Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here’s your host, Brenton Ford. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast. My guest today is a returning guest who’s been a number of times. Carl Reedout, welcome back to the podcast. Yeah, thanks Brenton for having me back. It’s always good to chat with you. We chat here and there because you work with a lot of the swimmers that I coach through the online membership and you work with them on not only getting better connected, which we’re going to talk about, but helping them work through niggles or issues that they might have, particularly triathletes that come from off on the bike and the run. And so I like to get your feedback on some of those things that you’re seeing with the work that you do and then how that actually relates to not only getting rid of some of those

injuries and niggles, but also how that helps people swim better. So I want to get into that with some some case studies of people that you’ve worked with and just to sort of step it off with talked about connection before we jump from the call here and how having things work together is really important in swimming. And it’s something that I see when I’m coaching people at clinics because often with the swimmers who aren’t as fast, it’s their top half doing one thing, the back half doing another and there’s not great connection there. So when you make some when you can make some simple changes or teach people how to move better, then they can swim a lot faster for often a lot less effort. So what are what are some of those things that you’re seeing when you work with people who maybe are very well connected through their movements and then that transition that you help them go through to get connected? Yeah, it’s a good question. You know, the thing with

this connection is very interesting, the top path and the bottom bottom path, the body working together. And one of the things I noticed was in my own body as well was I hold a very heavy, heavy kettlebell and I stand still after a couple of seconds, it feels really heavy. But if I start walking, it becomes light or lighter. And so I could I could pick up that the lower body was actually like generating like power or like flow energy, electric electrical like power to the muscles. And it’s the same when you’re running, for example, if you just run and keep your arms still, then there’s no sort of contribution from the upper body helping the legs run. So when you start to get a little bit of movement of the arms, it generates power to the lower body. And so that that that connection going from upper to lower is especially for swimming. I mean, as you know, the swimming is arms and legs that that connection is essential. And often missing all sort of

like not as effective in swimming, especially for posture. And so the work that I do is try to like I’d say, tell all my guys online on some of those you need to get connected. And what that means is like through the middle part of the body. And that’s often where the disconnect comes. You’ll notice like and poor posture is a big part of that. But we think of it as like core strength and the core. But it’s actually like this, the body’s like, there’s like, when you contract muscles, it generates electricity. It’s what we call by piezoelectric. So the actual contraction of muscles generates electrons. And that then flows through the fascia, which is a little listens off familiar with. And so that’s big part of that getting that connection is loosening up the fascia through getting the core stronger. But it just getting the spine to move more efficiently as well. So a lot of restrictions in the back causes a sort of like disconnect. And

you’ll notice as soon as well, like I think you shared in some of your videos as well, just how that they struggle with the breathing, they have to lift their head up the water, or they’re dropping their arm or they haven’t got a proper reach or just their arms aren’t connecting with the legs. Often that’s posture as well. So that’s that’s been a big, big thing that’s getting getting connected. I know it’s a word that’s thrown around a lot, but it’s it really is super important.

Yeah, we were doing a little work together when you’re helping me with my squat movement. And like, it took probably 20, 20 minutes, I’d say, 15 minutes, maybe of some sort of dedicated time with you, just over like over zoom, working on getting me to move properly through my squat. And then the difference I noticed was it was well, much more through the through the core, through the glutes, rather than just like, you know, that lower back movement. And and now I’m much more aware of when I am moving correctly, even walking up the stairs, because I sort of spoke to you about a new issue that I had a couple of probably two months ago now. And he was just really having trouble with it. And some of that was sort of stemming just from how I was like, it was walking up stairs and then like moving through the through the hips, which is kind of like a similar movement to the squat. So I’m much more aware of when I am doing it correctly.

