1. Another busy weekend in the books! Yesterday I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the New Hampshire Athletic Trainer’s Association annual symposium.
A few year’s back I remember attending a similar function with Eric at Northeastern University and walking in with jeans on and feeling completely out of place. Apparently I missed the memo (and it’s an unspoken rule) that athletic trainers have a tendency of wearing nothing but tan khaki pants! LOLz.
Not that I would ever consider speaking in a pair of jeans (unless I was speaking at Google), but I did make it a point of wearing tan khaki pants yesterday so that I wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Success!
And speaking of success, yesterday was awesome. First on the docket was Dr. Eric. Berkson (Director, MGH Sports Performance Center, Instructor in Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and team physician to the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots), who talked at length about common shoulder and elbow injuries seen in pitchers. Many of his thoughts, not surprisingly, mirrored that of ours at Cressey Performance – especially with regards to placing more credence in symmetry of TOTAL range of motion between (IR + ER) between the dominant and non-throwing shoulder.
Expectantly, lack of IR, commonly referred to at GIRD (Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Deficit), is predictive and not quite the “red flag” it was 2-3 years ago.
Additionally he stressed that many of the throwing injuries we see in young(er) baseball players is due to overuse, misuse, and not paying attention to pitch counts.
And then there was me, Tony Gentilcore (who has no affiliation with Harvard what-so-ever other than having a teeny-tiny man crush on one of their alumni, Matt Damon) who spoke more on the performance side of things. I delved into how we go about managing our overhead athletes, discussed some of the assessment process, spoke to the intricacies of dealing with a population that, unlike everyone else, lives in extension for a good portion of the year, gave the Cliff Notes version to breathing patterns and how we implement them, and maybe had a tip or two on how to improve one’s spin on their curveball….;o)
All in all it was an awesome afternoon and it was truly an honor to be involved in it.
2. Just a quick reminder that slots are still open for the Elite Training Workshop at Cressey Performance the weekend of April 20th. The line-up is BALLER, with the likes of Eric Cressey, Mike Roberson, Mike Reinold, Dave Schmitz, myself, Greg Long, and Jared Woolever slated to speak.
3. Last week I wrote a little sumthin sunthin on Strong Curves, the new book by my good friends Bret Contreras and Kellie Davis that I feel is going to be a game changer in the realm of women and fitness.
I won’t continue to sing its praises here (you can read my review HERE), but I do want to give everyone a heads up on another fantastic product by another good friend of mine, Nia Shanks.
Nia has openly discussed her (past) battle with disordered eating routinely on her blog, and I can’t tell you how much I respect her for not only showing how human she is, but that she’s so willing to help others in the process.
I don’t think I have to tell everyone reading that it takes a lot of guts to open yourself up like that to the masses.
Myself, many of my colleagues, as well as Nia have noticed an unfortunate trend in the nutrition world where things have gotten so convoluted and complicated that people have no idea what the hell they should be eating! This phenomena – thanks in no small part to the likes of the mainstream media and gossip magazines – seems to be hitting its tipping point in the female demographic.
To the point where I overhead a woman talking to her friend not too long ago in Panera explaining that she wasn’t sure if she should have an apple included with her lunch because of the carbs. Mind you, she was crushing a massive sandwich.
Anyways, Nia felt it was high-time to put an end to the madness so she developed her own answer to the problem.
It’s an ebook, it’s nothing fancy (it doesn’t have to be), but the information is SOLID. I (along with Nia) don’t ever claim to have all the answers, but sometimes we just need to filter through the stupid and come back to common sense. And that is exactly what I wholeheartedly encourage anyone interested to check it our for themselves.
This ain’t NASA. Eat the apple!
4. Speaking of nutriton, I’m really, really fascinated by the food industry. More to the point, I’m almost at awe at the food industry’s Jedi-like “mind trick” powers at convincing people that certain foods are “healthy” when they’re clearly anything but. ORGANIC Toaster Pastries anyone???
Lisa dragged me into a Target yesterday (don’t judge me!), and we happened to walk through the food section and I couldn’t help but drown in the bullshit. I noticed that General Mills has a new variation of Cheerios out called Multi-Grain Cheerios w/ Peanut Butter!
The kicker is the advertising and how they gloat that the first ingredient is WHOLE GRAIN!!!!! Like whoa! I should be doing cartwheels down the aisle and kissing every baby I see within a mile radius.
Upon further inspection, the “whole grain” they’re referring to is none other than whole grain corn, followed by sugar. Naturally.
Sigh.
While it’s technically not wrong of them to say the first ingredient is a “whole grain,” I think it’s fairly egregious of them to use that as a selling point of tactic.
Now if you excuse me I need to go throw my face on an ax.
NOTE: for those interested in food industry shenanigans I’d highly recommend becoming a regular reader of Dr. Yoni Freedhoff’s blog Weighty Matters.
Awesome stuff.
5. For those looking to kill roughly five minutes, HERE’s a radio interview I did while I was back in my hometown last week prior to speaking at my Alma Mater.
The guy doing the interview LOVED my “abs are made in the kitchen” comment.
6. If you ever would have told me at some point in my life that I’d see my name in the likes of Forbes, I would have laughed. While I didn’t make the any list such as Most Powerful or Top Five People Most Likely to Be Issued a Restraining Order From Kate Beckinsale World’s Richest People, it was still pretty neat to see my name in print on their site.
Thanks for Greatest.com’s Chief Research Officer and Editor, David Tao, for asking me contribute on THIS article on Interval (or HIIT) training has changed the industry – for better or worse.
7. In other cameo appearance news, I also helped contribute to anotherarticle titled 16 Exercises from the World’s Best Trainers collected by Jon-Erik Kawamoto on Livestrong.com.
Oh boy. I can only imagine how some people who, upon reading the headline to this post (and are feverishly trying to lose weight), already dislike the person who submitted this question.
Waaaaaaa, poor you! You have to eat more food. I haven’t eaten a carb since Christmas……cry me a river!
As a strength coach, however, and someone who works with high-school and college athletes on a daily basis, I can tell you that struggling to gain weight (in an effort to improve performance on the field) is an all too common dilemma, and something that can just be as hard to resolve.
Which is why I felt I’d spend a little time addressing the topic here after receiving the following email in the Cressey Performance account recently.
Q:I’m 5’11 and weigh 150lbs. Last season I weighed 175 and then lost all of it because we ran so much, and ended the season weighing 135 lbs. That was a crisis for me. I have done the same exact thing as I did before but can’t seem to gain the weight back! Help me dude it’s killing me!
But I also have another question, and that is, would it hurt me to take half doses of creatine just to get a little bit bigger?
A: Wow, that’s a pretty drastic drop in weight! First off, every time I hear a story of a baseball coach running his players into the ground I want to set my face on fire.
What’s the rationale? What’s the longest distance that a baseball player will need to run? It’s 90 feet from home plate to first base. If someone rounded the bases that’s 360 feet. Where does a 3-5 mile jog fit into the picture? How does that prepare a player for the more explosive nature of the sport?
HINT: it doesn’t!
Eric Cressey already chastised this sacred cow and explained why distance running really has no place in the sport HERE and HERE, so I won’t kick a horse when it’s down.
That said:
1. Two points for Gryffindor for including not one, but two idioms in one sentence!
2. Please stop running (for distance, anyways), if you haven’t already.
3. Maybe show the above articles to your coach, and he’ll have a change of heart….;o)
Looking at the positives, you’re already 15 lbs up, so you’re obviously doing something right. But if there’s one piece of advice I can give you, it’s this:
You Need To Eat More
I know, I know – you eat, like, all the time. And you couldn’t possibly eat any more. I’ve heard that same excuse a few thousand times, and I’m sure I’ll hear it a thousand more.
Take my word for it: you’re not eating enough.
