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Training the Backside of Your Core

I’m not a big fan of the word “core.” Unless of course, your name happens to end with “core,” then it’s completely awesome. However in the fitness world, the term “core” is often misused and misunderstood.

Your “core” is not just the front of Mens Health or Oxygen Magazine, with the cover model sporting a six pack that you could wash your clothes on. Walk into any gym in America and you will find many trainees seemingly working their core by performing endless repetitions of crunches or any other multitude of machines in an effort to attain said six pack. Walk into any gym in America and you will find that most trainees are still fat, despite training their “core.”

Walk into my gym (Cressey Performance Center, located in Hudson, MA) and you will find trainees performing deadlift variations, pull-throughs, glute-ham raises, supine bridges, squat variations, lots of single leg work, and as I have alluded to on several times in the past with this blog, ANTI-rotational movements. No crunches. No gimmickey machines. People look good.

Everyone looks at rear ends. Guess what? That’s your “core” too.

I am in total agreement with physical therapist/strength coach Gray Cook when he says that people need to pay more attention to “training the backside of the core” (ie: glutes, hips).

We should be hip based creatures. The hips are the engine of the core. Everything from force, power, to strength is transferred through the hips. The engine of your car does the same thing; gives your car horsepower. Your mid-section (abdominals) can be seen as the transmission or drive shaft of the core. You’re not supposed to bend or twist the drive shaft/transmission of your car. So why do we seem to think that that is the best way to train our core? Why do we totally neglect the engine?

In the end, training the backside of your core will lead to better PERFORMANCE. Learn to use your hips and glutes, and you will be able to handle more weight in the gym. You handle more weight, you burn more calories. You burn more calories, you burn more fat in any given 24 hour period (assuming your diet is dialed in). Presto: lean, firm mid section (and a nice rear end to boot. Yay you). No crunches involved.

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The World’s Best Coat Rack

I am off to Vegas with the girlfriend this weekend. No we are not eloping, and no we are definitely NOT going to see Celine Dion while we’re there. Sadly this will be the first time on a plane for me (I’m 30) and I heard through the grapevine that they’re taking bets in Vegas on whether or not I wet myself on take off. Needless to say, I figured that since I am going to be gone for a week, I should write a quick blog post before I leave.

The Smith Machine (pictured below) is often touted as being “safer” than their power rack counterparts. To this I say….HOGWASH.

A friend of mine e-mailed me a few days ago saying that the company that he works for was thinking about purchasing a Smith Machine rather than a power rack for safety reasons. He wrote me and asked if I could write a bullet point rationale on why this is flawed thinking. Below is what I wrote, which is a mix of thoughts from my good friend Eric Cressey and myself.

The World’s Best Coat Rack

1. The Smith Machine offers less transfer to the real-world events than free weight exercises. The body isn’t meant to move in a fixed plane of motion. Rather, it’s meant to move in “free space” where the muscles must act in a synergistic fashion to stabilize the body. The Smith Machine is a sure fire way to promote what is called Pattern Overload Syndrome, where the same tendons/ligaments are stressed repeatedly (in a fixed plane)…..resulting in a plethora of postural issues and kinetic chain dysfunction, as well as tendonitis (acute inflammation of soft tissue) and tendonosis (chronic degeneration of soft tissue).

2. Depending on the movement, the shearing forces on the knees and lumbar spine are increased by the fixed line of motion. In short, the Smith Machine is atrocious for the lower back and knees. If anything it serves as a crutch that puts the body in a biomechanical disadvantage and more often than not, promotes injury rather than preventing it.

3. The lifter conforms to the machine, and not vice versa. Human motion is dependent on subtle adjustments to joint angle positioning; the body will always want to compensate in the most advantageous position possible. Fix the feet and fix the bar (which the Smith Machine forces), and the only ways to get this compensation are inappropriate knee tracking and, more dangerously, loss of the neutral spine position (a big no no). Watch most people squat in the smith machine and you will see rounded backs ALL the time. This is “safer”?????? Um no.

4. Smith machines are generally more expensive. I suspect that you could get a regular coat rack for about $2K cheaper – and it would take up less space. You could get two quality racks for the price of ONE Smith Machine.

So no, I have to disagree that you can do everything in a Smith Machine that you can in a power rack. If you want to promote horrible compensation patterns and a ton (literally) more stress on the knees and lumbar spine, then go right ahead…..the smith machine should be your choice.

Tony Gentilcore

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Christmas in August?

For the past five years I have had the opportunity to work at various types of gyms/facilities. Some good, some bad. And by “bad,” what I really mean is Bally Total Fitness. I keed I keed. Seriously though, that place stinks.

Right now I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I remember back in the day, I would get so excited and the anticipation of that Christmas morning where I would hightail it down the stairwell to see all my new toys under the tree was undoubtedly the best day of my life. Well, I kind of have that feeling now.

I have always wanted to work at a gym that allowed me to take full advantage of my abilities as a trainer. A place where I didn’t have to wait for certain pieces of equipment while working with a client (yes I am talking to you Mr. I curl in the squat rack guy), or a place where there aren’t massive crowds every single night. Essentially I have always wanted to work at a place that I would be proud of and kicks major ass.

Cressey Performance Center folks. My good friend Eric Cressey opened up his own facility recently and I can honestly say that I DO feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

Here’s a brief bullet point rundown of the facility:

1. Located on 43 Broad St in Hudson, MA (with easy access to Mass Pike, 495, Rt. 9, etc)

2. Private and Semi-private training only. No annoying crowds.

3. Cutting edge training techniques with top notch equipment for training athletes as well as soccer moms and “weekend warriors.”

4. Sprint track (and yes, we have cardio machines too).

5. You will never hear John Mayer or Celine Dion playing in the background.

Feel free to stop by the facility and stay tuned for updates at www.cresseyperformance.com. You can also e-mail me at [email protected]

Tony Gentilcore

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Low Back Shenanigans (2 of 4)

Dr. Stuart McGill is smart (or is it smaht?). In any case, he’s essentially the world’s expert when it comes to lower back health and performance. Below is part II of a series of “tidbits” that my good friend Eric Cressey jotted down the last time we listened to Dr. McGill speak. Pay attention gym rats. It’s been said that upwards of 80% of the population will experience some form of low back pain in his or her lifetime; you can thank me for the info later.

6. Shear forces are far more of a concern than compressive forces; our spines actually handle compressive forces really well (think pushing DOWN on a fishing rod). You can’t buttress shear effectively in spinal flexion (rounded back), so it’s important to avoid it – especially at the most commonly injured lumbar spine segments – at all costs. The spine doesn’t buckle until 12,000-15,000N of pressure are applied in compression, but as little as 1,800-2,8000N in shear will get the job done. Take home message: stop training with a rounded back; ALWAYS keep a neutral spine when training.

7. The rectus abdominus (abs) is not about trunk flexion (think crunches); it’s an anti-rotator that is responsible for transferring hoop stresses. If it was about trunk flexion, it wouldn’t have the lateral tendinous inscriptions; we’d have hamstrings there instead!

Side Note: read this blog entry from a few weeks ago and you will see why crunches are pretty much worthless.

8. Don’t just train the glutes in hip extension; really pay attention to their role as external rotators. Once you’ve mastered linear movements (e.g. supine bridges), you need to get into single-leg and emphasis movements like bowler squats and lunges with reaches to various positions. These are great inclusions in the warm-up.

9. Contrary to popular belief, the vertebral bodies – and not the discs – are the shock absorbers of the spine. Amazingly, the elasticity we see is actually in the bone; blood is responsible for pressurizing the bone.

10. End-plate fractures are the most common injury with compression; they almost always are accompanied by a “pop” sound.

P.S. As an interesting aside to all of this, Dr. McGill and I actually spoke at length about the importance of hip mobility – something that obviously is closely related to all twenty of these points. If you lack mobility at the hips, you’re forced to go to the lumbar spine to get it, and that is a serious limitation to building stability. On several occasions, Dr. McGill alluded to Mike Robertson and my Magnificent Mobility DVD, so if you’re looking to protect your back, improve performance, and feel better than you ever thought possible, check it out..

