CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 7/8/16

In case you weren’t keeping track, there’s only three more weekends until Jason Bourne comes out.

I can’t begin to explain how excited I am for this movie. It’s gotten to the point where every time I walk into a room I can’t help but yell out, “My god, it’s Jason Bourne.”

It’s like a tick.

My wife’s eyes are tired from rolling them so much.

Like many fans I’ve also primed myself by re-watching the entire trilogy again, for the 17th time.1

In addition, I’ve been telling people they should read the books, you know, if they’re real fans.

Outside of the first few chapters of Identity, the books are completely different from the movies so you don’t have to worry about any spoilers. Other than Bourne dies.

LOL – just kidding.2

I’m so freakin pumped for this movie!!!!

[Rolls up a magazine. Heads outside to fight a complete a stranger].

Strong Body-Strong Mind Workshop Coming to London

My wife and I will be in London the weekend of August 6-7th for a 2-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.

This will be a great experience for any fitness professional looking to learn more on behavior change, mindset, building autonomy & competence with their clients, as well as program design, assessment, and learning how to coach common exercises such as the deadlift and squat.

Only 12 spots have been made available for attendees outside of The Third Space on a first-come-first-serve basis, so act quickly!

NOTE: I will make exception(s) for any Game of Thrones actors who want to attend.

Contact Luke Worthington (info in flier above) for more details.

Onto this week’s list of stuff to read…..

Usain Bolt, The Movement Police, and Keyboard Sprinting Experts – Doug Kechijian

I applaud Doug for how articulate he was in writing this.

Context is everything.

I wish people would just mind their own business, STFU, and keep their “never trained an elite athlete in their life” commentary to themselves.

The Mind-Boggling Bullshit of Health and Fitness – Nia Shanks

You know we’ve failed as an industry when the people we “serve” ask insane questions like “is it okay if I eat an apple?”

Why Just “Eating Healthy” Won’t Help You Lose Fat – Jorden Pagel

This is a slightly older post from Jorden (April 2016) that I just had the opportunity to read. But man was it worth the wait.

Categoriespsychology rant

Overcomplicating the Uncomplicated

The message conveyed in the following post is meant to come across as a little tongue-in-cheek and sarcastic.

But here it goes anyways:

We like to overcomplicate things.

To say this, of course, comes with a degree of subjectivity.

Given the current climate we live in with regards to politics, gun control, terrorism, climate change, Black Lives Matter, LGBT rights, not to mention the impending zombie apocalypse, it stands to reason some topics, indeed, are very complicated.

However, taking those things out of the discussion3 …for me, things like Mandarin, Tort Law, rocket science, beating Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, and how to make an omelet without breaking it, is complicated.

For others those things are a walk in the park.

FML – I hate you random internet nerd because I am not you

That said, I’d make the case there’s no arena where we tend to overcomplicate things more so than in the health and fitness realm.

To quote Nia Shanks:

“If there’s an industry plagued with profuse amounts of bullshit, it’s health and fitness. Know what it is so you can avoid it and spend your time doing what actually works.”

Don’t get me wrong: there are, without question, certain aspects that require more analysis, deeper thought, and expertise.

Someone coming off a major injury and trying to return to a high-level of competition or fitness will require a more thorough, detailed approach compared to someone who’s just looking to “lose ten lbs.”

Working around a legitimate food allergy – and not some self-diagnosed gluten intolerance you learned about via your best friend’s, uncle’s, next door neighbor’s, milkman’s blog – requires more diligent planning and attention to detail.

Likewise, what it takes from a programming standpoint to take someone from a 500 lb deadlift to a 700 lb deadlift is more complicated than what’s required to coach a beginner on how to perform a basic hip hinge.

 

Extenuating circumstances aside, man-o-man do we like to overcomplicate things.

Take for example a conversation I had the other day with an athlete I work with. After his training session he asked my opinion on what the best recovery strategies were?

To his credit: he isn’t the type of guy looking for quick-fix answers, and we had a nice chuckle over my answer.

But I was serious.

I’ve had the same conversation with athletes/clients in the past and have been met with my fair share of quizzical looks.

As if the answer they were expecting to hear was:

“Okay, here’s what you need to do. Go home and perform contrast showers paired with Paleo x AMRAP.”

When in the reality the “best” approach is:

  • Go to bed.4
  • Do your best to stay hydrated.
  • Ensure ample calories between training sessions to promote and aid recovery.
  • Respect General Adaptation Syndrome, the concept of supercompensation, and how those correlate with managing training stress/recovery.

I’m sure if I perused all my behavioral economics books (or asked my wife who’s a psychologist) I’d find the technical term best used to describe why people tend to dismiss the simple answers and gravitate more towards the complicated, arduous ones.

It seems we’re like moths being drawn to the flame.

Categoriescoaching personal training

Why Not Every Client Needs Perfect Form

Today’s post comes courtesy of Jonathan Hamilton-Potter, and it covers a topic I feel is an important one for many new and up-coming fitness professionals to consider. Heck, industry veterans too.

And that is…being too strict with exercise technique.

Enjoy.

Why Not Every Client Needs Perfect Form

My eyes narrowed in disgust as I scanned the gym, trying to take in what was going on.

  • There was fellow personal trainer James, whose client Kelly was performing upright rows with no scapula retraction.
  • I spied Denise, training two girls to bench press, but completely neglecting the fact that using a lower-back arch and utilizing leg drive would have made them far more efficient and given better leverages.
  •  And worst of all – Kevin, who had one of his guys squatting, but cutting reps short of parallel.

They were gym crimes of the highest order. As a personal trainer, I should have been furious.

But I was okay with it, and here’s why –

1) Not Everyone Can Perform Exercises 100% Correctly

This is basic biomechanics.

If you have a client who can’t squat to depth because they’ve experienced knee or back issues in the past, then having them squat slightly higher than what’s usually considered acceptable in order to prevent pain isn’t such a bad idea.

With slightly less depth the muscle will still be getting worked (albeit not as well as if full range was carried out, but worked all the same) and if this allows Dave, the 63-year old former fireman who’s had three knee surgeries to be able to do a greater selection of exercises then I don’t think it’s such a bad thing.

Photo Credit: EliteFTS

You can obviously try to fix the issues though flexibility work, mobility and stretching but it’s also ok to move away from a particular exercise or modify it if the client cannot perform the movement at any range of motion without pain.

It doesn’t matter what Internet ‘experts’ say – not every client needs to train like they’re going into a powerlifting meet.

If someone can’t do an exercise in a particular way, then don’t force it upon them.

2) If You Try to be a ‘Form Perfectionist’ Then Your Clients Won’t Progress.

If I was personally spending hours and hours and huge amounts of my clients hard earned cash (which they most likely gave me for physical results such as fat loss or muscle gain) and spent the whole time working on postural correction, making sure there was absolutely no momentum used in any exercise, breathing was perfect and every single lifting ‘cue’ was nailed then I would have zero results to show and one pissed off client.

It’s ok to allow for a little form breakdown when it comes to an exercise, as long as a client is still moving safely though a movement.

You can correct a client’s posture over time if needed, but let’s not forget what clients come to us for – to be happy.

They’ll get more happiness from seeing results in terms of fat loss and body composition changes, than from you barking orders at them and stopping a set every single time they don’t quite get the movement perfect.

Obviously this is a trade-off.

In an ideal world, you might see a client seven days a week, and spend one hour on postural correction and mobility and then another hour actually training, but this is the real world.

Clients have a limited amount of time, so get them working hard when they see you, and advise they visit a sports massage therapist, a chiropractor or physical therapist to iron out any postural issues, as well as giving them some home mobility drills to do.

3) Perfect Form Doesn’t Allow For Maximum Intensity.

When it comes to any form of strength training a certain amount of effort, intensity and overload is required to coax your body to want to get stronger and better.

As training experience develops it becomes harder and harder to progress without regimented periods of high intensity. This should be carried out through the use of heavy weights or sets taken close to muscular failure coupled with muscular overload.

Maintaining ‘perfect form’ throughout every rep and set of every exercise will result in an extreme lack of the muscular overload needed for the client to progress, get stronger and improve the way they look.

Once again: clients want results and without them feeling and looking better then they’ll eventually leave.

4) Constantly Drilling Form Can Confuse a New Client and Make Them Feel Like They’re Always Doing Something Wrong.

Imagine you were doing something completely new to you – perhaps learning the guitar, or trying to speak a foreign language.

 

How would you feel if your tutor gave you 25 different instructions and made you stop every time something lapsed slightly?

Probably pretty down and demotivated.

That’s how a client can potentially feel.

They’re already doing something new and scary by joining the gym and working out (possibly for the first time ever) so give them small, manageable, bite-size chunks of information and don’t pick up on every error all at once.

Certain cues do need to be in place initially in order to prevent injuring your client.

A mistake I see a lot of trainers make is that they throw numerous teaching points at a new client in a single session, often resulting in the person looking mentally exhausted and disheartened.

Look at teaching a client the basic cues first such as keeping a neutral lumbar spine, monitoring breathing and so on, then every week or two once the basics have been developed (along with confidence) you can then look at adding one or two more teaching point to the mix and repeat.

Gradually adding teaching points this way allows clients to feel they’re accomplishing something each session and doesn’t leave them overwhelmed.

Take Home Points 

  • As long as a client isn’t risking injury then let them do the exercise.
  • Let clients lift sufficient load with enough intensity to cause progression.
  • 90% of your clients pay you for aesthetic improvements and fat loss, not to correct their form for a whole hour.
  • Don’t throw 100 teaching points at a new client and overwhelm them, add a new cue in every couple of weeks until each are mastered.
  • You don’t NEED to do any one exercise with a client.

About the Author

Jonathon Potter is a personal trainer, bodybuilder and is the owner of JHP fitness online coaching company.

You can check out his website HERE, and his Facebook Page HERE.

CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Barbell Rolling Squat

Hope everyone had a lovely July 4th weekend this past weekend. We sure did.

Lisa and I were up in Maine – Pemaquid Point to be exact – for a wedding, and it was a stark reminder that it’s the perfect anecdote to the hustle and bustle of Boston.

Having a few day’s reprieve from honking horns, sirens, and people in general was amazing. Plus, the air in Maine is so much more crisp and clean. I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance.

We got back into Boston early yesterday so that we could partake in our annual July 4th Epic Walk of Epicness.

Nothing out of the ordinary since we walk around the city all the time. However, going for a “long-ass walk” on the 4th is something Lisa and I started doing a few years ago and we’ve continued on with the tradition.

Plus, there aren’t many cities that do July 4th better than Boston.

We left our apartment around noon and when it was all said and done we covered nine miles and had our fair share of cookie and pizza pit-stops.

That’s how we roll.

Anyways, as thrilling as it is reading about my walking prowess, I’m sure you’d rather me get to the meat and potatoes of today’s post.

Barbell Rolling Squat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YsTS1Nq4tU

 

This can also be considered a poor man’s version of the hack squat. Except, you know, without the $1000+ piece of equipment involved that can only be used for one thing.

So, a more apropos way of putting things is that this is the “savvy business man’s” version of the hack squat.

Who Did I Steal It From: Greg Nuckols during one of his and Omar Isuf’s Lifting Lyceum presentations.

NOTE: If you have a chance to hop in on their next go-round, you’d be stupid not to. It’s a wonderfully detailed resource that goes into the nitty gritty on squat, deadlift and bench press technique as well as program design.

Go HERE for more information.

NOTE II: I receive no monetary value or kick-back in telling you to check it out. Unless you count a video of Greg lip-syncing Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” as a form of compensation. Which it should.

NOTE III: Lets make it happen Greg….;o)

What Does It Do: The rolling squat serves as a nice accessory movement to better target the quadriceps.

As Greg noted during his squat presentation, and I agree with him if that means anything5, many lifters have been programmed into thinking the squat is ALL posterior-chain, to the point where having weak quads may become a limiting factor.

When the goal is to lift as much weight as humanly possible, there’s definitely merit to utilizing the posterior chain to a higher degree. However, this doesn’t imply the quadriceps should be ignored.

As far as the quads being a limiting factor is concerned, this is most apparent when you witness someone come out of the hole on their squat and their hips shoot up way too fast, to the point where they run the risk of falling too far forward onto their toes.

Having stronger quads (or the ability to engage them to a higher degree) will help people better put force INTO the ground and maintain a more upright torso.

READ: This IS NOT to imply a forward lean is frowned upon or wrong. It isn’t. Just, you know, falling forward onto your face will tend to stagnate things.

Key Coaching Cues: You won’t need a lot of weight with this. For most guys, 95-135 lbs will be more than enough. For women, 45-85 lbs will suffice.

Also, use BUMPER plates.

In addition, it helps to have a very forgiving training facility to perform these. A brick or cement wall is best. Doing this exercise against a drywall won’t end well.

Hoist the barbell overhead and set up as you would for a normal squat. Lean back towards the wall until the plates are resting, adjust feet to shoulder width apart, scoot a few feet forward, and then squat down as low as you can.

These are best done for high(er) reps, in the 10-20 range.

PS: I’ve gotten a few comments from people on why this exercise is any different than “regular” squat, even with the suggestion of moving my feet forward a bit away from the wall?

Answer: Because I’m LEANING INTO THE WALL. Hence the name “barbell ROLLING squat.” Apologies for not making that more clear on my end….;O)

CategoriesAssessment Corrective Exercise Product Review

Stretch the Tight?

Note From TG: It’s July 4th. I’m in Maine. There’s no way I was writing a new post today, so I decided to repurpose the post below.

It coincides with Dean Somerset’s Ruthless Mobility, which is currently on sale at half-off the regular price. The sale ends TODAY.

Toodles! 

I started with a new client yesterday. As is the case every time I work with someone new I’ll sit down with him or her (in this case her) and attempt to get all the pertinent information I’ll need to help them achieve their goals and to write an effective training program. Things like injury history, what their training has looked like previously, training preferences, perceived barriers on what’s limited them in the past, favorite 80’s cartoon, you know, all the important stuff.

Please tell me someone out there remembers Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears!?!?! And please tell me someone else out there tried to make their own version of Gummiberry Juice (which, when drunk by humans, gave them superhuman strength) as a kid by combining Mountain Berry Punch Kool-Aid with actual gummy bears???

No? Hahahaha. Well, uh, me neither. That’s just stupid talk!  Yeah, that’s what it is……stupid.

So anyways, along with the brief Q&A I’ll also perform an extensive movement screen so I can gain a better understanding of how someone moves and whether or not they present with any distinct compensation patterns which may (or may not) be “feeding” into their dysfunction or pain.

Many people have been programmed to think that increased range of motion is good – and that the more we have of it, the better off we are.

Yes and no.

For those who are stuck starring at a computer for ten hours a day and have little to no amplitude (ROM) in their daily lives (and as a result have the movement quality of a hipster wearing a pair of jeans 3 sizes too small), working on improving their mobility would absolutely be a priority and help to improve performance in the gym and their quality of life.

For someone like the individual I was working with yesterday, however – who had plenty of ROM, to the point where she was borderline hypermobile, yet still was under the impression she had “tight” hips – going out of our way to “stretch the tight” and work on improving mobility could have more deleterious effects than good.

She came in with a history of left hip/ITB pain, and upon testing her hip internal range of motion on that side, it was limited.

Pretty strange for someone with plenty of laxity, right?

As is par for the course, she has spent years stretching her hip in hopes of improving her mobility in an effort to get better.

It hasn’t worked.  Yet, I was able to improve her hip IR by a good 10-15 degrees in a matter of 30 seconds without “stretching” her hip. It was priceless to see her reaction when it happened.

So, how did I do it?

I’m Gandalf, duh!

Okay, in all seriousness what I did was work on her REACTIVE STABILITY, which is a term that Dean Somerset has tossed around for a while now.

The Cliff Notes Version: the body will limit a movement into ranges of motion it deems to be either risky, pain producing, or “un-known.”

This is often referred to as PROTECTIVE TENSION, which is what the body creates to help support an injured area.

If I test someone’s hip IR and it’s limited I can’t just assume it’s due to shortness or stiffness of specific muscles. It can definitely be a factor and the main culprit for some people, but it’s something I feel far too many fitness professionals gravitate towards because of an archaic mindset or because it’s “what’s always been perceived as the problem.”

As many of you know Dean (Somerset) and I are good friends. If you ever hear a joke that starts with an American strength coach and a Canadian exercise physiologist walk into a bar……

…..it’s probably us.

He and I have done several workshops together and I’ve had the opportunity to see Dean perform his voodoo assessment stuff each and every time. And it never ceases to amaze me.

One of the best “party tricks” he’ll use in our workshops is exactly the protocol I described above. In short, what he’s found (and I can confirm) is that reduced hip internal rotation is often a symptom of something not working and the body will compensate by forcing surrounding musculature to chronically fire and “tense,” impairing ROM, and thus mobility.

To be more succinct:  lack of hip IR = reduced lateral stabilization.

Have someone do a (correct) side plank, have him or her focus on deep, forceful breathing and watch what happens.

Awesomesauce, right?

The side plank helps work on lateral stabilization, which in turn tells the over tensed muscles to chill out, improves reactive stability, which then in turn takes away the “perceived threat” and ROM improves.

It’s not a catch-all for everyone, but you’ll be surprised as to how often it works. I should also note that it’s not something that will stick long-term. Typically the increased ROM will last a few hours, maybe a day. But for something like this to last at least now we know that it’s not a situation where we’re going to tell someone to “just go stretch.” We need to work on improving (lateral) stabilization.

And this is the type of stuff that Dean covers in Ruthless Mobility.

To reiterate, there are PLENTY of people who need to work on improving their mobility in the traditional sense – mobility drills, stretching, etc – and Dean covers that in droves here. So whether you or some of your clients need to work on mobility in specific areas (t-spine, hips, etc), this resource provides a TON of options.

Dean’s not a small human being. He practices what he preaches, and it’s amazing to see how supple he is in his own right! Trust me: you’re going to be watching the videos and think to yourself, “is that Dean Somerset or Houdini?”

But of more value, and more germane to the point(s) I made above, Dean covers stuff that most fitness peeps gloss over or fail to understand altogether. And that’s why I wholeheartedly feel this is THE next “go to” resource on the topic.

Not only do you get 4-5 hours of brilliant content, but you also earn valuable CEUs to boot. So there’s that to consider as well.

Ruthless Mobility is currently on sale at a heavily discounted price, but the sale ends tonight (July 4th). Get on it people. You won’t be disappointed.

—> Ruthless Mobility <—

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 7/1/16

Lets get right into this week’s list

Introducing the Henriques Deadlift Chart – Tim Henriques

OMG – this was aaaaammmmmaaaazzzzzziiinnnggggg.

Tim’s the author of one of the best powerlifting books written in recent memory, All About Powerlifting, as well as as the director of The National Personal Training Institute. Plus, you know, he’s a strong sonofabitch.

If you’re a fitness pro who writes a ton training programs you’re probably very familiar with Prilepin’s Chart, which breaks down “optimal” set/rep schemes given a certain training percentage

It’s a fantastic chart. The thing is though, it’s based off of research OLY weightlifters and not powerlifters.

Tim took it upon himself to remedy that issue.

You can also check out his squat chart HERE, and bench press chart HERE.

After reading all of them, you should send Tim and email to thank him.

The Top 7 Bodybuilding Methods of All-Time – Christian Thibaudeau

Enjoyed this one from Coach Thibs. It never ceases to amaze me just how many different ways there are to lift weights.

Ruthless Mobility – Dean Somerset

If you’re a trainer, coach, physical therapist, or just someone who likes to nerd out over movement, this is an excellent resource on assessment, corrective strategies, and programming to improve people’s “suppleness.”

Dean placed Ruthless Mobility on SALE  through the holiday weekend at about half-off the regular price.

Take advantage of it while you can HERE.

CategoriesAssessment coaching Corrective Exercise mobility

3 Unconventional Ways to Move Better

Counting today’s post, four out of my last five entries have had a number included in the title. That’s never happened before.

Wanna know what else I’ve never done?

  • Gotten a speeding ticket.
  • Tried calamari.
  • Deadlifted 2000 lbs.
  • Cried to the movie Notting Hill.6

Nevertheless, in conjunction with Dean Somerset putting his Ruthless Mobility resource I sale TODAY (through July 4th) I wanted to share a few thoughts on the topic (mobility/movement/general badassery) that maybe some of you reading would find useful or interesting or mildly captivating.

Captivating like this picture of a kangaroo punching someone in the face:

1. Anterior Pelvic Tilt Doesn’t Always Have to be Fixed, Nor Is It Bad. Everything Will Be Okay. Seriously.

New Client: “I’m so excited to work with you. I was told by my previous trainer I had anterior pelvic tilt.”

Me: “Okay, explain.”

New Client: “Well, I went in for my assessment and he told me I had anterior pelvic tilt and that it needed to be addressed and that he’d write me a program to fix it.”

Me: “I see. How long did you do the program for? And, was it fixed?”

New Client: “I worked with him for eight months, and I don’t know if it was fixed. All I know is that we did a metric shit-ton of stretching, corrective exercise, and very little strength training.”

Me: “Well, that’s unfortunate. Excuse me while I go toss my face into a brick wall.”

Okay, the brick wall comment didn’t really happen…but everything else stated above was said verbatim as I sat down with a new client recently.

Without going into the particulars I went on to state that roughly 7 billion other people in the world “suffer” from anterior pelvic tilt, and that it’s truly reached pandemic levels of clusterfuckedness.

In short: I explained that, aside from scenarios where excessive anterior pelvic tilt may be causing pain or movement dysfunction, having it was not a disease or a scenario which always required intervention.

In fact, APT is considered anatomically neutral. I.e., Your lumbar spine has a natural lordotic curve.

To quote Bret Contreras:

“Is APT abnormal?

No, it’s not. According to a published study by Herrington 2011, 85% of males and 75% of females presented with an anterior pelvic tilt, 6% of males and 7% of females with a posterior pelvic tilt, and 9% of males and 18% of females presented as neutral. Anterior pelvic tilt is also the most common postural adaptation in athletes according to Kritz and Cronin 2008, and it seems to naturally occur with athletes that do a lot of sprinting. Therefore, it’s actually normal for healthy individuals to possess APT, and the average angle of anterior pelvic tilt ranges from 6-18° depending on the study and methods used to determine the angle, with around 12° appearing as the norm (ex:Youdas et al. 1996, Youdas et al. 2000, Christie et al. 1995, Day et al. 1984).”

As I recall, there’s no definitive test or “screen” which can correlate “x-degrees” of APT and one’s vulnerability to pain and dysfunction.

Some people have APT and walk around in considerable pain, while others have APT (even excessive APT) and have no issues what-so-ever.

However, those coaches with an acute eye for assessment and movement can often use a plethora of screens and tests to ascertain whether or not APT may be something that’s needs to be addressed.

To reiterate, APT is not always wrong (or bad)…but it can be problematic once we start allowing ill-prepared people to load the pattern and not only that…begin to add repetitions and/or speed.

Often, it’s the LACK of ability (or our proclivity to refrain from) posteriorly tilting the pelvis when bad things start to happen.7

As Tony B mentions above: There’s a big difference between cueing someone to arch like crazy (and thus encouraging excessive APT, resulting in poor positioning and increased instability) and cueing someone to posteriorly tilt the pelvis to nudge them into a more neutral spinal position.

 

NOTE: As Mike Robertson notes in THIS article, there is no such thing as a bad cue. However, there does exist poor cues when they’re not applicable to the individual or are used haphazardly (because you heard someone else use it).

