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| We see everything at Cressey Performance. While just about 70% of our clients are baseball players, we also have everything from Olympic bobsledders and boxers, to pro hockey players and triathletes, to 69-year-old men who bang out pull-ups like nobody's business.
Obviously, certain athletic populations have specific weaknesses that need to be addressed. Soccer and hockey players and powerlifters tend to have poor hip internal rotation. Basketball players don't have enough ankle mobility. Baseball pitchers need to pay more attention to scapular stability, posterior rotator cuff strength, and glenohumeral (shoulder) internal rotation range of motion.
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| Imagine, for a second, that I was to tell you that there's a muscle that:
a) has serious growth potential
b) can dramatically increase your squat and deadlift poundages
c) can drive your bench press through the roof
d) can keep your shoulders, upper back, lower back, and hips healthy
e) can help you run faster
f) affects the way you breath
You'd probably think I was nuts. Surely the strength training community would've caught on by now, right? Well, I wouldn't say that they haven't caught on; I'd just say that they haven't learned how to utilize this muscle — and it does exist — in the right ways. Perhaps the worst part is that this muscle has a big cross sectional area already, so it's staring people right in the face.
I'm talking about the latissimus dorsi, lats for short. Let's get to it...
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| It's happened to all of us at one point or another.
You show up to the gym, anticipating a great training session, or even just another solid day of lifting. However, once you start adding plates to the bar, it just isn't there.
The weights feel heavy. And, you just can't find your groove. Stubborn ass that you are, you keep adding plates, looking for a PR. And, of course, you get buried under your first heavy attempt — or just fall short on the target number of reps.
It might be that you didn't get enough sleep last night, or that your girlfriend broke your heart. Hell, maybe there was just a little too much gravity for you in the gym that day. Regardless, your training partners are calling for the staple removers (because you got stapled), shovels (because you got buried), and spatulas (to get your pancaked ass off the floor). Do you hammer through it and try again? Or, do you just call it a day and get out of there?
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| When TC asked me to outline a recent training program, he was probably expecting to get something powerlifting-oriented, as that's probably the style of training people associate with my name around these parts.
Truth be told, I'm at a bit of a crossroads in my training career. I still consider myself an athlete first, meaning that lifting (while competitive in itself) has always been a means of becoming more athletic or displaying the athleticism I have.
To take it a step further, I work almost exclusively with athletes, particularly baseball guys. This past off-season at Cressey Performance, we saw 96 baseball players from 32 high schools, 16 colleges, and 8 MLB organizations.
As such, it's really important for me to not only look like an athlete (and not like a blocky, immobile powerlifter), but also be able to lift, jump, and sprint alongside these guys. Hell, I even caught bullpens for four of the pros!
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By Eric Cressey
A while back, during the infancy of my transition from business school to the world of exercise science, I wrote Budgeting for Bodybuilders, a collection of thoughts that unified these two facets of my academic background. To me, all the information seemed like common sense; like many poor graduate students, I'm up to my neck in student loans, so I need to be--gasp--cheap. As such, I was pretty surprised to receive dozens of emails from people who really went out of their way to let me know how much they appreciated the article.
Apparently, there are a lot of other people out there like me who are constantly looking for ways to save a few bucks and better manage their dough. These folks thanked me for helping them to save money and better organize their finances and priorities. Heck, one reader even offered me his first-born child. Okay, so I'm lying, but lots of people did ask if I had any more secrets on how to keep on training like a madman and eating like a horse without breaking the bank. I really only scratched the surface with my old "tips;" in case you missed them, here's a recap:
- Buy in bulk
- Drink tap water.
- Buy generic foods.
- Reuse empty cottage cheese containers as Tupperware.
- Shop for supplements online.
- Order in bulk to save on shipping charges.
Without further adieu, here are ten more magical secrets specifically for the iron enthusiast:
1) Befriend a hunter: This tactic won't do much for your sex life if he introduces you to his one-toothed, inbred sister, but it's a sure-fire way to fill your freezer a couple times per year with venison, moose, pheasant, or the odd stray cat. Besides, can you think of anything cooler than knowing that what you're eating was carved on the back of a pickup truck?
2) Stock up at sale time: Be sure to read mailings and the flyers in the local newspapers; clip coupons, too. When meats are on sale, stock up and fill your freezer. You'll derive satisfaction not only from saving boatloads of cash, but also from knowing that the mothers in the grocery store will be hiding their "tasty" young children from the carnivore with 47 pounds of chicken in his cart. You can freeze fresh vegetables (and some fruits) that are on sale, too, to save over pre-packaged frozen items. You might even consider some local farmers' markets for these purchases; they'll usually offer cheaper, and definitely higher quality produce than larger stores. Unfortunately, purchasing large quantities of vegetables tends to elicit less fear in innocent bystanders, and a lot more vegetarian jokes. Speaking of which, what do you call a vegetarian with the runs? Salad-shooter! But I digress...look for sales, stock up, and freeze.
3) Do your homework when buying supplements!: You'd think that this would be common sense, but I'm constantly amazed at how many suckers there are in the world. Nitric oxide supplements are perfect examples; they're ridiculously expensive and ineffective, yet how many people do you think have wasted money on them in order to learn that? Way too many frat boys, and most of the time, the ones that do report amazing gains are the ones that couldn't drag themselves to the gym beforehand. Now that they have this amazing supplement, they finally start to train; talk about magnifying the placebo effect! Plus, even if they realized nitric oxide bit the big one, these guys have too much pride to admit that they got ripped off. Heaven forbid that anyone find out that they spent the money mom and dad sent for laundry and books on crap supplements and...
4) BOOZE!: If you go to bars or sporting events, it's too damn expensive to get drunk. If you're sitting at home getting drunk by yourself, you're an alcoholic with bigger problems; I suggest taking up solitaire. Or, dare I say it? You could exercise.
By the way, alcohol won't do much for your physique, either. Remember: you want the six-pack, not the keg! If you absolutely must get plastered, you can at least make an effort to return the bottles for a modest return on investment afterward, slacker!
5) Prioritize: When you got into the iron game, you probably realized early on that to make good progress, you also needed to be willing to make some sacrifices. One has to make time instead of finding time to train several times per week and eat 6-8 healthy meals per day. Moreover, if you really want to improve, you need to be take time to read and discuss training, nutrition, and supplementation methodologies in order to learn. Since I don't want to sound overly harsh in lecturing you here, I'll just toss out another vegetarian joke:
Q: How many vegetarians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It's a trick question; vegetarians can't change a damn thing!
6) The Magical Change Jar: This tip is absolutely priceless. I started doing it about two years ago; without fail, I collected enough change every month to pay off the monthly interest bill (roughly $12-$15) I received for some of my student loans. Very simply, find an empty jar and place it within five feet of the door to your apartment or house. Each time you walk past it (i.e. returning home at the end of the day), take all the change out of your pockets, wallet, or purse, and put it in the jar. Throughout the month, never buy anything with change. For instance, if you're at the store and your total comes to $14.02, give the cashier $15; don't offer the extra two pennies. Instead, take the $0.98 home and deposit it in your "magical change jar." Think of it as a deceptive way to force yourself to save without even knowing it. Some people may frown on deception, and you may piss off the cashier that is forced to make change, but you'll thank me when you have enough money at the end of the month for a new training book or a few pounds of protein powder.
7) Plan and pack ahead: I shouldn't need to tell you how much cheaper it is to pack your grub for the day the night before than it is to go out to lunch. Hitting the coffee shop every morning is just as bad; if you save that two bucks every weekday, that's roughly $520 over the course of a year. Either use this money to buy a coffee maker and your own materials, or save the dough and kick the morning caffeine habit altogether. Your pre-workout caffeine buzz will be all the more satisfying if you aren't a habitual coffee drinker, anyway. More importantly, you'll have more cash available for more worthwhile expenditures. Again, nothing witty on which to end here, so here's another one:
Q: Why did the vegetarian cross the road?
A: She was protesting on behalf of the poor and defenseless chicken.
8) Learn the art of the home brew: This one piggybacks on #6. Not only is this a great way to save cash, it's also a lot of fun, as you get to play the part of "deranged chemist" in your kitchen! Customizing your proteins is useful in both meal-replacement shakes, puddings, and post-workout concoctions. If you're interested, look no further than Black Star Labs; these guys know their stuff and offer high quality proteins and great service at low prices. From a pre-bed or midday MRP standpoint, you might want a blend with more slow-digesting proteins like calcium caseinate and milk protein isolate. Or, if you're someone that likes an MRP at breakfast, you might want more whey. You can even buy a few pounds of each and be your own mixer by having a few varieties on hand. Additionally, an added advantage of having separate powders on hand for your post-training "home brew" is that you can tinker with your protein/carb/BCAA/glutamine inclusion decisions. If you're training with lower reps or are looking to lean out quickly, you'll want fewer (or no) carbs in your mid/post training shake. In contrast, when volume is higher, and you're looking to gain some size, you can be more liberal with your dextrose and maltodextrin additions. Finally, when you buy BCAAs and glutamine in bulk, you save a ton over encapsulated forms. Did I mention that most cannibals agree that vegetarians taste better?
