A Woman Said it Hurt to Squat...So We Squatted

I credit the idea for this post to my good buddy and mentor Mike Anderson. This one is about the value of trust and just getting the basics right.

One of my Strength Campers, as I call them, has always had an issue with her knees, to the point where she didn't like squatting, no matter the benefits. She wears knee sleeves/braces almost every class to keep the issues and pain to a minimum with exercises such as. She's been coming to classes at the facility, mine especially, for a couple years. Various other trainers, most of which are friends and are probably better than me, have tried to help, none have quite found a way to be successful. For me, the only chance I've really gotten to help her is at class. Trying to help her in the middle of a group of 6+ people is more than a challenge, for many reasons that are obvious.

About a month ago my facility was doing a training promotion and she asked me if I had time for her. Without getting too excited I found a spot for her in my schedule. My first thought was, YES some time I can focus on her solely so I can help her knees stop hating her.

She came in the next week, we did a little Q and A to discuss things she wanted, other than the obvious knee pain to stop barking at her. Next thing I did was go through my usual movement screen. I saved the squat portion until the end because I knew I was going to beat that horse dead and start burying it. She was obviously hesitant when we got to that portion.

We progressed, or in this case regressed her, to as far back as I needed to go in my regressions to get her comfortable with the idea of squatting. Passively squatting was not an issue so at least we didn't have to start too far back. We landed on just a simple squat to a bench. We used really easy things to focus on, positioning, initial movement/patterning and weight distribution. After a little glute and core activation we were doing a goblet squat to the bench. Progress was made in that alone.

What was the end result of this session? 

After she did some drills I gave her over the next couple weeks. She came to class this past week and the first thing that caught my eye, no knee sleeves, sweet! Front squats were on the docket for the day so was anxious to see how she did. 

To end the suspense....it was a million times better. Ok she didn't go to COMPLETE depth, she's still a little gun shy. If you've ever had a mental block like this you know baby steps are big steps to moving forward. That all said, I'll call what I saw a big leap forward.

There were 2 things that played into her getting over this hump, and really to a pro it's not a mystery. First and foremost is trust, no trust means anything you're spitting, goes in 1 ear and out the other. There's usually an initial level of trust with a client that walks into a session with you, building it and maintaining it is on the coach/trainer. I can be THE smartest coach on the planet, but if my clients don't trust me I will make less than 0 progress with them.

As I mentioned, this person has worked with many a trainer/coach before me and all of them were as good or better than me. Yeah trust was probably the big factor and maybe she wasn't actually ready to accept the help. Sometimes the 6 inches between your head is the issue, not a knee, or a shoulder or a foot. As I eluded to before, I'm willing to wager a big chunk of her pain with squatting, was in her head. It's not unusual for something like that to occur, trusting someone is a huge factor in this case.

The other thing that really made this session a success was we kept the exercise(s) very Vanilla, no not even French Vanilla, Vanilla! Vanilla isn't that bad, in terms of ice cream....mmmm ice cream (sorry)....and also in terms of exercising. Some people just need simple basics, especially when there is pain involved. Even those without pain need to get the basics right before you start going off and doing all these ridiculous looking exercises. Per example, if you can not get the basics to a trap bar deadlift right, I'd strongly advise against you jumping to deficit deadlifts, because that makes sense right?

The moral of this story here is, I didn't do anything super secret to help this nice lady. I gained her trust and made sure that she was getting the basics of squatting right. Outside of those things, soft tissue and activation work isn't brain surgery. Don't over do it when the simplest things will win the day for you folks.

That's all I got today guys. Once again I hope I helped even one person, I'll call it a win if so. Go out there and get after it!

Consistency: A Big Key in Achieving Results

Many have gone through that phase in their training or anything else really, that takes work. You know the phase I'm talking about too; you are so excited and are going to be all about reaching this goal. You buy a gym membership, lock it in for a year, or better yet hire a trainer/coach, to help you get to that next size down in your wardrobe. You go to the grocery store and get all the right foods. When you get home you set out your schedule and plan to go 5-7 days a week for the remainder of eternity.

This is more or less what Dan John refers to as the Bus Bench mentality where you are expecting goals by a certain time. This is a great mentality to have...probably twice a year, when everyone else has them. It's perfectly fine to do it, I did it for a month doing a low carb diet approach to cut my body fat down before rugby season. Even when everyone else is doing it you don't have to try to be too cool for school and not take this approach. The problem is if you're gun ho for longer than 3-4 weeks, you WILL burn out and lose the drive. It's just facts and no I don't have any research off hand to prove this to you beyond just telling you. The only evidence I have is that I've seen it and experienced it.

My most recent experience with this is via a client that's been training with me since May. In reality this isn't too long, but 5-6 months is long enough that some changes should be noticed. Some have occurred (135x3 for a back squat's not bad for a novice trainee), but she feels that maybe there should be just a bit more changing. This is where most good coaches and trainers should start to dig into the problem, slowly and methodically.

I started my digging, at first she put up a decent wall and either avoided the questions or gave a nothing answer. I decided to let it be because she didn't show many signs of changing her answers or desire to cooperate, and I didn't want to upset her.  Five or ten minutes later I asked her a general how are you feeling questions and the epiphany came to her, which she promptly told me. She told me in not so many words that she had been inconsistent with everything outside our sessions. She made it clear that there were times she was on top of things and very on point, other times very much not so. To make the jump to be more consistent we established one new habit for her to start with that will improve her consistency, especially with her diet.

This is the part where I get to the lesson I wanted to convey. There are very few people that can sustain the 100% record of being on point, never wavering from sessions and keeping their diet clean, cold turkey. You have to build one little thing on top of the other, start with little things, like the habit my client and I talked about, and once those have become easy to maintain start working the next little thing. The level of retention with an approach like this will be a gazillion times better than going, pardon my french, balls out for 4 weeks. Probably a solid, unscientific, 90% of the time going with the blitzkrieg method ends up sending you back to the old ways for another 4 weeks or more because it just simply isn't sustainable for a normal human.

This constant back and forth or up and down that can occur will cause what some have termed, the rebound effect. Most have heard of a weight lost show with SHE who shall not be named. I encourage you to do some digging on this show, specifically the participants. You'll find out that a super high amount of the participants in this balls out boot camp they're put through have put the weight they lost back on, some even MORE. To the ones that manage to keep it off after that, I applaud you and will say that you are the rare, lucky few that managed it. The case and point here is even shows that have the best professionals (term used very loosely here) can't keep their participants healthy for a long extended period of time with this gun ho approach.

Sorry Bears fans....I know the truth hurts

For those that don't have the type of will and luck to stave off the rebound, but still want the help, it is possible and there is hope. First off find a knowledgable trainer or coach, preferably not someone with an internet/weekend certification (reference one of my posts here about smelling the BS or several articles written by the likes of Mike Robertson and Tony Gentilcore about figuring who the good ones are). Once you've found your new best friend for the near future, maybe you're lucky enough and you're new friend has a certification like Precision Nutrition, JACKPOT. No panic needed if that's not the case, most guys and gals worth their salt with have someone that they can recommend so you can up your nutrition game. Once you have put all the right ingredients in place, in the words of master Yoda, patience you must have my young padawan, things will not happen in an instant. After 4 weeks if you don't feel different, at the very least, something's off and you need to communicate this with your experts.

So let's recap everything that we just hit on here:

• "Bus Bench" approaches are ok, everyone so often (6 months give or take)
• Consistency will win the day
• Changes will not occur over night
• The Chicago Bears are pretty terrible

That's all I got today guys, go out there and get after it.

My Evolution of Boot Camp to Strength Camp

It's a class most people are attracted to because it's usually intense and tough and it leaves you sweaty and beat. This makes those that aren't in the know think that it's THE best class out there for them. My thought is, and I know I'm not alone, that just because something makes you tired and sweaty doesn't mean it's going to be the best thing for you. The class is usually called Boot Camp, there's also been many other names you've probably seen, Muscle Blast, Muscle Shred, High Intensity Eliminator, Juiced Up Roid Rage Muscle Building and so on.

I currently teach a class at the facility on Friday at 6 AM for an hour that was named as a Boot Camp, and I love teaching it, but it has underwent a ton of changes since I got my hands on it and here is what it was and what it has turned into.

I inherited this particular class from a friend and colleague when she left here to pursue her next adventure. My first time with this class was a bit of an adventure, I made the mistake of not really putting together any sort of schedule or list of exercises I wanted to do that day, BIG mistake, not my last either. My first couple months working with this class mainly consisted of a dynamic warm-up, then varying amounts of stations that I would do for varying times, really turned into a more cardio based thing than anything. None of this is so bad because at the very least I wasn't hurting anyone, but I also wasn't give the attendees really anything that was worth them getting up for 6 AM. I thought to myself, I hate this circuit high intensity crap, why am I making anyone else do it for almost 60 minutes? I knew I was way smarter than this and I was really good at getting people strong. There had to be a better format.

I began to take notice that the free weight area of the gym was fairly empty at 6 AM on Friday's (shocking right?), so I started to figure out some better things to do with the workout, and I also started a crawl series once I learned the value of them (tired and sweaty anyone?). I would bring the class over to the free weight area and show them 3 exercises to go through and then let them go and coach them. We'd do a 2nd set of 3 exercises and if we had time do some cardio/conditioning at the end. I soon discovered the next set of problems. I found people couldn't remember the exercises I gave them verbally, I didn't feel like the grouping of the exercise was well balanced and the end of the workout was pretty much the same thing all the time, some variation of sled work.

Finally in the last 6 months to a year I feel like I've reached the point where it's balanced, effective, fun and I feel like those that show up get everything they deserve for getting their butts here for 6 AM, especially when it is the dead of winter (I know sorry for the painful reminder). I've invested in a pack of dry erase markers to write on the mirrors so no one is asking what the exercise is, assuming they don't need me to coach them on it, which I'm glad to do when the opportunity rises. I bought myself a notebook so I can plan out in advance at least 3-4 weeks of the class so I can make sure I'm not training the same movement more than needs to be.

Interested in what the class format looks like? Well I'm glad you've stuck around this long because I'd rather share and hope it helps someone not make the same mistakes I did.

Part 1 (Usually takes about 15 minutes)

• Dynamic Warm-Up
• Crawl Series-Usually consist of about 6 or so crawls
• Band Walks-Either "Monster Walk" or "Shuffle"

Part 2 (Lift Prep)

• Breathing-1 set of whatever breathing exercise I deem appropriate that day
• CNS Activation -Either a jump variation or a MB toss/slam variation
• Any additional mobility/warm-up I may see fit for the workout that day

Part 3 (A Block)

• Big money multi-join lift-grab a bar and lift some heavy stuff
• Either glute or scapular activation-whichever is more related to the lift that day
• Core work-most every lift we perform requires a little extra attention with this

Part 4 (B Block)

• Accessory work-usually single arm or single leg work is the first one of this group
• Either another core exercise or maybe an upper body exercise if the A Block exercise was a lower exercise and vise versa
• Sometimes there will be only 2, but if there is a 3rd you bet your mortgage it will be a carry variation. If there's no carry here then it will make a showing in the final part.

Part 5 (Finisher)

• Probably the area I've made the most progress in, I'll mix this up every week. I've done density work here, I've done some circuit work, tabatas, bike sprints, carries and so on. It's also something I put in my notebook so I don't repeat the same 3 things over and over.

All in all I'd say the class has been effective, the cherry on the icing is that we changed the name last year to, you guessed it, Strength Camp. Seriously now, who wouldn't want to get their butt up before 6 AM to come hang out with this guy at a Strength Camp? Seriously it's a great class so if you're in the area shoot me a message and I'll arrange it so you can come in and give it a shot, provided you're game for a 6 AM gym session.

