Mike irrHead strength and conditioning coach, charlotte bobcats

 

Training is simple if we look at it from the right perspective.  A good friend of mine, Steve Stricker, head athletic trainer for the Charlotte Bobcats, has taught me two simple rules that he uses when he rehabs and trains his athletes that are very applicable to our own training processes:1) Do No Harm 2) Understand that individuals function differentlyI used to think that rule #1 was a pretty easy one!  But with all the travel I do and the many health clubs across the country I’ve trained at, I quickly realized that many trainers and members don’t understand training.  I was reading a research article the other day and came across the following quote attributed to Albert Einstein – “everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.”  Trainers are bad for one of two reasons: 1) they make things way too complicated because they can’t separate good info from bad info or 2) they keep things way too simple because they simply aren’t educated.A “complicated” trainer is like your insecure ex-girlfriend – always over-analyzing everything without checking their facts.  Trainers will read something about bosu-balls in a magazine and from that point on all their clients are balancing on bosu-balls because it “strengthens the core”.  They don’t check the research that shows that “circus training” can actually inhibit strength and power gains.  Not to mention that the same ground based exercises (swings, snatches, clean + presses, etc) used with heavier weight may actually activate core muscles the same amount, if not more.  (For more on this topic, read David Behm’s review on “The use of instability to train the core musculature” in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism – Volume 35, 2010) The “too simple” trainer is like the dumb blonde girl who sat next to you in high school science class.  

 

By the way, I’m blonde, so I can make that joke!  Those girls prefer Us Weekly and People magazine and probably haven’t read anything that would make them smarter since elementary school.  The “too simple” trainers may read magazines like Men’s Fitness when their current training systems get a little old, but to see one pick up a research paper would be unheard of!  Don’t get me wrong, they mean well, are probably good people, and some a really good coaches, but they don’t understand the training process and the science behind our profession.  Whether we train clients or are simply fitness enthusiasts, we never want to put our bodies in jeopardy of missing training time and the best way to do that is to stay educated.  Find good resources to help you get better and pick their brains as much as possible!  I met Jason Novak last May while speaking at a conference in Nashville and he introduced me to Anthony.  I visited Anthony at Art of Strength in Providence for a weekend and it completely opened my eyes to the benefits of kettlebell training with my athletes. When I returned to Charlotte, instead of throwing everything I learned at our players, I looked at their needs and made thoughtful decisions about what movements were most important for them, player-to-player.  

 

This is where rule #2 comes into play – understanding the individual needs of each client.In order to do no harm, we have to understand the people we are working with.  To do that, we need to perform assessments to help us get a better understanding of each client. If we don’t assess, we’ll never know where we stand in our training, and if we don’t know where stand, how can we possibly design programs to make our clients better. We definitely aren’t in the business of keeping the status quo.  Complacency is a terrible disease!Assessments are simply the tests we use to gauge where our performance is at a point in time.  The tests we use depend primarily on what we’re trying to accomplish and they are driven by how God made us physically (height, body type, coordination).  For most of us who are kettlebell enthusiasts, the exercises we perform can be our tests – the snatch, clean + press, and Turkish Get Up.  Those exercises help us identify our weaknesses throughout the entire kinetic chain.  We can figure out where our range of motion is restricted or the movements where we lack strength.  For example, maybe we lack power in the swing phase of our snatch, so we can’t get the speed we need to finish with a straight arm above the head.  Maybe our ankles are tight, keeping us from getting good depth in our squats and we need to add some mobility drills to our training.  

 

Maybe our hip tightness or glute weakness is hurting our ability to shoot our leg back in the TGU so we need to isolate the segment of the movement and practice it.  Accomplishing our goals is great, but having awareness and recognition of our weaknesses may be more important because we can’t accomplish anything without first knowing what we need to improve.Once we’ve discovered the things that we need to improve, it’s simply about planning out a process to get us where we need to be – which was touched on by Jason Novak in his last article. Our programs are simply roadmaps for a successful journey in our training and they are driven by our constant reassessments.  Anthony has always talked about enjoying the journey in both training and our lives and this is no different.  Reassess regularly.  Train smarter.  Train harder.  Good luck! Food

 

In the last Men’s Page we introduced you to the importance of juicing, real juicing, and although the process can be a time consuming one its benefits far exceed any constrictions.  When you think about all the time you waste in the morning waiting for the coffee to brew you could be preparing your food, juicing the ingredients and cleaning your machine.  What else are you going to do?…you’re waiting for the toast to pop!  Creating a fitness culture has as much to do with the food we eat and the way in which we live as it does the training itself. We’re trying to create a lifestyle where everything in someone’s life matters and has meaning.  Today, we’re continuing that effort with an oatmeal recipe that is made the way oatmeal should always be made, with time and the best ingredients.  Instant oatmeal is about as good for you as a breakfast bar with nearly all the potential nutrients being wasted in the “manufacturing” process.  Take a look at the recipe below, gift a shot, and let us know how different you feel. Recipe

 

bring 1-1/4 cups of water to a boil add 1/4 cup of steel cut oatsstir occasionally over medium low heatsimmer uncovered for 20-25 minutesadd honey, walnuts and raisins, EnjoyWorkout

 

 

 

Round 1KB clean and press (Alternative: Vintage Dumbbell C&P)x1 right sidex1 left sidex2 right sidex2 left sidex3 right sidex3 left sideRound 2Pull-ups (Alternative: Bandit’s Loop Row or Renegade Row)x5 (1st set)x4 (2nd set)x3 (3rd set)x2 (4th set)x1 (5th set)Round 3Dips (Alternative: Vintage Floor Dip or Bench Dip)x5-10 (1st set)x5-10 (2nd set)x5-10 (3rd set)x5-10 (4th set)x5-10 (5th set)Round 4Strongman Squat (you choose what you like, refer to MOS #149)x5-8 (each side) (1st set)x5-8 (each side) (2nd set)x5-8 (each side) (3rd set)x5-8 (each side) (4th set)x5-8 (each side) (5th set)Round 5Two Handed Kettlebell Swingx20 (1st set)x20 (2nd set)x20 (3rd set)x20 (4th set)x20 (5th set) Repeat for 30 minutes and add up the amount of weight you moved or lifted. This goes along with the “Resolution” style of training and is the basis for many workouts we do here.  Moving as much weight as you can in a set number of minutes.  Keep time the constant, vary your rest, and work harder to get the job done.

 

check out Minute of Strength #150 to download the full workout

 

 

Everyone knows Stefanie Tropea’s credentials, AOS Trainer, Strongman Competitor, Punch Gym Owner, New Jersey’s Strongest Women 2009, and oh yeah, she holds a Masters Degree in Nutrition too.  Last week she sent us an article , which was actually something she had touched on in one of her Women’s Page articles, about the health benefits and superiority of Chocolate Milk as a post workout drink as well as her training philosophies and more than a few training misnomers.

 

Everyone’s body has training issues of one kind or another. We struggle to do strongman, just as we struggle against pain, cancer, and even conventional thinking.  At the end of the day, for all the mental attitude, it’s you against the dumb tire, you against a stupid rock, and you picking up something heavy.  It’s hard to do.  You have to find the most efficient way, and you have to make yourself strong enough to do it.  What’s the best way to get there?  The first thing to do is to be honest, to challenge assumptions, imagery, and fitness dogma.  For example, at first glance, chocolate milk would seem to be horrible, associated with junk food and sugar sweets. And yet, if one uses sound nutritional principles, low-fat, chocolate milk is a perfect post-workout choice.  In fact, for a long time, it was the only post-workout drink allowed in the NFL.  No, no, no, don’t think you can just start guzzling chocolate milk all day.  But if taken immediately after a workout, the sugar will drive the protein content into the muscles, to replenish and rebuild them.  

 

John Ivy and Robert Portman provide some good information on this and other topics on the timing of nutrition in their excellent book, Nutrient Timing.  The authors dig through nutritional myths by pointing out that it’s not so much what one eats, as when one eats it, and in what combinations.  Just as with working out with kettlebells, good nutrition is about interactions.  The key is to not accept or apply simplistic rules and assumptions about nutrition and fitness.  For example, a common belief is that one should exercise with more reps and lighter weights to sculpt and tone.  This is simplistic and misleading.  The way to “sculpt” and “tone” is to improve one’s strength by working on performance. Appearance comes with serious effort. That is the only way to have visible results.It’s not about isolating a “problem area.”  It’s about working all the muscles interactively, replicating the complexity of human movement.  Working multiple muscles in concert prepares one for all athletic and general activities.  Isolation exercises, like biceps curls, do very little to improve strength and performance.  Try pull-ups instead.Another area of confusion is over the deep squat and whether it harms knees.  It’s too valuable an exercise to dismiss so easily.  In truth, squats strengthen knees and help knees to accomplish what they are, in fact, designed to do.  

 

The squat produces bigger muscles, more muscular control, and stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments.  This is elaborated on by Mark Rippetoe in his readable, if opinionated, book Strong Enough?  Another consideration is that the kettlebell front squat works the abs more than any crunch can do.  Also of particular interest to me are general attitudes about “bulking up” and women.  As some of us know, working out with weights and doing strongman does not need to produce bulk.  Bulk requires testosterone, abundant in men, not women. It causes the difference in how men and women’s bodies react to exercise.  Like everyone, women get the best results when they train for performance.  We workout with kettlebells, not for puffed up bodies, but for health and fitness, in other words, for strength.  That’s why we have to set aside well-known and often repeated fitness dogma, such as some popular fitness magazines regularly spread.  We must get at the truth, complex but fundamental and based upon careful and logical analysis.  The strongman struggle is against ever-increasing weights, against one’s body and one’s mind, against setbacks, and just as much against misconceptions.  It is a struggle to achieve strength, health, and fulfillment, but it can be done.