CategoriesExercise Technique Program Design

Struggling to Excel at Pull-ups? These Commonly Made Mistakes May Be Playing a Role.

If I want to learn more about astrophysics I listen to Neil deGrasse Tyson.

If I want to learn more about how to to be jacked while rocking a bowl cut I listen to He-Man.

Moreover, if I want to learn about or become a legit badass at pull-ups, my go to expert is Meghan Callaway. She’s a straight-up gangster when it comes to pull-ups and pull-up programming. 

With the release of The Complete Trainers’ Toolbox this week, of which Meghan and myself are a part of (along with seven other health/fitness professionals), we felt it important to give people a bit of insight as to what kind of information they can learn from this resource.

Meghan goes into the weeds on anything and everything regarding programming for the pull-up and today she offers a little insight on some commonly made mistakes people make.

Enjoy

ALSO: The Complete Trainers’ Toolbox is on sale this week at $100 off the regular price. 

Copyright: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

Are You Committing These Mistakes?

Countless people of all genders have the goal of being able to perform one or many pull-ups. Yet it is no secret that most people struggle to execute a single strict pull-up, and this includes many elite athletes.

Sam Bennett, the number one draft pick in the 2014 NHL draft, made the news when he failed to perform a single pull-up at the NHL draft combine.

So the inability to excel at pull-ups definitely isn’t limited to the general population, or purely beginners. Most people fail to conquer pull-ups, not because they are physically incapable, but because they are making some key mistakes.

I have great news for you.

This can be rectified.

Case in point, shortly after Sam Bennett bombed his pull-ups in the NHL draft combine, with some proper training, he banged out 11 reps.

Note From TG: I actually wrote an article a few years ago on the reaction to people giving Sam Bennett grief about not being able to perform a pull-up initially. You can read it HERE.

In this article I am going to discuss FIVE key mistakes that are preventing an abundance of people from excelling at pull-ups.

Mistake #1: Relying on the Arms to Perform the Movement

When pull-ups are being executed correctly, the shoulder blades, not the arms, should be initiating the movement. Instead of using the muscles in the mid and upper back to perform the bulk of the movement, a myriad of people rely on their arms.

To be clear, while the muscles in the arms will play a role, they should only be assisting the muscles in the back, not performing the majority of the work.

During the initial phase of the movement, and as your body is traveling towards the bar, you want to draw each shoulder blade in towards your spine and down towards your opposite hip (depression, retraction, downward rotation), not pull with your arms.

During the eccentric phase of the movement, rather than keeping your shoulder blades pinned, a mistake that plagues many individuals and can again cause them to rely on their arms to execute the movement, your shoulder blades should perform the reverse movements and should move away from your spine and away from your opposite hip (elevation, protraction, upward rotation).

As you can see, the ability to control the movement of your shoulder blades is a key component of being able to perform pull-ups.

Solution

The scapula pull-up is a really useful pull-up specific regression as it teaches you how to initiate the movement with your shoulder blades instead of pulling with your arms. This exercise is also specific to pull-ups as it requires you use the same body positioning, and it helps improve grip strength.

A few key points:

  • Initiate the movement by drawing your shoulder blades in towards your spine and down towards your opposite hip (retraction, depression, downward rotation).
  • In the top position, pause for a brief count.
  • Perform the eccentric component with complete control.
  • During the lowering/eccentric portion of the movement, your shoulder blades should perform the reverse movements as they did during the concentric component, and should move away from your spine and away from your opposite hip (protraction, elevation, upward rotation).
  • For the duration of the movement, your elbows should remain in a fixed position and should not bend at all. All of the movement should occur via the shoulder blades.

 

Mistake #2: Inability to Maintain the Proper Body Positioning

 This might surprise you, but if you hope to perform pull-ups as efficiently as possible, your entire body must function as a synchronized unit.

Pull-ups are not just an upper body movement.

If you are not able to maintain the proper body positioning, and in order to do so your lumbo-pelvic region and lower body must remain in a relatively fixed position for the duration of the movement, you will struggle.

Your path to the bar will likely be longer and less efficient as you will be more prone to swinging, and you will likely be forced to move unnecessary deadweight to and from the bar. This is not conducive to optimal pull-up performance. Keeping your head, torso, and hips in a stacked position, something I often liken to a canister, is extremely important. Proper breathing, bracing, rib positioning, and glute engagement are crucial. In terms of your lower body, you want to fully extend your knees and contract your quadriceps, cross one foot over the other, and dorsiflex your feet.

Solution

The dead bug, and its many variations, is one of my go-to exercises for improving lumbo-pelvic stability.

This exercise, which can accommodate people of most fitness levels and abilities, trains your anterior core muscles to generate the requisite levels of tension needed to perform pull-ups efficiently. This versatile exercise also trains your muscles to resist the extension of the spine, and this is an area where many people labour. When heaps of people perform pull-ups, it is extremely common to see their ribcage flaring and lower back hyperextending. Dead bugs will help resolve these issues.

A few key points:

  • For the duration of the exercise, keep your head, torso and hips in a stacked position. Keep your ribcage down, and do not allow your lower back to hyperextend. In other words, maintain the canister position.
  • As you initiate each rep and lower the opposite arm and leg towards the floor, steadily exhale, and brace your anterior core muscles as hard as you can.
  • Start out with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle and maintain this position for the duration of the movement. Only extend your knees (and perform more advanced variations) once you’ve mastered the movement with your knees bent, not before.

Here is an innovative and extremely effective dead bug variation you can try.

 

Mistake #3: Lack of Specificity

Are you spending endless hours training yet are still unable to execute one or more pull-ups?

The exercises you are performing might not be specific enough to pull-ups.

With your pull-up training, you need to perform exercises that develop pull-up specific mechanics and pull-up specific body positioning. Pull-up regressions develop these key components, and serve as great stepping stones towards being able to bang out one or many unassisted pull-ups. In terms of body positioning, exercises like hollow body holds, dead bugs, and hanging leg raises help you learn how to develop and also maintain proper pull-up specific body positioning.

Some common culprit exercises that many people believe will help their pull-up performance, yet have a relatively low carryover as they are not specific enough to pull-ups, include lat pull-downs, biceps curls, and machine assisted pull-ups.

These are just a few of many exercises I could list. The fact I named machine assisted pull-ups as one of these exercises might surprise you, so I will discuss this in my next point.

Mistake #4: Relying on Machine Assisted Pull-ups and Band Assisted Pull-ups

In most cases, I am not a fan of machine assisted pull-ups.

At least, I strongly believe there are many better options.

While machine assisted pull-ups do allow you to focus on scapular movement, so this is one benefit of the exercise, due to the fact you are kneeling on a pad, your body is in a completely different position to when you are performing regular pull-ups, and you don’t need to generate and maintain full body tension.

In essence, the need for pull-up specific body positioning and lumbo-pelvic stability are almost entirely removed from the overall equation. When it comes to training for actual pull-ups, there are plenty of other pull-up regressions and accessory exercises that are much more specific to actual pull-ups, and will have a vastly greater carryover to your pull-up performance.

Now when it comes to band assisted pull-ups, if they are implemented and execute correctly, and at an appropriate time in your training program, they can have a positive impact.

However, an abundance of people make the mistake of training for pull-ups by relying purely on band assistance, and they omit performing all of the other extremely important pull-up specific regressions.

With band-assisted pull-ups, the band provides the help in the bottom position of the movement, and this is when most people do not need the most assistance. Another key issue with band assisted pull-ups, the band makes it easy to disregard proper body positioning, and generating the requisite levels of tension around the spine, hips, and lower body.

Due to all of the above, when many people eliminate the band and attempt to perform regular pull-ups, they flounder.

Before you introduce band assisted pull-ups to your training program, you should have already developed the proper pull-up specific technique, the ability to control the movement of your shoulder blades and shoulders, and the ability to generate the requisite levels of tension and pull-up specific body positioning.

In short, when you are utilizing band assistance, it is imperative that your form is identical to when you are performing regular unassisted pull-ups. Also, you want to use as little assistance as needed, but as much as necessary so you can perform 100% of your reps with impeccable form.

 

Mistake #5: Insufficient Grip Strength

While this kind of goes without saying, if you cannot support your bodyweight from a hanging position, your ability to perform pull-ups will suffer. An insufficient grip plagues many people of all fitness levels and abilities, not just beginners.

Adding some grip specific exercises to your training program will positively impact your overall ability to perform pull-ups.

A few of my favorite exercises for improving grip strength include loaded carries, and bottoms-up kettlebell presses.

Loaded Carries

Key Points: (describing loaded carries with dumbbells by sides)

  • For the duration of the exercise, maintain the canister position. Your head, torso and hips should remain in a stacked position. Do not allow your lower back to hyperextend or ribcage to flare.
  • Keep your arms rigid (all the way down to your hands), and pretend you are trying to crush something in your armpits.
  • For the duration of the exercise, maintain your 360 degree brace, and maintain regular breathing (360 degrees of air around your spine).

 

Bottoms-Up Kettlebell Presses

Key Points:

  • For the duration of the exercise, maintain the canister position. Your head, torso and hips should remain in a stacked position. Do not allow your lower back to hyperextend or ribcage to flare.
  • Keep the muscles in your forearm engaged, and wrist in a vertical position.
  • Do not keep your shoulder blades pinned. They are supposed to move. This applies to both the concentric and eccentric components of the movement.
  • Before you initiate each press, take a deep breath in, (360 degrees of air around your spine), brace your core (360 degree brace around your spine), tuck your ribs towards your hips, and squeeze your glutes. This will help stabilize your hips and spine.

Want to Learn More Pull-Up Badassery?

You can (and then some) by checking out The Complete Trainers’ Toolbox.

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We all have encountered the same problems you have as a fitness professional; so here’s how we handled them.

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CategoriesProgram Design

3 Quickie Programming Notes On the Pullup

Today I wanted to share some quickie thoughts with regards to pull-up/chin-up programming. I firmly believe possessing the ability to perform a pull-up, if not multiple pull-ups, is one of the most rewarding and worthwhile achievements to accomplish in the weight-room.[footnote]Okay, maybe second to not destroying the back of your pants during a squat PR attempt. Not shitting yourself is always a win.[/footnote]

  • Pull-ups are a fantastic way to measure and gauge relative strength; I.e., your strength relative to your bodyweight.
  • Pull-ups are great for overall shoulder health; I.e., help to offset muscular imbalances and/or strength asymmetries from pressing too much.
  • Pull-ups make you look yoked.
  • Pull-ups don’t require expensive equipment to perform.
  • There are an infinite number of variations you can play around with.
  • Uh, if you ever find yourself climbing a mountain, pull-ups help you from falling off it.
  • Let’s see.
  • They’re just good for you, alright. Trust me.
Copyright: vertolet / 123RF Stock Photo

 

When it comes to programming the pull-up/chin-up here are some things to consider.

1. All Rows Count

I think where a lot of trainees (and even coaches) go wrong is falling into the trap that in order for someone to perform their first pull-up/chin-up that they have to do pull-ups/chin-ups.

My friend Meghan Callaway did a great job of extolling why this is not necessarily the case in THIS post.

That said, I think all rowing movements count and should be utilized in this scenario.

Yes, specificity matters and takes precedent.

However, building pulling strength in general – incorporating row variations from varying angles with varying implements with varying set/rep schemes – is going to have a profound carryover for pretty much everyone.

 

What’s more, and as my other good friend, Bryan Krahn, has noted on several occasions…building a muscular physique can take years (if not decades).

As such, “its best to use joint friendly exercises as your training “cake” with other effective yet potentially problematic moves serving as “icing.”

When it comes to back training:

Cake: Rows (ALL FORMS <— seriously, use them all)

Icing: Pull-ups

Pull-ups can (not always) beat up people’s elbows – particularly when volume is cranked up and someone’s not prepared for it.

To that end, be intelligent and don’t downplay your rows.

2. Do More

Now, forget what I just said about volume.

I think one of the biggest mistakes I see most people make with their pull-up/chin-up programming is that they simply don’t train the pattern enough.

Most people will train their pull-up once, maybe twice per week.

This isn’t enough.

