CategoriesUncategorized

Six Weeks Into 2014….How Are Those Resolutions Coming Along?

We’re entering the six week mark of 2014, and like millions of other people, on New Year’s Day you vowed to finally take advantage of the gym membership you purchased back in 2012, and make a go at this whole “get into shape thing.”

For real this time!

To help sweeten the pot and to hold yourself more accountable you even went out and bought a fancy new pair of shoes as well as the latest iteration of the iPod – and I hope to god you didn’t download any Nickleback songs.

You (or someone you know) decided no more of this gung-ho attitude for a few weeks in January only to become a statistic and putter out before Valentine’s Day.

Well, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner (Just a heads up fellas:  it’s this Friday), and while I don’t have to worry about many of you dropping the ball and rescinding on your (fitness) resolutions – you ARE reading a fitness blog – that doesn’t mean there aren’t some of you who are serial procrastinators and are slow to take action.  Or maybe more to the point, you know a friend, colleague, or family member who just needs a little nudge or sense of direction.

Understandably, and equally unfortunately, like many who are in the same situation and making their first legitimate effort to venture outside their comfort zone, some people feel a little overwhelmed, not to mention a tad lost, and the whole process of getting fit feels analogous to trying to do long division.

Who’s right and who’s wrong? High-rep vs. Low –rep training, steady state cardio vs. HIIT, high-carb/no-carb/intermittent fasting, CrossFit, and Yoga and ThighMasters….oh my!

I’m here to help.

I don’t like to marry myself to a set list of rules. I mean, if I want to parade around in Iron Man underwear with the windows wide open in my apartment, who’s to say that I can’t?

In my latest article for BodyBuilding.com, however, I provide three rules that most beginners should abide by when starting a workout program.

Moreover, I provide a simple, easy-to-follow 8-week program for beginners to help pave the way and point them in the right direction.

8-Week Beginner Workout

PS:  And for those looking for even MORE guidance – you can check out my Tony Gentilcore Premium Workout Group over on WeighTraining.com.

Here I provide a NEW workout every month (you’ll still have access to all past programs), which includes video tutorials, a “coming soon” discussion board where all participants will be able to interact with me, as well as a PRO membership to the WT.com website.

CategoriesMotivational Program Design Strength Training

5 Ah-Ha Moments

Sometimes I feel like I’m the dumbest person on Earth.

Not “dumb-dumb” mind you.  I mean, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the human body (how it works, how to make it stronger, etc), I know to pay my taxes, I’ve already made Valentine’s dinner reservations (holla!), I can make a piece of toast without burning down my apartment, and I know my multiplication tables like no one’s business.

So I don’t mean dumb in the literal sense of the word.

What I’m referring to are those times where I read a book, an article, watch a DVD, have a casual conversation with someone, or attend a seminar or workshop and somebody says something so profound and utterly jaw-dropping that it blows my mind.

Or makes my face melt (<— it happens a lot).

And it doesn’t necessarily have to exit the mouth of  some intellectual luminary such as Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, or Captain Planet.

Yay for random 80s cartoon references!

I’ve witnessed some doozies from the most unexpected people.

But in the realm of strength and conditioning – there are a LOT of very smart people, and I’d be lying if I said I felt I was one of them.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation with Eric Cressey, Bret Contreras, Mike Robertson, Kevin Neeld, Cassandra Forsythe, Mike Reinold, or Bill Hartman (to name a few) and thought to myself, “holy shit, I have no idea what the hell they’re talking about.  Okay Tony, just nod your head, say “mmm hmmm” a few times, and pretend as if they haven’t lost you”

Likewise whenever I’ve had the opportunity to listen to the likes of Dr. Stuart McGill, Charlie Weingroff, Gray Cook, Thomas Myers, or Professor Dumbledore speak….I can’t help but feel like the a complete nincompoop.

And don’t even get me started on Shirley Sahrmann’s Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a page or two and immediately got a headache from all the big words.

All of this to say: sometimes I feel really, really inadequate.

But that’s the price you pay when you try to get better; as if it’s a prerequisite – your DUTY – to go out of your way to surround yourself with smarter people than yourself.

A few years ago Alwyn Cosgrove wrote a very popular article on T-Nation titled “5 Ah-Ha Moments,” (hence the very original title of this post) in which he described five instances where the proverbial light bulb went off inside his head.

I thought I’d take today and share a handful of my own ah-ha moments.  Some you’ll undoubtedly recognize, and others maybe not so much.

While I’ll be the first to admit my brain doesn’t work in the same fashion as some of my colleagues – I don’t think I’ve ever come up with an original idea, like, ever – I can “steal” (while giving credit) with the best of them. As such I feel my strongest asset is being able to take complex ideas, water them down, and explain them so that even a cave man can understand.

You’re welcome…..;o)

1.  Joint-by-Joint Approach

Giving full credit to Gray Cook and Mike Boyle, I don’t think anything has influenced my train of thought as far as how I approach assessment and thus, program design, as this concept.

In short it goes like this:  some joint need to be addressed or trained with mobility in mind (ankle, hips, t-spine), while others need to be addressed or trained with stability (knees, lumbar spine, scapulae) in mind.

What both Cook and Boyle noticed was that if you look at patterns, the whole mobility-stability continuum alternates on a joint-by-joint basis up and down the kinetic chain of the body.

The foot generally wants/needs stability. The ankle wants/needs mobility.  So on and so forth as you work your way up.

And it was here where the entire industry slapped their collective hands to their foreheads.

Taking things a step further, when discussing pain and dysfunction in any joint – lets say the lower back – it’s generally accepted that the source of pain stems from either the joint above or below (or both!).

If someone’s hip and t-spine mobility rivals that of the Tin Man – ie: they’re stiff – it’s no wonder why their lower back will flip them the middle bird.

The reason why – again, generally speaking – their back hurts is because they’re asking it to do more work than it’s designed for.  Because their hips and t-spine are locked up, the lower back has to pick up the slack and sacrifice stability for more mobility.

Does the “theory” have its flaws?  Absolutely.  Nothing is 100% infallible.  Even football Jesus, Tom Brady.

But I’d argue the Joint-by-Joint approach has done more to progress the industry than anything in the past decade, and that’s saying a lot.

Sorry Shake Weight.

2.  No One Cares About Big Toe Dorsiflexion.

Seriously, outside of the uber anatomy geeks no one cares.

This was a lesson I learned back when I first started personal training.  To put it bluntly, as a way to try to impress new clients and try to “win” their business I used to put them through all these elaborate assessments and screens to try to show them how smart I was and how I was going to take over the world.

I took them through all the normal screens like a Thomas Test, shoulder ROM, core stability, as well as movement quality tests such as the squat and lunge.

But then I would up the “wow factor” and start talking fascia, contralateral limb restrictions, and even go so far as to test their great toe dorsiflexion to demonstrate how a limitation there could affect their hip mobility!

While research will back-up its efficacy, in hindsight it was a dumb idea.

Here’s a piece of advice to any new trainers who may be reading.  No one – outside of you and your other geek friends – gives two shits about anatomy.  This is especially true with your clients.

All they care about is feeling better and losing 15 pounds.  They don’t want to hear about superficial fascial lines or glenohumeral range of motion deficits or anterior pelvic tilt.  And frankly, they don’t care that you can name all the muscles in the body in alphabetic order or that you were named one of the 50 Best Trainers by NoOneGivesTwoShits.com.

[Of course it’s cool and an honor to be named to any list……..but just know that a vast majority could care less.]

This isn’t to say that you won’t have more proactive clients who want to put on their geek hat from time to time, but trust me when I say this:  97.45% of your clients don’t care.

3.  Vertical Tibia

This is a concept that was popularized by physical therapist and uber strong dude, Charlie Weingroff a few years ago.

First off: lets address the pink elephant in the room.

It’s virtually impossible not to squat without *some* forward translation of the tibia.  But there’s a huge difference between *some* and going to the point where the knees go so far forward that the heels come off the ground.

Moreover, PAIN is the determining factor here.

If someone walks into my facility complaining of chronic knee pain, and I watch him or her squat/lunge/brush their teeth, almost always I’m going to see an excessive amount of tibial translation and I have to teach/coach them to maintain a more vertical shin angle.

Stealing a line from my pal Mike Robertson: stacked joints are happy joints.

If someone squats to the point where their knees go waaaaaay over their toes, it’s going to cause a ton of shear stress on the knees.

It is any surprise why their knees would be hating them?

Much of the time it’s going to come down to re-engraining a good hip hinge pattern and to try to teach a more vertical shin angle.

I know some will argue that, “well, if you block the knees from going forward, the stress has to go somewhere, and the hips and low back will end up taking the brunt.”

This is true.  But again, there will ALWAYS be some forward movement of the knees. I want to avoid anything that’s excessive.  When someone is in PAIN, coaching a more vertical tibia makes a ton of sense.

4.  Being More Cognizant of Anterior Humeral Glide

There are a plethora of things that can irritate a shoulder.  Poor tissue quality, poor t-spine mobility, poor scapular stability, lack of glenohumeral ROM, poor programming, too much bench pressing, and too much overhead dwarf throwing to name a few.

While many like to gravitate towards the more inane things, I’d make the case that most fail to see the forest for the trees and would be better served taking themselves through an exercise technique audit.

Take the cable row for example.  One of the more glaring “mistakes” we have to correct at CP is guys going into too much glenohumeral extension when performing their rows, essentially allowing their elbows to go way past the midline of the body, causing the humeral head to glide anteriorly (forward), and placing a lot of undue stress on the bicep tendon.

Eric Cressey does a fantastic job of explaining this whole idea in more detail in this video:

 5.  Nixing the Sleeper Stretch

I received an email the other day from a trainer asking what we do at CP – other than the sleeper stretch – to increase internal range of motion in our baseball players (or general population clients as well).

Apparently he had been doing sleeper stretches with many of his athletes and clients with little or no results.

While there are exceptions to the rule, we haven’t performed a sleeper stretch underneath our roof in like four years.  For a few reasons:

1.  Outside of most people performing it incorrectly, there are just better ways to garner more IR other than people cranking on their shoulder.

We can look into tissue quality in the pec minor and lats, focus on more t-spine mobility, and even toss in some dedicated anterior core stability work and breathing patterns and often see a (transient) improvement.

2.  You also have to recognize that a lack of IR is just a measurement and oftentimes a completely NORMAL adaptation.  It’s not uncommon to see right-handed throwers with less IR on their dominant arm compared to their non-dominant side.  And this sentiment mirrors those in the general population as well.

3. The more important thing to consider is TOTAL ROM between left and right sides. If there’s a huge discrepancy or asymmetry between the two, that could present as a bright, red flag that may need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

The answer isn’t to crank on their shoulder like you’re trying to jam a square peg through a round hole. Sometimes you just have to understand that a lack of IR is okay, and sometimes, normal.

Honorable Mention

– Realizing that trying to “win” an argument with my girlfriend – who’s a clinical psychologist – is a pointless endeavor.  Trying to win an argument is pointless either way, but especially when you’re dealing with someone with Jedi mind-trick powers.

– Cueing someone to “keep their chest up” during the deadlift is actually more of an effort to get them to learn how to posteriorly tilt their shoulder blades.  Too much “chest up” may cause them to excessively arch their lower back.

– Intermittent fasting isn’t for everyone.  Sorry, but you’re not going to get huge putting yourself through 24-hour fasts every three days.

– Who knew I’d be such a cat lover????

– No matter which way you swing it, bulgarian split squats suck!  A lot.   More than Tracy Anderson.  Okay, maybe not that much.

Note:  by “suck,” I mean they’re a fantastic exercise…..they’re just not fun to do.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 2/7/14

Before we get the ball rolling on the good reads for the week, I wanted to briefly share an email exchange I had with a colleague who happens to a diesel mom to boot.

Q: I wondered what your thoughts are on all of these youth plyo and conditioning classes popping up all over? I’m at my daughter’s dance class and they offer them here. My gut sat in my throat as I watched a 10 year old perform DB overhead presses LA Fitness style with his arms wobbling all over. I swear he was either going to dislocate his shoulder or knock himself out.

Anyway, this is the first time I’ve watched this. I always balked at the Gym Dad who put their sons through shitty workouts, but these are coaches apparently trained to teach these things. These coaches work with kids in off season and in season to condition them for sports. They sponsor most of the games too.

A: Yeah, the whole idea suspect to say the least. I don’t agree with them at all  <—- and I’m being really good in restraining myself here.

Whenever I have a parent ask me about agility/plyo/conditioning training or how I’m going to make their kid faster I just use my trusted Indy 500 analogy, which is this:

If I were to take a Honda Civic and give it a sweet paint job, new wheels, a spoiler, and make it look fast……would you expect it to win the Indy 500?

Um, no. Unless you increase the actual horse power of the engine you’ll have a better shot at punching a Yeti in the face while on riding a Unicorn.

[Okay, I don’t usually use the Yeti and Unicorn reference, but it worked well here.]

Getting stronger is like increasing the horse power. You get stronger (and focus on movement quality), you’re able to generate more force into the ground, and you’re then able to run faster, throw harder, jump higher, and increase your general level of awesome.

Strength is the basis for everything. It’s really, really, REALLY hard to have agility, power, endurance, speed-endurance, or any other “quality” you can think of (invisibility?) without first having a base of strength to “pool” everything from.

All these “speed camps” and youth conditioning classes, in my opinion, are nothing more than a ploy to give the illusion that *something* is being done and to make the parents go “oooooo” and “ahhhhhh.”

And of course, to make money.  I can’t fault the latter point (I guess).  But, come on….does a twelve year old really need to be doing foot work drills?

And what the heck does a “youth conditioning class” even mean?

Tell your kid to go outside a play some pick-up basketball. Play some kick-ball. Climb a tree.  Anything!

Anything outdoors will be a helluva lot more beneficial than some speed camp that makes kids perform those silly cone drills or ladder drills that most aren’t remotely prepared enough to be doing anyways

Plus, you’ll save yourself $99.

Just my two cents.  Which, coincidentally is a lot cheaper.

Do any of you have any thoughts on the matter???  Sound of in the comments section.

My Experience at the Assessing Movement Conference – Kasey Esser

Recently both Gray Cook and Dr. Stuart McGill sat down to discuss their “differences” in opinion on movement, assessment, and whether or not the second season of House of Cards is going to live up to season one.

This was like the fitness industry’s equivalent of Gandalf and Yoda squaring off.

Kasey was kind enough to send me his review on the weekend, and I thought it was fantastic.  Plus it served as a nice appetizer for when the DVD is available – I can’t freakin wait!

3 Overrated Supplements – Examine.com (via Adam Bornstein)

I really liked this post over on Adam’s site which took to task a handful of supplements that tend to get a lot of press for how beneficial they are, when they’re anything but.

The next time someone asks you your opinion on raspberry ketones (something Dr. Oz made popular) you can refer them to this post.

The Secret to Ab Training – Mike Robertson

Many of Mike’s thoughts on this subject mirror many of the same thoughts we use at Cressey Performance.  As always, Mike drops some knowledge bombs and helps to elucidate on how important EXHALING his to core performance and training.

I know it sounds weird, but it’s definitely worth the read.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

Why Baseball Players Shouldn’t Bench Press

I’ve been keeping this article in my back pocket for a while now because I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to approach writing it.  Lets be honest:  talking smack about the beloved bench press is the fitness equivalent of talking smack about Princess Diana or worse, kittens.

You just don’t do it!

To save face, though, let me be clear up front:  I LOVE the bench press.  Well, let me back track a little bit.  From a personal standpoint I freaking hate the bench press.

I’m an admittedly horrible bencher (god awful in fact), and if it came down to choosing between bench pressing or tossing my body in front of a mack truck, I’d seriously consider the latter.

Every time I look at my program and see the words “bench press” written down this is pretty much my standard reaction:

Temper tantrums aside, I do recognize that the bench press is an important strength building (and for those more aesthetically minded individuals reading, chest building) exercise.  I think we can all agree that the bench press is a super star and is one of the staple exercises behind any well-rounded program.

But is it for everyone?

One of the more common questions we receive at Cressey Performance when people come in to observe is:  Tony, why do you coach with your shirt off? Tony, how come you don’t allow your baseball guys to bench press?

It’s a loaded question, but one that can be answered relatively easily.

I’m of the mindset that there aren’t many contraindicated exercises (you can generally find a legitimate and appropriate use for any exercise. Yes, even if done on a BOSU ball), as there are contraindicated lifters!

For me bench pressing and baseball don’t mix – for a variety of reasons – and there are plenty of other exercises we can use in lieu of the bench press to elicit a training effect.

In this article I wrote for Stack.com I explain my rationale on both fronts:

Why Baseball Players Shouldn’t Bench Press (<— Click Me, That Tickles)

CategoriesFemale Training Motivational

Wearing a Cressey Performance T-Shirt Instantly Improves Strength**

** =  It’s science (video evidence below).  Well that, and I’ll take around 7.3% credit for the kick-ass programming.

I received this video over the weekend and I HAD to share it here. It’s sooooo freaking bad-ass (and mirrors nicely with yesterday’s post on women lifting heavy things.)

A little back story:  Kim was a former colleague of my girlfriend Lisa, and when Lisa and I started dating Kim took a bit more interest in this whole “lifting weights” thing.  As a collegiate coach, she had always been physically active but was looking to take her fitness to the next level.  In particular she wanted to get stronger and attack her deadlift.

She had me at deadlift.  I was down!

When I was interested in sprucing up the website I contacted Kim because she also does a fair bit of freelance photography on the side.  We did a little trade-bartering, and in exchange for her making me look presentable (I’m hands down the most un-photogenic person in history) I wrote some programming for her.

Teaser Alert:  Kim was gracious enough to come down to CP for another photo shoot this past December, so stay tuned for a website face-lift coming soon. There may or may not be some “sexy tiger” poses involved.

Relax – there isn’t.  I don’t think the internet is ready for that.

Anyhoo:  Kim’s goal – back in 2011 – was to nail a 200 lb DL.  Partly because, well, why not? But mostly because some of her family members told her she’d never hit it.

Oh really!?!?!

I forget when she hit it, but she hit.  Since then she and I have been working together on and off for a little over two years. She’s been “recycling” a few of my older programs as well as doing some improvising on her own (more of the latter than the former).

As a “thank you” for coming down for the more recent photoshoot I sent her a Cressey Performance t-shirt.  And this is what followed a few days afterwards:

A few candid thoughts:

1. I love the intensity!  I love to see how Kim psyches herself up for the lift. She’s NOT messing around, and I was half expecting her to punch a wall or something.

2. After smoking 260, how baller was it when she dropped the weight and gave that “don’t eff with me look” into the mirror??

Total boss.

The only way that would have been cooler is if she immediately sprinted over to the woman on the elliptical machine and screamed PROTECT…..THIS…..HOUSE!!!!!!

3. Yeah, 265 wasn’t pretty.  But since when is a max effort lift always going to look pretty?  She hit TWO freakin PRs in one session.  That doesn’t happen too often, for anyone.

Congrats Kim and well done!

PS:  Oh, and ladies, notice how Kim still looks like a woman?  This despite pulling in the ballpark of 2x her bodyweight.  Turn off the Tracy Anderson and lift some weights!  Need a little primer or to be pointed in the right direction? These will definitely help:

The New Rules of Lifting for Women – Lou Schuler, Alwyn Cosgrove, and Cassandra Forsythe

Lift Like a Girl – Nia Shanks

Train to be Awesome Guide – Nia Shanks

Strong Curves – Bret Contreras and Kellie Hart Davis

Shape-Up Shortcuts – Jen Ator (with a cameo appearance by yours truly!)

CategoriesFemale Training Motivational Strength Training

Hey Ladies, Lift Something Heavy!

The term passion is defined as “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something,” or as a “strong and barely controllable emotion.”

Everyone reading (I hope) has a passion for something.  For some it’s their children and loved ones. For others it may be the charity work they’re involved in.  And even for others it may be something more tangible or finite such as their car or their collection of un-opened Star Wars action figurines.

Hey, I’m not here to judge

Passion is a great thing, and we should all be so lucky as to have a little passion in our lives.

I’m passionate about a lot of things:  my family, my girlfriend, movies, deadlifts, caffeine, my ever growing collection of vintage t-shirts.

A bit closer to home, however, and as a coach in particular, I’m passionate about fitness and helping others attain their goals.

I spend a great portion of my day training athletes, but what’s often glossed over is that I also train a fair number of regular “Joes and Janes,” or people who, like many of you reading, aren’t paid to jump higher, throw harder, or run faster. But rather just want to feel better, possibly shave a few lbs off their frame, lift some heavy things, and maybe not think twice about getting nekid with the lights on.

BOM CHICKA BOM BOM.

To that end, I often go on tirades when the topic of women and training pops up.  Speaking a bit more colloquially – and excuse my language – there’s a lot of shit information out there in the mainstream media, and it’s exponentially shitty with regards to women and strength training.

So I guess you could say I’m also passionate about doing my part in dispelling common myths and fallacies that’s regurgitated by the media.

Below is an interview I did for Marco Berardi and the people over at CrossFit LaSalle located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Marco Berardi: Tony, I know it is probably weird to ask one of the top strength and conditioning bloggers on the web to chat about women and lifting heavy things but your opinion on the subject has been one of my favorite parts of your blog. 600 pound deadlifts and big bench presses are great but for a large majority of coaches, we have many more women clients who want to get “toned” rather than athletes, so the topic of women and weight training is a great interest to me. Thanks for agreeing to answer some questions.

I know you just went on vacation and spent some time at a Globo Gym. What was the experience like? Especially when it comes to how women train? I bet you saw lots of isolated bicep and tricep work with those cute pastel colored weights.

TG:  I live in a fairly secluded “bubble,” because in my world – especially in the realm of strength and conditioning – I control every component of training with my clients. I tell them what to do, how to do it, and most important of all….I coach them and make sure that everything (everything) is done correctly.

So, it’s always interesting when I stumble outside of my little bubble and make my way to a commercial gym to train, as I really have to prepare myself for the massive number of epic fails I’m going to see.

Note:  this isn’t a slight against all commercial gyms – just most of them.

If my thought process offends you – particularly if you’re a trainer and you fall into the camp that’s described below – it’s probably because the truth hurts.  Sorry I’m not sorry. 

Now, to be fair:  I’m not some cynical bastard who just likes to poo-poo on people. Who am I to judge what people do in the gym and how they do it?  At the end of the day, at least they’re doing something, and that should be commended.  Wholeheartedly.  All the time.

Whether it’s Zumba, Yoga, CrossFit, Jazzercise, Prancercise (look it up on Youtube), traditional weight training, or mimicking the dance from Napoleon Dynamite, anything is better than sitting on your ass.

But I’d be lying if I said that I don’t walk away a little let down about the industry whenever I happen to train at a commercial gym.

I’m a coach, and as such, it’s really hard for me not to observe what others are doing. Now, with regular patrons I’ll give the benefit of the doubt.  Sure, I can face palm myself and wonder why that woman who is 30 lbs overweight – and woefully de-conditioned – is wasting her time performing bicep curls on a BOSO ball.  She doesn’t know any better.

What really grinds my gears – and, if I may, makes me absolutely bat shit crazy – is when I see a fitness professional (who should know better) has their client perform the same thing.

Really?  She’s paying you $50, $60, $70 $80+ per hour so that she can stand on a BOSU ball and then follow that with tricep kickbacks and arm circles?  I kid you not:  that’s EXACTLY what I saw while I was away on vacation.

Moreover, it was readily apparent that none of the trainers felt the need to “push” their female clients – treating them as if they were these delicate snowflakes that couldn’t (or shouldn’t) lift anything heavier than their Prada handbag.

Not once, in the four days (FOUR days) I was at this gym training with my girlfriend, did I watch a trainer coach his or her client (whether male or female) through a compound, free-weight movement.  Not once.  I did, however, see a lot of poorly done push-ups, lunges, planks, and a bevy of other exercises that made me want to swallow a live grenade.  It was really sad.

MB: On a side note, how the media portrays training to women it is almost not their fault they are so confused. I mean they can look around their Zumba class and see that no one has improved in the last 3 years but I digress.  Is there anyway to change what is being marketed to women as “exercise”?

TG:  Completely true, and it’s something that I do see changing – albeit at a snail’s pace. Walk down any aisle at your local grocery store, and you’re bound to see numerous “women’s” magazines with a teeny-tiny (airbrushed) actress or model on the cover holding a pink dumbbell underneath some innocuous title like “10 Tips for a Bikini Body” or something equally as nauseating.

In reality, it’s not even the title that’s most annoying – it’s the trivial, almost offensive workouts that are attached. Much like to what I described above at the commercial gym, many (not all) of these so-called “workouts” aren’t even remotely challenging.

I mean, come on:  recommending a workout based solely around a can of soup (which I saw one magazine publish) – how to curl with it, squat with it, lunge with it, throw it at the editor’s face who decided this was viable fitness information – is a bit of waste of everyone’s time don’t cha think?

But this is the type of stuff that’s marketed towards women.  As you noted, can you blame women that they curl up in the fetal position whenever you ask them to perform a deadlift?

As far as the mainstream media is concerned, I don’t think their formula is going to change anytime soon.  While it’s changing somewhat – they do still have to sell magazines, and what sells magazines are articles with Kim Kardashian on the cover telling the world that performing strength training with high heels on is the key to badonkadonkness.

Thankfully, we have women out there like Nia Shanks, Molly Galbraith, Jen Comas Keck, Neghar Fonooni, Jen Sinkler, the rest of the Girls Gone Strong crew, as well as many, many others fighting the good fight and trying to empower women on the benefits of (real) strength training and to step away from the elliptical and treadmill.

Likewise, I too try my best to provide information to women that goes against the norm of what they’ve been spoon-fed for decades.

Like THIS one on The Myth of Female Specific Training, or THIS one on Should You Use Scale Weight as a Measure of Success, or THIS one on The Fitness Double Standard.

I try to debunk as many myths as I can – lifting heavy things WILL NOT turn you into The Rock, endless hours of cardio IS NOT the key to fat loss, Yoga WILL NOT make your muscles long and lean, Tracy Anderson IS NOT a credible source of fitness and health information and is about as intelligent as a ham sandwich.

There’s still a very long battle a head, but I do see the tides turning, and it’s a beautiful thing.

MB: Obviously, the women who come to your facility (I’m guessing) are already sold on the Cressey Performance values. They probably want to lift heavy things and achieve a chin up without assistance. How would you convince a woman that is scared to “bulk up” and feel they need endless amounts of cardio to drop their body fat?

TG:  Yes and no. While it’s true that most people who walk through our doors kinda already have an idea of what they’re getting themselves into, there’s still a fair share that need to be “de-programmed.”

The best thing I can do as a coach is listen.  I try to ask as many questions as possible and do a little digging.

– How often do they train?

  – What has their training looked like?

    – Are they happy with their results?     – If not, how come?

    – What is their ideal body type?

    – Why?

    – What do they feel is holding them back?

So on and so forth.  Once I’m done listening, I then go into a little (not a lot) of what I feel would be the best approach to take.  It’s not about me being confrontational, forcing information in their direction, and trying to convince them that what they’ve been doing for the past five years has been a complete time killer (although, for many, that’s exactly what’s happened).

At this stage it’s about comfort zones and showing them success right out of the gate.

Almost inevitably, once I start throwing out words like squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, Prowlers, hell even if I toss out the word strength…….I’ll starting getting a little push-back, and many of the same myths and fallacies I described above – things many of these women have been regurgitating for YEARS, with limited (if any) results mind you – rear their ugly heads.

Once that happens, I have one more question for them:

“How’s that working for you?”

Clearly, if your way is the superior way, and it’s the approach you’ve been using for the past 5-10 years…….why have you seen NO results?  Zilch.  Nada.

To that end, all I ask is that they give me two months.  Give it their all for 60 days and see what happens.  Almost always, after three weeks they’re hooked.

Once they start to see (and feel) the confidence they gain, it’s always a done deal.

Once they realize that putting an extra ten pounds on the bar won’t turn them into a roided out she-man, and they start noticing small, incremental changes to their body, the sky’s the limit. It’s a beautiful thing.

MB: When you begin to train women do you have specific goals you would like to help them achieve? If I can get a woman to do 5-10 proper push ups on their own, a chin-up, and deadlift better than 99% of the men in the gym, it is safe to assume they will achieve their body image goal. Is that an ok thought process?

TG:  Sure.  With any client – whether I’m working with a male or female – it’s usually my job to tell them what they need to do, and not what they want to do.  Big difference.

With any client, it’s about getting them outside their comfort zone.  With women in particular, their Kryptonite is the free-weight area.  Can you blame them?  Who wants to train around a bunch of dudes who reek of Axe body spray and scream as if they’re passing a kidney stone?  Hell, I don’t want to be around that.

That notwithstanding, I think you’re on the right track.  Having clear and defined (not to mention realistic and attainable) goals is an important component many trainees fail to grasp.

As a trainer or coach, I think it’s crucial to sit down with your client and come up with goals to strive for – whether it’s to perform an unassisted, body weight chin-up, “x” number of lbs on the deadlift, or to lose ten lbs of fat by summer.  Having something to work for gives people a sense of purpose and holds them more accountable in the end.

With the women that I train, they’re going to get coached on all the basic movements – squats, deadlifts, push-ups, etc. Much like you, it’s not uncommon for many of the women I train to train on their own “x” number of days per week at the other gym and to boast that someone complimented them on their deadlift form, and I totally dig that!

Even cooler is when they come back with stories about how they were waiting to “jump in” on a certain exercise at their commercial gym, and they warmed-up with the weight that the guy leaving ended with on his last set.

In the end, though, it’s about coaching the basics.  There’s no need to make things more complicated than they have to be. This isn’t NASA.  If your female client can perform ten picture perfect push-ups – despite push-ups being as exciting as watching grass grow – then they’re leaps and bounds a head of 99% of other females out there.

Sadly, this doesn’t happen too often.  Trainers (and trainees) are more concerned with looking cool and doing something unique than mastering the basics.