CategoriesMotivational personal training

How to Get to Where You Want to Be

I was up late this past Saturday night.

Granted, late for me (10 PM) is not late for everyone else, especially on a weekend night. Moreover it’s probably when things are getting started for most people.

Lisa and I had just gotten home from the movies where we saw the new Whitey Bulger documentary Whitey: United States of America vs. James J. Bulger.  As resident pseudo Bostonians (neither of us born here – Lisa: Florida, myself: New York) we both felt obligated to go see it.  And boy oh boy was it a fascinating peek into the story of Whitey Bulger and the “was he or wasn’t he an informant for the FBI?” clusterf*** of a mystery.

If you get the chance, I’d highly recommend it.

Anyways, like I said, it was late. Lisa wasn’t feeling too well, so we decided to get ready for bed. Of course I made the mistake of checking my email just one more time to make sure there wasn’t anything pressing or important to take care of.

And that’s when I read the email.

It’s an email that I get at least once week, if not every couple of days. And while I understand that it comes with good intentions, I sometimes can’t help but feel a sense of wanting to throw my face into an ax.

While they come in a variety of iterations, the theme is generally the same: “Tony, you’re about as close to a real life Han Solo as they get, how did you get to where you are today as a coach?”

I’m often dumbfounded by the question. Sometimes, even at a loss for words. But I wasn’t at precisely 10:07 PM (or thereabouts) when I read the email. Do people really think there’s an easy answer?

I started typing a response, and when I was done, 20-30 minutes later, rather than send it to the person who wrote the email, I posted it on my Facebook Fan Page because I figured it was a message that more than one person needed to hear.

And it’s what that, I felt I’d share it on my blog today.

And Here It Is

How did the Beatles become “the Beatles? How did Steve Jobs build Apple?  How did the Golden Gate Bridge get built? Or, how did Will Hunting solve that seemingly unsolvable, hard as balls formula that Professor Lambeau left on the chalk board in MIT hallway outside his classroom?

HARD WORK, that’s how!!!!

Listen, Dr. Oz likes to propagate false claims and wishful thinking using flashy buzzwords and phrases like “magic pill” and “I’ve got the miracle answer for….”

[Cue hardship here: diabetes/fat loss/heart disease/raging explosive diarrhea/you name it.]

He prays on the notion that there’s an easy fix for “stuff”, an easy route to success, and caters to people’s lack of accountability for their own actions, or lack thereof.

There is no easy fix. It doesn’t exist.

Just like there’s no easy answer I can offer to the above query.

To put things into perspective, I started out as a personal trainer at a small corporate gym back in 2002. N’Sync was Dirty Pop’in, gas prices were $1.43 a gallon, and the iPhone didn’t exist. Not that 2002 is ancient history, but it certainly wasn’t yesterday.

I’ve been doing this for a little over a decade now, it’s only been within the past year, maybe two, where I’ve finally started to feel I kinda-sorta know what the heck I’m doing.

That’s countless client/athlete coaching hours, countless programs written, countless books read, and DVDs watched, and workshops/conferences attended. Not to mention innumerous words written from articles and blog posts. Well, technically, I could probably go back and count, but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say.

I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am. I didn’t get my first article published on T-Nation until 2006 (four years into my career). I didn’t train my first professional athlete until 2007.

And, to speak bluntly, I don’t feel “where I am” is anywhere close to where I’d like to be. I still have soooo much more to learn and understand.

I still feel like a moron whenever I’m in the same room as Eric (Cressey) or Bret (Contreres) or Gray Cook or Mike Boyle or Jim “Smitty” Smith or Dean (Somerset) or Mike (Robertson) or Nick (Tumminello) or Cassandra (Forsythe) or any other countless fitness professionals I look up to.

On a daily basis I’m reminded how much of an idiot I am. This isn’t to say I don’t recognize any of my success or that I de-value myself.  Instead, it’s a subtle reminder that I’m not that special and things don’t just happen.

None of this – whatever this is? – happens overnight. Or in a week. Or in a month. Or in a decade.

It takes however long it takes. No one knows, really.

What I can tell you is that you have to put in the work, you have to have an insatiable appetite to always want to get better and improve, and you sure as hell better be willing to be humbled in the process.

Stop asking how long it will take to be successful or how long before you get your first article published or when you’ll get 1000 “likes” or when you’ll train your first professional athlete or when you’ll whateverthef***.

That’s not the point, and if that’s all you’re concerned with why are you even in this profession?

Instead, ask yourself how are you getting better today? How are you making your clients and athletes better?

That’s the more appropriate question.

Do the work. Consistently give a shit. THAT’s how you get to where you want to be.

CategoriesUncategorized

What I Do on Vacation (Hint: I Don’t Worry About Exercise)

Fitness is a part of my life. It always has been, and it always will be. I’m just as obsessed with the next person about staying on task, being consistent, and not missing any lifts.

I can count on one hand the total number of times I’ve skipped a scheduled training session.  Once was because I felt like I was infected with Ebola. Once was because of a massive snow storm which laid the smack down on us, and forced us to stay home for a few days (which then served as the impetus for me to buy a set of kettlebells).  And once was because a friend of mine dragged me to a second showing of The Two Towers.  Whatever.  Don’t judge me.

As I’m typing these words, I’m overlooking the ocean and beach (see pic to the left), and the last thing I’m worrying about is that I’ve only exercised once in the past four days.  That is, unless you consider walking to and from my beach chair to water to pee as exercise.  If that’s case I’ve been crushing it all week. Like a champ.

You see, I look at vacation as, you know, vacation. Weird, I know.  Sure, Lisa and I try our best to implement and encourage as much “damage control” as possible:

1.  We raided Trader Joe’s before we left and brought a stash of nuts, beef jerky, oatmeal, LaraBars, and a bunch of other things that, I think, are TSA approved.

2.  We’re staying in a room that has a kitchen, and the resort we’re staying at has a fresh market, so we’re more than able to cook our own healthy meals when we want.  We don’t necessarily have to eat out every meal.

3.  Moreover, as any fitness couple would do, we’ve “visited” the gym here at the resort once or twice.  I say “visited” (in quotations) because each time we’ve gone it’s been nothing hardcore or extraordinary. We both move around a little, break a sweat, high-five, and then leave.

Here’s Lisa hitting up some easy deadlifts as part of a circuit we were doing.  And yes, I took over the stereo.  Holla!

By and large, however, our vacation has been more about reading, relaxing, going for a few walks on the beach, and, WARNING TO ALL PALEO NAZIS READING (put on your ear muffs), eating our fair share of fajitas and quesadillas. I.e., gluten!

I’m often asked what my advice would be for people who are traveling and would like to still stay “healthy” and  to workout and stay while away.

For starters, going on vacation IS HEALTHY!!  Just getting out of our monotonous, humdrum, everyday routines, and going away, is one of the best thing we can do for our mental (and physical) health, and I’d encourage people to do it more often.

But more to the point, here’s something I shared on TravelStrong.net recently:

To read the whole article, go HERE.

Depending on the length (lets just say for shits and giggles a week), it may not be a bad idea for most people to view vacation as a “built in” deload week. Chances are most people have been busting their butts in the gym for months on end and haven’t had much of a break anyways.

Who’s to say that vacation can’t be, you know, a freakin vacation! Let loose!

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to live at the all-you-can-eat-buffet the entire time, or that you shouldn’t make an effort to move around just a little bit (even if it’s to move from one side of the pool to the next).

I know when I travel I like to stay at resorts or hotels that have a gym. Of course, this can be hit or miss as some resort’s definition of a gym is a pair of mis-matched dumbbells, a treadmill, a few mats, and a rubber duckey.

For the most part, hotels and resorts recognize that a fair portion of their visitors live a healthy and active lifestyle and most make a concerted effort to provide a reasonably well-stocked gym. If this is the case, great! While you probably won’t be able to deadlift heavy, it stands to reason you will be able move around a little bit.

And even if they don’t have a gym, who’s to say that you can’t do other “active” things: sprint on the beach, play tennis, go hiking, swim, etc.

The point is this: I like to treat vacation as vacation. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t perform your 5/3/1 training session at the spa. Most likely it will be the best thing for your body to take a few days off.

However, I understand that that is a tough pill to swallow for many people – myself included.

I have to move around in some fashion. So try to make plans to stay at a hotel or resort that has access to a gym; or at the very least, try to think outside the box and understand that exercise doesn’t ALWAYS have to be in the gym.

In the end, it’s okay to turn it off.

$10 says taking 3-5 days off and not touching a weight will do your body (particularly your joints) good. Besides, if you take some precautions, maybe purposely overreach (i.e., kick the shit out of yourself) the week before leaving, those few days off from training will serve as a perfect way to supercompensate and come back even stronger.

But what it really comes down to is this…. Relax.  You earned it.

CategoriesExercise Technique

Form Tweaking and Overreaching: Two Ways to Increase Your Squat Numbers

I’m still in Cancun…..nah nah nah nah naaaaaah.

Today’s guest post comes from Justin Kompf, who’s had several articles featured on this site like THIS one and THIS one.

Not only is he a professor at my Alma Mater, SUNY Cortland, but he’s also someone I feel is going to do a lot of cool things in this industry.  He “gets it,” and I hope you take the time to read what he has to say.

I’m actually heading to Warrior Fitness this morning to do a workshop for a group of trainers and fitness enthusiasts here in Cancun, and I don’t speak a lick of Spanish….haha.  This should be interesting. 

Note: please excuse the formatting issues as of late.  I had WordPress updated on my site a few days ago and it seems to have caused a few glitches.  Hopefully the issue will be resolved soon. If not, the internet is sooooo going to be sent to bed with no dinner tonight!!!

Form Tweaking and Overreaching

Early on in my lifting career I quickly excelled at the deadlift. Speaking strictly from an anthropometric point of view, having a shorter torso and longer arms, I’m built for that lift.

However, once I started competing in powerlifting (and wanting to place) I quickly realized my squat needed to catch up to the deadlift. Over the course of the last year I took my squat from 350 pounds to 420 pounds while staying in the 181 pound weight class.

To achieve this I did two simple things that can be easily applied. I switched to a box squat and I planned periods of overreaching in my training prior to competition.

Note from TG:  losing in a Predator hand-shake off didn’t hurt either.

Box Squatting

My biggest problem with the squat was coming out of the hole, (bottom of the squat) I would consistently lean forward when the weight was too heavy. I tried using Olympic shoes which initially helped.

There’s evidence to suggest that wearing shoes with a raised heel can help the lifter stay more upright during the squat with sub max loads which I found to be the case.

Restricting dorsiflexion to keep a vertical shin usually increases forward trunk lean. For example, one study by Fry et. al. did just this, they placed a barrier to restrict dorsiflexion during the squat and found that the subjects who had restricted dorsiflexion leaned forward more (Fry).

Olympic shoes allow you to stay more upright because you are granted more dorsiflexion. However, whenever I would get close to maximal weights I would still lean forward with or without the Olympic shoes on.

In competition there are a large variety of squat variations with different stance widths. For example, lifters performing a traditional squat might only have their feet half as wide as those performing a powerlifting style squat! (Swinton).

 

Typically the lifters with a narrower base end up letting their knees come forward more than those with a wide stance squat. Now, logic would dictate that those lifters with more anterior knee displacement would stay more upright than the powerlifters with the wide stance and near vertical shins, but this just isn’t the case.

Swinton et. al. compared three different squat styles, traditional, powerlifting, and box in twelve male powerlifters. They found that the torso angle of powerlifters is not dependent on the amount of anterior knee displacement. This means that compared to recreational lifters who lean forward more if dorsiflexion is restricted, powerlifters find a way to stay more upright while maximizing posterior displacement of the hips.

That’s where the box squat came in for me. It was a great teaching tool to help me stay more upright. A common misconception  (that I thought for the longest time as well) is that the box squat is building up the posterior chain more. Turns out it might not even be better than the traditional or powerlifting squat for training hip extensors. What the box squat is good for is force development, which you can read more about HERE.

Anyhow, with the box squat I was able to practice keeping a vertical torso with vertical shins as well. For anyone that struggles with staying upright on the squat, I highly recommend the box squat. If you’re competing be sure to do some squats without the box prior to competition though to get used to not having the box underneath you.

