Monday Musings: New Facility, Backpacking Europe, and Deadlift Foot Placement

Gotta make this one brief today... 1. I'm thrilled to say that, last Friday, we successfully moved SAPT into our new location last Friday. To those of you who train with us, you can look forward to a climate controlled environment during your next session!

Also, thank you again to all those that came to help us move.  Your assistance was MUCH appreciated, and we're extremely grateful that you gave up your time on Friday to aid us.

Our new address is 3160 Unit E, Spring Street, Fairfax, Va 22031.

2. This October, I'll be fulfilling a childhood dream of mine by going backpacking in Europe. Thanks to pretty much the most awesome boss, SAPT team, and wife, that I could ask for, I'm able to take a couple weeks off to backpack through Ireland, Switzerland, and Italy.

Needless to say, I'm already as giddy as a little schoolgirl for October to arrive, as I've been literally dreaming about it (and slowly, very slowly....been saving up for it) since I was twelve years old.

For those interested, I'll be glad to share more details in the future, but for now I did want to share one of the things I'm most excited about: Canyoning in Interlaken, Switzerland.

One of my good buddies did this last year, and told me it was literally the experience of a lifetime. Basically, you take a bus up right into the heart of the Swiss Alps, and then repel, jump off, and slide down the canyons and waters of Switzerland to return to the bottom.

Here is a video of what I'll be doing, you can catch the gist of it in the first 45 seconds of the vid:

While in Switzerland, we also plan on visiting Schilthorn, the breathtaking summit of Burnese Alps, upon which a revolving restaurant sits. The restaurant, Piz Gloria, was actually a setting used during the old James Bond Film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Here's a picture of the location:

Needless to say the entire experience will be pretty surreal and I'm definitely open for suggestions from those of you who may have traveled Europe before.

3. My friend Tony Gentilcore recently uploaded a brief video explaining the "ideal" foot placement for deadlifting. Given that he discusses what is easily one of the most common mistakes I see (both in commercial gyms and in people entering SAPT for the first time), I thought I'd share it here:

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

SAPT is Moving Today

So it's 615am, and in fifteen minutes I'll be heading to the Magic Kingdom (that would be, the SAPT facility) to join the SAPT crew - along with a few awesome clients/athletes who're helping - to pack up our facility and move it to a new location. We will be doing this ourselves, as none of the moving companies returned our emails/phone calls. I have a sneaking suspicion that part of it has to do with the fact we're a gym. Sarah already gave some details on the new space, HERE, where you can see a few pictures. She has been working her butt off and been doing more "behind the scenes" work than I ever thought would be possible or necessary, so a huge thank you to her for helping us get the new digs!

It goes without saying that this move has been much anticipated. In case you were unaware, up until now we have not had a working HVAC unit, which means no climate controlled environment (yep, I realize this a first world problem, but still...). There are a four things I'm particularly looking forward to:

1) Air conditioning in the Summer. Training in the heat isn't so bad....it's just when you begin filling up the spaces between the keys on the keyboard with your sweat dripping that you know the 105ºF+ degree weather is a bit too hot for office work.

2) Heating during the Winter. Having your fingers stick to the pullup bar is always interesting.

3) Actual office walls. You'd be surprised at how many people feel they can walk, uninvited, into your office and snoop around when you work in a cubicle as opposed to an office with a door. Not to mention, it will be nice to place phone calls without music blaring and weights smashing in the background.

4) The same awesome, warehouse training environment with the concrete walls, no mirrors, and a large bay door.

This should be an all-day event, so, for you office workers in the crowd: If any of you are in the area, and want to help "undo" your day spent in cervical flexion, shortened hip flexors and kyphotic posture, you are welcome to come help. A gold star being the reward for your aid.

And with that, I'm out. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

For future reference, our new address is going to be:

3160 Unit E Spring Street Fairfax, Va 22031

How to Get in a Good Lift on the Road

I’ve noticed a common theme lately with people who have stepped outside the matrix and into a real training facility. It becomes harder to figure out what to do in the gym when they then have to step BACK into the matrix for a quick visit.  Usually this occurs on a vacation/business trip and they have to train at an awful hotel gym or a piss-poor commercial gym for a short period of time. They are left dumbfounded as to what to do when all they find is a sea of useless machines and a bench press to squat rack ratio of 20:1.  Don’t worry that’s why I’m here, to show you how you can make the best of a crappy situation. All in all it’s really not that difficult to get in a good workout at one of these places; we can take advantage of the machines, light dumbbells, and the absurd amount of benches.  Below is a sample workout that I put together that someone could do when they find themselves in the predicament I just described.

A1) DB Bench Press

4x7/side

A2) Goblet Squat to Box

5x8

A3)* Lat Pulldowns

40 reps total

B1) Pushups

3xLeave 2 in the Tank

B2) 3 Point DB Row

4x10/side

B3) BSS

3x9/side

C1) Facepulls

2x20

C2) Plank

2X1 min.

*to be performed throughout entire session

There are three key factors in making this sample day a good off site workout…

1. A lot of volume is always fun when you are on vacation or even a business trip. Excuse my meat headedness but it’s an awesome feeling when you get done with a high volume workout and then proceed to get your George Jefferson walk going on with your shirt off at the beach. Since there probably won’t be that much weight to throw around in the weight room you’re at, take advantage, and get a high amount of volume in. You’re on vacation, have some fun and get your pump on (we all know that’s what your dying to do anyway).

2. Take this time to iron out the movement pattern. Moving heavy weight is the best thing in the world other than a Chipotle burrito. The only problem is as a movement becomes progressively more loaded overtime bad habits can form and technique can falter. So again take advantage of the lighter weight and higher volumes and use this as practice time; groove the pattern of the main lift (in this case a squat) so that when you come back to the real world you can get right back to throwing around weight

3. The third factor is keeping it simple and quick. Whether you are on vacation or a business trip it’s safe to say you don’t have a lot of time to spend in the weight room (unless your Stevo and Kelsey who choose to spend their vacations at a training facility). Don’t try and get too crazy with your workouts and spend all your time thinking about what machine will give you the greatest amount of glute med activation. Just stick with basic movements, get in and get out. This is not the time to program 20 different lifts either; again just stick to the basics.

I hope this helps everyone out who finds themselves in a similar situation.  Whatever you do don’t use business or vacation as a reason not to train!

How to Make Your Own Suspension Trainer

(Note: Updates to the construction process can be found on the second half of this post.) Suspension trainers are a fantastic tool to add to your quiver of training options, especially during travel. They'll never replace the barbell for quality strength training, but they can certainly supplement your routine quite well by providing a myriad options for assistance work.

I've mentioned before how I love to pack a set in my bag, be it for travel or for outdoor workouts, as they take up roughly the same amount of luggage space as a pair of socks, and open up a number of exercise possibilities. However, the primary issue that most people have with them is they cost an outrageous amount of money to purchase from the commercial suppliers.

An easy option here is to simply make your own for a fraction of the cost and have it be just as effective. You can see my homemade model below:

Back in 2009, I filmed a quick video on how to make a great suspension trainer in a matter of minutes, and it didn't take long for it to become extremely popular.

It's actually kind of funny, as I had my sister film the video in my parents' backyard during Thanksgiving. My at-the-time girlfriend (now wife), Kelsey, was GA for a weight training course out in California; she was enrolled in a post-graduate Kinesiology program at the time, and a few of the kids in her weight lifting class wanted to know how I made my own set of suspension straps, as I had got together with a couple friends earlier that Fall to figure out how to build our own. So, I haphazardly threw together a video tutorial on how to make one for her students to watch.

With large thanks to Ross Enamait (of RossTraining.com), the video quickly went viral as he found my video and posted it on his website. You can see his post HERE, where he discusses his experience using my video to make his own, and some of the tweaks he has personally made to make it even more excellent.

If I knew how often it would be looked at (currently it has over 247,000 views), I probably would have spiced up the video a bit, maybe by wearing a Speedo or something. Who knows. Either way, I'm really glad so many people have been aided by it.

Anyway, I realized I've never shared it here on SAPTstrength, so I thought it may be handy for some of you reading that want one in your equipment stash but don't want to spend the money buying it from a commercial supplier.

Here it is, in all of it's low-quality and wildlife-sounds-in-the-background glory:

A Few (Updated) Notes on Equipment and the Construction Process:

1) I now use straps with metal buckles, as they provide a much greater break strength. I personally purchased mine at REI, but Ross gave the great option of purchasing them over at Strapworks.com as they deliver them to many parts of the world and you can easily adjust the length of the strap you want to purchase.

2) I no longer use ropes for the footstraps, but I use part of the actual utility strap to make the footloops; Ross had detailed this idea here. These are much more comfortable than rope for the feet, and also don't untie nearly as easily.

3) The video for how to tie the bowline knot can be found here: How to tie a Bowline Knot

4) Currently, my video has 792 "Likes" versus 11 "Dislikes." Evidently, eleven people in the world are incompetent when it comes to tying knots.

5) Be sure you sand down the edges of the PVC pipe, and/or place duct tape (or some sort of protective coating) over the edges as they (the PVC piping) will wear down the utility straps over time. You can kind of see how I did this in the picture below:

6) Ross has since added a few updates and suggestions on his website, which I think are brilliant and extremely helpful, HERE. He provides some other options for easy-to-make handles, on top of showing the difference between a single vs. double attachment model.

7) In case you don't know who Ross is, shame on you. Here's a fairly recent training compilation of his:

Hope the above tutorial was helpful!

Quick Tip to Improve Your Bench Press: The other 50%+ of the Equation

Note: I believe this is the first time in history that I've specifically addressed the bench press on SAPTstrength. Grab hold of your bootstraps, boys and girls, it's gonna be a weird, wild, and crazy ride. The other day I had an "ah-ha" moment as I was discussing the bench press with one of our clients. He was saying how one of the reasons it took so long for him to figure out (and apply) correct bench press technique was because he was only thinking about the press portion of the lift. This was not only compromising his form, but ultimately limiting how much weight he was able to handle.

See the video below regarding the most common flaw I see in amateur bench pressers, and pick up a quick tip that you can apply immediately to your benching in order help you  receive more from the movement, keep your shoulders healthier, and move that weight around.

A Confidence Booster

I read a great article on EliteFTS the other day which you can find here… A Case for Bullying .  I strongly advise you read it as it really struck a chord with me, although judging by the comments section some readers REALLY missed the point of the article.  Anyways, it inspired my post for this week not really because I was bullied but because of what weight training and powerlifting has done for me and what I feel it can do for younger kids and adults alike. Throughout the entire time I was in school I always had a good bit of friends, I was never the kid who felt so pushed away by other people they had to go eat their lunch in the bathroom (although I can empathize with those kids).  However, in elementary school I was a short fat kid who’s nickname amongst friends was Louie because I looked EXACTLY like the kid from the cartoon show Life with Louie.  Again at no point were people outwardly mean to me about it but I was still really self-conscious about the way I looked.

Onto middle school, once I was here I had lost the fat but gained a crazy amount of acne…. It was gross.  Again, I had a good bit of friends and no one really outwardly made fun of me about it (maybe it was my short temper who knows) but again I was really self-conscious about it.

Onto high school, now I’ve lost the fat, lost the acne, and started doing pull-ups, pushups, and bodyweight squats until it burned.  Only problem was I never really hit that growth spurt I was looking for.  I was standing at a whopping 5’7” on a good day (which I still am today).  Again, nothing that I was teased about but I was really self-conscious about being relatively shorter than a lot of the people I hung out with.

My point is not for you to feel bad for me because I don’t want you too that would be ridiculous.  My point is that all kids or adults no matter what circle of life they come from can feel bad about themselves or that they’ll never measure up to other people.  However, there has to be an outlet for these kids to make them feel better about themselves and be able to gain self-confidence and a way for them to be able to say “I honestly don’t care what you think about me”.  I feel like a lot of parents first instinct is sports which is great and works a great deal of the time.  It gives them an outlet for their aggression, makes them feel part of a team, and teaches them that some days you lose and some days you win.  What about the other kids?  The other kids who end up not making the team and ultimately feel even more isolated.  THEY NEED TO WEIGHT TRAIN!

When I got to college I read Arnold, the Education of a Bodybuilder and there it was the epiphany I was looking for my whole life.  I read that book cover to cover in two days, I wrote down what he ate and how he trained and I did it.  Somewhere along the line my confidence went through the roof, I got bigger and stronger and for the first time in my life I was able to truly not care what other people thought of me.  The only thing I cared about was how to get bigger and stronger.  I was no longer concerned with the people who didn’t matter in my life and their opinions of my clothes, hair, personality, job, etc.

Why did weight training work so well for me in that respect?  Because unlike most things, weight training gives you tangible results all the time; every month I saw myself becoming bigger and stronger and I loved it.  I played basketball my whole life and worked hard it but it was very hard for me to see gains because it was so hard to measure it against things.  But, weight training is something I could track each and every week.

DCIM100SPORT

I know I’ve kind of rambled a bit but the whole point I’m driving at is more kids should weight train and by kids I’m talking about 10 year olds and up.  Please don’t gasp, if you have a problem with 10 year olds weight training; then I have a bone to pick with you at a later date.  Are you concerned with your kid’s well-being and self-esteem?  For that matter are you concerned with your own well-being and self-esteem?  If you are I STRONGLY suggest you start a resistance training program.  I promise that you will be better off for it.

Since high school I knew that I wanted to work with kids in some fashion.  I had a lot of great coaches and teachers that helped me become a better person.  For me the best way to return the favor was by becoming a strength coach and showing kids how to become stronger.  Part of my job is to help kids become stronger and better for their sport.  Honestly though that is NOT my main priority.  My main priority is to help every kid who walks in our doors to feel better about themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally and to truly not care about what someone says about them or thinks about them.

And in case anyone is wondering what i look like now...