I have to apologize my dear readers, I feel like an abject failure of late.
Not for anything serious like failing to remember my wedding anniversary or for misusing the Oxford comma.1
No, I’m a failure for failing to keep up with writing content for this site of late. I know I shouldn’t beat myself over it – don’t worry, I’m not quite at Da Vinci Code monk flagellation levels yet or anything – but I do feel bad for my recent lack of prose and pithiness.
I’m sure your life will go on.
Nonetheless, I’ve got some blog ideas marinating in my head, and I hope to get them out ASAP.
Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA, Hoth – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
Also, go HERE if you want to see if we’re coming to your neck of the woods.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
^^^ It’s so good we didn’t even feel the need to come up with a witty title for it.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
At this point it’s common knowledge that the “experts” online have hijacked the attention of the public.
While conflicting and generally poor fitness advice has flooded the internet to confuse the public, one area that even sound coaches and trainers talk out of both sides of their mouths is the relationship between training and sleep.
On many occasions, I have heard live coaches (myself included) or coaches I follow online give the “wake up earlier to get the work done” speech and then five minutes later hit the same person with the “well you aren’t getting enough sleep” speech to explain lack of progress, chronic fatigue, or generally feeling like shit at the gym and beyond.
Most people can’t do both.
If a coach spews this advice at a parent of an infant or toddler or an accountant trying to meet a deadline during the peak of tax season, you can bet it’s going to fall on deaf ears.
Getting nine hours of uninterrupted sleep and getting up at 5am to get a workout in is about as likely as Tracy Anderson entering a powerlifting meet, it isn’t happening, and even if it does, that training session won’t be pretty.
Sleep is important, getting the work done is important. It takes balance. The best program ever written is a total waste of time if you can’t recover from it.
As usual, the answer is in the grey area. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, training needs to be scaled back in terms of volume, intensity, or frequency. If you are especially sleep deprived, dialing back two of those three variables may be necessary to optimize your results until you are able to get more shut-eye.
Even if you are getting the required nutrition to support your frequent and intense bouts of training, you WILL be stuck in neutral if you aren’t getting sufficient sleep.
The Importance of Sleep
We know that as Americans, we simply don’t sleep enough. In fact, according to a Gallup poll from a few years back, 40% of Americans are sleeping less than 7 hours per night.
While busy lifestyles, work schedules, and raising kids contribute to this lack of ZZZs, two underrated factors may be:
The brilliant Netflix feature that rolls the end of an episode directly into the next one in 5 seconds.
The graphics, sound, and online capabilities of the Call of Duty franchise has gotten totally insane.
Regardless of the root of the issue, this lack of sleep will wreak havoc on your production in the gym especially if your training sessions are frequent and intense.
Sleep deprivation will not only sap energy from your lifts, it will negatively impact you on a hormonal level by decreasing the release of testosterone (1) and increasing cortisol (2), an especially nasty combo when trying to gain strength, muscle mass, or lose body fat and even worse for males interested in having sex past the age of 35.
Furthermore, if you add quality sleep, you’ll have a much better chance at performing optimally in the gym (3). We know we need more sleep, but how?
How Do We Sleep for More Muscle?
A general rule of thumb is getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night to recover from training and support your effort in the weight room.
It’s important to note, however, that not everyone is going to be able to follow that advice 100% of the time.
Sometimes you are simply in a period of life (new baby, starting a new business, etc.) that doesn’t lend itself to a lot of sleep. While training is still encouraged under these circumstances, going balls to the wall with exercise is going to end up wasting time, effort, or causing injury.
Want a more restful night of sleep? Try implementing a couple of these tips to take advantage of all the benefits a great night of rest can provide.
1. Go to Bed Earlier
Common sense? Absolutely.
It’s also the easiest tip to implement and will yield the best results. I bet if there were some snazzy Instagram videos of shredded guys and girls going to bed at 9:30 on a Friday night, it would be a more popular thing to do.
2. Put Down the Screens an Hour or Two Before Bed Time (but after you finish this article).
This includes TVs, phones, laptops, iPads, and video games. The blue light from these popular devices is used to keep us alert and engaged. Helpful when writing a thesis, not so much when scrolling social media directly prior to bed. Blue light at night will completely disrupt the human body’s natural circadian rhythm hampering our ability to get a good night’s sleep. Put devices down a few hours before bed (out of arms reach), dim the lights, and read an actual paper book or magazine. Yeah, those still exist.
3. Stay Away From Caffeine in the Afternoon
Caffeine is glorious.
Its awakening effect has helped mankind move mountains, part seas, and beat deadlines. If it’s ingested too late however, it may affect sleep. Caffeine can stay in our system for up to 6 hours(4) so nix the 3pm cup of coffee used to finish strong at work.
Be careful of sneaky caffeinated items such as chocolate, soda (diet or regular), and even decaf coffee.
4. Avoid Alcohol
While this tip won’t win me a popularity contest, it simply must be stated. That glass or four of wine in the evening may help you cope with the shitty day you had and help you fall asleep faster (read: pass out), but it isn’t doing anything for your quality of sleep .(5)
With alcohol on board, it’s a good bet that the later stages of sleep most crucial for recovery from tough training will be disrupted. As usual, alcohol and progress in the gym simply don’t mix, use sparingly.
5. Your Bed is For Humans
Maybe it’s cold-hearted but the cats and dogs need to get kicked out of your bed.
How many times have you been woken up by your pet?
Think about it this way, every single time they move or nudge you, waking you up, you’re starting at square one of the sleep cycle. How are you going to reach the restorative stages of sleep if every 20 minutes Fido shoves his ass in your face?
If that doesn’t get you to train your pet to sleep in their own designated bed, ask yourself this question: would you let your spouse walk around outside all day on their bare feet and then climb into your clean bed with no bath or shower?
