October Archives

Even though it’s a national holiday here in the States (Columbus Day), I’m still providing some sense of content.  I’m awesome.

1.  First and foremost, I wanted to give a “I do say so kind sir, well done” to one of my online clients – Gareth – who kicked some butt this past weekend competing in the All Englands 2011 Powerlifting Meet.  All told, he not only broke personal bests in the squat and deadiift (he would have hit a bench PR, too, if not for a nagging elbow), but he also broke his best TOTAL, like ever.

I couldn’t be more proud of the little bugger.  Gareth was actually traveling for business in the States last week, and one of his pit-stops just so happened to be in Boston.   As such, he made the trip put to CP, and we were able to not only spend some time dialing in on his technique, but he also managed to have a spot of tea (which means “hang out” here in the US) with our very own Tim Collins.

Can you pick which one is a Major League baseball player and a English National Champion powerlifter?

Anyways, nice job Gareth!!  Tell Pippa I said hello.

2.  My friend and colleague, Nick Tumminello, just released his latest product, Angled Barbell Training – The Best Landmine Exercises, this past weekend.

Unlike anyone else I know, Nick has an uncanny ability for thinking outside of the box.  I swear you could give him nothing more than a safety pin, a roll of duct tape, and half a block of chalk, and he’d come up with at least 17 different exercises you could do that will have you squatting a mack truck by next week.

This DVD is no different, and just goes to show why Nick is such a well respected coach.

If you order the ABT DVD before Sunday, Oct 15th at 12 midnight, you’ll:

– Save $20 off of the normal retail price
– AND, Get FREE SHIPPING!
– AND, Get an exclusive discount code, which gets you 40% off future Performance U DVD order
– AND, receive 7 FREE BONUS VIDEOS on Angled Barbell Training!

Sounds like a win-win-win-win in my book.

3.  A few weeks ago I wrote about an Ah-HA moment I had, where I essentially came to the conclusion that if I ever wanted to hit this 600 lb DL that’s been alluding me, some things needed to change in my programming.  Namely:  the fact that I do waaaaaaaaay too much volume.

As a result, I decided I was going to do a little experiment:

Week 1:  hit a heavy single (not necessarily a PR, but close enough to where I might shit a spleen)

Week 2:  hit another heavy single – albeit heavier than the week prior

Week 3:  same

Week 4:  no deadlifting.  Instead, give the spine a little break and just focus on accessory work.

If at any point within the first three weeks I DO NOT surpass the previous week’s number, I’d take a week off from heavy pulling.

So far, the plan is working beautifully.  In all honesty, I haven’t pulled anything more than 550 lbs since earlier this Spring – mainly because I’ve just always felt rundown or otherwise beat up.

With this little experiment of mine in full swing, however, I’ve been killing it.  Just to give you an idea, here’s what my actual past two weeks have looked like in terms of my heavy pulling day:

Week 1:

A.  Work up to heavy single (conventional)

135 x 5, 225×3, 315×3, 405×1, 455×1, 500×1, 550×1 (smoked it)

*** 405 x 8 (just to get some quality reps in)

B1.  GCB GoodMornings 4×5 (last set, worked up to 355×5)
B2.  Reverse Crunch 3×10

C1.  DB Reverse Lunge
C2.  Standing Cable Anti-Rotation Chop 3×8/side

D.  Some easy Prowler Pushes 3×1 (20 yds)

Week 2:

A.  Work up to heavy single (but the goal being to BEAT the previous week’s number)

135×5, 225×3, 315×3, 405×1, 455×1, 495×1, 560×1 (felt pretty good!!!)

*** DId not do any additional back-off sets

B1.  GCB GoodMornings 3×8 (last set had 315 on the bar)
B2.  Reverse Crunch 3×10

C1.  DB Bulgarian Split Squats 3×8/leg
C2.  Hand Switches with Push-Up 3×5/side

D.  Easy Prowler Push 3×1 (20 yds)

This week, I’m going to try to hit 575-580, which will be an actual PR. <–For Reals

I’ll be sure to post a video later this week when I hit it.

4.  And lastly, Lisa and I watched a really great documentary this past weekend:  Conan O’Brien:  Can’t Stop

In essence, the film chronicals the events after Conan got “fired” from The Tonight Show and the subsequent 6-month time frame when he was contractually prohibited from appearing on television in any way, shape, or form.

For those who are Conan fans (like myself) it was a really interesting look behind the scenes.  For those who have no idea who Conan is, you should watch this (it’s arguably one of the funniest skits he ever did).

For those wondering what’s the deal with the funky blog title today, it’s a quote from one of my favorite (and arguably one the most underrated movies in the past ten years), Collateral.

Keep reading, I promise there’s a message involved.

In it, Tom Cruise’s character (Vincent) plays an assassin who “recruits” a random cabbie – Jamie Fox’s charcter (Max) – to drive him around for one night as he goes around LA killing people that he’s been contracted to do.

I won’t give away any details (other than Jamie’s character dies.  Just kidding), but one of the main themes throughout the movie is adapting to the situation.  Things aren’t always going to go as planned, and sometimes, you just have to learn to roll with the punches and go with plan B.

Similarily, yesterday I was having a conversation with one of our athletes – Cincinnati Reds pitching prospect, Tim Gustafson – and he mentioned how, when he was with the Atlanta Braves organization, John freaking Smoltz used to stop by and talk shop with a lot of the minor leagues and state that no matter who you are you’re never going to figure everything out, you’re never going to know everything, you’re never going to be perfect, and those who don’t learn how to adapt to the situation are generally the ones that don’t make it too far in professional sports.

Now, I never played professional baseball, but I held my own back in the day as a collegiate pitcher, and I can speak from personal experience that on some days had “it,” while on others, well, I sucked donkey balls.  And, it was on those days when I knew I didn’t have my best stuff that I had to adapt to the situation, and make the best of it.  Usually it panned out.  Sometimes, though, I’d throw an 0-2 curveball to the clean-up hitter and give up a three-run homerun that people are still saying hasn’t landed yet.  Shit happens.

Accordingly, I couldn’t help but notice that many of the same themes and concepts that Tim and I had discussed (as well as those in the movie) paralleled what we see in the strength and conditioning community as well.  Although I’ve touched on this topic in the past, I can’t help but be amazed when trainers and coaches never change their point of view on ANYTHING.

For some (certainly not all), their program is their program.   That’s that.  Deal with it.

They’ve used the same system for a decade, using the same exercises, the same set/rep schemes, the same progressions, the same broken record without really taking into consideration that the industry is constantly evolving and changing.

With this in mind, I did a little experiment last night and went back and perused some older programs I wrote a few years ago.  I wanted to see how long it would take me before I felt the urge to throw up a little in my mouth.  Needless to say, it didn’t take long.

I noticed one instance where I programmed some kind of hip flexor stretching for EVERYONE – assuming, of course, that because most people sit all day, they ALL needed it.  95% of the time, this is true.  But tell that to the one person who may have anterior hip instability (or, snapping hip syndrome).  Nice one, Tony!

Now, I am in no way insinuating that there shouldn’t be some semblence of continuity in one’s programming.  But to say that a program should never evolve or change is a bit pigheaded, and is something that I feel is an EPIC fail on the part of many coaches and trainers who fail to see the big picture.

As an example, two years ago, we were all about sleeper stretches for most (if not all) of our baseball guys.

As such, you would have been hard pressed to see a program that didn’t include them to some capacity – whether it was part of their pre-work, used as a filler exercise, or done on their own at the end of their training session.

Fast forward to today, and we’ve almost done a complete 180.  After some experimentation, as well as insights from people like Mike Reinold, we concluded that we can use better alternatives to improve internal rotation (assuming that it’s actually needed) without actually cranking down on the shoulder itself.

Alternatives like the Side Lying Crossbody Stretch work appropriately:

But more importantly, working on one’s breathing patterns has a HUGE influence as well.  We can achieve upwards of 5-10 degrees MORE internal rotation without even touching the shoulder.

The point is, we tweaked our line of thinking – and as such, our programming – to reflect the fact that we’re constantly changing our approach and ALWAYS trying to improve.   Trust me, you’re not that big of a deal where this doesn’t apply to you.  If someone like Mike Boyle or Dan John can admit when they’re wrong and are ALWAYS evolving, you can too.

Adapt, Darwin, I Ching.

Have a nice weekend everyone.  Go Yankees!  Oh wait………..LOL!

Also, just a friendly reminder that Mike Robertson’s Complete Core Fitness is on sale through midnight tonight (10/7).  TODAY is the last day you can purchase it at the discounted price of $30 off.  Holla!

For those who missed my review, Click HERE.

Q:  I know trainers (including myself) hate questions like “Hey bro, so like, if you could only do one exercise for the rest of your life what would it be?”, so I won’t ask you that question.  But how about one that is similar, but possibly not quite as frustrating to answer? 

As a trainer, what are your favorite lifts for each of the following body parts?

^^^ Yes, that’s a picture from The Sound of Music on this blog (that just happened)

A:  Deadlifts, my friend.  Deadlifts are the answer to everything……;o)  If more people deadlifted, the world would be a happier place – and possibly have less type II diabetes.  I have no way to back that statement up, but I’m running with it.

As a coach, I rarely (if ever) think of exercises in the context of what muscles they target.  Rather, I’m more concerned with differentiating and improving movement patterns.  Squat, hip hinge, horizontal press, horizontal row, vertical press, veritcal pull, single leg stance, and you know, bicep curls.

But, to answer your question – see below:

Shoulders – The obvious answer here is overhead pressing.  The thing is, though, for me, people have to earn the right to overhead press.  It’s not that I have anything against overhead pressing, or think it’s inherently dangerous – far from it in fact.  It’s just as a whole, we move like poop.  For most, we spend a vast majority of our days sitting in front of the computer, which compromises stuff like glute function, and more importantly, t-spine moblity.

Do me a favor:  round your back and then try to lift your arms over your head.  Kind of hard, right?  Well, this is something that a lot of people can’t do, and the last thing I want is for them to head to their local globo gym and try to do any overhead pressing.  More often than not, they’re just going to end up hurting themselves.

That being said, assuming one is “cleared” to safely overhead press, I’m reluctant to toss in a lot of additional direct shoulder work because, frankly, the shoulders take enough of a beating with all the pressing (and rowing) people perform throughout the week.  But, in short, things like strict military presses, 1-arm DB push presses, and the like would be great pumpkin builders.

Chest – Seems how I’m an absolute god-awful (read:  really bad) bencher, I’m going to go against popular notion and say loaded push-ups here.  Anyone who says push-ups are too wimpy, clearly has never been to Cressey Performance.  I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had grown men come in who couldn’t do a proper push-up, let alone for reps.

I just feel you get more for your training buck with push-ups.  Not only can you sexify your pecs, but you’ll also learn to engage your core, and they’re waaaaaay more shoulder friendly to boot.

Back – I’ve stated this in the past, but nothing is more of a clear indicator that someone has put their time in under the iron than when he (or she) walks around with an impressive upper back.  Take personal trainer and manual therapist, Rachel Guy, for example:

Do you think she built that body by doing pilates and lifting pink dumbbells?  Ummmmmm, no.

In terms of upper back development, deadlifts really do reign supreme here.  Nothing, and I mean NOTHING makes my upper back more sore than when I do sets of heavy deadlifts.  Some other favs would include chest supported rows, as well as various chin-ups/pull-ups.  But they all play second fiddle to deadlifts.

 

Quads – Easy, full depth squats.  Of course, this begs the question:  what entails “full depth” squats.  For me, the anterior surface of the thigh must go past parallel in order for it to count.  Although, to be fair, not everyone is suited (or ready) to step into the gym on day #1 and squat to depth.  In that case, I’m perfectly fine with regressing the movement to a range of motion that’s safe for the trainee.  Regardless, if we want to turn into Quadzilla, you need to squat.  And you need to squat deep.

Hamstrings – My first inclination will be to say goodmornings, since speaking from a personal perspective, they are an awesome accessory movement that not only develop impressive hamstrings but also carry over very well to the deadlift.  It’s a fairly advanced movement, however, and I’m reluctant to just haphazardly recommend them to just anyone due to the high “I’ll shit my spleen” factor.

Soooooo, instead, my “safer” choice will be the 1-Legged Romananian Deadlift.

Glutes – Bret Contreras pretty much settled this debate long ago.  You’d be hard pressed to find any exercise that hammers your glutes more than loaded barbell bridges.

Abs – Easy, stepping away from the cookie jar.

Full Disclosure:  I am in no way condoning body part splits here; lets not get too carried away here…..hahahahaha.  Again, I think of things more in the context of movement patterns rather than what muscles are being hit.  But, nevertheless, shooting from the hip, these are what I came up with.  Feel free to chime in and offer your two cents below!