But before we get into that, lets address the more pertinent question: Creatine isn’t dangerous. It’s the most researched supplement in human history, it works, there’s a ton of efficacy towards its use, and I’d highly encourage you to check out THIS review by the guys over at Examine.com for all the information you’ll ever need on the topic.
But, it’s not what you need nor should it be at the top of your list of priorties. Not even close.
I’ve trumpeted this sentiment before, and I might as well say it again:
Supplements are progress enhancers, not progress starters.
If your current training and nutrition plan(s) aren’t yielding the results you want, than a supplement isn’t really the right approach. More to the point, the word supplement shouldn’t even reach the tip of your tongue until you have your nutrition in order.
You need CALORIES to grow. If you’re not providing the body the ample nutrients it needs to not only grow, but recover, you’re just going to be spinning your wheels and wondering why you look like that skinny dude from Road Trip – and you’re certainly not going to be hitting any 400 ft bombs over the centerfield fence.
[Giving credit where credit is due, at least he’s pwning some pancakes in that picture].
Here’s a quick quiz, and one of the first questions I’ll always ask an athlete who’s trying to put on weight:
What did you have for breakfast this morning?
9 times out of 10 I get a stammering answer that consists of a lot of “um’s” and uh’s” and every excuse in the book as to why they never have time to eat in the morning.
If you’re not eating breakfast, then again, you have no business asking about creatine, and you sure as heck-fire better start setting your alarm ten minutes earlier in the morning to MAKE TIME to eat breakfast.
As an example, here’s my typical breakfast that I eat every morning.
5 whole egg omelet with goat cheese and tons of cut up veggies (onion, broccoli, and sun-dried tomato) sprinkled with garlic powder, pepper, turmeric, and oregano.
1 cup oatmeal plue a scoop of Biotest Grow with a banana and cinnamon.
Save for maybe your post-training meal, breakfast should be your largest meal of the day. But you can’t stop there! One of the biggest mistakes I see guys make is that if they do eat breakfast (high five!), they’ll maybe nibble at lunch, and won’t eat another decent meal again until mom plops something on the dinner table.
If you can, try to stash some extra calories in your locker like beef jerky, nuts, fruit, or even better – and an idea I stole from John Berardi – several bagels with some peanut butter slapped between each side which you can easily crush while walking to your next class.
Some other food for thought (pun completely intended):
1. Try your best to focus on whole, natural, un-processed foods like rice, potatoes (sweet and white), oatmeal, veggies, fruit, beef, chicken, fish, cheese, milk, various nuts, unicorn tears, you name it.
Of course if you have good allergies you have to take that into consideration, but don’t use the excuse of “dude, I’m bulking” as a free-pass to eat shitty food like pizza, chips, and Pop-Tarts on a regular basis.
Be a teenager, I’m not saying to avoid those types of foods at all costs, but at the same time need to take it upon yourself to provide you body with QUALITY nutrients. In short: eat like a grown-up.
2. Stay hydrated!!!!! Drink water, and lots of it. A good rule of thumb I like to follow is to take half our bodyweight and drink that amount in ounces. So, if you weight 150 lbs, you should strive for roughly 75 ounces of water per day. And that’s just the minimum! More active people should drink more.
Oh, and Red Bull isn’t water.
3. While it sounds hypocritical given my speech above, it might not be a bad idea to look into getting a protein powder to include in the mix. Hard gainers often have a hard time EATING their calories, and it’s sometimes easier to drink them. Don’t worry about getting Ultra Mass Gainer 3000 or anything like that. Just look for your typical whey protein blend, and you’re fine.
4. In the weight room, you need to make sure you’re focusing on those movements which will force you to grow! Drop the leg extensions and bicep curls and opt for deadlifts, squats, chin-ups, rows, etc. Focus on getting stronger and not training like a bodybuilder.
5. Additionally, it’s important that you don’t go too crazy with the volume. You need to save your calories. While I can respect those who want to get after it on a daily basis, heading to the gym to perform those two hour marathon sessions isn’t doing you any favors. For guys who are looking to add weight I generally opt for LESS volume and strive for three, full-body weight training sessions per week.
6. In terms of an actual caloric number to shoot for, it’s anyone’s guess as to where the magic number is for you. For simplicity’s sake I like to tell guys to start with 20% ABOVE maintenance levels.
To find maintenance, take your current bodyweight and multiply by 15. So, for a 150 lb person, they’d want to strive for 20% ABOVE 2,250 kcals per day – which would be +450 kcals above maintenance.
Just so we’re clear: this is a GENERAL number to hit and only serves as a starting point.
7. Likewise, keep calories up even on “off” days. Another mistake a lot of guys when trying to gain weight is lowering caloric intake on non-training days. DON’T DO THIS!!!!! Keep calories on par with your training days, and if by some chance you notice you’re putting on a little too much fat for your liking, just lower intake slightly – by like 10%.
8. Did I mention you need to eat a lot?
9. You need to eat a lot.
I know you (and many others) are trying to look for the magic pill and that my advice isn’t remotely sexy or mind-blowing. It doesn’t have to be.
Oftentimes keeping things simple is the better way to go.
I think it’s safe to assume that I tend to reverberate some of the same messages over and over on this site, and I’m sure for those who routinely visit on a day to day basis, you probably recognize a few long-standing trends.
For example:
1. I have a strong affinity for deadlifts (and Matt Damon).
2. I pity those who don’t eat dead animal flesh (but respect their choice(s) not to do so).
3. For the love of god, is it really that much of a hassle to take 5-10 minutes to warm-up properly?
4. And at the top of mountain, if there’s one message I’ve routinely championed it’s this: women should lift heavy things.
Unfortunately it’s been a tough battle to say the least, and it’s mind-numbing having to constantly deal with (and debunk) much of the archaic nonsense and jibberish that’s spewed out by the mainstream media as it relates to women and fitness. I’d even go so far as to say much of the information that’s regurgitated by the likes of US Weekly, Oprah, The Biggest Loser, Tracy Anderson (and a whole harem of other so-called celebrity trainers), and many (not all) of the books you peruse in the health and fitness section at your local Barnes and Nobles serves more as a form of scare tactics than anything else.
Strong Review for Strong Curves
Women shouldn’t lift a weight above three lbs!
Lifting appreciate weight will make you big and bulky and give you an Adam’s apple!
Yoga is all you need to yield toned and lean muscles!
Long-duration, steady-state cardio is the key to losing fat!
Don’t you dare touch that carrot – it contains (GASP) carbs!!!!
To say it’s gotten a bit confusing and sensationalistic would be an understatement. It’s no wonder why so many women (hell, guys too) don’t know who’s right or who’s wrong and are left spinning their wheels. So and so said I should forego lifting weights and go to Zumba class instead. If I just stand in this 100 degree room and stretch, I’ll be bikini ready in no time, right? I just read the Don’t Eat Food Diet, and now I’m wondering if it’s okay to drink water!
All of this, seemingly, to imply that women are these delicate flowers that shouldn’t (or can’t??) hold their own in the weight room, and that we should just roll them in bubble wrap and send them on their way.
Words like “tone,” and “lengthen” and “pink dumbbells” get thrown around like candy at a parade and it’s almost as if once we combine the words women and fitness, and toss them into a caldron and stir them together, what’s left is a big, messy concoction of bullshit.
And that’s, well, bullshit!
Thankfully I have some really smart friends who feel the exact same way as I do and they actually did something about it.
Yesterday my good friends, Bret Contreras and Kellie Davis, released their new book, Strong Curves, to the masses and I couldn’t be more pumped!
As if the title didn’t give it away, this book is all about two things: getting strong and building some feminine curves – particularly the butt.
Sadly, many women are under the impression that grabbing a barbell and lifting it off the ground will turn them into He-Man overnight, when in fact the opposite is true. Lifting weights will build a strong, lean, curvaceous body, not to mention offer a plethora of other benefits like an increased metabolism, more energy, more sex drive, decreased risk of osteoporosis, and an unlimited sense of self-assurance and confidence.
There’s no one in the world that knows the butt better than Bret. The man has literally spent years reading research, hooking himself (and others) up to EMGs, and basically training hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
I often joke that I sit in my evil strength coach lair, stroke my evil beard, and conjure up exercises and programs that will make people hate life. In Bret’s case, I think he actually does it! I don’t know many people (let alone coaches) who are more dedicated to their craft and contain as much of an insatiable desire to make people better than Bret.
Likewise, Kellie, a fitness enthusiast, writer, and competitor herself (and a client of Bret’s) not only talks the talk, but walks it. I mean there’s a reason why she served as the cover model, contributor, and exercise demonstrator for the book!
Combined, the two have produced an outstanding book that I feel is a MUST read for any woman looking to take her health and physique to the next level.
Granted it’s called Strong Curves for a Better Butt, but in every sense it’s a routine that focuses on the ENTIRE body.
What I love most about the book is that it’s not full of fluff and fillers. In every sense, they get right to the point and EDUCATE the reader on why the glutes are such a big deal. Maybe even more importantly, they do a fantastic job of empowering women and giving them the nudge some may need to take the reigns and actually grab a barbell.
Thankfully, it’s not like Bret and Kellie just tell women to go lift weights, but they SHOW them how to do so in a safe, effective, and time efficient manner. The entire book is filled with lovely (again, thank you Kellie Davis) pictures and exercise demonstrations, as well as detailed instructions on how to do everything from a glute bridge to a deadlift correctly.
What’s more, no stone is left un-turned. There are sections on how to warm-up properly, nutrition, some anatomy talk for the uber nerds out there who like that sort of thing, and even a section for expectant mothers who are interested in doing the program as well.
Speaking of which, another major perk of the book is the programming itself. It’s spectacular. Bret and Kellie came through BIG-TIME here. In all there are four programs included such as the Twelve Week Booty-Ful Beginners Program, the Twelve Week Gluteal Goddess Program for the Advanced Lifters, and even two programs that can be modified to do at home for those who don’t have access to gym equipment.
All told, when you look at the entire package, you’re getting top-notch information (HINT: stop listening to Tracy Anderson), coaching on exercise technique, and detailed programs all for what it would cost to go see a double viewing of a Twilight movie. If that’s your thing. Which I hope it isn’t.
I can’t recommend Strong Curves enough. Of course I’m excited for Bret and Kellie because they worked their tails off writing this book and they deserve all the praise and accolades they receive, but I think I’m even more excited to see more and more women jump on the “lets lift heavy stuff” train. I can’t wait to see the results that women are going to get on this program.
It’s freaking snowing (not that that’s any big surprise)! That would be like saying,”the sky is blue,” or “water is wet,” or “Justin Beiber is a no-talent ass hat!”
I left Boston yesterday under blue skies and 60 degree weather (which feels like summer this time of year), only to arrive in central NY five hours later to overcast gloom and nothing but rain and snow.
Welcome home, Tony!
Despite the really crappy weather, it is nice to be “home.” I placed home in quotations because the college is literally ten minutes from my home town, and part of the impetus for making the trip – other than the non-stop adulation, praise, and ticker tape parade that may or may not happen in my honor – was to be here for Easter and take advantage of Mama Gentilcore’s home cooking.
Which is to say: I absolutely crushed some apple pie yesterday.
Nevertheless, to say it was an honor to be asked to come back and speak would be an understatement.
Note: for those out of loop: I was invited back to my alma mater to speak to some of the Exercise Science, Kinesiology, and Fitness Development majors; as well as any graduate students or general public you didn’t want to watch Dancing With the Stars and come listen to me speak instead.
In fact, it’s been kind of a surreal experience.
I mean, back in the day, when I was an undergrad myself, I was about as nondescript of a student as they come. And now, I’m expecting upwards of 50+ people to show up just to listen to me speak. Unreal.
Everything started to kick into high-gear when, last week, THIS short write up popped up on the school’s homepage detailing (the Cliff Notes version anyways), what I’ve been up to in the year’s since I graduated, as well as giving people a sneak peak into the topic of my presentation, which I’ll be throwing down later today.
From there it’s been an avalanche of local media exposure. I got a call from the school newspaper asking if we could set up a time for some photo ops, and then a local news talk radio station (in Ithaca) contacted me and wanted to do a 5-10 minute interview LIVE for their morning show.
And when I say live, I mean literally – LIVE. I called in and the guy was like, “we’re on in 30 seconds!” Thankfully everything went smoothy and I didn’t drop an f-bomb. Woo-hoo!
Afterwards I got in my car to make the quick trip to the main campus where the game plan was to speak to a Kinesiology class (the class of the professor who set this whole shindig up). The vast majority of the kids in the class were aspiring personal trainers, coaches, and future business owners, so rather than stand there and bore them to tears talking about insertions and origins and blah blah blah, I wanted to take the time to impress upon them some of the traits and characteristics that I feel every fitness professional should strive for.
Namely, that success in this industry isn’t so much dictated by book smarts or just showing up to class – but rather, it’s about having an insatiable drive to always make yourself better, and that at the end of the day it’s important to understand that you’re not that big of a deal and that you need to put your work in just like everyone else.
Here are some of the main bullet points I hammered (within 50 minutes):
1. Do you see this as a career or a hobby? First and foremost you need to get comfortable feeling uncomfortable, because you’re not going to know the answer to everything. But those who deem this more of a career, and something that they see as their future, will always try to find the answer and get better.
2. Understand that you (probably) won’t make a lot of money right out of the gate. Visions of a six-figure salary and having a ton of disposable income is wishful thinking. Statistically speaking most trainers burn out within two years, which isn’t surprising when you factor in 10-14 hour work day, 6-7 days per week. Likewise, most trainers are NOT financially independent, work pay check to pay check, and often have to get a second job to make ends meet.
The point isn’t to be a Debbie Downer or to say that it isn’t possible to do very well for yourself. But, if we’re going to be honest, and if we’re really going to prepare people for the “read world,” then this is the kind of stuff upcoming trainers and coaches need to hear.
3. Don’t have more degrees than a thermometer. HA – get it!?!?!? Degrees? Thermometer? Okay, I’ll shut up.
An example would be Joe Schmo, MSc, CSCS, CPT, LMT, Who gives a s***.
Point blank, no one cares how many letters you have next to your name. It doesn’t really mean anything. Sure it looks cool and it will undoubtedly help open the doors to a few more opportunities, but it always comes down to a quote I’ve heard Mike Boyls state time and time again:
No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
4. I gave a quick quiz to the students, and asked how many could:
– Name all four muscles of the rotator cuff. Which ones are external rotators?
– What’s the main function of the rotator cuff?
– Name 8 out of 17 muscles that attach to the scapulae?
– Name the only hip flexor which acts above 90 degrees of hip flexion?
– Explain the difference between a short and stiff muscle?
– Coach someone how to deadlift properly?
– Explain to a normal person why there’s no such thing as a “Fat Burning Zone?”
– Draw the Kreb’s Cycle. Blindfolded.
Okay, kidding on that last one.
But the point was – can they actually explain these basic things? If not, well………..what does that say about this being a hobby or a career?
5. Learn functional anatomy. Not everyone is going to be an anatomy cyborg like Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, or Bret Contreras. But it stands to reason that knowing your way around the human body is kind of an important trait to have as a fitness professional.
Admittedly, while I can get by and I can hold my own, anatomy is NOT one of my strong suits. What’s important, and something I stressed to the students, is that it comes down to repeated exposures. You’re not going to learn everything overnight, and if you hang out around the likes of Bill Hartman you can’t help but feel stupid at times.
The omohyoid thingamjiggy does what now?
Read blogs, articles, and books. Watch DVDs. The more repeated exposures you give yourself to any given topic, the more likely, someday, the light bulb will go off.
Trust me: it happens.
6. Be PROACTIVE as a coach! Actually look like you give a shit! Don’t just stand there and look like a zombie and count reps. COACH your clients.
7. But at the same time, don’t overcoach. Someone’s squat may look like a train wreck waiting to happen and you may very well want to throw your face into a wall, but it’s important not to overwhelm someone and to learn to focus on 1-2 major things rathe than trying to perform a miracle.
8. Try not to fall into being part of the status quo. Don’t throw in all the “smoke and mirrors” into your programming for the sole purpose of looking different than everyone else. Get people results, get them feeling better and moving more efficiently, and you’ll be doing your job.
9. I feel EVERY upcoming trainer should spend at least 1-3 years working in a commercial gym setting. Sure you’re going to have to fight the urge to pour battery acid in your eyes or to swallow live bees from all the asinine things you’ll see……but it’s one of the best ways to get better. In what other setting will you have access to such a wide variety of clientele? If you can teach a 45 year old CEO with the movement quality of an iceberg how to deadlift, you can teach anyone how to deadlift.
Sure you’re going to have life-sucking clients that will zap all your energy, but those are few and far between. Having the opportunity to work with such a wide variety of backgrounds, goals, needs, injuries, etc will speak volumes as far as making you a better coach.
10. Watch your social networking. As a potential future employer, I can guarantee you that if you apply for an internship or job, we’re checking your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts.
You know all those pictures you have up from when you won that Beer Pong championship back in 2012? Or all those posts where you called your ex-girlfriend every colorful name under the sun? Yeah, you should probably take those down.
And those were just the tip of the iceberg. I had a few other points that I made, but I feel like I’m just blabbering on now.
Anyhoo, the main show starts at 5 PM where I’m going to speak to a much larger crowd on things like assessment, program design, the season finale of The Walking Dead, and I’m sure I’ll go on a few rants or two. Or three.
Until then I need to get rid of some pent up nervousness and go lift some heavy things. Might as well go deadlift – of course!
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve added a new exercise to the Exercises You Should Be Doing arsenal, so here you go. How’s that for straight and to the point?
What Is It: Seated Kettlebell Curl to Bottoms-Up Overhead Press
Who Did I Steal It From: It just so happens that former CP intern, Jordan Syatt, stopped by the facility for a cameo yesterday and I noticed him performing this deceivingly challenging exercise towards the tail end of his training session – so all credit goes to him.
What Does It Do: As is the case for every exercise I throw onto this list, for me, the biggest determining factor is whether or not it provides a lot of bang-for-one’s-training-buck. A huge reason why I rarely (if ever) include machine based exercises or “isolation” exercises is because, for the most part, I view them as a waste of time.
Granted if you’re a bodybuilder, have an aesthetic bias, and you’re looking to bring up a lagging body part, it makes sense to include those types of exercises in your weekly training repertoire. I don’t feel they should make up the crux of your training, but they do have a time and place.
Outside of that, since most people who read this blog aren’t stepping up on stage anytime soon, lets just move on.
Oh, and least I forget (because I know someone will inevitably get their panties in a bunch and mention it): I should make note that isolation or machine based training does have merit with regards to people who are post-surgery or who are woefully deconditioned.
With respects to the former, take ACL repair as an example. Motor control will definitely come into play, and it’s often advantageous to introduce “load” in a more controlled, predictable manner. So things like leg presses, leg extensions (and the like) will definitely come into the picture.
As far as the latter: you can bet that if I’m working with an obese client or someone who’s just really deconditioned my main focus is going to be on getting them moving and eliciting some semblance of a training effect, and less on whether or not they can do an ass-to-grass squat, deadlift 2x their bodyweight, or beat them into submission and have them perform burpees until they can’t feel the left side of their face.
If I have to resort to a pec deck or utilizing a Cybex circuit – so be it.
But just so we’re clear: the bulk of my time is still going to be on working on improving certain movement patterns like the squat pattern, hip hinge, push-up, core stability, and not to mention I have yet to meet anyone who can’t push a Prowler.
But I’m getting a little off-track here.
Today’s exercise is a bit sneaky. It looks simple and nondescript enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if many who watched it probably dismissed it right off the bat.
I mean, seriously TG…….a KB curl? I thought you just said you don’t like isolation-type exercises? What’s next….crunches on a BOSU ball?
Fair enough. But lets break this badboy down before everyone grabs their pitchforks and storms the castle.
Yes, there’s a curl involved. But in the grand scheme of things it’s not like I’m expecting this exercise to add four inches to your arms in two weeks. In fact I could care less about the curl component. The curl in this sense actually serves as a sorta “self-pertubation,” forcing you to fire your entire core musculature synchronously so as to PREVENT any lateral flexion or rotation.
I’ve expounded on my preference for one-arm training in the past, so I won’t belabor the point here. But because I don’t want to leave any new readers hanging, simply put, performing more off-set loaded exercises (where you hold a DB or KB in one hand only) places a HUGE challenge on your core because everything has to fire so that you don’t fall or tip over.
Moving on into the bottoms-up position and performing the overhead press, while the action itself still offers a significant core challenge, it also forces the rotator cuff to fire like crazy through a process called irradiation.
Basically you MUST grab the handle of the KB with a death grip (I like to tell people to melt the handle), so that it doesn’t fall over. In doing so you send a signal to the rotator cuff (irradiation) to “pack” itself which makes the joint more stable.
Moreover, because holding the KB in the bottoms-up position makes it more challenging (unstable), you force the muscles of the rotator cuff to do their job in a more “functional” manner, which is to center the humeral head in the glenoid fossa.
What’s more, it’s an unparalleled scapular stability exercise to boot!
In short, with this exercise there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye.
High five for the Transformers reference!
Key Coaching Cues: You won’t need a whole lotta weight in order to do this exercise, so be a bit conservative with this one. I believe I was using the 17 lb KB in the video and I was struggling. Take that for what it’s worth.
Glue your feet into the ground, and brace your abs. Your torso should be completely upright and you want to avoid any HYPERextension of the lower back.
From there I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. This is more of a CONTROLLED movement, so try not to rush.
I’m more inclined to think of this as a nice finishing exercise to complete a training session, and I’d shoot for 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps per side.
Also, if you wanted to make it more challenging you could do the same thing in the standing position.
And that’s that. Give it a try to day and let me know what you think!
I’ve had a great run of weekly guest posts from various people in the fitness world as of late, and I wanted to keep the streak going with another one from Nate Miyaki.
For those unfamiliar, Nate is a regular contributor at T-Nation and generally leans more on the nutrition side of things. I’ve grown to really respect his body of work and appreciate his simple, minimalist (yet very effective) approach to nutrition. In addition, I KNOW he walks the walk and doesn’t just talk a big game. My man is shredded!
I hate to say it, but there are A LOT of people out there that seem (maybe prefer?) to make things waaaaaaay more complicated than they have to be, and the topic of what to eat and when ranks right up there.
Is it better to eat low carb or high carb? Is it okay to eat past 6 PM? Because fruit contains fructose, we should avoid it at all costs, right? Is 1.0 grams of protein per lb of bodyweight best for optimal results or is 1.376 a better number to shoot for? And since everyone and their Little League coach is doing it, what’s the deal with Intermittent Fasting?
You would think, based off how some people dissect every nook and cranny of their diet, that they’re performing rocket science or trying to figure out why it is women are drawn to the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon.
Nonetheless, in today’s post Nate dives into how athlete’s should strive to eat, and offers a sorta pre-game speech to set people straight. His sentiments mirror much of mine, and I think many of you will appreciate it.
Enjoy!
From the moment you put on that jersey, grab a bat, strap on the gloves, buckle up the chin strap, climb under the bar, or lace up a pair of sneakers, cleats, or skates; the sands of time start ticking away.
Most athletes only get a relatively short window within which to accomplish something great. That’s a gift in itself, because the majority of people were just not born with the natural talents or skills to even get a chance.
If you’re one of the lucky few, you need to take advantage of that privilege. For once its gone, it’s gone forever. Don’t wake up one morning wishing you had done more when you had the chance. You have the rest of your life to kick back, follow the crowd, and be mediocre.
But while your opportunity is here, right now in this moment, why not do everything possible to give yourself the best chance of succeeding? Why not use every weapon at your disposal to maximize your true athletic potential?
Dietary Discipline & Maximizing Your Potential
One of the most important weapons is your diet. Unfortunately, it is often the most overlooked by performance athletes, because the truth is you can perform decently on a suboptimal diet. Anecdotally, there is no arguing that given some of the sh*t lists I’ve seen from some of my own athletes. Do you even know what a caramel dumpling is?
But you certainly are not maximizing your true potential and performing at your genetic peak with this approach.
Our generation has lost something. We’ve become a bunch of entitled whiners expecting something for nothing, always looking for that quick fix. We’ve lost that ability to strive, to sacrifice, to set goals, to do everything possible to achieve them, and to never waver in their pursuit.
We’ll take short cuts and cheat the system any chance we can get; yet we shy away from the day-to-day grind that is really necessary to climb to the top. We’ll take a pill, but won’t change our daily habits.
So before we spend time getting into dietary details, which we will, we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. If we don’t solve this riddle first, all subsequent nutrition articles will be meaningless.
Athlete or Average?
You have to decide right now whether you consider yourself an athlete or an average dude (or girl). One gets more leeway, sympathy, and handholding. The other gets a swift kick in the nuts (or female equivalent, metaphorically speaking) when they show up to a training session with a bagel in hand, sipping on a latte.
Are you preparing to fuel your body for battle, or are you, in stealing a line from the great Dan John, “eating like a child” that needs a bag of Skittles to much on while sending your BFF texts about the Twilight Saga?
The average dude comes in for a few workouts a week, then goes and hangs out at Applebee’s. An athlete lives like one 24/7, whether their coach is watching over them or not, whether its “hard” and “inconvenient” or not.
Which are you? There’s no right or wrong answer. But as a coach, I need to know. Because you talk to guys on the field a lot different than the ones sitting in the stands.
It amazes me to see guys and gals train like madmen, then go out and eat pizza and ice cream. They have the discipline of a warrior within the lines, but a bullsh*t excuse-maker outside of it.
You’re saying you have dreams and want to be the best, but your actions are screaming something very different.
It’s Not Just How You Lift, It’s How You Live
Don’t you need to junk-load to increase calories and support your training? No. Never. Do you want to follow plans based on marketing material or plans based on science, or just pure common sense?
What do you think a dietary induced, chronically inflamed body is doing to your ability to recover from your training sessions, or for your nagging knee and shoulder pain?
That pastry sounds like sh*ts and giggles to the average, but its not if you have elite goals.
Cellular integrity, insulin sensitivity, and optimal nutrient partitioning can all degrade over time with a poor diet. What do you think that does to your ability to put on functional muscle that makes you faster and more powerful vs. non-functional fat that makes you slower and less explosive?
And sure, you may be able get away with whatever you want nutritionally in your 20’s. But the small percentage who extend their careers into their latter years are the ones who took care of their bodies and followed an informed path right from the beginning.
You call yourself an athlete, than live like an athlete — on the field, in the gym, and in the kitchen.
Start With the Simple – Optimize Food Choices
I don’t want this article to be just about philosophy, psychology, pontification, and rah-rah ramblings. You need some practicality as well.
So how should an athlete nutritionally support their competition and training demands? Do it through quality, nutrient dense foods that serve a physiological and metabolic purpose.
So hit those high quality animal proteins for the essential amino acids necessary to build lean muscle mass, and for the essential fatty acids and good fats necessary to support optimum hormone production.
We’re talking grass-fed beef, wild fish, free-range poultry, and eggs — all hormone and anti-biotic free, of course.
Don’t eat fast food, salami slices, or candy bars with protein added to it to justify “getting your protein in”. The #5 combo will be waiting for you when you’re trying to grow some chins, not be fast and powerful enough to land that knockout punch on your opponent’s chin.
Include some plant foods like vegetables and whole fruits for a variety of micronutrients and phytonutrients, not a bunch of empty calories combined with randomly shot-gunning a bunch of pills to try and make up for the nutrient deficiencies.
Maybe your mama thinks eating a bowl of cornflakes and chewing on a Flintstones vitamin is the Athlete’s Way. I don’t.
And carbs? I love Paleo nutrition as a baseline template. It automatically gets rid of many of the problematic compounds in the modern Y2K diet. That’s why 80% of my dietary recommendations are based off of it.
But as a high performance athlete, you can’t follow it all the way down the rabbit hole and end up in some dietary cult. You’re not a sedentary, pre-diabetic, insulin resistant office worker. And you are certainly not a frickin’ caveman. You’re a modern athlete with modern performance goals.
The game is different. You need to understand a thing or two about exercise physiology, and integrate some modern, researched, Sports Nutrition principles to properly fuel and recover from your training sessions.
Many athletes get caught up in following the universal, dogmatic proclamations of carbophobic academics whose only sport has ever been jogging (Ron Burgundy pronounces it Yogging). But high intensity strength and intermittent sprint sports are fueled by anaerobic metabolism, which can only run on glucose/glycogen.
That doesn’t mean loading up on bologne sandwiches and fruit roll ups. You want starches without the toxic compounds, potential food allergens, or “anti-nutrients” that can wreck the digestive system, impair nutrient absorption, and leave you tired and lethargic.
So cut the sugar, refined flour, and gluten-based starches. Stick with starchy tubers (yams, sweet potatoes, white potatoes) and white rice to support your training.
Drink some high quality H20 like the Water Boy recommends, not Diet Coke.
Conclusion
I get it. It’s easy to watch highlights of your favorite athlete, or film on your next opponent, or just flip through the pages of Playboy, crank up some AC/DC, and get amped up like a madman to train.
When the adrenaline subsides, and some semblance of a normal human being returns, however, it is a lot harder to get fired up to eat a grass-fed steak and potato instead of pizza and fries. But I believe it’s equally important to your long-term athletic success.
For every one genetically gifted or drug enhanced athlete that can get away with a crappy diet, there are ten that can’t. Everything you put into your body makes a difference. It’s up to you whether that difference is positive or negative.
Author’s Bio
Nate Miyaki is a fitness author, athlete, and coach. He is the author of the new book “Intermittent Feast: An Evolutionary & Scientific Approach to Slashing Fat”. Visit his site at www.NateMiyaki.com.
Yesterday my good friends Eric Cressey, John Romaniello, and Ben Bruno revealed to the world an awesome charity that they’ve recently collaborated on along with the good people over at Causes International.
For those unfamiliar, Causes International is an organization which focuses on UPcycling, the process of donating your used electronics so they can be sent back UP the chain, and either disposed of in an environmentally clean and sustainable way – or given to those in need.
Put another way, you know that first edition Nintendo Entertainment System that you’ve insisted on keeping in your closet since you were 17 for sentimental reasons but now your girlfriend or significant other is forcing you to throw away to make room for her rabid collection of shoes, or that rubbish iPhone 4 you were just going to casually toss in the dumpster because it’s so 2012 and you wouldn’t be caught dead with such outdated technology in your pocket?