Doubtful!
About the Author
Tim is an exercise science graduate and CSCS who has been training in Baltimore MD for over 14 years. While his specialty is body composition, he has extensive experience working with clients from young athletes to cardiac rehabilitation patients. Tim has been published in a variety of fitness publications and writes for his blog when he isn’t helping clients in person.
Being a former fat boy, Tim developed a deep seeded passion for training and nutrition in his teenage years after a major body transformation. This passion is what drives him to seek the best results for his clients and readers. Tim combines a knowledge base earned from years of practice in the field, research, and time spent under the bar with practical advice to get his clients to the next level.
You can find Tim on Instagram (HERE) or his blog (HERE).
Spots are still available for my Coaching Competency workshop in Sterling, VA next weekend.
For $129 you get to hang out with me for seven hours, talk about assessment, program design, deadlifts, and LOLCat memes. This event has been approved for CEUs via the NSCA.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
If you’re someone who works with teams or maybe are in charge of a staff at a gym, or, I don’t know, are part of SEAL Team 6 and just looking for some solid information on how to develop better leadership skills and systems to breed a winning culture you can’t go wrong with Pat Rigsby’s new resource.
I love Greg for always writing such informative, well researched articles though. This is a must read.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Exercises most people need to do more of: deadbugs, push-ups, rows, carries, single leg work, not kipping pull-ups. Exercises most people could do away with: weekly 1RM tests.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com regular, Dr. Nicholas Licameli.
Nick normally writes about stuff like how not to eff up your shoulders during a bench press or how to address your low back pain when you sit in front of a desk all day.
Today, however, he’s throwing us a curveball and discussing a topic that’s a little more nuanced, albeit something that we can all appreciate: the “grind” and the work-life-training “tightrope.”
One of my least favorite sayings is, “everything in moderation.”
Everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything.
Everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything.
But we must realize a truth that is self-evident, undeniable, and timeless: saying yes to one thing is saying no to another.
Whether you’re Betty White, Barry White, or White Goodman, we are all given the same number of minutes each day.
Life, then, is a constant series of choices and decisions as to how we spend our time. There is no arguing that dedicating time to each of our roles is essential. However, everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything. Instead of creating balance, which is usually the reasoning behind taking everything in moderation, it creates mediocrity.
Some of my roles, in no particular order, are bodybuilder, husband, son, brother, friend, and medical professional. I would venture a guess that majority of those reading can relate, at least somewhat, to these roles.
At the core, they are sport, family, friend, and profession.
When walking across a tight rope, one does not stay perfectly straight for the duration of the walk. While still maintaining balance, the walker is able to lean this way and that way with each step. Similarly, a plane does not remain on a straight path for the duration of its flight. The pilot makes adjustments up, down, left, and right depending on weather, air traffic, etc., but it manages to stay the course and eventually reach its destination.
Life is sort of a balancing act, leaning this way and that way, with each step. Think about your life. There will be times along your journey when you’ll have to grind in certain areas.
Sometimes that’s going to be sport. Other times it will be family. Other times it will be your profession. Sometimes you will have to dive 100% into one role in order to accomplish something great.
So yes, you may be sacrificing, but you’re just leaning, not falling.
Side note: When I say, “grind,” what I mean is a temporary grind. The grind occurs due to special or unusual circumstances. If you’re always grinding, you need to find a way to improve efficiency and effectiveness because at the end of the day, there are always people who are better than you, busier than you, and have accomplished more than you who have never missed a training session, a birthday party, or a day of work. So remember that next time you feel yourself grinding.
Ask yourself, “Is this grind necessary or are there things I can do to better organize my day?”
If you’re training for a bodybuilding competition, you’re going to have to grind. Training, nutrition, sleep, and more will all take you away from other areas of your life in one way or another. For that time, you will be leaning toward bodybuilding on your tight rope, understanding that saying yes to bodybuilding is saying no to other roles.
Death in the family? Special birthday party? Holiday or family tradition coming up? Get ready to lean toward family on your tightrope, understanding that saying yes to family is saying no to other roles.
If there’s a big project coming up at work that you are passionate about, you’re going to have to grind, understanding that saying yes to work is saying no to other roles.
How Do We Make It All Work?
Here’s the key to making this work: while leaning on the tight rope and grinding in one area of your life, be sure to truly be present and give it your all.
There is a very good chance that other people will not “get it.”
They won’t understand why you’re so passionate about bodybuilding or that family tradition or that silly project at work.
That’s fine.
Being truly present in each moment will help lessen negative kickback from different aspects of your life. Thinking about training or work while you’re spending planned time with family won’t help training or work and will hinder family time. It doesn’t make sense to choose to grind at work but fog your brain with guilt that you are not with your family.
Similarly, it doesn’t make sense to miss a birthday party to finish that work project if you’re not going to be fully present and committed to it in that moment. You’re essentially becoming a mediocre professional and mediocre family member.
You are limiting your productivity at work and wasting quality family time. When you choose to grind, proceed with confidence and understand that those other areas of life will have their time, it’s just not now.
1. For example, if you have to sacrifice family for work or for training, it’s going to be OK as long as the time that you do give your family is 100% undivided attention, presence, and love.
2. When you sacrifice from work, it’s going to be OK as long as you’ve given work your 100% time and effort when it was work’s turn.
3. If you can’t stay late for that meeting because your son has a baseball game, it will be OK because you’ve grinded for work during work’s time and have made it clear to everyone at the office the type of person you are.
4. If you have to sacrifice training/nutrition to give time to your family or work, it’s OK so long as committed and productive work has been put toward training during its time.
Being 100% committed and present to a role during its allotted time will lessen the sting when the time comes to grind in a different role. While grinding in a particular role, think of making deposits of trust.
Stephen Covey uses the metaphor of an “emotional bank account,” which describes the amount of trust that has been built up in a relationship1. For the purposes of this article, we can call it a “role bank account.”
While leaning on the tight rope, pennies are deposited into each role’s account if and only if you are 100% present and committed to it. Being partially present or dividing your attention results in no deposits at best and a withdrawal at worst. Debt will never be accumulated while grinding in a certain role so long as you’ve been making genuine and consistent deposits in each role.
What Are Some Deposits?
For a bodybuilder, deposits may be meal prepping ahead of time, hitting macros while at a social event, keeping perfect form during the last set of deadlifts as fatigue sets in, or getting a full 8-9 hours of quality sleep.
As a member of a family or as a professional, deposits can be as simple as saying a kind word, going out of your way to offer a compliment, going above and beyond the job description, being honest and truthful, doing a favor without expectation of something in return, being present, listening with the intent to understand rather than be understood, showing deep empathy, saying, “I love you,” apologizing sincerely, and much more.
By making these deposits, we are able to grind in certain areas of our lives without feeling guilty or hurting people and/or roles we love.
Go build up those accounts!
Don’t Fall
Keep in mind that if you lean too much on a tight rope, you will fall.
If you lean too much to one side for too long and neglect the principles of physics, you will fall and once you fall, no amount of counter balance will help. If you excessively withdraw trust, you will accumulate debt.
Understand, however, that it’s okay to grind every once in a while. You are not a bad person. You are a person who aspires to be great, not in one role, but in all roles. You are a person who understands that at times it is necessary to sacrifice and grind in order to achieve and exceed high reaching goals and dreams.
Take what I say with a grain of salt. I don’t know everything. I could be completely wrong. I may look back on this (maybe when I have children some day!) and feel differently.
However, right now, I truly feel that everything in moderation makes you mediocre at everything. The occasional grind, together with confidence and steady deposits into our various accounts, will allow you to achieve balanced greatness in all of your roles. Don’t settle for mediocre.
Go get ‘em!
About the Author
Nicholas M. Licameli
Doctor of Physical Therapy / Pro Natural Bodybuilder
Every single thing he does, Nick believes in giving himself to others in an attempt to make the world a happier, healthier, and more loving place. He wants to give people the power to change their lives. Bodybuilding and physical therapy serve as ways to carry out that cause. Nick graduated summa cum laude from Ramapo College of New Jersey with his bachelor’s degree in biology, furthered his education by completing his doctoral degree in physical therapy from Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences (previously the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey) at the age of 24, and has earned professional status in natural bodybuilding. His knowledge of sport and exercise biomechanics, movement quality, and the practical application of research combined with personal experience in bodybuilding and nutrition allows him to help people in truly unique ways. Love. Passion. Respect. Humility. Never an expert. Always a student. Love your journey.
Spots are still available for my Coaching Competency workshop in Sterling, VA in a few weeks.
For $129 you get to hang out with me for seven hours, talk about assessment, program design, deadlifts, and LOLCat memes. This event has been approved for CEUs via the NSCA.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
4. Appearance on the Fitness Marketing Alliance Podcast w/ Eric Malzone
I first heard Chris use the phrase “trainable menu” on Mike Robertson’s podcast a year or two ago and immediately wanted to make out with it.
It’s 100% in line with my own coaching philosophy in that you can ALWAYS train around an injury. As a coach/trainer focus more on what your clients can do – their trainable menu – and less on what they can’t.
“Why do so many coaches act like grumpy old men these days? Factions, disputes and cliques abound; but we are the ones telling our athletes that THEY need to learn how to be better leaders?”
Lisbeth wrote this in the latter part of last year (August) but my assistant sent it to me the other day for consideration for this week’s list.
It’s excellent with a very sage message.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Was asked by someone why I, a strength coach, hire my own coach to write my programs? 1. I hate the mental gymnastics of writing my own programs. 2) Accountability. 3) Because if I didn’t it would be “deadlift and bi’s day” everyday.
I received a message from a young coach the other day asking if I knew of (or used) any tricks to help make writing training programs easier or less time intensive.
Outside of suggesting he build his own time traveling DeLorean, skip a head 5o or so years to clone himself 17 times (and to see if someone possibly cured male pattern baldness3), and then travel back to 2018 with his small army of “hims” to help with the workload, I offered the following suggestions and advice.
Actually, originally, I offered like two sentences, but they were a Pulitzer worthy two sentences.
I figured this was a good topic to expound on and decided to make it into a blog post.
If you want to get better at playing the violin…play the violin.
If you want to get better at long division…do long division.
If you want to get better at free throws….practice more free throws.
If you want to get better at not getting laid…go to Star Trek conventions.
I keed, I keed.
There’s no way to sugar coat this:
“If you want to get better at writing programs…write more programs.”
I have a folder on my desktop labeled Lisa, Don’t Open This Folder Client Programs, and if I opened it right now and actually took the time to count the number of programs in it – which is an amalgamation of my eight years at Cressey Sports Performance in addition to the 2.5 years I’ve been training people out of CORE – I’d garner a guess there’s at least, I don’t know, a kazillion, billion programs in it.
Okay, lets just say it’s a lot.
I am by no means insinuating I’m some program writing maverick and that I’ve got things dialed down to a well-tuned science, but it stands to reason in the 15+ years I’ve been writing training programs, I’ve gotten pretty okay at not sucking at it.
That being said, the sooner you acquiesce to the idea it’s going to take time, practice, and lots of experience on your part in order to get “adequate” yourself, the better off you’ll be.
To answer the question, though: Is there a way to expedite the program writing process?
