KEEGAN: We've got one more presentation for today.
We've got my good friend, Clint Greenshields.
He’s one of the first athletes that I coached that kind of really challenged what I was thinking about and we had a lot of deep discussions about lots of things.
We lived in the same building in France when I had my first kind of head role in a team and Clint really made me sort of feel at home in France and it's really cool to have him present today.
He had a really successful career as a rugby league player and now is coaching people in Coffs Harbour, a beautiful place in Australia.
He has a beautiful young family and he's experimented with lots of different training systems over his playing career and then after playing.
He's always looking for the edge, a bit like many of us.
Thanks for getting up early Mr. Greenshields to share with us this morning.
CLINT: Thanks mate, sorry about the tired eyes, it's only five a.m here.
Thanks, Rodrigo, that was awesome man. it was a really good presentation.
I’m just going to present a sliding door scenario.
Yeah, my name is Clint Greenshields, from Coffs Harbour in Australia.
We've got a bachelor's degree in human movement science, a diploma in fitness, diploma in neurophysics therapy.
I own my gym and I do PT and foundation training.
So I’m going to present two scenarios.
Basically, the first scenario is a young athlete that's that hasn't been exposed to the ATG system and a young athlete that has.
The first athlete basically is with no ATG systems so it's the old traditional strength conditioning programs, old mentality where you push through the pain and the bench, the squat, the deadlifts, the chins, dips, planks, which is pretty common in most sports and especially rugby league.
Sorry, it's heavily focused on rugby league and there's kilograms and not pounds and stuff.
KEEGAN: You're all good man, that's the point, deliver from your perspective, that's good.
CLINT: Yeah so most teams would have these as benchmarks, your bench, your squat, your deadlifts, chins, dips, planks as I said so you're looking at 150 bench, 180 squat, 180 deadlift your chins are 20 reps with the body weight and dips between reps with the body weight and plank usually with 20 kilos for how long you can hold for.
So the hardware, the software conversation.
So the software dominant is this scenario one.
So as a young 17-year-old gets drafted to the NRL and has benchmarks to hit which was on the previous slide, does his best to achieve the benchmarks, all the benchmarks are software muscle dominant and has no emphasis on connective tissue development, so this, in turn, causes injury.
So I know a few of you have probably seen this MRI before either yourselves or your clients or athletes, it's not a good picture.
So the young athlete gets a minor ankle surgery, a heel spur and this leads to weakness in the right leg.
Has no focus on connective tissue strength in the rehabilitation, first ACL surgery with a hamstring graft, plays four games, re-ruptures the ACL, and has a second surgery, the patellar tendon.
So if you have a quick look at the timeline, just the basic timeline of this young athlete, has the first ACL surgery, has second ACL surgery, does the standard rehabilitation, gets another chance at NRL, and makes stable in 2004. Plays 15 games, and has a third knee injury which is a bucket handle tear, I’m sure a few is aware of those two. So plays 43 games then 150 super league. plays internationally comes back to NRL. plays locally and retires at 37.
Okay so this is a big one, this is the old system, this is the old way of managing pain.
If you look at it, you've got your Voltaren, you've got your Benzos, your Stilnox, the sleep the alcohol obviously, and your Cortisone injections.
So this is focused on the whole way of doing things without any ATG influence.
Career and income.
So you look at this first athlete, he's had 10 years professionally. He's played two years semi-professional and has a total income of 1.75 million.
So I went to scenario two.
This is an athlete that's had ATG influence. This is hypothetical.
Learns about ATG from a local coach in social media, starts implementing hardware-dominant exercises, understands long-range and short-range strength, gets drafted into NRL team, and has ATG mentality which is the pain-free ability.
So if you have a look at these new benchmarks, it's a lot different to scenario one which is software muscle dominant, obviously, when the young player goes to an NRL team, he's gonna have a qualified ATG coach in the future.
So ATG split squat, the slant board squat, Patrick step up, the Nordic hamstring curl, the hip flexor raise, weighted chins with full extension, weighted dips with depth, dumbbell external shoulder rotation, dumbbell pullover, obviously, these are going to change with the benchmarks, not the actual exercises but if you've got a netballer or NFL player it's going to be different with the weight obviously but you have a look, it's a lot different to scenario one with the old-school way of doing things.
So have a look at the timeline for this second athlete.