Well, as it happens, it’s not that great for the environment to just throw stuff (laptops, smart phones, desk top computers, etc) away. As EC pointed out in his blog yesterday:
Electronics that aren’t disposed of properly often wind up releasing extremely toxic heavy metals—such as lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and deadly toxins like polyvinyl chlorides—directly into the environment. We may not notice it yet in the US, as over 80% of our “electronic trash” is sent overseas, but there are parts of China and other industrialized countries where people can’t breath the air or drink the water, and children are dying or being born with defects because of these toxins.
With that said, I want you to think long and hard before you haul that flat screen tv out to the curb and then move on with your life. Essentially what you’re doing is punching a dolphin in the face. You jerk!
I didn’t know this, but over 100 million (yes million) smartphones are thrown in the trash worldwide each and every year. Likewise, according to some other statistics, in America alone, over 12 million laptops were discarded of inappropriately in 2007.
And I have to imagine that number is even larger today.
Looking at those numbers it’s astonishing how wasteful we are as a society and what a haphazard attitude we have when it comes to taking care of our environment.
This is why this is such an awesome endeavor.
To up the ante, Causes International has teamed with Eric, John, and Ben to help raise money to feed the hungry.
It’s simple: you rummage through your house and find any electrical device that’s broken or you no longer use, you then donate it, and for every $1 raised EIGHT meals can be provided to those in need.
It’s a win-win. Not only do you do your part in helping save the environment, but you also help place food on the table for those in need.
Here’s the step-by-step breakdown:
Step One
Scour your house, condo, apartment, tree fort (nothing is off limits) and find any electrical device that’s broken or you don’t use. Over 60,000 items, in 13 different categories – iPhones, iPods, iPads, and MacBooks (even with shattered screens), plus various other items, like other smartphones, video games, graphing calculators, or digital cameras – are eligible.
Unfortunately, can openers and Shake Weights aren’t included in the mix.
Step Two
Go to the website that Causes International set up at www.FitnessFeeds.org and click on the DONATE button. There’s really very little heavy lifting that has to be done on your part. Causes International will send you a PRE-PAID shipping label that you can print off, and then all you have to do is high-five the UPS guy or place into one of their 40,000+ boxes around the country.
Step Three
You just earned MASSIVE karma points my friend. As noted above, every $1 raised helps provide EIGHT meals to needy people. And, if it’s important to you, the whole thing is tax deductible.
Step Four
If or when you visit Cressey Performance, you and I are totally going to hug it out.
You know that feeling when you go on vacation and you come back and go to the gym for the first time and it’s readily apparent that you were on vacation?
Yeah, that was me yesterday after being away for over a week.
In my defense, while we were down in Florida Lisa and I did get plenty of activity in – we walked a TON around Miami and South Beach, made a few cameo appearances at a local commercial gym in her hometown (I was even recognized by a random woman training because I was wearing a Cressey Performance shirt!), and while Lisa went roller blading once or twice, I elected to head to the local park and do some bodyweight training and sprints for good measure.
But to say I did any hardcore training would be a big, fat, lie. Kind of like when someone on the internet claims he squats 500+ lbs for reps. Ass to grass. On one leg.
Although I did crush some pec deck chest flies at our friend’s condo gym right before heading out to South Beach, so that counts for something, right?
Nevertheless, it’s great to be back in Boston – despite the massive temperature drop, snow, traffic, complete lack of anything green, and general “Jonny Raincloud” attitude most people have around here this time of year.
Someone please explain to me why do I live in the Northeast again?
On a serious note, I am stoked to be back and I feel rested, relaxed, and ready to tackle a grizzly bear.
That said, since I wrote a fairly epic post(in both content and length) on the plane back home yesterday, today I’m just going to offer some good stuff to read.
I felt this was an absolutely fantastic post by Dave on not only the significance of placing a premium on developing core strength, but what the actual FUNCTION of the core is in the first place!
Many people are under the assumption that the core only consists of those washboard abs you see on the cover of Men’s Health or Men’s Fitness every month. While not entirely wrong, it’s not remotely close to the entire picture and is just the tip of the iceberg.
If nothing else, read this post for Dave’s genius water bottle analogy. Awesome stuff.
This is a message that I, along with my fellow CP colleagues, are routinely hammering to the masses. We live a unique bubble where we’re surrounded with a vast network of PTs, manual therapists, chiropractors, athletic trainers, the works.
While I like to think we’re smart dudes, we also understand (and RESPECT) the notion of scope of practice.
We do assessments at Cressey Performance, which is something I feel most (not all) trainers should be doing to some capacity. Whether it’s a the FMS, Assess and Correct, or playing musical chairs, some sort of movement screen or assessment should enter the equation when starting to work with a new client.
Doing so serves as the foundation so that you know what you need to do as a coach to address the needs/imbalances/weaknesses of your client.
The coup de gras, however, is understanding that our roles as personal trainers and strength coaches is not to DIAGNOSE anything. I don’t care how many books you read, how many DVDs you watch, or how many Holiday Inn commercials you watch (I’m not a doctor, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night), if you’re playing the role of physical therapist and you’re not a physical therapist, you’re setting a very dangerous precedent for yourself.
This is where going out of your way to establish a network of other fitness professionals that you can refer out to is crucial.
As someone who likes benching about as much as a Nicholas Sparks novel, I thought this article was bang on. I’m not built to be a good bencher, and I’ve (reluctantly) accepted that fact. BUT, that doesn’t mean I’m forever going to cower in the corner in the fetal position and avoid benching altogether.
In this article, Todd offers some innovative and straightforward advice on how anyone can bust through their bench pressing rut.
Hate’s a strong word. When someone says they hate something they must really, and I mean really, have a strong disdain for whatever it is they’re referring to.
For example, I’m typing this very sentence as I’m cruising 36,000 feet above the ground on my way back to Boston (from sunny Florida), and as everyone knows I absolutely hate flying. It’s not my favorite thing to do in the world, and it ranks right up there with other h-word worthy candidates such as Hitler, cancer, Twilight, rising gas prices, paper cuts, and Coldplay.
But in the grand scheme of things pretty much everything is fair game. Everyone has different tastes and prejudices; things that annoy them, and things that drive them up the wall. I mean, I’ve heard some say how much they hate puppies for crying out loud! Cute, little, adorable puppies!
That’s just wrong in my book, but the point is: There’s a whole lotta people guzzling the Haterade out there in the world.
And I’m certainly not impervious to the sweet nectar myself.
Haterade is pretty powerful stuff. All the things I listed above aside (except Coldplay. No one really likes Coldplay, right?) I prefer to think of myself as a pretty open-minded individual who is willing (and able) to do a complete 180 and change his mind on things. I just feel that comes with the territory when you talk about maturity and growth as a human being.
There are plenty of scenarios in my past where I was adamantly opposed to something, only to have a change of heart down the road.
Take Sex and the City, for example. Yep, I just went there and am talking about the tv show. Maybe the altitude it making me a little loopy.
When Lisa and I first started dating she was all like, “do you shower?” “OMG, you’ve never watched Sex and the City???? You have to watch this show! You, me, Netflix, now.”
Of course in trying to play the sweet, sensitive, cultural, and open-to-new-things guy (code speak for: I want to sleep with you)….I was down.
At first it was like that torture scene in A Clockwork Orange where they tie societal thug Alex down to a chair with his eyes pried open with that medieval looking contraption and feed him subliminal images for hours (days?) on end to “re-program” and rehabilitate him.
Yep, it was just like that. I wanted out, and I wanted out NOW!
Then, after a few episodes I was like “eh this ain’t so bad. At least there’s some gratuitous nudity here and there.”
And then something happened. Something unexpected. I started to actually like the show. I went from thinking it was worse than someone scratching their nails on a chalkboard to actually reacting to the characters and storyline……..
OMG CARRIE WHAT ARE YOU DOING???? I CANT BELIEVE YOU’RE JUST GOING TO LET AIDEN GO LIKE THAT. CAN’T YOU SEE HOW MUCH HE LOVES YOU????? YOU DIABOLICAL BITCH! I HATE YOU, CARRIE. I HATE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!
