The Training Rim

Time To Make A Choice:

2012-01-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

Want to lose weight?

That’s simple: change your eating habits. You need to eat fewer calories than you burn. If you do this, you will lose weight. Generally, this is where people try to make things far more complicated than they need to be because no one likes to accept the fact that it could be that simple, but it is. You don’t even need to exercise. Frankly, exercise may harm your chances of losing weight because if you do it right, you’ll raise your metabolic rate. If you raise your metabolic rate, you will most likely consume more to compensate for the caloric expenditure, with the final result being your weight staying more or less the same.

Think I’m crazy or being purposefully dismissive? Well guess what: I just gave the same advice to my mother when she told me she wanted to lose weight. She had exercise questions and I said if weight loss is the goal, don’t even worry about exercising, just reduce the number of overall calories. I’m giving the same advice to you that I give to my own family members.

However, ask yourself if you really want to lose weight. I’ve found that’s not what most people really want. Most people want to look better, feel better, and be healthy. THOSE GOALS ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE FROM LOSING WEIGHT.

This is something on which I cannot be more clear: your weight has nothing to do with how you look, how you feel, or how healthy you are. It measures your gravitational pull to the earth – nothing else. Frankly, I believe doctors who use body weight as a barometer of health should have their medical licenses taken away for perpetuating myths and reinforcing absolute bullshit.

But if losing weight is really what you want, just eat less – you’ll lose weight.

Want to feel better, look better and be healthier?

This is where exercise comes into play. If done correctly (i.e., stay away from the Globo Gym atmosphere and the mental midgets who reside there) exercise will raise your metabolism which will burn more calories for you 24/7/365 – even when you aren’t working out. If done correctly exercise will improve your joint health. If done correctly, exercise will reduce your body fat % making you a much sexier version of yourself. If done correctly exercise can improve your heart health, lung health, sleeping patterns, emotional health, reduce the chance of injuries and countless other benefits. If done correctly, exercise will make you look better, feel better and be healthier.

So here’s the choice: Once again, I ask do you want to a) lose weight, or b) look better, feel better and be healthier?

If you chose option a, that’s fine, just eat less and you’ll get what you wished for. And frankly, you may need the help of a mental health professional, not an exercise professional.

If you chose option b, then let’s talk exercise.

Do it right, get it done. Be healthier, feel better and be a dead sexy mother effer.

Lower Your Metabolism!

2011-10-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

OK, now that we’ve established what your metabolism is, and the manners in which it can be raised, let’s make sure we can put that information to use and get its’ full benefits. The way to do that is to avoid some all too common mistakes that may negate your progress, or worse, actually lower your metabolism.

The following are the best two ways to lower your metabolism. Please avoid them!

• Don’t move.

This is by far the best way to lower your resting metabolic rate. When you don’t expend any energy, your body doesn’t want to use any, so it lowers your metabolism to meet your lack of activity.

This is why I tell people all the time this is the best way to lose pounds. Just sit on the couch and do NOTHING. You won’t burn any calories, so your body will lower your metabolic rate so you won’t feel the need to eat any calories and you’ll waste away and be one of those skinny fat people. Enjoy.

That actually leads to #2…

• Don’t eat frequently enough

When your body goes for a sustained period of time with no food (usually around 4-6 hours) it goes into starvation mode. This is a self - defense mechanism by the body to avoid starvation designed to keep you alive. Your metabolism doesn’t know you may eat something later – it assumes you won’t, and it stops using energy, and stops burning…calories…COMPLETELY. One of the best ways to bring your metabolism to a screeching halt is to starve yourself. Then, you'll also have the mood and the personality to go along with your great “skinny fat” look.

And although it may not lower your metabolism, the best way to keep it nice and low is to…

• Waste your time with exercise that is not intense

Exercise that is moderate or low in intensity can be a deleterious, crippling factor to your metabolism. Although it technically may not lower your metabolic rate, it certainly takes a lot of time and takes you away from more beneficial activities that you can be doing to raise your metabolism.

Before we move on, let’s get a few things out of the way quickly: Typially this is the point in the discussion where peoples’ opinions begin to differ with mine and like to point out a few very common rebuttals to my statements. The rebuttals always come at this point in the discussion because nobody had a problem with what I wrote in part 1, where we defined metabolism, or in part 2 where I told you how your metabolism can be raised. They have a problem at this point because of one reason:

They don’t like what I have to say – period.

They either a)want their own opinion validated, and are pissed when I don’t do that, or b) realize what I’m saying they need to do is hard work – real hard work and they just aren’t willing to do it, and would rather choose the easy way out.

For discussions’ sake I’m going to need you to pick out a low intensity exercise to fill in the blank below. It can be anything – jogging, yoga, hiking, whatever. Generally, if it takes more than 20 minutes to do, you can use it for our discussion. I’m going to use jogging as my example. I hate to always pick on jogging, but it’s just the most common choice for most people, so I’ll go with it. And again, if you do any of those things, don’t take it personally, it doesn’t make you a bad person if you do it for fun or competition. But if you’re doing those things to become lean…

Common rebuttal #1: “Well, when I jog, it IS intense, hard, makes me sweat, etc. so it must be raising my metabolism.”

Answer: No, it’s not intense. There is an inverse relationship between intensity and duration of exercise. This is a matter of physics not open to debate. This is why the fastest people in the world can only be at their fastest for a matter of seconds. The longer they run, the more they have to slow down. The intensity must decrease in order for them to continue running. Therefore, any extended run, by definition, is NOT intense.

Common rebuttal #2: “Well at least I’m doing something – that’s better than doing nothing.”

Answer: If you want to reduce it to the lowest common denominator, sure, doing something is better than nothing. But if I said to you all I had to eat today was a Big Mac, you would say that was stupid. But then if I said, “Well it’s better than eating nothing!” It’s still stupid.

Common rebuttal #3: “Jogging is fun/I enjoy it.”

Answer: That’s fine if you do something for enjoyment, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re discussing the best way to burn calories and your way is not the best way.

Common rebuttal #4: “So many people jog, it must do something.”

Answer: A lot of people smoke pot too, that won’t raise their metabolism either.

Common rebuttal #6: “Well, your workouts are 1 hour, how can they be intense?”

Answer: Technically we do 5 separate workouts in one hour at The Training Rim. We do a mobility workout, a core workout, two separate strength workouts and a conditioning workout, all with breaks in between. This is how we keep the intensity up, and is why our members resting metabolic rates rise.

To recap all 3 parts of the Metabolism articles:

Many people just don’t want to accept the fact that getting results from exercise is HARD. Raising your resting metabolic rate is HARD. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. And as I’ve said plenty of times previously, I’m like Morpheus in The Matrix: I’m not here to BS you – I’m here to tell you the truth. And if you want to live in denial or if you really don’t want results from exercise that’s fine, it doesn’t make you a bad person – we’ll still be friends. Take the blue pill and believe what you want to believe.

But if you want results from exercise, I’m going to need you to take the red pill. Welcome to the real world with the knowledge the truth will set you free.

Your Metabolism Part 2: How To Raise It

2011-10-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

Now that we know what the metabolism is, you can see its importance on how you look and feel. You can also see why it’s so important you raise yours. But, in case you don’t:

Let’s say for discussion’s sake, I order an entire pizza. Yep, a whole pie – just for me. You watch me eat the first seven slices. Then as I grab the 8th, I pause and ask you:

“How many calories do you think are in this slice of pizza?”

Your response, I hope, would be something along the lines of: “Uh, it really doesn’t matter, Jon. You just ate SEVEN. The eighth one doesn’t really make too much of a difference.”

This is exactly how I feel when people ask me “How many calories does this workout burn?”

It’s never even occurred to me to ask how many calories a particular workout burns – the thought never enters my mind until someone asks. The reason, I hope is obvious at this point: because just the way that one slice of pizza was a very small portion of the whole, that one hour of exercise is a very small part of the whole day. In fact there are 23 other hours in the day, so anyone who implies there is real importance to the number of calories burned during a workout doesn’t really get the “big picture” concept. And as usual, if it comes from an exerciser who doesn’t know better – no big deal, that’s why we’re here. But if a fitness professional has discussions with you about how many calories their workouts burn, you need to get another fitness professional.

Instead, your focus MUST be on THE IMPACT YOUR WORKOUT HAS ON YOUR METABOLISM. If your workout can raise your resting metabolic rate, then you will be burning more calories over 24 hours every single day. I think you’ll agree that’s probably a better focus than to just worry about doing a workout that burns “X” calories, but doesn’t do anything to raise your metabolic rate (RMR).

So then the obvious question is “What can raise your metabolic rate?”

For the sake of simplicity and this article, you’ll need to focus on three things that you can do to raise your resting metabolic rate:

1. Exercise intensely. Yes, I understand intense is a relative term, but you need to find what’s intense for you and you need to get there. A good rule of thumb is if it you think it’s enjoyable, it’s probably not intense. Frankly, in most cases it should be God awful. But this kind of misery reaps rewards: this rise in intensity forces your resting metabolism to rise along with it. Your body is going to start processing and utilizing energy very quickly and very efficiently to meet the demands you’re placing on it in the gym.

2. Exercise consistently. Once in awhile won’t cut it. That’s just beating the hell out of yourself for no good reason. Only when you exercise consistently will your metabolism adapt, rise, and stay risen.

3. Eat often. Notice I didn’t say “Eat A LOT”. I said eat OFTEN. When you ingest calories your body uses them quickly. By eating frequently you’re sending a message to your metabolism that it’s going to continue getting calories and it will respond by continually burning calories. It’s only when you don’t eat often enough that your body stops burning calories (more on this later).

So today’s take home messages kids: Worry about how many calories your metabolism burns over 24 hours, not how many your workout does in one. Workout out consistently and intensely and eat often.

Following these tenets may never get you to being an uber calorie burning machine like a high level athlete, but it will increase your own RMR. Even a slight increase of 25 or 50 calories per day adds up to A LOT of calories not getting stored on your waist over the course of the year.

Stay tuned for part 3 where we’ll discuss habits to avoid that will lower your metabolism. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what may be on the list?

Don't worry, there won't be any more pizza references.

EVERYTHING Is About Your Metabolism

2011-10-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

Part 1:

This is the first part of a series of articles designed to explain to you perhaps the most important aspect of the exercise world: your metabolism. Your metabolism, to a large degree, is the largest contributing factor to your success in how you look and feel. Your health, appearance, strength and aesthetics are largely dictated by your metabolism.

Pretty simple so far, right? Well here’s the problem as I’ve come to understand it: In spite of its importance and its simplicity, most people don’t even know what their metabolism is or what it does. And when I say “most people”, I mean most people who exercise. The exact people who should be concerned about their metabolism, what it does and how it can be affected brush it aside as a physiological concept that doesn’t need to be understood. Or worse: there are many who have no clue what it is or does, but pretend they do which predictably leads to them getting zero results.

Knowing what your metabolism is and how it can be affected will make decision making much easier when it comes to how you should exercise and how you should eat.

Let’s start by defining what your metabolism is. For the sake of this article, your metabolism will be referred to as your “resting metabolic rate” or “RMR”. Your resting metabolic rate is the number of calories you would expend over 24 hours AT REST. So if you did nothing but stare at the wall for 24 hours, your body would use “X” number of calories to perform basic life functions – this is your RMR. For the sake of this discussion we’re going to assume your RMR is 2,000 calories.

Important note: Calories burned from activity DO NOT COUNT toward your RMR.

