CategoriesInterview Program Design

Even More Becoming a Brick Shit House

Pat Davidson is the best interview on the internet.

He developed one of the most badass training programs in recent memory – MASS – a few years ago, and the interview(s) he and I did – Becoming a Brick Shit House HERE and HERE – were the most popular in this site’s history.

Well, he’s back. This time to discuss his sequel…MASS 2.

If you want to skip the foreplay and get straight to business…you can click THIS link to purchase. However, I’d encourage you to read the interview because you’ll want to punch through a brick wall after the fact. That, and there’s a special offer at the end for a discounted price only available to reader’s of this site.

Lets get to it.

Copyright: spotpoint74 / 123RF Stock Photo

Even More Becoming a Brick Shit House

TG: Okay, obvious question: What’s different in MASS 2?  The original MASS program was a beast. I know many coaches and people who followed it with great success. What’s different about MASS 2?

How much (more) will it make people hate life?

Who’s the target demographic?

PD: What’s different about MASS 2? MASS 1 was my version of writing the most stupid program I possibly could. It was originally written for an intern at Men’s Health who had never lifted weights before and wanted to put on as much mass as possible in 16 weeks.

I wasn’t going to be able to coach this intern on a day to day basis, but I knew I would have to give him feedback. To be able to give him more accurate feedback, I started doing the program with him. I put the video of a couple workouts on social media and people started asking about them. I sent the program to some prominent coaches in our field, and they started doing the program, and they started posting videos.

Men’s Health was going to do a story on the intern, because he gained a ton of muscle on the program and they were going to name it best new program of the year.

I figured I could make some money out of the situation, so I turned the program into a book, and the MASS concept was born. The book got out into the world, and people started to have great results from it. I had to really start thinking about why the program was so effective for so many people.

My conclusion was that it made people do more mechanical work in less time than they were doing before, so it was an overload, and that the game like structure of the workouts was incredibly motivating for people and made them increase their effort.

The other major factor is that it forced people to be more consistent with their lifestyle factors. The workouts were so hard and punishing that people ate better food, more of it, got more sleep, drank less alcohol, etc, simply to reduce the punishment of the workouts…physiology drives behavior.

MASS 1 features the same workout four days a week for four straight weeks. Like I said, it’s kind of moronic…don’t get me wrong, there’s some brilliance in the simplicity, but it’s also wicked dumb too.

To me MASS 2 is real deal training. It’s the kind of program I would write for myself (it is what I write for myself).

MASS 2 takes lessons learned from MASS 1, and then flips the script on you a little bit, because rather than doing the same workout four days per week, there are four different workouts on the four training days each week.

MASS 2 uses a heavy day, a light day, and a moderate weight day kind of approach, and therefore trains different physiological pathways associated with strength, power, and hypertrophy. There are no easy days in MASS 2, rather different kinds of suck thrown at you across the week.

So in some ways, MASS 2 might not make you hate life as much as MASS 1, because you’ll have some variation and novelty across your weeks, but you’ll re-appreciate the way that shit can be served to you in slightly different stylings.

What’s the shit du jour?

It’s the shit of the day. Great, I’ll have that. That is MASS 2 in a nutshell.

Jim Carrey Dumb And Dumber GIF from Jimcarrey GIFs

The demographic that MASS 2 is written for is two fold in my mind. It’s for strength coaches, intelligent trainers, and exercise aficionados, but it’s also for regular people who want to learn the truth about things.

MASS 2 is written for those amongst us who are not cowards.

The weak like to skim the surface of topics in life. They like to read blurbs and watch two minute selfie videos on social media. Cowards don’t dig their heels into the ground and try hard when things get difficult.

They want CLIFF notes on everything.

Thankfully the world also has other people in it who are tough, resilient, and truly appreciate depth and challenge. They want the whole story, and the deeper the rabbit hole goes, the more excited they get about the dig. I wrote MASS 2 for this latter group, because very few people in fitness are writing books for them. There’s plenty of crap that regurgitates the same superficial shit that’s been around forever, and basically I want to light that stuff on fire and then put it out with a nice long piss.

That flaming piss is MASS 2.

TG: What have you added or taken out compared to the first iteration? Why?

^^ This pic shows Pat actually is a very lovely person ^^

PD: One of the most obvious things that I added to this book is that I tell the reader some of my own life story. I talk about coming from a lineage of drunks and drug addicts, and personally being a recovering alcoholic and drug addict.I also talked some about being fired from Springfield College. Those experiences are part of my identity, and they’re elements that bring a lot of shame to me when I think about myself.

At the same time though, those two experiences have been powerful lessons for me to learn some much greater truths about myself. I’ve learned that I’m immature, arrogant, thin skinned, low in self esteem, resentful, and self destructive. At the same time I’ve learned that I can face uncomfortable truths, learn my tendencies and habits, and actually change my persona and behaviors with disciplined deliberate practice.

I’ve also learned that you can reframe what some would consider character flaws into strengths. Drug addicts are in fact the most goal directed amongst us. They want one thing and one thing only, and they usually do whatever it takes to acquire that thing. When you’re a recovering drug addict and you take that same capability and aim it at other things, there’s nothing you can’t acquire.

The other obvious difference is that MASS 1 was thematically inspired by Rocky IV. MASS 2, the sequel uses the greatest action movie sequel as its muse, Terminator 2.

Let’s face it, if you’re going to write a sequel to a badass book involving a Stallone movie, the only way you can follow that up is by channeling Arnold.

MASS 2 is bigger, badder, and stronger than the OG book. In my opinion, everything about the sequel is better than the original…the program, the content of the book, and the writing style.

TG: I know you like to go into the weeds as it relates to program design…..what do you feel are the most common mistakes most coaches make when it comes to writing programs? 

PD: In this day and age, it’s actually criminal to not include something about, Start with the Why, in your response to your approach to things in life in 49 out of the 50 states (sorry Tennessee).

If you don’t include something from this book in a fitness based answer, you’re ostracized from the fitness world, and on your way into exile you get tarred and feathered, the shame bell nun walks you out of town, and even your mother throws rocks at you while you trudge head down and cry to the rhythm of Celine Dione’s, My Heart Will Go On.

via GIPHY

Essentially most coaches don’t explain why they’re asking you to do something.

If you don’t tell people why something is important, they don’t believe in the concept. Belief will drive effort, and effort will drive physical performances that will cause the body to change.

What I just said doesn’t mean you can throw a shit program on paper, and then tell a magical story about it, and that will work. I think those of us who love training and science will work harder to learn better information, try those approaches out in our own training, and discover what really works, and why it works.

Those same people are usually so passionate that they want to tell other people about what they’ve learned. So I see great story telling about program design and actual knowledge about training science as being a symbiotic relationship that creates a positive feedback loop.

Great science ultimately ends in an explanation of the mechanisms.

The mechanisms of how things work is usually the most interesting part of the story…and those mechanisms are usually complicated, deep, and intertwined with other systems and stories. Great stories have multiple dimensions to them, often times come full circle, leave you with cliff hangers, make you want more, seamlessly weave a common thread throughout the plot, stretch your ability to question your previous assumptions, and inspire you to take action.

To me program design is story telling, and I get people to reach for the stars because they want to after the story affects them.

How many coaches do you know that try to explain everything to the people they work with?

I’ve definitely seen some do it, and they’re usually the great ones. There’s nothing else they want to do more than talk training. They’re excited about it, and if you let them, they’ll never stop passionately explaining every detail of what they think about the things they’re doing.

That’s how I felt meeting Rusty Jones. That’s how I felt hearing Al Vermeil talk. Those guys weren’t spring chickens at those points in time, but they had more energy and passion than 99% of 20 year olds I’ve met.

Something else that people make mistakes on is that they pick shit exercises or put things in a bad order.

Here’s a list of things that I think make something shit in no particular order.

  1.  The TRX is involved.
  2.  It’s a complex with light dumbbells.
  3.  There’s a band around your knees and no barbell is in sight.
  4.  Your first movement of the day is an isolation exercise for arms.
  5.  The heaviest thing you did involved a cable.
  6.  More exercises in your training day used a band than bars or dumbbells.
  7.  You spent more than two minutes using a PVC pipe.
  8.  The Viper (aka, the weak man’s log) made an appearance.
  9. At some point you did super man’s.
  10. The BOSU was stood upon.

Finally if you write a program and don’t physically try it, I really worry about that thing. I personally don’t put anything out into the world that I don’t test on myself. At some point I’ll probably get too old and fat to self test, but hopefully that isn’t until I’m 80 or something.

15% Off MASS 2

If you made it this far you can’t tell me you’re still on the fence and unconvinced to give this program a shot.

You should be salivating.

Well, if not, and you need a little more incentive, how’s 15% off the original price sound?

I wish I could sit here and say I did something cool like beat Pat in an arm wrestling match to finagle such a deal, but all I really did was ask.

All you have to do is go HERE and then type in gentilcore15 where it asks for the coupon code, and Sha-ZAM you get 15% off.

Happy (but not really) lifting.

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.1

Enjoy!

CategoriesInterview muscle growth Program Design Strength Training

Becoming a Brick Shit House 101

Pat Davidson is a savage. He’s one of the most passionate and knowledgable coaches I know. What’s more, he’s someone who’s not afraid to express his opinion and tell it like it is. Case in point he was kind enough to take part in an interview as part of the re-launch of his flagship training program – MASS.

Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_rangizzz'>rangizzz / 123RF Stock Photo</a>
Copyright: rangizzz / 123RF Stock Photo

 

He….does…..not……hold…..back.

It’s amazing.

In the year or so since it’s original (soft) release it has accumulated a cult-following. It’s brutal, it makes people hate life, but no one – male or female – who has completed it has ever not gotten amazing results. I know, I’ve seen it in action.

It makes people into brick shit houses – hence the title of this post.

MASS is on sale starting today though the end of this week. Enjoy the interview.

Tony Gentilcore (TG):Pat, thanks for doing this interview: 1) can you give my audience a bit of your background and 2) can you do so with at least two f-bombs included.

Pat Davidson (PD):  Hi Tony, I’d like to start off by saying thank you for letting me do this interview. You’re somebody I really respect in our industry, and getting the opportunity to do something in conjunction with you is big time.

It’s funny, I’ve done a number of podcasts and other kinds of interviews at this point in my life now, and this question always comes up, and I always think, “God, I fucking hate this question.” I feel animosity towards this question, because it’s so hard to know how to approach telling other people about yourself.

You have to come up with some kind of elevator pitch version of your professional life, and it always sucks. There’s virtually no way to accurately answer the question. So here’s my shitty answer to this question that provides evidence that I am a fucking authority in our field.

Note from TG:I could have just as well introduced Pat myself, told everyone he’s a savage, that he makes people into savages (as evident by his book MASS), and is one of the most passionate and intense people I have ever met in this industry. I’m pretty sure he found out arm wrestling a grizzly would increase protein synthesis by 22% he’d put it as A2 in a program.

My name is Pat Davidson. I have an B.A. in History, an M.S. in Strength and Conditioning, and a Ph.D in Exercise Physiology. I have worked as a professor for two different schools, Brooklyn College and Springfield College. I have also been the Director of Continuing Education and Training at Peak Performance in NYC.

My background in athletics has been that I played baseball and football in high school, tried to play baseball in college, but ultimately was too immature to be able to manage classes, sports, and partying as an 18 year old. After that I got into jiu jitsu, submission grappling, and MMA. I competed in those sports for 7 years.

I got more and more into the science and practice of training by the end of my MMA days and eventually just became a lifter. I did a few weightlifting meets, broke down physically from trying to do that sport, and then eventually made my way into strongman. I competed in strongman for about 3 years. During that time I finished top 10 at two National Championships, competed in two World Championships, and finished top 10 at Worlds once.

I’ve done my fair share of writing and speaking gigs in the field. These days I’m not competing in anything. I’m just trying to consume knowledge at the highest rate I possibly can, write more books, give more presentations, and be the best professional I can be.

TG: I had the chance to listen to you speak at a Cressey Sports Performance staff in-service something like two years ago, and I was so impressed not only by your knowledge base, but your passion as well. Watching and hearing you speak it was hard not to stand up and run straight through a brick wall.

I feel MASS is the end-result of both your knowledge and passion. Can you explain WHY you wrote this program (you know, other than making people hate life)?

PD: The reason I wrote MASS is actually a very straight forward concept. The project began when I was contacted by an editor from Men’s Health who commonly did stories with myself and a couple other guys at Peak.

He said that a new intern just showed up to start working with him. The kid was a former college cross-country runner, and he was essentially way too skinny to be working for Men’s Health. The editor and a couple other people thought it would be fun to see how much mass they could put on him for his 16 week internship, and they were hoping that I could put a program together for him.

Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_varijanta'>varijanta / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

Copyright: varijanta / 123RF Stock Photo

I got to meet the intern for a day, do some measures on him, and, “teach” him how to do everything. He was about 5’8″, and slightly less than 130 pounds. He had no previous strength training experience. I could tell that he was a very driven young man though, and the cross-country background is one that from my experience comes with a psychological paradigm of not being afraid to work.

Wrestlers and racers are people who often times will do whatever it takes no matter how difficult. My challenge was that I had to come up with a plan that would give this person maximum results without hurting him, and this was especially difficult because of his lack of experience.

From my experience everyone does everything wrong, regardless of how well versed in training they think they are. I don’t feel comfortable having people do anything unless I’m there to watch and coach them…so I had to get outside my comfort zone in actually writing MASS. So I designed this thing to intrinsically reward him with the programming, push him to his physical limits, and make absolutely sure he wouldn’t get hurt.

He did phenomenally well on the program. He gained 19 pounds of lean body mass in the 16 weeks according to our InBody equipment at Peak, which is absolutely preposterous when you consider he started off in the 120s.

At this point in time, Men’s Health was going to do a big story on Peak, because Peak was getting ready to move into a 25,000 sqft futuristic palace gym in Manhattan. Included in the story on Peak was going to be the intern story as well, and they were going to do something like name the program, “Best Program of the Year” or something like that.

I saw this as a golden opportunity to possibly earn some money from this, and I put a book together that would go along with this program. So I sat down on a weekend where I had nothing else to do and I wrote the book. It was a grueling weekend, and I probably looked a little bit like a bleary eyed Unibomber by the end of it, but the book was done.

mass-image

Unfortunately the Peak project fell through due to business side logistical complications, so the Men’s Health stories also never materialized, but by that point, MASS was born, and it has managed to create its own following, and it has steadily sold and continued to make people both hate and love me in expanding spheres.

TG: I have witnessed it in action – several coaches I know have done the program3 – and can vouch for its effectiveness.

Straight up: would you agree most people DO NOT train nearly hard enough?

PD: I honestly don’t know if people don’t work hard enough. I think people are just disorganized with training. When I design training sessions, I think about things like somebody would if they had to design a factory assembly line to produce at the highest level of efficiency.

I have zero time to waste, I have a valuable commodity that I have to pump out, and I don’t care about your feelings.

I time everything. I’ve never been a huge fan of technology in the weight-room other than the clock.

I’m familiar with different energy systems, loaded movement types, types of muscular contractions, speed and agility, movement quality…you know, the endless list of qualities that actually need to be developed in a performance oriented gym.

There are so many qualities that are necessary for athletes that you need 15 day weeks and 34 hour days to actually do everything you need to do. You always have to scrap certain concepts and qualities, short time (I can’t have you sitting around for 6 minutes during rest periods to maximize your phosphagen system’s substrate stores), and generally compromise the perfect textbook physiology development of things…but you blend, mix and match, and do the smartest things you possibly can to make it look right, and let people feel like they’re having a worthwhile training experience.

With MASS, there was only one goal, and it was purely body composition optimization. I wasn’t trying to help people with peaking for a race or a strength contest, or get ready for the football season, so in reality organizing it was a breeze…no movement prep, no power production development, no reactive components.

It just comes down to what is the goal, and how do I get to the goal?

With body composition goals involving muscle mass, it’s not that hard…mechanical load, mechanical work, heat, and acidity…works every time.

People are willing to work hard to get there if they want that goal, and you can explain why those variables are the ticket to that goal. Now you just have to organize things for people to to do, and give them something they feel like is a meaningful challenge. That’s where the MASS book actually comes into play.

  • It’s written in a way that explains why taking a certain approach is the correct approach.
  • It explains why a certain mindset is the right way to carry yourself. It gives you the organization of the programming, which is very efficient, and basically guaranteed to change your body composition.
  • It gives you guidance, direction, and order. It will also motivate you, and the program itself will motivate you, because you have to keep trying to beat yourself, and if you actually manage to do so, you will feel rewarded.

I don’t think people are unwilling to work hard. Everybody who has done this program has worked hard and loved it. People just haven’t put themselves into the right situations or environments to be able to appropriately work hard in a very directed manner.

TG: Well stated my man, thank you. I respect your approach to training and program design because it’s simple. Nothing about MASS says “fancy” or “elaborate,” which is why I LOVE the constant references to Rocky IV. Why is it so hard for many people to understand this concept? That training doesn’t have to advanced or nuanced?

PD: This is a great question. I think I could answer this in a million different ways, but I’m going to stick with one thread here.

Our industry is generally full of people who were failed athletes…but specifically failed athletes who were incredibly driven, tried hard, and were willing to do whatever they had to do to make it.

Coaches are probably people who, when they were athletes, were the people that their coaches loved…because they were the scrappy athlete, the kid who studied the game…and they were rewarded for this behavior with the praise, attention, and approval of the coach…all of this creates a cycle.

