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.