Kettlebell Training, Z-Health, Martial Arts, Jeet Kune Do
Fat Loss, Strength, Pain Relief, Athletic Performance, Injury Prevention Serving the Aurora - Denver Metro area of Colorado and reaching across the globe
Z-Health teaches you how to use your joints to tap into your nervous system: the fastest of all your body’s systems. A fantastic introduction to Z-Health, this DVD will show you how to get started in just 7 minutes per day.
Buy This If You
Are uber-skeptical of new fitness ideas.
Want to give Z-Health a “test run” before investing more.
Only have 7 minutes a day for training.
Z-Health teaches you how to use your joints to tap into your nervous system: the fastest of all your body’s systems.
A fantastic introduction to Z-Health, this DVD will show you how to get started in just 7 minutes per day. After thousands of clients and extensive research, we found the exercises on this DVD to be the drills that provide the greatest number of people with tremendous results. The specific Z-Health movements on this DVD will teach you to move your body and the specific “high-payoff” joint areas in patterns that create a high level of neural activity in your body.
Your nervous system will use this information to re-set your body for better coordination, movement and control — all of which adds up to a better, healthier, and more pain-free you.
Rehabilitate your pain and injuries, restore normal range of motion in every area of your body — especially your joints, and perform the SPECIFIC exercises necessary to re-educate your nervous system — the control system for your health, athleticism, and movement.
Buy This If You
Want to re-build your body joint-by-joint from the ground up.
Would like to learn about the basic science behind the Z-Health system.
Are willing to invest from 10-30 minutes per day to reinvent your body and improve how you move.
Z-Health’s focus on neural components makes it faster and more effective than anything else you’ve likely tried. Designed to be an encyclopedic introduction to this concept, the R-Phase DVD & Manual package is vital to everyone who wants to build a better body. In fact, it is so complete we use this exact program to prepare our professional trainers for certification.
The R-Phase package is designed to teach you how to: Rehabilitate your pain and injuries, restore normal range of motion in every area of your body — especially your joints, and perform the SPECIFIC exercises necessary to re-educate your nervous system — the control system for your health, athleticism, and movement.
In addition to continuing to remodel your body and, the I-Phase training program will show you why AND teach you how to build elite movement skills into your body without wasting years in the process.
Buy This If You
Already “own” the ABC’s of good movement. Graduates of R-Phase excel at this.
Want to finally understand what separates elite athletes from everyone else.
Desire to shave years off the learning curve required to move like a world-class athlete.
Everyone knows that elite athletes move differently than amateurs. The I-Phase training program will show you why AND teach you how to build elite movement skills into your body without wasting years in the process. It is the next step in turning your body into a finely-tuned machine capable of doing exactly what you want, when you want it to.
I-Phase is the result of a 20+ year study of the movement patterns of the world’s most elite athletes AND how to incorporate those exact patterns into your body, quickly and efficiently.
Most people are never trained to move like an athlete — it happens accidentally, if at all. Now, all of that has changed! The Z-Health S-Phase training program will show you exactly how to intelligently supercharge your athletic performance and finally become the athlete you’ve always known you could be.
Buy This If You
Have always had a nagging suspicion that your eyes had a direct impact on your performance.
Want to understand the foundational movement patterns common to all elite field athletes.
Need a specific developmental process to improve your sports movement skills, visual responses and improve your reaction times.
Highly recommended to complete both R & I-Phases prior to S-Phase as it is very demanding.
Our basic mobility programs, R-Phase and I-Phase, introduced you to the foundational patterns of movement excellence. Now with S-Phase, we provide an in-depth, detailed instruction of the athletic movement patterns used by the world's most elite athletes to consistently outperform the competition.
This two-disc set will teach you the step-by-step movement drills and skills you need to create your own precision athletic training sessions that will have your looking, feeling, and performing your absolute best.
Most people come to learn about Z-Health because of its ability to eliminate nagging aches, pains and tight muscles. Or because they seek to reach higher levels of strength, speed, agility, etc. to improve their sports performance.
Ultimately Z-Health is a system of human performance. The goal of founder Dr. Eric Cobb, D.C. was not to create a pain-relief system or medical system per se, but to improve people's athletic skills. It just so happens that the same things that impede athletic ability are the same things that can cause pain. Thus the same things that reduce pain also improve athletic ability and vice versa.
As we work to build skills in movement, vision, balance, nutrition, spirit (mental edge), etc. you will find your pains decrease, your muscles relax, your strength improve, you will feel more supple and fluid in your movements and you will feel like an athlete, whether you want to be one or not.
Z-Health is the first and only system of performance that focuses on the nervous system. To put that in perspective, if you go to a Chiropractor they focus on your joints. A Massage Therapist focuses on your muscles, a personal trainer focuses on your muscles, perhaps your nutrition as well. But rarely do any of these folks honor the fact that the nervous system is king of the human body.
For instance, how many of you can relate to this scenario? You have a tight muscle, you stretch it daily, you get massages, you get some temporary relief but you have to keep stretching and keep getting massages or the muscle stays tight.