2. Thoracic Spine Endurance is Often Overlooked

A huge shout-out to Mike Reinold for hammering this point home in a recent Inner Circle I watched on How to Improve Thoracic Extension.

Mike noted that in order to improve t-spine extension it is important to work on mobility (Windmills, Bench T-Spine Mobilizations, Quadruped Extension-Rotations, etc), however we can’t dismiss the importance of ENDURANCE in order to maintain it.

 

Mike also noted that with regards to posture, “sitting upright is fictitious.” The amount of hours many of us spend in a flexed position far out-weigh the number or hours we’re upright. As such, keeping an upright posture is freakin exhausting.

My words, not his.

Building spinal endurance (not strength) is key here.

Don’t get me wrong: strength is (and always will be) important. A healthy dose of horizontal rowing (DB rows, seated rows, chest supported rows, Seal rows) is never a bad thing.

However, when we’re talking about our “posture muscles” – the muscles that need to be on all day in order to keep us upright – endurance is the name of the game.

3. Lack of ROM Isn’t Always Because You Need to Stretch More

The second someone is told that they lack range of motion (ROM) in any part of their body, they’re immediately shown 37 different stretches and ways to “smash” their tissue.

Many end up cranking this joint and yanking that joint till their blue in the face.

One of the more common examples I like to use here is lack of shoulder flexion (or ability to elevate the arms above one’s head).

Many people are unable to do so without some form of compensation via forward head posture, rib flair, and/or excessive lumbar extension. Picture on the left.

The fix can be any number of things: addressing lat length, fighting a zombie, poor anterior core control, poor tissue quality in the pecs/pec minor, you name it.

And none of those approaches would be wrong. Fighting zombies is awesome.

However, stretching tends to be the “go to” modality for many fitness professionals, and frankly it isn’t always the answer.

Oftentimes, taking the time to teach people to get 3D expansion of the rib cage with their breath (front, side, and into the back) and then learning to fully exhale (to get rib cage down and promote better engagement of anterior core) will help to “open up” the thorax.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tested someone’s shoulder flexion and saw an immediate 10-20 degree improvement after having them perform ten good breaths.

I call it my Gandalf moment.

Except, you know, I’m not a wizard.

Did Someone Say Gandalf?

For more insights on the topic and wizard-like shenanigans I’d recommend checking out Dean’s Ruthless Mobility.

You get FIVE hours of content (digital or DVD) from one of the smartest coaches I know on assessment, corrective exercise, and how to get people moving better.

What’s more, CEUs are available AND it’s on SALE at close to 50% off the regular price.

Go HERE and thank me later.

Categoriescoaching fitness business Motivational

The 5 Most Important Things I Learned From My Internship

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of former CSP intern (and now staff member in the Jupiter, FL location), Ashley Crosby.

I really liked this, as it served as a stark reminder that internships can provide more than just monetary value8 Particular to fitness industry internships it’s also a reminder that the “true” value is in learning the intricacies behind working with people, and not just getting good at breaking down deadlift technique and regurgitating Prilepin’s chart.

Enjoy!

5 Most Important Things I Learned From My Internship

When I did my internship at CSP-FL in the spring of 2015, I was mostly concerned with nailing down the technical aspects of coaching. How do you write the best program? How do you spot compensation patterns? What are the best exercises and progressions for each individual at each point of their season? Why choose one exercise over another? What’s better?

See, I was finishing up grad school, and though I was lucky enough to have some experience in the field, I was still mentally stuck in finding the one correct answer. I wanted cut and dry answers, steps to follow, and I wanted to be the most proficient in each and every exercise.

I studied relentlessly–not just the database and in-services we have access to prior to our internship to prepare us, but for my exams as well. I read every article I could get my hands on. I spent a lot of time with my head in books. (To be fair, I still do.)

I recently asked our new class of interns what they were most interested in learning about, and saw similar topics: nutrition supplementation for sport, arm care and managing injuries after surgery and rehab, set/rep schemes, developing throwing programs, density training–the technical aspects of what we do day in and day out.

But here’s the thing: the most important lessons I learned as a coach were not technical in nature.

Comfort in the technical aspects comes with time and practice, from reading both the science and articles from other coaches on how they apply techniques, and from making mistakes and trying new things.

Being on the other end of the internship process now as a staff member and watching the newest class of interns go through their internship experience, I feel these are five of the most important things I’ve learned (by doing and seeing):

1. Learn everybody’s name, and a few facts about them.

Greet them by name every day.

As Dale Carnegie said in How to Win Friends and Influence People (a book I highly suggest every coach out there read), there is great power in a person’s name. Use it often.

2. Learn how to ask questions and genuinely, actively listen to them.

Start every session by asking athletes how they feel, how their weekend was, how their game was, or some other question to see how they’re feeling. It gives you a good idea of their level of fatigue or their mood, and gives you a chance to set (or re-set) the tone for the day.

