CategoriesExercise Technique Motivational

How to Increase Your Strength and Performance Instantly (

“Arch your back!”

“Okay, now extend your hips at the top.”

“Um, uh, push your knees out.”

” Oh, don’t forget to brace your abs, too.”

These were cues one of our new interns were giving an athlete the other day while trying to coach him through his very first deadlift session.

It wasn’t going well, and I could tell said intern was getting a little perplexed as to why things weren’t going to plan or falling into place.  No matter which cues he used the athlete resembled more of a melting candle than someone who was “getting” the exercise.

At one point I was half-expecting him to blurt out, “okay, I got it! Stand-up, hop on one leg, pat your head, and say the alphabet backwards!”

Obviously that didn’t happen (and if it did I probably would have laughed), but it’s something I think a lot of trainers and coaches (new and old) struggle with on a daily basis.  And that’s CUEING!!!

Or, to be more specific: using internal cues when external cues would be more beneficial and worthwhile.

This is something we’ve been more cognizant of at Cressey Performance and paying more attention to, and it’s been working like a charm with many of our athletes and general population clients.

And we’re not the only ones.  A few weeks ago I was forwarded an article by Armi Legge of Impruvism.com that he wrote titled How a Simple Mind Trick Can Make You Stronger in Seconds, which breaks down the science behind the efficacy of using external foci over internal.

I won’t spoil the entire article (you can click the link above), but in his own words Amri breaks it down like this :

An internal focus of attention means you’re thinking about your body movements. Your legs when squatting, your arms when doing chin-ups, your chest when benching, etc.

An external focus means you’re focusing on something in your environment that’s relevant to your task. If you’re squatting, this would mean focusing on the bar or on pushing the bar towards the ceiling.

This is an incredibly subtle difference, but it can have a huge impact on your performance. In some cases, researchers will give one group instructions that only differ by one or two words.

In a study using a vertical jump test, here were the instructions:

Internal focus: “Focus on your fingers.”

External focus: “Focus on the rungs.”

The latter option is better. Research has consistently shown that an external focus improves motor learning, strength, coordination, and performance across a wide range of activities and ability levels.

And as such this is EXACTLY the road we’re travelling down more and more at the facility using more external cues when coaching something through their session.

Some quick examples:

Deadlift

Internal Cue:  Arch your back, get your chest up.

External Cue: Show me the logo on your shirt.

Internal Cue: Push your hips back

External Cue:  Try to hit the wall behind you with your hips.

Squat

Internal Cue: Push your knees out.

External Cue: Spread the floor with your feet.

Internal Cue: Grip the bar tight.

External Cue:  Try to melt the bar with your hands.

Bench Press

Internal Cue: Push the bar up.

External Cue: Try to hit the ceiling.

Med Ball Throws

** Particularly when trying to get them to throw the ball with some anger!

Internal Cue: Use your hips to throw the ball.

External Cue:  Pretend someone just took a massive shit on your car and now you’re pissed.

Note:  If I’m working with a young athlete I might say something along the lines of “pretend Voldemort actually defeated Harry Potter,” or something to that affect.

And it’s really that simple.  While we’re often under the impression that we need to a bunch of smoke and mirrors in order to see marked improvements in the gym, sometimes it’s just a matter of using a simple Jedi mind trick.

Try it today, and let me know what you think!

**Photo credit above (coach) to elitefts.com.

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7 Simple Ways to Become a Better Coach

The other day while sitting through a staff meeting, we were discussing the incoming intern class and how we want to approach this summer’s staff in-service schedule.

Every week one of the staff members sits down with the interns to talk about “stuff.” This can range from anything from exercise technique to troubleshooting program design to why listening to techno during a squat session increases one’s testosterone levels by roughly 317%.

Give or take a couple of percentage points.

In an effort to “open up” the discussion, we often ask the interns what they would like to see covered.   Almost always, they’ll want to discuss assessment straight away.

Not that this is a bad thing, of course.  Assessment is an important component of what we do, and it’s undoubtedly a key factor in terms of molding an individual’s training career. But lets be honest: for most incoming trainers, at least in my eyes, it’s more crucial to learn how to actually coach before we start discussing the variables behind femoral acetabular impingement.

Having the ability to coach someone through a proper push-up or trap bar deadlift – at least in the beginning stages – is far more important to me from a mentoring standpoint than having the ability to discern whether or not someone has ample ankle dorsiflexion.

To that end, today I have a guest post from another former Cressey Performance intern – now strength coach – Dave Rak (AKA:  Rak City) who, after discussing this topic with him the other day, decided to write a post on it.  Enjoy/Yankees suck!

7 Simple Ways to Become a Better Coach

Strength & conditioning is an amazing career field.  We get to go to work everyday and positively impact peoples lives by getting them healthier, stronger, and eventually turning them into unstoppable finely tuned killing machines.  Basically, its the greatest job in the world (well the guy who takes pictures of hot chicks for Sports Illustrated has sweet job too, but I digress).

The unique things about strength & conditioning is that it’s an ever evolving field where we are constantly learning and trying to get better at our profession.  There are thousands of books, DVDs, seminars, and conferences dedicated to continuing education.  What was the last book you read, DVD you watched, or conference you attended about?

I’ll take a wild guess and say it was about training, anatomy, or something along those lines.  Let me ask you another question, when was the last time you read a book, watched a DVD, or went to a conference that was dedicated strictly to the art of coaching?

If you can’t answer this question put down the book on training for a second and go read some coaching books.  I’m not saying don’t educate yourself on exercise science and training but find a proper balance between your strength training education and your coaching education.

Don’t forget our job title is strength & conditioning COACH (I used capital letters there so you know it’s kind of a big deal).  Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the science of strength training that we neglect the fact that we are still coaches and we have to deal with our athletes in a practical setting.

You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you can’t coach yourself out of a wet paper bag then what good is that knowledge?  Bottom line, you have to be able to flat out coach, if you can’t, then all those seminars and certifications won’t do you and your athletes any good.  Here are 7 simple ways to improve your coaching.

1. Observe Other Coaches

Working at Boston University I’ve had the opportunity to observe our varsity coaches during practices and I am grateful because it’s given me the opportunity to learn a lot from observing so many different coaching styles.

Just go to a practice and bring a note book.  Forget about the athletes for a second and watch the coaches carefully.  When I observed our men’s basketball coach I left with two pages of notes, and that was just from one short practice.  Pay attention to how other coaches cue their athletes, how they gain and keep their athletes attention, even how they change their tone of voice in certain situations.  You can learn a lot from closely observing others.

2. Remember It Is About More Than Just Strength Training

As a coach you can interact with hundreds of athletes everyday.  You will have an impact on these athletes lives whether you realize it or not.  Are you going to make a positive impact or a negative impact?

If I can help an athlete feel better about themselves, gain confidence, and instill some positive character traits as a result of my coaching then I did my job.  To me that is just as important as increasing their physical ability.  Nothing is more satisfying then an athlete giving you a card or emailing you to thank you for influencing their life in a positive way.

Note from TG:  It’s as Mike Boyle has famously said:  no one cares how much you know, till they know how much you care.

3. Videotape Yourself Coaching

This is an exercise I performed in one of my graduate classes at BU and found it very helpful.  Have someone video tape you when you coach so you can see how you are perceived by others.

Watch yourself carefully, you may be surprised with what you see.  Ask yourself, do I look angry when I coach? What does my body language say? Do I look nervous or confident? Do I have a strong presence and command the room, or do I blend in with my athletes? Do my biceps look big in this shirt? How do my athletes see me?  Getting feedback on your coaching “etiquette” will be a huge factor on improving how you actually coach.

4. Don’t Be One Dimensional/Know Your Athletes

Some athletes need to be yelled at and will respond well to authoritative coaching, while others will shut down.  Know what way is best to interact with your players.  Do they respond better to verbal cues or visual cues, what motivates them?

How will you get the most out of your athletes when they walk into the weight room exhausted from a long practice and difficult day at school?  This is the art of coaching.  A good coach knows his team and is able to use many different coaching styles throughout a session to get the most out of their athletes.

5. Read More Coaching Related Material

At the end of the day you’re a coach, and to be an effective strength & conditioning coach you need to find a healthy balance between reading material as it relates to program design and making better athletes as well as reading books that will hone your coaching skills. By learning more about the art of coaching you’ll be able to compliment your exercise science knowledge and become a well rounded coach.

Recommend reading:

My Losing Season– it’s a great book that basically shows you what not to do as a coach.

The Skillful Teacher: Building Your Teaching Skills – this book is full of attention getting moves, learning principles, and numerous learning models that can easily be implemented in your coaching.

Understanding Sports Coaching: The Social, Cultural, and Pedagogical Foundations of Coaching Practice 2nd Edition – the title says it all, nuff’ said.

6. Get Out There And Coach!

The best way to become a better coach is to actually coach and learn from your experiences.  The more experience you accumulate the better you will become.

 7. Give Back

This is something every coach needs to do.  You do not become a better coach by yourself.  Yes, you put the effort into becoming better, but don’t forget about the coach that let you into their practice so you could observe and learn.

This is an example of giving back.

I have been mentored by several great coaches and I would not be where I am at today without them.  Guess what? My mentors where mentored by someone when they where younger, too.

Pay it forward.  When you make it as a coach and are approached by

Author’s Bio

David Rak is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA (CSCS).  He is currently a Graduate Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at Boston University pursuing his Master’s Degree in Coaching.  Dave oversees Wrestling, Women’s Golf, and Women’s Novice Rowing and also assists with Men’s Basketball and Men’s Soccer.  He received his Bachelor’s in Exercise Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and completed internships at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning and Cressey Performance.  Upon his completion of his internship at MBSC, he continued to work part time at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning for 2 and a half years while he finished his undergraduate degree.  This summer Dave will be interning with the South Carolina Gamecocks Football team before returning to Boston University for his final year as a Graduate Assistant.  Dave can be reached at [email protected].

 

 

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The Power of Touch: Where Some Trainers Miss the Boat

When we were down in Florida a few weeks ago on vacation, even though a bulk of our time was spent vegging by the pool eating honey wheat pretzels (me) and drinking martinis (Lisa), we still made it a priority to find a gym to train at so that we could 1) burn off said transgressions mentioned above, and more importantly 2) get our diesel on.

I know what some of you may be thinking:  dude, it’s vacation…….chill out! It’s okay not to train for a few days!

I couldn’t agree more, and if it’s any consolation we did have a “day of beauty” (her words, not mine) at the spa where we enjoyed massages and other “stuff” that I won’t mention here for fear of  having my man card revoked.

Truth be told both Lisa and I LOVE training and it just wouldn’t sit right with us if we didn’t move around a little bit and lift some heavy things.

After a day or two of not working out, we’d definitely have some withdrawals!

So every morning we’d wake up and head to the gym.

Now, knowing that we were going to be training at a commercial gym for four days, I had to mentally prepare myself for the incessant bleeding of the corneas I was going to experience.  And, as predicted, I wasn’t disappointed.  I saw a lot – nay, a shit-ton – of things that made me shake my head is disbelief.

  • Some guy placed a stability ball in between his legs while setting up to bench press.  He’d un-rack the bar, and then proceeded to press and swing his legs simultaneously.  That was interesting.
  • Another gentleman stood on an inverted BOSU ball and performed standing cable bicep curls.  Even worse, he was demonstrating to a young, impressionable teenage boy how to do the same.  I wanted so badly to walk over, grab the kid by the elbow, place him in front of a bar on the floor, and introduce him to deadlifts.

When all is said and done, I can’t fault random patrons for doing whatever it is that they do. People don’t know any better, and at the end of the day at least they’re doing something.

Where I really get angry, though, is when I watch inept personal trainers completely waste people’s time (and money).  Now, I don’t want to make this entire post some diatribe on all the epic fails I witnessed and why a vast majority of trainers have no business being trainers.

That’s been done time and time again and really serves no purpose on making the industry any better.

Although I did watch a male trainer take his female client through some of the worst 1/4 squats I have ever seen in the smith machine, only to load the bar with waaaay too much weight, and then watch as she conveniently crashed to the floor when she made the mistake of going too low on one particular rep.

Clearly embarrassed, he then took her over to the leg press – loaded with FOUR plates per side – and did 1/4 ROM leg presses.  Brilliant!

I could easily write 4000 words on all the nonsensical things I saw trainers do while I was down there.

But who am I to judge?

I mean, maybe there was a legit reason why a middle-aged woman who was 30 lbs overweight (and could barely walk without limping) needed to work on her “bicep peak” – which is something I overheard a trainer commenting on as he was showing a client how to twist her wrist a certain way during a rope bicep curl.

I doubt it, but hey, you never know.

While I’m sure you can sense the small tone of cynicism I’m throwing down, again, at least they’re doing something.

What really disturbed me – amongst everything else – was the lack of coaching being done.  More specifically, the lack of touching.

Not the Creepy McCreepypants kind of touching.

Rather the kind of touching which demonstrates that some coaching is being done.

As an example, I watched one trainer time a client through a set of prone planks.  Easy enough right?  It’s a simple exercise that, when done correctly, demonstrates that a client has ample lumbo-pelvic-hip control, in addition to demonstrating that they can resist extension.  Normally, it looks like this:

The anterior core is braced, the glutes are squeezed and the entire posterior is in a straight line.  If a dowel rod was placed on his or her back, as pictured above, there should be three points of contact:  the back of the head, the middle of the shoulder blades, as well as the sacrum. If at any point form falters – whether it be the lumbar spine dipping or the upper back rounding – proper feedback should be given to correct it, and if the client can’t sustain it, the set ends.

In the case above with the trainer, what I saw was anything but.

The client was looking straight a head rather than down, and was literally hanging on his lumbar spine in extension. It was painful to watch. Meanwhile all the trainer was doing was looking at his wrist watch completely disinterested, counting down the seconds blurting out things like “good, only a few more seconds.  Keep it up!”

There was no effort whatsoever to correct form.  He gave no kinesthetic feedback with his hands nor looked like he could care less that the client was completely butchering the exercise.

Sad.

Compare that to what I would have done, and what I advocate ALL trainers do:  GET YOUR HANDS ON THEM!!!!!!!!  Or, to be less creepy……use more tactile cuing.

  • Gently tap the stomach to get them to engage their anterior core.
  • Gently tap the glutes to get them to fire and to promote more posterior pelvic tilt.
  • Gently push down on the mid-back to get them into more of a neutral spinal position.
  • Tell them to tuck their chin.  If they don’t understand, use your hands to put them in the position you want them in.
  • In the end, be PROACTIVE.  COACH YOUR CLIENTS!!!!!!

Of course, and this goes without saying, it takes practice and experience to learn how to coach people.  Even more time to get comfortable enough to put your hands on them and build a rapport with them to get to that point.

Not too long ago, I had a distance coaching client come to Cressey Performance for an in-house assessment, and one of the things he complimented me most on was the fact that I was very hands on with him.  Here’s an email he sent to me a few days afterwards:

One of my pet peeves as a physician is when I see a patient who has been “examined” by another doctor and the patient tells me that previously their doc sat behind his desk for the entire exam and never touched the patient. Unbelievable but it happens all the time to patients I see.

Kudos to you because you were very hands on (appropriately) in our training session. I think touch by the trainer (and ART and massage count here too) is as important for trainers to do as it is for physicians.

Just some positive feedback on one aspect of our session that you nailed.

I think a lot of trainers are unaware or afraid to touch their clients – and there are a minority of them who don’t like/want to be touched – but the majority of us are ‘tactophiles.’ Meaning, a large part of how we learn is through touch.

To help elucidate more on the topic, I leave you with a TED talk that my client sent me by Abraham Verghese which I found hit the nail on the head.

 

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Coaching Etiquette: The Grey Area of the Commercial Gym Setting

I’m lucky that I live in a strength and conditioning bubble that allows me the ability (and luxury) to control pretty much everything around me.  With the exception of the music – which is a never ending battle of techno vs. rap vs. country vs. metal vs. Katy Perry my ears are bleeding – as a coach and part-owner of my own facility I have a large say in the everyday shenanigans (for lack of a better term) that goes down.

Between myself, the other two coaches (Eric Cressey and Chris Howard), and our interns, every warm-up drill, every sprint drill, every exercise, every set and rep, EVERY PROGRAM is supervised – meticulously. While I don’t want to sound like I’m blowing sunshine up our own ass – although that’s exactly what I’m doing – seemingly, we’re doing something right, and I like to think we’re doing our part in cementing proper exercise habits and techniques along the way.

One of the best compliments we can receive as a staff is when other fitness professionals stop by to observe and they go out of their way to commend us on how well coached our athletes and clients are.

It happens all the time.  And I’m proud of that fact.

People squat to proper depth; their deadlifts don’t make my spine start hyperventilating; they know how to perform a push-up correctly; they know that a chin-up really means sternum-up; there’s absolutely no cell phones allowed on the gym floor; and there’s certainly no curling in the squat rack.  Unless your last name rhymes with Smeshshmentilore. In that case, it’s totally pimp.

Like I said, I live in a pretty sweet bubble where I can control things, and people, more often than not, do things right….and get strong and swole to boot.

And then, I go to a commercial gym, and I’m immediately reminded how much I want to throw an ax into my face.

Now, before I continue, let me just say that I’ve been trying to make more of a concerted effort to stop drinking the haterade.

Busting on commercial gyms is easy, and in a lot of ways played out. It serves no purpose than to feed the fire and make me come across as kind of douchey.  Besides, not all commercial gyms are created equal, and I know of plenty who do it right (ahem, Dean Somerset), actually take some pride in their craft, and go out of their way to actually help their members and demonstrate that they care for their well-being.  In my experience, however, those are few and far between.

Because I live in the city, I have easy access to numerous commercial gyms.  As such, on the off chance that I don’t go into CP on any given day – like this past Tuesday for instance – it makes it convenient to still get a lift in.

It’s inevitable that I’m going to see stupid stuff while I’m there.  I’m prepared for that.  There’s the woman who hangs upside down off the bars and then proceeds to perform some sort of core training/circus act. There’s the guy performing 1-legged DB lateral raises – off a BOSU ball.  And there’s the two meat-heads performing 57 variations of chest presses.

As a coach I can’t help myself but observe. It’s ingrained in me. Still, I realize that (most) people don’t know any better, and in any event, at least they’re doing something. I just shrug it off, turn up my iPod, and move on with my life.

It’s when I watch some of the trainers in action that I get furious. Half the time, I feel as if the client would be better off taking their money and flushing it down the toilet.

Almost always, technique is just AWFUL! I don’t care who you are, or how many letters you have next to your name, if your client is deadlifting with a rounded back, and you don’t correct it,  you lose all credibility in my eyes.

I watched one trainer actually demonstrate with a rounded back, and then proceed to allow his client to do the same. Encouraging him along the way.

Moreover, I watched a female trainer take her female client through an entire session using nothing heavier than a ten lb dumbbell. Jesus, I’m willing ot bet the woman’s purse is heavier than ten lbs!

Really?  10 lbs?

I don’t know, maybe they were training for the National Paper Weight Carrying championship.  Specificity, right?

Or what about this exchange I overhead from a female TRAINER getting trained from her male counterpart.

Dude Trainer (putting her on the Smith Machine to perform RDLs):  Okay, so now we’re going to target the medial hamstring.

***I have no idea how performing RDLs in the Smith Machine somehow targets the medial hamstring. Whatever.

Female Trainer:  okay, so what are we going to do after this?

Dude Trainer:  Walking lunges

Female Trainer:  You mean, with weight?

Unbelievable. I wanted nothing more than to turn around and scream…….”YES, with weight!!”

But I didn’t, of course.  It wasn’t my place to do so.

When I got home that afternoon, I posted a ‘status’ update on my Facebook Wall describing the above exchange, and someone responded with:

How do you feel about critiquing people? Especially because of your expertise in the field?

To which I replied:

I don’t offer ANY unsolicited advice when I train at commercial gyms. I get asked questions all the time, and when that happens, I’m all for giving my opinion. Of course, as a coach, I can’t help but observe (and shake my head sometimes), but I’d NEVER go out of my way to openly chastise someone. Especially another trainer.

This isn’t to say I’ve never helped someone out. On numerous occasions I’ve been approached by other patrons, and was more than willing to offer some insight or words of encouragement.  Several times, I’ve actually coached people through their deadlifts or squats.  But then again, they asked.  It’s not like I walked up to them with an “holier than thou” attitude and started drilling them.

Sure, there’s ways to be subtle, especially if it looks like someone is going to break their back in half……

But it brings up an interesting conversation:  what’s crossing the line?

When is it acceptable to step in and offer unsolicited advice?  For me, it’s a VERY grey area, and something that’s more or less a case-by-case scenario.

What are you thoughts?  I’d be interested in hearing them.