What stretching and massage are trying to fix is the symptom, i.e.. the "tight muscle." But the cause of the tight muscle is that the brain is sending a signal via the nerves in the body, to the muscle telling it to contract... think about that for a minute... If the muscle is tight, it is not the muscle's fault, that is just where the symptom is. So continuing to address the symptom will get you temporary relief at best.
What you need to do is address the nervous system (brain and nerves) in order to change the bad neural firing patterns that are causing the muscle to tighten up in the first place.
Z-Health addresses this through a variety of means.
Movement - Reeducate, Remodel, Restore
Z-Health uses specific, precise movements of individual joints, much like Chiropractic but in a more subtle, controlled manner that you do yourself. These movements can only be described as Tai Chi, meets Yoga, meets dance, meets the laser-like precision of Chiropractic. In fact, Dr. Cobb is a classically trained Chiropractor.
These subtle movements that you do yourself Reeducate the nervous system about how the joint functions. This often removes bad muscle firing patterns.
It also Remodels scar tissue from prior injuries. This allows greater use and improved range of motion in the joints of your body.
Finally it Restores lost range of motion which allows you to move more fluidly. For someone in pain this means you are now more relaxed and feel less pain. For an athlete this means your brakes have been removed and you are now free to express your full athleticism.
Sensory Motor Amnesia, a term coined by Thomas Hanna founder of Somatics.
It means we cannot feel or consciously move an area of the body. Much of Z-Health's beginner product "R-Phase" is about finding and correcting SMA.
Clearly after an injury the need for this dynamic joint mobility is even greater as the joint(s) in question have been immobile for a period of time and you have lost a considerable amount of coordination.
More can be said but that would require a lot of education in neurophysiology, biomechanics and science. I have articles on Z-Health you can read to learn more.
Visual and Vestibular Systems - Don't Fall Down
Do you think, like most people, that vision has to get worse as you age? Do you realize that vision is a skill and you can get better or worse at it just like anything? What does it take to improve a skill? Why practice of course. Z-Health identifies many aspects of vision, not just 20/20 which is a static visual skill. Sitting still and looking at a chart 20 feet away while you are still doesn't really reflect how we use vision in the real world does it?
In the real world we are driving, looking ahead, quickly changing focus to the rear view mirror and speedometer and then using our peripheral vision to make sure a car does not suddenly veer into our lane.
For an athlete vision is perhaps 90% of the game. It is not the strongest or even the fastest athlete that wins the game, it is the athlete that can see where he needs to be and what needs to be done first. The woman who sees where the soccer ball is headed and can map out where the other players are using her peripheral vision as she focuses on the path of the ball will know where to run to meet the ball first and be able to pass the ball just perfectly not overshooting or undershooting the distance so her teammate can score the goal. That my friends is real vision!
As a Martial Artist I can really appreciate visual skills. When that lightning-quick punch is flying at my face it is my quick visual skills that allows me to parry, slip, etc. Even a fraction of a second delay means getting hit! That is how important vision is to an athlete.
To a non-athlete, if you drive or go out in public then you may not worry about a punch but you need to worry about other cars on the road right?
Your vestibular system (inner ear) is responsible for your balance while in motion. It partners with your visual system (eyes and brain) to keep you on your feet.
The consequences of bad vestibular and visual systems means potentially falling down and getting injured.
When you have improper vestibular reflexes and poor visual skills the likelihood of you falling is much higher. Your brain responds reflexively by tightening your muscles in a protective effort. This is just like how you tighten up when you think you are about to be in a car accident.
Now can you see how someone with chronically tight muscles could actually have an inner ear or visual issue and the tight muscle is just the symptom.
Massage and stretch all you want but unless you fix the cause, visual or vestibular in this case, that muscle will never stay relaxed!
Improve Posture - Decrease Wear & Tear on Joints
Everyone is interested in improving their posture. A tall confident posture will help you get that promotion at work, stand out to the opposite sex, take pressure off of the discs between your vertebrae, earn you respect. Everyone automatically thinks you are a powerful important person when you stand tall and proud, I'm not making this stuff up.
How many people do you see walking around with a forward head carriage, a rounded upper back, slumped shoulders. They walk around looking like Al Bundy from Married with Children?
By performing the targeted Z-Health drills you will change your posture by relaxing muscles that pull you into a fetal-like posture. You will eliminate sensory motor amnesia and retrain nervous system how to carry your posture.
By the way, bad movement patterns effect more than just your spinal posture. Over time bones can remodel (Wolff's Law) and this is in essence how knock kneed or bow leggedness happens.
By walking around with bad movement patterns you shift the stress to the inside or outside of the knee causing it to over time (1-2 years or so) bow in or bow out. By fixing these bad movement patterns you can actually regain neutral straight legs... give it time Wolff's Law and bone remodeling is a slow process.
Can you imagine the impact this has on wearing out cartilage in your joints. Fix the bad movement patterns and you correct your joint's alignments. Fix the joint alignments and you eliminate uneven wear patterns on cartilage and this the health of your joints will improve dramatically. Put in your reps and you can avoid that knee surgery.