That's it for today everyone, until next time, go out there and get after it!

I Done Gone Messed Up

It's amazing how a few years can change you. No one thinks about how long that actually is when you're in your 20's and how much change can occur in that period compared to say when you're in your 60's. Yeah I know I'm still a pup, or so I've been told. I've still gone to a new level of understanding that I'm not sure some people reach in this field, maybe ever. The unfortunate part of this is, I already thought I was at this high level a couple of years ago and I was quite wrong...quite. It's taken me that couple of years to understand, I mean REALLY understand that I need to push myself to be a high level, which I'm not yet, not to mention you have to stay hungry and keep that fire lit. Once you think you get it, you get yourself slapped across the face with a couple of heavy doses of reality that feel like a frying pan swung by Big Papi.

Of course there are many more mistakes to be made and learned from than just this simple assumption when you are first training. I think it is worth noting the places I screwed up and the things I've gotten wrong, both in my thoughts I've posted here and things I've said in person. Who wants to have some fun and poke at Jarrod for a second? Ok let's go

• My first 2 posts here and here. I'm not really sure why the guy couldn't put his elbows together, but I'm pretty sure my logic was off a bit and I'm still not 1000% sold on specified corrective exercises as opposed to good movement in basic exercises.

• This one I'm not even sure any of those video clips are good examples except for maybe the last one. My shoe game was pretty atrocious at this point too.

• First post that had a video in the new place, umm yeah, what the hell Jarrod?

• So people don't think I'm just going after my obvious old self, I'll nitpick this one here. The bell should probably be at chest height at it's HIGHEST, but only IF your lats are tight enough. Are the ALL CAPS points getting to you yet?

• Finally I'll call myself out on this, I posted the last couple times about not trying to make the seminar you're attending the last one you'll ever have to. I use to do that with books and videos when I was in school and started learning about it. I use to think whatever book or video I just read/watched was how it should be done to the letter. Boy was I wrong about that, but the good news is I wised up.

Now that you've all heard me say, I was wrong, you can have a laugh and give me a little shit when you see or talk to me next. Possibly even you think there's other things you want to be so kind to point out that I screwed up on...awesome let's talk! That's the end of it today folks hopefully I've given you something to do while you're cooped up at work on this nice Thursday. Go out there and get after it!

Providence Take II

Second time around isn't always AS good as the first, usually it's a little better or a little worse. In regards to the Perform Better Summit held in Providence (also 2 other locations) for me it was better than the first. This past weekend I got a great chance to see some of the best in the business speak and mingle with them a bit. Those of you that haven't been to one yet and are in this business then get your butt to one, they have a solid lineup every year for all 3 locations (others are Chicago and Long Beach). It's 3 days of the best there is out there, I'm even considering making the trek to one of the others next year.

A couple things I did this year as opposed to last. I did some switching up with some of the sessions I attended. Last year I went to everything I wanted to go to, whether it was a topic or one of the presenters. This year I made myself go to some sessions I needed to go to. I know I have holes in my game and there's even some stuff I'm skeptical of so I try address those this year when I went. Luckily I had a partner in crime this year, my colleague Steve, so if I felt like I missed something in the session I wanted to go to, I knew it's one he was probably going to attend so I could trade notes with him.

I managed to make myself go to the final day Sunday this year even, maybe next year I'll make it to the Thursday sessions and get the full experience. Sunday is reserved for the "rookies" as Charlie Weingroff called them, I would certainly say you can peel the rookie label right off the 3 people I saw. I'm proud to say that one of them I enjoyed the great sport of rugby with once upon a time. Topics included Postural Restoration, teaching women how to love the iron and the value of getting off the elliptical, and the ins and outs of the Paleo diet. PRI is something that's way over my head that could have a little value in learning a thing or two about. Much of my clientele is women and half the battle is teaching them that a weight heavier than the pink dumbbell won't make you look like Arnold, plenty to bed learned about that. Finally diet and nutrition alone are some things I feel a ton of people struggle with, that said something like the Paleo diet makes for an interesting topic as a general discussion, so when someone as smart as Brian St. Pierre from Precision Nutrition is presenting, I was excited to pull up a seat and listen to old Sainty on this one.

