All staff members are expected to practice what we preach. Learning the knowledge of what to do is easy, doing it is the hard part. Because of that, we have created a group of Employee Movement Goals for our clinicians and employees to meet.

Our primary intention for our physical goals was to encourage a culture of movement among our staff.  Our clinical care focuses on resolving pain through honoring our anatomy and correcting failing movement patterns.  Our Employee Movement Goals is a means of measuring long term engagement in these goals as none of our metrics is easily attained by anyone.  We want to practice what we preach and hold ourselves to the same standard of care we hold for our patients, to practice quality movement frequently. Most of these exercises have room for adaptation to individual needs, and we tailor our treatment to the individual, whether they are an employee or patient.

Part of implementing these goals is to keep employees safe.  We use equipment ranging from 25 lbs to 150 lbs regularly, and they need to be moved and organized multiple times a day.  Moving these heavy and awkward items is physically taxing, and we want to keep all of our employees strong enough to perform this task without injury.

Our minimum baseline for patients is 1.25x bodyweight deadlift, 10 gymnastics pushups, and one chest to bar chin up from full hang. All staff is encouraged to train past that to our Employee Movement Goal of 1.5x bodyweight deadlift, 20 gymnastics pushups, and 5 chest to bar chin-ups from full hang. We also do not allow any warm up prior to achieving these goals.  Our life and our profession requires us to handle load unexpectedly and without preparation.  Any employee should be able to come in and do any of our Goals on demand.  The ability to perform any of these goals without warm up means that our true capacity is well beyond these Goals and we have created a surplus of strength to help protect us in and out of the clinic

Check out our profiles to see how we are doing in our quest. The movements, numbers, and standards will change over the years as we evolve and grow our system. The details are not important, what’s important is for you to know is that we are never asking you to do something we have not done ourselves.

Employee Movement Goals

1.5x bodyweight Deadlift

20 Gymnastics Pushups

5 chest to bar Chin-ups from full hang

Rules

  • Chalk is allowed. Supportive gear of any sort (lifting belts, wrist wraps, etc.) is not.
  • Absolutely no warm up is allowed
  • In order for any movement to count there needs to be unanimous approval from the evaluators
  • Any movement is allowed 3 attempts

Standards of Movement

Deadlift

The deadlift is our ability to own many of our daily activities. The ability to spare the spine when moving to and from the ground and to and from a seat is crucial to long term health. This skill has endless applications to human movement which is why we have such a high standard for it.

  • A barbell or kettlebell may be used
  • Any stance is allowed
  • The grip must be double overhand
  • Neutral spine must be maintained through the lift
  • The weight may be dropped upon full lock out at the top

Gymnastics Pushup

The Gymnastics Pushup is very different from what most people think a pushup is. It is extraordinarily rare for any patient to achieve more that 4 full pushups on their initial intake. The gymnastics pushup is how we begin to train the pelvis into a position most people never use, posterior pelvic tilt. This style of pushup also creates a significant amount of training to the anterior chain of the body which is an excellent balance to the inherent posterior chain bias of deadlifts (and most leg movements). Finally, it trains the scapula to press through a full range of motion with maximum stability due to the intricacies of the movement and requirement for full scapular protraction, a position rarely trained by anyone and is usually a significantly weak position.

  • Posterior pelvic tilt and glute contraction must be maintained at all times
  • Spine and leg positioning must not change for the entirety of the repetition
  • The forehead or nose must touch the ground
  • Full scapular protraction must occur each repetition for it to count
  • At a minimum, the center of the humeral heads be forward of the wrists

Chin Up

The Chin Up evolves the same theories as the Gymnastics Pushup, but allows the scapula to learn how to stabilize through a pulling motion. Given the requirement for the arms to fully overhead, this is the most complicated movement in our testing for employees or patients. The anterior chain load here is much more intense than the Gymnastics Pushup and require strongly depressed ribs to achieve the full range of motion.  The clavicle-to-bar standard requires a range of motion most people don’t train for, much like scapular protraction in the Gymnastics Pushup.  We chose a chin up over a pull-up on purpose.  Our other standards tend to neglect bicep development and while a pull-up requires significant strength, it would also neglect the biceps.

  • Participant can use steps to get to the starting position
  • Palms must be supinated
  • Any grip width is allowed
  • Full hang and full stop of motion must occur at the bottom of the movement
  • No kipping or momentum can be used at any time
  • Posterior pelvic tilt and glute contraction must be maintained at all times
  • Spine and leg positioning must not change for the entirety of the repetition
  • Clavicles or any part of the chest must physically touch the bar for a full rep