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Biomechanical Analysis in Your Pocket: Unlock Better Movement and Personalized Progress | Garrett Salpeter w/ Neufit & Coach Jacob Salim
In this episode of the Neufit Nation podcast, host Garrett Salpeter speaks with Jacob Salim, co-founder of G8way Max, about the power of movement analysis, motion capture technology, and personalized programming for improving performance and reducing pain. They explore the biomechanics behind human movement, the eight key assessment categories used by G8way Max, and how proper movement patterns can benefit everyone—from elite athletes to seniors seeking better mobility and a better life. The discussion highlights the importance of natural movement, avoiding injury, and how tailored programs can create lasting change.
Transcript:
Garrett Salpeter (00:01.245)
Hello, Neufit Nation and welcome to the undercurrent podcast. On this episode today, we’re going to talk about movement analysis, motion capture, and making recommendations and custom programming for improving movement efficiency for health and performance. So it’s a really fascinating topic. I’m excited to dive in and our guest today is Jacob Salem, who is the co-founder of a company called Gateway Max spelled G then the number eight way.and you’ll see why the number eight is relevant there as we, as we talk about the discussion and he is, you know, has a cool background because he’s of course been involved in, movement and, and, know, as a strength coach and I’m biomechanics coach for, for a long time and also has developed, you know, this expertise in software and technology as he’s gone about building this company. So I’ve gotten to meet him through a mutual friend.
and try out the system and had a very positive experience, which I’ll share also as we go through the discussion here. But first of all, Jacob, welcome.
Jacob Salim (01:07.259)
Thank you, Garrett. It’s a privilege to be here. I’m thrilled because our mission aligns helping people avoid pain to take away those limits and just live a healthier life, a happier life. And so just a privilege. I’m humbled to be here and I think it’s going to be a great podcast.Garrett Salpeter (01:25.277)
Awesome, I appreciate that and I agree. And to kick off the conversation, can you tell a little bit of your backstory and what inspired you to create something this in the first place?Jacob Salim (01:39.512)
Totally. Well, growing up, am a triplet. And so a lot of the things that we did growing up was the exact same. Performance training, the way we did certain activities, it was all the same. And so I really wanted a personalized approach to avoid injuries, to grow as an athlete. And I was a baseball player. I was chasing the dream of becoming a major league baseball player.And through ups and downs, I battled with injuries. And so just the ability to not have my dream be fulfilled because of injuries was something that drove me on this journey to help people move better. And I focused with athletes at first and that kind of trickled into people that are 90 years old and they’re just trying to enjoy a better life with their grandkids. And so.
Not only did my life improve by improving my movement patterns, my neuromuscular behavior, and just the way I walked, the way I ran, the way I did everything on a movement level, it really did change my life. And I was able to take that to my family. Family are sometimes the hardest people to learn and to accept things. And just seeing my dad get out of back pain, you know, it really touches my heart. And so.
I, I really just have loved the movement world. I’ve loved the things that you’ve done with helping people who are paralyzed just actually be able to walk again. And, it’s, it’s incredible. And so, we started gateway max about seven years ago. We’ve been doing data analytics, assessing people’s movement for about since 2011, whenever the iPhone could do.
Slow motion technology. And so just assessing the way people run, the way their foot strikes the ground, the way they launch from the ground and all the way into my world of baseball, helping people throw better, throw healthier. It’s helped avoid injuries and it’s changed other people’s lives, not just mine.
Garrett Salpeter (03:59.251)
That’s awesome. And one of the things that I want to emphasize there is, you, you mentioned essentially when you moved better, you felt better, you know, movement is there’s a lot of very accomplished neuroscientists who argue that the reason we have such big brains is because of movements, right? We have this breadth of different movements. can, the only animal who can walk and run and crawl.Jacob Salim (04:09.198)
Mm-hmm.Garrett Salpeter (04:28.517)
and throw something and climb, right? This different breadth of movements that we have and the complexity and the detail and all the processing power that it takes to monitor and control that. so it’s such a profound influence on yes, of course, you know, the musculoskeletal system, on our being as a whole too. So the quality of our movement just to, you know, really double down on there and, and also share part of the reason why I’m so excited for this work that you’re doing and, you know, the rest of this conversation here. So I think people, you know, between my intro and what you shared there, they have a sense that we’re talking about movement analysis, motion capture with the camera. Can you talk about, first of all, what motion capture is generally in case anyone listening sort of needs a little. Framing framing up here of the category of technology and then specifically about the G8way system; you know, how it’s different from traditional systems and what happens during a, during a scan. So I know there’s a lot there to unpack, but let’s just go through all that.Jacob Salim (05:36.088)
Totally, totally, Garrett. So Gateway essentially will capture a video or pictures through the camera. And we’re looking at the way the anatomy is present in walking behavior on the camera or taking video of them running and analyzing the way the foot strikes the ground, the way the spinal engine is working. And so really sometimes people don’t know what they need to work on unless they have a high-tech assistant, a physician, a biomechanist, or someone themselves, tell them what they need to work on. so identifying the flaw is the first step. And so using slow-motion capture or video assessments, we’re able to identify the flaw. And then from there, we’re able to work to provide that solution so that we can get out of pain. Your knee is hurting, all right? So why is your knee hurting? Let’s watch you walk. Let’s look at your structure, your anatomy, your mobility, some movements, and then we’ll be able to assess why your knee is hurting. And then you’ll have a program that’s gonna help fix your knee, but also the area too as well, because it might not just be the knee that’s causing the problem. It could be your foot, it could be your hip. And so your program…will be created at G8way Max based on your assessment. And that’s as simple as I could just relay what it is of motion capture. So we do that all through the phone. You can do it anywhere and you just simply open your phone in our app, take a picture, do your movement assessment. And instantly after about 20 seconds, it’ll then produce an assessment report and tell you this is why I have pain. This is an area that if I don’t fix this when I get older, it’s going to start nagging me. Then boom, after that, then we go into the solution, and you’ll just do that on the training plan. So that’s kind of G8way Max too as well.