Overreaching

Over reaching is simply a planned period of overtraining without any of the detrimental effects of overtraining or the long periods of rest needed to recover from overtraining. I experimented with two different overreaching squat specialization programs for the two meets I competed in over the last year. The first was called smolov jr., a baby form of what I can only imagine to be a terrifying 13 week squat cycle.

Here’s the layout for the smolov jr squat cycle:

Week 1

Day Sets Reps Weight
1 6 6 70%
2 7 5 75%
3 8 4 80%
4 10 3 85%

 Week 2

On week two you add 10-20 more pounds onto the weight you were doing from the given percentages.

Day Sets Reps Weight
1 6 6 70%
2 7 5 75%
3 8 4 80%
4 10 3 85%

 Week 3

On week three you add 15-25 more pounds onto the weight you were doing in week one from the given percentages.

Day Sets Reps Weight
1 6 6 70%
2 7 5 75%
3 8 4 80%
4 10 3 85%

These shouldn’t be performed consecutively, seriouspowerlifting.com recommends, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday for squat days.

After performing this overreaching cycle I recommend taking a week off so that the strength you gained can come to fruition. If you’re competing I would recommend finishing this cycle 2-3 weeks prior to the competition. If you have three weeks, deload for a week then do a “practice meet” working up to your opener for the squat, deadlift, and bench press and then take it easy for the week prior. If you have two weeks, take your deload week then work up to the openers, saving at least three days of rest before the meet.

This squat overreaching program took my squat from 350 pounds to 380 pounds.

The next overreaching cycle that I did prior to my meet was a 6 week Russian squat cycle.

Week Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
1 80% 6×2 80% 6×3 80% 6×2
2 80% 6×4 80% 6×2 80% 6×5
3 80% 6×2 80% 6×6 80% 6×2
4 85% 5×5 80% 6×2 90% 4×4
5 80% 6×2 95% 3×3 80% 6×2
6 100% 2×2 80% 6×2 105%

This was double the length but I wasn’t squatting four times per week which was nice. With this program you are actually setting a new squat max on the last day which you could take as is, or plan to use that or a weight close to that for an opener. Odds are you’ll be able to squat more than that after your body gets a little rest and recovery. I finally joined the 400 pound squat club (if there is one? I haven’t been formally inducted I assume there’s some sort of ceremony). In the meet I ended up getting a 420 pound squat.

Training over the last year was far from easy but every time I finish a meet I’m dying to get back to it. I love seeing my strength increasing, knowing that I’m better than I was a year ago. Other than a determined mindset all it really takes is attention to detail and form and a systematic plan to get better at whatever your weakness is!

References

Fry AC, Smith JC, and Schilling BK. Effect of knee position on hip and knee torques during the barbell squat. J Strength Cond Res 17: 629-633, 2003.

Swinton PA, Llyod R, Keogh JW, Agouris I, and Stewart AD. A biomechanical comparison of the traditional squat, powerlifting squat, and box squat. J Strength Cond Res26: 1805-1816, 2012.

About the Author

Justin Kompf is the head strength and conditioning coach at SUNY Cortland. He has a powerlifting team comprised of 13 super strong SUNY Cortland students who regularly crush state records in New York within the IPA powerlifting federation. His best lifts are a 540 pound deadlift and a 420 pound squat at the 181 weight class. His website is JustinKompf.com and he can be contacted at [email protected].

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 6/30/14

Not to rub it in or anything, but as this post is going live I’m in route heading to Cancun, Mexico for a week of:

A.  Vitamin D intoxication
B.   Poolside reading
C.   Crushing fresh guacamole and chips. And tacos. And nachos.*
D.  Tequila**
E.   Reacting scenes from the movie Desperado. FYI:  any guy who was a teenager when this movie came out, knows EXACTLY why this movie rules. Hint:  Salma Hayek

Suffice it to say, it’s going to be hoooooooooooot, and Lisa, a Florida girl, is going to be soaking up every last second while I’ll probably be underneath an umbrella the entire time, wearing 10,000 SPF sunblock.

I’ll still be updating the blog this week.  Don’t worry, you can’t get rid of me that easily.

Connecting With Cressey – Ashley Crosby

This was a really nice write-up by Cape Cod Baseball on what the “Cressey Experience” is like.

Everything I F***** Up While Trying to Eat Like Gwyneth for a Week – Lindy West

Busting on Gwyneth is almost too easy at times. Everything from her and her husband’s (Coldplay lead vocalist, Chris Martin) uppity way of “uncoupling” to her assertion that water has “feelings,” provides ample ammunition.

Far worse is the notion that people deem her an “expert” and are willing to take nutritional advice from her.

It’s akin to me writing a book on knitting or paper mache or how to fly an F-15 fighter jet.

But back to Gwyneth. All of this “street cred” despite the fact she’s been diagnosed with osteopenia (a precursor to osteoporosis), in no small part due to her dietary decisions.

Anyways, I thought this was a hilarious commentary which ended up taking a turn I didn’t expect.  Kudos to the author for an honest and heartfelt review in the end.

On a quick aside, since we’re on the topic of Gwyneth, we might as well toss her BFF, Tracy Anderson into the fire as well.  This.  Was. Precious.

10 Mistakes Women Make With Diets – Dani Shugart

Slow clap to Dani for writing this.  Please share with your friends.

And that’s it for today.  Excuse me while I go hyperventilate into a brown paper bag (god, I hate flying!!!)

 

* And quesadillas.  Doesn’t matter….it’s all Paleo, right?

** (hahahahahahahahaha.  Yeah, right. The second I drink some tequila I’ll turn into the “is this real life?” kid.)

 

CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

The Rule of 90%: 2.0

The rule of 90% can be applied to almost anything.

One of the best examples, with special emphasis to health and wellness, stems from Dr. John Berardi and the crew over at Precision Nutrition.

Simply stated, if you eat “clean” or follow the rules 90% of the time, good things tend to happen.

By focusing the bulk of your diet or nutrition plan on things like lean meats, vegetables, fruits, “healthy” fat, whole, minimally processed foods, going “off the grid” 10% of the time, and eating foods you enjoy – hello mint cookies-n-cream ice cream! – won’t really make that big of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Life will go on, you’ll stay more consistent with your plan (and you’ll keep your sanity).