The player leads NRL benchmarks, focuses on strengthening connective tissue, has no major injuries requiring surgery, plays 20 years professionally, represents at the highest level and receives every award possible, retires and moves into strength and conditioning, and leads the connective tissue dominant conversation.
So a bit of a timeline it's a lot different to that first scenario because you've got plays one season and then makes NRL debut, plays 150 games straight with no injury, which I don't think has ever been done, play state of origin, for the guys that don't know the state of origins, the pinnacle of rugby league, plays for Australia, receives Dalian, which is the highest award, wins five grand finals and retires after 450 professional games.
So have a look at the pain management for scenario two with an ATG influence. looks a lot different obviously, no pharmaceuticals so you've got no anti-inflammatories, no sleeping tablets, no muscle relaxants, limited ethanol, cold therapy, heat therapy, breathing therapy, light therapy, massage therapy, meditation, and our nutrition according to gene and microbiome profile.
It's a lot different, a lot healthier obviously.
So this scenario two, 20 years in the NRL, plays 450 professional games and has a lot of different income of 17.5 mil.
Why me, and why now?
Scenario one is a brief version of my career and life as a rugby league player.
So it's 100% accurate even the pain management stuff, which wasn't awesome but…
Scenario two is the career that I could have had if I had an ATG coach or I knew about the ATG system when I was a teenager.
When I went to the Broncos, I had to lift really heavy, my form wasn't fantastic.
I was apparently under the best strength and conditioner in Australia at that time.
It's no fault of his but he didn't have any of the ideas that Ben and Keegs are putting forward now and I think if I had that, things would have been completely different.
You can't look back but anyway…
The world and elite sport particularly need ATG coaches.
I think this is something huge, I really believe that and any age or ability can improve with ATG.
I’ll show you some slides of my clients in the next couple.
So look, I trust the process and I’m getting great results in myself and my clients and I trust Keegan as a mentor and coach, and also have a gym with 95% of the equipment needed to get started as an ATG gym.
So the bit of the journey, my journey… I’ve only been working with this for three months and I’ve worked through the zero and dense programs as a student and a coach and after three major knee injuries, I’ve never thought I'd be able to even bend my knees in this position.
Look, my form is not fantastic, a lot of improvement to do but the fact that I can do this with no pain after three months, imagine what I’ll be able to do in three years.
I’m pretty excited.
So I’m just going to show you a couple of clients, with 30 sessions a week with my clients.
This is one of my clients he's a professional surfer.
His name's Billy. He's one of the strongest in the lower limbs that I’ve seen.
He's able to do this quite easily, no pain.
He doesn't have any lower body injuries but if you ever see some surfers, when they get… especially that back leg and they get that back leg and they got to get really really low, he's very very powerful in that position.
There's obviously other areas that we're going to have to work on with him other than just the knee ability stuff but this is just giving you an example of the spectrum of the athletes and not just athletes but people that can benefit from ATG.
So this is another point.
She's on the other end of the spectrum.
She's 58. She's had one knee replacement on her left side and we're trying to avoid the right side.
I’ve been working with her for two years but she was scheduled in January to get her right knee done.
So I’ve tried to get her to put it off now and just give me a chance to try and get it back to where it needs to be.
So you're looking at the reverse sled pulls here, she's a 58-year-old lady with a lot of knee issues, ankle issues, her ankles fused as well, so it doesn't mean a lot when you're looking at the one percent athlete but when you have clients that range from a grandma who just wants to be able to get down and play with her grandkids without pain and you've got a pro surfer who's trying to be better, get that one percent gain.
So I just put those slides in because I wanted you to see the range and why I’m so excited about it because it doesn't matter whether you're a professional athlete or a grandmother who’s trying to get out of pain, it really really is effective for a lot of people.
So just have a quick look into the future.
I’ve finished level one, level two is in progress, and level five by august, that's the goal I’ve set for myself, level eight in two to five years.
The Nordics are going to be pretty tough.
Once I’m fast-tracked, I want to be able to run or advertise that I’m doing knee ability zero in my gym, like as a class.
I’ve got a pretty good idea to be able to try and run that as a class.
Working one-on-one with the clients and athletes to progress them obviously, for them and for myself, and hopefully work with an elite team not just NRL in 2022.
