Only ONE week left until theElite Training Workshop – Bostonis held on Saturday, August 1st, featuring myself, Mike Reinold, Artemis Scantalides, and Ryan Ketchum.
I’m really excited for this event and think it’s going to be a awesome experience for those who attend. The line-up is pretty rad and the flow of the day is set up in a way where each presenter does there schtick and then immediately follows that up with a hands-on portion.
So it’s less blah-blah-blabidy-blah and more “holys*** did you see Artemis Turkish get-up Tony? That’s badass.”
If you’re looking for some practical information that you’ll be able to use for yourself or with your clients, and earn CEUs to boot then this will be a great opportunity.
Dean Somerset and I are excited to announce our latest traveling show: The Complete Shoulder & Hip Training Workshop.
It’s like a travel Cirque du Soleil show, except with no tents, flashy acrobatics, animals, or ripped half naked dudes contorting themselves into pretzels. Unless, of course, Dean decides to take people through one of his epic warm-up routines.
He’s a supple bastard. It’s deceiving.
We teamed up last year for a handful of workshops – London, DC, LA – and didn’t want to kill each other, so we figured we’d do it again this year
This time we’re going to place a ton of emphasis on the hips and shoulders. We’ll talk anatomy, assessment, corrective exercise, programming, and we’ll also be doing a fair amount of coaching/hands-on demonstrations. And maybe, just maybe, in honor of Dean’s Canadian heritage, honor Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill in some fashion. I mean, it was 20 years ago this month that that album was released.
Yep, I feel old.
CEU’s will be available for all workshops.
EDMONTON (in August, so it won’t be cold as balls).
ST. LOUIS(in September, the EARLY BIRD rate is still active, but will end soon!)
CHICAGO (I’ve never been, and can’t wait to explore.)
(Just Added) LOS ANGELES (in November, Tony finally does his tour of bars from the movie Swingers).
Funny story on this. An ex-athlete of mine sent me a message the other day on Facebook linking to this article with a note “Really? Is this guy serious?”
I wrote back, “Lee’s my boy. It’s total tongue in cheek. He’s one of the good ones.”
It’s an older article – I can’t believe I missed it the first time around – but it’s a good one!
Coaching the OLY lifts is definitely a weak spot for me as a coach, which is why I often refer out whenever an athlete or client wants to learn them.
But after reading this article and watching the videos I’m pretty sure I’m ready for 2016. See you in Rio de Janeiro everyone!
BONUS STUFF (Because, Why Not?)
HERE’s an article I wrote on Active.com on muscle soreness and whether or not you should be sore after every workout.
HERE’s an article I wrote for Stack.com that re-ran on Men’s Health on why I feel benching with your feet in the air is moronic for most guys most of the time. There’s a time and place for it, but then again there’s a time and place for sticking your finger in an electrical socket. I guess.
The trailer for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s (21 Grams, Babel, Birdman) next movie, The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, looks siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick.
I’m predicting winner for Best Cinematography right now.
And no, it’s not that time of year where I put on full movie quality Chewbacca costume and perform an entire deadlift session like a boss.1
It’s time to sign up for the annual Cressey Sports Performance Fall Seminar.
We’re very excited to announce that on Sunday, September 13, we’ll be hosting our fourth annual fall seminar at Cressey Sports Performance. As was the case with our extremely popular fall event over the past three years, this event will showcase the great staff we’re fortunate to have as part of our team. Also like last year, we want to make this an affordable event for everyone and create a great forum for industry professionals and fitness enthusiasts alike to interact, exchange ideas, and learn.
Here are the topics:
Pete Dupuis — Empowering Your Fitness Team
This presentation will serve as an introduction to the Cressey Sports Performance method for leveraging each coach’s unique skill-set in an effort to create a superior training experience. In this presentation, Pete will discuss the importance of cultivating distinctive assessment skills, personal brand development, and the importance of employing a broad spectrum of personality types on your fitness team.
Greg Robins — What Matters Most
One of the characteristics that makes the fitness industry special is the variety of approaches. However, it can also be a bit noisy. Constant access to new ideas and the plethora of free information may leave trainers, coaches and clients a bit confused. In this presentation, Greg will reflect on what he has found to matter most, both in getting you and your clients where you want to be.
Chris Howard — Referred Pain: What is it and what does it tell us?
Practically every fitness professional has encountered an athlete or client dealing with referred pain whether they knew it or not. In this presentation, Chris will discuss what referred pain is, what it tells us about our clients, and training modifications to alleviate our client’s pain. Whether you are a strength coach, personal trainer, physical therapist or athletic trainer, this presentation will provide a new perspective on your client’s pain.
Tony Bonvechio — Creating Context for More Efficient Coaching
Coaches put endless focus into what they say, but this presentation will illustrate the importance of how they say it. Creating context with your clients goes beyond internal and external cueing, and the ability to create “sticky” teaching moments will get your athletes moving better and more efficiently. Tony will discuss different cueing approaches, how they resonate with different learning styles, and how to say more with less to help your clients learn new movements with ease.
Tony Gentilcore — Wearing a Pink Dress Shirt Spinal Flexion: A Time and Place
Spinal flexion is a polarizing topic in the fitness world. Spine experts have illuminated the risks associated with loaded spinal flexion, leading to crunches and sit-ups getting labeled as taboo. In this presentation, Tony will discuss when encouraging spinal flexion – specifically on the gym floor – can address pain and dysfunction in our athletes and clients while also improving performance.
Miguel Aragoncillo – Cardio Confusion: A Deeper Look at Current Trends
Designing the cardiovascular aspect of a comprehensive exercise program often leaves us with more questions than answers: Is it helpful for body composition or performance? Should you run or should you sprint? Are there other ways to improve cardiovascular fitness? In this presentation, Miguel will discuss the trends and evaluate existing research of various conditioning methods. Finally, he’ll offer practical strategies for immediate application with your Monday morning clients.
Eric Cressey – Bogus Biomechanics and Asinine Anatomy
The strength and conditioning and rehabilitation fields are riddled with movement myths that just never seem to die. Drawing heavily on case studies, scholarly journals, and what functional anatomy tells us, Eric will “bust” some of the common fallacies you’ll encounter in the strength and conditioning field today. Most importantly, he’ll offer drills and strategies that can be utilized immediately with clients and athletes in place of these antiquated approaches.
**Bonus 2:30PM Saturday Session**
George Kalantzis and Andrew Zomberg– The Method Behind CSP Strength Camp Madness
Group training is rapidly overtaking one-on-one training as the most profitable fitness service. However, an effective group fitness system is often difficult to create and sustain. In this session, George and Andrew will take participants through an actual CSP strength camp. The training session will be accompanied by a brief presentation and handouts that dive into the components of programming, coaching and marketing strategies to drive new business and client retention within a group training model.
Location:
Cressey Sports Performance
577 Main St.
Suite 310
Hudson, MA 01749
Cost:
Regular Rate – Early Bird $129.99, Regular $149.99 Student Rate – Early Bird $99.99, Regular $129.99
The early bird registration deadline is August 13.
Date/Time:
Sunday, September 13, 2014
Registration 8:30AM
Seminar 9AM-5PM
**Bonus session Saturday, September 12 at 2:30pm.
Continuing Education:
0.8 National Strength and Conditioning Association CEUs pending (eight contact hours)
We’re really excited about this event, and would love to have you join us! However, space is limited and each seminar we’ve hosted in the past has sold out quickly, so don’t delay on signing up!
If you have additional questions, please direct them to [email protected]. Looking forward to seeing you there!
PS – If you’re looking for hotel information, The Extended Stay America in Marlborough, MA offers our clients a heavily discounted nightly rate of just under $63.00. Just mention “Cressey” during the booking process in order to secure the discount. Their booking phone number is 508-490-9911.
You’ve heard me mention it before, but it bears repeating: what I feel separates a good gym from a great gym is the notion of CULTURE.
There are a thousand and one gyms out there who hire the best trainers/coaches, have access to every piece of training equipment you could ever ask for, offer competitive rates, and spice things up with various amenities such as juice bars, WiFi, cafe, group exercise classes, yoga, pool, massage therapy, and maybe even access to steam rooms.
Although, if I were you, I’d steer clear of them. Trust me.
Yet, many often fail or have a less than stellar retention rate because they lack any semblance or culture or community.
Places like Cressey Sports Performance, Mark Fisher Fitness (in NYC), IFAST (in Indianapolis), Tuff Girl Fitness (in New Haven, CT), Movement Minneapolis (in Minneapolis), Results Fitness (in Newhall, CA), and yes I’ll even toss CrossFit into the mix here, are a speck of dust in comparison to some of the monstrosities that take up a city block.
None offer fancy amenities, may or may not even offer a place to shower, and are often set at a much higher price point compared to their big-box gym counterparts.
Yet, they thrive and have the most loyal members you could ask for. As Simon Sinek noted in his outstanding book Start With Why:
“There’s a big difference between repeat business and loyalty. Repeat business is when people do business with you multiple times. Loyalty is when people are willing to turn down a better product or a better price to continue doing business with you.”
Why the Loyalty?
Because every single gym above, in their own unique way, has placed a premium on building a culture where people want to train, want to spend their time, and more importantly feel empowered and encouraged by the staff and other members.
Training around like-minded people has a palpable effect on not only performance but overall experience too.
Take what happened last Saturday at CSP.
To give a little backstory: I’ve long championed the mentality that women should focus more on performance based goals in the weight room rather than things like scale weight or emulating a celebrity look or listening to anything the mainstream media has to say on the topic of women and fitness.
Most of it is unrealistic, toxic, and sets back women’s fitness 20 years.
I 100% feel strength training is the key to pretty much anything, even for more aesthetic based goals.
What’s more, using the popular analogy, strength training is a glass. Most people’s glass (men included) is far too small and they have little room to “express” any other qualities such as sprinting, jumping, hitting a golf ball 250 yds, deadlifting a tank, farmer carrying bags of groceries from the store to your apartment, fighting crime, or doing anything remotely athletic.
Strength training makes your glass bigger so that you can put more “stuff” into it. It allows you the freedom to not pull a hamstring just thinking about chasing after a taxi.
It allows for stuff like this to happen:
This is a video I took this past Saturday of four random women who train at CSP (admittedly, the first one, Nancy, is a current intern), the youngest of which is 15.
For the hell of it I challenged one of them to see if she could do a one-arm chin-up, and before I knew it several was lining up to try.
How baller is that?
None of them walked in on day one and said, “you know what Tony? I’d like to be able to perform a one-arm chin-up.”
But because we’ve built a culture where people (men AND women) love to lift heavy things and get after it, and because all four embraced the importance of hard work and bought into our way of doing things, it has allowed them to do stuff like this.
“How do you know when to progress an exercise whether it be increasing load or implementing a different exercise altogether?”
This is a question I receive a lot from other trainers and coaches, as well as many of the athletes and clients I work with on a daily basis.
And to be honest there’s no one clear-cut answer. As is the case with any question asked the appropriate response is…it depends.
What do you want for dinner tonight? It depends.
Who are you going to vote for in 2016? It depends.
Where should we go on vacation? It depends.
What do you want to watch tonight on tv? It depends. But if it’s Downton Abbey I’d rather swallow live bees.
The above examples aside, when it comes to anything related to fitness, and especially with regards to exercise and weight selection, the default answer is always…it depends.
There’s a cacophony of factors that need to be considered, including but not limited to one’s training history, experience, injury history, training schedule, equipment availability, work ethic, not to mention any number of specific goals and needs that need to be taken into consideration.
All factor in and play an important role in designing a training program.
Speaking from a generic vantage point I do feel there’s an easy answer to the question.
1. How To Progress Load
Lets use an example I think everyone reading can relate to. Have you ever been working with a certain weight on any exercise and crushed it, only to increase the load 5, 10, maybe 15 lbs. and it seems as if gravity increased tenfold? The weight doesn’t budge. Or if it does it’s infinitely more challenging?
What gives?
Simple.
You haven’t “earned” the right to increase load yet. You haven’t performed enough repetitions at “x” to increase to “y”.
I get it: Progressive overload is KING. It behooves all of us to make a concerted effort to try to increase load (increase sets or reps or both, or decrease rest intervals) – to do more work – each and every week. I think this is a fantastic approach and something many trainees often overlook in lieu of the more sexy or unconventional answer.
It’s not the lack of chains, or bands, or some lost Eastern Bloc Undulated Block Periodization set/rep scheme written in Elvish that’s the reason you’re not getting stronger or making progress.
For whatever reason many people resort to long division or Common Core for the answer when all they needed to do was add 2+2.
Or, in this case…add more weight to the bar.
But even that simple approach will only go so far. And this is what occurs when we add 5-10 lbs. to the bar and it’s as if a giant magnet is underneath the floor.
Stick with the lower weight. Stay there. Own it.
You’re not any less of a human being or the spawn of Satan if you perform an exercise with the same weight for multiple weeks in a row. Life will go on.
For further reading on progressive overload check out my article on BodyBuilding.com on the topic HERE.
2. When to Progress An Exercise?
The answer to this is a little trickier and a bit more murky. Without getting too far into the weeds I find that most trainees (and even worse trainers/coaches) suffer from exercise ADD.
The market is saturated. Walk into any commercial gym and you’re likely to see anywhere from 10-20 head shots of personal trainers near the front desk all highlighting their certifications, education, and how long they’ve been eating Paleo.
Who to choose?
Far be it from me to tell you. While I attempt to answer that question HERE, it’s hard to say with any certainty what you’re getting when you hire a personal trainer. There are plenty who look amazing on paper who end up making people do shit like this:
And this is what I mean when I refer to exercise ADD. Because the market is so saturated many trainers resort to gimmicks and smoke & mirrors (and use buzz words like “functional training” and “core” and “balance”) to separate themselves from the masses.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
The more “gimmicky” and against the grain a trainer appears, sadly, the more attention they get. Goblet squats just aren’t as sexy as whateverthef*ck is being demonstrated above is.
Personal training has become more about entertainment and one-upmanship than getting people results and helping them become more autonomous.
READ: the goal of any trainer should be to educate and make it so their client DOESN’T need their services.
I mean, look at a program like High Performance Handbook (which is representative of many of the programs we write at Cressey Sports Performance). There’s not a ton of variety involved. Yet, people get results.
Of course there are outliers and trainers/coaches who don’t fit into this mold. But those are few and far between. In this day in age “success” is defined by Facebook likes and Twitter followers than it is by experience and being able to actually coach someone through a deadlift.
To that end, to answer the question:
1. Read THIS article by CSP coach, Tony Bonvechio, which gives some insight on how to choose the best accessory exercises.
2. I’d argue most people don’t need as much variety as they think they do. The whole notion of muscle confusion and that you have to switch up exercises every few weeks irritates me. For most people this makes no sense because rarely do they allow themselves enough time to learn and “own” the exercise to be able to perform it efficiently.
Alas, they make very little progress.
I’ve used this analogy before, but with program design (especially when the goal is to get stronger) I think of things as a diamond.
At the bottom are your beginners, and at the top are your advanced and high-level competitive clients/athletes. Neither need a ton of variety in their training.
Beginners need to learn and master the basics – squat, hinge, lunge, push, pull, carry, skip, swing, side-shuffle, etc.
Advanced trainees/athletes need to be concerned with their competitive lifts and/or because they’re so strong, don’t require a ton of variety (or stimulus) to maintain that strength.
In the middle, however, are the intermediates. Not coincidentally this is where most of us (even myself) reside.
It’s here where we can be a little more Willy Wonka(ish) and immerse ourselves in the crazy, zany world of variety.
So in many ways how you “progress” an exercise will be dictated by where someone resides in the diamond.
NOTE: I’ll be covering this very topic in more detail at the Elite Training Workshop here in Boston on Saturday, August 1st.
It’s been a few months since I’ve done one of these so lets jump right to it.
1. If you’re a fitness professional (or someone who likes to geek out and rub elbows with some of the industry’s biggest names and/or stalk Dan John) why haven’t you attended a Perform Better event yet?
This past weekend Perform Better was in Providence, RI hosting their second (of three) weekend Summits.
Note: Chicago and Providence have passed, but there’s still a chance to attend Long Beach on August 7-9th.
I’ve been fortunate enough to attend the Summit almost every year since I’ve lived in Boston (9 years), in addition to a handful of PB’s One-Day Learn By Doing seminars. And it never gets old. I always walk away with numerous new ideas and takeaways. And free samples. What what!!
This year I was only able to make it for one day – the last day, Sunday. As it happened my wife, Lisa, had made plans for us to head out to Brimfield, MA for what’s known as Mordor the largest flea market in North America.
She made the plans a few weeks ago, and being the newly minted husband I am I feigned excitement and agreed to go.
“OMG, are you kidding babe? I’d LOVE to go walk around for an entire day looking at antiques, jewelry, and blankets with flower patterns on them! While we’re at it can we go jump into a live volcano too!?!!”
Giving her credit, Lisa was more than accommodating and compromised with me. In exchange for her being able to take the car for the entire day and spend as much time as she wanted at the flea market, she dropped me off in Providence at 8 AM so I could attend the last day of the Summit.
I dropped in and listened to talks by Michael Mullin, Artemis Scantalides, Brian St. Pierre, Dr. Evan Osar, and Robb Rogers, and also had the chance to catch up with several colleagues and friends.
Special shout-out to Artemis who ROCKED her first speaking appearance for Perform Better. She easily had the best title for her presentation: Toning Is For Printers: I Lift.
One of the highlights from her talk was how empowering it is to help women grasp the concept of STRENGTH TRAINING and how that alone can help them attain their aesthetic goals (something I preach ad nauseam on this site). In particular she spoke to pull-ups and how she goes about progressing and programming them for women. While I wasn’t able to film her talk, many of her same points can be seen in the video below by Karen Smith:
I also felt like a pseudo celebrity as numerous people walked up to me to say hello and introduce themselves, and on numerous occasions, in a surreal sort of way, I held open a door for a complete stranger and they’d say “thanks Tony!”
Even more baller was the fact that in a few presentations I sat in on the presenter gave me an unsolicited shoutout. I have to say it’s pretty cool feeling and an honor that I’m recognized by my colleagues.
Nonetheless it was a fantastic day and special thanks to Perform Better for their continued dominance for putting on the best and most professional fitness show on the planet.
2. I originally watched these over on Bret Contreras’ site and figured I’d re-post them here because I really, really2 liked them.
Strength coach and competitive powerlifter and bodybuilder, Eric Helms, did a superb job with this video series and I’d HIGHLY encourage you to watch these if or when you have the time.
I’m only going to link to the first THREE, but there are SIX levels in all.
Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid Level 1: Intro
Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid Level 2: Volume, Intensity, Frequency
Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid Level 3: Progression
3. With the success of this website I often get contacted by various supplement, apparel, and fitness companies asking if I’d be interested in trying their product(s). Some are garbage (especially those that are obviously a canned, arbitrary, altogether impersonal outreach); others just aren’t a good fit for my audience (Hey Tony, ever hear of Blindfolded Yogalates Kick-Boxing?); and others, especially supplements, while I do give them an honest “go,” just end up tasting like sawdust dipped in old people fart.
Not good.
But then again, there are times where I am pleasantly surprised and have no issues spreading the word. One such example is a company called ViewSport.
They use what’s called “sweat activated technology” where an inspirational message appears on your shirt the harder you work. Kind of like how when the ring in Lord of the Rings is put into the fire and a magical message appears, except in this case there’s no ring, no fire, and 100% no magic. Shit.
But it’s still pretty cool.
Both Lisa and I have been wearing our shirts to the gym the past few weeks and love them. They’re super comfy and, while I know better than to think that sweating is an indicator of the effectiveness of a workout, it is pretty satisfying when I get the message to appear.
Check them out. And no, I receive no kick-backs.
4. If you’re not reading Bryan Krahn’s site you should be. His latest article, 10 Reasons It’s Better To Be Lean, Bro is equal parts brotastic and spot on.
5. Based off the recommendation of a friend I just completed reading the novel Ready Player One, written by Ernest Cline.
Anyone who grew up in the 1980’s and 90s will appreciate this book. It’s chock full of pop culture references – Voltron, War Games, Atari, Joust, Adventure, Monty Python, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Godzilla, cue nerd boner here – from that era as you follow the protagonist, Wade (Parzival), as he navigates through a virtual video game of life and death.
Word on the street is that this book is being adapted by Steven Spielberg as his next film project.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many childhood memories were jolted free from the recesses of my consciousness as I read this book. Sooooo many references that I had completely forgotten about. It actually inspired me to do some YouTube searching and I came across this gem.
Only two weeks left until theElite Training Workshop – Bostonis held on Saturday, August 1st.
[Can you believe it’s almost August?]
I’m really excited for this event and think it’s going to be a awesome experience for those who attend. The line-up is pretty rad and the flow of the day is set up in a way where each presenter presents and then immediately follows that up with a hands-on portion.
So it’s less blah-blah-blabidy-blah and more “holys*** did you see Artemis Turkish get-up Tony? That’s badass.”
It’s going to be an awesome day for fitness professionals to learn from some of the best minds in the biz. CEUs are available. And I may or may not wear a movie quality Chewbacca mask.
Dean Somerset and I are excited to announce our latest series: The Complete Shoulder & Hip Training Workshop.
We teamed up last year for a handful of workshops – London, DC, LA – and didn’t want to kill each other, so we figured we’d do it again this year
This time we’re going to place a ton of emphasis on the hips and shoulders. We’ll talk anatomy, assessment, corrective exercise, programming, and we’ll also be doing a fair amount of coaching/hands-on demonstrations. And maybe, just maybe, in honor of Dean’s Canadian heritage, play the entirety of Bryan Adams’ library of songs. So much awesome to be had!
CEU’s will be available for all workshops.
EDMONTON (in August, so it won’t be cold as balls).
ST. LOUIS(in September, maybe catch a Cards game?)
CHICAGO (in October, it won’t be windy then, right?)
(Just Added) LOS ANGELES (in November, Tony finally does his tour of bars from the movie Swingers).
There’s a joke amongst my friends that I’m one of the hardest people to get a hold of because I hate carrying my phone with me everywhere I go.
It’s not uncommon for me to answer text messages 24-48 hours after the fact.
And don’t even get me started on those people who walk down the sidewalk (or worse, across the street) with their head pointed down towards their phone.
A few months ago I wrote about my experience participating in the Functional Movement Screen. I spent an entire weekend (something like 20 contact hours) completing both module I and II.
I didn’t get a t-shirt3, but it was an awesome learning experience nonetheless.
One of the chief messages that stood out to me was the notion of “feeding dysfunction.” It’s a concept I’ve used intermittently throughout the years to help clean up movement, but hearing it described and used in the confines of four walls amongst so many other smart people…it really resonated more with me.
I’m sure it’s a concept that many of you reading have used as well.
One of the more common iterations is when someone’s knees cave in during a squat.
Unfortunately, there are some trainers and coaches out there who would deem this an acceptable squat pattern, and do nothing to correct it. They should be drop kicked in the neck.
The less lazy trainer may fix it by screaming, “knees out, knees out, PUSH YOUR KNEES OUT!”
It’s a step in the right direction, but sometimes it takes more than a verbal cue. For some trainees their nervous system needs a little more “feedback.”
So the more savvy trainer will wrap a band around one’s knees.
The idea is that the band will push the knees in, giving the trainee some proprioceptive feedback to prevent or resist this action. More often that not it works like a charm.
Squat pattern is fixed, all is right in the world, parades are held in your honor.
What About a Weight Shift?
Ever watch someone squat and he or she tends to sway/weight shift to one side or the other?
There can be any number of reasons this happens.
1. Bony Block. Those with Femoral Acetabular Impingement on any given side will block/impinge quicker on that side, often resulting in a weight shift to that very side.
I don’t want to get into a heavy FAI discussion now, but suffice it to say it’s often in this person’s best interest to 1) stop squatting altogether (in lieu of exercises that require less hip flexion, like deadlift variations) or 2) tweak squat height so they don’t enter the “danger zone” (90 degrees or below).
2. If we were to jump down the PRI (Postural Restoration Institute) rabbit hole we could explain things by stating how much of the population tends to weight shift into their right hip.
CSP coach, Greg Robins, PRI Blue Steel pose
In this scenario – which is very common – people are more internally rotated and adducted on the right side (externally rotate, abducted on the left), which then parlays into their squatting pattern. I.e., you’ll see a weight shift to the right.
As I’ve noted in the past: I like PRI, I use PRI, I think there’s a lot of validity to PRI. And, in this scenario I do feel some dedicated positional breathing drills hold weight with helping to “correct” the issue at hand.
If we can encourage more neutral (we’ll never, ever, like, ever be 100% neutral) and help to shift the hips and own our rib position (reduce Zone of Apposition) the likelihood we can fix the faulty pattern is fairly high.
All that said, the PRI rabbit hole is a deeeeeeeeeeeep one, and I do find many fitness professionals tend to overstep their scope of practice and forget that, you know, barbells still work and that our jobs are to still give people a training effect.
I’m sorry but people aren’t going to get fired up spending 30 minutes of their training session practicing their diaphragmatic breathing. In fact I think a recent research study found that incidences of people wanting to stab themselves in the eye with a pen increase by 130% when this is the case.
Don’t get me wrong: PRI drills could very well be a part of the equation and I have used them to fix this very dysfunction, but I try not to get too carried away with it.
3. Lack of kinesthetic awareness. Much like the notion above with placing bands around someone’s knees to prevent them from caving in, we can use the same concept here.
Band Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT)
If you find someone exhibits a weight shift during their squat you can use a band to pull them into the weight shift (“feed the dysfunction”), and attempt to fix the faulty pattern. Essentially you use the RNT factor to help turn other stuff on that otherwise would be under-active or not firing efficiently and contributing to wonky movement.
Not to play the hoity toity Jonny Raincloud card, but the words themselves – shoulder impingement – is a garbage term.
It doesn’t really mean anything.
To one degree or another your shoulder is always being “impinged.” So when you or your trainer or someone with more letters next to their name (or the Easter Bunny) says “you have shoulder impingement” when your shoulder hurts, they’re not really saying anything significant and just playing the Captain Obvious card.
Thank you, that will be $149.99. Cash or credit?
Facetiousness aside, I should backtrack a bit and note that shoulder impingement isn’t a completely useless term – I mean, plenty of people still say anterior knee pain to diagnose, well, anterior knee pain – it’s just, you know, mis-managed.
The thing about shoulder impingement is that it’s very much a real thing. Like I said, everyone lives with it. While it’s a watered down description, when people refer to impingement they’re typically referring to compression of the rotator cuff – usually the supraspinatus, and over time, the infraspinatus and biceps tendon – by the undersurface of the acromion.
[Except for when it’s not and we’re talking about INTERNAL impingement. More on this below.]
This happens all the time – even in quote-on-quote healthy shoulders. It’s inevitable. It’s anatomy.
But the degree of impingement is what we’re really alluding to here.
In other words: the rotator cuff (RC) gets “impinged” by the acromion due to a narrowing of the space between the two.
In (other) other words: you have an ouchie. Or, for the non-PG people in the crowd “your motherfuckin shoulder hurts!”
98% of the time this type of impingement results in bursal-sided rotator cuff tears, and as Eric (Cressey) has noted on numerous occasions “happens more with ordinary weekend warriors and very common in lifters (not to mention much more prevalent in older populations).”
The thing that irritates me is that telling someone they have a shoulder impingement – assuming there’s pain present – doesn’t speak to the root cause of why their shoulder is flaring up in the first place.
Is it structural?
Tissue quality?
Lack of mobility somewhere? Relative stiffness elsewhere?
A programming flaw?
They wore green on a Thursday?
Moreover there are different kinds of impingement (external and internal; and the former has different categories: primary and secondary) which manifest in different ways, in different populations, and will require different approaches.
It’s beyond the scope of a blog post to peel back the onion on everything related to shoulder impingement – for that you may want to check out Eric Cressey and Mike Reinold’s Functional Stability Training series. But I did want to take some time to provide some information and help any trainers or coaches or anyone in the general population reading be able to differentiate between the different types of impingement and the mechanisms behind them.
External Impingement (AKA: Meatheaditis)
This is the one that’s relevant to most people reading, and the one we’re discussing when referring to anything related to the rotator cuff being impinged by the acromion via bursal-sided impingement.
Here someone can usually point to pain on the front of the shoulder and things like overhead pressing, bench pressing, and approximation hurt.
In addition to pain during those activities, another way we can distinguish if it’s (most likely) external impingement – is by implementing two simple screens.
FMS Impingement Clearing Screen
This is the exact screen the FMS uses to “clear” someone for impingement. Place palm of one hand on opposite shoulder and, without allowing your palm to come off the shoulder, lift your elbow.
Empty Can Provocative Screen
Place one arm in scapular plane thumb facing down and gently press down with other hand.
Pain with either of the two?
I’d seek out a reputable health professional to do a little more digging.
Read (NOTE TO PERSONAL TRAINERS AND STRENGTH COACHES): you’re not diagnosing anything. These are screens. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s information.
Also, on more of a side note: the empty can screen should NOT be used as an actual exercise. It’s a provocative test (placing people into impingement), used to ascertain if pain is present. Why anyone would use this as an actual exercise is beyond me.
That’s like saying, “Oh, banging your head against a wall hurts? Lets do more of it!”
Anyhoo, like I said those are two very easy screens you can add into your arsenal to help gather information.
But this still doesn’t speak to WHY someone may have external impingement. And here’s where things get even more interesting.
Primary External Impingement
This can be considered more of a morphological/structural issue (and as it happens, what we have less control over).
Ever watch some old-timers train and they’re able to perform endless sets of overhead presses, upright rows, and bench pressing without their shoulder(s) ever hurting?
Most likely it’s because they have a Type I acromion.
Then there’s you, who just thinks about upright rows, and your shoulder flips you the middle finger. You may have a Type II acromion (more narrow space).
Outside of an x-ray (and surgery) this is something you’re never really going diagnose and solve. But it can speak to how you’d alter your programming to better fit your anatomy.
Secondary External Impingement
This is where the rest of us live and plays into more lifestyle factors. This is more or less things we have control over.
Things like poor scapular positioning (too depressed, too elevated, too abducted, too adducted, all of which affect upward/downward rotation), poor T-spine mobility, poor tissue quality, poor exercise technique, rotator cuff weakness, unbalanced programming, lack of lumbo-pelvic hip control, stiff/shorts lats, inefficient breathing patterns, and host of other factors can come into play here.
Here’s where it’s the trainer’s or coach’s job to figure out which of these is the culprit (often it’s a number of them).
Internal Impingement
Unless you’re involved in overhead athletics, chances are you don’t have this.
With internal impingement someone with describe it as “inside” the joint and will generally point towards the back of the shoulder. Too, it will typically only hurt when they’re in excessive external rotation (think: cocked back/lay-back position for a pitcher).
As Mike Reinold notes: “as you move into humeral external rotation, the more aggressive it is, the more likelihood one will feel a pinching sensation towards the posterior-superior aspect of the glenoid.”
This basically alludes to the “inside” feeling described above.
Internal impingement deals with more of the ARTICULAR side of the rotator cuff, and specifically refers to the contact between the articular side of the supra/infraspinatus and the posterosuperior rim of the glenoid.
The more external rotation (lay back) one goes into, the more internal impingement will arise
And, as Reinold notes, “we don’t get internal impingement from sitting at our desks. It happens when people use their arms in an extreme abducted & externally rotated position.”
So, in short: unless you’re throwing a baseball during your lunch hour (or fighting centaurs4, you don’t have internal impingement.
Regardless in this scenario we’d want to place a premium on addressing scapular position (improve upward rotation), as well as address any shoulder instability. Overhead athletes are notorious for having super lax shoulders, so anything we can do to improve that – rhythmic stabilizations – would be ideal. That, and make sure they perform exercises like push-ups and row variations correctly.
And That’s That
Whew, I hope that all made sense. Like I said this wasn’t meant to be an all-encompassing diatribe on everything shoulder impingement, but I hope I was able to get you out of the weeds a bit on the topic.
Oh, And There’s This
This post is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of all the things I cover as part of mine and Dean Somerset’s Complete Shoulder and Hip Blueprint:
We discuss and breakdown anything and everything as it relates to shoulders and hips, obviously. Including but not limited to anatomy, assessment, corrective exercise, performance training, programming, etc, in addition to analyzing World of Warcraft strategies. Because, nerds rule.
I had come home from a full day of training clients at SportsClub/LA (a former fancy pants high-end health & fitness club that was bought out by Equinox not too long ago) when Eric peeked his head through the doorway, plate of egg whites in hand, and said those seven words to me.
That’s more or less how Cressey Sports Performance came to exist.
That was roughly eight – eight! – years ago to this day. The two of us, along with Pete Dupuis5, decided to jump head first into gym entrepreneurship. The odds were against us to say the least.
Not that we weren’t confident in our abilities and work ethic, but if you were a betting man (or woman), and based off the somber statistics (8 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first 18 months of operation. A whopping 80% crash and burn.), there was more likelihood [cue Dr. Evil voice] Unicorns would fly out of an erupting volcano attacking us with freakin laser beams from their freakin heads than there would have been any chance in us succeeding.
I mean
1. We were (back then) two 25 year olds and one 30 year old with no track record of business ownership.
2. We were (back then) two 25 year olds and one 30 year old with no track record of business ownership.
3. We were (back then) two 25 year olds and one 30 year old with no track record of business ownership.
4. I was balding. Not that that had anything to do with anything, but I was sad.
The fact I’m writing this post eight years later speaks to the actual outcome.
We Survived. We Made It. We Beat the Odds
Make no mistake: the ride hasn’t been all butterfly kisses and rainbows. All three of us can recall very long hours, 6-7 day work weeks, sleep deprivation, limited time with significant others, subsisting on nothing but protein shakes, and any number of growing pains tied with opening a new gym (purchasing & assembling equipment, construction, lease negotiation, lead generation, marketing, payroll, cleaning, not to mention assessments, program writing, coaching, and arguing over what’s being played on the stereo).
Despite it all, we’ve managed to not only not suck…but thrive in the eight years we’ve been in operation.
I’m not going to sit here and blow sunshine up our own asses, but it’s pretty satisfying knowing the three of us have been able to build what started as a 2200 square foot gym located inside an indoor batting cage facility with broken windows and a bathroom which required a tetanus shot to use…
…to a 15,000+ square foot flagship facility that’s often regarded as one of the premier “go to” training facilities in North America (if not the world).
Not too shabby for a place located in little ol’ Hudson, MA.
And yes, I could easily sit here and wax poetic on all the things we did right. Work ethic, having a client roster right out of the gate (because we were both already sorta-kinda established in the area, between Eric and myself we had a list of 40+ clients who were willing to train with us on Day #1), starting small and only building out/expanding when it was appropriate (and fit our needs), only hiring when it was within our means, starting an established internship program, and understanding that by identifying an under serviced demographic (in our case, baseball players) it was more than okay to target – and eventually own – a niche market.
All of it played a role.
I’d also be remiss not to mention how fortunate we’ve been in how are coaching staff has grown throughout the years. Our first hire was Brian St. Pierre who has gone on to a very successful career with Precision Nutrition.
Right now we have eight coaches who, on top of being profound ambassadors of the CSP brand, have also gone on to build their own successful brands within the fitness industry. Something we adamantly encourage. Everyday I feel fortunate that I get to work in a place that’s not only super fun, but challenges me to get better on a consistent basis.
But more importantly, it’s about the people we have the privilege of working with on a day-to-day basis
While I still have to sometimes pinch myself at the shear number of professional athletes I get to interact with – my 13 year old self would flip out and punch my older self in the face in disbelief if he knew how many guys I’ve met whose baseball cards I collected back in the day – it’s everyone who makes CSP such a special place to work and train.
Gerry, a 60+ year old who first came to us after having major heart surgery 4-5 years ago, who’s now hitting the weights 3x per week without fail. And busting my balls every step (and Prowler push) along the way.
Emma, a 20 year old who originally started coming to CSP because her father, Clint, did, who’s now training for her third powerlifting competition. And can do this:
Or any number of our Strength Campers – male/female, varying ability levels, varying ages, all shapes and sizes – who come in and get after it week in and week out.
Everyone – athletes and general pop clients combined – buy into the #CSPFamily mindset, and it’s amazing and a testament to the culture we’ve worked so hard to establish, cultivate, and maintain.
And lastly, just to put things into perspective.
Pete and I were having a conversation the other day reflecting on the whole “eight year thing.” Everything I mentioned above (and the dozens, if not hundreds, of things I failed to touch on) could fall under the “why we made it” umbrella.
Pete brought up a good point, though.
Vision vs. Actuality
I find that many coaches, trainers, and people who love the gym (and will end up stabbing their boss in the neck if they have to spend one more day behind a computer) who entertain the idea of starting their own gym, tend to battle a large gap between their vision and what is manageable and realistic.
Pete never had the vision of turning CSP into a 10,000 square foot mecca. The thought never entered his head. Rather, his goal, the thing he day dreamed about, was to have his own office. A place where he could shut his door and not worry about signing people in, answering the phone, and listen to me and Eric bicker about why Tiesto should or shouldn’t be played more often on the gym floor.
He eventually got his office. In year FIVE of our business.
Thank you everyone for your support and patronage throughout the years. And thank you Lisa – my wife – who has always been my biggest cheerleader.6
I wanted to keep all of you reading abreast on some upcoming events I’m involved in you may be interested in.
First up: I wanted to take a few moments to highlight a few things coming up on my speaking itinerary that many of you may be interested in.
1. Elite Training Workshop – Boston
An entire day hanging with the likes of me, Mike Reinold, Artemis Scantalides, and Ryan Ketchum.
It’s going to be an awesome day for fitness professionals to learn from some of the best minds in the biz. CEUs are available. And I may or may not perform an interpretive dance of “I Believe I Can Fly.”
Dean Somerset and I are excited to announce our end of summer into early fall traveling workshop series: The Complete Shoulder & Hip Training Workshop.
The idea is to discuss and breakdown anything and everything as it relates to shoulders and hips, obviously. Including but not limited to anatomy, assessment, corrective exercise, performance training, programming, etc, in addition to analyzing World of Warcraft strategies. Because, why not?
Like I said, we’re excited about it and we feel everyone who attends will be excited too.
CEU’s will be available for all workshops as well.
EDMONTON (in August, so it won’t be cold as balls).
ST. LOUIS (in September, maybe catch a Cards game?)
As Will notes in this article: some personal trainers like to play the “corrective exercise” card despite 1) not having any idea what that actually means and 2) not knowing what they’re doing.
BOSU ball + body blade + stand on one leg = Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
With regards to the term itself – corrective exercise – there’s a phrase I often use to help explain things:
“Correct movement is corrective.”
Or in more sassy talk:
“Doing shit right is corrective.”
Taking things a step further, corrective exercise could also mean simply adjusting or regressing a certain exercise to better fit the needs and ability level of the individual.
Deadlifts hurt your back? Try bracing your abs and squeezing your glutes at the top. Doesn’t hurt anymore? We just straight up corrective exercised the shit out of you.
I’m always amazed when a coach or trainer writes something or or says something to the effect of “everyone needs to squat this one way, and this way only, no deviations, ever, or else you suck at life.”
It could be reference to bar position, foot position, depth, whatever…everyone should squat this one way dammit!
It’s stupid. And Mike addresses why it’s stupid in this excellent video.
For some reason, in recent years, the “lats” have gotten a bad reputation. The fitness industry is prone to over exaggerate things. “Dietary fat will make you fat,” or “Deadlifts will make your spine explode,” or “people didn’t eat grains in Paleolithic times”7.
While overactive or short/stiff lats do need to be addressed in certain populations (like overhead athletes), you’re not some walking ball of dysfunction if you happen to turn them on to perform an exercise.