Finally a word to the wise, when you attending one of these summits, don't throw out the baby with the bath water. I have seen it with every one of these types of things that I attend, people want to just completely throw out their system and do everything exactly like one of the coaches at these. Now if your system or programming is that bad that you want to make that large of an overhaul to it, my first reaction is what the heck were you using it for in the first place? 2nd thought, more importantly, is good for you for recognizing it's not working. For those that have a system that works don't just completely overhaul everything you're doing, just make some tweaks. Paraphrasing from Ron Hruska via Mike Boyle, take the system you love and believe in and simply make it better.

That is all I have today guys, go out there and get after it.

Viada Seminar

Anyone that's seen me on the pitch....or really just known me for 5 seconds, from a training perspective, knows that conditioning isn't my favorite thing. Let's be real I pretty much despise anything that doesn't involving throwing a heavy bar on my back or in my hands and moving it, many many times if possible. Many would call this a weakness, and they'd be right. What's more is my conditioning programming use to be pretty atrocious, really no surprise there, that wasn't fair to my clients so I had to get better. I've gotten better with help from some great mentors, but I know I need more still.

A few months back a friend of mine, who was an intern at a certain sports performance company, suggested I sign up for a seminar to hear THE Hybrid Athlete himself, Alex Viada from Complete Human Performance, speak. Well I rarely ever say no to a good seminar if I know I have the time and the scratch, in this case I had both so I got myself a spot to hear him speak. 

OK so if you don't know who this guy is, he's the author of the book The Hybrid Athlete, he's a co-founder of Complete Human Performance in North Carolina and he's pretty damn good and getting people to both lift a ton of weight and run for awhile. The dude does ultra runs, yeah I'll let him do those because that's not only amazing but also maybe just a hint of crazy, he also use to power lift competitively. With all that, his methods may not be typical but they seem to be working pretty well for him and his athletes so I call his methods pretty damn good if you ask me.

Last Sunday was the seminar (I'm a bit late on the post I know I know), if for nothing else other than the stories he told about some of the events he's run, it was fantastic listening. Now obviously I wasn't just there to mesmerized by the stories of "bunking" and wanting to fall over before he could finish one of the many super long events (might've been an iron man) he had some great learning material as well. The point of my post today isn't to say everything that was discussed, after all the thing went all day so that's not happening, he did talk a brief bit about rugby so that got me all giggity for minute. The point is if you feel that cardio or conditioning or whatever you wish to call it, is a weakness for you, take it upon yourself to look up the next time he's in your area and listen to him speak or pick up his book Hybrid Athlete. I won't sit here and tell you all my conditioning issues are solved because that's just nonsense, 1 seminar (or book) doesn't mean you don't need to keep learning, but listening to him will surely give you a great start.

One thing I will touch on, since it's got a great deal to do with most people out there, running. The technique to long slow (or fast in some cases like Viada and his coaches) running certainly has some differences to the technique of sprinting. I don't think I'm too far off the mark in saying sprinting might get more picked apart by coaches than a squat.

Body position-Sprinting is taught to have some sort of forward lean, if not through the whole thing most of it. Certainly the acceleration part and sometimes the finish. Running as we'll call it here, is more about chest up and eyes forward the WHOLE time. Viada hit on that some most people look down when they're out for a run, even on the treadmill people are looking down, can't take their eyes of the Bachelor long enough, causing some people to feel tightness in their back. This is from him to me to you all, look up when you run. At full tilt sprinters lean is pretty much gone and eyes are fixed on something straight ahead so that there is a similarity.

