CategoriesAssessment coaching Exercise Technique rant

Why I Dislike the American Kettlebell Swing

To any overly patriotic or political zealots out there who may have misread, note the title does not say “Why I dislike America.”

To everyone else, notice too that the title doesn’t say “I hate the American kettlebell swing.”

Hate is such a strong word anyways; more appropriately reserved for things like Hitler, ebola, global warming, Gwyneth Paltrow playing the role of a health & fitness authority, poodles, and skinny jeans.

Oh, and side walk solicitors.1

No, I dislike it. Or maybe, “mildly need to resist the urge to jump through a glass door whenever I see it done.”

But not hate.

I’ll explain why below.

What’s a Kettlebell?

It first may be prudent to get some particulars out of the way. Like, for instance, explaining what a kettlebell is in the first place?

Well, that’s what’s Wikipedia is for:

The kettlebell or girya is a cast-iron or cast steel weight used to perform ballistic exercises that combine cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training. They are also the primary equipment used in the weight lifting sport of girevoy sport. Russian kettlebells are traditionally measured in weight by pood, which (rounded to metric units) is defined as 16 kilograms (35 lb).

In other words: it’s one of those “cannonball with a handle” looking thingamajigs that you see all those people at your gym pushing, pulling, hoisting, and tossing every which way in an effort to 1) perform a legitimate exercise such as a swing, get-up, snatch, clean & press, Farmer carry, amongst many, many others 2) perform an exercise that makes absolutely no sense for its intended design and/or use.

Like this:

Although, giving credit where it’s due, this is kind of badass. Albeit from a cost-benefit standpoint I see little upside.

And 3) to look cool. <— Research backs this up.

Kettlebells are a very useful piece of equipment, a piece of equipment I use often with my own athletes and clients, but I do find some people take an elitist attitude towards them to the point where things like barbells and dumbbells are considered obsolete or inferior (which I feel is an absurd stance to take).

It’s a minority take, but a take nonetheless.

The Kettlebell Swing

Splitting the conversation further is the swing; one of, if not the most popular exercise performed with a kettlebell.

FMS and Strong First instructor, Brett Jones, showcasing the Russian Style (and I’d argue, correct) swing.

I’ve written several articles in the past expounding my take/approach to the swing and I’m not going to belabor my point(s) here. If interested you can peruse THIS, THIS, and THIS article. We can high-five later.

I’d also encourage you to seek out information from the likes of Dan John, Dr. Mark Cheng, Jen Sinkler, Neghar Fonooni, Gray Cook, and Iron Body Studios (Artemis Scantalides and Eric Gahan):

 

All the coaches/peeps mentioned above advocate the “Russian” style swing as opposed to the “American” style. To which I say, “Samsies.”

What’s the Difference?

Russian Style = less ROM, more vodka.

American Style = more ROM, because, why not? And, America!

 

There are adamant supporters in both camps, and both make solid cases for why their style is the style everyone should be using.

And, as far as internet pissing contests are concerned, it’s an “argument” that ranks right up there with the low bar squatters vs. high bar squatters, steady state cardio vs. HIIT cardio, meat eaters vs. vegetarians, and you better bet your ass this calls for a Rocky vs. Drago reference.

I have to say, though, the “American” advocates have a far less stellar rationale (it’s just my opinion of course) for their style.

Let’s discuss shall we?

My Case Against the American Style Swing

I posted the following question on Twitter yesterday:

Little Help: can anyone provide benefits/advantages for the “American” KB swing?

I received this well-thought out response (which made me chuckle):

“Looks more hardcore in METCON.”

However the bulk of responses fell in the line with:

“To practice the movement for CrossFit competition. Sport specific practice, in essence.”

“It is measurable in the context of the bell has to be fully extended overhead to be a rep is the only thing I can think of.”

It’s hard for me to counterpoint that train of thought. I get it, I respect it, and I can appreciate any “specificity” that’s involved. You don’t get better at swimming by riding a bike just like you don’t get better at American style swings by not doing American style swings (for competition).

CrossFit competitions are one thing (and even then, why?). Where I feel things get dicey are for those CrossFitters who don’t compete and when personal trainers/coaches start using the American style with their regular clientele who, again, don’t compete and more importantly, have poor movement quality…all because they watched the wrong YouTube video, or Jillian Michaels DVD.

Mind you, there are plenty (not a lot) of people who can perform an American style swing and not make my corneas bleed.

It’s a learned skill just like any other exercise – with a right way and wrong way to do it (I think) – and I’m sure it’s not too hard to find passable images on Google.

However, lets not kid ourselves…most people who do it end up looking like this:

Or this:

Maybe it’s the cynical coach in me speaking, but all I see is forward head posture, excessive lumbar extension (both primarily compensation patterns for limited shoulder flexion mobility; or the ability to get your arms over your head, and lack of lumbo-pelvic-hip control; or limited anterior core strength/stiffness), and a local physical therapist salivating.

And who knows: maybe the pics taken above were rep # 117 of a WOD, where technique is bound to take a hit. Either way, my back hurts looking at it.

I am not at all against people training overhead.

I just feel the vast majority of people need to earn the right to do it.

(Check THIS out for more details on that front).

Many people just don’t have ample enough shoulder flexion and/or lumbo-pelvic control to get their arms overhead without blatant compensations and (potentially) serious ramifications down the road – much less be competent enough to add load and repetitions (unfortunately, usually both).

Someone was kind enough to link to THIS article on Twitter written by CrossFit serving as a rebuttal to everyone else’s rebuttal that, for 90% of people 90% of the time, the American swing, and I’m paraphrasing here, fucking stupid.2.

See! An example of a better, “passable” American swing where the hips get through into more terminal extension. Understandably the criteria for a CF competition isn’t to get the hips through, it’s just whether or not the arms get overhead.

From the article itself:

“On first being introduced to the kettlebell swing our immediate response was, “Why not go overhead?” Generally, we endeavor, somewhat reflexively, to lengthen the line of travel of any movement. Why? There are two reasons.

The first is somewhat intuitive. We don’t do half rep pull-ups, we don’t do half rep squats, and we don’t do half rep push-ups. If there is a natural range of motion to any movement we like to complete it. To do otherwise seems unnatural. We would argue that partial reps are neurologically incomplete.”

I’ve already pointed out my disdain for assuming everyone can train overhead. It’s just not true, and I applaud any CF box or affiliate who take the time to properly screen their clients beforehand to better ascertain who can and cannot perform movements overhead…safely.

Shout-outs to Coolidge Corner CrossFit and CrossFit Resilience (two boxes I know screen their clients).

I almost shit a kettlebell when I read that second paragraph.

First off, every gym does half rep everything. Walk into any gym, anywhere, and you’re bound to see people “cheating” their lifts. Some lifts warrant partial reps – block pulls, Anderson squats, board presses, etc. There’s a ton of efficacy for partial ROM lifts, typically to address a technique flaw or weakness in one of the “big 3.”

But I’m sorry, CrossFit isn’t anything special, needs to be held to the same litmus test, and recognize that people cheat their lifts just as much there as in any other gym (commercial, collegiate, private, or otherwise).

All of that comes down to coaching anyways.

Secondly, You don’t do partial rep pull-ups?

Um, what the hell are kipping pull-ups then? They’re certainly not full- ROM. Puh-lease.

 

Here’s another doozy from the same article:

“From physics we know that the higher we lift something, and the more it weighs, the more “work” we are performing. Work is in fact equal to the weight lifted multiplied by the height we lift the object. Work performed divided by the time to completion is equal to the average “power” expressed in the effort.

When we swing the kettlebell to overhead, the American swing, we nearly double the range of motion compared to the Russian swing and thereby double the work done each stroke.”

Who says you have to increase ROM (and do more work) to make an exercise better? It’s the American way I suppose. We work more, take less vacation, and are otherwise stressed to the gills because we’re a-holes like that.

More is better, right?

With the swing – as with more conventional exercises like the bench press, squat, and deadlift – it’s not (always) about how much more work you can do (by increasing ROM) to make it better or harder or more effective. With the latter examples it’s about doing LESS work to improve efficiency and to take better advantage of one’s unique anatomy and leverages.

This is why many coaches advocate a low-bar position when squatting or why we tinker with deadlifting style to get the hips closer (laterally speaking) to the bar. Some do better with conventional deadlifts while others do better with Sumo. It depends.

Lastly, with regards to the American swing being more “powerful” compared to the Russian style I’ll defer to THIS excellent post by Mike Young on why that’s not the case.

I’ve also seen it argued that the American swing produces more force due to the increase in ROM. Sorry, but force output is more about forward motion, not up (the bell actually slows down the higher you go).

Not to mention – from a personal standpoint – I feel there’s more room for error with the American style swing. Taking compensation patterns and physical limitations out of the discussion, the increased ROM often lends itself to the bell traveling well below the knees for most people, which can lead to much more “stress” to the lumbar spine – something I’d like to avoid altogether.

Although the KB snatch is very similar, so I guess the real culprit is one’s ability to “clear” the hips and get overhead.

Additionally, I’ve heard stories of people losing the bell overhead, where it ends up flipping over and the bell falls.

In the End

This is not an attack on CrossFit or any coach who uses this particular style – relax. Far be it from me to tell any coach what he or she should be doing with their clients. If they want to coach their swings American style, have at it. They have their reasons.

It’s also not about pandering to which style is right or wrong. However I do feel the Russian style is more optimal and a better fit for most people. Why fix what isn’t broken?

All of this is my opinion – one it’s hopefully coming across in a respectful, “huh, that makes sense” kind of way – and as with anything in this industry the right answer as to whether or not the American style swing is a good fit for you is…it depends.

It depends if you compete in CrossFit. If so, I get it. I guess.

It also depends on whether or not you have the requisite shoulder flexion and anterior core stability to go overhead. Most people don’t.

It also depends on the cost-benefit. I argue there’s little upside to performing it. It does make your METCON finisher look more hardcore. Yay?

Categoriescoaching personal training

Where Fitness Professionals Go Wrong When Training Women

Anyone’s who read TonyGentilcore.com for any length of time knows I’m passionate about a number of things:

1. Deadlifts

2. Beef Jerky (or any dead animal flesh really. Except eel. Or octopus. Or snail. Basically it needs to have legs if I’m going to eat it).

3. Star Wars3

4. My Cat

5. Helping to reverse the toxic trend predicated by the mainstream media that women shouldn’t (or worse, can’t) strength train and/or lift appreciable weight.

I’ve tried my best to do my due diligence to fight the good fight and to take on the role as an ambassador who advocates for women to lift heavy things, and to shed light on the absurdity that they should refrain from it.

Posts like THIS (where I pwn Vogue Magazine), THIS (where I speak to the main stream media’s message towards women), THIS (where I highlight a few of my favorite “go to” women’s sources), and THIS (which is hands down the most popular post ever in this history of this site) help to elucidate my thoughts on the topic.

Of course, I’d be remiss not to mention the overall “tone” conveyed by the media in recent years has relented and has gotten a bit less vomit in my mouthish – in no small part to the popularity of CrossFit and sites like Girls Gone Strong.

To speak to that point, recently I let it be known that I left Cressey Sports Performance to pursue other opportunities and that I’m now training people at a small studio space in Boston.

NOTE: I will be updating my services page soon, but if you’re interested in getting more information – where the studio is located, the basic format, what the cost is, as well as the secret handshake involved to get in – shoot me an email (via the contact page).

As such, I’ve had numerous people reach out to discuss working with me, some of which have been those from out of town with future travel plans to Boston.

Today I wanted to share an interaction I’ve had with a woman who lives near the NYC area.

From her first email:

“I’m in desperate need of a trainer. Since July I have tried two different local trainers (Nyack, NY) and I am really not happy – lots of light weights, no emphasis on compound movements (and when I insist we squat, deadlift or bench they never even discuss form/technique with me and just let me do whatever I want).

They tell me things like a body part – even glutes – can only be trained once a week, I should be eating only tilapia, broccoli, and six almonds, and I want to just run screaming out of the gym.”

I wrote back saying how sorry I was she had been having such bad experiences working other trainers and that I hoped I could try to break the trend.

After a few more emails back and forth she sent this gem:

“I still have several sessions with my current trainer which is driving me nuts because he says things like “people – and especially women – can’t build muscle after the age of 40” and I’m 50, building muscle, and really don’t like to hear I can’t do something especially when he has no evidence to back this up.”

I wrote back:

“What’s up with this guy? He’s pretty outdated in his train of thought. Is he living in 1919? Does he expect you to make him a sandwich? No, wait, he still thinks women can’t vote, right?”

Alas, sadly, this is the type of information (and message) that’s being relayed to women from fitness professionals – not all of them – who should know better.

The exchange got me thinking on where many (again, not all) fitness and health professionals go wrong when it comes to women and fitness.

1. Catering the Toxicity In the First Place

You see the messages all the time on magazine covers when you walk through a checkout line at a grocery store, and can’t help but feel saturated by WTF’ness of it all:

“Lose 1o lbs Fast. Without Dieting!”

“Get a Lean and Sexy Figure With These 4 Moves.”

“How To Get Toned for Summer.”

“The New Low-Carb, Guilt Free Diet Food: Sawdust!”

I understand marketing and know full-well that words like “strength, squats, muscle,” and “it’s going to take more than a month of dedicated, consistent, hard work to get the results you want” won’t sell women’s fitness magazines.

But come on: as a fitness professional you should know better than to pander to the BS.

And it’s not only fitness professionals – personal trainers and strength coaches – who are to blame. I’ve heard stories of FEMALE high-school athletic directors and coaches dismissing strength training for their FEMALE athletes because, to quote one of them:

“There isn’t any female-friendly equipment for them to use anyways.”

What the what??????

Mind you this was in reference to a very well equipped high-school weight room that had 6-8 full power racks and platforms.

The “female friendly” equipment she was referring to were treadmills, ellipticals, and pink colored frisbees for all I know.

That’s a hell of a crappy message to be conveying to an entire demographic of impressionable teenagers. The guys can use the squat racks; you ladies should be over there on the cardio equipment.

Chop, chop…off you go!

I for one like to educate my young female athletes and adult woman clients on why strength training is a good thing, and how it can empower them to accomplish many things outside of sports.

Although, admittedly, I prefer to get every woman I train to “buy” into more performance based goals rather than focusing on losing 10 lbs or trying to emulate an unrealistic, photoshopped societal expectation on the cover of a magazine.

It’s amazing how much of a confidence boost and overall sense of accomplishment that arises when a woman I work with finally hits a bodyweight deadlift (for reps), destroys her previous best on push-ups, or can do something as baller as this:

 

Rather than continuing to pick the scab and telling a female athlete or client what they can’t or shouldn’t be doing based off archaic, out-dated, and overall damaging information regurgitated by a complacent media, why not instead help them to explore the amazing opportunities, autonomy, and empowerment strength training provides?

I dare you.

2. Thinking Women Need To Train Differently In the First Place

Men have boy down there parts.

Women have girl down there parts.

It’s a big difference, but it doesn’t mean that because you have one instead of the other you need to train differently.

Actually, scratch that.

I don’t mean that entirely.

Need and should are two different things.

