Fitness

What A Rejected Article Looks Like, and Why Your Thoracic Extensions and Hip Flexor Stretches Are Wrong

In a few weeks, the culture of this website is going to change. I’m going to become less “end result” oriented, and more “process” oriented. I’m working on a fancy “about” page to explain just exactly what that means, but the shortened version is that the internet is filled with people that spout the end result. Internet ads say, “I made $1,000,000 in ten seconds. Click here to find out how!” That’s end result thinking. If the link said, “Click here to see how I’m trying to make $1,000,000 in ten seconds,” it becomes process thinking.

Most of my articles are end result articles. Here’s how to do X. Do this to accomplish Y. And that’s fine, as end result articles have their place and will always appear on this website. Of course, I’ll continue to find and expand on topics I feel aren’t covered enough, such as skinny fact ectomorph training. For those of you interested in that, you’ll be happy to know I’m in the midst of writing something huge for you. Starting today, I’m going to start being more process-oriented.

WHAT A REJECTED ARTICLE LOOKS LIKE

Some of my readers have aspirations to write for fitness, strength, and health magazines just as I once did before I broke through last October. One of the problems is that, as a beginner writer, you only see finished products. Not every idea that slips into the crevice of your brain’s neurons makes the cut. Behind the scenes, a lot goes on. Sometimes editors guide writing in directions against intention. Other times, the article is flat out rejected as magazines have certain criteria and brands they upkeep and abide by. So regardless of how well you think a piece is written, or how fitting you think a topic is, you might want to hold your breath.

I submitted this piece to a publisher months ago. It was rejected. Looking back, I know why. I’d do a lot of things differently, but I’ll save that critique and insight for another blog post (which, by the way, is a great process oriented topic). Until then, why do you think it was rejected? Did I leave spelling errors in the draft? Is it a bad topic? Is it boring? Drop your comments at the bottom of the page.

Your Lumbar Spine and Its Effect on Mobility

By Anthony Mychal

I’m debating what’s worse: the process of getting whiplash, or driving home after getting whiplash. On one hand, getting your neck abused like a PEZ dispenser is traumatizing. But it’s over before you realize it started.

On the other hand, the drive home is brutal. You don’t change lanes because you can’t turn your head. Your life suddenly depends on peripheral vision. What are you? A horse? And then comes the dire times in which you actually need to see if you’re going to end your life by colliding into a passing car. You can’t trust your rearview mirror because of the blind spot. Since your neck is useless, your rotation comes from the spine, aided by your suicide grip on the steering wheel.

But this is all evidence. Evidence in favor of those that say: “the body doesn’t move in isolation.” No kidding. But it’s also a testament to the body’s resiliency. So your neck is broke. What are you going to do? Die? You’ll find a way to survive. Or, at the very least, try to.

Compensations like these are prevalent throughout your body, but they aren’t necessarily a “good thing.” Deep down, your motivation is survival. Your physiology doesn’t care about chronic pain or nagging injuries as long as the heart is still beating.

Most muscular problems stem from the center of your body because of how important it is. “As athletes advance,” Bret Contreras writes in a recent blog post, “they learn to incorporate their hip and leg musculature into their movements to a much higher degree.”

And for good reason. The pelvis has some of the strongest and largest muscles attaching on and originating from it. The hips control the lower limbs so to speak, just as the shoulders control the upper limbs. These two areas can tell you a lot about how a person functions.

But they aren’t mutually exclusive. As Eric Cressey has pointed out before, stiff hips can lead to a stiff thoracic spine, which can throw off the shoulders and neck. And if the shoulders and neck are struggling, how do you think the elbows and wrists will fare? It’s this crazy stuff that really shows just how far compensations can root.

THE MISSING LINK

Now I’m not one of those guys that blames discomfort in the pinky finger on the hip rotators. All I’m saying is that you need to keep the hips and shoulders clean because they have the most responsibility. They’re like babysitters in charge of ten newborns. If they can’t stop one baby from crying, then there’s a good chance all of the babies will start crying—and the babysitter won’t be too far behind.

Keeping the shoulders and hips clean sounds easy, and eager souls will rush into mobility drills. Since more is better, they’ll hit their furthest range of motion with no regard for the body as a system of moving parts. And in order to get the most out of our mobility drills we have to consider what’s in the middle of the shoulders and hips: the lumbar spine.

It’s well known—especially with the surge of pallof presses, planks, and their respective variations—that, in most situations, the lumbar spine is a transmitter and not a producer of force. And when transmitting, tighter is better.

What’s not well known is that the lumbar spine can also be a crux in your mobility work. You can be doing drill after drill, but unless you have control of your lumbar spine, their effects will be moot.

Aside from the shoulders and hips having a large list of responsibilities, they are also at the mercy of our bad habits like sitting too damn much and carrying ourselves with bad posture. We know this though, so we’re smart enough to stretch our hip flexors and get in our thoracic extensions. But any corrective exercise you can dream of will fall short if the lumbar spine is doing the mobilizing. So let’s take a look at both of these movements and see how we can make sure they’re actually doing what we want them to do.

THORACIC EXTENSIONS

If there’s one thing I have learned about thoracic extensions, it’s that everyone hinges from the lower back unless told otherwise. This happens for two reasons.

The first reason is because of the range of motion obsession, as stated earlier. When you get that foam roller under your shoulder blades, the only thing you care about is rounding over so that your head touches the ground. Wrong.

If you’re doing them “right” your head isn’t going to touch the ground because the thoracic spine doesn’t have much extension range of motion.

The second reason is because it “hurts” a little when you do it right, and most people are afraid of pushing comfort zones. Undoing years of hunching, sitting, and bad posture doesn’t feel normal, so don’t expect it to at first.

But the fix is easy, and it starts with your set up. Instead of arching your back in the start position, engage your abs a bit as if you were doing a crunch, and keep this contraction throughout the entire range of motion.

Next, instead of reaching for the ground, fold from the thoracic spine and “feel” the movement in the middle of your back.

Trying to teach this to a group of thirty teenagers at once leads to thirty teenagers doing it wrong. But it only takes a few punches to the stomach before they start to do it “right.” Then, with a little practice, something even crazier happens. They “feel” the lower traps and rhomboids contracting against the foam roller. And I don’t see how that could be a bad thing.

HIP FLEXOR STRETCHING

I blame the hip flexor misconceptions on the front splits. Everyone is obsessed with going as deep as possible, with no regard for actually, uh, feeling a stretch in the hip flexor. More range of motion is only better if you’re tapping into the right movement.

To me, a deep lunge doesn’t represent a flexible hip flexor, it represents a flexible lower back. But to understand why, you have to understand pelvic positioning and the resultant angle of hip extension. (In the pictures, the yellow line represents the pelvic plane, and the red line represents angle of hip extension.)

When standing up, with your back in a neutral position, the angle of hip extension from the pelvic plane is 90°. Holding in neutral, you can only extend your hip 10° to 20°. This range of motion, however, is all hyperextension. So in order to qualify as hyper extension, the angle of hip extension from the pelvic plane has to be greater than 90°.

If you assume an anterior pelvic tilt, the initial angle closes to 70° to 80° (as oppsed to the 90° in neutral). Extending your hip from this position makes it appear as if you’re getting more hip extension, but you’re not. You’re getting the same amount, if not less, because you have to cover the 10° to 20° lost from the anterior pelvic tilt.

In theory, the fix looks similar to what was done at the thoracic spine—don’t care so much about range of motion and tighten the abs—but it’s more difficult to execute.

First, abandon your old hip flexor stretch that probably looks something like the picture below.

Although the deep lunge position makes it appear as if the hip flexor is being stretched, it really isn’t because the angle of hip extension from the pelvic plane is near 90°. Remember that hyperextension happens at an angle greater than 90°, so with the deep lunge you’re barely stretching the hip flexor beyond its length in a normal standing position.

To correct this, squeeze the glute of the rear leg and “push” the front of hip forward while tightening the abs a little. Cue yourself to rip the hip flexor from the bone. (It was a saying I learned from Buddy Morris, and it works well.)

If you’re having trouble tilting your pelvis, practice “nerd posture.” Stand up, squeeze the glutes, and then tilt your pelvis and body as if you did nothing but play Call of Duty all day.

Get back into the lunge position, squeeze the glute of the rear leg, and assume nerd posture at the hip. It’s challenging at first because the lead leg actually pulls on the ground with the hamstring, like a leg curl, for leverage when tilting the pelvis upward.

Once you settle into this position, you won’t be in nearly as deep of a lunge, but you will feel your hip flexor being stretched much more because you’re actually stretching into hip hyperextension.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

While compensations can happen in many movements, muscles, and motor patterns, it’s important keep the shoulders and hips clean. The information here extends beyond thoracic extensions and lunging hip flexor stretches. During any mobility or flexibility drill be it scapular wall slides, shoulder dislocates, or fire hydrants, consider the role of the lumbar spine. See if you’re really mobilizing, or if you just think you’re mobilizing. It’s more than going through the motions.

Don’t be upset if you’ve been doing things wrong. Remember, it’s these compensations that enable us to survive. Or, at the least, prevent automobile accidents.

References

Contreras, B. (2011, Sept 11). Standing rotary training is whole body training! [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://bretcontreras.com/2011/09/standing-rotary-training-is-whole-body-training/

Cressey, E. (2011, March 29). Oblique strains in baseball: 2011 update [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://ericcressey.com/oblique-strains-in-baseball-2011-update

Two Deep Squatting Tips and My 20 Rep Squat Experiment

So you can’t squat deep, I get it. Back in 2005 I asked my then mentor how to better my squat. (Hello Chicanerous.) I sent him a video of myself descending slowly to an unstable bottom position, and rising just as unsure of myself. It probably took ten seconds to complete one repetition. His advice: squat like you mean it, put some effort behind it, and have confidence.

For the next few years I did just that. But the bottom position was always foreign to me. So I did the myriad of mobility exercises and flexibility work. But in all my years, nothing helped me more than “making room” and simply squatting.

