We bought our dog, Tank, in October of 2010 – and he’s since gone on to be not only man’s best friend around the house, but also an integral (and entertaining) part of the Cressey Sports Performance experience, as he comes to the gym with me just about every day.
In spite of Tank’s affinity for flashing people, he managed to win adoration of the family of one of our CSP athletes to the point that they decided they wanted to get a cream puggle just like him. Having spent months housetraining him and trying to get him to sleep through the night back in the day, my wife and I had plenty of suggestions for these folks to avoid making the mistakes we made. I mean, we never told him to eat paint chips, but puppies will be puppies, you know?
Anyway, that family is now all settled with their puppy, and it got me to thinking about the importance of learning from others’ mistakes is in the world of strength and conditioning programs. If I can help out one puppy owner, I might as well help out the thousands of visitors on this website each month! With that in mind, here are five strength and conditioning mistakes I corrected that have made a big difference for me:
1. Eating like a sissy in the post-training window – If you’re an up-and-coming lifter or athlete who can benefit from increasing muscle mass (and I definitely was), the post-workout period is not a time when you can skimp on calories. I really did not start making great progress until I was getting in over a thousand calories between my post-training shake and the meal that took place an hour later – and that was on the light side compared to what I’ve seen with some other guys. I can’t think of many things that drive me crazier than seeing one of our athletes finish a training session – and then sit around in the office for 2-3 hours without eating anything. I love having them hang out at the gym, but I just want them to do it with calories!
2. Not training for strength soon enough – I'm going to dumb getting bigger down as much as I can, yet still keep it mathematical. You've got to do "muscular damage" and then rebuild. If you don't do work, you don't get damage. Work = Force x Distance
Unless you plan on growing for the rest of your life (or find magical ways to keep adding range of motion to exercises), the easiest way to positively impact the amount of work you do is to apply more force - or be stronger. To that end, I'll make a bold statement here: for the first two years of lifting, your primary goal should simply be to add weight to the bar (provided you can do so in good technique and without pain). As long as we're talking about compound strength exercises, you'll be very pleased with the results. We have novice lifters at Cressey Performance who grow like weeds in their first two years of training with us - and I can't say that I've ever had someone ask me about "the pump." I wish I'd had someone to tell me to shut up when I asked about it when I was 18!
3.Spending too much time doing non-essentials – This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous observation. I really had no place doing curls, triceps extensions, and other isolation exercises when I hadn’t even come close to putting up good numbers on the important strength exercises. It kept me in the gym too long and interfered with my recovery on the really important stuff. The funny thing is that now that I have gotten a lot stronger, I really don’t have interest in doing much of the isolation stuff anymore – because I realize that the core strength exercises are the ones that really helped me progress.
4. Not being more athletic with my energy systems work – Growing up, I was an avid soccer and tennis player, and as a result of all my time on the field/court, I was reasonably quick and good with changes of direction. When my early 20s rolled around, I took a step back from those sports to pursue strength training "full time." A few years later, I was invited to play in a charity basketball game against a bunch of at-the-time Patriots players like Ellis Hobbs, Reche Caldwell, Pierre Woods, and Logan Mankins (among others). Don't let anyone tell you that NFL guys can't play hoops, because these guys mopped the floor with us. The outcome wasn't altogether surprising, but one thing that did open my eyes was how I just didn't feel as athletic as I used to be in spite of the fact that I'd gotten a lot stronger as compared to my high school years. I was putting force into the ground, but I wasn't applying it quickly - and I wasn't doing it in planes of motion in which I was comfortable. Not surprisingly, most of my energy systems work at the time (which really wasn't much) was being done on machines: ellipticals, versa-climbers, rowers, and bikes. I committed to cutting back on mindless repetitive motion cardio right away - and since then, just about all my energy systems work has been sprinting, strongman-type medleys, change of direction work, slideboard work, and medicine ball circuits (plus just a small amount of Airdyne work). The end result? A 37.2-inch vertical jump - more than 12 inches better than I was back at the time, and I'm at a higher body weight and just as lean as when I was doing all that "gerbil cardio." More importantly, I feel a ton more athletic - and I'm more likely to do stupid things for others' amusement around the gym.
