What can I say, that guy has his shit together. Nate has traveled around the world, started his own successul small business, eliminated all debt, has been featured in the likes of Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, T-nation.com, and has essentially taken life by the balls and hasn’t made any excuses along the way. It’s inspiring really, and is exactly why he wrote this handbook – to prove to everyone (even you), that you can live the life of your dreams.
And It’s Free
No newsletter sign-ups, no entering your email, so spam. It’s free. No strings attached.
I’ve started reading it myself, and I have to say – it’s good, real good. Favorite line so far:
Don’t have the body you want? Your fault.
Working a job you don’t like? Your fault.
Shitty grades in school? Your fault.
Up to your eyeballs in debt? Your fault.
It’s all your fault. But this is actually great news.
Because it’s your fault, you can take responsibility for it. And if you take responsibility for it, you can change it.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Nate’s a great dude, entertaining writer, and obviously has a wealth of knowledge to share that goes well beyond his years. Do yourself a favor and check it out – I promise it will be well worth it.
Alright I’m not gonna beat around the bush today, I feel like poo…..again. My first clue was when my alarm woke me up this morning. I always wake up before my alarm – it’s like some hidden Jedi talent of mine. If, on the off chance my alarm does wake me up (like today), then I know I’m in for a doozy of a day. It just rarely happens.
My second red flag hit me when I had absolutely no appetite for breakfast. Normally, I’m ravenous in the morning, but today, no dice. I still ate, but I definitely had to force feed myself.
Thirdly, and probably the biggest factor of all, I just finished with the ladies group about fifteen minutes ago and about half way through their session, The Time by The Black Eyed Peas came over the stereo and that pretty much set me over the edge.
Jesus, what a shitty, make my ears bleed, nausea inducing, worthless piece of crap song that is. Seriously, I’d rather listen to a whale pass a kidney stone.
Anyways, as of late we’ve been experimenting with more carry variations at the facility. As a frame reference, this past Saturday, thanks to a little inspiration from Dan John, we toyed around with 110 lb farmer carries while dragging the Prowler behind us. It was awesome. Essentially, the only way it could have any manlier was if we replaced the Prowler with a tank and then had Katy Perry on top of it singing the National Anthem.
Anyhoo, back in reality, since many reading don’t have access to the same type of equipment that we have at CP, another carry variation that I’ve been toying around with as well is the kettlebell suitcase carry with a rope.
Who Did I Steal It From: To a large degree, as noted above, I owe my infatuation with carries to Dan John, but with regards to this particular exercise I have to give props to strength coach, Martin Rooney, who trains a ton of MMA fighters and is the author of Training for Warriors.
What Does It Do: I really like offset versions because it forces the contralateral side (external/internal obliques, quadratus lumborum) to fire and force the body to brace itself. Adding the rope, however, adds an additional grip component that I feel is benefical for many trainees. And, obviously, it looks cool. Nuff said.
Key Coaching Cues: Simply grab a rope that you would normally use for tricep rope pressdowns and loop it through a kettlebell. From there, grab the rope with one hand, and you’re off. There should be absolutely no deviation with regards to posture on these – chest should be tall, shoulder blades back, and there should be no lean to either side. Also, if you happen to have Matt Blake make a cameo appearance in your video acting like a jag-off, feel free to swift kick him into the abyss. Zing.
So Happy Take Your Girlfriend Out to Dinner Day! Seemingly, I had everything planned out to a “t” over the weekend – making reservations at a trendy Italian restaurant in the romantic North End district for Sunday night. The way I saw it, having to make reservations for a Monday night was just going to be a big pain in the ass, so I decided to beat everyone to the punch and celebrate Valentine’s Day last night instead.
Nope.
Rewind to Saturday night: As it were, one of our clients at CP wanted to take the entire staff (along with significant others) out for dinner – to a steak house no less. EPICNESS was sure to ensue.
Everything was going swimmingly well – appetizers were delicious, girlfriend was drinking wine (BOM CHICKA BOM BOM), I hadn’t spilled anything on my shirt, and everyone was just having a great time enjoying each other’s company.
Entrees come, and I get about, I don’t know, six bits in and I just don’t feel too well. Nothing out of the ordinary – maybe I just a little overzealous with the appetizers ya know?
I’ll spare you the rest of the details, but it went something like this:
Blah blah blah, high fives, blah blah blah, Tony, where are your pants? blah blah blah, no, we’ll pass on dessert, blah blah blah see you on Monday
Lisa and I get in my car to head home.
Luckily I only live like ten minutes from the restaurant, because once we parked in front of my apartment and we were heading inside, I bend over, say something along the lines of “oh boy,” and proceed to blow junks all over the place. I’m talking Lean on Me, Barf-o-Rama drama.
And to take it a step further, I pass out – on the sidewalk. Deadweight. Down for the count.
I come to about ten seconds later and have no idea what happened. Of course, Lisa has a “WTF” look on her face and immediately helps me up and walks me into the apartment. I could go into the gory details, but I’ll spare you the visuals. Suffice it to say, when all was said and done, I passed out four times on Saturday night and felt like I got ran over by a mack truck all day yesterday.
Alas, no North End, no Valentine’s Day. Who says romance is dead?
I’m okay today, though, and am about to head into the facilty to get my lift on.
2. Speaking of Valentine’s Day, starting today Mike Boyle is offering a pretty awesome deal on Functional Strength Coach 3.0 all week. First off, you can purchase the product at 25% off. In addition, he’s also throwing in TWO bonus dvds to sweeten the deal. For more information, go HERE.
3. Before the drama over the weekend, I had been spending the past few nights catching up on a bunch of Alan Aragon Research Reviews. I subscribed to it a loooooooong time ago, and shame on me for not keeping up with it as much as I should have. If you’re a fitness professional, you’re really doing yourself a disservice if you’re not taking advantage of this service. I for one hate reading research, and Alan does a superb job at breaking things down and ruffling a few feathers to boot. Which is to say, he isn’t scared go go against the grain. What’s more, it’s only $10 per month!
4. Pretty much the funniest things I’ve watched in a while:
5. I had to share this as well, because it’s pretty bad-ass. Donnell Boucher is the strength coach for the Citadel baseball team, and he’s stopped by CP on several occasions to see what we do. This video was compiled over the Fall of 2010, and shows just how much dedication and effort Donnell has put into the program. Great job! Those boys get after it!
6. And lastly, my good friend, Joe Dowdell, owner of Peak Performance in New York City, did a fantastic interview over on Brad Schoenfeld’s blog that I felt many of you would enjoy reading. Check it out HERE. Joe’s a very bright guy, owns a top notch facility, and is one handsome bastard. I pretty much hate him.
Okay, I’m going to attempt to go lift some heavy things now. Here’s hoping i don’t kill myself.
UPDATE: I survived. Put the staff though the first day of Lean Hybrid Muscle and it was a doozy. I pretty much hate life right now.
A few weeks ago we had a video crew spend the day at Cressey Performance for a promotional video we’re making to highlight our elite baseball development program. Below is just a quick sneak peek (a little over a minute), and sheds some light on what a typical day at the facility looks like when all the pro guys are getting after it:
We’re pretty excited and when all is said and done, the finished product should be around 7-8 minutes long with tons more action, interviews, and maybe, just maybe, if you play your cards right, a cameo appearance of me hittng the tire with my shirt off.
Actually not really, but the video is going to be ninja’esque either way. We should have it posted in a week or so.
Also, on a quick aside, today at midnight (2/11) marks the last day you’ll be able to purchase Lean Hybrid Muscle Reloaded at the discounted rate (50% off).
Word on the street is that the feedback on the program has been awesome so far, and I can’t wait to get started myself next week. As you all know, I don’t like to pimp too many products on this site, and I like to think that when I do endorse one, it will not only help out a lot of people and give them some sense of structure, but also motivate them to get off their ass and train!
Likewise, as I noted earlier in the week, both Mike and Elliot are “in the trenches,” and have a lot of coaching experience between the two of them. Put another way, they actually train people, practice what they preach, and aren’t just out to make a quick buck.
So, the sale ends tonight. After that, the price pretty much doubles. You snooze, you lose – go HERE and thank me later.
The other day I was watching one of our athletes squat, and noticed he was having a little trouble. Okay, maybe a lot of trouble. Alright, truth be told, I felt like pouring battery acid into my eyes, it was that bad – but, whatever.
Now, I could have been super anal and pointed out 18 different things that were wrong: get your air, keep your chest tall, pull the bar down, sit back, push your knees out, eyes forward, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
But, in the end, all that would really accomplish is nothing other than to make him feel frustrated, confused, and not a real big fan of mine from the coaching side of things.
So, instead, what I decided to do was to focus on one (maybe two) things that I felt were the biggest “redflags and that’s it. While it sounds counterintuitive, by ONLY working on one thing at a time, many of the other issues tend to fix themselves automatically.
For example, on his very next set all I told him to do was “focus on keeping your chest out (or tall). Pretend you’re on a beach, and there are a bunch of hot chicks playing volleyball and/or giving each other tickle fights – show them that steel plate you have for a chest.”
