SAPT Blog Gems of 2011
With it being the Friday before the New Year, I thought this would make a good time to share some of the most popular blog posts I wrote during 2011. I thought it would make a great way for some of our newer readership to catch some things they may have missed, give our "veteran" followers some reminders of things they may have read a while ago, and hey, not gonna lie, it makes for an easy day of blog content on my end! 2011 saw substantial growth for SAPTstrength, and I honestly cannot thank you all enough for your support. This was also the first year I made a effort to write consistently, totaling roughly 150 blog posts (along with a few additional articles for websites).
It amazes me to see the readership of this site growing weekly, and it really does humble me to know that many of you out there enjoy the coaches+writers of this site (Sarah, Chris, and myself), and think that we, to put it scientifically: don't suck.
That being said, let's get to the list. Happy New Year everyone, and we look forward to 2012 with you all!
Warrior, The Resistance, Mobility, and Happy Birthday Baggins
You know, it's so funny, sometimes the posts I put together last-minute, on a whim, and in a "holycrapIcan'tthinkofanythingtowritesoletmediscussLordoftheRings" mindset, are the ones that receive the most traffic. This one topped the list, and it wasn't even really about training! Geeze people, comon'! Stop being so hard to please.
I don't know if it's because I talked about Lord of the Rings or discussed the epicness of Tom Hardy's traps, but apparently this one hit home with you all.
26 Things I've Learned: Training Edition
Okay, now for some that are actually training related. Here I recap - via 26 short bullet points - several "ah ha" moments I've had since entering the strength and conditioning industry. This one trimmed the fat and gave the "quick and dirty" for anything ranging from improving one's results in the gym to program design.
A Few Things I've Learned: "Life" Edition
It honestly surprised me how much traffic this one received, as I wasn't anticipating this post being that big of a hit. Here I put on my sage hat (at least as much as possible for me to do so) and give some quick bullet points on anything from behavior economics to yellow traffic lights.
You know what they say about discussions with in-laws at the dinner table: Avoid the topics of politics, religion, and......CrossFit. Just kidding (kinda), but it does seem that people tend to fall on vastly different ends of the spectrum when it comes to CrossFit. It's as if it's an either-or topic...black and white, if you will: Either it's so evil worse than Satan himself, or it's so good it has saved you from congestive heart failure.
In this post, I do my best to look at it from an objective point of view. Is it for elite athletes? General fitness enthusiasts? Are ALL affiliates awful facilities that (quote) "do nothing but injure people?" Click the link to see for yourself.
To Overhead Press or Not to Overhead Press
The overhead press is a hot topic of debate among doctors and strength coaches alike. See this Q & A for a quick run down on if the overhead press is the right exercise for you.
And now, here are two great ones from Sarah and Chris:
A Little Bit About Knee Injuries - Sarah Walls
Here Sarah does a great job breaking down the what, why, and how-to-prevent of knee injuries. Notice that one of her main points is to "get those glutes firing!" I can't tell you how many times I'm working with a female with a knee injury/pain and have her doing glute work when she looks at me, and (*cue sassy voice*):
"Um, I don't want my BUTT to get any bigger...."
Well, do you want your knee pain to increase in magnitude, too?? Get those glutes workin' girl! Your butt circumference won't increase in an unfavorable way, I promise.
Our Take on "Sport Specific" - Chris Romanow
Last, but certainly not least, is an excellent short blurb by Chris on sport specific training. I can't tell you how many times I'm asked by a well-intentioned parent on why I'm not having their child perform X exercise since it is "sport specific." Should you do band-resisted running if you're a sprinter? Is it really necessary to have a soccer player squat, since it doesn't look like a very "sport specific" drill? See his points on the link above.
**That's all for now. Feel free to chime in below for any topics you'd like to see covered in 2012!**
5 reasons why SAPT’s adult training options are for you!
5. Because rather than perpetuate imbalances with your current 60 minute wander around the gym/sit on the recumbent bike, mouth agape routine, you’ll be provided a thorough individualized training program applicable to your specific needs and goals allowing you to hit the gym with vigor and purpose. Dare I say you’ll experience results?
4. Because you won’t be allowed to avoid the things you hate, the things you didn’t know you hated, and learn to embrace these things as the most important parts of your week (well, almost most important). Learn to enjoy movement prep, mobility, and soft tissue drills designed specifically to improve active range of motion around joints and soft tissue quality. Muscular knots and adhesions don’t resolve themselves through quick, unfocused static stretching routines; in actuality, they’ll typically make the knot tighter leading to further discomfort. Knead those knots and adhesions out with our localized soft tissue techniques and experience improved recovery, less inhibited movement patterns, and a general feeling of relief.
3. Though you’ll miss the SAPT coaching staff and community feel of the SAPT training facility during your offsite training sessions, you’ll be able to pacify our SAPT cravings through our thorough and extensive, mobile devise accessible, SAPT Exercise Database. Enjoy the descriptive prose and meticulous demonstrations to ensure you’re executing with perfect form even offsite, on your time. There’s only one way to garner the intended benefit of a training stimulus, and it’s through perfect execution. Going through the motions will elicit blah training effects, plus it’s kind-of unsafe…You exercise to improve your health, right?
2. To stave off type II (fast twitch) muscular atrophy and neural drive impairment. As one ages, without central nervous system activation, and therefore limited type II stimulation, type II fibers will actually disappear (to never return again) and thus significantly lower strength and power output levels. Not only does this present grim performance and overall functionality implications, but structural repercussions as well. Because type II fibers are more hypertrophy inclined, neglecting their recruitment will overtime significantly speed-up muscle mass decline. Consider there is a 10% decrease in total number of muscle fibers per decade after the age of 50, and it’s a wonder the majority of the “well-seasoned” population hasn’t evolved into soft, slithering, amoebas of goo (HA, I had fun writing that!). Our adult programming safely implements compound movements and drills designed to improve power output to elicit the physiological responses necessary to ward off the dreaded “amoeba of goo” condition. Besides, throwing medicine balls is just freakin’ fun.
1. Because you’ll relearn how to take time for…yourself…it’s okay, you’re allowed.
Your first step towards a more pain-free, stronger, youthful you in 2012, starts by clicking here…
You’ll love it…
Chris
Training in the Pacific
My wife and I just returned from an amazing trip to Guam. In case you're wondering where exactly Guam is located (I didn't know where it was initially), it is located somewhere in between Candyland and Heaven. In other words, it's in the middle of freakin' paradise. The picture below is a photo I personally took while we were on one of the private beaches; pretty cool huh? The trip was incredible, to say the least, and all fears of experiencing a "warm Christmas" were completely defenestrated. We also got to spend a fair amount time of exploring the Guam backcountry, during which we came across these freakish spiders every ten yards (not kidding). As much as I hate spiders, I couldn't resist taking a video of one of them. Check it out below...as a defense mechanism, it intentionally oscillates its web back and forth as if it's being blown by the wind.
Not to mention, we had snake (brown tree snakes) and hog traps lining the border of our backyard, as, apparently, they run around with reckless abandon in Guam.
Anyway, back to the point of this post. When it comes to working out on vacation, I find people often fall into one of two camps:
1. Exercising like a maniac. Heaven forbid a week pass by without running one's self into the ground. After all, if you take time off, you're lazy and a slacker, right?
2. Doing absolutely nothing, along with sitting, eating, and drinking as much as possible. You've earned it anyway, no?
As usual, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. While I feel it's EXTREMELY important for exercise-aholics to learn to relax for a change (they'll often find their body needs the break anyway), it's also important to not abuse your body on the other side of the spectrum through sedentary living and consuming alcohol until your eyes bleed. Given the fact that vacations often entail copious amounts of eating rich foods, sitting (especially during the travel portion), and a disrupted/abnormal sleep schedule, nixing exercise entirely may not be the wisest choice.
As such - and while I'd be remiss to claim that I'm a perfect example - I thought some of you may like to see how I made my best attempt to find a balance while in Guam. Enough exercise to keep my body (and mind) moving in the right direction, but so much that I failed to enjoy the vacation for what it was: A freakin' vacation!
Here's what I did:
Workout 1 (in a gym)
A1. Weighted Chins, 4x3 A2. Front Squat, 2x3
B. Barbell Stepback Lunge with a Front Squat Grip, 3x5/side
C1. Barbell Glute Bridge, 3x8x :2
C2. Single-Arm Dumbbell Farmers Walk, 2x60yds/side
Workout 2 (in a gym)
A. Speed Deadlifts, 6x2 @55%
B1. Feet-Elevated Pushup, 10x5
B2. Bent-Over Dumbbell Row, 10x5/side
B3. Single-leg Hip Thrust, 10x5/side (Performed circuit fashion with minimal rest)
Workout 3 (outside)
4 mile descent and climb down and up Sanders Slope. The entire road/path was on an incline. While not physically grueling by any means, it provided a nice change of pace with beautiful scenery, wild hogs on the path (no, I'm not messing with you), and a fair challenge as far as walks are concerned.
Workout 4 (outside)
My wife and I decided that, on Christmas Eve, we'd much rather complete a bodyweight session outside to enjoy the beautiful island weather, as opposed to remaining cooped up in a windowless gym. We found some pullup and dip bars outside and improvised as we went along:
A1. Pullup, 5x8 A2. PUPP, 5x :30 (immediately following each set of pullups) A3. No rest, go straight back to pullups
B1. Supinated-Grip Inverted Row, 3x6x :5 hold at top B2. Tiger Crawl with Pushup, 3x 30yds
C. Squat Series "Finisher:" Squat Jump x20 seconds Bodyweight Squat x20 seconds Squat ISO Hold in Bottom x20 seconds Repeat 3 times
The Rationale
Workouts 1 and 2 Given that I was on a Pacific island, I didn't want to spend too much time indoors. As such, only the first two workouts were performed inside a gym. I went full body on both those days, as I knew they'd be the only two days during the week I'd be able to use the iron. I also kept the volume fairly low, so that I could get in+out of the gym within 45 minutes, as well as give my body a break. The circuit on Day 2 was a way to get in a fair amount of joint-friendly work, while spreading out the volume over ten sets.
"Workout" 3 See above. We also stumbled across a pretty cool beach at the bottom of the slope, along with experiencing plenty of beautiful scenery along the way.
Workout 4 This provided an awesome opportunity to breathe some fresh air, spend some time exercising with my wife, and also give myself a small training effect while leaving me feeling "invigorated" rather than exhausted by the end of it. This workout really counted more toward energy systems training, given the rest periods and sets/reps we used. And it was completed within 20 minutes. Sounds like a winner to me!
There you have it! Our total STRUCTURED exercise time didn't exceed two hours or so, and we still spent plenty of time swimming and walking along the beaches. I returned home not feeling like complete garbage from all the holiday feasting, while at the same time I certainly was able to indulge myself in "vacation mode."
I should have an article coming out on how to exercise while traveling with minimal equipment, so keep your eyes peeled!
Pre-Race Carbs Predict Marathon Performance
Welcome back from a long weekend! SweatScience has an interesting post up about carbohydrate intake and marathon performance. Marathoners aren't exactly SAPT's specialty, but I think there are lessons here for power athletes, too. Check out SAPT's newest hat and our newest hat model. Warning: this falls into the categories of gratuitous cuteness and random family update.
Success in Training: Type I Motivation
Drive and Motivation are the points of my post for this Friday (the Friday that happens to usher in the week before the New Year). I recently began working with someone to help improve my performance with SAPT – he actually specializes in the mental preparation of athletes and, believe it or not, the way athletes approach competition is the way I prefer to approach each one of my days.
In our meeting last week we spent time completing a simple exercise about strengths and weaknesses. I had to come up with 10. At the end he asked why I didn’t list “Drive” – I paused for a moment and told him I didn’t consider my “Drive” to ever waiver. Thus it’s always a given. He accepted my answer, but this exchange stuck with me.
So, when I saw the book Drive by Daniel H. Pink sitting on my bookshelf a couple days ago, I was intrigued and thought I’d use my ***flip-through technique to see what I could learn:
Page 190: “Type I insight: It’s not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine-to-five. It’s whether our work fulfills us. If I offered you a choice between being an architect for $75,000 a year and working in a tollbooth every day for the rest of your life for $100,000 a year, which would you take? I’m guessing the former because there is a complexity, autonomy, and a relationship between effort and reward in doing creative work, and that’s worth more to most of us than money.”
This struck a chord with me. After all, if I told you what I earned from SAPT in 2009 (or 2010 for that matter) you’d probably see I strongly gravitate towards “creative work” as a primary motivational factor. Flipping back to Chapter 3, I was curious what the heck Type I means.
Type I people are those who are intrinsically motivated. Their counterparts are Type X, or extrinsically motivated individuals. Of course most of us have tendencies in both realms, but [Pink claims] there is some interesting research that shows not only are Type I’s more successful in the long-term (think Oprah Winfrey), but they are also healthier!
Because Type X’s live in a world driven so strongly by outside rewards and, coincidentally, are often Type A personalities, too, they are “significantly more likely to develop heart disease.” Wow.
So, how does changing your motivational approach make a difference in your training? In just a few works, it seems to boil down to “Slow and steady wins the race.” Pink highlights these points as Type I factors (Pink’s points are in bold, my comments follow):
- Type I’s almost always outperform Type X’s in the long run. In the end, the most successful people (by traditional standards) weren’t directly pursuing conventional notions of success along the way. Instead they choose to focus on working hard and persisting through challenges to learn about the world and achieve something that endures.Think about every infomercial that promises six-pack abs or dropping three dress sizes in a finite amount of time. Who do you know that has ever achieved the goals set out by the fitness marketing geniuses? I must know at least 3-dozen people that have dropped money on the P90x system. Guess how many people have made it through the 90 days? Z-E-R-O. Why? Because it’s too difficult, unrealistic, and in the end, the promise of a six-pack simply isn’t enough motivation for most people. They need support, feedback, a sense of community, and real human guidance (not a guy on a DVD telling you “good job, keep it up” style non-sense).
- Type I behavior is a renewable resource. Taking comfort in small victories on a day-to-day basis is incredibly motivating. Something as simple as executing your first plank for 3x:15 in week 1 (while your muscles shake violently trying to figure out what the hell you want them to do…) and then noticing in Week 3 you execute 3x:25 while feeling solid as a rock is HUGE. Acknowledging these victories is how you learn to become a Type I trainee.
- Type I behavior promotes greater physical and mental well-being. Why? Because it depends upon autonomy, mastery, and purpose.A Type I trainee is devoted to becoming better and better at something that matters. I hate to break it to you, but abs or a great posterior don’t matter. What does? The sense of building confidence, a healthy body, and a functional body. If a nice ass and a six-pack result, even better, but Type I’s will let that be a happy by-product. The end of the year is naturally, I suppose, the time of year when everyone audits himself or herself. For me, in terms of SAPT, it is an extremely exciting time when I get to assess the previous year and set up a “map” for us to follow in the upcoming year. The same approach can be taken with a new fitness or performance training plan. There are no quick fixes – not in business and certainly not when dealing with the health and functionality of the human body.
Take comfort in the process and rejoice with every small victory!
*** I have a bit of a penchant for book collecting. I’m not exactly sure when this happened, but I constantly have to stop myself from buying books in stores and online. The main problem being that I buy them and then – usually – don’t actually read them cover-to-cover. I tend to use them to browse through and reference. For me, it’s a brand of fun: you never know what you’ll learn randomly flipping through a book.
