The Better Movement Podcast

Todd Hargrove
The Better Movement Podcast

Practical science about movement health and performance. toddhargrove.substack.com

  1. 12/05/2023

    Greg Lehman on Cognitive Functional Therapy

    My guest for this podcast is Greg Lehman. Greg is a physical therapist, chiropractor, and researcher. Our main subject was a new study that found very positive results for Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT). I thought Greg would be a good guy to ask about the strengths and weaknesses of the study, and how to interpret its meaning in light of the broader literature. Greg is a popular writer and teacher whose main interest is reconciling pain science with biomechanics. Part of his approach involves looking at many different kinds of therapies that seem to work, and then asking: what do all these different methods have in common? It’s a good question that generates insight. One of Greg’s strengths is a broad knowledge of the relevant research. Therefore, he always supports his arguments with specific citations, and he also has a good context to interpret the meaning of a news study. For example, if a new study comes out showing that therapy X works or doesn't work, he can probably think of other studies with different results. Another great thing about Greg is that he is always willing to challenge his own biases. So if a study comes out validating his ideas, he will be the first one to stand up and point out its limitations. In this podcast we talked about the strengths and weaknesses of the new CFT study, and how to put it in the context of the larger literature. We also talked about broader issues related to being aware of your own biases, cherry picking evidence, and using double standards to interpret studies. Links Greg Lehman’s website Greg on Twitter My previous podcast with Greg Information on the study and Cognitive Functional Therapy A previous post on Pain Reprocessing Therapy, which I compared to CFT This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

    40 min
  2. 08/12/2022

    Leigh Egger on Coordination Training for Sport

    Leigh Egger is a physiotherapist and trainer working as head of performance at Feyenoord Rotterdam, a Dutch professional soccer club. I first became interested in Leigh’s work because he had extensive knowledge about applying the ideas of Frans Bosch to athletic training and injury prevention. Bosch is the author of two fascinating books on movement (one of which I reviewed here.) His ideas are notoriously original, controversial, and somewhat confusing. Leigh has worked with Bosch closely and has significant experience putting his ideas to practical use. I first met at Lee at a Bosch seminar in Los Angeles that he was helping to teach. Here’s a video of some highlights (with a brief cameo by yours truly.) If you watch the video you will see some interesting and unusual exercises. In this podcast, Leigh provides some simple explanations of the logic behind these and other exercises as a way to improve athletic performance and prevent injury. We talked about motor learning, passive versus active attractors, control of the pelvis and spine in single leg stance, the hip lock position, the proper use of the ankle during running, and many other topics. Links Speed Power Play, a consulting company run by Leigh and John Pryor Speed Power Play on Instagram Leigh’s Twitter page This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

    1 hr
  3. 28/02/2022

    Christopher Johnson on Sport and Injury

    Christopher Johnson is a physical therapist, performance coach, international speaker, published researcher, and elite triathlete. I consider Chris to be a world-class source of information about the connection between movement and pain, especially in the context of endurance running. He knows all the research, has years of experience working with runners, and competes at the highest level. Chris lives here in Seattle, so I’ve had many chances to get together with Chris and geek out about all things related to sports, movement and pain. This podcast is a recorded version of one of those geek-out sessions. We decided to make it a joint interview where we both ask and answer questions. (As it turned out, I think I had a more questions for him.) In any event, it was an informal conversation that touched on a wide variety of topics including: * Chris's background as a multi-sport athlete in skateboarding and tennis. * differences in how we grew up playing many sports versus the modern environment where kids are forced to specialize. * our personal experiences recovering from overuse and traumatic injuries. * common injuries for runners, especially bone stress injuries and tendinopathies. * raising kids to be healthy movers. * how Chris deals with the mental stress of triathlons, including his absurd claim that 5Ks are harder than Iron Mans. * our most recent projects and interests. Links Chris’ webpage Chris’ new project collecting the best running drills: Top Shelf Resource Suite Chris on YouTube Chris on Facebook Chris on Instagram This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

    59 min
  4. John Kiely on Robust Running

    21/01/2022

    John Kiely on Robust Running

    My guest on the podcast today is John Kiely. John is a senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, Institute for Coaching and Performance. I've been reading John’s research for several years now and his papers are always very interesting and fun. He's written on a wide variety of subjects like running, coordination, periodization and the science of smooth movement. You can find links to some of my favorite papers below. What I really like about John’s writing is that he relates specific data points to big ideas, like complex systems, evolution, or stress/adaptation. And the perspective is very broad, so he makes interesting connections between seemingly unrelated topics. In his paper on smoothness, he refers to the Supreme Court free-speech debates about pornography. In his article about periodization, he writes about Henry Ford's theories of efficient car production in factories. When John agreed to do this podcast, I was excited to talk about a whole bunch of topics, but we focused on one: how to be a coordinated and robust runner. In John's view, running performance and injury is far more about coordination then we might imagine. We talked about: * the neural hierarchies governing coordination, ranging from the “smart” motor cortex to the “dumb” reflexes * what neural “degeneracy” means and how it’s different from redundancy. * the role of variability in performance and injury prevention * how fatigue and aging affect variability and coordination * why I strained my hamstring in my soccer game last week and what that has to do with coordination * how to train fast versus slow reflexes * the role of perturbation in training coordination * John’s opinions on the work of Frans Bosch We could have gone on for much longer, and I have many more questions, so I plan to ask John for more time in the near future. Links John’s research John on Twitter Some great papers by John that I recommend: * Smoothness: an Unexplored Window into Coordinated Running Proficiency * My post about the smoothness paper * Periodization Theory: Confronting an Inconvenient Truth * The Robust Running Ape: Unraveling the Deep Underpinnings of Coordinated Human Running Proficiency This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 9m

About

Practical science about movement health and performance. toddhargrove.substack.com

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign-in or sign-up to follow shows, save episodes and get the latest updates.

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada