CategoriesUncategorized

Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: 12/9/13

1.  Starting things off with a bit of TG content, I had the pleasure of teaming up with the likes of other top-notch coaches like Lee Boyce, Geoff Girvitz, Jeremey DuVall, and Anthony Yeung on a tongue-in-cheek piece on www.conFitdent.com on exercise selection and programming.

It’s a running series that I participated in a few months ago where I answered a litany of questions but was told I could only use “x” number of words (which is a lot harder than it seems) to portray my thoughts.

The gist is that every few weeks they’ll release a “series” of compatible questions or just go with a running theme.

In case you missed it the first time around, here’s one that involved Cardio Tips.

Just to reiterate:  if you want to geek out and read all about supercompensation, strength deficit, periodization, or the difference between central fatigue and peripheral fatigue than I suggest opening up your copy of SuperTraining and have at it.

If, however, you don’t take yourself too seriously, and want a quick, bullet-point read…..than you can check out the latest iteration – Exercise Selection: How to Optimize Your Workout.

2.  I touched on this a few weeks ago, but I want to try to keep this fresh in people’s minds as I think it’s going to be a SICK event.

I’ll be heading back to alma mater – State University of New York at Cortland (SUNY Cortland) – on April 5th, 2014 as part of the First Annual Cortland Strength and Conditioning Symposium.

With the likes of myself, John Gaglione, Dr. Mike Roussell, Dr. Cassandra Forsythe, and Spencer Nadolsky as the slated line-up it’s going to be an unparalleled event for students and fitness professionals alike.

Registration is now open, and it’s set at a VERY reasonable price as we want to ensure that this is an event that’s accessible to everyone.

For more information you can go HERE.

3.  Part of the “charm” about this blog and what I feel makes it so successful is that I’m not afraid to go off the beaten track and let people know that I’m not just some fitness cyborg.  I don’t eat, live, and breath fitness 24/7.  I occasionally – not often – scratch a scheduled training session.

Sometimes I squat above parallel.

I eat gluten!!!

So I guess I won’t be invited to a Paleo party anytime soon.

More to the point:  sometimes I just like talking about other stuff, and I’m not shy to share more personal components of my life here on this blog.  I can’t tell you how many times people have stopped by to check out Cressey Performance and asked how my cat, Dagny, was.

At first I’m taken aback – “how the hell do you know the name of my cat?!”  But then I remember that I talk about her on this blog about once a week, and I also post pictures like this on my Facebook page:

O…..M……G.  She’s the cutest thing, like, ever.

And for the record I didn’t take a selfie of myself chilling with my cat.  Come on:  I do have some standards.  Lisa happened to snake this pic of me when I got back from Edmonton and I was a little jet lagged the following day.

Anyways, with that out of the way I wanted to share a funny story from this past weekend.

Every Saturday night Lisa and I have our weekly “date night,” where 1) I actually take a shower and wear matching socks and 2) we go out to a nice dinner somewhere in the city.

As it happened this past weekend Lisa was taking me out for my belated Birthday dinner. As we were walking from point A (super secret birthday surprise) to point B (dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse) we found ourselves on Newbury Street.

For those unfamiliar with Boston, Newbury Street can be thought of where all the upscale shops and stores are located and as such, where all the uppity people tend to spend their money

For shit and gigs we both figured, “huh, we have some time to kill, why not walk into this fancy schmancy jewelry store and peruse some rings?”

As a side note and just for the sake of clarity:  Yes, Mom, you read that correctly….Lisa and I were in a store, looking at rings. But more cogent to the point – I just want to let everyone know that I in no way would EVER buy a ring from said fancy schamancy store.

We just wanted to walk in – it was freezing outside! – and get an idea for what Lisa likes.

After about five minutes of meandering around the woman in the store approaches us and asks Lisa which one she’d like a closer look at. “That one,” Lisa said. Pointing to a 6.1 carat cushion cut diamond.

What followed was a whole diatribe about cut, quality, angles of light, and I think there may have been a Pythagorean theorem thrown in there for good measure.  The woman was very friendly and more than willing to answer our questions.

Then, the question that was on both our minds came out.  Lisa asked, “out of curiosity, how much is this one I’m wearing cost?”

$175,000.

Cue me destroying the back of my pants.

LOL – Lisa’s got good taste it seems…….;o)

4.  One of the perks of being “kind of a big deal,” (my words, no one elses) is that I get sent free stuff to try out.  Recently a Boston based company called EnergyBits sent me a sample to try out, and I just wanted to toss their name out there to my readers.

Giving the Cliff Notes version (ie: stealing from their own website):

Want more energy, more mental vitality, or a healthy high protein snack you can grab on the go? How about a quick way to boost your athletic performance, supercharge your run or crank up your endurance while working or working out?

Made from 100% organically grown spirulina algae and loaded with 40 nutrients, ENERGYbits® algae tabs have the highest concentration of protein in the world (64%) all for just one calorie per tab.

I’ve been trying to make a concerted effort to tone down my energy drink consumption, and have been using EnergyBits sporadically for the past two weeks as a way to boost my  “morale” in the late stages of the day when I’m coaching.

I have to say:  it’s working! I definitely notice a steady surge in my energy levels without the jitteriness that comes from downing a metric shit ton of caffeine.

A word of caution, though – they taste like butt-crack.

But this isn’t a slap against the company since they go out of their way themselves to tell people that the taste takes some getting used to.  In fact they encourage people to not EAT THEM, but rather to take a handful and down it with a glass of water.

Either way, for those looking to get an energy boost without feeling like their left ventricle is going to explode, I’d highly encourage checking www.EnergyBits.com (<—- no affiliate  code).

5.  Lastly, my boy Dean Somerset wrote an EXCELLENT blog post last week titled Fit/Fat Shaming, Judging, and Simply Being You.

At the end of the day, what you do with and how you feel about your body is entirely up to you.  It’s your body.  Stop allowing others to dictate your thoughts and predications.

