FLO FITNESS

  As the FLO Fitness team returns from a very fun and educational weekend from the 2015 Perform Better Summit, we thought it would be a great idea to have two of our staff members share their thoughts about their experiences at the Summit. Here is what they had to say:  “The 2015 Perform Better Summit located at Providence, Rhode Island was a great experience due to the variety of current information and practices that were presented on a wide range of musculoskeletal topics.  As a first time attendee, who comes from a background of Athletic Training, I can confidently say that attending this conference has made me become a better health care clinician.  Hearing presentations from several of the top professionals in their respected fields has allowed me to gain great insight. In particular, hearing the words of Gray Cook, Eric Cressey, and Emily Splichal, have not only changed the way I view certain areas, but has also allowed me to understand new concepts and a...

The squat in general is one movement that you will often see in any of our athletes workout programs. We do not only use them, as part of their workouts, but it is also an important component to our assessment at FLO Fitness. Today we are going to go over one our favorite exercises to have most of our develop level or beginner athletes do. The kettlebell goblet squat with pause is one of many variations that can be done, the specific variation selected will depend on what you are trying to achieve with your athlete. We often use the kettlebell squat with pause to not only lock in proper squatting mechanics, but to also add depth into the hips, by slowly increasing the range of motion with each repetition. Before we get more in depth, I think it is only right that we go over proper alignment of the torso, also known as the “Bracing Sequence”. This will not only protect your athletes from injury, but will also indicate when to increase the load for your athlete no matter which e...

How to Prevent Achilles Tendonitis   Achilles Tendinitis is very common overuse injury caused by many factors that we will go over later within this blog. It is very important that we go over the key basic information in order to completely understand the material as you continue to read.   Achilles tendonitis is inflammation or irritation to the achilles tendon located below the calf muscle group; illustrated in the picture below.          The Achilles tendon is considered to be one of the strongest tendons in the human body. From a biomechanical perspective it assists the foot in plantar flexion (foot pointing away or down from the body), this action is very important as its part of the kinetic chain that assist with walking, running, and jumping. There are four structures that are important to highlight in order to better understand the pathology (how the injury occurs) and treatment (how to aid the injury to heal) of this overuse injury. The G...

My day at the Crossfit Games             This past weekend I was asked by RockTape to offer free taping at a Crossfit event in New Jersey. There is a CrossFit box in my training facility and I have seen the good work that they do but I have never witnessed a CrossFit Games before. Therefore I went in with an idea of what I would see but very little expectations.             Let me take a step back here and introduce myself a bit. I have been in fitness for over 17 years.  At this point in my career I would consider myself a “Movement Practitioner”. I do video assessments on all my clients and I am very detailed on how I develop & write their programs.  The athletes we train (mostly youth athletes) are not loaded until they learn to move properly. Once they have shown that they have learned proper movement patterns, we then load them to cement the patterns in...

Check out our article on the Alternative Press. http://thealternativepress.com/articles/brawlhouses-chris-flores-selected-as-coach-for-t-1

There was a man who would take his horse everyday down to the river and drink. One day he brought the horse down to the river and he wouldn't drink. The man found this odd but thought nothing of it. The next day the same thing happened, the horse didn't drink. This went on for a week and the man go worried. He couldn't figure out why the horse didn't want to drink the river water anymore. He thought either, the river water was bad or the horse was sick.   So one night he sat outside the barn and watched the horses' stall. He saw all the kids from the town coming with pails of water to feed the horse. Some were cold water, other were flavored water. He realized now why his horse didn't drink in morning, it was because he wasn't thirsty. The next morning the man woke up extra early. He had a plan on how to get the horse to drink from the river again. He jumped on the horse and made him run for miles and miles until the horse didn't want to run anymore. The...

After revisiting the topic of the “3 phases of healing”, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between the way our bodies and minds work. Take, for example, the word “trauma”. In our field, we generally associate this word with something physical, but in Psychology, it has an entirely different meaning; a meaning that pertains to the mind. Trauma is immediately preceded by what we know as the “Inflammatory Response”. I couldn’t help but liken this to dealing with mental trauma. A traumatic event takes place, and we react in an “inflammatory” manner. In both cases, there is a vascular reaction, which leads to an increase in blood flow, heart rate, blood pressure, and can lead to greater damage if not addressed in a timely matter. This will last anywhere from 0 to 6 days, and, if handled properly, will lead us into the next phase. The next phase is known as the “Fibroblastic Repair Phase”. This phase lasts anywhere from 2 days to 6 weeks and is the time in which our bodies attempt to...