I had the pleasure of being invited onto the Absolute Strength Podcast with Kyle Hunt recently.
I’ve been on my fair share of podcast’s and Kyle’s built a really impressive experience. I prefer a more casual approach and one where it just comes across as two dudes talking shop, and that’s exactly the vibe Kyle invokes.
He’s had some BIG names on his show too:
Alex Viada
Jim Wendler
Steffi Cohen
Bret Contreras
Jen Thompson
Dr. Mike Israetel
Emily Schromm
Stan Efferding………………………….to name a few.
So, basically, I’m the weakest guest Kyle’s ever had on……..;o)
Anyway, we had a good ol’ fashioned bro fest the other day.
….It’s the (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.
A bunch of wordsmiths we are.
With this iteration, though, we’ll be going a bit deeper into the coaching and programming side of things:
How to program around common injuries.
How to “connect” the appropriate exercises to the client/athlete.
How to squat and deadlift like a boss.
Ljubljana, Slovenia – October 20-21st.
Los Angeles, CA – November 17-18th. (<— EARLY BIRD rate still in affect)
All registrants to this course (as well as future dates in 2019 in Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Minas Tirith) will receive a free download of CSHB 1.0 so that you’re up-to-speed on the content Dean and I will be covering.1
The line-up is spectacular and I’m honored to be included amongst such esteemed company – Pat Rigsby, Mark Fisher, Molly Galbraith, Kellie Hart, Craig Ballantyne, and Scott Rawcliffe, to name a few.
I’ll be speaking about shoulder assessment AND how to make killer cat memes.
This shindig is taking place NEXT WEEK, and there are still a few spots available.
If you’re a fitness professional looking to take his or her’s career to the next level this is an event you won’t want to miss.
I’ll be back in the city that never sleeps this Fall to put on my popular Coaching Competency workshop.
Albeit this will be condensed version (five hours instead of seven); a fitness amuse bouche if you will.
Full details (itinerary, location, and cost) can be found HERE.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
One of the most valuable traits a coach can possess is staying quiet (sometimes). Allowing a client/athlete to marinate in doing a movement wrong, realizing it, and then self-correcting is invaluable.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most savvy business person.
I likely wouldn’t be able to tell you my P & L breakdown for the month of September, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you how many sessions I completed in June, and I assuredly, still, would need a few seconds to remember which is better:
I understand this won’t resonate or apply to those coaches/trainers who work out of a commercial gym setting, but for all others reading hear me out.
This is something I adopted from my time at Cressey Sports Performance and a concept CSP business director, Pete Dupuis, has championed for years.
Not many things are going to make someone pump the brakes on hiring you as their coach more than you asking/requiring a massive amount of money out of the gate.
You: “That was an excellent assessment, I think we’ll be able to get a lot accomplished if we can work together.”
Client:“I agree. How much will it cost to get started?”
You:“I require six months in advance, and you have to share your Netflix account with me.”
Not many people are going to do cartwheels and take out their checkbook when they hear something like that.
It’s daunting and absurd.
Instead, offer a monthly rate.
It’s way less intimidating.
It forces you to EARN their business every month.
2. Know the WHY.
This Tweet should explain things:
If YOU (the fitness professional) can’t explain the “why” behind an exercise or modality in a program how in the heck do you expect your client/athlete to buy into it much less understand it?
This is going to be the most cliche piece of advice I’m going to give.
Call your mother.
Seriously, stop being a jerk.
Also, don’t discount the power of a hand-written note or card.
Every client of mine receives a Birthday card of some sort every year. Here’s this year’s iteration:
In it I’ll write a little sumthin, sumthin and also include a $10-$15 gift card to a local coffee shop or movie theater.
Clients love it, and there’s little doubt in my mind that this teeny-tiny gesture produces an immense ROI that bodes in my favor.
Likewise, if I haven’t seen a client in a while, or he or she has fallen off the grid, I’ll send them a wildcard card like this:
One of two things usually happens:
1. They come back.
2. I’m handed a restraining order.
5. Just Do Your Job
Smiling (without being obnoxious or creepy about it), showing up on time, providing feedback and a fun, inviting environment, showing empathy (albeit not refraining from offering tough love when needed), and writing programs based on your CLIENT’s ability level and your CLIENT’s needs and your CLIENT’s goals doesn’t require a fancy algorithm or a bevy of letters next to your name.
It’s called doing your job.
And it’s amazing how that alone will make all the difference in the world.
It seems you can’t go more than three clicks on the internet before you come across an article highlighting how to “hack” your way to a happy relationship, the job of your dreams, or hours of newfound productivity.
In this sense the word hack isn’t referring to someone trying to snake your social security number, or Russians.
No, the hack I’m referring to is the rigging of or improvisation of something crude but effective, usually as a temporary solution to a problem (like losing 10 lbs or making it so that the inside of your fridge doesn’t resemble a science experiment.
I read an article on Yahoo’s homepage the other day written by a CEO of some company who went into spectacular detail on his “hacks” for productivity and success:
Early 4 AM wake-up calls; snooze buttons are for losers
Eating a gluten free diet.
Write down your purpose every morning.
Never make excuses.
Only hang out with successful people.
Don’t watch the news.
Blah, blah, blahbiddy, blah.
All the suggestions were well and good and I didn’t have any issues with them.3 The article was fine. But if I had bring up one teeny-tiny “beef” with it, it was that it was bit preachy if not a tad self-righteous.
And, to be completely candid, I was half expecting him to go full-on guru:
“Wanna know what the REAL secret is to my success and how I’m able to be so productive? It’s not my morning runs, the fact I’m adamant about stand-up meetings only, or that I limit my distractions by avoiding websites that are time sucks. Nope, the real key is this….
Ready for it?
……I fondle my dog’s balls.”
That would be about as absurd of a thing as you’d ever hear, and you’d undoubtedly think to yourself:
Uh, has someone called the cops on this guy?
Do people actually believe this shit?
But when you look at all the other egregious things being said out there – especially in the realm of health/fitness – is it really all that ludicrous?
I mean, you have had Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop telling women that they could fix their hormones by putting a vaginal egg into their who-ha.
People believed that, and Goop made a boatload of money off it.
Another popular “hack,” this time around the idea of enhancing recovery, is cryotherapy. The obvious analogy here is Han Solo being frozen in Cabonite by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.
Cryotherapy isn’t that far off.
People will willingly subject their bodies to extreme levels of cold in an effort to promote recovery and reduce inflammation.
My boy Dean Somerset wrote an excellent article on why it’s a bunch of nonsense HERE.
Wanna know what really improves recovery?
Going…..the…..fuck…..to…….bed.
There, I just saved you $100 a pop.
I read a lot about nutritional hacks too.
Some articles wax poetic about a certain way of eating.
The current diet du jour – the Ketogenic Diet, or ‘keto’ – will have you believe it’ll help everyone lose weight, improve their blood profile, cure diabetes, and solve Middle Eastern peace.
I’ve written about my thoughts on this topic HERE. Suffice it to say, it works (it’s not magic), and, in my opinion, serves more to prey on people’s relationships and psychological battles with food than anything else.
The hack that should really be highlighted here is encouraging people to follow whatever approach allows them to 1) Stay consistent long-term, 2) Doesn’t demonize any food or food-group, and 3) Doesn’t make them want to stab someone in the face whenever someone offers them bread.
Likewise, there’s no shortage of articles offering hacks to those people interested in getting bigger, stronger, and/or faster.
I have a client who loves these sort of articles.
For the sake of anonymity, lets call him Wayne “The Sock” Swanson.
He’s been working with me for a little over a year, and while I love the guy to pieces and appreciate him in every way, sometimes I’m forced to give him some tough love.
For starters he’s always mentioning how tired he is (revert to my comment above about going to bed), and what’s more, I’ve had to jokingly “ban” him from using the phrase “this is hard” during his training sessions because he’ll say it all….the….time.
“These deadlifts are hard.”
“Rest-pause bench press is hard.”
“This arm finisher is hard.”
He’s always bringing up “x” gadget or “y” supplement and asks whether or not he should give them a try to help him towards his goal(s).
“No, work harder,” I’ll say, knowing full-well this is the opposite of a hack (or what he wants to hear).
A few weeks ago he brought in a pair of Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) straps and asked if he could use them during his session?
I gave “Wayne” a look as if to say “really, dude?” and he came back with “I used them during my entire session earlier this week and could really feel my muscles working.”
NOTE: Before someone gets huffy with me and thinks I’m going to bash BFR training, relax. I am not. I’m on your side. I think there’s a time and place for it and feel there’s more than enough research to back its efficacy. In fact I’ve featured an article on BFR Training on this site – HERE.
“This isn’t the answer,” I said. “I can appreciate your willingness to learn and want to try new things, and there IS a correct application for BFR training. However, how you’re doing isn’t it, and, to be frank, I think is a waste of your time.
I’m telling you, work harder.”
To prove my point, and because I had an inkling of what was really happening, as Wayne’s workout proceeded that day I made a concerted effort of counting his reps.
NOTE:I work in a semi-private format which often means I am not right there to count every rep of every set for a client.
I discreetly started counting the total number of repetitions he was performing to see if they matched what was on his program.
My suspicions were correct.
They did not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw
He did half of what was written on his program.
Half.
A set of chin-ups called for eight reps, he did five. The next set called for MAX reps, he did five (and I KNOW he could do more).
A set of split squats called for 15 reps/leg, he did seven here, 9 there.
And all this took place with me in the room.
Who knows what was going on on the days he was training on his own?
Anyway, as he was leaving that afternoon I followed him outside and brought it up. I wasn’t a jerk about it. It’s not like I got in his face and was like “Ah-HA…….I knew it.”
Rather, I put my hand on his shoulder and said “Wayne, I’m on your side and I’m here to help in any way I can, but you have to start taking some accountability of your actions.”
We had a heart to heart for 2-3 minutes and I could tell he felt a bit embarrassed and ashamed. It wasn’t an easy conversation, but it was a conversation that was needed.
At the end all I said was:
“I’ll see you next week, be ready to work.”
We hugged it out and that was that.
The following week he showed up and crushed it, and I’ve seen a layer of motivation in him of late I haven’t seen in him before.
The point of all this?
Hacks are fine. They can help expedite the process.
But goddammit, sometimes you just need to do the work.
….It’s the (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.
A bunch of wordsmiths we are.
With this iteration, though, we’ll be going a bit deeper into the coaching and programming side of things:
How to program around common injuries.
How to “connect” the appropriate exercises to the client/athlete.
How to squat and deadlift like a boss.
Ljubljana, Slovenia – October 20-21st. (<— EARLY BIRD ends THIS WEEK)
Los Angeles, CA – November 17-18th. (<— EARLY BIRD rate still in affect)
All registrants to this course (as well as future dates in 2019 in Detroit, Philadelphia, Minas Tirith) will receive a free download of CSHB 1.0 so that you’re up-to-speed on the content Dean and I will be covering.4
The line-up is spectacular and I’m honored to be included amongst such esteemed company – Pat Rigsby, Mark Fisher, Molly Galbraith, Kellie Hart, Craig Ballantyne, and Scott Rawcliffe, to name a few.
I’ll be speaking about shoulder assessment.
If you’re a fitness professional looking to take his or her’s career to the next level this is an event you won’t want to miss.
This was a fun (written) interview I did with the people over at Exercise.com who asked questions pertaining to my start in the industry, what services I offer (and why), and my training style, among other things.5
Much like we always say everyone will squat and deadlift differently based off individual variances in hip anatomy, the same can be said when it comes to the upper body.
I view the Single-Leg RDL as a valuable movement to master. I think it behooves6 most people to be able to do it, and do it well.
And while I’d like to sit here and say that mastering the 1-Legged RDL will help you jump seven inches higher, run a sub-10s 100m dash, shed 25 lbs of fat, add 50 lbs to your squat, and help cure male pattern baldness…it won’t.
But it’s still a pretty fuckin important movement pattern to add to your training menu for a variety of reasons.
Helps correct left-right strength and size asymmetries.
Can be used in both a rehabilitation AND strength training setting.
Phenomenal for hip stability and strength.
Challenges the body in a multi-faceted way – namely proprioception and balance.
Trains the feet (you learn how to “root”” your foot into the ground).
Also, and maybe most important of all, improves your Fortnite Dance-off prowess.
All that said, even for people with a fair amount of experience in the weight room, Single-Leg RDLs are about as advanced as they get as far as single leg movements go.
Here, a lot of things have to harmoniously come together (core stability, hip stability, upper back strength, balance, hip hinge, etc) in order to perform the movement effectively, and in a fashion that doesn’t make me want to throw my face into a brick wall.
The LAST thing I’m going to do with the bulk of people I start working with – especially in the beginning stages – is to put weights in their hands and have them RDL to their hearts content.
A lot of things need to happen first.
As with any exercise, there’s a right of passage and a natural progression that needs to take place.
Oh, and it just so happens I wrote an article a few months ago detailing many of the Single-Leg RDL progressions I use with my clients/athletes HERE.
It’s pretty good. I believe it’s up for the Pulitzer.7
To that end I wanted to share with you another viable RDL progression I learned recently that you can add to the mix.
Bench Assisted ValSlide RDL w/ Reach
Who Did I Steal It From? – My friends over a Warhorse Barbell Club in Philadelphia, PA.8
What Does It Do? – Using a bench as a support helps to keep the backside “stable” as one extends their moving leg back. In addition it helps to prevent the pelvis from rotating to one side or the other.
Also, the reach forward is important here because it inspires a posterior weight shift which many trainees have a hard time with out of the gate.
Key Coaching Cues – The beauty of this drill is that it’s proper execution keeps people honest. If the hips rotate, the ValSlide falls off the side of the bench, the “sliding component” helps to groove a long (and stable) backside, and the reach helps prevent excessive rounding of the upper back.
I like to stick with a med ball for a few weeks, and once someone feels competent with that I can then add a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells as a progression.
….It’s the (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.
A bunch of wordsmiths we are.
With this iteration, though, we’ll be going a bit deeper into the coaching and programming side of things:
How to program around common injuries.
How to “connect” the appropriate exercises to the client/athlete.
How to squat and deadlift like a boss.
Ljubljana, Slovenia – October 20-21st. (<— EARLY BIRD rate still in affect)
Los Angeles, CA – November 17-18th. (<— EARLY BIRD rate still in affect)
All registrants to this course (as well as future dates in Detroit, Philadelphia, Minas Tirith) will receive a free download of CSHB 1.0 so that you’re up-to-speed on the content Dean and I will be covering.
I’ve had to decline speaking at this event in the past due to prior engagements, but I’m headed to San Jose this year baby.
And I…..am…..pumped.
I’ve never been to the Bay area so I’m excited for that. But I’m even more excited for the THREE days of melt your face knowledge that’ll be under one roof.
The line-up is spectacular and I’m honored to be included amongst such esteemed company – Pat Rigsby, Mark Fisher, Molly Galbraith, Kellie Hart, Craig Ballantyne, and Scott Rawcliffe, to name a few.
I’ll be speaking about shoulder assessment.
If you’re a fitness professional looking to take his or her’s career to the next level this is an event you won’t want to miss.
Last weekend Dean Somerset and I were in Houston, TX to put on our (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint workshop.
Of course the first thing we did was hit up some BBQ.
Immediately after that we recorded this episode of Saved By the Barbell hosted by Kevin Warren.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
If YOU (the fitness professional) can’t explain the “why” behind an exercise or modality in a program how in the heck do you expect your client/athlete to buy into it much less understand it?
In my experience working with women on body image, I have become convinced that complimenting and praising a woman’s appearance in today’s social atmosphere actually does her — and all women everywhere — a disservice.
The same can be said about the bench press. We perform it with our feet on the ground because that’s the way it’s supposed to be done.
To be a bit more colloquial, we perform it that way because:
With the feet on the floor we can defer to a bit more leg drive which can help with lifting more weight; if that’s what you’re into.
Moreover, as strength coach and competitive powerlifter Tony Bonvechio notes, “leg drive can help you get a bigger arch via hip extension.”
Now, admittedly, this last point is catered to more of the powerlifters in the room who are solely interested in one thing (well, two, after “where’s the nearest pizza buffet?”)….bench pressing as much weight as possible.
An arch in the lower back = a more biomechically sound position to shorten the distance the barbell must travel.
Both feet on the ground allows one to solidify the arch.
I love this analogy from Strength House coach Greg Robins:
“Think of it like a structural arch. In order to make an arch you need pressure from two sides. Like if you put a piece of paper on the table, and gently push from both ends simultaneously what do you get?
An Arch.”
A Slight Conversational Detour
For those who are about to hyperventilate into a brown paper bag at the mere notion of arching your back during a bench press, relax.
A kitten won’t die if it happens and it’s not inherently more dangerous to do so. Your lumbar spine has a natural lordotic curve to it anyways (an arch), sooooooo there’s that. And no one is sitting here insinuating you have to adopt a Marissa Inda bench set-up in order to bench press (and to do so with a high degree of success).
Much of what dictates how much of an arch to use is predicated on personal preference, goals, and what feels comfortable to each individual lifter.
Do you have to arch as much as the photo above? Nope.
Are you likely arching your back when you bench press, even if not on purpose, because that’s what your body is designed to do? Yep.
Will you please STFU and stop telling people arching is bad? ——> watch THIS.
Okay, Back to Benching With Feet on the Floor
I don’t have much more to say here.
If you’re interested in benching more weight, putting your feet on the ground is a splendid approach.10
Also, it decreases the chances you’ll drop the barbell on your face.
Why Bench Press With Feet On the Bench?
I’m not kidding when I say there used to be a time where I felt benching with the feet on the bench (or in the air) was one of the stupidest things someone could do, on par with texting while driving, thinking you can read a Thomas Pynchon novel in one sitting, or trying to take a selfie with a panther.
Pretty dumb.
However, we all marinate in our own ignorance sometimes.
As with anything in strength & conditioning there’s a time and place for everything.11
A drill I’ve been using in my own programming (and that of my clients) of late is the Larsen Press.
To explain the advantages of this stellar movement I’ll lean again on the shoulders of Tony Bonvechio and Greg Robins:
Tony:
“The main benefit of putting the feet up on the bench is teaching lifters to maintain their upper back arch and shoulder blade position. One of the biggest mistakes we see lifters make is collapsing the upper back as they bring the bar down, which can tip the shoulder blades forward and push the bar in front of the elbows. If you take away the legs, it’s much harder to keep the upper back arched, especially as you bring the bar down to the chest. Hook lying position, Larsen press and floor press are all variations of a no-legs press that work well.”
Greg:
“The biggest advantage I see to using feet up is to purposefully make the exercise harder. When the feet go up you have more range of motion and more instability which means more work for the muscles that move the weight – pecs shoulders triceps. I think this is really important for those who rely on big arches, and thrusting weights off their chest with their whole bodies.
There are other benefits as well:
– Create higher relative intensities with less weight on the bar. – Awareness as Tony B said in how to stay tight. – Relief on back and hips from being in contorted bench position.”
I’m heading back to Boston after spending the weekend in Houston, TX with Dean Somerset teaching our (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint workshop.
Pinch writing for me today is Lana Sova, personal trainer and competitive power lifter12 based out of Boston, MA.
After almost five years in the fitness industry working almost exclusively with women, I can tell you that although all of us are the same gender, we are all built differently.
Woah!
Shocker! I know.
Throughout this time I’ve had hundreds of women deadlifting, squatting, benching, and overhead pressing big numbers. But more importantly, they got slimmer and stronger, and kept these results long term.
But their thing might not be your thing — what worked for them may not be 100% working for you. However, ladies who successfully deadlifted, squatted, and in some cases benched their body weights had these three things in common.
To help you stop wasting your time and start succeeding in strength training, here are three things you must do if you want to get strong AF.
#1. Once Again, Eat More Protein
If you look at bodybuilders, whose job is to get as big — muscularly — as they possibly can, they eat, drink, and breathe protein.
Your goal might not be to become the next Ms. Olympia, but if you want to get stronger so you can pick up your kid off the floor, carry groceries in one trip, install a window A/C all by yourself, or, IDK, tow out your car when it’s jammed between two others somewhere in downtown Boston, your muscles need protein.
PERIOD.
And I’m sure you’ve heard about it, you’ve known about it, but it’s not the knowledge about needing the protein where women go wrong.
It’s their choice of protein source.
For some reason, things like chia seeds, nuts, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds became a staple of “feminine” food. Go to any health-related hippie cafe and you’ll find all of the above (often) included in one smoothie.
Well, I’ll tell you what. Save your money, and go buy yourself a nice piece of steak (or tofu for my vegan friends).
While I don’t dismiss the health properties of seeds, nuts, and the like — there are plenty — when it comes to protein, the amounts are so small that you need a truck load to get the amount of protein needed to trigger muscle synthesis. Which means you’ll eat a ton of fat, which then will have an impact on your physique and THAT’s what’s going to make you look bulky. Not the muscle itself.
So, what do you eat then to hit your protein target, and what’s that target anyway?
For active fitness enthusiasts, the number ranges from 1.8g/kg to 2.2g/kg
But, when you have a life, counting every ounce of protein is time consuming. Instead, try this nutrition habit I teach my clients:
Protein hits the plate first. No matter where you are — home, Mom’s house, restaurant, a buffet — a lean source of protein lands on your plate first, and then you add whatever else your heart desires.
If you’re not sure what’s a lean protein, here are a few examples for you: chicken breast (to which Tony G is allergic — fun fact13) turkey breasts, 93/7 ground beef (or any piece a meat that has less than eight to ten grams of fat), plain Greek yogurt, tvorog, and cottage cheese.
If you eat these with every meal, I can guarantee you will improve your gym performance and very likely get slimmer.
#2. CARDI-B Over CARDI-O
P.S. I hope that’s not a ™ and I won’t get sued.14
Steady state cardio has its benefits and should be included in your monthly workouts. Cardio is good for your heart, and if you’d like that thing to work for longer than the average lifespan, you need to do cardio.
Where many women go wrong is the amount of cardio.
Seriously— if we were to use all the cardio machines in every gym in America to power the entire country we’d never have a problem with energy.
If you’re coming to strength training as the last resort to finally tone out and maintain the results, you may still have the mentality that you should do as much cardio as you possibly can, a belief that’s hard do deviate from.
I mean look at any Instagram Fitness Guru and she will without a doubt tell you that you absolutely have to hop on a cardio machine and eat tons of celery to get toned and strong.
But please don’t be fooled — all she’s trying to do is build an army of bunnies. You are not one of them.
And yes, if you are looking to lose weight, cardio will help you burn some calories off. However, if you’d like to get stronger and slimmer, and keep the results, your approach to cardio needs to be a little bit different.
There are two types of cardio training I see women perform often: steady state and High intensity interval training with lots of jump. Both types are usually done for hours with just one goal — burn as many calories as possible.
But when you switch to strength training, cardio training serves a different purpose — to help you to recover from your strength training sessions. The perfect type of cardio training for this is steady state.
Therefore, anything between 20 and 30 minutes of light, steady-state cardio is more than enough for said purpose. And a good rule of thumb is to have at least 24 hours between your strength and cardio sessions.
If you must include HIIT workouts in your program simply because you love it, you can. But be aware that these type of workouts generally do more muscle damage, taking your body longer to recover. So you might have to wait longer than even 24 hours between strength training sessions and HIIT sessions.
#3. Stop Going From One Extreme to Another
So you’ve decided to give strength training a try. You’ve read it’s good for you and it’s something that can help you tone out and get a bit stronger.
And you put on your “I’m a big girl” pants and you step into the strength training area.
You see tons of huge dumbbells, and decide to choose the smallest one — 5 pounds.
With it, you perform about a hundred repetitions of lunges, squats, and tricep extensions and call it a day.
While this is admirable and I’d be the first one to high five you, the thing is, if you’re a normal human being who picks up and carries her kids around, or carries a heavy backpack, or ever, even once in her lifetime, got ready for a party and had to carry a few cases of wine, I can guarantee that all of those things weighed more than five pounds.
