SO I’m back after a fantastic week in the mountains with the Missus on our Honeymoon, and I have to say it was a blasty blast. Since neither of us are much for sitting and staring, we wanted to make it the most fun and active week we could.
We did a massive mountain bike ride from Banff to Canmore, through the Nordic Centre (where they did the cross-country skiing from the 88 Winter Olympics) and then back again, totaling about 70 km.
We then played a round of golf at Silvertip, which was Lindsay’s first 18 hole game in ever, and my second in the week. Although I’m terrible, I suck a lot less after that week, and am closing in on shooting under 100. I figure another 10 or 20 rounds and I should be good enough to legitimately say I suck.
Last, we did a hike through Lake Louise
So in spite of the fact that we didn’t necessarily “workout” in a typical sense, we had a big calorie-burning week. That, and the complete lack of bear sightings means that I couldn’t break it down Predator-style with my bear spray and lay out a grizzly like Jebediah Springfield on the Simpsons. I also discovered a lot of people hike with ski poles, and look completely ridiculous while doing so.
Since this was both of our first vacations of the year, we wanted to really enjoy it and sleep in, eat some good food, you know, forget about schedules altogether. Normally when people take a vacation and completely change their routines, weight gain occurs. In my case, I managed to gain only 1.5 pounds in the past two weeks, full of wedding cake, adult beverages, and restaurant food. Not too shabby. I also had some help from aggressive chipmunks who thought my Cliff bar was a bit too carb-heavy for the current plan.
So now it’s back to reality, which means helping people become consistently more and more awesome by the minute. No big deal. With this new start back up at work, I’m planning some testing on my clients, new programs, and other progression analysis, so it will definitely be a back-end heavy (giggle) work week. On top of that, I head out to Toronto on Thursday to attend the canfitpro National Conference, at which I’ll be presenting on Developing Medical Referral Networks for Fitness Professionals. If you’re going to be in the area, shoot me a message!!
On top of all this, last week was the initial launch of Muscle Imbalances Revealed: Upper Body, which had some great success and fantastic feedback. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to pick up your copy, and if not, you’re completely banned from my Christmas card list.
While we were in Banff for the week, I picked up a copy of the new book The Psychopath Test, which I have to say is probably on my top 5 books list of the year if I actually had such a list. I love reading about psychological sciences and application, seeing as how I work directly with a lot of different types of people each day and want to try to understand them all to help them the best way possible.
This book kind of opened my eyes to how some people just like to watch the world burn, and how there may be a disproportional percentage of those kinds of people in positions of power. Interestingly, a lot of the research on psychopathic traits was done in Canadian correctional institutions, and some of the case studies used were popular news feeds that I can actually remember watching over the years. I know, I know, maybe not the best honeymoon reading, but hey, I know how to party!
The downside with the book was that I found the author to be somewhat self-absorbed, repeatedly telling the reader how after taking a course on traits of psychopaths, he had the power to spot them and sleuth them out. Sort of like how some trainers take an on-line certification and call themselves experts, right? That being said, he did make some unique connections, sought out a lot of different opinions, and asked some pretty interesting questions, so it made the book a definite page-turner. I managed to finish off the entire thing in about three days. In all, it’s a really good read, so get a copy for yourself by clicking HERE.
Tomorrow, we’re going to look at something new and really cool, so tune in!!
Before we get into the post, though, I have to tell you that today is the final day of the early bird sale for Muscle Imbalances Revealed, and Rick has thrown in a few extra goodies for anyone who buys the set today. The biggest ones include such tidbits of awesome like:
Free access to a teleconference with the MIR creators. Feel free to ask whatever the hell you want, and listen to a bunch of guys try to sound smart about training!
Free CEC’s for all your professional organizations. You know as much as I do, CEC’s are a pain in the butt to try to accumulate, so freebies are always fantastic.
The freebies are the kind that Rick could easily sell for a tidy profit, but he’s a quality guy and wants to build the value of MIR even more!! Seriously, for $77 dollars, you WON’T find a better deal on an information product anywhere, so pick up your copy HERE. The sale ends tonight at midnight. Muah-ha-ha!!
And now, on to Jeff’s guest post, on why your mobility is crap and you haven’t seen a change in performance since the Clinton years.
