We did some of our best writing to date in 2015. Our efforts to adhere to an evidence-based approach have helped us to produce high-caliber writing that we’re proud to share with you. Some of the prominent topics from this year’s articles include movement variability and autonomic variability, how the autonomic nervous system affects performance and how you can use… Read more →
Author: Robert Palmer
Integrative Human Performance Year In Review, Part Two: The Happenings of Rob
As short as it seems to have been since Peter’s inaugural State of the Union Address in 2015, Integrative Human Performance has enjoyed fantastic development and success in the interim. Peter and I have made remarkable advances in our understanding of physical and mental well-being, our clients have made tremendous accomplishments (which you can read about here), and our articles… Read more →
Breathe Some Awesomeness Into Your Training: Simple Ways to Integrate Breathing to Improve Your Training
While Peter and I can delve deep into the esoterica of the Postural Restoration Institute’s tenets and methods, some of the lessons we’ve learned from our foray into PRI are astoundingly simple and profoundly effective. One of the first realizations we had is that it can be physically challenging to do a long, full exhale, pause five seconds (or more),… Read more →
Tone Down For What, Part One: Unconventional Methods for Better Recovery, Health, and Well-Being
Recovery is sort of like the the ball boy for the New England Patriots: nobody really appreciates that he’s critical to the organization’s success, at least until there’s a scandal. Okay, the analogy isn’t perfect, but the point is that adequate recovery is critical to training programs’ success. The more efficiently an athlete can recover from a workout, the sooner they can… Read more →
Do You Even Exhale, Bro? Part 3: The Postural Restoration Institute’s Mind-Blowing Solution for Tight Hip Flexors and Inefficient Breathing Patterns
Author’s note: In parts one and two of this series, I discussed what PRI describes as the Posterior Exterior Chain (PEC) pattern and outlined two exercises that help counteract it. If you haven’t read those yet, then I recommend doing so as they’ll give you a better understanding of the concepts I discuss in this post. I don’t know if any… Read more →
Do You Even Exhale, Bro? Part 2: On the Postural Restoration Institute and the 90-90 Hip Lift with Passive FA IR (aka a Tri-Planar Beast of an Exercise)
In the first installment of this series, I drew upon the insightful work of the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) to describe a common postural and neurological pattern amongst athletes and gym-goers, the Posterior Exterior Chain (PEC). In that post I explained why this postural and neurological state might be beneficial in some situations, but potentially deleterious in others. The key takeaway is… Read more →
Do You Even Exhale, Bro? Part 1: On Stress, the Postural Restoration Institute, and the Awesomeness of the Swiss Ball All Four Belly Lift
You might be familiar with the popular notion that good posture involves “standing up straight” or thrusting your chest outward. Though this advice is commonplace, it isn’t necessarily correct. For people with certain postural patterns, this conventional wisdom might exacerbate their problems. As seems to be the case with so many things, one-size-fits-all advice might not work for everyone’s posture,… Read more →
The Beauty of the Reverse-Band Back Squat, Part Three: Implementation
Author’s note: In the first and second articles of this series, I discussed the rationale for why the reverse-band back squat might be safer and more effective for strength and power purposes than conventional back squats. I’ve included a brief summary of the two articles below before I delve into the new material, but you can read the articles in their… Read more →