CategoriesUncategorized

Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: Last Chance for the Boston Workshop and Internet Drama!

1. At the expense of sounding like a broken record or your spouse or significant other who’s always nagging you to take out the garbage, I just wanted to remind everyone one last time that there are still a handful of spots left in mine and Dean Somerset’s Boston Workshop this coming weekend (July 27-28th).

I’m trying really hard to come up with a different adjective other than ‘awesome’ to describe everything….

Lisa made these lamb kabobs the other night that were so awesome!

Dead animal flesh in general is awesome.

The weather today sure is awesome.

OMG – I just saw a bird.  Awesome.

I found out that my great, great, great, great, great grandfather’s second cousin was a viking!  Awwwweeeeeeeesome.

Okay I’m kidding on that last one.

But seriously, this workshop is going to be awesomely awesome.

Dean and I have planned out an entire weekend where we cover assessment, corrective exercise (and why I think that’s a garbage term), program design, and we may or may not reenact that scene from Point Break where Keanu Reeves’ character, FBI agent Johnny Utah, is chasing after Patrick Swayze’s character, band robber Bohdi, and instead of shooting his BFF in the back, Johnny Utah points his gun towards the sky and screams aaaaaaargh like a boss.

For the record, if it does go down, I’ll be playing Johnny Utah.

Suffice it to say, we have a jam packed weekend in store and it would be a crying shame to miss out on it.  What’s more we have a few guest fitness celebrities who are going to be hanging out as well, and if nothing else it’s going to be a weekend full of networking opportunities (and deadlifts).

So what are you waiting for?  For more information and to sign up GO HERE.

2. I’ll admit it:  I’ve done my fair share of poo-pooing women who go out of their way to emphasize “cardio.”  In my own defense, however, my main beef with cardio is that many (not all) women use it as their main source of ammunition against weight and fat loss, which I feel is a very inefficient means to an end.

I’ve worked with plenty of women who became growingly more frustrated with their results despite logging progressively endless hours on the track or treadmill.

It was only when being introduced to strength training, weening off the cardio, and finally addressing some nutritional deficiencies (usually making the mistake of chronically dieting and eating too little) that they started to reap the benefits of their labor.

Now I get it:  for many, running or doing “cardio” is a way to blow off some steam, soak your body in endorphins (runner’s high), and there’s no way to discount the valley of  research out there supporting the bevy of other benefits that it offers.

Besides, if that’s what someone enjoys doing and it keeps them off the couch and watching re-runs of Mad Men, who am I to judge?

My main pet peeve is when someone starts complaining about lack of results – especially as it relates to aesthetic goals – and they continue to do more of the same.  No one is discounting the benefits of cardiovascular exercise. But lets just remember that it’s only a small fraction of the equation.

I just get bummed out when it’s viewed as the ONLY equation.

Unfortunately many women are programmed to think that things like yoga, pilates, aerobic classes, and training for a marathon are the only way to lose weight (or more to the point: lose fat).

All the above examples are fantastic modes of exercise.  And all the above suggestions can work…..to a point.  But if one’s goal or motivation to do any of the above is to lose weight, and they only focus on one of those things, at the expense of excluding everything else (like strength training), I wholeheartedly feel they’re limiting themselves.

Which is why I generally lean more towards the camp of telling women to tone it down when it comes to implementing or focusing on cardio.

I don’t feel it should be stopped altogether. But I’m tired of the unrelenting gravitational pull that the treadmill has on women.

Which is why I was such a fan of John Kiefer’s Why Women Should Not Run article I linked to a few months ago.

Sure it was a bit sensationalized, but I never felt it was condescending towards women (as many who were up in arms about it felt). I saw it as an argument that running isn’t necessarily the panacea of health and beacon of fitness that many claim it is.

I saw it as a dude writing about his tribulations with training women and attempting to “de-program” them into maybe entertaining the thought that weight training might be a more viable option given their goals.

I never interpreted it as him telling ALL women that they should stop running.

Regardless, I can see how so many were up in arms – especially those more qualified to dissect his research.

That said, I really enjoyed two articles I read over the weekend HERE, and HERE (< — this one is super geeky) which served as a counterpoint to John’s original article.

I think both cases/arguments have merit (although, I do feel the Jezebel article had a bit of “no man is going to tell me what to do” vibe to it, which wasn’t John’s intention in the first place), but I feel it comes down to a middle of the road compromise.  Everything has its place, right?

Plus I’m willing to admit my biases, and I have to say: after reading both articles this past weekend my tone has changed a bit.

I highly encourage all of you to read all of them and make your own judgements.

And that’s all I really have for today folks.  Sorry so short, but I’m in the home stretch prepping for the workshop this weekend.  I still have to order the smoke machine and lasers.

Whaaaaaaaat!!??!

CategoriesStrength Training

Spectrums of Absolute Strength vs. Absolute Speed

Today’s guest post comes to you via strength coach, Adam Rees, owner of GRITGym located in Iowa City, Iowa (the home state of one Capt. James T. Kirk, thank you very much).

I’ve long championed the notion that strength is the foundation for everything else.  You can’t have power, agility, endurance, a great hair day, without first having a solid base of strength of which to “pool” your resources from.

In today’s post Adam dives into that very topic and helps break down why strength is so important.

Enjoy!

Strength and Conditioning could be fairly well simplified with:

-Lift heavy loads slow.

-Lift light loads fast.

-Jump and run.

However it gets more complicated when we take on an individual’s age, training age, demands of their sport, the time of year, and shear physical and mental capabilities.

This is the Absolute Strength vs Absolute Speed Spectrum of which all of Strength and Conditioning programs are based and how it applies to the programming for athletes.

This is more reasoning for why we should be doing less Olympic lifting or training for power in general. As well as a guide to when and where we want more or less emphasis on sprint and agility work throughout the year. Basically, we need more strength.

There is no speed without power, and no power without strength.

So emphasize strength first, then we can start thinking about the stuff that gets kids noticed, like 40-yd dash times and pitching velocities (of which neither can be trusted simply because of the human thumb, and cheap radar guns lie), not to mention the ‘fishing story’ principle.

I should also mention that getting noticed and getting recruited are two different things. A kid that throws a legit 85 MPH (emphasis on legit) in high school but gets taken yard three times a game because he’s throwing belt high and down the middle every pitch or he’s so weak and has such little lower body strength that he’s incapable of lasting more then four innings….won’t be setting off any recruiting alarms anytime soon, even though there’s untapped potential.

A fast 40-yd time is similar if a player is unable to put a hit on anyone because he crumbles every time he tries. There’s no use in a guy who looks like Tarzan but plays like Jane.

Absolute Strength vs. Speed

In Season

During the competitive season athletes are already getting enough running and jumping during practice and competition, there is little to no need to program extra.

They need to work more towards the opposite end of the spectrum because they are spending a large amount time on the absolute speed end of the spectrum. In season training should consist of controlled reps of 70-90% 1RM, much further towards the Absolute STRENGTH end of the spectrum and away from the already satisfied absolute speed end.

Post Season:

After the season athlete’s bodies are in shambles. They’ve just torched themselves for a few months and it’s time to take a more rehabilitative/corrective approach to training and promote recovery.

There’s little need for plyo and sprints, but increasing med ball work as well as power movements is beneficial as they aren’t performing nearly as much now that the season is over. This portion of the year is simply to bridge the gap to their off season and prepare the body for it, which in many ways will be just as stressful on their bodies as their season, but in a much more controlled and supervised manor.

This portion will only last 3-5weeks.

Off Season:

Now that the body has recovered and is ready to perform we need a balance of the entire spectrum.

This is the fun part of training.

Note from TG:  Of course, if you’re Kansas City relief pitcher (and long time CP athlete), Tim Collins, off-season training includes riding your unicycle around

In the offseason we can tailor workouts daily with grip and vertical jump measurements (auto-regulation) as well having a more “open” schedule to work with, which is where we can make huge gains.

This is where we spend quite a bit of time at BOTH ends of the spectrum. The idea of spectrums is that if we ‘master’ both ends, we’ve mastered everything in between. During the offseason we’re spending the majority of our time at the two ends with this very thing in mind. We still bridge the distance with some power work such as using speed pulls and kettlebells, but the majority of our time is spent on both opposing ends.

Pre Season:

During pre season we’re starting to move more towards the specificity of the sport, which outside of long endurance races, means more speed and more skill work.

This means we’re going to be spending more time towards the absolute speed end of the spectrum. Not necessarily moving away from the absolute strength, however we’re not going to be trying for a 1RM during this time.

Wrestlers start getting more mat time; football players need more running and ball handling or pumbling work; baseball players start throwing and hitting.

** Baseball gets interesting due to it’s unilateral nature, so we need to program in extra arm care and med ball work as well as certain core exercises for an athlete’s opposing side, so a right  handed thrower and hitter typically may need more shot puts and hip tosses on his/her left side.

Here we’re tailoring workouts based off an athlete’s needs and specificity of their respective sport.

Youth Training:

Train for Strength first.

Youth athletes should already be getting enough speed work during their PLAY that needs to be coming from an assortment of activities such as: Wrestling, Football, Baseball, basketball (but only for the hand eye, the rest of this sport is sickeningly awful for athletic development, especially the mental side), Swim, Snow Board, Rollerblade, Dodgeball, Skateboard, TAG, Soccer, Boxing/Martial Arts, Gymnastics/parkour (although it’s not always kind to the spine), Rock Climb, Fishing, Etc.

This is why youth athletes do NOT need these speed camps that are becoming increasingly popular(or the kettlebell movement that’s taken hold, kettlebells are a power movement).

Strength first, not speed, and not power, but strength.

Note from TG:  for those interested, HERE’s my take on whether or not youth athletes need power or speed training.

Hint:  they need it about as much as much as we need another Kardashian spin-off.

Training for anything else is a waste of time, and a huge waste of money for parents. Speed will take care of itself with more strength. Besides that, from a psychological perspective, the less a kid “thinks” about his running form….the better.

Keep it FUN, get strong (farmers walks, prowler pushes, monkey bars, climb ropes, bail hay-meaning deadlift, beat stuff with a sledge hammer), then go play around, be a kid.

More NON-competitive action and unorganized play like this is better as well. Participate in ONLY ONE season at a time, make sure to get some down time, and get outdoors to do something fun at some point too: rock climb somewhere real, go fishing, canoe/kayak, maybe even hiking.  And for the love of all that’s holy, turn off the tv!

