This one is short and sweet today. We’re on a very, very tight schedule (spa, tour of the Mets training complex, etc)) and I was warned by Lisa that if she caught me on my computer she’d either Sparta kick me in the chest or force me to listen to nothing but Katy Perry on our way to Miami.
Neither sounds like a great scenario.
*tap, tap, tap, space key, space key, tap, tap, space key, tap, tappidy tap, space key, taparoo*
“Excuse me. But…..What. Are. You. Doing?”
Lisa! Uh, I didn’t see you there. I was just, you know, I thought I heard a noise on my computer, and I opened the screen, and, I, uh, just wanted to make sure it was alright. Since I was here I thought I’d go a head and donate to Greenpeace, and maybe look into adopting a baby seal.
Okay, I was checking my emails and writing a quick post.
Honey, why are you stepping closer? HONEY!!!! NOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Two hours later from a hospital bed:
I was asked a few weeks ago by the editors of T-Nation if I’d be willing to offer some advice on shoulder training.
It turned out awesome and includes solid information from other top-notch coaches like Tim Henriques, Dean Somerset, Bryan Krahn, Ben Bruno, and Dan Trink.
1. I’m in Florida as I write this – Jensen Beach/Stuart area in fact – and since my girlfriend and her mom decided to have a little mother-daughter “lets shop till we drop” marathon today, which I absolutely wanted no part of, I’ve had a nice, relaxing day to myself where I went to a local commercial gym to get a lift in, and now I’m sitting here in the outdoors area of a Panera in 80 degree weather loving life.
As it happened, I wore my Cressey Performance t-shirt to train this morning and was approached by a random woman who had nothing but great things to say about us. I had just completed a set of squats and happened to make eye-contact with her when she looked at me and gave me a hearty thumbs up.
Acting all cool, at first I thought she was giving me some kudos on my squat technique, which would have been awesome, and a boost to my ego. But really it was the shirt she was impressed with.
I should have known better.
We chatted for about five or so minutes and she mentioned how she always tells people to read our stuff and that, despite being a regular ol’ kick-ass general fitness enthusiast and someone who just enjoys to train (ie: not a trainer), she really appreciated all of the content we provide.
It was just a really nice experience and simultaneously surreal. It always amazes me how much of a reach we have at CP that a random person in Florida knew who I was.
2. And, for those who are reading and inevitably going to give me flack (maybe rightfully so) for doing some work while on my vacation, yesterday, per Lisa’s request, we spent the ENTIRE day out on the open ocean on our friend’s boat doing some serious fishing.
As you can see from the picture above (the one where I felt compelled to do my best Zoolander impersonation, and failed miserably) I wore what I felt was the most appropriate fishing shirt ever. Who says guys never accessorize!?!?!
The game plan was to catch a great white shark, and get myself on the local news, but all I caught were a few measly Spanish mackerel.
Not quite Jaws, but close enough.
All wasn’t lost, though. We caught so many (20), that we all went back, cleaned those bad boys out and ate them for dinner.
So today has been a “lay-low” day. Like I said, Lisa and her mom are off shopping somewhere and doing whatever it is that women do when they shop, and I’m just sitting here outside getting some writing done and taking care of some email correspondance.
Tomorrow we’re heading to Port St. Lucie to check out the Mets spring training complex and to hopefully check out some of our CP guys in action. Then, we’re off to Miami to visit some if Lisa’s friends and to REALLY get the party started.
Speaking of which: this will be my first trip to Miami since I was a sophomore in college playing baseball. I’ve never really had an opportunity to explore the city itself and know both Lisa and I will want to check out some sights and sounds, as well as eat at some fancy schmancy restaurants.
For those in the Miami area – any suggestions???
3. As a quick reminder, I’m going to be speaking at my alma mater, SUNY Cortland, on April 1st. I’m really excited to head back to my old stomping grounds and speak to the student body. It’s a huge honor to be asked to come speak, and it’s my hope that those who attend will remember my name walk away with some newfound insight on assessment, anatomy, and program design.
While the talk with be geared towards undergrad and graduate students, it is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! And it’s FREE.
For those looking for more information whether it’s directions to Cortland, where on campus it will be held, or taking bets as to what my walk out music will be, please contact Justin Kompf at justin.kompf@cortland.edu for more details.
4. Looking a bit further down the yell0w-brick road, I’m happy to note that Cressey Performance will be hosting the next Elite Training Workshop on Sunday, April 21st.
