25 Years, 25 Favourites – Birthday Blog
It’s my 25th birthday today, and I can say I’ve been alive for a quarter of a century now. With the realization that I’m getting older, I am also gaining more experience which I thought I’d share with you today in contexts that you might find interesting or helpful. Below, you’ll find 25 of my favourite things – most of which are at least related to fitness, low back injuries, strength and conditioning, and sports.
1. Favourite Book I’ve Read Related to Fitness: Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance, by Dr. Stuart McGill. Out of the 4 McGill books currently out, Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance is by far my favourite. This book has been the primary influence for my approach to training athletes and clients of all sorts. Any exercise program that is not “individualized” and is the same for each “individual” is mediocre at best. Every individual needs to be assessed and put on a program that is best for their specific goals and needs. Note: No one wants to be “mediocre.”
2. Favourite Book I’ve Read Unrelated to Fitness: The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk. There is a reason “why” I have a 100% response rate on my email and youtube channel. I make it my best effort to help as many people as possible and make sure everyone is appreciated. While the return of investment may not be much up front, down the road, I believe that this will only lead to more opportunities and referrals for myself. I get new emails every day from someone saying how I changed their life or that the information I’ve put out has helped them with their recovery/training. Hearing responses like this makes my day, and it confirms that the information I’m putting out is being well received.
3. Favourite Conference I’ve Attended: Society of Weight Training & Injury Specialists. During my internship with the Toronto Raptors, Rory Mullins (Manual Therapist at the time) referred me to this conference and mentioned it was one I should attend. In short, Rory was right and attending the Society of Weight Training & Injury Specialists conference in 2016 was one the best decisions I’ve made.
4. Favourite Athlete of All Time: Evgeni Malkin. The combination of size and skill makes him a deadly weapon every single night. However, what fascinates me the most about Evgeni, is his ability to change the complexity of games in a matter of a single play. I think the Carolina Hurricanes are still haunted by his Game 2 hat-trick in the Eastern Conference Finals.
5. Favourite Podcast: The GaryVeeAudioExperience. Any podcast that I listen to with Gary Vaynerchuk on it, I’m immediately fired up.
6. Favourite Exercise: Deadlifts.
7. Favourite Spine Sparing Exercise: TRX Rows. A great alternative (TRX Rows) to bent over rows for someone with low back pain.
8. Favourite Websites I Visit Daily: TSN.ca, NHL.com, EricCressey.com., TonyGentilcore.com, Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Youtube.com, RemiSovran.com,
9. Favourite Injury to Work With Herniated Disc, or any mechanically related low back pain. You’ve got so many potential causes of low back pain that it’s fun to go through a process of elimination to see what combination of factors may be causing one’s low back pain. In the case of a herniated disc, it’s almost always created in the same way which is repeated cycles of spinal flexion (made worse when combined with twisting) under load. In today’s society, many people are sitting all day in “flexion” based postures (e.g., classic computer desk guy) and then going into the gym to perform ill-advised exercises (e.g., poor deadlift technique, sit-ups), which is usually one reason why they end up with herniated discs, to begin with.
10. Favourite Piece of Equipment: By far my favourite piece of equipment is the suspension straps. The suspension straps are relatively budget-friendly, and one can perform many spine-friendly exercises with the training device. Also, one can adjust the difficulty of a suspension device exercise by merely changing their body position.
The above picture represents a variation of a TRX Row.
11. Favourite Thing About Having a Blog: I can write whatever I like without any overhead control, as well as write more detailed educational material that I might not be able to convey over video on youtube.
12. Favourite Mobility Exercise: Cat-Camel Exercise. I love this drill because it can be used as both an assessment and spine warm-up exercise. On the assessment side of things, you can determine how well one may be able to move through spinal flexion and extension. On the warm-up side of things, you can help reduce some of the vicious viscosity that may exist throughout the spine before exercise.
13. Favourite Training Shoe: Vibram Five Fingers. Love the Vibram five finger shoes for deadlifting and squatting. I feel the toe pockets allow for one to “grip and spread the floor” easier than any other shoe without toe pockets. I very much enjoy the barefoot sensation of the Vibram Five Fingers and feel they can help get some of the muscles of the feet and toes working to help stabilize the body.
14. Favourite Strength and Conditioning Coach: Eric Cressey, Cressey Sports Performance. I’ve purchased over half of Eric’s products, heard him speak in person at the Strong Pro Summit and met him once (after the Strong Pro Summit conference). Eric is a phenomenal guy, and he is someone that I truly look up to in the Strength & Conditioning industry. I genuinely admire his “work ethic” and the business he has built. It’s quite remarkable. Also, I’ve given Eric significant credit for helping me overcome my low back problems several years ago as it was through his website that I stumbled upon Dr. Stuart McGill.
15. Favourite Time of the Day to Train: Afternoon or Evening. Ever since my L5-S1 Disc Protrusion, and learning about the time of day effects on early morning spine bending, I have not been a fan of early morning training. The bending stresses on the lumbar spinal discs are about 3x higher in the early morning (first 1-2 hours) when compared to later in the day (Adams, Dolan & Hutton, 1987). As a result of this, I do no train in the AM anymore, and I don’t advise training in the AM for any of my low back pained clients.
16. Favourite Place to Visit: The Gym. Not a surprise here.
17. Favourite Research Study I’ve Recently Read: Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Lumbar Spine in People Without Back Pain. This study showed that many people today may live with a bulging or herniated disc and yet be asymptomatic. The question becomes why? Well, there are many factors at play to consider including the size of the disc bulge or herniation, the location of disc bulge or herniation, genetics (amount of pain receptors on annulus), accumulation of Inflammatory Markers (IL-6, TNF-a), ability to remove edema or damaged material, quality of movement, sleep, nutrition, etc. As you can see the reasons for a disc bulge/herniation to cause pain or not cause pain can be very complicated and a bit of a mystery.
18. Favourite Research Journal: The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. I’m currently a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association and with membership comes subscription to the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. I check this journal out just about daily to make sure I’m up to date with the field of strength and conditioning.
19. 2nd Favourite Research Journal: The Spine Journal. While I’m not subscribed to the spine journal, I still have access to most research articles through my University account. The spine is an area that became personal to me after sustaining my spinal problems, and for those reasons, I have fallen in love with learning about the spine.
20. Favourite Researcher: Dr. Stuart McGill followed by Dr. Jack Callaghan. While both are heavily involved in the lower back pain realm, what stands out to me about Dr. McGill is his research on high-performance training and ability to be the practitioner. Not many people can do it all, but when it comes to the low back, Dr. McGill owns it.
21. Favourite Physical Therapist: Mike Reinold. I love listening to Mike because he helps bridge the gap between physical therapy and strength & conditioning. I’ve purchased Mike, and Eric Cressey’s Functional Stability Training for the Lower Body product and it was a great investment for improving my education on lower body development and injury prevention. Mike gets both sides of the spectrum and puts out great content regularly.
22. Favourite Powerlifter: Brian Caroll. After sustaining some severe lower back problems from powerlifting and other outside activities, many told Brian that his powerlifting career was finished. After getting ahold of Dr. McGill and working with him, Brian rehabbed his injury and got back to elite level powerlifting. Brian Caroll won the Arnolds in 2015. Brian’s story is quite remarkable and is a story of inspiration for anyone currently struggling with a devastating low back injury.
The Gift of Injury Book outlines Brian Caroll’s journey of severe lower back pain to elite powerlifting.
23. Favourite Product I recently Worked Through: Sturdy Shoulder Solutions by Eric Cressey. The portions about the neck were things I never heard anyone talk about before and it was fascinating to understand how limited movement in the neck can impact shoulder health and performance. Definitely a few things I’ll be applying to current and future clients.
24. Favourite Workout Music: Electronic Dance Music (e..g., Swedish House Mafia) and Heavy Metal (e.g., Rob Zombie).
25. Favourite Side Hobby: Collecting hockey rookie cards. Been doing this ever since I was a kid with my dad and continue this today.
That wraps up my list of 25 favourite things that are for the most part related to fitness, low back injuries, strength & conditioning, and sports.
Hope you enjoyed the list and cheers to hopefully another 25 years so that I can write about 25 more favourite things 🙂
Salute,
Remi
Thumbnail Image Licensed from “denis_design/stock.adobe.com”
