts you're talking about very digestible and actionable. I have a couple specific questions if you don't mind: 1. Has your movement training specifically helped your bjj? Most my exercise is centered around improving my jiu jitsu and I'm wondering if adding these types of movement practises would be beneficial. 2. Have you heard of Kneesovertoes guy and what do you think of his methodology and effectiveness? It's strange because in a certain sense his training seems of the "reverse engineering" ilk, but it also seems to be highly effective and well regarded.
Thank you guys for these great videos! "There are mistakes with everything, no move is perfect" that reminded me of the fact that there is no perfect person, but we should all be trying to get better everyday. The same goes for movement, so exercise on, one step at a time! :)
Hi Bren! I loved this video, and your channel! You provide great dense information in a beautiful calm manner. I would like to ask you a question on the NASM model and your take on it, since I'm currently studying it. From what I understand, over-active / under-active muscles does not necessarily mean strong / weak. In simple terms, it means that the body (brain/nervous system) has learned to use certain muscle combinations for certain movements or postures. Taking into consideration that most of us live a sedentary life, we would need to counteract these imbalances created with the "opposite movements". E.g. thoracic extensions & back muscle strengthening to counteract kyphosis etc. Furthermore, from what I understand, there are certain postures that allocate forces exerted to the body from external stimuli, in a manner that minimizes stress in joints, ligaments, vertebral disks etc, by incorporating more muscle action. This is what is thought of "proper posture". Would you disagree with the "proper posture" terming, and the way NASM tries to counteract the imbalances created from sedentary life (or muscle overuse through specificity) ? What would you propose instead for such cases? (More movement in general will certainly help, but shouldn't it be accompanied with counteracting movements / exercises? Thanks again for the video, and I hope your channel does great! All the best.
Hey Tilemachos! First, my advice would be, stop wasting your time with the NASM model (I'm assuming you're studying for their CPT exam), and if you need a certification go with the NSCA instead (CSCS is much better if you have the prerequisite undergraduate degree). Yeah, again this is their model as I pointed out in the video, and you make a fair point that I said strong/weak rather than underactive/overactive, but functionally their point is the same- strengthen the underactive muscles and stretch/foam roll the overactive muscles. My points are also the same: I've never had a student or client EVER where I even once thought 'these muscles are too strong' or 'these muscles are too flexible (some people will say this one but they're ignorant of the actual literature on hyper mobility which suggests it doesn't matter at all). In almost every case, all the muscles are too tight, and all the muscles are too weak. Hence, it would really slow things down if you only stretch some muscles and only strengthen others. Secondly, the reason they suggest this, the whole posture model and Lower crossed upper crossed idea is pretty much BS, and there's no real evidence for it. For more on this you can check out my first pain science video (th-cam.com/video/lTeYwfI1O68/w-d-xo.html) or Greg Lehman's video here (th-cam.com/video/cnLxcEMdjVk/w-d-xo.html). Third, the whole foam rolling thing is mostly useless as well- you can look to Quinn Henoch's writing & videos for more on this. I read the whole NASM book start to finish and crushed the exam after like 5 days of studying for it (that's how easy that exam is), but I can honestly tell you as someone who got their NASM CPT and FNS that their book and model is mostly trash.
also, yes, generally more movement, and a focus on where people need more work vs where they're unskilled. As far as pain and injury, the focus should be on pain and injury, not on any of this over-complication (you'll understand more after you watch the first pain science video and also after I publish the second one)
Your content is Master Class! Thank you!!? You could break this video down into little snack sized pieces and release one every day. Also, I am not able to read most of the pop-up text, it is not on screen long enough for me.
Interesting, high-quality video. I haven't finished watching yet, but i have a few comments: - foam rolling, mio-fascial release per se, doesn't increase flexibility for only 15min. There's a lot to say about it, but if you threw it out of your practice, you might want to rethink that. It has been a useful tool to me - dance and movement doesn't have to be cohesive. It can be precise, isolated, sharp, agressive(how my mma friend dances usually), and it can be fluid, cohesive, smoothe, calm(like i usually dance). To call a movement aesthetic we would not look at the singular movements but also the transitions, the story entailed, the musicality, confidence in self-expression, etc, most of them we perceive subconsciously
Hey Strahinja! Thanks for the comment. Actually, the effects of foam rolling and myofascial release are extremely short lived- the main mechanism is what's called sensory motor gating. This basically means that your mechanoreceptors sense the pressure, and you get somewhat of a perceived threat up at the brain, hence lesser threats are reprioritized. Because there is no actual remodeling of the tissues, or stimulus for remodeling, the effects are die off extremely fast. If you actually pause the video to read that abstract- you'll see that it doesn't actually show the effects of foam rolling being short lived, it shows a program of only foam rolling having no effect on flexibility whatsoever. The original research that myofascial release is based on was done on rats with supra-physiological pressures that cannot be replicated in foam rolling or massage. Check out Quinn Henoch and Greg Lehmann for more on this. It's cool if you feel it works for you, placebo is one hell of a drug, but you might want to consider spending your training time on more productive modalities. Regarding the dance- I mostly agree with your sentiment, but there is a cohesiveness even within those 'precise, isolated, sharp, and aggressive' movements as well, that makes them beautiful more than anything else. Isolations are a clear and easy example, if you're aiming to isolate a certain joint for any movement, but other joints are moving when they shouldn't be, that detracts from the cohesiveness, beauty, and control of the movement. Cohesiveness doesn't mean the joints are all necessarily moving together, but rather that they are all performing their individual tasks towards the overall 'task goal' of the movement- including stillness. For aggressiveness, check out the legendary mike tyson here th-cam.com/video/K2bEeeveqxY/w-d-xo.html . Would you say that his movements here aren't cohesive? In my eyes, even in examples of dancers pretending to be uncoordinated, or making movements purposely chaotic, there is an innate cohesiveness between all joint & muscle actions/inactions towards those goals that creates their beauty.
Just finished 3 part series and I'm surprised that you have only 4k subscriptions. I really enjoyed it. Which disciplines do you recommend the most to start learning movement? BJJ, capoeira, parkour, climbing?
