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Sports Specific Training: The Right Way 21 Sep 2023 5:36 AM (last year)

Sports-specific exercises are a real thing that absolutely should be a part of your programming if you want to maximize transfer from what you’re doing in the gym to your sport.

That said, it’s commonly misunderstood what sensible sports-specific exercise selection is and isn’t. Hence what I’m going to clear up in this article.

The Biggest Hypocrisy In Performance Training

Many of the same strength coaches who love to say “Don’t do machines because they don’t replicate sporting movements,” are the same ones who also tell you “Don’t do ‘sports-specific’ exercises because you shouldn’t try to replicate sporting movements in your training.”

You can’t have it both ways. It’s either good to replicate sporting movements with some exercises or it’s not. I’m here to tell you that it absolutely IS good to choose *some exercises that replicate the sporting movements you’re trying to improve because the principle of specificity is undefeated!

And, this is proven by the same strength coaches who say “Don’t worry about making the exercise replicate a sports movement – just get strong and you’ll be more functional.”

Improving strength does make you more functional, which is why I program many “general strength” exercises. And, I also agree that a general lift like the bench press can be a great way to improve upper-body strength.

But let’s discuss what some coaches would have me do if they wanted to improve my bench press.

They’d have me bench press often, and we’d do lots of bench press variations like close grip presses, wide grip presses, fat bar presses, 2 or 3-board presses, pin presses, and use chains/band, etc., in various speeds, loads, and rep ranges.

These exercises are all commonly called “assistance exercises” because they assist in improving the bench press by training various components of the lift. They also replicate the specific force production patterns of the bench press.

The funny thing is that all these assistance exercises happen to replicate some aspect of the bench press. The same applies for assistance exercises used to increase the squat or deadlift – they all replicate some aspect of the movement they’re supposed to be “assisting.”

So to improve my bench press, I should do lots of stuff that’s similar to the bench press action – surely you don’t believe that using assistance exercises to improve performance only applies to the squat, deadlift and bench press?

Assistance exercises are just sports-specific exercises for powerlifting. What I do is apply this same logic towards assistance exercises to sports-specific exercises for other sports.

Transfer For Improved Performance

The goal of exercise programming for enhanced human performance is to maximize training transfer. Some exercises provide obvious and direct transfer to improved performance in sporting actions and overall functional capacity, whereas others provide less obvious transfer—that is, indirect transfer.

It’s for this reason that I classify exercises as either Specific or General. These two categories of exercise—specific and general—offer different benefits; more specifically, each type benefits certain interdependent components of fitness and performance that the other category may miss.

Specific Exercises

Specific exercises provide obvious and direct transfer to improved performance because they are based on the principle of specificity. That principle has been defined very well by Dr. Everett Harman in the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning (2000, 25-55)

“The concept of specificity, widely recognized in the field of resistance training, holds that training is most effective when resistance exercises are similar to the sport activity in which improvement is sought (the target activity). Although all athletes should use well-rounded, whole-body exercise routines, supplementary exercises specific to the sport can provide a training advantage. The simplest and most straightforward way to implement the principle of specificity is to select exercises similar to the target activity with regard to the joints about which movement occur and the direction of the movements. In addition, joint ranges of motion in the training should be at least as great as those in the target activity.”

Specific exercises create a more ideal environment than general exercises for enhancing the specific force-generation and neuromuscular-coordination patterns of the targeted athletic movements.

General Exercises

General exercises are essentially conventional strength-training exercises and may consist of either compound or isolation movements using free weights, cables, or machines. In most cases, general exercises create a more ideal environment than specific exercises for stimulating increases in overall muscle strength and size. Therefore, these applications offer general transfer into improvements in human performance by increasing muscle hypertrophy, motor-unit recruitment, bone density, and connective tissue strength, which can improve overall health and reduce injury risk.

On the other hand, because these exercises do not necessarily reflect the specific force-generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns of many common movements in athletics, their positive transfer into improved performance potential is less obvious. This fact has led some personal trainers and coaches into mistakenly labeling them as “nonfunctional” and therefore not valuable. That is a false belief.

Granted, the further an exercise gets away from replicating the specific force-generation patterns of a given movement, the less directly it carries over to improving the neuromuscular coordination of that movement. However, this fact doesn’t make an exercise bad, and it certainly doesn’t make it nonfunctional. It simply means that the less specific an exercise is, the more general it is.

For this reason, instead of referring to some exercises as “functional”—which implies that others are “nonfunctional”—it is more accurate (and less confusing) to refer to exercises as either general or specific. Each of these types offers a unique set of benefits that transfers into improvements in performance.

Common Confusion Associated With Specific Exercises

Working on sport skills with specific exercises is not the same thing as working to improve specific force-generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns, which transfer into targeted athletic movements. Unaware of this distinction, some trainers advise athletes and clients to perform what they call “sport-specific exercises” or “functional exercises” by attaching a resistance band to the end of a golf club or hockey stick, for example, or shadow-boxing against bands strapped around the back. Loading specific sport skills in this manner misapplies the principle of specificity and rests on a misunderstanding of how to properly use specific exercises.

In reality, improving one’s ability to perform certain sport skills is not about replicating what a specific movement looks like but about replicating the specific force-generation patterns involved in the movement pattern. In other words, when training focuses only on what an exercise looks like, one can easily make the mistake of loading sport-specific skills instead of working to improve the specific force-generation patterns used to perform sport movements.

The problem lies in the fact that sport movement skills involve accuracy components that are not just similar but exact. For example, consider studies of the use of weighted bats in baseball. Contrary to general public understanding, studies have found that the heavy bat not only alters the batter’s perceptions of bat heaviness and swing speed, but also slows the batter’s swing speed for as many as five swings after using the weighted bat! Sure, some baseball players might prefer to “warm-up” by using a weighted bat, but the smart ones will also take several more swings with an unweighted bat to normalize themselves before stepping up to the plate.

You can test this effect for yourself: Shoot 10 free throws with a regular basketball, then take 10 more shots with a 2-to 4-pound (1 to 2 kg) medicine ball. You’ll quickly find that the fine-motor pattern (i.e., skill) used to throw the heavier ball accurately is completely different, and your shots with that ball will likely come up short until you hone the pattern. After shooting with the medicine ball, go back to the normal basketball for 10 more shots. Your first few shots may go over the backboard because shooting the much lighter basketball involves a different fine-motor sequence than shooting the medicine ball.

The APC’s of Movement Assessment for Personal Trainers 15 May 2022 6:21 PM (2 years ago)

I’m sure that by now you’ve learned your ABC’s, but have you learned your APC’s?

I hope so, because they’re the key to making the most out of any new client movement assessment. And, once you learn them, it makes it as easy as 1-2-3 to know exactly which exercises you can and should do with a client right from the jump.

Need a refresher?

Let’s start from the top…

The A’s: Awareness vs. Ability

When assessing how our clients move, we need to differentiate between whether they lack the awareness to do it, or if they lack the ability to do it.

We can determine this by giving them clear and simple coaching that makes them aware of what we’re asking them to do with their body. Often, when made aware, the client will demonstrate exactly what we’re asking for. So, they have the ability to do it, they just didn’t know that was how they should do it. 

Doing a movement screen or assessment and only looking at how someone performs a movement without any coaching can lead to lots of wasted time trying to address a limitation that was never there. Yet, that’s what some assessments and screens recommend.

Instead, if you do make them aware of what you’re looking for by simply asking them to “try it like this” while demonstrating it for them, and they’re unable to do it. You know they currently lack the ability to do it, which gives you better insight of where to go from there.

Here’s a great video that demonstrates me separating ability from awareness in real-time:

The P’s: Pain and Performance

Performance means a client’s ability to perform a given movement.

If someone is able to perform a given movement, it means they currently possess the prerequisite ability to begin loading it or adding some other intensity to it such as doing it explosively. How you go about that will be determined by their current fitness level.

In regards to pain, most people have some aches and pains, from sleeping wrong to a past injury. Having pain doesn’t make someone a “patient.” Nor should it prevent them from doing real exercises that give them a great workout and help them get into better shape. 

Even if our clients have wounded knees, shell-shocked shoulders, or a balky back, you have plenty of options to increase their strength and fitness while taking care of their body.

Both pain and inability to properly perform a given movement means we have to give our client a modification or different variation of the same movement pattern that they can properly perform without pain. This means you have to start them with exercise modifications and variations they can do safely with their current ability that will get them stronger and fitter.

The C’s: Comfort and Control

Strength training is for everyone, but not every strength program is for everyone. This is because exercises are general, but exercisers are individual.

Everyone should do some type of pushing, pulling, lower-body exercises, and core exercises, but it’s about finding the best exercises to fit each client instead of trying to fit clients to exercises.

And to find the best exercise modifications and variations for each client, it must fit the following criteria:

Comfort – The movement is pain free and feels natural to them.

Control – They can execute the proper technique and body positioning.

Some exercises just aren’t right for some people. We all move a bit differently due to our unique skeletal framework and proportions. In addition, injury, loss of cartilage, and natural degenerative processes in joints (like arthritis) can influence how we move. That’s why it’s smartest to adapt exercises based on our client’s ability.

The Best Movement Assessment 

The best movement assessment for personal trainers is the one that gives you a fast and reliable way of finding the APC’s of each client. That way you can get your clients doing the best exercises for their body and goals right away.

If your current assessment isn’t serving you as well as you’d like, then make sure to check out my newly-released Movement Performance Assessment which is the quickest and easiest way to identify exactly what your clients should be doing on day 1.

How To Do Crunches (That Aren’t Bad for Your Back) 13 Oct 2021 6:02 PM (3 years ago)

Many trainers hate crunches because they represent the false idea of spot training – the myth that feeling your abs burn means burning more belly fat. Trainers also hate crunches because they represent inefficient training and simply not knowing what you’re doing. You can’t go into a gym and not see people flailing around on the ground for endless reps while yanking their head forward and thinking they know how to exercise.

Stack all that on top of the fact that people sit in a forward flexed position all day then come to the gym and repeatedly flex forward doing crunches and you can see why many trainers cringe when they hear the word “crunches.”

Crunches represent almost everything trainers think is wrong with mainstream fitness practices in one exercise.

How to Do Crunches for Abs the Best Way

I don’t program standard crunches, but not because I think they’re bad. I just prefer spinal flexion abs exercises that allow you to train through a larger eccentric range of motion, such as crunches on a stability ball where you stretch over the ball at the bottom of each rep. (After all, I’m not going to do biceps crunches instead of full-range biceps curls.)

Here’s a detailed tutorial of what I call Stability-Ball Plate Crunches, which is one of my staple abdominal exercises.

You can also do this on a Bosu or on an Ab Mat to increase the eccentric stretch at the bottom of each rep.

As you can see in the video, this exercise provides a sufficient training stimulus to get stronger abs without the endless reps, which is also why I don’t use traditional floor crunches. I also use spinal flexion exercises in conjunction with anti-spinal movement exercises because I think each type of exercise (static and dynamic) offers unique benefits that combine for complete core strength.

Are crunches bad for your back?

Are crunches better than sit ups?

Are crunches good for athletes?

Are crunches bad for your posture?

Are crunches effective for abs?

Over the years, we’ve gone from doing sit-ups, to crunches to anti-flexion exercises for abs.

I’m all about the relentless pursuit of finding the most effective and safest methods to train. I agree that crunches are safer and more effective than sit-ups. However, I think the trend of exclusively using anti-spinal flexion exercises is an over-correction to poor abdominal training practices, such as the overuse of sit-ups or endless reps of floor crunches and the related ab crunch variations such as bicycles, side crunches, etc. And, I also don’t think the common idea that spinal flexion exercises, like the stability-ball pate crunch (I demonstrated above) are somehow inherently injurious has nearly as much merit as many trainers commonly believe.

That said, after seeing that I’m a proponent of spinal flexion resistance exercises like the Stability-ball crunch, I’m always met with the same questions and concerns from well-meaning trainers about spinal flexion exercises being inherently bad for your back, bad for your posture, non-functional, etc.

To help you better understand my thought process and rationale behind the use of spinal flexion exercises for abs like the stability-ball plate crunch, below I’ve provided my direct responses to many of the common concerns and arguments against spinal flexion exercises that many trainers have. This way you can see why I simply don’t find these arguments compelling enough to ride the anti-spinal flexion exercise bandwagon.

I’ve not repeated any of the great points that have already been made in other great, research-based articles about crunches HERE, HERE and HERE.

Let’s get into it!

“Dr. Stuart McGill Says Crunches Bad for Your Back”

Many trainers want to claim that spinal flexion exercises like stability-ball crunches and reverse crunches are universally dangerous, which they believe is a claim based on Dr. Stuart McGill’s research.

The following are two training recommendations taken from a 2017 paper on the crunch, co-authored by Dr. McGill:

• “If the ability to bear heavy loads is important to a client, it may be better to choose abdominal exercises with high muscular loads such as push-up position walkouts, rollout planks, or stir the pot. If flexibility is more important to the client, the personal trainer may want to select full-range curl-ups and crunches, and reduce heavy loading.” (1)
• “If maximal muscular development is the primary goal, including the crunch and/or its numerous variations, together with other exercises, may help to enhance desired results. However, personal trainers should consider the entire exercise program, including cumulative tissue loading considerations and weigh the tradeoff between mobility and load-bearing ability.” (1)

I highly doubt Dr. McGill would ever recommend the use of crunches and other spinal flexion ab exercises if he genuinely thought they were inherently dangerous.

In fact, research has shown that spinal flexion exercises can not only help promote nutrient delivery to the intervertebral discs, but may also provide superior muscle and performance gains versus isometric ab exercises (2).

The main takeaway here is that spinal flexion resistance exercises for abs are no different than any other resistance training exercises. Some exercises may be contraindicated for people who have pain when performing them.

All exercises can induce stress, which causes tissue adaptation. Loading enhances tissue resiliency in general, but there’s a tipping point when you exceed your capacity. That’s the individual nature of training, and exactly what’s meant by training smart!

Exercises are general, but exercisers are individual. So, I don’t think everyone has to do stability-ball plate crunches or other spinal flexion exercises. I just don’t think spinal flexion resistance exercises are universally dangerous to where they should be automatically eliminated as an option. I think they should only be eliminated if an individual is unable to do them with control and pain-free.

“Crunches Cause Bad Posture”

If you believe doing crunches will cause you to have a more flexed posture because that’s the movement involved in the exercise, then you must also believe that doing Romanian deadlifts will lock you into spinal extension and hip extension since that’s involved in the exercise.

The stability-ball plate-crunch is my go-to spinal flexion exercise because it allows for greater abdominal muscle stretch than floor crunches. This is important because full-range resistance training regimens, which train the muscles at long (stretched) lengths and include an eccentric component, can improve flexibility as well as, if not better than, typical static stretching.

In other words, strength training at longer (stretched) muscle lengths (that includes an eccentric component) not only causes muscles to be stronger at long lengths, but also promotes flexibility by causing muscle fibers to produce new sarcomeres in series within a muscle, which allows the muscle to lengthen more (3, 4).

In short, not only will you NOT cause a muscle to adaptively shorten if you’re lengthening it (eccentrically) under load, doing so will improve the functional length of the muscle better than typical stretching.

“Core Stability Exercises Are More Functional”

I’ve heard it stated that the abs are “primary designed to resist motion.” I’d say it’s more accurate to say that the abs are primarily designed to be able to respond to the task at hand. Sometimes that task requires them to resist motion isometrically, and other times that task requires them to create motion dynamically. Hence why the abdominals can do both, resist unwanted spinal extension and also effectively create spinal flexion.

Heck, if your abs were “primarily designed” to control spinal flexion, they’d never be so great at creating spinal flexion.

That said, many trainers choose to perform anti-spinal movement exercises to train the abs and they avoid spinal flexion exercises because they feel it’s more functional for sports. They often call anti-spinal movement exercises like planks and plank variations “stability exercises,” but they’re really just isometric exercises.

The funny thing is, trainers and coaches don’t call isometric biceps curls “elbow stability training,” nor do they call isometric squats “knee stability training.” That logical inconsistency aside, there are limitations of isometric training for performance because the strength gains it produces are extremely joint-specific and they transfer to those specific positions better. (5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12)

Sure, anti-spinal movement exercises are great for helping to improve the function of the trunk musculature; it’s the ability to remain stiff in order to transfer force between the hips and the shoulders. However, the torso doesn’t just transfer force and reduce force by limiting movement. It also helps produce force by creating motion. (13)

From MMA to tennis, you can’t deny the obvious active movement role of the trunk in power production (force summation) during sporting events. Try to imagine Serena Williams serving a ball without moving her torso. You can also appreciate the active movement contribution the torso has in power production by trying a simple experiment.

First, perform an overhead soccer medicine ball throw. Use a medicine ball that’s about 4-6 pounds. Then do it in the standard athletic fashion, where you extend at your spine and hips a bit (don’t go to end range) in order to allow your (anterior) torso musculature to eccentrically load. Got that?

Then compare that to an anti-extension soccer-style throw where you don’t allow your spine to move at all. You already know which of the two throws will be more powerful, not to mention which throw will feel more natural and athletic.

So based on what the principle of specificity dictates (and barring any injury), it makes the most sense to train both anti-spinal movements and active spinal in order to maximize your strength and performance.

“Crunches Aren’t Good for Athletes”

When I first started as a trainer in the late 90s, I came up during the functional training trend. It was all about doing integrated, 3D exercises from your feet, which certainly does have some merit. However, just because an exercise is from the ground and targets a specific muscle group, doesn’t mean it fails to offer positive transfer to standing performance.

That said, as a way to “prove” that ab exercises from the supine position, like crunches or stability-ball plate crunches, were “non-functional”; it was common for functional training proponents to claim that the abs don’t flex your spine from standing. The practical implication was doing supine, spinal flexion based exercises targeting the abs doesn’t offer transfer to improve standing sports performance.

I debunked this in a Core Training course I did over a decade ago. Watch this video:

“US Army Research Says Core Stabilization Exercises Work Better for Sit-Up Performance and Are Safer”

In 2010, there were two studies published looking at army soldier sit-up performance and back pain rates comparing traditional sit-up training to “Core Stabilization exercises.”

Both papers were based on the same workout program comparison, just each paper focused on a different outcome. They concluded:

• The Core Stabilization Exercise Program (CESP) did not have a detrimental impact on sit-up performance or overall fitness scores or pass rates. There was a small but significantly greater increase in sit-up pass rate in the CSEP (5.6%) versus the Traditional Exercise Program (TEP) group (3.9%). (14)
• There was marginal evidence that the CSEP resulted in fewer days of work restriction for low back injuries. (15)

I’ve encountered countless trainers who think these papers provided the knockdown argument against the use of spinal flexion ab exercises… since the results of these two studies suggest that performing core stabilization exercises in lieu of traditional sit-ups did not have a negative impact on either performance or passing rates for the sit-up test, and potentially were associated with less low back injury.

I don’t think these studies provide any argument against the use of crunches because CRUNCHES WERE USED as one of the “Core Stabilization Exercises.”

The traditional Army sit-up workout program absolutely sucked, but that’s not the point here.

I don’t think you can take studies that demonstrated GREAT RESULTS using a spinal flexion exercise (draw-in crunches) and try to claim these studies show spinal flexion exercises are inherently not good.

Baxter et al. (16) also observed no decrement in sit-up performance among a small cohort of US Military Cadets at West Point who exclusively performed abdominal crunch exercises during a 6-wk training period.

Now, the explanation for why soldiers in these studies most likely got the results they did is simple!

Numerous studies have shown the abdominals flex the spine for about the first 30 to 45 degrees of movement which is approximately equivalent to lifting your shoulder blades off the ground (17,18), which is the standard range of motion for a crunch. Beyond 30 degrees (the ankles between your back and the floor after lifting your entire shoulder blades off the ground, it’s commonly thought the hip flexors begin to take charge of the movement, which increases spinal compression loads without increased abdominal muscle activation (19)

Plus, pulling the abdominals in while in a supine position with bent knees – the draw-in crunch was used as the first exercise – may be an effective means of helping to bring your rib cage and pelvis towards one another, maximizing the effect of the crunch. (18)

This explains why their abs got stronger to have better sit-up performance even though they didn’t do sit-ups in training. And, since they weren’t doing so much redundant volume of sit-ups as is involved in the traditional training group program, they were getting as much overuse in the same movement pattern.

It’s important to note that the crunch involves about  3-degrees of lumbar flexion (19), which is less likely to result in increased forces across the lumbar disc relative to the 15-degrees of lumbar flexion in a full bent-knee sit-up, and the 6 degrees in the long-lying sit up. (19)

“Spine Sparing Exercises are Safer”

Research has shown the basic crunch elicited around 2,000N of compression on the spine at L4/L5 (8). It’s because of that level of spinal compression that many trainers say those exercises should be avoided. However, many of these same trainers will proudly recommend exercises like kettlebell swings and bent-over rows.

Interestingly, spinal loading at the beginning of the swings when using a 16kg kettlebell created 3195N of compression, 2328N at the middle of the swing, and 1903N of compression at the top of the swing (9).

And the bent-over row was shown to create 3,576N on the spine, which is also significantly higher than the compression created on the lumbar spine during a basic crunch (10). So, as Bret Contreras said, “Many coaches vilify certain exercises based on the levels of spinal loading they produce only to prescribe alternative exercises that exceed the levels reached in the exercises they discourage.”

Now, some will argue by saying that crunches involve spinal flexion, which is the problem, but the kettlebell swing and the bent-over row don’t involve any lumbar flexion. They say to just keep your spine in a safer position to deal with these levels of compression. Unfortunately, this common belief has also been falsified in multiple studies.

There’s a multitude of research showing that lumbar flexion occurs when performing a variety of common lifts, even when lifters are cued to maintain a neutral spine while under the watchful eye of experts such as Dr. Stuart McGill:

Two studies on squats using men and women found that in every case, as soon as a loaded bar was placed across the rear shoulder region prior to the commencement of the downward phase of the squat, the lumbar spine lost its normal or natural curve (24,25).

Another soon to be published thesis paper titled, “Lumbar spine kinematics and kinetics during heavy barbell squat and deadlift variations,” out of the University of Saskatchewan, showed 50% and 80% max flexion on squats and deadlifts respectively.

It’s impossible for the lumbar to stay in spinal neutral (which is more of a range than a specific spinal position). That’s nothing new, as it was demonstrated by biomechanists in 1994 (26). Note how it looks neutral but it’s still flexed.

It looks neutral despite it being 22 degrees of lumbar flexion, which is around 35% of max flexion (27). Researchers suggest that what appears to be a neutral-looking lumbar spine position (when it’s actually flexing) is in reality the thoracic spine being more neutral (28).

Another reason could be due to normal human variations in pelvic shape, which makes it difficult to accurately determine pelvic posture. Research shows there’s considerable morphological variation between pelvises. It’s possible that differences of up to 23 degrees in the ASIS-PSIS angle (and 22 degrees in the pubic symphysis-ischial spine angle) could reflect differences in morphology rather than differences in muscular and ligamentous forces acting between the pelvis and adjacent segments (29).

This isn’t at all saying there’s no need to coach or attempt to maintain a stiff, lordodic lumbar position when you perform these types of exercises. You certainly want to attempt to control your spine and maintain the strongest position you can because you can change the amount of lumbar flexion a little.

It’s simply highlighting the fact that some level of lumbar flexion is unavoidable, even when you’re trying to actively prevent it. And some level of lumbar spine flexion is going to occur no matter what. You can’t accurately call lumbar flexion a reliable risk factor to avoid when it’s a normal and unavoidable aspect of many functional movements and common lifts.

I’ll grant that if you want to do all you can to help improve the strength of the core muscles to transfer force by limiting trunk movement, you’ve got to use some isometric core exercises. However, if you really want to do all you can to help improve core strength, you’ve got to also add in some dynamic core exercises.

“Just Do Heavy Squats and Deadlifts, Bro!”

A few studies have taken the position that multi-joint, free-weight exercises such as barbell squats and deadlifts activate “core” muscles better than isolation core exercises.

These studies have led many trainers, coaches and exercise enthusiasts to mistakenly think that you don’t need to do exercises that focus on strengthening your abs and obliques because squats and deadlifts do the job more effectively.

The truth is, when you look at the evidence, the common claim that “heavy squats and deadlifts are all you need to strengthen your abs and obliques,” doesn’t make sense. In fact, the common push-up activates the abs and obliques more than squats or deadlifts!

A Closer Look at the (Misinterpreted) Science

One of the two studies that are most commonly quoted as scientific “evidence” that squats and deadlifts work better for strengthening your abs and obliques is entitled Systematic Review of Core Muscle Activity During Physical Fitness Exercises.

The purpose of this article was to “systematically review the literature on the electromyographic (EMG) activity of 3 core muscles (lumbar multifidus, transverse abdominis, and quadratus lumborum) during physical fitness exercises in healthy adults.”

(You scientific detective types will notice that when the authors say “core muscles,” they’re not referring to the rectus abdominis and the obliques.)

The major findings of this review were as follows:

• Moderate levels of evidence indicate that lumbar multifidus EMG activity is greater during free weight exercises compared with ball/device exercises and is similar during core stability and ball/device exercises. (30)
• Transverse abdominis EMG activity is similar during core stability and ball/device exercises. (30)

It’s clear that the results of this review certainly don’t demonstrate that squats and deadlifts create more activation of the rectus abdominis and oblique musculature than exercises that focus on those core muscles.

However, what these findings do tell us is if you’re doing exercises like squats and deadlifts, you’re not neglecting the deep (local) core stabilizing muscles like the transverse abdominis and the lumbar multifidus.

The researchers concluded that, “The available evidence suggests that strength and conditioning specialists should focus on implementing multi-joint free weight exercises, rather than core-specific exercises, to adequately train the core muscles in their athletes and clients.” (30)

Now, if you only read that conclusion, and failed to ask, “Which core muscles did the researchers of this study look at?” you can clearly see how the study was misrepresented as demonstrating that squats and deadlifts create more abdominal activation than core-focused exercises directed at those specific muscles.

Not Even as Good as a Push-Up

Another study that often gets misrepresented is entitled Trunk Muscle Activity During Stability Ball and Free Weight Exercises.

In it, squats and deadlifts were done with loads of approximately 50, 70, 90, and 100% of the subject’s 1RM. Subjects also completed 3 stability ball exercises: birddog, hip bridge, and ball back extension.

The findings:

• No significant differences were observed in the rectus abdominis and external oblique muscles during any of the exercises. (31)
• Activity of the trunk muscles during squats and deadlifts is greater or equal to that which is produced during the stability ball exercises. Squats and deadlifts are recommended for increasing strength and hypertrophy of the back extensors. (31)

In short, this study showed that squats and deadlifts elicit high levels of activation in the posterior core muscles (i.e., the back extensors) when compared to other exercises that target the posterior core muscles.

But they didn’t compare squats and deadlifts to exercises that are designed to activate the anterior core (abdominals and obliques) musculature.

Additionally, the following graphs (32) help give you a visual of just how much or, more accurately, how little the anterior core muscles are activated during squats and deadlifts as opposed to other anterior core-specific exercises.

As you can see, according to this research, squats and deadlifts don’t even come close to creating the levels of activation in the rectus abdominis that the push-up does.

Likewise, the graph below (32) shows that squats and deadlifts create higher levels of muscle activation in the external obliques than they do in the rectus abdominis. However, the level of external oblique muscle activation is still well below that created by the push-up!

So, if you seek to have truly strong abs, it requires targeted exercises for your abs.

References:

1. Stuart Mcgill, PHD. Brad Schoenfeld, PHD. Choosing Exercises – “The Crunch”. Personal Training Quarterly Journal. Volume 4, Issue 2. National Strength and Conditioning Association – 2017. 
2. Schoenfeld BJ, Morey J. Abdominal crunches are/are not a safe and effective exercise. Stren Cond Jour. 2016 Dec;38(6):61-4.
3. Brughelli, M., & Cronin, J. (2007). Altering the length-tension relationship with eccentric exercise. Sports Medicine, 37(9), 807-826.
4. Butterfield, T. A. (2010). Eccentric exercise in vivo: strain-induced muscle damage and adaptation in a stable system. Exercise & Sport Sciences Reviews, 38(2), 51-60.
5. Lindh, M. (1979). Increase of muscle strength from isometric quadriceps exercises at different knee angles. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 11(1), 33.
6. Thépaut-Mathieu, C., Van Hoecke, J., & Maton, B. (1988). Myoelectrical and mechanical changes linked to length specificity during isometric training. Journal of Applied Physiology, 64(4), 1500-1505.
7. Kitai, T. A., & Sale, D. G. (1989). Specificity of joint angle in isometric training. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology, 58(7), 744-748.
8. Weir, J. P., Housh, T. J., Weir, L. L., & Johnson, G. O. (1995). Effects of unilateral isometric strength training on joint angle specificity and cross-training. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology, 70(4), 337-343.
9. Ebersole, K. T., Housh, T. J., Johnson, G. O., Perry, S. R., Bull, A. J., & Cramer, J. T. (2002). Mechanomyographic and electromyographic responses to unilateral isometric training. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 16(2), 192.
10.  Folland, J. P., Hawker, K., Leach, B., Little, T., & Jones, D. A. (2005). Strength training: Isometric training at a range of joint angles versus dynamic training. Journal of Sports Sciences, 23(8), 817-824.
11.  Noorkõiv, M., Nosaka, K., & Blazevich, A. J. (2014). Neuromuscular adaptations associated with knee joint angle-specific force change. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 46(8), 1525-1537.
12.  Noorkõiv, M., Nosaka, K., & Blazevich, A. J. (2015). Effects of isometric quadriceps strength training at different muscle lengths on dynamic torque production. Journal of Sports Sciences, 33(18), 1952-1961.
13. Shinkle J, Nesser TW, Demchak TJ, McMannus DM. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Feb;26(2):373-80. Effect of core strength on the measure of power in the extremities. 
14. Childs JD, Teyhen DS, Benedict TM, Morris JB, Fortenberry AD, McQueen RM, Preston JB, Wright AC, Dugan JL, George SZ. Effects of sit-up training versus core stabilization exercises on sit-up performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Nov;41(11):2072-83.
15. Childs JD, Teyhen DS, Casey PR, McCoy-Singh KA, Feldtmann AW, Wright AC, Dugan JL, Wu SS, George SZ. Effects of traditional sit-up training versus core stabilization exercises on short-term musculoskeletal injuries in US Army soldiers: a cluster randomized trial. Phys Ther. 2010 Oct;90(10):1404-12.
16. Baxter R, Moore J, Pendergrass T, Crowder T, Lynch S. Improvement in sit-up performance associated with 2 different training regimens. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2003;33(1):40–7.
17. FLINT, M.M. Abdominal muscle involvement during the performance of various forms of sit-up exercise. Am. J. Phys. Med. 44:224–234. 1965.6. FRANCIS, P.R., F.W.
18. Len Kravitz, Ph.D. SuperAbs Resource Manual. Published online: https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/abdominal.html
19. Halpern AA, Bleck EE. Sit-up exercises: an electromyographic study. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1979 Nov-Dec;(145):172-8. PMID: 161217.
20. McGill SM, Marshall LW. Kettlebell swing, snatch, and bottoms-up carry: back and hip muscle activation, motion, and low back loads. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Jan;26(1):16-27.
21. Bret Contreras. The Contreras Files: Volume II. Published online 01/17/12. Vigotsky, A. D., Harper, E. N., Ryan, D. R., & Contreras, B. (2015). Effects of load on good morning kinematics and EMG activity. PeerJ, 3, e708. doi:10.7717/peerj.708
22. Schellenberg et al. (2013) Schellenberg F, Lindorfer J, List R, Taylor WR, Lorenzetti S. Kinetic and kinematic differences between deadlifts and goodmornings. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2013;5:27. doi: 10.1186/2052-1847-5-27.
23. Potvin JR, McGill SM, Norman RW. Trunk muscle and lumbar ligament contributions to dynamic lifts with varying degrees of trunk flexion. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 1991 Sep;16(9):1099-107.
24. McKean MR, Dunn PK, Burkett BJ. The lumbar and sacrum movement pattern during the back squat exercise. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Oct;24(10):2731-41. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e2e166.
25. McKean, Mark & Burkett, Brendan. (2012). Does segment length influence the hip, knee and ankle coordination during the squat movement?. Journal Fitness Research. 1. 23-30.
26. Dolan P, Earley M, Adams MA. Bending and compressive stresses acting on the lumbar spine during lifting activities. J Biomech. 1994 Oct;27(10):1237-48.
27. Greg Lehman. Reconciling Spinal Flexion and Pain: We Are All Doomed to Failure but Perhaps it Doesn’t Matter. Published online April 2, 2018.
28. Dolan P, Mannion AF, Adams MA. Passive tissues help the back muscles to generate extensor moments during lifting. J Biomech. 1994 Aug;27(8):1077-85.
29. Preece, S. J., Willan, P., Nester, C. J., Graham-Smith, P., Herrington, L., & Bowker, P. (2008). Variation in pelvic morphology may prevent the identification of anterior pelvic tilt. The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy, 16(2), 113-7.
30. Martuscello JM, et al. “Systematic review of core muscle activity during physical fitness exercises” J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Jun;27(6):1684-98.
31. Nuzzo JL, et al. “Trunk muscle activity during stability ball and free weight exercises” J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Jan;22(1):95-102.
32. New Training Techniques. Powerpoint presentation by Jeffrey M. McBride, PhD Associate Professor – Biomechanics Department of Health, Leisure & Exercise Science Appalachian State University, 2006.

Anti-Corrective Exercises for Improving Overhead Mobility, Tight Pecs and Rounded Shoulders 15 Sep 2021 6:45 PM (3 years ago)

I’ve put together this article series sharing my simpler ways for achieving the same benefits as corrective exercise in a faster manner, while getting my clients and athletes stronger and fitter.

Here are my first two installments in this series for you to also check out: 

• Anti-Corrective Exercises for Tight Hip Flexors
•  Anti-Corrective Exercises for Improving Ankle Dorsiflexion Mobility and Stability

In this article I’m showing you my top exercises for improving overhead shoulder mobility, and for addressing tight pecs and rounded shoulders in a way that offsets the need to spend lots of extra time doing corrective exercise protocols that don’t get you stronger and fitter.

What is Corrective Exercise? Anti-Corrective Exercise?

For the sake of this article series, I’m defining corrective exercise simply as specific protocols intended to address muscle imbalances and functional deficits in mobility and stability.

That said, I don’t prefer to use the term “corrective exercises” with clients and athletes because it implies they’re somehow broken. So, aside from what makes for a cool article title that gets attention – I don’t write articles like this for no one to read – I don’t really call these moves “anti-corrective exercises” because it can come off as negative, or as if I’m trying to undermine anyone associated with using or teaching corrective exercise.

I call these “MOST exercises,” because they combine MObility + STrength in one move in order to get the MOST done and get my clients and athletes the MOST ability.

As I wrote in more detail in my first two articles in this series on Exercises for Tight Hip Flexors, and Exercises for Improving Ankle Dorsiflexion Mobility and Stability; I’m not against spending extra time using a more common corrective exercise approach. I’m simply against starting there.

My approach is: Before you go right into spending extra time away from doing challenging workouts that are enjoyable and geared toward the person’s physique and performance goals to go the corrective exercise route, FIRST try using the MOST exercises I’ve highlighted in this article series. You’ll find they take care of the majority of issues you’re concerned about without taking time away from achieving the muscle building and performance benefits our clients and athletes want.

How to Improve Overhead Mobility and Stability, Fast!

There are lots of exercises used by intelligent trainers and coaches to help improve overhead shoulder mobility, such as wall slides, face pulls, etc. And, those are all fine to do.

Here I’m highlighting some exercises that you’re probably not already using, which I’ve found valuable for improving overhead shoulder mobility while building upper-body strength that translates to better movement performance.

Cable Bent-Elbow Compound Pull-over

Strength while stretching (i.e., lengthening the muscle group being loaded) not only makes the range of motion stick, it also gives you better stability because you’ve got the strength to control the position you’ve gained the range of motion in. Hence why I developed this exercise, and the rest of the exercises featured this article.

Cable One-Arm Compound Cable Row

This one not only covers both shoulder overhead mobility and strength throughout a large range of motion, but the stretch you get feels great!

Stability-Ball Wall Rollout (for Beginners)

This is one of my favorite exercises for seniors because it’s easy to do properly while giving them a great way to “open-up” the front of their body and shoulders in a very safe and controlled manner.

How to Stretch Tight Pecs and Strengthen Rounded Shoulders Simultaneously

One of the most common questions I get from trainers, especially when they hear that I don’t follow any corrective exercise school of thought, is “What do you do for a client with tight pecs and rounded shoulders?”

In addition to doing basic upper-body pulling and pushing strength exercises; these are my top two isolation exercises, which I developed to improve extensibility of the pecs while improving strength of the posterior shoulder musculature.

Make sure you listen to the audio on all of these exercise tutorial videos below and above for important details.

Shoulder Y,T,L with Pec Stretch

I came up with this combination of a pec stretch with the shoulder Y,T, L  exercise to get more benefit from each. And, ever since, it’s been one of my go-to moves!

Band Rear-Delt Fly with Pec Stretch

If someone has trouble getting on their knees to perform the previous exercise, this is what I’ll have them do. Not to mention, this is also a great upper-body warm-up move because it gets your shoulders stretched in the front and fired up in the back!

Want to learn more about how I approach programming for my clients and athletes so I can meet their goals while addressing their physical limitations? Then you’ll definitely want to check out my Practical Program Design Mastery course where I lay out my entire programming system.

The Missing Exercises for Joint Pain Relief and Injury Prevention 25 Aug 2021 6:32 PM (3 years ago)

The best ability in training is the availability to do it in the first place. So, train in a safe manner that allows you to continue training.

That said, it’s no coincidence that once barbell based lifting got popular again, it was quickly followed by a high demand for mobility and injury prevention modalities.

Many barbell enthusiasts like making fun of runners for often being injured, while these lifters have to do 10 different forms of self-therapy before and between workouts in order to feel semi-normal. Pot, meet kettle!

This isn’t saying the barbell is dangerous or bad, so don’t get your bench shirt in a bunch. It’s simply saying that people commonly make two mistakes when it comes to being serious about strength training:

• They mistake the fundamentals of weightlifting for the fundamentals of strength training, which leads to them to
• Fitting themselves to exercises instead of fitting exercises to them.

TRUE Injury Prevention

I developed and use the Shoulder Health 10 and Hip Health 10 programs because they’re a simple, organized and concise sequence of exercises that each involve my top 10 supplementary exercises that address the three most significant causes of preventable shoulder and hip problems:

• Decreased strength
• Increased fatigue
• Lack of mobility

And, both the  SH10 and HH10 can be done anywhere in less than 15 minutes using only an NT loop Mini band.

Here’s an example of an exercise from the Shoulder Health 10, and from the Hip Health 10.

I call moves like these “injury prevention” exercises because they’re not designed to increase muscle hypertrophy, but to train and strengthen the shoulder and hip complex in ways that may be missed by traditional compound and isolation lifts in the hopes they can make your shoulders and hips more resilient and functional. Plus, the term “injury prevention” resonates most with my clients and athletes when using exercises and protocols like the Shoulder Health 10, and Hip Health 10 to complement their strength zone training workouts.

That said, the best exercises for joint pain and injury prevention are the ones you don’t do!

You see, when I say “the missing exercises” for pain relief and injury prevention in the title of this article, I mean that literally!

True injury prevention and pain relief for those who lift starts with the exercises that are missing from your program because they don’t fit your body.

Somehow “injury prevention” and ways to feel better (i.e., pain relief) have become exclusively about doing more and more rehab type exercises as warmup or after a lifting session. In reality, true injury prevention training, and how to feel better, is about addition by subtraction. Meaning, it’s about first looking at your current program and eliminating certain lifts that your body doesn’t like, instead of being attached to certain exercises (like barbell lifts).

The Missing Assessment for Pain Relief and Injury Prevention

Many people who lift experience joint pain, prolonged soreness and have injuries that refuse to heal. They often default to looking for something wrong (i.e., dysfunctional) with their body, when the first place they should be looking is at their workouts.

That’s the missing assessment! Assessing if you love lifts that your body doesn’t. And, acknowledging that if an exercise doesn’t love you back, it’s time to break-up with it.

The way to tell if you’re doing lifts your body doesn’t like is simple.

You shouldn’t feel like you have to do endless mobility drills, soft tissue work, etc. or some type of a mini-physical therapy session before you workout just to feel semi-normal. And, following a tough workout, you may be fatigued, but your body overall should feel better at the end of your workout than before you started. That means less joint pain and not feeling like you need to stretch yourself into a near coma after lifting to find relief.

In other words, the most important assessment is assessing how you feel on a regular basis. And, instead of buying yet another book or course of 1001 mobility drills or adding to your collection of different shaped self-massage devices, you use that as a red flag to rethink your workouts that may be causing your problems.

That said, some trainers and lifters wish to find out why their body, or their client’s body, doesn’t like certain lifts. I assert that it doesn’t matter for anyone aside from powerlifters because there are no must-do exercises. Not to mention, when you start down the path of “let me find out why your body doesn’t like this lift,” you’re assuming that it’s someone’s body that is dysfunctional because it must be able to fit to some artificial, robotic gym-based exercise.

It’s important to note that I’m NOT talking about competitive powerlifters, Olympic lifters or Cross-fitters here. Those are sports where you’re forced into training a certain way, whether your body likes them or not, and come with risks competitors are willing to sacrifice their body for. Those sports aren’t about health.

What I’m talking here is about everyone else who is serious about strength training (i.e., lifting) for health and fitness purposes. In that case, there are no specific exercises you must do to get stronger and improve your health and fitness.

My Body Hates the Barbell Deadlift

It’s interesting how us trainers and coaches usually view good lifting technique as the prescription for things like back pain. However, what about the people like me who don’t suffer from back pain and have no history of back injury. Yet, certain lifts, like barbell deadlifts, with great technique bother my back. And, I’ve been like this since I was a kid. So, it’s not an age thing.

Keep in mind, I know all tricks and cues on safe technique to maximize using the hips, take the slack out of the bar, keep the bar close to me, etc., and even sumo style bugs my back both during and after my workouts. Even the trap bar, although not as bad, still makes my body feel not great.

In other words, I can do barbell and trap bar deadlifts, and go heavy if I so choose. However, if I don’t regularly incorporate deadlifts, I feel much better and move better. And, I’m highly aware of how I move and feel because I regularly exercise hard, and do both Muay Thai boxing and indoor climbing (mainly bouldering) a few times per week.

If I start using barbell deadlifts, or Trap bar deadlifts, especially anything over 300lbs, even sumo with the barbell, my body starts to tell me it doesn’t like it within a few sets. And, within a few weeks of incorporating deadlifts, my back starts to feel tight and I feel less capable and energetic when doing my other sports.

I generally feel great, have plenty of energy, move fluidly and don’t have pain. So, although I train hard and do highly demanding sports, I never feel like I have to use the massage gun or foam roll, or even do a bunch of stretching and mobility work just to feel good and ready to go. It’s only when I start incorporating barbell deadlifts, even the trap bar, when I start to feel like I need to do some of that “therapy stuff” to feel better.

Since I can do all kinds of athletic stuff like climbing and combat sports, at a high level, with no issues, I don’t buy the idea that robotic, gym-based lifts somehow tell us how the body functions better than actual athletic tasks. I DO buy that every exercise is NOT for every body because of our individual skeletal framework, body proportions and injury history.

This is what I mean when I say exercises are general but exercisers are individual. And, that good training is about fitting exercises to people instead of fitting them to exercises.

Many trainers and coaches get so attached to exercises like deadlifts, they bend over backwards to find 1000 and 1 ways to coach it because they have this view that it’s somehow a must-do lift. However, the solution is often just don’t frigging do them! There are plenty of other great ways to strengthen your posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes and back).

Here are two of my favorites to program for hip hinging.

Angled Barbell Leaning RDL

Here’s a unique single-leg Romanian deadlift variation, using a barbell in a corner, that I developed using a body lean to hit the glutes in two ways. The unique aspect of this exercise is subtle, but it makes a big difference in the glute involvement.

NT Loop Single-Leg Thigh-Resisted RDL

Having the NT Loop band wrapped high around your working thigh – your front leg – allows you to concentrate all of the band’s tension on the side you’re working. Plus, having the band placed somewhat in-line with your glutes is a lot more effective at training your glutes than when the band is placed around your waist.

Unless you’re competing in something where a lift is required, no lift is a must-do. So, for non-powerlifters, the solution is to simply NOT do lifts your body doesn’t like instead of trying to force a square peg into a round hole. You’re certainly not missing out on any magical powers it offers, as no exercise has magical powers.

That said, the closest thing to having magical powers is finding the lifts that fit your body, and doing them with quality, intensity and consistency.

How NOT to Do Joint-Friendly Strength Training

The reason why, as barbell based lifting got popular again, it was quickly followed by a high demand for mobility and injury prevention modalities is because many people are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. This is due to falsely believing that you can’t get strong without the big lifts, which is an example of how people confuse training methods with universal training principles.

Here’s the reality: You can’t get strong without creating progressive overload! The principle of overload dictates that the training stress – based on frequency, intensity, and type of exercise as well as recovery processes – should exceed the training stress experienced during the previous workout. (1)

Sure, the big lifts are a great way to create progressive overload, but they’re not the only way. Resistance exercise is just a way to put force across joints. That’s it! When you understand this, you quickly see that no particular exercise has magical powers because barbells, dumbbells, cables, machines, and bands are all just different tools that allow us to apply force across joints.

The lesson: Forget about your emotional attachment to certain training methods or going by what some guru says. You can’t deny the principles of specificity and overload.

Additionally, as the guy who first coined the term “joint friendly strength training,” and produced the first ever course on the subject; it’s an oxymoron to call a program “joint-friendly” when it’s designed around traditional, bilateral barbell exercises.

The two main reasons for this are 1) barbell lifts are usually the first thing people have to abandon when they have normal aches and pains, because 2) you’re fitting yourself to the barbell instead of fitting the exercise/equipment to you.

Bilateral barbell lifts are the most restrictive in dictating how you move during an exercise when compared to dumbbells and cables that allow you better adjust to how your body prefers to move, which is needed when you have some normal aches and pains that don’t make you a physical therapy patient.

Making Athletes Feel Great Again

I’ve spent years getting clients and athletes stronger and fitter, while doing workouts that would bury most so-called “hardcore” lifters, without needing to do so much extra therapeutic work for them to feel good and stay injury-free because my programs are based on fitting exercises to you, not fitting you to exercises.

Strength Training should be the medicine, not what you need to take medicine because of.

Plus, my programs address and prevent the common movement deficiencies from occurring in the first place because Strength Zone Training is Better Than Stretching and Correctives.

For some practical examples of this, checkout out my Anti-Corrective Exercises for Tight Hip Flexors, and my Anti-Corrective Exercises for Improving Ankle Dorsiflexion Mobility and Stability

Reference:

1. Clayton, Drake, Larkin, Linkul, Martino, Nutting, Tumminello. (2015). Foundations of Fitness Programming, Why Was the FFP Developed? (pg.5). National Strength and Conditioning Association

Anti-Corrective Exercises for Improving Ankle Dorsiflexion Mobility and Stability 28 Jul 2021 7:47 PM (3 years ago)

I’ve often said that exercising correctly usually offsets the need for corrective exercise. To demonstrate what I mean by that practically, I’ve started this anti-corrective exercise solutions article series to show you exactly how I address the issues trainers commonly look to corrective exercise for. The issues many trainers seem to be under the impression that corrective exercise has the lockdown on solving.

In my first installment to this series, I showed you my anti-corrective exercise solutions for tight hip flexors. 

Here I’m showing you how I go about improving ankle dorsiflexion mobility and building strength throughout in order to help people move better and potentially reduce injury risk without using common corrective exercise protocols.

Definitions and Disclaimer

For the sake of this article series, I’m defining corrective exercise simply as specific protocols intended to address muscle imbalances and functional deficits in mobility and stability.

That said, my term “anti-corrective exercise” doesn’t mean I’m against corrective exercise, nor am I trying to undermine anyone associated with using or teaching corrective exercise. I’m simply for finding simpler ways that can achieve the same benefits as corrective exercise in a faster, more efficient manner, while getting my clients and athletes stronger and fitter.

In my anti-corrective exercise solutions for tight hip flexors article, I provided a more detailed explanation as to my motives for writing this article series as it relates to corrective exercise. You’ll see that “I come in peace.”

That said, I don’t prefer to use the term “corrective exercises” with clients and athletes because it implies they’re somehow broken. However, when speaking to other trainers and coaches, I understand why it’s become a common term. In this case, if you prefer, you could consider the exercises I highlight below and in this article series as express correctives. To me, it’s just purposeful exercise. That’s why my Strength Zone Training slogan is “Building Muscle with a Purpose.”

How to Improve Ankle Mobility While Building High-Performance Calves

Your calves are made of the gastrocnemius complex and the soleus. Research shows that doing calf raises (ankle plantar flexion) with a straight-knee creates superior gastrocnemius muscle activity, while doing these raises with a bent-knee creates superior soleus muscle activity (1,2,3,4). So it makes sense to do at least one calf exercise in each knee position to maximize your training time and efficiency.

These four exercises improve ankle mobility and stability because you’re building calf strength that translates to better movement performance.

Top 2 Straight-Knee Calf Exercises for Improving Strength and Ankle Dorsiflexion Mobility

These two exercises require you to perform a heel raise in a manner that involves propelling yourself forward as well as upwards on each step. The plantar flexion action is more similar to that of walking and running. Therefore, these two moves also work on improving mobility of your big toe ( 1^st MTP joint), which makes them even more bang for your mobility buck!

Dumbbell Leaning Calf Raise

Captain Morgan Calf Raise

Top 2 Bent-Knee Calf Exercises for Improving Strength and Ankle Dorsiflexion Mobility

It’s important to notice that both these bent-knee calf exercises involve positioning your working side foot closer to you. This increases the range of motion demand, making it more productive than a traditional seated calf raise for improving ankle strength and dorsiflexion mobility.

Dumbbell Half-Kneeling Calf Raise

Dumbbell One Leg Seated Calf Raise

If You’re Not Testing Properly, You’re Not Training It Optimally

If you’re a trainer or coach that works with clients or athletes, you already know that almost everyone has some type of strength imbalance.

The question is: How do you know which asymmetries or imbalances to address and which to leave alone?

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just programming a handful of unilateral exercises and hoping for the best. That might actually make the problem even worse.

Instead, you need a way to identify which strength imbalances are actually a problem and give you a simple solution to solve them that works with any assessment process that you are already using.

The Strength Symmetry Evaluation does just that.

The Strength Symmetry Evaluation (SSE) is the first evaluation tool that allows you to quickly and easily identify and optimize sub-optimal strength imbalances in your clients and athletes that lead to poor performance and increased injury potential.

References:

1.      Hébert-Losier, K., Schneiders, A. G., García, J. A., Sullivan, S. J., & Simoneau, G. G. (2012). Influence of knee flexion angle and age on triceps surae muscle activity during heel raises. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 26(11), 3124-3133.

2.      Tamaki, H., Kitada, K., Akamine, T., Sakou, T., & Kurata, H. (1996). Electromyogram patterns during plantar flexion at various angular velocities and knee angles in human triceps surae muscles. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology, 75(1), 1-6.

3.      Price, T. B., Kamen, G., Damon, B. M., Knight, C. A., Applegate, B., Gore, J. C., & Signorile, J. F. (2003). Comparison of MRI with EMG to study muscle activity associated with dynamic plantar flexion. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 21(8), 853-861.

4.      Signorile, J. E., Applegate, B., Ducque, M., Cole, N., & Zink, A. (2002). Selective recruitment of the triceps surae muscles with changes in knee angle. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 16(3), 433-439.

Anti-Corrective Exercises for Tight Hip Flexors 14 Jul 2021 6:10 PM (3 years ago)

When trainers hear that I don’t use corrective exercise – I’m defining corrective exercise simply as specific protocols intended to address muscle imbalances and functional deficits in mobility and stability – they often ask me how I address the issues trainers commonly look to corrective exercise for.

In this article series, I’m providing my practical answers by showing you what I call my anti-corrective exercise solutions.

Here I’m showing my top anti-corrective exercise solutions for tight hip flexors.

This is how I go about improving hip extension range of motion and building strength throughout in order to help people move better and feel better without using common corrective exercise protocols.

What Is Anti-Corrective Exercise? Are You Trashing Corrective Exercise?

Before we get into the practical stuff, I need to make sure you understand my motives behind this article, and what I do and don’t mean when I say “anti-corrective exercise” because I’m not undermining anything or anyone here.

Corrective exercise (aka. reeducation, restoration drills) is an expression of well-intentioned trainers who want to learn more than the average trainer, and are dedicated to doing everything they can to help their clients and athletes to feel better and move better, not just make them sweaty and tired. I love and share this disposition and dedication to delivering a higher level service.

Many people seek out help from us trainers because they’re often victims of the medical model and they want to take a more proactive approach to their own healthcare. So, it’s common that people come to us trainers with limitations in movement quality along with aches and pains that don’t make them a physical therapy patient. And, I won’t argue that these issues are important to address (within our scope of practice), nor will I argue that corrective exercise concepts can offer a therapeutic and functional benefit. Hence why many intelligent trainers see it working in daily practice with their clients and athletes feeling better and moving better.

That said, my goal as a trainer isn’t just to help my clients and athletes to move better and feel better. It’s to help them move better and feel better 1) while creating a training effect that is challenging enough to achieve their physique and fitness goals. And, 2) to do so in the fastest, most efficient way possible in order to give them the most value by maximizing their time.

With this in mind, it’s common for multiple corrective exercises to be performed to address a certain functional deficit. For example, there might be three to five (or more) drills done to improve the function of one particular area, with a drill to address mobility and/or flexibility, another drill to address stability (i.e., control of unwanted movement), and another to address strength throughout the movement. Another school of thought might call it something else, but the point is, doing multiple corrective exercises takes time away from doing other exercises that build muscle and improve fitness.

All I mean when I say anti-corrective exercise is 1) not going through all those steps to effectively address functional deficits, while also 2) not sacrificing time away from doing exercises that are challenging enough to get our clients and athletes the physique and performance benefits they want. Therefore, my anti-corrective exercises are exercises specifically designed to 1) improve mobility, stability and strength simultaneously, while 2) building muscle and performance.

In other words, the “anti” in my term “anti-corrective exercise” solutions isn’t saying I’m against corrective exercise or anyone who uses and teaches it. It just means I’m anti overcomplication of programming and I’m anti making the training sessions more about the assessment than getting an actual challenging workout that’s enjoyable and geared toward the person’s physique and performance goals.

To be extra clear: I’m NOT saying that corrective exercise doesn’t work, nor am I saying that anything anyone teaches is wrong. So, there’s no need to start defending your favorite corrective exercise instructor, or your own practices with your resume and how you’ve helped your clients and high-level athletes. I never doubted you for a second! And, I have great respect for everyone who puts their work out and is doing their best to help the industry improve in the best way they know how.

All I’m saying here is I’ve found ways to achieve all of the benefits of corrective exercise faster, while also achieving the muscle building and performance benefits our clients and athletes want.

My Top Anti-Corrective Exercises for Tight Hip Flexors

These exercises can be used to specifically address tight hip flexors if you feel that you’ve got a reliable way to test for that. Or, they can be used in the more general sense, like I do, to improve and maintain hip flexor extensibility, which not only addresses tight hip flexors if that is the case, but also helps to prevent future development of tight hip flexors.

That said, whether tight hip flexors are a reliable predictor or contributor of pain and injury is beyond the scope of this article. However, it’s important to note that I use these drills to improve hip extension range of motion and build strength throughout with the goal of improving the ability of my clients and athletes to have a more capable and adaptable body. So, I’m not doing these exercises and claiming they will relieve or prevent pain. Although, in many cases, getting people to move more, and in ranges of motion they usually don’t use in their daily life often ends up with people having less pain as a nice byproduct of good general exercise.

Step 1

All of the following exercises basically incorporate a hip flexor stretch into a strength training movement. Therefore, my first step is to familiarize the person with the position I’m looking for by teaching how to do a proper hip flexor stretch.

Since this is a pretty simple position to perform with some basic coaching cues, we can usually go right into the strength exercises below within a few minutes worth of practice.

Hip Flexor Stretch Myth Debunked

Also, I wanted to make sure I addressed a common concern some trainers have with hip flexor stretches like this, which is “does the front leg position being in shortened hip flexion offset the benefit of the stretch”?

Here’s my direct answer to this common concern.

Step 2

Once they’ve demonstrated that they can get into the proper position of the hip flexor stretch, I integrate that into the following exercises as a regular part of their training. Especially in the beginning.

Angled Barbell One-Arm Side Leaning Press with Hip Flexor Stretch

In order to get the best hip flexor stretch; what’s key in this exercise is to hold the bar in the hand that’s on the opposite side of your down leg. Whereas, usually this exercise is performed while holding the barbell in the same-side hand as your down leg.

The other great thing about this exercise is that it’s a very shoulder-friendly pressing variation that allows many people to build upper-body pushing strength while working around shoulder pain with overhead pressing.

Cable One-Arm Row with Hip Flexor Stretch

If you’re looking for a simple to learn exercise that fights the sitting position, look no further!

This move gets you pulling strength, anti-rotation core strength along with a great hip flexor stretch, all in one!

NT Loop Upright Hip Thrust with Hip Flexor Stretch

Instead of having your up leg out to the side, I’ve modified this exercise to have your up leg in-front of your body, which allows you to also make this a great hip flexor stretch while you’re working your glutes.

It’s important to note that, if you’re trying to get your glutes working more with every rep, it’s far better to place the band around the top of your downside thigh than it is to have the band around your waist. This is because having the band around the top of your working (down) leg places the line of force (resistance) more directly in-line with the action of your hip.

How to Add an Additional Quad Stretch to Your Anti-Corrective Exercises

If a client needs to or wants to get even more extensibility work on their hip flexors, here’s how you can also create a stretch on the quads while doing the above exercises.

Captain Morgan Biceps Curls

This one creates an awesome stretch on not just the hip flexors of the down leg, but on the posterior aspect of the hip on the elevated leg, as well as some ankle dorsiflexion mobility on the down leg.

Additional Glute Strength Exercises

In addition to making the above exercises staples in programming, especially for new people, I also default to using some basic glute exercises that strengthen the glutes in their shortened to mid-range strength zone.

Once they can perform a double-leg hip bridge from the floor, we add an NT Loop. We then progress to an NT Loop Hip thrust.

Once they can do an NT Loop Hip Thrust with good control, we go back down to the floor and do one leg hip bridges, which are then progressed to one leg hip thrusts.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of all the glute exercises I use as staple exercises with clients, but they’re ones I often start with for beginners and desk jockeys to improve their glute strength in the shortened to mid-range strength zone of hip extension.

Of course, I also work on hip hinge exercises to also improve their strength in the lengthened to mid-range strength zone of hip extension so they can build true full range of motion strength.

Learn more about True Full Range of Motion Strength Training with my Strength Zone Training system for complete strength and injury prevention.

The Best Exercises For Paired-Set and Tri-Set Training 2 Jun 2021 6:08 PM (3 years ago)

Paired sets and tri-sets have been the backbone of my program design for personal trainers system because they’re a perfect training strategy for anyone who wants to get the most out of their workout time and maximize strength gains.

Whereas there is no rest between exercises within a superset or circuit, you rest strategically between exercises when doing a paired sets and tri-sets. Here are my general workout guidelines for Paired-Sets and Tri-Sets:

• Perform all sets of a given set of exercises before moving on to the next paired set.
• Rest 1 minute between exercises within a paired set.
• Rest 30 seconds between exercises within a tri-set.
• Rest 1-2 minutes after completing each round of a paired set or tri-set.
• Adjust the prescribed rest periods a bit according to your fitness level. Need more rest? Take it.

The Problem with Program Design from Strength Coaches

Most of the well-known strength coaches who are educating trainers on program design either own their own sports training facility or work in the collegiate setting or for a professional sports team. In all of these situations, these strength coach gets to dictate everything that goes on in their weight-room. Yet, a large portion of the trainers who are learning from them are training clients in a busy gym where they’re navigating around other members who could care less about you or your client.

In other words, personal trainers are learning program design from people who don’t do what they do because they’re not working in our same environment.

I can always tell when a strength coach who is teaching trainers has never actually trained clients inside a busy gym because they promote workout programming that simply won’t work in the busy membership gym setting.

A glaring example of this is how they put together paired sets and tri sets. For example:

Bad Paired Set Example for a Busy Gym

1a. Barbell Squat

1b. Lat Pulldown

Bad Tri Set Example for a Busy Gym

1a. Barbell Bench Press

1b. Barbell Romanian Deadlift

1c. Cable Anti-Rotation (Pallof) Press

On paper, both of the above groupings look good because they consist of basic, proven exercises involving movements patterns that compliments one another well. In that, the paired-set combines a lower-body knee bending exercises with an upper-body vertical pulling exercise. And, the tri-set combines an upper-body horizontal pushing exercises with a lower-body hip hinging exercise, along with an anti-rotation core exercise.

In other words, if you’re running your own facility, these are solid programming combinations. However, if you’re a trainer working with clients in a crowded gym, both of the above are bad programming because they won’t work in your environment. Here’s why:

If you’re doing the above paired set in a busy gym; when you walk away from the squat rack or from the lat pull-down, you’re almost sure to lose it to another member. The same can said be said about the tri-set as well. Not to mention, on that tri-set, you need to utilize two barbells, which you may not have access in a busy gym. And, you risk losing the bench press and the cable machine each time you transition between exercises.

2 Programming Rules for Paired-Sets and Tri-Sets

There are plenty of great exercise pairings you can choose from. However, the best paired sets and tri-sets adhere to these two simple rules:

1. Exercise Groupings Must Make Logistical Sense

There’s an old saying that a good craftsperson never blames the tools. This perspective applies perfectly to our strength-training workouts because we’re not always able to use all of the exercise equipment we’d like to. In many cases, the specific thing that limits us is being in a crowded gym where almost every piece of equipment has someone on it.

That said, when doing paired sets or tri-sets, make sure your pairings meet one of these rules:

• They include exercises using the same piece of equipment.
• They include exercises pairing a piece of immobile equipment (e.g., a bench press, squat rack or machine) with exercises using mobile equipment (e.g., dumbbells, resistance bands, or body weight).
• They include exercises pairing two pieces of mobile equipment or body weight.

This approach enables you to avoid the risk of “losing” a piece of equipment while walking across the gym. It also saves time, and saves you and the other gym members a lot of frustration.

So, the following would be better versions of the above paired-set and tri-set examples because they involve the same basic movement patterns while making better logistical sense.

Good Paired Set Example for a Busy Gym

1a. Dumbbell Reverse Lunge or Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat (with rear foot on Lat pulldown seat pad)

1b. Lat Pulldown

Good Tri Set Example for a Busy Gym

1a. Push-Up (NT Loop band resisted or assisted depending or strength level)

1b. Barbell Romanian Deadlift

1c. Dumbbell Plank (Anti-rotation) Row

In the above paired-set, you remain at the lat pulldown machine, and in the above tri-set, both the push-up and the dumbbell plank row can be performed in direct proximity to the barbell. So, you’re using mobile equipment based exercises that allow you to claim your piece of real estate at the immobile equipment. That’s what makes these better, more useful options when you’re training at a crowded gym.

Perfect for Group Training!

Even if you’re not training clients in a big-box gym, designing your workout programs with the big-box gym member in mind by following at least meet one of these rules I’ve provided above. This is because, if it will work in a crowed gym, it will work anywhere.

In fact, following these rules is perfect for group training because:

• You ensure no interrupts the flow of your workout, whether it be another trainer and their client at the same private facility, or multiple athletes or clients training together in a group setting.
• Your clients can translate what they do with you on their own when they’re training by themselves at a big-box gym.
• It’s the most efficient and, therefore productive way to train. And, those who make the best use of their time get the best results.

Every workout program provided in my Practical Program Design Mastery follows these rules, which is yet another reason why PPDM is the absolute best resource on personal trainer program design.

• Group Non-Interfering Exercises

When pairing and grouping exercises, you don’t want to exhaust the same muscles on both exercises because it interferes with your recovery and performance. So, whatever muscles are being worked in the first exercise, the second exercise in your paired set should be for a different muscle group.

By choosing non-interfering exercises as your paired sets, it allows you to rest longer between sets of the same muscle group, while maximizing your overall training time by doing a set targeting a different muscle group. In other words, you’re using the second exercise to help with recovery from the first one, which means you can then work harder in subsequent sets.

By the time you get back to training the same muscle group on the following set, it’s been several minutes, leaving those muscles plenty of time to fully recover and get ready to exert maximal intensity with every set.

You’ll accomplish more work in the same amount of time, without compromising anything or requiring more rest and recuperation in between workouts.

Check out this quick clip from the Practical Program Design Mastery exercise selection module where I discuss practical examples of grouping exercises and how to avoid doing it incorrectly.

How to Choose the Right Exercises for Your Clients 12 May 2021 6:22 PM (3 years ago)

With a multitude of exercise options out there, it can be confusing as to which exercises to give your clients to keep them safe while maximizing their training time and giving them a great workout experience.

Here I’m showing you my exact system for determining which exercises to give clients and athletes.

The Strength Zone Training System

Regardless of who I’m training, these two rules guide my Strength Zone Training system on a weekly basis because this system will cover your bases by building an all-around stronger, more adaptable body capable of performing at a higher level in any environment… not just inside the gym.

Rule 1: Train The 8 Main Movement Patterns

Sports and life rely on specific movements for performance. Those actions are derivatives of the eight main movement patterns:

1. Jumping and Landing
2. Throwing and Striking
3. Locomotion
4. Rotation.
5. Pushing
6. Pulling
7. Knee Bending
8. Hip Hinging

This means, unless someone is injured or is unable to do so; every week we do at least one exercise from each movement category.

Rule 2: Use Isolation Exercises to Fill Gaps Left by Compound Lifts

Compound (i.e., multi-joint) exercises provide a great foundation for strength-training programs. However, just doing the big basic exercises leaves lots of gaps in your strength.

For example, due to the mechanics involved, squats, deadlifts, and lunges create plenty of tension on the glutes when the hips are flexed at the bottom of the movement. However, there is very little mechanical tension on the glutes at the top when you’re standing upright and the weight is close to in line with the hips. Similarly, pressing exercises like the bench press or push-ups create little to no mechanical tension on the pectorals when they are in their shortened range, like when your arms are straight out from your torso.

“So what?” you might be asking. “I’m not a powerlifter struggling with locking out my deadlift or bench press. Why does this matter to me?” Here’s why: Life and sports don’t always happen in “compound exercise” ranges of motion.

If you only do compound exercises like squats, RDLs, and lunges for your lower body, you might find that you’re less capable of producing, reducing, and controlling force when your hips are in the shortened range of hip extension—which, in any sport, they often will be. This means you’re leaving muscle gains on the table, but it might also mean you’re building unbalanced strength. That can mean you’re leaving yourself open to pain or injury.

This is where isolation or “single joint” exercises can be truly helpful. They can help you achieve full-range strength by allowing for training in angles and ranges of motion that are not optimized by multi-joint exercises.

How to Individualize Workouts: My 5-Step System

Now that you understand the foundation of the strength zone training system, we can dive into my process for individualizing programs.

I have a training system that guides my programs for everyone, but I’m not systemized because not everyone gets the exact same program.

Think about it like Starbucks. In that, Starbucks has a certain way their drinks taste, which is based on their type of beans, the types of flavorings they use, etc., along with the system they use to prepare drinks that ensures your drink meets the same standard of taste whether you’re in Boston or Beijing. However, you’re still able to fully customize your drink to your liking.

So, it’s your drink, but it’s still a Starbucks drink.

Like Starbucks, I have a proven training system that repeatedly and reliably gets elite results, while also having procedures in place that allow me to address each person’s individual needs so everyone gets the best training experience.

So, it’s your workout, but it’s still a Strength Zone Training workout.

Step 1: Movement Performance Assessment (MPA)

Since all exercises are merely variations of the 8 main movements patterns, and since the categories they’re in are general, I select (and deselect) exercises from each category based on performing my Movement Performance Assessment (MPA), which is a simple tool for determining which exercises best fit your client, and which they should avoid.

The MPA is my version of things like the FMS. However, I don’t use the FMS, NASM assessment and the like because I don’t think they look at the things that matter most because you’re still left guessing which variations of the main lifting movements best fit each person you train.

I developed the Movement Performance Assessment to easily assess the movements that matter most so you know exactly how to create safe, pain-free training programs that address each person’s deficiencies while creating fun and challenging workouts that achieves their fitness and performance goals.

Step 2: Beginner 123 Program

I use the results of the Movement Performance Assessment to make any substitute to any of the exercises the program originally calls for in order to better fit the client or athlete. I also do the same for the Base Programs (see step 3) and for the SPE Programs (see step 5). This way, you’re still using the proven programming system while individualizing the workouts to each person’s structure, current ability, and medical profile.

If someone is just starting out, or if it’s been a while since they’ve done any strength training, I start them with my Beginner 123 workout program. If, on the other hand, they’ve been regularly using moderate levels of resistance training, I start them with the next phase (Base Programs), which are discussed in Step 3.

My beginner 123 program is fully detailed in my Practical Program Design Mastery online course.

The Beginner 123 Program gets its name from the systematic training progression it utilizes. This program takes 3 to 6 weeks to complete, depending on whether you’re training two, three or four times per week.

The main goal of this phase, as its name suggests, is to familiarize your body with the demands of performing basic exercises—primarily, to help your brain learn how to engage your muscles more efficiently as you progress through the early stages of the program. These neural adaptations often bring rapid strength improvements during this phase. However, even though neural adaptations are primarily responsible for increased strength in the early phases of training, research has also found that changes in muscle size are detectable within the first three or four weeks of resistance training (1, 2).

Step 3: Base Programs

If they’ve finished the Beginner 123 Program, or if they’ve been regularly using a moderate level of resistance training, then they’re ready to use my Base training programs.

My Base Training Programs are also fully accessed in my Practical Program Design Mastery online course.

The Base Training Program is a systematic training progression that consists of three-phases:

Phase 1: Muscle Base

Phase 2: Strength Base

Phase 3: Power Base

Each phase take 3 to 6 weeks to complete, depending on whether you’re training two, three or four times per week. So, my Base Training Program is a total of 9 to 18 weeks depending on how many days per week you train.

The primary goal of the Muscle Base phase is to add a fatigue element to your training. Doing so familiarizes your body with reaching muscular failure and achieving a muscle “pump” in order to focus on adding muscle tissue and increasing connective-tissue strength.

For the Strength Base phase, the primary goal is to familiarize your body with lifting heavier loads in order to increase motor unit recruitment and force output (i.e., strength).

For the Power Base phase, the primary goal is to familiarize your body with performing faster, more explosive movements by improving your rate of force production (i.e., power).

Step 4: Strength Symmetry Evaluation

Once they’ve completed the Base Programs, they now possess a solid training and fitness foundation they need to be able to more safely and effectively perform more demanding (advanced) workouts. So, they’re ready for this crucial, but often missing, stage in giving them the best programs for their needs: The Evaluation!

You see, you need to do both an assessment and an evaluation. The assessment, which is the MPA is done on their first day because it tells you what your client currently can safely do. Whereas an Evaluation, which is the Strength Symmetry Evaluation (SSE), tells you what your clients need to do in order to address their strength imbalances that can limit their functional performance and increase injury risk.

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just programming a handful of unilateral exercises and hoping for the best. That might actually make the problem even worse. Plus, how do you know which asymmetries or imbalances to fix and which to leave alone?

By using 8 easy to perform tests, with the SSE you’re able to identify and correct sub-optimal strength imbalances, program and prescribe the right exercises and volume for ideal strength symmetry, so you can be precise in where and how you build strength in your clients.

With the Strength Symmetry Evaluation, you know exactly how to advance your clients once they’ve built a solid fitness foundation so you’ll spend less time guessing and more time progressing.

Step 5: Ask Your Clients These Three Key Questions

Once the client or athlete has completed the Base Programs, they not only have the foundation needed to do the SSE, they also graduate to being able to have informed input into how their workouts go on an ongoing basis.

You see, although some beginners may prefer more variety, they’ve first got to achieve competency in an exercise before adding intensity or complexity to it. Just like in boxing, you don’t get into throwing punch combinations until you’ve first learned the basic boxing stance and how to throw a proper punch. Advancing in any skill requires a foundation.

To build a training foundation, you’ve first got to be able to demonstrate good technique and use deliberate control on each rep. Building a foundation of competency will happen as a result of these two things:

• Finding a limited number of non-complex, pushing, pulling, knee bend, and hip hinge exercises that best fit their current ability and that they’re able to do pain-free.

• Consistently practicing these exercises to achieve basic competence.

This is exactly what is accomplished in a systematic way with my Beginner 123 Program and my Base Training Programs.

That said, great long-term programming involves factoring in elements that’ll increase the likelihood that they’ll stick to it by blending universal training principles with their individual preferences.

To accomplish this, I ask clients the following three questions that ensure I nail down the right training plan for them that’s sustainable and enjoyable in the long run

#1 – What areas of your body do you what to focus on most (and least)?

It’s a mistake to have a “balanced” training program that dedicates roughly the same amount of volume and training days to your weaker, less-developed muscle groups as it does to your stronger, well-developed muscle groups. The SSE shows us this from their areas of need from a functional perspective, and asking this question tells me what areas they want from a physique perspective.

A good workout plan isn’t about balance. It’s about addressing individual needs and helping you reach your particular goals. Your training program should be imbalanced to some degree in order for you to dedicate more overall training to the areas you’re trying to develop most.

I select exercises based on the muscle groups (or lifts) my clients need to (based on the SSE) and want to develop the most and give them more overall work volume each week. And make sure you’re not spending too much time hitting muscle groups or lifts that need the least amount of volume.

#2 – Are there any exercises you really love or really hate?

Since our clients get excited to do exercises they love, it’s important to make those exercises staples in your programs. For people to work hard, they first have to want to come to work.

By the same token, it’s important to either eliminate or at least minimize the use of any exercises they hate. Unless they’re training to compete in some form of lifting competition, there’s no single lift you must do to improve because no exercise has magical powers.

I reject the idea that you should emphasize exercises you hate. Contrary to popular belief, hating certain exercises doesn’t mean they’re what you need the most. There’s probably a good reason you hate them and it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re lazy. It means you need alternatives. The same goes for your clients.

To make progress, you just need to create mechanical tension across tissues and joints – that’s all strength training is – and do so with intensity, specificity, and consistency.

There’s no reason to force anyone to do an exercise when there are plenty of other viable pushing, pulling, lower-body, arm, shoulder, etc. exercise variations you can choose from.

#3 – Do you prefer constant exercise variety or a lot repetition?

If your goal is to participate in powerlifting, Olympic lifting, or strongman, you certainly need to be consistent with the lifts you must perform in competition. Those require mastery.

But what about the rest of us who are in the gym for athletic performance, muscle growth, and general fitness?

Put simply, exercise consistency and variety aren’t mutually exclusive; they can be done together to individualize your programming.

I show you exactly how to do this in Practical Program Design Mastery.

As you’ll learn in PPDM,  there’s a big difference between exercise variety and randomness. Randomness is failing to plan, which means you’re likely to leave a lot of gaps in your programming when you fly by the seat of your pants.

On the other hand, what I’m talking about above is planned variety to ensure you cover all of the main lifting movements. Your clients get the exercises they need while also getting the variety they crave.

A good ongoing training program should have enough consistency to allow you to see progress while also having enough variety to prevent staleness and boredom. This means using the same basic exercises but in different ways.

Step 5: SPE Programs

SPE stands for Strength, Power and Endurance.

The SPE programs are my training system for ongoing programming that builds elite fitness in my clients and athletes, while always giving them a dynamic and interesting workout experience. they love.

My SPE Training Program are also fully laid out in my Practical Program Design Mastery online course.

I use the results of the SSE along with their answers to the three above questions to tailor the SPE workouts to their areas or need (SSE) and want to work on most (their preferences), while still making sure I stay true to the training the 8 Main movement patterns, and using isolation exercises to fill in the strength gaps.

This way, the continue to address their deficiencies and get high-quality training while loving each work and wanting to keep back for a long-time to come. Not to mention, also being excited to tell all their friends.

References:

1. DeFreitas, J.M., et al. 2011. An examination of the time course of training-induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy. European Journal of Applied Physiology 111 (11): 2785–90.

2. Seynnes, O.R., et al. 2007. Early skeletal muscle hypertrophy and architectural changes in response to high-intensity resistance training. Journal of Applied Physiology 102 (1): 368-73.

The Best Exercises for Strength and Fitness 24 Apr 2021 7:03 AM (3 years ago)

Ask many coaches or trainers a question involving what the “best exercises” are and they’ll usually say “it depends,” and leave it at that as though they’ve just said something profound. The problem is, saying “it depends” isn’t an answer; it’s just the start to an answer that needs to be followed by “here’s what it depends on….” in order to provide any real value to anyone.

Here I’m telling you exactly what it depends on so you know exactly how to determine the best exercises in order to maximize your results.

Determining the best exercises comes down to evaluating and comparing exercises based on the following factors.

#1 – What’s the Risk to Reward?

High box jumps are a great example of a high risk, low reward exercise because the emphasis is on the height of the box instead of the height of actual jump. Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you’re standing next to a high box platform that’s the same height as your waist. Now pick up one leg off the ground and flex your hip as high as you possibly can. The distance between the bottom of your foot and the top of the box is the actual height you’d have to jump in order to get on top of that box. The rest comes from hip flexion.

