CategoriesUncategorized

Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete

I gain a lot of satisfaction training females and I have long championed the approach that, contrary to much of the mainstream, they can (and should) “train like the boys.” You know, in the gym, using barbells and stuff.

Copyright: lyashenko / 123RF Stock Photo

 

In my eights years as a coach at Cressey Sports Performance (and now, at CORE in Boston) I work with female athletes and non-athletes alike on a weekly basis and try my best to encourage them to push the barrier, focus on performance-based goals, and aim higher. I don’t treat them like delicate flowers and I don’t make it a “thing” that they don’t have an Y-chromosome.

Training is training regardless of sex.

With regards to training female athletes, though, it’s surprising how barren the resource-scape is. There aren’t many options out there. Which is why I am elated that Adam Feit was willing to discuss his new resource Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete.

I’m starting to make my way through it now, and it’s excellent so far. I’ve already filled several pages of notes in my notebook, and my female clients are totally going to hate me (more) soon.

Enjoy the interview.

Tony Gentilcore (TG): I find one of the more common mistakes coaches make with training female athletes is assuming that because they’re a female that they HAVE to train differently then men. I find this to be unfortunate. I feel it sets a bad connotation from the get go and sets the standard that “girls don’t train like boys.” 

Do you agree?

Adam Feit (AF): 100%. In fact, that’s why we created the Complete Guide to Training the Female Athlete. Coaches will realize “Hey! That doesn’t look so far off with what I do with ALL my athletes.”

complete-guide-to-training-the-female-athlete

Every athlete needs to squat, bend, push, pull, plant, pivot, rotate and turn. Squats are squats and deadlifts are deadlifts. (And you love deadlifts, don’t you Tony?)

Everyone needs to apply force quickly, stay healthy and sustain their performance over a period of time.

When we first started RYPT almost five years ago, we thought we were going to be “lights out” with football players. Just like how every aspiring fitness professional is going to ONLY work with professional athletes, amirite?

Bobby and I were both All-Americans in football (<—Note From TG: yeah, well, I once held my high-school record for most innings pitched and shut-outs in a season) and I had spent my entire career with football strength and conditioning.

But guess what? The football players trained at school with their position coaches. They weren’t ALLOWED to actually train with someone who knew what they were doing.

But you know who was? Females.

I have coached in NINE different states in my 10 years of coaching. I have never lived in an area (Monmouth County, NJ) where female athletes dominate their sport and get as many college scholarships as they do here.

And with that, comes the increased risk of injury and our role as performance coaches to prevent those injuries from happening or transition them back on the field again.

But what we’re most proud of at RYPT is how we’ve created a community for female athletes to come in, train hard and FEEL the results. 80% of our clients these past five years have been female. Is it the training? Maybe. But I think it’s more.

It’s about improving their self esteem, mental strength and developing them into physical monsters.

TG: I couldn’t agree more on that last point. The empowerment and “freedom” that develops in female athletes when they’re coached well (and not treated like delicate snowflakes) is amazing.

All that said, we’d be remiss not to recognize that women don’t need to train differently then men (but sometimes they should). What ARE some of the particular things to take into consideration when training female athletes? 

AF: With 3500 youth female athletes trained at RYPT thus far, the biggest things we have noticed have been loading progressions, emphasis on the posterior chain, and prioritizing the single leg.

What I quickly noticed was that our female athletes simply didn’t handle the traditional model of progressive overload as well as my male athletes. Forget percentages, readiness questionnaires and velocity tracking. They couldn’t increase their training load week to week and maintain form, speed and most of all, confidence.

Was another 5-10 lbs worth it on our last set, gambling on them failing and shattering their confidence as they began weight training?

Many times I have seen an athlete crush a set at a particular weight only to not hit a single rep with five additional pounds added on the following set. Instead of pushing more weight each and every set, we have adapted our training cycles to work on increasing volume throughout the set cycle. This form of volume accumulation allows us to still overload the athlete but in a safer manner.

Note From TG: that last point by Adam is what I mean when I talk about building a wider base (of volume) to reach a higher peak. I explain HERE.

So rather than simply going up every set, we’ve learned to keep the working weight stable for a few weeks at a time and crank up the volume through increased reps and or sets to build that confidence and get some serious work done.

Second major point is the cold hard truth of a few things that female athletes have to deal with that their male counterparts don’t have to worry so much about.

You know–just your typical quadriceps dominance, anterior pelvic tilt, more lax ligaments, and wider Q angles…

Oh, and up to 9x more likely of tearing an ACL.

Because of this, we’ve hammered the posterior chain into our warm-ups, activations and strength training work each and everyday to balance out the compensations and establish proper movement patterns needed for deceleration, re-acceleration, strength development and injury prevention.

Everyday at RYPT, we’re working a variation of a leg curl, hip lift or RDL exercise to ensure our females can recruit the right musculature to stop, slow down and speed up.

Lastly, we can’t forget the importance of the single leg.

Think of almost every jump, step, run, and swing. It almost always happens on one leg.

At RYPT, we use a variety of linear, lateral and rotational split squats and lunges in the warm-up to prepare for loaded movements later in the program. Like our double leg training, we attend to each variety of movement pattern, hip and knee dominant, as well as pushing and pulling exercises.  The variety of exercise selection exposes athletes to moving in a variety of planes and through a number of different motions that also improve their awareness of their body in space. That understanding of how the body moves is helpful when the athlete is faced with a decision or a situation in a game or contest.

On Day 1: we focus on progressing our athletes into single-legged RDL variations, focusing on their proprioception and force production. This comes towards the end of the workout after we have already performed our major double leg push for the day, which is usually some sort of squat variation.

On Day 2: we focus on an auxiliary single leg push movements with variations of split squats, rear foot elevated split squats, lunges and step-ups.

On Day 3: depending on the level of the athlete and season of the year, we will perform either another double or single leg push exercise as a primary strength movement. For most beginner athletes, we start off with the hex bar deadlift and transition into a loaded barbell split squat or lunge as they get close to their competitive season.

TG: I love it. Not many things jazz me up more than seeing young female athletes breaking barriers and not relenting to lame societal norms.

I love all my athletes, but I do find training female athletes to be easier at times. They often seem more “coachable.” Can you shed some light on this phenomenon if you agree? And if you don’t I’ll just shut up…..;o)

AF: Female athletes flat out care. I worked four years in college football and one year in the NFL. I can count on one hand how many thank you cards I got from all the schools I worked with and the players I helped develop.

I’ve lost track of the amount of gifts, thank you’s and emails I’ve gotten from working with our females here at RYPT. Going from nothing to all of this really made me believe that I was making a difference in their lives.

But besides caring, female athletes are in fact more coachable. Because of their limited experience in the weight room, they have no bad habits to break. You’re not fighting the hip thrusting bench press bro or the wicked high squat sorriness like you do with most youth male athletes. I almost NEVER have to tell a female athlete that the weight is too heavy and she needs to go down. Female athletes WANT to get better and they WANT to do it right. They actively seek out our coaching and want to make the most out of their opportunity with us while they can.

TG: Okay, cliche time…but it’s needs to be asked: What are the most common mistakes or “myths” you come across when the topic of training female athletes arises?

I’m going to repurpose a great article my wife Mary Kate wrote for us last year here talking about these very issues:

What You Need To Know About Your Athletic Daughter

I’ve got the best spouse in the world. Not only was she a Division I soccer player and former college strength coach, the woman is STRONG and gets pissed when she doesn’t set a PR or gain muscle. She is the epitome of “female” strength and someone that our staff, as well as all our kids at RYPT, look up to (especially our own two little ones at home).

Remember, as coaches, we have not just the ability, but the responsibility to educate and empower our clients to become better people. Dispelling myths, trends and fads are only a few of the battles we face when working with today’s female athlete.

Complete Guide To Training the Female Athlete

More than ever, female athletes are playing sports and striving to win a scholarship.

They’re sacrificing quality training time with sports performance coaches like us to play another season of AAU basketball, club soccer and showcase softball.

So we’ve got to do OUR part and educate and empower coaches and parents alike to not only help athletes reach their potential, but also prevent them from LIMITING their potential due to injury. While we cannot prevent all injuries, experience and education have shown us we can certainly have a major hand in preventing many of them due to inadequate strength and body control.

If you’re looking for a complete system for training today’s female athlete, we hope you’ll consider the work we’ve done, the programs we’ve developed and the female athletes we have helped–3500 and counting.

Complete Guide To Training the Female Athlete is on sale NOW for $100 off the regular price. Go HERE and get better as a coach and to better serve your athletes.

training-female-athlete

Categoriescoaching Female Training rant Strength Training

Why I Prefer Training Women

I recognize the title of this post can be a bit misleading; as if to imply I don’t like training men. This is not the case.

Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_vadymvdrobot'>vadymvdrobot / 123RF Stock Photo</a>
Copyright: vadymvdrobot / 123RF Stock Photo

 

I mean, I spent eight years of my career at Cressey Sports Performance training predominantly men (baseball players). They were all lovely, if not a bit overzealous with the Axe Body Spray at times.

What’s more, given half the population on Earth has a Y chromosome it should come as no surprise that 50% of my current clientele at CORE are the proud owners of a “boy down there part.” Although I’m sure if I crunched the numbers the percent breakdown of female/male clients would skew a little higher on the female side.

I’ve always enjoyed training women. Men, too. But looking back at my coaching career I’ve always gained a greater sense of satisfaction and enjoyment from working with and training women.

Back in 2002, at my first job in corporate fitness, it didn’t take long for me to “recruit” a few women and to introduce strength training to them. The guys, for the most part, didn’t need much egging from me to pick up a barbell. Like me, they had been indoctrinated and encouraged at an early age – mostly as a result of watching Predator 3,987 times – to lift weights.

Most were lifting weights to some capacity already.

Because that’s what guys are supposed to do.

For the women, though, not all of them of course, the story was a bit different. Most were never encouraged to lift weights, and if they were it was always directed towards machines or “girl exercises.”

Read: cardio.

37459682 - beautiful group of young women friends exercising on a treadmill at the bright modern gym

Copyright: dotshock / 123RF Stock Photo

A Quick Aside (WARNING: you may want to drop kick something after reading this it will make you that angry): This reminds me of a story a female colleague of mine once told me about a local high school here in Massachusetts. She had offered to help out in the school’s weight room during the summer months and had asked the Athletic Director (a woman, who also happened to be the varsity coach for several of the women’s teams) if she could “target” the young girls and attempt to set up a strength training program geared towards them.

The AD said something to the effect of:

“Oh, well, you can try but it won’t do much good. The girls here aren’t interested in weight training and tend to only use the cardio machines. Besides, there aren’t any “female friendly” machines available.”

Mind you, she said this with 10+ empty power rack stations behind here.

Riiiiiiggggggggghhhhttttt.

This was the ATHLETIC DIRECTOR (Remember: a woman no less) saying something so egregious and asinine.

Is it any wonder then, after hearing that kind of bullshit, why so many young girls grow up thinking they’re not supposed to lift weights and that it’s just something guys do? And why many take the same mindset into adulthood?

Thanks for nothing worst athletic director ever.

So anyways, back to 2002, I started working with a lot of women and slowly but surly began to “de-program” them and helping them learn to debunk many of the common fitness myths they had fallen prey to:

  • Lifting weights will make you big and bulky.
  • Yoga/Pilates/etc will make your muscles longer, leaner, and more toned (<— again, feeding into the idea that guys do “that” (lift weights) and girls do “this” (yoga/pilates, etc).
  • Gazing at a barbell for longer than 15 seconds will make you grow an Adam’s apple, or turn you into this overnight:

This last point brings up a whole nother conversation of, 1) “Who gives a flying fuck if someone wants to look like this?” and 2) even if it is an admittedly extreme example, it implies the connotation that having any semblance of muscle is NON-feminine..

However, I hope most of you reading recognize the larger point I’m trying to make: that it’s not uncommon for women to think the above picture is the end result of performing a few sets of deadlifts over the course of a few weeks.

Spoiler Alert: It’s not.

It was very rewarding to start working with those women early in my career and to watch them make amazing progress in their strength – not to mention their confidence in themselves – and to finally see that switch turn on to where they wanted to work towards more performance based goals rather than worrying about aesthetics or looking a certain way to fulfill some BS societal norm.

Fast forward through a few girlfriends and questionable fashion choices on my end…to my time at Cressey Sports Performance. During my time there I worked with countless women, even started a “women’s only” training group (for beginners), and helped to procure an environment and culture where training was training regardless of gender.

Girls didn’t train any different than the guys.

We didn’t make it a “thing.” Girls just, you know, trained. And became badasses.

 

Fast forward, again, to today. I have my own studio in Boston (okay, technically, Brookline) and I still follow the same mantra as above: women, outside of a few circumstances, do not need to train differently then men.

I’m very fortunate in that I’ve been able to generate enough of a reputation (and following) that when women do reach out to me for coaching they tend to know what they’re getting themselves into.

Deadlifts, EDM, and plenty of Star Wars references.

But that doesn’t mean I still don’t have my work cut out for me at times. Just the other day I came across this article while I was in the waiting room at the dentist’s office:

img_1996

The article implies that foam rolling leads to “lengthening” of muscles and a leaner look (because, you know, it’s foam rolling, not calories in vs. calories out that gets rid of fat).

It was all I could do not to want to run through the pane glass window to my left when I saw this.

This. This is why I prefer working with women.1

So I can help serve as a counterpoint or antithesis to the garbage that’s directed their way in much of (not all) of the mainstream media.

Awful.

CategoriesFemale Training

The Problem With “Female Specific” Training

Before I dive into the meat and potatoes of this tightly batched, to-the-point, soiree of a fitness article lets first address the obvious…

It’s bonkers that in this day and age if you Google the term “female training” or “women’s fitness” you’re inundated with images like this:

20821722 - fitness instructor exercising with small weights in green park

Copyright: zoomteam / 123RF Stock Photo

We all know what it implies:

1. Donald Trump is bat-shit crazy.

AND

2. Women should train with light weights (presumably for higher reps) for that “toned” and “sleek” look many are after.

And we all know what my reaction is:

Somewhere between wanting to toss an ax into my face and this:

GIF in #Dumbfounded

To say I feel it oozes a toxic tone and connotation – that woman shouldn’t (or can’t?) train with appreciable weights – would be an understatement. Not only does it set women’s fitness back decades (I’m talking pre-Thigh Master era), but it also would make Susan B. Anthony shit a copy of “Hey, You, Woman, Get Back In the Kitchen and Make Me a Sandwich” out of pure rage and embarrassment.

For the Record: the above book doesn’t exist.

I’ve written several pieces on this site (HERE , HERE, and HERE, for example) extolling some of my thoughts on the topic of training women. I’d be remiss not to at least entertain the idea that there are many women out there who, by and large, could care less about deadlifting 1.5x bodyweight, performing a strict, un-assisted chin-up, or doing anything with a barbell on their back.

As much of a fan as I am of encouraging women to pursue performance-based goals, many are happy (and do very well) following programs that suggest they use “light” weights or no weights at all.2

Hey, anything that nudges anyone into a consistent behavior that gets them active where the alternative is binge-watching Netflix is cool with me.

However, being the strength coach that I am, I’m biased, and feel such programs (you know, the ones that promise 10-20 lbs. lost in one week, but only if you follow a cabbage soup detox sprinkled with belly-button lint from a Centaur) lead to inferior results.

In all the articles I’ve written and points I’ve made detailing my beefs with female specific training and the problems I have with it, there’s one “thing” I’ve always neglected to point out.

The Biggest Problem With Female Specific Training is Using the Term “Female Specific Training” In the First Place

I kinda feel stupid for not addressing this obvious point sooner.

I remember listening to a story Mike Boyle said once where he chuckles every time he comes across a “ACL Prevention Program,” particularly when it comes to female athletes.

It’s BS.

Yeah, yeah, we can talk about how research demonstrates that female athletes are 6-8x more likely to tear their ACL compared to their male counterparts, how Q-angles enter the conversation, and even how estrogen receptors during the menstrual cycle can affect things.

20561464 - image of young woman football player hitting ball

Copyright: nexusplexus / 123RF Stock Photo

But at the end of the day, as Boyle noted, there’s no such a thing as an “ACL prevention program.” Any well-designed program that focuses on getting athletes stronger (particularly the posterior chain), teaches them how to decelerate and land properly, as well as works on change of direction and movement quality in general is an ACL prevention program in its own right.

And lets just call a spade a spade:  I don’t think it’s so much an ACL issue with women as it is “they’re just weak” issue.

Now, this doesn’t apply to all women of course. But generally speaking many women are “hand held” when it comes to programming (see above) and it just comes down to getting them stronger.  Plain and simple.

So while I do agree there sometimes exists a slight dichotomy between men and women, what their goals are, how they’d like to look, and how that affects our approach to training them, any program that teaches the basic movements – squat, hip hinge, push, pull, lunge, carry – caters those movements to fit the individual needs, ability level, and anatomy of the person, and then follows suit with the principles of progressive overload….is a (good) program.

Do we really need to call it “female specific?”

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work – 7/15/16

I’m off to Providence, RI today to attend the Perform Better Summit.

So no foreplay this week. Lets jump straight to the good stuff…

Dealing With Hamstring Injury – Mike Boyle

This may be an older article written by Mike; I can’t tell, he’s written so many!

Either way the take home message is clear: it’s NOT about the hamstrings.

And while you’re at it, do yourself a favor and pick up Mike’s latest book New Functional Training For Sport.

I Lifted Weights with the Man Who Helps Victoria Secret Models Get Toned – Amy Rushlow

Excellent article featuring my good friend, Ben Bruno. Ben’s like, THE “go to” guy now for celebrities and models out in Hollywood.

On one hand I’m super happy for him and how well he’s doing out there. On the other hand I fucking hate his guts….;o)

But for real: I can speak for the masses and say it’s finally nice to see “one of us” getting the right information out in the mainstream media. The message is clear: ladies, getting strong (in the right areas) is a good thing.

Next Level Jump Training – Bobby Smith & Adam Feit

In anticipation of the release of their Elite Athletic Development 3.0 resource coming out NEXT week, Mike Robertson and Joe Kenn have been providing FREE access to this video series all this week.

Here’s what it includes:

  • An Incredibly Simple (Yet Effective) Way to Prescribe Sets and Reps for Jump Training,,
  • What “Jump Zones” Are (And Why YOU Should Use Them), and
  • How Jump Training Should Fit into a Complete Training Program!

It’s a very refreshing break from most jump training systems that have athletes using speed ladders, weighted shoes, and setting unrealistic expectations.

Categoriescoaching Female Training psychology rant

Stop “Should-ing” All Over Yourself

This past weekend I attended the I Am Not Afraid To Lift Workshop at Iron Body Studios in West Roxbury, MA. It’s an event created by Artemis Scantalides geared mainly towards women – although men are encouraged to attend too – that teaches strength training as a form of empowerment, a road to improved confidence, and a less arduous avenue towards increased autonomy.

(In addition to giving the attendees any excuse to flex their biceps whenever possible).

It shouldn’t take more than 1.7 seconds to find where I’m located in this picture.

What made this past weekend particularly special for me was that my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis (located front row, 3rd from left, next to Artemis, on her right), was a co-presenter invited to speak on the topic of mindset, dealing with negative self talk, and to elucidate further on some of the psychological hurdles that many trainees tend to encounter in the weight room…and in life.

As someone who works with a lot of women and who has long championed the idea that strength training is a good thing and something that should be embraced and not euthanized in lieu of buzz words like “toned,” “long,” “lean,” and “sexy”…I felt this was a perfect melding of worlds, and something there’s a massive need for.

Artemis speaking to the intricacies of the deadlift, squat, swing, press, and chin-up/pull-up – both from a coaching/cueing and program design perspective – and Lisa speaking to many of the pervasive mental road blocks many women and men battle on a daily basis which CAN be managed with some easily implemented drills and strategies.

“Should-ing” On Ourselves

While speaking with an attendee about her anxieties and frustrations about not being able to hit a specific fitness goal, Lisa commented, “It sounds like your “SHOULD-ING” all over yourself, instead of feeling energized by your goal.”

The entire room erupted in laughter3. I’m lucky I wasn’t drinking anything at the time, because this totally would have been me:It was an awesome line, but not a Lisa original.

She borrowed it from Dr. Albert Ellis who’s the man responsible for something referred to as RET, or Rational Emotive Therapy. RET was popular decades ago, before CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) came on the scene. Ellis would focus on “irrational thoughts” as the source of our anxieties and negative emotions.

I have to assume there’s a book somewhere out there with big, fancy words or entire courses describing this type of therapy in more glamorous detail, but in other words it can be broken down like this:

The origin of your problem isn’t actually the problem… it’s how you’re thinking about the problem.

Some common health and fitness examples may include:

“I’m not fit until I can run a marathon or deadlift 2x bodyweight.”

“I’m not in shape until I have a six pack or I’m “x” dress size.”

“I have to workout every day.”

“If I don’t achieve my goal of hitting a bodyweight chin-up, I’m a failure.”

Lisa interviewing an attendee on her “mental roadblocks” and anxiety about hitting a specific fitness goal.

Many of us form these beliefs and inevitably turn them into doctrine:

Who says they’re real in the first place?

Who says you have to deadlift 2x bodyweight?

Who says you have to train everyday?

Who says you have to lose 10 lbs. in order to look good in a bikini?

Who said that? Who says these rules?

A trainer? An article your read on the internet? Some magazine cover? A Kardashian?

Even me?

Even if a reliable source makes a professional recommendation about what you “should” be doing – does that mean it’s come down from the mountain? No4. My goal as a fitness professional is to help – offer ideas, alternatives, new ways to approach your strength goals. But if something I (or anyone else) recommends doesn’t help, and in fact makes you stressed, feel bad, or NOT WANT to pursue your fitness goals, THROW IT OUT!

Try a different approach.

It’s All Made Up

The thing to point out – especially as it relates to YOUR goals and YOUR happiness – is that there are no rules. Everything – more or less – is someone else’s belief. Someone else’s opinion.

[Not coincidentally to help sell an ebook, or DVD, or Gluten-free, GMO, organic, Acai Pills soaked in Unicorn tears.]

That doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

As Lisa notes:

“Buying into a “rule” that makes you unhappy is the problem.”

And this is something that permeates into other aspects of our lives as well; not just fitness.

We make rules for ourselves – often irrationally and without much thought – and make a habit of measuring our happiness, sense of well-being, and worse, our overall sense of self-worth on our ability to successfully cross these rules off like a checklist:

  • I have to – should – be married by the time of 28.
  • I have to – should – make Dean’s List every semester.
  • I have to – should–  be making “x” amount of money per year.
  • I have to – should – get caught up on Game of Thrones5.

Bringing the discussion back to health and fitness, according to Lisa:

“If “shoulding on yourself” is messing you up and makes you feel upset, then it’s time to reevaluate.”

That’s not the point of fitness. Don’t should on yourself.

If you can deadlift 290 lbs and your goal is 300, are you any less accomplished or less of a person? Does all the hard work you put in for the past few months (or years) all of a sudden become moot or negated because of 10 lbs?

It’s true: we celebrate growth and progress in the gym by how much weight is on the bar. We take before and after pictures. We set goals and standards for ourselves, which is fantastic.

However, once we allow someone else’s arbitrary (even if well intentioned) rule from a magazine or book affect our well-being – I should be avoiding carbohydrates after 6PM (even though I feel lethargic and want to drop kick everyone in the face), I should be back squatting (even though it never feels good, despite good coaching) – and it becomes more toxic than helpful… it’s time to change your mindset.

In the end who cares? What matters and what’s important is that you recognize the process is every bit as important as the outcome.

It’s time to stop SHOULDING all over yourself.

How about you? Any “shoulds” out there that you’d like to share? Lisa says it can help to acknowledge and “put it out there” to help yourself start to reevaluate what really matters…

Thanks for your thoughts!

CategoriesMotivational

Why Gym Culture Is So Important

You’ve heard me mention it before, but it bears repeating: what I feel separates a good gym from a great gym is the notion of CULTURE.

There are a thousand and one gyms out there who hire the best trainers/coaches, have access to every piece of training equipment you could ever ask for, offer competitive rates, and spice things up with various amenities such as juice bars, WiFi, cafe, group exercise classes, yoga, pool, massage therapy, and maybe even access to steam rooms.

Although, if I were you, I’d steer clear of them. Trust me.

Yet, many often fail or have a less than stellar retention rate because they lack any semblance or culture or community.

Places like Cressey Sports Performance, Mark Fisher Fitness (in NYC), IFAST (in Indianapolis), Tuff Girl Fitness (in New Haven, CT), Movement Minneapolis (in Minneapolis), Results Fitness (in Newhall, CA), and yes I’ll even toss CrossFit into the mix here, are a speck of dust in comparison to some of the monstrosities that take up a city block.

None offer fancy amenities, may or may not even offer a place to shower, and are often set at a much higher price point compared to their big-box gym counterparts.

Yet, they thrive and have the most loyal members you could ask for. As Simon Sinek noted in his outstanding book Start With Why:

“There’s a big difference between repeat business and loyalty. Repeat business is when people do business with you multiple times. Loyalty is when people are willing to turn down a better product or a better price to continue doing business with you.”

Why the Loyalty?

Because every single gym above, in their own unique way, has placed a premium on building a culture where people want to train, want to spend their time, and more importantly feel empowered and encouraged by the staff and other members.

Training around like-minded people has a palpable effect on not only performance but overall experience too.

Take what happened last Saturday at CSP.

To give a little backstory: I’ve long championed the mentality that women should focus more on performance based goals in the weight room rather than things like scale weight or emulating a celebrity look or listening to anything the mainstream media has to say on the topic of women and fitness.

Most of it is unrealistic, toxic, and sets back women’s fitness 20 years.

I 100% feel strength training is the key to pretty much anything, even for more aesthetic based goals.

What’s more, using the popular analogy, strength training is a glass. Most people’s glass (men included) is far too small and they have little room to “express” any other qualities such as sprinting, jumping, hitting a golf ball 250 yds, deadlifting a tank, farmer carrying bags of groceries from the store to your apartment, fighting crime, or doing anything remotely athletic.

Strength training makes your glass bigger so that you can put more “stuff” into it. It allows you the freedom to not pull a hamstring just thinking about chasing after a taxi.

It allows for stuff like this to happen:

 

This is a video I took this past Saturday of four random women who train at CSP (admittedly, the first one, Nancy, is a current intern), the youngest of which is 15.

For the hell of it I challenged one of them to see if she could do a one-arm chin-up, and before I knew it several was lining up to try.

How baller is that?

None of them walked in on day one and said, “you know what Tony? I’d like to be able to perform a one-arm chin-up.”

But because we’ve built a culture where people (men AND women) love to lift heavy things and get after it, and because all four embraced the importance of hard work and bought into our way of doing things, it has allowed them to do stuff like this.

Because, why not?

CategoriesFemale Training speed training

4 Strength Goals For a Beautiful Body

I make no secret my disdain towards the mainstream media (magazines, newscasts, infomercials, pop culture, fads) and how it relays fitness information to women.

Wait, what? You mean women can lift weights heavier than 3 lbs????

Most of it – mind you, not all of it – is predicated on the notion that women are these delicate flowers who shouldn’t (or worse, can’t!) lift appreciable weights, and that their fitness needs are better aligned with cardiocentric modalities and/or buzz words like “toned,” “sleek,” and “sexy.”

You know, cause deadlifts will make you grow an Adam’s Apple overnight.

The tone (<- forgive the pun) has changed in the past five years or so with the growing popularity of CrossFit. Women, now more than ever, of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, and ability-level are hitting the weights and recognizing (and reaping) the advantages of setting performance based goals.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, though.

It’s a never ending upward battle to change the mindset of a society that places more “value” in something as arbitrary as what the scale reads in lieu of someone’s push-up prowess.

In my latest article on BodyBuilding.com I discuss why strength is the key to pretty much everything, including aesthetics.

Continue Reading……..

ALSO

Since we’re on the topic of performance, one of my all-time favorite resources for conditioning and general badassery – Lift Weights Faster 2 – is currently in the midst of a stellar summer SALE.

Not only do you get to learn from one of the best coaches I know, Jen Sinkler, and get bombarded with literally hundreds of different circuits and finishers ranging from 10-30 minutes, but you’ll also have the opportunity to follow workouts written by guest coaches such as myself, John Romaniello, Jill Coleman, Ben Bruno, Bret Contreras, Molly Galbraith, and a host of others.

Frankly, LWF2 is my default resource whenever I need a quick circuit to use myself or with any number of my own clients.