Dean’s explanation and insight is A LOT more thorough than that…..so I’ll just defer to him. Read it!  Do it!

CategoriesSupplements

Creatine (Wait, Stop! I Promise This Post Won’t Make Your Head Hurt)

Creatine has been around for well over 20+ years and is undoubtedly one of the most researched (and popular) sports and performance supplements in human history.  Still, there’s a lot of preconceived notions and misinformation regarding creatine and its efficacy.

Some people think it’s a steroid (it’s not), some people think it will stunt growth (it doesn’t), some people think it will shut down your kidneys faster than Congress can shut down the Federal Government (it’s close, but no cigar; in fact, it’s perfectly safe), and some think creatine is part of the Periodic Table of Elements (Walter White would be disappointed in you).

And while there’s certainly no shortage of blog posts, articles, and even books written on the topic, this post written by Eric Bach of Bach Performance won’t make your head hurt with long words and overly “sciency” stuff.

In every essence of the phrase, he gets right down to the nitty gritty and tells it like it is.

Enjoy! – TG

Creatine. We’ve all heard about it, but what’s the real deal?

I get tons of questions regarding the safety and effectiveness of creatine.

Does it make me look better naked?

Will it turn me into a deadlifting Megatron?

What’s the ideal dosing?

Is it dangerous?  Are there any side-effects?

With all the products and information it’s no wonder there are questions.  I’m going to dig in and tell you what creatine is, how to use it, and what to expect.

What is it?

Creatine is a natural amino acid most commonly found in red meat, but is also produced in small amounts by the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. In the body, creatine becomes a fuel source for short duration high-intensity activities such as weight training, sprinting, and jumping where phosphocreatine is converted to ATP.

The amount of creatine consumed through the diet and produced naturally in the body are low; supplementation increases available levels.

Why It’s Important

*Warning, this gets a bit heavy.  But I promise it will be fairly painless.

The energy needs of brief and powerful movements lasting less than 10 seconds, such as a short sprint or a maximum lift, are met by the phosphagen system. This system replenishes the stores of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which provides energy to working cells  (Andrews).

Muscles have a small amount of ATP in the cell, but only a little bit — enough for a few seconds. ATP is broken down by removing a phosphate, which turns it into adenosine diphosphate. To generate more ATP, the muscles need to replace the third missing phosphate. AH-HA!

This is where Batman creatine saves the day. Creatine donates a phosphate for ADP to become ATP again, providing fuel to finish the sprint without a drop in performance.

Supplementing with creatine creates larger stores of creatine, allowing for more ATP for short-duration exercise performance.  Endurance athletes have also experimented with the use of creatine, but for the most part creatine is not useful in endurance sports.

Basically, more creatine let’s you go Beastmode for longer. And that’s cool.

Do You Even Lift, Bro?

A sweet side effect of creatine supplementation is weight gain. Some don’t gain any weight, and some gain 5-10 pounds, it’s highly individualized.

Here’s the deal: Creatine is osmotic, meaning it pulls water into the cells. When supplementing with creatine it’s best to drink boat-loads (this is an actual measurement, trust me bro) of water to properly hydrate the body.

When this happens your muscles pull additional water into the muscle, increasing cell volume. The additional hydration increases the speed of protein synthesis within the muscle, boosting muscle growth and recovery.

Safety Concerns

Contrary to the beliefs of its pundit’s, creatine is safe. Creatine has gone through extensive research and testing without significant findings that it’s harmful.

The biggest issues related to creatine relate to dehydration, which can lead to soft-tissue injuries such as a strain, and hypothesized kidney dysfunction at extremely high levels.

Recently, increased research and testing of creatine have analyzed the effectiveness of creatine on health related outcomes. Preliminary evidence has suggested supplementation can be beneficial in the treatment of a broad range of diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, rheumatic diseases, and type 2 diabetes.

How to Use It

The body can store only a limited amount of creatine. I don’t recommend a loading phase for my clients; rather, taking 5-10 grams per day.

On workout days dose it pre and post-workout with your beverage of choice. Taking creatine with a protein or carbohydrate beverage can increase absorption, as the increased insulin response will pull more creatine into the muscle tissue. A recovery drink works better than beer, trust me. 

On non-workout days creatine works well in the morning with a drink such as green tea. Using a warm drink helps dissolve creatine better, so the bottom of your beverage doesn’t taste like a sandbox.

Other Types of Creatine

There has been an influx of new creatine products hitting the market over the past few years. Despite the fancy marketing and price tag they aren’t better than good ole’ creatine monohydrate. In this study, creatine ethyl ester was found to not be as effective as creatine monohydrate at increasing serum and muscle creatine levels OR in improving body composition, muscle mass, strength, and power.

Sounds busted to me.

Wrap Up

Creatine is a great supplement that increases high-intensity exercise performance and boosts muscle mass. Stick with creatine monohydrate, as it’s the most tested and proven form. 5-10 grams per day should work great, especially if taken post-workout with your recovery meal or in a warm beverage on non-workout days.

To maximize creatines’ effectiveness and alleviate any safety concerns hydrate your body.

About the Author

 

Eric Bach, CSCS, PN1 is a Strength Coach in Denver, Colorado. Eric trains clients in-person at Steadman Hawkins Sports Performance and is President of Bach Performance. A writer for EliteFTS, thePTDC, and STACK, Eric has established a great reputation for his simplistic style, nutritional programming, and helping clients develop long-term lifestyle changes.

Come hang out with Eric on Facebook, twitter, or drop him a line at Bachperformance.com.

Resources:

Andrews, Ryan. “All About Creatine.” Precision Nutrition. Precision Nutrition Inc., n. d. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. <http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-creatine>.

Baechle TR & Earle RW. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. National Strength Training Association, 2nd ed. Human Kinetics. Champaign, IL. 2000.