Hi Bren, first of all just saying thank you for this valuable and well organized content you are sharing. And second, i think the word 'resilience' in terms of the body has a very profound meaning so i can not find that meaning. Could make a video o dedicated a part of it to give your perspective about this concept? btw, i am not a native english speaker so maybe i didnt express myself optimally
Awesome video again mt lots of quality information for us 👍 in relation to pain and injury, a recurring theme within my own novice practice at the moment is training and maybe after the practice feeling a slight niggle or pull here or there. Maybe because of poor technique, or perhaps pushing myself too hard, but whatever the case say you encounter the same thing at some point how do u then approach that injury. Cold treatment, analgesics, just stretching perhaps? Any help would be appreciated, thanks again. 😊
Hey Chris, Great question- and actually because you asked this I've decided I'm going to change the schedule a bit and work on the pain science pt. 2 video ASAP- that information is really going to help you guys. You watched the first part, so you have some idea the general direction of the approach, but pt. 2 will 'weaponize' that information into a functionally useful method. I think it's all intuitive but Susan keeps reminding me that it isn't, and now for evidence I have 200 pages I've written that still doesn't fully explain my method yet- I thought it would only take 20.
@@BrenTeachesMovement thanks bren, although slight niggles and pulls of a recurring nature may not be a big deal for many as someone who has a 50 hour + week at an extremely physically demanding job, I don't have the luxury of physical 'down time ' at work which would aid in a rest and recovery situation. Usually a small pull would just go on it's own but I need some kind of strategy to attack them head on lol cheers m8 much appreciated 👍👌👏😉
Aajonus vonderplanitz lubrication/moisturizing formula would be awesome for movement. It will enchance your lubrication in joints and skin. 2 times / day for at least 1 month would be so much improvment with the training.Especially for people with sour joints and arthritis.
I like the larger picture discussion of function vs aesthetics then a more nuanced look of how sometimes chasing the aesthetics can help you improve function. Also, I think we need Optimal Theory fan t-shirts. (and center of mass, base of support shirts too lol)
For standing up from the fisherman, what are your thoughts about planting the toes of the back foot, so that you can push yourself up with that leg instead of relying on the weight transfer to the front?
Hey Stefan! Great question, that's a common mistake. Planting the toes of the back leg there requires an extra step (flipping the toes down so they can push off the floor), much easier, simpler, and smoother to just push up more with the front leg and use the top of the back foot for a small assist.
What are your thought about quality and intention ? Does your gesture just need to be done or you aim to but an intention behind it ? Adjectives of the gesture. It's a contemporary dance perspective about aesthetics but it has a huge impact on effectiveness.
Such a great collective number of explanations on movement and thinking, really enjoyed listening to all of the ideas, principles , and solutions to body movements and thinking. Not sure I made sense 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
You're quick recap of OPTIMAL theory really reminded me on how Feldenkrais lessons are usually taught (and in contrast to basically any other sports instruction I ever got). This actually increases my motivation to get started with moving again. (And I will read that paper.) Thanks!
The external/internal focus seems... I don't want to say wrong, because I'm sure it's right, but I'm not sure it is universally better to focus externally. LIke if someone is doing a squat and one of the legs is caving in, it certainly seems like it is better to get them to focus on rotating the hips open. I guess if I'm trying to squat maximum weight I don't want to be focusing on that, but is there maybe value is trying to use internals on easier sets and then on harder ones focus externally and hope the work sticks?
Hey Michael! Wonderful question- and this touches on a number of things, but this is something that coaches and researchers have basically been pushing since Wulf originally started her research on external focus in IIRC 2003. Basically, coaches just can't seem to believe that an external focus is better for beginners. It seems so counter-intuitive, and yet the research (when done correctly ( clear internal vs. external cues) has always pointed to superiority of external focus. Even for beginners, even for form corrections, people learn them better and faster with external focus cues. Actually, at this point, despite dozens of studies on external focus, not a single study has ever shown the superiority of external vs internal focus cues. A few ( I believe 2) have shown that no attentional focus cue was better, 1 for high level circus performers in a balance task (perhaps at that level, any cues are actually distracting from the focus on task goal). Remember, external focus is superior not just for performance, but also for learning. The other problem also becomes one of autonomy, and your example of the valgus knees in the squat is a perfect one for this. Knees caving in on the squat is actually not a flaw with the movement, despite what we're told, and is regularly done at the highest levels (watch almost any olympic weightlifters, or this video in particular i give as an example of impeccable squatting technique th-cam.com/video/YI-CU9_GUd4/w-d-xo.html). So you give a student (or yourself) an internal focus cue with the intention of improving their technique, and not only are you distracting them from the real task (lift the weight), you're forcing them to solve a movement task with what is very likely a suboptimal solution for them, and despite what you may have been told, there's no evidence that you're protecting them from any injury either. I do still use form cues sometimes with my students, but now I REALLY think carefully about when I really feel it's worth it to use them, and I always try to convert the cues to be external focus cues rather than internal- see bob's comment below.
@@BrenTeachesMovement Thanks for a very comprehensive response! I come from a dance background, so I do have familiarity with external cues proving a lot more effective. We use them a lot and they do work great. But I'm having a bit of a hard time letting go of internal cues (not that you're suggesting abandoning them completely), particularly with weightlifting where form and mind muscle connection are historically so effective. Especially with something imbalanced (I said one knee caving in because in my example because I don't think it's necessarily a problem for knees to be valgus in squat). I think for me where your focus really is on skill development (ie being able to squat the most) and I'm a bit caught up in my thinking with weight training as most people are getting me to train them (usually for hypertrophy). All that said, I'm not dismissing what you're saying at all. I'll read the optimizing performance paper and see if I can put together the bigger picture for myself. Right now my gut is telling me there's really a lot of room for both, even if the focus is should be on external. I appreciate your time.
@@michaelmcphee2006 ah yes. still, even one knee caving in is surely much less of a problem than we might think, and potentially not a problem at all. Check out videos of the first guy to ever clean triple bodyweight, Naim Suleymanoglu- he's got one knee caving in, and his hip doing some weird side wiggle, but he lifted that way for years. Not that case studies like this are the best evidence, but just that it exemplifies the research that muscle imbalances and weird technique things like this don't seem to have any significant effect on injury risk unless they're under extremely high loads. Check out Greg Lehman for more on this. Yeah I thought the same honestly and investigated the external vs internal focus in particular quite heavily- maybe you'll have to read the papers for yourself. I would suggest starting with the optimal theory paper, as well as a review of external vs internal focus that Wulf did in 2013 (here: gwulf.faculty.unlv.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Wulf_AF_review_2013.pdf) Having read a huge number of these papers, I would say that internal focus cues don't really have a place per se, but rather just that sometimes it's really hard to come up with an external focus replacement for them. The only time external focus seems to be better right now is that sometimes you might want the lower neural efficiency for building muscle type scenarios, especially when doing isolations, because it means more muscle activation. HOWEVER, it also seems that if you lift the weight quickly, this maximizes muscle activation, and essentially erases the difference in muscle activation between internal and external focus- so you would only do this when lifting the weight slowly.
