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Last year my buddy Eric Cressey released an incredible product called Show & Go where he detailed the very process he uses with his own clients to gain muscle and get strong at the same time.  I’ve honestly working on an article for you for the end of the week, but I didn’t want to let another day go by without mentioning that Eric is currently holding a sale on this incredible product until Friday at midnight and you can pick up the whole thing (with all the bonuses) for 50% off!  And since I’ve been pretty swamped lately I asked Eric if he’d share a little bit about his programming and his new product.

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Check it out!

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Hey Eric, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Can you please introduce yourself to those of my readers who have obviously been living under a rock and have never heard of you?

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My pleasure. I’m the president and co-founder of Cressey Performance, a high-performance training facility located just west of Boston, MA. I deal with clients ages 9-70 from all walks of life and various sports, although our “niche” has become baseball performance training. This off-season, we’ll have over 70 professional baseball players at Cressey Performance for their off-season training.

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Additionally, I’ve created several DVD sets and written numerous books and hundreds of articles over the years, most on my website, www.EricCressey.com. I do a considerable amount of consulting for both individuals and companies, speaking around the globe, and have even published some research along the way. All of this work is in the areas of corrective exercise, strength and conditioning, baseball training, and assessment and program design.

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And for those of us who are familiar with your work, can you share something about Eric Cressey that most people don’t already know? The more embarrassing the better, of course.

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I come from a family of accountants – and up until the end of my freshman year of college, I was convinced that I was going to be an accountant. I even competed in the state accounting championships my senior year of high school (yes, that’s an actual contest).

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Also, I can’t iron.

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Put 600+ pounds in front of me and ask me to pick it up. I’m on it.

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Ask me to write a book? Done.

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Put eight miles per hour on a fastball in an off-season? Piece of cake.

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Iron a shirt? Complete and utter chaos. I’m like a deer in headlights and usually wind up burned – and with a wrinkled shirt.

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That’s awesome man!  I’ve got some pretty good shirt ironing skills…but I don’t think most people would be interested in reading a book about it.  What do you think is the most important consideration one must take into account when when training for both size and strength at the same time?

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I think the most overlooked factor is definitely volume manipulation – and, more specifically, an attention to incorporating deloading periods. Most people who are just trying to gain size seem to always do absurd amounts of volume, but that’s at odds with the heavy emphasis on quality over quantity that you see in the world’s best strength sport athletes. It’s not hard to appreciate that many folks who want both wind up doing too much in terms of both volume and intensity – and end up injured or simply frustrated (and spending three hours in the gym for every session).

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To that end, it’s important to integrate deloading periods every 4-5 weeks to allow the nervous system, muscles/tendons, and endocrine system to bounce back.

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How do you feel your product Show & Go addresses these issues?

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EC: It does so via a few avenues.

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First, each phase includes a specifically targeted deloading week (the fourth week) where the volume is reduced.

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Second, there is considerably exercise variation; you won’t do an exercise for longer than a month in the program. Additionally, in many cases, some of the exercises aren’t used longer than a week. So, the variety inherent to the program assists in creating overload and even overreaching – but definitely not overtraining.

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Okay cool.  But how do you feel Show & Go is different from all of the other strength and size programs available on the internet?

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EC: At risk of sounding arrogant, the creator is what differentiates this program from others that are on the market right now. We live in a time where many authors of fitness programs on the internet don’t actively train anyone – and many never did in the first place. With how dynamic the fields of fitness and human performance are, this is a pretty scary thought. You only get one body; you should be confident in placing it in someone else’s hands with an exercise program of their design. Otherwise, it would be like a graduate student purchasing How to Read Fitness Research from you – with you having never read or published a study in a scholarly journal. Perspective matters.

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I’m proud that I coach loads of people – from 9-year-old kids, to professional athletes, to Olympians, to clients of all ages and goals – six days a week at my facility, Cressey Performance. In the month of September alone, I wrote 114 programs for clients; I’m very proud of the amount of time, energy, and thought that goes into not only creating these programs, but interpreting how folks respond to them. That’s the same kind of thought process that went into Show and Go; we put a large group of “guinea pigs” from all walks of life through the program before it was ever released to the public. You’ll find many of their results and testimonials on the sales page.

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That said, in terms of differentiating the actual program, Show and Go provides a lot more in terms of exercise variety, at least within the confines of what “typical” gyms’ equipment selections allow. I built more “on the fly” strength tests into the programs on top of the already-challenging loading protocols. I included both 2-, 3-, and 4-day-a-week training programs to accommodate individuals’ unique schedules. I provided exercise alternatives for those who lift somewhere that doesn’t have all the equipment they’d need to perform the program as-written.

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Additionally, self-publishing afforded me several luxuries; most notably, I had no restrictions on the length of the text. I wrote as much or as little as I wanted – and basically did whatever was required to make the program exactly what I wanted it to be. Exercise descriptions weren’t limited to a certain number of sentences, and if I wanted to include seven exercises in a specific day’s session instead of six, for instance, it was okay. I also included ready-to-use templates that people can print out and take to the gym to record weights used, whereas traditional books are never conducive to this.

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And, on perhaps the coolest note, instead of just exercise photos for demonstrations, you’ll find an entire video library where you can view the proper technique for every single exercise in the Show and Go program (roughly 175 exercises). Assuming an average of 12-15 seconds per video, you’ve essentially gotten yourself the equivalent of a 35-45 minute DVD on top of all this programming and my charming wit and personality.

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Okay…now to the nitty gritty. There are a lot of products out there touting completely unrealistic outcomes in terms of strength, muscle mass, and fat loss over the period of a short program. What kinds of gains can the AVERAGE lifter who is willing to work hard realistically expect if they follow your program?

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Before Show and Go was ever released, I put a big group of male and female “guinea pigs” through the program with some outstanding results. It wasn’t uncommon to see increases of 80 pounds and more on the squat and deadlift, with improvements about half those amounts on bench pressing and chin-up totals (understandably smaller, given the smaller window of adaptation for upper body strength). We had people drop more than 25 pounds and 5% body fat while on the program, and we had scrawny guys who gained as much as 24 pounds in the four months. It came down to what their starting goals were, and how they attacked things nutritionally on the side.

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We even had many athletes who used this program in conjunction with their sports training – from endurance competitors to rugby players – with excellent improvements.

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The cool thing is that literally every single one of these “guinea pigs” made a point of noting how much better they felt; they improved mobility and moved more fluently by the end of the program. This is a stark contrast to the aches and pains you normally see with programs geared toward performance improvements; the program not only improved performance and made people bigger, stronger, and leaner; it also helped set the stage for healthy future training.

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I think the take-home point is that – as with any program – you’ll get out of Show and Go proportionately to what you put into it, regardless of your goals.

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Absolutely!  Where can my readers get access to Show & Go?

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They can check it out at www.ShowandGoTraining.com, where it is on sale at 50% through this Friday at midnight.

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Excellent! Thanks for taking the time out to do this interview man!

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My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

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This afternoon I’m leaving for a vacation to New Jersey to join Jersey Shore visit some family, but I just wanted to drop a couple quick things on you before I take off for the weekend.

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1.  Swimming Science Interview

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Last week I did an interview for John over at SwimmingScience.net.  During the interview I answered this question: “How much do you time do you spend on corrective exercises compared to strength?  Does this vary between anaerobic vs. aerobic athletes?”

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It is a short interview, but I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on it.  If you’d like to check it out, you can do so HERE.

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2.  Muscle Imbalances Revealed for the Upper Body is coming soon!

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So far I’ve had a chance to check out Tony Gentilcore’s presentation “Corrective Exercise Strategies for Athletes (and Meatheads, too)” as well as “Linking Breathing with Rehab, Training and Performance” by my man Dr. Jeff Cubos.  Frankly, I’m impressed.  Very impressed.  Once again Rick Kaselj has pulled together a great bunch of really smart guys and I can’t wait to watch the rest of this product.

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As far as I understand it is going up for sale next week so you’ll finally be able to get your mitts on it.  In the meantime, you can still pick up Rick’s free reports on 8 Steps to Unravelling Your Muscle Imbalances for free!  If you’re into free stuff (as I am) you should definitely pick this up.

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8 Steps to Unravelling Your Muscle Imabalances <– Get it here for free!

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So that’s it for me.  One more day of work then off to Joisey for some vacay.  Have a great weekend!

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As my frequent readers know, I’ve written several posts in the past where I’ve investigated some of the research done on the Functional Movement Screen.  You can check out the four articles below to get up to speed.

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Interrater Reliability of the Functional Movement Screen

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Core strength: A New Model for Injury Prediction and Prevention

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Research Review: Can Serious Injury in Professional Football be Predicted by a Preseason Functional Movement Screen?

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Research Review: Can Serious Injury in Professional Football be Predicted by a Preseason Functional Movement Screen?

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In the near future I will provide my review of Gray’s book Movement and my final review on the FMS as a whole (I’ve honestly been meaning to get to this for some time).  However, today I wanted to share with you an interview I did recently with Dr. Robert Butler who is currently one of the principal investigators of the FMS.  My goal here is to provide some balance to the discussion and to share the current state of FMS research.

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Without further ado, let’s get at it!

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Mark:  Thanks for taking the time to do this interview today.  Could you please tell my readers a little bit about yourself and your background?

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Rob – Mark, it is a pleasure and honor to be able to participate in this interview. As far as my background, I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Division at Duke University as well as a Clinical Researcher for Duke Health Systems Sports Medicine Division.

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I completed my undergraduate degree at Marietta College with a degree in Biology. I then followed up with MS in Movement Science with a concentration in Biomechanics from Springfield College and received my PhD in Biomechanics and Movement Science from the University of Delaware. After completing my PhD, I completed a post-doc at UNC-Chapel Hill before completing my DPT at the University of Evansville.

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It was at the University of Evansville where I began working with the Functional Movement Screen through collaborative work with Kyle Kiesel. My research has focused on the role of functional movement outcomes in identifying and addressing movement dysfunction with regards to reducing injury risk, improving therapeutic outcomes, and reducing the rate of joint degeneration.

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I currently have 14 publications in peer-reviewed manuscripts and have had over 50 abstracts accepted for presentation at national and international meetings.

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Mark:  That’s excellent Rob!  You’ve recently been involved with some of the research on the Functional Movement Screen.  Can you talk a little bit about how this opportunity came about and your affiliation with the system?

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Rob – I was a student and a fellow faculty member with Kyle Kiesel at the University of Evansville and I originally rebuffed the idea of the screen as I went to tinker in the high tech motion analysis lab I directed. However, as I learned more about the system I began to appreciate the use of the screen in clearing the fundamental motor programs that we often attempt to retrain at a higher level in athletes who are having pain and seek out biomechanical based movement retraining. It quickly became the screen that all of the runners at our clinic would have to pass prior to higher level gait retraining, it was our blood pressure test for movement.

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We found that as the fundamental pattern issues resolved there tended to be less of a need for higher level retraining. This continues to be the notion with which I encourage the use of the screen. I never have had a formal affiliation with Functional Movement Systems until recently when I began to instruct some of their courses. In addition, Functional Movement Systems has never financially supported any of the research projects that we have published.

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Mark: Looking at all of the research that has been done to date on the Functional Movement Screen, what things do you think we can currently say we know about the system?

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Rob – I think we can say the screen is reliable between raters trained in the system. We found very high reliability in a recently developed 100 pt screen we use in a research setting which simply forces the rater to score each individual component of the test. I think this step-by-step grocery list approach addresses some of the questions you raised in regards to the reliability study.

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I think we can say that performance on the screen can identify individuals at a higher risk for sustaining an injury in the NFL, military and firefighters. We have two larger scale studies, one in the NFL (N =232) and one in firefighters (N=109), that are currently in review that address these gaps in the currently available literature. The study in the NFL will also be the first study to formally support the role of an asymmetry on the FMS and elevated injury risk in the scientific literature.

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I think we also can say that performance on the FMS is modifiable when using a movement based intervention program.

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I do want to touch a bit on the generic “elevated risk for injury” comment that tends to draw so much ire. Sometimes this comment is taken out of context and I hope this commentary will clarify. The elevated risk of injury in subjects =< 14 on the composite score is 2.2x based on our current study in review. It is not an end all be all number but it was statistically derived and not randomly fabricated by the research group.

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The factor that tends to be the strongest consistent predictor of injury is a previous injury; however, this factor is not modifiable. Teasing out this factor is often difficult from a research design standpoint; however, we recently were able to accomplish this in a prospective epidemiology study in collegiate athletes. The results of the study observed that poor movement was a much stronger predictor of non-contact lower extremity injuries in comparison with previous injury alone. We are working on the publication of these findings.

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That being said, no one that I work with is suggesting we have solved all of the non-contact lower extremity injury worries with this model, rather we have simply outlined some patterns that should probably be cleared to minimize injury risk. Our clients do not sit on the couch and as a result they have a risk of injury. The FMS gives us a consistent feedback loop to clear through and maintain motor programs in order to minimize our client’s injury risk when exercising.

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 Mark: What things do you think that we don’t yet know, but might in the future?  Can you tell us what research is on the horizon for the FMS or is awaiting publication?

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Rob – The one thing that continues to arise in the literature is that a prior injury is one of the strongest predictors of subsequent injuries. This suggests that something inherently changes in the motor program following an injury and at this point in time we have yet to establish rehabilitation protocols that normalize the effect of the injury that is being rehabilitated. We think that the FMS may be an integral component of normalizing movement patterns during rehabilitation from an injury. The addition of this model may allow for the factor of prior injury to be removed from the injury equation.  This large scale study can only occur following a series of other studies;  however, it continues to take up valuable space on the office white board.

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We also are not sure how changing the FMS scores effect injury risk and this is another component that we are currently researching. This is often one of the fundamental and appropriate critiques of the system, however to the best of our knowledge there are not many other systems that have shown this either, particularly in an efficient and individualized manner. The goal of the FMS model is to provide an efficient screening process that provides a systematic intervention scheme based on the results of the testing. The goal of the screen is to identify the weakest link in the chain which is a different paradigm in retraining compared to the majority of the group programs that are currently promoted.

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In addition, the goal is to utilize the system in 100s of people a day not 100s of people a year. To borrow from the cardiovascular literature again, it took researchers approximately 30 years from the time hypertension was established as being a risk factor for cardiovascular disease to the research showing that reducing hypertension actually reduced the risk for a cardiovascular event. However, physicians did not wait 30 years to develop models to monitor and reduce hypertension. They proactively addressed the modifiable risk factors to optimize the health of their patients. I feel as if this is a nice and appropriate corollary to the Functional Movement Screen and corrective exercise strategy except that the FMS assessment and treatment is cheaper, easier, and more accessible with less potential side effects.

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Another area that continues to be examined is the composite score cutpoints of the screen in different populations. I think the =< 14 serves as a good starting point but not an end all be all and I think this view point is shared by the majority of the Functional Movement Systems group. The evidence currently supports the specific =< 14 cut off in the certain populations it has been established in, however, we expect that the relevant cutpoints for elevated injury risk may differ across populations.  We are looking to establish relevant injury prediction cut points across recreational, amateur and professional athletes of different age groups and across sports. Other research will also expand to look at the loading of certain variables on the injury algorithm.

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It may be that in certain populations performance on certain components of the FMS may have stronger relevance to injury prediction than other components of the test.  That does not disregard the seven FMS tests and the FMS model rather it would serve to establish a set of specific thresholds for performance on the FMS in a given population along in the presence of general movement competency.

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Finally, we are looking at linking the FMS with other tests that have been related to an elevated risk of injury to provide a more robust model for injury risk identification. It is likely that multiple tests that have independent movement constructs from the FMS will provide a more complete assessment to provide the optimal feedback to individuals who work in the realm of injury prevention.

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Mark: Now I know you were a little miffed about some of the comments about on my most recent review of the FMS research.  Please feel free to take a second to address some of these comments.

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Rob – I cannot recall my initial thoughts on this, however, I think the overlying concept that people have a difficult time with until they use the screen is that the FMS is a filter to catch large scale movement dysfunction not 2 degree differences in movement patterns.  The goal is to establish basic movement competency, to get your movement BP to 120/80. Why is it okay for a 14 year old to lose the ability to deep squat when in a 2 year old it would be a medical emergency?

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Part of it boils down to a lack of standards for basic movement competency. There are a number of research studies that have associated mal-alignment and poor movement with injury and pathology using much more precise and sophisticated equipment. This is one of the reasons why I feel the screen is often dismissed at first site…. It has to be more expensive to be meaningful… the course has to cost more to be worthy of my time …. my patients/clients could pass that test easy. These are often the comments reflected back to the screen.  My response to these lines of comments is fairly standard… “Perfect, then if you are interested just start collecting the FMS data and just see what happens.”

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The screening process is outlined in the reliability study (Minick et al., 2010, J Strength Cond Res) and Gray discusses how to build your own kit in “Athletic Body and Balance” for less than $20. All the information is out there for someone who wants to learn and incorporate the screen. The uber-transparency of the model is one of the reasons I am drawn to it. In a world of rehabilitation where there are often closed door assessments and jargon laden evaluations it is nice to have a model for all to understand and talk about at a common level of understanding across disciplines.

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If all the screen is used for is a standardized way to assess basic patterns of movement that were imperative in the neurodevelopmental process then I think the screen has accomplished a great deal. The importance of these fundamental patterns become more clear everyday as my two girls learn to defy gravity from the ground up and balance their own dual pendulum setups as they explore their everyday lives.

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Mark:  And finally, where do you think the FMS is most useful for the average trainer who is about to start training a new person?

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Rob – I think the screen gives everyone (you, the client, the client’s family, the client’s MD, a client’s MD in another country) an idea of where the client’s program is headed and why it is headed in that way with regards to the client’s plan of care.  I love the fact that health care providers do not have to speak the same language to talk movement.

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The screen also gives the patient some specific goals that they can often self-assess.  My patients often want to know we they aren’t running, jumping, doing kettlebells for Turkish getups, etc. during therapy.  I often will have a rationale in my mind as to why we are not doing these activities and when I explain the rationale for this it often falls on deaf ears. However, the second I give them the criteria of a wall squat with hands overhead and hips below parallel prior to starting plyometrics it tends to stick with the individual to a greater degree and the patient tends to become more engaged in the pursuit of the goal.

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I love empowering my patients to move better and to screen themselves in whether or not they are making gains.

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Mark:  Awesome!  Thanks for the interview Rob.

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Rob – Mark, thanks for your time and patience as I put this together. I hope this interview can provide some open dialogue with regards to the screen and what it can and cannot do. I look forward to speaking with you more in the future as we all aim to provide the best care and information to the clients and patients we serve.

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Like this interview?  Please share!

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What do you think?

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Today I was able to score an interview with one of Canada’s leading physicians dealing with overweight and obesity which has me totally stoked. 

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Check Out This Intro

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Dr. Yoni Freedhoff realized very realy in his medical career that the medical community, himself included, was not adequately managing obesity. Though many patients requested weight-loss advice he had very little to offer as the management of obesity is simply not taught during medical school or during medical residency.

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Consequently, Dr. Freedhoff pursued training from the American Board of Bariatric Medicine (ABBM), the only medical organization in North America to offer certification in Bariatric medicine, and in March of 2005 he became one of only three physicians in Canada to be board certified by the ABBM.

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In 2007 the Canadian Obesity Network recognized him as a national obesity expert and in 2010 he was named their Family Medicine Chair.

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Since dedicating his professional career to the treatment and management of overweight and obesity, Dr. Freedhoff has been a sought after speaker and teacher. He lectures at all levels of the University of Ottawa’s medical school and supervises both medical students and residents in his office.

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He has also been referred to as Canada’s most outspoken obesity expert and the Canadian Medical Association Journal once dubbed him a Canadian “nutritional watchdog”.  Dr. Freedhoff is quoted regularly in the national press, and appears frequently on television including CTV, CBC, and the A Channel.

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He has also co-authored a medical textbook on the office-based management of obesity, Best Weight: A practical guide to office-based obesity managementwhich is available at online booksellers and, at the insistence of Drs. Freedhoff and Sharma, available freely for download from the Canadian Obesity Network.

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In other words, Dr. Freedhoff is BIG TIME.  Let’s get at the interview.

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Dr. Freedhoff, thanks for taking the time to do this interview.  Can you take a second to let my readers know a little bit about your background, your interests, and your credit card numbers?

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Pretty regular guy.  Grew up with no plans for medical school.  Left home at 17 and subsisted on pizza, beef and beer.  Accidentally ended up on a med school track and started out when I graduated as a regular family doc.  Changed my focus to nutrition and weight management slowly – no personal story.  There was a conference on obesity in Las Vegas and I wanted to go to Las Vegas.

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Let’s start with a big one.  Where do you think most people go wrong when it comes to weight loss efforts?

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They try too hard.  People get it in their heads the only way to succeed is to undereat, overexercise or deny themselves everything they enjoy.  Go figure people quit.

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What role (if any) do you feel that exercise plays in weight management?

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Exercise is crucial for weight management, but probably not for the reasons most believe.  The calories burned through exercise aren’t fair.  There’s just not enough of them to write home about unless you’re doing ridiculous amounts of the stuff.  That said, people are 4x more likely to regain weight if they don’t exercise.  My belief is that exercise cultivates an attitude of healthy living and that in turn helps people with their dietary strategy and their consistency.

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Many of my readers would probably argue that weight loss is less relevant than fat loss.  Do you think exercise is important for body composition change rather than just focusing on weight?

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Exercise is crucial for health regardless of weight.  I wish that were the focus of public health messaging on exercise.
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What role do psychosocial issues play in weight loss and how might a young professional dealing with weight management learn more about this?

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They can be dramatically important.  Analyzing one’s healthscape needs to take into account all of their realities.  The single parent with two jobs isn’t likely going to find a tremendous amount of time to exercise in a gym style setting, nor are they likely to be cooking gourmet home made meals.  I recommend people analyze their efforts for both reality and liveability and remember that it’s ok to admit that reality matters.  Of course if you identify an area that needs work, work on it and access your own friends, family and professional resources for help.

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If you were a personal trainer running a commercial practice how would you adjust your practice to be of most help to your clients?

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I’ve got no idea.  I know that what I sell is tough.  It’s not sexy, it’s not miraculous and it doesn’t make it any easier that most folks out there are in fact looking for sexy magic.  If trainers were able to help water down the desire for sexy magic, I think that’d go a long way towards their clients actually sticking to a healthier lifestyle for life.

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If you HAD to simplify weight and/or fat loss down to a list of simple truths what would those truths be?

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Just one.  Don’t get hungry.  Once you’re hungry, you’re done.  People don’t make wise dietary choices when they’re hungry, and if you don’t believe me, head to the supermarket hungry one day.  Ultimately people need to be taught to use food to minimize hunger.  That means breakfast, that means snacking, that means protein and that means calorie awareness.

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That’s excellent Dr. Freedhoff!  Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview.  Please feel free to let my readers know where they can learn more about you.

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My pleasure.  Feel free to head over to my blog to read some of my rants over there – www.weightymatters.ca

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As most of my frequent readers know, I’m an avid reader of anything and everything to do with fitness and nutrition.  Today I’d like to share with you some of the stuff I think is worth reading this week.

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1.  Interview with me by Ben Bruno

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In case you missed this last week, my friend and up and coming strength coach Ben Bruno (his blog seriously kicks ass) interviewed me about training, fat loss, mullets, and everything in between.  I think this is possibly my best interview yet.  Check it out HERE.

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2.  High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise and Fat Loss

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You’ve probably heard me ranting (as in the interview above) about the relative usefulness of interval training for fat loss.  Well…just today I recieved the email update from The Journal of Obesity and it featured a great review on the research on Interval Training for fat loss by Dr. Stephen Boutcher.

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His conclusion (for those who don’t feel like reading the whole thing) is as follows:

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“The effects of HIIE on subcutaneous and abdominal fat loss are promising but more studies using overweight individuals need to be carried out. Given that the major reason given for not exercising is time, it is likely that the brevity of HIIE protocols should be appealing to most individuals interested in fat reduction. The optimal intensity and length of the sprint and rest periods together with examination of the benefits of other HIIE modalities need to be established.”

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It should be mentioned that the protocol created by his team that uses 8 second intervals with 12 seconds of rest that I described in THIS ARTICLE appears to be the best researched backed interval method for fat loss that I’ve seen to date.  I still think the results are pretty modest and not worthy of the hype intervals get, but if I’m going to use intervals this is the method of choice…for now at least.

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*Note that this review did not include Dr. Lemon’s latest study which shows similar amounts of fat loss for intervals versus steady state running.  Again…faster, but not necessarily better.

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3.  Factors that may impede the weight loss response to exercise-based interventions

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I’ve said before that exercise is often unable to provide much benefit over and above diet alone for weight loss.  However, it is important to remember that individual differences do apply and it does work for some (men more than women), but not others.  This review talks about these differences and makes recommendations on the use of exercise for weight loss.

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And finally, I want to congratulate Chris Krattiger on winning Mike Boyle’s Functional Strength Coach 3.0 last week.  Chris, I’ll be in touch shortly to get your mailing info.  Everyone else, keep reading.  More stuff to come this week!

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PS: Please feel free to read the articles above and discuss in the comments below.

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Quite often I get emails and interview questions asking what a young coach should do to begin to establish themself in this field.  While there are certainly a lot of possible answers, one of the best pieces of advice I can give is to follow the path of guys like Sam Leahey.

 
While barely being old enough to grow hair on his chest (sorry Sam), Sam has already spent time working alongside some of North America’s best strength coaches and has already made productive friendships with many others.  Recently I was fortunate enough to interview Sam to discuss some of the things that he’s done to get to this point in his career.  Young coaches…listen up.

 
Sam, thanks for taking the time to do this interview.  Can you please take a second to tell my readers a little bit about yourself?

 
Thanks, Mark! As much as I appreciate the gesture, I don’t think I’m anyone special—just someone who cares more than most and works hard. Like most my age, I have my CSCS and CPT. I double majored in Exercise Science and Physical Education and received a minor in Sport Coaching as well. After college, I intend to earn a MS in Strength&Conditioning from Springfield College. As far as experience goes, I’ve done a number of internships at the following places while working as a personal trainer on the side:

 
Michael Boyle Strength and Conditioning (Michael Boyle)

Cressey Performance (Eric Cressey)

Boston University (Michael Boyle)

College of The Holy Cross (Jeff Oliver & Jeremy Frisch)

Middlesex Prep School & Needham High School (Bruce Cohn)

In addition to that, I’ve had some written works published on various websites. But at the end of the day, just because you’re an internet author doesn’t mean you know what you’re talking about! At this point in my career, if I had to pick a “specialty” I would say that even though I’m prepared in a variety of bodies of knowledge, I particularly specialize in applied exercise science and biomechanics as they relate to program design for athletic performance enhancement as well as prophylactic exercise.

Great stuff Sam!  As a young coach you’ve really worked your way in with some great names in the industry.  Obviously this must have been intimidating at first.  Can you talk a little bit about the value of networking with other trainers and coaches for a young guy like yourself?  What were your experiences like?  Was it as hard as you thought?

 
Rather than “intimidating,” I think a more accurate word to describe my experience was “awestruck.” When I first met the “big timers,” it was a surreal experience given that I had idolized these folks for some time now. However, it didn’t take long before I got over the shock and awe and starting trying to drain all the knowledge from their brains. Not sure why, but I didn’t mind harassing them at the cost of being “annoying.”  I just wanted the truth. I desired answers to questions that kept me up at night, and wanted to satisfy the desire for high quality knowledge. I guess people call it “having a passion for something?” To answer your question more directly, Mark, I’m not sure if that was “hard” per se. I was just being my natural self – a determined, self-driven,passionate person.

What is “hard” and the part too many young coaches are afraid of, is opening yourself up for criticism, admitting your faults, and biting the bullet to admit you screwed up here and there and have room to grow.If you’re pursuing greatness in the profession the one principle that goes without saying is “the higher up you go, the hotter the air gets.”  For example, Eric Cressey is NOT afraid to tell you what he thinks. This is a good thing. He and Coach Boyle have had to put me in my place when I performed less than optimally, both professionally and personally. What’s most important was that I could handle the constructive criticism, and because of that they helped me find solutions and built me back up again. That is a true mentor – someone who’ll put you in your place when necessary and then help you back up only to be better than before. “Haters” are simply folks that want to bring you down all the time because most of the time they have something against you, and they choose to focus on the negatives in your life.

The same goes for the rest of those I call mentors – Coach Jeff Oliver and Coach Bruce Cohn. All these men are over 50 years of age, and it’s been an honor to stand on their shoulders and look into the future. They have so much perspective in life to offer; it’ll really get you thinking about what’s important in the end and what matters most during your professional journey. I’ve made mistakes with these individuals, too, and they’ve never held it against me. Rather, they shed light on it and helped me not to make that mistake again whatever it may be.

 
 I choose to talk about these “negatives” because I think when many people learn of my story, they often inaccurately think it’s some kind of glory ride to greatness. Not even remotely true! In fact, there have been HUGE bumps along the way. If my life journey was getting easier,  I would take it to mean I’m going downhill! Remember, the higher up you go the hotter the air gets. I’ll never forget when Eric first told me that. I thought about its implications for a long time. Everyone will make mistakes, but what separates you from the rest is what you DO about those mistakes afterwards. How do you fix the problem so it doesn’t happen again? Do you have enough humility to take criticism well? You should, especially if you’re young, because I can’t see why a young coach would have any pride in the first place!

 
Getting to your “value” question, yes, networking is critical and very valuable indeed. All I can say about this piece is to be yourself. Don’t pretend to be someone or something you are not. If you are genuine, sincere, and passionate in your efforts and communication, then it will show and people will want to connect with you. Bad people with ulterior motives always get exploited. Be a good person!

Outside of talking with other coaches and your formal education, what do you do to stay on top of the field?  Resources?  Conferences?

 
 This is a relative question as I feel certain people need different things. In the beginning, I read everything I could get my hands on. Now, I mostly read more science related material like research. After that, my go to is “high yield” things like books, ebooks, DVD’s, manuals, conferences, seminars, and webinars. And after that comes everything else – podcasts, websites, blogs, etc. As time goes on you’ll have to decide what is more “high yield” for your own situation, depending on the setting you work in. Sometimes a certain direction in one’s educational path is necessary.

Does all this networking and learning get expensive?  How do you justify the cost?

 
It absolutely does. I have much debt financially, but I’m richer in knowledge and intangibles because of it. One day it will pay off in the tangible sense. Anything you put high value on is expensive! To what lengths and at what costs (literally) are you willing to go to attain what you perceive at “greatness?” Enough said!

 
At the risk of sounding overly confident I’ll defer and quote Dr.Charlie Weingroff. This is something that I’ve written permanently in my mind and refer to it often. It will either motivate you or intimidate you after you’ve read it:

 
 ”Many people say they want to be good at what they do or help people or this and that. The better folks will say they always want to be the best they can be. Very few people look at their lives and walk out the front door every day and say to themselves I want to be the best at what I do that has ever walked the Earth. That will never happen of course, but when you have that intensity and live your life towards that end, you will by default be the best you can be and serve those that have come before you and those regularly around you. I think this is what has made me “successful,” and again success is decided by others, not me. I actually don’t think I am all that good at what I do. I think everybody else just sucks.”

 
I love that quote!  As a guy who has done very well for himself thus far, what recommendations would you have for an aspiring trainer or strength coach who wants to make a place for themself in this industry?

 
Essentially, my answer is – GO OUT AND TAKE WHAT YOU WANT! Seriously, if you want to be “big time,” then go out and create your own experience. However great you want to be will dictate how much effort and thought you put into your preparation process. There’s really no “secret to success.” It’s merely a matter of effort directed in the right way. I’ll never forgot my dad’s words to me in high school – “your effort has to be as big as your dream.”

If anyone out there reading this is looking for some specifics, I’d direct you to the page located HERE. There you’ll find some really good resources and practical advice if you actually take the time to read through the whole thing.

 
Other than that I’ll touch on a smaller subject that I believe is indirectly related to one’s success – degrees. While it’s true you don’t need degrees in a related field, I would highly recommend getting a bachelor’s and master’s degree! If we want our field to be respected the way it should be then we need to meet some sort of societal standard like a college degree. Just having a high school diploma is not good enough. As is with a DPT, MD, ATC, Chiro, S&C coach, etc. the degree itself means nothing, but that credential gives you some credibility in the public’s eyes because they don’t know how to differentiate the good from the bad at all until they actually get to work with you and see results.

 
Furthermore, I’m a firm believer in formal education simply for the sake of the experience that will come along with it. If you’re an S&C graduate assistant you can do your own research study while simultaneously coaching your own varsity teams, having complete control over program design and implementation. Furthermore, there are actually some classes that offer you a learning experience you cannot attain outside the classroom. Classes like cadaver anatomy come to mind. For each profession (S&C, Physical Therapy, etc.) there are a few “high yield” classes that are exclusive to school itself, not many though.  In addition, you’ll meet many individuals along the way that you might not have otherwise.

 
Great points Sam!  I’m not sure that I agree that everyone needs a degree, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.  How do all of your experiences so far play into the personal training that YOU do?

Absolutely Mark, definitely not 100% necessary. I see degrees, and the piece of paper you get at the end, as an extra kick or slight edge that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Most everything else comes from outside the classroom.