About the Author

Adam Rees is Founder of GRIT GYM, a gym based on results, creating a culture and lifestyle of performance, strength, health and freedom to live life on your own terms.

Adam attended Wartburg College, worked under nationally recognized Strength Coach Matt McGettigan at ISU and is generally a glutton to information and improvement in all forms.

Feel free to email questions to [email protected] and/or visit his blog at AdamRees.blogspot.com, Facebook.com/gritgym, or Twitter.com/adamrees.

 

 

CategoriesFat Loss

Help My Pal, Elsbeth Vaino, Get Her Fat Loss Documentary to the Masses

I’ve never held back my disdain towards certain trends in this industry – especially as it pertains to the mainstream media. Shows like The Biggest Loser, with its overarching theme that obesity is the individually controlled consequence of gluttony and laziness and its incessant highlighting of unsustainable (and I’d argue dangerous) weight loss tactics, as well as celebrity trainers like Tracy Anderson, who, coincidentally enough, has no educational background in exercise science or physiology (and has been quoted as saying she’d prefer not to “interfere” with her methods) seemingly catch our attention like a moth to a flame.

Why?

It’s been well documented that most of the contestants from The Biggest Loser almost always gain their weight back and then some.

But it sure is fun to watch them suffer and humiliate themselves on national television by golly!

And don’t even get me started on Tracy Anderson.  This is a woman whose past knowledge bombs include telling people that baby food (yes, of the pureed carrots and celery variety) is a viable nutritional supplement, that certain exercises can help pull the skin tighter to the muscle, no woman should life a weight above three lbs,  no woman should ever use kettlebells, and bloop bleep blop eeeeeeeeeeeeee op boing WAAAAHHHHHHHHH.

I’m sorry……it’s all just incoherent jibber jabber after awhile.

And it’s on that note I’m STOKED to inform all of you of an important initiative that my pal and fellow colleague, Elsbeth Vaino, is passionately involved with.

In collaboration with Dave Baker – a former personal trainer himself – the two are hoping to reach the masses with their own documentary about a REAL trainer helping people follow a REAL plan to help them attain their fitness goals.

In their own words:

“The fitness industry is having an identity crisis, fueled largely by the rise of reality weight loss shows and celebrity trainers, who continuously promote extreme and often dangerous methods for weight loss. 

Despite advancements in the industry towards evidence-based approaches, tailored towards sustainability, the public perception is still largely influenced by the constant image of drill sergeant trainers with an in your face, sprint ‘til you puke type attitude.”

This needs to stop.

And They Need OUR Help!

As you might expect it’s kind of expensive to fund a full-length feature documentary, and as such Elsbeth and Dave have initiated a campaign to help raise funds to bring their message to the masses.  A message that needs to be heard.

Their goal is to raise $8000.

Your generous and considerate donation will help in the following ways:

  • Offset the costs of production equipment such as lenses and filters.
  • Aide with the purchase of microphones for improved audio quality.
  • Provide us with the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals for editing and post production.
  • Move us from the ultra low budget to micro budget category of productions.

For more information on the project itself and for ways you can help, please visit their site below.

====> CLICK ME <====

CategoriesExercise Technique Strength Training

Deadlift Dominance: 5 Tips to Build Massive Pulling Power

Note:  the following is an excerpt from my latest article on BodyBuilding.com (full article is linked to at the bottom).  

I think it’s pretty awesome.  And if you think it’s pretty awesome too, then please (pretty please) “Like” it on the BB.com website and share it on all of your social media.  I’ll be your BFF forever!

If you don’t this it’s awesome – no hard feelings.  I’ll just be over here crying myself to sleep.

If I had to make a list of things I like in no particular order, it would look something like this:

  1. Turning right on red
  2. Anything involving Jason Bourne, ninjas, or zombies
  3. LOLCat videos
  4. Getting people strong
  5. Deadlifts

I’ll admit that as a strength coach, I’m biased when it comes to the last two. To me, nothing trumps strength. And nothing gets people stronger than good ol’ fashioned deadlifts.

Guys can brag about their squat numbers despite only hitting quarter reps, or even brag about a big bench press that’s more like an upright row for their spotter, but you can’t cheat a deadlift.

It’s you versus the barbell. You either rip that son of a bitch off the floor, lock it out, or not. The deadlift lends itself very well to gauge progress. It’s up to you, and brute strength, to break initial inertia off the ground. If you’re able to lift more weight over time without blowing your sphincter, you’re making progress!

Contrary to popular belief, there’s more to deadlifting than just bending over and hoisting a barbell off the ground. The following tips will undoubtedly clean up your technique and improve your deadlifting dominance.

Continue Reading……..

CategoriesUncategorized

Why I Don’t Use the Olympic Lifts

Blogging is funny sometimes.  There are instances where I feel I put a lot of time and effort into a post thinking to myself that I’m easily going to win some kind of blogging Pulitzer or that I’m going to step outside my apartment and a ticker-tape parade will just spontaneously erupt complete with a Stealth Bomber flyover and Kelly Clarkson busting out the national anthem in my honor.

Low and behold that’s never even come close to happening (yet), but still…I’m often bemused at which blogs actually catch on, gain momentum in terms of traffic and shares, and which fall by the wayside.