Arm mechanics/placement-Arms have plenty to do with running, not getting into the science of how the brain works and how they're connected to your leg movement, but just trust me.  Sprinting is taught to have the arms to be carried at 90 degrees and swing at the shoulder from chin to pocket, or something similar. Running still has the arms set around 90 degrees, but more or less keep them parallel to the ground as you run and fairly still.

Leg movement-Sprinting has a pretty big stress on getting your knees up to hip height, or there about, and driving your foot into the ground to propel you forward in as few strides as possible. Running doesn't involve picking your knees up nearly as high and the number of cycles or foot strikes is high if you're a better runner, very opposites.

Foot striking-Where your foot (or feet) makes contact with the ground in terms of part of the foot varies with sprinting and running. Sprinting is almost exclusively with the ball of the foot and the foot is quite rigid in dorsiflexion when it hits. Running it's a little more loosely defined, the ideal contact place for the foot will usually, usually mind you, be somewhere mid foot, but sometimes it CAN be heal. Not always the best but if it let's you bring your foot down without sounding like your driving a nail into 2x4 piece of wood, then yeah it's ok. It should be a nice easy glide when running, very little up and down movement for your body. Chances are you're about to do this for at least 20-40 minutes, why not make it easy on your body and land soft.

To summarize, figure out whether or not you're sprinting, rugby makes Jarrod very giggity and if you want to learn how to lift heavy things AND run absurdly long distances (or the like) start listening to Alex Viada and what he has to say. That's all I got today guys, go out there and get after it.

The Talk

Happy almost weekend gang, yes I am back with another post. This will be a fun one for me to write about. It's not just about picking things up and putting them down either. Last week I got a chance to give one of those talk dealies. Man you should have seen the turn out for this thing, so many people looking back at me. Ok really it was about 20 people but still for my first talk in front of more than a couple people, most of which I don't know, it wasn't bad. The company I work for does one in service for the whole company once a year (believe me I personally wish it was more, but you take what you get sometimes), and they asked from a select group within the company to give a talk. I gladly raised my hand for this chance to share my thoughts.

I have got a pretty good handle on my programming with a few years under my belt. Things like how to do an assessment and things to look for during their assessment, and how to program to get around the limitations and issues. I know there are many out there that aren't quite so comfortable with these things as I am, new pros and old, so I decided I'd do my part to show them the ways.

Well what did I show them and talk about?

Assessments

(Overhead) Squat-Looking for things like proper ankle mobility, range of motion aka depth, thoracic spine mobility and all the other kinks you can find.

Hinge-I mostly just look for range of motion, balance and get a general sense of where to possibly start a client off when selecting a hinge exercise.

Shoulder-There are probably 20 different things to assess and look for when it comes to the shoulder. Basics I look for are t-spine mobility, scapular movement as it relates to the shoulder and clear them of any noticeable impingements and pains.

Movements

Squat-Most people are familiar with this motion and the majority of the progressions that go with it.

Hinge (Deadlifts)-My favorite, although it's been declared more super hero than super villain as of late some still struggle with form and how to properly progress and regress this movement.

Push (Vertical and Horizontal)- Most people are well acquainted with the military and bench press for this movement, apart from switching between incline and decline, dumbbells and barbell most don't know much else. Quite honestly there isn't a huge need to go much beyond those ones because some can't quite get those down. It is however always good to know some different variations for those who probably aren't ready to press over head.

Pull (Vertical and Horizontal)- Pretty much everything I've said above can apply here, apart from the fact that there probably should be more pulling than pushing for the every day 9 to 5er due to their atrocious daily posture.

Carry-Possibly has developed into my second favorite movement in recent times, both for myself and my clients. Carries (should be) low impact axially loading the body, and when you have clients that are becoming more and more worried about osteopenia and osteoporosis this is a great tool in the belt to have. Most know the farmer's walk, but outside of that there's other basics like a suitcase carry, rack (+ 1/2 rack) carry and goblet carry I find very useful as well.

How did it go might be the next question.

