It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done the last Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work, and I figured given the current pickle we’re all in I’d keep it real by naming this iteration something different.
What’s an “underrated” movie you think is the shit that many people never heard of but should watch immediately?
My pick:
Wind River – stars Jeremy Renner & Elizabeth Olsen, and directed by Taylor Sheridan (who also wrote Sicario & Hell or High Water….also two SUPERB movies).
Leigh chimes in with some much needed “therapy” and a nice collection of resources to point people towards to keep them sane during this weird, weird time.
I enjoy every podcast I am invited on to, but this one in particular was a delight take part in. The Grafters podcast is hosted by Chris Kershaw and Reanne Francis who are both personal trainers located in Leeds, UK.
In this episode we discuss what it’s been like to navigate the apocalypse (COVID-19) and what I have done to “pivot” my business. In addition we go into some of the mental gymnastics surrounding helping our clients/athletes during this weird, weird time.
We’ve had a sick toddler on our hands the past few days (hence the lack of content this week) and our apartment is basically a Petri dish of whateverthef*** at the moment.
He’s feeling better – and back at daycare – but, yeah, that wasn’t fun.
Anyhoo, lets get to this week’s list of stuff to read.
Ever wonder what it would look like to have me take you through an assessment?
No?
Well, I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ANYWAY!
[slams door]
Fast forward five hours….
A few months ago Adam Rees of GRIT Gym and his girlfriend, Rachel, stopped by CORE to hang out and to so that I could take a look at Rachel.
She had been having some hip issues and wanted me to take a look at her deadlift and squat.
A technique audit if you will.
They ended up making this video to document their experience.1
3. Appearance on The Strength Running Podcast
I was invited back onto the Strength Running Podcast hosted by Jason Fitzgerald.
It’s a on-going battle, but I do feel the tides are turning and that many runners are starting to understand the importance of strength training (and how it should serve to compliment their running).
Jason and I discuss a bevy of things in this episode, but we dial in on the deadlift and why it’s such an integral movement to learn.
I’ve been incorporating more Copenhagen Side Planks into my programming of late. Great drill to target core stability, hip strength, and to help offset hip, knee and low back ouchies. Here are three progressions to consider: pic.twitter.com/NGYNzAgkzs
This is an excellent 3-part (but short read) series written by friend Steve Bergeron of AMP Fitness here in Boston. Plenty of practical and sane advice here.
Lisa and I have to wait a little bit to go see it, but I already have out tickets for early Sunday morning. I can’t wait!
Wanna know what else I’m excited for? Our trip to Europe. We leave next Thursday for Prague for a week, followed by a trip to Norway/Sweden/Denmark for a week.
It’s pleasure mixed in with a little business.
Dean Somerset and I will be presenting our Complete Hip & Shoulder Workshop in both Prague and Oslo (ahem, spots still available), and the rest of the time will be spent visiting castles, taking in the scenery, and eating copious amounts of cheese.
Well, at least I will. Because that’s how I roll.
My sister and I at a cheese tasting last summer in the Finger Lakes. Yes, I was THAT excited.
It’ll be my first trip onto “mainland” Europe – I’ve been to London once – and I can’t even begin to tell you the itinerary Lisa has in store for us. That said, if anyone has any suggestions on sights to see or delicious places to go eat in Prague, Oslo, Stockholm, or Copenhagen, please share them.
Oh, and keep your eyes peeled in the Miscellany section of the blog starting next week. Much like she did with our trip to Australia last year, Lisa will be writing a daily log detailing our musings, merriment, and libations.
The internet has been abuzz the past week or so with that latest story from the NY Times detailing contestants from the show The Biggest Loser and how their Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) was, for lack of a better term, fucking whack.
The study in question raised, well, a lot of questions….as well as the alarmists out there.
Leigh does a fantastic job of putting things into perspective.
Many coaches and trainers have been bamboozled into thinking that POSTERIOR chain work is the bees knees. And, it is.
As the saying goes, “you need to train ass to haul ass.”
However, Mike makes the case that maybe, kinda, sorta, we’ve been placing too much emphasis on the posterior chain. Powerlifters are a great example of athletes who are some of the strongest human beings on earth and rain their hamstrings and glutes like mad.
Do they really have weak posterior chains?
As Mike notes:
“Do you really have a posterior chain weakness issue? Or do you have an accessibility issue?”
In short: BOTH anterior and posterior chains need to be trained. It’s a silly argument to have, really. Much like when people argue over which is better or more important: bilateral lower body training or single-leg training, steady state cardio vs. HIIT, a light-saber or Mjolnir?
The resource and community that Todd and Chris have developed here is profound.
It’s simple:
“Strength coaching for Strength Coaches.”
Coaches need coaches too. Strength Faction is a wonderful way to learn from other coaches about assessment, program design, and all things strength coaching.
Follow a program (catered to YOU), be a part of a compassionate community, and learn from other coaches.
I had the the honor of being invited onto a group Q & A call last night where I spent an hour talking to members of the Faction. It was a delightful experience and as it happens, Todd and Chris are rearing up for the next go around of their group.
I suggest you look into it. You won’t be disappointed.
Some Other Stuff
1) In my most recent article on MensHealth.com, I break down the bent over barbell row.
First things first: I have to give a brief shout out to one John Romaniello and his new wife Mrs. Neghar (formerly Fonooni) Romaniello on their freshly minted nuptials.
I had the lovely honor of being invited to their wedding this past weekend (last night, actually) here in the Big Apple, and it was every bit as an amazing wedding, and night, as I had imagined it was going to be. The air was filled with a palpable vibe of love, laughter, and Star Wars references.
The tables were labelled not by something traditional like 1,2,3…. or maybe more appropriately (since we were in NYC) names of certain neighborhoods in and around the city. No, no, no.
Rather, each table was named after a planet or location in the Star Wars universe. I, along with Eric Cressey and wife Anna were part of the Felucia tribe. For those non-nerds out there, Felucia (see pic above) was a key planet in the Clone Wars, and because of its density of flora and fauna and other plant life, had strong ties to the Living Force.
But everyone knows that.
If that wasn’t cool enough, the Officiant of the wedding actually wore a Jedi Cloak during the ceremony. A JEDI CLOAK!!!!!!! I wasn’t able to take a picture of it in the flesh, but this should give you a good idea of what it looked like:
The entire night was full of surprises (and amazing food) and at one point I was half expecting The Ultimate Warrior to come flying down the aisle and challenge the entire wedding party to an arm wrestling match.
Speaking of the wedding party (and guests), as you can imagine, the line-up (for lack of a better term) included a Who’s Who of the fitness industry. It was undoubtedly one of the “fittest” crowds ever put underneath one roof I don’t think I’ve ever seen more 500+ lb deadlifters at one wedding in my life.
Moreover, it was just great to catch up with old friends and finally meet a few others whom I’ve only conversed with via email or social media.
So now I’m here sitting in my hotel room crushing SportsCenter and writing this blog post – in a leopard bathrobe, thank you very much.
I’m going to be hanging out for the next two days visiting friends and a few family members, and I’ll also be making a few cameo appearances at Peak Performance and one of the Crunch Fitness gyms to do a couple of staff in-services. I might also see how long I can go wearing a Red Sox hat before getting tackled on the street. My bet is half the day.
And on that note, here’s some stuff to read….
But before I do that I just want to remind everyone that TODAY (September 30th) is the LAST DAY to take advantage of the early-bird registration for mine and Dean Somerset’s Edmonton Workshop.
We had a blast with our Boston seminar and wanted to bring it north, and are limiting it to 30 attendees. The downside is that we’re already halfway to selling out, but the good news is our early bird registration price of $399 is still on until TONIGHT at midnight (before Tuesday for those clock sticklers out there), after which the price jumps $100.
Along with the wicked weekend, we have continuing education credits for ACE, canfitpro, and the NSCA so trainers can keep up their certifications. We’ll also have some sweet give aways, door prizes, pony rides, and an intimate, hands on atmosphere that means you’ll walk away with a crazy amount of knowledge, experience, and direct access to Dean and I.
For more info, the itinerary, as well as sign-up direction go HERE.
This was an absolutely HILARIOUS write-up on the whole “Whole Foods” experience. For anyone who routinely shops there you’ll be able to nod your head in agreement throughout. For those who don’t, I think you’ll still get a big laugh.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of the one and only Leigh Peele. Leigh and I have known each other for about six years and in between co-hosting The FitCast together and exchanging numerous emails on Lord of the Rings philosophy we’ve grown to be good friends.
About two years ago Leigh kinda fell off the radar, and inexplicably went into stealth mode. She and I lost touch, and in that time I moved in with my girlfriend, learned that wearing white past Labor Day is a big no-no, and became a cat owner while Leigh wrote a book.
A really good book.
Little did I know that the reason she “disappeared” was because she was knee deep in research and writing her butt off.
Giving full disclosure: The book was released a few weeks ago and I was a little late in the game and have only just begun reading it, but from what I have read thus far it’s a game changer.
Leigh truly outdid herself, and all the praise she has received from various fitness peeps – Tom Venuto, Jonathan Fass, Jen Sinkler, Nia Shanks, etc – is well deserved.
That said when Leigh extended the offer to write a little something for the site I happily agreed. Not that she ever really left, but it’s great to have her back.
Enjoy.
3 (Unorthodoxed) Reasons You Aren’t Getting Better At Lifting Heavy Things
Tony is known for many things. Mostly it’s wearing small t-shirts and lifting heavy s**t. [Note from TG: Excuse me, I wear smedium sized shirts thank you very much.] When he asked me if I had any knowledge I wanted to relay I thought first about those small shirts, but then I thought about you guys – the readers.
From what I understand you are a hodge podge of age and gender who also like to lift heavy s**t. What I am going to talk to you about is a major roadblock I see for people who have this as a goal. I am going to help some of you get better at picking up and putting down heavy things.