Take for example one of my posts last week, Success = Strength. This was something I wrote in like 30-45 minutes and something I just tossed up on my site because I didn’t feel I had anything important or revolutionary to say that day.

Funnily enough, it’s a post that, despite not getting a ton of “Likes” (which doesn’t really mean all much anyways), did result in quite a few people reaching out to tell me how much they enjoyed it and that they enjoyed the overall message.

In addition, I also had a fair number of clients at the facility walk up me throughout the week telling me they really liked it. Go figure!

And with that, today’s post, I feel, is another one of those hit or miss scenarios which may resonate with a few people and win me a few internet high fives; or maybe more appropriately make people want to throw their face into their keyboard in a fit of rage.

I’m hoping for the former.

One of the more prevalent and frequent questions we receive at the facility from other coaches and trainers who visit is: Why don’t you include any Olympic lifting into your programs?

Seemingly I think many who visit are under the impression that we (or more specifically I) don’t find any efficacy in their use and that we feel they’re a waste of time, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

I don’t feel I need to insult anyone’s intelligence and delve into the in’s and out’s of why Olympic lifting is efficacious or why it’s a superior way to train speed, power, explosiveness, and overall athleticism.

They work. Nuff said.

I’d be a complete moron to state otherwise.

That being said, and I’m speaking on my own behalf here (and not for the rest of the CP staff), I have my reasons why I don’t use them in my programming.

Numero Uno

I know I’m going to catch some flak some of the internet haters and gurus out there, but I’m going to say it anyways. Point blank:  I know my limitations as a coach.  

I don’t have a lot of experience with the OLY lifts personally, and I just wouldn’t feel comfortable pretending otherwise. That said, it doesn’t make much sense to me to spend an inordinate amount of time coaching/teaching something I don’t have a lot of familiarity with.

It’s certainly not going to do my athletes and clients any good. And it most certainly won’t paint me in good light.  At best I can probably get by and fudge my way through coaching a half-way decent hang-clean.  At worst I end up hurting someone.

And I don’t feel any less of a person or coach admitting that this is a weakness of mine.  If anything I wish this is something more coaches and trainers would admit to themselves. That they’re not Superman and that they DO have weaknesses.

Hi, my name is Tony Gentilcore……and I don’t know how to coach the OLY lifts.

Of course this isn’t to say I’m never going to improve my OLY coaching prowess.  I’m sure at some point I’ll ask someone to coach the coach and take me through the ABC’s. But until that happens I’m most certainly not going to pretend I’m something I’m not.

Numero Dos (<=== That’s About the Extent of My Spanish)

There are other, more “user friendly” ways I can train power and explosiveness.

I never quite understand why some coaches and trainers take an “elitist” attitude towards any one modality or way of thinking. One of the more common examples would be some people’s gravitation towards everything kettlebells.

I like kettlebells, I use them with my own clients. But I also believe they’re a tool in the toolbox and aren’t the end-all-be-all-panacea of health and fitness.

I can use the same train of thought with regards to powerlifting, CrossFit, Zumba, Yoga, the Shake Weight…..you name it, and you’re bound to find your zealots.

Okay, maybe not the Shake Weight…but you get the idea.

When talking about power and explosive training, as paramount as OLY lifting is, when working with a specific population like baseball players, I feel we can serve them well by implementing med ball training into the mix.

Hell, I’d argue it’s more “specific” to their needs in the first place and a lot less detrimental in terms of joint distraction forces on both the shoulder and elbow:

And this doesn’t just apply to baseball players either. We use med ball training with our general population clientele as well.

Numero Three

Pigging back on the point above, I don’t necessarily know how long a particular athlete or client will be training at the facility.  Some have been with us for one, two, three, four+ years.  But more common are those who may come in for a 1-3 month span.

Teaching and coaching the OLY lifts (well) can easily take months to accomplish, and if I only have a limited amount of time with someone I have to be overly judicious with my time with them.

With that I tend to opt for med ball training, skipping drills, heidens, sprint work (when applicable), and the like to get my “power” training in.

And not to blow sunshine up my own arse, but I feel the results that I (and the rest of the CP staff) have been able to accomplish speak for themselves.

And That’s That

Hopefully I didn’t offend anyone or cause someone to blow a gasket.  Just to reiterate, I understand that OLY lifting is important and that it works.  So save the hate mail.

I just don’t feel that you HAVE to include them to be a successful strength and/or performance coach. As the saying goes – there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Maybe even most important of all: I think we can’t be afraid of knowing our own limitations as coaches.

It’s nothing to be ashamed of, nor is it something to cower away from.

It’s as simple as that.

CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Off-Bench Oblique Hold w/ Pulse

Let me preface all of this by asking you a question.  How stoked are you to go see Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim this weekend?  If you don’t know what it’s about all you need to know is this: Giant robots vs. giant alien monsters.

The only way this movie could be more manly is if the robots all had beards or something.

Or if by some stroke of writing genius (and movie studio cross promotion), Batman comes out of nowhere and starts Sparta kicking aliens left and right.  And Matt Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne.  Just because.

I defy anyone to tell me that that wouldn’t win an Oscar for “Most Awesome Movie Ever Made.”

Think about it.

Anyhoo, I’m sitting here in a Panera Bread as I write this post and I told myself I was going to sequester myself into “academic quarantine” (a term I stole from Eric Cressey) so that I could spend a few solid hours working on my tan presentations for mine and Dean Somerset’s Boston Workshop at the end of the month (Hint: there are still some spots OPEN.)