I am new to your channel. I wonder why you have less than 2,000 followers. Well, thinking for a moment about the fitness industry and its bases, I think I know. :-)
Thanks for joining! I'm not sure actually, It may be more that my channel is fairly new, and I'm just getting the hang of making better videos. Anyway, either way, I'm here to change the game ;).
How would you apply the external focus aspect of optimal theory to the handstand? It's clear where to focus when you have an external implement but what if you're just moving the body? In a podcast Gabriele Wulf gave, she gave the example of focusing on a sticker on your t-shirt as a way of improving jumping. She seemed to imply the focus had to be OUTSIDE the body. But also in other experiments they considered the movement of a golf club as external focus even though it was not the primary goal (ball trajectory). Hoping you could clarify. For my handstand practice I focus on keeping the bottom of my shorts above my hands. What do you think?
Excellent question Bob, and one I've actually been thinking about myself ever since I first read the paper around April. When we actually try to design attentional focus cues there are a number of things to consider in addition to the internal/external focus. One is the distance effect, that the farther away the focus is from the body, the better the effect tends to be. It's interesting that she gave the example of a sticker on the T-shirt for jumping, that would be an external focus and therefore would help, and I think in a few of her studies they used a ball on the pelvis, but for jumping I like to use an overhead target, which is arguably more relevant to the task, and distal, which according to her theory would perform even better than the t-shirt or belt focus. Since the main mechanism for external focus seems to be focus on task goal, I think the most important of these various factors is relevance to the task. For handstands, the shorts is a good idea, but there are plenty of ways to keep the shorts over the hands and still fall out of the handstand. What I've been using is a focus on keeping the weight over the hands, or more specifically, keeping all your weight over the floor that is under your hands (if done fully, this will force you to stay in the handstand). Not a very distal external focus, but I believe the task relevance overrides that and it has seemed to be quite helpful so far.
@@BrenTeachesMovement Thanks, wouldn't this be a maximally distal focus since the hands are very far from the body centre? The way I would phrase it is "keeping the earth over the centre of the hands" rather than "feeling the pressure on the centre of the hands": a subtle but important difference.
@@bobbobson4030 maybe you meant keeping the earth under the center of the hands? but regardless- the earth isn't going to move, and is always going to be under the hands no matter where the rest of your body is- hence somewhat irrelevant to the task. Also, this isn't a maximally distal focus- remember external focus is outside of the body, it can be far out side the body. This has been demonstrated in a number of studies. For instance, one study of kayakers gave 2 different external focus cues, one was told to focus on the paddles, another was told to focus on the finish line (distal external focus), and the finish line group did better, presumably because their external focus was farther away, and hence promoted even less focus on self.
@@BrenTeachesMovement Yes, keeping the earth UNDER the centre of the hands..but when I'm upside down, it's OVER lol! If I frame it as "where is the pressure exerted on my hands?" I'm focused on the hands (internal) but if I say "where is the earth in my hands?" it's external (yes, I know it sounds weird). I'm thinking of moving the earth so it's positioned in the centre of the hands (external). It's difficult to communicate these subtle differences
Thank you for the video Bren. I like the idea of applying external-focused cues in my handbalancing and general calisthenics training. Also, I opened up the paper on my browser and it is not going to be easy to motivate myself to read it through haha. I put it on my bucket list for when I’m feeling particularly ambitious. Are there any specific concepts that you didn’t mention in your video that the paper went into more detail in? Anything I should pay extra attention to? I wanted to try the rotational fisherman but I just ate dinner, but maybe I’ll try it later! I felt like I had two left feet when I tried to shadow your movements 😅
You got it Jimmy! keep up the good work. ahahah I know how it can be- but I'd guess you haven't actually started reading it yet have you? Once you start reading it, it will suck you right in- again Gabriele Wulf writes like no other scientific author I've ever seen, and this paper is really incredibly useful. I made sure to get all the practical conclusions in the video, but when you read the paper I think you'll be shocked to see some of the results from these studies that they have reviewed and incorporated into this paper and theory- so interesting and counter intuitive. it is long, but it's also not hard to read which is really nice. No worries with the fisherman- it's my favorite move for many reasons, one of which is that I do it and use it ALOT- pretty much every day- for years and years. It won't look like that for a while when you practice it- which is perfectly fine and normal. I'll make a note on future videos to include some clips of my students doing the moves at various levels- hopefully that will help it seem more approachable :).
Hi Bren, greetings from a ("Movement") coach from Spain ! I've discovered your videos and I think you are doing a great job explaining concepts and sharing ideas. However, personally, I find this video too fast. By cutting the empty spaces of the speech, I feel like you are not giving me the time to absorb the information. Same with the titles, they pass way too fast. That's something I've struggled too, wanting to communicate too much too fast. By watching carefully great oral presenters I've realised that one common theme is that they are not afraid of the silence. They know how to use it and they give it to you. I hope you find this useful. I comment with the only purpose to give you feedback so you can get better and transmit this powerful message. Cheers, Pau.
I love the segment about questions at 26:53 So much of medical school culture is about not asking questions so that you might look smarter or don't expose your own knowledge gaps
I have so many questions.. would you be willing to answer? I’d love it! I’m 18, and I have been researching movement for so long now.. I’d just love to talk someone without any crazy down payment .. I don’t have anyone that I talk to that trains in this capacity ~ I love your content by the way ♥️! Thank you so much, from America
Hey Patty, great to hear. I'd love to speak with you- I do have a lot going on right now, but get in touch with my team at our website (www.themovementcult.com) and we'll be happy to figure something out- my consultation rates are actually really reasonable if that's what you want to do.
A lot of what you're saying is making a lot of sense, however I'm doubtful about the relevance of handstands to human anatomy. Why would doing this movement be beneficial for our body if we're biologically adapted to standing and moving on our feet?
Brief stop while watching the vid to comment: You may be disgusted by ppl "chasing looks" (showing Larry Wheels loosing in armwrestling... a sport he is passionate about while learning/developing the movements required) It's kinda ignorant and shallow to asume he isn't growing or developing as a person, just because he looks big. Everything else is positive, so stay on track ;)
Very fair and accurate point Felipe, and I really appreciate your feedback here. To be fair, I have a lot of respect for guys like Wheels that really put the work and sacrifice into a craft and push themselves to go to the top. It’s more when people just train for aesthetics and do a half ass job with it, and I wouldn’t say that I don’t respect it, rather than I very firmly believe there is a much better way.
4:50 bruh this is a good message but the problem with all you fitness for health and function youtoubers is that you look like bodybuilders, it kind of undermines the entire point youre triyng to get across
he also addresses individualism. just because he choses to incorporate an intense form of strength training (which imo absolutely everyone should be doing) doesn't mean he expects everyone else to do the same. his physique is a byproduct/reflection of his personal effort/philosophy and work ethic not the focus.