Reason #5. You Guessed
While many of your clients probably display both upper and lower crossed presentations and would likely benefit from the same exercises that help 80 % of people in your gym, it is still important to first assess and analyze their needs. Speaking specifically of movement quality and not of performance gains, it is paramount that you, as a professional, owe it to your client to open up the hood and figure out what’s up. Whether you use the FMS, Assess and Correct, Charlie Weingroff’s assessment in Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training, or some other assessment tool, you need to find and address those key links that will take your clients to the next level. So stop guessing.
Reason #4. You Ignore Soft Tissue Work
There’s so much talk about fascia these days that you probably get excited every time you get home from the grocery store and skin your chicken.
Well, stop ignoring the research and get your clients some soft tissue work. This can be in the form of regular visits to the massage therapist, a referral to an ART or Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization practitioner, or a $25 foam roller.[Note from Dean: or step up to the best of the best with a Travel Roller, and see what a bit of extra duckets can get you.] Just get them to do it and do it regularly. So consider it your body’s toothbrush.
Reason # 3. You’re using the wrong exercises
If you still think an abdominal crunch is a stability exercise, think again. It may indeed be an ab exercise, but it certainly isn’t a stability exercise and you certainly haven’t read Dean’s “anti-abs” post. I’ll admit, finding the right exercises for each of your clients isn’t a simple process but just like #5 above, you really need to be individualizing your programs. And individualizing your programs often means staying up to date with the most effective exercises. While the existing research may help you understand which exercises are most effective, I understand that you may not have access to this research. So in this case, you’ll need to pull out your filter and scour the internet. Wait, let me do it for you. Click on this link
Reason #2. You haven’t tried loaded stretches
Have you heard of Pavel Tsatsouline? Well you have now. The first time I worked with a Russian Kettlebell Certified (RKC) instructor, he asked me why I performed some mobility work prior to training. I gave him my reasons but he countered with loaded stretching. While I still like my reasons, I really enjoyed his as well. And hopefully you’ll enjoy this
Reason #1. Your client doesn’t have respiratory control
In my opinion, respiratory control is one of the most important key links to improving both motility and stability gains in any exercise program. And gaining respiratory control is essentially training your body to own the exercise. Clicking on “save” if you will.
With Day 2 of the Muscle Imbalances Revealed initial launch, I wanted to share a quick Q & A with one of the contributors, Tony Gentilcore. I’ve interviewed Tony in the Past, and it was definitely a shelling of knowledge bombs and a dash or two of humor. Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body is on sale for this initial promo until tomorrow evening at midnight, so be sure to check it out and pick up your copy now before the price doubles.
So what’s Tony have in store for us today? Read on and find out!!
1. So I know you’ve been seriously thinking about putting out an info product for a while now. What made you decide to partner up on this one??
TG: Well, a few reasons, actually:
1. As a coach, I spend the majority of my days trying to get people to leave their “comfort zones.” As creatures of habit – and because it’s human nature – we tend to gravitate towards what’s easy and what we’re good at. Using exercise as the obvious example: we all know of THAT one person at our local gym who’s been doing the same exact routine week in and week out since 1996. You know who I’m talking about: it’s the same guy who’s been walking around with the same issue of Muscle and Fiction for past decade and is still sporting the discman – most likely rocking out to some Hootie and Blowfish. How’s that for some nostalgia!
When I first came into the industry, the internet was still, well, kinda new (I know, I’m dating myself here), and the whole interwebz marketing bonanza was no near the juggernaut it is today (for better or for worse). For all intents and purposes, my days were generally filled with waking up, heading to work to train clients, doing some reading here and there, talking to hot chicks online, watching 90210 re-runs, and eating beef jerky. Yeah, I was pretty cool back then. Somewhere along the way, as I gained more experience working with various clientele, and as I started to do more and more reading, I started to realize that I had a lot that I wanted to say and started writing articles.
At first, I wrote for free – just to get my name out there; and eventually, I was fortunate enough to catch the eye of TC Luoma (of t-nation.com), and started writing for them. This eventually led to me starting my own blog (NEWSFLASH: if you’re reading this right now and you happen to be a fitness professional, and you don’t have a blog or website, you’re an idiot), which, as the years have passed, has grown to be fairly popular.
I say all of this because as I alluded to above, like everyone else, I like being in my comfort zone. I’ve been content with helping to grow Cressey Performance (of which I’m one of the co-founders); writing articles for publications like t-nation, livestrong.com, and Men’s Health; growing my personal business (blog, online coaching, etc); and yes, still watching 90210 re-runs. Don’t judge me!
Having an “online presence” and being considered somewhat of a big deal, it was only a matter of time before people would start asking when I was going to hop on the fitness product bandwagon – which, I’ll be the first to admit, has been humbling. I mean, it’s always flattering when people go out of their way to say how much they enjoy something you wrote and that the start their day by reading your blog, and that they love your work in general. Who wouldn’t love that? It’s an awesome feeling.
So, it’s only been within the past year (or two) that I’ve been receiving more and more inquires from people asking when I was going to write an ebook, produce a dvd, or give away my trade secrets for having abs that could deflect an oncoming Mack truck. I’ve been resistant to it, thinking to myself (in typical TG fashion) that I’m just not ready for that yet; I’m not that “big time.”
But, then I got to thinking: there’s a lot of douchy people out there putting out some real dog shit (ie: bad) products that people are buying. What’s more, I have student loans I’m still paying off, I want to someday own something, so “fuck it,” I said to myself. “It’s time to put my big boy pants on, stop being a cottenheaded ninny muggins (name that movie reference?), and put something out there that can (and will) actually help people.”
2. Of course, however, I just didn’t want to jump in gun’s a blazing. My compromise was to try to partner up with someone and kind of get my feet way so-to-speak. Fortunately, Rick (Kaselj) happened to email me out of the blue asking me if I’d be interested in contributing to MIRU. I’m not gonna lie – there WAS a small part of me that was hesitant to say yes, but you emailed me and basically said “dude, you’re doing it,” and so, here I am. You’re my boy, Dean!
3. And lastly, I’m awesome – I just came to the conclusion that people need a little more Tony G in their lives.
2. You’re doing a presentation on Corrective Strategies for Overhead Athletes and Meatheads. First, love the title. Second, what are the three big take-aways from this seminar you think everyone should be able to walk away with and put into use
TG: When Rick originally contacted me to take part in the product, it took me all of 3.2 seconds to figure out what the first presentation would be on. As a former collegiate baseball player myself (1998 Division II Player to Watch, thank you very much) at Mercyhurst College, I look back at how I used to train and basically wish I had a Flux Capacitor somehow handy so that I could go back in time and scissor kick myself in the face. My god, some of the nonsense I used to do just makes me cringe. Bicep curls the day AFTER a start? Five mile runs 2-3 times per week? Really, Tony? Really?
Anyhoo, one of the reasons why I love my job so much (other than the fact that I can wear sandals) is that I have the ability to teach kids what NOT to do. More specifically, we train a lot of baseball players at Cressey Performance. And by “a lot,” I mean roughly 85% of our clientele are baseball players, so it only made sense that I’d go into at least some detail on how we go about training our guys (and girls). Moreover, I didn’t want to limit it to JUST the athletes – as we train quite a few weekend warriors and “meatheads” at the facility, too.
To that end, a few things I feel people will walk away with are:
- No matter what, you can ALWAYS train around an injury. I’ve noted this in the past, but I don’t care if you’re in a full-body cast, we can still find something to train. I’ve never bought into this whole “just rest” mentality that the primary care community has opted to embrace. More specifically, as it relates to this particular presentation, I discuss how to program around a few common shoulder pathologies that re common in the overhead athlete (and meathead) population: namely, shoulder impingement, and AC joint issues.
- “impingement” is basically a garbage term that many fitness professionals tend to throw around to either sound smart or because they have no idea what the heck they’re talking about.
- you’ll also walk away with some pretty cool corrective exercise protocols you can use to better setup your athletes and clients for long-term success.
3. Seriously, how many times did you make reference to Star Wars, Harry Potter, or nerd-gasmic stuff like that?
TG: I’d say the over/under is somewhere between the total # times George Lucas made me vomit in my mouth with all his cheesy dialogue between Anakin and Padme and # of times Harry used his Patronus spell in The Prisoner of Azkaban.
4. In the last instalment of the series, we had a lot of physios, chiros, and athletic therapists as well as trainers and the average meathead pick up a copy. With respect to your seminar, “Corrective Strategies,” who do you think will benefit the most, and why?
TG: Great question! Ideally, I’m hoping to “spread my wings” and hopefully appeal to a fairly broad spectrum of fitness professionals. if I had to pick one demographic, though, I’d say I’d really like to make an impact on new trainers coming into the industry. As I noted previously, while I’m in a special circumstance personally given I have the opportunity to train a lot of athletes on a day-to-day basis; there’s a reason why I included “meatheads” into the mix too. Not to rub it in or anything, but not everyone is spending their days training professional athletes, and that’s cool! There’s a lot to be said for working with the general population and having a profound influence on their daily lives.
As trainers, we’re ALWAYS working with people who are either banged up or well on their way, and I’d like to think that whomever watches that particular presentation will walk away with a better understanding of how to not only recognize and properly screen/assess their clients, but have the wherewithal to actually write an effective program to get them better.
Take for example, shoulder impingement. What the heck is impingement anyway? What’s the functional anatomy that’s involved? How does someone develop impingement? How can you differentiate between the TYPES of impingement? More importantly, how would you go about writing a program for someone with internal impingement as opposed to external impingement? Trust me: there’s a lot more to it than just showing someone some simple band exercises.
5. Everyone builds a seminar to try to get a specific reaction from a specific sub-set of the population. For instance, doing my two seminars I wanted to get a little “shock and awe” going from personal trainers and get them testing out some of the stuff I showed the next day on themselves and on their clients. What reaction did you want to get and from whom?
TG: I’m pretty much on par with you, actually. Except in my case, I was shooting for less “shock and awe” and more of a “Wow, Tony is so smart, I really want to hang out with him some day” kind of thing.
In the end I’m just really excited to help people out. I don’t claim to be a Mr. Smarty Pants or anything; nor do I claim to have all the answers, but I do have a sincere hope that people walk away with some practical advice that they can use the following day with themselves and their clients. At the end of the day, any way I can “Pay it Forward,” and somehow make the industry better, I’m pretty happy.
6. So how close are you to hitting that 600 deady you’ve been shooting for?
TG: Lets break it down like this: I’m about as close to deadlifting 600 lbs as I am to making out with Alicia Keys. Okay, maybe a little closer than that, but you get the jist. Unfortunately, I’ve had to put that plan on the back burner for a little bit due to some funkiness going on with my back. I’m sure I’ve got some significant (product plug alert) imbalances going on, but I’ve also come to the conclusion that standing around on hard, rubber matting for 6-8 hours per day coaching isn’t doing me any favors. Too, I know that when I’m consistent with my soft tissue work (foam rolling, ART, etc) – and I haven’t been consistent with it lately – that that makes all the difference in the world.
Also, sometimes, I just need to freakin practice what I preach. I wrote a quick blog post a few weeks ago discussing why it’s pretty much impossible to CONSISTENTLY deadlift heavy on a weekly basis and expect to make progress; elaborating on how the stronger you are, and the more neurally efficient you are, you’re just going to beat the body down at some point. To that end, I made an executive decision to lay low on the deads for the time being, and hopefully come back with a vengeance in the near future. In the meantime, though, I’m still kicking ass and taking names.
Thanks for giving some feedback on your approach to this product, Tony!! To find out more about Tony’s seminars as well as those by Rick Kaselj, Dr. Jeff Cubos, and the smokin hot dude with the best hair in fitness whose blog your reading right now, check it out by clicking HERE. It’s on sale for $77, and going up in price to $147 come Thursday evening, so get your learn on, and order your copy today!!
Well, it’s finally here. Muscle Imbalances Revealed: Upper Body, the follow-up sequel to Muscle Imbalances Revealed: Lower Body is now ready to completely blow everyone’s minds and make you think about training, rehab, and performance in a completely different light.
