When it comes to overall shoulder health there are a bevy of factors to consider:
Rotator cuff strength
Tissue quality
Overuse
Programming balance
Even exercise technique (and how joints are loaded)
All are important and things I consider myself when working with a new client who’s shoulder isn’t feeling great. However, there’s one “thing” that’s often overlooked in lieu of all the above:
Can the shoulder blade move freely on the ribcage?
The Key to Shoulder Health = Scapular (and Ribcage) Movement
The shoulder blades are meant to move, plain and simple. Nothing extraordinary there.
Upward/downward rotation
Protraction/retraction
Anterior/posterior tilt
The ability to perform all of those actions is indicative of a “healthy” shoulder, and the platform for all that movement to take place come courtesy of the ribcage.
The ribcage is shaped in a convex manner.
The scapulae (shoulder blade) is concave, or rounded, in nature. The ability for the two to play nicely together is an often overlooked mechanism of what I like to call “my shoulder fucking hurts syndrome.”
Here’s a common example of what I mean.
The cue “pull the shoulder blades together and down” is a common one we use in the industry. And, you know what? It works splendidly when 1) you’re working with someone who’s stuck in a more flexed/rounded/computer guy posture and/or 2) the goal is to lift as much weight as humanly possible.
I.e., good luck bench pressing (or even squatting/deadlifting) appreciate weight with shoulder blades that aren’t “set” in a more stable position
That being said, too much of anything can have its inherent drawbacks.1.
The “together and down” cue can lead to overactive lats and a more extension-based pattern where the shoulder blades get stuck or cemented together – making it all the more more challenging for them to move about the rib cage.
My shoulder blades basically making out
To that end one of my favorite ways to address this is to include more reaching drills into people’s training repertoire. That and BACK EXPANSION.
More to the point, what I’m really after is targeting the Serratus Anterior, or those finger-like looking thingamajiggies on the side of your ribs.
I’m starting to fall into the camp that addressing Serratus weakness is the answer to everything:
Shoulder pain?
Neck pain?
Back pain?
Snowblower won’t start?
More Serratus work my friend!
The power of reaching cannot be understated. That in concert with learning to expand the upper back (getting the ribcage to move, via breathing) can be a game changer for a lot of people.
Here’s an effective drill that addresses both.
Seated 1-Arm Reach-Row
Who Did I Steal It From? – Strength coach Conor Harris.
What Does It Do? – Via Conor himself:
“A stiff ribcage is one that lacks trunk rotation and the ability to expand with air. We can free up the ribcage through alternation + reaching of the arms (serratus/obliques) with an intention to pause and expand it posteriorly with air”
The reach engages the serratus/obliques (watch out for that side cramp) and closes off the front side of the body. Air has no where else to go but BACK; it feels wonderful.
Key Coaching Cues: Don’t be a hero. You DO NOT need a lot of weight to perform this exercise, it’s not the point. You’ll pull with one side (elbow to hip, no further) as you simultaneously reach with the other, free hand. From there, inhale through the nose, focus on “breathing into your back,” and then perform a full exhale.
Don’t rush the breaths.
Hold the position for a 2-3 breath count and that’s one repetition.
I’m teaming up with Brad Cox of ACUMobility for this 6-hour workshop where we’ll discuss hip assessment and, you guessed it…
…keto recipes deadlifts and squats.
What will be unique about this workshop is the two perspectives we’ll bring to the table; myself as a strength coach in addition to Brad’s background in sports medicine and orthopedics.
It’s official: This marks the sixth year in a row Dean Somerset and I are presenting together. We’re so excited to be coming to Athens to kickstart 2020.
I’m a huge Bill Bryson fan and his latest book, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, is BLOWING….MY….MIND. I mean, did you know that there’s more information stored & processed in a millimeter sized portion of your brain than the entirety of the history of the internet?
The limiting factor that prevents some people from being able to lift appreciable weight in the gym is their grip strength. Here are some simple ideas, using a kettlebell, that can help.
I had the opportunity to make an appearance on the Rebel Performance Radio Show recently hosted by James Cerbie.
James and I have a bit of history because he was an intern at Cressey Sports Performance back in 2014 when I was there, and it was great to sit down and talk some shop.
I loved doing this episode because not only was it great to catch up with James, but he has a very casual way of interviewing that I enjoy…
…just two dudes talking about dude stuff.
We covered a gamut of topics – everything from my pursuit of a 600 lb deadlift, opening up my own training studio here in Boston, to the differences between working with athletes and the general population.
Whether or not to wear a weight belt when lifting weights can be a conundrum. On one side of the fence you have those who swear by it and would never think about lifting (much less looking) at a weight without one.
Not exactly ideal.
And then on the other side you have those people who are “purists” and think wearing a belt should be avoided at all costs and that you’re cheating if you do so.2
Not exactly an ideal train of thought, either.
Sooooo, what’s the deal then?
Let’s discuss.
Benefits of the Weight Belt
The obvious starting point is to ask:
“Why do people start wearing a weight belt in the first place?”
My guess is most start because they see others using one in the gym and figure that’s just what the cool kids do. I mean, if you’re just starting out and new to the gym what other conclusion is there?
– That person over there performing lat pulldowns is wearing one:
– And so is that person over there performing deadlifts who looks and sounds like he’s passing a kidney stone the size of Kansas:
One exercise is pretty inane, the other extreme, and both are utilizing a weight belt.
What gives?
I can understand the confusion and tendency for some lifters to think that wearing a weight belt is somehow unspoken gym etiquette or something that has to be done at all times; you know, for safety.
To be candid: Neither are cemented as fact.
Examples of Actual Gym Etiquette:
Re-racking or putting away your weights when done.
Clearing the way for others to grab dumbbells from the rack when you’re using dumbbells. I.e., don’t perform bicep curls in front of the mirror directly in the way of the DB rack.
Wiping up your sweat after using a bench or piece of equipment.
Avoiding direct eye contact (of 3 seconds or more) with anyone when performing Hip Thrusts.
Pumping the brakes on the Ax body spray.
There’s no “rule” that states you have to use a weight belt for every exercise.
There are, however, legitimate reasons where you may want to use one:
1. Improved Performance
Strength coach and researcher, Greg Nuckols, wrote a thorough piece a few years ago on the efficacy of weight belts and one of the main points was that a bevy of research shows that wearing a weight belt can allow someone to lift anywhere from 5-15% more weight.
As Greg notes: Yes, there are instances of lifters NOT wearing a belt and still lifting an appreciable amount, but since you’re not them let’s just say that for 99 out of 100 people, wearing a belt will help you lift more weight and maybe even help you win a cage fight.
How?
Improved intra-abdominal pressure.
IAP helps to counter shear load on the spine; a sort of safety net if you will. I’m not going to go into the details here on this post, but I’d encourage you to check out anything and everything Dr. Stuart McGill has written on the topic. He’s the world’s foremost spine biomechanics researcher (and mustache haver).
It behooves anyone interested in lifting heavy things to seek out way to improve their intra-abdominal pressure.
This is a good thing.
That being said, learning how to appropriately push into the weight belt – on all sides – to enhance IAP is key.
Conversely, there is a drawback.
IAP increases blood pressure, which can be a contraindication for some.
2. Faster Lifts
No need to pontificate here.
Wearing a weight belt, for all intents and purposes, allows you to perform your lifts faster.
3. More Repetitions
And lastly, wearing a belt allows for more repetitions (in the ballpark of 1-3) to be performed at a given load.
In concert: More weight, performed faster, and for more reps = a nice recipe for added muscle and strength. Not a bad tradeoff if you ask me.
There is a Caveat
Personally speaking I don’t advocate using a weight belt until working with loads approaching 85% (and up) of one’s one-rep max. I can’t say I have a slew of PubMed articles in my pocket to back up my claim…
…it’s just a combination of anecdote and intuition.
It’s basically a general rule I use – kinda like wearing pants on Thursday – that can be a judgement call the day of. I mean, there are instances where, depending on the exercise, I’ll toss on the belt for my last challenging set (or two) because read above.
Too, I know there’s a myth out there stating that if you wear a weight belt incessantly that you run the risk of weakening your lower-back muscles, to the point where you then rely on it or else your muscles shut down.
I think it’s exactly that…a myth.
