The Popular But Not So Popular

Welcome to Winter for those of you that have been under that famous rock. According to some crazies it can now be officially Christmas. I'm all for a white Christmas...ON Christmas, the rest of the time I will trade for something a bit warmer. Having gone to school in Orono, Maine, I'm use to the cold a bit more than the average bear, but doesn't mean I have to like it does it? OK enough of that chatter, on to today's subject. Most of you have heard of Tracy Anderson, Denise Austin, Jillian Michaels and the like. Anyone that's known me for 5 seconds knows that I can't stand any of these ladies or any of the trainers like them. No it's not a sexist thing, trust me there's some god awful male trainers out there too.

Most recently, I'm sure most of you heard this especially if you are a fan of hers, Michaels' was nailed for giving contestants on her show caffeine pills. All I can say is I knew she was a joke and now the whole world knows it, at least those with enough brain cells to not fall for her dumb excuses. This particular trainer happens to be my nemesis, for my buddy Mike it's Tracy Anderson, and for some of the older trainers and coaches out there it was probably Denise Austin.

Personally I've had it with her, yes people lose weight with her show, but forgive me for being Buzz Killington but she also leaves how many people injured on the sideline after the first week? Really effective results right there. Yeah if you survive her shit storm then you can probably handle the workouts and conquer the weight loss...IF. Now that she's shoving caffeine pills down the throats of her clients, who are most likely already a walking Mohave inside their bodies', we can really see how quick the weight drops.

For those that don't know of Tracy Anderson's accolades, quick summary, recently she was Gwyneth Paltrow's trainer, whom helped her get fit for some of her recent movies...problem is Paltrow now has Osteopenia, the precursor to Osteoporosis. WAY TO GO! No major weight bearing exercises will do that sometimes. I'm sure Paltrow is really happy with that result. Busting her ass for an hour plus 6 days a week and now she has a major health condition.

Good job, good effort

To put it in pretty plain english on how your bone density builds and to fight this shit off. When your bones are loaded axially (weight on your back, chest, in your hands near your center line), they have to fight back. Your body sends a signal to your bones to reinforce itself. When you don't over load your skeletal system (there is a limit you can load it yes) then your bone density slowly declines and voila Osteopenia develops. As I said there is a happy medium and a constant over load of your skeletal system, usually caused by obesity, won't do yourself any favors either.

Now I'm not bagging on any of these ladies for some of the results they've produced, including their own, because clearly they have gotten them somehow. What I'm getting at is it's sad because they probably do some of the same shit coaches like myself and similar to me do in their own training and at one point they did it with their clients. The problem is they know they could make more money pumping up shit that people believed was always the answer and used the hot button words like "targeting" "burning" and "toning". I'd take their success and money, but not at the expense of selling my soul to the mass media. I'm sure if you search them for their educational backgrounds you'll see that theirs is not dissimilar from a bunch of strength coaches and trainers that are very good.

They knew there would be a huge market for people that don't actually want to get off their ass, get to the gym, be sore and put some work into it, so they went the rout they did. I honestly have no evidence that their methods don't actually work if you stick to the plan, and I'm sure there is some that support their shit. I'm positive there's shit-tons of evidence to support the methods of those like Eric Cressey, Bret Contreras, Mike Reinold and even Mike Boyle, though many in the industry think Boyle is a bit off the handle these days. Problem any of the above is most people don't do it either way because they find excuses to not do it and their results go down the pipe. The whole no progression and same shit different day routines that these celeb trainer videos produce is just more likely to get people bored and they stop.

As I've said before something is always better than nothing and if it's not for you then it's not for you. As I've also said before, if you are going to burn the time, why not do something useful. Ladies if you would like to see why things like what I do for my workouts can do for you check out sites like Girls Gone Strong and Spot Me Girl. I know some of you are going to think, "I don't want to get big and bulky", trust me it's hard enough for me, that's not going to happen. On the other hand if what you are worried about is how defined they are, that's a matter of your body fat percentage. 17-20% body fat for a woman is pretty good so don't have a fit if that's the case ladies.

That's all for today, good to be back and happy holidays in the likely hood I don't write before next Wednesday. Go out there and get after it.

What Special Needs Can Teach You

Another month long spell and I'm back for more everyone. Thanksgiving fast approaching and I am looking forward to time of with those I care about. Work has been crazy busy, but with rugby now over for the fall I have a little bit of time for myself. For once I don't have a client at the butt-crack of dawn this morning so I figured I'd get some writing in. The gym is usually pretty dead at 6 AM until we start throwing some weight around in some of our sessions, things liven up after that.

Can Think of Many That Would Agree With This

It's always baffeling the reasons clients come up with to not come in besides the days of their sessions. I get that life takes control of you and not the other way around sometimes. Just the same if you are serious about what you want don't let things get out of control for too long. A week or 2, I understand, but when it approaches 4, 5 and 6 weeks of not working out apart from 1 day, you're only screwing yourself. That said I can also think of some people and clients, that have every reason and right to say I'm not working out without anyone asking questions. I applaud them for saying taking the hand they were dealt and making the best they can of it.

I have a client that I have been training since the middle of September, he has special needs for various reasons including vision, but if you watched him while he works out, you might think otherwise. I do need to make slight modifications for him to exercises so he doesn't get hurt, but despire that I wish I had more clients like him. He comes in 2 times a week, when he's here he works his tail off, always wants the next big thing and is open to anything I throw at him. In fact he's usually upset when I tell him he's not ready for an exercise yet. Did I mention he gets stuff done on his own outside of our 2 sessions?

He brings challenges to me, but I've learned ways to over come them. He's got some kinesthetic issues, meaning he's not always aware of what muscles he SHOULD be using and what his form should look like in an exercise. He also will have days where he moves a little slow or gets a little distracted from the work out, but still he usually leaves a sweatty mess. All things considered though I enjoy our sessions every week, if nothing else he's good to talk to and get a laugh out of in the end.

With all that above said, if he can get it done and see the results he wants then there shouldn't be a damn thing stopping anyone of able body to do something. I've always said that something is better than nothing, but if you afford it get a trainer or a coach to help you, it'll be worth it in the end.

That's all I got today folks, have a good day all, go out there, drop the excuses and get after it.

Planning Ahead

I really hate making promises that I don't keep, sorry again for the long lay off everyone, been really busy with just life overall. The fact that this is the busiest time of the year for sports and I'm a huge sports fanatic is not helping me one bit. Just the same I probably shouldn't let that be an excuse to me not getting on here and posting on a more frequent basis. That being said I am back today with some stuff that I hope will help those out there in the training and coaching world. Have a look at the title and you can guess this one is about planning, good for you.

We plan everything, we plan our day, our week, and pretty much our entire lives we are planning. In the fitness world there's plenty to plan as well; planning meals for the week, planning what time to work out, having a work out plan to go by and so on. The same should be said about training and coaching, PLAN ladies and gents. It usually baffles me to the point where I do a cartoon double take when a trainer or coach doesn't either have a plan or isn't at least writing down the things they do in a session.

You're Doing What Now?

Some prefer to just wing it from the start and write things down as they go, others prefer to have a strict plan to follow and go step by step. The truth is the answer lies somewhere in the middle, as it does in many cases. There are exceptions, but for general purposes we'll go with it. To have at least a good general plan, and I don't mean 1st Warm-up, 2nd Mobility and Activation, 3rd Shoulders and Back, 4th Conditioning. Really not the worst way to go about it, but still it leaves you thinking guessing and pondering what to do most of the session. Having a better, more specified plan, with actual drills, exercises, sets and reps planned is far better and the session will go much smoother.

Those that lay out their plan for a session and follow word for word and don't waiver from it, well there's an issue with that too. Say a client comes in and has tweaked something, is a little under the weather or is just plain old drained. The last one is usually avoided by good programming but sometimes it happens just simply from life and we all know how that feels. In any case if you are following a program to the letter, you'll probably make things worse if one of these scenarios pops up and you don't adjust accordingly. Be ready to adjust on the fly to accommodate things like these and make note of them in you're program notes.

The other thing with writing down what's going on in your sessions and taking notes lets others know what's happening, if it's detailed or not so much helps either way. Why is this important you ask? Reasons for this are multiple in numbers; if you go on vacation, are sick, find a new place to work, you have an Doctor's appointment, your house has been eaten by a sink hole (look it up it's happened). Whatever the case may be someone else needs to at least have an idea as to what was going on in those sessions on the off chance you miss a day. I'm one of the lucky ones that tends to not be sick and/or not give in to sickness easily, but I still miss days and you will too. Writing stuff down and keeping track of weights, sets and reps may seem trivial but it helps to make sure the other coach won't break the person by giving them too much, or baby them by not giving them enough. I get that sometimes you are just motoring right through a session, and you don't remember to write down what was done, at least do it shortly after. Hopefully you've programmed rest somewhere in the workout, OK everywhere, so you should have time to jot a note or two down.

That'll do it for today kids, good to be back. Go out there and get after it today!

The IT Track and Our Scope

No this is not a post about some geeky technology, although I enjoy that stuff and am easily distracted by bright lights and shiny objects. We had a presentation for some of the training staff here for a product called Inside Tracker. We had one of the higher ups with this company give us a 20 min presentation on how the process works and so forth. Then had a sports nutritionist give a presentation to us.

I'll start first with the IT, as I will call it, and how it works. Basically in 1 of 3 ways they get a blood sample from you to map out where you're nutrient deficiencies are. You then fill out a profile about yourself, your exercise routine and what you are looking to accomplish. After that you can log in to their website and get recommendations on meals and they will even cater their recommendations if you are PALEO, Gluten Free and so on. The prices to start this program range from 50 bucks to over 300 so depends on how committed and how much help you think you need.

The idea of this product for some of my clients is great, because they want to help themselves as much as they can, and can afford to (seeing as they see me 2-3 times a week). This product will be great for some clients and not so much for others. The majority of those being people that are already heeding the advice I give them for their workouts (outside of our sessions) and they can handle doing the nutrition on their own. The ones that aren't so good about staying in the gym outside of our sessions (that need it) and eating right, odd on this will just be money down the drain for them. I can not follow my clients around and pay attention to their every day life. I've got too much to deal with on my own and it's just not plausible. That said it is up to my clients to follow through outside of our hour or 2, if that, spent in training sessions. 

To the next part of the presentation, the sports nutritionist, it was a noticeable difference with what she was saying as opposed to what the IT website recommends. The IT information seemed to be based on what a large general population believes, with a little "science" to back it up, that grains and cereals are the direction to lose weight and stay in shape. The sports nutritionist seemed to be in the mind set many of us in the strength and conditioning/fitness world are, protein and fat baby! Getting away from the carb-bomb wraps that everyone is in love with (including fast food chain restaurants). In a matter of 20 minutes we were told one thing then another, no wonder people are confused about nutrition.

My final point today will be about a big hot issue with trainers and coaches, scope of practice. Some people are really batty when it comes to trainers and coaches taking an educated guess on certain subjects. Usually I cover my ass by saying in MY opinion you may have a sprained ankle, but you might want a doctor to look at that. Same can be said about when people ask me about nutrition. When they ask what they should have for breakfast I simply tell them what I have every morning, eggs and some sort of protein (generally either bacon or beef). I can not give them meal plans as it were, but I can point them in the direction of things like IT, The Foodery, a registered dietitian and so on. That's a whole different ball of wax when it comes to some of the recommendations they make (replace sugar with Sweet and Low...yeah that'll be the difference right there).

Moral of this story is that even the best products and advice are as useful (or useless) to certain clients and the results they get will only be driven by themselves. You can lead a horse to water but that doesn't mean they will actually drink it, even if it's for it's own benefit. Oh my god Jarrod just called all his clients horses, well I'd rather be a stallion than a sheep. Have a good one all, go out and get after it!

I'm Not Dead I Promise!

Whoops that was awhile between posts, didn't mean to, seems like each of the last 2 years I've hit big gaps in posts between the end of July and end of August. To tell you the truth I don't think either are correlated and haven't got a flippin clue as to why it's happened in this spot the last 2 years.  More to the point I am alive and well, still kicking in Brookline with plenty of people to train, fix and turn into beasts in the gym.

Real quick subject I wanted to hit on and that is commitment. Recently I've heard a few people wonder why they are not seeing results. At the end of their session I go back into their session history and look at how many times they came to see me as well as how many times they got in on their own. The numbers had a pretty solid correlation, the ones that look and feel better make their sessions with me ON TIME and and they get in on their own. The ones that are having issues, well not so much. The above picture has a quote we lived by on my high school rugby team, matter of fact we went so far as to call ourselves the Power Pigs when the team was first founded.

Back to the point, you can not just be half into your fitness goals. Half-assing such things simply waste time, money and effort. You have to be mentally ready to get yourself to your goals, I'm not talking about "oh man MAYBE I should drop some weight." When there is a maybe in that sentence then you probably aren't ready. Take a stab at it if you want, but don't be too shocked when you don't see results after strolling in 15 minutes late for your session once a week. Get committed, get to lifting and you will be more satisfied with the results. When you ask your trainer or coach to give you workouts for when you don't see them, DO THEM! I promise it will pay off in the end.

Sorry not a super flashy post today, just something to get the engine back up and running. Hoping to not let work, rugby and my 3 fantasy football leagues take up too much time (I think I might have a serious condition concerning fantasy football). Take care all, go out and get after it today.

Bar Anyone?

Yes I knew I'd get a few of you alcoholic's to click through on this one, well I bet I did at least. Been a bit since I've gotten into here, things are getting busy for me and my new workouts provided by one of my teammates have been destroying my legs. For that matter they've been beating me up all around. I'm really a fan of them as far as the design and outline of them, just not a super fan of how they make me feel. It is just six of the bigger lifts, most of which involve a barbell, at least two on each day. There are several big names out there that are fan's of the two-bar minimum, actually pretty sure most are fans of it. Usually it's a matter of if it's sensible and the big IF the trainee is ready for that mark. Posted pictures of what the set up looks like for each workout.

Day 1 and Day 3 Set Up

At this point this summer I've back off the mobility work just a bit, god knows I needed it this winter and I know you are cringing and shaking your head right now Mike, gotta be done for the time being. I get my warm ups and a few quick, and I mean quick, mobility exercises in before I get after this monster, that's it for the mobility. Power and brute strength is what rugby requires and that's what we are staring at with this short list of exercises for my final pre-season program before the spit starts flying. Squats, Deadlifts, Cleans, Snatches, Push Press, Bench, Box and Broad Jumps...nothing fancy that would get Ben Bruno out of his seat, but it's getting the job done.

Day 2 and Day 4 Set Up

I am going to pick on my teammate and pretty much any strength coach that gives out a plan like this for their summer programs. The problem I have when you just assign exercises blindly, or damn near it, you are just assuming everyone has the correct mobility and can do the lifts with the right form. Now every coach is nit picky about something to a degree about these lifts, but there are certain ranges of mobility that everyone NEEDS. Deadlift, squat, clean and snatch are all lifts that can be bad news without the correct mobility and some monitoring. With these big blanket programs that get put out there is potential issue of injury, not every athlete that's lived in the weight room is still going to know what to do if they lack the mobility for these. There's a short list with end results for each solution to this issue; get smart and find someone to help you with these lifts/get a program designed for YOU, try them on your own and your mobility is great so there's little to no issue, try them on your own with compensation issues with an injury in season, try them on your own with compensation issues without an injury in season, try them on your own with an injury while training or do nothing. Now there's only three options that get you through healthy and two of them are pretty much based on genetics and dumb luck.

Got a little cynical at there, but don't get my wrong I'm loving/dreading my lifts, I just happen to be fortunate enough I know enough and know the right people to help me with it. Most people's response is 'why don't you just ask the coach for help?' That is the right question to ask, but you know the problem is you won't even ask the coach the question(s) that need to be. Message of today is be smart and ask questions, the worse case after that is you are back where you started.

Have a good one folks, go out and get after it today!

Hazards of An Every Day Job

Every time I get stuck sitting at the desk at work I really am not enjoying it. Whether it's covering the desk to help the staff, writing this blog or doing some research, really try not to let myself stay in the chair for longer than 20 minutes or my body just stops liking me. Afterwards I get up stiff and in need of a big stretch. How in the crap people do this daily for hours on end baffles the holy god out of me. I know a bunch of people have hit on this subject, but I wanna join the club and put my 2 cents in.

Is this really an exaggeration?

Here are the top 3 issues that occur in today's cubicle dwellers.

-Low back pain: Almost every desk jockey that I train and do an assessment on has some sort of low back issues. With the legs flexed and the hamstrings constantly firing it's going make the hammies short and stiff, tilting the pelvis. Mix in some poor posture with the typing and driving done for the majority of the day and voila you have yourself a really sore and tight lower back causing back pain. The problem also occurs because you are no longer using your glutes, you are just sitting on them, this I know I've hit on before so I won't beat a dead horse. Just get up, move around so you aren't tight and make sure to use those glutes at the gym, lunges, squats, dead lifts, bridges, OK I'm done.

-Poor T-Spine/Shoulder Mobility: Generally the 2 will go hand in hand for this population, not always though. It is possible although rare to have one and not the other. With constant reaching down and forward the pec minor muscles just grow tighter with each day at your desk. Group your glenohumeral joint probably being slid forward along with all those great bench presses that you do WHEN you actually get to the gym and you now are looking more like Quasimodo with each passing day. It's all fixable but generally people are a little ticked when I tell them that we need to mobilize their thoracic spine before we can do any sort of bench because they are so jacked up. Won't hurt to do some sort of row or pulling motion instead of the push-ups or bench at the gym either.

-THE GUT: This one is especially aimed at the gentlemen out there, but the lady's are susceptible to similar issues as well. Face it you are in sedentary life style if you are working an office job, no way around it. The second you stop leaving time for the gym is the second that you start to grow this bad boy. It's a very slippery slope once this happens, especially as we get older. Remember the line about the chocolate shake from Big Daddy? No? OK point being as you get older those donuts you bring in for everyone as a nice gesture don't metabolize as easily and get stored as fat. Same for pretty much all the junk food you eat during the day, including that Captain Crunch you took from your kids this morning.

I've said it before, something is better than nothing, but if you are going to leave the time and burn it at the gym, do something that's useful. Minus the gut issue most college students likely end up with some of the above, but they are younger and it can be resolved much easier. The time it takes a 45 year old male pull out of that nasty forward shoulder rotation is at a fraction for a young 22 year old male. The whole point of this is...?? Sit with good posture, get in the gym and do some pulling with your legs and upper back and put down the doughnut.

Have a good hump day all, go out there after you get done reading this and get after it!

Stronger Means Better At Life

I'll try to make this a fairly quick but hopefully useful and to the point post today. I moved all my crap out of my apartment this past weekend, not exactly a great weekend. Honestly unless you are bat shit crazy then you probably aren't a huge fan of moving either. With Catherine's help we got it done in about 8 hours. We did as much as possible until about 10 PM Saturday night (5 hours), got up Sunday morning and finished the job (3-4 hours).

How this relates to strength training is pretty easy. Say I'm picking up a bureau that weighs 300 lbs+, split that between 2 people and it's 150, depending on which end you get stuck going down the stairs with. Doesn't sound like much, but you'd be surprised how many people have a hard time getting that much weight up off the ground in any fashion. To the point, if you don't do any sort of strength training then everything is going to feel like an anchor off of the Titanic.

Catherine and I both strength train for our various reasons and I can guarantee you, with the way we had to do some pretty odd maneuvers with some of this furniture because of the odd corners, a lesser pair would've had an issue trying to finish the job. The different angles we had to work with incorporated pretty much all of the main exercises that should be included in a solid strength program, presses, pulls, squats, deadlifts (grip strength much???) and the like. Throw in some core for stability and you've pretty much hit it all.

We were both pretty gassed either way you slice it but since we've both been in the strength game for a bit we didn't have too much soreness, or tightness to speak of. Again the average joe and jane would have not wanted to move for 5 days. Moral of this story is, yes it is better to be strong for several reasons, and because those of us that do this shit day in and day out we are going to suck less at life than the ones that don't.

An early Happy Independence day to all and go out there and get after it so moving sucks just a little less!

Saving Your Knees from A Push Press

Well hey to all those weary Bruins fans out there that stayed up late last night only to watch 18 seconds of what-the-hell-was-that chaos? I will say it was one of the wildest endings to a Stanley Cup final I've seen for awhile. What is with Chicago and these crazing endings, 3 years ago Kane scores the game winner and no one knew it but him and a few other because the puck got stuck in the net under the padding. Last night...well if you didn't watch I'll let you watch sports center and see the highlights. Everyone can now start sleeping like a normal human, hopefully. Despite my foolish lack of sleep from staying up I'm feeling a good post today.

I'm going to start this with a question, when is it really a good idea to put your knees over your toes and bear weight on those toes? I'm willing to bet most people with a working brain cell or 2 will tell you never! Second question I have is, if we teach the Deadlift, the Squat, the Clean, the Snatch as well other variations of these exercises to start with hips back and push through the mid-foot or heal, why is it that we have people bombing the push press? I can look on you tube for push press or anything similar to it and 9 out of 10 videos the demo will have the trainee/trainer push their knees forward to start the movement. WHY??? Hurts my knees watching it, especially when it's with heavy weight. I know some people are going to call me out on this and say I'm being too picky or that I am an idiot, either of those might be true. Even if those are so, I'm going to teach it this way, because if you haven't figured it out I worry about knees a ton, mostly because the pair I have are going to need replacing at some point according to my Doctor, AWESOME. Maybe it's an over reaction, but I'm going to do everything to prevent that and in turn I'm going to help anyone I can keep there's as long as possible too.

After that is all said some of you were probably scratching and wondering what in the Holy Hand Grenade is a push press? Push press is an over head pressing variation that enables those that don't have the strength to do a traditional over head press to do exactly that. By using your legs just a little bit to get the weight up. As I said before people botch it, perhaps the person shouldn't be doing the movement in the first place (check out the recent T-Nation article by Tony Gentilcore on over head presses). More to the point if you can over head press and it's not hazardous to your health, let's get you started, and I like this movement to get started with some of my clients, not all, but some.

I've posted video below on mistakes people make doing a push press and how I teach it, the right way. Let's be real, everyone has little things here or there for every lift on how they want it done. As long you are consistent and keep the basics in line, you and you're clients/athletes should be fine, so like I said this is how I teach it.

First video is pretty much the way I teach it and want it done. Pay attention to the green line and how forward my knees slide in each video. This one not too far if it all, others, well it's not pretty lets just go with that.

This next video there are 2 issues, 1 is the knees, you'll notice them, they come far too forward for what I would want. The 2nd issue is that each rep is not distinct, the reps flow together which is wrong to me. It's a power movement, you can not be explosive and have the reps flow together, you won't see a (Good) power lifter try to flow together cleans as if they were one rep, so why would you do it for this? Next case...

Third video the main issue is the knees, but I also have an issue with some people making this into too much of a squat to press, honestly if you want to do a push press and call it so, just be consistent in what you're calling it and how you are coaching it.

Final video the main issue is the press itself, it's an over head variation, not an in front of head, ruin my shoulder and back variation. When you don't finish a press over head you are more likely to look to arch your back to make it some sort of deep incline press with your chest (which is helping, but not as much). Good cue that I've used is elbow in line with the top/back of ear, varies from person to person.

Again make sure you have shoulders healthy enough to do this without ruining yourself, if you have no clue, seek out a (good)local fitness professional. Enjoy the videos guys and I'll be back for more later this week. Until then go out there and get after it!

Glutes and More Jumping and What the Big Deal Is?

I've survived the first week on my diet and haven't killed anyone, although I did come close. My brain is adapted to what I've deprived it of and what I'm supplying it with for food and nutrients. Won't go into a ton of detail right now about it, plan on writing about it at the end of the month when I've experienced the full effects and have the results of how it went for me. For now on to the subject of today's matter.

Awhile back I wrote a post about glutes and some of the exercises you can do for them. Those of you that have read more blogs than my own or have been training for awhile now have probably heard quite a bit about glutes. Also if you've had an injury you probably couldn't stop hearing about glutes, or if you are a desk jockey with the standard problems that come with it you've heard about them too. Glutes glutes glutes...what the hell is the obsession with butt's you're probably wondering? Well it's much more than how nice looking some of them are.

Glute strength solves a number of high frequency issues, number one in my assessment is back pain. The glutes and the core muscles are, for the most part, your ticket to a healthy and pain free back. The glutes are a major contributor out of 3 that most consider the driving force in your posterior chain, the other 2 being hamstrings and erector spinae. At first I use to think the posterior chain was essential just in sports, then I got real smart real quick and realized it's essential for life. Think about every time you go to bend over and pick something up and potentially expose your back to injury? The second your glute strength dissapears is the second your hips start to go all out of whack and your hips are pretty damn important clearly. They are that crossover point between your lower body (upper leg) and upper body (lower back), so if those are messed up, something will be in pain, I promise.

As I mentioned glutes and hips have a ton to do with sports, for example, think back to when you were first starting sports, and I'm gonna use football for this example since I played it and I think it translates the best. Those that played, when you first started out, do you remember when you were first learning how to tackle and the coach told you to watch the ball cairrers belt, aka their hips, because that was the only thing wouldn't move unless they were in fact going that direction? Case and point, you can not move without your hips. Obviously the really good ones could get those to move and still make you miss and look foolish. Hips are also a huge source of power for athletes, if you can get those to generate force you will do some damage. Any time you are trying to go from flexion to extension, it's your glutes that are (or at least should be) driving you to that point.

Guess He Forgot That Advice

Going from there to the next subject, broad jumps, great exercise for producing and measuring your power without loading up weight on your body. The power in a broad jump is produced mainly through where?? That's right you guessed it, glutes and hips. Starting to notice the theme yet? 

My buddy Mike has written a ton of crap about box jumps, it's all good stuff, so I am gonna take a page or 2 out of his book, because there are so many similarities between the 2 moves. The idea with broad jumps, in really simple terms, is to throw your hips forward as far into extension as you can be and still land without making your knees (or anything else for that matter) crumble. Below we got do's and many don'ts concerning a broad jump.

First video is pretty much what you should look like when you perform a broad jump. Land without killing yourself and make it look athletic. Land in the same position you jumped from.

Second video looks pretty much the same to the first one to the untrained eye. Take a listen to how loud  my feet hit. I did this video on a wood floor so you could hear it. Landing like that just makes my knees and hips hate me for doing it. Simply put it's not a good idea and a good way to put unnecessary stress on your joints.

Third video involves way too much pressure on the toes. Another great way to make your knees hate you and your jump. The main contact points in your broad jump should be mostly between the ball of your foot and your mid-foot (yes there is a difference).

Fourth video hopefully everyone is starting to pick up on what I've been putting down here. I landed so heavily on my heals I almost fell on my ass. I'm sure a good number of you were hoping I would so you could have a good laugh at me. Sorry to disappoint you guys.

Last video simply has no counter movement and looks about as athletic as John Goodman. No counter movement means your jump will be pretty short and pretty ugly, and this one was.

Moral of the story is if it looks ugly and not athletic then it probably is wrong. My advice to those that are having any of these issues is to cut down the distance on the jumps and focus your technique. Again make it look athletic, it'll save you lots of pain.

Wrapping it all up, this is just one little example of where your glutes come into play in sports. Remember also that they are important for healthy living too. Next time your trainer says that they are going to work on activating your glutes or strengthening them, maybe you can now be a little more excited knowing that they are in fact looking out for your health concerns.

Have a good day all, go out and get after it today!

Injury Update and Round Backs Are Not Your Friend

Hey it's June, never thought we'd make it here after Nemo but we did it guys! Hockey is getting down to the nitty gritty, although I'll say from just a hockey fan in general's perspective, it's been a pretty disappointing pair of series, both are one sided to this point and none of the games were that competitive. LA showed some fight last night, so there is hope yet. The good news is that whoever happens to come out of these Conference Finals I think the Final for Lord Stanley's Holy Grail will be a good one.

Real quick, and I mean real quick because I know everyone here is just so concerned with how my face is doing after my post from a few months ago. The eye is heeling fine, I will probably have a new scar to go with the one that was there from when I was just a little guy (me little?? I know not possible). I made it through the season without reopening it thanks to my scrum cap and some vaseline...keep your mind here guys come on. I'm not any prettier but I'll be fine, still going to be healing for up to another year or so.

Now that everyone can relax knowing that my health is in good shape I'm going to get into one of those posts about something really dumb I've seen a number of people do here while working out. Not so much of a rant, call it more charity, free advice on how to not have your spine turn into dust while doing a deadlift, and if you haven't guessed it from the title,we are talking about rounded backs.

The last few days while either I was working out or while training clients I've noticed a good number knuckleheads doing a variation of the deadlift (one was trying to turn it into a power clean and yeah I'm not getting into that because it will get me way too fired up and it's too early for that). Back to the point, most of these lifts were just asking to be put on the operating table for a back issue. Flat back is a safe back guys and none of these people had one, even on their warm-up sets, oh boy!

Seriously Don't Look Like This Cheesebrain

I know there will be someone reading this that's going to want to jump all over me like a fat kid on fried twinkie "Pavel deadlifts with a rounded back" or the like. News flash champ Pavel has been at this for way longer than most of us, including some of the better known pro's out there like Eric Cressy, Dan John and Dean Somerset (note that none of these guys are into the hump back thing either). He also freaking deadlifts 900+ pounds. Pretty sure no one can keep a completely rigid back on that one and if you can sorry I don't have a trophy for you. Not everyone gets a trophy!

Let's just try this, unless you are doing deadlifts for record numbers and have been doing so for decades, keep a flat back, brace your core and lower back, and use your hips. No more using your lower back and no more turning it into a dead-squats, makes me wanna shove a hot iron in my ear when I see it. Mobility is restricting you from deadlift correctly? Do some mobility drills and elevate the deadlift for a spell, sounds good yes? OK so no more asking to get on the operating table by deadlifting with a rounded back.

Have a good one kids, go out there and get after it, the weather is beautiful, no reason not to!

The Deload It's a Love/Hate Thing

Bit of a break in the posts, my apologies again, it should be more consistent the next few months because sadly rugby is over. I'm not going to lie this was an absolutely brutal season on my body. The lack of consistency in games for me was what beat me up the most, my body would be use to getting thrown all over and then it would have a week or 2 off and have to be use to it all over again. In the end it was a triumphant one as we took home the New England Championship for Division 1. Hands down, so I've heard, best match I played was the championship game for the trophy. The idea is to peak at the end of the season right? I guess that worked out. We lost this past Sunday in our national playoffs so unless you're one of those crazies that play 7's in the summer then it's time to hit the links and get back in the gym.

Just the Prize Along fo the Ride

This sets up a pretty good segway into the topic of today, THE Deload. I feel like I could/should put dreaded in front of it because so many people hate it, but then again if you're like me you welcome it. To start, what is a deload some are probably wondering, I'll be happy enough to answer it to the best of my ability.

Essentially a delaod is a week built into a strength program to make sure that you don't take that turn from awesome to fail while you are in your training, some actually choose to completely take the week off because they are so destroyed from their training, it's ok now and again. This is the reason I say I could have put dreaded in front of the word deload because many hammerheads out there don't like it when you tell them to back off for a week. Then some of them go balls to the walls through it and beat themselves up any way, then they get hurt a week or so later, jokes on you fool! I actually saw this first hand up at Maine during my internship with the atheltic department. The coaches would try to dial back their training for a week and then I would catch some of these dopes in the campus recreation center trying to do their own thing. Then they wondered why they couldn't hit their target weights for the max testing, in a word....IDIOTS!

As I said a deload is so you don't collapse on the lifting platform and then your results go into the sewer, great! I'm going to try to put this in some pretty plain english, because I'm not a scientific genius by any regards, so I won't try to be, so simply your body can only handle so much at once. Countless training injuries occur from overworking your body and when you're body can no longer handle the stress it gives in and you hear a pop during a squat and oops there goes your MCL, hopefully not.

Yes the overload principle says you are suppose to overload your body, but that's just so much at a time so you can recover and get stronger. You wouldn't pack on 50 pounds to your 5 rep max, or 5 RM, and expect not to get injured on that following attempt (example current 5 RM=250, shooting for a 5 RM of 300, hopefully that made sense). Noooo you wouldn't, and if you did and you were one of my trainees or athletes I'd tell you to sit in the corner and think about what you just tried to do, ok kidding....half kidding. Should you be able to pull that off without hitting other maxes along the way, 1 I hate you and 2 hop in the phone booth and put on the super suit because there's some bad shit that could use your help. Seriously though that is simply asking for an injury and so would be not doing a deload.

How You'll Feel if You Hurt Yourself

Some of us bust our ass for those weeks prior to the deload week so when it gets there we are dropping to our knees and praying to the barbell gods that we can dial it back for the week. The best part is you are still getting stronger in that week, double whammy! Here's a secret for those that dread the deload week, you can still go heavy, but just back off the sets and reps. The big key for having a successful deload week is the volume that you do. In plain terms, volume is the actual number of reps you do.

Yeah Maine Hockey!

Just so we have a couple of examples to go over, if say you like doing 5 sets for your main lifts, then by all means do 5 sets, just dial down the reps from say 5 to 3 or 2. Now then if you would prefer to do the sets of 5 ok great then limit the number of sets to 3 or 2 even. As I said before you can make these sets easy as pie or you can go heavy, just be sure you can do it with good form. The accessory work is something you should probably dial back too, yeah it's not the main focus of your workouts, but it can still take you beyond those limits.

Hope I made sense today, any questions or concerns shoot them my way guys. Have a good one and get after it today!

Certs and Upgrading Your BS Meter

God I love this time of year, playoff hockey is in full swing with games on every night, everyone has just a tic more energy and I can go to rugby without bundling up. Trust me even on the days and nights you think it's going to be warm at practice it's not. They say for attending a rugby match take the temperature they are calling for/that it is outside, minus 10 to 15 degrees to that temperature and that determines your attire.

Recently I've been looking to add certifications to my name so I could better myself, but that's not to say that just because I have X Strength certification or Y training certification that I will be better with just the letters that come with it. I have to take the knowledge that is given to me in these courses and apply them. The certification I hold is probably one of the tougher ones to gain, mostly because you need a 4 year degree to get it. For the most part though they all equate to the same thing, maybe the only one (that I can think of at least) that's a little different is the CES (Corrective Exercise Specialist) from NASM.

Now then just because I have such certification it does not make me the cats ass automatically, it gives me a tiny bit of credibility and I belong to the NSCA through it now, but that's about all it gained me. I know people that have the same certification and to say the very least, they are absolute idiots. Some people get certifications and don't even use them or just do it to get letters next to their name. Let's put it this way, if I see letters next to your name in an e-mail or resume, like RKC (for Kettlebells) and your demonstration of a swing is shit, which you can bet your ass I would absolutely test if you were claiming to have such cert and interviewing for my company, then you now look worse than if you had never put the letters there in the first place. Sorry really long winded there.

My buddy Mike has a, what some would call, basic certification, ACE (American Counsel of Exercise), and the guy is pretty smart and is probably the best one we got here. He's smarter than me and what's-more the bastard knows it, JERK! The reason being is Mike makes himself better every day however he can, I try to do the same and any trainer worth a damn should as well.

There are ways to detect the trainers that are just out to grab your money and actually could hurt you, either way a couple things or words to amp your allergy to bullshit.

-TONING: There are few things that make me want to take a long walk off a short cliff quite like this word when I hear it. People please look up what the word actually means in a scientific article. Don't get too crazy but not something by Tracy Anderson or Jillian Michaels, THERE IS NO SUCH THING. Not in the terms you are probably thinking of at least. The more operative word or term you are looking for most likely is to firm up or drop body fat.

-BOSU (anything): I absolutely hate this damn thing, I'd rather suck on a lemon with a pulled tooth than use this thing. It got forced down my throat early in my career but then I wised the hell up. This thing has got minimal use for most of my clients. Especially when it comes to doing squats on this bastard, the risk far out weighs the reward, much like squats on a stability ball. Look below at the videos and you tell me which is going to get better results.....Done? Yeah I rest my case. Needless to say if your trainer tries to pull this thing out in the first few sessions to wow you, call BS on them and tell them no thanks.

-CURLS AND KICKBACKS: Yeah I want big arms too and I know you do too, but biceps curls and triceps kick backs are not going to give you the results you want. Maybe they will become something that you see in your programing for an off day or easy day, but you can bet the fuck not anywhere near the first few months you train with me. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I'd rather be honest with you than be Burt Wonderstone and try to take your money for nothing.

-FAT BURNING ZONE: IT DOES NOT EXIST! End of story folks. You know what burns the crap out of fat? Lean muscle tissue, not some fictitious zone that you hear about on the Chew or some other crap day time tv show.

I think that will do it now, hope todays post helps you when it comes time for you to start working with a trainer or other health professional. Go out there and get after it today folks!

No Way, That Doesn't Work?

Hello and yes I am alive, some may have thought otherwise even though it's only been maybe a couple weeks...but that's fine I'm here now. The weather is finally warm and I'm sure all of us here in the northeast dropped to our knees and sang hallelujah when they called for 60's all of this week and last weekend. I am just glad that I can now enjoy my 3-4 months of no snow for sure. We all know that there are 3 seasons in New England really, winter, celebrating winter's end and getting the hell ready for the shit to hit the fan again. I'll take option B as long as I possibly can.

Today I wanted get back on the blog track with a quick little blurb on routines and no not all of them work, there is no magic bullet and yes you need to pick up something heavier than your purse. I'm going to preface this with while I believe strength training is the best way to get yourself fit and lean like many of you want, doing something, above all else is still better than collecting bed sores on your couch.

It seems lately I've offended people by putting a big hole in their routines, I usually try to do it gently, but some people just don't quite get it through their thick skull. After that happens I usually put it on pretty thick and they are all of a sudden offended like I just kicked their dog or something. Sorry but the truth hurts sometimes guys.

Just so it's not a question, in my opinion, if you are gonna burn the hour plus at the gym that it takes you to do your workout (or at home...yikes) then why the hell don't you do something that's going to be more productive than picking up pink dumbbells, or worse P90X. Some of you know that I honestly would rather do some unmentionable things to a set of P90X discs than actually bother to put it in my DVD player. No kidding you feel more fit, you did 90 plus minutes of exercise every day for 90 days, the issues I have is A) the second you stop doing most of those exercises the benefits do too, B) you are probably going to just want to curl up in the fetal position and cry if you haven't yet because that is brutal stuff for your body, and C) what's the next progression after that 90 days??? Gotta keep going or your going to go back where you started in no time.

Heavy resistance training lasts forever, it's not an over night thing, they do call it WORKING out for a reason folks, it actually takes work. Ladies if you are wondering why the pounds are not coming off and you eat like crap and do garbage exercises like bosu squats, single leg band rows with a band that's thinner than the width of your pinky and dumbbell curls or kickbacks with pink weights, time to change.

Pick something up folks, as stupid as the guy in that commercial sounded, he got it right. Don't worry you're not going to end up looking as big of a hulk as he is. Trust me guys try to get that big and we still can't get it done that quickly. The big "lunk" was doing this shit for years and for a much longer time than you would need to get to your goals. 

Committing to a program for you ladies would most likely result in you looking closer to Hope Solo or Alex Morgan, again not over night, but in time and what's wrong with that? Being athletic is sexy, if a guy has a problem with a girl looking athletic and picking heavy shit up, either 1) he's a big ninny and is not confident in himself, or 2) he just has a different taste. There are 2 things you see in pretty much every athletic girl, a butt (which all guys love, don't kid yourself) and they're usually pretty firmed up like most of you want to be.

What's the moral of this story? Lift something heavy(er than your purse), squat to depth (and if you can't do some mobility until you can) chin-up to your sternum and eat right. Plain and simple guys, theirs no smoke screen here. Sorry just turned into a bit of a rant, but just get tired of listening to people that are astounded that they need to actually change. Change sucks but it is necessary in life and it's inevitable. Tired of seeing crappy trainers trying to play tricks on their clients to get their money also, but that's another rant for a rainy day.

Have a good day everyone, go out and get after it, Happy May Day all.

BOSTON UNITE!

"You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. ... This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

Above is the passage by Patton Oswalt, a very funny comedian that has shown that he's not just good at words to make you laugh. It was originally posted on Facebook  but since has gone more viral than that, I figured I probably wasn't going to beat it in this post so I'd give the best foot forward here.

To state it, I'm OK (clearly) and was not bodily hurt nor was Catherine. Nobody directly in my life has been hurt in the events of yesterday. To those that have been impacted directly or even indirectly I send you my thoughts and prayers. I will come out and say I myself am rattled, but at the same time I am also inspired by those first responders yesterday. We've heard some great heroing tales and I know there will be many more, deservedly so. Those stories can inspire us to be stronger people and make us better.

I was not born here and only moved here last January, but I am a Bostonian in my heart. Growing up in Maine Boston wasn't all too far away and I still felt it to be a part of me, now I call this my home. Those of you that have had your faith in humanity put into question, please just look all over the media and social networking sites to see the support that Boston is getting. I saw the picture above and it was the first thing that brought a good smile to my face, besides when Catherine walked through the doors here at the club, her work place is above Copley Mall, LITERALLY RIGHT THERE. One of her coworkers wasn't more than throwing distance from one of the blasts and the kid was quite shaken. Made me super happy to see her walking through the doors and I was put a little at ease even before that when I heard she had bumped into one of my teammates on her way here and he took care of her while she walked her, thanks Ben!

Despite all of this senseless, mindless, pointless lunacy, I know it will bring us to be stronger and keep those we hold close, tight to us, in mind and body, and be sure to tell the ones we care about we love them. Stand together everyone, this shit can not stray us, it's tough to get past, but this is a damn tough town and it can be done. I am, hell we are, forever Boston and damn proud of it!

Take care today folks, be safe and if you are with someone you care about right now, tell them so.

Just STOP, Trust Me

Who wants some more snow? Yeah I didn't think there would be too many hands raised for that one. Even if you are someone that enjoys the mountains and spring skiing, let's keep it in the mountains shall we? It's April so time for some warmer weather so I can stop packing gloves and a winter hat in my bag when I get on the train for work.

I'm a little disappointed in Monday night's NCAA Basketball Championships results as well. Anyone that's read this blog for longer than 2 days should know I am a big Michigan fan. As big of a fan I am, my heart sank pretty deep Monday, but life goes on, and apparently so does half of Michigan's starting lineup to the NBA. The great games that were from that weekend did get marred by evidence of some pretty shit coaching at Rutgers. Those of you that have been under a rock, Rutgers basketball got waist deep in shit because of a coach that couldn't contain his tantrums or his language. All leading him to ball hurling and f-bomb dropping his way to a termination, and more dominoes fell. Sometimes coaches just try a little too hard to get through and well, it back fires clearly.

The same can happen when coaching clients and athletes with exercises. Trainers and coaches, especially relatively new ones, can care a bit too much and over coach someone on an exercise. I speak from experience because I am absolutely guilty of doing this. I've learned to just take a breath and concentrate on the main points and move from there. I can give them every little detail or focus on the big picture and get the shittner done.

When coaching someone on one of the core exercises, ie squats, deadlifts, puhsups and so on, don't be a technique freak. People in general can only handle so much information at one time, once they hit that point they are now tuning you out. Big problem lies therein obviously once a client has tuned you out you've lost them and they will take some winning back over, whether it's in an hour or a month you're gonna have to put some work in to get them back to listening to you. Avoid sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher and focus on the main points that you need accomplished, if you still aren't feeling too good about how it's going, take a step back. I know some of you are thinking it's only for their safety, well if they switch off their listening, and they really start to mess up, they can't hear you and will hurt themselves anyway...hopefully that just made sense.

Some people are different and can inhale every bit of information like Fat Bastard inhales chicken, and not have panic attack or not get lost which is great, go nuts. I lean towards the simpler side, and if I know they can handle more then I'll give it to them. One thing I've found helpful is to have a solid base of progressions and regressions, with this tool in the kit I don't stand there and brain fart my way through the session. I said fart hehehe, OK not the point, being able to have an effective backup plan if things start to go wrong when learning new stuff can be the difference between losing a session and keeping things on track. Every so often, just STOP, inhale, relax and focus on the big picture and get to the small details later on.

That's all I got today folks, any questions, comments or suggestions let me know. Have a good weekend all, go out there and get after it!

Double F-K

Writing this post today in hopes that I can inspire someone out there that is or even formally was in the situation I once was in. I got myself out of that hole when it eventually became a determent to my rugby performance and starting and progressing my career.

Double F-K or FFK is former fat kid, yeah no one likes to hear it but I was exactly that, the fat kid. Of course my family and friends always did their best to affirm the "you're not fat you're just a big guy" thought. All moms think their kid is beautiful, whether or not it's true. Cartman probably put it the best, but even still I knew better. The weight went up badly and down to points where it wasn't too bad. Eventually after taking a year off from rugby because of issues where my body, mostly my knees, was just going to give in on itself, I hit my low point. I was a very large guy trying to get into the fitness industry, but no one is going to take that sort of advice from a fat guy with no strength and the mobility of an M1 Abrams.

Along came UMaine's Strength and Conditioning department, probably not too highly heralded as an athletics school, except for hockey and an OK football team every so often. What they gave me was more than a start, they really have given me my career. Otherwise I was not convincing anyone of anything fitness wise. Coach Dan Nichol and the staff got me to make a commitment to myself and to the lifestyle. My weight dropped 50 lbs in a few months and I kept it off, on top of my mobility getting better, yes it was worse than before I entered into the mobility special program. Overall I'm damn glad that I got my act together because this process of getting to be a name in this industry would have more difficult 10 fold had I not.

Moral of this quick blurb today is that you do not have to be the fat kid if you don't want to be. I've been there and it sucks, I also know though that it won't happen over night. Those of you out there that think you are just going to buy a 6 pack of sessions from your trainer, skip a couple sessions, never come in outside of that 1 session a week and then never have to stick to it again, ummm rethink? Unless you are doing lypo (not wise unless you have actually reached that point) you won't see 50, 30 or even 20 lbs come off that fast, in most cases at least.

That's all today folks, more coming this week, go out there today and get after it!

Mobility Mondays

As my roommate put it, it's a national holiday for those that compete in athletics or do a heavy lift on the weekends. This to some is better known as a recovery day, certainly something I am in desperate need of today after about 60 minutes of rugby. Being out of training and matches for 2 week certainly takes an effect on you in a bad way. Suffice to say that my everything has hurt the last couple days. Done whining onto why I do recovery days and why they are important.

-You're body won't hate you: This is pretty much the top reason I do recovery days either in season or when I'm a midst a tough off-season regiment. Going through a recovery day will help get rid of the soreness that you feel all over.

-An off-day and still doing something: Recovery days give your muscles a chance to recover, because remember now kids your muscles don't actually grow and get bigger when you workout, they do it when you're recovering. You are in fact making little tiny micro tears, so it need s chance to recover. At the same time I'm not a giant fan of complete rest with exception of Sunday, if I can help it at least. Some days you just need it, but be honest with yourself.

-You don't want to be overtrained: This over laps a bit with the first 2 I just listed but I really wanted to hit on it. Simply put you're body can not handle being pushed 7 days a week 365 days a year or you will crash and burn and then get hurt. Even if you are Superman you are going to need some non resistance training days and some complete rest days.

Below is what I usually do for a recovery day or similar:

I usually spend plentiful time foam rolling, you should too, EVERYONE should. On days like this I spend about a minute per part per side. Even if it's not super sore give it that full minute and you may well find a tender spot you wouldn't have before.

A1) Bench T-Spine Extension: 3x8
A2) Side Lying Open Book: 3x8/
A3) Quadraped T-Spine Extension/Rotation: 3x6/
B1) Dowel OHS against wall: 2x8
B2) Knee Break Ankle Mob: 2x8/
B3) Couch Stretch: 2x30s/

As you can see really not too complicated, some upper and some lower, hope this helped someone out there today. Have a good day all and get after it today...even if it's just mobility.