Lisa and I moved in together coming up on three years ago now, and as much as we love our apartment and the neighborhood we reside in – Coolidge Corner – the one major drag about the place is that there’s no laundry room on premise.
It’s certainly not the end of the world, and I don’t like to consider myself someone who complains about trivial things – especially when there are people out there suffering FAR worse than myself. But still, I think I’ve come to conclusion that I hate doing laundry more than I hate a dumb Tracy Anderson quote.
And that’s saying a lot.
Lisa and I have an understanding, though, and we’ve done a really good job at “divying” up the chores around the house. She does the bulk of the cooking and food prep (okay, she does ALL of it), and I wash the dishes and make the two block trek down to the laundry mat – colors and whites in tow – every Sunday morning.
I’ve been doing it for a while now, and I still somehow manage to mess it up occasionally.
To quote her, “if it’s silky, satiny, or sexy…..it DOES NOT go into the dryer. FOR. THE. LOVE. OF. GOD.”
In three years I’ve managed to completely destroy only two blouses, two pair of dress pants, and a baker’s dozen of Lisa’s fancy underwear.
Not the greatest batting average in the world, but it’s definitely above the Mendoza line.
But no one reading really cares about mine and Lisa’s laundry woes. The point was to serve as a segue to today’s post.
I’ve been enjoying it like I enjoy a cup of delicious chai tea……………………Slowly!
I haven’t devoured it in one sitting, but rather, just reading at my own pace – namely, between spin cycles – taking in all the savory components as they come.
Yesterday I read the section where Coach John discussed the concept of Bus Bench Workouts vs. Park Bench Workouts, and thought it was one of those brilliant analogies/points that never dawned on me until that very moment.
To reiterate his point: the fitness industry does a bang-up job at selling full-throttle, death-march, total-commitment training concepts. And frankly, most of us can’t do that day in and day out.
To help elucidate his point, Dan referred to the Tale of Two Benches, by Archbishop George Niederauer.
Bus Bench
Anyone who’s familiar with “city life” knows how much public transportation can suck the life out of you. The Bus Bench fills us with expectation. We wait for the 5:13 bus, and if the 5:13 bust doesn’t arrive precisely at 5:13, we get anxious.
We….want….the…5:13….bus…..now!!!!
And if it doesn’t arrive at 5:13, but instead at 5:17……our day us ruined. Grab the Ben & Jerry’s!
Far too often this is how most people train. With too much urgency and a “I want it now” attitude. It has its place, mind you, but shouldn’t be a priority.
Park Bench
Conversely, the park bench is more casual, and goes with the flow.
We can relax (so-to-speak) and enjoy the ride.
We can sit and people watch if we want, or just sit and read a book, or just sit. There’s nothing wrong with that.
As Coach John noted in his book, most athletes (and non-athletes) tend to take the bus bench route. For athletes it goes like this:
On Saturday the 26th, I will defeat all who show up, break all my personal records, find perfection in all I do, and meet the person of my dreams.
For non-athletes it goes like this:
I have a class reunion/vacation/World of WarCraft Convention in July and I need to look gooood. I will go to the gym six times per week, train for a marathon, maybe hit up a CrossFit class or two when I can squeeze them in, between yoga class of course, omit all carbohydrates, find perfection in all I do, and meet the person of my dreams.
This approach rarely (if ever) works out in the end.
Instead, for most athletes most of the time, and for most of us for most of our lives, the park bench model is much more appropriate.
As Coach John states, “When you compete or train, take time to enjoy the view, breathe the air, and don’t worry about the minutia! Whatever comes along during your competition or training should be viewed through the lens of wonder and thanks.”
Fitness doesn’t have to be a ball buster all the time. And, not coincidentally, taking the park bench approach is often what yields better, long-lasting results.
Happy House of Cards Season Two Release Day on Netflix Valentine’s Day, everybody!
It’s a miracle that I’m even writing right now given there are thirteen brand spankin new episodes sitting in my “watch instantly” queue as type these words.
Can you tell I’m a little excited!?! But I promised Lisa I wouldn’t touch an episode until we were both home tonight. That’s how we’re going to spend our Valentine’s: Watching House of Cards and eating chicken.
Who says romance is dead?
PS: Dieting sucks.
On that note, I do wish all the lovely couples out there a happy Valentine’s Day. Eat some steak and carrot cake for me will ya?
I really liked this list written by Jason and it’s really, really hard to say which handful resonated with me the most. Honestly, all 67 tips hit home.
It’s a quick read, and I guarantee you’ll be nodding your head in agreement.
Once people see the word “corrective” associated with a strength and conditioning article the eyes start rolling. What now, Tony – an article telling me to perform more knee break ankle mobilizations??
I’d rather watch NASCAR, thank you very much.
Touche.
But this is Dan freakin John we’re talking about here. You should know better. Read it.
First things first: I have to give a brief shout out to one John Romaniello and his new wife Mrs. Neghar (formerly Fonooni) Romaniello on their freshly minted nuptials.
I had the lovely honor of being invited to their wedding this past weekend (last night, actually) here in the Big Apple, and it was every bit as an amazing wedding, and night, as I had imagined it was going to be. The air was filled with a palpable vibe of love, laughter, and Star Wars references.
The tables were labelled not by something traditional like 1,2,3…. or maybe more appropriately (since we were in NYC) names of certain neighborhoods in and around the city. No, no, no.
Rather, each table was named after a planet or location in the Star Wars universe. I, along with Eric Cressey and wife Anna were part of the Felucia tribe. For those non-nerds out there, Felucia (see pic above) was a key planet in the Clone Wars, and because of its density of flora and fauna and other plant life, had strong ties to the Living Force.
But everyone knows that.
If that wasn’t cool enough, the Officiant of the wedding actually wore a Jedi Cloak during the ceremony. A JEDI CLOAK!!!!!!! I wasn’t able to take a picture of it in the flesh, but this should give you a good idea of what it looked like:
The entire night was full of surprises (and amazing food) and at one point I was half expecting The Ultimate Warrior to come flying down the aisle and challenge the entire wedding party to an arm wrestling match.
Speaking of the wedding party (and guests), as you can imagine, the line-up (for lack of a better term) included a Who’s Who of the fitness industry. It was undoubtedly one of the “fittest” crowds ever put underneath one roof I don’t think I’ve ever seen more 500+ lb deadlifters at one wedding in my life.
Moreover, it was just great to catch up with old friends and finally meet a few others whom I’ve only conversed with via email or social media.
So now I’m here sitting in my hotel room crushing SportsCenter and writing this blog post – in a leopard bathrobe, thank you very much.
I’m going to be hanging out for the next two days visiting friends and a few family members, and I’ll also be making a few cameo appearances at Peak Performance and one of the Crunch Fitness gyms to do a couple of staff in-services. I might also see how long I can go wearing a Red Sox hat before getting tackled on the street. My bet is half the day.
And on that note, here’s some stuff to read….
But before I do that I just want to remind everyone that TODAY (September 30th) is the LAST DAY to take advantage of the early-bird registration for mine and Dean Somerset’s Edmonton Workshop.
We had a blast with our Boston seminar and wanted to bring it north, and are limiting it to 30 attendees. The downside is that we’re already halfway to selling out, but the good news is our early bird registration price of $399 is still on until TONIGHT at midnight (before Tuesday for those clock sticklers out there), after which the price jumps $100.
Along with the wicked weekend, we have continuing education credits for ACE, canfitpro, and the NSCA so trainers can keep up their certifications. We’ll also have some sweet give aways, door prizes, pony rides, and an intimate, hands on atmosphere that means you’ll walk away with a crazy amount of knowledge, experience, and direct access to Dean and I.
For more info, the itinerary, as well as sign-up direction go HERE.
This was an absolutely HILARIOUS write-up on the whole “Whole Foods” experience. For anyone who routinely shops there you’ll be able to nod your head in agreement throughout. For those who don’t, I think you’ll still get a big laugh.
My sincerest thoughts go out to all of those who live in the NorthEast (particularly New England), and it’s my hope everyone made it through Snowmeggedon 2013 safely and without much incident.
I’m not going to sugarcoat anything: Boston got its butt handed to it, with roughly 30+ inches of snow. We woke up Saturday morning, looked outside, and both Lisa and I were like “whoa!” After a few cups of tea, about a lb of bacon, a pep talk, and Lisa dressing me up like the little brother from A Christmas Story (I can’t move my arms!!!), I eventually made the trek out to do my fair share of the shoveling.
But being a central New Yorker at heart, and having grown up in the lake effect snow capital of the world, the storm paled in comparison to some of the doozies I experiences growing up.
However, just to give a bit more scope of how much snow we actually got, here’s a picture we snapped of someone’s car completely buried.
I spent a good hour digging out my car, and also did the good samaritan thing and shoveled out the two cars parked next to me as well. It never hurts to earn some quality karma points in my book!
Anyways, the city was pretty much shut down for two days – no public transportation as well as a ban on driving (and parking) – while plans were made to remove all the snow.
By late yesterday morning (Sunday), all the main roads were cleared, or at least drivable, and most of the side streets were passable (albeit most were one-lane only), which is a testament to the city and all the folks who worked tirelessly to clean things up.
Well done, everyone. Well done.
My only point of contention – and I realize I’m setting myself up as the ornery jerk here – is that I really wish the recreational runners of Boston would have some freakin common sense.
Now, I have absolutely nothing against runners, and I think any form exercise is better than nothing.
Having said that, while driving to work yesterday, on more than one occasion, I had to swerve to avoid someone running IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STEEET!!!!
As it was, the roads were narrow enough due to the mountains of snow everywhere. And it certainly didn’t make things easier to have to maneuver my car Jason Bourne style around human beings.
What really irked me was the borderline cavalier attitude many (not all) of them had. As if it was perfectly normal to be running in the middle of the street the day after one of the biggest winter storms in more than 20 years.
Okay, more power to them. And I respect anyone who will still go out of their way to not skip a workout.
But have a little feel!
La-la-la-la-la-dee-de-dum-la-la. Oh look! I-95 is clear!!! Fartleks!!!!!!!!!!
Likewise, the sidewalks weren’t much better. Most were very narrow and very icy, yet when walking to the store to get some needed items, both Lisa and I (as well as all the other pedestrians out) had to dodge all the various runners zipping past as if they were getting any benefit for being out there in the first place. I mean, it seemed like most were attempting to NOT break an ankle rather than trying to maintain a specific tempo.
Would it have killed them to skip one day, or, if they really needed to get their heart rate up, to I don’t know, shovel a sidewalk???
Okay, I’ll step off my soapbox now. Just talking about it makes me want to jump through a window.
Switching gears, the snowstorm served as an impetus for something else, too. Something a little less irritating. It gave me the opportunity to catch up on some much needed reading.
I was sent a copy of Dan John’s latest book, Intervention, a few weeks ago and unfortunately it was relegated to my “to read later when I have time” pile.
Since I wasn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future, I decided to hunker down and read a few chapters.
Not surprisingly, I loved it! I pretty much love anything Dan John writes, and this was no different. And why not: he has over 30+ year of coaching experience.
While I still have a ways to go before I finish it, there was one passage I wanted to share that really resonated with me and helped feed into my incessant campaign on why I continue to encourage women to turn to strength training in lieu of those lame cardio-pump classes.
And yes, sometimes even running.
Here’s the passage:
Recently, a woman told me her friends can’t make a mistake.
What? Well, what she told me was this: Since they were attacking fat loss with aerobic work and strict dieting, they didn’t have any wiggle room. The woman, who holds herself nearly year-round at a very impressive 19% bodyfat, told me she enjoys desserts, cocktails, BBQs and fine food. But, and this is a big but, she can also do 10 pullups. She is very strong in the weightroom. In other words, her glass is so big, she can afford to cheat a little here and there.
That made no sense to me. Then I watched her train and thought about some other women I work with. When she presses an impressive kettlebell overhead (half her bodyweight with one hand!), her entire system has to gather up resources, and then adapt and recover from the effort. When little Edna at my gym thinks the five-pound dumbbell is heavy, she isn’t going to tax her body very hard.
Edna can’t eat cake.
Ladies: read that again and let it sink in. I’ll explain a few things in a second.
I’m not kidding, read it again.
Now for most, you may be wondering what the whole ” her glass is so big, she can afford to cheat a little hear and there” means.
What kind of glass are we talking about here? A standard 8 oz glass? A wine glass? An Optimus Prime collectors mug I got in a Happy Meal circa 1985?
Well, any glass really. The idea, though, is to make the glass bigger!
This is an analogy I first heard from Eric Cressey in his Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual, and again later on from Master RKC instructor, Brett Jones.
Think of strength as a glass, and the water inside the glass as all the “qualities” we train for: endurance, strength-endurance, power, agility, speed strength, strength speed, having the ability to somehow take F.O.R.E.V.E.R in the bathroom getting ready, you know, those types of things.
The smaller your glass, the less “qualities” you’re able to express, let alone at a high level. That said…..
Strength is the basis for everything.
You can’t be “fast” without having some semblance of strength (or horsepower) in reserve. You can’t improve your timed mile, or taking a bit further, your marathon time if you can’t generate more force into the ground to propel yourself forward.
The larger you make your glass, the more liquid your’re able to place inside said glass, and the likelihood your performance improves. Whatever your endeavors may be.
If you’re weak, the glass is almost filled to the brim, and there’s little room for improvement. And, I’d even argue for those more aesthetically minded: you can’t even come close to getting as lean as you’d like if you’re weak in the first place.
If you’re someone who’s idea of “working out” is performing endless repetitions of arm circles, curls, and extensions with those cute, 5 lb pink dumbbells – and it’s hard – guess what?
You can’t have cake.
And that sucks.
Conversely, if you’re someone who places a premium on getting stronger (maybe working towards being able to perform ten solid push-ups, or one dead hang bodyweight pull-up, or maybe 1.5x bodyweight deadlift, or something as simple as learning how to squat properly), and you actually place a stress upon your body and force it to, you know, do something…… and do it hard……
……the more “wiggle room” you have when it comes to your nutrition.
While not a concrete train of thought, I think most people reading can appreciate the general tone I’m getting at here.
For example here’s Lisa this past Saturday afternoon while we were snowed in. While she could have just as easily watched The Notebook or forced me to watch a Julia Roberts marathon, she didn’t. Instead she spent part of the afternoon randomly walking up to the chin-up bar and busting out some reps. Here’s her third set of five:
Not to brag, but I don’t think there are many women out there who could just casually walk up to a chin-up bar and start busting out reps.
Wanna know what else she can do:
– Bench press 160 lbs.
– Deadlift 225+ lbs for reps.
– Perform 10+ flawless push-ups.
– Teach 4 spin classes per week.
– Read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy in one week (true story).
– Leap tall buildings in a single bound (less true, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she could actually do it).
Wanna know what else she does:
She feels no remorse when we go out to eat on the weekends and orders a steak (with potatoes) and dessert afterwards.
She also eats out of the bread bowl. GASP!!!!!!!!!
To her credit: she works her ass off, and has put in A LOT of hours in the gym to look how she looks.
As Coach John alluded to: she doesn’t necessarily have to be as “on point” with her nutrition (even though she is) and can get away with a few cheats here and there because she’s STRONG!
This isn’t to suggest that every female reading needs to rush out to their nearest gym and commandeer the squat rack (although, that would be pretty cool). All I’m suggesting is that it wouldn’t hurt to turn the page, turn off the Tracy Anderson DVD, and start lifting some appreciable weight.
I’m not saying all of this to be snarky, and I hope it’s not coming across as such. In every sense, I’m saying all of this to EMPOWER you.
A few months ago Dan John wrote a blog post (or maybe even an article) on his “batwing” principle, which is a subtle exercise tweak one can make to standard rowing variations that aids in “waking-up” the rhomboids and the upper back musculature as a whole.
It was a very simple idea – albeit brilliant, because I had never dawned on me before and it’s something that can easily be assimilated into most programs without much thought or coaching.
I mean, come on, it’s pretty self-explanatory!
After the fact my good buddy, Ben Bruno, went a head and shared with the world a few of his own variations that he implemented with his athletes. And, having been hit by the “Ah HA” fairy myself, I too came up with a cool variation: the Half Kneeling Cable Batwing/Pulldown.
It pretty much changed the world. True story.
Anyways, fast forward to the other day when I received an email from a former distance coaching client of mine , Tom.
We still keep in touch every now and then, and in this particular case he shared a batwing variation that he felt would be a nice fit to the Exercises You Should Be Doing series.
TRX Batwing
NOTE: Before we begin, I recognize that people hate (HATE!) vertical videos. In the ranking of things to hate, a list may look something like this:
1. Hitler.
2. Justin Beiber’s general level of douchebaggery.
3. Rocky V.
4. Vertical videos
5. Cold sores.
In the grande scheme of things you can blame me, because even though Tom sent me the video as is, it’s my fault for forgetting to film one myself when I tried the exercise out at the facility the other day.
My bad. But moving on…….
Who Did (We) Steal It From Him: I stole it from Tom, who stole it from both Dan John and Joe DeFranco.
What Does It Do: Lots and lots of stuff going on here. Tom mentioned that Joe DeFranco discussed a variation where you hold yourself in the push-up position on the TRX (with the arm locked out), and you grab either a kettlebell or dumbbell and perform a standard row. Perform “x” number of reps on one side, switch, and repeat on the other.
However, Tom really liked Dan John’s idea of “reawakening” the rhomboids and instead of performing standard reps up and down, you hold each rep for time.
I agree. Most people have woefully weak posterior chains (this includes the upper back) and IMO there’s really no such thing as too much horizontal rowing.
Too much Santa, yes. Too much horizontal rowing, no.
By that token, this variation provides an incredible anti-rotary component (and anti-extension), as well as rotator cuff activation (because you have to have a death grip on the TRX so that you don’t tip over), and of course, provides a light training effect for the upper back muscles.
You’re not going to be crushing any big weights or breaking any PRs with this exercise, but it’s a nice way to include some LIGHT horizontal pulling while simultaneously getting in some “core” work.
Key Coaching Cues: The most obvious: don’t fall over…..;o)
The wider the stance, the more stable you’re going to be, so depending on your ability level you’re going to have to make a judgement call here. Er on the side of caution, though and start with a slightly wider than hip width stance. Adjust from there.
Also, try to squeeze your glutes as if you’re trying to crack a walnut. The entire backside should be in a relative straight line, so if you’re hiking your hips up in the air, squeeze those bad boys!
Along the same lines, your lower back shouldn’t be dipping.
As I alluded to above, you have two options here:
1. You can perform “x” number of repetitions per side (8-12) using a kettlebell or dumbbell. I’m indifferent either way.
OR (my preference)
2. Hold each “rep” for an allotted time frame. I think a great starting point would be 5x5s holds PER ARM.
Focus on pulling the elbow towards the hip (but don’t go past the hip! You want to try to avoid too much glenohumeral extension), and pausing in the top position for FIVE SECOND count. Perform five reps per side.
Feel that? Yeah, those are your rhomboids working.
I’m pretty excited today (and not because my birthday is in two days, hint hint hint). In actuality I have to head to the facility early this morning because one of the people from the Postural Restoration Institute(PRI) who lives in or near the Boston area is stopping by to do a short two and half hour staff in-service for us and it’s going to be awesomesauce.
Eric has been to a few of the modalities and Greg (Robins) recently attended one a few weeks ago, and within the past year or two we’ve implemented a fair amount of the PRI philosophy into the programming of our athletes and clients.
For those not in the know: much of the dialogue revolves around breathing patterns and helping to engage the diaphragm more effectively. Admittedly it’s much more involved than that, but at the expense of oversimplifying things, I’ll leave it at that.
Lets just say that there’s a huge likelihood that I’ll only be able to understand and compute 37% of what’s said. God I hope they bring coloring books!
Note: I’m not kidding. If you were to go to one of their actual seminars, because there’s a heavy emphasis on anatomy, they have people use coloring books to help with the learning process.
Just to throw it out there, if they really wanted to take it to the next level they’d somehow incorporate glitter paint and a smoke machine.
Anyways, I’m excited and looking forward to making my brain feel like mush.
In the meantime, here’s some stuff to read to keep you occupied.
I don’t feel I have to go out of my way to state how much of a fan I am of Dan John. He’s undoubtedly been a huge influence on my career, and I’ve highlighted pretty much everything he’s ever written on this site.
Intervention is his latest ebook, and helps to breakdown movement and provides step-by-step instructions in the Olympic lifts, powerlifting, mobility, flexibility, kettlebell training & tumbling.
In a sense, it’s an invaluable guide to anyone who coaches people or who’s interested in not sucking in the gym.
This was an excellent article which, surprisingly (I really didn’t know this), shows how there’s been very little research done with regards to the efficacy of foam rolling. Much of what we know (and recommend) is based solely off anecdotal evidence (which isn’t a bad thing).
Basically at the end of the day, while there should be more research done on the topic (no one really knows how long, how often, and when to do it), I also feel that the “real world” evidence is clear. I’ve seen with my own eyes people reap the benefits of foam rolling and feel it’s an invaluable tool in the tool box.
Still, I really liked this article in that it took an unbiased viewpoint and laid out what (little) research these is thus far.
A few weeks ago I wrote a popular post (in the context of it making its rounds around Facebook) titled All the Hype Behind Kipping Pull-Ups, where I expressed my opinion on this controversial exercise.
I’m not going to get into it here (you can click on the link above), but needless to say I’m not a fan.
The impetus for the post was to note that I don’t feel that they’re a good fit for the vast majority of people who perform CrossFit. It’s one thing if you’re already strong, have a solid training foundation, or have a fair amount of training experience. There’s a reason why the top CF athletes don’t (generally) hurt themselves (as much).
It’s a walking train wreck otherwise.
As it happens, I’m not the only one who feels the same way. Strength coach Dave Hedges offers his opinion on why kipping pull-ups probably aren’t the best choice for most (not all) people.
Also note the informative link he provides discussing the overwhelming amount of SLAP tears in the CrossFit community which can be directly linked to the kipping pull-up.
And remember, it my b-day on Friday! I wear large t-shirts, 10.5 shoes, and I’m pretty sure Alicia Keys just came out with a new album. Sooooo, yeah, just sayin…….
Okay before we get to this week’s list of stuff you should be reading, I have a few minor house cleaning tasks to take care of.
First: for those who missed it, yesterday I challenged everyone and their mom to a deadlifting battle, and so far the turn out has been awesome. My goal was to get at least 100 people signed up, and as of the writing of this blog post (9:13 AM) there are a total of 45. Sooooo, we’re almost half way there. Not bad considering it’s only been one day – but I feel we can do better.
Much, much better.
Come on people this is for bragging rights, not to mention FREE swag and delicious dead animal flesh. Or, to put it more succinctly……….
STEAKS!!!!
If nothing else, you can look at it as a new challenge or as something different to do for a week. Or, for some, at least temporarily, just another way to make your spine flip you the bird.
Whatever the case may be, it’s going to be a epic. For more info (including rules, etc) go HERE. Pretty please, with dark chocolate covered (organic) cherries on top???????
Secondly: who else is pumped to go see Flight this weekend????? I for one, cannot wait. Denzel’s the man, and I’m really excited to finally see director, Robert Zemeckis, make his way back to live action film. After directing hits like Forrest Gump and Cast Away, he ventured into live-action animation – The Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmal Carol – and while they were all stellar in their own right (except maybe for The Polar Express – the animation was kind of creepy) I’m still excited to see what the end result will be from him and Denzel teaming up.
Anyways, I’ll be sure to give a quick review on Monday.
I’d argue that no one in the fitness industry – or anywhere, for that matter – has a way with words and can make any topic a “life lesson” more so than Dan John.
This was an absolutely phenomenal article and I encourage EVERYONE to read it.
Last week an article written by worst reporter ever Tara Parker-Pope in the NY Times titled Why Women Can’t Do Pull-Ups (link to the original article appears in the link above) made huge tidal waves in the fitness community for its woefully generalistic, chastising, and downright faulty conclusive remarks concerning a recent research study looking into women’s ability to perform pull-ups.
My boy Dean Somerset also wrote a “Tara Parker-Pope just got PWNED” recant HERE, but I thought this piece also hit the nail on the head.
Which comes first: the chicken or the egg? Me vomiting a little bit in my mouth or listening to anything Tracy Anderson has to say? Lifting heavy things or performing conditioning or aerobic work?
With regards to the latter, as is the case most of the time, it’s going to depend. But if you’re going to do both in one session, Patrick Ward has some interesting (and enlightening) things to say.
Note: Goddammit!!!!!!!! My bad everyone. I know filming “vertical” videos is a big no-no on the interwebz and is about as convenient as watching a whale give birth, but you’ll have to forgive me as it’s a video that I filmed last night and it’s the only one I took.
At some point I’ll eventually learn how to use my iTouch correctly. Until then you’re just going to have to suck it up a deal I’m afraid…..;o)
Anyhoo……….
Ask any coach who’s been in the game for a while whether or not he or she feels single leg training is kind of important, they’ll inevitably give you “the look” as if to say, is the Pope catholic? Does a bear shit in the woods? Does David Hasselhoff like alcohol?
You get the idea.
At the expense of preaching to the choir – as I know a vast majority of people who continually read this site are uber intelligent, not to mention painfully good looking – single leg training serves a plethora of benefits. Including but not limited to:
– Helps ascertain whether or not there’s an imbalance between one leg or the other.
– Helps improve athletic (and life) performance – there aren’t many sports we play or things we do in everyday life that don’t require us to stand, run, leap, walk, jump, etc on one leg.
– Helps improve hip stability and overall lumbo-pelvic-hip function. Single leg training targets what’s known as the lateral sub-system (glute medius & adductor complex on one leg, and the quadratus lumborum on the opposite leg).
– Makes people of the opposite sex want to hang out with you.
– Helps improve single-leg strength, which in turn, almost always translates to increased strength in the bigger, more popular lifts like squats and deadlifts.
– Helps reduce axial loading and gives the spine a bit of a break from the grind of constantly lifting heavy stuff.
– Furthermore, single leg training helps to fix or alleviate many of the issues that cause chronic knee, lower back, and hip pain (which reverts back to the whole lateral sub-system thing noted above).
Honestly, the list could go on and on, and like I said, I don’t want to seem like I’m preaching to the choir.
Today with Halloween right around the corner, I want to do my best Ben Bruno** impersonation and showcase a cool single leg exercise that I’ve grown to really love and appreciate.
Goblet Bulgarian Split Squats
Who Did I Steal It From – I guess technically, the one and only Dan John. Since he’s the one who invented the Goblet Squat, I can’t have the word “goblet” in the name of an exercise without giving credit to him.
Likewise, I don’t even know why the Bulgarians get credit for the the “bulgarian split squat.” I mean come on: are we REALLY supposed to believe that no else in the history of the world ever thought of this concept? It took some random Bulgarian to put two and two together?
I digress.
What Does It Do: Along with all the benefits mentioned above, I love this variation for two reasons.
1. By holding the dumbbell in a Goblet fashion, there’s a (more) significant anti-flexion component to the exercise, and as such, it will encourage people into more thoracic extension, which is generally never a bad thing considering most people are a walking ball of flexion in the first place.
2. In a sense, because the load is more anterior (and you’re not placing a barbell directly on your spine) you could make a case that there’s less compressive spinal loading. If that’s something that concerns you, this may be a more viable option.
Key Coaching Cues: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. A few things, however:
1. Try to keep the knee of the standing leg in line with your second toe as you perform the exercise. Many trainees tend to allow their knee to cave in during split squat variations (or any squat variation for that matter), and it’s important that you don’t allow this to happen.
2. From a comfort standpoint – some may find it more prudent to place a half foam roller or maybe even a rolled up towel on top of the bench so that their foot stays in place or so they don’t crush their toes.
3. From a mental cue standpoint, try to think to yourself, “chest up,” “chin tucked,” and to sit back and drive THROUGH THE HEEL!!!!!
In other words: don’t lean forward, stay as upright as possible, and try to prevent your weight from shifting into your forefoot while performing your reps. The brunt of your weight should be in your heel.
4. Also, try to squeeze the glute of the trailing leg throughout.
5. I generally prefer people perform 6-10 repetitions on one leg, rest for 20-30s, and then finish off their set by completing the same number on the opposite.
Try it out today and let me know what you think!
** = Just in case someone blows their gasket and thinks I’m throwing Ben under the bus, I understand that he trains bilateral movements too. In fact, he and I train together every now and then, and I’ve seen him do it. Sooo, deep breaths. Relax. Everything will be okay.
1. I firmly believe that one of the best ways to bring up any lift is repeated exposures to that lift. One major mistake I see a lot of trainees make – particularly intermediate and advanced lifters (beginners can do ANYTHING and get stronger, and we all hate you for it) – is assuming that training a lift or movement once a week, even if they’re going at it hard, is enough.
For example, I train a fair number of females and one major goal that many of them aspire for is that Brad Pitt stars in the movie adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey to be able to perform a strict, un-assisted chin-up.
For those who missed it the first time around, you can check out my three -part article Chin-Up Progressions For Women- The One Rep Hump: Part I, Part II, and Part III.
One general theme I hit on throughout is repeated exposures. Namely, if you want to get better at chin-ups, you need to do chin-ups. And a lot of them. Why anyone would think that performing “x” number of reps on ONE day is going to get them anywhere is beyond me.
That said, if I were to do little role reversal and point the spotlight on all the guys reading, I think it’s fair to assume that many want a big bench press. Thing is, many go to the gym on Monday (National Bench Press Day), perform their three sets of ten, and that’s it. Yeah yeah, they’ll throw in some incline presses, decline presses, and some pec flies for good measure, but the point I’m trying to make is that it’s that ONE day, and that’s generally it.
Having read Easy Strength recently – and loving EVERY page – both Dan John and Pavel hit on this notion of LADDERS, and how they can be used to help bring up one’s bench.
To give the Cliff Notes version:
You’re going to bench three, maybe even four times per week. Heresy, I know.
Each “session” you’ll perform three bench press ladders of 1,2, and 3 repetitions, using a weight that you know you can handle for 6-8 reps.
From there you rest 3-5 minutes and repeat the awesome two more times.
To give you an idea of what ONE week looks like:
Session 1: THREE ladders: 1,2,3 reps
Session 2: TWO ladders: 1st ladder (1,2,3), 2nd ladder (1,2)
Session 3: TWO ladders: 1,2,3 reps
You want to stick with the SAME weight throughout until you hit every rep of EVERY ladder.
Meaning if you start with 200 lbs, you’ll stick with that weight until you hit every rep during any given session. If you do, you can increase the weight 5-10 lbs on the next session and repeat the same process, only increasing the weight when you hit every rep. Did I mention you need to hit every rep? You need to hit EVERY rep!
I just had one of my distance coaching clients do this for a month and he had amazing results. At the beginning he was using 240 lbs for his ladder sets. Four weeks later, he was hitting ladders using 280 lbs!
We just tested his 1RM, and he hit a solid 315 lbs – a 15 lb PR.
Now, you tell me that repeated exposures don’t work!
Granted, this isn’t something you’ll want to utilize indefinitely, as it’s pretty CNS intensive. But for a dedicated 4-5 week block, it’s a sure fire way to take your bench press to new levels!
2. Since I’m the one who opened up the can of worms and exposed the world to my recent back issues, I’ve been getting a lot of emails from readers asking how things have been coming along.
Swell, actually!
For the last few weeks I had been ramping up the intensity of my deadlifts performing a lot of pulls with chains as accommodating resistance (lighter at the bottom, heavier at the top). About a month ago I hit a 555 lb pull (405 lbs of bar weight with 150 lbs of chains at the top). It felt good, not great…..and Dean Somerset (who was writing my programming) just about blew a gasket when he saw that I did that.
In hindsight it was dumb, and I really lucked out that I didn’t reverse all the progress I had made up until that point.
Fast forward a few weeks – and roughly 12,686 deadbugs – Dean gave me the green light to start pulling heavy again.
I was on that like a CrossFitter on a gluten free PopTart!
Not wanting to be too aggressive, last week, I decided I’d do me speed work and then, depending on how I felt, I’d work up to a sorta-kinda heavy single.
I felt goooooooooood. And when I was done with my speed work, I told Greg (Robins) that under no circumstances was he to allow me to go any heavier than 500 lbs. If I attempted to go any higher, he’d have my permission to Sparta kick me in the groin.
Here’s what 500 looked like (wearing a Dragon tee courtesy of one Jon-Erik Kawamoto)
Not too shabby. Today, I’m going to shoot for 520 ish.
600 lbs by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.
3. I came across this quote the other day and I really have no recollection of where I saw it or who said it, but I thought it was awesome and whoever said it deserves a meatloaf sandwich:
The reality is if you are lifting a weight ten times, numbers nine and ten should be difficult. If you can lift a weight 20 times but choose to do only ten, you are wasting your time. Period.
4. This past weekend I went to the theater to see the remake of Total Recall:
Here’s my one-sentence review: it should have been called Total Regurgitate In My Mouth. HA, see what I just did there? I took the title of the movie and then re-worded it so that you’d get the impression that it sucked, and, well, you get the idea.
5. Lastly, I wanted to give you all a heads up on a really cool site I’ve been using for the past week called RebelMouse.com.
In short, it’s a site that takes all of your social media – Facebook and Twitter – and conjoins everything under one umbrella into your very own social front page. It’s pretty freakin sweet. Check out my page HERE.
It’s currently in Beta, and there’s a waiting list to join, but it might be something worth checking out.
I like to consider myself as an even keeled person who tries to see the comedy in life and not to take things too seriously.
I’m originally from Middle of Nowhere, NY where I grew up in a small town with no traffic lights and no fast food restaurants. Just to be clear though, yes, we had running water. And the internet for that matter. But barely. My parents had been using a dial-up connection up until last year, which is considered child abuse in some states.
Love you mom!!!!!
Anyways, life moves a bit differently where I’m from. Where I’m from people don’t slam on their car horn and go bat shit crazy if you don’t move within one-hundredths of a nanosecond of a red light turning green. Here in the city? Different story. Everyone is the most important person in the world, and is apparently in some dire emergency to get somewhere.
Likewise, there aren’t many things that really bother me. Okay sure, some people can go out of their way to be “kinda douchy” and do something really irritating like talking, going to Maroon 5 concerts, or taking up two parking spots and blocking me in.
Hey dude: this isn’t Dukes of Hazzard, and I don’t drive the General Lee, so I shouldn’t have to do a window stunt just to get into my own car. Capiche?
But those are usually few and far between.
The internet, though: now THAT’S a whole new ball game, and a place where my pet peeves seem to increase exponentially.
Given the safe domain – not to mention the anonymity – that the internet provides, it’s not surprising how it often brings out the “inner expert” in people.
And why not? One of the advantages of the internet is the profound profoundness of it all. Never has information been so easily accessible. And never has there been a time where people can learn everything on anything with just a simple click of a button.
Which is also it’s drawback.
Just yesterday I read an article over on Livestrong.com by a buddy of mine who described a brief, albeit effective, metabolic type workout that could easily be followed by the masses and maybe provide a nice change of pace to someone looking to shed a little fat.
As is the case with any “universal” article geared towards the general public, it had to be watered down to the lowest common denominator so that the information could be easily followed. It was a slideshow piece which provided still-frame pictures (and descriptions) of each exercise.
Apparently PJ (the author) made the mistake of using dumbbells in his pictures – which makes sense given that the majority of people out there don’t have access to kettlebells.
I thought it was great and provided a solid routine for a lot of people reading.
But wouldn’t you know it, the first comment – as well as a few others that followed – were from the kettlebell nazis, trying to convey to the world that kettlebells are the only form of exercise everyone should be doing. EVER.
The very first comment:
The swing is a great exercise………when performed CORRECTLY…….WITH A KETTLEBELL! Do not use a dumbell as it is a different and less effective move and more likely to recruit the low back for power production.
The same person, then finished with these great words of wisdom:
nice technique………..NOT!
For starters: it’s a freakin STILL FRAME picture. Lets get off our high horse for a second. How can you judge one’s overall technique by one still frame shot?
Here’s a picture of Jim Wendler squatting:
Using the same logic, we could argue that his squat technique sucks because he’s not hitting at least parallel. We all know this is bullshit, because this is a STILL FRAME shot of him either descending or coming out of the hole during a max effort attempt.
Going back to the article, I have full confidence that a dude who trains HUNDREDS of people a month, has been published in several reputable magazines, and not to mention has a pretty smart editor at Livetrong who’s job it is to make sure that high quality content makes it to the site – knows how to perform a proper swing.
Relax. Deep Breaths. The World Won’t End.
Secondly, while I won’t argue that using a kettlebell over a dumbbell “feels” better when performing a swing, as I noted above, not everyone has access to kettlebells in their gym. Using a dumbbell is fine.
No, really. It is.
And since when does a dumbbell recruit more of the lower back? I have a hard time figuring this one out. If one is performing a proper swing pattern, snapping their hips, “attacking their groin,” and keeping the weight close to the body, I don’t see how if someone uses a dumbbell that it’s somehow is more detrimental to the back.
Further down the comments section, there are several other readers who state that the same workout is, like, waaaaaaay more effective if done with kettlebells.
Kettlebell squats are better than dumbbell squats. Kettlebell rows are better than barbell rows. Kettlebell swings cure cancer. Kettlebells make the best salt and pepper shakers!!
Okay, I get it already: you like kettlebells.
And that’s cool. I do, too. I consider coaches like Pavel, Dan John, Mike Mahler, and Gray Cook (all of whom are “kettlebell guys) mentors. Moreover, I have a high respect for people like Neghar Fonooni, Jen Sinkler, Steve Cotter, and Batman (I think) – all of whom utilize kettlebells to a high degree as well.
I use them myself – heck, I’m even contemplating going for my HKC. I use them with all of my athletes and clients. But as with anything else, and I think all the peeps I mentioned above would agree – whether we’re talking about kettlebells, TRX, yoga, deadlifts, or anything else you want to throw into the mix – they’re a tool in the toolbox, and need to be used at the right time, with the right person, for the right job.
People are entitled to their opinion, of course. Everyone shouldn’t have to sing Kumbaya and hold hands on everything, and I think it’s great when people from different view points can have a civil discussion – even if all they do is agree to disagree.
But I just get flabbergasted (yep, that’s right: flabbergasted) when people go on and on and on and on and on*about how kettlebells are the shiznit (and they can be) and have to be used for E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. That’s not necessarily the case.
End rant, exit stage left.
Anyone agree? Disagree? Am I off base?
* = and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. You get the idea.