This is undoubtedly going to be a huge event as the following people will be speaking:
Eric Cressey
Mike Robertson
Mike Reinold
Dave Schmitz
Steve Long
Jared Woolever
And some joker with the last name Gentilcore.
Additionally, there will be a bonus “business day” hosted by Pat Rigsby and Nick Berry on Saturday, April 20th.
5. I’ve been very grateful in my career to get to the point where I’m now featured in the likes of Men’s Health Magazine on an almost monthly basis. But in this month’s issue (April 2013) I’ve finally weaseled my way into an actual full-length, semi-feature article.
What’s it about you ask? How to Get Tank-Top Arms: 13 Top-Level Moves on the BOSU Ball.
LOL – just kidding.
It’s actually on the one part of a program that most guys dismiss but can arguably be considered the most important:
The Warm-Up
Check out pg. 114-116 for more of the deets. And yes, I’ll be more than happy to sign your issue if we ever cross paths.
5. And finally, I’m really good friends with Ben Bruno, and since he also lives in the Boston area, it’s not uncommon for he and I to get together and train or just go out for some burgers* on occasion.
Of course, like everyone else, I read his stuff and love it. Unfortunately I’m not one of those creative types that can sit in his evil strength coach lair and conjure up sadistic exercises that will make people hate life.
Ben, though, is a pro at it.
He can be a real a-hole sometimes. Check out this single leg variations he posted up on his Youtube Channel today:
BRUTAL. “Might have to give those a try sometime.”
Said no one, ever.
* = and ice cream.**
** = okay, and pizza. What? Don’t judge us. The ice cream is gluten free…..;O)
Wait a second – my alarm went off this morning. I don’t think I’m dreaming.
*looks out window*
Volcanoes aren’t erupting, the streets aren’t flooded with molten lava, and from what I can tell, everything seems business as usual.
The Mayanpocalypsearmeggedonacaust didn’t happen. We’re all still here!!!!!!
High Five!
But be weary my friends – we’re still not out of the woods yet. The day is still young, and you never know when s*** is going to hit the fan.
If things do get real, and you’re forced to fight for your life, whether it be killing a grizzly bear with your nunchucks for your next meal, protecting your family from evil doers, or I don’t know, something less “doom and gloom” like clicking “next” whenever your Pandora station plays a Coldplay song……are you prepared?
Are you in enough ass-kicking shape to do what you need to do to get s*** done? Can you – WILL YOU – survive if you had to go all Snake Plissken on people’s asses?
Well just in case, earlier this week my boy, John Romaniello, released his latest training program:
I know some reading are going to dismiss this product due to the “less than serious” premise. To that I say:
1. Relax! Don’t take yourself so seriously.
AND
2. There’s actually a legitimate rationale behind it.
John, along with every other well-known fitness professional I know, routinely gets questions asking his opinion on CrossFit (myself included).
It’s a touchy topic to say the least, and something that has caused a rift between strength coaches, personal trainers, and fitness enthusiasts alike.
On one end of the spectrum you have those who swear by it, and literally eat, drink, breath, and LIVE by CrossFit.
On the other, you have those who loathe it, think it’s a fad, and that it’s hopefully going away. Like, soon.
Well, it’s not going away. And while I’ll be the first to admit that I too have my qualms with CrossFit, I also understand that it’s getting people excited to exercise, and there’s a lot to be said for that. How can I possibly poo-poo on that?
Like John I feel the idea of CrossFit is sound – it’s just that its execution is flawed.
To his credit John has been attending at least one CrossFit class a week for the past few months to try to get a better understanding and feel for what the culture is like.
And, not surprisingly, he’s mentioned several times that there are great coaches and absolutely terrible coaches.
The great coaches – and by extension, the most successful CF boxes – understand that it comes down to sound programming. They take the time to properly coach their clients and use appropriate exercise progressions (and more importantly, regressions) to “guide” them through.
By contrast, the terrible coaches – and unfortunately this seems to be the rule rather than the exception – focus solely on the workouts. How can we completely obliterate our athletes/clients and make them hate life? How can we – fingers crossed! – make them cough up their spleen?
The latter is what I 100% disagree with, and what I feel gives CrossFit its bad rap.
So what did Roman do? He started taking CrossFit classes to see if he could fix it.
To quote the man himself:
“I thought to myself, “what if you took the idea of CrossFit–the idea of non-
specification,the idea of having a high level of general proficiency across the
board, and appliedintelligent programming–with a classic Roman twist–to
that idea…what would you get?”
It’s a good question, and one worth exploring. So that’s what I did.
