CategoriesCorrective Exercise Program Design

Never Question Your Exercise Selection Again

I’ve been a fan of “offset” loading for a number of years now. Without getting too deep in the weeds on what offset loading is and what the benefits are…

…it’s when you either stagger your foot or hand position on certain exercises OR you load an exercise a certain way (how you hold a DB or KB) to target or overload a specific limb or joint.

It has implications for both rehab (helping people to move better) AND for getting them jacked (self-explanatory). My good friend and Boston-based colleague, Dr. Michelle Boland, elaborates more on offset loading and how you can use it to your clients’ advantage below.

Enjoy.

Copyright: lightfieldstudios

Never Question Your Exercise Selection Again

I speak from personal experience, as a personal trainer, when I say it can be challenging to navigate through all of your client’s aches, pains, and movement hiccups.

It has caused me some serious headaches in the past. 

In a social media guru filled world, there is so much information about magic tricks to FIX your clients movement struggles. These magic tricks are typically called corrective exercises. 

We then think we are Harry Potter and build our client’s sessions and training programs around corrective exercises, making the perfect potion to have our clients move perfectly. 

Harry Potter cosplay concept. Moment of magic wand action

BUT, what ends up happening is that our FITNESS TRAINING sessions start feeling like a bad physical therapy experience. 

  • Our clients are not TRULY becoming better movers. 
  • Our clients are not TRULY gaining muscle or looking better in a bathing suit.  

They are in no man’s land, not getting results, and being held back from their physical potential.

. Not to worry though!

(Check out THIS blog post to learn more about the mental barriers that may be holding your clients back.)

I am here to help!! Because I made these same mistakes and learned from them!

I am going to provide you with four simple rules to make sure your clients are still achieving their fitness goals while ALSO becoming better movers.  

These rules will provide you the ability to build a training program and select exercises without having to choose between a simple corrective exercise that is targeted to help someone move better and a complex lift that is targeted to get them jacked. 

Most coaches’ have go-to exercises for getting jacked and strong which is great but these same exercises can also create some movement restrictions due to the high levels of tension they require, such as a barbell back squat or bench press.

Sports young woman doing exercises with barbell on bench in the gym. Bar Bench Press

However, simple considerations to where the weight is placed, the type of grip, and feet position (stance) can be changed during these typical go-to exercises to prevent some of the possible movement restrictions. 

Below, I am going to provide you with simple, practical programming strategies that will allow you to both load AND improve movement quality for all ages and training levels.

The four simple rules allow you to make small tweaks to exercises in order to help people move better, WHILE still getting 80-90% of a training effect from the loading. In other words, we can still get our clients strong and powerful without turning them into walking refrigerators. 

(If you prefer to watch instead of read, Check out my video presentation of these Rules HERE.)

Rule 1. Choose Offset Positions

Offset positions include separating hands and feet from front to back. These positions will allow your clients to feel stable, so they can still try hard, without robbing them of their rotational abilities along the way.

Offset positions benefits include:

  • Improving rotational abilities from separating hands and feet front to back which helps to turn people’s hips and chests
  • Initiates alternating positions of the hips with one hip more extended and the opposite hip more flexed
  • Provides greater variation in your exercise selection especially for unilateral loading
  • Provides more options to add different weight shifting which helps to create unilateral loading challenges 

Offset positions include:

1. The Staggered Stance position is standing with both feet flat on the ground and split front to back. Feet are typically hip-width apart from side to side and a half foot distance apart front to back, but the distance can be altered in relation to base of support needs. So, if your client has a difficult time balancing in this position, move their feet wider side to side. The position initiates alternating positions of the pelvis with one hip more extended and the opposite hip more flexed and can also create rotation towards the back side leg.

The Staggered Stance position can also be challenged with a variation called the ‘Loaded Step’. The Loaded Step variation is a weight distribution backwards onto the back leg. The center of mass should be about 80% on the back leg and 20% on the front leg. 

Loaded Step benefits:

  • This position variation encourages rotation through the hips and chest
  • You can coach it to be a knee or hip dominant exercise (see examples below)
  • You will feel LOTS of inner thigh (adductor), glute, and hamstring on the back leg
  • It supports hip mobility and eases tight posterior hips by allowing someone to feel a stretch in the back leg posterior hip, but try to avoid squeezing glutes…I know how tempting this can be 😉 
  • It encourages more single leg loading or shared loading

2. The Split Stance position is standing with a front to back separation of the legs and includes a reduction of foot contact on the back side foot. The leg separation is wider front to back than the Staggered Stance position and there is removal of full foot contact on the back side foot, such that the back heel is off the ground and the weight is rolled onto the ball of the foot. The position mimics (not equivalent to) a top of a split squat exercise.

The Staggered Stance position can be challenged with a variation called the ‘Kickstand  Step’. The Kickstand Step Split Stance variation position is a body weight distribution forwards on the front leg with supportive, light weight on the back toe. Body weight distribution should be about 80% on the front leg and 20% on the back leg. 

Kickstand Step Consideration and Benefits:

  • This position variation encourages more single leg loading 
  • This position variation encourages rotation through the hips and chest
  • You will feel LOTS of inner thigh (adductor), glute, and hamstring on the front leg

You can challenge the position with where you hold the weight:

Holding Weight With Two Hands Will Limit Rotation

 

Holding Weight In Opposite Hand As Front Leg Will Encourage More Rotation

 

3. The Staggered Hand position is a front to back separation of the hands on the ground. Staggering the hands can help with creating alternating movement in the ribcage. The side of the ribs of the back hand will be lower and the upper body will be more likely to be rotated in that direction. You can also help target more side abdominal wall muscles by staggering the hands. 

Check out some exercises you can start incorporating today with offset positions:  

Contralateral Loaded Step Hip Hinge

 

Loaded Step Ski Erg

 

1-Arm Kickstand KB Swing

 

Staggered KB Hang Clean

 

Offset Pushup

 

Salamander Pushups For Staggered Hands

 

Rule 2. Choose Offset Loading

Offset loading involves having your clients hold weight in less than obvious places that will challenge them in different ways. For example, instead of putting a barbell on your back, hold the barbell between your elbows (see Zercher hold below).

Holding a weight in the front will help target more abdominal wall muscles with less low back issues (see Goblet hold below). Instead of holding a kettlebell with two hands, you can also hold it with one hand to create some unilateral loading challenges.  

Check out some exercises you can start incorporating today with offset loading:  

KB Goblet Split Squat

 

Contralateral 1-Arm KB Split Squat w/ Opposite Arm Reach

 

DB Zercher Split Squat

 

Alternating 1-Arm KB Deadlift

 

Rule 3. Alternate Grips

Alternating your grip on the weights can improve your client’s ability to rotate, making them super athletes while ALSO being able to pick up heavy things and put them down. Turning one hand into supination and the other hand into pronation causes the upper body to turn towards one side. 

Check out some exercises you can start incorporating today with alternating grips: 

Jefferson Split Squat

 

Alternating Grip Pull-Up

 

Rule 4. Reduce Tension When It Is Not Necessary

Have you ever had a client who picks up five pound dumbbells to do a bicep curl and acts like they are 60 pound dumbbells?

I sure have. 

Encourage clients to create tension and substantial effort WHEN THEY HAVE TO.

Other times, encourage them to back off a bit. Exercises that are not too demanding can encourage improvements to joint range of motion and movement quality IF they are performed with low tension, no squeezing, no death grips, or no breath holding. 

Your clients do not need to be squeezing all of their muscles, all of the time, to get a good workout. Low tension exercises can stretch tight areas and improve mobility. For example, the Loaded Step RDL can improve hip mobility and stretch the back side of the hip when it is performed with low weight and low levels of tension. 

Loaded Step RDL

 

A great start would be to select warm-up or cool-down exercises that can be performed with low tension!

QUICK Programming Tips To Incorporate These RULES:

  1. Combine: Every exercise within your training session include the above four rules
  2. Pair: Pair a heavy, bilateral lift with an exercise that incorporates the rules 
  3. Consider positions in your exercise selection process, to learn more click HERE. 

Summary

Incorporating offset positions, offset loading, and alternating grips into your exercise selection will help your clients gain some rotational abilities, gain hip and rib cage mobility, and add some excitement into their training while STILL allowing them to get strong.

To learn more, check out my EXERCISE SELECTION PROCESS which layers positions, fitness qualities, then individualized variations. Position selection is the foundation of my exercise selection and all the information included in this article about offset positions comes from my quick and concise Position Principles course. 

The Position Principles course will help you to avoid leaving behind the greatest factor in getting your clients and athletes to move better. The course provides clarity on positional biomechanics, clarity on terminology within the fitness industry for exercises, a downloadable programming template, and easy steps to organize your program design. After this course, you will never question your exercise selection again.

If you have any comments or questions please feel free to email me at [email protected]. 

If you enjoyed the exercise videos in this article, check out the MBT Exercise Database for 1,200 more videos to use, embed within your programming, and level up your exercise selection game. 

Author: Dr. Michelle Boland

 

Categoriespersonal training Program Design

The Ultimate 5-Step Guide to Progressing a Client Workout

Last week I received an email from Jon Goodman. At first I thought he was going to extend an invite to me to come up to Toronto for a weekend of watching Jean Claude van Damme movies.

But that wasn’t the case.

Fingers crossed for next time.

Nope, instead Jon was curious if I’d be interested in him writing an article for my site highlighting his new & nifty (and FREE) program writing software for coaches.

Uh, hell yes!

Jon is notorious (in a good way) at giving away stuff that he could easily charge good money for. Not only that, there aren’t many people who have had as much positive influence on the industry as Jon…he continuously brings the tide up for everyone.

Check it out.

Copyright: dolgachov

The Ultimate 5-Step Guide to Progressing a Client Workout

Note From TG: Before I defer to Jon, let’s begin with this: It’s NOT by spotting someone like what’s pictured above. OMG this is one of my biggest gym pet peeves. Well that, and people who refuse to share equipment.1 I don’t know who the person is that gives the okay or thumbs up on all these registered images showcasing a trainer spotting their client this way, but they need to be fired. There’s got to be room in the National Defense Budget to fix this travesty, no?

Workout programs often last a month.

Then, a coach ‘changes it up’ for no reason other than it’s been four weeks.

This is wrong.

My programs don’t start and stop: They evolve.

Every four weeks I’ll review, assess, and adjust the program.

The goal’s to balance fun and progressive overload.

This article shares how I think about progressing workouts.

This is a picture of me in workout attire. I felt like one belonged here but have basically zero pictures of me training. So, here’s one of the few I have. It’s old. K, moving on.

Four-Week Program Assessments Are Based on 5 Questions:

  1. Exercise flow: Did anything not work?
  2. Stalling: Is anything important not progressing?
  3. Limitations: Is anything outside of our control affecting programming?
  4. Boredom: Is the client bored or do they hate anything?
  5. Moving forward: How should I progress the program for next month?

Next, I’ll show ya how I use these questions to evolve my own program.

My goal’s hypertrophy.

The program I’m doing three different workouts repeated twice a week for four weeks (24 total workouts).

The split:

  • Legs / shoulders
  • Chest / back
  • Arms / core

Let’s dig in:

To start, I’ll pull up my list of completed workouts using my free software for personal trainers, QuickCoach.Fit.

1. Exercise flow: Did anything not work?

BB Romanian Deadlifts (RDL’s) are performed on day 1. This thrashes my hamstrings.

Then, on day 2, I perform BB bent-over rows.

While I didn’t get hurt, the idea of loading heavy BB bent-over rows with sore hamstrings isn’t ideal.

The goal’s back training, not core stability.

With that in mind, I’ll switch the BB bent-over rows for a bench-supported DB row moving forward.

My previous plan (with bent over bb rows)    

Notice that the sets, reps, and all other variables (I use RPE) stay the same. When evolving a program, things like exercise selection / grip often change but stuff like sets, reps, order, tempo, etc. don’t.

Beyond that, the flow was good.

Moving on . . .

2. Stalling: Is anything important not progressing?

For each program, there’s 2-3 exercises I monitor progress on.

They’re usually representative large multi-joint movements.

I’m currently basing progression on two exercises:

  1. Incline BB Bench Press
  2. BB Romanian Deadlift

To check up on progress, I’ll pop open the Past Performance tab in QuickCoach:

I’ll then search for the exercise I want (BB Bench Press), and click on it to view performance.

Based on this it looks like progress is stalled.

But I also know that I was coming back from a layoff to begin this program so pushed the weights up quickly to start.

With that in mind, I’m not going to change anything for this phase.

The other key exercise in my routine was the BB Romanian Deadlift.

I’m also happy with the progress and will keep it in the program.

Four weeks isn’t a long time with fitness.

Changing it up too quickly is a mistake.

3. Limitations: Is anything outside of our control affecting programming?

With a 5-month year old baby, my time’s stretched.

To save time, I’m training at the community center around the corner.

A downside is that the DB’s max out at 55lbs––not heavy enough for conventional pressing. (#humblebrag)

Instead of a DB press, I’ll do higher-rep alternating DB presses to increase time under tension.

It’s not ideal but it’s necessary.

The right plan for a client should fit their life at that time, even if it’s not the Capital B-Best exercise.

Sub it in, and let’s move on…

4. Boredom: Is the client bored or do they hate anything?

As a trainer, your client is your boss.

Changing a workout because you’re bored isn’t OK.

Changing it because they’re bored is.

That, and sometimes client’s just hate certain things.

There’s usually a change you can make that’s just as good for the client’s goals that they hate less.

Here’s a few things I didn’t like in my previous training phase:

  • Cable ab crunches feel weird. So I replaced them with ab wheel rollouts.
  • Russian twists drag on for me. So I replaced them with side planks.
  • I switched cables for DB’s for chest flyes as noted in a comment I had sent to myself early on in the previous program.

5. Moving forward: How should I progress the program for next month?

I’m following a four week undulating periodization plan.

Week one is a deload. Then volume increases followed by intensity ramp up.

  • Week 1 I’ll do 3 sets at an RPE of 8 (Using the Borg CR10 scale).
  • Week 2 I’ll bump up to 4 sets.
  • Week 3 I’ll increase RPE to 9.
  • Week 4 I’ll increase RPE to 9.5.

Then I’ll deload again. And repeat the process.

I’ve found this to be a great way to progress without crushing myself.

If my life revolved around training and I didn’t have a family or business to run, I might be more aggressive.

For now, the deload week each month helps keep my body in check.

24 Workouts Cued Up and Ready To Go

Here’s how it looks on my side as a coach.

From this page, I can reorder and edit anything and it’ll change in real time on the client view.

Then when it’s time to train, I pop open the client link on my phone, click the next plan, and I’m ready to go.

Here’s what the client (in this case: me) sees:

Go Deeper: Watch me share my screen as I build this program in real time using QuickCoach (19 mins)

I recorded myself building this entire phase of programming in real time, exercise by exercise, using QuickCoach.

If you’re interested in watching it and hearing me talk through my thinking it as I go

 

Elevate Your Brand With Professional Coaching Software Today

All screenshots from this email showcase QuickCoach in action, which you can use 100% free with your clients.

QC is professional coaching software, built by coaches, for coaches.

It works for fitness, nutrition, habits, physiotherapy, chiropractic, and running––both in-person and online.

Join 14,000+ others and register your free account at www.QuickCoach.Fit to start playing around.

Also, as crazy as it is, I think that this is the first time that I’ve ever shared my own workout and thought process behind it.

Wild.

Does this officially make me an Internet Fitness Bro?

Do I need to start posting pics of me half-nekkid?

I have so many questions . . .

Anyway, thanks for letting me share my thought process with you. Hope it helps.

About the Author

Jonathan Goodman has 17yrs in the fitness industry and is the author of Ignite the Fire (1,000+ 5⭐ ). His current project is free software for fitness and nutrition coaches: QuickCoach.Fit. Follow him (along with 100k other trainers) on his Personal Instagram where he is very active.

 

CategoriesProgram Design Strength Training

Factors to Consider When Training Around Pain

Getting hurt is a drag.

It’s even more of a drag when you’re someone who’s used to being active and an injury prevents you from training consistently or prevents you from training as hard as you’d like.

There’s generally two approaches many people take:

1. Complete rest.
2. Conjure up their inner Jason Bourne and grit their teeth through it.

Neither is ideal in my opinion.

I take the stand that injury (or training with a degree of pain <— sometimes) is inevitable. As I’ve jokingly (but not really) stated in the past…

…”Lifting weights isn’t supposed to tickle.”

Pain, pain science, and how to train around pain is a very complex and nuanced topic. This is a blog post, not a dissertation.

To that end, today I want to take some time to discuss a few strategies on how to train around pain that don’t revolve around the extremes: Sitting on the couch watching Netflix or plotting to take down Treadstone.

Full Disclosure: Much of what I’ll cover below is in Dr. Michael Mash’s online resource, Barbell Rehab, which is currently my new spirit animal of favorite continuing education courses.

Copyright: yacobchuk / 123RF Stock Photo

Factors to Consider When Training Around Pain

Let’s begin with the definition of “pain.”

Pain

/pān/

noun

1. A localized or generalized unpleasant bodily sensation or complex of sensations that causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress and typically results from bodily disorder (such as injury or disease).2

2. That feeling you get when your significant other wants to talk about feelings or what your eyes see when you watch someone perform 117 kipping pull-ups.3

More precisely we often associate pain with actual damage. However, pain doesn’t always have to gravitate around that denominator.

Pain can also be equated to a smoke alarm alerting the body that something is awry:

  • Hey, bicep tendon here: I think I’m close to snapping, can you tone it down on the bench dips?
  • Hey, knee cap here: I’m about to end up on the other side of the room if you don’t fix your squat.
  • Look out – a ninja!

More to the point, pain is multi-faceted and can manifest a plethora of ways, which is why it’s imperative to educate people that it isn’t always centered around a physical injury.

Take for instance this cup analogy highlighted in a 2016 study from the medical journal Physiotherapy: Theory & Practice titled “The clinical application of teaching people about pain” by Louw, et al.

Pain is like a cup, and there are many factors that can fill it up.

Moreover, you can address people’s pain in one of two ways:

1. Reduce the contents of the cup.

2. Make the cup bigger (via appropriately progressed strength training)

As Michael addresses in Barbell Rehab, there are several ways to build a framework to train around pain that don’t involve being passive, subjecting yourself to corrective exercise purgatory, or in a worse case scenario…surgery.

1. Technique Audit

When someone comes to CORE for an assessment with me and they go into great detail on how bench pressing bothers their shoulder(s), rather than spending 30 minutes assessing how much shoulder range of motion they have, waxing poetic on the myriad of drills they can perform to improve thoracic extension, and/or going into the weeds on diaphragmatic positional breathing mechanics I’ll instead do this really out-of-the-box thing where I’ll ask them to…

…wait for it.

…wait for it.

…here it comes.

…show me their bench press.

 

More times than not, all that’s needed is a subtle technique fix on their set-up and execution of the lift itself and their shoulder hates them less almost instantly.

This isn’t to say we’d ignore other factors like thoracic mobility and breathing mechanics altogether; especially of deficits exists. However, I’ve found that most people are less inclined to want to light their face on fire from corrective exercise boredom if I just cut to the crux of the issue at hand.

Their shitty technique.

2. Programming Audit

This is a point I remember Dr. Quinn Henoch of Juggernaut Training hammering home when I listened to him present a few years ago.

How often do you audit your programs?

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, the reason why you (or your clients) are hurt is because you were a bit overzealous with an exercise variation – or, more commonly, you were too aggressive with loading – and that that was the culprit of your’s (or their) low back pain…?

…and not because your left ankle lacked two degrees of dorsiflexion, or, I don’t know it was windy yesterday?

Load management (or lack of it) is the lowest hanging fruit we often overlook.

via GIPHY

Here’s an example of what I mean.

Using the same person above who’s shoulder bothers them when he/she benches: Let’s say they like to bench press 1x per week, on a Monday of course.

Like clockwork, the day after they bench, their shoulder feels like Johnny Lawrence used it for target practice with his fists.

It feels like that for a few days, dissipates, and then by the time the following bench day arrives it feels better and the same cycle continues.

A more cogent approach may be to spread out the same volume over TWO workouts rather than one.

Here’s what they normally do:

Monday: Bench Press: 6×5 @ 185 lb

(Total Tonnage = 5,550 lb)

Here’s what they should do:

Monday/Thursday: Bench Press: 3×5 @ 185

(Total Tonnage = 2,775 lb) x 2

NO MERCY!

3. Change Modifiable Factors

Pigging back on the above, when something hurts or is painful always, always, always look at volume/load first.

From there you can ascertain at what load does something hurt – what’s the symptom threshold? Find that and when you do, train just below it to build tolerance and resiliency. The result will be twofold:

1. You’ll be encouraging an actual training effect.

2. Eventually, you’ll surpass the original symptom threshold because you forced an adaptation.

An easy example here would be squats. If someone experiences knee pain at a certain depth – maybe at parallel or just below it – have him or her perform a box (or free) squat ABOVE that spot.

Likewise, maybe all that’s needed to make the squat less painful is to change the stance width, or degree of toeing out?

You can also tinker with bar position or even the tempo. The point is: Assuming we’ve ruled out anything nefarious, I’d rather someone keep squatting with a variation/tweak that reduces their symptoms dramatically than omit them altogether,

4. An Exorcism

But only as a last resort.

Categoriespersonal training Program Design

Why Attempting to Set PRs Every Week is F&*#!@# Stupid

Attempting to set a PR every single week is silly.

It’s an approach to training I have long advocated against (and a hill I will die on). Well, that and saying Sydney Bristow is the best character in television history…;o)4

Training to get stronger isn’t necessarily about hitting PR’s on the regular. In fact, if you break down the training programs that most really strong people follow, they’re only hitting an actual PR once, maybe twice per year. And that’s even a stretch.

Today’s guest post by personal trainer Lance Goyke (whom I first met back in the day when he was an intern turned employee at IFAST in Indianapolis) helps to shed light on why chasing weekly PRs likely isn’t going to do you any favors.

Copyright: ufabizphoto

Why Attempting to Set PRs Every Week is F&*#!@# Stupid

“PRs never look pretty.”

Well they could look pretty good, but most people don’t have the discipline for that kind of training.

If you’re the type of person who often has two weeks of awesome training followed by two weeks of remedial rehab, then it’s likely you spend too much time testing strength instead of building strength.

In this article, we’ll talk about strength, how it’s not quite what we think it is, and how striving for strength prevents you from actually building strength. I’ll give you a few examples of how biomechanics can change during max effort lifts, hopefully leaving you with a new, healthier, and more effective way to approach your training.

What is Strength? How Do We Measure It?

Strength is “the capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure”.

We measure it using the weight we lift in a training session, but that’s only an approximation of force production. And there are two types of forces: internal and external.

Internal forces sum to become an external force. Using deadlifting as an example, the calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and back muscles (internal forces) all combine into pressure through the feet (external force).

Internal forces combine into a single external force during deadlift

We mostly picture muscles and tendons producing forces, but the joints and ligaments do as well. Though bones and ligaments don’t shorten like muscles, they also don’t collapse under heavy loads.

Err, well, hopefully they don’t collapse. “Bend and not break” as they say!

I find it helpful to think of these bones and ligaments as really good isometric contracters, i.e., they maintain length even under load. It reminds me of hitching a deadlift or putting an Atlas stone in your lap. They won’t pick up the weight for you, but it sure is nice to have a short break in the middle of the rep.

Since muscle is the only thing we have that changes length and can actually move a weight, we should aim for more muscle force production.

But setting PRs isn’t about training muscles, it’s about lifting weight. And this has consequences.

Anatomy of a Personal Record

When attempting a (literal) max effort lift, there are two main factors that decide the outcome:

  • Mindset
  • Biomechanics

The strongest people in the gym are good at mindset: I will get this done at any cost. If you don’t think you can lift it, your brain puts the brakes on your muscles. You don’t have to be totally insane, but you do need to believe that it’s in the realm of possibility.

Biomechanics is harder to predict.

Even isolation exercises like lateral raises hardly occur in isolation. The intricate web of neurology means that moving one joint moves all the others.

During a PR attempt, your brain gives commands and listens for feedback. You might go into a bench press with the intention of keeping your shoulders set down, but when the weight slows to a near stop, your brains says, “BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES! SHRUG THE SHOULDERS! LIFT THE BUM!” And before you know it, you’re doing an Unsupported Decline Press from Shrug Position instead of a Bench Press.

We’ve all seen someone do this, but why does it happen?

Technique Changes During PR Attempts to Temporarily Increase Force Production

If the pecs, deltoids, lats, serratus anterior, and triceps can’t stabilize AND press the weight, a useful strategy is to shrug the shoulders, jamming the shoulder into the acromion process while stabilizing the rib cage and clavicle with the neck muscles. This not only removes stress from the primary muscle groups of the lift, but also subtly changes the length of these working muscles. If the pecs are getting weaker because they’re getting shorter, let’s just elevate the clavicle to lengthen them and our force production capability will return.

But this comes at a cost. The shoulder joint wears out, rotator cuff gets injured, and the neck stiffens. All for a temporary increase in weight lifted.

And it’s difficult to argue that you’re even getting stronger! Yes, you might lift more weight, but most of that came from passive tissues instead of muscle. Even if you don’t get injured, are you planning on training your glenoid labrum to lift more weight next time? I hope not.

This type of technique change works for testing the max weight you can lift, but it’s not building strength.

Learning Technique Consistency

When a lifter tests strength by compromising biomechanics every week, she never learns how to maintain technique under duress.

Undesired Response to Increased Intensiveness

With time and extreme discipline, however, technique stays pristine even in the most difficult sets:

Desired Response to Increased Intensiveness

Many moons ago, I was having trouble staying consistent with training. I wanted to lift, but I had this two-week cycle of feeling good vs. joint pain. I stayed “broken” until I became strict about periodizing my training intensity and maintaining technique during really heavy sets.

If your training oscillates between wonderful sessions and remedial sessions, learn to be more consistent with technique across all sets and remember to deload your training monthly.

Examples of How Technique Changes During Max Effort Attempts

To cement this idea as a reality, here are three more examples of how changes in technique can prevent you from building strength. These will increase in complexity as we go along.

Deadlifting with Hitching Into Lockout

There are three main ways to lock out a deadlift:

  • Squeeze glutes (good)
  • Squeeze the low back (bad)
  • Hitching (you do what you gotta do)

Using the glutes keeps the spine neutral. Using the low back muscles arches the lumbar spine, introducing tons of wear and tear.

Hitching a deadlift is when the lifter briefly rests the bar on the thighs while trying to lock out.

Here’s a timestamped video showing a clear hitch, though it’s difficult to nit pick when the weight is 937lbs (@ 6:12).

 

This has many advantages for lifting more weight:

  • Short “rest”
  • Squat knees underneath the weight for support
  • Shorten moment arm on glutes
  • Increase moment arm on quads

If you hitch to lock out your deadlift, you’re deloading the glutes and hamstrings.

Squatting with Forward Weight Shift

Shifting forward at the bottom of a full squat is a common compensation for squatting more weight. You see it a lot with Olympic weightlifting due to the mobility demands of the sport.

Here’s a timestamped video example (@ 2:58).

 

This does a few things to help the lifter:

  • Stretches the quads and calves, stimulating a strong reflex which helps straighten the knee
  • Short break time with the butt and hamstrings resting on the calves and ankles
  • Removes stress from the glutes and hamstrings
  • Helps maintain a vertical torso

The biggest long-term issues with this forward weight shift are that the lifter is more likely to experience knee overuse injuries, hip mobility limitations like butt wink, and inconsistent performance. The latter is an especially important topic in technique-intense Olympic weightlifting: if you only get six attempts at a meet, you don’t want to miss one because of technique.

Additionally, quad overuse often makes people feel persistent tightness. They search for quad stretches, perform some, then feel better for a few minutes until the tightness returns.

You can still get the stretch reflex benefit out of the bottom of the lift even when avoiding a forward shift. Sitting down and slightly backward to full depth stretches the quads and calves, but also increases the stretch on the glutes and hamstrings. This is one reason why posterior chain exercises like the Romanian deadlift and good mornings can improve your squat.

Bench Press with Torso Twist

Alright, I wanted to throw in one complicated scenario: twisting the torso on a bench press.

Up until now, all of our compensations have been pretty symmetrical. But there’s asymmetry in the real world. Time to take off the training wheels.

When attempting a max effort bench press, the sternum will often move to the right. This changes a few things:

  • The right abs go into overdrive
  • The left ribs and elbow flare out
  • The left shoulder rises up due to this rib position
  • The bar tilts and twists, loading the right side even more
  • The lifter makes a face that’s not usually very cool (obviously most important)
Here’s a timestamped video showing the right sternum twist (@ 1:29); you can see it on rep 7, hard to not see on rep 8, and impossible to ignore on the 9th, failed rep.

 

Here’s a timestamped video showing the left elbow flare and bar twisting (@ 1:59).

 

And here’s a timestamped video showing both; the sternum start noticebly twisting on rep 15 (@ 3:29) and it’s really easy to see the left elbow flare on the failed rep.

 

And briefly, notice that it’s harder to nitpick mistakes in this 675lb bench press (timestamped @ 5:00).

 

We contort ourselves this way because of the normal asymmetry in the body. The heart on the left supports the left rib cage flaring. The big liver on the right supports the right abdominals. And because everything is connected, these asymmetries permeate all the way through our limbs.

This is a tough compensation to fix. You might consider warming up with some dedicated shoulder mobility exercises. Utilize more unilateral training like the split squat. If this problem is unfamiliar, you might find it useful to slow down as this gives you time to notice when mistakes happen (it’s usually around the sticking point). As you get more proficient, you can speed up.

In any case, you’ll need to be disciplined about your technique when you’re exhausted.

Building Strength vs. Testing Strength

Hopefully by now you have a better idea of how your body might compensate during a max effort lift. Remember: it’s okay to try hard! The point is that technique must remain pristine if it’s to be considered training.

Save the strange body conformations for your personal record attempts. And give yourself time to train between testing sessions.

I like to push my clients hard on week 4 of a 4-week training program. This gives 3 weeks to practice technique and acclimate to the training volume, preparing well for testing your body and mind.

Perfect technique does not mean the lift is light and easy. In fact, it should be harder to do because the muscles are reaching their limit and your brain must override your body’s instincts. This is real discipline.

I’ll leave you with a bulleted list of tips.

Guidelines for Building Strength

  • Test strength at most one out of every four weeks
  • “Testing strength” does not mean a single rep maximum, but a max effort for the pre-planned training program set and rep scheme
  • Train like a bodybuilder; aim to feel the right muscles working
  • Using less weight doesn’t mean you’re detraining; strength can fluctuate up to 18% in any given day
  • Don’t forget to deload your training roughly one out of every four weeks
  • Don’t forget to train endurance
  • Use cardio to speed up your recovery from strength workouts

And remember: spend more time building strength than testing strength.

About the Author

Lance Goyke, MS, CSCS has been a personal trainer and strength coach for over ten years. He’s currently working remotely with clients all over the world, including at Google, America, Scotland, and New Zealand. In addition to coaching, he also produces educational fitness writing, videos

CategoriesAssessment coaching Exercise Technique

Textbook Technique and Why it Doesn’t Exist

It’s not lost on me that the title of this post will raise some eyebrows. The title shouldn’t be taken too literally, because I do feel there are ideal approaches, methodologies, and “rules” to consider when coaching any lift in the weight room.

That said, when it comes to exercise technique (or human movement in general) why are textbooks the metric at which we compare everything?

Textbooks provide context, information, and sometimes make for handy coffee table improvers.

However, we don’t live in textbooks. What a squat, sprint, overhead press (or hell, even a carrot cake) looks like in a textbook can (and usually is) a stark contrast from what is emulated in real life.

Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_spotpoint74'>spotpoint74 / 123RF Stock Photo</a>
Copyright: spotpoint74 / 123RF Stock Photo

Textbook Technique & Why It Doesn’t Exist

I do believe there are some universal tenets to coaching a deadlift or squat or bench press or kettlebell swing5 that will not only allow a client or athlete to marinate in its benefits, but to do so in a fashion that won’t increase their likelihood of injury (or their contributions to their physical therapist’s mortgage payments).

I’m interested in making people savages, but I’m also interested in the long-game. It wouldn’t bode well for business (or my reputation) if all of my client’s deadlifts looked like this:

To that end, with regards to universal tenets for deadlifting:

  • Loaded spinal flexion is a no-no.
  • That’s pretty much it.

If you’re following that one golden rule, you’re doing a better job than most. It’s sad, but true.

However, golden rule(s) aside, there are many intricate, more nuanced things to consider person to person. One’s training experience comes to mind. We can’t hold someone holding a barbell in their hands for the first time to the same standard as someone who’s been a competitive powerlifter for 17 years.

Likewise, someone with a vast and delicate history of lower back issues is not going to take the same path as someone with a “clean” health history. And, of course, other factors come into play such as goal(s), movement quality, favorite color, and anatomical/structural differences between individuals.

Someone with hips like this…

…is going to move differently – and presumably be coached differently – than someone with hips like this:

There are many, many fantastic resources out there that help to break down anatomy, assessment, biomechanics, joint positions, and what’s considered ideal exercise technique. I have my biases as to what I feel is correct – as does everyone – but it’s important to take every resource with a grain of salt, because…

“Textbook technique only exists in a textbook.”

When I heard Mike Reinold say this sentence years ago my immediate reaction was this:

via GIPHY

My second reaction was to start doing handstands down the sidewalk outside my apartment, but I didn’t.

You know, cause that’s fucking weird.

And because I can’t do a handstand.

Either way, what Mike said was/is 100% correct.

Textbook technique, in the real world, is every bit as much of a myth as detox diets making you pee rainbows or me riding a Dire wolf to work today

What we read or deem as “ideal” on paper, while often a great starting point for many people, doesn’t always translate to real-life. As coaches it’s important to understand this. Anytime we corner ourselves into one-train of thought or that any one thing applies to everybody, we’re doing the industry – and our clients/athletes – a disservice.

A Real-Life Example

A few months ago I started working with a woman who had been battling some low-back issues, yet wanted to hire me to take over her programming and help clean up her technique.

Specifically she wanted to hone in on her deadlift.

She was frustrated because no matter what she did (or who she worked with), her back always bothered her.

I like to be a fly on the wall and just watch people do their thing during an initial consult. I want to see what their default movement schemes are. In this case I set up a barbell on the floor, loaded it up with a weight I knew she could handle safely, and then asked her to do her thing. Her “default” stance was a conventional stance, and while it wasn’t the worst one I had ever seen, I could clearly see why her back may have been bothering her.

We had established earlier in her assessment that she lacked t-spine extension and her hip mobility wasn’t great either.

More to the point, after doing a simple hip scour and Rockback test, I surmised she was able to attain more hip flexion ROM with more hip abduction. An important point, as you’ll soon see.

Note: the Rockback test is a great assessment to use to figure out one’s “usable” ROM in hip flexion. The idea is to see if or when the lumbar spine loses positioning.

Bad Rockback Test

Notice when spine loses position.

 

Dead Sexy Rockback Test

Notice the spine stays relatively “neutral” throughout. Also, notice those triceps.

 

 

We can then compare what we see here with what we see on the gym floor.6

Going back to my client, she read a lot of articles and books on deadlifting, most of which told her that deadlifting = conventional stance. Always. Moreover, other coaches/colleagues she had consulted with in the past told her to use the conventional stance.

No exceptions.

This is what I mean by falling into the “textbook technique” trap. On paper everything sounds (and looks) great. Everyone can and should be able to conventional deadlift.

In real-life, though…not so much.

Here’s a before and after picture I took of my client. The top picture shows her original set-up with a conventional stance. The bottom demonstrates me putting her into a modified sumo stance.

sarah-z-deadlift

Immediate improvement in her lower & upper spine position. Having her adopt a wider stance better complimented her anatomy, which then resulted in an infinitely better starting position to pull (no lumbar flexion, improved t-spine extension).

What’s more, with that modification alone she noted there was zero pain.

She left that session feeling motivated and hopeful about training. A win-win if you ask me.

I posted the above picture on some social media accounts – explaining much of what I mentioned above. And wouldn’t you know it: I was called out by a handful of coaches.

One stated the problem wasn’t with her anatomy, but that the real issue was my poor coaching. A funny assertion given he wasn’t in the room with me. Another coach agreed stating something to the effect of:

“No client has walked into “x gym” and not have been able to perform a conventional deadlift after a little coaching on day #1.”

I guess all I could have done at the time was to just go fuck myself.

I demonstrated I was able to clean up someone’s deadlift and do so in a way that was pain-free, and yet, here I was being told by a crew of All-Star coaches I had failed because I didn’t have her conventional deadlift. My actions, apparently, were on par with drop kicking a baby seal in the mouth.

Pump the Brakes

I hope people can appreciate the narrow-mindedness of this type of thinking. To expect everyone to fit into the same scheme or way of doing things because that’s what YOU prefer to do (or because a textbook told you to do so) is about as narrow-minded as it comes.

No one has to conventional deadlift.

Likewise…

No one has to low-bar squat or squat with a symmetrical stance.

No one has to bench press or bench press with an aggressive lumbar arch.

And no one has to start watching Severence on Apple TV. Except, yes you do.

I’d argue a “good” coach understands and respects that everyone is different, and that he or she will be humble enough to put their own personal biases in their back pocket and appreciate there is no ONE way to perform any exercise.

Cater the lift to the lifter, and not vice versa.

Categoriescoaching personal training Program Design

The Importance of Feedback

I am currently galavanting around in my favorite place in the world…

…London.

I spent the weekend with my good friend Luke Worthington putting on our Strategic Strength Workshop and now I am in Day one of a three day introvert extravaganza. My plan is to do nothing but walk around the city, talk to as little people as possible, and eat carrot cake.

I am hoping to get a little writing in while here, but until inspiration strikes I have a lovely post today from another colleague of mine, Ottawa based personal trainer, Elsbeth Vaino.

Enjoy!

Copyright: niroworld

The Importance of Feedback

“That was awesome!”

“Good job!”

“You are on fire today!”

Everyone likes to hear they’re doing well, and the feedback you give clients can take their workout up a level or two. If their form isn’t the best, feedback can help them get the more out of that exercise. But that’s actually not the kind of feedback I want to talk about.

I want to talk about the feedback you ask for from your clients.

No, not about how well you’re doing, although it is nice to hear clients tell you how much of an impact you are having on their life.

The best feedback is the stuff your clients tell you about the exercises they’re doing. I’ll be honest that I only clued into this gem a few years ago, which means I spent way too long training clients without all the facts. I don’t even remember why I started asking “where do you feel that?” and “how does that exercise feel?”, but I do remember how high my eyebrows shot up at some of the answers.

via GIPHY

Me: “How’s that plank treating you?”

Client: “I love it. It’s a great back exercise!”

Me:

 

Me: “Where do you feel that most?” (asking about a glute bridge)

Client: “Here.” (pointing to her quads)

Client: “Here.” (pointing to the low back on his up-leg side)

Client: “Here.” (pointing to his hamstrings)

Me:

 

Me: “How easy or hard is that?” (asking before their second set of split squats)

Client: “It’s really hard on the left leg and pretty easy on the right.”

Me: “Where do you feel that most?”

Client: points to the left quad. (while doing the exercise with the right foot forward)

Client: points to the left quad. (while doing the exercise with the left foot forward)

Me:

via GIPHY

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest I’m not the only trainer whose clients feel some exercises in unexpected ways. I’m not saying there’s anything inherently wrong with the responses above, but I am saying that if you put a glute bridge in someone’s program, you’re probably doing it with the goal of strengthening their glutes, not their quads or hip flexors.

Sometimes form issues in an exercise are easy to spot, with obvious ones being round-back deadlifts, or deadlifts where the person clearly pulls up from their back vs drives from their legs and hips. But the truth is, sometimes an exercise looks good, but still isn’t accomplishing what we think it is.

In addition to clients telling me they feel muscles in a way I don’t expect, sometimes they also give visual clues. If you or your client is stretching or rubbing the low back right after an exercise, ask why. The answer is almost always one of two things:

  • It’s just a habit
  • The back feels tight.

If the back feels tight after doing an exercise that isn’t intended to work the low back, something unexpected is probably going on.

If you’re on board with the concept that maybe you (or your clients) aren’t getting what is expected out of some exercises, the next question should probably be: “what can you do about it?” Thankfully it’s not super hard.

Here are the steps I suggest:

Step 1: Make Sure You Understand What the Exercises You’re Doing Are Supposed to Be Working

Some are simple: glute bridges should primarily work the glutes, side planks work the sides (aka obliques), planks work the abs, split squats and lunges work the legs, primarily the front of the front one. Most rows work primarily the upper back, while bench press is primarily about the chest.

No idea what this works

Some are less simple as they work more muscles. Deadlifts work basically everything, but really, the low back is just stabilizing while the legs and upper back do the heavy lifting. Given that, if you ask your client how they feel after deadlifts and they mention their back is sore or tight, odds are something is off. Similarly, squats work almost everything but it’s mostly a lower body exercise.

If you’re not sure, find out, because this is important. How? If you have a trainer, ask them. If not, check in with a book or articles from one of the trainers on the internet whose stuff you think is good.

Step 2: Find Out What’s Actually Happening By Watching and Asking

“Where do you feel that most?” “How does that feel?” Ask yourself/your client upon arrival “how are you?” or “how did you feel after the last workout?”

Does the answer match the goal? If yes, great! Carry on. If not, now what?

Step 3: Coach, Adapt, or Replace

Pretty much every exercise issue can be solved by one of these three things, and in my opinion, they should be tried in that order.

Try to re-coach it first (or review the form if you’re doing your own thing). As trainers, we can be quick to assume that if an exercise isn’t performed properly, we need to bring in approaches to correct it but maybe the person just didn’t fully understand the movement. Before assuming you need to adapt the movement, coach it again – with different words if you need to.

Young woman and personal trainer rest in the gym after workout

If that doesn’t get the desired result, then try to adapt. There are lots of options:

  • Add a riser to limit the range of motion (maybe temporarily)
  • Add a band to help the person feel the intent of the exercise (e.g. band around the knees in a squat)
  • Move the arms from the floor to a bench for the plank or side plank (if you or your clients have ever felt planks or side planks in your back more than abs or obliques, or in your shoulder and neck this is a game-changer)

Did that work?

If so, great! If not, try another adaptation if you know one.

If that still doesn’t work, replace it with something else.

Contrary to what the internet wants you to believe, there is no exercise that you have to do. (ducks to avoid the lightning). And most of the time there are other exercises that will actually achieve the desired outcome for you or your client.

Here is how I have addressed a few of the examples noted above:

The plank that works the low back:

Planks

Coach it: “Think about shortening the distance between the bottom of your ribs and the top of your pelvis, and I want you to stop if you start to feel it in your back.” In this case, if they make it to twenty seconds before it goes into the back, we keep the plank as is, with the goal of twenty becoming twenty-five and then thirty… If after a few workouts, it’s still at twenty, we move to adapt it.

Adapt it: “I want you to do the same thing, but this time with your forearms on a bench.” I’m not sure who decided that planks from the floor is where everyone should start, but in my experience, there are a lot of people who should be starting with an incline plank. This adaptation is often a game-changer. Once the person can get to a minute at an incline, we try moving to the floor, while coaching them to stop if they start to feel it more in the back than the abs.

Replace it: In this case, we rarely have to replace it, but if need be, dead bugs can be a good option, although they might need coaching to ensure the back doesn’t arch.

Single-leg glute bridges felt mostly in the hamstrings:

Female doing single leg glute bridge

Coach it: ”Push your hips up as you press your foot into the ground and also think about pressing your toes through the front of your shoes”.

Adapt it: Provide some extra support by switching to a 1.5 leg glute bridge where you have both feet on the floor, but only put as much pressure on the second foot as you need to feel the glute working.

 

Replace it: Try a cable hip extension or two leg hip thrust.

 

Split squat for the side where it is felt more in the back leg:

Coach it: “Lean forward at the hip and when you get to the bottom, really drive the front foot into the floor to push yourself up.”

Adapt it: Put a band around the front knee and pull it forward as they do the movement.

Replace it: Switch to a lateral stepup (or a reverse lunge.

About the Author

Elsbeth Vaino is a personal trainer and gym owner at Custom Strength in Ottawa, Canada, where she and her team primarily train regular people who don’t love the gym but do like what going to the gym allows them to do. Before becoming a trainer, she worked as an electronic warfare engineer (you know, same old story). Check her out on Instagram (HERE) for exercise videos or head to her blog (HERE) for those who prefer words.

Categoriescoaching fitness business Program Design psychology

6 Ways to Instill Success In Your Clients’ Training Programs

The answer is easy: Tell them to add more weight to the barbell.

LOLOLOLOL.

I’m kidding (sort of).

Facetiousness aside7, I wanted to spend some time discussing a few strategies you can (hopefully) implement today that will make the training programs you write for your athletes and clients more successful.

Businessman target for success

6 Ways to Instill Success In Your Clients’ Training Programs

“Successful” in this context means 1) your clients continue to show up (bills need to be paid, yo!), 2) your clients don’t hate you (most of the time) and 3) as a corollary to your Jedi-like coaching skills, you turn all your clients into deadlifting Terminators.

I.e., they get results.

We often bog ourselves down harping over details like optimal exercise selection, exercise order, set/rep schemes, rest intervals, or even which type of muscle fibers are firing during which exercise.

Of course, this is not to insinuate all of the above aren’t important, they are. Except maybe the last one. If you’re going into that much detail with your coaching on something that won’t matter of 99.2% of the population, it’s safe to say you might be over-thinking things.

However, as fellow fitness pro Jonathan Pietrunti noted on my Facebook wall recently:

“If we don’t focus on bolstering the client’s intrinsic motivation and fostering self-efficacy, they aren’t going to show up for long, regardless of how awesome are programming is on the movement/physiological side of the house.”

You can design something worthy of a Program Design Pulitzer, but if your client would rather wash his or her’s face with broken glass than perform another front squat or set of bench pressing with tempo contrast, you’re failing.

You’re failing, hard.

1. Understand People Are Different (and That They’re Not You)

  • Powerlifters like to train people like powerlifters.
  • Bodybuilders like to train people like bodybuilders.
  • Kettlebell aficionados like to train people with kettlebells.
  • CrossFitters like to do #whateverthefuck.

Any well-thought out training program should fit the needs and goals of the client.

That goes without saying.

A mistake I find many fitness professionals make is that they write programs catered to what they like or how they prefer to train.

I don’t feel this is wrong per se; it’s only natural to default to your strengths and/or personal beliefs and methodologies. Where it becomes a problem is when we gravitate towards a specific modality at the expense of, well, everything.

I remember having a conversation with one of my young athletes recently who’s a rather big dude for his age. He mentioned in passing (and I am paraphrasing here) that his football coach wanted everyone to squat the same way:

  • Same foot width.
  • Same stance.
  • Same bar position.
  • Like a bunch of robots

Man performing a crossfit back squat exercise

He then demonstrated the exact stance his coach told him to use and maybe hit 70 degrees of hip flexion.

Let’s just say that if what he showed me was seen at an FMS workshop, people would become visibly sick to their stomachs.

I simply asked him him to widen his stance significantly and to externally rotate his feet a bit so his toes pointed outward.

He was able to hit a beautiful depth. Thus saving himself from the wrath of internet warriors everywhere.

(NOTE: I am not a depth Nazi. To me squat depth is arbitrary and all I am really concerned with is someone finding whatever depth they’re able to “own” & control. If it’s past 90 degrees, cool. If not, that’s cool too.8Either way we’re going to train the hell out of it.

The point being: If he had followed his coach’s poor squatting advice, assuming everyone is supposed to squat the same way, he may have never realized his full potential.

Everyone is different, and it’s important to respect unique leverages and anthropometry as it relates to not only squatting, but any lift.

Programming based around your client’s goals is paramount. But it’s also important to tweak any lift to fit the needs (and abilities) 0f the trainee, not vice versa.

2. Ensure Success in Every Session

This seems a bit redundant, I know.

“You write a post on how to instill success in a training program and you’re telling me in order to do so I need to….ensure success? Wow, Tony, that’s revolutionary. What’s next: telling me that in order to improve my vertical jump I should jump higher?”

The best analogy I can offer is the whole concept behind “girl push-ups.”

No, I’m not referring to a woman performing push-ups, which would make sense. Instead, I’m referring to the lame premise of women performing push-ups from their knees. I.e., “girl push-ups.”

I hate the connotation and message this sends.

Oh, you can’t do an actual push-up? That’s okay, lets pander to societal norms on engenderment, plant the idea in your head at an early age that women must train differently from men (flexed arm hang test vs. chin-up test), and do “girl push-ups” rather than take the time to coach and progress you accordingly.

If I’m working with a female client and she can’t perform a push-up (from the floor) – usually due to a core weakness or lack of lumbo-pelvic-hip control – I find it more productive to OMIT the “you’re a girl so lets do this instead” mantra, and instead demonstrate to her that she can do the exercise.

Either by having her perform elevated push-ups in a ROM where’s she successful, or possibly having her perform a band-assisted push-up, like so:

 

In both scenarios I’m addressing the actual weak-link (a weak core, or the basic novelty of the exercise) and not just tossing my hands in the air and relinquishing programming control to the fact she has a vagina.

I’m coaching.

And not only that I’m going out of my way to ensure a sense of accomplishment/success in each session.

This, my friends, is the key.

That and…..

3. Building Autonomy

Autonomy is the love-child of good coaching (and giving a shit).

Despite what some fitness pros may think, people aren’t paying you to count reps, they’re paying you to COACH.

On numerous occasions I’ve had new clients be taken aback when they realize I’m not counting their repetitions.

I’m too busy watching and coaching to count their reps.

Furthermore, I’ll tell all new clients that my goal is for them to “fire” me at some point. Not because I did something creepy like forget to wear pants, or, I don’t know, play Coldplay during heavy deadlifts.

No, I want them to (eventually) no longer need my services.

I want to make them their own best asset and advocate.

I want them to go on vacation or walk into a random gym and be able to “MacGyver” a workout in any scenario…whether we’re talking a fully-equipped training mecca or a rinky dink hotel gym that has nothing but a treadmill, dumbbells up to 35 lbs, and a roll of duct tape.

A Roll of Duct Tape

Dan John often speaks to program design being stripped down to nothing more than the squat, hip hinge, push, pull, single-leg variation, and carry.

Teach your clients that.

Force them to marinate in learning each category and what exercises belong where. In doing so they’ll eventually be able to jimmy-rig a workout without batting an eye.

They’ll become autonomous.

And a funny thing will happen: they’ll end up staying with you anyway because they understand the value you bring being a coach that actually coaches.

4. Provide Choice

I wrote about the power of choice in THIS article.

As it relates to providing fitness and program design services this can be a double-edged sword because:

  • If people knew what they were doing they wouldn’t hire us to make choices for them.
  • It’s often in their best interests to be told what they need to do and not what they want to do.

Taking away choice behooves them.

On the flip side, it can behoove us, the fitness professional, to offer some choice.

This can mean giving them the choice to pick their main lift of the day – Squat? Deadlift? Maximal frisbee toss?

Or maybe giving them the choice to pick the mode of the exercise. Say, a KB deadlift or a trap bar deadlift?

 

In the same vein, I’ve compromised with clients and “rewarded” them with a 5-10 minute window of doing whatever the they want – judgement free.

  • For many of my guys it’s all about the gun show – bis and tris baby!
  • For my ladies they’ll often congregate at the Hip Thruster

Whatever the case may be, offering your clients some choice is a splendid way to keep them motivated and engaged in their training.

5. Celebrate the Small Victories (Regardless of How Small They Seem)

I like to call this the Todd Bumgardner rule; although he has a much better way of stating it:

“Demonstrate unconditional positive regard.”

When I travel and workout at various commercial gyms I can’t help but observe other trainers in action.

Some are amazing. They’re engaged, actively coaching, and paying attention to their client, offering feedback and encouragement whenever it’s needed.

Others are, well, pretty shitty.

There’s zero effort in providing feedback. And if there is, it’s generally nothing more than a casual “nice job” or “way to go.”

via GIPHY

Celebrate the small victories!

You don’t need to do back flips or Parkour of the power racks when a client keeps their chest up during a squat.

But would a little enthusiasm hurt?

6. Simplicity For the Win

Consider this final point the Mise en place of the entire article.

I had a client admit that she was “frustrated” by the simplicity of the program I wrote for her. I took no offense, because it happens often.

Fast forward a few weeks, “Tony, I feel stronger and my lifts are going up!”

Strength coach nods approvingly.

I’m not the first to state this, but people tend to fall into the trap of adding stuff into their programs for the novelty, almost always at the expense of failing to take something OUT.

You can’t just keep adding more and more to a program and expect to make progress. Get rid of the superfluous BS that serves no purpose.

Moreover, fancy or elaborate looking exercises don’t equate to better. They great at receiving likes and vast applause on social media, but rarely do such exercises elicit actual results.[/efn_note]And I guaran-fuckin-tee that the person who posted the video doesn’t perform or utilize the exercise themselves in their own training.[/efn_note]

Categoriespersonal training Program Design

4 Keys to Staying Athletic As You Get Older

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Boston-based personal trainer and S&C coach, Matthew Ibrahim, who’s latest (online) resource, Forever Athlete, is available for purchase.

Matt’s a phenomenal coach and I always gravitate toward his content because it’s so accessible and realistic. If you’re at all interested in “holding on” to your athleticism give this article a read and definitely considering checking out Forever Athlete program.

4 Keys to Staying Athletic As You Get Older

What’s one common theme with every single person below?

  • Female high school volleyball player with a 20” vertical jump
  • Adult male being able to perform hurdle hops with pristine technique
  • Middle-aged mom performing a heavy set of goblet squats
  • NFL running back with a 118” broad jump

Although this sample list above demonstrates people within varying populations, they all represent examples of athleticism.

The point? All humans are athletes, regardless of age or ability level.

Not only can we remain athletic as we age, we should do everything in our power to push the athletic envelope as the years pass. Ultimately, age should never be something that holds you back from feeling and being athletic.

Everyone is an athlete and everyone has the right to train like one, too.

Let’s break down 4 keys to focus on for the purpose of staying athletic as you get older:

  1. Jumping and landing for power development
  2. Lifting heavy weights to improve strength and reduce the risk of injury
  3. Building muscle to feel good and look good
  4. Conditioning for heart health gains (even though you hate it)
  5. Beating a pack of ninjas in a street fight (BONUS added by Tony. Sorry, couldn’t resist)

You do these 4 things on a weekly basis and I promise that your path toward long-term athleticism will be that much easier for you.

Jumping & Landing for Power Development

I just turned 33 last month – and let me tell you – I’m no spring chicken anymore.

Does this mean I should give in, create a lifelong indentation on my couch, bury my head under the pillow and binge as many Netflix series as possible until the rest of season 4 from Ozark officially drops?

Of course not.

Although, Ozark is awesome. (Tell me Ruth isn’t THE most bad-ass character ever!)

Anyways, my focus should be on continuing to do the things that I love while being strategic in the process.

Part of that includes playing pick-up basketball, feeling athletic in the gym and sprinting (when the weather permits). Jumping and landing become super important for me in this area if my goal is to continue hooping, sprinting and feeling athletic.

Jumping comes in a variety of forms, positions, angles and planes of motion. The simplest way to understand jumping is to break it down into extensive plyometrics and intensive plyometrics.

Here’s an example of an extensive plyometric exercise:

 

You see how there’s fluidity and rhythm involved? That’s because extensive plyometrics helps you focus on coordination at lower intensities so that you can get the hang of it. Think of extensive plyometrics as keeping the training wheels on.

In the opposite light, you can think of intensive plyometrics as removing the training wheels and letting it rip at higher intensities. The goal here is to be as explosive and powerful as possible.

Here’s an example of an intensive plyometric exercise:

 

The exercise examples above aren’t as important as the intent behind them. Use extensive plyometrics in the beginning stages as you’re learning and getting the hang of jumping. Then, start incorporating intensive (explosive) plyometrics once you’re ready to take on more force.

Just remember, the more force you produce in jumping, the more force that you’ll need to control when getting back down to the ground. This takes me to my next point: landing.

Controlling your body is pivotal for staying athletic. A simple way to do this is to build the ability to land with body control and organization. Basically, you want to look like Michael Jordan (OK, maybe one-tenth of that) every time he would land after throwing down a monster dunk.

Body control? Check. Smooth and fluid? Check. Organized? Check.

Power development is also important for people as they age due to the positive impacts it has on the nervous system, coordination and overall function when it comes to physical activity.

Planning to join your local adult club soccer team? Interested in being able to play pick-up basketball in summer rec league on a weekly basis? Or, maybe you just want to be able to play tennis with your friends soon since the warm weather is around the corner?

Either way, developing and harnessing power through jumping and landing is a pivotal step toward staying powerful, explosive and athletic.

Lifting Heavy Weights for Strength Gains & Injury Risk Management

I think this is the easiest “sell” on this list.

Honestly, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 20 years or living somewhere underwater as you begin the evolutionary process of turning into a mermaid, it’s become quite clear both in practice and evidence that lifting heavy weights (safely) is a no-brainer for building strength.

Of course, we always need to mention the importance of using good form and technique especially when it comes to lifting heavy weights. That should also be a no-brainer.

The other important part of lifting heavy weights, in addition to getting yolked (strong), is that you’re helping to reduce the risk of injury to your body.

How, you ask?

Well, every time you lift heavy weights, your entire body gets stronger. No, this doesn’t happen instantaneously like heating up a hot pocket in a microwave. It takes quality time to develop strength. On the shorter end of things, strength gains likely take a month or two to truly start seeing and feeling the gains. For more noticeable strength gains, it takes a year or two of hard work and consistency to really see things pay off strength wise.

When it comes to gaining strength, not only are your muscles becoming stronger, the rest of your body is as well. Muscular strength is important for the purpose of being able to produce more force, and in some cases, at faster speeds. Think about what we talked about in the previous section as it relates to power development. Pretty cool that strength and power go hand in hand, right? Science can be cool, sometimes.

More importantly, think about the importance of bone mineral density as we age. Think about having strong support structures in our body like joint strength, ligament strength and tendon strength. Remember: bones, ligaments and tendons all have an interplay (to some extent) with the muscles in our body.

Suffice to say that, when all is said and done, managing the risk of injuries becomes a heck of a lot easier when you’re stronger. Lifting heavy weights, relatively speaking, is also never a bad idea if your plan is to stay as athletic as possible as you age.

Building Muscle to Feel Good & Look Good

Arm farm is soon to be a national holiday. I swear, it’ll be on all calendars at some point soon.

Until then, why can’t we give in and just be more open about wanting to build muscle to feel good and look good?

Oh, so you’re not trying to build a sweet pair of biceps to flash at the beach this summer? So, what you’re saying is that, even though you just ripped off 50 reps of tricep extensions, that arm training isn’t important to you?

Sure, keep telling yourself that.

Or, let’s just all be cool about it. Look, I like building muscle, feeling good about how I look and chasing a pump just as much as anyone else. Admittedly, my calf muscles are often the target for when I’m trying to chase a pump, but that’s neither here nor there.

The point is that building muscle is actually a great thing if your goal is to stay athletic as you get older. Think of muscle as your body armor. This ultimately coincides with what we just talked about in the previous section.

(Side note: have you noticed a trend so far with how each section piggy-backs off of the previous one? Go figure.)

Lean body mass (LBM), otherwise known as muscle tissue, is a great thing to develop in the human body. Not only does having more muscle help you from a body composition standpoint, it also enables you with the ability to develop power and strength with more ease.

Building muscle and being athletic can both exist together in your weekly training. Looking good, feeling good about how you look and performing well are all achievable qualities with the right approach.

Conditioning for Heart Health Gains (Even Though You Hate It)

OK, OK. I get it. Nobody likes doing cardio or conditioning.

But, everyone wants to jump right into playing rec league sports, pick-up basketball games and flag football, right?

Stop for a moment and think about that.

(Crickets.)

Yup, exactly what I thought.

Doing the first thing makes doing the second thing much easier.

I’m not saying that you need to spend countless hours on the treadmill trying to morph into a hamster wheel. Nope, not at all. Instead, incorporate anaerobic (high intensity) conditioning intervals and aerobic (low intensity) conditioning intervals on a weekly basis.

Let’s simplify even more by having you consider adding in the following each week:

  • Anaerobic example = 1-2 days each week of sprints: keep the distance (15-20 yards) and volume (6-8 reps) short while the intensity (85-90% effort) and rest periods (60-90 seconds) are high.
  • Aerobic example = 1-2 days each week of tempo running: now, focus on longer distances (1 lap around the track) at lower intensities (70-75% effort) with a recovery walking lap in between and a higher total volume of work (1.5-2 miles).

These are simply a couple of examples you could use, but quite frankly, the options are endless. You could easily do sprint intervals on the bike instead for your anaerobic conditioning and 30-minute weight vest walking for your aerobic conditioning.

The primary goal is to hit some high intensity and some low intensity conditioning on a weekly basis. Think of high intensity conditioning as building your ability to be powerful for short periods of time and low intensity conditioning as building your ability to last for a long duration of time with more of a sustained output.

When performed together consistently, this type of weekly conditioning routine gets you fit enough to play all the pick-up games and rec league sports you want without ever batting an eye or stopping to consider whether or not you feel conditioned enough to play. Cardiovascular endurance and stamina are real game-changers and they’re super important in the process of maintaining your athleticism as you get older.

