Quick answers to some of the most common questions I get asked.
Q. Weights or Cardio first?
A. If you must do both in the same session….Weights (most of the time)
Q. Do Squats Hurt your knees?
A. Performed correctly, NO.
Q. Are Deadlifts bad for your back?
A. Performed correctly NO.
Like this……
you know the answer……
Q. Squats or Deadlifts?
A. Why Choose?
Q. Are bench presses bad for your shoulders?.
A. Performed correctly, No.
See a trend here?
Q. Should I overhead press?
A. Probably not.
B.A. (Better Answer): You probably don’t have the scapular stability, and thoracic mobility to do this correctly, most people don’t.
Beyond that your acromion process can be shaped 3 different ways, if it’s 2 of the three you’ll probably have pain when pressing overhead….
Acromion Process Shapes
When your young and mobile and have a lot of sub-acromial space, probably ok.
For many of us…Don’t bother.
Q. Should chicks lift weights?
Q. Won’t women “bulk up”?
A. Only if the volume (reps x sets x weight) is high, diet supports hypertrophy (excess calories) and genetics predispose you to it.
For 97.876% of the population NO, you will not “bulk up”.
Q. Women can’t do pullups right?
A. Wrong, I’ve had many women train up to multiple pullups.
B.A. Use bands. Start with a average or light band and work up to a mini. I used this rule of thumb: when she/ he can do 12 start over with the next band down. It’s worked for guys and gals.
Q. Should I do aerobics to lose fat?
A. No, you should get your diet in line and strength train.
B.A. Aerobics will help burn calories but the body adapts over time which causes the body to preferentially store fat for energy as well as requiring you to work harder to achieve the same result.
The result often times is the dreaded “skinny fat”.
Skinny- Fat…defined.
Q. Supplements?
A. Most are worthless. Some are worth it; Protein powder, Fish Oils, Vitamin D, Creatine,….read this for a better answer.
Q. Olympic Lifting?
A. Great sport, fun lifts. Don’t do them myself anymore and never have nor will I ever use them in a clients program.
Q. CrossFit?
A. Not a fan…far too random to actually get good at anything.
B.A. Training strength/ power and endurance concurrently works with most people, at first…..then…….
This type of training becomes EXTREMELY limiting as the body gets “mixed signals” and begins to compete with itself for adaptive resources and the “athlete” stops getting progress.
“The aim of training is to provide an overload stimulus that generates specific molecular responses to enhance the adaptive phenotype. From a performance perspective, it is clear that alternating exercise modes during concurrent training reduces the capacity for the simultaneous acquisition of hypertrophy and (or) mitochondrial training-induced adaptation responses, compared with single-mode training.”- Hawley <- link to the actual paper.
Exercises, reps, sets, speed, rest periods all have a purpose and result in a distinct physiological adaptation. The job of the coach is to make a program that controls these variables and results in reliable outcomes.
“Random training leads to random results, everytime”- Joel Jamieson
With all of the periodization models that exist, conjuagte, concurrent, block, undulating linear, linear, vertical integration etc, etc…
It appears to me that the CrossFit model is really just lazy program design built to fit the “more/ faster is better” attitude and the logistical constraints of a group exercise class.
“I see the biggest problem in our industry – lack of forethought by trainers when programming volume and intensity. I see this most often in the growing area of “General Physical Preparation (GPP)” training”- Eric Auciello
You can train for overall fitness or GPP or whatever and still abide by and apply biological/ physiological principles to your programming.
If you do CrossFit I HIGHLY recommend his work, you’ll learn a LOT more from it then that fake ass promotional flyer the CrossFit Journal (although it does occasionally have a good article, it’s also blatant propaganda).
BTW the whole bad technique thing is sloppy coaching, not CrossFit as a program. As far as I know Glassman is not teaching people to have terrible technique even though some of the timed and high rep protocols will almost inevitably lead to that.
Q. So you hate CrossFit?
A. No…it has a lot of redeeming qualities.
- Hard work
- Camaraderie
- People are lifting barbells not using machines
- jumping
- sprinting
Q. What about P90X?
A. For a program in a box that you can do at home….it’s not that bad. That said, it’s not that good either.
Q. What is Heart Rate Variability?
A. Contrary to popular thought your heart does not beat in a uniform fashion…
For example: a heart rate of 60 beats per minute does not necessarily mean that your heart beats at one beat per second. This is only the average across an entire minute.
The time in between beats of the heart varies as well as the length of the heart beat itself.
HRV establishes a physiological norm for the user and is an accurate measure of physiological state of the user. i.e. stressed, recovered etc.
Q. Does Heart Rate Variability actually matter?
A. Yes, as this technology becomes more available the way people train should change dramatically.
Real time variation of the training load based on the ACTUAL physiological status of the athlete and not a guess can be a game changer in the hands of a coach who understands what the information is and what the appropriate changes to make are.
Theoretically, every training day can be perfectly managed to fit the athletes physiological status for that day.
Any questions you want answered? Leave them in the comments, on Facebook or hit me up on Twitter.
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