CategoriesExercise Technique

Form Tweaking and Overreaching: Two Ways to Increase Your Squat Numbers

I’m still in Cancun…..nah nah nah nah naaaaaah.

Today’s guest post comes from Justin Kompf, who’s had several articles featured on this site like THIS one and THIS one.

Not only is he a professor at my Alma Mater, SUNY Cortland, but he’s also someone I feel is going to do a lot of cool things in this industry.  He “gets it,” and I hope you take the time to read what he has to say.

I’m actually heading to Warrior Fitness this morning to do a workshop for a group of trainers and fitness enthusiasts here in Cancun, and I don’t speak a lick of Spanish….haha.  This should be interesting. 

Note: please excuse the formatting issues as of late.  I had WordPress updated on my site a few days ago and it seems to have caused a few glitches.  Hopefully the issue will be resolved soon. If not, the internet is sooooo going to be sent to bed with no dinner tonight!!!

Form Tweaking and Overreaching

Early on in my lifting career I quickly excelled at the deadlift. Speaking strictly from an anthropometric point of view, having a shorter torso and longer arms, I’m built for that lift.

However, once I started competing in powerlifting (and wanting to place) I quickly realized my squat needed to catch up to the deadlift. Over the course of the last year I took my squat from 350 pounds to 420 pounds while staying in the 181 pound weight class.

To achieve this I did two simple things that can be easily applied. I switched to a box squat and I planned periods of overreaching in my training prior to competition.

Note from TG:  losing in a Predator hand-shake off didn’t hurt either.

Box Squatting

My biggest problem with the squat was coming out of the hole, (bottom of the squat) I would consistently lean forward when the weight was too heavy. I tried using Olympic shoes which initially helped.

There’s evidence to suggest that wearing shoes with a raised heel can help the lifter stay more upright during the squat with sub max loads which I found to be the case.

Restricting dorsiflexion to keep a vertical shin usually increases forward trunk lean. For example, one study by Fry et. al. did just this, they placed a barrier to restrict dorsiflexion during the squat and found that the subjects who had restricted dorsiflexion leaned forward more (Fry).

Olympic shoes allow you to stay more upright because you are granted more dorsiflexion. However, whenever I would get close to maximal weights I would still lean forward with or without the Olympic shoes on.

In competition there are a large variety of squat variations with different stance widths. For example, lifters performing a traditional squat might only have their feet half as wide as those performing a powerlifting style squat! (Swinton).

 

Typically the lifters with a narrower base end up letting their knees come forward more than those with a wide stance squat. Now, logic would dictate that those lifters with more anterior knee displacement would stay more upright than the powerlifters with the wide stance and near vertical shins, but this just isn’t the case.

Swinton et. al. compared three different squat styles, traditional, powerlifting, and box in twelve male powerlifters. They found that the torso angle of powerlifters is not dependent on the amount of anterior knee displacement. This means that compared to recreational lifters who lean forward more if dorsiflexion is restricted, powerlifters find a way to stay more upright while maximizing posterior displacement of the hips.

That’s where the box squat came in for me. It was a great teaching tool to help me stay more upright. A common misconception  (that I thought for the longest time as well) is that the box squat is building up the posterior chain more. Turns out it might not even be better than the traditional or powerlifting squat for training hip extensors. What the box squat is good for is force development, which you can read more about HERE.

Anyhow, with the box squat I was able to practice keeping a vertical torso with vertical shins as well. For anyone that struggles with staying upright on the squat, I highly recommend the box squat. If you’re competing be sure to do some squats without the box prior to competition though to get used to not having the box underneath you.

Overreaching

Over reaching is simply a planned period of overtraining without any of the detrimental effects of overtraining or the long periods of rest needed to recover from overtraining. I experimented with two different overreaching squat specialization programs for the two meets I competed in over the last year. The first was called smolov jr., a baby form of what I can only imagine to be a terrifying 13 week squat cycle.

Here’s the layout for the smolov jr squat cycle:

Week 1

Day Sets Reps Weight
1 6 6 70%
2 7 5 75%
3 8 4 80%
4 10 3 85%

 Week 2

On week two you add 10-20 more pounds onto the weight you were doing from the given percentages.

Day Sets Reps Weight
1 6 6 70%
2 7 5 75%
3 8 4 80%
4 10 3 85%

 Week 3

On week three you add 15-25 more pounds onto the weight you were doing in week one from the given percentages.

Day Sets Reps Weight
1 6 6 70%
2 7 5 75%
3 8 4 80%
4 10 3 85%

These shouldn’t be performed consecutively, seriouspowerlifting.com recommends, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday for squat days.

After performing this overreaching cycle I recommend taking a week off so that the strength you gained can come to fruition. If you’re competing I would recommend finishing this cycle 2-3 weeks prior to the competition. If you have three weeks, deload for a week then do a “practice meet” working up to your opener for the squat, deadlift, and bench press and then take it easy for the week prior. If you have two weeks, take your deload week then work up to the openers, saving at least three days of rest before the meet.

This squat overreaching program took my squat from 350 pounds to 380 pounds.

The next overreaching cycle that I did prior to my meet was a 6 week Russian squat cycle.

Week Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
1 80% 6×2 80% 6×3 80% 6×2
2 80% 6×4 80% 6×2 80% 6×5
3 80% 6×2 80% 6×6 80% 6×2
4 85% 5×5 80% 6×2 90% 4×4
5 80% 6×2 95% 3×3 80% 6×2
6 100% 2×2 80% 6×2 105%

This was double the length but I wasn’t squatting four times per week which was nice. With this program you are actually setting a new squat max on the last day which you could take as is, or plan to use that or a weight close to that for an opener. Odds are you’ll be able to squat more than that after your body gets a little rest and recovery. I finally joined the 400 pound squat club (if there is one? I haven’t been formally inducted I assume there’s some sort of ceremony). In the meet I ended up getting a 420 pound squat.

Training over the last year was far from easy but every time I finish a meet I’m dying to get back to it. I love seeing my strength increasing, knowing that I’m better than I was a year ago. Other than a determined mindset all it really takes is attention to detail and form and a systematic plan to get better at whatever your weakness is!

References

Fry AC, Smith JC, and Schilling BK. Effect of knee position on hip and knee torques during the barbell squat. J Strength Cond Res 17: 629-633, 2003.

Swinton PA, Llyod R, Keogh JW, Agouris I, and Stewart AD. A biomechanical comparison of the traditional squat, powerlifting squat, and box squat. J Strength Cond Res26: 1805-1816, 2012.

About the Author

Justin Kompf is the head strength and conditioning coach at SUNY Cortland. He has a powerlifting team comprised of 13 super strong SUNY Cortland students who regularly crush state records in New York within the IPA powerlifting federation. His best lifts are a 540 pound deadlift and a 420 pound squat at the 181 weight class. His website is JustinKompf.com and he can be contacted at [email protected].

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/23/13

I know, I know – I’m posting this badboy up a bit later than usual, but I actually have a legitimate excuse.  For starters,  ummmmm, hello??? Freakin Ben Affleck is slated to be the next Batman!!!!

I don’t know how I feel about this yet.  Part of me is like “hell yeah.” He’s an often under appreciated actor, and he’s obviously made his mark as an A-List director (Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo), so I feel like he’s a good fit because he knows what it’s like to direct and will offer his own vision to some degree.

Plus, lets be honest:  he’s got the jawline for the role.

And part of me wants to punch a hole in the wall because I’m so enamored with Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ franchise and Christian Bale’s portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne, that it kind of makes me sad that we’re moving on and turning the page on that chapter in the Batman franchise.

It’s going to be interesting for sure, and if nothing else, this marks Day One of my campaign to try to convince Ben Affleck to come to Boston (his home town no less) and train for his role at Cressey Performance.

Someone contact DC Comics for me and make that happen!…….;o)

But in all seriousness, the reason I’m a bit late posting today is because we’ve been absolutely swamped at CP with new assessments (16 this week alone), and I (along with the rest of the staff) have been writing programs like a boss.  I swear every waking moment outside of coaching has been spent writing programs.  Okay I watched the season 7 finale of How I Met Your Mother, but other than that, I’ve been glued to Excel.

Moreover I was the one who ran Excellence Bootcamps this morning, and treated all the participants to a little TG techno magic time.  Which is to say, for five hours straight there was nothing but Swedish House Mafia, Tiesto, Deadmaus, and other sick beats while I took everyone through a healthy dose of Prowler pushes, carries, deadlifts, and fist pumps for days.

It was awesome.  But I guess you had to be there.

Nevertheless, even though most people reading are no longer at work, and are probably 2-3 Martinis deep into their weekend, here’s some stuff to read:

Strength Goals Trump the Scale – Artemis Scantalides

I respect the hell out of Artemis, and not because she can round house kick me to the face faster than I can say “Tracy Anderson is about as intelligent as a ham sandwich.”

Which is pretty darn fast, mind you.

I just love the consistent message that Artemis relays on her blog, and it’s pretty cool to witness.

Please, ladies:  check out her stuff and forward to ALL of your friends who are married to the scale.

Should You Be Sprinting – Kyle Arsenault

This was a fantastic article over on Fitocracy.com by former CP intern, Kyle Arsenault, on the many benefits of sprinting and why many people probably shouldn’t doing it.  At least not yet.

How to Get the Buy In – Justin Kompf

There are a lot of, shall I say, “douchey” personal trainers out there. Most don’t know their ass from their acetabulum, yet are able to hit their quotas each and every month because they’re essentially glorified babysitters.  They train their client’s mouths more than they train their posterior chain.

Rare is the event where a client “buys in,” or hits that tipping point where they finally “get” what you’re trying to accomplish with them as their trainer.

Even rarer when you convert your client’s train of thought into actually LIKING lifting heavy things and showing up week in and week out for more “torture.”

In this thought provoking post, Justin describes the “buy in,” and how you as a trainer can get to that point.

BONUS

Should You Use the Olympic Lifts – Me

This was a quick article I wrote for MensHealth.com on Olympic lifting and why I tend to shy away from including them in 99.98% of the programs that I write.

I’d love for you guys to check it out and show MH.com some love by “Liking” the article.  But if you think it sucks, that’s cool too.  I won’t cry.  That much.

CategoriesMotivational

Why Do People Change?

Today’s guest post comes from a familiar face on TG.com, Justin Kompf, who previously contributed a very well received piece – HERE (on how to (Wo)Man Up).

Justin’s someone who I feel is going to do great things in this industry and it’s hard to believe that he’s only in his early 20s!

He has a lot of insight for someone his age, and this post definitely showcases that gift. Makes me question why I spent so much time watching Melrose Place and Party of Five when I was his age!

I hope you give it a read as it has a really compelling and worthwhile message.

Enjoy!

One of the most rewarding and frustrating aspects of personal training is getting your clients to change their habits. Until they’re ready to change what they do outside the gym, what you tell them won’t lead to action. This can be truly disheartening; plenty of times I’ve cared more about my clients’ health than they’ve cared about their own.

I’ve had clients attempt to make changes only to relapse and become discouraged. For whatever reason, they simply aren’t “ready” to change. In my initial assessment, I ask three simple questions:

1)     Are you ready to change?

2)     Are you willing to change?

3)     Are you confident that you can change?

For people that aren’t positive about one of these answers, I can see their hesitation. After four years of working with people, I’ve developed a good sense of if they really are ready to change.

Interacting and working with different types people daily has fueled my curiosity about human nature. Why out of one thousand overweight/obese people does only one person change? What is so different about that individual? Similarly, plenty of people go to the gym but why out of hundreds of people do only a few truly dedicate their lives to training correctly? Why do they care so much to get their training programs, sleep schedule, nutrition and hydration status down to a science?

There has been a lot of research on why people gain weight, but I think we miss the message.

If you want to learn how people got rich, you wouldn’t necessarily study the habits of a poor person.

Similarly if you want to study how and why people get and stay healthy, focusing solely on people who are heavy might not be the answer. We need to examine people who made life changes, people who went from poor health to spectacular health, and we need to ask why.

In talking to friends and family who have made changes, I’ve come to a several conclusions about why people decide to become healthy:

1)     They do it to empower themselves

2)     They have hit rock bottom

3)     Life altering events/wake up calls

4)     Heroes are present – particularly for youths.

EMPOWERMENT

These people felt that they were not in control of their lives and they desperately needed to make a change to gain the control back.

“I was broken down emotionally by the verbal abuse from my father. One day he pushed me around and I vowed to never let a man treat me like that again. That was until I got in to a really poor relationship in my beginning years of college. The guy I was with did the same – not just once either. I was fed up, and I knew not only did I need to get stronger emotionally but physically as well.”

This was part of the story that I received from a great friend in college. I didn’t know this individual before she started going to the gym, but her back story is extremely motivational. She’s someone who will go out of her way to say hi to you, ask you how you’re doing or give you advice on your girl problems (thanks!).

She also has a diesel squat and deadlift.

She told me she was embarrassed and had described her mindset to me as fragile. I never knew that side of her. Her training helped her become one of the most confident and strong female friends that I have known.

ROCK BOTTOM

Recently, I got caught up in watching a documentary on a 700 pound woman. One scene really stuck out to me; this woman was riding through the grocery store on one of those automatic wheel chairs when someone made a comment about her weight.

“If you get any bigger we’ll just get you a bigger wagon,” he said.

After the man passed by her she began to break down and cry. Her life had hit rock bottom and she knew that if she didn’t change she would die.

This woman ended up losing about 500 pounds.

So I ask myself, why? What drove the change? Why did she change when so few do? What is so different about her?

She had talked about weighing only 350 pounds the last time she stepped on the scale, thinking that wasn’t so bad. The next time she stepped on the scale she was about 650 pounds, reality smacked her right in the face. She was at rock bottom and I think that’s why she changed. Her choices were simple; continue down the path she was on or, literally, death.

I have a relative, Kelly, who lost and has kept off an incredible 130 pounds. She had steadily been gaining weight due to her Crohn’s disease and had eventually reached 300 pounds after having her second child. I had to ask her why she decided to change. Here is part of her story:

“Years went by and I was always the “nice one” or the “funny one” and seemed to always have a smile on my face. I was truly sad and hurting on the inside. I couldn’t wear cool, trendy clothes like everyone else; it was hard to find things in my sizes. In the Adirondacks I was too heavy to ride the horses. I could not fit into most roller coasters, so pretended to be fine holding everyone’s stuff. I was ashamed and embarrassed throughout my 30s.”

“So if you are wondering what made me decide it was time….it was the sadness that filled my heart. Sad that I couldn’t keep up with the kids, that I embarrassed them and myself; sad that I was watching life pass me by and pretending to be satisfied and even happy all of the time.”

She has a truly inspiring story. Kelly has since run many 5K races. Through listening to stories like this I’ve come to realize that rock bottom and the desire to change often go hand in hand with the loss of the ability to do things the individual used to be able to do. I believe this helps to fuel the change process.

 

LIFE ALTERING EVENTS/WAKE UP CALLS

I spoke to another friend who was heavy in his youth and this is how he described himself:

“I was very inactive as a kid and gained a lot of weight in middle school; I only really had friends that were girls, no guy friends and was pretty much bullied by the other kids at school.”

This story isn’t inherently unique, lots of young kids share this background but so few of them end up like this individual who currently competes as a powerlifter and has competed in body building shows as well.  Most of these young overweight kids stay overweight throughout adulthood. So why did he change?

“Every male in my family, from my two grandfathers, to my uncles to my dad, has either suffered from or died from a stroke or heart attack. After my dad had his first stroke he had a wakeup call and a chance to change but he ignored it didn’t address his problems then had a second more serious stroke that left him extremely cognitively challenged. So I hate that. I hate that obesity took such a great man and reduced him to so little. I have literally all the cards stacked against me when it comes to health and staying lean. If I eat starch or bread in any large quantity I put on massive amounts of weight.”

This individual could essentially see into his future; if he didn’t change he knew exactly what would happen to him. After his father’s stroke he began to change his habits, playing sports and eating better, which led to him losing 30 pounds.

HEROES

I’d like to leave on a light (perhaps cheesy) note so I’m about to alienate some readers and get others to nod their head and smile. When I put up a post asking people why they got healthy I had some great responses. An overwhelming number of people attribute their weight training and healthy habits to Dragon Ball Z.

I had to laugh because that cartoon was one of the reasons I started exercising at a young age. My story wasn’t as interesting or inspiring as some of the ones above. I was chubby in middle school and felt embarrassed. I’d blush when talking to girls; I didn’t feel noticeable or happy with the way I looked.

Like so many other friends I’d watch Dragon Ball Z on cartoon network then run into my garage later to attempt to do a Kamehameha wave (I was 22….just kidding).

The majority of my social group consists of very fit people. I don’t think I can chalk it all up to random chance that they all watched DBZ as kids.

If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s essentially good guys beating up bad guys, long fight scenes, lots of screaming and awesomeness. I think what a lot of us got out of it as kids was the desire to train like the characters in the show who were constantly getting stronger and better.

I believe it is the hero aspect of the show that motivated people to work on getting their bodies stronger and fitter. Since it is the hero aspect that motivated us, I don’t think that I can just say DBZ is the reason most of my friends are fit.

I think it’s because we had real heroes (fictional or nonfictional) who motivated us to be like them. It could have been superman, it could have been a strong relative we looked up to or maybe it could have been some celebrity we idolized and wanted to look like. I know a lot of people were inspired to body build because of Arnold’s physique.  It’s our heroes who inspired us to be better than average as young kids.

TIME TO CHANGE

Working with people and watching them either accept or resist change has left me very curious about the nature of change. Why do people resist it when they know change will be good for them and what is that definitive moment when they do decide to start changing. Finally, what is so different about the people that do change and why are they such a minority?

Through the stories I’ve gathered, I’ve begun to form a better understanding of the change process and come to the conclusion that people change because they want to be in control of the quality of their lives. Unfortunately, a lot of times it doesn’t hit us that the quality of our lives are poor until events occur like the ones in the stories above that act as the to gasoline to fuel us to the other side we dream of.

I’d love to hear more stories on why people change so us fitness professionals can better understand and help others to change just like you!

About the Author

Justin Kompf is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and certified personal trainer through the NSCA. He graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. He currently teaches and trains clients at the University. Justin like burritos, deadlifting, peanut butter, and The Fast and the Furious movie saga (minus 2 and 3). He is an author for bloodandiron315.com . He can be reached at [email protected].

CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Prone Plank Push-Pull

There’s no debating the fact that planks (and all their infinite variations) have a place at the “big boy” table in terms of exercises which 1. offer a horde of benefits, and 2. are wildly popular in the fitness community.

Personally I have a love/hate relationship with them.

I love them because, well, it’s hard not to appreciate/respect the long-standing work of guys like Dr. Stuart McGill, Dr. Craig, Liebenson, and a slew of others who are way smarter than me who have routinely shown that building and improving upon spinal endurance is a key factor in addressing low-back pain.

Having the ability to buttress shear loads and maintain a “neutral” spine both from an anterior/posterior perspective (prone planks) as well as laterally (side planks) goes a long ways in demonstrating one’s ability to control the lumbo-pelvic-hip area.

While I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, Dr. McGill has noted that one should be able to hold a perfect prone plank position for roughly 90-120s, and a side plank for roughly 60s (on both sides).

If one is unable to do so, compensates in any way, or there is a major asymmetry between left and right sides on the side plank, it’s cause for a red flag and more than likely will result in a dolphin gets punched in the face.

In short, planks (or to be more precise:  the ability to perform them correctly) can be a valuable assessment tool.

Which brings me to why I also hate them.

Walk into any gym, anywhere, at any time, and you’ll undoubtedly see people planking away.  And, more often than not they look god awful.

There’s this….

And this….

And this, which is actually kinda cool….

Worse is that some people will brag – like it’s a badge of honor – that they can “plank” for five minutes.  Well la-de-freakin-do. Unless you’re training for some World Planking Championship, who cares????

And that’s not even the worse offense. I’ll give a free pass to the general fitness population because they don’t know any better.  But what really grinds my gears is when I see personal trainers having their clients perform planks for minutes on end, and it looks like the first two pictures from above.

What purpose does that serve?  And more to the point:  how is it you’re letting your client get away with such atrocious technique???????

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Okay, deep breaths Tony.  Everything will be okay.

Just so we’re on the same page:  I am NOT saying that planks are a waste of time.  Like I said there’s definitely a ton of efficacy for their inclusion in a well-designed training program.  But I’m also in the camp that believes there’s a rate of diminishing returns after a certain point.

If you’re working with a banged up client with a history of low back pain that’s one thing; but if you’re working with a “healthy” client with no contraindications or symptoms then I’d rather make planks more challenging rather than go for longer periods of time.

Which brings us to today’s exercise you should be doing.

Prone Plank Push-Pull

Who Did I Steal It From:  fellow strength coach and Cortland State alum, Justin Kompf.

What Does It Do:  it definitely brings a new flavor into the mix on two fronts.

1.  By taking one arm off the floor, you’re taking away a base of support which inherently makes the exercise more challenging.

2.  It also adds a dynamic component where the trainee has to RESIST me  with the push component, and then pull AGAINST my resistance with the pulling part.

All this while still maintaining a “neutral” spine and not allowing the torso to compensate in any way.

Key Coaching Cues:  All the same rules apply, and this means making sure your technique is spot on.  Meaning, there should be absolutely no compensating in the lumbar region (dipping or hiking), no forward head posture, and the glutes should be firing along with a significant abdominal brace throughout the duration of the set.

Additionally, I like to yell out the cues during the set:  Push!, Pull!, Push!, Pull!, your sister’s hot!, Push!, Pull!, Push!, Pull!,  so on and so forth.

Shoot for 6-8 reps on one side, switch, and repeat the same process on the other.

And that’s about it.  Give it a try today and let me know what you think!

CategoriesMotivational

The End Is Near: (Wo)Man Up!

Today’s guest post comes from Justin Kompf who’s a fellow Cortland State Red Dragon and the man responsible for organizing my little homecoming a few weeks ago. At 23 Justin is already doing big things.  Not only is he making waves in the fitness industry, but he’s already teaching COLLEGE courses as an adjunct professor at Cortland.  I think back to when I was 23 and all I remember doing is crushing Beverly Hills 90210 re-runs and bicep curls in the squat rack. 

Suffice it to say, everyone, meet Justin. He’s gonna be someone you should remember.  Good things are a head.  

The world is coming to an end, or at least it must be. I have my bachelors of science in kinesiology – key word science. Not to say I’m in love with the whole cellular function of microbes or what Van Der Waals forces are, or even if I spelled that right, but I am keen enough to make observations and make fairly educated conclusions.

For example, if I pick up this weight and move it around I get bigger and I get stronger. Or how about this: people who don’t lift weights actually progressively get weaker until they have legs the size of toothpicks and need a machine to get from A to B.

Another mind blowing (yes sarcasm) discovery I’ve made is that if I eat crappy food my body feels and looks like crap.  On the other side of the equation, if I eat lean proteins, fill my plate with vegetables, and sweet potatoes somehow I feel satisfied, don’t get sick, increase strength, and look pretty darn good too. As a scientist I have come to this radical conclusion that if I eat well and exercise well I feel and look good.

It doesn’t take a white coat, nerdy glasses and beakers to be a scientist. I just proved it. Science is the intellectual and practical activity of gaining knowledge through systematic observation. Pay attention, observe outcome. We learned the principle in elementary school Aà B. If Christina picks on me she totally digs me right?

One more time AàB

So wait this isn’t anything new? Eating healthy and exercising are healthy habits that everyone should be doing?!?!?!? I didn’t need to go to school for four years to make this discovery?

This is the reason why I have concluded that the world must be coming to an end.

Humans are logical, intelligent creatures. If the general population was forced to be honest, they would admit that they know what it takes to get healthy or at least healthier, but instead they continue to fuel the cyclic, destructive habits that have made them obese, sedentary and sick. Trips to the grocery store are always pleasant reminders of why the world is coming to an end. People who are obese continue to load their shopping carts up with processed foods, carbohydrates, lunch meats, microwaveable dinners, sodas, and candies.

They bring these foods home to their kids who then begin the pathway towards obesity. They don’t know any better, you’d have a better chance of convincing Charlie Sheen to keep his eyes closed in a strip club than you’d have convincing a kid who’s been shoveled processed, sugary foods on a daily basis to voluntarily put down the candy, ice cream or soda.

On another note…We live in a society that rewards people who don’t work hard. Sure, if you don’t want to work that’s fine. Just rest on your laurels! Nobody works hard these days anyways, right? Being successful and getting rich is all pure luck. Just put your feet up and wait for your pot of gold. Don’t want to work, that’s fine the government will pay you not to work.

Nate Green had a tremendous article on his scrawny to brawny website called the “SB2 Manifesto: Rules For Living a Bigger Life”. In the first rule he talked about how there are two versions of us, our ideal selves and our shadow selves. Our shadow self is the guy in our head saying, “it’s okay to sit on the couch for four hours a day watching TV, its okay for us to wear our pajamas the whole day and not learn anything new”. It’s the version of us that thinks that success can be put on the back burner. The shadow self – the procrastinating, lazy, undisciplined self is kicking millions of ideal selves’ asses all across America. Yes, it’s possible to kick your own ass.

We’re on the brink of the end of the world, maybe I’m being a little dramatic here but there is an unavoidable devolution of the mindfulness and work ethic occurring all across the country.

If you’re on this site and you’ve gotten this far in my article I’ll confidently assume two things about you.

First: You’re a meat head; you like to push your body to its limits to see what it’s capable of.

Secondly:  You possess a mind that wants to expand.

Note from TG:  I’ll also add a third:  You obviously have great taste in which blogs you read. Well done.

If you’re nodding yes and yes to each of those, you’ve got a deadly combination of being a meathead with a brain. You not only want to be big, healthy, and strong but you want to be educated about it, too.

You’re not one of those guys questioning why you’re not getting bigger when your program consists of preacher curls, smith machine upright rows, and cable flys and a pre workout big gulp (not the bigger you wanted).

You squat and you deadlift and you read a lot.

Anyways, while we’re low in numbers I feel that guys like us hold some of the last hope the world has.

So let me personally welcome you to the remaining population of mindful, driven men left in the world. Tragically, our species is nearly extinct.

We are a club that defies boundaries, pushes limits in and out of the gym, and observes with the intention of asking why, learning something and applying it to our own lives, thoughts and habits for self-improvement and the betterment of the lives of those around us. Sure, for the most part we keep to ourselves and if you’re like me do a lot of observation on the current state of the world. I believe this is a good thing, we think before we talk and try not to spew out BS like most people out there.

So without further delay, I’ll share a few things I believe us men with active minds and active bodies can do to stave off, and maybe even prevent, the end of the world.

Train for at least one physical event a year.

I’m in the last week before my very first powerlifting meet. I look forward to learning from more experienced people but the last four months of serious training and following Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program have been great.

I’ve hit rep records on just about every lift while making it to the 181 weight class. I usually weigh about 195 pounds. I’ve learned a lot about pushing my body in the gym in combination with smart dieting. My friend recently asked me if I would be interested in doing a tough mudder in October.

Sure why not, it’s certainly not what I am built for but let’s do it. Training for an event creates concrete goals. Also, if you’re not exploring your body’s capabilities then what the heck are you doing? Another benefit of training is that it helps to clear up a lot of other things in your life. I make sure my diet is spot on when training and I make sure I get the appropriate amount of sleep when training. It helps clear up stress and basically acts as your own personal therapist if you need it.

*here is the end result of the competition- 510 deadlift ohhh yeaa!