I don’t feel women need to train differently than men. I mean, the human body is the human body. The female body reacts to progressive overload in much the same way the male body does.  And, quite frankly, as a fitness professional, I don’t want to set the expectation that women should train “x” way while men should train in stark contrast to that.

I very much treat the women I train like the guys, and I think most – whether they realize I do this or not – appreciate it.

However, I do feel women should train differently.

What the what???

To put it another way: women should train differently compared to men, at times.

As an example, hormones do play a major role here. When a woman his having her period I can’t hold her to the same (performance) standard compared to other times outside that window. She’s going to feel like garbage (<– for lack of a better term) during this time, and I’ll almost always reduce her training volume to coincide.

Moreover, a lot of research (and anecdotal experience) backs up the notion that women don’t get sore as easily, are less quick to fatigue, can handle more training volume compared to men (maybe due to less overall muscle mass?), and that they can train closer to their 1RM more periodically comparatively speaking as well.

As we like to say in Boston, “how you like dem apples?“4

NOTE: for more information and insight you can check out THIS webinar I recorded last year on the topic.

3. Trying To “Win”

“But I don’t want to get big-and-bulky.”

Whenever I heard a woman say this to me in the past whenever I broached the words squat or deadlift I used to always try to “win” the argument.

Well, first I’d roll my eyes and then jump into a live volcano. And then I’d try to win the argument by countering with something like this:

 

Mind you, I still LOVE the above commentary, but I have since rescinded this approach to a large degree.

Why?

In large part because it doesn’t work and does nothing to build a meaningful, initial rapport with a prospective (female) client.

Don’t get me wrong: I still play devil’s advocate at times and relay to some that, contrary to popular belief, you won’t grow an Adam’s Apple overnight because you happen to lift something heavier than 50 lbs.

Likewise, I let it be known that saying you’re going to get big and bulky from strength training is like me saying I’m going to win the gold medal in the Olympics because I went out and did some sprints yesterday.

But I digress.

Instead of going on and on about women’s limited testosterone levels and how they’ll never attain the results of elite female bodybuilders, yada yada yada…I steal a page from local Boston-based trainer Lauren Perrault, dig deeper, and ask more questions.

“Why do you feel strength training will make you big and bulky?”

“Is this something that happened in the past?

“What exercise(s) in particular do you feel cause this?”

Maybe their train of thought projects that of a trainer they worked with previously. Maybe they never took the time to learn nor where they shown proper technique. Or, I don’t know, maybe they have a hard time letting go of certain myths and think the Abominable Snowman exists.

Either way…

Sometimes it’s more helpful to take some time to peel back the onion and to ascertain someone’s root cause for thinking they way they do, rather than chastise them out of the gate for the sole purpose of proving them wrong.

Categoriescoaching

The Low Bar Squat

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Thomas Campitelli, a Starting Strength Coach and one of Mark Rippetoe’s lead lecturers for his Starting Strength Seminars.

A Brief Backstory: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away Back in early September, Cressey Sports Performance coach, Tony Bonvechio, wrote THIS article for my site explaining some of CSP’s general philosophies with regards to squatting (and in particular some useful drills to help people squat deeper).

A disagreement followed. An internet scuffle if you will.

(You can read the article then peruse the comments section if you’re curious.)

It seemed some people took issue with Tony’s view on torso angle during a squat. It was interpreted – falsely – that Tony was against a forward lean (which he is not). He, I, and the rest of the CSP staff just prefer that people not fall forward – and “fight” to try to maintain more of an upright torso  – when coming out of the hole.

NOTE: much of the fault was my own. I had used a picture – without permission – from a Starting Strength seminar showcasing what I believed to be proper depth for a squat (Tom, the author of the article below took the pic). Given some of the messages in Tony’s article, however, and the fact that Starting Strength takes a slightly different approach (maybe 5-10% different) to the squat, some people were irate. And that’s their prerogative. Upon request I took the picture down, but it did open up the floodgates for a few commenters on what I felt, was a non-issue.

For his part, Thomas chimed in and he and I were able to keep things civil without ad hominem attacks or making fun of each other’s moms.

He offered to write a guest post to elucidate more on his side of the “debate.” I was down with the idea because 1) I’m awesome and 2) I feel it’s important as a fitness professional to stay cognizant of insights or opinions that may not necessarily jive with mine. Too, I feel it’s important to relay good information – whether I agree with it 100% or not – so that people reading can make up their own mind(s). 

This is an excellent read.

The Low Bar Squat

The barbell squat is a foundational lift for the acquisition of total body strength. Although the squat can be described as “sitting down and standing up again,” its performance with a heavy weight is both physically and technically challenging.

There are three main variants of the barbell squat: the front squat, the high bar back squat, and the low bar back squat. Leaning over during the low bar squat helps to make the movement more effective. Further, for most purposes and trainees, the low bar squat should be your movement of choice.

Strength is your ability to exert force against an external resistance. It is the most general and fundamental of any human physical or athletic characteristics. Everything you do with your body requires force production at some level and without adequate strength a given physical task cannot be accomplished.

If you wish you train for strength, the movements you choose should embody the following criteria:

  • Utilization of the most muscle mass possible
  • Employment of that musculature over the longest effective range of motion
  • Usage of the heaviest weight you can handle with good form

By combining these elements together, you can become stronger in a way that is unrivaled in its effectiveness.

The low bar squat fully meets these criteria.

Let’s begin the discussion of how to do it.

Where you place the barbell determines a number of things about how you squat, specifically how much you will lean over during the movement. Forward lean in the squat is a misunderstood concept and one that is often equated with poor outcomes–injury, inflexibility, lack of athleticism, and hurt feelings– none of which need actually occur.

Every squat variant utilizes some inclination of the torso with respect to the ground. In the low bar squat, leaning over is fundamental to the movement. It is not a form fault. Instead, it is desirable–an expression of good technique that allows you to meet the criteria above.

To squat a weighted barbell safely, you must be in balance. The center of mass of the barbell and your body’s center of mass must be directly in line with your balance point–the middle of the foot.

If you move the bar down the back so that it sits in the shelf formed between the contracted posterior deltoids and spines of the scapulae, this will affect what you do to stay in balance. To keep the bar over the middle of the foot, you will need to lean over as you descend.

How much you lean over depends upon the relative lengths of your torso, thigh, and lower leg to one another. These relationships, called anthropometry, and how much forward lean is required will vary from lifter to lifter.

If you move the bar about two inches up the back so that it sits on top of the trapezius, as is done with the high bar squat, the amount you need to lean over is less than before. Further, if you move the bar in front of the neck so that it rests on the anterior deltoids, as is done in the front squat, the torso angle is more vertical yet. You cannot lean over very far in a heavy front squat, or you will dump the bar on the ground.

These differences in torso angle affect joint angles and how the muscles must act to produce motion around those joints.

Placing the barbell lower on the back requires an active contraction of the musculature of the upper back and torso to hold it in place. Leaning over on the way down also elongates the adductors, or the groin muscles, and hamstrings in ways the other squat variants do not. Muscles only produce motion around the joints through contraction, or shortening.

If groups of muscles are already shortened, they cannot be as effectively used to extend the hip during the ascent of the squat. Leaning over produces more leverage against hips as the torso acts like a wrench against the hip joint.

In order to maintain the normal anatomical relationships between the vertebrae and avoid flexion, the erector spinae are called into hard isometric contraction. By keeping the pelvis locked in place with respect to the spine and driving the knees out, the forward lean elongates the adductors while preventing the hamstrings from shortening during the descent of the squat. The inclination of the torso required by the low bar squat forces the lifter to utilize the most muscle mass possible.

The bottom of the low bar squat occurs when the adductors become fully elongated. For just about all people, this happens when the crease of the hip descends below the top of the knee cap by approximately one to three inches.

Full depth in a properly done low bar squat is determined not by powerlifting judges, but by anatomy.

Going deeper, such as continuing to descend until the hamstrings touch the calves, will force some of the musculature to relax when performing a low bar squat. The knees will travel further forward, shortening the adductors and hamstrings, or the spine will flex as the pelvis rotates downward.

Perhaps some of both will occur.

In either of those cases, you lose control of your back position and probably your back angle, too. Muscles shorten without moving the weight up and tightness is lost. This violates the first criterion mentioned above. Going too deep in the low bar squat requires some relaxation and therefore prevents the full utilization of the musculature.

Safety and efficiency align perfectly here.

When the muscles do not manipulate the skeletal levers effectively, poor positioning results. Spinal flexion and relaxation under a load are the frequent results. Good technique not only allows you to lift more weight through the recruitment of the most muscle mass, it also keeps you safe.

This is why the second criterion above uses the qualifier “effective” when describing the longest range of motion. You do not want to sacrifice muscular involvement in the squat for a slightly longer range of motion. You need to go below parallel.

Every time.

However, you do not need to touch your hamstrings to your calves if doing so necessitates relaxation and poor positioning.

There are volumes more to say about squatting and low bar squatting in particular. However, this is merely an introduction. Leaning over in the low bar squat is both essential and beneficial.

It allows for the most muscle mass to be used over the longest effective range of motion. This enables the lifter to handle heavier weights and to increase their physical strength both efficiently and safely. Next time you perform a low bar squat, lean over while keeping the bar in balance over the middle of the foot.

You will be doing it right.

About the Author

 

Thomas Campitelli is a Starting Strength Coach and photographer who lives in Oakland, CA. He is a lecturer and platform coach for Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength Seminars and travels throughout the North America and Europe teaching others to lift. When not on the road, he maintains a barbell training practice at CrossFit Oakland where leaning over during the squat is encouraged.

Categoriescoaching Interview

A Candid Conversation With Mike Robertson

Whenever I get the chance to listen to other coaches speak or to watch them in action, I’m always locked in. I sit with bated breath and intense concentration as I listen to him or her’s train of thought on everything…

…in addition to listening to how they cue certain exercises and coach up their clients and athletes.

Mike Robertson is one of those coaches. He’s high on my “bring a notebook, bring a pen, shut the eff up, and listen” list.

I remember reading his articles on T-Nation back in the day and thinking to myself “I’m totally picking up what he’s putting down. Samsies!”

