CEU's Everyone in the fitness world knows what CEU's are. They're those things that, much like a ninja, creep up on you silently then strike you down. For the uninitiated: CEU's= Continuing Education Units No matter the certification, you'll need em to keep it. CEU's are: Education: so you stay on top of your knowledge and skills and remain active in the community Revenue stream: for the certifying agency The 2015-17 NSCA Recertification Period: AKA My Time of Dying In the pre kid period, CEU's were of no consequence. I always had so many, so early it was just a matter of report them and send the money. Not So Fast My Friend Then kids … [Read more...]
Virtues Of The Sled.
November 23, 2017 by
CrossFit didn't invent the sled. But they sure as hell made it popular. I first heard about sled dragging from reading ancient T-Nation and Westside articles. Like most things "strength" today, Louie and the guys at Westside were dragging sleds LONG before just about anyone else. It seemed like any problem you had: Fat Out of Shape Weak You'd get the "shakes" when you would get under a squat bar All of these things were,cured by copious amounts of sled dragging, according to this mad man: https://youtu.be/U_qkB5905FU This is NSFW I still don't know how the hell dragging a sled, no matter how much weight is on it, can stop you from shaking … [Read more...]
Yes, I Do Cardio AKA The Heart is a Dumb Muscle
November 9, 2017 by
The heart only knows one thing: How much stress the body is under. That's it, nothing more. It's only responding and adapting to the signal(s) its given. So think about it.... Do you really need to do this [insert miserable cardio modality here] ???? The answer is no. The ONLY THING YOU NEED TO DO IS MANIPULATE YOUR HEART RATE TO GET THE DESIRED RESPONSE. The modality you use is of no consequence. What's that got to do with anything? Well, a lot of my peeps ask me, Do You Do Cardio? Yes, I try to get it in 2 times a week. I primarily use "cardio" to improve cardiac output and recovery. I'm not trying to push my max heart rate, or … [Read more...]
You Should Do This: TRX Row
October 9, 2017 by
If I could do only one pulling (rowing) motion what would it be? "100% it would be the TRX row." In my opinion the TRX is the greatest row machine ever built. It's scales easily from beginner to advanced, it's self-limiting, and it's almost foolproof. Plus, and mostly its one of the best tools I've found for training the lost art of scapular retraction. True, you can overdo it. But in my, desk jockey, sitting all day slumped over, world, 9/10 people have a real issue pulling those shoulders down and back, pinching the shoulder blades together in the back. So we NEED to train scap retraction and depression and need to be able to do it with a tool that … [Read more...]
Yeah, I Still Foam Roll.
September 22, 2017 by
The Fitness Pendulum Always Swings to the Extremes: Short Term, Everyone Overreacts. Long Term, Everyone Underreacts..... Rarely does the industry look at anything critically, simply on its merits and faults, weigh them and apply that tool as necessary. Case in point: Foam Rolling Lets take our way back machine to circa 2005. The foam roller took the fitness world by storm <----I know I'm being dramatic here, but it kinda is true. Everyone was using it, for everything.. Core Stretching To "break up scar tissue" <----I used to say that too. No, its not true. Hell, places were doing complete "classes" on foam rolling. Then the last 5 … [Read more...]
If You Can’t Recover, You Can’t Improve
September 13, 2017 by
"At Some Point in the Training Process it is Necessary for Recovery to Become a Training Modality"- Buddy Morris Recovery, what is it? According to Google: "a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength." Google, Recovery or for the nerds: "One definition of recovery is as follows: “Mostly, recovery is defined as the compensation of deficit states of an organism (e.g., failure or decrease in performance and, according to the homeostatic principle, a reestablishment of the initial state.” - William Sands Recovery = a "return to normal" , a "reestablishment of the initial state" But wait, what? Isn't the point of this whole training thing to improve? To … [Read more...]
You Should Do This: Floor Press
June 15, 2017 by
The Floor Press: It's nothing more than a bench press without the bench. <---like you couldn't figure that one out. Why It's Awesome: Limits the range of motion at the shoulder joint. It's pretty hard to "dump" (approximation the Humerus) the shoulder forward with these. MUCH easier on the lower back than the bench press cause the legs are out of the equation. The floor provides MUCH better feedback than the bench for maintaining shoulder tightness (packing) and driving the shoulders down into the ground to press the weight. Full Pause or Touch and Go? Either.... Full Pause Floor presses are GREAT for building speed, starting strength and … [Read more...]
Is Coaching Dead? AKA: Rise of the Machines!
February 15, 2017 by
Enter The Age of Technology: With explosion of athlete assessment tools in the last decade, everything from movement assessments (FMS), train-ability assessments (HRV), genetic assessments to immediate power output assessments (catapult) training variables and physiology can easily be measured. On the cheap and in, or almost in, real-time. When I first read about the Omegawave (HRV monitor), from Charlie Francis forums, the cheapest model was 10K. Now you can get a fairly reliable HRV app on that magic box that lives in your pocket for under $100, and that's the better ones out there. You can get a crappy one for FREE... These are all INCREDIBLY powerful … [Read more...]
