I’m abroad in London this weekend not hanging out with the Queen.
I’d be lying if I said I was a bit reticent about coming given the current climate. But every time I am here I’m reminded about how much I love this place – the people, the culture, the zippy public transportation.1
As this post goes live I’m either geeking out at the WWII Museum, walking along the South Bank, or reenacting scenes from the movie Notting Hill. You know, because that’s what cool people do.
“Oopsie Daisies”
Nonetheless I’m in London, and lets get to this week’s stuff.
I’m really excited to announce this workshop in Boston later this summer.
The idea is simple: there’s a corner in the industry that’s underserved….mental skills. There are a lot of people out there who write about “mindset” and describe themselves as mindset coaches (whatever the heck that means) who, by and large, have zero academic background in that department.
Lisa went to school for this shit.
I went to school to help turn people into badasses.
Lisa can speak to building competency and discussing how to build the skills to develop rapport with clients. I can speak to getting people bigger, stronger, and faster.
Our Vancouver shindig in April sold out, but Dean and I have recently announced a stop in Orlando, FL later this year, October 21-22nd at Spark Fitness.
I’ve never been to Orlando. There’s no way in hell I’m visiting Disney World.
Mike Robertson and Joe Kenn’s flagship resource, Elite Athletic Development 1.0, 2,0, and 3.0, is on SALE this right not, through this weekend only, for $100 off each.
EAD 1.0 – dives into both Mike and Joe’s training/coaching philosophy
EAD 2.0 – goes rabbit hole deep into program design.
EAD 3.0 – goes into superb detail on specific topics like breathing, core training, youth athletics, and a host of other things.
Also, as a bonus, you can choose between either the DVD set or digital format.
Nothing, and I mean nothing compares to this series with regards to the art of coaching, program design, and making your athletes into badass mofos. If you’re a coach and are remotely interested in getting better, take advantage of this sale.
I had the opportunity to chime in on this doozy of an article alongside the likes of Lee Boyce, John Rusin, Paul Carter, TC Luoma, Bret Contreras, Mark Dugdale, Dan John, Christian Thibaudeau, and a few other guys who make me look like a skinny Steve Rogers.
A simple article with a simple premise: if you’re new to training and having a hard time differentiating between sound advice and eye-wash, this will point you towards the former.
It’s elegant as it is simple: Easy training is good training.
Much like we’re seduced into thinking that driving a certain car, wearing a specific perfume/cologne, or adopting certain fashion trends will lead us to greener pastures (whatever that means to you), it’s also common practice for many of us to be seduced by the “more is better” mentality when it comes to working out.
The harder, elaborate, or “sexier” our workout(s) and training program(s) are, the more results we’re going to get. And the more jacked, diesel, and, well, sexier we’re going to be.
A colleague of mine sent me this tongue-in-cheek message on Facebook Messenger last week regarding one of his clients:
“I did CrossFit and got great results. I was always hurt, though.“
Relax. This isn’t going to be a rambling anti-CrossFit diatribe. There have been roughly 317 of those posted this week alone on the internet (+/- 49). I was part of that train 6-7 years ago when CrossFit was really going mainstream. In recent years, however, I feel I’ve taken a pretty agnostic stance on it as a whole.
Some boxes do “it” very well, assessing people, scaling movements based off ability level and unique injury history, and otherwise giving a shit. Others take the Sweet Brown approach:
All told, I give CrossFit a ton of credit. Nothing, and I mean nothing has done more to make barbells and lifting appreciable weight cool.
Ten years ago if someone saw me deadlifting it would have been blank stare central:
Nowadays, people see someone, anyone, deadlifitng, and they’re like “dude, you CrossFit? OMG….I do too!!!.”2
So, in all, we’ve come a long ways and I can dig it.
However, I’d be remiss not to toss a slight begrudging stone their way in that they’ve also helped “nurture” this mentality that every workout MUST to be an all out war, galvanizing the troops into an incessant “go hard or go home” mindset.
And, to some degree, this is okay.
Far be it from me to nudge people into not push themselves in the weight room. If anything, many people could use a little nudging in that direction; whether we’re referring to CrossFit or not.
That said, it’s foolhardy to believe this train of thought should be universal. All we have to do is revisit the quote from above:
“I did CrossFit and got great results. I was always hurt, though.“
To be fair, lets OMIT the “c” word and replace it with strength training, powerlifting, olympic lifting, or Jazzercising in a park.
If you’re always hurt at the expense of always making your workouts as hard as possible, are you really getting results?
Lets use a real live example: one of my own clients who I’ve only been working with for about two months.