NOTE from TG: I listened to a recent interview on The Fitcast with Mike Boyle and he mentioned a program that he and the staff at MBSC are experimenting with called CoachMePlus.

The idea is to have better access to the metrics that affect athletes on a daily basis and to better prepare coaches to augment training and programming variables accordingly. Seems interesting.

3. It doesn’t matter what kind of day you are having; leave your troubles at the door.

As a coach, you are an emotional rock and set the tone for the facility and for the session. Don’t let your bad day become your athlete’s bad day.

4. Whether it’s busy or dead, don’t lose your focus.

When it’s slow, it’s easy to mentally check out and want to hang out with the other coaches or interns. It’s great to be friends with your fellow interns–in fact I genuinely hope you are, because they’re part of your new professional network.

However, when people are in the gym, your focus should be on them. Use it as an opportunity to get to know your athlete better, to spend a little more time working on a movement they struggle with, and as a chance for you to become better as a coach.

 

5. Seek out the quiet ones and the young ones.

These are often the hardest to work with—not the pro guys who are very talented athletes and cue up quickly, but the ones who are still figuring out how their bodies are supposed to move or are too shy to ask for help.

Not only do they need the most help technically, they need to feel a part of the gym culture that you’re creating as a coach.

While I learned a lot of the technical aspect during my internship (and continue to every day through articles and books and interactions with my coworkers), they’re all just in the background of what I do all day, which is interact with people, and build a relationship and trust with them.

As Teddy Roosevelt said and Eric often quotes, people won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Author’s Bio

Ashley Crosby recently finished her MS at Bridgewater State before coming to Cressey Sports Performance, first as an intern and then as a coach. A CSCS and Pn1 certified coach, she runs the strength camps in the CSP-FL location. Before she went back to school for her masters, she was the social media director for the Cape Cod Baseball League. When she’s not coaching or lifting, she’s usually watching baseball.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 6/24/16

I’m mad at myself.

Not for something stupid like forgetting to turn the stove off or forgetting to send in my quarterly taxes.

No, I’m mad at myself for slacking in the movie-watching department.

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love watching movies, and how much I pride myself on being a movie snob.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been a movie nut. I have vivid memories of seeing E.T, Return of the Jedi, and Back to the Future in the theater when I was younger, and immediately becoming hooked by the escapism those movies provided.

Sure, like everyone else I enjoy the big budget, popcorn movies like Captain America: Civil War. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy explosions, fists being thrown into other people’s faces, and Chris Evans’ pecs?

But I also love watching independent, artsy-fartsy movies too.

Foreign movies, movies that star Chloe Savigny, or movies that have some bohemian, artistic title like, I don’t know, I Stare at a Rock, Love is Blind.9

They’re all good in my book, and I’ll give everything a chance.

Regardless, I’ve been slacking this summer. I mean, I haven’t even seen X-Men: Apocalypse yet!

Putting things into perspective, however, it’s with good reason. Between all the traveling I’ve been doing for work in addition to taking over the lease for my own training studio here in Boston…I’ve been a little pre-occupied.

That said, what movies have YOU seen lately? Anything you recommend or made you want to drop kick the director in the neck for wasting two hours of your life?

I’m heading to my snobby theater tonight to go see The Lobster. I’ve heard good things.

 

Lets get to this week’s list of stuff to read…..

What’s Wrong With Your Deadlift? – Todd Bumgardner

Everyone has different body-types and leverages, which makes the deadlift different for everyone. However, Todd hits on some BIG ROCK cues and suggestions that pretty much have a universal connotation.

3 Steps to Better Basketball Conditioning – Ty Terrell

Remember those weighted shoes you used to wear to help with your vertical jump? Or, the crotchety basketball coach who used to run his athletes into the ground during every…single…practice?

Most still do.

In this article, Ty hits on where most coaches miss the mark with regards to conditioning for basketball. Awesome stuff.

Double Your Back Growth – Nick Tumminello

In this article, Coach Nick hits on my favorite part of the body, the boobs the upper back. There’s plenty of info in this article to keep any meathead happy, but there’s also a fair bit of science for the nerds out there too.

CategoriesWriting

5 Ways to Become a Better Writer: Written By Not Stephen King

The fact I’m writing a post on how to write, much less how to do it well, dumbfounds me.

I’ve joked in the past that I don’t consider myself a “writer” in the first place. I’m a strength coach who happens to have an ability to construct two coherent sentences back-to-back. And sometimes, usually through sheer luck, use a semicolon as it’s intended.

I’ve also joked in the past that my high-school English teachers – Ms. Davie, Ms. Gambitta, and Mrs. LaVack – would shit a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls if they knew that Tony Gentilcore, the same kid who could never grasp the difference between there/their/they’re and whom used adverbs incessantly (<— HA, see?!), had thousands of people read his website everyday and was a published author.