Truthfully it went really well, of course I lost my train of thought which caused me to skip over some points I wanted to make, but it wasn't anything drastic. The audience could have been way more resistant to the things I was saying, which would have made my first talk of this variation very very difficult. The one thing that surprised me was my nerves weren't through the roof. Maybe those that were around me can remind me what I may or may not have done that day so I can repeat it and keep me from getting nerves when I'm trying to avoid them.

That's all I got today folks, hopefully I get to do one of these again, talks not posts those are still coming to the best of my ability. Have a good weekend all, go out there and get after it.

Where I've Been, Chi-town and Starting with Why?

Greetings from the great beyond everyone. Alright yeah I'm Boston and not lost, I've just been pretty terrible about getting on this thing and writing. No time like the present though right? I've been working on way too many things and spreading myself too thin, on top of the fact, let's face it I've been a little lazy too. My training schedule was treating me a little funny where I'd have breaks, 30 minutes here and there and then be busy until I went home. By the point I get home I'm usually spent and just want to check out and fall asleep. Couple great seminars coming up I'm attending this summer so my brain isn't rotting I promise.

In the mean time I have traveled to and returned the city of Chicago for my first time. Went on this little adventure to surprise my good buddy Alec. It was amazing to explore this city this past weekend with some locals as tour guides. The picture below is from the Chicago River when we took a little self-guided tour on an electric boat. Yeah it kind of felt like we were a bath toy compared to other boats on the river, but it worked and we had a great time. When the sun went down the city was lit up and it was a fantastic view.

OK enough of the non-pertinent stuff; I was stuck in a car for 4 hours last week driving up to Maine and back, it was a day I didn't train, but I still wanted to get something done. I decided to listen to some podcasts by some of the best in business and came out of it with some good ideas, and a couple book recommendations. One of the was Simon Sinek's Start with Why, it's not directly training related, but there's some great lessons and ideas to take from it that absolutely apply to any field, but especially to training. Using examples of people like Steve Jobs, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Bill Gates, Herb Kelleher and John F Kennedy, he goes through the importance of inspiring people and ways of going about it, rather than manipulating. 

I'm about two-thirds through it (audible helps slow readers like me) I've gotten some fantastic stuff, and also it has confirmed to me that I have done things in (some of) the right ways and for the right reasons. Anyone that is in this industry could certainly afford to pick this up, even if you do not plan on taking a management/ownership role at any point. To be honest I wasn't sure I ever would take up a role like those, but low and behold I am here now. Just so everyone understands I don't often just pick up a book (non-training related) at the drop of a hat very often, but I'd heard of this book from other people and I'm happy with what I've gotten out of it.

Not a long one, nor super training related post today, but just trying to get in the flow of things here. I will be making it a habit to post once a week, so until next week at least, go out there and get after it.

Because I Care

Happy Tuesday all, finally no snow over the weekend. OK no snow storm to speak of at least, we even had a small heat wave here in New England hitting the 40s, woo break out that sun block. We are still dealing with much of the aftermath from the last few weeks here in greater Boston with commuting issues, maybe you've heard about it. Today I'm going to bring up 2 conversations/comments I've had with people in recent memory here that really drive home, for me, what it's about in this line profession.

A few months back I was here at the facility in Brookline and I had a not too long, but not too short list of programs to write for clients and some friends I had offered to help with their training. A Manager asked me if I enjoyed writing programs for all those people. Why didn't I just try to book more sessions with some of these people instead of giving them something to do outside the 1 time I usually saw them?

Well let's get into that, first of all I don't make the decision on who comes to see me and how often, although I do have a little room to be a bit choosier on exactly who comes to see me now, but for the most part the clients pick the trainer, time and frequency. I'm not forcing training down anyone's throat because, quite simply, I'm not that aggressive with the salesy stuff, my work speaks for itself.