To give you a quick overview, this is an educational product that features 8 webinar-based presentations from such presenters as Rick Kaselj, Tony Gentilcore, Dr. Jeff Cubos, and this guy sitting here on his honeymoon. While you’re reading this, I’m probably already half-way up a mountainside in Banff National Park, so today is a good day, folks.
As some of you may remember, I wanted to have a little contest to help celebrate this monumental occasion. The response was great, and I have to say there were a few people who went above and beyond in their creative marketing approach to help spread the word for this upcoming launch. The MC at my wedding even gave it a quick plug during his speech at my wedding reception on Saturday, which had everyone busting up laughing. I also have to give a shout out to Fotis Chazinicolaou’s efforts for coming up with this little beauty:
Combine this with the fact that he cross-promoted Muscle Imbalances like no other, and it’s clear to see why Fotis was the big winner of the contest that includes both Muscle Imbalances Revealed: Upper Body AND Lower Body, a half hour phone consultation with yours truly, and a special mystery gift that I’ll talk about in a second. Congratulations Fotis!!
The other two big winners were Matthew Paladino for sparing a puppy’s life, and Kartik Vyas for pushing the “helping others” angle in trying to prevent injuries on the job-site. Great work guys!!
Now the special “Bonus Prize” winner. As mentioned before, the MC at my wedding threw down the gauntlet and promo’d this sumbitch in front of my entire extended family, friends, and clients, which has to go down in the annals of “Dude with the Most Balls” award. So as a result, Ed Picard wins the bonus gift. For all four winners, drop a comment below and I’ll email you for details.
The Bonus Gift
I wanted to throw in something that everyone reading this could get some use out of, whether they knew their ass from their acetabulum, or whether they thought biceps were people who liked both boys and girls. So I contacted Adam Wood in Calgary, the inventor and CEO of Travel Roller, and he agreed to throw in some goodies for the winners of this promo. So everyone who won will get a free Travel Roller kit in their mail in the coming weeks!!
I’ve used the same roller on a multiple-times daily basis with myself and my clients since 2007, and finally decided to get another one. Trust me, these things are worth the investment.
The cost for the entire packaege will be at a reduced rate until August 11th, going for $77 instead of $147, so get in while the getting is good!! Since I’m officially on my honeymoon, I don’t want to work too much. So I’ve asked the other contributors to talk about Muscle Imbalances Revealed, and first up is Rick Kaselj, the dude who put the whole thing together. I sat down with Rick and asked the hard-hitting questions, sort of like John Stossill from 20/20 back in the 90′s.
Dean – Okay Rick, most people know who you are but for the people who don’t know, let them know. Keep it brief.
Rick – My name is Rick Kaselj. I am personal trainer and Kinesiologist in Surrey, BC, Canada. I specialize in designing exercise program for people with injuries. I share my tips, tricks and exercise with other health and fitness professionals through my course, manuals, books and blog.
Dean – Tony calls you the “Mastermind” behind Muscle Imbalances Revealed, where did that title come from?
Rick – It is Tony, he is always stirring things up.
I have a tough time calling myself the “Mastermind.”
I try to stay active in the rehab, training and performance world. I am always looking to see what people are doing and trying to learn from them. The cool thing now is so many amazing people have blog so it is very easy to get great information with new ideas and exercises.
With all of those leaders out there, I try to network with them and get to know who they are.
Dean – Okay, so lets take a step back, where did this idea of Muscle Imbalances Revealed come from?
As a fitness professional, I am always looking for ways to help my clients out. This lead to going to all kinds of seminars, courses and conference.
When I tapped out with what was around me, I headed off to do my Masters degree where I focused on exercise rehabilitation and corrective exercise.
It was very cool to learn all the great new stuff when it came to corrective exercise over the internet via video presentations.
I started using the stuff with my clients and getting better results with my clients but I was still missing a few pieces.
One thing I learned while doing my Masters was looking at and reading the research. I did that and found that one of the things that I was not spending enough time on was addressing muscle imbalances. When it comes to traditional corrective exercise, there are four factors but what I found there were 10.
That is where the focus on muscle imbalance came from.
Now moving to Muscle Imbalances Revealed.
I would like to think that I know it all but I don’t. It is impossible for any one person to do it all.
I wanted to put together a group of people who were experts in their area and had unique backgrounds. Then have them share their tips, tricks and exercises when it comes to addressing muscle imbalances that affect rehab, training and performance.
That is how Muscle Imbalances Revealed was born.
Dean – Why did you pick guys like Tony Gentilcore, Dr. Jeff Cubos and some schmuck name Somerset to be part of the program?
Rick – Like, I mentioned above. I was looking for people that are experts in their area and have a unique background.
Lets look at each of the guys.
Tony Gentilcore is a performance guy. He helps overhead athletes perform better. Since the focus of Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body Edition was the upper body, I needed Tony. Plus the guy is one of the key coaches at Cressey Performance. Who does not went to learn some of the secrets from that performance success machine?
Dr. Jeff Cubos is a bit under the radar. Many will have no idea of who he is but I have been reading his blog, talking to him on the phone and exchanging emails. This guy is an education vacuum. He is flying all around the world to learn from the best clinicians, therapists, trainers and coaches.
I think this year he has been to Toronto, Texas and Prague to learn from the best. I know he is up to date on the newest techniques out there plus he has such a great grasp of rehab and performance that I know he would have some great things to share with exercise enthusiasts and health & fitness professionals.
Now to that Somerset guy. We had chatted over email and we were presenting at the same conference a few years back. We did not meet but we kept in touch. We talked on the phone and you had amazing information to share. Then you wrote some articles for my blog and they were great. It is very cool that you now have your own blog and are sharing all that info all the time. Just from talking to you, your writing and blogging, I knew you would have some great information to share when it came to rehab and training.
Rick – The contributors alone are very impressive but what makes MIRU so awesome is it full of tips, tricks and exercises to help your clients and yourself improve your rehab, training and performance results.
You have Tony sharing his overhead performance tips and the training blunders he sees.
Jeff highlights breathing which we all know is important but don’t know how to do it right and integrate it into exercise which Jeff shows you plus he clarifies when specific soft tissue techniques should be used.
Dean, you expand on fascia and how to exercise the fascia, which is so cool. Plus you provide a great core training continuum from rehab to performance.
I highlight some stuff on the shoulder and neck.
Other cool things about MIRU is:
- you get it right away, no need to wait for anything in the mail
- you can earn CEUs, CECs and PDC
- you can watch it all on your laptop, iPad or iPhone
It is a very cool way of learning cutting edge information in a really easy way.
Tomorrow, Tony Gentilcore will wow you with tales of Harry Potter, Star Wars, and how Meatheads can learn about how to train to get their swole on without screwing themselves up even more. In the meantime, get your greasy mitts on a copy of Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body today and be the coolest of all your friends. Then get new friends who are even cooler, because no one likes hanging out with losers.
So in spite of the fact that we didn’t necessarily “workout” in a typical sense, we had a big calorie-burning week. That, and the complete lack of bear sightings means that I couldn’t break it down Predator-style with my bear spray and lay out a grizzly like Jebediah Springfield on the Simpsons. I also discovered a lot of people hike with ski poles, and look completely ridiculous while doing so.
So now it’s back to reality, which means helping people become consistently more and more awesome by the minute. No big deal. With this new start back up at work, I’m planning some testing on my clients, new programs, and other progression analysis, so it will definitely be a back-end heavy (giggle) work week. On top of that, I head out to Toronto on Thursday to attend the canfitpro National Conference, at which I’ll be presenting on Developing Medical Referral Networks for Fitness Professionals. If you’re going to be in the area, shoot me a message!!
While we were in Banff for the week, I picked up a copy of the new book The Psychopath Test, which I have to say is probably on my top 5 books list of the year if I actually had such a list. I love reading about psychological sciences and application, seeing as how I work directly with a lot of different types of people each day and want to try to understand them all to help them the best way possible.
The downside with the book was that I found the author to be somewhat self-absorbed, repeatedly telling the reader how after taking a course on traits of psychopaths, he had the power to spot them and sleuth them out. Sort of like how some trainers take an on-line certification and call themselves experts, right? That being said, he did make some unique connections, sought out a lot of different opinions, and asked some pretty interesting questions, so it made the book a definite page-turner. I managed to finish off the entire thing in about three days. In all, it’s a really good read, so get a copy for yourself by clicking HERE.