😂😂😂throwing your into water and teach you how to swim……. I remember many many years ago I taught my brothers to swim just like that , they are grown men now but great swimmers. It was better for them initially and broke their fear from water.
Thanks so much for watching guys!
Also, we have 3 more videos in the pipeline right now: one about my progression from scratch to one arm handstand as an adult, another will be version 2.0 of our scientific stretching video, and the desperately needed pt 2 for our pain science video (we covered the why, but we still need the how) and then the plan is to do the deep dive into volume that you guys were asking for after the last video. Let me know which of these you guys would be excited to see and I’m happy to change up the order or do something different (like a deeper dive into OPTIMAL theory).
Hey Bren,
To be honest ALL of the listed upcoming vids are about topics i know there is so much to be learned for me! However the pt. 2 of the pain science vid. and the video about volume would be my personal favourites!👍💪
P.S.: hope you were able to understand, since I'm from Germany...🙃
@@mr.broccoliwarrior9303 Thanks so much! I feel the same honestly, but those two will also be the most work ahahah. looking forward to them though and thank you for the feedback :).
Also guys heads up- lots of things been going on lately, and one of the other videos I've been working on with my brother actually moved far ahead of schedule, so the next few videos will be totally different than what I had planned (other than stretching 2.0,) but I'll be getting to pain science pt 2 and the volume video after the next 3 that are in the pipeline. They're going to be good!
Great video! You should do a review on Naudi Aguilar of Functional Patterns. That dude thinks he's God's greatest gift to mankind. He constantly slams any practice other than FP, but I'd be interested in your thoughts.
I wanna see all of them too! However especially the handstand and pain ones, because I've had pain in my joints (especially wrists shoulders and knees) for three years now (no success with physiotherapy or chiropractic or docs etc) and it's really frustrating cos I really would love to be able to just to a handstand, or even a downward facing dog without pain at this point tbh. Keep up ur vids ur awesome!!!
This channel is so underrated, i think you guys make some of the most informative and "no-bullshit" videos out there.
Thanks man! I do my best- there's way too much BS out there.
Completely agreed. There are a lot of small channels like this that are so incredibly valuable!
guys? more than one?
40 years ago I began my journey. Mixing it up always made sense to me. I wanted to be fit for every thing I challenged myself with. Barefoot most of my life. I free fly paragliders, Hike, lift weights, build things, dance,practice Thai Qui Qui Gong weight train, calisthenics. The list goes on. Movement is life. Be your own guru, make mistakes, reach further, grow. Meditate
This is the channel I was looking for and I'm surprised it's not bigger, but that's only a matter of time. Hope you end up getting the exposure you deserve!
We're getting there Jim! Thank you so much :).
Dude FINALLY someone from movement culture making comprehensive TH-cam videos, well done and thank you man xxx
SO DAMN GOOD! Thanks Bren, SO much quality info that isn’t talked about on calisthenics/fitness channels! I’m so glad I went to check out the channel and didn’t stop at the Ido critique. New favorite teacher 🙏
Awesome stuff! Thank you for putting your hard work and time into this video. I really appreciate it. As another commenter pointed out, this content is so needed and super underrated. I hope you start getting more exposure because I know more people need to hear this stuff!
Thank you so much Octeris! Means a lot- comments like these keep me going even with how much work these videos are to make. Share with your friends that need it!
Pain is my friend. It’s what informs me at deeper and deeper levels 🙏
Looking forward to this, you always post quality content!
Thanks! Not for lack of effort ;)
Just found your channel and it’s pure gold, thank you for you!
Aww. Thank you Will!
Really appreciate the depth you go into in this video, so helpful thank you. Looking forward to learning more from you!
Thanks Bren for your very nice and structured insights that are really helpful 🌿🙏💫
I just wanna add that foamroll and massage are more supposed to be used to remove adhérences between fascias (which are felt as trigger point and the result of bad combinaison or cooking methods) with adequate movement, oxygenation, sleep, balanced and unprocessed food intake, hydratation and sun exposure foamroll and massage have a really really really usefull power to relieve tension long term (if we stick to a good life hygiene of course) but it’s not miraculous it need like anything a little bit of tinkering , patience and should be melt with some adequate movement, may be some stretch with full rom postural breath meowing , walking a bit 3 times a day , etc… 🌿🙏💌
Love and care
Great video. My favorite image was the pirouette. Spellbinding. Also, good that you talked about upper/lower crossed syndrome and how the concepts were wrong. What have you seen as the main issue with APT?
Me again ;D
Finishing this series, i asked about your views on posture imbalances previously, just saw you elaborate at around the 20 minute mark. I really like how you come from a perspective of "it's not the best to assume the cause the and effect", you gave the cooking/molecular example.
Obviously by this point, you can tell that the cause and effect of my back pain has been of great stress for me, I think I need to refrain from seeking information for a bit, and just start a routine, get my body moving, and learn some things in that manner. Edit: Wow After typing this, i continued watching and you made this point: "You can never be fully prepared for things you havent done, we could spend 5 months on land and teach you ___ but if you never get in the water youre not going to be very effective. Sometimes its good to throw you in the water, you'll figure out a lot. While it might feel overwhelming, you're gonna learn faster" sir do you see how this would resonate with me? Lol.
Along with my dumb random movements, I also just did portals squat v2 from 9 years ago, imma do it every day. Surprisingly for how ass my back and knees feel, I can squat in place for 12 minutes so I'm happy about that, one day I wanna hit 30 minutes in one go. Maybe my posture will improve along the way.
I noticed on reddit, a lot of people who like or give credit to movement, and bodyweight fitness in general really have distain for Ido portal for his secrecy of information. wish he was a more open fella :( One thing even all his haters agree on, he has good information, they just have problems with him in every other regard.
Loved the video! Than you very much for spending your time and effort on valuable information for all of us!
I really hope you keep making these. So good
Thanks Dustin! I'm working as hard as I can over here, more on the way :). Curious, do you mean more educational movement videos in general, or more videos in the intro to movement series in particular?
@@BrenTeachesMovement educational movement videos in general. The concepts around recovery and volume have been super helpful. Also, the new philosophy around learning. I started my own BJJ academy last year, I just turned 39. And I’m trying to build the best program around. There isn’t much bjj around where I live (central Maine) so I really want to build something special here. I also need to improve my own training and growth. While minimizing injuries and stuff.
Yo, just found you. I'm wondering if you are planning on releasing a book on these concepts anytime soon? Great work. The movement space is behind some sort of abstract wall for most people. I beelive the movement space needs someone to do what kneesovertoesguy did. Bringing movement as a practice to the general population so it can become a part of our entire culture once more, we cetainly need it. Great work dude. Glad I found your channel.
