CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/25/17

I have to go to a wedding this weekend. In Albany, NY.

Can you sense my excitement?

I can think of a thousand and one other things I’d rather do: watch paint dry, talk about my feelings, jump into a shark’s mouth, anything.

I’ve still got some packing to do and other odds and ends to complete today so lets jump into this week’s list.

Copyright: wamsler / 123RF Stock Photo

CHECK THIS STUFF OUT FIRST

1) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Orlando

There’s only less than two weeks left to take advantage of the Early Bird rate for Dean Somerset and I’s workshop in Orlando, at Spark Fitness, the weekend of October 21st.

I’ve never been to Orlando. I bet it’s going to be beautiful in October. Yet, there’s no way in hell I’m visiting Disney World.1

You can go HERE for more details and to sign up.

HEADS UP: We’ve also added Boston into the mix later this year. Not Burlington Boston or Beverly Boston, two cities that are lovely, albeit not (that) close to Boston.

No, this is IN Boston. In the heart of the city Boston, at AMP Fitness.

Early bird rate is in effect now and if you’re super eager to sign-up you can go HERE.

2) Strong Body-Strong Mind – Toronto

For real this time.

This was supposed to happen this past June, but Lisa and I didn’t have a passport for our little guy (then four months old) when we arrived at the airport and we had to cancel last minute.

Our bad.

We’ve re-scheduled for Saturday, September 23rd at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario. I can tell you – and I’m totally not biased when I say this (but I am) – there’s no other workshop like this in the fitness industry.

Lisa and I saw an underserved component within the industry – namely, mental skills – and we’ve combined our superpowers skill-sets to provide a 1-day curriculum that will help fitness professionals develop better skills to build competency, autonomy, and rapport with their clients, in addition to coaching skills (assessment, program design, exercise technique).

You can go HERE to register.

NOTE: the registration process is a little bit tricky and if you get to the point where you feel like you’re going to toss your face into the keyboard, please contact Bradley Corcoran at: Bradley.Corcoran@humber.ca

Hope to see you there.

3) Elite Fitness & Performance Summit – Chicago

 

I’ll be in Chicago this September alongside some other phenomenal speakers for the Elite Fitness & Performance Summit. The cast includes:

  • Nick Tumminello
  • Mark Fisher (if I have to follow him on stage I’m going to be pissed)
  • Josh Henkin
  • Nick Berry
  • Molly Galbraith
  • Krista Scott-Dixon
  • Ryan Ketchum

And many, many more.  It’s one of the most action-packed fitness events of the year, so be sure to reserve your seat ASAP. You can go HERE to do so.

Stuff to Read

The Best Damn Workout Plan for Natural Lifters – Christian Thibaudeau

Awesome stuff from Coach Thibs.

I’ve had a few of my male clients implement this program and they love it.

It’s Time to Let Your Asshat Friends Go – Louie Guarino

For starters: kudos to Louie for using the word “asshat” in the title.

Second: many, MANY of you reading with fat loss goals can and will commiserate with this article.

F*** Exercise, Try This Instead – Krista Scott-Dixon

Fun Tony factoid: Stumptuous.com (Krista’s site) was one of the first fitness blogs I ever started reading. It’s also where the seeds were planted on this whole idea of infotainment and how I got into writing myself.

She’s an amazing writer and very knowledgable coach. And she swears. She’s good people.

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CategoriesCorrective Exercise Rehab/Prehab

Add Some “Flow” to Your Warm-Up

I could easily pull a fast one and just tell everyone to start playing some Tribe Called Quest or Nas during their warm-ups and call it day.

Done, you just added some flow.

But I feel that would do nothing but yield a bunch of weird looks and not really give me much “cred” as far as training advice is concerned.

My musical taste would be on point though.

Can I kick it?

Yes You Can!

After perusing a few videos from the likes of Dean Somerset, Max Shank, and Louie Guarino – and there are a litany of others – lately I’ve been toying around with more “flow” based warm-ups prior to my training sessions.

So, rather than performing the standard A (glute bridge) t0 B (ankle mobility drill) to C (T-spine mobiity) to D (forearm wall slide) to E (lunge pattern) to F (smashing my face into a cinder block from boredom) warm-up, I’ve been “flowing.”

Like This

And yes people, that is ERIC freakin CRESSEY (and Tank) doing what they do best…..videobombing me walking around in the background. Kudos to Eric for the commentary in the background too…..haha.

We like to keep things professional at the facility….;o)

This is a drill that really opens up the hips and is A LOT harder to do than it looks.  Starting off, I’ll do 2-4 passes of rocking side to side working on hip internal-external rotation.

From there I’ll come up onto my knees working into terminal hip extension.  I’ll also perform 2-4 passes on each side here as well.

Of Note:  be careful not to hyperextend through the lower back here.  Those with limited hip extension will tend to compensate with lumbar extension.

Then I’ll transition up onto my feet and work in a squat pattern, performing 2-4 passes on each side again.

I really like the seamless transition and positioning of the body and feel there’s a lot more carryover to everyday movement.

Don’t get me wrong:  for most people performing a more traditional warm-up that targets problematic areas is ideal.  But for those looking to step up their game, following more “flow” based warm-ups might be a nice change of pace.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!