CategoriesCorrective Exercise Exercise Technique

The Missing Link: Changing Body Positions Could Spark Your Gains

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Texas-based personal trainer Shane McLean. Shane’s a regular contributor on this site so you know his stuff is top-notch and will be applicable to many of you reading.

Enjoy!

Copyright: siraphol / 123RF Stock Photo

 

When you were a baby (a long time ago for some) you loved lying on the floor and staring up at the world above.

If you wanted to go anywhere or were hungry, all you needed to do was cry and wail until your slaves came running to meet your every need. Life was so much simpler back then.

However, getting back on the floor and lifting, no matter how old you are, can spark new gains, work around niggling injuries and work muscles that you never knew existed.

Because lifting is not all about standing in front of the mirror to curl and grunt to your heart’s content. Yes, that means you excessive gym-grunter guy.

 

Let’s cover exercising from supine, tall kneeling and half kneeling positions and how lifting from those could be the missing link that’s needed to spark new gains.

Supine

This is lying on your back while facing upwards, like when you were a baby. We often lie supine after collapsing after a hard set or when you see someone on the floor crunching like a bat out of hell.

Please leave the crunching to the monkeys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tBOcFT1oTQ

 

However, lying and lifting from the floor can be a great core and upper builder as evidenced by the single arm floor press.

Single Arm Floor Press

 

This pressing variation will turn on your core and shoulder stabilizers due to the offset load that gets neglected during bilateral bench/overhead pressing. It’s also a shoulder saver because it eliminates the lower half of the press where the shoulder is externally rotated and where nasty things like shoulder impingements can happen.

If you want to take this up a notch and improve your numbers on the barbell bench press, try the barbell floor press. This improves your lockout strength as you receive no help from the bench or your lower body while pressing from the floor.

Barbell Floor Press

 

Let’s not forget about the back and shoulders which also play a part in pulling heavy from the floor, pushing heavy off the chest and giving you a great looking back that your friends will envy.

Check out this cool variation from Jordan Syatt that does all of this and more.

Pullover with Reactive Floor Press

 

Work your legs while you’re down there with the stability ball hip extension/hamstring curl. This exercise trains the hamstrings as a hip extensor and a knee flexor, which are its two major functions.

You’ll get more bang for your hamstring buck and they will love you for it afterwards, trust me. J

Stability Ball Hip Ext. /Hamstring Curl

 

This is great exercise for runners because the instability of the ball during the curl portion mimics the unevenness of the road while running, proving the stability ball is not a completely useless piece of equipment.

Tall Kneeling

 The tall kneeling position looks like this.

Photo courtesy of FunctionalMovement.com

The toes on the ground, knees underneath hips and the core, pelvis and glutes all turned on. This is the position that babies step up to after crawling on all fours to determine whether they have the balance to start standing up.

For the rest of us, the tall kneeling position will help with posture and balance because if anything is not working as it should, our pretty face will head towards the floor and none of us want that.

You should use this position if you lack glute strength or have poor posture or non-existent balance. If you cannot do an exercise in the tall kneeling position, chances are you won’t be able to do it standing without some sort of compensation.

If that sounds like you or you need a new lifting challenge, consider taking these exercises out for a test run. Your glutes will be pleased.

Bench Kneeling Overhead Press

 

If anything is off with your overhead pressing mechanics, this exercise will pick it up, if somewhat brutally.

You can regress this exercise by kneeling on the floor and using dumbbells because an appearance on America’s Funniest Home Video show can wait.

Tall Kneeling Lat Pulldown

 

This pulling variation is great for developing core stability and training the entire backside of the body. This is exercise is outstanding for people who are yet to do their first chin up as it simulates the core strength necessary to pull yourself up over the bar without any extra compensation.

Sorry CrossFit, this is a no kipping zone. Please don’t sue me.

He will be missed

Tall Kneeling Pallof Press

 

Pallof press is a great stand-alone exercise but adding some tall kneeling into the equation takes a great lateral core stability, anti-rotation exercise to the next level. You’ll be a core badass.

Half Kneeling

The half kneeling hip flexor stretch is usually the go-to stretch to open up our hip flexors which are always tight but that’s an article in itself, so let’s leave that alone and lift from here instead.

Lifting in the half kneeling position has many benefits. By lowering our center of mass we can move our hips and shoulders without too much compensation from the pelvis/lower back, which is godsend if you’re a suffer of low back pain.

With the narrower base of support, you’ll receive extra core stability and glute activation benefits, too. So doesn’t it make perfect sense to lift from this position? I knew you would see it my way. J

So kneel, lift and be great with these half kneeling exercise variations.

Half Kneeling Lat Pulldown

 

The 45-degree angle of this variation makes it more shoulder friendly than other vertical pulling exercises, so if shoulder mobility is a problem for you this exercise is perfect.

Half Kneeling KB Bottoms Up Press

 

Holding the Kettlebell bottoms up creates more tension in the arm through a process called irradiation. This gives you more strength and stability in the shoulder region which makes this a great exercise for people with shoulder issues or for those who want a break from barbell/dumbbell overhead presses.

Half-Kneeling Med Ball Rotational Throw

 

A common error with med ball throwing is gym goers using other parts of their body like the low back to create extra power, which is a big no-no. However, throwing in half kneeling position reduces this compensation and increases the reliance of the hips and core, which are the muscles needed for rotational power.

Wrapping Up

Whether you’re returning from long layoff, working around niggling injuries or you’re wanting to spice things up to spark your gains, getting back on the floor could be just what you need.

However, please don’t cry. You’re an adult now.

About the Author

Shane “The Balance Guy” McLean, is an A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer working deep in the heart of Texas. Shane believes in balancing exercise with life while putting the fun back into both.

