CategoriesStrength Training

The Secret to Training Gains: Less is More

It’s a tough sell for sure, and it’s borderline cliche to say, but the fact of the matter is:  when it comes to getting results in the gym, for 90% of people, 90% of the time – whether the goal is fat loss, hitting “x” number on the bench press, or I don’t know, trying not to projectile vomit when squatting – less is more.

Don’t get me wrong:  I respect and appreciate that there are many people out there who like going to the gym and prefer to spend their time on a deadlift platform or taking a group exercise class over staying at home watching Dancing With the Stars or playing Grand Theft Auto.

Even still, there are numerous people out there under the impression that they have to spend two, three, upwards of four hours per day in the gym in order to get results.

Unless your name is The Rock or you’re planning on competing in the next Olympics, chances are if you’re spending that much time in the gym you’re 1) wasting mucho time doing a lot of nothing and/or 2) don’t have a job.

This is something I have to go to battle on with a lot of the younger athletes I work with – and to a high degree, the older demographics too – because many want to do MORE when all they’re really doing is spinning their wheels.

In my latest article on Stack.com I discuss why doing LESS is oftentimes the better route to take.

Click Me (<—– That Tickles)

CategoriesMotivational Strength Training

2 Minute Squat, and the Truth About Challenges

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Toronto based strength coach, Lee Boyce. I’ve always been a fan of Lee’s work and have often linked to his stuff on his own website as well as T-Nation.

I had the opportunity of hanging out with Lee last year when I visited Toronto and he’s every bit as personable, humble, and friendly as he comes across in his articles.  Plus, for what it’s worth, he does a killer post-lift robot.

Lee’s actually going to be making a cameo appearance during mine and Dean Somerset’s Edmonton Workshop in a few weeks, so the likelihood that they’ll be some kind of robot-off is 100%.

In any case, enjoy!

I’ve always had a competitive edge when I was in school. Especially as a middle and high-school student, I wanted to be number one at anything that was remotely related to athletics and strength. Being the fastest runner, highest jumper, and lifting the heaviest weights were among the top things on my priority list.

Unfortunately, since much of the duration of my school-age career was spent as the equivalent of a 98 pound weakling, I was less than successful.

Regardless, the mentality remained present, and pieces of it still pepper themselves into my life as a lifter and trainer. It’s hard to resist a good lifting challenge, and the latest poison was too hard to resist. After a summer chalk full of Olympic lifting, I got notably stronger, but performing any exercise for more than three reps turned into the most arduous conditioning task I’d ever experienced.

Enter the 2 minute Squat

Not long ago Dan Trink used a 2 minute leg press as a challenge for reps performed in an article for TNATION. Definitely a burner of a finishing move to destroy the quads and give you a pump that lasts days.

I took that to the next level and tried my luck with a 2-minute-long squat challenge. The kicker is this – the loaded barbell must match (or surpass) your current bodyweight in pounds.

Note from TG:  shhhhhhhheeeeeeeeiiitttttttt. That’s going to suck.

Also, you can’t rack the weight during the 2 minutes – the bar must remain on your back for the entire duration.

Prepare for your heart rate to go berserk.

And (this goes without saying), you have to be sure to use a full range of motion for every rep. I don’t care about high bar vs. low bar, or stance width, as long as it’s not sumo-wide. Just get to full depth, ATG.  Watch me get absolutely crushed by this challenge in the video below:

Breathing Squats vs. the 2 Minute Squat

We’ve all heard of breathing squats. Take your 10 rep max, and without putting the bar down, perform 20 reps. Take as many breaths between reps as needed.  The concept sounds good, and on several exercises it can turn into a real burner – especially, once again, in the case of the leg press.

When it comes to squatting however, from personal experience I’ve found that it’s just too difficult.  I’m not pulling out the pansy card, just hear me out.

To have a loaded barbell with your 10 rep max on your back (for me, that’s around 335lbs), it’s just flat out too heavy for me to lift it 20 times, regardless of how long I take between reps. Most trained individuals have a 10RM that’s heavier than their own bodyweight when it comes to squatting, which is why the 2 minute exercise is a better bet for conditioning and even hypertrophy purposes.

Plus there’s not a “target” number of reps to attain within the time, so you can focus on quality of each rep, and not have your form and technique break down as you progress through the set. That’s huge.

Here’s The Truth about Challenges

We can let our performance at fixed tests dictate the way we view our strength, progress in the gym, or manhood.

Note from TG:  cinnamon test, anyone?  Anyone?

These kinds of challenges are interesting, and the truth is, some of us will never be good at them, and I’m pretty sure I’m a guy who fits that category. As competitive in nature as I was and still am, it goes back to my article on The Truth for Tall Lifters. Someone’s body type will create huge caveats as to how well they will fare in any given challenge, including the one above.

Check out the video again. In each of the 19 reps I performed with the barbell, the tempo of the squat didn’t really change much. It took me FOREVER to get from start to finish position in any given rep, thanks to my height and the length of my limbs.

Having said that, if I’m given 2 minutes to squat a bar for full range as many times as possible, a 5’9” guy of similar body weight with equal amounts of strength and conditioning will beat me every single time, no matter what.

The interesting part is that it’s not quite reflective of his levels of strength as compared to mine. The task itself is just friendlier to him than it is to a 6’4” guy. For every rep, the 6’4” guy would have done more work (force x distance) than the 5’9” guy – given the amount of reps performed was in the same ballpark.

Plus the tall guy would spend more time under tension in any regular set of his own basic training. Wouldn’t the “Fran” workout for CrossFit enthusiasts be more unforgiving to a 6’9” guy who has to cover a further distance during thrusters, or during pull ups, which cumulatively eats precious seconds off the clock?

The Fallacy Behind Weight – Strength Ratio

I’ll start this section by saying that I don’t have formal research that I’ve conducted, so I’m not about to recite a litany of references to back up my statements, but with that in mind, I definitely don’t believe that there is anything near a linear relationship between having a heavier body mass and the amount that “should” be lifted.

That’s why there are very few people who weigh 265 who can match the strength-to-weight ratio of most 135 pound Olympic gymnasts. Again, it comes down to a game of levers, anthropometrics, and general ergonomics of the movement in question.

On this topic, I was talking to a magazine editor who stands 6’3”, who was recently challenged to a 10,000 dollar pull-up contest against an athlete of the opposing coach’s choice. Simple logic would have that coach choose his lightest and most conditioned athlete, probably with a pair of short arms to boot, and the editor would have gone to the crypt, and lost 10 grand in the process.

If A 6’5”, 265 pound squatter went up against a 6’0”, 215 pound squatter of equal conditioning in the challenge above, I’m sure the 215 pound squatter would still win, based on the fact that he has a lower center of gravity, and simply because the implement is lighter, period.

According to ESPN.com, In the past 5 years in the NFL combine, the average difference in bodyweight between running backs and wide receivers has been only 10 pounds, however, in the 225 pound bench press test, the running backs performed 5 more reps on average than the receivers.

One could argue that part of this may be due to training modifications to condition for contact situations, but a closer look at the anthropometric differences gives the true answer.

On average, those running backs were 3 inches shorter, with one inch less wingspan. All of a sudden, the longer armed, lankier wideouts had more of a disadvantage than meets the eye in the bench press test – even if they can produce just as much force on the field as their counterparts.

In Conclusion

Luckily, we’re not in the NFL, so there are no hard and fast privileges pending on our ability to “score well” in such tests.

Use the challenge above to do just what it did to me – kick some serious tail in conditioning, and present a cool gauge to test against yourself in future attempts.

I find it really cool to repeat similar conditioning tests at the end of each of your training phases to see where you stand as compared to the last phase. I’m sure you’ll get a very different result after a strength program with 3 rep maxes, compared to a dynamic conditioning program with multiple rep schemes.

Fitness training is very body-specific, and as such, it’s extremely unregulated. Don’t be a sucker for what’s on the bar, and the reps you’ve performed, and focus on the training effect. You’re going after your own results, so “challenges” are only valid if they’re made against yourself, and not someone else.

About the Author

Lee Boyce is an internationally known fitness writer and strength coach and owner of Boyce Training Systems, based in Toronto Ontario. His work is published regularly in many major fitness magazines including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, TNATION, Muscle and Fitness, Bodybuilding.com and Inside Fitness.  In 2013, he was named to the Team Jamaica training and treatment staff for the Penn Relays international track meet. Currently Boyce works with clients and athletes for strength, conditioning, and sport performance. Visit his website  www.leeboycetraining.com for more content, and follow him on twitter @coachleeboyce and facebook www.facebook.com/lee.boyce.52.

 

CategoriesStrength Training

But What Do You Do For Cardio?

I love Boston. More to the point, I love the neighborhood I live in.  My apartment is a 30 second walk from a “T” stop (for non-Boston folk that’s the name for the subway/above ground public transportation system), there’s a kick-ass independently owned movie theater a few blocks away, a lovely (again, independently owned) bookstore right across the street from the theater, and all the other staples that you would expect in a booming, popular area of commerce – pizza joints, ice-cream joints (JP Licks!), CVS, Starbucks, Panera, and there’s even a GAP if that’s your bag.

But what really separates my neighborhood from the pack is that there’s a ginormous Trader Joe’s right in the middle of it all.

Every Sunday for the past two years we’ve co-habitated together (For the Record: I’ve never been yelled yet for keeping the toilet seat up, thank you very much) Lisa and I make the short trek to TJs to do out weekly grocery shopping.

As you might expect, in the two years that we’ve been shopping there, Lisa and I have grown “friendly” with a lot of the staff at TJs.  It’s not uncommon for any number of the workers to stop the two of us and ask us how things are and to engage in your garden variety small talk.  You know, the weather, Red Sox, and holy fuckballs avocados are on sale this week!

I remember one of the first weekends we started shopping at that particular TJs one of the guys who worked there asked if I was a personal trainer.

Hey, what can I say:  It happens.

I said, “yes,” and that I was actually a strength coach and co-owner of my own facility outside – in the burbs- of Boston.

As the weeks passed, the random TJs guy would pepper me with various questions on how to “get a six-pack,” or what he would need to do to “tone-up,”  or how he could add some muscle or any number of canned questions that I hear verbatim elsewhere on a weekly basis.

I’d play along and tell him that, in no uncertain terms, he’d have to lift some weights.  Preferably of the heavy variety.  Muscle isn’t just going to miraculously appear after going for a 4-mile jog (which was what his preferred mode of exercise was).

The guy was flabbergasted when I admitted to him that I rarely (if ever) perform any traditional cardio exercise. I lift heavy stuff, don’t eat like an asshole, and perform some sprints here and there.

It just didn’t (and hasn’t) clicked with him.  I can’t tell you how many times he’s approached me in the past two years while Lisa and I are shopping asking me the same exact question, albeit tweaked slightly. And every time I try my best to better articulate my message (that you don’t HAVE to perform endless bouts of steady state cardio) and direct him to other resources that he can use as educational material.

Just the other week he asked, “soo, uh, how many miles would I have to run to look like you?”

I chuckled and just politely said, “my man, my answer isn’t going to change.  GO LIFT SOME WEIGHTS”  When he retorted with the colloquial “yeah, but what do I do for cardio?” I responded with a line I stole from Jen Sinkler:

Lift weights faster!

If someone’s goal is to put on muscle and add weight, I’m sorry, I’m not going to advocate “go for a run.”

Anyone who’s ever completed a 20-rep set of squats, performed a finisher after a strength session, or even pushed the Prowler around, knows what I’m talking about.

You can elevate your heart rate just fine without having to jump onto a treadmill.  Why are people married to this notion that the ONLY way to gain a “cardio” benefit is by engaging in drawn out, low-intensity, steady-state mumbo-jumbo?

I’m not trying to bag it.  I recognize that it’s part of a well-rounded exercise routine and that it offers a plethora of it’s own health benefits.  But come on:  anything that elevates your heart rate can technically be considered cardio……..even, GASP, lifting weights.

For an excellent retort on why it’s faulty logic to think the only way you can gain a benefit is by performing traditional cardio I’d highly recommend reading THIS post by Jen Sinkler, and then do yourself a favor and order one of her shirts.

They’re awesome!  And a great conversation starter.

And I know I’m not the only one who feels this is a conundrum.  One my former distance clients – who’s a very successful trainer himself in West Virginia – had a similar run in with an acquaintance himself.

“A guy at church asked me if I’d like to join him for a Tough MUDDER Run in October… I said, I don’t run and it would mess up my training. Lol

It cracks me up that people think you can’t be fit unless you run… Another lady at church runs a lot and couldn’t believe how good my wife looked despite the fact she doesn’t run…”

A gleaming example of this is Cressey Performance client Paula DeMarkey, who, under the tutelage of Greg Robins, won 2013 Fitness Universe Miami with not a single minute of traditional cardio.  In addition, during her 20 weeks of preparation for the event she set personal records in the squat, front squat, deadlift, and chin up.

No sit ups, no traditional crunches. No change in hormone schedule, no special supplements, no short cuts. Just a lot of heavy lifting, real food, and incredible discipline.

This is her during her photo shoot the day AFTER winning.

She lifted weights 4x per week, performed the occasion 15-20 minute kettlebell circuit twice per week (which then turned into sprint sessions the closer she got to her show), and paid meticulous attention to her nutrition.

What’s more, she felt GREAT heading into the show.

Now, I don’t look like Paula – not many people do – but I can’t remember the last time I went for a jog or did any form of traditional cardio.  And just to reiterate:  if that’s someone’s preferred mode of exercise, more power to them.  I just find it incredibly boring, and frankly a waste of my time given my own goals.

What’s more, running (or any form of steady state exercise, while it has its place) isn’t the panacea of health and well-being that it’s led to be.

And for those worried about my heart health.  I visited my doctor a few weeks ago and everything is fine.  Resting heart rate is a-okay, blood pressure is perfect, my hormone levels are spot on, and I’m pretty sure if I had to – whether it was on a whim or because the zombie apocalypse started –  I could run five miles without batting an eye.

UPDATE:  

To all the people suggesting my “narrow mindedness” and biased nature towards lifting weights.

How am I being narrow minded when I tell someone to stop doing MORE of what they’re already doing (in this case running), and instead suggest that they lift some weights?

Just so we’re all clear:

Believe me, I COMPLETELY understand if someone likes to run, or bike, or do overhead dwarf throwing. More power to them. Whatever gets people MOVING is a win in my book.

But what gets me annoyed, and it speaks to the reason why I wrote the post in the first place, is when someone has a particular goal and they continue to do MORE of the same thing, and continue to NOT get results. I’d never bash “cardio” outright, and as I noted in the post itself, I understand that it’s PART of a well-rounded exercise regime.

God for bid I tell someone to lift something heavy. To some, saying something so asinine makes me the worst thing since Pepsi Clear.

I don’t get it.

CategoriesProduct Review Program Design Strength Training

A Deadlift 3 Times Per Week Program

It’s rare that I post anything on the weekend, but when I do you know it’s kind of a big deal.  Today I’ve got a special guest post from Dave Dellanave, author of the brand spankin new resource (and arguably the best title for a book, like ever) Off the Floor: A Manual for Deadlift Domination.

Admit it. As soon as you read the title of this post you were thinking “No way.” The deadlift is a lift you perform once per week, if that. It’s too taxing on the CNS and there’s just no way your lower back can handle deadlifting that often. Plus, your hands would probably get torn to shreds, and your gym would kick you out for dropping a heavy bar over and over again every time you come in to lift.

Right?

Is everything evil we’ve been told about frequent deadlifting true? People often say the same thing about squatting, and many authors have dispelled and debunked that myth, including our gracious host, Tony.

What I’d like to do here is convince you that if you like deadlifting, it’s more than okay to deadlift more frequently, and you stand to gain tremendously from it. Here are a few reasons I deadlift as often as I do, and I think you should, too:

  • There aren’t many ways to work more muscles than the deadlift. From your hands up to your neck, down your entire back to your calves, and back up the fronts of your legs and your abs, almost every muscle in your body is working during a deadlift. Maybe the only thing it doesn’t develop impressively is your chest. (But who cares about chest muscles when you’ve got a massive back?)
  • Picking up heavy things is an essential life movement. It’s unlikely that a single day goes by that you don’t pick something up. When the time comes to lift something heavy, it’s pretty awesome to not even have to think twice about it because you know it’s a fraction of your deadlift.

  • Having a big deadlift is like having a cheat code for every lift in the gym. I will be the first to tell you I am an embarrassing hack when it comes to the Olympic lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. Yet I can snatch over my bodyweight, and I can clean over 275 pounds, simply because I can cheat with my strength. I won’t be competing at the next Olympic Games, to be sure, but it’s not a bad start from next to nothing. My point is, relative to a triple-bodyweight deadlift, most other things in the gym become easier to achieve.
  • Let’s be honest, nothing is more awesome than taking a heavy bar in your hands and standing up with it like all that is man.

Fortunately, I don’t think I have too much of a tough sell to convince you, a reader of Tony’s site, that deadlifting is awesome. So how can you do it more often?

As I mentioned initially, most programs involve deadlifting once per week with very low sets and reps at a high percentage of your max. For good reason, as well, since it is true that unless you’re very, very new to lifting and very weak, you’re not going to be able to deadlift heavy three times per week. At least, not for very long before you run out of steam. To pull off that frequency, you’ll need a little more creativity and variety. Here’s what I suggest:

  • Day 1:  Heavy, low-rep deadlifts. This looks like your typical deadlift programming, with your favorite deadlift variation performed at a high intensity (meaning percentage of max, not turning up the music and getting slapped before you lift) for 1 to 5 reps and a few heavy working sets.

  • Day 2: Grip deadlifts. Picking up anything heavy off the ground is a deadlift. To cut down the absolute amount of weight lifted, make it hard to hold on to. An extra-thick bar or a pinch lifting block is a great way to do that. Since your hands are going to be the limiting factor here, it’s going to be awfully hard to do too much, so feel free to crank up the volume.
  • Day 3: Light technique or speed. This is your chance to amp up the volume because you’ve dialed down the intensity. At a lighter weight you can either do a lot more reps to hone your technique, use as much speed as possible to improve your rate of force development, or both. At first you will require a fair amount of recovery from higher-volume deadlifting, but in a few weeks you’ll be surprised at how little recovery you actually need and how much work you can get in without affecting your heavy days. If you’re on a M-W-F lifting schedule, you’re probably wondering how it would go to lift heavy on Monday after doing a ton of deadlifts on Friday. Again, you’ll be surprised at how little it affects you negatively, and how it can even improve your heavy days.

This is, in a nutshell, is the program I lay out in my book Off The Floor.

Of course, to round out the program you’ll want to fill in any gaps with appropriate accessory exercises, but this should give you a great starting point. If you love deadlifting even half as much as I do, you’ll get your fix as often as you can handle by deadlifting three (or more) times per week.

Sometimes beliefs, even unfounded ones, can be very limiting. I’ve found, through my own experience and helping people improve their own deadlifts, that not only can you get away with deadlifting often but it’ll do exactly what you want it to do: make you stronger, put more muscle on your body, and up your deadlift numbers.

Looking for more insights like these on the deadlift – as well as a great program to help you improve your pull?  Be sure to check out Dave’s new product, Off the Floor: A Manual for Deadlift Domination, which is on sale at a great price until Saturday (Sept. 7th) at midnight. 

I read it one sitting last weekend while snuggling on the couch in a blankie, and literally had to resist the urge to hop in my car to drive to the facility right then and there to go train.  It’s awesome.

If I were you I’d act quickly, because the price increase 50% by midnight tonight.

About the Author

David Dellanave is a lifter, coach, and owner of The Movement Minneapolis in the Twin Cities. He implements biofeedback techniques, teaching his clients, ranging from athletes to general population, to truly understand what their bodies are telling them. He writes articles to make you stronger, look better naked, and definitely deadlift more at http://www.dellanave.com/.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ddn

Facebook: http://facebook.com/movementminneapolis

 

CategoriesExercise Technique Strength Training

5 Ways to Make Bench Pressing More Shoulder Friendly

The bench press. There’s no mistaking it’s popularity.  Walk into most gyms and you’re bound to see an inverse relationship between the number of bench press stations available and squat racks. Likewise, it’s no coincidence that there’s a lot barrel chested guys walking around with chicken legs than vice versa.

I get it, though. As dudes (and yes, women can enter the conversation too, but they’re not nearly as enamored) it’s almost engrained in our DNA out of the womb to bench press.

Ask any guy what he did the first time he stepped foot in a gym and nine times out of ten he’s gonna say “come on man, I benched.”

No exercise is as glamorized nor put on pedestal as the bench press.  Moreover, no exercise eats up one’s shoulders like the bench press.

That said, the bench press isn’t going away anytime soon (not that it should, it’s a fantastic exercise), but below are a few suggestions on how tweak it so that your shoulders are less likely to hate you.