She came to me with several issues that had been nagging her for a while: low back pain and a nasty case of Plantar fasciitis to keep it brief. We did her initial assessment and I pointed out a few “red flags” that may or may not have been the culprits: very limited ankle dorsiflexion, an inability to dissociate lumbar movement from hip movement, and a few technique snafus I felt could be cleaned up.
I wrote her program and at the end of Week #1 she reports back, “everything is going great, but my workouts seem easy.”
I explained to her that was the point. I wanted them to feel easy, in no small part to help her gain some confidence and modicum of success. That she could train pain-free and make progress.
I wanted her to be consistent with a well-structured plan that (hopefully) addressed some root causes I felt would resolve her repeated setbacks with training.
Easy Training Is Good Training
My client was on board – and still is – and has been crushing her training since. But I’d be lying if I said it still hasn’t been a bit of a mind-fuck (my words, not hers. Although, I think she’d agree with my terminology here) on her end. She’s been programmed to think that training has to be hard, that it has to be “I think I just shit my spleen, yay!” brutal in order to get results.
Even as recent as two weeks ago she was still commenting how easy some of her workouts have been.
Me:“Are you getting all of them in?”
Her:“Yes.”
Me:“Do you feel good?”
Her: “Yes.”
Me:“Are you doing more work and adding more weight?”
Her:“Yes.”
Me:“Are you in as much pain?”
Her: “No.”
Me:“Excuse me while I go toss my face into an ax.”
I’m being facetious, of course. She gets my point of view and understands her flawed way of thinking. We’re making baby-steps…..;o)
I love an analogy I stole from T-Nation contributor and overall badass, Paul Carter (albeit I’m going to put my own spin on it).
10% of your workouts you’re going to feel like Mick Jagger on cocaine. The weights will just fly up.
10% of your workouts you’re going to feel like Mick Jagger the day after. You feel like a bag of dicks. I don’t know what a bag of dicks feels like, but I can assure you it (probably) ain’t good.
80% of your workouts are the ones where you go in and just do the work. You show up, get your reps in, and leave. Easy peasy. <—-THESE are the workouts we should strive for and crush.
I’d argue for most people, most of the time, they should leave the gym wanting more. This is what 80% workouts are all about.
Don’t get me wrong: there’s a time and place for workouts and/or programs that exist solely to be ass-kickers and make you hate life:
The thing to consider, though, and what many fail to recognize, is that programs like the ones mentioned above are designed to be done once a year (if that) and only for a fraction of time.
A small window of hell if you will.
They’re not designed to be done week in and week out for an extended length of time.
I mean heck, if you don’t believe me, take a deep dive into many of the most popular (strength) training programs in recent memory (5/3/1, Juggernaut, Cube Method, any of Travis Mash’s programs). If you dissect any of them you’ll find the bulk of the work being done in those programs is in the 75-85% of 1RM territory.
Nothing hardcore or “ball-busty” about it.
It’s smart training, designed to ensure people feel fresh, recovered, and ready to attack every training session without, hopefully, all the bumps and bruises along the way.
And, to take it step further, freakin Dan John and Pavel wrote a book titled Easy Strength. It’s excellent by the way.
Wrapping Up
The umbrella message here isn’t that working hard should be avoided. On the contrary, there are some people who could use a nice warm cup of “suck it up buttercup.”
Lifting weights isn’t supposed to tickle.
Nevertheless, there’s a fine line between working hard and taking it so far that it becomes more of a hinderance than anything else.
After all, in the end, you’re at the mercy of how well you allow yourself to recover.
Hard training is fine and has a place. But it’s the “easy” training that will get to where you wan to go in the long run.
My wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, and I have had the honor of presenting this workshop in both Austin, TX and London, UK last year (and will also be heading to Toronto, ON next week), so it only made sense we’d eventually try to host it in our backyard.
The idea is simple: there’s a corner in the industry that’s underserved….mental skills.
There are a lot of people out there who write about “mindset” and describe themselves as mindset coaches (whatever the heck that means) who, by and large, have zero academic background in that department.
I can appreciate that many have their hearts in the right place, have helped plenty of people, and likely have read many books on the topic.3
With regards to mindset and mental skills, however, Lisa went to school for this shit.
She can speak to building competency and discussing how to best develop the skills to breed rapport with clients. I can speak to getting people bigger, stronger, faster, and increasing their general levels of badassery.
So, come make a weekend of it. Boston is a beautiful city. You can hang out with Lisa and I on Saturday (admittedly I’m biased, but we’re totally cool) and then explore the city on Sunday: take a Duck Tour, hit up Fenway (RedSox are home that weekend), visit Quincy Market, hang out with Tom Brady, whatever your heart desires.