So just some final thoughts, I pulled up a study… it was published in 2019, it was done on 60 athletes and 60 rugby league players for the Newcastle Knights between 2015-2017, so there's a two-year period there.
There were basically 60 players and 37 knee injuries.
So that's well over half of the squad and out of the 37, there were actually 89 injuries.
So basically there'd be blokes that are having two sometimes three knee injuries.
This is 61.7% and this is only one club in NRL.
So can you imagine the clubs throughout the world, soccer, NFL, NBA, whatever you're into, there's a big need to try and cut these numbers in half and that's only knee injuries.
Every other joint in the body can get injured obviously so if you want to have a look at that study, it's a pretty good look into knee injuries and Australian rugby league too.
To finish up, every sport needs an ATG coach.
I’m super excited about the ATG journey for myself and my clients and all of you guys too.
I think we're at the pointy end.
This is going to be something huge and we're all going to be needed in some way, shape or form in the future.
So I’m really excited to be part of the journey and part of this community.
So thanks heaps for letting us present and sorry about the tired eyes and whatever but appreciate it.
KEEGAN: Good man. Yeah, it's a great topic for conversation and the two scenarios.
Ben sort of did that Youtube video talking about how might have changed his path and I think most of us, almost everyone in ATG has a story something along these lines but with yours it was it's really clear.
You're a super talented kid and then you just got thrown into a powerlifting type program, you broke and you broke again and you broke again and then you ended up playing France and having those amazing experiences that… probably some of the most life-enriching things but it shouldn't have been that way from a physical perspective.
And accidents happen in high-contact sports and whatnot but it was clear right from your ankle thing that you weren't… it's a common scenario that you get an ankle injury and then the hamstrings weak and then the ACL goes or the hamstring goes, best case the hamstring goes, worst case the ACL goes.
Really good presentation man.
It's cool to hear it's already… because you've done a bunch of different courses.
It's cool that you can sort of see how user-friendly this is as well to be able to apply it with pros or apply it with a middle-aged lady that wants to get herself going again.
So love it.
CLINT: Thanks mate, appreciate it.
KEEGAN: So we've heard those three presentations, it'd be cool if you guys have any questions you can unmute and ask questions directly.
I’ve always got questions but it's a good opportunity for you guys as well.
You can see how varied this is, three really different scenarios, and all really powerful and all really clear application for what we're working on and how we can make a difference with it in our communities and flow on effect.
So you can either unmute or you can ask questions in the chat box if you've got some there. I’ll give you another second otherwise I’ll jump in.
So Clint, as you experience strength and conditioning in teams for a long time, now you're doing these programs, what would you have thought if you have been given this training, how do you think you would have gone into games and things that or just felt about your weight training sessions if you're given ATG-type sessions rather than what I gave you and what other coaches gave you?
CLINT: I think being exposed to it before you actually get to NRL, NFL system as a young guy doing those things, getting a base, I think it would have been super handy but if I had actually went to Broncos and they were doing some of these exercises, I think you just adapt to it.
Same as what I did with Dan Bakker, when I come in, he was a 17-year-old kid.
You got to lift 180, squat 180 dead's, that was just the benchmark and you'd do anything to try and make that happen and that's obviously what broke me early but I think if he or someone influence… like yourself, if you were there, it'd be like, I do anything you tell me to because you're getting paid to be there, you want to achieve and you want to stay healthy.
I honestly think that every single club will have someone, either a consultant like yourself or any of these guys on the chat to help them out, the funnel's too big for you and Ben to handle so maybe not all the exercises will get into every single NRL program but I definitely think there's going to be, especially for knees and stuff man, there's going to be a big focus on that patellar tendon strengthening especially because there's a lot of those injuries.
The MCLs are probably the big ones with NRL, they're the highest knee injury.
So yeah, anything you can do to strengthen it.
So I definitely think if there was an opportunity for me to have someone like yourself or an ATG coach it would have been a different journey that's for sure.
KEEGAN: I think some of the clubs are playing around with it and I think the warriors are going pretty far with it at the moment and I know some of the players that I’ve introduced it to now do it on their own, on the side of their strength training session.
They'll just go and do the exercises just because they know that they feel better with it.
But I think you could keep guys a lot fresher as well that's one of the benefits of it.
