Things That Should Make You, The Consumer, Uncomfortable (But Don’t)

You wouldn’t let this dog drive you around; why would you let a bad trainer train you?

I’ve noticed an unusual tendency among consumers of personal training/coaching to tolerate unprofessional and irresponsible behavior and practices from gyms and their personnel that wouldn’t be tolerated from members of other professions. I’m not sure why this tendency exists―and anyway, it’s not really the subject of this post―but hopefully, I can help you identify behaviors and practices that should raise your “red flag” whenever you’re evaluating your gym or trainer’s conduct, and deciding whether to stay or to go.  You’re free, of course, to disregard or take issue with any of these, but know that I’ve tried to be as unbiased as possible with regards to the following, basing my conclusions on firsthand experience, on observations of the training practices of other trainers/coaches, and on discussions I’ve had with other trainers and coaches both in person and online.

Lack of Attention/Supervision

This mostly applies to your “garden-variety” trainers at any of the garden-variety commercial gyms that you’re apt to step into, although I’ve observed it at specialty gyms as well. I’ve seen trainers talking on their cell phones or texting, sometimes even staring off in to space, while their clients labored away at exercises haphazardly chosen. I’ve seen trainers stop to talk to the “cute girl” in the tight workout pants for extended periods while their clients performed exercises, complicated ones, involving heavy loads, and executed them poorly. And yet, the clients always came back. I can’t think of another profession in which this would be tolerated. Imagine having signed up for martial arts, and instead of being carefully coached at every step in your progression and at each new level of advancement, you were shown the drills once or twice and then left to execute them with little to no supervision. Imagine if surgeons, the guys and gals patching your loved one back together in the operating room, were taught surgery this way. The more technical or vital the skill, the more it seems to me that someone of know-how should be there to ensure a standard of excellence. Well, there are few things more vital than fitness and well-being. Nevertheless, you see trainers showing their clients how to execute exercises once or twice, then ducking away to do other things (after all, the trainee was doing it “well enough,” right?) or daydreaming. Even in cases where the skill isn’t all that “technical,” a trainer or coach should be there to give counsel and to provide feedback, even if it’s only in the form of encouragement; it’s easy to fall into the trap, as a trainer or coach, of expecting others to have the same internal drive that we do, and to dismiss those who don’t with a smug “They’re not able to hack it, so why should I give a damn?” As much as they might not enjoy dealing with that aspect of training, trainers and coaches should realize that the psychology of the client is something they are going to have to address at some point. If they refuse to, then they’re lazy or inept, or both. True, clients must deeply want whatever it is they’re after with training, but wanting it and possessing the mental and physical skill sets necessary to reach it are very different things. Suffice it to say, if you’re the client of someone who isn’t present either in the mental or physical sense, perhaps it’d be best if you moved on.

Failure To Coach Each and Every Rep

Two of my mentors, Mark Rippetoe and Juli Stephenson of Wichita Falls Athletic Club and the Starting Strength Coach Seminars, taught me the importance of coaching each and every rep of each and every exercise. This was in the context of movements like the barbell back squat and the power clean (which require a high degree of technical proficiency), but I’ve always interpreted their advice to mean something more. To make yourself available for every rep of every set, and to coach each of those reps so that each rep yields the best possible performance at that moment in time, takes a level of mindfulness on the part of that coach that is sorely absent amongst many. That mindfulness should extend beyond the technical aspects of training. Of all the things that one should be able to say about an excellent trainer or coach, the client should be able to say that he or she is mindful, which I characterize as possessing intense focus for the client, the exercise, the workout session, and the immediate and long-term outcomes of these, as well as a willingness mentally to labor over such. A mindful coach will, additionally, approach things with an attitude of open, rational inquiry. A good coach or trainer, insofar as is humanly possible, should be present in every sense of the word. If you suspect that yours is not, I encourage you to look elsewhere. You can start be evaluating whether your trainer or coach in fact coaches every rep―i.e. provides some form of feedback at all times, whether in the form of form of corrections, praise or simple encouragement.

The Placement of Quantity, Difficulty (How Grueling It Was) Or Speed Of Work Over Quality

By now, it should be apparent that I don’t believe in “suffering for the sake of suffering” and that the use of gruelingness as a metric for program design is just plain idiotic (as I’ve experienced firsthand).  If you haven’t read my previous post where I linked Matthew Perryman’s article on the no-pain-no-gain philosophy of training, you should go back and read it now (here’s a taste: grinding yourself into the ground all the time isn’t the best approach to training―not in any measurable sense―unless you’re the sort of person that’s convinced that the sweat from your last, ass-kicking work will cure cancer or heal premature babies). You probably know that I abhor the attitude “If a little is good, a lot must be better” (yeah, try taking that attitude the next time you get a headache, pop some acetaminophen, then see what happens). You definitely know, by now, that I value proper technique, and that I think that sacrificing technique for speed earns you all the injury and subsequent suffering you deserve. But there’s an assumption by A LOT of trainers and coaches (I’m honestly shocked, although I shouldn’t be, by how many of them actually subscribe to this) that training someone to fatigue, and beyond, on a highly technical movement (think the clean or snatch) is an acceptable method for correcting form errors, one to which I am vehemently opposed. This comes up a lot when trainers talk about teaching the clean to beginners. A common error in the clean is pulling with the arms (if you’re not familiar with the movement or any of its variants, take my word for it that pulling with the arms is a Bad Thing). The reasoning goes that making the trainee do numerous cleans in rapid succession will fatigue his or her arms, so that the trainee must rely on the legs/hips to get the barbell moving. Actually, sometimes this works. The problem is that, while one error is being “fixed,” others tend to emerge. As the trainee grows tired, the back loses its arch, foot placement changes, and a failure to maintain proper tempo occurs.  We’ve now traded one form error for three (or more?). And let’s say the trainee does one-hundred reps like this; that’s one-hundred times that the movement has been performed incorrectly. Imperfect practice yields imperfect results. Quantity alone is never the BEST solution to a form problem, and more is not always better. Quality of performance—which can be ensured through proper coaching—should be the priority.

Trainers Who Work Out With Their Trainees

There are few things that cause me to desire to punch a hole through a wall than this. Sometimes trainers “sneak in” workouts alongside their trainees. Don’t tolerate this. Do not. If you’re trainer is working out with you, he or she isn’t focused entirely on you. It’s unprofessional, and you should have more respect for yourself than to tolerate such bull**it.

Trainers Who Make Outlandish Claims

By the time someone arrives at the point where they’re willing to ask for help with getting in shape, they have probably fallen shy of doing so themselves a number of times. They may feel extremely self-conscious and vulnerable. Trainers know this, and the worst among them may exploit this fact by making outlandish claims about the kind of progress you can expect with them. Some may even attempt to sell you pricey supplements in order to further exploit your state of mind. There is a saying among skeptics that the more extraordinary the claim, the more extraordinary the proof has to be. Any extraordinary claim made on behalf of a training program or supplement should be met with a heavy dose of skepticism. As well, the more surrounded by hype a program or supplement is, the more skeptical you should be. Any trainer or coach worth a damn will preach hard work, dedication and goal-setting as the keys to progress, not supplements and workout gear, or “magic” programs, exercises or exercise combinations. And while you’re on the lookout for trainers who traffic in hype and overpriced supplements, beware of trainers who use buzz words or buzz phrases to characterize their training methods. Any talk about “the core,” “upping your testosterone levels,” “lowering your cortisol levels,” or “sculpting long, shapely muscles” is likely an attempt to capitalize on current fitness trends or to exploit your emotional vulnerability.

-Stacey

“Powerman” Perryman’s Thoughts On Exercise Addiction And Its Pitfalls

I’ve been planning to write something more on exercise addiction for a while now, but since Matt Perryman has done it–and probably better than I would have–I decided to link his post here.  Here is an excerpt:

An inadequate stimulus doesn’t trigger any response. An extreme stimulus overwhelms the organism, causing more harm than good. The hump, a moderate stimulus, is where you want to be. Too little won’t do anything and too much is harmful.

Extremism captures the thought process of many exercise fanatics. If some is good, more must be better. This probably isn’t a conscious thought process in most people; I’m convinced that, much like overeating, exercise addiction hides beneath our rational minds, and that allegedly rational mind later rationalizes our actions.

Here you can read more of “Pain Isn’t A Virtue [Muscle & Strength Gains].”

A warning: if you’ve got the attention span of a goldfish and/or you possess a fourth-grade reading level, just go ahead and skip this–I’m sure some infomercials are playing somewhere, or there’s an episode of Jersey Shore about to start, which should be more your speed.

-Stacey

Words Of Wisdom From Dan John

Occassionally, I’ll run across something while training, or reading and/or talking about training, that seems so damned obvious after the fact,  and just makes so much sense to me, that it’s difficult to imagine how I’d never thought of it before.  It happened again the other day: I came across an article by Dan John (Coach John’s sort of an elder statesman of all things strength and conditioning related, and a really awesome guy), and in it he discusses free will.  I really connected with this article.  The more I think about what he has to say concerning free will, the more I believe he’s right.  I’m posting this for everyone, not just for those interested in strength and conditioning, because I feel that everyone, regardless of his or her interests or “walk of life,” can find something of value here.

While you’re at it, wander on over to Coach John’s website, then visit this product page to see a list of his books and videos (use the search function).

On a final note, this article is being reprinted here with permission from Dan John.

-Stacey

***

“Free Will and Free Weights”
by Dan John

I’ve said it a million times: There aren’t any secrets to training. I would’ve stood by that, too, until the single greatest moment in the history of strength training and fitness happened to me. I finally discovered the secret.

I tend to joke about secrets and gimmicks quite a bit. You know what I’m talking about:

• Lose ten pounds overnight with the diet of the stars!
• Instantly increase your arm size!
• Use psycho power to get women and money!

True, I bought all those products, and I decided to use them all at once. They all worked! I lost my money overnight. Whoops.

No, I’m not talking about a real secret here, the answer to a lot of the crazy issues that plague probably everyone. The funny thing is I’m serious.

There’s something you have in short supply that you need to cherish. It’s the difference between making your fitness, strength and body composition goals and not making those goals. Before I divulge it, let’s look at a few examples.

New Year’s Eve – A drunk walks over to you, spilling a glass of merlot down your arm and on the Persian rug. “You know what” he slurs. “Tomorrow I’m laying off the booze, going on Atkins, and I’m going to work out every day, just like I used to. Stopping smoking, too. This is probably one of the last times you’ll see me smoking.”

We all know what’s going to happen. Most of us (raise your hands, please) have made a New Year’s resolution that didn’t exactly work out as we planned:

“I will eat low carb.”
“I will work my legs first every workout.”
“I will stop looking at internet porn.”

What’s strange is resolutions are usually good ideas. Let’s be honest, saving the first ten percent of a paycheck, cutting back on carbs or sweets or whatever, exercising more, or being kinder to humanity are all pretty damn good things to try to do.

Next example: With my old job I did a lot of prison ministry. Prison is nothing like the movies or television shows, at least in my experience. Sure, there are deep dark bad places in every prison, but most of what I saw wasn’t unlike hotels I stayed in while visiting New Jersey and Florida.

I sat on a coach once and had a long conversation with a very nice guy without any bars or guards nearby. I later found out he’d killed six people one night . . . the last just to see someone squirm. He seemed like a wonderful guy.

One of the things people talk about is how buff prisoners are. “Ah, to have the discipline of a multiple offender,” you might think. And there it is. That’s the insight I had recently. All of the connections finally linked up and in a flash . . . I got it.

Got what? The secret to success in all of our goals. Don’t laugh, don’t undervalue, and certainly don’t underestimate what I’m about to say. The secret to success is free will.

Free will? Sure, call it what you want: self discipline, habits, free agency, or my personal favorite, no other damn choice. Now listen, this isn’t a religious discussion, but there’s a great story that illuminates the concept. By the way, the story is absolutely true. I verified it.

There was a very religious man who lived in a flood plain. One year, a big flood hit and he stood on his porch watching the water go by. A neighbor came by driving a motorboat. “Hop on, friend, and I’ll take you to safety!”

“No, thanks,” the pious man said, “The Good Lord above will save me.” Later, while sitting on his roof, the sheriff came by in a rowboat. “Here you go, hop in!” he said.

“No, thanks. The Good Lord above will save me,” the man replied. As the water rose higher, a helicopter dropped a rope ladder down to him and offered him a lift off the top of his home.

“No, thanks. The Good Lord above will save me.”

He drowned.

Standing in line waiting to get into heaven, the Good Lord walked by him. The man said, “Why didn’t you save me?”

The Good Lord answered: “I sent a motorboat, a rowboat, and a helicopter. What did you want?”

This is a true story and I’m standing by it.

What’s the point? We all know we need to take the bull by the horns, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or add any cliché comment you were told as an adolescent to spur you to get off your damn computer chair and walk over to the gym and spend the next hour doing nothing but every exercise you hate.

Or, you can keep reading this article and eat some of those chips that are bad for you, but since they come from Hawaii must be pretty good after all, so eat a few more, then sneak over to those websites that have panting college coed in pasties. Or whatever.

Every great motivational speaker from Napoleon Hill to Earl Nightingale to Anthony Robbins will always dedicate a large amount of time and energy to the concept of self-discipline. My college coach, Ralph Maugham, had a saying for his athletes: Make yourself a slave to good habits.

And you know, to a group of Division one track and field athletes who all have at least a 3.0 GPA, that’s a nice bit of advice, especially worthy of discussion. Of course, that audience was a little different than maybe most of us deal with during a typical day.

So, why does the guy in prison have a better body than you? It’s because we have just a little bit of free will. How do I know? People actually research this stuff and then I steal it. Let me take a quick detour for a second and see if I can explain it.

I shave daily. I recently changed from shaving cream to shaving gel, but I’m going back to cream. Why? Well, with shaving cream, as you get to the bottom of the can, it splutters and spats and spits cream for about a week before it goes absolutely empty. The first time you get shaving cream spit in your eye, you mentally note, “I need to buy more shaving cream.” In that week, you have three or four opportunities to get spat on as a reminder to buy more cream.

With gel, you’re standing in the shower and you press the button and . . . nothing. Yesterday, a face full of gel; today you’re trying to shave with Dial soap lather and all day your friends comment about your dry, bleeding face. Your coworkers might think you got into another bar fight, like you told them last time.

You see, free will is like shaving gel. It seems you have a one-can allotment and it just runs out without warning. Researchers did an interesting test on people: Everyone was asked to do a series of complex tests without any chance of success. They timed how long people would try the task before giving up – like maybe a Rubik’s cube that had been made impossible to finish.

When the next group came in, they offered everybody cookies. Those who said, “No thanks, watching my diet,” or whatever, would quit the impossible task far earlier than those who said, “What the hell, give me a damn cookie.”

Why? My friends, you basically have about one can of Free Will. It you use it saying no to cookies, you won’t have any left for impossible tasks, quitting smoking, or whatever resolution you picked in a carb-induced haze sometime during the holidays. Sorry. One can.

That’s why our friend in prison has a better body than you. When your alarm goes off, do you basically get up? Why? Could you miss class if you’re a student? Maybe. Well, then, getting up out of your toasty bed will eat up some of your free will.

Can you miss work? Sure, but then, you know, something happens, like you miss the Henderson Report and the Dingwinglies fall of the Schimshank and whatever the hell else bad happens to you at work.

Do you have kids? Now we’re really talking about losing free will, fast and furious. Children will drink every ounce you have before you send them off to school. Trust me, I don’t have any personal choice at all!

Who makes your meals or chooses what place you’ll eat? You. There goes some of that decision-making ability.

As decision after decision hits you throughout the week, the reservoir of free will you’ll have on hand to spend at the gym begins to fade. When I originally wrote my Four Minutes to Fat Loss article, which you’ll read later in the book, a number of people asked me, “If it’s so good, why don’t you do it every day?” My answer was always clouded: You do it and get back to me.

Why wouldn’t I do it every day? To push myself that hard after a long day of commuting kids back and forth to school, choir and volleyball, while the dog is puking next to the broken toilet, while the lady from the reunion wants to know if I can get there early to help hang crepe paper, after I get the truck back from getting new tires, before I mow the lawn, and while the boss still needs that report . . . I’m happy to hide in the gym.

Lots of us know these workouts. We go into our gym and hide. I call it arm day! Our buddy in prison? Does he decide when to go to bed? No. Get up? No. Eat three times a day? No choice. Not only no choice on what to eat, but usually our friend doesn’t have to do anything to prepare the meal. Quiet time? I don’t even know what that is.

Day after day after day, decisions I take for granted are just not a part of the prisoner’s life. What does he have control of anyway? His workouts. That whole can of Free Will – literally bottled up inside of him for days, maybe even weeks, months and years in some cases – can be used for training. And train he does.

You decide on ten New Year’s resolutions. Here’ s my unsolicited gambling odds: no chance. If you only make one resolution? Maybe you’ll achieve it. It could happen, you know, with the right motivations.

Why am I confident you’ll fail? My point: You have only so much in the can of Free Will, and most of us waste the bulk of our self-determination, grit, or free choice long before we can muster up the energy to deal with nicotine fits, carb cravings, and the three-minute wait to get on the treadmill.

Listen, it’s easier to just eat the damn cookie. I know, I’ve been there. Hi, I’m Dan and I’m the guy who knows cars are bad for me, but I eat them anyway so leave me alone in my corner to sob.

How can we save more of the can of Free Will so we can focus on our workouts or really push that diet? Let’s be honest, look at Chris Shugart’s Velocity Diet. Just look at it. Pretend for a moment you could do that for a month. Just pretend. I did and immediately came up with 400 events I couldn’t bring a protein drink to, even one mixed with flax seeds.

Here are three ideas to help you get more Free Will out of your can.

NUMBER ONE

Camp. I’m serious. Each year, I spend up to four weeks in training camps. Somebody wakes me up, somebody makes my meals, somebody else pushes me to work out, somebody else tells me when to put the lights out. You know, I work hard during those weeks.

How can I reinvent camp for my normal life? A couple of things leap out at me. First, if nutrition is so important, and it’s my biggest trouble spot, is it possible to sublet my meal planning? One day a week, should I do all the cooking and bag and freeze some meals? Can I hire someone to do all the cooking? Should I buy a lot of pre-made meals? Or, should I just stock all my shelves with really good things, and only eat in appropriate places?

Really, none of these ideas are bad. Not great, but not bad either. In the area of training, we all know what the value of a personal actually is: It’s someone making sure you do something in the allotted training time. I’m not ripping on PTs here; I’m just pointing out the single greatest value of a personal trainer is someone else’s will replacing your own. That psycho, whistle-blowing high school coach you had might’ve been on to something.

NUMBER TWO

I’m working with a young woman, Edna, who recently did a pretty impressive thing: She quit smoking, lost a lot of bodyweight, stopped partying so much, and decided to recommit to her lifelong goals. As of this writing, she hasn’t smoked in a long time, has lost a lot of weight, and is in the fog of love with a very decent guy.

Her secret? She took on one task at a time, but only with a large community effort behind her. What does that mean? It means she told everybody her goals. I mean that, gentle reader, — everybody. Friends, people at parties, coworkers and people in the mall looking for a new microwave all heard the same chorus.

“Hey, I’m quitting smoking, so if I say I need a smoke, tie me down and don’t let me smoke ’cause I’m quitting and I’m not going to smoke, so don’t let me smoke.” Hey, you aren’t going to let that person smoke. Leave, yes; smoke, no.

Next, Edna joined Weight Watchers. She goes to the meetings. She talks about things. She talks to other people in Weight Watchers and she lets everybody know she’s in Weight Watchers.

I’m telling you, you can save your precious free will by recruiting a vast army of people willing to give up their free will to bolster yours. How? Tell them, ask them, beg them for help. Does your family know your goals? Coworkers? Professionals? Mailman? Start putting it out there.

There was a time in my youth where I could go to a party filled with booze and an assortment of products from Columbia and no one would offer me a share. Why? I was dumb enough to let everyone know I was going after something that drugs and booze would only hinder.

I was joking about the dumb-enough part. I’m damn proud of those decisions.

NUMBER THREE

I don’t like this one, but it works: Whittle down your life a little. I’ve always told my daughters you can measure a good relationship by the way you expand rather than contract. What am I saying? Maybe you do too much.

I’m guilty; I love leaping into things. In fact, it’s a rare fall that I don’t have a conflict on a weekend between a Highland Games, flag football or Olympic lifting!

Whittle. I was at a party with a guy recently who told me he couldn’t get back into training. Six minutes later he asked me about a list of television shows I’d never watched, and a few I’d never heard of. By God, this guy watched Joey!

Whittle that TV habit and the time will appear for training. Don’t TiVo a bunch of crap so you can watch it faster without commercials! When I was growing up, we never watched CBS; we didn’t get the station where we lived. You know, I never missed a thing. Now, we have 10,000 stations and think there’s always something better on another channel.

Whittle. Drunk all weekend and go to work hung-over? Whittle away a little there. Whittle away your workouts, too. Why does anybody do the innie and outie thigh machines? Really, why?

There you go, friends. Once again, I offer some basic ideas, but the problem isn’t so easy. Be very sparing with your little can of self-discipline, Free Will, or whatever word you want to toss around.

You have thiree options to help you make better choices:

ONE: Be proactive and try to find someone or some way to cut back on the options, all those deadly choices and decisions . . . especially in nutrition and training.

TWO: Bring everybody onboard to keep an eye on you. The more personal trainers, mentors, gurus, Yodas, and Gandalfs in your life, the better. Tell everyone you know your goals and watch how much easier it is to stay on track. The crazy lady on the 814 bus might be the one person who stops you from munching on that muffin.

THREE: Whittle away at all the extras. Better yet, chop away. I’m not saying disconnect with humanity, but I’d like to see you turn off the damn television set. Chop. Chop. Chop.

Hey, like the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade said, “Choose wisely.”

And not very often.

Strong Guys (And Gals) With Poor Technique: What Gives?

Even a cursory search of Youtube will reveal a slew of videos of relatively strong people lifting with poor technique.  This is the case in spite of what your coach, trainer or fitness guru has been telling you: lifting with correct technique is a must both for injury prevention and maximizing performance gains.  Nevertheless, there you see them, doing things with poor technique that you have a tough time doing on your best day.  I’m not talking about athletes whose sport of choice is powerlifting or weightlifting, where at the highest levels you really must have superior lifting technique in addition to superior genetics in order to stand a chance in hell of success.  I’m talking about athletes for whom lifting isn’t the focus of their training but a supplement to it, or individuals for whom lifting is, at most, a very important hobby.  So really, what gives?

Before I go any further, I want to assert from the outset that this post isn’t intended to provide excuses for those who are weak, who lack power, or who are just generally out-of-shape to go on being that way.   Regardless of who you are, how old you are, or what your history of injury is, there is a way for you to become stronger and just plain healthier than you are now.  Recognizing that you’re not “world-class” material isn’t a reason not to, well, at least strive to do better and be better.

Ahem, now that that’s out of the way…As difficult as it can be to admit, there are—for lack of a better term—“supermen” among us.  Don’t get me wrong: whether you’re talking about a top-tier athlete or that really gifted gym rat working out in the rack next to yours, you need to understand that they’ve probably worked fairly hard to get to the point where they are in the weight room.  Without work ethic, someone can still squander all of his or her genetic gifts.  What I mean to say is, some folks are strong in spite of their poor technique.  Even with poor technique, the fact that they’ve plugged away at it week in and week out with determination and diligence for years on end means that they’ll be plenty strong and powerful, especially when compared to the genetically, well, average newbie trainee just getting his or her feet wet.

Most people don’t fall into the “superman” category, however.  The average trainee will need to train smarter and become technically proficient in order to approach some percentage of what those with greater natural talents will be able to achieve, and it may take him or her longer to get to comparable levels of strength, power and…blah, blah, blah.  In short, for the average to below average athlete, technique will be even more important.  With a lower genetic “ceiling” of potential, there just isn’t a great deal of “wiggle-room” up top for mistakes.   You’re going to have to maximize on what gifts you’ve got by training smart and ensuring that you understand and can display proper technique.

This guy is neither strong nor technically proficient:

On a related note, it’s typical–particularly when starting out (you know, the time when anyone with any training background whatsoever is outperforming you)—to look up to just about anyone with better lifts, better times or greater all-around athleticism as someone to emulate.  And it’s not that they don’t have something good to teach you—they probably do.  However, they may not know exactly what they do or do not know, never having had their brains picked; they might not be particularly good at expressing what they know in a way that you’d understand; or they might not be good at dealing with a broad range of athletes, each having greater or lesser natural ability, higher or lesser degrees of training advancement, or special issues like injuries or other medical conditions that make a particular exercise or approach to training a bad idea.  In other words, they might not be “coach material.”  A college running back with a 400-plus pound back squat is strong, relatively speaking, but can he get the rank beginner to that same level of strength, given the running back’s own poor squat, deadlift or overhead press technique and his surplus of natural talent?  If he can’t personally identify with your physical or mental “hurdles,” or he hasn’t helped others to navigate similar hurdles prior to his training you—well, what are the chances of the running back coaching you up to a level of competency and, moreover, doing so within an efficient timeframe?  Does he have the proper skill set for this?  I’ll leave you with that to think about.

In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to pick up Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training and Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes and Coaches, both of which should be a part of every lifter’s library.

-S.

There Is No “Diet Magic”

From Martin Berkhan’s website:

“I subscribe to the idea, that the best diet is the one you can maintain in the long run.

For me personally, this entails intermittent fasting and a cyclic approach of higher/lower carbs, plenty of protein and low/moderate fat. My main focus lies on high quality foods, with nutritious and satiating properties, and not discrimination towards a particular macronutrient.

I don’t believe there is any magic to be had when one is excluding fat or carbs from their diet. Both have their place. However, there are people that subscribe to a completely different set of opinions.

After watching the documentary Religilous (melding of “religion” and “ridiculous) yesterday, it dawned upon me how much some religious fundamentalists have in common with certain nutritional fundamentalists. In recent years, I have seen the rise of one group in particular. I prefer to call them the low carb talibans…”

You can find the rest of the article here.

Martin’s another fella whom I think you can trust to spare you any bulls**t and hype.  Spend some time browsing through his site and consider yourself enlightened.

-Stacey

The Echo Chamber

The dreaded echo chamber.  Sounds like the title of a Harry Potter movie, right?  Harry Potter and the Dreaded Echo Chamber.  But echo chambers aren’t fictional; you may be trapped in one right now.  I’m reminded of a previous workplace (a place I will not name, thank you very much), the owner of which didn’t tolerate dissenting opinions among his ranks.  This person surrounded himself only with employees who were likely to share his opinions (due either to their inclinations or the fear of being fired).  It’s not uncommon for people who travel the same circles, social or otherwise, to exhibit a pattern of “groupthink,” but in this case, the situation was severe.

And that’s what I want to discuss.  Any place, physical or virtual (think online communities), where people congregate can become an echo chamber by virtue of the human tendency towards groupthink.  For instance, if you and your cycling buddies get together and talk shop on a regular basis, and you keep hearing them rave about how this brand of bike or biking gear is the “best thing since sliced bread,” then you might actually start believing that, too.  Or, say a few times a week, you get together with your workout buddies, several of whom are following the same diet, and they’re always talking about what great results they’ve been getting from it, you might start thinking, “Hey, this diet might not be such a bad idea after all…”  If you belong to a group like that, chances are you read the same magazines, take the same or similar dietary supplements, and visit the same internet discussion forums as one another.  Those aren’t necessarily terrible things in and of themselves, but you could be missing out on important input simply because you’re not making an effort to step outside of your comfort zone, whether it be intellectual, physical, or both.  At the same time, don’t “throw the baby out with the bath water” either because of something you read on a forum or heard while visiting the gym (for example, you choose to stop lifting and take up nothing but jogging and yoga, just because you read somewhere that everyone who lifts gets some kind of serious injury, eventually).

In the digital world of strength and conditioning, discussions and preoccupations are typically cyclic.   Depending on when and where you happen in on the discussion, your current obsession as a newbie could be with the Westside Barbell approach, or any of the various 5 X 5 methods, the Starting Strength program/some form of linear progression, the CrossFit methodology, or H.I.T. training, etc.  I don’t really have a problem with any of those approaches, as I’ve used some of them or have trained alongside folks who have, and they all work extremely well in the hands of the right coach and when used in the appropriate measure.  I think the important thing to remember is that there is no end-all, be-all program or method and nothing works forever.  Anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to sell you something.  In fact, as a rule of thumb, I try to avoid the advice of people who use superlatives a lot when discussing strength and conditioning, or who get all of their information from one source.  You might hear, “CrossFit is the greatest strength and conditioning program in the WORLD!”   An exercise “guru” might say, “You should NEVER do round-back lifting, EVER!”  Or a guy at your gym might proclaim, “The Starting Strength forums are the last forums that you’ll ever need to visit.”  Anyone who is this preoccupied with one methodology or who is so thoroughly and blindly immersed in one training culture has ceased to grow mentally and, most probably, physically as well.  Don’t listen to such people.  Don’t surround yourself with such people.

The following is a quote from Glenn Pendlay.  It contains good advice for anyone wanting to learn more about training, whether your concern is to train yourself or others.  Following this advice will take you far away from your strength and conditioning echo chamber:

“ If you really want to know how to get people stronger, train yourself like a madman, learn all you can from that, seek out people who know more than you do and learn from them. Learn all you can about track and field training and Olympic lifting and powerlifting. Learn from the people in those sports that are actually producing athletes, and not the ones who are simply famous. Compete in those sports yourself even if you suck. Bookmark Medline and read all the research you can. Develop an affinity for the local university library where you can photocopy the full articles you saw on Medline. Call foreign coaches and talk to them. Read all the books available on training. Never assume that any one person has all the answers or get so carried away on one thing that you never learn or adapt your ideas again. Train or assist in the training of any athlete you can lay hands on, and then repeat each of the above steps consistently for somewhere between 10 and 20 years and you’ll probably be there. I’m currently involved in this very program that I am recommending, I figure I have about 5 more years to go and ill actually know something useful.”

-Stacey

Help a tough little dude out!

This is Aidan…

…he’s going through a tough time with leukemia.  Right now, he’s selling his handmade drawings to help raise money for chemotherapy.  Aidan is helping himself and staying strong, things everyone should have the courage to do.  Go help Aidan get better:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AidansMonsters?ref=pr_shop_more

-S.

Confirmation Bias + Exercise Addiction

Usually, if I’m griping about something, it’s a safe bet that I’ve been guilty of that something or continue to be; pointing it out is a way for me to move past a negative pattern of behavior and encourage others to do the same.  So here I am doing it again.

Confirmation bias: the tendency to seek out information that confirms our deep-seated beliefs; it’s the opposite of the scientific method and rational skepticism, and it’s an obstacle to personal and professional growth.

No one’s exactly immune to this phenomenon, but you can try to mitigate its effects by keeping good records of your workouts and training with consistency, together with trying to understand both a bit about why and how the body responds to training and the proper mechanics of the lifts beforehand.  And then there’s honesty: you have to be honest with yourself when things go wrong.  When training and diet don’t yield the results that you’d expect, you can look back at your training and diet journals, see when things might have started to go wrong, and then try to square that away with what you know about exercise physiology and lifting mechanics (there isn’t anything new under the sun, so to speak, and solid, effective training practices tend to have a lot of the same things in common, as many old-timers will be more than happy to tell you).

The worst way to respond in the above scenario is to deny that what you’re doing training or diet-wise is unproductive, to seek out people or sources of training advice that confirm the ongoing utility of your current regimen, and to further enable you to rationalize what you’re doing and keep doing it, so that you end up no stronger, more conditioned or fitter 6 – 12 months from now.  But people do exactly this, more often than not.  That’s one of the reasons trainees don’t reach their goals (besides not having embarked on a training program that makes sense for their goals in the first place).  This involves a helluva lot of denial on behalf of the trainee.

If this sounds like addiction to you, then you’re not far off.  I’ve been working in gyms long enough to observe exercise addiction in action and appreciate how destructive it can be physically and interpersonally (anyone who knows me knows that I’ve suffered from this a time or two in my life).  People of this ilk display an almost religious and manic devotion to intense, “marathon” bouts of exercise, day-in and day-out (some of you out there may know or be married to one of these people).  Ever tried talking someone out of their exercise habit and gotten your throat metaphorically slit?  Ever tried approaching them with substantive, observable facts about how their fixation on exercise is taking time away from important obligations and is physically damaging them, and gotten a face full of denial?  Then, you know the sort of person I’m describing.

Turns out, people need something to serve as their “anchor,” and exercise provides just that for a great many.  One remedy is to do what I’ve described above: as a trainee, state your goals clearly from the outset, then decide whether your diet and training is either helping you toward your goals or hindering you.  Then “trim away the fat” from your regimen.   If your current approach stops working, use the records that you’ve kept to decipher the problem.  At any rate, you have to first acknowledge that you’re not doing yourself any good by staying stuck; you must avoid denial.  While you’re at it, find a good gym where people who share some of the same goals as you like to lift.  Generally speaking, a place that’s run by someone who has been working hard in the pursuit of strength and conditioning for a number of years, who is goal and results driven, and who is a voracious student of training and lifting, is probably the sort of place that you want to be training.  Being around other experienced, even somewhat accomplished, athletes will teach you vast amounts about how to keep your training moving when you get stuck, if you’ll just be honest with yourself and listen.

Lastly, train with people who don’t mind telling you that you suck.  Seriously.  Find people who will call you out when you start talking B.S. and/or making excuses.  I don’t mean that you should train at a facility where people openly degrade you, but if the place where you train isn’t populated by people who are willing to shoot you straight and not sell you a line of B.S., then you’re not being done any favors.

-Stacey, irongeek33@gmail.com

Strength Training & Fat Loss

We’ve all heard someone say it (maybe you’ve even said it yourself): “Lifting heavy weights will make you bulky.” It’s a forgone conclusion for a lot of folks that strength training and weight loss are, therefore, mutually exclusive. I’ve found that a simple way to address the concern over bulk is the truism “Something can’t come from nothing.” In other words, if you’re not consuming the excess calories needed to grow (nutrients are measured in calories, and nutrients are our raw “building blocks” for growth), you’re not going to get bulky, end of story.

There are lots of good reasons to get and stay strong, reasons which I’ve addressed elsewhere, but the question is, can you follow a general strength training program and still lose weight or, at the very least, become more lean?

The short answer is yes. An exercise regime heavy on cardio isn’t necessary for weight loss. In fact, I’d say that if your concern is to improve body composition, as opposed to just lose weight, strength training (which by definition utilizes heavier weights and lower repetitions) is a better alternative to that.

Assuming a slight caloric deficit, and assuming the proper intake of dietary protein, the compound movements (such as the squat) loaded with heavy weights will provide the stimulus for muscle tissue to stick around. That’s not to say that you won’t lose any muscle while dieting down, only that muscle tissue loss will be minimized. I know that everyone has their own idea about what looks “good” or “sexy” physique-wise, but if you’re reading this article here at my site, I’m assuming you don’t want to look like one of those waif-like models and that you’d prefer to sport a little lean muscle tissue besides just wanting to drop the fat. This is the way to do that.

I should mention that, while strength training and fat loss aren’t mutually exclusive, trying to get stronger in a caloric deficit isn’t, well, quite optimal. Strength gains will taper off very quickly, and there may come a time when making strength gains will come only sporadically. At that point in time, it might make sense just to try and maintain what strength you’ve gained by working up to one heavy set of each strength exercise a few times a week. And since all diets should have an end point, you should be able to resume progressive strength training once you’ve started eating more liberally (some dieters find it productive to cycle periods of restricted eating with periods of mild overfeeding throughout the year, adjusting their training intensity accordingly). As usual, your goals should determine the shape that your diet and training take.

-Stacey

Programming: the Nuts & Bolts

 

Couldn’t have said it better myself:  http://committothepull.wordpress.com/

-Stacey