Our system is to assess first, because if we’re assessing, then we’re just guessing. And so we need to assess first, figure out the problem, and then from there, then we’ll provide the solution. And it’s just pretty simple that way.
Garrett Salpeter (08:13.151)
And I really enjoyed it in part because of my experience going through your assessment in part because back when I was in my PhD neuroscience program focused on motor control, I was in a biomechanics laboratory where they had, you know, perhaps a dozen, I don’t know the exact number, but cameras around the room. And then we had these markers on where it used to be how it was done with these markers that you would stick on to the body. And then the system would figure out where those markers were, which one was correlated to the acromion process of the shoulder and which one is on the greater trochanter of the femur and which one is on the middle of the sternum and it would measure your joint angles based on that. And it’s fascinating to see now how far the technology has come in the last 10 plus years where you can do it on your camera and it will be able to essentially measure joint angles and tell you what’s working in an anatomically and biomechanically efficient way and what isn’t. Can you talk though for a moment on that just in a little more detail on what is it actually doing in the software? What, for instance, bony landmarks, is it identifying? What joint angles is it looking at? Can you talk a little bit more in detail about what it’s actually doing under the hood to analyze movement?Jacob Salim (09:35.736)
Totally, So you said, technology has just up leveled every year, every year. And within the last decade, we were able to just create a software that you just take your phone out and without having the different landmarks on your body with a marker or a sticker to be able to identify those points, we’re able just to pull out our phone and automatically be able to tell where your shoulders are, where those joints are. And so it’s assessing, do you have one leg longer than the other? That’s what a lot of people would to say is , my one leg’s longer than the other, I need to go to the chiropractor. Well, your hips are out of alignment. So we’re assessing that we’re assessing whether your shoulders are in alignment. Do you have scapular winging or a kyphotic posture? Is your neck in a good place? Do you have poor neck alignment?Are you at risk for an injury because your hips are out of alignment? And so the greater trochanter you mentioned, we’ve seen tons of data that majority of the people who are above the age of 12 and it’s huge difference for the people who are like 80, 60, 50, their hips have pushed forward, thrusted forward out of alignment by about three to seven inches. And they wonder why they don’t have low back pain.
Garrett Salpeter (11:00.063)
So that’s in the sagittal plane. you’re looking at someone from the side, instead of the pelvis being directly over the maleolus of the foot and ankle, you’re talking about the, from the side, the pelvis being shifted forward in the sagittal plane, Okay.Jacob Salim (11:01.484)
Correct, correct. Yes, and that movement or that assessment point right there of where the joints are structured is just assessed solely at first in a standing behavior. And when we stand in a poor way, what do you think happens when you start running or doing something a little bit more athletic? And so the way I will relay this to people is,What do you think is more athletic or a more intensive movement? Running and making a cut on a football field, jogging, or standing in line at Chipotle. And everyone always says it’s the movement piece. And the thing is, is if you are standing and your anatomy is already out of whack, and then you go to start moving and you do that at a higher speed because you to run or you play a sport.
You have a significantly higher chance to injure yourself. So one of the first things we do is just assess standing posture, the behavior of how your bones rest. And we’re looking at those things I mentioned some more are feet alignment. The relationship between your feet, the shins and the areas all in your lower extremities. We’re looking at toes play. So are your toes crammed together?
We’re looking at mobility things. So are you able to get full access within your hamstrings or your posterior chain? Are you able to get into a deep squat? Or are your hips and ankles limiting you there? We’re looking at also, yeah, yeah.Garrett Salpeter (12:59.493)
And just you full access in the posterior chain. So that would be fully lengthening in forward bend type movement. that what you’re talking about there? Okay.Jacob Salim (13:09.23)
Correct, correct. And as a athlete, if you don’t have access to your full body and your muscles are constrained, then you’re not gonna be able to be as explosive as you would want to be. And sometimes as an athlete, most of the time, you have to be the best that you can be, especially to move up levels. And if you have a limit there, you’re not gonna be able to… Jump as high or run as fast. And so yeah, the forward bend, we’re assessing that the deep squat and then those are some areas. And then moving forward to with our movement assessments will assess when you land and you strike the ground, what did the Achilles do? Is the Achilles in a strong shape or did the Achilles the inner malleolus, did it collapse down and into the ground significantly? Are you going to be a product of flat feet? Are you using your spinal engine when you run? Are you landing with your center of mass going over your foot? Or are you not doing those things? And so those are a few of the things that we assess in a video.I’m a technician. And so I just to go into the technology a little bit, because that’s what you asked in a video, it’s assessing frame by frame by frame by frame in a video and it’s looking at in a 90 second video, it’s looking at probably 2000 frames or however many it is and each single frame, which is a picture within a video, it’s assessing 200 different angles, where your muscles are, the shapes of your body and your anatomy. Did you land with a strong foot? Did your your spinal engine worked the right way, your hip engine. And so it’s assessing all of those things and then giving you that report so that you know, okay, I got to work on this. I got to get out of back pain. And the reason why I have back pain is this. And so that’s our video assessment. And then we also have one where it’s just looking at your, your, your mobility, your standing alignment and posture. So two assessments is what G8way Max has.
Garrett Salpeter (15:32.157)
And then in terms of how it works, does the software look in the camera and does it do sort of what I described from the biomechanics lab with the marker days? Does it identify, okay, here’s the calcaneus, here’s patella or the fibular head, does it identify bony landmarks and do joint angles and angles in between them, or how does it ?What data does it create and then analyze in order to do that? it, that’s where, it, know, the joint angles change in angle angular, is it, you know, the speed at which they’re changing? it, I don’t know, I mean, obviously we’re not looking at levels of code here, but I’m just, think it’s so cool how the system can do that. And not being a software guy myself, I just find it fascinating.
