CategoriesMotivational

Mondays: A Fitness Professional’s Worst Enemy (Behind Tracy Anderson)

LOL – see what I just did there?  I burned Tracy Anderson right from the get-go!  Oh man this day is off to a good start already.

The only thing that could make it better is if by some miracle it started raining bacon.  And, you know, I drove a tank to work.

But I’m getting a little carried away here.

Tracy Anderson jokes and bacon aside, Mondays generally suck no matter which way you look at it.  Personally I don’t mind them that much because I actually love my job.  But there was a time, when I first started in this industry (in corporate fitness), where my Mondays consisted of getting up at 3:45 AM to drive 50 minutes to work so that I could open up the gym by 5 AM.

That…..sucked…….donkey……balls.

Even more so when it was the dead of winter, ten degrees outside, and the roads weren’t even plowed yet. For those unfamiliar with central New York winters – it’s essentially the lake-effect snow capital of the universe (yes, the universe), and it’s abysmal weather from December to April.

But at least it’s not Edmonton (sorry Dean Somerset).

Suffice it to say, I’d spend most of my day on Sunday dreading the start of Monday.

But that isn’t really what this post is all about.  Things are cool now. It’s true what they say:  if you enjoy your job, it’s never really “work.” Mondays now are just like any other day in my eyes.

Except for the day AFTER attending a seminar.

I know I’ve seemingly harpooned the CP Elite Baseball Development seminar this week and have taken it hostage, using it as the impetus for every post.

But what can I say?  I learned a lot – and it provided me with some blogging ammo for a week.

Yesterday I dissected a quote from Eric Schoenberg on how “arm care” programs shouldn’t just be limited to the shoulder.  As Eric noted, we don’t throw a baseball with JUST our shoulders.

Sure, the shoulders play an important role – and it’s no coincidence that they’re a problematic area in many baseball players – but throwing a baseball involves the entire body, and taking the mindset that we should solely focus on the shoulder (and elbow) is a bit, well, dumb.

Having said that, not everyone reading this blog follows baseball, plays baseball, or really cares one way or the other how we train them.

So I’ll do everyone a favor and shut my yapper on that front.

But there is one more gem that I took away from the seminar that I feel applies to any fitness professional reading whether they train professional athletes, high-school athletes, soccer moms, type-A doctors, lawyers, and CEOs, or bomb sniffing dolphins.

And that’s this:

Turn on the brakes!!!

The hardest part about attending seminars – and something Mike Robertson alluded to in THIS fantastic post –  is the following Monday, where you want to try all the new exercises you learned, and demonstrate to the world that performing a one-legged squat on a BOSU ball while juggling oranges is EXACTLY what everyone needs to be doing.

I think there are many fitness professionals out there that bombard their athletes and clients with a host of exercises thinking that more is better.  Worse, is that they’ll attend a weekend seminar (which should be commended by the way), arm themselves with an endless supply of new and “cool” exercises, and then, without any discretion what-so-ever, include them in every client’s program on Monday.

Throwing a nice corollary into the mix, Dennis Treubig, PT, DPT, CSCS, wrote a nice guest post on Mike Reinold’s site earlier this week where he talked about the same topic, but included something I’ve read about is several behavioral economic books I’ve read referred to as the jam experiment.

Mmmm, I like Jam

If you are unfamiliar with this experiment, here is a brief synopsis (officially titled, “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?”).  Shoppers at a grocery store were presented with two different displays of jam – one had 6 flavors and the other had 24 flavors.  The results showed that 30% of people who visited the display with 6 jams actually purchased jam, while only 3% made a purchase after visiting the display that offered 24 jams.

So what’s the take home message?  Less is more.

Or better yet:  refraining from being an a-hole and recognizing that not everything applies to every client….is more.

Don’t go thinking that the more exercises you include (or add) in your programs somehow shows off your superiority as a trainer or coach. All it really demonstrates, with bright, gleaming colors, is that you’re unable (or unwilling) to think for yourself and to properly apply what you’ve learned.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t apply new techniques, exercises, or principles into your programming.  On the contrary, you should STRIVE for that. I can’t even begin to tell you how much it saddens me when a trainer or coach never grows, cultures, or adapts their training methodology.

All I’m suggesting is that, come Monday, don’t jump the gun and immediately overhaul your programs with an avalanche of new exercises.  Take the time to actually dissect and assimilate the information and to see what (if anything) applies to you and your clients/athletes.

Having more of a “filter” and learning how to disregard new information is just as important as learning it in the first place.

CategoriesMotivational

Six Tips To Make You a Better Trainer

Today’s guest post comes from personal trainer (and friend) Mike Anderson.  Enjoy!

I mentally wrote most of this post while sitting in attendance at the First Annual Cressey Performance Fall Seminar. I couldn’t help but notice that quite a few of the people in attendance were personal trainers, not strength coaches.

Those of us who are personal trainers, and not strength coaches, are the red-headed step children of the fitness industry. I often read things on T-Nation (even here on Tony’s blog) about “pencil-necked personal trainers” who couldn’t train their way out of a paper bag and who constantly do stupid things with their clients.

Note from TG:  That is true, I’m a culprit of that.  My bad!  But in my defense, how else am I supposed to react when I see a trainer take his overweight, woefully deconditioned client through a circuit of BOSU ball squats, standing on one leg while hoisting pink dumbbells over their head?

This is understandable; the personal training industry is very misunderstood. It has long been filled with random people who simply put clients on machines and count reps for them. While there ARE exceptions to the rule, much of the time there’s very little thought given to proper programming and helping clients get results in the most time efficient (and safe) manner possible, and more thought put into what arm-band to wear, which sneakers to pimp, and trying to figure out the best way to “swindle” a client into purchasing the next big batch of training sessions to meet their monthly sales quota.

Nowadays, though, we have a new breed of trainer. There are more and more of us who base our clients training on current science and research rather than on bro-science.

In order to help people fix the misconception of what a personal trainer is I wanted to give you all a few tips that helped make me a better trainer, and it’s my hope that these tiny bits of perspective can help you too!

1) Find a Mentor

Whether he knows it or not, Tony has had a huge impact on my career so far.

Note from TG:  Dude, I’m a freakin Jedi.  I know everything…..;o)

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that he has helped mentor me through the first few years of my career. I’d been reading his blog for about a year before I first contacted him with some questions, he responded quickly and went out of his way to help me.

Every subsequent email was answered with promptness and full attention to my queries.  I finally met him in person and he continued to be a huge help to me whenever I had a problem or question. He has also provided me with this forum several times to help kickstart (what I hope to be) a writing career  and to get my name out in the world.

Considering he is one of the “celebrities” of our industry, this really meant a lot to me.

I’m lucky to live in an area that is dense with quality strength coaches who are pretty accessible: Tony, Eric, Greg and Chris out at CP; Mike Boyle and Ben Bruno up at MBSC; Jeremy Frisch at Achieve Performance; the guys at Total Performance Sports, and a ton of really great coaches at Boston University and Northeastern University.

Even if you don’t live near a great coach, you can find a way to get in contact with them. Most people in this industry are more than willing to pass on some of their knowledge to the next generation. Find someone who is smarter than you and learn something!

Note fron TG:  I get this question a lot from other trainers in the industry asking me how they can go about getting better.  Mike hit the nail on the head in this regard:  try to reach out to any local trainers or coaches.  Whether it’s a reputable trainer at a commercial gym or an area strength coach at a college or university, most will be more than willing to allow you to come in and observe and talk some shop.  

Just remember one very important rule:  you have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth.  Use them in that order.

2) Find your Style

This is something that I see a lot of new trainers lacking. They start training and will adapt every session to what the client likes or feels like doing.  They have no particular style to their sessions.

Everyone who trains with me knows they are going to spend some time on mobility, then get their hands on some heavy compound lifts. Is my style unique? Not at all.  Is it effective? Sure is.  Do I stay true to it regardless of who I’m training? For sure.

3) Don’t Stop Learning

It’s pretty easy to get comfortable in your job and stop trying to get better; that’s your death sentence.

There is so much new information that comes out on a regular basis in this industry that you need to keep up. Not only that, but so much of this information is FREE! There’s a ton of great blogs and articles out there written by very knowledgeable coaches; take advantage of this!

If you can read these articles and attend a seminar every once in a while, you’ll gain enough tidbits of information to keep yourself current.  Don’t be the trainer telling your clients that eggs are bad for them or that squats will hurt your knees.

4) Keep it Simple

Very few general population clients out there need anything besides the basics and their variations. Stick to these and stay away from progressing clients too fast and they will see results.

The fanciest exercise I do did with my clients are sled drags (unfortunately I was recently banned from doing these.) I stick to the 5 basic human movement patterns (as described by Dan John): squat, hinge, push, pull and carry.

Use variants of these with your clients, inform them about eating a diet full of real, quality foods and they will be better off in the long run.

5) Sell the “long term”

What I mean by this is; don’t sell a session to a client, sell your program.

Rather than treating each session as an independent hour, every session should be an hour spent working towards the client goal through the use of a program. If possible, you should be writing a full-length program (at least one month) for your clients and using it.

At the very least, you should have a template that you stick to. One of the most frustrating things that I see is when a trainer goes into a session with a client with no plan; you’re not getting results, you’re just getting them tired.

I mean, really:  anybody can do that.

6) Get with the right people

This refers to your clients and the people you work for/with. Having clients who are ready and willing to work hard and put forth the effort makes all the difference in the world; unfortunately this is something you don’t have a ton of control over. (Especially at the beginning of your career).

As you establish yourself more, it’ll become possible for you to become a little more selective in whom you work with.

Working with/for like-minded people will make a huge difference in how you approach work. Having good co-workers gives you the opportunity bounce ideas off of people and find out what other people are having success with. It also gives you the chance to run your programs by someone else to get a second opinion.

Working for a gym where the management is on the same page as you will also make a huge difference. It’s difficult to get results and keep clients happy if your management doesn’t support you in your quest to make clients fit, healthy and happy.

If any of you can take even one new tip from this article, then I did my job. Have a great day, and go lift something heavy!

Author Bio:  Mike is a Boston area personal trainer and currently interning with Boston University Strength and Conditioning. Mike is also finishing his degree in Exercise and Health Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He loves bacon, beer and his 7 year old pit bull Lexi. You can reach him with any questions, comments or notes of affection at [email protected]. You can also visit his website:  http://commercialgymtrainer.blogspot.com/

CategoriesMotivational

Walking Advertisements?

NOTE:  I have to keep this one brief today because I’m about 20 minutes away from heading into a CPR/AED course that I’m as excited about as passing a kidney stone.

Today’s more of an “opinion” piece, but something I feel is relavent to many who read this site on a daily basis.

Many of our clients here at Cressey Performance train at other gyms throughout the week.  For most, they’ll train at their local commercial gym 2-3x per week, and then travel out to Hudson, MA to train with us, and to presumably increase the general level of badassery.

I also like to think that some make the trip out solely to hang out with me, talk about Star Wars, and to partake in Techno/Trance/Tiesto Tuesdays – but that’s probably not the case.

Whatevs.

Anyways, I was talking with one of our clients not too long ago – who’s a trainer herself – and she mentioned to me how, while working out at her other gym, she overheard a discussion another trainer had with his client to the effect where the trainer admitted that he doesn’t workout himself anymore.  Or, at least he rarely does because he never has the time.

She (my client) also added that this particular trainer doesn’t remotely look fit, which I guess isn’t surprising given he never has “time” to be physically active.

And that’s not the point.  I don’t necessarily feel that trainers or coaches HAVE to look a certain way.  I know plenty of very smart, competent, and very successful coaches who don’t fall into some societal “norm” of what a fitness professional should look like.

If clients are getting results and if athletes dominate on the field does it really matter whether or not their coach can cut diamonds with his pecs?

Sure, looking the part is never a bad thing, but just because someone has six pack abzzzzz, or has biceps the size of Arkansas, or looks as if they belong on the cover of a fitness magazine doesn’t mean they know their ass from their acetabulum.

As as aside, this is a topic that my friend, Jon Goodman, wrote about last year, and I highly encourage you to check out this post he wrote:  Should All Personal Trainers Have 6-Pack Abs?

My main beef was the notion that this particular trainer didn’t workout.  Like, at all.  Even worse, he mentioned this to his client of all people.

This is analogous to your lawyer admitting that he never took the bar exam, or that your financial planner just filed for bankruptcy, or that Mark Zuckerberg uses MySpace.

In either scenario you’d think it was blasphemous, no?

I don’t even care that the dude doesn’t workout. Maybe he has a legitimate excuse.  But I find it pretty hypocritical that he’d admit to a PAYING client, who’s looking to him for expertise and advice, that he doesn’t workout himself.

What’s that say to the client? F*** all if you ask me.

Maybe it’s just me, but no matter how busy I am writing programs, articles, assessing clients, running a gym, running an online business, rescuing kittens from trees, you name it….I find time to train.

Always.

As much as we may or may not realize it, as fitness professionals, we ARE walking advertisements.  Everything from how we appear (and this doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with abs), and to a larger degree, what we do and say, matters.

Have a clue, will ya!?!?!

What is everyone else’s thoughts on this?  I’d definitely be curious if my thought process is on par with what everyone else thinks.

CategoriesUncategorized

The Power of Touch: Where Some Trainers Miss the Boat

When we were down in Florida a few weeks ago on vacation, even though a bulk of our time was spent vegging by the pool eating honey wheat pretzels (me) and drinking martinis (Lisa), we still made it a priority to find a gym to train at so that we could 1) burn off said transgressions mentioned above, and more importantly 2) get our diesel on.

I know what some of you may be thinking:  dude, it’s vacation…….chill out! It’s okay not to train for a few days!

I couldn’t agree more, and if it’s any consolation we did have a “day of beauty” (her words, not mine) at the spa where we enjoyed massages and other “stuff” that I won’t mention here for fear of  having my man card revoked.

Truth be told both Lisa and I LOVE training and it just wouldn’t sit right with us if we didn’t move around a little bit and lift some heavy things.

After a day or two of not working out, we’d definitely have some withdrawals!

So every morning we’d wake up and head to the gym.

Now, knowing that we were going to be training at a commercial gym for four days, I had to mentally prepare myself for the incessant bleeding of the corneas I was going to experience.  And, as predicted, I wasn’t disappointed.  I saw a lot – nay, a shit-ton – of things that made me shake my head is disbelief.

  • Some guy placed a stability ball in between his legs while setting up to bench press.  He’d un-rack the bar, and then proceeded to press and swing his legs simultaneously.  That was interesting.
  • Another gentleman stood on an inverted BOSU ball and performed standing cable bicep curls.  Even worse, he was demonstrating to a young, impressionable teenage boy how to do the same.  I wanted so badly to walk over, grab the kid by the elbow, place him in front of a bar on the floor, and introduce him to deadlifts.

When all is said and done, I can’t fault random patrons for doing whatever it is that they do. People don’t know any better, and at the end of the day at least they’re doing something.

Where I really get angry, though, is when I watch inept personal trainers completely waste people’s time (and money).  Now, I don’t want to make this entire post some diatribe on all the epic fails I witnessed and why a vast majority of trainers have no business being trainers.

That’s been done time and time again and really serves no purpose on making the industry any better.

Although I did watch a male trainer take his female client through some of the worst 1/4 squats I have ever seen in the smith machine, only to load the bar with waaaay too much weight, and then watch as she conveniently crashed to the floor when she made the mistake of going too low on one particular rep.

Clearly embarrassed, he then took her over to the leg press – loaded with FOUR plates per side – and did 1/4 ROM leg presses.  Brilliant!

I could easily write 4000 words on all the nonsensical things I saw trainers do while I was down there.

But who am I to judge?

I mean, maybe there was a legit reason why a middle-aged woman who was 30 lbs overweight (and could barely walk without limping) needed to work on her “bicep peak” – which is something I overheard a trainer commenting on as he was showing a client how to twist her wrist a certain way during a rope bicep curl.

I doubt it, but hey, you never know.

While I’m sure you can sense the small tone of cynicism I’m throwing down, again, at least they’re doing something.

What really disturbed me – amongst everything else – was the lack of coaching being done.  More specifically, the lack of touching.

Not the Creepy McCreepypants kind of touching.

Rather the kind of touching which demonstrates that some coaching is being done.

As an example, I watched one trainer time a client through a set of prone planks.  Easy enough right?  It’s a simple exercise that, when done correctly, demonstrates that a client has ample lumbo-pelvic-hip control, in addition to demonstrating that they can resist extension.  Normally, it looks like this:

The anterior core is braced, the glutes are squeezed and the entire posterior is in a straight line.  If a dowel rod was placed on his or her back, as pictured above, there should be three points of contact:  the back of the head, the middle of the shoulder blades, as well as the sacrum. If at any point form falters – whether it be the lumbar spine dipping or the upper back rounding – proper feedback should be given to correct it, and if the client can’t sustain it, the set ends.

In the case above with the trainer, what I saw was anything but.

The client was looking straight a head rather than down, and was literally hanging on his lumbar spine in extension. It was painful to watch. Meanwhile all the trainer was doing was looking at his wrist watch completely disinterested, counting down the seconds blurting out things like “good, only a few more seconds.  Keep it up!”

There was no effort whatsoever to correct form.  He gave no kinesthetic feedback with his hands nor looked like he could care less that the client was completely butchering the exercise.

Sad.

Compare that to what I would have done, and what I advocate ALL trainers do:  GET YOUR HANDS ON THEM!!!!!!!!  Or, to be less creepy……use more tactile cuing.

  • Gently tap the stomach to get them to engage their anterior core.
  • Gently tap the glutes to get them to fire and to promote more posterior pelvic tilt.
  • Gently push down on the mid-back to get them into more of a neutral spinal position.
  • Tell them to tuck their chin.  If they don’t understand, use your hands to put them in the position you want them in.
  • In the end, be PROACTIVE.  COACH YOUR CLIENTS!!!!!!

Of course, and this goes without saying, it takes practice and experience to learn how to coach people.  Even more time to get comfortable enough to put your hands on them and build a rapport with them to get to that point.

Not too long ago, I had a distance coaching client come to Cressey Performance for an in-house assessment, and one of the things he complimented me most on was the fact that I was very hands on with him.  Here’s an email he sent to me a few days afterwards:

One of my pet peeves as a physician is when I see a patient who has been “examined” by another doctor and the patient tells me that previously their doc sat behind his desk for the entire exam and never touched the patient. Unbelievable but it happens all the time to patients I see.

Kudos to you because you were very hands on (appropriately) in our training session. I think touch by the trainer (and ART and massage count here too) is as important for trainers to do as it is for physicians.

Just some positive feedback on one aspect of our session that you nailed.

I think a lot of trainers are unaware or afraid to touch their clients – and there are a minority of them who don’t like/want to be touched – but the majority of us are ‘tactophiles.’ Meaning, a large part of how we learn is through touch.

To help elucidate more on the topic, I leave you with a TED talk that my client sent me by Abraham Verghese which I found hit the nail on the head.

 

CategoriesUncategorized

Coaching Etiquette: The Grey Area of the Commercial Gym Setting

I’m lucky that I live in a strength and conditioning bubble that allows me the ability (and luxury) to control pretty much everything around me.  With the exception of the music – which is a never ending battle of techno vs. rap vs. country vs. metal vs. Katy Perry my ears are bleeding – as a coach and part-owner of my own facility I have a large say in the everyday shenanigans (for lack of a better term) that goes down.

Between myself, the other two coaches (Eric Cressey and Chris Howard), and our interns, every warm-up drill, every sprint drill, every exercise, every set and rep, EVERY PROGRAM is supervised – meticulously. While I don’t want to sound like I’m blowing sunshine up our own ass – although that’s exactly what I’m doing – seemingly, we’re doing something right, and I like to think we’re doing our part in cementing proper exercise habits and techniques along the way.

One of the best compliments we can receive as a staff is when other fitness professionals stop by to observe and they go out of their way to commend us on how well coached our athletes and clients are.

It happens all the time.  And I’m proud of that fact.

People squat to proper depth; their deadlifts don’t make my spine start hyperventilating; they know how to perform a push-up correctly; they know that a chin-up really means sternum-up; there’s absolutely no cell phones allowed on the gym floor; and there’s certainly no curling in the squat rack.  Unless your last name rhymes with Smeshshmentilore. In that case, it’s totally pimp.

Like I said, I live in a pretty sweet bubble where I can control things, and people, more often than not, do things right….and get strong and swole to boot.

And then, I go to a commercial gym, and I’m immediately reminded how much I want to throw an ax into my face.

Now, before I continue, let me just say that I’ve been trying to make more of a concerted effort to stop drinking the haterade.

Busting on commercial gyms is easy, and in a lot of ways played out. It serves no purpose than to feed the fire and make me come across as kind of douchey.  Besides, not all commercial gyms are created equal, and I know of plenty who do it right (ahem, Dean Somerset), actually take some pride in their craft, and go out of their way to actually help their members and demonstrate that they care for their well-being.  In my experience, however, those are few and far between.

Because I live in the city, I have easy access to numerous commercial gyms.  As such, on the off chance that I don’t go into CP on any given day – like this past Tuesday for instance – it makes it convenient to still get a lift in.

It’s inevitable that I’m going to see stupid stuff while I’m there.  I’m prepared for that.  There’s the woman who hangs upside down off the bars and then proceeds to perform some sort of core training/circus act. There’s the guy performing 1-legged DB lateral raises – off a BOSU ball.  And there’s the two meat-heads performing 57 variations of chest presses.

As a coach I can’t help myself but observe. It’s ingrained in me. Still, I realize that (most) people don’t know any better, and in any event, at least they’re doing something. I just shrug it off, turn up my iPod, and move on with my life.

It’s when I watch some of the trainers in action that I get furious. Half the time, I feel as if the client would be better off taking their money and flushing it down the toilet.

Almost always, technique is just AWFUL! I don’t care who you are, or how many letters you have next to your name, if your client is deadlifting with a rounded back, and you don’t correct it,  you lose all credibility in my eyes.

I watched one trainer actually demonstrate with a rounded back, and then proceed to allow his client to do the same. Encouraging him along the way.

Moreover, I watched a female trainer take her female client through an entire session using nothing heavier than a ten lb dumbbell. Jesus, I’m willing ot bet the woman’s purse is heavier than ten lbs!

Really?  10 lbs?

I don’t know, maybe they were training for the National Paper Weight Carrying championship.  Specificity, right?

Or what about this exchange I overhead from a female TRAINER getting trained from her male counterpart.

Dude Trainer (putting her on the Smith Machine to perform RDLs):  Okay, so now we’re going to target the medial hamstring.

***I have no idea how performing RDLs in the Smith Machine somehow targets the medial hamstring. Whatever.

Female Trainer:  okay, so what are we going to do after this?

Dude Trainer:  Walking lunges

Female Trainer:  You mean, with weight?

Unbelievable. I wanted nothing more than to turn around and scream…….”YES, with weight!!”

But I didn’t, of course.  It wasn’t my place to do so.

When I got home that afternoon, I posted a ‘status’ update on my Facebook Wall describing the above exchange, and someone responded with:

How do you feel about critiquing people? Especially because of your expertise in the field?

To which I replied:

I don’t offer ANY unsolicited advice when I train at commercial gyms. I get asked questions all the time, and when that happens, I’m all for giving my opinion. Of course, as a coach, I can’t help but observe (and shake my head sometimes), but I’d NEVER go out of my way to openly chastise someone. Especially another trainer.

This isn’t to say I’ve never helped someone out. On numerous occasions I’ve been approached by other patrons, and was more than willing to offer some insight or words of encouragement.  Several times, I’ve actually coached people through their deadlifts or squats.  But then again, they asked.  It’s not like I walked up to them with an “holier than thou” attitude and started drilling them.

Sure, there’s ways to be subtle, especially if it looks like someone is going to break their back in half……

But it brings up an interesting conversation:  what’s crossing the line?

When is it acceptable to step in and offer unsolicited advice?  For me, it’s a VERY grey area, and something that’s more or less a case-by-case scenario.

What are you thoughts?  I’d be interested in hearing them.

CategoriesUncategorized

Shatterproof Your Spine

In an industry that’s inundated with movers and shakers promoting their watered down products, it’s always refreshing to have the opportunity to promote something I feel will help a lot of people. Back in 2009 (maybe it was 2010), fellow colleague John Izzo asked if I’d be willing to watch his DVD, Shatterproof Spine.

As the name suggests, it covers the spine (more specifically, lower back pain) and highlights a workshop that John did with a number of trainers at the facility he used to manage back in the day.

Note:  he now OWNS his own facility.

What I liked best was that John mixed the perfect formula of science/research and combined it with the perfect blend of practical knowledge into an easy to follow, easy to assimilate format.  Truth be told, he left no stone unturned covering topics such as assessment, corrective exercise for for low back health, proper posture positioning, understanding the role of fatigue as it relates to core strengthening, and much much more.

All told, I loved it, and it’s consistently one of the more popular DVDs that’s “borrowed” out of our Cressey Performance Resource Library.

Thing is, you can’t purchase the DVD anymore – it’s sold out (which should tell you something).  As such, John has decided to re-release Shatterproof Spine as an instant download, so you can watch it anywhere at any time.

Reciprocally, while the product alone is outstanding, John has “sweetened” the pot by also including a couple of  incentives:

5 Practical Drills to Identify Low Back Pain Sufferers – The book is complete with some applicable drills that John uses with his general population clients to help better understand which direction to take his programming, and also serves as a nice adjunct to his screening process.

Eye of the Trainer – Video download along the same lines of using certain exercises as observational assessments and helping trainers plan accordingly with their exercise programs.

Combined, this is a fantastic resource for any personal trainer out there looking to take his or her craft to the next level, and separate themselves from the masses.

To that end, I wanted to share an interview I did with John highlighting the release of Shatterproof Spine. In an industry that is notorious for less than exemplary practices, John is one of the rare few who “gets it,” and is recognized as one of the leaders in personal training standards.

Enjoy!

TG: John, lets get the particulars out of the way.  For those who may not be familiar with you or your work, can you give my readers the Cliff Notes version?  Where are you located? What’s your background? What’s the main demographic that you work with?  Do you like walks on the beach?

John Izzo:  Thanks for having me Tony. Here is the gist of Izzo…I am a personal trainer located in Manchester, CT about 15 minutes away from Hartford. Years ago, I thought I wanted to be a strength coach….so I focused my attention on young athletes in a commerical gym setting. Didn’t work out. Being inside a commerical gym, every kid that called himself an “Athlete” wanted to train like a bodybuilder.

Sooner than later, I was getting more and more general population clients walking up to me looking for directions to their goals: better health, losing fat, and getting stronger. They were seeing what I was doing with many of the younger guys and thought that I can help them out. Well….I was able to and soon over  90% of my clientele were “normal” Joe’s and Jane’s looking for better function. Training younger athletes started to dwindle down and I turned my attention to helping people improve everyday performance. This was back around 2002. Around 2007, I came to the realization that I was a personal trainer–not a strength coach

Through the years, I found myself in management running the day to day operations; outfitting facilities, and balancing budgets. Thinking I can turn my back on personal training and make more money in management, I found out that I was wrong. Managing others is a bitch. You try to get everyone on  the same page–same thought process as yours–but its never easy. As a gym manger, you are listening to people bitch and moan about changing channels on the TVs; music volume, someones hygiene on the treadmill, or trainers having sex outside. (Yes, that is a true story and guess who was the one that had to knock on the car window?)

TG:  Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh snap. BOM CHICKA BOM BOM.  Okay, sorry.  You were saying……

JI: Anyways….my love to train others soon won. I returned back to full-time training in 2008. I opened my own facility in 2010 and it is mainly a one-on-one private training studio. I do teach group strength classes, but my love shines in one on one. That is where I feel I am a coach.

TG: Even though you and I have never met, we’ve exchanged several emails throughout the years, and I’m always amazed at just how “real” you are, never hesitating to call BS on anyone or anything. This is your chance to sound off.  You and I both know that the fitness industry can be a circus – at best.  What are some of the things, as of late, that really get your goat?

JI:  Oh boy…are trying to get me in trouble…? The truth is, its not that I enjoy calling BS on anyone, I just feel that any good, honest adult should. I truly have a love for what I do, what you do, and what many fit pro’s do. I feel sometimes the industry is tainted with people that don’t belong here.  I ‘ll put it to you this way…I know you are a big movie buff. Remember that scene in “Behind Enemy Lines” with Owen Wilson? That is one of my Top 10 best movies, BTW.

Anyway, remember the scene when the evil admiral was dead-against the US Marines going in to save Owen Wilson? Remember when the Marine captain was going over the Intel with his team on the deck and then the admiral showed up with some “French troops”? The admiral stated that the French troops “would be going in for the extraction”. Those guys didn’t belong there! Those guys had ZERO attachment to our guy down behind enemy lines! They didn’t care about our man. They were not going to give 110% effort, because there was no passion for Owen Wilson!

Well, that’s how I feel about alot of the guys that turn personal trainers’ attention away from serving the client and make them focus on making money. They don’t belong in our industry. They know what they are doing. They are feeding on a fear or scarcity that young, under-developed trainers have. And to me, they continue to hurt the industry—not help it.

TG: Okay, lets talk Shatterproof Spine. What was the impetus behind making this product?

JI: Around 2008, I was working with alot of golfers (still do). Alot of these guys were working at the investment firms, private business, or playing bridge all day and then wanted to hit the course. Well, many of them were having major back pain and it was affecting their swing.

If you can’t swing, you can’t play golf. If you suck at golf, no one is going to ask you to meet them for 8:30am tee off.

So, I went to work researching Dr. Stuart McGill and Shirley Sahrmann’s books. The info I found was fascinating and once I put it to practice with my golfers, they began to tell me how their backs felt better. As a trainer, you have to realize that everyone knows someone that has some sort of low back pain. Some people hide it, some people disregard it, and some people take medicine or have surgery for it.

The job of the trainer is to help people alleviate the symptoms of low back pain and restore optimal function. When it came time for me to teach a workshop for new trainers, I put together a slide-show that would encompass everything I had learned from the authors, along with my own findings–including videos with my golfers. The participants in the workshop were amazed at how much help they can provide (as trainers) to their clients simply by designing exercise programs more carefully and utilizing the drills in the video.

TG: On that front,  what do you feel are the biggest mistakes trainers and coaches make with regards to working with clients who suffer from acute or chronic lower back pain?

JI: Mistake #1: Trainers ignore client’s complaints of low back pain. Personal trainers tend to ignore the small, subtle comments people make about low back pain and continue on with a strength training program. Or they tend to think a plank will fix everything. These trainers need to research more about mechanical low back pain and possibly learn the benefits of massage therapy, ART, and corrective exercise.

Mistake #2: Trainers shy away from giving clients challenging workouts because of low back issues. It is a double edged sword. New trainers–especially–tend to give clients very subtle, boring isometric exercises or tubing exercise that really make a client want to gag and leave

 

Truth is, most people that suffer from low back pain are probably overweight, sedentary, and lack adequate core strength. Trainers tend to be “too careful” because they don’t know how to approach and design an exercise program that can include drills to strengthen the core and relieve low back tightness, improve hip mobility, and add flexibility. Hence, they do nothing and the client gets nothing.

TG:  Great points on both fronts John.  Elevator Pitch:  who will benefit most from this product?

JI: Shatterproof Spine, Eye of the Trainer, and 5 Practical Drills eBook are really designed with the personal trainer or strength coach in mind. That’s not to say that your average exerciser can’t benefit from the drills demonstrated in the hands-on portion of the workshop.

TG:  Thanks John.  For those interested in more information on John (and his products), visit his site HERE. In addition, for those interested in Shatterproof Spine, what are you waiting for GO!!!

—-> Shatterproof Spine <—-

 
CategoriesUncategorized

2011 Bits of Awesomeness: Part II

In keeping with the same theme as yesterday, today I’m going to share the remaining top posts/articles from 2011 on TonyGentilcore.com that, for one reason or another, were the most popular.

For those who missed the first part, click HERE.

Guess What:  You’re Not an Elite Athlete

This was a post that struck a chord with me because, well, people need to understand that they’re not as advanced as they think they are. Don’t get me wrong:  I want people to train with some intensity and purpose.  But at the same time people need to take a step back into reality and understand they’re not on the same level as an Olympic athlete.

What’s the Real Key to Fat Loss?

With the New Year right around the corner, there’s no doubt we’re going to be inundated with infomercials, advertisements, and god knows what telling us how “x”  fad diet or “y” exercise gizmo is the key to unlocking your body’s potential.  The truth of the matter is, though, stepping away from the cookie jar and actually following the advice in this post will probably be more effective in the long run. Not to mention save you three easy payments of $99.

How to Set Up to Deadlift Properly

This was the most recent post of the bunch, but the amount of people who responded and the feedback I received easily made this one of the most popular of 2011.

Taking a risk and going a little out of my comfort zone, this was my first attempt at vlogging (video blogging).  Sure, there were times where it seemed like I was fumbling around like a teenager trying to unclasp his first bra, but all told, I wasn’t too shabby – especially considering I did it in one take!

Look for more of the same in 2012.

Who Ever Said Lifting Things Ain’t Cardio….

I never quite understand why it is people are so obsessed with their “cardio.” Of course, there are a million and one health benefits, and I’d never dissuade anyone from getting in exercise – regardless of their chosen mode.

But, come on peeps:  who says you HAVE to be on a treadmill or elliptical trainer in order to hit your “cardio” quota for the day?

Regression <—-> Progression

I think the opening paragraph to this post says it all:

As trainers and coaches, I think we often get too carried away with our programming to the point where we’re more concerned with impressing our clients with bells and whistles than actually getting them healthier.

I can say – unabashedly – that I’m not perfect and neither are the programs that I write. Sometimes I hit the nail on the head, and I come across like a program writing ninja.  At other times, not so much.

That notwithstanding, having the ability to REGRESS an exercise is an act in progression. Confused? Just click the link for the love of god!!!!!

Top Exercises For the Rotator Cuff

Given we train a lot of valuable arms at Cressey Performance, it only makes sense that I’d write a post here and there on some of the exercises we incorporate to improve or maintain shoulder health.

And this post isn’t just limited to athletes either. We use a lot of these same exercises with our general population clientele as well.

I know, I know:  it’s a boring topic and watching grass grow would probably be more exciting, but I promise it’s short and sweet, and will undoubtedly help a few people out there reading.

And that about wraps it up!  Again, thanks to all of you who supported the site in the past year, and here’s hoping that 2012 will be just as informative (and entertaining) as 2011.

 

 

CategoriesUncategorized

How to Get Better at Writing Programs

Q:  What are the best resources for getting awesome at writing programs? Besides CPT textbooks?

I remember watching a movie a few years ago (okay, a lot of years ago) – I think it was either Finding Forrester or Dead Poets Society (or something that was equally as likely to lower my sperm count) – where one of the main characters, a writer no less, asked his mentor a simple question:  “How do I get better at writing?”

“Simple,” the man replied, “you write.”

In much the same way, the best way to get better at writing programs is to……wait for it……….wait for it………………..WRITE PROGRAMS!

Sorry if you were waiting for something profound, but really, it’s as simple as that.

Lets be real for a quick minute.  There are plenty of internet gurus out there, living in their mother’s basement, with over 10,000 posts on 17 different forums who can quote the likes of Mel Siff, Yuri Verkoshansky, Vladmir Zatisiorsky, Tudor Bompa – or anyone else who’s a lot smarter than any of us will ever be – like it’s their job.  Guess how many people these gurus train?  I’m willing to bet, zip, zero, nada.

Taking it a step further, and maybe throwing a little tough love your way, you can have all the book smarts in the world, and could very well be a walking encyclopedia of knowledge bombs, but if you’re unable to actually apply that knowledge to an actual real-live person, then what’s the point?

Reading about program design is a helluva lot different than actually siting down and writing a well-thought out, and structured program.  You know, much like reading about driving a car is much different than actually sitting behind the steering wheel for the first time; or how reading about asking a girl out is a walk in the park compared to the real thing.

*enters time machine, and travels back to 1997*

Me:  Hey

Girl:  Hi

Me:  Okay, good talking to you.

In all three scenarios, until you actually do it……a lot, it won’t get any easier.   And, if you ask me (and you did), that’s the quintessence of program design – just doing it.

Which isn’t to say, that there aren’t any valuable resources out there that can help.   There are plenty.  Some that quickly come to mind would be things like Mike Boyle’s Functional Strength Coach series vol I, II, and more recently III, Mark Rippetoe’s Practical Programming, Charlie Weingroff’s Training=Rehab, Rehab=Training dvd set, or even Assess and Correct will undoubtedly lay down a solid foundation – a blueprint if you will – for designing programs.

Even still, none of the above, alone, are going to end up being the panacea of program writing ninja awesomeness – because writing (good) programs doesn’t come down to ONE book you read, or ONE dvd you watched.  It comes down to experience.

If you had access to my laptop right now, you’d easily find 500+ programs I’ve written over the years – some good, some bad, but mostly good (at least I think so).

I look at programs I wrote when I first started in this industry, and I can’t help but wonder: what the hell was I thinking?????  I feel like I should go to an AA meeting for bad program writing.

Hello, my name is Tony Gentilcore, and yes, there was a time where I used to write leg extensions into my programs.

At the time, I’m sure I thought I was the mack daddy, but in reality, I just didn’t have much experience.  Since then, I’ve worked with everyone from professional athletes to 85 year-old grandmothers (and everything in between, including teenage girls, soccer moms, and weekend warriors).

I’ve worked with fat-loss clients, powerlifters, people with chronic back pain, obese clients, and have even trained several women through their pregnancies.  All of which had different goals, needs, injuries, weaknesses, strengths, imbalances, you name it.  Either way you slice it, that’s a lot of programming, and I feel fairly confident that I could write a program for a one-armed Centaur coming off an ACL injury if I had to.

So, in closing, here’s what I’d do if I were you.  Sure, you could buy any one of the resources I mentioned above, you could read blogs, articles, books, whatever.  All of those will definitely help.  Please, read to your hearts content.

But the real dealski is this:  just practice writing programs.  Ideally, you’d be writing programs for actual clients, but you could just make up crazy scenarios and see how you would program for each one.  We do this all the time with our interns, and they love it.

Case in point:  Twenty-four year old male, former college football player, just diagnosed with a disc bulge at L4, AND has a sports hernia.  What would you do?

Time to get started.

CategoriesUncategorized

You Can Always Train Around an Injury

Last week, during our staff in-service training, I took it upon myself to discuss programming with our batch of new interns.  Specifically, my goal was to give them a hypothetical situation and see whether or not they could come up with an effective training strategy.

In doing so, my thought process was this:  While assessment, functional anatomy, and understanding movement is kind of a big deal; having the ability to effectively write a program based off of those findings is just as equally important.  Essentially, given “x” scenario and “y” limitations/goals/needs, can you come up with a “z” program that’s not only safe, but will get results?

You’d be surprised at how many trainers and coaches out there can crank up the geek factor and quote research verbatim, or brag about how many books they’ve read, or even how many followers they have on their Youtube page, but when push comes to shove – write really, really, really sub-par programs.  And I’m being really nice when I say that.

Moreover, as I noted with the guys – and as counterintuitve as it may sound – it’s rare when I write a program and it’s followed without any interruption, 100% through.  Stuff happens and life gets in the way sometimes: long work hours, cars break down, girlfriend’s break up with you (bitch!), kids are up all night, Little League games, paper is due, tweaked shoulders, lower back is pissed, explosive diarrhea, not enough sleep, so on and so forth.

At the expense of over-generalizing, the mark of a good coach and trainer is being able to program on the fly when the unexpected happens.  If your athlete or client walks in on any given day, and he or she twisted their ankle during practice yesterday; or, quite simply, they’re just out of juice, and it just so happens they have a heavy squat session that day, can you still give them a training effect even though you may have to change up the programming?

The answer, I hope, is a resounding yes.

Using an example from the in-service talk, how would you program for a 15 year-old pitcher who was just diagnosed with spondylolisthesis (and is in a back brace), but also has a “lax” (loose) shoulder on his throwing side?

Similarly, how would you program for a 40 year-old fat-loss client with a sports hernia?

[Cue Jeopardy theme music]

The point of this post isn’t to go into specific details on what those programs should entail (although I could do that in the future).  Rather, the point I’m trying to make is that you can always train around an injury……always.

And, for the record, hang-nails aren’t an injury.  Nor is a headache for that matter!

When writing programs for clients, try not to think about what they can’t do – but what they CAN do. 

Doing so will make writing programs infinitely easier and will undoubtedly make you a better coach.

Left arm is in a cast?  Well, thankfully, you still have a right arm you can train, not to mention an entire lower body.

Shoulder hurts?  Stop benching three times per week for the love of god!, incorporate more close-chain (push-ups) and horizontal rowing variations, hammer scapular stability/t-spine mobility, front squat instead of back squats, and pick up a foam roller every now and then.

Tweaked lower back?  Nix any axial loading for the near future, hammer single leg stuff and core stability, get some aggressive soft tissie work, and you’ll be back in no time.

Obviously, these are just simple examples and certainly not exhaustive, but I’m sure most get the idea.

And for those of you who have clients that bitch and whine no matter what you do with them, have them watch this video and see if they still can come up with excuses:

Outside of ebola, not training isn’t an option in my book.