I spent last weekend at the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar on the University of Richmond campus. It was once again the best collection of speakers at ANY seminar or conference in ALL of North America, yes Canada, I'm throwing you a bone. When you have two days of people like: Dr. Natalia Verkhoshansky- The daughter and long time right hand of Dr. Yuri Verhkoshansy (the greatest sports scientist EVER). Dr. Michael Kalinski- Head physiological biochemist for the USSR doping program among other prestigious appointments. Henk Kraaijenhof- Maybe the greatest living olympic sport coach in the world. Dr. Michael Yessis- One of the worlds foremost … [Read more...]
Sh@t My Trainer Says…..
January 17, 2013 by
"Fitness Professionals" usually aren't all that professional... I mean, you can buy a Living Social coupon to save on getting certified... That's certainly not the case all of the time but there are far too many people in this business who really don't know what's going on. But they pretend toooo.... And this time of year LOTS of people are trying to get into shape and have hired trainers or got As Seen on TV products or started going to Bootcamps or whatever. They don't know what the hell is going on, it's not their job, they're paying the fitness Yoda for that. So they only know what the jackass Yoda in front of them says which usually is about as … [Read more...]
26 in the Books….Now What? Random Thoughts.
October 24, 2012 by
After i wrote the last two I thought about some things I should go over. Some Thoughts: About "Lifting Weights": It's called STRENGTH training.... Too many runners do stuff like this: thinking that it's useful... It's not..... It's stupid and worthless and might be making you slower. If you're training for marathons you probably don't have time and energy to waste on worthless exercises. Strength is about FORCE PRODUCTION and nothing else. This guy wins over all of your self-proclaimed running Yoda's. F=MA...it really is that simple. Make a muscle that is capable of producing and absorbing more force. Things like squats, lunges, deadlifts, … [Read more...]
Why Everyone Learns to Squat
February 17, 2012 by
Virtually (not always if they don't stick around long enough) every client I train learns to squat. We're talking 90% or better, obviously I think it's important. So I was caught off guard a little this week when I got hit with this gem by a "fitness professional" none the less (paraphrasing): "You know, you should only have experienced athletes squat because it's bad for the back and knees and it's non functional. I went to a seminar and learned there's just too much spinal compression to justify using it." at first I was in disbelief for these reasons: I just met this person an hour before. they told me every fallacy attached to the exercise in 2 … [Read more...]
Beginners Suck…and it’s the “Trainers” Fault
January 26, 2012 by
While it's getting to the end of New Years resolution gym rush time, there are still some more motivated guys and gals who have hung on. These people are still beginners, I'm talking like total newbies. Yeah, they bought an issue of Men's Health or whatever and they took the centerfold, fold-out, workout out of it and they carry it around the gym and so the exercises for the sets and reps prescribed, but let's face it, they suck. Now they don't suck a little, like as in, not good or that's wrong, but they suck a LOT- a- bit. This isn't to bash on these folks, they've overcome a lot just to get to this sucky point and quite honestly it's not entirely their … [Read more...]
Dan Pfaff Speaks!
January 9, 2012 by
There are a LOT of fake Yoda's out there pushing the training system of the minute. Then there are guys like Dan Pfaff...oh you know, they've actually DONE IT in the field of sport performance...ohhhh, those guys. These videos are really enlightening....HUGE double hat tip..Ben Bruno for linking to Patrick Ward. http://youtu.be/3COzfyucuns http://youtu.be/HbZzDDf7M5g http://youtu.be/4P-kqzv_yUE Too many people are not listening to coaches like this and are listening to the internet asshat of the minute... … [Read more...]
Dr. Stuart McGill, Yoda, with bad ass facial hair.
November 14, 2011 by
I saw Dr. McGill speak at the NSCA conference back in July. Essentially he is a B-52 of spine knowledge dropping Nuclear knowledge BOMBS all over the place. Here is a very good video (which I stole, cause I'm a thief, from Mike Robertson's most awesome newsletter). http://youtu.be/033ogPH6NNE Damn, maybe that ABZZZZ class was a bad idea after all... … [Read more...]
