Wednesday, November 29, 2006

One-On-One with Dr. Cobb

Z-Health is back in town as we finish hosting another R-Phase. What a privilege to be able to host these things and pick Dr. Cobb's brain. He's one smart guy.

I met with him about my right knee. Long story short: (on the right side) fibular head locked down, cuboid locked down; (on the left side) lacking arm/hand supination and extension. Cause: too much pronation work. The loose body in the lateral gutter of my knee--he couldn't find it. He said it was probably just scar tissue that broke loose and the body just absorbed it. (I'm not surprised--I took a high dose of Wobenzyme enzymes the night my wife worked on it for just that purpose.) Solution: work in supination work both in my training sessions and my GPP days.

I didn't sleep well last night--only about 4 hours and then tossed and turned from about 230am to 645am when I got up. So after meeting with Dr. Cobb, I was wiped. The sympathetic response I get from our sessions always gets me too. So I went home, ate, and laid down for about 45 minutes. Got up, chugged about 24oz of H2O and a cup of coffee and went back to work. Decided to make today a GPP day (which it was supposed to be anyway, but yesterday on the platform felt so good that I just didn't know...) and test out some of the solutions.

Here's what I did today:

Circuit:
Reverse Lunges: 20+20
V-Grip (semi-supinated) Chins x10
The Pump x10
2 Rounds. 60s rest between rounds.

This was very interesting. My knees were still a little sore on the first set of lunges. But on the second, they felt fine. No pain, no discomfort. The Pump was very interesting as it forces finger and wrist extension which I badly need. Lots of stretching in the forearm flexors on this one. I will keep this as one of my GPP days and see if I can work up to 5 rounds.

I'm also going to start including rows with a supinated grip into my platform sessions.

Now I'm going to officially stir the pot:

If you are performing Z-Health, you have no need to follow the road that the industry is laying out for you which is the following: Stretch the tight muscles, strengthen the weak ones, perform pre-hab and activation drills before the main training session and after. Z makes this obsolete because it is all of that and more, much, much more. How do I know? Because both my clients and I boarded that train and it was a sllooowwww moving one. Z is instantaneous. Z works. I am living proof. Period.

Alright, done stirring the pot for now. All I've got to say is get on the Z train as soon as possible.

Back on the platform tomorrow. Heavy jerks, squats, and pulls. Can't wait!

2 Comments:

Blogger Franz Snideman said...

Nice Post Geoff. Not sure if I totally agree with you on not stretching the tigher muscles. Some of my clients have responded well to the limited amount of Z-health I do with them and others have not. Static + Partner PNF stretching has not wonders for most of my clients. I think the pendulum falls somewhere in the middle. Great post.

On another note, have you have any experience in working with client that has a fused ankle. What Z mobility exercise can one do when their ankle is surgically fused?

Thanks brother!

4:25 PM  
Blogger Geoff Neupert said...

Franz, Z is simply a system that asks the body a question. If you know what question to ask, you'll understand the answer. If you don't know the question, you won't recognize the answer or get the answer you're looking for. That's why it works in a limited role for you. Does that sound arrogant? Probably. I'll admit though, I still don't know all the questions to answer, probably only 70% of them. PNF and other stretching has a place, but it's not what we think it is. More on that later.

As far as the fused ankle, not much there man. The only thing I can think of is opposite hand and wrist and same foot, knee and hip.

I know I'm probably turning some people off with how adamant I am about Z, for those who have the patience to continue reading and haven't been too insulted to continue reading, I plan on addressing this in my next couple of posts.

The biggest thing Franz is to use every tool at your disposal to help your clients. You are tremendously skilled in your craft and your clients should pay you more, A LOT more.

7:48 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home