CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/24/18

Copyright: gregorylee / 123RF Stock Photo

BUT FIRST…CHECK THIS STUFF OUT

1. (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Houston, TX

This workshop will piggyback on the material Dean Somerset and I covered in the original Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.

But now.

BUT NOW……

….It’s the (Even More) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.

A bunch of wordsmiths we are.

With this iteration, though, we’ll be going a bit deeper into the coaching and programming side of things:

  • How to program around common injuries.
  • How to “connect” the appropriate exercises to the client/athlete.
  • How to squat and deadlift like a boss.

All registrants to this course (as well as future dates in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Minas Tirith) will receive a free download of CSHB 1.0 so that you’re up-to-speed on the content Dean and I will be covering.

To register and for moe details go HERE.

2. RISE Fitness Business Conference – San Jose, CA

I’ve had to decline speaking at this event in the past due to prior engagements1, but I’m headed to San Jose this year baby.

And I…..am…..pumped.

I’ve never been to the Bay area so I’m excited for that. But I’m even more excited for the THREEdays of melt your face knowledge that’ll be under one roof.

The line-up is spectacular and I’m honored to be included amongst such esteemed company – Pat Rigsby, Mark Fisher, Molly Galbraith, Kellie Hart, Craig Ballantyne, and Scott Rawcliffe, to name a few.

I’ll be speaking about shoulder assessment.

If you’re a fitness professional looking to take his or her’s career to the next level this is an event you won’t want to miss.

Full details and registration are HERE.

SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS

Twitter

Instagram – 30 Days of Deadlifts

I’m a week into my series “30 Days of Deadlifts.”

This was the video that kicked things off.

Plenty more to come so be sure to follow or check in on me over in IG world.

STUFF TO READ WHILE YOU’RE PRETENDING TO WORK

Key to Career Success – Dr. John Berardi

John first started writing for T-Nation back in the early 2000’s and eventually started Precision Nutrition which is now a 200 million dollar company and one of the most respected entities in the industry.

How?

How did he do it?

Was there some secret morning ritual, a daily hack, or maybe he cut a deal with Rumplestiltskin?

None of the above, actually.

As always John keeps it real and provides a ton of practical insights.

Building a Successful Career: Positioning and Intent – Dean Somerset

Not to steal any light from the first article, but this was also a fantastic read from my brother of another mother, Dean Somerset.

In short:

1. Put in the work.

2. Leverage your strengths.

3. Dean and I are non-sexual life partners.

5 Years of Insane Gains – Paul Carter

Why couldn’t have Paul written this back in 1993?

Why?

Whhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyy?

This is a MUST read for anyone newbies out there reading.

CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Rack Pull-Up

I’m a huge fan of pull-ups/chin-ups. Pick your flavor. I find the ability to perform either of the two is a great litmus test of one’s upper body strength and overall body composition.

Copyright: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

 

For many of my female clients both points are particularly true:

  • Getting strong enough to bang out one, if not several reps, is never going to be a bad thing from a strength standpoint.
  • And if they can perform several reps, it’s likely they have their body composition in check.

Unfortunately, not many women (and men too) can conquer the exercise on Day #1. It’s then on me to implement progressions that not only build context and prepare for the movement, but also builds confidence and elicits a training effect.

Priority #1 is MORE frequency. You’re not going to get better at hitting a pull-up/chin-up if you only train it once per week.  To that end there are several ways to break things down with floor-based drills (hollow position holds, push-ups, rollouts) in addition to drills hanging from an actual bar (straight-arm hangs, flexed-arm hangs, eccentric only, accommodating assistance).

One pulling variation I’ve been having my female clients perform of late is this:

Rack Pull-Up

 

Who Did I Steal It From: Fellow T-Nation contributor Paul Carter.

What Does It Do: This is an excellent exercise for a few reasons: it forces the feet out front which helps maintain “canister” position throughout (preventing excessive ribs flaring out and cranking through lumbar spine) in addition to allowing more t-spine extension and scapular retraction.

It’s also an excellent exercise that hammers the lats and I love how you can accentuate the “stretch” at the bottom.

Also, to steal a line of thinking from Paul, at the top, the legs should be parallel to the floor. Any higher and you gain a leverage advantage and they’re not as difficult.

My client Sara makes these look easy, but trust me they’re more difficult than she makes them look.

Key Coaching Cues: The foot position noted above is important, so don’t skip that part. I also like to tell people to think about “pulling through their elbows” and to think about keeping their shoulder blades in their back pocket.

This drill can be used for people who can’t yet perform a chin-up/pull-up or are looking to increase that number by building a little more pulling strength/volume.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 9/16/16

I have two words for you: Bachelor weekend.

My wife is away this weekend with my mother-in-law as the latter is being inducted into her alma mater’s Athletic Hall of Fame.2 This 100% means I’ll be catching up on some movie watching and chilling with my cat on the couch for the next two days. You know, because I live life dangerously.

What are your plans this weekend? More exciting than mine I hope.

Lets jump into this week’s list of stuff to read.