Athletic Supremacy
Now the stuff that really excites me... being an amazing athlete! We know that the strongest guy on a sports team is not the best player. I've worked around a lot of college and pro Strength & Conditioning coaches and it never fails... ask them who is the strongest guy on the team and they will point to person A. Now ask them who is the best player on the team and they will point to person B.
WAIT A MINUTE! I thought strength and muscle size were where it was at! That is what TV and movies have taught me!
Yeah, well... that isn't real life. Your average bodybuilder with their huge rippling muscles is about as athletic as a 1-legged cat trying to bury turds on a frozen pond!
Your average powerlifter, strong as an ox, couldn't run, catch and throw as well as your grandmother!
Perhaps hyperbole... perhaps not...
I'm all for strength, I'm all for looking good, putting on muscle and getting lean is awesome so don't get me wrong. But these things do not equal athletic skill anymore than practicing chess makes you a great piano player.
Athletic skill is developed by practicing... athletic skills. Footwork, cutting, sprint mechanics, throwing and catching mechanics, integrating visual skills into running, jumping, turning, tumbling, etc. Learning to stay relaxed and focused, these are foundational athletic skills.
For instance:
•
Do you think Michael Jordan was the strongest guy on the Bulls? Nope.
•
Do you think he had the highest vertical jump? Nope again!
•
Was he the fastest? Nope!
• Did he have the highest free-throw percentage? No sir!
What made him so good you ask, why was he so much better than everyone else? The answer is that he did the right thing, at the right time, with just the right amount of effort. He was athletic, he had amazing visual skills, amazing efficiency of energy, amazing spirit (the mental game).
This is athletic training:
Learning to land from a jump.
Learning to get up from the ground in the most efficient manner.
Learning how to pump the arms so your sprint speed increases dramatically.
Learning to stop on a dime while running and then quickly change directions.
Getting your full bodyweight behind a punch or throw.
Etc.
This video is from Z-Health's S-Phase DVD. A must have for any athlete who plays a field sport such as football, soccer, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, etc. Also a heck of a lot of fun for those who want to get exercise in the park on a sunny day. I love going to the park and throwing the Frisbee around, you get to run, jump, change directions quickly, etc.
The Products
R-Phase - Level 1
This is where any person new to Z-Health should start. Aside from getting an appointment with a certified Z-Health Specialist.
This product comes with 2 DVDs (one a step-by-step instructional and the other a follow-along "workout") and also a manual with information, program design, pictures of the drills, pictures of the target joints so you know what your skeletal joints looks like, common errors and best practice pointers.
This product is all about the ABCs of movement, controlling each joint in your body through its full anatomical range of motion at all speeds. Once you master the ABCs of movement you will be very coordinated and better at all of your athletic endeavors plus you should notice considerably less tension in your body and most if not all of your aches and pains will be reduced or eliminated.
I-Phase is the next level to move to after R-Phase. While you don't need to have mastered R-Phase before moving on to I-Phase you should at least have spent some time working on R-Phase before moving to the Level 2 I-Phase.
I-Phase takes the ABCs of movement you developed in the Level 1 program and builds words and sentences from those letters. In other words it puts you into real athletic sports positions based on 20 years of observing world-class athletes and then has you do more advanced versions of the R-Phase dynamic joint mobility movements. You start to develop movement patterns of some of the greatest athletes of all time.
While these movement patterns are not specific to a sport, i.e.. there are no tennis serves or boxing punches, the lunge positions, torso rotations, head positions, eye positions and joint movements will get you really good at pieces and parts of those world-class athlete's movements. For instance you may find yourself in a lunge position, torso rotation and shoulder position that provides an advantageous position for throwing a punch or a ball.
Another benefit of I-Phase is that it will put more stress on your body so if R-Phase can remodel scar tissue, I-Phase has the potential to remodel even more scar tissue by placing more stress on the body and putting you in positions that you may unconsciously avoid. Working in these positions will build athletic skills that you are missing.
Like the R-Phase this product contains 2 DVDs, one instructional and the other a follow along workout and a manual.
This 2 DVD set is all about athletic skill. This is one of the coolest products I have ever seen, especially if you are into sprinting, jumping, catching and dominating on the field.
Here are just a handful of sample of areas covered on the S-Phase DVDs:
Jump landing in different positions
Maximizing leverage with bone rhythms in lunging, squatting, pushups, pulling, etc.
Sprint mechanic drills - arm drive, leg drive, timing, rhythm, angles, etc.
Sprint mechanics - quick start from a dead stop
Mastering quick changes of direction
Vision drills - near/far quick drills, eye tracking, catching from all angles, single eye vision drills, and more
Getting up from the ground quickly
How to beat your opponent to the ball every time
Making your R and I-Phase drills "sport-ized"
Drills to integrate catching, throwing, running and changing directions all at the same time
The best stance for quick lateral movement
and much much more
Here is a sample vision drill from the S-Phase DVDs
. 
, 
The consequences of bad vestibular and visual systems means potentially falling down and getting injured. 
