Monthly Archives: November 2014

Good Fitness Reads of the Week: (11/23/2014)

Hope you’re enjoying your weekend!

This week’s edition has a ton of great new info:

Training Log: Week 3

The Angry Coaches: This is How Coaches Are Making it IMPOSSIBLE For Their Clients to Lose Weight!

Dieting does NOT need to be complex.

Your clients do NOT need to know about hormonal responses, chemical reactions, etc.

It’s irrelevant and will do NOTHING to help them achieve their goals.

Stick to the basics. Teach your clients how to make better food choices, eat appropriate portion sizes, and create a healthy lifestyle for future success.

All of this can be accomplished with simple, basic, and actionable steps.

The fancy terminology and other jargon is useless. Save it for the text books and research reviews.

Strength Tips

Monday: Choose your assistance movements based on what you need to work on.

Identify your weaknesses and sticking points and choose accessory exercises based on that.

Don’t choose your assistance work at random or based on what others are doing.

If you’re bench is weak off the chest, choose exercises like paused bench and pin presses to work on your sticking points. Don’t do a ton of board pressing because you see someone else doing it.

Learn from others, but make sure you address your specific weaknesses. Learn how to target and improve your own sticking points.

Tuesday: Quick tip for keeping your upper back tight during the bench press.

I’ve always struggled with the cue, “pinch your shoulder blades together”.

To me, that meant pinch my upper traps together. When you do this, it’s very hard to keep your lats tight and get any use out of them.

Try thinking about “tucking your shoulder blades into your back pockets”. This will keep your upper back tight and allows you to flex your lats and use them to pull the bar to your sternum.

This will build tension during the descent of the bench, which will give you nice a “pop” off the chest.

Wednesday:

Deadlift: 5 X 4 @ 475

DL from below knees vs short monster mini’s and short light bands: 245 X 15 X 3

GHR: 3 X 8 w/ DB Shrug: 3 X 25 @ 50

Ab wheel iso hold for 10 seconds X 3

Thursday:  Master the squat, bench and deadlift.

Training the big three lifts is one of the most important things you can do as a powerlifter. It should be the primary focus of your training.

Try not to get too caught up worrying about choosing the perfect variations and assistance exercises before learning to perfect your squat, bench and deadlift technique.

Friday: “Either I will find a way, or I will make one.”

 

 Recommended Readings

1) The cost of getting lean: Is it really worth the trade-off? via Ryan D Andrews & Brian St. Pierre

2) Personal Training: 4 Principles of Exercise Selection via Nick Tumminello

3) How to Lose via Jen Sinkler

4) 10 Things a Personal Trainer Needs to Know About Kettlebells via Neghar Fonooni

5) The Truth About Soreness via Christian Thibaudeau

6) Random Thoughts on Sports Performance Training – Installment 7 via Eric Cressey

7) Low Hanging Fruit and the Small Steps with Big Payoffs via Dean Somerset

8) 3 Isometric Exercises You Should Be Doing via Mike Perry

9) The Truth Is… Maybe You Just Suck? via Bryan Krahn

10) My Diet Home Base via Tony Gentilcore

11) Client Behavior Change (Understanding the transtheoretical model) via Mark Young

12) 3 Tips for Faster Strength Gains via Bret Contreras

13) The Lost Art of Self-Monitoring viaMike Samuels

14) Athletic > Aesthetic via Stacey Schaedler

15) 10 Rules of the Insanely Strong via Matt Kroc

 

 

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Training Log: Week 3

Week 3 Day 1

11/17/2014

Reps/sets

Deadlift: 5 X 4 @ 475

DL from just below knees vs short monster mini’s and short light bands: 245 X 15 X 3

GHR: 3 X 8  w/ DB Shrug: 3 X 25 @ 50

Ab wheel iso hold for 10 seconds X 3

Deadlifts felt pretty good today. My lower back felt a little fatigued going into the session. I think I could have forced my chest just a little more upright. Overall happy with how they felt.

I really liked the banded deadlift. It’s been a long time since I’ve deadlifted against bands. These felt good today and gave me a nice glute pump…

Week 3 Day 2

Bench: 5 X 4 @ 255

Bench: 2 X 15 @ 185

Lat Pulldown: 120 X 20, 140 X 15, 160 X 12, 180 X 10  w/ Facepulls: 2 X 20 @ ~40, 2 X 15 @ ~40

Kaz Press: 3 X 12 @ 115  w/  DB curls

My shoulder is improving and bench is feeling better each week. I’d like to get some more volume in on the bench, but I’m not going to add too much too soon. My main goal is to get my shoulder feeling 100%.

 

Week 3 Day 3

Squat: 2 X 4 @ 365, 375 X 4, 385 X 4

SSB squat: 245 X 10, 265 X 10, 285 X 10

Sumo DL: 2 X 3 @ 365

Leg Press Single leg: 3 X 15 @ 5pps

Planks

Squats felt great. I am liking this faster descent into the hole. I did SSB squats to work on staying upright during the squat.  The SSB will really pitch you forward if you don’t stay tight.

Week 4 Day 4

OHP: 5 X 4 @ 165

Incline DB Press: 2 X 20 @ 75

Pullups: 4 X 10  w/  Lateral Raises: 3 X 20 @ 20

Standing Neutral Pulldowns: 3 X 15 @ 70  /w T’s: 3 X 12 @ 30

Shoulder is feeling great on the OHP, feels better than the bench.

 

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Good Fitness Reads of the Week: 11/16/2014

Hi! Hope you’re enjoying your weekend!

This edition of Good Fitness Reads of the Week will contain:

New Episode of The Angry Coaches: Your Oly Shoes and Knee Wraps are a Waste of $$$: Here’s Why

Quit worrying so much about your Powerlifting equipment!

We have so many options when it comes to shoes, belts, knee wraps, and knee sleeves. Lifters are becoming neurotic when it comes to choosing the right piece of equipment.

There is no perfect squat shoe that will add 200 pounds to your squat!

Focus on what matters. Work on your technique, programming, recovery and diet. These are the factors that will improve your performance.

Training Log: Week 2

Here’s a preview

Deadlift 5 X 5 @ 455

The Beast KB Press @ 48kg

– My latest Blog Post: Find a Reason

– 15 Recommended Readings

Recommended Reading

1) Simplifying Your Squat and Deadlift via Mike Robertson

2) Bad Days Are Inevitable – Keep Grinding via Ross Enamait

3) 5 Fake “Health Foods” That Are Killing Your Fat Loss via Mike Samuels

4) Do You Need to Train People In-Person In Order to Write About Training People? via Tony Gentilcore

5) Why You Should Be An Essentialist to Live a Great Life via Chad Howse

6) Muscle? Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That  viaBryan Krahn

7) How to fix a broken diet: 3 ways to get your eating on track (infographic). via Dr. John Berardi

8) Vitamin D – Scientific Review on Usage, Dosage, Side Effects via Examine.com

9) Coaching Cues to Make Your Strength and Conditioning Programs More Effective: Installment 9 via Eric Cressey

10) Stretching Isn’t Always the Answer: 3 Common Mistakes via Tony Gentilcore

11) Effective Training Does Not Require Complexity via Ross Enamait

12) How To Take Charge Of Your Motivation via Rog Law

13) Future Gym: Introduction and Athos wearable technology for fitness
via Pat Koch

14)  Just tie your shoes via Eric Dawson

15) No One Ever Got Better Solely From Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises via Jordan Syatt

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