Beware of Rehab!

During my time as an exercise professional, I’ve encountered many people who were rehabbing joint problems and/or were considering doing so. And based on what they tell me they think they should do, or what they’ve been told to do, etc, I’ve encountered some really bad information.

The misinformation is usually due to vast oversimplifications of human movement that although well intentioned, don’t tell the whole story and therefore are unlikely to illicit the results that are sought.

We’ll use the shoulder for discussion’s sake. The shoulder, specifically the rotator cuff, is a highly complex area that’s very susceptible to dysfunction. Many people have had shoulder issues that have lead to the physical therapists’ office, health magazines and/or websites, or solicitations of advice from friends or colleagues who have had shoulder problems.

More often than not, the simplistic view is to simply look at how the rotator cuff moves and then train it to do that movement. We know the rotator cuff can externally rotate your shoulder (turn it back in non-biomechanical nomenclature). Following this logic, the patient is usually told to do some version of the internal/external rotation with the elbow pinned to the ribcage while holding a rubber tube in the hand.

Cute smile. Stupid exercise.

This is what the rotator cuff does right? It externally rotates the shoulder, right? So by adding some resistance like a band and turning my arm in and out, I’m strengthening my rotator cuff, correct?

Not really. Stay with me…

The rotator cuff CAN turn the shoulder out, but that’s not really what its job is. It’s really supposed to hold the shoulder in its socket during use. When you reach, grab, push, pull, lift, etc. your rotator cuff is supposed to squeeze the hell out of the top of your arm to hold it in place so the bigger muscles in the arm, chest and back can do the lifting.

The best analogy to use is to compare it to the wheels on your car. Imagine you had a problem with one of the wheels on your car. You take it to a mechanic, and the mechanic does whatever mechanics do to fix the wheel. He then puts the car on a lift and lifts it in the air and spins the tires. He then says to you: “Your wheels are fixed. They spin fine.”

Your response would be, “I can see they spin, but THAT’S NOT REALLY WHAT THEY DO. I need them to support the cars weight on the ground, I need them to stop, start, turn, go over bumps, etc.” Only when the mechanic showed you the wheel worked under those conditions would you trust his diagnosis.

Same thing goes with your shoulder, or any joint for that matter. Grabbing a tube and moving your hand back and forth to fix your shoulder is like putting your car on a lift and spinning the tires. Yes, your shoulder CAN do that, but that’s not how you’re going to use it. (Skeptical? If you ever do that motion with the tubing in real life let me know.) Therefore rehabbing it in a way that it will rarely if ever be used is ineffectual at best.

Using it in the manner it’s supposed to be used in a total body training sense is the only way to rehab it efficiently. Grab things, lift things, move things using functionally efficient total body mechanics.

My 2nd Most Important Lesson:

I was watching the local news this morning for the regular “fitness” segment they run. Generally, the segments are amusing depending on what silly mechanism the reporter is telling us about, how we should try it, yada yada yada…Typically she interviews some “expert” who proceeds to give out erroneous information and generally bad advice. (Except for the time over the summer when they interviewed some guy and his client about swinging kettlebells – THAT was cool:)

Anyway, today’s segment was about flag football. They showed a bunch of twenty somethings playing that were clearly still harboring anger from being cut from the real football team 10 years ago. One of the guys proclaimed he uses flag football to “Get my workout in…” and the reporter claimed “It’s a great way to exercise…”. She then jogged about 7 feet and caught a football to demonstrate.


Me: “Whew! That looks tiring! Better sit down and stretch after THAT!”


As usual my cynicism and caustic nature forced me to poke fun at the situation, but it did remind me of a very important lesson I learned a while ago. It’s a lesson that many people still haven’t learned and unfortunately it’s keeping them from reaching their exercise goals. I call this my 2nd most important lesson I learned in the exercise world. If you missed my most important lesson, check the blogroll to the right when you’re done reading this.


My 2nd most important lesson learned is:


The terms “exercise”, “sports” and “activities” are NOT synonymous.


Unfortunately, many (most?) people use the terms interchangeably, which is a big mistake if you’re seeking the benefits of one but performing the others.


A sport is something done for competition.


An activity is done for personal enjoyment.


Exercise is performed to improve physical function.


Biking, yoga, jogging, karate, tennis, etc. are NOT exercise. They are sports where there is a competition aspect between or among the participants, or they are activities with some other goal in mind such as fun, emotional improvement aspects, etc. Their goal and purpose is NOT improvement of physical function.


This confuses people sometimes because there are residual side effects with the above activities that lead people to assume what they are doing is in line with their goals. For example, you will develop power if you train in karate – but what if power development isn’t your exercise goal? Or even if it were, there are probably more efficient ways to develop it.


If you jogged, you may improve your aerobic capacity – but what if that’s not the goal? And even if it were, there are countless more efficient, safer ways to go about it.


Taking yoga to relax? Great choice. Taking yoga to improve strength or flexibility? Bad move.


Why is this a big deal? It may not be. But if your exercise related goals are one thing, performing an activity that may not be addressing your needs and areas of weakness although possibly fun, may also be taking you away from doing what you should be doing to improve. Your sport or ativity may also be directly keeping you from getting the benefits you want when you’re exercising.


More importantly than that, these activities are also increasing the chance of injury as well. Injuries can always occur, but in a reasonably controlled setting where competiton is not an issue and improvement is the only goal, injuries are far less likely. If the goal is winning, considerations about posture, form, speed of movement etc take a back seat and injury whether it be acute or chronic becomes more likely. And as I’ve asked 10 million times: How good is your exercise program going to be because you’re skipping workouts due to injury?


Actually in the TV piece I mentioned above, they showed one of the guys wearing a splint on his thumb. If this guys’ goal was to improve upper body strength, he just decreased his chances of getting there because he thought football was his “cardio” day and “exercise”.


Of course, I’m not saying any of the above are bad choices if your goals are different – they’re just not exercise. If your goal is improved physical function, then you need to be exercising with that in mind. You should be training with the intention of improving your bio-mechanics, your metabolism, etc which typically lead to improvements in other aspects of your life if the exercise is done correctly.


Exercise is movement with the intention of improving health. The specifics of that may vary from person to person, but that's what dictates the programming.


Sports and activities are exactly what their names imply: movement with some other goal in mind. Again, going this route isn’t a bad thing – there’s nothing wrong with the aforementioned activities. It’s just not exercise and therefore won’t get you closer to your exercise related goals. Just be clear about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.


And don’t listen to the twenty-something with hidden resentment when he tells you it’s a good way to “…get your workout in…”. Dangling prepositions aside, it’s also poor advice.

The Goblet Squat

I always hated the goblet squat. It just never felt right. I’m big on needing to know what an exercise feels like and what my clients are going to experience before I start programming it into their sessions. Every time I tried this stupid exercise, it didn’t work for me.

This is NOT a goblet squat:

I only kept trying it over and over because trainers I know for whom I have a ton of respect always preached the goblet squats’ effectiveness to be used with all populations. All I got out of it was a general sense of discomfort and unpleasantness without the benefit of feeling progress in any aspect of strength, stability, mobility, etc. So out the window it went…

Until the little light bulb went on over my head, that so often takes an inordinate amount of time to go on for me: Keywords from above: “…it didn’t work FOR ME.”

Don’t get me wrong: I have plenty of bio-mechanical issues. But an ability to retract and depress my shoulder blades isn’t one of them. Nor is my ability to prevent lumbar flexion (or as we say at the TR, you’ll never catch me “butt tucking”).

But many, if not most people, especially those with jobs, do have those issues. Forward rolled shoulders and pelvis’ tucked under the body to almost comical extents are the norm in our society.

Think this is funny? Don’t laugh – many of you reading this are on your way to that look. Not me.

Re-enter the goblet squat.

The goblet squat forces the user to keep the shoulders back – if he or she doesn’t the user will fall forward and/or drop the weight. The goblet squat also forces the user to prevent lumbar flexion – if he or she does not “stick the butt out”, he or she will fall backwards.Of course, we don’t want to fall or drop a weight, so our bodies are forced to figure out how to move correctly when in this position. Most people start off just by squatting a few inches down. Then this can be progressed to squatting down to a bench or chair.

Eventually, you can be a show off, like Dina:

The Best "AB" Exercise

"What's the best exercise for 'abs'?"

Needless to say, I’ve been asked this a few times in my career. Almost without exception, I either say “Eat less”, or “There is no such thing as an ‘ab’ exercise”. And again, almost without exception, people look at me oddly because they think I’m being a smart ass. But in this instance at least, I’m not being a smart ass, I’m being 100% truthful and honest.

First, the appearance of your stomach is 99.9% due to the amount of body fat accumulated on top of it, not the musculature underneath. And because this is one of the first areas on our body where excess calories are stored, you’ll need to eat less to ensure no excess calories get stored in the first place. So again, best ab exercise #1: eat fewer calories.

Secondly, there is no such thing as an “ab” exercise, an “arm” exercise, a “leg” exercise etc. If you think there are you and I are on completely different stratospheres because every single exercise you do involves your entire body as one chain of movement. If you still approach your training with the mindset of “doing arms”, “doing abs” etc, you’re about 15-20 years behind the bio-mechanics learning curve. At The Training Rim, we push things, we pull things and we squat – those are the only exercises that matter, and therefore the only ones we do. So best ab exercise #2: stop trying to isolate any muscle in an effort to spot reduce.

All of that being said…

If you’re looking to improve abdominal strength and add visible musculature to your stomach with one exercise, you’ll need to do the single arm cable chest press.

A chest press - for the abs?!?

Abso-friggin-lutely.

The first thing you need to do to alleviate your confusion is to understand the function of the abdominals. Although they are able to flex the spine and twist the spine, as in the motions done when doing situps or torso twists (altogether now – uugggghhh…), that’s NOT their primary role.

The abdominals primary job is to STOP movement, not generate it. They are supposed to stop your back from arching back too far or twisting too much. This is what provides support when your body pushes and pulls things in the gym and out. People who can provide abdominal support generally are very strong for their size. People who do not provide adequate support for their spines are generally weak and injury prone. (Have you ever heard the expressions “spineless”, and “have a backbone”? Although they are used in a figurative sense to describe people who are pushovers, they have a literal beginning: people who have wimpy spines really are wimps – literally.)

When the abdominals stop the spine form moving, it allows support for the arms and legs to move and generate force. This is why people with stiff, strong abdominal muscles are strong people. And why all the above is on display during a single arm cable chest press.

What you need to do to truly strengthen the abs is put your abdomen in a position where it is forced to stop extension of the spine and stop rotation of the spine. And if specifically needs to be an “ab” exercise, you’re going to need heavy weight.

I present to you, the one arm standing cable press.

Loading up one side of your body at chest height with a heavy weight makes your body want to bend back and twist. Imagine if, as you’re reading this, someone behind you grabbed your right shoulder and pulled you back. The right side of your body would twist to your right and your spine would arch backwards. To prevent this from happening, your abdominal muscles would have to squeeze and pull you back to a normal position. This is what a one arm cable chest press does: it forces your body to stop the arching and twisting, placing a great demand on your abs.

Now that you know the “What?” and the “Why?” check back soon for the “How?”, as we’ll demonstrate how it gets done effectively.

Check back soon for the video demonstration!


"T-Woww" knows abs. And she doesn't do crunches or situps. And as you can see, she likes to be anonymous.

Cursing, Hard Work and Lessons Learned:

I’ve noticed a few things lately:

One: I’ve been called a lot of names lately. I know what you’re thinking: that’s not unusual. I get called names all the time. But this time it’s different. The source is different at least, if not the names themselves.

I’m not getting called names from the dude who played football 15 years ago and went on the internet for 10 minutes and decided that I was completely wrong on my take on stretching.

Nor are these name calling sessions from the “trainers” who quote verbose, esoteric research studies done God knows where by God knows who (probably another self proclaimed expert who also has never actually trained someone) to tell me I’m wrong. You know, some nerd in Denmark says electro-magnetic testing done on hamsters’ quadriceps after they do long distance cardio does, in fact reap benefits. Therefore, the information I’ve gathered from my gazillion sessions performed on real people is irrelevant.

No, lately I’ve been getting called pretty nasty names by my clients. Most of it unprintable. And if you know me, if I say it’s unprintable, you KNOW it’s unprintable.

Two: My clients have said quite often lately “Wow, you are in a BAD mood when you work out.”

I have indeed been trying to work out more consistently and with more intensity lately. When you operate a training business, you are always the last one that gets to workout, which has caused me to skip many workouts. (Similar to how you’re the last one to get paid, but that’s a different article.) So lately I’ve been more adamant about getting my workouts in and making sure they are worth the effort. I.e., I’ve been pushing myself. A few times, my clients have arrived mid Jon work out and asked a seemingly innocuous question just to have me bark at them with my “get away from me!” look on my face.

Three: It takes a long time for me to have the light bulb go on over my head sometimes. Because it occurred to me, after putting one and two together, that we are doing things right at The Training Rim.

I heard the voice of uber strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle in my head (yes again). Paraphrasing him, if you are a healthy individual, conditioning sessions should be absolutely miserable. If your workout is enjoyable, it’s a safe assumption your workout is a waste of time. And as usual, he’s 100% right.

Lately, my clients have been cursing me out because their conditioning sessions have been rather unpleasant. I’ve been yelling back during my workouts because it sucks moving over 4,000 pounds of weight in less than 10 minutes. Aggravating that situation is either an annoying “beep!” or voice form the workout muse telling me to get back to work, which will make you want to pull the speakers out of the walls. (I still insist my recent troubles with my GymBoss timer are the result of a client’s subterfuge.) And it definitely sucks hearing my voice while you’re going through this too. Here’s a typical conversation at the TR:

Client: “This sucks.”
Jon: “Mmm, hmmm.”
Client: “No really – this sucks you little #%&@#$!!*”
Jon: “Go to Retread Fitness and walk on a treadmill while holding on to the handrail, after you get off the outer thigh machine if you don’t like what we’re doing here.”
Client: “F&*^%$ you, you $@#%^&**!@!”

Writing it brings a tear to my eye.

So here’s today’s lesson kids: Assuming you’re healthy and practicing safety measures, you are SUPPOSED TO BE miserable during a conditioning session. And yes, feel free to let your anger flag fly. At least you know you’re getting something out of the misery - can’t say that about the outer thigh machine.

Here’s figure competitor Lori Siriani using the training ropes. This picture was taken just before she started throwing F bombs around the facility. Love how the arms are a blur!

What I'm Most Proud Of...

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reading and observing in an effort to better myself as an exercise professional, and by transference, a better person I guess. Many of the things I’ve seen, heard and read lately have kind of led me to a common theme:

I’m very proud of many of the things my clients have done over the years and things we’ve done as a group that have led to many improvements, both physical and otherwise. But the more I thought about it the thing that I am most proud of, is that the overwhelming majority of Training Rim success stories are real people.

I know you’re wondering what I mean by “real people”. I mean someone who was not born looking like a magazine cover, and/or has limitless time, money and resources to make him or herself even more beautiful. The fact that so many take exercise advice from people like that really frustrates me.

A real person is also someone who wasn’t born with once in a lifetime genetic athletic ability. I can almost guarantee you that my strength and conditioning program is superior to many professional athletes routines (I’m sure it’s better than Albert Haynesworth’s for example). But because I was born with a very bad case of small and slow, I’m never going to be a professional athlete no matter how effective my workouts are. Luckily, I figured this out relatively early in life.

Training Rim members are real people.

TR members have jobs, many with long commutes, many sedentary in nature. They have children, many who are young and require a significant investment of time. They have spouses, many of whom have jobs themselves. They have family and friends. They have homes that need to be taken care of. Many TR members have all the above.

Not one of them is independently wealthy. They can’t hire full time nutritionists, chefs, cleaning people, trainers, etc. It is NOT THEIR JOB to be lean and strong – and they are anyway. This is what I’m most proud of.

This is not a knock on Beyonce (or fill in the name of another super hot celebrity) who’s had great success. It’s just that we, meaning non uber-rich, non uber-good looking people, simply can’t do what she does and expect the same results. I have Beyonce on the brain because I recently saw her workout routine on E!: It was absolutely absurd. The amount of time wasted on idiotic stuff was beyond measure. And somewhere right now some soccer mom is doing what Beyonce/Kardashian/Ripa whoever does for no other reason than “they do it and it works for them.”

Watching great athletes train isn’t much different. I read a blog post recently from Mike Boyle (if you don’t know who Mike is, he’s generally spent the better part of 25 years getting better results with high level athletes than just about anybody on the planet.) In it, Mike wrote:

“I wrote an article called ‘An Apology Letter to Personal Trainers’. I’ve been telling them how to do their job for years and never trained a single non-athlete. Over the past few years I’ve started to, andit’s hard work. I think personal training is much more difficult than working with athletes. We’ve got 2 hours per week to counteract the other 166 hours of the week. It’s not a good ratio to try and make changes.”

As you would imagine, he’s EXACTLY right. Almost every TR client falls into the 1-3 hours per week category, trying to offset everything else mentioned above.

And the reasons TR members get results in spite of having the deck stacked against them isn’t so much a result of what we do. In most cases, it’s what we DON’T do. We don’t waste our time with things that are obviously ineffectual and/or overly time consuming. When you have two hours per week you don’t have 18 hours per week to jog like Beyonce, and even if you did, I would tell you your time would be better spent elsewhere. You have to get to the gym, get to work hard and fast and get out – period.

To paraphrase Mike Boyle again, people are always surprised when they see and try our training methods 1st hand. For some reason they think we’re alternating between bouncing on stability balls and staying still. Then I’ll get an email that says “I tried that move you had on your blog the other day – holy sh!t that hurts!”. Or, they’ll tell me “Oh that’s easy.” Then I’ll watch them try it and it will be an embarrassingly bad half assed attempt at what they thought we do. Then I correct them, and it’s not so easy all of a sudden.

We spend our time getting strong and getting conditioned. Anything else is a waste of time.

And if you think Zumba Cardio Kick Step Mocha Latte class is conditioning, you’re in for a rude awakening. Frankly, if your condition sessions are fun, they aren’t really conditioning sessions, they’re time killers.

A facility full of lean strong people with lives outside the facility. This is what I’m most proud of. (Admittedly, the fact they tell me they have fun too is a cool residual side effect though!)

A Testimonial For My Clients!

Yep, I’m writing a testimonial for my clients. I’ve received piles of testimonials over the years that have flattered me: now it’s my turn to return the favor. My friend Jon calls this a “reverse testimonial”. I don’t like the term, but he’ll accuse me of plagiarism if I don’t credit him.

Anyway, I was participating in the 5pm small group session earlier tonight. Sharon was doing the training and I asked her to give me the last 10 minutes or so – I had a new circuit I wanted to try on my clients and myself.

We completed the circuit, it went well as expected, but it WAS…NOT…EASY. I can’t emphasize this enough.

But because I had stopped my workout to explain the particulars of the circuit, I wanted to do a few more rounds myself. So I said to the group “the session is officially over, feel free to split, see you next time. I am going to do 3 or 4 more rounds though. If anyone wants to stick around and do them with me, you’re more than welcome to, but if you want to or need to split, no biggie.”

The session was over. Both in terms of time (it was 6pm) and programming – Sharon and I did everything we wanted to. I was expecting to be swinging kettlebells for a few more minutes on my own.

What I got was this: 6 blank stares and everybody holding their kettlebell. The stares said “Bring it on Rimmer. Where the hell else would I rather be than swinging kettlebells with my friends?”

Insert picture of me going “You are all some bad ass b!tches, and I LOVE MY JOB!!!”

And I know what some of you are thinking: they caved to peer pressure.

Nope. My clients know their workout is THEIR workout. Do what you need to do and peer pressure is not allowed.

And some of you were thinking, well the previous 50 minutes couldn’t have been that hard.

B.S. I wiped the mats twice because of sweat accumulation and we had the AC blasting.

And no, none of us are like those CrossFit ass-sticks who can’t differentiate between working hard and being a moron. Everybody was still bio-mechanically competent.

And yes, I did call them bad-ass b!tches to their faces and they all loved it because they know I meant it with unbelievably high admiration for their toughness and dedication to their workout, to me, and to each other.

BIG time props to L-Jo, She-Ra, LoriLori, Sasha, Shazarella and T-Woww – love you guys! Feel free to mock people who work out while watching TV and fiddling with their phones.

Stay with me people...

There’s a reason for everything. I was watching the news this morning then simultaneously clicked a link to an article from a Facebook friend. Because of those two things, we’re all here together now. Can I get a round of applause for Robin Meade on CNN and Ivonne Ward, my colleague and fellow little angry exercise and health buddy for connecting us all? Thank you!

Lately, as you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been on a tangent with people that want to lose weight. It’s such a silly concept, but so many people have that mindset, it kind of irritates me. Maybe if I were in another profession where I didn’t have to listen to, or be asked about “losing weight” all the time I wouldn’t be so irritated about it.

Then I watched the news this a.m. and listened about a study that listed all the things women would give up in exchange for “being skinny”. Things that otherwise they enjoy and make them happy.

I immediately threw up in my mouth.

Being “skinny” means you are WEAK. Being skinny means you are UNHEALTHY. Being skinny means YOU LOOK MALNUTRITIONED. And it kills me that I can’t figure out a way to get this point across to people without p!ssing them off. (And yes, smarty pants, I do try to get my point across without p!ssing people off sometimes).

Then I read this article by an author who could get these points across far better than I, so I’m posting the link below.

But the take home points that I REALLY need you to pay attention to are:

1. Exercise is the key to happiness. NOT the key to being skinny. Better health, energy, cognitive function and sleep patterns are all benefits of exercise.

2. Just because the guys in the weight room at big-box mega gym are douche bags, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULDN’T WEIGHT TRAIN!

3. Sweat does not mean you are working hard – sweat means you are hot. These are two very different things. Stay with me people…

4. You are going to p!ss more money away than you can imagine during your life, much of it on things you think will help your health. Knowing that, not paying for a good trainer because it’s expensive is SILLY.

5. What you did when you were 22 to get in shape is not applicable anymore. You were in shape then in spite of your exercise routine, not because of it.

6. Don’t go kamikaze style training for 3 weeks and think that’s going to do anything. Slow and steady always wins the race.

OK, that’s my version – move on to the better one here:

Gretchen Rubin says:

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2010/08/12-tips-for-nudging-yourself-to-exercise-regularly.html

And for the record: Re: the woman in the photo on the treadmill? That's a stock photo - she did NOT get that body by walking on a treadnmill.

The Best Way to Lose Weight!

Undoubtedly the topic that comes up the most in circles of exercise and nutrition is weight loss.

More often than not, it takes place between two people who are neither exercise professionals, nor nutritionists, which I find pretty telling. The fact that over half our country is overweight and about a third are obese I find even more interesting, considering it seems everybody has their two cents on the topic.

To me, it’s always been a silly discussion. Why someone would want to lose weight is beyond me. Lose fat? Sure. Lose weight, as in pounds? Why?

We all agree that the number on the scale tells you nothing about your appearance or your health. It measures your gravitational pull to the earth – nothing else. It doesn’t tell you if you look good or bad, it doesn’t tell you if you’re healthy or not.

There are men who weigh 200 lbs who are beyond fit and healthy. There are men who are 200 lbs who are obese. There are women who weigh 150 lbs who are smokin’ hot. There are women who weigh 150 lbs who are obese.

In over a decade in this business I haven’t met anyone who disagrees with me on this point. Yet most ignore this concept and still want to lose “weight”.

(On a side note: It’s often the beginning of some very silly Q&A sessions like this one:

Person 1: “I lost X pounds!”
Person 2: “Really?!? How did you do it?!?!”
My conscience: “Uh…, she ate less? How the F else would you lose weight?!?”)