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 1/13/12

It’s been a busy week in both my professional and personal life.  We’re seemingly bursting at the seams at the facility getting everyone ready for the upcoming baseball season.  Many of the college guys who are home on their breaks will be heading back to school starting next week though, so it should slow down a bit and allow us an opportunity to come up for air.

Likewise, in a few short weeks, many of our pro-baseball guys will be making their way south (or west) for Spring Training.  It’s hard to believe that it’s only like four weeks away, but there’s still plenty of intense work and sweat to be had.

What’s more, many of our high school and general population clients are working equally as hard.  Yesterday alone we had a few people set some deadlifting PRs – Congrats to Lisa V!

On a more personal level, I have some pretty cool things in the works:

1.  In about a week or two, you should see some changes to the website.  Now, I’m not going to go all Facebook on you and add some lame scrolling ticker that everyone hates  – RELAX!! Rather, I’m just making some aesthetic changes to site while upgrading some of the social media, in addition to………..DRUM ROLL PLEASE…………….

…….implementing a newsletter!

EC, Smitty, Kevin Neeld, and pretty much everyone else I know has been busting my chops for eons for not having a newsletter in place, and I’ve finally decided to put my big-boy pants on and run with it.

2.  It seems that my resolution to do more speaking engagements has caught fire.  Currently, I have 3-4 events tentatively lined up, and more in the works.  Sweet!  I’ll keep you posted.  Or, better yet, once it’s available, you can sign up for my newsletter (hint hint).

3.  I’m going on vacation!!!!!!  Lisa and I booked a flight for Florida in March, and it can’t come soon enough – I’m about as white as a Coldplay concert right now.

There are some other things going on as well:  I started a creative non-fiction writing class earlier this week (Note to my editors: I can’t promise less grammatical errors), I pulled 500×4 last night AFTER eight hours of coaching, my cat is sitting on my lap as I type this post (such a cute kittie!!!), and I brushed my teeth like ten minutes ago.  So there you go. You’re caught up.

On that note, here’s this week’s stuff to read:

 Are You Making This Critical Corrective Exercise Mistake – Nick Tumminello

Coaches need to coach, and NOT get too caught up in this whole concept of “corrective exercise.” Too often, trainers and coaches get cute with their assessments and programming and fail to do the ONE thing that’s most important:  cue and coach their clients!

I thought this was a fantastic video blog by Nick, and is something we try to instill on our interns at Cressey Performance on a routine basis.

Assessments are mandatory, no doubt.  Corrective exercise – when indicated – IS important, obviously.  But more importantly, having the ability to demonstrate, cue, and coach a client through any given exercise is kind of a big deal, and is a characteristic that’s often overlooked.

Keep it simple people……COACH!

The Recovery Day Workout – PJ Striet

You can’t be a rock star everyday.  Sorry, it’s just the truth.  This is never more evident than in the weight room. For a vast majority of trainees out there, many are under the impression that “more is better,” and that even if they feel like they’ve gotten run over by a mack truck of fail, they should still train through it.

This is dumb.

I’ve touched on this topic before in the past, but here, my good buddy PJ elaborates a little further and provides some killer circuits to boot. Check it out!

Why Do You Train Your Clients – Lee Boyce

WOW.  Just wow.  Amazing article by Lee which asks the question:  do you educate your clients or just collect their money?

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Sometimes the Little Things DO Matter

We’ve all heard the adage, “don’t sweat the small stuff.”  Taking it a step further, we’ve even gone so far as to say – at least in the gym setting – that those people who focus more on the minutia are doing nothing more than spinning their wheels.

Take for example the guy who walks into the gym at 150 lbs soaking wet, and has always struggled to put on weight.  Rather than, you know, walk over to the squat rack and use it for its intended purpose (squats), he sets up shop to get his bicep curl on – usually spending an entire hour training a muscle the size of a tennis ball.  Makes a lot of sense, right?

Or, what about the female who, despite being 15 lbs overweight and admittedly sick and tired of always trying to lose those extra pounds, walks into the gym and spends the next 60 minutes on the elliptical machine watching Days of Our Lives.

Conventional wisdom would tell her that despite what the machine says, she didn’t just burn 750 calories (for the record, you’re an idiot if you really think those machines are accurate), and that her time would have been better spent performing some form of resistance training and interval work.  And, even more importantly, it probably wouldn’t hurt if she skip the Dunkin Donuts pit stop afterwards.  Just sayin…….

