If you're gonna try and get and or be strong in a garage gym.... You're Gonna Need a Good Bar.... Bells and whistles are nice, but a rack, bench, weights and a good bar are the most essential pieces of equipment. All you need is a rack, barbell, platform and some weight.- Jim Wendler If you have those you can kick more ass than all of the Planet Fitness's combined.. From Dustin Thomas's Super Awesome Blog For Cool People I know, that's a VERY low hurdle to jump over.... So when I recently moved and had the opportunity to build a garage gym of my own I needed a bar but I wasn't sure which one to get. Things you I look for in a bar: I wanted a powerbar, I … [Read more...]
Training The Overweight/ Obese Client
June 19, 2014 by
"I Thought You Only Trained Athletes?" I wish....but not really Athletes can do ANYTHING and they're fun to train because of that. You show them once and they have it down, better than me, stronger than me.. But here's the fact: "Until you're at the top, you better train all types of people, not just the fun ones"- Mike Boyle If I only trained athletes, I'd be eating Ramen noodles in a cardboard box every night. The vast majority of my clients are regular people who want to be more awesome. Eventually, they become super awesome, but at first they're usually pretty terrible below average physically and this usually includes being somewhat to very … [Read more...]
Learning the Hip Hinge, When You’ve Got no Hips
June 9, 2014 by
Chances Are, You Suck At This You're probably either doing the stiff knees: got it from Sparkbmxtraining or the rounded low back This is from CliftonParkchiro or both.... See Wha' Had Happen Wazz You're all like the Tin Man. [Tweet "You can't move from the hip, hell you don't even know what a hip is..."] We gotta change that, cause without some hips you're gonna (probably) get some big time fugazi awesome feelings in your lower back. Now this is what hinging the hip looks like: From Bodybuilding.com Hips back Shins Vertical Chest "up" Straight line shoulders through hips Lower back in neutral I know what you're thinking, it's … [Read more...]
What Moving your Couch and Exercise Have in Common and it’s NOT Back Pain
May 13, 2014 by
Or, Spend $10 at Lowes and Up Your Game. As far as I know Valerie Waters is a VERY good trainer, and she is without doubt VERY successful. She should get ALL credit for thinking up using furniture sliders as exercise equipment. I'm sure someone did it before her, but she popularized it. So, in this age of the internet guru "inventing" exercises and programs and that jackassery, I'm just trying to give credit where it's due. Thanks Val. To the Point: Once you have some training/ strength under your belt, you should go to Lowes (it's not that I dislike Home Depot, it's just that they don't have the right size...ie. the BIG ones) and spend $10. Don't sweat … [Read more...]
There Actually ARE Uses for the Stability Ball
May 6, 2014 by
The Right Tool For the Right Job The Stability ball, just like Kettlebells, Sliders, the TRX etc. is just another tool in the toolbox. [Tweet "That means there is a time and a place for unstable surface training in a program."] Here's a quick reference guide: Never the time and the place... Sometimes the time and the place. The time and the place, a lot of the time that doesn't mean MOST... First things first, When is NEVER the time? Almost All Lower Body Training and Upper Body Strength Work Why NEVER on the Lower Body? Cause it doesn't work like that homie. Caveat: yes unstable surfaces work well in the rehabilitation of lower limb … [Read more...]
Know where you come from..and RIP Larry Scott
April 15, 2014 by
"You can't know where you're going unless you know where you've been." Will Smith in Hitch Unfortunately, this is too often the case when it comes to Physical Culture in Merica' these days. Everyone has or is THE Thing of the Minute. The new and improved version. It's ground breaking, different, more efficient. And usually, it's more of the same and none of the above. P90X? They used to call that body-weight circuit training. Muscle Confusion? Wasn't that Weider Principle #102, variety. CrossFit? Again, circuit training, only this time we're using more complex modalities and lots of barbells. Shaun T? That Mary Franklin not only got himself some Hip … [Read more...]
What the F* is the “Open Side”, the Value of Offset Loading
March 31, 2014 by
Common Email From An Online Client: "Roy, what the hell is the "open side". followed up with "Why do we do this?" Welp, Here's the Answer(s) The "Open Side"/ Offset Loading Explained: When we load traditionally, the weight in both hands, it's easier to balance the load. Because the load is spread across a greater "surface area" in that the entire shoulder girdle and core is activated about equally. The weight is more evenly distributed across the hips. Basically, the pull on the system is more "even" left to right and because most motion occurs in the saggital plane (front to back) an even load means that less tension/ force has to be allocated to … [Read more...]
People Care What I Think!
March 18, 2014 by
Not Really.... But I did get interviewed for some articles recently. <-----This clearly means I have achieved expert Jedi Master status. In hockey training they like to use the word "Core" a lot. So much so that I got interviewed, along with Maria Mountain (who actually is kinda famous for this) for an article that appeared in USA Hockey's Adult Hockey Newsletter: Why Strengthening Your Core is Key- Michael Rand Some other Core pontificating here: Train Yo' Core Right, Doing it Better: Planking Eat Everyone has to do it. And every day there is a new "It" diet out there promising insanely fast fat loss, muscle gain and Super Mario … [Read more...]