And when I’m not and I see what you do is very similar to what I do when I’m analyzing people on video with their with their swimming. There’s a lot of nuance to the to these what seem like simple and basic movements, but there’s a lot to it. Absolutely. And you know, and back on the connection side, I really I mean, if you’ve heard this in lessons of him, you said this over and over, but that the squat done correctly is one of the best ways to get connected because of the effect it has on the spine and the effect that it has on your posture. So getting getting that technique right is so important. And as we just talk about the case that is just not like you’ll see that that’s pretty much people often what exercises do you really do. And I said, most of it’s just starting with the squat. And it’s that it has such a profound effect on the on the wiring on the wiring of the fascia and unlocks the middle back, as you talked about,

that’s part of where the rotational senses on the spine. It gets the glutes, it changes the whole system. And so it’s it’s and also one of the things you’ll notice with swimmers and a lot of people struggling with issues is tight hip flexes and that squats done correctly is a great way to release that. And the hip flexes are the deep muscles like right at the back of the back there. And they’re also they’re like they’re often referred to as a battery pack to the body, the power of the power generating power. So think about swimming, running, squatting, so when we can get to those muscles, it’s like it’s we just we just get connection and that’s that kind of like has a ripple effect to the whole body. And the results are I mean, some of the results are quite dramatic, like it’d be one session and very often is one or two sessions and people are already experiencing quite dramatic improvements. So for anyone who’s listening

who’s listened to all of these podcasts with you, I think we’ll have to you might need to change the middle name to Carl’s squat read up. I think it’s not about doing the podcast. It was like you mentioned that the best core exercise you can do is probably the squat and that sort of flick the switch in my mind about how important that that movement is. And I didn’t quite understand it initially and how important it is. But just the more I come to learn, I really start to understand why why you said that. Now, I want to move into some case studies because I think there’s the best way to sort of understand a lot of this stuff is with case studies and people that you’ve worked with and they’ve probably come to you with a few niggles here and there and then the work that you’ve done with them to help make some changes. So have you is there someone that you’ve worked with recently who’s come to you with an issue that you’ve helped them with?

Yeah, so there’s still ongoing members, of course, that I work with ongoing, but there’s been two new members that have joined that have reached out to me as well recently. And they’re one of them is they’re both trying to do one of them as a lady and she’s struggled with chronic chronic hamstring problems more medically ischial tuberosity, which is where the hamstrings attaches onto the pelvis. And it’s one of those if you have a struggle with that type of hamstring injury that’s really painful and and often chronic. And so, you know, cycling, running and swimming is just causing you so much luck, drag and frustration. And you actually tried everything. She’s done the whole treatment thing in roots and was in a process of really doing hardcore strength and exercises when I met her. And

I just said to, you know, we can we just go back to the basics and just check the squatting actions again, because once you get that squatting, as we talked about to posture, she had low back back back back sort of alignments as well and posture issues and literally like gave her the squat for the first exercise. And the second time we spoke, she said, I can’t believe it’s already like 50 percent better already. And now she said, it’s hardly any drag, except when she runs sometime. And that’s a running technique thing, which I think she needs to work on. But she just said to me, I can’t believe the results that you did it from just squatting. And and again, like it really is that that that profound. So, yeah, we did squats, we did step ups, there’s some rotational stuff with her. And the once we got that that her her glutes to fire and the hamstrings let go. And that’s that’s the key thing. Yeah, the glutes when they work and

the core work together, which you get in the squat, then the hamstrings and all the muscles can do they can function like they’re supposed to function. So the way that she was going through those movements, it was just all going through the hamstring was mostly through the hamstring which was causing those issues. Yeah, so that to the hamstring 10 and you need to need tension on hamstrings. And if you’re on a bike, sometimes you’ll find people’s pelvis is not like their posture is poor. They sort of sit on that on their hamstring insertion where it actually goes on to the to the pelvis and that creates compression. It’s sort of like doesn’t it makes it like it makes it weak in a sense. So you want to you want to get the pelvis in the right position, not only on a bike, but if you’re running or swimming or doing any sort of movement that you’re shifting the load from that the actual junction where that the hamstring tendon

