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.

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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

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Q&A: Glute Hams vs. Leg Curls

Leg Curl machine

Mike,

Thanks for sharing this story - very insightful.

\"You know the feeling - the first time you do a glute-ham is like none-other, and you quickly realize that the leg curl machine is pretty much useless.\"

But at risk of incurring your wrath (since you've likely been asked this a thousand times before), do you see leg curls as having a place for any goal at all? For this question, assume that the person is already doing things like GHR's, slideboard leg curls, Swiss Ball SHELC, etc. (not to mention hitting deadlifts hard, using reverse hypers, and all of the other productive stuff lifters should be using at one time or another) and is considering these as something to add on for brief periods of time rather than as a way to avoid doing the "hard stuff".

Not that a top coach using any given exercise is proof of its value, but Charles Poliquin has leg curl machines in his facility, and I am assuming he doesn't have them there simply for the sake of increasing his expenses or having something worthless sitting around the facility.  Furthermore, you're one of those coaches who rarely singles anything out as totally worthless, merely as a tool that may have broad or limited application depending upon the context.  As such, I figured you'd be one of the go-to guys for answering this question.

Thanks!

I get a lot of questions about the differences between leg curls and glute-ham raises, so let's discuss this a little bit further.

One of the key benefits of glute-ham raises is the fact that you can get a co-contraction of the gluteals and abdominals while performing the exercise.  This is similar to a stabilization pattern that we'd like to see in many of our athletes.

In contrast, what we often see are athletes that hang on their hamstrings, hip flexors and lower back muscles to get said stability.

If our goal was to create clients and athletes that utilize proper stabilization patterns, then we need to train those patterns in each and every exercise that we choose. Leg curls are typically performed in a hips flexed position, which only further magnifies these poor stabilization patterns.

A properly executed glute-ham raise engages the core and gluteals (maintaining hip extension), while then utilizing the hamstrings to promote the movement.

To answer your question, there are times when I might consider using the leg curl in a specific client's program. For example, if a client was a bodybuilder, figure athlete, or any sort of physique athlete, their goal may be solely to develop hypertrophy in the hamstrings. In this case, a leg curl may be beneficial.

Remember, if your goal is solely to maximize muscle hypertrophy, machine-based training could be of value. It may not be my first option, but it would definitely achieve their goal of building bigger hamstrings.  When in doubt, remember this simple equation:

More Stability = Greater Primer Mover Activation

In most cases, I would always choose glute-ham raises over leg curls. However, I like to see both sides of the equation and could make an argument for leg curls with clients who have physique-specific goals.

Stay strong

Mike

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