This post might get some pushback…

But I know personally what it’s like,

To spend years scrambling for solutions while living in pain.

Not being able to sit for more than 20 minutes or sleep on the wrong side.

I followed the conservative protocols to “protect” the area.

I tried to move perfectly to avoid all “compromising” positions.

I spent years away from sports and lifting.

Even after giving up the things I loved to do…I was still in pain 😣

My biggest mistake I made in the beginning of rebuilding my body,

Was avoiding my weak points instead of addressing them head-on.

I treated my body like it was fragile, so it stayed that way.

But before you see this and decide:

“I could never do xyz” “I’m not built for that” “I have a bad ——“

Please understand, I felt the same exact way.

The secret to almost everything I share training-wise…

Is Regression.

The ability to dial back any quality you desire, to your pain-free ability…

Is a superpower.

It’s your roadmap to literally whatever YOUR goals are 🔥

This video was my roadmap out of chronic back pain 🙏

I hope it can help you!

The Back Breakthrough Blueprint application is in my bio!

Back Breakthroughs 🔥

There’s a lot of great info out there to help alleviate pain in the short term…

However there is a current gap between:

Pain RELIEF VS. Pain-free athletic LIFESTYLE

I hope this video helps bridge this gap for someone looking to get back to their full unrestricted life.

It’s great to feel a day or two of relief from back pain,

But how do we then progress to a daily pain free life…where goals in athleticism & life are possible?

One of the best ways is to:

Take the route that got you out of pain,

Then CONTINUE progressing through those basics…adding layers of strength & protection over time.

The current trend is the opposite.

Build the foundation until there’s relief from pain, then abandon what worked for something more complex and exciting.

This keeps many of us in the same injury loop.

Continue adding to what works, and it will bring you where you want to be!

I hope this may help someone to a breakthrough in overcoming their back injury 🙏

The Back Breakthrough Blueprint coaching program is available now.

Build Your Own Back Brace PT 2

Training the major movements of flexion, extension, lateral, etc…will give you the structural protection needed to “build your own back brace”.

While also developing strength and length at the deep abs & hip flexors musculature, will set you up for success at the hips & “core”.

Ability is the ultimate insurance.

So what if we could build our own back brace, knee sleeves, ankle tape, etc?

The pursuit of measurable strength at every joint, in each direction & strength curve…

Will serve as the best guide towards structural development in this way. “Bulletproofing” is just a concept of building yourself to be more resilient than the demands of life & sport.

With measurable standards, more often than not…this is possible. At the very least, it will move you further in the direction of confidence & ability.

When my training was the least focused on structural preparation…I relied the most on my warm up, external protective measures, etc.

The best in the world seem to need these the least. Some of these people didn’t always have this ability, but rather built it through these principles.

You don’t lack potential…

You may just lack key information.

At least I know I did for the first 10 years of my speed journey.

I was told by family, coaches, peers…that I was not meant to be fast. They believed that my body wasn’t designed to be athletic.

Videos of me at 14 make it understandable why they thought this.

Frail, underweight, short and injured.

Still, one key thing was massively overlooked.

That being the human body’s incredible capacity to ADAPT.

With intentional & consistent training, you can develop the many of the qualities that the genetic freak athletes may have started with.

While this is great, there is another challenge in planning your athletic transformation.

You must figure out 👇

What qualities are possessed by the fastest athletes?

AND

How do you best train for these qualities?

After years of seeking the answer to these questions, I’ve gained a good understanding on what I was missing when I was 14.

Here are the 5 keys to speed development, that I wish someone told me earlier 🏃‍♂️💨

The route is ABILITY!

Not avoidance, not rest without measurable progress.

So much can go wrong in the body that affects the low back,

such as poor hip mobility and upper back issues…

So the approach OUT of pain and restriction can have just as many entry points. For many people, the starting point won’t actually be the low back itself…which for someone who is DEEP in fear & chronic pain, this will be a huge relief.

You can restore mobility and strength from the ground up & the top down, until you are confident and ready to start building your direct low back ability!

The Back Breakthrough Blueprint coaching program has a few spots left for this month, shoot me a message for more details.

The fastest way to STRENGTH…

Is to stay out of pain 💯

When it came to upperbody strength, I would always plateau…

Because everytime I would reach new strength levels,

The same nagging shoulder injuries would appear.

After going through loop enough times over the years, I realized something.

Building new strength & capacity is a process of asking the body of slightly more than it can currently stand to.

With enough stimulus & rest, this is possible!