The Rule of 90% can also be applied to co-habitation (put the toilet seat down 90% of the time, and your girlfriend won’t strangle you) strength and conditioning, albeit in a different context.

I wrote an article on T-Nation.com what seems like eons ago (2006!) titled, coincidentally enough, The Rule of 90%.  Catchy, right?

In it I discuss how, if your goal is to improve maximal strength, it’s important to incorporate lifts at or above 90% of your 1-rep max.

Cliff Notes Version:  lifting maximal weight (90%+) has a number of effects:

1. Maximal number of motor units are recruited.

2. Fastest MU’s are activated (high-threshold motor units).

3. The discharge frequency (rate coding) is increased.

4. Activity is synchronous.

5. Potential for future hypertrophy gains (especially when you revert back to a “hypertrophy” specific training phase).

6.  While some argue whether or not the research is efficacious – it goes both ways – lifting heavy things helps to increase serum Testosterone levels.

7.  Girls will want to hang out with you (<=== it’s science).

How It’s Applied (Watered Down, Like A Lot)

Lets say someone’s bench press max is 275 lbs, and the goal for a particular training session is to hit 4 singles at or above 90%.  It may look something like this:

Bar x whatever

95 x 8

135 x 5

185 x 3

225 x 3

250 x 1

265 x 1 (feel good! Eff it, lets go for a PR).

280 x 1 (it was a grinder, but you got it).

From here, it’s important to note that ANY lift at 90% or above (275 lbs), counts.  Doing the math, that means any lift which was heavier than 247.5 lbs.

So now we have ONE more single left.  I’d opt for a clean rep with good bar speed.

260 x 1 (Nailed it! Lets go pound a protein shake).

The Rule of 90%: 2.0

Hitting lifts that are 90% or above one’s 1RM isn’t something I’d recommend for beginner or even most intermediate lifters.  It takes a lot of experience and “time under the bar” to get to the point where handling that much weight is safe.

To that end, this approach IS NOT something I advocate for those with little training experience (lets say less than a year of consistent, no BS training).

However, that doesn’t mean we can’t still apply the principles to great affect.

Something we implement a lot at Cressey Performance (because we don’t go out of our way to test 1RM right off the bat) is the idea of ramping up to a 3 RM (rep max) – for that day – and then using the same approach as above, hitting a certain number of sets at or around 90%.

There’s a fair bit of autoregulation and “feel” involved, and results will vary depending on one’s status for that day, but it gets the job done.

I’ll simply have someone work up to a challenging triple (set of 3) for that day, and then once they hit it, aim for “x” number of sets at or slightly above 90% of THAT number.

Lets stick with the bench press. Goal is to hit 4 sets at or above 90% of 3RM.

Bar x whatever

95 x 5

135 x 5

185 x 3

225 x 3 (bar speed is still good)

245 x 3 (starting to slow up, but still passable)

265 x 3 (last rep was a bit of a grinder. We’ll use this as our marker or “top set” for the day).

Doing the math, 90% of 265 is 238.5.  So, any lift above that counts (245 and 265, respectively).

As always, I’d opt for clean, fast reps from here and would encourage someone to stick in the 245-255 range for their last two sets.

And That’s, That

Hopefully that makes some sense, and, of course, this is a strategy that could be applied to all the “big lifts” (squat, deadlift, bench press, chin-up, rows).  Tricep kickbacks are off the list.

Too, I’d be conservative with how often it’s applied.  1-2 sessions per week would suffice (maybe use it for one lower body movement, and one upper body movement), but once a week would be a nice option for most.

Week 1: ramp up to a 3RM deadlift, hit 3-5 sets at 90%+
Week 2: ramp up to a 3RM bench press, hit 3-5 sets at 90%+
Week 3: ramp up to a 3RM squat, hit 3-5 sets at 90%+

Week 4: ramp up to a 3RM deadlift (try to beat your previous number), hit 3-5 sets at 90%+

So on and so forth.

All in all, I find this is a much more “user friendly” way to implement the Rule of 90% and something that most trainees could easily implement into their training.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

CategoriesAssessment

Do Assessments “Need” to Be New and Exciting?

I’ve been doing a lot more traveling this past year.  Some for pleasure, mostly for work, but sometimes I’m fortunate and get to combine the two which is always cool.

In the past two months alone I’ve been to Cortland, NY (which doesn’t really count since that’s basically my home town), Fargo, North Dakota, and Kansas City, Missouri….all of which were for speaking engagements

Next week I’m heading to Cancun, Mexico to spend 4th of July with Lisa and some of her family. In addition I’ll also take part in a 1-day “coaching the coaches” workshop at Warrior Fitness where I’ll have the opportunity to talk shop with a dozen or so local trainers and coaches, and possibly discuss my secret fascination with Lucha libre; or Mexico’s version of “free wrestling.”

In short, I have every intention of going all Nacho Libre on their asses!

But seriously, the game plan is to break down how to coach the squat, deadlift, bench press, Turkish get-up, and, oh who am I kidding…….the piledriver, too!

Later this summer I may be doing some staff in-services for SportsClub LA, which takes us into the fall where my schedule kicks into overdrive.

Dean Somerset and I will be in London (Sept) and Washington, DC (Oct) for our Excellent Workshop High Five, and we’re also looking at adding a date in  Los Angeles in November.

And, serving as a bit of a teaser, all signs point to me (and Lisa) heading to Australia in March 2015 for two separate, 2-day workshops in both Sydney and Ballina respectively. Nothing is set in stone yet, but the prospect of being able to put some of my Crocodile Dundee quotes to good use is making me pee my pants.

After all that, what’s left is trying to set-up dates in Hoth, Minas Tirith, and Cybertron. Fingers crossed.

My point to all of this is something that came up a week or so ago. Now that I’m “in demand” and traveling more for work, it’s always interesting some of the feedback I receive from my presentations.

As an example, my use of colorful language has come up. Whereas on the east coast, and Boston in particular, talking like a sailor and peppering a few f-bombs here in there is the norm, in the mid-West it may come across as bit more juvenile and un-professional. And that makes a lot of sense.