Jacob Salim (16:23.488)
Yes. And this is why I this call, especially because you, have the passion and you see it from that level too, even though you’re not doing as much with technology I am, but it totally does. It’s looking at those landmarks and it’s looking at those landmarks in space, how they’re moving. And so that’s why I mentioned the slow motion technology is we got to really look at the slow motion of how they’re moving and assessing those angles.So the shoulders, your shoulders are out of alignment, horizontally by three degrees, which is a lot. Or if it’s more, I’ve seen some when they’re squatting and it’s seven degrees. And imagine putting a barbell on your back and you’re just , you got seven degree tilt with your shoulders. You’re gonna be creating a one side dominant muscle building structure within your body.
If you have shoulders that are just tilted and you just with no weight, we’re assessing that with no weight and imagine putting a heavy barbell on your back and you already have misalignments when you’re no weight squatting and you put bar a barbell on your back, you’re going to just start to build one side significantly. So yeah, it’s, just how, you were in the lab with the, with the markers, we just are able to.
Assess through the phone without the markers, just because of all the data that we’ve created with it. The tool and the technology in the world is just up leveled in the AI race and everything. So we’ve just been really able to create a great product and do that in a fast way for the consumer and just be really user-friendly.
Garrett Salpeter (18:14.639)
Awesome. It is user-friendly. That is one of the top few elements of my experience that really stayed with me. part of, again, part of why I thought this was worth sharing with Neufit Nation here. So two things that you mentioned along the way that’s analyzing, you I think everything you talked about, of course, is important and there’s a reason you chose these you know, chose the alignment of the feet the ability to access a deep squat the ability to access the posterior chain, right you’re choosing these things because they’re the fundamental pieces of quality human movement and Excuse me, and you you also mentioned hip engine and spinal engine I think those are interesting topics. Can you spend a moment describing for everyone listening? What what what those terms mean?Jacob Salim (19:04.046)
Totally. So the hip engine, right? So you have several engines in your body. You got a shoulder engine, your spinal engine, hip engine, ankle engine. And most people, their whole spinal engine is just shut off. It doesn’t work the right way. And as an athlete, when you’re not using your whole engine, you’re operating at like 70%, maybe less of your capacity and that’s going to affect your explosive drive, your output. And so the hip engine is the pelvis, right? Attached to the spine. And if the hip engine isn’t externally rotating or coiling or doing its behavior when you’re running or when you’re walking too as well, then it’s for people who are not in athletics, it’s also going to cause pain.It’s going to cause discomfort. So your body needs to be free. And when it’s shut off and it’s not working the right way, discomfort is coming. And so the hip engine, that’s that one piece. And that’s looking at as well, how you land to the ground and how you’ve launched from the ground. And so the hip engine is being affected in that those two movements landing and launching. Then the shoulder or sorry, not the, you said the hip engine…
What was the next one? Spinal engine, right? And so the spinal engine needs to be long and free. It doesn’t need to be compressed. We’re always fighting gravity. And so when our spinal engine is compressed, then we’re going to have back pain. We’re going to have some things that, but we’re not going to be able to be as free and to be as how water is, really, it’s the Bruce Lee quote. Think it’s Bruce Lee, be water, be smooth water. When your spinal engine is shut off, you are not smooth. You are just choppy. So spinal engine is, is one of those things that when I walk, I should see a walk. That’s kind of Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan, when he walks, he has a swag walk, but his chest is starting to rotate from side to side. When I land with the, my left foot, my chest should coil a little bit. It’s, it’s about somewhere around an 11 degree coil into my, my, my, my left foot. And then when I step on my right foot, my spinal engine is going to coil over towards my right foot. And a lot of people, their spinal engine just stays straight the whole time. Doesn’t rotate. And so your body is just locked up, locked up. And so we need to have full access, the ability to get into some of those end range positions with our hip engine, and then also with our spinal engine for freedom. And then also for those that are chasing athletics, they definitely need to use those engines to their max ability.
Garrett Salpeter (22:22.415)
And this has been a really interesting, just to share a personal anecdote, an interesting evolution for me where there was a time when I thought of, walking is flexion extension. Everything should be straightforward and back. And, you know, to learn that, well, actually as the hip flexes, there should be a little bit of external rotation. And as the hip extends, there should be some internal rotation. And that’s actually how the skeleton moves and how it, it maximizes range of motion, or as you said, freedom, and how that leads to more efficient movement over time. Cause it allows for this wonderful recoil and you get some of that, you know, elastic energy and movement becomes more efficient overall. And the load gets dispersed appropriately throughout all the joints and tissues in a more balanced way, et cetera, et cetera. And, uh, you know, that just, just in terms of walking, I’m glad you described that, how the spine should rotate there because that, that was a big epiphany for me to realize that walking is not just a straightforward and back, know, sort of this, you know, sort of a, I would think of as a soldier regimented walking or something that, right?So I think that’s one just to really play around. And I still now, when I go on walks, one of my favorite habits is, obviously many people listening to this have a lot of phone calls and different things. I try to do one or two calls a day out with a headset walking around and feeling that rotation and that freedom, feels therapeutic. It feels rehab. feel my back is super loose.
And everything just feels good walking that. It almost feels doing a little bit of Latin dance to getting the hips going. It’s kind of a mix of those things.
Jacob Salim (24:32.41)
And the movements that we’re trying to just instill back into the people we work with is literally just natural movement. We’re trying to help them get back to their natural movement so that their body is just not locked up. And so, yeah, the spinal engine is just a big thing. and so we are trying to help people walk better. We’re trying to help them run better if they, if they want to run. And so.Just looking at these areas, we can really just identify whether someone has pain or not. you don’t necessarily even have to tell me whether you have pain. I could just watch you walk and I could see what’s shut off. I could see what’s not working the right way. And so, yeah, that’s why I really liked the new fit model. And especially because your passion is to help people unlock their bodies and to activate it and to the muscles that are shut off, the areas that are shut off, you want to activate it so that they then can get back to their natural movement. And so we just, really have a good alignment. And I think that the more that we can just help others have a toolkit of exercises and more awareness so that when they’re on their own and they’re , you know what? I’m not walking that great.
