Q & A: How to Write Resistance Training Programs, Part 2: Coaching

Q. One thing I was wondering, and maybe it’d be a topic to write about … how do you come up with workouts?? Do you make stuff up?? Have a “grab-bag” of moves and pull out of that?? Borrow and modify from other trainers??  I always wonder where trainers come up with new ideas.A. For those who missed Part 1, I discussed the importance of training yourself on a regular basis. Let's move on to #2 on the list....

2a. Spend Time Coaching

I don't care if it's your mom, your coworker, or your friend who wants some help getting ready for Spring Break. Just start coaching someone. The best coaches (and, thus, those typically good at writing programs), are those that have spent thousands of hours in the trenches, coaching the heck out of people.

Chris Romanow comes to mind. If you've never trained at SAPT, you're probably asking who Chris Romanow is. He hasn't published any books or articles on training, he doesn't have a Twitter, he doesn't a keep a fitness blog, doesn't send out a newsletter, and he hasn't produced any fitness products.

Yet he is one of the best coaches in the industry, hands down. He can coach people and design training plans better than anyone I know. Heck, the man could teach a freshly born giraffe how to perform a solid overhead squat.

And you know what Chris received his college degree in? NOT Exercise Science, or even in a related field. He became a great program designer, and an even better coach, not by reading some textbooks, taking a few exams, and receiving a diploma for it, but by coaching his butt off, twelve hours a day, for years on end.

He was forced to learn how to teach kids the squat pattern (including hundreds who aren't genetically gifted and couldn't pick it up, even after the hundredth six attempt), how to teach a good pushup to mothers who never weight trained in their lives, show an unmotivated 12-year old softball player how to rotate through her hips instead of her lumbar spine, to teach an arrogant 17-year old that no, he really can't really squat 400lbs to depth.

And to do this over, and over, and over, and over again with people from all walks of life and varying genetic predispositions.

I, on the other hand, did study Kinesiology/Exercise Science in college. I also had many colleagues right alongside me doing the same thing. Going to lectures, learning about muscle insertions and attachments, the sliding filament theory, force-velocity curves, motor unit force potentiation, glycolysis, yadda yadda yadda.

And you know what I find myself telling people on a weekly basis? I would trust Chris with coaching me, and writing ME a program, a thousand times more than having one of my fellow colleagues (with a B.S. in Exercise Science) coach me or write me a workout plan. No question about it. And no offense to those of you from Virginia Tech who may be reading; it just is how it is.

As strength coach Mike Robertson once put it, "Some of the best coaches in S&C are the ones you’ve never heard of, and never hear from. They’re tucked away in some remote part of the country, just kicking ass and taking names."

That's Chris. And any talent I have at writing programs and coaching others, I owe in large part to him.

My point in all that is that learning the "science of training" is completely different from practicing it in real life. And no graduate degree or Ph. D. can replace time invested learning it first-hand (wasn't it Malcolm Gladwell who articulated it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in something?). It's very difficult to become proficient at program design without putting in your dues coaching others. And you can't truly appreciate this until you experience it for yourself.

I can't tell you how many times I've written what I thought to be a "perfect program" only to see it fail miserably upon implementation. And, unless you work with Olympic-level athletes, you're going to have to help countless people with quite poor movement quality (yes, even "higher level" athletes) learn to hip hinge, squat, pick things up off the ground, press things, and pull things. Correctly. And they aren't usually going to get it the first time.

Coaching teaches you a lot of things. As long as you pay attention, remain awake, stay astute, and make an effort to truly observe the feedback you're receiving (both verbal and nonverbal), you'd be surprised at how much your clients can teach you about yourself. And you will then learn to be a better program designer.

I remember, upon first becoming a personal trainer in college, I decided to take one of my clients (a soccer player) through a few sets of front squats. Easy peasy, right? Except that his knees persistently collapsed inward during the bottom half of his squat. So me, being the brilliant trainer I was, continually barked at him to drive his knees out. Yet he couldn't do it.

Was he deaf? No. Was he stupid? Of course not. Yet me, in all my trainer awesomeness, thought the only way to get him to align his knees over his second toe was to tell him to do it.

Now, don't get me wrong, on many occasion this can fix the issue. However, what I didn't realize at the time was that structural restrictions in this guy's ankle and/or hip could possibly prevent his knees from tracking correctly, despite how hard he tried to. I had no clue what implications closed-chain ankle dorsiflexion had during a front squat, or that poor hip internal rotation combined with flexion could force his knees inward in the bottom, or that sucky gluteals wouldn't allow him to power the movement correctly.

And, naturally, didn't know that I might have to program these into his workouts in order to help him squat correctly. This forced me to research and learn.

Should squats be in the program of most people? Yes, duh. However, what good is it if they can't do it proficiently? (Hint: they probably can't, at least until they're coached on it.) You need to be able to write their program so they can receive a training effect in the meantime, while at the same time helping them get from Point A to Point B.

It's the hundreds of hours you spend teaching a wide variety of people - coordinated and uncoordinated, conditioned and deconditioned, male and female, young and old, hobbit, dwarf, and wizard - to do things correctly that make you a better coach and program designer. Teaching and coaching elite level athletes is easy. Your only job there is basically to ensure they don't injure themselves under your watch (now, increasing their vertical five inches is another issue, but I'm just discussing the coaching component for the time being).

If you can coach some of the most uncoordinated, deconditioned people in the world through the fundamental human patterns, then chances are high you can write a program that doesn't suck.

Which leads (kind of) to the next point....

3. Practice Writing Programs. Apply these programs to real people, then write more programs. Repeat x Infinity.

I'll return with this part on Monday. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

What to Know About Competing in Powerlifting

“…Would be interested in hearing more about what it takes to enter a powerlifting competition: requirements, mentality, gear/no-gear, training, scoring/judging, what it takes to win, etc.”

This was a comment left on my meet write-up blog post from last week.  As soon as I saw it I thought what better way to talk about this than through a post for everyone!

Scoring and Judging/What it Takes to Win

Powerlifting consists of three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift (they are performed in this order).  At a meet you get three attempts at each of these lifts.  At the end of the competition your highest successful attempt from each of the three lifts will be added up for your “total”.  Your total is what determines your placing within your division/weight class.  In my opinion your placing should not be a focus for you especially if this is your first meet.  Your goal should be to show up and to perform because most people won’t even do that.

The scoring is based on a lighting system.  Each of the three judges has a light and if they deem the lift to be successful you will be rewarded with a shiny white light.  If they feel the lift to be unsuccessful they will ruin your life with a red light.  Have no fear because all you need is two white lights for the lift to count!

I’m not going to go into great detail about what the judges are looking for.  To learn more about this here is the link to the IPF rule book…. http://www.powerlifting-ipf.com/fileadmin/data/Technical_Rules/IPF_rulebook_01_2011.pdf

Gear or No Gear

This is the only place where I feel things get tricky.  People get WAAAYYYYY too bent out of shape about this to the point of ridiculousness.  You have three ways to compete in powerlifting; Raw, Single-ply, and Multi-ply.  This is entirely up to YOU and your GOALS and don’t let anyone sway you one way or the other.  As far as I’m concerned it really doesn’t matter what you choose because at the end of the day we all have the same goal… to get stronger.  Nevertheless you will come across the close-minded people who will tell you gear is “cheating” (not sure how it’s cheating because geared lifters compete only against other geared lifters) or “not true strength”.  These elitists’ get under my skin because they have probably never been in gear and have no idea what it’s like to train in it, so therefor, in my mind they have NO room to give an opinion on the subject.  More importantly why do they care what YOU do?  The people who care about what others do have their own personal issues to figure out.  I have competed raw and single-ply and I love both.  They both offer their own challenges and are both fun to train for.  It’s weird and ridiculous to me that people get so up and arms about the whole thing, it’s like 5 year olds fighting about whose toy is better.  If you want to lift raw, lift raw.  If you want to throw on a bunch of gear then do that.

My only caveat to this is that unless you have two solid years of strength training under you than you shouldn’t wear gear.  It takes A LOT of strength to even handle single-ply equipment so unless you're going two years strong, just start out with a few raw competitions.

Training

This is the easy part.  Just get better at squatting, benching and deadlifting.  The best way to do that is to perform the lifts several times a week.  It can’t get much simpler than that.  If you want a good set in stone program just do Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 and I promise you’ll get stronger.  Don’t want to do that? Then use the Westside Barbell template.  People want to treat this like its rocket science.  They paralyze themselves with fear about what programs best fits their body, there strength level, etc.  If these are the questions you’re asking yourself then all you really need to do is get in the weight room and press something, squat something, and pick something up off the ground and work on doing it correctly and everything will fall into place.

Mentality

This encompasses a great deal of things which is why when talking about it I like to refer to Mike Robertson’s T-Nation articletitled, “7 Reasons Everyone Should do a Powerlifting Meet” (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/7_reasons_everyone_should_do_a_powerlifting_meet ).  This is an awesome article and spells out everything in a very simple way.  In order to do a powerlifting meet you have to be able to do one thing… to truly say that you care nothing about what other people think of you.  Most of the time when people tell me why they don’t want to do a meet it’s because they are scared of other people.  They tell me they don’t want to embarrass themselves or they say there not as strong as everybody else.  No one cares that you’re not as strong as them and no one’s waiting to laugh at you for failing a lift or bombing out of a meet.  It is perfectly understandable to be afraid of putting yourself out there for people to see you fail.  However, it is unacceptable to allow that fear to control your actions.  It is your ability to face and overcome your fears that will define you as a person.  So what if you fail?  Failure is a marker of two things; that you actually tried and that you learned.

I don’t care who you are or how long you’ve been training; I implore you to go sign up for a meet.  It doesn’t matter what federation or where it is just sign up for it.  Find one that is 10-14 weeks away and go train for it.  Can’t squat, bench, or deadlift correctly?  Go turn in an entry form and your hard-earned money and I BET you will learn how to do all of those things pretty quick.  Don’t wait around saying “well, I’ll just wait a little bit until I get stronger” or “I’ll wait a little bit until I feel a little more comfortable”.  If your training for something you’re going to get stronger than if you aren’t, FACT!  Chances are if your excuse is that you’re waiting to feel a little more comfortable then you probably rarely step out of your comfort zone when it comes to other aspects of your life as well.  If you choose to test your limits then go to http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/and find a meet.

That first meet changed more than just how I approach lifting – because the lessons you learn from training and competition can be carried over to nearly every aspect of your life. -Mike Robertson

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Q & A: How to Write Resistance Training Programs, Part 1

Q: Hi Steve,I'm very new to the powerlifting/strong(wo)man training world ... and I love reading your blog! It's always chock full with information. One thing I was wondering, and maybe it'd be a topic to write about ... how do you come up with workouts?? Do you make stuff up?? Have a "grab-bag" of moves and pull out of that?? Borrow and modify from other trainers??  I always wonder where trainers come up with new ideas.

Thank you for all the great info!!

A: First, I'm humbled that you enjoy reading my (and my fellow coaches) musings here on SAPTstrength and I thank you for the kind words. It's always good to feel appreciated and to be assured that not everyone, to put it as eloquently as possible: thinks I suck.

Second, as I began to draft my response, it didn't take me long to realize how multifaceted this topic really is, so I'm going to break up my answer into a short series that hopefully doesn't tank as much as Pirates of the Caribbean. Moving on to the first point....

1. Train Yourself

Yes, I'm serious. You'd think I wouldn't have to make this #1 on the list, but I'm continually shocked by how many people are out there, either on the internet or in actual gyms, training other people when they don't walk the walk themselves. I'm not saying you have to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or possess the raw strength of Andy Bolton, but at least get after it yourself, for the love!

For one thing, are people going to listen to your advice regarding fat loss if you're borderline obese and get winded simply from walking from your car to the front door? Second, and more importantly, consistently training yourself gives you a chance grow in understanding of how all the training variables interact with one another.

And I'm not talking just sticking with one training methodology, either. While I personally haven't experimented with everything under the sun, I've completed full cycles of Bodypart Splits (more cycles than I'd like to admit, hah!), High Frequency Training, Upper/Lower, Powerlifting, Escalating Density Training, Total Body Training, Push/Pull Splits, Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 (for six months....not sure why I stopped to be honest), Stevo-Gets-Sexified Training, and more.

Through this, I've figured out which exercise pairings are brilliant, those that are not-so-brilliant (I'd be embarrassed to recount them all), what type of plans actually make me stronger rather than turning me into a huge pile of fail, and what style of training is best to implement based on what my goals are and/or what I have going on outside the gym walls.

Heck, I've competed in running/obstacle races, and even Triathlon, in order to garner a deeper understanding of the training stressors distance athletes face specific to their style of training. This, in turn, has helped me become a better coach and and allowed me to write the programs for SAPT's endurance athletes with much greater accuracy and proficiency, due to the fact that I've walked (or ran) in their shoes. These races provided me with a real, first-hand opportunity to see how:

• Performing 4x8 Bulgarian Split Squats or SL RDLs the day before a Threshold or Cardiac Power Interval run will be akin to asking for a suicide mission, and also, perhaps, for your gluteal musculature to fall off the bone and onto the pavement
• Intervals are a very powerful tool in training for endurance events, but should not be used exclusively
• When designing conditioning programs (be them interval or steady state), it's best never to increase the total distance or time by more than 20% per session, as this will greatly reduce the risk of injury while still allowing the athlete to improve
• The frequency/volume of swim sessions will affect the implementation of vertical and horizontal pressing performed in the weight room
• You actually won't turn in to a weak pile of poo if you do steady state cardio, as long as you design your weight lifting program appropriately
• Yes, distance athletes need to resistance train. They needto foam roll (I don't care what people are saying, just do it). They need soft tissue work. They need to stop worrying about their six-pack.

The same can be said for when I experimented with all the weight training methods above, it gave me a chance to feel what it's actually like to train different ways, and this has helped me to better write the programs for my athletes and clients.

I've trained using 2x/week plans (when I was working three, part-time jobs simultaneously while studying for the CSCS), 3x/week, 4x/week, and even 6x/week plans (shoot me), all for extended periods of time which helped me feel out how to best distribute the training stress throughout the week depending on the plan being used.

And yes, I realize everyone is different, and other people won't always respond the same way I do (positively OR negatively) to a particular training plan, but it's still a much greater step in the right direction that sitting on your butt all day and then commanding other people to suck it up and train (because that always goes over real well).

Please don't mistake me sharing all this an attempt to brag (don't know what exactly it would be bragging about....but just in case). Continually training yourself, through no matter what "Life" throws at you, gives you a greater appreciation the demands your clients experience outside of the gym walls, and say, for example, you had planned for them to do cluster sets of front squats (hint: they're awful), but then Life hit them with a poop-storm before they walked in the doors of the gym, it is actually okay to change the plan you wrote for them, and instead, give them something more "invigorating" and something that will set them up for success rather than make them hate you for life. They'll still get results, and they'll love you more for it, I promise.

I was just talking to Sarah the other day about how she's just weeks away from giving birth to her second child and yet she's still getting after it every day, be it inside or outside the gym.

And you know what? When her daughter grows up and becomes pregnant, and then complains that it's not possible to exercise regularly while facing the demands of pregnancy (and if you're like Sarah, owning a business while simultaneously working as a full-time strength coach for a DI university), she'll be able to look her child in the eye and say, "You know what, twice a week I did one prowler push for every week you were in my belly, along with lifting 4x/week."

Pwned.

Anyway, that's it for now. Be back with part 2 on Friday.

Guest Post: Lazy But Talented - Brian Levenson

Facing another juggernaut of a day (it's 4:40a as I'm typing this), I'm extremely happy to provide an excellent guest post today from mental coach Brian Levenson:

Lazy But Talented

What’s your first reaction to seeing the t-shirt below?  Anger?  Shock?  What’s wrong with this generation of kids?  How about, what’s wrong with Nike?  No, it’s not ‘Just do it’ or even the new‘Make it Count’ video, which has over 3 million hits on youtube, but this shirt grabbed my attention like few slogans have.

Walk into a high school gym and it’s likely you will come across a young man rocking a t-shirt that looks something like the one above.  It’s a powerful statement that would have any coach at any level cringe upon reading it.  We have all been told at some point that being lazy, but talented, is a recipe for disaster and un-fulfillment in the “real world”.  Yet, Nike has chosen this simple, but powerful message to represent their brand.

There are a number of supremely talented people who may never come close to reaching their potential due to a lack of work ethic.  We see them in all aspects of life—business, Hollywood, sport, politics, whatever profession; we’ve all seen lazy but talented people scratch the surface, but not reach their full potential due to a lack of work ethic.  In fact, Will Smith preaches hard work over talent at pretty much every opportunity:

Kobe Bryant, considered one of the best players of all time, is quick to point out that he enjoys practice more than games.  He takes pride in his blue-collar work ethic more than any other aspect of his game as he discussed in a radio interview on ESPN. There’s a reason why Bryant, drafted in 1996, is still considered an elite NBA player while colleagues Tracy McGrady, drafted in 1997 is a bench player and Allen Iverson, drafted in 1996, is out of the NBA altogether.

I have been fortunate to work with a lot of talented athletes over the years, but one athlete’s comment has really stuck with me.  He was an elite athlete and said, “do what you could not what you should.”  A lazy but talented athlete may do what they should, but not necessarily what they could.  Just doing what you should leaves room for excuses and allows you to think "what if..."    It also leads to blending in with the rest of the pack, rather than creating separation from teammates.  However, doing what you could allows for maximum effort and provides the best opportunity for success for not only yourself, but for those around you.

Human beings have a desire to fit in.  It starts at a very young age, but perhaps shows itself most in high school.  Growing up in an upper class suburban area, I’ll never forget when my Sociology teacher bluntly asked who considered their family to be lower class—no hands were raised, middle class—all hands were raised, and upper class—no hands were raised.  Sure humility played a factor, but the point was made nonetheless; nobody wanted to be seen as lower or upper class because they didn’t want to stick out.  But how does sticking out help athletes?

Go back to your high school days.  What were you like?  I know for me, I always looked up to the kids who didn’t have to study, but always aced the test.  I was jealous of the superstar athlete who didn’t have to work on his game to make the team.

Laziness was cool, as long as it didn’t impede success.

In college it’s the party animal, who doesn’t go to class, but still has a 3.5 GPA.  Ah, lazy but talented.  The truth is you can do pretty well being lazy but talented in high school and even college.  But once you get into the real world all of that goes out the window.  The real world doesn’t reward laziness.  It fires it.  A high IQ or athletic body that isn’t worked will eventually crumble, and all that is left is what could have been.  The lazy but talented attitude that allowed for success early will eventually be the same reason for failure.

Greatness occurs when gifted people work as if they’re not.  Don’t believe me?  Go look up the greatest person in your profession.  Do they define them-self as lazy but talented or do they hang their hat on work ethic?  If you’re in high school or college you have a great opportunity to jump-start your greatness.  Do what you could, not what you should and don’t be afraid to stick out.  Go for greatness.  And throw out that lazy but talented shirt that caused this article to be written.  Thank you Nike for bringing attention to a long-standing concept that needs to be addressed.  Perhaps it’s the best slogan yet.

Brian Levenson is a mental coach with the Center for Athletic Performance Enhancement (CAPE).  CAPE specializes in working with professional and amateur athletes who seek to enhance athletic performance through a focused approach to the mental aspects of sport.  Checkout their site here or contact Brian directly at brian@capeperformance.com.

Slow Tempo Strength Training for Increased Size and Work Capacity

Slow tempo strength training. This involves taking a compound movement - squat, pushup, inverted row, etc. - and performing both the eccentric and the concentric portion slowwwly, without pausing in the top or bottom of the movement. So, for a pushup, you would take 2-3 seconds to lower yourself down, and then immediately transition into a 2-3 second ascent. Rinse, lather, and repeat.

What is this good for?

• Improving work capacity
• To use in the “base” phase of a training plan, to allow for improved recovery capacity during later phases of training (you know what helps you recover in between sets of picking heavy stuff off the ground? Yep, the aerobic system) In fact, both Ryan and Carson did this in preparation for their powerlifting meet last week
• Developing connective tissue strength and overall joint stability
• Augmenting the ability of your muscles (both fast twitch and slow twitch) in their utilization/transportation of oxygen
• Enhancing static strength (think grappling, wrestling, etc.)
• Hypertrophy of the slow twitch fibers (makes them bigger)

For athletes that require a well-developed and powerful aerobic system, it would be wise to spend an entire “block” on slow tempo training (while maintaining other qualities) in the beginning of a training cycle, and then continue to cycle it in during “mini blocks” throughout the remainder of the training year. However, I’d primarily recommend this to athletes that already have a solid base of exercise technique and general strength training, and it’s also beyond the scope of this post to go into how one would do this.

However, today I’m going to stray a little bit from the typical SAPTstrength-style approach, and step away from the athletic performance side of things for a second.

Today, I want to appeal to you bodybuilders and masochists in the crowd.

Slow tempo training, not only has the potential to make ‘dem muscles bigger, but is also one of the most difficult methods to undergo. Not difficult in terms of loading used, of course, but difficult in terms of you just get really freaking tired.

Given that slow twitch fibers are more “endurance-based” in general, and thus highly resistant to fatigue, it takes a fairly high-volume approach to incite adaptations within them.

Pick 4 exercises (ex. squat, pushup, inverted row or cable row, and good morning), and lay out a month of training like so:

Week 1: 4 sets of 10 reps at a 2-0-2 tempo (this comes out to :40 of work). Rest 40 seconds between sets. Week 2: 2 series of 3 sets of 10 reps at a 2-0-2 tempo. Rest :40-:60 between sets, and rest 4-8 minutes between series. Week 3: 2 series of 4 sets of 10 reps at a 2-0-2 tempo. Rest :40-:60 between sets, and rest 4-8 minutes between series. Week 4: Three series3 sets of 10 reps at a 2-0-2 tempo. Rest :40-:60 between sets, and rest 4-8 minutes between series. Then curl up and die.

(Note: Your heart rate should remain BELOW anaerobic threshold during these. If it climbs above this, lower the weight, and/or rest a bit longer between sets).

I guarantee this will be one of the most humbling things you have ever done.

Also, be sure to keep some sort of stop watch or metronome (I use a Gym Boss), as all of you are going to naturally tend to move too slow during the lowering phase, and too quickly through the "up" portion of the lift. The clock helps keep you honest better than you'd think.

I’d start off with 30-40% of your 1RM on the squat, and you may need to elevate your hands during the later sets of the pushups. Yes, you may need to elevate your hands during the pushup portion (especially if you’re actually doing them correctly).

What about loss in power output?

Some of you may be wondering, ”But if I train slow, won’t I become slow?”

Not necessarily.

Muscle power output is directly proportional to cross-sectional area of the fiber. Soooo, if you hypertrophy a bunch of smaller, slow-twitch fibers, essentially making them as large as a “fast-twitch” fiber, and thus the total cross-sectional area of the fibers is equal to that of a fast-twitch fiber, then you can still produce the same level of power.

Not to mention, even when you train “explosively,” your IIx fibers still experience a bit of a transition to the more intermediate side of the continuum anyway. How bout them apples?

Besides you can still (which I recommend), perform a low volume of jumps, med ball throws, and the like to maintain these qualities during a cycle of slow tempo work.

Friday Distractions 4/20/12: Instant Strength via Bracing, To Foam Roll or Not to Foam Roll, etc.

1. First, I'd like to thank all those that emailed me (per my call for aid last Friday) to give me some suggestions for blog material. Given that I've been experiencing plenty of writer's block lately, it was much needed, and I thank you for taking the time to write with your suggestions! (you can thank the "suggestion box" for my post on Wednesday re: what you should eat/drink after your workouts.) For those of you who didn't write me with suggestions of material you want to see here on SAPTstrength....there will be pain....oh, there will be pain.....

2. Here is a fantastic video by Bill Hartman on the "right" way to breathe before a heavy set of squats or deadlifts to effectively brace your midsection and provide plenty of stability for your precious lumbar spine. Although he gives the demo with respect to wearing a belt, you can certainly use this technique even if you don't use a belt.

Although Bill doesn't necessarily showcase it in the video above, he is one smart dude. He's forgotten more things than I have learned, and he's one of those guys that I really wish would put more content out on the internet for us mere mortals/peons to learn from. I've seen a few of his presentations, which basically knocked my socks off.

In fact, I'd argue that one of the toughest (yet vitally important) things, for me personally, is to coach people on bracing correctly during a heavy lift. It's just very difficult to teach someone to do it properly and to get them to do it every time. Bracing properly basically ranks just below ingesting water and food within the hierarchy of needs of human survival. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I often find that once someone learns to adequately brace, all of a sudden they find that their back stops hurting during squats and deadlifts, and they're able to move heavier and heavier weight in an effective and safe manner.

Hint: If your chest and shoulders are elevating as you brace, you have some work to do.

3. Over the past month or so a blog post (actually written a few years ago) titled "Get off the Foam Roller" began to spread through the fitness industry like wildfire. Mike Boyle then wrote a rebuttal to the article on strengthcoach.com (a paid subscription website), but then released it for free on his blog.

Anywho, while you will still find me on the foam roller for the time being, here are two sides of the debate in case you're interested (the first two links are "against" the foam roller and the last link is the argument "for" the foam roller:

Get Off the Foam Roller - Mike T Nelson Stop Foam Rolling Your IT Band - Greg Lehman Is Foam Rolling Bad for You? - Michael Boyle

5. THIS was kinda funny. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to at least a few of the images representing moments in your life where it's an "Ahhh crap" moment. #16 and #18 were probably the funniest for me. (The link takes you to "The 21 Absolute Worst Things in the World" picture-based article.)

That's it for now....hope everyone has an awesome weekend.