OPTI 2012 CEU Seminar Series

Posted: January 10, 2012 in General
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2012 OPTI CONTINUING EDUCATION SEMINAR SERIES

 

8 CEU TOPICS FOR PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT AND INJURY REDUCTION IN 2012

 

1.  Movement Preparation 2.0 for Improved Movement Efficiency

2.  Olympic Weightlifting for Performance Enhancement & Athletic Development

3.  Cardiovascular Conditioning Progressions for Sports Performance & Fat Loss

4.  Core Stabilization Training vs. Core Strength Training

5.  Rotational Training For Injury Reduction and Improved Performance

6.  Kettlebell Training for Explosiveness, Power Endurance & Work Capacity

7.  Agility and Plyometric Training Progressions for Improved Elasticity

8.  Linear & Multi-Directional Movement Skills for Athletic Development

 

 

1.  MOVEMENT PREPARATION 2.0

  • Principles, Concepts and Purpose for Movement Preparation
  • Determining Factors of Movement Preparation Strategy
  • Components of Movement Preparation
  • Individualizing Movement Preparation
  • Progressing and Regressing Movement Preparation

 

When:  Saturday, February 25th

Time:  10a-4p

Cost:  $75

CEU:  0.5 (5 contact hours)

 

*LIMTED TO FIRST 20 PARTICIPANTS*

 

2.  OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING PROGRESSIONS

  • Determining factors to introduce Olympic Weightlifting
  • Athletic and Performance benefits of Olympic Weightlifting
  • Clean and Power Clean progressions and regressions
  • Snatch and Power Snatch Progressions and regressions
  • Jerk Progressions and regressions

 

When:  Saturday & Sunday, March 24-25

Time:  Saturday 10a-5p, Sunday 9a-4p

Cost:   $179

CEU:  1.2 (12 contact hours)

 

*LIMITED TO FIRST 20 PARTICPANTS*

 

 

3.  CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING PROGRESSIONS

  • Understanding Energy Systems
  • Understanding Fat Loss and Metabolic Impact
  • Understanding Interval Training
  • Progression of Conditioning Phases for General Population
  • Progression of Conditioning Phases for Athletes
  • Understanding Energy system demands for athletes
  • Understanding Musculoskeletal demands for athletes
  • Understanding Performance demands for athletes
  • Best modalities for each phase and desired outcome

 

When:  Saturday, April 21st

Time:  11a-3p

Cost:  $75

CEU:  0.4 (4 contact hours)

 

*LIMITED TO FIRST 20 PARTICPANTS*

 

 

4.  CORE STABILITY VS CORE STRENGTH

  • Reflexive & Reactive Core Stability
  • Static Core Stability
  • Dynamic Core Stability
  • RNT
  • Motor Control
  • Isometric Core Strength
  • High Threshold Strategies
  • Concentric/Eccentric Core Strength

 

When:  Saturday, May 5th

Time:  10a-4p

Cost:  $75

CEU:  0.5 (5 contact hours)

 

*LIMITED TO FIRST 20 PARTICPANTS*

 

 

5.  ROTATIONAL TRAINING

  • Understanding Rotational Movement Patterns
  • Developing Rotational Mobility
  • Developing Rotational Stability
  • Developing Rotational Strength
  • Developing Rotational Patterns
  • Developing Rotational Power

 

When:  Saturday, May 26th

Time:  10a-4p

Cost:  $75

CEU:  0.5 (5 contact hours)

 

*LIMITED TO FIRST 20 PARTICPANTS*

 

 

6.  KETTELBELL POWER TRAINING

  • Understanding power, power endurance and work capacity development
  • KB Swing
  • KB Snatch
  • KB Clean
  • KB Push Press
  • KB Jerk
  • Double KB swing, snatch, clean, Push press, Jerk
  • KB Double Complexes

 

When:  Saturday & Sunday, June 9-10

Time:  Saturday 10a-5p, Sunday 9a-4p

Cost:  $179

CEU:  1.2 (12 contact hours)

 

*LIMITED TO FIRST 20 PARTICPANTS*

 

 

7.  AGILITY & PLYOMETRIC TRAINING PROGRESSIONS

  • Defining Agility
  • Training Agility
  • Jumping & Landing Mechanics for Injury Reduction
  • Non-Counter Movement, Counter Movement and Continuous Movement
  • Components of Plyometric Movement
  • Various Responses of Plyometric Movement
  • Various Directions and types of Plyometrics
  • Jumping and Plyometric Progressions and Organization

 

When:  Saturday, September 22nd

Time:  10a-4p

Cost:  $75

CEU:  0.5 (5 contact hours)

 

*LIMITED TO FIRST 20 PARTICPANTS*

 

 

8. LINEAR & MULTIDIRECTIONAL SPEED

  • Acceleration Mechanics
  • Acceleration Development Drills
  • Sled Training
  • Absolute Speed Mechanics
  • Absolute Speed Development Drills
  • Lateral Movement Mechanics
  • Lateral Movement Development Drills
  • Change of Direction Mechanics
  • Change of Direction Development Drills
  • Combination Speed Training

 

When:  Saturday & Sunday, October 13-14

Time:  Saturday 10a-5p, Sunday 9a-4p

Cost:  $179

CEU:  1.2 (12 contact hours)

 

*LIMITED TO FIRST 20 PARTICPANTS*

EMAIL JOE SANSALONE AT jsansalone3@aol.com for more details and to register for any seminar 

 

Two things I changed my mind about in 2011

Posted: December 6, 2011 in General
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There are two things I changed my mind about in 2011:


The first is the Kettlebell Bent Press movement.  

This movement to me right now is one of the best kept secrets in our industry.  When I first saw this movement I had very little appreciation for it and thought it had little to no value for improving movement or strength towards anything meaningful.  In fact I thought it was just some random arbitrary dumb exhibition lift designed purely to try and lift really heavy objects overhead.  In a lot of ways that is still a true statement for me, but after attending the level-2 RKC certification program and having personal instruction from Master RKC David Whitley on the lift I began to see that the Bent Press actually has several valuable components that, when properly progressed and implemented correctly, can improve and enhance movement efficiency and enhance performance.

Specifically the Bent Press requires and improves thoracic mobility, hip mobility, core stability, scapular and shoulder stability and vertical pressing strength.  A great way to think of the Bent Press is to think of it as a movement that finishes what the Get Up begins (first heard that from Dave Whitley).  In other words the Get Up begins to teach us the need for adequate mobility and stability simultaneously in order to develop proper motor control to be able to express strength efficiently and effectively.  The Bent Press takes these same things to the next level of demand.  Its not really a progression to the Get Up, but certainly a Get Up of good movement quality and performance is a good pre-requisite and will ensure that certain baseline movement competencies are in place to build a Bent Press on top of.  

Even with a good Get Up the Bent Press still is not going to be a good choice for everyone, and in fact, like any exercise implemented poorly or without proper functional capacity, it can be very dangerous.  The risk-reward is only favorable if certain parameters are met first:

1.  Symmetrical thoracic spine rotation.  You don’t need crazy amounts of it, as the bent press will develop it, but it at least needs to be symmetrical and decent otherwise increased risk of unwanted shoulder, lumbar and pelvic stress may occur.  

2.  Symmetrical hip hinging and closed chain hip rotation.  Again, the Bent Press progressed correctly will develop these things, and Dave Whitley’s progressions to the Bent Press left me feeling some of the most mobile in my hips and tspine I have ever felt, but still having symmetry in the hips before starting to Bent Press will significantly improve the benefits that can be attained from bent pressing and reduce the possibility of unwanted stress on the knees, pelvis and lumbar sections of the body.  

3.  An understanding oh how to link the shoulder to the opposite hip via the Lat to thoracolumbar fascia to glute max connection and how to use the lat to help “pack” or properly align the shoulder with the scapula on the thoracic spine.  This one is critical to Bent pressing and gaining the benefits of the Bent Press.  Again the Bent Press will develop this connection greatly if the person at least understands loading the Lat, packing the shoulder and is progressed properly.  This is where the Bent Press develops scapular and shoulder stability much like the Get Up and Windmill movements but with a greater demand placed on the ability to pack the shoulder under greater loads and when the elbow is bent as well as straight.  These increased demands on shoulder stability and scapular control is why I feel the Get Up and really the Windmill being efficient are pre-requisites to starting to train the Bent Press.  

