Stevo's "Reed" All About Performance Training

I've Moved....

2011-06-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

You can continue to check out my ramblings at http://saptstrength.com/

Thank you to all those who continue to read this site daily. I originally started it as a way to help out some friends in college and it's cool to see people from all over the globe tuning in.

I'll now be writing over on the blog at SAPT's website. This way, you'll be able to read fresh content every day. I know I've been a bit sporadic on this site, but now you'll be able to see something new each time you tune in (with the exceptions of weekends).

I'll be writing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and you'll get to hear from Chris and Sarah (the two awesome coaches I work with) on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Again, head on over to http://saptstrength.com/ to tune in. I'll see you over there!

-Stevo

3 Training Myths Exposed, Vol. 2

2011-06-15T09:40:00.002-04:00

(Note: the link at the bottom takes you to my most recent OneResult article)

In the first volume of this series we discussed three training mistakes happening at gyms across the country. I’d, however, be flat out lying to you if I said those are the only three I see on a daily basis.
Thus, in an effort to set the record straight here are three more myths that need to be exposed. We’re all, at one time or another, guilty of doing one or more of these, so please read on, help spread the word, and let’s set the record straight once and for all.

Mistake #4: Copious Volumes of Long Distance Running

It seems when an athlete (or even your general fitness enthusiast) seeks advice for conditioning, he or she usually hears something like:

“Let’s see, ummm….just go on a long run 2-3x/week….yeah, that should do it!”

Here are three things more productive than performing copious amounts of long distance running:

Continue Reading….

Hello Sensei, Please Improve my Running Technique

2011-06-13T22:27:00.002-04:00

I've written in the past how roughly 60-70% of runners will suffer a serious injury in a given year. This is primarily due to two critical variables: poor general movement quality, and less-than-optimal running specific technique. The terrible movement quality that most runners possess is a byproduct of musculoskeletal weakness, mobility restrictions (in key areas), and lack of stability (in key locations). When you take all of those deficiencies and utilize them to perform roughly 1,500 plyometric repetitions per mile, it’s no surprise that most runners end up injured in one form or another.

When it comes down to running technique, most people don’t think twice about hiring a coach to help them. They just hop on the road and get after it. Let me ask you:

If you had never been shown how to swim, would you jump in the deep end for a casual dive?
If you had never been taught how to spar, would you enter a cage for a mixed martial arts fight?
If you had never been instructed on how to drive, would you just hop in the car and speed off on the highway? Well, maybe some of you would, but I digress.

Yet most of us, when we want to run, just go out and do it. Interesting, huh?

I’ve previously discussed how hiring a coach is extremely important if you’re serious about reaching a particular goal. This may be a business coach, a martial arts coach, or a strength coach (wink wink). It’s a no brainer that if we genuinely want to reach our goals as efficiently and effectively as possible, then we should hire an expert to guide us to a desired outcome.

Well, this past weekend was an opportunity for me to put my money where my mouth is. As I’m increasingly falling in love with obstacle course races, and would like to pursue this endeavor for quite a long time (and thus need to keep myself free of chronic injury), I decided to meet with a running instructor (and fellow strength colleague) John, to help me “fix my stuff.” In fact, Kelsey (my fiancée, and also a CSCS) joined in, too, so it created something fun/relaxing to do as a couple in the midst of wedding preparation.

It was an incredible learning experience for both Kelsey and I, and also a fantastic reminder for what it’s like to be on the other side of a coaching session. Given that both of us spend the majority of our week helping others with movement-related exercises/improvements, it was definitely cool to be the ones receiving the coaching cues for a change. It was also a great reminder to experience what it feels like to try something new, and go through the step-by-step process of learning a new skill.

Here is a video that John took of me running before any instruction. He just told me to run as if I was going on a nice Summer jaunt. I slowed down the video so you can see what’s actually happening.

You can see that I reach WAY out in front of me, landing on my heel and keeping my center of mass well behind my foot strike. There’s a host of other problems (that John pointed out to me), but I’ll keep it simple for now.

After John filmed Kelsey and me running in our “natural” form, he took us inside for about 75-minutes of instruction and practice. We performed drills on a wall, partner-assisted exercises, and various progressions to help us learn proper running technique. It was pretty cool and John did an excellent job of teaching us to “crawl” before we run. It reminded me of how, at SAPT, we teach someone to goblet squat well before placing them under a barbell.

Now, look at my running form after John worked with us. Obviously it is still far from perfect (you can only perfect so much in 75-minutes), but I was still amazed at the improvement in such short a time span:

You can see that I now land on the ball of the foot, keeping my center of mass over my foot strike (thus significantly reducing the impact force on my body). Again, there were MANY other improvements that John helped us with (slightly leaning forward to take advantage of gravity’s assistance, “pulling” with the rear leg, maintaining a neutral pelvic tilt, landing softly, etc.), but I’ll spare the detail for now.

I still have a LOT to work on, and the greatest challenge for me will be to resist the urge on performing 800-meter repeats (or even 200 meters) with a different running form than I'm used to. Just like we SAPT coaches won't put someone under a barbell until they've proved they're ready for it, I need to "cook myself slow" in order to set myself up for success in long haul. Rome wasn't built in a day, ya know?

Anyway, I guess the point of this post was to:

A) Give a gentle reminder that, no matter who you are, you're never above receiving instruction from someone else. It would have done me no good to stubbornly insist that I don't need help with something exercise-related because I'm a performance coach. We can ALWAYS improve on something, even if it's within the same general sphere as our "expertise."

B) Bring home the point that we need to be PROactive in our modalities for treating dysfunction, not REactive. Most runners (and lifters) tend to treat their problems only after they arrive (surgery, ice, NSAIDs, etc.) instead of taking measures to prevent an issue before it even arrives. In this case, for me, it was learning how run more efficiently (reduce ground impact forces upon landing, expend as little energy as possible on each step, etc.), in hope that I can enjoy something I love for a longer period of time with minimal interruptions.

C) There is no C, but I wanted three points, so there we go.

Charlotte: Powerlifting, Golf, etc.

2011-06-06T10:24:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend, SAPT staff traveled down to Charlotte, NC. It provided an awesome opportunity to talk shop outside the constant distractions of NOVA, get intense and "Do Work" at a USAPL powerlifting competition, and relax out on the golf course.

Sarah, Ryan, Sean, and John all competed at the powerlifting meet, and I couldn't have been more proud of them. Sarah isn't even a year out from giving birth to her first child, so it was impressive enough that she was getting under the bar and compete postpartum. Ryan, Sean, and John all hit personal records in each of their lifts. Needless to say, I was proud to be a "SAPTer" on Saturday.

Getting right to it, below are a few highlights from the meet.

Here's a picture of Sarah at the bottom of the Squat. (Being the brilliant person I am, I didn't think to walk around to the front of the platform to shoot video footage until after the first wave, so I failed capture Sarah or John's squat on video.)

Next is Sean nailing his squat in the 3rd flight. My favorite part about the squat videos is that you can distinctly hear Chris yell his favorite coaching cue as they come out of the hole (hint: it starts with "H", ends in "s", and has "e-e-l" somewhere in the middle):

Sean easily wins the "Most Improved Squat" award of the weekend, as he made ENORMOUS advancements over his 12-week competition prep phase. I was with him when he squatted twelve weeks ago - helping him determine the weight to base his percentages off for the subsequent training cycle. I felt as if I needed to physically shove him down in order get his hip crease parallel because his hips were so tight. It was awesome to see him diligently attack hip mobility throughout the past few months - and also give himself an honest assessment of where he was at - so that he could make the most of his training. It paid off, to say the least.

Here is Ryan hitting another PR in his Squat. Ryan's body (and mind) definitely took a beating as he was finishing out his semester of grad school, so it was cool to see him remain consistent in training and come out strong with PRs on all his lifts.

Next we have John Delgado hitting a solid bench press.

For those of you who may not be familiar with powerlifting: your bench can easily be 20-50lbs LESS (depending) than your typical bench press in the gym, as you have to demonstrate control on the way down, pause on the chest, and then come up. Not to mention: your shoulders/head, butt, and feet (heels included) need to remain in contact with the bench/floor.

Moving on to the Deadlift, we have (in order): Sarah, John, Sean, and Ryan all killing it. I can confidently say we had some of the cleanest looking deadlifts of the competition (some of the pulls I saw made me want to crawl into a corner and curl up in the fetal position).

Sarah pulling a solid conventional dead (in the past she went Sumo):

Delgado hitting a big PR (and he sets the bar down as if he's holding a newborn. Love it.):

Sean "Sandbag" Healy breaking the big 400 barrier! "Easy" goes the moderator. He blasted through this one. And you'll have to ask Delgado about the nickname (which fit perfectly).

Ryan hitting a PR and then spinning around to watch all three white lights shining. Awesome.

And, just so we can prove we DO enjoy other things besides the weight room, here is the SAPT staff (me, Ryan, Chris, Sarah) getting some sun out on the UNC Charlotte golf course.

Be back soon...

2011-06-02T15:15:00.000-04:00

I'm down in Charlotte, NC for a USAPL powerlifting competition Thursday-Sunday. Chris and I are going headed off to support the rest of the SAPT staff (Sarah, Ryan, John, and Sean) as they pick up some heavy things.

Be back next week!


Chris hoisting 675lbs at a previous competition. I work with stronger people than you do...

2 Outside-the-Box Exercises (to do with as you may...)

2011-06-01T09:42:00.003-04:00

Getting right to it, I thought I'd share two exercises you probably haven't tried before. The first is something I had toyed around with (and liked it) in the Summer of 2009, and the second is a tool we'll use with some of our wrestlers and combat athletes.

1. The 1-Minute Chinup

I forgot how brutal this really was until I went to try it again. As the name implies, it's a chinup that takes you one minute to complete. That's one rep, performed for 60 seconds. Take 30 seconds to pull yourself up, and then immediately transition into a 30-second eccentric. I wouldn't try this unless you're already fairly proficient at chinups (able to execute 12-15 bodyweight reps with perfect form). See the video below for a demonstration (fortunately, you can't see my face...):

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;d&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

I would say this exercise is good for 3 reasons:

A variation to improve your chinups (crazy, huh?!). My guess, however, is that this variation will help improve your chinup endurance as opposed to maximum chinup strength. Thirty seconds is a loonnng time to be moving through the concentric portion of the lift, and an equally long time to be controlling the eccentric portion of the chinup. It's also pretty widely accepted that isometric training will help to improve strength and neural control for the given joint angle involved in the contraction, and with the 1-minute chinup you essentially receive a "mini-isometric" throughout the entire range or motion (and thus, each joint angle) of the chinup.
To the gents in the crowd seeking to Sculpt 'da Gunz: you can't go wrong with some time-under-tension to elicit some growth in the biceps. I honestly don't think there is one particular exercise that is superior for increasing arm size. However, rotating exercises will almost always elicit a favorable response from the body as you have to adapt to that new stimulus. Given that very few people I know have tried this, it will probably be a solid catalyst for growth for you Broz out there.
To make you hate life. Don't think I need to explain this one.

Again, to reiterate: don't try this unless you already possess pretty solid chinup proficiency. Also, I would suggest keeping the frequency of the 1-minute chinup to one day a week in training.

2. Scramble to Tire Flip

I realize many of you reading probably won't be able to do this due to equipment limitations (although you can always pick up a tire FOR FREE at your local tire supplier....just sayin'). However, it's just plain fun, which is enough reason for me to share it. Below is SAPT athlete, Greg (state runner-up and seven-time all-American wrestler), demonstrating the movement as he prepares for his college wrestling career:

Given that wrestlers - and fighters - frequently need to quickly reset their spatial orientation/focus (from rolling around, or being flipped over) and push back on an opponent, we'll often add these "scramble to tire flip" variations in their training program. You can perform a number of drills before flipping the tire: rolls (as Greg displays), side crawls, up-downs, etc. You're limited by your own imagination.

If you're not a competitive wrestler or fighter, you can always give these a shot to make you feel good about yourself, or if you're simply feeling pumped up after watching a testosterone-infused movie like gladiator.

Happy Memorial Day

2011-05-30T10:03:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend. I know I've certainly been enjoying this awesome weather and allowing myself to get outside a little more than usual, and I hope everyone else is doing the same.

At the same time, please don't forget the purpose of this weekend. Remember our heroes that have fallen for our country in years past, and also take a moment to spare a thought to the countless troops that are still fighting for us today. Thank you to our soldiers!

Going along with the theme of Memorial Day weekend (and along with the fact that I promised myself I wouldn't spend more than 10 minutes at my computer today), I'm going to spare you all from a long blog post and show a quick clip of one of the Army Rangers running through a workout. This blew my mind when I found out this is just the WARM-UP for these guys. This is quite impressive for many reasons, and I chuckled a bit when I saw the guy was barely breaking a sweat at the end. It's always awesome to know those defending our country lead from the front.

Now, get off your computers and spend some time outside today!

3 Training Myths Exposed

2011-05-26T13:46:00.000-04:00

Contrary to popular belief these three training techniques are doing absolutely nothing for your strength, size, or athletic performance.

I can’t tell you how many times I’m in the middle of coaching and think to myself:

“Man! If only I knew in high school what these kids know right now, who knows how my athletic career would’ve ended up…"

You see, most of the athletes I work with are 14-18 year-olds, which is the very age range in which I made almost every conceivable training mistake. Because the resources available to me were muscle magazines and “bodybuilders” at my local gym, I wasted a lot of my physiological potential on erroneous training methods that did nothing to improve my athletic performance.

You can continue reading HERE

(the article is published over at OneResult, a pretty cool company that sells only NCAA-approved supplements)

Tabatas Everywhere

2011-05-25T10:14:00.001-04:00

If there was one study that has influenced the training industry more than any other, it's gotta be the Tabata Study. Unfortunately, this study is also one of the most misunderstood (and blown out of proportion) studies that I am aware of.

It seems that almost everyone caught up in the "high intensity rage" touts that all you need to do to improve both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity is tabata work. These same people probably didn't actually read the study, which I'll explain in a bit.

For those of you who don't know, "Tabata" intervals are where you perform 20 seconds of work (ex. sprinting, cycling, burpees, squats, etc.) followed by 10 seconds of rest. This is done for 8 total rounds, (for a 4-minute routine).

Now, for the record, I think this work:rest protocol can be a great tool for fitness clients, or for people just looking to try something different in their daily workouts. Nick Tumminello, for example, has given some great ideas on how to properly progress someone with this protocol and also gave some cool ideas for how to use it. The point of this post isn't to tell you that you should never use a 20:10 work-to-rest ratio, but to clarify some very important points for trainers or strength coaches that read this site. Got it? Cool. Here we go...

Key Points to Understand About the Tabata Study

1) Less than 1% of those who claim to use tabatas are not actually doing tabatas. You may be using a 20:10 work-to-rest protocol, yes....but you're not anywhere close to doing an actual tabata. The test subjects in the study were working at 170% VO2max for each work interval. That's almost impossible to sustain. Unless you've performed a VO2 max test yourself, you can't come anywhere close to actually understanding how difficult it is to work this hard. Let me put it this way: you'd have to be chased by a Saber-Toothed Tiger to sustain this type of intensity, and even then you'd probably fall prey to natural selection due to your inability to hold out for even four minutes.

2) The protocol calls for eight rounds, but the test subjects didn't even always complete all eight. Some had to stop at seven rounds because they couldn't sustain the 170% VO2max output. Again: you're not working as hard as you think you are.

3) Some fitness gurus proclaim that all they need to do is perform tabata intervals to improve both their anaerobic and aerobic capacity. Again, they couldn't have read the original study. The high-intensity group also performed a session of steady-state work each week. Does this not now befog the entire study by adding in a session of pure aerobic work each week to the high-intensity group?! You can't say that (based off the study) tabata intervals are superior at improving both anaerobic and aerobic qualities when the "tabata group" also performed aerobic work as part of their protocol.

4) The high-intensity group never even achieved the level of aerobic development that the endurance training group did! (See the graph below, which is taken from the original 1996 study). So, does this mean that all you need to do is a bunch of tabatas to improve your aerobic capacity?? Clearly - at least based on this particular study - this isn't optimal.

5) Most of the improvements in the high intensity group flat plateaued at the 3-week mark (specifically, the gains dropped from a 20% improvement to only 5%, and it didn't get any better). The anaerobic energy system actually "taps out" very quickly (I say this not based on the Tabata Study alone, but on other research and personal experience), and you don't need to spend all year developing it. If you (or your athletes) are performing tabatas year round then you are wasting valuable time that could be spent improving the energy systems for your given sport.

6) The workload used (on the stationary bike) was supra-maximal. The bike is one of the only pieces of equipment you can use for this magnitude of intensity because of safety concerns (if you fatigue, you won't get hurt due to the fact that you can just stop pedaling). Just understand that if you're using front squats or thrusters or whatever (and using somewhere around 50-115lbs) you may be replicating the work:rest duration of tabata intervals but you're nowhere close to replicating the actual workload.

7) The interval training group didn't perform anything else throughout the course of this study. They weren't doing maximal strength training, power training, attending sports practice, etc. Imagine adding the true tabata protocol to a full schedule of strength and conditioning? Chances are (if you don't pass out from fatigue) you won't improve much at anything else.

Again, my main point is not to say that no one should perform the 20:10 interval ratio. You can certainly use it from time to time, just understand that you're not actually performing a tabata (honestly, as a strength coach, I think I think I just become a bit miffed when the semantics of it all is abused).

And I'm certainly not anti-high intensity training. It DEFINITELY has its uses, it's just very important to understand how to wield it appropriately.

If you're a strength coach, or train athletes in any way, you'd be unwise to regularly utilize the tabata protocol to prepare your athletes for competition. Could it be a tool to use for a friendly competition every now and then? Certainly. But not as a tool to optimally prepare your athletes for their respective sport.

I'd also like to clarify that I'm not trying to be the pot calling the kettle black on this one. When I first started searching the internet for training methods I quickly came across the tabata protocol and handed it out like water to everyone I knew. I'm just glad that I eventually investigated the matter a bit further, and wanted to spread the word.

The Ron Reed Project

2011-05-23T07:39:00.004-04:00

One of our clients, Ron, recently went through an incredible body transformation that I wanted to share with you. Ron had been training with us for a little while already, but he told us that he wanted to enter a focused fat-loss plan as his health was beginning to suffer due to some weight he had put on.

We gave him an individualized nutrition plan, and tweaked his workouts so they would be a bit more "fat loss" oriented in nature. His results were nothing short of fantastic! See the video below.

I'd like to point out a few things that may be helpful to those of you reading:

Ron works full-time, both in the business world and at home as a dedicated father and husband. So, a transformation like this is certainly possible if you consider yourself a busy person (and I don't know anyone that doesn't).
Ron FREQUENTLY has to travel for work - often for 5-7 days at a time. So, even for those you that travel, you can definitely make worlds of progress with a schedule that demands regular travel. Ron would tell me what equipment he had available at the hotel (sometimes the hotels didn't even have a gym), so I would give him some "hotel room workouts" in which he could still get in some training with just his bodyweight, a chair, and a bed as his gym equipment. Your improvements in the physique realm will never depend on what fancy gym equipment you do or do not have available. It's the mindset that is going to be the difference maker.
Honestly, most of Ron's success was due to his consistency in the kitchen. I've said it before and I'll say it again: You can't out train a bad diet. Ron was constantly emailing me to make sure something was "approved" before he picked it up at the grocery store or added it to his meal. When he was on the road, he was sure to pick items on the restaurant menus that were going to help his progress, not hinder it.
He did not count calories, eliminate carbs from his diet, or partake in anything extremely complicated. It's important to note that nutrition plans really don't have to be as complicated or tedious as many may make it seem.
We did not do any carb cycling or sodium depletion leading up to his "After" picture (or at any point in his program).
Ron did not do a single crunch or sit-up throughout his program. Proof that you don't need to (in fact, you can't) sit-up your way to a lean midsection. It won't happen.
He performed zero steady state running throughout his program. Again, it is unwise (and unnecessary) to prescribe long distance running for someone in need of weight loss. Considering that all of Ron's blood levels returned to healthy levels during his program, this also goes to show you don't need long distance running to improve the health of your heart. Can it help? Absolutely. But I wouldn't recommend it as a modality of choice for a weight loss client.
He not only maintained, but increased his strength during this phase. I can't tell you how many times I talk to people (primarily males) that are frightened they're going to "lose all their muscle" if they enter a fat loss program. It's not going to happen if you design the program appropriately. As shown in the video, Ron hit a 40lb PR on his weighted chinup, a 30lb PR on his front squat, a 15lb PR on his close-grip bench press, and a 20lb PR on his trap bar deadlift. Note that these personal records occurred during this particular 16-week program (not throughout the few years he's been training with us).
Ron just turned 51 years old. 'Nuff said.

Here are his Before and After pictures (the before picture was taken while he was on vacation shortly before the start of the program):

Before

After (front)

After (side)

After (back)

Congratulations, Ron!

Dynamic Effort Training to Fuel Huge Strength Gains (guest post by Sarah Walls)

2011-05-17T12:30:00.000-04:00

I'm quite fortunate to work with some very, very good coaches. Sarah is one of them. See the guest post below to read a bit about the efficacy of dynamic effort training. If you're a coach seeking to help your athletes become stronger, or a weekend warrior seeking to bust through some plateaus, then keep reading. Sarah doesn't give away a laid-out-for-you example of one of her programs very often (aka never) so take advantage of it while you can. (Note: dynamic effort lifts will NOT be an appropriate movement to include in your program unless you already possess fairly sound mechanics in the basic lifts).

I had something wonderful happen last week: the George Mason Throwers – who just came off the season – retested in the squat and everyone PR’d. I’m not talking 5lb PR’s, we had HUGE PR’s of 55lb and even 60lb (that’s a 365lb squat moving up to 425lb and a 455lb squat moving up to 510lb)! The lowest PR was 20lb. This progress occurred over about 16-weeks. By the way, I called the depth on each attempt myself, anyone who knows me personally knows I’m a stickler for proper squat depth.

I will be (and that day I was) the first to admit how shocked I was at our new numbers. You see, we were retesting so everyone could be sure they are working off the correct percentages for their summer training program. Coming off the season, I figured everyone would be down around their old max (if we’re lucky) or even below… that’s how it works, right? Maybe not…In hindsight, my approach to this team (much like the sprinters and jumpers I wrote about last week) has been extremely conservative. So what was the catalyst for all these great PR’s? Dynamic Effort Squats (or Speed Squats as they’re sometimes called) are the key to their success.

What are they? Dynamic Effort squatting is a squat that is performed using relatively low percentages and performed as fast as possible through the concentric portion.

Why did we use them? The Throws’ coach communicated to me at some point in December or January that the group, generally speaking, needed to learn to accelerate through to the “block” portion of the throw. I suggested Speed Squats.

How do you use them? Don’t mess with success: There is a pretty tried and true method to speed squat success and you can work off of these parameters for YEARS. If you are new to speed squatting try this wave over a three-week period: Week 1 10x2@50% - Week 2 10x2@55% - Week 3 8x2@60% - stay strict with a maximum of 60 seconds rest between sets.

Can Olympic lifts take the place of Dynamic Effort Squats? Theoretically, yes. In practice, absolutely not! The problem with the Olympic lifts and their variations is the complexity of the movement – it is, after all, its own sport. You are better off taking a simple movement that an athlete is familiar with and squeezing out every drop of progress (which will last through 4-5 years of a college career, I promise).

It blows my mind how relatively unknown Dynamic Effort lifting remains to many coaches. But, then again, the only reason I know the ins and outs of the method is via my colleagues over the years.Okay, I NEVER do this, so since you’re probably already sitting down – stay there! I don’t want anyone injured… Below are a full 4 waves of lower body lifting I wrote for the throwers this past semester. You’ll see that we did a lot of speed squatting and very little heavy accessory work. Really take a close look at the last few weeks. Oh, and a note about Wave 3, the team’s CNS was trashed so I took the DE squats out to let the team recoup. Finally, in addition to this mandatory team session lower body training day, we had an additional Saturday lift that was to be completed on their own. It consisted of very basic movements to “clean up” what we couldn’t get to during the two days they see me.
Wave 1: Weeks 1-3

A1 High Pull	6x3@65%	5x2@75%	4x1@85%+
A2 Rocking Ankle Mob	2x10	2x10	2x10
Banded DE Box Squat	10x2@40-50%	9x2@45-55%	8x2@50-60%
B1 Band Pistol Sq	2x5	3x5	3x6
B2 Pallof Press	2x6	2x7	2x8
C1 DB Swing	2x12	3x10	3x12
C2 Plate Pinch	2x:15	2x:20	3x:15

Wave 2: Weeks 4-6

DE Box Squat	10x2@50%	9x2@55%	8x2@60%
A1 Oblique Deadlift	6x3	6x2	4x1
A2 Body Saw	3x10	3x10	3x10
B1 Bulgarian Split Sq	2x5	3x5	3x6
B2 St. Arm Walkout	2x6	2x7	2x8
C1 OH Plate Squat	3x6	3x8	4x6
C2 Plate Pinch Driver	2x10	3x8	3x10

Week 7: Deload Week – light DB and bodyweight work… step away from the barbell!
Wave 3: Weeks 8-10 – Taper Begins

“Low” Bar Squat (1/4 Squat depth)	4x3@75%	3x2@80%	3x1@85%+
A1 Oblique Deadlift	4x3	3x2	skip
A2 Partner Plank	4x:15	3x:20	2x:10
B1 SL DB RDL	3x6	2x8	2x5
B2 MB Side Throw	3x6	3x7	2x5
C1 OH Plate Squat	2x10	3x8	3x6
C2 Hex Hold	2xFAIL!	2xFAIL!	2xFAIL!

Wave 4: Weeks 11-13 – Taper Continues to Conference

DE Box Squat	5x2@50%	4x2@55%	n/a
“Low” Bar Squat	3x1	3x1	n/a
A1 SL ¼ Squat	2x5	2x5	2x5
A2 MB OH Throw	2x5	2x5	2x5
DB OH Squat	2x6	2x5	3x6

Here are my final thoughts: if you're an athlete, parent of an athlete, or just an average lifter looking to get these same kind of gains, then contact us here! We've been offering exceptional programs privately for 4 years and now we're also offering our same crucial coaching and programming for distance clients! It doesn't get any better than SAPT.

Fuel Your Body (and Spare Your Waistline) with this Smoothie

2011-05-16T13:05:00.000-04:00

First, I apologize for the lack of content last week. Long story short, I came down with a pretty severe infection (I think most of you would prefer I spared you the gruesome details), which rendered me barely able to walk, sit, or sleep for the duration of the week. A fever came along with it, so needless to say I was unable to coach for the week (or do anything else, for that matter). I'm finally back at nearly 100% again, so I'm excited to resume my own training (it was a good mental challenge for me to have a wrench thrown right into my training schedule), coaching, and writing to all you out there in cyberspace.

Ok, with that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff!

I love smoothies. Easy peezy to make, and you can shove countless vital nutrients into the blender to knock out multiple birds with one stone. It also gives me something to take with me to work, so I can ensure - once the hunger cravings strike - that I fuel my body with QUALITY foods as opposed to reaching for snacks that will only leave me feeling more lethargic and depleted (read: processed snacks, muffins, etc.).

I'm the first to admit I don't have very much self-control; so if I have my trusty smoothie alongside, then I can be sure that I can reach for a nutrient-rich shake as opposed to a belly-enlarging sugary snack. Thus: I feel better, recover from training better, and can enjoy something sweet without the "guilt" typically associated with shoving sweet treats down one's pie-hole.

See the video on the below for a quick tutorial on how to make it! It tastes great and is super easy to pack for the road/workday. You won't be disappointed.

Yeah, my cat decided to make noise for a good portion of the instruction. But don't worry, I rewarded you with a glimpse of her at the end if you can make it through the video.

Picture of the ingredients used in the video.

You can do all you want in the gym, but unless you're also holding up your end of the bargain in the kitchen, you can only expect sub-par results, at best.

Your Meathead Training Tip of the Day: Slow Tempo Strength Training

2011-05-09T10:27:00.003-04:00

Slow tempo strength training involves performing a compound lift (squat, pushup, row, etc.) at a 202 tempo. This means you'll take two seconds to execute the eccentric portion of the movement, and then two seconds on the concentric portion of the lift, too. There will also be no pause at the top or bottom.

So, for a pushup, you'd take two seconds to go down, and then immediately transition into the concentric and take two seconds to go back up. See the video below to see what I mean:

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What does it do

Increases the cross-sectional area (hypertrophy) of the slow twitch fibers.
Improves oxygen utilization of the working muscles (both fast twitch and slow twitch).
Improves static strength (think grappling, wrestling, etc.).

How to do it

Each rep should be roughly 4 seconds in duration, with no pause at the top or bottom of the movement. Teaching someone to go up slowly can be very difficult (especially as they begin to fatigue), so be mindful of this.
Perform for 40-60 seconds (so about 10-15 repetitions) and your rest period should match the duration of the working set.
Perform for 3-5 sets, which constitutes a series. Perform 1-3 series per workout, with 5-8 minutes of active rest between series.
Constant breathing throughout.

When to do it

At the beginning of a training plan (or at the start of the off-season after you've recovered appropriately).
During a "mini block" in a training plan in order to maintain the qualities you worked so hard to achieve during the first (larger) block of training.

Slow twitch fiber hypertrophy can be a very controversial topic among strength coaches. After all, why would you want to hypertrophy the slow twitch fibers?!

Well, you can utilize oxygen better for one thing, as the slow twitch fibers have the highest capacity for aerobic energy production. When we oxidize lactate - a byproduct of our glycolytic energy metabolism - roughly 80% of that lactate is metabolized in the slow twitch fibers. The larger our slow twitch fibers are, the more lactate we can oxidize (thus allowing us to generate more ATP to improve aerobic/anaerobic endurance).

And, no, your athletes won't lose explosive power and strength if you include slow tempo strength training. As long as you adjust the volume/intensity appropriately, and continue to include the bread and butter strength/power lifts, you have no need to fear them losing power and speed.

Note: For the average fitness enthusiast, these could certainly be a method to try to spice up your own training plan. Just be warned, they're not easy!

Q & A: Sugar and Recovery

2011-05-06T09:29:00.001-04:00

Q. Okay steve got a good one for you here. Im watching sunday night baseball and they are talking about how Ryan Howard dropped weight and is watching his sugar intake claiming it helps him recover from games faster. Is there any truth to this or is announcer bubkis?

A. The CliffsNotes answer to this question is "Yes, it should help him recover faster." However, the extent to which it will help him depends on many factors.

What does the REST of his recovery protocol look like??? Is he sleeping enough, training properly, keeping other (negative) stress factors at bay, and his sympathetic nervous system in check? (You'll see sympathetic overtraining in athletes who perform excessive amounts of strength training and compete in explosive power/anerobic dominant exercises - such as playing baseball - without giving their bodies a chance to recover).

What type of sugar did Howard cut out (ex. processed sugars, or sugars found in whole foods ex. fruits)?

What was his body composition before he began cutting out sugar from his diet? Ex. did he have a significant amount of fat mass on him, or was he already relatively lean?

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that (hopefully) Ryan Howard cut out processed sugar from his diet. This alone will help anyone feel and perform better. Also, if he cut out processed sugar, I'm going to guess that he is now replacing that refined sugar with real, whole foods. So - instead of his daily sugar intake coming from cookies, bagels, and muffins - most of the sugar/starches/carbohydrates he intakes is now (hopefully) coming from whole foods like vegetables, berries, oats, legumes, potatoes, etc.

This shift in nutritional intake alone will help him recover by sending high-quality nutrients into his bloodstream to help repair damaged muscle tissue, restore cellular enzymes and substrates (essential to his performance as an athlete), rejuvenate the nervous system, and assist in a HOST of other favorable changes conducive to recovery.

If Howard did need to lose some weight, then this will undoubtedly improve his insulin sensitivity. Basically this means that his body will be able to shuttle glucose from the bloodstream into cells (primarily muscle and liver) more efficiently and effectively. This will be stored as glycogen, which a critical energy source for anerobic activities (ex. baseball).

The bottom line is ANYONE will benefit from replacing intake of refined/processed sugars (read: garbage) with foods of higher nutrient density. Regardless of if you're an athlete, this will help you feel better, think more clearly, and perform better - whether you're a professional baseball player or a corporate CEO.

Tap into the Animal Kingdom with Crawl Variations

2011-05-04T10:24:00.002-04:00

Below is a video I recently put together in which I demo various crawl variations we use at SAPT. We originally began using them with the MMA fighters and wrestlers we train, but we quickly realized that quite a few of the variations are useful for other sports/populations, as well. See below, and then I'll explain a few things.

Why I like Crawls

You can do them almost ANYWHERE. This alone makes them an extremely versatile training tool. No gym membership or fancy equipment required.
They increase strength, endurance, core control, and overall body awareness (qualities that seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate among people).
Crawls are a fantastic way to get in some GPP (general physical preparedness), either on your off days or at the end of a training session. They are low impact and relatively easy to recover from.
For MMA fighters and wrestlers, crawls are awesome for learning a few of the ground movements in sport.
For overhead athletes, the crawls (particularly the side crawl, bear, and tiger) create a fantastic way to train their upper body musculature and promote shoulder health, even in-season.
They're fun. 'Nuff said. I mean, how cool is it that you have an excuse to pretend you're a monkey??

How to Do Them

Perform each variation for 20-40 yards. You can pick just a couple crawls, and perform multiple sets with 2-4 variations. Or, you can perform 1-2 sets of all of the different types of crawls.
One of the beauties of these is they're so versatile in terms of when you perform them. You can do them at the end of a training session, on off days, as part of a circuit, or (if you're in pretty good shape) include them in your warm-up.
As for the technical components, if you follow the instructions in the video you'll be good for the most part.

For me personally, I've recently loved them for getting in some low-intensity aerobic training on off days. I'll throw them as part of a circuit (again, low-intensity) with some other exercises that are around 30% and below my 1-rep max. The crawls - along with a few other drills - help me work in the 130-150bpm heart rate range. I'll discuss this in further detail in a future post, but this helps to stimulate what we strength coach geeks call "eccentric cardiac hypertrophy," which is basically increasing the size of the left ventricle of the heart. For now, just trust this is a good thing.

Now go get your animal crawl on...

A Quick Conditioning Clarification

2011-05-02T10:15:00.001-04:00

Conditioning, conditioning, conditioning.....

It's the buzzword amongst many fitness enthusiasts, as well as within the circle of coaches and parents alike. Everyone wants good conditioning. I can't tell you how many times a parent has walked into SAPT and told me to make sure their child receives "plenty of conditioning." Or a wrestler or MMA fighter reiterates over and over that he/she needs to make sure I include plenty of "conditioning" in his/her program.

Marathon runners may often scoff at football players or bodybuilders for their "lack of conditioning." Crossfitters may laugh at powerlifters because they don't possess any conditioning. Baseball coaches may force their players to run for hours on end at the beginning of the season because they need to be a better conditioned team.

I often hear people say that Iron Man triathletes are some of the best conditioned people in the world. Or MMA fighters. Is this actually true though?

I write this because I think it's very important to understand what we really mean when we discuss conditioning. Is it the ability to run a fast 5k? Or is it the capability for a running back to be able to quickly decelerate, change direction, and quickly accelerate in a different direction to avoid a tackle? Is it just "cardio?"

What is conditioning, really???

I think Joel Jamieson (S & C coach of many well known MMA fighters) gave a fantastic definition of conditioning:

"Conditioning is a measure of how well an athlete is able to meet the energy production demands of their [specific] sport such that they are able to use their skills effectively throughout the competition."

Conditioning is much more than just "cardio." This means that a football player who can produce incredible bouts of power for 6-8 seconds, and repeat this throughout the entirety of a football game, has fantastic conditioning. A baseball pitcher who is able to maintain the quality of his pitches for 6 innings in a row is well conditioned. A MMA fighter in the fifth round of a fight, capable of generating punches rendering his opponent unable to remember the knock-out, is well conditioned. And a world-class marathon is also extremely well conditioned.

When it comes to training athletes, the conditioning side of the spectrum is MUCH more complicated than people give it credit for. The three energy systems (aerobic, anaerobic lactic, and anaerobic alactic), create an extremely complex web - the parts of which are both interconnected and independent - and it's far from a "one size fits all" approach to prepare an athlete to use his or her skills effectively throughout the duration of a competition.

Yes, completing a "hell session" or "death circuit" can definitely be a good gut check from time to time, but it by no means is the proper way to condition the majority of athletes, especially on a day-to-day basis. For example, one day during a lower body training session I was feeling rather lethargic and was just going through the motions. After I finished the resistance training portion of my session, I decided I needed a wake up call and gave myself a swift kick in the pants to wake me up:

HOWEVER, would it be wise to train like this day in and day out? Absolutely not. Even for a MMA fighter or wrestler; would it be smart to train them like this on a regular basis? Nope.

It's imperative to possess a sound understanding of the body's energy systems in order to make sure you possess the work capacity required for your sport, but at the same time don't burn yourself out.

On the other end of the spectrum, is it intelligent to just through in copious amounts of long distance running for a baseball player or soccer player (or even a marathon runner for that matter!) in order to improve their conditioning? No way.

It's beyond the scope of this post to provide the exact training methodology behind appropriately balancing the development of the three energy systems on a sport-by-sport basis, but I hope this will at least get you thinking that conditioning (and strength training, too), is far from a one-size-fits-all approach.

A bit of Daily Packing, FTW

2011-04-27T10:01:00.004-04:00

The other day I had packed my bags and was on my out the door of SAPT when Chris looked at me, stopped what he was doing, and chuckled.

"Wow. That's what it looks like to pack for success when you're away from home all day."

Chris could relate to the number of bags I had hanging off my shoulders as he is also frequently away from home 11-12+ hours per day.

It gave me an idea for a blog post, because it reminded me that many people don't give any thought to preparing meals/training supplies for the day. Below is a picture I had taken on Tuesday (the only weekday I'm home before 9pm):

On the left is my backpack, where I keep my gym clothes, training logs, five finger shoes, and various bits of training equipment (resistance bands, homemade suspension trainer, nun chucks, etc.).

In the middle is my cooler where I keep my meals for the day (smoothies, oatmeal, vegetables, dead animal flesh, etc.).

On the right is my "work" bag where I keep my laptop, notebooks, books, blueprints for world domination, etc.

As I'm often gone for 12+ hours a day, I need to ensure that I have no excuse for missing a training session and/or eating something healthy while I'm out.

It seems that most people tend to rush out the door without preparing anything, go out to eat for lunch, and then return home that evening without swinging into the gym.

"I'll do it tomorrow....."

Look, I'm not oblivious to the fact that almost any adult is in a constant state of "OMGI'msobusyIhavenotimeforanythinganymore!" I also recognize that I currently do not have children to take care of.

However, I DO find it funny that almost everyone seems to have a hour (or three) to watch brain-sucking shows such as The Jersey Shore each night. There's a reason the actors on that show are making so much money, ya know? They wouldn't be if there weren't millions of Americans who "don't have time" watching it.

Maybe it's not a reality show. Maybe it's surfing their Facebook page for an hour straight. My point is, almost anyone has more time than they think they do.

The time spent sitting in front of the tube could be spent preparing healthy meals for the following day, so you don't have to go out to a restaurant on your lunch break. Pre-chopping your vegetables is a simple strategy to save time cooking each night. Eating a home-cooked meal will not only save you money but it will also spare your waistline.

Pack your gym bag the night before, and set it right in front of the door. It's crazy how that simple step will help ensure you don't neglect taking care of yourself the following day.

I'm not saying you have to pack as many bags as I do. Heck, some of my closest friends in high school nicknamed me "The Carrier," as I always seemed to have my hands full no matter where we were.

But, just packing a couple things for the day can go a long way in setting you up for success.

Memento Mori

2011-04-25T12:09:00.004-04:00

Forgive me while I put on my philosopher's hat for today, but I recently began something that has dramatically shifted the lens through which I view life - in a good way. I shared it with a few good friends of mine over the weekend, and it made me realize that many of you reading would benefit from it, too.

I started keeping track of my life using a Memento Mori sheet, and Wow, has it helped me keep my life in perspective. What is it? Well, to give credit where credit is due, I got the idea from Craig Weller, a former member of Naval Special Warfare and also a founder of Barefoot Fitness. Here's what he says about it:

"Since I was about eighteen years old I have been maintaining a tally on this piece of paper. It's 52 blocks wide and 80 blocks tall. On the top left corner is my birthdate, and on the bottom right is the same date, 80 years later. Every week I mark off a block.

I don't write anything or make any kind of notes. I just black it out. The only thing left is the memories I have of that week and reality of how it has affected my life. In the end, the only things any of us have are our actions and our memories.

Doing this keeps my life in perspective. Each time I fill in a block I briefly consider what I did with that week. Sometimes I do so with a feeling of satisfaction. I want mine to be a life well lived. Other times I look back and realize that I frittered away most of my time on things that didn't really further my life, didn't make for any remarkable experiences, and didn't really make me happy.

I don't think that it would be possible to maintain a list like this and work in a cubicle for twenty years. Or even twenty months. Imagine that: 80 blocks filled in with no memories other than a gray wall and the occasional lunch at Applebees.

In fact, most people probably wouldn't want to do something like this at all. It would be too uncomfortable. Self awareness is a pain in the ass when there are so many entertaining reality shows on cable. And excuses are easy. You probably get used to the blinders after a while and eventually don't even know what you're missing.

This weekend I filled in the 25th row on my sheet. The last block in a row always leads me to do some self-assessing. Am I happy with what I've been doing with my life? Have I been wasting time? Why? Where could I be right now if I hadn't? What will I do to make sure that one year or five years from when I fill in the last block on another row I can look back with nothing but satisfaction and happiness? Do I know exactly where I want to be at that point?"

I recently printed out and began filling in blocks on my own memento mori sheet. As I blacked out the first 24 rows on my grid, I was filled with nostalgia as memories long lost over the past years swarmed in to my brain. Some of them were great and filled me with satisfaction and a sense of joy, accomplishment, and fulfillment; others of them...not so much.

There is something very powerful about blacking out that square, and seeing - in a bit more tangible way - what it looks like when just one simple week of your life passes by. Here is my sheet (I just took a picture of it):

Filling out this sheet makes me glad (to put it mildly) I decided to become a strength and conditioning coach. Growing up, I was always a math/science geek, and so I began my college life by majoring in Engineering Virginia Tech. After two years of engineering, I decided that I didn't want to make a career out of it (even though my grades were good). I just couldn't see myself stuck inside an office building all day, chugging away at math equations and/or putting together an algorithm for a particular project. Don't get me wrong: I'm not oblivious to the fact that there are some pretty cool engineering jobs out there, and that there are countless engineers (probably some of you reading this) that are enjoying your jobs. If this is the case, more power to you. However, I didn't see engineering as something that would provide a sense of fulfillment to ME PERSONALLY.

I feel that there are countless people out there living their lives in the same, mind-numbing circuit of events.

Wake up --> Go to a job you can't stand --> Return home --> Eat --> Watch TV --> Sleep --> Wake up (more tired than the day before) and repeat the same thing. Over and over again.

As Craig mentions, I don't think it would be possible for me to maintain a life like that while keeping a memento mori chart, blacking out the squares as the weeks/months pass right by me.

I did not choose a lucrative career by any means. I don't have a lot of extra money to throw around for whatever I please. It was a fairly "risky" decision for me to leave engineering behind and enter a field that sets very few people up for early retirement.

Screw early retirement. Why would I want to sit around playing golf all day, year after year? I'd like to look back on my life, knowing I helped as many people as I possibly could to improve their quality of life (via enhanced physical well-being, which often improves one's mental state as a by-product).

I LOVE my job. I look forward to waking up every morning to start my day (as much during the week as I do on the weekends). I mean, how cool is it that our clientele voluntarily wake up before 7am on Thanksgiving Day to lift with the coaches?

I HIGHLY encourage you to print out one of these and begin one yourself. Nate Green (in his recent Hero Handbook, which is a great read) provided an easy download to the chart.

Click HERE to download your own Memento Mori grid. It will dramatically change your perspective.

Been putting off that trip overseas? Just do it.

Scared to ask out the attractive barista at the coffee shop? Blacking out another square on your grid should help give you a jump start to action.

Blood pressure rising because someone cut you off in traffic? Pissed off at an annoying coworker? Angry because the person in front of you at the grocery store check-out is taking forever? It's not worth it.

Do you really want the majority of your life's "squares" to be filled with boredom, monotony, and/or the back wall of a cubicle? I don't.

Glued to your smart phone as you walk out of your office? Take a moment to simply stop. Put your phone away and breathe a few times. Look around outside.

Instead of watching TV all day on Sunday, how about going for a walk/run on a local trail?

Life is happening all around you, don't miss it.

It's another reason that I constantly advocate following a well-balanced training program. It may not be able to extend your grid, but it will at least help to improve the quality of it.

Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning "Remember your mortality."

I'm with Craig: I'd like to look back on my life and remember something other than the grey wall of an office building and the occasional lunch at Applebees.

Step out of your comfort zone and do something awesome. You only have so many squares.

Recovery...

2011-04-22T13:14:00.000-04:00

Quick guest post by Chris Romanow (SAPT coach and also strength coach for George Mason's baseball/softball teams).

If you’re in the midst of grinding through the back third of a spring sport season, the following provides some quick ideas about how you can hasten and improve your rate/quality of recovery between competitions…and generally just stay healthy!

-Don’t forget to eat

You must make eating a priority. I remember teammates losing 10-15lbs throughout a competitive season. Coincidence that these same guys were the one’s always nursing something in the training room? They blamed travel, lack of quality food on the road, etc. for their dramatic weight loss. Yes, while these variables did make finding the time for frequent-quality feedings more difficult, it’s certainly possible if you make eating a priority.

I used to pack “road coolers.” I’d stuff that sucker full of fruit, veggies, trail mixes and sandwich accoutrement. Safe to say my processed and fast food consumption was significantly less, meal frequency much more regular, and weight fluctuation less drastic, as compared to my peers.

-Sleep

Becoming regimented with your sleep is also extremely important. It’s important that you try to hit the sack at the same time every night, while shooting for 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. This too was challenging as Madden wars or Poker hands (not for money of course…settle down) sometimes impeded on my desired hour of retirement. For me, melatonin, sleep mask, and a quality set of ear plugs always did the trick.

High-school guys and gals, you have no excuse for this one.

-Ice

I touched on this in an earlier post. You can see what I have to say about that here…

-Soft tissue work

Whether it’s self-inflicted (foam rolling), or delivered manual by a therapist (you can’t beat this), you got to find time to address tissue quality. Restrictions within the musculature will severely impede proper blood flow (and subsequent delivery of nutrients), and also prohibit proper movement patterns. A little bit of preventative maintenance in this area will go a long way, trust me.

-Low intensity cardio/mobility/activation drills

All of these can be accomplished in the same 20 minute session. Blending these components will not only aid in flushing toxins and delivering new nutrient rich blood, but will also help ward off mechanical asymmetries that can crop-up from overuse and the repetitive nature of sport.

It’s important not to overreach during these sessions, as the intent is to aid in recovery, not cause greater disruption. A perfect session might include various sled pulls, crawling variations, hip flexor and thoracic mobility drills, and some glute activation.

Having Adonis DNA helps, too…

Chris

Improve your Warm-Up Economy: Inchworm with Rocking Ankle Mobility

2011-04-21T10:30:00.002-04:00

Let's face it: There's no question that a proper warm-up will mobilize the joints for the subsequent training session, leading to improved movement quality and - ultimately - more accomplished during your workout. However, very few of us truly enjoy spending copious amounts of time warming up before we get to the "bread and butter" of our training session.

This being the case, I frequently prefer to include "bang for your buck" warm-up drills in my routine, so that I can kill a few birds with one stone. One such drill is the Inchworm with Rocking Ankle Mobility.

Essentially, it takes two great movement prep drills, and combines them into one. See below:

Why I like it:

As noted, it saves time by knocking out a few things at once.
The "inchworm" portion will prime your scapular stabilizers (via the hand-walking motion), awaken your core, and loosen up the hamstrings.
The "rocking ankle mob" portion will improve the length of the gastrocnemius (if you keep the legs straight) or the soleus (if you bend the knee slightly during the rocking).

Basically, this will help lengthen your calves a bit to improve ankle dorsiflexion range-of-motion (which is just about as important as adequate hydration), and also - possibly - aid integrity of the knee joint.

How To Do It:
This one is fairly idiot-proof, but a couple quick pointers are:

During the Rocking Ankle Mob, just find a point where you can barely push the ankle to the floor. You can keep the knee straight to emphasize the gastroc (larger and superficial calf muscle) or bend the knee slightly to emphasize the soleus (smaller and deeper calf muscle).
During the inchworm, just walk the hands out as far as you can without hyperextending (over arching) the low back, and then walk the feet up to the hands as far as you can keeping the legs straight.
Perform 4-5 Inchworms with 2-4 Rocking Ankle Mobs per side in the middle of each inchworm.

That's it. Now enjoy the feeling of improved movement prowess throughout your lift, run, or competition.

Pushup Walkovers: Challenging and Improves Shoulder Health, too.

2011-04-18T08:34:00.001-04:00

Anyone who has been following me knows I'm a huge fan of pushups.

The other day I was squeezing in a quick training session and I realized the pushup variation I was doing may be of interest for some of you reading. When performed correctly (pulling yourself to the ground, maintaining a neutral spine, etc.) they will fry your chest, shoulders, triceps, upper back/posterior shoulder musculature, and core.

See the video below and give them a shot!

Quick Thoughts on Mirrors in the Weight Room

2011-04-13T11:10:00.000-04:00

When Tim Henriques wrote this article a couple weeks back, it reminded me of something that's been in my subconscious for quite a while now, but I hadn't spent much time consciously thinking about:

I haven't been training in front of a mirror for over a year now, and I am very grateful for this.

SAPT: No mirrors here.

Why is this a good thing? Well, in the article (linked above) Tim hypothesizes that training in front of a mirror eventually leads to "impaired physical performance, with specific decreases in reaction time, rate of force development, and balance." Yikes!

While I'd still say that training in front of a mirror is better than not training at all (which I'm sure the author didn't mean, but I just wanted to clarify), I think the author made some valid points. The point of this post isn't to rehash everything Tim said, but to share a couple thoughts that popped in my head as a result of skimming his article.

Specifically, I think finding a training environment with no mirrors on the wall is beneficial because:

1. It takes your mind off of YOURSELF.

I'll never forget one of the first things Chris (SAPT's "Operations" guy) said to me during my first visit to SAPT. I was wandering around the facility and I commented on the fact that there weren't any mirrors on the wall. Chris looked at me and said:

"Yeah, high schoolers already spend enough time checking themselves out in the mirror."

It hit me right there that he was dead on. For the athletic crowd, it is going to be far easier to focus their purpose for being at SAPT (improving athletic performance) if there are no mirrors on the wall, as opposed to giving them yet another opportunity to have a discussion with their ego.

Chris mentioned high schoolers, specifically, because of the fact that they (high school athletes) compose the majority of our clientele, but he would have been equally justified in naming just about any other cluster of people.

If there is a mirror in the gym (which is almost always the case), it is near impossible to avoid looking at yourself at some point during your training session

"Oh wow, my arms look really good in this shirt, especially as I near the lockout of this tricep pressdown."

"Hmm, I don't look quite as fat in these pants!"

"I didn't realize my calves looked so great as I work it on the stairmaster."

Sound familiar, anyone?

Seriously, most people would be better off focusing on the task at hand (making improvements in the weight room) than looking at how big their biceps looks under a particular lighting, or how defined his/her legs are looking at the moment. And, when there are mirrors in the weight room, it is near impossible to avoid doing this.

For the gents: This means that spending more time actually working hard (deadlifting, doing pullups, etc.) will actually help you fill out your shirt faster than spending 15 minutes checking out your biceps as you curl away in front of the mirror.

For the ladies: This means that improving your performance on squats, lunges, rows, etc. will help you look better in that dress than wasting time looking at your legs as you slug away on the elliptical.

From my personal experience, it is especially critical for women to use improvements in the gym as the true marker of success, as opposed to the weight on the scale or their own subjective opinion (usually negative) of how they look in the mirror. If you are squatting more than you did last week, or improving your time in a prowler sprint or metabolic circuit, then you are going to look better as a result!

Look, I'm not saying it's inherently evil to train for appearance. Most people would be lying if they said that 0% of their motivation for training was because it helped them look better.

HOWEVER, focusing on tangible measures of improvement in the weight room (ex. technique improvement, improving on a timed challenge, increasing weight lifted, etc.) will ultimately help you reach your goals more effectively than constantly checking yourself out.

2. It develops your proprioception.

Proprioception is just a fancy of way of saying "an awareness of your body is in space," or even more simplified: balance. It's one reason why older people tend to fall over more: they lose proprioception as they age.

Anyway, I remember the first time I went to perform a stepback lunge in SAPT. I nearly fell over! I was furious as I really had to take the weight down in order to perform the movement properly.

This was because I had always completed single-leg work in front of a mirror. When I didn't have the mirror in front of me, I realized how dormant my "internal receptors" had become when it came to telling my body where it was in space.

Bottom line: I wasn't quite as athletic as I had thought (at least when it came to moving under an axial load). Up until that point, I had predominantly used visual feedback to tell me where my body was in space, as opposed to using my internal sense of balance (hint: you want to develop the latter).

3. It allows you to "do work" with the Med Balls.

No need to elaborate much here, but when a gym is plastered with mirrors on every wall, you can't perform medicine ball work. Medicine balls are a fantastic tool to develop rotational power (important in athletics), as well as general rate of force development for the upper body.

For older clientele, we use them quite a bit for their "plyometric" portion of the training session (you lose power output as you age, unless you maintain those properties through training). The medicine balls provide a very safe (and effective) option for the older adults to work on their power output through some throw variations.

Not to mention: they're just plain fun! Here is Taylor (one of our high school softball athletes) getting after it with a "Side Throw to Slam":

Pseudograins and Your Health, Dietary Stress, and Beer Breaks

2011-04-12T08:37:00.002-04:00

Today's blog is written by Sarah, the President of SAPT. She had written up a quick and interesting piece for the SAPT crowd, and I thought it would be interesting for my readers, too.

I look up to Sarah in many ways (literally, too, as she's taller than me, and is my boss). One of them being the fact that she strength trained throughout her entire (recent) pregnancy, and then was back at it a mere few days after the actual delivery (not to mention, her baby daughter is EXTREMELY healthy and strong, which I'm convinced is due to the fact that Sarah took care of her body - via exercise and nutrition - during the pregnancy). Another reason I look up to her is the dedication she keeps to take care of her body through nutrition. She's also a great strength coach, to boot (she's the S & C coach for quite a few of Mason's teams ex. Basketball, Volleyball, etc.).

Anyway, I know I don't talk about nutrition that much on my blog, so I hope those of you in the crowd looking for a bit more insight in the nutritional realm find this intriguing. Hope you like it!

"My post for today is composed of one useful health-related fact, one personal update, and one tidbit that you can file away under “useless cocktail trivia.” Enjoy!

Amaranth
Amaranth is a pseudograin that’s new to me... and probably to you, too! Pseudograins are actually seeds, although they are commonly referred to as grains. Buckwheat, Quinoa, Wild Rice, and Amaranth are all pseudograins. Since these quasi-grains don’t contain gluten, they are very easy to digest and alkaline-forming.

A brief aside: alkaline-forming nutrients are an essential part of a balanced, healthy diet. When a one’s body pH turns acidic, that individual will experience a host of problems that include decreased cellular energy production, decreased ability to repair damaged cells (from illness, exercise, etc.), tumor cell development (yikes!), and low energy and illness. Outside of an acidic diet, stress is a big drain on the body’s alkaline balance.

So, back to amaranth. this little tiny seed has a nutty flavor and is packed full of calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, and the vitamins A and C. Amaranth is composed of around 17% protein and is loaded with lysine, the oh-so-elusive essential amino acid of the plant-based food world.

Almost unbelievably, amaranth has more calcium (ounce for ounce) than cow’s milk. Finally, amaranth consists of about 8% fatty acids. Within this fat is found a very important and valuable form of vitamin E called tocotrienol. Tocotrienol is a powerful antioxidant.

This stuff doesn’t come conveniently prepackaged. To find it you’ll need to locate it in the bulk food bins of some grocery store or order it online.

I almost forgot the best part: you POP it! Like teeny tiny popcorn!

The Toll of Stress
I read a phenomenal book over the weekend titled Thrive by Brendan Brazier. Brendan is a professional Ironman triathlete who advocates a whole foods, plant-based diet. In the book he puts a huge emphasis on the role that dietary stress puts on all of us. His research shows that dietary stress accounts for a whopping 70% of the average person’s TOTAL uncomplimentary stress (this is the bad kind of stress, I’m choosing to omit discussion on the other two kinds of stress).

What is dietary or nutritional stress? Basically, it’s the stress put on our body by eating unhealthy food OR not eating the right foods.

Personally, I have put great stock in the importance diet plays in my life and ability to be a “high producer.” I find when my diet is out-of-whack that I have a difficult time staying on task, focused, and thinking creatively. And that’s exactly how I’ve been feeling as of late. So, since Brendan’s book is focused on improving both physical and psychological performance by reducing dietary stress, I thought I’d give it a look and apply some of the principles.

My honest opinion is this: the changes I’ve made have already allowed me to feel much improved, BUT the principles in this book (well, mainly the recipes) are NOT for the faint of heart. I consider myself pretty high on the totem pole of dietary manipulation - food is fuel, it doesn’t matter how it tastes - but even this threw me some curve-balls. Over the weekend I spent a great deal of time in the kitchen... at one point I felt like I should be outside scraping bark off trees, digging up roots, and gathering leaves.

Bottom line, I like it quite a lot - it’s a challenge, and I’m into challenges.

So, I’m going to give Brendan’s plan a whirl for 12-weeks and follow up on the blog periodically. My main goal being a perception of greater energy and productivity. I’m going to use a Rating of Perceived Energy to measure this and, much like the traditional Rating of Perceived Exertion, will issue scores on a scale of 1-10. “1” meaning I have taken up staring at the wall and “10” indicating I’m buzzing around in the atmosphere propelled by my own ideas and energy.

Right now I’d say I’ve gone from a three to a five in just a few days.

Here are some pictures of the food I’ve made from the recipes in the book - first is the Adzuki Bean Quinoa Sesame Pizza before going in the oven and second are Garlic Oregano Yam Oven Fries:

“If we all had a high level of health, we would all be at our ideal body weight, none of us would have food cravings, we would all sleep soundly, we wouldn’t rely on stimulating foods to give us energy, and we would always be able to think clearly and rationally.”

Beer Breaks
Ryan (interjection: Ryan is Sarah's husband) has been spelunking at work over the last week (crawling around in caves) and came home after the first week with a 6-pack of beer. He said it is written into their contract that anyone spelunking could take a “beer break” once a day. That “seems unsafe” I thought. Ryan explained that this practice initiated many years ago to calm the nerves of men working high up building sky scrapers. Still seems unsafe. Thankfully, he’s not partaking in these respites.

I tried to find some history on this, but came up short. The only story I found was from 1960 about a hair salon that used beer to condition hair and the women working there had been helping themselves to the beer... they then talked their boss into keeping “beer breaks” permanently, but they had to stop taking the salon’s beer and bring their own.

That’s the cocktail trivia.

Depending on activity level, six to eight months from now our bodies will have regenerated nearly 100 percent of their tissue at the cellular level. This new tissue will literally be made up of what we eat between now and then." -Sarah

Training with an Injury Q & A, Part 2

2011-04-08T09:14:00.000-04:00

In Part 1, I briefly discussed when you should and should not train through an injury, and also a few strategies for receiving a training effect in spite of a shoulder or back injury. Let's get right to the next couple:

(**Interjection: Originally I was going to cover the knees AND ankles, but I ran out of time, so you'll just have to be happy with the "knee advice" for the time being!)

3. Your Knee Hurts.

Quad Dominant vs. Hip Dominant Exercises
The first thing that comes to mind is to scale back on "quad dominant" exercises (think: front squats, back squats, lunges, etc.) and stick to more "hip dominant" exercises such as deadlifts, box squats, glute bridges, pullthroughs etc.

Single-leg Variations
Also, understand that not all lunge variations are created equal. Exercises such as forward lunges and walking lunges are going to place much more eccentric (or decelerative) stress on the knee joint than a stepback lunge, split squat, or single-leg RDL. So, consider (temporarily) omitting the single-leg work that places more decelerative stress on your cranky knees.

Single-leg RDL

Sled Work
As noted in Part 1 (with regards to back pain), sled work is very joint friendly. Typically, those with knee pain can push the sled - on the high handles, as there's less knee flexion involved than the low handles - or drag the sled, such as our client Kaleigh in the video below:

Take a "Warm-Up" exercise and make it a staple in your lifting routine
One thing I've found while working with a lot of injured clients, is that an exercise I normally use in my warm-up can quickly become a very appropriate strength exercise for an injured person.

For example, take the Bowler squat. The bowler squat is an exercise I'll use in a warm-up, to help prime my hips for the workout ahead. The bowler squat is great, as it trains the glutes to produce (and resist) motion in all three planes of motion:

You can make it more challenging by stacking cones right to the outside of the ground leg, and pick one up with each rep.

Not to mention, many people with knee pain have very poor glute function, which the bowler squat improves. This leads me to my next point:

You may just have sucky gluteals
As I've noted before, we live in a society plagued by gluteal amnesia. With the increase of desk jobs (and also, pure laziness) in our culture, people forget how to use their glutes properly.

Anyway, something that those of you reading this may not realize is that weak glutes can frequently lead to knee pain. The hips/glutes play a HUGE role in proper knee tracking during sport (be it running, playing soccer, lifting weights, etc.) and if they're not doing their job, then your knee is going to want to give you the middle finger eventually. Employing plenty of weighted glute bridges (once you've progressed appropriately), hip thrusts, side-lying wallslides, etc. will help your knees line up where they're supposed to during activity.

Also, be sure to include plenty of glute stabilizer work during your warm-up before a run or lifting session. Whenever I go to the field to sprint, I always take a band with me so I can do some X-Band Walks before running:

Employ conditioning tools without lower body involvement

If running aggravates your knees, then stop! This isn't rocket science. You can still condition via means other than running. For example, using the battling ropes:

Or, you can run through a medicine ball circuit. Here is Eric Cressey's wife getting after it during a conditioning session six days before her wedding:

Both of those options (battling ropes and med ball work) will give you plenty of conditioning, while sparing your knees to boot. There are countless other options we've used at SAPT with our clientele, but for the sake of brevity I'll stick with those two for now.

Of course, specificity is going to play a roll. You can't train for a marathon using only upper body conditioning tools, but it will at least help to reduce a loss in cardiovascular fitness while helping your knees heal up.

Then again, I don't think most people should take part in the idiocy of running a marathon, but I digress :)

It could be a TECHNIQUE flaw

Let's not neglect the fact that your knee may be bothering you because of a technique flaw. It could be your running technique (if you're a runner with knee pain) or your technique in the weight room during lower body exercises.

As Chris McDougall mentions in Born to Run, almost anyone will take diving lessons if they want to learn to...go diving. Or, hire a martial arts instructor if they want to become a better fighter. However, rarely anyone even thinks twice about hiring a running instructor before going on a run. They just go out and do it, assuming that "any idiot can just go run," failing to understand the implications (i.e. injury) if they don't know how to properly absorb 2-4x their bodyweight in ground reaction force on each and every step of a 3 mile run.

It's the same thing with resistance training. Many people just head to the gym assuming that they know how to do everything. Of course they do! (note sarcasm). Honestly, whenever I head into commercial gyms and take a look around, I'm surprised there aren't more people with injured knees due to atrocious technique I see during squat and lunge variations.

So, take a look at your technique.

Hope these tips prove useful. Have a great weekend!

Training with an Injury, Part 1

2011-04-06T10:58:00.004-04:00

Q. I have been interested in and really trying to read more information about training with an injury. As a competitive athlete I feel like we are training a lot of times with little aches and pains. How do we know when to back it off and what is some advice on how to continue to train let's say if you have knee pain or elbow pain? I know a lot of us athletes are scared about losing something when we are injured and training is such a part of our lives that we like to work on something i.e. upper body work if our lower body is injured or vice versa.

A. It's always daunting for me to even begin an answer to a question like this, because I'm constantly playing "What if?" scenarios in my head:

What if the athlete has knee pain but is also diagnosed with spondylolisthesis (vertebral slippage)?

What if the person has elbow pain but also has a partially torn labrum that's asymptomatic?

What if the person is going to unknowingly become run over by a giant cable roll because of an epic fail by the repair guy?

But I digress.

Anyway, great question. I think one of the most unnerving thoughts for an athlete (or someone who loves exercise, in general) is the idea that he or she may not be able to train because of an injury. It's obviously beyond the scope of this post to go into every "What if?" scenario, but I'll cover the basics.

If you take anything home from this post, let it be this: You can almost always elicit a training effect, even while injured.

HOWEVER, if something hurts, don't do it! This isn't an excuse to train like a wimp, though. As Dan John says: "There's pain and there's injury. Learn the difference."

When it comes to injuries, people often fall into two camps:

They won't stop, even when their training only aggravates the problem. They'll literally try to run through a brick wall before taking a break to heal.
At the first sign of discomfort, they stop exercising.

The former will never reach their full potential because they're way too impatient to let the injury heal, and continue to impose an (improper) training stimulus on their body without allowing sufficient time to recover. The latter will never return to full function because they're way too much of a wimp to push their body to get stronger and drive through the adaptation process.

The key is to train with the proper modifications in place, while not being an idiot. If bench pressing hurts your shoulder, then find a substitute for a while. If running hurts your knee, then give it a rest and cross train via other means. It's not going to kill your mile time. Remember: you're training for something greater than today. Always have the big picture in mind.

You should train to enhance the quality of your life. Let your training serve you, don't serve your workout program.

Okay, let's go over some common issues and some ways to train around them.

1. Your Shoulder Hurts

Bench pressing less than three times per week would be a good place to start. Most people (primarily, males) press wayy too much and it's a no brainer that such a high percentage of guys end up with shoulder problems. You'll be much better served working on row variations, on top of other exercises that develop the scapular retractors/depressors, and well the external rotators and horizontal abductors of the arm.

Try a press variation that you can do in a pain-free range of motion. Floor and board presses tend to be a bit more shoulder friendly as there is less humeral extension involved.

However, if your shoulder is pretty jacked up, then I would avoid the barbell altogether as it locks your humerus into internal rotation. A healthy dose of neutral-grip (palms facing each other) dumbbell presses, or pushups (even better) will allow you to maintain a training effect in spite of a shoulder injury.

Here is Eric Cressey with 150lbs of added weight during a pushup. The total system weight (bodyweight + external resistance) for this pushup is over 250lbs. As he mentions: who says you can't load a pushup!

Pushups tend to be the most shoulder friendly, as they're a closed-chain movement, and also allow freedom of the scapulae to glide about the thoracic spine. Pushup variations are awesome, whether you have shoulder problem or not. They have to be one of my top 10 favorite exercises.

If your shoulder is really messed up, then you may need to drop pressing altogether a focus on horizontal pulling (row variations) which people can always use more of, anyway.

2. Your Back Hurts.

Again, you'll have to see what causes pain and what does not. In general, it will probably be best to avoid any direct axial loading (direct compression acting along the spine) for a while, and take a break from some of the bilateral lifts ex. squats, deadlifts, etc.

You'll still be able to receive a great training effect through hammering some unilateral variations for the lower body. Stepback lunges, split squats, and single-leg RDL's will keep your leg strength in tact while giving your spine a break.

It will do you good to hammer the glutes. Weak glutes is a very common problem amongst people with back pain, and the good news is that one can generally strengthen the glutes even in the presence of back pain.

Here is my fiancee, Kelsey, performing the barbell glute bridge. Kelsey has more than one herniated disc in her low back, and she's able to get in some solid glute training, pain free:

Sled pushing/dragging is another clear winner. It's basically a form of unilateral work (as you have one leg at a time producing force independent of the other leg), and is generally pretty back friendly.

I've been toying around with the sled with increasing frequency, and have been loving it:

The prowler has been a fantastic tool for some of our clientele (especially the adults), that have a history of back pain. It's a great way for them to increase their lower body strength (not to mention, enhance their overall work capacity), even with a testy back.

That's it for now, I'll be back next time to go over some other common injuries (knee pain, ankle pain, etc.)

Good Read for the Day: What Women Should Never do (but often do) While Trying to get in Shape

2011-04-05T11:25:00.001-04:00

I'm short on time today, so I thought I'd link a great article that was written by Juliet Deane. It was published a few weeks ago, but here it is for those that missed it:

What Women Should Never do (but often do) While Trying to Get in Shape

I had the pleasure of meeting Juliet at one of Alwyn Cosgrove's seminars last year. She's definitely an awesome girl and many women (and men) would be wise to follow her example. She really "walks the walk" of living a healthy lifestyle that sets her up for success.

Women: Pay attention, as Juliet does an awesome job at explaining how women can obtain their goals in the physical realm (cardiovascular fitness, body composition, etc.) they often seek, while dispelling many of the myths that frequently hold women back from reaching these goals.

Men: This will be a great resource to point your girlfriend/fiancee/wife to if she has reservations about resistance training. The chances are VERY high she won't listen to you as:

You're a male.
You're her romantic partner, automatically rendering the two of you unable to listen to each other :)

Enjoy!

Lateral Bound and Stick: An exercise I like (and you should, too).

2011-04-04T11:43:00.001-04:00

Given that the majority of people's daily movement takes place in the sagittal plane (or in a linear direction, such as when you run), it helps to toss in some exercises that take place in the frontal plane (or "side to side"). Enter the lateral bound and stick.

Why I like it

As mentioned, it takes people out of a linear movement pattern, and improves lateral movement.
It teaches proper deceleration - upon landing - of the glutes/hips. This is huge for field athletes as it reduces the risk of ACL tears (as a large majority of ACL tears occur in a non-contact situation, in which the athlete fails to properly decelerate lateral forces acting upon the knee joint).
Very few sports (with the exception of sprinting/running, and a few others) take place exclusively in the sagittal plane. This drill will develop muscular and neural efficiency required in side-to-side movement.
Even if you are a runner, it will serve you well to develop your body's ability to adequately move in all three planes of motion.
It's fun.

Key Coaching Cues

Jump for both height and distance.
Keep the chest up throughout.
Before jumping, be sure the non-working leg starts behind/across the working leg (to give you a bit more "swing" room).
Generate power from your hips/glutes.
Swing your arms side-to-side to aid force production. You'd be surprised at how many people swing their arms front-to-back when performing this drill.
"Stick" the landing, holding for at least 2 seconds. This will help teach your glutes and hips to decelerate your body upon landing, and also provide a bit of proprioceptive benefit around the ankle joint.

A bit of random trivia: some people call this exercise a "Heiden," because the movement looks a bit like Eric Heiden's arm/leg swing while racing. (Eric Heiden was an Olympic Speed Skating champion, for those non-sports enthusiasts in the crowd).

Quick Thoughts on Distance Running for Baseball Players

2011-04-01T14:11:00.001-04:00

I've noticed a very unfortunate trend amongst baseball coaches and that is:

Many of them have their players partake in distance running in-season (and in the off-season, too).
This is sad, as it's a clear indicator that the coach is either:

A. Simply misinformed.
B. Hasn't put forth the effort to look into more effective (and safe) training methodologies.

I think pitchers, specifically, may be the most negatively affected by copious amounts of distance running, but these principles apply to the rest of position players, too.

I'm not going to go in-depth regarding this topic, but I'd like to pose a few questions which will hopefully at least get you thinking:

When do baseball players ever run more than 15-30 yards in a game-like situation? Since this is rarely the case, why are we training them this way?
Did you know that endurance training leads to a loss in strength and power output (due to fiber type transformations)? So, are we TRYING to field a group of athletes that lacks strength and power, especially in a sport that requires a very high power output during a very short time window (think: swinging a bat, or throwing a ball, which takes less than 1 second to complete).
Baseball pitchers may possess some of the most "imbalanced" body structures of any athlete (think: loss of throwing shoulder internal rotation, loss of lead leg hip internal rotation, loss of throwing arm elbow extension, etc.). Why are we utilizing distance running as a training modality, during which no joint in the body passes through a substantial range of motion (and thus does nothing to address the mobility deficits occurring in pitchers)?
Do you have any real justification to having your players partake in distance running for conditioning? (Hint: If it's so that your players can improve their "endurance," then you've missed the mark entirely).
Did you know that endurance training has a negative impact on the stretch-shortening cycle? (This is a bad thing if you're trying to improve your players' sprinting velocity).
Again, when does any given play in baseball last longer than 5 seconds? Do we understand how physiological adaptations take place in the body under a given training stimulus?

By no means is this a rant on baseball coaches. It is just to encourage dissipation of the misinformation that seems to be plaguing the area when it comes to proper training for various athletes.

It can be very frustrating, as a strength coach, to see an athlete under your watch make vast improvements in strength, power output, movement quality, general preparedness for sport, etc. and then watch most of these positive adaptations go flying out the window once the respective sport coach has him/her for the season.

Don't become a dinosaur, do your research!

60 Seconds to Better Movement: Lying Knee-to-Knee Mobilization on Wall

2011-03-31T10:55:00.001-04:00

The other day, Ron (one of our SAPT clients), came up to me after his session. He had been performing a mobilization at the end of his session and asked me:

"I really like that drill you've been having me do on the wall, but WHY exactly am I doing it? What is it for?"

This gave me an idea for a blog post because:

Just yesterday I was talking about the importance of asking the "Why?" question to a trainer, strength coach, or anyone trying to hand you exercise advice. As soon as Ron asked me the question, it was a perfect test for me to put my money where my mouth was. After explaining it to him (and him looking satisfied/intrigued with the answer), I thought I'd shared it with the rest of you.
It's a fantastic drill for most (not all) people to do; especially males, in particular.

First, here's the drill:

What is it for?

To improve hip internal rotation (IR). Specifically: a loss of hip IR caused by muscular restrictions (as opposed to passive restrictions such as labrums, minisci, bone, etc.).

Why should you care?

Poor hip internal rotation is strongly correlated with low back pain, and also knee pain.

Basically, when the body can't draw range of motion from an area that it should be able to draw it from (ex. the hip), it will call in another segment of the body (ex. the low back) to pick up the slack. When this happens over and over again - especially under load as it would in a squat, or under a fair amount of rotational torque as it would during a friendly soccer or football game - it's highly possible to experience pain/injury at the knee joint or low back back.

For the common person, this can be an issue if your squatting in the weight room (you need significant hip internal rotation to go into deep hip flexion, such as in the bottom of a squat), or going out with a group of friends to play a casual game of soccer or flag football.

In the athletics realm, it's frequently common for hockey players, golfers, soccer players, baseball players, and powerlifters (and most rotational sport athletes, in general).

How to do it

Be sure the knees and hips are flexed (bent) at 90degrees, as shown in the video. The feet should be outside shoulder width.

Keep your feet flat on the wall as you drive the knees together (ex. don't excessively pronate the feet in to get the knees closer). Don't force range-of-motion here, just gently mobilize the knees in and out.

As you rotate the knees outward, it's o.k. to rotate onto the outside of the feet, as shown.

A couple notes

If you're a female, I wouldn't jump the gun on this one. A lot of females already tend to have a fair amount of hip internal rotation, due to their hip structure (wider hip bone).
This can be performed before a training session (especially if you're squatting that day, as you'll notice significantly improved hip mobility as you descend into the bottom). It can also be used at the end of an athletic event (especially if you're a baseball pitcher, or partake in a rotational sport) or training session. This will help loosen up the external rotators of the hip that tend to tighten up over time.
This drill can also be done with the feet on the floor (a valid option), but I personally prefer to have the feet on the wall as it's a bit more low-back friendly.

Give it a shot!

The Best Question for your Trainer

2011-03-30T11:14:00.002-04:00

"Why?" has to be - in my opinion - one of the best questions you can ask someone handing you training/diet advice. Whether it is a friend, someone you met in the gym, a self-proclaimed "internet expert," a personal trainer, or strength coach.

One should always be able to justify (within reason) the advice her or she hands out like candy.

I love my job, but one of the most frustrating aspects of working in the industry I do is that I'm constantly having to fight ATROCIOUS advice handed out by other fitness "professionals." For example:

"Wearing Sketchers Shape Ups will tone your glutes and thighs." Really? Why? How about we put the doughnut down first, and then talk about why Shape Ups are way to go for shapely legs. Everytime I see someone wearing these I want to throw myself into a shark tank.

"Squatting on a BOSU ball is functional training." WHY? Are we training to prepare ourselves for playing a sport in the middle of an earthquake? Are we trying to force someone into aberrant motor patterns and teach them fool-proof biomechanics for an ACL tear? Not that I know of. As Tony Gentilcore put it: squatting on BOSU balls is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. (Disclaimer: they DO have a use in the rehab setting for ankles and shoulders).

"If a female lifts weights, she will become big and bulky." Again, why?? Where did you get this information? Are you thinking of professional female bodybuilders who juice up on steroids and bring their body fat down to absurd, unhealthy levels? Or maybe women believe this because of unfortunate, sad, incidents such as Tracy Anderson telling women to never lift a weight over 3 pounds. I think my soul just died inside.

Candace Parker (WNBA All-Star). Lifts weights? Yes. Big and bulky? Not that I can see...

Along a similar note: I can't tell you how many times a parent approaches me and tells me that I need to run their kid through an agility ladder for 30 minutes and have the child perform endless "plyometrics" in order to make the child run faster or increase his/her vertical.

I think this is a bit amusing because, well, why are you trying to tell me how to do my job? Do I walk into an accountant's office and tell him/her how to file my taxes?
Do you even know what "plyometric" really means?
Where are you getting this information that agility ladders and plyometrics are the key to increased speed and agility and vertical jump height?

I often tell these parents/athletes to go back to the person that told them this information and ask them:

"Why?"

Without fail, they return to me saying the trainer had no real justification behind his/her advice.

At SAPT, we see consistent improvement's in our athlete's linear speed, change-of-direction time, and vertical jump, and we use little-to-no agility ladder or plyometric training.

For example, we're currently working with a teenager - Kaleigh - who is the current VA state record holder for various sprint distances (ex. 400m, 100m). After training with us for the past 6 months or so, she has been blowing her her previous times out of the water. Her father was just telling me the other day that - even during her practice sessions - all of her 30m split times have been significantly faster than 6 months ago.

We haven't run her through a single agility ladder, and plyometric training has comprised roughly 5% or less of her total training program at SAPT.

Is there a time and place for plyometric training? Absolutely. However, I don't think a lot of trainers truly understand how and when to use them, and instead just throw them in a program because either:

A. They look fancy
B. They're unsure of what to do so they just throw crap at the wall hoping something will stick.

Moral of the story: Don't be afraid to ask someone to justify his or her advice in the training/nutrition realm. I think you may be surprised at the myriad fallacies shouted from almost every rooftop.

A personal update: I got Engaged!

2011-03-28T10:38:00.003-04:00

So I realize this post isn't training/nutrition related (so I apologize to those who don't know me personally) but I wanted to share something very special that happened over the weekend. Since I can't make a personal call to all of my family and friends, I thought this would be the best way to share what happened.

On Saturday morning, I became engaged to the love of my life: Kelsey.

The proposal was a very exciting (and epic) process for everyone involved, so I thought I'd share the details.

Basically, there's a website Kelsey reads everyday, so I wanted to initiate the proposal through that. It's Tony Gentilcore's website, and for those of you not involved in strength training, he's basically the Luke Skywalker of the training world. The man is a Jedi when it comes to training people.

Seriously though, I don't think many people outside the training industry can really appreciate this, but let's put it this way:

If you loved tennis, it would be the equivalent of Roger Federer grabbing your attention on the internet.

So I had Tony (after he graciously agreed to help me out) initiate the proposal through his website. I filmed a video of myself - at the spot I'd be waiting to actually propose - and Tony embedded the video into his blog. You can see it here (it's on the second half of the post).

The first part of the proposal on Tony Gentilcore's website

Note: Tony also followed up with a blog post today on what happened from his end of the spectrum, so you can read that HERE. He's a more entertaining writer than I am, so I encourage you to check it out:

Tony Gentilcore's follow-up to the proposal

I knew Kelsey would be arriving at SAPT (where I work) to get in a training session on Saturday morning, so I had Chris (the strength coach I work with) tell her that she had to go into his office and take a look at Tony's blog post for the day. Chris grabbed a camera and started filming Kelsey after she saw me on Tony's website and started quickly packing up to go meet me:

Once she arrived at the site I was waiting, I dropped to a knee (after saying a few words, of course) and asked her to marry me. I had a photographer waiting at the site.

Long story short, she said yes!!

The Honeymoon

I am EXTREMELY fortunate to have a fiancee that enjoys strength training as much as much as I do. As such, we'll be heading up to Cressey Performance (in the Boston area) for our Honeymoon to train there for the week! In case you all don't know what this place is, they're basically the shiz (yes, I used that word) when it comes to training people. The staff (Tony is one of them) is a group of really personable, intelligent, and caring people, so Kelsey and I are THRILLED to spend a lot of time during our Honeymoon at the facility to train, and talk some shop.

Here is a video of the facility in action:

Cressey Performance Promo Video Trailer from Lasting Memories Videotaping on Vimeo.

Yeah, A LOT of people have made fun of us for not going somewhere "tropical" for our Honeymoon. But honestly, Kelsey and I will have WAY more fun in Boston - training and hanging out at Cressey Performance - than we would if we went to an island to lay down on the beach for a week.

And men in the crowd: you have to admit you're jealous I have a fiancee who is willing to do this with me!

Anyway, there it is! Again, I apologize to those who don't know me (and don't care about my personal life), but I thought this would be the best way to share what happened with those that I wasn't able to make a phone call to.

Thanks for reading, and a HUGE Thank You to all our friends and family that have supported us thus far. We couldn't have done it without you, and we'll continue to need you throughout the craziness of engagement/marriage :)

I'll be back with some more training/nutrition-related posts soon.

Quick and Critical Nutrition Tip

2011-03-24T13:04:00.001-04:00

Pre-chop your veggies.

I was introduced to this novel concept by Dr. Berardi (of the Precision Nutrition System) during my senior year of college. It has absolutely revolutionized the way I cook and prepare my meals for the week.

Let's be honest: it's very difficult to get in a healthy dose of vegetables each day. They take a long time to prepare (be it chopping up peppers, onions, broccoli, etc.) and it can be tough to find a way to make them taste so good that we look forward to eating them. Most of us (if it were healthy for us) would rather just reach for a bar of chocolate. Easy. Tastes great. No preparation needed.

Actually, wait. Many of us do that anyway, even though it's not healthy.

Unfortunately, if we're seeking a body that works for us and prepares us for the day with a tank full of energy and mental clarity (not to mention, looks better to boot), we can't be lazy and just do "what's easy."

The best (and easiest) way to make sure I have PLENTY of vegetables to get me through the week is to pre-chop them in advance (usually on a Sunday afternoon). I then put them all in a Tupperware container and, Voila! I have them all ready to put in a stir-fry, toss in with some scrambled eggs, use them as a side dish, you name it.

Below are two pictures I took yesterday from my kitchen. The first is a frying pan with a bunch of chopped veggies in it, and next to it is the Tupperware container I use to store my vegetables. The second picture is after I added some black beans to the mix.

I'll usually throw a bunch of spices (garlic, chili powder, italian seasoning, etc.) on them as well, so they actually taste good!

I use the Vidalia Chop Wizard (you can order it off amazon), which my girlfriend gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. This thing is AWESOME, and it will cut your meal-prep time down by 500%.

So, that's it. Short and Sweet. Pre-chop your vegetables and you'll have no excuse for failing to get that healthy dose of vitamins and minerals your body needs each week.

P.S. My girlfriend got the idea of giving me the chop wizard from Tony Gentilcore. He's an awesome (and hilarious) writer, so if you're not following him already then shame on you! He wrote two VERY comprehensive posts on how to get-it-done in the kitchen. I highly encourage you to check out Part 1 and Part 2)

If you live in the NorthernVA/DC area, Please consider this

2011-03-23T10:21:00.006-04:00

I normally don't recommend endurance training for health and movement-quality purposes, but this is an exception. I personally don't perform any endurance training myself (see Part 1 and Part 2 of the Cardio Confusion posts for further clarification, as well as the Resistance Training for Runners series) but please HIGHLY consider doing this if you live anywhere in or near Northern Virginia.

Before becoming a full-time performance coach at SAPT, I worked as a Physical Therapist Aid for an awesome company called Commonwealth Orthopaedics. The physical therapists that work for Commonwealth are amazing, and I highly, highly recommend their services.

Anyway, Commonwealth is helping to sponsor an 8k/1 Mile Fun Run in Burke, VA on April 10th. All of the proceeds go to benefit the Celebrate Cherie Scholarship Fund. Cherie was a very sweet, young (35 years old) physical therapist - who worked for Commonwealth - that died suddenly in 2009 after fighting a rare cancer. She was an awesome PT, and anyone that knew her could testify to way she greeted life with a smile and genuine care toward others.

The money raised will go to the Celebrate Cherie Scholarship Fund, which helps physical therapy students pursue their dream of helping others as she did.

If you don't feel comfortable running the 8k, you can walk/run the 1 mile portion as well! The course is set up through the scenic Burke Centre.

I will personally be running the 8k just to see how well I do (the last endurance event I did, training sessions included, was a 5-mile sand/obstacle course race back in August 2010). I don't expect to place exceptionally well, so feel free to come on out and whoop up on me!

Please go to one of these two locations to find out more and sign up!

http://www.prraces.com/rockstar/

The Facebook Page for the race

Thank you!

Stevo

Some Female Pushup Goodness

2011-03-18T09:42:00.005-04:00

A misconception I would like to blow out of the water today is that women should only perform pushups from their knees. It seems that when fitness instructors are working with females, and realize they can't do "normal" pushups from the feet, they resort to placing their knees on the ground.

I personally feel this is an erroneous thought process, for two reasons:

I've never seen a correlation between the number of pushups a woman can do from her knees versus the ability to perform a pushup from her feet (ex. even if a woman can do 25 pushups from the knees, she still may not be able to do a full pushup with the knees off the ground). This is largely do to the heightened lumbo-pelvic stability suddenly required at the hips/torso when the knees are elevated.
While subtle, it continues to perpetuate the notion that women should train differently than men and are destined to be "inferior," if you will, in the weight room. I think we should set women up for success, and show them what they actually can do with some perseverance and proper coaching.

If we're trying to, oh I don't know, actually improve female's movement quality and help them become stronger (not to mention boost their confidence), we need to stop perpetuating this notion that the majority of women are doomed to eternally fail at the full-range pushup.

I'll tell you what: I coach girls who can perform better pushups than most men I see in commercial gyms, and these same girls couldn't do a single perfect pushup when they first started training at SAPT. My guess is that if we had just resorted to having them do "knee pushups," they'd still be unable to do a proper pushup (not to mention received FAR less improvement in their preparedness for sport).

Below are some videos of a couple of our female athletes performing pushups. I'm sharing these for two reasons:

To show that it is definitely possible for a girl to do a full-range pushup after proper training (without them being eternally destined to do "knee pushups" as the media will often portray).
These pushups completely destroy 95% of the pushups I see performed by men in commercial gyms. Boys: you really aren't that cool! Get off the bench press until you can perform a Perfect Pushup. Let's be real here.

Below is one of our volleyball players (13-years old, mind you), Kenzie, performing five flawless pushups, and then topping them off with some sandbag walkovers.

Note: when Kenzie first came to us, she had to do pushups with her hands elevated on a high mat, so she has come a long way!

Next is Kaleigh (a track athlete), performing them with a 25lb plate on her back.

Thirdly, is a video of Kelsey (my better half) performing some awesome TRX pushups, with her feet elevated.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Now, what to do if she can't yet perform a full-range pushup? One option is to only perform the eccentric (the lowering or "yielding" portion of the movement) as Maggie is doing in the video below. Focusing on the eccentric portion is actually a pretty key factor in rapid strength gains, especially in beginners.

Now, if someone can't do eccentric pushups them from the floor (as most people can't, initially), then you could simply have them elevate their hands on a mat or bench to make it easier.

You can even have them practice a simple isometric hold in the top of the pushup position, in order to acclimate to the feeling of supporting their bodyweight in full pushup position.

There are many other tools you can use as well, but I trust this is enough to at least give the women in the crowd some motivation, and get you thinking about tools outside the knee pushup to work on your strength and movement quality.

Cheers!

Split Squat ISO Hold: An exercise I like (and you should, too).

2011-03-16T09:54:00.005-04:00

I thought I'd share an exercise I've found myself growing increasingly fond of over the past few months. It's been around for a while, but I've realized just how versatile it is, no matter if we're dealing with a new trainee, an advanced athlete, or someone looking to spice up their routine.

It's the traditional split squat, but performed with an isometric (ISO) hold in the bottom of the movement.

Why do I like it?

1. It's great for in-season athletes, or during a period leading up to competition.
As a strength coach, it's critical to be able to provide the in-season athlete with a training effect, while simultaneously reducing the risk of muscle soreness. What athlete can optimally perform while he/she can hardly move his or her legs because they feel like jell-o?

The split squat ISO hold reduces the risk of soreness because it minimizes the eccentric portion of the lift, where the most muscle damage takes place (and thus contributes to that delayed-onset muscle soreness you typically feel 24-48 hours after a workout).

So, you can still receive a training effect (become stronger and improve neuromuscular control) while simultaneously reducing the soreness commonly felt after a lift. Sounds like a no brainer to me!

2. It's a great teaching tool for beginners.
Many people nearly topple over (and sometimes actually do) when first learning the split squat. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as it's always going to require sound motor control when you move the base of support from two feet (as in the traditional squat) to one foot.

For the average person entering the gym I coach at, I'll use the split squat isometric hold to help them learn the position. Depending on the person, I may have them start on the ground (in the bottom position), and then just elevate a couple inches off the ground and hold. This way, they're not constantly having to move through the full range of motion, where the most strength and neural control is required.

3. Like most single-leg variations, it trains the body to work as one flawless unit.

As noted in the Resistance Training for Runners series I wrote a couple months back, lunge variations teach the body to work as a unit, as opposed to segmented parts. Specifically: the trunk stabilizers, glutes, hamstrings, quads, TFL (tensor fascia latae), adductors, and QL (quadratus lomborum) will all have to work synergistically to efficiently execute the movement.

As mentioned above, you'd be surprised at how many people nearly fall over - or actually do - when learning the split squat. It goes to show just how "non-functional" we really are, despite all the people out there training on BOSU balls! Use single-leg work to actually train your body the way it was designed to perform.

4. To use as a change of pace.
No need to elaborate here.

Anyway, here it is in the video below:

Key Coaching Cues

Get in a wide stance with the feet parallel to each other (as you'll see when I face the camera).
Lower straight down. What we're looking for here a vertical shin angle (shin perpendicular to the floor). It's very easy to let the knee drift forward if you're not paying attention.
Keep a rigid torso (upright). Imagine as if you're struttin' your stuff at the beach.
Don't let the front knee drift inward (valgus stress). Keep the knee right in line with the middle-to-outside toes. I even cue "knee out" sometimes as many people really let the knee collapse inward.
Squeeze the front glute to help keep you stable. You can also squeeze the back glute to receive a nice stretch in the hip flexor of the back leg.
Perform for 1-3 reps (per side) with a :5-:15 hold in the bottom.

That's it! I hope you like it.

And just for fun: In case you thought single-leg work was for sissies, here's a video of Ben performing the Rear Foot Elevated (aka Bulgarian) variation of the split squat with 305lbs added weight (two 90lb dumbells and 125lbs of weighted vests).

This bear doesn't really have to do with anything, but he popped up when I searched "lunge" in Google images so here he is.

Some quick updates

2011-03-15T12:25:00.002-04:00

So I apologize for the reduction in content as of late. Even though it is Spring time (our slowest time of the year at SAPT, as the majority of our athletes play a Spring sport), a few other things at SAPT have really picked up.

We recently launched a distance-coaching program in which those who can't (because of geography or finances) train at SAPT more than 1x/week. We've been pretty busy putting together our online video database, complete with various exercises and the most important coaching cues we use, and ironing out some of our programming templates.

In short, it has been a SWEET addition to help more people experience our system of becoming awesome.

For now, in case you're not reading his site already, I'd like to direct you to Ben Bruno's Blog. He has basically created a fitness google, in which he compiles TONS of great articles from some of the top names in the fitness industry (and some schmuck named Stevo is on there, too). Ben is also one freakishly-strong dude, so his training updates are always very inspiring to read/watch.

Check it out HERE! If you have access to free-roaming internet at work, this will keep you busy for the rest of the workday. I'm serious!

I'll be back tomorrow with some more great content! Be well.

Q & A: Best Exercise for the Obliques, Part 2

2011-03-14T12:38:00.002-04:00

Continuing from Part 1 on Friday, I'm going to give some exercises I feel are best for training the "obliques." Now, if you open any kinesiology textbook you can learn the functions of both the internal and external obliques:

Internal Obliques: Lumbar flexion, ipsilateral flexion and ipsilateral rotation (bending of the low back, side bending, and rotation of the same side of the torso).
External Obliques: Lumbar flexion, ipsilateral flexion, and contralateral rotation (bending of the low back, side bending, and rotation of the opposite side of the torso).

Hence why you see so many people performing side crunches, side-bends, and russian twists to "bring out" their obliques.

However, I feel these commonly performed exercises are one of the worst for developing a strong midsection. Yes, you may "feel the burn" while doing side crunches, but in my humble opinion they do nothing more than to exacerbate the poor posture we already place ourselves in (from sitting too much), and increase our risk of low back pain. Also, considering that the biomechanics of the lumbar spine are designed with only about 13 TOTAL degrees of rotation from L1-L5, I don't even see the "Russian Twist" as a wise exercise to perform regularly, with low back health in mind.

(As a side note, people you see with nice-looking obliques did not achieve those through endless crunches and side bends. They achieved them through very low body fat levels and/or through great genetics, as discussed in part 1).

Anyway, I haven't prescribed a single crunch in the last few years of coaching people toward moving, feeling, and looking better.

As Tony Gentilcore so eloquently put it:

"To be honest, I can think of a host of other things that would be more beneficial than doing crunches:

1. Cirrhosis of the liver
2. A nuclear holocaust
3. Getting kicked in the balls, repeatedly
4. Another Sex and the City movie"

I'm right there with him. From a results-standpoint, I see it a complete waste of time to perform endless sit-ups and crunches. From the view of keeping someone's low back healthy, I see it equally futile to include sit-ups in a core routine (especially, as mentioned before, the sit-up places roughly 3300 N of compression on the spine).

Anyway, now main point. What are some exercises I'll use to attack the midsection? First and foremost, there is no "Best" exercise. Secondly, I almost always use a form of trunk stabilization to develop the midsection, as this is one of the primary functions of our core. Here are some exercises I've found to be awesome:

1. Over-Shoulder Sandbag Carries

Over the past year I've become a huge fan of sandbag carry variations, for a few reasons.

With the legs as the prime movers, and the load on the shoulder, everything in between will be maximally challenged to keep you upright. If you never knew where your obliques were located (or any abdominal muscle, for that matter) you'll know as soon as you perform these.
The position of the load essentially allows your core to help create a very efficient buttressing system for weaker joints throughout the body.
They provide axial loading for the body (important for strengthening bone and connective tissue).

Of course, in order to receive the full benefit, you need to resist shifting of the hips and stand STRAIGHT.

In the video above I'm carrying a 85lb sandbag. When I was training for obstacle course races in 2010 (and I'll be doing this again soon as the weather is warming up), I would take the sandbag to a 400m track and walk the distance with sandbag on one shoulder, and then repeat on the other side. You can carry the sandbag in many different positions (over shoulder, bear hug, zercher carry, overhead, etc.).

The sandbags are very easy to make, too. In the video I'm simply using a duffel bag filled with pea gravel.

2. Offset-loaded Farmer Carries and/or Deadlifts

Similar to what I discussed a Core Training article a while back.

These things are brutal. Granted, you need to already be fairly proficient at the deadlift to perform this safely.

Along the same lines, you can perform an offset-loaded farmers walk as Tony is doing in the video below:

We've been doing the same exercise at SAPT for a few years now, but using a small hand towel instead of a "tricep pushdown" rope. Again, you only reap (and feel) the benefit when you stand perfectly straight. A bonus is you receive some solid grip training with the variation, too.

3. Medicine Ball Drills

Medicine ball drills are great to develop rotational power. See below (Tim Collins of the Kansas City Royals training at Cressey Performance):

4. Pallof Presses

One of the most versatile, awesome, and useful core exercises out there. Period. Tony Gentilcore (along with many others) has already written extensively on this topic, so instead of reinventing the wheel I'll direct you here:

Everything Pallof Press

-------------
You honestly need nothing more than the exercises shown above to work on those coveted obliques and begin a successful journey toward a strong midsection that performs optimally and looks good, too. Personally, I rarely perform more than two "ab" exercises a week and have seen significant development of my midsection in the past few years.

To reiterate: you can't out-train a poor diet. No amount of abdominal training, no matter how fancy, will give you those abs of steal if you're irresponsible with your nutrition. However, when you clean up your act in the kitchen, and work on a few of the exercises above, I guarantee you won't be disappointed with the end result.

Q & A: Best Exercise for the Obliques, Part 1

2011-03-11T08:31:00.004-05:00

Question: "I was wondering if you had a great work out for the inner obliques and outer obliques? because Ive been looking for a great work out other than those "Russian twists". Thanks."

Answer: When I received this email the other day, I knew I should address it on the blog as it's a question I've received over and over again.

You didn't specify whether you desire a workout for the obliques because of physique or performance goals, so I'm not exactly sure how you want the answer directed. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is for physique purposes, as you didn't mention that you were looking to improve performance with a particular sport (although training the obliques would be a VERY small part of the entire equation).

First off, any so-called fitness guru who tells you they have "THE workout" for your obliques, or your abs in general, they either:

A. Have no clue what they are talking about.
B. Are trying to steal your money.

Look, I'll get straight to the point (a little dose of tough love ahead). If you want a better-looking abdominal wall, I have two fool-proof strategies:

Ask for different parents.
Clean up your act in the kitchen.

Then, and only then, worry about the latest and greatest ab exercises. This isn't the advice people want to hear, but it's what they need to hear.

Why ask for different parents?
The "look" of your abs is largely genetic. Your genetic make-up will determine what percent body fat you need to be at in order to have visible abs (ex. some people need to get down to <10% bodyfat, while others can see their abs at around 13-14% bodyfat).

Your genetics will also determine the "shape" of your abs once they're visible. Please, I'm not going to go all mainstream on you and tell you that you can make your abs "long" or "compact" through training (hint: you can't), but your abs will appear a certain way based off your pre-determined body type. And you can't change this. You can change whether or not your abs become visible, but everyone's will look slightly different.

I can't tell you how many guys have told me "I want abs like Brad Pitt." My first answer is always:

"Have Brad's parents give birth to you."

I'm serious. You can do russian twists, side crunches, side bends, jacknives, etc. until you are blue in the face and you'll never achieve abdominals exactly like your coveted celebrity's abs as the two of you are of a completely different physiological make-up. The goes for women who are chasing the abs of a particular female celebrity.

I say all this because I'm hoping it will at least set you up for realistic expectations, as otherwise it will be as worthwhile as chasing a moving a target your entire life. Once you understand what you can actually accomplish, you won't consistently be met with disappointment.

Clean Up Your Act in the Kitchen
Since you can't ask for different parents, this is your best bet if nature didn't bless you at birth with abs that could scratch diamonds.

Your abs are made in the kitchen, plain and simple. You can not out-train a poor diet. Yes, this means you have to develop some self-control and good habits. Get your body fat down, and then you'll see your abs! I often tell people, "Everyone has a six-pack, it's just that some are more insulated than others."

I honestly don't look down on those that have poor nutrition habits. Heck, I enjoy ice cream every weekend, but I do crack down on what I eat throughout the week (you shouldn't be a slave to your body or nutrition habits; you should have your nutrition/body work for you). What I have an issue with is people who constantly complain about their physique, when they aren't taking the necessary measures to change. Yes, it is HARD. It's simple, but not easy.

It comes down to a very simple question: Which do you like better? That treat you're about to shove down your pie hole, or creating a body that is HEALTHY and sets you up to look, move, and feel better? It all comes down to priorities.

I'm out of time for the moment, but I'll be back on Monday with some exercises that can give you your "fix." I almost don't even want to give them, as nutrition is really over 80% of the "abz equation" but I'll show you a few to toy with. Stay tuned for part 2!

60 Seconds to Better Movement: Wall Hip Flexor Mobilization

2011-03-09T12:43:00.005-05:00

I thought I'd share a quick "bang-for-your-buck" exercise that you'll thank me later for. It's the Wall Hip Flexor Mobilization, and it focuses on lengthening the rectus femoris, which is both a hip flexor and a knee extensor, due to the fact that it crosses both the hip joint and the knee joint. I'm definitely not the first to write about this drill, but I thought I'd share it for those in the crowd that aren't doing it regularly.

The Rectus Femoris

Why should you care if your rectus femoris needs to be stretched? (Note there is a difference between a muscle being "stiff" and a muscle being "short," but that's a topic for another post).

First and foremost, tight hip flexors = weak glutes. This is a very simplified way of putting it, but that's the take home message. The physiological term for this is "reciprocal inhibition." By loosening up the rectus femoris, you're essentially allowing your glutes to do their job better. As mentioned in the It's All About the Glutes article:

If you're an athlete, this means jumping farther and running faster.
For general health purposes, strong glutes promote a reduced risk of knee, hip, back, and hamstring injury.
For those seeking benefits in the physique realm...well, this one is obvious.

To the desk jockeys in the crowd: sitting for the majority of the day leads to loss of mobility at the hip joint - where the rectus femoris crosses - thus promoting a host of aberrant motor patterns that will only increase over time.

To the runners in the crowd: not one single joint moves through a substantial range of motion during steady state running (what I'm saying is the more you run and the less you perform mobility drills, the more you begin to move like crap). You need something to actually encourage sound biomechanics to help you run more efficiently and smoothly.
To the meatheads in the crowd: loosening the rectus femoris will encourage good lifting mechanics in lifts such as the squat and deadlift, thus increasing your Awesome status.
In cases of anterior and lateral knee pain, the rectus femoris is often a common culprit.

Anyway, here is the drill:

Key coaching cues:

Place a towel or other soft surface under your knee (not shown), and brace your hand against a wall (Yes, I'm using a box in the video, but it should be done on a wall).
Be sure not to slip into excessive lumbar extension (arching of the low back) as you rock forward.
Keep the heel of the back leg as close to your butt as possible throughout the movement
Squeeze the glute of the back leg throughout. This will help intensify the stretch of the hip flexor.
Think about pushing FORWARD rather than DOWN (think hips toward the wall, not the floor)
Rock for about thirty seconds per side, holding for around two seconds in the stretch position.
In case this wasn't clear, you're aiming for a stretching sensation in the front hip area of the back leg.
Do it every day. Unless you live in a Hunter-Gatherer society and never sit down at a computer.

This is of course just one piece in the very large puzzle of improving movement quality, but it's at least a step in the right direction. Give it a shot!

Quick Thoughts on The 4-Hour Body

2011-03-03T14:01:00.001-05:00

Lately I've been reading through "The 4-Hour Body" by Tim Ferriss. While I may not agree with all of the training protocols he has in the book, it's an entertaining read to say the least. He traveled the globe and met with the some of the world's leading experts in the realm of human physiology. He met with scientists, professors, lab rats, and "in the trenches" strength coaches and compiled everything he learned in the book.

He also has quite a few points - with regards to behavior change and taking care of one's body - that were worth taking note of. Tim Ferriss is an extremely successful businessman, and in fact he was a large inspiration behind the "80-20 Principle" post I wrote a few months back, which describes how to leverage the fact that 20% of your efforts will be responsible for 80% of your results, both in and out of the weight room.

I thought I'd share a couple points from the book that I took note of:

"More is not better. Indeed, your greatest challenge (in a training program) will be resisting the temptation to do more."
"We want to avoid all methods with a high failure rate, even if you believe you are in the diligent minority (those who always stick with a plan). In the beginning, everyone who starts a program believes they're in this minority. Take adherence seriously: will you actually stick with this change until you hit your goal? If not, find another method, even if it's less effective and less efficient. The decent method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit."
(In blaming genetics) "Even if you are predisposed to being overweight, you're not predestined to be fat."
"People suck at following advice. Even the most effective people in the world are terrible at it. There are two reasons: 1. Most people have an insufficient reason for action. The pain isn't painful enough. It's a nice-to-have, not a must-have. 2. There are no reminders. No consistent tracking = no awareness = no behavioral change. Consistent tracking, even if you have no knowledge of fat-loss or exercise, will often beat advice from world-class trainers."

Tim's point about the "nice-to-have" becoming a "must-have" for success really hit home to me. It explained, in beautiful simplicity, why so many people seem to always be talking about how "next month" they'll make the decision to clean up their diet, or "at the new year" they'll begin a weight training program to jump start a positive body composition shift. These goals (fat loss, muscle gain, etc.) are most frequently just a "nice-to-have," not a must-have. It's usually not until they're told (for example) by a doctor that they'll die from diabetes unless they begin a sound nutrition and exercise regimen, that they make an intentional behavior change.

It's the same for athletes, too. I've noticed that the athletes who are focused and work the hardest in the weight room (and thus experience the greatest results), are those that view the resistance training portion of their sport program a MUST-HAVE for success, not a nice-to-have.

Q & A: Improving Pullup Strength

2011-03-02T12:02:00.007-05:00

Over the past couple months, I've received emails inquiring about how to improve pullup strength. Since this is a common question (and a good one) that I'm sure I'll receive again, I decided to use it as a Q & A on the blog. (The question was modified a bit to omit information that wasn't pertinent to the central question). Note that I refer to chinups a fair amount (where your palms face you, as opposed to away from you like in the pullup), but the exact same principles apply.

Hey Stevo,

I also have a question for you - your thoughts on the best way to improve deadhang pull-up numbers? My upper body pulling strength is woefully lacking (upper body is weak in general, outside of the Jerk). While I'd say CrossFit can address it, the reality is accessory/supplementary work is necessary because CrossFit only does kipping pull-ups. I can't recall any time recently that my affiliate used deadhang pull-ups. (I think if fresh I could probably do 6-8 right now without incredibly awful form or resorting to a kip of sorts).

Great question. I love the pullup/chinup variations as they're a great way to keep your relative strength in check. I find it difficult to admire someone who can bench press a house but can barely pull his chin over the bar for a pullup or two.

Not to mention, your chinup:bench press ratio is actually a pretty strong indicator of shoulder health for the long run. For example, say you're a 175lb male who can bench 300lbs. If your maximum weighted chinup (bodyweight + external load) is only 225lbs (BW+50lbs added weight using a dip belt or weight vest), then you have some serious work to do on the "pulling" side of things.

Mike Boyle has mentioned this in the past, as he has coached thousands of athletes in the weight room and monitored the correlations between push:pull strength ratios and shoulder health. Is it a fool-proof formula? Certainly not, but at least balancing your pushing and pulling strength is a a huge step in the right direction.

Anyway, now to the question. I'm not the first to write about these strategies, but I'd like to share the ones I've personally found most effective in helping the athletes (and general fitness enthusiasts) I coach:

1. Never go to Failure (or "Grind Out" Reps).
Want a surefire way to halt your progress in the pullup realm? Grind out reps.

Most intelligent people never continue to grind out squats and deadlifts once their form breaks down, and for good reason (I don't know about you, but I like to remain on good terms with my spine). Yet for some reason when it comes to pullups, people will approach their maximum number of reps, and then continue to push out a few more by grinding, kicking and screaming their way up to the bar. Set after set.

Once you begin to slow down through the sticking point on the way up, stop the set. Once your reps no longer look or feel like they did in the beginning (good form, decent speed, etc.), let go of the bar. If you continue to grind reps out, set after set, it will do nothing for you other than to ingrain bad habits and to burn out your Central Nervous System (which needs to remain fresh for optimal recovery and performance during subsequent training sessions).

Remember that strength training is a skill. When you practice a skill correctly, you don't continue to do it under a state of high fatigue. Pullups are no different.

Below are two videos I filmed during a recent chinup session. (For a frame of reference, my current 3-rep max on the chinup is about 130lbs added weight).

The first video is an example of what a GOOD working set looks like. In this set I have 110lbs hanging from a weight belt. Note that I don't slow down through sticking points, and each of the reps look nearly identical. Even though I probably could have ground out 2-3 more reps, I stopped the set because - based off the feel of the third rep - I knew the remainder of the chinups wouldn't have been pretty.

The next video is what a BAD working set looks like this. In the video below I have 125lbs hanging from a dip belt. Normally I wouldn't have gone so close to a true 3-rep max during a training session, but I did this for demonstration purposes. Note that the first and second rep look O.K., but on the third repetition I really slow down at the top (my sticking point, personally, is about 2 inches shy of the bar), and I continue to hang up there as I grind my way to the bar. Again, this is what NOT to do regularly when you train pullups/chinups!

So, for the person asking the question, whose max number of pullups is 6-8, I would suggest to never go above 4-5 reps during a single set in training.

The ONLY time I recommend going to failure is when you are testing your true pullup max, which should be only a few times a year. Otherwise, in training, always stay clear of hitting failure. You'll thank me later, I promise.

2. Prioritize Pullups in your Training Plan
If you want to improve your pullups then you should probably: focus on your pullups. Haha, sounds like an axiom, doesn't it? However, it seems to me that people often tend to desire improvement upon a hundred different things at once.

Lose fat. Gain muscle. Improve my 5k time. Increase my bench press. Run a marathon. See my abs. Bicep curl more than the guy next to me. Improve my online ranking in Call of Duty or World of Warcraft.

The truth is, if you genuinely want to improve something, you need to prioritize it and let a few other things take the back burner. This doesn't mean you cease to work on other qualities, but you can't go balls-to-the-wall with everything. In fact, Eric Cressey wrote a fantastic short article regarding this very subject: Weight Training Programs: You Just Can't Keep Adding. I encourage you to check out!

What does it look like, to prioritize your pullups?

Train them in the beginning of your training session, when your fresh. Yes, even before you bench press.
Train them more frequently throughout the week (again, only if you're refusing to grind reps).
Increase the volume (combined sets x reps) of pullups, and scale back a bit on the volume of other upper body movements (press variations, as well as lat pulldowns, bicep curls, etc.)
Give your pullups the same INTENSITY and focus you would during your other lifts (deadlifts, squats, etc.).

Prioritize your pullups in your routine and train them like you mean it. Everything else can take the backseat, at least for a little while.

3. Drop the Kipping Pullups.
All this will do is take away from your current goal: improving your "dead-hang" pullups. While some other strength coaches may argue that kipping can aid those seeking improved pullup numbers, I don't personally prefer to use them (not to mention, I've helped more than one person - females in included - obtain their goal of performing their first unassisted, full-range chinup without using any kipping method for assistance).

4. Improve Your Grip Strength.

Your hands are the first link in the chain when you grab the bar to perform pullups. If your grip is weak, then you'll fail much more quickly. You probably won't literally slip off the bar, but a strong grip will certainly allow you transfer force through your upper body much more efficiently. The stronger your grip is, the less the rest of your body will have to work to perform the lift.

Fortunately, I have the luxury of a thick-grip pullup bar at SAPT. The wider diameter of the bar makes it significantly more difficult to hang on to - thus improving your grip strength. At first I hated Sarah (the President) for ordering thick-grip bars to attach to the power racks, as my ego was shattered upon trying pullups in SAPT for the first time! However, over time, I've noticed substantial improvement in my grip from using the thick bar alone. Not to mention, whenever I try pullups on a normal bar, it feels like a walk in the park!

However, I realize not many people have access to a thick bar; and besides, there are many other modalities for improving grip strength that I recommend whether or not you have a thick bar. It's beyond the scope of this post to provide various grip exercises, but Diesel Crew has some fantastic grip exercises on their website that you can check out.

5. Use the "Pullups Throughout" Method
We've used this with fantastic success with our athletes at SAPT. Basically pick a number (ex. 25) and hit that number of pullups throughout the training session. The number you aim for will depend on your current pullup max. Begin at the start of the training session, and then in between every few sets of your other exercises head over to the pullup bar and bang out 2-3 reps. This is a great way to accumulate a fair amount of volume without inducing too much fatigue.

Again, stay FAR away from failure. The reps should feel light and fast.

6. Utilize a variety of grips and set/rep schemes.
Just like any exercise, it will help to add a bit of variety to the picture. Just because you want to improve your pullups (palms facing away from you) doesn't mean that a healthy dose of neutral-grip pullups (palms facing each other) and chinups won't help. I would still prioritize pullups, but definitely mix in a few other variations sparingly.

Regarding number of reps, don't be afraid to train both the lower end of the spectrum (ex. 1-2 reps) with a small external load added, and on the higher end (closer to your rep-max, but still shy of failure).

You can also toy with isometrics (a static hold at the top, or a "flexed arm hang" in gym class terms), and eccentrics, in which you jump up to the top and lower slowwwly. However, I won't be sharing publicly the exact set/rep formulas I've found to be ideal for this method :)

Lastly: A technique Jason Ferruggia recently recommended, which I like, is the Ladder Method:

"Ladders are another effective way of bringing up your chins that we use as well. For example, you start with one rep, rest 15-45 seconds, then do two reps, rest again, then do three reps, rest again, then do four reps, rest again, then do five reps, then start the ladder over.

Again, it looks like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

...You burn out a lot slower when doing ladders than you do with traditional loading parameters. Use a prescribed rest period or do the ladders with 2-3 partners. You do a single, they do a single. You do a double, they do a double. And so on and so on up the ladder. Then you start back down at the bottom again.

If you can only do five chins or pull ups don’t go up to five reps. Instead stick with three as the top rung of your ladder. (Interjection: this would be the appropriate strategy for the person regarded in this Q & A).

Each workout try to beat the total number of reps you got in the previous workout. So if you got three full ladders as shown above, that would be 45 reps. You need to get at least 46 reps at the next workout."

Now, I wouldn't recommend using the Ladder protocol very frequently (at least if you're training multiple times a week), but it's definitely a good one to throw into the mix. Again, make sure the reps are fast and strong (noticing a trend here?).

-------------
The 6 tips above should get you well on your way to improving your pullups. Granted, this post was directed at those that can already do a few unassisted pullups, as getting from Zero to One pullup is a different bear entirely.

I hope this helped!

Inside the Mind of a Strength Coach, Vol 2: Ankle Mobility and Knee Injuries

2011-03-01T11:17:00.003-05:00

This is a guest post from Sarah, the SAPT President. For the book worms in the crowd who like to understand the "why" behind training principles, I hope you pick up on something new!

"Unexpectedly, I have found that my daughter, who is almost 8-months old, is reinforcing certain basic principles we use at SAPT to unlock the potential of our clientele. In fact, she’s so inspired me that I will be writing an upcoming post of how infants naturally increase their GPP (general physical preparedness) for the rigors of walking and how this relates to children as they move through adolescence and towards adulthood.

However, for the purposes of this post I am only focusing on ankle mobility. Over the weekend I became acutely aware of the perfect ankle mobility my daughter has – she was napping on me in a position that for most adults would be unimaginably uncomfortable. I noted the position of her foot and the angle of dorsiflexion. It was ideal - she's completely unburdened by muscle imbalances, injuries, and immobility. So, as she napped, this ideal angle got me thinking about injury prevention for the knee…

It’s generally accepted that an increased angle of knee abduction will predispose an athlete to knee injury. But, how can improving something seemingly unrelated like ankle mobility help these at risk athletes?

When an athlete lands from a jump, our joints act to absorb the ground reaction forces. The faster an individual’s body can get into proper force absorbing position, the lower the likelihood for injury and the quicker return to the next phase of the movement. To allow for this very quick absorption and transition (or amortization phase) to occur you need two things:

1. Excellent strength – the good old fashion kind we build at SAPT.

2. Very good mobility and dynamic flexibility – the not-so-glamorous pairing exercises we use at SAPT.

Unbelievably, the body ALWAYS knows what it should be able to do, so when a joint is restricted – like the ankle – the body searches to compensate at other joints, usually the knee. And this, my friends, is where the injuries start racking up.

Now, I don’t want to expose this problem and leave everyone sans solution. So, here’s the quick ‘n dirty on what to add into your knee injury prevention training program:

1. 1. Inhibit – SMR – Gastroc/Soleus (foam roll calves)

2. 2. Lengthen – Static Stretching – Gastroc/Soleus (static stretch calves)

3. 3. Activate – Isolated Strengthening – Dorsiflexors (Dumbbell Dorsiflexion)

4. 4. Integrate – Integrated Dynamic Movement – Rocking Ankle Mobility

Y Your knees will thank you - Sarah"

The take-home point is that when a particular joint is hurt/injured, the culprit often lies above or below the problem area rather than the joint itself (the same is true for the low back and the neck). So something as simple as improving ankle dorsiflexion ROM will reduce your risk of knee pain/injury. This holds true if you're a distance runner, sprinter, football player, weekend warrior, or even if you don't exercise regularly.

Learn "The Secret!"

2011-02-28T11:36:00.003-05:00

This post isn't particularly related to athletes (although it could be tailored as such), but more for the general fitness enthusiasts in the crowd.

While working at SAPT the other day, I retrieved the mail and I found a magazine in it which got me thinking.

It had a caption on the cover reading:

"Sexy Arms, Perky Butt, FIRM ABS, And More....How the Stars Get' Em!"

~~I quickly opened the magazine eager to learn the secret behind sculpting my glutes and enhancing my abs for the upcoming summer~~ Now, it got me thinking about the many other (sad) captions I see when I go grocery shopping and am standing in the checkout aisle. I'll see countless magazines (and I know you do, too), all with similar headlines in bright, capital letters reading something like this:

"6-Pack Abs, FAST!"
"The SECRET to rapid fat loss, Finally revealed!"
"A routine for bigger biceps that actually works! (Details on pg. X)"
"Finally, an EASY method to build the body you've always been waiting for!"

The list goes on.

You want to know the secret behind these things? I know the answer. I can tell you the cliff notes answer of every SECRET hiding behind the magazine covers (and every future magazine, BTW). The secret behind achieving that body you've always wanted. All you have to do is exactly follow the directions below.

Ready? Here are the 9 simple steps.

Eat whole, unprocessed foods.
Avoid sugar like the bubonic plague.
Drink more water.
Avoid drinks containing more than zero calories (this leaves you with options such as water, green tea, coffee).
Move around more than you currently do.
Pick up heavy things (with good form).
Carry heavy things (with good form).
Perform other compound movements such as rows, pushups, and lunge variations (with good form..noticing a pattern here?)....
Repeat this for 50 years.

I'm serious.

But people don't like to hear this. Why? it implies the necessity to refuse to make excuses for laziness and to actually make a conscious effort - on a daily basis - to take care of one's body.

Believe it or not, developing a body that feels good, looks good, and performs well actually takes consistent effort. For years. But the magazines don't want you to know this (otherwise they'll go out of business!).

Understand that magazines live or die by the slogan "Publish or Perish." Quite simply, they have to produce something on the shelves that is going to sell. So they're always promising the latest and greatest way to lose fat, build muscle, blah blah blah....

It's all the same, just re-packaged in fancy wrapping with shiny colors.

And people will eat this stuff up like candy because they're always looking for something that relieves them of the duty to work hard on a regular basis.

At SAPT, we have a mom who trains with us on a regular basis despite the fact that she's fighting breast cancer. We have a 16-year old girl with a severe foot injury (out for the basketball season) who is training with her foot in a boot and rolling around with that foot propped on a stroller. We have a man who is training with a torn rotator cuff. We have adults training with us that have full-time jobs, and also have to run multiple kids around to sport practice, tutoring sessions, friend's houses, etc. yet they still make time to take care of their bodies.

These are the people that "get it." They know what the Secret is.

There are many, many other similar situations like these, as well, that I'll save for the sake of brevity.

Eating healthy and exercising doesn't have to be this terrible process, either. In fact, once I learned how to cook DELICIOUS meals that were going to provide a positive change in my body, I've never wanted to go back to eating like garbage. Eating healthy doesn't mean chicken and steamed broccoli and/or a salad all the time, either.

Don't enjoy exercising or are unsure of what to do once you enter the gym? Hire a coach to point you in the right direction, or work out in a small group (like the training structure we have set up at SAPT) to keep you motivated and keep things FUN!

Now go get after it! (And don't let me catch you peeking in the magazines).

Diagnosing the Pushup

2011-02-23T11:07:00.007-05:00

Today I'm going to give the most common technique flaws I see take place during the everyday pushup, and some corrections on how to get much more "bang for your buck" from this exercise. The pushup is an AWESOME tool in your training arsenal, but the problem is it frequently isn't executed in a manner that will give people a decent return for their investment.

The truth is: I used to withhold this information and only disclose it to the people paying me to coach them. However, I've become so frustrated (and frightened) with the myriad people completely mutilating the exercise that I've decided to make an effort to help EVERYONE do this correctly; for the sake of their physical health and to help them reap some benefit from the repetitions they are putting in.

I'll be giving video demonstrations of how NOT to do them, and then a video of what a real, perfect pushup looks like (and I'm not talking about the commercial product, hah!) (If you don't care about the "why," skip to the bottom of the post to see the video demonstrations of common pushup flaws, and then the correct version).

Pushups are probably looked down upon so often because they're the first exercise most people learned in grade school during gym class. They're often viewed as elementary and "too easy" for most, likely because they're not seen as sexy as another popular exercise: the bench press.

The funny thing is, the pushup seems to be one of the most frequently butchered exercises I see on a regular basis. When I walk around commercial gyms, I cringe at the form I see people using; I honestly have to stop myself from running around and correcting people's technique out of fear they're going to hurt themselves!

Also, at SAPT, I have yet to see someone able to do a few pushups with 100% perfection when they first walk through our doors. Heck, using myself as an example, I know I sure didn't do them correctly until about a few years ago.

Anyway, let's get the "geeky" side of things out of the way. Here's where I'll be explaining the why behind pushups.

Why Perform Pushups?

They teach you to control your body from head to toe. When performed correctly, they engage countless muscles in the pelvis, abdominals/low back, upper back, and then of course the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The nerdy way to describe the stabilization required during pushups is "lumbo-pelvic stability" which teaches you to control your core in a functional manner, leading to benefits both in and out of the weight room (I'll let you use your imagination here).

Proper pushups provide benefits for the midsection, too.

It effectively trains movement of the scapulae (shoulder blades), giving you healthy shoulders for the long haul. Unlike the bench press, a pushup allows the shoulder blades to glide freely. When pushups are performed correctly (i.e. "pulling" yourself to the floor) you engage the serratus anterior, a key player in shoulder health and function. The serratus, along with the lower trapezius, are two muscles that are pervasively dormant in our population. These two muscles work synergistically with the upper trapezius to upwardly rotate the scapula when your arm moves overhead (think: throwing a ball, or performing an overhead press). In fact, when I worked in the physical therapy clinic, the most common denominator in the patients with shoulder problems was weakness in both the serratus and the lower traps.

They're a closed chain exercise, essentially making them more shoulder-friendly than the bench press (an open-chain exercise).
When done properly, they'll help boost your bench press, squat and deadlift numbers. Not to mention: aid you in your quest to achieve the look and function of a physical specimen. Hah! Now you're listening.

Anyway, below are videos of me performing various incorrect pushups. The technical flaws may evade you initially, but look closer, and you'll see them. You'll probably see some pushups that you weren't aware were even considered erroneous!

Note: The following 6 videos demonstrate INCORRECT form.

Error #1: Forward Head Posture
This is the most common error that people are unaware of, I believe. You'll see that my head juts forward, hitting the ground before my chest makes contact (the chest should touch the ground FIRST in a perfect pushup).

Error #2: No Scapular Retraction (aka "loose upper back")
Another common flaw most people are unaware of. You'll notice in the video that I "fall" to the ground, instead of intentionally "pulling" myself to the floor. The upper back is loose, there's no scapular retraction (think: pinching a pencil between your shoulder blades), and I'm essentially just letting gravity drop me to the floor.

Error #3: Excessive Elbow Flare
You'll see the elbows make a 90 degree angle with my torso (they should be tucked at roughly 45 degrees).

Error #4: Hip Sag
This is where the person lacks the "anterior-posterior" engagement of the core and the hips/low back sag to the floor (the body should form a completely straight line from head to toe, remaining stiff as a board).

Error #5: Elevated Hips
This is where the butt sticks up in the air. It's another compensation pattern (similar to #4) people slip into when they lack the core strength to effectively resist the pull of gravity throughout their entire body.

Error #6: Looking Straight Ahead/Looking "Up" (no video shown).
This is where people tilt their head up and look straight ahead as they perform pushups. It seems every sports coach tells their kids to do this! Look straight down at the floor when you do your pushups (unless you desire cervical problems down the road...be my guest).

So, what does a Perfect Pushup look like?

Here (at last!) is the correct version:

Key Coaching Cues:

Hands just be just outside shoulder width, and the elbows tucked at 45 degrees (or less) to the torso. Don't listen to people who tell you that placing your hands wider will give you better chest development! All that will do is fast-track you to shoulder pain and a subsequent physical therapy appointment.
"Pull" yourself down to the ground, actively engaging the scapular retractors and essentially the entire upper-back musculature.
Keep your chin tucked (think: give yourself a "double chin") so you don't "reach for the ground" with your head.
The chest should touch the floor first (i.e. not your hips or your head)
Squeeze your abs and glutes tight throughout the entire movement
Entire body should be perfect alignment, and you should remain as tight as if someone were about to come along and try to knock you over.

Once you master the basic perfect pushup (it will take longer than you think: you should be able to do at least 20 before progressing further), there are a number of ways to increase difficulty. One way is wrap a sturdy resistance band around you, so that the movement will become harder as you reach the top portion of the pushup (as the band tension increases). You can elevate the feet as well.

Both versions are combined and shown in the video, here:

Take home message: you'll receive far greater benefit from performing 5 perfect pushups then you will from performing 20 incorrect pushups.

Some further reading on the subject I'm sure you'll enjoy:

Girls Can Do Push-Ups, Too. Here Tony Gentilcore discusses strategies to help females achieve the full pushup (hint: it isn't accomplished by performing pushups from the knees).
Eric Cressey discusses 10 different advance pushup variations. See Part 1 and Part 2 respectively.
Ben Bruno discusses 5 difficult pushup variations

That should be enough to keep you going for a while! Enjoy.

Some training updates

2011-02-21T10:00:00.004-05:00

I recently made a fairly significant switch in my training routine: ditching back squats in favor of front squats. In the past, I've always used front squats as more of an assistance lift, and something to toss in from time to time to deload the spine. However, recently I decided to make them my primary squat variation.

Don't get me wrong: I do believe the back squat is the "King" of lower body exercises. We use it for many of our athletes at SAPT. But for me, the costs of performing the lift were beginning to outweigh the benefits. I've always had terrible shoulder range of motion (something I've recently been working to improve), and the back squat requires fairly significant external rotation and abduction of the humerus to grip it. Lately, this has been significantly irritating to my shoulder, so as I'm squatting I'm limited by my shoulder more than my legs or back.

Also, it is very rare for someone to be able to back squat to depth (note: the anterior portion of the thigh should be BELOW parallel) without significant flexion (rounding) of the low back. This is a recipe for a pissed off spine that will inevitably get you back for all the pain you've put it through. Since I'm not entering a powerlifting competition any time soon, there's no point in me forcing the back squat to depth. Not to mention, the back squat is also more taxing to the CNS (central nervous system), and with all the activity demands I'm going to be having outside of the weight room in the next few months, I thought this would be another reason to sub it out for the time being.

For those who don't know, the front squat is typically a more "quad dominant" movement pattern, and also requires much greater core stabilization due to the placement of the barbell in front of the neck. The front squat also requires greater ankle dorsiflexion ROM (think: pointing the toes up toward the shin), which creates an issue for some. I used to use the box squat as a way to get more posterior chain work (for my glutes and hamstrings), but I can still incorporate a healthy dose of glute bridging (see below), deadlifts, and glute-ham raises to cover this sector.

Another note: the front squat is not a lift for the ego, as - on the average - one can typically front squat about 85% of what he or she can back squat. It's never a friendly stroke to the ego to lift less than you know you are capable of, but I find this is often a good thing.

Anyway, I've been training the front squat with primary focus for about 3-4 weeks now, and I just hit a front squat PR of 295lbs for 3 reps the other day. It will be interesting to see how things improve over the next couple months.

As I mentioned in this article, you should almost always have someone else write your program, as only someone other than yourself can truly view you with an objective lens and give you the things you NEED (not what you want), in a training plan. Following my own advice, I began Eric Cressey's "Show and Go" program 3 weeks ago. So far, it has been fantastic. He also makes front squats the primary squat pattern throughout the program, which is good for me as it forces me to do it!

I almost need someone else to force me to front squat, as (and anyone who has tried them knows this) they are FAR from the most comfortable lift to perform. The bar is essentially shoved against your neck, pressing down on the anterior portion of your shoulders, and it's difficult to see where you're going as the barbell blocks your view of the ground immediately below you.

Anyway, that's it for now.... more to come!

Cardio: What to Do?, Part 2

2011-02-18T12:35:00.004-05:00

Just a quick add-on to the post from Wednesday, regarding "cardio confusion" and how to effectively enhance your cardiovascular capacity.

I had given a bunch of options, but didn't really specify which ones to do, depending on your current goals and needs.

Which should cardio modality should you choose? (options 1-7 are repeated below)

Baseball, Softball, Football, Track Athletes (ex. Sprinters) Volleyball, etc.: This category is for those that play a sport that doesn't require you to "be in action" over 30 seconds, on the average. Choose #1,2, 3, 4, and, occasionally, 5 or 6. Avoid #7 at all costs! I often tell our baseball guys: if you want to be slow, weak, and lack explosive power, then perform steady-state cardio.

Lacrosse, Wrestling, Soccer, etc. This category is for those that have to "be in action" for over 30 seconds at a time, but with bouts of rest mixed in. You may perform all of the above (#1-7), but I would still limit jogging, and cut out the conditioning when you're in-season. You'll get all the conditioning you need through practice and playing games.

Joe and Jane: This category is for the average fitness enthusiast. I'd keep your cardio to options 1-4, and occasionally toss in 5 or 6 depending on your goals. Only jog if you truly enjoy it (i.e. not because you feel it's the only way to improve your cardiovascular system).

The Obese Client: Options 1 and 2 only! Unless you're preforming HIIT on an airdyne bike or something else low-impact. I honestly don't understand when trainers prescribe jogging to the obese customer. Are you kidding me? Running requires your body to absorb roughly 2-4 times bodyweight on every step. This is a recipe for injury for those that are overweight and also do not possess the necessariy structural fortitude to withstand that kind of beating for hundreds, often thousands, of repetitions (the injury rate for overweight clients beginning a running program is quite high, BTW).

Options (not an all-inclusive list, but a good start)

Sled pushing/dragging is the clear winner, in my opinion. Very low stress on the joints, and it's easy to recover from due to minimal eccentric loading on the muscles. The important part is to avoid turning the sled session into a vomit fest (it's easy to do, if you've never pushed a sled before). Ben Bruno just wrote an awesome post on sled dragging, so I won't elaborate much. I highly encourage you to check it out HERE.
Walk. Again, I feel it's highly underrated and equally good for the mind as it is for the body.
A light circuit of bodyweight exercises, mobility drills, and weighted exercises performed with no more than 30-40% of your 1RM. The goal here will simply be to enhance blood flow to damaged tissue and keep your body fresh.
Jump Rope
HIIT. Preferably on an Airdyne bike or something else low impact (even an elliptical if necessary).
A high intensity body weight circuit such as the one I posted about yesterday (you can see it below). This is a clear example of working in the 90+% HRmax range. I don't recommend doing this often though, especially if your primary training goal is to gain strength and power.
Jog.

-------------------------

On a slightly unrelated note, here's a great video that the lifters in the crowd will enjoy. This vid has been floating around for quite a while now, but I thought I'd pass it along for those who hadn't seen it yet. It's a compilation of the Citadel baseball's strength and conditioning over the past few months. Congrats to strength coach Donnell Boucher for clearly putting a lot of effort and dedication into the program!

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Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Inside the mind of a strength coach

2011-02-17T09:11:00.001-05:00

As a strength coach, I'm constantly having to evaluate the cost-benefit of a particular exercise or pairing of exercises with regards to training athletes. Again, our number one goal (as a performance coach) is keep our athletes free of injury, and then make them stronger with the little time we have with them each week.

There's a lot that goes on "beneath the surface" that I don't think a lot of people realize when it comes to delivering an effective strength training program for someone. It's way more than just saying "squat, deadlift, and bench press, and do it for 3 sets of 10" like most people may think.

Anyway, at SAPT, Chris Romanow is the other coach I work with. Chris is also the S & C coach for the George Mason Baseball and Softball teams. The other day he posted this on the SAPT website, and I thought it would be interesting for (perhaps the few) those of you here who care about what goes on "inside the mind" of a strength coach sometimes:

"I was asked today by the GA at Mason why I haven’t back-squatted the baseball or softball teams since they’ve been under my watch. My feelings are as follows:

When I do the cost to benefit ratio of the movement (back squat), especially at this point in the year, there just isn’t enough benefit to outweigh the potential risk or cost I could potentially incur by selecting it (and some will say they never back squat their overhead athletes). Understand that proper positioning of the hands during a back squat requires a significant amount of shoulder external rotation (especially with close grips), and abduction of the humerus (especially with wide grips). Because either position poses a risk to the shoulder (especially those abused by throwing maximally overhead); the first with regards to anterior instability and the latter with regards to rotator cuff and biceps irritation, I’m not about to roll the dice. Consider that most overhead throwing athletes possess some degree of labral damage, are at a higher risk for impingement, and possess god awful scapular upward rotation and thoracic mobility: you’d have to be feeling pretty sassy to program the back squat.

Note that I am working diligently to improve their structural shortcomings because I do intend for them to back squat at some point in their yearly preparation…but probably not until next semester.

Or maybe not."

Hopefully this was interesting - to some extent - for those of you out there that care about the seemingly minute details that make a large difference. I may try and do more of these installments in the future....

Cardio: What to Do?

2011-02-16T10:35:00.012-05:00

It is important to understand that cardio refers to any exercise in which the heart and lungs are involved. This could be jogging, running, sprinting, swimming, circuit training etc. Quite simply - if you are elevating your heart rate and respiration rate, you are doing some form of cardiovascular work.

Aerobic training refers to a state in which the cardiovascular work is performed. Aerobic literally means 'with oxygen'. It is a relatively low intensity state of exercise that can be maintained almost indefinitely (as long as oxygen is being supplied to the working muscles, in the required amounts - the exercise can be continued. This is aerobic training.

All aerobic training is cardiovascular training. Not all cardiovascular training is aerobic. Hopefully that makes sense.

~Alwyn Cosgrove

My aim in posting the above quote by Cosgrove is to clear up semantics, as it seems to me that whenever I'm discussing "cardio" with someone, we are each thinking of two completely different things. Most people, when hearing the word "cardio," immediately picture a long, steady state jog.

There's a difference between cardio (anything that ELEVATES your heart rate), and aerobic (a state of SUSTAINED heart rate, in which your cells still have oxygen to utilize for function).

Heck, sitting and watching and TV is aerobic! Walking around and eating in your kitchen is aerobic. I hope this puts a few things into perspective as, unfortunately, not many people are even aware of what "aerobic" really means.

O.k., now that (I hope) semantics are cleared up, let's continue. With regards to cardiovascular training, it seems that people are frequently on one of two sides of the spectrum:

The "I can't stop" crowd. The world will explode if they don't go on a run that week. Or Earth will cease to revolve around the sun if they don't go to the track and perform a 400 meter sprint and follow it up with 15 power cleans, 20 deadlifts, and 25 burpees. And and then do it again. 10 more times.
The "I hate cardio" crowd. Be it laziness, lack of priority, or fear of losing weight/muscle (for the macho men in the crowd), they never do it.

As with most answers in the strength and conditioning realm, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Don't get me wrong: I see no problem with periodically pushing yourself to "see what you're made of", and I also think there is a time/place to omit (intense) cardio for a bit, in the case of someone trying to gain weight.

What type of cardio to do? (note: the practical portion is at the bottom of this page, if you're not interested in the "why")

When it comes to fat loss and conditioning, I prefer to keep people I coach out of a particular Heart Rate Zone: 70-85% maximum heart rate. This is the very same heart rate zone people often find themselves in when they go off on a long, slow jog to get their "cardio" in for the day.

Throughout myriad experiments - both in labs and in real-world scenarios - the 70-85% intensity level has been shown to interfere with gains in maximal strength and power (via fiber type shift from fast twitch to slow twitch). When I took a Neuromuscular Performance course in college, we studied the cell-signaling pathways that take place when one undergoes endurance training. These signaling pathways actually inhibit (to a degree) the very same enzymes, cell signals, transcription factors, etc. that drive the strength and power output adaptations that take place when one undergoes a resistance training program. There are always competing demands taking place within your body when various stimuli are applied via particular training sessions. The trick is ensuring one doesn't completely override the other.

My point is that a well-rounded program - especially for those seeking fat loss - needs to include both a resistance training and a cardiovascular component (among other things) in the program.

The resistance training portion will maintain and build lean body mass (muscle tissue), which will elevate your resting metabolic rate and help you look better with your clothes off.

The cardiovascular component of the training program is important as well for various reasons: acute elevation in cardiac output (contributing to long-term elevation in capillary density of the type I fibers - a good thing), improved insulin sensitivity, lower blood pressure levels, better glycemic control, and decreased body fat, to name a few.

I may be losing most of you at this point, so what's the bottom line? One needs to include both a resistance training and a cardiovascular program in his or her program, but the problem is that most people's "cardio" plans interfere with the positive adaptations that can take place from their weight training sessions.

How does one avoid this?

Keep your "cardio" in the 60-70% HRmax range (think: a brisk walk during which you can string a sentence together without losing your breath, but you can't string multiple sentences together). I think going for a walk is extremely underrated, and is beneficial for almost anyone.
Keep your "cardio" above 90% HRmax (think: High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT).

Here are a few exercise modalities I recommend to meet the above criteria. By no means a conclusive list, but something I hope can get you started:

Sled pushing/dragging is the clear winner, in my opinion. Very low stress on the joints, and it's easy to recover from due to minimal eccentric loading on the muscles. The important part is to avoid turning the sled session into a vomit fest (it's easy to do, if you've never pushed a sled before). Ben Bruno just wrote an awesome post on sled dragging, so I won't elaborate much. I highly encourage you to check it out HERE.
Walk. Again, I feel it's highly underrated and equally good for the mind as it is for the body.
A light circuit of bodyweight exercises, mobility drills, and weighted exercises performed with no more than 30-40% of your 1RM. The goal here will simply be to enhance blood flow to damaged tissue and keep your body fresh.
Jump Rope
HIIT. Preferably on an Airdyne bike or something else low impact (even an elliptical if necessary).
A high intensity body weight circuit such as the one I posted about yesterday (you can see it below). This is a clear example of working in the 90+% HRmax range. I don't recommend doing this often though, especially if your primary training goal is to gain strength and power.
Jog.

To see which options you should choose depending on your goals/needs, see Part 2!

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That's it for today. Hopefully it cleared some of the cardio confusion out there!

Your Next Cardio Routine

2011-02-15T10:02:00.003-05:00

The other day I only had about 15-20 minutes to get a workout in. It wasn't enough time for a proper warmup and a strength-oriented training session, so I decided to do something that would require very little time and give me my "dose of cardio." I hadn't conditioned in about 8 weeks (I was performing a rough weight gain experiment on myself), so this seemed to be what I needed.

If you think that running is the only way to "get your cardio" on, think again. Try this routine and you'll be gasping for breath within 6 minutes. I grabbed it from Ross Enamait (when I was looking for something to do that wasn't written by me), and it's called "Work Capacity 101."

Basically, start the clock and perform:

5 pullups
10 med ball slams
15 burpees**
20 jumping jacks

Continue until you're done (probably anywhere at the 60-90second mark) and rest until the 2-minute mark. Repeat for five to ten rounds, or a 10-20 minute routine.

A few notes:

If you can't do pullups (you'll want to be able to do 8-10 comfortably for the pullups in this routine to be appropriate), then perform an inverted row (on a barbell or TRX) to decrease difficulty.
If you don't have access to a medicine ball, perform an abdominal exercise of choice
The burpees are the most difficult portion of this routine by far. If they render you unable to complete the routine, then try elevating your hands, omitting the pushup portion of the burpee, or reducing the number of burpees from fifteen to ten.

**Burpees are as hard as you make them. Don't short-change yourself here. A true burpee is completed with a FULL pushup at the bottom (chest to floor) and a JUMP at the top. You can omit the pushup, but understand you are now doing a "squat thrust" or "up down," not a burpee.

Give it a shot! Be warned: it is WAY harder than it looks. After the fourth or fifth round you'll really be questioning your sanity.

I filmed an example round below:

Tip of the Day: Evade the Ego

2011-02-14T10:43:00.007-05:00

This is something that would jump start tangible improvement for MANY in the exercise sphere: be it physical appearance, athletic performance, enhanced joint integrity, structural health, you name it.

Evade your ego when you go to the gym. Don't allow it (the ego) to dictate exercise selection.

For the gents: this means prioritizing something besides bench presses and bicep curls.
For the ladies: this means dropping the "I'll just run today" mindset. Or trying something besides abs.

Don't get me wrong: I see no problem with working the "vanity" muscle groups from time to time.

But - if you're truly serious about looking, moving, and feeling better - you'll reap much more benefit from working areas of your body that your ego doesn't care about. In order to develop a body that is structurally sound and prepares you for long-term success, your time will best be spent working the entire body. Usually the things that are best for you are the very things you enjoy the least.

Men: you'd be surprised at how much your physique improves when you, oh I don't know, develop the backside of your body? Many professional athletes possess the physique males would kill to obtain, and you know what athletes have? Extremely well-developed glutes, hamstrings, and upper back. These muscles are going to be the driving force behind running faster and overall athletic prowess, so it's no coincidence that the backside (or "posterior chain") is so well-developed amongst professional athletes.

Also, notice how many men develop shoulder problems as they age? Frequently an enormous contributing factor is too much pressing (benching 3x per week, anyone?) and too little pulling (row and chinup variations). Coupled with the fact that we sit with terrible posture at our computers all day (just like you're probably doing right now: slouching forward as you read this!).

Women: while going on a slow jog or performing 30 minutes of ab work may feel good, you may be surprised to know that it's actually going to be far more beneficial for you perform squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows, etc. in order to achieve the "look" you're seeking. All "toned" really is is the appearance achieved when one has reduced body fat and increased lean body mass. Exercises that burn the most calories, while building muscle, are going to get the job done.

Below are two athletes who train for performance, and I guarantee they're not spending an hour each day bicep curling in front of the mirror or trudging away on an elliptical.

Mike Boyle wrote a phenomenal short article in which he discussed this very same concept. Here's a quick excerpt:

"The average persons work ethic in the gym is the equivalent to going to a restaurant, ordering dessert, getting too full from dessert and skipping the meal. Lots of empty calories and none of the stuff you need.

The truth is that training is much like nutrition. Ever notice that everything that is good for you doesn’t taste very good. In addition, all the stuff that tastes great is fattening. Exercise is the same way. Most of the exercises that are best for you are the ones that are least popular and seem to hurt the most. Have you ever noticed the popularity of exercises where you sit or lie down. The whole machine concept is based on appealing to the lowest common denominator of human nature. You can exercise while seated on a padded chair. Just remember, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is."

Again, I'm not saying you should never do the things you enjoy. If you like bicep curls, or going on a long slow jog, by all means go for it. Just keep in mind that, most of the time, the things that are the easiest to do - or the things you enjoy the most - are going to be far from what you actually need to get you to your goal.

Ever notice how if a guy is short on time in a week and has to miss a workout, it will never be "Chest Day?" But Leg Day, no problem to postpone! If a guy has a busy week coming up and he's looking at his training split, his mindset will frequently go something like this:

"Hmmm, I have to miss a workout this week. Leg day? Yeah, sure...I can go without that for a few days. My legs are sore anyway. Omit Chest Day? HECK NO. Ok, I'll do chest this week, and maybe get to legs or back next week."

In a given week, I highly encourage you to prioritize what will give you the most return for your investment (hint: multi-joint movements such as squats, deadlifts, lunge variations, pullups, etc.) and then, if time allows, spend a bit of time working the "vanity" exercises.

Jump Start Your Lower Body Training

2011-02-10T09:23:00.002-05:00

To say that your central nervous system (CNS) plays a role in muscular efficiency and development is putting it mildly. Respecting and paying attention to the CNS is of paramount importance when undergoing a training program.

Imagine your CNS being the puppeteer, and your muscle fibers are the puppets. Cheesy analogy, I know, but I hope it drives home the point. Or, you can think of the CNS as the engine, and the muscle fibers as the car. In both examples, the latter cannot move without involvement of the former. You can't have muscular contraction without CNS involvement, plain and simple.

Forgive me while I get a bit "geeky." For those of you who just want to see the video, jump to the bottom of the post.

The nervous system (among many other things) plays a critical role in both:

Rate Coding, or the frequency of action potentials (signals that lead to fiber contraction) elicited during movement.
Recruitment, or the number of motor units that are involved in muscular contraction.

(A motor unit is the motor neuron and all the muscle fibers that it innervates)


A Motor Unit

The more "awake" your nervous system is, you'll have higher frequency of rate coding and more motor unit recruitment taking place as you train.

Take home point: the more "excited" your CNS is, the more you'll take away from your training session. That's where the Hot Ground to Tuck Jump comes in. It will help to "wake up" your CNS, if you will, jump starting the remainder of your training session. Not to mention, it will provide a great extended warm-up for your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and hip flexors.

When to use it:

Before a lower body training session, or a "leg day" for you bodybuilders in the crowd
Perform it after you're dynamic warm-up, movement prep, and corrective exercise (or whatever you do for a warm-up).
I don't recommend using it until you've mastered various box jump and altitude landing progressions. Basically: don't jump into it (pun intended) too soon.
Do 2-4 sets of 3-5 reps.

Coaching cues:

Begin with your feet off the ground. Rock forward and try to reduce ground contact time as much as possible (hence the name "hot ground" to tuck jump).
Swing the arms UP as you launch upwards. This may sound obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many people don't know what to do with their arms as they jump.
As you jump upwards, bring the knees as high as possible (the "tuck" portion).
Land softly, with the chest up and hips back. Sometimes I cue our athletes to "act like your breaking into my house through a window." What I'm trying to say is: if you were breaking into someone's home, you'd try to make as little noise as possible upon landing inside. Many people tend to SLAM their feet in the landing phase of jumping drills. Avoid this as best as you can.

You'll notice I get slightly higher with each succeeding jump. This is simply due to my body "waking up" if you will.

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3 Habits of Successful Gym Goers

2011-02-09T11:38:00.005-05:00

Why is it that some people seem to never make progress in the gym, while others experience these amazing transformations?

Some people "exercise" for years, and yet really have no tangible measure of improvement when all is said and done at the end of the day. 5 years later, they still move and look the same as they did when they first began exercising.

So, what is it that sets the results-oriented people apart from the non-successful gym goers? This may be with regards to movement quality, physical appearance, or variables related to biological health (cardiovascular efficiency, bone/tissue quality, blood profile, etc.)

What are the habits people possess that get the "Wow, what have YOU been doing?!" questions from friends who haven't seen them in a while?

I've found that - nearly without fail - the proceeding habits are found amongst all results-oriented exercisers:

1. They make it a lifelong pursuit.
Obtaining and maintaining a healthy body is a life-long war, not a one-week battle. (Note that there's a critical difference between obtaining and maintaining).

Unfortunately, there is this pervasive notion one only needs to exercise in "bursts" in order to achieve results. It seems that people only tend to crack down on their exercise and nutrition habits during the period leading up to their wedding, or a beach vacation, or a high school reunion.

Don't get me wrong: I think it's perfectly acceptable to set "deadlines" to push yourself to achieve a particular benchmark. However, this should be executed within the context of a long-term plan, not a one-time event.

To set yourself up for success: you MUST realize that achieving the goals you've been looking for in the physical realm is a lifelong pursuit. There is no way around this. The obvious but often overlooked truth is that our bodies will degrade quickly in both function and appearance when we cease to exercise.

When I worked as a physical therapist aid, guess what was the most common denominator in the patients I witnessed? Muscular weakness. This drove home the point to me that when we cease to exercise (correctly) our bodies break down, and that's when dysfunction occurs. And this wasn't even exclusively within the elderly patients. People in their 30s were receiving therapy because weakness was the underlying cause of the injury.

2. They push through setbacks.
Injuries and undesired life events outside our control are going to happen. It's not about how many times you fall down, it's about how quickly you stand back up. When crap hits the fan, I encourage you to get in the gym and train, instead of sulking in a corner complaining about how life isn't going your way. I'm not denying that many of you have experienced some extremely difficult scenarios. But stand back up as quickly as you can.

At SAPT, we have quite a few clientele who have experienced crippling injuries. Yet they still show up to train! We've worked with many people who are still on crutches or who are just coming out of surgery.

Below is a video of Conrad - a 61-Year Old with a torn rotator cuff - performing a Chinup (on a thick bar no less) with 110lbs added weight. That's basically a middle-school child hanging from his waist. Conrad is also on the verge of a knee replacement in both legs.

Conrad can no longer perform any unilateral (single-leg) movements such as lunges and split squats because of his knees (if only you could see them). He can't bench press any more because of his injured shoulder. Yet he still shows up to train three days per week. Chinups are pain free for him, so we've been able to work with that.

Now, this isn't an excuse to be stupid. If an exercise hurts (this includes running), don't do it. Fix the problem first, or find a substitute. For example, if you have chronic back pain, it's probably best to avoid bilateral lifts such as squatting and deadlifting and perform more single-leg work instead. Or - at least - keep the load light and only go through a pain-free range of motion.

3. They Train, not "workout."
If you're going to take the time to exercise, then at least make sure it's worthwhile. Two people doing the exact same program for an hour will have two completely different results from that training session based on how it is executed.

Train with purpose. Train with intensity. Train with focus. These will be the difference makers in your routine.

Ditch your cell phone, too. Don't worry, those people anxiously awaiting your text message response will still be there when you're finished your training session.

It amazes me how many people have their cell phones out at the gym. And they wonder why they move and look no differently a year later after "exercising" consistently. Seriously, for that hour you're in the gym: lose the distractions, forget about the world outside you, and "leave it all at the front door." Life's baggage will be waiting for you when you're done training.

We are a society plagued with ADD. We can't seem to leave our cell phones or computers for an instant without the world ending (even as I type this I'm sitting at my computer...how ironic).

When you train, give it everything you have, every time. You'll be amazed at what happens when you do this consistently.

This means ignoring what others around you are thinking, and ignoring the world outside of you.

Train as if you're life depends upon it. Because many times, it actually does.

This is your body on skinny dust....and this is your body on SAPT....

2011-02-08T08:27:00.003-05:00

"Walker pitched his first inning tonight since, oh, about June 1.

The batters had no chance. zip. zero. nada. He was throwing, I believe, mid-80s. 3 batters, no contact. not even a foul tip. My jaw was on my knees.

No pain, good to go, unbelievable.

We owe this in large part to you."

-Dave (father of one of our high school baseball guys)

One of the best parts of my job is seeing/hearing about real-world improvements outside of the gym with the kids/adults I coach, as a result of their hard work inside SAPT.

It seems that whenever I'm having a rough day I'll get an email from a parent telling me that his daughter is now hitting balls out of the park, when it rarely happened before she trained at SAPT. Or that she is able to pitch longer into the game without fatiguing. Or a parent's son has markedly improved prowess on the lacrosse field because of his increased size and strength. Or even, a high school boy now has more confidence walking down the halls of his high school because he's no longer the "shy and skinny kid."

These emails make my 10-12 hour workdays worth it.

Chris - the strength coach I work with - posted this on the SAPT website the other day, so I thought I would share it with those here. It's about one of high school baseball pitchers, Walker (his "Before and After" picture is below):

Readers, meet Walker. Walker came to us about a year and a half ago 130lbs soaking wet with rocks in his pockets and was your typical goofy left-handed pitcher. Walker will tell you he couldn't throw his fastball through a wet paper bag.

Fast forward a year and a half and Walker is still your typical goofy lefty but can now take your lunch money tipping the scales at 190lbs on a bad day, and throws consistently in the mid 80's. Now let me see, that's 1,2,3...60 freakin' pounds of functional, posteriorly focused mass! Did I mention Walker is only a sophomore?

Walker has worked his ass off every single training session year round...and he ate a bunch, too. He'll be with us 2x/week through the season, and I guarantee you that he won't just maintain, but he'll make progress during this time period.

Walker, if you're reading this, and your head is just about floating out the roof of your house, you have a long way to go my friend. By next season, you'll be 210lbs, equipped with a fastball that will penetrate bullet-proof glass.
-Chris

Again, this is what happens when you combine impeccable focus from the athlete and quality programming/training from the strength coach. Walker walks into the SAPT ready to go every time.

He doesn't check his cell phone, he doesn't look around to see what other people are doing/thinking, he just walks in, grabs his program, and gets it done.

This is also what happens when you don't use ridiculous training methods such as BOSU balls and 30 minutes on a "speed ladder" each session. It annoys me to see "performance coaches" stealing money left and right from people who (unfortunately) don't know how to recognize a bogus training program when they see one.

Anyway, I'm done. Walker's before and after photo's speak for themselves.

Anterior Core Progressions

2011-02-04T12:53:00.008-05:00

(now with working video)

The plank is a phenomenal exercise. The problem is, I see little to no logic in having someone perform a standard plank for more than 45-60 seconds. Once someone has a 60-second plank mastered, it's time to progress. I honestly don't get it when trainers have their clients hold a 3-minute plank!

It's boring
You are no longer increasing your abdominal strength this point, but working on muscular endurance instead (which isn't going to build that rock-solid midsection you're looking for).

This is the most comprehensive tutorial on core progressions I've put together for the public, so be sure to check this out. Granted, this is a progression protocol for the standing rollout (in my opinion, one of the top "core" exercises one can perform), as there are many, MANY other varieties of core training one can undergo. However, this should keep you busy for quite a while.

My mission in this industry is to rid the ridiculous notion of people futilely attempting to sit-up their way to a strong midsection. Performing the exercises in the video will be a much better way for you obtain your goal of a strong, functional abdominal wall.

Be sure you have mastered the plank position before progressing. It's near-pointless to jump the gun with these. Nonetheless, I'm sure you'll find some exercises to spice up your routine; or - if you've been having a tough time with standing rollouts - this progression will help get you there.

Oh, and this goes without saying, but these exercises will do nothing for you - from a physique standpoint - if you haven't cleaned up your act in the kitchen. You can do ab exercises until you bleed, and still fail to obtain a six-pack if you don't have things locked-in outside of the gym. Nevertheless, when combined with sound nutrition habits, these exercises will further enhance your performance or your physique goals, whatever they may be.

Hope you enjoy!

Stuff to Read

2011-02-03T11:57:00.003-05:00

I'm currently putting together a video on some anterior core progressions, and in the meantime I thought I'd pass along these reads I'm sure you'll enjoy/learn something from:

Want to be a Personal Trainer or Strength Coach? Start Here. by Eric Cressey
I know many people who enjoy training of some degree have had the thought of "maybe I'll start training people" pass through their minds many times. If this is you, read this.

Throw Away Your Scale by Tony Gentilcore
I think almost everyone, especially females, should throw away their scale. This is a great short read.

CrossFit Qualms in the Running World by Carson Boddicker
I've literally had people scoff at me when I tell them I don't do CrossFit. While this post isn't close to all-encompassing, it does to a great job at expressing some qualms with making CrossFit a staple in your running routine, or any routine for that matter. (I'm not saying CrossFit is completely worthless - I think there are definitely a few things they do correctly - I'm just saying it would be illogical to make it a staple of any sound training regimen).

Monday Motivation: What's Your Excuse? by Ben Bruno
Ben is a beast and I always enjoy the things he posts. This is a great one for those of you who frequently "can't train" because of time, schedule, or whatever excuse is deemed necessary to avoid moving around a bit. I think this short article can help give you a kick in the pants when you feel like "you just can't train today."

And last, but not least, I just saw this video on Cressey's site and thought I'd embed it here for your all's amusement. It's hilarious, and, unfortunately, quite indicative of most personal trainers out there.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are personal trainers out there doing many things correctly. In fact, my girlfriend works as a personal trainer and I would trust her with writing/delivering a program more than many people with a CSCS (she has a CSCS, but I hope you get my basic point).

The sad truth is that many personal trainers aren't too far from this hot-shot:

That's it for today.

I really do appreciate all of you that read this site regularly; I've realized that for some reason people like to read what I have to say, so I'll continue to keep some great ones headed your way! Stay tuned.

Student-Athlete PR!

2011-02-02T12:06:00.006-05:00

SAPT recently took Carson - a High School Lacrosse player (Junior) - through a 12-week cycle to get him as strong as possible for the upcoming season.

His results were nothing short of fantastic. Below is a video of him hitting a 55 pound deadlift PR (personal record). At the beginning of the cycle, he maxed out at 300lbs.

Carson also hit a 10lb Squat PR (3-rep max), and a 20lb Bench Press PR! For those of you unaware, this is phenomenal improvement for a mere 12 weeks of training, especially considering Carson has already been lifting for a few years now. Not to mention, over the past training cycle he was also required to attend many brutal conditioning sessions (read: do lunges and pushups until you puke) with his lacrosse coach, so we had to be sure to account for this in programming for him.

Carson is one of my favorite athletes to coach, as he always brings with him incredible focus and INTENSITY to each of his training sessions. Heck, even when he performs face pulls and cradle walks (a warm-up drill) he has a facial expression on him that would kill a small child.

So it's no surprise that - when you combine expert programming from the coach and impeccable focus from the athlete - the results are going to be nothing short of superior.

Keep in mind: it's not like there's an absence of high school males across the country that can pick up 355lbs. However, very few of them can pull a conventional deadlift with no rounding of the back. Notice how tight (no rounding) Carson's back was, during every deadlift. This is of paramount importance for safety of the athlete (especially in the deadlift), and for ingraining proper technique.

If you talk to any of our athletes they will tell you that we never let them move up in weight unless they are doing it perfectly. Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Our number one goal as strength and conditioning coaches is to keep our athletes free of injury.

Perfect reps mean that body is in proper alignment (this takes a while to get down), and that there is a decent feel of speed to the lift. No grinding reps. This is something that very few people (males, most notably) fail to grasp. Grinding reps is a recipe for burning out the CNS; thus impeding strength gains and recovery time.

Also, many athletes are surprised to find out that if they practice (with lighter weight) moving a load with perfect form, this will lead to far greater strength gains in the long run than just "barreling through" lifting sessions with no regard to form or technique.

Congrats, Carson!

The Majority = FAIL

2011-01-31T09:34:00.004-05:00

"Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively." ~Dalai Lama XIV

As briefly discussed in the previous post, the majority of people are extremely misguided when it comes to fat loss, athletic performance enhancement, muscle gain, and nutrition. If you want to know what NOT to do, walk in any commercial gym in look at what 95% of the people are doing. It's not that everyone is intending to do it wrong, of course; it's that they're receiving direction from the wrong sources.

Example #1: Just about every commercial gym will place all of the treadmills, ellipticals, and machines immediately beyond the entrance. This is obviously a strategic move from a marketing standpoint, as gym owners have figured out (sadly) the first thing people want to see is the "cardio" equipment.

Disastrously, people think that slugging away on the treadmill/elliptical 45-minutes a day, 3 times a week, is the answer to the body transformation they're looking for. However, take a look at the same people an entire year later, and I guarantee that 95% of them will look the exact same and - in fact - possess WORSE movement quality than they did one year prior.

Without further ado, here is a brief list of how NOT to fail like the majority:

#1: Stop it with the non-fat drinks already! This is what originally launched my idea for this post (when I was in Starbucks and the woman in front of me ordered a non-fat chocolate mocha).

Come on people! Are you seriously kidding me!

Is a "non-fat" drink going to make you "not fat?" Fat or non-fat beverage, it is not going to spare your waistline (and health) from the 59 grams of sugar in that drink, regardless of what type of milk you order!

This goes for salad dressings, too. In fact, almost any "non-fat" ANYTHING is loaded with sugar. Please remember this. If you do order a non-fat X, at least do so with the knowledge that it it's not going to help you see your abs.

Sugar is the enemy of your waistline, not fat.

#2: Warm Up. Your 4th grade gym instructor was actually on to something. It amazes me how many people "get right to it" upon arriving for their workout. In fact, if someone is short on time, they would often be better served cutting out the back-end of their routine as opposed to omitting the warm-up. Spending 10-15 minutes on a high quality warm up of foam rolling, mobilization drills, and corrective exercise will make your training sessions far more effective and set you up for long-term success.

For the ladies: Yes, it will make your fat-burning sessions five times more worthwhile.

For the gents: You know that shoulder pain or low back pain that has been bothering you? Perhaps you'd be better served warming up before sprinting to the bench press or squat rack. The equipment isn't going to run away from you. And you'll be able to move more weight, which is what you're after anyway.

#3. Lift with correct technique. I've been on the verge of purchasing horse-blinders for quite some time now. For myself. To wear when I enter the average gym. The majority of people's exercise technique is horrendous. And it's no wonder why people think lifting weights will lead to injury. It will, if you use the technique that most people do.

Let's begin with the basic pushup. The PUSHUP. It's like most guys learned how to do pushups from watching a fish flop up onto dry land.

Synonymous to most pushup technique out there.

When I first began working in the training industry, I was shocked at how few men could do good pushups. You know the pushup-success-rate for a member of the male gender walking into our doors for the first time? 0%.

And this is O.K. Almost everyone is bad when they try something for the first time (or, in this case, tries something correctly for the first time). And that's why most people walk through our doors anyway. Heck, I did pushups incorrectly for years. My point is that if people have awful form on something as basic as a pushup, it makes me cringe thinking about something like a squat or deadlift.

And women can do it to. We have many females in SAPT who put the guys to shame with their pushup technique. Exhibit A: Below is Jenny, a full-time employee and mother. She is over 50-years old, and destroys men with her ability to do pushups. Here she is performing perfect, tempoed pushups with 15lbs of weight on her back (I also added a quick clip of her executing a near-flawless "Move-the-Mountain" plank):

Keep those elbows locked at a 45-degree angle, get your upper back involved by "pulling" yourself to the ground, and keep that chin tucked (no forward head posture) allowing your chest to reach the ground before your face.

I'm not even going to go into the deadlift and squat form I see whenever I travel and enter a commercial gym. I'm surprised there aren't lumbar discs shooting out of spines as these people deadlift, or connective tissue tearing all over the place in the knees of those squatting.

Lifting doesn't create pain. Lifting incorrectly creates pain. Peformed correctly, you'll feel like a new man or woman.

#4. Utilize progressive overload. This mostly applies to females, as the boys often attempt to lift something that their ego can handle but their body cannot. In other words, if you can lift a weight "X" number of repetitions, it's time to try something a little heavier.

In fact, failing to use progressive overload (among other things) is one of the critical reasons why most females have such a difficult time achieving the results they're looking for. You know that 5lb dumbbell you've been doing tricep kickbacks with for the past 6 months? That may be a good place to start with regards to body transformation (read: lose the 5lb dumbbell along with the tricep kick backs, it's not going to "tone" your arms).

Most of the high school and college girls we coach at SAPT have "the look" that most females aspire to attain. How? Utilizing progressive overload on the compound lifts: pushups, squats, deadlifts, lunges, row variations.

And NO, you're not going to turn into a "she-man" if you lift weights (see the video of Kayleigh I posted last week). In fact, this is going to get you to your goal far faster than slugging away on that elliptical.

For the girls who don't believe me (I understand, I am a male) visit Rachel Cosgrove's website. I had the pleasure of meeting her at a seminar last year; she is an AWESOME woman aiding many females in positive body transformation and helping them feel more confident. (Her most recent article is titled "14 HOURS OF CARDIO, 1400 CALORIES = NOT A LIFE!")


Rachel Cosgrove.

#5. Stop using 3 sets of 10 on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. It's one of the most archaic loading protocols ever, and yet still the most popular. And guys wonder why 225lbs is still burying them on the bench press....

#6. Have someone else write your program. Yeah, yeah, yeah....I'm sure you are the most objective and unbiased person, especially when it comes the subject of yourself (note sarcasm).

I admit: I'm more biased with regards to myself than any other topic. In my mind, I'm as swift as a gazelle and I move on land as fluid as a dolphin swims in water.

Which is why I rarely write my own training program. This may come as a surprise, as I help people every day in performance enhancement. However, if I wrote my own program, I would - in all likelihood - give myself the things I am best at and ignore the things I need to improve upon. In the past 3 years of training (36 months) I have followed my own plan for roughly 5 out of those 36 months. And you know when my progress was the least? When I was following my own program.

Why? No one is worse at writing his or her own training/exercise plan than his or her self. You will almost always favor your strengths, and not give yourself the things that are going to be the difference-maker in your progress. Sure, I'm extremely confident in coaching other people, leading them right to the goal he or she is looking for. However, when it to my own plan? No chance.

Stop writing your own programs, and seek out a qualified professional in the area who can take you to where you want to be. Only someone else can view you through a completely objective lens. (Ex. That's why siblings are so great. To inform you of your flaws).

#7: "Agility Ladders." Any strength coach who runs your child through ladder drills for 30 minutes is stealing your money. Plain and simple.

Does it look fancy? Sure. Does it look like your child is increasing his or her speed or agility? Probably.

However, I'm sorry to tell you that these drills aren't going to do a thing for your speed or agility when used inappropriately.

Do ladders make a good warm-up, waking up the central nervous system and giving the child something fun to do? Absolutely. For increasing speed: look elsewhere.

That's all for today. Now set yourself apart from the majority!

Musings...

2011-01-28T20:00:00.002-05:00

"Everything popular is wrong." ~Oscar Wilde

"Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively." ~Dalai Lama XIV

As I stood in line this morning to order a coffee in Starbucks (thanks to those that provided me with some Christmas gift card money!) the woman in front of me places an order that got me thinking. What did she order?

A "non-fat chocolate mocha."

Not that I haven't heard people order this before, in fact I hear the "non-fat" order almost every time I enter a coffee shop (this may or may not be on a daily basis). And I admit, I may be completely mistaken in her intention of ordering this particular beverage.

But it made me sad. Not for her particularly, but for Western society as a unit. I clearly wasn't angry at the woman, that would be nonsense. But it was a glaring reminder to me that the majority of people have it all wrong, even though they often intend to do what is right. This is especially true in the realm of exercise and nutrition:

Fat loss
Athletic performance
Muscle gain
Nutrition

The majority has it all wrong.

In fact, if you want to know what NOT to do with regards to exercise and nutrition, look at the majority.

Walk into any commercial gym, observe what 95% of the people are doing (even the personal trainers, I'm sad to say) and there is your answer for how NOT to achieve the results you're seeking.

More detail to come on Monday....

Have a great weekend!

Runners and Resistance Training, Part 3

2011-01-26T22:46:00.005-05:00

"Why do endurance athletes continue to do large volumes of steady-state work? There are three basic reasons:

They're good at it.
It's easy to do
They've always been told they need an aerobic base."

~Mike Boyle (has trained countless competitive endurance athletes to faster times and decreased injuries)

This final post in the mini-series is going to be pretty brief. I hope at this point most of you reading realize just how important a solid strength training program is to an endurance athlete's success. Please pass it along to anyone you know who partakes in distance running!

To the distance runners in the crowd: I hope by now you understand just how much a well-designed strength training program can aid your running (hint: A LOT). I challenge you to critically think about what may be holding you back from stepping out of your comfort zone getting involved in strength training. Question all the pre-conceived notions you may have:

"Why do I believe this?"
"Who told me this?"
"Is this belief actually grounded upon any reason or logic, or is it just what the media has been telling me?"
Have I had a negative experience with weight training or a trainer in the past that has skewed my views?"

I am not going to write an entire running-oriented program on the blog. That wasn't the purpose of this series. Plus, that would make it too easy for you :) However, I'll at least point you in the right direction. Ready?

Step 1: Buy a foam roller. No, seriously, buy one. I trust this isn't too far outside your comfort zone.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last decade, you realize that soft tissue work is critical to more effective training sessions, decreased risk of injury, and increased chance of people of the opposite gender wanting to hang out with you.


Foam Rolling = Likelihood of this happening soon. You'll thank me later.

Step 2: Use your foam roller. Endurance athletes' bodies (actually, most people's bodies) contain a host of trigger points, scar tissue, and dense tissue (not good) that are a recipe for overuse injury. Spending time on your foam roller would be better spent than logging those extra miles!

Fortunately, a great video has already been filmed demonstrating most of problem areas you can cover with the foam roller. The more it hurts, the more this means you need to work on that tissue quality. But you'll feel incredible after doing this regularly. I kid you not:

Step 3: Begin a strength training program. Where to begin? Look on fixing the problem areas discussed in Part 1: create mobile ankles, hips, and thoracic spine with the proper drills. This can be accomplished in the pre-workout warm-up, or as a "filler" between the primary exercises.

Also, seek to stabilize the knees and torso through a good lower-body program and core work. Stick to single-leg exercises primarily. And avoid those Adductor/Abductor machines like the plague (that is, unless you desire zero results and turning your body into a functional mess).


How in the world did these things become so popular?

For example, let's take the basic lunge. It trains the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and even the trunk stabilizers at the same time, all while teaching these muscles (along with the tensor fascia latae, adductors, and quadratus lumborum) to interact as one flawless unit. Ok, ok, what does this do, in non-geek speak? As you run, efficiency will be improved via enhanced strength and neural control of these muscles, along with lowering your risk of low back pain, knee pain, and anterior (at the front) hip pain.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Anyway, that's all for now. Don't let yourself become another statistic.