It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in Boston so this one is going to be quick.
1. Here’s a Picture of My Cat.
This was taken ten minutes ago, which demonstrates three things:
I’m 100% certain I was a crazy cat woman in a past life. Who’s the beautiful, beautiful Princess?
It is, in fact, a sunny day today.
My cat is like WTF!?!
2. Listen to My Latest Podcast Appearance
I made another appearance on the DeLeo Training Podcast recently. It’s always an honor to be invited onto any show, let alone for a second time in a matter of a few months.
This time around Joe and I discuss the importance of coaches having their own coach, the advantages of percentage based training, and why strength is the foundation for pretty much everything.
Except for being able to slay on a guitar. You don’t need a big deadlift to be able to do that.
3. Jump Training 101
In anticipation of the release of their Elite Athletic Development 3.0 resource next week, Mike Robertson and Joe Kenn are sharing some killer FREE content this week.
During the seminar itself they filmed strength coaches Bobby Smith and Adam Feit (<– a featured guest poster on this site) discuss their approach to jump training.
You can watch PART I of their presentation on Vertical Jump Training by going HERE. All you need to do is enter your name and email and you’re all set.
Trust me: Bobby and Adam cover a ton of material that is sure to help you and/or your athletes leap over boxes, cars, volacanos, but probably just boxes.
Don’t worry, Mike and Ken won’t spam you. Because, you know, they’re not a-holes.
Thoracic (mid-back) extension is kind of a big deal.
Without turning this into an anatomy lesson, t-spine extension is important for a variety of reasons. In no particular order:
It’s what the mid-back (T1-T12) is designed to do. However, due to the long hours many of us tend to accumulate at work and at home in excessive flexion (hunched over, rounded upper back), we lose the ability to get into and maintain extension.
In short: “good” posture can become compromised.
T-spine extension allows us to get into proper positions to lift things – it’s crucial for overhead activities (or elevating the arms overhead in general), deadlifting, squatting, and helping to offset “sheer forces” on the spine.
Lack of t-spine extension means you can never be Batman.1
Our scapulae (shoulder blades) are more or mess at the mercy of thorax position. For those who present with a more kyphotic/computer guy posture, the “resting” position of our scapulae can be affected (abducted, anteriorly tilted) which can (not always) lead to shoulder ouchies in addition to scapular dyskinesis.
There are numerous ways to address lack of thoracic extension, the most common being foam rolling the mid-back followed by corrective modalities such as:
Bench T-Spine Mobilizations
Rocked Back Extension-Rotations
Side Lying Windmill
We’d then follow all of that with strength-based exercises – cued well – to help “cement” things. Front squats, for example, would be a great fit here. The anterior placement of the barbell forces the upper back musculature to counteract the forward pull to keep the torso upright; in effect nudging trainees into more t-spine extension.
Another popular approach is to use the foam roller in a different way and pepper in some additional t-spine extension patterning.
You all know the drill: take a foam roller, lie on it, and lean back, waaaaaaay back.
Like this:
While intentions are good in this scenario and there is some mid-back extension happening, it arrives at the expense of movement coming from elsewhere…the lumbar spine (often times with the hips coming off the ground) in conjunction with a massive rib flair.
Thoracic movement is much more subtle than people think. I fear this is one of those cases where many people – fitness industry pros included – have grown infatuated with the notion more ROM (Range of Motion) is better ROM.
Not the case.
What T-Spine Extension on Foam Roller Really Looks Like
In case you weren’t keeping track, there’s only three more weekends until Jason Bourne comes out.
I can’t begin to explain how excited I am for this movie. It’s gotten to the point where every time I walk into a room I can’t help but yell out, “My god, it’s Jason Bourne.”
It’s like a tick.
My wife’s eyes are tired from rolling them so much.
Like many fans I’ve also primed myself by re-watching the entire trilogy again, for the 17th time.2
In addition, I’ve been telling people they should read the books, you know, if they’re real fans.
Outside of the first few chapters of Identity, the books are completely different from the movies so you don’t have to worry about any spoilers. Other than Bourne dies.
[Rolls up a magazine. Heads outside to fight a complete a stranger].
Strong Body-Strong Mind Workshop Coming to London
My wife and I will be in London the weekend of August 6-7th for a 2-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
This will be a great experience for any fitness professional looking to learn more on behavior change, mindset, building autonomy & competence with their clients, as well as program design, assessment, and learning how to coach common exercises such as the deadlift and squat.
