Jacob Miller

Miller Human Performance / Sport Scientist: Forge FC

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

Non-competitive speed work:
- Technique development
- Lower CNS stress = easier recovery

Competitive speed work:
- Higher intent and outputs
- Higher CNS stress = harder recovery

(Also why games will always be more stressful than practice, even with workloads matched)

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@GuruAnaerobic My personal case study on this was my return from tibial stress fracture. I didn’t just have to manage impacts/running volume after, but my daily footwear.
Haven’t gotten back to minimalist shoes for my long coaching hours (yet)

[Forge FC @ForgeFCHamilton]

Built to lead the way.⚒️

We're proud to announce our coaching and operational staff for the 2026 season.

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

I feel like I’ve upgraded the midwit meme, something I’m hesitant to say about one of my favourite meme templates…

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@CoachZach32 @timkettenring I also see a big HR difference on the stair master with/without hands

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

NEW blog post is up!

The Self-Help Trap: What 20+ Years of “Optimizing” Has Taught Me

The older I get, the more I think that self-help can be a trap. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. I say this after ~20 years of writing self-help and a lifetime of consuming it.

Spend enough time in the world of “improvement,” and you’ll notice something strange: The people most obsessed with self-help are often the least helped by it. Behind the smiles and motivational quotes, behind closed doors and after a drink or two, the truth is that they’re not able to outsmart their worries.

On one hand, perhaps this unhappiness is precisely what lands one in self-development in the first place, right? I long assumed this about myself, and it’s partially true.

On the other hand, what if self-help itself is actually creating or amplifying unhappiness?

Modern self-help contains an in-built flaw:

To continually improve yourself, you must continually locate the ways you are broken.

Fortunately, there are a few perspective shifts that make all the difference. It took me embarrassingly long to figure them out.

To get started, let’s take a fresh look at an old concept.

See the link below to the full blog post 👇

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@socrateehees @Hali In rehab, “chaos” is one of the last variables to be added. You want to build capacity for pre-planned/predictable movements first.
You would actually expect outputs to be quite high well before live play - heavy strength, jumping, sprinting all achieved long before ready to play

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

Consider this a warning… 😱

The ATG cult can be found anywhere.

Be sure to arm yourself with basic critical thinking skills and at least an ounce of creativity everywhere you go 🫵

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@scibasedlifter_ @mboyle1959 Ah, another complete dead-end debate caused Mike not quite understanding the things he’s debating about 🙄

[Canadian Premier League @CPLsoccer]

FORGED IN FIRE 🔨🔥

No team has EVER gone undefeated this long in #CanPL history – congratulations to @ForgeFCHamilton for a record 15 matches without a loss 😎

[Blake Burge @blakeaburge]

A major cheat code in life: Being a pleasure to deal with. Kind when others aren’t. Calm when things go sideways. Reliable under pressure. Intelligence alone is overrated. Be someone who lightens the load for folks around them. People value people who make their lives easier.

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@StrengthDebates Just grabbed some data to confirm my gut reaction: 42% of the 3500 runners of the recent Toronto marathon went sub-4hr. I’m going to go ahead and say that’s absurdly less impressive than the other 3. If it was bait, congrats I guess lol

[Forge FC @ForgeFCHamilton]

Introducing your 2025 Forge FC Soccer Operations Staff 🫡

🗞 | https://t.co/LwsKafiQOP

#TogetherWeForge

[Visa is doing marketing consults (see pinned!) @visakanv]

nobody is coming to do an honest audit of your time and energy for you

only you can face the truth of how you are living your life, and whether it’s the life you know in your heart you are actually capable of living

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@timkettenring Tried to have this dialogue with him… didn’t get anywhere 🙃

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@mboyle1959 You don’t think the traits that differentiate the “born to run” are trainable? Talking both the physical and the technical traits.
Nobody is thinking about what the pre-requisites are, therefore most are doing it poorly, therefore injury rates are ridiculously high.

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

This is unfortunately the only part of the article that gets close to any of the questions I’m posing here, yet doesn’t answer them.

Maybe to put it this way:
Chronic injuries arise as a result of
A) Intensity that’s too high (too much force in each step)
B) Volume that’s too high
C) Tissue tolerance that’s too low
⬇️
A) Technique and bodyweight can be altered to modify per-step forces
B) Volume is easily modifiable
C) Tissue tolerances, once accurately identified, are trainable

Where are my flaws in this string of logic?
Reminding here again, that I don’t believe everyone needs to follow this process. Just arguing for it being possible.

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

Are we debating whether most can become elite, or whether most can become a competent, injury-free runner?
I’ll also point out that “can” is importantly different than “should.”

I would agree that (for some) the work required to reach “competent & injury free runner” is too tall a task to be worth it, but I wouldn’t agree that it’s impossible or untrainable - minus extreme edge-cases

[Jacob Miller @Miller_Perform]

@mboyle1959 Would you be able to define what qualities are at play here, and which you think aren’t trainable?

Aren’t we in a field based on change and adaptation? How many things can there be that can’t be improved over time, if given the proper focus and stimulus?

[Les Spellman @les7spellman]

For the past two years, my mom has struggled with debilitating back pain.
She's tried everything—injections, medications, countless doctor visits—but nothing provided lasting relief. Eventually, she decided to move forward with back surgery. Before she committed, I asked for one week to work with her. I told her I’d fly home and dedicate the week entirely to helping her.

Now, if you know my mom, she’s incredibly stubborn. I’ve offered to help before, but her response was always something like, “If the experts can’t fix it, what makes you think you can?” No hard feelings—I understood her skepticism.

For the past year, I’ve been reflecting on the work we do and asking myself: Does it truly make people feel better? Can it create long-term adaptations that reduce pain consistently? Could it even address structural issues that impact us daily? I wondered: would any of this work on my 70-year-old mom? And is our medical system really so limited that surgery and bracing seem like the only options?

Long story short, we’re now three days in, and her pain has gone from a 9.5 to a 2. Each day, we’ve walked farther and faster. I’ve broken our sessions into two types: Prep and Perform. Prep days focus more on manual therapy and improving range of motion, while Perform days emphasize higher volumes of walking with intermittent bursts of fast walking.

One fascinating discovery: the same thing that limits many of our athletes—hip extension—was limiting my mom. By restoring some range in her hip extension, the pressure in her back has significantly decreased. For two years, she’s dealt with sciatica, cramping, and constant discomfort. Now? She feels none of it.

It's CRAZY. Doctors tell our aging parents to limit activity, rest, and try to brace the spine. I've thought about the spinal engine work we do with the athletes and applied some of that to my mom's daily routine. Side bending, Rotating, Flexing, Extending. Then we worked some hip extension through ISOs and some IR mobility.

We've got 4 more days to work. Excited to see what changes we can make.