And when I finally met him in person, when he came to Connecticut for a weekend to stay with Eric and I as he and Eric were planning Magnificent Mobility (watching it now they both look like they’re 16), I just knew he was someone I’d stay in contact with for years to come.

And I have.

Mike and I have been good friends for over a decade now, and he’s still someone I learn from and respect a ton. Plus, he has impeccable taste in old school hip-hop music.

Mike teamed up with one of the most ginormous human beings in the world, strength coach Joe Kenn, to film the Elite Athletic Development 2.o seminar.

It’s amazing.

But more to the point: it’s a 12 DVD set where Mike and Joe talk about program design, periodization, exercise technique, and how to develop your own training philosophy (and what they actually means).

It’s a sound investment for any personal trainer or coach to add to their continuing education arsenal. And, it’s on SALE this week at $100 off the regular price.

Mike was kind enough to take some time to talk some shop and answer some questions. Enjoy!

TG: Joe Kenn is a massive human being. Is his gravitational pull more powerful than the moon?

MR: You know back in the days when he was powerlifting, they called him “Big House” for a reason.

But ever since I’ve known him, he’s been pretty damn lean and pushes himself in the gym. And with his injury history it’s impressive to see him do what he does on a day-to-day basis. Respect.

TG: Elite Athletic Development 2.0 is going to entice a lot of athletes due to the title. But after watching the videos I know full well that the bulk of the information applies to your every day gym rat/meathead/goddess too. 

 Can you elaborate on why “training like an athlete” will help the average gym goer?

MR: Great question, and this is really at the core of my overall philosophy. In fact, I tell everyone who trains at IFAST that when they step in our gym, they are going to be the best athlete they possibly can.

I think most people get too focused on the singular quality of “strength” – and trust me, I get it.

I competed in powerlifting for many years, and in a lot of ways, still think of myself as a powerlifter.

But I also think you can make training infinitely more fun, and your body much healthier, when you focus on all the qualities of athletic development.

An athlete has to be fast, powerful, strong, conditioned and mobile. If he/she lacks any of these qualities, then their performance will suffer.

If you train all of this in the gym, you’re going to be pretty darn awesome in real life, so it just makes sense to me.

TG: I couldn’t agree more. It amazes me how many adults have lost the ability to do something as simple as skipping.

Your R7 System is pretty fucking brilliant. One thing I feel is hindering many fitness professionals is PRI (breathing drills). I know you and the rest of the coaching staff at IFAST are in the same boat as us at CSP. We both find a lot of efficacy in it, we both use it, but we also know that people need to freakin train!

Breathing drills, in simplest terms, helps “reset” the body. Can you briefly explain this?

MR: Yeah I’m not shy about the fact that I love PRI, but like anything, if you want to learn more about it go the source.

Too often, people learn about a system via the zealot who bastardizes the system, and then assume that everyone who uses the system “does it that way.”

Not true. But I digress…

To make this incredibly simple, too many of us struggle to exhale, and thus live in a position of “system extension.” To see what I mean, try this:

Take the deepest breath in you possibly can. If you’re like 99.9% of the awesome people out there who strength train, then chances are you extended your back to a degree to get the air in.

So this system extension isn’t an awful thing when you’re trying to fun fast, jump high, or lift heavy things, but it’s also associated with the sympathetic response (fight-or-flight).

When you’re training, this isn’t bad – but so many of us struggle to get out of this and we’re locked in sympathetic mode all the time!

I could go really deep into this, but the inability to breathe (and more specifically, exhale) never allows us to shift the parasympathetic dominate (i.e. rest and digest – RECOVER).

Breathing, and the ability to not only exhale, but to inhale from an exhaled position, can help reset our body. For training purposes, it can open up mobility in the hips and shoulders by improving core stability and position.

But the even bigger benefit is the fact that by doing this at the end of a session (or before bed), you can really shut your system off and kickstart the recovery process.

I think that’s the biggest benefit of all this – we love to talk training, but proper breathing starts the discussion with regards to proper recovery.

TG: YES! Thank you. If I could hug you right now I totally would.

Deadlifts. You know I have to pick your brain on this. With any movement I tend to take more of a “less is more” approach when coaching it. I know you feel the same way. Can you give us your top 3 coaching cues/tips for the deadlift?

How about the squat?

MR: Absolutely man. I’m actually trying to streamline all this so people are getting a similar message across movements.

So these three would work for both the squat and deadlift.

1 – “Exhale, inhale, brace.”

The exhale sets proper position, the inhale allows you to breathe 3D (into front, side and back of your core, and then the brace seals the deal.

2 – “Feel the whole foot,” or simply, “whole foot”

I think this is a big one, and it cures damn near everything.

If someone gets too far forward, it gets them back towards their heels.

If they get on their heels, it gets them back on their forefoot.

And if they have a tendency to supinate or pronate, it cleans up frontal/transverse plane issues.

Note from TG: give THIS post a read on Active vs. Passive Foot (or “whole foot” as MR alludes to).

3 – Push

This one is simple – if I cue someone to “push” then we get balanced (and well-timed) movements at the hip and knee.

What you see all too often is that the hips shoot up, and puts the back in an awful position to finish the lift.

By cuing someone to push, it improves timing and fixes a lot of stuff.