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Do Your Single Leg Work

This is probably the most important component that people forget about or are just too lazy to incorporate into their programs. Single leg work (think lunges) serves several purposes. It helps to fix any weaknesses or imbalances that may exist between one limb or the other (in this case, one leg being stronger or weaker than the other). They also do a superb job at improving overall strength by forcing the hip adductors/abductors to fire and stabilize the body (namely the femur) while the body is breaking the frontal plane, which is especially beneficial for many athletes. This is also the reasoning as to why single leg work helps to improve coordination and balance, which many people (athletes aside) drastically lack.

I see it almost everyday with the clients that I work with. Kids who sit in front of the television all day playing video games or older adults who have sedentary jobs in front of the computer, can’t perform a simple reverse lunge without falling over every other repetition.

In the end, single leg work has a HUGE carryover to sports. How many sports can you think of that take place entirely on two feet? And no, competitive eating is not a sport. Additionally if there is anything that will help prevent the majority of knee problems that occur, single leg work may be it. So do yourself a favor and start incorporating them into your programming. Your knees will thank you.

On an aside, I like to categorize single leg work in the same fashion as Mike Boyle: check out this article which shows a few videos of the movement I am referring to.

Knee Dominant Single Leg Training: basically entails any squat variation on one leg (lunges, step-ups, split squats, Bulgarians, one-legged squats (pistols)

Static, Un-supported: consist of single leg movements done on one leg with no movement forward or backward (these would be your true one-legged squats). The non working extremity is not allowed to touch the ground.

Static, Supported: still no movement forward or backward, but now the non working extremity is supported (by the ground or a bench). These would entail your split squats or Bulgarian split squats.

Dynamic: Walking Lunges, step-ups

Hip Dominant Single Leg Training: involves more of the hamstrings and glutes. One-legged Romanian Deadlifts, Reverse Lunges. etc.

Unfortunately, I can’t include videos of all movements listed above. If you have any more questions, feel free to e-mail me and I can send you some links/videos.

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Post 4th Beatdown….

How were all those hotdogs, hamburgers, and pasta salads on the 4th? I’m not going to lie, I had a few too many chocolate chip cookies myself so I have no room to talk. The chocolate cake was tasty too. Alright, I have a little bit of a chocolate obsession, sue me!

Just a little FYI to all those people who feel guilty about eating all that bad food over the 4th of July: 1-2 days of OVER-eating will NOT cause your body to store fat. Sure you will feel bloated and probably tacked on a few lbs, but that’s just water weight (for every gram of carbohydrate you ingest, the body will store 3-4 grams of water). Research has shown that in order for ‘in vivo’ lipogenesis to occur (the making of NEW body fat), one has to consistently OVER-eat for more than 1-2 days. The body does a pretty good job at up regulating and down regulating metabolism based on one’s caloric intake. So trust me when I say that your two day food binge is not that big of a deal.

However, now that the holiday is over and we all had a day to recuperate, it’s time to get back to “bidness” and hit the gym with a mission again. One massive mistake that people make is that they often take a ONE day holiday and make it into a week long personal excuse to eat crappy foods and slack on their training.

It’s time to revert back to normal eating habits (ie: no more chocolate cake dammit) and it’s also time to kick your own butt in the gym.

One tactic that I like to use with clients is what I call a complex (these are especially good for those trying to shed a little body fat in general). If you’re like me, I HATE steady state cardio and I think I have an allergy to the treadmill. After you’re done with your normal training session, instead of your 10 minutes of “ab” work (waste of time) or your 20 minute “cool down” on the elliptical (more waste of time), do this instead:

Complex: a series of movements that you complete without putting the bar down.

1. Grab a barbell or dumbbells (anywhere from 35-65 total lbs will work great for most people)

2. Walk over to a spot in your gym that gives you a good 4 feet around.

3. From here you’re going to perform a series of 6 movements without stopping or putting the bar down.

The Movements:

Romanian Deadlift

Bent Over Row

Front Squat

Push Press

Back Squat

Dymanic Lunge

4. You will perform 6 reps for each movement. Example: Romanian Deadlift x 6, bent over row x 6, etc…..

5. Rest for half the amount of time it took you to complete the complex

6. Repeat for the allotted time (10 minutes). Most people will get 4-6 rounds in

7. Keep the puke bucket close

Complexes are great for those people who have limited space available (and hate the stairmaster) and they are superior as far as total conditioning and overall ass kicking is concerned. I don’t necessarily want people to vomit, but I will forewarn you and say that complexes are not for the weak of heart. They’re hard. But getting the body you want isn’t supposed to be easy. If it were easy, then all those people who do nothing but watch Oprah while doing their “cardio” and lift the same weights they used three years ago would look fantastic. You’re not that person.

