We shall see how Adam Nelson does this month. Charles put 30 pounds on him and increased all his lifts SUBSTANTIALLY within the last year.
Perhaps Boston wasn’t following Poliquins nutrition and digestive health guidelines. Maybe he wasn’t eating the right foods and supplementing with the proper probiotics. Paul Chek has come out and said that intolerances and allergies due to the consumption of grains and wheat are responsible for the majority of ACL injuries to female athletes.
We all know that Charles Poliquin and Paul Chek get together and share a lot of the same nutritional recommendations. (Look for Poliquin to start preaching that one needs to induce a minimum of an 18 inch bowel movement per day to be considered healthy) 
While we’re on the subject of your last sentence, Paul Chek says that grains and wheat are the leading cause of ACL injuries to female athletes. Jesus Murphy! I’ll just let his statement speak for itself.
Wow, and all this time I thought it was extreme lateral movement or force brought against the leg. Paul Chek and Poliquin are without a doubt masters of the craft, but sometimes people major in the minors.
post the url on the grain comment…
as for digestive health, it is vital but it will not win an arm’s race!
A Special Interview with Paul Chek with grrlAthlete.com
Paul Chek is a Holistic Health Practitioner, Certified Neuromuscular Therapist, and Clinical Exercise Specialist. He also founded the C.H.E.K Institute (www.chekinstitute.com) and has a training seminar on training females athletes called, “Equal, but not the Same”. Here are Paul Chek’s frank opinions on training issues for female athletes.
grrlAthlete: Paul, we appreciate your time. What do you mean by “Equal, but not the Same” – the title of your female specific training seminars?
Paul Chek: The term “Equal, but not the Same” is quite simply that men and women are not superior to each other, they are equal in their innate capacity to contribute to society, the ecosystem and the world at large.
Yet women are not the same physiologically as their male counterparts. Therefore, when evaluating a female with musculoskeletal, nutritional, hormonal, emotional, spiritual or performance problems of any kind, the practitioner must work with a female knowing and understanding the unique qualities that make a female a female.
Most coaches treat females like little boys with breasts and that only facilitates injury and decreased performance in the long run! That is what I mean by “Equal, but not the Same”!
GA: What are the main weaknesses in a female athlete? Are these due to “nature” or “nurture”?
PC: The main weaknesses are the abdominal wall, particularly the lower abdomen (below the umbilicus) and the hip extensors. This is due to the fact that the female genital organs have a reflex relationship with the abdominal wall and the lower lumbar region. This is easily seen in most premenstrual females; they have distended lower abdominals and often have back pain.
The hormonal tides are very influenced by diet and hydration. The female hormonal system is uniquely sensitive and much more dynamic than that of a male. The female’s hormonal cycles are influenced by lunar cycles and are also highly affected by diet and hydration. Since the female body is uniquely designed to carry a baby to term, it will do almost anything to protect the unborn baby from harm, including sacrificing the mother’s own body in order to preserve her ability to get pregnant and deliver a healthy baby.
The current dietary practices in athletes and non-athletes alike literally facilitate menstrual irregularities and the reflex muscle/joint dysfunctions that go hand in hand with them.
Therefore, you have a combination of “Nature” and lack of self-nurture due mostly to conditioned beliefs and mis-education regarding correct diet; there is the same problem with exercise programming for females, a topic we may be able to explore in the near future!
GA: What are some of the key points about nutrition you’d like to make?
PC: Let me expand on what I mean by being influenced by diet. We need to consider some of the trends and fads that affect the way we eat today:
· Most females suffer from post WWI and WWII “food shortage consciousness”.
· Also at that time came a “meat avoidance” consciousness that has left millions of females eating far too much carbohydrate for their own hormonal good!
· The key hormones that regulate the menstrual cycle include the estrogens, progesterone, testosterone and DHEA. Most of these important hormones are built from cholesterol, protein peptides and lipoproteins.
· Animal meat and fat from fish and birds (i.e. any meat source from something with a pair of eyes) are the best food sources to supply the female body with these building blocks. There are other sources of high quality fats such as organic avocado, coconut oil and organically grown nuts and seeds.
· If you do not eat foods from these sources, you will be missing the best sources of key building blocks for essential hormones. A good resource on the changes in our diets this century is “Paradox of Plenty” by Harvey Levenstein.
· The misguided obsession with carbohydrates has resulted in the over consumption of grain foods, such as bread and cereals. Clinically, I find this to be one of the most common causes of abdominal wall dysfunction.
· The reason being that current statistics from Dr. Bill Timmins of Biohealth Diagnostics (www.biodia.com) show that 50-60% of white-skinned people are glutin intolerant. Gluten is a portion of a grain that carries includes a protein called gliadin. Gliadin triggers an immune reaction in gluten-intolerant people.