Needless to say, I get asked my opinions on this subject often. And like many, this topic is certainly one where usually the person doesn’t want my opinion, they just want their own opinion confirmed, and will continue with their “low carb” BS no matter what I tell them.
That being said, I’m going to throw my two cents out there anyway, and I’m going to take a different path than usual, as to not repeat myself.

If you want to lose weight, just sit on the couch and do NOTHING.

Your lack of activity will bring your metabolism down to reflect the lack of activity. If your body sees you aren’t expending calories, it will reduce your metabolism and appetite to make sure you don’t eat many calories.

And by NO MEANS should you exercise. This will only increase your metabolism, which in turn will increase your appetite, which will in turn make it almost impossible for you to lose weight.

You’ll look better and you’ll feel better if you exercise. But you probably won’t lose pounds.
So go ahead and continue watching the number on the scale. Sit on the couch, don’t move and don’t eat. Just remember to give me credit for your success.

I'm OVER weight

Just started writing an article and in the process of doing a little research came across some things that made me switch gears and post this right away (rest of the article coming ASAP):

According to ideal weight charts from more than one source*, the following people are OVER weight:

I know this because picture 1 is me. Picture 2 is my smokin’ hot significant other, so I know what she weighs, and the last 2 are Gina Carano. Because Gina is a professional fighter, her weight is public knowledge.

Still wanna’ use a scale to measure your success?

*I saw several, the only one I saved is healthychecksystems.com.

My Most Important Lesson:

I’ve learned MANY lessons over my years of training, from different stand points: personal, professional, bio-mechanical, physiological, etc. Today, I’m going to let you in on the most important bio-mechanical lesson I ever learned. And I promise, for brevity’s sake, I’ll keep it real simple and to the point.

(*Before I begin, this lesson was learned in large part, from reading an article by Mike Boyle.)

This is the most important bio-mechanical lesson I ever learned:

If your lumbar spine moves and your hips don’t, you are a weak person.

If your lumbar spine does NOT move and your hips do, you are a strong person.

That’s it.

Want a little more in the way of specifics and detail? OK…

Your lumbar spine goes approximately from your tailbone to your lower/mid back. It is supposed to be rock solid and stable. It is similar to a supporting beam on your house: if that beam were weak and unstable, it wouldn’t be able to support the rest of the house which would place you in danger. Similarly, if your lumbar spine is weak and/or unstable, it will not be able to support movement from your arms and legs. It will “give” when your arms and legs push or pull, and will not only make you weaker, but make you more susceptible to injury. Reason #768 your lower back doesn’t need to be “stretched” or “lengthened”.

The best analogy of this is your lumbar spine is like a car door. Your car door has hinges on it to stop the door and prevent it from coming off when you push it open. If you push hard, it will give a little, but just enough so it doesn’t break. But if you continually keep pushing it open, and pushing it open, over and over again, eventually the hinges will break and your door will come off.

Your lumbar spine is designed to move in a similar manner. It will “give” just a little to prevent injury, but it’s not designed to do that. Eventually, if you keep pushing it, pulling it, twisting it, etc. the hinges will give and you will have a problem.

Conversely, your hips are supposed to be very mobile. By definition, it’s a ball and socket joint that should be able to move in just about any direction. Your hips are surrounded by some of the largest and most powerful muscles in your body, such as the glutes, quads and hamstrings. They are designed to produce force, produce locomotion, and stop and start many important activities.

However, if your hips are not mobile, or if your glutes are not strong enough to move them, your lower back will move in an attempt to help out (the term is called “synergistic dominance”). This leads to weakness (because your back is moving you instead of your big muscles) and potential for injury (because those hinges are being pushed over and over again).

To give you a visual, look at the two pictures below:

Figure 1:

The gray line representing Tania’s lumbar spine that goes from tail bone to lower/mid back is perfectly straight, i.e. has NOT MOVED. Conversely, as you can tell from the line drawn on her hips, her hip joints have moved A LOT. Actually, more than 90 degrees in spite of my horrible artwork that looks like a 90 degree angle. This picture was taken in mid kettlebell swing, and as has been discussed here previously, Tania is a strong person. The ability to keep the spine stiff and generate force with the hips is what gives her this type of strength.

Figure 2:

The line representing Tania’s lumbar spine is bent i.e. has moved in order for her to move the weight. The line representing her hips has barely moved meaning most of the effort will come from the lower back here. This is not good for power or for back health.

The only thing that’s confusing to me about this topic is that it’s so obviously correct, yet people choose to ignore its lessons every day. No rationale adult would say figure 1 is bad and figure 2 is good, but somewhere right now, some fitness professional is telling someone to stretch and loosen the lower back, and will pay little attention to glute strength.

This confuses the hell out of me – please don’t be one of those people. Have strong glutes and a healthy back. Your jeans will thank me for it.

*Mike, along with Gray Cook, wrote about a “joint by joint” approach to training. This particular lesson and blog is a microcosm of the larger picture they discussed.

This is why I get pissed...

This is why I get pissed:

I use a 30kg kettlebell when training. That’s almost exactly half my bodyweight. I’ve been exercising for two decades and training countless others for over a decade. I’ve been using kettlebells for about 5 years. And still, using the 70lb kettlebell is A LOT of difficult work for me.

Now hypothetically, if I had three women come into my studio, ages mid forties through mid sixties who were either new or needed reintroduction to exercise, giving them a 70lb kettlebell to do swings and get ups with would be a GOOD idea, right? If it’s good for me it must be good for them right?

No - of course not. No rational adult, exercise professional or otherwise would agree that’s a good idea.

Now what if I did that, and all of the women were injured as a result? What if two complained of knee pain and one injured her foot to the point of having to be on crutches?

I agree with what you’re probably thinking: If that happened I should find a different line of work, and anybody who continued to train with me should seek psychiatric help, not physical.

OK, what if I did that with kids? Yep, what if I had an eleven year old try to swing the 70lb kettlebell? I think we’d all agree that I would be guilty of negligence and carelessness at best.

This is not rocket science: Just because I do it, doesn’t mean my clients should do it.

Sad thing is, this training rationale (“I do it, it’s good for me, so it must be good for you”) happens every single day in a group fitness studio, and nobody says a word about it.

An “instructor” (use the term loosely, please) typically memorizes a pre-determined routine to follow. This pre-set routine is set right down to which exercises to do, how many sets, reps, for how long and for how fast or slow. This information typically comes from a DVD and is forced to memory by the “instructor”. No – I’m not making this up – I used to work at a chain gym and witnessed these meetings among the “instructors”, where they would all memorize and practice the routine. An international think tank of bio-mechanics it wasn’t…

The “instructor” then typically performs the routine on display in front of a group of people and asks the exercisers to follow along with the routine he/she just memorized.

Whether or not the movements and its variables are appropriate for everybody in the room is irrelevant in their minds. Fact is it’s more likely that it’s INAPPROPRIATE FOR THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE DOING IT. But this discussion will never come up. The rationale given by the DVD producer, then by the “instructor” then accepted by most exercisers is “THIS IS WHAT I MEMORIZED AND I CAN DO IT SO YOU HAVE TO DO IT TOO, DAMMIT! I DON’T CARE IF IT’S APPROPRIATE FOR YOU!”

This goes on every day and…is…just…simply…accepted…

Why? I’m not sure. I know if I had a room full of people doing the same workout I did, while I was doing it instead of watching them, they would get injured and I’d get sued.

Which is another interesting point: Uh, I’m sorry, exactly why are you working out with them Mr./Mrs. Instructor? Maybe I’m silly, but aren’t you supposed to be WATCHING YOUR CLIENTS INSTEAD OF WORKING OUT?!?! Can’t they watch you workout for free in the gym if they wanted? Why are they being charged and why are you getting paid?

And the situations I referenced above? All true. All (3 women and 2 kids that I know personally) were told to follow along with the “instructor” because the “instructor” is peppy and looks good in spandex so she MUST know what she’s doing right? And all 5 were injured.

This is why I get pissed.

"Uh..WOW..."

