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.1

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?2

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.3

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 mechanism4, 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.

CategoriesConditioning Fat Loss Program Design

Finishers That Do More Than Finish You

Whether you refer to it as a circuit, death circuit, METCON, or my preference…a finisher, the goal is one in the same: you spend 10-15 minutes at the end of your training session kicking the living crap out of yourself pushing things, lifting things, throwing things, pulling things, flipping things, or any combination of “things” that will make you hate life.

Simply put: a finisher finishes you. Except in this instance Sub Zero isn’t ripping your spine from your body Mortal Kombat style.

No fatalities here.

 

For most people, most of the time, a finisher is designed to not tickle and basically serve as a way to post something badass on their Instagram feed.

On one hand, I get it. There’s a sense of accomplishment and bravado that comes with completing a challenging finisher. It’s not for the faint of heart, and I for one will never begrudge someone who goes out of his or her way to work hard and get after it in the gym.

On the flip side, however, I find there’s a rate of diminishing return when the goal of a finisher is to solely make you feel tired or exhausted at the end of a workout.

When you think about it that’s not that hard to do.

As a strength coach and as someone who’s interested in not only improving performance, but also helping people possibly address injuries, postural imbalances, and/or movement deficiencies it behooves me not to be more meticulous in how I design my finishers.

Put another way, I’d rather a finisher do more than just finish you.

In my latest article on BodyBuilding.com I discuss my favorite mode of finisher and offer up THREE different variations for you to tinker with.

Check it out HERE.

CategoriesConditioning Program Design

Do Cardio, Keep Your Gains

Throughout my life there are a handful of things I never thought I’d do. I never thought I’d live in a big city such as Boston. I never thought I’d use the word “delish” to describe something I ate.

Speaking which: that’s a habit I need to stop immediately.

I never thought I’d read a Twilight book. It was just one, scout’s honor. I had to figure out what all the fuss was about

And never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever think I’d own a cat and that I’d love her to pieces.

Oh, my wife ranks up there, too…;o)

Furthermore, something else happened recently I’d never thought I’d do. I wrote an article on the benefits of doing “cardio.”

Yes that cardio.

I’ve had a change of heart of late, and feel the advantages far outweigh the perceived disadvantages. Especially in the weight room.

It’s my latest article on T-Nation and you can read it HERE.

CategoriesExercise Technique Exercises You Should Be Doing Strength Training

The Most Underrated Exercise in Strength and Conditioning? It’s Not Deadlifts.

While I can’t say it’s always been the case (I’ve grown less dogmatic and immature as a coach the older I’ve gotten5, I operate under the guise that every exercise has its time and place.

Except for maybe this one.

If she were juggling a pair of chainsaws while standing on the BOSU balls I could see myself giving a nod of approval.

I used to scoff at any coach or trainer who had the audacity to have his or her client leg press instead of squat.

Roll my eyes whenever I saw leg extensions or leg curls programmed.

And don’t even get me started on the gym coat rack Smith Machine.

I was a gym snob through and through. Borderline douchey. I still am to a small degree. But I’ve toned it down considerably as the years have passed.

I mean, for what it’s worth: I’ve actually been including more low intensity aerobic training in my own training (and that of my athletes), which is something I would have punched myself in the face for in the not so distant past.

I’d like to think of it as a form of evolvement on my end. More to the point, I’m not so singular in my train of thought on any given topic6 In short: I’m more open and less of a dick.

In fact, my thoughts on the topic mirror that of Bret Contreras (in THIS post):

“If there’s one movement that I absolutely loathe, it’s the “movement” that attempts to convince readers to avoid certain exercises altogether.”

Flipping the script, though, rather than waxing poetic on exercises not to do, today I wanted to instead discuss an exercise I feel is vastly underrated and underutilized.

Dare I say…most people reading should make it a point of doing it more often.

(Double) Anterior Loaded KB Front Squats

 

This is an exercise I’ve been using for years at Cressey Sports Performance and have always understood its benefits. I’ve used it with many beginner and intermediate lifters, and for those who feel they’re above this exercise and think they’re “too elite,” I’d defer to strength coach, Joe Kenn, who uses it exclusively with many of his NFL athletes too.

Side Note: I’d encourage you to listen to his interview on Mike Robertson’s Physical Preparation Podcast HERE.

Why I Heart This Exercise

1. I’m not an anti-back squat guy. We incorporate it – and it’s many iterations – at CSP often. I do feel there’s a cost-benefit to the exercise and that it has to be paired well to the athlete/person given their injury history, training experience, and overall goals.

Having said that, the Anterior Loaded KB Front Squat (from now on referred to as ALKBFS because I’m lazy and don’t want to type it out every time) lends itself to be a much more “back friendly” variation that most anyone can do on day #1.

The fact the load is more anterior (and not directly over the spine) seems an obvious advantage.

2. The ALKBFS elicits an almost unparalleled “core” challenge. Because the load is more anterior, one must fight like crazy not to tip over.

I.e., this is an excellent drill to help teach/coach people to maintain t-spine extension. You’ll still want to encourage a flexion moment, but because this variation encourages more extension it allows people to stay more upright.

It won’t take much to humble even the strongest back squatter. I’ve seen numerous trainees (both male and female) second guess their weight selection.

3. Moreover, for those with upper body imbalances or mobility issues – which may make back squatting difficult – the ALKBFS is great option. If someone doesn’t have the requisite shoulder abduction/external rotation ROM it doesn’t make much sense to slam a square peg into a round hole.

Of course we can utilize a Safety Squat bar, a giant cambered bar, or even have them perform a traditional barbell front squat, which makes the aforementioned imbalance moot. However, I encourage you not to disregard this movement just to be a contrarian.

4. Another reason why I like the ALKBFS so much is that it can transform or melt itself into more of a “hybrid” exercise if one so chooses.

Who’s to say we couldn’t transition from a KB clean to a squat? Or a KB clean to a squat to a press? Or a KB clean to a squat to a press to an overhead farmer carry? Or a KB clean to a squat to a press to an overhead farmer carry to sniper roll off a loading dock, Jason Bourne style?

The possibilities are endless.

You could even perform them offset style:

 

Give them a try today and let me know what you think.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/7/15

I wanted to begin today by saying thank you. Thank you to Jon Stewart and The Daily Show for 16 kick-ass years.

Every morning, for I don’t know how long, my ritual has been…

1. Get-up.

2. Pee.

3. Make breakfast.

4. Watch The Daily Show while eating breakfast.

And that’s how I roll.

This morning, however, was the last time I’d be eating my 5-egg omelet7 while watching and listening to Stewart’s commentary on everything from shady politicians and government BS to his pining about the New York Mets8 and the travesty, that is, eating a slice of pizza with a fork.

 

Not coincidentally, I suspect, this morning was also the last morning I’d end up with pieces of egg on my computer screen from laughing so hard.

Okay, deep breaths…I shouldn’t be so cynical. I’m sure Trevor Noah is going to do a fantastic job taking over for Stewart on the show. I’m still going to get up, make breakfast, and watch. But it’s going to take a while to get used to not having Stewart on screen to serve as the voice of reason, bringing to light some of the WTFness of the world, and making us laugh all the same.

Wait, what was that? No, of course not. I’m not crying! Are you kidding me? It just so happens, you know, Lisa’s in the kitchen cutting a bunch of onions. Yeah that’s it. No crying here.

Thanks again Jon.

Sounding Off – Christa Vancini Doran

I LOVED this article by Christa – owner of Tuff Girl Fitness in Hamden, CT. Christa is one of my “go to” ambassadors for women’s fitness and someone who, not only I respect a ton, but someone who unabashedly doesn’t back down from fighting many of the mainstream stigmas and myths plaguing women in fitness today. One deadlift, squat, chin-up, kettlebell swing, and push-up at a time.

Musings of a Disturbed Strength Coach – Film Fest Edition – Lee Boyce

Anyone who knows me well knows I love movies. Or, to play more of the uppity movie snob role, I love film.

I’m just as likely to head to the independent theater down the street from my apartment to watch a subtitled Italian film about a dude who makes a bowl of rigatoni for a chick he likes as I am to head to the movieplex to watch explosions, zombies, ninjas, hobbits, and exploding zombies fighting ninjas and hobbits.

Lee’s a good friend, phenomenal coach, and just as obsessed with movies as I am. We’ll often text each our reviews of recent movie we watched.

This post was a very witty and impressive feat of wordplay by Lee.

75+ movie references with a (fitness) message to boot. Give it a read.

Advanced Core Training – Dean Somerset

There’s only a few more days to take advantage of the sale price for Dean’s latest resource. He did an amazing job with it – as always – and I feel it would be a valuable addition to any trainer or coach looking to upgrade their knowledge base on “core” anatomy, assessment, and building exercise progression/regression algorithms.

Here’s a small clip:

 

Full Disclosure/Rant Ahead: Dean is a good friend, he was in my wedding, we’ve shared what was seemingly a 10×10 square foot room in the middle of London for four days, but still managed to avoid spooning each other.9

I can understand why some people would be suspect I’d promote his product. Affiliate circle jerking is what it’s often affectionately called on the internet. So cute!

Contrary to popular belief, us coaches and educators who have the audacity to make a living and release/promote fitness products don’t sit in our evil volcanos riding around in a roller coaster made of blow jobs as we hit the refresh button on our Clickbank accounts.

Most of us are working and training people on a day-to-day basis.

Moreover, we actually do want to help people, and educate, and take pride in our work, as well as pride in who and what we put our own names behind.

Do I make a little money in the process? Sure. What’s wrong with that? Given the amount of free content I (as well as my colleagues) provide on weekly basis I don’t see what the harm is.

Am I supposed to apologize for having smart friends who routinely put out amazing content and resources? I THINK NOT, KIND SIR!!!

Anyways, Advanced Core Training is an amazing resource. I think it kicks-ass. I think it will help a lot of trainers out there who are looking to separate themselves from the masses and who are looking to further develop their skill set.

Now excuse me, it’s my turn on the roller coaster. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

CategoriesUncategorized

Articles, Podcasts, and Procrastination.

Lisa and I made it back to Boston yesterday after spending the weekend on Seneca Lake (in the Finger Lakes region of NY) touring all the beautiful wineries and vineyards in the area.

I’m not a wine person – or an alcohol person, really – but I have to say: listening to Lisa describe wine is a crash course in adjectives.

All weekend I heard words like “smooth,” “peppery,” “opulent,” “crisp,” and “it punches me in the mouth and I love it!”

She prefers her wine dry (not sweet) and the more it “punches her mouth” the more she likes it.

I was driving all weekend so I wasn’t tasting any wine, but Lisa had me attempt to explain what I smell:

I’m not as good with my adjectives.

In any case I’m back home and have to catch up on a ton of work. There’s programs to write, article deadlines to meet, and emails to be answered.  And, it’s time to get my butt in gear on prepping for mine and Dean Somerset’s Complete Shoulder & Hip Workshop which kicks off in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in three weeks.10

I’m going to be “stealing” some older material from myself of course, but am planning on adding a ton of new shoulder assessment drills, correctives, and exercise flow charts that trainers and coaches can use to better serve their athletes and clients.

I’m a serial procrastinator. It’s the worst. But as my good friend, Ben Bruno, likes to say, “if you wait till the last minute, it only takes a minute.”

That said, I need to get to work and instead of writing a blog post today I’m just going to share a few things that have popped up on the interwebz I’ve been involved with.

1. Building. Stronger. People. Podcast

I had the chance to sit down with friend and exquisite strength coach, Todd Bumgardner, on his podcast recently. I love talking shop with Todd, and that’s exactly what we did. There’s “strength stuff” included. But really it’s just two dudes talking about life.

https://soundcloud.com/toddbumgardner/buildingstrongerpeoplepodcastep4tonygentilcore

2. Workout Program Design for Beginners

This is little sumthin, sumthin I wrote for STACK Magazine on program design for beginners (not that the title gave it away or anything), specifically young athletes.

3. 5 Exercises Professional Athletes Do That You Probably Don’t

* But should.

This was an article I helped contribute to on Details.com.

4. Advanced Core Training

Just a reminder than Dean Somerset’s Advanced Core Training is on sale all this week at 40% off the regular price.

I get it. The world needs another “core training” resource like it needs another Kardashian spin-off reality series.

This isn’t your typical core training resource, though.

 

Dean’s one of the smartest coaches I know, and he does an amazing job digging deeper and challenging many sacred cows on the concepts of core training. If you’re a personal trainer or coach it’s well worth the investment.

Alright, I need to stop procrastinating!