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Professional Educator/Coach

@jonathan.watters

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🎓CSCS,NASM,CES/PES,PN,RKC&more
🔬Experimentalist/Researcher
💡CEO #Elev8Wellness
🏆PerformanceCoach
🧬AntiAge
🔎 Debunk Fake Fitness
↘️ Elev8Wellness.com

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The how: Start with front-to-back. Still lock elbows. Start wide. Do reps. Come to the point of resistance. Return to lax position.

Never pressure the “stretch” beyond a 2-3 on a 1-10 pain/intensity scale, there is really no upper volume range.

Generally the more gentle reps you do, the more you coax the tissue into controlled mobility.

As you can successfully circumduct, you may narrow the grip width. I like beginners to do 2 sets of 20 intentional reps. Later, we place them during active rest between sets. Remarkably, some lose their tendinitis THAT DAY.

There are weighted versions as well. The version in the video must start as simple shoulder extension. Eventually, as you can come up over the head, likewise, you may narrow SLIGHTLY (we’re talking millimeters).

Coming soon: These are just a sampling of the integrated full ranges movements that come with being an Elev8 Subscriber Member. I am building a full practicum for every articulating structure in the body (spine, hips, feet, ankles, knees, you name it!), for people to never get hurt.

Follow. Bookmark. Those who want to become bulletproof mobility-strength freaks: comment “Elev8 me”.

For anyone who wants updates on the program when it launches, DM your email. We will not spam you. We value our time and yours.

I am a full time strength coach running a movement lab. I don’t have time for nonsense. I’m creating this for serious enthusiasts and athletes. Nothing else. #Unbreakable #bulletproof #prehab #injury #prevention #canthurtme by @jonathan.watters

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a year ago

There are many times where you’ll ask, “is this even worth it?” Not just beginners. Intermediate. Advanced. Elite. In a moment of frustration, a season of defeat, a year of difficulty, “what’s the point?” You’ll think, “All these hours, sweat, and for what?”. Especially when you’re down, or looking back on personal feats, or possibly (and REALLY unwisely) comparing your personal setback moment against someone else’s peak moment, it’s going to feel not-worth-it.

It is. It just is. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not an experienced coach.

Our expectations DO NOT ALIGN with reality, as a rule, as the human experience. And even knowing that is no consolation.

Rather, you’ve gotta remind yourself where you could be (for worse). I mean it. American and developed world average health and fitness prospects are bleak. That would be you. That WILL be you if you end up believing the lie that this toil isn’t worth it. Even when you don’t get the payoff you want this second, ESPECIALLY when you don’t get the payoff you think you’re OWED, it’s worth it.

It takes a long time, and a dogged unrelenting stubborn work ethic to know it, but the very moments which feel pointless are the very ones which are worth the most… IF you keep going. Any worthwhile outcome ONLY occurs AFTER feeling like it’s not worth it. I don’t know if I can think of one personal accomplishment that I still care about if it happened in an easy season of life where things were going my way. All the best stuff is on the other side of “is this even worth it?”. It’s always worth it to get to the other side of that lesser self, that quitter, that desirer of the easy path.

If you know, you know. And if you don’t, I pray you will. taken in Elev8 Wellness by @jonathan.watters

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4 years ago

Strength - the stronger you are, the more you can do without overwhelm. For a lot of weak people, waking up at 2:45am, 2 hours of notes/research, being on their feet intensely and intently interacting with people for 10-14 hours, and no food sometimes for days on end, is unimaginable. To do it for decades is beyond the comprehension of most. But I have to say: when you can squat 620lbs for 4-5 reps, it’s not that big of a deal.

Granted, I now protect my energy much better than I once did. I may only run 1-2 of my 4 work days like this, mostly so I can conserve and be around for my kids/family as much as possible. I’ve even shielded blocks of time on a Monday or Friday for my own workouts. My own self-care isn’t as much an afterthought/bookended as once was the case.

All that said, the more force you can produce and the more intensely athletic you become, the less relative stress you experience in all other things. When you can throw around 300, 500, 700lbs, hours of low-level physical demand are a joke, previously “high stress” meetings aren’t even noteworthy, and you don’t count long hikes or yard work as activity or mentionable. If you can barely lift 10lbs once, for how many hours can you move or hold 20? If you can easily lift 200lbs for 30 reps, for how many hours can you move or hold 20lbs?