I LOVE this video. It is exhibit 1A about why I love and am completely fascinated by bio-mechanics. Questions such as, “Why does person A move that way but person B move this way?” And, “Why is this person strong, but that person isn’t?” have always intrigued me, which is why I do what I do, I guess.

This is why I’m fascinated by the woman in this video: her name is Miki Barber, and she’s a competitive sprinter. Not since I saw Kris Jenkins on “Sport Science” or LaDanian Tomlinson on “60 minutes” have I said to myself “Jesus, now THAT is bio-mechanical perfection!”

While thinking about Miki’s impressive performance, I realized there are many take home messages to be learned here: Lessons for me, for other trainers, for my clients, and frankly for anyone who exercises.

After you watch the video, and say “uh…WOW!” like I did, come back and learn the take home messages:

Check Miki out: (and as an FYI: 70kg is 165lbs – that’s what she hang cleans at the end of the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAAP8ux5x8g

Having seen the video, here are things you may or may not already know, but we all could use a reminder. In no particular order:

1. She doesn’t do cardio – she sprints.

As I said, she’s a sprinter. She doesn’t go for long runs, she doesn’t get on the elliptical at the gym, she isn’t on the treadmill for 45 minutes at a clip. She exerts maximum effort every time she runs, then stops, rests, and does it again. And in case you didn’t notice, she has about as much body fat as a snack tray.

2. She lifts HEAVY weights.

Pay attention ladies: For the umpteenth time, heavy weights do not mean big muscles. Miki isn’t playing around with the tricep pushdown machine, or the inner thigh machine to “tone” nor is she lying on the floor in the same spot for an hour and calling it “lengthening” her muscles. She picks up very heavy things and moves them – the result is strong, feminine and ripped.

3. This is how important triple extension is.

I tell my clients all the time, if you can’t triple extend (ankle, knee and hip), you will NEVER be strong. The fact that she can triple extend fast and effectivelyis the main reason that barbell gets up in the air.

4. This is how important scapular retraction is.

I’m sure my clients are sick of me saying “Shoulders back, chest out!” all the time. In addition to avoiding that RIDICULOUS rolled shoulder posture, pulling the shoulder blades back is crucial to strength. Another reason 70kg can be thrown by a small woman.

5. This is how important lumbar stabilization is.

My clients (and one of my colleagues) are tired of hearing me say it, part 2: If your spine moves during movement, you are weak – period. Watch the video again: Does her back round at the bottom? Nope. Does it arch on the way up? Nope. It doesn’t mother-frigging FLINCH. It stays stable so the hips and shoulders can move the weight – AS IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. Remember this the next time tells you to “stretch your back”…uugghhh…

6. Movement efficiency – she the smallest one!

I wrote a blog awhile back about the relatively small people in my facility that can move A LOT of weight mostly due to their movement efficiency. This reaffirms what I said – this is the smallest girl there, but moves the most weight. Why? Because her spine doesn’t move, her hips do. Because her knees don’t crash, they stabilize. Because her feet don’t point outwards and evert (reason #783 “plie” squats are beyond stupid). The other women had some of those issues and as a result are not as strong pound for pound.

There’s actually more, but I could be here all day. Just remember if you’re a client of mine, this is why I repeat these things over and over. If you’re an athlete, remember that this is why it’s not HOW MUCH you lift, it’s HOW IT’S LIFTED. And if you’re not a client of mine or not an athlete, remember this is why you need to come train at our facility.

Survivor and the TR

I’m always asked “What should I be eating?” Almost without exception my answer is “just eat less of whatever you’re already eating”. I’ve found this solves 99% of the issues for 99% of the people who ask.

But from the department of “People don’t really want my advice, they just want their own opinion validated”, they look at me like there’s no way I can be right, and don’t take my advice. Then they go try their own way, or follow something they read in some stupid magazine – and they fail.

Enter “Survivor”.

If you need more evidence that I know of where I speak, just watch “Survivor”. (Yes, I watch Survivor – it’s great TV and definitely is a guilty pleasure of mine.) As Leslie and I were watching it the other night, we both commented how they contestants always seem to look better at the end of the season than they do at the beginning of the season. It seems the ones who were a little overweight at the start of the season, now have muscle tone and definition. The ones who were already in decent shape now have ripped six-packs.

And the only reason this is so, is because of their caloric restriction. They…simply…eat…less.

These people are not “doing cardio”, nor are they “doing abs”. They didn’t “cut back on carbs” or go “low fat” or "high protein". They simply reduced their total caloric intake.

Of course I’m not suggesting you should limit your calories to such an extreme level. But do take home the overall point:

Don’t make it more complicated than it is: If you want to lose body fat, just eat less.

Parvati knows I'm right!

Got Glutes?

There’s always running commentary and joking going on at The Training Rim regarding glute development or lack thereof, in the case of those outside the facility who don’t train with us. For those of you who are new to this game, the glutes are what is supposed to be a hard round mass of muscle on the back of your hips. Sadly, it deteriorates into something less firm, down on the back of the legs somewhere for most people.

Of course, it’s difficult to have a legitimate discussion on the bio-mechanics of the glutes without the residual sophomoric humor and butt jokes that I mentioned before. (“You show me a flat foot, and I’ll show you a flat ass…” has been a mantra for Training Rim clients for years as an example.) But the reality is, the strength of your glutes is CRUCIAL to your successes from a health and exercise stand point. Yes, I am aware that strong glutes make jeans and swimsuits look much better. But strong glutes are also keep your back and knees healthy. As we say all the time at The Training Rim: It’s not just there for show – it actually has a purpose.

Enter Dancing With the Stars...

I don’t watch Dancing With the Stars. Never have – it’s just not my thing. Not even Chuck Liddell and/or Kim Kardashian got me to tune in once. But I know a lot of people do, so I pick up tidbits here and there from others’ conversations. And recently, I overheard something that caught my attention:

Erin Andrews, of ESPN fame recently had trouble competing due to back spasms. Back spasms, severe enough in their presence that medical attention was sought.

Now, in addition to all the sophomoric jokes to which I made references before, another saying that has been oft repeated at The Training Rim is this one: “You show me a flat ass and I’ll show you a bad back.”

Erin, no disrespect: you’re a good looking woman and I’m sure you’re very nice. But your back hurts because your ass is flat – period. You need to upgrade your training.

I don’t want to bore everybody with a bio-mehanics dissertation as to all the reasons behind this (heh, heh…get it? “behind”…heh…heh…), but basically when glutes are weak the lower back and/or hamstrings compensate on their behalf leading to lower back and/or knee issues.

It’s not just about the jeans and swimsuits folks – learn to lunge correctly and keep your back and knees healthy. You’ll thank me for it.

Erin, we need to discuss rear foot elevated split stance squats...

Why Body Building Sucks

Many people think I despise body building training, and its vast number of proponents, because its methodologies don’t coincide with what I preach. This is partially true, but only to a certain extent: I do have some issues with isolating body parts from a bio-mechanical sense, but the reality is I have a huge amount of respect for body builders. The level of dedication, commitment, and effort they have to exhibit every single day to both their training and their nutritional habits is very admirable. But to a certain degree, this is also where my problem lies:

People who attain physical improvements by training like a body builder fall into at least 3 of the 4 following categories:

· They have tons of time
· They have tons of money
· They are young
· They are taking something illegal

Go ahead: Name me someone who gets results training like a body builder who doesn’t fall into at least three of those four categories.

The reason bodybuilding sucks, and the real reason I mock it, is because 99% of people who train like bodybuilders WILL NOT get results. They will complain of back, shoulder and knee pain, or they are still overweight and/or look like they walk on their knuckles from their posture being so ridiculously bad.

The alarmingly low percentage of people who do train like bodybuilders and get good results, fall into at least three of the four categories I mentioned above.

Think about it: How much time does it take to train every single muscle group in your body individually (you know, “doing abs” then “doing back” then “doing bi’s” etc.)? Hours upon hours per week, and then some…there are hundreds of muscles in the body for crying out loud.

