High School Athletes

Why is it so hard to get High School aged athletes, specifically boys, to lift weights? In my gym, I've been lucky enough to be designated the "strength guy" by my co-workers. When someone comes in looking for a trainer to help them get stronger for sports, or for daily life, I tend to be the one who's schedule they look towards. I find this extremely flattering, and sort of revel in it. As a result, I have had several High School athletes under my tutelage, incidentally they have mostly been Lax kids; which is funny to me because it is one of the few sports I have NEVER played.

Sick spoon, brah. 

Regardless of having never played the sport, preparing a High School athlete for their season is not rocket science. Make them bigger, stronger and faster and you have succeed. Throw in some injury prevention and you're golden. Sounds like what every High School kid wants, right? 

If you guessed yes, you guessed wrong. Getting these high school boys to subscribe to the theory of doing compound lifts and NOT bicep curls was extremely difficult. The 15 year old girl I trained bought into it nearly immediately, but not the boys. They have such a hard time wrapping their heads around doing something that doesn't benefit the mirror muscles. Even when an exercise DOES benefit the mirror muscles, they want to do something else. Pushups? No way, can't we bench? 

I can bench. YOU can't bench. YOU can't even do 10 pushups. Pullups, forget about it. 

So, why is it so difficult to get High School aged boys to lift weights. I read the Cressey Performance blogs all the time, and they are constantly talking about the great results they are getting with their high school aged athletes, but the ones I see don't even want to be in the weight room. They saw off-season strength and conditioning as a completely secondary tool, something that fell way behind their interest in just playing more Lax. How do you really get a 17 year old boy to understand that sport specific skill will only take you so far? That being bigger and better than everyone on the freshman team is only going to last so long; when you make varsity, someone is going to hammer you. At some point, being 6' and 150 lbs is not going to work out for you any more. 

So whats the deal? I don't get it. When I was in high school, if a bigger, stronger older guy told me what to do to get bigger, stronger and get girls to make out with me, I would've done it! Without thinking twice. Deadlifts? Making out? Done and done. 

I wonder if they would do their lifts if Leryn Franco told them to?

Go lift something heavy. Do it for Leryn!

Seriously, dude?

There was a tiny local gym in the neighborhood that recently went out of business. My facility absorbed quite a few of their members, and interestingly, it is pretty easy to tell who came from that gym. They were "gym rats" in the sense that they spent a lot of time there, and formed a nice little community. The side effect to this, is that they all have a lot of the same bad habits. They perpetuated a "Crossfit type workout style" that many of them use; however, they use it poorly.

Ding Ding Ding!! Here comes the failboat!!

Now, I don't hate Crossfit. It is a great system to improve GPP and athleticism....when used correctly. When used improperly, it is just a great way to make you small and weak. And small and weak is no way to got through life, son!

This brings to me one guy that just cracks me up. He is a big guy, fairly athletic looking. First day he came into our gym, I thought "this one has promise, let's see what his routine is like". A few minutes later, he comes out of the locker room, ready for for battle. He has his cutoff t-shirt on, Vibram KSO's on his feet, lifting straps around his wrists, its on like donkey kong! He goes through a sort of dynamic warm-up (thumbs up) stretching and moving his whole body. Then he heads to the Cybex ab machine.

Wait. What?

Yup, sits on the ab machine with his Vibrams and wrist straps on, and crushes a few sets of abs. Weird. He then heads back to the free weight section and hammers out some heavy rack pulls.

Shit. No. That is what I was doing. He sat down and did some sets of 20-25 rep overhead DB presses. Seated overhead presses. With his wrist straps dangling. Uh, sweet dude. I watched nearly his entire workout. Not a single move that would necessitate wrist-straps, and nothing that would make use of his Vibrams. Everything was some variation of a seated push. Really? For serious?

Being a gear-whore is one thing (I, personally, am a sneaker whore), but not even knowing how to utilize your gear is lame. That sir, makes you a douchebag!

Just how fit do you need to be?

I've written about this before, but it always needs reiterating.

How "fit" do you NEED to be at any given moment?

Periodization is king for a reason. You do not need to be at your "peak" conditioning year round, its just ludicrous. Athletes don't do it, why do you need to?

Spend some time working on maximal strength. Doing 95 pound hang cleans if you weigh 130 really isn't that useful. Being 130 lbs and deadlifting 260 would be a much more impressive feat of strength, and much more useful to your daily life. If you're not competing in any sports, why do you need to have great explosive strength? You'd be much better off improving your baseline level of strength.

If you weigh 130 lbs, what are you doing running 3 miles on the treadmill every time you go to the gym? You don't need to lose weight. You're not challenging yourself and trying to get the time down. You're setting the treadmill to 6.7 and putting in the miles each day. What is that doing for you? If you're not training for a 3 mile race, it's not doing much. You'd be far better off going to find a basketball court and doing some suicides. Or finding a hill and crushing some hill sprints. Things that require explosive muscular force that will build hard, useful muscles.

I bring this up, because of a guy I know who comes to my gym. He weighs about 145 lbs, and I usually see him doing some sort of "Crossfit style workout". I have my thoughts about Crossfit, but now is not the time for that discussion. Basically, he does a fairly metabolic workout with short rest periods, lower weights and high reps and sets. Cool; it's a great way to boost your work capacity, endurance and burn calories. Is that really what you're looking for, Skinny-guy-that-cant-fill-out-a-small-t-shirt?

