Season 2 of ULP is here with a great episode from my buddy and Northeastern Assistant Strength Coach, Alex Pacitti. Alex has mentored under Dan Sanzo at Northeastern and this has impacted his training for various athletes. Much like Erik Huddleston, Alex is looking at the shape of an athlete (particularly at the pelvic and thoracic outlets) to determine areas of high and low pressure, which will influence the movement of fluid and guts within the body.

Understanding these concepts can explain why some people don't have the same explosiveness or propulsive abilities of others. While shapes/structure help predetermine someone's abilities, Alex is training some of his athletes to overcome potential power deficiencies by limiting the amount of traditional weightlifting being done in favor of other interventions. We also talk about how certain shapes or abilities can help the athlete select their respective sport or positions. This predisposition to certain qualities is often overlooked by cookie-cutter strength programs so looking through this lens is in the very least a great way to re-think individualized programming for athletes.

Alex can be found on IG @coach_pacitti and his page is a great resource for visualizing a lot of the concepts we talk about on the episode.