But, again, intuition tells me – outside of prior/current injury – you’re likely not gaining anything wearing a belt for non-challenging sets anyway.
❌ For every set, of every exercise, on every day of training. Again, I tend to lean more on the side of saving the belt for high(er) intensity sets.
❌ In the shower.
And that’s pretty much it.
That being said, I do find value in purposely going through blocks of training where the belt is not utilized no matter what.
For instance, for the past five weeks of my training I’ve made a conscientious effort to NOT use a weight belt for all my squat and deadlift sets.
Dafuq, Tony?
Here’s me last week performing 540×3 on my deadlift.
I think there’s a lot to be said about getting comfortable being uncomfortable.
For example, when my wife and I first started dating, she was studying to be a psychologist, and felt it imperative to the growth of our relationship to talk about our feelings.
I just assumed throw an ax into my face than do that.
It sucked at times and it was hard for me, but I did it…and our relationship (and now marriage) is all the better for it.
Likewise, purposely making training harder – no belt, shorter rest periods, using crappy bars, etc – is a germane way to level up your subsequent training blocks.
I mean, I totally could have done like 31 reps in the video above if I had a weight belt on.
My good friend, colleague, and currently ranked in my Top FIVE of man-crushes, Dan Pope, just released his latest resource: Fitness Pain Free Certification.
NOTE: Dan’s a physical therapist and coach here in Boston who’s one of my “go to” sources when I need to refer some of my more banged up clients to someone with a keener eye than myself. Plus he’s just someone I have learned a ton from throughout the years and his new course is fucking OUTSTANDING.
Dan provided me with a special discount code to my readers to save $200 off the price of course for a limited time.
Use code [TONYGFPF] to save through the month of January.
There’s more about the course at the bottom, but in the meantime Dan was kind enough to answer a few questions I had for him about the resource and his approach to training.
TG:Can you take a few moments to inform my readership how awesome you are?
DP: Sure Tony, I’m not 100% I’d use the word “awesome” to describe myself but I’ll give you a little background on me.
My name is Dan Pope.
I’m a physical therapist and strength coach.
I’ve got a pretty big background in sports, particularly strength and fitness. I was a polevaulter in college at Rutgers. After that I got really involved in Strongman and won a state and national title in 2009. After that I got involved in CrossFit and have competed at the CrossFit Regionals competition twice. Now I’m a bit washed up but still enjoy lifting heavy things in the gym.
I’ve also always been very involved in the fitness and strength world from a professional background. I’ve been a personal trainer and strength coach for about 15 years and did that full time before becoming a physical therapist.
I got into the pain and injury game as a strength coach and personal trainer because I was working with people on a very regular basis that had pain and injury. Every time I was working with these folks I’d refer them to a physical therapist. The physical therapists I was working with kept on telling me, “Of course your athlete got hurt, you were performing deadlifts.” or “Of course your athlete got hurt you were performing kettle bell swings.” Basically every exercise in the gym was responsible for injury.
Being a meathead at heart myself, I knew this had to be wrong. I wanted to learn how to help these people. So I went on a journey to do exactly that.
Fast forward over a decade of schooling and experience and I’ve found that this old advice was anything but true.
Training is definitely good for you, for getting out of pain and ALSO preventing future injury (duh).
However, there is definitely an art to it.
You can’t go willy nilly with your clients in the gym and expect to never get them injured. You also can’t go blindly into working with some one who is injured or coming out of an injury. If you make the wrong decisions you can keep them painful or even make them worse.
Do the right things and you can continue working towards their goals safely and can help them get out of pain as well. So I’ve basically devoted my life towards helping athletes in pain and also teaching other fitness and rehab. professionals how to safely and effectively work with these folks.
I also love gratuitous amounts of grilled cheese once per week and have a pet snapping turtle named Champ.
TG:For the record, I wouldn’t have had enough eye rolls to give if I had to endure a bunch of narrow-minded physical therapists – who likely never lifted a weight in their life – tell me that deadlifts were the bane of everyone’s injuries.
Anyway, with the particulars out of the way, who is the Fitness Pain Free Certification designed for and what do you feel separates itself from the masses?
DP: I actually created this certification because I feel it fulfills a very specific niche.