Green AL, et al. Carbohydrate ingestion augments skeletal muscle creation accumulation during creatine supplementation in humans. Am J Physiol 1996;271:E821-E826.

Gualano, B., H. Roschel, A. H. Lancha Jr, C. E. Brightbill, and E. S. Rawson. “National Center for Biotechnology Information.” In Sickness and in Health: The Widespread Application of Creatine Supplementation. (2011). National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Web. 28 May 2012. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22101980.

Spillane, Mike, et al. The effects of creatine ethyl ester supplementation combined with heavy resistance training on body composition, muscle performance, and serum and muscle creatine levels. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2009, 6:6doi:10.1186/1550-2783-6-6.

CategoriesProgram Design Rehab/Prehab

The Lowdown on Femoral Acetabular Impingement. Trust Me: Not as Geeky as It Sounds.

When I first moved to Boston – roughly seven years ago – I was working at a swanky, fancy-pants commercial gym in the downtown area and I remember on one of my days off Eric Cressey and myself took a little road trip to Worcester, MA to take part in an impromptu and informal workshop that orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Chris Vinton, was doing at the College of the Holy Cross on Femoral Acetabular Impingement (FAI).

Like some of you seeing this for the first time and starring at the screen as if I were saying the alphabet in Klingon, at the time of Dr. Vinton’s talk I had a similar reaction:  Femoral Acetabular Say-What-Now???

Without beating around the bush, in laymen’s terms:  “FAI is a condition of too much friction in the hip joint.  Basically, the ball (femoral head) and socket (acetabulum) rub abnormally creating damage to the hip joint.  The damage can occur to the articular cartilage (smooth white surface of the ball or socket) or the labral cartilage (soft tissue bumper of the socket).”

Resultantly it sucks donkey balls.

Source:  www.hipfai.com (except for that last sentence).

FAI comes in a few flavors.  You have your Cam form which manifests itself as a bony overgrowth on the femoral head itself, and you have your Pincer form which results from a bony overgrowth on the rim of the acetabulum itself. And lastly, for those unfortunate few who can’t seem to make up their mind, you can also have a Mixed form which is a bony overgrowth of the two.

Even then, seven years ago, as I was sitting through the presentation, FAI wasn’t that prevalent in the athletic or fitness community – or, so it seemed.  I couldn’t recall one case of a current or past client who I felt fell under this FAI tree.

Fast forward to today and it seems everyone has FAI.  Hockey players, baseball players, soccer players, the mailman, the woman who does your hair, Batman.  Everyone.

Of Note:  Eric was talking the other day about this and mentioned something about a recent study that came out which showed something like 90% plus of high school hockey players have some degree of FAI.

I’ll have to see if I can ask him to find the study.  Stay tuned……

UPDATE:  Kevin Neeld discusses it HERE.

I don’t feel it’s because of some new pandemic or anything – like we’ve somehow mutated into a bunch of hip impingement ninjas.  Nah – nothing like that.

Well, maybe a little bit.  If I were speak freely I do feel that athletes today – particularly young athletes – fall into two categories:

1. Those who specialize too early and play ONE sport year round without any breaks.  It’s not rocket science to see how someone who plays a rotational sport year round, and develops pattern overload, can run into problems.

2.  Those who make the Tin Man look agile. It’s sad to say, but kids (and adults) just don’t move around as much anymore.  Texting has taken the place of riding a bike.  Call of Duty has trumped pick-up baseball games.  Escalators > stairs.

So I think we have ourselves to blame…..to a degree.  When we take people who have joint restrictions and don’t move well, and then ask them to “do stuff” they aren’t prepared to do. Well…….

But too, I just feel we’ve gotten a heckuva lot better in recent years at screening for FAI and recognizing symptoms.

Before I go on I should state the obvious:  as a strength coach I’m not diagnosing anything.  I can use some rudimentary “screens” (like the one to follow) which will better help me ascertain the situation and provide information on how I’ll go about programming for someone.  But almost always, I’ll be referring someone out to a more qualified fitness professional who can do a more thorough exam and/or possibly order an MRI.

That said if I’m working with an athlete or general population client who’s complaining of consistent and chronic hip pain – especially if they participate in a rotational sport or when squatting, I can do a quick “screen” as follows.

Here, I lie the person on their back and make sure their lumbar spine is flush against the table.  Then I’ll bring the affected limb into flexion, adduction, and internal rotation.

If the person winces or punches you in the face, it’s fair to say that that lit them up, and they may be a candidate for FAI. You can tweak the test by having them brace their abs – which will encourage more posterior pelvic tilt – and if it feels better, you know that’s it’s more of an alignment issue and not a worse case scenario.

No need to send someone for an MRI when all they had to do was posteriorly tilt their pelvis.

But it stands to reason that even with their anterior core engaged, if that still causes discomfort, it’s time to refer out and get them to see a more qualified practitioner to dig a little deeper.  Only through a combination of screens, tests, and possibly an X-ray or MRI can FAI be truly diagnosed.

But What Can You Do In the Meantime?

A lot, actually.  But lets try not to get carried away in thinking we’re going to solve the issue.  This is more about working AROUND the issue and maintaining a training effect than anything else.

FAI is a condition, not a disease. But here’s some food for thought.

1.  Rule numero uno is to nix squatting.  You’re not going to last long as a strength coach or personal trainer if you’re throwing caution to the wind and squatting those who are candidates for FAI.

I will say, though, that I say that with a grain of salt because technically you could still squat someone – albeit NOT BELOW 90 DEGREES OF HIP FLEXION.

If you look at the pictures provided above of the Cam and Pincer lesions, you can see how if someone were to squat below 90 degrees, that that would be, well, dumb.

Depending on symptoms you could get away with staying above 90 degrees, but honestly my rule of thumb is to wait six months before playing with fire.

2.  The good news is that you can still hit the lower body fairly hard.  Things like rack pulls, trap bar deadlifts, or even conventional deadlifts would be fair game given that neither require significant hip flexion.  In addition barbell glute bridges would be a viable option as well.