So again, for argument sake, let’s say your RMR is 2,000 calories per day – you will burn 2,000 calories if you do absolutely nothing. You then exercise, go to work, walk your dog, etc. throughout the day that burns an additional 1,200 calories for a total of 3,200 for the day: That 1,200 DOES NOT count toward your RMR. Your metabolism is only what YOU burn without activity.

OK, so now that we know what your metabolism (RMR) is, let’s get to the good part: Let’s discuss what can raise your metabolism and what can lower it, so you know what you should be doing and what you should be not doing.

And before we continue, let’s get one thing perfectly clear:

Yes, it is true that age and genetics are factors in how high or low your metabolism is. An elite level uber-athlete may have a RMR of 4,000. An older couch potato may have a RMR of 800. But here’s the good news:

No matter what your resting metabolic rate is, IT CAN BE IMPROVED. It is possible to be burning more calories just sitting and reading this article. Which is why we have this T-shirt at The TR:

Chess and Hard Abs

2011-09-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

You know I love analogies, so bear with me:

A guy comes to you and says he wants to be the baddest ass Chess player on the planet. He is going to work his tail off every afternoon with the goal of becoming a great Chess player. He decides to tell you about the program he’s following:

On Monday he played chess. On Wednesday he played checkers. On Friday he played backgammon. Saturday morning he woke up and had a solid round of Scrabble.

Now I ask you, after one week, is he any better of a chess player? No, of course he isn’t.

Is he an idiot? Probably, yeah.

Obviously, he’s not going to get better at chess unless he plays a lot of CHESS, and does other activities that support that goal, like reading books about chess or watching chess experts play games. Playing chess once per week while doing other things that have nothing to do with chess the rest of the week isn’t going to help, and I don’t think anybody would disagree with me on that.

But I’ve found that the overwhelming majority of exercisers, and sadly exercise professionals, still insist on constant variance in workouts similar to the aforementioned learning impaired chess player. But unlike the chess player who we all agree is going nowhere, it’s perfectly acceptable in the exercise world to “mix things up”.

If I’ve learned one thing over the last couple of years, it’s this: Constantly performing different workouts will not get you results. Designing a program and sticking with it will.

Jesus, even those jackasses that do P90X get results because it’s a 90 day program to which they adhere. Of course, the sore knees and weak asses are a result of shitty programming, not the exercisers fault.

I just recently read The Talent Code, which was a great and insightful read. One of the important take home points is that no one ever became great at something doing it a couple of times half assed. Also, no one became great at anything by doing the activity often, but poorly.
People in all walks of life get results by deliberately repeating a sequence over and over while paying close attention to the mistakes they make along the way. Then they stop, correct the mistakes, and do it again. This is repeated until the task can be performed almost automatically and mistake free.

When you make a mistake in one activity, then go on to another activity and make a mistake there, then try a different activity and make a mistake there, you’re only assuring yourself of one thing: You won't be good at any of them.

It’s the same with exercise: if you do workout “A” on Monday, then workout “B” on Wednesday, then workout “C” on Friday you’re only cementing the fact you’ll suck at all of them, because you’ll never see, learn from, and correct your mistakes.

If you want to be lean and strong you need to follow a program that’s designed for maintenance of muscle tissue and loss of body fat. Then you need to repeat that program over, and over, and over, etc…

That doesn’t mean don’t adjust the program as you go. It means follow the program. It can and will always be made more difficult as you improve. Even a program as simple as pushups, pull-ups and body weight squats can be progressed dozens of ways to provide more of a challenge as you progress from your previous workouts.

At The Training Rim, our small group session members follow a three month undulating periodization model. That’s people who workout as a GROUP, have a template to follow ensuring they’ll get better at key exercises that promote total body strength and caloric expenditure, without wasting their time on something that they’ll never do or see again. (It’s funny to think that many personal trainers can’t or won’t do that for their personal training clients. If you know a trainer like that, it’s time to get a new trainer.) And if you're curious about whether or not TR members get bored without "mixing it up" (insert eye roll), they responded "It's fun" overwhelmingly as the number one answer when asked why they stay at the TR.

If you want to be great at chess, play chess. Backgammon and checkers won’t help.

If you want to be lean and strong, get a simple plan and follow it deliberately and relentlessly. Don’t worry: hard glutes await you at the end.

23 Hours Per Day

2011-09-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

I was in Rhode Island this summer for a seminar where I listened to the leaders of my industry discuss my profession for three days. It really was super cool - I learned tons of new things. But perhaps more importantly I was reminded of the significance of things I already knew, but maybe haven’t been reinforcing enough with all of you.

For example, one of the things we all know is there are three aspects to being lean, strong and healthy:

1. Efficient exercise.
2. Recovering from exercise (and your daily routine).
3. Nutrition.

And in spite of what many people think, number one is the LEAST important of the three.

Least important doesn’t mean unnecessary, because exercise is mandatory whether you like it or not. It’s just lower on the food chain than the other two. And its impact on your health related goals drops significantly if the other two are not addressed relentlessly.

Think about it: the hardest core of the hard core members in my facility get in here 4-5 times per week to workout. Average is about 2-3 times per week. So even the most dedicated client spend less than 3% of their time in our facility with supervised workouts – most are supervised about 1% of the time. (2 hours per week here = 166 hours per week elsewhere = .012%)

Now I’m not real good at math, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say the other 97-99% of the time during the week without the TR plays a pretty big factor in your success with regards to your fitness regimen. (On a side note, did you notice I wrote “regimen”, not “regiment”? Drives me insane when people say “regiment” when they mean “regimen”. ‘Hey Jon, can you put me on an exercise regiment?’ Uh, no, I’m not military personnel…thank you…) I digress.

So if you know for sure you’re exercising efficiently, and you’re not getting the results you like, you may be neglecting the other two aspects of your regimen: recovery and nutrition.

Don’t worry; today we have some advice for you to address the needs of the other 23 hours of the day as well as your exercise needs:

How to improve your recovery:

· Sleep: do your best to get it. I know you don’t have ultimate control over this but do your best.
· Tissue recovery: get a foam roller and use it.
· Stress: don’t have it. Stress affects you physically too. Make sure you’re not sweating the small stuff.

How to improve your nutrition:

· Drink water: a lot.
· Cut the crap: eat healthy foods.
· Don’t over eat: if you have one more calorie than your body needs it will be stored.
Probably in an unsightly place.
· Don’t under eat: if you’re exercising consistently your body has a lot of rebuilding and re-fueling to do. Make sure you eat soon after your workout and in small portions consistently throughout the day.

Remember, if you’re exercising efficiently that is awesome, you should be proud of yourself. But you need to remember there are another 23 hours or so per day that are going to affect whether or not you get results. Be efficient those 23 hours too!

Hey Tough Guy. Yes, YOU.

2011-08-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

You know who you are. The guy who goes to the gym and likes to “lift heavy”. The guy who wants to be “big and strong”. Yes, you.

(Or if that’s not you, I am 100% sure you know someone like this. The person who wants big muscles and goes about it by just putting as much weight as they can on a bench and uses the bench’s support to move the weight. You know the guy. He thinks anything that isn’t a barbell or a dumbbell is “for women”.)

Well, I have news for you Mr. Still trying to pretend you’re Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian from 1982. Uugghhh…the fact that a new Conan movie is out is only going to aggravate the situation.

Here’s the deal, tough stuff: all those things that you think are for girls will make you bigger and stronger.

As usual, you can disagree with me – but you’d be wrong…again.

I’ll break it down for you:

Getting big and strong, to a large degree is due to the amount of weight you can move. It’s not rocket science. If you can dumbbell curl heavier dumbbells than you used to, your biceps will get bigger. If you can shoulder press heavier dumbbells than you used to, your shoulders will get bigger, etc.

So then following that logic, it should go without saying, if your body can physically hold and support heavier dumbbells, barbells, etc., your ability to use heavier weight for your curls and presses increases.

Now what do you think allows someone to hold and support more weight?

Ding! Ding! Ding! That’s right, your core! Or, the lumbo-pelvic hip complex to those of us who train at the TR. Good job, maybe you’re not such a meat head after all! The stronger your hips and abs are, the more weight you can grab and support.

OK, now stay with me: if a stronger core allows you to hold and support more weight, and moving more weight gives you bigger muscles, then total body core training will get you bigger muscles, right?!?!?! (Once again, not rocket science...) And, no, “doing abs” is NOT core training. You’ll need to improve the stabilization of your lumbar spine, and the mobility of your hips.

Yes, now I’m going to use the “F” word…

Your core needs “Functional” training. I know it’s a dirty word nowadays. I know it’s cooler to mock what you don’t understand and flip a truck tire over instead of admitting you can’t do one body weight pushup. I know the guy at the gym with acne all over his back tells you that you don’t need functional training, but trust me: you do if you want to get stronger.

If you can get your abs to stabilize your spine, and if you can train your hips to be mobile and strong, you can support and hold more weight. If you can hold and support more weight, you can train heavier and get bigger muscles – period.

And because I know you’re probably moving your lips and mouthing these words as you read this, I’ll slow down and say it again:

Improve the function of your hips and abs = hold heavier weight.

Hold heavier weight = move heavier weight when training arms, shoulders, etc.

Move heavier weight when training = bigger muscles.

Bottom line: If you want to get bigger and stronger, you’re selling yourself short if you don’t improve the functionality of your hips and abdominals. Just ask your wife who trains at the TR when she’s carrying in all the heavy stuff from Costco that you're unable to lift without your back hurting.

And a final note on Jason Momoa (or Chris Evans, or Dwayne Johnson, or whatever muscular celebrity is in whatever magazine next week telling you they use split body part routines to get big): Celebrities have access to things you do not, such as a) 15 - 20 hours per week to work out, b) professional nutritionists, cooks, and cleaning people. c) steroids.

When you have access to all those things then you can train like them. Until then, listen to the pros at the TR.

Here's Jason Momoa a.k.a. "Khal Drago", a.k.a., "Conan" looking not quite as big and muscular as he did on "Game of Thrones".

Big, Hard and Round Brains!

2011-08-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

“A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.” - Thomas Carruthers

I know you’re probably tired of me gushing about the members of the TR. I’m always going on about how hard they work, how easily they do difficult things, and how they have fun doing it.
You’re tired of me telling you about my client with no previous endurance training or competition background finishing in the top 5% in his 1st “Tough Mudder” competition.

Apparently 2 times per week at the TR gets you in better shape than what 95% of people who do endurance training do to get in shape.

I know you’re tired of me telling you about women in their 30’s and 40’s who have kids or jobs or both in many cases, swinging kettlebells between 60 and 80 lbs.

So today I’m going to tell you a new thing about my clients I love: their brains.

For example: these are topics of conversation that have been overheard at the TR amongst its members:

· Spinal kyphosis and lordosis.
· Scapular retraction, depression and downward rotation.
· The malleolus and tibial tuberosity.
· Undulating periodization.
· Negative work to rest ratios.

Seriously.

Over the last 20 years I’ve probably spent time in about 15 – 20 exercise facilities either as a member or a trainer. And I’m having trouble remembering a conversation about the above topics between TWO TRAINERS. Never mind members talking about this stuff: I’ve never heard FITNESS PROFESSIONALS (ahem, cough, cough…) discussing this stuff unless I was one of the trainers in the conversation.

And this is what I’m proud of: At The Training Rim we don’t discuss this stuff because we want to impress people with big words. We do it because we want to empower our members. Their empowerment through their knowledge increases their chances of getting leaner, stronger, healthier, and better looking.