Because really, when you strip away the fun and silliness, that’s what ZAW really is: my take on CrossFit. It’s CrossFit, Roman style, with all of the issues with programming fixed.”
Fittingly, today is the last day of the sale, so if you’re interested you better hurry. The walking dead could be right around the corner……;o)
Along with Bret Contreras, Ben Bruno, Dean Somerset, Tim Henriques, and Dan Trink, I was asked to contribute to this awesome pull-up article that was put up on T-Nation yesterday.
If we were a boy band, we’d totally be the most diesel boy band ever.
I wrote a blog post a while back titled The Perfect Warm-Up? It was nothing revolutionary, but it cemented my thoughts on what I felt the purpose of a proper warm-up is, and then I offered a different spin on it.
Well, in THIS article – which should be titled The FOR REAL Perfect Warm-Up – Mike breaks everything down from what the warm-up should accomplish for each segment of the body to providing videos of all of his favorite drills. This is a MUST read.
It’s pretty much set and stone (and if I’m not mistaken, the 14th Law of Physics) that anything with the word dynamite in it’s title is the epitome of baller and automatically increases its “badass” factor exponentially.
Two examples that immediately pop into my head are Napoleon Dynamite and Black Dynamite – both of which, respectively, are hilarious movies that I feel should be required viewing for everyone.
Now, just imagine what happens when you place the word DEADLIFT in front of DYNAMITE.
Like whoa. That much awesome certainly can’t be contained, and I believe a whole lotta Gangnam Style just hit you smack dab in the face.
I’ve been hinting at this one for a while now, and I don’t feel as if I need to sit here and really “sell” people on this manual. I mean, everyone who knows me and reads this site consistently knows that I love me some deadlifts.
And Matt Damon, but that’s for another time.
I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy a few weeks ago, and to be perfectly honest it actually exceeded my expectations.
In fact, the title of the manual is a little misleading because it’s not just about the deadlift at all. Everything from honing technique on the “big 3” (deadlift, bench press, squat) to programming ideas to corrective strategies on improving posture are covered. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
In a nutshell it’s about improving performance; it’s about preventing injury; and more to the point, it’s about getting strong as a s***!
If that’s something you’re interested in then I’d highly suggest checking it out. It’s a game changer for sure!
Every so often (read: all….the….time) I come across an exercise or exercise variation that someone else made up or invented and the first thing that crosses my mind is how brilliant that person is for thinking up something so spectaculous.*
Not surprisingly, soon thereafter the second thought that hits me like a ton of bricks is how much of an numbskull I am for never having thought of it myself.
One such moment came about a year ago when I read something from Dan John about “batwing” rows (see picture just above). For those unfamiliar, basically you perform a standard chest supported row and then HOLD the retracted position for a certain amount of time. The idea is to increase time under tension and to strengthen the scapular retractors – something most trainees can never get enough of anyways.
It was a fantastic concept, and something I implemented with a few of my own clients almost immediately.
Fast forward to within the last few weeks where Ben Bruno has taken the same concept and added his own spin to it, which, of course, made me feel like an idiot (seriously, why can’t I ever think of something so cool?).
…..but unlike times past, Ben’s thinking outside of the box prowess, gave me an idea:
Half Kneeling Cable Batwing/Pulldown
Who Did I Steal It From: I’d like to take full credit for this one, but again, I have to give props to Ben for giving me the idea for the exercise. Too, giving added credit where it’s due: Mike Boyle wrote a fantastic article last week on t-nation where he expanded on a few similar variations, which served as a precursor to this blog post.
What Does It Do: This is an excellent exercise which trains the middle and lower traps, as well as the rhomboids and lats (of course). As a nice corollary, by doing this in a half-kneeling position, you also get the side benefit of performing a active stretch on hip flexors of the trailing leg. In short, while it may look like a simple exercise – and it is – you get a lot of bang for your training buck.
Key Coaching Cues: As far as the “batwing” portion is concerned, whichever leg is UP is the side you’ll pull to and hold. Here, you want to focus on pushing your chest forward and holding that scapulae in a retracted position.
With the opposite arm, you’ll perform the allotted repetitions focusing on keeping the shoulder blade depressed the entire time – do not go into scapular anterior tilt! In addition, you’ll also want to “dig” the toes of the trailing leg into the ground and squeeze the same side glute – HARD – to get more of a co-contraction in the hip flexor.
Perform 8-10 repetitions, then switch sides and repeat the same process on the opposite side.
* = HA! I just made up a word. Take that people who are smarter than me!