39081393 - many old books in a book shop or library

Copyright: gregorylee / 123RF Stock Photo

Eccentric Isometrics: The Ultimate Way to Strength Train (Part I) – Joel Seedman

There is no other coach I have been obsessed with of late more so than Joel Seedman. Quite frankly, he’s someone who is consistently putting out phenomenal information and has a take on many topics I’ve never heard before.

I respect that.

In this article he breaks down eccentric/isometric training, which is named many other things – pause reps, iso holds, yielding isometrics, eccentric quasi isometrics, extreme isometrics, yo mama is fat, it’s all the same. He LOVES eccentric training and after reading this article I can see why. LOTS of good stuff to pick up and apply.

5 Ways You’re Screwing Up Your Squat – Paul Carter

This article made me sexually excited. It was that good.

Top 5 Advanced Abdominal Rollout Variations – Kelvin King (via NickTumminello.com)

Have fun trying these.

CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

The Over Warm-Up: And How It Can Help You Lift More Weight

The warm-up.

Lets be honest: most of you reading either skip it altogether or discreetly brush it to the side as something you know you should be doing, but, you know, don’t.

I’m not here to judge. I do it too.

I don’t feel I need to sit here like an overbearing parent and type out all the reasons why you should be doing a thorough warm-up prior to training. But I will anyways.

A warm-up:

  • Improves alignment and posture.
  • Allows for additional and opportune times to address and tackle “problematic areas” such as the thoracic spine (lack of rotation and/or extension), hips (it takes a crowbar to squat past 90 degrees), glutes (you don’t have any), and ankles (the cement blocks we wear for shoes – not to mention high-heels – place us in a constant state of plantar-flexion, thus compromising our ability to dorsiflex).
  • Helps to increase core temperature and promotes blood flow…which helps improve flexibility/extensibility of muscles.
  • Get the nervous system primed and ready to go.
  • Gets you jacked. Just kidding.3

All that said – and despite many, many, MANY – smart people telling us how important it is…people still tend to skimp on their warm-up.

NOTE: HERE is an article I wrote a few years ago on “The Perfect Warm-Up?” As well as THIS one I wrote for STACK.

This video was part of the article linked to above. I only post it NOW for Eric Cressey’s EPIC video-bomb. Wait for it…..

Long story short: including a warm-up prior to training is a smart use of training time, will help to offset many of the poor sitting (and standing) positions we tend to be stuck in on a daily basis, and it only takes maybe 10 minutes.

DO IT!

The Over-Warm-Up

So now that we’ve established that you’re not going to warm-up, lets discuss the concept of the over warm-up, a term popularized by strength coach and powerlifter Paul Carter.

You’re TOTALLY going to be down for this…so keep reading!

For any uppity strength and conditioning snobs reading this can also, technically, be referred to as Post-Activation Potentiation.

Rather than attempt to define what Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) is, I’ll defer to Bret Contreras:

“PAP is a phenomena by which muscular performance characteristics are acutely enhanced as a result of their contractile history. The underlying principle surrounding PAP is that heavy loading prior to explosive activity induces a high degree of CNS stimulation which results in greater motor unit recruitment lasting anywhere from five to thirty minutes.”

Traditionally, PAP is performed by utilizing a close to max-effort lift (think: bench press, squat, deadlift, arm wrestling a Terminator) followed suit with an explosive activity with the same “pattern” (think: medicine ball throw, vertical jump, 10-40 yd sprint, high-tailing it to local florist when you forget it’s your anniversary).

To take advantage of the phenomena most strength coaches agree that PAP is best utilized using the “lift something heavy then perform a similar explosive movement after” approach.

NOTE: I’d encourage you to read Bret Contreras’s full article HERE on PAP if you really want to dive into the nitty-gritty stuff.

However, for strength purposes I’ve found using a similar approach useful. Essentially you’ll take your “main” movement of the day – squat, bench press, deadlift – and extend your warm-up/build-up sets so that you work above your intended, scheduled work load.

So, for example, lets say you’re performing squats today and your program calls for 4×4 @ 75% of your 1RM. For the sake of argument lets say your 1RM is 350 lbs.

1) 75% of 350 = 262 lbs (rounded up to 265).

2) A traditional warm-up may look like this:

1×8 @ 40% (140 lb)

1×6 @ 50% (175 lb)

1×5 @ 60% (210 lb)

1×2 @ 70% (245 lb)

4×4@ 75% (265 lb)

 

3) The OVER warm-up will look like this:

1×8 @ 40% (140 lb)

1×6 @ 50% (175 lb)

1×5 @ 60% (210 lb)

1×2 @ 70% (245 lb)

1-3×1 @ 80-85% (280-300 lb)

4×4@ 75% (265 lb)

So in this case the objective is to hit a weight above or past the intended work sets to “potentiate” the nervous system, and thus (hopefully) making them feel easier/lighter.

The idea is to ENSURE your “over warm-up weight” is one you KNOW you can crush. Meaning, it’s not close to a 1RM and bar speed should still be, well, speedy.

Something else to consider is that this should only be utilized when you’re using sub-maximal weight with your work sets (60-80% of 1RM). DO NOT attempt this when you know you’re working at percentages higher than that.

I mean, you could…it just (probably) won’t end well.

Also, this isn’t something you’re going to want to perform long-term. Maybe use it for a block (3-6 weeks) and then revert to something else.

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