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5 Exercises You DO NOT Need To Be Doing….

I’ll put it simply, the following exercises are about as useful as a poo flavored lolly pop. In short: don’t do them.

1. Anything on a BOSU ball, Airex pad, Dyna-disc, etc: I already blogged about this before (scroll down to “Training for the Circus). I really feel that such exercises have NO place in an individual’s training program. All they do is teach horrible motor patterns (knocked knees, rounded back, etc), and make people weaker. And no, they don’t work your “core” any more effectively than the same movements done on a stable surface. You want an exercise that works your core? Front squats or lunge holding a dumbbell on one side of your body.

2. Leg Press: Unless you’re training to be the world’s best incline weight pusher, I really see no need to implement leg presses into anyone’s weight training program. Not only do they have ZERO carry over to REAL LIFE events (sorry fellas but just because you can leg press 600 lbs, doesn’t mean you can squat 600 lbs. I can guarantee you won’t be able to squat 225), but they also produce a TON (literally) more compressive and shear force on the spine. While most people think that leg presses are “safer” than squats….that is FAR from the truth.

3. Arm Curls: Fellas, here’s a little word of advice. If you can’t perform at least five pull-ups with your own body weight, you DO NOT need to be doing an entire training session of bicep curls. The reason you don’t have big arms is because you’re weaker than a baby’s fart, not because you’re not doing enough arm curls. And ladies, please put down the pink dumbbells and grab some heavier weights. Trust me, you won’t get big and bulky.

4. Add-ductor/AB-ductor Machines: Ladies, here’s a little word of advice. If you want a nice butt and thighs (show me one woman who doesn’t), learn to squat and deadlift and lunge properly. The abductor muscles (glute medius, glute minimus) and adductor muscles (adductor magnus, adductor brevis, adductor longus) are meant to work as STABILIZERS, not PRIME MOVERS in a fixed plane of motion. Training them as prime movers (as you do with those silly machines) does little to tighten up those thighs (not to mention they totally neglect the butt) because you’re not able to use that much weight in the first place. Additionally, you’re really setting yourself up for a plethora of postural imbalances by relying on these machines.

5. Bench Dips: This movement targets the triceps and is often recommended to take the place of regular dips. I see this exercise being done almost on a daily basis. Unfortunately, performing this movement maximally internally rotates the humerus (arm bone), which drastically decreases the subacromial space which can lead to impingement syndrome. (Translation: You’ll get an ouchie.) Not a good scenario, especially for those prone to shoulder injuries.

I don’t necessarily like to make blanket statements such as “x” movement is pointless, but in the case of the exercises listed above, it’s true.

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If More Women Got Off the Treadmill, the World Would Be a Happier Place

In my experience as a personal trainer, the majority of women (read: NOT ALL) I work with tend to want to look like this:

The first picture is of my friend Jen Heath (www.jenheath.com). The second picture is of my good friend Cassandra Forsythe (www.cassandraforsythe.com). Sorry fellas, both are taken…;o)

Jen is a model, figure competitor, and a mother of FOUR. She’s also the cohost of The Fitcast with yours truely. Cassandra is well on her way to getting her doctorate in Nutrition and is probably one of the smartest people I know. Guess what they both have in common (other than their obvious good looks and the joy they feel for calling me their friend)? Both LOVE to lift heavy weights in the gym. And by “heavy” what I mean is the EXACT opposite of what most women tend to do in the gym, which is grabbing those pink or purple dumbbells and performing endless repetitions to “feel the burn.” Cause you know, they don’t want to get big and bulky. Do Jen or Cassandra look big and bulky to you?

Newsflash, ladies: You will not get “big and bulky” just because you’re doing squats and deadlifts. That statement is akin to me saying, “Eh, I don’t want to do any sprints today because I don’t want to win the 100m gold medal next week.” Getting big and bulky isn’t easy, just like winning the 100m gold medal isn’t easy.

If anything, it’s an insult to all those people who’ve spent years in the gym to look the way they do. It didn’t happen overnight, which is what you’re assuming by saying something so absurd.

Lets break this down by using an example. Kate is 5’4″ and 130 lbs with 25% body fat (this is typical of what I come across as a personal trainer). Kate wants to look leaner and wants that “toned” look. She wants those flabby arms to go away and she wants a butt that would make men turn their head while walking down the street. To get to where she wants to go, Kate feels she needs to LOSE weight and get down to 110-115 lbs. Essentially Kate will end up looking like one of the Olsen twins. Emaciated, frail, and weak…otherwise known as the “skinny-fat” look. Trust me, you DO NOT want this look and if you do…e-mail me, I will change your mind.

The sooner that Kate (YOU) accepts the fact that she will probably weigh the same or even MORE to get the look she wants, the better off she (YOU) will be. The sooner she (YOU) quits relying on the scale to gauge progress and focuses more on what the mirror tells you, the better off she (YOU) will be.

STOP the marathon treadmill sessions and put down those pink dumbbells for peets sake

(Side Note: here’s a quick little article that Jen Heath wrote on why women need to STOP using the scale to gauge progress. Hey! What’s Going On In There?).

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Smart from the Start (Part I)

Here’s a little list of fitness/nutrition concepts, ideas, techniques, habits, etc that I feel EVERYONE should be incorporating into their daily repertoire. If you disagree, tough noogies. This is my blog, so I can say what I want. And of course, I am right…;o)

1. Learn to train MOVEMENT PATTERNS and find structural balance in your overall programming:

Rather than focusing on body part splits such as “chest day” or “arms day,” learn to structure your routines so that you hit ALL movements patterns during the week. Doing so will almost guarantee that you will hit every major muscle group in the body, as well as help to alleviate any postural imbalances you may have.

Horizontal Push: bench press variations (barbell, dumbbell)

Horizontal Pull: seated rows, dumbbell rows, barbell rows

Vertical Push: Overhead pressing (barbell, dumbbell)

Vertical Pull: Pull-ups, chin-ups, lat pulldowns, etc

Quadricep Dominant: Squat variations (back squat, front squat, etc)

Hip Dominant: Deadlift variations (conventional, SUMO, Romanian, etc)***

Single Leg Work: Lunge variations (walking, reverse, dynamic), Step-ups, etc

As well as several other mini-categories that I won’t get into right now (mainly prehab stuff dealing with the rotator cuff, scapulae/shoulder blades, core, etc).

***I realize that not many will know what a deadlift is. Point blank, it’s arguably the best exercise as it works the ENTIRE body at once. Thankfully, Google exists….do a search. Or better yet, read this article: Mastering the Deadlift

2. Seriously, STOP with the body-part splits:

To be blunt, if you currently have a 40 inch waist, you don’t need to be performing an entire training session of bicep curls. Trust me, it won’t get rid of that belly. Additionally, body part splits (ie: chest day, arms day, etc) is just NOT a very efficient way to train (especially if one of your main goals is to shed some fat).

Ideally, one should follow a FULL-BODY routine three times per week (focusing on all the movements patterns, listed above). Doing so will involve more muscle mass, which will burn more calories, which will burn more fat, which will make you think I am awesome for telling you to ditch the body part split routines. It’s a win-win situation.

For more info on why full-body routines are FAR superior, read this.

3. Steer clear of machines:

Personally, I’m not a big fan of machines. I can honestly say that I haven’t had a client of mine touch a leg extension or leg curl machine (to name a few) in over two years. Unless they are preparing to become the world’s best butt kicker, I see no need. The same can be said for pretty much any other machine that puts you in a fixed plane of motion. Real life movement does NOT occur in a fixed plane, so why train that way? Likewise, I also don’t like the idea of people going to gym, only to sit in/on a machine. Most people sit at work from 9-5, the last thing I want them doing in the gym is sitting more.

Long story short, learn to use free-weights (dumbbells and barbells). If you don’t know how, hire a personal trainer to show you how. And if you do work with a personal trainer and all you do is machine circuits……get a new trainer.

That’s all for now. More to come soon.