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.