5. Not finding a good training crew earlier – I’ve been fortunate to lift with some excellent training partners, from my days on-campus at the University of Connecticut, to South Side Gym, to the guys I lift with at Cressey Sports Performance nowadays. Before that, though, I was flying solo for quite some time. Let me tell you: good training partners make a HUGE difference. They pick you up when you’re dragging, help you select weights, provide spots/handoffs, and create an awesome social atmosphere that actually helps training progress. “Going it alone” doesn’t just refer to having training partners with whom you can lift, though. It also refers to having professional resources to whom you can turn – whether it’s a massage therapist when your elbows get cranky from all the gripping you do, or someone to help you out with your strength and conditioning programs. I’m not going to lie: I did some terrible programs back in the day when I didn’t know any better. If I’d had an unbiased party helping me out, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble. That’s one reason why I created The High Performance Handbook.
On one hand, it takes the guesswork out of training by providing the actual strength and conditioning programs as well as an extensive video database to help with technique on all the mobility and strength exercises. On the other hand, though, I designed it so that it would give folks a lot of wiggle room when it comes to adapting it to their unique goals and needs. It starts with an easy-to-apply assessment you can use to determine your unique needs. From there, you've got 4x/week, 3x/week, and 2x/week strength training programs; different supplemental conditioning options; and a unique mobility warm-up for every month of the program. Problems solved. Click here to learn more about The High Performance Handbook. It's on sale for $50 off through Sunday at midnight.
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Reading today's blog post should instantly drop your body fat by about 10% and increase your bench press by 50 pounds. I can't however, guarantee that you'll laugh at my attempts at humor.
1. I just came across this recently published study: The effects of resistance training on endurance capacity and muscle fiber composition in young top-level cyclists. Researchers put a group of cyclists through 16 weeks of resistance training alongside their normal endurance training, and assessed muscle fiber composition and a variety of performance measures pre- and post-intervention. A control group only did the endurance component.
When all was said and done, researchers found that the combined group improved maximal muscular strength and rate of force development, a change that wasn't seen with the endurance-only group. Both groups improved their short-term (5min) endurance capacity, but only the group that strength training improved in a 45- minute test. So, effectively, you can say that these athletes improved in both endurance measures and strength/power measures simultaneously (probably helped by the fact that cyclists aren't exactly what I'd call "trained" in a strength training context - so they simply filled a void).
However, it's a good lesson to be learned for the endurance athletes out there. The endurance-only group was completely specific in their training; they only did cycling. One might think that this specificity would allow them to achieve greater short-term results on endurance tests, but the opposite was true; those who did more strength training improved faster on both short and long measures of endurance performance (and without a change of muscle capillarization, an aerobic adaptation important for endurance athletes). This just goes to show you that you need to exploit your windows of adaptation - even if they aren't things you enjoy doing.
As a brief aside, my buddies Mike Westerdal and Elliott Hulse took some heat for talking about a "Type 3" muscle fiber in the weeks leading up to the release of their Lean Hybrid Muscle program.
My impression of what they intended was a type II fiber (presumably a IIa fiber) that could "swing" either way and hold both favorable endurance properties (e.g., capillarization, mitochondrial density) and strength qualities (e.g., maximal strength, rate of force development, and cross-sectional area). This study tends to substantiate that assertion, as the research has shown (as with this study) that all training leads to a shift toward a slower twitch phenotype - but NOT all training leads to concurrent improvements in both endurance and strength/power measures. Sure, we didn't have the most highly trained resistance training athletes, but I'd argue that they are more "fit" and "adapted" than a huge majority of the general population who participates in weight training. Food for thought.
2. It's remarkable how similar the "Sillies" are to the new fitness gadgets that come out each week, huh?
3. That answers this question:
4. This is an old Precision Nutrition article that I just happened to come across, but it is absolutely fantastic (and very enlightening). I'm not a cereal guy, and thanks to this article, I doubt I'll become one anytime soon: All About Breakfast Cereals.
Back tomorrow with more madness...
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Time to learn and laugh - and hopefully lose fat and gain muscle in the process.
1. Here's a great study that shows that scapular dyskinesis in swimmers is magnified as training duration increases. I think that we all assume that you either have a scapular dyskinesis or you don't - but the truth is that you may not have it at rest, but it can kick in with activity as you fatigue. This is often why pitchers' mechanics change (e.g., elbow drops) as they get tired later in an outing.