The best way for me to help you? Pointing out your flaws of course! Below you will see three problems on your journey to getting stronger. I tried to bypass the standard advice or calling you a wimp.
Problem #1 – Your Aren’t Making The Act Of Picking Up Heavy Things Your #1 Priority
Funny isn’t it? You say it’s your goal. You talk about the importance of your goal, but it is the furthest thing from priority when you look at their actions. Trying to lose fat while lifting heavy things? Not such a good idea. Trying to achieve the record title of endurance in push-ups or performing a couch to 5K trial run?
Yep, this is not action towards your goals.
Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t as if you shouldn’t lift those weights while losing fat, but how long do you want to drag this fat loss thing out for? Pacing your fat loss with intelligent deficits and refeeds – yes. Dragging it out and training in a constant state of barely fed, binge lifts, and weight regain fear – no.
Can you have other training goals while lifting heavy things? Yeah, but maximum strength takes focused energy and effort. So give it some.
Problem #2 – You’re Trying To Get Strong Lifting in a Stunted or Decreased Metabolic State
I am not saying you can’t get strong when you aren’t feeding yourself. I’ve actually been amazed with what I have seen people do who were robbed of solid nutrition. But less surprised when they end up crashing, binging for months, collecting injuries and bone fractures – you know the fun side effects of lifting heavy things and not feeding for it.
You might think, “Isn’t this the same as number one?” No. It isn’t and I will tell you why.
A certain subset of the fitness population will avoid weight regain from fat loss or increase of weight in general at all cost. This happens even with men, but more in “not losing definition” than scale weight alone.
At any point and time we fall on a certain line of being underfed, fed (roughly for our needs) and overfed. Technically we never achieve a perfect balance but you see what I am getting at. When an individual becomes nervous of any weight rebound or truly fueling their metabolic potential, they eat more towards the “underfed” state on a constant basis.
It might not be an intended deficit, but it can lead to a downgraded metabolic activity. Recovery gets robbed, nutrients get robbed and the next thing you know you are praying to find a PR or any sign of progress.
Take home point: If you hadn’t tested your metabolic potential or understood the difference between weight gain and fat gain – get on it.
See what you can do when fed and rested.
Note from TG: For those looking to dig a little deeper, Starve Mode is a fantastic resource for that.
Problem #3 – Not Resting or Going With The Flow
You can only drive yourself so hard before you reap the “benefits” of doing so. Are you the inspiration for the memes on Facebook telling people their legs giving out is “just an excuse to use your arms?” Let me appeal to you on a corkier level on why you should work smarter, not harder.
Apollo Robbins is a master of pickpocketing and misdirection. He gave a fantastic TedTalk recently explaining how we can manipulate attention. I highly encourage you watch it.
What does this have to do with anything? You can steal someone’s wallet by beating them up, ripping their pocket and running for your life (and the cops) or you can misdirect their attention and with minimal physical effort.
And just as fast as you can say abracadabra – the wallet is yours.
Clearly both are illegal and morally corrupt, but both expend two different energies and stress levels to achieve the same goal.
Sure you might reach your goals doing four lifting sessions a week, lots “metabolic work,” restricting carbs, and eating “clean.” But what if you can achieve the same physical and strength goals using strategy, feed timing, and pacing yourself?
The true misdirection in a large part of the fitness community is thinking you have to grind yourself into the ground to get what you want.
Be it concepts like biofeedback or simply enjoying yourself in the gym again, get back to working smarter.
So I had just finished doing all of my Sunday morning errands yesterday (laundry, grocery shopping, crushing bacon, what have you) and finally sat down to try to figure out what I wanted to accomplish for the rest of the day. I had a few things on tap. For starters, I had to catch up on some writing. I also had a handful of programs that needed to be completed, fine tuned, and sent out to clients so that they could start them today.
And, as is the case with every Sunday, I had to figure out which matinee I was going to go see. Frankly, once I had my “work” done for the day, I really had no set agenda other than to watch a movie (I ended up seeing Take This Waltz), maybe catch a little of the Olympics, touch base with Lisa on Skype (she’s off exploring in Europe for a month), and then spend the rest of the day vegging out.
I flipped open my laptop to check my emails really quick and noticed I had a message from Kevin Larrabee.
“Want to join Fass, Leigh and I for some podcasting at 6pm for like 25 minutes?
Like, whoa. I can’t even remember the last time I was on The Fitcast. I think Lost was still on the air, Paula was still a judge on American Idol, and Tebowing didn’t even exist.
Yeah, it had been a while.
So anyways, what was supposed to be a quick “25 minute” recording turned into an over two hour reunion of catching up, debauchery, and shenanigans. Don’t worry the episode isn’t two hours long, and we also happened to squeeze in some health and fitness content too.
Among a few things we touched on:
– Breathing Patterns
– Internet Gurus
– Cressey Performance expansion
– My cat
– The Dark Knight Rises (relax, no spoilers).
The episode is so chock full of awesome info and nuggets, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this happened:
