Conor Harris on Gait-Based Split Squats and Advanced Lifting Mechanics in Athletic Development

Today’s show is with Conor Harris. Conor is a strength & conditioning coach specializing in biomechanics and movement quality. He is the founder of Pinnacle Performance in Portland, Oregon where he trains all levels of athletes and general population clientele. He has worked in a wide variety of environments such as D1 Collegiate Baseball, EXOS, High School, and private performance training facilities. If there is one big element that is infiltrating modern training and performance right now (at least I hope it is), it is the attention to the quality of movement, and the particular impacts that doing one type of lift (say rear foot elevated vs. front foot elevated split squat) will have on an athlete. So often, we just move through a variety of movements in a training program, without really thinking about the experience that those training methods are actually giving to that athlete’s body. Conor Harris is a young coach who has really zeroed in on the impacts of various movements on an athlete, and how those movements fit in with what an athlete is missing (or on the flip-side, is already strong in) in their gait pattern. At the end of the day, every training movement we utilize should come back to how an athlete moves, or intends to move, in their sport. The training we use should have the capacity to fill in any needed “gaps” in a movement profile that may be pre-disposing an athlete to pain, or injury. On today’s show, Conor will take us through concepts of late vs. early stance dominance in athletes, and how split squat variations will preferentially engage those stance dynamics for the purposes of injury prevention, or enhanced performance. We’ll get into how squatting with heels elevated, or hinging with the toes elevated, can benefit the athlete through rotation of the leg bones, and finish with some great ideas on how to help restore internal rotation to athletes, as well as some big rocks of athletic glute activation. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 5:20 – Elements that help athletes pronate in the gym with more “common” exercises 12:40 – How to differentiate between a “late stance” and “early stance” dominant individual 19:20 – Why the sport of basketball emphasizes “late” stance more than many other sports 23:00 – Ideas on when to actually intervene with an athlete if you suspect an imbalance or movement inefficiency 38:00 – How foot position in a split stance exercise impacts rotation and joint dynamics 45:30 – Thoughts on split squatting with a (hard) balance disc in the front foot 49:15 – Conor’s big rocks in helping to restore an internal rotation deficit in athletes 56:00 – How to squat for maximal glute activation, via stretch-loading the glutes “Your joint positions, your tests all reflect that you spend a lot of time in late stance; a basketball player is a perfect example, someone who is constantly on their toes to be athletic. These people often present with a certain foot presentation where their toes are pointing away from the midline of their body” “If you strike the ground and you don’t have that nice heel reference then it is going to be more difficult to get your heel forward, if you are starting in the position where you can’t get the pronation to resupination” “Anything that drives the knee over the toe a lot is going to allow for that internal rotation of the tibia to occur, as well as pronation of the foot. That heel elevated split squat can be a really good way to do that” “When I think of a contralateral load, I think of that as a reference to find your heel or midfoot. An ipsilateral load is better to find mid-foot to toe-off. If I wanted to find that earlier phase of pronation I’m a fan of using that contralateral load (it will pull them in towards the midline of their foot)” “A lot of times, these narrows (narrow ISA) will be biased towards heel strike, originally” “Think of how often a basketball player needs to be on their heels, it’s not very often” “When we run, it’s more of a mid to late stance transition” “Let’s say this person does need to find more of that heel strike mechanics, that will help restore more of the variability in their body as a whole” “Let’s say they can’t hinge very well; take that heel wedge, and flip it around, so now their mid-foot and fore-foot is slanted upward, that can help them hinge backwards, and now you are providing more internal rotation to that hip” “Let’s say you have someone who is bilaterally extended on both sides, what that person is really trying to do is create an internal rotation, force producing strategy” “Getting them back on their heels can give them something to (internally) rotate to” “As you get deeper in the squat, you need some level of internal rotation and pronation of the foot (to reverse and push upwards)” “True opening of the hips is being able to get in your hip through internal rotation” “If you know what kind of joint positions we need to have, and how we get there, then muscles are easy” “Simply by being in a split stance position you are going to be biasing more external rotation and “supination” of the front hip and front foot” “Vertical tibia = mid-stance” “I love to restore internal rotation through positions like hinges” “Hold a ball that keeps your knees in line with your toes, squat to 90 degrees, and come out of it; that ball is providing a reference for your pelvic outlet; your pelvic floor is going to open up and your pelvic inlet is going to become more closed, your pelvic outlet is going to become more open” “Wide stance squats use less glutes than narrow stance, toes straight ahead” Show Notes Internal Rotation Exercises https://youtu.be/ZIiONQEAtqo https://youtu.be/qSlOus-fPc8 https://youtu.be/w-DmasVjuac https://youtu.be/ZVg4Ox4gQV0 https://youtu.be/NNzR4_YaIuQ https://youtu.be/qVkmuRzk8ow https://youtu.be/CGmMgtqIImk About Conor Harris Conor Harris is a strength & conditioning coach that specializes in biomechanics and movement quality. He is the founder of Pinnacle Performance in Portland, Oregon where he trains all levels of athletes and general population clientele. He has worked in a wide variety of environments such as D1 Collegiate Baseball, EXOS, High School, and private performance training facilities.