Always look ahead, never look behind

That is always a hell of a lot easier than it sounds and I am just as guilty as the next person in looking at my past. I have always been a believer in the past helps shape who you are but I am slowly realizing that the past only slows you down. You can't go back and change what happened to you yesterday, last week or even last year, so why let it dictate how you live in the future?

This rule applies to your body and lifting goals. If you don't have goals, you need to make some. Goals do more than give you something to strive for, they also hold you accountable for your actions. What are you going to do today to make sure you are striving for your goals?

Lets use me for an example. At the end of last year I did Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength Program. I made huge gains in all my lifts and knew that a new PR in front squats was attainable by the end of '09. Well, I have been training my ass of and hit a new PR today on front squats at 335 pounds for one rep. So I am ahead of that goal.

The good thing about goals is that they are interchangeable at anytime. Since I already hit one goal, I have now amended my goal to hit 405 for a single on front squats by the end of the year.

Writing goals is like writing down anything else as long as you follow a couple guidelines:

1. they must be specific - be exact with what you what to accomplish: I want to increase my squat 30 pounds.

2. set a timeline to reach that goal - this will tie into rule #3: I want to increase my squat by 30 pounds in 12 weeks.

3. make sure the goal is realistic - can you increase your squat by 30 pounds? absolutely. Can you do it in 2 weeks? highly doubtful unless you are on some kind of performance enhancing drugs or are a freak of genetic nature.

4. make sure the goal is challenging - you don't want to set a goal that doesn't challenge you or push you, but you also don't want to set a goal that isn't attainable.

Having something to continually strive for will definitely help take your training to another level. If you surround yourself with like minded people who have the same goals, your training will take off into the stratosphere and the only thing to hold you back will be yourself.

So I'm sitting at my gym right now, drinking some water, got my cup of hot green tea, my upcoming clients training log and my current book "The Power of Now" and it hits me: corporate training facilities suck ass.

I walk in here and know people by their first name and they know mine. I can turn on metal music and nobody cares. Well some do depending on what time I'm in here but you get the gist.

The point I'm trying to make here is that you need to be comfortable in your surroundings to really get the most out of your training. If you go to facility that sucks and has shitty equipment, it will show in your training as you will be unmotivated to want to go there. But if you have a place that kicks ass, like my gym or any other gyms where people have the same goals and aspirations, your training will rock.

I have a friend named Courtney who got into powerlifting and when she started she went to one place as a way to get her foot in the door. It was good because she learned a lot, made some good gains and trained with like minded people. Then she discovered another powerlifting gym and now she is a monster. In less than a year, she has added something like over 200 pounds to her squat and deadlift. Now, am I saying all this is attributed to the gym? No but without training with people who are supportive of what you are trying to accomplish, you won't go anywhere.

On the contrary, my client Katie trains at a gym where people aren't there to train but rather go there for social hour and to show off their new outfits (minus Katie of course because she has an amazing trainer who has her on a kick ass program). Is that conducive to her training? Prolly not but she needs to lift and so she does and she has me to support her through her journey.

Moral of the story? Find someone you can talk to about your training or better yet find some like minded person to train with. You both will push each other to be better and your training will take off.

Guest Blog today

brought to you by Jason Ferrugia.

This guy is a total bad ass. He is definitely one of the few coaches whose work I love reading because its all about lifting heavy ass weight and getting hee-uuuuuuuge.

Jason has a great newsletter today talking about training your abs:

Although most people continue to rely on exercises like sit ups and
crunches when it comes to training the abdominals, research has
proven that these movements place excessive loads on the lower back,
leading to a lot of pain for a lot of people. Repeated, loaded
spinal flexion is one of the leading causes for disc herniation.

In fact, the traditional old school, slow speed sit up has been
shown to place 730 pounds of compression on the spine! Other
commonly used ab exercises place over 1,000 pounds of compression
on the spine!

Boy, do I wish I knew all this in my teens and early 20's when I
did thousands of spinal flexion exercises per week, eventually
leading to two herniated discs.

Not only are you risking long term back problems by doing all
those sit ups, crunches, and all their useless variations but you
are not even providing optimal stimulus to the abdominals. Research
has proven that bracing actually trains the abs much more
effectively than spinal flexion.

To properly employ this technique you need to brace your abs as hard
as you can like you are preparing to take a punch. You don't push
your abs out and you don't suck them in. In fact, sucking them in
and trying to activate your transverse abdominis is one of the worst
things you can do.

You simply want to tighten and flex the abs as hard as possible. Be
sure that there are no energy leaks and that your entire core is
braced tightly. You can have a partner poke you or lightly whack you
with a stick from different angles to ensure optimal bracing.

Never in real life will you consciously flex your spine and contract
your abs like you do in a crunch, so why bother doing it in the gym?
If you are on your back in most athletic endeavors, it's usually
because someone put you there. It's usually not where you want to
be. So why try to train your abs in that position?

Starting today, you are going to stop wasting your time and
destroying your lower back with traditional ab training and instead
focus your energy on the exercises listed below and their many
variations.

Be sure to train without a belt, brace the abs and contract the
glutes as tightly as possible when doing these movements. This will
lead to optimal abdominal development and the avoidance of lower
back injuries.

- Plank aka Abdominal Bridge
- Side Plank aka Side Bridge
- Bird Dog
- Deadlift
- Military press
- Pushup
- Hand Walking with the Power Wheel
- Farmers walk
- Squat
- Chin Up

I'm stealing this from Tony

If you don't know who Tony Gentilcore is, you should. He is co-owner of Cressey Performance based in the greater Boston area, contributor to T-Nation and the Boston Herald Step-Up blog and one heck of a good writer/trainer.

Here is a good piece of info I found on one of his recent blogs:

In quoting an interview by Dr. Arthur De Vany regarding his insights on early human activity:

“My cardio is the fast-pace of my workout. And it’s sprinting in a field or on a stationary bike. I never put in miles or time on a treadmill. It’s boring and worthless.

Look at joggers and distance runners. They aren’t slender; they simply have no muscle mass. They’re weak, they can’t generate power, and in spite of their slender appearance, joggers aren’t lean. The average body fat content of jogging club members was twenty-two percent in one study. Anything above thirteen percent is deleterious.

I wouldn’t jog for health, but playful runs are wonderful. Vary the speed and terrain and you have a really great activity that’s fun and healthful. Routinized jogging is factory work, not natural activity. If you log long miles on a track, I believe you’re compromising your health.”

TG Comment: Again, you need to get fit to run, not run to get fit. If more people followed this simple piece of advice, I’d be less inclined to want to stab myself in the face with a machete.

Post 4th of July Hangover, literally

Ya, I went a little big over the weekend, but it was our nation's birthday and like million's of other fellow Americans, I indulged.

Big time.

Now, like every one else, I have to rebound and get back on track. As part of a coaching program I'm on, we were taught what they call a "Wipe The Slate Clean" policy, where if you slip up on your diet and you didn't follow the 90% rule, it's okay. Just wipe the slate clean and start fresh tomorrow. Didn't get your session in today or didn't have the session you wanted? It's okay, just wipe the slate clean and get after it on your next session.

See, I think too many people get caught up in trying to do everything perfect, when in actuality, perfection is truly just an illusion. It's nice to strive for sure, but it's not attainable. Training and fitness is no exception. Nobody can diet 100% perfect all the time, if you did, you would go mental!

The point is, if you have a slip up every once in a while, remember the clean slate policy or institute one like it for yourself. You won't feel so damn guilty if you do slip up.

Just don't make the slip up's a common occurrence. If you do, that's a whole nother set of issues all together.

Can you really go anywhere on a treadmill? Guess not

This is an exert from an article written by Nate Green found over at www.t-nation.com. Some good advice for your pep's out there regarding steady state running on a treadmill versus doing anything else.

Myth: Sweating on a treadmill is just as good as sweating outside.

Mythbuster: Alwyn Cosgrove

In the past people moved more and their exercise programs were well rounded, but recently more people have switched to doing treadmill-only workouts for their cardio. Whether they think it's better for their joints or because they're closet vampires who can't...stand...the light! and never want to venture outside, I'm not sure.

What I am sure of is that steady-state cardio on the treadmill is just fucking stupid. And, no, I'm not going to rehash the old argument about how intervals burn more calories. You already know that.

Instead I'm going to do some math.

Walking a mile is about two thousand reps in the sagittal plane at about one and a half to two times your bodyweight. Jogging would be around fifteen hundred total reps at about two to three times your bodyweight.

And since the treadmill switches your hamstring and glutes off — your foot hits the belt and the belt pulls you through — it's mainly a quad exercise.

So let's say a client does three miles three times per week for one year (and I'm being conservative).

That's 6000 reps x 3 days per week x 52 weeks, which equals 936,000 reps of knee extension work. Or 468,000 reps per leg.

Let's say the load going through with the knee was a measly 100 pounds. That's 4.6 million pounds of work for the quad with absolutely no hamstring work.

Think of it this way: if you did 400,000 reps of triceps extensions with 100 pounds you'd get four million pounds of volume. If you didn't balance that out with biceps curls you'd expect the elbow joint to hurt, right? You're damn straight it would!

So long term walking or running on the treadmill is almost guaranteeing knee pain. And that's not even the worst part. Since the hamstring is switched off you're actually burning even less calories than you would if you were to walk on the ground!

This study showed that hip flexion angle increases on the treadmill as opposed to the ground and that stance time was reduced. Basically, the whole hip extensor mechanism is affected; hip and knee flexion angles have to increase to bring the hip through on the stride. So hip flexor fatigue plus substitution patterns equals severe knee pain.

Ten or twenty years ago we'd get away with this because our clients ran outside and did other activities. The contribution of treadmill time to total exercise time was much lower. It's hardly the case today.

One of the problems with low intensity steady-state aerobics for fat loss in the deconditioned population is the sheer amount of reps needed. I can do a bodyweight circuit and spread the "reps" over the whole body and get a similar metabolic effect.

At my gym we've always done interval training as we felt the results were superior, but over time we've moved to a "metabolic resistance training" model.

For example, one mile on the treadmill would be 1500 reps and burn around 100 calories. If you did a circuit of kettlebell swings, undulating ropes, inverted rows, sled pushes, and burpees for four rounds with 10 to 15 reps each, you'd burn 100 calories in less time with less load, and the reps would be spread over the entire body instead of on the ankles, knees, and hips. It's just a superior model.

Facebook and the perils of living vicariously through the internet

Facebook is the devil of the internet and I am not the only person who thinks this. It's pretty much a waste of time and a total time suck.


Yet it does have its good points, you can figure out all the stupid things people do with their daily lives.

"Hey look, Suzy just ate a donut and liked it! That crazy girl"

or you see something like this

"I feel fat today. I'm going to go run 37 miles"

You can learn a lot about the miss-education of people by what the post on Facebook. They will tell you exactly what they don't know and why they don't know it. The hard thing is, most people are resistant to change and think that they know everything (hint: I am not one of those people).

See there is still the old school mentality when it comes to fat loss that states, if you want to lose weigh, you need to run like your training for the Boston Marathon. Now trainers and our clients know, because we read and actually learn something, that steady state cardio does not have the same fat burning benefits as interval training, or interval training paired with a resistance training program.

Is steady state cardio good? I think it has its place but not for fat loss.

If you need to shed some pounds, break the rules once and a while and do what is going to get you the results you want, FASTER. Go to the track and do some sprint intervals, run stair intervals, take a metabolic training class, hell go as so far as to lift weights or (gasp) eat good, healthy foods!

If not, that wedding dress still won't fit you in 3 months.