Well, it depends.
Many factors come into play – one’s training age, injury history, goals, availability of equipment, total training frequency, favorite He-Man character (<– very important), to name a few.
I’d say on average it takes me anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes to write a program.
Moreover:
1. I rarely start from scratch.
I’ve written enough programs and have worked with enough people that I can Spidey-sense similarities and correlations between one client and another. If someone has the same background and/or goals as a previous client of mine I don’t need to re-invent the wheel. I can take someone else’s program, do a little bada-binging and bada-booing (tweaking), and cater it to someone else.
I take pride in writing individual programs for all my clients, but I’m also a realist. Most of the time most people need to be doing the same stuff anyways; at least in the beginning:
Less bench pressing.
More rows.
Better scapular upward rotation.
More single leg work and carries.
More butt stuff (posterior chain in general).
No, deep squats aren’t dangerous.
Yes, your knees can go past your toes.
No, you can’t have a bicep day. At least not until you can perform a chin-up.
If you ask me one more time whether or not you should go keto I’m going to throw my face into a wall.
2. Understand there’s NO SUCH THING AS A PERFECT PROGRAM.
It’s inevitable you’re going to be overzealous with some people or underestimate others, especially with regards to exercise selection.
I don’t think a day goes by where I’m not crossing out things on a program or making minor adjustments, or hell, even overhauling the entire program.
No one is perfect (except Ryan Gosling).
2. Remember: It’s THEIR Program, Not Yours
No quote is more appropriate here than one of Dan John’s classics:
“The goal is to keep the goal, the goal.”
If someone’s goal is to get strong or maybe compete in powerlifting, then, yeah, they should likely focus on the classic barbell lifts.
Write a program that reflects that.
Kipping pull-ups likely aren’t going to get the job done. In fact, kipping pull-ups are never going to get the job done.
Stop it.
Just, stop.
If someone’s goal is to lose a bunch of fat, again, I could make the case strength is still important and that the barbell lifts (which utilize multiple joints and make burning a bunch of calories in a short amount of time a thing) may be of benefit.
But understand there are many methods to get any job done.
Maybe someone would rather jump into a shark’s mouth than touch a barbell.
Blasphemous, I know. But it happens.
If so, don’t be an insufferable dick about it and force feed YOUR preferences over your client’s.4
A glaring example here is when you see bodybuilders training 55 year old female clients like bodybuilders. Yeah dude, I doubt she’s interested in her bicep peak. I mean, maybe. But I doubt it.
Stick to the goals and consider your client’s preferences.
NOTE: Don’t let the latter govern everything, mind you.
This can make writing programs much, much, MUCH more “freeing” and palatable. If someone likes using dumbbells, incorporate more dumbbells. If someone seems to be down with landmine exercises, use more landmine exercises.
Often, the #1 factor for a program’s success is ADHERENCE.
A client/athlete is much more apt to stick to a program when it’s one they enjoy and want to do.
3. Write Programs In Bulk
This is something Eric Cressey brought up recently and it makes a lot of sense. You’re bound to be more efficient and “in the zone” when it comes to writing program when you write them in bulk.
Instead of writing one program here and another one there, sit down, grab a cup of coffee (or tea), put on some of your favorite program writing music (for me it’s Deep House or Norah Jones, don’t judge), and get to work.
I think you’ll find it’ll increase your program writing prowess.
4. Have Someone Audit Your Programs
It’s not lost on me it’s tax season (here in the States anyways) and that using the word “audit” may make some start to hyperventilate into a paper bag.
This is an instance, however, where audit is a good thing.
Asking a colleague to take a peek at some of your programs and to provide some honest feedback is a splendid way to hone and sharpen your skills.
Of course it helps to be someone who can take constructive criticism well. If your default reaction is to get defensive, stomp your feet, and yell “YOU’RE RUINING MY LIFE” when a friend suggests it might not a good idea to program back squats for someone with limited shoulder external rotation and to maybe consider front squats instead, you may want to hold off on this idea.
Conversely, grow up, it’s only going to make you better and to allow you an opportunity to see things from a different lens.
5. When In Doubt, Simplify
The next time you find yourself sitting in front of your computer screen contemplating putting in Close Grip Bench Press cluster sets for your 16 year old high-school athlete with weight releasers utilizing a 5-0-7 tempo while also repeating the alphabet backwards, in Elvish:
Stop
Punch yourself in the pancreas.
Hard.
And remember to just keep things simple.
Believe me, I know how easy it is to be seduced into adding novelty to your client’s programs for the sake of adding novelty…but I assure you most of them do not care and more importantly most do better without it.
The “boring” stuff is almost always going to be the better fit and is likely all most of your clients will need for quite some time.
Seriously, when in doubt….simplify.
And then just coach the shit out of everything.
6. Miscellaneous Pontification
– It would also bode in your favor to actually lift weights.
– Refrain from adding things to your programs that you yourself have not tried first.
– Network. Make nicey nice with local coaches and physical therapists.
– The second season of Jessica Jones wasn’t as good as the first. Just sayin.
– Also, not for nothing, but did you not notice I used both words “amalgamation” and
“acquiesce” in this blog post? You didn’t, did you?5
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Sydney, Australia based strength coach Meer Awny.
There’s a common theme in the fitness industry, especially amongst young and upcoming coaches/trainers, that in order to gain recognition or notoriety there’s some “deep state” secret algorithm that exists:
Social media follows + number of letters you can squeeze next to your name in your bio / (selfie to shirtless pic ratio) x (# of days you brag about either going to CrossFit or how you feel so UHmazing you feel going ketogenic6)
In fact, it’s pretty simple: get good at what you do, be consistent, and consider some of the strategies Meer points out below.
Is Age Just a Number? Is There a Way To Be Taken Seriously Before 30 In the Fitness Industry?
You’ve graduated with a piece of paper and want to work with athletes.
I mean of course they should work with you, you’re now one of the exclusive 15,000 fresh graduates who have inundated the industry and you…are…important.
But you quickly realise that’s not the case.
The title of “Sports Scientist” doesn’t hold career certainty and so you find yourself working on a gym floor, putting weights away and training general population clients. Now, there should be no shame in being able to apply good coaching principles to a wider audience.
But you also wanted to train the sports stars and get recognition.
With the advent and saturation of social media, it’s easy to feel pressured to have a voice and make a contribution to the field you’re so passionate about.
But often we fail to contextualise and ask how did the person I look up to get to where they are?
Instead of asking the harder questions and actually doing the work, the list of books to read gets larger, and the search for the perfect Instagram filter continues.
That’s not always the answer.
Eventually you come to realise the ‘big names’ in the industry aren’t the same age as you, have a lot more experience, and go out of their way to provide consistent, quality content for free and don’t complain about it.
You just want to be taken seriously despite the “Oh you’ve got plenty of time” diatribes every time you announce you’re a 24-year-old coach.
But what is experience?
We’re told that it’s learning through trial & error and that with more relative experience, through the years, you gain wisdom. And so you vision the day you’re a 35-year-old coach working with all the people you hoped you would from day one.
Age is wisdom, right?
Or is the value of the time spent more important then the time itself?
Here are some ways to add more value to the time you have rather than waiting for the clock to provide you with experience.
1. Volunteer
Get comfortable with this.
If you aren’t willing to give up your time, as precious as it may seem, then things aren’t going to bode well for you. It doesn’t necessarily mean an internship (we’ll get to that), but it does mean being genuine and selfless when it comes to learning and working with people.
This includes taking the time to talk and to have conversations with your athletes and clients.
Remember: To steal a well-known quote from strength & conditioning icon, Mike Boyle:
“Your athletes don’t care about how much you know until they know about how much you care”.
2. Internship/Mentorship
One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was “Find the person that is doing what you want to do and go and learn from that person.”
In 2017 I packed up for five weeks and flew across the world to Denver, Colorado (I’m an Aussie).
In those five weeks I grew new branches on my tree of networks (BTW – I didn’t know what a metaphor was until I was 17), made friends, and had the opportunity to learn from one of the best strength coaches in the field…Loren Landow.
Not to paint a smooth picture, the process in making this happen took time, patience and persistence.
Words can’t describe how much I learned and how indebted I feel for the opportunity. Also, internships allow an opportunity to “ooch,” or to test out and dip your toe into an area or field you’re not too experienced in.
You may feel like you want to work with athletes (or circus performers or pre & postpartum women)…but how do you really know?
An internship offers an opportunity to gain experience, but also a way to get a taste for whether or not you want to be in this field or work with a particular demographic.
3. Networks
The cliché will always stand:
“Who you know is more important than what you know.”
Reading all the books and knowing every muscle insertion and programming variable will not trump the friends you have in the industry.
Act on this by attending conferences, worthwhile seminars, and giving up your time to learn from people who can improve your attributes as a practitioner and more importantly, as a person.
Attendance alone is not enough.
You need to be active in introducing yourself (even if your bio isn’t ‘Hot’), taking emails/phone numbers, asking questions and then following up within two weeks post event.
Getting good at this will open opportunities, and also give you some credibility as a young coach.
4. Patience & Expectations
Setting realistic goals and expectations are important.
Don’t expect to work with world champions in the first year.
But don’t deny that you will eventually.
Put in the work, get good at what you do, be consistent, and it stands to reason people will seek you out.
5. Hobbies & Yourself
Being immersed in the ‘field’ is great.
Know the content and all the science.
But understand that this job involves communication with lots of different people; so being broad in your knowledge will help. Spend time away from reading sport related material, develop new hobbies, read outside of the common ‘self development’ section of the bookstore, and you’ll find a heightened ability to connect with people from all ages and sorts.
A strong mantra to apply daily is:
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Constantly show up and make it clear that you care about the people you work with. It shouldn’t be too hard; otherwise you might be in the wrong field. Gary Schofield did a great presentation and used the metaphor of “dogs and monstah’s” (He had a pretty cool Boston accent-almost as cool as Matt Damon”) to describe two types of people (10s mark).
The dog needs guidance, treats, and their hand to be held.
The monstah asks ‘What more can I do?’ and gets after it. Time is not irrelevant, and experiences will come with years of effort. That can’t be denied. What you can do is be a monstah and apply some of the mentioned principles to be taken seriously before 30.
About the Author
Meer Awny is a Strength & Conditioning coach & Personal Trainer from Sydney, Australia.
His work is primarily centred on working with combat sport athletes, ranging from amateur levels to national competition, as well as top #10 ranked athletes in the world; across a variety of martial arts.
Meer has travelled the world to better his development of the ‘fighter’ and himself as a coach, and has spent time with multiple UFC fighters and learnt from some of the best combat sport performance coaches in the field.
In his spare time Meer likes to attend coffee tastings, scuba dive, read, cook, travel and continually practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and boxing.
Spots are still available for my Coaching Competency workshop in Sterling, VA in a few weeks.
For $129 you get to hang out with me for seven hours, talk about assessment, program design, deadlifts, and LOLCat memes. This event has been approved for CEUs via the NSCA.
ButcherBox may be my most favorite thing outside of kitten cuddles and a Lord of the Rings marathon.
How it works is so simple it’s silly:
You go to the site and curate your own box of delicious cuts of meat.
It’s delivered to your doorstep.
Cook that shit and eat it.
My wife and I have been using the service for a while now and it’s always serves as a monthly highlight.
For a limited time only, all new subscribers to ButcherBox will receive free Filet Mignon AND Bacon AND $10 off their initial order.
All you to do is click THIS link. Fist pumps optional.
3. Even More Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Coming Soon
Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
Pat Davidson made people cry with MASS, his phenomenally popular program he released a few years ago.
MASS 2 will make people weep.
For a limited time only, you can get in on the action at 15% off the regular price if you go HERE and type gentilcore15 in the coupon area at checkout.
He’s a few days short of turning 14 months old and I have to say, at the expense of coming across a tad braggadocious, I’m pretty darn proud of myself and my wife: Julian’s happy, healthy, and has only been caught once running around with a pair of scissors.
Far be it from me to describe every parent’s first year with their first child in the same light, but for us the past 365 days and change can best be described as somewhere between organized chaos and a dumpster fire.
Lack of sleep, colic, blowouts, lack of sleep, breast feeding, lack of sleep, 10 pm “how to swaddle” Google searches, lack of sleep, 11 pm walks in a blizzard (goddam colic!), more blowouts, lack of sleep, he just pissed all over the place, Llama Llama Red Pajama, lack of sleep, what did he just put in his mouth?, scissors, and lack of sleep.
Okay, it wasn’t all that bad. In hindsight Lisa and I did a pretty damn good job.
That said, lifting heavy things was/is probably last on most guys’ minds during this period of time, let alone the notion of actually making progress in the gym.
What follows are some tidbits and insights on what most dads can expect to accomplish on the training side of things in year one.8
I’ll be the first to admit I’m a bit of an outlier here.
I’m going to wax poetic below on how most guys need to pump the brakes with regards to their training and that training will often take a backseat to life (and laundry) once they become a Dad.
However, this past year was arguably one of my best training years in recent memory, highlighted by the fact I finally achieved a long-time goal of hitting a 600 lb deadlift.
40 Years Old + (A Then) 9 Month Old at Home = #humblebrag
To put things into perspective, though:
I work in a gym. I have/had no excuse not to train.
I had a wonderful support system in place.
I did implement much of what I write about below.
I’m pretty awesome.
1. Expectation Management
Lets cut to the chase: The idea of training 5-6x per week needs to be given the kibosh right out of the gate.
Well, you can train that often; it just won’t be good training.
It behooves everyone involved to have some feel and a degree of expectation management in the weeks (if not months) after baby is born. Think less “I’m going to train for my first powerlifting meet while also competing in my first Ultra-marathon while also following a ketogenic diet” and more “lets try to get through 20 minutes without falling asleep in the power rack.”
In short, attaining a minimal effective dose is the name of the game.
For most guys a reasonable goal would be to aim for 2-3x per week of full-body training revolving around the compound lifts
2. What Does Minimal Effective Dose Even Mean?
Basically, it means doing as little work as possible while still creating a training effect.
You don’t have to kill yourself in the gym in order to make or even maintain progress during this time.
For most guys who are stressed and woefully sleep deprived, a reduction in both training volume and intensity is warranted (and wise).
Most will read that and assume they’ll lose all teh gainz; that the diminished training frequency (and loading) will turn them into small, weak, girly men.
Actually, no.
On the contrary I’d make the case those 2-3 training sessions per week can and will be very productive sessions.
Counterintuitively, as an example, it’s rather “easy” to maintain strength levels with a reduction in both training frequency and intensity.
As Dr. Vladmir Issurin notes in his book, Block Periodization, in order to maintain maximal strength, there’s a window of 30 +/- 5 days to work with.
Meaning, regardless of any secondary emphasis you can leave alone and maintain certain qualities for “x” days without much (if any) reduction in performance.
If you’re still not picking up what I’m putting down let me put it like this:
“You don’t have to do a lot of something in order to maintain something.”
When it comes to maintaining strength, the body (or, more specifically the central nervous system) just needs to be nudged or reminded every 30 +/- 5 days that you’re into it and maybe want to make out.
For the sake of brevity, the bulk of my training hovered in the 60-85% range most of last year with some 90-95 percenters peppered in every 3-4 weeks.
That’s pretty much it.
3. Okay, That’s Cool Tony….But I Could Give Two S***ts Jars of Pureed Beef Pilaf and Vegetables About Being Strong.
I can respect that.
I got your back.
I wrote an article a few months back on BodyBuilding.com catered to the newly-minted Dad and it described what I felt would be a highly effective – and reasonable – 2-3x per week training program most could follow without batting an eye.
I like this concept for a lot of dudes, but especially for sleep deprived ones who feel like a bag of dicks for a lengthy period of time.
Utilizing a bit of auto-regulation in your training and taking into account day-to-day fluctuations in energy and one’s ability to recover is key.
The key advantage to EDM sets is they still allow you to lift some challenging weight…albeit based on how you feel that day.
Here’s an example:
A. Squat Variation – 5 EDM
Work up to challenging set of 5. Pretty self-explanatory.
B. Same Squat Variation – 3×3
Whatever your 5 EDM ends up being, use the same weight and perform 3×3.
Those nine reps should be crisp, beautiful, relatively fast reps that will make me roughly 65-70% aroused.
2. Embrace Your Meathead
There’s a lot to be said about utilizing more isolation, bodybuilding type exercises to keep guys motivated to train, improve their ability to recover, and to help maintain training economy.
This can be as simple as tossing in a little “gun show” work at the end of a session in order to feel a pump.
Here’s a favorite (stolen from the guys over at The Strength House):
DB Hammer Curls x eight reps, rest 15s, repeat for six minutes.
You can also utilize Density Sets. Here, all you’ll do is set a timer for 8-12 minutes, pair two exercises together (or maybe a circuit of 3-4), and do as much work as possible during that time.
Lower Body Example:
DB Goblet Step-Ups x 8/leg
Cable Pull-Through x 10
Foam Roller Bodysaw x 10
Upper Body Example
DB Bench Press x 8
TRX Row x 12
Upper Cut a Grizzly Bear x2/side
The permutations are endless and what you choose is dependent on goals, what hurts, what doesn’t, and equipment availability. The bigger picture to appreciate, though, is that something is better than nothing.
And your workouts don’t have to be marathon sessions. You can get quite a bit done in 30 minutes.
3. Sub-Maximal Training Works, Trust Me
Even when a baby isn’t thrown into the mix, sub-maximal training (60-85% of 1RM) is something that should be stressed more often.
You need to build strength, not test it.
What’s more, hanging out in this range won’t beat up the joints as much
4. You May Think It’s Lame…But Walking Will Prevent You From Wanting To Kill People
Baby can’t sleep? Go for a walk.
Baby is aimlessly meandering around whining? Go for a walk.
The Price is Right just ended? Go for a walk.
Going for walks is what keeps parents sane. Exercise doesn’t have to be in the form of lifting things. Walking is actually a very underutilized modality and something I did often with my little guy.
I’d put him in the stroller, put on a podcast, and walk around the neighborhood.
It served as an easy way to get out of the apartment and to get my Zone 2 work in.9
In addition my walks spawned the #popupjulian phenomenon, which initially started as a way for Lisa to keep tabs on us when she went back to work after maternity leave. During my walks I’d send Lisa videos of Julian “popping up” around Boston.
Training is every bit as important to her as it is me…so it wasn’t a hard “sell” to ask her to take over watching Julian so that I could go train; and vice versa.
We were (and are) a team.
Teamwork is vital during this time. Sacrifices and compromises are par for the course.
“Sure, babe, you can go have drinks with the girls…for a small fee of 37 foot massages.“
Moreover, and this is something Eric Cressey wrote about when he was a new father, many guys will balk at the notion of asking for or taking help as if it’s a strike to their ego to do so.
To that I say, “bull to the shit.”
Someone offers to watch your kid for a few hours so you can have a date night? Take it. Emphatically.
Hire someone to write your programs. That’s what I did.
It’s okay to ask for help and/or to delegate tasks when needed. I mean, shoot, Batman had Alfred.
Even he didn’t do things all alone.
6. You’re Going to Fail…and That’s Normal
Sometimes you’re going to have a case of the “Eff Its” and not want to train. And that’s okay.
Sometimes you’ll prefer to order a pizza. And that’s okay too.
My friend, colleague, and new(ish) Dad himself, Bryan Krahn, put things into perspective:
I have ZERO insight. From day of birth to month 6, I was an abject failure at training/nutrition. Though the past month has been better — I sent the kid off to Pyongyang for his “education” — so I’ll be jacked again soon. https://t.co/rKJxn50nfu
Pat Davidson is the best interview on the internet.
He developed one of the most badass training programs in recent memory – MASS – a few years ago, and the interview(s) he and I did – Becoming a Brick Shit House HERE and HERE – were the most popular in this site’s history.
Well, he’s back. This time to discuss his sequel…MASS 2.
If you want to skip the foreplay and get straight to business…you can click THIS link to purchase. However, I’d encourage you to read the interview because you’ll want to punch through a brick wall after the fact. That, and there’s a special offer at the end for a discounted price only available to reader’s of this site.
TG:Okay, obvious question: What’s different in MASS 2?The original MASS program was a beast. I know many coaches and people who followed it with great success. What’s different about MASS 2?
How much (more) will it make people hate life?
Who’s the target demographic?
PD: What’s different about MASS 2? MASS 1 was my version of writing the most stupid program I possibly could. It was originally written for an intern at Men’s Health who had never lifted weights before and wanted to put on as much mass as possible in 16 weeks.
I wasn’t going to be able to coach this intern on a day to day basis, but I knew I would have to give him feedback. To be able to give him more accurate feedback, I started doing the program with him. I put the video of a couple workouts on social media and people started asking about them. I sent the program to some prominent coaches in our field, and they started doing the program, and they started posting videos.
Men’s Health was going to do a story on the intern, because he gained a ton of muscle on the program and they were going to name it best new program of the year.
I figured I could make some money out of the situation, so I turned the program into a book, and the MASS concept was born. The book got out into the world, and people started to have great results from it. I had to really start thinking about why the program was so effective for so many people.
My conclusion was that it made people do more mechanical work in less time than they were doing before, so it was an overload, and that the game like structure of the workouts was incredibly motivating for people and made them increase their effort.
The other major factor is that it forced people to be more consistent with their lifestyle factors. The workouts were so hard and punishing that people ate better food, more of it, got more sleep, drank less alcohol, etc, simply to reduce the punishment of the workouts…physiology drives behavior.
MASS 1 features the same workout four days a week for four straight weeks. Like I said, it’s kind of moronic…don’t get me wrong, there’s some brilliance in the simplicity, but it’s also wicked dumb too.
To me MASS 2 is real deal training. It’s the kind of program I would write for myself (it is what I write for myself).
MASS 2 takes lessons learned from MASS 1, and then flips the script on you a little bit, because rather than doing the same workout four days per week, there are four different workouts on the four training days each week.
MASS 2 uses a heavy day, a light day, and a moderate weight day kind of approach, and therefore trains different physiological pathways associated with strength, power, and hypertrophy. There are no easy days in MASS 2, rather different kinds of suck thrown at you across the week.
So in some ways, MASS 2 might not make you hate life as much as MASS 1, because you’ll have some variation and novelty across your weeks, but you’ll re-appreciate the way that shit can be served to you in slightly different stylings.
What’s the shit du jour?
It’s the shit of the day. Great, I’ll have that. That is MASS 2 in a nutshell.
The demographic that MASS 2 is written for is two fold in my mind. It’s for strength coaches, intelligent trainers, and exercise aficionados, but it’s also for regular people who want to learn the truth about things.
MASS 2 is written for those amongst us who are not cowards.
The weak like to skim the surface of topics in life. They like to read blurbs and watch two minute selfie videos on social media. Cowards don’t dig their heels into the ground and try hard when things get difficult.
They want CLIFF notes on everything.
Thankfully the world also has other people in it who are tough, resilient, and truly appreciate depth and challenge. They want the whole story, and the deeper the rabbit hole goes, the more excited they get about the dig. I wrote MASS 2 for this latter group, because very few people in fitness are writing books for them. There’s plenty of crap that regurgitates the same superficial shit that’s been around forever, and basically I want to light that stuff on fire and then put it out with a nice long piss.
TG: What have you added or taken out compared to the first iteration? Why?
^^ This pic shows Pat actually is a very lovely person ^^
PD: One of the most obvious things that I added to this book is that I tell the reader some of my own life story. I talk about coming from a lineage of drunks and drug addicts, and personally being a recovering alcoholic and drug addict.I also talked some about being fired from Springfield College. Those experiences are part of my identity, and they’re elements that bring a lot of shame to me when I think about myself.
At the same time though, those two experiences have been powerful lessons for me to learn some much greater truths about myself. I’ve learned that I’m immature, arrogant, thin skinned, low in self esteem, resentful, and self destructive. At the same time I’ve learned that I can face uncomfortable truths, learn my tendencies and habits, and actually change my persona and behaviors with disciplined deliberate practice.
I’ve also learned that you can reframe what some would consider character flaws into strengths. Drug addicts are in fact the most goal directed amongst us. They want one thing and one thing only, and they usually do whatever it takes to acquire that thing. When you’re a recovering drug addict and you take that same capability and aim it at other things, there’s nothing you can’t acquire.
The other obvious difference is that MASS 1 was thematically inspired by Rocky IV. MASS 2, the sequel uses the greatest action movie sequel as its muse, Terminator 2.
Let’s face it, if you’re going to write a sequel to a badass book involving a Stallone movie, the only way you can follow that up is by channeling Arnold.
MASS 2 is bigger, badder, and stronger than the OG book. In my opinion, everything about the sequel is better than the original…the program, the content of the book, and the writing style.
TG: I know you like to go into the weeds as it relates to program design…..what do you feel are the most common mistakes most coaches make when it comes to writing programs?
PD: In this day and age, it’s actually criminal to not include something about, Start with the Why, in your response to your approach to things in life in 49 out of the 50 states (sorry Tennessee).
If you don’t include something from this book in a fitness based answer, you’re ostracized from the fitness world, and on your way into exile you get tarred and feathered, the shame bell nun walks you out of town, and even your mother throws rocks at you while you trudge head down and cry to the rhythm of Celine Dione’s, My Heart Will Go On.
Essentially most coaches don’t explain why they’re asking you to do something.
If you don’t tell people why something is important, they don’t believe in the concept. Belief will drive effort, and effort will drive physical performances that will cause the body to change.
What I just said doesn’t mean you can throw a shit program on paper, and then tell a magical story about it, and that will work. I think those of us who love training and science will work harder to learn better information, try those approaches out in our own training, and discover what really works, and why it works.
Those same people are usually so passionate that they want to tell other people about what they’ve learned. So I see great story telling about program design and actual knowledge about training science as being a symbiotic relationship that creates a positive feedback loop.
Great science ultimately ends in an explanation of the mechanisms.
The mechanisms of how things work is usually the most interesting part of the story…and those mechanisms are usually complicated, deep, and intertwined with other systems and stories. Great stories have multiple dimensions to them, often times come full circle, leave you with cliff hangers, make you want more, seamlessly weave a common thread throughout the plot, stretch your ability to question your previous assumptions, and inspire you to take action.
To me program design is story telling, and I get people to reach for the stars because they want to after the story affects them.
How many coaches do you know that try to explain everything to the people they work with?
I’ve definitely seen some do it, and they’re usually the great ones. There’s nothing else they want to do more than talk training. They’re excited about it, and if you let them, they’ll never stop passionately explaining every detail of what they think about the things they’re doing.
That’s how I felt meeting Rusty Jones. That’s how I felt hearing Al Vermeil talk. Those guys weren’t spring chickens at those points in time, but they had more energy and passion than 99% of 20 year olds I’ve met.
Something else that people make mistakes on is that they pick shit exercises or put things in a bad order.
Here’s a list of things that I think make something shit in no particular order.
The TRX is involved.
It’s a complex with light dumbbells.
There’s a band around your knees and no barbell is in sight.
Your first movement of the day is an isolation exercise for arms.
The heaviest thing you did involved a cable.
More exercises in your training day used a band than bars or dumbbells.
You spent more than two minutes using a PVC pipe.
The Viper (aka, the weak man’s log) made an appearance.
At some point you did super man’s.
The BOSU was stood upon.
Finally if you write a program and don’t physically try it, I really worry about that thing. I personally don’t put anything out into the world that I don’t test on myself. At some point I’ll probably get too old and fat to self test, but hopefully that isn’t until I’m 80 or something.
Tim is an exercise science graduate and CSCS who has been training in Baltimore MD for over 14 years. While his specialty is body composition, he has extensive experience working with clients from young athletes to cardiac rehabilitation patients. Tim has been published in a variety of fitness publications and writes for his blog when he isn’t helping clients in person.
Meer Awny is a Strength & Conditioning coach & Personal Trainer from Sydney, Australia.
