🥇 The Athlete Development Journal
Simple solutions for complex athletic problems.
Listen to this episode on your way to practice. ⬇️
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Train your mind.
Master craftsmen do this.
Stephen King is one of the most accomplished writers of all time. In his book On Writing he tells us what is absolutely essential for a writer to master his or her craft:
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
Isn’t it amazing how nearly every person who becomes great in their field just religiously preaches and practices the power of obsessively mastering the mundane, boring, and repetitive fundamentals of their craft?
There might be something to that….
Build your body.
I’m so sorry…
I owe you a huge apology.
I was sitting in my dark home office, lit only by the glow of my fish tank. Well, maybe more accurately, my snail tank. The pet store unknowingly gave us a male and a female snail, which ultimately led to a whole lot of little snails crawling around in there.
Anyway, I was typing away at my keyboard with the sole objective of organizing my previous articles around common themes for the book I’m writing. One chapter of my book is about the magic of graded exposure. When I typed that into the search bar on my website, though, nothing popped up…
In all of my years of writing, not once have I even mentioned the words “graded exposure.” That is a sin. For that, I am sorry.
Today, we rectify that.
Physical therapy only consists of 2 things
It’s not unreasonable to say that there are only 2 things that you can do in the physical therapy or rehab process.
- Let the body heal itself.
- Graded exposure.
The first one is all about not messing it up. Just let our magical internal healing mechanisms go to work and give them the best environment to succeed. Sleep a lot, eat enough, don’t be stressed, and keep your blood flowing.
There’s not a whole lot for you to actively do here.
The second one, however, is where you can be intentional in your actions.
What is graded exposure?
Graded exposure is simple: do what you’re capable of doing today, then do a little more next time, then a little more next time, and keep running through that cycle until you can do as much as is needed for your sport.
You’re gradually exposing yourself to more.
If your knee hurts during your squat, just squat as low as you can without it hurting. Then, next time go a little bit lower. Eventually, you’ll be doing full squats pain-free.
If it hurts your hamstring to sprint full speed, then start with a comfortable pain-free jog. Then next session, go a little faster. Eventually, you’ll be 100% sprinting pain-free.
Is it a little more complex than this in reality? Yes, but not by much.
Your body is an incredibly adaptive machine if you give it the time and reason to adapt. Gradually exposing it to more load (or speed or range of motion or whatever other variable) gives it the time and reason to adapt.
The Takeaways
- If something hurts in the gym, don’t just wholesale cut it right away. Try reducing the range of motion or the weight or the reps and see how that feels. Do what feels good, then try to do a little more the next time.
- When you’re building back up to a certain skill, movement, or exercise after an injury, be intentional about gradually exposing yourself to more. Don’t jump from 0 to 100 real quick…
Fuel your soul.
Envy.
I won’t lie to you, I struggle with envy. Pretty exclusively in a professional sense.
I have a hard time watching NFL games, because each week I see receivers that I shut down making big plays and DBs I’m confident that I was better than.
I envy coaches making tons of money, getting loads of notoriety, or even just having beautiful facilities to work in.
Then, I see moments like this and remember that I wouldn’t trade places with a single one of them:
Mike Macdonald is talking about how he’s taken a step back from being at the facility so much, so he can spend more time with his son.
That “more time” is 30-60 minutes before he goes to bed on Thursdays.
That’s it. That’s all the time he gets with him.
What are we doing here, folks?
Let’s wrap it up with a couple important things…
- This newsletter and podcast are completely free. I spend many hours each week researching, writing, illustrating, recording, editing, and uploading. The best way you can support it and allow it to continue is to share it with people you know. You can just send them to ​gtperformance.co/newsletter​ and they can subscribe there!
- Everything in these newsletters, podcasts, social media, and on our website is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice for you or your athlete. Consult directly with a healthcare professional.
Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about athlete development!
Be >,
Zach
Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS