Andy O’Brien

Andy O’Brien has joined the staff at the National Hockey Institute as the Director of Strength and Conditioning. His resume includes a stint as the Strength and Conditioning Coach of the NHL’s Florida Panthers, and he provides services for elite athletes in the areas of human performance and nutrition. Andy is regarded as one of the top experts in the industry, and has been sought after by some of the biggest names in sports. Andy also works as the High Performance Director at Edge School and the Duckett High Performance Center in Calgary. He has worked with more than 1,000 athletes since 1998, including national, world, and Olympic champions in a variety of sports. Andy is a native of Prince Edward Island Canada.

Andy’s Philosophy of Movement Efficiency and Dynamic Exercise

For years the athletic performance industry has relied on principles of static, single plane strength training borrowed from bodybuilding, powerlifting, and olympic-style weightlifting. The problem with this approach to training is while it promotes individual muscle strength and static power, it lacks the adaptation of the nervous system required to apply that strength to athletic activity. This is why you have a lot of big strong athletes who can lift a lot of weight, but lack speed, agility, flexibility, balance, and fluidity. These athletes often appear quite weak when they are in motion and have to apply their strength dynamically.

The human body is designed to move dynamically, and the goal of the nervous system is to co-ordinate a variety of joints and muscle groups working together synchronisticly to produce movement. This is the essence of athletic performance. Building an athlete is all about creating movement efficiency within natural dynamic movements.

Compensatory movement patterns

Every athlete has certain muscle groups that are strong and muscle groups that are weak. At the same time, they have joints that are flexible and others that lack range of motion. When an athlete moves dynamically, their body will always prefer to involve the strong muscle groups and move through the flexible joints, while avoiding the weak muscle groups and the joints that lack flexibility. This is called “compensation”. The concept of teaching movement efficiency within dynamic exercise involves correcting these compensatory movement patterns which ultimately forces the athlete to involve their weak muscles and move through their joints that lack range of motion. This naturally increases strength and flexibility dynamically, in a global action of the body rather than in an isolated action. It also prevents overuse injuries to the muscles and joints that were previously over-relied on. The result is a better response to training, and a more durable body.

Life is Athletic

One of the exciting aspects of dynamic exercise is it’s applicability to just about everyone. Every activity in daily life is dynamic, and involves the same action of the nervous system as the movements of high performance athletes. Weather you’re getting in and out of a car or lifting a baby on your shoulder, your daily life activities are a function of synchronistic muscle and joint action, not static isolation. Dynamic exercise can help anyone feel healthier, move around with strength and ease, improve posture and live pain free. It also can allow you to achieve a lean, natural, athletic looking body.