Hey gang. I was talking to one of my business coaches on Monday. We do an accountability checkout every Monday, and it’s basically the same as you guys. I want to be the absolute best at what I do, and I want to have the biggest impact I can. So that’s why I have a business coach who helps me gets my message out there, because I do want to help goalies all over the world win more games with fewer injuries.
So he’s like, “I think you should start doing a weekly TV show from the gym.” Okay… So this is it! This is episode number one of Goalie Training Pro TV!! And to do a show every week, and I have visions of a cool backdrop, and I actually have visions of doing interactive workouts where we’re gonna go through some workouts together and that kind of thing. So I think it’s actually a really neat idea.
You can read this post but you can also check out the FIRST episode of Goalie Training Pro TV here!! >> https://youtu.be/cKeSFafG0iE
Ultimately, you guys will tell me if it’s a good idea or not by how much you watch, how much you like, how much you interact, if you ask questions, and even if you’re watching this, as like the replay. Type your questions in below, and I’ll see them, and then that will guide me. Because it’s really a show for you, and I’ll just try to keep up. Cool? Okay.
Got a perfect topic for this one. Oh, it’s so funny. Sometimes … Do you ever … I’m trying to think of an example. If you are a parent and you have kids, and you tell your kid, whatever, like, “Oh, Gatorade is full of sugar. You shouldn’t just drink it with your lunch.” And the kid’s like chugging on his Gatorade as you’re telling him this. And then he sees Don Cherry on TV, and Don Cherry’s like, “Kids, you shouldn’t drink Gatorade. It’s full of sugar. You shouldn’t drink it with your lunch.” And they’re like, “Don Cherry told me that Gatorade is full of sugar. I should not be drinking it with my lunch.” And you’re like, “Am I not speaking English? Or what’s the scoop?”
So I had one of those moments. Today, you know, we have a private Facebook page that’s just for Shutout Academy members. And one of the members posted in there, “I heard somewhere that stretching takes away your peak power, and it’s gonna make you slow, so I’m just wondering if maybe we shouldn’t be stretching before we go on the ice.”
And it was like, “Oh, where did I go wrong,” kind of moments. And so I went and dug it up. It was 2012 when I full on addressed this, and even at that time, that research article, I started the first research article that said, “Yeah, static stretching of muscle will decrease its peak power output.” It was probably two or three years old when I even wrote that.
So when someone’s like, “Oh, I saw a research article,” or, “I saw a study,” and always I’m like, “Oh, well, it was the study?” If the study was posted on Joe’s fitness blog, and it was a study that Joe did on himself, it’s like, throw that out. But if it’s like … Because actual studies, actual studies that are … And I did a master’s of science degree, so that’s why I’m so anal on this, because we would get ripped so hard if we came and presented something as research that was not research. That was an opinion piece, or that didn’t meet rigorous criteria of the scientific community.
So actual research articles are published in peer review journals. So there’s a study. The variables are controlled. The statistical analysis is done. The conclusions are drawn and potential conflicts of interest are stated. Then you send it to a journal, which would be the Journal of Orthopedics Sports Medicine, I think it’s the British Journal of Sports Medicine. There’s millions, Medicine Science and Exercise. There’s a bunch of them, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Blah blah blah blah.
So then what they do is they take that article, and they send it to reviewers who have their PhD, know research, and they look at it critically. Maybe they’re not happy people, but they hold it up to a really strict guideline, and if it passes, then it gets published. And if it’s fo science or pseudoscience, it’s like, “No, no, no. Publish this in Men’s Health,” or something like that, maybe. Anyway, so what I did was … So I just went and read the actual original article, and then I searched for followup articles, and I read those actual articles, which are very, very boring.
So here’s the answer to the question for episode one of Goalie Training Pro TV. Static stretching can decrease the peak power output of the muscle. This is true, which is actually really important if I am an olympic weightlifter. So an Olympic weightlifter does one repetition of the cleaning jerk or of the snatch. So if that is my bread and butter, then I probably … And I’m really, really, really bad with numbers, but it was something like … It was a really small decrease. I don’t know if it was 2% or 4%, but it was quite a small decrease. Well, but if I’m competing, and I’m gonna potentially win or lose a podium spot based on a kilo or a half a kilo, that’s important to me. So I’m not gonna choose that time to do my static stretching.
Even if I’m a basketball player and vertical jump is a part of it, if I have a 20-inch vertical jump, and I lose two inches or three inches off of that, but it helps me maybe run a little better or cut or change direction a little bit better. I’m not overly fussed about it, because there are other elements to it. So that’s one part of it.
But then what happens next is someone says, “Oh, that’s really interesting. I wonder what happens if we did a dynamic warmup after that static stretch. Would that negate the loss of peak power production?” Which (this is very anti-climactic) but yes it does. So that’s why you’ll see in your Shutout Academy workouts, any of the programs that you’ve bought from me that we will do some kind of (we do this in Revolution Conditioning before every single workout) self myofascial release, static stretch circuit. We do about seven stations, 50 seconds and 10 seconds to change. So about a total of seven minutes of static stretching. And then we do a dynamic warmup, then we get into our workout.
So then some of you are gonna be saying, “Oh, I heard that foam rolling doesn’t really work.” Well, define “work.” Does it make you feel better? Does it make your muscles feel a little bit better? So some people say, “All it does is increase your tolerance to foam rolling, and make it feel less painful to you.”
Well, yeah, maybe. But I know that when I started foam rolling, it was very sore, and I had specific points that were sore, and I could almost feel a little lump in there. And now with foam rolling, I mean, I’ve foam rolled for over 10 years, but it feels nice and smooth.
I know, too, that if I still, if I get a lacrosse ball, and I roll it on the bottom of my foot, my forward toe touch improves. I get more range of motion. So it’s really hard to know what is the mechanism, what works or doesn’t work. It’s hard to say. Sometimes it depends on the definition. You’ll also hear me say, “Well, it doesn’t actually work to lengthen the muscle tissue.” Well, yeah, that’s fine, because we’re not really trying to lengthen a muscle tissue with self myofascial release. We’re more trying to work on the quality of it and maybe stimulate some blood flow, maybe stimulate some remodeling in there to make things a little more supple.
Yeah. I think that’s it. I think I hit the end of my rant, and I wasn’t even ready for it.
So self myofascial release, static stretch circuit, and then a dynamic warmup. Dynamic warmup is really important, because it’s part of the time when you practice some of your movement patterns, too. But, again, don’t be one of those players who does like … You know, just a sloppy dynamic warmup, because the reason we do it is because there’s a purpose, and because we’re trying to work on your balance, lengthen out some tissues, work on some transitional movements. We go down, back, push up to balance, working on transitions like that that actually set the foundation for your acceleration, your deceleration.
So take it seriously. Have really good quality of movement when you do that, because also even from a mindset perspective, it sets you up to be ready to go out and perform with excellence. So that’s the scoop on static stretching and that’s the end of episode one, Goalie Training Pro TV!
So if you like it, you like the idea give me a thumbs up. If you have questions or suggestions for topics, type them in the comments, and I’ll use them as a topic. Also, I still plan to do the weekly live Q and A on Fridays, but, again we’ll see. Maybe this will just all roll into one.
Thanks so much for tuning in, guys. I will catch you next time. See you, gang.