Newsletter #2 (Released March 11, 2007)

Message from the Founder...

"My good pal Jean Paul Franceur (JP), who runs the best free fitness discussion forum in the universe is having a Fitness Summit in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. Apparently, JP has been hosting the summit for the past 5 years and this year's promises to be a bigger line-up than ever before! Guys like Bill Hartman, Alywn Cosgrove, and my own standAPART colleagues Dave Schmitz ("the band guy") and Coach Dos Remedios. They are just a couple of the nine total professionals presenting at the summit scheduled for April 13-14th. It is quickly becoming the "go-to" event of the fitness industry!!!"

For more info regarding the 2007 JP Fitness Summit featuring Alywn Cosgrove, Chad Waterbury, Charles Staley, Zig Ziegler, Bill Hartman, Coach Robert dos Remedios, Dave Schmitz, Mark Roussell, & Lou Shuler -- Click Here!_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Art of Training Q&A Session on the Business of Training

What do Eric Cressey, Tony Gentilcore, John Izzo, and John Paul Catanzaro have in common? They know the "business" of personal training--whether its athletes, groups, or general population clients. And Maki Riddington of WannaBeBig.com knows this also.

Read Part 1 of this business Roundtable and get a glimpse into the minds of these 4 guys.

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Free The Hips - REVIEWED!


"I got a copy of ‘Free The Hips’ by John Izzo (standapartfitness.com), and there’s a lot of good stuff on this DVD. It’s a fly on the wall production that was recorded during a seminar where he explained the importance of hip mobility and muscle activation to other trainers.

First, John gives them a quick anatomy lesson, describing the location and function of the hip flexors and extensors. Then, he showed some examples of posterior and anterior pelvic tilt, causes of the tilt, and who’s likely to have some type of pelvic tilt.

Next, he gets to the meat and potatoes… specific exercises to help ‘free the hips’. There are various glute med and glute max exercises, psoas activation exercises, dynamic warmup drills, hip mobility drills, DL stretch, etc. Some of the drills he got from Mike Boyle, some of them he made up, so there may be some that you’ve seen before, and some that are new. John demonstrates them first, then has his students do them. He gets hands on a time or two to make sure the drills are done properly. I followed along, and while some were new and a touch awkward at first (like the cross over lunge), I could tell each move would do what it was intended to do – increase muscle activation and hip mobility.


Pros:
Good solid info, that was well thought out.
It was unrehearsed, shot from the hip (pun alert!), so it didn’t feel staged.
It wasn’t overly technical, and was easy to understand and follow along.
It's under $30, and it was nice to 'see' some of the stuff we often 'read' about.

Cons:
Sound quality… you have to turn your TV up a little to hear it, but that’s expected since it was shot in a gym.
Since it was part of a larger seminar, he mentions things that were discussed previously, but you can pick up the other DVDs if you want to get that info (I assume).
I didn’t get to see the ‘inter-gender spotting techniques’ that he talks about just before the video ends. I was looking forward to squats...

John’s a very well spoken person, and has surprisingly quick feet! The total run time was 35 minutes, but it was full of useful info. I’ve already incorporated some of the mobility and activation drills into my warmup." Respectfully submitted by Steve-O-68

Get you copy of "Free the Hips" ON SALE!

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 Why the Mobility "S" Stretch?

The Mobility "S" stretch is performed using a dowel and firmly planting your fee t to the floor. To begin, hold the dowel in front of the body so that the right hand is pointing in the 1 o'clock position. To execute, bring right hand in reverse towards your left ear. As the dowel is shifting, bring your left arm towards the body slightly and then up in front. As the dowel clears the head, your left arm should raise above to the left side of your head. The motion should look like a figure eight performed in all planes of motion.

Listen to John talk about the Mobility "S" Stretch. CLICK HERE.