25 years ago one of my all-time favorite hip-hop songs, Mass Appeal, was released by one of my all-time favorite hip-hop groups, Gang Starr.
Annnnnd, in one of the oddest (or appropriate?) segues I’ve ever attempted, two-years ago one of my favorite research reviews, MASS (Monthly Application in Strength Sport),1 curated every month by Greg Nuckols, Eric Helms, and Mike Zourdos (coaches who actually lift things), came to fruition and saved me from a world of ineptitude.
I’m unabashed in advertising my disdain for reading research.
I hate it.
There are many things I’d rather do than sit down and read an entire research article. Watch NASCAR, stick my finger in an electrical socket, attempt to give my cat a bath, anything.
That’s not to insinuate I don’t feel it’s important or worth my time. A coach (or athlete) who knows and truly understands the latest research has a huge advantage over his or her’s peers and competitors.
I wholeheartedly feel that what separates the average/ho-hum trainers and coaches of the world from the excellent ones is biceps their insatiable desire to not suck and take more pride in their continuing education.
What’s more, as Greg (Nuckols) notes:
“Most people are still quite uninformed about the science behind hypertrophy, strength development, and body composition. We’d never argue that science is inherently better than in-the-trenches experience, but we think science and experience work together much better than having either in isolation.”
What’s more (even morer), trying to keep up with the research on your own is overwhelming.
There’s something in the ballpark of 50-60 journals which publish research that’s relevant to hypertrophy and strength on a regular basis.
Conservatively that’s 1000+ articles per month.
Going through all that and combing all the studies relevant to helping make people bigger, faster, and stronger is time & labor intensive, to say the least.
Personally, the only way you could get me to do that is this:
Which is why I can’t say enough great things about MASS.
It saves you a metric shit load of time2, and it makes you smarter.
2-Year Anniversary Sale
If you’re a coach, physique or strength athlete, or just someone who likes to nerd out and talk about actin/myosin chains at the dinner table this will be right up your alley.
Starting TODAY (Thursday, 4/25) is your chance to take advantage of some BIG markdowns on the service:
$21 monthly subscription (normally $29)
$209 yearly subscription (normally $299)
$699 lifetime subscription (normally $999)
This offer only lasts for a week (5/2).
What Else Subscribers Get
A new PDF issue of MASS every month. Each issue contains s7 articles and access to 2 video presentations.
Mobile friendly versions of every article.
Access to online membership site with back issues.
7 audio roundtable discussions with Greg, Eric, and Mike every month.
Access to the private Facebook Group.
Access to NSCA and NASM CEUs
A movie quality Chewbacca mask
If you’re still on the fence you can check out the goods HEREfor a free sample issue.
Otherwise you can just trust that I have smart friends and excellent taste in the resources I recommend to people and go HERE to subscribe.
Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA, Hoth – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
^^^ It’s so good we didn’t even feel the need to come up with a witty title for it.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
A year ago the guys over at Stronger By Science (Greg Nuckols, Eric Helms, and Mike Zourdos released their monthly research review MASS (Monthly Applications in Strength Sport) and it’s made the industry better.
I for one HATE reading research and much prefer to let other people who are much smarter than myself to break things down in more bite sized, manageable nuggets of information.
This is a meticulously curated monthly service. The MASS reviewers sift through 100+ journals per month to help you get smarter and to better sever your athletes/clients. If you’re a coach, physique or strength athlete, or just someone who likes to nerd out and talk about actin/myosin chains at the dinner table this will be right up your alley.
Today (4/27) through next week (5/3) is your chance to take advantage of some BIG markdowns on the service.
$21 monthly subscription (normally $29)
$209 yearly subscription (normally $299)
$699 lifetime subscription (normally $999)
If you’re still on the fence you can check out the goods HERE for a free sample issue.
Otherwise you can just trust that I have smart friends and excellent taste in the resources I recommend to people and go HERE.
Many of the programs and tactics used to target the 40+ lifter are garbage. As my friend John Rusin would say:
“Just because you are 40+ years old does NOT mean you need a training program specifically designed for “40+ Year Old Lifters” as sleazy fitness industry marketing 101 is attempting to force feed you. What you really need is a program that is custom fit to YOU and your BIOLOGICAL age and needs, not your chronological age.”
I found this article very relevant with a sound message. Check it out.
Per usual, Charles provides a bevy of sound and practical advice in this article.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
I’m often amused when random strangers in grocery stores comment on the amount of eggs and red meat in my basket and serve as the “health” police when their’s is full of potato chips and Kit Kats and they’re clearly overweight.
For the past, well, I don’t know how long I’ve posted my “Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work” post every Friday.
This past Friday I did not post it. As a result the internet shut down.3
Okay, it didn’t…but it did feel weird not to post it. And while I’d like to sit here and say it was because of something cool like, say, I had a man-date with The Rock or I was fighting crime, the truth of the matter is, with my schedule being switched around with an infant in tow, it makes it easier to post at the start of the week rather than the end.
You didn’t really care? Oh, okay then….lets get right to it.
Lisa and I are happy to announce we’re bringing back our Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
Last year we had the privilege of presenting together in Austin, TX and London, UK, and we’re elated to be heading to Toronto, Ontario to pick up where we left off.
In a nutshell I speak to a little assessment talk, program design, and breaking down technique on a few common lifts such as the squat, deadlift, get-up, and blindfolded chainsaw juggling, and Lisa speaks to more of the mindset side of the equation and how we can help build better rapport and “buy in” with our clients/athletes.
For more information and to sign up, please go HERE.
2) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Orlando
Our Vancouver shindig in April sold out, but Dean and I have recently announced a stop in Orlando, FL later this year, October 21-22nd at Spark Fitness.
I’ve never been to Orlando. There’s no way in hell I’m visiting Disney World.
A make zero effort to hide my fandom of Jen Sinkler. I think she’s one of the kindest and most authentic human beings I know.
I also think she one helluva a coach and someone who’s a Jedi master at producing and curating quality fitness content. A few months she and Kourtney Thomas (another fantastic coach) released The Bigness Project.
If the title doesn’t give it away it’s alllllll about getting big or diesel or jacked (or whatever your adjective of choice is), and it’s directed towards women. Namely, it’s to prove a point: that women can and should train to add muscle (and not be afraid or timid to do so).
It’s an amazing 14-week program designed for women, by women and also includes a mindset component and thorough exercise glossary.
You need to act quick, though, because it’s being pulled from the virtual shelves by the end of this week. If you want to participate and get the Bigness, you have to go HERE by Friday.
If you’re a strength athlete, physique competitor, or just someone who likes to look like a brick shit house (or help people look that way) this will be right up your alley.
Every month, they sift through 50+ journals and 1,000+ studies to handpick the cutting-edge research that’s most relevant for building muscle, gaining strength, and getting leaner.
Pretty much everyone who reads this site – except my mom – should be down with that.
If you want to stay on top of the research but, like me, hate reading research (nor have 40+ hours per month to dedicate to it) then this is a no-brainer.
Subscriptions can be monthly, yearly, or, for the all-out ballers out there, lifetime. This week only MASS is being offered at 20% OFF the regular price.
Having the ability to regress or progress an exercise based on the needs and ability level of an athlete/client is a skill that any fitness professional should strive to have.
This is never more apparent than when coaching the squat.
The phrase “it’s not so much about contraindicated exercises as it is about contraindicated lifters” never sings to high than in this article.
This is a newly minted website by two (more) coaches I respect a ton…Lori Lindsey and Amanda Wheeler.
It’s a site dedicated to former athletes and women and strives to articulate a message that goes against the status quo directed towards much of female fitness.
I encourage you to check it out.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
“I don’t want to get too bulky,” says the person who will never work hard enough for that to happen in the first place. Relax.
Greg Nuckols was nice enough to stop by and talk shop about MASS – Monthly Application in Strength Sport – his new monthly resource that just became available today.
An athlete or coach who knows and truly understands the latest research has a huge advantage over his or her’s competitors. MASS is a shortcut that earmarks all the greatest and most recent research and is curated by some of the most respected coaches out there – Greg, Eric Helms, and Mike Zourdos.
TG:Who’s geekier: you, Eric (Helms), Mike (Zourdos), or Gilbert and Lewis from “Revenge of the Nerds?”
GN: I’d say they’re geekier, but we’re nerdier. It’s an important distinction. Basically, nerds are geeks who are actually really good at whatever they nerd/geek out about. We kick more ass than they do.
TG: What was the impetus behind starting MASS? Also, what do you feel separates it from other research reviews out there?
GN: It was the logical solution to a set of problems we saw:
#1 – Most people are still quite uninformed about the science behind hypertrophy, strength development, and body composition. We’d never argue that science is inherently better than in-the-trenches experience, but we think science and experience work together much better than having either in isolation.
#2 – A lot of people who try to communicate science to the masses do so poorly. This can take several forms.
A lot of people just read the abstract, which is generally incomplete or misleading.
Some people read the full text, but can’t digest studies well enough to spot some of their bigger (and more important) details – stuff like methodology, the tools used to take measurements, or the statistical analysis can dramatically alter what you can take away from a study, but those things are often glossed over.
Finally, there’s the issue of contextualization and communication. Simply understanding a study doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to get the results and practical takeaways across to the reader, and it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll know how the findings can fit into day-to-day practice if you don’t actually have any coaching experience.
#3 – Trying to keep up with the research on your own can be absolutely overwhelming.
There are at least 50-60 journals that publish research that’s relevant to us at least semi-frequently, and they churn out 1000+ articles per month. Going through all those journals, picking out the relevant studies, and reading all of them takes me (conservatively) 40-50 hours per month.
Note From TG: The only way you’d get me to spend 40-50 hours per month reading research is this:
After that whole process, there are generally fewer than 10 new studies that materially affect day-to-day practice for strength and physique athletes/coaches, but it takes a ton of back-end work to track them all down.
Once those pieces came together, starting MASS (Monthly Applications in Strength Sport) was a no-brainer. It gets science out to the masses in a clear, understandable format, and it saves people massive amounts of time and money (journal access isn’t cheap, after all).
We’re different from other research reviews in two major ways: scope and presentation.
Scope is probably the most important distinction. MASS focuses solely on science that’s relevant to strength and physique athletes. It’s not for people focused on general health. It’s not for S&C coaches or team sport athletes. It’s not for rehab professionals.
If your primary goal is to pick up heavy things, get jacked, or improve your body composition (or you train people with those goals), MASS is for you.
Since we have such a relatively narrow focus, we do the best job providing information that’s highly useful and relevant for that population.
With regards to presentation, we have a mix of written and video content, depending on what a given research topic best lends itself to, whereas the other reviews I’m aware of are solely written. We also have mobile-friendly versions of all of our articles, which is helpful for people trying to read MASS on the go with their mobile device.
TG: How much of a balancing act is there between being an “evidence-based coach” and respecting research and anecdotal experience? Is there a balancing act? In other words: Is there a percentage breakdown between how much we should base our training/program design/methodologies off research and how much of it comes from “feel” and anecdotal shenanigans?
GN: There’ll always be a mix.
Scientific research is the best tool we have to tell us what works better or worse on average for a given population, and it’s also the only tool we have for discovering the physiological underpinnings of training practice (not just “what” works, but “why” it works).
With that in mind, science helps give you a fantastic starting point for your own training or coaching, and it helps you avoid a lot of nonsense fads because understanding physiology helps tune your bullshit detector.
After you use the research findings as a starting point, you always need to do some self-experimentation and troubleshooting to optimize your approach for yourself or your clients, because what works best on average may not be what works best for each individual.
Understanding the basic physiology helps guide that troubleshooting as well, though, by helping you understand what tweaks are more or less likely to be helpful.
TG:What are you favorite, most referenced, or “go to”strength & conditioning studies of all time?
There are too many to list! Here are a few I find myself referring to a lot, though:
MASS Spread: I.e., what an issue looks like on the inside.
TG: Any studies you feel people use or gravitate towards that are complete BS or bunk?
GN: There’s a decent amount of supplement research I’m pretty distrustful of.
When a supplement is independently tested in a bunch of different labs and shows pretty “meh” results, and then it’s tested in a study funded by the patent holder and it suddenly looks like a legal replacement to steroids…I get skeptical.
TG:Okay, short and sweet: why should people consider MASS. How will it help them?
GN: If you’re already sold on the value of keeping up with scientific research, MASS will save you a massive amount of time and dig into the research that’s relevant to you in a lot more depth than you’ll find elsewhere.
Since all three of us are athletes and coaches as well, we know what sort of information you’re looking for, and what will directly improve your results or the results of your clients.
I gotta be honest: Greg sent me the first copy of MASS a few weeks ago and it’s really, really, really good.
I hate reading research.
I’d rather do any of the following than peruse PubMed on a Friday night:
Light my face on fire.
Go to a One Direction concert.
Talk about my feelings.
Greg, Eric, and Mike have done the industry a solid by putting together this amazing resource that will not only help you stay sharp and on top of the most recent research…..
……but you’ll save a TON of time to boot.
The initial launch of MASS starts today (5/1) and runs through this Friday. Here are the introductory prices:
$25/month for monthly
$249/year for yearly
$799/lifetime (one-time purchase)
These prices will go up 20% after this week. It’s a steal for the amount of information you’re getting.
It’s been a few months since I’ve done one of these so lets jump right to it.
1. If you’re a fitness professional (or someone who likes to geek out and rub elbows with some of the industry’s biggest names and/or stalk Dan John) why haven’t you attended a Perform Better event yet?
This past weekend Perform Better was in Providence, RI hosting their second (of three) weekend Summits.
