The Functional Chiro

Stay safe everyone.

IF YOU HAVE A SPINE..THIS IS FOR YOU. It doesn’t matter if you’re a high level athlete, student, desk worker, or someone with chronic pain. Life forces us into a flexed spinal position and if we don’t actively un-do that damage, then we lose spinal range of motion which can result in a loss of performance, or pain in the more chronic cases. ... Here are three movements that should be part of your normal routine to maintain a healthy amount of movement in the spine. First is spinal extension: place your hands on a bench, thumbs up. Keep your hips right over top of your knees while you relax your upper back, let your chest fall to the ground and reverse the curve of your thoracic spine. Relax for about 2 minutes then slowly make your way out of the position. Second is spinal lateral flexion: this is performed from a child’s pose position. Once you are in child’s pose, walk your hands laterally to one side until you get a stretching sensation through the opposite side of your lats and QL, hang out and relax for 2 minutes then switch to the other side. Finally we have spinal rotation: From hands and knees place your hand behind your head. Keep an equal weight distribution through both knees and rotate through the trunk to point your elbow as far towards the ceiling as you can. Pause for a second before rotating again through the trunk to point your elbow to the opposite side your your body, and pause again for a second. The goal is to rotate slightly farther with each repetition. Do 10 repetitions then switch and repeat on the other side. Give it a try and feel the difference!

Open workout 18.4.. Respect your spine.. and some other tips, click the link in my bio to see the whole video!

18.2 is going to be fun! Here are my best tips to help you crush it! Link in bio to the full video.

Will we see bar muscle ups tonight? Muscle ups as a whole can be intimidating. The best way to train the complex movements are by breaking them into their pieces, use specific exercises and drills to get better at the pieces. Then once the pieces are complete, put the movement back together. The bar muscle up consists of 3 major parts outside of the kip. 1. Closing the shoulder angle (lever) 2. Pull 3. Push. Here are some of my preferred ways to train these three steps.... To close the shoulder angle, we must first strengthen the ‘lever’ position. The first clips is and arch/hollow swing into a lever pull. The goal here is to keep a hollow body, use straight arms to pull down on the bar, tilt the torso to the ceiling and think of driving the hips to the bar. Next is a dumbbell pull-over, this is a way to isolate and strengthen the movement at the shoulder that we will need for the lever position. Next we will strengthen the pull in the same plane as a muscle up. Throw a bar into a rack at about hip height and make sure it is secure! Grip it with your muscle up grip, and perform inverted rows. Think of pulling the bar to the bottom of your ribcage on each rep. Finally we have to be strong enough to press out of a muscle up. This is the easy part, you can train this with dips, dumbbell presses or barbell presses. Stop being intimidated by complex movements and make some progress!

Are you ready for 18.1? Don’t worry I’ve got your back. Here is everything you need to know to take on 18.1, movement prep, warm up and strategy! Click on the link in my bio to check out the full video! Good luck!

One progression that will make you better at everything! . Well at least everything that requires lower body and core control. . ... This is a great unilateral loading progression that will allow you to find and correct lower body imbalances all at once. Plus, it will make you better at whatever you decide to use your legs for. . The first progression is just to get on one leg. Stack a few plates on the ground, shift your balance into your stance leg and control the descent into a partial squat. Keep you’re typical squat cues in mind for this progression, external rotation from the hip, keen in the same plane as the toes and weight evenly distributed through the foot. The next progression is to build unilateral stability through the full range motion of a squat. The cueing is the same but there is now a higher demand for stability because we are moving through greater range of motion. Once you are feeling stable through the full range of motion the next progression will be adding a load. In this video I have a kettlebell in the front rack position on the same side of my stance leg. I like this progression because it requires a lot of midline stability as well. . Give it a try and notice how you get better at everything!

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Put things over your head and stand on one leg! Make sure you checkout the podcast @the_muscle_doc and myself did with the guys of @barbellshruggedpodcast ! #Repost @barbellshruggedpodcast with @get_repost... Can you do a single leg RDL without falling over? If not that’s a big problem! See more

Knee pain? Give this a try.. Mash, Mash, Mobility, Active Cueing. . Barbell to VMO: Grab a barbell and roll on the medial side of your thigh, start from just above the knee and go to about mid thigh. Spend about a minute and spend extra time on the areas that are tender to roll. ... . KB to TFL: Grab a kettlebell and use the handle to get into the TFL, start by pulling your leg back so your heel is by your butt, put the KB handle right into your hip crease (about where your pocket starts) then rock back and forth for about a minute looking for any tender areas. . Internal Hip Rotation: Stay in the same position but ditch the KB. Drop your chest to the floor between your legs and feel the stretch in the groin and hip crease. If you struggle with this you can use a band attached to a squat rack to GENTLY pull yourself into position. Aim for 1-2 min/side. . Single Leg Lateral Step Up: Now its time to cue good squat mechanics. With one foot on a box, shift all of your weight over the stance leg, externally rotate the femur so the knee stays outside the ankle, press yourself to sanding and control the lower keeping and externally rotated femur. 3 sets of 8-12 reps for this one. . Tag a friend and give it a try, Make sure to check out @pre_script for all of your movement needs! See more

Part 2 of our snatch progression! This time we’re working from the knee. This is a transitional point in the snatch, use these tips to make sure you’re staying in good position so you can perform at your best. Click the link in my bio to check out the full video on the @pre_script YouTube page. Make sure to like,share and subscribe while you’re there!

Tight glutes? This is a great pre, or post stretch for your lifting days. Spend 2 minutes on each side and focus on leveraging your knee across your body, and NOT rotating from the lumbar. #Repost @pre_script Glutes! Give this glute stretch a try to free up some ROM in those hips before your next squat session. ... This is just one of the drills we use in our Pre-Script programs, click the link in our bio to get started today! See more

Do you want to snatch more? Of course you do! Learning and drilling the transitional positions of the snatch is the best way to build consistency in your lifts. Head over to the Pre-Script YouTube channel to check out Par 1 of this snatch series on snatching from position 1. Start moving better and get on your way to your next PR today. Link in bio.

You don’t want to miss this one! My favorite episode yet on @rxdradio. This week we sat down with the one and only @patbarbercf. We talk about everything from coaching, to learning, parenting, and even calling people out to get more intensity in your workouts! Maybe we’ll have to get @michaelcazayoux on the show next, to hear his side of the story. Make sure to tune in!

It’s things like this that make the day to day grind all worth it! Being able to help someone who is not only a top level athlete and coach, but also a great guy all together. Keep up the good work Wes! #Repost @wespiatt2013 (@get_repost) Day 1 of @pre_script has begun. Did the activation piece this morning before my AM Cardio. I’ll hit the cool down part tonight after my final session. Thanks @redwiteandjordan the taking the time to make this for me!