inserts into the bone and more into the muscles and instead glutes. So then it’s all about a loading thing with the how much load you put to the body. And now by going through those was she already doing squats and step ups in her gym routine. Hectics, squats and step ups you’re like quite quite intense exercises, heavy weights, trying to because you’d heard about strengthening the glutes and I think, you know, most people who are in the sporting industry really know that you need to strengthen your core glutes. But this is where the coaching comes in, just really modifying those the techniques and find little tweaks that you can just like make a quick change and then suddenly you’re away. That’s fantastic. It’s it’s not surprising that when you see what some people are doing on a regular basis, if it’s an incorrect movement, even slightly, it’s just they can have unintended consequences and you might be yeah, you might be doing the right thing in terms

of strengthening the glutes. But if it’s done the wrong way, yeah, it can lead to that. It’s really interesting. And then have you got another another person that you’ve been working with? Can you with some sort of? Yes, so this is also a gentleman, if he’s a triathlete, also very disciplined, works hard exercises, heavy exercises and has a muscle imbalance and was just affecting in swimming, especially when you turn his head to the one side. So there was like a rotational symmetry there and wasn’t really bugging too much, but he was struggling on just to get the kick and the feeling that sort of connected in the water, you know, when you’re swimming. And so we are going back to the squats. I just pulled back the weights about the load and then looked on using so the squats like a tool it can be used to I can use it to like string and release. Depending on a postural word. So for him, it was really just getting him to release his hip flexors.

So we did squat. So we actually squatted down like 45 degrees and then we made him hold those positions for a couple of seconds to let that deep hip flexors release. And so that also gave wonderful results, helped him with his running straight away. And then now we still like just trying to get more rotational balance, but he’s already noticed in the water like more being more connected like you tip pains gone away, he’s running faster, he’s swimming much more effortlessly, which is, you know, I haven’t even improved the technique. It’s just that your body is free, you know, like what and what do you do for the rotation? You mentioned the rotational balance, was it? So what? Yeah, so you’ll often find some who struggle to turn to the one side. So often they’ll want to turn their head to the right and then they find turning left is hard or vice versa. And we talked about rotational symmetry. So like for me, I’m a golfer. So he’s swinging

one side all the time. And then you find those rotation. So it’s just trying to balance those arts and get to the causes of like what’s causing those those rotational symmetries. So I work a lot and like giving them some tests online and then I see where they struggle. And then I do do the opposite movements or try and get them connected through there. So that’s the big part, especially for starting and running, it’s like up and down and back and forward, you know, like, OK, they should have a little rotation when you run. But something is as a sport, you do have that nice rotation going to the body and and I think a lot of the guys, I know for myself, like the swimming is the hardest part, you know, like the running and the cycling is, he’s been swimming. I find, you know, some people can relate that summings are not the strongest point in it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s I think that’s why I can do what I do, considering such a technical

sport that it requires quite a bit of quite. Yeah, quite a bit to sort of figure it out sometimes. And absolutely. The rotational side of things are you are you asking like lifestyle questions or trying to get to the root of it or it’s just looking at how do we how do we then correct this imbalance here? Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, the hip flexors are tricky muscles. You know, if you go Google like a back pain or a symmetry, the number one thing that pops out as hip flexor, you know, so as it’s known in the medical side and so. I mean, setting is setting is one of the biggest problems because it shortens and weakens the hip flexor. So we know that most people are aware of, you know, sitting for long periods of time and just for movement patterns. Another cause of of hip flexor tightness is which I address online teaching people how to move functionally and properly. And the other side of it is emotional is a big part of it.

So your hip flexors tend to store the emotions. So like negative emotions, strong emotions. So that’s that’s the mind body connection and that’s the side that obviously I don’t deal with. But I do bring to the table that the people are really struggling to like get a break through, especially for triathletes to try to like optimize performance and get, you know, one of the things that they struggle to break plateaus is you start to then after that ask the deeper questions like we, you know, I play such a big role because of that muscle shut down and it’s like having a low battery pack, you know, so it affects everything. But just getting back as well like when you get the hip flexors released, the glutes start to fire, the legs get stronger. And if you have stronger legs in the water, I mean, it just it just helps that whole propulsion phase. You can then relax on the upper body because you’ve got that power coming. I mean, you’ll know that