3.  Surprisingly, single leg work is fair game.  Even things like Bulgarian split squats – as counterintuitive as it sounds given they require deep hip flexion – would be okay.

The thing with single leg work is that the trainee can sort of find his or her “groove” with regards to hip internal and external rotation and be able to find a pain free ROM.

To that end I wouldn’t be apprehensive to crush single-leg training with someone with FAI – although certain things like femoral glide syndrome should be on the radar and may lend itself to making appropriate modifications.

4.  Go read anything and everything by Kevin Neeld on the topic. THIS and THIS would be good starts.

And that’s about it really. I think as strength coaches and personal trainers it IS in our best interests to know when to refer out and understand scope of practice.  But just as equally (if not more) important is to have the ability to assess and screen clients for certain conditions and be able to still garner a training effect and not make them feel like a patient.

Of course there is still a lot that’s unknown about FAI (s0me doctors still fail to admit that it exists!), and this post isn’t meant to serve as a definitive path to address the issue.  If anything I just wanted to throw it out there and hopefully bring forth a little more awareness on the topic.

CategoriesMotivational

3 Not-So-Common Mistakes Athletes Make

It’s a fairly self-explanatory title, with a fairly self-explanatory premise:  Athletes, like everyone else, make mistakes.  However, in giving a bit of a spoiler alert (and what I hope will be an enticing attempt for you to click on the link), I don’t cover your run-of-the-mill mistakes in this most recent article I wrote for Stack Magazine.

I don’t discuss set and rep schemes, nor do I discuss exercise technique. I don’t touch on the importance of making better food choices, and while it’s arguably the most important factor (and most overlooked), I don’t belabor how crucial it is to instill appropriate recovery methods (hydration, sleep, soft tissue work, puppy dog kisses, etc).

All that stuff – while important – are always talked about and debated and written about ad nauseam. I wanted to take a different route – you could say “the road less travelled” – and bring to light some other things that come into play when broaching the topic of mistakes (young) athletes make.

You know, stuff like not instilling a sense of work ethic, battling entitlement, or going waaaaaaaay too long before washing their jock strap.

Okay maybe not the last one, but I do feel that my soap box rant may strike a chord with some athletes and parents of athletes. At least that’s my goal.

It’s a quick read, but I’d love to hear some feedback to see if anyone else agrees with my thought process.

Thanks!

3 Not-So-Common Mistakes Athletes Make (<—Click Me)

CategoriesUncategorized

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Prone Kettlebell Drag

Raise your hand if you’re kinda still feeling out of sorts from all the apple pie you ate over the weekend. Don’t be bashful – there’s nothing to be ashamed about.

*Raises hand*

For those who celebrated it, I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend.  Despite not going back to my hometown and being around family for the first time ever, my Holiday was pretty spectacular.

Rather than risk me burning our apartment down attempting to help with cooking, Lisa and I opted to order Thanksgiving “to go” from one of our favorite restaurant here in Boston and had a lovely catered dinner.

It wasn’t quite the same as mamma Gentilcore’s home cooking, but it was scrumptious nonetheless….complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, kale, some roasted mixed veggies, and gravy!  SHA-ZAM!

The following morning we had a wicked early flight to Virginia for a friend’s wedding.  Trust me:  getting up at 4:15 AM after eating what mounts to a crap-ton of food less than eight hours earlier isn’t fun. I’d liken it to being forced to watch a Jillian Michaels video on repeat.

But both Lisa and I persevered and met the rest of the Cressey Performance crew at Logan Airport for the weekend of festivities. I won’t bore all of you with the details, but taking a few moments to highlight some of the weekend’s shenanigans:

1.  I’m pretty much the best minivan driver in the history of the world. I was somehow knighted as the weekend’s version of a “soccer mom” and was responsible for all the driving.  I rocked that shit.

Seat belts on or so help me god I’ll turn this van around and give you something to cry about!

2.  Virginians love them some pancakes.  I’ve never seen so many pancake houses in my life.

3.  We visited Colonial Williamsburg and I couldn’t help myself from having a little fun and yelling out, NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.  NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

No one joined me. Jerks.

4.  Since last weekend was also my birthday weekend, I enjoyed myself by having four pieces of apple pie on Saturday night.  In case you haven’t figured it out by now: I kinda like apple pie.

5. By the way:  thank you to everyone who sent me B-day wishes on Facebook!

6.  If there’s one song that will get the entire CP crew on the dance floor and act like a bunch of idiots it’s this:

On the return trip back we had some time to kill and had the opportunity to walk around and see the sights and sounds in Washington, DC.

I had never been to DC before, and definitely plan on making a trip back so that I can spend more time in the museums.

One my favorite stops, though, was the World War II Memorial.  My grandfather was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed in 1941 and I have always had a fascination with that era and how the people during that time came together, stepped up, demonstrated courage beyond measure, and did what had to be done.

In any case, enough about that.  I know the majority of people didn’t log on today to hear all about my weekend.

Oh, did I mention I crushed some leg extensions!

Eric Cressey, Matt Blake and myself made a cameo appearance at a local gym in Williamsburg and basically took ourselves through the most meat-headed of meathead workouts.

Yep, that happened.

Okay, lets get to the meat of this post.

Prone Kettlebell Drag

Who Did I Steal it From:  As with the Supine Band Pallof Press, I stole this gem from Providence, RI based strength coach, Sean St. Onge.

What Does It Do:  Rather than come across as a broken record, I’ll just defer to THIS post as to why I like plank variations, as well as delve into a minor rant as to why I could care less if someone can hold that position for the duration of a Katy Perry song.

It really doesn’t mean jack squat if you’re someone who looks like this and is just hanging on your passive restraints in your lower back.

What I love about this variation is that not only are you going to get a killer oblique workout, but with the drag (and grab) of the kettlebell you’ll also get a fair amount of shoulder internal and external rotation, too.