If you’re trying to increase vertical jump height, it requires a powerful and explosive hip extension action, instead of a hip flexion action, which means you actually want to limit the amount of hip flexion involved in landing on top of the box.

If you do this, you won’t land on top of the box in that super-low crouched position we see during high box jumps. Instead, you want to find the highest box height that you’re able to land on, but with your knees and hips only bent around 30 degrees. With this method you’ll get all the good stuff from the exercise and you’ll be far less likely to become the star of the next high-box fail video.

With the above example in mind, when you have two exercises that train the same movement pattern or muscle group, but one of those exercises creates less potential unwanted stress on the joints and connective tissues, the exercise that offers just as much reward with less risk can be considered the better exercise. 

Another good example of this is doing lateral shoulder raises in what’s called the scapular plane, which is at roughly a 30-degree angle to the torso, instead of with your arms directly out to your sides.

Research shows that doing shoulder exercises in the plane of the scapula creates the same demands on the shoulder musculature, but lessens the unwanted stress on the rotator cuff tendon (1).

Or, maybe there’s a tweaked version of the form a given exercise that is designed to give you the same benefits while minimizing the unwanted stress on your joints and connective tissues.

A good example of this is why I recommend doing upright rows with a wider grip while also avoiding pulling your elbows above shoulder height. Research shows these two form modifications not only increase deltoid and trapezius activity (2) but also reduce unwanted impingement stress on your shoulder joints (3).

As a general rule, exercises that create forced end-range joint and spine actions while lifting heavy loads or using medium loads for high repetitions can be considered high risk. This is because, when joints are moved to their end range of movement, the load shifts from the contracting muscle to the non-contractile connective tissue (e.g., ligaments, joint capsules).

Examples can range from trying to force too much range of motion at the bottom a dumbbell pec fly to doing full extension sit-ups over a glute-ham raise apparatus.

Going heavier also increases your risk because the more load you use, the closer you get to potentially exceeding your body’s tolerance. This is why many lifting injuries are a product of having more ego than brains.

Now, this doesn’t mean lifting heavy is dangerous or bad – that would be a ridiculous claim. It simply means that, if you’re not training to be a powerlifter, you don’t need to go nuts with 1RM work. Instead, you can get plenty strong lifting heavy loads (relative to your strength) doing 3 to 5 rep sets while maximizing the effort on each rep, and while leaving a rep to two in the tank on each set. Doing so gives you the benefits of lifting heavy loads with far less risk of injury from potentially exceeding your body’s tolerance.

Risky exercises don’t just come from the movements or amount of load they involve. It can also come from the equipment they involve. For example, Resistance bands pose a unique hazard because they can strike you in the face, causing serious (possibly blinding) eye damage. This is why the number one rule of resistance band exercise safety is to never pull a band toward your face because it’s an accident waiting to happen. Yet, band exercises like this are commonly recommend by major fitness resources.

This band face pull version is asking for an accident. The band is hardly secure as it is placed under the feet in this manner, all while the band is aimed directly at the face under maximum tension.

A Google search of the terms “resistance band” or “exercise band” and “eye injury,” results in hospital data providing a long list of eye injury incidents caused by resistance bands (4) along with numerous legal firms, safety commissions and eye surgeons talking about cases of resistance bands causing serious face and eye injuries. Despite the overwhelming number of documented incidents and convincing data, this reality is completely overlooked by the majority of experienced lifters, trainers and physiotherapists.

#2 – Does the Exercise Fit You?

Speaking of increasing your risk of injury; doing an otherwise low risk exercise with poor technique or working through pain can also increase your risk.

Since we are all built differently with different medical history and lifting experience, not every exercise is right for everybody. This is why it’s important to fit exercises to you instead of trying to fit yourself to exercises by finding exercise variations you can do pain-free and with good technique.

In other words, the best exercises for you are the ones that not only fit with all of the criteria outlined in this article, but also allow you to perform them with what I call the two C’s of individualized exercise:

1. Comfort: The movement is pain free and feels natural.
2. Control: You can execute the standard movement technique and body positioning of the exercise.

Train based on your ability, not your age, since there are lots of variations in the capability and training level among people of the same age group.

#3 – What’s the Effective Range of Motion?

There’s the range of motion (ROM) you move through in a given exercise, and there’s the effective range of motion that your involved muscles are dealing with enough load to create sufficient training adaptations.  The effective ROM is what matters when it comes to building strength and muscle. This is why Strength Zone Training is TRUE full of motion lifting.

To illustrate, let’s compare two common shoulder exercises: the dumbbell rear-deltoid fly and the dumbbell side-lying rear-deltoid fly.

When performing the traditional dumbbell rear-delt fly, the point where it’s most difficult is when the arm is farthest away from the side of the torso. How do you know this? Try to hold that position and you’ll see how difficult it is. This is where the lever arm is the longest, and where the most mechanical tension is being created on the involved musculature. In this position, the rear deltoid is in a contracted or shortened position.

By contrast, the point within the range of motion where the movement is easiest is when the arm is in front of the shoulder and the rear deltoids are in a stretched position. Pausing at this point is easy. You could probably hang out there until your grip gave out! At this point, there’s the least mechanical tension being created on the involved muscles.

For this reason, a dumbbell rear-delt fly exercise trains the shortened (or more accurately, mid-to-shortened) range strength zone of horizontal shoulder adduction.

On the other hand, when performing a dumbbell side-lying rear-deltoid fly, the situation is reversed. The movement is easiest when your arm is away from the side of the torso, or above you, and the muscle is shortened. It’s hardest on the involved muscles when the arm is directly in front of the torso, and the muscle is lengthened.

Thus, the dumbbell side-lying rear-delt fly trains the lengthened to mid-range strength zone of horizontal shoulder adduction.

Without the Strength Zone Training frame of reference, it could be easy to think those two exercises I just talked about are interchangeable. After all, they’re both rear-delt isolation movements, right?

But it’s more accurate to say that they’re complementary and that a complete approach to training the rear delts should include both. That way, you can strengthen different aspects of the range of motion and be able to express the muscular strength you have more completely.

To get strong, use at least one exercise from each strength zone for each muscle group.

This will strengthen different portions of the range of motion in each main joint movement. When you’re choosing exercises, this approach guarantees that you’ll build true full-range strength.

Related Article: The New Rules of Full Range of Motion

#4 – Does the Exercise’s Resistance Curve Match Your Strength Curve?

Two important factors that influence the way we perform all resistance training exercises are 1) the resistance curve involved in the exercise and 2) our strength curve when performing the exercise.

The Resistance Curve: This refers to how the load changes throughout the range of motion based on changes in lever-arm (or moment-arm) length.

For example, when performing standing biceps curls using free weights, the point at which your biceps is being maximally loaded is the point in the range of motion in which your forearm is at a 90-degree angle with the load vector. That’s why a free-weight biceps curl gets easier when you move the bar to the top or bottom of the range of motion. That’s precisely why people tend to rest between reps at the top and bottom position.

The Strength Curve: This refers to how your strength changes throughout the range of motion of a given exercise, which is due to a principle of physiology known as the length-tension relationship or the length-tension curve. This describes how muscles are strongest in their mid-range of motion, and weaker in their shortened range (contracted position). (5)

Ideally, you’d like the lever arm of a movement—or the distance between a weight and the joint responsible for moving it—to be longest at the point where you’re strongest, and less where you’re weaker. But that’s often not the case.

For example, when doing rows (using a barbell, dumbbell, cable, etc.), the weight gets heavier as you row the weight towards you because you’re losing a mechanical advantage over the weight. Well, resistance bands get “heavier” as you stretch them. This is why I don’t recommend attaching bands to barbells, dumbbells, or to plate-loaded machines when doing rows.

Many trainers falsely believe that adding resistance bands to free weight and plate-loaded exercises creates “accommodating resistance.” The resistance is only accommodating when the band getting heavier corresponds with you gaining a mechanical advantage over the load as you do the lift, such as what occurs when doing a free weight or machine chest press, deadlift, Romanian deadlift, squat, leg press, etc.

However, the opposite occurs when adding bands to rows, which creates UN-accommodating resistance. And, when the resistance curve is increasing as your strength curve is decreasing, it forces you to cheat. This is why we see lifters pull the weight halfway with good form and then jolt it the rest of the way when doing bent-over rows and one-arm dumbbell rows.

It’s also why you see so many people turning their torso towards their rowing arm as they pull the dumbbell in on dumbbell rows, along with seeing people staying too upright on bent-over barbell rows and one-arm rows, or leaning back too far when doing seated rows or machine rows. The addition of bands simply magnifies these cheats.

That said, there are two instances where I might recommend using bands on rows:

1. Attached to free weights or a plate-loaded machine using a light load for dynamic effort (fast) reps. Bands allow you to move fast, which is why they’re great for dynamic effort type work, but the weight needs to be light in order to maximize speed.
2. When you’re traveling or working out at home or outdoors and all you’ve got is a set of bands with handles.

#5 – Does it Require High Skill?

It’s well accepted that the best methods for improving power output are probably ballistic training (i.e., jumping and throwing with weights) and Olympic lifting.

When talking about power training for non-Olympic lifters, jumping, medicine ball throwing drills, along with kettlebell swings and simple variations on Olympic lifts like jump shrugs are better than Olympic lifts for power training because they require far less skill in order to properly perform them.

Put simply, if there are multiple ways to accomplish the same training goal, the one with the shorter learning curve is the best because it gets the job done more efficiently. In that, instead of spending time working on skills specific to Olympic lifting that non-Olympic lifters don’t need; other methods of improving power, such as jumping, medicine ball throwing and kettlebell swings, work just as effectively while also allowing for more time to be devoted to training other important things they do need.

#6 – Does It Take a lot of Setup Time?

Speaking of maximizing your valuable and limited time; if you have a bunch of exercises that accomplish the same goal, the best exercises are the ones that accomplish roughly the same goal but don’t require a lot of extra equipment and setup time.

Not Being the Best Exercise Doesn’t Mean It’s Bad!

Just because an exercise might not be classified as the best in the above criteria doesn’t mean it’s not an effective exercise.

Think of exercises like the people on the medal podium at the Olympics. Only one can take home the gold, but the others who took home silver, bronze, and even finished in the top 10 are still great at what they do.

That said, since there are so many exercises options out there to choose from, you can use these criteria to narrow the field in order to make your top 5 or top 10 list of “go-to” exercises for each movement pattern or muscle group.

Want to learn more about how to analyze exercises and design the best training programs using Strength Zone Training techniques?

Click here to grab my flagship programming course, Practical Program Design Mastery, where I discuss all my methods in detail and provide over a year’s worth of done-for-you programming.

References:

1. Greenfield B. Special considerations in shoulder exercises: plane of the scapula. In: Andrews JR, Wilk KE. The Athlete’s Shoulder. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1994: 513-522.

• McAllister MJ, et al. Effect of grip width on electromyographic activity during the upright row. J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Jan;27(1):181-7.

• Schoenfeld B, et al. The Upright Row: Implications for Preventing Subacromial Impingement. Strength & Conditioning Journal: October 2011 – Volume 33 – Issue 5 – pp 25-28.

• http://www.hospital-data.com/accidents/3277-exercise-equipment/2010/eyeball/index.html

• Houglum, P. A., & Bertoti, D. B. (2011). Brunnstrom’s clinical kinesiology. FA Davis.