As Clint's coach, when we were in France, you were one of the players who was conscious of “this probably isn't exactly what I need, there's something else that I need other than just…”
I was trying to get people doing full squats and there were some positive aspects to the way I trained guys 10 years ago but if I had understood this sort of stuff, think you would have bought in more at that stage because by the time I was working with you, you'd already had multiple injuries but then you’d also had a lot of success.
With playing as you were and just staying on the field, not smashing yourself in the gym and getting out there on the field and getting the job done kind of thing.
But I think you would have gone into games.
You would have been able to work quite hard on these exercises and still going into games fresh which would have been a different sort of experience.
MAX: This one would be more for… I know Clint was working with older clients some
So working with older clients, Samantha was trying to hit on this, how do you regress certain exercises and stuff?
My question would be more for if you're working with someone who maybe is near a knee replacement or something really out of shape, do you play around with just doing ROKP stuff, or what's the balance between regressing the other zero exercises versus just not rushing into any of them and just working on the real basics?
CLINT: So I know with a couple of my older clients, I use all the zero programs.
One thing that I have found useful is using bands and stuff like that, especially with the split squats like you saw in the video, just to take that little bit of pressure off, so that's another way to regress, to assist them with certain things.
But I haven't really, especially the sleds and stuff like that, I haven't really shown away from not using any of the zero programs, I don't know if anyone else is like that but there's not too many exercises that you can't do in that zero.
So yeah, I’ve had plenty of success with a lot of my older clients, especially the ones that don't have a great deal of mobility and can't put too much resistance into their systems.
Hopefully, that answers your question a little bit man.
MAX: Yeah, definitely. So you can play around with them, just regress them to their ability, basically don't be too shy with the stuff?
CLINT: Yeah, I’ve had no issues with any of my clients.
A little bit with the Nordics, you've got to be pretty careful because you can flare up some tendon stuff.
I know with a couple of my clients, I was trying to get them to push from the ground and come all the way back up, I’ve now stopped doing that because I did flare a couple of hamstring tendons up but you can just regress that to get up to a chair or even a little a box or something that they can just push off but try not to come all the way to the ground and push their hands off but that's not so much in the zero program anyway.
But that's the only thing that I’ve really had any issues with to tell you the truth.
Myself, I probably went a little bit too hard every day and you can overdo it sometimes but if you just be careful with spacing out your days, I can't see any issue.
I don't know how anyone else feels about that but that's my experience with it for sure dude.
KEEGAN: A lot of people talk about being able to tolerate more volume and being able to bring in some plyometrics, I think one of the biggest weaknesses in the system was the hamstring.
With people trying to get that full Nordic and sort of keeping out of the bottom and that sort of stuff, I think adding in the inner range hamstring work has made a lot of difference, and then just being smart with that, I think just recognizing super high tension exercises.
We can't do really heavy high-tension exercises but by slowing things down and just the
subtleties, it's quite simple to make work for anybody.
Makes a lot of sense what you're saying but it was great to have everyone on today and I really love these shares.
I think there's so much value in hearing how different people are applying it and just making those connections as well.
Drop your Instagram links in there but you can also connect with each other through mighty networks and see each other's profiles and whatnot.
I think a lot of the great things that will come out of this network will be through the relationships that are built and people just going out and making changes.
The majority of people have never heard of ATG still, and most athletes still don't know what it is, or why it works.
Maybe some people have seen the account but they still don't have any idea what it's all about.
It's still very much day zero for this and even those of you who… think about Charles Poliquin and he covered a lot and whatnot.
The fact is it didn't get out to 99% of gym goers, they've never heard of him.
They don't know why they're doing some of his movements but it's all still ahead of us.
This is day zero for making a real change in the way high school athletes are trained and the way strength coaches are thinking about their training and we have a massive opportunity.
So I love this, this chance to connect as a community makes it all the more real and hearing these real-life scenarios.
You can feel free to drop your Instagram in there and catch up and connect with others.
Patrick did a really good job earlier in the week.
I don't know if we've got the recording for that Patrick, if you can help us out with it but did a presentation around the BFR training which was really cool.
He did a great job presenting that, I think that does have application.
I think it crosses over quite a bit with how we attack the sled work.
I think that there's a crossover with those theories and the way you know Westside Barbell attacks the belt squats and the sled work and those sorts of things.
I think there is a crossover with that and the blood flow restriction and I’ve got some cool stuff coming up for you this week, things I’ve been thinking about.
Thanks, guys.
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