Generally, people who have hours upon hours per week either have someone who pays the bills for them, or have enough discretionary income that they can make their training a priority over their work rather than the other way around without financial harm being done.

Young people (18-25) by definition can do more than older people and have an infinitely lower chance of being injured while exercising. Combine that with someone else paying your rent for you, and a job (maybe) that you aren’t going to have in 6 months anyway so who cares about it, and you have a perfect recipe for training like a moron and still getting results. (On a side note, this is why I smirk at 40 somethings who still train like this but can’t figure out why they’re fat and their backs hurt – “seriously, I played high school football 25 years ago, I know how to lift.” Bawhawhawhaw!!!)

Or illegal performance enhancing drugs are used, which as someone who worked in commercial gyms for about 8 years, I can tell you are far more common than you may realize.

I’m not even going to get into the unbelievably high tolerance for boredom you need to train in this manner. My GOD there are only so many ways to flex and extend your elbow and knee – how can you possibly stand doing the same three exercises every…single…day…uuugghhh…

Now you can see more clearly perhaps why I think bodybuilding is a ridiculous choice of training methodology for 99.9% of us. The overwhelming majority of people I know don’t have 10 or more hours per week to exercise, do not have excessive discretionary income, are not 20 years old and don’t use drugs.

For those of us who aren’t young, rich and bored with all our free time, we need to come up with alternatives. We need to get results in a few hours per week, without risking our health, without bankrupting ourselves, and have fun doing it. I know, that’s not an easy task – luckily, you know me.

Send your hate mail to thetrainingrim@gmail.com.

GET FAT FOR SUMMER!

This is an article that's going to appear in The Monitor magazine next month: It may be old news to my loyal readers, but worth a review anyway...

No, that’s not a misprint. Of course nobody WANTS to get excess body fat before donning the swimsuits and heading to the beach, but unfortunately that is precisely what people do when taking up an exercise program more often than you may realize.

The reasons for this are multi-factorial and far too expansive to get into here. Typically due to misinformation, half truths and outright prevarications seen in the media and heard from friends at “the gym” many people perform activities that not only are ineffectual for fat loss, but may actually contribute to adding body fat.

However, if indeed you are one of those few who are looking to have some extra cellulite on which to rub tanning lotion this year, here’s what you need to be doing if you want to GET FAT:

1. PERFORM LONG “CARDIO” SESSIONS

Performing long cardio sessions ensures that you will keep your metabolism very low. There is an inverse relationship between the intensity of exercise and the duration of exercise. Therefore, going at a slow to moderate pace only guarantees the intensity of your workout will stay down, decreasing caloric expenditure not only in your workout but through the rest of the day, week, month, etc. And if you think those long cardio sessions are tough, you may want to reconsider: By definition if you can do something for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, etc, it can’t be too intense or you wouldn’t be able to do it for that long.

2. AVOID STRENGTH TRAINING

People mistakenly associate strength training with hypertrophy, or “getting big”. Strength training and hypertrophy are not synonyms. By avoiding strength training, you are only avoiding becoming stronger. Possessing more total body functional strength in itself forces you to burn more calories. Additionally, in the event you do crash diet and lose weight temporarily, without muscle tone you’ll look like a skeleton covered in loose gray skin. Very hot…

3. USE BENCHES AND MACHINES AT THE GYM

If you’re exercising on a bench or machine – you are SITTING! Seriously, have you seen the padded seats on some of the machines at the gym? I have recliners in my TV room that aren’t that cushiony. This is not an issue that requires a degree in physiology to understand: You are burning exponentially fewer calories sitting than when you are standing. And there isn’t one exercise in existence that utilizes external support like a bench or machine that can’t be modified so it can be performed standing.

Conversely, if you find the thought of adding body fat unpleasant and are looking for alternatives that will get you looking better for beach season, come check out some of the one on one sessions and small group sessions at The Training Rim. You’ll get results and you’ll have fun doing it – we guarantee it.

About the author: Jon Rimmer is the owner of The Training Rim personal training studio in Belford and has been training clients of all ages and ability levels for over a decade. He holds a Masters Degree in Exercise Science and is a contributing writer for strengthcoach.com and ptonthenet.com, two of the world’s leading resources for trainers and conditioning specialists. He is also the author of “Iron: Kettlebell and Body Weight Training 101” to be released in the spring of 2010.

How to Choose a Trainer

The problem with choosing a personal trainer is that all trainers are not the same.

Yes, I know there is no profession where all of its practitioners are the same. Not all teachers are the same, not all lawyers are the same, etc.

But all personal trainers are REALLY NOT THE SAME.

This is because the personal training industry has no regulatory bodies that govern minimal qualifications to practice.

All lawyers are not the same, but they all went to law school and passed the state bar exam.

All teachers are not the same, but they all graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in their field of practice.

Personal trainers have no such regulations. YOU COULD BE A PERSONAL TRAINER RIGHT NOW WITH NO PREVIOUS EDUCATION OR EXPERIENCE.

A Doctor from Stanford with a Phd in physiology, and a 20 year old who just read “Muscle and Fitness” could train you and they would both simply be called your “personal trainer”.

Obviously, there will be a big difference between the two, but guess what? Their business cards will both say “personal trainer”.

This is why it is CRUCIAL that you perform some research before choosing a trainer and/or training facility. Here are some things you should look for:

Ask about the trainers’ educational background: Are they certified? If so, from what organization? How long ago were they certified and how have they progressed their knowledge since then?

If they don’t have a certification, do they have an associates’ and/or Bachelors’ degree in a related field?

Does anyone on the staff hold a Masters’ Degree in Exercise Science, Physiology or Bio-Mechanics?

What about practical experience? How long have they been a trainer? Full time or part time? How many sessions have they performed with what client base?

I don’t want to go into a detailed explanation of my competitors qualifications and lack thereof, but here’s what I can tell you about the staff at The Training Rim:

The LEAST educated trainer has a nationally recognized personal training certification that required a 6 week hands on course. All programming and exercise methodologies are designed and supervised by a trainer with a Masters’ Degree in Exercise Science.

The LEAST experienced trainer has over a year of training experience. Training is programmed, designed and overseen by a trainer with over a decade of experience in the field.

You can try, but YOU WILL NOT FIND A TRAINING STAFF WITH BETTER CREDENTIALS.

And when comparing cost, you’ll find The Training Rim’s one on one personal training packages are LESS than our competitors in almost all cases.

OUR SMALL GROUP RATES ARE ABOUT HALF THE COST IN MOST CASES.

So again, we encourage you to shop around – when comparing apples to apples, you’re going to be surprised at what you find.

Ice, Ice, Baby!

What’s your “ICE” score?

As you know I’ve been doing this a long time, and as much as I try to make it more complicated than it is sometimes, there are some very basic indicators of success and failure when it comes to exercise. Almost without exception, I can ask you three questions using the above acronym and tell you with almost 100% accuracy whether or not you’re getting results. And if you’re not getting results, this test will tell you in one sentence or less why you’re not getting results.

I is for “Intensity":

Are you exercising intensely? Seriously, be honest with yourself – are you fatigued at the end of a workout? Are you trying your best with every exercise and pushing yourself to a limit that’s within safety of course, but beyond what you consider comfortable? Yes, I know, “intensity” is a relative term. What’s intense to one person is not intense to another. So again, are your workouts intense for YOU?

If the answer is “no”, then you will not achieve the results you want.

C is for “Consistency”:

Are you exercising consistently? We all miss workouts occasionally because life will get in the way sometimes – that’s not what I’m talking about. But is 3 workouts a week for you the norm or the exception? And no, 6 workouts one week and zero the next is NOT 3 workouts per week. 3 workouts per week means occasionally two, occasionally four, but usually 3 workouts per week. The number in itself is not a big deal: 2, 3, 4, workouts per week, etc. But staying consistent with it is.

If you do not exercise consistently, you will not get results.

E is for “Efficiency”

Are you exercising efficiently? This is a tough one because many people just don’t know what efficient exercise is and is not. A good rule of thumb is if you are exercising intensely and consistently as mentioned above and you’re not getting results it’s probably because your workout sucks. Another good rule of thumb is if you’re exercising more than 5 or 6 hours per week to get the results you want, your workout probably sucks.

This is where a good fitness professional can come in handy: Are you exhibiting proper technique when exercising? A squat done incorrectly for example, will reap few benefits. Are you making the best programming choices? Quite often, there is just a more efficient better option to get the results that you want than the exercises you’re choosing.

If you’re not getting what you want out of exercise, give your “ICE” score an honest assessment, and get back to me with any questions.

Send your hate mail to thetrainingrim@gmail.com

The Trainer's Role

Last week I mentioned that we shot some seriously impressive videos. Given that I’d like to give each one its due justice I’m going to break them down into a series rather than hit you with them all at once.

On a seemingly unrelated note, another one of “those” conversations seemed to come up often enough recently that I think it would help if I expanded on it somewhat. I’ve realized recently that many people have a somewhat misguided view of what a trainer’s role is – and isn’t.

So I’ve decide to clarify the trainer’s role for you, and use these bad ass videos as a visual.

What I’ve noticed quite often recently is that many people view the job of a personal trainer as a tool to provide intensity to a session. Although a level of intensity and difficulty in a workout may be a residual side effect of having a trainer, it should NOT be the goal of either the exerciser or the trainer.

It’s been said before and it needs to be said again:

Any moron can make you feel discomfort and sweat a lot – you don’t need a trainer for that. Why an exerciser would pay for that service is beyond my comprehension.

The question is: Is that pain and sweat improving your performance, and along with it, how you feel and how you look?

Quite often, unfortunately, the answer is “no”.

The trainer’s role is to improve your levels of movement, stability, strength and power. Along with it, if those missions are accomplished, it will be accompanied by improvements in how you feel and how you look.

If a trainer or an exerciser has anything else in mind, one of two things will occur:

1st, the likelihood of injury, either acute or chronic, skyrockets.

Or, the level of results attained will certainly halt due to the fact the exerciser isn’t getting stronger, more stable, more powerful, etc. All the exerciser is doing is sweating…

Moving furniture around is hard work, will make you sweat and probably have you sore the next day, but I wouldn’t have my clients do it because it’s not good for them.

Having a trainer yell at you that you need to do “FIVE MORE!!!” might make you hurt, but it’s probably not good for you, especially when your form dictates you probably should have stopped a few reps ago.

Just the fact an exerciser would pay to have someone count for them is funny in itself to me.

Sure, if I wanted to be a jackass simpleton, I could have my clients walk in, grab the 70lb kettlebell and swing it until they dropped. But would that help them improve, or would it be more likely to hurt them?

Probably the latter.

At The Training Rim we systematically program workouts for both the short term and long term that will elicit actual long term improvements, as opposed to simple short term discomfort.

Along those lines, here’s video #1 as an example:

This is video #1 of 4 videos that illustrate how we utilize appropriate exercise selection within a small group session to elicit positive results. In this case, we’re looking to develop core power.

The exercises:

Rope waves, kettlebell swings, elevated plank, stability ball bridge.

Goal: To improve core power. This is accomplished by having 1 anterior core explosive movement (ropes) one anterior core stabilization move (plank) one posterior core explosive move (swing) and one posterior core stabilization move (bridge).

Notes on the exercises:

These are advanced versions of these exercises. The women in the video all have trained with us for awhile and have progressed to this level. Please don’t think you can do this without mastering the appropriate pre-requisites. (And no – you can’t do what they’re doing. I’ve seen your bridge and plank. You bridge looks like it collapsed and your plank looks like bad yoga…)

Kettlebell swing: Everybody in the video is performing the “hand to hand” swing. Keeping a flat back while exploding with the hips is NOT easy. Most knuckleheads just hyper-extend their lower backs.

Rope waves: Alternating between little waves, medium waves and big waves from a staggered stance.

Elevated plank: plank with feet on a 12” box, and not one person in the video has protracted shoulders, extended spines or externally rotated lower bodies.

SB bridge: 20 seconds of hip extension without involvement of the hamstrings and/or lower back like these women do it only means one thing: they have a FIRE in the BIG HOUSE!!!

And incidentally, for the unconvinced macho readers out there: the women in this video all had something in common when this circuit was over:

Sore glutes, sore abs, and a lot of sweat. But it was done the right way – yeah, baby…

Email me with any questions or comments and stay tuned for video #2 next week!

Training Ropes!!!

As much as everyone loves these new ropes we have, some clients have expressed pleasant surprise at where they “feel it”.

Yes, there have been reports of arms on fire. Yes, I’ve noticed the heart about to explode from my chest look on my clients’ faces. Butt…

One client proclaimed in mid circuit: “Jesus, I fell this in my butt!!!”

Another client sent me a text message one night after using the ropes that morning. It said, “…the rope has made my ass hurt with every step.”

This may seem somewhat confusing. It’s not to me. Why?

Because my clients’ glutes WORK - period.

For those of you who aren’t sure what the glutes are, it is what’s supposed to be the hard round mass of muscle on the back of your hips, just below the back. For most gym goers, it’s the soft flat gushy thing halfway down the thighs, close to the knee.

Why do Training Rim clients have glutes that work and regular gym goers don’t?

Because flexing and extending the hips while stabilizing the spine is not an easy thing to do. In fact it takes tons of practice and training. Bending the elbows and knees is a piece of cake. This is why gym goers have no problem getting definition in their arms and legs. Glutes and abs are another story. Getting the glutes to work just isn’t that easy without a professional showing you what the bio-mechanical issues are.

Which is why any compliant client who trains in our facility for any appreciable amount of time has that “look” of a Training Rim client. This look has been reported to be a thinner waist and a hard round butt.

So now when a client of ours has a giant rope’s momentum pulling them forward, their bodies instinctively use their glutes to stop that momentum.

Most exercisers whose glutes don’t work, would have their lower backs and hamstrings go into overdrive to compensate for their soft flat ass when they swung these ropes. This is why most of the planet has lower back and hamstring tightness. It’s not because those muscles are tight and need to be stretched, it’s because their ass doesn’t work – literally – and their lower backs and hamstrings are spasming out from trying to compensate.

Want to have a tight lower back and hamstrings? Go to a gym.

Want to have “the look”? Come see us…

Here's fitness model Tania Bobbi giving a quick demo as part of a circuit:

Here’s my response to the flexibility article noted last week:

If you didn’t see the article, it’s right here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/phys-ed-how-necessary-is-stretching/

I’ll also post some of my clients’ and readers’ responses next week too – I received some good ones.

You have to bear with me: This may be the 700th time I’ve had this discussion, so I apologize if I seem curt. Here’s the short version of my take on stretching and flexibility 1st, then my thoughts on the article we saw last week…

1. Flexibility is a FAR more expansive and complex topic than people realize. The overwhelming majority of exercisers think “stretching = loose muscles. Loose muscles = good.” That is a VAST oversimplification. Flexibility is nowhere NEAR this cut and dried.

2. Stretching, as it performed 99.99999% of the time is performed incorrectly.

Because of the above, I don’t think STRETCHING should be performed very often.

FLEXIBILITY should be.

“Stretching” and “flexibility” ARE NOT SYNONYMS.

Confused? Sorry, gotta’ move on. (I told you it would be the short version – I’ll get the longer one out soon…again…)

Now on to the article…

I have a few problems with it:

1. Physiology and biomechanics are not the same thing. Physiology deals primarily with cardio-respiratory, pulmonary and oxygen uptake/output issues. Bio-mechanics deals primarily with muscles, joints, tissues, ligaments etc, and how they interact to produce movement. Why physiologists were performing a study regarding bio-mechanics was the 1st thing to wrinkle my eyebrows. This is like a heart doctor advising you on your shoulder pain. Not completely clueless, but probably not the best person for the job.

2. The “classic sit and reach test” is called a “well established measurement of hamstring flexibility”.

I’m sorry, by whom…a gym teacher in 1964?

Anyone with even a marginal sense of bio-mechanics can see it doesn’t test hamstring flexibility. Just look at the picture in the article: the runner reaches his feet because his back is in the shape of a letter “C”, meaning the motion came from his spine, not from his hamstrings. And, his knee is bent, i.e., his hamstring is NOT elongated. Stay with me folks, this isn’t rocket science here…

3. This is not “new research”. This debate has been going on FOREVER.

4. Distance runners are not athletes.

I know I’m going to get killed for this, but bring it on.

Are distance runners tough as nails? Absolutely. Do they have insane levels of commitment and perseverance? Definitely. Do I admire them? Yes.

Are they athletes?

Puh-leeeeze…

People that express zero speed, power, or reactive neuro-muscular control are not athletes.

Period.

A study that measures stretching as it relates to speed and athletic performance needs to be performed on athletes. Tight hamstrings on a distance runner are irrelevant. Distance runners’ strides are barely longer than a walking stride, negating any need to extend the leg.

However, show me a sprinter with tight hamstrings and I’ll show you a slow sprinter.

5. Treadmills contribute to restricted hamstrings.

Without getting into too long a discussion about it, the moving belt (ground) means the person almost never extends the knee when running, because the treadmill does it for you. This means the hamstring is never stretched when on the treadmill. This typically leads to tight hamstrings, which was not taken into consideration in the study.

Again, the discussion of flexibility is far too expansive to get into here. But with regards to the article, the research was absurd and the author wasn’t much better.

Send your hate mail to the trainingrim@gmail.com.

And again, as with most of the cool stuff I find, I got the article from strengthcoach.com.

P90X thoughts...

The P90X has now replaced Suzanne Somers/Atkins Diet/CrossFit/Biggest Loser/etc in the ‘I get asked about this 500 times per day’ category, so I should probably write this down so everyone can be enlightened by my knowledge simultaneously (ha!)

Similar to other methodologies of training of which I’ve already written about (like CrossFit for example), the concept of P90X is a good one. Its implementation, usage and instruction is misguided however.

If you’re asking me if it’s good to be up and moving around (as opposed to sitting on machines), using different tools, performing varying exercises, etc is a good thing, then my answer is “yes, absolutely.” I’ve been saying that for years now – far from a new concept.

But, like many training modalities, P90X is FAR too advanced for the overwhelming majority of people who will use it.

A huge training pet peeve of mine is choosing the appropriate progressions and regressions of exercises to fit the one that’s most appropriate for your training goals. Performing exercises that are far too advanced of progressions is a very common mistake among exercisers and trainers, that ends up inhibiting the client’s progress either through ineffective technique delivering less than optimal results, or causing an injury outright, either acute or chronic.

For example, if you can’t squat perfectly with two feet on solid ground using only your own body weight, you shouldn’t be squatting with any weight added.

And you certainly shouldn’t be JUMPING. Remember: a jump is simply a squat done extremely fast, with a landing that will be fast as well. So this is logic that needs to be examined closely: If you can’t do the most simplified version of a movement, why would you make it even a little bit more advanced, let alone much more advanced?

I.e, any DVD titled “Plyometrics – explosive jumping cardio routine…” is probably inappropriate for most people. In fact, I saw Tony Horton squat – jumping is inappropriate for HIM. (Here’s a homework assignment for you: research femoral adduction and internal rotation…)

If you can’t hold planks and push up positions perfectly, you shouldn’t be doing anything else for your core until you can. I.e., the “Ab Ripper” DVD is probably a bad choice – unless lumbar displacement and/or chronic lower back pain are the goals.

And furthermore: have you ever read Tony Horton’s bio? He was an actor, handy-man, gardener, comic, waiter, dancer, and TV talk show host. At no point (other than working out with his friends) does it mention his educational background in regards to training people. I kept reading to find out exactly what makes him qualified to get YOU feeling better and looking better and I just can’t find it.

This isn’t a knock on Tony Horton – he’s far from the only trainer who implies “I look great, so I can get you to look great.” Following that logic, someone who drives a Lamborghini can get you to drive your car faster.

Again, I’m not here to bash anything or anyone. I’m just here to be the messenger and tell you the truth. Being up and moving around and trying different things when exercising = good.

Performing exercises WAY to advanced on the advice of someone who doesn’t know any better = BAD.

Send the hate mail to the trainingrim@gmail.com.

Your time and your money.

You will spend time and money on your health and fitness.

Period.

Sometimes we forget that we don’t have a choice in this matter. YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND TIME AND MONEY ON YOUR HEALTH AND FITNESS.

How you spend that time and money however is a choice.

You have two places to place your time and money:

a) a good exercise facility, a good personal trainer, a good nutritionist, a good massage therapist.

b) cardiologists, orthopedists, plastic surgeons, chiropractors.

I know this sounds harsh, but it’s that simple and it’s very true. You are not going to get another chance with another body someday. You are stuck with the one you have.

You can take care of it now which requires a relatively little time and effort.

Or you can be reactive and take care of it after it fails you. This requires an extreme amount of effort and money.

We all know someone with a bad back or heart problems. I don’t need to ask them how much effort it’s taken to deal with those things, let alone how much money it’s taken to address those issues.

Some people don't enjoy working out. Frankly, I don't most of the time. But try living with back pain and shortness of breath instead and get back to me. Working out won't seem so bad after all.

I know this realization certainly made me think about my priorities. And by no means would I ever be so bold as to tell you where your priorities lie.

But give it some thought.

*(As with the last post, I got the idea for this blog from Mike Boyle, one of the best strength and conditioning trainers on the planet. It hit home to me so I borrowed it. Go to bodybyboyle.com to hear it straight from the horse's mouth).

Training and farming

I was planning on writing a similar post, since this topic was one of the resolutions I gave you last week. Then I received the following post from Mike Boyle. If you don't know who Mike is, you should. He's one of the most respected strength and conditionng trainers on the planet. Mike expressed what I was going to try to, with far more articulation than I could, so I just borrowed his. It's a great lesson...

"I think I remember Stephen Covey in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People making reference to what I believe he called “the law of the farm.” The reference was meant to show that most of the truly good things in life take time and can’t be forced or rushed. Covey described the process of farming and alluded to how it requires patience and diligence to grow crops properly. In addition, farming requires belief in the system. The farmer must believe that all the hard work and preparation will eventually yield a long-term result.

As a strength and conditioning coach, business owner and personal trainer, the concept has always stuck with me. The process of exercising is much like farming or like planting a lawn. There are no immediate results from exercise and there are no immediate results from farming.

First, the seeds must be planted. Then fertilizer (nutrition) and water must be applied consistently. Much like fertilizer in farming, too much food can be a detriment to the exerciser. Only the correct amounts cause proper growth. Overfeeding can cause problems, as can underfeeding. As I sit and wait for my lawn to sprout or crops to grow, I feel many of the same frustrations of the new exerciser. When will I see results? How come nothing is happening? All this work and — nothing.

The key is to not quit. Have faith in the process. Continue to add water and wait. Farming and exercising are eerily similar. Continue to exercise and eat well and suddenly a friend or co-worker will say, “Have you lost weight”? Your reaction might be, “It’s about time someone noticed.” Much like the first blades of grass poking through the ground, you begin to see success. You begin to experience positive feedback. Clothes begin to fit differently.

When my friends or clients talk to me about their frustration with their initial lack of progress in an exercise program, I always bring up the farm analogy. We live in a world obsessed with quick fixes and instant results. This is why the farm analogy can be both informative and comforting.
An exercise program must be approached over a period of weeks and months, not days. The reality is that there is no quick fix, no easy way, no magic weight loss plan, no secret cellulite formula. There is only the law of the farm. You will reap what you sow. In reality, you will reap what you sow and care for. If you are consistent and diligent with both diet and exercise, you will eventually see results. However, remember, much like fertilizer and water, diet and exercise go together.

Try to grow crops or a lawn without water. No amount of effort will overcome the lack of vital nutrients.

The law of the farm.

Plant the seeds.

Feed and water properly.

Wait for results; they will happen, not in days, but in weeks and months."

For more of Mike's stuff, go to http://www.bodybyboyle.com/.