Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA, Hoth – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
^^^ It’s so good we didn’t even feel the need to come up with a witty title for it.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
A year ago the guys over at Stronger By Science (Greg Nuckols, Eric Helms, and Mike Zourdos released their monthly research review MASS (Monthly Applications in Strength Sport) and it’s made the industry better.
I for one HATE reading research and much prefer to let other people who are much smarter than myself to break things down in more bite sized, manageable nuggets of information.
This is a meticulously curated monthly service. The MASS reviewers sift through 100+ journals per month to help you get smarter and to better sever your athletes/clients. If you’re a coach, physique or strength athlete, or just someone who likes to nerd out and talk about actin/myosin chains at the dinner table this will be right up your alley.
Today (4/27) through next week (5/3) is your chance to take advantage of some BIG markdowns on the service.
$21 monthly subscription (normally $29)
$209 yearly subscription (normally $299)
$699 lifetime subscription (normally $999)
If you’re still on the fence you can check out the goods HERE for a free sample issue.
Otherwise you can just trust that I have smart friends and excellent taste in the resources I recommend to people and go HERE.
Many of the programs and tactics used to target the 40+ lifter are garbage. As my friend John Rusin would say:
“Just because you are 40+ years old does NOT mean you need a training program specifically designed for “40+ Year Old Lifters” as sleazy fitness industry marketing 101 is attempting to force feed you. What you really need is a program that is custom fit to YOU and your BIOLOGICAL age and needs, not your chronological age.”
I found this article very relevant with a sound message. Check it out.
Per usual, Charles provides a bevy of sound and practical advice in this article.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
I’m often amused when random strangers in grocery stores comment on the amount of eggs and red meat in my basket and serve as the “health” police when their’s is full of potato chips and Kit Kats and they’re clearly overweight.
We’ve all seen the statistic: 80% of the population will experience low back pain in their lifetime.1
Back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. Americans spend upwards of $50 billion per year on back pain. Back pain is the nemesis of all ninjas.
The struggle is real folks.
Given how pandemic the issue is and the sheer number of resources there are on the topic, why is LBP still such a nuisance and the Bane of many people’s existence?2
When it comes to low back pain there is no one clear cut answer or way to explain things. As my good friend David Dellanave would say “different shit is different.”
It’s impossible to definitively point the finger at one or two things and say “there, that’s it. THAT’s why everyone’s back feels like a bag of dicks.”
Certainly we can proselytize, but at the end of the day we’re mostly just guessing at what may be causing someone’s low back pain. We’re using an amalgamation of relevant anecdotes, experiences, expertise, and evidence based research to make those educated guesses.
But it’s guessing nonetheless.
[BEFORE WE MOVE ON: Another good friend, physical therapist Zak Gabor, sent me THIS rather thorough paper on management of low back pain. To quote Zak…”Movement is key, but EDUCATION on false beliefs about the body is arguably most important.”]
A week or so ago as I was watching an episode of VICE News on HBO and one of the main stories that night was on opioid addiction and of a former drug representative who, sadly, because of debilitating low back pain, had become addicted to the very pain killers that had made him so successful years prior.
In the story he described a seemingly endless barrage of treatments ranging from massage therapy and acupuncture to ultrasound treatments, physical therapy, and traction.
It was a hefty list and I can’t remember all of it.
In the end he ended up having back surgery, yet unfortunately was still reliant on pain killers to help with his chronic low back pain.
As the story unfolded they panned to the same individual miniature golfing with his family and I ended up taking a screenshot of him bending over to pick up the ball after sinking a shot.
If I could add sound it would be accompanied with a cacophony of painful grunting akin to a rhinoceros passing a kidney stone.
Now, what follows is not an attempt at me diminishing his experiences, and I’m fully cognizant my only source of info regarding his “treatment” was/is the five minute snap shot I was given from the story.
That said, I wonder how much agony and frustration might have been prevented in his lifetime if someone took the time to show him some basic “spinal hygiene” (to steal a phrase from Dr. Stuart McGill and his book Back Mechanic) tactics to clean up his daily movement?
What might have happened (what can happen?) if, instead of acupuncture, he was shown how to hip hinge well or given a healthy dose of Deadbugs, Birddogs, and Breathing Side Planks?
Repetitive (aberrant) flexion, as shown in the still shot I took, certainly isn’t doing his back any favors. And, I have to assume this type of thing is happening dozens (if not hundreds) of times per day, whether he’s picking up a golf ball or getting out of a chair.
It glaringly demonstrates how we often neglect to address the obvious and simple everyday “hammers” in our lives that can (not always <— this is important) lead to back pain.
I’m talking about the kind of hammers – repetitive movement (repeated spinal flexion, and extension for that matter) – that start off as innocuous nothings (the twist there, the bending over there), yet manifest into something far more nefarious once one’s tissue tolerance is surpassed.4
As my friend and strength coach, Joy Victoria, notes:
“Habitual daily postures and movement strategies have a greater influence, than intentional exercise.”