*slams door*
Yep, I watched every season of Sex and the City, along with the first movie.
Not the second, though; I have my limits.
I went from “hating” something to actually, you know, liking it.
But lets get on the right track and transition to the health and fitness world.
Taking a gander into my personal rear-view mirror, there are plenty of similar instances throughout my fitness career where I had a strong opinion on something – to the point of dismissing it entirely – only to change my mind later on.
Here are a few that jump up to the forefront:
1. Accommodating Resistance
Narrowing it a bit further (because I actually utilize accommodating resistance quite a bit with my athletes), what I really had beef with back in the day was the whole notion that “newbies” should not be using it.
First, though, we should at least offer a brief description for those who aren’t familiar:
In general, accommodating resistance refers to the concept of increasing muscular strength throughout the complete range of joint motion. Better yet, you can technically refer to it as a way to sustain near maximal force throughout the complete range of joint motion. This is the basic premise behind the use of bands and chains.
There comes a point when you’re doing an exercise (squats for example) where the force generated during the movement is less at certain joint angles compared to others. This is why you can handle more weight with those cute quarter squats you’re doing than you can with full squats (force-velocity curve).
Add chains into the mix — where the squat is “deloaded” in the bottom position and “loaded” in the top position — and you can see how using chains can be highly beneficial in terms of strength gains.
The thing is, almost always, newbies (and I’ll even throw some intermediates lifters into the mix here as well) don’t really need to concern themselves with adding accommodating resistance into the mix. Sure, it looks badass and offers a nice change of pace, but there’s a rate of diminishing returns when your best squat (for example) is 185 lbs.
Many in this situation would be better off just focusing on getting stronger rather than adding a bunch of “bells and whistles” into their repertoire.
But then I remember reading an article that Mike Robertson wrote on why utilizing chains (and bands) could be beneficial for inexperienced lifters which changed my mind entirely.
Again, using the squat as an example (there are numerous ways to utilize this concept: band assisted pull-ups, push-ups vs. chains, etc), and more specifically speaking on the notion of TIGHTNESS and how to attain it, accommodating resistance pays huge dividends.
Place a regular bar on a trainees back and ask him or her to get “tight” and many will look at you like you’re speaking Klingon. However, throw a chain or two – or bands – on each side of the bar and ask them to get “tight” and the picture changes entirely.
Immediately they’ll start to comprehend what you mean by getting tight, as they really have to brace their entire body to resist the swaying of the chains or the pull of the bands.
In this regard, I feel accommodating resistance definitely has its place in the backpocket of a newbies training program. But only as a teaching tool, and NOT as a main component of their training.
2. Onions
The younger version of me did notlike onions. If I even tasted a hint of onion in anything I shoved down my pie hole I’d immediately spit it out and run for the nearest fire hydrant to wash my mouth out.
Thankfully, as an adult, my pallet has gotten a bit more refined. Now I save the dramatics for things like oysters, shrimp, or anything seafood related for the most part.
Onions belong to the allium family, which also includes leeks, garlic, and shallots. They contain a whole pharmacy of compounds with health benefits, including thiosulfinates, sulfides, sulfoxides, and other smelly compounds. But those same smelly compounds offer a lot of nutrition bang for the relatively small price of a little eye-watering.
There are no two ways about it: onions are a cancer fighting food.
I put onions in just about everything. I add chopped up onion to my omelet every morning, and it’s always a staple in whatever Lisa makes for dinner on a nightly basis.
Two words: caramelized onion.
You’re welcome.
3. Kettlebells
Giving full disclosure: kettlebells have been around F.O.R.E.V.E.R, so anyone who thinks that they’re some kind of new fad that’s popped onto the fitness scene within the past 5-7 years is grossly mistaken.
But giving credit where credit is due, Pavel Tsatsouline is often credited with introducing us Westerners to kettlebells and all they have to offer.
Admittedly, when I first started seeing them pop up in various gyms and fitness clubs I just looked at them as some sort of cannonball with a handle attached and didn’t really see much use for them. Barbells and dumbbells worked just fine, thank you very much.
But as I read more and started experimenting a bit more with them, I began to tone down my BS meter and realized that there are a constellation of uses for them.
We were slow to introduce them at Cressey Performance, but now it’s rare to see a program that doesn’t include them in some fashion whether it’s in the form of the staples such as a Turkish get-up or swing( the former as way to ascertain glaring mobility/stability issues, and the latter a way to groove a hip hinge pattern and develop unparalleled explosiveness) or as a way to “offset” an exercise such as 1-arm overhead presses or 1-legged reverse lunges.
What I still take issue with is the seemingly “elitist” attitude that some people have when it comes to their use and efficacy. This certainly doesn’t apply to everyone, but we all know of that one person (or two) who goes on and on and on about how kettlebells are teh awesome and that nothing else compares.
According to some, kettlebells will solve global warming.
Funnily enough, the same people (especially some of the commercial gym trainers I see on occasion) who go off on how superior kettlebells are, are the same people who I have yet to see coach a swing properly.
Who’s with me on this one? I find it comical that some commercial gyms will go out of their way to give kettlebells the “velvet rope” treatment and tell people that the only way they can use them is if they’re under the supervision of someone; yet, I rarely ever see anyone using them correctly or with passable technique.
Of course, this isn’t to say that there isn’t some semblance of a learning curve here and that significant coaching doesn’t come into play. Not many people can just walk about to a KB and bust out a picture perfect get-up (or swing). It often takes weeks if not months (if not longer) to get them down pat.
But I think we can all agree that it’s not rocket science either.
And, just so we’re clear this is an acceptable use of a kettlebell:
Not this:
4. Yoga
All I’ll say on this one is that it would be hypocritical of me to bash yoga when just about every dynamic warm-up drill we utilize at Cressey Performance has it’s base in yoga.
Heck, one of the more common drills we use at the facility has the name yoga right in it!
And I can give you a whole laundry list of other examples.
Pigging back on the whole KB pseudo rant from above, yoga is another one of those camps which markets itself as some panacea of health and well-being.
Especially towards to women.
I highlighted my main concessions with yoga and how it’s marketed towards women HERE, so I won’t beat a horse while it’s down.
Suffice it to say – I think yoga is great. Fantastic even. But it’s certainly not for everyone, and as with anything, should be regressed (and progressed) accordingly based off one’s needs/imbalances/injury history/capabilities/etc.
Someone with a history of lumbar issues or even those with congenital laxity probably wouldn’t be good candidates for yoga, and should at least tweak a few things to keep themselves out of compromising postions.
All in all, though, I feel my feelings towards yoga in the past 3-5 years has taken a massive turn for the better and feel that it’s a wonderful way to offset many of the postural imbalances we tend to accumulate.
Most of us are walking balls of flexion as it is, and yoga helps to counterbalance and open us up.
But again, it’s just comes down to understanding the human body, functional anatomy, and knowing what applies to one person and not the other.
5. Ben Affleck
Okay, this one isn’t fitness related but I couldn’t resist. When I first started writing for various sites a few years back, I had a MASSIVE crush on Jennifer Garner. I’m talking, smoke-show, she-can-do-no-wrong, Alias, Jennifer Garner.
As a joke and as a way to place my own “tag” on every article I wrote, I often referred to Jennifer in some way. Sometimes as a way to demonstrate to women what the female body could look like (feminine, yet still lean and muscular) with with some serious, consistent weight training (I’m loosely acquainted with Valerie Waters who used to train her), but mostly as a way to throw in some line as to how hot I thought she was.
What can I say, I’m a dude.
As well, part of the schtick was to poo-poo on Ben Affleck, who, like an a-hole, went on to marry Jennifer.
To say I was slightly miffed would be an understatement. I haaaaaated him. But only because I wasn’t him.