· When such people eat any grain foods or foods containing any of the glutin-containing grains (all grains except oats, corn, rice, buckwheat and millet), there is an immune reaction in the intestinal tract. This causes reflex inhibition of the abdominal muscles, which share their sensory innervation with the underlying intestinal tract.
· In addition, everyone today (including females) is eating unmatched amounts of processed foods and synthetic foods…non foods!..genetically modified, irradiated, microwaved and otherwise structurally and chemically altered foods, all of which are very likely to cause an immune reaction, inflammation and further inhibition of the abdominal wall! NOTE: For more information on this topic, please see my video titled “Flatten Your Abs Forever!”
GA: Can you expand on the muscle and structural problems encountered in females?
PC: There is also the issue of pain in the low back, SI joints or pubic symphysis, all of which are fairly common among athletic females.
These regions share a reflex relationship with the abdominal wall and if there is pain in these joint structures, there will be weakness in both the muscles crossing the involved joints and in the segments of the abdominal wall sharing reflex relationships; the lower abdominal region is most commonly inhibited by pain in these areas.
[COLOR=Red]Any inflammation in the female sex organs will weaken the lower abdominal muscles and diminish functional stability in the back, pelvic girdle, hip and lower extremity region; I believe the factors discussed above are related to the high incidence of non-contact ACL injuries among females today![/COLOR]
GA: Where can athletes, trainers, and coaches learn more about preventative measures?
PC: In my video “Flatten Your Abs Forever!” I discuss metabolic typing and explain how a female should eat for her specific needs.
Learning to eat correctly for your metabolic type is critical to minimize unwanted athletic injuries. Learning the importance of food quality and how food quality dictates the quality of your body tissues and influences recovery rates and your ability to recover is one of the many important topics discussed in my new eight hour audio CD/workbook program titled “You Are What You Eat!”
GA: The most popular concern for female athletes is the ACL injury. Why is this so and how can the female athlete and her coaches go about preventing this problem?
PC: The ACL resists anterior sheer of the tibia. In the healthy female body, in a normal environment, such as playing sport, this would never be a problem.
Because of the muscle imbalance syndromes caused by and perpetuated by visceral reflex (see above) and the use of bodybuilding machines that isolate a given muscle group without the co-contraction of antagonists, synergists, stabilizers and neutralizers (the knee extension machine for example), the situation is exacerbated.
The body is always learning. The question that each therapist, coach, doctor, etc., must ask is, “what are you teaching it”?
If you keep performing isolation exercises, particularly to the point of fatigue, pain, form loss, etc., you will see rapid programming of faulty motor programs that lead to faulty recruitment patterns in sport or while moving the body in general.
Quadriceps dominance is but one of many such examples. If men were to begin menstruating, they would pass the females in the stats for non-contact ACL injuries. Additionally, [COLOR=Red]current research shows that there are estrogen receptors in the ACL![/COLOR]
GA: When a female athlete comes to you for strength and conditioning, can you describe your assessment protocol and what you hope to find?
PC: My assessment protocol is very comprehensive. It takes me about 4 hours to complete and the client/patient has to do about two hours of paper work before I will even accept them as a client. This includes a comprehensive questionnaire that identifies which organ systems of the body are functioning incorrectly or are under excessive load.
I also look at a ten-day diet log. The questions ask about lifestyle factors, exercise routines, and, equally important, I investigate key limbic/emotional issues to see how the client sees the world and how their diet and lifestyle factors are influencing their level of sentience.
GA: Going further, if the athlete doesn’t present any major imbalances, what is your first step in helping her develop “sport-specific” strength? Let’s say this athlete is involved in a traditional team sport, such as soccer, basketball, or hockey. Is there a somewhat general foundation of physical preparation you would recommend to this athlete?
PC: Quite frankly, I’ve never had such a person in my career! The problem is just that most doctors and therapists use such narrow evaluation protocols that they don’t see the underlying problems, nor do they make the connections to stated problems and the existing problems; painful menstruation and knee instability is a commonly overlooked example of what I’m referring to here.
If they do recognize the hormonal imbalances, they often seek to correct the problem with hormonal supplementation, which is an absolute mistake in absence of correct diet, lifestyle management and serious consideration of the patient/client’s program design and periodization.
Once I’ve addressed foundation factors such as diet and lifestyle and I’ve restored posture and functional stability to the athlete’s body, I then restore all the key movement patterns, which I call “Primal Patterns”.
Based on my extensive research into human movement disorders and developmental man, I’ve concluded that all human beings must be able to demonstrate normal gait, twisting patterns (spinal rotation when combined with the other patterns), squatting, lunging, bending, pushing and pulling when performed from a standing unsupported position.
I have an elaborate yet functional method of assessing this. The assessment varies depending on the environment in which the client uses their body. After the deficits have been identified, I restore motor skills and then progress them in to patterns that are either necessary for their sport or, depending on what the coaches say, patterns that they need to improve on.