Basically, in short, when it comes to exercise, or life in general for that matter, people tend to spend the bulk of their time focusing on the small, intricate things that probably won’t even matter in the first place.  Like the guy who’s struggling to put weight on, yet is concerned about his bicep peak; or the girl who’s struggling to take weight off, yet has been doing the same, boring, cardio routine since 1998.

At the expense of back pedaling a little bit, though, sometimes, focusing on the small things does make a difference.

Much like a director spending half the day trying to perfect the lighting to get that one aesthetic shot on camera; or the nuclear physicist triple checking his math to make sure the world doesn’t shit itself; or just doing something as simple as trapping your fart underneath the covers as sign to your significant other that you love them – it’s the small things can make all the difference in the world.

The world of strength and conditioning is no different.   I can’t tell you how many times during the day I tell someone to tuck their chin while deadlifting, to sit back more on their squats, or to stop shrugging during their seated rows FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY!!!!!!!

People want to train hard, and I can respect and appreciate that.   Hell, I want that; I strive for that.  But oftentimes, when the “go hard or go home” mentality starts to take over, the little things tend to get thrown to the wayside.

Knees start caving in on squats.  Elbows start flaring out during benching.  Backs start to round just a smidge more during deadlifts.  Athletes start compensating with more lumbar rotation during med ball drills.  It’s a slippery slope to take, and one that I’m not too comfortable traveling down as a coach.

The last thing I want is for another coach or trainer to walk into our facility and freak the freak out when he or she watches our athletes train.   Kinda like what would happen if I walked in and saw this circus going on.  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So, in the end, I guess all I’m trying to say is this:  While it’s true that many people tend to place too much emphasis on minutia – as coaches, it’s often what’s needed in order to be successful in the long run.  Sometimes, the small things DO matter.

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A Little Consistency Never Hurt Anyone

The other day I was watching one of our athletes squat, and noticed he was having a little trouble.  Okay, maybe a lot of trouble. Alright, truth be told, I felt like pouring battery acid into my eyes, it was that bad – but, whatever.

Now, I could have been super anal and pointed out 18 different things that were wrong:  get your air, keep your chest tall, pull the bar down, sit back, push your knees out, eyes forward, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

But, in the end, all that would really accomplish is nothing other than to make him feel frustrated, confused, and not a real big fan of mine from the coaching side of things.

So, instead, what I decided to do was to focus on one (maybe two) things that I felt were the biggest “redflags and that’s it.  While it sounds counterintuitive, by ONLY working on one thing at a time, many of the other issues tend to fix themselves automatically.

For example, on his very next set all I told him to do was “focus on keeping your chest out (or tall).  Pretend you’re on a beach, and there are a bunch of hot chicks playing volleyball and/or giving each other tickle fights – show them that steel plate you have for a chest.”

By focusing on that one thing, he was then able to get decent thoracic extension and maintain a better arch throughout his next set.  Success!  I’m awesome.

Looking at the broader picture, though, it comes down to consistency and having a routine.   Sure we can break down every lift to the most mundane detail, but I watch some of our guys or even random people at commercial gyms train, and see no consistency.  More specifically, no two sets look the same:  one set they’re setting up one-way, and the next, it looks completely different – either their foot placement is off, or maybe they’re looking in a different direction altogether.  There’s no focus, and that’s a problem.

Bluntly speaking, how do you expect to build rock solid technique if, on every other set, there’s no continuity and things are completely out of whack?

Lets use myself as an example.  Here’s my first warm-up set with 145 lbs on the trap bar deadlift from the other day:

NOTE:  I wouldn’t crank this one too loud if you’re at work due to the background music – EAR MUFFS!!!

Now take a look at my first “work set” at 450 lbs (which was done after going 235×3, 325×3, 415×3 on subsequent warm-up sets):

And, here’s my last work set at 570 lbs:

Note:  Yes, I realize I didn’t get my hips though quite all the way on those reps.  Yes, I’m calling myself out.  Yes, I’m still one sexy bastard either way.

Every set was the same:  how I approached the bar, how I adjusted my feet, where I kept my arms, how many breaths I took before descending, hell, even my little Jack Parkman butt wiggle that makes all the ladies swoon (props if you get that reference) stayed consistent with every set. 

So, the question then becomes:  are YOU being consistent?