Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 2/17/12

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I’ve been spending the majority of this week working on (and tweaking) my presentation that I’ll be giving in a few days at the Downtown Crossing Boston Sports Club to a group of 30 or so trainers.

Needless to say, I’m really excited for the opportunity, and it should be a great presentation.  I’ve even prepared a shadow puppet show and everything!

…..Okay, not really. The bulk of it is going to center around assessment, which is an area I feel many personal trainers need to step up their game in. Of importance, though, is reiterating that assessment DOES NOT mean seeking out dysfunction.  Far too often I feel trainers go into “corrective mode,” and fail to recognize one crucial factor:  PEOPLE NEED A TRAINING EFFECT!!!

Adding to that, realizing that coaching proper exercise technique (as well as having a rationale for choosing “x” exercise) ranks high on the list of “stuff you shouldn’t suck at.”

Okay, deep breaths Tony.  No point in getting all fired up just yet.

Did I mention I included a reference to Optimus Prime AND He-Man in my talk? BOO-YAH!

Take 2 ZMA, Dress as Harry Potter, and Kill Darth Vader – James Garland

Inspired by a wall post I placed on my Facebook page last week, a friend of mine and fellow strength coach, James Garland, wrote this article which I felt did a great job of describing the benefits of supplementing with ZMA.

Vivid dreams aside, you might be surprised.

6 Tips from 6 Coaches – Ben Bruno

I always enjoy reading articles that elucidate on the thought processes of different coaches on varying topics, and I was fortunate enough to be included into the mix of some top-notch dudes in this one.

Some Myths About “Toning” – Todd Hargrove

‘Toned,” “sleek,” “trim,” or whatever the word of choice, they’re all equally as likely to make a small piece of my soul die every time I hear a woman utter them.

In this fantastic post, Todd cuts through the BS and offers some insight as to what “toned” really means as well as debunking other shenanigans.

[insert slow clap here]

Did what you just read make your day? Ruin it? Either way, you should share it with your friends and/or comment below.

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Plus, get a copy of Tony’s Pick Things Up, a quick-tip guide to everything deadlift-related. See his butt? Yeah. It’s good. You should probably listen to him if you have any hope of getting a butt that good.

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Comments for This Entry

  • Francisco

    Any specific brand of ZMA you would recommend?

    February 17, 2012 at 1:29 pm | Reply to this comment

  • Todd Hargrove

    Thanks for the link Tony!

    February 17, 2012 at 1:29 pm | Reply to this comment

  • Guest

    *clap* ............ *clap* ............ *clap*

    February 18, 2012 at 9:03 am | Reply to this comment

  • Lauren L

    I loved what you had to say about spinal flexion in the T-Nation article and I completely agree with you. This year I too have been trying not to see the world through "no spinal flexion" colored glasses. I've also been thinking about the subjectivity of "neutral" positioning. Maybe I'm so 2000 and late on this one, but it seems like everyone has a different neutral and I need to learn to identify where my client's body is structurally and from there adjust my expectations of where I can take them with training. Again, I am almost embarrassed to write this because I feel like everyone probably knew this already, but I would love to hear your thoughts on knowing when to accommodate the structural "issues" a person has or when to push for more degrees of lumbar extension (for example). Hope I'm making sense!

    February 18, 2012 at 2:49 pm | Reply to this comment

    • Anonymous

      Lauren - You make COMPLETE sense! And, to be honest, I think it's almost impossible to get people back to a true neutral. We just sit waaaaaaaaaay too much. As a trainer, we can try to "balance" our training programs, but that assumes that people are already balanced themselves. Which they're not. Much of what we need to do as trainers is just as much about REGRESSION as it is PROGRESSION. Serving as the umbrella of all this is MOVEMENT QUALITY. Get someone moving more efficiently, stop their pain, and you're a god to them. I can almost guarantee as someone who's reading this site (as well as others like Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Mike Reinold, Bret Contreras, etc), you're doing FAR more for your clients that 99% of trainers out there.

      February 19, 2012 at 6:11 pm | Reply to this comment

  • Marco Berardi

    I just recently made room for some spinal flexion exercises back into my programs. It was something Joe Dowdell talked about during the Peak Seminar. It is so obvious but sometimes it is easy to get caught up in what we believe are truths.

    February 19, 2012 at 10:17 am | Reply to this comment

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