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progress, progressively build up your fitness. So if you’d like to follow along with some plans to help you reach your specific swimming goals, then check out formgoggles at formswim.com forward slash effortless. And this will give you $15 off your purchase of form goggles. So formswim.com forward slash effortless to get your pair of form goggles. Yeah, I mean, even just holding a streamlined position really like you will sometimes see some as who are really tight through the hip flexors and they struggle to stay horizontal with their legs. So you’re looking at a torso, great hips and then the legs are always sitting down because they lack that range to the through the hip flexor. And, you know, obviously it creates a lot of a lot of drag and but you also don’t quite get that that drives through the through the hips. Like I think of the hips is when you’re swimming almost like you want them to be. It’s like they’re on hydraulics

where you got this like nice right, right rotation left rotation. And it’s like they’re on hydraulics like just just mechanically turning left to right and you can get a lot of power from that when when you’re holding them in the right way and holding the right body line and being straight through there. And we talk a little bit about bracing the core and engaging the glutes a little bit to straighten things out. And that’s when you can have basics on hydraulics, whereas if you’re kind of sticking your your bum out and you’re bent through the waist, you’re never really going to get it. So it’s it’s very subtle and nuanced to to try and get that position. But from my experience, when people do finally get that to happen and then they takes a little bit of thinking about it to start with and and considering how they’re engaging those things. But when they do get it to happen, they’re like, OK, wow, I really notice a difference here.

And it’s it’s just so much less effort for them to

to swim at the same speed because they’re generating a lot of power through the the middle of their body. Yeah. And you know, another and another thing which you mentioned in some of it as well, which is great as the breathing like your diaphragm attaches to the head flexors. We talked about the central crux. It’s a big tendon, the central tendon of the diaphragm. So any sort of like compromised breathing or like struggling to breathe will then put tension on the hip flex. You know, so just just like relaxing in the water or learning to breathe. There was a member there said just breathing to the one side helped a lot to help it with their breathing. And I just took a lot of strain out the body. So that that’s that’s such a big thing as well. Like, you know, we often underestimate especially assuming you. I mean, it’s something you come across a lot. But just even breathing exercise is just to make go of tension. Some people meditate,

some people go for a walk, whatever it is. But just that letting go has a has a big effect on the hip flexors. And if the hip flexors are tight, it’s the number one handbrake in the squat. So like when I find people to con squat properly, I know straight away like you’ve got tension in the hip flexor. So we have to go back and and that’s a lot of work I do online is like trying to help people to release that tension because it is like driving the car, the handbrake on. And you can do it, but it’s just not going to it’s going to burn out the Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. So it’s a similar thing with with lack of shoulder mobility, trying to get a good catch. Like you’re always going to be limited. I mean, when we do the very first drill that we do in clinics is his front kicks, both hands out in front here. And you do see some swimmers who who can’t help like keep their hands here and keep it close to the to the head. So they’re going to be limited

with obviously the range of motion and the position they can get to. So we just work with whatever they’ve got at the moment. But if you can, if you can improve on that over the course of a couple of weeks and a couple of months and yeah, and just consistently do some maybe exercises or stretches or mobility where to improve it, you’ll absolutely notice a difference. And I mean, for myself, I

I’m starting to swim more because I wasn’t able to a few months ago and already like my I was pretty tight through my thoracics. And I’m starting to get better range there. But yeah, I mean, as I’m getting this better range through there, like I’m starting to swim a lot better and feel a lot better. But it happens pretty quickly. Yeah, you do start to tighten up if you’re not staying on top of these things. So each night before bed, I’ll just be rolling around on the floor in front of the TV with the like my mobility ball and a few other things and just stretching. And yeah, it’s really starting to pay off, but you’ve got to be consistent with that and really stay on top of it. Because if you are sitting a lot, if you are doing some strenuous workouts, like for me, I’ve surfed twice today and I swam and I’m starting to feel it. So I’m going to need to roll around for at least 45 minutes. I think on the floor to kind of undo