But I wanted to make sure I posted up a little sumthin, sumthin before the weekend. And since it’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared a new Exercise You Should Be Doing, I figured it was perfect timing.

Off-Bench Oblique Hold w/ Pulse

Who Did I Steal it From:  On Tuesdays I typically train at Boston University Strength & Conditioning, and I’ve seen this exercise done with their athletes numerous times.  I liked it, so felt I’d steal it.

What Does It Do: I’ve long trumpeted the notion that I think planks (and all their infinite variations) reach a point of diminishing returns once people start getting carried away with how LONG they go for.

There’s no denying that there’s a lot of efficacy for their use with people suffering from low back pain, as guys like Dr. Stuart McGill and Dr. Craig Liebenson have long demonstrated their practicality in that regard

Watering things waaaaay down:  one of the major red flags when it comes to chronic back pain is when there’s a huge discrepancy or asymmetry in anterior, posterior, and lateral spinal endurance.  In this context, planks are a god-send as it helps teach people to engage and fire more efficiently the appropriate musculature (rectus abdominus, external/internal obliques, TVA, erector spinae, longissimus, iliocostalis, etc),  – SYNCHRONOUSLY (it’s NOT about isolating anything) – in an effort to better stabilize the spine.

But even then, it’s not like the objective is to plank people to death and make a run at the Guinness Book of World Records.

Technique can get dicey for many after a certain point, and I believe as of late, McGill et al are more in favor of short, intermittent planks holds such as several 5-10s holds done in succession.

And this doesn’t even take into consideration that when we’re referring to healthy, UN-injured people, performing planks for minutes on end makes about as much sense as wiping your ass with sandpaper.

I still find value in planks – I’m not trying to poo-poo on them altogether. Which is why I’d much prefer to make them more challenging than to worry about length.

To that end, the off-bench oblique hold with pulse is a great plank variation that ups the ante on core stabilization, as you not only have to fight gravity to a higher degree, but also resist the dynamic “pulse” of the plate coming back and forth from the body.

Key Coaching Cues:  Hook your feet underneath a secure bench (or GHR if you have one), and then extend your body so that your hips are on the very edge of the bench.  From there it’s important to ensure that you’re body is in a straight line, and that your not rotated too far one way or the other and that your neck is packed and not protruding forward.

Grab a plate, dumbbell, kettlebell, Easy Bake Oven, whatever (I was using 10 lbs in the video and that was plenty challenging) and “pulse” it back and forth from from your chest until your arms are fully extended.

Perform 8-10 reps per side and switch and perform the same process on the other.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

CategoriesMotivational

Success = Strength

I woke up this morning with every intention of writing a post on something mind-blowing, like femoral acetabular impingement, and discussing some guidelines on how to assess and write effective programming around it, but then realized that it was waaaaaay too early to do that much thinking before I had the opportunity to inject any caffeine into my left ventricle.

Besides my good friend, Kevin Neeld, beat me to the punch and had some fantastic things to say on the topic HERE and HERE, so I figured there was no point in reinventing the wheel.  Also, there’s no way I could have possibly topped what Kevin had to say, sooooo, enjoy!

Understandably FAI isn’t everyone’s wheelhouse. Which is why today’s idea for a post took a dramatic turn when I opened up my email this morning.

As you might expect I receive my fair share of emails on a day to day basis.

Everything from “wet under the ears” trainers asking me for career advice to people asking how to program around certain injuries to random Saudi Princes gratuitously willing to fork over their millions.

Some people reach out to recommend books or movies, while others reach out just say “thanks for doing what you do.”  I like those kind of emails……..ahh-lawt.

 

As it happens I received a cool email this morning from someone I’ve never met in person nor ever heard from before today.

Quite simply all he did was shoot me a quick email to say how much he enjoyed reading my stuff and to share a quote from a book he’s reading which he felt I’d enjoy.

In his own words, “I found an amazing passage on why someone would want to be strong in my current reading, “Kafka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with his work, or with the Magical Realism genre, but this post struck me and I felt like it’s something that should be shared:

“The strength I’m looking for isn’t the kind where you win or lose. I’m not after a wall that’ll repel power coming from outside. What I want is the kind of strength to be able to ABSORB that outside power, to stand up to it. The strength to quietly endure things- unfairness, misfortune, sadness, mistakes, misunderstandings.”

I felt that was a pretty profound passage.

Anyone who reads my stuff on a consistent basis knows I’m all about strength. I want, nay, I love….to make people strong

Hell, my tax returns every year say “strength coach,” so it’s obvious I’m a little biased.

But here’s the rub:  strength isn’t always about how much weight someone can pull off the floor or hoist off their chest or place on their shoulders. Nor is strength necessarily about training people till they blow a sphincter or splay out across the gym floor in a pool of sweat

Sure those can enter the conversation. But strength has a much broader umbrella than that and can mean something entirely different from one person to the next.

Take Bill for example. Bill is an 80-year old father of one our other clients who started training with us a few months ago. Bill suffered some health issues last year, and after more than a few nudges from his son, finally decided to give this whole “lifting weights doo-hickey nonsense” a try.

Understandably everything was Greek to him from the start.

