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Best Articles of 2016: Exercises You Should Be Doing

This is the last post of 2016. Unbelievable. To cap off the “Year in Review” I wanted to highlight the most popular posts from my Exercises You Should Be Doing series.

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But first, a brief aside.

Stuff to Check Out Before You Read Stuff

1. COREssentials

Beginning in mid-January 2017 I’ll be offering a new 6-week “beginner course” at CORE, called COREessentials. Get it?

The idea is to champion FOUR things:

1. Building Autonomy
2. Building Accountability
3. Building Competency
4. Building Community
5. BONUS: to build you into one sexy motherfucker.

Okay, that’s five things…but hopefully you get the idea. The program is going to target beginner level lifters who may either be lost in their training – just kind of haphazardly piecing together workouts with no rhyme or reason – or who may be intimidated altogether with the idea of strength training. The umbrella goal is to build focus and purpose with training.

The Deets

START DATE: Mid-January, 2017. Likely Monday, January 16th.

1. Groups will meet 2x per week at CORE (250 Cypress St, Brookline, MA) in predetermined AM and PM time slots.

2. Sessions will be 60-75 minutes in length and each one will be supervised by strength coach Jarrod Dyke, CSCS (I’ll be making cameo appearances as well and will be involved with the programming). The course will stress the basics – teaching participants various bodyweight, kettlebell, and (sometimes) barbell based movements designed to set the stage for continued success and growth (you know, that autonomy thing mentioned above).

3. There will also be a nutrition/mindset component as well. Shannon Wheel, a Boston-based Registered Dietitian, will be holding a few sessions throughout the course of 6-weeks covering nutrition as well as helping participants develop behavioral-based habits to compliment the training.

Too, my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, a behavioral and exercise psychologist, will be offering a mindset component designed to augment the process. She’ll tackle what goes on in our heads, and how to best curtail the roadblocks and negative self-talk that often hampers progress.

4. Weekly “homework/reading” assignments will be part of the process, along with email correspondence from the coaches to help keep participants on task.

5. There will also be a lot of EDM and 90’s hip-hop played (if I’m coaching anyways), and the likelihood of spontaneous dance or rap battles breaking out will be very high.

If you’d like more information or you know someone in Boston who may be a good candidate for this program please use the “Contact” function HERE.

2. Appearance on The Movement Fix Podcast

I’ve been a big fan of Dr. Ryan DeBell for a while now and have had a crush on his work for about a year or so. I was pumped that he reached out recently to invite me onto his podcast. We recorded it earlier this week and it’s already live.

In it we discuss why I don’t offer discounted training, mistakes new trainers make, and my “weird” introduction to blogging. You can check it out HERE.

2016’s Best Exercises To Do

Stationary Bear Crawl

First of all I believe the Bear Crawl is one of those exercises that many people 1) perform wrong and 2) have no clue what the actual benefits are. They’re just told by their coach or CrossFit instructor to do them and off they go.1

In this article I describe what the benefits are and how you can perform them when you don’t have access to a lot of turf or space.

Barbell Seal Row

I love me some rows. Here’s a dandy of an exercise I started using this year that quickly became a favorite.

Barbell Rolling Squat

I love this variation as an accessory movement to hammer the quads. It’s killer.

Social Media Highlight (of the past week)

Twitter

Instagram

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Best Articles of 2016: My Picks

Yesterday I shared the Best Articles of 2016 according to my readers. You all have great taste, but today it’s my turn. Below are my picks of the best articles I wrote this past year.

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Lets Pump the Brakes Internet: No, Deadlifts Won’t Make Your Spine Explode. And No, Not Everyone Had To Do Them

The idea here was to speak against blanket statements. I hate when people say deadlifts are always dangerous and that everyone should avoid them. That’s just not true.

The Difference Between Good and Bad Stiffness

The common theme is that all muscular stiffness is bad. I’d argue it isn’t. The true answer is that “it depends.”

NOTE: Ironically, no penis jokes in this one….;O)

How to Make Your Programs Programs Your Clients Will Actually Follow

You write the most pristine program for a client, spend hours on it to the finest detail. Thing is: your client either doesn’t follow it or hates it.

Why?

How to Write Content That Will Get Read

It’s never been easier to be heard, but it’s never been harder to get heard.

Social media and blogs make it easy to get your stuff out there. However, it makes it easier for everyone else to do the same thing. Here are some thoughts on how you can get your shit read by more people.

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Best Articles of 2016: Reader’s Picks

2016 was another banner year for TonyGentilcore.com. It was the 3rd year in a row the site reached more than 1-million “sessions” and almost 2-million page views.1

Granted, Google and Facebook do those kind of numbers every minute (if not every second), but it’s still surreal to me that my site was visited more than a million times this past year. I mean, I don’t think my mom pressed the refresh button that many times.

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I am not an analytics guy. I don’t pay much attention to it to be honest. The only time I look at the numbers is during this time of year when I do the “Year in Review/Best Of” posts. It’s interesting: my traffic is pretty steady on a day-to-day basis, with obvious dips on the days I don’t post something (typically the weekends and Holidays). However, in looking at the data this morning the two highest traffic days this past year included posts that included a swear word in the title.

  • The “Real” vs. “BS” Hip Flexor Stretch
  • Becoming a Brick Shit House 201

This is good information for me. Basically, you can expect more swear words in titles in 2017. I don’t know, maybe something to the effect of:

  • Assessment: You Don’t Know Your Ass From Your Acetabulum
  • Shit People Do in the Gym That Make Me Want to Jump Into a Shark’s Mouth
  • Deadlifts? Dangerous? Motherfuckers Be Cra-Cra

** All are running titles of course and are subject to change.

Below are the top articles of 2016 according to which ones received the most traffic (you all obviously have impeccable taste).

Becoming a Brick Shit House 201

This was a 2-part interview I did with strength coach Pat Davidson. Pat’s a character, but I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. He’s one of the smartest guys I know and one of the more vocal coaches out there. I love it.

If you like rants and you like listening to people tell it how it is, then you’ll love this interview. You can also check out Part I HERE.

The “Real” vs. “BS” Hip Flexor Stretch

The title is self-explanatory.

This is one stretch I see people performing incorrectly all…the…time.

Striving to be More, Instead of Wanting to be Less: Why Strength Training is Perfect for Women

My humble contribution at helping to fight off the mainstream media’s incessant mission to program women into thinking strength training isn’t for them.

A Thoughtful Discussion on Low Back Sparing Strategies

As a fitness professional it’s inevitable you’re going to come across a client or athlete who’s dealing with low-back pain and shenanigans. This article provides some food for thought with regards to assessment and programming strategies for your consideration.

Check back tomorrow for MY picks for Best Articles of the Year.