I still don't understand why guys have such a hard time asking people for advice. If you see someone at the gym who looks like what you want, coughcoughMEcoughcough, GO ASK FOR ADVICE!! Especially if he works at your gym!

Now, go lift something heavy! And if you dont know how, ASK!!

New Ways to get Beastly

Todays exercise comes courtesy of Glenn Pendlay. I really know nothing about him, except that he is an olympic lifting coach who has a pretty sweet row variation named after him.

What it is: The Pendlay Row

Why it is sick: Great upper-back exercise. Great lower-back exercise. Great carryover to the deadlift. Great exercise in general. Each rep requires resetting your position, so that one second pause allows you to go heavier than you can with a traditional barbell row. You use as little body english as possible (none, hopefully) so you really need to fire your upper back explosively in order to do it right. The Pendlay Row also has a great carryover to the deadlift, because it essentially puts you into the position to start your deadlift. Upper back strength is really important in moving serious weights in the deadlift, which makes this a really useful exercise.

Now go give it a shot!

Intervals vs. Steady State

This is one of the longest running, most hotly debated questions in the fitness industry. There are tons of answers, and if you "want" an answer, I'm sure you will be able to find it. If you WANT to run on a treadmill like a gerbil for 45 minutes, you can find research to back it up. If you WANT to wake up at 5:30 to do 60 minutes of fasted steady state cardio, you can find the research to back it up. If you WANT to run backwards on an elliptical while slowly sipping the blood of an unborn Cobra, then you can probably find the research to back it up. 

Admittedly, it can be tough to sift through the bullshit. And Lord knows there is a lot of it floating around out there. But use some common sense; does waking up and doing an hour of cardio on an empty stomach really seem like a great idea to you? 

There are two ways to break this down, scientifically and anecdotally. We will go with science first. 

So, here is how it works. When you do steady state cardio (i.e. 45 minutes on a treadmill at one speed), your body will consume a higher number of calories derived from fat tissues. When you perform interval training (i.e. 30 seconds of sprinting, followed by 90 seconds of recovery, repeated multiple times) your body will consume a higher number of total calories. 

Lets use some numbers to quantify it. Say you do 45 minutes of exercise, one day it is steady state hamster cardio and the next day is interval training. On hamster day, you burn 350 kcals, and 75 of them are kcals derived from fat sources. Thus, 25% of your total calories were derived from fat sources. The next day you do interval training, and burn a total of 450 kcals, and 75 of them are from fat. This results in only 16% of your calories being derived from fat sources, but you also burned 100 more calories total!  

As we know, the name of the game in weight loss is the difference between the calories you can take in vs the calories that you expel (calories in - calories out). If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. ***

***DISCLAIMER: I am not taking into account changes in body composition. Weight loss is not just about burning calories during exercise, but changing your basal metabolic rate by adding lean muscle mass to your body. I know that weight loss is not comprised of just cardio, but also weight training. 

So, if I can burn more calories in the same amount of time by doing interval training, then that sounds like something I would want to take part in, yeah? 

So, why don't more people do it? Easy: because intervals suck, they are hard as shit. Average Joe Gymgoer is extremely adverse to doing things that are hard as shit. That is why the squat rack has become the curl rack in many facilities. It is way easier to climb onto the elliptical and grind away for 45 minutes while watching Rachel Ray and reading US Weekly than it is to get onto the rowing erg and crush some 30:30 intervals for 15 minutes, or go to the field and hammer at some 50 yard sprints.

Anecdotally, my favorite comparison is between sprinters and marathoners. Who would you rather look like?

For the most current example, lets see what the winner (and world record setter) of the 2011 Boston Marathon looked like:

This is what Usain Bolt, the gold medal dominator of the Beijing Olympic sprinting events:

Not even a contest, for me. 

Ladies? Desiree Davila, the winner of the 2011 Boston Marathon:

LoLo Jones, one of the top sprint athletes for the US Womens Olympic team:

I don't mean to take anything away from the Marathon athletes; they are amazing and do things that I can't even fathom. 26.2 miles in 2:02? I can't even drive that fast. As impressive as they may be, I don't wanna look like them!

Now go sprint somewhere!

OW my knee hurts!

No kidding! Everyones knees hurt at some point. As a personal trainer and a volleyball player, I hear this complaint more than any other. Now, I understand "scope of practice". There are several ways to go about alleviating general anterior knee pain, but if it is severe or pro-longed, you should go see a doctor. One of the ways that I use to determine what kind of knee pain someone has (chronic, acute, congenital) is to see if it ever changes their gait. If it affects the way you walk or run on a daily basis, you should definitely go see a doctor so that he can refer you to a PT.

If it looks like a duck, and went to medical school...

There are a few simple ways to take care of general anterior knee pain; the type of knee pain most people are talking about when they tell you their knee hurts. They revolve around being weak and being tight; the two things that cause most of our joint pains. 