This is something I’ve had to learn and adapt to the more and more I’ve travelled to different places. But, in general, a good rule of thumb is to not be too gratuitous with language and make references to explosive diarrhea with a bunch of doctors in the audience.

Oops. My bad.

However, on a more relevant level I’ve noticed another “theme” that’s been present the more I’ve spoken. It’s nothing glaring and it’s more the minority mindset, but it’s been brought up a handful of times.

And it’s the notion that I don’t offer anything “new or exciting.”

To be more specific, I had someone comment that I offered “nothing new or exciting” with regards to shoulder assessment as part of a presenter evaluation for a recent speaking engagement.

I’m all for constructive criticism and I appreciated the feedback, but since when did assessment or screens need to be exciting or revolutionary?

Sometimes it comes down to doing the “boring stuff” correctly, no?

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m NOT a researcher, and the likelihood I’ll ever offer anything “revolutionary” is on par with Justin Bieber not coming across somewhat douchy.

This is also the same mentality I take with program design. Boring is generally what works best for most people in most situations. Focusing on the principles – whether it be assessment or program design or “insert whatever you want here” – is what many people overlook, and why most tend to miss the forest for the trees.

How am I supposed to make shoulder assessment more glamorous?  Do I need to add some pyrotechnics?  Have them juggle a pair of chainsaws? Please, tell me!

Walk into an assessment or screen at Cressey Performance and you’re bound to see things like:

1.  Looking at standing/static posture. Posteriorly, what’s the medial border of the scapulae tell you?  Is the inferior border closer to the spine than then superior border, as shown in the pic below (which is of me by the way, taken from Eric Cressey and Mike Reinold’s Functional Stability Training of the Upper Body).

If so, the scapulae are downwardly rotated and could be the root cause of someone’s shoulder pain.

How about anteriorly?  What about clavicular angle? Drawing a line from the medial border of the sternum along the clavicle, does one present with a more horizontal angle?

NOTE:  Abs alert!!

If so, that’s not ideal.  We’d like to see a 10-15 degree upslope of the clavicle.  Again, this translates to a “depressed” shoulder girdle  and downward rotation emphasis.

2.  If someone presents with a wonky static posture (<=== how’s that for a scientific term?), you can almost guarantee they’re going to present with aberrant movement patterns with regards to standing shoulder flexion or when testing scapulohumeral rhythm.

Then again, they could “fix” things once you start adding dynamic movement, but you’re never going to know unless you screen/assess for it.

Admittedly, these tests aren’t sexy or revolutionary….but they sure as hell get the job done. And, when done right, consistently, offer more than enough feedback and information to come up with an appropriate corrective strategy and training program.

Sans fireworks or anything “new and exciting.”

CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

10 Must Do’s to Stay Athletic (Part 2)

Before we get to Part 2 of James’ guest post from yesterday, a few things:

1.  You should read Part 1 if you haven’t already. This isn’t like The Matrix Reloaded or Revolutions or anything where, if you didn’t watch the original Matrix, you’d be throwing your hands up in the air wondering what WTF is going on.

Where did 100 Agent Smith’s come from?

If Neo can fly, why go through all the trouble of kung-fu’ing everyone?

And, who the hell is this Architect character and why is he obsessed with the word “ergo”?

Nevertheless, you can absolutely read Part 2 (below) and not Part 1 and get the gist of everything.  But, it’s still nice to have the whole story.

2.  The guys over at Examine.com (THE best source for INDEPENDENT and UNBIASED supplement information in the history of the internet) just released their new product, Stack Guides, today.

If you’ve ever asked yourself the question, “what supplements should I take for ______?” then this may be right up your alley.

The Stack Guides are easy to use and provide a step-by-step breakdown of the most prominent queries people have towards supplementation:

Fat Loss
Muscle Gain & Exercise Performance
Bone Health
Sleep Quality
Libido
Mood/Depression
Vegetarianism/Veganism
Insulin Sensitivity, etc……..

You name it, Examine.com probably has it covered.  For more information, you can go HERE.

And with that, lets get to Part 2 of James’ article….

6.  Maintain an Aerobic Base

Low intensity, long duration cardio gets a bad rap sometimes.  If you listen to some people, it sounds as if even thinking about going aerobic will automatically make you lose all your gains.  Unless all you do is low intensity, long duration cardio, that’s not the case.  Your muscle will not melt off your body.  I promise.

Here are a few reasons to maintain a stellar aerobic base:

– It’s always contributing to energy production

– It plays an enormous role in regenerating the necessary substrates to fuel alactic metabolism (aka it helps you recover)

– Is the most trainable of the three energy systems because its only byproducts are CO2 and water.

– Can push out your anaerobic threshold, which in turn allows you to avoid the fatiguing effects of anaerobic metabolism.

For more on this topic I’d recommend checking out this article.

Action Item:  Do cardiac output work once a week for 30-60 min and mix in tempo work once a week at the end of a workout.

7.  Eat Well 90% of the Time

You are what you eat.  It’s pretty self-explanatory.  Eat like crap, and you’ll probably perform and feel like crap.

If you do your due diligence and eat well 90% of the time, and by well I mean focus on lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats, then you’ll do great.

I hate when people get all paranoid and never allow themselves some breathing room.  If you’re craving a milkshake go crush a damn milkshake.  If you make yourself miserable trying not to have it, you’re more likely to binge eat later.  Just indulge yourself within reason and stay on point the other 90% of the time.

If you have questions about nutrition and want an easy to follow plan based on your body type and goals, then click here.

Action Item:  Get protein (lean meat), carbs (veggies and fruit), and fat (nuts, seeds and oils) into every meal you eat.

8.  Play

One of my favorite quotes is by George Shaw, and it goes like this:  “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

Think back to when you were a kid, and how much you enjoyed the art of playing.  Just reckless, mindless, good old fashioned playing.  For some reason we lose that as adults, and it’s sad because the health benefits from playing are great.

Although the list is long, I think most of it comes back to stress management.  Playing allows us to take a much needed break from the constant stressors of todays 24/7 lifestyle, and may very well help keep our stress response in tune (ala not “on” all the time).

If you’re interested in reading more about stress and its impact on the body, I couldn’t recommend the book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky enough.

Action Item:  Play for at least 1 hour each week.