Key Coaching Cues: Playing the Captain Obvious card, it stands to reason you should first MASTER the regular (low) plank before attempting this variation.

Assuming this is the case, all you’re going to do is get in the “set” position (eyes in line with your fists, backside should be neutral, abs and glutes engaged, pull elbows towards toes to garner more tension) then reach over and grab the handle of the KB.

Pinch your shoulder blades together and drag the bell to the opposing side. When there, flare the elbow in towards your ribcage, and place the bell down.

Then all you’re going to do is repeat the same process of “x” amount of repetitions per side.  I like to shoot for 5-6 reps per side.

Of note, for those who need to REGRESS this exercise (particularly for those with limited shoulder IR or ER), you can perform the same movement in the standard push-up position – with both arms fully extended – which will allow a little more wiggle room.

And that’s that.  Give it a try today and let me know what you think!

 

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work Uncategorized

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work/Recover From Insulin Coma

It’s the day after Thanksgiving – I hope everyone had their fair share of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, apple pie, pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie, banana cream pie, blueberry pie, pecan pie, peanut butter pie, or even a pizza pie (said in a heavy Italian accent) if that’s how you roll.

It’s officially Black Friday (for those non-Americans reading it’s essentially the busiest, batshitcraziest shopping day of the year where people wait outside in line at stores like Best Buy at 5 AM just so that they scissor kick random strangers in the face once the doors open so they can get a 60-inch plasma tv for $199)……….so Happy Holidays!

I for one prefer the more low-key approach and do most of my shopping online in the days following.  At least with that option I can shop without all the hassle of dealing with big crowds.  And, more importantly, pants are optional.  BADDA-BING!

This was actually the first year, like ever, that I didn’t make the trek back home to central New York for Thanksgiving. I was a bit sad because I’ve never missed a Thanksgiving (and my mom’s home cooking is the best), but Lisa and I had to catch an early flight to Virginia for a friend’s wedding this weekend, so we opted to stay in Boston and celebrate solo.

As such my post today is going to be short and sweet.  For those not celebrating the Holiday weekend, this will be your run-of-the-mill Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work (sorry).

For those recovering from insulin coma, instead, it will be Stuff to Read While You’re Trying to Tolerate Family Members You Can’t Stand (sorry).

Squat Power Panel – The Avengers (<– Me, Dean Somerset, Lee Boyce, and Todd Bumgardner)

In this short piece, four pretty smart (and dare I say, good looking) coaches offer some advice on common squatting mistakes.

No, Food is NOT Fuel – John Berardi, Brian St. Pierre, Krista Scott-Dixon

Stealing the opening statement from the article itself:

Fitness and nutrition professionals often say that to get in shape, you have to treat food as “fuel”. We disagree. Here’s why.

EXCELLENT article.

Trouble With the Tilt – Correcting APT – Elsbeth Vaino

I love to geek out with articles like this. I have a couple teeny-tiny differences of opinion with some components of the article (namely her rationale for omitting reverse crunches..I actually like them a lot), but all in all Elsbeth hits this one out of the park!

 

CategoriesFemale Training Strength Training

Train the Same: Women Should Train Like Men

I’ll be honest:  I was thiiiiiiiiiiis close to taking a slight “blogcation” the rest of the week. I figured since I’ll be bit preoccupied with stuffing my face with anything I can get my hands on for the next 48 hours, that most people would be in the same mindset and not really give a second thought to signing onto my site.

– Eating copious amounts of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and apple pie?  Check.

– Watching football till I can’t feel the right side of my face? Check.

– Check out Tony’s blog?  Come on…..isn’t there more apple pie to eat?

Don’t worry, my feelings aren’t hurt.  I know where I stand in the grand scheme of things.  You know, there was a time when you used to compliment me, tell me I looked nice, and used to be excited to see me. Made me feel special. But now, it’s like….it’s like I don’t even exist anymore.  It’s like I’m a ghost.

*tear rolls down cheek*

LOL – I’m just messing with you.  Thanksgiving is about family, friends, and turkey legs……the last think I expect you to do is check out my blog.  Have fun!  Be safe!  Enjoy!

But seriously, you used to compliment me.

I wasn’t going to write anything today (or tomorrow), but then I realized that Thanksgiving isn’t a universally celebrated holiday and that I’d be a huge jerk-face if I deprived the rest of the world my sage words….(Poop!).

Luckily enough I just had a new article go up on BodyBuilding.com that’s already gaining some steam (and I haven’t even publicized it yet!).

It’s on a topic that write about quite a bit – women and training.  This article has more of a “soap box” feel to it and is more of a rant than anything else, but I feel it sends a great message nevertheless.  Give it a look and let me know what you think.

Train the Same: Women Should Train Like Men (<—- Snaps finger in z-formation, Mmmmm-hmmmm)

PS: And on a (real) serious note:  I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone for their support over the past year. TonyGentilcore.com wouldn’t be what it is without the continued support of its readers and fan base and I wish you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

CategoriesCorrective Exercise Rehab/Prehab

Where Does Unstable Surface Training Fit In? (Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

Q: I’ve frequently read that unstable surface training in a non rehabilitate setting isn’t of that much use, particularly due to the fact that the increased muscle recruitment doesn’t necessarily become functional in other athletic activities.

Im curious where stir the pot comes into all this?

I certainly get great anterior core recruitment but am curious if this will carry over to athletics and other lifts?

What makes the stability ball usage in stir the pot different from that of doing 100 squats on a bosu ball? 

A:  That’s actually a really great question, but something I feel doesn’t require a whole lot of explanation.  For starters, for those not in the know, generally speaking, when most people hear the word “unstable surface training” many will quickly defer to your garden variety items such as stability balls, BOSU balls, wobble boards, and other (borderline) nefarious gadgets that are (often, not always) marketed as the panacea of everything awesome.

If you believe the hype, unstable surface training will do everything from helping to improve your balance to increased muscle activation (particularly in your core) to shaving off a few dress sizes to improving whateverthef***.