CategoriesUncategorized

Coming in 2017: COREssentials

I’m excited to announce a new 6-week beginner course coming soon to CORE. I think it’s going to help a lot of people.

Copyright: leszekglasner / 123RF Stock Photo

You see there’s a bit of a conundrum if you’re someone who’s an inexperienced lifter.

You have one of two choices:

1. Join your local big box Globo Gym and get lost in the vast abyss of exercise machines and classes that you have no idea does what. Oh, look, that thingamajig that works the whatchamacallit.

 

2. Join your local CrossFit box and and play Russian roulette as to whether or not you’ll be able lift your arms over head or feel the right side of your face after two weeks.

Going the commercial gym route runs the risk of feeling like nothing but a number and you’re kinda on your own to figure things out.

CrossFit is unparalleled for the camaraderie and community component, but for beginners is often (not always) a bit intimidating, not to mention advanced for someone who’s not familiar with the barbells lifts or eating coconut oil out of the can.

NOTE: Both scenarios are slight over-generalizations, but not too far off from the truth.1

There’s very little out there dedicated to the beginner lifter who IS interested in strength training, but finds many of the options available to him or her either too little or too much. I’d like to fix that.

COREssentials

core-white

Your 6-week introduction to everything bodacious and badass.

The Deets

1. The course will be six weeks, meeting 2x per week in a group setting at CORE (~2-4 people per class), where the objective is to learn and hammer the basics, enhance movement quality, instill a sense of accountability and intent with training, and set the framework to make you more autonomous.

Address: 250 Cypress St. Brookline, MA.

The main coach will be Jarrod Dyke, however I will be involved with programming and cameo coaching appearances.2

2. There will also be a nutrition and mindset component, where every other weekend the idea is to sit in on presentations and have questions answered from a Registered Dietician as well as an Exercise/Behavior Change Psychologist.

  • Shannon Wheel, RD, CPT will take the reigns on the nutrition side of things.
  • My wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, will take the reigns on the mindset front.

3. It will serve as a wonderful opportunity to surround yourself with like-minded people and become a part of a community who’s sole purpose is to help increase your general level of badassery (and to not hip-hinge like a jack-ass).

4. Only 12 spots will be made available to start. And I’m not saying this to suggest a false sense of urgency or as a way to lure people in. I’m not kidding, only 12 spots will be made available.

5. Attendance subject to spontaneous rap battles.

The idea is to start around January 15, 2017. If you’re interested, please send me an email via the “Contact” tab (HERE) and I’ll put you on a list to get further information.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 12/16/16

Okay, which one of you nerds went to go see Rogue One last night? Without giving away any spoilers, on a scale of 1-10 (1 = being forced to give Jabba the Hut a sponge bath and 10 = owning your own X-Wing), how good was it?

Lisa and I are set to see it Christmas Eve and I can’t wait. And since I haven’t see it (yet) there’s no point in dilli-dalli’ing around: lets get to this week’s stuff to read.

Copyright: epokrovsky / 123RF Stock Photo

Stuff to Check Out Before You Read Stuff

Some of you may recall me mentioning a 6-week program I was going to run out of my studio, CORE, this past fall. Long story short: I mentioned it and then asked people to contact me via email if they were interested.

Little did I know that my Contact Me function on my website was being an asshole at the time and it never relayed any of the messages people had sent. I figured no one liked me and that I should just pack up and move to Milwaukee. Because, you know, why not?

Fast forward a few weeks and I suddenly had an epiphany and realized there must have been a glitch. I went into my dashboard on WordPress and low & behold I had 150 or so unanswered emails that had been sent my way that I never responded to. 10-15 of them were from people asking about the 6-week program. FML

Oh, before I forget, I need to answer a few here:

  1. Yes, Matt Damon, we can hang out.
  2. I’d love to have you sponsor the website Audi. You can send the car over next week.
  3. Infraspinatus.
  4. Preheat oven at 425 degrees. Let settle for 20 minutes. Enjoy.

Okay, thanks for waiting. So, back to this 6-week program.

COREssentials

I’m going to be starting a new 6-week “beginner course” at CORE starting in mid-January of 2017.

The idea is to champion FOUR things:

1. Building Autonomy
2. Building Accountability
3. Building Competency
4. Building Community
5. BONUS: to build you into one sexy motherfucker.

Okay, that’s five things…but hopefully you get the idea. The program is going to target beginner level lifters who may either be lost in their training – just kind of haphazardly piecing together workouts with no rhyme or reason – or who may be intimidated altogether. The goal is to build all of the above in addition to focus and purpose with training.

The Deets

START DATE: Mid-January, 2017. Likely Monday, January 16th.

1. Groups will meet 2x per week at CORE (250 Cypress St, Brookline, MA) in predetermined AM and PM time slots.

2. Sessions will be 60-75 minutes in length and each one will be supervised by strength coach Jarrod Dyke (I’ll being making cameo appearances as well and will be involved with the programming). The course will stress the basics – teaching participants various bodyweight, kettlebell, and (sometimes) barbell based movements designed to set the stage for continued success and growth (you know, that autonomy thing mentioned above).

3. There will also be a nutrition/mindset component as well. Shannon Wheel, a Boston-based Registered Dietitian, will be holding a few sessions throughout the course of 6-weeks covering nutrition as well as helping participants develop behavioral-based habits to compliment the training.

Too, my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, a behavioral and exercise psychologist, will be offering a mindset component designed to augment the process. She’ll tackle what goes on in our heads, and how to best curtail the roadblocks and negative self-talk that often hampers progress.

4. Weekly “homework/reading” assignments will be part of the process, along with email correspondence from the coaches to help keep participants on task.

5. There will also be a lot of EDM and 90’s hip-hop played (if I’m coaching anyways), and the likelihood of spontaneous dance or rap battles breaking out will be very high.

If you’d like more information for you or someone who may know in Boston who may be a good candidate for this program please use the “Contact” function HERE. <— It works this time.

And now this week’s list:

What the Top Fitness and Rehab Experts Are Doing Differently This Year – Mike Reinold

Was cool to be asked by Mike to contribute to this piece. Lots of very smart coaches detailing how they’re always still learning and trying to get better.

Egos in the Strength and Conditioning Industry: Written by Not a Male – Erica Sutter

Ever wonder what not to do in the industry to make a name for yourself? Erica provides some feedback.

Super Simple Guide to Writing Kick-Ass Training Programs – Chris Merritt & Todd Bumgardner

Been making my way through this product this week and it’s not surprising that I love it. Chris and Todd are two coaches I respect a ton and whom you should be listening to (if you aren’t already). There’s a reason why many coaches turn to THEM to make them better coaches.

Learn what it takes to become more efficient with writing effective training programs. Sale price ends this weekend. Go!

Social Media Highlights

Twitter

Instagram

Ain’t nuthin but a G thang.

A photo posted by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on

CategoriesCorrective Exercise Exercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Prone Hip Flexion-Extension

Admittedly today’s Exercise You Should Be Doing won’t win a “sexiness” award like, say, pretty much any deadlift variation would, or maybe a pistol squat3, or pillow-fighting. Truth be told it’s a relatively unexciting, mundane looking exercise, but whoa Nelly! does it humble even the meatiest of meatheads.

But first pillow fighting.

Copyright: dgm / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Don’t knock it: pillow fighting is an excellent way to address core stability, primitive patterns, appropriate scapular upward rotation, basic combat skills, (and every teenage boy’s fantasy).

Okay, in all seriousness…lets get to today’s exercise

Prone (Val Slide) Hip Flexion-Extension

 

Who Did I Steal It From: this exercise has its roots in many arenas, but the person I need to give the most credit to is strength coach Dan Hechler. I saw him use this exercise with a client of his a few weeks ago and really liked it.

UPDATE: Dan actually refers to this exercise as a glorified Mt. Climber. I need to figure out a catchy name for this one other than the one I gave it. I’m so lame.

Sliding Mt. Climber?

Mt. Climber McSuckington?

I don’t know, I’m lame.

What Does It Do: It’s challenging to pin-point what, exactly, I like most about this exercise. Of course most long-time readers know I’m a huge fan of push-ups. Yeah, yeah there’s that whole broken record diatribe on improving lumbo-pelvic-hip control and how I feel that’s one of the main advantages.

It still is.

However, what I also love about push-ups is their ability to allow people to reach. Meaning, pushing into the ground (reaching) to promote 1) better scapular movement and 2) more of a canister position so that the diaphragm and pelvic floor are more in line with one another. Promoting a position of alignment/stability is almost always going to allow people to express better movement and strength.

As you can see, we’re not performing a standard push-up with this exercise. Instead, there are a few other components at work.

1. We’re adding hip flexion-extension. The idea here is to work both hip flexion and extension simultaneously so that we can learn to dissociate hip movement from lumbar movement.

2. We’re adding in a full EXHALE. As a bring one leg into hip flexion I’m pushing/reaching into the floor as best I can while also performing a full exhale (which will help to maintain the canister position mentioned above).

Key Coaching Cues: Some cues I gave away above. Assume a strict push-up position with both feet on a pair of Val Slides or standard furniture gliders or even a slideboard. There should be no excessive forward head posture or lumbar extension (hips sagging). Inhale and as you bring one knee towards your chest, push into the ground with your hands and slowly exhale. The idea is to maintain a strict torso position and to limit any lumbar movement. Return back to starting position, again, controlled, and repeat.

I like to perform 3-4 reps per side.

This would be a fantastic progression for those clients with chronic low-back issues once they have conquered the plank. But I also like to use it with my “healthy” clients too as a way to make them hate life for a few seconds.

CategoriesAssessment coaching Motivational psychology Strength Training

How to Make Your Clients Super F***ing Strong (While Also Keeping Them Healthy)

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of one of my favorite people in this world, Todd Bumgardner. Todd’s a straight-shooter (if you couldn’t tell from the title of this post) and a coach I respect a ton. He and Chris Merritt started The Strength Faction not too long and the premise is simple: it’s strength coaching for strength coaches.

As coaches we tend to put the health and well-being of our clients before our own. However, The Strength Faction helps to bring levity to the situation by fostering a unique environment where a support network is put in place coaches get coached by other coaches.

Basically, you’re amongst your people.

I’ve personally been involved with the Faction myself – I’ve been invited twice to speak and perform a Q&A with the group in an online forum – and it’s been wonderful to see its growth and how it’s helped a litany of coaches improve their assessment, program design, and coaching skills.

Todd and Chris just released their new resource The Strength Faction Super-Simple Guide to Writing Kick-Ass Training Programs so you could get a taste and closer look for the systems they’ve developed over the course of 10+ years in the industry which have allowed them to get to the point of writing hundreds of (individualized) programs monthly in an efficient manner without ever sacrificing quality.

I know every coach hits a boiling point where writing programs becomes a major chore and time-consuming endeavor. Wouldn’t it be great to learn a system to better streamline the process, make it less task-intensive, while at the same time allowing you to do what it is you do best?…coach.

Wouldn’t that be something?

How to Make Your Clients Super Fucking Strong (While Also Keeping Them Healthy)

Copyright: subbotina / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Something crazy began to happen at the end of the last decade—getting strong was dubbed cool. And, as we approach the end of 2016, the coolness has gained popularity. Clients are approaching their coaches with objective, measurable strength goals instead of the traditional, I wanna lose fat from right here (points to body part), ambiguity.

Sure, we still get the body comp goals—as we should—and there are still a plethora of odd requests, but it sure is rad that people want to sling iron and kick ass.

In the spirit of helping other folks help other folks to hoist and reap the benefits, here are some tips to help you write training programs that kick ass, and make people fucking strong, while also keeping them in one piece.

Lower the Strength Volume

Holy simmering cat shit! We’re talking about strength and the first thing I’m telling you to do is keep the strength volume down? Yeah, baby, I am.

It doesn’t take grandiose training volume to make people strong—in fact many times we over do it in the name of strength volume while mistakenly sacrificing other qualities. I know because I made that mistake for years—hitting my own training ceilings far too quickly while also creating same, low plateau points for my clients. Reality is most normal folks don’t need a great deal of strength volume to get stronger.

On a three-day, concurrent training program, two strength-focused lifts, with eight to twenty-four total reps for each, are usually plenty. (I say usually because there are sometimes extenuating circumstances.) Precede the strength work with core and mobility work, and follow it with some energy systems development and you’ve given a lady or gent plenty of stimulus for strength, health, and positive change.

Use Concurrent Splits

While they may not have the same sexy appeal as advanced techniques like German Volume Training, or High-Frequency Strength splits, concurrent splits are the way to go when programming for general pop clients. Sure, super-specific training blocks may get our folks faster results, but their narrow focus doesn’t do our folks any favors in the long run.

Concurrent programming is more reflective of real life and helps folks accommodate stressors because none are toweringly more intense than the others. Making it more sustainable than block periodization. We can accentuate some qualities slightly more than others during training phases—and I bid everyone to do so—but maintaining all qualities throughout the training year does best to make our folks strong while also keeping them healthy.

During one phase per year, get a little strength heavy. During another bump up the conditioning volume and sacrifice the other variables. Use one training phase to include more load-free movement. But all the while train all of the qualities.

Educate Clients on Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)

A lot of folks don’t have a good concept of how hard they’re working—and they’re often not sure how hard they should be working. RPE solves that problem.

The common interjection is, what about percentage based training? Well, percentage-based training hinges on a one-day snapshot of a person’s nervous system that is extrapolated to the entirety of their monthly program. That dog just won’t hunt. RPE gives the client, and the coach, the ability to auto-regulate programs on the daily to match current training status, feeling like a bag of smashed assholes, etc.

Have that smashed asshole feeling? That’s great, back the RPE down today, champ.

RPE is also more educating—it gives folks the opportunity to ascribe a number to their subjective feeling. But what if they aren’t in tune with how hard they’re really working? We have to give them something a little challenging for them to sharpen their perception. When we push them to that point, we draw attention to it so that they can comprehend and internalize that feeling so that future training efforts have context.

At our Strength Faction-sponsored gyms (BSP NOVA in Dulles, VA and Rebell Strength and Conditioning in Chicago), as well as with our Strength Faction members, we use a simple RPE system that we borrowed from powerlifting coach Mike Tuchscherer. Here it is:

@10: Maximal Effort. No reps left in the tank.

@9: Heavy Effort. Could have done one more rep.

@8: Could have done two or three more reps.

@7: Bar speed is “snappy” if maximal force is applied.

@6: Bar speed is “snappy” with moderate effort.

Most of our work is done in the @7 to @9 range, with most of the strength sets done around @8 and assistance training @7.

Progressions, Regressions, and the Best Positions Possible

Our first job as coaches is to use our best judgment to put a person in the best possible position to be successful. It’s our coaching motto at BSP NOVA, and it would a great oath if fitness coaches were sworn in as doctors and lawyers are. The best position possible is an ideal that encompasses programming variables, exercise selection, and coaching’s psychological positioning.

Let’s think in terms of exercise selection. Our job is to choose exercises that put people in the best position to display their strength. For many folks the strength is in there, they’ve simply never been put in the right position to demonstrate it. That’s why progression/regression systems are so important—and why the 4×4 matrix is such a useful tool in constructing them.

Courtesy of Dr. Greg Rose

The body must feel safe and stable in order to generate force. If it feels neither, it employs a heavy governor that seriously limits nervous system output. So, if we ask someone to generate force from a position that they don’t “own” we’re doing them a disservice—there’s no way that they can optimally demonstrate their ability. People are often stronger than they realize—they just have to be put in the right positions to display their strength.

How about a hypothetical? Let’s use the deadlift/hip hinge as an example.

You program deadlifting for a client only to find out that they can’t dissociate their hips from their spine and round the ever-living bejesus out of their spine just to grab the bar. So, you decide to cut the range and elevate the bar. Rack pulls are the answer! But you try rack pulls only to find a similar, yet less offensive, problem. So you’re like, ‘goddamn, what do I do now?’

Well, you realize that gravity and load each pose a threat to the nervous system, so you decide to reduce the effect of both—you put your client on their knees and have them perform a handcuffed hip hinge (they hold a kettlebell behind their back and hinge their butt into it). Voila! They’re successful.

Note from TG: Here’s a great video of the standing handcuffed hip hinge by CSP coach Tony Bonvechio

 

They’re able to hinge well—moving at the hips while maintaining a relatively still spine. You’ve found the move that allows them to demonstrate their strength. Will they keep this move forever? Hell no. But at this point in time it’s the best place for them to be—for them to learn how to strongly move. And with time, and your coaching, they’ll progress to a more challenging hinge that suits their frame.

This is drastic case, but it’s a useful illustration. Progression/regression systems give us a simple, efficient means to put people in the best positions to train safely and develop strength.

Coach Toward Mastery

I take every chance I get to quote Dan John. He’s a good man.

I hope throughout my life I can give the world a quarter of the value that he has. He makes the profound simple and never comes from a place of superiority—he only wishes to share his experience. As our first guest on the Strength Faction QnA, he did just that.

He told us a story about a client that he was working with whose results were diminishing. When they had a conversation about the problems, the client said to Dan that it seemed as though he was getting bored when he wrote his programs. He was making too many changes. The client remembered that when he was making the best progress, Dan was keeping things simple, not doing anything fancy. He was making the minor changes that need to be made to challenge the body without the façade of circus tricks.

Dan quickly righted the ship and got his client back on the bath to mastery. After telling the story Dan impressed upon us the importance of coaching toward mastery—of not getting bored as the coach. In fact, he said, “Don’t YOU get bored.”

If we want to make our people strong, we need to make them good at lifting. Rather than a constant rotation of exercises parading through their programs, keep the productive staples and figure out how to load them in novel ways. As your clients grow in skill, they’ll grow in strength.

Make People Fucking Strong

This advice is, of course, not all encompassing. It’s the best I could do with 1,500 words. But if you heed this advice, and use it to frame your programming mindset, you’ll be on the right track toward making your people super fucking strong.

Super-Simple Guide to Writing Kick-Ass Training Programs is available now. Check it.

—> HERE <—

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 12/9/16

Hey guess what?

Only seven more days until Rogue One opens. I’m not excited at all. Nope, not me. No excitement here.

I do have to admit something, though, and it’s not going to win me any nerd cred. In fact, I may lose some.

I’m not going to go see it opening weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A

 

I know, I know…how can I call myself an avid Star Wars fan and not go see it opening weekend? What kind of nerd am I? What’s next? Saying The Hobbit trilogy is better than LoTR? That Pluto is, in fact, a planet? Or that I never thought about how could Superman possibly have sex with Lois Lane and not, you know, kill her?4

Here’s the deal: last year when The Force Awakens came out my wife and I practiced a degree of delayed gratification and held off seeing it until Christmas Eve. We treated it as an early Xmas gift to one another and then followed suit with an all-you-can-eat steak dinner at Fogo de Chao.

When you think about it that’s a pretty stellar evening, right? So when we knew Rogue One was coming out around the same time this year we decided it would be nice to repeat it. Because nothing says “Merry Christmas” more than X-Wing vs. AT-ACT Walker battles.

Stuff to Check Out Before You Read Stuff

1. The Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete

TODAY (12/9) is the last day to save $100 off this awesome product. There’s very little resources out there dedicated solely to developing the (complete) female athlete. Adam Feit and Bobby Smith (along with Mary Kate Feit and Dr. Sharon Wentworth) really do a superb job at breaking down everything from assessments and ACL prevention to developing linear/lateral speed to jump training to strength to power to E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G

It’s professionally filmed and there are also CEUs available to help add a little more value. But honestly, the resource itself is MORE than enough. You’d be crazy not to take advantage of this if you’re a coach who works with female athletes.

Check it out HERE.

2. Manchester By the Sea

 

Lisa and I saw this last weekend and loved it. It’s heartbreaking, but the sprinkling of comedic relief (mostly via interactions between Casey Affleck’s character and his nephew) provide for a well-rounded experience. This is definitely in my top-5 so far this year, and I don’t really see it being nudged out in any way.

If you get the opportunity to see it, I’d highly recommend it.

And now, lets get to this week’s list of stuff to read.

The Sneaky Adductors – Julie Read

This is a little bit of an older post (from this past June), but I came across it this past week and have been impressed with Julie’s work. I can appreciate her sense of humor and writing style.

Her info is spot on, but what’s even more impressive is her art-work. It’s amazing. The cool thing? If you join her newsletter you can get access to all of her prints. I’m going to print them all out, frame them, and put them up in my gym.

Should Personal Trainers Give/Receive Gifts During the Holidays? – Tim Henriques

This was a very thorough breakdown of what can be an awkward or dicey situation for some trainers and coaches out there.

Note to my clients: the answer is yes. Yes, trainers should receive gifts. Especially in the form of beef jerky and/or all expenses paid trips to where ever….;o)

What to Eat During the Holidays: Be Human, Win the Week, & EAT IT ALL – Chris Hitchko

My Yahoo homepage is flooded with stories left and right about how to go about “managing” the holidays with regards to food consumption.

Chris reminds us that restricting yourself isn’t the path to happiness. Eat what you want.

Social Media Highlights

Twitter

Instagram

The latest edition to CORE. A subtle reminder to patrons on bathroom etiquette…?

A photo posted by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on

CategoriesInterview

Becoming a Brick Shit House 201

A few weeks ago I interviewed Pat Davidson during the re-release of his stellar training system, MASS. It’s one of the most effective (and brutal) training programs out there that makes people into beasts, and I have yet to come across anyone who hasn’t gotten amazing results if they happened to survive…;O)

Copyright: rudall30 / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Pat’s kinda intense. But also one of the smartest and most well-read coaches out there. When I asked him to do an interview originally I had an inkling he was going to go off, but had no idea he was going to go off as much as he did.

His interview included one of the best rants ever. It was also one of the most read interviews ever on this site. What can I say: people love rants. You can check it out HERE.

I wasn’t able to squeeze all of what Pat had to say into one piece, so I decided to omit a section to keep in my back pocket for a later date.5

Enjoy!

CategoriesCorrective Exercise mobility

A Better Lower Body Warm-Up: Hybrid Drills for the Win

I don’t know about you, but whenever I have squats or deadlifts on the itinerary it always takes me just a liiiiiitle longer to warm-up.

Copyright: spotpoint74 / 123RF Stock Photo

 

There are a lot of moving parts to performing each lift safely and at a high level; much more so than compared to upper body counterparts such as the bench press or chin-up/pull-up.

This is not to say upper body movements don’t require warming up or attention to detail, they do. However, when all else is equal I find upper body movements lend themselves to a little more of a lackadaisical approach compared to lower body movements. Admittedly, it’s 100% anecdotal on my end, but it’s more common to see people walk into a gym, mosey on over to the bench press area without much of a song and dance with a warm-up, and pretty much get right into the nuts and bolts of their workout than it is to see the same person walk in, start deadlifting, and not be leaving five minutes later because their spine just flipped them the middle finger.

Plus, lets be honest: if there’s ONE thing you’re going to omit from your training session for the day when you’re in a rush (or because it’s a Wednesday) it’s your warm-up. You skip it, I skip it, your friends skip it, there’s no point in pretending we’re all warming up 100% of the time. Heck, I’d be surprised if most people did it 50% of the time.

As a fitness professional the warm-up is a bit of a catch-22. On one hand I can’t deny it’s importance. People are too tight, too stiff, too loose, or 2 legit 2 quit.7 The warm-up serves as a fantastic way to hone in on any “correctives” that any one person may need to address whether it’s any of the above or inhibited glutes, immobile hips and t-spine, and/or general movement malaise. Moreover, the warm-up serves as a way to increase body temperature, joint lubrication, and CNS up-regulation.

It’s here, during the warm-up, we can attack movement dysfunction and better set people up for a productive training session.

On the other hand, people can be handicapped by the warm-up. As in…the warm-up becomes this drawn out, overly dramatic “thing” to the point where some people spend 45 minutes on a foam roller hitting every inch of their body and/or performing an inordinate amount of mundane correctives before they even touch a dumbbell or barbell. To which I am always quick to say:

“Get off the f***ing foam roller. That’s why you’re always hurt.”

Nevertheless, I tend to fall on the “better to do it than skip it” side of the fence. Albeit something I have been toying with of late with my own training and that of my clients is using more combo or “hybrid” drills to help expedite the process.

Take a lower body day for example where squats or deadlifts are on the agenda.

Glute Bridge w/ Rotation

 

Key Notes

  • Addresses both glute activation and t-spine rotation/mobility
  • Careful not to go into excessive lumbar extension at the top. “Feel” your glutes fire and then make sure when you rotate to one side you move everything as one unit.
  • You should feel a nice anterior hip stretch on the contralateral side (if you rotate towards the right, you’ll feel a slight stretch on the front side of the left hip).

1-Legged RDL to Cossack Squat

 

This is climbing the ladder as one of my “go to” hybrid drills as it accomplishes a lot.

Key Notes

  • Try to get the backside as long as you can – reach both forward with your arms and back with the moving leg.
  • Try to prevent any hip rotation – toe of moving leg should point towards the floor and to the midline.
  • “Soft” knee on standing/supporting leg.
  • Idea of Cossack squat is to sit BACK into the hips. ROM will be limited in some people, so don’t worry if you cannot get to the ground at first; use what ROM you do have available.
  • Heel should be down and it’s okay to point the toes of the straightened leg up towards the ceiling.
  • If you have to use your hands as support for the first rep or two or for the entire set, that’s fine. Eventually, the idea is to be able to perform with using your hands.

Bear Squat

 

Key Notes

  • Start in a “deep squat” position. Push knees out with elbows to help get more hip abduction and make sure chest is UP or “tall.” T-spine extension is important.
  • Walk out making sure not to “collapse” the shoulder blades. Try to push away from the floor. This will help with a little serratus activation.
  • The walk out also helps with anterior core engagement (never a bad thing), and at the same time you’re also getting a fair bit of ankle (and big toe) dorsiflexion into the mix as well.
  • Try not to allow your lower back to sag or torso to teeter-totter. Pretend as if there’s a bottle of water (or battery acid) on your back and you don’t want it to spill. Ouch.
  • You can also up the ante by adding an overhead reach component before you “bear crawl” out, like so:

Just a Taste

There’s obviously an endless parade of exercises I could showcase here. But hopefully these give you a little taste of a few you can implement prior to a lower body session that’ll help speed up your warm-up yet target many of the problematic areas most people need to hit prior to hitting squats or deadlifts hard.

Give them a try and let me know what you think.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 12/2/16

Lets talk movies for a second. Because, why not?

Copyright: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

 

We’re smack dab in the middle of the time of year where most of the studios release their “Oscar bait” movies, and there’s still a ton of them I need to see. My current “to see” list includes:

  • Manchester By the Sea
  • Moonlight
  • Denial
  • Jackie
  • Allied
  • Sharknado 17
  • Elle
  • Fences

Anyone reading see anything listed? Thoughts? I was reflecting, though, on what have been my favorite movies I’ve seen so far this year?

In no particular order: Hell or High Water, Arrival, Green Room, Jason Bourne, Morris From America, Sully, Don’t Breath, The Invitation, and, while I haven’t seen it yet, do you really think I’m not going to put Rogue One on this list?8

 

What are some of your favorites you’ve seen in 2016? Looking forward to anything in particular?

Stuff to Check Out Before You Read Stuff

1. I’ve been really enjoying the Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete. As noted in yesterday’s interview with one of the coaches involved, Adam Feit, there aren’t many resources out there dedicated to the female athlete, so it’s been refreshing (and, admittedly, eye opening: there’s a lot of cool stuff in there) to dive in.