All the pertinent details are in the graphic above.4
Also, spots are limited to 26 people. Like, for real, 26 people. I’m not just saying that to build a false sense of urgency.5
This past weekend Lisa and I had friends over and we ordered a few pizzas. I love pizza. And no surprise I went a little overboard. Also no surprise: I woke up the next day feeling lethargic, bloated, and as if my mouth spent the night in a desert.
Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t feel guilty or anything. I deadlifted earlier that day, and everyone knows that pizza and deadlifts are synonymous with one another.6But man oh man, you can bet I felt the affects all through the weekend.
Today’s guest post from Toronto based nutritionist, Marc Capistrano, helps explain a topic everyone reading has experienced at one time or another: food induced inflammation.
How Food Induced Inflammation Affects Performance and Recovery
We all know that stubbing your toe against the coffee table while twerking in the living room creates an inflammatory response (and it sucks!). It’s the body’s repair mechanism that kicks in when it detects damaged tissue.
The thing that people tend to forget is that this inflammatory response can kick in as a result of dietary triggers as well.
Instead of reacting to damaged tissue, the body is responding to less than optimal foods.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to talk about “good” and “bad” foods (I’m really not about that life), but there are definitely foods that offer more benefit than others. With that being said, inflammation and low-level inflammation can impact performance, recovery and long-term health.
How Does Food Cause Inflammation?
Ever heard of the antigen/antibody complex? If you haven’t, here’s a brief and basic re-cap.
You eat something foreign in excess (let’s say trans-fats or arts and crafts glue for example), the body detects it as an antigen and the immune system releases an antibody to tag it and directs white blood cells to dispose of these foreign substances.
When this happens, an immune complex is formed and inflammatory by-products are released as a result of this. Normally our immune system is efficient enough to quickly handle this immune complex and move on but when we’re constantly eating these trigger foods, inflammatory by-products can deposit themselves into our tissues.
Whenever I explain this immune system reaction to someone, the person I’m talking to will either nod their head and agree or they’ll want to throw hot coffee on me for confusing them. If it’s the latter, I’ll always come back to the “car accident” analogy.
Imagine a car accident on a main road. Tow trucks, cop cars and a fire truck come to the scene and start doing their job. The fire fighters are cleaning spilled oil, the tow truck is moving cars and all of this is backing up traffic. It’s a hectic scene, but all of this havoc is a small price to pay in order for the mess to be cleared.
If you’re a visual learner, this is similar to an immune system reaction. The car accident is inflammation and the firefighters and police are the immune system coming in to clean it all up.
It’s perfectly normal and the organized mess is needed in order to get traffic moving again. The problem is, what if another accident happened 100m ahead and then another one, and then…. we’ll you get the idea. Small fender benders turn into a major backup and make a small delay become a huge one. It’s a stressful environment for everyone involved and that “stress” can manifest itself as achy joints, low energy and lengthened recovery times.
I know it may seem like an extreme picture but it also best describes food in relation to its potential crappy effects on the body. It’s not a major issue but quite possibly, the last 5% that you’ve been chasing could be found in food quality i.e. what it is you’re eating.
3 Tips for Reducing Food-Induced Inflammation
So what can we do to support recovery time and limit the overall crappy-feeling caused by food-induced inflammation?
1. Pay What Your Body is Due
Enjoying pizza and skittles is not a bad thing but you need to earn it first.
What I mean by this is you need to pay your body with quality macronutrients and micronutrients.
Once this is paid and calories are equated, feel free to spend the rest of your macronutrients on anything of your choice (my personal favourites include gelato and hamburgers). Remember that micronutrients and minerals serve as cofactors that support the secretion and response of hormones in our body (ever heard of testosterone?)
Side Note: If you like to geek out on food quality, fancy ingredients and antioxidants, check out a video I did on my kick ass morning smoothie.
Pro Tip: Apply the 80/20 rule or 70/30 rule or the 60/40… You know what just keep things balanced. Enjoy your pizza and wings; just be sure to accompany it with some vegetables and protein at some point in the day. It’s hard to overeat on pizza if you’ve had some roasted vegetables and steak prior.
2. Value Insulin Sensitivity
Insulin resistance and inflammation are synonymous with each other. Insulin resistance can eventually cause sugar molecules to attach itself to muscle tissue otherwise known as “glycation” which can cause inflammatory by-products. A balanced amount of fat, low glycemic, fruit and vegetables will go a long way in preventing insulin resistance and help to maintain optimal tissue quality.
