Restore: the Core program

Restore Your Core Stability and Strength, Volume 1

Wondering What to Do and When? Keep Reading!

An introduction to the start of the PLAN…

Looking over at the menu down and to the left, notice there are sub-areas for “THE PLAN” right under this tab – labeled Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.

In each of those areas is where you will find the SPECIFIC guidance including a day by day plan for what to do and when.

The goal of all of this information? To help you incorporate this program successfully into both your training routine and life schedule.

Keep reading to learn some insight into WHY I have set things up in this way.

We’ll talk about skill-building, practicing mindfully, aka “deep practice,” and some other topics.

I’m sharing with you a vision for a complete RESTORATION of your core in 60 days.

Remember, sometimes life intervenes. Always be flexible and determined. If need be, adjust, and adapt. Forge ahead!

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, things don’t flow out exactly as it appears on paper, in black and white.

Why?

Lots of reasons. Life happens. Things can change, including our schedule and time to train.

Above all, despite the fact that you may have to adjust and adapt as you go, remember that much IF NOT ALL of the success you will have in this journey will come down to your willingness to believe and accept that this process, especially in the beginning, is PRIMARILY about building SKILL. After all, core stability is a skill. In fact, movement quality – moving well – at a basic fundamental level, is a skill. It’s NOT about muscular fatigue or the “burn,” that’s for sure.

Think of it this way: it’s brain training. And it is worth remembering that part of your brain (for our purposes right now when it comes to skill) lies within your joints.

Let’s discuss some of these things in a bit more detail, shall we?

Muscle Memory? There is NO SUCH THING.

There’s a common myth in training circles that with practice, muscles “remember” a movement and retain the skills to perform the movement.

Wrong. Muscles don’t remember a thing.

In simple terms, they and other connective tissues are a collection of various sizes of fibers that contain nerves. It’s the nervous system that does the actual “remembering.” And if you think about it, this would naturally include not just the “nerves,” but also various mechanoreceptors within the joint capsules themselves, that also “remember.” Importantly, they also respond to sensory information both from within the area or joint itself, as well as what comes in from our external environment.

It’s like the wiring in your home – think of a bundle of wires that connect the fuse panel in your garage to the light switch and so on. Skills are motor pathways – they’re bundles of nerves that become myelinated – grooved, if you will.

And that “groove” becomes more permanently imprinted whether the skill is a quality one, or not. In other words, whatever you practice – good or bad – becomes grooved.

The point is this: if you’re going to improve, accept that especially at the early stages of this course, you are essentially training your nervous system to perform progressive levels of skills.

And how do you do that?

Repetition. Not just reps though, you want near-perfect repetition.

The more you practice those skills as correctly as you can at any one moment in time, progressing from one stage of learning to the next, the better you get.

And yes, as your skills improve, you get more freedom to “dance on the edge of your ability” and also to challenge your strength in a very real way. And grow it progressively. But that only comes after you’ve laid down a bit of the “groove.” Which I hope by now you know as this: learning and understanding what core stability is, how to create it, and then progressing it methodically from a basic to more dynamic level.

In summary, it goes without saying that everyone wants to know exactly how many to do of what, how often, and so on – we all desire to have a definitive number of reps and sets to target each day. It’s what we’re all accustomed to. It’s comfortable.

Yes, it is. And we’ll get there.

For right now, however, as you embark on this course, remember…

You’ll get better results if you seek to understand and learn as part of your practice. Make the intellectual connection.
Your ability to learn is dependent on your focus and concentration. These both wane quickly. As such, you’ll have much better results if you chunk it – do short bouts of practice followed by a brief pause to reset.
To use a mirror. Check yourself. Put a picture in your mind’s eye of how it should look, then watch to see if you’re doing it as you should. THIS is what is required for success, not simply counting reps.
To build each skill progressively, “chunking” a movement by breaking it down to its simplest form and then piecing it back together by adding a new element one at a time.
Don’t be afraid to go back to some of the movements in Restoration and Foundation! They’re all important to establish the foundation that is needed to progress THIS program successfully.

Your goal? Deep Practice

Seeking Mastery

Athletes who have a high level of success train to seek mastery. Rather than going on to the next best thing, they have a different “relationship” with practice.

Rather than hurrying to a more advanced level of a particular exercise, they look for weak links or mistakes in their current execution. I call it “targeted, mistake-focused practice.”

What do the most accomplished, “masters” in any field or endeavor do that is different than most of the rank and file? The masters slow it down.

They stop, correct, and “groove the groove” and repeat with attentive repetition.
They are willing to take baby steps.
They are engaged in the PROCESS vs. being focused on a potential outcome.
They push themselves deeply to the sweet spot at the edge of their capabilities.
They create vivid mental images in their minds of what they want to achieve.

Re-script the Narrative In Your Head.

If you find yourself thinking about “what’s next” in your training, consider re-scripting that narrative, and going to the place of deeper practice. Think about the following instead:

How can I execute these moves with higher degree of precision: perfect technique?
Am I being mindful? Am I fully present in every aspect of this training move?
What part of this movement am I not doing as well as I can?
Am I pushing to the edge of my capabilities?
How can I dig deeper and refine my form?

What’s the Payback?

If you think about these questions and make them part of what comprises your practice, what’s the payback? Now here’s an answer I know you’re not expecting…. The payback is the creation of MYELIN.

Yes, you’ll feel better, more stable, you’ll get stronger. But underneath all that, it is the creation of MYELIN that makes it all possible.

Daniel Coyle in his outstanding book The Talent Code deeply explores the role of myelin in master performers of all kinds, and says, “Every human movement, thought, or feeling is a precisely timed electric signal traveling through a chain of neurons – a circuit of nerve fibers.”

Gray Cook, the founder of the Functional Movement Screen, and one of the world’s leading movement experts, adds, “A pattern is born to our perceptive brain as well as our behavioral brain, and recognizable situations and responses are linked. The more we observe and use the linked patterns, the more the chain of circuits fire, and the more padding we dedicate to insulating the frequently used circuits. Speed develops as the insulation of the cables connecting our favored circuits gets thicker. This insulation is called myelin, and we make it according to the perceptions and behaviors we practice most or least.”

In short, says Coyle…

Deep Practice + Time + Myelin = Talent

So, when you think you are ready to move on to more challenging training or sense there is a short-cut to success, think about going into a deeper level of PRACTICE instead.

Do the hard work of refining your movement and that’s when you will start to make real progress. That’s when you truly begin to get stronger and better in a way that will have the most profound impact on your sport performance. Variety for variety’s sake is completely overrated.

A New Way of Thinking…

I know this might be a new way of thinking for you. How many of us have been handed the typical gym prescription –”when you can do 15 reps, go up in weight, or add another plate”? As I said earlier, it’s comfortable. It’s what we’re all accustomed to!

Instead, I implore you to embrace the idea of following the example of the top elite athletes—the true masters. They know that in order to become GREAT, to be able to unleash full potential, requires ongoing, perfect, deep practice over time.

It is the very definition of being RELENTLESS. They live in the place where true strength and performance is built. And so can you.

If you’d like to delve into this topic a bit more, here’s a webinar I did a while back on Deep Practice and Exploding Our Potential. I hope it’s helpful!