Start SMART, Finish Strong!: Master the Fundamental for Pain Free Fitness

By Kevin Brown & Marcus Williams

Start SMART Finish Strong teaches fundamental movement concepts, exercises, and movement skills. It provides a blueprint for using exercise to improve health and performance, prevent injuries, and continue living an active life. The reader is taken through a system of evaluation and exercise progressions to create an individualized plan for practicing and developing fundamental movement skills. The consistent practice and development of fundamental movement skills lays the foundation for safely reaching any health and fitness goal, regardless of age or current fitness level. The reader will also learn: correct posture and proper form for exercises with over 100 pictures and videos; how to prevent exercise related injuries; how to assess and improve or maintain flexibility with stretches and mobility exercises; and how to use the SMART Performance system to master fundamental exercises. This book serves as a guide for learning the fundamentals of movement and exercise, and in doing so it provides the reader with the knowledge to safely reach fitness goals and achieve lasting physical health.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Mar 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781619845961

Book preview

START SMART,

FINISH STRONG!

START SMART,

FINISH STRONG!

MASTER THE FUNDAMENTALS FOR PAIN-FREE FITNESS

KEVIN BROWN

Prior to beginning any exercise program, you must consult with your physician. You must also consult your physician before increasing the intensity of your training.

Any application of the recommended material in this book is at the sole risk of the reader, and at the reader’s discretion. Responsibility for any injuries or other adverse effects resulting from the application of information provided within this book is expressly disclaimed.

Published by Gatekeeper Press

3971 Hoover Rd. Suite 77

Columbus, OH 43123-2839

www.GatekeeperPress.com

Copyright © 2016 by Kevin Brown

All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form without permission.

ISBN: 9781619846296

eISBN: 9781619845961

Table of Contents

What is SMART Performance®?

INTRODUCTION

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Foundations of SMART Performance®

PRINCIPLES

MOVEMENT CONCEPTS

POSTURE ALIGNMENT MECHANICS

SMART Performance® System

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

UNDERSTANDING THE SYSTEM

Breathing and Engaging the Core

Foundational Exercises

Postural and Upper Body Exercises

Mobility and Stretching

Stretches, Foam Roll Exercises, and Mobility Tests

Running and Jumping

How to Implement the SMART Performance® System

CREATING A PRACTICE PLAN

USING MOBILITY AND STRETCHING:

SMART Performance® Community

CONCLUSION

What is SMART Performance®?

INTRODUCTION

I am a physical therapist and fitness consultant. As a physical therapist, I treat musculoskeletal injuries and pain to help restore function. As a fitness consultant, I teach individuals how to maintain and improve physical health and how to safely achieve fitness goals. In both roles, my job involves evaluating movement and teaching exercise to improve health and function. Through my work as a physical therapist and fitness consultant I developed the SMART Performance® System.

SMART Performance® is a physical education system designed to teach fundamental exercises and movements for daily, recreational, and sporting activities. It provides a basic framework for individuals to develop and progress fitness programs that align with their specific goals. SMART is based on the practice and progression of fundamental movement and exercise skills. Learning and practicing these skills are the foundation of the SMART Performance® system, and are what enable individuals to safely improve their fitness level. My goal is to teach people how to master the movement and exercise skills necessary for them to maintain and improve their physical health.

Understanding how to use exercise to maintain and improve physical health is an invaluable skill for everyone to have. It will greatly increase your ability to prevent injury and continue living an active life even as you age. SMART Performance® provides you with a blueprint for how to effectively and efficiently use exercise to achieve lasting health and wellness.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

To best utilize this book, it’s important to become familiarized with the foundations of SMART Performance®. Most of you will probably want to skip to the movement progressions, but don’t do that. Understanding correct posture, alignment, and mechanics is a critical step to developing good movement. In the Foundations of SMART Performance ® section, you’ll discover how to assume and maintain correct posture, learn cues to maintain this posture through movements, gain a better understanding of how pain should guide your movements, and learn when to modify movements. After teaching the foundations of posture, alignment, and mechanics, I show you how to progress through the SMART Performance® system. In this section of the book, you will identify your current movement ability and individual movement needs through various exercises, stretches, and screenings. Findings generated from your assessment are used to create a personalized practice plan with a list of exercises that you should do. Mastery and maintenance of any skill, including movement, is achieved through consistent and proper practice, so embrace the journey to a STRONG finish.

I understand people have various fitness goals and achieving better fitness means different things to different people. With that in mind, I focused the content of this book on teaching fundamental exercise skills and concepts that are critical for everyone to have regardless of their fitness goals. It is meant to help people of any fitness level develop an individual practice plan that they can start with. However, once you progress through the SMART Performance® system, your path toward physical health and wellness will become more unique to fit your goals. To continue helping people reach their individual goals I created an online community. The community is focused on providing supportive content and answering specific questions from its members. To join the SMART Performance® community, visit us at smartperformanceconsultants.com. The SMART Performance® Community will be discussed further at the end of the book.

Note to Reader: Both pictures and video are provided for many of the exercises in this book. If a video is provided for an exercise you will be able to view it by tapping on a link below the picture with the name of the exercise.

Foundations of SMART Performance®

PRINCIPLES

SMART represents the principles that guide our views of movement and exercise and their roles in establishing a solid foundation for both fitness and performance.

Safe: The movements and exercises practiced must always be within a person’s ability level to ensure safety.

Mindful: The movements and exercises practiced require full mental engagement to be most effective.

Adaptive: The movements and exercises practiced reinforce the same foundational movement skills used for all forms of physical fitness and can easily be modified to