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!