CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

Stimulate or Annihilate Muscle: Which Is Better?

In the realm of fitness and strength & conditioning we’ve all heard the phrase:

“You need to stimulate the muscle to grow, not annihilate it.”

I can’t say I disagree with the sentiment, albeit I do feel it’s a bit reductionist taken at face value. I mean, assuming someone isn’t injured or has a history of injury, most people can train a whole lot harder than they give themselves credit for.

I’ve said it in the past and it bears repeating here:

“Lifting weights isn’t supposed to tickle.”

Furthermore, if you pick the brains of coaches like Alex Viada or Chad Wesley Smith they’d be the first to champion the notion that you should annihilate muscle. Or, to be more fair: do more work. Or to be even more fair: follow a carefully structured, periodized, undulated, (possibly) concurrent plan that fluctuates training stress.

Photo snaked from Greg Nuckols courtesy of Andy Morgan’s site RippedBody.jp.

Those are big words to some people. In non-geek speak all it means is: do more work, but not all the time…smartly.

To quote Pat Davidson:

“I’m a strength coach which means I am a stress manager more than anything else. The only difference between me and your shrink is that I want to dump as much stress on you as I possibly can to see what you can survive. If it doesn’t kill you, it will likely make you stronger.”

That’s about as succinct of a way to describe things as can be put. Any strength coach worth his or her weight in barbells knows most programs written (geared towards strength and performance) should consist of alternating patterns of high stress (whether it be accumulation, intensity or both) with low stress.

You can’t just take the word “annihilate” and implement that mantra 100% of the time and expect to make continued progress. We’re not Terminators. Fatigue will always masks one’s true fitness.

Not into graphs? Me either. They make my head hurt.

Think of it this way: lets say you test your 1RM in the deadlift. 315! Not too shabby you sexy beast. Now, go run a 5K. Don’t ask questions, just do it.

When you finish we’ll immediately re-test your 1RM deadlift.

Do you think you’ll sniff close to 315 lbs again?

Not a chance.

Overtraining?

Fatigue doesn’t mean overtraining. The internet loves to toss out the word overtraining, as if it’s an easy thing to attain. Trust me: you’re not overtrained. Just because you squatted two days in a row or, I don’t know, took a CrossFit class, doesn’t mean you’re overtrained.

You have to go really, really (REALLY!) out of your way to come remotely close to overtraining. To put things into perspective: The Iron Cowboy, James Lawrence, completed 50 triathlons in 50 days (in 50 States) and he wasn’t overtrained. I’m sure he felt like shit, but he wasn’t overtrained.1

Which is why I respect guys like Alex and Chad who prefer to provoke/nudge people to work harder (but smartly) and not be too analytical about everything. That’s the only way to assure adaptation and continued progress (and PRs).

What Does “Smartly” Even Mean, Tony?

Good question.

It can mean a lot of things, but here are some quick, random, bullet-point ideas/points to consider:

1. You’re Not an Elite Athlete (Sorry, I’m not Sorry)

Using James Lawrence as an example or THIS article about how to max out squats everyday, lets take an objective look at things.

I have no issues with squatting everyday, or people who decide to actually do it. In fact, I thought the article was brilliant and had a lot of great and innovative things to say.  But, as I remember it a few years ago, within 24-48 hours of the article going live on T-Nation, I received a swarm of emails from random dudes asking me if they thought it would be a good idea if “they too?” should train everyday?

I had to try really hard to resist the urge to throw an ax into my face.

NEWSFLASH:  you’re not an elite athlete!!!!!!!

Unless you have 4-6 hours per day to train, and that’s literally all you do, it’s probably not going to be a good fit.

Lets be real: For many people (not all), you read an awesome article, and right then and there, decided it’s “exactly what you needed.”

In theory, it sounds amazing.  But here’s the thing – you make the Tin Man look hypermobile. The last time you lifted anything remotely explosively was back when Patrick Swayze was rocking stone washed jeans. And, the last time I checked, you sit in front of a computer for 8-9 hours per day, and actually work for a living.

You have the time for this when?

Listen, I get it, you like to exercise. What’s more, who am I to say that people shouldn’t be enthusiastic to train more often and actually move around a bit more?  I encourage that, wholeheartedly!

But come on people – lets not put the cart before the horse.

Actually, scratch that. I’m not opposed to people training (hard) everyday.  I mean, there’s definitely a way to do it right and I think that’s what many people should strive for. They just shouldn’t train balls to wall (ovaries to wall?) every single day.

What I don’t agree with, and think is borderline dangerous is when people read an article about ELITE athletes whose sole job is to train – and who have been doing this type of training FOR YEARS –  and then run out to their local globo gym, try to be a hero, and hurt themselves the third day in.

Trust me –  it will happen.

I swear, I’m going to do a social experiment someday, write an article detailing how running over your right arm with a car repeatedly will somehow increase testosterone levels by 317%, and see how many people email me asking for more info.

NOTE: I like what Bret Contreras had to say on the topic. HERE’s a old(er) blog post he wrote on how to incorporate daily training into the mix.

2. Deadlift Less

Yep, you read that correctly. I just told my reading audience to deadlift less.

What’s next? Me telling everyone to perform more kipping pull-ups? Eat tofu? Admitting I had it all wrong and that Tracy Anderson was right all along: women should avoid lifting anything above 3 lbs. LOLz.

Relax. Deep breaths. Give me a second to explain.

Once you reach a certain level of strength (lets say 2x bodyweight) there’s a point of diminishing returns with regards to deadlifting more than once a week. I’d argue the deadlift is the most “draining” – both physiologically and neurologically – on the body compared to squatting, bench pressing, etc.

Maybe it’s more anecdotal on my end, but I’ve found – through a lot of trial and error – that whenever I deadlift (heavy) more than once per week my body hates me.

Too, I find this to be pretty accurate for most other people.

I’ll often limit “max effort” work (85% + of 1RM) to once every 2-3 weeks for most people. Rarely will I ever have someone hit that level every week.

