361: David Weck and Chris Chamberlin on Rotation, Side-Bending and Tensional Balance in a High-Performance Training Program

Today’s podcast features David Weck and Chris Chamberlin of WeckMethod. David Weck is biomechanist, and the creator of a number of inventions that work key characteristics of human locomotion and movement, including the BOSU Balance Trainer. David started the WeckMethod as a project to inspire and educate individuals on the importance of optimizing's human balance through locomotion as he works to make “Every Step Stronger” for everyone. Chris Chamberlin is the Head Coach and Director of Education for the WeckMethod. Chris has over 15 years of coaching experience and a lifetime of personal practice in movement efficiency that has earned him recognition as a leader in innovative thought in the fitness industry. Chris has both a creative approach to multi-planar training, as well as impressive “raw” strength levels in the traditional lifts. If you browse the internet, you will easily see a lot of “functional” training exercises, designed to catch eyeballs, that build neither strength, nor functional ability. The key in the effectiveness of any movement beyond a basic strength exercise is in its patterning, and closeness to the key characteristics of human locomotion, swinging and throwing. When you find movements that allow your body to truly feel more of what it uses in these core human patterns, you can then “port” that movement into the scope of your core strength and speed training. At the end of the day, whether you like the BOSU Ball or not, David’s keen observations of the core components of human movement have played a substantial role for me in how I observe the twisting, side bending and general locomotive mechanisms of the human being. Chris Chamberlin has taken David’s observation and creativity, and put his lens of practicality onto the total process. On the show today, David and Chris talk about how the WeckMethod helped Chris’s big-lifts to get even better, tool usage as an essential aspect of human movement, primal movement patterning in respect to training volume, bending and twisting integration into more traditional strength methods, concepts on the foot, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To learn more about the Sprint Acceleration Essentials course, head to justflysports.thinkific.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 2:40 – The origin story of David and Chris connecting and training, and how David’s methods impacted Chris’s movement and strength 6:18 – The uniquely human element of using tools, from a training perspective 18:22 – How Chris’s background as a carpenter (as well as his family background) has impacted the say he sees human movement in light of physical work tasks 27:43 – The role of using variability in training to achieve a greater impact to the movement tissues of the body 34:41 – How the Weck Method tools and ideas can build into, not only one’s rotational movement flow and ability, but also one’s physical strength 54:22 – Thoughts on the inside edge of the foot and the outside of the foot as it pertains to athletic performance 1:21:33 – Digging into the idea of “every step as a rep” regarding the body in balance 1:36:58 – How to integrate coiling work, into linear work, through the scope of a session, and Chris’s “4:1” ratio David Weck and Chris Chamberlin Quotes “I had instantly set a 40-45lb PR in my overhead bent press, just from learning a drill from (David) in a meeting that was meant for running faster” “To the extent possible, we want the tool to be the teacher, we want to do less with words, and what we want to do is get someone to feel it so they understand it implicitly, rather than us trying to explain something, taking a lot of time” “We distilled (our method) down to sticks, stones and ropes” “That became our foundation is the manipulation of the fundamental tools, and humans are fundamental tool users…. It’s the user who defines the utility of the tool” “I notice that (when we switched from hammers to nail guns) they started getting a lot of shoulder issues, from not using the body in the same way” “I particularly don’t like to do big phases where we’ll build up to peak performance, I want to constantly be at a high level of performance, a lot of it comes from being a carpenter… you had to be ready for it every day and you didn’t know exactly what you needed to be ready for” “We build a lot of volume through patterns, and we vary intensity” “One of the things about volume is you build “man strong”, “tendon/connective tissue strong”… we always look at, how can we optimize connective tissue, and that is fascia on the fundamental level” “They (non strength-sport athletes) were using the tissue, but they were challenging it in a different way so they didn’t get good at things in the gym, and it allows for the accruement of more volume and repetition” “The Weck Method logo, starts with gravity, up and down, and then turns into the horizontal polarity… it means down, up and all-around” “Side bending, or coiling is a way to find an end range of rotation, to feel this structural wall that I can lean into in my own body, but you can’t find it unless you have an external task” “All movement for us, everything, is rotation” “If I can internalize those (rotational/torsional) positions, and go into my max effort lifts, and think about what those feelings were, I’m able to get a little more out of those lifts;” “Every step is a rep, after I get done with my (strength) session, every step I take outside of that session is a rep” “We have two coils, a frontside coil (like side-bending over the front foot in the split squat) has more carryover to running, if you shift over the back leg (in a split squat) I look at that having a lot more carryover for things like swinging…. I teach my athletes first to reach those two positions, we do long term isometrics in them” “Gravity is the where and it is the when; when we optimize the sides, we have these destinations that we can go to” need for performance is tensional balance” “The 4th and 5th metatarsals, the link to the 4th and 5th toes, they are what they call “the first floor” because they route to the calcaneus. The big toe, 2nd toe and 3rd toe, we call that the second floor, because that routes up to the talus; we want to fully engage and understand the 1st floor as a priority to set up the inside for its maximum contribution to finish, the completeness. The outside is go, and the inside is go-to, you want to harmonize the patterns of both” “I look at the outside edge as an external torsion cue, and the inside edge, as an internal torsion cue” “If you watch Kobe, and Iversen and Michael do that, they use the inside edge, where the actual inside edge of their ankle touches the floor, as the pullback mechanism, in the other direction, and the key is that you are not fully weight bearing on that side yet” “Back to this inside edge, outside edge, toes out, toes in, I want all of them” “For me, it’s the skeleton, the nervous system and the fascial system: Breath, bones and (tensional) balance is how I reduced it down years and years ago” “On the chessboard, balance is the king, strength is the queen, and integration and coordination is all the pieces moving together well” “Structure dictates function, and function over time dictates structure” “Back pain has been normalized by the human being was able to create the creature comforts that didn’t require you to move with efficiency” “I think of strength and power as just pressure management, can you funnel the force fluidly, through the fascia, to the floor, and then it’s just bigger muscles are better as long as they are fluid” “So the tendency is, the guy who is born with that muscle tends to be loose and fluid, and supple, and the guy who built himself up there, all the micro-trauma to make it bigger, is just not as fluid” “I perform a 4:1 ratio, so let’s say squat patterning. In the 4:1 ratio in the squat pattern, I would do a split squat on the right (coil right) a split squat on the left (coil left), I would perform back squats, which would be bilateral, and then I would perform walking lunges, which would give me a right and a left in succession. So that ratio allows me to establish range of motion, express range of motion, and then challenge it in a high intensity pressure system, like a heavy lift” Show Notes The Colorado Experiment and Arthur Jones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Experiment Weck Method 45 Deadlift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI-TbQwE0mk&t=112s About David Weck David Weck is a renowned inventor and leading innovator in the field of human movement and performance. He is the creator of a number of inventions that work on the basis of key characteristics in human locomotion and movement, working the rotational, pulsing, and coiling abilities of the athlete. David started the WeckMethod as a project to inspire and educate individuals on the importance of optimizing human balance through locomotion. He has over 30 years of experience and an unparalleled passion to drive innovative thought into the the field of health, wellness, and athletic performance. Hi stated mission is making “Every Step Stronger” for everyone. He holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College (Massachusetts), where he played football and competed as a sprinter on the track and field team. He also holds a degree in traditional Chinese medicine in the area of acupuncture and Oriental medicine from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. About Chris Chamberlin Chris Chamberlin is the Head Coach and Director of Education for the Weckmethod.