It's a perfect example of how managing a pitcher - building up throwing volumes, charting pitch counts, and preparing the body - is much more important in terms of long term health than simply teaching pitching mechanics. A pitcher might have great mechanics in a 15-30 pitch bullpen, but that can change dramatically if he is asked to extend his pitch count.
2. I woke up this morning to an email from two CP pro guys, Matt Kramer (Red Sox) and Chad Rodgers (Braves), and it included this video thank you/tribute from the off-season. Not a bad supplemental skill set for a couple of guys who throw 95mph!
3. My wife and I have been doing more and more cooking from Dave Ruel's Anabolic Cooking. He's got a ton of great (and healthy) recipes in this cookbook that have been a nice change of pace for us, as we seemed to have gotten in a rut when things got busy and we just kept preparing what was quick, easy, and familiar. I'll write up a thorough review of the product sometime soon, but for now, you can find out more information HERE.
4. On Monday, my wife and I returned from four days in Iceland. It was an awesome trip; people there are so hospitable and we were treated fantastically. I could go on and on about our experiences there, but a travel guide could tell you much more than I ever could - so I'll just make an interesting observation...
On average, Icelandic folks live two years longer than those in the U.S. This is in a country that a) gets far less vitamin D due to minimal sunlight and b) has very few resources when it comes to growing fruits and vegetables because almost the entire country is lava fields. What do they have that we don't? Portion control at meal time.
Speaking of meal time, I ate whale blubber, rotten shark, and ram's testicle. Not surprisingly, none of them were very good.
5. I saw this advertisement with Mick Jagger on it in a clothing store at a Reykjavik mall and just had to snap a picture. Apparently, Jagger has 20-inch biceps in Iceland.
This was definitely one of the better Photoshop jobs that I've seen. They really made it believable. The only thing missing from the picture is the purple unicorn that Mick rode to the show.
6. My buddy John Romaniello was on Good Morning America the other day. I was hoping he'd talk about the time that we ate moose meat sloppy joes together, but instead he talked about fat loss. I think the sloppy joe story would have come out better, but his appearance still went pretty well. Check him out.
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I've written quite a bit in the past about how diagnostic imaging (x-rays, MRIs, etc) doesn't always tell the entire story, and that incidental findings are very common. This applies to the lower back, shoulders, and knees (and surely several other joints). The scary thing, though, is that we see these crazy structural abnormalities not just in adults, but in kids, too. Last month, I highlighted research that showed that 64% of 14-15 year-old athletes have structural abnormalities in their knees - even without the presence of symptoms. Just a month later, newer research is showing that the knee isn't the only hinge joint affected; young throwers' elbows are usually a structural mess as well. In an American Journal of Sports Medicine study of 23 uninjured, asymptomatic high school pitchers (average age of 16), researchers found the following:
Three participants (13%) had no abnormalities. Fifteen individuals (65%) had asymmetrical anterior band ulnar collateral ligament thickening, including 4 individuals who also had mild sublime tubercle/anteromedial facet edema. Fourteen participants (61%) had posteromedial subchondral sclerosis of the ulnotrochlear articulation, including 8 (35%) with a posteromedial ulnotrochlear osteophyte, and 4 (17%) with mild posteromedial ulnotrochlear chondromalacia. Ten individuals (43%) had multiple abnormal findings in the throwing elbow.
For me, the 35% with the osteophytes (and chondromalacia) are the biggest concern. Thickening of the ulnar collateral ligament isn't surprising at all, but marked osseous (bone) abnormalities is a big concern.
Also, as a brief, but important aside, this study was done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota - which isn't exactly the hotbed of baseball activity that you get down in the South. Recent research also shows that players in Southern (warm weather) climates have decreased shoulder internal rotation range of motion and external rotation strength compared to their Northern (cold weather) climate counterparts. In other words, I'll be money that the numbers reported in this study are nothing compared to the young pitchers who are constantly abused year-round in the South.
The next time you think to yourself that all young athletes - especially throwers - can be managed the same, think again. Every body is unique - and that's why I'm so adamant about the importance of assessing young athletes. It's one reason why I filmed the Everything Elbow in-service, which would be a great thing to watch if you're someone who manages pitchers.
