But First…(Speaking Engagements, Stuff I’ve Written, & Other Tidbits Curated To Showcase How Important I Am)
1) Happy Birthday Julian
I was terrified a year ago today.
I remember standing in a coffeeshop across the street from the hospital getting a little teary eyed thinking to myself “holy shit, Lisa and I are parents and in a few hours they’re sending us home. No more cafeteria, no room service, and no more team of nurses on standby to help.
We’ll be alone, with this crying, pooping, and please, for the love god stop crying thing.”
SPOILER ALERT: It’s a year later. Lisa and I survived; as does every other sleep-deprived parent.
Lisa and I are so thankful for Julian and for our family and friends who have helped to fill Julian’s love tank along the way.
I’ve had the honor of presenting at two previous iterations of the Motivate & Movement LAB (the brainchild of MFF’s Harold Gibbons) and it’s unequivocally one of the most unique events in the fitness industry.
Think: TED Talk, but with deadlifts and lots of f-bombs.
Anyways, the next LAB is this coming February, and will feature myself, Dan John, Pete Dupuis, my wife (Dr. Lisa Lewis), and several of the MFF coaching staff including Brian Patrick Murphy and Amanda Wheeler.
I had to take a break from The Fitness Summit last year for two reasons:
1. Eating way too many cookies.
2. But mostly because I succeeded in making a baby and my wife would have tossed me so much shade if I was all like “Hey Babe, going to KC for three days. Toodles.”
Well this year I’m back and excited to take part in a Fitness Summit first. Dean Somerset and I will be putting on a Pre-Conference day where we’ll spend a few hours test driving some new material as a follow-up to our Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.
Tentatively titled The More Completer Hip & Shoulder Blueprint.
We’ll be taking deep dive into squat and deadlift technique: discussing ankle, foot, hip and upper extremity considerations in conjunction with regressions/progressions and programming. Whether you’re a coach or just someone who likes to lift heavy things you’ll undoubtedly learn something. And if not, cool, you still get to hang out with us for a few hours.
Registration is now open for returning and new attendees. Come experience one of the best fitness events of the year.
Always like David’s perspective on things and this no different.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
I get asked a lot about progressive overload. No need to make it more complicated than it needs to be. 1. Write your shit down. Track it. 2. The following week look at what you did, then do more.
Save the fancy algorithms for breaking the space-time continuum.
1) We’re taking Julian apple picking for the first time in his life. Cue cute baby pictures on Instagram at some point later today.
2) We’re paying off the rest of Lisa’s student loans which means we’re both now 100% debt free. Holla.
This is actually something I may write about in the near future as I think debt and the burden it casts over a lot of fitness professionals is stifling. Maybe people would be interested in how we got ourselves out of debt? Yes, no, maybe so?
What Makes Muscle, Keeps Muscle– When fat loss is the goal, a lot of trainees make the same mistake over and over and over again: neglecting to include strength training
A few years ago I wrote and article on T-Nation titled Building a Superhuman Core. It’s one of my most popular articles and three years later it’s still getting some love. The guys over at Strength Students Podcasts did an entire episode discussing the concepts in the article. Quite the honor (and thanks fellas!)
3) Appearance on My Sugar Free Journey Podcast
Aarn Farmer invited me onto his popular podcast and you can listen in on the episode HERE.
I’m pretty sure this is a classic Mike Boyle article and that I’ve read it before, but a colleague of mine forwarded it to me yesterday with the note “this is awesome, have you read this?”
I “think” so. But I read it again anyways. Because, you know, it’s Mike Boyle.
In this FREE pdf, Jon Goodman breaks down some of the strategies he’s used through the years to dissuade people from distraction as well as how to adopt certain skills to keep you focused and to become a productivity machine.
It’s a five minute read and definitely worth your time.
As I’ve noted in the past, “textbook technique doesn’t exist.” SO STOP TRYING TO FORCE PEOPLE INTO POSITIONS THAT PROBABLY AREN’T A GOOD FIT FOR THEM ANYWAYS.
Also…….MA, THE MEATLOAF. WE WANT IT.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Female client came in with 300 lb DL. Tested it again after 8 weeks and she hit 330 yesterday w/o going over 250 entire time. Awesome.
My good friend and fellow colleague, David Dellanave[footnote]Who, like me, HATES IT when the person in front you on a plane reclines their seat back. Like, WTF?[/footnote], was kind enough to sit down and talk deadlifts with me today.
Deadlifts? SQUIRREL!!!
He’s just released a revision of his amazing resource, Off the Floor: A Manual for Deadlift Domination today with all sorts of add-ons and bonuses that will, well, help anyone dominate their deadlift.
Specifically, though, his goal was to write a manual that could be handed to a beginner, and it would help them get started with a deadlifting-based strength program.
He succeeded.
Tony Gentilcore (TG):We’re both bald strength coaches who love to deadlift. We also both married up (for those who don’t know, David is married to Jen Sinkler making them one of the industry’s strongest – and most lovable – fitness couples). I think there’s a correlation there.
David Dellanave (DD): Basically what people can learn from this is that the quickest route to a smart, hot wife is by shaving your head and deadlifting a lot.
TG: I think what I respect the most about you is that you don’t fluff anything and aren’t afraid to call BS when you see or hear it. What are some of the things happening currently in the industry that grinds your gears? Or, if we’re going the non PG-13 route, drives you bat fucking shit crazy?
DD: Oh. Dear. I wrote about this recently but I think one of the most fundamental issues, that goes beyond the specific things that it’s applied to, is that people can’t seem to think of things in anything but black and white terms. I called it the false dilemma problem.
Note from TG: Ooooo, I like that. I’m totally stealing that.
Either you’re full-on Paleo and you’re convinced that it’s the end all be all of human nutrition, or you’re IIFYM and it’s pop tarts for every meal.
Can we please just acknowledge that everything between and including the two extremes of any topic are probably going to be exactly right for someone?
A couple years ago errybody was all like “all the fish oil all the time!” A paper came out last month that discovered that the Inuit have specific genetic adaptations in fatty acid metabolism which could explain the benefits of fish oil IN THOSE PEOPLE. One of the study authors literally said, “The same diet may have different effects on different people.”
Turns out fish oil might not be so good for people with other genetic phenotypes.
Could it also be that for some people a high fat diet is going to work better, and for others a high carb diet is going to be more suitable? That’s a rhetorical question. Every time we investigate these things we end up finding out that the answer is “both” (and/or all of the above) more often than not.
I think the point is we get deep in the weeds on stupid mechanistic explanations and arguments while forgetting the big picture that it all varies from person to person and THAT is a fact.
TG: Men’s Health ran a story not too long ago titled “Normal-Sized Guys Who Are Freakishly Strong Tell You How They Did It,” which featured you. 1. Were you pissed they called you “normal sized? And 2. It is pretty impressive how strong you are (deadlifting 3x bodyweight in three different deadlift variations)…has relative strength always been a priority for you?
DD: I hung up the phone with Michael (<– MH author who wrote the article) and immediately considered going to Sam’s Club to buy food and steroids in bulk, but turns out they don’t sell steroids.
The truth is I just don’t have the nutritional stamina or discipline to eat big like you need to really grow. There’s a part of of me, like any meathead, that always wants to be just a little bit bigger, but it seems like when it really comes down to it, it’s not a big enough priority to actually pursue it. That’s something I talk about with clients often.
Is losing that last little bit of body fat really worth not having a couple drinks a week or enjoying a macaroni and cheese pizza? (The latter is something I would actually never condone because I’m Italian and I think words like pizza mean something.)
That being said, yes, relative strength has also been important to me. To me both the physique and capability of the lightweight strongman (say 180-200lbs) is the sweet spot of form and function and is one of the most versatile and useful tools you can carry with you every single day.
TG: Lets talk beginner deadlift basics. Do you have any criteria as a coach that people need to meet before they can start deadlifting? What about deadlift order or progressions? Do you prefer to start everyone off the same way (trap bar vs. sumo vs. conventional) or do you have a specific system you like to stick to?
DD: This is one area where I take a bit of a different approach than many. As far as I’m concerned, with only rare exceptions, everyone can deadlift from day ones – it’s just going to vary what kind of deadlift they do.
TG: Nope, I agree 100%!
So for some people that may look like a single kettlebell suitcase deadlift, with yoga blocks raising the handle up above knee height to raise the pick height. For others it might be a classic two-handed kettlebell deadlift from the floor, between the feet.
And others yet might even start with the barbell right away depending on how they move.
One of my favorite movements for people who might not move very well and have had some prior back issues is to use a high pick with two kettlebells, but offset the weights. If you give someone a single 8kg bell in a suitcase position, there’s a 8kg asymmetrical load, which isn’t insignificant, but it’s not a lot of load in general. So you give them a 16kg in one hand, and 8kg in the other hand.
The offset is still 8kg, but now you’ve got a total of 24kg. It’s almost certainly not more load than they deal with in daily life, but it’s creating more total overload and demand on the tissue, plus you get more of an “anchor” effect from the higher load. This is one of those cases where less weight is not always better, and in my experience this is a neat trick for better results.
That being said, the single biggest thing I’m looking for (besides being pain free) is the ability to maintain back position from top to bottom of the movement.
Lots of people can’t pull from the floor because if you watch their back position as they go down to meet the implement it changes. Likewise if it changes on the way up, but the problem starts at the bottom. If you can maintain that, we can progress. If not, we have to figure out how you can do that first before moving on.
TG: I always love listening to other coaches explain or articulate their approaches to coaching the deadlift. I know it’s a topic that entire books have been dedicated towards – you’ve written one (hint, hint, nudge, nudge) – but what are 2-3 of your “BIG ROCK” cues you feel carryover to most individuals?
DD: These probably aren’t going to be groundbreaking, but time tends to prove out what works best, and these have been around for a while.
Chest up – let me read the writing on your shirt.
Pull the bar into your shins, you’re going to keep contact with your body through the entire pull.
Take the slack out of the bar by making it “clink”.
Pull your shoulder blades down into your back pockets.
Push the floor away, and stand up tall.
Optionally, if someone over-extends or arches, I like to explain that you want to try to cinch your ribs down to your pelvis. I don’t like “ribs down” as this never seems to make sense to people.
That’s it. I found that those five or six cues fix 99% of the issues I see.
TG: For me, the best way to get better at the deadlift is to deadlift. A lot. That being said, we’d be remiss as coaches not to appreciate that accessory work plays a huge role in addressing/improving technique flaws in various portions of the lift. Can you elaborate?
DD: Agreed. Practice, practice, practice. Both for technique and volume overload.
But I’m also a big believer in upper back exercises to improve the ability to keep the spine stable so it moves at the fulcrum of the hips. Zerchers, front squats, and even specific upper back exercises like Bret wrote about in THIS great article.
One of the biggest reasons I think people fail at the upper end of deadlifts is because the back starts to flex or round and driving the hips forward harder just makes that problem worse right up until the moment you fail.
A more specific simple drill I really like for the common issue of letting the bar drift out away from the body is to setup bands on rack to pull the bar forward slightly. In that way you can practice generating a little more shoulder extension and tension with your lats to keep the bar in tight.
TG: Awesome stuff, I love using that drill too. What do you feel are the biggest faults in trainees who have issues off the floor, mid-range, at lockout?
DD: Off The Floor – Either you lack the mobility to be pulling off the floor in the first place (you can usually find out if this is the case by using biofeedback testing) or you’re just weak in that range. Personally I don’t think you can do better than deficit deadlifts to improve strength off the floor, but you ONLY need an inch and a half or two of deficit. A standard iron 25lb plate is the perfect thickness.
Mid-Range – I think this is where the glutes really come into play, and Bret’s favorite hip thrusts and glute bridges can help a lot. The caveat is always that if the back isn’t strong enough to keep the lever acting as a lever, it doesn’t matter how strong your glutes are.
Lockout – This is where you really see the back strength issue become the point of failure. When the back starts to round, you only have a certain range of motion before you get too close to end range and the body just shuts down power output. Driving the hips forward harder here just causes failure more quickly as you push the spine to end range. So this is where the upper back extensions and upper back rack pulls can help you both overload and learn to maintain back position through the finish of the pull.
