Original Strength Foundations Workshop

30 Aug 2014 - 31 Aug 2014

Prague 3 – Vinohrady

“How To Find And Press Your Body’s “Reset” Button, Regain Your God-Given Movement, Athleticism, Vigor, And Vitality, AND Routinely Set Personal Records Once Again”

Here’s a simple way to cut through the noise and confusion surrounding today’s fitness buzzwords – “movement, core training, mobility work, and corrective exercise” without breaking the bank on hyper-expensive “certifications,” memorizing endless flowcharts and complicated systems, or studying methods requiring exacting precision.

From: Geoff Neupert, CSCS, StrongFirst Master InstructorColorado Springs, CO

Dear Friend,

Just like you, I want to be in the “best shape” possible. And you may be even more like me if you train people for a living in order to help them do the same. But I have a shocking and stunning confession to make to you.

I’ve been in the fitness industry since 1993 and I have studied my butt off under some of the smartest people in the business – Paul Chek, Gary Gray, Vern Gambetta, Gray Cook, Pavel, and others, and I still to this day cannot reliably predict with 100% certainty how the human body will react to exercise.

In fact no one can.

And if anyone tells you anything close to that then run – RUN the other way with your fist tightly gripping your wallet!

Actually, I’m pretty good with programming for pure strength and fat loss, but “fixing” people by using corrective exercise, ugh, I just suck at it. Sure, I’ve been doing it for over 10 years now, but sometimes I just wonder…

I’m probably just too dumb or my brain’s just too full of junk to make these systems work reliably for me and my clients over the long term.

Sure, I can get some short-term changes, which makes me look really smart to my clients, but long-term, I can’t seem to get the changes to stick. Something else always seems to go wrong. In truth, I probably have forgotten some details in the flow charts, or am not being precise enough with the drills, cues, and exercises.

Well, until recently.

Let me explain…

A couple of years ago a good buddy of mine, Tim Anderson, came over for Easter Lunch and we were discussing our frustrations with some of the exercise systems we were involved in.

I said to him, that I could no longer believe that getting our body’s to perform was as complex as we were being led to believe. I’m not sharpest knife in the drawer, but I’m not that dull…

(For example, Tim was told by the “guru” we were studying under at the time that the reason his hamstrings weren’t “working” was because his sunglasses were putting too much pressure on the joint between his sphenoid and temporal bones and that was shutting down his hamstrings… Don’t know where those bones are? That’s my point.)

There had to be a simpler way. We then discussed a certain exercise used within the system we were studying at the time. It was categorized as a WAEF exercise – “When All Else Fails” – do one of these two exercises.

And then it hit us – if these two things always work for everybody, or almost everybody, why not start the system there?

(I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions…)

Anyway, we (and one of Tim’s good friends – Mike McNiff) started fooling around with this exercise and somehow we got turned on to what we call “developmental sequencing” – the sequencing of the development of the human being from conception to age 3 and some amazing things happened.

Basically we found, that we have everything we ever need already inside uspre-programmed – to get ourselves out of most of our movement restrictions almost instantaneously probably a good 80% of the time or more.

For example, one day we all met at Tim’s studio and were going over this stuff (my wife, Courtney, a Doctor of Physical Therapy was also there lending her expertise) and we were trying to help Mike out.

Mike had been suffering from neck pain and limited range of motion due to multiple concussions and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in the service. He had seen, studied, and worked with some of the best “movement” guys in the world and still had these issues, despite shelling out the big bucks and investing lots of time into studying and applying their systems.

So we were discussing the importance of the neck in relation to human development, reflexes and the body’s alignment and movement.

We had Mike do a simple range of motion test – in fact you’ve probably seen it or done it yourself – stand with your feet together, arms stretched out by your sides and parallel to the floor (so you look like a “T”) and your simply rotate each direction seeing how far you can go.

Well Mike could barely turn his head without locking up his neck. And his body didn’t turn much further before his nagging lower back pain reared its ugly head.

So we had a baseline.

Then we had Mike do 10 reps of this very simple – stupidly simple – neck exercise.

