Today’s podcast features Dr. Michelle Boland and Dr. Tim Richardt, speaking on the topic of exercise categorization and classification, as well as the process of selecting and integrating gym training movements based on the specific needs of athletes and clients.

Michelle Boland is the owner of michelleboland-training.com and has several years of professional experience as an NCAA DI strength coach working with nationally ranked teams, and a wide variety of sports. Michelle is a leader in the integration of concepts rooted in the work of PRI and Bill Hartman into practical sports performance application.  Michelle has appeared previously on this podcast on episode #108 speaking on functional performance training based on PRI ideals and more.

(You can grab Michelle’s “Resource Road Map”, a compilation of the best resources in the fitness industry for free at michelleboland-training.com/resource-road-map)

Tim Richardt is a physical therapist and CSCS who has been a competitive runner and strength training junkie since the age of 14.  Tim has an awesome blend on knowledge on all things running, rehab, gait, and strength training principles.  Tim’s personal journey through injury and rehabilitation, including 2 hip surgeries, has given him unique insight into effective long-term resolution of overuse injuries among endurance and strength athletes.

In traditional strength and conditioning and fitness models, we tend to have things like “squat”, “hinge”, “push”, “pull”, and perhaps several other movements, based on our preference, when working with athletes.  Although the “old-school” classification certainly serves to facilitate a general balance of forces and muscle groups, we can improve our process even further by understanding how the human body works in gait and dynamic movement, and then reverse-engineer our exercise selection from there.  When our movement execution processes can match gaps, or reinforce strengths in running, jumping, throwing and sport movement technique, we can eliminate guess work and give our clients, and/or ourselves, greater results.

On today’s show, Michelle and Tim speak on the evolution of their training processes and how they classify movements in the gym.  We get heavily into running as a specific example, and how to reverse engineer training movements based on run technique.  We also finish with chatting on how Michelle and Tim continue to integrate the “big lifts” into their programs, and what adjustments they have made in the versions of those lifts that stick with them in their training schemes.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.





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Timestamps and Main Points

5:20 Michelle and Tim’s recent modes of exercise and training and what they have learned from them

9:20 How Tim has been incorporating “one arm running” into his training and coaching routines

15:00 Tim and Michelle’s journey of evolving the lifts they utilized

20:50 What role do the big lifts still play in Michelle and Tim’s program, in light of other evolving categorizations

35:15 What starting point do Tim and Michelle go from when constructing a strength program for performance (for running specifically)

45:50 Adjusting the lifts in a program based on biomechanical running goals of the athlete

58:40 How a performance-driven session for Michelle goes in light of the big lifts and a modern idea on exercise classification



“We need to get out of these gross (exercise) categorizations that have really come from other sports (powerlifting, Olympic lifting)” Boland

“There is a difference between fitness and movement” Boland

“I think there is a huge benefit to bilateral lifts because we can hit them as a high intensity stimulus and maintain that over time, and then use split stance,