Strong First coach and pull-up badass, Artemis Scantalides, will often advocate a frequency of 4-5x per week.

To mirror what I mentioned above, though, when Artemis says 4-5x per week that includes a hodge-podge of ground based drills like push-ups and hollow holds, pull-up assistance drills such as band-assisted pull-ups, eccentric pull-ups, and flexed-arm hangs, in addition to TRX row variations or even hybrid drills like a Rack Pull-Up.

 

So, not just pull-ups/chin-ups.

Starting to catch a theme here?

One day may include nothing but Hollow Hold drills; the next Flexed Arm Hangs for time; and the next Band Assisted Pull-Ups.

Later in the week you toss in some high-rep TRX Rows.

All told that’s four separate “exposures” during one training week that either hit the pattern itself or have a favorable carryover. You can bet this will be a far superior and time efficient manner to finally conquer that pull-up/chin-up conundrum.

3. Easy Training Is Good Training

I’ve championed this saying before, but it bears repeating. I’d rather my clients leave the gym feeling refreshed and wanting more than feeling like the lost an arm-wrestling match to a tank.

That doesn’t even make any sense, which is precisely my point.

Neither does it make sense to train to failure every…single…set…of…every…single…day.

Missing reps routinely does you no favors. Straining, fighting, and clawing for every rep does you no favors.

By contrast, hitting your reps helps you. Ensuring the bulk of them are clean, “fast,” and performed with pristine technique helps you.

With regards to increasing the total number of pull-ups you can perform this is key. It’s called greasing the groove, and it works.

Lets say you can currently perform four pull-ups and you want to be able to do more. Stop TESTING the total number you can do and actually BUILD it.

Every few hours, perform HALF that number; in this case two.

This will ensure each rep is textbook. Jesus himself will weep because these reps will be so immaculate.

  • If you do this 4-5x per day that’s 8-10 immaculate pull-ups.
  • Over the course of a week that 56-70 immaculate pull-ups.
  • Over the course of a month that’s 216-280 wet dream inducing pull-ups.

You will be able to perform more than four pull-ups after all that.

And you won’t feel like a bag of dicks either.

The Ultimate Pull-Up Program

If you’d like more similar insights on the topic I’d encourage you to pick up Meghan Callaway’s fantastic resource.

It’s impressive, thorough, and something she put a ton of work into. I can’t say enough good things about it.

Whether you’re a male, female, beginner, or elite lifter…this manual will have something to offer you. It’s currently on SALE for half-off the original price and the sale ends TONIGHT (10/27) at midnight.

Soooo, you need to act fast.

Go HERE.

CategoriesUncategorized

Sam Bennett Can’t Do a Pull-Up? He’ll Be Just Fine.

I’ll be honest right out of the gate:  I don’t follow hockey, let alone watch it. Truth be told I’ve never even been to a live hockey event.

I’ve lived in Boston for around seven years now, and the only time I’ve ever stepped foot in TD Garden – where both the Bruins (NHL – hockey) and Celtics (NBA – basketball) play – was to attend a Star Wars in Concert event when Lisa and I first started dating five years ago.

It was awesome. There was a GIANT screen playing scenes from all the movies coinciding with a live orchestra playing John Williams’ classic soundtrack.  And Anthony Daniels, C3pO himself!, was there emceeing the entire thing.

Lisa wore her hair in a Princess Leia bun (sooooooooooo hot, and it was then I knew she was a keeper), and I wore one of my 27 vintage Star Wars t-shirts.  We even took a picture with a StormTrooper.

Ah, young love.

So, um, yeah…..while I’ve trained a handful of hockey players in my coaching career, I have yet to go to an actual hockey game.

They score touchdowns in hockey, right?…….;o)

Last week I received several messages from people asking me my opinion on top hockey prospect, Sam Bennett, and how he failed to perform one single pull-up during the NHL Combine recently.

A quick search pointed me in the right direction.  Some headline highlights:

Top Hockey Prospect Fails to do a Pull-Up.

Top Hockey Prospect Sam Bennett Can’t Do One Pull-Up at NHL Draft Combine

Top Prospect Sam Bennett Posts No Pull-Ups at 2014 Combine.

You can read some of the headlines yourself HERE and HERE.

I’m surprised the media didn’t go even further and produce more headlines like Top Prospect Has Stinky Armpits or Sam Bennett Asked a Girl Out and She Said No….Hahahahaha.

WTF – way to throw the guy under the bus media. Nice job! Worse still were many of ensuing comments from people who have nothing better to do with their lives than leave anonymous comments.

Like this doozy from MOJO1120:

“This is kind of crazy. While many of the things would be difficult for me I can still do pull ups and I am 40 years old and slightly overweight.  Almost does not seem possible.”

Well shit, I know that pie is 3.14 (and then some, x infinity) but that doesn’t mean I can compare myself to a NASA scientist and think I can send a satellite to Mars.

I’d like to see this guy lace up the skates and see if he could last 30 seconds on the ice with Mr. Bennett.  My money would be on Sam.

And that’s just one rather mellow example. Perusing other articles and the subsequent comments I found any number of off-color dialogue and vitriol directed towards Sam.

“Is this what professional sports is coming to???”

“OMG, this kid won’t last a year in the NHL!!”

Blah, blah, blah.

A few thoughts:

1.  Last time I checked, one’s ability to perform a pull-up doesn’t necessarily equate to athletic prowess in one’s respective sport.  It seems Sam did okay for himself competing against his peers, tallying 55 assists and scoring 36 goals in 57 games this past season.

He may not be able to perform a pull-up (now), but that somehow didn’t deter him from dominating in the rink this past season. He can take all the other pull-ups everyone else did and compare that to the number of zeros he’ll see on his signing bonus check.

2.  Also, lets not forget that (absolute) strength (and relative strength) is just ONE aspect of athleticism. Athletes still need to develop force rapidly (RFD) and be able to accelerate and decelerate their bodyweight, as well as change direction in multiple planes to succeed.

As my boy Bret Contreras notes:  “if maximal strength were the end-all-be-all in sports performance, powerlifters around the world would be dominating the competition in various sports.”

3.  Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma Thunder took heat a few years ago when he failed to bench press 185 lbs at the NBA combine.  Much like Sam is now, Durant had to endure all the media and internet “hate” and many people questioned whether he’d last one season.

Well, one MVP, four scoring titles, and five NBA All-Star teams later…..he seems to be doing just fine.

4.  More importantly, what gets lost in the noise is that Sam is ONLY 17 YEARS OLD!!!! He’s a kid for crying out loud!!!

Chances are he’s spent the majority of his career playing hockey and more in the absolute speed side of the training continuum.  I can’t say for sure, but I’m confident he’s set foot in a weight room, but maybe hasn’t yet prioritized that component yet.

The fact he wasn’t able to perform a pull-up should be making NHL scouts, coaches, and General Managers salivate!!!

If he performs this well now, as a relatively un-trained athlete (as far as weight-room antics go), just imagine how much of a BEAST he’s going to be when he develops and adopts more of a strength base.

He has an almost infinite ceiling of adaptability as far as I’m concerned. The sky’s the limit! He’s going to be just fine.

Shut-up internet!

UPDATE:  I feel I need to add an addendum here.  By no means am I saying it’s a good thing that a 17 year old, elite level athlete can’t do a pull-up.  I see this all the time, unfortunately, with many of the young athletes who step through the doors at Cressey Performance.

It’s a testament to us as a society – in a negative way – that we’re in the midst of a generation who can’t perform simple tasks that many could do quite easily not too long ago.  Kids nowadays are more concerned with how fast they can send a text message than they are in their ability to do a proper lunge or squat pattern or handstand.

That being said, I do feel that many people are blowing this waaaaaaay out of proportion, which served as the impetus for my original post. I don’t feel there’s a need to attack the kid or make him feel like he’s an embarrassment to the human race like some (not all) are doing.

I guarantee once he starts a well-structured, CONSISTENT strength training routine (where he’s NOT playing hockey year round) he’s going to make people eat their words.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 1/16/14

Before we begin I just wanted to share a funny exchange I had on Twitter yesterday. Some people crack me up.

So I posted a link to my blog post from yesterday – Exercises You Should Be Doing: Split Stance Trap RDL.

