460: Austin Einhorn on First Principles for Building Unbreakable Athletes

Today's podcast features Austin Einhorn. Austin is a movement specialist recognized for his pioneering work in athlete development and injury prevention. As the founder of APIros Performance, Austin's coaching philosophy emphasizes biomechanics, human function + evolution, and adaptability to build resilient athletes who can withstand the demands of high performance. He has worked with athletes across major sports leagues, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Olympic programs, and is continually pushing the boundaries of athletic performance and injury prevention systems for athletes. There are a wide variety of systems and available philosophies on athletic performance and injury prevention. With so much information available, assembling a human-centered viewpoint of how we innately move and adapt is a critical step in forming a better lens of coaching and training. On today’s episode, Austin discusses his first principles when it comes to athlete assessment and training intervention. He digs into aspects of athletic hip extension, pushup and overhead patterning, and foot motions, along with the variability concepts in training and performance. This was a thought-provoking podcast with one of the brightest minds in the industry and is a must-listen for anyone looking to build more robust, adaptive athletes for any discipline. Today’s episode is brought to you by TeamBuildr’s GymStudio. For a Gym Studio 14-day free trial, head to gymstudio.com Use the code “justfly25” for 25% off any Lila Exogen wearable resistance training, including the popular Exogen Calf Sleeves. For this offer, head to: Lilateam.com View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. (https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-home/) Timestamps 2:15- Influential Mentors in Problem-Solving Training 6:53- Optimizing Hip Extension for Athlete Performance 8:28- Optimizing Athletic Performance Through Anatomy Assessment 30:30- Muscle-Centric Approach to Musculoskeletal Health 35:10- Performance Optimization through Diverse Movement Strategies 45:56- Enhancing Tendon Resilience with Varied Loading 48:57- Enhancing Performance Through Varied Training Approaches 53:10- Enhancing Athletic Performance with Innovative Tools 57:25- Optimal Shoulder Blade Tilt for Push-Ups 1:01:15- Optimal Shoulder Blade Movement in Bench Press 1:03:25- Optimal Shoulder Blade Positioning in Movements 1:08:31- Enhancing Shoulder Strength for Overhead Athletes 1:10:00- Enhancing Shoulder Strength for Overhead Athletes Quotes (4:53) "A lot of the students that I teach, where they start with just imitating and imitation is such a great way to learn." - Austin Einhorn (11:19) "It's amazing what your brain can do to accomplish a task, but it'll use structurally different elements to do so." - Austin Einhorn (17:00) "One area that is neglected is the transverse interior arch, basically the arch that's underneath your knuckles and it's responsible for 40% of your foot stiffness. But what's more important there is where that stiffness gets created. And it's in that ground contact phase in dorsiflexion" - Austin Einhorn (19:17) "All non-contact injuries are preventable and solvable. And that just requires a little bit more critical thinking." - Austin Einhorn (48:57) "My maybe favorite way to get that long time under tension is put on a rucksack and go hike for three hours. Yeah, like the variable terrain is going to do a little bit more for the peroneals, the posterior tib, the in the toe flexors on the inside of the ankle than just a calf raise" - Austin Einhorn (51:32) "When you have a big, thick, cushy shoe, it's you think of as an exoskeleton. You can export the work to the foam. And so your leg doesn't need to bend as much. It's stiffer." - Austin Einhorn (57:25) "So push-up is a quadrupedal movement. We're gonna have to look at how quadrupedals do that. The other thing that I like to look at is break dancers. They are the best athletes in the world who interact with the ground. And not one of them, not one pinches their shoulder blades together." - Austin Einhorn (1:17:35) "If your dial is always only turned into high outputs, pure outputs, less choices, you're going to run into issues. But if you always have just everything is pure exploration, you're not going to get to the output that you need to get to." - Joel Smith (1:26:17) "I want to teach you how to think differently when you're writing a program or a rehab protocol for somebody because that critical thinking will save your ass to solve the problem." - Austin Einhorn Show notes Apiros Pushup https://vimeo.com/1078064969/ebe6773faf Diagonal Speed Skater Squat Strength https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kPnYX--dmFQ About Austin Einhorn Austin Einhorn is a movement specialist recognized for his pioneering work in athlete development and injury prevention. As the founder of APIros Performance, Austin's coaching philosophy emphasizes biomechanics, human function + evolution, and adaptability to build resilient athletes who can withstand the demands of high performance. Austin has worked with athletes across major sports leagues, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, and Olympic programs. Austin is continually pushing the boundaries of athletic performance and injury prevention systems for athletes.