Massage, ultrasound, etc, while likely part of the puzzle (and can provide immediate, albeit temporary relief), are just band-aids.
I think exercise, and to be more specific, strength, can play an integral role in the grand scheme of things.
However, as fitness professionals it’s imperative we keep a keener eye. Deadlifts don’t cure everything. Recognizing run-of-the-mill wonky movement and attacking that, as trivial as it may seem, can make all the difference in the world for those who suffer with low back pain.
Anyone who’s spent any significant time in the weight room knows how vulnerable the shoulders are to injury.
This isn’t to downplay other areas of the body prone to nefariousness like the lower back or knees. Let’s be clear: those deserve some shade thrown their way too.
Rather, it’s just to point out that, for lack of a better term, trying to train around or even fix a pissed off shoulder sucks donkey balls.
It can be tricky and there are a lot of factors to consider: Exercise selection, exercise technique, posture, access to appropriate scapular motion (upward vs. downward rotation), soft tissue considerations, and breathing patterns to name a few.
Taking all of the above into consideration is a good thing, and I applaud those coaches and trainers who go out of their way to peel back the onion as much as their expertise and experience allows in order to get at the crux of the issue.
I do find, though, that sometimes, not always, we get a little too cute or rabbitholey with our approach to shoulder health.
Coach A will tell one individual that their shoulder hurts because their left big toe lacks dorsiflexion.
Coach B tells them it’s because their Posterior Mediastinum is shutting off their diaphragm.
Coach C says “nope, your shoulder hurts because you’re not back squatting enough.”
And Coach D, well, he’ll say something really asinine like, “I think it’s because you’re wearing purple. This makes your shoulder sad.”
And yes, while I am being a tad facetious here, I don’t feel I’m coming entirely out of left field. I’ve heard some doozies from past and current clients about what they were told was the impetus behind their shoulder woes.
Moreover, as a result, many clients and trainers alike tend to fall under the same trap….
….OverCorrectiveExerciseitis
This falls under two camps:
Camp 1: Trainer gives or person is handed a laundry list of “corrective exercises” that take 327 days to complete.
Camp 2: Trainer prescribes or person is told to perform redundant, borderline stupid exercises.
Stop OverCorrectiveExerciseitis
All of this isn’t to say I’m anti “corrective exercise” or that it should be avoided altogether. There’s a time and place for just about everything5, and sometimes people do need a little bit more TLC to improve motor control, activation, and/or positioning.
PSA: Doing stuff correctly can be corrective. Avoiding excessive anterior humeral glide during push-ups or rows can be a game changer for shoulder health.
However, Dr. Quinn Henoch brought up a valid point when I listened to him speak a few months ago with respects to corrective exercise.
Maybe the real fix for most trainees is something as simple as adjusting their training volume.
Maybe they’re doing too much of one thing or too little of another?
Generally speaking, when someone’s shoulder hurts I find most need less bench pressing and more posterior cuff and upper back strength in addition to a healthy dose of scapular stability.
Instead of boring them to tears with warm-up drills they’re likely not going to do on their own anyways, I prefer to include the bulk of the “correctivy” stuff IN THEIR ACTUAL PROGRAM.
That way they just think it’s business as usual and I come across as a straight up boss for helping them cure their shoulder woes.
On Bench Pressing:
There’s lots more to say here, and this will likely make for a good blog post in the future, but in the interim the Tweet below sums things up succinctly:
Bench press hurts your shoulder checklist/hierarchy: 1) audit setup/technique, 2) adjust volume, 3) grip…the…bar….harder, 4) corrective considerations, 5) maybe not bench press? (with a straight bar).
Below are two drills I like to use as fillers that can be performed after sets of squats, deadlifts, and even bench presses. It’s a foolproof way to add more volume to something they’re probably not doing enough of anyways.
It’ll look something like this:
A1. Deadlift/Squat/Bench Pressing/Not Kipping Pull-Ups A2. Filler (<— correctivy stuff that people just think is part of their program so they actually do it. Hahahahahahahaha. Jokes on them).
As you walk back you need to resist the pull of the band, which torches the rhomboids, muscles of posterior cuff, and scap stabilizers. Be careful you don’t “shrug” throughout, you want to keep shoulder blades depressed and together.
NOTE: 118% more effective if you yell “this….is….Sparta” as you perform your set.
I like to have my clients perform anywhere from 5-10 reps per set.
2. Racked ISO Shoulder Holds
This is another drill I stole from someone smarter than myself, this time a Doctor: Dr. Ryan DeBell of The Movement Fix.
I’ll usually start with 10 second holds at each position per set and ramp up to 20-30s holds per set for my clients (depending on how sadistic I feel).
I’ve seen some very big individuals succumb to this drill. It’s very humbling.
That’s It
Pepper these two drills into your workouts or that of your clients/athletes more sporadically. I’m certain everyone’s shoulders will start feeling better.
I had an amazing time in the DC area this past weekend presenting and catching up with friends and colleagues.
Today is all about playing catch up: emails, writing programs, and of course spending some quality time with family. I’ve got some good blog posts percolating in my head and hope to do a massive writing dump later this week. In the interim, however, I’ve got strength coach George Kalantzis filling in for me today with a stellar article.
Like anything worth having in life, all good things have a starting point.
If you’re like me, you’ve probably been guilty of skipping the warm-up. Don’t bother lying to me – I know you’ve done it. And I get it. You’re crunched for time and the last thing you want to do is roll around and warm-up.
But, what if I could explain the warm-up for you in terms you might appreciate a bit more…
I.e.,……sex.
BOM CHICKA BOM BOM
Do I have your attention now? Great, then keep reading to un-fuck your warm-up.
I got this idea from my mentor and friend John Romaniello a few years back, and it has to be the best explanation of warm-ups I have ever heard and something I find myself using quite often.
“ Workouts are like sex, and the warm-ups are foreplay.”
Sure, you can skip foreplay and have great sex, but if you skip foreplay all the time, chances are things will get stale and your sex life will suffer.
The same thing can be said about your body. Continuing to ignore the warm-up will cause your body to break down, hinder your results, and you’ll become more prone to injuries.
Maybe warming up does not sound that bad after all.
While I’m not here to tell you that you can’t just walk into the gym grab an empty bar and start lifting or to tell you that you “must” foam roll and do a “dynamic” warm-up prior to your lift.
I’m here to say that warm-ups do matter and with the right time and concentration you can get tremendous benefits without wasting useless time.
The Only Warm-up You’ll Ever Need
Recently I attended The High-Performance Pain Seminar by Dr. John Rusin at The Onnit Academy in Austin, TX. It was a 2-Day seminar packed with a ton of great information.
There were so many things presented, but what I liked most about his presentation was his ability to make things a lot simpler for my clients and myself. One of those concepts was the warm-up.
A quick and effective warm-up looks like something like this:
Release tight muscles (SMR, Bi-Phasic stretching)
Activate weak or inactive muscles (corrective exercises, stability based activation)
Get Moving (pattern development, central nervous system stimulation)
For the context of this article and not writing an entire book, I will be covering a few of my favorite SMR techniques and drills that everyone can benefit from.
Release Tight Muscles
As a massage therapist, I’m a huge fan of foam rolling. But too often I see people making love to their rollers or just perhaps haphazardly rolling because they’ve seen coaches do it.
Replace Eric’s (Cressey) voice with a little flute and guitar and things could get interesting.
While there are many ways you can “foam roll,” the goal should be to choose an area that will have the biggest carry over to your movement that day.
In general, most people have trouble with the following areas.
Lower Body – Quadriceps, Adductors, Glutes, and Lateral Hip
The mid-back release is one of my favorites mobility drills to use as everyone can benefit from some upper back mobility. Tony wrote an amazing article on it HERE.
Lateral Hip Trigger Point Release
The glutes take a beating daily, and trigger points are a common source of hip and low back pain. Performing daily release on the glutes can make a huge impact on everyday health and performance.
Bi-Phasic Stretching
One of the common myths associated with stretching is that if a muscle feels tight, it should be stretched to improve range of motion and restore flexibility. But, just because your muscle feels stretched doesn’t mean that exercise will yield a positive result.
Take for example the hip flexor and hamstring stretch. A lot of people stretch through pain because they believe it is helping, or do they end up in the wrong position. Not only is this a waste of time, it can actually be one of the prime reasons tightness never goes away.
So what can you do to help with tight muscles?
Instead of haphazardly stretching, learn how to achieve proximal stability through the shoulders, hips, and core. Not only will this save your joints and you’ll feel better, you’ll begin to notice a difference when you hit the gym floor.
Most people will benefit from biphasic stretching in the following areas:
Lower Body– Hip Flexors, Adductors, Posterior-Lateral Hip
Deep Squat Belly Breathing With Lat Stretch x 5 Breaths
Grab a TRX and sit deep into a squat with your feet together and palms up. This will turn off the lats and facilitate a good stretch throughout the upper body. Let your head relax and take deep breaths.
Split Stance Adductor Mobilization With T-Spine Rotation x 6-8/side
I see a lot of people mess this drill up.
Set up on all fours, kick your leg out to the side, and screw your palms into the ground to create tension throughout the body. Rock back slightly until you feel a slight stretch in your adductor (inside leg). Make sure not to round your lower back.
True Hip Flexor Stretch x 30-45 seconds/side
The key here is to sit tall, squeeze the glutes forward and make sure that your spine stays neutral rather than achieving a range of motion through the lower back.
Supine Hamstring Stretch x 6-8/leg
Take your time with this drill. Don’t worry if you cant get your leg straight, just work in a range of motion and a nice controlled manner.