My new favorite TH-cam channel
I really enjoy your channel! great content and hope to learn more from you in the future. Just have to make one comment on the UFC part. The set of rules in the early ufc fights you showed were favoring the bjj guys very much I guys. I agree with your point that the skillset matters a lot, but if you had 2 fighters with the same skillset the one with more muscle mass would still win im shure ;)
Love this perspective, great channel, video!!! 🙏🏼
Thanks so much!
Nice info man. Are you using morph between cuts? Looks fun, a little surreal but good :D
Great stuff I will be looking at more of your training system, many tanks for posting this.
Thanks for this video and series! I appreciate your focus on helping us prioritize what’s important vs not
Thanks Rob! Yes, that is key!
Everything, everywhere, all the time!!!!! When you referenced that I was uplifted thinking I am grasping this concept well having mentioning it to you a number of times now during the “what have we learned” portion of the sessions :) I am honestly becoming quite addicted to movement training and fee I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. Thank you Bren!
Love seeing all the progress you're making Angelina and yeah- I love things like this that have levels of depth in them. Now you're really starting to get it- but I wouldn't be surprised if a year goes by and you're like WOAH- now I really get it :). So much depth in that one little quote- I think it's funny that I didn't appreciate it at all at first. Keep it up!
Just discovered this channel and this kind of content is something I've really been missing on TH-cam. Keep it up, really enjoy this!
Also, I feel that the concepts in OPTIMAL theory can be applied to so much more than just training. The same kind of feedback loops can be seen in any kind of interactive setting with "students" and "coaches". I see it every day within engineering and software development for instance.
I love the comments about bare feet! I quit wearing shoes while working out a few years ago. My masseuse reinforced my inclination that I’d actually build better dexterity in my feet without shoes. And it cools me off so much better.
I am so grateful that you made these videos and have such a wonderful channel.
I’m a bit older and more injury prone than most of your audience.
I am eager to try this program for at least the next 3 months to see if my body will adapt and become more mobile (strong, flexible, agile,etc).
Again, thanks. You rock.
Your knowledge is wisdom. Thank you for sharing 😇🙏
Thank you @bhargav
Going to the park to practice this now. Thank you for your well put together and informative videos.
I appreciate your work and I'm sure many others do.
Just discovered your channel and subscribed! I myself started online coaching with Ido since 2012 (on and off), and I am happy to see honest movers like you talking about Ido's education. Too many make video 'reviews' without any real understanding of the proces! Wish you all the best!
Thank you! I completely agree :)
I wonder many times during our session, what makes a good movement - and found your description, "everything, everywhere all the time" helpful. "All joints involved should be, synchronized, cohesively" will generally make a good movement.
Yesss. Such a good little rule- and I love how I can use it to evaluate the skill in movements and even disciplines I've never seen before :)
Wow this was really amazing ! It was such an in-depth intro and is best suited for newbies like me ! This series will really be an awesome experience !
Thanks Eshaan! Really glad you liked it :)
@@BrenTeachesMovement 🤩🤩😊
Nassim Taleb's quote is is also about the idea of "skin in the game": the idea that people who understand the molecular composition of food may fool themselves into thinking they knew how to cook. Kind of what your Sports Medicine people did.
You are so fascinating. Thanks for sharing all this!
is there movement training for kickboxing specificaly?
Love the information from this series. The part about driving reminded me of the deliberate practice theory which says practice has to contain certain elements for it to facilitate growth.
Everything, everywhere, all the time - I am still practicing this daily every time I workout... must have
Keep at it Ish!
Optimal theory that is Gold! I found my fisherman move improved flow by keeping center of gravity over base of support
Yes and Yes Theodore! Of course- if you don't have COM over BOS, you're falling, so it's going to be hard to do any move properly.
This series is brilliant and deserves 10 times the views it has. I love the balance you strike between science, experience and intuition. It makes all the concepts you're talking about very digestible and actionable.
I have a couple specific questions if you don't mind:
1. Has your movement training specifically helped your bjj? Most my exercise is centered around improving my jiu jitsu and I'm wondering if adding these types of movement practises would be beneficial.
2. Have you heard of Kneesovertoes guy and what do you think of his methodology and effectiveness? It's strange because in a certain sense his training seems of the "reverse engineering" ilk, but it also seems to be highly effective and well regarded.
Thank you guys for these great videos!
"There are mistakes with everything, no move is perfect" that reminded me of the fact that there is no perfect person, but we should all be trying to get better everyday. The same goes for movement, so exercise on, one step at a time! :)
Thanks Sina! 100%- I think that's what life's all about- just trying to get better and do the best job you can for the short time we're here :)
Hi Bren!
I loved this video, and your channel! You provide great dense information in a beautiful calm manner. I would like to ask you a question on the NASM model and your take on it, since I'm currently studying it.
From what I understand, over-active / under-active muscles does not necessarily mean strong / weak. In simple terms, it means that the body (brain/nervous system) has learned to use certain muscle combinations for certain movements or postures. Taking into consideration that most of us live a sedentary life, we would need to counteract these imbalances created with the "opposite movements". E.g. thoracic extensions & back muscle strengthening to counteract kyphosis etc.
Furthermore, from what I understand, there are certain postures that allocate forces exerted to the body from external stimuli, in a manner that minimizes stress in joints, ligaments, vertebral disks etc, by incorporating more muscle action. This is what is thought of "proper posture".
Would you disagree with the "proper posture" terming, and the way NASM tries to counteract the imbalances created from sedentary life (or muscle overuse through specificity) ? What would you propose instead for such cases? (More movement in general will certainly help, but shouldn't it be accompanied with counteracting movements / exercises?
Thanks again for the video, and I hope your channel does great!
All the best.
Hey Tilemachos!
First, my advice would be, stop wasting your time with the NASM model (I'm assuming you're studying for their CPT exam), and if you need a certification go with the NSCA instead (CSCS is much better if you have the prerequisite undergraduate degree).
Yeah, again this is their model as I pointed out in the video, and you make a fair point that I said strong/weak rather than underactive/overactive, but functionally their point is the same- strengthen the underactive muscles and stretch/foam roll the overactive muscles.
My points are also the same: I've never had a student or client EVER where I even once thought 'these muscles are too strong' or 'these muscles are too flexible (some people will say this one but they're ignorant of the actual literature on hyper mobility which suggests it doesn't matter at all). In almost every case, all the muscles are too tight, and all the muscles are too weak. Hence, it would really slow things down if you only stretch some muscles and only strengthen others.