Literally all the Tweet said was “Exercises You Should Be Doing” followed by the link.

A few minutes later someone Tweets back with the comment, “Why?  It’s a little over the top.”

To which I responded, “Uh, read the post and find out.”

And then they came back with, “ok.”

I just find it comical that someone would pass judgement on something without actually taking the time to read what the post was about in the first place.  It’s akin to all the belly aching in Congress over the budget.  They finally come to a compromise after three years and a government shut-down.  It’s not perfect, but they decided to put their big-boy and big-girl pants on, stop acting like children, and come to a compromise.

Then I watch some interview with some ass-clown Congressman go on a tirade on how, “Well, I haven’t read the actual document, but based off of the reporting I’ve heard, it’s going to ruin America!”

W……..T……..F!?!?!??!

Like I said, people crack me up.

7 Ways to to Dominate the Pull-Up – Nick Tumminello

I’d argue that the pull-up is the best predictor of overall relative strength.  I think I remember Joe DeFranco mentioning how he’s seen a correlation in some of his athletes and how well they’ll do in their 40-yd dash time.

Nevertheless, pull-ups are kind of a big deal and in this article Nick does a fantastic job offering some new ways to approach training them.

Expectation  Management – Collin McHugh

Even for those who don’t make a living throwing a baseball 90+ MPH, this was a fantastic read on what it really takes to grind it through professional baseball season.

More importantly it serves as a needed wake-up call to many “entitled” young athletes who feel that just because they signed a professional contract that the world owes it to them to make it to the Big Leagues.

Slow clap to Collin for writing this article.  Awesome, awesome stuff.

And lastly I wanted to share two videos with you between Kevin Kuzia and David Dellanave. The two of them had a heart-to-heart “chat” a few weeks ago about entrepreneurship which sparked the two of them to post up a few “riff” videos discussing their thoughts on the matter.

Giving a brief background: Kevin tends to play the “conservative” card, plays things safe, and doesn’t feel he takes too many risks when it comes to stepping outside is comfort zone; something I can relate with 100%.

On the flip side, David, is a risk taker and always has been.

I just found the discussion fascinating and I think both videos are worth a look.

The Entrepreneurship Dichotomy – Kevin Kuzia

And here is David’s fantastic advice (and beard).

Talkin’ Bout Entrepreneurship

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work Uncategorized

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: Zombies!, Pull-Ups, and the best Warm-Up Article EVER

Wait a second – my alarm went off this morning.  I don’t think I’m dreaming.

*looks out window*

Volcanoes aren’t erupting, the streets aren’t flooded with molten lava, and from what I can tell, everything seems business as usual.

The Mayanpocalypsearmeggedonacaust didn’t happen.  We’re all still here!!!!!!

High Five!

But be weary my friends – we’re still not out of the woods yet.  The day is still young, and you never know when s*** is going to hit the fan.

If things do get real, and you’re forced to fight for your life, whether it be killing a grizzly bear with your nunchucks for your next meal, protecting your family from evil doers, or I don’t know, something less “doom and gloom” like clicking “next” whenever your Pandora station plays a Coldplay song……are you prepared?

Are you in enough ass-kicking shape to do what you need to do to get s*** done? Can you – WILL YOU – survive if you had to go all Snake Plissken on people’s asses?

Well just in case, earlier this week my boy, John Romaniello, released his latest training program:

Zombie Apocalypse Survival Workout

I know some reading are going to dismiss this product due to the “less than serious” premise. To that I say:

1.  Relax!  Don’t take yourself so seriously.

AND

2.  There’s actually a legitimate rationale behind it.

John, along with every other well-known fitness professional I know, routinely gets questions asking his opinion on CrossFit (myself included).

It’s a touchy topic to say the least, and something that has caused a rift between strength coaches, personal trainers, and fitness enthusiasts alike.

On one end of the spectrum you have those who swear by it, and literally eat, drink, breath, and LIVE by CrossFit.

On the other, you have those who loathe it, think it’s a fad, and that it’s hopefully going away.  Like, soon.

