Craig Liebenson DVDs

Progressions, progressions, progressions.

If you have had the pleasure of attending one of Dr. Liebenson's seminars, you'll know first hand that he utilizes a large battery of exercises to rehabilitate a patient with functional pathology. While many of us attendees wished we were looking at the patient through his own lens, often we'll ask ourselves "how the heck did he know that that exercise was the key link"?

Well in my opinion and aside from his extensive experience, there are two primary reasons why Craig can pull a specific exercise out from the score keeper's room behind the Green Monster (let alone left field) and instantaneously help a patient improve their dysfunction. The first being the Clinical Audit Process and the second being a continuum of exercise progressions.

In the sport performance world, exercise progressions are to athletic development as I am to continuing education. And frankly, I don't think the rehab world should be any different. Now I'm not talking about 8 repetitions this week and 10 repetitions next, but more so utilizing a continuum of exercises with similar objectives but with varying difficulties for the purpose of matching the right exercise to the said patient.

For those of you familiar with the FMS, you will know that Gray and Lee have their priorities and progressions. Pavel Kolar and DNS is not different and while I myself have never taken the RKC or SFG, I am quite confident that Pavel and his army are no different.

So in the rehab realm, how do we choose the most appropriate exercise for our patients? Well recently, Dr. Liebenson released his new 3-DVD set that answers just that. But as always, we must first start with a functional evaluation. Because without this, as Dr. Liebenson says, "any training flexibility, stability, or performance training is no more than dumb luck". For more on functional evaluations, I highly suggest you attend one of his seminars, as well as that of the SFMA and Stuart McGill.

So with these dvds, it is important to understand that it is the principles upon which corresponding exercises are chosen. Remember, it's not about the tools but the principles behind them.

Core Stability Training

• For those of you in the rehab world, you probably already use several of these exercises already. Some of you may use them as your "core" exercises and others may simply use them to troubleshoot a specific patient. What some people fail to realize, however, is that Dr. Liebenson has been around since the invention of such exercises. Take McGill's "big 3" for example. Did you know that Stu and Craig have worked closely together for many years? To me, if I'm using specific exercises for my patients, I want to make sure that they are being performed correctly. And with this particular dvd (as well as the other two), Dr. Liebenson does an excellent job instructing each exercise and providing the most effective cues during their performance.

Flexibility, Yoga Training, and Ergonomic Advice

• You probably are aware that I recently provided a lecture on "respiratory control" for the Muscle Imabalances Revealed series. Well let me tell you that much of what I know on this topic came from Dr. Liebenson himself. In this dvd, he does an excellent job explaining both the importance and the mechanics of optimal respiration and also demonstrates how both to assess breathing and integrate it with exercise. He also demonstrates several tools to send your patients home with in order to perform their normal activities of daily living in an unloaded manner. Because to me, what your patients do during the 23 hours of the day outside your clinic is probably more important than what they do during the one hour within your clinic.

Functional Performance Training

• With the emerging rehab renaissance of integrating functional training and sport performance exercises in the rehabilitation world, many rehabilitation professionals may still be in the wide-eyed state when it comes to working with athletes. Since Dr. Liebenson rubs shoulders with some of the most successful strength coaches today, he certainly is no stranger to such methods of training. In this dvd, he introduces perhaps the most relevant and realistic exercises that you may employ within your clinic to help you seamlessly hand your patient off to the strength coach. A must if you want to keep up with the Jones' in the sport medicine and rehabilitation world.

Overall, these dvds set themselves apart from many others not only because of the creator behind the discs, but also because of their professional quality. Utilizing custom-created images as well as "live" dialogues, Dr. Liebenson takes the time to explain with detail the purpose behind each exercise series. Certainly many more exercises will be invented but like I said, the principles behind the process are what's most important. And it is these principles that will stick around in our industry for many years to come.