GA: Can you describe the importance of “core” strength for an athlete, and perhaps a couple of drills that anyone could do to improve the area?
PC: The arms and legs are outgrowths of the trunk; all exercise professionals and coaches should read “The Spinal Engine” by Serge Gracovetsky!
This is well documented by developmental anatomists and can be seen in the way we develop our movement patterns as we progress from the embryo to upright standing. The core is the foundation of stability for the extremities and is the communicating link between the legs and arms.
Most every functional environment requires force transfer from the arms to the legs or legs to arms (or both!) through the trunk. If the trunk is weak, poorly coordinated or injured, the chances of injury to both the core and extremities sky rocket!
I don’t believe in giving out drills and exercises like candy on Halloween. This recipe protocol consciousness is part of the very problem in health and exercise today and I can’t subscribe to it! I have comprehensive videos on how to assess the core to identify weakness, from which correct exercises can be applied. I hope you can appreciate my stance here.
GA: Certainly. Paul, once again we thank you for your time and knowledge.
PC: Thank you! I enjoy any chance to help females reach their athletic potential! When they are fed and exercised correctly, they are often as good as or better athletes as men! Look out guys!
By the way, if anyone is interested, Paul Chek will be featured on the Outdoor Living Network (OLN) on “Countdown: Survival 25”. Paul’s work in the rehabilitation of Danny Way (pro skater) and other athletes from career-ending injuries will be featured on stories (1-4) I believe.
It will air on Sunday August 22 and Monday August 23
Just in case anybody thought I was serious my post was meant to be humorous. 
Hopefully, in light of the article posted, you weren’t the only one joking!
… painful menstruation and knee instability is a commonly overlooked example of what I’m referring to here
Charlie is that the cause of DB’s Injury?
What an article
Social Activist, Epidemiologist, Nutritionist, Anatomist- is there no end to this man’s talents?
Indeed, he is so associated with some of the anaomical parts referred to in the article that, privately, many refer to him by their Anglo Saxon synonym.
But don’t forget Charlie … all these can be experienced in the …
Training seminar - “Equal, but not the Same”
Video - “Flatten Your Abs Forever!”
and Finall y new eight hour audio CD/workbook program - “You Are What You Eat!”
Ouch!
(And no - there won’t be any elaboration on that one if you don’t get it!!)
Too cynical … too naughty … too funny!!
What made me laugh was the claim that 50-60% of “white-skinned people are gluten intolerant.” :rolleyes:
and this doozy "Most females suffer from post WWI and WWII “food shortage consciousness”.
WTF? 
does he just make this stuff up?
Food shortage consciousness?? Has this guy seen the carts being wheeled out of Costco lately?
Obviously not!
Paul must know alot of 17 and 18 year old girls who are gorging because the Great War just ended and they’ve been starved for a few years. 
Perhaps starvation suits them, if they’re still around at 104! (Where’s he meeting them- at a singles bar?)
Any inflammation in the female sex organs will weaken the lower abdominal muscles and diminish functional stability in the back, pelvic girdle, hip and lower extremity region; I believe the factors discussed above are related to the high incidence of non-contact ACL injuries among females today!
I’m not a GYN/OB and am not up to speed on the tiny details of menstration regarding hormone level changes. But, isn’t there a normal rise in estrogen at this time and a normal inflammation or change in the uterus or lining in order to create an ideal condition which an embryo may survive?
If all girls where to be at risk of ACL tears since the ACL has estrogen receptors, at the time of menstration does this disclude girls from participation during their period?
I’m more concerned with the effects of a pain in the ass on everyone’s performance.
You have earned my respect forever.
My assessment protocol is very comprehensive. It takes me about 4 hours to complete and the client/patient has to do about two hours of paper work before I will even accept them as a client. This includes a comprehensive questionnaire that identifies which organ systems of the body are functioning incorrectly or are under excessive load.
I say we award him the Pulitzer Prize in medicine right now and have him run the world’s first collective health care system. Why do we need to spend trillions of dollars on diagnostic tests, like MRI, CAT scan, endoscopy, EKG, blood samples, etc… when we could have Chek and his certified staff do it all with a quick trip to Office Max for pens and paper.
I can see the reaction from some athletes when given the paperwork,
“I came here to train, not take the SAT’s!”
I wonder if Chek has the statistics on female ACL tears in vegetarian women.
I sat with Stuart McGill at the SWIS convention some years ago during a Chek seminar. Priceless.
…and, equally important, I investigate key limbic/emotional issues to see how the client sees the world and how their diet and lifestyle factors are influencing their level of sentience.
…and come to conculsions based on his own warped veiw of the world. This is real problem for the athlete when you start to play psychologist when you aren’t one. Enterperting people’s thoughts and messing with their minds when you aren’t trained to do so is dangerous.