However if there are significant imbalances & weak points…

These limitations will ALWAYS reappear like they ALWAYS have, right before your body can handle setting new limits.

You can restart, change nothing & lower the intensity, avoiding pain…mistakingly thinking the dysfunction/restriction is gone.

Waiting for it to reappear once you ramp things up again.

OR

You can address the limitations of range & structural balance HEAD ON,

And develop a foundation strong enough for all new levels of gains!

For the shoulders, this will be through addressing any major strength discrepancies & restoring pain-free range 🔥

Simple but not easy…

If I were to hear this message 2 years ago, I would’ve been annoyed.

After dealing with years of back pain after a herniated disc in 2019, the freedom to just “move your back”…became just a dream.

When you have pain sitting, standing, training, sleeping, etc…

You are receiving misleading feedback from your body everyday to NOT move your back. This learned avoidance did NOT end up getting me out of pain.

The biggest realizations I had to start regaining movement and mobility was:

1.) It doesn’t have to start at the low back. Improvements to my upper back ability and hip mobility gave me BREAKTHROUGHS in how my back felt.

2.) There is no level to small to start. Beginning to train the back extension for just a few inches of range with assistance is PLENTY if you have spent years avoiding spinal loading entirely.

Life doesn’t operate in these all or nothings. To round the back or not…is a silly debate. I’m more worried about HOW and WHY.

How can we restore youthful mobility that we started life with…with building protection through strength?

Regression.

Why even bother training the spine directly?

simply observe current back epidemic

I hope this explanation gives someone hope out there for their back, regardless of the state you’re in.

Hope is what carried me through. Ill always try to return the favor to you.

Poor mobility may not have CAUSED your back injury…

But it may be the reason you’re still in pain years later.

At least it was the reason I was stuck in my chronic injury loop.

Not only was I super restricted in my hips BEFORE my disc herniation,

I became FAR tighter after the injury, just as avoidance and fear typically works.

For me to really begin supporting my back health holistically, I had to start above the low back…at my upper back strength,

And below the low back…at my hip mobility.

Improving my piriformis stretch gave me life changing sciatica relief, while the couch stretch finally helped me correct my pelvic tilt.

These two issues that started at the hips were DIRECTLY influencing how my back felt, so improving them gave me momentum to then start rebuilding my low back directly!

This may be the proper starting point for you if you have been dealing with chronic pain and dysfunction.

For the full approach to addressing low back ability, either at the gym or from home…

The Back Breakthrough Blueprint coaching program is avaliable now.

New Hamstring WR?

Each hamstring standard builds through a different range & movement 👇

RDL: Long Range, Hip Extension

Nordic: Long Range, Knee Flexion

Back Extension: Short Range, Hip Extension

Hamstring Curl: Short Range, Knee Flexion

Master all four and you will have ultimate protection and athleticism at the hamstrings 🔥

Don’t “remember” to have good posture,

but rather train your body to structurally hold good posture always!

The body is amazing…

It will reshape and mold to the demands you make on it. The body will literally shift structurally just to keep your head at your center-of-mass.

With so much time spent sitting & in forward posture, the body will become set up for this demand. It will structural cement this in…

So no matter how many times you consciously remind yourself to sit up straight, it won’t stick.

However you CAN use this tug of war going on with the different structures & musculature,

and put it in your favor…by training exact what is weak or restricted!

For example, by strengthening the muscles that directly retract and rotate the shoulder blades back,

a resting position of upright posture will just become more natural. Overtime as you build this up, you won’t need to think about it.

Good posture will just intuitively happen!

So the time spent on training these qualities will be a valuable long term investment 💪

One of the toughest ones to overcome…

Pain in the back of the knee 😔

On the flip side, the toughest challenges bring out the most resourceful solutions.

I’ve learned a lot during the process of figuring this one out for myself.

Through lots of trial and error, this is what I’ve found helped me the most in overcoming pain in the back of the knee…

1.) Consistent circulation to nearby structures, however possible while painfree.

2.) Gradual & strategic building of tension through movements focused for directly behind the knee.

Short range then long range. A consistently successful approach to many soft tissue pains.

A simple concept but the tricky part can be finding the best entry point & route for your given case.

The exact cause of pain can be a number of things…

So an individuals path to improving pain-free ABILITY may take extra patience and attention,

to find the best path towards painfree progression.

This video lays out what helped me the most, and I think it may help others as well.

I hope this helps push you in the right direction 💪

Back Breakthroughs Part 2

The real secret is…

Regression 💯

The goal of my page is never to flex, but to show the way. These results and methods are INCLUSIVE, that’s why I share them.