By focusing on that one thing, he was then able to get decent thoracic extension and maintain a better arch throughout his next set. Success! I’m awesome.
Looking at the broader picture, though, it comes down to consistency and having a routine. Sure we can break down every lift to the most mundane detail, but I watch some of our guys or even random people at commercial gyms train, and see no consistency. More specifically, no two sets look the same: one set they’re setting up one-way, and the next, it looks completely different – either their foot placement is off, or maybe they’re looking in a different direction altogether. There’s no focus, and that’s a problem.
Bluntly speaking, how do you expect to build rock solid technique if, on every other set, there’s no continuity and things are completely out of whack?
Lets use myself as an example. Here’s my first warm-up set with 145 lbs on the trap bar deadlift from the other day:
NOTE: I wouldn’t crank this one too loud if you’re at work due to the background music – EAR MUFFS!!!
Now take a look at my first “work set” at 450 lbs (which was done after going 235×3, 325×3, 415×3 on subsequent warm-up sets):
And, here’s my last work set at 570 lbs:
Note: Yes, I realize I didn’t get my hips though quite all the way on those reps. Yes, I’m calling myself out. Yes, I’m still one sexy bastard either way.
Every set was the same: how I approached the bar, how I adjusted my feet, where I kept my arms, how many breaths I took before descending, hell, even my little Jack Parkman butt wiggle that makes all the ladies swoon (props if you get that reference) stayed consistent with every set.
So, the question then becomes: are YOU being consistent?
Last week, during our staff in-service training, I took it upon myself to discuss programming with our batch of new interns. Specifically, my goal was to give them a hypothetical situation and see whether or not they could come up with an effective training strategy.
In doing so, my thought process was this: While assessment, functional anatomy, and understanding movement is kind of a big deal; having the ability to effectively write a program based off of those findings is just as equally important. Essentially, given “x” scenario and “y” limitations/goals/needs, can you come up with a “z” program that’s not only safe, but will get results?
You’d be surprised at how many trainers and coaches out there can crank up the geek factor and quote research verbatim, or brag about how many books they’ve read, or even how many followers they have on their Youtube page, but when push comes to shove – write really, really, really sub-par programs. And I’m being really nice when I say that.
Moreover, as I noted with the guys – and as counterintuitve as it may sound – it’s rare when I write a program and it’s followed without any interruption, 100% through. Stuff happens and life gets in the way sometimes: long work hours, cars break down, girlfriend’s break up with you (bitch!), kids are up all night, Little League games, paper is due, tweaked shoulders, lower back is pissed, explosive diarrhea, not enough sleep, so on and so forth.
At the expense of over-generalizing, the mark of a good coach and trainer is being able to program on the fly when the unexpected happens. If your athlete or client walks in on any given day, and he or she twisted their ankle during practice yesterday; or, quite simply, they’re just out of juice, and it just so happens they have a heavy squat session that day, can you still give them a training effect even though you may have to change up the programming?
The answer, I hope, is a resounding yes.
Using an example from the in-service talk, how would you program for a 15 year-old pitcher who was just diagnosed with spondylolisthesis (and is in a back brace), but also has a “lax” (loose) shoulder on his throwing side?
Similarly, how would you program for a 40 year-old fat-loss client with a sports hernia?
[Cue Jeopardy theme music]
The point of this post isn’t to go into specific details on what those programs should entail (although I could do that in the future). Rather, the point I’m trying to make is that you can always train around an injury……always.
And, for the record, hang-nails aren’t an injury. Nor is a headache for that matter!
When writing programs for clients, try not to think about what they can’t do – but what they CAN do.
Doing so will make writing programs infinitely easier and will undoubtedly make you a better coach.
Left arm is in a cast? Well, thankfully, you still have a right arm you can train, not to mention an entire lower body.
Shoulder hurts? Stop benching three times per week for the love of god!, incorporate more close-chain (push-ups) and horizontal rowing variations, hammer scapular stability/t-spine mobility, front squat instead of back squats, and pick up a foam roller every now and then.
Tweaked lower back? Nix any axial loading for the near future, hammer single leg stuff and core stability, get some aggressive soft tissie work, and you’ll be back in no time.
Obviously, these are just simple examples and certainly not exhaustive, but I’m sure most get the idea.
And for those of you who have clients that bitch and whine no matter what you do with them, have them watch this video and see if they still can come up with excuses:
Outside of ebola, not training isn’t an option in my book.
I write a lot of programs. It goes without saying that I write programs for many of the athletes and clients at Cressey Performance; I also write programs for various distance coaching clients I have around the world; I write my girlfriend’s programs; and I even write programs for family and friends, too. Basically, I spend a lot of time writing programs. Big surprise, I know.