In terms of strength, its either not enough overall strength, or its an imbalance caused by improper exercise. A lot of recreational, even competitive, athletes will only play their sport and not do the proper strength and conditioning to go along with it. This results in a dominance in certain muscle groups; in terms of volleyball players we see a huge reliance on the quadriceps for propulsion and for landing. They want to do everything on their toes to incorporate as much quadriceps as possible. This leads to weak hamstrings and glutes, which causes poor hip extension and increases pressure on the patello-femoral joint. Fix it by deadlifting! To take this a step further, you can get an imbalance within the quadriceps muscle. If your Vastus Lateralis (the big muscle on the outside of your thigh) is much stronger than your Vastus Medialis Oblique (the little tear-drop just above your knee) then you can suffer from a sub-luxating patella; that is, a kneecap that doesn't track properly. One of the best ways to fix this imbalance is to get off the leg press and leg extension and start lunging and squatting. 

Now, some people may be doing these exercises and still be experiencing knee pain. There are some other causes, as well. One of the muscles that plays a huge role in control of the hips is the Glute Medius.  One of the easiest ways to check the function of a client's glute medius is by watching them squat; if they experience valgum stress on the knees (knee caving) during a squat. There are a few simple exercises to help with this; squatting with a band around the knees, sitting with a band around the knees and pressing out, or X-band walks. 

These will also help with instability issues when performing a lunge. Weird how its all connected, no? Instability/weakness at the hip joint causes pain at the knee by the transfer of stress. Your body simple shoots the stress down the muscles, and suddenly your knees hurt.

Those are the big muscular deficiencies that can cause general knee pain. The other big thing is soft tissue quality; flexibility and mobility. If you move like crap, you're gonna feel like crap. Hip mobility and ankle mobility are going to play a HUGE role in the way your knees feel. I know you can't change the fact that you sit for 8 hours at work, but you can do something to help fix it. Foam roll every day; do a dynamic warm-up; run through some mobility drills. It may add 20 minutes to your workout, but your body will thank you down the road.

Foam rolling your IT bands is one of the quickest ways to help alleviate some knee pain. When your IT Band (Iliotibial band) or TFL (Tensor Fascia Latae) get tight, they cause your upper legs to pull/rotate in an outward manner. This causes your patella to get off track and will really disrupt proper function at the knees. Roll/stretch out your hips and legs consistently, and it won't be long before you are back to moving the way nature intended.

Of course, these are things you can do in the gym to help get your knees healthy. In the event that your knee pain is severe or acute, you should probably go talk to a doctor about it.

Now go lift something heavy (but do some dynamic mobility drills first!)

New ways to get Beastly

This beastly exercise comes courtesy, again, of Nick Tumminello. This guy just has a knack for developing exercises that I find to be extremely effective. 

What it is: The Push-Back Push-Up

Why it is sick: Mainly because it is another new push up variation, and push up variations are beastly. One of my favorite things to do is take guys who think they are advanced well beyond the point of even thinking about push ups, and just stapling them to the ground with different variations. 

"Oh, you can bench 135x12? Cool, try this feet-elevated spiderman pushups and tell me how they go....muahahahahahahaha"

This push up variation is sweet because, unlike most other variations, it adds two dimensions to the exercise. You get the standard push up, and then the push back works your chest, lats and serratus unlike any other push up I'm aware of. Add the fact that you are moving your body back and forth (think bodysaw) and you are engaging all of your core musculature beyond the needs of a normal push up. This is a great way to finish off an upper body workout and hit your muscles from multiple angles at once.

Go give it a shot!

Making them understand

There are some challenges surrounding training clients in a commercial gym facility. The music, co-workers, the atmosphere, lack of equipment; the list goes on. With that said, I think one of the biggest issues regarding training in a commercial gym is figuring out how to balance what a client wants vs. what a client needs.

No, this is NOT what you need. Far from it. But, this is what a lot of clients WANT, or think they want. They want a personal trainer to "totally kick their ass" so that they can go to dinner with their friends and talk about the crazy exercises that they did and how sore their triceps are going to be for 6 days. Congrats, you totally pumped up your triceps...but you're still weak and over-weight! Sweet. 

It is much easier for most personal trainers to give in and just crush somebody every time, but that doesn't get results. It is much easier to give someone a "placebo effect" workout that leaves them exhausted but with no real gains than it is to develop a program that will help someone get results even if they only see you twice per week. Mike Boyle wrote his article "Apology letter to Personal Trainers" a few years back regarding this very subject. He discovered, after years of working with athletes, how difficult it was to actually get results from someone you train only 2 hours out of a full week. Trust me, it is difficult. Thankfully, a few of my clients have the financial means to see me 3 or 4 times per week; but even that is tough. 

The toughest thing is when you get a client (majority of them, actually) who has some sort of imbalance that needs correcting. Several of my clients are doctors, and as expected, have various mobility issues from spending years at a desk/bent over a book at work and at med school. Getting someone who sees you once per week to understand why you want to start off the 60 minute session with 20 minutes of foam rolling, dynamic warm-ups and mobility drills is tough. These people want to work work work, which is fantastic, except their work capacity is limited by their physical capacity. 

No matter how much you shine a bar of shit, it will never be gold. You can take a client with bad posture and movement quality and make them stronger and leaner easily. But is that doing them any good? Would you, the trainer, want to be strong and lean but look like Quasimodo? I sure wouldn't. It takes much more guts to sit your client down (just not on the Cybex Chest Press) and tell them that in order to reach their goals, they are going to have to do some things that aren't so sexy. Lets be honest, Scap Wall Slides and Pigeon Pose don't look nearly as cool to the average person as a Walking Lunge with a Bicep Curl to Overhead Press with a Twist, or the "WLWBCTOHPWT". 

Someone performing the "WLWBCTOHPWT"

I agree that, as trainers, we need to respect our clients wishes. But it shouldn't have to be at the expense of their overall health. You should have the guts to sit your client down and tell them what they need to achieve in order to help reach their goals, and the intelligence/information to back it up. You're the professional, after all. 

Now go find something heavy and pick it up.

Strength Training vs Circuit Training vs Strength Circuits vs Barbell Complex vs Tabata vs. Death Circuits

Phew. Thats a helluva title, huh?

So, my post from the other day "Are you getting stronger?" got me thinking about the way people work out. Clearly, there is a large gap in information between the well-educated strength coaches and advanced lifters and the average "trainer" and Joe Gym-Goer. A lot of what people do in the gym is based off of what they think they know; which bugs me more than legit ignorance. Man up, just come ask me a question if you don't know something.

Anyway, one thing many people "know" is circuit training. Circuit training is a great form of exercise that I use quite often with clients for whom I am looking to achieve a metabolic effect. It can also be a great way to gain strength in a compressed period of time; if you only have 30 minutes to train, then a strength circuit might be the way to go for you. No, it may not help improve your maximal strength, but you won't get weaker doing it.

NOTE: the above picture is NOT what I mean when I refer to circuit training. Had I wanted to refer to the pictured type of training, I would have punched myself directly in the junk. 

Lets break down the different types of "circuit" training and how they work.

Strength Training: Heavy weights. Low reps. High chance of the blonde on the treadmill jumping off to make out with you.

Example: A) Deadlift 5x5

                B1) Reverse Lunge 3x8/leg

                B2) T-spine extensions

                C1) Single Leg Slideboard Hamstring Curls 3x8/leg

                C2) Bodysaw 4x10

                D) Yell "LIGHTWEIGHT BABYYYYY" like Ronnie Coleman

Circuit Training: The umbrella term to cover all the bases. This simply means that you are performing several different exercises in a row with minimal/no rest between exercises and a longer rest between sets. In general, the focus of this type of exercise is more metabolic than strength-oriented. Nick Tumminello has developed some really good circuits, especially for his fitness competitor girlfriend.

Example: Burpees x8

                Mountain Climbers x 20

                Walking Lunges x 10/leg

                Alligator Walk x 15 yards

                Jumping Jacks x 20

                Sprint x 20 yards

                **performed 5 times with 2 minute rests in between

Example 2: DB Reverse Lunge x 8/leg

                   DB Push Press x8

                   DB Bent Over Row x 10

                   DB Cross Waiters Walk x 15 yards

                   Pushups x 10

                  **Performed 5 times with 2 minutes rests in between. 

Strength Circuits: A little bit of this, a little bit of that. A good way to get in a high volume of strength work, while achieving a good metabolic effect. If you think weight training isn't "cardio" then try out one of these circuits.

Example: Deadlift x 6

                Chinups x 8

                Pushups x 10

                Facepull x 10

                **Use a challenging weight, but only about 80% of the weight you would normally use.

                ***Try to not vomit in your mouth.

Barbell Complex: Popularized in multiple T-Nation articles, the barbell complex has become a highly utilized style of metabolic training. One of the reasons they have become so popular, is because it allows you to get some movement training in for your compound exercises. They are done by choosing several barbell exercises and performing them in succession for Xreps without ever putting the barbell down. You rest, try not to die, and then repeat. They are performed with an extremely light weight (an empty bar will crush you) and at the highest velocity possible. The amount of weight can be adjust by using a bodybar, or even dumbbells depending on the level of your client. 

Example: Cleans x 8

                Front Squat x 8

                Push Press x 8

                Back Squat x 8

                Bent Over Row x 8

                Deadlift x 8

                Good Morning x 8

                *Performed 6 times. 3 minute rest between each set.

                **Don't be a hero. Use an empty barbell. Work on velocity.

                ***Write out your workout and tape it to the mirror in front of you, no excuses.

                ****Don't use bicep curls and calf raises for your exercises.

Tabata: Masochism to the max. Developed by Dr. Izumi Tabata, these are one of the worst things I have ever done. To do these, you're gonna need to choose a big exercise that you can do fast. Real fast. Lunges will not work, because they take too long to do. Pushups will not work because you fatigue too quickly. Unfortunately, the best exercise for a Tabata is the squat; if there is gonna be external resistance, a front squat or goblet squat. It is 4 minutes of work; not too bad, right? You will perform a 2:1 work rest ratio (20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest), for a total of 8 circuits. Give it a shot at the end of your workout some day. Shit, just use bodyweight squats, see what happens. (p.s. I have had success doing these with KB swings with clients). 

Death Circuits: Not so much a style of training, as a form of torture. They can be used to help build team camaraderie,  challenge athletes to get competitive and beat each others times, or haze your new interns (I'm looking at you, Cressey Performance). Most people wouldn't do these on a consistent basis, but maybe in a team training setting; a way to finish off the week if you will. There isn't much rhyme or reason to the exercises chosen, as long as they all make the athlete hate life. 

Example: Trap Bar Deadlift x 8

                Prowler Push x 20 yards

                Farmers Walk x 20 yards

                Overhead Keg Lunges x 20 yards

                Sledgehammer Tire Hits x 10/side

                Reverse Prowler Drag x 20 yards

                Vomit on your Free's x 30 seconds

Jamie Eason thanks you for making it through that whole post!

Go give one of these circuits a shot...and make it heavy!

                

A curse or a blessing?

Recently, I came across something interesting in Shape magazine. Or maybe it was Self magazine....you know, it could've been Oxygen magazine too. I really can't tell the difference. Regardless, it was something I recognized immediately, something that was out of place, yet appropriate for this periodical. It was this.

Stability Ball Body Bar Hip Lift?

This magazine had taken one of the newest, best exercises the Strength and Conditioning world has received in many years and bastardized it. Bret Contreras popularized / invented the exercise we know as the barbell Hip Thruster. He actually even invented a "machine" (really, a platform) on which to do the exercise with a resistance band over your lap. Through EMG studies, his own success and success with clients, the exercise took off and is now widely used. Strength coaches of all disciplines have been getting behind this exercise (pun not intended, but totally intended) for the last year or two. 

Bret took a normal rehab/prehab/activation exercise that has been around forever and did something ingenious with it: he loaded it up with a barbell! Who would've thought that taking a great exercises and adding a shit-ton of external resistance would add up to great results?

So, is this a great thing for Bret, or is it a sign of the coming apocalypse? Sure, it is a great thing that his exercise has reached the level of popularity that someone at a nationally known magazine picked up on it and figured out how to make it suck  and used it in their "workout", but is that ok? Can you be happy when your exercise is being used incorrectly and to get minimal results? Eric Cressey has pointed out numerous times that when you use an unstable surface (in this case, the swiss ball) that all it really does is  allow you to use less weight, thus decrease your results. If the exercise is described as using a body bar, what is the heaviest anyone will go? 36 pounds? I think that is where they max out. 

I am sure that, if asked, Bret would be happy that someone in the masses reading that magazine would be able to benefit from his exercise, even if it was only a very small percentage. I suppose that is the correct answer; after all, as strength and conditioning coaches we should want for ALL people to get better/stronger/faster, not just our own clients. That is what really counts, isn't it?

Still, I think I would be a little pissed if I was him. Go do some hip thrusters now.

And make sure it's heavy.

New ways to get Beastly

This week's Beastly exercise is not really from one person, per se. The lineage of the exercise / method of lifting is traced back to Louie Simmons from Westside Barbell.

What it is: Resistance Band Deadlift. 

Why it is sick: Where to begin? The Westside Barbell crew has been proving the benefits of accommodating resistance for years now; take a look at the power-lifting rankings and see how many top lifters train / have trained at that gym. Accommodating resistance allows you to change the resistance being applied to the barbell at different points during the lift. This way, you can work on the parts that need to get worked on, without stressing the parts of the lift that you are good at. The resistance band deadlift allows you to lift a submaximal weight off the floor, and then have it become a max weight at your lockout point. For example, I recently bought a pair of EliteFTS "strong" mini bands. At the max stretch I can provide in a deadlift (33"), the bands will be providing 260 lbs of force. Add that to the 135 lbs that I have on the barbell, and at the very top of the lift I am dealing with 395 lbs of force. There are other ways to use these bands, and I will be going over them in the future. Not too shabby for a few rubber bands, huh?

There are many different sized bands that you can use, so start off with something light. It provides a really different feel to your normal deadlift, and will pay off with big dividends.

Now go give it a shot!

Are you getting stronger?

A few months ago, at the end of 2010, a pretty well known strength and conditioning coach got some weight off his chest. No, he didn't get lean, and no, he didn't PR in the bench press. He posted a rant of epic proportions on his blog, and he made some waves with it. Jason Ferrugia is a S&C coach from the New York/Jersey area, and is pretty well known for his no-bullshit approach to training.

It ain't strength training unless you're getting strong

Boom, laser show. That just happened.

All in all, I think it was a great (much needed) rant by a pretty well known strength coach. I see it more than a lot of coaches, being that I train in a commercial facility. I see it on a daily basis; people in the gym doing useless crap that is taking them on the long road to nowhere. Don't get me wrong, I am happy that all of these people are in the gym in the first place. That is great, I can't say enough good things about that. But, now that you are in the gym, how about doing something useful? Do you really think benching (flat, incline, decline) 3 times a week is what you need to be doing? Is a 8 exercise bicep workout your path to glory?

On the other hand, I probably know 10 guys who can see their abs year round but weigh 140 pounds. In the words of the great Alec Baldwin in The Departed "Cui gives a shit?" It's not impressive. You still look like a 17 year old girl, AND you're just as strong as that little girl too. Ferrugia is right, very few people need to have razor-cut abs year round. Being that lean all the time is just going to impair your size and strength gains. 

Just frigging eat something, dude.

9 out of 10 guys I see at my gym is skipping the most important stuff. Barbell lifts. Heavy compound exercises. Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Military Press / Push Press, Rows, Cleans. Just do them, they have been around for decades for a reason. Arnold wasn't doing TRX workouts, he wasn't doing kettlebell circuits. He was picking up heavy shit. 

This brings me to another point; guys who don't know their level. Everything in fitness works off of a baseline level; that is how you gauge your progress. Pretty much every guy I see in my gym is missing a baseline level of strength. I forget who's chart it is, and I can't find it right now, but there is a chart from a strength coach outlining what he expects the lowest levels of strength from his high school athletes to be. Needless to say, most guys in my gym wouldn't even come close to sniffing those numbers. What benefit does a kettlebell circuit provide if you can't squat 1.5 times your bodyweight? If you can't deadlift twice your bodyweight? (FYI for a 185 lb guy, those numbers are 275 and 370, not exactly ground breaking numbers.) Do you really think TRX rows are a superior exercise to T-bar rows? Using progressive over-load with a TRX row is much harder than slapping another 45 on the T-bar. 

What I'm trying to say, is that you should be strong before you are anything else. Ferrari doesn't design their sports cars with a 4-cylinder 120 horsepower engine; they start off with 500 turbo-charged horses and then make the rest of the car look great. Thats how it SHOULD be. There is nothing wrong with TRX's, or kettlebells or High Density Training, or German Volume Training....once you have accomplished certain levels of strength. 

Don't jump the gun. You've gotta walk before you run. And any other cliche that works in this circumstance. In the end, I guess its good that you are actually doing something in the gym, just make sure its worth while.

Now go pick up something heavy.

Internet Mentor + Training Environment

So, a few days ago, I made it onto the blog of my internet mentor, Tony Gentilcore. You can read the post below. For me, this is like having Larry Bird tell you that you have a good jump shot.

Deadlift Dissection

When I say "internet mentor", I mean that in the least creepy-I've-never-met-you-but-think-we-should-be-buddies way possible. Seriously though, I'm pretty sure he would want to take me under his wing and teach me the ways of lifting heavy shit while we discuss the pros and pros of Jessica Biel and her anterior pelvic tilt.

And, Boom goes the dynamite

All joking aside, I read his blog religiously and really subscribe to his methods of training. In an industry full of ass-clowns, it is refreshing to find a facility like Cressey Performance that is full of straight shooters, especially since it is 35 minutes away from me!

Now that I have finished kissing TG's ass, I need to mention a great point he brought up on his blog. The music playing while I lift sucks. Plain and simple. It is literally impossible to lift to your maximal potential with sissified pansy-music playing like that over the stereo. I understand why my facility limits the types of music we play; we cater to a somewhat older crowd; a crowd that is decidedly more Phil Collins and less DMX. 

This isn't really a huge deal for me; I just crank up the Ipod when I lift and get after it. The big problem for me is when I am working; my clients don't like trying to crank out triples on their front squats while the Goo Goo Dolls plays in the background. Having soft, sweetly sung tunes is just NOT conducive to an environment where people really wanna work hard and get better. 

Nia Shanks left an interesting comment, where she says "Go to a gym that doesn't play Justin Timberlake, and you should add 50+ to your deadlift!" And she is probably right! A gym like that has multiple ways of making you stronger: 1) loud my-Mother-doesn't-love-me music 2) chalk and most importantly, 3) people that are like minded and trying to get better. Thats the big one, for me. Anytime I am in the weight room working out and some of the other trainers are in there getting in their own workouts, I have a great lift. The atmosphere is much more energetic; people are willing to go heavier to show off, there are spotters, guys are cheering for each other. On the other hand, if I am getting ready for some heavy lifting, and the weight room is full of gym-monkeys doing biceps curls and overhead cable triceps extensions, as well as a few 70 year olds who are doing quad contractions and scapular retractions, how am I supposed to get jacked up to lift heavy stuff? Don't get me wrong, I love old people. They just don't make great training partners. 

Get it, girl!

An interesting comparison to the normal commercial gym atmosphere would be a Crossfit gym. Crossfit gyms are popping up all over the place, so they are more commercialized than they used to be. I would also think that they lend themselves as a more interesting comparison than a private strength and conditioning facility (like Cressey Performance or EliteFTS) because they are much more accessible to the general population. (I will save my opinions on the Crossfit style of training for another day) I am using Crossfit as my comparison because those gyms attract a particular type of person. People who truly have an interest in fitness, people who want to get better, people who want to challenge themselves on a daily basis. In a word: athletes. Whereas in my particular gym, we have a large number of people who have never had a gym experience before, and wanna-be meatheads who just focus on their guns. More and more athletes are leaving commercial gym settings and finding themselves at a Crossfit affiliate because they want to be around like-minded individuals. One of the best things Crossfit does is provide an amazing training atmosphere; you get put into classes, there are competitions, scores are posted, you get CHALLENGED. 

Maybe Crossfit isn't so bad after all...

In other words, athletes get to be athletes. For the same reason that competitive baseball players to go Cressey Performance, NFL players go to DeFranco's gym and hockey players go see Mike Boyle, former athletes with no outlet for their competitive nature are going to Crossfit. Say what you will about their system, but they get results because everyone who goes there wants to work HARD. 

No matter how hard I work while training in a commercial gym, there will always be some room left on the end of the bar for another plate, because it is so rare to get truly challenged there. 

I'm still gonna try, though. You should too.

My favorite clients

Women. I love training women. And no, I don't mean "I love training hot women", although I'm not gonna complain about it when it happens.

Training her was not awful.

I mean ANY women; the best ones are the ones who have never lifted anything over 10 pounds in the gym before. My favorite sessions are the one when a woman starts off with "I don't wanna get big and bulky!" Boom. Game time. I go into full on "thats-ridiculous-mode" and put the kibash on that mind-set. More often than not, I end up with a lady who takes my advice, gets some sessions with me and follows my programming. She likes the way she feels/looks and enjoys her new barbell exercises ("I used to think 45 lbs was so heavy!").

I get a great feeling from seeing self-efficacy grow within this particular population. When my 5'1" 110 pound woman pulls 135 for reps the first time. Seeing my new-mom client make her way back to the gym 6 weeks after giving birth, and crushing the circuits we are doing; and hearing her talk about how she cant wait to get back to deadlifting. The ladies who come to me before their weddings to look a certain way and blow off steam. Even the woman who told me getting stronger and fitter made a particular aspect of her relationship much better (winkwink nudgenudge).

Ya dig?

I get a sense of satisfaction from my male clients achievements as well; I've got a couple of guys who one rep-maxed their deadlifts over 315. These are guys in their 40's who pulled 85 pounds off the pins their first time deadlifting. When it comes down to it, though, I really like the sense of accomplishment that my female clients portray after a really good session of picking up heavy shit.

I also like to see the looks on the average Joe Gymgoer when he see's one of my girls in the weightroom doing pushups, deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, farmers walks and push presses. This is when the girls really get proud of themselves; what lady doesn't feel good when she embarrasses Tommy Toughnuts by doing exercises he didn't even know existed?

Increasing self-efficacy in my female clients is great, but what I love increasing even more is their self-confidence.

Go to the gym and do something you didn't think you could!

New ways to get Beastly

This exercise comes from Nick Tumminello, a prominent strength coach who currently works with a lot of MMA fighters down in Baltimore.

What it is: A combination swiss ball rollout and pike.

Why it is sick: I do ab wheel rollouts and bodysaw's with my clients. I do slideboard pikes with my clients.  I have yet to do them at the same time. Why? I'm not as smart as Nick. This takes two fantastic all-around core exercises and turns it into a complex movement. Nothing wrong with that.

Go give it a shot!

I'm buying whatever Nike is selling.

I think this is the greatest advertisement in the history of the universe.

Besides my obvious attraction to these ads (the text, duh!) I think they actually send a really good message. In todays day and age, where the media places so much attention on how THIN Jennifer Anniston got, or how few calories Gwyneth Paltrow eats because Tracy Anderson tells her kale soup is the key to enlightenment, it is nice to see someone push the "strong, muscular, sexy woman" angle at us.

(On a separate note, did you know that despite working out with Tracy Anderson constantly, Gwyneth Paltrow has developed osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis? Good to hear that "no weight training" thing is working out for you guys. A strength and conditioning professional's first rule should be "do not hurt your client", what is the first rule for a woman who doesn't believe in any conventional strength doctrines?)

And, I'm off of it.

Women spend so much time reading these popular magazines, that they think that guys want to see supermodels everywhere we go. On the contrary, nobody likes the tall, thin, anemic look. That's not what's really hot in the streets right now; the athletic look is in. Compare the two following ladies:

Personally, I think its a no-brainer. I love that a huge company like Nike is pushing this new image; maybe women will start to get the hint soon. Lifting weights will NOT make you enormous; unless you have hidden testicles. It will take some time, but I think it won't be too long before the message starts to get across that heavy lifting for women is beneficial. It makes good things happen. With popular trainers like Tony Gentilcore, Bret Contreras, Nick Tumminello and Nia Shanks espousing the benefits, the training style for women will surely start to change. The big turn will be when magazines like Shape and Oxygen start talking about it too! (Womens Health already does!)

I'm gonna leave you with two pictures that I came across a few weeks back that does the perfect job of getting my point across.

Go lift something heavy!

New ways to get Beastly

Todays installment comes from Ben Bruno, whom I believe is interning with Mike Boyle right now. This dude personifies BeastMode. Damn near every video on his youtube channel involves him wearing at LEAST one weight vest.

What it is: Single Leg Slideboard Leg Curls

Why it is sick: Many muscles work across multiple joints. The hamstring is one of the big ones. It works as both a hip extensor and a knee flexor. Thus, it should be trained in both actions. Training the hamstrings with deadlifts, squats and cleans is fantastic, but the accessory work is just as important. Glute Ham Raises (GHR) and slideboard curls are a great way to achieve the other actions of the hamstring. And it does it in a much more dynamic way then your fancy Nautilus Hamstring Curl machine <vomit>. Plus, the hamstring is one of the most important muscles in explosive athleticism that many of us are looking for. 

If one leg is too difficult, using both legs is a great way to start off. Another way to make the single leg version more difficult would be to hold your non-working leg against your abdomen, squeezing a tennis ball in your hip (a la the Gray Cook Hip lift). That version will really test your hip mobility.

GO DO IT!!

A question of motivation.

Motivation comes in many shapes and sizes. Ideally, we (as health professionals) want your motivation to be about better nutrition, lowering your cholesterol, improving your posture and changing your body composition (to name a few).

...or dancing on the beach?

To be honest, this is what most clients tell us when we meet for the first time. "I really want to get in shape so I am healthy and happy." Or, "I want to make sure I stay happy and healthy for the rest of my life!"

Barf.

Lets be honest; very few people actually want those goals. Most people are motivated by things they won't admit to: they want to dominate the glass in their company basketball league, their sister's wedding is coming up, they need to win a bet or, most commonly, they want to look good naked.

Well played, Jamie Eason. Well played.

Theres nothing wrong with that, though. Theres nothing wrong with ANY of those reasons being your motivation, as long as you're honest about it. Being honest will help your trainer get you to achieve your goals faster and, hopefully, with less stress than if you were to do it on your own.

When it comes down to it, whatever gets you off the couch and working out is a good reason. Focus on your goals and figure out the best way to achieve them, and do it.

Go do it.

Show and Go update

Good update today. Yesterday was the Monday workout for Week 3 of Phase 2. I was looking forward to it because of one thing in particular: sumo deadlifts. I didn't like these initially, as it was a strange feeling for me. Over time, I grew to love them, and actually think it is a stronger pull for me. Yesterday I had 2x1, 3x3.

(Don't Carrie Underwood and Justin Timberlake just get you JACKED out of your mind to lift heavy shit?)

Those were the 2 sets of 1. Not quite 1RM tests; more like greater than 90%. I then did 3x3 at 325, which was no breeze at this point. 

I followed this up with the bane of my existence; front squat grip barbell reverse lunges. I hate this exercise / love it dearly. I am not a huge fan of lunging in the first place, but this one just absolutely dominates me. Regardless of weight, it is awful. The warmup set with the bar sucks. The first working set of 115 sucks; 125 sucks; 135 blows. The only thing that sucks more than that is doing 2 sets at 135. Just. Awful.

Pretty much how I felt

I grinded out the rest of the workout (1 leg RDLs and split stance cable lifts), with moderate effort, and then sat on a bench in the weight room for 10 minutes. Once I stopped hating the world, everything felt great. I mean, I still walked like I had just gotten out of prison, but my demeanor was much better. Nothing a hot shower wouldn't fix. All in all, a fantastic workout. 

Now go find something heavy and pick it up!

Gym Etiquette

One of the most interesting things about the gym I work at, is that for many of our members, it is their first gym experience. Because of the neighborhood we are in (a more affluent, older part of Boston) we didn't start to get a younger crowd until just recently.

This creates the scenario in which we have a lot of members with really poor gym etiquette. Things that you learn as your gym-age increases is taken for granted here, and has to be taught to people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Small things as well as big things; putting your towel in the bin, wiping down benches, re-racking your weights, understanding how "working in" works. These are the kinds of things most people learn early on in their gym life; you start off being an idiot in your shitty high school weight room, grow up a little in your college meathead gym, and then get a little more refined when you join your first $30/month gym when you get your first job.

Meat factory

By the time you get to the upscale wellness club, you've learned how to act like a human when you're at the gym (hopefully). 

Not so, at my facility. People are occasionally oblivious as to their surroundings. Guys on their phone in the locker room, people using 4 benches at a time, working in on your set without asking, leaving 95 lbs on Every.Single.Bar. 

(Seriously, who is squatting, benching, curling and "deadlifting" with 95 lbs AT THE SAME TIME?!?!?!)

This guy. 95 lbs.

Thankfully, our clients have done a pretty okay job of learning the "rules" of the gym as we have grown; for the most part. 

Here's a couple of things you can do to make everyones experience at the gym a better one:

1) If you see a guy do any exercise with 3 or more plates on one side of a BARBELL, leave him alone. Forever. He is at the gym to train, not pussyfoot around. 

2) Don't talk on your cell phone. If you can't leave life behind for 45 minutes to get in a work-out, then you don't have the time to be in the gym anyway. Plus, no one gives a damn about your conversation.
3) Leaving your plates on any implement is just plain rude. It is annoying both ways; if I have to take 80 lbs of 10's off of the bar, it is annoying. If I have to unload 400 lbs of plates off of the leg press so that I can squat, it is annoying. Don't do it.
4) If you're doing multiple sets of an exercise (which is fine) please don't take 9 minutes between sets to talk to your buddy about the Celtics game. Hurry up with your cable chest fly's so that I can do my Pallof Presses.
5) Quit the posturing; you don't need to grunt THAT loudly to curl 25 lbs. And don't chuck your DBs like that; no matter how hard you drop them, 40 lb dumbbells dont sound like 80's.
6) You're dripping sweat? Cool, its the gym. Wipe your gooch sweat off the seated row when you're done with it, though.
7) If you need to work in with someone, ask. But don't ask to work in if you have to change ALL the weights and the bar placement; that is just annoying.
8) This last one is not so common, but still pretty important: try not to stink. I know it's a gym but, please, try not to stink TOO badly.

Follow these rules, and you won't piss anyone off at the gym.

Now, go lift something heavy!