I still really feel there are no certifications out there right now that do a good job of preparing fitness professionals to work with individuals with pain and injury.
It used to drive me crazy as a personal trainer back in the day.
I’d be working with people in pain every day of the week and was supposed to know how to deal with all of these people with complex pain problems. The solution for pain was always, “Just avoid doing anything that hurts and refer out to a doctor or other healthcare provide.” Meanwhile as I said previously the healthcare providers were no help and were even more useless than I was.
The truth of the matter is that the good trainers out there would figure out how to work with painful folks over time, but this made no sense to me. If you want to be a plumber, there’s education for that. If you want to be a physician there is school for that. For trainers there was school and certifications but everyone stayed away from pain and injury. Pain remained this nebulous problem only reserved for healthcare providers and physicians, yet half of my clients had some sort of nagging injury they were dealing with that affected their ability to train on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, the healthcare providers don’t have the knowledge to work with athletes in the gym. They’re making exercise the villain when we know this anything but the truth. For this reason there isn’t any good certification out there that shows these folks how to work effectively with powerlifters, olympic weightlifters, CrossFit athletes and really anyone who just likes to train hard in the gym.
With that being said, I made this certification with these two folks in mind.
For the fitness professionals I completely demystify pain and injury and show you exactly how to safely and effectively work with people in pain.
For the healthcare providers I show them how to effectively get these folks out of pain, back to high level performance and how to keep them pain free for the long haul.
TG: What I respect about you most is that you’re not only an amazing therapist/clinician, but you also practice what you preach. I.e., you actually lift weights. I know you’ve touched in this already, but just how integral do you feel the whole “you gotta lift shit to fix shit” manta plays with helping people get out of pain?
DP: Hahaha, I think it all comes down to the person’s goals and what they’re trying to get back to.
I think there is a trend right now in the physical therapy and strength world that heavy strength training fixes everything.
I’ve got to be honest, I’d love to shout that from the roof tops if that was completely true.
In reality a lot of treatments can be effective for pain.
Back pain is a great example.
We have research to show thats squats and deadlifts are helpful for getting people out of pain. However, we also have research to show that walking, aerobic exercise, core stability and pilates can help decrease low back pain. We also have some research to show that sometimes deadlifting is not the best plan of action to get out of pain.
I think the best treatment option does two things.
For one, it’s got to be something that the person will actually do. So it definitely helps if the person enjoys some sort of active exercise.
Secondly, the rehab has to be specific to what the athlete wants to get back to.
If you take a 600lb deadlifter with low back pain and rehab them with pilates for three months, great. They’re out of pain. But if you ask them to pick up a 600lb barbell after three months of nothing but pilates you’ve probably got another injury on your hands. So if you want to get back to weight training then yes, you’ve got to pick some heavy shit up.
The body is very adaptable if we show it the stress it needs to adapt to. Show it that it needs to be able to lift heavy shit and it will learn and grow.
TG: Since we’re on the topic of addressing and training around injury: Which inane term makes you want to throw your face into a wall more when you hear it: Shoulder impingement or anterior knee pain? I know you’re on the same page as me that those two terms really don’t mean anything (but we have to use nevertheless).
DP: Man, I have a bunch.
I think the term that I’m disliking recently is “balance”.
I.e., The reason why your shoulder got hurt is because you have a poor “balance” of training all of the muscles around the shoulder.
What I will say is that having a comprehensive program for the shoulder is important, so balance is important from that perspective.
However, in other sports we very clearly define “mechanisms of injury” or basically how people get hurt playing their sport. For ACL injuries in the knee for example it’s usually when an athlete is pivoting and their knee goes in under too much load.
Boom, torn ACL.
So how do we go about preventing future injury? We work on pivoting and landing without having knee in. It makes total sense. However, we don’t always approach injury prevention in the gym the same way.
Let’s say I hurt my shoulder bench pressing. Now, I can chalk this up to “having a poor balance” of shoulder training in the gym.
But this doesn’t really make sense to me.
The shoulder breaks down because it doesn’t have the strength and integrity to handle the forces of training. These injuries are typically “overuse” in nature.
This means to me that the shoulder was either:
1) Under too much stress (excessive volume / intensity)
2) Not strong (or prepared) enough to handle the forces of training
3) Not recovering well enough
So if we understand that this is why the shoulder breaks down we can very easily come up with a strategy to prevent future injury.
For the bench presser’s shoulder that may mean:
1) Decreasing pressing volume slightly
2) Strengthening the pressing muscles with accessory exercises to improve the shoulder’s ability to tolerate training
3) Improve sleep, nutrition and stress management
Now, maybe a “balanced” shoulder training program does all of these things but I feel like we’re just beating around the bush. If we want to prevent injury we need to figure out why injuries are happening in the first place and come up with a comprehensive plan to prevent future injury based on these factors.
TG: I’m constantly asked what are the major differences between writing programs for athletes and that of general population clients.
Do you have any thoughts?
DP: I’m a big fan of writing training plans with end goals in mind.
For athletes this is generally optimized performance.
For the general population this is usually health, function and looking good naked.
For athlete’s we’ll always be pushing the boundary between doing as much as possible to optimize performance and doing too much and getting injured.
This means there is a lot more wiggle room for general population folks.
For athlete’s we’re constantly pushing the envelope.
TG: With regards to working with athletes, load management is a term that’s grown in popularity of late. Training around injury is something I know you’re fanatical about – in a good way (I refer to it as Trainable Menu) – can you offer some general tidbits for other fitness professionals to consider when working with athletes/clients who are injured?
DP: For sure.
Exercise is an amazing medicine that heals injured structures in our bodies. What’s important to understand is that this medicine must be dosed appropriately after an injury to have positive effects. Think of the difference between taking two aspirin and taking the whole bottle.
One is the perfect amount and the other kills you.
The magic is in the dosage.
After an injury we need to find that right dosage to create a positive effect.
I think step 1 is learning how to dose stress to muscles and joints. For example, if someone has knee pain, what factors increase and decrease stress on the knee in the gym? Well, technique, speed of execution and load are three easy variables we can use to dose stress. If we understand these principles we can figure out the right dosage of exercise and then slowly progress this dosage as our clients heal over time.
The other important concept to understand is that a lot of injuries don’t tend to get better unless we stress it enough. So you get these folks where rest doesn’t help them and they’ve got a bum knee for the rest of their lives because no one ever taught them to load appropriately and they thought loading it was bad. If you learn these principles you can be the person who finally ends your client’s pain problem.
TG: Let’s end with a bit of fun.
I’ve always kinda bashed on the kipping pull-up. Okay, there’s no “kinda” about it. I know you cover the exercise in your course and I want to learn: Can you “defend” it here?
Why is it a thing? Who does it benefit? What are the training advantages?
DP: You’re right, kipping is terrible for you…
Just kidding!
My views on kipping have been shaped largely by two things.
1) I work with a bunch of olympic level gymnasts that coach CrossFit athletes how to move well. Kipping is a very common and remedial movement for those guys. There are certainly good and bad ways to kip and when done well can be a safe and effective exercise.
2) Second, I really don’t see too many injuries strictly from kipping. Ya, they certainly do happen but I’d say I see more back issues with deadlifting and shoulder issues with pressing then kipping injuries.
If you have absolutely no desire to compete in a competition that allows kipping during pull-ups then I wouldn’t train it. You can probably build as much muscle and strength (and probably better) with our good old friend the strict pull-up.
However, if you want to perform kipping pull-ups then you probably want to learn how to perform them with solid technique and also how to program them into your training properly.
What I will say is that learning some of the more advanced dynamic gymnastics movements like ring muscle-ups and front uprises is a lot of fun and can be a really cool addition to your normal training. You should probably learn how to do this properly before going about it though.
Remember above when I said how this course is fucking outstanding?
That’s an understatement.
You get 20+ hours of lecture and videos of Dan covering a plethora of topics. If you’re a personal trainer/coach in any capacity this is an investment in yourself that will be well worth the price.
Course Curriculum
7 Reasons Why Athletes Get Hurt in the Gym and What To Do About It
What is Pain and Why Modification is Essential
How to Create Injury Prevention Plans
How to Write Rehabilitation Programs
Breaking Down the Power Lifts
Breaking Down the Olympic Lifts
Pull-ups, Muscle-ups and Kipping
Handstands and Handstand Push-ups
Overhead Press, Push-ups and Dips
Shoulder, Low Back, Knee and Hip Pain
All of this on top of endless templates, progressions/regressions, videos on exercise technique, how to develop injury prevention and rehabilitation programs, as well as assessment breakdowns.
I’m teaming up with Brad Cox of ACUMobility for this 6-hour workshop where we’ll discuss hip assessment and, you guessed it…
…keto recipes deadlifts and squats.
What will be unique about this workshop is the two perspectives we’ll bring to the table; myself as a strength coach in addition to Brad’s background in sports medicine and orthopedics.
It’s official: This marks the sixth year in a row Dean Somerset and I are presenting together. We’re so excited to be coming to Athens to kickstart 2020.
If you’re a trainer 50% (actually, maybe it’s 51%) of the population you train are women. A vast number of them will give birth and have “complications” postpartum.
And even if they haven’t recently given birth, once a woman is postpartum she’s ALWAYS postpartum and knowing how to detect and address Distastis Recti is integral.
I am admittedly the world’s worst bench presser (countered by the mere fact I am one of the world’s best cuddlers), so I was flummoxed with I was asked to contribute a snidbit to this article.
Just a snidbit, though.
Let’s not get carried away.
This is an excellent article nonetheless and if you’re someone who struggles with their bench press this may help.
When someone says something like “deadlifts are dangerous,” most of the time it means the person saying it hasn’t done it enough (or with appropriate technique) to perform it safely in the first place.
There was a time – from 2007-2015 to be exact, my coaching years at Cressey Sports Performance – where I listened to a lot books on cd as well as podcasts.
I had a 45-60 minute commute both ways and used that time to try to make myself smarter. In the years since, however, there aren’t many shows I listen to, because now my commute is an eight minute walk.
Nevertheless, one show that I do listen to is The Movement Fix Podcast hosted by a friend of mine, Dr. Ryan DeBell.
This is a constant battle everyone interested in getting fitter or healthier deals with: You start working out a lot, you get a lot of initial gains in your strength, speed, power, endurance and overall performance, and you think “Wow this is awesome!”
You continue to work out the same way and over time you stop getting results. Or, at the very least, progress takes a major nose dive.
You’ve hit a plateau.
This is one of the hardest things to overcome. Many people give up, stop being as motivated, and try to work harder, but crash and burn, leaving a bad taste in their mouth because they aren’t getting the gains they were before.
Let’s be clear with one thing, reaching peak performance is a marathon not a sprint.
To get past sticking points in your program it will require you to look at your daily actions much more deeply. It will force you to painfully analyze the things you’re really not good at. As long as you can approach this with an open mind of getting better you’ll be able to push through your plateaus.
What follows are the top 5 things I’ve found to be the leading reasons why most people fail at attaining the results they want. Read them over, ponder, let them marinate, and then let’s get to work.
1. You’re Training Too Hard
Believe it or not, there is a such thing as training too hard.
Not that it will always result in “overtraining” but it can and absolutely will result in diminishing rate of returns in the gym.
At a micro level your body can only recover from so much stress on a daily basis and if you consistently go above that threshold every day you’re not going to recover and become stronger. The stronger you become the more likely this can happen.
It’s called the Law of Supercompensation and it helps you to achieve the results that you want.
When you first workout your body becomes weaker, and after you eat, sleep and give you body time to recover you become stronger as an adaption to prevent damage to the body.
Your body literally adapts so you don’t die.
As you continue to ramp up the stimulus of training your body needs more time to recover, or it needs to optimize its ability to recover.
If you fail to allow either to happen the body will stop recovering to baseline and you’ll be in a constant state of fatigue.
Fatigue will mask your true fitness level.
Going into the weeds on this topic with a simple blog post is impossible, but the idea here is to champion RECOVERY. Your results in the gym are directly proportional to how well you allow yourself to recover.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can sit here and wax poetic on the importance of sleep, proper hydration, and ensuring ample calories to support your training but…
…zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Boring.
NOTE: All there are THE most important factors to consider when discussing recovery. I just know most people tend to black out or lose interest when anyone starts to discuss topics.
One of the best ways to ensure ample recovery and to prevent plateaus in the gym is to “lean into” the ebbs and flows of training volume. Some days/weeks should be hard, some days/weeks should be easy, some days/weeks should be right in the middle (what I like to call Goldilocks days), and then, yes, some days should absolutely make you hate your fucking life.
Here’s an excellent video via Chad Wesley Smith of Juggernaut Training outlining the concept:
2. You’re Not Training Hard Enough
This seems to be an obvious one but it’s very common for someone to get stuck into a routine doing the same thing every time they go to the gym, operate at the same level of intensity, and do the same weights every…single…day.
Your body is very good at adapting to what you do on a regular basis and if you continue to do the same thing day in and day out your body will become so efficient at it that, not only will you stop seeing results, but you actually may begin to regress.
Your body needs novel stimuli that it’s not used to, and you need to change the intensity of your workouts on a regular basis.
If you program calls for you to perform an exercise for eight repetitions and when you’re done you could have completed eight more, you’re not training hard enough…
…and you’re likely seeing sub-optimal results.
I always like to tell people you should leave 1-2 reps in the tank after each set. This tends to be a nice compromise because
You’ll ensure good technique with each rep.
You’ll still be lifting an appreciable amount of weight in order to elicit an adaptive response from the body
And lastly, to piggy back from above, you’ll ensure ample recovery between workouts
Figuring out how much weight you should be using can be a bit of a quagmire.
THIS post from Tony should help those of you who need a little direction.
3. You Have Too Many Daily Stressors
Your body recognizes all stressors as the same thing, and when you have too many stressors – good or bad – it will influence your recovery and results.
These stressors can include: working out, a lack of sleep, fighting ninjas, financial stress, friends and significant other, sick kid, your boss is an asshole, and everything and anything in between.
If it feels like the stress is piling up chances are you won’t be recovering very well either.
Maybe taking a day or two off from working out is what’s needed. However, I recognize that for a lot of people heading to the gym on a daily basis IS stress relief. To that end, maybe something like a Bloop, Bloop, Bloop workout is in the cards?
Meditation is lovely idea.
Or, I don’t know, maybe try some yoga.
Try Neghar Fonooni’s Wildfire Yoga (I.e., yoga for meatheads) which provides a plethora of quick 10-20 minutes “yoga flows” that’ll help declutter your mind but also loosen up that pesky piriformis that’s been nagging you for years.
The idea is that you don’t always need go full-boar, DEFCON 1, OMG-this-workout-was-so-awesome-I-can’t-feel-the-right-side-of-my-face.
If daily stress is high, temper your workouts accordingly.
4. You Need to Change the Focus of Your Program
Many people fall victim to this.
Humans are creature of habit and if something worked in the past, it stands to reason it’ll work today, tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, you get the idea.
Whether it’s strength training, being a cardio bunny, or going on a bodybuilder body part split…
…everything works until it doesn’t work.
The answer to your past problems – when overdone – will be the source of your new issues.
This is why having a basic understanding of periodization and focusing on different qualities of strength and fitness at different times is so important.
This means taking time to have phases where your main focus is strength, or Hypertrophy, or endurance, or power/speed, or just having better movement.
Change the focus of your program so you can be well rounded and avoid plateaus.
Progress feeds more progress.
5. Do More of What You Suck At
Stop always doing what you’re good at or what you’re familiar with.
If you write your own programs you’ll inevitably lean towards those exercises you’re comfortable with and good at. If you’ve always had a straight bar deadlift and a barbell back squat in your program, I have news for you…
…you don’t need either of them to be strong and get awesome results.
The body doesn’t know what a deadlift or a squat is.
All that happens is a stimulus and an adaptation to the stimulus.
If the stimulus is the same all the time, the adaptation will be less and less significant. Change your variations, go from a straight bar deadlift to a trap bar deadlift, use specialty bars, use accommodating resistance with bands and chains, use eccentrics and isometrics in your training.
There’re so many things you can change or tweak in your program; the options are endless!