Note: Chicago and Providence have passed, but there’s still a chance to attend Long Beach on August 7-9th.
I’ve been fortunate enough to attend the Summit almost every year since I’ve lived in Boston (9 years), in addition to a handful of PB’s One-Day Learn By Doing seminars. And it never gets old. I always walk away with numerous new ideas and takeaways. And free samples. What what!!
This year I was only able to make it for one day – the last day, Sunday. As it happened my wife, Lisa, had made plans for us to head out to Brimfield, MA for what’s known as Mordor the largest flea market in North America.
She made the plans a few weeks ago, and being the newly minted husband I am I feigned excitement and agreed to go.
“OMG, are you kidding babe? I’d LOVE to go walk around for an entire day looking at antiques, jewelry, and blankets with flower patterns on them! While we’re at it can we go jump into a live volcano too!?!!”
Giving her credit, Lisa was more than accommodating and compromised with me. In exchange for her being able to take the car for the entire day and spend as much time as she wanted at the flea market, she dropped me off in Providence at 8 AM so I could attend the last day of the Summit.
I dropped in and listened to talks by Michael Mullin, Artemis Scantalides, Brian St. Pierre, Dr. Evan Osar, and Robb Rogers, and also had the chance to catch up with several colleagues and friends.
Special shout-out to Artemis who ROCKED her first speaking appearance for Perform Better. She easily had the best title for her presentation: Toning Is For Printers: I Lift.
One of the highlights from her talk was how empowering it is to help women grasp the concept of STRENGTH TRAINING and how that alone can help them attain their aesthetic goals (something I preach ad nauseam on this site). In particular she spoke to pull-ups and how she goes about progressing and programming them for women. While I wasn’t able to film her talk, many of her same points can be seen in the video below by Karen Smith:
I also felt like a pseudo celebrity as numerous people walked up to me to say hello and introduce themselves, and on numerous occasions, in a surreal sort of way, I held open a door for a complete stranger and they’d say “thanks Tony!”
Even more baller was the fact that in a few presentations I sat in on the presenter gave me an unsolicited shoutout. I have to say it’s pretty cool feeling and an honor that I’m recognized by my colleagues.
Nonetheless it was a fantastic day and special thanks to Perform Better for their continued dominance for putting on the best and most professional fitness show on the planet.
2. I originally watched these over on Bret Contreras’ site and figured I’d re-post them here because I really, really4 liked them.
Strength coach and competitive powerlifter and bodybuilder, Eric Helms, did a superb job with this video series and I’d HIGHLY encourage you to watch these if or when you have the time.
I’m only going to link to the first THREE, but there are SIX levels in all.
Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid Level 1: Intro
Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid Level 2: Volume, Intensity, Frequency
Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid Level 3: Progression
3. With the success of this website I often get contacted by various supplement, apparel, and fitness companies asking if I’d be interested in trying their product(s). Some are garbage (especially those that are obviously a canned, arbitrary, altogether impersonal outreach); others just aren’t a good fit for my audience (Hey Tony, ever hear of Blindfolded Yogalates Kick-Boxing?); and others, especially supplements, while I do give them an honest “go,” just end up tasting like sawdust dipped in old people fart.
Not good.
But then again, there are times where I am pleasantly surprised and have no issues spreading the word. One such example is a company called ViewSport.
They use what’s called “sweat activated technology” where an inspirational message appears on your shirt the harder you work. Kind of like how when the ring in Lord of the Rings is put into the fire and a magical message appears, except in this case there’s no ring, no fire, and 100% no magic. Shit.
But it’s still pretty cool.
Both Lisa and I have been wearing our shirts to the gym the past few weeks and love them. They’re super comfy and, while I know better than to think that sweating is an indicator of the effectiveness of a workout, it is pretty satisfying when I get the message to appear.
Check them out. And no, I receive no kick-backs.
4. If you’re not reading Bryan Krahn’s site you should be. His latest article, 10 Reasons It’s Better To Be Lean, Bro is equal parts brotastic and spot on.
5. Based off the recommendation of a friend I just completed reading the novel Ready Player One, written by Ernest Cline.
Anyone who grew up in the 1980’s and 90s will appreciate this book. It’s chock full of pop culture references – Voltron, War Games, Atari, Joust, Adventure, Monty Python, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Godzilla, cue nerd boner here – from that era as you follow the protagonist, Wade (Parzival), as he navigates through a virtual video game of life and death.
Word on the street is that this book is being adapted by Steven Spielberg as his next film project.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many childhood memories were jolted free from the recesses of my consciousness as I read this book. Sooooo many references that I had completely forgotten about. It actually inspired me to do some YouTube searching and I came across this gem.