I will, however, include more speed/technical work into the mix and typically have no qualms implementing this more than once per week. It may look something like this:

Day 1 – Deadlift Cluster

Week 1: 4×4 (70%), one-rep every 15s.
Week 2: 3×4 (75%), one rep every 15s.
Week 3: 5×2 (80%), one rep every 15s.
Week 4: 3×3 (65%), one rep every 15s

Day 2 – Speed/Technique Work

Week 1: 8×1 (60%), rest 30-45s.
Week 2: 10×1 (60%), rest 30-45s.
Week 3: 12×1 (60%), rest 45-60s.
Week 4: 6×1 (70%), rest 30-45s.

3. Include Less Mechanical Loading

I feel many trainees miss the boat in using their own bodyweight as load. Fellow Cressey Sports Performance coach, Greg Robins, is a big fan of including less “mechanical loading” into some programs (including my own) to help stave off “annihilation” and still gain a lot of benefit.

I hit the big lifts pretty hard, and I don’t necessarily need to make myself hate life any further with my accessory work.

Try this:

Bodyweight Bulgarian Split Squats For Time

Week 1: 3 sets of 30s/leg (FML)
Week 2: 3 sets of 40s/leg (Seriously, FML).
Week 3: 4 sets of 40s/leg (Hahahaha).
Week 4: 3 sets of 60s/leg (Kelly Clarkson! Watch the clip below for the reference.)

 

If you really want to up the ante do the above, but a controlled tempo up and down (2s down, 2s up; 3s down, 3s up).

4. Go For Walk

Totally not kidding.

Casual walks work wonders in terms of recovery. And you don’t need to make this some sort of heavy backpack walking or sled dragging uphill for AMRAP hybrid. Tone it down, killer.

Just walk. Enjoy it.

5. Deload (Volume)

At CSP, we generally “save” week 4 of each program for a deload week. For starters it fits our training model well because each athlete/client gets a new program every month anyways (billing cycle is every four weeks).

While I don’t go out of my way to introduce too many new exercises with beginners – they don’t need a ton of variety – those who have been working with us for a while will usually get a slew of “new stuff” and their ass handed to them in week #1. The deload week prior serves as a way to better “prepare” them for the onslaught inevitably coming.

Generally speaking, on a deload week we deload overall volume, and keep intensity (as a percentage of one’s 1RM) at high level.

NOTE: not to jump into the weeds too far, but going back to the topic of overtraining, if someone does enter that territory, they tend to do so as a result of too much volume and not so much with intensity.

As such we’ll either decrease volume with the MAIN LIFT of the day, but keep intensity up:

Squat

Week 1: 5×5
Week 2: 4×5
Week 3: (5) 3×3, 2×6
Week 4: 3×3

Or we may decrease overall volume (tonnage) via reduced accessory work.

And yes, sometimes, we’ll tweak both volume AND intensity. It just depends (typically this is reserved for those in a competitive season. Think: powerlifter).

There are numerous ways to “deload” – OMIT all axial loading for a week, maybe perform a bodypart only split, maybe reduce training days from 4-6x per week, to 3x per week, nothing above 70%, play kickball, I don’t care, you know your clients better than I do – but as whole, I find reducing volume (yet keeping intensity up) bodes well for most people.

Your Turn

The above is in no way an exhaustive list. I could keep going, but I doubt many have made it this far anyways. If you have, 10 points to Gryffindor!

Do you have any thoughts on the topic? Any ways you like to “not annihilate” your body? Share them below.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 8/28/15

I can’t believe we’re only a handful of days away until it’s September. SEPTEMBER! The good news is that Fall is my favorite time of year here in Boston…the leaves changing color, the crisp air, it officially becoming “I can wear sweat pants anywhere at any time (even at the dinner table) and no one cares” season.

It’s glorious.

The downside is that many of us here in New England (especially Boston) still have last winter fresh in our minds and we’re still cowering in the corner in the fetal position. Over six-feet of snow in a 30 day span (110+ inches overall) will give anyone nightmares.

We still have several more weeks of amazing weather, though. No point in playing Johnny Raincloud too soon.

Lets get to this week’s list:

MASS – Dr. Pat Davidson

Anyone who knows Pat or is familiar with his work knows how much of a “psycho” he is. And I mean that as a compliment.

Pat’s a former assistant professor at Springfield College and is currently the Director of Training Methodology and Continuing Education at Peak Performance in NYC. He’s also one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met, and if there’s anyone who literally eats, drinks, and sleeps strength and conditioning it’s him. He’s read everything, and tried it. Twice.

Pat’s a savage (<– again, a compliment) and someone who’s only interested in bringing out the “savage” in everyone he trains and works with.

MASS speaks for itself. The name alone should give you an indication on what it’s designed to do. But in case you’re not picking up the vibe it’s a 16-week muscle building treatise, and it’s brutal.

Admittedly I haven’t taken myself through it personally (yet), but I know of several coaches who have and no one has finished. They all got bigger and put on significant size, but all tapped out after 8-12 weeks.

Like I said, Pat’s a savage. Are you willing to give it a go?

Butter In Your Coffee and Other Cons: Stories From a Fitness Insider – Dick Talens

This was an excellent article by Dick on some of the more “shady” areas and personas in the fitness industry. Well worth the read.

Cardio Revisited – Tanner Baze (via Roman Fitness Systems)

In some ways the health & fitness industry mirrors that of the fashion industry: trends come and go. Although, lets be honest: who the heck knows where skinny jeans came from and why they’re so popular?

Not long ago, if you were a meathead, doing any form of “cardio” was taboo. Even if you thought about putting on a pair of jogging shoes you’d lose your gainz.

As of late, however, it’s making a bit of a comeback. This article helps explain why it can help (and actually improve) your gainz.

CategoriesAssessment Corrective Exercise Program Design

32 Random Thoughts On Training

A few days ago my good buddy, Mike Robertson, posted an article up on his blog titled 31 Random Training Thoughts. It was fantastic and you should take the time to read it. I liked the idea so figured I’d take some time today to toss my hat into the ring and showcase some of my own random thoughts as well. 32 of them. Because, you know bacon.

Starting with this amazing picture…

1. Agility ladders and foot speed drills work wonders on making people better at doing agility ladders and foot speed drills. They DO NOT (at least rarely) translate to better performance on the court/field/diamond/pitch. It’s crucial to actually coach athletes (young and old) to learn to develop force. These drills, along with anything involving cones (the more elaborate the geometric shape the better), which make parents oooh and ahhh, should not be prioritized. Especially for younger athletes.

2. And since we’re on the topic of developing force…it’s just as crucial to coach our athletes how to ABSORB force or decelerate their bodyweight. What good does it do anyone to have all this horsepower and not have the ability to put on the brakes?

3. Also, force development is vector specific. This is why we utilize ‘Heidens’ in many of our programs for baseball players, particularly pitchers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOI1exR6pSk

 

4. The whole notion of “muscle confusion” is lame. Most people don’t need as much variety as they think. If you’re not squatting or deadlifting 2x your bodyweight (for reps) I doubt the limiting factor is your lack of use of chains or bands.

5. More than ever I am convinced that the reason many people miss a lift is due to a poor initial set-up.

6. To that point, the lats play a HUGE role in stability and upper back stiffness (which in turn equates to less energy leaks during a set). It’s difficult to be efficient at any of the “Big 3” without:

– Big lats.

– Learning how to better engage them.

 

7. Still having a hard time getting a “feel” for what it’s like to fire the lats during a deadlift? This drill may help:

 

8. One-arm dumbbell rows aren’t a great exercise to strengthen your scapular retractors. They are, however, the bomb when it comes to developing the lats. Just sayin….

9. Cuing someone to arch hard on a squat and to sit back is inefficient, especially for natural/un-geared lifters. Think: “belt buckle to chin” (posteriorly tilt pelvis), pull elbows together and forward (pull down on bar), push knees out, sit down (not back).

10. For the record: the above cue to posteriorly tilt the pelvis brings people from a state of excessive extension TO neutral. That’s a major difference compared to taking someone from neutral to more flexion.

11. Warm-ups should start ground based to standing to adding movement (linear or lateral).

12. By that same token they should start proximally (positional breathing, diaphragm) to distally.

13. Is this not the most baller groomsmen photograph ever taken?

14. People hate doing pause squats, but dammit if they don’t make everyone’s squat numbers go up.

15. A common mistake that people make when bench pressing: not letting the bar settle. Meaning, after receiving a handoff don’t immediately descend the bar towards the chest. Rather, let the bar settle by placing your shoulder blades in your back pocket (posteriorly tilt, lats engage) and gather your bearings before you lower.

16. I’ve repeated this quote several times but I love it so much I’m going to repeat it again.

“When you start throwing a baseball with only your arm, then we’ll worry about doing only arm care exercises.”

Eric Schoenberg, PT, owner of Momentum Physical Therapy in Milford, MA

17. Despite popular belief, you can perform a Turkish get-up with a dumbbell.

18. Speaking of get-ups I like to include them as an extended warm-up. Do this:

– 10 KB Goblet Squats

– 10 KB Swings

– 1-2 KB Get-ups/side

Three rounds. Now go em Tiger!

19. Also, if I were you I’d err on the side of QUALITY for your get-ups rather than how hard you can make them. Progression on these isn’t necessarily about how heavy you can go, but how “effortlessly” you can perform them. Dr. Mark Cheng can perform 48 kg Get-ups; he chooses to stick with 24 kg for the bulk of his training.

20. When assessing shoulders don’t only look at anterior/posterior imbalances (traditional upper cross syndrome), it’s equally as important to look at superior/inferior imbalances (scapular upward/downward rotation).

21. Scapular stability is more or less a misnomer. There aren’t any significant bony structures to warrant a ton of stability. Instead, as Sue Falsone notes, a more appropriate term would be controlled scapular mobility.

Here’s a good drill for that: Band Wall Walks

 

22. Alignment matters. Always.

23. If you stretch in mis-alignment (think: hip flexor stretch when someone stays in excessive APT) you create more instability. If you strengthen in mis-alignment you create more muscular imbalances.

24. Women: if you want to get better at chin-ups/pull-ups you need to train them more than once per week. Follow the lead of Artemis Scantalides of IronBody Studios: train them 4-6x per week.

Monday: Flexed Arm Hangs/Hanging Leg Raises
Tuesday: Chin-ups or Eccentric Chin-Ups (Rule of 10): 3×3, 5×2, 2×5, etc
Wednesday: Band Assisted Chin-Ups
Thursday: Flexed Arm Hangs/Hanging Leg Raises
Friday: Chin-ups or Eccentric Chin-Ups (Rule of 10): 3×3, 5×2, 2×5, etc
Saturday: Band Assisted Chin-Ups

25. Guys, you suck at chin-ups too. I’d listen to Artemis as well if I were you.

26. Don’t be afraid to include some more athletic movements into your training. Jumping, skipping, sprinting will improve your general day-to-day activities. Even if the most athletic thing you do is gardening….;o)

27. To that end, you don’t need to go 100% with your sprints. I like 60-70% effort “tempo repeats” (40-60 yds) for most general fitness clients. Also, if you cranky knees, sprint uphill. You’ll thank me.

28. Instead of embarking on a “fat loss” plan, focus your efforts towards a performance based goal. I find diverting efforts towards something more quantifiable leads to better long-term success. The amount of work and effort it takes to achieve said goal, assuming it’s realistic and attainable2, more often than not results in the aesthetic markers many people covet.

29. Push-ups are a very UNDERrated exercise. Some cues I always use:

– Squeeze glutes, brace abs (both help to posteriorly tilt pelvis which prevents excessive lower back arch).

– Spread fingers as wide apart as possible and think about “cork screwing” the floor apart. This will create more external rotation torque in the shoulders and provide more stability.

– Chest should hit floor first.

30. Not everyone is meant to squat ass-to-grass. We need to respect anatomy. Hip structure is different person to person, and you’re an a-hole if you hold everyone to the same standard. Some people are built to squat deep (and generally will have limited hip extension), while others are meant to deadlift a bulldozer (and might not be able to squat past 90 degrees). Some people can dominate both and we all hate them.

31. Passive Tests = provides information on one’s available/total ROM. Active Tests = provides information on one’s ROM they can use. If someone tests great passively yet as limited active ROM it’s most likely a stability issue. Don’t always assume it’s lack of mobility.

