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.

The Respect Ladies Deserve

Happy hump-day all, it's a busy season and then not so much for me. My schedule is pretty much like a roller coaster in terms of number of sessions being trained. I slowly get more and more people on my schedule and then BOOM my numbers drop like a bad habit. Not the worst thing though, gives me a chance to take some personal time and spend it with my family. Something I feel I do not get to do enough of, but it's just how this life goes sometimes.

Today I would like to talk about my experiences with the female gender in the world of strength and conditioning and that proverbial wall that gets thrown up the first time you hand them a weight heavier than their purse. First, a story that goes well with this, I feel. A few months back Catherine and I decided that it would be good for our sanity if I was no longer writing her programs and responsible for her training, it's just one of those things that can be hard for a couple in this line of work. I took it into my hands on where she was going to train, because if I wasn't training her I was sure as hell making sure some asshat wasn't writing her programs and coaching her. She's training at a pretty good place in Hudson Mass now, maybe some of you have heard of it. OK to the point, when doing her initial consult (yeah she was nice enough to let me sit in on it) one of the first goals she gave was she wants to deadlift 300 lbs, I'm pretty sure the coach had to restrain himself from jumping out of his chair in excitement. His eyes did bug out a bit, so I noticed, can't say I blame him.

"Well why is that so damn exciting?" Because it is so damn tough to kick the freakin wall down that females tend to put up when it comes to lifting weights. I know it's been said before but there's nothing I've heard more from this particular brand of lifters than "oh but I don't want to get bulky" my thought becomes....bruh.....really? For Catherine's coach not have to take that step of getting over the notion of lifting gets you bulky, I'd have a hard time containing myself, just a bit too.

Ladies it's been said before, but I'm going to say it again, lifting does NOT make you bulky. There are 100 other things that will, lifting is not one of them. I respect the hell out of you ladies that have gotten beyond this whole mindset because there are so many still stuck on it. With that said there are more and more getting beyond it thanks to some fantastic female strength coaches out there (many of which I wouldn't go toe to toe with). I know there's many a judgment passed on you by other females (for that matter meatheaded males) wondering why you do the things you do. They then comment on how good you look, you try to get them into it for their own good, and then that hand goes up because they don't want to look bulky.  It's also not going to instantly turn you into a fitness model, honestly folks those cover girls are paying people a truck load to help them look like that for 1 or 2 days, and then go back to being a semi-normal human.

I do also understand that you ladies can not train the same as men, but you can still do many of the same things the guys do. Catherine likes to call it playing with the big boys, and she can, many of my friends and clients (former and current) can and they are a great example of ladies that have broken the notion. It makes me jump a little high each time I can knock this wall down with a female, every time a female gets beyond this notion an angel gets it's wings. As I said, the training is quite different in certain areas, different mechanical disadvantages come with the way females are put together, but it doesn't take the surgeon general to figure out how to train around these.

OK before some of you push that send button and get on my case, if you want go to the gym and enjoy your cardio, yoga, pilates, jiu jitsu or break dance fighting, GO NUTS. Really any coach that doesn't have their head completely shoved up in it will tell it's fine to do those things, IF it's not the only modality you use. Believe me just lifting doesn't do you a ton of favors unless you're a lifting athlete, which I'm not, I'm on the other end of the spectrum where I just hate cardio, but I do it. Accept the fact that doing your little quarter squat to dumbbell curl with your 5 lbs. and 10 lbs. weights isn't going to cut it. The sooner you can accept that, the sooner you will see those results you're striving for. Final note, for every time you ladies use the word toned improperly, a puppy gets kicked, so for the love of puppies and all things that are lovable, just don't.

The moral of this, if you go to a trainer and he doesn't just have you do planks and walk on the treadmill for 45 mins, then embrace it. Assuming he's good with technique and coaching you up, embrace it. The barbell will not make your waist line jump out 10 inches I promise.

That's it for today folks, go out there and get after it!