I have awareness that, you know, I shouldn’t necessarily stand like this all the time because the way our body is… I’ve listened to some of your podcasts and you’ve talked about this is the stimulus that you feed your body. It starts to affect you, the environment that your body is in, it starts to affect you. And so if I’m standing in this position over and over and over, and if I’m sitting down in a certain way over and over and over. And lifestyle things and the way I walk, it’s going to start to corrupt. But if I have good natural behavior and I walk with my spinal engine working the right way, I have full or enough mobility, then I’m not going to have discomfort when I get to 70. I’m going to actually be able to throw with my kids. I’m going to be able to get on the ground and get back up with my grandchildren. And so that’s why I love this connection, because you have a heart for caring about these people and helping them get out of pain. Cause you know that there’s a better way and just providing that information and awareness for these individuals helps them have a toolkit and they’re more equipped. They have better armor to fight the hard things in life with some of the things that are working against our bodies. And so, yeah, I’m really grateful that you brought that up.
Garrett Salpeter (27:26.503)
That’s beautifully said. And there’s a couple of points there that you made that I want to elaborate on. One is you talked about how we’re always adapting essentially to the, input, the environmental cues, the various stimuli that we experience. And you also brought up the notion of moving babies and how really that is our goal moving we would naturally move, how indigenous people move, for example, without the quote unquote corruption, corrupting influences of… you know, sitting in chairs and sitting in cars hours and hours a day that, cause our bodies to, get used to different reduced ranges of motion. our nervous system learns to work in smaller ranges and then our connective tissues just sort of passively follow and adapt because our bodies don’t want to expend extra energy to keep extra connective tissue alive and functional when there’s, when it’s not being used in those particular ranges and it doesn’t need to be reinforced. So, there’s a lot there. And really the goal is to get back to the foundation of human movement that we all would have if not for, I mean, assuming everyone, able-bodied, no amputations, et cetera, that we all would have if not for those corrupting influences. So it’s funny to think about it that regard that it takes a lot of work just to get back to our own baselines. And it’s also interesting to think about if you compared it to , there’s some great work.Jacob Salim (28:37.889)
That is correct.Garrett Salpeter (28:53.689)
I read, for example, in Katie Bowman’s book, Move Your DNA. So think it was something that. She talks about how there’s these studies of indigenous people would get about 30 hours a week of activity. And now we say three hours a week of exercise, right? That’s a 10 X difference in order of magnitude in the amount of load and challenge and stimulus and input that we get to our tissues. So there is a huge gap in our modern society. So just to kind of highlight and underscore what you’re saying there about getting back to the way we should move. I think that’s a really good perspective. And let’s talk a little bit now about the actual programming and such. You obviously appreciate the kind words about our work at Neu Fit. One of the things that I really like is using the analysis software G8way Max and to be able to show before and after changes. We see these amazing, these five-minute miracles, these wow, aha moments that patients have every day in clinics that are offering Neufit. And to be able to quantify those, I think this is really valuable. It sort of gamifies it and helps patients buy in when you can put a number on things and stuff that. So I really anything that. And then you also make recommendations. You have really good coaching content in there. I’ve gotten to explore the app too. So I’ll mention that.And how do you think generally about, in just carrying forward this conversation, if you see a movement deficit, if someone’s not moving their spinal engine, someone isn’t able to fully load and access their posterior chain, just picking out a couple of things that you’ve talked about already, what’s your approach for setting aside what… clinicians listening to this can do with the newbie to accelerate things in the clinic. Setting that aside for a moment, which we can talk about separately, but what’s your approach in terms of how are you programming? How much of what type of input does it take to start to see some of these changes? What’s your approach then to correcting what you find on the assessment?
Jacob Salim (31:11.958)
Right. Right. Great question. So for us, our goal is to help them get back to the ground, especially if they’re a six year old or a 90 year old, sometimes they haven’t been on the ground and put their knees on the ground or did some stretching there. And so our goal is, is to help them kind of get in some exercises that are comfortable and get to end range in a healthy way and move through end range and back end range and back. soSome of the exercises that we’re giving them, they might not have seen before, but essentially they’re what the indigenous would do or their exercises that just kind of help free up the hip and improve their launching behavior, which is what you were doing. And so some of those exercises take place on the ground. Some of them are standing on their feet. so the exercises are just, they’re really simple. Cause we have videos, you just follow along and do them and you can do them from your home.
The program for people is based on what they choose. For example, if you say you only have five minutes to commit to your exercises, then your whole program is based on these are the perfect exercises for you to do for five minutes. If you have 30 minutes or more and you’re an athlete and you need that more time, your program gets tailored towards that.
And so, our approach is to give you the best exercises for your toolkit for you to do on your own. And you get those routines and get some optional routines too as well if you want to do more, but you essentially just master the foundation first and then you build upon that as you get more experience and we reassess every month.
So you mentioned just the ability to assess after the new fit and see the changes just from putting the new fit on the newbie on and then assessing, okay, my hips are in better alignment now, or, you know, I’m my, my posterior chain has more more access, more mobility. And so we are constantly just assessing. You, I mean, you could assess every day if you want it, but we, we encourage everyone to assess once a month. And then the program will change. The exercises will change based on the way your body is changing.
Garrett Salpeter (34:08.607)
Yeah, I think that is great. And I’m curious, you know, I, I alluded to this earlier, but the, you know, G eight way gateway is the name of the business. And I believe that’s because you’re looking at, you know, call it eight different areas or categories. You can elaborate on that. And also in this example, where you say someone has only five minutes, let’s say they have issues in all eight of those areas. So we’ll ask you what, you know, to just, you know, just tell us exactly.Tell us what the eight is in G8way Max and then how, in that case, if someone has five minutes or 10 minutes, would you prioritize what they’re going to do first? Because if you don’t have time to work on all of them, you gotta prioritize what’s gonna be sort of the first domino, get the most bang for the buck in that type of scenario.