TG: Conditioning. It’s a double edged sword. Where do you feel most athletes (and average gym goes) go wrong with it?

MR: I think there are two main camps out there:

1 – The people that do none, ever, and

2 – The people that only go balls out, all the time.

The people that do none are doing themselves a disservice – it’s negatively impacting their recovery, health, and ultimately, their quality of life.

But people that go balls out all the time aren’t much better. They’re essentially driving themselves into sympathetic overload, and then wondering why they can’t recover, why they aren’t making progress, or why they’re always injured.

I think there’s definitely something to be said about the middle of the road here. Not everyone needs to be as conditioned as a soccer player, and I’m not saying you need to go out and train like an endurance athlete, either.

But a little bit of true aerobic development can go a long way.

TG: Speaking of aerobic development, like yourself I’ve become more and more aware that I was a tool bag for dissing steady state aerobic work for so long in my early years as a coach.

Can you explain to my readers why implementing more of it will help them in the weight room?

MR: Great question, and yes, I absolutely made this mistake early-on in my career.

We talked about sympathetic overdrive above – and high intensity (anaerobic development) is tied to sympathetic dominance.

On the other hand, if we want/need the able to access our parasympathetic nervous system, then we can use low-level aerobic development to help stimulate that process.

Now here’s the cool thing – that aerobic development will help us in several ways:

  1. We’ll be able to do more (and recover from) more training volume,
  2. We’ll recover faster in between sets,
  3. We’ll recover faster in between training days,
  4. The improved parasympathetic drive will allow us to truly shut our system off, which will improve systemic recovery.

It may sound counterintuitive, but I feel as though improved aerobic development can do a lot for us both in and out of the gym. That’s why I’m such a huge proponent of it these days.

TG: Legit answer, thank you. 

Do your low intensity aerobic work everyone!

Finally, movies: Favorite ones you’ve seen lately? 

MR: Moment of truth here – I’m jealous of your ability to see new movies every week. I was a huge movie buff as a kid, but family, work, and life just seem to get in the way!

These are a bit random, but here are some of my recent faves:

Ex Machina – Defiinitely a cool plot, and I love sci-fi so I thought it was cool.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi – Joe Kenn told me about this one. It’s a documentary but it shows what it takes to be truly excellent at your work.

And just to show how totally out of the loop I am, I have DVR’d V is for Vendetta – just looking for time to watch it!

Elite Athletic Development 2.0

Two of the best strength coaches in the biz sharing with you what’s helped make them successful and how they go about making people into BEASTS in the weight room (and on the field).

It’s quite impressive to listen to Mike and Joe talk. And all for the price of what it would cost to go to a nice steak dinner for two.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

Categoriescoaching

How To Get the Best Out of Your Athletes and Clients: 4 Points For Better Coaching

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of my good friend and phenomenal strength coach, Todd Bumgardner.

Enjoy!

A few moons ago I was a promising high school football player. Quarterback offensively and a defensive utility man. I was good enough to get recruited by schools from D3 to the lower D1 levels—eventually settling on a tiny speck in Williamsport, PA named Lycoming College.

Don’t worry, ladies and gents —this article isn’t going to be a metaphorical showing of my letterman jacket patches. I’m just setting the stage.

I played football, and attended college, in rural, Central Pennsylvania—one of the greatest places on earth. Humbly stated, of course. But for its beautiful ridges, rivers and creeks, it’s also backwards in its ways. People that didn’t grow up here are often thought of as “strangers”, and good coaching often means simply being hard on someone until they rise to an occasion.

In the late 90’s and early 00’s it wasn’t strange to see a kid get ripped around by his facemask after a practice blunder. A few times, after royally fucking up, I was taken on the facemask merri-go-round. I usually responded.

Being hard on me worked.

During my junior year I was the personal protector on the punt team—a position reserved for linebacker/safety types. One particular fall day I didn’t have my shit together, and the 230 pound maniac I was responsible for blocking kept whooping my ass—he nearly drove me into the punter 4 or 5 times.

My coach gripped my facemask, brought his person a few inches from mine, and gave me the business in all kinds of ways. I’m pretty sure I just finished washing his spit out of my eyes. I’m 29 years of age.

But I stepped up.

During the next snap I sprinted at the line like a man on fire and planted my facemask in my foe’s solar plexus. I figured it’d be tough for him to block a punt if he didn’t have any air in his lungs. I was right. I also earned pat on the back and what I’m pretty sure was a concussion. And though I responded, it doesn’t mean his approach was optimal.

Tough Love Isn’t For Everyone

Not every kid handled that type of coaching. My team was loaded with kids that were physically tough. They busted their asses in practice and in the weight-room. They played with zealot enthusiasm on Friday nights. But screaming at them was counterproductive. It either evoked contention or shut them down. Neither reaction was productive for the team, nor the individual.

These kids were often labeled “pussies.” Being the ever-aware and observant youth, I noticed it—but it didn’t seem like a good enough explanation to me. I didn’t know what to do; hell, there wasn’t anything I could do. Besides I was still trying to figure out what to do with all the boners I was getting.

The past ten years of coaching experience, as a strength coach and a sport coach, along with multitudes of continuing education has taught me what to do.

