CategoriesMotivational

Bus Bench vs. Park Bench Workouts

I hate doing laundry.

Lisa and I moved in together coming up on three years ago now, and as much as we love our apartment and the neighborhood we reside in – Coolidge Corner – the one major drag about the place is that there’s no laundry room on premise.

It’s certainly not the end of the world, and I don’t like to consider myself someone who complains about trivial things – especially when there are people out there suffering FAR worse than myself.  But still, I think I’ve come to conclusion that I hate doing laundry more than I hate a dumb Tracy Anderson quote.

And that’s saying a lot.

Lisa and I have an understanding, though, and we’ve done a really good job at “divying” up the chores around the house. She does the bulk of the cooking and food prep (okay, she does ALL of it), and I wash the dishes and make the two block trek down to the laundry mat – colors and whites in tow – every Sunday morning.

I’ve been doing it for a while now, and I still somehow manage to mess it up occasionally.

To quote her, “if it’s silky, satiny, or sexy…..it DOES NOT go into the dryer. FOR. THE. LOVE. OF. GOD.”

In three years I’ve managed to completely destroy only two blouses, two pair of dress pants, and a baker’s dozen of Lisa’s fancy underwear.

Not the greatest batting average in the world, but it’s definitely above the Mendoza line.

But no one reading really cares about mine and Lisa’s laundry woes. The point was to serve as a segue to today’s post.

Lately, to help pass the time in the laundry mat, I’ve been happily enjoying my copy of Dan John’s Intervention: Course Corrections for the Athlete and Trainer.

I’ve been enjoying it like I enjoy a cup of delicious chai tea……………………Slowly!

I haven’t devoured it in one sitting, but rather, just reading at my own pace – namely, between spin cycles – taking in all the savory components as they come.

Yesterday I read the section where Coach John discussed the concept of Bus Bench Workouts vs. Park Bench Workouts, and thought it was one of those brilliant analogies/points that never dawned on me until that very moment.

To reiterate his point:  the fitness industry does a bang-up job at selling full-throttle, death-march, total-commitment training concepts.  And frankly, most of us can’t do that day in and day out.

To help elucidate his point, Dan referred to the Tale of Two Benches, by Archbishop George Niederauer.

Bus Bench

Anyone who’s familiar with “city life” knows how much public transportation can suck the life out of you.  The Bus Bench fills us with expectation. We wait for the 5:13 bus, and if the 5:13 bust doesn’t arrive precisely at 5:13, we get anxious.

We….want….the…5:13….bus…..now!!!!

And if it doesn’t arrive at 5:13, but instead at 5:17……our day us ruined.  Grab the Ben & Jerry’s!

Far too often this is how most people train. With too much urgency and a “I want it now” attitude. It has its place, mind you, but shouldn’t be a priority.

Park Bench

Conversely, the park bench is more casual, and goes with the flow.

We can relax (so-to-speak) and enjoy the ride.

We can sit and people watch if we want, or just sit and read a book, or just sit.  There’s nothing wrong with that.

As Coach John noted in his book, most athletes (and non-athletes) tend to take the bus bench route. For athletes it goes like this:

On Saturday the 26th, I will defeat all who show up, break all my personal records, find perfection in all I do, and meet the person of my dreams.

For non-athletes it goes like this:

I have a class reunion/vacation/World of WarCraft Convention in July and I need to look gooood.  I will go to the gym six times per week, train for a marathon, maybe hit up a CrossFit class or two when I can squeeze them in, between yoga class of course, omit all carbohydrates, find perfection in all I do, and meet the person of my dreams.

This approach rarely (if ever) works out in the end.

Instead, for most athletes most of the time, and for most of us for most of our lives, the park bench model is much more appropriate.

As Coach John states, “When you compete or train, take time to enjoy the view, breathe the air, and don’t worry about the minutia! Whatever comes along during your competition or training should be viewed through the lens of wonder and thanks.”

Fitness doesn’t have to be a ball buster all the time. And, not coincidentally, taking the park bench approach is often what yields better, long-lasting results.

CategoriesMotivational Program Design Strength Training

5 Ah-Ha Moments

Sometimes I feel like I’m the dumbest person on Earth.

Not “dumb-dumb” mind you.  I mean, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the human body (how it works, how to make it stronger, etc), I know to pay my taxes, I’ve already made Valentine’s dinner reservations (holla!), I can make a piece of toast without burning down my apartment, and I know my multiplication tables like no one’s business.

So I don’t mean dumb in the literal sense of the word.

What I’m referring to are those times where I read a book, an article, watch a DVD, have a casual conversation with someone, or attend a seminar or workshop and somebody says something so profound and utterly jaw-dropping that it blows my mind.

Or makes my face melt (<— it happens a lot).

And it doesn’t necessarily have to exit the mouth of  some intellectual luminary such as Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, or Captain Planet.

Yay for random 80s cartoon references!

I’ve witnessed some doozies from the most unexpected people.

But in the realm of strength and conditioning – there are a LOT of very smart people, and I’d be lying if I said I felt I was one of them.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation with Eric Cressey, Bret Contreras, Mike Robertson, Kevin Neeld, Cassandra Forsythe, Mike Reinold, or Bill Hartman (to name a few) and thought to myself, “holy shit, I have no idea what the hell they’re talking about.  Okay Tony, just nod your head, say “mmm hmmm” a few times, and pretend as if they haven’t lost you”

Likewise whenever I’ve had the opportunity to listen to the likes of Dr. Stuart McGill, Charlie Weingroff, Gray Cook, Thomas Myers, or Professor Dumbledore speak….I can’t help but feel like the a complete nincompoop.

And don’t even get me started on Shirley Sahrmann’s Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a page or two and immediately got a headache from all the big words.

All of this to say: sometimes I feel really, really inadequate.

But that’s the price you pay when you try to get better; as if it’s a prerequisite – your DUTY – to go out of your way to surround yourself with smarter people than yourself.

A few years ago Alwyn Cosgrove wrote a very popular article on T-Nation titled “5 Ah-Ha Moments,” (hence the very original title of this post) in which he described five instances where the proverbial light bulb went off inside his head.

I thought I’d take today and share a handful of my own ah-ha moments.  Some you’ll undoubtedly recognize, and others maybe not so much.

While I’ll be the first to admit my brain doesn’t work in the same fashion as some of my colleagues – I don’t think I’ve ever come up with an original idea, like, ever – I can “steal” (while giving credit) with the best of them. As such I feel my strongest asset is being able to take complex ideas, water them down, and explain them so that even a cave man can understand.

You’re welcome…..;o)

1.  Joint-by-Joint Approach

Giving full credit to Gray Cook and Mike Boyle, I don’t think anything has influenced my train of thought as far as how I approach assessment and thus, program design, as this concept.

In short it goes like this:  some joint need to be addressed or trained with mobility in mind (ankle, hips, t-spine), while others need to be addressed or trained with stability (knees, lumbar spine, scapulae) in mind.

What both Cook and Boyle noticed was that if you look at patterns, the whole mobility-stability continuum alternates on a joint-by-joint basis up and down the kinetic chain of the body.

The foot generally wants/needs stability. The ankle wants/needs mobility.  So on and so forth as you work your way up.

And it was here where the entire industry slapped their collective hands to their foreheads.

Taking things a step further, when discussing pain and dysfunction in any joint – lets say the lower back – it’s generally accepted that the source of pain stems from either the joint above or below (or both!).

If someone’s hip and t-spine mobility rivals that of the Tin Man – ie: they’re stiff – it’s no wonder why their lower back will flip them the middle bird.

The reason why – again, generally speaking – their back hurts is because they’re asking it to do more work than it’s designed for.  Because their hips and t-spine are locked up, the lower back has to pick up the slack and sacrifice stability for more mobility.

Does the “theory” have its flaws?  Absolutely.  Nothing is 100% infallible.  Even football Jesus, Tom Brady.

But I’d argue the Joint-by-Joint approach has done more to progress the industry than anything in the past decade, and that’s saying a lot.

Sorry Shake Weight.

2.  No One Cares About Big Toe Dorsiflexion.

Seriously, outside of the uber anatomy geeks no one cares.

This was a lesson I learned back when I first started personal training.  To put it bluntly, as a way to try to impress new clients and try to “win” their business I used to put them through all these elaborate assessments and screens to try to show them how smart I was and how I was going to take over the world.

I took them through all the normal screens like a Thomas Test, shoulder ROM, core stability, as well as movement quality tests such as the squat and lunge.

But then I would up the “wow factor” and start talking fascia, contralateral limb restrictions, and even go so far as to test their great toe dorsiflexion to demonstrate how a limitation there could affect their hip mobility!

While research will back-up its efficacy, in hindsight it was a dumb idea.

Here’s a piece of advice to any new trainers who may be reading.  No one – outside of you and your other geek friends – gives two shits about anatomy.  This is especially true with your clients.

All they care about is feeling better and losing 15 pounds.  They don’t want to hear about superficial fascial lines or glenohumeral range of motion deficits or anterior pelvic tilt.  And frankly, they don’t care that you can name all the muscles in the body in alphabetic order or that you were named one of the 50 Best Trainers by NoOneGivesTwoShits.com.

[Of course it’s cool and an honor to be named to any list……..but just know that a vast majority could care less.]

This isn’t to say that you won’t have more proactive clients who want to put on their geek hat from time to time, but trust me when I say this:  97.45% of your clients don’t care.

3.  Vertical Tibia

This is a concept that was popularized by physical therapist and uber strong dude, Charlie Weingroff a few years ago.

First off: lets address the pink elephant in the room.

It’s virtually impossible not to squat without *some* forward translation of the tibia.  But there’s a huge difference between *some* and going to the point where the knees go so far forward that the heels come off the ground.

Moreover, PAIN is the determining factor here.

If someone walks into my facility complaining of chronic knee pain, and I watch him or her squat/lunge/brush their teeth, almost always I’m going to see an excessive amount of tibial translation and I have to teach/coach them to maintain a more vertical shin angle.

Stealing a line from my pal Mike Robertson: stacked joints are happy joints.

If someone squats to the point where their knees go waaaaaay over their toes, it’s going to cause a ton of shear stress on the knees.

It is any surprise why their knees would be hating them?

Much of the time it’s going to come down to re-engraining a good hip hinge pattern and to try to teach a more vertical shin angle.

I know some will argue that, “well, if you block the knees from going forward, the stress has to go somewhere, and the hips and low back will end up taking the brunt.”

This is true.  But again, there will ALWAYS be some forward movement of the knees. I want to avoid anything that’s excessive.  When someone is in PAIN, coaching a more vertical tibia makes a ton of sense.

4.  Being More Cognizant of Anterior Humeral Glide

There are a plethora of things that can irritate a shoulder.  Poor tissue quality, poor t-spine mobility, poor scapular stability, lack of glenohumeral ROM, poor programming, too much bench pressing, and too much overhead dwarf throwing to name a few.

While many like to gravitate towards the more inane things, I’d make the case that most fail to see the forest for the trees and would be better served taking themselves through an exercise technique audit.

Take the cable row for example.  One of the more glaring “mistakes” we have to correct at CP is guys going into too much glenohumeral extension when performing their rows, essentially allowing their elbows to go way past the midline of the body, causing the humeral head to glide anteriorly (forward), and placing a lot of undue stress on the bicep tendon.

Eric Cressey does a fantastic job of explaining this whole idea in more detail in this video:

 5.  Nixing the Sleeper Stretch

I received an email the other day from a trainer asking what we do at CP – other than the sleeper stretch – to increase internal range of motion in our baseball players (or general population clients as well).

Apparently he had been doing sleeper stretches with many of his athletes and clients with little or no results.

While there are exceptions to the rule, we haven’t performed a sleeper stretch underneath our roof in like four years.  For a few reasons:

1.  Outside of most people performing it incorrectly, there are just better ways to garner more IR other than people cranking on their shoulder.

We can look into tissue quality in the pec minor and lats, focus on more t-spine mobility, and even toss in some dedicated anterior core stability work and breathing patterns and often see a (transient) improvement.

2.  You also have to recognize that a lack of IR is just a measurement and oftentimes a completely NORMAL adaptation.  It’s not uncommon to see right-handed throwers with less IR on their dominant arm compared to their non-dominant side.  And this sentiment mirrors those in the general population as well.

3. The more important thing to consider is TOTAL ROM between left and right sides. If there’s a huge discrepancy or asymmetry between the two, that could present as a bright, red flag that may need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

The answer isn’t to crank on their shoulder like you’re trying to jam a square peg through a round hole. Sometimes you just have to understand that a lack of IR is okay, and sometimes, normal.

Honorable Mention

– Realizing that trying to “win” an argument with my girlfriend – who’s a clinical psychologist – is a pointless endeavor.  Trying to win an argument is pointless either way, but especially when you’re dealing with someone with Jedi mind-trick powers.

– Cueing someone to “keep their chest up” during the deadlift is actually more of an effort to get them to learn how to posteriorly tilt their shoulder blades.  Too much “chest up” may cause them to excessively arch their lower back.

– Intermittent fasting isn’t for everyone.  Sorry, but you’re not going to get huge putting yourself through 24-hour fasts every three days.

– Who knew I’d be such a cat lover????

– No matter which way you swing it, bulgarian split squats suck!  A lot.   More than Tracy Anderson.  Okay, maybe not that much.

Note:  by “suck,” I mean they’re a fantastic exercise…..they’re just not fun to do.

CategoriesFemale Training Motivational

Wearing a Cressey Performance T-Shirt Instantly Improves Strength**

** =  It’s science (video evidence below).  Well that, and I’ll take around 7.3% credit for the kick-ass programming.

I received this video over the weekend and I HAD to share it here. It’s sooooo freaking bad-ass (and mirrors nicely with yesterday’s post on women lifting heavy things.)

A little back story:  Kim was a former colleague of my girlfriend Lisa, and when Lisa and I started dating Kim took a bit more interest in this whole “lifting weights” thing.  As a collegiate coach, she had always been physically active but was looking to take her fitness to the next level.  In particular she wanted to get stronger and attack her deadlift.

She had me at deadlift.  I was down!

When I was interested in sprucing up the website I contacted Kim because she also does a fair bit of freelance photography on the side.  We did a little trade-bartering, and in exchange for her making me look presentable (I’m hands down the most un-photogenic person in history) I wrote some programming for her.

Teaser Alert:  Kim was gracious enough to come down to CP for another photo shoot this past December, so stay tuned for a website face-lift coming soon. There may or may not be some “sexy tiger” poses involved.

Relax – there isn’t.  I don’t think the internet is ready for that.

Anyhoo:  Kim’s goal – back in 2011 – was to nail a 200 lb DL.  Partly because, well, why not? But mostly because some of her family members told her she’d never hit it.

Oh really!?!?!

I forget when she hit it, but she hit.  Since then she and I have been working together on and off for a little over two years. She’s been “recycling” a few of my older programs as well as doing some improvising on her own (more of the latter than the former).

As a “thank you” for coming down for the more recent photoshoot I sent her a Cressey Performance t-shirt.  And this is what followed a few days afterwards:

A few candid thoughts:

1. I love the intensity!  I love to see how Kim psyches herself up for the lift. She’s NOT messing around, and I was half expecting her to punch a wall or something.

2. After smoking 260, how baller was it when she dropped the weight and gave that “don’t eff with me look” into the mirror??

Total boss.

The only way that would have been cooler is if she immediately sprinted over to the woman on the elliptical machine and screamed PROTECT…..THIS…..HOUSE!!!!!!

3. Yeah, 265 wasn’t pretty.  But since when is a max effort lift always going to look pretty?  She hit TWO freakin PRs in one session.  That doesn’t happen too often, for anyone.

Congrats Kim and well done!

PS:  Oh, and ladies, notice how Kim still looks like a woman?  This despite pulling in the ballpark of 2x her bodyweight.  Turn off the Tracy Anderson and lift some weights!  Need a little primer or to be pointed in the right direction? These will definitely help:

The New Rules of Lifting for Women – Lou Schuler, Alwyn Cosgrove, and Cassandra Forsythe

Lift Like a Girl – Nia Shanks

Train to be Awesome Guide – Nia Shanks

Strong Curves – Bret Contreras and Kellie Hart Davis

Shape-Up Shortcuts – Jen Ator (with a cameo appearance by yours truly!)

CategoriesFemale Training Motivational Strength Training

Hey Ladies, Lift Something Heavy!

The term passion is defined as “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something,” or as a “strong and barely controllable emotion.”

Everyone reading (I hope) has a passion for something.  For some it’s their children and loved ones. For others it may be the charity work they’re involved in.  And even for others it may be something more tangible or finite such as their car or their collection of un-opened Star Wars action figurines.

Hey, I’m not here to judge

Passion is a great thing, and we should all be so lucky as to have a little passion in our lives.

I’m passionate about a lot of things:  my family, my girlfriend, movies, deadlifts, caffeine, my ever growing collection of vintage t-shirts.

A bit closer to home, however, and as a coach in particular, I’m passionate about fitness and helping others attain their goals.

I spend a great portion of my day training athletes, but what’s often glossed over is that I also train a fair number of regular “Joes and Janes,” or people who, like many of you reading, aren’t paid to jump higher, throw harder, or run faster. But rather just want to feel better, possibly shave a few lbs off their frame, lift some heavy things, and maybe not think twice about getting nekid with the lights on.

BOM CHICKA BOM BOM.

To that end, I often go on tirades when the topic of women and training pops up.  Speaking a bit more colloquially – and excuse my language – there’s a lot of shit information out there in the mainstream media, and it’s exponentially shitty with regards to women and strength training.

So I guess you could say I’m also passionate about doing my part in dispelling common myths and fallacies that’s regurgitated by the media.

Below is an interview I did for Marco Berardi and the people over at CrossFit LaSalle located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Marco Berardi: Tony, I know it is probably weird to ask one of the top strength and conditioning bloggers on the web to chat about women and lifting heavy things but your opinion on the subject has been one of my favorite parts of your blog. 600 pound deadlifts and big bench presses are great but for a large majority of coaches, we have many more women clients who want to get “toned” rather than athletes, so the topic of women and weight training is a great interest to me. Thanks for agreeing to answer some questions.

I know you just went on vacation and spent some time at a Globo Gym. What was the experience like? Especially when it comes to how women train? I bet you saw lots of isolated bicep and tricep work with those cute pastel colored weights.

TG:  I live in a fairly secluded “bubble,” because in my world – especially in the realm of strength and conditioning – I control every component of training with my clients. I tell them what to do, how to do it, and most important of all….I coach them and make sure that everything (everything) is done correctly.

So, it’s always interesting when I stumble outside of my little bubble and make my way to a commercial gym to train, as I really have to prepare myself for the massive number of epic fails I’m going to see.

Note:  this isn’t a slight against all commercial gyms – just most of them.

If my thought process offends you – particularly if you’re a trainer and you fall into the camp that’s described below – it’s probably because the truth hurts.  Sorry I’m not sorry. 

Now, to be fair:  I’m not some cynical bastard who just likes to poo-poo on people. Who am I to judge what people do in the gym and how they do it?  At the end of the day, at least they’re doing something, and that should be commended.  Wholeheartedly.  All the time.

Whether it’s Zumba, Yoga, CrossFit, Jazzercise, Prancercise (look it up on Youtube), traditional weight training, or mimicking the dance from Napoleon Dynamite, anything is better than sitting on your ass.

But I’d be lying if I said that I don’t walk away a little let down about the industry whenever I happen to train at a commercial gym.

I’m a coach, and as such, it’s really hard for me not to observe what others are doing. Now, with regular patrons I’ll give the benefit of the doubt.  Sure, I can face palm myself and wonder why that woman who is 30 lbs overweight – and woefully de-conditioned – is wasting her time performing bicep curls on a BOSO ball.  She doesn’t know any better.

What really grinds my gears – and, if I may, makes me absolutely bat shit crazy – is when I see a fitness professional (who should know better) has their client perform the same thing.

Really?  She’s paying you $50, $60, $70 $80+ per hour so that she can stand on a BOSU ball and then follow that with tricep kickbacks and arm circles?  I kid you not:  that’s EXACTLY what I saw while I was away on vacation.

Moreover, it was readily apparent that none of the trainers felt the need to “push” their female clients – treating them as if they were these delicate snowflakes that couldn’t (or shouldn’t) lift anything heavier than their Prada handbag.

Not once, in the four days (FOUR days) I was at this gym training with my girlfriend, did I watch a trainer coach his or her client (whether male or female) through a compound, free-weight movement.  Not once.  I did, however, see a lot of poorly done push-ups, lunges, planks, and a bevy of other exercises that made me want to swallow a live grenade.  It was really sad.

MB: On a side note, how the media portrays training to women it is almost not their fault they are so confused. I mean they can look around their Zumba class and see that no one has improved in the last 3 years but I digress.  Is there anyway to change what is being marketed to women as “exercise”?

TG:  Completely true, and it’s something that I do see changing – albeit at a snail’s pace. Walk down any aisle at your local grocery store, and you’re bound to see numerous “women’s” magazines with a teeny-tiny (airbrushed) actress or model on the cover holding a pink dumbbell underneath some innocuous title like “10 Tips for a Bikini Body” or something equally as nauseating.

In reality, it’s not even the title that’s most annoying – it’s the trivial, almost offensive workouts that are attached. Much like to what I described above at the commercial gym, many (not all) of these so-called “workouts” aren’t even remotely challenging.

I mean, come on:  recommending a workout based solely around a can of soup (which I saw one magazine publish) – how to curl with it, squat with it, lunge with it, throw it at the editor’s face who decided this was viable fitness information – is a bit of waste of everyone’s time don’t cha think?

But this is the type of stuff that’s marketed towards women.  As you noted, can you blame women that they curl up in the fetal position whenever you ask them to perform a deadlift?

As far as the mainstream media is concerned, I don’t think their formula is going to change anytime soon.  While it’s changing somewhat – they do still have to sell magazines, and what sells magazines are articles with Kim Kardashian on the cover telling the world that performing strength training with high heels on is the key to badonkadonkness.

Thankfully, we have women out there like Nia Shanks, Molly Galbraith, Jen Comas Keck, Neghar Fonooni, Jen Sinkler, the rest of the Girls Gone Strong crew, as well as many, many others fighting the good fight and trying to empower women on the benefits of (real) strength training and to step away from the elliptical and treadmill.

Likewise, I too try my best to provide information to women that goes against the norm of what they’ve been spoon-fed for decades.

Like THIS one on The Myth of Female Specific Training, or THIS one on Should You Use Scale Weight as a Measure of Success, or THIS one on The Fitness Double Standard.

I try to debunk as many myths as I can – lifting heavy things WILL NOT turn you into The Rock, endless hours of cardio IS NOT the key to fat loss, Yoga WILL NOT make your muscles long and lean, Tracy Anderson IS NOT a credible source of fitness and health information and is about as intelligent as a ham sandwich.

There’s still a very long battle a head, but I do see the tides turning, and it’s a beautiful thing.

MB: Obviously, the women who come to your facility (I’m guessing) are already sold on the Cressey Performance values. They probably want to lift heavy things and achieve a chin up without assistance. How would you convince a woman that is scared to “bulk up” and feel they need endless amounts of cardio to drop their body fat?

TG:  Yes and no. While it’s true that most people who walk through our doors kinda already have an idea of what they’re getting themselves into, there’s still a fair share that need to be “de-programmed.”

The best thing I can do as a coach is listen.  I try to ask as many questions as possible and do a little digging.

– How often do they train?

  – What has their training looked like?

    – Are they happy with their results?     – If not, how come?

    – What is their ideal body type?

    – Why?

    – What do they feel is holding them back?

So on and so forth.  Once I’m done listening, I then go into a little (not a lot) of what I feel would be the best approach to take.  It’s not about me being confrontational, forcing information in their direction, and trying to convince them that what they’ve been doing for the past five years has been a complete time killer (although, for many, that’s exactly what’s happened).

At this stage it’s about comfort zones and showing them success right out of the gate.

Almost inevitably, once I start throwing out words like squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, Prowlers, hell even if I toss out the word strength…….I’ll starting getting a little push-back, and many of the same myths and fallacies I described above – things many of these women have been regurgitating for YEARS, with limited (if any) results mind you – rear their ugly heads.

Once that happens, I have one more question for them:

“How’s that working for you?”

Clearly, if your way is the superior way, and it’s the approach you’ve been using for the past 5-10 years…….why have you seen NO results?  Zilch.  Nada.

To that end, all I ask is that they give me two months.  Give it their all for 60 days and see what happens.  Almost always, after three weeks they’re hooked.

Once they start to see (and feel) the confidence they gain, it’s always a done deal.

Once they realize that putting an extra ten pounds on the bar won’t turn them into a roided out she-man, and they start noticing small, incremental changes to their body, the sky’s the limit. It’s a beautiful thing.

MB: When you begin to train women do you have specific goals you would like to help them achieve? If I can get a woman to do 5-10 proper push ups on their own, a chin-up, and deadlift better than 99% of the men in the gym, it is safe to assume they will achieve their body image goal. Is that an ok thought process?

TG:  Sure.  With any client – whether I’m working with a male or female – it’s usually my job to tell them what they need to do, and not what they want to do.  Big difference.

With any client, it’s about getting them outside their comfort zone.  With women in particular, their Kryptonite is the free-weight area.  Can you blame them?  Who wants to train around a bunch of dudes who reek of Axe body spray and scream as if they’re passing a kidney stone?  Hell, I don’t want to be around that.

That notwithstanding, I think you’re on the right track.  Having clear and defined (not to mention realistic and attainable) goals is an important component many trainees fail to grasp.

As a trainer or coach, I think it’s crucial to sit down with your client and come up with goals to strive for – whether it’s to perform an unassisted, body weight chin-up, “x” number of lbs on the deadlift, or to lose ten lbs of fat by summer.  Having something to work for gives people a sense of purpose and holds them more accountable in the end.

With the women that I train, they’re going to get coached on all the basic movements – squats, deadlifts, push-ups, etc. Much like you, it’s not uncommon for many of the women I train to train on their own “x” number of days per week at the other gym and to boast that someone complimented them on their deadlift form, and I totally dig that!

Even cooler is when they come back with stories about how they were waiting to “jump in” on a certain exercise at their commercial gym, and they warmed-up with the weight that the guy leaving ended with on his last set.

In the end, though, it’s about coaching the basics.  There’s no need to make things more complicated than they have to be. This isn’t NASA.  If your female client can perform ten picture perfect push-ups – despite push-ups being as exciting as watching grass grow – then they’re leaps and bounds a head of 99% of other females out there.

Sadly, this doesn’t happen too often.  Trainers (and trainees) are more concerned with looking cool and doing something unique than mastering the basics.

CategoriesMotivational Strength Training

Newsflash: People Lifted Weights Before CrossFit

Two quick stories – both of which serve as the impetus behind this post.

1. I can’t tell you how long I resisted the whole Lululemon phenomenon.  Mind you:  I’ve always been a big fan of their work. All apologies to my gay guy friends, but I have a Y chromosome  – so sue me for appreciating the finer points of yoga pants on a female’s body.

In fact, if I had to make a list of three people who’s hand I’d like to shake it would look something like this (in no particular order).

– Optimus Prime

– Han Solo

– Chip Wilson – the founder of Lululemon.

Half of my girlfriend’s wardrobe is from Lululemon (have a I mentioned I’m a fan?), and while I love it when she wears her yoga pants to go grocery shopping, I’d be lying if I said the Darth Vader theme music didn’t reverberate inside my head every time her and I would be walking around in the city and happen to cross paths with a Lululemon store.

Because inevitably she’d want to walk in and then try to convince me to put on a pair of something. Dudes DO NOT wear Lululemon.  In my head, as far as masculine things to do, it ranged somewhere between peeing while sitting down and watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Fast forward to about a year ago when I noticed many of our pro-baseball guys walking into the facility with their Lulu pants on.  When I brought it up to one of our guys – Oliver – and asked what’s up, he just responded with “they’re the most comfortable things, ever!”

When I dug a little deeper and started asking a few more questions, he just put his hands on my shoulders, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “DO IT.  You won’t be disappointed.”

It took a while, but eventually I relented and tried on a pair of their Kung-Fu pants.   And OMG – ammmmmmaaaaazzzziiiiiinnggg.

In fact, Lisa bought a pair for me this past Christmas and I Tweeted the following picture to Oliver with the caption:  I did it!

So now walking into a Lululemon store isn’t quite the chore it used to be.

But a funny thing happened a few weekends ago.

Lisa and I were doing our Sunday “routine,” you know, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Home Depot, squeezed in a little West Elm, when we happened to see a Lulu store.  Lisa beelined it in and I followed suite.  I wasn’t quite as “beeline(ish),” but I wasn’t tossing my face into a cement wall as I would have in the past.

As she was perusing the sales rack, I was standing near the front of the store adjacent to the men’s section.  I wasn’t necessarily looking at anything, but rather just waiting in the area where all the other boyfriend’s waited.  We’re like a little club.

A salesperson approached me and we started chatting me up. She told me all the sales going on – I don’t remember, I kind of blacked out – and then asked what I like to wear to the gym.  I told her that I own one pair of the Kung-Fu pants, but that I’m a strength coach and that I don’t wear them to work because they’d get torn and beat up.

She then pointed to the right at all their men’s shorts, and said “a lot of our CrossFitters like to wear those.”

Wait………huh?  My inner dialogue was like….“Did she just refer to me as a CrossFitter?“

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw

Don’t get me wrong:  I didn’t take offense to it or anything. I mean, she was making a compliment that I actually look like I workout.  But did she not just hear me say that I was a strength coach?

Which leads to story #2.

2.  My internet buddy and intermittent guest blog contributor on this site, Emily Giza Socolinsky, sent me a message the other day.

Long story short:  Emily used to be a Barre instructor and after switching to the dark side – Ie: strength training – and after seeing the results she not only received herself but with her own clients as well, she opened up her own gym.  And she fucking dominates!

Check it out HERE.

She’s long been an advocate of helping to promote people goals – whatever they may be – she doesn’t believe in only ONE way to train, but she’ll be the first to admit that everyone – in particular women – should strength train in some form or another.

And yes, in her own words that does mean “picking up some damn weight.”

Every so often she’ll get a comment on her blog from someone who, *coughs*, is not happy with what she has to say.  Case in point, Emily wrote a fantastic blog HERE a while ago on why she feels Barre classes aren’t the answer for most women.  Mind you:  this was written by a someone who was formerly a very accomplished Barre instructor herself.

Anyways, she ruffled a few feathers when she originally posted that blog post.  And to this day, she still continues to get snarky comments from women.  Like this one:

“Wow, you certainly seem to have a chip on your shoulder toward women who do care about not bulking up!

I’m 42 years old and have been a lifetime runner. For years, I went to the gym and did traditional heavy weight programs (I even leg pressed nearly 3 times my body weight).

I tried the cross fit thing. For me, these programs resulted in injury and chronic pain in my knees and shoulders.

I’m a tiny person and I didn’t really bulk up, but I didn’t look feminine either.

Barre 3 and Bar Method have provided wonderful results for me.

I run faster and I have more endurance because my knees don’t hurt at all anymore! I am still very strong and in fact I can now do 50 push ups with good form. And I’m not embarrassed to admit, I love how how I look. Any women who doesn’t admit they don’t mind having a lean body with feminine muscular toning is lying to themselves and everyone else.”

Emily wrote back a very professional and considerate response – something I would have had a hard time doing – and ended with this:

“Congratulations on how you feel. It is very important for women to love how they look. But my reasoning for the article was to let women know that there are better ways to achieve one’s goal that will actually make them stronger and feel better about themselves. I would be lying to them and to myself if I told them them that barre classes are the way to a stronger body. Thank you for your comment.”

Lets ignore the whole leg press 3x bodyweight comment, or the “50 push-ups with good form” comment. I feel like my eyes have never rolled so hard in my life when I read those.

What I was most interested in was the “I did the CrossFit thing” comment.

Hello??!?!?!?  Since When Is E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G CrossFit??????

Correct me if I’m wrong, but people were lifting weights and doing “strength training” long before CrossFit came into the picture.  No where in Emily’s original post did she mention CrossFit.  In fact, what she was referring to was everything CrossFit isn’t (more or less).

What she was advocating was a well-structured, coherent, planned, approach to strength training based off of one’s needs, goals, and health/injury history.

I don’t want to make this into some CrossFit bashing diatribe – that’s not the point.  And for those reading who feel that’s what I’m doing, take a deep breath, relax, do some handstand push-ups or something, and read THIS.

There’s actually a lot about CrossFit I like and advocate.

But I just find it comical that, in the eyes of the general public, everything involving lifting a weight is now somehow lumped into CrossFit.

Much of that has to do with the marketing genius of CrossFit – there’s no doubting that.  For what it’s worth I applaud it.  A LOT more people are getting their asses off the couch and exercising now.

But what did people from the dawn of man to about ten years ago call weight training?  I’ll tell you what it wasn’t called:  fucking CrossFit.

Just a little rant for the day.  I feel better now.  Carry on.

CategoriesMotivational Product Review

One of the Best Pieces of Advice I Ever Received (at the Gym)

I think every guy (and maybe girls too, I’m not sure) who has ever stepped foot in a gym has that one memory of starting out and being lucky enough to be taken under the wing of someone else.

Someone to show them the ropes, guide them, steer them away from the Smith machine.  Or, as Rod Tidwell from the movie Jerry Maguire would say, “be their ambassador of Quan.”

I had that guy back in the day when I first started working out at my local town fitness center.  His name was Joe, he was ginormous, and he just so happened to be one of the local sheriffs.

Every afternoon when I showed up to workout – I didn’t call it training back then – Joe would be there as well hoisting god-knows-how-much-weight, and I’d be in awe of him.

I didn’t have the courage to approach or talk to Joe right out of the gate to ask for advice partly because I was a scrawny, shy kid…..but mostly because I didn’t want him to eat me.

Soon enough, after a few weeks – maybe even months – I built what could be labeled as some semblance of a rapport with Joe, and I started peppering him with questions.

How much do you bench?

How often should I workout?

How much protein should I eat?

Who would win in an arm-wrestling match:  you or a tank?

Do you know Arnold?

Joe was always more than accommodating, answering my questions with equal parts mentor saavy and what I have to imagine was a smidgeon of eye rolling.

I remember he told me that one of his rituals was to toss in a raw egg whites into his protein shakes every night. Much to my mother’s chagrin I dutifully obliged.

He could have told me to put banana peels and unicorn tears into my shake and I would have done it.

More cogent to today’s conversation, however, was a piece of advice that Joe shared with me which stuck for a loooooooong time.  It’s something that he took seriously and made it a point to make sure that I treated it in the same fashion.  No BS.

And that was to always, no matter what, keep a training journal.

 “It’s going to serve as your bible,” he said.  “Use it, refer to it, never go to the gym without it.”

And I did.  I wrote down all my workouts with a pen or pencil, meticulously kept track of sets and reps, and would oftentimes jot down notes to myself as feedback.

In more ways than one, and as silly as it sounds, it was one of my best friends.  A sort of diary if you of blood, sweat, failure, and PRs.

One time, during a grueling deadlift session, I even taped a callous that ripped off my hand to that day’s training page.

I have no doubts that keeping and maintaining a training journal was what allowed me to continuously make progress in my teens through my twenties, and even now.

To this day I still have a pile of training notebooks tucked away in a box somewhere here in my apartment as well as at my parent’s house.

And while I don’t have one right in front of me, it’s fair to say that a typical passage would look something along the lines of this:

Here’s one from August 17, 2003

A1.  Bench Press 5×5: 205×5, 215×5, 225×5, 225×4, 225×3
A2.  Stretch Something (hahahaha, yeah right!)

B1.  Flat Bench DB Press 3×10: 70×10, 70×10, 70×10
B2.  I’m sad I’m not deadlifting today.

C1.  Chest Supported Row 4×8: 90×8, 90×8, 90×8, 90×8
C2.  Decline Bench EZ Bar Skull-Crusher 3×12: 60×12,60×12,60×12

*** Note to self:  don’t forget to set the DVR to record Alias tonight.  OMG Jennifer Garner is so hot.  I swear to god if Sydney and Michael don’t hook up soon I’m going to go crazy!

Oh, also, call mom.

D.  Bicep Curls 3x infinity – damn, you’re gunny.

Of course with the advent of technology and given that today’s world is almost entirely digital the era of the training journal has slowly died a slow death.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Technology – more or less – makes our lives easier.  I’m not going to go into the moral arguments that could be made with that statement, but lets just keep things nice a rosy and just run with it.

Introducing the WeightTraining.com App!

This is an instance where technology really amazes me. Many of you may recall my affiliation with the peeps over at WeightTraining.com, and if not, either way I’m really excited to announce the release of their FREE iOS 2.0 App.

What’s the Deal?

Beginners can have instant access to hundreds of pre-made trainer-approved workout plans, with a variety of  fitness goals to choose from. Our database of over 2,000 exercises includes demonstration videos, step-by-step instructions, and tips to help take the guesswork out of exercise technique and make for a safer time at the gym and better results over time.

Experienced lifters can build their own workouts with a quick exercise search and input their time, distance, and sets / reps as needed. Both exercises and workouts can be saved as Favorites for even easier access in subsequent workouts. The logger will also update with suggestions based on past workouts.

Set specific goals, visualize your progress, and optimize your workouts to improve your health in 2014!

Here’s Your Chance to Win a TRX System

Now here’s the cool part.  On top of all the cool give-aways and promotions that WT.com is promoting, they’ve partnered with me and my “community” to help sweeten the pot.

Here’s what you have to do.

In order to be entered into the app release giveaway, you must complete the following: 

1. Download the FREE WeightTraining.com app or you can go to Apple directly and download it HERE.

2. Log a workout on January 6th (<– THAT’s TODAY!!!!)

EDIT:  To say that the giveaway has been extended THROUGH TUESDAY, Jan. 7th!

3. Tweet your logged workout to @TonyGentilcore1 (Twitter) or Facebook share your workout with the hashtag #TonyGentilcore on January 6th (<– Again, THAT’s TODAY, Monday, Jan. 6th).

Winners will be randomly selected on January 8th!!!!.

And that’s it.  Rock on and happy lifting!

CategoriesMotivational

3 Not-So-Common Mistakes Athletes Make

It’s a fairly self-explanatory title, with a fairly self-explanatory premise:  Athletes, like everyone else, make mistakes.  However, in giving a bit of a spoiler alert (and what I hope will be an enticing attempt for you to click on the link), I don’t cover your run-of-the-mill mistakes in this most recent article I wrote for Stack Magazine.

I don’t discuss set and rep schemes, nor do I discuss exercise technique. I don’t touch on the importance of making better food choices, and while it’s arguably the most important factor (and most overlooked), I don’t belabor how crucial it is to instill appropriate recovery methods (hydration, sleep, soft tissue work, puppy dog kisses, etc).

All that stuff – while important – are always talked about and debated and written about ad nauseam. I wanted to take a different route – you could say “the road less travelled” – and bring to light some other things that come into play when broaching the topic of mistakes (young) athletes make.

You know, stuff like not instilling a sense of work ethic, battling entitlement, or going waaaaaaaay too long before washing their jock strap.

Okay maybe not the last one, but I do feel that my soap box rant may strike a chord with some athletes and parents of athletes. At least that’s my goal.

It’s a quick read, but I’d love to hear some feedback to see if anyone else agrees with my thought process.

Thanks!

3 Not-So-Common Mistakes Athletes Make (<—Click Me)

CategoriesMotivational

4 (Not So Obvious) Reasons You’re Not Seeing Results in the Gym

I’m in a crap-tastic mood today so I apologize in advance if this post comes across as me being a cantankerous old-man or something.

I don’t know if it’s due to seasonal affective disorder, lack of caffeine, or the fact I just re-watched one of the most depressing movies in the history of depressing movies – Dancer in the Dark – but I’m really trying to fight off the urge to kidney punch a dolphin right now. Dolphins have kidneys right?  

Sometimes I think people need a dose of tough love every now and then. Life isn’t always about butterfly kisses and rainbows and teddy bear hugs. Case in point:  the movie I mentioned above.  I’m not kidding when I say that it’s arguably one of the most depressing movies ever made.  It makes Schindler’s List come across as a romantic comedy.

My girlfriend is often perplexed why it is I tend to gravitate towards “darker” movies and television shows. I was watching an episode of The Walking Dead not too long ago and I think Lisa’s exact words to me when she caught me cheering a zombie decapitation was, “I think I love you less for watching this crap.”

Don’t worry, though:  I made it up to her by watching an episode of Downton Abbey. One cancels out the other.

I can’t pinpoint the reason myself, but I think part of the appeal of shows like Breaking Bad or movies like Prisoners is that I tend to find those bit more realistic and believable than the typical feel good, lets-all-hold-hands-and-sing-kumbaya fanfare.  I’m sorry but Ross doesn’t always end up with Rachel.  Lassie doesn’t always find her way home.  And dammit, Roy Hobbs doesn’t always hit a walk-off home run.

But giving credit where it’s due: That scene still gives me chills. I can’t tell you how many times I watched that scene when I was growing up, reenacting it in my living room.

Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s cloudy with a chance of rain.  And Ross gets hit by a bus crossing the street.

HA – now THAT would have been an ending.

Don’t get me wrong:  I like happy endings (get your mind out of the gutter) and I won’t lie and deny that I don’t enjoy the simpler things in life. For example, I’m pumped every time I find a quarter on the street.  In fact, I usually end up doing one of these:

I high-five myself every time I wake up a minute before my alarm goes off.  My heart melts every time Lisa smiles at me (or cooks me a steak). Who doesn’t fist pump when they make it through a yellow light? I know I do.   And, my cat is sitting here next to me sleeping by my arm as I type this post.  OMG she is just the cutest thing……EVER!

See I’m not just some cold-hearted Scrooge.

But seriously, though, in real life Ross would NEVER have landed a fox like Rachel.  Come on!!!!!!!!!

I also wouldn’t do what I do for a living if I didn’t enjoy helping people and if I didn’t get some sense of fulfillment from it.

I LOVE WHAT I DO!

I mean, for starters I get to wear sweatpants to work every day if I want.  What’s not to love?  But more to the point, on an almost daily basis, I get to coach people and be there as they shatter personal records, achieve things they never thought possible, and otherwise help them increase their general level of awesomeness.

98.5694% (give or take a few percentage points) of the stuff I write is positive.  I wouldn’t write this blog if I didn’t want to help people and do my part in making them better.

But sometimes, on a day like today, I have a hard time playing cheerleader and I just need to tell it like it is.

A friend of mine, Chad Landers, a guy with over 20 years of training experience and someone whom I respect a ton, wrote an awesome article earlier this year that went viral titled Top 5 Reasons You’re Not Seeing Results in the Gym.

I thought the article was boss. I agreed 100% with everything he said and even went out of my way to highlight it here on this blog (as part of an installment of Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work) as well as on my social media outlets.

I felt it was a message that everyone needed to hear and I loved the positive reinforcement he provided.

As I mentioned above I tend to re-watch movies all the time (that’s a pic of my kick-ass movie collection below:  Star Wars? Check.  Lord of the Rings?  Check.  GoodFellas?  Check.  Love Actually?  I plead the 5th.), and in the same vein I also tend to re-read articles that I like.

I happened to come across Chad’s article again yesterday, again nodding my head in complete agreement, but then a thought to myself, “what else do people need to hear?”

And this is what I came up with.  Again, sorry:  I’m really not this much of a prick in real life.

I think Chad hit the nail on the head with regards to all the obvious explanations as to why most people aren’t seeing results in the gym.  You know, things like not using progressive overload, program hopping, a raging case of explosive diarrhea (<—-I added that one).

But one major calling card that I feel wasn’t hit on – and something that tend to be the elephant in the room is this:

1. You’re Just Not Working as Hard as You Think You Are

No, really.  You’re not!  I hate to be Johnny Raincloud and rain on your parade, but this is a tough pill to swallow for most people.

Just because you “show up,” and the clock says you were at the gym for an hour 0r two doesn’t really mean anything. Likewise, it doesn’t make your “workout” any more effective just because you posted it up as a status update on your Facebook page.

As a coach it’s in my nature to observe and watch people.  This is absurdly true whenever I happen to train at a commercial gym.  I can’t help but watch people train.  Sure, there are a few people who get after it and are doing some work, but the vast majority of people are just floating around more concerned with watching updates on SportsCenter or checking their text messages than actually breaking a sweat.

It’s funny, because this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone because research as repeatedly shown  – especially in nutrition circles – that people tend to UNDER repot how much they really eat, and OVER report how much they exercise.

It’s human nature to “fudge” the facts a bit – yes, I do it too – and it’s uncanny how much we tend to “forget” those five Oreos we had right before bed the other night or that your actual bench press max is 200 lbs and not the 405 (for reps) that the internet says it is.

Just own up to it!  You’re not working as hard as you think you are.  It’s as simple as that.

2. No Plan, or Purpose

Pigging back on one of the points above:  how many of you reading can honestly raise your hand and say, “I’m training for X,Y, or Z? That I have a plan or goal or PURPOSE in my training?”

Better yet, a more germane question to ask would be:  “am I actually tracking anything?”

Are you just showing up 0r are you showing up with a plan of attack? Do you show up to the gym and just “wing it,” or do you show up with a purpose?

Another buddy of mine, Bryan Krahn (who’s actually my editor over at T-Nation) had a great quote not too long ago that he posted on Twitter:

Crossfit “works” because it’s competitive. You can do the same with your own training by competing against your training log. 

There’s no need to get fancy or get into the mindset that we have to be following some advanced training protocol.  I’d much rather see people do the boring stuff (squat, deadlift, chin-ups, bench press, not eat like an asshole) – and do them WITH PASSION and CONSISTENCY – than just throw caution to the wind and haphazardly “do stuff,”

Whether your goal is to get bigger, leaner, stronger, look good for your 20-year class reunion, stop trying to short-change the system.  Have a plan, do the boring stuff – eat well, train hard, repeat – that actually works.

3. You’re Not Comfortable With Getting Uncomfortable

When I was in college I would spend my holiday breaks and summers training at my local gym in my hometown.  There was one guy who trained there who, I swear to god, did the exact same workout, in the exact same order, with the exact same weights, for four straight freakin years.

He never changed a damn thing, and it’s no surprise that he looked EXACLY the same on day one as he did on day 1,460 (that’s how many days are in four years BTW).

Now I’m not insinuating that people need to be changing up their programs every week or two. Just because you read an article by Jim Wendler or Dave Tate where they discuss the merits of switching up movements every so often doesn’t mean you have to.

Here’s a quick quiz (guys):

1.  Can you deadlift at least 2x bodyweight?

2.  Can you perform a set of TEN strict, sternum to bar, bodyweight chin-ups?

3.  Do you own a pair of chains, yet can’t squat your own bodyweight for ten reps?

If you answered no to any of the questions above, trust me, you have no business worrying about whether or not you should switch from deficit deadlifts with chains in week one to deadstart Anderson front squats to week two.

As I stated earlier:  there’s nothing wrong with doing the boring stuff and getting REALLY good at doing them.

Conversely, it stands to reason that if you haven’t changed up your workout routine since Pepsi Clear was considered relevant (was that ever considered relevant???) than it’s probably a fair assumption that you need to change things up a bit.

I get it:  it’s human nature to do what’s comfortable and what we’re good at.  But the body does a pretty damn good job at adapting to whatever stress we place upon it, and it’s bodes in your favor to challenge yourself in different ways from time to time.

Get comfortable with getting UNcomfortable.

4. Frankly, Your Gym is Sucking the Life Out of You

How anyone can train with the likes of John Mayer or Katy Perry reverberating through the speakers is beyond me.

Moreover, if your gym routinely posts notices like this – and then rewards you by providing you with a “pizza day” every week – than your lack of results is on you.

Just sayin……

UPDATE:  I’m feeling better now.  After having written that and gotten a little off my chest in concert with watching a few LOLCat videos, I’m good.

Who wants a hug!?!?!

CategoriesFat Loss Motivational Nutrition

Smarter Science of Slim: Silly Strong LOLCats

First off:  I just want to take a few moments to say THANK YOU to all the brave men and women (past a present) who, in what’s arguably the most un-selfish act possible, have put their lives on the line to serve this great country.

In the words of a friend of mine, Greg, who stated it about as eloquently as possible:  Regardless of the situations our leaders put you in, you handle it so that others don’t have to and I respect the hell out of that. Often thankless, often overlooked, often taken for granted, you persevere to do the duty you pledged, voluntarily, to do and I respect the hell out of that too.

Thank you. Not just today, but every day.

Happy Veteran’s Day.

Secondly: Some of you may recall a video I linked to earlier this year by author Jonathan Bailor titled Slim is Simple.  In it, Jonathan discusses why it is we’re fatter and more unhealthy than ever before despite exercising and dieting in record numbers.

It was a message that I enjoyed and felt many people could relate with.  Simple, to the point, with no fluff and BS.

In an age where some grown adults are under the delusion that eating baby food is a viable dietary option, and even more nitpick over whether or not a bowl of oatmeal is considered “Paleo,”  it’s a breath of fresh air to hear people like Jonathan speak on why it doesn’t always (if ever) have to so complicated.

Not long after I posted my blog Jonathan invited me to hang out on is podcast, The Smarter Science of Slim, where we talked about a handful of things ranging from CrossFit to training athletes to goal setting to LOLCats.

Hence the title of the episode.

It just went live today, and if you have 30 minutes to spare I think it would be well worth the time.

Enjoy!

CategoriesMotivational Strength Training

Why It’s Not Always JUST About Strength

“One more!  Get it! Yeah!  All you, all you, all you. Just the pinkies.  JUST…….THE……PINKIES!!!”

We’ve all been there.  Rolling our eyes at the two meatheads who are screaming at one another and drawing attention to themselves as they eek out one more rep on the bench press, or squeeze out another rep in the squat rack, or, I don’t know, engage in an epic thumb war battle.  Who knows?

The point is, we’ve all seen it happen. Or, more to the point, have been there ourselves (don’t worry, I won’t judge).

While 95% of the time the guttural screams we hear at the gym are nothing more than some lame song and dance to garner attention or some alpha-male power play akin to a peacock spreading its feathers, sometimes, on rare occasions, it just comes down to someone working their tail off.

And that should be commended.  To an extent.

Let me expound a bit.

You see, deep down inside I’m a meathead at heart.  I’ve been lifting weights since I was 13, and can remember vividly the Christmas morning when I got my first weight training set from my parents (I mean Santa).  It was one of the best mornings of my life, and I can remember like it was yesterday how I instantly plopped down on the bench to bang out a few reps of bench presses.  All in the comfort of my He-Man pjs. It was awesome.

The next 10-15 years were filled with your prerequisite training career.  I can recall doing my fair share of bicep curls in front of the mirror just outside my bedroom door while my stereo cranked out the likes of Wu-Tang Clan and Stone Temple Pilots.

I can only imagine what was going through mama Gentilcore’s head as I was upstairs cranking out curls and push-ups as Wu-Tang Clan’s Ain’t Nuthin to F*** Wit was shaking the windows.

Ma!  The meatloaf!

It was business as usual all through high-school and college.  As my baseball career developed I spent more and more time in the weight room as a means to an end.  My goal was to play professional baseball (and to make out with Mariah Carey. It was the mid-90s, sue me!) and I’d spend much of my free time working out and doing what I needed to do to make myself better.

I won’t sugar-coat anything: While I had a few professional looks and tryouts, it didn’t pan out.

After I was done playing, my goals then turned to what else: getting jacked. While I was able to make some progress in the gym – it wasn’t until I started my first job in corporate fitness and started reading sites like T-Nation that I started to place a premium on STRENGTH!

It’s hard to believe, but I didn’t perform my first deadlift until 2003, when I was 25.

A funny (and looking back, a not so coincidental) thing happened once I started training for strength. I got results!  I went from 180 to 21o lbs in less than a year, and while all of that was cool……..I was no where near closer to making out with Mariah Carey.

For the record:  I’m still referring to mid-late 90s Mariah, not the hooched out diva, uppity bitch of today.  And yes, I realize that at this point in the story I’m past the 90s, and unless I have a flux capacitator in my back pocket the chronological order doesn’t jive. Whatever Einstein.  It’s my story, just roll with it.

Getting back on task – I’m a strength guy.  I wouldn’t call myself a strength coach if I wasn’t.  I feel strength and getting stronger should be the backbone of anyone’s program.  You can’t have things like power, agility, endurance, charm, and unwittingly good looks without first having a solid foundation of strength.

Likewise, there aren’t many guys (or girls) out there who have built impressive or admirable physiques who aren’t strong.

One of the best analogies I’ve ever come across about why strength is important is to think of it as a glass.

What kind of glass are we talking about here?  A standard 8 oz glass?  A wine glass?  An Optimus Prime collectors mug I got in a Happy Meal circa 1985?  This post is just chock full of nostalgia today!

Well, any glass really. The idea, though, is to make the glass bigger!

This is an analogy I first heard from Eric Cressey, and again later on from Master RKC instructor, Brett Jones.

Think of strength as a glass, and the water inside the glass as all the “qualities” we train for:  endurance, strength-endurance, power, agility, speed strength, strength speed, having the ability to somehow take F.O.R.E.V.E.R in the bathroom getting ready (ladies?), you know, those types of things.

The smaller your glass, the less “qualities” you’re able to express, let alone at a high level.  That said…..

Strength is the basis for everything. 

You can’t be “fast” without having some semblance of strength (or horsepower) in reserve.  You can’t improve your timed mile, or taking a bit further, your marathon time if you can’t generate more force into the ground to propel yourself forward.

The larger you make your glass, the more liquid you’re able to place inside said glass, and the likelihood your performance improves.  Whatever your endeavors may be.

That said, and going back to the example of the two meatheads above, as much as I LOVE strength and getting people stronger, and as much as I respect people who work hard and get “after it,” it does come at a price.

In other words:  you can’t ALWAYS grind out reps and beat your joints to a pulp, and a well-rounded program isn’t SOLEY about lifting as much weight as possible until your knees or shoulder or spine feels like tossing you the middle finger.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before………

Eric Cressey released a book this week!

You’ve no doubt been inundated with countless posts, tweets, and Facebook statuses from other fitness professionals about The High Performance Handbook this week.  And getting the obvious out of the way, this was a post “disguised,” in large part, to support Eric’s new book, to sell a few copies, and yes, to help fund my insatiable ice-cream habit…..;o)

Speaking truthfully, however, the main impetus was to help get a quality product into the hands of people who need it.

There are a boatload of people out there haphazardly going to the gym each and every day not making progress, and more often than not, causing more harm than good.

Sure many are lifting weights, but many are lifting weights poorly.  On top of that many don’t understand that a well-rounded program entails much more than just hoisting weights off the ground, and that if more people learned to tweak a program to fit their body-type, needs, and capabilities on top of addressing movement quality, that they would see profound differences in not only how they feel but how they look too.

And that’s the crux of The High Performance Handbook and what separates it from the masses.

Make no mistake:  you’re going to lift heavy things and hate life at certain points.

But it’s not just about lifting weights.

It’s also about moving well, and also understanding how to lift weights correctly.

I think most people reading this site knows my affiliation with Eric, and by extension Cressey Performance. This resource is about as close as you’re going to get to training at CP without actually being at CP, and it goes without saying that I feel the “system” works.

To that end, you only have until TONIGHT (SATURDAY, October 26th) at MIDNIGHT to take advantage of the introductory sale price.  After that the price goes up significantly.*

UPDATE:  it’s been brought to my attention that Eric’s extended the offer to come train at Cressey Performance. Anyone who purchases the book before the deadline, will be entered to win an all expenses paid trip to come train at Cressey Performance. We can totally like, hang out and stuff!

—-> The High Performance Handbook <—-

* = and a baby seal cries.