Read, read, read

Yes I said it three times and there’s a reason. Here’s my three reads:

Read 1: Personal pleasure. E.g. I’m reading Howl’s Moving Castle. Before you Google this I’ll give you the heads up that it’s a movie and it’s a cartoon. So what – don’t judge – I wanted to read the book.  I’m also getting a little into The Red Badge of Courage.

Read 2: Business Development or Self Improvement. E.g. Right now I’m reading Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson.

Read 3: Career related book: Orthopedic Knowledge Update: Shoulder and Elbow second edition.

Try to read every single day. If we get in the habit of letting our shadow self win day in and day out he’s going to get stronger making it more and more difficult for our ideal self to win. I’ve been through periods of stagnation where my shadow self put a beating on my ideal self. Believe me it’s best to keep your shadow self’s victories to a minimum.

Create forward progress every single day

There’s a wise proverb that says “Without vision [man] perishes”.

Set goals, daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, career goals and get on a path towards success. I doubt anyone can say for certain what they want to do with their life. For example, my dad who has been an accountant for about 30 years has been talking about getting into training people who are older when he retires. You can be in your mid fifties and still not know what you want to do for sure.

I’ve gone from everything from wanting to be a personal trainer, to strength and conditioning coach, to a nutritionist and now onto a physical therapist. Mind’s change, luckily I didn’t have a dramatic career change of heart so just about everything I’ve done so far is applicable.

Even if you’re not positive where life is taking you that’s no excuse for stagnation. In fact you’re in a beautiful position to explore all of your interest to find what suits you. Hop on some kind of path, you don’t have to know where it’s heading, just know you’re moving forward.

Your weekly, monthly, and yearly goals should match up to career goals. My long term career goal is to become a physical therapist. On my path towards that some things have pleasantly popped up that gave me opportunities to do what I love doing while getting paid for it.

What am I doing to make this career goal happen?

Daily: Reading my current career book as well as peer reviewed articles

Weekly: Shadowing a physical therapist every Wednesday

Monthly: Working on prerequisites for school. I am currently taking chemistry

Yearly: continuing with prerequisites and everything else necessary to get into school

Pleasant surprises that have popped up along this path: I’ve had the opportunity to teach personal training and strength and conditioning classes at my college. I’ve gotten to work with athletes at Syracuse University which has given me the credentials to teach these strength and conditioning classes at my college. The coach I work with at Syracuse gave me a recommendation to teach another class at a community college as well.

Now all I need is a fedora and a whip and I’ll be a full on professor!

The sooner you realize getting drunk isn’t cool the better your life will be

I’m 23 years young, so I still live in that time period where a lot of people my age think staying up until 3 am and getting drunk is still awesome.

Sad thing is that I see people ten years my senior still trying to live the college dream. How productive are you the day after drinking? Not at all. Do you get good quality sleep? Nope. Is it possible to train like a man when you drink two or three times a week? No way. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a beer or two. I do, but it’s not a keystone coming firing at me out of funnel anymore.

Now, small huddle of mindful, hard-working, meatheads – break! Go keep doing what you’re doing, do it better, and convince some other men out there to help push back on the end of the world while you’re at it.

Thanks for reading; I believe there is still some hope left in this world as long as we all set positive examples by respecting our minds, bodies, and of course others. Try to train for something at least once a year, read, read, read, set goals, and try to behave yourself at bars.

Author’s Bio

Justin is a  certified personal trainer and certified strength and conditioning specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He  holds  a bachelors degree in Kinesiology from the State University of New York at Cortland where he graduated magna cum laude. He has worked with a wide variety of clients and has spent time at two division one Universities, Syracuse University and the University of California Riverside. He currently assist at Syracuse under Veronica Dyer, the head strength coach in the Olympic sports room. Justin teaches a personal training class at the State University of New York at Cortland and will be teaching two strength and conditioning classes along with an intro to kinesiology course next fall. He likes deadlifting, the shoulder, almond butter, dragon ball z, and Zooey Deschanel. He dislikes bench pressing and people that say YOLO. His website is cortlandfit.com and he can be contacted at [email protected]