Jacob Salim (34:55.232)
Well, within five minutes, if I am at risk for back chain dominance, it’s one of the points. If my posterior chain is weak or misaligned, that type of thing, then my program is gonna be tailored towards that primarily. And then also just getting a stronger foundation with our feet.And so if my feet, that inner malleolus is collapsed and I was starting to have flat feet, then we’ll attack those areas first because we’ve seen that when we have a stronger posterior chain and our feet, the thing that connects us to the ground first, when the feet are well and the spinal engine, which is so powerful to the way we move and do everything. When those two pieces are great, then a lot of things clean up with themselves. And so those are the two areas that we would tackle first. If you only have five minutes and you were risk… risk… risk… all the way through for those eight categories, which we’ve seen it…
And you might feel right now listening to this that you might be that, and if you only have five minutes, you’re probably going to have a program that’s tailored towards improving back chain dominance. And then also improving inside ankle bone highs, what we call it, or just a stronger Achilles, a better shape with your foot. So we’re kind of building that arched dome structure of the foot to be a little bit more inflated and strong. That way, as you move throughout the day, you’re having good foot posture, you’re having good back chain dominance, posterior chain dominance, and then that kind of cleans up itself and all the other areas. So, the eight points are going to be back chain dominance. So that’s the first one. The next one is inside ankle bone high. All right, just having a strong Achilles.
Garrett Salpeter (36:49.887)
So more of a supinated foot, we could say.Jacob Salim (36:53.544)
Yes, yeah. And there’s a time and place for everything. But what happens is, if I’m just constantly, constantly, constantly having a flat foot, then it’s going to limit a lot of things. So back chain dominance, inside ankle bone high. The next one is columns is what we call it, which is your foundation. So if I have shoulder misalignment or hips out of alignment, that’s going to affect everything. So columns is another one, which is your foundation looking at you.Garrett Salpeter (37:24.041)
Just back to the inside ankle bone high or supinated foot. There’s a really interesting physiology in the foot, which you, Jacob know, and I just want share to highlight that. And it is that the arch of the foot is essentially a spring, a passive recoil type of mechanism. So the more supinated it is, as it pronates through that certain phase of gait, there’s more room. It’s loading a bow and arrow. You’re drawing it back further or you’re loading that spring more. Whereas if it’s already starting flat, you don’t have as much room to load it and therefore you don’t get as much energy back too. starting with that is valuable and that’s just one of the reasons why. But just to elaborate on that a little bit.Jacob Salim (38:05.844)
Yes. And one thing too, Garrett, valgus with the knee and the legs… When we’re in a valgus shape, that foot has really collapsed. The inner ankle bone is really driving towards the ground. And so when we have a valgus shape, or if you look at a non-contact, catastrophic injury with the ACL or a knee, when those joints are blown up, it’s because that foot collapsed. The foot is in a compromising position with a non-contact injury to the knee. And so the foot is so important. So making sure that that structure is a strong structure when it strikes the ground is really key. And a lot of people have to work on that.Most people, especially those who have deviated from their natural movement patterns and whose growth plates have already closed, must ensure that they have strong feet and that the shape of the foot is really healthy.
Garrett Salpeter (39:11.249)
And you said, there’s a time and place for everything. When you go into hip extension, terminal push off type of phase, a phase of the gait, you would want to see a little bit of internal rotation there.Jacob Salim (39:27.284)
That is correct. That is correct. And we have videos in our app that will tell you about that. I know that listeners right here wouldn’t be able to see what I’m doing, but let me just explain this for you and anyone who’s watching. So when we’re talking about backchain dominance… structurally, more often than not, we want to have the hips, the greater trochanter joint to be stacked above the outer malleolus, you said, the ankle. And so when it’s leaked forward, not good when it’s primarily your life that. But there’s a time and place, you said, for your hips to thrust forward, to go out of alignment. And I’m putting up quotes right now if you can’t, can’t see.So, for example, if I were dodging a dodge ball, maybe I have to go this way to dodge the dodge ball, but my hips are thrusting forward, and my back is going back.
Garrett Salpeter (40:31.229)
And he’s leaning back if you’re just listening. He’s leaning back Neo in The Matrix dodging bullets. It’s pretty impressive actually.Jacob Salim (40:34.14)
Yes, correct, correct. Exactly. And so, there’s a time and place where my hips need to thrust forward, how you were saying. And that right there is not how I want to live my life. I don’t want to live.And a lot of people have this banana body, and they walk around like this, and I’m exaggerating it, but there’s a time and place when it’s necessary. And so we’re not saying , Hey, Garrett, don’t ever go into a front chain dominant behavior. That’s the opposite of what we call back chain dominance. We’re not saying don’t ever go into the front chain dominant behavior. We’re not saying don’t ever collapse your foot.
There’s a time and place where your foot can collapse. But the thing is, if you have your feet collapsed 24/7, then that’s going to be a problem. And so that’s what our assessment will assess. It will assess your running behavior, whether your feet collapse all the time. Because there is a time and place where you need to have a strong inside ankle bone high shape.
Garrett Salpeter (41:51.963)
Okay, so we’ve got to go back to our eight here. So you already said back chain dominance, the foot position that we just talked about, and then Columns, which is having the legs aligned directly underneath you, not being off balance. You mentioned I don’t know if you got to elaborate on those yet, I sort of cut you off to go back to the second oneJacob Salim (42:12.916)
That’s okay. And that’s good. Stop me at any point. So this is also looking at shoulder alignment, horizontally. It’s telling which with that I’ve highlighted on this with this podcast already, that’s going to tell us if we’re a one-sided dominated human.If our spinal erectors on one side of our body are stronger than the other side. So columns are just looking at your foundation. Imagine a pillar in a house. If one of them is crooked, then as you move up, up the house, it’s going to start to have some misalignment. So this is a lot of byproducts of Pete Egoscue’s work, and essentially, just looking at my standing posture, are my knees already in a valgus state? Are my hips aligned? Are my shoulders aligned? What is my center of mass? If my center of mass is bearing primarily 90% of my weight on my right side, on my right foot… we’re assessing that right there with the Columns category.
And, if your body’s compensating and you’re walking and you’re running, you’re definitely going to have pain on the other side. So, and even on, on, on the side that you’re compensating on. So the columns is just literally assessing your center of mass and your foundation, your alignment horizontally and then vertically. And also it’s doing that in standing behavior and squatting behavior. And also when you run and walk.
Garrett Salpeter (43:56.639)
Okay, so we’ve got Columns, and then we’re testing you to see if we can go through all eight here.Jacob Salim (44:02.558)
Yeah, I know my team members and all my people at G8way Max will be upset if I can’t do this. So I got it. The next one is Suppleness. All right. And that’s a fancy word for how we would describe mobility access, the ability to get into a deep squat or the ability to get into that forward bend that you were talking about.And so it is, do I have full Suppleness within my back chain? Do I have full Suppleness in my legs, my arms, my shoulders, my spinal and my hip engines? And so it’s essentially looking at how flexible am I? Are my hips locked up? That type of thing.
The next one is going to be Landing. So it’s looking at how well you land to the ground. What are your femur bones doing when they land on the ground? Are your legs externally rotating, or are they stuck in another position? So, landing is a big one to assess whether you have knee pain. So if you take your assessment and your landing score is at risk,
Let’s think about all the times that you land to the ground in movements. You step off the curb… you land to the ground. You walk and you land to the ground. So just landing is a big one to focus on. And going back to the suppleness, if you don’t have access within your body to be able to land well, then both those categories are probably going to be a risk for you.
Garrett Salpeter (45:47.519)
Okay, okay, that makes sense. I know that’s why one of the things in your programming was recommendations to sit on the ground during the day and things , know, terms of the suppleness piece, right? To just get the hips used to spending time in some of these different positions that our ancestors saw before we had couches and chairs.Jacob Salim (46:04.788)
That is correct, right, just a better way to rest. And we know that some people can’t sit on the ground. And so that’s why we have designed our system to where it adapts to you. If I can’t sit on the ground, we want you to get there eventually, but your exercises will be tailored to where you don’t even have to sit on the ground. And so we take a non-one-size-fits-all approach.That’s what I was saying as me as a triplet. I really needed a personalized routine. And so we want you to sit on the ground, and we do exercises on the ground. But if you’re not able to get on the ground because your knees are hurting and you have some preexisting conditions, then we’ll tailor that program to your needs.
Garrett Salpeter (46:51.327)
Awesome. So, we did Suppleness and then Landing. So that was the fifth one.Jacob Salim (46:55.588)
Mm-hmm. That was the fifth one, right. Okay, so then we got Feet Alignment, which is looking at just the relationship between the feet, the achilles, all the way up to the calves, the shins… And so a lot of the time, if you’re in a valgus state or you got shin splints, you were looking at what is the relationship with your movements with the feet? What’s going on there? And so we want to assess foot alignment. There’s a time and place where you can run and have that foot splay out significantly externally. There’s a time and place where you can land with the duck foot is kind of what we would call it, but really what you see is some of the strongest athletes on the football field, they run and they land with a straight and strong foot, first or second toe straight. And so when we don’t have the ability to land with a strong and straight foot, and we never ever land with a strong and straight foot, that’s when we have some issues, and you make a cut. If you’re running straight and you make a cut to your left, a 90-degree cut, and you have an externally duck foot shape with that foot, you’re going to have a significantly higher chance of tearing your ACL. So, foot alignment is a big one! And we tend to see that people who have ankle pain or knee pain often have foot alignment issues. Yep.Garrett Salpeter (48:30.463)
All right, that was number six, I believe.Jacob Salim (48:34.686)
Okay, and then the next one is gonna be Shoulders. So Shoulders is assessing whether you’re in a scapular winging position, whether your scaps are starting to round forward. And it’s also assessing whether your neck alignment is in a good position. So your head weighs…. 12 to 15 pounds for some people and that weighs a lot. And so if your head is significantly pushed forward, you have that tech neck that people call just being on your computer. Yes, you see it. Yes, I wish the listeners could see the way you did that. So it’s a thing we’re assessing for shoulders. And if the neck is in poor alignment, it affects the shoulders. You might be really trap dominant.And so that’s one point. And then we’re also just assessing the horizontal alignment again with the columns and checking if it’s in a good position.
Garrett Salpeter (49:35.825)
Okay, so seven out of eight so far. Can he do it? he?Jacob Salim (49:52.0)
All right. I would not forget this one because I know this is the one that you love the most, the Launching one, just because I know that this is the one that you needed to work on the most.You told me that your hip internal rotation was an area that you’ve known for a long time that you just needed more access, more mobility, more freedom. And when we looked at the way you launched from the ground, the launching category.
We saw that your entire leg was launching when you were running and walking in the opposite direction, which should have been spiraling. And so the launching category is assessing how well you launched from the ground.
Garrett Salpeter (50:23.219)
And so, just to elaborate on what it looked like to me, I think it’s a remnant of my ice hockey, ice skating days, where it sort of looked like I was pushing out a little bit instead of really extending my hip, which has an element of internal rotation to reach that full extension. was sort of going out into a little bit of external rotation there, which could be, you some people might do that to compensate because of a deficit in ankle dorsiflexion, for example, or something that, right?My hip, I was sort of pushing out, pushing back, and out as opposed to extending with that internal rotation combo. Is that a fair description?
Jacob Salim (51:02.154)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, you got it. And that puts a lot of stress on the hip flexor, the connective tissue on the front side of your body. Your groins get significantly impacted when you don’t launch the right way.So the Launching category is also looking at full access within the hamstrings and the lower extremities there. But when we’re looking at the video assessment, it’s assessing whether you were able to get into a strong internal rotation shape when you launched from the ground. It’s looking at what the femur bone was doing?
When you launched from the ground, what was the heel doing? So the heel, where your shoe is, was it spiraling out, out and away towards your body, away from your body, or was your heel shooting up and in towards your body? When you said external rotation, when you were getting into that step of launching from the ground, your heel would have been shooting up and into your body because that whole leg above the heel was externally rotating.