The people who fit into this failed athlete/future coach pedigree are routinely the people who believe that if they just did this, “one thing” differently, then it would have been all different.

We are a population of people who are always looking for the secret ingredient…it’s this new thing where you press on weird spots and the person moves like a baby, and now they can magically move better forever…wrong…it’s this new thing where you find and feel your left pterygoid, and now you can throw a baseball 5 mph faster…wrong…it’s this new thing where you touch these lights on a board that light up randomly, and you can save any shot from any direction as a goalie…wrong.

The dirty secret is that consistency, habit, intelligence, and managing the big picture is the only thing that has ever and will ever matter.

Photo Credit: www.jtsstrength.com

When I think of improving performance, I’m always trying to improve biomechanics and fitness, because the two compliment each other. Biomechanics is this positional, mechanical, psycho-social, sensory, contextual, and environmental monster of inputs and outputs that the smartest people in our field spend their entire waking hours and lives trying to wrap their mind around to figure out.

And then you hear some ass-clown trainer spit the dumbest shit imaginable about how fucking ankle band lateral walks and spreading the knees are going to be the magic bullet fix for some jumbo shrimp looking 140 pound 20 year old bag of dicks that can’t do a fucking pull-up and runs a mile in 12 minutes.

TG: HAHAHAHAHAHA. How do you really feel Pat?

That’s the kind of shit that makes me want to tombstone piledrive somebody into that pit of needles from the Saw movie franchise.

All day in NYC I see trainers taking fat women and having them do endless stupid movement prep drills with them and overhead squatting them with dowels. Maybe this fat woman can’t move because her gut is in the way.

Maybe she just needs to do something she can’t fuck up, like the most basic hip hinge possible…and oh by the way a bench press is a good fucking exercise.

Copyright: halfpoint / 123RF Stock Photo

From what I can tell, almost everybody in our industry sucks at movement…and we try to do seriously fancy shit that we fuck up left and right.

Maybe your cocky trainer ass should stick to basics. If you suck at it, do you really think your dumbass motor moron client is going to have a fucking chance? Hell no dummy.

That person needs to sweat and do basics, and feel like they actually accomplished something. Give that person some damn pride, and let them work hard in a way where they won’t hurt themselves.

Christ, I could go on all day on this one, and you finally got me swearing…this one did it.4

No, trainer/strength coach, you never were going to make it in the sport you loved. The cream always rises to the top. No, you’re never going to be an elite weightlifter unless you started somewhere around 10…but feel free to destroy your joints in your pursuit of this goal.

No handstands are not going to improve anything other than your ability to do a shitty handstand because you didn’t start gymnastics when you were 8 years old.

Shut your mouth, do basic lifts, sprint, do agility drills, and probably some basic cardio, and guess what you’ll probably stop being as fat, weak, and hurt as you are right now. Fuck.

TG: WHEW – that was an EPIC rant Pat. I hope all the walls are safe wherever you were when you wrote that….;o)

I know it’s a cliche question – sorry – but can you give your “top 3” reasons why many people fail to see much progress in the gym? How is MASS going to address them?

PD: Top 3 reasons why people go nowhere in the gym.

1. People Pick the Wrong Exercises for Their Goals.

If your goal is to change body composition, you need to do as much mechanical work with load as possible. Mechanical work is the result of force times distance. Do not pick low force exercises with small excursions built into the movement. The right exercises are hinges, squats, split squats, presses, and pulls. I’m not against direct arm and calf work, but that’s the spices you sprinkle on at the end of cooking a dish.

2. People Pick the Wrong Sets and Reps Schemes.

Most People are weak and unimpressive. If I do a 5 rep set of bench press with such people, they might be using 145…but then I take 5 or 10 pounds away and they do it for 20. There’s no rhyme or reason to most people…their muscles aren’t working synchronously, they’re more psychology cases than physiology cases.

They’re going to build more strength doing 15 reps with slightly less weight compared to 5 reps with slightly more. People need practice and volume.

Everybody thinks they’re a damn international weightlifter who needs Prilepin’s table applied to all their programming. Do more mechanical work…push that variable and you’ll be amazed at what happens.

3. People Don’t Time Their Rest.

Easily the most powerful adjustment I’ve ever made. It’s so simple and so powerful. Nobody is accountable, and perception of time is something that nobody experiences accurately while exercising.

If you’re not timing things, you are wasting a ton of time, guaranteed. MASS addresses all of these factors. You’re going to deadlift, squat, press, and pull your face off.

Everything is timed.

Everybody sees crazy results.

TG: BOOM. Want to find out for yourself why MASS has garnered such a loyal following? Go HERE and see for yourself. It’s on sale this week only (until 10/23).

mass-download
CategoriesInterview podcast Product Review

Podcast, Cats, and Jump Training, Oh My

It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in Boston so this one is going to be quick.

1. Here’s a Picture of My Cat.

This was taken ten minutes ago, which demonstrates three things:

  • I’m 100% certain I was a crazy cat woman in a past life. Who’s the beautiful, beautiful Princess?
  • It is, in fact, a sunny day today.
  • My cat is like WTF!?!

2. Listen to My Latest Podcast Appearance

I made another appearance on the DeLeo Training Podcast recently. It’s always an honor to be invited onto any show, let alone for a second time in a matter of a few months.

This time around Joe and I discuss the importance of coaches having their own coach, the advantages of percentage based training, and why strength is the foundation for pretty much everything.

Except for being able to slay on a guitar. You don’t need a big deadlift to be able to do that.

 

3. Jump Training 101

In anticipation of the release of their Elite Athletic Development 3.0 resource next week, Mike Robertson and Joe Kenn are sharing some killer FREE content this week.

During the seminar itself they filmed strength coaches Bobby Smith and Adam Feit (<– a featured guest poster on this site) discuss their approach to jump training.

You can watch PART I of their presentation on Vertical Jump Training by going HERE. All you need to do is enter your name and email and you’re all set.

Trust me: Bobby and Adam cover a ton of material that is sure to help you and/or your athletes leap over boxes, cars, volacanos, but probably just boxes.

Don’t worry, Mike and Ken won’t spam you. Because, you know, they’re not a-holes.

CategoriesInterview

Guest Appearance on the Ask Mike Reinold Show

I had the pleasure of being invited onto the Ask Mike Reinold Show recently.

Mike’s someone I respect a ton and have had the pleasure of interacting and working with for several years.

He and his staff over at Champion Physical Therapy and Performance are top-notch and I was super excited to have the opportunity to stop by and talk some shop.5

And not for nothing: I kinda dig Mike’s intro to this episode. I feel like this should happen every time I walk through a door or something.

Entering a restaurant: “The one and only Tony Gentilcore.”

Walking through the grocery store: “The one and only Tony Gentilcore.”

Coming home from work after a long day at the gym: “The one and only Tony Gentilcore.”6

Anyways, lets show Mike some love. He puts out an amazing show week in and week out, and it’s one I feel deserves everyone’s attention.

 

CategoriesInterview podcast

Appearance On the Coach Glass Podcast

First I’d like to thank EVERYONE for all the emails, texts, and messages sent my way offering kudos, congratulatory words of encouragement, and good vibes in lieu of yesterday’s official announcement of me leaving Cressey Sports Performance.

Remember that scene towards the end of the movie in Jerry Maguire when Tom Cruise walks into the middle of a support group in a room full of divorced women, looks at his wife (Renee Zelleweger), and says “you, complete, me.”

And then they hug it out, everyone in the room starts making out (<– that was actually the alternative ending), and they live happily ever after.

Remember that?

Well, that’s how I felt yesterday from the tsunami of messages I received. It was touching to know that so many people are happy for me and willing to be supportive.

What I found interesting, comical, and borderline annoying was how a handful of people couldn’t fathom that this decision was devoid of any animosity or hard feelings between myself and CSP.

“WHY are you leaving Tony? Is it because of some idealogical difference between you and the staff?  A change of methodologies you don’t agree with? Wait, never mind, Eric stole a tablespoon of your peanut butter again didn’t he? That motherfucker! I don’t blame you for leaving. Good riddance I say.”

As if to imply that every departure and separating of ways between two parties must result in some sort of blood bath, confrontation, or choreographed Jets vs. Sharks knife fight dance.

Sorry to disappoint, but it’s not like that.

We’re adults. And we came to a mutual decision and agreement to part ways, respectively.

The plan now is to set up shop at the new studio space I’m sub-leasing in Boston (Brookline) and continue to make people into beasts.

I’ll soon have a direct link here on the site for those curious about more information. But for now you can just shoot me an email and I can place you on the “Yes Tony, I’m interested in training with you and being made into a beast” list once I’m organized and up and running. Which shouldn’t be too long.