Everything from a foam roller to a dumbbell was completely foreign to Bill, not to mention intimidating.

I remember one day I pointed towards the Prowler and told Bill that he was going to be pushing that bad boy down the turf – 40 yards.  He looked at me flabbergasted as if I just asked him to sprint up Mt. Everest.  He had similar reactions when I asked him to perform (elevated) push-ups, bodyweight box squats, and farmer carries.

He didn’t think he could do any of those things.  But I knew better.

It was my job to show Bill SUCCESS!

Having the ability to demonstrate success to clients is a trait I wish more trainers would grasp onto.  And I don’t mean quantifiable success like “x” number on a bench press or “x” inches off the waistline (although those certainly are warranted and respectable goals, and important to some).

Rather, I’m referring to having the ability to make a client feel successful regardless of their background or experience level.  Demonstrate to them QUALITATIVE markers that prove they CAN do something.

This can be strength too!

Yesterday Bill was handed a new program. Each program he’s started has included 1-2 “new” exercises that (progressively) challenge him in different ways.

Yesterday happened to include a 1-legged hip hinge on the docket. It wasn’t easy for Bill. And I’d garner a guess that he was thiiiis close to scissor kicking Keifer (who was coaching Bill) in the face out of frustration.

But what helped Bill tremendously – and something he brought up himself – was the fact that the (new) exercise was paired with something he knew he could dominate (push-ups).

Again, my objective is to challenge my clients, but not at the expense of making them feel defeated 24/7.  That, to Bill, more often than not, is strength.

Knowing that he can do “stuff” and that he can persevere, regardless of what’s thrown his way.

To that end, I’ll end with another quote from the same person who sent the original email that spurned this conversation:

“You guys at CP discuss the quiet confidence that come from training for strength instead of size, but I think that Murakami’s Kafka really expounds on that idea, bringing the purpose of strength from a physical (aggressive?) attribute to one that leads to a great deal of self-assurance in the ability to cope with whatever may arise. Instead of walling one’s self off from any and all comers, a strong person knows they’re able to accept whatever may come and make adjustments without losing themselves.”

Think about that for a few moments and let it sink in.

CategoriesUncategorized

Train Like a Woman, Look Like a Woman

Back in 2002 I was contemplating becoming a teacher.  A health teacher to be more precise.  As an undergrad I was studying Health Education with a concentration in being awesome Health/Wellness Promotion, and as many of you can probably guess, a major part of the requirement for completion was to spend a semester student teaching at both a local middle and high school.

In my case “local” meant driving 50 miles (both ways) to Binghamton, NY.  And while I could easily sit here and bemoan some aspects of the experience – driving 50 miles through the lake effect snow capital of the world during the dead of winter comes to mind. As does teaching human sexuality to a bunch of 7th-graders. Hey, you try to explain “nocturnal emissions” WITH A STRAIGHT FACE – I have to say, all in all, it was an amazing few months.

I learned a lot about myself during that time (like, how to properly tie a tie), and it was a wonderful opportunity to, as Chip and Dan Heath describe in their book, Decisive, get an “ooch,” or “taste” as to whether or not teaching was the right fit for me.

 

Turns out it wasn’t.

When it came down to it:  I decided it was way cooler to spend my time hanging out in a gym making people stronger than it was hanging out in a classroom teaching kids what cell-mediated immunity was.

Still, I was reminiscing the other day about my student teaching experience and amid my thoughts of lecture plans, pop quizzes, and the differences between boy-down-there-parts and girl-down-there-parts (seriously, try to keep a straight face!), it brought me back to the day when I was asked by one of my students if I’d be willing to attend his poetry reading that he was organizing after school in the cafeteria.

While the Jaws theme music immediately started reverberating in my head as soon as the word “poetry” left his lips, being the good trooper and responsible teacher that I was, I gladly accepted.

Hopefully without sounding too mean, there’s Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off Broadway, the two homeless guys fighting over an empty Coke can in the park, and then there’s the poetry reading/one-man monologue/play that he put on in front of a group of 20 or so people.

I feel like a major a-hole for saying it (more than ten years later), but it was face palm bad.  But I survived.  And well, giving credit where it’s due:  it’s not like I’ve ever done anything remotely as ballsy as that.

And because I really don’t have any other way to segue into what I actually wanted to talk about today, want to know what else is face palm worthy?  The following story………..

It’s a Doozy

After linking on my site THIS post she wrote on why she doesn’t believe in barre classes anymore, last year my friend Emily Giza Socolinsky wrote a stellar guest post on this site titled A New and Better Butt? Why Not a Stronger Butt?

Note:  before you continue, I’d HIGHLY recommend you read the actual post(s) because what follows won’t be nearly as vomit in your mouthish if you don’t.

Finished?  Okay, good.

Great message, right?  I felt Emily hit the nail on the proverbial head with that one.  Any message which empowers and encourages women to not be afraid to lift appreciable weight, as well as any message which debunks the notion that lifting something heavier than a 3 lb dumbbell, bar, or purse will turn them into a Highland Games competitor overnight is alright in my book.

Apparently someone felt otherwise and took offense to Emily’s “tone.”  Well, to be more precise they originally took offense that, unbeknownst to Emily, the photo she used in her original post was of an actual owner and instructor of a Barre class (that she snaked off of Google Images).