And, to be perfectly frank, sometimes, the last person I want to program for is myself.
Typically what ends up happening is that I’ll write a program to get my swole on, and while I’ll start with good intentions and do every exercise prescribed to a “t” – for a few days, atleast (maybe even a week) – inevitably I’ll start to tweak things.
Before you know it, what started as program “A,” turns into program “whateverthe****,” where I just revert back to exercises I know I’m good at, or that I like to do (it’s okay to deadlift five times per week, right?).
We all do it – and I’m no different.
So, when Mike Westerdal and Elliot Hulse contacted me a few weeks ago and asked whether or not I’d be interested in checking out their latest product, Lean Hybrid Muscle Reloaded,it couldn’t have come at a better time.
I needed a change, and as cliché as it sounds, it was exactly what I was looking for.
Sometimes, you just need someone else to do the thinking for you, and the fact that this program is written by two guys who are hella strong (and actually train people), only makes it more appealing to me.
So, that being said, what makes the program so great? How is it different than any other program you can find on the interwebz?
1. Concurrent Programming – in short, concurrent training refers to training multiple qualities simultaneously. Unlike, say, linear periodization (which focuses on ONE quality in any given training cycle), concurrent training allows the trainee to focus on several qualities at once, which I feel has a lot more carry over to the world of athletics and leads to better results in general.
2. “Hybrid” Training – as the name implies, this program takes bits and pieces from several modalities (powerlifting, bodybuilding, strongman, etc) and combine them into one balls-to-the-wall, no frills, kick-ass program.
As noted by both Mike and Elliot: what hybrid workouts do is take the best of everything, combine them into a single, cohesive strategy that gives us all the benefits, but leaves behind the drawbacks. As a result, you’re able to build muscle and get lean at the same time.
In layman’s terms, you’ll basically turn into a sexual Tyrannosaurus.
3. Miscellaneous Awesomeness – unlike some manuals you’ll come across with little to no detail on the programming side of things, Lean Hybrid Muscle comes with a pretty extensive video database which makes following the program that much easier.
Moreover, it also includes the Hybrid Diet Nutrition Plan, which includes, among other things, detailed meal plans ranging from 1900-3000 kcals.
Simply put, Mike and Elliot cover all the bases and have gone out of their way to provide a quality product.
But I’ve done enough talking. Head over to the Lean Hybrid Muscle Website and check it out for yourself!
1. Well, congratulations to the Green Bay Packers for a crushing win last night. And an EPIC fail goes out to me for falling asleep in the fourth quarter – I think I fell into food coma by the middle of the first half.
It goes without saying, though, that this was by far my favorite commercial of the night:
2. I made a cameo appearance at Mike Boyle’s 5th Annual Winter Seminar on Saturday, which featured Coach Boyle (obviously) and the one and only, Dan John.
To say that Dan John as been a huge influence on my career would be an understatement., and I’ll be the first admit that I felt like a giddy school girl when I walked in and saw him standing there in person.
Of course, both his presentations were brilliant – I mean, how can you not listen to a guy with well over 30 years of coaching experience under his belt?
I plan on covering the seminar in more detail later on this week, but I had to share the funniest line of the day.
We all know those guys who walk around with very impressive physiques, but ask them to do something as simple as skip, and it’s readily apparent that they don’t move very well – not a hint of athleticism. In fact, I’d pick them last if I were picking a kickball team.
Dan John shared a phrase that I felt hit the nail on the head:
Looks like Tarzan, moves like Jane.
I got a laugh out of that one.
3. And speaking of Dan John, after reading his latest article on t-nation, I decided to dedicate a day to ONLY carrying heavy things. Saturday morning, I got to the facility early to get a training session in before clients arrived, and I did the following:
I felt really good after this session, and it’s going to be interesting to see if it will help boost my deadlift up a little bit. To be continued………
4. While at the seminar I was able to catch up with a lot of friends and colleagues whom I haven’t seen in a while, but it was also nice to have a lot of new faces introduce themselves to me and know that people actually read my stuff. Surprisingly, one question that I was asked quite a bit was: “how do you write/blog so much?”
Truthfully: I’m just uncannily awesome, witty, and intelligent. But all kidding a side (even though I’m not kidding), I just make it a priority. As it stands now, I generally get up anywhere between 5-6 AM every morning to do work before I go to work. Generally speaking, I arrive to the facility around 10 AM every day, so getting up earlier in the morning allows me a few hours to catch up on programming, emails, reading, and blogging.
Even talking with Jim “Smitty” Smith over the weekend, puts things into perspective: he said that he stays up till 1-2 AM every night doing work. And this is AFTER coaching all day.