 

If you’re someone who works with female athletes you’d be crazy not to give this resource your attention. It’s currently on sale for $100 off the regular price. Check it out HERE.

2. I’m attempting to start the process of planning my 2017 travel schedule. I’ve had a few people reach out expressing interest in inviting me to their location to put on a workshop. There’s a slight monkey-wrench coming to fruition this coming January with a baby on the way, but I still have every intention of traveling if or when the opportunity presents itself.

So, whether you’re looking for a Tony G show, a Tony + Dean (Somerset) event, or even a Tony + Lisa shindig (Strong Body-Strong Mind), please shoot me an email.

3. I wrote what I think is a pretty good article for Men’s Health recently on mistakes a lot of people make with fat-loss programs.

In short: they should be called MUSCLE-RETENTION programs. You can check that out HERE.

4. Anthony Renna invited me onto his new Stop and Give Me 20 Podcast. Short and sweet (and awesome).

Give it a listen HERE.

Lets get to this week’s list.

10 Things I Learned in 10 Years as a Kettlebell Instructor – Dan Cenidoza

Even if kettlebells aren’t your bag, you’ll still gain a lot of insights from this article.

What You Need to Know About Your Athletic Daughter – Mary Kate Feit

A sorta “PSA” geared towards parents who are on the fence about their young daughters lifting weights or doing anything in the gym that doesn’t involve an elliptical machine.

The Ultimate Guide to Landmine Presses – Nick Tumminello

I always love Nick’s perspective and innovative way of thinking. I wish my brain worked like his.

Social Media Highlights

Twitter

Instagram

My fitness roots. In the summer of 1996, after my freshman year of college, I came home for summer break and was pumped to hear that a gym opened up in my hometown of Groton, NY. Prior to that the only access to weights I had was my high school’s gym that was more or less a dungeon. The Groton Fitness Center was my first gym home and foray into expanding my fitness horizons. I remember picking the brains of the older jacked guys who trained there, one of which told me to start putting raw eggs into my protein shakes. I totally did it. It was also the place where I was introduced to EDM. One of the bodybuilders who trained there listened to it when he worked out, and I always made sure to workout at the same time. This is where Tony’s Techno Tuesdays began. You’re welcome @cresseysportsperformance. It was also the gym where I’d perform all the T-Nation.com programs I’d come across. In many ways it was the place that allowed me to plant the seeds of what I was to become as a fitness professional. Lots of personal history happened passed that red door you see in the picture. It was such a treat to stop by today to get a lift in and to reminisce. I’m sure many of you also have a sacred gym space you adore. I hope you do.

A photo posted by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on

CategoriesUncategorized

Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete

I gain a lot of satisfaction training females and I have long championed the approach that, contrary to much of the mainstream, they can (and should) “train like the boys.” You know, in the gym, using barbells and stuff.

Copyright: lyashenko / 123RF Stock Photo

 

In my eights years as a coach at Cressey Sports Performance (and now, at CORE in Boston) I work with female athletes and non-athletes alike on a weekly basis and try my best to encourage them to push the barrier, focus on performance-based goals, and aim higher. I don’t treat them like delicate flowers and I don’t make it a “thing” that they don’t have an Y-chromosome.

Training is training regardless of sex.

With regards to training female athletes, though, it’s surprising how barren the resource-scape is. There aren’t many options out there. Which is why I am elated that Adam Feit was willing to discuss his new resource Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete.

I’m starting to make my way through it now, and it’s excellent so far. I’ve already filled several pages of notes in my notebook, and my female clients are totally going to hate me (more) soon.

Enjoy the interview.

Tony Gentilcore (TG): I find one of the more common mistakes coaches make with training female athletes is assuming that because they’re a female that they HAVE to train differently then men. I find this to be unfortunate. I feel it sets a bad connotation from the get go and sets the standard that “girls don’t train like boys.” 

Do you agree?

Adam Feit (AF): 100%. In fact, that’s why we created the Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete. Coaches will realize “Hey! That doesn’t look so far off with what I do with ALL my athletes.”

complete-guide-to-training-the-female-athlete

Every athlete needs to squat, bend, push, pull, plant, pivot, rotate and turn. Squats are squats and deadlifts are deadlifts. (And you love deadlifts, don’t you Tony?)

Everyone needs to apply force quickly, stay healthy and sustain their performance over a period of time.

When we first started RYPT almost five years ago, we thought we were going to be “lights out” with football players. Just like how every aspiring fitness professional is going to ONLY work with professional athletes, amirite?

Bobby and I were both All-Americans in football (<—Note From TG: yeah, well, I once held my high-school record for most innings pitched and shut-outs in a season) and I had spent my entire career with football strength and conditioning.

But guess what? The football players trained at school with their position coaches. They weren’t ALLOWED to actually train with someone who knew what they were doing.

But you know who was? Females.

I have coached in NINE different states in my 10 years of coaching. I have never lived in an area (Monmouth County, NJ) where female athletes dominate their sport and get as many college scholarships as they do here.

And with that, comes the increased risk of injury and our role as performance coaches to prevent those injuries from happening or transition them back on the field again.

But what we’re most proud of at RYPT is how we’ve created a community for female athletes to come in, train hard and FEEL the results. 80% of our clients these past five years have been female. Is it the training? Maybe. But I think it’s more.

It’s about improving their self esteem, mental strength and developing them into physical monsters.

TG: I couldn’t agree more on that last point. The empowerment and “freedom” that develops in female athletes when they’re coached well (and not treated like delicate snowflakes) is amazing.