Secondly, the reason they suggest this, the whole posture model and Lower crossed upper crossed idea is pretty much BS, and there's no real evidence for it. For more on this you can check out my first pain science video (th-cam.com/video/lTeYwfI1O68/w-d-xo.html) or Greg Lehman's video here (th-cam.com/video/cnLxcEMdjVk/w-d-xo.html).
Third, the whole foam rolling thing is mostly useless as well- you can look to Quinn Henoch's writing & videos for more on this.
I read the whole NASM book start to finish and crushed the exam after like 5 days of studying for it (that's how easy that exam is), but I can honestly tell you as someone who got their NASM CPT and FNS that their book and model is mostly trash.
also, yes, generally more movement, and a focus on where people need more work vs where they're unskilled. As far as pain and injury, the focus should be on pain and injury, not on any of this over-complication (you'll understand more after you watch the first pain science video and also after I publish the second one)
Your content is Master Class! Thank you!!?
You could break this video down into little snack sized pieces and release one every day. Also, I am not able to read most of the pop-up text, it is not on screen long enough for me.
Interesting, high-quality video. I haven't finished watching yet, but i have a few comments:
- foam rolling, mio-fascial release per se, doesn't increase flexibility for only 15min. There's a lot to say about it, but if you threw it out of your practice, you might want to rethink that. It has been a useful tool to me
- dance and movement doesn't have to be cohesive. It can be precise, isolated, sharp, agressive(how my mma friend dances usually), and it can be fluid, cohesive, smoothe, calm(like i usually dance). To call a movement aesthetic we would not look at the singular movements but also the transitions, the story entailed, the musicality, confidence in self-expression, etc, most of them we perceive subconsciously
Hey Strahinja! Thanks for the comment. Actually, the effects of foam rolling and myofascial release are extremely short lived- the main mechanism is what's called sensory motor gating. This basically means that your mechanoreceptors sense the pressure, and you get somewhat of a perceived threat up at the brain, hence lesser threats are reprioritized. Because there is no actual remodeling of the tissues, or stimulus for remodeling, the effects are die off extremely fast. If you actually pause the video to read that abstract- you'll see that it doesn't actually show the effects of foam rolling being short lived, it shows a program of only foam rolling having no effect on flexibility whatsoever. The original research that myofascial release is based on was done on rats with supra-physiological pressures that cannot be replicated in foam rolling or massage. Check out Quinn Henoch and Greg Lehmann for more on this. It's cool if you feel it works for you, placebo is one hell of a drug, but you might want to consider spending your training time on more productive modalities.
Regarding the dance- I mostly agree with your sentiment, but there is a cohesiveness even within those 'precise, isolated, sharp, and aggressive' movements as well, that makes them beautiful more than anything else. Isolations are a clear and easy example, if you're aiming to isolate a certain joint for any movement, but other joints are moving when they shouldn't be, that detracts from the cohesiveness, beauty, and control of the movement. Cohesiveness doesn't mean the joints are all necessarily moving together, but rather that they are all performing their individual tasks towards the overall 'task goal' of the movement- including stillness.
For aggressiveness, check out the legendary mike tyson here th-cam.com/video/K2bEeeveqxY/w-d-xo.html . Would you say that his movements here aren't cohesive? In my eyes, even in examples of dancers pretending to be uncoordinated, or making movements purposely chaotic, there is an innate cohesiveness between all joint & muscle actions/inactions towards those goals that creates their beauty.
Great info. Thank you
Best channel
Just finished 3 part series and I'm surprised that you have only 4k subscriptions. I really enjoyed it. Which disciplines do you recommend the most to start learning movement? BJJ, capoeira, parkour, climbing?
Hi Bren, first of all just saying thank you for this valuable and well organized content you are sharing. And second, i think the word 'resilience' in terms of the body has a very profound meaning so i can not find that meaning. Could make a video o dedicated a part of it to give your perspective about this concept?
btw, i am not a native english speaker so maybe i didnt express myself optimally
After watching fisherman stuff I thought *silly* but I gave it a Try and it is absolutelly grate can you Givenchy some variations of it? Thx
Question! Do you ever use weightlifting for your upper body? How does your upper body development look like?
Yes! mostly for accessory & rehab exercises, but occasionally for more targeted work as well
Awesome video again mt lots of quality information for us 👍 in relation to pain and injury, a recurring theme within my own novice practice at the moment is training and maybe after the practice feeling a slight niggle or pull here or there. Maybe because of poor technique, or perhaps pushing myself too hard, but whatever the case say you encounter the same thing at some point how do u then approach that injury. Cold treatment, analgesics, just stretching perhaps? Any help would be appreciated, thanks again. 😊
Hey Chris, Great question- and actually because you asked this I've decided I'm going to change the schedule a bit and work on the pain science pt. 2 video ASAP- that information is really going to help you guys.
You watched the first part, so you have some idea the general direction of the approach, but pt. 2 will 'weaponize' that information into a functionally useful method. I think it's all intuitive but Susan keeps reminding me that it isn't, and now for evidence I have 200 pages I've written that still doesn't fully explain my method yet- I thought it would only take 20.
@@BrenTeachesMovement thanks bren, although slight niggles and pulls of a recurring nature may not be a big deal for many as someone who has a 50 hour + week at an extremely physically demanding job, I don't have the luxury of physical 'down time ' at work which would aid in a rest and recovery situation. Usually a small pull would just go on it's own but I need some kind of strategy to attack them head on lol cheers m8 much appreciated 👍👌👏😉
@@chrisplayz253 You got it bro, we'll get on this as soon as we can for ya. I've got the script for it roughly formulating in my head right now :).
Aajonus vonderplanitz lubrication/moisturizing formula would be awesome for movement. It will enchance your lubrication in joints and skin. 2 times / day for at least 1 month would be so much improvment with the training.Especially for people with sour joints and arthritis.
I like the larger picture discussion of function vs aesthetics then a more nuanced look of how sometimes chasing the aesthetics can help you improve function. Also, I think we need Optimal Theory fan t-shirts. (and center of mass, base of support shirts too lol)
OOh. that would be good. But maybe Gabriele Wulf fan shirts instead of optimal theory 😂.
For standing up from the fisherman, what are your thoughts about planting the toes of the back foot, so that you can push yourself up with that leg instead of relying on the weight transfer to the front?
Hey Stefan! Great question, that's a common mistake. Planting the toes of the back leg there requires an extra step (flipping the toes down so they can push off the floor), much easier, simpler, and smoother to just push up more with the front leg and use the top of the back foot for a small assist.
This is amazing. I don't even practice jui jitsu but this is incredible. Thanks
This is gonna be lit 🔥🔥
This is a great channel ! You have re inspired me to add more movement to my life. I trained online with Ido in a previous lifetime :)
ahaha. thanks man!
What are your thought about quality and intention ? Does your gesture just need to be done or you aim to but an intention behind it ? Adjectives of the gesture. It's a contemporary dance perspective about aesthetics but it has a huge impact on effectiveness.
what kind of trousers are you wearing/recommending for movement training? yours look like from judo
Such a great collective number of explanations on movement and thinking, really enjoyed listening to all of the ideas, principles , and solutions to body movements and thinking. Not sure I made sense 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
Thank you Sugar! Totally made sense :)
You're quick recap of OPTIMAL theory really reminded me on how Feldenkrais lessons are usually taught (and in contrast to basically any other sports instruction I ever got). This actually increases my motivation to get started with moving again. (And I will read that paper.) Thanks!
The external/internal focus seems... I don't want to say wrong, because I'm sure it's right, but I'm not sure it is universally better to focus externally. LIke if someone is doing a squat and one of the legs is caving in, it certainly seems like it is better to get them to focus on rotating the hips open. I guess if I'm trying to squat maximum weight I don't want to be focusing on that, but is there maybe value is trying to use internals on easier sets and then on harder ones focus externally and hope the work sticks?
Hey Michael! Wonderful question- and this touches on a number of things, but this is something that coaches and researchers have basically been pushing since Wulf originally started her research on external focus in IIRC 2003. Basically, coaches just can't seem to believe that an external focus is better for beginners. It seems so counter-intuitive, and yet the research (when done correctly ( clear internal vs. external cues) has always pointed to superiority of external focus. Even for beginners, even for form corrections, people learn them better and faster with external focus cues.
Actually, at this point, despite dozens of studies on external focus, not a single study has ever shown the superiority of external vs internal focus cues. A few ( I believe 2) have shown that no attentional focus cue was better, 1 for high level circus performers in a balance task (perhaps at that level, any cues are actually distracting from the focus on task goal). Remember, external focus is superior not just for performance, but also for learning.
The other problem also becomes one of autonomy, and your example of the valgus knees in the squat is a perfect one for this. Knees caving in on the squat is actually not a flaw with the movement, despite what we're told, and is regularly done at the highest levels (watch almost any olympic weightlifters, or this video in particular i give as an example of impeccable squatting technique th-cam.com/video/YI-CU9_GUd4/w-d-xo.html). So you give a student (or yourself) an internal focus cue with the intention of improving their technique, and not only are you distracting them from the real task (lift the weight), you're forcing them to solve a movement task with what is very likely a suboptimal solution for them, and despite what you may have been told, there's no evidence that you're protecting them from any injury either.
I do still use form cues sometimes with my students, but now I REALLY think carefully about when I really feel it's worth it to use them, and I always try to convert the cues to be external focus cues rather than internal- see bob's comment below.
@@BrenTeachesMovement Thanks for a very comprehensive response! I come from a dance background, so I do have familiarity with external cues proving a lot more effective. We use them a lot and they do work great. But I'm having a bit of a hard time letting go of internal cues (not that you're suggesting abandoning them completely), particularly with weightlifting where form and mind muscle connection are historically so effective. Especially with something imbalanced (I said one knee caving in because in my example because I don't think it's necessarily a problem for knees to be valgus in squat). I think for me where your focus really is on skill development (ie being able to squat the most) and I'm a bit caught up in my thinking with weight training as most people are getting me to train them (usually for hypertrophy).
All that said, I'm not dismissing what you're saying at all. I'll read the optimizing performance paper and see if I can put together the bigger picture for myself. Right now my gut is telling me there's really a lot of room for both, even if the focus is should be on external.
I appreciate your time.
@@michaelmcphee2006 ah yes. still, even one knee caving in is surely much less of a problem than we might think, and potentially not a problem at all. Check out videos of the first guy to ever clean triple bodyweight, Naim Suleymanoglu- he's got one knee caving in, and his hip doing some weird side wiggle, but he lifted that way for years. Not that case studies like this are the best evidence, but just that it exemplifies the research that muscle imbalances and weird technique things like this don't seem to have any significant effect on injury risk unless they're under extremely high loads. Check out Greg Lehman for more on this.
Yeah I thought the same honestly and investigated the external vs internal focus in particular quite heavily- maybe you'll have to read the papers for yourself. I would suggest starting with the optimal theory paper, as well as a review of external vs internal focus that Wulf did in 2013 (here: gwulf.faculty.unlv.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Wulf_AF_review_2013.pdf)
Having read a huge number of these papers, I would say that internal focus cues don't really have a place per se, but rather just that sometimes it's really hard to come up with an external focus replacement for them. The only time external focus seems to be better right now is that sometimes you might want the lower neural efficiency for building muscle type scenarios, especially when doing isolations, because it means more muscle activation. HOWEVER, it also seems that if you lift the weight quickly, this maximizes muscle activation, and essentially erases the difference in muscle activation between internal and external focus- so you would only do this when lifting the weight slowly.
@@BrenTeachesMovement I'll take a look. Really appreciate the insights.
Thank you for good informations keep it up🤸
I am new to your channel. I wonder why you have less than 2,000 followers. Well, thinking for a moment about the fitness industry and its bases, I think I know. :-)
Thanks for joining! I'm not sure actually, It may be more that my channel is fairly new, and I'm just getting the hang of making better videos. Anyway, either way, I'm here to change the game ;).
@@BrenTeachesMovement all my best wishes towards enhancing people's self-awereness :-)
great introduction, thank you!
Thanks for watching Radu!
How would you apply the external focus aspect of optimal theory to the handstand? It's clear where to focus when you have an external implement but what if you're just moving the body? In a podcast Gabriele Wulf gave, she gave the example of focusing on a sticker on your t-shirt as a way of improving jumping. She seemed to imply the focus had to be OUTSIDE the body. But also in other experiments they considered the movement of a golf club as external focus even though it was not the primary goal (ball trajectory). Hoping you could clarify.
For my handstand practice I focus on keeping the bottom of my shorts above my hands. What do you think?
Excellent question Bob, and one I've actually been thinking about myself ever since I first read the paper around April. When we actually try to design attentional focus cues there are a number of things to consider in addition to the internal/external focus. One is the distance effect, that the farther away the focus is from the body, the better the effect tends to be. It's interesting that she gave the example of a sticker on the T-shirt for jumping, that would be an external focus and therefore would help, and I think in a few of her studies they used a ball on the pelvis, but for jumping I like to use an overhead target, which is arguably more relevant to the task, and distal, which according to her theory would perform even better than the t-shirt or belt focus. Since the main mechanism for external focus seems to be focus on task goal, I think the most important of these various factors is relevance to the task.
For handstands, the shorts is a good idea, but there are plenty of ways to keep the shorts over the hands and still fall out of the handstand. What I've been using is a focus on keeping the weight over the hands, or more specifically, keeping all your weight over the floor that is under your hands (if done fully, this will force you to stay in the handstand). Not a very distal external focus, but I believe the task relevance overrides that and it has seemed to be quite helpful so far.
@@BrenTeachesMovement Thanks, wouldn't this be a maximally distal focus since the hands are very far from the body centre? The way I would phrase it is "keeping the earth over the centre of the hands" rather than "feeling the pressure on the centre of the hands": a subtle but important difference.
@@bobbobson4030 maybe you meant keeping the earth under the center of the hands? but regardless- the earth isn't going to move, and is always going to be under the hands no matter where the rest of your body is- hence somewhat irrelevant to the task. Also, this isn't a maximally distal focus- remember external focus is outside of the body, it can be far out side the body. This has been demonstrated in a number of studies. For instance, one study of kayakers gave 2 different external focus cues, one was told to focus on the paddles, another was told to focus on the finish line (distal external focus), and the finish line group did better, presumably because their external focus was farther away, and hence promoted even less focus on self.
@@BrenTeachesMovement Yes, keeping the earth UNDER the centre of the hands..but when I'm upside down, it's OVER lol! If I frame it as "where is the pressure exerted on my hands?" I'm focused on the hands (internal) but if I say "where is the earth in my hands?" it's external (yes, I know it sounds weird). I'm thinking of moving the earth so it's positioned in the centre of the hands (external). It's difficult to communicate these subtle differences
Also, is there ever a time for internal focus in skill learning and if so, when?
Thank you for the video Bren. I like the idea of applying external-focused cues in my handbalancing and general calisthenics training.
Also, I opened up the paper on my browser and it is not going to be easy to motivate myself to read it through haha. I put it on my bucket list for when I’m feeling particularly ambitious. Are there any specific concepts that you didn’t mention in your video that the paper went into more detail in? Anything I should pay extra attention to?
I wanted to try the rotational fisherman but I just ate dinner, but maybe I’ll try it later! I felt like I had two left feet when I tried to shadow your movements 😅
You got it Jimmy! keep up the good work. ahahah I know how it can be- but I'd guess you haven't actually started reading it yet have you? Once you start reading it, it will suck you right in- again Gabriele Wulf writes like no other scientific author I've ever seen, and this paper is really incredibly useful.
I made sure to get all the practical conclusions in the video, but when you read the paper I think you'll be shocked to see some of the results from these studies that they have reviewed and incorporated into this paper and theory- so interesting and counter intuitive. it is long, but it's also not hard to read which is really nice.
No worries with the fisherman- it's my favorite move for many reasons, one of which is that I do it and use it ALOT- pretty much every day- for years and years. It won't look like that for a while when you practice it- which is perfectly fine and normal. I'll make a note on future videos to include some clips of my students doing the moves at various levels- hopefully that will help it seem more approachable :).
Great video. You got a sub
Hi Bren,
greetings from a ("Movement") coach from Spain !
I've discovered your videos and I think you are doing a great job explaining concepts and sharing ideas.
However, personally, I find this video too fast. By cutting the empty spaces of the speech, I feel like you are not giving me the time to absorb the information. Same with the titles, they pass way too fast. That's something I've struggled too, wanting to communicate too much too fast. By watching carefully great oral presenters I've realised that one common theme is that they are not afraid of the silence. They know how to use it and they give it to you.
I hope you find this useful. I comment with the only purpose to give you feedback so you can get better and transmit this powerful message.
Cheers,
Pau.
Ken Shamrock was veeeeery functional!
I love the segment about questions at 26:53 So much of medical school culture is about not asking questions so that you might look smarter or don't expose your own knowledge gaps
30:30 for the rotational fisherman demo
whatever floats your boat, just find the right healthy water
How does one train with you?
Well done ....
Thanks Andre!
The difference between this and fittness is longevity
really... you have anything to back up this claim?
loved it
awesome video series! love learning about this stuff. i especially like the Andre Spina quote about hand shoes
Thanks Bowl! I had fun filming that little clip :).
Prediction- this channel is gonna blow up
I have so many questions.. would you be willing to answer? I’d love it! I’m 18, and I have been researching movement for so long now.. I’d just love to talk someone without any crazy down payment .. I don’t have anyone that I talk to that trains in this capacity ~ I love your content by the way ♥️! Thank you so much, from America
Hey Patty, great to hear. I'd love to speak with you- I do have a lot going on right now, but get in touch with my team at our website (www.themovementcult.com) and we'll be happy to figure something out- my consultation rates are actually really reasonable if that's what you want to do.
What would you do if you could fly as a bird flys?
@ 5:18 "There is no perfect movement." I would just suggest that you have not been exposed to them.
I didn't know movement was so complicated
The Veritasium guy has a fitness channel...
how is it this simple yet noone knows?
why is there 112 comments and I can't see any ofthem at all
Everything everywhere all at once*
Not all the time Bren
You’re confused with the movie ;)
You somehow managed to keep my ADHD brain engaged for a bit
A lot of what you're saying is making a lot of sense, however I'm doubtful about the relevance of handstands to human anatomy. Why would doing this movement be beneficial for our body if we're biologically adapted to standing and moving on our feet?
I have spend more than 1000 Hours on my Last Final TH-cam Video
30:00
Brief stop while watching the vid to comment:
You may be disgusted by ppl "chasing looks" (showing Larry Wheels loosing in armwrestling... a sport he is passionate about while learning/developing the movements required) It's kinda ignorant and shallow to asume he isn't growing or developing as a person, just because he looks big.
Everything else is positive, so stay on track ;)
Very fair and accurate point Felipe, and I really appreciate your feedback here. To be fair, I have a lot of respect for guys like Wheels that really put the work and sacrifice into a craft and push themselves to go to the top. It’s more when people just train for aesthetics and do a half ass job with it, and I wouldn’t say that I don’t respect it, rather than I very firmly believe there is a much better way.
4:50 bruh this is a good message but the problem with all you fitness for health and function youtoubers is that you look like bodybuilders, it kind of undermines the entire point youre triyng to get across
he also addresses individualism. just because he choses to incorporate an intense form of strength training (which imo absolutely everyone should be doing) doesn't mean he expects everyone else to do the same. his physique is a byproduct/reflection of his personal effort/philosophy and work ethic not the focus.
This video will be better without the background music
Me Veziroğlu
Is he starting his own cult? I'm tired
😂😂😂throwing your into water and teach you how to swim……. I remember many many years ago I taught my brothers to swim just like that , they are grown men now but great swimmers. It was better for them initially and broke their fear from water.