Activate Weak Muscles
After you’ve addressed the areas of mobility, its time to activate and enhance movement.The goal here should be to find the big-ticket items that will enhance movement for the workout, not become a corrective guru.
Movement needs to be good enough, not perfect. Choose big areas that will yield optimal ranges of motion and force production.
Most people will need work in the core, glutes/hips, shoulders, and lats.
Banded Glute Bridge 8-10 Reps
Shoulder Activation x 10 Reps ( Facepulls, Band Pull Aparts, Lat Pulldowns)
Get Moving With CNS Development
After you’ve released tight muscles and activated everything, it’s now time to select a few exercises that will match the primary movement of the workout and wake everything up.
For example, if the workout is based on a heavier deadlift day and you are a bit more advanced, choose something like this:
Explosive drill – Swings, jumps, throws etc
Mobility Drill
If you were more of a beginner, it would look something like this:
Half Kneeing MB Chest Pass
Mobility Drill
In Summary
If you want to maximize your performance and keep your body healthy in the long term, warming up is a must-have component of your workouts. Instead of spending useless time rolling around for countless minutes and just performing exercises haphazardly, spend about 5-7 minutes on exercises that will have the biggest carry over for that day and you’ll begin to not only see a huge improvement in your strength, but also your health.
Author’s Bio
George is a Marine Corps Veteran of 9 years and was awarded an honorable discharge after deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is currently a Master Instructor and Personal Trainer at Equinox in Boston and a licensed massage therapist.
Outside of Equinox, George maintains a fitness related blog that can be found at www.sgtkfitness.com.
He and his wife Shawna reside in Manchester, NH with their daughter Melina and fur baby Lola the dog.
I have to apologize my dear readers, I feel like an abject failure of late.
Not for anything serious like failing to remember my wedding anniversary or for misusing the Oxford comma.6
No, I’m a failure for failing to keep up with writing content for this site of late. I know I shouldn’t beat myself over it – don’t worry, I’m not quite at Da Vinci Code monk flagellation levels yet or anything – but I do feel bad for my recent lack of prose and pithiness.
I’m sure your life will go on.
Nonetheless, I’ve got some blog ideas marinating in my head, and I hope to get them out ASAP.
Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA, Hoth – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
Also, go HERE if you want to see if we’re coming to your neck of the woods.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
^^^ It’s so good we didn’t even feel the need to come up with a witty title for it.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
At this point it’s common knowledge that the “experts” online have hijacked the attention of the public.
While conflicting and generally poor fitness advice has flooded the internet to confuse the public, one area that even sound coaches and trainers talk out of both sides of their mouths is the relationship between training and sleep.
On many occasions, I have heard live coaches (myself included) or coaches I follow online give the “wake up earlier to get the work done” speech and then five minutes later hit the same person with the “well you aren’t getting enough sleep” speech to explain lack of progress, chronic fatigue, or generally feeling like shit at the gym and beyond.
Most people can’t do both.
If a coach spews this advice at a parent of an infant or toddler or an accountant trying to meet a deadline during the peak of tax season, you can bet it’s going to fall on deaf ears.
Getting nine hours of uninterrupted sleep and getting up at 5am to get a workout in is about as likely as Tracy Anderson entering a powerlifting meet, it isn’t happening, and even if it does, that training session won’t be pretty.
Sleep is important, getting the work done is important. It takes balance. The best program ever written is a total waste of time if you can’t recover from it.
As usual, the answer is in the grey area. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, training needs to be scaled back in terms of volume, intensity, or frequency. If you are especially sleep deprived, dialing back two of those three variables may be necessary to optimize your results until you are able to get more shut-eye.
Even if you are getting the required nutrition to support your frequent and intense bouts of training, you WILL be stuck in neutral if you aren’t getting sufficient sleep.
The Importance of Sleep
We know that as Americans, we simply don’t sleep enough. In fact, according to a Gallup poll from a few years back, 40% of Americans are sleeping less than 7 hours per night.
While busy lifestyles, work schedules, and raising kids contribute to this lack of ZZZs, two underrated factors may be:
The brilliant Netflix feature that rolls the end of an episode directly into the next one in 5 seconds.
The graphics, sound, and online capabilities of the Call of Duty franchise has gotten totally insane.
Regardless of the root of the issue, this lack of sleep will wreak havoc on your production in the gym especially if your training sessions are frequent and intense.
Sleep deprivation will not only sap energy from your lifts, it will negatively impact you on a hormonal level by decreasing the release of testosterone (1) and increasing cortisol (2), an especially nasty combo when trying to gain strength, muscle mass, or lose body fat and even worse for males interested in having sex past the age of 35.
Furthermore, if you add quality sleep, you’ll have a much better chance at performing optimally in the gym (3). We know we need more sleep, but how?
How Do We Sleep for More Muscle?