TG: What would your cousin, Dellanavich, say to anyone who states the deadlift is bad or dangerous for their spine?
DD: In Russia, deadlift is not bad for back, back is for deadlift.
I’m so over beating the dead horse on this topic. The back pain statistics in the U.S. are absolutely outrageous, and the vast majority of these people certainly aren’t doing any deadlifts.
The point you’ve correctly made before is that doing crappy deadlifts is bad for your back. Using your body as it was intended to move and doing it against progressive resistance is exactly what keeps you healthy, not hurts you.
TG: I know you’re a big advocate of using biofeedback to compliment programming strategies. Do you have any new thoughts on this topic? How can people use this to better improve their deadlift performance?
DD: Biofeedback has been such an integral part of training for me and the people in my gym it’s hard to even know where to begin. Last year Jen basically won a powerlifting meet because she used biofeedback to decide how to change her stance during the meet.
Here’s my suggestion: use biofeedback to test a couple variations every time you deadlift. Go with the one that tests the best for 4 weeks, and see what happens. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
For people who have pain or functional issues, biofeedback can be even more useful because it really allows you to see what you can and can’t do.
Go back to the mobility example earlier in this post. I find tons of people for whom deadlifting from the floor doesn’t test well, but raise the bar 2-3” and suddenly it tests great for them. Lo and behold, they usually have back pain now and then before, and after a few sessions of doing what tests best they have no problems at all.
TG: Okay, outside the box, but I have to ask: favorite movies you’ve seen this year?
DD: I should be asking you, so I’d know what to go see. I legit think I’ve only seen one movie in the theater this year and it was that crappy Amy Schumer one. Was Lone Survivor this year? That was pretty good.
For less than what it would cost you to hire a sub-par trainer for an hour here’s what you get with the revised version of Off the Floor:
All the goodies from before (Off the Floor manual, programs, video library, Biofeedback Training Guide, etc)
PLUS
– A new section in the beginning that sets the tone and an understanding for newer lifters.
– Entirely new section for beginners, to coach them through their first deadlifts and get them to feel confident pulling.
– Two guest articles from Dean Somerset and Tony G (<– THAT’s ME!) on deadlifting with disc hernations, and how deadlifts are horrible for you (not) respectively.
– Almost completely redone layout and formatting of the book to make it easier to print.
– Printed version available via Amazon.
ALL of that – and more – for a heavily discounted price (over half off) for this week only. If you’re not doing cartwheels down the sidewalk from sheer excitement I don’t know what to tell you.
Literally all the Tweet said was “Exercises You Should Be Doing” followed by the link.
A few minutes later someone Tweets back with the comment, “Why? It’s a little over the top.”
To which I responded, “Uh, read the post and find out.”
And then they came back with, “ok.”
I just find it comical that someone would pass judgement on something without actually taking the time to read what the post was about in the first place. It’s akin to all the belly aching in Congress over the budget. They finally come to a compromise after three years and a government shut-down. It’s not perfect, but they decided to put their big-boy and big-girl pants on, stop acting like children, and come to a compromise.
Then I watch some interview with some ass-clown Congressman go on a tirade on how, “Well, I haven’t read the actual document, but based off of the reporting I’ve heard, it’s going to ruin America!”
I’d argue that the pull-up is the best predictor of overall relative strength. I think I remember Joe DeFranco mentioning how he’s seen a correlation in some of his athletes and how well they’ll do in their 40-yd dash time.
Nevertheless, pull-ups are kind of a big deal and in this article Nick does a fantastic job offering some new ways to approach training them.
Even for those who don’t make a living throwing a baseball 90+ MPH, this was a fantastic read on what it really takes to grind it through professional baseball season.
More importantly it serves as a needed wake-up call to many “entitled” young athletes who feel that just because they signed a professional contract that the world owes it to them to make it to the Big Leagues.
Slow clap to Collin for writing this article. Awesome, awesome stuff.
And lastly I wanted to share two videos with you between Kevin Kuzia and David Dellanave. The two of them had a heart-to-heart “chat” a few weeks ago about entrepreneurship which sparked the two of them to post up a few “riff” videos discussing their thoughts on the matter.
Giving a brief background: Kevin tends to play the “conservative” card, plays things safe, and doesn’t feel he takes too many risks when it comes to stepping outside is comfort zone; something I can relate with 100%.
On the flip side, David, is a risk taker and always has been.
I just found the discussion fascinating and I think both videos are worth a look.
A few months ago I picked up a copy of the New York Times best-selling book Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath, who also penned doozies like Made to Stick and Switch, which cover a gauntlet of human behavorial novelties.
This is important because as a fitness professional, and as someone who works with people who generally like to make excuses on why they can’t train on any given day – a headache, car troubles, explosive diarrhea – anything I can do to better equip myself to better understand people and why they do what they do is a win in my book.
Although to some degree common sense enters the mix.With regards to the latter (explosive diarrhea), maybe not hitting up the local taqueria and crushing a plate of fully-loaded f bean burritos the night prior would be a good idea, mmmmkay?
With Decisive, while the principal theme tackles one of the most critical topics in our work and personal lives – Namely, how to make better decisions – there were also several other “mini” themes that I felt were every bit as interesting.
Take for example the notion of setting tripwires in our daily lives. As the authors note, “couldn’t we all use a few tripwires in our lives? We’d have a “trigger weight” that signaled the need to exercise more, or a trigger date on the calendar that reminded us to ask whether we’re investing enough in our relationships. Sometimes the hardest part of making a good decision is knowing there’s one to be made.”
One of the more shining examples of a tripwire noted in the book revolved around the band Van Halen. The band’s eclectic and often acerbic lead singer, David Lee Roth, was known to be quite the diva back in the day.
Or was he?
Van Halen was one of the first bands in the mid 1980s to really make a name for themselves through their elaborate shows. As Roth recalled, “We’d pull up with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max.”
To put it lightly: the band’s production design was astonishingly complex. And, as the authors noted from Roth, the contract specifying the setup was, “like reading a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages,” because it was so technical and complex it was like reading a foreign language.
To make a long story short: Van Halen had it’s own road crew, but because of the elaborateness of their show much of the prep work had to be done beforehand, before the eighteen-wheelers arrived.
Another thing to consider was the risk of injury to the band. Because of all the pyrotechnics, lights, smoke, and ninjas (<—okay, no ninjas), the band was often worried that something may go wrong, and because their traveling schedule was a shit show they really didn’t have enough time to do a top to bottom check to make sure every thing was in place and that every bolt was secure.
How, then, would the band know that they were at risk?
A Bowl of M&Ms (That’s How)
One of the more egregious stories of the band back then was how they had it in their contract (the one mentioned above) to have a bowl of M&Ms placed backstage with all the brown ones removed.
Not surprisingly many deemed this an a-hole, diva(ish) move on their part. But in reality it DID serve a purpose – mainly as a tripwire for the band to be on alert.
As the author’s state in the book, the band’s “M&M clause” was written into its contract to serve a very specific purpose. It was called Article 126, and it read as follows:
“There will be no brown M&Ms in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.”
The article was buried in the middle of countless technical specifications for the set-up of the show.
The bowl of M&Ms served as a tripwire for Roth and the band to quickly ascertain whether or not the venue took the time to carefully read the manual, and whether or not that took the necessary precautions to do shit right (my words, not the author’s).
If they (Van Halen) saw brown M&Ms they knew, right away, that the stagehands didn’t read the manual and that their safety may be in jeopardy.
So obviously this serves as a nice segue to deadlifts.
It’s no secret that I have an arguably unhealthy affinity towards deadlifts. I love deadlifts, and feel there’s no exercise that comes close to providing as many benefits.
And as luck would have it, my friend, and soon to be married to the lovely Jen Sinkler, David Dellanave, talk about a super couple, just released his new product titled Off the Floor: A Manual For Deadlift Domination.
As you can imagine when David reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in reading an advance copy, he had me at the word ‘dead.” There was really no need for the lift part.
Now I’ve read my fair share of deadlifting manuals, and while I never grow tired of reading them, many of them often have the same message and it’s rare when I learn something new.
Looking into my own mirror I’ve been struggling to attain the lauded 600 lb deadlift for years now. It’s a number that I’ve come close to – my best pull is 570 lbs – but for some reason, whether it’s due to some low back issue, stagnancy, fatigue, or any number of other things, I haven’t been able to achieve it.
It wasn’t until I read Dave’s manual where the whole idea of tripwires hit me over the head.
I know whenever I start to push the envelop and ramp up my DL training, I’ll inevitably hit a point where one of a few things happens:
1. My back gives me the middle finger.
2. I’m overcome by a drained feeling.
3. I grow frustrated and end up pouting in the corner. *slams door*
The cool thing about Dave’s manual – and there are many – is the point he hammers home about Biofeedback. In short: unlike Van Halen, as much as you’d like to, you can’t feel like a rock star every single day of the week. Likewise, you can’t always pull heavy (whether it’s heavy singles or doubles or triples) to the point where you shit a spleen and expect to make concerted progress.
Too, who says you always have to pull with the same variation? I know I tend to gravitate towards conventional pulling, but have been toying around with more of a narrow sumo stance lately and I love it. On that topic, Dave himself has pulled 3x bodyweight in three separate deadlifting variations, including the Jefferson deadlift, at around 608 lbs.
Like, whoa.
Getting to the heart of the matter, what Dave’s manual taught me – other than how close minded I’ve been when it comes to listening to my body – is that I need to establish my own tripwires, and understand that getting better at deadlifting isn’t necessarily always about grinding out reps.
Deadifting more often (fluctuating frequency, and intensity) may be the answer for some, which is something he hits on in this manual extensively.
Choosing a different variation may be the answer as well. As an example, I never really thought about choosing grip specific pulls like the Reeves deadlift to help work on weak links.
And maybe most important of all just learning to listen to your body. Maybe you’re utilizing the wrong variation and that’s why your back hurts? Maybe you’ve been training at a high(er) percentage for too long, and just need to ramp down the intensity?
Who knows – it could be anything! But this manual really helped to shed some light on my own training, and I can only imagine it will help do the same for many who are reading this right now.
For more information, check out the link below. For a mere $49 it’s a steal. I promise it’s unlike anything you’ve read before.
Unfortunately I have to keep this one pretty short today. Lisa’s dad and step-mother flew into town yesterday from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and after taking them out to a nice dinner, we all walked back to our apartment where Amanda (Lisa’s step-mother), busted out her iPad so that we could all play Ellen DeGeneres’ game Heads Up.
For those unfamiliar (which was the case with me less than twelve hours ago), it’s simply a word guessing game where your friends try to get you to say the word on the screen by giving you hints. Only with Heads Up, you hold the phone or iPad above your head and it records video of your friend giving hints. You have sixty seconds to guess as many words as you can.
It’s basically Blind Man’s Bluff meets charades, but with video.
And let me just say it’s sooooooooooo addicting. Lets just put in this way: there may or may not exist video of me imitating Forrest Gump, a Canadian, and Elmo.
Not to brag or anything, but my Forrest Gump is pretty spot on. And, surprisingly, my Elmo wasn’t too shabby either. At one point I had Lisa crying in laughter.
So basically this was just a long-winded way of saying that we slept in this AM, and here’s some stuff you should check out:
Outside of having one of the most epic mustaches in human history (^^^), David is also the owner of Movement Minneapolis, as well as someone who’s long championed the sentiment of auto-regulation.
We’ve all been there. Some days we feel like rock stars heading into the gym. while on others we feel like we’ve gotten run over by a mack truck.
With respects to the latter, is it best to suck it up and train anyways?
Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. But according to David…….usually no. But that doesn’t mean curling up on the couch and catching up on episodes of Teen Mom.
It may just mean nixing your planned workout and going with Plan B or C instead.
Coincidentally Plan C almost always entails some form of bicep curls. Just sayin……
In this well written and well researched editorial piece, TC dives into some of the research behind the efficacy of probiotics. We’re literally just scraping the tip of the iceberg as far as understanding the role that bacteria play in our gut, but you’d be hard pressed to get that notion from all the hippie naturopaths out there claiming to know otherwise.