Here’s a list of things you can change to create a different stimulus and continue to allow your body to make adaptation:
Use eccentric and isometrics to limit mechanical stress and master movement of your lifts
Use chains and bands to overload the top of your lifts, mimic the strength curve, and teach acceleration in your lifts
Use specialty bars to change the lift slightly and work on weaknesses
Change your rest periods
Use unilateral exercises as your main lift (ie, Bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges, single arm presses, etc)
About the Author
Ricky Kompf is the head coach/owner of Kompf Training Systems where we work primarily with team sport athletes like baseball, football, lacrosse and basketball.
He’s also a Head Trainer for a corporation for Bankers Heath Care.
I’m teaming up with Brad Cox of ACUMobility for this 6-hour workshop where we’ll discuss hip assessment and, you guessed it…
…deadlifts and squats.
What will be unique about this workshop is the two perspectives we’ll bring to the table; myself as a strength coach in addition to Brad’s background in sports medicine and orthopedics.
It’s official: This marks the sixth year in a row Dean Somerset and I are presenting together. We’re so excited to be coming to Athens to kickstart 2020.
Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s great many people use this time of year to renew their goals, use it as an opportunity to rejuvenate themselves and kickstart a healthier lifestyle, and/or otherwise press the refresh button.
You’re finally going to purchase that gym membership? Great.
Okay, you’re intrigued by this whole Vegan thing? Fantastic.
You’re going to make a concerted effort to get more sleep and drink less caffeine and more water? Lovely.
You’re gonna start taking CBD oil to help manage your anxiety and diabetes, curtail inflammation, and help you beat Jason Bourne in a fist fight? Cool.4.
But honestly, part of my soul is dying that I’m taking time to write a “resolution post” in the first place.
It’s so cliche.
I mean, what’s next? Me posting a picture of me smiling to the camera while draping my arms over a barbell in the squat rack to make my arms look bigger?
Pfffft, whatever.
What could I possibly say or do (from the internet) to inspire people to not be a statistic and stick with their New Year’s Resolutions past next week?
Well, thankfully, my good friend, and non-sexual life partner, Dean Somerset, wrote a bang-up post on his Facebook page the other day doing just that.
It’s short and sweet and provides a ton of actionable context.
I don’t want to come across as a complete curmudgeon, however.
I recognize my words have some power in the industry and I wanted to take a few moments to share a quick example of how, when the time comes (and it WILL come), when you want to quit or cheat a workout, what you can do to re-frame your train of thought
As you embark on your fitness journey it’s unavoidable you’ll encounter days you’ll want to skip or give up altogether.
Who needs to workout when you can binge watch The Witcher on Netflix?
This feeling is normal.
Hell, I’ve been lifting weights since I was 13 (at this point it’s part of my DNA) and have made my living telling people to do the same since 2002, and even I have days I’d rather jump into the depth of Mordor than look at a dumbbell.
Too, sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a workout, exhausted, or just not feeling it that day, and think to myself, “I really don’t want to do this next exercise/set/finisher/what-have-you.”
I’m going home.
Yes, it’s true. Despite our best efforts to portray otherwise on social media…
…even us fitness pros succumb to epic cases of the “Fuck It’s.”
Honestly, it’s okay and a perfectly acceptable human emotion.
And sometimes you should give in to it. A day or two (or three) off from the gym isn’t going to be the end of the world and often begets better and more productive subsequent workouts.
However, and this is my inner Captain Obvious coming straight at you…
…this shouldn’t be a regular thing.
Whether you want to call it grit, resiliency, or mettle, there’s a lot to be said about sticking to the plan and building upon that base of consistency. Instead, and using myself as an example, when these thoughts enter my mind, I’ll acknowledge them and let them metabolize, but then take a page from my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, and do a slight re-frame.
Instead of quitting the exercise/set/workout or cheating I’ll think to myself:
“Okay, here comes the tough part. This is what I want. I’m about to get stronger, more diesel, and/or altogether more badass. My wife is totally going to want to make out with me when she sees these pecs.”
I don’t beat myself up for thinking the negative thoughts.
Again, it’s normal.
You do it, I do it, I suspect Tom Brady does it, we all do it.
I’ll allow the thoughts to happen, to ruminate for several seconds, but then I’ll set the re-frame, turn the page, and complete my set/workout.
The mind-trick works.
It could be used for other, non-lifting goals too. Embrace the power of the re-frame.