Mental attitude, discipline, and commitment all matter. I’m not saying they weren’t important. But being strong is more fundamental in the sense that it sets the potential ceiling of workload significantly higher, making long duration efforts less and less of a big deal. taken in Elev8 Wellness by @jonathan.watters

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4 years ago

My friend Jason Erickson, a giant in the world of pain science (organized conferences across the world on the topic for years), passed away; it was poignant to be at his remembrance. I heard incredible stories from his family/friends. I am thankful to everyone there.

But I wanted to say one more thing.

I lost my father, 3 very close friends, and Jason over these past 7 yrs, not to mention my best friend 7 prior. I’m good. It’s not about that. Rather, I think of the “two deaths” concept. Your body dies. And then, one day, the last person says your name for the last time.

Like everyone else I lost, I just want people to remember Jason’s name for a long while.

Jason and I aligned tightly on this: problems do have solutions. When prognosis is bleak, pain seems intractable, future looks dark, there is a solution.

Those who worked w Jason knew he healed a lot of people, people whose pain no other practitioner could fix. I was among them. 10 yrs of pain so bad I woke for work 3 hrs early to take a hot bath/stretch/pop ibuprofen to hobble through. Sports med docs, phys. therapists, even my own education on corrective exercise could not end it. Reduce? Sure. But not end.

Jason never accepted this. He was THE ONLY one who said I wouldn’t have to live like that. He pleaded w me for 3yrs to go to Aaron Mattes’ 4 day workshop on AIS, to which I relented, and ultimately permanently cured my chronic pain struggle.

But it’s not just that. Jason confronted all orthopedic issues this way. You do not have to accept that anything is so bad. That’s a big ask. I know it. Firsthand. But I’m telling you that I have been carrying forward those ideas in my own coaching for 20+yrs; and I have seen people accomplish miraculous feats.

Sometimes it is as simple as problems have solutions.

Jason Erickson didn’t teach me that. He did remind me. Fiercely. Repeatedly. Without compromise. And he did the same for an uncountable number of others. And we will carry it forward as far as we can to as many as we can, so that they too may do the same.

In that effort, may none forget his name. by @jonathan.watters

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4 months ago

Op! Accidentally set three world records.

On a serious note, curation of full ranges, peak speeds, and progressive maximal load does yield nearly-otherworldly outcomes. taken in Elev8 Wellness by @jonathan.watters

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7 months ago

Following up on the prior post which sort of blew up with a few hundred bookmarks, I want to expand on bulletproofing the shoulder/elbow/wrist with this addition, including the story tacked onto the end. Now, for people who are incredibly imbalanced/immobile through the shoulder/biceps/pronators/etc., the reality is you’ll likely have to start with breaking at the elbow (bending it, rather than hyperextending). And you may have to start with one side at a time and advance to the front-to-back starter very slowly. Be mindful that spending time specifically where you are BAD but WITHOUT PAIN (no more than a 2-3 on a 1-10 intensity/pain scale) is how you train this up.

Do not hurry through the tense angle to get to the other side. We call this “fudging it”. Do not grit your teeth into a painful position. It will REDUCE your tissue mobility and has been shown to regress overall capability. Rather, ALLOW the tissue to become more capable by embracing the difficult angles without suffering.

Apparently, the max strength/athleticism mixed with mobility/control content struck a nerve. I’ll try to keep it rolling every week or so, while building a repository on the website.

Like. Follow. Bookmark. Send it to someone who needs it. Comment “elev8 me”, so that I know who to tag or apprise as everything drops, and so IG knows what’s up.

#pain #shoulder #mobility #strength #injury #bulletproof #unbreakable #prevention #prehab taken in Iron Alliance Gym by @jonathan.watters

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a year ago

For most spine/hip/knee issues, we want to open the hip and knee, and deload the spine. That can’t be done if you’re absurdly tall with the hip jamming closed and the knee squeezing into your armpit.

Knee and hip should always be in obtuse angles to begin. This requires a “slouch.” Increasingly sitting upright and closing the hip and knee to acute angles is a progression for later.

We have to make the distinction between heel-to-pedal foot placement versus toe/ball-to-pedal as well. And another consideration is whether the troubleshooting calls for more of a “pulling” pedal stroke or “pushing” pedal stroke. With patellar pain/TKA/dislocations we’ll generally “pull.” With meniscus repairs/post-ACL surgeries we’ll often “push.” Test for tolerance/preference. Glute/hip should be involved in the pedal stroke.

There is no cardio equipment more stable than recumbent; so it is both an ideal tool for the injured individual/novice/beginner, but also for maximal sprinting in the elite athlete, since the only variable is intensity (as opposed to increases in coordination and skill with other equipment) and angular change (mechanical advantage/disadvantage).

