1. <====== I figured I’d start the week off with a bang and share a picture that someone posted on my Facebook page over the weekend. They thought that I’d get a kick out of it, and well, they assumed correctly.
2. As I write this post, CP is currently without power, and subsequently, heat. We had our first snow storm here in Boston on Saturday night, and apparently roughly 500,000 people throughout the state are without power. It’s about 50 degrees in there right now, but it’s nothing a pair of sweatpants and a skully can’t fix.
It reminds me of when I used to train at South Side Barbell back in the day in Stratford, CT. Once winter hit, they only thing they’d use to heat the place were a few space heaters…..and some hand warmers, if we were lucky. I’m not kidding that there would be times where I’d take off my hat in the middle of a training session, and you’d literally see steam coming off my head. It was awesome.
Regardless, there’s an important lesson to learn here: when all is said and done, this just goes to show why barbells are superior to a treadmill any day of the week. ALWAYS. No lights or heat? No problem. We’re still going to lift heavy things off the floor. Well, at least I am.
Note to any CP clients who are reading this (as of 9:30 AM): CP is closed until the lights and heat are back on. As badass as it would be to train in the cold, the risk of pulled hamstrings is kind of bad for business. Please check in on CP’s fan page on Facebook for updates.
3. As many are aware, last week I held a little promotion where I was giving away some free stuff for those who participated in Eric Cressey’s sale event with Show and Go. Here are the winners:
FREE individualized programming for a month: Juliet Gotthardt
FREE copy of Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body – Christian Oleson
FREE autographed 5×7 picture of moi: Eva Mendes
If the three of you could email me at your earliest convenience to claim your prizes that would be helpful.
4. Most of you may remember the story of Steve and Kelsey from last March, when Steve actually proposed to Kelsey on this blog, and as a result, pretty much made it so that the rest of us would really (and I mean REALLY) have to step up our game if or when the time came to propose to our significant others.
Note to Self: I can’t even use my own blog to propose, now. Thanks Steve. Jerk……..;o)
In any case, Steve and Kelsey finally tied the knot a few weekends ago, and spent all of last week up here in Boston hanging out at Cressey Performance. Yes, you read that correctly, they spent their honeymoon at CP.
As strength coaches themselves, they figured they’d rather spend their honeymoon squatting, push-pressing, throwing chalk in the air, and talking shop rather than chillax on a warm, sandy beach drinking Pina coladas somewhere. You know how the saying goes: different strokes for different folks, and needless to say, I was honored that they would choose to do something like that.
Now, I’ve met dozens and dozens and dozens of people at the facility in the past few years who, for their own reasons, make the trek to CP to see what we’re all about. At times, meeting complete strangers can sorta be like a high-school dance where there’s just all sorts of awkwardness going on.
You don’t know whether to shake hands, fist-bump, or hug; and inevitably the conversation turns to the weather. Never a good scenario.
Conversely, at other times, meeting people can be almost as if you’ve been BFFs forever, which was exactly what happened with Steve and Kelsey. They spent the entire week training at CP – getting AFTER IT mind you – and both Lisa and I had the opportunity to meet them out for dinner one night last week as well.
I just wanted to say congrats, again, to both of them. It was awesome meeting you both, and I wish you all the love, memories, and future deadlift PRs the world has to offer!
5. Amusing CrossFit video of the week. You’re welcome.
6. I have a short list of things that I love in this world. Family is right up there, of course. As is my girlfriend. I’ll also throw in things like old 90210 re-runs, Spike, people who use exact change, and goat cheese into the mix.
But I also LOVE girls who lift heavy things, which is why you should check out Girls Gone Strong.
Seriously, do it. I dare you.
7. Lastly, I like Halloween about as much as I like getting kicked in the balls. I’ve never bought into the whole “lets get dressed up” mentality.
As it happened, though, one of Lisa’s good friends hosted a costume party over the weekend that served as a fund-raiser for her charity work with Therapists Without Borders, which is an organization that matches professional therapists with under served communities throughout the world. Since it was for a really great cause, I decided to swallow my reservations and dressed up as none other than MR. CLEAN. Giving credit where credit is due, Lisa came up with the idea, which ended up being downright brilliant when you think about it.
For those interested in the cause, HERE is Katie’s (Lisa’s friend) donation page which serves as her home-base for the funds she’s trying to raise for her trip to Kenya in January. I know money is tight nowadays, and I understand that you don’t know Katie (you should, though, she’s pretty much the most kind, generous, caring, and just downright beautiful human being I know) from a hole in the wall, but I’d be immensely appreciative to anyone who clicked on the link and maybe donated a few dollars if she or he chooses to do so.
And that’s it for today. Sorry for any grammatical errors, I was kind of in a rush this morning.
For most of the week, I, along with many other coaches who’s blogs and websites you probably frequent have been going on and on and on about how Show and Go is on sale this week. By now it probably sounds like this:
Blah blah blah Eric Cressey is the awesome blah blah blah Show and Go 4 Life blabbidy blah O’Doyle Rules!!! blibbidy bloo.
I get it, and I’m sorry. But the truth of the matter is, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of such an awesome offer. And, even more to the point, I’d like to think that I’ve established enough of a rapport with my readership that you know I’m not just blowing sunshine up your bum. I know a good program/product when I see it (nightlights, anyone?), and I’d like to think that anything I’ve gone out of my way to promote or even talk about on this blog is something that I know will help out a lot of people.
To that end, because I’m about five minutes away from training (and at the expense of sounding like a broken record), here are some quick bullet points on why you should purchase Show and Go.
1. It’s Eric Freakin Cressey.
This isn’t some globo-gym, new-haircut, curling-in-the-squat-rack, personal trainer here. I mean, Eric has his name on a t-shirt for crying out loud, so he obviously knows what he’s talking about.
Seriously, though, Eric places a lot of time and effort into his programs, and I’ve seen firsthand just how many people have succeeded following his guidance.
Of course, as is the case with ANY program, you get out what you put in. But I assure you, if you followShow and Go to a “t”, and put every ounce of effort you have into it, you’ll be rewarded handsomely.
2. Accountability
There’s just something about someone else telling you what to do that will hold you more accountable. When it’s written for you, you’re more apt to actually do it.
In the past, I’ve written about how many trainees tend to flip flip back and forth between programs and then wonder why their bench press is the same now as it was two years ago. Even worse still, many will just meander around the weight room with no rhyme or reason, doing a few reps of this, and a couple sets of that. It’s training ADD at its worst – there’s no sense of purpose behind their training. Show and Go definitely holds people to a higher standard.
3. Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone
People tend to do what they’re good at and what’s easy, which is why many tend to tread water when it comes to actually making any significant progress with their training. Show and Go challenges people to step outside their comfort zone, which is something I feel is the “x-factor” of why many people never improve on anything.
4. You Get to Lift Heavy Things
And as such, make others watching destroy the back of their pants. What’s cooler than that?
5. You Will Be More Awesomer At the End Than At the Beginning
Whether your goal is to increase your bench press, not have the movement quality of the Tin Man, or just achieving general badassery, Show and Go is the real deal.
And I’m Done (for real this time)
And yes, my offer still stands. Anyone who purchases Show and Go (link below), and sends their receipt to my email address (tgentilcore18@yahoo.com), will be entered into a drawing for either a free copy of Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body or one month of individualized programming from some guy named Gentilcore.
So, um, yeah, that’s about it. I’ve made my case, so now it’s up to you. Again, you have until midnight tonight (10/28) to take advantage of the 50% off sale………..LAST CHANCE
I received an e-mail from one of the staff at Men’s Health yesterday asking about grip strength, and thought my response would make for a good blog post today. Well, my response was actually a little shorter, but since it got my brain juices flowing, I’m rolling with it:
Grip strength – something most people don’t normally train. Do you have an exercise you can recommend to our readers to improve/increase grip strength? As well as some thoughts on why increasing grip strength is beneficial?
First off, lets start with the benefits of developing a solid grip. The obvious benefit would be an increase in loads one can handle. Grip strength is oftentimes the “limiting factor” with many trainees – particularly with regards to things like deadlifts and chin-ups, for example – so it stands to reason that if one takes the strides to better develop it, the heavier loads (s)he’ll be able to use in the gym.
As such, this can lead to cool things happening like increased muscle mass, more calories burned during any given training session, and even an improvement in fat loss. Although, to keep things a bit more “on point,” I’m more inclined to stick with the whole “increase in muscle mass thing,” since that’s what most trainees gravitate towards anyways.
Additionally, an improved grip can also pay huge dividends with shoulder health, believe it or not. Through a process called irradiation, when someone is told to grab a dumbbell (or barbell) with a death grip, it sends a signal to the rotator cuff to “fire” and “pack” itself, which provides more stability to the joint.
Try this: hold your arm out in front of your body and just LIGHTLY close your hand so that it makes a fist. No big deal, right? Conversely, do the same thing, but this time when you make a fist, crush it! You should notice your rotator cuff fire as well as a subtle “packing” in the shoulder. Trust me, it happened.
Not coincidentally, one of the best cues I use as a coach to help people with shoulder pain is to tell them to grip the bar harder. Works like a charm every time.
Moreover, as a corollary – and this is just me speaking in dude talk – an improved grip is an awesome way to “send a message” to other dudes to step off when it comes to making a pass at your girlfriend. A few years ago my ex who had someone from upper management make a pass at her. He was shady about it (married, and knew she had a boyfriend), and he sent a few text messages to her asking if she wanted to meet up after work sometime for dinner. She told me all about it, and we both had a laugh. Secretly, though, I wanted to scissor kick the guy in the forehead.
Being the non-jealous type, I just let it slide and trusted that she would take care of it – and she did. Well, eventually, Christmas time approached which meant company Christmas party! As luck would have it, Douchebag McDouchington was in attendance, and being that he was a superior of hers, he was introduced to me. I smiled, said hello, and as he reached out to grab my hand, I simply CRUSHED his. I think he got the message.
With some of the benefits out of the way, lets discuss a few exercises that can be utilized to train grip strength
1. Honestly, refraining from using wrist straps would be my #1 choice.
Sure, there’s a time and place to use them, but more often than not guys rely waaaaaaaay too much on wrist straps when they train – to the point where they use them for everything!! Bicep curls, lat pulldowns, DB rows, you name it, straps are being used. I’m surprised more don’t use them just to grab a glass of water in between sets.
That said, just making a concerted effort to use dumbbells and barbells WITHOUT straps would be a step in the right direction.
2. Get a pair of Fat Gripz.
Making barbells and dumbbells inherently harder to grab would be another way to train grip strength. At Cressey Performance, we utilize Fat Gripz quite a bit, and have found them to be a very useful tool in the toolbox, as we can add them to things like chin-ups, DB presses, DB rows, and, as former CP intern Dave Rak showed, Spike shots as well.
3. Farmer Carries!
I did a coaching call for Muscle Imbalances Revealed the other night and went on a rant about how much I freakin LOVE farmer carries. As far as bang-for-your-training-buck-instantly-increase-your-badass-factor-by-at least-15 points-exercises are concerned, farmer carries are where it’s at. With regards to grip strength, however, all you’re going to do is grab a pair of the heaviest sumbitches (translation: DBs) you can handle. Hold them at your sides (as if you’re holding a suitcase), and then go for a walk – making sure to keep your chest out and shoulder back. No leaning!
The objective here is to stay as upright as possible. I’d say a decent distance would be anywhere from 50-75 yds (most will have to walk back and forth, obviously).
Perform 2-4 sets of 50-75 yds, or until you hate life. Whichever comes first.
4. Hex Holds
Another exercise I like to use – albeit it’s not quite as baller as farmer caries – are DB Hex Holds.
Here, all you’re going to do is grab a 15-40 lb DB (anything heavier would mean you have Andre the Giant hands, you freak!) and simply hold for time using ONLY your fingertips. As far as how long to hold – I don’t really have a set criteria. Anywhere from 30 seconds to OMGICANTFEELTHELEFTSIDEOFMYFACE should suffice.
Unfortunately doing this exercise is contingent on whether or not the gym you train at actually has “hex” dumbbells available. If not, sucks to be you!
5. When All Else Fails, Just Read Anything By Diesel Crew
Jim “Smitty” Smith and the guys at Diesel Crew know a thing or two about grip strength, so I’ll just defer to them when it comes to this topic.
And there you have it. Nothing extraordinary or life-changing to say the least, but I hope this post provides some insight and ideas as to how you can improve your grip strength!
If you have anything to add, by all means, share below in the comments section.
Just a Reminder
Show and Go is still on sale until midnight tomorrow (10/28) for 50% off the regular price. Eric has informed me that he’s included another sweet bonus for those who go a head and purchase it today – titled Warm-Ups 2011, which gives everyone an inside look at some of the (current) warm-up drills we utilize at Cressey Performance.
What’s more, don’t forget that I’m still holding a drawing for some free swag as well. Again, for those who click HERE and purchase Show and Go (and send me the receipt: tgentilcore18@yahoo.com), I’ll enter your name either for a free copy of Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body OR a free month of individualized programming from yours truly.
You know how all the major movie studios wait until the end of the year to release their “passion” projects, or those films they deem will do well when it comes to awards season? Well, it seems as though this is THE week for fitness products to be released. Fittingly, my good friend, Kevin Neeld, just released his own manual, Ultimate Hockey Training, and I asked if he’d take a few moments to answer a few questions on it.
Now, admittedly, I don’t train a lot of hockey players; nor do a watch hockey (sorry Kevin). But, I did attend a Mercyhurst College women’s hockey game back in the day, so that should count for something! I had a crush on one of the players, and she never really knew I existed other than the fact that I said hi to her once.
That notwithstanding, Kevin is one of the brightest guys I know, and he’s gone out of his way to provide a HUGELY insightful resource for anyone who, regardless of whether or not they train hockey players, is involved with training athletes and increasing the degree of their badassery.
With that, enjoy the interview!
TG: Kevin, here’s the part where you tell us a little about yourself – school, training career, whether or not you like walks on the beach? Tell my readers a little about yourself – and if you could include how 2-legit-2-quit it was when you interned at Cressey Performance (back in the summer of 2008) that would be awesome .
KN: My introduction to the training world started because of my passion for the game of hockey. As a player, I was always told that I was as skilled as anyone, but that I was too fat, slow, and generally unathletic to compete at a high level. That wasn’t exactly what they said, but that’s what they meant. When I was 14, I was fortunate to be “given a chance” by a coach that was ahead of his time on the training side of things. I completely overhauled my athleticism in an off-season and knew then that I wanted to make a career out of helping other hockey players to do the same.
Since then, I moved on to do my undergrad work at the University of Delaware, where through one of my internships I first came across Mike Boyle’s work. I moved on to study Exercise Neuroscience at UMass Amherst (a Top 5 ranked kinesiology program at the time). To be honest, as much as I learned in my 6 years of college, I learned infinitely more through my internships and outside reading. Over the last 5 years I’ve read dozens of books on everything from manual therapy techniques to neuromechanics, and have read through a stack of research articles about as tall as I am. The key for me was listening to what my mentors suggested as quality information and really diving in to that material.
As you know, in the Summer of 2008 I did an internship with you guys at Cressey Performance. At the time, I had planned to go back to Delaware to teach my own power skating and puck handling clinics all Summer. Instead I decided to pay my way through a Functional Anatomy class that was part of BU’s DPT program and spend the remainder of my time with you guys. To this day, that was the smartest career decision I’ve ever made. Not only did I learn a lot that Summer, but you, Eric, and Brian are still great resources for me now.
I learned a lot of that “functional anatomy” stuff from Eric, but it was you, Tony, that taught me that it’s not worth lifting weights, if you can’t do it to techno music. You’d be proud to know that we now have “Techno Tuesday” at Endeavor…which has pretty much become “Techno Weekdays”.
TG: Duuuuuuuuude. You have no idea how happy that makes me! Since then, you’ve gone on to a successful career, being featured in the likes of t-nation.com, elitefts.com, and I even saw one of your articles featured on the homepage of Yahoo not too long ago. Congrats!
(And lest we forget that you just released a pretty kick-ass training manual: Ultimate Hockey Training).
Even more impressive, is that you’ve gone on to specialize in a niche market (hockey) and help run one of the premiere hockey training facilities in the country (Endeavor Sports Performance, located in Sewell, NJ) – how’s that working out? What prompted you to focus on hockey?
KN: Thanks man. Being featured on well-respected sites is flattering, but I’m more proud of what we’ve been doing at Endeavor than anything else. There are a lot of people that write well that don’t actually train anyone. That will never go away; it is what it is. But we’ve really created something special with our training programs at Endeavor. We follow a similar model as CP, but instead of having a primarily baseball market, ours is hockey.
In the last few years, we’ve helped a few dozen kids move on to compete at the D1 Prep, Junior A (EJHL, USHL, OHL, BCHL), and professional levels (CHL, IHL, ECHL, AHL, NHL). This is probably commonplace in Boston, or in certain areas of Michigan or Minnesota, but our facility is in South Jersey, which is far from regarded as a hockey hotbed, and almost all of our players are local.
I’m not one to take credit for their accomplishments. We’ve had a handful of kids that were on that path before they came to us, but the kids I’m especially proud of were the ones that were deemed D3 material that caught the eyes of D1 scouts and eventually committed D1 because of how prepared they were at the beginning of their season and the kids that were “too small”, but dominated anyway because of their speed and strength. These are the cases that I can hang my hat on and realize that what we’re doing is really working.
On a personal level, my passion for this field grew out of wanting to help hockey players fulfill their potential. A lot of my background is in on-ice skill development. As my career continues to progress, I’ve moved deeper into the athletic development/training side of things and further from on-ice work. While I’ve developed an appreciation for training athletes in all sports, and genuinely enjoy taking part of the process of their development, nothing lights my lamp more than training hockey players.
TG: I can definitely relate there. As a former collegiate baseball player, I LOVE the fact that my job entails showing kids what NOT to do with their training. To that end, I have to assume, much like what we come across with the baseball players we train at CP, hockey has its fair share of overuse injuries, weaknesses, and “red flags” that permeate the sport. Can you elaborate on what you typically come across with your athletes?
KN: Yea, you could say that. Hockey is as bad as any sport in pushing year-round participation and early specialization. Hip flexor and adductor strains are not only common, but they’re accepted as part of the sport. It’s insane. Our players from last off-season have started to trickle back in and so far not a single one had any adductor or hip flexor problem that caused them to miss time. Not one. And that’s despite the fact that these players left late August or early September to go play for their teams and haven’t done much training since. It’s amazing how effective a few simple strategies can be in preventing these injuries.
The problem with these injuries is that players still operate under the old paradigm that more hip flexor/adductor flexibility is always better and if something gets hurt it’s because it wasn’t flexible enough. In dealing with players with these injuries, I’ve found that the overwhelming majority of them are excessively flexible in the injured structure.
I’ve found that about 3 weeks of focused stretching for the antagonist and strengthening the injured tissue results in a complete cessation of symptoms with no reoccurrence. I think the message needs to permeate that flexibility isn’t inherently good; it must be put within the context of structural balance in terms of antagonistic levels of stiffness and strength. Unfortunately, the predispositions to these injuries are what leads to more severe problems like hip labral tears and sports hernias further down the line. At the risk of being overly simplistic, maintaining soft-tissue quality and structural balance, and recognizing bony ROM limitations is key to reducing the occurrence of these injuries, and in restoring health when a player starts to venture down this path.
The other big thing is that almost every hockey player has an overly kyphotic thoracic posture. Glenohumeral dislocations and acromioclavicular separations are common in hockey. While traumatic contact-driven injuries are somewhat unpreventable, players need to understand that an overly kyphotic posture is going to cause scapular abduction, which is going to position the glenohumeral joint anterior to the midaxillary line.
In other words, the shoulder will be positioned more in front of the torso then directly on the side of it. When a player gets hit from the side, the force is now driven either through the anterior glenohumeral ligaments and/or the AC joint and a subluxation occurs at the weakest link. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but postural restoration isn’t a foo-foo training goal; it can have severe implications for force generation, transfer, and absorption.
TG: Here, here!! I couldn’t have said it better myself. We deal with PLENTY of sacred cows in the baseball world (namely, distance running and those archaic band exercises pitchers like to do), so I can definitely commiserate with you there.
Lets discuss a little program design shenanigans. When assessing a new athlete, what are some things you’re looking at? Are there any exercises in particular that you try avoid with your hockey athletes?
KN: We spend a lot of time looking at the hips. I’ll assess:
Hip internal and external rotation in a hips flexed and hips extended position (to help dissociate capsular restrictions)
Femoral ante/retro torsion using Craig’s test
Hip extension ROM using a modified Thomas Test
Hip adduction ROM using the Postural Restoration Institute’s Adduction Drop Test
Hip flexion ROM using a quadruped rocking test
Hip flexion ROM using the active straight leg raise
Collectively, the results of these tests paint a pretty clear picture of the player’s hips and what limitations are bony and what can be modified. We’ll also take a look at thoracic rotation to see if there is a severe imbalance one way or another.
From an exercise selection standpoint, we place a high priority on horizontal/rotational power as the off-season progresses. We’ll use med ball shotput and scoop progressions from a side-standing and front-standing position to help groove and improve proper mechanics and power in these positions.
Early in the off-season we build in a disproportionate amount of rotational work in the athlete’s non-shooting direction. In exercises like belly presses, chops, and lifts, they’ll do 1 set in their shooting direction and 3 sets in their non-shooting side. The goal is to help restore balance in these patterns, both from a neural and structural standpoint, following a long-season of thousands of single-sided rotations.
Note from TG: EXACTLY!!! We do much of the same with our baseball guys, as to better offset any “predictive” imbalances that accumulate over a loooooooong season.
And, because I love hate mail, I’ll mention that we also use a primarily single-leg lower body training system.
We still include double-leg exercises like back squats, front squats, trap bar deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts, slideboard hamstring curls, cable pullthroughs, etc., but our lower body training model is an “inverted” version of the norm.
In other words, most people use exercises like squats and deadlifts as the “main” exercise and then use single leg squat and deadlift variations and lunges as “assistance” work. In our model, the single-leg exercises are primary; the bilateral exercises are secondary (or tertiary).
TG: Okay, lets get to the meat and potatoes. Tell us a little about Ultimate Hockey Training – I’ve been working my way through it, and to say you’ve covered all your bases would be an understatement! What distinguishes this from any other similar product out there?
KN: Thanks Tony. Ultimate Hockey Training basically outlines my entire hockey training system. It includes age-specific guidelines, an excessive presentation of our linear and parallel exercise progressions, year-round program design strategies, and injury prevention considerations. My goal was to lay it all out, but pick topics and use language that would be of interest to the whole spectrum of the hockey development community, from players, parents, and coaches, to those that train or rehab hockey players for a living.
Many of the hockey training resources out there today are either severely out-dated, overly theoretical, really watered down to appeal to young players, or just complete garbage. That’s not to say they’re all bad; I support what Maria Mountain and Kim McCullough, and a couple others have done. I think what allows UHT to appeal to such a wide audience is that I’ve included theoretical and research-driven discussions on all the topics for the training and sports medicine professional, but included a ton of sample routines and progressions for those without the academic background.
Ultimate Hockey Training isn’t a generic/canned training program; it’s a system. In other words, it’s not designed to help a player (or to help a coach help a player) improve for 8-weeks; it’s designed to help them improve for their entire career, however long that may be and wherever that may end. Hockey is one of the most rapidly growing sports in the U.S., but preparatory training is still poorly understood on a wide scale. Hopefully this will help provide those that want the information most with a framework from which to start building programs that actually work.
Awesome stuff Kevin! For those interested in checking out the manual, and for more information, click below:
Oh yes ladies and gents, you read that correctly: Eric Cressey’s best selling product, Show and Go: High Performance Training To Look, Feel, and Move Betteris on sale from now until midnight Friday, October 28, for 50% off the original price. For those mathematically challenged, that’s half off. If you don’t believe me, just click HERE.
See, I told you.
Now, for some, you may be wondering to yourself “why?” Well, why not? Why is the sky blue? Why is water wet? Why do people listen to Coldplay? Okay, that’s actually a really good question. But, outside of that, don’t ask questions, just go with it!
Eric will tell you it’s because the World Series is kicking into high-gear, and he just wants to tell people how much he appreciates their support and readership. Both are undoubtedly great reasons. I say it’s because my 35th birthday is right around the corner (ahem, November 30th), and he’s just jealous that I have less hair than he does.
Okay, that’s wishful thinking on my part. In actuality, and this is something that he and I have discussed on numerous occasions, Show and Go is about as close as you can get to experiencing Cressey Performance without actually setting foot inside the facility itself. In short, if you can’t train at a gym with some attitude, you can at least bring the attitude to your gym!
More to the point, though, is the fact that, as someone who’s been BFF with EC for quite some time (not to mention we’re business partners), I know how much time and effort he puts into writing his programs. All told, he spent roughly a full year tweaking the entire program before he actually released it the first time through.
And, speaking frankly, the bulk of programs you’ll find on the internet are utter garbage. In a time where any joker with a laptop and digital camera can claim himself to be a world renown coach, and as such, a program writing ninja, talk is cheap. How many of those same gurus actually train ANYONE in person – let alone upwards of 70+ professional athletes during one off-season?
Trust me: I’ve seen my fair share of these so-called “programs,” and to say that a ham sandwich could come up with something better would be an understatement.
Moreover, almost unequivocally, I can say that I have yet to hear about anyone NOT making drastic improvements in their strength, athletic performance, movement quality, and/or physique completing Show and Go in its entirety. Literally, Eric has hundreds (if not thousands) of emails and testimonials to back it up. How many of the aforementioned internet gurus can claim that?
Summing up, Eric has some pretty sweet bonuses in store for those who act quickly (namely, a free LIVE Q and A for those who purchase within the first 24 hours), so be sure to take advantage as soon as you can.
To help sweeten the deal, however, I’m going to toss in some incentive too.
For starters you need to purchase Show and Go HERE.
Secondly, email your receipt to tgentilcore18@yahoo.com, and I’ll enter you into a drawing to win one of the following:
A copy of Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body ($147 value)
A 5×7 autographed picture of me (Priceless). Shirtless option (even more priceless).
1. Apparently with the conversion of the website back to WordPress last week there’s been a little glitch with the feed, and numerous people have mentioned that they didn’t receive any of the updates last week. Rats! So, for my own edification (and to help put my mind at ease), below is the actual feed that you’ll need to use to receive updates via email. You should still be able to use the RSS feed located on the top right-hand side, but I’ll provide the direct feed directly below in this post as well. I appreciate those of you who went out of their way to inform me of the issue, and I apologize for the inconvenience.
PLEASE: if you notice anything else that’s “WTFish,” let me know and I’ll forward it to my web guy. Thanks!
UPDATE: It’s been brought to my attention that the feed above doesn’t work, either. FAIL! Needless to say, it will be fixed soon. I promise. With dark chocolate covered cherries on top
We’re going to be re-launching the product within the next few weeks, and while it will still be available in digital format, there will also be an option to purchase it in DVD format which many people who originally purchased the product expressed interest in.
What’s more, MIRU has officially been approved for 0.7 CEU’s by the NSCA, which means you’ll earn continuing education credits just for purchasing the product! How badass is that?
More to follow soon.
3. People are always asking me what I’m currently reading, and it’s funny, because I’m usually reading 3-4 different things at once. Firstly, it goes without saying that I’m always reading something related to my field. As it stands now, I’m currently perusing the following things:
It’s kind of hard NOT to take the advice of someone who’s been coaching longer than you’ve been alive. I’ve always admired Dan John’s stuff, and this is no exception. Unlike pretty much everyone, Dan John has an uncanny ability to put things into perspective. And, as the title suggests, this book is perfect for anyone looking for a simple (albeit effective) plan to put on mass.
Admittedly, I JUST received this in the mail from Smitty the other day, but will be viewing this in it’s entirety shortly. Nevertheless, I have no doubts that it’s going to be awesome and that I’m going to want to jump through a brick wall after watching it for ten minutes.
Secondly, I’m and avid reader in general, so I’m not JUST reading things that are relevant to my profession. I’m not opposed to reading some non-fiction material, and I just finished reading Michael Lewis’ book, The Big Short, which, besides making me want to punch a baby seal in the mouth, gave an excellent behind the scenes look into the economic collapse of 2008. Seriously, I don’t think one book has made me more aggravated at how douchy people can be than this one.
On a lighter note, I’m currently listening to The Art of Fielding, written by Chad Harbach, which follows, among other things, a star collegiate baseball player as he deals with stardom, pressure, relationships, school, and teammates. It’s a light read, but written spectacularly and in a way that’s more than JUST about baseball.
4. Whenever I feel rundown and lose a little edge in my training, I always chalk in up to several factors:
I just need to cut down my training. While I normally train 4-5 times per week, for the foreseeable future, I’m going to revert to 3x per week utilizing more of a full-body split. In actuality, I’m going to be taking a page from Dan John’s book (see above), and follow more of a Train, Rest, Recharge split, where I’ll train/make people destroy the back of their pants one day, rest the next, and then follow that with more of an “active recovery/blood flow” day. In the past, I’ve just found that this approach works really well for me in terms of allowing me to recoup from the ass-kickings I routinely give myself, as well as allow me the opportunity to focus more of the tissue quality side of things. Ie: more foam rolling, ART, massage work. Basically, I just need a break. I’m still going to be lifting heavy things, of course. But I’m hoping that the additional days “off” will give me a little boost in the long-run.
I don’t drink nearly enough water. I swear to god I live in a chronic state of dehydration, and it’s no surprise that I end up peeing battery acid once per day. Sorry for the visual. So, with that, Operation Hydration has commenced, and I’ve promised myself that I’m going to drink at least a gallon of water every day.
Not enough of cowbell. We all need a little more cowbell in our lives.
5. I had an interesting conversation with one of my distance coaching clients who happened to make the trip up to CP this past weekend (with two of his clients). He was curious as to what I do as far as measurements with my fat-loss clients, and he was surprised to hear me state that I don’t really go out of my way to do any skip caliper testing, electrical impedance, or the like.
Sure, I do it from time to time (mainly only if it’s requested), but for all intents and purposes, I avoid it like the plague.
My thought process is this: I want people to focus on the performance side of things. One of the last things I want to do is make it so that someone’s only sense of accomplishment is boiled down to a freakin skip caliper test. On numerous occasions I’ve had clients who, in the span of several weeks, went from not being able to perform a body-weight reverse lunge without falling over, to well, not falling over, to breaking PRs left and right. Too, they improved on EVERY lift in terms of their quality movement and the amount of weight they were able to use.
And yes, they also started eating more veggies, thank you very much.
Moreover, they felt infinitely better from a mobility standpoint, and I could sense their confidence levels sky-rocketing. Unfortunately, in the past, this was all for naught if they weren’t somehow satisfied with what the caliper told them; or if the impedance test wasn’t what they expected.
All the hard work they put in basically went down the drain. All because they weren’t able to see the bigger picture.
To that end, today, I don’t really go out of my way to take “measurements” with my fat-loss clients. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going out of my way to educate them. I teach them why saturated fat isn’t their worst nightmare, or why they should emphasis eating more protein, or why steady state cardio probably shouldn’t be their first choice in terms of effective exercise. Trust me, they’re learning.
I’m just not a fan of allowing one simple test dictate their progress. Like I said, I want them to see the bigger picture, and I feel relying solely on ONE thing is a dangerous slope to walk on.
And that’s it for today. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on this last point. Just to cover my own butt, though. It’s NOT that I’m against using quantifiable measurements, and it’s NOT that I never take them. I just don’t like setting a tone where people feel like the end-all-be-all of progress is dictated by what a piece of plastic tells them.
Note: This is the fourth installment of an on-going “series” (rants would be appropriate) designed to give skinny guys the a little dose of tough love, or what I like to call “the dealo.” In case you missed the first few posts, you can click HERE, HERE, and HERE.
The great Dan John came up with a phrase not too long ago that really resonated with me, and it’s something I feel every person who’s remotely interested in this thing called “fitness” should make their mantra.
Tape it to your bathroom mirror.
Write it on a sticky note and slap it on your fridge.
Make it your ringtone for all I care. But no matter what, remember this:
Your goal is to keep the goal, the goal.
And really, while I’m going to expound on this as it relates to skinny guys below, this “rule” pretty much applies to anyone whether your goal is to lose 15 lbs of fat by the end of the year, increase your squat by “x” amount, or, I don’t know, make it so that when you flex your pecs, they turn into diamonds (cool party trick by the way). It doesn’t matter: your goal is to keep the goal, the goal.
And that’s where people (especially skinny guys) miss the boat oftentimes, and end up falling prey to this thing called flipflopitis.
One week “skinny guy” decides, once and for all (again), that he’s going to make a concerted effort to put on some weight. Except this time, it’s going to be different. This time, he’s printed out his workout schedule (cool); he’s recruited a buddy of his to train with to hold him more accountable (great); and he even went to his local GNC and bought some MassGainerPro 3000, to you know, get his massgainernification on (okay, I’ll let that one slide.)
Week One: Amazing. He and his buddy hit every training session hard, pounded some protein shakes afterwards, and they even said hi to a girl. Win-win-and-wiiiiiiiiiin.
Week Two: Still getting after it. It’s been a chore trying to get all those extra calories in, but he’s already noticed a 4 lb weight gain, and the workouts are still going really well.
Week Three: And then it happens. The conversation that invariably goes down at the same point each and every time:
Skinny Guy: “Dude, I know I’m getting stronger and stuff, but I think I’m losing my abs.”
Skinny Guy: “Naw man, I’m serious. I got out of the shower today and noticed I’m looking a little fatter.”
Skinny Guy’s Buddy: “First off, those ‘abs’ you proclaim you have? Yeah, that’s actually your spleen. Secondly, DUDE YOU WEIGH 155 LBS!!!!!! Just shut up and lets go lift some heavy things.”
Skinny Guy: “Can’t do it today, dude. I decided I was going to train for a marathon last night. Got run a fiver today. See ya.”
Now tell me that that doesn’t sound vaguely familiar!?!?! I see it all the time: trainees flip flopping their goals every few weeks and then they wonder why they NEVER make any progress in the long-term. Like, ever.
Personally speaking, I used to be that skinny guy. I’d peruse the world wide web (which is what it was called back then) and search for workout routines to follow. I’d pick one, follow it for a week or two, only to dismiss it altogether once I found a different program to follow the next week.
It wasn’t until I said “enough is enough,” and I legitimately picked a goal (in this case, put on some freaking weight. I would have gone with become a fighter pilot, but I had to be realistic) laid out an extensive plan, and ACTUALLY FOLLOWED IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH that I started making the progress I had always hoped for.
Essentially, I cured my case of flipflopitis and good things started to happen.
I mean, it’s kind of hard to gauge progress – let alone make progress – when you’re consistently confusing the body as to what you actually want it to do!
If you want to put on weight – and subsequently, size – you need to make sure that your training reflects that goal. It seems like an obvious point when someone else says it, but it’s amazing just how many people fail to grasp that simple concept.
SPOILER ALERT: stop running. No, really. Stop.
So, with regards to skinny guys, while I could make this into a more thorough post, I’m sure the bulk of people reading are picking up what I’m putting down. Stop it with the flip-flopping!
And, put down the shake-weight. That’s not going to get you huge, either.
Quick Note: I was a little tardy in getting yesterday’s post out, so for those who missed it, click HERE. I’m not going to say it will change your life, but it pretty much will.
Also, again, I apologize for the site being “glitchy” the past few days. I promise you that my boy, Jason, is doing everything in his power to fix all the issues as promptly as he can. I appreciate your patience!
Emily contacted me via Facebook a few weeks ago and left the following message:
I wanted to share with you one of my latest posts, actually a rant about the fitness industry and some of the crap it is selling to women these days. You were my inspiration in writing this piece. Thanks again!
I only just read it this morning, and all I have to say is, Emily is my new hero. Without question, this is one of THE best posts I have read on the topic, and I have to commend Emily for calling BS on the industry.
Flirty Girl Fitness. Bad Kitty Sassy Fitness. Yoga Booty Ballet. All are one in the same in my book, and all do nothing but placate many of the myths and misconceptions concerning women and fitness that I (and many others) are routinely trying to fight.
Emily, if I could give you a high-five right now, I totally would. Well done!!!!!!
This is the 3rd FREE webinar Eric Cressey has released this week, and it covers ten of the more common pitfalls that he (along with a multitude of other coaches out there I’m sure) encountered along the way in his journey as a coach and athlete.
He even goes out of his way to use me as a perfect example as someone who’s incredibly good-looking, charming, and intelligent stubborn with regards to training goals.**
Eric’s kind of smart, you should listen to him.
** For the record, though, Eric, I have a 570 lb deadlift. Not 560……;o)
You know that 2nd cousin of yours that you only see at family reunions that annoys the living hell out of you? Yeah, the one where you’d rather listen to whales raping each other than listen to him go on and on and on about his job, his car, or I don’t know, his fantasy football team? Or, you know how when you get that annoying twitch in your eye, and it just won’t go away no matter what you do? It sucks, right?
Well, that’s exactly how I feel whenever I hear people go on a tangent about how bad cholesterol (and as such, red meat, eggs, and butter) is for our health.
Here’s a hint: 50% of people who die from heart disease have LOW CHOLESTEROL LEVELS!!!! It’s not JUST cholesterol that’s a risk factor, chief. You also have to take into account things like types of fat (trans-fat) and carbohydrates eaten (highly processed crap, for example), trigylceride levels, stress/inflammation, LDL profile (particle size), and being a Yankee fan. True story.
And that’s all she wrote for today folks. Check back tomorrow, where I plan on continuing with my Mistakes Skinny Guys Make series.
Back in the day – circa 1993-1995 (which, coincidentally, is when hip hop actually didn’t suck. RIP Biggie) – every morning, before school, my alarm would go off around 5 AM, I’d kick the covers off and trudge downstairs to the basement to do more morning routine:
500 sit-ups (I know. Relax. I was 15, and didn’t know any better)
100 push-ups
150-200 dry cuts with the baseball bat
50-75 dry-runs going through my wind-up to work on my pitching mechanics
As it closer to the baseball season, I’d even take the early bus to school so that I could use the gymnasium to play catch with whomever I could bribe into doing so. Usually, though, it ended up just being me. throwing against the wall by myself. I was pretty cool back then.
Did I like doing it? Not really. I didn’t necessarily “like” getting up at the butt-crack of dawn…in the dead of winter….in Icantfeeltheleftsideofmyfacebecauseitssocold, NY…but I did it anyways. Why? Because I knew, in the long-run, it would make me better. And, deep down inside, I kinda liked the notion that there probably weren’t that many other dudes my age doing the same thing. Hey, I didn’t watch the Rocky IV training montage 377 times for nothing!
And, while I’m sure many people reading didn’t go to quite the extremes as I did growing up, it’s no secret that life, for the most part, is rife with things we don’t like doing, but do anyways, because we know, in our heart of hearts, it will bode in favor in long-run.
We pay taxes so that we can bail Wall Street for being a bunch of a-holes our roads get paved.
We donate blood, even though needles give us the heebie jeebies.
We tip the waitress 20%, even though our food was cold. Bitch.
We watch The Notebook (again), because it makes our girlfriend’s happy.
We don’t double dip, because well, that’s just gross
Likewise, much of the same can be said when it comes to training and nutrition. I’ve gone on record numerous times as saying that, generally speaking, people like to do what they’re good at and what’s easy. Bicep curls are a helluva lot easier than front squats. Heading to Papa John’s for “Half-Price Tuesdays” is a lot more convenient than grilling up some grass fed beef with sauteed vegetables.
Additionally, people tend to skip what they deem is least important. Take the dynamic warm-up for example. How many of you can honestly look me in the eyes and say, unequivocally, that you go through an ENTIRE warm-up from start to finish before EVERY training session?
Yeah, I thought so.
It’s okay, I forgive you. I skip them, too. Sometimes. But keeping that thought in mind, today I want to showcase a drill that I feel provides a lot of bang for our warm-up buck.
What Is It: Multi-Planar Hip Activation Drill(s)
Who Did I Steal It From: None other than Quinnipiac University strength coach, Brijesh Patel.
What Does It Do: A lot of dysfunction and imbalances can be attributed to the hips. And, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given there are upwards of 30+ muscles that attach to the pelvis alone. I’d list them all here, but I’m too lazy, and well, that’s what Google is for.
Speaking specifically, though, the glute max, and to a lesser (albeit important) degree, the glute medius tend to get most of the attention when it comes to hip activation drills, and rightfully so! They’re both kind of a big deal in terms of playing major roles in overall hip function.
Succinctly (because the hips are a fairly complex cornucopia of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia), one of the more popular corrective/activation movements are side lying clams. I talked about this drill briefly HERE, but my man Mike Robertson wrote an excellent blog not too long ago that discusses them in more detail HERE.
As much as I LOVE this drill, I think it’s rather self-limiting in the sense that it doesn’t take into account the more dynamic nature of life. Now, don’t get me wrong, pretty much everyone needs to start with side lying clams –and perform them correctly – before moving on to something more advanced. But once there, I feel that the multi-planar drill(s) demonstrated below are a nice progression moving forward.
Hip Activation Phase I
What I love about this variation is that it challenges both the glute max and glute medius to do one of their main jobs, which is to CONTROL the femur in multiple planes of motion (saggital, frontal, and transverse).
Moreover, another benefit to this drill is that it really challenges the small, intrinsic muscles at the bottom of the feet which tend to be woefully weak and inactive given the footwear we wear on a daily basis.
1. To start, take your shoes off for the love of god. Stand on one leg – in this instance the left – and move place the non-standing leg slightly behind you.
2. Be sure to keep the brunt of your weight in your back heel. Basically, you don’t want to shift too far forward into your toes.
3. Hold this position for 5-10 seconds.
4. From there, we want to work in the frontal plane, so we’ll move the non-standing leg to the side. Again, hold this position for 5-10 seconds.
5. Lastly, rotate THROUGH THE HIPS as far as you can without tipping over (and without compensating with your lumbar spine), and you guessed it, hold for 5-10 seconds. This one should be fairly challenging.
6. Repeat the same sequence, albeit on the opposite leg.
Multi-Planar Hip Activation (Phase II)
In phase II, we’re going to do the exact same sequence as above, except now, instead of holding for time, we’re going to add movement.
Again, to reiterate, try to keep your weight back in your toes and not in your forefoot. Too, if you can, try to keep your non-standing foot off the floor throughout the duration of the drill – but it’s not the end of the world if you can’t. “Gathering” yourself by placing the foot down on the floor in between reps is perfectly acceptable.
Here, with each sequence (Saggital = foot going foward, Frontal = foot going to the side, Transverse = foot rotating), 5-6 reps/each/per leg should suffice.
Multi-Planar Hip Activation (Phase III)
Increasing the badassery even more, in Phase III, we can start to add a reach into the mix.
Here, much like in Phase II, 5-6 reps/each/per leg will be plenty.
As you assuredly noticed by watching me perform them, it ain’t easy. Ideally, I’d suggest mastering one phase before moving on to the next. Obviously, some people will progress faster than others, but I implore you to not be an asshat and just go straight to phase III. Seriously, don’t do it.
Try adding these in as part of your general dynamic warm-up and let me know what you think!
Note:We recently converted my blog back to Word Press, so the layout may seem a little funky for the time-being. Hopefully soon we’ll fix the glitches. Sorry!
In addition, I have a dentist appointment (ugh) in like 45 minutes, and I’m kinda strapped for time. Luckily, though, my boy EC came through with some top-notch content today. Enjoy!
It’s no secret that we train a lot of professional athletes at Cressey Performance. But what a lot people fail to realize is that we also train a plethora (my big word for the day) of “regular” people who, much like our athletes, are just as interested in tapping into their inner Spartan, kicking down a few doors, getting after it, and lifting some heavy things – all in an effort to attain a productive training environment without getting hurt.
Some stats to consider, however:
82% of people walking around out there have disc bulges or herniation at one level. 38% at two levels
27% have vertebral fractures
34% have rotator cuff tears
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Suffice it to say, whether or job is to throw 95 MPH heaters or sit there and trade TPS Reports, people are walking around pretty jacked up. And, it’s no secret that as we get older we tend to see more more degenerative changes in the body, which can oftentimes throw a monkey wrench into things from a training stand point. I mean, I’m only 34, and there are times where I look back at what I used to do back in my college days, and a small piece of my soul dies.
Vertical leg press? Really, Tony?
As such, it only makes sense that we’d want programming that allows us to train, not to mention make progress – regardless of what our goals may be: lose a few lbs of fat, run a half-marathon, bench press a tank, whatever – without running the risk of injuring ourselves further. Or, put another way: having the ability to train long-term without helping to pay-off some physical therapist’s mortgage.
That said, my good friend and business partner, Eric Cressey, just released a few videos (webinars, actually) that should set the record straight, and prove fairly valuable to those reading who are consistently frustrated as to why they’re not:
Getting Stronger
Getting Leaner
Adding Muscle
Becoming More Athletic
Staying HEALTHY!
At the end of the day, it comes to programming. There are a plethora (HA, again) of factors than come into play, but it stands to reason that if you’re not utilizing a program that addresses things like foam rolling, dynamic warm-up, structural balance, corrective exercise, actually getting stronger, etc, then you’re probably better off beating your head against the wall.
If any of this rings a bell or sounds vaguely familiar (yeah, I’m talking to you), I’d HIGHLY encourage you to click the link below and get your learn on.