He then performed the same range of motion test and three things happened:

1. He instantly gained full rotation both directions in his neck

2. He was able to turn his body almost equally in both directions

3. And his lower back pain was gone when he rotated

I’m no scientist, nor do I play one on TV, but I have been called an “empiricist” by one of my good friends – I simply observe what occurs and figure out ways to repeat it.

So, the rest of us established baselines with the same test, performed the neck drill, and all had increased range of motions.

Admittedly, we had a sample size of n=4, but it was a start.

Then something really freaky happened.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the FMS – the Functional Movement Screen – but it’s a method to assess movement and movement restrictions and it works pretty well.

Well I had been scored a 6 out of 21 (which is very bad) two months before. I’ve had some “interesting” orthopedic issues to say the least. That same day, we saw the power of the neck exercises, we had been extrapolating and experimenting with some other exercises. So, we’d sit our table, chew the fat, go into the studio, mess around, discover some results, and go back to the table. We were active, but we were far from “warmed up.”

Anyway, my wife, the PT, is also an FMS practitioner. So she ran me through the screen.

That’s when we were all freaked out – I scored an effortless 21 out of 21. All four of our jaws dropped open.

See, if you know anything about the FMS at all, you know that in order to score a 6 or anything remotely that low, it’s cause you have to zero out a couple of the exercises – that is, you get a score of 0 (out of 3) for that exercise due to pain.

That’s when we knew –

We were on to something.

The rest of that day the four us played around with our ideas, much of them based on books that had virtually nothing to do with exercise, but rather behavioral therapy for children.

And we whittled our thoughts down to a few key ideas:

1. We are designed to do certain things very well – walking upright is the primary “thing.”

2. The human body, although very complicated, is relatively simple to operate and maintain especially if you look at how we developed. (We all developed pretty much the same way.)

3. Modern science and the fitness industry, for whatever reason, has over-complicated the care and maintenance of the human body by hyper-focusing on different areas.

4. You actually have the innate ability to fix your own movement restrictions, asymmetries, and compensations on your own – you already know how to, the answers lie within your brain. You just need to “refresh your memory.”

Based on these four key concepts, Tim and Mike went on to write a book called Becoming Bulletproof, that has already started making waves and started to revolutionize the health and fitness industries.

How do I know?

Because for the past 3 years I’ve tested out their information on both my private clients and myself; and all of us are achieving stunning successes. Better yet, for over a year, my wife, tested it out on her physical therapy patients, again, with amazing results.

What kind of results?

Well I tell you about them in a minute.

Before we get there, you should know why this information is important to you right now.

Because right now, you’re most likely reading this sitting down.

And unfortunately, that’s one of the worst things you could be doing.

Let me explain why…

You were made to move…

But most likely, you don’t.

Not nearly as much as you should, want to, or once did.

If you’re “average” you spend the better part of your day in a chair on your butt, slouched, slumped, and chained to a desk staring at a computer screen. Or something close to it.

Here’s the problem with that:

It’s our hypothesis, which we’ve proven to a certain degree empirically through our four (Tim, Mike, Courtney, and myself) collective businesses, that when you sit all day long, you lose full control of your “primitive reflexes” – the reflexes you developed from the time you were conceived and grew in your mother’s womb until you were about 3 years old.

Now it’s not that you lose them totally – it’s kind of like the “edges” of the reflexes become “blurry” – they’re not a “sharp” or defined as they once were or as they were meant to be.

It’s kind of like you’re a piano that’s out of tune. Sure, you still play music, but you’re slightly “off.”

And being “out of tune” shows up in little things like:

  • Poor posture and forward head carriage (this is actually a BIG thing because most injuries and movement issues arise from this)
  • Low back pain
  • Collapsed arches in your feet
  • Balding (just kidding – wanted to see if you’re paying attention)
  • Loss of attention span / inability to concentrate
  • Some vision problems
  • Loss of balance and coordination and strength
  • And more…

And that’s what most health, fitness, and medical professionals address.

(With the exception of acute medical issues and injuries, like broken bones, cancer, and other trauma.)

Think about it – you go to see your Chiropractor because your neck feels funny. Or you’re seeing a Physical Therapist because your knee hurts. Or maybe you go see a “movement specialist” because your Chiro or PT can’t seem to help you out only to find that you have some sort of “eye-tracking” problem?

