Erin is a Colorado-based strength coach. She is the co-owner of RallySport, a Boulder training facility and health club, and head coach for ECFIT. Her clients include world champions and everyday athletes seeking excellence. Previously, Erin attended the University of Colorado on a basketball scholarship and played professionally in Europe. She has multiple masters degrees, is certified by NSCA, NASM, EXOS, PTA Global and is a Foundation Training and Titleist Performance Coach. Erin is also an accomplished triathlete placing 6th in her age group at the 2016 70.3 World Championships and has multiple podium finishes.
It depends on the context of how you choose to use them, but energy drinks can have some benefits if used properly. Transcript: "Hey, Brett, interesting question. Energy drinks, because there's a lot of ways we can define that. If we're talking about stuff that's just like the goal of that is to get a teenage kid to be able to perform better after 3:00 pm because they don't sleep, then I'm not really into those kind of energy drinks. But if we're looking for a way to maybe use a little bit of caffeine, boost our afternoon, or a little bit of a performance within training or racing, they're definitely not all bad. I think it's just context of how you choose to use them."
For runners looking to stay injury-free, three good exercises to practice are tissue care (foam rolling, percussion therapy gun, the stick, the gua sha tool, etc.), woodpecker (focusing on hip internal rotation and hip decoupling), and happy hips number 3 (rolling into hip rotation while including the thoracic spine and mobility). Transcript: "Hey, Tim [INAUDIBLE]. Great question. I've been thinking about this for a couple of days, because as a coach, my question's usually-- I'm going to answer your question with a question, a bunch of questions. But let's just assume we have a healthy runner, and you want to find three best exercises to do to stay injury-free. Number one, we're going to talk about tissue care. So whether it's going to be foam rolling, percussion therapy gun, the stick, the gua sha tool, a ritual around tissue care-- that's going to be number one. Number two is going to be from foundation training, and pretty much my favorite one to go to for my runners is going to be a woodpecker. And a woodpecker focuses on hip internal rotation and hip decoupling. The third thing that I'm really going to focus on for at home, with no equipment, is going to be happy hips number 3. And you're going to lay down on the ground. We're rolling into the hip rotation, but we're also including the thoracic spine and thoracic spine mobility. I'm going to go ahead and put all three of those on my YouTube channel just for you and anybody else that cares. It's on ECFIT Strength on the YouTube-- just make it available to anybody and everybody. Cheers."
The best way to control inflammation is to get the recovery right and pay attention to how the body feels over time after intense exercise. Transcript: "Hey, Amy, Aaron here. I'm a strength coach. Here's my response about inflammation and the inflammatory response to exercise. The bottom line is inflammation, is there to protect you? And so, in my opinion, the best way to control inflammation is to get the recovery, right? And just really, pay attention to how you feel over time after intense, exercise or strength training, or whatever you're doing. Because what you don't want to have, is just this on and on inflammatory. Three spiral downward actually letting your body recover is probably the best way to get rid of inflammation and deal with it on an ongoing basis."
The best shoulder exercises and strength exercises for swimmers to increase shoulder strength are unilateral pushing and pulling exercises, overhead presses with single arms, and cross pattern exercises which involve working the left shoulder while also working the right hip. These exercises create scapular stability and freedom in the body to move in a nice rotation. Transcript: "Hi, Jude, best exercises for strength for shoulder strength. I think, we need to look a little bit to the little bit lower in a little bit further back, scapular, stabilizers. If we work backwards from the most common injuries in swimming. We're going to look at this incredible tightness and this over development on the front side of the shoulder for most swimmers. So we really want as the shoulder comes up and forward. We want all the musculature, the serratus, the lat, the rhomboids, everything that's going to help set the shoulders back. So that as I go for that big reach. I'm not actually getting way up here. So from a strength coaches perspective, the best shoulder, exercises, and strength, exercises, for swimmers is I want to give freedom for the rib cage to move a little bit. So I very rarely do bilateral, overhead presses, and I really like to do Ooh, unilateral pushing and pulling primarily pulling exercises. I also really like to work Crossing exercises and cross patterns. So they're from working on the left shoulder. I'm also working on the right hip so that those two can kind of work together to get that beautiful rotation, and the comfort, and the freedom in the body to move, in that nice rotation. If that's what the athlete needs. I'm not a swim coach, but when I swim coach comes to, Me and asks for more strength. I'm going to look for scapular stability and strength as well as overhead pressing with only single arm. If I'm pushing overhead and unilateral exercises, that connect the shoulders, perhaps in that Crossing pattern with the opposite glute. And so, we can't separate necessarily the upper away from the pelvis and the core talk soon. Hope it's hope. That's helpful."
Single-arm overhead press with rotation is a great exercise for swimmers because it helps add balance, shoulder function, and strength. It transfers well to the water and has been well received by swimmers. Transcript: "Hi, Doc Cunningham. Erin Carson here. I think that one of the most underutilized lifts or exercise for swimmers-- I think a lot of people really focus on the backside of the body, as do I, lat activation and strength. Core position and pelvic position is really, really important, and overall body awareness, especially with the lower body, with swimmers, because they are in an open position. They're not interacting with gravity the same way as most of my athletes. But one of my favorite things is a single-arm overhead press and sometimes a single-arm overhead press with rotation. So it's one of my favorite ones for swimmers. They seem to enjoy it. It helps add balance, and good shoulder function, and strength, that they do transfer well and feel in the water."
5 sides, hold low back into ground, steady. Transcript: "How many each side 5 each side? Hold low back into the ground that sand. Steady. Perfect."