9.  Have an off switch

Getting jacked up and ripping 500lbs off the floor is great and all, but you have to be able to shut down afterwards.

More specifically, you have to be able to turn off your sympathetic (flight or fight) nervous system and get into your parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system.  This is important for a host of reasons, but here’s a quick example.

Let’s say you find yourself roaming the Serengeti and come across this cuddly little guy:

Without having to think about it, your sympathetic nervous system will kick into gear, diverting blood flow to your muscles and dumping things like glucocorticoids into the bloodstream, while most other bodily functions that don’t help you survive at this immediate moment get put on the back burner (digesting food, secretion of sex hormones etc.).

Side note:  this is what happens when you train.

Once you’ve escaped the lion you’d like to be able to shut off the sympathetic system and find your parasympathetic system so you can rest, digest and recover.  Unfortunately, some people lose the ability to do this.  They stay sympathetic all the time causing their bodies to constantly act as if they’re running from a lion.  Needless to say, that’s not healthy in the long run.

Action Item:  Try doing 3 minutes of crocodile breathing after workouts and before bed every night.

Note from TG:  Crocodile or Belly breathing is easy to do.  The idea is to “coach” people to become less of a chest breather – which is an aberrant pattern that tends to jack up our secondary respiratory muscles like the upper traps and scalenes (and, not coincidentally, often leads to neck and shoulder pain) –  and learn to breath more into their belly.

Here, you’ll lie prone on your stomach with your forehead resting on your forearms. From there try to inhale and breath more into your stomach.  You know you’re doing it correctly if you notice your lower back moving up and down, like in the video below.

10.  Surround Yourself With the Right People

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.  If you hang out with people who have zero interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you will also not care about having a healthy lifestyle.

Not only that, having a supporting cast and a few good training partners can make all the difference in the world.  So choose wisely who you associate with.

Action Item:  Make a new friend this month that shares your health and fitness related goals.

Note from TG:  or, you could also just hang out with Jason Bourne.  That would be pretty bad ass.

11.  Bonus: Have Something to Train For

As much as I’d love for everyone to train just because they love training, I’m a realist.

I know that’s not the case for the majority of people. Go out of your way to find something train for.  It can be anything.  Do a Tough Mudder.  Sign up for a powerlifting meet.  Really…anything goes.  Just pick something you can put on the calendar that’ll act as a source of accountability.

Action Item:  Find an event you can compete in sometime over the next 6 months.

Closing Thoughts

Some of the material presented in this article is probably new, and some is probably old news.  Either way, the overarching theme is this:  if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Funny as that may be, it’s true.  The body will adapt to whatever stimulus you place on it, and that includes whatever stimulus you don’t place on it.

The easiest way to stay athletic is to stay on top of your game—it’s always easier to maintain something than it is to get it back.

About the Author

James Cerbie, CSCS, Pn1, USAW, Crossfit Level 1

James Cerbie is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Precision Nutrition, USA Weightlifting and Crossfit.  He has worked with athletes from the middle school to professional level, powerlifters, olympic lifters, and Crossfit athletes alike.  He’s the owner of Rebel Performance and currently works as a strength and conditioning intern at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.

P.S.  He would love it if you hung out with him on Facebook and Twitter.

CategoriesProgram Design

10 Must Do’s To Stay Athletic (Part I)

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of former Cressey Performance intern, James Cerbie. As the title suggests it’s all about how to maintain athleticism, which is something that will hit home for many former athletes, weekend warriors, and Al Bundy-like people who like to bask in the glory of their high-school and college days.

Enjoy!

What does it mean to be an athlete?

Sure, there’s getting all the girls of course.

Kidding…kidding…we all know there’s more to it than that.

So what is it?

The thrill of winning, the rush of competing, the butterflies before a game, the anticipation of a daunting challenge, the brotherhood (could be sisterhood but I’m speaking from my own experience), the pain of defeat, the constant drive towards perfection…it’s hard to say.

Being an athlete, to me at least, encompasses all of those things and more.  It’s truly a way of life, and hard to rid yourself of once you’re so called playing days are over.

Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t seem to recognize this.  Once you leave college or professional sports, you’re thrust into a world that almost looks down on being an athlete.  They’ll just tell you:  “Oh, you had your chance.  Your playing days are over.  It’s time to hang up the cleats and begin your slow decline into decrepitude.”

Whew, doesn’t that sound fun?

It truly pains me to see this happen, and I see it happen a lot—people who were once exceptional athletes who have fallen off the tracks, and are now mere shadows of what they used to be (it honestly reminds me of animals locked up in captivity, but the animal is you and captivity is being locked behind a desk all day).

Don’t get me wrong.  The chances of you being able to maintain your fitness level from college, pro’s etc. is highly unlikely.   This is merely due to the fact that it’s no longer your major commitment.  You have a job, perhaps a significant other, and a life to live.  You just don’t have 20 plus hours a week to commit to training, practice and the sorts.

BUT, that doesn’t mean you can’t stay athletic…so here are 10 must do’s if you hope to avoid turning into a desk slob.

1.  Take Care of Movement

Focusing on how well you move may be boring, but it’s essential.  Without good movement patterns, you are setting yourself up for failure in two big ways.

First, increased risk of injury.  It should come as no surprise that if you move poorly you are more likely to get injured.  Instead of things rolling, sliding, gliding and staying where they’re supposed to, they start banging, pinching, and putting pressure on places they shouldn’t—this is called compensation.

Here’s a simple example:  Say you have poor scapulohumeral mechanics.  In other words, you’re not very good at maintaining the position of the humeral head in the socket in coordination with scapular movement.

As opposed to keeping the humeral head centered in the already small glenohumeral socket (it’s like a golf ball sitting on a tee), it may glide forward and start cranking on the long head of your biceps (ever had pain on the front of your shoulder?).  Although that example is WAY oversimplified, I hope it gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Second, and the seller for most people, is decreased performance—big time muscles are taking a break while the smaller, less capable muscles carry the brunt of the load.

The human body is like a machine, and to guarantee health and maximal performance you have to make sure all the pieces are balanced, strong and in the right position to function optimally.

Action Item:  Get assessed and have someone fix your movement woes.

2.  Lift Heavy Stuff

Please don’t stop lifting heavy things (unless you have an injury or don’t move well).  The benefits it brings about are second to none, and are so essential to long term health and functionality.