A general rule of thumb is getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night to recover from training and support your effort in the weight room.
It’s important to note, however, that not everyone is going to be able to follow that advice 100% of the time.
Sometimes you are simply in a period of life (new baby, starting a new business, etc.) that doesn’t lend itself to a lot of sleep. While training is still encouraged under these circumstances, going balls to the wall with exercise is going to end up wasting time, effort, or causing injury.
Want a more restful night of sleep? Try implementing a couple of these tips to take advantage of all the benefits a great night of rest can provide.
1. Go to Bed Earlier
Common sense? Absolutely.
It’s also the easiest tip to implement and will yield the best results. I bet if there were some snazzy Instagram videos of shredded guys and girls going to bed at 9:30 on a Friday night, it would be a more popular thing to do.
2. Put Down the Screens an Hour or Two Before Bed Time (but after you finish this article).
This includes TVs, phones, laptops, iPads, and video games. The blue light from these popular devices is used to keep us alert and engaged. Helpful when writing a thesis, not so much when scrolling social media directly prior to bed. Blue light at night will completely disrupt the human body’s natural circadian rhythm hampering our ability to get a good night’s sleep. Put devices down a few hours before bed (out of arms reach), dim the lights, and read an actual paper book or magazine. Yeah, those still exist.
3. Stay Away From Caffeine in the Afternoon
Caffeine is glorious.
Its awakening effect has helped mankind move mountains, part seas, and beat deadlines. If it’s ingested too late however, it may affect sleep. Caffeine can stay in our system for up to 6 hours(4) so nix the 3pm cup of coffee used to finish strong at work.
Be careful of sneaky caffeinated items such as chocolate, soda (diet or regular), and even decaf coffee.
4. Avoid Alcohol
While this tip won’t win me a popularity contest, it simply must be stated. That glass or four of wine in the evening may help you cope with the shitty day you had and help you fall asleep faster (read: pass out), but it isn’t doing anything for your quality of sleep .(5)
With alcohol on board, it’s a good bet that the later stages of sleep most crucial for recovery from tough training will be disrupted. As usual, alcohol and progress in the gym simply don’t mix, use sparingly.
5. Your Bed is For Humans
Maybe it’s cold-hearted but the cats and dogs need to get kicked out of your bed.
How many times have you been woken up by your pet?
Think about it this way, every single time they move or nudge you, waking you up, you’re starting at square one of the sleep cycle. How are you going to reach the restorative stages of sleep if every 20 minutes Fido shoves his ass in your face?
If that doesn’t get you to train your pet to sleep in their own designated bed, ask yourself this question: would you let your spouse walk around outside all day on their bare feet and then climb into your clean bed with no bath or shower?
Doubtful!
About the Author
Tim is an exercise science graduate and CSCS who has been training in Baltimore MD for over 14 years. While his specialty is body composition, he has extensive experience working with clients from young athletes to cardiac rehabilitation patients. Tim has been published in a variety of fitness publications and writes for his blog when he isn’t helping clients in person.
Being a former fat boy, Tim developed a deep seeded passion for training and nutrition in his teenage years after a major body transformation. This passion is what drives him to seek the best results for his clients and readers. Tim combines a knowledge base earned from years of practice in the field, research, and time spent under the bar with practical advice to get his clients to the next level.
You can find Tim on Instagram (HERE) or his blog (HERE).
Spots are still available for my Coaching Competency workshop in Sterling, VA next weekend.
For $129 you get to hang out with me for seven hours, talk about assessment, program design, deadlifts, and LOLCat memes. This event has been approved for CEUs via the NSCA.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
If you’re someone who works with teams or maybe are in charge of a staff at a gym, or, I don’t know, are part of SEAL Team 6 and just looking for some solid information on how to develop better leadership skills and systems to breed a winning culture you can’t go wrong with Pat Rigsby’s new resource.
I love Greg for always writing such informative, well researched articles though. This is a must read.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Exercises most people need to do more of: deadbugs, push-ups, rows, carries, single leg work, not kipping pull-ups. Exercises most people could do away with: weekly 1RM tests.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com regular, Dr. Nicholas Licameli.
Nick normally writes about stuff like how not to eff up your shoulders during a bench press or how to address your low back pain when you sit in front of a desk all day.
Today, however, he’s throwing us a curveball and discussing a topic that’s a little more nuanced, albeit something that we can all appreciate: the “grind” and the work-life-training “tightrope.”
One of my least favorite sayings is, “everything in moderation.”
Everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything.
Everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything.
But we must realize a truth that is self-evident, undeniable, and timeless: saying yes to one thing is saying no to another.
Whether you’re Betty White, Barry White, or White Goodman, we are all given the same number of minutes each day.
Life, then, is a constant series of choices and decisions as to how we spend our time. There is no arguing that dedicating time to each of our roles is essential. However, everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything. Instead of creating balance, which is usually the reasoning behind taking everything in moderation, it creates mediocrity.
Some of my roles, in no particular order, are bodybuilder, husband, son, brother, friend, and medical professional. I would venture a guess that majority of those reading can relate, at least somewhat, to these roles.
At the core, they are sport, family, friend, and profession.
When walking across a tight rope, one does not stay perfectly straight for the duration of the walk. While still maintaining balance, the walker is able to lean this way and that way with each step. Similarly, a plane does not remain on a straight path for the duration of its flight. The pilot makes adjustments up, down, left, and right depending on weather, air traffic, etc., but it manages to stay the course and eventually reach its destination.
Life is sort of a balancing act, leaning this way and that way, with each step. Think about your life. There will be times along your journey when you’ll have to grind in certain areas.
Sometimes that’s going to be sport. Other times it will be family. Other times it will be your profession. Sometimes you will have to dive 100% into one role in order to accomplish something great.
So yes, you may be sacrificing, but you’re just leaning, not falling.
Side note: When I say, “grind,” what I mean is a temporary grind. The grind occurs due to special or unusual circumstances. If you’re always grinding, you need to find a way to improve efficiency and effectiveness because at the end of the day, there are always people who are better than you, busier than you, and have accomplished more than you who have never missed a training session, a birthday party, or a day of work. So remember that next time you feel yourself grinding.
Ask yourself, “Is this grind necessary or are there things I can do to better organize my day?”
If you’re training for a bodybuilding competition, you’re going to have to grind. Training, nutrition, sleep, and more will all take you away from other areas of your life in one way or another. For that time, you will be leaning toward bodybuilding on your tight rope, understanding that saying yes to bodybuilding is saying no to other roles.
Death in the family? Special birthday party? Holiday or family tradition coming up? Get ready to lean toward family on your tightrope, understanding that saying yes to family is saying no to other roles.
If there’s a big project coming up at work that you are passionate about, you’re going to have to grind, understanding that saying yes to work is saying no to other roles.
How Do We Make It All Work?
Here’s the key to making this work: while leaning on the tight rope and grinding in one area of your life, be sure to truly be present and give it your all.
There is a very good chance that other people will not “get it.”
They won’t understand why you’re so passionate about bodybuilding or that family tradition or that silly project at work.
That’s fine.
Being truly present in each moment will help lessen negative kickback from different aspects of your life. Thinking about training or work while you’re spending planned time with family won’t help training or work and will hinder family time. It doesn’t make sense to choose to grind at work but fog your brain with guilt that you are not with your family.
Similarly, it doesn’t make sense to miss a birthday party to finish that work project if you’re not going to be fully present and committed to it in that moment. You’re essentially becoming a mediocre professional and mediocre family member.
You are limiting your productivity at work and wasting quality family time. When you choose to grind, proceed with confidence and understand that those other areas of life will have their time, it’s just not now.
1. For example, if you have to sacrifice family for work or for training, it’s going to be OK as long as the time that you do give your family is 100% undivided attention, presence, and love.
2. When you sacrifice from work, it’s going to be OK as long as you’ve given work your 100% time and effort when it was work’s turn.
3. If you can’t stay late for that meeting because your son has a baseball game, it will be OK because you’ve grinded for work during work’s time and have made it clear to everyone at the office the type of person you are.
4. If you have to sacrifice training/nutrition to give time to your family or work, it’s OK so long as committed and productive work has been put toward training during its time.
Being 100% committed and present to a role during its allotted time will lessen the sting when the time comes to grind in a different role. While grinding in a particular role, think of making deposits of trust.
Stephen Covey uses the metaphor of an “emotional bank account,” which describes the amount of trust that has been built up in a relationship1. For the purposes of this article, we can call it a “role bank account.”
While leaning on the tight rope, pennies are deposited into each role’s account if and only if you are 100% present and committed to it. Being partially present or dividing your attention results in no deposits at best and a withdrawal at worst. Debt will never be accumulated while grinding in a certain role so long as you’ve been making genuine and consistent deposits in each role.
What Are Some Deposits?
For a bodybuilder, deposits may be meal prepping ahead of time, hitting macros while at a social event, keeping perfect form during the last set of deadlifts as fatigue sets in, or getting a full 8-9 hours of quality sleep.
As a member of a family or as a professional, deposits can be as simple as saying a kind word, going out of your way to offer a compliment, going above and beyond the job description, being honest and truthful, doing a favor without expectation of something in return, being present, listening with the intent to understand rather than be understood, showing deep empathy, saying, “I love you,” apologizing sincerely, and much more.
By making these deposits, we are able to grind in certain areas of our lives without feeling guilty or hurting people and/or roles we love.
Go build up those accounts!
Don’t Fall
Keep in mind that if you lean too much on a tight rope, you will fall.
If you lean too much to one side for too long and neglect the principles of physics, you will fall and once you fall, no amount of counter balance will help. If you excessively withdraw trust, you will accumulate debt.
Understand, however, that it’s okay to grind every once in a while. You are not a bad person. You are a person who aspires to be great, not in one role, but in all roles. You are a person who understands that at times it is necessary to sacrifice and grind in order to achieve and exceed high reaching goals and dreams.
Take what I say with a grain of salt. I don’t know everything. I could be completely wrong. I may look back on this (maybe when I have children some day!) and feel differently.
However, right now, I truly feel that everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything. The occasional grind, together with confidence and steady deposits into our various accounts, will allow you to achieve balanced greatness in all of your roles. Don’t settle for mediocre.
Go get ‘em!
About the Author
Nicholas M. Licameli
Doctor of Physical Therapy / Pro Natural Bodybuilder
Every single thing he does, Nick believes in giving himself to others in an attempt to make the world a happier, healthier, and more loving place. He wants to give people the power to change their lives. Bodybuilding and physical therapy serve as ways to carry out that cause. Nick graduated summa cum laude from Ramapo College of New Jersey with his bachelor’s degree in biology, furthered his education by completing his doctoral degree in physical therapy from Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences (previously the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey) at the age of 24, and has earned professional status in natural bodybuilding. His knowledge of sport and exercise biomechanics, movement quality, and the practical application of research combined with personal experience in bodybuilding and nutrition allows him to help people in truly unique ways. Love. Passion. Respect. Humility. Never an expert. Always a student. Love your journey.
Spots are still available for my Coaching Competency workshop in Sterling, VA in a few weeks.
For $129 you get to hang out with me for seven hours, talk about assessment, program design, deadlifts, and LOLCat memes. This event has been approved for CEUs via the NSCA.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
4. Appearance on the Fitness Marketing Alliance Podcast w/ Eric Malzone
I first heard Chris use the phrase “trainable menu” on Mike Robertson’s podcast a year or two ago and immediately wanted to make out with it.
It’s 100% in line with my own coaching philosophy in that you can ALWAYS train around an injury. As a coach/trainer focus more on what your clients can do – their trainable menu – and less on what they can’t.
“Why do so many coaches act like grumpy old men these days? Factions, disputes and cliques abound; but we are the ones telling our athletes that THEY need to learn how to be better leaders?”
Lisbeth wrote this in the latter part of last year (August) but my assistant sent it to me the other day for consideration for this week’s list.
It’s excellent with a very sage message.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Was asked by someone why I, a strength coach, hire my own coach to write my programs? 1. I hate the mental gymnastics of writing my own programs. 2) Accountability. 3) Because if I didn’t it would be “deadlift and bi’s day” everyday.
I received a message from a young coach the other day asking if I knew of (or used) any tricks to help make writing training programs easier or less time intensive.
Outside of suggesting he build his own time traveling DeLorean, skip a head 5o or so years to clone himself 17 times (and to see if someone possibly cured male pattern baldness8), and then travel back to 2018 with his small army of “hims” to help with the workload, I offered the following suggestions and advice.
Actually, originally, I offered like two sentences, but they were a Pulitzer worthy two sentences.
I figured this was a good topic to expound on and decided to make it into a blog post.
If you want to get better at playing the violin…play the violin.
If you want to get better at long division…do long division.
If you want to get better at free throws….practice more free throws.
If you want to get better at not getting laid…go to Star Trek conventions.
I keed, I keed.
There’s no way to sugar coat this:
“If you want to get better at writing programs…write more programs.”
I have a folder on my desktop labeled Lisa, Don’t Open This Folder Client Programs, and if I opened it right now and actually took the time to count the number of programs in it – which is an amalgamation of my eight years at Cressey Sports Performance in addition to the 2.5 years I’ve been training people out of CORE – I’d garner a guess there’s at least, I don’t know, a kazillion, billion programs in it.
Okay, lets just say it’s a lot.
I am by no means insinuating I’m some program writing maverick and that I’ve got things dialed down to a well-tuned science, but it stands to reason in the 15+ years I’ve been writing training programs, I’ve gotten pretty okay at not sucking at it.
That being said, the sooner you acquiesce to the idea it’s going to take time, practice, and lots of experience on your part in order to get “adequate” yourself, the better off you’ll be.
To answer the question, though: Is there a way to expedite the program writing process?
Well, it depends.
Many factors come into play – one’s training age, injury history, goals, availability of equipment, total training frequency, favorite He-Man character (<– very important), to name a few.
I’d say on average it takes me anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes to write a program.
Moreover:
1. I rarely start from scratch.
I’ve written enough programs and have worked with enough people that I can Spidey-sense similarities and correlations between one client and another. If someone has the same background and/or goals as a previous client of mine I don’t need to re-invent the wheel. I can take someone else’s program, do a little bada-binging and bada-booing (tweaking), and cater it to someone else.
