Omniathlete

When it comes to low-back strength and posterior chain development in athletic performance, no exercise has the characteristics of the seated good morning. This exercise has been used for several years by Soviet Union weightlifters in the 70's and 80's and it was an integral part of their training regime. Legendary weightlifting coach Alexei Medvedyev, in his book A System of Multi-Year Training in Weightlifting , wrote that "seated good mornings on a bench and on the floor

by Antonio Robustelli, MSc CSCS Since the launch of the NordBord, Vald's first product to enter the professional sport market, the Brisbane-based company has grown exponentially by quickly becoming a leading athlete testing systems provider as well as one of the most innovative sports technology companies in professional and high-level sport today. Even if sports technology is a big opportunity and one of the single most important challenges in sport performance, very few s

Whenever i talk about foot pressure mapping technology during my courses or keynote lectures at international conferences, i always got surprised by the deficits in knowledge and understanding of the differences between force and pressure measurements. I often receive questions that actually sounds a little bit obvious to me but i will try to clean up the topic in terms of both technology and biomechanics. Force vs Pressure or Force + Pressure? When talking about force and

If you’ve had issues with hydration or cramp in the past and have gone online looking for a solution then the chances are that you’ve seen the term ‘sweat test’ mentioned. In this piece i will explain just what a ‘sweat test’ is, what the options are and how taking one could help you significantly improve your performance. First, Why do Humans Sweat so Much? Here’s a pub-quiz-worthy fact for you, humans sweat considerably more than any other animal on earth. Our sweat rate

A few years ago, during our MSc studies in the Netherlands, we experienced what profound effect the lack of light can have on our bodies, energy levels and mood. After doing extensive research on the topic, we found out that light therapy is a fantastic solution to help us feel more energetic during the dark and gloomy winter days. We experimented with numerous products on the market (light boxes and visors) and realized that there was a need for a light therapy product, whic

For almost 20 years I have been helping people overcome pain with manual therapy and using exercise to help them improve functional capacity. I have found it very easy to perform manipulation, tooling, needling, taping (among other modalities) to help alleviate pain. But as a clinician I have the responsibility to include active therapy (exercise) whenever possible. My belief is manual therapy is the bridge to help people be more active and exercise more. The difficult part f

Once you’ve designed your elite player profile and completed the assessment process with your athletes, it’s time to use the data to drive your decision making. The priority should always be managing injury risk, and this data is extremely valuable to identify your high risk athletes. These are athletes who performed below the minimum standard on a number of assessments, and should be managed differently than your athletes who performed above the minimum standard. I have crea

Every death is too early to occur. The various deaths of professional athletes, that have occurred in recent years, unfortunately start a series of debates on professional sport as well as worrying discussions. Meetings and good intentions still doesn't lead to any results or positive outcomes and funeral ceremonies are trapped in the meaningfulness. Recently, Fiorentina's captain Davide Astori and 18-year-old French football player Thomas Rodriguez died as a result of an hea

In any high performance environment the goal is clear, minimize the risk of injury and maximize athletic development. If you lay in bed at night and honestly tell yourself you’ve done everything in your control to protect your athletes health, then you certainly have an assessment process in place. Most sports have technical, tactical, and physiological (I suppose we could add psychological here, but we won’t for now) requirements. If you don’t work with elite level athletes,

The hip (femoroacetabular) joint is arguably the most important joint in the human body as it relates to biomechanics of athletic performance. In every sport in the world, one hip joint may be called upon to perform quick, powerful and oftentimes violent movements while the other hip provides the necessary coordinated stability around which these movements can occur. There are 29 different muscles that are working in synergy to create effective movements around the hip joint.

For an optimal understanding of how inertial machines work, the first important step to take is to have a clear knowledge of the basic physics principles behind the concept of inertial training. This is fundamental since not having a basic knowledge in physics will lead us to erroneous conclusions as well as doing wrong comparisons between different types of equipments. Inertial (or flywheel ) machines work under the principle of the accelerated Uniform Circular Motion, which

The Hamstring Management series continues with the fifth episode in which i had the pleasure of discussing with Andreas Beck, currently holding the role of the Head of Strength & Conditioning at Borussia Dortmund. AR: Andreas, thank you for being part of this hamstring management series. Can you explain how your role has evolved over time and how you actually manage all the aspects related to performance and rehab at Borussia Dortmund? Andreas Beck: I'm working in professi

Physiologic Recovery Targets: The Hidden Network of Factors Killing Performance In recent times, there have been many terms used to explain the volatile and often unpredictable nature of athletic underperformance. If only the underlying processes were linear, things might be easier in terms of ensuring sustained progress and consistent performance. In a sense, unpredictability, manifested as the ever-looming possibility of the underdog to overcome or the lack of guarantees i

After baseball and football we are going to look at what happens into professional basketball with one of the most successful teams in recent years in Europe. I have the pleasure to introduce Kostas Chatzichristos, currently Director of Performance at CSKA Moscow, for the third episode of the hamstring management series. AR: Kostas, you've been working with the CSKA Moscow for 4 years now. Can you explain how your role has evolved over time and how you actually manage all th

After the first successful article/interview of the hamstring management series with Ken Crenshaw of Arizona Diamondbacks, it's time to introduce the second episode with the great Darcy Norman, currently Director of Performance at AS Roma. I'm very honoured to have Darcy as a guest of this series as his concepts are always a great stimulus for discussion. © AS Roma AR: Darcy, you've been working in professional football for a long time now. Can you explain how your role has

Today i have the pleasure to start an exclusive article/interview series on the topic of hamstrings management in team sport with a bunch of colleagues working worldwide in professional teams in different disciplines (football, baseball, basketball and rugby). For the first episode of the series i reached out to Ken Crenshaw, one of the key professionals when talking about performance in MLB. We met a few years ago and we had some interesting discussions about injury preventi

The Omniathlete Performance Concept is finally online!!! The new website is going to represent a deep insight into my work as an international sports performance consultant and S&C coach as well as a theoretical & practical resource with blog contributions from sport professionals in every field of the human performance complex. We are still in the preliminary phase of the website and during the next days we will start posting articles, news, pictures and all the things-relat