32. Stop doing kipping pull-ups. Seriously, stop.

CategoriesMotivational Program Design rant

Evidence Based vs. Anecdotal Experience vs. Transformers: Who’s Right and Who’s Wrong?

In one corner we have the evidence based coach who won’t let his or her client/athlete perform anything without a PubMed reference in hand. And at the other corner we have the coach who relies on anecdotal experience and feels just because it worked for his or her’s clients/athletes that it must apply to everyone else.

It’s a never ending battle of back and forth shenanigans, name calling, and vitriol similar to the exploits of the Jedi vs. the Sith or the Autobots vs. the Decepticons.

Who’s right vs. who’s wrong? Who’s good vs. who’s bad?

I for one feel the best approach is one that adopts both sides. I see value in both…each having it’s own unique set of advantages and disadvantages.

Put another way: in terms of figuring out the “best” approach to anything (as it relates to getting people bigger, faster, stronger, and harder to kill) my thoughts mirror that of the Godfather of behavioral economics, Richard Thaler:

“I try out lots of ideas, get quick feedback, and learn in the best possible way: theory-driven intuition tested by trial and error.”

That’s about as fair and charitable of a statement as I can muster on the topic.

Which brings me to an email I received this past weekend from a young, up-and-coming fitness professional:

“I recently started an S&C internship at a D1 school (won’t give the name). I want to go into college S&C so I figured this was a great opportunity to learn from the “best.”

However I have been following you, Cressey, Boyle, and Somerset for a couple of years now and I love how you are pushing the field forward.

I mentioned to the strength coaches I follow you guys and they rolled their eyes at me and said “why would you follow random dudes and not read publications and research.”

I bit my tongue and stayed quiet because I’m an intern, but what I really wanted to do was punch a wall. I believe you all stay ahead of the game and you have inspired me and taught me so much. I would love your thoughts on college S&C and the mindset of the coaches I’m learning under now.”

My initial reaction.

I find this unfortunate to say the least. Not that I have to sit here and defend my honor (and that of my colleagues) – I believe our collective body of work speaks for itself – but I’m going to do just that. Only for a minute. Promise.

In terms of myself and Eric Cressey (and Pete Dupuis): we’ve grown a business that started in 2007 in a 2200 square foot space we rented inside an indoor batting facility training mostly local high-school athletes, to a now 15,000 square foot space training professional baseball players from every level from every affiliated MLB team, not to mention athletes and general fitness clients from all over the US and world.

I’d like to think that we’ve done so via an equal parts evidence based approach and anecdotal. And bicep curls.

Do I really need to defend Mike Boyle? Come on!

And as far as (Dean) Somerset is concerned: the guy is one of the smartest guys I know who can regurgitate studies by memory and who’s built one of the best reputations in the industry for being able to “dumb down” research into more bite sized information bons-bons that guys like myself can understand. That, and he has build a very successful fitness business training thousands of people in the past few years.

In short: even though guys like myself, Eric, Dean, Boyle, and a vast array of others are writing for various websites and our own blogs (how dare we!), we do in fact, actually coach people. In real life.

So, in many ways, we’re doing “research” on a daily basis, finding out what works and what doesn’t, and learning to assimilate the information we come across as it best applies to our athletes/clients.

Ol’ Boys Club

Giving credit where it’s due: I applaud the young coach who sent the email for keeping his mouth shut. The last thing he or she wants to happen is to yap away at their superiors and come across as some know-it-all entitled hipster after having coached for all of eleven seconds.

If you’re in someone’s “house” as a guest, you respect their rules and their way of doing things.

I don’t know what Division I program he’s referring to, but we have to understand that some (not all) strength and conditioning coaches at that level have one hand tied behind their back as far as how much “freedom” they have outside of the program itself.

As my colleague, Jim Laird, pointed out:

“I think much of that attitude stems from jealousy. Many college coaches just do not have time to do stuff online or not allowed to. They see private sector coaches doing stuff online getting recognition and it steals their thunder and authority.”

While I agree, I do feel it’s a minority mindset. A shitty mindset, mind you…but a minority one. As an example, I’m good friends with the entire staff at Boston University Strength & Conditioning and they couldn’t be a more open-minded staff willing to try new things and listen to what others have to say.

They use research all the time. I’ve seen their programs and I’ve seen the books and journals on their desks. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked in – I train there 1-2x per week – and one of the coaches will pull me aside to ask my opinion on something or ask me what blogs I’m reading lately. It’s refreshing to say the least.

They don’t (always) need a double blind study to do the thinking for them. There’s a zero ol’ boys vibe.

As strength coach, Henry Lau, notes:

“As a S&C coach, it’s not one’s job to “read” research, though more likely to assimilate methodologies to make better athletes. Why some coaches think it’s great to read journals and make up their own ideas from a limited view is intellectual dishonesty.”

And We’re Doing A lot of Assuming

I for one HATE reading research. This isn’t to say I discount it or that I don’t understand (and respect) its role in furthering our knowledge in the field. But am I wrong to state that research is designed to ask more questions, not to necessarily answer all of them?

What’s more, what many fail to realize – and guys like Brad Schoenfeld, Bret Contreras, Nick Tumminello, amongst others can attest to – is that research studies and books are often 2,3, sometimes 4 years behind the curve with regards to the information it’s relaying. By the time a study or book is released – years after the fact – the information is already outdated (or has been expounded on).

Nowadays blogs and websites are what people read to stay “up-to-date” and relevant.

Besides that, we’re assuming that most people can actually read the research, and more importantly…understand it. It’s not as easy as one may think. Reading research is every bit as much of a learned skill as riding a bike or writing computer code or pretending to listen to your wife when she’s updating you on her day when what you’re actually doing is repeating the lyrics from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air in your head.

 

Take for example the following random study I found on PubMed using the keyword “muscle hypertrophy:”

Identification of a Novel Four and a Half LIM Domain 1 Mutation in a Chinese Male Presented with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Mild Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy.

Translated into Tony speak that reads:

“Bloop, bleep, blop, bloopidy, blop, bleep, science.”

I admire anyone who can read something like that and be all like “yep, makes total sense, got it.” For me though: I’d make it through the first paragraph and probably black out and not remember a thing I just read.