SQUAT TIP #1: MAKE ROOM

Get on your knees, push your hips back, and collapse on your thighs. It’s similar to a position in my article, Learn How to Hinge in 3 Easy Steps that appeared on Elite FTS. Lazily hang out here for a little while for a nice stretch.

But to get serious, settle your lower back into a neutral position and contract your hip flexors. Try smashing your thighs into your chest. Of course, they won’t budge, but your goal is to activate the muscle, not actually move.

If you flipped yourself ninety degrees, this position resembles the bottom of a squat. And it helps those that lose their back position with depth, specifically when their thighs are nearing contact with their upper body.

Contract for thirty seconds or so. Nothing extreme. If you want, do a contract-relax thing, or pulsed muscle contractions. I’m not picky as long as you’re putting in the work. This works best before a squat workout, or in between sets. To transfer it better, cue yourself to contract your hip flexors on the descent of your squat.

SQUAT TIP #2: SQUAT OFTEN

Somewhere along the line we get brainwashed into thinking that exercise without a barbell is useless. But if the only time we squat deep is when there’s a barbell on our back, we have problems.

The best way to cure your squatting woes is to squat often, without a barbell. If you have trouble hanging out in the bottom position of an unweighted squat, it’s no wonder you can’t do it with a barbell on your back.

The deep squat position itself cures all mobility concerns. The most common complain will be, “My shins are burning.” Good. Make this position familiar to your being. If you have to spend an hour doing warm-ups and mobilizations before you can squat deep, you’re amiss.

I like hanging out in squat position every morning for thirty seconds or so. On top of that, before every workout (upper body included, and most rest days even), I do thirty body weight squat repetitions. Make sure you descend in between your legs, not on top of them. Take a look at the picture at the top of the page to see what I mean.

When I look back on Chicanerous’s advice, it was difficult to implement because the squat position was unfamiliar. I was afraid of it because I had chronic knee pain. But now I do duck squat walks and other deep squat mobilizations. My squats and my knees have never felt better. So get down there, work the kinks out every day, and just become more familiar with the position.

THE 20 REP SQUAT EXPERIMENT

Since I’m talking squatting, I’ll share this news:

I shattered my foot back in January of 2011. Shame on you if you didn’t know that by now as I cry about it every chance I get. Recently, I squatted 315×5. Nothing crazy. But I’m proud of it considering I have pinching nerve pains in my foot at times.

This nerve pain is why, at this point in my life, I don’t care to have more than 315 on my back. So it’s a perfect time to give 20 rep squats a go. Inspired by Dan John and his Mass Made simple program, the program I am running consists of basic strength movements, high rep squats, and barbell complexes—with my own unique twists of course (tumbling and gymnastics).

For the next ten weeks (two week break in period, eight week program) I’m undergoing this experiment. Twenty rep squats have been around for a while and are fabled. Credible people pose compliments to complexes too.

Finally, you literally need to spend more time on the bar. No, I didn’t say “at the bar.” Bourbon and squats don’t mix. I’ve tried that workout. Trust me on this. No, the single best way I know to get more time with a bar in your hands is to use complexes.

-Dan John

“I believe if you can take a light weight—sometimes even your bodyweight—and pour all of your energy into five exercises for a total of 100 seconds that you’ll hit more motor units than you would even touch with a regular weight-training session…”

- Martin Rooney

Usually the athletes lift barbells and then immediately drop them. This takes several seconds. According to Alexeyev’s method, the sportsman finds himself under the weight for a period of two or three minutes. The entire body must sustain this prolonged effort, as the athlete completes several consecutive exercises without letting go of the equipment. The weight of the barbell is relatively light, but the varied work with it affects every muscle cell.

By the end of the two-week session, all Alexeyev’s students had increased their bodyweights as a result of muscle growth and at the same time they’d increased their abilities. Here is what Sultan Rachmanov said: “At first I trained in my own way. I didn’t believe that Alexeyev’s advice would help me. Now I believe … My shoulders, my back, everything is filling up with strength.

-The Science of Winning

My goal is to get jacked. That is all. But I’m an athlete at heart so, of course, I’m going include feats of explosiveness and see how this kind of programming affects my vertical jump. In the best case, I’ll come out on with some cool data and training suggestions for my skinny fat ectomorph brethren.

Now, I was seeing great progress on the program I was on. But what’s life without experimentation? I’m going to be keeping daily track of nearly everything—bodyweight, reaction time, mood, feelings, sleep, food—through pictures and videos and compiling it into a PDF.

My Twitter account is going to be a update station. Tweets will be hashtagged with “#20REPEXP.” So if you follow me now, get annoyed by it, and unfollow me, then oops. But if you want to tag along, I’d love to have you as a follower. The only other place I’ll update my training is on the Precision Nutrition Members Forum.

I hate high repetition training. So this should be fun. Real fun.

The Problems With Getting Jacked, Strong, and Athletic

There’s a difference between being jacked, being strong, and being athletic. But in today’s world the terms are used interchangeably. This is a problem. When people think of an athlete, they think of a jacked and strong physique. But there’s a reason powerlifters train differently than bodybuilders and Olympic weightlifters. And there’s a reason why athletes need to train differently than them all.

I’m convinced that 99% of the people in the fitness world want to be jacked. When you see advertisements for getting “that athletic body,” it’s not referencing NFL linemen, sumo wrestlers, and heavyweights. Even athlete’s themselves want to be jacked. So we’re left with this dichotomy of athletic=jacked.

“He asked me to program him in some more time for biceps, what we call ‘TV training.’ ‘I got to look good on TV, too!’ he told me.”

-DeFranco talking about Brian Cushing

LEANGAINS

Martin Berkhan presides over Leangains.com. I love Martin and his no bull-shit attitude. He gets results with his clients that can’t be denied. It’s just too bad that my foreign man crushes are reserved for tricksters like Rasmus Ott.

Martin has a few basic principles. First, he believes in intermittent fasting. Second, he uses reverse pyramid training (RPT), which is sort of like max-effort drop sets. Third, he belives in spending less time in the gym. Fourth, he hates aerobic work. And fifth, he doesn’t like stretching.

This belief system works for Martin and his clients, and he gets a lot of attention. His client waiting list is long, and rightfully so. And because Martin is so good at what he does, everyone, even athletes, wants to follow the Leangains principles. This is a problem.

Don’t get me wrong. Berkahn is tops in his field and one of the best coaches for those wanting non-drug physique improvements. If that’s all anyone wanted, I’d refer them to Berkhan and Leangains immediately. He knows what he’s doing. And the advice he gives is excellent for that crowd. You don’t need aerobic work to get shredded. But this is where the wires cross between being jacked and being athletic. For most athletes being jacked is the byproduct, not the main focus.

“ATHLETES”

Because you don’t need aerobic work to lose fat, it gets dismissed on all fronts. But losing fat is apart of the jacked realm, not the athletic realm. I’m as lean and muscular as I’ve ever been, but if I play pick-up basketball or football I’m going to be huffing and puffing. I don’t have the aerobic capacity for it right now. And it is aerobic, meaning that tabata and HIIT aren’t viable “conditioning” options. I touch on that a bit in Can We Stop With the Prowler Suicides?

So here’s what a physique athlete can look like without aerobic work:

Berkhan’s results with his clients.

Ripped. Jacked. Strong. Successful. Everything most average trainees can want. They even have “that athletic look.” But below is what most team sport athletes will look like without aerobic work.

CONCLUSION

The aerobic conundrum is just one piece of the story. Maximal effort strength work is another one. Powerlifters can perform maximal effort work more frequently because the barbell is their sport. They don’t need nervous system reserves for anything else. But this doesn’t mean non-barbell athletes fall under the same umbrella.

The theme here is this: train for your sport, not someone else’s sport. There’s always this debate about whether it’s better for an athlete to train like a powerlifter or an Olympic weightlifter. The answer is neither. Every sport is it’s own entity. Footballers should train like footballers. Bodybuilders, bodybuilders. Etc. As soon as you cross wires and do something like train an athlete like a powerlifter, you’ve gone down the wrong path.

TL;DR

There’s a difference between being athletic, being strong, and being jacked. What makes you jacked doesn’t mean it will be good your athletic ambitions. Train for your sport, not someone else’s.

Six Months in 2012

On January 1st, 2011, I was fresh out of school. No real direction. Just going with the flow, hoping my teaching degree would land me a job. I regularly awoke to my RSS reader to check out my favorite blogs. I never imagined being on the other side—that someone would have me in their RSS or blog queue. And after I became a teacher, the likelihood of living on that side lessened. But, of course, job stability isn’t what it once was.

In April, I knew I was to be furloughed with no awaited prospects. So I began blogging frequently. I don’t know why. I just did. I hated writing. I sucked at it. I’m OCD with web design. I even want to change the one you see now. JC Deen did a wonderful job. It’s exactly what I wanted. But I grew up loving art. I wanted to be the next Joe Mad. And because of the high expectations, I’m never satisfied with art that’s “mine.” It’s just my nature.

So I spent more time worrying about web design than I did writing. I sucked at both anyway. I was amiss. But I never quit. That’s important. Adventures, especially legendary ones, have hardships. And what separates failures from successes is never quitting. Most people stop blogging upon realizing how difficult it is to get readers. But you have to write for yourself. No one else. I think I survived this long because I didn’t have access to analytics. The blogging beginning is bleak, and mine was no exception. I didn’t (and don’t) run ads. I wasn’t making money. That changed. Somehow. And I grew into the freelancer I am today.

There are downsides to this lifestyle. But I’ve kept afloat and grown every month since April. I never shot-gunned resumes or flaunted college credentials in the process. I’m not a wild success (yet). I’m not on a billboard like Romaniello. But I get by. And that’s the point. You can too. A lot of others won’t admit this. They are afraid you will surpass them, especially those sitting in my spot that have yet to officially “make it.” But anyone can do it.

I get sporadic e-mail from folks inspired by my posts about success in the fitness industry with no credentials. This makes me smile, and I hope it never stops. In fact, I’ll smile more when I see them rise above me. I want to see their name beside, or above, mine. I want to see them doing things I’ve yet to do. I want to envy them. Because that’s when I’ll know what I’m doing is worthwhile. So I challenge you to beat me. I encourage it. If you want to know how to start, take the next six months to accomplish three things. If you get them done faster, great. But don’t let them take longer.

1) Start a blog. Don’t let “expert status” or “credentials” prevent you from blogging. You don’t have to portray or show either of them. Just be you. I don’t claim to be anything but a physical culturist, a nerd that loves Zelda, and a fan of heavy metal (and the king of chronic knee pain, but that’s only because, well, I am). Write about the books you read. Write about what they teach you. Write about your training. Write about everything.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVD1G5Iddpg&feature=player_embedded

2) Make money doing something you love. One dollar is all. Just make it, somehow. Go downtown and sell one life changing fitness tip for one dollar. Frame that dollar as proof that you can make money unconventionally. What I love about Jonathan Mead’s Trailblazer Program is that it’s real. It’s not a get rich quick scheme. It’s a starting point. It guarantees that you’ll make $1,000 doing something you love in six months. Haters will say,” How am I supposed to live off of that?” You’re not. You’re not doing it for the money. You’re doing it for the path. For the lesson. To prove yourself possibility.

3) Practice. Practice. Practice. How did I go from being a terrible writer to being a part-time contributing writer for Greatist, a regular contributor to T-Nation, My Mad Methods Magazine, STACK Blog, Freak Strength, and a soon-to-be contributor to Elite FTS and LIVESTRONG.com? I spent hours in front of the screen ingesting too much caffeine.

CONCLUSION

So if you want to make it online, start blogging. If I never blogged, I’d have nothing. Even if no one reads it, at some point, someone will. Any reputable company in today’s age will Google your name. Next, find a way to make one dollar, and then execute. For a long term plan, check out Jonathan Mead’s Trailblazer Program. Lastly, practice. Want to own a gym? Go talk to owners. Want to train people? Volunteer somewhere. Six months seems long, but the race is long, and those that keep a level head will be best served.

TL;DR

If you want to make it in the industry: blog, make one dollar doing something you love, and practice your craft.

Can We Stop With the Prowler Suicides?

“So you want me to push this thing up and down the runway a dozen times?”

“Yeah.”

“How is that going to better prepare me for my sport?”

“It’s not, but watching you throw up is going to be awesome.”

Sometimes I think that conversation happens, silently, between coach and athlete upon programming prowler suicides. But coach always wins out because the general consensus says anything that makes us puke or pass out must be good, and hard gut-wrenching work that makes us better.

But it doesn’t.

Now, I have nothing against pushing a prowler around to raise the heart rate a bit. I think it’s a great tool. But prowler suicides in the name of prowler suicides is asinine.

“But it’s conditioning!”

I’m sure that’s the rebuttal I’ll hear. Upon wherein I’ll ask, “what does conditioning mean?” I probably won’t get a response, but if I did, I’m sure it would be something along the lines of “working until the vomiting sensation creeps into the back of the throat.” But here’s why that’s wrong.

Not many sports involve a few minutes of effort followed by a monumental mental and physical collapse. Sidney Crosby doesn’t play one long shift until utter exhaustion and call it quits. Larry Fitzgerald doesn’t run one route and collapse on the sideline. Ronaldo doesn’t make one run and pull himself from the game. Pujols doesn’t take one at bat and then lounge in the dugout eating sunflower seeds for the rest of the game.

Most athletes can’t afford to blow their load in a game, let alone during one play. And yet this is what prowler suicides teach us to do. More troubling is that they have no specificity to the energy systems involved in sports. They aren’t conditioning. Maybe they are shampoo?

I’ll estimate the average prowler suicide to last one minute. Just an estimate. And I’ll also assume no rest. So let’s look at why this sucks.

Not many sports involve one minute of a continued near-maximal effort. Larry Fitzgerald goes all out for about five or six seconds before he can relax a bit. Ronaldo, although jogging around a lot, only goes all out when he’s making a run. Pujols, well, he swings a bat and runs when he has to, which is very sporadic—never lasting more than a few seconds. Sidney Crosby may benefit the most, considering hockey shifts average 45 seconds. But even then, the intensity of that 45 second shift is one that needs to be repeated over the length of the game.

So tell me how prowler suicides prepare any of those athlete’s for the energy demands they encounter in their sport.

You can’t.

The prowler suicides, as far as I’m concerned, is about as sensible as CrossFit. Yes, I went there. It’s a little safer, for all intents and purposes, but the same logic. The only reason I’d use prowler suicides is to develop an athlete’s mentality. Or for punishment.

That’s not to say the prowler is bad. It isn’t as long as you respect the specifics of the sport. But most don’t. And if you’re an everyday guy training for the fun of it, then go ahead and push that thing across town and have fun doing it. There’s nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing. But when people start using it for “conditioning” purposes without regard for specific energy systems that need developed, we have problems.

So can we stop admiring prowler suicides? Can we realize that “conditioning” is, perhaps, the worst concept in existence? Can we honestly evaluate what an athlete needs and tailor their training in a sensible, logical, and planned manner?

My guess is no. But it’s worth a shot.

Share your hatred below.

TL;DR

Athletes that do prowler suicides without regard for specific energy system development are jackasses.

Photo Credit: Alliance Training Center, T-Nation

Beast Mode Training

I train differently than most. I do an exhaustive warm up. I end some sessions with light aerobic circuits. I don’t train to failure. I don’t follow the rules. And it prides me to say that I’ve seen the greatest gains of my life the past two months. Considering my foot was smashed into smithereens earlier this year, my progress is, well, kind of a big deal. Just kidding. Kind of.

From the exterior, my training is basic. Squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls. The usual fare. But there is more to it that. Without knowing the complexities, however, it looks haphazard. Take a session from earlier this week, for example. It’s children’s gymnastics meets deranged powerlifting. But, alas, this has been the norm the past two months.

Warm Up – joint rotations, limb swings, chin-ups x 30, push-ups x 30, squats x 30, jumping jacks x 150

Strength – floor presses, chin-ups

Jacked – dumbbell press, bear walks, barbell row, inch worms, barbell curls, b-skips

Gymnastics – planches, forward rolls, handstands, left shoulder rolls, front levers, right shoulder rolls, l-sits

As I bear crawled up and down my garage, I told myself that I felt like some kind of animal beast stalking prey. Lo and behold, “beast mode training,” was born. So here are some things to know about Beast Mode Training:

The warm up is the workout. I never touch a barbell before doing a basic dynamic warm up, thirty chins, push-ups, squats, and copious jumping jacks. Yes, even on lower body days.
Strength is developed using a few basic movements, always kept submaximal and away from failure.
Focus is on steady progress over time. One session doesn’t make or break it.
Locomotion is intermixed with bodybuilding work to tax the aerobic system.
Gymnastics and tumbling is a continuation of the aerobic work, done in a continuous circuit for time.
The lower body is trained for strength and explosiveness.
High intensity days are followed by low(er) intensity days. Just how low intensity depends on the season.
Basic compound lifts are preferred, but those selected are arbitrary. Front squat instead of back squat? I’m not complaining.
50% of upper body pulling is done with a thick bar.
100% of upper body pressing is done with a thick bar.
The “athletic” version of the Olympic lifts are used. (Expect a blog post on this soon.)

Beast Mode Training is designed for a recreational lifter that wants to retain their athleticism. Gymnastics holds are used because they are challenging, fun, and deliver a different kind of strength. Tumbling is used to stay youthful. There’s something about rolling end over end that harks back to more innocent times. And combining both gymnastics and tumbling in a circuit makes the abs catch fire. Front levers are the most underrated exercise in the history of physical culture. Nothing taxes the fabled “core” quite like them.

So if you’re looking for some change in your drab “routine,” take some principles from Beast Mode Training. It’s not all encompassing, and certainly not finalized. But it’s challenging, rewarding, and effective in its own way. Better yet, it gets you away from the barbell. Something that you should do anyway if you’re not a powerifter or Olympic weightlifter. I know you probably want more details, but I think it’ best to keep them under wraps right now. Beast Mode Training is still an infant. But, by all means, ask questions. I’ll answer as best I can. But the method is not near finalization.

TL;DR

Beat Mode Training is a mixture of bodyweight skills, basic barbell exercises, gymnastics, and tumbling designed for the recreational lifer that wants to better or maintain their youthful exuberance and athleticism.

What do you think about it? Drop me questions below.

Photo Credit: Image 1

Precision Nutrition, No Degree Required

I want to introduce you to Precision Nutrition, the leading online nutrition and certification company. According to John Berardi, cofounder, they doubled their staff in 2011. What’s even more surprising is that he expects it to double again next year.

Hello Precision Nutrition, my name is Anthony Mychal and I’d be a great mentor in either the Scrawny to Brawny coaching program or the Aesthetic to Athletic program (this is a new coaching program—spawned by me—that will be rolled out once I’m hired there.)

Jokes aside (it wasn’t a joke), Berardi doesn’t care much about formal credentials when considering employees. And that’s saying something considering Precision Nutrition employees are heavily involved with their clientele. In fact, Berardi says that, “Mentorship is truly the key, both to learning in general and to body transformation in particular. Everything else is secondary.”

So Berardi is saying that formal credentials tell him nothing about someone’s ability to work with a client and get results. Not surprising. This philosophy doesn’t diminish Precision Nutrition’s quality of work either.

Be it employee or client, I’ve yet to hear a complaint about Precision Nutrition. And their list of employees and clients is growing rapidly, as if working with the likes of Nike and professional sports teams wasn’t enough.

“Don’t tell JB, but if he didn’t pay me, I’d still do this job. At Precision Nutrition, I’m surrounded by rock stars.”

-Roland Fisher

And, of course, I couldn’t have ended this conversation without mentioning Nate Green—Precision Nutrition Storyteller and Scrawny to Brawny Coaching Director—and his lack of University education. He instead travelled across the country on a loan to meet the higher minds of the fitness industry. Think that worked out for him?

Just one more reason I love working with Precision Nutrition: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/lean-eating-jan-2011-winners

-Nate Green

Another Scrawny to Brawny coach, Paul Valiulis, has a degree in a field other than fitness. He told me that Berardi and Precision Nutrition are looking for those that have “been there, done that, and have proven it.”

This is backed up by Precision Nutrition’s Scrawny to Brawny mentor criteria:

There are 3 criteria that any mentor must meet:

Must have gone through the process themselves.

Must have taught others to go through the very same process.

Must thoroughly understand the process itself: how it happens, what it works, what the underlying principles are, etc.

-John Berardi

In the fitness industry, this is called “living in the trenches.” So if you’re skipping training sessions on account of final exams, perhaps you should rethink your strategy. I don’t doubt that Berardi was aware of the research behind fasting, but that wasn’t enough. He spent six months experimenting with six different fasting protocols so that he could experience it firsthand. (These adventures can be read in Experiments with Intermittent Fasting. It’s insightful, so check it out. Even better, it’s free.) You don’t ask someone that’s never been in a fight how it feels to be punched in the eye.

Anyway, one of our Lean Eating assignments is to go a full 24 hours without eating. It’s
scary, and it makes people uncomfortable… which is exactly why we do it.

-Experiments with Intermittent Fasting

You can learn the stuff, and you absolutely should. (Which isn’t the same as sitting in a classroom.) But learning it isn’t going to do much for you unless you live it. So start living. That’s eventually how you will be judged whether it’s with Precision Nutrition or the next like company.

For more information on the services, products, and programs of Precision Nutrition, visit their main website.

Photo Credit: Precision Nutrition, Kate Kline

How to Bench 400 Pounds (Not What You Think)

What if I told you that benching 400 pounds was more than strengthening the upper body? In October, I posted the original How to Bench 400 Pounds (Not What You May Think) over at Freak Strength. Consider this an update.

My background in tricking, which is rooted in gymnastics, makes me think that I have a certain appreciation for movement. I was by no means a “good” trickster, but I feel that flipping, twisting, and contorting in mid-air has given me a certain kinesthetic sense that I wouldn’t otherwise have. That, and the fact that I’ve been training both outside and barefoot since 2001. (Yes, I was a pioneer of these cool ideas.)

I was taken aback when Dan John centered an entire article around graceful movement. It just made sense to me, especially after observing so many athletes. But movement, let alone graceful movement, isn’t something modern “strength and conditioning” coaches emphasize. How do I know this? Because I would be seeing a lot less stock put into barbells, and a lot more focus put into movement. What kind of movement? All of it, really. But mainly gymnastics.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SURPu41Wao

Luckily I don’t have to spew this out because Andreas Thorkildsen showcases my ideas for me. There was a video recently released video highlighting more of Thorkildsen’s training. After watching, you would think Thorkildsen was a gymnast. Nope, he’s a javelin thrower. And to reiterate the point I made in the first version of this article, which is a quote from Carl Valle

Clearly a 400 pound bench press is impressive for his frame, but I think he gets a lot out of that lift because of his total body coordination.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJzJjIMna5E

There’s more to “strength and conditioning” than traditional barbell work. The question remains: what can be done to make you a better athlete? This isn’t always the same thing that will make you a better weightlifter. Start the movement of moving. Cartwheels? Why not. Forward and backward rolls? Absolutely. If it teaches you where your body is in space it can’t be a bad thing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8h7nVUQTf4&feature=related

Look Badass, Play Badass

Earlier this year, Maryland’s football program debuted unique uniforms. Most of the people I follow on Twitter and Facebook hated them.

I loved them.

I’m a fan of unconformity, and I think a lot of Universities—even professional teams—are going to alter their uniforms to make them “cooler,” in hopes of better recruiting. It only makes sense. Youngsters and soft-core sports fans like the teams with cooler uniforms and colors.

Anytime I’m watching a football game with my mom, she asks why people wear “those little bands around their arm.” She doesn’t understand that athletes do things solely for aesthetic appeal. But it’s the same reason people wearing the Maryland uniform have a competitive advantage. The same reason people buy earrings, shoes, and belts to match an outfit. The same reason you don’t often see people wearing a green shirt with red pants.

Style matters.

The better you think you look, the better you feel. And the better you feel, the better you perform. Take advantage of this.

Find your style. It could be special jewelry, knee high socks, or Under Armor. You can borrow it from your idols too. Lacing up Jordan’s prior to a game will have a different feeling as compared to lacing up the generic brand from Wal-Mart.

So if you’re aiming to hit a squat PR, deck yourself out. Sport the high socks, tie the Romaleos, get the Under Armor, and wear the knit beanie toque. If you’re having trouble finding the motivation for your sprint or field work, put on the bicep bands, the nicest pair of athletic shorts you have, and your “special” necklace.

Everyone says, “everything else being equal, the stronger one will win.” Well, everything else being equal, the one that’s wearing clothes that they think they look badass in will win. Silly, but true.

What You Need to Know About Training to be An Athlete

The fitness industry has made many right turns in the past few years. For example, it’s been widely proven that you don’t have to eat twelve meals a day, so the era of carrying around an insulated fanny pack is over. People are actually starting to do worthwhile exercises with a barbell, instead of lounging about the elliptical machine. Similarly, from a general training standpoint, CrossFit has done positive things with regards to having the “just-want-to-be-fit” crowd getting off of the treadmill and doing something more challenging and less mind numbing. Eating habits now revolve around less processed foods. Fats are no longer the enemy.

Beats the treadmill from a general fitness standpoint.

It sounds encouraging, and it seems like they are starting to figure things out for the long run. (Even though the pendulum will swing it in a different direction one of these days. It always does.) But even with the addition of better exercise methods and eating habits, the fitness industry is a constant cycling of information people already know. The problem is that they fail to implement it.

Give an obese person this test:

—

Circle the best choice:

I need to eat more OR I need to eat less

I need to exercise more OR I need to exercise less

I need to eat more junk food OR I need to eat more wholesome foods

I need to exercise with less intensity OR I need to exercise with more intensity

—

I’m fairly sure that they will pass because nearly everyone has the knowledge they need to be successful. The issue lies in finding ways to motivate people to want to live a lifestyle conducive to kicking ass.

The 17 Day Diet? The Atkins Diet? The Four Hour Body Diet?

Sure, they all “work” in the general sense. But they only “work” if you follow them as written. The problem isn’t in people’s inability to read, it lies in their inability to change. So the fitness industry isn’t a field of raw knowledge (most times), it’s a field of motivation.

Hmmm, which is better for fat loss...?

Sadly, as a country, millions of dollars are spent on rectifying obesity. I don’t even want to know how much of this money goes to “general education,” because the number would disappoint me.

Much more troubling is getting people to follow through with these “weight loss programs.” In one of my college courses, we discussed failure rate among study participants. Our professor said that something like 99% of all interventions eventually fail.

Us athletically motivated guys in the class were taken aback by this (shout out to Teddy and Joe). Joe was stunned. So stunned, in fact, I remember him questioning the professors line of work in front of the entire class—a gutsy move to say the least.

But if people aren’t going to follow through with their programs, what’s the point? These “experts” need to realize that something has to change. Either the generation—as a gross estimation—is too far gone, or their method is askew (in other words, starving people on very low calorie diets isn’t smart).

As a quick aside: one reason for the high failure rate could be that, when it comes to studies, participants are paid. They’re externally motivated by the money, not internally motivated by the desire to change. This is why more people see success when they deal with fitness industry experts either online or in person. They are paying to get treatment.

But I’m diving too deep into the fitness industry here. My point, however, is that it’s not so much about knowledge as it is motivational tactics and underlying psychological issues (food dependence, traumatizing childhood events, etc.).

On the other hand, training athletes is a complicated process. Some people make it out as “easy,” but it’s not. And I think part of this misconception comes from the people that follow the fitness industry. But training for general fitness is not training for athletics. Hammering all of the “major” compound lift strength numbers is great for the average joe, but there are better ways to go about training an athlete.

Last game of the season -- torn achilles.

A lot of the “successful” and “popular” figures in the fitness industry have great methods for their craft, and people see the success they can create and think it’s applicable to athletics. But losing ten pounds of fat or gaining ten pounds of muscle is different than keeping an athlete healthy on game 160 of a 162 game season.

And what you’ll find, universally, is the more “athletic”—from a competition or performance standpoint—something is, the more complicating it gets. I don’t have a clue how to get bodybuilders into competition shape, but I know it’s more difficult than “just losing ten pounds.” Similarly, getting an athlete to their highest performance tier is more than just getting them “strong.”

But now that the fitness industry is doing so many things right (for their specific audience), like advocating basic barbell movements and other methods of effective training, doesn’t mean it’s also applicable to athletics.

A general trainee can squat, deadlift, bench, power clean, overhead press, and do whatever it is they want in hopes of becoming “strong” like Powerlifters and Olympic Weightlifters. But this shotgun method of training completely ignores the specific needs of athletes.

What I’m trying to say is: be careful. The fitness industry is of a higher quality, but you can’t get it confused with the athletics industry. Training for “general” fitness is different than training for bodybuilding is different than training for powerlifting is different than training for olympic weightlifting is different than training for athletics. And even then, “athletics,” is a loose term as each sport requires different considerations. More importantly, every athlete requires different considerations.

A common trend right now is getting hooked on the “major” compound lifts. Guys that want to become better athletes see these physique coaches recommending that all they need to do is get their squat, power clean, bench press, overhead press, and deadlift numbers up to dominate the field.

A ticket to athletic stardom?

Strength is nice and certainly important in most cases. But at some point you can’t narrow your focus to the numbers. What’s “strong” for one athlete is different for the next. And if you’re the guy with the 400 pound back squat at a body weight of 200 pounds, wondering why you still suck at your sport, the answer is probably not because you’re not strong enough. Yet I know a lot of people that think that, perhaps if they could squat 450 then all of their athletic issues will be resolved. Yeah, that will happen right after, uh, the rapture.

So tread softly out there. Feel free to admire and enjoy those prevalent in the fitness industry, because there are quality people out there. But remember that athletes are athletes and the rules change once you cross that line.