I wrote a whole blog post just on this topic a while back, so instead of repeating myself, I’ll refer you here if you want to learn more

Action Item:  Lift something heavy at least once a week.

3.  Sprint

If you’re like most athletes, you can’t wait to drop sprints from your workout regiment. You’ve been doing them your whole life, they suck, and you can’t wait to throw them behind you forever.

Sorry to break it to you, but sprints are necessary.  Similar to lifting heavy weights, sprints are one of the best ways to optimize your hormonal response.  In other words, there appears to be a minimum required threshold of intensity for your body to start dumping things like testosterone and HGH into the bloodstream.

This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective and is backed up in the research.  I’d recommend checking out this article if you want to read more about the many health benefits brought about by sprinting.

Action Item:  Get outside and run at least once a week.  Think hill sprints, 40 yard sprints, 60 yard sprints, 100 yard sprints etc. etc.

4.  Jump

A large amount of athleticism comes down to your rate of force development—how quickly you can generate force.  The only way to maintain and improve this quality, is to do things that require you to generate force as quickly as possible.  Jumping is one of the best ways to accomplish this.

Here’s an easy example:  your absolute strength level is like a pool of water.  The bigger the pool the more strength you have.  The size of the pool, however, doesn’t necessarily mean you can draw out a lot of water at once or do it quickly.  It just means you have the potential to do so.  Jumping, and a host of other exercises, teaches you to draw out a lot of water and to do so quickly.

If you want to stay explosive and powerful, jumping is must.

Action Item:  At the beginning of one workout a week, jump onto something 10-20 times.  I’m not talking about just hopping around through, like really jump.

Note from TG: check out THIS article on common mistakes when it comes to box jumps.

5.  Be Agile

What do you think happens to your joints during athletics?  In particular, during the planting and cutting portion?  Sure you may have some wear and tear (a lot of that goes back to the movement piece though), but your joints adapt to the stressor being placed on them.

They gain the ability to absorb force and help you change direction without your knee going one way and your body going the other.  Similar to jumping and sprinting, this is one of the first items to fall by the wayside at the conclusion of playing competitive sports.

Unless you’re constantly being chased by dogs, cops or maybe even zombies, it’s highly unlikely you’re getting this stimulus in your day to day life.  Can you imagine someone sprinting down the sidewalk of a major city trying to cut, juke, dodge and avoid all the pedestrians?  It doesn’t happen.  Thus, you have to go out of your way to make sure it does.

If not, then say bye-bye to any “agileness” you once had.

Action Item:  Do t-drills, 20 yard shuttles and other actions that involve planting and cutting in a rapid fashion once a week.

And that’s it for today. Check back tomorrow where I’ll discuss the other five keys to stay athletic.

About the Author

James Cerbie, CSCS, Pn1, USAW, Crossfit Level 1

James Cerbie is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, Precision Nutrition, USA Weightlifting and Crossfit.  He has worked with athletes from the middle school to professional level, powerlifters, olympic lifters, and Crossfit athletes alike.  He’s the owner of Rebel Performance and currently works as a strength and conditioning intern at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.

P.S.  He would love it if you hung out with him on Facebook and Twitter.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 6/20/14

Before I get into the nitty gritty and link to some fantastic reads from this past week, I wanted to put out a quick “feeler” (not that kind of feeler. Get your mind out of the gutter) on something I’ve been thinking about doing in the very near future.

People have been asking me for eons now whether or not I’ll ever produce my own product. Much of my reticence in doing so has been the result of:

1) Not rushing into things. I figured twelve years in, and thousands of client/athlete contact hours (again, get your mind out of the gutter), I’ve amassed enough experience to toss my hat into the fitness product ring.

2) Only doing so when I felt I WAS READY. I always laugh when someone who’s just graduated college or has only been working as a personal trainer for a year states that they’re “world renowned” or an “expert.” Then, if that wasn’t enough of a red flag, are quick to promote their opus of an ebook that, according to them, will change the fitness industry and make us all wet our pants.  Twice.

Okay, now everyone’s mind is in the gutter.

Speaking personally, the only thing I was an expert in out of college or that early on in my career was sucking. And Super Mario Kart.

3) Above all, actually coming up with something worth putting out there.

And it’s with that I want to reach out to my peeps, my “Tribe” if you will, to see if anyone would be interested in participating in a Beta group for a program I’d like to test drive.

I’m still in brainstorming mode and nothing is concrete (yet), but I wanted to toss the idea out there to see if there would actually be any interest?

Basically, I’d write 4-6 months of programming (with a degree of customization involved, based of standard assessments and goals) for a minimum cost, and all I’d ask in return is honest feedback on a month-to-month basis from the participants (along with maybe a bag of beef jerky. I really like beef jerky).

Anyways, just wanted to toss that out to the universe and to place it on everyone’s radar.  If you’d like to leave a comment below expressing any interest you may have, that would be awesome.  Thanks!

There were a TON of great articles I read this week:

Another Bullshit Anti-Red Meat Study – Anthony Colpo

Red meat is blamed for everything. Cancer is the main “go to,” but other things like heart disease, obesity, and global warming are on the conversation.

Next time someone berates you for eating a burger and tries to give you a guilt trip about how you’re causing irreparable harm to your body, send them this article.  And then, for shits and giggles, and just because, make fun of them for thinking their non-GMO diet isn’t somehow genetically modified.

Pretty much everything we eat nowadays has been genetically modified to some degree.

Squat Form: Wide Stance vs. Narrow, High Bar vs. Low Bar – Israel Thomas Narvaez

One of THE best articles I’ve read in a long time on squatting technique.  Cue slow clap here.

Paleo is the Scientology of Diets – James Fell

Listen, I “get” why many people gravitate towards the Paleo lifestyle.  Anything that encourages people to eat real, minimally processed, whole foods is cool in my book.

Some people, though, take the Paleo thing too far.  Fantastic writing (and Nickleback burn) by James.

CategoriesExercise Technique Program Design Strength Training

How to Maintain Deadlift Strength

I received an interesting question from a reader the other day on deadlifts, particularly 1RM (1 rep max) deadlifts. And since I get all giddy like a school girl at a One Direction concert whenever someone brings up the topic, I figured I’d share my answer here on my website since I’m sure it’s a question that others have wondered as well.

Q: My lifting consists mostly of deadlifts and chin-up/pull-ups with lots of auxiliary work. I also cycle a lot (100 miles per week in-season). But I am in the field for several months a year and it interrupts my lifting. 

Last year I pulled 305 on my 60th birthday (at 182 pounds body weight). I got a late start this year and was not as systematic with the spin up. I did a 1RM test and only pulled 270 (at 190 pounds) on my 61st.

I plan to start with the Matt Kroc program that I read in your site as soon as I get back from a month in Alaska (field work on the glacier near Juneau; it’s a tough job, but…).

My question is: I would have liked to maintain a 300 pound 1RM but was not systematic enough through the year. What do I do between programs to maintain a higher 1RM? (And continue to cycle and miss the occasional month in the deep field for work?).

A: Who are you?  John Wayne?  I love this!

First off, as a quick side tangent, any guy who uses his age as an excuse to not train hard is lame.  This isn’t to say you shouldn’t tweak some things here and there if need be, but all told, like the late 90s R&B star, Aaliyah, used to say, “Age ain’t nuthin but a number.”

While I should get a pat on the back for referencing both John Wayne and Aaliyah within a single blog post – quite possibly the first time in human history that that’s ever happened – you, sir, should get a pat on the back for kicking ass and taking names.

You hang out on glaciers AND deadlift.  By comparison I drive a Hyundai Elantra and own a cat.

Okay, lets get to the heart of the matter.

To start, lets put things into perspective.  You pulled 305 lbs on your 6oth birthday, and a year later, after admittedly not being as diligent with your training leading up to your 61st, you were still able to pull 270 lbs, which is within striking distance of 90% of your 1RM.

You know what?  That’s not too shabby considering.  Compared to other lifts like the squat or bench press, that’s not a huge drop off at all.

Why is that?

As Tim Henriques notes in his book, All About Powerlifting, “the deadlift is the simplest of the big three exercises (squat, bench press, DL), meaning it requires the least amount of skill. The deadlift is the most natural of the three lifts. Essentially all people, regardless of age, will perform a deadlift during their day, every day. 

Every time you bend down to pick something up off the ground, from your shoes to your laundry basket to a child to your dog to your couch, if you pick something up you are deadlifting it.

In addition your ability to deadlift remains for a relatively long time after you stop deadlifting.  If you stop squatting, even after you have been squatting for a long time, your ability to squat very heavy or perform a max set decreases relatively quickly. You will notice a difference after just one or two weeks.

Your ability to bench press remains at a moderate level; if you stop benching it begins to go away but assuming you stay strong in other exercises you will still be able to bench a decent amount of weight for a while.

The deadlift ability remains the longest.  If you stop deadlifting you can still come in a year later and deadlift a decent amount of weight. This is because the neuromuscular coordination required for the deadlift is the least specific of the three exercises and the basic motor control pattern remains the same even when you stop deadlifting.”

Of course, this isn’t to say that the deadlift is easy to learn or that there isn’t any skill involved – nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, entire books have been written on this one lift alone.   One of may favs includes Off the Floor, by David Dellanave.

However, compared to the squat and bench press, which, from a motor pattern standpoint aren’t movements we perform on a daily basis, the deadlift tends to “stick” longer.

Along those same lines, compared to other “qualities” such as anaerobic endurance, strength endurance, or maximal speed, maximal strength tends to have a much longer staying power.

Meaning, regardless of secondary emphasis, you can leave alone and maintain certain qualities of “x” number of days without seeing much of a drop off in performance.  This is something my good friend, Joe Dowdell, highlighted during his Peak Diet and Training seminar.

Here are some numbers to consider:

Aerobic Endurance = 30 +/- 5 days (meaning you can maintain training effect for 25-35 days with minimal exposure to that same stimulus).  Maximum Strength = 30 +/- 5 days, Anaerobic Endurance = 18 +/- 4 days, Strength Endurance = 15 +/- 5 days, Maximum Speed  = 5 +/- 3 days.

To maintain maximum strength all you’d have to do is try to elicit a maximum strength response once every 30 or so days.

I see this phenomenon all the time at Cressey Performance.  Eric’s known to not touch a heavy deadlift for months on end, yet he can almost always approach a 600 lb pull when coaxed or challenged enough by us other coaches or athletes.  While he’s not pulling 600 lbs on a regular basis, he is hovering in the 85-95% (of 1RM) range every so often which has a lot of staying power.

Likewise, with me, I tweaked my back last summer and wasn’t able to deadlift (heavy) consistently for a few months.  Once I was back to normal – or close to it – I was still able to hit a clean 500×3 without much trouble.

Bringing the conversation to YOU (and everyone else reading), if you know you’re going to have a long hiatus from consistent training, with the deadlift, at least you have the odds in your favor.

1.  You’re almost always going to be “deadlifting” to some capacity, even if it’s not a barbell, on a daily basis.  To that end, the motor pattern won’t go away anytime soon. Even if you have to resort to kettlebell work only, you’d be surprised at how much “strength” you’ll be able to retain.

2.  Along those same lines, one of the best strategies of used with myself and other clients is to place a premium on TECHNIQUE work.  I like this term more than “speed” work.

Using a load that’s roughly 60-70% of one’s 1RM, I’ll have him or her perform anywhere from 8-20 SINGLES in a given workout. This won’t be at all taxing on the nervous system, but it will help “glue” solid technique and also help with bar speed (which is an important component of strength).  It may look something like this:

Week 1:  14×1 @ 60% with 60s rest between each rep.
Week 2: 12×1 @ 65% with 60s rest between each rep.
Week 3: 10×1 @ 65% with 45s rest between each rep.
Week 4: 8×1 @ 70% with 45s rest between each rep.

3.  If you’re able, and can muster a way to hit a heavy pull every 4-5 weeks, that will go a LONG WAY in terms of any damage control and help to maintain strength levels.

Barring injury, an extinction level event (think: asteroid, volcanic eruption, Nicolas Cage movie), or jail time, it’s not as difficult as people think to maintain their strength in the deadlift.

Hope the suggestions above help!