Kettle-busts

Hope everyone is reading this and looking forward to their holidays next week. Before anyone even thinks of asking me, NO the world is not going to end tomorrow the 21st so shut it right there. The Mayans didn't believe in leap year and daylights savings so I got a huge spoiler alert, if this shit was going to happen, IT WOULD HAVE ALREADY. By some really absurd chance I am wrong about this tomorrow and the world ends tomorrow then go ahead and try to do something about it...oh wait you'll be gone with the rest of us.

Today will just be a brief blurb on kettlebells. They have become this huge ginormous craze basically since the early 2000s, thanks Pavel. I love kettlebells and incorporate them into my clients programs and progressions, the problem I have is that everyone seems to think they will instantly get in better shape, do it faster and not have to worry about hurting themselves. Wrong, huge misconception there in my humble opinion.

This craze has given us many great exercises that we probably didn't think of before our little cannon ball tools became so popular such as swings and my favorite, Turkish get-up although they were around before, again not popularized until recently. The problem I have with many of the exercises done with Kettlebells is that people seem to think that just because they are doing an exercise with them, useful or not, that their form can slip or that it's going to give them magic powers to save the universe, just because. To use a four letter word, DUMB, you can still kill your back while doing swings and goblet squats, and still royally screw up most of your body during a Turkish get-up when your form slips. Finally if you don't know how to use these things without throwing them into someone's dome, accidental or not, use the organ inside your dome and think. Ask someone that has some semblance of a clue how to use them before you injure someone, most likely yourself. Certs are nice, but most trainers worth their salt will serve you better than crushing yourself.

Have a good holiday folks, NO MORE CURLS and get after it today, if you haven't yet.

Talent Alone is Never Enough

Been a busy week here yet somehow I've managed more than one post in a week, mostly just motivation and partially because I feel a little bad leaving everyone hanging for the time that I missed. Either way I hope everyone enjoys this. I've had this whole idea for this post in my head to just take a shot at this subject and decided now is a pretty good time just because. My little idea machine also poked and prodded me to explain my reasoning for this simply to too many people. So in an effort to be efficient and not get so winded that my face turns reder than a hot dog from Maine. That's right motherland reference.

The above picture has a saying that was written on our mirror in the training room for the last 3 weeks or so, I tried to edit it so it's a bit more readable, for those that still can't read it "Hard work beats talent when talent won't work hard!" is the quote on there. Since it's been written I've really been thinking about it. I've know this to be the truth for a long time, but I never really took the time to think of all the examples there are in this world especially in sports. Following here will be the best examples I can think of in sports, no particular order, you can form your own opinion. Before you get too judgmental, live in the sports and fitness world for a day and you may have different thoughts.

Just so Pats fans can get their sports stiffy out of the way, Tom Brady. Picked 199 in his draft class, and it is well documented that he has dominated another very good quarterback for the better part of his career. For those that are really having a hard time with this one, either you don't watch the NFL or don't live in New England, the other I am referring to be would be Peyton Manning, 2 years before Brady he was picked number one overall. Now of course they both have talent, but Peyton probably had more and is more talented than Brady. Brady has done one thing to be better than him and win more Super Bowls than him, work his ass off. Being a Michigan fan I know how well documented it was that Brady was a freak for studying game film on his opponents and himself. Again not saying that Manning doesn't work hard, I'm pretty sure every NFL player works their tail off or they're cut in a blink, but Brady went the extra mile first, and in the earlier years I'd say Manning had the better supporting cast (Faulk, Harrison, Clark, you get the picture).

How about any walk-on that goes to any major university and plays a major sport (Football, Basketball and so on). Most prime example I can think of at the moment is the Swatt Man. JJ Watt started out playing TE at a smaller school and had a scholarship there, but he really wanted to go to his favorite school in Madison Wisconsin so he walked-on for the Badgers, watched more film than a movie critic and thanks to the big media frenzy over him lately, I'm sure you know the rest. Just to give another example, as I said I am a Michigan fan, their current strong safety Jordan Kovacs is a captain and has been a starter for longer than most would have gambled on. Jordan walked-on as well and has been in the top 2 in tackles since his sophomore year. He may not get drafted high, but I bet he will be drafted because these teams know it takes that type of work ethic.

That horse is beaten, next example would be the NBA Champions from 2004, Detroit Pistons. Beating the LA Lakers quite handily 4-1. Those that are sitting there and saying that Detroit was more talented than the squad that LA (Kobe, Shaq, Payton and the like) put together, I'm sorry but you are way too much of a Pistons fan and need to get an outside opinion, so here's mine. NOT ON YOUR LIFE. The Lakers probably shouldn't have lost that final, let alone at 4 games to 1. Moving a little more recently in the same arena, 2011 Champions Dallas Mavericks, yes Dirk is a beast, but do you really think that if Wade and Lebron worked as hard as Dirk did in that series they would have lost? Looking at the evidence from the following year when Miami beat another very talented team in Oklahoma City I'd say the answer is no way. Point to this guy right here.

Ok final example, one a little more close to home for me. I play for Boston Rugby as some of you may know. Last spring we had a player with the nickname of Chainsaw so we'll go with that or Saw for now. Saw sure as hell doesn't really look the part of a top flight rugger, but he played like it. In his first season he was selected to our first team squad for the Super League (don't know it? look it up), needless to say he beat out many players that have far more skills and talent than him. The reason being, and I've said this before, all Chainsaw does on the field is work work work, I swear to god he's got a 9 volt implanted up his whos-a-whats-it that just keeps him ticking. He scored so many times simply based on hustle it was ridiculous.

Finally to toot my own horn a bit, but also to prove that I know what hard work is and where it can get you. I personally have got about 1 fiber of athletic ability in my body. I'm still playing rugby while others that are probably better than me and more talented than me sit at home. I was picked and played on more select sides (aka rugby speak for all-star) in college than many players on my team and others that were more athletic and skilled than me. I worked my ass off in the weight room, on the field and in my really good years, in the kitchen (doesn't make sense to you? Give it a think). I'm proud of the work I've done and I'm not done yet. Still got good years left in my legs so I'm using them. 

These are obviously not all there is, but hopefully this made you think a bit more about how wasted talent can go. That's it for today, hopefully everyone enjoyed this post and can apply it somewhere in their life. Have a good day everyone, for those that haven't yet, go out there and get it.

Improvement, Always Make Room for It

I've decided that in the last week 3 of the biggest goats in professional sports in this country are Gary Bettman, Donald Fehr and Roger Gooddell. I'm tired of not seeing NHL Hockey on my TV and I'm tired of seeing the NFL become more and more like flag football. Seriously getting rid of kick-offs? Didn't think UMaine intramurals had gone professional. Sad sad day it will be if that happens.

Enough of the down side, let's get some upside here. Needless to say there is nothing that is perfect in this world as a whole. This includes those that are trainers/coaches doing their own workouts. That being said working out with another person, and in my case, another trainer, will help you improve your workouts and get better results.

When working out with another person the one thing that most people would agree that is advantageous about this, even if the person has got almost no clue as to what to do with the workout, is motivation and accountability. Having your bro, coach, cousin, bookie or mail man work out with you helps keep you in check. Obviously the more experienced the person is with exercise and the exercises you are performing the better, but you really don't need too much for this purpose. Being versed in proper spotting technique would help as well, but any spot will help and I'm not getting into spotting techniques, just use your brain, or try to at least.

You say you are a coach or trainer yourself and know exactly what you are doing and how to do it well? I bet if I watched one set of one exercise that you did I could find something to fix to make the exercise better and more effective. I got humbled on this subject this past Saturday working out with another trainer I work with along with one of his buddies who also happens to be a coach. I consider myself huge on technique, learning it and then applying it to my clients and myself, but trust me I still got at least 5 ways to correct my technique in my workout that day. Needless to say everyone can get better, go look at some of the big guys in the industry they will tell you the same thing. Working out with someone else brings better results than working out alone. That's not to say don't workout if you don't have one, but if you have the chance to workout with a friend DO IT!

Will both you and your bro be able to stick with the program for years and years? One can only hope, but even if you don't, the time you are able to stick with it I will bet you will see some better results than you have experienced in the past, or at least rival some of your best results. In what has become a results based society, this is an easy way to see some of your results. Just find someone and you'll probably both learn something, directly or indirectly about fitness.

That's all I got today folks, glad to be back. Go out there and get after it!

Being Thankful (Yeah Little Late)

Apologize to everyone for being on an extended hyatis from writing. Holidays and a few other things have me going in a million different directions and it's getting tough to find writing time sometimes. Recently I've been reminded of things that I should be thankful for that I have in my life and others less fortunate don't. Yeah I know it's a little late and yes it's a little sappy but Holidays do that to me sometimes and better late than never.

-My family and friends, more specifically Mom, Dad, my Brother Steve and his kids, the idiots that I call my friends and Catherine

-Having a job that I look forward to going to every day

- William Web Ellis (If there's a question mark over your head, look it up)

-Dead Lifts, Cleans and Olympic Bars that spin like ya dream

-Living in a place where I can post this blog and not face much more punishment than a bit of ridicule from those that know me

Stay tuned in next week for some more good stuff. For now have a good one and get after it today!

Yup that Time Again, RANT TIME

Yup today is the day where I lose it about something that happened when I was training a client or when I was trying to get a lift in myself. This one happens to be the ladder, on a day where I felt really good and decided you know the last time I heavy squatted was way too long ago, I actually couldn't remember the last time I did a back squat for less than 8 reps and not using a particular tempo. Way too long I'm sure most will agree.

My problem I ran into is that there is only a single power rack that I could possibly use here and if I'm doing sets of 3 or 4 I'd like to have that safety catch in a spot where I'm not going to get broken if I can't finish through that damn sticking point. The only power rack was in use by another member of that fraternal knuckleheaded group. Not sure who this guy was trying to impress by doing 95 and then doing a set of lunges and then a set of Bulgarian's. What I did like about his work out was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Sorry, back to the point, ok yes I get it that he needs the rack because it might be heavy for him and that's great that he wanted to hammer his legs, better than doing 500 curls and 200 cable flys. The thing that drove me mad was he was taking his sweet time, I'm not talking the standard 2-3 minutes or so, we're talking at least 6 for probably 5 to 6 sets. When it's clear someone is waiting for a piece of equipment, trust me I was in the most polite ways possible, and there's no way of someone working in. Working between 95 to 300+ isn't really practical, it's time to start being considerate and maybe think of the other person hanging around the lone power rack.

Sorry I am being overly critical about someone actually doing a leg workout, but I would be far less upset and less likely to go on a rant if he didn't plant his ass on a bench between sets and get on his phone! Yes this little failure was hopping on the magic text machine talking about being a bro to whatever bro he happened to want to impress that day. To top it off he dicked around for about 10 minutes until he decided to strip his bar. Everyone that's read my pet peeves understands why I am fired up. That's all I got today folks. Go out and get after it and move mo-mos like this guy out of your way.

Legs and Yes They Are Important

Well I'd say this is the pay back for the all the nice weather we are experiencing here. Had to use my car starter for the first time this morning because leather seats after sitting in below freezing temps really has a way of rudely waking you up. I'm writing this today as a wake up to some of those of a certain breed of guy that I constantly want to kick squarely in the backside. Changing your workout up is very important, but in this example, we are talking big issues and missing the boat entirely or just simply being ignorant. What I'm getting at is get legs into your workout meatheads!

Personally I would rather see someone do legs and core until they fall down than the workouts some of these chicken legged, top heavy, WWF wannabes. Reason being, I want to be able to carry around my weight easily, run faster and be more athletic as opposed to being so muscle bound that I can't even turn to wipe. Mirror muscles look great and help attract the ladies yes, but when these guys are just working upper body I see primarily presses and curls, hello neck, back and shoulder problems.

As amusing as the photo is above a trained eye will notice that our friends shoulders are rotated forward and probably developing a forward head position. I know he's looking down, probably not observing how pencil thin his legs, but even still it's more forward than ideal. No one is perfect but this guy has got issues and there are many like him out there. Even looking in the background you can see we have another poor soul headed in the wrong direction with my favorite, CURLS, sarcasm should be noted.

What's the big deal with legs? First of all you have more testosterone in your legs than you do in your upper body, males and females. In short this will lead to building up muscle a ton faster with the legs than arms and chest. Secondly if you want a huge ego boost, think about how much you can lift with your legs as opposed to your arms, ie Bench to Squat. When your bench numbers are equal to your squat, or even close, consider backing off the pressing movements and focus on getting some leg strength, your body will thank you. Thirdly, fellas ladies love checking out a guys posterior, you think I'm kidding? Ask a girl if they check it on their guy's or guys they are interested in. For a fact I know my Brother's lady did and I know mine did too shortly after we met, no legs=extended back. Finally unless you are seriously into body building I would reconsider doing splits of just upper and lower body. Make your workouts days of total body training including LEGS and core, pushing and pulling. An ideal program for you is one that is designed for your needs so if ever you have questions ask a person who's a professional, I am willing to bet you know someone. I'm also quite sure that person would be more than willing to help if they truly like their job and will do so to the best of their ability, if they don't want to then they probably are just someone you don't want to deal with anyway so looks elsewhere.

That's it for today folks, go out and get after it on this gorgeous day in New England!

I Did It!...Now What?

You've reached that finish line you were striving for, proverbial or literal, now you are stuck at said finish line and have absolutely no idea what to do next. Kick back and relax, all those results you just saw from your training will stick around forever because that's all it takes is just a few months of hard work. Right and I'm going to break Usain Bolt's Olympic record and marry Alex Morgan. Hoping that you can cut through all the sarcasm I laid down, the answer here is an odds on NO, but I will drop some knowledge on you to hopefully give you a hand on taking that next step on maintaining the results you just worked your ass off for and to eventually see more results.

I can tell you first hand I know exactly what this feels like, even experienced recently this past spring, and will again in a couple weeks, with the end of another grueling season of rugby. Yes I still get after it on the pitch so I know what it's like in the trenches on both sides of the coin here. Most of us probably remember this feeling too from high school playing days, but you can also experience this mood if you've ran a marathon, done a race like the Spartan race or competed in a lifting competition. Getting to that end is great, you sit back and think; awesome bit of a monkey off the back, might have a little dissapointment mixed in their depending on how things went.

Building on that last thing about how things went is one thing that can sometimes determine what you do after this season end as I will call it. A season ending on a sour note, see Boston Red Sox, or if you had pretty much a lemon of a season, see Detroit Lions or Charlotte Bobcats, then hopefully you have got a big old bond fire lit under your ass to make yourself better. On the other end of the spectrum if it was a huge success and plenty to gloat about, see most recent San Francisco Giants, then the last thing on your mind is probably getting back in the saddle to work towards the next obstacle.

The former is easy to motivate here, you had a crap season or the like, you've got a bad taste in your mouth from that and you are ready to make sure it's not a repeat the next time around. The toughest ones to motivate, at least in my opinion, would be the ones that had a successful season or the like. Have a peak at the Bruins from this past year, god I miss the NHL by the by (and no I'm not Bruins fan, just using them and you can deal with it). Now then, look at the Bruins the last hockey season, won Lord Stanley and spent all off-season on cloud 9, rightfully so, with less than normal attention paid to their training with all the hoopla that goes with the post-season of winning THE cup. They had a pretty good season the following year, but the first round exit that many defending champions make was something they were not immune to. Do you honestly think they paid as much attention to their training as they did in the previous off-season? I really believe everyone is smart enough to say SHIT NO!

First solution I have that probably sounds a little simple minded, but do we really need to make things that complicated? After a successful season, remember that feeling and how much you feel like you are on top of the world, yeah you like that feeling, now think about every time you didn't have a successful year. Compare the two and decide how big the difference in your emotions are and whether or not you want to feel that down again. Yes we need downs to make the ups feel good, but you do not have to accept the downs, don't be a lamb. Another bit of food for thought, after a win or successful run, do you sit back and say "ok 1 was enough" or "2 was enough, I can relax now", hopefully not. The off chance that is the case it's time you find some help from friends and family to motivate you and get that flame akindling under your backside.

An easy step to also keep yourself from getting off track at the beginning of the off-season is to be sure you have a program ready to crush after. Taking a week off to reset your brain and let yourself recover from everything isn't such a big deal, but if you have a program ready to go, hopefully created by someone not yourself, big waste of fail there, then you will probably have it mulling in the back of your brain as you are recovering in that week off. On the same front hopefully that person that gave you the program is kicking you in the ass to get after it.

That's all for today ladies and germs, go crush something today.

"Warming-Up" Isn't Just About Getting Warm

I've gotten this subject posed to me at least a few times, more recently by a person that loves to prod and poke my brain more and more, but I indulge her because I can't help myself. Someone wants to talk fitness I will happily have a conversation about it for longer than some people would really care to. Sorry got off topic here, anywho the subject is warm-ups or pre-workouts. Many (internet) trainers have different things that they would like you to do for this and I will dedicate this post to the "warm-ups" that are definitely wrong, a little on why and what I personally believe is a good legit warm-up before entering Beast Mode.

Method 1: (Light) Cardio-Absolute epic fail here in my opinion, if you plan on putting in an intense workout, 5, 10 even 15 to 20 minutes on a bike, treadmill or whatever will not quite do the job. The only thing here I might consider not so bad would be a rower. Tell you why I believe this pre-workout activity is not sufficient enough. Yes you warm up your muscles and get a bit of a sweat going, if you don't you're not doing enough or you are going too easy. The problem is you don't move your joints and muscles through a full range of motion. Yes even that freakin elliptical isn't enough movement, I don't care what YOUR crappy trainer tells you, it's not enough movement through your joints. Especially if you aren't being a ninny and doing squats or dead lifts that day. Think about it, would you use a machine that hadn't been put through all the motions and just had them start the engine and say we're good, no need to get the other parts moving. Ok kind of a crappy analogy but you get the idea hopefully.

Method 2: Stretching-Just stretching is for gym teachers and yoga instructors, not knocking either profession but that's pretty much what they do for warm-up (or their whole routine), if you wanna be a beast, which I see nothing wrong with, stretching only isn't going to do the job. Honestly here, for me, static stretching should be used in 2 places, after a work out or before bed. Unless of course you are doing yoga, in which case, have fun with that ladies. My reasoning here is you are not actively going through the motions, you are just simply holding them. Again we are looking at ACTIVELY moving through the full range of the motions you will probably go through during your workout. I'm not going to shoot for another crappy analogy, just trust me if you can't quite put it together yet. A good warm-up will stretch your muscles without it feeling like you just pulled an elastic out of the freezer and tried to stretch it, turning into a fail-bag.

Method 3: Foam Rolling-Just so no one walks through here and sees me doing all of these and calls me a hypocrit, all of these things done together wouldn't be a terrible pre-workout routine. Just done individually they would turn you into a huuuuge mess the second you picked up something heavier than a purse. Back to my point, foam rolling is great, I absolutely recommend it to anyone that has tightness and mobility issues. Take it as the affordable massage that you need, but still not that expensive deep tissue massage that we all want. Soft tissue work is huge in this world if you haven't picked up on it yet and have been oblivious to the fitness realm which happens. Just foam rolling does not give you nearly enough muscle activation for a pre-workout routine. Think about how little your muscles move when being compressed by a foam roller, the space between the roller and your bone or other harder body tissue. Final answer Regis is NOT MUCH. Yes you've got all that dense tissue broken up, assuming you did it correctly, now you need to get it actively stretched so you can turn into Superman (or Superwoman) in your lift.

What I Do: First off my pre-workout routine for myself and my clients is by no means perfect or the word of god, so let's get that straight. I start by rolling out the legs, upper back, lats, shoulders and anything else that happens to be particularly moody that day. Don't go back and forth as fast as you can, nearly useless, go fairly slow and you'll only have to go over it a few times most likely. Once done that work on to mobility work, top culprits for this are usually, hips, shoulders and thoracic spine. Knock those out and go through a dynamic warm-up, I like to keep the ones for me and my clients to about 6 or 8 movements, pretty much cover all the bases with those; Lunge Tuck (Spiderman to some), Warrior Lunge, Hip Flexor Lunge, Foot to Hip, Heel to Butt, Single Leg RDL Reach, Over the Gate Step and Groin Pivot. I will eventually get into posting videos of some of these when I find good down time for me and a helper. I have posted these movements in a little montage below. Pre-workout with all of this should take you about 15 minutes, maybe 20 when you first start out, but as you get use to it more and more it should shorten the time. Anything longer than that you can probably eliminate some of the stuff by prioritizing what needs to be done and what you want to do. These routines should also leave you a little bit sweaty, usually my gray shirts have got a nice line around the neck starting with sweat. Remember not all routines are the same and even this general format is not for everyone but it is just exactly that, a general guideline, if you want one tailored to you, ask your friendly neighborhood health professional.

I will preface the video with the fact that remember I am not the most graceful gazelle nor am I perfect. I am far from it, but working towards that perfection is always better than sitting on your tail and doing nothing. I also apologize for it not being the most advantageous angle, couldn't find a helper, but I had all kinds of time surprisingly so had to take advantage of it.

I hope this post has helped you in your quest to become a beast. In the event you have a comment, question or concern feel free to voice it. Take care out there and get after it.

New Look and Something to Read from Someone Smarter

We have a new look here, mostly because the old layout was glitching up and I apologize for just having the URLs below. Had a cooler way before and the whole damn site had a hissy fit so we are going with this to see if it works with new lay out. Enough of that, on to something far more interesting.

Today I am sending you outside of this blog to visit someone else's, if you haven't already of course. This might seem like a mail in but I already took the time to read all of these posts and I'm not going to be repeating something someone else said better than I could have. A  friend of mine, Mike Groth (better know as Mikey G to some of us), has put out a great series of posts in which addresses what he calls the "Front Butt" or front compartment of the leg.

Little bit of history between Mike and myself, Mike and I played rugby together while at UMaine, he and I both hail from Portland and we both graduated from the same Bachelor's program at Maine. Mike also did one better by getting a Masters from the University of Texas in Austin working with their Men's Basketball team in their S and C department. Since he has made himself a nice little business down their with his Attainable Growth fitness gig. Apologies ahead of time Mike if you're not in favor of my wording here broseph.

Mike's 4 part series on the "Front Butt", as he so elegantly put it, is great for those out there that need to loosen up in the lower body. He gives great progressions on the whole series and does a good job explaining what in the world the point is and adds his own humor that those of us that know him have come to enjoy. Those of you out there at have tight hips *coughcatherinecough* can definitely take something away from this series of posts, well done Mikey G!

Part I ( http://attainablegrowth.com/?p=1247 )
Part II ( http://attainablegrowth.com/?p=1334 )
Part III ( http://attainablegrowth.com/?p=1303 )
Part IV ( http://attainablegrowth.com/?p=1362 )
 

Single Arm Exercises and the Benefits

The other day I got a question from someone asking if single-arm upper body exercises are more beneficial as opposed to two-arm upper body exercises. This was a great question and I really wanted to jump into the subject and show off, but it would have been a rather long winded answer, so I gave a pretty simple and concise answer to save the guy listening to me yammer for 20 minutes plus. Instead I'm going to throw it all out on here.

There are a couple levels of how one sided you can really get when it comes to upper body exercises. Let's get clear on this right now, two-arm exercises, mostly consisting of exercises involving a barbell or bar, are NOT bad for you. They allow easy movement for those that are not so advanced or experienced with lifts. A bar will also keep the shoulder from going too big of a range of motion if there is an injury to the shoulder and you are trying to avoid certain shoulder movement patterns but still want to get some work in. The shoulder doesn't magically stay out of that movement pattern remember, you have to perform the exercise correctly still.

Performing all the same exercises, and a few others your really can't, as you do with a bar with 2 dumbbells can be and is more beneficial. Reason I believe so is because with dumbbells in hand you have a better range of motion in your shoulder because the bar limits you from moving your hands in and out (abducting and adducting your shoulder). Before we get to far, ladies, and some gents, please for my sanity and any other good fitness professional's out there, please put down the pink dumbbells. Results will come without your precious pink beauties, I promise. The number of actual exercises goes higher when using dumbbells because of the freedom of movement (lets see you do a lateral raise with both hands on a single barbell). The ability to switch up your routine with more exercises means that your brain won't get bored so easily and you can stick to your program.

Last little nugget I'm going to throw you for this one. We all have a dominant side that we are stronger on and more confident using. These eventually, if it hasn't already, will develop deficiencies in your movement patterns and even your posture. Concentrating on using one side at a time can actually allow you to correct some of these issues. More than that once you get use to doing so you will be able to lift more per side than if you used both at the same time. The simple reason to answer why this happens is because your put more concentration into the one side than when you use both sides and put in as much effort. Using dumbbells in either case will also help you with those stabilizer muscles simply because the bar isn't there to help you hold everything steady.

That's it for today everyone, hope this helped someone out there today.

'Text Neck' Why It's Not News and Good Drills and Exercises to Combat It

Just read an article put out by CNN on this new condition that's popping up called "Text Neck". Unfortunately I am going to have to play Buzz Killington here and shoot down the fact that this so called new condition is news, because it really isn't. I think at this point they are just trying to dig for health news, rather than leave it to those whose job it is to put out health related items as such.

They describe Text Neck or TN as I'm going to call it for my own sanity, as having the neck in a forward position and shoulders rounded forward. Correct me if I'm wrong, those of you out there that have been around the block and trained a person or 2, isn't this the same conditioing you get from either sitting at a desk on a computer all day or driving for numerous hours in a week constantly? Pretty sure office cubicles and computers were around far before texing and as for driving, the commercial car came out how many hundreds of years ago? Needless to say this condition has been around for a long time, they just now finally came up with a cool term to attach to it, maybe that's the only bit of news to give to it.

Now to the fun part, how in the holy gods green earth can we combat and or fix this situation TN? Number one is pretty plain and simple, get off of your thinker and start training. We will all be stuck in one of these situations sooner or later, so we have to combat it or you will end up with a really screwed up posture, big green scary block-headed creature comes to mind. Do you drive, write papers or tests, write e-mails or are you on your phone often? Then guess what chief you are in the same pattern, it's probably a solid 90% of America that are in this pattern so you won't be alone, trust me.

Training in general is a good step in the right direction, but it's only going to get you so far. Let's get those shoulders from rolling forward too much. I will post videos if not find videos from others for these. I will post videos of myself or from other professionals to demo this stuff. Take a softball, lacrosse ball or tennis ball and find a wall. Put the ball between you and the wall, and lean on it with the ball placed at the top of your chest, next to your arm pit. Roll yourself around on the ball in the general area, even down to your biceps a bit as well. Do this for about 30 seconds, and if you can stand it, up to a minute.

Next step is to get that area a bit more mobile now that it's not so still. Grab a foam roller, lay on your back and then roll to your side. Bring your top knee up so it and your hips are at about 90 degrees. Place the foam roller under your knee so we don't kick up your back. The arm that's on or closest to the floor should be extended to the sky. Other arm will move in a diagonal pattern from that bent knee to the floor over head, think thumb to knee and then thumb to ground. Don't go too crazy in moving fast as you are probably WICKED (yes it's a thing up here) tight, don't need any accidents here. Do 10 of those each side.

Final step here to fix this little issue is to get some rowing in, lock these muscles into our new posture. In this case I would go with some sort of single arm row; cable row, bench row, bent over row, TRX single arm row (yes it's doable and can be crazy hard, but effective) or whatever single arm row you've invented, really not gonna get too particular here. Get about 8 to 10 reps per side for the row. You can easily work this into any program before a rowing exercise, even if it's a two-arm row, it'll be better than not.

Hopefully this littl blurb educated someone out there and made them healthier. As always any questions, comments or concerns you can contact me directly or you can leave a comment on here. Always open to learning from other, until next time folks, get away from the dreaded TN.

The Reason Behind It All

Everyone that has consistently read from this blog in the last month plus knows who the famous Jenn is from my Aug 15th post here.  This past weekend I was invited to attend the wedding of her and her now husband Kevin, also a former client of mine. The wedding was spectacular, the church, if you would want to call it that, absolutely blew my mind. The reception was in a huge ball room and I enjoyed the hell out of consuming a big slab of prime rib. After spending an hour with one and an hour and a half with the other every week for months, I have to say I had never seen them happier than that day.

Again some of you are probably wondering, for the 2nd time in 2 posts, what in the H-E-double hockey sticks does this have to do with training. It's simple really, sorry this will be a bit about tooting my own horn, this has to do with the major reason why other trainers and I all do what we do, or at least I hope is some driving factor. These were 2 very good people that I had the pleasure of training. They both were driven, worked hard, and even a little competitive which kicked things up a little bit. The thought I had of them both being good people was more than confirmed by their friends and family at the wedding.

Being such great people it gave me the old warm and fuzzy feeling at the wedding when everyone asked me how I met the 2 of them, told them the bit and then received many compliments on how good they look with my training's help and how much they saw the change in them beyond the physical. THAT ladies and germs is why I do what I do, yes money is nice, gotta make it to live, the perks are good with free membership to gyms and all the fun toys I get to experiment with, and meeting many great and interesting people is nice as well. At the end of the day though when my training comes back full circle with clients coming back to me or telling others how good they feel and how much happier they are with their lives, that makes all the bad shit you endure worth it. Believe me at the beginning of it all bad shit piles up, obviously internships you are the bottom of the totem pole, and the first job out of the gate you have to endure all kinds of learning curves. In the end, clients being happier and healthier with themselves and having an improved lifestyle, it's what the goal is when it comes to personal training.

To conclude it's simple in the training world, do good to your clients and good will be done in return by them in some shape or another. Congratulations of course need to go out to Kevin and Jenn for a spectacular wedding and wishing them many happy years. I can only hope I find more great clients such as these 2. Next post should be a bit more technical and more related to the actual training so keep your ears pinned to the ground for it.

Don't Let it Get the Best of You

For the most part my first run of posts here have had to do with technique, what exercises I like or to do and even a rant or two. Today's flavor is going to be a little more about mind set, mentality and attidude both towards training and life. I'm no expert on either subject, but I've been around for a few years, 26, so I think I've got a few experiences that I can comment to the subject.

The other day it started out not seeming like my day. Went to get gas, no debt card, couldn't find it anywhere. Got to the facility, crap forgot my shorts to workout in. Went to workout, no headphones, stuck with the music from the sound system here. Went to training for Rugby, no mouthpiece in my bag, damn no full-on contact for me. All of these little things could have absolutely derailed my day...if I had let it do so. In all honesty as short as a few years ago I would have thought this to be an absolute terrible day and wanted to just call it a wash. With the right attitude and thought process, glass half full rather than half empty, things worked out. First called my bank and the place I left my card at called and canceled the card for me when they found it, just need to pick up a new one. For the shorts issue, just dashed home and grabbed a pair, easy. Still forgot the headphones, but the tunes weren't too bad for the duration of the workout, just didn't let it mess with my head. For the mouthpiece issue, practice didn't involve a lot of hitting drills, I stayed out of the ones that did for the most part because I'm not playing this weekend due to a wedding of an old client, solved.

Some of you are sitting there and saying what in the holy green hell does this have to do with training? Like the title says, don't let it get the best of you. When you are training, if you can't finish a lift for reasons D, E, F or G (yeah went with a bit more obscure letters), you can do 2 things, you can say I got it next time, focus on the next workout and move forward. The other option is you can let it fester, let it ruin your day and kill your mood. Seriously if you let the little things get to you it can kill your training. Think about it, how many times have you missed a lift, then tried to make it up and do far more than you are use to, then you feel like you are an inch from throwing yourself off the Prudential building and fall off the training wagon.

Now if you have missed the simple message I have been trying to convey it is this. When the small things start to go wrong, don't sweat it. You miss a rep, move on, it's done and over. Just keep moving forward with your training and you will get results. Even if you are like myself and compete against yourself in your workouts, you have to get it through to your ego that dwelling on it can kill the rest of your training for the day, and that can just snow ball into a week, month, or months, even a year...NOT GOOD. Just keep the eyes forward and focus on getting better then next day.

5 Of My Biggest Pet Peaves in the Gym

I use to have a list of these in my head that was pretty consistent when I was first in school and growing up, but between the new place here in Brookline and my old facility in Hudson I think there have been a couple of new ones snaking their way into that list. Not in any particular order, they all frustrate me greatly equally.

1. NO CURLS IN THE SQUAT RACK: Ok so I lied this may take the cake out of all of them, the others are on par with one another, but this takes the cake. Listen up to you lunkheads, I have 2 reasons I almost lose my skull when I see you fools in the squat rack doing curls. First is you probably have never done a chin-up in your life, if you are curling heavy enough weight that requires a squat rack, so until you can finish a chin-up properly (sternum to bar not chin to bar) then knock it off! Second taking up a squat rack now means that someone that actually wants to do something functional has to either wait for your sorry carcas to finish or they have to go dangerously mickey mouse something to do a squat. Bottom line STOP!

2. PUT THE PHONE AWAY: Hey Hollywood put your phone away and get to work. Coming into the gym and training should be something you take seriously and should concentrate on. On your phone constantly texting, or even talking on it, (yes I saw someone doing seated rows still chatting away one day) absolutely means that you are not focused on your training. There is no way that you can possibly be working hard enough to perform a resistance exercise with enough difficulty to see gains and yammer away. End of the day, either tell the people texting you to buzz off because you are working out or don't use your phone as your music source.

3. PICK UP YOUR EQUIPMENT: Just the other day I saw someone leave a long foam roller right out in the middle of the dumbbell area here in Brookline. I almost Bruce Bannered it and snapped right there. I really shouldn't need to say much more. Leaving stuff around like that is plain and simple dangerous period...check that EXCLAMATION POINT! It is just simple courtesy and good edecate to pick up after yourself, pretty sure our parents all taught us this.

4. RACK YOUR WEIGHT: This kind of falls under the same heading as number 3, but I'm throwing it in as it's own because I can and it's my blog so there. Having to go chase down weights because someone else has pulled them to some other piece of equipment, useless or not, and did not put them back absolutely drives me wild. Whether it's during my workout or if I have to go chase them down for a client, it simply consumes time. That's time that I will not have the rest of the day, most of us that actually try to pack their schedule and make as many people as possible move and feel better, while still trying to do the rest of our normal life stuff, need all the time we can get. Like I said, remember what your parents taught you and put the freaking weights back on the rack you got it from, it will keep everyone far more sane.

5. DON'T SMASH THE DUMBBELLS: Just this A.M. I was training a client and from the other side of the PT studio room door I could hear someone doing some sort of dumbbell press and smashing them together at the top. This is not only annoying but it is a huge safety issue. When you slam the dumbbells together, especially the heavier ones, you are loosening the welds and/or the bolts that hold them together. Yes I know things like this will eventually happen but there is no reason to speed up the process, just extend the arms as far as you can without hitting them together, it is possible. It might sound cool, but won't be cool is if the freakin thing comes loose and smashes into your skull, you'll be lucky if you just end up with a brain injury or fractured skull. On that note it baffles me that when people know that the weights are coming loose they still make it a point to slam them together. I almost have half a thought to go over and let it drop on them, but then I think about the law suits and not training any more, on top of the assault/manslaughter charge that might get pinned on me, so I just take out my frustration on some cleans or deadlifts later that day.

Just try to keep these in mind the next time you go to the gym. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person/trainer that gets annoyed by these so just some food for thought.

Squats and Leg Press:Do They do the Same Thing?

I was at my new facility in Brookline last week getting in some early training sessions before things really start to ramp up the schedule, I observed a guy doing leg press and I was in the middle of a set of tempo back squats, yeah let’s not talk about how much those hurt. I could get into the benefits of controlling the eccentric action in a squat or any exercise. I could get into how much I hate having your knees being forced into your chest without the proper amount of mobility makes, while making me cringe and lose my sanity. Instead I’d like to compare the two exercises being performed by the other guy and myself.

Putting it in simple terms, they both work the same muscles when done correctly, except one thing, Erector Spinae, the muscle, actually group of muscles, that run right up and down the middle of your back. These muscles’ primary function is to extend your body at all three sections of the spine, cervical, thoracic and lumbar.

When you lay on a leg press it stabilizes your back, and Erector Spinae, for you, when you do a squat, you are forced to do it yourself or you are going to do a face plant like you’ve gone beyond the legal limit walking on cobblestone. A few of you are probably sitting there with the thought, “Putting back muscles under stress is an easy way to mess your back up isn’t it?” Yes it is, if you use form that’s bad enough to make me want to gouge my eyes out. Actually if you don’t load your back muscles correctly then you can eventually end up with a case of Kyphosis, to put it simply, think Quasimoto from the bell tower. Working your Erector Spinae, as well as other major upper back muscles will help you hold your spine upright. You don't want curves to your back, they are natural and let you bear weight onto your shoulders and such, but there is defiantly such thing as too much here. No one wants to end up being that ugly son of a gun ringing the bell in Paris. Other exercises that work this muscle group are pretty much any deadlift variation and good mornings. There are a few situations I would consider using a leg press for my legs, inexperience, coming off an injury and I can go on, but that’s not enough for me to switch.

Since you are all now informed next time you think about working your legs and face the decision of squat or leg press, make the decision that’s going to keep you upright.

2 new places to find me, find JD 3D on twitter here or follow it @JD3Dimensional

Also find my ugly mug on the new gig's site here

JD3D IS ON THE MOVE

I'm on the move folks, actually I've already made the move a little earlier than expected. After almost 7 great months at my old facility in Hudson I have moved on to a new facility and new employer. The new place will bring some new challenges and probably new things I've yet to see and rant about. Bodyscapes fitness in Brookline is now where you will find this ugly mug on a daily basis. I was very sad to say good bye to my old facility and all my old clients and they all know they will be missed, especially since the ending did come a bit abruptly, but what's done is done. Next time I post with video you will probably get a quick glimpse at the new digs. Just going to throw out there to keep in mind that things I post on here are MY opinion and do not reflect my current or former employer's. That being said look forward to getting more fun items posted up here for you all in the coming weeks and month. See you all on the flip side.

Assistance Lifts and Technique Perfection

Stop me if you've heard this before, but US basketball owns the world again. Am I the only one that thinks that it's no longer that competitive of a sport in the Olympics? The US absolutely man handled the field this year and have done so for quite a time. Under their current coach Mike Krzyzewski, god I hope I spelled that right, they have lost one game...ONE! I know Spain had a lead on them on Sunday, but it seemed like when the US players decided to stop messing around and put their foot on the gas Spain didn't have a shot. They've done it with other sports, see Womens Ice Hockey and Baseball, why can't we sack this or at least put an age limit like they do with the Mens Soccer.

Alright I'm done you can come out of the corner now. I've been using a term around here lately that people have left people wondering 'what in the heck are you talking about?' Assistance lifts help with your main lifts such as squats, cleans and deadlifts and give you an easy workout you can do on an off day without completely smoking your body 7 days a week, thus overtraining yourself and then things start to snow ball and yeah you get the point, they help. Mike Boyle writes about training movements not muscles in his book Functional Training for Sports. Great read by the way for those looking for a good functional training book apart from the Gray Cook FM book. I absolutely agree with him to a degree, after all he's got a mega-frickin-ton more experience than me and been around longer. Some assistance lifts can be useful to more than one movement.

Since they are two of my favorite things in the world I'm going back to them and using one of my stars as the demonstrator. Any guesses as to which exercises I'm talking about? That's right dead lifts and hip bridges or hip sleds. I know I've gotten into the both of these before so I won't spend too much time here babbling about it. Simply put, to finish a dead lift you need to push your hips forward by squeezing your glutes aka your bum. A hip sled or hip bridge is one single movement doing one thing primarily, squeezing your glutes to extend your hips and get the weight off the ground. I really like the hip sled because when you get into the low rep, high weight area you can really start to move some big weight and gets clients excited about moving that much weight, and you feel it so you know it's working the right muscles.

The nice girl above is my client Jenn. Jenn was my very first client here in Hudson in January. She has made so much progress it's  out of this world. Needless to say in January I wouldn't have even attempted some of these exercises with Jenn. Had I told her in January that she would be doing this stuff she'd think I was absolutely bat-s!$# crazy. Jenn started moving some good weight around with the hip bridge, in this case a modified hip sled, a couple months ago. She has now gotten to the point where I'm comfortable having her dead lift, started with the trap bar and currently doing some straight bar dead lifts. (See below)

                                            

The video looks a little funny because I held the camera the wrong way and yes it loops, call me stupid, I'll fix it in the mean time this will suffice. Hopefully some of you pick up on the face she made at the end which absolutely made my day because I laughed so hard. Now some of you are probably looking at it and saying 'Isn't she rounding her back and why are you letting her continue?' Yes she does have a slight round and this is where I will get into my second topic a bit. When it comes to exercise technique and how much of a perfectionist you are going to be with it there are a few factors you have to consider. In this case consider that Jenn has no history of back pain, she is not finishing with her back to compound it and she is making every effort she possibly can to keep those shoulders back and her chest forward. That may not be acceptable to some people, but she's just simply got to work on it so sorry Jenn but this will be your weight for dead lift for a bit.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being super ultra perfect with technique and 1 being Jillian Michaels, oops did I say that? I meant to say having no technique, I'm probably close to a 7 or 8. With all exercises there are standards that absolutely have to be met in order for the exercise to be safe, so if you're on the 1 to 3 range, time to get back to the basics. As you can see I am not perfect when it comes to teaching or maintaining technique throughout, but if you are a Nazi about it then you will just simply never get to that upper tier of training because you will be far too focused on the technique. Hope that someone out there took something positive away from this. Per usual any questions or comments please shoot me a message. More fun and some news coming later on in the month, until next time everyone, keep getting after it.

Rant Time

It's time for one of those posts where I rip apart something I saw someone doing or  heard someone saying here in Hudson. This is not the post I mentioned last week so don't worry about that. Now then at the end of another day filled with clients on Friday I was looking forward to getting a quick lift in and picking up some heavy freaking weight. I've been using the trap bar, or hex bar for some of you, mostly because I haven't deadlifted consistently in awhile so I'm trying to keep my form from slipping and trap bar is an easy way to make sure of that. Unfortunately we only have 1 trap bar here,  and it was in use by someone doing a farmers walk. I've seen it done before with the trap bar and it's actually a really good idea for when dumbbells get too light.

So yeah threw in a picture of Alex Morgan because it's somewhat relevant currently with the Olympics, she's pretty easy on the eyes and those of you that know me well know that I like her...her picture and talents speak for me.

Sorry got a little distracted there. Back to the point, overall the farmers walk is actually a very good exercise putting to use your arms, core and legs. This WWE wannabe completely defeated the purpose of this exercise by wearing weight lifting gloves. To not get too scientific on this and put it in fairly easy to understand terms, farmers walk is meant to help, in my opinion, your arms and grip strength simply by just holding onto some heavy stuff and keeping it from swaying back and forth while you move. This is something I use to help people that don't have the strength to the hang on to the weights that the rest of their muscles can handle. What this member of the meathead bunch has done, in my opinion, is all but completely defeated the purpose of this exercise by using gloves, on top of the fact that the method in which he picked the weight up made my back want to fold like a cheap lawn chair. Sure the legs and core might get some work, but there's probably a gabillion, yup don't care I know it's not a real number, other ways to get leg and core work than this. Did I mention the fact that another member of his fraternal clan that were taking part in what we sometimes call meathead hour came over and gave him a more detrimental way to handle this exercise...WRAPS, a tool along with the bosu ball, I absolutely despise using except for very few things, and those places I'm finding other methods and ways to make them disappear.

The worse part about that is he was still using the only freaking trap bar in the gym! He used it for 5 sets that did nothing more for him or me other than make me want to re-taste my dinner. OK sorry I'm done, but I did say it was rant time didn't I? So boys and girls, if you want to accomplish the goal of a farmers walk, do yourself a favor, take off the gloves and get ready to have your hands hurt like you slid down the climbing rope in gym class. I know it's a callas and it feels weird at first, honestly I'd rather pick up some heavy weight and get a callas over my whole hand than stick with hand bag weights and never see results. End of rant, I bid you good day folks. Drop me a line as always if you have any questions, concerns and the like. Until next time, keep pushing the limits.

Cool Way to Keep Track and Changes Coming

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile folks. I've been far busier than I expected to be and have been shuffling myself around quite a bit to make time for potential changes. I will be back on here soon within the next week or so with some more goodies for you all to enjoy and perhaps have a few laughs at.

In the mean time everyone can check out this great site I found thanks to a couple of the more well known fitness pro's out there. The site is called Fitocracy, you can sign up using facebook or twitter. I chose to use my twitter log in. Sign in and you can track your workouts, if you're one of those people that likes to see LEVEL UP come up on their screen then you'll be hooked in an instant. Give me a follow if you like JD7768 and you can give me endless amounts of praise or crap depending on the day. Be back soon folks.

Deadlift Max

Last week I put out a post with my client Joe being the showing point in the end. Well he's at it again everyone. Joe did a big test week before he leaves me for 3 weeks (or longer, hopefully not) and one was a max on his Trapbar Deadlift. I like the trapbar because it gives those that are new to deadlifting, which is most of my clientele to this point, an introduction and doesn't really expose them to injury as much as other variations. Joe did a deadlift for the first time about 2 months ago, and some rack pulls and modified hip presses later he pulled 335 lb. for 2 reps. Not bad considering he'd never really seen a deadlift before I met him. The video below is him doing 315 for 3 reps, the 335 one had an attitude with me so I had to put it down. Technique could be improved, but hey still pretty good, sorry Joe had to get one little criticism in there, can't let it go to your head.

Now then for those of you that did maximum lift testing in high school and only were told to do 1 rep, you are probably wondering why Joe did 2 and 3 reps. Well it's pretty simple, going for single rep maxes can really take a toll on your technique if you are inexperienced with the lift. You can see in the video a 3 rep percentage for Joe was hefty enough to let his technique slack just a bit. Imagine if I had given him a 100% max out. He easily could end up looking like all the other fools that come in here and think they can deadlift, but instead make me want to peel my eyeballs with a potato peeler when I watch them. 2 and 3 rep percentages are close enough to 100% that you will get a pretty darn good idea where you are at without making your vertebrae scream at you like you stole from your mom's pocket book. Please send me any questions, comments, concerns, hell even a joke if you got the time and feel like making me laugh, never know when it will come in handy. Hopefully next time some of you go for a 1 rep max and start to feel technique slipping you will go for a 2 or 3 rep percentage instead.

One of the Biggest Yet Most Underused Muscles

This post will be all about you're behind. Ok don't get too excited yet, not in that way. I also want to preface this with that in NO WAY, do I think I'm Bret Contreras, otherwise known as the Glute Guy, nor am I pretending to be. I can only hope to have the success and credentials that Bret has one day. Enough of that on to the good stuff. Some may wonder, 'Why do I need to activate my butt? I put it to use every day.' The short answer to that is No You Don't, and those of you that couldn't keep your mind focused after that comment, shame shame.
                                              
Sitting on your butt all day and every day like most of America does is not using it. It's quite the opposite, the more you sit on it the less you actually use it. No glute activation leads to a wide number of anatomical and life problems as most fitness professionals know that have been around for longer than 2 months without their head in the ground. I'll list off a few and some exercises to do to activate them and maybe a few other quick tips on ridding yourself of the problems.

First and foremost, if you are sitting on your butt constantly and not using it enough, you are most likely slowly going in the wrong direction in terms of your health, period. 12 oz curls, pressing the buttons on the TV remote, no matter how fast or hard, and pulling that lever to your recliner are not nearly enough work for you to call it good for the day in terms of fitness. Easy solution to that, get off your behind, get active and start training towards a fitness goal, if you need help picking a goal, think about what you would like to be able to do physically that you are simply unable to do currently and work from there.

Second, those 'tight' hamstrings that you have, or think you have, are probably 'tight' for a reason. Take a quick look at your hips, if your hip bone and rib cage are close enough together that they are thinking of becoming ying and yang then your hamstrings are tight because they are under constant tension to keep you from walking with your lower back yelling at you more than Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Some of you have probably already reached this stage, sucks doesn't it? Well a big part of nipping this in the behind or ridding yourself of this pain is to get your glutes activated.

Third point kind of goes along with the last one. If you are doing any sort of lift or exercise that involves your hips flexing, make sure that when you extend them again to make your body straight you use your glutes to extend NOT YOUR BACK. Every time I see someone finish a dead lift by arching their back, after they picked it up with a rounded spine, I die a little inside and my own spine goes into a spasm.

Sorry I sounded kind of pissed/negative in this one, just a wee bit of aggravation creeping out of me, haven't done a Bruce Banner yet though so I'm good. I've posted videos on simple but effective exercises to get your butt going, literally.Yes I used a physioball for one, oh well sue me, the idea there is just a little variety. Remember that 2 legs are easier than 1 leg for those that aren't familiar with how your body works. The final video I have on here is of my client Joe doing a modified barbell hip bridge or hip sled, whatever floats your boat, I will go into more depth on why I posted it, other than the fact that Joe looks pretty good doing it. Thanks again to my steady hand camera man Paul for helping me with this. We both learned not to answer the phone with, "Hey can I call you back I'm about to make movies?" ever again.

Hip Bridge on Floor

Single Leg Hip Bridge (Extended)

Single Leg Hip Bridge (Bent)

Physioball Hip Bridge

Bench Bridge

Single Leg Bench Bridge

The last video is of my client Joe. Joe was one of my first clients here in Hudson, when I first got ahold of Joe he had no clue what a bridge was. Now he's doing a modified version of a Hip Sled, this has also helped him in his Rack Pull and Trap Bar Deadlifts. All in all Joe is stronger, but don't think just cause you do these once in awhile you'll all of a sudden start being a beast like Joe is becoming. Joe works his tail off on top of the fact that he is one of the nicest guys you'll find out there. Certainly a guy you will have an easy time rooting for. It doesn't look like he's pushing much weight, but hey give him a couple weeks. He pulled 395 for a rack pull, which is pretty good considering he didn't even know how to deadlift when we first met. The best thing to note is that Joe is starting to pull all of this weight without any back pain! So the moral of the story is this stuff does actually work so give it a shot.

That's it for this one everybody. Once again any questions, comments or concerns regarding technique or anything else in this post please contact me I'm always eager to talk about fitness and learn. Until next time folks, ta ta for now.

Hit the brakes speedy

Couple things First off so people don't think I'm too serious or, not that most would think that after only 2 posts, first if you happen to read this and think I'm wrong in what I'm saying, by all means send me a friendly e-mail and I will be happy to talk with you, I'm still eager to learn and having another opinion will only make me better. Second thing is that if you happen to walk into the facility here in Hudson, and look at the big pile of flesh walking around and wondering 'who is the trainer that got kung fooed while sitting in an oven?' The answer there is probably me, played rugby in Newport, RI this weekend and it tends to beat ya up on a weekly basis. Case and point throughout the season my clients have come to expect me to come back with some new mark on my face or body, last week was no exception when I got some jerkhole to scratch my face at the bottom of a ruck. Didn't get a face or number, but I'm sure he knows if I knew it was him, he'd have one worse, end of random spiel.

Today's flavor is the speed you move through an exercise and why some people need to pump the brakes just a wee bit. I've been guilty of this on a number of occasions  throughout my life, but have gotten better at it. Easy way to tell if you need to slow down, if your back rounds, you hyper-extend it or you rotate through your lumbar spine with massive amounts of weight, you may want to consider slowing it down, lowering the weight and taking your time with your technique, unless you want to feel like you are 82 when you are 32, I vote for feeling younger than I am, rather than the other way around, that's what we are shooting for here right? Doing your best resistance training version of Speedy Gonzalez (one of my favorite looney tunes growing up) isn't going to help you get results faster if your technique is poor and hindering.

Slowing down your movements has actually been shown to get you stronger, numerous studies support slowing down eccentric movements in resistance exercises will build muscle faster. There are certain exercises that are meant for fast explosive movements, but that's only IF, and for some people that's a bigger if than that so let's try again, IF you have mastered the movement should you speed it up to an explosive movement. There's always a progression of exercises you can master before we start to speed up the goal exercise. For example: I am a huge fan of cleans, any kind of cleans, for this purpose we will go with hang clean. Cleans combine numerous motions into one to make for an exhausting workout when done correctly. The videos that follow have progressions for a hang clean; Modified RDL, Front Squat, Triple Extension Shrug, Triple Extension High Pull and well I figured what the hell a hang clean. Some might have a different view on these progressions, technique and so forth, bear with me and just go with it. You'll notice in the first few I'm taking my time, as the pieces come together the speed picks up and until finally the big kahuna comes in. Yeah I only did 95 cause I didn't want to mess it up and I'm still pretty beat from this weekend so hold your tongue.

Thanks to Paul for being the camera operator, also note the dreadful music we have to deal with in the facility that's on a constant loop. It's a wonder why everyone around here uses their own headphones and tunes out the rest of the world along with some of this garbage. Another side note, apparently blogger spits out 2 videos, one to watch in the browser and one to watch on your computer.

That's all I got for today kids, hopefully I made someone out there better. Any questions, concerns or the like about the videos or the written content please contact me, I can always learn. Until next time folks, ta ta for now.

What in the #*&^$ happened to your foot???

Been awhile since our last post and I've had this one in mind for awhile, just been a matter of clearing up time for myself to do it. Here in Hudson I've seen plenty of technique and "exercises" that make me cringe and my joints and muscles ache just watching them. About a month ago something that had pretty much nothing to do with those gave me one of my biggest shut the front door moments. Like I said still havin a hard time finding time for everything, getting better though.

One of the tools myself and a few others here use for assessments is an overhead squat. Shoes are off, hands overhead, feet about hip width to shoulder width apart, sit back and squat down and I'll look for what needs to be fixed. Well I did one of these on a client of ours named Evan. The second Evan took his shoes off and I saw what looked something like the picture here I knew almost immediately what was going to happen, toes turned out knees went knock.

Evan is in fact an athlete of sorts, and I bet the first guess most of you have is that he is a basketball player that has just rolled his ankle a kajillion times (yeah don't care it's not a word I used it) sorry nice guess, but wrong. Evan is a member of a crew rowing team. After doing a quick look up on exactly what the technique for this is I came to a conclusion that this explained it all. In crew you are tucked into a tiny seat, while in this tiny seat you are pushing with your legs with all your might to pull an oar, along with using your shoulders of course. The reason I mentioned the tiny seat is because Evan is almost forced to keep his knees together when he pushes with his legs as he row, because he is a fairly big kid squeezed into this child's sized seat. 

Between keeping his knees together and pushing through the inside of his foot, I'd say that would pretty much sum up why the medial part of his ankle is nearly on the floor when he walks and looked like he belonged in Happy Feet, which seems like kind of an ironic title here. We loosened the lateral part of his calf along with his adductors with some SMR (aka Foam Rolling, I know a term not everyone understands, amazing!) and stretching, and reactivated his medial calf and abductors with some corrective exercises. About a month later his ankle looks so much better, it's almost normal and I don't cringe and feel like my ankle wants to buckle when I look at it for longer than 2 seconds. Now a thing to remember here is because Evan was so grooved into his unusual functional pattern that his ankles and feet may never look completely normal, but that's no reason to leave it as is, he's under the age of 22 so he may yet be able to be completely repaired. That's all I got for today kiddos, until next time, ta ta for now.

Aaand We're Up and Running

So here we go, not going to pretend I know everything about everything on this thing, but I like to think I know a thing or two considering what I have seen, been taught and experienced first hand. First off a little bit about myself; I went to University of Maine and studied Exercise Science there, and I currently hold a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification from the NSCA. Did an internship with UMaine's Strength and Conditioning department, I owe them many thanks to all they taught me, also did an internship with OA Parisi Speed School in Saco Maine, to them I also owe numerous thank you's. I play rugby outside of my work so I consider myself an athlete, if you don't, well that's your opinion and you're entitled to it. I currently work in Hudson Massachusetts for Custom Built Personal Training, the facility I currently call home (work) is Boost Fitness and I have been here for close to 3 months.

A little about what you will find in here from time to time, like I said before I'm not the know all and be all of fitness, but I know enough to do some damage and be effective to a point. You won't get too many flashy terms out of here so if you are looking for a super science like fitness blog keep moving, maybe in time but I wouldn't bank on it right at the moment. This will be a place where I put down some thoughts to maybe educate a little bit and possibly drive some people nuts, but I figured I'd give it a shot and see what comes of it.

For this particular entry I wanted to talk about one of the dumber things I've heard since I start working here. While training a client a loud and obnoxious 'Bro' said to a group of people that seemed to care less about his workout or the size of his biceps, "You know how you've had a good workout...when you can't put your elbows together," then proceeded to make himself look even more like a fool and try to put his elbows together. My first thought was, you know how you are a royal functional mess in your upper body, WHEN YOU CAN'T PUT YOUR ELBOWS TOGETHER. When you've done so many pressing motions in your workout that your chest is so flared up so you can't manage to even touch your elbows, or even your forearms together, you my friend may want to think about adding a pull in there every once in awhile 'BRO'! Well I guess I need to correct myself, because he didn't just do presses, he also did the most popular 'Bro' exercise ever, any guesses...??? CURLS. Yes curls can be helpful for your shoulder complex, but I doubt that was the reasoning for this person's doing them. At this point I have one thing to say to them, go try to perform a pull up the right way, and if you can't, you might want to consider never doing a press or curl ever again until you can do one without squirming and jumping around.

Well that's all I have for this entry, if you were looking for a little more in depth analysis on what my friend here said, sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not that in depth and this is a work in progress so easy does it. I probably should say something to this guy, to this point I've been told it's not really my place to do so and my schedule is fairly full as it is, although I'm sure one of the other trainers on staff here could train him and fix him. Until next time folks, ta ta for now.