Random Friday 1-22-10

Today, we're keeping it short and sweet.  I do have a DVD to film tomorrow, after all! :)

Here are my quick hit thoughts for the week:

- Laree Draper wrote up a fantastic review of "Assess and Correct" last week, and I'm just now getting around to posting it.  You can find the review HERE.

-  Speaking of Assess and Correct, there's been more and more great feedback coming in.  If you're still on the fence, you may want to check out the testimonials page from the site.

-  My good friend Mark Young wrote up a fantastic blog post about using EMG for exercise presecriptions.  I love Mark because he's a critical thinker, and willing to look beyond the surface to find his answers.  If you're in the field, be sure to check out his post.

EMG for Exercise Prescription

-  Finally, I did want to take a moment and thank you all for your support.  Not only have you been incredibly supportive of my site and me over the years, but for supporting my recent Haiti endeavor as well.

All in all, we raised $7,700 to help the crisis that's going on in Haiti, and it's all because of people like you! 

That's it for today folks.  Have a great weekend!

All the best

Mike

PS Go Colts!

Comments (1)

The Corrective Strawman

The Strawman

It's easy for someone with little to no experience working with real people to say that "corrective" exercise doesn't work.

It's also easy to do this if you've never seen it in action, or if you've seen it executed by the wrong practitioner.

Naysayers will tell you that corrective exercise is nothing more than some foam rolling, activation work, and maybe some core training sprinkled on top.

This, my friends, is a straw man if I've ever heard one.

The fact-of-the-matter is, all training programs should have an element of corrective training in them.  Some people prefer to do a little bit throughout the year (myself included), while others tend to dedicate 1-2 training cycles per year focusing on the smaller stuff.

The most important thing to remember, though, is that you're only as strong as your weakest link.  This is a consistent theme, whether you're trying to rehabilitate an injury or set PR's in a squat, bench press, or deadlift.

If your glutes aren't strong enough to extend your hips, your deadlift weights (and possibly your lower back) will suffer.

If your scapular stabilizers can't get you in the appropriate position to bench press effectively, the same thing will happen to your shoulders and bench press.

I'll be honest - I, personally, hate the term corrective exercise.  It's kind of like core training; I use it because there's no better term (as of yet). 

Don't be misled - corrective exercise is a lot more than flopping around on the floor for an hour or two a week.  Done correctly, it can help you get healthy, get stronger, or get leaner.

If you'd like to learn more about my thoughts on corrective exercise, check out the link below:

Facts and Fallacies of Corrective Exercise

Stay strong

MR

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Dialing in the 10%

Understanding the Basics

Last week, I was talking with my good friend Zach at IFAST. Zach has not only been a member for the last 7 months, but he's also going to intern there this summer.

Too often, I think the up-and-coming coaches assume that you need to know absolutely everything about coaching. You need to understand the biomechanics, the physiology, how to write training programs, and a host of other things

And while that's all true to some extent, it's not entirely the case.

I remember listening to Dave Tate several years ago, and he alluded to the fact that quite often you'll never use more than 10% of your knowledge base training clients and athletes.

The more I think about that comment, the more I realize how true it really is.

In fact, instead of continuously learning more "new stuff," I feel like we should be more focused on the 10 to 20% of the knowledge that we need to use every single day.

Coaching a squat, lunge, or deadlifts may not be sexy, but it's something that we're going to use daily in the gym.

Writing a basic fat loss program to help somebody lose 20 to 30 pounds of body fat or body weight, as well, isn't sexy. But think about it - how often do we get the chance to take an elite bodybuilder from 6% down to 4%?

Quite simply, it doesn't happen all that often.

When we're talking about the 10%, these are the staple ideas that we use every single day. This could include (but not be limited to) the following:

• Coaching basic exercises.
• Developing and teaching people proper warm-ups.
• Being able to write a basic fat loss routine.
• An understanding of functional anatomy.

Regardless of who you'll train, these basic skills and ideas will come back time and again. 

Now keep in mind, I'm not saying the more advanced stuff isn't important.  I enjoy reading on advanced topics myself, but I also understand that I'm pretty limited when it comes to the application of those topics and ideas.

So while it's not as sexy as you might like, really worked to master the 10%.  You'll be rewarded daily for your efforts.

Comments (0)

The Floor Press

Floor presses with chains

The floor press may be one of the single best bench training exercises known to man that you aren't using in your program.

I'll be honest, I hadn't really used the floor press for many years. It wasn't until I embarked upon a powerlifting specific program in the last couple of months that I put floor presses back into my programs.  For years, they were a staple.

Quite simply, floor presses train many of the areas where we are weak during the bench press.

They take our leg drive and stability out of the equation.

They force us to slow down the lift and pause at the bottom, thus negating the stretch-shortening cycle.  For all you reactive lifters out there (like me), this can make for a brutally tough lift.

And maybe most importantly, we can often use heavier weights in the floor press than we can in the bench press due to the diminished range of motion. While some might look at that as a deterrent, I look at look at it as a positive influence.

Getting heavy weights in our hands often breeds confidence for holding heavy heavyweights down the line. If you've never benched pressed 225 before, the first time you hold it in your hands for a PR attempt can be unnerving.

But, if you're acclimated to that feeling by overloaded exercises such as the floor press, you'll have much more confidence and be much more likely to hit the lift.

For raw lifters, I prefer the basic floor press. If you use gear, you can get a little sexier with your programming by adding chains, bands, etc.. One of my personal favorites when I was training exclusively for powerlifting was band assisted floor presses. This really put a premium on lockout strength, and got me accustomed to holding heavy weights on a week-to-week basis.

The only downside to floor pressing is the setup. Unfortunately, many gyms simply don't have the equipment to effectively floor press. However, even in this case you can still use dumbbells to get some floor pressing.

Including the floor press in your programming can make a profound difference not only in your strength, but in your confidence levels as well.

Give floor presses a shot for the next couple months and let me know what kind of PR's you end up hitting!

Stay strong

MR

Comments (3)