Just what she needs: more knee valgus! (<— note heavy sarcasm)

About the only thing unstable surface training can’t do is wash the dishes and solve our national debt.

If I had to describe my general thoughts pertaining to unstable surface training I’d more than likely do it in an interpretive fashion like this:

Which isn’t to say that I’ll dismiss it altogether.  There is some efficacy towards its use – and as you noted it’s namely in the rehabilitative setting when we’re working with athletes or clients coming off an injury and we’re trying to reestablish proper motor patterns, work on muscle activation, or otherwise reintroduce (and progress) them to external loading.

Unfortunately, at some point within the last decade (give or take), a bunch of personal trainers and coaches decided it would be a good idea to take data extrapolated from the physical therapy realm – and in particular data used with INJURED patients – and apply it with their healthy clients.  You know, to be functional and stuff.

The end result was (and has been) anything but ho-hum.  Instead of people actually doing something of relevance – like actually being able to do a push-up correctly, or being able to perform a hip hinge or lunge pattern without making my eyes bleed – we have a bunch of people doing things like 1-legged curls on BOSU balls, and trainers – in an effort to look unique and different – wasting people’s time (not to mention money) by doing shit like this:

I’ll concede that it looks impressive, and I’d if I were going to speak candidly I’d probably have a better shot of tossing a touchdown pass to He-Man in the next Super Bowl than being able to do it myself.

But that’s beside the point.  For healthy individuals who are looking to get bigger, faster, stronger, leaner, prevent injuries, increase power, move better, wrestle a grizzly, be able to say the alphabet backwards, or be able to wear white past Labor Day, unstable surface training is not the answer.

My business partner, Eric Cressey, actually wrote an entire book on the topic titled The Truth About Unstable Surface Training, which delves into how its use, application, and efficacy has been overtly saturating the fitness world for the wrong reasons.

Likewise, given the main “argument” for those who advocate unstable surface training is to help improve one’s balance, I’d encourage you to read John Kiefer’s article, Unstable Surface for Stability Training (AKA Clown School).

The fact of the matter is, the floor works just fine….and unstable surface training probably does more for DECREASING athleticism, strength, balance and movement quality than it helps.

Stealing a section from Keifer’s article:

Think about when you step onto an icy or oily surface. You instantly tense up, you almost literally can’t perform certain movements because the nervous system senses the instability of the environment and fires in resistant ways to keep you balanced. In this process, it also shuts down the ability to produce maximum force (your strength, power, hypertrophy and speed all go down the shitter. Think about it, if you start to slip in one direction and your reflexes caused your muscles to fire with maximum force against that motion—a motion that may be inevitable at that point, like falling—then you risk tearing muscle or connective tissue. The body is trying to protect you by making you weaker.

Which brings us to Stir-the-Pot.

This exercise in of itself constitutes as “unstable surface training,” and like I said above….I don’t dismiss it altogether.  We actually do employ a decent amount of this type of training into our programs at Cressey Performance – albeit not in the context that will make you want to punch a hole in the wall.

Since we work with a crap-load of baseball players, one drill we like to use to help increase rotator cuff activation is a bottoms-up 1-arm kettlebell carry:

Since we’re currently on that side of the fence, we incorporate bottoms-up variations with things like DB presses, 1-arm bulgarian split squats, and Turkish get-ups.

Something to consider, however, is this is in conjunction with movements like squats, deadlifts, rows, chin-ups, hip thrusts, and the like which are done on STABLE surfaces and which help to get people strong.

With regards to the stir-the-pot, I simply see this as:

1.  A great way to train the anterior core.

2.  A great way to “progress” the plank. I find it comical that people brag about how long they can hold a plank for – the longest I’ve heard is 17 minutes – when I KNOW that all they’re doing is hanging on their lower back and hip flexors in order to get the job done, which isn’t doing them any favors.

I find a lot of validity with planks and their numerous variations – especially when working with someone with chronic low back issues (as the name of the game is spinal stability/endurance, and teaching neutral spine) – but there comes a point where there’s a rate of diminishing returns, especially when people make them into a dick measuring contest.

I don’t know what the female equivalent would be here:  high-heel measuring contest?????

Either way I’d much rather make planks more challenging than longer, for the sake of making them longer.  Can you think of anything more boring?  I mean, outside of NASCAR is there anything?

And besides, this isn’t the type of exercise that opens itself to “repetition” anyways.  The objective isn’t to do them for “100 reps” as compared to the “100 squats on a BOSU ball” comment from the original question.  Instead, the objective is to learn to recruit and engage the anterior core and RESIST extension.  This is all about QUALITY of movement – and not compensating – than it is about QUANTITY.

To that end, I do feel this is an exercise that will help to improve performance – albeit not under the guise that I feel it’s because you’ve somehow improved your balance or recruitment of anything.

Wrapping Up

Again, this isn’t to insinuate that unstable surface training should be avoided at all costs – there’s ABSOLUTELY a time and place for it’s inclusion in a program.  However, I do feel that it’s WOEFULLY overrated, overused, and quite frankly a waste of time for most healthy individuals who walk into a weight room to get better.

CategoriesUncategorized

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Deadstart DB Row

Today’s guest post is brought to you by University of Washington strength coach, Dave Rak.  Many of  you may recall a handful of past posts that Dave has written for this site, and it’s always a pleasure on my end to welcome him back because, well, he’s freaking good!

On top of being a former Cressey Performance intern Dave was also my training partner for the past year whenever I snaked a lift at Boston University where he served as a Grad Assistant.

A typical text exchange would go like this:

Tony:  Dude, deadlifts tomorrow, you in?

Dave:  You had me at deadlifts.

Tony: I’ll bring the Spike, you set the Pandora station at Wu-Tang radio.

Dave: Done

Tony:  OMG, I am soooo excited!

Dave: Same-sies!

In any case, in this brief post Dave breaks down one of my favorite back exercises – the Deadstart DB Row.

Enjoy!

Whether you’re building a superior athlete, training for the zombie apocalypse, or trying to get more yoked than The Rock, building a big back should be one of your priorities.  A monster back will help athletic performance, improve your big three lifts (Squat, Bench, & Deadlift), and it will make you look like a straight boss.  The dummbell row is a great exercises to get this job done.

There are a variety of other pulling exercise that are great for building both size and strength, but some of these lifts are not for everyone.

Deadlifts, vertical pulling, and farmer carries are great for adding both size and strength to your back.  But, before you start blasting out a million pull-ups keep this in mind: Tony touched upon the issue of scapular depression and extended postures, and how chin-up/pull-up’s, farmer carries, and deadlifts may not be the best fit for some people.

Also, heavy vertical pulling may piss off your elbows.

If you are an overhead athlete this can cause some serious problems.  A lot of my athletes fall into this contraindicated group, which is why I feel horizontal rowing is a much better option for these individuals.

My athletes seem to love dumbbell rows almost as much as I do and eventually they start to venture down to the heavier side of the dumbbell rack to see how far they can push themselves.

All of a sudden they go from having great technique to looking like someone trying to start a broken lawnmower.

Once you start to go heavy on an exercise of course you may start to sacrifice technique, but I hold my athletes to a higher standard, especially when I am trying to get them out of forwarded head postures, anterior glenohumeral glide, and substituting trunk rotation for actually pulling the dumbbell up.

This is where the deadstart dumbbell row comes into play.

Who Did I steal It From: I can’t remember but I owe that dude a can of Spike (it actually may have been Tony now that I think of it)

Note from TG:  Maybe. I actually had a minor brainfart and just remembered that I discussed this exercise awhile back HERE, albeit I called it a deadSTOP row.

Consider Dave’s post a nice refresher….;o)

What Does It Do:   Once I started programing it in for my athletes their form instantly cleaned up.  Since the dumbbell is rested on the floor after each rep it actually simplifies the exercise.

Deadstart dumbbell rows inadvertently turn a set of 5 or 8 reps into 5 or 8 singles. This allows the athlete to slow them-self down and reset after each rep, locking their body into a good position each time they pull the weight up.

It is also a great way to teach the athlete how to get their core set and get their back tight which will carry over to other major lifts.  This exercise becomes pretty clutch when training a large group of athletes since it cleans up technique almost on its own, much similar to the way a goblet squat cleans up a squat pattern.

This will teach your athletes how to handle heavier weight without sacrificing technique, making the transition back to standard dumbbell rows easier. This rowing variation is also a great way to add variety to a program especially if your athletes are not ready for any kind of vertical pulling.

Key Coaching Cues:  Keep in mind that I use this as a progression from a traditional 3 point dumbbell row.

I will start by telling my athletes to pretend like they a playing pick up basketball and are on defense (this gets them into an athletic stance) and then tell them to fall into the bench setting their support hand in place. Then keep a flat back, and make an ugly double chin.

From there I will slap them in their belly and their lats (not too hard of course) to get them tight, and begin the exercise.  As you pull make sure you’re not letting your chin or back move, stay locked in.

Avoid pulling your elbow too far behind your body to prevent anterior glide at the shoulder.  When you lower the weight be sure not to drop it, but make sure the dumbbell come to a complete stop on the floor before your next rep.  Get your body tight before you pull again.

You will be able to go heavier with these rows since you get to set the weight down between every rep.  I shoot for 5-8 reps per side and anywhere from 3-5 sets.

About the Author

David Rak is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA (CSCS) and a Strength and Conditioning Certified Coach through the CSCCa (SCCC). He is currently an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at the University of Washington where he works with Baseball, Men’s & Women’s Golf, Throwers, Middle Distance Runners, & Cross Country.   Dave received his Bachelor’s in Exercise Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and his Master’s in Coaching from Boston University. He has and completed a graduate assistant position at BU and has interned at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning, Cressey Performance, and with the University of South Carolina (Football).

Dave can be reached at [email protected] Twitter: @dave_rak

 

CategoriesAssessment Corrective Exercise Program Design Rehab/Prehab

So Your Shoulders Are Depressed (So Sad)

Depressed man with hand on forehead over gray

So Your Shoulders Are Depressed (S0 Sad)

Despite the cheekiness nature of the title, you can relax: I’m not suggesting that your shoulders are “depressed” in the literal sense of the word.

I mean, it’s not as if they just got word they contracted ebola or that their heart just got ripped out by some uppity bitch who left them for some toolbag named Cliff who goes to Harvard and rows Crew.  Or worse, they’re a Celtics fan (<—- they’re really bad this year).

Nope, we can hold off on the Zoloft, Haagen Dazs and Bridget Jone’s Diary marathon for now.  That’s NOT the depression I’m referring to.

When it comes to shoulders and the numerous dysfunctions and pathologies that can manifest in that region, generally speaking we tend to give much more credence to anterior/posterior imbalances like a gummed up pec (major or minor) or weak scapular retractors.

Rarely, if ever, do we point the spotlight on superior/inferior imbalances.

Translated into English, yes the rotator cuff is important, but we also have to be cognizant of the interplay between upward and downward rotation. More and more (especially with our baseball guys, but even in the general population as well) we’re seeing guys walk in with overly depressed shoulders.

For the more visual learners in the crowd here’s a picture that will help:

It should be readily apparent that 1) that’s a sick t-shirt and 2) there’s a downward slope of the shoulders, yes?

Hint:  yes.

This can spell trouble for those whose livelihood revolve around the ability to get their arms over their head (baseball players) as the downward rotators of the scapulae (levator, rhomboids, and especially the lats) are kicking into overdrive and really messing with the congruency and synergy between the scapulae, humeral head, glenoid fossa, and acromion process.

And this doesn’t just pertain to overhead athletes either.

