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!