Only 12 spots have been made available for attendees outside of The Third Space on a first-come-first-serve basis, so act quickly!
NOTE: I will make exception(s) for any Game of Thrones actors who want to attend.
Contact Luke Worthington (info in flier above) for more details.
The message conveyed in the following post is meant to come across as a little tongue-in-cheek and sarcastic.
But here it goes anyways:
We like to overcomplicate things.
To say this, of course, comes with a degree of subjectivity.
Given the current climate we live in with regards to politics, gun control, terrorism, climate change, Black Lives Matter, LGBT rights, not to mention the impending zombie apocalypse, it stands to reason some topics, indeed, are very complicated.
However, taking those things out of the discussion4 …for me, things like Mandarin, Tort Law, rocket science, beating Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, and how to make an omelet without breaking it, is complicated.
For others those things are a walk in the park.
FML – I hate you random internet nerd because I am not you
That said, I’d make the case there’s no arena where we tend to overcomplicate things more so than in the health and fitness realm.
“If there’s an industry plagued with profuse amounts of bullshit, it’s health and fitness. Know what it is so you can avoid it and spend your time doing what actually works.”
Don’t get me wrong: there are, without question, certain aspects that require more analysis, deeper thought, and expertise.
Someone coming off a major injury and trying to return to a high-level of competition or fitness will require a more thorough, detailed approach compared to someone who’s just looking to “lose ten lbs.”
Working around a legitimate food allergy – and not some self-diagnosed gluten intolerance you learned about via your best friend’s, uncle’s, next door neighbor’s, milkman’s blog – requires more diligent planning and attention to detail.
Likewise, what it takes from a programming standpoint to take someone from a 500 lb deadlift to a 700 lb deadlift is more complicated than what’s required to coach a beginner on how to perform a basic hip hinge.
Extenuating circumstances aside, man-o-man do we like to overcomplicate things.
Take for example a conversation I had the other day with an athlete I work with. After his training session he asked my opinion on what the best recovery strategies were?
Athlete (today): “what’s the best recovery strategy?” Me: ” go to bed.”
Ensure ample calories between training sessions to promote and aid recovery.
Respect General Adaptation Syndrome, the concept of supercompensation, and how those correlate with managing training stress/recovery.
I’m sure if I perused all my behavioral economics books (or asked my wife who’s a psychologist) I’d find the technical term best used to describe why people tend to dismiss the simple answers and gravitate more towards the complicated, arduous ones.
It seems we’re like moths being drawn to the flame.
Today’s post comes courtesy of Jonathan Hamilton-Potter, and it covers a topic I feel is an important one for many new and up-coming fitness professionals to consider. Heck, industry veterans too.
And that is…being too strict with exercise technique.
Enjoy.
Why Not Every Client Needs Perfect Form
My eyes narrowed in disgust as I scanned the gym, trying to take in what was going on.
There was fellow personal trainer James, whose client Kelly was performing upright rows with no scapula retraction.
I spied Denise, training two girls to bench press, but completely neglecting the fact that using a lower-back arch and utilizing leg drive would have made them far more efficient and given better leverages.
And worst of all – Kevin, who had one of his guys squatting, but cutting reps short of parallel.
They were gym crimes of the highest order. As a personal trainer, I should have been furious.
But I was okay with it, and here’s why –
1) Not Everyone Can Perform Exercises 100% Correctly
This is basic biomechanics.
If you have a client who can’t squat to depth because they’ve experienced knee or back issues in the past, then having them squat slightly higher than what’s usually considered acceptable in order to prevent pain isn’t such a bad idea.
With slightly less depth the muscle will still be getting worked (albeit not as well as if full range was carried out, but worked all the same) and if this allows Dave, the 63-year old former fireman who’s had three knee surgeries to be able to do a greater selection of exercises then I don’t think it’s such a bad thing.
You can obviously try to fix the issues though flexibility work, mobility and stretching but it’s also ok to move away from a particular exercise or modify it if the client cannot perform the movement at any range of motion without pain.
It doesn’t matter what Internet ‘experts’ say – not every client needs to train like they’re going into a powerlifting meet.
If someone can’t do an exercise in a particular way, then don’t force it upon them.
2) If You Try to be a ‘Form Perfectionist’ Then Your Clients Won’t Progress.
If I was personally spending hours and hours and huge amounts of my clients hard earned cash (which they most likely gave me for physical results such as fat loss or muscle gain) and spent the whole time working on postural correction, making sure there was absolutely no momentum used in any exercise, breathing was perfect and every single lifting ‘cue’ was nailed then I would have zero results to show and one pissed off client.
It’s ok to allow for a little form breakdown when it comes to an exercise, as long as a client is still moving safely though a movement.
You can correct a client’s posture over time if needed, but let’s not forget what clients come to us for – to be happy.
They’ll get more happiness from seeing results in terms of fat loss and body composition changes, than from you barking orders at them and stopping a set every single time they don’t quite get the movement perfect.
Obviously this is a trade-off.
In an ideal world, you might see a client seven days a week, and spend one hour on postural correction and mobility and then another hour actually training, but this is the real world.
Clients have a limited amount of time, so get them working hard when they see you, and advise they visit a sports massage therapist, a chiropractor or physical therapist to iron out any postural issues, as well as giving them some home mobility drills to do.
3) Perfect Form Doesn’t Allow For Maximum Intensity.
When it comes to any form of strength training a certain amount of effort, intensity and overload is required to coax your body to want to get stronger and better.
As training experience develops it becomes harder and harder to progress without regimented periods of high intensity. This should be carried out through the use of heavy weights or sets taken close to muscular failure coupled with muscular overload.
Maintaining ‘perfect form’ throughout every rep and set of every exercise will result in an extreme lack of the muscular overload needed for the client to progress, get stronger and improve the way they look.
Once again: clients want results and without them feeling and looking better then they’ll eventually leave.
4) Constantly Drilling Form Can Confuse a New Client and Make Them Feel Like They’re Always Doing Something Wrong.
Imagine you were doing something completely new to you – perhaps learning the guitar, or trying to speak a foreign language.
How would you feel if your tutor gave you 25 different instructions and made you stop every time something lapsed slightly?
Probably pretty down and demotivated.
That’s how a client can potentially feel.
They’re already doing something new and scary by joining the gym and working out (possibly for the first time ever) so give them small, manageable, bite-size chunks of information and don’t pick up on every error all at once.
Certain cues do need to be in place initially in order to prevent injuring your client.
A mistake I see a lot of trainers make is that they throw numerous teaching points at a new client in a single session, often resulting in the person looking mentally exhausted and disheartened.
Look at teaching a client the basic cues first such as keeping a neutral lumbar spine, monitoring breathing and so on, then every week or two once the basics have been developed (along with confidence) you can then look at adding one or two more teaching point to the mix and repeat.
Gradually adding teaching points this way allows clients to feel they’re accomplishing something each session and doesn’t leave them overwhelmed.
Take Home Points
As long as a client isn’t risking injury then let them do the exercise.
Let clients lift sufficient load with enough intensity to cause progression.
90% of your clients pay you for aesthetic improvements and fat loss, not to correct their form for a whole hour.
Don’t throw 100 teaching points at a new client and overwhelm them, add a new cue in every couple of weeks until each are mastered.
You don’t NEED to do any one exercise with a client.
About the Author
Jonathon Potter is a personal trainer, bodybuilder and is the owner of JHP fitness online coaching company.
You can check out his website HERE, and his Facebook Page HERE.
Hope everyone had a lovely July 4th weekend this past weekend. We sure did.
Lisa and I were up in Maine – Pemaquid Point to be exact – for a wedding, and it was a stark reminder that it’s the perfect anecdote to the hustle and bustle of Boston.
Having a few day’s reprieve from honking horns, sirens, and people in general was amazing. Plus, the air in Maine is so much more crisp and clean. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance.
We got back into Boston early yesterday so that we could partake in our annual July 4th Epic Walk of Epicness.
Nothing out of the ordinary since we walk around the city all the time. However, going for a “long-ass walk” on the 4th is something Lisa and I started doing a few years ago and we’ve continued on with the tradition.
Plus, there aren’t many cities that do July 4th better than Boston.
We left our apartment around noon and when it was all said and done we covered nine miles and had our fair share of cookie and pizza pit-stops.
That’s how we roll.
Anyways, as thrilling as it is reading about my walking prowess, I’m sure you’d rather me get to the meat and potatoes of today’s post.
Barbell Rolling Squat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YsTS1Nq4tU
This can also be considered a poor man’s version of the hack squat. Except, you know, without the $1000+ piece of equipment involved that can only be used for one thing.
So, a more apropos way of putting things is that this is the “savvy business man’s” version of the hack squat.
Who Did I Steal It From: Greg Nuckols during one of his and Omar Isuf’s Lifting Lyceum presentations.
NOTE: If you have a chance to hop in on their next go-round, you’d be stupid not to. It’s a wonderfully detailed resource that goes into the nitty gritty on squat, deadlift and bench press technique as well as program design.
NOTE II: I receive no monetary value or kick-back in telling you to check it out. Unless you count a video of Greg lip-syncing Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” as a form of compensation. Which it should.
NOTE III: Lets make it happen Greg….;o)
What Does It Do: The rolling squat serves as a nice accessory movement to better target the quadriceps.
As Greg noted during his squat presentation, and I agree with him if that means anything6, many lifters have been programmed into thinking the squat is ALL posterior-chain, to the point where having weak quads may become a limiting factor.
When the goal is to lift as much weight as humanly possible, there’s definitely merit to utilizing the posterior chain to a higher degree. However, this doesn’t imply the quadriceps should be ignored.
As far as the quads being a limiting factor is concerned, this is most apparent when you witness someone come out of the hole on their squat and their hips shoot up way too fast, to the point where they run the risk of falling too far forward onto their toes.
Having stronger quads (or the ability to engage them to a higher degree) will help people better put force INTO the ground and maintain a more upright torso.
READ: This IS NOT to imply a forward lean is frowned upon or wrong. It isn’t. Just, you know, falling forward onto your face will tend to stagnate things.
Key Coaching Cues: You won’t need a lot of weight with this. For most guys, 95-135 lbs will be more than enough. For women, 45-85 lbs will suffice.
Also, use BUMPER plates.
In addition, it helps to have a very forgiving training facility to perform these. A brick or cement wall is best. Doing this exercise against a drywall won’t end well.
Hoist the barbell overhead and set up as you would for a normal squat. Lean back towards the wall until the plates are resting, adjust feet to shoulder width apart, scoot a few feet forward, and then squat down as low as you can.
These are best done for high(er) reps, in the 10-20 range.
PS: I’ve gotten a few comments from people on why this exercise is any different than “regular” squat, even with the suggestion of moving my feet forward a bit away from the wall?
Answer: Because I’m LEANING INTO THE WALL. Hence the name “barbell ROLLING squat.” Apologies for not making that more clear on my end….;O)
Note From TG: It’s July 4th. I’m in Maine. There’s no way I was writing a new post today, so I decided to repurpose the post below.
It coincides with Dean Somerset’s Ruthless Mobility, which is currently on sale at half-off the regular price. The sale ends TODAY.
Toodles!
I started with a new client yesterday. As is the case every time I work with someone new I’ll sit down with him or her (in this case her) and attempt to get all the pertinent information I’ll need to help them achieve their goals and to write an effective training program. Things like injury history, what their training has looked like previously, training preferences, perceived barriers on what’s limited them in the past, favorite 80’s cartoon, you know, all the important stuff.
Please tell me someone out there remembers Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears!?!?! And please tell me someone else out there tried to make their own version of Gummiberry Juice (which, when drunk by humans, gave them superhuman strength) as a kid by combining Mountain Berry Punch Kool-Aid with actual gummy bears???
No? Hahahaha. Well, uh, me neither. That’s just stupid talk! Yeah, that’s what it is……stupid.
So anyways, along with the brief Q&A I’ll also perform an extensive movement screen so I can gain a better understanding of how someone moves and whether or not they present with any distinct compensation patterns which may (or may not) be “feeding” into their dysfunction or pain.
Many people have been programmed to think that increased range of motion is good – and that the more we have of it, the better off we are.
Yes and no.
For those who are stuck starring at a computer for ten hours a day and have little to no amplitude (ROM) in their daily lives (and as a result have the movement quality of a hipster wearing a pair of jeans 3 sizes too small), working on improving their mobility would absolutely be a priority and help to improve performance in the gym and their quality of life.
For someone like the individual I was working with yesterday, however – who had plenty of ROM, to the point where she was borderline hypermobile, yet still was under the impression she had “tight” hips – going out of our way to “stretch the tight” and work on improving mobility could have more deleterious effects than good.
She came in with a history of left hip/ITB pain, and upon testing her hip internal range of motion on that side, it was limited.
Pretty strange for someone with plenty of laxity, right?
As is par for the course, she has spent years stretching her hip in hopes of improving her mobility in an effort to get better.
It hasn’t worked. Yet, I was able to improve her hip IR by a good 10-15 degrees in a matter of 30 seconds without “stretching” her hip. It was priceless to see her reaction when it happened.
So, how did I do it?
I’m Gandalf, duh!
Okay, in all seriousness what I did was work on her REACTIVE STABILITY, which is a term that Dean Somerset has tossed around for a while now.
The Cliff Notes Version: the body will limit a movement into ranges of motion it deems to be either risky, pain producing, or “un-known.”
This is often referred to as PROTECTIVE TENSION, which is what the body creates to help support an injured area.
If I test someone’s hip IR and it’s limited I can’t just assume it’s due to shortness or stiffness of specific muscles. It can definitely be a factor and the main culprit for some people, but it’s something I feel far too many fitness professionals gravitate towards because of an archaic mindset or because it’s “what’s always been perceived as the problem.”
As many of you know Dean (Somerset) and I are good friends. If you ever hear a joke that starts with an American strength coach and a Canadian exercise physiologist walk into a bar……
…..it’s probably us.
He and I have done several workshops together and I’ve had the opportunity to see Dean perform his voodoo assessment stuff each and every time. And it never ceases to amaze me.
One of the best “party tricks” he’ll use in our workshops is exactly the protocol I described above. In short, what he’s found (and I can confirm) is that reduced hip internal rotation is often a symptom of something not working and the body will compensate by forcing surrounding musculature to chronically fire and “tense,” impairing ROM, and thus mobility.
To be more succinct: lack of hip IR = reduced lateral stabilization.
Have someone do a (correct) side plank, have him or her focus on deep, forceful breathing and watch what happens.
Awesomesauce, right?
The side plank helps work on lateral stabilization, which in turn tells the over tensed muscles to chill out, improves reactive stability, which then in turn takes away the “perceived threat” and ROM improves.
It’s not a catch-all for everyone, but you’ll be surprised as to how often it works. I should also note that it’s not something that will stick long-term. Typically the increased ROM will last a few hours, maybe a day. But for something like this to last at least now we know that it’s not a situation where we’re going to tell someone to “just go stretch.” We need to work on improving (lateral) stabilization.
And this is the type of stuff that Dean covers in Ruthless Mobility.
To reiterate, there are PLENTY of people who need to work on improving their mobility in the traditional sense – mobility drills, stretching, etc – and Dean covers that in droves here. So whether you or some of your clients need to work on mobility in specific areas (t-spine, hips, etc), this resource provides a TON of options.
Dean’s not a small human being. He practices what he preaches, and it’s amazing to see how supple he is in his own right! Trust me: you’re going to be watching the videos and think to yourself, “is that Dean Somerset or Houdini?”
But of more value, and more germane to the point(s) I made above, Dean covers stuff that most fitness peeps gloss over or fail to understand altogether. And that’s why I wholeheartedly feel this is THE next “go to” resource on the topic.
Not only do you get 4-5 hours of brilliant content, but you also earn valuable CEUs to boot. So there’s that to consider as well.
Ruthless Mobility is currently on sale at a heavily discounted price, but the sale ends tonight (July 4th). Get on it people. You won’t be disappointed.
Tim’s the author of one of the best powerlifting books written in recent memory, All About Powerlifting, as well as as the director of The National Personal Training Institute. Plus, you know, he’s a strong sonofabitch.
If you’re a fitness pro who writes a ton training programs you’re probably very familiar with Prilepin’s Chart, which breaks down “optimal” set/rep schemes given a certain training percentage
It’s a fantastic chart. The thing is though, it’s based off of research OLY weightlifters and not powerlifters.
Tim took it upon himself to remedy that issue.
You can also check out his squat chart HERE, and bench press chart HERE.
After reading all of them, you should send Tim and email to thank him.
If you’re a trainer, coach, physical therapist, or just someone who likes to nerd out over movement, this is an excellent resource on assessment, corrective strategies, and programming to improve people’s “suppleness.”
Dean placed Ruthless Mobility on SALE through the holiday weekend at about half-off the regular price.