all those things that I’ve done. And yeah, you just got to keep on top of it. Absolutely. And it’s such a it’s one of those things like, you know, for me, like my right side tends to get tighter than my left side. So I’m right handed, but my right, my left, my left side is way stronger. And so even in my right hip flex, if it gets tight, then my right shoulder gets tight as well. I know there’s a crossover with the slings, but it’s also there’s up and down. So I can, the significance, not a power in my right side. And the minute the right hip flexor releases, it’s like, then I’m almost double the strength of my left. And since, and that’s not an exaggeration, it’s just like, it’s just, just the power comes through. But the swimmers who have started even the shoulder issues, like it’s, we go to hip flexors again. No. And yes, tight thoracic plays a big part of that as well. But it’s so interesting to see a game, just bring it back to the squad again.

You know, like, I got to keep it back in the squads, but it’s just, you know, like it’s such a simple, it’s such a simple movement that everybody, if they learn how to do it correctly, whether you’re like an amateur solo beginner solo, even like a serious elite triathlete, is you’re probably doing squads with some sort of squat exercise in your, in your regime exercise. And just to have it like tweaks, just to improve the different muscles that are firing or even shifting the load can be make a huge difference through the fascia and everything else. And for those listening, if you’re wondering how to squat, all these nuanced details that we’re talking about, there’s, well, two ways you could go about it. We’ve got the, your functional movement course, which you go through the squat, which we’ll put in the show notes here. So that’s got a whole range of movements and detailed instructions on how to do them properly,

including the squat. That’s one of the modules. And then obviously you work with people as well, like we’re talking about with, you work with a lot of our members at the moment. So what’s the best way to get in contact with you and if someone’s got a niggle or that they need help with this stuff, how can I get in touch? Yeah, they can just get all of me on my email address, which is callwellness at gmail.com. And that’s call with C, callwellness at gmail.com or callreadocoaching.com. Call again with a C and then they can find the details there. And it works really well, yeah. Yeah, and I mean, and some people might be hesitant to work with someone online because you know, you’re not there in person, but I mean, look, that was the,

it’s obviously so much easier because you can do it on your own time. You don’t have to travel anywhere. But it’s like when I started coaching people online, they’d send their videos and I’d give them feedback without stroke analysis coaching. I wasn’t sure if it would actually work online, but after probably seven years now, I think I’ve been doing it. It’s like it absolutely does work. And sometimes it’s even, it works even better because people have got the ability to have a session and then they have their own time to practice it and come back and catch up. And in many cases, it works a lot better. So it’s, yeah. Yeah, it can depend. Like it can be a person, a lot of the guys, it varies. And like it can be a one-on-one session. It can be like I do a lot of one-on-one personal training with the guys. Through the training. And if it’s injury related, it depends on what they need. And often it’s just a face time as well.

Like we literally put a phone up, face time and go in it. And because I guess it’s just my, that’s my, what I do is I watch people squat all day. And so, like you watch me so and I know what to look for. So it doesn’t take me long before I can see, like there where they’re going wrong or like as I watch them move on the camera, I can straight away pick up and say, you’ve got this asymmetry or you’re struggling with that shoulder. So just to have someone watch them, I think is a big thing. And there’s different authors as well. So that they don’t have to lock into long-term that they just want to check in for one session or whatever. Yeah, it’s, it’s very useful. Because you don’t know what you’re doing wrong or you don’t know what you’re doing wrong. No, that’s right. We’ve got to get this middle name added, I think, next for the next podcast.

Karl, I appreciate you being on the podcast again. And any final words before we finish this one up? No, I think that’s good. I think just that whole idea of getting connected to your body, like, you know, a really body awareness connection and just how that translates into better swimming and results. Fantastic. Well, I appreciate being on the podcast and for being there for the swimmers and the people that I work with. Because I can’t help them with this stuff. And yeah, I really appreciate it. So thanks again for being on the podcast. You’re welcome. Good chatting, Brendan. Keep well. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming podcast. If you’d like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.