I take pride in writing individual programs for all my clients, but I’m also a realist. Most of the time most people need to be doing the same stuff anyways; at least in the beginning:
Less bench pressing.
More rows.
Better scapular upward rotation.
More single leg work and carries.
More butt stuff (posterior chain in general).
No, deep squats aren’t dangerous.
Yes, your knees can go past your toes.
No, you can’t have a bicep day. At least not until you can perform a chin-up.
If you ask me one more time whether or not you should go keto I’m going to throw my face into a wall.
2. Understand there’s NO SUCH THING AS A PERFECT PROGRAM.
It’s inevitable you’re going to be overzealous with some people or underestimate others, especially with regards to exercise selection.
I don’t think a day goes by where I’m not crossing out things on a program or making minor adjustments, or hell, even overhauling the entire program.
No one is perfect (except Ryan Gosling).
2. Remember: It’s THEIR Program, Not Yours
No quote is more appropriate here than one of Dan John’s classics:
“The goal is to keep the goal, the goal.”
If someone’s goal is to get strong or maybe compete in powerlifting, then, yeah, they should likely focus on the classic barbell lifts.
Write a program that reflects that.
Kipping pull-ups likely aren’t going to get the job done. In fact, kipping pull-ups are never going to get the job done.
Stop it.
Just, stop.
If someone’s goal is to lose a bunch of fat, again, I could make the case strength is still important and that the barbell lifts (which utilize multiple joints and make burning a bunch of calories in a short amount of time a thing) may be of benefit.
But understand there are many methods to get any job done.
Maybe someone would rather jump into a shark’s mouth than touch a barbell.
Blasphemous, I know. But it happens.
If so, don’t be an insufferable dick about it and force feed YOUR preferences over your client’s.9
A glaring example here is when you see bodybuilders training 55 year old female clients like bodybuilders. Yeah dude, I doubt she’s interested in her bicep peak. I mean, maybe. But I doubt it.
Stick to the goals and consider your client’s preferences.
NOTE: Don’t let the latter govern everything, mind you.
This can make writing programs much, much, MUCH more “freeing” and palatable. If someone likes using dumbbells, incorporate more dumbbells. If someone seems to be down with landmine exercises, use more landmine exercises.
Often, the #1 factor for a program’s success is ADHERENCE.
A client/athlete is much more apt to stick to a program when it’s one they enjoy and want to do.
3. Write Programs In Bulk
This is something Eric Cressey brought up recently and it makes a lot of sense. You’re bound to be more efficient and “in the zone” when it comes to writing program when you write them in bulk.
Instead of writing one program here and another one there, sit down, grab a cup of coffee (or tea), put on some of your favorite program writing music (for me it’s Deep House or Norah Jones, don’t judge), and get to work.
I think you’ll find it’ll increase your program writing prowess.
4. Have Someone Audit Your Programs
It’s not lost on me it’s tax season (here in the States anyways) and that using the word “audit” may make some start to hyperventilate into a paper bag.
This is an instance, however, where audit is a good thing.
Asking a colleague to take a peek at some of your programs and to provide some honest feedback is a splendid way to hone and sharpen your skills.
Of course it helps to be someone who can take constructive criticism well. If your default reaction is to get defensive, stomp your feet, and yell “YOU’RE RUINING MY LIFE” when a friend suggests it might not a good idea to program back squats for someone with limited shoulder external rotation and to maybe consider front squats instead, you may want to hold off on this idea.
Conversely, grow up, it’s only going to make you better and to allow you an opportunity to see things from a different lens.
5. When In Doubt, Simplify
The next time you find yourself sitting in front of your computer screen contemplating putting in Close Grip Bench Press cluster sets for your 16 year old high-school athlete with weight releasers utilizing a 5-0-7 tempo while also repeating the alphabet backwards, in Elvish:
Stop
Punch yourself in the pancreas.
Hard.
And remember to just keep things simple.
Believe me, I know how easy it is to be seduced into adding novelty to your client’s programs for the sake of adding novelty…but I assure you most of them do not care and more importantly most do better without it.
The “boring” stuff is almost always going to be the better fit and is likely all most of your clients will need for quite some time.
Seriously, when in doubt….simplify.
And then just coach the shit out of everything.
6. Miscellaneous Pontification
– It would also bode in your favor to actually lift weights.
– Refrain from adding things to your programs that you yourself have not tried first.
– Network. Make nicey nice with local coaches and physical therapists.
– The second season of Jessica Jones wasn’t as good as the first. Just sayin.
– Also, not for nothing, but did you not notice I used both words “amalgamation” and
“acquiesce” in this blog post? You didn’t, did you?10
Tim is an exercise science graduate and CSCS who has been training in Baltimore MD for over 14 years. While his specialty is body composition, he has extensive experience working with clients from young athletes to cardiac rehabilitation patients. Tim has been published in a variety of fitness publications and writes for his blog when he isn’t helping clients in person.