If you understand the “why” behind our interval training, you’re less likely to waste time doing silly shit like long duration cardio on your own.

If you understand the “why” behind our core training, you’ll be less likely to waste your time “doing abs” like the other learning impaired individuals at Globo Gym.

Bottom line: the more you know, the more likely you are to get results. The more you train at a facility that considers it an obligation to educate you, the more likely you are to get results.

Which brings me back to the quote at the top of the page. We consider educating our members part of our job here at The Training Rim. We don’ think beating the holy hell out of them until they puke is our job. Nor do we feel coddling them and telling them it’s OK to exert minimal effort in your “workout” and call it exercise. It’s our job to get them to improve. (Which is why “Always Improve” is Training Rim tenet #1 and on the wall at our facility). Knowledge helps get you there. And although I hope I never become completely unnecessary, I do take pride in telling my clients they have rendered me “superfluous” when they’re in the middle of destroying yet another circuit, in part because of thier knowledge. It means we’re all doing our jobs and getting stuff done.

(*On a side note, admittedly the conversation about the malleolous only came up because someone accidentally slammed theirs into a kettlebell – which kinda’ hurt.)

I think if this guy used a HeadBlade, this is how my clinets view me.

Your Bank Account

2011-07-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

Recently I asked a few people to review their resolutions from this past January as we just passed the halfway point of 2011. As I did this I reviewed my own goals and an interesting analogy struck me:

It seems that with few exceptions, people make resolutions around either fitness or financial goals. And in an odd way, the modus operandi for successful attainment of these resolutions is almost identical in scope.

When doing financial planning, you simply need to understand the concept that your deposits need to be larger than your withdrawals. If you accumulate more money than you spend, your net worth will increase. If you spend more money than you accumulate, your net worth will decrease. Pretty simple stuff: you don’t need to be an economics professor from MIT to understand it. The tough part is however, having the discipline to implement and track it.

It’s almost EXACTLY the same with fitness. Your level of fitness is almost entirely made up of a series of deposits and withdrawals. Just because the denominations are less tangible than money, doesn’t make them any less important or less measureable.

For example, I worked out today. Nothing fancy: just some foam rolling, some lower body strength work and some conditioning circuits involving ropes and sandbags. I view that as a deposit.

Now if I recover well today by drinking plenty of fluids, eating several small portions of high quality foods, and then go to bed early and get a good nights’ sleep, that’s another deposit. If I have 365 days like that, my fitness goals will easily be reached. I will have made a ton of deposits with no withdrawals - my fitness bank account will be in the same condition as my financial bank account would be if I made deposits all year with no withdrawals.

But not making withdrawals is not practical with either finances or fitness. As I’ve said one million times to my clients: there are times life is going to get in the way of your workout plans. As long as you limit it to minor setbacks however, it won’t be a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

For example: Your boss made you stay late at work so you weren’t able to work out as you planned to. That’s a withdrawal. Or your mother makes you a kick ass dessert when you visit and you don’t want to be rude to your mom and not eat her dessert that she slaved over to make you happy – that’s another withdrawal. Or if you meet up with some friends and that salad with low fat oil and vinegar on the side with your glass of tap water just isn’t cutting it. Especially not when they’re having food and drinks that taste good (and they’re having a lot of them!), so you decide to have some nachos and throw back a few with them – another withdrawal. What your common withdrawals are don’t matter, as long as they aren’t constant and consistent. Same as when you splurge occasionally with your money – not a big deal as long as it’s not all the time.

So the issue is this: at the end of the year, will your exercise deposits out number your exercise withdrawals? If the answer is yes, then you’ll be going in the right fitness direction. Just as you would be if your financial deposits outnumbered your financial withdrawals.

Some more examples and a WARNING:

Some deposits and withdrawals are bigger than others, start thinking of them as such. For example:

· A couple of slices of pizza? Small withdrawal.

· A couple of slices of pizza after a plate of buffalo wings and followed by baked ziti washed down with a few beers? BIG withdrawal.

· Some planks, pushups and foam rolling on days in between planned program workouts? Small deposit.

· A planned workout as part of a larger program that includes mobility, core stabilization, strength training and conditioning? BIG deposit. Keep making deposits like this one and your fitness bank account will grow pretty quickly!

Warning: Beware of bad investments!

There are many activities that may appear to be deposits that are actually bad investments. Think of them the same way you would as if you bought stock in company that’s going to go under. For example:

· Not eating often enough. This appears to reap immediate benefits because of the caloric restriction, but your metabolism will lower to compensate pretty quickly, which will worsen your situation. Consider it like investing in Borders.

· Jogging. Jogging is like buying stock in Blockbuster: Feels good when you got up and running, but eventually you’re going to crash. Statistically speaking, you’re going to be injured and you’re not going to lose body fat.

· Starting a crash/restrictive/fad diet. There’s just no way to stick to it if you’re a real person with a job, spouse, kids, etc. This is a waste of your fitness energy and resources - you may as well just toss cash out the window of your moving car.

If you’re interested in improving your fitness levels, my advice is to start looking at your habits as investments, deposits and withdrawals. Eventually, with sound planning and sound implementation you’ll be going in the right direction and you’ll get where you want to go.

This is Leigh: She's made PLENTY of withdrawals into her anti-extension account.

The Weight Is NOT Too Heavy!

2011-07-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today we have a quick observation of a mistake made way too often that I haven’t seen anyone else jump on yet. I notice this mistake A LOT, and like most things, I don’t really understand the logic behind it.

That is the automatic assumption that if and exercise cannot be performed, that the weight must be too heavy. And this leads to the larger issue: the exerciser simply choosing a lighter weight instead of correcting the manner in which the exercise was being performed.

Now, I ask you, my educated fitness friends, what has this accomplished? Ding! Ding! Ding! You got it: It’s made the exercise MORE dangerous because now it can actually be performed incorrectly! The exercise couldn’t be executed with the heavy weight because the form sucked, not because the weight was too heavy (which is the message that typically goes unnoticed…)

Now of course there are instances where the weight may be too heavy, but I think they are in the minority – I think it’s more likely you have to check your form 1st. If your form is perfect and the weight can’t be moved, then go down in weight. But check yourself 1st, as it’s most likely not a weight problem, it’s more likely an operator problem as we like to say here at the TR.

Check out this video: I go into a little more specificity and give you the always helpful visual aid!

http://www.youtube.com/user/thetrainingrim#p/a/u/0/uv4_1oYDrXw

You think his problem is the weight is too heavy? Try again...

The Cure For Joint Pain

2011-06-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Of course there is no cure for joint pain, but there are preventative measures that we can take to greatly reduce the chances of getting shoulder/knee/back discomfort. Last I heard 4 out of 5 of us will suffer from shoulder/back/knee issues at some point while exercising, so pay attention:

It seems, in my experience anyway; in the overwhelming majority of cases of joint pain, preventative measures were not taken. Pretty much anytime someone tells me they have knee, back, or shoulder pain, the “cause” comes directly from one of two very preventable issues:

1. The exerciser is doing something wrong.
2. The exerciser is doing too much.

The good news is that both of those issues are easy to address.

First, if you’re doing something wrong:

Double and triple check if you are moving in the correct manner. Are you squatting correctly? I.e., are your toes forward, are your knees in line with your toes, are you flexing at the hips instead of the lower back? When you push or pull are your shoulders staying retracted instead of rolling forward? Is your mid-section stabilized as opposed to flexing and extending?

In many cases, exercisers think they are using correct form when they are not, either due to ignorance, inattentiveness, or poor previous instruction. This is why it’s crucial to both learn correct movement, and pay attention to your movement as you exercise.

Secondly, joint pain can come from doing too much.

“Too much” can mean a few different things from an exercise standpoint: Too many workouts, too many reps, too much weight, too difficult of an exercise, etc. Essentially, you’ve given your body a greater workload than it can handle and joint pain is its way of telling you that you need to back off a little.

In these cases, joint pain prevention is simple – use common sense. Know your limits and understand the phrase “no pain, no gain” was uttered by a learning impaired individual.

In the non-exercise world of real life, "too much" can mean numerous things: too much driving, too much working, too much gardening, landscaping, shoveling, etc.

Of course, I need to add the caveat that people doing too much in the exercise world seems to be the exception. Too much more commonly means too much sitting, too much eating, etc. So explore the option you may be doing too much in your workouts only if you actually work out a lot. If you don’t work out a lot, give it a shot.

Don't be this A-Hole.

Get Results With Simple Gym Math

2011-05-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

Don’t worry, I hate math too. I live with a high school math teacher and I just don’t get it. But unlike those dopey kids who we went to school with who used to always moan “When are we ever going to need to do this stuff?!?!” I, at least, despite my distaste for it, recognize that math is not only useful, but necessary in day to day life.

How does this relate to you getting strong and lean? Very easily, my friend.

If you’ve followed us at all over the last few years, you know that we’re always screaming about what a waste of times gyms are. Statistically speaking, if you want to get in good shape, gyms are one of the last places you should go because it’s been proven you probably won’t get stronger or leaner there.

Well it wasn’t until I sat down and did some simple math that I realized the extent to which gyms are useless.

Play along with me: Think of people you know or have seen at the gym that are in really good shape. People that you look at and say “Wow, I wouldn’t mind being like him/her!” Using the gym I used to be in as a reference, I’m thinking maybe 25 people fall into that category. I would say I knew about 25 people in gym “X” that I would say were in really good shape.

And using my former gym “X” as a reference, there were approximately 9,000 members. I know this because they couldn’t stop telling everybody how great they were because they had so many members.

Now the plot thickens, and it’s time to put that math to use:

Approximately 25 people out of approximately 9,000 members = approximately .002778% of people who have memberships actually are in good shape.

That’s less than one percent. In fact, it’s not even close to ONE percent.

OK, let’s say my memory is off. There were actually twice as many people in gym “X” in really good shape as I remember.

That’s still less than one percent.

OK, let’s be even more of a skeptic: there are three times as many people in really good shape at big box gym than I remember.

That’s STILL LESS THAN ONE PERCENT OF ITS MEMBERS THAT ARE IN REALLY GOOD SHAPE.

I know what some of you smart alecks are saying: “Well, Jon, a lot of those members you’re counting don’t actually go to the gym, which is why they don’t get in shape. They shouldn’t be counted.”

I’m going to disagree with you my friend because you have it backwards: They don’t go to the gym BECAUSE THE GYM DOESN’T GET THEM IN SHAPE!!! Their gym sucks. It’s not fun, it’s ineffectual and it’s filled with assholes. Of course people are going to stop showing up!

Nobody ever joined a gym with the intention of not going. They joined, they tried it, then they said “This sucks,” then they stopped going – not the other way around.

Now I’m not sure of the statistics off the top of my head, but at The Training Rim people who have fun outnumber those who don’t. Members who attend and train regularly outnumber those who don’t. And people who are in great shape are the general rule, not the exception.

Remember: if you go to the gym and don’t get results, it’s not your fault. If your friend is always whining about going to the gym and not getting results, it’s not his or her fault.

The lack of results is the gym’s fault. Gyms don't work. Here endeth the lesson.

Muscle Confusion?

2011-04-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Muscle Confusion? I’m confused.

Recently the term “muscle confusion” has become popular. I’m not really sure who to blame for this.

First of all, muscles do not have brains therefore they do not get confused. Muscles receive messages from your brain then react. That’s it. There’s no higher order deductive reasoning going on in the sarcomeres of your muscle tissue.

