I search for the best of the best when it comes to my fitness and conditioning. I have always been in great shape and take pride in maintaining a certain level of fitness, but in the time I have been working with Peter Park and Eric Goodman, I have reached a new level of endurance, stamina, and strength. The program pushes me without exhausting me, conditions me, and has completely changed the way my body moves and feels.
Long time surfer / kitesurfer / stand up boarder, work out every day, well in my 40s. August 2015, my back went out on me for the first time in my life. Stuck on a sofa for several months, couldn't stand, sit, or even lay down on my back, got drugged up pretty bad by doctors without a clue on how to treat a herniated disc (S1 L5). Worst experience in my life, thought my ocean days were over. Deep inside I knew the solution was in moving the right way, but where I live no-one really knows how. So I kept searching the web until I stumbled upon a surfer's website. His workout were too rough for me - I was still hardly able to walk - but he mentioned Foundation Training on his blog, so I checked it out. Seemed soft enough for me to try, so I did, through the short videos. Initially I was hurting when doing the founder, but my gut feeling was to keep trying. Went on to purchase the videos, did the fundamentals day in day out for a full month. It was like a miracle for me. Slowly but surely, the unbearable hip pain that radiated all the way down to my toes began receding. Couldn't believe it. After a month or so, moved on to Daily Workouts. I found them hard, especially the forward fold, I would have never have dared do something like that just 2 weeks earlier. Kept on going. 6 monts after my back went out, and about 2 months after starting the FT program, I was back in the water. Life saver. Now I know back pain is all about posture. Learn the right postures, stretch and strengthen the posterior chain, and keep doing so forever. And you'll be fine again.
~Surfer from Morocco
I'm a former competitive / pro-athlete now in an office job with all of the aches and pains that came with both. I have been doing Foundation Training for about a year now.
A sincere thank you to you for the best workout I've ever found. The descriptions of what one should be feeling throughout each exercise have made the workouts relevant for me over the long haul, where I can constantly challenge myself to greater and greater strength. My posture is completely transformed; my digestive system operating at peak; my trips to the chiropractor are now just as a matter of quarterly preventative care.
I thought my lower back would be my Achilles’ heel forever. Foundation Training took that thought out of the equation. I feel strong and flexible, and my posture is better than it has ever been. This stuff is just plain good for you.
Eric has created the perfect storm, bringing together evidence-based science and functional training that is second to none. Their approach to building a solid foundation is my prescription for everyone from top athletes in the world to their mothers! Movement is life. Life is movement. And if you are limited in how you move against the constant forces of gravity, it is only a matter of time until you are injured. I know this to be true as I have experienced this roller coaster as a competitive athlete. Not until I retrained my movement patterns did the cycle of injury after injury end. It really is a thing of beauty to see such a brilliant melding of creativity and sports science built into a practical, low-tech program that focuses on posture, core, and fundamental movement patterns designed first and foremost to provide athletes with a solid foundation to apply to their chosen sport. I'll never forget what Derek Fisher said to Eric about why he chose to work with Foundation Training: "I did not hire you to make me a better basketball player; I hired you to make me a better athlete." True, true.
I suffered a L-5 compression fracture 6 months ago and have not been able to find a work out that helps with my back pain until now. I began Foundation Training 3 days ago using your free YouTube video and I have noticed such an incredible difference in how I feel and operate. I feel more mobile, more flexible, and just overall better after using this! Thank you so much! I appreciate you for genuinely caring about the people of this world and what you have implemented to make a difference. I want to become a Foundation Trainer in the future and help to spread this effective solution to people who are in need of it. Thanks again!
-Scott Watson
Using the hips to hinge, paying special attention to the head/neck relationship, developing the core strength of the posterior chain vs. limb strength or ab strength I’d heard all this before, thirty years before and have had decades of personal experience with the various systems out there that attempt to focus on these concepts. So I put the book down, ignored the DVD and didn’t try Foundation Training. (Hint, this was a mistake, don’t do this.) Fortunately I was offered a couple of sessions with a Foundation Training expert trained by Dr. Goodman to learn about the work directly and I grudgingly went along with it just to check out what the buzz was around Foundation Training. Literally two minutes into the exercises I realized something special was going on here. Dr. Goodman has taken a very well-worn path and blazed a completely new trail which is impossible to appreciate or understand until you get your first two minutes of Foundation Training and the light bulb goes on. Foundation Training is like powerlifting or Olympic weight training for your deep postural muscles. As we sit a lot, collapsed, and work on computers these deep postural muscles degrade and weaken to the point they can no longer function and hold us up. Even the “fit” among us, professional athletes, tend toward developing poor movement patterns from the years of sitting we all do that then translate into their sport whether it be basketball or cycling. Breaking these postural movement patterns is virtually impossible using most all of the existing systems. Yoga increases flexibility and strength, weight training increases muscle strength, the Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais make us aware of poor movement patterns, but Dr. Goodman has developed the unthinkable – one single set of exercises that quickly, almost miraculously create profound muscle strength and flexibility at the same time in just the areas we are weakest and tightest from our modern lifestyle habits.
Foundation Training is absolutely perfect for perfect posture in the golf swing. From set-up to finish, these exercises help with strength and conditioning for the complete game. Even with the bending over for putting. I spend a lot of time on the practice green putting and my back used to ache. But now, my back feels stronger and I have more endurance than before. I feel the positive effects of lengthening my spine which is critical because I have had two herniated disk surgeries and am 66 years old. Thank you guys. This is amazing.
Laying in bed one night, I found myself in tears wondering how many good years I really had left to workout the way I was used to, given the lower back pain I have had for so many years. Too, my body was beginning to show signs of breaking down with new joint pain in my knees.
Amazingly, within that same week I "stumbled" upon [Foundation Training]. Eric's story captured me immediately; a student of chiropractic medicine looking to avoid back surgery was totally believable.
I have since practiced the FT exercises faithfully (with amazing results) so that I now have a story to share, giving hope to others. As a certified PT in Fitness and Yoga my next step is to attain a certification in FT.
As it turns out, FT is more than an answer to the question that brought me to tears. It will no doubt be one of the best professional opportunities to cross my path. I can hardly wait to discover where this will take me and see how many people I can help! I am truly grateful 🙂
[Foundation Training] was the keystone to my recovery… it gave me my career back. The Foundation exercises rapidly increased my strength, flexibility, coordination, and balance quicker than I ever could have imagined… I went from having a hard time walking up and down stairs to competing in the Amgen Tour of California in May of 2010... I was not only able to meet my goal of finishing the 7 day, 812 mile race but I was also able to finish inside the top 20 and be highly competitive day in and day out. Since, I have taken these exercises to heart and put them into my training regime year round. They helped get me back to racing competitively as well as cured other imbalances I had developed after years of racing my bike and neglecting my core strength. I encourage everyone to have the open mind I did when seeking help for my injury. Follow that path and a better, healthier lifestyle is right around the corner.