 Getting to your question though, my answer to this has certainly changed over the last year. While it’s true that many professions are after the same thing, Strength & Conditioning can be VERY different than personal training often times, especially, if you are working for a big corporate chain commercial gym. Your communication skills in the personal training setting are paramount. You’re not in a situation where people show up with expectations and will just do what you say because you’re the coach. General population people will want to know why you’re telling them to do this and that more than athletes will. Also, while some athletes on your team will ask why something is important, general population people are much more skeptical of your methodologies.

 
If you learn how to communicate at the level the person in front of you then you should be all set. Explain to them the science behind your methods but be sure to concluded with “lay person” talk and use terms that the client understands, whether it’s a meat head phrase like “getting jacked” or what females want to hear most like, “getting toned.” Don’t be afraid to “speak client,”  it does not degrade your own professionalism and certainly doesn’t label you less intelligent. It actually shows you’re aware and don’t live in a box!

 
How does this affect your perception of the personal training industry as a whole?

 
As a specific industry, I would say I certainly share the same sentiments as Coach Boyle conveyed in his article An Apology Letter to Personal Trainers. I’m totally convinced that if one is to encounter difficulty in the inter-personal skills department, it will become obvious in the personal training setting much quicker than in the S&C setting. This is a generalization of course and I am only comparing the two full time professions when separated (collegiate S&C and commercial gym PT).

 
What are the biggest things you see going wrong in the personal training industry?

 
Let it be said, I have much to learn on the business side of things that come along with personal training. I also see the personal training experience as an opportunity to sharpen your abilities in handling multiple personalities at once. You need to be able to morph your approach at a moment’s notice with regards to how you interact with certain types of folks. In other words, how you deal with one person, both personally and sometimes even professionally, might be the polar opposite of how you deal with another. This is the nature of the personal training profession, generally speaking, and especially in the commercial gym setting.

 
I am still sharpening my skills in those areas. However, in terms of training services provided, we have a LONG way to go. The average commercial gym trainer is still thinking under the bodybuilding paradigm and asking what exercises build the upper hamstrings more than the medial ones. The joint-by-joint approach has yet to be a program design principle. There’s only beginning to be a care for “corrective exercise.”  Delivering aesthetic results to clients is more important than training the body as a functional unit (because apparently it’s written down somewhere you can’t do both simultaneously). A lot of trainers care more about selling PT packages than they do about providing optimal results. In some cases you’ll even have a trainer straight out lie to a client and tell them that twice a week is optimal even though the client expresses coming four times a week. Why? Because they want to fill their schedule tighter with more clients. They’ll couple this attitude with the program design approach of “just do the same thing with everybody but tweak it a bit here and there.”

 
What is worst of all, on so many levels, is when a trainer hears the truth in an appropriate manner with the answers given to them on a silver platter, yet at the end of the day they end up not applying it. Why? Because they just don’t care! They are happy getting a pay check, and ignorance is bliss!

I wholeheartedly agree.  Thanks for the great interview Sam!  Is there anywhere my readers can contact you?

 
Anytime Mark! My fellow young ones, and old ones too for that matter, can reach me at Sam.Leahey@gmail.com.

(Note that I also met Sam through the forums on StrengthCoach.com and, if I haven’t mentioned this before, there is no limit to the number of great folks you can connect with on there.)

Recently I had the pleasure of being interviewed by a bright young coach named Robbie Bourke that I initially connected with on StrengthCoach.com.

Of course, he has to go and ask me a question to get me all fired up.  Fortunately, I was able to contain myself enough so that the interview didn’t turn into an outright rant and I was also able to chat about my influences, recommendations for young coaches, favorite books, and some other good stuff.

You can check out the interview HERE.

PS:  While you’re there take a look at some of the other incredible interviews in Robbie’s site.

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This week I was going to post another Friday Awesomeness blogs, but what could be more awesome than an interview with me?

I know what you’re thinking.  Not much.

Or else you’re thinking I’m an arrogant bastard.

Hopefully the first one though.

In any case, check out my interview on my friend Carson Boddicker’s blog where I discuss what I think makes good science, where most fitness professionals are dead wrong, and how to use the Functional Movement Screen to determine if someone would make a good spouse.  Okay…maybe not the last one.

Check it out HERE.

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In this interview I talk a lot about why I’m sometimes viewed as being overly skeptical of many things in the fitness industry and exercise science.  I also get a chance to talk a little bit about some of the ”big rocks” in my training philosophy. 

Drop by and check out the interview HERE.

Have some questions you’d like me to answer in an upcoming blog?  Leave me a note in the comments below.

This week Bret took some time out to interview me for his blog and I think it turned out pretty darn good.  Obviously I’m biased, but I think you should check it out.  If that isn’t enough to convince you, I should also tell you that Bret scored an old picture of me from my Facebook page that should be good for a laugh.

Check out the interview (and the picture) HERE.