I’ll read it, pick up a few things (maybe), but it’s really hard for me to digest most of it.

Plus, and this can’t be discounted: Research is great, but it’s practical application can be limited because things are controlled quite strictly for the research to be valid and effective. We don’t necessarily live in this “research bubble” where everything is hunky-dorey.

That, and many (not all) fitness-based studies involve untrained, fasted individuals, or worse, mice. Not exactly the most relevant and useful ball of information to correlate to a trained, presumably high-level population.

And at the end of the day what do most people use research for anyways? To answer questions, yes….but to also validate their own set of beliefs and biases. I mean, technically, you can find research to back anything up. We used to have research that stated smoking was good for us.

To Summarize

BOTH sides of the argument (it’s a stupid argument to have IMO) are important and have their role. By reading journals, articles, and research one will expand their own knowledge and hopefully develop critical analysis of research, methodology, and conclusions.

However it comes down to more than only book smarts. As strength coach, Kevin Shattock so astutely states:

“It’s only after the above is reached where one can understand HOW and IF the findings can be applied to their particular settings and environment. This is what the likes of Cressey, et al do well.

But by simply “following ” these guys on social media, you may gain (& often do) gain great insights, thoughts, ideas etc the intern, young S&C is missing a crucial part of the coaching journey, the WHY you do something, the understanding on a fundamental level.

Research is NOT everything, but it can be a great starting point to develop YOUR OWN ideas, thoughts, perspective and methods, just as careful observation of great practitioners can be.”


In the end: To be a great coach you cannot discount either approach. I’d argue that in order to truly grow as a fitness professional (and by extension to possibly innovate) you should use practice both.

CategoriesCorrective Exercise Program Design

Training With Laxity: Tips and Advice From Someone Who’s Been There, Done That

I’m traveling back to Boston today after spending the weekend up in Edmonton with Dean Somerset teaching our Complete Shoulder & Hip Workshop.

FYI: Future Dates: ST. LOUIS (September 26th-27th), CHICAGO (October 17th-18th), and LOS ANGELES (November 14-15th).

It was an awesome two days and we were ecstatic to have the opportunity to share our new material with a bunch of personal trainers and coaches eager to geek out over everything shoulders and hips (and my lame cat jokes).

The highlight, though, had to be me admitting to the audience (full of Canadiens, mind you) I’ve never been to a hockey game. Like, ever. You could factor that and then imagine any number of other awkward scenarios – farting in an elevator, being on a first date and realizing you forgot your wallet, that part in Star Wars when Luke and Leia kiss (and then, fast forward to Return of the Jedi, and you realize that they realize they’re brother and sister) – and none of that can top the awkward concert of crickets chirping which occurred.

Okay, it wasn’t that awkward. But I did get a few “what chu talkin’ bout Willis” looks.

.

Nevertheless I’m out of the loop today, but have an awesome guest post by DC-based strength coach, Kelsey Reed, on the topic of joint laxity and hypermobility.

Enjoy!

Training With Laxity

Cue a bunch of crickets chirping and then

Want to see a strength coach party trick?

 

I have a fair amount of joint laxity and amongst coaches and trainers this stunt usually produces a few raised eyebrows and surprised looks. Amongst normal people, they just stare blankly at me and wonder why would anyone bother to do a squat facing the wall.

Joint hypermobility or joint laxity (the terms are used interchangeably) is the ability of a joint to move beyond the usual range of motion. Typically this is because the ligaments are looser than “normal” the due to either genetics or injury.

For the most part, joint laxity isn’t debilitating nor is it usually a worrisome problem, particularly if you’re a gymnast, dancer, baseball pitcher, or a Cirque du Soleil performer.

However, if you are a lax athlete/trainee there are some training considerations to keep in mind. It’s easy to inadvertently injure yourself or cause chronic aches and pains.

Before we dive into some recommendations, are you someone with joint laxity?

The most common test for generalized joint hypermobility is the Beighton Scale.

If you can do at least 2 or 3 (sources differ), then it’s an indicator that you may have general joint hypermobility. Don’t freak out; like I said hypermobility is very common, particularly among children and adolescents (though many grow out of it later), females, Asian, and Afro-Carribbean races. Laxity can manifest in a variety of ways with differing levels of severity. It also isn’t necessarily systemic; it can affect some joints and not others.

If it’s so common, why do we need to worry about it?

According to Dr. Hakim over at Hypermobility.org:

“However some hypermobile people can injure their joints, ligaments, tendons and other ‘soft tissues’ around joints. This is because the joints twist or over extend easily, may partially dislocate (or ‘sublux’), or in a few cases may actually dislocate. These injuries may cause immediate ‘acute’ pain and sometimes also lead to longer-term ‘chronic’ pain.”

I would also add that being hypermobile or lax will also increase the chance that joints will be unstable and therefore exercises that focus on stability will be key to maintaining healthy joints. Additionally, the end-range of motion of joints will be the soft tissue instead of the bones; you could easily stress and irritate the ligaments and tendons during lock-outs. (More on that below)

Since there is a slightly higher risk for injury for us lax people, here are some of my thoughts when it comes to training.

Be Mindful of Joint Position During Exercise

Just because your joints can go through a full range of motion, doesn’t mean that it’s necessary. For example, look at my elbows at the top of a push up:

I catch a lot of my females doing this and I coach them to leave a little slack in the lock-out. Their arms are still straight, just not pushed to the very end of their range.

Here’s another common position lax people can fall into:

In this position, I’m not really “owning” it but instead I’m relying on all my passive restraints (the ligaments) to keep my body stable. Notice the excessive arch in my lower back, my shoulder blade sticking up like Mt. Doom, and my elbow popping forward beyond my wrist.

I would argue that this position offers a false sense of stability and, as the weight increases, it’s going to become harder and harder to stabilize and eventually something will start hurting.

Here’s where they should be:

Here, I’m actively stabilizing by using the surrounding muscles- my core, upper back, and the triceps/biceps of my support arm- it’s safer and more effective in the long run.

Placing the ligaments and tendons under load while pushing through to the end range of their movement is a recipe for achy joints. Be aware of how you/your clients are performing various exercises and own the range of motion- you should be stable and strong, not loose and wobbly.

Balance Distraction and Approximation Exercises

Simply, distraction exercises pull the joints apart, as in a pull-up, and approximation exercises push the joints together, as in a push up. People with hypermobility are going to be more sensitive to the external forces placed on their joints.

For example, I experienced some wicked elbow pain last year.

I was mystified – I wasn’t benching too much or doing hundreds of skull crushers and curls, all the no-nos when it comes to cranky elbows. I took a gander at my weekly training routine at the time, and in an effort to increase my deadlift, I was deadlifting, pull-upping, kettlebell swinging, and rowing nearly every day; I did push ups a few times a week, but aside from that, I didn’t include any pressing.

The former exercises are all fantastic in themselves yet they’re all distraction. I had triple (if not more) the volume of distraction as I did approximation exercises. I subbed out a few of the pull-ups and rows for pressing and, surprise! My elbows felt much better.

When performing exercises that are distraction, pull-ups, row variations, and even deadlifts to an extent, it’s best to avoid the “dead hang” position (when you’re fighting gravity by hanging on your passive restraints instead of actively holding the bar/weight). If the stress is placed on the joints without the accompanying muscle activation, all that tension goes straight into the tendons and ligaments (when I hang from a bar, I can literally feel my forearm bones separating from my upper arm). By creating muscular tension when holding onto the weight or bar, it will prevent excessive stress for your poor ligaments.

Stop, for the Love of Iron, Stretching!

We humans like to do what we’re good at and if you’re hypermobile, you’re good at stretching. Hypermobile people need stretching as much as Darth Vader needs a haircut.

If you feel tight, it’s probably because that muscle(s) is fighting to hold your joints together because your tendons are loose. At best, stretching is only going to feed into the dysfunction (if there is one). We need to stabilize! Which rolls nicely into the last point…

Note From TG: HERE’s an article I wrote on why “stretching” isn’t always the answer.

Stabilize

It’s not cool or sexy but it’s darn useful! If you’re hypermobile, there’s a chance that the ligaments in your spine are too. No good, my friend. Planks, deadbugs, bird dogs, are examples of stabilization exercises that focus on the smaller, lower threshold muscles that are necessary for happy spines and joints.

Seeing as the shoulder is one of the more unstable joints, shoulder stability training  is imperative for hypermobile trainees.

 

Adding isometric holds to exercises is another way to increase time-under-tension to bolster tendon and ligament strength. Crawl variations are low-threshold core stabilization exercises that teach you how to stabilize dynamically (during movement). They also are approximation exercises to add to your training. If you want to get fancy, you can add a few chains:

 

Take care of your tendons!

If you have joint laxity and have/want to avoid joint pain, pay attention to your joint position, balance distraction and approximation exercises, stop stretching so much, and work on your overall stabilization. Own the range of motion you have- don’t push to the full ROM if you don’t need to and risk injury due to instability.

Hypermobility isn’t a curse, it’s actually a pretty cool trait; it just takes a little extra thinking when it comes to training.

Thanks again to Tony for allowing my musings to appear on his blog once again!

About the Author

Kelsey Reed is head strength coach at SAPT Strength & Performance located in Fairfax, VA. Bitten by the iron bug at 16, Kelsey has been lifting ever since. Her love for picking up heavy things spurred her to pursue a degree in the Science of Exercise and Nutrition at Virginia Tech.

Now she spends her days teaching and coaching others in the iron game. In her down time, she lives life on the wild side by not following recipes when she cooks, fighting battles through characters fantasy fiction novels, and attempting to make her cats love her.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/21/15

I’m traveling this weekend. To Edmonton, Alberta. That’s in Canada. It’s August, so I’m hopeful it’s not cold as balls.

Wish me luck/I love you.

Lets get to this week’s list of stuff to read.

Cardio: Steady-State vs. HIIT vs. Just Lifting Weights – Jay Kali

Another well-written, fair, informative piece on the benefits of doing your aerobic work. With references!

The Right Way To Do a Turkish Get-Up – Me, Myself, & I

Is it cheating if I put one of my own articles on the list?

This is a quickie I wrote for Men’s Health on the “big rock” tips to performing the Turkish Get-Up well.

Integrative Corrective Exercise Approach – Dr. Evan Osar

 

Today (8/21) is the LAST day to purchase Dr. Osar’s comprehensive corrective exercise course at a discounted price. I’ve been a big fan of Dr. Osar’s work ever since I read his first book, Form & Function, back in the day and am always impressed whenever I have the opportunity to listen to him speak – most recently this past July at the Perform Better Summit in Providence, RI – as he’s an open-minded guy who doesn’t take a black or white approach to anything.

If you’re a fitness professional looking to improve your assessment skills in addition to solidifying your corrective exercise approach (breathing, alignment, strength work) to better serve your clients/athletes, then I can’t recommend this resource enough.

Go HERE for more information.

CategoriesNutrition rant

Fitness Consumer Choice: Why Pizza Hut Trumps Food Prep

I’m a nerd when it comes to the topic of behavioral economics.3

For those unaware of what it is (via Wikipedia):

“Behavioral economics and the related field, behavioral finance, study the effects of psychological, social, cognitive, and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions and the consequences for market prices, returns, and the resource allocation.”

For those who zoned out reading the above definition and need something a little more simplified, you can also think of behavioral economics as the following:

“Stuff Malcolm Gladwell writes about.”

So anyone who’s read his books The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and/or David & Goliath…has, more or less, inadvertently – or maybe not – brushed elbows with the topic.

And while many consider Gladwell the “big fish in the small pond” on the topic, there are many other prominent authors and books that enter the picture I’m a huge fan of:

– The Heath brothers (Chip and Dan), authors of Made to Stick, Switch, and Decisive.

– Dan Ariely, author of The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational.

– And maybe most popular of all, the book(s) which kind of popularized the genre, Freakonomics.

I find it all fascinating and wholeheartedly relevant to every day life. Taking a handful of snidbits from various books I’ve read in the past, how could any of the below scenarios not pique anyone’s interests?

– Does the chance of getting caught affect how likely we are to cheat?

– How do companies pave the way for dishonesty?

– Does religion improve our honesty?

– Why do some failures inspire breakthroughs and others breakdowns?

– Why can large bonuses make CEOs less productive?

– Why is revenge so important to us?

– Why does my wife get pissed if I don’t make the bed in the morning?

All are interesting quandaries, no?4

More germane to health and fitness, however, I find behavioral economics to be very insightful. I mean, how else to explain, despite knowing better, and contrary to what their goals may be, why someone would choose to hit up a Pizza Hut buffet after work rather than heading home and preparing a more nutritious meal?

What makes someone prefer to binge watch House of Cards over going to the gym? And then bitch and whine about how they never seem to see results?

Or, I don’t know…if someone’s a hardcore Paleo Nazi and they eat a “paleo brownie,” is it still Paleo? You know, cause Stevia (and brownies) weren’t necessarily part of a cave man’s diet back in the day.

As a fitness professional (I feel), having the ability to dig a little deeper and to peel back the psychological onion as to what prevents certain people from attaining certain fitness and health goals is important.

Because more often than not it’s much more than an “education/information” thing, in addition to it being much more than simply telling someone what or what not to do.

Lets take a passage from the book I’m currently reading, Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics, by Richard Thaler:

“To begin any discussion of mental accounting, it helps to understand the basic economic theory of the consumer. Recall from the discussion of the endowment effect that all economic decisions are made through the lens of opportunity costs. The cost of dinner and a movie tonight is not fully captured by the financial outlay – it also depends on the alternative uses of that time and money.

If you understand opportunity costs and you have a ticket to a game that you could sell for $1000, it does not matter hw much you paid for the ticket. The cost of going to the game is what you could do with that $1000. You should only go to the game if that is the best possible way to could use that money.

Is it better than one hundred movies at $10 each? Better than an upgrade to your shabby wardrobe? Better than saving the money for a rainy day or a sunny weekend?

This analysis is not limited to decisions that involve money. If you spend an afternoon reading a novel, then the opportunity cost is whatever else you might have done with that time.”

As Thaler notes, “thinking like that is a right and proper normative theory of consumer choice.”

Not to steal his thunder (I totally am), but I’d argue it serves as a right and proper normative theory of (fitness) consumer choice.

Opportunity Costs

Revisiting one of the examples above, there could be any number of reasons why someone would choose to walk into a Pizza Hut rather than head home to prepare a wholesome meal.

It’s certainly more convenient and less time intensive. But maybe they choose to do so because they literally have no pots and pans to cook with. Or any decent knives to perform said food prep.

Hell, maybe they’re like me and can’t use a microwave without exponentially increasing the risk of burning down their apartment by a factor of ten!

The opportunity cost tips in Pizza Hut’s favor because said individual has no resources in his or her’s corner to help set them up for success.

If you, as the fitness professional, do nothing but play the “tough love” card and talk down to your client as weak-minded, weak-willed, or any number of equally non-helpful epithets…are you really doing them a service?

Doing nothing more than telling them to suck it up and to stop going to Pizza Hut isn’t going to solve anything. You’re being lazy, and quite honestly kinda of a dick.

It bodes in your favor to take a step back and to better understand what fuels people’s behavior.

Just something to think about.

CategoriesAssessment Corrective Exercise Program Design

Is Corrective Exercise Overrated?

We got a doctor in the house!

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Dr. Evan Osar, a Chicago based chiropractic physician and coach, and someone I’ve been a huge fan of since reading his first two books Form and Function and Corrective Exercise Approach to Common Hip and Shoulder Dysfunction.

His latest resource (a course, really), The Integrative Corrective Exercise Approach, is available starting today and is something I believe will add a ton of value to any fitness professional looking to take his or her’s assessment and programming skills to a higher, dare I say, Jedi’esque level.5

Is Corrective Exercise Overrated?

These days it’s hard to read an article or view a video about exercise without the mention of corrective exercise. Like many things in our industry, corrective exercise has its fair share of proponents as well as detractors. And there are plenty of facts and fictions about how to define corrective exercise and actually what it is.

FYI: Despite what Google says, this isn’t corrective exercise

In this article I am going to explain our concept of corrective exercise and dispel one of the biggest myths surrounding it.

I will also share with you how to integrate corrective exercise to improve the success you are already having with your general population clients. Because when you understand what corrective exercise is – as well as what it isn’t – you can create dramatic changes in your client results by implementing some very simple principles and key concepts into your programs.

Lets Do This

The first thing we need to discuss prior to covering the most common myth is to define the term corrective exercise. While it may seem like an issue of semantics, similar to other industry terms like ‘functional training’ and ‘core training’, corrective exercise takes on a variety of different meanings depending upon whom you speak with.

It’s important to recognize that our clients have developed their own unique and individual strategy for posture and movement. This strategy has been influenced and driven by many factors including but not limited to:

  • Things they have learned throughout their life such as adopting posture and exercise cues from their parents, therapists, and/or fitness professionals.
  • Compensations they have developed as a result of previous injuries, traumas, and surgeries.
  • Their lifestyle – sitting at a desk, the types of exercises they do and/or have done, how active they are or aren’t.
  • How they have been taught to exercise (for example many individuals have been taught to over-brace or grip as their primary stabilization strategy).
  • Their emotions or how they generally feel about themselves or their situation in life

These factors directly contribute to your client’s habits, which then dictate their current postural and movement strategy.

These habits are how your clients will perform most things in their life.

They will generally use this habitual postural and movement strategy when they sit, stand, walk, do their job, and exercise. It is these habits – actually their non-optimal habits – that lead so many individuals to develop chronic tightness, muscle imbalances that inhibit optimal performance in many of their activities, and which eventually lead to pain syndromes.

Because they become so engrained into their nervous system, most individuals are not even aware of these habits. This is why it is becomes so challenging to alter chronic posture and movement habits – they have been imprinted into their nervous system.

This is where we believe corrective exercise can play a vital role as part of an overall training system.

In our paradigm, we view corrective exercise as a strategy that consists of a thorough assessment so that you can:

  1. Identify the key factors contributing to an individual’s current postural and movement strategy.
  2. Utilize specific release and/or activation techniques to address the individual’s primary issues that are driving their chronic problems or loss of performance.
  3. Incorporate the principles of the Integrative Movement System™ – alignment, breathing, and control – into the fundamental movement patterns of squatting, lunging, bending, rotating, pushing, pulling, and gait so the individual can accomplish their health and fitness goals.

In other words, we view corrective exercise as a strategy – rather than a series of exercises – to help individuals develop and maintain a more optimal postural and movement strategy so that they can accomplish their health and fitness goal whether they be to exercise at a more intense level, develop a strategy for dealing with their chronic muscle tightness, or simply to live life with greater ease and less discomfort.

With an understanding of what corrective exercise is, it is also important to understand what corrective exercise is not.

Corrective Exercise Is Not:

  • A ‘fix’ for your client’s postural dysfunction, muscle imbalances, and/or pain.

  • A method for making individuals do their exercises in a ‘perfect’ way.

  • A group of remedial exercises that a client performs to undo the effects of performing inappropriate exercise (allowing clients to perform exercises in which they can’t maintain their alignment, breathing, and control).

  • A diagnosis or substitute for a thorough evaluation by a qualified health care professional.

  • A substitute for a well-designed integrative strength training program.

Note From TG: I really like that last point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTY8bE6C1bs

 

Now that I have defined what it is and what it is not, here is the most common myth I hear surrounding the concept of corrective exercise:

Corrective Exercise ‘Fixes’ Postural Dysfunction and Muscle Imbalances

This is by far the biggest myth surrounding corrective exercise and the statement that its detractors most often bring up. This myth commonly stems from within the health and fitness industry because we like to make BOLD claims and then promise equally BOLD results.

We often claim things like:

1. ‘Everyone has a tight, short psoas’ from sitting too much so do this stretch and strengthening exercise (insert the novel stretch and strengthening exercise here) and you’ll fix everyone’s back pain.

2. ‘Everyone has forward shoulders from working on the computer so have your clients stretch out their pecs and strengthen their rhomboids and lower trapezius with some Y’s, T’s, and W’s and you’ll solve all your client’s shoulder problems’.

3. ‘Here’s the ‘best’ movement screen so you’ll know exactly what’s causing your client’s problems’ and here’s the corrective exercises to ‘fix’ those problems.

Making BOLD statements and promising BOLD results gets people to open the most recent blog or video post.

Making BOLD statements and promising BOLD results gets people excited that they have discovered ‘the answer’ to their clients issues.

However making BOLD statements and promising BOLD results also makes people lazy about performing their own assessments and determining the best exercises for the individual that they are working with.

Because the Truth Is:

  • Yes, some people have a tight psoas and weak glutes… and many do not. And for those individuals in the latter group, stretching their psoas and strengthening their glutes actually perpetuates the very problem causing their low back pain.
  • And yes, many individuals have forward shoulders and inhibited rhomboids and lower trapezius…and many do not. Doing Y’s, T’s, and W’s for example however do not even address the most common cause of the forward shoulder so again, these exercises will perpetuate and/or create an entirely new issue in your clients.

 

  • Finally, there is no magic screen or assessment that will tell you all you need to know about your client. You need to perform a series of assessments, combine them with your client’s intake and functional goals, and then determine where you would start with them. Then you must find the exercises that work best for your clients that help them address their biggest issues and how to incorporate these components into a well-designed program.

Conclusion

Corrective exercise is not a series of exercises designed to diagnose or identify the ‘fix’ for your client’s issues.

It is a strategy for implementing a thorough assessment, implementing the appropriate releases and/or activation sequences so that your client can achieve optimal alignment, breathing, and control, and then integrate these principles into the fundamental movement patterns and/or your client’s functional goals.

Used judiciously, corrective exercise is a part of an overall training strategy designed to look at your client as an individual and provide them with a viable option for successfully addressing their issues while working towards their functional goals.

Corrective exercise should enhance and not deter from developing greater strength, mobility, endurance, or other objective outcome. When you understand and integrate a successful corrective exercise strategy, you will help so many clients who have been struggling with chronic issues, safely and effectively accomplish their individual health and fitness goals.

About the Author

Audiences around the world have seen Dr. Evan Osar’s dynamic and original presentations.  His passion for improving human movement and helping fitness professionals think bigger about their role can be witnessed in his writing and experienced in every course he teaches.

His 20-year background in the fitness industry and experience as a chiropractic physician provide a unique perspective on corrective exercise and fundamental training principles for the health and fitness professional that works with the pre and post-rehabilitation, pre and post-natal, baby boomer and senior populations.

Dr. Osar has become known for taking challenging information and putting it into useable information the health and fitness professional can apply immediately with their clientele. He is the creator of over a dozen resources including the highly acclaimed Corrective Exercise Approach to Common Hip and Shoulder Dysfunction and the Integrative Corrective Exercise Approach™.

CategoriesInterview Media

Cameo on Evil Sugar Radio

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

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

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

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

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

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

We Didn’t Talk Nutrition!

Thankfully. Because that’s not my wheelhouse. I could probably feign nutritional expertise by dropping a gluconeogenesis bomb in a sentence somewhere, or go into the particulars on reversible phosphorylation of proteins as a regulatory mechanism6, but I didn’t.

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

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

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/14/15

Lets jump right to this week’s list.

So You Lose All That Weight. Now What? – via Brandon LaVack

We all know of someone who has worked their tail off to lose a bunch of weight only to have it return (and then some) after the fact.

This was more or less a “best of” playlist from several fitness professionals on their perspective regarding the topic.

The Guide to Getting Old Man Strength – Kyle Farnsworth

I remember always watching Kyle Farnsworth pitch back in the day, and outside of throwing gas I used to always think to myself “dude is yoked!”

And was someone I wouldn’t want to pick a fight with:

 

I felt this was pretty cool article on Kyle’s lifelong pursuit of fitness and how it allowed him to not only have a long and successful MLB career, but to pursue other athletic endeavors as well.

Peer Leadership: 8 Thoughts On How To Make the Most Out of An Opportunity, Others, & Yourself – Greg Robins

CSP coach Greg Robins gave an amazing in-service a few days ago on this topic, and the article linked to above sums it up thoroughly. A relevant read for anyone regardless of career.