And so for you, you wanted the opposite shape. You wanted that heel to spiral up and away from the body. You wanted the kneecap to start to internally rotate. It’s not the kneecap itself internally rotating, but that’s just a landmark that we’re looking at. And we want to see that whole leg spiraling inward in internal rotation. So yeah, that’s all eight right there.
Garrett Salpeter (52:37.575)
Yes. All right. He did it. He did it. So, so we’ve gotten through the analysis, what you’re looking at, you mentioned earlier in the conversation, then even in greater depth there with the eight categories, right? Eight specific areas were discussed, a little bit about program design. You know, can we zoom out a little bit now and talk about who’s using the system? We met, actually, I mentioned a mutual friend had introduced us.We met at a baseball tournament where there are teams coming in from all over, you know, the South and maybe even other regions too, you know, big here in the Austin area, you guys came down for that. And, uh, so that’s when I got to try it out, and you were running, you know, youth baseball athletes through that assessment during that weekend. Uh, you know, who’s, who’s using it so far, who are the best candidates to use it? Of course, I’m interested in this for physical therapy, chiropractic, and athletic trainers who are listening to this here, too… using it as part of their assessment and in our clinics as well.
Jacob Salim (53:58.47)
Mm-hmm. Well, if you got two legs and you’re breathing two arms, this is for you. And we have worked with pediatricians. So all the way down to the little, little, kids helping just physical assistance of the pediatric world, doctors that are involved in clinics there…educating their families on your kid should probably not be resting in this position because as they grow up, they’re going to start to be prone to knee pain. At the very low level of these young infants, we’re working with them all the way up to the 99-year-old. We had an individual who was 87, and she joined our system at 6:00 a.m. I’m a technology guy. I see that this person joined, and she was able to complete everything, get the assessment, and get the training program in 10 minutes. So that’s from step one, then… let me fill out this form, let me download the app…. let me take the assessment, let me start training.. And so that was really fast, and we haven’t even gotten into how fast the report and assessment goes (like 10 seconds to take the assessment and get your results)… but she was 87, and it goes all the way up to that because there are grandparents that we’ve worked with, and they are on the exact verge… I can’t stress this enough… one, two weeks out from having a total knee replacement from needing to have surgery and they have bone on bone contact. There’s no cartilage in their joints and they’re still able if they buy in and do the work, they’re still able to get that freedom and then avoid the surgery. And I know there’s a lot of listeners out there, I’m not here to say that surgery is not the answer.Garrett Salpeter (56:07.805)
Yeah, that might be a last resort.Jacob Salim (55:58.67)
That is correct. There’s a time and place for everything, but for some people there could be a better way and surgeries for some people could be the last option. So. Yes. Yes. And so 90 years old, 99 years old, if you are looking to get out of pain, if you’re just trying to move better, if you feel when you sleep, you wake up and you got a poor neck, tough shoulder, even your sleeping mechanics, we will talk about. And so it’s for everyone. It’s for the kid that’s trying to grow well, that doesn’t want to messed up growth patterns, that wants to make sure that they develop well. And it’s all the way to the person who’s trying to end their life well and leave their family with the best of them, not the rest of them. The older generations who don’t want to leave their family with some body aches and body pains. They’re trying to leave their kids and their grandkids with the best version of themselves. So it’s the whole spectrum.And one thing too, while you brought this up just to tackle this is when your growth plates, which average male growth plates close like 15 to 17, average female growth plates close like 13 to 15 and I might be a little off on the ages but if your growth plates have closed it’s even harder to get back to your natural movement and you need it more. If you’re deviating from age 17, you need it now. Tomorrow is worse. Your body, naturally, as you get older, is fighting more things. It’s fighting the stimuli that we talked about. It’s fighting the environment. And so if you’re 90 years old, you need it. You needed this already. And if you are 14 and your growth plates are about to close, you need to get this right! So that when your growth plates close, you won’t lose this. Your movement will be great as you get into your 20s and your 30s because you did the right necessary exercises and natural movement that you needed as a young kid.
Garrett Salpeter (58:25.663)
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today.So what about practice owners? So you mentioned this woman logged on and did it from home. Now, our practice owners or clinicians are using it in their clinics with their patients. What’s the use case there in that scenario?
Jacob Salim (58:50.984)
That is correct. Yes. So we have people from all over the country and also outside the country who are in clinics or organizations, such as a baseball organization, and they’re running their kids through the assessment and the training program.And so with organizations and clinics…Garrett, you would be able to see all of the training… if the client is okay with it. Obviously, if it’s your organization, they’re okay with it because, you know, they’re joining NeuFit or they’re joining this baseball organization. And so the administrators are able to see what we’re programming. If it’s acceptable with the client, the administration can view their report. So it’s kind of a team effort.
And so this is in clinics. This is in, I mentioned pediatric clinics. And so it’s all the way down to the young kids. It’s in recovery units to help people who have had a stroke, and they need to get back to walking better.
It’s also in the athletic world. I specialized in athletic endeavors, and I was a baseball player at the D1 level. And so there are universities that have this, where we’ve assessed their entire athletic department. And we’ve been at Universities saying… “your football team… they’re going to be at risk for injuries.” And, your baseball team is moving a lot better than last year.
And so… We’re kind of all over, and then we do work with the individual as well. And so it’s kind of, I’ve heard it said, well, if you’re a human, this is for you. You all gotta move, you know? It’s best to move well.
Garrett Salpeter (01:00:54.501)
And a physical therapy clinic or chiropractic practice would be one of these organizations that you described that would sort of fit under there, too.Jacob Salim (01:01:02.9)
Yeah. For example, at a chiropractic place… When I was talking about the hips being out of alignment, we’ve had this happen with a lot of groups where…the chiropractor will have the individual take the assessment before they show up so that they can see, okay, those hips are out of alignment and see to the degree that they’re out of alignment and be able to have an idea on the patient before they show up. Okay, we gotta work on this. Okay, there are some issues right here, some imbalances. Well, let me correct this. And so, yes, we’re definitely doing well there.Garrett Salpeter (01:01:52.167)
That’s awesome. And I want to transition to our, as we wind down here, a rapid-fire questions. Do you have a favorite, and if you can’t, if you can’t narrow it down to one, you can do a top two or three, but a favorite book or concept that has shaped your thinking over the years.Okay, let’s shoot.