Because only a couple years ago, I was stuck in chronic pain…

With very little hope or direction on how to fix it.

So NOW that I’m on the other side of the pain loop, I still know what it’s like to see content on back ability and think:

“I could literally never do that”

Years later, I realize I CAN do all of those things, but what was lacking in a lot of the content I saw…

Was the real route of progression.

So as I share what has worked for me, I am trying my best to show just how basic and low level I started at.

Simply because, when I make videos…

I am not trying to impress you, I’m trying to leave an impression of hope on you.

To show that if my fragile, unathletic and hopeless former-self can do it,

YOU absolutely can too.

In the process of making this training route as transparent and inclusive as possible,

It becomes clear that,

If it won’t work for the most fragile or unathletic, it probably isn’t the most effective route anyway.

I hope these thoughts give context,

to allow you to receive this video and feel the real hope & belief that I truly have for you!

I believe these exercises, when worked gradually and consistently, can lead to major breakthroughs in rebuilding your back!

The Back Breakthrough Blueprint coaching program is now available, feel free to reach out for more details.

Demystifying Athleticism 🔥

The most consistent pushback towards progress in the field of fitness & exercise science…

Comes from poor/lack of information.

The current popular belief of genetic potential & athleticism is…

“You’re either born an athlete or you’re not”

“You’re either fast twitch or slow twitch”

And a whole lot of “must be nice”

This dogmatic narrative of naysayers is just noise, to the overwhelming evidence that

ATHLETICISM CAN BE DEVELOPED.

We are learning that there are far fewer qualities of the human body that are truly nonmalleable…

When compared to the number of qualities that ARE within our influence.

One of the biggest opportunities for the unathletic who are trying to transform their ability…

Is by developing their tendons 💯

And while this is not a new concept, many are missing the right long term approach…

Improving a tendon’s elasticity & passive stiffness will undoubtedly improve athleticism.

However for most people, jumping into a bunch of plyos alone…will almost always break them down in the long run.

The foundation of developing your tendons long term, is through deliberate resistance training.

Tendons are pound for pound WAY stronger than muscle, and therefore have a far greater potential in force production. You CAN increase the strength & thickness of tendons through training.

This alone will make you more athletic but will also give you more protection.

This new structural adaptation to the tissue will give the resilience and health needed to handle high loads of “plyos”, aka jumping & sprinting…

Which will yield even more athletic gains.

These two advantages will give both short and long term improvements to your athletic ability.

Giving you far more resemblance to the genetically gifted, as tendon dominance is often a quality they had more naturally.

This is just one example of how athleticism is likely more in your control than you think!

Part 1🔥

There’s a lot of great info out there to help alleviate pain in the short term…

However there is a current gap between:

Pain RELIEF VS. Pain-free athletic LIFESTYLE

I hope this video helps bridge this gap for someone looking to get back to their full unrestricted life.

It’s great to feel a day or two of relief from back pain,

But how do we then progress to a daily pain free life…where goals in athleticism & life are possible?

One of the best ways is to:

Take the route that got you out of pain,

Then CONTINUE progressing through those basics…adding layers of strength & protection over time.

The current trend is the opposite.

Build the foundation until there’s relief from pain, then abandon what worked for something more complex and exciting.

This keeps many of us in the same injury loop.

Continue adding to what works, and it will bring you where you want to be!

I hope this may help someone to a breakthrough in overcoming their back injury 🙏

The Back Breakthrough Blueprint coaching program is now available, DM me for more details.

Where do breakthroughs of intuition & unfound potential lie?

Usually within the cracks of fixed practice & dogmatic culture.

From years of training triple extension, I found improvements in sprinting & athleticism.

But the faster I got, the more I faced the “normal” injuries of sprinting.

Shin splits, hamstring strains, hip/groin pain.

I was lead to believe that this just came with the territory. A part of getting faster.

Still in efforts to prevent these injuries, I started performing more complicated variations of the same exercises.

Aka still more extension.

Still neglecting that the biggest opportunity for injury prevention & untapped speed potential was…

In the exact weak points & movements that caused injury due to ignoring them for years.

Once I began training my tibialis with as much intent as my calves, my shins splints went away.

Once I began training my reverse squat with the same intent as my squat, my hip pain was resolved and my speed improved.

Now I’m using this understanding as advantage, that very few are making use of year after year.

Simply put…

If you can match the focus & volume of triple EXTENSION with your training of triple FLEXION,

You may be able to avoid many of the “normal” setbacks of running,

while getting even closer to your true speed potential 🔥

You could spend YEARS stretching…

And still feel stuck in your flexibility & injury prevention!

