I love articles that are straight to the point and offer personal perspective from the author. This was a fantastic article by Bret showcasing that you don’t HAVE to go on the “all you can eat” diet in order to get stronger.
“Pick your ideal weight and try to be as strong as possible at that weight”
Words of wisdom from my boy Bret.
If nothing else, read the article to see a picture of Bret when he was fat. Classic (and an awesome way to make a point).
The only way to get good at something – anything! – is to actually do it. A lot.
Like, all the time.
I’m reading a fantastic book right now called Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success, which, much like it’s predecessors Outliers and Talent is Overrated, hammers the point that PURPOSEFUL practice (10,000 + hours to be exact) is the key to success.
The Beatles didn’t become THE Beatles overnight. Likewise, Bill Gates certainly didn’t become a kazillion-bajillionaire in a week. In both scenarios, it came down to unique circumstances, and PRACTICE!
More to the point, in this post Steve notes that the reason he’s able to write such effective programs is because he’s failed numerous times in the past, but consistently continued to PRACTICE writing more of them and then applying them to real people. In a sense: he’s learned to coach his ass off, which is something I wish more trainers and coaches would learn to grasp.
As the titles implies, ladies: there’s no reason why you can’t train “like a man.” Here Al does a fantastic job dispelling some of the common myths that women tend to fall prey to:
– You have to do more cardio to burn fat
– Crunches flatten the abs
– You can spot reduce
– It’s impossible to spend less than 30 minutes in the bathroom when getting ready for A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G
Okay, that last one was an LOL added in by me. But nonetheless, the overall message is something that I feel is important to highlight, and needs to spread like wildfire.
Ladies: it’s okay to lift (heavy) weights and to step away from the Pilates class/not buy those pair of shoes that you can’t afford even though they’re on sale.
Below is a portion of an interview I did for another blog on the topic of women and training. I thought I’d share some of it here, since I know a fair portion of my audience are women (as well as those who train women).
On a scale 1-10, with 1 being the equivalent of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy and 10 being Rocky IV, this interview is a 10. Easy.
Enjoy.
On how the media portrays training to women. Is there any way to change what is being marketed as “exercise” to women?….
TG: Completely true, and it’s something that I do see changing – albeit at a snail’s pace. Walk down any aisle at your local grocery store, and you’re bound to see numerous “women’s” magazines with a teeny-tiny (airbrushed) actress or model on the cover holding a pink dumbbell underneath some innocuous title like “10 Tips for a Bikini Body” or “Tank Top Triceps!” or something equally as vomit-in-my-mouthish.
In reality, it’s not even the title that’s the most nauseating – it’s the remedial, almost offensive workouts that are attached. I mean, come on: recommending a workout based solely around a can of soup (which I saw one national magazine publish) – how to curl with it, squat with it, lunge with it, throw it at the editor’s face who decided this was viable fitness information – is a bit of waste of everyone’s time don’t cha think?
But, this is the type of stuff that’s marketed towards women all…….the…….freakin…….time. As you noted, can you blame women when they curl up in the fetal position whenever you ask them to lift something heavier than their Prada bag?
Note: not every women does this, of course. Many are more than willing to listen. But, it’s pretty comical when you think about it. Many are lugging around bags (and kids!) that are pretty heavy and they don’t bat an eye.
Hand them a 50 lb dumbbell, however, and label it as “exercise,” and all of sudden they’re worried about adding on too much muscle.
Most of what they know about fitness is what the likes of Tracy Anderson regurgitates to them: “no woman should EVER lift a weight heavier than three pounds.”
More to the point, as far as the mainstream media is concerned, I don’t think their formula is going to change anytime soon. While it’s changing somewhat for the better – they do still have to sell magazines, and what sells magazines are articles with Kim Kardashian on the cover telling the world that performing body weight exercises with high heels on is the key to badonkadonkness.
Thankfully, we have women out there like Nia Shanks, Molly Galbraith, Jen Comas Keck, Neghar Fonooni, and the rest of the Girls Gone Strong crew fighting the good fight and trying to empower women to step away from the elliptical and treadmill. Likewise, I too try my best to provide information to women that goes against the norm of what they’ve been spoon fed for decades.
I try to debunk as many myths as I can – lifting heavy things WILL NOT make you a She-Man, endless hours of cardio IS NOT the key to fat loss, Yoga WILL NOT make your muscles long and lean, Tracy Anderson IS NOT a credible source of fitness and health information and is about as intelligent as a ham sandwich. There’s still a very long battle a head, but I do see the tides turning, and it’s a beautiful thing.
On how to convince a woman who is scared to “bulk up” and feels she needs endless amounts of cardio to drop body fat…..
TG: The best thing I can do as a coach is listen. I try to ask as many questions as possible and do a little digging.
How often do they train?
What has their training looked like?
Are they happy with their results?
If not, how come?
What is their ideal body type?
Why?
What do they feel is holding them back?
Team Jacob or team Edward?
So on and so forth. Once I’m done listening, I then go into a little (not a lot) of what I feel would be the best approach to take given their goals. Almost inevitably, once I start throwing out words like squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, Prowlers, strength training, “we’re going to dominate the world”…….I’ll start to get a little push-back, and many of the same myths and fallacies I described above – things many of these women have been falling prey to for YEARS, with limited (if any) results mind you – rear their ugly heads.
Once that happens, I have one more question for them: “how’s that working for you?”
Clearly, if their way is the superior way, and it’s the approach they’ve been using for the past 5-10 years…….it MUST be working, right?
Not so much.
To that end, all I ask is that they give me two months.
Give it their all for 60 days and see what happens. Almost always, after three weeks……..they’re hooked.
Once they start to see (and feel) the confidence they gain, it’s always a done deal. Once they realize that putting an extra ten pounds on the bar won’t turn them into The Rock (and they can fit into their “skinny” jeans), and they start noticing small, incremental changes to their body, the sky’s the limit.
On setting goals
TG: With any client – whether I’m working with a male or female – it’s usually my job to tell them what they need to do, and not what they want to do. Big difference.
With any client, it’s about getting them outside their comfort zone. Generally speaking, with women, their Kryptonite is the free-weight area.
Can you blame them? Who wants to train around a bunch of dudes who smell like they fell into a pool of Axe body spray, stare at themselves in the mirror incessantly, and do stupid stuff like this:
Hell, I don’t want to be around that.
That notwithstanding, having clear and defined (not to mention realistic and attainable) goals is an important component many trainees fail to grasp. As a trainer or coach, I think it’s crucial to sit down with your client and come up with a goal or set of goals – whether it’s to perform an unassisted, body weight chin-up, shoot for “x” number of lbs on the deadlift, or to lose ten lbs of fat by the end of the month. Having something to work for gives people a sense of purpose and holds them more accountable in the end.
With the women that I train, they’re going to get coached on all the basic movements – squats, deadlifts, push-ups, etc. Much like you, it’s not uncommon for many of the women I train to boast that someone complimented them on their deadlift form, and I totally dig that!
Even cooler is when they come back with stories about how they were waiting to “jump in” on a certain exercise at the commercial gym, and they warmed-up with the weight that the guy finishing up used on his last set.
In the end, though, it’s about coaching the basics. There’s no need to make things more complicated than they have to be. Nor is it doing them any favors to “baby” them. I never quite understood this whole mentality that women can’t train like the boys, and lift some appreciable weight. Anyone else agree?
By now, I’m sure there are some reading who are thinking to themselves, “alright Gentilcore, lets turn the page for crying out loud!,” or feel as if Charlie Brown’s teacher is talking to them:, “Wannk, wannk, wannk………”
I didn’t think it was possible, but what started as a quick blog post on some simple chin-up progressions for women, quickly turned into my version of War and Peace.
For those just joining in on the fun, I’d highly encourage you to check out the previous two parts, HERE and HERE.
In keeping with the momentum from yesterday – where I talked about the efficacy of performing eccentric only chin-ups – another viable option would be to perform…….
Loaded Eccentric Chin-Ups
As a brief review, we’re much stronger during the eccentric (lowering) portion of any movement compared to the concentric (overcoming/lifting) portion. For the guys out there reading, this is why it’s sometimes advantageous to include some dedicated eccentric-only benching variations to help improve overall strength, as well as induce some pretty significant muscle gains. Pecs for days!!!!!!
Bringing this back to the topic at hand, for women, eccentric only chin-ups are a definite STAPLE in terms of getting over that 1-rep hump. What’s more, you can also make them even more challenging by adding an external load in the form of a weight vest or maybe a weight belt with a dumbbell or plate attached.
The same principles would apply: you’d jump up and lower yourself as controlled as possible. Except here, the awesomeness factor is increased by roughly 312% because of the additional external load
Granted, there aren’t going to be a lot of instances where I’m going to LOAD an eccentric-0nly chin-up – especially if we’re still vying for that one full, unassisted rep – but it’s something we can keep in our exercise toolbox nonetheless.
Chin-Up Isometric Holds
What I love about isometric holds is that there’s going to be a carryover to the 10-15 degrees (above and below) the joint angle being held. Meaning, I can have someone perform an isometric hold in or around their “sticking point,” and there will be a noticeable carryover.
Of course, for many women, you may remember those dreadful flex-arm hangs that your PE teacher used to make you do back in the day, and I apologize if I brought back any bad memories.
That said, they’re actually a valuable tool that you can implement almost instantaneously. I like two options:
1. At the start of a training session – when you’re the most fresh – jump up and hold for a specific time frame. I generally like to start with anywhere from 20-30 seconds (and build-up from there) for 4-5 sets.
2. Conversely, at the end of a training session – when you hate life – hold in the BOTTOM position and try as best you can to pull yourself up from a dead-hang. Grab the bar, jump up, lower yourself controlled, and when you come juuuuuuust short of locking your elbows out, HOLD!!!!!!
It seems counterproductive, but I feel there’s some merit in adding a few grinders into the mix and attempt to “muscle” yourself out of the starting position. Of course, I’m not interested in you looking as if you’re having a seizure in mid-air. The less “body english” the better.
Keeping your shoulder blades retracted and depressed, try as best you can to pull yourself up from a dead hang.
Remember, even if you don’t budge, there’s going to be a certain degree of carryover (above and below) the joint angle being worked.
Pull for 10-15 seconds. Stop.
Do this for a total of 3-5 “sets.”
Band Assisted Chin-Up
This is probably the most well known variation, and arguably the least understood. I’ve had several TRAINERS argue with me that they see no difference between a counterbalanced chin-up machine and their band-assisted counterparts. Not surprisingly, these are the same trainers who haven’t picked up a book in five years and think watching The Biggest Loser counts as continuing education.
Sad, but true.
The reason why I prefer band assisted variations is that they take advantage of the strength curve. In about as non-scientific as I can make it: the band “assists” you where you’re most weak – in this case, at the bottom of the chin-up when the arms are full extended. Conversely, as you pull your body towards the bar, and the joint angles are more in your favor, the band assists less and less and you start utilizing more of your own strength to complete the movement.
In this way, depending on one’s ability, we can use varying set-ups and/or thicknesses of bands to progress or regress the exercise in a much more conducive way.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
1. Remember: attitude is king. Stop thinking that you can’t do something, and instead, dominate it. Sure, it’s going to take time and a lot of hard work, but you CAN DO IT!!!!
2. Frequency is kind of a big deal. Now, one thing to consider is that for females (and males for that matter) who can’t perform one chin-up, ANY chin-up is going to be a max effort lift. That said, I’d still recommend shooting for “x” number of reps per day, albeit spread out. Perform 2-3 eccentric reps in the AM, 2-3 at lunch, and 2-3 at dinner time, no matter what. Anything more than that is just gravy on top.
3. Seriously, get an Iron Gym. Arguably the best $27 you can spend on yourself. Mascara included.
4. As far as programming: if performing a chin-up is a priority for you, then you need to make sure that you start each training session with a chin-up variation. Yes, EVERY session. So, for example, if you train three times per week….
Session One: start with one of the TRX progressions highlighted in Part I.
Session Two: start with eccentric only chin-ups
Session Three: use one of the band-assisted variations showcased in the video above.
And there you have it. I’m sure I could elaborate a bit more, but in all honesty, if you’re still reading, you deserve a Nobel Prize.
Armed with these suggestions, you should be more than ready to conquer the chin-up.
1. I wrote an article five years ago.
2. It got sucked into some sort of internet blackhole, and no longer exists.
3. I used part of the article for another blog post HERE.
4. I had several people contact me to ask where they could find the rest of the article.
5. Since I had the original draft saved on my laptop, I decided to re-post the article on my blog.
6. Apparently, to some, I’m a chauvinistic a-hole who thinks women are dumb, and don’t deserve the right to vote.
7. Wait a second…..women can vote?????????
8. Just kidding.
9. See what I just did there? That’s called sarcasm.
Anyways, even though it was a piece I wrote a while go, it was obviously new to a lot of people, and I was surprised at how extensively it made its rounds throughout the blogosphere.
All told, the article was received very well. But as to be expected, there was some backlash, and that’s cool. I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with me.
Some women felt I was insulting them and they didn’t like my tone. Well, to be honest, the article wasn’t originally intended FOR women; it was intended (as another reader commented) for the men who hear a lot of the same complaints from poorly-informed women all…the…freakin…time.
More to the point: my goal was to convey that, when all is said and done, lifting heavy things = sexy (or whatever adjective you prefer), regardless of whether you’re a Victoria Secret model or just someone who likes to train for the hell of it.
Nonetheless, my girlfriend and I had a really great discussion about all of this over the weekend during our Saturday “date night.” As far as conversations are concerned, it definitely ranked up there as one of our most intellectual (poop).
Afterwards, we kept the momentum and went and saw a subtitled film. Totally not kidding.
She’s kind of smart, finishing up her doctorate in sports psychology in a few short weeks, so I asked her if she’d be willing to write down her thoughts and share them here.
This is what she said.
[Smoke bomb, smoke bomb, exits stage right]
Unplugged From the Matrix
Women’s fitness is controversial. Women’s fitness is confusing. Women’s fitness may or may not even exist. Learning that women and men should be doing the same basic movements to be fit, healthy, and in shape is the same as being unplugged from the “Matrix”, if you will.
