Try Adding Some Humor to Your Day
As of late I have been trying to purge negativity from my life. I am a pretty fun loving guy and joke around a lot but I still feel that I often focus too much on the negative. Most of the time its things I have no control over or things that are 10-15 years in the future that I worry about, stupid I know. With all that said I had the pleasure of listening to Ron Culberson speak the other day; taken straight from his bio "Ron Culberson, is a speaker, author and humorist who helps staff and managers achieve success through the philosophy of Do it Well, Make it Fun." His whole message is to not take life so seriously, especially at work. You can still be extremely successful at your job and in life while not taking it so seriously or being negative. Take a look at the video to get a feel for what Ron's message is all about.
It was funny that at the same time I heard this speech was at the same time I decided to make this change of eliminating as much negativity as I can from my life. One thing that really rang true when listening to Ron speak was he told a story of when he was talking to a terminally ill patient. The patient said "Where does the time go?" His point in telling this story was that time just doesn't fly when your having fun, time flies in general. I don't know about you but that really hit home with me. Our time on this earth is extremely limited and I plan on working hard but be assured I'm going to have fun and joke around while I'm doing it. So enjoy yourself at work today, there is always a day to make the journey funnier.
These guys have the right idea...
SAPT College Baseball Training Testimonials: Red Dowdell, Ryan Dickt, & Kent Blackstone
A number of our athletes are headed off to compete in collegiate sports this year, and three of our baseball guys were kind enough to take a couple moments in order to provide some insight into how training at SAPT has helped them to prepare for the high level of competition they'll be facing this upcoming season. I should also note that what they didn't say on camera is that they are some of the hardest working athletes I know, giving it their 100% each and every single time they walked in the door. A good training program is nothing without the athlete following it through no matter what "life" throws at them outside the gym walls, so I tip my hat to these guys for consistently training with conviction and purpose, and setting a shining example to everyone who's fortunate enough to work alongside them.
Take it away fellas!
Red Dowdell - Virginia Military Institute
Position: Catcher High School (Senior) Honors: First-Team All-Met 2012, National District Player of the Year 2012
(Note: Below is Red hitting a big deadlift PR at the end of in-season training this past Spring)
Ryan Dickt - Patrick Henry Junior College
Position: Catcher High School (Senior) Honors: National District Player of the Year 2012, 2nd Team All-Region
(Note: Below is Ryan performing a ground-to-standing transitional movement drill in preparation for the upcoming baseball season.)
Kent Blackstone - New Mexico State University
Position: Shortstop High School (Senior) Honors: First-Team All Met 2012
Best of luck to all you gentlemen this next year!
Read This! Training Tips from a Toddler
A huge portion of my job boils down to this: teaching adolescents and adults alike how to move with the same precision and excitement that comes inborn for all of us, but that most of us lose over time. Forget about performance or a one-repetition squat maximum… I’m talking about re-teaching the basics of pushing and pulling. It sounds totally cliché, but watching my 2-year old daughter’s development across all platforms is truly a joy for me. I could, of course, talk endlessly about her cognitive development, but I’ll try to exhibit some self-control and keep this limited to the lessons we would all be well served to apply to ourselves in our physical training:
1. Focus: Last week Ryan and I picked up the kids from daycare and were walking home. As we crossed our neighborhood pool’s parking lot, Arabella suddenly shouted “FAST!” and took off running! I laughed to myself and thought how wonderful and meaningful that short exclamation was.
She wanted to run fast, got into the proper mindset, and sprinted. How simple this is! And yet, so often I have to coach athletes in the “how” of getting themselves into this same focused mindset.
2. Go through a full range of motion: Toddlers are notorious for having impeccable squatting form. Part of this is because they’re all built like power lifters (short legs, long torso, and the classic belly), but even after we lose that physique, full-ROM should be the RULE, not the EXCEPTION. You’ll be strong, stable, and have some pretty excellent mobility all around.
3. Pick-up heavy stuff: Arabella walked up to SAPT’s line of kettlebells on Sunday, grabbed a 10-pounder and carried it a few steps. It was definitely heavy for her, but she moved it a few feet and was satisfied.
4. Be athletic: Run, jump, kick, throw. Doing these things every once in a while is fun and inherently human.
5. Show enthusiasm for what you’re doing: Adults who pine all day about going to the gym at night are setting themselves up for failure. Accept that humans are meant to be active and strong. Once you do, maybe you’ll start looking forward to doing something other than being witness to your body wasting away.
The next time I squat, I’m considering yelling out “STRONG!” before the set – I may get a few looks, but I guarantee it would do me some good.