Second is YES I do like writing programs. There's definitely something twisted in my head about coming up with various ways of torture..OK kidding...sort of. Seriously I do enjoy the challenge that comes with trying to come up with a program for all the different types of people come in to see me. A symptomatic shoulder impingement here, an upper cross syndrome there, I want to get stronger, a new hip and the list goes on. The building blocks are usually standard; squat, hinge, push, pull and carry, but the little adjustments and tweaks are always the fun part.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS GUY!

Last point on this comment, I write the programs because if someone is training with me just the once a week, chances are the once a week is all they can afford. I want them to be able to get the most out of their sessions and time with me, it makes it more worth their buck and I know (most) clients appreciate when efforts as such are made. Does every one of them follow their programs to the letter? I'd bet the farm on no, but I'm sure they give it what they got and try to get it done so they can see the results they want and feel better.

Let me just get this out there before I get too into this post. In all honesty, in this guy's opinion, if you are in this, or any field, JUST for the money, you are in it for the exact wrong reasons bub. Phew OK I feel better now. Stuff makes my blood boil sometimes.

Now then, the other thing that sparked this post, is a conversation I had with a now client about training and cost and so forth. The person had some big goals that they really wanted to hit this year, but the cash flow is really low for them. I told them I will work with them in any capacity I can to help them. I started them off with a program we had gone over together. I told them to work through it and in a few weeks come back and we can find a way to get them to where they want to be, even if it's just a once a month check in.

This is simply a case where I want to help this person, but they have limited means for it. For me, because it's not about the money and it's about the feeling of when you can help someone in life. Often times it's the people with limited means, that will work the hardest because they want to get everything out of every dollar they have dropped. I honestly believe that anyone in this field that doesn't give their best to someone, regardless of how much money is spent is (slightly) evil.

I myself truly believe I'm in this field for the right reasons, I get to help people and touch their lives with my work. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel when someone writes to me about how they've noticed the positive changes for them. Years later I still have friends and former clients able to demonstrate that they know what the heck they are doing in the gym better than the many many hammerheads in the room, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

OK that's the end of the mush ladies and gents, that's all I got for today, go out there and get after it!

Core: My Take On It

Happy Snowmageddon part II everyone. Hopefully most of you that went crazy after the Super Bowl last night woke up with a nice gift of a day off. I'm sorry I've been on a long hiatus as of late. Something I'm becoming a little too well known for recently...my bad. I have had many thoughts that I wanted to get down in some posts so I should be better now that I've gotten the first one out. Today I am addressing core, something I've yet to do on this, many other have out there, here's my piece.

My favorite method of training the core is through anti-extension and anti-rotation exercises. Planks, pallof presses and roll-outs of all kinds of sorts. Basic planks mean you should be squeezing your glutes and your lats to me. I often have clients coming to me telling me they can hold a plank for over a minute, as have many others. Cue them to squeeze their glutes and lats, if they can hold it with good form over a minute after that OK they win.

I'm not really crazy enough to believe that those exercises are enough to not get bored or address all the issues that come up with your core, not to mention it can just be plain boring. I find dead bugs, bird dogs and reverse crunches along with all their variations to be safe and effective methods for training your core. The regular old crunch...that gets tossed in the pile of no return. My reasoning is brought to you by Dr. Stuart Mcgill. Dr. Mcgill and his fantastic mustache, are found at the University of Waterloo in Canada where he has become one of the foremost, if not THE, experts on the spine. I've heard him a few times now, say that your spine has only so many flexions in it's lifespan, why use 10 more a day when there are other days? Not a direct quote, but the same time if he says it's a bad idea, I'm not challenging him with all the time he's spent looking at this stuff.

Lastly, hopefully this isn't a shocker to most of you out there. Training your core may or may not get you a 6 pack. The one place that you can earn your abs, is the kitchen. I don't have such a heavy desire for a 6 pack....I mean let's be real everyone wants one. That's not my goals for my training though. I don't want to look like the Michelin man, but my focus is on getting my lifts up and making sure I don't fall over during my sessions from exhaustion.

That's all I got today everybody, keep yourself warm and safe, and go out there and get after it...if you're not snowed in.