And you can get it for $40 off the regular price the rest of this week.

Check it out HERE.

CategoriesFemale Training Motivational Strength Training

An Open Letter to Everyone Who Has Told Women “Don’t Get Too Muscular”

NOTE: As some of you may or may not know, I’m getting married this weekend. As such, I’m going to be a little hit and miss as far as how often I update the blog for the next week or so. I’m going to be too busy eating my fair share of carrot cake and *ahem* partaking in extracurricular activities…;O)

Today is a RE-POST of an article I published last year on the site. It’s without question one of the more popular posts ever published on TG.com. For anyone who missed it the first time around (or is new to the site), enjoy!

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Seattle based blogger and writer, Sophia Herbst. I first crossed paths with Sophia- via the interwebz – a few months ago when I read her outstanding article on the Huffington Post 1200 Calories.

I included it as part of my Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work series and low and behold, Sophia reached out to thank me for sharing and to say that the feelings were mutual:  she was a big fan of my work as well.

We pretty much became internet BFFs at that point.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and she reached out again to see if I’d be interested in contributing to an article she was writing on CrossFit.  We exchanged several emails – along with some inappropriate (to share) commentary – and I asked if she’d be down with writing a piece for my site.  She was more than happy to oblige.

She’s an amazing writer. I don’t use that compliment lightly. And while I’m not a woman, as a man, it was almost impossible for me not to nod my head in agreement with everything she had to say below. 

Enjoy!

Also, just a heads up: there is some not-so-PG-13 language involved.  Deal with it.

An Open Letter to Everyone Who Has Told Women “Don’t Get Too Muscular.”

I have been strength training for about two years now. Before that, I was a starvation-dieter.

I began dieting around the age of 13 or 14. My freshman year of high school I discovered I no longer fit into size zero jeans and bam! Diet time. By the time I hit 21, the years of self-imposed malnutrition had left me at 100lbs, able to easily wrap my thumb & middle finger around my upper arm (“bicep” doesn’t seem like the appropriate word) and unable to open jars, heavy doors, or windows by myself.

Why am I telling you this?

During my seven years of starvation-dieting, I was never once told, “don’t get too thin”.

In contrast, during my two years of strength training I have been told, “don’t get too muscular” countless times.

The first time it happened to me, I had excitedly been telling someone about my new squat PR. Weighing in at a (finally) healthy 125, I had just squatted 100lbs. I was in the middle of explaining  “my goal is a bodyweight back squat-” when I was interrupted with a “well, don’t get too muscular now”.

Being new to strength training, this crushed me.

For an awful few days it took my focus away from becoming stronger, and back to measuring myself by the gauge of “is my body pleasing for others to look at?”

After I got over it, my dismay turned into anger – no – absolute fury at this society in which 42% of girls 5-8 years old want to be thinner, and 10 million women are battling eating disorders (source), yet we hear the words “don’t get too muscular” far more often than “don’t get too thin.”

Now, while this unsolicited “advice” is generally never welcome nor appreciated, it brings up two issues: The encouragement of female weakness, and the lack of respect for female body autonomy.

One: Culturally-Encouraged Female Weakness

Let me tell you right now, women who strength train know how hard it is to build muscle.

If you tell a woman who strength trains “don’t get too muscular” then congratulations! You have just ousted yourself as a totally ignorant fool who doesn’t even lift.

The problem is that women who don’t strength train don’t know how hard it is to build muscle, and so this phrase, “don’t get too muscular” will seriously deter them from ever picking up heavy things in the first place.

This is a big problem. Naomi Wolf explains it better than I ever could:

“A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”

― The Beauty Myth

When women strength train, it is an act of borderline social disobedience. “Don’t get too muscular” is the phrase of choice used by people who are threatened by strong women to put them “back in their place”.

And it’s working.

We have three generations & counting of women who have been brainwashed into voluntarily physically debilitating themselves. 

Three generations of women who have been more focused on losing weight than running for government. Three generations of women have would rather be thin than intelligent. Three generations of women that would rather let the men-folk open jars for them, rather than develop the strength to open jars for themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMHXLUvNuJg

Now, I am not advocating that people start going around, accosting teenage girls with desperate pleas of “don’t get too thin! Put some meat on dem bones!” But to be completely honest, I probably would have benefited very much if I had received the message “don’t get too thin” at some point in my adolescence.

So. If you are going to say anything to a woman about her body (which you shouldn’t be doing in the first place, as I am about to explain), “don’t get too thin” is 1000% preferable  over the completely moronic “don’t get too muscular”.

Two: Lack of Respect for Female Body Autonomy

Why do people think it’s appropriate to tell women what they can & can’t do with their bodies in the first place? What makes someone think it’s perfectly acceptable to tell a woman “don’t get too muscular”?

This is an issue that’s been going on since the dawn of time, with female body autonomy being disrespected from reproductive rights, to personal space in public places, to -yes – appearance, weight, & fitness.

Most tellingly, no woman – no matter what kind of body she has – is immune from invasive suggestions on how she should be caring for her body. Women who strength train are warned against getting too “bulky”, “muscular”, or (my absolute favorite) “manly”.

Women who are on the larger side by far endure the most unwanted commentary. From people remarking on what’s in their shopping carts, to what they should order at a restaurant, to what type of exercise they should be doing, to what they should be wearing whilst exercising… it never stops. Even thin women can’t escape the self-appointed body police, who unhelpfully pester them to eat more because “men like women with curves”.

If you are a man, and the idea of a random passerby raising knowing eyebrows at your gut whilst commenting on your ice-cream cone sounds invasive and preposterous – that’s because it is invasive and preposterous. You are just lucky enough to not experience it every day.

Sometimes multiple times a day.

Men, for the most part, do not have to entertain this type of “well-intentioned” advice, because people actually respect male body autonomy. This is something that women would like to enjoy as well.

The people who tell women what they should do with their bodies are, frankly, so arrogant they believe their “benevolent suggestions” are actually doing the woman a favor.

Y’know, helping us be more attractive to potential mates.

This completely disregards the fact that women do not exist to be aesthetically pleasing for others, and we (this may surprise some) often do things for ourselves.

Which brings me full circle to my anecdote in the beginning, about the first time someone interrupted my squat-excitement to not-so-helpfully remind me to avoid bulky she-man status.

Women who strength train are doing it for themselves, not for you. Women who lift weights have already eschewed social norms by touching iron in the first place, and I guarantee they give negative fucks about your opinions on their bodies.

So next time you are tempted to “help” a woman by telling her not to deadlift things because you don’t like muscular women, remember that nobody cares about your stupid boner. Especially not the lady deadlifting 200lbs in the gym tank that says “GET SWOLE”.

But even more importantly than not telling this to women who already have the ability to overhead press your girlfriend, don’t say it to women who aren’t strength training yet (like your girlfriend).  Because chances are, with every “don’t get too muscular” a girl hears, weight gets added to the already-heavily weighted scales that tip women away from becoming strong, healthy, and powerful, and towards a life of cardio, carrot sticks, and misery.

And no woman deserves that. 

*** Be sure to check out Sophia’s bio below and to find out how to read more of her stuff!!!

Note from TG

At this point, if you’re a woman reading this who has little experience with strength training (or if you’re a friend, family member, or significant other of someone who’s expressed interest) you may be wondering to yourself, “well, where do I start? I don’t know my ass from my acetabulum, let alone how to perform a squat or deadlift correctly!  And, how often should I workout?  How much weight should I lift? Is it okay to train two days in a row?  OMG DID I LEAVE THE STOVE ON THIS MORNING!!?!?!?!?!”

Deep breaths!  Relax.

Lucky for you I have a lot of smart, genuine, and highly respected friends in the fitness industry (male and female) who have gone out of their way to provide some fantastic resources for women.

For those with limited access to a gym

Lean & Lovely – Neghar Fonooni

This is an excellent choice for those with limited equipment and who prefer workouts that utilize bodyweight and kettlebells.

Lift Weights Faster – Jen Sinkler

Another resource which places more emphasis on minimal equipment and no traditional “cardio.” It will still make you hate life, though…..;o)

For those with full access to a gym

Modern Women’s Guide to Strength Training – Girls Gone Strong

This is one of the most comprehensive “female-targeted” products out there. Not only do you get a “how to” guide to strength training, but a full-blown nutritional manual written by Dr. Cassandra Forsythe.  No 1200 kcal diets here!

The Lift Like a Girl Guide – Nia Shanks

This is a video series that guides you step-by-step on how to build your own fitness program catered to your goals and needs.

For those who just want solid information

The New Rules of Lifting for Women – Lou Schuler, Alwyn Cosgrove, and Dr. Cassandra Forsythe

No book does a better job at debunking a lot of common myths with regards to women’s fitness than this book.

Strong Curves – Bret Contreras and Kellie Davis

A bit more “sciency,” but still a fantastic resource for any woman looking to get stronger and building her ideal body.

About the Author

 

Sophia Herbst is a Seattle-based freelance writer, blogger, and proud feminist. When she’s not writing for Cody, a health & fitness startup, she’s changing the conversation about social & cultural issues through her blog.

CategoriesFemale Training Strength Training

Training Jane From Joe: Do Women Need to Train Differently Than Men?

SPOILER ALERT:  No. Women don’t need to train differently than men. Sometimes they should, however.  More on that below.

And speaking of spoilers – how many people stayed for the bonus scene after the end credits of Guardians of the Galaxy?

How many in the ballpark of my age (37) chuckled to themselves with the Howard the Duck cameo appearance?

Sooo funny/random, right?  And not to be out-stated, as a whole, Guardians was as nerdtastic as nerdtastic could be. I remember thinking to myself when I first saw the trailer a few months ago, “Yikes! How is Marvel going to pull this one off?  I think they might have bitten off more than they can chew.”

But kudos to them for yet again setting the standard for comic book movies. Epic fail on my end for doubting them.

So what has this got to do with training women?  Actually, nothing.  But for what it’s worth I gave the movie a solid 4.5 lightsabers out of 5.

Okay, for real this time.

The topic of female specific training is a dicey one to say the least. I think one of the reasons why I write about is so much and why I’m so passionate about it is because I find most (not all) women are misinformed.

Or to be more precise, are nudged towards a specific mindset at some point in their lives.

This was never more apparent than a conversation I had with a former female client of mine last year.  This client was a mom and a personal trainer herself.  She came to Cressey Sports Performance, like most trainers like her do, to hire someone else to do the thinking for her. For the record I’d recommend to ALL trainers to hire their own coach at some point!

As it happened, my client loved training at the facility and loved our approach to training female clients/athletes and eventually reached out to the local high-school where she lived to see if she could volunteer her time. She reached out to several of the coaches for the female JV and varsity teams, as well as the athletic director of the school (who also happened to be female and a varsity coach).

Long story short, the coach wrote back saying that getting any of the female athletes to come to the school-gym during their summer break was a pointless endeavor given that the weight-room had, in her words, “limited equipment that was ‘female friendly’.”

What the what!?!?!?!?!?!

She DID NOT just say that.

When my client told me that story I was dumbfounded!  With that sort of mentality and message being relayed to young, impressionable youth by adult “role models” is it any wonder that there’s a growing DECLINE in girls participating in sports?  And more to the point, can we be at all surprised why so many are programmed into thinking that girls don’t belong in the weigh-room, that just thinking about touching a barbell will make them grow an Adam’s apple, and that instead they should just focus on cardio, yoga, pilates, and Barre classes?

NOTE:  I have nothing against yoga, pliates, or Barre classes. Unlike a lot of fitness professionals who like to bag on certain modes of exercise, I’ve actually taken – and written about my experience – a yoga class and pilates class.