Jacob Salim (01:02:10.624)
Man, that’s a tough one. Well, I would be lying if I didn’t say the Bible. And I know that’s a throw weird answer for some people, but it’s really shaped my life, who I am, my character, my identity.
Beyond that, let’s say I’m more of an audiobook guy. So let’s see. I could say your book. And I really enjoyed your book. My whole family’s read it. I know that that’s kind of a… I need to have something other than that. You might have to come back to me. That is one to throw on the spot for sure. I’ll have to think about that.Garrett Salpeter (01:02:59.977)
Ha ha ha ha. All right, all right. What about, is there any one belief or piece of conventional wisdom about movement or performance that most people get wrong?Jacob Salim (01:03:14.537)
All right. Man, you have had really good questions, Garrett, on this podcast. You sure have. So, wow, there are a lot of things that I could say right here. So one of them is, and I hope I don’t have people who attack me. So let’s, I think I can give you two. So one is that, “Maxing,” you know, throwing 600 pounds on a barbell, right? I know there’s a time and place for that. I’m a believer in “Movement over Maxes.”
There’s a huge, huge strength coach at TCU called Zach DeChant. That’s his name. I probably pronounced it wrong. And he’s a big believer in movement over maxes. And so I want these individuals to be strong, but if they can’t move well, then they need to work on moving better. And sometimes throwing like 900 pounds on your back… might not be the best thing. If you look at the way bodybuilders run… you ask a bodybuilder to sprint, it looks kind of rough. And so I say that with a lot of peace. I’m not coming at people by any means. That’s not how I do anything. And we, we definitely come alongside people who are throwing a lot of weight on their barbell. And I’m talking a lot of weight, not a little weight.And so, you know, if you’re supplementing the right exercises in the right corrective exercises, making sure that you move well, and then you’re doing the heavy weight. Okay. You’ll be all right. But if you’re just doing heavy weight, a lot of people are saying… I need to get stronger. I gotta get stronger. And they say, “I gotta be able to get up to 500 pounds on a barbell.” And that’s cool. That really is cool. But, if you were just at 490 and you have back pain or hip pain… maybe the answer is to try something else as well. Start working on the way you launch from the ground and do those corrective exercises coupled with what you’re doing to make sure that you’re staying all right.
Garrett Salpeter (01:05:35.327)
One of my favorite questions is to ask if you could put a billboard out somewhere or have one message you could shout from the rooftops, what would it be that would fit in the number of characters you could put on a billboard? I think movement over maxes, would that be your statement? Because I think that’s actually a really good one there, too.Jacob Salim (01:05:56.696)
Mm-hmm. It is. It is. And that’s a… there might be some controversy on that one, but that’s what I believe. And at least I’ve just seen people who have been a byproduct of lifting a lot, lifting a lot, and there’s a time and place, and it’s good. I’m not bashing any of it, but just after you get done with your sport… I’ve just worked with a lot of people who are in their 40s and 50s, and they’re saying, “I got really ripped up and I’m paying the consequence for it now,” versus, “after I’m done with my sport, I feel great. I’m in shape. I can do whatever I want, and I’m not limited by the discomfort.”So yeah, that would be on a billboard.
Then another one that I would throw on a billboard is probably just, it’s not controversial. It’s just, “pain is limiting. It is limiting. Pain is limiting. Discomfort is limiting. Just imagine, think about it. Imagine your life without those limits.” Maybe you’re happier, you know, with your kids, you don’t wake up with back pain, and you’re not angry, you know, with your family a little bit more. Just because you don’t have back pain. And so I know that that hits your heart well because you care about the people that you’re with, and your newbie unit works, your philosophy works, the system works. And so just being able to free up their…Their neurological behavior, their movement with you, it doesn’t just unlock their body, it unlocks their mind. They’re just way more peaceful when they don’t have these limits. So yeah, I would, I would put on a billboard: “Pain is limiting. Just imagine your life without it.”
Garrett Salpeter (01:07:49.341)
Yes, that’s a beautiful note on which to end it here. So, if anyone is interested in learning more about G8way Max, Jacob, what’s the best website and/or social media platform to look you guys up?Jacob Salim (01:08:03.038)
That is correct, right. Well, social media, I wish we were on it. We probably should be on it, especially as a technology guy. I know the benefits. And so one day we’ll probably be on it again. We’ve just been reaching the people through guys you. And then also on g8waymax.com, which, as you said, is spelled G8, W-A-Y-M-A-X.com.G8waymax.com.
Garrett Salpeter (01:08:33.627)
Awesome. And if this resonated with you, it’s at least worth a trip to that website. And is there a special offer for Neufit listeners? Anything we can pass?Jacob Salim (01:08:45.44)
I would love it. Yes, yeah. Let’s just do coupon code, “newfit.” And you’ve got to spell that right. N-E-U-F-I-T. And if you put that on any of your plans, let’s go for a 15 % discount. Neufit, yeah, yeah.Garrett Salpeter (01:09:01.855)
Awesome. Thank you so much. He just, he just did that on the spot for us. I appreciate that very much. So thank you, Jacob, for being here. I’ve enjoyed your content. I enjoyed the experience. One thing I didn’t even mention. So when, when you mentioned you picked up that issue in my launch movement pattern with the anti-spiral instead of the proper spiraling pattern in my leg, the fact that it was, that it was personalized to me had a really interesting effect of motivating me to follow the recommendations… to do the programming and be more diligent where, you know, if something is a little more one size fits all, it doesn’t really land in that same way, it doesn’t really resonate as much. So it was an interesting psychological observation too… I’ve had a very positive experience. So glad we got to have you on to share your work and appreciate you, Jacob, for tuning into this. Thank you so much for being part of Neufit Nation. We’ll see you on the next episode of the Undercurrent Podcast. -
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