I was on the Coach Glass Podcast

I was introduced to Jason Glass via a mutual friend of ours, Dana Santas (whom I collaborated with on THIS article featured on CNN.com regarding body image and encouraging women to strength train), and was immediately impressed with not only his knowledge (he’s a highly qualified strength coach who works with many elite golfers in addition to being a lead presenter for the Titleist Performance Institute) but his sense of humor as well.

As someone who tries not to take himself too seriously, it was refreshing to sit down with Jason for an hour to talk some training shop and have a few laughs as well.

You can listen to the episode HERE (which links to iTunes).

Or you can click HERE for the direct link.

Either way, your is day is about to get infinitely better. Enjoy.

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.

CategoriesInterview Program Design

Talking Shop With ‘Coach Dos’

I have a special cameo appearance today from one of the best collegiate strength and conditioning coaches on the planet, Coach Robert dos Remedios (or, ‘Coach Dos’).

Coach Dos is someone whom I respect a ton, and someone I feel has forgotten more than many of will ever know. 27 years “in the trenches” coaching, a lot, will do that.

He’s achieved the status of Master Strength & Conditioning Coach by the CSCCa (one of only 100 in the world), is a Nike Elite Performance Coach and was also the 2006 NSCA Strength Coach of the Year.

I once scored 18 points in a JV basketball game. No big deal.

He’s the creator of Complete Program Design, his latest resource which just became available, and was kind enough to take time to answer a few questions for me.

Enjoy.

Tony Gentilcore (TG):I live in Boston. We had THE worst winter in history last year. We had a 30 day stretch where we had 6-7 feet of snow fall. It made the national and world news. You live in California with 80 degree weather year round. Can you please explain to me why I continue to put myself

Coach Dos (CD): HAHA! Well as a Californian who puts on the beanie when it drops below 60 I completely understand where you are coming from. That being said, the beer and Pub game in Boston is second to none….that alone can get me scrape some ice off my car to grab a proper pint :o)

TG:Speaking of misery, as a reputable strength coach yourself, I know you don’t buy into the “I must destroy myself with every training session” mentality: can you give some insight – or at least an umbrella themed review – on your approach to program design?

Maybe some “big rock” methodologies or words of wisdom?

CD: I think I am pretty simplistic when it comes to program design….but it’s important to not associate ‘simple’ with ineffective. If you take an approach where you address all essential movement categories (explosive, push, pull, hinge, squat/step/lunge, and core (pillar and rotational) it’s hard to go wrong.

You won’t have any holes and you will avoid over/under training any movements.

As far as crushing folks every session, it’s a common theme we see these days but the first indicator that the coach/trainer doesn’t have experience in the real-world.

I need my athletes to be able to perform and I can’t afford for them to not be ready to DO WORK in their next session with me. If folks are paying you to train them and you continually crush them each session, you will most likely not be a very successful private sector coach/trainer.

TG:No diggidy, no doubt. What are some of your biggest pet peeves with regards to program design that some fitness professionals make?

CD: The ‘whiteboard workouts’ –  these are the workouts that are generally created on the spot and have little rhyme or reason to the intensity, volume or actual exercises. It’s that random-randomness of these workouts that make them ineffective for most long term goals. Sure it can result in lots of sweat and anguish, but what role does this session play in your big picture?

The other kind of workout that bugs me? The fictional kind.

These are the ones that lots of internet gurus come up with on their computers and have never actually been tested on humans. They are generally characterized by unrealistic volumes, rest periods, or simple things like tri-setting deadlifts, DB walking lunges and chinups (Hint: aint gonna work haha!).

TG:Wait, what? Why?….;o)

With regards to assessment, what are some of the big hitting things you look at with your athletes and clients? Can you give insight on what “markers” you look for and want to improve on with your programs?

CD: We may use the FMS or we may just take athletes through simple movement prep drills and actual exercises to expose some red flags. We obviously want them all to move well and some do immediately while others are a work in progress.

Over the past 5-6 years we have really made mobility a priority with everyone (which is why we incorporate mobility drills within all of our lifting sessions) and we have seen great benefits. Some of the things we strive for are great squatters, hingers, and athletes with great unilateral strength and stability.

TG:Overtraining? Discuss.

CD: I’m a big ‘work capacity’ guy, it has always been the bedrock of my training philosophy.

Because of this we try to push the envelope when we train. I feel like the system we have used allows us to get after it hard, recover, and bounce back to attack the next training session. Our history of building better athletes and resisting injury has been pretty outstanding over the past 17 years at the college.