Try not to judge this exercise by its unusual look or some of the ugly versions out there in video world.  I did this and missed the point and the benefits of a good exercise.  Give it a second look, study its regressions and develop the pre-requisite movements and the functional capacities necessary to be as safe and effective as possible and then work on progressing your Bent Press skill to gain even greater improvements in mobility, stability, motor control and strength within your body.  The RKC system is a great resource and Dave Whitley himself is a great resource on how to improve your movement and performance using the Bent Press.  



The second is performing the Olympic Weightlifting movements from the floor.

Until this year I never taught my athletes how to Olympic weight-lift from the floor and I still don’t very often.  However, I now see some benefit in starting from the floor that I did not see before.  I basically thought unless you are going to compete in O-lifts there is no reason to start from the floor.  If you are simply using the lifts to develop the CNS, power, athleticism and kinetic linking of the hips to the trunk to the arms then all you really need is the hang positions.  All that stuff is really developed through what happens above the knee, not below:  proper execution of triple extension, the explosive second pull that begins in the hang above the knee or in the power position, the catch of each movement and the athletic skill of linking the body segments together.  

To me starting from the floor with an athlete not competing in the O-lifts was just another step, skill and time consuming activity that didn’t give me any heavy bang for the buck benefit.  It just seemed to simply get the bar from the floor to the hang position for the start of the second pull which always felt like the really important part that had the most benefit to the athlete anyway.  My feeling was always why not just skip the extra step that always required a lot of extra teaching and coaching and seemed to waste precious time, and instead start from the hang above the knee or the hang in the power position since that’s where all the magic happened anyway.

Then at the end of 2010 I was at Athletes Performance Institute and Denis Logan said he believed starting from the floor had a benefit I had overlooked.  The development of starting strength:  The ability to have the strength to overcome an objects resistance at rest.  This made good sense to me and changed my opinion going into 2011 of starting with the bar at rest with no pre load on the body to emphasis starting strength.  Starting strength is a very important type of strength to develop for athletes to become better at overcoming their own inertia.  I started thinking we don’t emphasize enough starting strength.  So in people that are exceptionally proficient in hang power/squat cleans and hang power/squat snatch I began doing some teaching from the floor for the first time this year with our athletes.  Its still not a big shift yet as there are still several other good choices for starting strength like deadlifts and sled work, but I do like the additional demand and benefit now that I’ve started associated O-lifts from the floor with developing starting strength or starting power instead of it being just an extra step.  I just never looked at it that way before until my conversation with Dennis.  Now I see an additional potential benefit in O-lifts I did not see before and that makes me a more educated coach.
-Joe Sansalone


Girls Gone Strong

Posted: November 19, 2011 in General
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Optimum Performance Training Institute was honored to host the very first Girls Gone Strong meeting of the minds last weekend! GGS is a movement, a business venture and a sisterhood that our General Manager and Performance Training Specialist, Neghar Fonooni, is proud to be a part of.

The GGS ladies trained and shot their first video product at OPTI and were all very pleased to train in such a state of the art facility. These girls are very strong and inspirational! To read all about GGS and what’s in store for the future, check out Neghar’s Blog or the GGS facebook page.

Nutrition Seminar

Posted: September 20, 2011 in Nutrition
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OPTI is proud to be hosting Registered Dietician Andrea McDaniel’s Workshop:

UNDERSTANDING METABOLISM AND FAT LOSS

Saturday November 5, 2011 11a-2p

$75 per person

Metabolic Factors to be discussed:

  1. Inflammation & Lipids
  2. Digestive Health
  3. Nutrient Deficiencies
  4. Stress & Sleep
  5. Sex Hormone Imbalance
  6. Environmental Toxins
  7. Glucose Balance
  8. Thyroid Hormone Imbalance

Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification

Posted: September 18, 2011 in General
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Yesterday we hosted our first event at OPTI since opening our doors in May. Andrea Du Cane, Master RKC and all around amazing woman, taught 26 hopeful HKC candidates to perform and teach the hardstyle swing, turkish get up and goblet squat. Her teaching was we have come to expect from such a seasoned and educated professional: thorough, relatable and top-notch. Andrea’s energy is warm and enthusiastic-and very contagious! We were very pleased with the turnout and the general attitude of the participants. Everyone was humble and willing to learn, and we definitely see some RKCs in the making! Our very own new intern, Christine Norris, was among the participants and we are proud to say she is now HKC certified. We look forward to hosting more events at the facility in the very near future!