1.  Uh, Stop Benching (Just for a Little While)

Whenever I start working with someone and they start to describe how much their shoulder hurts one of the first questions I’ll ask is what their benching frequency is like.

More often than not, to put it lightly, it’s a lot.

And while I realize it’s borderline asinine for me to say (because it seems so obvious), I’m going to say it anyways:  stop benching.

If bench pressing hurts your shoulder, stop doing it Sherlock!

But since most guys will react by pounding their feet to ground and screaming, “no, no, no, NO!” and then act as if I just ruined their world and said “you’re not leaving this table until you finish your veggies Mister!” I’ll usually lighten the blow by telling them that I only want them to lay low for a week or two, just to see if their symptoms subside.

In the interim I’ll suggest they ramp up their horizontal rowing frequency to the tune of 2:1 or 3:1 (pull:push) ratio and start adding in more push-up variations (which will usually end up being more of a challenge than they think).

Guys often scoff at push-ups, but you’d be surprised as to how many can’t perform them correctly, let alone be able to do ten straight.

I LOVE push-ups in that they’re a closed chain exercise (bench pressing is open chain) which allow for a little more wiggle room for the scapulae to actually move.  Conversely, with the bench press, the shoulder blades are glued to the bench itself which can be problematic down the road.

Sure, setting the scapulae in place for stability and transference of force is paramount, but considering the long-term ramifications that can have on shoulder health, it “may” not be ideal for some.

In any case, it’s amazing how much better most shoulders will feel after a couple of weeks of laying off the bench press and addressing muscular imbalances by including more rowing into the mix.

Speaking truthfully, outside of the powerlifting realm I’d be perfectly content with nixing benching altogether for most guys and just opting for push-up variations and dumbbell work.  But since pigs will fly before that happens, and guys are going to want to bench press no matter what, here are some more options.

2.  Change Your Hand Position

Utilizing more of a narrow or close grip variation will undoubtedly be more “shoulder friendly” in the long run.  When we bench with a wider grip it’s a lot easier for the elbows to flare out, which in turn makes the shoulder more vulnerable, unstable, and want to flip us the bird.

Don’t go too narrow however.  The one caveat with using a super narrow grip is that we’ll tend to “crowd” ourselves once the bar reaches chest height and the scapulae will dip into anterior tilt and cause more anterior humeral glide (which again, will lead to more instability, not to mention a pissed off bicep tendon).

My general rule of thumb for close grip is roughly shoulder width apart, maybe a teeny tiny bit less depending on the person.  For a frame of reference, here’s a picture I snaked off of Mike Robertson’s site:

3.  Get a Hand-Off For the Love of God

If you ask any powerlifter or strength coach how important the initial set-up is for the bench press, they’ll inevitably say it’s VERY important.

I don’t want to get into the specifics here – you can easily go read anything Dave Tate has written on the topic – but suffice it to say it’s crucial to set a stable base of support when benching.  And that’s going to entail setting your shoulder blades together AND DOWN!!!

A lot of guys will set up properly only to lose everything once they go to un-rack the bar.  In order to un-rack the bar they’ll have to protract and abduct the shoulders which kind of defeats the purpose of going through the trouble to set up.

For whatever reason some guys are stubborn when it comes to getting or asking for a hand-off, as if it’s some kind of hit on their manhood.

You’re asking for a hand-off, not for a pedicure.  Not that there’s anything wrong with getting a pedicure from time to time. They’re actually quite lovely sometimes.  Er, I mean, that’s what I’ve heard at least.

*runs off in the other direction*

Anyhoo, I actually dedicated an entire blog not too long ago on the importance of getting a proper hand-off and the benefits of doing so, so I won’t belabor the point here.

For those too lazy to click on the link, here’s the video component for your viewing pleasure.

4.  Board Presses

We actually have a checklist of progressions that we like our clients and athletes to go through before they actually touch a standard bench press.  It starts all the way down with push-up isometric holds (pain free ROM) all the way up to the end game of bench pressing like a boss.

Somewhere in the middle are board presses.

Board presses are beneficial for a variety of reasons

1. For the sake of this conversation they’re fantastic because they allow us to limit the ROM so that benching it’s pain free. But we’re still benching, so psychologically it’s a huge win for most guys.

We can start with a 4-5 board press and work our way down three, two, and then one…..so it’s a nice sliding scale of progressions.

2.  A bit off topic, board presses are also a fantastic way to teach the body to hold more weight.  Because of the reduced ROM, we’re able to load the bar heavier and you can program your CNS to “feel” what it’s like to hold a heavier load.

3.  Plus, board presses are an awesome exercise to hammer the triceps.

5. Decline Bench Press

Eric Cressey noted this point yesterday during a staff in-service and is something he’s goes into much more detail on in his Elite Training Mentorship series.

When we’re referencing true “impingement” syndrome with most guys, many will light up when they reach roughly 80-90 degrees of shoulder flexion.

With the decline bench, it’s not uncommon to see 10-15 degrees less shoulder flexion and subsequently guys tend to stay outside of that “danger” zone.  So, this is yet another way to make benching a bit more shoulder friendly, and serves as a nice progression leading up to regular bench pressing down the road.

CategoriesMotivational Strength Training

Spark Notes For “Hard” Gainers

I’d say that on any given day I receive close to 50+ emails from people around the world asking various things ranging from programming advice to book recommendations to sharing —-[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[= (<——oops, my cat just pounced on the keyboard and says hi) their shared affinity for Jason Bourne.

Probably one of the more common “themes” that gets sent my way are emails from guys looking for advice on how to add muscle to their frame or how they can go about adding on any weight in general.

Much of the process entails asking a few key questions like, “what does your current training split look like?” or “how long have you actually been training?”

If someone retorts with something like, “well, on Mondays it’s chest and back, on Tuesdays it’s bis and tris, Wednesdays I hit up some posterior delts and tibialis anterior, and then I’ll maybe toss in some legs for good measure,” I know that it would be in their best interests to point them in the direction of the squat rack or deadlift platform and tell them not to leave until they’ve put on 25 lbs.

And then there are those who’ve only been training for two months and are worried that they don’t look like Mr. Olympia yet.

In this scenario I’ll roll out a generous dose of “expectation management” and inform them that it’s going to take a lot of time, hard work, and CONSISTENCY (for years on end) in order to see the results they’re after.

Much of the time I’ll point them in the direction of sites like T-Nation and tell them to absorb as much as they can – especially stuff written by Chad Waterbury, Joe DeFranco, and Jim Wendler.

And it isn’t just about reading either.  One of my biggest pet peeves is when some internet hero brags about how many times he’s read SuperTraining and that he has like 20,000 posts on some forum, yet, can barely crack a 1.5x bodyweight deadlift.

Reading and educating yourself is cool and all, but you also need to practice what you preach. It amazes me how people can quote Zatsiorsky, yet seemingly can’t manage to weigh more than 150 lbs soaking wet. Despite having been “training” for five years

Just shut-up and lift!

And now I’m just getting fired up and angry for no reason.  Deep breaths, Tony. Deep breaths

One such email I received a couple days ago went something like this:

I  have been working with 2 different online trainers which provided me with my diet and workout plan but unfortunately I did not get visible changes compare to the GREAT amount of work and dedication. I am a really HARDGAINER and I have a small frame with really small legs (chicken legs 🙂 ) Is there something different that you can provide me in your services that could make a difference in my body composition (muscle growth)?

Do you provide any nutritional advice? What supplements would you recommend I take?

My response:  CALORIES!

My facetious tone aside, I did write back a more thorough response, I didn’t hold back in letting the guy know that it’s not rocket science. No pill or powder is going to trump lack of calories.  You can’t just magically make muscle appear out of thin air.  The body needs calories to grow.

But all of this got me thinking: What are some other tidbits of advice I could throw down to other “hardgainers” out there?

Well, here you go:

1.  Calories

Seriously, eat!  I know, I know, you eat like, all…….the……time.  Actually, no, you don’t.  My litmus test for most self-described hardgainers is this one simple question:

What did you eat for breakfast this morning?

More often than not I get s bunch of “ums” and “uhs,” with a really long pause mixed in and it just gets awkward.  The word “supplement” shouldn’t even be a part of your vocabulary if you’re not even making an effort to eat breakfast.

And I’m not just referring to an apple and a glass of OJ either.  You’re a human being not a hummingbird.  Be a man, and don’t make the lame excuse that you don’t have time. Get up earlier, and make some eggs.  And don’t you dare toss away the yolk!!!!!  I can’t back this up with science, but an angel dies every time an egg yolk is throw into the sink.

If eggs aren’t your bag, it takes all of two minutes to make a bowl of oatmeal.  I don’t care, just eat breakfast for the love of god.

One of the best weight gaining pieces of advice I give guys is one I stole from Dr. John Berardi. Buy a bag of cinnamon-raisin bagels, slather each one with a boat load of peanut butter, and eat one of those in between each meal.

And if you don’t like cinnamon-raisin bagels, who the hell are you???  It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.  Who doesn’t like cinnamon-raisin bagels?!?!

The point is, you need to eat, and you need to eat a lot.

Eat.

2.  Less Volume?

Yes, you read that correctly.  Less volume.  It sounds counterintuitive but I’d make an argument that most hardgainers perform way too much volume and that’s what’s preventing them from packing on any weight.

While admirable, many will spend 2-3 hours in the gym per day, and on the off chance they do take a day off, that “off day” turns into 400 m tempo runs at the local track.  Or they do a Tough Mudder just for the fun of it.

Stop it already!

How can you expect to put on any weight if you’re constantly burning off calories?

When I start working with a hardgainer I typically limit his training days to THREE, full-body workouts per week.  Depending on the individual I may add in a day (maybe two) of GPP or movement, but for the most part I’m going to significantly reduce their training volume.

It’s a mindf*** at the start, especially for those who are used to heading to the gym everyday to blast their biceps, but it’s uncanny how often they start to see the scale ooch in their favor when they cut out all the extraneous fluff in their workouts.

3.  Focus on the Big Rocks

For those who are familiar with the Pareto Principle this next point will hit the nail on the head. For those who are scratching their heads here’s a brief explanation:

It was named after an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who demonstrated that 80% of the wealth in Italy was owned by only 20% of the population.

Taking it a step further, many have described it as a Law of Unequal Return, whereupon certain activities tend to give more return on investment than others. Incidentally, it should come as no surprise that many (if not all) aspects of fitness, can be applied here.

I know this comes across as preaching to the choir, but it bears repeating:  focus on the bang-for-your-training-buck exercises like deadlifts, squats, bench press, chin-ups, rows, push-ups, and single leg work and you’ll see good things happen.

If all these so-called hardgainers spent 80% of their time focusing on the big rocks (and understood that progressive overload is kind of an important thing), they probably wouldn’t call themselves hardgainers anymore.

I’d go so far as to say that if more guys started their workouts with a squat or deadlift variation and just alternated between the two week in and week out for a straight year, they’d see marked improvements in their physique.

Trust me, ditch the arm day and go lift something heavy…..;o)

4. Train Like an Athlete!

I like to play a game with people.  When I start with a someone who refers to themselves as a hardgainer I like to ask them to bring in a picture of a physique they admire.  Much of the time they’ll bring in a picture of guys like former NFL wide received Terrell Owens.

Now, I can’t speak to Terrell’s training, but can almost guarantee that he didn’t build that physique by crushing tricep kickbacks and worrying about carb cycling.

A lot of guys want to look like athletes, but they don’t come remotely close to training like one.  Of course there’s a lot that comes into the picture.  We have to take into consideration one’s injury history, experience, and if someone has the movement quality of a Sasquatch I don’t feel sprinting is a wise choice.  It ALWAYS comes down to progressions.

That said, I do feel a lot of people train themselves as if they’re covered in bubble wrap and fail to elicit any form of training effect

If you want to look like an athlete, you need to train like one!

Which is why Mike Robertson’s Bulletproof Athlete is an excellent choice for hardgainers as well as those looking to take their training to the next level.

It includes four months of customized programming, and there’s even several options to choose from depending on your schedule.  What’s more it comes with an extensive exercise database, as well as weekly conditioning and nutritional challenges.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting out of your own way and allowing someone else to do the thinking for you.

The manual is currently on sale NOW for a bargain price of $97.  But that ends THIS Saturday (August, 3rd), so if you’re going to take advantage of the savings you need to act quickly.  Ya heard.

—> Bulletproof Athlete <—

And that’s that.  I know I could keep going and speak to sleep, recovery protocols, 10×3 instead of 3×10, and did I mention deadlifts?  But hopefully a few of the points I did hit up resonated with a few people out there.

CategoriesCorrective Exercise Strength Training

Recapping Dean and Tony’s Boston Workshop (Includes Best T-Shirt Ever Made)

Now that I’ve had a good 24-36 hours to decompress my brain, I wanted to take a few moments and share some of the shenanigans that went down last weekend at Cressey Performance.

As many of you know, my good friend and brotha from another motha, Dean Somerset, came to town for a few days along with roughly 20-25 personal trainers, strength coaches, chiropractors, and general fitness enthusiasts for our Boston Workshop that he and I hosted at Cressey Performance.

Stealing a line from Dean’s synopsis of the weekend over on his own blog, “it was without a doubt one of the best, most switched on groups I’ve ever had the chance to speak in front of, and everyone was really engaged, quick to volunteer, laugh, get their hands dirty, and make it a great experience for everyone.”

On Friday for all the attendees who came in a day early and had nothing better to do than sit at their hotel room watching re-runs of Games of Thrones on HBO we had the one and only Eric Cressey (THE Cressey behind Cressey Performance) come in and speak to the group on “Elbow Shizzle.”  His title not mine.

One of the main take home points was that when it comes to the elbow, especially with regards to the UCL, you have to take into consideration what’s going on up the kinetic chain – specifically the brachial plexus – in order to make any drastic progress with regards to tissue quality and eliminating pain.  The ulnar nerve starts up near C5-T1 and is often impinged in that area.

In many ways, an “elbow snafu” might not have anything to do with the elbow in the first place!  It’s imperative to look up (and down) the kinetic chain to rule other possibilities out.

Too, it’s important to take into consideration congenital laxity – especially in the baseball population – to dictate treatment and how one’s strength and conditioning program will flow.  The LAST thing you want to do is to excessively stretch someone who scores high on the Beighton Laxity score.

Afterwards, for those who wanted to stay, move around a bit, and play with all the toys in the facility, we had “open gym” where people could get a workout in and break a sweat. I may or may not have played Tiesto.

I played Tiesto.

Because I was at the facility playing host Lisa, my girlfriend, was kind enough to pick Dean up at the airport along with Guillermo who flew in all the way from Mexico to attend the event.  No sooner than everyone walked through the door and dropped their bags did we hightail out of there to walk down to my neighborhood bar and grill to get our grub on.

The best part of the night was that after the fact, when we left the restaurant, walked outside, and waited to cross the street, some dude drove by with all his windows rolled down BLARING the theme music from Star Wars.  It was pretty much the most baller thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I couldn’t help but think to myself, “that dude’s got his shit together.”

Dean and I were up early Saturday morning and I want to say that he pwned roughly 600 mg of caffeine before we even got to the facility.  A tip of the hat to you kind sir!

After a few house warming words and greetings, Dean started things off with discussing the big rocks of assessment. What an assessment actually means, what to look for, and what kind of assessment should be done.

Do we just stand there creepily like a Mr. Smithers and stare?  Is there any place for a movement based assessment?  Are all assessment created equal?

At the end of the day, it’s about gathering as much information as you can to better ascertain what YOU as the fitness professional will do to get your client the most efficient (and safest) results possible.

I followed suit by breaking down the CP assessment.  I was adamant that what we do at CP isn’t necessarily what I feel everyone should be doing, but that they kind of should (hint, hint).

I divided the assessment process into three parts:  static (posture, single vs, bilateral stance), isolative (hip ROM, shoulder ROM, Thomas Test, adductor length, 1,2,3,4 I challenge you to a thumb war, stuff like that), and integrated (movement based:  squat pattern, lunge pattern, push-up pattern, etc).

The entire afternoon was then spent going back and forth with the attendees demonstrating the different assessment that Dean and I utilize and then allowing them to practice on one another to get a better feel for everything.

And, I managed to do all of this without taking my shirt off, which is saying something.

Saturday night a bunch of us met up for an all-you-can-eat meat fest at Fire and Ice in downtown Boston.  Ben Bruno even made a cameo appearance!

Here’s a pic that I Tweeted as a frame of reference of how glorious this place is:

Sunday was lined up in much the same way at Saturday was.  Things kicked off relatively early – 9 AM – with me discussing “corrective exercise,” and what the even means.

I broke down the Law of Repetitive Motion and spoke to how that equation helps set the stage for how we can go about addressing any imbalances, weaknesses, and even pain.

The main point I hit home, however, and something I feel serves as the “umbrella” for ALL corrective exercise was this:

Correct movement is corrective!

Sure we can do the song and dance where we wrap eight different bands around someone, have them stand on a BOSU ball, and juggle a bunch of oranges………but what are we really accomplishing here?

And this isn’t to downplay things like spending time coaching people on how to engage their core or working on glute medius activation.  That stuff certainly needs to be addressed sometimes.

But while I’m admittedly biased – I am a strength coach – I think there’s a lot to be said about grooving more efficient patterns (squat, hip hinge, lunge, push-up) and getting people strong(er).

Getting people stronger can be corrective.

After a quick lunch break Dean took over with some brand spankin new material and covered a topic he titled VooDoo: Hacking Anatomy for Immediate Results.

Again, stealing for Dean’s own review of the weekend: “My talk came up at the end, all about how reactive core training can improve flexibility without taking joints through a range of motion (aptly titled “Voodoo”). We discussed the importance of breathing for upper body and lower body limitations, and went through how to get reactive stabilization from breathing drills and specific core training directives to help improve specific limitations.”

To cap things off we had an expert panel Q and A which, along with Dean and I, also included Ben Bruno, Jim “Smitty” Smith (of Diesel Strength), and Mark Fisher (of unicorns, ninjas, and Mark Fisher Fitness).

On Monday Dean and I took a few attendees through a small group training session that started with a “flow” warm-up, and then we proceeded to deadlift their faces with a bunch of angry my-mother-never-loved-me-and-I-punch-kittens-in-the-face-for fun music blaring in the background.

Three guys broke PRs HERE, HERE, and HERE (this one includes one of the best celebratory fist pumps ever).

Afterwards Dean hung out at CP to observe the madness and wore what’s arguably the most epic t-shirt ever made.

For those having a hard time seeing the fine print, here’s a screen shot:

And since that’s pretty much the most absurd and funniest note to end on, I’ll stop there.

It was an amazing weekend, filled with amazing people.  And I’m truly honored that so many people took time out of their busy schedules to come hang out and (hopefully) get better.

Dean and I will most likely be doing this shindig again.  Maybe we should do a worldwide tour!

CategoriesProduct Review Strength Training

Five Reasons Everyone Should Train Like an Athlete

In light of his brand spankin new product being released today – Bulletproof Athlete – Mike Robertson was kind enough to jot down a few words and underline a few reasons why everyone (yes, even YOU) should take some time out of his or her’s training year to become more athletic.

Offhandedly I myself have been placing a bit more of an emphasis on “athletic” training in my own workouts and I can attest to how great I feel and the results I’m seeing in the weight room.

But this isn’t about me.  Mike’s spent a good 1.5 years tweaking, poking, prodding, and experimenting to bring this project to fruition and I can say with full confidence (and as someone who’s read it) it’s A to the wesome.

Not to play brown noser or anything but it includes 16-weeks of programming, three programs for one price, a 160+ video database, and weekly nutrition and recovery challenges.

All for the bargain price of $97.

And on that note I’m going to allow Mike to take it from here. It’s always a treat to have Mike share his knowledge on this site, I hope you feel the same.

Enjoy!

Training like an athlete is awesome.

While I’m a powerlifter at heart, I’m also a life-long athlete. I love the competitive nature of sports, but I think there’s something even more basic to it than that.

When you train for sports, you feel like an athlete. This feeling is indescribable. You just feel lean, athletic and strong.

So whether you’re a lifelong athlete or someone that thinks training like an athlete sounds cool, I’m here to sway your decision.

Here are five reasons you (yes YOU!) should train like an athlete, even if it’s one for a couple of months every year.

#1 – You’re More Well-Rounded

The first reason you should train like an athlete is simple:

If you’re an athlete, you need a balance of physical qualities to be successful.

The fact that you can deadlift 500 pounds means nothing if you’re slow as molasses, have the cardio of a sloth, or the mobility of a stone golem.

Think about the best athletes in the world: They are strong, fast, explosive, and have the energy system development to go for days on end.

Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it?

While I’m all for strength, it’s just one piece of the athletic puzzle.

If you take a step back and train in a more well-rounded manner for a few months, I have no idea you’ll love how you look and feel.

#2 – Power Training is Fun (and Awesome!)

I’d put cash money on the fact that everyone reading this likes getting stronger.

Virtual high-five right there – you kick ass.

But you know what’s really cool? Adding a little power training into the mix.

I don’t care if you want to do the Olympic lifts, jump, sprint, throw med balls, or just do the most ballistic version of “The Carlton” known to man. If you’ve got an awesome base of strength, why not spend time on a yearly basis to convert that strength into power?

To further my point, there’s more and more research out there that leads us to believe that power is one of the first physical qualities we lose as we age.

By all means, spend the bulk of your time every year getting bigger, leaner and stronger. But take 3-4 months every year and dedicate that time to power training.

You can thank me when you’re 80!

#3 – Planned EST is Important

Let’s think about how most people plan their energy system training (EST).

“Well I’m here, and I just lifted heavy things. Now what do I do?”

And there are basically two options:

1 – “Meh, I’m tired. I’m going to go to Chipotle and crush a bowl with triple meat,” or

2 – “Sure I’ll do some EST today. You know, just to preserve my sexy.”

So in reality, there is no plan. It comes down to if you have the time/energy to do it, and even if you do, it’s not planned or periodized.

Imagine if you treated your strength training sessions like that. How successful do you think you’d be?

Instead, start planning your EST just as you would your strength training. Have times of higher volume and lesser intensity.

Then flip flop it, and get aggressive with intensity while backing off the volume.

It’s not rocket science, but actually taking the time to plan your EST and integrate it with a sound strength-training program can take your performance and physique to the next level.

#4 – Variety is the Spice of Life

If you do anything for an extended period of time, it can start to wear on you, both mentally and physically.

In late 2010, I did the math and realized I had been pushing the max strength envelope for close to 10 years.

Now some of the seasoned powerfliting vets hear that number and roll their eyes. But when I got into the sport of powerlifting, I had no intentions of being a lifer.

But here I stood 10 years in, and while I wasn’t beat up by powerlifting standards, I had my share of little aches and pains that were holding back by performance.

When I switched things up completely and focused on athletic development, the results were nothing less than amazing.

First off, training was actually fun. I love lifting heavy things as much as the next guy, but that training can wear on you mentally.

Instead of feeling tired and lethargic walking into the gym, I came into each day fresh and ready to train.

When I backed off the loading just a bit and cleaned up my movement (and regained athleticism), all of the little aches and pains just faded away as well.

So this was pretty cool – I was enjoying training again, I didn’t feel beat up, and I looked and felt more athletic.

But you want to know the really cool part? Here goes…

#5 – You’re Stronger Going Back

Let’s say you take a break from the heavy weights for 1-2 months, and then slowly ease yourself back in.

But now you’re armed with a better movement foundation and a more healthy and resilient body.

You know what happens?

When you re-focus your efforts on squatting and deadlifting with weights the size of compact cars, you actually end up far stronger!

Case and point – after I ran through my athletic development cycle, I ran a powerlifting cycle and lifted in a meet.

In that meet, I hit an all-time PR in the deadlift of 545, which gave me my first ever 3x body weight deadlift. I also hit a PR in the squat at that lighter weight class.

So while I’m sure you’re worried about getting weaker, that’s only a short-term thing. When you back to lifting heavy things with better mobility, a more athletic body, and improved technique, you will absolutely crush your old PR’s.

Summary

I don’t know about you, but I’m torn between two loves in my lifting career:

1 – Training for max strength, and

2 – Training like an athlete.

In my case, I’m going to get the best of both worlds. Every year from here on out, I’m going to spend 3-4 months focusing on maintaining and improving my athleticism.

And if you’d like to join me, be sure to check out my Bulletproof Athlete program. It covers all of the bases in your training, and I guarantee you’ll love the program.

—> Click Me (That Tickles) <—

CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

Athleticism and Strength Training: Can the Two Mix?

Q: First off thanks for all the great content you share through your blog and for the amusing writing style you have, it´s always nice to be able to laugh and smile a bit while you learn a thing or two.

I just have a question regarding athleticism and strength training. I know you guys have some pretty strong guys and girls in your facility and I know you guys use a lot of big heavy compound lifts. But how do you guys secure that the athletes still have a great movement capacity while they perform on the field and not end up as “meat heads” with no movement capacity and lack of athleticism?

Do you have some specific part of the strength training with more focus regarding this or is there any specific exercises that works better? Like 1-leg exercises or plyometric training or anything else?

I´m a soccer player myself and a newly educated strength coach and I’ve been asked to have some “on-pitch-strength training” where the coaches as one of the goals asked for better athleticism in the players. I know we´re not gonna be able to do “heavy” stuff since we mostly will be working with our own bodies but do you recommend anything to think about when programming this for keeping athleticism high?

I should start everything off by saying thank you for the kind words.  I know there are times where I don’t take myself too seriously with my writing style (poop), but I do try to consistently provide quality content in an entertaining fashion so it’s nice to know I’m hitting the mark all the over in Sweden!

To answer your question I think we first need to clarify what the main goal or objective of a strength and conditioning program is.  As far as athleticism and movement capacity goes, nothing (nada, zilch, zero) we do in the weight room is going to emulate or match what actually takes places on the court, field, or Quidditch pitch.

10 points to me for a Harry Potter reference!

Which is why doing stuff like this is borderline asinine:

To get better at pitching, you need to pitch.  To get better at kicking a soccer ball, you need to kick a soccer ball.  To get better at skating, you need to skate. To get better at supflexing, you need to become an honorary member of the British Bulldogs.

This isn’t to say that everything we do in the weight room is moot and doesn’t have any carryover towards on-the-field performance. That’s just looney talk. Instead, all I’m trying to convey is that the main goals of a well-designed strength and conditioning program is to address weaknesses, imbalances, improve force production, reduce wear and tear on the body, and to help prevent injuries (among other things).

That said, it’s important that we get our athletes strong – as I always say:  you can’t have qualities like power, agility (being able to absorb force and change direction quickly), endurance, strength endurance, and what have you without first having a base of strength to “pull” them from in the first place – but we’re also cognizant that we don’t want to turn them into slow lunks with the movement capacity of the Tin Man.

Which is why I feel we do a bang up job of addressing this on a few fronts:

1.  Every session starts with addressing tissue quality.  Everyone from our Major League guys all the way down to high-school makes sweet, sweet love to their foam roller prior to each training session.

2.  From there, while we do have a “canned” dynamic warm-up that we post up on a dry erase board which changes every 1-2 weeks, it’s also not uncommon we write individualized warm-ups for certain athletes or clients who may need a bit more TLC.

This is an excellent way to prioritize and address specific areas that people may need to improve on whether it’s more glute activation, addressing t-spine mobility, or in the context of many of our baseball guys, hammering a bit more upper trap work to improve scapular upward rotation.

3. Next comes movement training or med ball work.  The way things are designed during the summer months, our guys typically lift weights four times per week in addition to having two “movement” days, for a total of six training days per week.

However, sometimes we need to congest things into four days depending on summer ball schedules.  Taking that into consideration a training week may look something like this:

Monday:  Movement Training/Sprint Work, Lower Body

Tuesday:  Med Ball Work, Upper Body

Thursday: Movement Training/Sprint Work, Lower Body

Saturday: Med Ball Work, Upper Body

The movement training is nothing extensive, but we’ll typically include one linear based drill like a 30-yd build up and one lateral based drill like a heiden

We CRUSH med ball training.  With our baseball guys there is an obvious sense of “specificity” that attaches itself and bodes well as far as carry over onto the field.  But even with our general population clientele, we find there’s a ton of efficacy for their use as they’re a great way to train power and explosiveness, not to mention the metabolic carryover they bring to the table.

Between the warm-up, movement training or med ball work, a good 30 minutes or so have passed in the training session and now it’s time to lift heavy stuff.

4.  Again, to reiterate, the point of strength training isn’t necessarily to emulate movements in the respective sport(s) that one is participating in.  Rather it’s really to address weaknesses, help improve force production (make someone’s glass bigger), and to reduce wear and tear on the body.

The whole “meathead” comment is a bit of a misnomer.  I mean sure, we have all our athletes squat, deadlift, row, bench press (not our baseball guys), push the Prowler, perform heavy single leg work, or any number of things you can conjure up.

The key is that we coach our athletes well on the execution of said lifts, and we always place a premium on a (safe) ROM for each athlete.

You won’t see a lot of 1/4 squats or 3-board presses performed under our watch.

Not every athlete is meant to squat ass-to-grass, nor is every athlete meant to perform a conventional deadlift on day one – and any coach who takes that mentality is a douche – but you can bet that we’re always going to coach our athletes to perform their lifts with a safe ROM with the goal of improving over time.

Taking injury and deficits out of the equation, we’ve had countless athletes put on significant muscle mass during the off-season and still be able to maintain ALL their flexibility and movement quality.

5.  And on a final note, especially as it relates to youth athletes, one of the best things we can advocate for them is to play a wide variety of sports throughout the year.  Specializing too early can lead to a plethora of overuse injuries, as well as “burn” them out and make then hate life.

Pushing a young athlete – and one that’s developmentally behind the curve at that – to play a sport year round is one of the worst things that can be done.

We’re always encouraging our athletes to play different sports throughout the year, and it’s not until they reach 16 or so that we begin to entertain the notion of specializing.

So to make a long-winded answer short: yes, I believe it is possible to maintain (and even improve) athleticism and movement quality in the weight room.  You just have to put a little thought into it and understand that it’s a lot of things working in concert to get the job done.

CategoriesNutrition Strength Training Supplements

Two Things You Should Check Out

Note from TG:  I try my best not to come across as someone who overhypes stuff to my readers on a daily basis. 

I mean, it’s not really THAT big of a deal that The Wolverine opens this weekend.  You’d think based off how excited I am that I’d be walking around all week with toy Wolverine claws on or something.  That’s just silly talk.  Nope, not me.  That’s just absurd.

The Wolverine!!  Arrrrrggghhhh%@*!*!*^$*@!!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system. I like to think that when I do go out of my way to promote something on this site that it’s something I know works and that I KNOW will help a lot of people.

It just so happens that today marks a unique instance where two things deserve your attention.

You know the pivotal scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when that evil Nazi Gestapo agent’s, Arnold Ernst Toht, face was melted off his, um, face?

Well I just had a similar experience from all the knowledge bombs that were thrown my direction after watching a sneak peak of Mike Robertson’s Mobility, Flexibility and Stability Training presentation.

A (40+ minute) presentation, mind you, he’s offering for FREE in anticipation of the release of his brand spankin new product, Bulletproof Athlete, next week.

Yeah, yeah I get it: mobility schmamility.  We need another mobility presentation about as much as we need another Tracy Anderson workout DVD.

Fist pump for that one, right?

But this is Mike freakin Robertson we’re talking about here. The guy trains his fair share of professional athletes and world record holders in powerlifting. Not to mention the numerous physique athletes and average Joes and Janes who trust him to keep them healthy, kicking-ass, and taking names.

There aren’t many coaches out there I trust more than Mike, and you can rest assured that whenever you have the opportunity to listen to him, you’re going to learn at least one thing.  Or in my case, 20.

In this presentation you’ll learn:

  • The three BEST methods for improving mobility from head to toe.
  • A definition of what mobility really is (as well as what it isn’t!)
  • Why mobility and stability are critical components of smart training, and why you need both to dominate in the gym or on the field.
  • How improving mobility can help you get rid of aches and pains in your knees, back and shoulders.
  • And most importantly how mobility training can help take your performance to the next level – whether that’s running fast, jumping high, or lifting heavy things for fun, Mike can help you out.

Again, this video is totally FREE, but only for the next couple of days.

Check it out HERE.

Something else I think many of you may find valuable and will want to check out is Examine.com’s Supplement Goals Reference Guide.

As a strength coach, and as someone who works with numerous high-school, collegiate, and professional athletes myself, on an almost daily basis I get asked “dude, is it customary to coach with your shirt off?” “dude, what supplements should I be taking?”

I’m not one to bag on supplements, as there’s a mountain of evidence to back their use.  But more often than not I fall into the camp which views supplements as progress enhancers, not progress starters.

Put another way:  if you’re current training and/or nutritional approach isn’t garnering the results you wanted, whether it’s to pack on mass, finally get rid of that ‘muffin top,’ or squat a rhinoceros (just go with it), taking a pill or adding a powder to your drink typically isn’t going to amass to much other than an empty wallet.

Nevertheless I do feel (s0me) supplements have their place, and serve a purpose. I believe things like fish oil, vitamin D, and protein powder, to name a few, should be utilized if for nothing else than their health benefits alone.

Where things get murky is when walk into your local GNC or open the latest MuscleRag and are inundated with supplements left and right that will claim to give you a six pack in three weeks, increase your testosterone levels by 217%, and make you shit rainbows (if that’s your bag).

The main monkey wrench is finding a reputable resource which doesn’t have an ulterior motive other than to give you evidence based research; something which will either confirm or dispute said claims.

Well here it is:

 

Supplement Goals Reference Guide

 

Some of you may recall a guest post that Examine.com’s very own, Sol Orwell, wrote earlier this year titled Supplements That Suck, Supplements That Work, and Supplements That Are Underrated – Part One, and Part Two, which you can think of as the Spark Notes version of the reference guide.

And that really isn’t giving it its due diligence.  We’re talking about a 700+ page manual that’s taken over two years to put together, encompassing over 20,000 individual studies, for only $29!

Needless to say, these guys know what works and what doesn’t.

Anytime you need to find out what a particular supplement does (creatine, for example) or are interested in a particular health goal (lowering blood glucose levels) this guide should be your go to source.  And you can feel confident that you won’t be misguided with smoke and mirrors or disingenuous intentions.

It’s just solid, evidence based information all around.