Well that, and for Dare Devil which was god-awful. Sorry Roman……;o)
Fast forward to 2007 when Ben made his directoral debut with Gone, Baby Gone. I was a skeptic going in, but once I saw it I could tell that he had a knack for this directing thing.
Two movies (The Town, Argo), and one win for Best Picture later, he’s the man.
He ranks right up there with the best of them: David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofsky, Wes Anderson, Martin Scorcese, Alfonso Cuaron, Peter Jackson, and Quentin Tarantino.
Not many people can claim to have hit rock-bottom in terms of pop-culture semantics and then rebound with a fervor they way Affleck did. What’s more he just seems like a genuine, cool guy, and I really respect that.
And he’s BFFs with my man-crush Matt Damon, so there’s that.
What about you? What are some things you used to hate, but eventually had a change of heart? I’d love to hear your comments below.
UPDATE: My bad, I was told Valerie still trains Jennifer 3x per week. Hence why Jennifer still looks amazing after three kids….;o)
Yesterday in Part One of this series Sol Orwell and the guys over at Examine.com discussed a handful of supplements that they feel are about as useful as a poop flavored lollypop. Which is to say: not very useful.
As a strength coach and as someone who’s routinely discussing supplementation with younger athletes and general population clientele, especially to those who feel that they’re the magic bullet they’ll need to take their performance (and physique) to the next level, it was great to see some of the more well recognized ones thrown under the microscope for further inspection.
Besides, as I like to tell the vast majority of people: if your current nutrition and training routine isn’t eliciting the results you’re after, no supplement is going to become the “x” factor.
More often than not it’s just a matter of making better food choices and actually going to the gym to train rather than wasting time on the internet talking about it.
That said, not all supplements deserve the bad rap. In today’s post, Sol discusses some of the supplements he feels deserves their reputation, as well as those he feels should steal a bit more of the spotlight.
Enjoy! And please, share your thoughts below. Any supplements you feel deserve more recognition?
Supplements that Deserve their Reputation
Creatine
Creatine is a molecule that seems to have a vitamin-like effect on the body. Relative creatine deficiency (especially common in vegetarians) may result in suboptimal cognition and strength levels. True creatine deficiency (only achievable via genetics) results in mental retardation.
Creatine is most commonly used for the purpose of increasing power output and the rate of building muscle, and it is definitely proven for these roles as it is currently the most well researched ergogenic aid (performance enhancer) in existence.
Creatine works for increasing power output during anaerobic exercise (powerlifting, bodybuilding, sprinting, etc.) and although it may have crossover to endurance based events it doesn’t seem as reliable. It has less evidence for increasing the rate of building muscle but this appears to also be true. Putting muscle cells in an energy surplus state tends to increase the rate of which they grow, and creatine is a very readily available source of energy.
Evidence is being gathered in creatine also have positive effects on cognition.
Beta-alanine (and a note on its “big brother”)
Firstly, beta-alanine needs to have a jab taken at it for two things: potency and instances when it is used.
Yes, beta-alanine works; no, it is not magical. It might enhance endurance performance by around 2% or so, nothing astonishing although it can provide a needed benefit
Yes, beta-alanine works for endurance; it doesn’t really do anything reliable for strength (it might, some weak evidence for building muscle like creatine) and seems to only reliably increase physical performance for exercise exceeding 60s (and under 240s; these numbers derived from the only meta-analysis on the topic)
However, given those two qualifying statements, beta-alanine does increase performance and secondary to that can increase training adaptations.
Beta-alanine is essentially a lactic acid buffer (hence its lack of efficacy for power output – lactic acid is not the reason you fail on a 5 rep max test) similar to its lesser known big brother, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Both of these compounds are essentially the same, just reduce the influence of acidity on muscle failure and you can go longer until failure; they aren’t too potent as you cannot disturb pH in the body easily, but they do work.
Vitamin D
The increased popularity of vitamin D in the last decade is actually quite remarkable, and its growth in popularity seems to even exceed that of fish oil when the latter first arrived on the scene. In regards to vitamin d, it is definitely beneficial in a few disease states for preventative purposes although it is not the panacea it is sometimes held up to be.
Vitamin d is stored in the body and when it is needed it is converted into a bioactive hormone known as 1,25-dihydroxycalciferol. Negative things are associated with a state that attempts to produce the hormone but has insufficient vitamin d to do so, and supplementing vitamin d alleviates this possible negative.
Thus, Vitamin d is critical for people in a deficient state. The combination of our indoor lives coupled with pollution means that most people outside of the tropics tend to be in a deficient state. Supplementing with 2000 UI while you get your vitamin d levels tested is a smart way to go.
So although the outcome is still beneficial, vitamin d supplementation is more about alleviating negatives rather than inducing positives.
Supplements that Deserve More Recognition
Sodium Bicarbonate
Referred to earlier as beta-alanine’s bigger brother, sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) actually has a fair bit of evidence for performance enhancement. It shares a lot of similarities with beta-alanine, being an acidity buffer and improving performance that is hindered by lactic acid.
Recently, it has been shown to provide benefit to hypertrophy exercise in resistance trained males at the dose of 300mg/kg bodyweight.
The pros of sodium bicarbonate include its very good cost-efficacy in regards to the financial price (you can buy baking soda at a grocery store) and pretty good performance enhancement.
The main downside is too much taken at once will cause a snowstorm coming from your butt; the sodium bicarbonate doesn’t even change color when it does this, actually being quite hilarious the first time it occurs (to somebody else).
Note from TG: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha.
Due to this, sodium bicarbonate is taken in multiple doses throughout the day and with soluble fiber containing meals to try and minimize this side-effect which appears to be related merely to taking too much at once.
Beetroot
Beetroot is merely a vessel for the molecule known as inorganic nitrate. Nitrate is absorbed in the intestines and regurgitated (surprisingly a good term) into saliva where it is converted to nitrite. When swallowed the saliva nitrite can be converted into nitric oxide and sustain physical performance.
Beetroot is most commonly used for nitrate due to it being in the class of vegetables that are the richest source of nitrate (alongside spinach, rocket, celery, and swiss chard). It’s cheap to purchase in bulk quantities and the tastiest to blend and consume before exercise.
It does not appear to be effective for acute power output improvement, but similar to beta-alanine it can enhance physical endurance exercise and more prolonged endurance exercise.
Similar to other nitric oxide related supplements, it is also ‘healthy’ from a cardiovascular health perspective and also may confer other benefits related to nitric oxide (namely reductions in blood pressure and increased frequency of erections).
In regards to the connection between nitrates and cancer (nitrate, used as food preservative, is thought to be a factor in the connection between pink meats and processed meats with cancer) the cancer link is dependent on production of nitrosamines from nitrate. This production seems to occur at a greatly reduced rate in the presence of any antioxidant, with vitamin c being used most frequently in research. Due to antioxidants present in beetroot, nitrosamine production is not a concern.
This is also a reason why, if using supplemental nitrate, a coingested antioxidant would be a good idea (or just to take the supplement with some fruit).
Citrulline
Citrulline is essentially a more effective form of arginine (which tends to be pretty popular).
L-Citrulline is an amino acid that, following absorption, is sent to the kidneys and simply converted to l-arginine. It is superior to l-arginine itself because of its superior absorption rate; l-arginine is poorly absorbed, and malabsorbed l-arginine proceeds to the colon to then induce diarrhea.
Citrulline carries all the same benefits of l-arginine except at a lower dose due to enhanced absorption (5-8g commonly being used). It usually comes as citrulline malate, which gives it a slight sour/tangy taste.
Author’s Bio
Kurtis Frank and Sol Orwell are cofounders of Examine.com, where they spend their time making sense of scientific studies on supplements and nutrition. They also have a Beginners Guide to Supplements, which you should really, really check out (subtle hint).
