Rely on Strategies, Not Willpower, Part 1
It seems that people are often under the impression that I'm a sort of fearless and incorruptible freedom fighter when it comes to eating healthy and staving off temptation in the food realm. In fact, when I worked in the physical therapy clinic, all the therapists even brought in hard-boiled eggs and/or veggie+fruit platters for my birthday (instead of the typical cake+brownie+muffin celebratory nibbles). This meant a lot to me, as not only did they think of me on my birthday, but it showed that they knew it would mean more to me to eat snacks that "do the body good" than the usual birthday foods. I've been asked on many occasion - be it throughout college, out at dinner, or at the workplace - how I consistently eat well. How I always seem to pack healthy lunches, snacks, and at the same time avoid the belly-busting items on restaurant menus.
How do you DO it?
Man, I wish I could do that....
Wow, you have such great self-control!
I want your babies.
But the point of this post isn't to gloat. In fact, it's the exact opposite.
You want to know a deep, dark secret of mine? A skeleton in my closet, so to speak? I do NOT have the best self-control when it comes to food. In fact, it's terrible. Absolutely terrible. In reality, my sweet tooth is larger than the state of Kansas, and it is absolutely no sweat for me to crush a garbage disposal in a race to demolish a pint of ice cream. Not kidding. (To those that know me well, I know this doesn't come as a surprise).
However, despite this sad truth, I do still manage to fuel my body with foods that will benefit it rather than destroy it, the majority of the time. And my struggles to prove victorious in this area can help you.
I don't think any of you reading will deny that whole, unprocessed foods and vegetables will provide our bodies with steady doses of energy, allow us to recover faster from lifting sessions or athletic competitions, boost our immune systems, and keep body fat stores at bay. Nonetheless, many of us fail to act on this truth on a daily basis, right? Why?
Why is that, on a given weekend, we can plan to eat healthy throughout the upcoming week, only to find ourselves having consumed more oreos than antioxidants at the end of the week? I'll tell you why. The answer came to me when I was attending a business seminar put on by Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove. Rachel, while discussing client adherence to nutrition and exercise plans, said something I'll never forget:
Rely on Strategies, Not Willpower.
So true. I mean, how many times throughout the week are we hit with unexpected events that cause to gravitate toward shoving crap down our pie holes? Whether it's being held up at the office for an extra hour (or three), unexpectedly needing to pick up your child at a soccer game, running a few extra errands, getting stuck in obscene traffic (for those that live in NOVA), or saving a vulnerable, homeless kitten from the perils of the wild (if you happen to be a SAPT strength coach), there's no doubt that numerous events can knock us off track.
Countless stressors and time-consuming events are GOING to happen that will tempt you to make a poor decision in the kitchen, and relying on willpower isn't the answer. Willpower is just too fragile for us mere mortals in the crowd. Instead, we need strategies. Strategies are the key to success.
Not to leave you hanging, but I need to stop here. I'm out of time, so I'm going to touch a few critical strategies on Wednesday. Plus, I'm over 600 words for this post so I may have already lost some of you anyway :) Until then, start thinking of some strategies YOU can use - be it related to your nutrition OR training - that can take you where you know you need to go.
Warrior, The Resistance, Mobility, and Happy Birthday Baggins
It is Friday, and in my efforts to make the end of this week a bit lighter for you all, I'm simply going to share a few notes floating around my brain at the moment. 1. Happy Birthday Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Well, technically their birthday was yesterday, on September 22nd, but, alas, it was Chris's day to post so I wasn't able to give them a proper shout-out on time. Many of you may have missed this important and monumental day; shame on you if you did. Kelsey and I did not. (A side note: I knew I wanted to marry her as soon as she told me, on our second date, that she'd read the Lord of the Rings series three times).
I will most assuredly - and shamelessly - be attending opening night of The Hobbit (releasing December of 2012), especially given that Peter Jackson is directing it. For other Middle Earth fans that may be out there, you can keep up with some video blogs of the filming HERE.
Kelsey and I also had the pleasure of seeing The Return of the King with a LIVE symphony, thank you very much. Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds.