So in a nutshell can you overtrain? Sure, but if you have proper systems in place and keep the big picture in mind you can easily avoid it.

TG:For general fitness clients with little or no experience with the OLY lifts: what are some of your “go to” drills to help kick-start the process?

CD: The Olympic lifts (and all their variations) are favorites of mine but I am in it for one reason – Quadruple extension (yes I said quadruple, not triple haha!).

Think ankles, knees, hips, and low back powerfully extending. This can be easily accomplished via jumps, Med ball Scoops etc. band resisted jumps of all kinds are big go-to exercises for all populations as they add load and really force this ‘quadruple extension’.

TG:In terms of conditioning, any pet peeves or insights you can offer? How much is too much?

CD: I think people having a lack of understanding of energy systems especially when it comes to specific sport-demands.

I hate it when I see coaches make twitchy-explosive athletes do long, slow, aerobic activity. I call it ‘making joggers out of jumpers’.

If you truly believe that even your explosive athletes with virtually no aerobic demands in their sport need some sort of aerobic work at least accomplish this via fartleks or other aerobic-interval work. Makes me cringe seeing power athletes plodding along a cross country trail or track.

TG:Thanks so much for your time Coach! All useful information and just the tip of the iceberg in terms of your knowledge and how you go about making your athletes (and general fitness clients) savages.

I’m a movie geek, and I like to expose to people that not all us coaches are Terminators (<– See, what I just did there?) and that we have life outside of strength and conditioning. So I have to ask: top 5 favorite films of all-time?

CD: Tough Question so I’ll give you an eclectic mix….Happy Gilmore, Super Troopers, Old School, Vanilla Sky, and Silence of the Lambs.

This should give a little insight into my psyche haha!

Complete Program Design

Is a culmination of 27 years of coaching. 27 years of trial and error, successes, modifications, additions and most important of all…results.

You get a 100+ page manual breaking things down into several 2-3 and 4x per week programs. You also get an extensive exercise database of 130+ exercises and movements. Coach Dos coaches YOU.

It’s impressive to say the least, and something I know will help me step up my own coaching game. It’s an excellent resource for any coach – newbie or experienced – and it’s on SALE this week at a hefty discount.

For more information go HERE.

CategoriesInterview Media

Cameo on Evil Sugar Radio

A few weeks ago I was invited onto the Evil Sugar Radio podcast with hosts Antonio Valladeres and Scott Kustes.

At first I was a little apprehensive to go onto the show because I freakin LOVE sugar. I was afraid I was going to get grilled because I’m not Paleo enough or that I’m the spawn of Satan because I eat carbs. Like, a lot.

But after a little research I knew I was being irrational.

From their “About Us” Page: Evil Sugar Radio is a weekly health and nutrition podcast free from the diets, dogmas, and delusions that are pervasive in the nutrition world. We debunk popular diet myths, giving you the hard facts you need to take your health, performance, and weight loss to the next level.

Evil Sugar Radio covers modern trends in diets, weight loss, health & fitness, food, farming, and politics. Plus, we talk about ice cream quite a lot.

This show is rated R, for Really Rockin’ and because we cuss now and then.

We Didn’t Talk Nutrition!

Thankfully. Because that’s not my wheelhouse. I could probably feign nutritional expertise by dropping a gluconeogenesis bomb in a sentence somewhere, or go into the particulars on reversible phosphorylation of proteins as a regulatory mechanism7, but I didn’t.

However we did talk about the personal training industry, shoulder injuries, and program design. But in reality it was just three dudes hanging out talking about whatever came up.

You can check it out HERE (and yes, it’s NSFW).

CategoriesInterview Media

Squeezing Oranges With Tony Gentilcore

I had the pleasure of being invited onto the Side Quest Fitness Podcast (the unofficial podcast of Fitocracy) recently with Rob Farlow, and I wanted to toss the link everyone’s way in case 1) you’re super bored at work today and needed a dose of “Tony Time” to help pass time or 2) you’re not at work, you’re not bored, and you’re just straight up obsessed with me and can’t get enough.

Either way it’s a win-win.

I had blast recording this episode. Rob and I cover everything from my start in the fitness industry and why I feel every young fitness professional should spend time working in a commercial gym setting to other career advice (such as, what’s the deal with squeezing oranges?) and even movies. Read: we geek out about Star Wars for a few minutes.

HERE is the link on the website, or if you prefer you can listen on iTunes HERE.

Enjoy!