It’s helped me develop a coaching paradigm that I use daily and speak about regularly. It comes in four parts and will profoundly impact the way you interact with your clients. It starts with finding the bright spots and ends in celebration.

Find the Bright Spots

90% of the coaching battle is keeping people open and receptive to what we have to say. But, unfortunately, trainer and coach behavior doesn’t always reflect that.

Show of hands:

How many of you have heard someone immediately begin coaching someone by saying something to the tune of:

“No, no, no. Stop. That’s not it.”

You know, or something corrosively negative.

Second show of hands:

How many of you have done it?

I have.

Guilty. As. Charged.

Note From TG: Yep, me too.

What happens? People clam up.

Immediately finding fault puts someone on the defensive.

We know this, and have known this, for a long time. It’s in the first chapter of How to Win Friends and Influence People. But, as coaches, we’re the punishing hammer that buries the nail. Our job is to find, and correct, fault—so we hop to it.

Here’s the bright reality—it’s rare that someone is performing every part of an exercise incorrectly. They are doing something right. Find that something and tell them about it.

Let’s pose a hypothetical.

Your client/athlete/boyfriend/girlfriend/boyfriend’s girlfriend just finished a set of goblet squats. Their foot position blew, but they did a great job creating upper-body tension. Try saying something like this:

“I loved your upper-body tension, that was great, keep it up! But we need to work on your foot positioning…”

It shows that you want to level with them, that they’re not fucking everything up, that your relationship doesn’t hang on the contingency of them doing everything right. This makes them willing to listen to you.

Find the Bright Spots First

Clearly Identify, Succinctly Communicate

Clearly Identify

Clear identification starts with knowing what you’re looking for. I can’t teach you that in a blog article—it comes from experience. From squatting a lot of times and from watching other people squat that many times. Extrapolate those numbers to every other major exercise and technique you use.

But to effectively, and succinctly, communicate what you want, you have to know what you’re looking for. Learn the patterns and learn how to identify issues.

I can, however, tell you that it helps to work from big to small. See a pattern, then break down the idiosyncratic deficiencies.

Succinctly Communicate

Say as little as possible. If you don’t have to talk, don’t.

Let’s consider what’s happening in the world of the trainee while a coach is watching.

They’re feeling the social pressure of wanting to please you.

They’re telling their body to do something.

They’re body is telling them what is actually happening.

There are noises.

They could potentially have a bathroom emergency.

That’s a lot of info to deal with at once. Dashing a bunch of your sentences into that cognitive soup does more harm than good.

Time for another hypothetical—you’re coaching someone intra-set and need to make a correction. What do you do?

First, try to find a solution that doesn’t involve your words.

Nick Winkelman talks about creating an environment in which the athlete coaches themself. Do you have RNT (reactive neuromuscular training) techniques that can fix the problem? Can you alter the environment safely so the client automatically responds and “coaches” themselves into correction?

If you have to use words, keep the count down. And base those words off of simple cues you introduced early in the training process. One or two words based on information they already relate to make coaching effective. If you don’t have a list of common cues that you teach people immediately, get that list started, fool.

Clearly Identify, Succinctly Communicate

Cue Externally

When I was in college there was a local “speed coach” that screen printed “Fire Your Glutes!” across the back of his promotional t-shirts.

He was creepy.

Not only was he creepy; he was doing it wrong. Body party cueing, in a performance situation, is a bad move. This is another Nick Winkelman gem.

Cueing: Lats! Glutes!—whatever body part you so choose—during an exercise creates cognitive dissonance that decreases performance. The result is more confusion, less force.

The reasoning follows suit for that of succinct communication: load the processor with too much info and you get diminishing returns. Folks spend time trying to identify the muscle that they want to perform rather than performing the exercise.

Direct your cues to objects outside the body like the floor, the implement they’re lifting, the finishing position.

Cue Externally

Dramatically Reinforce Success

We claim stoicism, but we’re all emotional. We learn, change and grow mostly because of emotion, not logic.

Successful coaching relationships also require some kind of attachment. This means people that we influence have to like us in some way, shape or form.

Team sport coaches get results with the respect and not like paradigm, but that doesn’t work as well for personal coaches. People don’t have to spend money with us. Besides…no one ever said that the respect without like paradigm was optimal.

How do we make use of this knowledge? We emphatically celebrate client success.

One of your clients, let’s call her Rhonda, just nailed the rack pull for the first time. Put on your party pants and celebrate! Ladle excitement into your voice. Jump like a Rhesus monkey. Fist bump. Slap hands. Do something emphatic.

Creating an emotional event helps Rhonda remember what she did—emotion imprints the cerebellum with info. She’ll be a better rack puller from now on. The event also strengthens the bond between you because she sees how authentically you care about her. Get ready to be happy, because compliance just jumped through the roof.

Beyond those two points, aren’t we in this to help people realize awesome shit about themselves?

Dramatically Reinforce Success

Four Simple Things

Tomorrow, when you coach, be aware of your coaching in relation to these four simple points and lay this paradigm over your current practice. Keep the expectations high, people will rise to them, but there’s no need to grab a facemask.

About the Author

Visit his website HERE.