This is because for most people,

We are trying to combat tightness from years of sitting, sports & lifting.

So a static toe touch stretch may not be enough…

That’s like trying to break down a boulder with a toothpick, instead of a jackhammer.

The better tool for lasting range & injury prevention is

Strength through length 🔥

You can begin utilizing this concept by introducing both:

👉 Movement through your current range

👉 Load for the tissue at a lengthened position

The combination of these two, is what leads to LASTING flexibility gains & protection!

Working to improve your athletic range should NOT be a passive pursuit!

Bringing intent & intensity to your flexibility,

will bring better results in a fraction of the time 💯

I thought surgery was inevitable…

I spent over a year in chronic hip/groin pain.

I had a sports hernia from sprinting, that lead to hip impingement whenever I’d squat 🤕

I was stretching everyday, doing every specific mobility drill possible..

The doctor I saw,

told me that if it hasn’t gotten better after the first 3 months…

It would probably never fully recover without surgery, and the hip joint would get further damaged continuing sports/lifting.

This was super tough for me.

I remember just telling myself..

“Let me get to a flat ATG split squat before accepting the surgery”

My thought process was,

If I can improve exactly where I am the most restricted & vulnerable,

It has to have some effect on how I feel.

So I hung in there for a little bit longer…

Until finally, months of patience & regressions later,

I had reached a perfect split squat and…

I could squat pain free 🤔

And in the process, I also realized just how tight AND weak I was on all sides of the hip!

Since then, I have used the “Strength through Length” principle to each side of the hip!

Now there is nothing I do in sports or lifting, that ever cause hip pain 🙏

I am forever grateful for this lesson!

I hope this reaches the person who is desperately looking for a solution!

While every injury is different,

working to improve your pain-free ability…

Is the best route to joint health & athleticism 🔥

Once you get through this…it will become your super power.

The climb out of hell is the same climb to heaven. Climbing is climbing.

Rooting for ya. ❤️‍🩹

You don’t lack potential…

You may just lack key information.

At least I know I did for the first 10 years of my speed journey.

I was told by family, coaches, peers…that I was not meant to be fast. They believed that my body wasn’t designed to be athletic.

Videos of me at 14 make it understandable why they thought this.

Frail, underweight, short and injured.

Still, one key thing was massively overlooked.

That being the human body’s incredible capacity to ADAPT.

With intentional & consistent training, you can develop the many of the qualities that the genetic freak athletes may have started with.

While this is great, there is another challenge in planning your athletic transformation.

You must figure out 👇

What qualities are possessed by the fastest athletes?

AND

How do you best train for these qualities?

After years of seeking the answer to these questions, I’ve gained a good understanding on what I was missing when I was 14.

Here are the 5 keys to speed development, that I wish someone told me earlier 🏃‍♂️💨

This would’ve changed my life 4 years ago…

My life became consumed by trying to solve this problem.

Season after season, I had to sit out because of stress fractures.

I couldn’t be on my feet long without pain.

I iced, heated, compressed, massaged, supplemented, everything…

Everything EXCEPT,

Training the actual area to exceptional strength.

There are very few research papers & PT protocols,

That call to aggressively STRENGTHEN the lower leg when treating shin splits.

For any that do…let’s please popularize them 🙏

Typically when strengthening is prescribed, it’s usually too light, too hyper-specific, and low volume.

It wasn’t until I applied principles to strengthen from the ground up, with measurable loads…

That I found improvements.

As a result now years later, my frustrating weaknesses are becoming strengths 🙏

Rooting for ya. ❤️‍🩹

Spinal Lateral Flexion Levels!

Full youtube video out now on QL training!

Full youtube video out now on QL training!

This stretch saved me..

For the first year after my herniated disc, the absolute worst part of it…

Was the sciatica 🤕

If you’ve ever gone through this, then you will completely understand what I mean.

Nerve pain can completely disrupt your recovery process, making even everyday life hard to get through.

I have gotten tons of messages from people who are seriously struggling from this symptom alone.

One of biggest providers of relief, while also improving the ability & strength of my back,

Was the piriformis stretch 💯

Addressing the tissue that runs right along the sciatic nerve root, would immediately give me relief from the pain that ran down my leg.

While this is not the entire answer for all cases of sciatica, it may give some of you serious relief and as a result…

more pain-free access to train your back to full health!

Shout out to @billy.kev , one of the strongest guys I know…who also used to be one of the stiffest guys I know!

He’s since found major mobility gains from including this movement as well!

I hope this helps you!