I have a recent case study on a client who could not stand for more than 45 seconds when we began 2 years ago. Via this starter and subsequent programming, he can now squat, go for multi-mile hikes, etc. But I’ve also buried elite athletes w recumbent sprints AND effectively used it for extreme body comp transformation. I’ll cover that programming in a later post.

Bookmark. Share. And stay tuned.

#Knee #rehab #injury #sportsmedicine #tricks #strength #progress #pain #recumbent #bike #cycling #cyclingsecrets by @jonathan.watters

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a year ago

Today, I received some very sweet compliments/feedback from a kind young lady and her client shortly after this set. When this happens, or when someone asks about a freakish lift or performance or recovery of mine or my clients, I always try to concisely summarize with a fundamental training truth. And it’s this: GRADUALLY develop a language with your body where you can push tissue to its absolute performative limit with zero concern of injury. There is a longer discussion, of course. But really, as you learn to place your mind INSIDE the articulating muscles and tendons, you can achieve overload and develop strength which was once beyond your prior self’s imagination. For some, blood flow restriction may be an even safer bet, since the load of joint compression is reduced while the muscular demand is enhanced DRAMATICALLY. taken in Iron Alliance Gym by @jonathan.watters

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a year ago

Kind wild - I was not expecting to be so close to a record, having not trained it for years. I started to reincorporate the muscle up and transition into my Tuesday routine last week. We’ll see the trajectory. Again, as far as I can see throughout all internet and AI searches, no one has achieved a zero momentum muscle up on a bar beyond a total of around 280-307lbs, ever. It appears there are a few specialists who have mastered a foot-rest technique (you hike the added weight with your legs to momentum your way over the bar) where with kipping or rings they can get a hair beyond that limit. Stay tuned. taken in Iron Alliance Gym by @jonathan.watters

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a year ago

Been too busy for the past 8-9 months to bother even signing into Meta apps. Clicking off more PRs and wins in life, business, and training than ever. Hope all is well with everyone out there. by @jonathan.watters

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2 years ago

- CS Lewis

For two decades I’ve been a professional strength coach and trainer. But even 15 years before that I was haunted by questions about deliberate self-improvement. People who give up and give in shout the loudest; but they actually know the least of struggle. They know the least of change. They know the least of challenge. They know the least of difficulty. People who lie down to temptation and depravity and the worst of themselves claim to know all about the harshness of life. But they cannot know, for they did not endure. They did not persist in the face of overwhelm. They succumbed. And in their weakness, they raised grand excuses, sophisticated pretexts for inaction, intelligent treatises to exempt themselves from the work. They know very little about how hard healthy lifestyle behaviors really are, because they are sheltered. They know very little about how hard nutrition is, because they are sheltered. A quitter cannot know how hard deliberate self-improvement is, because the quitter opts out long before even the moderate begins. A quitter quits even before the easy part gets going, let alone ends. A quitter has never gotten to the hard part. The hard part is 10 years in. 20 years in. Still making progress. THIS IS HARD. If you stop at weeks, months, or even a few years, don’t talk about how tough it is. You lie down just when the winds begins to blow. You wouldn’t know how strong the wind is. And you shouldn’t talk about things you don’t know. by @jonathan.watters

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2 years ago

From Muscle Tear/Surgery/Nerve Damage/Severe Illness to Powerful

And so much more. And yet it’s still a pale reflection of those around me. I have a client who battled childhood leukemia and is now an athlete. I have two other clients with cancer battles this past year who are getting stronger in their 70s. I have a client with Parkinson’s who logged five-year bests on a number of lifts last month. I have clients who’d had frozen shoulder and can now do pull-ups and parallel bar dips. I have clients who couldn’t bend knees and now squat to the ground. I have clients who’d had severe back pain who now deadlift 200lbs without fear or issue.

It’s hard to communicate the gravity of their or my growth. I post a video of doing parallel bar dips with 180lbs or a static hold with 280lbs, and the viewers have no clue I once didn’t know if I’d ever use my right arm again. They don’t know I couldn’t use my left arm after nerve damage for weeks. I post a video of squatting 600lbs; and people cannot know I was unable to bend or kneel on my right knee reliably for years after Lyme disease.

People say they have a bad back, or neck, or shoulder, or knee, or hip. I’ve seen it. And worse. I’ve had it. And BAD. But we are always in the same boat: getting stronger will improve outlook. “Leaving alone”/getting weaker will make it worse. Look at my journey or that of others as inspiration or motivation or maybe just honest truth. And know that the worst it’s ever been does not tell how good that it could become. taken in Elev8 Wellness by @jonathan.watters

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2 years ago