Below is a link to my latest article on Livestrong.com. While some may bicker that I didn’t take the “traditional” approach with regards to the topic (Note: there’s no bro-science involved), I hope the overall message is clear: you need to train big, to get big.
Enjoy!
Hypertrophy. Jacked. Ripped. Diesel. Project Swolification. Whatever your preferred descriptor phrase or word of choice, adding appreciable size in the form of muscle mass is at the top of most trainees’ goals list.
Certainly there are health benefits to consistently lifting weights and increasing muscle mass — improved bone health and density, improved immune function, increased energy, reduced risk of injury, improved insulin sensitivity and a vast decrease in the incidence of metabolic syndrome, just to name a few. But at the end of the day, what really matters for many trainees is being able to walk down the street in a medium T-shirt on and know they look yoked, with large, protruding muscles.
The problem is that while having biceps the size of Kansas and a chest that can deflect bullets are common goals for most guys — and quite a few girls too — many will never come close to achieving “the look.” Even if that’s exactly what happened to you in the past, it doesn’t have to happen again. Once you learn how to overcome the common sticking points, you can bust through and start building serious muscle.
Note: for some reason, the article itself is a bit “glitchy.” There should have been a sample 4-week training template included, so hopefully that will be fixed shortly. Sorry!
This past Sunday, Lisa and I woke up with nothing particular to do. As is the case every week, Sundays tend to be my day to “catch up on life.” Which is just another fancy way of saying: grocery shopping, spending time with Lisa, and, if I’m lucky, taking a power nap (or two).
Since we hit off Trader Joe’s the day prior, and there was nothing really on the agenda, we both decided to meet up with a few of her friends for brunch in Boston’s South End.
As you can surmise, it wasn’t like Lisa had to pull my arm to tag along. I love brunch and Lisa was paying (Score!), so I grabbed a pair of jeans, slapped on a t-shirt, and off we went to this place that her friend, Carolyn, has always raved about, Gaslight.
Okay, this is the part where you can cue the Jaws theme music.
For the record, I LOVE Lisa’s friends. You’d be hard pressed to find a more intelligent and otherwise beautiful group of women in Beantown. I mean, come on….it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that I looked totally baller walking in with a group of fashionistas around my arms.
That notwithstanding, as any warm-blooded, heavy lifting, meat loving, Baywatch re-run watching, private area scratching, Fantasy Football obsessing male can appreciate: there’s only so much you can take before you basically want to throw yourself in front of a bus.
It took all of about three minutes from the time we walked into the restaurant until we sat down that the conversation turned from “hey Tony, how have you been” to the girls talking about boutique shopping, pedicures, and kitten snuggles.
Okay, it wasn’t quite like that; I’m obviously exaggerating for dramatic effect…but suffice it to say, I could sense my t-levels dropping faster than Obama’s approval rating. Badda bing, badda boom – Count it!
Anyways, by the time the waiter came to take our orders, I was in dire need of something manly to happen. And, since it was abundantly clear that this was the type of establishment that would probably frown upon me busting out my nun chucks, I did the next best thing, and ordered an omelet. But not just any omelet – a DOUBLE order omelet.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: I’d like the roasted vegetable and feta omelet, but I have a quick question – how many eggs are used?
Waiter: I believe three.
Me: Hmmm, yeah, I better double that order (giving myself a high five in my head).
Waiter (with a look of utter shock): Okay. I hope you’ll be able to finish it!
Me: Nah, I eat that every day for breakfast, it’s not that big of a deal.
Awkward silence. Waiter walks away.
Me: Wait, can you bring some Grey Poupon…….oh, never mind.
Fifteen minutes later, our food arrives. While the omelet itself WAS ginormous – taking up half the plate – it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, considering my typical breakfast that I eat everyday.
Get this, though. About ten minutes later, the hostess approaches our table and asks me if everything is alright. “Perfect,” I said, “thank you.”
“Well,” she continued, “the chef wanted me to say how impressed he was. He’s never been asked to make such a big omelet, and he wanted to make sure that it came out satisfactorily. Also, he wanted me to give you this t-shirt (pictured above).” In case you don’t remember, it looks like this:
I just about spat up my fruit cup. Lisa, along with the rest of the crew, started laughing out loud. Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome, but really? A t-shirt for only eating SIX eggs? I thanked the hostess, told her to tell the chef that it was excellent, and that I appreciated the sentiment.
Lets think about this for a second, because this is actually a very interesting commentary on our society. I did the math, and concluded that six eggs (at 70 calories apiece) amounts to roughly 420 calories. No big deal, and definitely not stomach shattering by any stretch of the imagination – especially considering I’m a pretty well built guy, seemingly whose pecs deflects bullets, at 200+ lbs.
Hell, the pile of greased soaked fries that my meal came with – which I elected not to eat – probably doubled (if not tripled) that number. The heaping stack of French toast that Lisa’s petite best friend, Carolyn ordered easily trumped my eggs in caloric value.
Yet, no t-shirt for her.
Isn’t it funny, if not downright comical, that our society’s perspective on what is considered “gluttonous,” and as a result, warrants a t-shirt, has gotten to the point where a guy walks in and orders six eggs and everyone’s world is flipped upside down? Yet, the breakfast quesadilla the size of a frisbee that’s filled with nothing but processed flour, sugar, and other “gunk” doesn’t even make anyone blink an eye. Thoughts? Comments? Beuller? Bueller?
Like a lot of Americans yesterday (as well as much of the world), I spent the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 doing a little reflecting and offering my thoughts and prayers to everyone who was and has been affected by that horrendous day.
I remember I was back in New York, in school, actually (at SUNY Cortland), maybe an hour or so into my microbiology lab class – learning about cell mediated immunity or something along those lines. I don’t know, it was all Greek to me.
I remember my professor leaving to go into his office only to walk out several minutes later with a stricken look on his face, saying something to the effect of “one of the Twin Towers has been hit by a plane.” Perplexed, most of the students in the class – myself included – just looked at him and said, “what? You’re kidding, right?”
With a straight face, he said, “no,” and went on to say that he turned on his television and the reports were saying that one of the towers had been hit. Things were a bit murky at that point, but something was going down.
My lab partner, Connie, put her hands to her mouth, yelled, “oh my god!” and bee lined it to the exit. Her brother worked at the World Trade Center. As it happened, he ended up being okay.
Anyways, my professor let all of us go, and I walked to my “then” girlfriend’s house to turn on the tv. My walk from class to her house was less than ten minutes, but in that time, the second plane hit, and that’s when all hell broke lose.
Much like everyone else, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared, confused, panicked, saddened, and angry in my life. I was glued to the television for 2-3 days, watching, in horror, as the buildings collapsed and as the details of both Flights 11 (the one that struck the Pentagon) and 93 (the one that was prevented from reaching its destination by the brave passengers who took matters into their own hands) unfolded.
To that end, I want to send my heartfelt condolences to anyone reading who was directly affected by the events of 9/11. Of course, in a way, we were ALL affected… we all lost “something” that day, but I just wanted to say a little something in passing to do my part in recognizing that, even though it’s been ten years, it still feels like it happened yesterday.
It’s something that I’ll never forget.
Motivation
Turning the page to something a little less somber, a few weeks ago, strength coach, martial artist, and guy who could kick my ass in 2.7 seconds, Dave Hedges, contacted me via Facebook and asked if I’d be willing to partake in a little project he was doing on motivation.
In short, he had a few of his athletes ask him if he’d be willing to write about motivation and how to stay motivated to train. Not surprisingly, motivation can be such a personal issue and can revolve around so many different components that Dave reached out to quite a few other professionals in the industry to sound off on the topic. He even asked me, as crazy as that sounds.
I humbly agreed, sent in my response, and thought that was that.
Well, Dave was kind enough to send me the finished product earlier last week, and lets just say that it is pretty epic. In all, it’s 61 pages of some really smart dudes (and dudettes) – 41 coaches total – giving you the low down on how to stay on point with your training. The kicker? There is none – it’s FREE!!!!
Actually, I lied. A HYYYYYYYYYOGE congratulations goes out to one of my online coaching clients, Laura, who became an official RKC instructor this past weekend. Some of you may remember Laura when she penned THIS piece of awesomeness last year. This is a woman who, when she hired me as her coach, was pregnant – yes, I had her deadlift and squat the entire time – and for shits and giggles, afterwards, she decided to go for her RKC. You could say that she pisses excellence all over the place.
There are many things in this world that I love. My family, friends, and girlfriend come to mind first and foremost, obviously. But, since I’m on the topic, I might as well take the opportunity and throw in a few more things to boot:
My readers – seriously, I can’t thank you enough
Omelets
My fan that I sleep with everynight as background noise
Puppy dog kisses
The perfect pump – you know, when you ‘re pumping gas and you stop EXACTLY on the number you want. Yeah, that’s awesome.
The Daily Show
Turning on the tv and randomly coming across a Star Wars marathon
When some idiot cuts you off on the highway and then speeds off, only to pass him five miles down the road because he’s been pulled over by a police car.
Beef jerky
Alicia Keys
And, not that I even need to say it – considering how often I blabber on about them – but I also heart deadlifts. I love talking about them. I love writing about them. And I especially love coaching them.
The latter, of course, is where I want to direct my attention towards today. You see, amongst other things – building overall strength along with general badassesery for starters – deadlifts are arguably one of the most valuable exercises in existence. I mean, not only do they carry over to a multitude of real lift qualities (everything from picking up a bag of groceries to explosive power and strength for sport), but deadlifts also serve as a fairly powerful corrective tool as well.
Name me another movement that simultaneously targets ankle dorsiflexion, strengthens the glutes and hamstrings (which in turn helps reduce the risk of ACL injuries and helps counteract things like anterior pelvic tilt), teaches neutral spine and helps alleviate sheer forces, works grip strength (which can have an influence on rotator cuff health), not to mention forces people to learn how to “hip hinge” and stiffens the upper back?
And those are just the things I thought of at the top of my head! All by myself!
Not to toot my own horn (okay, maybe a little), but I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll never walk into Cressey Performance and see an athlete or client performing a deadlift with less than suspect technique. A few reps might fall through the cracks here and there, but for the most part, there’s always a coach standing right there to offer cues when necessary.
Chest up, hips down!
Lock your shoulder blades!
Get tension in the hammies!
Big air!
Get your hips through at the top, and squeeze those glutes!
Sit back! Push your hips back on the descent!
In addition to the above popular cues (which work for 90% of trainees out there), as I noted HERE, it’s also beneficial to be a little more hands-on with clients and “mold” them into the positions you want them to be in. For some, they just don’t have the kinesthetic awareness to “feel” what their body is doing in space and they just need a little nudge here and a little prodding there to give them some feedback to get into proper position.
That said, however, sometimes you have to think outside the box and recognize what one’s weak link is in order to remedy the problem. Using an obvious example, lets take someone who just can’t seem to prevent their UPPER back from rounding during a deadlift – especially on the descent.
While verbal cueing and positioning will work nine times out of ten, sometimes it’s just a matter of recognizing that their upper back is weak and we need to build some stiffness in that area. Sure, grooving deadlift technique and getting quality reps in will help, but in addition to that, I’d be more inclined to really (and I mean, REALLY) hammer some horizontal rowing.
Look at it from this point of view: some trainees have been sitting in front of a computer screen for 20 years. So, if you think about it, many trainees have been sitting in flexion ever since McGyver started saving the world with duct tape and a pair of tweezers. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, then, that many have really short pecs and really weak/inhibited scapular retractors.
It goes without saying that a healthy dose of dedicated t-spine mobility work would be in high order, as would some additional soft-tissue work for the pecs.
For a lot of trainers and coaches, it stops there. That’s not a bad thing, and is certainly a step above what many would do in the same situation – but what about taking it a step further and throwing in some additional rowing movements?
HINT: you should throw in some more rowing movements.
Honestly, much like thoracic mobility, I feel people really can’t get enough horizontal rowing movements into their repertoire. I’m actually not opposed to throwing in some form of it into every day programming for some individuals.
One day I may have someone perform some light seated rows. The next, I may have him or her toss in some heavier 1-arm DB rows.
Likewise, later in the week, I’m not opposed to other variatios such as chest supported rows, TRX rows, face pulls, t-bar rows, whateve, being thrown into the mix. The point is, for most trainees, increasing upper back strength – and subsequently, upper back stiffness – will undoubtedly help improve not only their deadlift technique, but their performance as well.
Make no mistake about it: there are NUMEROUS things that come into play when trying to clean up someone’s deadlift technique, but I feel that this is one (blatantly obvious) component that’s often overlooked.
Earlier last week, my girlfriend decided to take a road trip to Vermont to visit her cousin for a few days. Now, as many of you already know, we moved in together a few short months ago, and in the time since, we’ve both come to a mutual understanding of who does what around the apartment. For her part, Lisa generally cooks dinner every night and in addition to that, does the bulk of the laundry. As for me, well, since Lisa cooks every night, it’s only fair that I wash the dishes (and sometimes even put them away….I’m still working on that part). Additionally, I take out the garbage, as well as the recycling, and also play the role of mouse killer from time to time.
For the record, since we’ve moved into our apartment: Tony: 3, Mice: 0. WINNING!!!!
So, being the walking around in my underwear with all the windows open, burping out loud, farting underneath the covers, Sports Center watching male that I am, you can imagine my thought process when Lisa mentioned to me in passing that she was going away for a few days.
YES!!!! I don’t have to put the cap back on the toothpaste or replace the toilet paper when it runs out. Go shorty, it’s your birthday. We’re gonna party, like it’s your birthday!!!
[Cue Carlton dance……]
Okay, that’s not exactly what happened, but I’d be lying if it didn’t enter my mind. You see, there’s this thing called accountability, and it’s a bitch sometimes.
Keeping promises, paying attention to what matters, and holding yourself accountable is a trait that’s often thrown to the wayside in today’s society.
“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.“- Moliere
Taking the above quote, and using myself as an obvious example, I could have just as easily NOT made the bed while Lisa was away; nor do my part and clean the dishes in the sink; or hang up the wet towels for that matter. For all intents and purposes I could have just said “to hell with it,” and not even bother doing any of my chores. And by “chores,” what I really mean is stuff I should be doing anyways.
But, then what would have happened? Lisa would have come home to this:
I bring all of this up because I see much of the same mentality when it comes to people and their fitness and nutrition goals. How many times have we heard of a friend, colleague, or family member vow to start eating a more nutritious and healthy diet, only to buckle three days later as soon as someone invites them to Happy Hour or shows up with a batch of cupcakes?
Likewise, we all know that as human beings, we like to do what’s easy and what we’re good at. Which is to say, why most (not all) trainees tend to opt for the leg press rather than the squat rack; why we’d rather do a few extra sets of bicep curls than deadlifts; or why most tend to gravitate towards the elliptical machine over that “keep the puke bucket ready” metabolic circuit that their program they’re following actually calls for.
It all comes down to accountability. Are you actually going to hold yourself accountable and stick with your diet or exercise plan all the way through, with 100% effort; or are you going to be one of the sheeple who falters and takes the easy route? Either you’re going to clean the dishes or you’re not. Which person are you going to be?
I literally just got back from Martha’s Vineyard this afternoon…………yes, it was fantastical. I spent two days doing nothing but taking power naps, eating dead animal flesh, catching up on some reading, and making fun of all the dudes on the island who wore sweater vests.
Anyways, it’s back to reality, and because I was away for the extended holiday weekend (and subsequently, Lisa forbade me from bringing my laptop with me), I skipped out on posting anything yesterday. Sorry. But, because I love my readers so much – and because I didn’t want to leave you hanging for two straight days – here’s a little sumthin sumthin to keep you occupied until tomorrow.
Fellow colleague, Jon Goodman, went around and asked a bunch of other fitness professionals (including some dude named Gentilcore) “what traits helped make you successful?” The answers, as you can only assume, are pretty diverse.
Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries concerning my thoughts on intermittent fasting. For those who have no idea what the heck I’m talking about, it’s essentially a fairly hard-core way of dieting that is generally performed in one of three ways:
24 hour fasts one to two times per week
Daily 14-16 hour fasts
Daily partial fasts for 20 hours with one big meal
In the post above, Nia drops some MAJOR knowledge bombs and breaks down each scenario. If intermittent fasting is something you’re interested in and/or is something you’ve been contemplating, I’d highly recommend reading this first.
Mike has an uncanny ability to tie in the most random topics into the strength and conditioning world. Here, he provides some sage advice for all the trainers and coaches out there.
In lieu of yesterday’s Tolstoy’esque post (man, that was a long one), and given the fact that my brain is already in beach mode with Labor Day weekend right around the corner, today I’m just going to direct you to an interview I did at my old stomping ground – The FitCast – a few days ago with Kevin Larrabee.
And talk shop we did! Kevin and I covered a host of topics including but not limited to: assessment, training females, Muscle Imbalances Revealed, how to get more veggies in your diet, and Kevin’s unhealthy affinity for really, really, REALLY bad movies.
In all, the interview is a little less than 30 minutes long, so sit back, grab your earphones, and enjoy.
On that note, have an awesome weekend everyone! I’m heading to the Vineyard (totally rubbing it in)!!!!!
