Me making a cameo on a podcast centered around endurance sports? Admittedly, the last time I was on a bike was when I was 12, and I am pretty sure the longest distance I’ve run in the past decade is however long the sidewalk is in front of my apartment building.
I lift heavy things. I tell people to lift heavy things. What in the hell am I doing on a podcast for triathletes?
I mean, what’s next?
‘Tony muses on his favorite hand soap recipes!”
“Tony waxes poetic about when’s the ideal time to plant your radishes!”
“Crochet your next epic pair of mittens – Tony Gentilcore speaks!”
I Actually Do Know a Thing or Two About Training Endurance Athletes
As a personal trainer and strength coach residing in Boston, it’s only inevitable I’d end up working with endurance athletes. I’ve worked with a few triathletes and marathoners throughout the years and they need what everyone else needs…a base of strength to help build the other attributes and qualities they’re looking to improve upon to succeed in their sport(s).
As it happens this isn’t the first time I have been invited onto this particular show. The host, Menachem Brodie, is a good friend of mine and we share many common coaching philosophies when it comes to working with this population.
In this episode we discuss:
How should you (strength) train through your season?
Should you skip training if you feel sore or have tightspots?
Should you snow plow through and lift heavy shit anyways if you don’t feel 100%?
How can a coach find a client’s or athlete’s “trainable menu” to work around nagging injuries?
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
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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, along with traveling over from the UK, is one of the best and brightest coaches I know.
For more information and to register you can go HERE.
3) Strong Savvy Cyclist & Triathlete Podcast
I was invited onto the Strong Savvy Cyclist & Triathlete Podcast recently hosted by my good friend Menachem Brodie.
Whenever he and I start chatting we tend to lose track of time. We covered a litany of topics in this episode, but we tried our best to stick to shoulder training for endurance athletes.
I’ve been putting in more (supported) Hip Airplanes into my client’s warmups. Great closed chain drill that allows the acetabulum (hip socket) to move about a fixed femur. Try em before a squat session.
But seriously, John and Ryan very much mirror my sentiments with regards to squat assessment and squatting technique. Except, you know, they’re way smarter than I am. So, it’s more appropriate to say I mirror THEIR sentiments.
The adage “you can’t out-train a poor diet” is very much true.
Exercise doesn’t burn as many calories as you think it does. So, does this mean you should chalk exercise up as a pointless endeavor with regards to hitting your body composition goals?
I’ll be in Raleigh, NC THIS WEEKEND putting on my popular Coaching Competency workshop
Full details (date, location, itinerary, how to register) can be found HERE.
3. Strategic Strength Workshop – Boston, MA
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 I think is one of the best and brightest coaches I know.
For more information and to register you can goHERE.
She’s running a pull-up challenge this month (starts Monday, March 18th) and everyone who participates will receive a FREE PDF outlining exercises and tips to improve your pull-ups.
Plus you get to be part of a motivating challenge.
Also, on an aside: Meghan’s popular Ultimate Pull-Up Program will be on sale at 25% off the regular price throughout the duration of the challenge (and I think the offer is available right now).
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
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Progressive overload matters. I can’t tell you how many people will bring up “x” supplement or “y” exercise thinking that THAT, finally, will help explain their lack of progress. They just needed that.
There’s no shortage of myths and naysayers when it comes to attaching strength training to an endurance athlete. I want to give Menachem a hug so freakin bad for writing this article.
If you’re a personal trainer or strength coach you likely work with clients and athletes who 1) have glutes1and 2) are looking to up their glute game.
Today’s guest post by strength coach, Menachem Brodie, goes a bit further down the rabbit hole than just giving you a bunch of glute-centric exercises to consider. There are a plethora of factors to consider when trying to ascertain what exercise will be the best fit for any one individual’s derriere.
What is it about glutes that has made them the “back to the future” of strength and performance training?
Was it Bret Contreras creating the Barbell Hip Thrust and spreading the Gospel of Glutes?
Was it the invention of Yoga Pants?
Or maybe it was Mike Jureller going on his “International Tour of CrossFit gyms” that made them popular… The world may never know.
What is undisputed, is that glutes (and mid & lower traps) are signs that someone is an athlete, or at least training like an athlete.
Today we’ll grab our Glute Dolorean’s and head back to the past, to help us understand why glutes are so important, why squats are not enough, and what you need to consider when programming glutes for your athletes and clients.
The glutes, all three of them: Glute medius, Glute minimus, and Glute maximus, need to be developed in proper proportion to allow the hip joint to sit more properly. As the glutes lose strength they tend, like every muscle, to lose their optimal resting length.
This in turn affects performance, and in the case of the hip joint, can lead to the head of the femur sitting at a poor angle in the acetabulum, which as I found out, over time can lend to bone growth in paces we don’t want it, leading to impingement, or other mechanical issues.
One such issue that can arise, is what has been called “gluteal amnesia,” which simply put is the glutes losing the ability to execute hip extension, leaving the hamstrings to do all the work and can cause the head of the femur to clunk around in the acetabulum like a drunkard in a demolition derby.
Putting Down a Great Base
In order for us to have the best chance of fully expressing our athleticism, we have to have a solid base.
Now while (especially) the average client, cyclists, and triathletes tend to think of “core” as being the base, this is not the full truth.
The base involves the Axial Skeleton (Spine & rib cage) + the Pelvis. This is of critical importance, as failure to stabilize these two together can sap power and strength. There are of course sports that are exceptions to this, such as rowing, but it’s this author’s opinion that this is why we tend to see disc injuries in that population.
Butt, developing your glutes REQUIRES that you have a stable and strong midsection: the rectus abdominus, internal and external obliques, the pelvic floor, and quadratus lumborum all work together to stabilize the pelvis from the top & middle. I won’t go into these items in this post, but you can read more and learn a few exercises to help address your midsection in this great post from Sarah Duvall, DPT.
It’s often necessary to break down movement(s) into their respective parts to make certain we’re getting motion from the right areas and that we’re using/engaging the areas we want to use/engage to perform exercises well, which is what we’ll dial in on next.
Cycling and Sitting: The Bane of Gluteal Existence
When glutes are strong and full and the diaphragm, ribs, and pelvic floor all move properly for breathing, EVERYTHING works better: Squats are more full range, your back feels like a titanium beam, and jumping and sprinting tend to be out of this world (for a 6th grader).
Butt (<– haha, I see what you’re doing there Menachem) when one starts spending more time in a seated position where the glutes are partially stretched, but not used, and the diaphragm is out of alignment with the pelvic floor, these muscles tend to lose some of their abilities, as they are essentially being told to shut off in those static positions: We don’t need them to work because we are slouching and hanging off the ligaments/connective tissues instead.
Cyclists and triathletes also suffer this problem due to the inherent position of their sport.
You lose power potential in a muscle that cannot stretch, or is in a stretched position for so long. This is an issue many cyclists, triathletes AND our clients/ athletes face, due to the long periods of time that we spend sitting with our glutes in an elongated position, and “the rings” (pelvic floor + diaphragm) out of alignment.
Glutes Are a Keystone to Performance Oft Neglected
While the running joke is that “I got glutes cuz I squat a lot,” Squats actually are NOT enough to fully and properly develop the glutes. There is far more that goes into developing glutes than being able to perform the 30+ something squat variations.
I know what you’re thinking:
But this is important, as it relates to an oft-missed portion to training the glutes: PELVIC CONTROL.
Pelvic stabilization and control is extremely important if we are to get true hip extension, and not extension from places not intended to work “like that”, such as the lumbar spine.
If I had a dollar for every time I saw a trainer or coach working on “Hip extension” with a client/ athlete who was getting movement from the lumbar spine, I’d be a very rich person.
In order for us to build up the glutes properly, we have to begin by thinking about giving stabilization to the pelvis through teaching the hamstrings, internal obliques, the deep hip rotators (pelvic floor), rectus & transverse abdominus, and Quadratus lumborum to all fire in good sequence and with great strength.
This is a challenge for many, as we tend to perform our front planks by hanging off the hip flexors, we work our hamstrings by laying down on the machine, and often don’t include many anti-rotation exercises (although, you ARE reading Tony’s blog, so you’re officially “one of the smart ones” who does in fact train rotary stability).
Getting to Work
Glute work isn’t simply throwing a few exercises into your dynamic warmup and main routine, there is much more that needs to be done to maximize your athletes results.
We MUST think about the different positions the athlete will be required to perform in their sport:
Do they include deceleration and change of direction?
Is it a fixed motion similar to cycling or rowing, or is their sport more dynamic, such as basketball and rugby?
Is the athlete in anterior pelvic tilt for their sport, such as hockey, bowling, or cycling?
Each of these questions must be answered, as they help us understand the joint positioning of the hip….and as we all know:
JOINT POSITION DICTATES MUSCLE FUNCTION
If we’re actually to train the athlete and their glutes to perform in their sport, we MUST know how the muscles will be asked to work in the “real world”- that of dynamic movement and uncertainty required by their sport.
This is one of the things many of us forget as we write programming: What positions are the joints going to be in, and due to these changes in joint position, how will the muscles ACTUALLY be responding/used for movement?
Stabilizer?
Prime mover?
Prime mover through full range of motion?
Next we need to answer:
What kind of lever arm should you use for the athlete when training the glutes?
Weighted at the lower leg? (Reverse Hypers)
Weighted at the shoulders? (Barbell good mornings)
Weighted at the hip? (Barbell Hip Thrust)
Weighted long fulcrum? (Deadlifts)
Weighted medium fulcrum? (Sumo Deadlifts)
Resistance bands at the knees?
Resistance bands at the shins?
Resistance bands at the feet?
Resistance band at the crotch? (Band Pull throughs)
The answer to this can and should vary throughout the training year, but there should always be one or two lever arms which are staples to that athletes program, to help combat the movement deficiencies that their specific sport, AND POSITION in that sport, entail.
After all, you wouldn’t train a pitcher as you would train a shortstop.
Programming Glutes for Your Clients & Athletes
Every single warmup we do here at Human Vortex Training starts with some form of the hip series, depending on the athletes ability to recruit the glutes & stabilize their midsection. This doesn’t mean that these exercises are the only warmup, that would be poor planning. Rather, we should be looking to include at least 1-2 of these moves in our dynamic warm up to help the athlete/client connect with, and utilize their glutes.
Here are the foundational warm-up exercises which I’ve used a mix of over the years:
1) Side Lying Straight Leg Lift
1 @ 8-15 each
2) Hip Lifts
1 @ 15-30
3) Clamshell Variation
Side Lying Clamshells (beginners)
1 @ 8-15 each
Side Lying Half Clamshells (intermediate/advanced)
1 @ 8-15 each
4) Side Lying Straight Leg Adduction
1 @ 8-15 ea
5) Birddog Variation or Regression
1 @ 5-8 each
PLEASE Don’t butcher the Birddog exercise! Our affable, giant-triceped host, Tony Gentilcore, has a great video about this and how to better teach it here:
6) Single Leg Hips Lift
1 @ 8-15 each
7) Banded Lateral Walks
8) Banded Monster Walks Forward/ Backward
Along with 2-4 of the above exercises, we would get 1-2 breathing exercises, and 2-4 other dynamic warm-up exercises to prepare for that specific days session.
Burnout Session at the End of Your Lift for Glutes? No Problem!
At the end of a session is a great place to add in some more sport-related fatigued state specific glute training. These are usually done bodyweight only, as we’re looking to help improve the athletes resilience and strength-endurance in sport-specific positions, although it’s best to find what works for YOUR athlete….Some respond better, or actually need weighted or resisted variations.
Use your best judgement to find what’s best for your athlete at that time.
1) Back on Bench Single Leg Hip lifts (Rotary Stability) (Sprinters, Track and Field, Triathletes)
3) Frog Hip Lifts (Weighted or Unweighted) (BJJ, Hockey)
But It’s Not All Strengthening
As we all know, simply making a muscle stronger and better able to work in chorus with other muscles, doesn’t make it a rock star. We still need to ensure it’s able to work through it’s full intended range of motion, as well as to rest at its ideal resting length.
For this, we can do a few different exercises:
1) Brettzel
2) Half-Pigeon Stretch
3) Dynamic LAX Ball Glute Release with Mid-Trap Activation
I like all of these as they also help the athlete learn where the rest of his or her body is & what it’s doing as they get into the proper positions… a big win for Proprioception!
Give these a shot, and let the glute gains begin!
About the Author
Menachem Brodie, NSCA-CSCS, PCES, is a leading Strength Coach for Cyclists & Triathletes. In the health, fitness, & wellness fields for nearly 20 years, he has worked with professional & amature atheltes from around the world. He has authored 2 courses: Strength Training for Cycling Successand Strength Training for Triathlon Success, and has presented internationally on Strength Training for Endurance Athletes, including at the 2018 USA Cycling Coaching Summit.
I’m still playing a little catch-up on my end from a weekend of Fitness Summit shenanigans in Kansas City.
I promise I’ll have some content ready to share tomorrow into the rest of the week (you miss me, right?), but in the meantime I’ve got an excellent guest post from Israeli Strength and Conditioning coach Menachem Brodie.
How the Endurance Athlete Can Appease a Shoulder That Hates Them
As a Strength & Conditioning coach who works extensively with cyclists & triathletes most folk first reaction is “WTF Mate?” or “I didn’t even know that was a thing!”
When asked to describe it to people, the best I can come up with is that I know pretty much EXACTLY how Scott Evil feels:
Not “Strength coach” enough for that crowd, and not quite “Cycling enough” for that crowd…
But there is a ton that we can learn about posture and shoulder health from our two wheeled, pedal pushing friends, as they spend hours in positions just a bit more extreme than you or I sitting on the couch watching TV on the weekends.
The difference is that while we ingest 2,000 calories in Buffalo Wild Wings and that awesome ranch dressing, they burn those calories climbing mountains.
While posture and shoulder health have a huge impact on our overall well-being and can have significant and far-reaching effects, those effects are not always felt before it’s too late in the game.
This is especially true for Road Cyclists, runners, and triathletes, as their sport, by design, requires the body to work for long periods of time, preferably as energy efficiently as possible.
When I first started coaching cyclists for performance & strength, I focused on the glutes and their huge impact on the pelvis, spine, and rib cage as they supply the base of power on the bike and support for the upper body.
But it quickly became apparent that while I was on the right track, there was something even more basic that limits cyclists performance: Their posture….It is completely jacked due to hours on the bike in a closed position, supporting around 30% their weight with their hands and arms. (If you’re a cyclist and feel that you’re subjectively supporting more than 30% of your weight with your arms, go see a bike fitter, after you get started with the exercises we learn today.)
And so, the journey down the rabbit hole began, except unlike Alice, I could answer the Cheshire Cat with a definitive answer to “Where do you want to go?”
Improved performance
Improved quality of life
Avoiding looking like a Time trial cyclist/ the hunchback of Notre Dame….when you’re walking around at age 60
Let’s Get Down to Basics
There are two diaphragms in the torso that we want to have aligned in order to allow our body to function properly, including managing internal pressure, allow for proper/optimal muscle function, improved breathing, improved rib mobility, and much, much more:
Thoracic Diaphragm – controls pressure between chest and abdomen, the muscle responsible for respiration in the body, and what most people think of then you mention “Your diaphragm”.
Pelvic Floor – Controls pressure between pelvis and abdomen.
Interestingly enough, while in the general population we may see issues mostly at two of these diaphragms (Pelvic Floor and Thoracic diaphragms), in cyclists we tend to see a bit more issues, in large part due to the extreme position in which these athletes must perform for their sport.
Add into this mix that cycling is pretty much the only sport we have where the feet rotate about a fixed axis, variability in terrain, road surface, winds, and rider movements on the bike, and we have the right ingredients for some major movement issues.
Bear in mind that EVERY sport develops/requires its fair share of movement “deficiencies” or “imbalances at joints” due to repetitive tasks and movements, and while this is a part of sport, we need to keep our “average” cyclist in balance – after all, they are competitive in cycling, but a pro at something else…
Cycling puts you into an extremely vulnerable spot posture wise, not to mention with drivers (of note, PLEASE give us three feet when passing, it’s F***ing scary to have a car whiz past you within inches of knocking you off the road… when they could have waited 5 more seconds and given space… not to mention it’s pretty much law in nearly all countries and states).
Unfortunately, many in the cycling and triathlon communities have come to simply accept some forms of injuries as a right of passage for cyclists who are out there riding hard year in and year out.
From frozen shoulders and lower back pain, to constant upper neck pain and loss of hip extension….and a number of other issues, the communities have come to determine that “it just happens due to playing our sport”.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
If we simply work on a few basic moves off the bike, we can have a significant positive impact on the riders performance and health, as well as YOUR performance and health from constantly flexing your spine to scroll through Instagram and Facebook throughout the day.
(Yeah, I saw you sit up a little straighter right there).
Opening the shoulder girdle, re-attaining proper scapular rhythm, and attaining better alignment of the Cervical, Thoracic, and Pelvic diaphragms are the goals we strive for and are not won in a few weeks, but rather over the course of a few months, and for more veteran riders, years.
It takes consistent work, done over a time period to see major gains and advances.
While it’s tough to argue which of these three diaphragms is “The most important to address” as it is based off of each individual athlete and what/if any issues they are having, we can say that due to our modern-day lifestyle, the shoulder girdle is a great place to start, as most cyclists will move to a compromised position at some point in longer/harder rides.
Not to mention that keeping the shoulder in good balance can relieve pressure on the brachial plexus, reduce the risk/ development of an overgrown coracoid process, as well as help alleviate some of the tension from the cervical extensors that are working so hard.
This allows accessory muscles of the thorax and neck to work as…. Accessory muscles, not stabilizers hanging on for dear life. As we get the shoulder joint sitting better, we can see the rib cage begin to gain proper movement, which leads to a better alignment of the Pelvic and Thoracic diaphragm, which allows the pelvic floor to relax and glutes and pelvic floor to activate in order to stabilize and move the body with more efficiency.
If we know that joint position dictates muscle function, then there are so many compensations happening in the sport of cycling, that many muscles wind up feeling like Tom Hanks in Castaway: They know what it’s like to be social and around others, but they begin to become detached from reality, and start doing other funny things.
Aside from helping to put you in the best position to maximize energy expenditure, keeping the shoulders healthy and moving well can help you be able to EAT while out on the bike as well!
The number of riders I’ve had the last ten years who had lost proper range of motion in their dominant shoulder, and were unable to eat on the bike due to loss of the range of motion thus not being able to reach into their back pockets, and “not trusting” their other hand to steer, is many.
While we often see hip issues in cyclists as well, we know that the hip and opposite shoulder work together in unison to allow us to move forward, and thus why starting at the shoulder along with breathing, can significantly improve a riders performance AND their quality of life.
Enough of the talk, let’s get into some solid action items that you can implement 3-5 days a week, in 15 minutes or less, to help you get back to great posture and able to express your true conditioning and strength, no matter what your sport.
Before jumping into the exercises, be sure to take 4-6 minutes to foam roll/ lax ball, especially:
Foam rolling the Lats
Foam rolling the chest
LAX ball/ ACUMobility the neck – all the cool kids are talking about the ACUMobility ball, and while I haven’t used it myself, it does look like a useful piece of equipment that will be regularly used, so yes, I’ll jump on the bandwagon.
Just don’t make the mistake that many endurance athletes do and spend too much time on the roller/lax ball. If you’re doing soft tissue mobility for longer than 10-12 minutes, you need to get a life/ take a hard look at your recovery/ lack of recovery between sessions.
It’s not how hard you can go in a session, it’s going hard enough that you can recover session to session, while keeping consistency in your trainings.
After the foam roller we’ll jump into breathing as shoulder joint position will also affect inhalation and exhalation, so we’re going to start here, with learning to breathe.
Learning to Breathe & Resetting the Diaphragm
All 4’s Quadruped Breathing – Resetting the Diaphragm
1 set of 5 deep breaths through the nose, out through the mouth. Hold each breath for 4 seconds
Crocodile Breathing – Filling the Cavity Evenly
1 set of 5 to 8 breaths
Next, we want to work on opening the shoulder, but in a way that allows us to tap into Thoracic Rotation. For some of you this may be a bit much, be sure to listen to your body, and breathe out and RELAX when you hit a tough spot.
Side Lying Windmill
Opening up lats, pecs, and T-spine to help the athlete function better.
One set of 8 each side
Finally, we work to fire up some muscles that may have been turned off, and/or “went on break.”
Wall Scap Slides
– Activating the Serratus anterior, Mid and lower Traps.
1 set of 8- make sure to keep your ribs from flaring, and your chin tucked.
Behind the Back Band Pull Aparts
– Activating the lower traps and rhomboids.
1 set of 8
Chin Nod, Progressing to Chin tuck Head lift
Helping activate the deep core, and fire up the muscles in your neck.
1 set of 8
Wrap Up
While these seem like a lot, you can and should be able to execute these exercises, in this order, 3-5 days a week, in 10-15 minutes. Remember, it’s not doing the exercises intensely or until fatigue that will help you see progress, it’s the CONSISTENCY that will.
About the Author
Menachem Brodie is a USA Cycling Certified Expert Level Coach, NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist, and Serotta Certified Bike Fitter with over 20 years in the Health & Fitness Industry. “Brodie” as he is known, has done over 15 presentations for USA Cycling on Strength Training for Cycling, and is the author of Training Peaks Universities “Strength Training for Cycling Success”Online course.
When he’s not geeking out reading Ex-phys books, riding his bike, or trying to lift heavy things, he’s probably sleeping….errr, “recovering”. If you see Brodie without a coffee in his hand, something is probably amiss and you should call 911 immediately, as he may be signaling you for help.