But what are we really dealing with here (assuming you don’t have some sort of trauma like torn cartilage that needs to be addressed medically)?

We’re addressing symptoms of postural problems, which produce movement dysfunctions.

And if you buy our hypothesis, you really have dulled reflexes.

Which means…

Sharpen your reflexes and you’ll correct your postural problems and therefore your movement dysfunctions and restrictions.

Wow!

That sounds too good to be true!

It’s not, I can assure you.

Here are some of the results we have seen:

  • I finally “fixed” both of my hips, which have multiple labral tears and cartilage damage: I reclaimed my ability to squat and lunge and perform leg movements pain free (Yes, I had some pain free episodes using other systems, but nothing as consistent as this – I don’t even worry about it anymore…)
  • Gained my bodyweight Pistol (Never had it in the first place but could use a counterbalance.)
  • Clients gained range of motion in necks, shoulders, and hips
  • Instantaneous strength increases
  • Increased speed of movement
  • Increased body awareness
  • Increased ability to focus and pay attention
  • Improved athleticism

Due to overwhelming interest from others in learning more about Becoming Bulletproof, Tim and I held a half-day workshop this past March in Virginia and it sold out. We stuffed 15 people in a tiny upstairs room and laid out the “behind-the-scenes” rationale for Becoming Bulletproof.

We were astounded by the results. First, that we ran out of time to teach all the material we wanted and needed to teach, and second, and more importantly, the attendees results.

Umm… That’s not really a Squat…

To start the day we had people test their movement with the Goblet Squat – 2 or 3 reps to get a baseline for future reference. One young lady right in front of me “squatted” except it looked more like a lateral lunge. She took a very wide stance, shifted all her weight to her right and away from her left knee, and did the best she could.

It turned out that she had torn the cartilage in her knee and even had trouble walking some days. Running, lunging, and squatting was right out. But her trainer suggested she come to the workshop anyway to see if any of this could help.

After the very first drill, her stance was narrower, and she was more centered. And by the last drill of the day, she had a relatively pain-free squat back. And it was an actual squat – not some weird squat-lateral lunge combo. She had her weight even centered over both feet and you could barely tell that she had a knee issue at all.

I was amazed to be quite honest, and never expected to see anything like that.

On break, this young lady told me it was the best her knee had felt in months, despite all the treatment she had been receiving. (The human body really is amazing when you just remind it what it should be doing…)

Another gentleman, a lifelong runner in his mid-50s, easily got into the deepest squat of his life – by his own admission – butt on ankles while improving his posture.

Everyone to a person got stronger over those 4 hours, and by default, improved their mobility/range of motion.

But…

They wanted us to go even deeper.

So for the past 14 months, Tim and I have been on the road on average once per month sharing what we found in that very first workshop and expanded it to a full one-day workshop in our One-Day Learn-By-Doing Becoming Bulletproof Workshops. In them, we filled in the gaps and fully answer peoples’ questions about the material in the book.

Unfortunately for us, people wanted even more, but their bodies couldn’t handle it.

We were running our one-day workshops from 9am to 6pm, with a one hour break for lunch. But what we found was that by 430 or 5pm, although people were moving better, smiling, laughing, and generally having a great time, they were dog-tired and could no longer really pay attention.

And their bodies were starting to shut down – there was just too much brain re-organization going on and they needed to rest.

In spite of that, they were craving more information.

This led Tim and I to do two things:

First, we updated and expanded Becoming Bulletproof, and wrote Original Strength: Regaining The Body You Were Meant To Have. It is all the information we’ve learned in year-and-a-half since Becoming Bulletproof was first written.

And second, based on the workshop feedback and our personal experiences, we expanded the one day workshop to a two-day workshop, allowing people to fully synthesize the information and learn how to apply it with themselves and their clients/students.

This led us to –

The NEW Two-Day Learn-By-Doing Original Strength Workshop

The first thing you might be thinking is if this stuff is so simple, why do I need to come to a two-day workshop?

That’s a GREAT question and the honest answer is – you don’t, unless…

Unless of course you find yourself in one of these three categories:

  • You’re a hard-charging [ex-] athlete with some dings, nicks, scratches and dents and you want a better understanding of how to eliminate those things without having to remember 365 different mobility drills, flows, or complicated yoga-like sequences.
  • You’ve tried other more complicated “movement systems” only to be frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of knowledge you have to remember and “precision” you have to apply. Not only that but you’re tired of having to remember flowcharts and algorhythms and the such.
  • You’re a trainer that wants a simple system that’s intuitive to remember for both you and your client that will radically decrease the amount of time you spend on warm-up, movement prep, mobility work, and pre-hab and makes “quality of movement” something that’s automatic instead of something you have to over-think.

If you find yourself in one of those three categories than this workshop might be for you.

Keep reading to find out more.

Day 1: It’s All About Regressions

You’ll recall earlier that the whole premise of Original Strength is about sharpening your dulled reflexes – your primitive reflexes – the ones that lay a foundation for you to walk upright, run, jump, and generally enjoy life as a human being. You start to gain these literally from the moment of conception – 3 weeks of life – when your vestibular system starts to form.

Through much trial and error with our clients and ourselves, and from many email conversations with owners of the book, we found that as powerful as the drills were, sometimes they weren’t quite “enough.”

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking – “I thought this was simple.”

It is – hold on – I’ll explain it to you in the less than 30 seconds.

Each one of the BB drills is sufficient for many people. But for many they need to be broken down even further, into smaller bite-sized pieces (regressions) in order to regain the reflexes.

For example, some people have a hard time crawling with their heads up, even after doing the Neck Nods like we showed you in that video. Why?

Because they need to develop more head control in a more fundamental position other than on kneeling on all fours. So, we created several regressions for that.

See?

Less than 30 seconds.

And we’ve created regressions for each and every drill.

And, look, we’re no geniuses (Ok, Tim is, I’m certainly not…) we didn’t really “create” anything.

We simply observed. And then mimicked.

For the last 24 months I’ve been able to watch my little boy develop – he was born in April of 2011. So I’ve been able to copy what he does on myself and with my clients. (Along with studying human development of course.)

Sure, I’ve had to make some ever-so-subtle modifications, but the results have been that we’ve filled in all the gaps between the resets in Becoming Bulletproof and Original Strength.

We have regressions for each BB/OS drill – each is an intuitive transition from one drill to the next – a seamless, effortless sequence of drills, all designed to restore your dulled reflexes in order to get you back up and running again – literally. (I can easily run now pain free from doing these simple drills.)

And we’ll show them all to you.

And we promise, they will be easy to remember, and easy to use both on yourself and with your clients if you have any.

Here are just some of the regressions, sequences, and concepts you’ll learn:

  • Breathing – why crocodile breathing is not the best place or position to “learn” how to diaphragmatically breathe and what is
  • Reflexive Core Stability – how babies train their abs and how we can mimic this to ensure we have a truly strong core (And how to make this progressively harder just like a baby does)
  • Rolling Patterns – you may be doing them, but do you know what you need to do BEFORE you do them? My son showed me and I’ll show you.
  • How to overcome the fear of “cervical hyperextension” and why you need to be able to extend your neck, despite what some of the experts are saying. (And why when you learn how to do this correctly you can toss out many of the other drills you need to “fix” your other issues…)
  • What the true “head position” is for “training” and what we’ve forgotten that we did as infants and toddlers…
  • How your head is tied to your core – and how to train your core with this new information…
  • How to instantly fire up your vestibular system from one simple, easy (and lazy) drill for immediate gains in strength and mobility…
  • Learn the importance of head control: Forget thinking about the “long/tall spine” concept – here’s how to achieve it automatically and effortlessly without feeling like an idiot in the process
  • The four different crawling progressions and which one you should actually spend your time doing the most right now for what your body needs…
  • How to “assess” what you or your client need to spend your time on now for immediate improvement (It’s so simple, even I can do it)
  • The best way to “mobilize” your feet and ankles (Hint: don’t forget that your hips need to be involved too.)
  • How to “grease-the-groove” for your Squats and Pistols… without actually doing Squats or Pistols…
  • The importance of Contra-lateral movements for improved coordination, posture, and balance
  • How to do “balance training” – lying down (And why that’s the best place to start)
  • The two BEST resets – period. (These will provide instant relaxation and immediately improve range of motion.)
  • Why isolated joint mobility is a bad idea – symptoms and long-term consequences of “bodybuilding” for joints
  • Why some “integrated” mobility is nothing more than positional static mobility and a giant waste of your time and energy
  • How to do “loaded mobility” work without actually doing “loaded mobility” work – a Zen koan…
  • What to do if you can’t crawl, feel awkward crawling, or crawling hurts
  • And much, much more…

A Simple Solution To Your Mobility And Movement Problems That Results In New Personal Records

I’m going to level with you here:

I’ve been using Original Strength for the last three years, and used my clients and myself as guinea pigs. (Of course, Tim has too, along with Mike and Courtney.) We’ve never seen anything else that was as easy to use and produced results as fast as this does.

Why?

Because you already know how to do this stuff – you’re not learning anything “new” or unnatural or “hokey.” You’ve already done most of this stuff (and that may be your problem too – you skipped some steps) and you just need a little prodding to help you remember how to do it.

When you do, you’ll re-sharpen your reflexes.

And then most of your issues will disappear. (Of course, if you’ve broken or torn stuff, they will never be 100% again, no matter what any of the gurus or their acolytes try to tell you. But you can be close enough, like I am (finally) with my right knee – the one with the torn patellar cartilage.)

Not only that, but you’ll find that you’ll be able to set new personal records on exercises you once found seemingly impossible. For example, I told you that I was able to do a bodyweight pistol using OS resets. But I’ve also been able to do a One-Arm-One-Leg Push Up (on both sides) and just recently, a Muscle Up, at age 40 and a bodyweight of 210 pounds.

I can assure you that from my conversations with previous workshop attendees, I am not unique! You can and will experience the same things – Personal Records at any age!

But don’t take my word for it. Tim and I will not only show you, but let you prove it to yourself when you register for the upcoming new Two-Day Learn By Doing Original Strength seminar.

Day 2: From Regressions To Progressions: Reflexive Strength Training

In our one-day workshops, we closed the day with some very simple, but really cool and powerful resets – crawling variations. But they’re not the ending point – they’re really just the beginning.

They’re designed, among other things, to get you up onto both feet and walking.

All this “primitive” stuff is cool and now “hip” to do, but you’re not supposed to live your life crawling around on all fours like an animal. You’re made for way more than that.

Before we get there, let me share something that will blow your mind:

Tim recently crawled one full mile without stopping.

And no, not on his hands and knees – but true, hardcore Spider-Man crawling – head up, butt down.

How was he able to do such an amazing (and unparalleled) feat of strength?

Because he has acquired an amazing level of reflexive strength – the type of strength that allows your body to anticipate any and all movement and recruit the right muscles at the right joints at the right times in the right sequences.

And how was he able to achieve that?

By using our Original Strength training principles and progressions.

Now you may not have any desire to ever Spider-Man crawl a mile (I sure don’t) but you may want to learn how Tim also did a barbell Turkish Get Up with 84% of his bodyweight – 135 pounds weighing only 155 pounds – a feat I’ve never seen anyone else come close to doing.

Now that’s the kind of strength (and stability) we should all strive to have.

Why?

Because then you will have virtually zerophysical limitations.

You’ll be able to do literally anything physical you want to do. The sky will be your limit, instead of the stairs.

Why?

Because you’ll learn the secret, but drop-dead-simple methods that Tim has been working on for the past year-and-a-half that NO ONE else is even talking about, let alone doing.

Here’s the deal:

Back to what I was saying before, in order to fully restore your reflexive stability and strength, you must get up off the ground and tie “your X” together in an upright position. 

Why?

Because as I mentioned earlier, you’re not meant to live on the ground. Crawling around is fun, but it’s developmental. It’s a reset regression meant to get you up to standing and walking – to develop your gait pattern – the closest thing you have to a perpetual reset button.

So you must learn how to use these “higher order” resets:

  • Walking
  • Marching
  • Skipping
  • Sprinting
  • Bounding

Of course these all look simple enough to do on your own, and they are, but the key here is learning how and when to load each of these progressions without falling back into your old movement compensations.

We’ll show you exactly how to do that.