People who use the term muscle confusion act is if they saw a muscle reading a philosophy book once and were able to mentally outmaneuver it.

This is what I hear when someone says they use muscle confusion:

“Hey – my bicep thought I was going to make it contract by doing a barbell curl. But I fooled it – I made it contract by doing a dumbbell curl! Ha ha ha! I sure outwitted my bicep! Woo Hoo!”

And back to reading the latest muscle magazine with the big pictures you go my friend.

I’m not really sure what is meant by muscle confusion, but I know ultimately it just means doing random crap. Do one thing, then do another, then another with no rhyme or reason. Don’t have a plan, neither short nor long term by which to go. Mix your strength training with your corrective exercise, your corrective exercise with your conditioning, your conditioning with your core work, your core work with your flexibility, your flexibility with whatever – it’ll all work out. As long as it looks cool and has a cool name.

I’ve learned many things in my career, and one of the most important things I’ve ever learned is this:

When it comes to exercise and conditioning, randomness should be avoided at all costs.

Understand that your plan will probably need to be tweaked – but have a plan.

There are no important gains in exercise that don’t take tons of practice and diligence. Nobody anywhere in life made significant progress on something either important or difficult without practicing their arses off. Don’t believe me? Read “Outliers” by Malcom Gladwell.

Diligence and practice should not be confused with repetitiveness, monotony, and tedium, however. It only means something should be mastered before moving on. Trust me: there are dozens of ways to make a push up tougher if you think you’re good at them.

And remember as far as exercise goes, if it comes easy, you’re probably wasting your time. Stick with what you’re doing as long as you’re progressing. If you’re getting results, don’t change anything.

For example, the program I had written for my small group clients was supposed to change on the first of the month. The problem with that was that everyone was still progressing on that program, so why change it - because we want our muscles to be confused? That sounds like something that someone who sells DVD’s for a living would tell you. A professional trainer – you know someone who actually trains people for a living – would say ‘let’s stick with what’s working’.

This is why you need experienced, educated exercise professionals. Not people who watched DVD’s as their educational resource and not people who think beating the crap out of you a different way today than they did the last workout is exercise programming. Any moron can do those things for you. Find somebody who’s read a book. Find someone who’s read articles on programming individuals and groups.

Or, even better, find someone who’s written those books and articles and train at their facility.

Fat Burning? Really?

2011-03-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

First off, two apologies:

I apologize if you’re already aware that the “Fat Burning Zone” is a myth. I, like you, thought it hadn’t been taken seriously since the 1980’s. Unfortunately due to more than one recent discussion, I’ve learned this fallacy is alive and well in the exercise community.

I apologize if you believe this nonsense and feel my anger is directed towards you. It’s directed at the knucklehead fitness pro who communicated it to you whose job it is to know better.

The “Fat Burning Zone”, according to its proponents, is a heart rate of between 60-65% of your maximum heart rate. (This presumably is following the guide that your maximum heart rate can be calculated by subtracting your age from 220. The BS that is THAT calculation will be covered some other time.) The proponents and followers of the fat burning zone argue that a relatively low heart rate such as 60-65%, causes your body to burn a greater percentage of calories from fat, thereby increasing fat loss and weight loss.

Problem #1: Following that logic, sitting on the couch watching football is better for me than a circuit of kettlebell swings. Watching football will elevate my heart rate slightly above normal, thereby burning a high percentage of fat calories. An intense circuit of kettlebell swings may get my heart rate up to 180 beats per minute, or pretty close to my maximum. According to the fat burning zone, the kettlebell circuit won’t cause me to lose as much fat as watching football. Uh…OK…

Problem #2: You know how people who are trying to conserve energy always tell you to drive your car more slowly because you’ll save gas? Well you’re body works the same way: if you move slowly, you use less energy. The problem is this: saving gas in your car is a good thing. Saving and storing energy in your body is a bad thing. There is a name for stored energy in your body: it’s called FAT. Drive your car slowly, but move your body quickly – when your body runs out of gas, you’re doing pretty well with your workout.

Problem #3: The concept is short sighted. Let’s assume for the sake of discussion that your body will use more fat for energy when your heart rate is low. You’re still burning way fewer total calories by keeping the intensity down. For example, workout A is trying to get you to burn more calories from fat. Workout A is walking for 30 minutes. Workout A says you’ll burn 100 calories and 50% will be from fat for a grand total of 50 calories burned using fat as an energy source. Workout B is an interval circuit alternating between kettlebell swings and rope slams for 10 minutes. It burns a total of 200 calories and only 40% are from fat for a total of 80 calories burned using fat as an energy source.

Workout B burned 100 more total calories, with 30 more of them coming from stored energy sources (fat), and took 20 minutes less incidentally. But of course, a higher percentage of the minute number of calories came from fat in workout A. Whoop de damn doo – the person doing workout B burned more total calories, more calories from fat, and had an extra 20 minutes in their day.

Now tell me again why the intensity needs to be kept low?

Truthfully, I don’t know the answer to this. I think it still stems from our society’s way for looking for the expedient route instead of the correct route. Walking is easy. Slamming ropes is hard. Let’s look for an excuse to walk. A seated chest press machine is easy. Pushups are not. Let’s sell memberships by showing people our “machines” with soft seats.

Whatever the case may be, you’ll have a tough time convincing me, or any of my clients that doing less work is better for fat loss.

Research?!? C'mon...

2011-01-26T13:33:00.000-08:00

“Men of experience succeed even better than those who have theory without experience.” - Aristotle

The longer I’m in my field, the more I realize the above statement is true. Theoretical research comes out every day in the world of health and exercise that makes me go “huh?!?” This isn’t the problem to me but rather the likelihood that someone who doesn’t do what I do for a living will see the news report about the research and go running with it, assuming it’s valid and/or applicable to their personal situation, when it probably isn’t.

Recently I saw a news report about a study suggesting that eating breakfast isn’t that important as it relates to weight loss and health issues as people previously believed. The study mentioned that people that skip breakfast don’t necessarily eat more throughout the rest of the day, and therefore don’t take in more calories on a whole.

I’ll preface my reaction to this report with this: All research can be called into question. Typically research is performed to validate an opinion. Generally speaking, if the opinion isn’t proven correct, people don’t run around yelling “Look! I was wrong! I was wrong!” More often, they design the study to prove their point and run to the news with it if they’re opinion was validated. And of course, if it’s even a little bit controversial the media will scream it from the rafters in order to get us to watch. This is magnified exponentially if the research is funded by a company that has a financial interest in the outcome of the research.

In this particular case, the researchers had a theory that people who don’t eat breakfast don’t eat more through the day and wanted to show they are correct. What was not mentioned in the news report is countless other research, both subjective and objective, that suggests that even if that is true, it doesn’t take into account other very important factors to your health.

Even if you are not eating more by skipping breakfast, you surely are burning fewer calories by skipping breakfast. You’re body is already in a form of fasting mode 1st thing in the morning because you haven’t eaten since the night before at best. This brings your metabolism to a screeching halt – when your body doesn’t get food, it doesn’t burn food because it thinks it’s starving – it does this as a defense mechanism. Skipping breakfast only exacerbates this situation, and forces your body to lower the number of calories you’ll burn.

Am I saying discount all research and theoretical studies? Of course not. Many great societal progressions have come from studies like this.

I am saying however that research studies are simply a tool and should be treated as such. Take what is said with a grain of salt, especially if it’s reported through the media.

Far more reliable than theoretical research is real world experience. This is something that many people I trust in my industry have told me, but it becomes more evident and grows more valid every time I think about it.

There is a misconception that working experience is not research. It is. It’s subjective however, so therefore some would have you believe it’s not as valid as “scientific studies”. But as we’ve discussed, they can be pretty subjective as well.

So when push comes to shove, who is more credible? The person in a lab measuring and quantifying statistics with a very small number of people over the course of a few weeks, or, the person who has seen and worked with real people day after day, year after year for decades? I’ll take that 2nd person’s opinion 99 times out of 100. Their observations are priceless because they aren’t theories about what MAY work, the observations are knowledge about what HAS worked in real situations.

It reminds me of the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Two martial artists who believe their fighting style to be superior to all others disagree with each other: Would you believe the guy whose system was never actually used in a real fight, or the guy who actually got in the ring and showed his fighting style worked better than others? Uh, when I’m in a dark alley, I’d rather have the 2nd guy watching my back.

I mention this warning about research because we’ve always believed at The Training Rim that results speak for themselves, whether it coincides with popular ideas and research or not. When there’s a new training methodology out that claims to be superior to all other previous modalities, our response is usually “OK, prove it. And not with mice in a lab – with real people with real jobs, families, homes, social lives etc. If it doesn’t work in that setting then it’s useless information.”

This attitude has worked well for us. We use training methodologies that we know to be effective. We know they’re effective because we’ve been using them for over a decade now and we’ve seen our clients continually get great results.

That beats the hell out of any research study any day of the week to us. If you want to debate the latest ideas and studies go right ahead: by the time you’re done we’ll be wrapping up another workout that’s already been proven to make us stronger and leaner.

In the words of Ron Burgundy, “It’s science.”

Beware of Rehab!

2010-12-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

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:

2010-11-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-12T08:43:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

"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:

2010-10-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-09-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-26T16:43:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-08-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

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:

2010-07-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-06-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

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..."

2010-05-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-31T06:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-20T15:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-15T11:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2010-02-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

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:

2010-01-30T12:24:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-01-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-03T05:21:00.000-08:00

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/.

YOUR 2010 resolutions:

2009-12-30T12:42:00.000-08:00

I just recently had an epiphany when thinking about two different topics for my blog when I realized that they were actually intertwined and should be tied together to facilitate your exercise and fitness programs!

First, people always ask me what they should be doing with their exercise programs. Almost always, I end up telling them to stop doing whatever it is they’re doing 1st, then we’ll talk about what they need to do. Remove the time and energy wasters, THEN worry about adding on. If you continue to do the things that aren’t working (and obviously, they aren’t working or you wouldn’t be asking me for my advice) you’ll still be wasting time and spinning your wheels no matter what else you start doing that’s new.

Secondly, I noticed that a) most people make resolutions that they never stick to, and b) these resolutions are all things they are going to “do”.

So I took these two observations and combined them into a list of New Year’s resolutions for you:

Here are the top 10 things you need to STOP doing in ’10 to fully achieve your exercise goals, and start to look and feel like the clients at The Training Rim! (If you already are a client – pass these along to your friend who still goes to mega box gym and doesn’t know any better!)

In 2010, you resolve to:

1. Stop doing cardio.

Seriously, enough already. It doesn’t reduce body fat and it doesn’t make you healthy. In fact, it’s going to hurt you. If that’s your thing, great, godspeed to you. But if you’re doing it because you think it’s good for you, for the love of God please stop.

2. Stop stretching your spine.

Flexing, extending and rotating the spine will injure you, period. There isn’t a respected spinal researcher in the world who will tell you differently. Your back doesn’t need to be stretched, twisted or strengthened – it needs to STOP MOVING. Go work on your hip mobility, please. Your back will thank you.

3. Stop thinking the biggest loser is real.

It’s enjoyable TV, nothing more. No, you shouldn’t be doing ANYTHING they do on the show. They do what they do to get you to watch – NOT to get people healthy.

4. Stop thinking the PX90 or any other flavor of the week is anything but a sales gimmick.

How many infomercial fads have to come and go before you realize there really isn’t some new secret gimmick or tool to buy to help you. C’mon, now…

5. Stop thinking you know what you’re doing.

I’ve been a trainer for 10 years, exercising for 20. I have a Masters Degree in Exercise Science. I learn something new every day in regards to human movement. Things I did a few years ago, I don’t do anymore because now I know better. Do you know what all this means? You will never – repeat NEVER – have it down, know what you’re doing, etc. You may know more than you used to know, but you still have a long way to go. We ALL do.

6. Stop telling yourself “carbs” are bad.

Your body needs carbohydrates. One of our trainers, Dina is a vegetarian, so by definition 100% of what she eats are “carbs”. Dina has less body fat than an aluminum pole. End of discussion.

7. Stop expecting results when you barely ever exercise.

My next blog is on this topic, so more to come. Short version: If you don’t plan on consistently exercising for a long period of time, you will NEVER get results.

8. Stop thinking you don’t need a trainer.

I need a trainer. I jump into our small group sessions all the time and I’m amazed by how better and more efficiently I perform when I’m guided by a knowledgeable professional.

9. Stop doing crunches and sit ups.

Revisit #2. Your abdominal muscles ARE NOT DESIGNED TO MOVE YOUR SPINE – they are designed to hold your spine still. Then on top of that, you’re not burning any calories and you’re more likely to add muscle, and therefore adding size to your mid section. No, crunches are not “core work” – they are stupid.

10. Sitting on machines.

My God, seriously, GET UP! Who ever came up with the idea that sitting on a machine or bench is a better choice than supporting your own body weight? I just came from a big box mega gym and I counted 77 people working out. ONE – yes, ONE - person was not on a piece of equipment, bench, cardio machine, etc. She was working out ON HER FEET with some dumbbells and body weight exercises. Guess who had the best body in the gym?

Don’t hesitate to email me if I forgot one: thetrainingrim@gmail.com

What Horse's Arse did that?!?

2009-12-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

We are HUGE on always asking "why?" around here. We will NEVER perform exercises or programs simply because other people have done them forever. I.e., we haven't done crunches here for years. Why should we? Because other people say so? We haven't done crunches for years and all our clients and trainers agree we have stronger abs since eliminating crunches.

Along those lines, here's a quick story on why you should always ask "why?" It has a great lesson on choosing exercises and in life in general.

(Courtesy of Alwyn Cosgrove, one of the most respected trainers on the planet):

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England and English expatriates designed the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.

Why did ‘they’ use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?

Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagonwheels would break on some of the old long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing… Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder ‘What horse’s ass came up with this?’, you may be exactly right.

Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses (Two horses’ asses).

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank.

These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah.

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.

The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass.

Stockings, Crack and The Training Rim

2009-12-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

Every now and then that little light bulb goes on over my head and I say, “Hmmm…now THAT’S interesting.” This happens far less frequently as the aging process takes it course, but as they say, even the Mona Lisa is falling apart.

One of my clients once referred to my facility as “like crack” for her. She just loved the energy and feeling she received when she came and had to get more of it.

Then that light bulb went on…

Over the course of history, society has been altered dramatically by products simply being re-packaged. Someone took an already existing product and found a way to alter it slightly to make it even better than its original form. And when I say “better”, I mean similar quality and less cost.

I’ll give you two examples:

1. Nylon stockings:

There was a time long, long ago when silk stockings were the only type of stockings that existed. The problem was that although they looked and felt great (so I’m told), they were ridiculously fragile and expensive. Not a good combination unless you were extremely wealthy.

Then some dude invented nylon stockings. Looked good, felt good, and were durable and inexpensive. All of a sudden, a luxury item was affordable to the masses.

2. Crack Cocaine:

There was a time when cocaine was a very chic choice among those who used illegal drugs. I remember being a kid when it seemed like a day didn’t go by where there wasn’t a pro athlete, movie star, model, etc that wasn’t in the news for having a cocaine problem.

But again, as much as people liked cocaine, it was a very expensive option if recreational drugs were your thing. Hence, pro athletes and movie stars being pretty much the only users.

Then someone came along, took cocaine, mixed it with a few other things and invented crack cocaine. Crack was a much less expensive, but just as potent option.

Again, a luxury item for the masses.

Of course the impact this had on our society in terms of crime issues is the NOT point of my writing this. The point I’m making is like nylon stockings, someone figured out a way to bring what was once a luxury item and make it affordable to almost anybody.

So what does this have to do with exercise?

The fitness and exercise industry are in the EXACT SAME SITUATION as the stocking and illicit drug industries were years ago.

Gym memberships are inexpensive but they don’t work. If you think they do you’re not paying attention.

One on one personal training can be expensive. Especially if you go to the mega chain gyms of the world where $80 per hour is the norm to work with a trainer with very little education and experience.

Enter small group personal training.

Small group personal training brings the luxury of personal training at a very affordable rate.

If you haven’t experienced our small group sessions, here’s what it’s like:

At each session, you’re instructed and guided by a trainer. Every exercise, repetition, set, tempo, etc is chosen for you. And you are watched like a HAWK to be sure you’re doing the exercise correctly.

The only catch is that you’ll share the session with 2 or 3 other people on average. Which incidentally, research has shown INCREASES your chances of reaching your goals.

You get the benefits of a personal trainer – so what about the cost?

The cost is something that over 90% of us can afford. You know how I know that?

Because small group training with us costs less than what most of us pay for cable TV. And over 90% of the people reading this have cable TV.

A personal trainer starting at $129 per month.

Luxury for the masses baby, luxury for the masses.

Author's note: Some of the above information was borrowed from Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt - two brilliant guys and the authors of "Freakonomics". A great book if you haven't read it.

The Race Horse vs. The Bear

2009-12-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

I was recently the guest speaker at a business networking luncheon. I chose and spoke of the topic “Fat Loss Secrets” because typically losing body fat is the only universal topic among all people who exercise. (I’ve yet to have anyone approach me on how to ADD body fat…) And given the status of our society, apparently there are secrets.

As is my habit, I ventured off into the bio-mechanics and physiological mumbo-jumbo jargon of which most people could not care less. As a result, I told my audience to simply always remember the analogy of the race horse and the bear.

It must have worked because I received a ton of compliments after the speech and a flood of emails later on telling me what a great analogy it was and how it was going to help people stay on track with their training.

Additionally, because it seems I’ve received so many questions regarding cardio training and eating questions lately I decided to post this, knowing it will help on both counts. So with advanced apologies to those who may have heard it before…

Think about how race horses exercise. They sprint as hard as they can for as long as they can, which typically is only for a minute or two. Then they rest. Then they repeat that process again and again. As they become better conditioned, they either run faster, or shorten the rest periods. They don’t increase the duration of their running sessions.

Now think about how a race horse eats. It nibbles on grain, oats, etc ALL DAY LONG. Given the physical size of race horses, oats and grain don’t seem like very much. But they’ll ingest their food in very small portions spread out throughout the day.

Now let’s turn to the bear. They lay around for months at a time. Then they meander around a country side for long periods until they find a stream. When they find one, they park themselves in it.

Then the bear will stand in the stream and swat and eat every fish that comes by until the bear can barely stand anymore from being so full. Then he’ll wander back and lie down and repeat the process over and over.

Have you ever seen a race horse up close? If you haven’t, it’s alarming how strong, and muscular they are with absolutely ZERO body fat. I’ve never tried to pinch one, nor do I recommend it, but I doubt you’d be able to.

Remember what a bear looks like? If anyone tells you that you look like a bear, trust me, it’s not a compliment.

And I’m not even going to get into the discussion of WHAT they’re eating: grains, oats (OH MY GOD! NOT CARBS!!!) for the race horse and fish (pure, lean protein) for the bear. Reason #563 my head explodes when people tell me they need to “watch their carbs”…uuggghhh…

Again:

Short intense training + portion control = ripped.

Long slow training + gorging = fat.

Here endeth the lesson:

Stupid Strong!

2009-11-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

The relative strength of many of the people in our studio is a common topic of discussion (relative strength is defined as strength in relation to your body weight). For example, "Joann and Tania are so strong for their size, it's STUPID!" is an overheard direct quote. Seeing relatively thin people moving obviously large and heavy kettle bells, cable stacks, etc. can be entertaining or alarming depending on your perspective. People new to the studio especially take note of how some can be so strong without having “big, giant muscles”.

As with most things, the reason for their strength is multi-factorial, but as the trainer and as the bio-mechanics Pit Bull, I’ve boiled it down to one thing:

Their strength is due to their bio-mechanical technical proficiency.

Sound complicated? Broken down more specifically, here’s what they can do:
They can coordinate every muscle and joint in their body efficiently and simultaneously to produce force, stabilize force and reduce force.

From an athletic standpoint it means they can train faster and harder both in and out of the studio.

From a health stand point, it means their knees, backs and shoulders won’t hurt because they are functioning correctly.

And from an aesthetics stand point, they will look FANTASTIC. If every muscle works the way it supposed to, then every muscle will LOOK the way it’s supposed to. (Duh…)

Obviously, hard work, consistency and dedication to the training are mandatory. But when the aforementioned Joann and Tania for example, do train, they make sure they do it correctly. They follow instructions. They pay attention to what they are doing. They don’t just stand up and down when they squat, nor do they simply flop down then grunt their way back up on pushups.

When they squat, they make sure they flex and extend the hips. When they do pushups they make sure they stabilize the mid-section as they move their upper body.

When the human body, through consistent practice, can generate coordinated effort and power (as opposed to the nonsensical bodybuilding practice of training one muscle at a time) amazing results can and will occur.

And what are these results?

No joint pain, reduced body fat, and hard abs and glutes.

Not bad for littluns’ huh?

Here's Tania performing kettlebell bear crawls with two 25lb kettlebells with PERFECT form:

Want to see Joann and Bernie do a pushup? Click below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF1hBl5pDAU

"Yogging..."

2009-10-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

Veronica and I are trying this new fad called…uh…’jogging’, I believe it’s ‘jogging’, or ‘yogging’, it might be a soft ‘j’ – I’m not sure, but apparently you just run…for an extended period of time…”
- Ron Burgundy, Anchorman.

We have running on the brain around here lately. Three Training Rim alumni are running in the NYC marathon this Sunday November 1st (one of them is running to raise awareness for the Multiple Myeloma Foundation.) And a friend of mine just wrote a book called “Core Training for Distance Runners”, which is fantastic – more on that later.

So of course, I’ve been asked often recently to expand on my disdain for running, so I’m writing to expand and hopefully clarify a few things.

I have two problems with running:

1st, like most things I dislike, is simple personal taste, or lack thereof. To paraphrase another trainer, I can’t think of anything that could suck more than just running indefinitely for an extended period of time. It’s one of the reasons the Ron Burgundy quote above cracks me up.

Secondly, and more importantly as a fitness professional, is the misinterpretation that running is somehow healthy for you.

It’s not. If you believe it is, you’ve been misinformed.

It is not good for your heart and it will not help you lose body fat.

Now I know about half of you are about to stop reading, so I’ll cut to the chase: I’m not saying don’t run. I’m only saying that I don’t like it, and it’s not good for you – that’s all. Don’t get your New Balances and Asics all in a twist. I’m sure there are things I do that aren’t good for me that you don’t like.

I used to take Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. After a typical session, every muscle in my body would be completely spent and I’d be covered in sweat. Must’ve been good for me, right?

Wrong. My body was always covered in bruises. I had cuts that seemingly bled for days. I had fingers and toes dislocated. I had my elbow hyper-extended to the point of audible snapping a least 4 times. I was choked unconscious once (that I’m able to remember…)

Only a mental patient would suggest that doing that was a good, healthy habit. I did it because I found it to be fun and rewarding. But I would never suggest to someone that it would be healthy for them.

Enter distance running: Many people run for similar reasons. They enjoy the feeling of overcoming challenges, they get a “runner’s high”, they use it as an escape from the real world, etc. There’s nothing wrong with these things. If you get these things from running, by all means, run Forrest run.

But running will greatly increase your chance of having an orthopedic health problem. It really isn’t a matter if, but when your shoulder, back, knee or foot is injured.

Without turning this into an unnecessary discussion on bio-mechanics, there’s one major problem with distance running from that stand point:

With distance running, your body gets its initial movement going, then relies on momentum to a large degree to keep moving. Unlike sprinting where your body must propel itself forward at full force continually, distance running quickly deteriorates into simply picking your feet up and putting them down – never driving forward. This greatly overuses the flexors of the body designed to pick the front leg up (hip flexors, hamstrings, anterior tibials, etc) making them hyper-active and tight, causing muscle restrictions at their associated joints (hip, knee, ankle). Because, unlike sprinting, the extenders of the body (glutes, quads, calf muscles) never have to propel you forward, this creates a joint imbalance where one side of the joint is tighter than the other at all three joints. This overuse and resultant restriction of the joints typically leads to altered joint mechanics, and eventually trauma, either acute or chronic.

Additionally, because you’re relying on momentum to a certain degree, the natural tendency is to lean forward. This invariably leads to the shoulders rolling forward, causing imbalances there as well.

And no, distance running is not a good idea if fat loss is your goal. It will not raise your resting metabolism (which is the key to a fat loss program) and it’s extremely time consuming which will cut into other aspects of exercise that are more efficient for fat loss.

Think I’m wrong? Olympic sprinters have lower body fat levels than Olympic marathon runners.

And if it does benefit your heart it’s only in a marginal sense. Again, not as much as other types of training such as interval training, that you won’t have time for because you’re running for X hours at a time. Basically your heart is designed to beat at a slow steady rate for an extended period of time – forever in fact. Training it to beat at a steady rate but only slightly higher than what’s considered normal, as in distance running will have little to no positive effect.

Again: If you are a distance runner because you enjoy it, then by golly go run your arse off! But if you’re distance running (or any other type of steady state “cardio” training) because you think it’s going to make you lean and healthy, you might want to give effective strength training and high intensity interval training a shot 1st!

I’ll be awaiting your hate mail at thetrainingrim@gmail.com

The Hot Woman Next Door

2009-10-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

If you’ve never read my stuff before, be warned: I have the proclivity to deliver my point in a rather circuitous manner sometimes. This is one of those times – but my point is a good one – stick with me.

And also, if you’ve never read my stuff before, be aware that I can be somewhat blunt – too much so for some. If that bothers you, now’s a good time to stop reading this and grab an issue of Shape Magazine to hear all about the inner thigh trouble spot instead.

I just recently read a great book called “The Millionaire Next Door”. It’s actually been around for awhile, apparently, – I’m behind on my reading. Long story short, is that it gets its title from the fact that most millionaires in the U.S. don’t necessarily “look” like millionaires, with lavish cars, houses, lifestyles, etc. In fact, the overwhelming majority of millionaires look just like your normal looking neighbor because they live under their means and live frugally – this is precisely how they became millionaires, and how the book got its title.

One of the points made in the book, is that these frugal millionaires are almost maniacal about budgeting, and possess an extremely high level of self discipline that keeps them within the parameters of their pre-set budgets.

The authors of the book (Thomas Stanley and William Danko) write that one of the most common questions they are asked when lecturing is “Why would a millionaire need to spend so much time budgeting?” Of course, the authors’ response is invariably, “They are millionaires BECAUSE they spend so much time budgeting and have the discipline to stick to it.”

Now to my point:

I’ve trained many people who are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. They are the millionaires of glutes and waistlines. Many muscled arms, defined legs, flat hard abdomens, very low levels of body fat – and those are just the women.

And many a time I’ve overheard a random passerby say almost condescendingly, “Why does SHE need to work out and have a trainer? She looks great…” I know they think this is a compliment, but the jealousy, condescension, and irritation levels come through clear as a bell.

And here I am to paraphrase the authors of the aforementioned tome of financial knowledge, but within the context of fitness…

My clients of whom they speak look great and have kick ass bodies BECAUSE they work with a trainer and exercise consistently.

Almost all of us have at least a minimal sense of what it takes to be healthy, lose weight, be fit, etc. – very few of us have the self discipline to follow through on it.

Just like there are a very small percentage of millionaires who were born into wealth, or won the lottery, etc., there are some very good looking people who were simply born winning the lottery of DNA and will look great no matter what.

However, just like the overwhelming majority of millionaires who busted their respective asses and sacrificed a great deal in order to be financially independent and secure, my clients who look great, busted their asses and sacrificed a great deal to do so as well. And as sure as I’m writing this, they are somewhere right now having their next workout scheduled and planned. And when it’s time, they will show up a train hard, no matter what.

Therein lies the lesson for all of us, my friends, myself included:

If you want to look great and feel great, you’re going to have to make some serious choices. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a moron or a gym sales person – and we all know how full of shit they are. My clients know this and plan, sacrifice, and do it.

Finding a sitter for the kids is a pain in the ass – but these vixens find a way and get it done.

Working a bazillion hour work week then getting up on a Saturday morning to throw kettle bells around with me is not anyone’s idea of fun – but these spandex sisters get their hard buns out of bed and do it.

Doing laundry and other house hold chores late at night, or missing an occasional episode of your favorite show because you were at the gym at 7 or 8pm sucks – but these eye catching, medicine ball throwing hotties do it anyway.

It takes a lot of sacrifice and self discipline to look and feel great – the only person who’ll tell you differently is trying to sell you something.

So the next time you see someone working out who looks great, don’t be resentful – instead realize that in most cases, the only difference between you and them is planning and self discipline. I know that’s easier said than done, but it is that simple.

But I know my clients – and I know they feel it’s 100% worth it.

More Fitness "Synonyms"

2009-10-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

Exercise and hard work are not synonyms.

Exercise and sweat are not synonyms.

There’s something about the fitness industry where so many terms are used interchangeably as if they were synonyms, when they truly aren’t anywhere near the same thing. For example, the words “stretching” and “flexibility” are always used interchangeably when they aren’t even close to being the same thing. “Balance” and “stability” are used interchangeably as well and they don’t mean the same thing either.

For today’s purposes, our focus is on the terms “hard work” and “exercise”. Not only are they NOT synonymous, but their interchangeable use often leads to dangerous exercise situations.

Let me be clear up front: Most of us do need to work harder in our workouts. A good deal of sweat MAY be a good thing for some of us. But often these parameters are used as measuring sticks as to the efficacy of a workout – sometimes by marginally educated trainers who have been the target of my ire recently. Hard work and sweat ARE NOT synonymous with exercise – period. Especially if it’s exercise that is supervised by a fitness professional.

If hard work and sweat are the residual side effects of good exercise, so be it. BUT IT’S NOT THE GOAL.

Exercise is movement for the purpose of eliciting improvements in health.

Hard work is a task that’s physically difficult to do.

Moving furniture is hard work. But I wouldn’t have my clients do it when I’m training them. There’s just no biomechanically safe way to move a love seat.

Flipping giant truck tires over in a parking lot is hard work. But I wouldn’t have my clients do that either. It looks cool though, so some trainers will have you try…

Donkeys work hard. I wouldn’t do what they do for a workout. There’s a reason the terms donkey, jackass and mule have a negative connotation when used to describe humans.

Ditto for sweating. Sweating means you have an elevated body temperature.

I can stand on my patio in August and sweat, but it’s not going to make me healthier.

Any jackass trainer can make you swing a 32kg kettle bell a million times and make you feel beat up and sweaty. But why you would pay him or her X dollars an hour to do it is beyond me.

It’s difficult in today’s society to get this message across because I have to compete with “The Biggest Loser” and “CrossFit” who exemplify the “let’s just beat people up and have it look cool” mentality. Exerisers who don’t know any better are lead to believe that simply getting the shit beaten out of you is somehow helpful. It’s not. (Unless you’re married to an orthopedist…)

Your workout should be eliciting improvement toward your goals, not setting you up for an injury. Make sure you use a fitness professional who knows the difference.

True Conversation:

2009-09-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

I was recently the guest speaker at a Chamber of Commerce event. Typically when I speak, I explain all the reasons gyms don’t get people results and my facility does. I do my best not to bash my competition, but facts are facts: 70% of gym members drop out and close to 80% are injured. So although I try to stay professional, I have to take a “don’t shoot the messenger” mentality when chain gym representatives are in attendance.

This particular day there was a gym GM in attendance who I knew, so in an effort to diffuse an uncomfortable situation, I approached him before my speech. I explained to him what I was going to say, apologized in advance, and told him not to take it personally – I had been to his facility and it actually is a very nice gym. If I were ever to join a gym, it would be his…

He said “Jon, don’t worry about it – we pay our trainers $12 per hour. How am I going to tell people our trainers are as good as you are?” I thought about it, thanked him for the compliment and went on to my speech.

His situation is why I offer satisfaction guarantees and they don’t. I KNOW that if a client makes an effort, he/she will look better and feel better after training with my staff and me. The chain gym GM knows his trainer is no good, and probably won’t even be there to finish the client's training commitment, as typically low pay equals very high employee turnover.

He can’t offer a guarantee because he knows that even if the client holds up their end of the bargain and works hard – the trainer probably won’t come through for the client or the gym.

Why is The Training Rim the only facility to guarantee its services?

Even the competiton knows.

Core Training Mistake #2:

2009-09-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

Moving the lumbar spine when training the core.

Any respected fitness professional will tell you that movement in the lumbar spine is generally a
bad idea, for a few reasons.

The lumbar spine is designed to PREVENT motion of the body, not GENERATE motion. If it were not stiff and solid (similar to a supporting beam on your house) you would be constantly falling over all day, because you would have nothing to support the structure of your body to hold it upright.

Therefore, the very common, yet misguided practice of training the core to move is simply a waste of time. Nowhere in life do you crunch from the waist, sit up from the waist, or lean to the side from the waist. Training in that manner is ineffectual at best. It’s why we don’t perform crunches or sit ups at The Training Rim and it’s why this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTaEhui8r2s

- is a stupid friggin’ exercise:

Secondly, and more importantly perhaps, is movement in the spine significantly increases the chance of injury to the low back. Because the abdomen is not designed to generate movement, the vertebrae of the lower back are specifically built to stop motion in the lower torso. Imposing movement there through inappropriate exercise choices increases the chance of vertebral movement and with it, the chances of slipped discs and compressed vertebrae and discs.

Bottom line: Stop with the crunches, sit ups, torso twists and side bends!

Wall Touch Video

2009-08-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

As promised, the video of the "wall touch" drill. Tania shows us how it's done - I talk...

Review the last blog for specifics on implemetation...

Running Program?!? Jon?!?

2009-08-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

Started my new running program today.

No, pigs are not flying and I haven’t completely lost my mind.

I still firmly believe that long, slow, steady state cardio training is a colossal waste of time. I will never try the fad called “jogging”. I believe it’s “jogging” or “yogging” it might be a soft “J” – apparently you just run…for an extended period of time…

OK, sorry – I’m done quoting movies for now but I’ve made my point: Even Ron Burgundy can see it’s stupid and is only doing it because he’s trying to impress a good looking woman.

But, as I’ve said before, I do believe firmly in sprinting as a tool for conditioning and fat loss, as I believe in interval training as a tool for conditioning and fat loss as well.

But why start today?

Because, as I’ve said before, when you live in NJ, there’s only about an 8 week stretch where it’s feasible to exercise outside. It’s too cold November through February, too wet March through June, too hot June through September. But the stretch of early September through October is coming up where it’s usually beautiful around here. Warm during the day, cool at night with less than average precipitation.

And even though the weather today is disgustingly humid, I decided to hit the ground running…literally.

So here’s what I did to incorporate my positive feelings on sprinting and interval training into a quick and effective workout for me and for anyone who’s left reading this post at this point:

A quick (approximately 15 minutes), heart pounding interval timed running workout. Bold face, italicized, underlined RUNNING – NOT “yogging” – big difference. All you need is a timer, IPOD, and running sneakers. My recommendations and free plugs: the Gymboss timer, Shinedown on the IPOD and Adidas.

After a light warmup consisting of some body weight movements, the workout is in two parts as follows:

Sprint portion: 10 seconds of sprinting, 60 seconds of rest. Repeat this 10 times.

After this, rest just long enough to reset your timer to the new intervals. Then move on to the interval portion. The interval portion is done in “Tabata” style: 20 seconds of running followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times.

Interval portion: Run hard for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this sequence 8 times.

Notes:

· During the sprint portion, you’ll feel the 1st few rounds are easy. I actually started thinking maybe it was too easy. By rounds 5, 6, and 7 that changes drastically – those 60 second rest periods go by very quickly.

· Remember sprinting is a relative term. What’s a sprint for you, me, Usain Bolt and an old lady are all different things. For the sake of this workout, sprinting is defined as simply running fast.

· During the “Tabata” portion of the workout, you’re going to need to push yourself. That 20 seconds of hard running at this point is not pleasant, but it’s only 20 seconds – you can make it. And don’t take advantage of the rest period by extending the 10 seconds. 10 seconds is 10 seconds – don’t stretch it to 11, 12, etc.

On a personal note, it wasn’t pleasant when I was doing it, but it only took about 15 minutes and I seriously jacked up my metabolism in a brief period of time. All smart ass jokes aside, I’m probably burning more calories right now typing this a half an hour later than if I were to simply jog for 45 minutes. And even though the weather was sh!tty today, over the next 8 weeks or so, more likely than not, the weather is going to be great, providing a great excuse to get out, do something healthy and do something different.

Give it a try and tell me how you made out!

The "wall touch" drill

2009-08-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

A very common mistake exercisers make when performing a kettle bell swing is to move too much from the knees and not enough from the hips (too much knee flexion, not enough hip flexion). This reduces the amount of involvement of the hips, glutes, shoulders and abdomen, which severely limits power production and therefore reduces the efficiency of your swing.

What we use as a cue at The Training Rim is to tell the “swinger” to reach as far back as they can with their arm between their legs. The swinger should end up with their forearm between their thighs, not with their hand toward the ground. This forces the hips to flex more and the knees less. However, it’s imperative to reach back as far as you can between your legs without your shoulders and head dropping forward, so it’s best to practice in front of a mirror. If you can’t see your face and front of your shoulders in your reflection, it probably means you’re dropping your head – be sure to keep the head up and shoulders back.

Like many things that are worth practicing, this may feel awkward and restrictive at first, but it’s worth the practice.

The improvement that follows will allow you to improve your swing which will immeasurably improve:

· your total body strength
· cardio endurance
· shoulder health
· back health
· Appearance of your abdomen and butt.

Think it’s worth the practice now? Thought so…

So we’ve developed what we call the “wall touch”:

This is a great drill that we’ve been using as a general warm up in our workouts and as a pre-cursor to a kettle bell workout. We’ve found it forms good habits, gets the heart rate up, and is a great dynamic stretch all in one.

Stand with your back to a wall with your heels about 6 inches away from the wall. (It’s not necessary to have a mirror in front of you but it may help).

Reach between your legs with your arm and try to touch the wall behind you with your hand. Make sure to keep your head up and shoulders back as you do so. Repeat with the other arm – when you can do 3 or 4 with each arm, and still keep your head up and shoulders back, step slightly further away from the wall and try again.

Use this as a warm up before performing some swings. Then start swinging with a kettle bell that’s slightly lighter than you would normally use. Do a handful of swings on each side, emphasizing the movement you just practiced – be sure your arm and the kettle bell are between and/or behind your legs, not going straight to the floor.

In fact, a good rule of thumb is that if the kettle bell gets anywhere near the floor, you’re doing something wrong. Make sure the KB is going back – not down.

The drill:

Start: Assume the position as if you were about to swing…

Finish: Reach back, touch the wall with your hand, but keep your head up and shoulders back!

Repeat, alternating right and left arms.

Next time you swing remember this drill – be sure your swinging arm is staying away from the floor and instead is traveling through your legs.

Try it out and let me know how it went!

"Womans' Push Ups" - Uuugghh...

2009-07-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

You know one of my pet peeves are exercises that are either too difficult or too easy for the task at hand. This leads to the exerciser either performing the movement incorrectly because it’s too difficult, or not getting anything out of it because it’s too easy to force a positive adaptation. Exercises always need to have the level of difficulty adjusted to get the appropriate result from the exercise.

One of the most common misapplications of regressing an exercise is the “converted” or “assisted” or “woman’s” push up (the names vary – the misapplications remain the same – see figure 1). The idea, or so the theory goes, is that by placing the knees on the ground, this takes much of the body weight out of the movement allowing a push up to be completed by someone who ordinarily would be unable to perform one.

The problem with this logic is a common one in the fitness industry – it’s based on an overly simplified partial truth and a misconception, not the whole truth.

The misconception in this case is the belief that a push up is an exercise for the chest and arms.

In actuality, a push up, if done correctly, is an exercise for the core much more than your chest or arms. A lack of core strength is the real reason most people can’t do push- ups correctly, if at all.

The most difficult part of the push up is holding and maintaining the correct position. Keeping everything from the knees to the neck more or less in a straight line while on your hands is a far more difficult and complex process than people realize. This requires a lot of isometric strength, particularly from the hips and abdomen.

A lack of strength here typically manifests itself in one of two ways – the exerciser either looks like they are in a real bad yoga class (see figure 2) or they look like they’re doing their impression of a seal (see figure 3). The best examples of this are the guys that can bench press 400 pounds, but have no core strength whatsoever as a result of spending their exercise lives on benches. They then put themselves in a position where they need to support their own body weight and they look like figure 3. It looks like they’re waiting to bark and then have a herring thrown at them.

Generally speaking, neither of these scenarios is safe and/or helpful.

By placing the knees on the ground and eliminating the core from the movement you’ve succeeded in making the exercise performable, but ultimately, ineffectual. You’re disregarding the weak link that needs to be addressed to address an area that may or may not be a problem.

Either way, you’re not doing yourself any favors. Because you’re not training the core to stabilize your body weight (or anything else for that matter) you are progressively making yourself weaker and completely eliminating any chance you ever had of doing a real push up.

There are countless ways in which to regress the push up to make it useful for everyone. Simply holding the position for a short period of time will make you stronger. Elevating your body weight by placing your hands on a bench or some other apparatus will make you lighter but still involve the core. The most obvious alteration you can make is to simply limit the range of motion – only lower yourself and inch or two initially. Eventually you’ll get further down and gradually build your core strength to the point where you can get to the floor.

More importantly, is what NOT to do – don’t drop to your knees under the assumption you can now do a push up. You’re actually weakening part of your body that needs to be strengthened and decreasing the likelihood of you performing push-ups and many other exercises for that matter.

Figure 1: Ree-damn-diculous...

Figure 2: What's That?!? Yoga?

Figure 3: If she barks, throw her a herring!

Figure 4: Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!

*As usual, contact me with any questions and/or comments.

**Also as usual, this article is for informational purposes only. Application thereof comes at the sole risk of the reader.

***This article and photos are the sole property of The Training Rim, LLC. Reproduction and/or dissemination without permission is prohibited.

The Biggest Dipshits...

2009-07-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I originally started to write an article titled “Consider the Source”. I was going to explain that in many cases, fitness experts aren’t really experts at all in terms of fitness. They are experts at selling magazines or creating entertaining television.

But after my last article about the differences between balance and stability and how it should relate to your training, I received a flood of calls and emails. Apparently, the stars of good timing aligned in my favor once again. Because, as if on cue, the “experts” on the TV show “The Biggest Loser” showed themselves to be the mental midgets they truly are, and that their “expert” status is not one of exercise science, but one of exploitation of those more vulnerable than they.

According to several sources, all of whom I trust, the trainers had a client who weighed in the neighborhood of 400 pounds, performing lunges while holding dumb bells, and with EACH FOOT ON A BOSU BALL.

Now let’s examine this logic: You have someone who with every step they take in life, are performing a lunge with 400 lbs. This person is also not acclimated to exercise. (You know those guys in the gym you’ve seen squatting with 400lbs on their back – well generally, those guys are strong. Imagine if they hadn’t worked out in years and were completely new to exercise – now put 400lbs on their back. It’s going to end badly, right? Not according to the biggest loser experts, because THAT’S what they were having their clients do, essentially.)

Now if that isn’t bad enough, these geniuses put weights in their clients’ hands to make them heavier.

Insert picture of me shaking my head.

And for the coup de gratis, now they place their clients on round, unstable surfaces. Not one, but TWO unstable surfaces.

This, my friends is what we call a case of negligence, and it’s a matter of when they will be sued, not if they will be sued. I predicted it with the “CrossFit” crowd, and mark my words on this one – “The Biggest Loser” will be on the business end of a negligence lawsuit eventually.

This type of training is not beneficial, it’s not functional, and it’s not calorie burning – it’s dangerous and is solely used for the purpose to create good TV. (Hence my idea about considering the source…)

Now, if that scenario isn’t crazy enough, I received plenty of emails about the next gem the “expert” on the show graced our good senses with:

According to the bimbette trainer, (I’m going to paraphrase, here:) muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat. That is a myth created by trainers who can’t get their clients to lose weight, and if your trainer tells you that, they are just trying to get your money.

Now I may have heard a trainer make a statement dumber than that – but I can’t think of one right now.

If you’re one of those people who think there are very few things in the exercise world that are black and white, and therefore subject to opinion – I agree with you. I’m one of those people too.

But the issue of muscle density vs fat density is not one which is open for debate in the field of science.

It’s a fact. A pretty commonly known one.

So back to my original idea of considering the source…

Just because someone is on TV, they are not an expert. Just because they appear in a magazine, they are not an expert.

Question everything. Don’t dismiss anything – but question everything. You’ll know a lot more about fitness in the long run.

*This article and associated links are the sole property of The Training Rim, LLC. Reproduction and/or dissemination without express written consent is prohibited.

Balance vs. Stability

2009-07-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Are you familiar with the game Jenga?

It’s a game where you stack small wooden pieces on top of one another and then remove them one by one from the middle of the stack, until eventually they are all balancing very tenuously on only one or two of the pieces. In some cases, what occurs is pretty impressive from a balancing perspective.

But I ask you this: Would you put a couple of dumb bells on top of the Jenga? No, of course you wouldn’t because it would come crashing down. The Jenga isn’t supportive enough. It isn’t STABLE enough.

Yet as sure as you’re reading this, there is a trainer somewhere right now making his or her client as unstable as a Jenga by using a BOSU ball or some other piece of useless crap found in gyms in an effort to be “functional”. They are both making the very common mistake of training “balance” when they think they are training “stability”.

Let me tell you my friends – there is nothing functional nor is there anything stable (and therefore, there is nothing beneficial) to turning yourself into a wobbly stack of joints like a human Jenga. If supporting and stabilizing your own bodyweight in itself is too difficult, then you are training your balance and therefore working on a probably useless exercise.

A VERY common misuse of fitness terminology I hear and read very often is the use of the terms “balance” and “stability” interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. Balance and stability are not synonyms in the dictionary, and they are surely not synonyms with regard to exercise and training.

In terms of balance and its relation to fitness, many exercisers (and again, sadly many trainers) train balance when they think they’re training stability. Balance, from an exercise stand point, is simply the ability to stay upright and/or not to fall. Many exercisers who possess great balance, as a result, can perform some pretty impressive tasks. Many of these exercises, although impressive in their execution, are generally useless and sometimes dangerous – and they certainly aren’t “functional” at all. A good friend and fellow trainer of mine refers to them as “stupid trainer tricks”. They may look cool, but they aren’t going to get you to your goals any faster.

The picture above is a good example. The guy squatting obviously has very impressive balance. He has a skill that probably 99.99% of the population cannot do. I’ve been around gyms for a very long time, and I’ve never met anyone who could do a full squat on a stability ball with a loaded Olympic barbell.

And if I tried, I might be able to think of someone dumber – but I can’t right now.

That is a movement that is a) dangerous and b) holds zero benefit from a bio-mechanical standpoint.

Which is the issue in a nutshell when it comes to balance training: A movement like this has NO BENEFIT for the exerciser. Add in the risk factor and you have a very bad idea.

He is not stronger as a result. He is not more stable. He is not more flexible. No research has ever supported that he would be any of these things and common sense backs up that research.

The only way this would benefit him is if he went somewhere in life or competed in some sport where everting the ankles while performing on an uneven round surface were necessary.

I’ll be awaiting your emails telling me where this situation occurs.

Whoops...spoke too soon. This woman and her trainer may be bigger jackasses than that guy and his trainer:

Stability, on the other hand is CRUCIAL to train regardless of what your goals are. Improving your stability from an exercise standpoint has limitless benefits to exercisers of all levels. A body builder will be able to move heavier weight. An athlete will be faster. A senior citizen will be less likely to have knee pain.

This is simply because they can support more weight, and prevent motion where it’s supposed to be prevented, and therefore generate motion where it needs to be generated. A stable base is like the supporting columns on your house: They are as stable as can be and therefore can support the weight of your home. Can you imagine if those support beams were Jengas?!?!

Think of an Olympic power lifter: Would he be able to move more weight or less if his shoulder joint remained firmly in his shoulder socket (i.e. more stable)?

Think of an NBA player: Would he be able to jump higher if his knees didn’t crash together every time he squatted?

You can’t shoot a cannon from a canoe my friends – you need a stable supportive base to produce any force at all when exercising.

If you are more stable, you can move weight more efficiently. Whether that weight is a dumb bell or your own bodyweight is irrelevant – it will get you closer to your goals regardless of what they are.

Training stability and how to see improvements therein is a far more complex discussion whose depth and breadth far exceed the time and space that we have here. However, here are some pointers when trying to perform stability training:

1. If you can’t do it on both feet (or hands) on solid ground, doing it on a piece of balance equipment is a waste of time. Make sure you are 100% stable with good posture when you’re supported first – then look to progress.

2. Just because it looks cool or different, or it involves a new piece of equipment, doesn’t mean it’s “functional”. In fact, it’s more likely to be a stupid trainer trick.

3. Less torso movement usually means more stability, which is a good thing. Watch yourself in the mirror as you exercise – more than just a little movement throughout the mid section probably means the exercise is too hard because you can’t stabilize yourself.

As usual, send the hate mail to thetrainingrim@gmail.com.

Also as usual, this article is the property of The Training Rim, LLC. Reproduction and/or dissemination without express written consent are prohibited.

Also as usual, reader adopts sole risk and responsibility of applying information contained herein. This article is for informational purposes only.

My CrossFit Thoughts...

2009-07-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

I can’t stand giving attention to people who are clearly only looking for attention. Nor am I in the habit of giving free publicity to a competitor. However, I’ve been asked this question so often recently, I must address it:

I’m asked quite frequently about my thoughts on “CrossFit” a very popular method of training that has many ardent followers and supporters. (For those of you not familiar with CrossFit, you can do a Google search on it and you’ll get more detailed information that I can provide here. It’s been in the news often recently for several reasons.) It’s essentially a circuit training group workout focused on body weight exercises and untraditional training equipment like truck tires and ropes. It also is known for espousing a macho attitude, not adverse to mocking participants that have injury concerns or questions.

For the record, here is my take on CrossFit:

If you’re telling me that people need to get off machines, use their own body weight and exercise in an intense manner for a short duration, you’re preaching to the converted here my friend. I’ve been saying that for years.

However, if you think flipping tires, ropes, and sand bags around a parking lot with no regard for postural considerations or correct movement mechanics is a good idea, you’re uneducated and/or misinformed at the least. Furthermore, if you mock people who do have a regard for such, or worse, if you encourage this behavior to beginners that don’t know any better because they think your workout looks cool, then you’re a negligent moron.

As an example, a few years back an article appeared in the New York Times discussing CrossFit, and one of its members who exercised so far beyond his capabilities, he began to suffer from rhabdomyolosis. Rhabdomyolosis is a condition where the muscle fiber breaks down to the extent it begins leaking into the bloodstream, causing potentially life threatening situations for the kidneys and liver.

Most of us would consider this a sign to change the manner in which we exercise. Not this guy, he was back in the gym 6 months later performing the same routine. His quote was: “I see pushing my body to the point where the muscles destroy themselves as a huge benefit of CrossFit.''

Now, just in case this isn’t dumb enough for you, many members embrace this behavior by making claims such as “I met pukey” meaning I worked out so hard I puked. There are even t-shirts with “Pukey the Clown” which some members wear. “Uncle Rhabdo”, another clown/mascot, is shown with his kidneys on the floor, presumably due to rhabdomyolosis.
Of course, you and I aren’t the only ones to find this sort of behavior nonsensical, and CrossFit’s founder, Greg Glassman has heard the criticisms before.

To me, this is where the real fun begins.

When asked about this type of behavior in general, and specifically performing pull ups on hanging rings so quickly that you may be endangering yourself, Mr. Glassman’s response was this:

''If you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don't want you in our ranks,'' he said.

Now, as you can imagine, someone has recently filed a lawsuit against a gym in Virginia that conducts CrossFit’s workouts. The exerciser and his attorney claim that he sustained injuries as a result of an overly intense routine that not only displayed little regard for safety, but whose instructor and participants encouraged the unsafe training situations.

In the process of discussing this topic, and in reading many other discussions online, a fair counterpoint is commonly made: That is, we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater – these types of workouts do have benefits and shouldn’t be cast aside because of a few morons.

So again, I’ll be clear:

Exercising using limited equipment in a quick and intense manner – good.

Putting yourself in harms’ way in the name of toughness or machismo – not good.

Encouraging a non-expert, which frankly, is the overwhelming majority of CrossFit practitioners, to do the same – stupid and negligent.

Kim Kardashian and The Training Rim!

2009-07-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

A client of mine referred an article to me that had a picture of Kim Kardashian using “the equalizers”. She asked if they were the same things we use at The Training Rim.

Of course they are my friend…of course they are…

But say it with me altogether now – we use them for real, not for the silly “spot reduction” (insert laughter) techniques Kim’s trainer has her doing.

We’re big fans of yours Kim, but come on – step up to the big leagues and visit The Training Rim!

The Equalizers that are referred to are basically steel yellow bars that look like sprinting hurdles. Unlike sprinting hurdles however, these don’t fall over and have about one million uses for personal training. At the Training Rim, we’ve used them as push up stands, pull up bars, and an obstacle to which we need to climb under and/or run around. (Along with about 5 million other uses….)

If you’ve never used them, come down and check us out putting them to use!

Here’s Kim (c’mon, Kim – seriously…)

Melissa doing a basic pull up:

Vanessa showing the major core strength and stability on the equalizers!

Here’s Jon showing off as usual:

Jon and Melissa do some team training with the equzlizers and kettle bells:

Core Training Mistake #1

2009-06-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

Training for Hypertrophy (“big muscles”).

Somehow we all agree that if we do tons and tons of bicep curls we’ll get bigger biceps. But for some reason, many exercisers feel that if they do tons and tons of crunches, their abdomen will get smaller.

If that isn’t classic gym logic for you, nothing is…

All 1 million crunches are going to do for you is give you a larger rectus abdominus, and a bad back. Unless you’re a professional bodybuilder, this is a bad thing.

1st thing you need to do is lose the myth of spot reduction. You can’t make one area of your body smaller by using it more often. If this were true, all gum chewers would have a skinny face. All tennis players would have a skinnier playing arm than their non playing arm (when in
reality, the reverse is true…).

Secondly, you need to understand that visible stomach musculature is the result of extremely low body fat – NOT due to big muscles. Achieving this is the result of a) genetics, b) ridiculous levels of nutritional commitment, and c) tons of calorie expenditure. In most cases, you’ll need all three of the above to get a 6 pack.

Notice that crunches, sit ups, etc. have NOTHING to do with those three causes and therefore nothing to do with getting you a 6 pack.

I’ll paraphrase another trainer with this one, but truer words were never spoken:

The best way to get a 6 pack is pass on a 6 pack.

5 Mistakes in "Core Training"

2009-06-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

To start off the new blog, I'm going with a topic that is generally of interest to everybody who's interested in exercise: the "core". My first topic of discussion will be "The 5 Most Common Mistakes In Core Training". However, it's actually 6 mistakes - the first mistake most of us make is the actual definition of the term "core", as it applies to exercise.

Problem #1 is that there is no universally agreed upon definition or parameters of what constitutes the core. If you asked 50 trainers what the core is, you'd probably get 50 different answers. For our purposes, we define core musculature as any muscles that attach to the lumbar spine, pelvis or hips.

Yes - you're right - that's about 2/3 the muscles of the body (I might be exaggerating a little bit, but not too much...) Therefore...

Lat pull downs? Core exercise.

Lunges? Core exercise.

Push Ups? Core exercise.

Have I ruined your pre-conceived notions of core training yet? I hope so - admitting you have a problem is the 1st step in fixing it!

So for future reference and when the next blogs explain the 5 most common mistakes in core training, here's my definition of a core exercise that we use at The Training Rim:

Any exercise where the primary purpose of the exercise is controlling the lumbo pelvic hip complex through lumbar stabilization and neuro-muscular control of both the hips' mobility and stabilization simultaneously.

Sound complicated? Don't worry - it really isn't as you'll see in the next blog, "Core Training Mistake #5".

See you next time - until then, stop with those silly crunches.

Up and running soon!

2009-06-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody -

We've made many changes to the site and business lately, so things are still somewhat "under construction". Thanks for your patience - the best source of fitness and exercise information will be back to full speed before you know it!