HKC Columbia-with Andrea Du Cane, MRKC, Joe Sansalone, RKC II and Neghar Fonooni, RKCII

OPTI Youth Athletes

Posted: September 14, 2011 in General
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We just finished up a great summer with our youth athletes here at OPTI. Although we were sad to see them go back to school, we were honored and humbled to have been a part of their development. Our youth athlete program is comprehensive in nature and includes assessing and correcting movement dysfunction, strategies for proper warmup and activation, power training such as olympic lifts, kettlebell training, plyometrics and rotational power, complete strength training, sport specific conditioning, movement skills, recovery and performance nutrition. We utilize not only our highly sought after training methods, but our state of the art equipment including the Keiser Performance Trainers and the Woodway Force and Curve (self powered treadmills). By the end of the summer these young athletes were proficient in all aspects of the OPTI comprehensive performance enhancement system.

Every single one of these athletes made incredible gains this summer and accomplished some pretty impressive personal records. Some of them came to us with significant injuries that we helped to rehabilitate with our world class physical therapist, Karen Johnson, and massage therapist Chris Ruane. They range in age from 14-20 and have such wonderful attitudes and work ethic. These kids are nothing short of amazing, and we can’t wait to see them in December for winter break!

Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification

Posted: May 3, 2011 in General
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Optimum Performance Training Institute is proud to be hosting the FIRST EVER HKC certification in Maryland!

Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification
Columbia, MD, United States
September 17, 2011

09:00 AM – 06:00 PM
With Master RKC Instructor, Andrea DuCane

What is the HKC?

On successful completion of the HKC, an HKC graduate may deduct their entire HKC tuition fee from a registration for a future RKC certification workshop, within one year of achieving the HKC.

Since Pavel and Dragon Door launched the world’s first-ever kettlebell instructor certification program in 2001, the classic RKC program has become the gold standard, now with over 1,500 certified instructors in over 43 countries.

The prized RKC certificate represents a “Black Belt” in kettlebell instruction that requires extensive pre-training to attain. A grueling, “experience of a lifetime”, the RKC program is the ONLY current program which insists on stringent testing of multiple skills and strengths. Currently only an average of 70% of RKC candidates succeed in passing the requirements by which they can proudly hold themselves forth as “RKC-certified”.

While qualified RKCs continue to graduate to ever-higher levels of expertise, through such groundbreaking graduate programs such as the CK-FMS and the RKC level II, it’s clear that these individuals share a very special combination of drive, passion, skill, commitment and physical capability—without which the RKC would remain a distant dream.

In other words the RKC is not for everyone! Not everyone is ready to step up to that level of intensity and commitment. To pay that kind of price in blood, sweat, tears and money—whatever the final prize and future benefits, be it enhanced financial opportunity or dramatic physical gains.

But what about all of those otherwise-dedicated coaches, trainers and athletes who just can’t commit to the full-bore RKC, but would still like to be certified in the most important essentials of kettlebell lifting?

Currently there is no entry-level kettlebell certification program that addresses these folk with the kind of quality and standards Dragon Door and Pavel have become famous for.

Time to change all that and provide this larger group of fine individuals the chance to “Enter the Kettlebell”, as it were—and learn from the very best in the business.

So with that in mind, we present you the HardStyle Kettlebell Certification, the HKC—and your chance to join forces with the world’s premier kettlebell instructor training system.

In creating the HKC, Pavel drew on his eight-plus years of developing the current Level I and Level II RKC programs, his authoring of the widely acclaimed Enter the Kettlebell!system and other kettlebell training resources, plus thousand of hours of personal discussion and research with high-level training experts of all kinds.

With his deep skill at identifying what is truly essential for effective kettlebell training, Pavel has created, with the HKC, an opportunity to build a superb and rock-solid foundation as a kettlebell professional.

Like the RKC, the HKC includes a qualifying test of physical strength. The RKC is famous for its mandatory snatch test—that immediately sets a high bar for those wishing to qualify as an RKC. We take pride in this. Many fitness certifications have no physical test whatsoever, allowing that curious anomaly of an obviously out-of-shape trainer dispensing advice to clients who are clearly fitter than they are!

To ensure that those who register for the HKC have a reasonable level of fitness, Pavel settled on an entry-level pullup test for men and a flexed-arm hang test for women based on the US Marine Corps’

Attend the HKC and leave with these major advantages:

  • A deep understanding of the true benefits of kettlebell training—for both yourself and your clients
  • A solid knowledge of vital kettlebell training safety procedures
  • A workmanlike grasp of the fundamentals of biomechanics—to ensure your clients move with perfect form and avoid injury
  • A grasp of the key HardStyle skills and principles of strength
  • The ability to competently perform the three foundational kettlebell exercises (the Swing, the Get-Up, and the Goblet Squat)
  • The confidence you can now correctly teach the three essential kettlebell exercises—and troubleshoot common technique problems
  • The unique HKC template for designing an unlimited number of effective kettlebell workouts.

And discover all this and more in the course of your HKC training:

  • Understand why mastery of the kettlebell swing is fundamental to high-level HardStyle practice
  • How to develop power through compensatory acceleration and overspeed eccentrics
  • How to train hip extension for back and knee health and athletic performance
  • How to employ bracing and neutral spine—for injury prevention, enhanced performance and optimal transmission of force
  • How to recruit the lat as a “core muscle” to improve the spine safety and glute strength
  • How to increase power with the biomechanical breathing match
  • A safe, effective modality for developing different types of endurance
  • Explosive training techniques for more effective fat-loss
  • The deadlift: the most “functional” exercise of all
  • The two-arm swing and corrective exercises
  • The concept of rooting and two key drills for developing it
  • The one-arm swing
  • The hand-to-hand swing
  • Russian relaxation exercises to enhance the acquisition of skilful movement, increase power and endurance 
  • The two hundred year history of the get-up
  • The get-up as an assessment tool
  • The strength and health benefits of the get-up
  • How to correctly perform the get-up and teach corrective drills
  • How to move from mobility to stability, then from stability to strength—and why this progression is crucial for truly effective kettlebell work
  • The get-up, shoulder mobility and stability exercises. The role of the lat in shoulder stability and strength—and advanced lat facilitation techniques
  • How to employ and teach steering strength
  • The concepts of leakage and linkage—and their importance for effective kettlebell lifting 
  • How to perform the goblet squat and corrective drills
  • “Strength stretching” for the hips
  • How to overcome gluteal amnesia
  • How to most effectively stretch the hip flexors to dramatically improve athletic performance, back health, and posture 
  • How to modify the squat stance for a client with back problems 
  • An alternative squat exercise for overweight clients 
  • Why “sport specific training” is inappropriate for 99% of the coaches and athletes—and a powerful alternative

Take home an information packed HKC instructor manual:

  • What makes kettlebell training unique?
  • What Russian research says about the benefits of kettlebell training?
  • What is “Hardstyle”?
  • Kettlebell safety 101: ten key items
  • The Swing: its benefits, technique, teaching progression, and remedial drills
  • The Get-Up: its benefits, technique, teaching progression, and remedial drills
  • The Goblet Squat: its benefits, technique, teaching progression, and remedial drills 
  • HKC program design
  • The three key principles of effective training identified by Russian sports scientists: continuity of the training process, waving the loads, and specialized variety,
  • Ten program design tools for an unlimited variety of effective kettlebell workouts:
    • Rep Ladders
    • Weight Ladders
    • Time Ladders
    • Breathing Ladders
    • Reverse Ladders
    • Drop Sets
    • Super Sets
    • Timed Sets
    • Series
    • Active Recovery Exercises

As with the RKC, the HKC will be earned through diligent testing of each candidate. Besides having to pass the requisite pullup/flexed-arm hang test at the outset of the workshop, each HKC candidate will be evaluated for technical proficiency and teaching skills at the end of the workshop and will then be granted either a pass or fail. 

REGISTER NOW!