2018 NSCA Personal Trainers Conference
The NSCA finally held one of their conferences in Baltimore…
As with all things, there are pros and cons to this.
I didn’t have to get on a plane, pay for a hotel and spend a ridiculous amount to stuff my piehole stay fed.
But I also didn’t get a child-free mini vacation.
#Adulting
When I first got certified, circa 2006(ish) the National Strength and Conditioning Association had 2 major conferences each year.
The National Conference
The Personal Trainers Conference.
In fact the first full. multi-day, NSCA event I ever went to was the PT conference in about 2007 or so.
It was in Las Vegas.
My roommates came along because, well, they couldn’t “let” me go alone.
Day 1 was fine.
Day 2, lets just say, it’s difficult to learn when severely hung over.
It was a MUCH larger event, hell, 4 years ago in Washington DC the PT conference easily had 1500 attendees and probably 1/3rd more sessions.
But with the addition of the Coaches Conference (formerly Sports Specific), TSAC conference, live stream and all the other continuing ed opportunities, things get spread out.
I’d be surprised if 4oo people “packed” the Renaissance Inner Harbor.
It was soooo dead that, the GNC booth had the full allotment of product an HOUR after the exhibit hall opened.
For those of you who may be uninitiated, at NSCA events, the exhibit hall is filled with the usual suspects GNC, Perform Better, Sorinex, Muscle Milk etc, all either showcasing, selling and in the case of supplements GIVING away “samples”.
These “samples” are usually full size bars and RTD (ready to drink) protein drinks.
Exhibit Hall Breakfast
The hall opens at 7am for an “early bird workout”.
Which is really just the exhibitors showcasing their sponsor athletes and equipment…
But around 8am the real fun occurs.
The supplement companies put out “samples”..
The Levee Breaks
It’s more or less similar to Walmart on Black Friday.
If you don’t mind the fact that you could get trampled, all for $10 worth of supps, all the more power to you.
Fun fact, I’ve actually seen people at these things, go up to a box of protein bars and empty the whole thing into their bag.
Editors Note: There was free omelets, coffee and fruit. I’m guessing that had something to do with the “inventory stability”.
Plus, personal trainers are typically much less “aggressive” than strength coaches.
Brad Gillingham
stole this pic from Ironmind
The Freak Beast at the GNC booth was largest man I’ve ever met, Brad Gillingham.
Besides being a literal GIANT, he was super nice and cool and when he found out I was from Baltimore he hooked me up with a free tub of GNC protein. <—In part because I had an EliteFTS shirt on, which was complimented no less than 3 times that day.
Plus the GNC RTD (ready to drink) in the black bottle with 40g of protein are BOSS.
They taste great, but damn, they’re expensive on Amazon
Free Shirt
I mean, it’s not free.
You pay for it in the registration.
But it’s “free”, in the way that if you buy something on “sale”, you “saved”.
It’s that new math.
I like the design, but no front logo of any kind is kinda cheap weird.
There Was Learnin’ to Do
Bert Sorin- Be Legendary. 10 Steps for Leading an Impactful Life
Bert is the son of “Pops” Sorin, the man behind Sorinex equipment.
Basically they’re the stash guys.
- Be Authentic
- “Just because you’re unique, doesn’t mean you’re useful”
- That PLAGUES the fitness industry. Novelty DOES NOT equal usefulness. Just because you saw it on Instagram, doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.
- Be Respectful
- Know your roots, be thankful, thank those who have helped you
- Be Valuable
- Overvaluing yourself will lead you to be frustrated or fired.
- Be Curious
- Have an interest in LIFE, it’ll keep you young.
- Be Capable
- Be able to do something useful
- Be There
- In a conversation, minimize YOUR problems, turns the focus away from being self-centered on YOU.
- Be Present
- “A brand is a thousand tiny details pointed to a specific experience”– Rick Elder, Beyond Clothing
- Be Prepared
- “Grinding” is an intermediate skill set, ie are you just a technician? or an owner? A chef or a cook?
- Be Convinced
- Everyone wont get what you do, especially if what you do is extraordinary.
- “Irrational belief in my capacity to create solutions in a high tension environment, coupled with a high-capacity for failure”- Matt from Montaluce
- Be Persistent
- Every stone thrown into a river alters its path, volume and velocity, even slightly.
Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D- Resistance Training Frequency: How Often Should You Train to Maximize Strength and Hypertrophy
Brad, Dr. Gains, is generally regarded as THE authority on muscle hypertrophy.
He publishes a ridiculous amount of work on the subject and quite frankly is providing some really interesting insights (if you look at the entire paper(s) when it comes to HEALTHY, TRAINED, individuals and resistance training.
His talk began with a good overview of what science (data and evidence) is and the scientific process.
Basically, “I saw this on Dr. Oz”, “Kim Kardashian is”, “celebrity X, Y, Z, does this” and “my friend said” are all valid.
As single, unverified/ investigated/ possible data points.
But they’re probably all bullshit.
Just because it’s on TV, in a magazine or someone who is “in good shape” said it, doesn’t mean its accurate.
Hypertrophy Take-Home Points:
- More Volume = More Gains, But only to a point.
- Intensity Matters: Not all Volume is Created Equal
- Volume Spread Intelligently Through the Week (Upper/ Lower, Total body splits) are almost always better than a Single High Volume Dose (bro split) on a VOLUME EQUATED PROGRAM.
Mike Israetel, Ph.D- From Inspiration to Passion, the Five Constructs of the Motivation Process
People are REALLY successful at starting diets.
Unbelievably terrible at following through with them.
Why?
Because inspiration is fleeting, motivation doesn’t last and eventually, things get hard.
That’s when we quit…usually.
- Inspiration
- If you’re never inspired, you’ll never start
- It’s the “kick” but doesn’t last long
- Motivation
- Set a SPECIFIC goal
- “in shape” isn’t a goal
- Intention
- HAVE A PLAN that you can live with and stick to
- Discipline
- Sticking to the plan even when you don’t feel like it.
- It’s ok to be unmotivated, STICK it out and motivation will return later.
- Habit
- After a month, most diet features become habit
- You’ll need less discipline, adherence is better
- Chances of long-term success are MUCH higher
- Fad diets are very bad for reaching this stage
- Passion
- Most wont get here
- If you do, you’re probably set
A big point is there are times diets absolutely suck.
That’s ok, tell clients it will and allow it to suck.
Don’t sugar coat or draw away from the suck, instead emphasize the plan and how to stick it out, the suck will pass.
John Rusin, DPT- Advanced Individualization: the Squat Pattern
Squats are brutalized.
Like, it’s bad out there kids, really bad.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Virtually everyone can, and should, perform some type of squat in their program.
Even uncle Joe, who at Thanksgiving last year told you about how he used to squat 400lbs (he didn’t) and how they’re “bad for your knees” (they’re not) and “no one should ever do them” (cause the #1 reason people go live at the old folks home is, they can’t get off the toilet).
Yeah, squatting isn’t important at all.
Squatting, It’s All In the Hips
Hips are unbelievably complex and the hip joints really can be special little snowflakes individual to us all.
That means your squat and my squat probably wont be exactly the same.
Basically, don’t force a squat stance or style because a book, seminar or guru told you that’s how you do it.
Trust and respect YOUR anatomy.
That doesn’t mean crappy technique is ok.
It means good technique needs to be layered onto your anatomy.
Mike Israetel, Ph.D- Manipulating Hunger Through Dietary Strategies
Food is usually really good.
Food is even more better when you’re on a diet.
Food is really kinda awful if you have to stuff your face to gain weight (yes, there actually are people out there who need to do this).
By controlling the Hedonic, ie awesomeness of food, you can help yourself succeed on any weight loss or mass gain plan because food wont be so terrible or awesome.
You still need willpower, but keep the power of food constant will help convince you to shovel it in your face if need be and to limit the type and amount when you need to keep it at bay.
David Barr- Training Techniques for Optimal Muscle Gain and Fat Loss
Do you produce the most force you’re capable of during a 1RM lift?
The answer is NO.
Why?
You’re only as strong as the WEAKEST PART of the lift.
Therefore, even on 1RM attempts, there is always a force deficit between the weakest part of the lift and the highest force output your actually capable of.
Think of this as a bench press. The graph starts at the top, the arrow is at the chest, the end of the force curve is when the bar is locked out.
The hardest part of the lift is at the chest, also the “weakest” part of the lift.
Max Force a muscle is capable of is NEVER exerted at the most mechanically disadvantages position. ie the bottom of a squat or at the chest on a bench press.
So we’re never really lifting a “Max Force Capable” weight.
We’re lifting the max force the muscle can handle in its weakest position weight.
We’re also MUCH stronger in the eccentric than the concentric.
ie, you can resist more force than you can create.
To really understand eccentric training, we’re NOT talking about simply lowering the weight.
In the eccentric portion of a traditional exercise the force on the bar is LESS than the force you’re exerting on it.
That’s why the bar moves downward, otherwise (you’re producing equal or more force) the bar would be static or moving upward.
Point is, in traditional weight training we’re actually NOT training the eccentric abilities of muscle force very effectively and potentially leaving a lot of potential gains on the table.
True eccentric training would equate to the bar lowering despite you exerting max force to push it away.
From there we went through some strategies to train this, thing like doing a banded biceps curl and lifting with two arms and lowering with one.
The key being that during the lowering portion you MUST BE RESISTING THE WEIGHT AS HARD AS YOU CAN.
Truth is, this is a new(ish) area of research and we’re still trying to find ways to train in this regime.
Here’s a good explanation of what the hell I’m trying to say:
David Barr has some other cool videos on his Youtube
Shawn Arent, Ph.D- The PaleoKetoMacroFasting Diet: Stop the Madness
The long and short is, all diets work and eating less crap tends to improve your health and performance.
Live by the IIFYL (if it fits your life) mantra:
these are incredibly good guidelines for just about everyone.
“Athletes don’t diet and exercise. They eat and train”
Just do that and you’ll be gravy.
Shawn Arent, Ph.D- Nutrient Timing: Impacts on Hypertrophy and Training
Remember the Anabolic Window?
Hell, I covered some then new research/ thoughts about it here: Should I Have a Post Workout Shake?
Basically, the current research stated (and still does) that you’re NOT going to lose all your gains if you don’t have a post workout meal.
Your total, chronic, nutrient status was MUCH MORE important than any single meal.
But does that mean the post workout meal isn’t a worth doing?
Basically, a good post workout meal, consumed close to training (10-30 minutes post training) OPTIMIZES nutrient uptake.
In performance sports, the “anabolic window of opportunity” can be EXTREMELY important in setting the athlete up to optimize recovery and subsequent performance.
Post workout nutrition can have considerations other than just muscle hypertrophy like:
- Glycogen replenishment
- Muscle protein breakdown
- Immune support
Yes, this may only be part of the puzzle, especially for the solely physique minded, but much like compound interest, it can have an additive effect over time.
Why Not Have a Post Workout Shake?
Taking these questions into account, maybe this is how we should look at “Workout Nutrition”:
Instead of finding ways to not emphasize post workout nutrition, maybe we should just emphasize all nutrition.
BUT in a similar fashion to what Layne Norton said on the Joe Rogan Podcast,
“If you’re not lifting weights and training hard, your missing the whole F@cking idea”
On the whole it was another really good NSCA conference.
The sessions were great and the NSCA staff did a great job of keeping things running smoothly.
Just next time, stay out of Baltimore.
I want my mini-vacation.
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