The best part is that being well-conditioned also positively impacts your ability to build strength, power and muscle. Overall, athleticism leans heavily on these 4 physical qualities.

Closing

Let’s face it: we all want to stay athletic and powerful as we get older. We all want to stay strong, durable and muscular, too. And, even if we hate to admit it, we know that conditioning is key for staying fit and healthy. Unlock your true athletic potential by focusing on these 4 key areas for staying athletic as you get older.

My online training program – Forever Athlete – places a strong emphasis on these 4 areas so that you can remove the guesswork and become the most athletic version of yourself.

About the Author

Matthew Ibrahim has been a Strength & Conditioning Coach since 2007 while working with athletes looking to build strength, improve performance and maintain healthy lifestyles. He is also a College Professor of Exercise Science and a Ph.D. student in Human & Sport Performance.

As a public speaker, Matthew has presented at EXOS inside Google Headquarters, Sports Academy (formerly Mamba Sports Academy), Perform Better, Equinox, Stanford University and for the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) on several occasions. His work has been featured in Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, T-Nation, Science for Sport, StrengthCoach.com, Exxentric, TrueCoach and TrainHeroic.

Connect with him on Instagram – HERE

 

New year resolutionsCategoriespersonal training Program Design psychology

Reframing the Way You Make Your New Year’s Fitness Resolutions

I can sense the eye rolls already.

“Really, Tony? A post on New Year’s resolutions? How profound and unimaginably unique!”

Touche.

I can appreciate that there’s no shortage of similar posts you’ve undoubtedly come across in recent days. You’re likely thiiiiiiis close to introducing your forehead to the keyboard in front of you.  What could I possibly have to say that’s any different or inspirational or less vomit-in-your-mouth(ish) that hasn’t been regurgitated ad nauseam already?

Read on…

New year resolutions

I Promise This Will Be Different

To follow the lead of my coach (I.e., I’m just going to cut and paste), Sarah Moorman, who had some sage words to share herself on the topic:

Almost 40% of the population makes New Year’s Resolutions. From that number, a vast majority of resolutions are within the gravitational pull of health/fitness:

  • Eating habits
  • Exercise habits
  • Building a pair of pecs that can cut diamonds
  • You know, stuff like that

However, much like Sarah, I’m more of a fan of, actually…I’ll just let her say it:

“I’m largely in the camp of setting goals about consistency to help set new habits. For example, instead of a weight loss goal of a specific number of pounds, I advise you to hit your calorie or macro goals 6 days a week.”

“Why?

If someone is more consistent with hitting their calorie goals, their focus is on their eating habits as opposed to the weight on the scale.”

To parallel this viewpoint, the other day T-Nation.com memed me, which is always an honor.

I’ve long championed the 3×52 mentality.

Do something (anything) 3x per week, 52 weeks out of the year (preferably with an emphasis on lifting heavy things9), and something stellar is bound to happen.

Why THREE days and not:

  • 4?
  • 5?
  • 6?
  • 7?

Well, because for most people 3x per week is a number they can wrap their head around; it’s not intimidating.

It’s doable.

It emphasizes REALISTIC consistency.

Like I said, T-Nation made the meme and then posted it up on their IG account the very same day. I had to chuckle at a number of the initial comments:

  • “6×52 is better.”
  • “No days off!”

So on and so forth.

I have a hunch that if I made a Venn diagram and the circles consisted of:

1️⃣ I have zero kids.
2️⃣ I have no family responsibilities.
3️⃣ I am not a coach and/or I read a book on fitness, once.
4️⃣ I like to brag about my 225 max deadlift and/or my entire identity is tethered to how many followers I have on IG.

That that would pretty much represent the type of person who would end up right smack dab in the middle of the diagram and who would make such asinine remarks.

Listen, you’re not a Spartan warrior or a Navy SEAL.

Relax.

Being hardcore (or pretending to be online) doesn’t get results long term. It’ll work, for a bit. Maybe. And then you realize you’re NOT Rambo or Valentina Shevchenko.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Being a bit more realistic with the degree of consistency needed and more importantly, expectations one places on one’s self, is key.

It’s human nature to dive right in and to go from zero to 60 without really thinking things through:

  • Says here this detox tea is legit. After 47 days my body will be cleansed of all these pesky “toxins” and I’ll be able to see sounds! Fuck my liver and pancreas. They don’t know what they’re doing anyway.
  • I haven’t exercised since before the pandemic, so I may as well start with some German Volume Training.

We all think we’re more advanced then we are and that we can skip all the seemingly unnecessary & annoyingly rudimentary steps to go from Point A (where we currently are) to Point B (where we want to be) in the fastest way possible.

Can people attain their health/fitness goals in such a haphazard way?

Sure.

But it rarely sticks, because they fail to hone in on the necessary habits to make things click long-term.

So, with 2022 upon us I encourage you to consider reframing the way you go about making your resolutions. Instead of saying “I want to deadlift a bulldozer” say something like “I want to follow a strength training program 3x per week for the next 52 weeks.”

The latter will undoubtedly be more palatable and realistic.

Categoriespersonal training Program Design Strength Training

The Art of the Indicator Set

The 21st century has graced us with a bevy of technological advances:

  • High-speed internet.
  • Telescopes that now treat us to images of Black Holes
  • Nanotechnology to help improve manufacturing, healthcare, climate change, and agriculture.
  • Pizza crust made out of cauliflower.

The health/fitness sector has also benefitted. Trainers have the ability to work with clients from all over the world in real-time.

Seriously, cauliflower is now used to make pizza crust! Even more miraculous is that it doesn’t taste like sawdust.

We also have the capability to measure things like bar speed and heart rate variability via applications on our phone; all of which provide data to help us gauge our “readiness” to train on any given day.

Technology surely is great.

However, when it comes to ascertaining one’s readiness to train I tend to lean more toward the anti-app route, and instead rely on what I call “INDICTOR SETS.”

Copyright: jegas

What the Heck Is An Indicator Set?

The easiest way to explain is via some anecdotal observances.

I was walking to my studio to train the other day where the plan was to show up, warm-up, crank a little Mobb Deep over the stereo, get angry enough to want to fight a tornado, and work up to a heavy(ish) triple on my deadlift (535 lb).

On paper it looked like a done deal.

But once I started warming up, things didn’t go quite as planned:

135 x 5

225 x 5

315 x 3

405 x 1 (didn’t feel horrible, but didn’t feel great)

455 x 1 (INDICATOR SET)

An indicator set basically lets me know whether or not I have “it” that day.

For instance, in the previous two weeks, 455 lbs (which is ~80% of my 1RM) literally flew up. Based on “feel” of my bar speed, and how effortless the set felt, I knew I could make a run for a high 500’s pull.

Put another way, I gave myself the green light to go for it, and I did.

Conversely, 455 felt like absolute garbage the other day.

It felt slow off the ground. And it felt even slower at lockout, which I normally never have any issues with.  The indication was: “Tony, if you attempt to go any higher you’ll run the risk of shitting your spine.”

So, I did the smart thing and called it.

I re-racked the plates, turned the page, and did my accessory work:  DB reverse lunges, a little pouting in the corner, and some pull-throughs.

Listen, it’s not a perfect system, nor is it anything remotely scientific. To be as transparent as possible: I am not anti-technology. But I am anti-technology to the point that many (not all) people tend to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to their readiness to workout.

If their Apple watch indicates a modicum of fatigue they’ll shut that shit down faster than you can say, well, apple.

Just because your watch says you should avoid training on any given day doesn’t necessarily mean you have to. Besides, I’m not entirely sold on the reliability of those apps anyway. I’ve had clients walk into a session feeling like a million bucks only to have their watch tell them danger, danger, DANGER, and to not even look at a barbell.

On the flip side, I’ve also had clients show up feeling like they made out with a petri dish, only to warm-up, move around a little, and then feel like Leonidas leading the Spartans to battle.

Indicator sets help you learn to FEEL whether or not you’ve got the juice on any given day. In short: It’s a form of auto-regulation that helps you to not have to rely on some algorithm.

Plus, it’ll save you a few hundred dollars…😙

At least in this scenario you’ll have some tangible, performance-based evidence to help you gauge things. Muscle fatigue is one thing and tends to be easier for many people to use as a metric.

If you’re overly sore you can feel that and tweak your programming accordingly. CNS (or nervous system) fatigue is a bit more nebulous and harder to pinpoint, or even feel for that matter.

Indicator sets help you with the latter.

To that end, I encourage you to start utilizing indicator sets as part of your warm-up on the days you know you’re going to be pushing the envelop. 

Pick a weight during your warm-up that you can use to “gauge” where you’re at that particular day. This number should be heavy enough to be challenging, but one you KNOW you can perform fast and with immaculate technique.

(this will likely be around 80% of your 1 rep-max)

Trust me.  The whole mindset of lift heavy or go home – while admirable – isn’t always the best approach.