All that said, we’d be remiss not to recognize that women don’t need to train differently then men (but sometimes they should). What ARE some of the particular things to take into consideration when training female athletes? 

AF: With 3500 youth female athletes trained at RYPT thus far, the biggest things we have noticed have been loading progressions, emphasis on the posterior chain, and prioritizing the single leg.

What I quickly noticed was that our female athletes simply didn’t handle the traditional model of progressive overload as well as my male athletes. Forget percentages, readiness questionnaires and velocity tracking. They couldn’t increase their training load week to week and maintain form, speed and most of all, confidence.

Was another 5-10 lbs worth it on our last set, gambling on them failing and shattering their confidence as they began weight training?

Many times I have seen an athlete crush a set at a particular weight only to not hit a single rep with five additional pounds added on the following set. Instead of pushing more weight each and every set, we have adapted our training cycles to work on increasing volume throughout the set cycle. This form of volume accumulation allows us to still overload the athlete but in a safer manner.

Note From TG: that last point by Adam is what I mean when I talk about building a wider base (of volume) to reach a higher peak. I explain HERE.

So rather than simply going up every set, we’ve learned to keep the working weight stable for a few weeks at a time and crank up the volume through increased reps and or sets to build that confidence and get some serious work done.

Second major point is the cold hard truth of a few things that female athletes have to deal with that their male counterparts don’t have to worry so much about.

You know–just your typical quadriceps dominance, anterior pelvic tilt, more lax ligaments, and wider Q angles…

Oh, and up to 9x more likely of tearing an ACL.

Because of this, we’ve hammered the posterior chain into our warm-ups, activations and strength training work each and everyday to balance out the compensations and establish proper movement patterns needed for deceleration, re-acceleration, strength development and injury prevention.

Everyday at RYPT, we’re working a variation of a leg curl, hip lift or RDL exercise to ensure our females can recruit the right musculature to stop, slow down and speed up.

Lastly, we can’t forget the importance of the single leg.

Think of almost every jump, step, run, and swing. It almost always happens on one leg.

At RYPT, we use a variety of linear, lateral and rotational split squats and lunges in the warm-up to prepare for loaded movements later in the program. Like our double leg training, we attend to each variety of movement pattern, hip and knee dominant, as well as pushing and pulling exercises.  The variety of exercise selection exposes athletes to moving in a variety of planes and through a number of different motions that also improve their awareness of their body in space. That understanding of how the body moves is helpful when the athlete is faced with a decision or a situation in a game or contest.

On Day 1: we focus on progressing our athletes into single-legged RDL variations, focusing on their proprioception and force production. This comes towards the end of the workout after we have already performed our major double leg push for the day, which is usually some sort of squat variation.

On Day 2: we focus on an auxiliary single leg push movements with variations of split squats, rear foot elevated split squats, lunges and step-ups.

On Day 3: depending on the level of the athlete and season of the year, we will perform either another double or single leg push exercise as a primary strength movement. For most beginner athletes, we start off with the hex bar deadlift and transition into a loaded barbell split squat or lunge as they get close to their competitive season.

TG: I love it. Not many things jazz me up more than seeing young female athletes breaking barriers and not relenting to lame societal norms.

I love all my athletes, but I do find training female athletes to be easier at times. They often seem more “coachable.” Can you shed some light on this phenomenon if you agree? And if you don’t I’ll just shut up…..;o)

AF: Female athletes flat out care. I worked four years in college football and one year in the NFL. I can count on one hand how many thank you cards I got from all the schools I worked with and the players I helped develop.

I’ve lost track of the amount of gifts, thank you’s and emails I’ve gotten from working with our females here at RYPT. Going from nothing to all of this really made me believe that I was making a difference in their lives.

But besides caring, female athletes are in fact more coachable. Because of their limited experience in the weight room, they have no bad habits to break. You’re not fighting the hip thrusting bench press bro or the wicked high squat sorriness like you do with most youth male athletes. I almost NEVER have to tell a female athlete that the weight is too heavy and she needs to go down. Female athletes WANT to get better and they WANT to do it right. They actively seek out our coaching and want to make the most out of their opportunity with us while they can.

TG: Okay, cliche time…but it’s needs to be asked: What are the most common mistakes or “myths” you come across when the topic of training female athletes arises?

I’m going to repurpose a great article my wife Mary Kate wrote for us last year here talking about these very issues:

What You Need To Know About Your Athletic Daughter

I’ve got the best spouse in the world. Not only was she a Division I soccer player and former college strength coach, the woman is STRONG and gets pissed when she doesn’t set a PR or gain muscle. She is the epitome of “female” strength and someone that our staff, as well as all our kids at RYPT, look up to (especially our own two little ones at home).

Remember, as coaches, we have not just the ability, but the responsibility to educate and empower our clients to become better people. Dispelling myths, trends and fads are only a few of the battles we face when working with today’s female athlete.

Complete Guide To Training the Female Athlete

More than ever, female athletes are playing sports and striving to win a scholarship.

They’re sacrificing quality training time with sports performance coaches like us to play another season of AAU basketball, club soccer and showcase softball.

So we’ve got to do OUR part and educate and empower coaches and parents alike to not only help athletes reach their potential, but also prevent them from LIMITING their potential due to injury. While we cannot prevent all injuries, experience and education have shown us we can certainly have a major hand in preventing many of them due to inadequate strength and body control.

If you’re looking for a complete system for training today’s female athlete, we hope you’ll consider the work we’ve done, the programs we’ve developed and the female athletes we have helped–3500 and counting.

Complete Guide To Training the Female Athlete is on sale NOW for $100 off the regular price. Go HERE and get better as a coach and to better serve your athletes.

training-female-athlete