Pro Tip: If its insulin sensitivity you’re chasing, keep your denser carbohydrates in and around training. Vegetables and fat can accompany your protein for the rest of the day. This tip should be taken with a grain of salt as individualized diets depend on training volume and personal preference.
3. Balance Your Fats
An imbalance of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids can lead to an inflammatory response because of the hormone like factors known as prostaglandins.
Note: Omega 6 in excess is inflammatory. Because of the way food is processed these days, we’re getting more omega 6s in our diet than we need.
Wild caught salmon, walnuts and egg yolks are examples of great Omega 3 sources and can correct omega 3 and 6 imbalances.
Pro Tip: Oil is like your older brother, the less you piss him off, the more helpful he’ll be to you. Excess deep fried and processed foods can tip the balance between good and bad fats.
Wrapping Up
I know what some of you are saying. “This guy is trying to push detox salads and organic produce on us or else our recovery is doomed”.
Not true at all my friend.
I’m definitely not telling you that French fries and ice cream are bad for overall performance and recovery. Instead, I’m say that eating a diet that primarily consists of pizza and french fries will start to have an impact on your performance and recovery.
The take-home message is that balance and moderation is one of the most important aspects of food in relation to inflammation, performance and recovery. I’m not trying to promote any “special foods” but rather a balance between nutrient dense foods and not-so-nutrient-dense food. Building this habit will benefit you in the long run.
Take care of the housekeeping tasks (getting enough quality protein, fibre, fat and carbohydrates) and it could be the missing link in your quest for the city of Gainz.
About the Author
Marc Capistrano is a Toronto based Certified Nutritionist, fitness enthusiast and content creator. He currently works out of downtown Toronto and maintains the Live It Holistic Nutrition blog. His work has been featured on CBC Life and he is also a brand ambassador for Garden of Life.
Man oh man, can you believe it’s June? We had an unseasonable cold month (even for Boston standards) this past month, so I was glad to see May go, but seriously….June? Already?
I had a busy week this past week so I didn’t have ample opportunity to get much writing done, sorry! I do have some good ideas percolating around in my head for next week, so I promise to try to make up for it.
Nonetheless, here’s this week’s list of stuff to read….
Lisa and I will be in Toronto in two weeks presenting our Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop. We’re really excited since it will be our first family get-away since Julian was born.
We’re bringing him with us by the way….on a plane…..at four months old.
There are still some seats available, and you can go HERE for more details.
However, we’re really excited to announce we’ll also be doing a workshop in Boston later this summer.
This graphic took me an hour to make. Not kidding.
The idea is simple: there’s a corner in the industry that’s underserved….mental skills. There are a lot of people out there who write about “mindset” and describe themselves as mindset coaches (whatever the heck that means) who, by and large, have zero academic background in that department.
Lisa went to school for this shit.
I went to school to help turn people into badasses.
Lisa can speak to building competency and discussing how to build the skills to develop rapport with clients. I can speak to getting people bigger, stronger, and faster.
Our Vancouver shindig in April sold out, but Dean and I have recently announced a stop in Orlando, FL later this year, October 21-22nd at Spark Fitness.
I’ve never been to Orlando. There’s no way in hell I’m visiting Disney World.
Nice article from Sam Spinelli on Dean Somerset’s site on a concept I wish more fit pros would consider: finding the right “place” on the continuum where your clients possess ownership of movement via stability/motor control which then leads to hitting goals, whether they’re for function, performance, or aesthetics.
Dr. Duvall wrote an excellent article for this site a few weeks ago titled 5 Things to Consider With Postpartum Training. It was excellent because I have excellent taste in the people I choose to provide additional content on this site….;o)
Given she lives in Boston as well we decided to meet up yesterday in a local coffee shop. We got to talking about pelvic floor issues, specifically prolapse (because, what else do you talk about in a coffee shop?), and one sentence she said made me want to jump up and give her a high-five:
“Women need to lift heavy so that more serious shit doesn’t happen (I.e., prolapse). A three-year old isn’t light.”
Now, “heavy” in this sense is subjective. But all things considered, assuming proper exercise technique and progressions have been met, there’s no reason to think women can’t be more aggressive when trying to train postpartum.
I love her message and it’s quite a stark contrast from the litany of other “pelvic floor specialist” out there regurgitating drivel who have very little experience actually coaching people; let alone having the educational background to back their claims up.8
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NEWSFLASH: long-term weight/fat-loss is more about habitual, sustainable lifestyle changes than it is about repeating same “diet” repeatedly