We’re seeing this quite a bit in the general population as well, particularly with meatheads (those who like to lift heavy stuff), as we’ve (i.e: fitness professionals) done a great job of shoving down people’s throats ”shoulder blades down and together” for years now, emphasizing what I like to call reverse posturing.

Likewise, much of what many meatheads do (deadlifts, shrugs, farmer carries, pull-ups, rows, fist pumps, etc) promote more of what renowned physical therapist, Shirley Sahrmann, has deemed downward rotation syndrome.

Putting our geek hats on for a brief minute, statically, it’s easy to spot this with someone’s posture.  For starters, you’ll see more of a downward slope of the shoulder girdle (see pic above).  Additionally, you can look at the medial (and inferior) border of the scapulae and observe its relationship with the spine and ascertain whether someone is more adducted (retracted) or abducted (protracted).

Many trainees, unless engaged in regular exercise or sporting activity, have a slightly protracted scapulae (kyphotic posture) due to the unfortunate nature of modern society where many are forced to stare at a computer screen for hours on end.

If someone’s rhomboids and lats are overactive, however  – which is fairly common with meatheads – they’re going to superimpose a stronger retraction and downward pull of the shoulder blade, which in turn will result in a more adducted position.  In short:  the shoulder blade(s) will “crowd” the spine.

All of this to say: things are effed up, and are going to wreck havoc on shoulder kinematics and affect one’s ability to upwardly rotate the scapulae.

So, hopefully you can see how this would be problematic for those who A) need to throw a baseball for a living or B) would like to do anything with their arms above their head.

With special attention to the latter, if someone is aggressively downwardly rotated, the congruency of the joint is such that the humeral head is going to superiorly migrate, which will then compromise the subacromial space (making it even narrower) leading to any number of shoulder ouchies.

Throwing more fuel into the fire, because the lats are stiff/short, shoulder flexion is going to be limited and compensation patterns will then manifest itself in other areas as well – particularly forward head posture and lumbar hyperextension.

Which, of course, makes doing the Dougie a little tricker.

Okay, with all of that out of the way what can be done to help alleviate the situation.  Luckily the answer isn’t as complicated as it may seem, and I don’t need to resort to bells, whistles, and smoke machines or take a page out of Professor Dumbledore’s Magic Book of Bedazzling Hexes and Awesome Shoulder Remedies (on sale now through Amazon!) to point you in the right direction.

But make no mistake about it:  you WILL have to pay some attention to detail.

Lets get the contraindicated stuff out of the way first.

Basically it would bode in your favor to OMIT anything which is going to promote MORE scapular depression – at least for the time being (not forever).

Things To Avoid

To that end, things to avoid would be the following:

– Deadlifts

– Pull-Up/Chin-Up Variations (even those these may “feel” good, they’re just going to result in feeding into the dysfunction)

– Suitcase Farmer Carries (again, these are just going to pull you down more).

– Anything where you’re holding DBs to your side (think:  walking lunges, reverse lunges, etc).

– And we may even need to toss in aggressive horizontal row variations if someone presents with an overtly adducted posture.

– Overhead pressing.  Listen, if you can’t get your arms above your head without compensating, you have no business doing push presses, or snatches, or whatever it is you’re thinking about doing.  Stop being stupid.

– Sticking your finger in an electrical socket.  That’s just common sense.

Things To Do Instead

– In lieu of the deadlifts, if you have access to them, utilizing speciality bars like a GCB bar or Safety Squat bar would be awesome.  Learn to make lemonade out of lemons: why not emphasize your squat for the time being?

And because I know I just ruined someone’s world out there by telling them not to deadlift, because you’re going to deadlift anyways, at the very least, limit yourself to ONE day per week.

– You can still hit up a lot of carry variations, just not the suitcase variety.  At Cressey Performance we HAMMER a lot of bottoms-up kettlebell carries because they offer a lot of benefits – especially for those in downward rotation.

Moreover, we can also toss in some GOBLET carries like so:

http:////www.youtube.com/v/90mxsAsOKwQ

– You can still implement a wide variety of single leg work using DBs, but I’d defer again to utilizing GOBLET variations only.

In this way you’re not feeding into the dysfunction by holding the DBs to your side (and pulling you into downward rotation.

With regards to overhead pressing, I’m not a fan for most people.  I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating here:  you need to earn the right to overhead press.

That said I do love LANDMINE presses which tend to offer a more “user friendly” way of “introducing” overhead pressing into the mix.  Check my THIS article on T-Nation I wrote a few months ago, which offers more of a rationale as well as landmine variations to implement.

And the Boring Stuff (<— The Stuff You’re Going to Skip, But I’ll Talk About Anyways)

From a corrective exercise standpoint it’s important that we stress the upper traps to help nudge or encourage us into more upward rotation.

And by “upper traps,” I AM NOT referring to the most meatheaded of meathead exercises – the barbell shrug.

These wouldn’t be useful because there’s no “real” scapular upward rotation involved, and you’re doing nothing but encouraging more depression anyways.

Instead incorporating activation drills like forearm wall slides and back to wall shoulder flexion – both of which encourage upper trap activation, WITH upward rotation – would be ideal:

Forearm Wall Slides w/ OH Shrug

Back to Wall Shoulder Flexion w/ OH Shrug

NOTE:  something to consider would be how you actually go about cuing the shrug portion.  We like to tell people to begin the shrug pattern once your elbows reach shoulder height.  Meaning, it’s not as if you’re going elevate your arms up and THEN shrug.  Rather you want to combine the two.

Another important corrective modality to consider would be something to address the lats.  In this regard my go to exercise would be the bench t-spine mobilization

Bench T-Spine Mobilization

And while I could sit here and pepper you with a deluge of other “correctives,” I think by now you get the point and those three should be more than enough to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Those combined with the programming modifications suggested above should definitely help to that shoulder frown upside down. <—  HA – see what I just did there?

That’s some wordsmith magic right there.