Parental Control
I am fortunate to work with a number of adolescent athletes ranging in age from 10-18. While the adolescent is always my primary client, the parents are often just as important. Parents often struggle with how to help their child maximize their potential, while still maintaining their number one priority, which is to be a parent. I often pass along this article written about Doc Rivers (Boston Celtics Head Coach) and how he has stayed away from coaching his son, Austin (10th pick of the 2012 NBA draft). In the article Coach Rivers said, “I’ve been great. I stay out of it, I give him advice about humility. Other than that ... go play basketball. The coaches will coach you and I’ll be your parent.” If one of the greatest coaches in the NBA can learn how to separate his role as a parent and his role as a coach, then every doctor, lawyer, and businessman/woman should strive to do the same with their children.
Every client I have ever worked with has had parents who show these three characteristics:
- Support: I have never worked with an adolescent client who doesn’t have parental support. The reason my phone rings from a parent is almost always a result of the parent’s desire to support their child. While the motives often vary, the common thread is always support.
- Challenge: Good parents almost always challenge their children to be better. A parent’s job is to teach their child morals, hard work, and to ensure that they don’t settle for anything but their best.
- Embarrass: No matter the age or environment, parents will always embarrass their children in one-way or another. It exists in every parent-child relationship and there’s no way around it. Embarrassment, intentional or not, is a part of being a parent.
With these three characteristics spelled out as “standards” amongst parents, it’s important to figure out which of them a parent should direct most of their attention to.
Support is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child, and that’s exactly what parents need to focus on when interacting with their adolescent athlete. Taking a supportive role and letting the coaches be in charge of challenging the child, will allow the child to enjoy their sport, learn from their sport, and give them the best opportunity to be successful. Coaches inherently are supposed to challenge, so as Doc said, “the coaches will coach, and I’ll be your parent.” So parents should make sure to support, coaches should make sure to challenge, and children will let the parent know they are embarrassing them. Trust me, I told my parents last night.
Are Your Getting the Most Out of Your Squat?
I recently bought the 3rd edition of Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. As I read through it I had a light bulb go on when reading the squat section more specifically when he refers to body positioning based on your chosen bar placement, high bar or low bar. Rip is a huge proponent of the low bar squat (I am as well) however a lot of people find this position extremely uncomfortable so they utilize a high bar, which is perfectly fine. In order to make your squat efficient as possible however, you need to make sure you are utilizing the proper leverages. Rip does a great job explaining just how to do this and what your body position should look like based on your bar placement. I decided to take a very little snippet from the book about this subject and talk about it a little more in hopes of helping your squat out. Please keep in mind this is all referring to a normal free squat with a straight bar, not variations there of (cambered bar, safety squat bar, etc.).
To kind of reiterate the point you can observe the pictures below to get a better feel for body position based on bar placement. For more in depth information I strongly recommend purchasing Starting Strength.
Is Direct Arm Work Necessary for Sculpted Arms?
Today we're going to step a bit away from the athletic performance side of things and touch a toe into the aesthetic department (or vanity, depending on who you ask).
A question that I'm continually asked, by females and males alike, is whether or not direct arm work is necessary to obtain a set of defined arms (for females) or bigger gunz (for males).
Before I continue, allow me to provide the Cliff Notes version of my answer: Direct arm work (or isolation exercises) will not be the difference maker in one's quest for tickets to the gun show. But it can have a time and place.
Moving on....When it comes to direct arm training, people tend to fall into two camps:
#1. "You don't need any direct arm work to develop a head-turning set of arms. All you need to do is squat and deadlift, and your biceps will grow."
#2. "You need to do copious volumes of direct arm training. One full day dedicated to biceps, another entire day for triceps, baby."
The answer, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle. While I'd love to say that #1 is true across the board (I personally find direct arm training quite boring), I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you all you need to do is squat to make your arms grow. This will hopefully be the case in heaven, but I'm afraid a bit more is needed for us earth-dwelling folk.
For the majority, a healthy dose of pulling and pressing heavy, vertically and horizontally, coupled with a sound nutrition regimen, is going to be all that is required during the first couple years of training to watch your arms develop. After you're consistent (three days on, thirty days off doesn't count), then I'd venture to say that a few sets of curls and pressdowns here and there won't hurt things.
After all, you're biceps are going to be involved in any "pulling" exercise (rows, pullups, pulldowns), and your triceps are going to be involved in any "pressing" exercise (pushups, bench press, military press, etc.).
Using a quick example, and at the risk of sounding extremely pompous and foolhardy, I've decided to use myself as a personal testimony to the value of foregoing direct arm training in favor of sticking to compound movements (presses, pulls, squats, deadlifts, and loaded carries). For over three yearsnow, I have performed zero dedicated isolation arm work during my training sessions. Zip. Zilch. Nadda.
Below is a picture I snapped just yesterday.
But before we get to that, you didn't think I could remain serious during a picture of myself flexing, did you? No. I tried, to be honest, but I couldn't take myself seriously giving an arm pose for the camera; you can peruse the innumerable Facebook profile pictures and Bodybuilding.com forums of the boy population to see some of those.
So I decided to spice it up a bit. Ladies and gentlemen, meet my Animagus form, Mr. Bananas. I only partially transformed to illustrate my point:
Now, before all the internet warriors jump in from the confines of their basement computers, let me be the first to admit that I don't consider my arms at all impressive. Are there countless individuals out there with bigger arms than me? Of course. Could my arms be "bigger" or "more defined" if I did include direct arm training into my programming? Probably.
My point that I haven't obsessed over direct arm training for well over a few years, but instead focused on simply training consistently: Pushing things around, pulling things around, carrying heavy objects to and fro on a daily basis, and eating accordingly in order to fuel these activities. And what do you know, my arms have still grown somewhat.
Which brings me to my central points:
Mindset, Priorities and Consistency
1. Mindset
You can walk in to any gym and immediately notice those who have a winning mindset vs. a losing mentality. Those with winning mindsets are training with conviction and purpose, attacking everything from their warm-ups to their working sets like they mean it.
Take those who train with conviction and have lazer-like focus during their ENTIRE time in the gym (no matter if they're doing something as simple as a band pullapart vs. something as complex as a clean+jerk), and compare them with those who lollygag through some curls to pump up before hitting the bars on Friday night, and I don't think I need to explain myself any further.
It's common knowledge that mindset is key with regards to relationships, handling finances, and one's profession; how you go about achieving results in the gym is no different.
2. Priorities
If one only has thirty minutes a day to dedicate to keeping themselves healthy, then obviously he or she should prioritize something like squats, deadlifts, or pullups before bicep curling, correct? You'd think this would be obvious, yes, but you'd be surprised (or maybe not) how many adults I've witnessed rushing into a commercial gym, clearly pressed for time, only to curl away in the mirror for twenty minutes before walking back out the door!
Look, I do recognize that I am biased, as I primarily work the athletic population, and the amount of direct arm work I give them is usually somewhere between 0-5% of their total training volume. (Keep in mind I'm NOT saying that athletes don't need to be doing direct arm work at all because it isn't "specific to their sport"; go ahead and slit the biceps tendon of a NFL running back and tell him to hold on tightly to the ball as he rushes upfield....)
But even if you're just someone who wants to look better: In the end, your choice of including or omitting isolation work for the arms isn't going to make or break your results. Whether you are male or female, prioritize the compound movements, and then treat direct arm work, if you get to it, as bonus material.
3. Consistency
Regarding consistency, you'll rarely notice any progress if you're spotty with your training sessions. The bodybuilders and gym rats who possess the largest and most defined arms did not arrive where they did because they've got the "perfect" or "secret" arm routine (or even steroids for that matter), but because they've been consistent day in and day out.
But what about.....
What about guys with longer arms that never seem to grow no matter what they do? A few sets of curls or tricep extensions at the end of your session could quite possibly help, but also note that there's a MUCH larger picture at hand (Hint: You need to eat more).
What about females that approach me, seeking to tone the backs of their arms? Sure, I may give them a few tricep pressdowns at the end of their session for the "feel" effect, but the results they end up obtaining primarily stem from their efforts in kitchen, and us helping them to focus on (and master) their rows, chinups, and pushups.
As an aside, I do recognize that genetics can play a big role here. For the males out there with long arms, or those of you that may be "skinny-fat ectomorphs," I usually give this recommendation: If you're going to do direct arm work, keep it to ten minutes or less at the end of your session. If and only if you have giving everything you have to the compound movements.
Heck, toss in a 60-second chinup, follow it up with 2 sets of 10-15 reps of EZ curls, and call it a day.
Anything over that won't necessary be doing you any good.
Closing Thoughts
1. When it comes to whether or not you should include direct arm training for better arm development, my answer is typically, "Ehhh, sure. But it's not going to be the deciding factor in your results (or lack thereof)."
2. Mindset, priorities, and consistency are the deciding factors for #1.
3. Remember: Everything you do has the potential to take away from the bang-for-your-buck exercises performed during the beginning of the training session. Your body only has a limited capacity to recover. Let the compound lifts - along with winning on the nutrition side of things - be the primary driving forces behind your tickets to the gun show.
4. Some of my reservations regarding direct arm training lie in the fact that I work with a very broad range of athletes and clientele. A lot of direct tricep work can utterly destroy "old man elbows," and too much direct bicep work for overhead athletes can wreck havoc on the shoulder. Also, I only have a limited time to work with those who train at SAPT (usually less time than that of your average gym rat) so I have to funnel out the things that don't provide the greatest return for investment. Direct arm training usually falls under that umbrella.
5. Yes, I'm an unregistered Animagus. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.
6. I apologize to those of you non-nerds who didn't understand #5.
