It’s official: This marks the sixth year in a row Dean Somerset and I are presenting together. We’re so excited to be coming to Athens to kickstart 2020.
Nope, this article refers to the “homework” (or drills and exercises) we trainers and coaches give our clients to do at home that help address stuff they need to work on more whether it be motor control. stability, bad breath, etc.
There’s an Early Bird rate for both of these events, so keep that in mind before you decide to hold off. Dean and I are really excited for this and hope to see you there!
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
I am all for novelty (within reason) and having fun in the weight room. But ya’ll: barbells and dumbbells still work really, really, REALLY well.
This place was a bit dearth with content this past week, but for good reason.
I signed a lease for a new, larger space for my gym here in Boston.
70% of me is excited while the other 30% is doing the best I can not to destroy the back of my pants. Nonetheless, coming in early 2020: The CORE Collective.
There’s an Early Bird rate for both of these events, so keep that in mind before you decide to hold off. Dean and I are really excited for this and hope to see you there!
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
Personal trainers who complain about “working on the weekends” got into the wrong profession.
This is an older article from Mark (and one I read off of The Strength House’s newsletter), but man it needs to be read by ANYONE who manages people or owns a business.
But for real….a little exercise, daily, works wonders. There’s little need for marathon sessions in the gym, everyone’s busy and doesn’t have time, but Lana showcases some “quickie” workouts to set the tone.
This workshop is designed for fitness professionals – personal trainers, strength & conditioning coaches, physical therapists, etc – to provide both physical & psychological tools to help build your brand, business, and rapport with clients.
Dr. Lewis and I cover a lot of material:
How to increase competency and motivation with your clients.
An overview of both upper and lower extremity assessment to create increased “buy in.”
How to set professional & personal boundaries with clients.
Troubleshooting common lifts such as squats & deadlifts to best fit the needs, ability level, and anatomy of clients.
And more…
CEUs will be available.
For more information – including full itinerary and to register – you can go HERE.
2. Coaching Competency – Dublin, Ireland
This is happening Sunday, September 8, 2019 (Early Bird rate in effect)
So what happens when a room full of Irish(w0)men find out I’m not much of a drinker?…;o)
Whether you get paid to tell people to lift heavy things or you just like to lift heavy things yourself, in this 1-day workshop you’ll get the opportunity to listen to me talk about my how I approach assessment and gain a better understanding of how I “match” the exercises I prescribe to better fit the needs, ability level, and more importantly, the anatomy of each individual I work work.
In short, this workshop looks at the “umbrella theme” of my coaching philosophy.
For more information – including itinerary and how to register – go HERE.
3. Strategic Strength Workshop – London, England
This is happening the weekend of September 14-15th, 2019 (Early Bird rate in effect).
Luke Worthington and I have presented this workshop twice. Once in London last year and again this past June in Boston.
We’re bringing it back to London this Fall, my most favorite place in the world.
This two-day workshop is designed to arm fitness professionals with all the tools they’ll need to hone their assessment skills and to make their clients/athletes a bunch of bonafide, resilient, strength training Terminators.
Combined Luke and I have ~40 years of coaching experience (or one Dan John) and bring different perspectives and skill-sets to the table; Luke peels back the onion on PRI (Postural Restoration Institute) concepts and assessment, while I go into detail breaking down movement and how to better “match” the exercises we prescribe to our clients.
For more information – including itinerary and how to register – you can go HERE.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
I say this facetiously (kinda), but if you really want to “shop” for a personal trainer and can’t figure out who to hire and who’s worth the money, ask them to name 3 out of the 4 rotator cuff muscles.
Luke and I did this workshop last summer in London and figured it’s only fair to bring it State side.
Combined we have 30+ years of coaching experience (I.e., one Mike Boyle or Dan John) and this workshop will be two days where we uncover every nook and cranny as it relates to how we assess our clients/athletes and how we best prepare them for the rigors of every day life/sport.
This will be a unique opportunity for people to learn from myself, but especially Luke, who is one of the best and brightest coaches I know.
For more information and to register you can go HERE.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
Bio hacks are garbage.
No one ever got strong/shredded/whatever jumping into a Cryo tank for 37 seconds 2-3x per week or eating acai berries that have been meticulously washed with unicorn tears.
No.
It happened b/c they trained CONSISTENTLY, hard, for YEARS.
All our cues we use ad nauseam to help prevent our client’s knees from buckling when performing squats. There’s actually a simpler way. It takes a degree of up-front coaching, but it’s time well spent.
NOTE: For the Singapore event you’ll need to use THIS link.
2. Coaching Competency Workshop – Raleigh, NC
I’ll be making my first appearance – ever (<— how’s that possible?) – in the wonderful state of North Carolina this coming March to put on my popular Coaching Competency Workshop.
This is a great opportunity for other fitness professionals to gain better insight into my assessment and program design process.
And cat memes.
Can’t forget the cat memes.
Full details (date, location, itinerary, how to register) can be found HERE.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
Twitter
Email from a distance coaching client: “Lately it has felt “easy” to get in, hit all of my reps, and feel good and ready to do so the next day.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: EASY training, is GOOD training. Get in, strain a little, hit your reps, leave.
I’m very fortunate that number of quality coaches reach out and offer to submit articles for this site. Granted they have to promise to name their first born after me AND send me a bowl of yellow only M&Ms, but that’s a small price to pay for internet fame.
Thanks to everyone who pinch-wrote for me in 2018 and gave my fingers a brief reprieve.
I’m looking forward to seeing what’s sent my way in 2019….
I listened to Noah speak in person on this topic and was transfixed by what he had to say. A conversation we had after the fact led to him writing this post for my site.
First off: Yeah, that’s right I just put the slang version of “Gucci” into the title of a blog post about deadbugs.
Second: I promise I won’t ever do that again
Third: I’ve been swamped with travel the past few weeks (and the subsequent catching up on emails, programs, projects, and life shit-show) and I apologize for my lack of writing prowess. Thankfully I’ve had a handful of regular contributors to the site help to pick up the slack in my absence.
Thanks to Boston based coach, Lana Sova, for today’s contribution.
Fourth: Maybe I should have used “lit?” No? Okay, I’ll GFM.
When it comes to core training, people often fight over which exercises are the best, but that’s kind of like arguing whether Cardi B or Nicki Minaj is a better rapper.
In my opinion (which no one really asked for, but Imma say it anyways because #internet) there is space for both, much like there is a time and a place for different core strengthening exercises.
When people ask me which is the best core strengthener, I give the most boring answer — it depends.
There are many things I take into consideration when I include core strengthening exercises in a client’s program.
Things like goals, training levels, level of lumbo-pelvic control, and mind-body awareness all matter.
Much like the aging process, things are never the same with core training — what could be the best core exercises for a client today will not be the same a year or two from now because they’ve gotten stronger and advanced their skills.
Which leads me to today’s article.
For some reason, when it comes to core training, we go from zero to a hundred in no time. And by “we,” I mean personal trainers. I get it, often we’re tempted to impress clients and show them what we’ve got under our sleeves.
And, often, our clients swear by the fact that they are so advanced they can hold a plank for ten minutes while multitasking and doing 20 other things.
Cue *major eye roll*.
While it’s a good thing to keep your clients happy and help them fall in love with training and working out, there is also a thing called common sense, not to mention the art of giving a client not only what she wants, but also what she needs.
Enter Deadbugs
The deadbug exercise is my all time favorite core strengthening exercise.
When done correctly, it’s one of those exercises that looks easy, but isn’t when you do it yourself.
Progressions to this exercise are diverse and can be lots of fun. And while progressions are great and we do need them to help a client succeed, we also need not forget about regressions.
Deadbugs are one of the exercises where attention to the details matter. It’s easy to spot bad form on a deadbug when you see a client arch her back from the get go. But it’s much more challenging to notice incorrect form when things are not so obvious.
For example, ideally we want a client show us that she can maintain a canister position while performing a deadbug. What’s a canister position? If you live under a rock and never heard Tony speak about this concept, here’s a video for you.
But often, clients will cheat.
Like when I see clients bring their knees closer to their chest to help them with a posterior pelvic tilt.
Or maybe the second they begin to extend their leg out, they lose any core tension; to help them reach the floor, they’ll shift into an anterior pelvic tilt.
It’s our job as coaches to help a client succeed with this exercise without cheating, because the key to their success is doing exercises with correct form.
Happy client AND successful client = Happy coach.
Here are FIVE of my favorite deadbug regressions.
1) Deadbug ISO Hold with a Dowel
Deadbugs are a core stability exercise. This is where I often introduce the concept of an open or closed canister in relationship to the hips and rib cage.
Pssst: (Watch the video earlier in the post.)
Before we start moving the legs and arms and begin to resist any movement in the hip region, it would be a good idea to learn to own the closed canister.
The reason I love this exercise is it helps the client learn how to keep tension in the whole body while also feeling the abdominals working. Adding a dowel to the equation, with the client holding it above her chest while keeping her legs up in a tabletop position, helps her to learn what it means to activate her lats, which can translate to more advanced exercises like bench pressing or deadlifting later on.
I often use the cue ‘’Try to bend the dowel with your pinkies.” Go ahead and give it a try. This should fire up your lats like crazy.
2) Core-Engaged Deadbug ISO Hold with Band
Much like the previous exercise, this variation teaches the client to keep the closed canister position while keeping the tension in the entire body. However, she’ll hold a resistance band above her chest, which acts as a multiplier in creating the tension in the upper body.
3) Core-Engaged Deadbug March
This is an exercises I stole from Florida-based coach William Richards in one of his guest post for Tony on this site.
This is the exercises where, once your client learns how to control the canister position and knows how to create tension in the whole body, she can start moving her legs and making the exercise so much more advanced.
4) Deadbug w/ KB Overhead Hold
This exercise can teach your client how to maintain the canister position with her hands above her head. I like to use this exercise to build up the context for future exercises such as overhead presses.
5) Deadbug with a Pallof Press
This is probably more advanced than the previous exercises; nonetheless it’s still a great regression before you dive head first into all the glorious deadbug variations and completely destroy your client’s core.
It’s great to show your clients advanced movements and spice things up here and there. But before you do so, make sure your client is competent with the exercises and can perform them well. This will help your client show up at the gym more willingly and ultimately reach her goals.
About the Author
Lana Sova is a powerlifter and an in-person and online strength coach in Boston, MA. She helps women to change the way they look by making them strong.
I’m heading back to Boston after spending the weekend in Houston, TX with Dean Somerset teaching our (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint workshop.
Pinch writing for me today is Lana Sova, personal trainer and competitive power lifter1 based out of Boston, MA.
After almost five years in the fitness industry working almost exclusively with women, I can tell you that although all of us are the same gender, we are all built differently.
Woah!
Shocker! I know.
Throughout this time I’ve had hundreds of women deadlifting, squatting, benching, and overhead pressing big numbers. But more importantly, they got slimmer and stronger, and kept these results long term.
But their thing might not be your thing — what worked for them may not be 100% working for you. However, ladies who successfully deadlifted, squatted, and in some cases benched their body weights had these three things in common.
To help you stop wasting your time and start succeeding in strength training, here are three things you must do if you want to get strong AF.
#1. Once Again, Eat More Protein
If you look at bodybuilders, whose job is to get as big — muscularly — as they possibly can, they eat, drink, and breathe protein.
Your goal might not be to become the next Ms. Olympia, but if you want to get stronger so you can pick up your kid off the floor, carry groceries in one trip, install a window A/C all by yourself, or, IDK, tow out your car when it’s jammed between two others somewhere in downtown Boston, your muscles need protein.
PERIOD.
And I’m sure you’ve heard about it, you’ve known about it, but it’s not the knowledge about needing the protein where women go wrong.
It’s their choice of protein source.
For some reason, things like chia seeds, nuts, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds became a staple of “feminine” food. Go to any health-related hippie cafe and you’ll find all of the above (often) included in one smoothie.
Well, I’ll tell you what. Save your money, and go buy yourself a nice piece of steak (or tofu for my vegan friends).
While I don’t dismiss the health properties of seeds, nuts, and the like — there are plenty — when it comes to protein, the amounts are so small that you need a truck load to get the amount of protein needed to trigger muscle synthesis. Which means you’ll eat a ton of fat, which then will have an impact on your physique and THAT’s what’s going to make you look bulky. Not the muscle itself.
So, what do you eat then to hit your protein target, and what’s that target anyway?
For active fitness enthusiasts, the number ranges from 1.8g/kg to 2.2g/kg
But, when you have a life, counting every ounce of protein is time consuming. Instead, try this nutrition habit I teach my clients:
Protein hits the plate first. No matter where you are — home, Mom’s house, restaurant, a buffet — a lean source of protein lands on your plate first, and then you add whatever else your heart desires.
If you’re not sure what’s a lean protein, here are a few examples for you: chicken breast (to which Tony G is allergic — fun fact2) turkey breasts, 93/7 ground beef (or any piece a meat that has less than eight to ten grams of fat), plain Greek yogurt, tvorog, and cottage cheese.
If you eat these with every meal, I can guarantee you will improve your gym performance and very likely get slimmer.
Steady state cardio has its benefits and should be included in your monthly workouts. Cardio is good for your heart, and if you’d like that thing to work for longer than the average lifespan, you need to do cardio.
Where many women go wrong is the amount of cardio.
Seriously— if we were to use all the cardio machines in every gym in America to power the entire country we’d never have a problem with energy.
If you’re coming to strength training as the last resort to finally tone out and maintain the results, you may still have the mentality that you should do as much cardio as you possibly can, a belief that’s hard do deviate from.
I mean look at any Instagram Fitness Guru and she will without a doubt tell you that you absolutely have to hop on a cardio machine and eat tons of celery to get toned and strong.
But please don’t be fooled — all she’s trying to do is build an army of bunnies. You are not one of them.
And yes, if you are looking to lose weight, cardio will help you burn some calories off. However, if you’d like to get stronger and slimmer, and keep the results, your approach to cardio needs to be a little bit different.
There are two types of cardio training I see women perform often: steady state and High intensity interval training with lots of jump. Both types are usually done for hours with just one goal — burn as many calories as possible.
But when you switch to strength training, cardio training serves a different purpose — to help you to recover from your strength training sessions. The perfect type of cardio training for this is steady state.
Therefore, anything between 20 and 30 minutes of light, steady-state cardio is more than enough for said purpose. And a good rule of thumb is to have at least 24 hours between your strength and cardio sessions.
If you must include HIIT workouts in your program simply because you love it, you can. But be aware that these type of workouts generally do more muscle damage, taking your body longer to recover. So you might have to wait longer than even 24 hours between strength training sessions and HIIT sessions.
#3. Stop Going From One Extreme to Another
So you’ve decided to give strength training a try. You’ve read it’s good for you and it’s something that can help you tone out and get a bit stronger.
And you put on your “I’m a big girl” pants and you step into the strength training area.
You see tons of huge dumbbells, and decide to choose the smallest one — 5 pounds.
With it, you perform about a hundred repetitions of lunges, squats, and tricep extensions and call it a day.
While this is admirable and I’d be the first one to high five you, the thing is, if you’re a normal human being who picks up and carries her kids around, or carries a heavy backpack, or ever, even once in her lifetime, got ready for a party and had to carry a few cases of wine, I can guarantee that all of those things weighed more than five pounds.
If you want your muscles to get strong, you need to give them an appropriate stimulus. One of the most common ways to do so is via resistance — free weights, or a resistance band, or even your body weight.
And often five to ten pounds isn’t enough to reach and trigger that stimulus. It’s simply not challenging enough.
On the other side of things, there are those women who’d like to go all out each and every workout — testing their strength every single day of every single week.
While at the beginning they might see huge jumps in their strength because #beginnersgains, soon they stop seeing increases in their lifts, or even become demotivated.
Why?
Because they haven’t managed their fatigue levels properly. If you workout at 100% capacity all the time, you accumulate fatigue quickly, which then will interfere with your body’s ability to build muscle and get stronger. It’s like if you had to work 24-hour shifts seven days a week. You’d probably be dead by now.
So how heavy should you go?
For my online clients, I like to use a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale. The scale ranges from 1 to 10, where anything below 6 is a warm up — pretty light.
But then:
6 = you could do 4-5 more repetitions with this weight
7 = you could do 3-4 more
8 = you could do 2-3 more
9 = you could do 1-2 more
10 = you can do just that one
When you just start with strength training, you need to play with the weights a bit. But a general rule of thumb is to work with weights between 7 to 9 RPE if you’d like to get stronger.
Here’s an example.
A1. Front Squats 4×6 @ RPE 7
A2. Dead Bugs 4×6/side
B1. BB Bent-Over Rows 3×10 @ RPE 8
B2. DB Incline Bench Presses 3×10 @ RPE 8
B3. Cable Face Pulls 3×10 @ RPE 8
C1. Reverse Lunges 4×8 @ RPE 8
C2. Farmer’s Carry 4x 20 yards @ RPE 7-8
As you can see, just going and doing strength training isn’t enough.
In order to get stronger and better at strength training you need to supplement your program with important lifestyle habits — like eating protein, going for a walk instead of dying on the stairmaster, and adjusting your efforts to make your workout truly challenging.
The women I’ve worked with who followed these rules always make the strength goals they set for themselves.
About the Author
Lana Sova is a coach at Shameless Strength Academyand a personal trainer in Boston, MA She empowers women to build and own their strength via powerlifting and strength training.
I’ll be in London in three weeks for this 2-day assessment, program design, PRI, deadlift till our faces melt off bonanza.
My buddy Luke Worthington (London’s handsomest man alive) and I are really excited for this workshop. We’re going to do a deep dive into the systems we both use to help our client/athletes get better.
What’s more, this event will be held at the brand spanking new Third Space location in the heart of London.
We had such a great response when Lisa and I hosted a SBSM Workshop in Boston last year that we decided to do it again this summer.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
The umbrella theme of this workshop is to enhance the SOFTskills of coaching, how to garner a connection, and build rapport with your athletes/clients.
Spots are limited
Early Bird rates apply for both students ($99) and professionals ($129)
CEUs will be available (NSCA)
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA, Hoth – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
You don’t always have to deadlift to improve your deadlift. Lana shares some insights and exercises she likes to help with performance on the sumo deadlift – especially for women.
Dan’s a coach I feel more people need be more aware of.
I’ve known him for several years, first meeting him when he was an assistant strength coach at Boston University, and now as the head S&C coach at Northeastern University here in Boston.
He’s one of the most forward thinking coaches I know.
He recently made a cameo on Mike Robertson’s podcast and, well, you should listen to it.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Not many things annoy me more than when a doctor tells a client of mine to stop training or to avoid exercising altogether. Instead to just rest. Outlier scenarios aside, rest = watching Netflix for 4 weeks. Sorry, that isn’t gonna “fix” anything.
On the other side of things, there are those women who’d like to go all out each and every workout — testing their strength every single day of every single week.