If you want your muscles to get strong, you need to give them an appropriate stimulus. One of the most common ways to do so is via resistance — free weights, or a resistance band, or even your body weight.
And often five to ten pounds isn’t enough to reach and trigger that stimulus. It’s simply not challenging enough.
On the other side of things, there are those women who’d like to go all out each and every workout — testing their strength every single day of every single week.
While at the beginning they might see huge jumps in their strength because #beginnersgains, soon they stop seeing increases in their lifts, or even become demotivated.
Why?
Because they haven’t managed their fatigue levels properly. If you workout at 100% capacity all the time, you accumulate fatigue quickly, which then will interfere with your body’s ability to build muscle and get stronger. It’s like if you had to work 24-hour shifts seven days a week. You’d probably be dead by now.
So how heavy should you go?
For my online clients, I like to use a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale. The scale ranges from 1 to 10, where anything below 6 is a warm up — pretty light.
But then:
6 = you could do 4-5 more repetitions with this weight
7 = you could do 3-4 more
8 = you could do 2-3 more
9 = you could do 1-2 more
10 = you can do just that one
When you just start with strength training, you need to play with the weights a bit. But a general rule of thumb is to work with weights between 7 to 9 RPE if you’d like to get stronger.
Here’s an example.
A1. Front Squats 4×6 @ RPE 7
A2. Dead Bugs 4×6/side
B1. BB Bent-Over Rows 3×10 @ RPE 8
B2. DB Incline Bench Presses 3×10 @ RPE 8
B3. Cable Face Pulls 3×10 @ RPE 8
C1. Reverse Lunges 4×8 @ RPE 8
C2. Farmer’s Carry 4x 20 yards @ RPE 7-8
As you can see, just going and doing strength training isn’t enough.
In order to get stronger and better at strength training you need to supplement your program with important lifestyle habits — like eating protein, going for a walk instead of dying on the stairmaster, and adjusting your efforts to make your workout truly challenging.
The women I’ve worked with who followed these rules always make the strength goals they set for themselves.
About the Author
Lana Sova is a coach at Shameless Strength Academyand a personal trainer in Boston, MA She empowers women to build and own their strength via powerlifting and strength training.
….It’s the (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.
A bunch of wordsmiths we are.
With this iteration, though, we’ll be going a bit deeper into the coaching and programming side of things:
How to program around common injuries.
How to “connect” the appropriate exercises to the client/athlete.
How to squat and deadlift like a boss.
Houston, TX – THIS weekend (Sept 8-9th).
Ljublijana, Slovenia – October 20-21st. (<— EARLY BIRD rate still in affect)
Los Angeles, CA – November 17-18th. (<— EARLY BIRD rate still in affect)
All registrants to this course (as well as future dates in Detroit, Philadelphia, Minas Tirith) will receive a free download of CSHB 1.0 so that you’re up-to-speed on the content Dean and I will be covering.
I’ve had to decline speaking at this event in the past due to prior engagements1, but I’m headed to San Jose this year baby.
And I…..am…..pumped.
I’ve never been to the Bay area so I’m excited for that. But I’m even more excited for the THREEdays of melt your face knowledge that’ll be under one roof.
The line-up is spectacular and I’m honored to be included amongst such esteemed company – Pat Rigsby, Mark Fisher, Molly Galbraith, Kellie Hart, Craig Ballantyne, and Scott Rawcliffe, to name a few.
I’ll be speaking about shoulder assessment.
If you’re a fitness professional looking to take his or her’s career to the next level this is an event you won’t want to miss.
There’s more and more demand for online trainers today.
If you’re looking for a way to better leverage your expertise AND earning potential, this is the way to do it.
Jon Goodman is essentially the Professor Dumbledore of online training. Except, you know, he doesn’t have a beard, and he’s not an actual wizard and stuff.
But by golly is it impressive what he’s built with the Online Trainer Academy.
Open enrollment only lasts until September 11th. Do yourself a favor and invest in yourself
On the other side of things, there are those women who’d like to go all out each and every workout — testing their strength every single day of every single week.