Well, it’s not going away.  And while I’ll be the first to admit that I too have my qualms with CrossFit, I also understand that it’s getting people excited to exercise, and there’s a lot to be said for that. How can I possibly poo-poo on that?

Like John I feel the idea of CrossFit is sound – it’s just that its execution is flawed.

To his credit John has been attending at least one CrossFit class a week for the past few months to try to get a better understanding and feel for what the culture is like.

And, not surprisingly, he’s mentioned several times that there are great coaches and absolutely terrible coaches.

The great coaches – and by extension, the most successful CF boxes – understand that it comes down to sound programming.  They take the time to properly coach their clients and use appropriate exercise progressions (and more importantly, regressions) to “guide” them through.

By contrast, the terrible coaches – and unfortunately this seems to be the rule rather than the exception – focus solely on the workouts. How can we completely obliterate our athletes/clients and make them hate life?  How can we – fingers crossed! – make them cough up their spleen?

The latter is what I 100% disagree with, and what I feel gives CrossFit its bad rap.

So what did Roman do?  He started taking CrossFit classes to see if he could fix it.

To quote the man himself:

“I thought to myself, “what if you took the idea of CrossFit–the idea of non-
specification,the idea of having a high level of general proficiency across the
board, and applied intelligent programming–with a classic Roman twist–to
that idea…what would you get?”

It’s a good question, and one worth exploring. So that’s what I did.

What I wound up with was the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Workout. 

Because really, when you strip away the fun and silliness, that’s what ZAW 
really is: my take on CrossFit. It’s CrossFit, Roman style, with all of the issues 
with programming fixed.”

Fittingly, today is the last day of the sale, so if you’re interested you better hurry.  The walking dead could be right around the corner……;o)

6 Coaches Weigh in on Pull-Ups – 6 Coaches, Duh!

Along with Bret Contreras, Ben Bruno, Dean Somerset, Tim Henriques, and Dan Trink, I was asked to contribute to this awesome pull-up article that was put up on T-Nation yesterday.

If we were a boy band, we’d totally be the most diesel boy band ever.

I’d be the shy one.

Warm-Up – Mike Robertson

The title says it all.

I wrote a blog post a while back titled The Perfect Warm-Up?  It was nothing revolutionary, but it cemented my thoughts on what I felt the purpose of a proper warm-up is, and then I offered a different spin on it.

Well, in THIS article – which should be titled The FOR REAL Perfect Warm-Up – Mike breaks everything down from what the warm-up should accomplish for each segment of the body to providing videos of all of his favorite drills.  This is a MUST read.

 

CategoriesUncategorized

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: Chin-Ups vs. Pull-Ups and a Little Bit of Bittman

It’s been brought to my attention that some of you who have been long-time subscribers to the blog (through Blogger or Google Reader) haven’t been getting any updates of current content.  As it so happens, when we switched over to the new site, I was an asshat and forgot all of my login info for the old site.  Go figure!

As a result, we had to set up a new feed through feedburner, so for those interested here it is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/gentilcore

Unfortunately, my first choice, http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mr. Alicia Keys was already taken.  Nonetheless, hopefully this clears up some of the confusion, and I appreciate all of those who contacted me personally to give me the head’s up that this was an issue.

And now, here’s some stuff you should read.

Pull-Up or Chin-Up?  Which is Better? – Mike Reinold

Mike discusses some interesting research and breaks down the chin-up and pull-up and explains which one is “better.”

Is ‘Eat Real Food’ Unthinkable – Mark Bittman

One of my femaie clients sent me the link to this article a few weeks ago, and I was just able to sit down and read it the other day.  All I have to say “right on!”  Here, Bittman calls out the USDA and basically states what friends like Cassandra Forsythe, Mike Roussell, Brian St. Pierre, Leigh Peele, John Berardi, and a lot of other really smart peeeps have been saying for years.  Namely, the USDA needs to get their head out of their ass.

How to Make Oatmeal….Wrong – Mark Bittman

Yet another female client sent me this link, which essentially sparked me to read the article above.  I figured that if two separate clients sent me two different articles, from the same author, I should probably check them out.

I gotta say, this Bittman guy has a new fan.  I love his no BS approach.  It’s weird how practical, common sense can go a long ways.