Emily gladly took the photo down. But it was the snide comment that the owner left in the comments section of Emily’s post which really grinded her gears:

” You have used the photo of barre class with out permission … Please remove it. This is a photo of my instructors at a barre studio and myself.. It is not stock for public consumption.

Separately, you are completely wrong about barre class. I don’t know what kind of class you taught at your studio but our clients are much stronger, much more confident, ski better, play tennis better, etc and aren’t just there to tone their thighs. Perhaps they can not pull their husbands out if a burning building – not sure whose overall goal that would be anyway – but they are not looking to build enormous muscles and look like a man either.

Remove the photo immediately.

Thank you.”

OMFG – when will this ever end??????????????

Excuse me while I go face palm my face into a cement wall.

Emily responded like a champ:

“Thank you for your comment. I apologize for using your picture. I will remove this out of courtesy to you and your instructors.

However, what I cannot and will not do is apologize for my post. I am not completely wrong about barre classes and if you actually read my post, I am all for women doing what works for them and makes them happy. But I want to deliver to my female clients what I believe to be a better program for getting stronger and gaining confidence.

While I am sure that your clients have gotten stronger from your barre classes, I believe that my clients are served better by actually lifting weights that will challenge their bodies, minds and spirits. None of my ladies look like a man.

In fact, all of my women have dramatically changed their bodies into curvaceous, strong and fit women. Your comment implies that my goal is to make women look like men. Women can be strong, have muscle, lift heavy weight and still be women.

I want to deliver the best program to my women and for them and for me, this includes picking up weight that weighs more than 3 lbs. Sure, you can get stronger by doing anything….but in my world (and many others) building a stronger body means actually lifting weights.

And for me, I DO want to know that if I had to, I could pull my husband out of a burning building.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAryFIuRxmQ

 

The absolute best response I saw on Emily’s Facebook Page was this:

“Ski better, play tennis better” is the bougiest response to anything I’ve seen in a while. “

Our clients can handle many pottery barn shopping bags.” “She has the strength to open the hood of her own 3 series.” “Our clients look great in their cocktail dresses when they attend philanthropy luncheons.”

Well said by whoever said that!

I don’t feel I need to add any fuel to the fire here since most of you reading know my stance on this topic.  I just find it disheartening that this is still the pervasive attitude which dominates much (not all) of the female psyche.

For the love of all that’s holy can you blame some of them?

I have a female client who’s a personal trainer on the side and she mentioned how she wanted to ween herself out of the commercial gym setting, and start working with younger athletes (particularly female) at the local high school where her son goes.

As it happened, she sent out an email to all of the girls athletic coaches at the high school telling them that she’d be in the weight room this summer to help out, and she asked the coaches to encourage their athletes to come.

She heard back from TWO coaches, one of which is the female PE teacher who also coaches the field hockey team.

This is what the coach wrote back:

“One issue is the lack of user friendly equipment for the girls. They are not interested in the heavy lifting machines. I wrote a grant for strength training circuit machines and cardio machines, but it did not get funded.

Well no shit they’re not interested if this is the mentality that’s being engrained from the get go!

For the record:  my client noted that the “heavy lifting machines” this coach is referring to are the TEN squat racks in the weight room.

Since when do females need user friendly equipment?  Since when do they need to be pampered with cardio machines?

It’s all BS if you ask me.  Worse still, it’s a disgrace and woeful fail in judgement on the coaches’ parts.  Way to go!  You just pandered to the fears that every girl has towards lifting weights by telling her she needs to head to elliptical row!

 

If females are being “programmed” by their elders and coaches at such a young age to think that boys and girls need to train differently and that the squat rack isn’t “user friendly,” is it any wonder why this seems like a losing battle at times?

Why not, I don’t know, encourage young, impressionable women that the squat rack isn’t Mordor. That they don’t need to train any differently than the boys?  That lifting appreciable weight can be a key to unlocking a treasure trove of beauty, athleticism, and maybe even more importantly, confidence?

Can we turn the page sometime in the near future?  Please?

CategoriesMiscellaneous Miscellany

Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: The Way Way Back, Deadlift Update, and Core Training

1. Like many of you I’ve seen all the prerequisite blockbuster movies this summer – Iron Man 3 (awesome), Man of Steel (good, not great), Before Midnight* , and World War Z (eh).  

And while it’s pretty much breaking man-code for not wanting to see Fast and Furious 6 – somewhere out there Kevin Larrabee just punched a wall – I do want to take a few moments to point all of you in the direction of a lesser known movie that Lisa and I saw yesterday which may very well trump all of the above:

The Way Way Back

I tend to gravitate towards the more artsy-fartsy, independent, Focus/Miramax/Sony Pictures Classics films.  You know: The type of movies that actors and actresses do for the “street cred” and Oscar talk buzz more so than the paycheck.

I first heard about The Way Way Back when I was reading up on the reviews from the Sundance Film Festival (yes, I’m that much of a nerd), and as soon as I realized it was made by the same people who were responsible for Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, I knew I was going to be intrigued.

In a nutshell it’s about a kid – Duncan – who’s forced to go on a summer vacation to a beach town in the Hamptons with his mom and new doucher of a boyfriend (played, surprisingly, by Steve Carrell).

The rest of the storyline is fairly predictable:  Duncan is an introvert, doesn’t make friends well, he hates the new boyfriend, there’s a crazy alcoholic neighbor thrown into the mix. a cute girl, so on and so forth.

No zombies.  No explosions. And no gratuitous nude scenes.  Basically, it’s the anti-man movie.

This isn’t to suggest that the movie was a bust – it wasn’t at all. Instead, it’s just to say that if you watched Little Miss Sunshine and/or Juno, you know there are going to be some oddball characters involved.

A perfect example would be the always underrated Sam Rockwell who plays a guy who runs a local water park, has his fair share of witty one-liners, befriends Duncan, and helps him come out of his shell.

I really, really enjoyed this film.  It’s in limited release now, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be gaining momentum as the weeks pass.  If you get the chance, definitely check it out!

2.  Nick Tumminello sent me a copy of his new product Core Training: Facts, Fallacies & Top Techniques and I finally had the opportunity to give it a look, of all places, as I was sitting in the laundry mat yesterday morning.

Hey, if I’m going to sit there for an hour hating life I might as well get smarter right?

Nick never disappoints, and while I’m going to give full disclosure and say I haven’t yet watched the entire thing, I will tell you that from what I have seen……….it’s awesome!

I’m always amazed by Nick’s no BS attitude and I respect that he’s so willing to go against the grain on many things.

In any case, I was a little late in the game to say anything and as it happens, the sale he was running was supposed to end last night (Sunday, June 7th) at midnight.  HOWEVER, Nick informed me that he’s willing to extend the pre-sale another day for all of my readers.  Woot woot!

Go HERE, and thank me later.

3.  I also want to give a shout out to my good friends Dr. Jonathan Fass and Bret Contreras.  As of two weeks ago I’ve been getting up earlier and going for some early morning strolls around my neighborhood. And with that I’ve also been crushing the Strength of Evidence Podcast which is hosted by both Jon and Bret.

I’ll be the first in line to say that I absolutely abhor reading research.  You might as well hand me War and Peace translated into Elvish, because I’d rather read that than anything remotely attached to “clinical findings” or “p-ratios” or “statistical errors.”

It’s all Greek to me.

Which is why I really appreciate the depth and thoroughness that these guys include in each episode. They dig DEEP into a lot of hotly debated topics – CrossFit, should everyone squat deep?, the efficacy of neck packing, sprinting mechanics, to name a few – and they do so with just the right mix of geek and meathead.

So if you’re looking for a new fitness podcast to check out, look no further.  You’re welcome.

4.  I was asked recently how my quest for a 600 lb deadlift is coming along.  More to the point: I was asked what my training has been consisting of lately – other than deadlifting mack trucks and arm wrestling tanks (<—just a slight exaggeration).

Well, truth be told, I’ve been including a lot more jump training into my weekly repertoire.

I’ve made no qualms at the fact that I’m slower than molasses off the floor when I pull, and much of that I attribute to my loss of athleticism throughout the years.

Now don’t get me wrong:  I can still sprint without looking like the Tin Man.  But at 36, as awesome as it may be, it’s not like I’m going out of my way to play pick-up games of  Laser Tag or beach volleyball in my jeans Top Gun style.

Sorry ladies.

Needless to say I finally hit a tipping point and decided to nip things in the bud and work on getting more explosive.  To that end, I’ve been including more things like deadstart box jumps prior to my squat and DL days.

Video courtesy of strength coach John Gaglione.

In addition Lisa and I have been reacquainting ourselves with stadium sprints at Harvard on Sunday mornings.  Nothing too crazy or CrossFitish, but enough to make us realize how much they kick our ass.

And it seems to be working. I randomly walked up to a barbell loaded up with 500 lbs the other day in the middle of the afternoon and, without warming up, pulled it for an easy triple (with more in the tank).

I’ve also been toying around with more of a pseudo Sumo stance deadlift and love it.

I’m not sure when I’ll actually give 600 a go, but suffice is to say things are finally moving along at a nice pace.  Stay tuned…….

* = LOL, just kidding. I didn’t go see this one.  Nope.  Not me. That would mean I would have had to have seen Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, too.  That would just be ridiculous.

I mean what’s next? Runaway Bride? Chocolat?

OMG – Chocolat!!!!!!!

CategoriesExercise Technique Exercises You Should Be Doing

Pull-Throughs for Elite Strength

“It’s Fourth of July, I think I’m gonna try to eat clean today.”

– Said no one. Ever.

Like many of you reading I’m recovering from a day of gluttony.  Although giving myself some credit, I wasn’t all that bad.  Instead of hitting up a few BBQs, Lisa and I decided to keep our Fourth a bit more low key and opted to head to the beach instead.

We packed a cooler full of fruit, chicken, guacamole, and Coke Zeros (we like to live lifer dangerously), along with some summer reading material (I was finishing up the book Decisive, Lisa was reading whatever it is girls read on the beach) and we soaked up some vitamin D.

When we got back into the city, though, I treated myself to an ice-cream sundae and then crushed an entire bag of honey wheat pretzels.  Holla!

In any case I’m not going out of my way to do a bunch of work today, and as such I’m just going to link to an article I had published on T-Nation the other day on the pull-through (which I feel is one of the most UNDERrated exercises out there).

I hope you  check it out, and I’ll be back on Monday with some new content!

Pull-Throughs for Elite Strength <=== Click Me