2. A Tale of Two Kingdoms. Martin Rooney recently wrote a fantastic blog post discussing the two "kingdoms" currently at war in society. It's short and simple, yet thought-provoking. I love most of Martin's writings and instructional videos as he's extremely talented, funny, and also possesses infectious energy as he talks about strength training. Do yourself a favor and read it here:
A Tale of Two Kingdoms - Martin Rooney
If you're looking for a preview, watch the video below (not only is it hilarious but also passes along a pretty deep and important message):
3. Warrior. Was amazing. I'm honestly not a huge fan of most fighting movies (I often find them awfully-predictable), but I felt Gavin O'Connor did a great job directing this one, and Tom Hardy REALLY hit a home run with his acting. The ending was a liiitttllee iffy, but all in all an awesome film filled with SWEET fight scenes while at the same time being emotionally engaging.
Okay. Let me get to the real reason I liked this film (Spoiler: shameless man-crush announcement). Tom Hardy's traps were the most awesome things I've ever seen. I mean, given his body weight and frame, they were quite impressive. I can say with full confidence that Chuck Norris would turn tail and run just from the sight of them:
Beast. I mean, let's be real here. I think every male on the planet, upon seeing this movie, ran to the nearest gym to load it up on some farmers walks and direct trap work. Heck, I know for me personally, on Monday the first thing I did during my training session was shrug deadlift.
Trap-specialization phase for October anyone? Alright, I'm kidding (but not really).
4. Movement Quality. The older I get, and the longer I spend working at a computer, the more I realize just how important it really is to maintain and/or restore lost ROM at our joints. This could be an entire article or blog post in and of itself, but I'm convinced that even taking ten minutes a day to invest in our joint mobility and soft tissue restrictions will go a longer way than many of us even realize.
After all, it really doesn't take that long to run through a quick series of spiderman variations, a yoga plex or two, warrior lunges, walking knee hugs and cradle walks, BO t-spine rotations, forearm wallslides, and quadruped extension-rotations, to name a few. Or, even just throwing in a few static and contract+relax drills while at a coffee shop.
That's it for today. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Black Bean Poop…it’s delicious…
Not only is my wife drop-dead gorgeous (points), but she’s a terrific cook (double points…take notes boys). One of her specialties, and a meal my taste buds and colon love dearly, is her version of “Black Bean Soup,” which I prefer to call Black Bean Poop…I’m sure you can deduce why. It’s both nutritious and delicious…I mean it’s so good it almost tastes bad for you…plus it’s an extremely versatile meal, and it’ll last you a long time. The recipe: (serves a bunch, you’ll have leftovers which is awesome)
Food prep:
-Open 3-4 cans of black beans; a standard can, not the Costco barrels
-A generous couple handfuls of chopped carrots
-1/2 of a white onion, chopped into fairly fine bits
The cooking:
In a deep soup pan, begin by sautéing your carrots and onions in olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of pan) until soft. Once soft, add minced garlic (garlic lovers can be generous), and saute for a bit longer; careful not to burn the garlic.
Next, add 1 tbsp of cumin, a few generous shakes of cayenne (good cooks don’t measure, duh, and I like mine spicy), 3/4 tsp coriander, 32 oz. beef broth and the 3-4 cans of black beans (juice included). Stir it all up and let simmer for 15-20min.
Stroll to television and witness the Sox continuing to choke away the wildcard…make a u-turn back into the kitchen.
We like to serve our black bean poop on a bed of quinoa. See quinoa label for cooking instructions.
After the soup has simmered for about 15-20min, take your hand blender and gently blend until you’ve reached your desired soupy consistency; I like mine chunky. After blending, add ½ cup of dry sherry, and stir it up.
Take your quinoa off the stove, mix the two together, and enjoy!
What’s great is that later in the week your leftovers can be used to make bean burritos; add some fresh slices of avocado and a sprinkling of cheese…and now you’re eatin’ gooood.
The cure for the common case of constipation,
Sous Chef Chris
Trimming the Fat: Some of My Fastest Gains Ever
Every now and then I like to peruse my old training logs, peeking back in time to take a glimpse at what I was doing in the weight room; be it three months ago or three years ago. The other day I decided to flip through my logbook from college, and was suddenly reminded of the sudden, and dramatic, shift my training took at one point. You could call this my "Enlightenment," or, when I discovered that it was possible to accomplish more in less time. You see, for the first few years of college, I was following a classic bodybuilding split, utilizing tips I had picked up from the muscle mags and various personal trainers that crossed my path. I would work 1-2 body parts a day, training six days per week on the average. Each of these training sessions lasted about 90-120+ minutes, and I would utilize about 4-5 exercises per muscle group, performing 4-5 sets for each exercise. I'd incorporate just about every exercise I could think of, "attacking my muscles from all different angles" just like the magazines told me I needed to do. I was doing pretty well for myself, too: adding some muscle here, getting stronger there, maybe getting a new vein in my arm. *high five!*
After all, the more I could squeeze in, the better, right?
However, toward the end of junior year, I decided it was time to seriously investigate my training. This meant looking beyond the magazines in the grocery aisles, and seeing past what the majority of gym-goers were doing. To make a long story short, this is when I discovered some extremely valuable information and began reading from authors/strength coaches who actually knew their stuff. The strength coach for Virginia Tech was also extremely accommodating and patient with me, answering the endless slew of questions I incessantly threw at him as I first began to shadow his work with the athletic teams.
I suddenly realized that I didn't actually need to train 12 hours per week to become bigger or stronger. It was far from essential to do 25-30 exercises per week. It wasn't necessary to spend an entire day on one body part. And it wasn't required to perform countless drop sets and supersets of isolated delt, bicep, and tricep work to make my shoulders and arms grow. In fact, it turned out that a mere 20% of my efforts was responsible for 80% of my results. I became educated on the minimum effective dose, or, the minimal stimulus required to produce a desired outcome.
It was time to "trim the fat," so to speak, with my training. I wanted to test this for myself, to see if it was REALLY true. I mean, it's one thing to read about it, hear others talk about it, but it's a completely different bear to induce change upon YOURSELF, especially when there's a young ego at stake.
As such, I made up my mind to undergo a plan that would have me training no more than four days per week, and my sessions would be required to take no longer than an hour (excluding warm-up). Inspired by Alwyn Cosgrove, I decided to choose only two different workouts, and I would alternate between the two every time I set foot in the gym. I had a "Workout A" which was essentially lower body emphasis, and a "Workout B" which was upper body dominant. Here it is below:
Workout A (Lower Body)
Workout B (Upper Body)
A) Squat B) Deadlift C1) Bulgarian SplitSquat C2) Barbell Step-Up
A1) Incline DB Press A2) Seated Cable Row B1) DB Military Press B2) Pullup C1) Close-Grip Bench C2) Ab something
That was it. For six weeks, that is all I did.I would typically perform Workout A on Mondays and Thursdays, and Workout B on Tuesdays and Fridays. A method of undulating periodization was applied for the sets and reps each day.
And what do you know? My arms, shoulders, chest, and legs all continued to grow, despite the fact that I was I was training only four hours per week. This was one-third of the time I was spending in the gym all throughout high school and the first half of college. I had more free time, the workouts were surprisingly brutal (especially on the high rep squat days), I didn't constantly feel sore, and I was receiving an increasing number of the "So, what have YOUbeen doing?" or "What supplements have you been taking?" (<== lol) questions.
Now, there's no doubt that some of my gains can be attributed to the fact that I dialed in my nutrition further, and was actually deadlifting for the first time (in fact, I'd go so far as to say that deadlifting alone attributed to the majority of my gains). Also, one will almost always experience progress in one form or another when switching up the routine. However, there was no doubt that something was working.
In fact, things were working so well that I decided to enter a new eight-week cycle:
Workout A (Horizontal Push/Pull)
Workout B (Lower Body)
Workout C (Vertical Push/Pull)
A1) Bench Press A2) Bent-Over BB Row B1) Incline DB Press, Neutral Grip B2) Seated Cable Row
A) Snatch-Grip Deadlift B1) BB Forward Lunge B2) BB Step-Up C) Ab something
A1) BB Overhead Press A2) Pullup/Chinup B1) DB Arnold Press B2) Lat Pulldown
And the gains continued to come. I was stronger and leaner, I felt better, and, yet again, was accomplishing this in far less time that I had for the years prior.
An Important Note Were these "perfect" programs? Not at all. (Is there a such thing anyway??). In fact, looking back, there are quite a few obvious tweaks I would make. HOWEVER, at the time, I was trying my best to apply the principles I had learned in my research. And that's the important part.
Summing all this up, here are the take home points:
- Less is more. You can nearly always accomplish the same, if not more, by trimming the fat in a training program. Water boiled at 100ºC is boiled. Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive.
- While the high volume bodypart split routines can work for the genetically elite, they often aren't the best choice for the majority of trainees (and, as a side note, certainly not athletes).
- You don't need 6+ hours a week to get stronger, lose fat, or put some lean body mass on your frame.
- When in doubt, choose exercises that are multi-joint over single-joint.
- Deadlifts are awesome.
Teaching Triple Extension
Want to work on improving everything from linear sprint speed, power, change of direction, force production, vertical jump, and deceleration strength? I know, who doesn’t, right? These qualities should be included in the very definition of athletic success.
The triple extension is a huge key aspect to unlocking all of these qualities in concert. It is also the component that is common through virtually all the movements that come to mind when thinking about the ideal strong, fast, and powerful athlete. Some good examples are a wrestler shooting, a sprinter coming off the blocks, throwers at the point of release, the vertical jump in a volleyball attack, etc.
What is Triple Extension?
Triple extension is the simultaneous extension of three joints: ankle, knee, and hip. Getting all of these areas to extend powerfully at the perfect moment is a beautiful and natural occurrence. Mess it up and, well, it looks really bad…
Why should Triple Extension be taught, developed, and progressed?
Again, if you’re looking to unlock and develop the athletic potential in yourself or an athlete under your guidance, then triple extension work is a must. Perfection of this movement during training will result in a faster, more powerful athlete on the court, field, or mat. And if you’re faster and more powerful, you WILL be more successful and less injury prone.
Teaching Progressions:
- Basic Bodyweight Strength Exercises – pushups, pull-ups, body weight squats, body weight lunges, etc. should all be considered foundational portions of any athletic development program and should NEVER be skipped. Trust me, no one is “too advanced” for this type of work. These movements have their place in any program whether they appear in the warm-up or the body of the training session.
- Medicine Ball Overhead Throw – this particular exercise allows triple extension to occur. However, I like using other MB variations to teach a powerful hip extension like a Scoop Throw. I suggest 2-3 sets of 4-6 repetitions for beginners and 3 sets of 2-5 repetitions for more advanced athletes.
- Broad Jump and Vertical Jump Variations – these are fantastic because you can add subtle variations almost endlessly to increase or decrease intensity/difficulty for every athlete’s needs. Plus, this is a great opportunity to teach takeoff and landing technique to avoid the dreaded and dangerous knee collapse. Common variations I use regularly include: broad jump, burpee to broad jump, single leg broad jump, vertical jump, hot ground to vertical jump, vertical jump to single leg landing, etc, etc, etc… Sets and reps are the same as med balls at 2-3 sets of 4-6 repetitions for beginners and 3 sets of 2-5 repetitions for more advanced athletes.
- Sprint Variations – Numbers 1-3 are progressed over the course of at least 12-weeks for beginners (less for more advanced athletes), sprinting variations can be added to encourage exceptional high quality triple extension repetitions. Generally for this application of sprints the distance should be kept quite short. I find 5-20 yards hits the right spot. At this point we should be dealing with an athlete that can, minimally, be considered “intermediate” in level and with that qualification I suggest 6-20 sets of 1-3 repetitions at a distance of 5-20 yards. The higher the number of sets, the shorter the distance and the lower the number of reps should be. Oh, and be sure to allow for full recovery for achieving power and speed development.
- Speed Squats – Hands down my favorite style of lower body exercise. This movement type teaches athletes how to produce force by pushing hard into the ground and accelerating up as fast as possible. These variations include the traditional Speed Squat, Wave Squat, and Jump Squat. Speed squat variations should ONLY be used with ADVANCED athletes. I suggest 6-10 sets of 2-3 reps with about 45-seconds rest between sets. Weight should be kept at 55-65% of the athlete’s 1RM squat.
- Olympic Lifting Variations – Please take note that this is the absolute last suggestion of my list of progressions for teaching the Triple Extension, but it is the variation that inexperienced (and in my opinion misguided) coaches frequently jump to first. Olympic lift variations have their place with highly advanced and elite level athletes. However, I rarely use them. Why? Because through my experience I have found that one can elicit faster and greater gains via cycling through numbers 1-5. However, I do use them sparingly with some athletes. I have to admit the athleticism required for Oly lifts can make executing them a lot of fun, but there is a requirement of athleticism!! It makes me sick to my stomach how many coaches are on some kind of auto-inclusion of each and every Olympic variation for each and every athlete. What a mistake! Including these in a program too soon leads to poor form and execution which means you’re not getting that much bang-for your-buck with the movements (i.e., wasting time) and would be better off regressing to something more straightforward. Anyway, some great variations include the jump shrug, high pull, hang clean, etc. Keep the sets moderate and reps LOW.
You really can’t make a mistake if you cool your jets and follow this progression slowly. Remember, untrained athletes will get stronger and faster with very little stimulus. So take your time and learn to enjoy and respect the process!
Action Thinking: Your Million-Dollar Advice for the Week
Admittedly, one of my greatest weaknesses is my tendency to over-analyze a given topic. In high school, I was "the geek" in my circle of friends, and they frequently joked on me for the fact that I enjoyed doing Calculus, Physics, and Philosophy homework more than I liked sitting down to watch the next Friends episode in the evenings. I never considered that "thinking" could actually be done in excess and become a negative thing until my lacrosse coach pulled me from the starting line-up. Upon asking him what I could do to improve, he told me: "You think too much. Your technical skills, speed, and game sense are all sound but you often freeze up. Stop thinking and just start doing."
Fast forward to college. I was going through some difficult times, and I called one of my old-time mentors for some guidance. As usual, he pulled through. However, this particular bit of advice stood out over almost everything he had ever told me:
It's easier to act yourself into healthy thinking than it is to think yourself into healthy acting.
The more I thought about it the more profound it became. Heck, I'm convinced that psychiatrists could make millions off this piece of advice alone as it can be applied to just about every sphere of life. Given that SAPT is in the business of augmenting the physical prowess of athletes and non-athletes alike, I'll touch on this particular subject for a quick moment.
How many of the world's best athletes do you know that appear to be over-analyzing their craft while in the middle of a match or game? It's almost always the opposite, right? Rather than thinking too much, the greatest athlete's just "do." Take a look at the snatch of a proficient Olympic lifter, or the take down of a #1 ranked Division 1 wrestler, and you'll see that it just "happens." It's like they're not even thinking about it. Take a quick look at Dwayne Wade in the video below (I'd x-out the red boxes); do you think he's carefully scrutinizing every nook and cranny of each play before he makes it? Conversely, it's as if he's just floating along the court, allowing his instincts to take over and make his opponents look like children:
Similarly, you can apply the healthy acting ==> healthy thinking advice to a simple gym routine. I often tell those struggling with remaining consistent in the gym that "the most difficult step is getting off the couch." More times than not, once you get inside the gym and begin your warm-up, you're home free, no matter what your thoughts were telling you before you stood up in your home to get in the car.
Earlier this year, one of my friends was waiting for me to get back to him on some advice for a good workout routine. Rather than sitting around and waiting for the "perfect program" to pop in his email, he just started going in the gym! Even though he didn't have much experience, he went in, did some squats, split squats, and pullups, and then left. He didn't worry about following the wrong set-rep scheme, or become paranoid about which form of periodization he would utilize, but instead just got it done because he knew that would take him a step closer to his goal than sitting at home.
Looking at the dietary realm, the same principle applies. Those that spend countless hours researching various diets, meticulously count all their calories, weigh themselves every day, toy on and off with intermittent fasting until they're blue in the face, refuse to buy a fruit/vegetable until they know which has the most antioxidants, etc. nearly always experience less successes than those that just go out and take an ACTION step.
Having trouble with your intake? Here's a million-dollar first step: If a food is from the Earth, this = good. If man has tinkered with it, this = bad. Start with this and don't think about anything else.
The point of all this is that it's near impossible to think yourself into a healthy mindset. Just begin by taking an action step, and before you know it you'll become a steely eyed, barrel chested freedom fighter.
