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Happy Thanksgiving Post

11/26/2010

I posted another writeup before this one so be sure to read that below also.

I know I am a day late but didn't really have time to write yesterday. I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of my clients and readers. I truly am thankful for all of the great clients I have had the opportunity to work with and help over time. You guys make my life worthwhile and help make my job the best in the world. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you.

Thank you to all of the great mentors I have had that have inspired and continue to inspire me today especially Mike, Bill, Dennis, Travis, Adam, Kaitlin, Corey and the list could go on. You all have helped to build me up to where I am at as a coach now and will continue to drive me further.

Thank you to all of the great experts in the field who have put out priceless learning material. Louie Simmons, Stuart Mcgill, Shirley Sahrmann, Zatsiorsky and many more.

Thank you to everybody who has contributed to serious in the trenches training over the years whether you are talking bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, peformance or fat loss training. The iron game is my passion and all of my brothers and sisters in iron make it all oh so sweet. Thank you to everybody over the years who have helped me out with my own training whether its a workout together or just a spot.

And a thanksgiving day specific thanks to Dan, Jessica, Josh and Samantha. You all rocked your workouts yesterday morning and that made my Thanksgiving great. Keep up the great work guys!! Battle ropes and sled dragging on thanksgiving; it doesn't get any better.

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The Importance of Movement

11/26/2010

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Don't think this guy understands the importance of proper movement and his back isn't going to like him for it

Proper movement is the base point of exercise and performance. I don't care how great of shape you think you are in or how many times a week you go and workout; if you are not moving the right way, you are wasting a large amount of your time.

"Oh my knee hurts!" Well, if you had any idea how to squat and use your hips and glutes the correct way, your knee probably wouldn't hurt so much. When you squat with your weight on your toes, heels off the ground and your knees are coming forward so far it hurts to watch, you're probably giving yourself knee pain. If you do this throughout the day with work activities, etc. you can only imagine the issues you are creating. "Oh but I went to physical therapy and they said I shouldn't squat." Well sorry to tell you, but if you ever want to get better, you're going to have to learn how to use your hips and guess what, squatting is pretty much the best way to do that. If your therapist was any good, they would have shown you how to move the right way and fix this problem but since they probably have no idea how to move correctly themselves, they screwed you. Sorry. "Oh well I've worked with another trainer before and they gave me a workout plan." Really!? Well that workout plan and that trainer must've really sucked because they sure didn't teach you the most important aspect of any exercise program: HOW TO MOVE!!!

"My back hurts" Well, lets see you pick this ball up. Well since you just picked that up with a flexed lumbar spine, and you do repetitive motion like that at work all day, five days a week, you are probably causing problems. Let me show you how to deadlift properly and that should begin to help you. "Well, my friend works out like all the time and he said that deadlifts can hurt my back." Well, your friend just proved that he has no right to an opinion on the matter. Picking feathers up off of the ground with the form you just showed me is bad for your back. Deadlifting respectable weights with proper form will help you like you wouldn't believe.

(These were just generalizations, not directed towards any individual)

If you are trying to exercise and you are not performing free motion, multi joint movements either because you are scared to or don't think you need to, you have two options. A- Just stay home and eat chips because you are wasting your time and probably creating future problems for yourself B-Get help from an expert who can actually teach you proper movement patterns with effective exercises for yourself.

If you are performing multi joint, free motion movements but have terrible neuromuscular coordination and movement patterns then props to you for at least trying to do something worthwhile. However, you still should refer to option B from above. Get help from an expert who can actually teach you proper movement patterns and effective exercises for yourself.

Movement is so important guys. You need to learn to move through your hips with a stable trunk. You need to learn how to squat both bilaterally and unilaterally while utilizing proper hip, knee and trunk position. You need to learn how to pull and push with proper thoracic mechanics. You need to learn how to rotate correctly. You need to learn how to perform locomotion effectively. You need to understand how to fire the correct muscles at the right times to do all of these things our bodies are meant to do the right way. Its not as simple as going to the gym and guessing your way through random useless things. A home video can't teach you if you have no idea how to feel things. A magazine is even worse. A lot of health professionals that deal with the body can't even help you (also a lot who can). I know this because I constantly see people who have been to other health professionals and still have absolutely atrocious movement skills. It blows my mind.

It all comes down to movement. There are many great exercises that can do a lot for you, regardless of what your goals may be; however, the fact of the matter is that no matter how great the potential of an exercise, if your movement pattern is less than optimal, the exercise is not going to do what it should for you.

You owe it to yourself. If you are going to invest your time in exercise and bettering your body and life, you owe it to yourself to invest some time in learning how to do things the right way. I have talked about and could get into all of the trillion other things that go into proper and effective training and programming but no matter what topic or aspect I talk about, it still comes back to proper movement. It is the essential base point for everything else and has to be mastered first. So give yourself a great gift this holiday season and learn how to move!!

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Training For Runners Part 2 (Taken from SAC Newsletter)

11/5/2010

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If you haven't already read it, here is Part 1

Some of the main things runners need to work on that many completely skip with their strength training are the following.

Max Strength Development

Strength is the base point of pretty every other physical quality. The nervous system must be trained to fire more motor units and muscle fibers and to do so more efficiently. The more force one puts into the ground, the faster he/she will be. This can help the optimization of stride length and stride frequency, which can knock a lot of time off of a race. To build max strength, big bang exercises such as back squats, front squats, deadlifts and many more must be performed for multiple sets of low reps (4-6 sets of 1-5 reps) with maximal weights.

Speed Strength Development

If you want to cut time off of your run, it should be common sense that you would want to be faster, right? Training the nervous system to fire motor units and muscle fibers faster will allow one to shave more time off and run a faster, more efficient race. This can be done with many different squatting, pushing and pulling variations with many sets of lower to moderate reps with lighter to moderate weights. For straight speed strength, 8-12 sets of 2-3 explosive reps works well. For speed strength endurance, 6-8 sets of 5-10 explosive reps works well. An exercise like the back squat would work well with this.

Addressing Muscular Imbalances

Everybody has some type of imbalance that could be worked on. Runners tend to have more than average. The repetitive motion that is performed for an unbelievable number of steps tends to create problems. One big issue that tends to be common is hip imbalances. From my experience, a weak glute medius muscle on either one or both sides of the body is quite common. When this muscle doesn’t fire or do its job, the knee will cave and the foot will crossover during foot strike. This can cause knee, hip and/or back pain over time and repetition. Single leg movements such as lunge variations and glute med specific movements such as clam shells and side leg raises can help with this. This is just one of many possible imbalances. If it is one side, things tend to be worse.

Performing Free Motion Functional Movements

Relying only on machines does nothing for performance. To train for performance, muscular coordination, balance, stabilization and movement patterns must all be addressed with exercise. This means that squatting, pulling, pushing, rotation and locomotive variations all better be addressed within a runner’s strength training program. (Unless you run while sitting down on a pad while the rest of your body is stabilized for you that is).

If you run and are missing out on any of these things, you better get to work!!!

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Happy Thanksgiving Post

The Importance of Movement

Training For Runners Part 2 (Taken from SAC Newsletter)

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