[Full credit to them for their patience back in the day.]

There’s other stuff that dumbfounds me too.

Like, why did Hollywood feel the need to remake Point Break?

And what’s the rationale in calling something “vegetarian meat loaf?” That makes no sense. There’s no dead animal involved. Why not just call it vegetarian loaf?

Or, I don’t know, sawdust?

But as it stands, as far as things that really dumbfound me, seeing my name in the likes of Men’s Health, T-Nation.com, Women’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and many other reputable fitness publications on a regular basis is nuts.

However that dumbfoundedness (did I just make up a word?) isn’t devoid from a sense of pride and accomplishment.

There is a small degree of bravado on my end. #sorrynotsorry.

Nevertheless, whenever I travel for workshops (or open up my inbox) it’s not uncommon for the conversation to sway towards writing and how to get better at it.

Fitness professionals from all walks of life and backgrounds are interested in this topic. And it makes sense. Writing is a fantastic way to get your name out there and your information/expertise in front of more eyes.

Due to the digital nature of our society and the ease of access to information there is something to consider:

It’s never been easier to be heard, however it’s never been harder to get heard.

The fitness industry is saturated with everyone vying for everyone else’s attention. Writing, writing well, and possessing the ability to get (and maintain) people’s attention is a bonafide way to separate yourself from the masses.

Here are some ways to do so.

1. Becoming a Better Writer = Becoming a Better Reader

I don’t know of any writer worth his or her’s weight in number 2 pencils who doesn’t also have an insatiable appetite for reading.

“Reading—the good and the bad—inspires you. It develops your palate for all the tricks that writers have invented over the years. You can learn from textbooks about the writing craft, but there’s no substitute for discovering for yourself how a writer pulls off a trick. Then that becomes part of your experience. – Roz Morris“

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught myself marinating in a sentence or paragraph when reading, transfixed by the genius and wordsmithery (I think I just made up another word) of the author.

I’ve heard of other writers doing the same – so I don’t feel weird in divulging this – but it’s not uncommon for me to read someone’s prose and re-write it in a notebook or on my laptop just so I can gain a sense of what it feels like not to suck.

From Ernest Hemingway to J.K Rowling, Malcolm Gladwell to Lou Schuler, and Robert Ludlum to Dr. Seuss…try to immerse yourself with a variety of authors and genres (books, blogs, articles, etc).

It’ll not only broaden your palate, but help you to find your own writing style to boot.

2. Write To Your Strengths

Who better to quote here than one of my all-time favorite writers, Kurt Vonnegut:

“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”

This is a particularly prudent piece of advice for (fitness) writers.

If your passion and strengths as a fitness professional reside in fat-loss, how to get people shredded, and arguing over ideal macronutrient breakdowns, then that’s what you should write about.

If you work with athletes, tend to gravitate towards getting people stronger, and want to turn people into deadlifting Terminators, then it makes sense to stay in your lane and talk about that sort of stuff.

If your speciality is how to train bomb-sniffing dolphins, write about that.

Of course, this isn’t to imply you should never go off the beaten track; there’s only so many articles you can write about the deadlift before you want to jump through a pane-glass window.

However, be forewarned that if you do choose to go outside your scope of expertise, you do run the risk of opening yourself up to an exponentially increased level of fuckery.

The internet trolls will get ya.

3. Everything Counts as Writing

I spend a large portion of my day responding to emails. Does that not count as writing?

We’re programmed to think that “writing” only counts if we’re writing a novel, and that’s simply not the case.

Writing a blog is writing.

Answering emails is writing.

Tweeting is writing.

Updating a Facebook status is writing.

Signing another restraining order is writing.

It all counts, and it all allows for an opportunity to get better. Check out Ann Handley’s book, Everybody Writes. It’s a game changer.

4. Find Your Creative Space (and Time)

Some people find their writing groove sitting at home in the peace and quiet. Others prefer to head to their local coffee shop or cafe, where the ambience and background noise helps them to focus more.

Everyone’s different.

Me? My best writing occurs while flying in a F-16 fighter jet.10

Likewise, some people find their creative juices are flowing more in the AM hours; others in the PM. I’m in the former camp. After coaching for a few hours the last thing I want to do when I get home at night is sit in front of my computer and pontificate on what to write about.

Not when there’s Netflix to be watched anyways.

Suffice is to say I’ve found my most productive hours to write are between 8-12 in the morning. Anything outside that window is a bonus.

Find what works best for you and what fits your schedule.

5. F*****G Write!

Stop emailing me or reading articles on “how to write,” and just go write for crying out loud. Make it a habit to do it everyday – whether it’s 50 words or 500.

You have to start somewhere.

It’s not a sexy piece of advice, but consistency and repetition is paramount. It’s what every writer in the history of ever will tell you to do.

It’s that simple.