And here’s the best part about these higher order resets: Not only are they fun to do, they don’t require any specialized techniques. You just need to be aware of a few simple but critical nuances to fully reap their benefits.

Do What You Want, When You Want – Become Limitless  

The problem that I ran into, and you may have experienced the same thing, is that every other “solution” I tried to get out of pain and “improve my movement” never got me back to where I was before, let alone beyond, achieving new frontiers of strength.

Sure, I could do other things. Just not the exact things (Olympic Weightlifting) that I wanted to do. Since using Original Strength, I am back on the weightlifting platform hitting PRs – stronger in many ways than I was at the top of my game in my mid-to-late twenties.

At the end of the day, wouldn’t you like to be able to do this sort of thing too?

… Doing what you want when you want to do it, regardless of your injury history or your age?

… Running, jumping, climbing, playing – whatever – whenever.

Of course you would!

Who wants to be confined to a chair for the rest of their lives watching re-runs of Matlock?

By now, you are probably wondering how much this no-BS, no-fluff, no-filler workshop is going to cost you and whether or not it’s going to break the bank. Considering it took almost $50,000 between Mike, Tim, Courtney and myself in certifications, travel expenses, and opportunity costs, and 7 years of sorting, sifting, sweating and testing, I think it’d be fair to price this around $799, minimum. (Heck, other people are charging this but with much of the same ol’ rehashed information – not new stuff like OS.)

But we’re not going to do that, because in the same way that Original Strength is simple, we want this to be a simple, easy decision for you.

So this two-day workshop isn’t going to be $799.

And it’s not $599.

And it’s not even $499.

When you register today for an upcoming Original Strength workshop you’ll only pay $397 for the Early Bird discount (use special code: CZECHOS)

Why so cheap compared to all the other workshops and programs out there talking about “fundamental,” “functional,” and “primal” movement?

We don’t want price to be a limiting factor for you. (For comparison, I charge $297 for a one-day Kettlebell Muscle workshop.)

Not only that, we are on a mission to simplify the corrective exercise movement and transform it into “restorative exercise” and we need your help.

Where and When?

KB5 Gym Prague, Wuchterlova 1, Prague 6, Czech Republic, Europe

August 30-31 (Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 1pm)

Click here to reserve your spot (use special code: CZECHOS)

But hurry, time is limited and so is the space available where we’re holding the workshop.  (We only have room for 30 people max.)

Here’s What Else You’ll Receive:

  • Original Strength Workshop Training Manual – Yes, I know, I keep saying how simple this stuff is, so why should you need a manual? Because you’re mind will be so blown it’ll be hard for you to try to reconcile and throw out all the stuff you know, with what you’ll learn. You’re head will be swimming, we want to make sure you don’t drown. So you’ll be able to go back and review all that you’ve “re-learned.” Plus, you can even photocopy it and give the appropriate information to your clients.
  • 24/7 Email Support From Tim And I – Our time is valuable. We both run full-time businesses outside of our seminars. But we want you to be successful, so you’ll get email support from us. We’ll answer your questions and any concerns you might have. Plus we want to be able to congratulate you on your upcoming success using Original Strength.
  • CEUs – This Original Strength Two-Day Workshop qualifies for 1.0 CEUs from ACE. And we’re in the process of working on getting more from other certifying bodies.

Click here to reserve your spot (use special code: CZECHOS)

That’s It?

Look, if I have to convince you to come to a workshop that will simplify the way you view movement, mobility, pre-hab and warm-ups, and will help you set new PRs, you obviously favor something more complicated. And that’s your right.

If however, you’re tired of having to remember algorhythms, flowcharts, and having to do the “perfect rep” (doesn’t exist by the way – that’s one of the big lies they use to hook you into paying thousands of dollars for their “next level”…) or focus with such precision that you are creating “unnecessary tension,” then Tim and I will show you how easy and fun and fast resetting your body can be so while others are doing 15-20 minutes of a pre-hab, you will already be doing what it is you want to do – run, lift, swing, whatever. Not only that, you can expect to set new Personal Records in the process.

Click here to reserve your spot (use special code: CZECHOS)

See you at the workshop!

Geoff Neupert, CSCS, StrongFirst Master Instructor

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