For those non-sci-fi-readers, it is the same as learning that the earth is round, when you have been told your entire life that the earth is flat. Tony’s article on 4 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know is controversial because it unplugs us from the Matrix – it exclaims that the earth is round!
The beauty of the article, aside from its truth, is the passion and controversy it provokes. I say bravo, in small part to Tony, but more so to the men and women who responded to the article – who have feelings about ‘women’s fitness’ – and who, most importantly, are insulted by ‘Women’s Fitness’.
To ‘Yuck’, I am glad that you are insulted…. Say more! What language does the industry have to speak to women? To educate women? To help women to be healthy and efficacious in their fitness endeavors? At present, and in my humble opinion, the language of bullshit. Women, and men, harangue us on television, in magazines, and on the internet with promises of “toned” “thin” “longer” muscles and body parts.
‘Yuck’, are you insulted by Strippercize? By Yoga Booty Ballet? By the Pussycat Dolls Workout? I am. I am insulted that the industry has tried to convince me all my life that steady-state, low-impact, sexualized strutting is the key to me becoming healthy, sexy, and thin.
I am insulted that I am bombarded with false information at my every turn, and I am angry that I believed and followed bullshit advice for so many years. What I love about your comments, and your message, is that it is insulting to be spoken to as if we are “stupid”.
What it means to be a woman, and what is acceptable for a woman to be, has changed dramatically in the eyes of both society and the fitness industry since the 1960’s. Unfortunately, not enough. We may not sit back and wait for popular culture to hand us true, evidence-based, ulterior-motive free information. We must ask for it. We must demand it. And we must make it known that we are pissed off, indignant, and insulted when we are given otherwise.
“NOBODY EVER TAUGHT US!” I applaud “Ambition” for putting it so plainly, and truthfully. In light of the language of bullshit that pervades the fitness industry, how can we expect the average American women to respond differently?
I agree with Kelsey’s suggestion that Tony submit articles to Shape and Fitness magazines – several sources that insist, month after month, that the earth is flat.
Note from TG: I’ll actually be making my first cameo appearance in Women’s Health this Spring!
Indeed, there are more effective and nicer ways to unplug women, and fitness-ignorant men, from the Matrix.
Christine, I agree that Tony, boyfriends everywhere, and fitness professionals alike could all catch more fitness “flies” with sugar, than with vinegar – But that is another topic altogether.
Sweet or sour, women need to hear the truth
We deserve to hear the truth. How truth is served to us, is up to us, to flavor. “Yuck”, “Well”, Christine, and other readers, tell Tony and the rest of the fitness industry what you want – and how you want it. Don’t stay quiet. Influence the information you receive, and demand what you deserve!
One of the great blessings of my life is that somebody taught me. My father, a bodybuilding, protein-shake-drinking, Arnold Schwarzenegger-admiring man, taught me about and included me in his most beloved hobby for as long as I can remember.I loved him, and in turn, I loved lifting weights.
I was always interested in being strong, in looking strong, and in pulling, pushing, and pressing more. I was never intimidated in the gym, and was often labeled intimidating. I realize that my experience is outside the norm. Most women have never been taught how to take care of and strengthen their bodies, and that is a shame.
Lisa V. suggested that it is shameful for women to be intimidated to lift weights, but the reality is that many are, and that’s not their fault – it’s the fault of society and the fitness industry. We can judge intimidated women all we want, but until we influence them, and until we empower them, we are only part of the problem.
Judgment doesn’t make change… education, communication, and action make change. Bravo to Lisa V., and many other women, for getting to Cressey Performance to train (and Amen that many men are as ignorant as women about how to train!), but the fact remains that you are a beautiful, powerful, exemplary exception – not the rule.
For Lisa V., and “Ambition”, “Yuck”, “Well”, “Speed”, Kelsey, and all of the other women out there who are not intimidated by weights and strength training, who are hungry for the truth, and who are insulted by stupidity and Bullshit – I implore you to keep saying it! It is only through writing, talking, confronting and considering that we can evoke the evolution of the fitness industry – and in turn, of women’s fitness… Whatever that is.
Confront Tony, other fitness professionals, the media, and the images, programs, and bullshit that we are bombarded with.
“Well” expressed her belief that the pictures of the women on Tony’s article were horrible – and I think she may feel this way because these are thin, idealized models who do not appear physically muscular. However, the point of the pictures is to demonstrate that thin and thick women alike lift weights and strength train.
No matter what we look like, or what we want to look like, being fit and strong is elementary to our goal. Personally, I feel that Serena Williams has the hottest, sickest, most amazing body on earth. Will I ever look like her? Unfortunately for me, no. Do pictures of her speak to me? Encourage me? Inspire me? Hell yes.
Whether it’s Serena or Giselle, seeing images of women who weight train is important to women of every shape and size, who aspire to change their body into any shape or size.
Bodybuilders and others who make a career out of their musculature aside, in my opinion, there is no such thing as too muscular. If seeing lots of muscles on a lady is too much for you, than that is you. If a woman wants to kill it in the gym, build muscle mass, and create a physique “outside the box” of acceptable female appearance, good for her! I celebrate her. I admire her. I think she is a badass.
She is healthy, fit, and she sure as hell feels fabulous. As far as I am concerned, saying a woman is too much of an athlete, too masculine, or too far away from the societal standard is chauvinistic, and judgmental. It’s no different than suggesting we should all look like Victoria’s Secret models.
Prakash, and all the others frustrated by the topic of ‘Womens’ Fitness’ – don’t give up! We can create and change the language of the fitness industry – but only if we are active, only if we voice our opinions, and only if we are willing to say over and over again (sweetly or otherwise) that the earth is round!
There is so much more to say on this topic. Thank you for being some of the few who have unplugged from the American Fitness Matrix that is ineffective and insulting. I hope we will all keep talking – and criticizing, comparing, and kvetching. It is the only way to make change. To make it better. To make us stronger.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled Tony Takes a Yoga Class (Part I) that, surprisingly enough, became fairly popular and made its rounds around the blogosphere.
In it, I used part of an old article I wrote years ago titled 4 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know, where, in the first part of that article, I kinda of threw yoga under the bus. Okay, there was no “kinda” about it. Not only did I throw yoga under the bus, but I also somehow managed to challenge it to a wrestling match (it’s my blog, and shit like this happens all the time), where I jumped off the top rope, grabbed it from behind, and suplexed it out of the ring.
It was a one-sided affair, and I think I won pretty convincingly.
My main beef then, and now, is that yoga is often marketed in a way that promises everything to women. It’s somehow the magic pill that will result in long, lean, sexy muscles. In addition, unicorns will fly underneath rainbows with Leprechauns on their backs, and Greys Anatomy will never, ever, ever, never, end.
See what I mean? It promises everything!
Anyways, in the years since I wrote the original article, and as something I went out of my way to touch on in the blog post linked above (as well as elucidate in more depth in Part II)………I’ve changed my mind to an extent.
Yoga ain’t so bad.
I’ve had several people contact me asking me for the rest of that 4 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know article. It was originally published on t-nation.com back in 2007, and subsequently moved to FigureAthlete.com. That site no longer exists, and as a result, the article has vanished into some kind of internet blackhole.
Luckily, I saved the original on my laptop and thought I’d re-post it here for everyone’s viewing enjoyment.
A few notes beforehand:
1. Again, the yoga part is omitted. But you can read it in the Tony Takes a Yoga Class link above.
2. I wrote the article five years ago, so forgive me for the dated pop culture references.
3. To reiterate, I wrote the article FIVE YEARS AGO, so please take that into consideration before you go a head and call me out on anything I said back then that doesn’t jive now.
4. Did I mention I wrote the article five years ago?**
4 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know
*** with the yoga part omitted. So, really, this is 3 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know.
Being a man in today’s society is darn tough. We are constantly inundated with constant struggles and frustrations:
Deciding which is the best trilogy ever made: the ORIGINAL Star Wars or Lord of the Rings?
Which Jessica to choose from: Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba or Jessica Simpson?
Trying our very best to not throw the television out the window every time we see Jared (from Subway) espousing the benefits of eating a low fat diet.
Trying to convince our girlfriend or wife that lifting weights won’t make her look like a she-man.
Being a guy myself, I feel your pain. I know how frustrating it can be to try to convince a woman (let alone your significant other) that doing endless hours of aerobics or spending the majority of her gym time using those hip abductor/adductor machines is a fruitless endeavor from a body composition standpoint. If you’re in the same situation as most guys, the likelihood that your girlfriend will accompany you to the gym on deadlift day is about as slim as Rosie O’Donnell keeping her big yapper shut.
Needless to say, this is for all the guys out there who are losing the battle. This article is going to serve as your ammo to try to convince that special lady in your life that what she has been doing in the gym week in and week out is flat out wrong. You can thank me later.
Low Reps vs. High Reps
I’m not going to sugar coat anything. I’m going to cut right to the chase. I love low rep training. I love low rep training almost as much as I love Justin Timberlake’s “D**k in a Box” parody he did on SNL not too long ago.
Unfortunately, most women (including your girlfriend) are obsessed with “dieting” and love the color pink. As a result, they love to perform endless repetitions with those 8 lb pink dumbbells every chance they get thinking that that will elicit more fat loss. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Memo to your girlfriend:
Ditch the light weights (especially when you’re dieting). You’ll just end up with a fragile, weak, and soft looking body; otherwise known as the “skinny-fat” look. Your muscles will lack what is known as good neurogenic or myogenic tone (basically fancy words used to express muscle hardness).
Simply put, there are two types of muscle tone: myogenic and neurogenic. The former refers to your muscle tone at rest, the latter refers to muscle tone that is expressed when muscular contractions occur.
Low(er) rep training increases the sensitivity of various motor units resulting in increased neurogenic tone. Myogenic tone on the other hand, is correlated with the overall density of your muscles (specifically the contractile proteins myosin and actin) and is vastly improved by lifting heavier weights.
This is going to come as a shock to most women, but utilizing light weights (anything above twelve reps in my book) while dieting will likely result in loss of muscle, which is the exact opposite of what you want to happen.
When dieting, the body will adapt to the caloric deficit by down regulating many of the hormones involved with metabolism (T3, T4, leptin, etc), as well as getting rid of metabolically active tissue – muscle. Obviously one would want to prevent this from happening in the first place, which is why I always recommend that women shit-can the 20 rep sets and start training with heavier weights.
The Inevitable Retort from Your Girlfriend: “Whatever. All the fitness magazines say I should use high reps for fat loss when I’m dieting, and they obviously know what they’re talking about. When are you taking the garbage out?”
When someone goes on a diet, catabolic hormones, which promote muscle breakdown, rise (bad) and anabolic hormones, which promote muscle growth, decline (also bad). Your body is smarter than you, and as I alluded to above, your body will “slow down” to work at your reduced caloric intake.
As a result, it will reduce whatever is metabolically active- muscle. With regards to training, a great way I like to explain things is from a conversation I had via e-mail with Erik Ledin, a well known figure coach I know.
If you train light, you’ll keep enough muscle to be able to continue to train “light.” But given this doesn’t take a lot, from a relative and individual standpoint (ie. it takes more muscle to lift a weight that limits you to 8 reps, than it does to lift a weight that limits you to 20) you’ll keep what you need to accomplish these generally ‘easier’ tasks. The key to a lean, hard body is a nice balance between nutrition, cardio and low rep, heavy weight training. What builds muscle is what keeps muscle.
Train More Like a Man
Question (from you):“Babe, how bout I teach you how to squat today?”
Answer (from your girlfriend): “But I don’t want to get big and bulky.”
Newsflash ladies: you WILL NOT get “big and bulky” just because you’re doing squats and deadlifts. That statement is akin to me saying, “eh, I don’t want to do any sprints today because I don’t want to win the 100m gold medal next week.”
Getting big and bulky isn’t easy, just like winning the 100m gold medal isn’t easy. If anything, it’s quite an insult to all those people who have spent years in the gym to look the way they do. It didn’t happen overnight, which is what you’re assuming by saying something so absurd.
And lets be honest, most people (men AND women) won’t work hard enough to get “big and bulky” in the first place. It’s hard enough for a man to put on any significant amount of muscle, let alone a woman. Women are physiologically at a disadvantage for putting on muscle due to the fact that they have ten times LESS free testosterone in their bodies compared to men.
That being said you still need to get the most out of your training buck, and that includes ditching the glute buster machine and focusing more on the compound movements.
Joe Dowdell, owner of Peak Performance in NYC trains many of the top female models in the city and their programming includes squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, bench variations, sled dragging, and tons of energy system work. Yes, Victoria Secret models are doing squats and deadlifts. And yes, that is completely hot.
Guess what they’re not doing…watching Oprah every day while walking on the treadmill for 60 minutes.
Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you can’t train like a man and lift some serious weight. I never bought into this whole mindset that women are these delicate creatures that can’t hang with the boys.
Steady State Cardio/Aerobics (Not the Fat Loss King You Thought It Was)
Not to beat a dead Barbaro (er, I mean horse), but steady state cardio/aerobics is not the most efficient way to burn body fat. I like lists, so I am going to use a list to prove my point.
1. Steady state cardio doesn’t elevate EPOC all that much, which again is one of the main factors in fat loss. Sure, one hour of steady state cardio will probably burn more calories than one hour of resistance training, but it’s the calories you burn in the other 23 hours OUTSIDE of the gym that really matter.
Essentially, once you’re done doing steady state cardio, you’re done burning calories. However, with resistance training and/or with high intensity interval training (HIIT), your body’s metabolism will be elevated for upwards of 24-48 hours. Thus, you will burn a TON more calories.
2. Speaking of metabolism. Your metabolism is in direct correlation with how much LBM you have. The more LBM you have, the higher your metabolism. Given that long duration, steady state cardio actually eats away muscle; you’re shooting yourself in the foot in that regard.
3. The fat burning zone doesn’t exist. It’s true that your body will burn a greater percentage of fat at lower intensities, however the TOTAL calories being burned is so small, that it doesn’t even really matter. Again, it all comes down to EPOC.
4. As Alwyn Cosgrove has pointed out on numerous occasions; your body adapts very well to cardiovascular exercise (in this case, steady state cardio). This is a bad thing. As you get more efficient at running a certain distance, the work required to complete that distance will become less and less as you get fitter.
To improve you have to go further in order to burn the same amount of calories. What once took you 30 minutes to burn “x” amount of calories, now takes you 45 minutes. Doesn’t sound too efficient in my book.
5. The majority of your fat loss should come via diet, not copious amounts of steady state cardio/aerobics. From a time efficiency standpoint, which makes more sense? Not eating that bowl of cereal at night (300-500 calories) or spending 60 minutes on a treadmill to burn that same 300-500 calories every single day?
6. Steady state cardio/aerobics does little to change how your body looks. Sure, you may lose 20-30 lbs, but you will still be the same “shape.” You won’t look leaner, only smaller (not to mention weaker).
7. Lets be honest…do you really enjoy spending 45-60 minutes on one piece of equipment?
Some Other Random Thoughts
*Women need to eat more protein. Cassandra Forsythe says it best, “when in doubt, eat meat.”
*You can’t be on a diet forever. Learn to incorporate dietary breaks.
*Ladies, you’re four times more likely to have an ACL tear compared to men. Get off the leg extension and leg curl machines and train your posterior chain more! Various deadlifts, box squats, Anderson squats, pull-thru’s, glute-ham raises, one-legged back extensions, and lots of single leg work.
*Train with your man. He secretly loves it.
*Get off your cell phone, for the love of god
I’m Done
Okay fellas, there you go. All you have to do now is click the “print” button and strategically place this article in a place where you know your girlfriend will see it. Your best bet would either be in between the pages of this week’s People Magazine or inside the dvd case of any of the following movies; Steel Magnolias, Dirty Dancing, or The Notebook.
In case you missed it yesterday, HERE is part I of the interview I did with strength athlete (and resident pink dumbbell poo-poo’er), Molly Galbraith. If you’re too lazy to click on the link to play catch up, I can give you the Cliff Notes version here:
Figure shows, blah blah blah blah, un-explained weight gain, yada yada yada, diagnosed with rare disease which made competiing in figure no longer feasable, blibbidy blah blibbidy bloo, switched to lifting heavy things, so on and so forth, pulled close to 350 lbs in competition, pissed excellence all over the place, made random guys have to manually unclench their butt cheeks when they watched her train, still looks like a girl, Tony Gentilcore is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that’s about it!
Okay, there’s definitely a lot more to it than that, but I highly encourage you to click on the link above to get caught up.
So yesterday we ended with Molly telling a story of when she pwned some guy in the weightroom. I don’t know about you, but I LIVE for stories like that. It always cracks me up when guys walk around with their chest puffing out as if that 225 lb deadlift they just did for five (atrocious) reps was some kind of big deal; then skoffs when a girl walks into the free weight area – only to be completely dominated.
Anyways, today, we’re going to pick up with Molly going into a little more detail on her training as well as some of her pet peeves when it comes to the stigma of women lifting heavy weight.
BUT – before we begin, here’s an interesting aside. In case people don’t read all the way to end, I felt it was important to include this part in the beginning: Below is an email I receieved from Molly yesterday afternoon:
You know what I just thought about and I am actually kind of scared that you’llsay yes… do you want some of my fat pictures? I have some fatty pictures from 2004 that I took as my “before” pictures. It might actually help drive home the point that if you lift heavy and watch your diet… you will SHRINK! What do you think? Maybe have a before and after at the end? Let me know!
Of course, I said yes, and Molly was kind enough to send them along.
Before lifting heavy things off the ground (2004)
185 lbs
approx. 34% body fat
~63 lbs of fat
~122 lbs of lean mass
After lifting heavy things for 7+ years (2011)
167 lbs
approx. 16.1% body fat (taken via Bod Pod 3 weeks ago)
~27 lbs of fat
~140 lbs of lean mass
So even though the scale shows less than a 20 lb weight loss, Molly actually lost over 35 lbs of fat and added almost 20 lbs of muscle…but completely transformed her body in the process. Still think scale weight means ANYTHING in terms of progress? Ladies, throw away your scale!
Okay, enough of the small talk.
TG: So, I know everyone’s dying to hear what your training looks like nowadays………spill it!
MG: My schedule is kind of wacky right now so I have to fit my training in when I can, which is typically 3 days a week, occasionally 4 if I’m lucky. The program Mike [Robertson] has written for me currently is a 4 day split (2 upper body days, 2 lower body days). Each day starts with one of the following: squat, barbell bench press, deadlift, or dumbbell bench press. Right now I am training those movements in the 3-8 rep range depending on the week.
After the main movement comes my accessory work. My glutes, hamstrings, triceps and anterior core are all pretty weak so a lot of my accessory movements focus on bringing those areas up… but it’s nothing magic… just simple stuff that works. I do good mornings, Romanian deadlifts, lunges, chins, face pulls, glute ham raises, close grip bench press, tricep pressdowns, Pallof presses, band resisted jackknives, GHR, etc.
Sometimes after an upper body day I will throw in some Battling Rope work for 5-10 minutes and after my lower body day I might do some swings or prowler pushes but I don’t do a ton of conditioning. Maybe 2-3 days a week for 5-10 minutes? I let my strength training and my diet keep me relatively lean and since I still battle fatigue at times I like to save my energy for throwing around heavy stuff. Because heavy things aren’t going to lift themselves… right, Tony? 😉
TG: I’m picking up what you’re putting down. I get it. High five!
MG: Oh, and I guess I should mention that I do quite a bit of foam rolling and mobility work before I lift to help keep me healthy and safe. In the past I designed a lot of my own training programs, but it’s hard to be objective and make yourself do things you suck at. That’s one of the reasons that I think having a Coach is so important no matter how much you know about training.
In fact, my friend Jim was interviewing Dan John recently and he was talking about his Coach. I mean come on! If Dan John has a freaking Coach, chances are that you need one too!
If for some reason you can’t afford one or there isn’t a good one in your area, there are some great training program templates out there like my own redpointfitness.com, DeFranco’s Westside for Skinny Bastards, Wendler’s 5/3/1, Nia Shanks’ Fat Loss Detour, or Cressey’s Show and Go. Just make sure you are constantly trying to improve your weaknesses. It’s hard to go wrong if you do that. But also throw in some stuff you enjoy and are good at. Training is supposed to be fun!
TG: So um, yeah, there are a ton of women out there who are intimidated by lifting heavy weight – for fear of getting “too big a bulky,” and silly stuff like that. Can you share some insights on why you feel this is an absolutely retarded way of thinking?
MG: Haha! Well with all due respect Tony, I think the quickest way to get someone to shut you out and quit listening to you completely is to tell them that one of their deepest core beliefs that has been ingrained in them all their life is retarded… BUT it is definitely a major myth that I REALLY want to dispel with women. =)
TG: Okay, okay. To be more politically correct, can you elaborate on why this line of thinking is archaic nonsense aaaaaaaand, dammit, I can’t help it……. it’s retarded!
MG: There are numerous reasons why women believe this to begin with, which is a whole ‘nother article in itself… but I have found that there are a couple of good ways to help women see the light. The first is to actually listen to what they have to say. When they tell you that they are afraid they will get bulky… ask them why. Often times it’s because they have started weight training in the past without changing their diets (or sometimes eating more because they “deserve” it or they are simply hungrier because of the energy they are expending). So they may have added muscle without losing any body fat or they may have even gained body fat… so they added something without losing anything. OF COURSE they got bigger!
They also may have seen images of female bodybuilders on TV or in magazines and they don’t have the reference point to understand that those women are often on LOTS of drugs and have been training for decades to look the way that they look.
Heck, they may have even just read it in silly magazines or heard a ridiculously uninformed “trainer” talk about lifting making you bulky. The truth is 99.5% of women DO NOT have the genetics to get what most would consider “big” muscles. If they do, they are probably playing sports at a D1 school or competing in bodybuilding.
If you are a woman who has started lifting weights and you feel like you are getting bulky, your best bet is to examine your diet. There are VERY, VERY few women that I know who are very lean and still have “big” muscles. Chances are most of your bulk is coming from the body fat covering your muscles.
If you clean your diet up, do intelligent cardio and keep lifting heavy… chances are you will get smaller and become more and more pleased with your body. My partner and I have several clients who lift super heavy 2-3 days a week for 45 minutes, do a little bit of conditioning and eat a decent diet and they have done nothing but shrink and get more defined!
Oh, and keep in mind that training for strength and training for size are very different ways of training once you are no longer a beginner. It is pretty easy for most women to train for pure strength and gain almost no muscular size whatsoever.
Another good way of helping women see the light in regards to strength training is to show them images of women who are strong and athletic. They are so many fit and sexy females out there who lift heavy things (and have been for years) and have incredibly feminine bodies. For a few examples check out: Jen Comas Keck, Rachel Cosgrove, Leigh Peele, Cassandra Forsythe, Nia Shanks, Candice Karnes, Rachel Guy, Neghar Fonooni, Jen Grasso, and Olesya Novik. These women have bodies that most of us would kill for and they all put up impressive numbers in the gym as well.
Finally, you have to consider that each woman has their own point of view regarding what they consider to be “bulky.” Leigh Peele actually did her own research and wrote an article about it HERE. Of the women she polled, a good chunk of them actually found JESSICA BIEL to be “BULKY!!!!!”
The funniest part is, I would bet that more than 75% of the women who said that about Jessica Biel are actually bigger than her and don’t look NEARLY as good in a bikini. Unfortunately there are some delusional people out there whose opinions you just won’t change and there is no point in wasting your time on them.
They can continue to dance around in an 80 degree room for 2 hours a day, 6 days a week twirling 3 lbs weights above their heads and doing hundreds of repetitions of weird movements using bands attached to the ceiling and eating baby food… not that I am referencing anyone in particular (::cough cough:: Tracy Anderson ::cough cough::). I am going to lift 3 days a week for an hour and eat steak and whole eggs and real butter and enjoy my strong bones and my abs. =)
TG: Now that’s what I’m talking about. Anyone who goes out of their way to mock Tracy Anderson, is cool in my book. So, with all that being said, give it to me straight – give me your top 3-5 pieces of advice for women looking to start a strength program
MG: Oh geez… just 3-5? Alright here goes nothing!
Get assessed by a professional! So many of us have weaknesses, imbalances, tightness, etc. You can squat and deadlift and sprint all you want, but if your glutes are shut off because your hip flexors are too tight… your booty won’t look any better no matter what you do! This also helps prevent injury, improves posture, reduces/eliminates aches and pains, etc. If you can’t afford an assessment or don’t know of anyone in your area, get the Assess and Correct manual and follow it! You will be glad you did!
Get strong first! Until you can properly squat and deadlift at least your body weight for females and bench press at least half your body weight for females, you have no business doing body part splits or any other training for that matter. Getting stronger opens up so many doors to so many other types of training, and makes that training infinitely more effective. Once you have built up a decent strength base, you can try other types of training and reap major results. I gave some examples of fantastic training templates above. Grab one today and get started!
Challenge yourself! You should always be progressing no matter what you are doing. You should challenge yourself to lift more weight, do more reps, complete more sets, do more work in less time, etc. Your body adapts quickly to stimuli so always challenge yourself and you will keep improving. Also keep in mind that you are competing against yourself. Competing against others is fun and it definitely has its place… but you should be striving to be a better YOU every day.
Eat REAL food! Most women think that their diets of Special K bars, fat free yogurt, and 100 calorie packs of wheat thins are “healthy.” Let me tell you something, if the food is crap to begin with, whether it’s in a 100 calorie pack or not, you are still eating crap! If you are going to strength train, you must fuel your body properly. Lucky for you, you can fuel your body and get leaner at the same time. The best way to do both is to make sure every meal contains a protein source, a fat source, and a vegetable or low-sugar fruit (i.e. berries). Add in some starchier carbs post-weight training (potatoes, bananas, rice, etc) and you are set. Also take a couple of meals a week to eat what you want so you don’t go crazy. Food is meant to be enjoyed… so enjoy it.
TG: Molly, that was AWESOME stuff, and I really appreciate you taking the time to do this interview. I really feel that this may help a lot of women out there better understand that it’s okay to skip yoga class and go lift some “real” weights instead. Where can my readers learn more about you?
MG: It was my pleasure, Tony. For those interested, I am co-owner of Red Point Fitness, co-owner of J&M Strength and Conditioning, Fitness contributor to Kentucky Bride Magazine and I write articles that have been published on sites like www.elitefts.com, www.ironaddicts.com, www.oliciouslife.com, and of course, www.redpointfitness.com. Phew! Is that enough information for you? =)
I haven’t had a lot of female specific content up as of late, so I figured I’d change gears today (and tomorrow) and post an interview I did recently with personal trainer and competitive powerlifter, Molly Galbraith.
Molly (that’s her squatting to the left) has bursted onto the scene with a vengeance in the past year, and after reading a few of her articles over on elitefts.com not too long ago, I had it in the back of my head to try to get her to come on here ASAP. You see, much like myself, Molly is constantly fighting the upward battle of trying to convince the vast majority of women out there that it’s perfectly okay to lift something heavier than their purse.
Unfortunately, much of the mainstream media falls under the notion that frailty = femininity. This was never more evident than a few weeks ago when, under the promise that we would go see Thor afterwards, I was walking around Newbury St in downtown Boston with my girlfriend, walking in and out of various designer stores – handbags, shoes, make-up, you name it, either way, my testosterone levels were non-existant for about three hours.
We’d walk in, I’d make eye contact with a store employee and pretend to shoot myself in the head, and then I’d linger and peruse a few magazines while she went off to do whatever it is that women do when there’s a sale rack. When flipping through the magazines, however, I couldn’t help but notice a disturbing trend – every…….single…….model looked like a anorexic meth addict.
These are the types of images that women see on a day-to-day basis, and it’s no wonder that many (not all) feel that that is what’s ideal or normal or what society expects of them. What’s more, you have the likes of People Magazine dicussing someone like actress Kate Hudson’s beauty secrets, and you find out that all she eats is celery sticks and Gogi berry juice, and performs yoga and upwards of two hours of cardio every day. Lifting appreciable weights, of course, is out of the question! You’ll end up looking like the Hulk!
No wonder woman are scared to step foot in the weight room. Well, there’s that, and the fact that most guys walking around the gym floor smell like Old Spice and garlic, and sound like they’re passing a kidney stone every time they grab a barbell. That certainly doesn’t help matters.
Anyways, like I said, it’s great to have women like Molly out there fighting the good fight, and letting other’s all over the world recognize that it’s okay to lift (heavy) weights and look faaaaaaaaabbbbbuuuuuuuuuulous at the same time.
Without further ado, I’ll shut up now and let Molly take over. Enjoy.
An Interview with Molly Galbraith
Tony Gentilcore:Molly, for those who may not be familiar with you and your background, please feel free to brag about yourself here. More specifically, if you could include the part where you deadlift more than most dudes, that would be awesome.
Molly Galbraith: First off… thanks for having me! I am extremely flattered although I have a sneaking suspicion that you just felt obligated to have me on after you stole the Pina Colada protein shake recipe that I wrote for the Get Fit section of Kentucky Bride Magazine last year. It’s OK… I don’t blame you… it’s a killer recipe! =) But seriously I am very excited to be doing this interview. I guess I will start from the beginning.
Note from TG: a few weeks ago, I shared what’s pretty much considered the best protein shake recipe ever stolen invented Thing is, Molly apparently beat me to the punch. Little does she know, I’m an avid reader of Kentucky Bride Magazine. Tricks on her!
I was a relatively athletic child, I did gymnastics competitively from the time I was 7 until I was 12. The following year I started high school and made the cheerleading squad (yes, I started high school the month after I turned 13… I started early and skipped a grade, so that made me EXTRA young).
I cheered for two years and then decided I wanted more of a social life. After I stopped cheerleading (or being active whatsoever) my terrible diet caught up to me. By the end of high school I was a little chunky. I fluctuated throughout college and ended up at an all-time high of 185 my junior year of college in February of 2004. At this point I was so mad at myself I could hardly see straight.
I had good grades, worked full-time, fully supported myself financially and had most of my life pretty together, but the one thing I could control (my weight) felt so out of control. At this point, knowing virtually nothing about training, I hired a local trainer. I couldn’t afford much, but I trained with him off and on for about 4 months. I saw small changes in my body, but nothing extreme.
Shortly after that I started dating a different trainer at my gym. He competed in Bodybuilding and Powerlifting and was relatively knowledgeable and I learned some from him, but the best thing he ever did for me was to introduce me to T-Nation and Muscle with Attitude (the female version of T-Nation). My love affair with strength training began.
FYI to Readers: for those interested, one of the better articles I have ever written was on Muscle with Attitude: 4 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know.
TG:Yeah, much in the same way, when I was first introduced to sites like t-nation.com, my world was flipped upside down – “what do you mean to tell me we don’t always have to do 3 sets of 10 on E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G??? And, what are these things you call deadlifts?”
Anyways, tell us how you got into competing. How did you go from figure competitions to powerlifting, of all things?
MG: Yes, discovering sites like those opened up my eyes to a whole new world regarding training. I was able to expose myself to the opinions and ideas of men and women who were actually training people and getting REAL results for a living! It was awesome! Plus it helped me develop what I like to call a “filter” for new information. You know, there are amazing strength coaches from all over the world who are extremely successful and have wildly differing opinions on everything from post workout nutrition to de-load weeks to carb intake to cardio to intermittent fasting.
If you never develop that filter, you will run around more confused than ever, spinning your wheels and changing your philosophy with each new article that you read. When you DO get that filter, you are able to understand where each Coach is coming from, when their information might be applicable, and then you can use and apply new knowledge as you see fit in an intelligent way and keep what works and discard what doesn’t.
This is why great trainers’ methodologies evolve over time. If you are doing the exact same stuff you were 15 years ago, that’s NOT a good thing. But I digress…
Over the next several years I read everything I could get my hands on in regards to strength training. I also spent as much time as I could in the gym and around people who knew what they were talking about. I was also very active on several forums and even began training some people in person and online. During this time I did an impromptu push/pull powerlifting meet (only the pull portion and at the suggestion of the trainer boyfriend) and I pulled 285 with less than 2 weeks to prepare for the meet.
I also competed in Figure a few times over the years although I was never hugely successful in competitions as I had a hard time getting extremely lean and there were certain things I wasn’t willing to do to get there, like taking illegal drugs, eating <800 calories a day, and doing 2+ hours of cardio a day.
Something just didn’t feel right about pushing my body that hard in that manner. Obviously I have incredible respect for people that can and do push their bodies to that limit… but it wasn’t for me (something later confirmed by my Doctor).
It was after my last competition in 2008 that I gained a ton of unexplained weight and began to feel like total crap. I was gaining weight, feeling foggy headed and fatigued and very out of sorts. I went to a great Functional Medicine Doctor and she ran numerous tests on me. Turns out that I have Hashimoto’s (autoimmune hypothyroidism), PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and Adrenal Dysfunction… no wonder I struggled to get extremely lean, right? During this time I wanted to focus on something other than aesthetics so I turned back to Powerlifting.
I spent 4 months getting ready for the NASA KY State meet in May of 2009. At that meet I lifted raw and benched 148, squatted 237 and pulled 341. I was pretty pleased overall considering it was my first full meet and for the 4-5 months before the meet I had been battling debilitating fatigue.
EASY!
About six months after the meet was over I realized that if I were going to get any stronger, I would need to fix my weak links and who better to help me do that than Mike Robertson? I have been working with Mike for 18 months now and I am setting rep PR’s all over the place. Hopefully when it comes time to max out again, those will be TRUE PR’s that I am setting all over the place (my goal is to pull 405 raw this year =D).
TG: Whoa! I know a lot of guys out there who would kill to deadlift that much weight – and they don’t look nearly as good in high heels as you do! If you don’t mind divulging a few trade secrets, what does a typical training week look like for you? And, be honest, knowing that you could dominate the guy squatting to half depth with 185 lbs on his back next to you is a pretty cool feeling, right?
MG: Absolutely! Especially when the guy thinks that he’s a bad-ass! I try not to crush too many egos but there was a guy in my gym deadlifting several months ago and I walked over to the platform and started to set my stuff down and wait for him to finish. He gave me a look like, “what are YOU doing over here?” After a couple of minutes I asked if I could work in with him (he was only using 135 and his form was HORRIBLE!). He said “sure,” and started to take the weight off. I proceeded to tell him, “Oh that’s fine…you can leave that on. I need to warm-up.” He looked at me in disbelief and of course I pulled 135 for 10 super-fast and clean reps and asked if he was OK with going up to 185.
He said yes and so we put 185 on. He did 4-5 hideous reps and I followed him with 6-8 nice clean, easy reps. Then I asked if we could go up to 225 so I could start my work sets. He promptly told me he was done and I could just have the platform. Thanks Man! =)
Like I said, I don’t do that often… but occasionally it’s fun (and necessary) to put a guy in their place.
Note from Tony: And that will do it for today. Tomorrow, Molly will go into a little more detail on her current training schedule, as well as discuss some of her pet peeves when it comes to women and strength training. Lets just say that she’s not a fan of the pink dumbbells!
