Stuff to Check Out: July-s Over Edition
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind month, what with moving into a new house, buying furniture for said house so we weren’t eating off of upside down milk crates, and training a lot of sessions. It’s weird, normally in July a good chunk of my clients take vacations since their kids are out of school, and that’s definitely happened this month, but I’ve also had a small influx of new clients and returning clients,so in the end even though I took the first 12 days off at the start of the month, I’m still going to have trained over 100 sessions, which is pretty cool but didn’t leave a lot of spare time for things like writing here. My bad. I’ll be better in the future. Honest.
That said, I still wanted to bring you some info on some cool things, articles I read and thought were worthwhile, and other coolness from around the interwebz.
1. Workshops
Tony Gentilcore and I are gearing up for our 2015 mini world tour, this time talking about shoulders and hips. We’re going to cover the gambit, from specific anatomical stuff to assessments, how to use those assessments to build a program, corrective options, and conditioning with some big lifts. Essentially, if you have shoulders or hips or both, you’ll get a lot out of this workshop.
We currently have dates in Edmonton August 22-23 (click HERE for info & to register), St. Louis September 26-27 (click HERE for info & to register), Chicago October 17-18 (click HERE for info & to register), and Los Angeles November 14-15 (click HERE for info & to register). Continuing education credits will be provided through the NSCA, and if you have accreditation through other organizations you should be able to easily petition them with these credits.
Additional to this, I’ll be returning to jolly ol’ London, UK October 24-25 to teach Ruthless Mobility and Advanced Core Training in a 2 day fiesta of movement and delayed onset soreness. You can register for both days, or pick the specific one you want of the two, and then enjoy the party. Click HERE for more info & to register.
2. Functional Stability Training Sale
One of the best resources I’ve found to break down the body as it relates to training, Functional Stability Training has 3 distinct modules: Upper, Lower, and Core. These modules are a combination of webinar lectures and hands-on demonstrations that tend to always leave me walking away with a bunch of new lessons and training tools to use with my clients. It’s on sale for 20% off until Sunday at midnight, est, so it would be worth it to pick up for anyone who wants to geek out on anatomy and biomechanics and stuff like that.
What likely won’t be discussed is how many dirty diapers Eric changes on a daily basis, whether Mike can ride all of the roller coasters or not, and if there’s such a thing as a bad meatball recipe.
Click HERE to get more info and pick up your copy before Midnight on Sunday.
3. The 4 Week Power Primer – Eric Bach
This is a new e-book by Eric Bach, a coach who works with all sorts of clients, from athletes to general population, and has written for a lot of very reputable organizations like CNN and T-Nation. He brings a lot of knowledge and experience to the table, and just released his new product, the 4 Week Power Primer this week. It’s a short read, but gives a great understanding on how programming for most clients needs some kind of explosive training, and then lays out a plan to get the best benefits from it in only 4 weeks. For only $10, you can’t go wrong, plus you can see various pictures of him in stages of shirtlessness.
Click HERE for more info and to order your copy
4. Vogue Magazine: More Fiction Than Fact – Tony Gentilcore
Never trust the opinion of a magazine that cites a makeup artist as a scientific resource on the physiological effects of foam rolling. Nothing against makeup artists, but my guess is most of their curriculums wouldn’t cover this. Also, when people are able to charge $495 a session to show someone how to foam roll, it makes me re-examine my business plan. Tony uses his usual blend of insightful commentary, development of conclusions, allcaps outrage, and punchy humour to show how this magazine wrote one of the worst articles of all time.
5. “Workout New York,” New Bravo Reality Show and sign of the Apocalypse
While I’m cynical enough to think that the show was scripted and edited into such a manner as to show how these trainers display their “vicious anger” and claim that they are gods for leading a boot camp class, it’s the antithesis of everything that the fitness industry should be and stereotypes the worst personality elements of trainers out there. Also, if these fine folks are charging $300 a session in New York, I again need to re-evaluate my business plan.
6. New Research From Dr. Stuart McGill’s Lab on Isometric vs. Dynamic Core Exercises
What’s better for core strength improvement: isometric exercises like a plank or a more dynamic method of training with exercises like curl ups or rotational throws to improve core stiffness and stability to handle load bearing, and also would this be better suited for beginners or more experienced lifters or athletes? The study broke participants into naive (no training experience) and experienced (muay thai athletes) and controls, then gave half of the test participants a 6 week program with isometric core exercises, and the other half more dynamic exercises. After the 6 week program, they re-tested their ability to resist bending in all directions and also to respond to sudden impacts.
The biggest changes in range of motion, strength, and reactive abilities came from the isometric exercises, regardless of the experience of the exercise participant. That’s an interesting finding as it could impact how training programs are developed for maximum benefit and reduction of potential risk factors. Maybe planks are more beneficial than previously thought.
7. Survival of the Survivors: The Crossfit Hunger Games – Patrick McCarty on Breaking Muscle
This was an awesome recap of the recent Crossfit Games and how the events seemed to be much more challenging than previous years, much to everyone’s chagrin. Everyone started trumpeting on how Crossfit inherrently causes more injuries, how the technique was failing so bad and looking like there were going to be so many problems, and how it should be banned, stuff like that.
My response echoes the one Patrick shares: no one said it would be easy. Think of people who run an Ironman triathlon, which was designed for the sole purpose of crushing those who participated? How about ultramarathons or the Sahara Desert crossing? The Tour de France just finished 21 days of racing 4+ hours a day with only 3 rest days, sometimes in 100 degree heat or pouring rain, over cobblestones and through steep mountain passes, yet no one’s coming at them and saying it’s too hard. Maybe the purpose of the Games was to test the participants ability to finish, not simply give a medal for showing up and participating? If you want to claim the hilariously ridiculous title of “Fittest Human on Earth” you’d better earn it in a trial by fire.
Alright folks, time to get back to work. Have yourself a great weekend, and to my Canadian friends, enjoy the long weekend!!