9) Be a guinea pig: Check with local universities and independent research organizations to see if individuals of your age, physical profile, and qualifications are needed for studies. You might as well have some fun in the process, so look into something exercise-related. Studies dealing with strength and conditioning always need young, resistance-trained men to participate in various protocols, many of which pay very well: $100-$1000 in my experience, depending on the extent of the intervention (duration, difficulty of the protocol, dietary records, biopsies, blood sampling, etc.). In many cases, you'll get a free body composition assessment via a DEXA scan or hydrostatic weighing as a bonus. In longer duration studies, you might even get your own educated personal trainer for a few months at a time! Unfortunately, in most cases, women are excluded due to variations that arise with the menstrual cycle. Don't let that stop you from taking part in supplement, dietary, or other performance-related tasks, though! On a totally unrelated note, how can you spot vegetarians in restaurants? They're the customers that talk with the waiter for twenty minutes, and then just order garden salads.
10) Be your own butcher: Take a look at the typical cost of a thin sliced top-round steak at your local grocery store. At mine, it's at least $3.99/lb. Now, when I went to a wholesale club and bought a 73-pound case of top round roasts for $118.99, I paid $1.63/lb. The trade-off? Thirty minutes of my time to carve off some of the extra fat, chop the suckers up, individually bag them, and put them in the freezer. When I'm ready for a steak, all I need to do is hack off part of the roast. If I had let the local butcher do it for the 65 pounds (let's assume I chopped off eight pounds of fat), I would have paid $259.35. Now, was my thirty minutes worth $140.36? Damn right! And, if that's not enough, I avoided the time and hassle of having to go shopping every week. Plus, I got the sick thrill of seeing the horrified looks on my neighbors' faces when I hauled a massive quantity of animal flesh out of my trunk?
That about wraps it up. I should note that although I eat an exorbitant amount of meat, I harbor no ill will toward vegetarians; I'm just not creative enough to write an entire article on being cheap without having a little fun at someone else's expense. So whether you're eating vegetables or soft, fluffy, innocent, woodland creatures that were brutally massacred and then carefully carved, marinated, and grilled to tasty perfection, I hope that your wallet appreciates the tips I've provided.
Note: no animals were injured in the creation of this article. During the writing process, I did, however, cook and devour the remains of several that were already dead. They were yummy. |
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| The more I write, the more weird emails I receive. I'm always very accommodating in answering people's questions even if they're rude and critical of my work; in fact, I enjoy defending my assertions. I'm a firm believer that there must be a rhyme and a reason for everything a coach or writer recommends; what better way to prove it than to defend those recommendations in the face of criticism. Just recently, I had one such opportunity when I received an email criticizing me for writing a four-days-per-week training program that didn't "adhere" to the Mo-Tu-Th-Fr training split. Apparently, my actions constituted a serious program design faux pas, so I felt it necessary to justify my recommendation with an entire article on the very topic.
In short, I'm not a big fan. It's a split designed for convenience. Unfortunately, there isn't much about the iron game that is inherently "convenient." Loading hundreds of pounds onto barbells and then lifting them isn't convenient, nor is sprinting, or preparing healthy meals, for that matter. Yeah, so you want the weekends off; who doesn't? Speaking anecdotally, I don't think that most trainees inflict enough damage to warrant two days of complete rest (and, for many, complete gluttony in front of a TV screen for college and NFL football games). And, to those who insist that the two days is enough for supercompensation to occur, I don't think you really even understand what supercompensation is; it take a lot longer than two days. I don't necessarily include MWF splits in this category, however, as they tend to be full-body training sessions that complement other training (e.g. sport-specific conditioning, cardiovascular activity, team practices, extra assistance sessions).
First, let's consider why I don't like it from a logical perspective. You should know to prioritize work for your specific weaknesses by placing it on a "fresh" day (immediately after a rest day). Now, the Mo-Tu-Th-Fr training split allows for two fresh days, whereas a Mo-Tu-Th-Sa split, for example, allows for three. This might not seem like a big difference, but consider that it means trading roughly 50 pseudo-depleted sessions for 50 fresh sessions over the course of the year. In my mind, this corresponds to significant gains over the course of a training career; take a look at the template advocated by the lifters at Westside Barbell Club, which follows such a structural template, and you'll see that the proof is just as much in the numbers as it is in the logic.
Next up, let's look at this from a pragmatic perspective. Are the gyms busier on weeknights or weekends? If you answered "weekends," you ought to just give up and take aerobics classes. Some of the best sessions of my training career have been on weekends simply because my mind was more clear of the all the nuisances of the "weekday world."
Now, let's consider the Mo-Tu-Th-Fr split from a scientific perspective. Research has shown that following a resistance training session, skeletal muscle protein synthesis can be elevated for up to 48 hours (1). However, these researchers studied untrained subjects (2). MacDougall et al. (1995), on the other hand, found that in resistance trained subjects, protein synthesis had returned to baseline at 36 hours post-exercise (3). Keep in mind that I'm assuming that you're reading this site because you actually train, so we'll classify you with the latter group. If you don't train, why not head over to the Good Housekeeping forums? I'm sure that everyone will appreciate you sharing a few recipes while Martha Stewart is making license plates instead of quiches.
To apply this protein synthesis data to you, we're going to calculate a thing I like to call "downtime." This is the time between training sessions minus 36 hours; basically, it gives you the amount of time in between sessions that you aren't above baseline in protein synthesis. We want to minimize this!
Let's say that you're a Mo-Tu-Th-Fr evening lifter. Skeletal muscle protein synthesis is elevated rapidly, so we'll say that you stimulate it by 8PM on all days. From the time that you get the marked elevations on Friday to the time that protein synthesis is kickstarted on Monday, you're looking at 72 hours, the last two of which are essentially spent in a catabolic state during training (keep in mind that you'll be in a catabolic state all weekend if you're hopelessly intoxicated the entire time!). That leaves a full 36 hours of downtime (72 minus 36). Moreover, you get another 12 hours of downtime from 8AM to 8PM on Thursday; this is pretty much unavoidable, given your schedule. In all, theoretically speaking, that gives you two days per week (48 hours) that you aren't above baseline.
Now let's consider what happens with the Mo-Tu-Th-Sa split and the same lifting times; assume once again that you're firing up protein synthesis around 8PM on all days. Because you took two rest days during the week and only one on the weekend instead of one during the week and two on the weekend, you have three 12-hour periods of downtime during the week (8AM-8PM on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday). Therefore, with the Mo-Tu-Th-Sa split, we have only 36 hours at baseline. A difference of twelve hours might not seem like much to you now, but over the course of a year, that works out to be an additional 26 days with protein synthesis elevated!
If you don't buy into my scientific perspective, consider it from an anecdotal perspective by observing the outstanding results numerous trainees have experienced from programs that emphasize more frequent training (even if it means shorter sessions). While Bulgarian weightlifters have taken it to an extreme (albeit successfully) with several sessions per day, you can also read about the benefits of frequent training sessions in Joel Marion's Center Your Training; Ripped, Rugged, and Dense 2.0; and Sequential Development for Size.
Conclusion
The next time you write up your training program, ask yourself if it's based on logical, pragmatic, and scientific principles. Or, is it designed to make things convenient for you? If you find yourself answering yes to the latter question, chances are that you're sacrificing gains in both size and strength. Be sure to get your priorities straight before you determine how to break things up. With that said, let the angry email barrage commence!
References
1. Phillips SM, Tipton KD, Aarsland A, Wolf SE, Wolfe RR. Mixed muscle protein synthesis and breakdown after resistance exercise in humans. Am J Physiol. 1997 Jul;273(1 Pt 1):E99-107.
2. Rasmussen BB, Phillips SM. Contractile and nutritional regulation of human muscle growth. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2003 Jul;31(3):127-31.
3. MacDougall JD, Gibala MJ, Tarnopolsky MA, MacDonald JR, Interisano SA, Yarasheski KE. The time course for elevated muscle protein synthesis following heavy resistance exercise. Can J Appl Physiol. 1995 Dec;20(4):480-6. |
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| Part one and part two of this series outlined exercises to improve posture on the bike and increase leg strength. In this last installment, we'll look at two strategies for keeping you healthy over the long haul.
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| As we learned in part one, cyclists can gain an advantage by training off the bike. The corrective exercises presented here work toward increasing performance strength, allowing you to deter injuries and stay in the saddle longer.
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| Cyclists spend thousands of dollars on precise training and nutrition protocols, seek out the best equipment and supplements, and look to find the best training groups to push them to the next level. However, in spite of their enthusiasm and commitment, very few cyclists are taking advantage of valuable training off the bike. This three-part series outlines six key exercises that not only optimize performance, but will keep you healthy for the long haul, as well.
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| Many of you are going to hate me for what I’m about to say. I don’t let my overhead throwing athletes overhead press or bench press with a straight bar.
There. I said it. Call me all the names you’d like but ask yourself this:
“Am I cursing Eric’s name because I think that the cost-to-benefit ratio of overhead pressing and straight bar bench pressing justifies their use, or is it because I feel naked without these options? I have to bench press. I can’t start an upper body day with any other exercise.”
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- Avoid the most common deadlifting mistakes
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