To begin, yesterday, I had just finished my training session when Eric walked up to me and said, “you’re 12:30 eval is here; she’s waiting in the office.” Oops – twenty minutes early. I head over to the stereo to turn-off the Wu-Tang (not exactly a great first impression when M.E.T.H.O.D Man is blaring through the speakers), pound my protein shake, and change shirts really quickly before I head out to greet Paula.
Upon quickly glancing at her health history, I notice something that jumps out and grabs my attention – she noted that she had been suffering from a chronic hamstring strain for the better part of the last two years. Hmmm, interesting. Almost immediately a light bulb goes off in my head and I start to stroke my evil strength coach beard (but more on that in a bit).
Anyways, whenever a new client walks into the facility, we always try to sit down for 5-10 minutes to better ascertain what it is (s)he is looking to do. Generally speaking, this is the time where we try to dig a little deeper, discuss training background, goals, injury history, etc. The form sitting in front of me was otherwise blank, so without even blinking an eye, I ask about the hamstring.
Paula smiled, took a deep breath and let it rip. Without going into too many details, she explained how she had always been an athlete (she was a sprinter in college) and had always lead an active lifestyle – she even did some personal training on the side a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. For all intents and purposes – she’s the epitome of a fitness junkie.
Giving full disclosure, however, she openly admitted that she’s her own worst enemy, and sometimes has a knack for not knowing when to hold herself back. When she first hurt her hamstring, she waited a few weeks, and once it started feeling better, she hightailed it to the track and did some sprints – only to re-injure herself, again, and again, and again.
After what was seemingly her umpteenth hamstring strain, she finally decided to seek some professional expertise and visited a local physical therapist near her hometown. And for many of you, I think you know where this story is going.
To say that a ham sandwich could have done a better job than this physical therapist would be the understatement of the century. Based off of what Paula told me, this therapist did nothing other than give her ultrasound and electric stimulation for a few weeks and then sent her on her way. Incidentally, there was no real formal assessment of her movement quality. Basically, Paula walked in, said “my hamstring hurts,” and the therapist treated the hamstring.
I guess in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t necessarily wrong. For instance, when one of our baseball guys shows up and says his shoulder hurts, as traditionalists, we usually end up looking at the shoulder first and work out way out crossing things off as we go: things like, scapular positioning, thoracic mobility, contralateral hip mobility, soft tissue restrictions, to name a few.
But there’s the rub – WE DON’T JUST LOOK AT THE SHOULDER.
And this is where I feel this particular physical therapist (and the countless other health professionals whom Paula visited) missed the boat entirely.
Leaky Roof Syndrome strikes again!!
It’s akin to someone complaining about a leaky roof in their house, and hiring someone to come in and place a patch over the leak itself – when in fact, the root cause of the leak is coming from somewhere else entirely. Placing a patch over it is just a temporary fix in the long run, and will do nothing but delay the inevitable.
So, fast forward to yesterday and Paula getting visiably emotional while telling her story. Who could blame her? I mean, up until this point, no one had really taken the time to listen and to actually offer any concrete resolution to her problem. All she’s been told is that she has “tight hamstrings,” (which, as I’ve noted in the past, is a bullshit excuse more often than not), and that she just “needs to take it easy.”
All this great advice for a $25 co-pay? Sign me up!
Bringing this to a close, here are a few points of interest from yesterday that I found:
By and large, whenever someone mentions the word “strain,” you can usually (not always) chalk it up to something called Synergistic Dominance. Translating for the non-nerds out there, Synergistic Dominance is defined as a condition when a muscle in a group of muscles, that share similar actions, become more dominant and in turn, another less dominant.
In Paula’s case, during her assessment, I found that she had little (if any) ability to activate her glutes, which is kind of a problem – especially given they’re a very powerful hip extensor. If her glutes are unable to fire, then that means her hamstrings (also hip extensors) have to work overtime to pick up the slack. And, when you put two and two together (poor glute function paired with hamstrings throwing you the middle finger), you get chronic strains.
Furthermore, after taking her through some more tests, I found that she had very little ankle dorsiflexion. Actually, that’s just being nice. She had NO ankle dorsiflexion. She lives in planar flexion from wearing high heels all the time. Is it any wonder, then, that whenever she tries to sprint, she ends up hurting herself?
And finally, as I alluded to above, all the therapy in the world won’t make a bit of difference if people continue to move like shit. Renowned physical therapist, Gray Cook, has popular saying
“fix the pattern, and the muscles take care of themselves.”
It’s so simple, that it’s brilliant. I took Paula through some basic movement drills, and it was readily apparent that her lunge pattern needed some work – her foot externally rotated and knee caved in on each step, and even worse, her hip would collapse; all indicative of really poor hip stability. Sorry, but ultrasound isn’t going to fix that.
In closing, it’s things like this that make my job so awesome – cause here’s a woman that came to us as a last resort, and she left yesterday feeling hopeful that we’d be able to help.
This isn’t to say that we don’t hava a lot of work to do – we do! On top of building some basic strength, and correcting some motor patterns, she’s going to need quite a bit of soft tissue work done. I gotta say, though, that it definitely frustrates me when I hear stories like this, and do nothing but show how “broken” our primary care system is (at times) in this country. And,let me just say that this post wasn’t meant as a “dig” to all physical therapists, chiropractors, physicians, or orthopedic surgeons out there that may be reading.
I understand that with any profession, there are those that do their job very well, and others that, well, don’t. And I am in no way saying that what I found is altogether right or wrong. I But this is one instance where I was pretty fired up about the lack of “giving a shit” this physical therapist had. We can do better than that!
PS: If you found this article useful, or just liked it’s general awesomeness, please do me a favor and “like” it, or maybe re-tweet it. Any way to get the word out there is very much appreciated!
T-minus FOUR days, 17 hours, 32 minutes, and 23 seconds and I’m outta here on a much needed vacation (but who’s counting). My girlfriend and I are heading down to her homestate of Florida next week, where I plan on doing nothing but being horizontal (get your mind out of the gutter) and soaking up vasts amounts of vitamin D.
We’re going to be in Jensen Beach as a matter of fact; which, coincidentally, is the pineapple capital of the world!
It’s going to be glorious. I’m contemplating possibly taking the entire week off from training – I honestly can’t remember the last time I did that, but seems how Lisa’s mom got us a week’s pass to the local gym, that’s highly unlikely. I say I’m going to take time off, but then after like two days, I go through withdrawls and have to lift something heavy off the floor. It’s like a tick.
Anyways, Ihave the ladies showing up for the women’s group in like fifteen minutes, so I’m just going to leave you this week with a few things to keep you from doing your work:
Jason is one of the team members of Precision Nutrition, and is also currently interning at CP. Here, Jason sheds some light on his experience at CP and does an excellent job at helping people realize that it sometimes makes more sense to focus on the “common threads” in life.
This was/is a fantasic article that pretty much lays the smack-down on every myth, fallacy, and idiocracy that saturates the fitness industry with regards to training women. Huge props goes out to Juliet for writing such a thorough and well written article – and, this is only PART 1
And, not to be outdone, Molly (who rocks a 341 lb deadlift, with movie star good looks to boot) provides all sorts of sound, practical advice that can (and should) be followed by anyone – whether you have a boy part or girl part.
That’s it for this week! Have a great weekend everyone.