Any exercise is good exercise.

What I don’t agree with is how these classes are generally marketed towards women as some end-all-be-all panacea of health and fitness.  Based off the key words and promises many of these classes highlight – stuff like building “long, lean muscle” which is utter BS  – I’m surprised no one has elucidated on the benefits of bathing in unicorn tears to boot!!

But I digress.

I LOVE training women and female athletes for many reasons. For starters I think it’s rad when one of them hits a PR on a particular lift or achieves something they never thought possible – their first unassisted chin-up for example – and they end up having a “light-bulb” moment where they finally accept that they have just as much to gain from strength training as their Y-chromosome counterparts.

I love “deprogramming” them from the stagnant and life-sucking mentality many have been inundated with since junior high and high-school.  I love seeing the sense of confidence, empowerment, and freedom that blossoms once they understand that strength is a good thing and is something that should be embraced.

And while the saying states the girls are “made of sugar and spice and everything nice,” I can say without hesitation that some of the most tenacious and competitive clients I have worked with in my career are women.

Here’s distance coaching client, Sarah, cranking out a set of chinups. Yes, we can make the argument that she’s not extending her elbows at the bottom, but she called herself out on that when she sent me this video.  The point is, when we started working together last October the could perform ZERO

Here’s CSP bootcamper, Paula, crushing some KB swings as part of a finisher AFTER hitting up heavy deadlifts and squats earlier in the workout.

Yes, as some commenters posted on YouTube, she’s hinging early, blah blah blah. I appreciate the feedback (and I agree!), but it’s by no means an egregious snafu in her overall technique and is a far cry from a lot of the eye-wash “swings” other trainers and coaches post on their pages.

Regardless this is someone whose work ethic is outstanding and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone more competitive than her.

And here’s former client of CSP, Cara, hitting a challenging-but-not-nearly-as-heavy-as-she-could-go-deadlift at 33 weeks pregnant.

And before someone chimes in with a “holy crap Tony, are you insane for allowing a pregnant women lift that heavy?” comment, please read THIS.

Also, I can’t let this video slide without making a slight crack at the musical selection.  Kind of ironic, huh?……..hahahahahahaha x 10!

I don’t feel that women need to train differently than men, but I do think there are cases where they should train differently.

And it’s on that note I’d like to direct people to a presentation I recently filmed for Mike Reinold’s RehabWebinars.com:

Training Jane From Joe: Do Women Need to Train Differently Than Men?

It’s a 75 minute webinar that covers my general approach to training women. I discuss everything from initial intake/assessment to many of the progressions and programming strategies I implement to “specialty” scenarios like training someone through their pregnancy as well as covering some of the often glossed over psychological barriers that prevent women from stepping foot in the weight-room in the first place.

In addition I also cover such water-cooler topics as does weight training make women “big-n-bulky?” and why do people continue to listen to Tracy Anderson?

I feel this would be an excellent resource for any trainer or coach who works with female clients!

The cost is $19.95, but you’re not just purchasing the presentation itself.  You’re also gaining monthly access to ALL the content on RehabWebinars.com which includes dozens of hours of great contact from some of the most prestigious people in the fields of rehab, strength, and sports medicine.

If you pride yourself on continuing education and want to stay on top of the most relevant topics in the industry, this is one of the best ways to do so.

Click below to not only get access to my presentation, but over 100+  as well.  But mostly because of mine……..;o)

Training Jane From Joe: Do Women Need to Train Differently Than Men?

 

 

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/8/14

Before I get to this week’s list, I wanted to run something past all of you. Many of you know that I run a Premium Workout Group on WeightTraining.com. And if you didn’t, now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

Goooooooo Joe!

Here’s the deets:  there are a lot of people out there going to gym with no plan or purpose in their training.  They just show up, walk around performing random exercises, and then post their workout on Facebook (it doesn’t count if you don’t post it on Facebook).

The idea behind the Premium Group is to offer people some semblance of focus in their training, or a plan if you will.

I write monthly “canned” programming, you follow it, and then your general level of awesomeness is increased by a factor of infinity. Don’t argue. It’s science.

The Premium Group is amazing and I love seeing the results that people are getting. However, I want to up the ante and I’m toying with the idea of using the WeightTraining.com platform to offer more “specialized” programming.

If I were to write, say, a 4-month program dedicated solely to improving your deadlift would anyone be interested? Yes, there will be a price involved…..but not only will you get 4-months of programming written by me, but you’ll also be able to set your schedule, get email reminders of your workout days, in addition to the ability to follow/track your workouts (and progress) on your iPhone, iPad or Droid using the WT.com app (which is FREE).

Does this sound like anything anyone would be interested in?

Thanks!

This Guy Changed the Way We See Lord of the Rings . Mind Blown – via Tickld.com

This article has nothing to do with fitness obviously, but I don’t care. Any LoTR fanboy/girl will inevitably cry afoul about the ‘eagle plot hole.’

What’s the eagle plot hole you ask?

In short:  WTF DIDN’T FRODO AND THE REST OF THE CREW TAKE THE EAGLES ALL THE WAY TO MORDOR FROM THE START!!!!! GOSH!!!!!!

Whoever wrote this article should 1) be given a Nobel Peace Prize and 2) wins the internet. Forever.

Gym #Selfie Challenge: Quit Posting and Show Us What Hard Work Really Looks Like – Bri Wilson

I don’t mind people taking selfies. Like the author, I DO mind the people who post nothing but staged shots of themselves a particular pose and what I have to assume is their 27th attempt at getting the lighting juuuuuust right.

5-Move Core Shredder – Tony Gentilcore

Not to be confused with the 5-point palm exploding heart move (via Kill Bill), this was a workout I had published in this month’s issue of Men’s Health Magazine (as well as the online version) that utilizes kettlebells and helps improve core strength, iron out imbalances, and improve athletic performance.