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Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better - This was obviously my biggest project of 2010. I actually began writing the strength and conditioning programs and filming the exercise demonstration videos in 2009, and put all the "guinea pigs" through the four-month program beginning in February. When they completed it as the start of the summer rolled around, I made some modifications based on their feedback and then got cracking on writing up all the tag along resources. Finally, in September, Show and Go was ready to roll. So, in effect, it took 10-11 months to take this product from start to finish - a lot of hard work, to say the least. My reward has been well worth it, though, as the feedback has been awesome. Thanks so much to everyone who has picked up a copy.
Optimal Shoulder Performance - This was a seminar that Mike Reinold and I filmed in November of 2009, and our goal was to create a resource that brought together concepts from both the shoulder rehabilitation and shoulder performance training fields to effectively bridge the gap for those looking to prevent and/or treat shoulder pain. In the process, I learned a lot from Mike, and I think that together, we brought rehabilitation specialists and fitness professionals closer to being on the same page.
Why President Obama Throws Like a Girl - A lot of people took this as a political commentary, but to be honest, it was really just me talking about the concept of retroversion as it applies to a throwing shoulder - with a little humor thrown in, of course!
Overbearing Dads and Kids Who Throw Cheddar - This one was remarkably easy to write because I've received a lot of emails from overbearing Dads asking about increasing throwing velocity in their kids.
What I Learned in 2009 - I wrote this article for T-Nation back at the beginning of the year, and always enjoy these yearly pieces. In fact, I'm working on my 2010 one for them now!
The Skinny on Strasburg's Injury - I hate to make blog content out of someone else's misfortune, but it was a good opportunity to make some points that I think are very valid to the discussion of not only Stephen Strasburg's elbow injury, but a lot of the pitching injuries we see in youth baseball.
Surely, there are many more to list, but I don't want this to run too long! Have a safe and happy new year, and keep an eye out for the first content of 2011, which is coming very soon!
I've known John Romaniello for almost a decade now, and he's a guy who delivers great content and plenty of humor and entertainment. Oh, and he also happens to be in pretty good shape.
EC: You were really active as a writer at T-Nation a few years back, and then took a little hiatus before returning with a vengeance - and some great content - recently. Where the heck did you go?
JR: Ha! I guess I did kind of fall off the radar there. I didn't mean to intentionally withdraw; I wasn't looking to make a statement. In fact, I guess in retrospect my abscence was specifically because I didn't have much to say. I never wanted to be the type of trainer or writer who rehashed other people's ideas; rather, I wanted to just gather as much information as I could from as many sources, and formulate my own ideas and theories based on that. So in my early articles, you'll see that.
Then...I wouldn't say I ran out of ideas...it was more that I knew that the only way I could really develop my own theories was to dive in. And that's really what I've been doing. I've been developing and redeveloping my own strategies and methods of over half a decade, while watching what was going on in the industry from a modest distance and not really making any attempt to re-enter "the scene."
At the same time, I was of course working on other stuff. I did some fitness and underwear modeling for a while, and that took some focus; plus, of course, there is my actual training, which takes up most of my time.
EC: You built up a pretty big clientele in that time period, didn't you?
JR: You could say that. For about the past six years, I've built a hugely successful personal training company that works with a lot of athletes, actors, models, etc.
The great thing about working in (and more specifically, right outside of) New York City is the access you have to so many different types of clients. Add to that the fact that I had been doing the modeling, and I made a lot of good contacts in the industry and was able to work with a lot of clients with very exacting goals.
So, while I haven't gotten away from my muscle-head roots, I seem to have become a bit of a fat loss specialist--which makes sense, because that is what so many people are after. I obviously work with a lot of people looking to drop a lot of weight, but in large part, my in person clients are very often those looking for polish their physiques and take it to the next level.
EC: Along those same lines, let's talk about your new program, Final Phase Fat Loss. I've read it and I like it a lot, but tell our readers about some of the details of it. How is it different from some of the other stuff out there?
JR:Ah, I'm very excited to talk about this.
Final Phase Fat Loss (FPFL) really represents all the work I've put into my evolving theories over the past few years. It draws from a good number of pre-existing ideas and methods, as well as much of my own original stuff, and blends it in synergistic way that makes the entire program work in an incredibly effective way.
There are a lot of great fat loss programs out there, but none of them really do what FPFL does.
The thing that makes it different from pretty much any program out there is the built in variety. Now, as you know I'm not generally a fan of anything for its own sake, especially variety; but here, the variety makes everything exponentially more effective.
You see, one of the main facets of my fat loss programs is to include multiple training styles into the programming, usually within the context of a given training week. Not to use muscle-mag clichés like "keep the body guessing," but the fact of the matter is that by constantly varying the training stimulus, you just increase the amount of metabolic disturbance and force you body to adapt more quickly. It's as simple as that.
And, of course, every fat loss trainer will tell you that.
So, variety is one of the main things that makes Final Phase different.
EC: You're a big believer in metabolic resistance training (MRT), too, which certainly sits in agreement with some of the more modern fat loss approaches out there. For those that aren't familiar, can you fill them in a bit more?
JR: Here are just a few reasons why MRT is better than general cardio:
1) Higher caloric expenditure when compared minute to minute
2) Increased stimulation of muscle, helping to hold onto LBM when dieting
So, MRT is really just fast paced lifting, right? Kinda. The best way to do metabolic resistance training is to use non-competing circuits—that is, set up a circuit of exercises during which you alternate opposing muscle groups.
Examples would include doing a chest exercise followed by a back exercise, or alternating an upper body exercise with a lower body one, you allow the opposing muscle group to rest. By setting your workouts up like this, you can move faster, rest less frequently, and get a great total result.
The great thing about MRT is that it’s more of a concept than a protocol. That is, it’s adjustable to nearly any type of training. You can get a great MRT workout with so many different pieces of equipment and styles of working out.
Kettlebells are a great tool for metabolic resistance training, and it’s easy to see how they’re great for fat loss. Another great way to start using MRT is with dumbbell or barbell complexes, which are exercises circuits using minimum space and equipment. With a complex, you transition smoothly from one exercise to another, never letting the barbell or dumbbells leave your hands. It’s fast-paced, effective, and brutal. You can even do metabolic resistance training fat loss using just your bodyweight, as the circuit below shows.
Or, if you've got some equipment at your fingertips:
Now, I won’t go so far as to say we should stop doing all other types of cardio in favor of metabolic resistance training—not by a long shot. I don’t care for (or make) such absolute statements, speaking generally.
Speaking more specifically about metabolic resistance training, I’ll say that while MRT seems to be the most effective single option, I strongly believe that everything has benefit and you can enhance your results even further by doing a combination on of MRT, High Intensity Intervals, and even a slow walk on the treadmill (as recovery after workout that taxes your lower body pretty heavily).
EC: Got it. What else makes this resource unique?
JR: The other thing that makes is that it unique is that it was designed to address a lot of the hormonal reasons for fat storage. As an example, we know that if you're insulin resistant, you're going to store fat in your love handles. So, given that insulin resistance (and therefore love handle fat) is extremely common, FPFL was designed with that in mind--the workouts (some more than others) are drawn from training styles that elicit certain hormonal responses--or increased production of certain hormone--and helps to combat difficulties like insulin resistance - and in part some of the problems that causes, like chronic love handular fattitude.
Pretty awesome.
The great thing about it is that it's really intended for a few very specific purposes--it's called "Final Phase Fat Loss" and that obviously carries certain implications. We all know someone struggling to lose the last 5-10 pounds; whether it's a mom trying to get into some pre-baby jeans, a 30-year-old guy looking to see his abs for the first time, or an athlete trying to drop a weight class (in actual fat, not water manipulation). FPFL addresses those things.
No other fat loss program available specifically addresses the needs of people who are trying to get past that barrier between good and great. Those programs simply don't have the components organized the way I do, and aren't ideal for losing the last bit of fat.
Final Phase fills that gap, and it's going to help a lot of people do what my models and actors need to do all the time--get into lean, hard, photo-ready shape.
Of course, it's also a great general fat loss program, and it's proven itself to be exceptionally valuable for those who are just trying to bust through a fat loss plateau--so there's that, as well.
EC: Intriguing stuff - and it's backed by an excellent product that I've had a chance to review. The training sessions are absolutely brutal, and anyone who is up for a challenge (on top of the benefits you already outlined) ought to check it out: Final Phase Fat Loss.
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