So, again, it comes down to priorities. Do you want to write or watch Amercan Idol?
5. Cressey Performance athletes have been getting a lot press recently.
HERE is a nice piece on both Omri Geva and Micah Goldberg as they attempt to re-build and eventually represent Israel in the Winter Olympics in the 2-man and 4-man bobsled team.
And HERE is a great feature on CP athlete, Tim Collins, as he makes a bid to earn a spot on the Kansas City Royals roster this spring. It’s a really great story, and Tim deserves all the success coming his way.
6. For all of you Born to Run fans out there (and I’m one of them, too), I watched a really great presentation in between slices of pizza yesterday by author, Christopher McDougall titled “Are We Born to Run?”. The guy is obviously a fantastic writer, but he’s also a very engaging speaker as well:
7. And lastly, as many of you know, I like to read, but one of the things that I regret most when I look back at mistakes I made as a trainer, is not reading more books on personal development. As it stands now, whenever I get emails from upcoming trainers asking me for advice, I tell them that for every book they read on blasting the biceps, they should also read a book on personal development/psychology/business.
To that end, I started another really fascinating book titled Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.
Why do we make certain decsions despite knowing better? I’m only about half way through, but this is easily one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. For those geeks out there that like behavorial economics, this book is legit.
First off, I need to take care of a minor housekeeping issue concerning the RSS feed. In the past week I’ve received numerous messages informing me that the RSS feed was acting funny.
In a nutshell, for all of you who used to subscribe to the old site via Google Reader, Feedburner, or JackedStrengthCoaches.com, you’ve probably noticed that you haven’t been getting any updates. Sorry!
Apparently when “we” switched over to the new site, the old RSS feed was lost. Bummer. Nonetheless, as much as I realize it’s lame and a major pain in the ass, old subscribers will have to use the new link (provided below) to re-subscribe:
Secondly, I want to share something with you that I feel paints a pretty direct picture on today’s Western Diet.
SPOILER ALERT: it sucks!
As many of you are well aware, my girlfriend spent the past ten days down in Colombia working as a consultant for an organization called Partners of the Americas in an effort to better ascertain how she can help improve youth sports development and coaching development.
She rocked it. They loved her. And, most likely, she’ll be invited back down on an annual basis (and bring me with her…..hint hint).
Anyways, while down there, she stayed with a host-family who, aside from adopting her as their own – introduced her to Colombian culture: language, dance, sport, drink, and of course, cuisine.
Now, to her credit, Lisa has been a huge influence on my ever growing food repertoire. Because of her I now consider things like kale, ginger, sprouts, garlic, and various spices (to name a few) a part of my weekly diet. In short, she eats VERY well.
Like most people, however, she has food intolerances that she’s had most of her life. As such, she knows what she can eat and what she can’t to keep things under control.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, when I say that things like bread,butter and cheese are on the “I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole” list.
Incidentally, guess what foods make up the staples of the Colombian diet? Exactomondo: bread, cheese, and butter.
As you can imagine, she was less than enthusiastic, but it was eithe that or not eat for ten days. A funny thing happened, though. Despite the fact that she was eating those foods with literally every meal, NONE of the issues she would normally encounter eating the same foods here, happened. Zlich!
Why is that?
While it’s only hypothetical, we both came to the conclusion that it was the lack of chemicals in the food. Yes, she was eating her fair share of butter, cheese, and bread, but you know what (?), she was eating REAL food. Everything she ate was either homemade or fresh. She also noted that the eggs where the brighest orange she had ever seen and the fruit (pineapple, mango, etc) was immaculate.
Alternatively, look at the typical American diet, wraught with a plethora of highly processed flour, meat, sugar, and manufactured “food like substances.” Oftentimes, it’s hard to distinguish whether we’re eating food, or a chemistry experiement!
I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I just want people to be more cognizant of the fact that what we put down out pie holes – even if you ‘think” it’s healthy, is still probably loaded with god knows what. At the end of the day, eating REAL food is probably the healthiest thing you can do.
YES!!! Kudos goes out to Men’s Journal for running thie piece. It’s always a good thing when the mainstream media isn’t afraid to give people a little dose of “tough love.” Here, the author is basically told he’s weaker than a baby’s fart, and that all the time he’s spent doing his “sport specific” training on a BOSU ball has been, well, worthless. In a nutshell, he has his “come to Jesus moment,” calls out the fitness industry, and it’s glorious.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Dan John, and this article is yet another gem by the man himself. So, the question remains: will I or won’t I act like a screaming 14 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert when I go see him speak this weekend at Mike Boyle’s annual MBSC Winter Seminar?? HINT:
