Many people know that Mike Boyle has probably trained more high-level athletes than anyone on the planet right now. What many people might not know about Mike is that he's helped countless coaches in their career paths; you'll find "Boyle Disciples" all over collegiate and professional strength and conditioning and in the private sector. To that end, I thought it would be great if Mike targeted his random thoughts to the up-and-comers in the business (I know, I know; it's not exactly random).
1. There are only two ways to learn: experience and reading. If you think you can get good in this field in a 40-hour week you’re crazy. If a 40-hour week is your goal, find a new field. Read Alwyn Cosgrove and Jason Ferruggia’s article “The Business.”
2. Train clients or athletes at least 20 hours a week. This is the proving ground for your booksmarts. Ideas are just that; see if you can implement them.
3. If you want to succeed in the field, get yourself in shape. I frequently joke about the fact that I don’t look the part. I’m not very muscular and am old and bald – but I’m in reasonable shape for 47. At 27, you will NOT get the benefit of the doubt. No one wants an overweight trainer or a skinny trainer. They expect you to look the part. You don’t have to be huge, and you don’t have to be ripped, but you need to look like you exercise.
4. Never ask a client to do something you can’t demonstrate. You don’t have to be able to do exercises with huge weights, but you must master the exercises. Beside the fact that many people learn visually, how can you ask a client to something you can’t?
5. Read one self-help book for every field-related book. It’s called personal training for a reason. It’s about a person and his/her goals. Your knowledge of people will be as important as your knowledge of the subject matter. Years ago, someone asked me what the key to my success was. I told them that it was my ability to get people to do what I wanted them to do.
You can find an interview I did with Mike at T-Nation a while back HERE.
Eric Cressey
A few people found it hard to believe that the "average" teenage diet I outlined in my interview at T-Nation yesterday could actually be so bad. Don't believe me? A 17-year-old wanting to play Division-1 college baseball just brought this two-day diet record in for me:
Monday
7:00AM - Cheerios Crunch, Skim Milk
7:30AM - Energy Drink
11:00AM - 3 Double Chocolate Cookies, Skim Milk, Pasta w/White Sauce and Chicken
4:00PM - Sub w/ Grilled Chicken, Bacon, Mozzarella Cheese, and Red Sauce, Coke, Cookies
6:00PM - Sprite
8:00PM - Orange Soda
9:00PM - Buffalo chicken and ham calzone with blue cheese
10:30PM - Gatorade
Tuesday
7:00AM - Cheerios Crunch, Skim Milk
7:30AM - Energy Drink
11:00AM - 3 Double Chocolate Cookies, Crispy Fried Chicken
12:00PM - Gatorade
3:45PM - Medium Iced Coffee, 2 Doughnuts
7:00PM - Popcorn, Candy, Soda
8:00PM - Grilled Chicken, Gatorade
10:30PM - Gatorade
The scariest part is that neither of these were training days. He also has numerous chronic injuries (elbow) that just don't seem to be getting better.
Not exactly Precision Nutrition material, huh?
Eric Cressey
Step 1: Train hard and eat big, putting on 16 pounds in ten weeks while adding four inches to your vertical jump.
Step 2: Load ten plates on a sled.
Step 3: Load a 210-pound Gentilcore on that sled.
Step 4: Push!
It's time to play catch-up with the T-Nation authors. Nate Green does the asking, and in this case Eric Cressey does the talking.
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Q: I recently had an 'elite' runner come through the clinic where I work. I won't get into his injuries but he is jacked up. He does absolutely no strength, flexibility, or mobility work. His warm up consists of jogging about 5 minutes. I'm sure this is a familiar scenario.
My question is before you created such an outstanding reputation as a strength/rehab/corrective coach, how did you get athletes to buy in to what
you are telling them? It appears that my sales pitch is lacking. Do you have any tips/attention getters that you find useful when dealing with know
it all but know nothing athletes? I know you are extremely busy, any advice would be helpful.
A: Sell him on the easy stuff, first. Hop on a foam roller and show him that you're pain free, and then stick him on one and let him appreciate how much it hurts on his TFL/ITB. Do the same with a lacrosse ball on his butt and calves. That shows the soft tissue differences between the two of you.
Start simple instead of trying to overhaul everything. Give him some supine bridges, birddogs, and a few more mobility exercises to improve hip rotation and extension.
Next, add in some lifting and swap a distance session for a sprint session.
Sit down with him and talk footwear as well. Runners love to buy new sneakers.
Win him over bit by bit.
Eric Cressey
Acid Buffers are a very useful and under-rated supplement when it comes to increasing work capacity and tolerance to high intensity activity. If you're trying to avoid or improve "neural fatigue," this is where it is. The body will maintain its PH range in a narrow range regardless of how you eat, but the important thing is what your body has to do to maintain that proper PH. Sub-clinical low-grade acidosis increases cortisol and occurs in most people due to the increased consumption of grains and reduced consumption of veggies and fruits. It also tends to naturally occur in response to stress of any kind. This includes: caloric restriction, intensive activity, and lack of sleep.
Low-grade acidosis is, in my opinion, one reason why people dieting are more prone to lose strength. So how do you fix it? Eat your veggies and fruits. One pound of green veggies per 50 pounds of bodyweight per day is ideal. Vegetable juicing is a good idea. Additionally, a couple of extra grams of sodium and potassium bicarbonate (baking soda or Alka-Seltzer) can be useful, as can extra magnesium, glutamine (a teaspoon with each meal), and l-carnosine. If you pay attention to how you feel, you can eventually get to a point where you know when to supplement with extra buffers. The acidic state is associated with a “wired out” anxious stressed out type energy. The alkaline state is associated with relaxation. If you're feeling too relaxed, lay off the buffers. If you're feeling stressed, add them in.
Each week, a small army of high school athletes come to train at Cressey Performance. When you see athletes from several different towns on a daily basis, you start to notice many patterns. Some kids put their bags in one place every time. Others foam roll on a certain part of the turf. Some get covered in chalk, and others just sprinkle it on. A few wear their hats sideways.
These are just personal habits, though. They don't necessarily comment on significant trends - something I've seen a lot of lately. And, they're getting pretty disturbing. I'm not just talking about childhood obesity, teenage pregnancy, spending too much time in front of the TV, or anything like that. This trend is much worse.
You see, at some point, mankind de-evolved - or just "wussified" - and started perceiving Justin Timberlake as acceptable training music. I'm not kidding, folks. I get all excited when I hear Godsmack, Disturbed, Jay-Z, and Linkin Park on a new CD one of our guys burned. Then, just as one of our young studs gets himself under the giant cambered bar to dominate a heavy triple on box squats, his testosterone level magically drops to "Cry me a rivvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeerrrrrr....."
Me: "Get the staple remover out of the office, Tony. He's stuck on the box and not coming up."
Tony: "I think we're going to need a spatula for this one..."
Honestly, people. Is it the soy in school lunches? The banning of dodgeball in gym classes? How did our young athletes come to think that the music you would play to seduce someone of the opposite sex (or, in my case, the music that would drive me to write a suicide note) could possibly be the same music that facilitates lifting heavy stuff?
Justin Timberlake is weak. Too weak to bench 135. Too weak to pick up his shoes to put them on in the morning. And, definitely too weak to motivate someone who is already actually relatively strong.
Don't get me wrong; I'm all for bringing sexy back. If you want to listen to JT, be my guest. Please just do so in a soundproof room in your secluded home when nobody is around. And please, turn the volume down and don't attempt to lift anything heavy for the duration of the CD.
Eric Cressey
In an untrained lifter, deadlifts are a guaranteed 15 pounds of muscle mass. Think about it: you’re using your entire upper back, glutes, hamstrings, core musculature, and forearms. If you haven’t done anything with these muscles before, they’re going to get bigger quickly. Put 100 pounds on a newbie’s deadlift and you’ll bump him up a shirt size in no time. This principle can also be applied to experienced lifters who haven’t deadlifted in the past; leg curls just won’t get the job done to the same extent that heavy deadlifts and rack pulls will. For added upper back emphasis, try snatch grip versions.
Eric Cressey
Here’s a random question for you: have you ever seen a fat soccer player competing at a high level?
Nope. It just doesn’t happen; you can’t get far in this sport if you’re carrying excess baggage – and the demands of the sport get you lean in the first place.
Now, here’s a follow-up question: have you ever seen a fat jogger?
Absolutely! They’re all over the place; heck, there are probably more fat joggers than there are lean joggers!
A recent study takes things a step further and shows that soccer is not only superior to jogging for fat loss (almost double the fat loss over the course of 12 weeks), but that it’s also superior for fitness gains and muscle mass increases – all while exercising at a lower perceived exertion because they were having more fun.
Take-home lessons?
1. As Alwyn Cosgrove and Craig Ballantyne (and dozens of other bright fitness professionals) have stated over and over, high-intensity work (interval training and lifting) blow aerobic exercise out of the water for fat loss.
2. Pick an activity that is fun for you. Play ultimate Frisbee, flag football, or just go sprint (racing someone is great). Long, slow, steady-state cardio is about as exciting as watching paint dry.
3. Build muscle mass and you’ll get leaner faster.
Eric Cressey
http://www.cresseyperformance.com
